Heroes of the Storm

Hello everyone!

We, the collective Heroes of the Storm team, would like to introduce “A Call for Help!”, the second Seasonal Nexus Anomaly of 2020. This new anomaly will consist of two sets of changes that both focus on the structures found within the Nexus. The first will change how you’ll interact with the various combat structures on a Battleground (Towers, Forts, Keeps, Cores, etc). The second will focus on powering up the Core by adding new abilities that are automatically deployed to defend against enemy Heroes. As with the previous anomaly, we will be continually monitoring your feedback to evaluate whether to keep these changes beyond the end of the season.


Tower Defense and Aggression

• We’ve heard feedback over the years that a lot of you would like to feel more protected by nearby friendly structures. Currently, minions, summons, and non-heroic units can hold a structure’s attention for so long that defending players feel that they’re offered no additional protection when taking refuge under their Cannon Towers, Forts, Keeps and Cores. To address that, we’re implementing a system where Heroes will automatically “Call For Help!” from their nearby structures.
• With this change, if a Hero is damaged by a member of the opposite team while within range of a friendly combat structure, that structure will automatically seek out and attack the offending enemy Hero. Additionally, non-Core structure attacks will now progressively reduce the Armor of Heroes, even in situations outside of tower diving. In order to counter-balance these increased defensive measures and to allow attackers the opportunity to swiftly engage and disengage under towers, we’ve removed the Movement Speed and Attack Speed Slow from Fort and Keep attacks. We hope that this system can strike a balance between feeling safe under your own structures while not overly punishing aggressive plays. For a full list of detailed changes please see the patch notes.

Core Abilities
We want fights around the Core to feel like exciting ends to cap off great games, and we feel like we can do more to deliver on that front. To that end, this Seasonal Nexus Anomaly will introduce themed abilities to the majority of non-ARAM Battleground Cores. Want to watch your enemies turn into plant shamblers on Gardens of Terror? How about dodging walls of tornadoes on Sky Temple? Maybe just sit back and watch the Nukes fall on Warhead Junction? We don’t want to spoil all of what we may have in store, but we can’t wait for you to find out for yourselves what new tricks the Cores have up their sleeves!


Current Nexus Anomaly: Experience Globes
Now that we’ve showcased “A Call for Help!”, let’s talk about what we plan to do with the current active anomaly, Experience Globes. Since their addition at the beginning of the last season, we’ve introduced various changes aimed at improving interactivity and playability, such as automatically granting Experience Globes to Heroes that kill a Minion, addressing some globe expiration issues, etc. With these changes now in place, Experience Globes appear to be an overall positive addition to the game, so we’ve decided to keep them! We like how they visualize the process of gaining experience in a way that is easy to understand. Also, by opening small windows of opportunity to deny experience without overwhelmingly changing how the game works, we’ve seen that Experience Globes add some exciting new player interactions. We will still make changes as necessary, so please continue providing feedback to help us improve!

Big changes like revamping structure priorities and adding Experience Globes are exactly what the team hopes to test out with Nexus Anomalies, which are currently planned for release alongside each new Ranked season. Stay tuned for what may be coming next!

Thanks for reading, Heroes. We’ll see you in the Nexus.

You're minding your business beneath a friendly Tower when an enemy Hero attacks. Instead of helping, though, your Tower keeps attacking minions!

“Personally, I’ve never really felt safe under my own towers,” says Kevin Gu, a developer on the Heroes team. “Which is strange, considering there are literally cannons right next to you!”

It's not a good feeling being a friendly structure’s second or third priority when it’s your first. That’s why the second Nexus Anomaly, A Call for Help, is hitting the live servers with changes that make both Towers and Cores more reliable teammates, featuring unique abilities that make them defensive forces to be reckoned with.

Experience Globes, our first Nexus Anomaly, went so well that the team is keeping it in the game permanently; the same is possible for A Call for Help, though it’s also possible that these changes will only last a Season. A full breakdown of the changes may be found above. We called on game designers Gu and Adam Z. Jackson for the details.


Call for Help!

How would you explain the Tower change to someone who isn't excited about it yet or to a new player?
Adam Z. Jackson: Before, when an enemy hero attacked you under your Tower, your Tower would leave you hanging unless you killed everything else around that hero first. Now your Towers will help you out right away, which should translate into them feeling like more productive and smart members of your team.
Kevin Gu: We want to give players who defend their structures greater protection without preventing their opponents from being aggressive. Now that we’ve been playing with the system internally for a few months, it’s hard for me to imagine the game without it, and we hope that other players will feel the same way.


