Bug Fixes

• Base
  • Chains of Kel'Thuzad [E]
    • Now reveal both targets on chain link connection.
• Level 20
  • The Damned Return
    • Fixed an issue that caused the Shade to not be revealed when it deals damage.

Bug Fixes

• Base
  • Chains of Kel'Thuzad [E]
    • Fixed an issue that caused Barbed Chains' Armor reduction to apply to the Chain-link cast that granted the final stack of Blight.
    • Knockback will now happen as soon as the chains make a connection between two targets.

Bug Fixes

• Level 13
  • Chains of Ice
    • Chains of Ice no longer Slows if the Stun is removed.

Bug Fixes

• Level 4
  • Phylactery of Kel'Thuzad
    • Announcements for Phylactery of Kel'Thuzad will now use team colors.

Updates

ARAM

• Same Hero Mode
  • Kel'Thuzad removed.

Bug Fixes

• Base
  • Death and Decay [Q]
    • Fixed an issue that caused Death and Decay's cast effect to be visible in Fog of War and animate while Kel'Thuzad is Stopped.
• Level 10
  • Frost Blast
    • No longer ignores vision limitations when queued.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue that caused Defense Matrix to not reduce the damage of the Shade's Death and Decay.
• Fixed an issue that caused the Shade's damage to not gain the benefits of Spell Leech.
• Fixed an issue that caused the Shade's Death and Decay to still be fired if Kel'Thuzad's Death and Decay cast is interrupted.
• Level 20
  • Deathchill
    • Now displays in the Death Recap.

Updates

• Difficulty updated from Hard to Very Hard.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue that caused Deathchill's marker to remain on the target if they gain Unstoppable.
• Fixed an issue that caused Power of Icecrown's active bonuses to be lost when slain.
• Fixed an issue that caused Basic Attacks to activate Icy Grasp while Blinded or if the target is Evading.
• Fixed an issue that caused Basic Attacks to activate Hungering Cold while Blinded or if the target is Evading.
• Fixed an issue that caused the Chilling Touch Basic Attacks to be incapable of killing Sgt. Hammer's Spider Mines.
• Kel'Thuzad can now attempt to cast Frost Nova over unpathable terrain.
• Kel'Thuzad's abilities in the command bar will no longer flash when Kel'Thuzad gains 15 stacks of Master of the Cold Dark.

Updates

Base

• Vitals
  • Health increased from 1445 to 1490.
  • Health regeneration increased from 3.01 to 3.10.
• Glacial Spike [1]
  • Damage increased from 60 to 70.

Talents

• Level 7
  • Ice Cold [1]
    • Bonus cooldown reduction increased from 8 to 10 seconds.
• Level 13
  • Icy Grasp [W]
    • Bonus cooldown reduction per Basic Attack increased from .5 to .75 seconds.

Developer Comment: Much akin to Kael'thas, we feel like Kel'Thuzad has been left out in the cold for too long. We are giving him some slight baseline buffs while also tuning up some underperforming talents.

Bug Fixes

• Kel'Thuzad's Armor of the Archlich now also grants Physical Armor against Mercenaries, Monsters, Summons, Structures, and Minions.

Updates

Talents

• Level 7
  • Chilling Touch [Passive]
    • Bonus damage reduced from 100% to 80%.
• Level 10
  • Frost Blast [R1]
    • Starting missile speed increased by 60%.
• Level 13
  • Icy Grasp [W]
    • Bonus Slow amount increased from 15% to 20%.
    • Cooldown reduction increased from .4 to .5 seconds.

Developer Comment: These changes should be fairly minor, and are just intended to better round out some of Kel'thuzad's talent tiers.

Updates

Talents

• Level 10
  • Hitting an enemy Hero no longer instantly resets the cooldown of Shadow Fissure, but instead sets it to 1.5 seconds.

Developer Comment: Talk about fireworks?! With our last balance patch, we introduced some changes to Shadow Fissure that ended up causing a bit more mayhem than we had expected. While we like rewarding players for hitting their abilities, a full instant reset of the ability ended up feeling pretty bad to play against in a lot of circumstances. This was compounded with the changes we also made to Might of the Scourge, so instead of a full reset, we decided to dial it back a notch and set the cooldown to 1.5 seconds instead.

