Bug Fixes

• Base
  • Advancing Strikes [Trait D]
    • Blind and Evasion now prevent activation.

Bug Fixes

• Base
  • Mirror images [Q]
    • Fixed an issue that caused Mirror Images to have the incorrect health after activating Image Transmission while affected by Blessing of the Red.
• Level 13
  • Kawarimi
    • Fixed an issue that caused Mirror Images created by Kawarimi to not have the correct starting health while affected by Blessing of the Red.
• Level 16
  • Harsh Winds
    • Fixed an issue that caused Harsh Winds to not apply to Burning Blade damage dealt by Samuro.

Bug Fixes

• Base
  • Critical Strike [W]
    • Fixed an issue that caused Samuro's Critical Strike stacks to be visible to an enemy Samuro.

Bug Fixes

• Base
  • Critical Strike [W]
    • Fixed an issue that caused Critical Strike FX to persist if Samuro is killed while he has maximum Critical Strike stacks.
• Level 13
  • Kawarimi
    • Fixed an issue that caused Kawarimi to create a Mirror Image with the incorrect starting Health.

Updates

General

• Order of buffs in the Buff bar has been updated to match the order in which talents are gained.
• Samuro can no longer target a Mirror Image that is affected by launch effects (Example: Phase Prism).
• Samuro will no longer mirror Hearthstone and Mount commands on his Mirror Images if the command is sent while selecting a Mirror Image and not Samuro.
• Tooltips have been updated to reduce confusion.

Base

• Image Transmission [Trait]
  • Advancing Strikes will now copy Samuro's state for the following: creating a new Mirror Image, Image Transmission, Deflection, Press the Attack.
• Wind Walk [E]
  • Wind Walk will no longer cancel move and attack commands in the command queue when activated.
• Critical Strike [W]
  • Activating Critical Strike while Samuro's Basic Attack is being swung will now apply to that attack, rather than the next attack, and will carry the attack reset over to the next Basic Attack.
  • Samuro can now see his Critical Strike progress below his Healthplate.
  • Samuro can now see the remaining duration of Critical Strike's activation around the ability button.
  • Critical Strike will now copy Samuro's state for the following: creating a new Mirror Image, Image Transmission, Deflection, Press the Attack.

Talents

• Level 1
  • Way of Illusion
    • Way of Illusion quest progress is now correctly mirrored between different Mirror Images and Samuro.
• Level 7
  • Burning Blade
    • Burning Blade is now an additive modifier for both Samuro and his Mirror Images instead of just his Mirror Images.
• Level 13
  • Kawarimi
    • Kawarimi Mirror Images will now clear their command queue of Hearthstone commands when created.
• Level 16
  • Harsh Winds
    • Harsh Winds is now an additive modifier.

Bug Fixes

• Base
  • Image Transmission [Trait]
    • Fixed an issue that allowed Samuro to cast Image Transmission on a destroyed Mirror Image if it was queued to happen directly after Mirror Image was cast.
    • If Samuro activates Image Transmission or if a new Mirror Image is created, any Mirror Images that are updated will copy Blessing of the Red if it is present on Samuro instead of increasing their maximum Health as if Blessing of the Red were cast on them.
• Level 7
  • Crushing Blows
    • Fixed an issue that caused Crushing Blows to apply to the triggering Critical Strike.
• Level 20
  • Three Blade Style
    • Fixed an issue that caused Three Blade Style to increase Mirror Image maximum health if Samuro gained Blessing of the Red between the Images being created and the talent being selected.
    • Fixed an issue that caused Three Blade Style to reset the duration on an active Mirror Image when selected.

Updates

• Base

  • Wind Walk [E]
    • Periodic heal reduced from 3% per second to 2% per second.

  Talents

  • Level 1
    • Way of the Wind
      • Reduced Healing for casting Wind Walk from 4% to 3% of maximum Health.
  • Level 4
    • One with the Wind
      • Armor reduction decreased from 30% to 25%.
  • Level 10
    • Bladestorm
      • Cooldown increased from 25 seconds to 30 seconds.

• General

  • Added an arrow indicator below Samuro facing the direction of any active Mirror Images.

Updates

Base

• Added a sound indicator to Dance of Death.
• Quickcast Settings
  • Removed Cancel Bladestorm.
  • Removed duplicate Critical Strike.
• Image Transmission [Trait]
  • Disabled while there are no Mirror Images active.
  • Now removes targeting when there is only one active Mirror Image.
• Mirror Image [Q]
  • Added guide indicators to their targeting.
• Wind Walk [E]
  • Added Healing over Time preview.