What's the backstory for how you came up with this Anomaly?
Gu: The team has been talking internally about Tower aggro [the process by which Towers select their targets] for a while now; it’s just that we have been apprehensive about introducing mechanics and systems that could draw out the length of the games. Turns out it wasn’t as bad as we feared!

We also made sure that we didn’t forget about the aggressors. This is why we removed Slows from Forts and Keeps and introduced quality-of-life improvements like Tower attack beams [which show the unit the Tower is targeting].
Jackson: With the announcement of Anomalies late last year, we felt we had the freedom to try these changes out temporarily to see how the community liked them.


Any funny stories from playtests?
Jackson: Early on, we had a lot of fun moments where we would forget about the changes when making a huge Tower dive, which would often result in our more experienced players making all kinds of flashy plays… only to die horribly to the enemy Tower that could actually kill them now.
Gu: Early on in testing there were definitely moments of, “It was at that moment he knew he messed up.”


If you were a Tower, what would you think of all these changes?
Gu: Why should Heroes have all the fun? Structures are people, too!
Jackson: I’d be slightly upset. The powers-that-be are now expecting me to put more mental effort into what I’m doing, which is honestly just a big bother. Unless I’m part of the 1% and got to be born as a Kings Core, [each team’s most important and central structure,] in which case I’m pretty stoked, since the rich just got richer.



Core Mechanics

We understand the Cores are also receiving some changes in this Anomaly. Can you explain in more detail the "Core Mechanics" part of your forum post and what it means for players?
Jackson: At a high level, it means that Cores now have new mechanics that they will use to protect themselves, which should help give them even more unique identities.
Gu: For example, the King’s Core on Gardens of Terror periodically drops seeds on the ground that turn enemy heroes into plants. These abilities are intended to be more about flavor and are telegraphed to provide time for players to move out of their way.


How would you break this down for a less experienced player?
Gu: There are many incredibly unique battlegrounds in the Nexus. What better way to celebrate the Nexus than to add a different themed ability to each battleground’s Core?


Where did the ideas for themed abilities come from?
Gu: The whole team had their hands on the creation of these abilities. Gardens of Terror pretty much remained the same from the first iteration, but others like the Sky Temple Core ability relied on a group of dedicated developers providing playtesting and feedback to get just right. I think we are all very proud of the outcome.
Jackson: Most of the ideas came from existing mechanics on the maps themselves, and then we would go through a few iterations to make them readable and open for counter-play.


What’s your favorite Core ability?
Jackson: My personal favorite is Blackheart’s Bay due to the cannonball explosions. It’s so wacky and has the potential to create come hilarious moments when it sends Heroes flying.
Gu: My favorite has to be Lignify on Gardens of Terror. The shambles it turns you into is just so cute. I may have intentionally been lignified a few times.


How are the abilities working in playtests? Any more stories to share?
Jackson: I still remember our first time playing on Sky Temple with its new Core mechanic, which spawned tornadoes that knocked back enemies. My team was approaching the enemy Core, and then there were suddenly so many tornadoes around it that we could barely move our Heroes, let alone tell what was actually happening. Needless to say, the other team came back and won due to their awesome new Core-nadoes.
Gu: The most memorable moment for me was our first iteration of Warhead Junction. I set up the King’s Core to launch a nuke every four seconds. Glorious nuclear apocalypse. Then Adam nerfed it. I’m totally not mad about that anymore.



Be honest. Do you think players will find ways to taunt each other with Call for Help?
Jackson: I wouldn’t be surprised to see teams who have the game in the bag purposefully walk into the mechanics as a show of dominance!
Gu: My favorite moments are those where people will try to goad enemies into attacking them under Towers. There’s a friendly cheekiness to it.


What’s the in-universe explanation for what’s going on when a Hero Calls for Help?
Jackson: Well, as we progress through the game, we’re levelling up. Who says the Cores, which hold the powers of the Singularity, aren’t also levelling up as we perpetually fight and die around them?
Gu: I think the Nexus just decided to do some home improvement projects. It’s a tax write-off.

Our next Heroes of the Storm patch is live and brings a new Dark Nexus II event, new skins and mounts, along with a Tassadar rework and more! Read on for more information.

