Bug Fixes

• Targets that enter the splash area between instances of Zarya's Basic Attack hitting the primary target will no longer be hit instantly.
• Level 7
  • Deep Burn
    • Energy gained is now bundled together when multiple marked Heroes are hit.
    • Energy is now gained after the primary target and all Splash attack targets have been hit, causing all target to take equal damage when Deep Burn grants Zarya Energy.

Bug Fixes

• Level 10
  • Expulsion Zone
    • Fixed an issue that caused Expulsion Zone to knock back further than intended.

Updates

Base

• Particle Grenade [Q]
  • Damage increased from 75 to 80.
• Shield Ally [E]
  • Search radius increased from 8 to 10.

Talents

• Level 7
  • Deep Burn
    • Duration increased from 3 to 4 seconds.
• Level 13
  • Pain is Temporary
    • Shielding increased from 0.48% of Max Health per Energy to 0.8% of Max Health per Energy.

Bug Fixes

• Level 7
  • Explosive Barrier
    • Now displays in the Death Recap.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue that caused Basic Attacks to not damage enemies in the cleave area if the primary target dies to the attack.
• Level 7
  • Deep Burn [Q]
    • Fixed an issue that caused Deep Burn to display the incorrect floating text value.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue that caused Basic Attacks not being affected properly by attack speed modifiers.

Bug Fixes

• Difficulty updated from Easy to Medium.
• Fixed an issue that caused Defensive Shielding to not apply if the target already has select forms of Block.
• Fixed an issue that caused Basic Attack Splash to work incorrectly with Time Stop.
• Basic Attacks will now reveal the effect area for 0.75 seconds.
• Basic Attacks no longer reveal targets hit.
• Explosive Barrier will now reveal targets hit for 2 seconds.
• Explosive Barrier will now reveal the effect area for 0.75 seconds.
• Feel the Heat icon updated.

Updates

Talents

• Level 1
  • Together We Are Strong [E]
    • Changed Functionality: Talent effects now last 3 seconds, instead of for the duration of the Shield.
• Level 7
  • Deep Burn [Q]
    • Energy gains increased from 1 to 2.

Developer Comment: The last round of Zarya changes didn't blow her overall power out of proportion, so we're touching up a few more underperforming talents.

Updates

Talents

• Level 1
  • Feel the Heat [Trait]
    • Additional functionality: While above 40 Energy, Zarya's Basic Attack size is increased by 35%.
• Level 4
  • I Am the Strongest [W]
    • Additional functionality: Damage absorbed by Zarya's Shields contributes 20% more energy.
• Level 7
  • Hit Me [Trait]
    • Removed.
  • To the Limit [Passive]
    • Removed.
  • (New) Deep Burn [Q]
    • Basic Attacks against Heroes hit by Particle Grenade in the last 3 seconds generate 1 Energy.
• Level 10
  • Graviton Surge [R2]
    • Additional functionality: Deals 30 damage a second to affected enemies.

Developer Comment: Zarya's Basic Attack build is underperforming compared to her other options, so we're consolidating a few talents and giving her a new one in the form of Deep Burn. Historically, even slight buffs to Zarya have had a huge impact on her efficacy, so we're making light touches this time around. We'll be keeping a close eye on her performance and making more adjustments in the future if needed.

Bug Fixes

• Zarya's To The Limit no longer causes Zarya's weapon beam to appear shorter at certain energy levels.

Updates

Talents

• Level 7
  • Pinpoint Accuracy [Q]
    • Additional functionality: also Slows enemy Heroes hit near the center of Particle Grenade by 25% for 2 seconds.
  • Explosive Barrier [W]
    • Damage increased from 100 to 110.
  • To the Limit [Trait]
    • Energy requirement for bonus attack size reduced from 50 to 40.
  • Hit Me [Trait]
    • Energy bonus increased from 15% to 20%.
• Level 10
  • Expulsion Zone [R2]
    • Radius increased by 10%.
• Level 16
  • Plasma Shock [Q]
    • Removed.
• Level 20
  • Clear Out [R2]
    • No longer increases the radius of Expulsion Zone.
    • Additional functionality: Reduce the cooldown of Expulsion Zone by 25 seconds.

Developer Comment: It's been a long time since we made some serious changes to Zarya's talents, so these changes should shake things up a bit for her. Plasma Shock in particular was not seeing much play, so we're rolling its functionality into Pinpoint Accuracy, and buffing other talents on the tier to keep their competitiveness. We're also redesigning Clear Out to give a massive cooldown reduction to Expulsion Zone instead of a radius increase, as we found the radius increase to not be the most impactful or fun Level 20 upgrade.

