Updates

• Locust Strain (Trait)
  • Locusts will no longer spawn as soon as the game begins, and will now wait until the first Minion wave spawns
• Evolve Monstrosity (R)
  • Pressing R with a Monstrosity active will now automatically cast Symbiote on the Monstrosity and move your camera to its position

Developer Comment: Abathur's initial Locust would previously sit idle until Minions spawned. This change will allow Abathur to get in position before the first Locust spawns at the start of a game.

Bug Fixes

• Abathur will now properly receive Takedown credit after dealing the killing blow to Leoric.
• Abathur will no longer receive Takedown credit after casting Symbiote on an allied Leoric that is then killed by the enemy team.
• Abathur's Hivemind Symbiote will no longer persist on Leoric after he enters Undying form.
• A Sgt. Hammer clone created by Abathur's Ultimate Evolution will no longer be granted the Napalm Strike Heroic Ability after entering Siege Mode.
• The Butcher will no longer stop his Ruthless Onslaught charge if Abathur's Ultimate Evolution clone charges the target first.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue that could allow Arthas's Summon Sindragosa to be placed on reduced cooldown despite being successfully cast.

Bug Fixes

• Azmodan's movement commands are now properly interrupted when casting All Shall Burn after learning the March of Sin Talent.

Updates

• Fortifying Brew (Trait) (D)
  • Shield amount changed from 20 (+12 per level) to 33 (+10 per level)
  • Brew will now regenerate in increments of 5 while channeling Fortifying Brew
  • Keg Toss (Talent) moved from Level 7 to Level 1
  • Bottomless Mug (Talent) moved from Level 1 to Level 16
    • This Talent's functionality has changed
    • Now decreases the cooldown of Fortifying Brew from 5 to 3 seconds
  • Combat Stance (Talent)
    • Shield duration after Fortifying Brew channeling ends increased from 2 to 3 seconds
  • New Talent (Level 1): Grounding Brew
    • Now decreases all incoming Ability damage by 25% while channeling Fortifying Brew
• Flying Kick (Q)
  • Flying Kick speed increased by approximately 20%
  • Brew Strike (Talent)
    • This Talent's functionality has changed
    • Now reduces Flying Kick's cooldown by 1 second for every Hero hit by Keg Smash
• Keg Smash (W)
  • Slow duration increased from 2.5 to 3 seconds
  • Full Keg (Talent) moved from Level 1 to Level 7
    • This Talent's functionality has changed
    • Now increases Keg Smash damage and area of effect by 50%
• Breath of Fire (E)
  • Deep Breath (Talent)
    • Now also reduces Breath of Fire's Brew cost from 30 to 20
  • Ring of Fire (Talent)
    • Damage increased from 10 (+2.5 per level) to 11 (+2.75 per level)
• Storm, Earth, Fire (R)
  • Brew cost removed
• Wandering Keg (R)
  • Brew cost removed
  • Cooldown decreased from 90 to 70 seconds

Developer Comment: While we see a fair amount of Talent diversity within Chen players, we found that some of these Talents were traps, so these changes will help. We also added a bit of power into Chen's core playstyle to help him at competitive levels.

Bug Fixes

• Chen will no longer earn three extra Brew after casting another Ability during Fortifying Brew.

Updates

• Black Soulstone (Trait)
  • Maximum Health gained per Soul increased from 0.15% to 0.2%
  • Essence of the Slain (Talent)
    • Now also grants 10 Health for each enemy slain nearby
• Shadow Charge (Q)
  • Range increased by approximately 15%
  • Stun duration after knocking an enemy into a wall increased from 0.75 to 1 second
  • Devastating Charge (Talent)
    • Now reduces movement impairing effects for 6 seconds, up from 3 seconds
• Fire Stomp (W)
  • Damage increased from 30 (+9 per level) to 33 (+10 per level)
  • Mana cost decreased from 50 to 40
• Overpower (E)
  • Domination (Talent)
    • Cooldown reduction for Shadow Charge increased from 8 to 10 seconds

Developer Comment: The buffs to Shadow Charge should help to reinforce Diablo as the premier gank Warrior. The rest of his kit gets a little bit of love to help his overall play.

Updates

• Health increased from 1040 (+240 per level) to 1050 (+250 per level)
• Power Slide (Q)
  • Stun duration increased from 1 to 1.25 seconds
• Face Melt (W)
  • Mana cost decreased from 60 to 50
  • Cooldown decreased from 12 to 10 seconds
  • Mic Check (Talent)
    • Cooldown reduction increased from 4 to 5 seconds
• Guitar Solo (E)
  • Heal amount increased from 25 (+6 per level) to 27 (+6.5 per level)
  • Pwn Shop Guitar (Talent)
    • Mana cost reduction increased from 40% to 60%
  • Prog Rock (Talent)
    • Bonus healing granted per Regeneration Globe increased from 2 to 3 Health per second.