Updates

Talents

• Level 7
  • Accelerated Decay [Q]
    • Bonus damage increased from 20% to 25%.
    • Maximum stacks reduced from 6 to 4.
  • Ice Cold [Passive]
    • Cooldown reduction increased from 5 to 8 seconds.
    • Bonus damage increased from 300% to 400%.
• Level 10
  • Frost Blast [R1]
    • Cooldown reduced from 60 to 50 seconds.
    • Mana cost reduced from 50 to 45.
    • Root duration increased from 1.75 to 2 seconds.
  • Shadow Fissure [R2]
    • Mana cost reduced from 45 to 40.
    • Damage reduced from 360 to 320.
    • New functionality: Damaging an enemy Hero with Shadow Fissure resets its cooldown.
• Level 13
  • Icy Grasp [W]
    • Damaging enemy Heroes who are slowed by Frost Nova no longer increases its slow duration.
    • New functionality: Damaging enemy Heroes who are slowed by Frost Nova reduces the cooldown of Frost Nova by .4 seconds.
• Level 20
  • Might of the Scourge [R2]
    • If an enemy Hero is hit by Shadow Fissure, then it will explode a second time below them 1 second later. This second cast will not duplicate itself.

Developer Comment: We're making some changes to Kel'Thuzad to reduce his burst damage combo with Shadow Fissure, as well as to make some adjustments to his talents to make them more competitive with one another.

Bug Fixes

• Frost Blast will no longer apply their effects to Heroes in Time Stop.

Bug Fixes

• Added a quick-cast option for Glacial Spike.

Updates

Abilities

• Death and Decay (Q)
  • Cooldown reduced from 6 to 5 seconds
  • Periodic damage increased from 70 to 82
• Frost Nova (W)
  • Cooldown reduced from 10 to 8 seconds
  • Damage reduced from 212 to 180
• Chains of Kel'Thuzad (E)
  • Cooldown reduced from 12 to 10 seconds
  • Can no longer be used on Structures
  • Duration reduced from 4 to 3 seconds
• Master of the Cold Dark (Trait)
  • First reward no longer grants cooldown reduction
  • First reward now grants the Glacial Spike ability
• Frost Blast (R)
  • Damage increased from 100 to 115
  • Minimum speed increased from 1 to 5
• Shadow Fissure (R)
  • Damage reduced from 400 to 360
  • Cooldown reduced from 20 to 16 seconds
  • Mana cost reduced from 60 to 45

Talents

• Level 1
  • Blighted Frost (W)
    • Bonus damage increased from 50 to 75%
• Level 4
  • Strip Shields (E)
    • Shield amount increased from 120 to 128
• Level 7
  • Glacial Spike (Active)
    • Removed
  • New Talent: Ice Cold (1)
    • Reduce the cooldown of Glacial Spike by 5 seconds and increase its damage by 250%
  • Accelerated Decay (Q)
    • Bonus damage decreased from 25 to 20%
• Level 13
  • Chain Link (E)
    • Now only requires 1 Hero to be pulled by Chains of Kel'Thuzad
    • Cooldown reduction increased from 4 to 5 seconds
  • Icy Grasp (W)
    • New functionality:
      • Increase the slow of Frost Nova by 10%. Each time Kel'Thuzad deals damage to enemy Heroes that are slowed by Frost Nova, its duration is increased by .5 seconds
• Level 16
  • Arcane Echoes (Q)
    • Cooldown reduction increased from 1.25 to 1.5 seconds
  • Hungering Cold (W)
    • Adjusted functionality:
      • Enemies that are rooted take an additional 55 damage each time they are damaged by Kel'Thuzad

Developer Comment: These changes to Kel'Thuzad are being made with two goals in mind. Our first goal, which is in line with many changes we make, is to improve talent diversity. We've moved Glacial Spike into his baseline first quest reward, which should both help his Level 7 talent choices as well as open up new build possibilities with the increased flexibility on that tier. Second, we want to slightly reduce his variance and increase his reliability. We've moved most of his cooldown reduction reward baseline, and with Glacial Spike being his first quest reward, he can now combo enemy Heroes anywhere in the field, without needing to rely purely on having other enemy Heroes or structures nearby. In exchange for this, we've removed some of his burst damage and the ability to use Chains of Kel'Thuzad on structures. While chaining enemy Heroes to structures made for some cool moments, it could be oppressive to play against, particularly on maps with large pushing objectives like the Punisher on Infernal Shrines.