Bug Fixes

• Particle Grenade are now affected by cooldown reduction effects.

Updates

Abilities

• Level 1
  • Together We Are Strong [E]
    • Damage done by allies per energy gained reduced from 6 to 5
    • Maximum energy gain per Shield increased from 30 to 40
• Level 20
  • Gravity Kills [R1]
    • No longer deals damage to enemy Heroes
    • Additional functionality: Now Silences enemy Heroes for its duration
  • Clear Out [R2]
    • No longer increases Zarya's maximum Energy
    • Additional functionality: Now increases the duration of Expulsion Zone by 1.5 seconds

Developer Comment: We saw an opportunity to improve Zarya's Heroic options, and while taking a look at her saw that Together We Are Strong was also underperforming compared to its peers, so we're giving all of these talents a bit more punch.

Updates

Stats

• Health increased from 2225 to 2292.
• Health Regeneration increased from 4.6406 to 4.7750.

Abilities

• Particle Grenade (Q)
  • Damage increased from 71 to 75.
• Graviton Surge (R)
  • Cooldown reduced from 80 to 60 seconds.

Updates

Abilities

• Energy (Trait)
  • Rate of decay increased from 2.5 to 3 per second
• Graviton Surge (R)
  • Cooldown reduced from 100 to 80 seconds

Talents

• Level 1
  • Demolitions Expert (Q)
    • Cooldown reduction decreased from 0.5 to 0.4375 seconds per 5 Heroes hit, up to 3.5 seconds
  • Together We Are Strong (E)
    • Damage needed per point of Energy gained reduced from 9 to 6
  • Maximum Charge (Trait)
    • Energy gained from Regeneration Globes increased from 15 to 20

• Level 4
  • Give Me Twenty (E)
    • Cooldown reduction granted upon completing the quest decreased from 3 to 2 seconds
  • Speed Barrier (E)
    • Movement Speed bonus increased from 35% to 50%
• Level 16
  • Cleansing Shield (E)
    • Cooldown reduction increased from 2 to 3 seconds
  • Plasma Shock (Q)
    • Slow duration increased from 1.5 to 2 seconds
• Level 20
  • Gravity Kills (R)
    • Damage increased from 140 to 175 over the duration
  • Clear Out (R)
    • Bonus maximum Energy increased from 10 to 15 per Hero hit

Developer Comment: Zarya has continued to be one of the most powerful Heroes in the Nexus. We're targeting a nerf at her Energy decay rate because we think that's it's too easy for Zarya to stay at really high Energy amounts over a long period of time. Rather than continuing to reduce her potential damage output, we want to make the moments that she gets to maximum Energy more rare (but still scary).

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue that could cause players to stall when Zarya was affected by certain attack speed modifiers.

Updates

General

• Zarya's Basic Attacks can now be affected by attack speed modifications.

General

• A number of typos and tooltip errors have been corrected across several aspects of the game.

A.I.

• Diablo: Fixed an issue that could cause the Unstoppable effect from A.I. Diablo's Lightning Breath to persist for its full duration even if channeling was immediately cancelled after casting.

Art

• Kerrigan: The Countess Kerrigan skin now plays animations while Maelstrom is active.
• Kharazim: There is no longer a pop in the Air Ally's animations.
• Nazeebo: Zombie Wall zombies will no longer create holes in the terrain when they die after choosing the Dead Rush talent.
• Observer Mode: Excess Regeneration Globe visual effects will no longer appear for Observers and other neutral players while watching replays or custom games.

Battlegrounds

• Braxis Holdout: Fixed an issue causing Zerg melee units to crowd around enemy objects that were in the process of arming, such as Toxic Nests or Time Traps, rather than ignore them.
• Cursed Hollow: Fixed a rare issue that could fail to provide players with vision of an active Raven Lord Tribute.
• Haunted Mines: Pinging allied or enemy Goblin Sappers will now properly create “assist” or “kill” notifications in chat.
• Try Mode: Destroying the opposing Fort will now correctly despawn Misha when Rexxar is set as the enemy Hero.
• Try Mode: Toggle Cooldowns will now correctly reset Diablo's Lightning Breath cooldown.