Developer Comment: We wanted to further emphasize E.T.C.'s ability to disrupt enemies with his Face Melt and Power Slide Abilities. With these buffs, we feel he'll fall in line as a viable main Warrior.

Bug Fixes

• Falstad's Hinterland Blast will no longer be placed on reduced cooldown when it is successfully cast at the same moment that Falstad is stunned by The Butcher's Ruthless Onslaught.

Bug Fixes

• Illidan's Sweeping Strike will now properly deal damage when the Immolation Talent damages the target at the same moment.

Updates

• Condemn (W)
  • Knight Takes Pawn (Talent)
    • Damage bonus against Minions and Mercenaries decreased from 400% to 300%
    • Stun duration against Minions and Mercenaries decreased from 4 to 3 seconds
• Blessed Shield (R)
  • Stun duration decreased from 2 to 1.5 seconds for the first target struck, and decreased from 1 to 0.75 seconds for additional targets.
  • Radiating Faith (Talent)
    • No longer increases Blessed Shield range.
    • Now increases the stun duration to 2 seconds for the first target struck, and 1 second for additional targets

Developer Comment: Johanna is powerful right now, and we think a large part of her strength is due to her ability to quickly clear large Minion waves. We also felt that the stun duration on her Blessed Shield could be frustrating to play against during the mid-game. Players who are looking to get that extra stun duration back can elect to build into it at level 20.

Bug Fixes

• The visual effects for Johanna's Shield Glare are no longer visible through the Fog of War.
• The voiceover for Johanna's Falling Sword and Blessed Shield abilities can no longer be heard globally.

Bug Fixes

• Kerrigan will no longer receive multiplicative bonuses to Shield generation after learning the Aggressive Defense and Omegastorm Talents.

Bug Fixes

• Kharazim's Overtake Talent will now properly last for its full duration.

Updates

• Ossein Renewal (Talent)
  • Now dismounts Leoric upon activation
  • No longer causes Leoric to pause briefly when activated while moving
• Skeletal Swing (Q)
  • Damage decreased from 100 (+10 per level) to 85 (+8.5 per level)

Developer Comment: Leoric is too powerful right now. We're targeting his Skeletal Swing, as we believe it does everything a little too well. The damage output for this Ability has been decreased overall, and we've reduced its strength at clearing Minion waves significantly.

Bug Fixes

• Abathur will now properly receive Takedown credit after dealing the killing blow to Leoric.
• Abathur will no longer receive Takedown credit after casting Symbiote on an allied Leoric that is then killed by the enemy team.
• Abathur's Hivemind Symbiote will no longer persist on Leoric after he enters Undying form.
• Camera Follow will no longer cease functioning if Leoric enters Undying form in mid-air.
• Leoric's Reanimation Talent will no longer allow him to regenerate Health after picking up a Regeneration Globe while controlling a Dragon Knight or Garden Terror.
• Nazeebo's Gargantuan will no longer continue to follow an enemy Leoric that has entered Undying form.
• Allied Heroes will no longer tell Leoric to use a Healing Fountain while he is in Undying form.
• Leoric's in-game portrait will no longer switch to his Wraith Walk portrait if an enemy Leoric is killed nearby.

Releases

Lt. Morales, Combat Medic, has been added to the Nexus and is now available for play! Read on for a brief overview of her Abilities.

Trait

• Caduceus Reactor
  • Regenerate 3% of your maximum Health per second after not taking any damage for 4 seconds.

Basic Abilities

• Healing Beam (Q)
  • Heal an ally for 20 Health per second as long as they are in range. Reactivate to switch targets, or activate your Trait to cancel channeling.
• Safeguard (W)
  • Grant target ally Resistant, reducing damage taken by 25% for 3 seconds.
• Displacement Grenade (E)
  • Fire a grenade that explodes on the first enemy hit, dealing damage, and knocking enemies away.

Heroic Abilities

• Stim Drone (R)
  • Grant an allied Hero 75% Attack Speed and 25% Movement Speed for 10 seconds.
• Medivac Dropship (R)
  • Target a location for a Medivac transport. For up to 10 seconds before takeoff, allies can right-click to enter the Medivac.

Updates

• Haymaker (R)
  • Haymaker has received improvements which should help it feel more responsive to cast

Bug Fixes

• The visual and sound effects for Murky's Octo-Grab will no longer persist if the target is killed at the same moment that the Ability is cast.
• The sound effects for Murky's March of the Murlocs will no longer continue to play if casting is interrupted.