NOTE: Orange text indicates a change between PTR and Live notes.


Quick Navigation:

• Nexus Anomaly
  
• General
  
• Collection
  
• Heroes
  
• Bug Fixes

Nexus Anomaly - A Call For Help

We’ve heard feedback over the years that a lot of you would like to feel more protected by nearby friendly structures. Currently, Minions, Summons, and non-Heroic units can hold a structure’s attention for so long that defending players feel that they’re offered no additional protection when taking refuge under their Cannon Towers, Forts, Keeps and Cores. In order to address this issue, we will be making the following changes to structures:

Cannon Towers, Forts, Keeps and Cores

• A beam is now created from these structures to their targets, making it easier to see what is being attacked at a glance.
  
• Allied Heroes of the structures who are being attacked by enemy Heroes will cause the structure to focus the offender until the offender is dead or leaves tower range.
  
• A bright beam indicates that the structure is defending an ally Hero and is focusing on the beam target.
  
• Structures reset targeting when the Call for Help target becomes invalid.
  
• Structures reset targeting logic when they recover from being disabled.

Cannon Towers, Forts and Keeps

• Damage to Heroes increased by 10%.
  
• Attacks reduce Hero Armor by up to -40.
  
• Cannon Tower attacks reduce enemy Hero Armor by 5.
  
• Forts and Keeps attacks reduce enemy Hero Armor by 10.
  
• Forts and Keeps no longer slow enemy Heroes.

New Core Abilities

• We want fights around the Core to feel like exciting ends to cap off great games, and we feel like we can do more to deliver on that front. To that end, this Seasonal Nexus Anomaly will introduce themed abilities to non-ARAM Battleground Cores:
  
  • Battlefield of Eternity
    
    • Every 12 seconds, the Core will spawn 2 volleys of Frozen Orbs that explode, dealing 5% maximum Health as damage and Rooting enemy Heroes hit for 1.5 seconds.
      
  • Blackheart’s Bay
    
    • Every 4 seconds, the Core will shoot a cannonball at 2 nearby enemy Heroes, dealing 5% maximum Health as damage, slowing them by 70% for 1.5 seconds, and knocking them back.
      
  • Braxis Holdout
    
    • Every 4 seconds, the Core will shoot 5 missiles at a nearby enemy Hero, dealing 5% maximum Health as damage per missile.
      
  • Cursed Hollow
    
    • Every 3 seconds, the Core will spawn a Curse under a nearby enemy Hero. If they are Cursed, they take 5% maximum Health as damage and their Armor is reduced by 75 for 4 seconds.
      
  • Dragonshire
    
    • Every 6 seconds, the Core will throw 2 boulders at a nearby enemy Hero. Heroes hit are turned to stone, damaged for 5% of their maximum Health, and Stunned for 1.75 seconds.
      
  • Garden of Terror
    
    • Every 5 seconds, the Core shoots a seed under a nearby enemy Hero. When the seed explodes, Heroes inside are Polymorphed for 3 seconds.
      
  • Hanamura
    
    • Every 8 seconds, the Core fires 2 volleys of missiles around it, dealing 5% maximum Health to enemy Heroes and slowing them by 70% for 1.25 seconds.
      
  • Infernal Shrines
    
    • Every 12 seconds, the Core will spawn 2 volleys of Frozen Orbs that explode, dealing 5% maximum Health as damage and Rooting enemy Heroes hit for 1.5 seconds.
      
  • Sky Temple
    
    • Every 23 seconds, the Core will spawn 2 sets of 6 tornadoes which swirl around it, dealing 25 damage to enemy Heroes and knocking them back.
      
  • Tomb of the Spider Queen
    
    • Every 5 seconds, the Core will shoot a Death Wave, dealing 5% maximum Health as damage to enemy Heroes and slowing them by 70% for 1.25 seconds.
      
  • Volskaya
    
    • Every 6 seconds, the Core shoots 3 Rocket Fists at nearby enemy Heroes, dealing 150 damage and knocking them back.
      
  • Warhead Junction
    
    • Every 18 seconds, the Core launches a Nuke at a nearby enemy Hero, dealing 30% maximum health to enemy Heroes hit.
      

General

Mastery Rings - Tier 3

• Get ready to show off your dedication to your favorite Heroes with the next level of Hero Mastery Rings! These new rings become purchasable once a Hero reaches level 50 and you already own the first and second rings for that Hero.