Heroes, Abilities, and Talents

• Azmodan: Damage dealt by the Sin's Grasp Talent will now correctly benefit from Ability Power gains.
• Brightwing: Fixed an issue causing Emerald Wind to push enemies away from Brightwing's current location rather than the original casting location.
• Chen: Silence effects will no longer cause Purifying Brew to go on cooldown while Chen is Unstoppable during Wandering Keg.
• Dehaka: Becoming targeted by Kharazim's Divine Palm while affected by Dehaka's Contagion Talent will no longer cause Isolation's model to persist indefinitely above the target.
• E.T.C: Echo Pedal will now correctly deal damage to Doubloon Chests on Blackheart's Bay.
• Kharazim: Fixed an issue that prevented shift-queuing Radiant Dash casts to allied Heroes.
• Gul'dan: Drain Life can now be properly cast when Gul'dan has 0 mana.
• Gul'dan: Fixed an issue that could cause Ruinous Affliction's damage bonus to be applied on Echoed Corruption's fourth consecutive strike against a target, rather than the third.
• Malfurion: Learning Lunar Shower will no longer cause portions of Druid of the Flame Malfurion's Moonfire visual effects to fail to generate.
• Medivh: Entering Raven Form should no longer clear shift-queued Movement commands.
• Nazeebo: The targeting indicator for Plague of Toads will now visually increase in size after learning Thing of the Deep.
• Ragnaros: Vehicles piloted by Ragnaros will no longer benefit from Resilient Flame.
• Ragnaros: Fixed an issue in which Empower Sulfuras would not benefit from Hand of Ragnaros when killing a secondary Heroic target.
• Ragnaros: Casting a displacement Ability that pushes Ragnaros out of channeling range for Molten Core will no longer cause Ragnaros to become unresponsive.
• Rexxar: Misha will no longer ignore orders to use a Healing Fountain when Rexxar is only missing Mana.
• Rexxar: Fixed an issue causing Spirit Swoop to deal bonus damage to Mercenaries after learning Bird of Prey.
• Samuro: Critical Strike's cooldown will no longer be paused while Samuro is dead.
• Samuro: After learning Illusion Master, selecting a Mirror Image just as it dies will now correctly reselect the real Samuro.
• Stitches: Casting Devour will no longer cause floating Talent Quest progress icons to appear before Stitches learns Savor the Flavor.
• Tassadar: Fixed an issue that could prevent Archon from refreshing Dimensional Shift's cooldown.
• The Lost Vikings: Olaf will no longer Charge destroyed Structures.
• Tyrande: Fixed an issue that prevented enemies from seeing Starfall's area of effect indicator when it was cast inside of Brush or Vents.
• Valeera: Shift queuing movement commands followed by a Hearthstone or Mount command will no longer break Stealth before channeling begins.
• Valeera: Stitches's Putrid Bile will no longer cause a red “revealed” icon to appear over Valeera's nameplate while she is inside Smoke Bomb's area of effect.
• Varian: The cooldown for Victory Rush will no longer be reduced when nearby enemy Structures are destroyed.
• Zarya: Damage that occurs just before Zarya's Barrier breaks will now correctly grant her energy.

Sound

• Artanis: Allies will no longer hear Artanis's death voiceover globally.
• Voiceover: Fixed an issue in which an excessive number of left-clicks were required in order to play certain Hero voiceover lines.
• Medivh: Will now play his Ready voiceover when locked in during draft selection.

User Interface

• Kerrigan: Fixed an issue in which Essence for Essence would always follow the player's global Quick Cast settings.
• Lunara: Changing Lunara's Skin selection during draft mode will now correctly update her draft portrait.
• Hero Select: Tyrande will now appear in the list of available Heroes when “Hearthstone” is used as a search term during Hero Select.
• Observer Mode: The Follow Player Camera hotkey (C) will now correctly follow the selected player while observing a match or watching a replay.
• Observer Mode: The Quick View Player hotkey (V) will now limit the Observer's vision to the selected player as long as it is held down.
• Score Screen: Echoed Corruption's Talent Quest will now correctly appear complete on the Talents tab at 40 stacks rather than 35.

Updates

Talents

• Level 1
  • Feel the Heat (Passive)
    • Basic Attacks that deal bonus damage in Melee range will now show a Crit indicator

Bug Fixes

• Graviton Surge and Expulsion Zone voiceover will no longer play slightly early.

Updates

Stats

• Basic Attack damage reduced from 21 to 20

Abilities

• Particle Grenade (Q)
  • Damage reduced from 74 to 71

Talents

• Level 1
  • Maximum Charge (Trait)
    • Energy gain from Regeneration Globes reduced from 20 to 15

Developer Comment: We're pretty happy with Zarya's gameplay and how often we're seeing her, but we think toning down her damage slightly is in order to keep her in line.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue preventing the “Drop and give me Twenty” quest indicator from disappearing after the quest was completed.