Updates

• Corpse Spiders (Q)
  • Spiders attack damage decreased from 10 (+1 per level) to 9.5 (+0.95 per level)
  • Leaping Spiders (Talent)
    • Spider attack damage bonus decreased from 25% to 15%
• Ravenous Spirit (R)
  • Vision radius granted by the Spirit increased by approximately 66%

Developer Comment: Nazeebo was dealing a little more damage than we'd like, specifically when looking at his spiders. We've tuned his base spiders and their leaping talent down to bring him more in line.

Bug Fixes

• Nazeebo's Gargantuan will no longer continue to follow an enemy Leoric that has entered Undying form.

Bug Fixes

• Holo Decoy status bar frames are now more visually consistent with Nova's.

Bug Fixes

• The targeting icon for Raynor's Raiders will no longer persist on Raynor's Ability hotbar after the Banshees have been destroyed.

Bug Fixes

• Rehgar's Feral Lunge will no longer be reset if he is knocked back while lunging.

Updates

• New Ability: Misha, Fixate! (1)
  • “Misha, Fixate!” will have two functions, depending on its target:
    • If “Misha, Fixate!” is used on an enemy, Misha will move to attack the target until the target dies, a new order is issued, Misha leashes, or Misha dies
    • If “Misha, Fixate!” is used on the ground, Misha will move to that area and hold position until a new order is issued, Misha leashes, or Misha dies
      • Using "Misha, Fixate!" will automatically place Rexxar's passive into the "Misha, Follow!" state
      • Misha retains her current behavior when issuing commands using “Misha, Follow!” (D) and “Misha, Attack!” (D)
• Misha (Trait)
  • Misha's leash range has been significantly increased
  • Misha will now hide when Rexxar is hidden in a Bush
• Spirit Swoop (Q)
  • Bird of Prey (Talent)
    • Bonus damage to non-Heroic targets has been reduced from 300% to 200%.

Developer Comment: We've received a lot of both positive and negative feedback about Misha's controls and wanted to offer a little more to our players without completely overhauling her current control scheme. We will continue to monitor this and may make future adjustments to Rexxar and Misha if necessary to balance for this increased level of control.

Bug Fixes

• A Sgt. Hammer clone created by Abathur's Ultimate Evolution will no longer be granted the Napalm Strike Heroic Ability after entering Siege Mode.

Bug Fixes

• Sonya's Seismic Slam, Tyrande's Light of Elune, and Zeratul's Cleave will no longer place the Hero's Basic Attack on cooldown.

Updates

• Health increased from 1060 (+230 per level) to 1060 (+260 per level)
• Block (Talent) removed
• Regeneration Master (Talent) removed
• Imposing Presence (Talent) removed
• Stoneskin (Talent) added at Level 16
• New Talent (Level 1): Dampen Magic
  • Every 8 seconds, gain a charge that reduces damage taken from the next incoming enemy Ability by 50%. Stores up to 2 charges.
• New Talent (Level 1): Hungry for More
  • Collecting Regeneration Globes permanently increases maximum Health by 30
• Hook (Q)
  • Helping Hand (Talent)
    • Now also reduces Hook's cooldown by 8 seconds when pulling an ally
• Slam (W)
  • Mana cost reduced from 45 to 40
• Devour (E)
  • Mana cost reduced from 65 to 55
  • Cooldown reduced from 24 to 20 seconds
  • Last Bite (Talent)
    • Now grants cooldown reduction for enemies that are killed within 3 seconds after being damaged by Devour
  • Indigestion (Talent)
    • Retchlings now apply the effects of Vile Gas to the targets they attack
• Gorge (R)
  • Duration increased from 3.5 to 4 seconds
  • Stitches's Movement Speed is no longer reduced while using Gorge
  • Targets under the effect of Stitches's Gorge will now be instantly expelled if Stitches enters Stasis (Divine Palm, Devouring Maw, Cocoon, Medivac)
  • Hungry Hungry Stitches (Talent)
    • No longer increases Gorge duration
    • Now increases Gorge damage by 40%

Developer Comment: We wanted to buff Stitches and position him to be more powerful against Mages. His regeneration build has been nerfed, due to the removal of Regeneration Master, but instead he now has a high Health build which also increases Devour's effectiveness. His core kit was improved at a basic level, which will help bring him back into competitive play. Finally, we wanted to clean up the rules associated with Gorge and the level 20 upgrade, so we cut the unnecessary components of those two Abilities.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue with Stitches's arm appearing strangely during some animations.
• Stitches will no longer become briefly unresponsive after casting Hook on a target that has just died.

Updates

• Plasma Shield (Q)
  • Shield amount decreased from 200 (+40 per level) to 150 (+30 per level)
  • Shield amount is now increased by 50% when cast on other allied Heroes
  • Mana cost reduced from 50 to 40
  • Cooldown reduced from 8 to 5 seconds
  • Leeching Plasma (Talent)
    • Basic Attack damage returned as Health increased from 20% to 30%
  • Evasive Shielding (Talent)
    • Movement Speed bonus duration increased from 4 to 5 seconds
• Archon (R)
  • Reduced Archon's Basic Attack damage from 64 (+12 per level) to 51.2 (+9.6 per level).