Talents

• Level 4
  • Deflection [D]
    • Updated to display its remaining duration while active.
• Level 16
  • Press the Attack [D]
    • Added to the Buff Bar.

Bug Fixes

• Level 4
  • One With The Wind [E]
    • Fixed an issue that caused One With The Wind to display a duration while Wind Walk is active.
• Level 7
  • Crushing Blows [W]
    • Fixed an issue that caused Crushing Blows to be located in the wrong location in the Buff Bar.

Bug Fixes

• Mirage now functions like other Spell Armor Blocks.

Bug Fixes

• Difficulty increased from Hard to Very Hard.
• Wind Walk healing increased from 1% to 3%.
• Way of the Wind healing reduced from 5% to 4%.
• Fixed an issue that caused Way of the Wind to increase Samuro's Healing score instead of his Self Healing score.
• Mirror Image reveal of nearby units on death now matches other Heroic units.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue that allowed Samuro to activate Image Transmission on a Mirror Image directly after his Hearthstone activates.
• Fixed an issue that caused Samuro to lose the benefits of the Deflection talent if Three-Blade Style is selected while any Mirror Images are active.

Updates

Base

• Wind Walk [E]
  • Bonus Movement Speed reduced from 25% to 20%.

Talents

• Level 7
  • Crushing Blows [W]
    • Bonus damage reduced from 15% to 10% per stack.
• Level 20
  • Dance of Death [R1]
    • Mirror Image Bladestorm damage increased from 30% to 45%.
  • Three Blade Style [R2]
    • Bonus Mirror Image Health reduced from 50% to 25%.

Developer Comment: Samuro is a difficult Hero to use that has gotten a lot of mileage for those who take the time to learn how to play him. Despite his niche status, he has slightly gone over the edge of what we believe to be a little too powerful and frustrating to play against, so we're reducing the power of a couple overperforming talents as well as how slippery he is to catch and kill once caught out.

Updates

Talents

• Level 20
  • Dance of Death [R1]
    • Required Heroes hit to reset cooldown reduced from 25 to 20.

Developer Comment: Dance of Death was a little too hard to proc, so we're lowering its requirement so that players can get resets more often from the Heroic upgrade.

Updates

Talents

• Level 1
  • Way of Illusion [Q]
    • Quest reward bonus damage increased from 20 to 30.
• Level 4
  • Deflection [Passive]
    • Armor bonus increased from 30 to 35.

Developer Comment: Samuro's rework, statistically, has gone very well. His pick and win rates across his talents are in a better spot, and we believe his frustration levels have decreased since the changes. We're being tame with our initial changes due to some bug fixes that can change how some talents pan out over the long haul. While we wait, we wanted to buff a couple underperforming talents that shouldn't be affected by these fixes.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue where Casting Image Transmission while selecting an Illusion, could place the ability on the wrong cooldown with Illusion Master.
• Phantom Pain's bonus damage no longer affects non-Heroic targets.
• Updated a few tooltip descriptions.

Updates

Base

• Basic Attack damage reduced from 110 to 102.
• Mirror Image [Q]
  • Cooldown reduced from 18 to 14 seconds.
  • Duration reduced from 18 to 8 seconds.
  • Images now have their duration increased by 1 second each time they or Samuro use a Basic Attack against an enemy Hero.
  • Mirror Image Basic Attack damage increased from 9 to 11.
• Wind Walk [E]
  • Additional functionality: Samuro is healed for 1% of his maximum Health every second that he has Wind Walk active.
• Image Transmission [Trait]
  • Cooldown reduced from 25 to 14 seconds.