Updates

Abilities

• Particle Grenade (Q)
  • This ability has received improvements to its cast animation
  • The time between casting Particle Grenade and performing another action has been reduced by .25 seconds

Developer Comment: Casting Zarya's Particle Grenade would force her to be locked in place for a short period of time. We don't do this on other Heroes, and we felt like this exception broke the fluidity of the character.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue that could cause Graviton Surge's effect to persist indefinitely under certain circumstances.
• The Gain Train Talent can no longer apply a Shield to an ally-controlled Dragon Knight or Garden Terror.

Updates

Talents

Level 1

• Demolitions Expert (Q)
  • Quest reward of hitting 5 Heroes increased from .375 to .5
• Together We Are Strong (E)
  • Decreased Energy per damage dealt from 10 to 9
  • Increased the maximum Energy gained from 25 to 30
• Maximum Charge (Trait)
  • Quest completion time increased from 120 to 150 seconds

Level 4

• Defensive Shielding (Passive)
  • Block charge duration reduced from 12 to 6 seconds

Level 7

• Hit Me (Trait)
  • Bonus Energy from Zarya's Shields decreased from 20 to 15%

Level 13

• Unstoppable Competitor (W)
  • Unstoppable duration increased from 1.5 to 2 seconds
• Endurance Training (Passive)
  • Damage reduction decreased from 25 to 20%

Level 16

• Plasma Shock (Q)
  • Slow duration increased from 1 to 1.5 seconds
• Cleansing Shield (E)
  • Added functionality
    • Also decreases Cooldown of Shield Ally from 12 to 10 seconds

Level 20

• Unyielding Defender (Active)
  • Cooldown increased from 45 to 60 seconds

Developer Comment: Zarya's power level is slightly higher than what we'd like, and in general her Energy Talents are stronger than all the other options on their tiers. These changes should increase Talent diversity and deliver a slight nerf to the Hero.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue that could cause Tyrael's Sanctification ability to fail if Zarya cast Expulsion Zone at the same location.

Updates

Stats

• Basic Attack damage reduced from 24 to 21
• Base Maximum Health reduced from 2336 to 2225
• Base Health Regeneration reduced from 4.87 to 4.64

Talents

Level 1

• Maximum Charge (Trait)
  • Reduced the bonus Energy on quest completion from 25 to 20
• Demolitions Expert (Q)
  • Recharge rate reduction increased from .25 to .375, up to a total of 3 seconds

Level 4

• Speed Barrier (E)
  • Movement Speed increased from 25 to 35%

Developer Comment: We're reverting some of the previous Zarya buffs to bring her power level back to where we want. We're also nerfing the benefits of Maximum Charge, now that getting high Energy isn't as difficult as it was previously. We've also buffed Demolitions Expert and Speed Barrier, as they were substantially underperforming when compared to the other Talents on their tiers.

Releases

Zarya, Defender of Russia, has been added to the Nexus and is now available for play! Read on for a brief overview of her Abilities.

Trait

• Energy
  • Each time Zarya's Personal Barrier or Shield Ally absorbs 10 damage, her Energy is increased by 1. Each point of Energy increases Zarya's damage by 2%. After 0.5 seconds, Energy decays by 3 per second.

Basic Abilities

• Particle Grenade (Q)
  • Launch a Particle Grenade that deals damage to enemies within a small area. Deals 50% damage to Structures.
• Personal Barrier (W)
  • Gain a Shield that absorbs damage for 3 seconds.
• Shield Ally (E)
  • Grants an allied Hero a Shield that absorbs damage for 3 seconds.

Heroic Abilities

• Graviton Surge (R)
  • Launch a gravity bomb that detonates after 1 second and draws enemy Heroes toward the center for 2.5 seconds.
• Expulsion Zone (R)
  • Launch a gravity bomb that deals light damage and creates an expulsion zone for 3.5 seconds. Enemies who enter the affected area are knocked back and have their Movement Speed reduced by 50% for 1 second.

Updates

Stats

• Increased Basic Attack damage from 20 to 24
• Increased Health from 2225 to 2336
• Increased Health Regen from 4.64 to 4.87

Abilities

• Particle Grenade (Q)
  • Increased base damage from 62 to 74
• Personal Barrier (W)
  • Cooldown reduced from 12 to 10 seconds
• Energy (Trait)
  • Energy decay rate reduced from 3 to 1.5 per second
• Graviton Surge (R)
  • Cooldown reduced from 120 to 100 seconds

Developer Comment: We like the way Zarya is playing on live, but her impact is currently lower than we'd like. Her damage is too low and we feel that the rate at which her Energy decays is too quick, so we have adjusted them and will keep an eye on her.