A.I.

• A.I. trees have been refactored in order to reduce conflicts between the tactical and goal systems.
  
• Agents will attempt to stage and wait for backup around objectives before attempting to contest.
  
• Disconnected players will have their A.I. return to base and remain there unless they are pinged to follow.
  
  • Follow behavior is the same for disconnected player A.I. and normal A.I.
    
  • While following, the agent will attempt to fight while remaining close to their follow target, leashing back if they wander too far away.
    
  • While following, the agent will mount or use their Hearthstone if their follow target uses their mount or Hearthstone.
    
• Adjusting A.I. Healing Well goal health threshold from 75% to 60%.
  
• Bringing an A.I. who is on follow close enough to Doubloon turn-in on Blackheart's Bay, Soul Gem turn-in on Tomb of the Spider Queen, or a healing fountain will cause the A.I. to interact with them appropriately if they are able.

Favorite Talents

• Create your favorite talent builds
  
  • Players can pick their favorite talents on the talent panel from Hero select or draft screen.
    
  • In order to favorite a talent, simply click the talent. Once it's selected, you can click the talent again to unselect it.
    
  • Players can create up to 3 builds per each Hero and can activate one build at a time.
    
  • To switch to a different build, click the build buttons shown on the top of the talent panel.
    
  • If any significant change happens to a talent tier due to a balance patch, the selection for the tier will be reset.
    
• Share your favorite builds
  
  • You can generate a hyperlink for a talent build by clicking the cog menu next to talent build buttons on the Hero select screen.
    
  • If you paste this link on the chat, it shows as a hyperlink in the chat history.
    
  • If you left click the link, it shows the preview of the talent build.
    
  • By right clicking the link, you can copy the link to your clipboard or directly save it to your Hero's corresponding build slots.
    
  • The format of the talent hyperlink is as follows. [T1231231,Lucio]
    
• In-Game & End of the match screen
  
  • A favorited talent will display a favorite icon on top of it.
    
  • You can switch the build in the middle of the game based on your strategy.
    
  • For the future tiers, you can adjust your favorites by clicking the talent button in the same way you would do in the Hero select screen.
    
  • All changes made in game are saved.
    
  • After game ends, you can use the cog menu on the talent tab to copy other players' talent builds.
    

Storm League

• Matchmaking Changes for GM & Masters
  
  • Master and Grand Master players are no longer restricted to queuing with only one other player.
    
  • Master and Grand Master players are no longer restricted to queuing with players who are within 5000 ranked points.
    
  • Made some changes to matchmaking rules that should improve the quality of matches for Master and Grand Master players.
    

Developer Comment: We have been actively monitoring matchmaking throughout the season and are going to be making some changes which will help the player experience. Firstly, we found that our party size restrictions for Masters players didn’t give the experience that we had envisioned, so we are reverting these changes. The limit for queueing as a party will require players to be within 2 leagues of each other, with Diamond players being able to queue up with Master and Grand Master players. Additionally, we have made some changes to all regions so that players who are Masters and above should find games being made with as many high level players as possible, which should result in better matches.

Experience

• Floating Combat Text for experience earned from killing blows now has a unique purple color and displays at the position of the killed unit. Floating Combat Text from experience earned from Experience Globes remains unchanged.

Experience Globes

• Pickup Radius increased from 1.5 to 1.75.
  
• Experience Globes that are actively travelling to a Hero will attempt to follow more closely.

Developer Comment: We're making some small improvements to Experience Globes to make them more readable and to improve how they feel to pick up by adding a unique purple text that displays where they are killed. With these changes, players should more clearly see when they gained experience via a killing blow. We also found that sometimes picking up experience globes while mounted could be a bit of a hassle due to the pickup radius of the globes as well as how quickly they travel to players, so we are slightly buffing both of these aspects to make them a little easier to collect in these instances.

US Region Selection

• After looking at the causes for North American players' longer wait times and instances of not queuing together, we are bundling matchmaking for our US regions together. This will only happen for players if they have good pings to both sites, and our simulations have shown that we can create better games faster this way. If you don't experience this, please let us know!

Collection

Many seasonal items will be returning to the collection, and will be available for crafting and in Loot Chests for a limited time!

New Bundles (Limited Time Only!)