Bug Fixes

• Phylactery can no longer be activated before its animation completes.

Bug Fixes

• Chilling Touch can now correctly deal damage to Gall's Eye of Kilrogg.

Bug Fixes

• Glacial Spike will now correctly deal bonus damage granted by Ability Power gains.
• The Hungering Cold Talent will now correctly deal its bonus damage to non-Heroic enemies rooted by Frost Nova.

Bug Fixes

• Shadow Fissure can now be cast on the minimap.
• Shadow Fissure can now be cast between map levels on the Haunted Mines battleground.

Updates

Abilities

• Frost Blast (R)
  • Cooldown reduced from 80 to 70 seconds
  • Mana cost reduced from 70 to 60

Talents

• Level 4
  • Strip Shields (E)
    • Shield amount increased from 112 to 120
• Level 13
  • Icy Grasp (W)
    • Increased slow duration from 1.5 to 2 seconds
  • Chain-Link (E)
    • Added functionality:
      • Also refunds the Mana cost of Chains Of Kel'Thuzad

Bug Fixes

• Shadow Fissure can now be cast on the minimap.
• Shadow Fissure can now be cast between map levels on the Haunted Mines battleground.

Updates

Abilities

• Frost Nova (W)
  • Mana cost increased from 45 to 50
• Chains of Kel'Thuzad (E)
  • Mana cost increased from 45 to 50
• Frost Blast (R)
  • Cooldown reduced from 100 to 80 seconds
• Shadow Fissure (R)
  • Damage reduced from 440 to 400
  • Cooldown increased from 15 to 20 seconds
  • Mana cost increased from 50 to 60

Talents

• Level 4
  • Phylactery of Kel'Thuzad (Active)
    • Quest requirement increased from 10 to 12 Regeneration Globes
• Level 7
  • Accelerated Decay (Q)
    • Bonus damage increased from 20 to 25%
  • Glacial Spike (Active)
    • Damage reduced from 220 to 60
    • Delay before the spike spawns increased from .5 to 1 seconds
• Level 13
  • Chains of Ice (E)
    • Slow duration reduced from 1.25 to 1 second
    • Slow amount decreased from 70 to 60%
• Level 16
  • Hungering Cold (W)
    • Bonus damage reduced from 60 to 55

Developer Comment: As expected, there is a fairly large discrepancy between Kel'Thuzad's performance across the entire game vs. players who are getting experienced with him at a higher level. His win-rate has climbed more than most of our other releases as players get used to his kit, so most of our changes are aimed at talent balance and toning his power down. While we like the sharpness of his power spike due to Master of the Cold Dark, we'll continue to keep an eye on his burst potential and his overall strength going forward.

Releases

Kel'Thuzad, Archlich of Naxxramas, has been added to the Nexus and is now available for play! Read on for a brief overview of his Abilities.

Trait

• Master of the Cold Dark
  • Quest: Gain 1 Blight every time a Hero is Rooted by Frost Nova or hit by Chains of Kel'Thuzad.
  • Reward: After gaining 15 Blight, the cooldown of all Basic Abilities is reduced by 2 seconds.
  • Reward: After gaining 30 Blight, gain 75% Spell Power.

Basic Abilities

• Death and Decay (Q)
  • After 0.5 seconds, launch an orb that explodes upon hitting an enemy, dealing damage to enemies in the area. The explosion leaves behind a pool of decay that lasts 2 seconds, dealing damage every 0.5 seconds to enemies.
• Frost Nova (W)
  • Create a nova that explodes after 1 second, dealing damage to enemies inside and Slowing them by 35% for 2.5 seconds. Enemies in the center are Rooted for 1 second.
• Chains of Kel'Thuzad (E)
  • Launch a chain, dealing damage to the first enemy Hero or Structure hit. For 4 seconds after hitting an enemy, Chains can be reactivated to launch to an additional enemy, pulling both enemies together and Stunning them for 0.5 seconds.

Heroic Abilities

• Frost Blast (R)
  • Launch a meteor of ice at an enemy Hero. Upon impact, the meteor deals damage to its target and damages enemies in the area. All enemies hit by Frozen Tomb are Rooted for 1.5 seconds.
• Shadow Fissure (R)
  • Create a fissure anywhere on the Battleground that explodes after 1.5 seconds, dealing damage to enemies in its area.