Developer Comment: It's important that Tassadar players can queue for Quick Match and not be worried that they are going to cause a negative experience for their team. A Tassadar player who chooses the Support Talents will be much more viable as a Support character. We still expect Tassadar to put out smaller numbers when compared to the highest healing Supports, but with the huge amount of utility Tassadar brings, we think this is an okay trade off. The second change here targets Archon providing a little too much power; we've reduced some numbers to tune him appropriately. Internally, we've seen more Force Wall play as a result, which has been exciting.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a longstanding issue with Tassadar's Twilight Archon tooltip. The Shield amounts and Damage bonus will now state a 50% increase, instead of the previous 35%. There is no gameplay impact with this change.
• Fixed an issue that could prevent Tassadar's Plasma Shield with the Khala's Embrace Talent from providing bonus Shields to Structures.

Updates

• Ruthless Onslaught (E)
  • Savage Charge (Talent)
    • Bonus damage changed from 15% of the target's current Health to 10% of the target's maximum Health
• Lamb to the Slaughter (R)
  • New art has been added that will better indicate which players are affected by Lamb to the Slaughter

Developer Comment: We'd like to avoid 'current Health' for the Savage Charge Talent, as what players get out of this can vary wildly. Using Savage Charge against a low Health target could net less than a Basic Attack, so the damage will be much more consistent with this change.

Bug Fixes

• Falstad's Hinterland Blast will no longer be placed on reduced cooldown when it is successfully cast at the same moment that Falstad is stunned by The Butcher's Ruthless Onslaught.
• The Butcher will no longer stop his Ruthless Onslaught charge if Abathur's Ultimate Evolution clone charges the target first.

Bug Fixes

• The Lost Vikings are no longer teleported back to their Hall of Storms if they would have been killed by Zagara's Devouring Maw while in Longboat Raid! form.

Bug Fixes

• Tychus's Drakken Laser Drill will no longer target Heroes while they are hidden in bushes.
• Tychus's Overkill will no longer track enemies while he is trapped by Void Prison.
• The targeting icon for Drakken Laser Drill will no longer persist on Tychus' Ability hotbar after the drill has been destroyed.

Bug Fixes

• The Battle Momentum Talent will now properly reduce Tyrael's Sanctification cooldown.

Updates

• Searing Arrows (Talent)
  • Basic Attack damage bonus increased from 40% to 50%
• Shadowstalk (R)
  • No longer reveals enemies.
  • Instead, allied Heroes are now healed over 8 seconds, and then receive a large burst of healing when Shadowstalk expires
  • Hunter's Prey (Talent) has been renamed to Hunter's Swiftness
    • Allied Heroes no longer gain a Basic Attack damage bonus, and instead receive a 40% Movement Speed bonus for 8 seconds

Developer Comment: We think that it's important that Tyrande has the capability to be a viable solo healer, as she might be the only Support on your team in Quick Match. Shadowstalk is generally an under-picked Heroic, so we decided to focus it more toward healing so that it can become a “support” option. Tyrande still brings less healing than some of our other Supports due to the rest of her kit, but we hope that the Shadowstalk change will bring her closer to what players expect when fulfilling the primary Support role.

Bug Fixes

• Sonya's Seismic Slam, Tyrande's Light of Elune, and Zeratul's Cleave will no longer place the Hero's Basic Attack on cooldown.

Bug Fixes

• Uther will no longer be teleported back to the Hall of Storms if his Redemption Talent cooldown expires while he is in Eternal Devotion form.

Bug Fixes

• The Lost Vikings are no longer teleported back to their Hall of Storms if they would have been killed by Zagara's Devouring Maw while in Longboat Raid! form.

Updates

• Basic Attack damage reduced from 47 (+13 per level) to 47 (+12 per level)
• Blink (E)
  • Wormhole (Talent)
    • Blink reactivation time reduced from 3 to 2 seconds
• Void Prison (R)
  • Casting range reduced by 50%

Developer Comment: Zeratul is a little bit too strong, especially at competitive and tournament level play. Wormhole remains extremely powerful, but decreasing this timer from 3 to 2 seconds will give increased counter play options to the enemy team, primarily if they can disable Zeratul during this shorter time window. Void Prison remains one of the most powerful Heroics in the game, but with the decreased range, Zeratul will now likely have to use Blink or aggressive positioning to get into place for the perfect Void Prison.

Bug Fixes

• Sonya's Seismic Slam, Tyrande's Light of Elune, and Zeratul's Cleave will no longer place the Hero's Basic Attack on cooldown.