• Fragments of the Dark Nexus Bundle
  
• Dark Nexus Harbingers Bundle
  
• Dark Nexus Deathwing Bundle
  
• Dark Nexus Fenix Bundle
  
• Dark Nexus Tassadar Bundle
  
• Dark Nexus Beast Pack
  
• Caldeum Complex Bundle

New Skins

• The following skins will be available for a limited time:
  
  • Dark Nexus Deathwing
    
    • Shattered Dark Nexus Deathwing
      
    • Forgotten Dark Nexus Deathwing
      
    • Awakened Dark Nexus Deathwing
      
    • Astral Dark Nexus Deathwing
      
  • Dark Nexus Fenix
    
    • Imperial Dark Nexus Fenix
      
    • Awakened Dark Nexus Fenix
      
    • Eldritch Dark Nexus Fenix
      
    • Astral Dark Nexus Fenix
      
  • Dark Nexus Tassadar
    
    • Forgotten Dark Nexus Tassadar
      
    • Awakened Dark Nexus Tassadar
      
    • Eldritch Dark Nexus Tassadar
      
    • Astral Dark Nexus Tassadar
      
  • Dark Nexus Gul’dan
    
    • Entropic Dark Nexus Gul’dan
      
    • Sadistic Dark Nexus Gul’dan
      
  • Dark Nexus Alarak
    
    • Astral Dark Nexus Alarak
      
    • Awakened Dark Nexus Alarak
      

New Mounts

• The following mounts will be available for a limited time:
  
  • Dark Nexus Beast
    
    • Shattered Dark Nexus Beast
      
    • Forgotten Dark Nexus Beast
      
    • Wild Dark Nexus Beast
      
    • Awakened Dark Nexus Beast
      
    • Astral Dark Nexus Beast
      
  • Astral Dark Nexus Hound
    
  • Awakened Dark Nexus Hound
    
  • Astral Dark Nexus Manta
    
  • Awakened Dark Nexus Manta
    

New Content

• Several new portraits, sprays and other items have been added to the collection for a limited time!

Heroes

Tassadar Rework


Trait

• Resonance Beam
  
  • Tassadar’s Basic Attack is a long range channeled beam that deals 14 damage every .25 seconds and Slows its target for 10%. While channeling, your Basic Attack damage and Mana Regeneration increase by 25% a second, to a maximum of 100% bonus. While fully charged, gain an additional 3 mana per second. This bonus is lost after 6 seconds of not channeling.
    

Basic Abilities

• Shock Ray [Q]
  
  • After a .375 second cast, channel a fast moving electric beam that deals 280 damage and slows all enemies in a line by 25% for 2 seconds.
    
  • Mana: 55 Mana.
    
  • Cooldown: 7 seconds.
    
• Psionic Storm [W]
  
  • Create a storm of psionic energy at the targeted location, dealing 38 damage every .5 seconds to enemies within its area for 3 seconds. This damage increases by 10% for each consecutive hit, to a maximum of 50% increased damage.
    
  • Mana: 60 Mana.
    
  • Cooldown: 8 seconds.
    
• Force Wall [E]
  
  • After a .5 second delay, create a wall that blocks all units from moving through it for 2 seconds.
    
  • Mana: 70 Mana.
    
  • Cooldown: 21 seconds.
    

Heroic Abilities

• Archon [R1]
  
  • Transform into a powerful Archon, gaining 40% of your maximum health as a shield and empowering Basic Attacks for 12 seconds. Empowered Basic Attacks deal more damage, splash in a small area, and reduce the Spell Armor of Heroes by 20 for 2 seconds. While in Archon form, Resonance Beam is fully charged.
    
  • Mana: 100 Mana.
    
  • Cooldown: 90 seconds.
    
• Black Hole [R2]
  
  • After a .5 second cast, launch a Black Hole that travels in a long line. While travelling, the Black Hole quickly pulls enemy Heroes towards its center. Touching the center deals 310 damage and stuns for 1.25 seconds.
    
  • Mana: 80 Mana.
    
  • Cooldown: 70 seconds.
    

Talent

• Level 1
  
  • Static Charge [Q]
    
    • Quest: Heroes hit by Shock Ray permanently increase its damage by 4 and grant 33% Resonance Beam charge.
      
    • Maximum of 200 additional damage.
      
  • Psi-Infusion [W]
    
    • Increase Psionic Storm’s range by 33%. Each non-structure enemy hit by Psionic Storm restores .5 mana, increased to 5 against Heroes.
      