Talents

• Level 1
  • Way of the Blade [W]
    • Physical Armor reduction reduced from 10 to 5, stacking up to 3 times.
    • Physical Armor debuff duration increased from 2 to 2.25 seconds.
    • Additional functionality: Mirror Images now also apply the Physical Armor reduction.
  • Way of the Wind [E]
    • No longer grants cooldown reduction to Wind Walk when attacking enemy Heroes.
    • Additional functionality: Casting Windwalk heals Samuro for 5% of his maximum Health.
• Level 7
  • Burning Blade [W]
    • Fixed an issue where Illusions did not deal bonus splash damage with Burning Blade when Illusion Master was picked.
  • Phantom Pain [W]
    • Bonus damage reduced from 45% to 35%.
    • Additional functionality: Now also reduces the cooldown of Image Transmission by 10% when Samuro Critical Strikes an enemy Hero.
  • Crushing Blows [W]
    • No longer gives Critical Strike 2 charges.
    • Cooldown reduction increased from 1.75 to 2 seconds.
    • Additional functionality: Critical Strikes against enemy Heroes increase Samuro's Basic Attack damage by 15% for 4 seconds, stacking up to 3 times.
• Level 10
  • Bladestorm [R1]
    • Cooldown reduced from 110 to 25 seconds.
    • Damage reduced from 47 to 36.
    • Duration reduced from 4 to 3 seconds.
    • Removed functionality: Bladestorm no longer grants Unstoppable.
    • Additional functionality: Bladestorm now also grants Samuro 25 Armor for its duration.
  • Illusion Master [R2]
    • Cooldown reduced from 10 to 8 seconds.
• Level 13
  • Mirrored Steel [Q]
    • Cooldown reduction reduced from 1 to .75 seconds.
• Level 20
  • Dance of Death [R1]
    • Damage increased from 25% to 30%.
    • Additional functionality: If Samuro hits enemy Heroes at least 25 times with Bladestorm, then reset its cooldown.
  • Three Blade Style [R2]
    • Mirror Image duration reduced from 36 to 16 seconds.

Developer Comment: These changes are intended to limit Samuro's split-pushing capabilities, particularly with Illusion Master, as well as increase his presence in teamfights. A good Samuro player can be a bit of a pain to deal with, particularly when he's spending most of his time macroing and not engaging with the enemy team except to swap to a far away clone. These changes should make this scenario happen less often, while also giving Samuro more rewarding tools for engaging and fighting the enemy team.

Bug Fixes

• Critical Strikes' bonus is now properly applied for 50% increased damage when cast with Merciless Strikes.

Bug Fixes

• Samuro's Press The Attack Talent will now correctly grant Attack Speed on his first Basic Attack.

Bug Fixes

• Critical Strike are now affected by cooldown reduction effects.

Updates

Talents

• Level 1
  • Way of the Blade (W)
    • Additional Functionality:
      • Now also reduces the Physical Armor of enemy Heroes hit by Critical Strike by 10 for 2 seconds
  • Way of the Wind (E)
    • Additional functionality:
      • Samuro's Critical Strikes reduce the cooldown of Windwalk by 1.5 seconds

Developer Comment: It's not too surprising that Way of Illusion has dominated Samuro's Level 1 tier since it adds the most direct teamfight power due to buffing his Basic Attack damage. Rather than nerf it further, we're looking to instead buff up its competing options, which should also add some synergies to his later talent tiers, and hopefully create more diversity on other tiers.

Updates

Abilities

• Illusion Master (R)
  • Cooldown increased from 8 to 10 seconds
  • No longer grants Samuro bonus Basic Attack damage

Talents

• Level 1
  • Way of Illusion (Q)
    • Bonus Attack Damage per quest stack reduced from .5 to .25

Developer Comment: Samuro has become a bit of a nuisance for many players to deal with, particularly when playing against people who are competent in using Illusion Master. We're reducing the power of Way of Illusion and Illusion Master, which should generally reduce the overall damage that Samuro can deal throughout the game.

Bug Fixes

• Casting Mirror Image now correctly clears any Move commands that had been queued for the real Samuro.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue with the Three Blade Style talent that prevented Mirror Images from gaining bonus health.
• Fixed an issue causing the Quest Complete fanfare to play every time Mirror Images was cast after choosing the Way of Illusion talent.

Bug Fixes

• Can no longer swap places with a Mirror Image that is in the allied Hall of Storms.
• Mirror Images now correctly play Level Up and Quest Completion visual effects when Samuro levels up or completes a quest.

Bug Fixes

• Shadows will no longer appear to flicker behind Monkey King Samuro on the post-match score screen.

Updates

Stats

• Base Maximum Health increased from 1650 to 1725
• Health Regen increased from 3.4 to 3.6

Abilities

• Mirror Image (Q)
  • Image Health increased from 825 to 862.5
  • Image Health Regen increased from 1.7 to 1.8

Talents

• Level 4
  • Deflection (Trait)
    • Armor increased from 25 to 30
• Level 7
  • Burning Blade (W)
    • Damage bonus decreased from 65 to 50%
  • Phantom Pain (W)
    • Damage bonus increased from 40 to 45%
  • Crushing Blows (W)
    • Cooldown reduction increased from 1.5 to 1.75 seconds

Developer Comment: Samuro's rework has put him in a good position regarding his talent pick and win rates, as well as his overall performance. In addition to some talent tuning changes, we decided to slightly increase his Health to compensate for the fact that he now has to put himself into dangerous positions much more often to deal damage.