  • Khaydarin Amulet [Trait]
    
    • Quest: Resonance Beam charges 50% faster.
      
    • Reward: After remaining at full charge for 80 seconds, Resonance Beam bounces to hit 1 additional target for 50% damage.
      
    • Reward: After remaining at full charge for 160 seconds, Resonance Beam bounces to hit 2 additional targets for 50% damage.
      
• Level 4
  
  • Induction [Q]
    
    • Casting Shock Ray increases Tassadar’s move speed by 15% for 3 seconds. If an enemy Hero is hit, increase this bonus by 10%.
      
  • Electric Fence [E]
    
    • Enemies near Force Wall take 46 damage every .5 seconds and are slowed by 35%.
      
  • Plasma Shield [Trait]
    
    • While Resonance Beam is fully charged, gain a shield equal to 3% of max health every second. Stacking up to 15% maximum health.
      
• Level 7
  
  • Beam Alignment [Q]
    
    • When Resonance Beam is fully charged, your Basic Attack range is increased by 1 and the cooldown of Shock Ray refreshes 100% faster.
      
  • Psionic Echo [Q/E]
    
    • Casting Psionic Storm causes your next Shock Ray within 3 seconds to cost 30 mana and create a Psionic Storm on the first Hero it hits.
      
  • Arc Discharge [Trait]
    
    • After reaching full charge, the next instance of Resonance Beam damage creates a Psionic Storm at the target’s location. This effect has a 20 second cooldown that decays twice as fast while Resonance Beam is at full charge.
      
• Level 13
  
  • Feedback [W/Trait]
    
    • On targets afflicted with Psionic Storm, Resonance Beam’s slow is increased to 60% and it also reduces Physical Armor by 25.
      
  • Shadow Walk [Active]
    
    • Activate to gain unrevealable Stealth, 40% movement speed and 25 Armor for 1.5 seconds. 60 second cooldown. Can be cast while channeling Shock Ray or Black Hole.
      
  • Oracle [Active]
    
    • While stationary, gain 30 Spell Armor for .75 seconds and heal for 12 health each second. Activate to channel for up to 4 seconds, revealing a gradually increasing area anywhere on the map. 45 second cooldown.
      
• Level 16
  
  • Thermal Lance [Q]
    
    • The first enemy Hero hit by Shock Ray takes 8% of their maximum health as damage.
      
  • Psychic Shock [W]
    
    • Psionic Storm deals damage 25% faster.
      
  • Executor’s Will [Active]
    
    • Activate to gain full Resonance Beam charge, 15 Spell Power, and cause Ability cooldowns to refresh 25% faster. This effect lasts as long as Resonance Beam is fully charged. 60 sec cooldown.
      
• Level 20
  
  • Twilight Archon [R1]
    
    • Basic Attacks while in Archon form increase its duration by 2 seconds.
      
  • Kugelblitz [R2]
    
    • Each Hero hit by Black Hole creates a Psionic Storm at their location.
      
  • Force Barrier [E]
    
    • Increases the range of Force Wall by 50%, its duration by .5 seconds, and reduces its cooldown by 10 seconds.
      
  • Khala’s Gift [Passive]
    
    • Gain 4 spell power for yourself and each nearby ally Hero, up to 20. Your total bonus is shared with all contributing allies.
      

Developer Comment: We’ve been teasing the Tassadar rework for a long time and it’s finally here! Tassadar was previously considered a support Hero, but we felt there was a disconnect between his kit/playstyle and the core fantasy of a High Templar or the other Protoss magic users. Because of this, we’ve re-imagined Tassadar from the ground up as an ability based Ranged Assassin, similar to characters like Kael’thas and Gul’dan. He retains his Psionic Storm, Force Wall and Archon abilities and has gained two new abilities: Shock Ray and Black Hole. His talent tree has also been radically transformed, giving him a slew of powerful new ways to play. We’re very excited to finally get Tassadar into your hands and hope you all enjoy the rework as much as we have!


Xul


Base

• Health reduced from 2200 to 2080.
  
• Health Regeneration reduced from 4.58 to 4.33.

Developer Comment: We’re happy with how Xul’s rework has gone overall in improving his gameplay and talent diversity. He is, however, overperforming, so while we wait for more data, we’re doing a reduction in the Health he gained to bring him more in line.


Bug Fixes

General

• Toy Train Mount
  
  • Worgen Greymane, Metamorphosis Illidan, Dragonqueen Alexstrasza, Odin Tychus, and Archon Tassadar can no longer mount as a caboose on the Toy Train.
    

Heroes

• Damage that ignores positive Armor should no longer incorrectly ignore negative Armor.
  
• Fixed an issue where various Physical Armor buffs were not appropriately reducing damage from non-Heroic targets.
  
• Arthas
  
  • Army of the Dead Ghouls no longer stop following Arthas when affected by certain abilities.
    
• Deathwing
  
  • Deathwing's Energy tooltip while in Dragonflight now is correctly called Energy instead of Mana.
    
• Garrosh
  
  • Fixed an issue where Garrosh would fail to throw moving targets.
    
• Imperius
  
  • Imperius' Flash of Anger will now properly trigger if it kills a target.
    
  • Clarified Flash of Anger's tooltip to reflect that it deals damage to the target as well as all targets around them.
    
  • Fixed an issue where players were unable to issue attack commands while using Celestial Charge, causing them to auto-acquire nearby targets.
    
• Nazeebo
  
  • Crowd Control effects on Nazeebo's Zombie Wall with Dead Rush no longer causes Zombie Wall to become unresponsive.
    
• Stukov
  
  • Fixed an issue where Weighted Pustule was removed by Unstoppable.
    
• Tracer
  
  • Fixed an issue where Tracer's A.I. would sometimes stop using her weapons to auto-attack targets.
    
• Xul
  
  • Fixed an issue where Corpse Explosion did not link to an ability in the Death Recap.
    
• Zarya
  
  • Zarya's To The Limit no longer causes Zarya's weapon beam to appear shorter at certain energy levels.
    

Our next Heroes of the Storm patch has just hit the Public Test Realm and will be available for playtesting until the week of April 13, PDT. As always, if you encounter any bugs during your PTR play sessions, please stop by the PTR Bug Report forum to let us know about your experiences.


Quick Navigation:

• Nexus Anomaly
  
• General
  
• Collection
  
• Heroes
  
• Bug Fixes

Nexus Anomaly - A Call For Help

We’ve heard feedback over the years that a lot of you would like to feel more protected by nearby friendly structures. Currently, Minions, Summons, and non-Heroic units can hold a structure’s attention for so long that defending players feel that they’re offered no additional protection when taking refuge under their Cannon Towers, Forts, Keeps and Cores. In order to address this issue, we will be making the following changes to structures:

Cannon Towers, Forts, Keeps and Cores

• A beam is now created from these structures to their targets, making it easier to see what is being attacked at a glance.
  
• Allied Heroes of the structures who are being attacked by enemy Heroes will cause the structure to focus the offender until the offender is dead or leaves tower range.
  
• A bright beam indicates that the structure is defending an ally Hero and is focusing on the beam target.
  
• Structures reset targeting when the Call for Help target becomes invalid.
  
• Structures reset targeting logic when they recover from being disabled.

Cannon Towers, Forts and Keeps

• Damage to Heroes increased by 10%.
  
• Attacks reduce Hero Armor by up to -40.
  
• Cannon Tower attacks reduce enemy Hero Armor by 5.
  
• Forts and Keeps attacks reduce enemy Hero Armor by 10.
  
• Forts and Keeps no longer slow enemy Heroes.

New Core Abilities

• We want fights around the Core to feel like exciting ends to cap off great games, and we feel like we can do more to deliver on that front. To that end, this Seasonal Nexus Anomaly will introduce themed abilities to non-ARAM Battleground Cores:
  
  • Battlefield of Eternity
    
    • Every 8 seconds, the Core will spawn 2 volleys of Frozen Orbs that explode, dealing 5% maximum Health as damage and Rooting enemy Heroes hit for 1.5 seconds.
      
  • Blackheart’s Bay
    
    • Every 4 seconds, the Core will shoot a cannonball at 2 nearby enemy Heroes, dealing 5% maximum Health as damage, slowing them by 70% for 1.5 seconds, and knocking them back.
      
  • Braxis Holdout
    
    • Every 4 seconds, the Core will shoot 5 missiles at a nearby enemy Hero, dealing 5% maximum Health as damage per missile.
      
  • Cursed Hollow
    
    • Every 3 seconds, the Core will spawn a Curse under a nearby enemy Hero. If they are Cursed, they take 5% maximum Health as damage and their Armor is reduced by 75 for 4 seconds.
      