Bug Fixes

• Illusion Master can no longer be cast while Samuro is airborne after being hit by an effects like Junkrat's Concussion Mine detonation.
• Issuing a Hold Position command to Samuro's Mirror Images and then selecting one of them will no longer cause the others to cancel the Hold Position command.

Updates

Stats

• Basic Attack damage increased from 88 to 110

Abilities

• Mirror Image (Q)
  • Samuro will now appear in the direction of the player's Mouse Cursor when Mirror Image is cast.
  • Mirror Image damage is no longer a fraction of Samuro's Attack Damage. Mirror Image base damage has been greatly reduced to 9.
  • Mirror Images are no longer instantly destroyed by Structures
• Critical Strike (W)
  • Cooldown increased from 8 to 10 seconds
• Illusion Master (R)
  • New functionality:
    • Reduce the cooldown of Advancing Strikes to 8 seconds
  • Now increases the attack damage of Mirror Images by 100%
  • Now also increases Samuro's Basic Attack damage by 10%
• Image Transmission (Trait)
  • Additional functionality:
    • Activate to switch places with the target Mirror Image, removing most negative effects from Samuro and the target Mirror Image. 25-second cooldown.

Talents

• Tooltips for various talents have been updated to reflect whether Samuro or his Mirror Images benefit from their effects
• Level 1
  • Way of the Wind (E)
    • New Functionality: Gain 40% Movement Speed for 3 seconds upon entering or exiting Stealth by using Wind Walk
  • Way of the Blade (W)
    • No longer grants bonus Critical Strike damage
  • Way of Illusion (Q)
    • Mirror Images no longer benefit from this talent
• Level 4
  • One with the Wind (E)
    • Armor gain now also lasts for 3 seconds after being revealed
    • Mirror Images now also gain Armor
    • Armor amount reduced from 60 to 30
• Level 7
  • Phantom Pain (W)
    • Mirror Images no longer benefit from this talent
  • Crushing Blows (W)
    • Mirror Images no longer benefit from this talent
    • Bonus Critical Strike damage has been removed
    • Additional functionality:
      • Samuro's Basic Attacks against enemy Heroes reduce the cooldown of Critical Strike by 1.5 seconds
• Level 13
  • Kawarimi (E)
    • Reduced the time between Samuro issuing a new order after using Wind Walk and the image following it. It should now be harder for the new Image to follow Samuro's new movements after using Wind Walk.
• Level 16
  • Press the Attack (Trait)
    • Attack Speed bonus reduced from 15% to 10% per stack. Maximum bonus decreased from 60% to 40%
  • Harsh Winds (E)
    • Mirror Images no longer benefit from this talent
  • Merciless Strikes (W)
    • Mirror Images no longer benefit from this talent

Bug Fixes

• Monkey King Samuro's model will no longer exhibit flickering during Hero Select while running Medium or High graphic settings.

Bug Fixes

• Switching places with a Mirror Image will no longer cancel queued commands.
• Clicking a control group to select a Mirror Image after learning Illusion Master will no longer cancel active Move Commands being carried out by that Image.

Bug Fixes

• Selecting Mirror Images via control groups will no longer cancel their active movement commands.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue causing Windwalk to last 9 seconds rather than 10.

Updates

Abilities

• Wind Walk (E)
  • Cooldown increased from 13 to 15 seconds
  • Duration increased from 8 to 10 seconds

Bug Fixes

• Way of Illusion will no longer continue to generate quest progress icons after its quest is complete.

Bug Fixes

• Monkey King Samuro will now correctly play his victory animation after destroying the enemy Core.
• Fixed an issue that could refresh the duration of Advancing Strikes after landing a critical strike.
• Shift-queueing Hearthstone will no longer break Stealth until Hearthstone begins casting.
• Burning Blade area of effect damage will now properly benefit from bonus damage granted by Way of Illusion.
• Bladestorm will no longer occasionally fail to activate after casting Mirror Images and Bladestorm in rapid succession.
• Fixed an issue in which the Score Screen could display an incorrect number of Gems for Samuro if he collected them while Mirror Images were active on Tomb of the Spider Queen.

Bug Fixes

• Monkey King Samuro's Mirror Images will no longer use a different skin variation than the real Samuro.

Bug Fixes

• A bowl no longer appears at Samuro's feet during his dance animation.
• The cooldown for Critical Strike will no longer stop counting down when he is killed.
• Casting Mirror Image after learning Way of Illusion will no longer cause a Talent Quest progress sound to play.
• Fixed an issue that could cause certain Hero Abilities and Summons to continue tracking the primary Samuro after casting Mirror Image.

Bug Fixes

• The tooltip for Mirror Image now properly mentions that activating the Ability will remove certain negative status effects.

Updates

Abilities

• Wind Walk (E)
  • Cooldown increased from 12 to 13 seconds
• Bladestorm (R)
  • Damage per second reduced from 250 to 235

Talents

• Level 1
  • Way of the Blade (W)
    • Critical Strike bonus damage reduced from 25 to 20%
• Level 4
  • Mirage (Q)
    • Spell Block mitigation amount reduced from 50 to 40% per charge

Developer Comment: Samuro has fallen into a much better spot since our last changes but still has a handful of over-performing talents. We feel that these changes are much lighter than the last round of nerfs and should bring Samuro even closer to the coveted 50% win-rate.

Bug Fixes

• Way of Illusion Talent stacks now properly grant bonus attack damage to Mirror Images.
• Mirror Image Health bars will now reflect the number of Doubloons that Samuro is carrying on Blackheart's Bay.

Updates

Stats

• Basic Attack Damage decreased from 93 to 88

Abilities

• Mirror Images (Q)
  • Damage dealt reduced from 30 to 25% of Samuro's damage
• Illusion Master (R)
  • Damage increase reduced from 15 to 10%

Talents

Level 13

• Shukuchi (E)
  • Teleport range decreased by 20%

Developer Comment: While there are a lot of knobs for us to turn in order to help bring Samuro's win rate more in line, we felt that his damage output (especially burst) was where we wanted to start first. We are happy with his survivability options and feel his fantasy should cater towards being elusive. We also realize that damage and confusion are really all he brings to a team, so we wanted to be careful with the changes. We feel that these small tweaks to his damage (and the fact that they compound on each other) will cause a reasonable drop in his win rate and will continue to closely monitor him.

Updates

Stats

• Base Maximum Health decreased from 1750 to 1650
• Base Health Regen decreased from 3.64 to 3.44

Abilities

• Mirror Images (Q)
  • Cooldown increased from 16 to 18 seconds
  • Mirror Image timed life increased from 16 to 18 seconds
• Windwalk (E)
  • Movement speed bonus reduced from 30 to 25%
• Illusion Master (R)
  • Illusion damage bonus reduced from 20 to 15%

Talents

• Level 20
  • Three Blade Style (R)
    • Mirror Image timed life increased from 32 to 36 seconds

Developer Comment: The Blademaster has been loosed, and is busy carving up a healthy win-rate. We are looking to bring him down a notch with these changes.

Bug Fixes

• Samuro
• – Fixed an issue causing Mirror Images to deal an extra swing of Samuro's full damage if their attacks landed just as the Mirror Images expired.
• Samuro
• – Fixed an issue causing Samuro to deselect himself after entering Lt. Morales's Medivac Dropship.

Releases

Samuro, The Blademaster, has been added to the Nexus and is now available for play! Read on for a brief overview of his Abilities.

Trait

• Advancing Strike
  • Basic Attacks against enemy Heroes increase your Movement Speed by 25% for 2 seconds.

Basic Abilities

• Mirror Image (Q)
  • Create 2 Mirror Images that deal 30% of your damage and have 50% of your current Health. Images last up to 16 seconds, and only 2 can be active at once.
• Critical Strike (W)
  • Your next Basic Attack within 8 seconds will be a Critical Strike, dealing 50% increased damage. This also applies to Mirror Images and does not break Wind Walk.
  • Passive: You and your Mirror Images deal a Critical Strike every 4th Basic Attack.
• Wind Walk (E)
  • Enter Stealth for up to 8 seconds or until you attack, use an Ability, or take damage. While Stealthed, your Movement Speed is increased by 30% and you can pass through other units.
  • Damage taken during the first 1 second will not break Wind Walk.

Heroic Abilities

• Bladestorm (R)
  • Become an unstoppable whirlwind, dealing moderate damage to nearby enemies every second for 4 seconds.
• Illusion Master (R)
  • Switch places with the target Mirror Image.
  • Passive: You can control Mirror Images separately or as a group, and they deal an additional 20% of your damage.