  • Dragonshire
    
    • Every 6 seconds, the Core will throw 2 boulders at a nearby enemy Hero. Heroes hit are turned to stone, damaged for 5% of their maximum Health, and Stunned for 1.75 seconds.
      
  • Garden of Terror
    
    • Every 5 seconds, the Core shoots a seed under a nearby enemy Hero. When the seed explodes, Heroes inside are Polymorphed for 3 seconds.
      
  • Hanamura
    
    • Every 8 seconds, the Core fires 2 volleys of missiles around it, dealing 5% maximum Health to enemy Heroes and slowing them by 70% for 1.25 seconds.
      
  • Infernal Shrines
    
    • Every 8 seconds, the Core will spawn 2 volleys of Frozen Orbs that explode, dealing 5% maximum Health as damage and Rooting enemy Heroes hit for 1.5 seconds.
      
  • Sky Temple
    
    • Every 23 seconds, the Core will spawn 2 sets of 6 tornadoes which swirl around it, dealing 25 damage to enemy Heroes and knocking them back.
      
  • Tomb of the Spider Queen
    
    • Every 5 seconds, the Core will shoot a Death Wave, dealing 5% maximum Health as damage to enemy Heroes and slowing them by 70% for 1.25 seconds.
      
  • Volskaya
    
    • Every 6 seconds, the Core shoots 3 Rocket Fists at nearby enemy Heroes, dealing 150 damage and knocking them back.
      
  • Warhead Junction
    
    • Every 18 seconds, the Core launches a Nuke at a nearby enemy Hero, dealing 30% maximum health to enemy Heroes hit.
      

General

Mastery Rings - Tier 3

• Get ready to show off your dedication to your favorite Heroes with the next level of Hero Mastery Rings! These new rings become purchasable once a Hero reaches level 50 and you already own the first and second rings for that Hero.

A.I.

• A.I. trees have been refactored in order to reduce conflicts between the tactical and goal systems.
  
• Agents will attempt to stage and wait for backup around objectives before attempting to contest.
  
• Disconnected players will have their A.I. return to base and remain there unless they are pinged to follow.
  
  • Follow behavior is the same for disconnected player A.I. and normal A.I.
    
  • While following, the agent will attempt to fight while remaining close to their follow target, leashing back if they wander too far away.
    
  • While following, the agent will mount or use their Hearthstone if their follow target uses their mount or Hearthstone.
    
• Adjusting A.I. Healing Well goal health threshold from 75% to 60%.
  
• Bringing an A.I. who is on follow close enough to Doubloon turn-in on Blackheart's Bay, Soul Gem turn-in on Tomb of the Spider Queen, or a healing fountain will cause the A.I. to interact with them appropriately if they are able.

Favorite Talents

• Create your favorite talent builds
  
  • Players can pick their favorite talents on the talent panel from Hero select or draft screen.
    
  • In order to favorite a talent, simply click the talent. Once it's selected, you can click the talent again to unselect it.
    
  • Players can create up to 3 builds per each Hero and can activate one build at a time.
    
  • To switch to a different build, click the build buttons shown on the top of the talent panel.
    
  • If any significant change happens to a talent tier due to a balance patch, the selection for the tier will be reset.
    
• Share your favorite builds
  
  • You can generate a hyperlink for a talent build by clicking the cog menu next to talent build buttons on the Hero select screen.
    
  • If you paste this link on the chat, it shows as a hyperlink in the chat history.
    
  • If you left click the link, it shows the preview of the talent build.
    
  • By right clicking the link, you can copy the link to your clipboard or directly save it to your Hero's corresponding build slots.
    
  • The format of the talent hyperlink is as follows. [T1231231,Lucio]
    
• In-Game & End of the match screen
  
  • A favorited talent will display a favorite icon on top of it.
    
  • You can switch the build in the middle of the game based on your strategy.
    
  • For the future tiers, you can adjust your favorites by clicking the talent button in the same way you would do in the Hero select screen.
    
  • All changes made in game are saved.
    
  • After game ends, you can use the cog menu on the talent tab to copy other players' talent builds.
    

Storm League

• Matchmaking Changes for GM & Masters
  
  • Master and Grand Master players are no longer restricted to queuing with only one other player.
    
  • Master and Grand Master players are no longer restricted to queuing with players who are within 5000 ranked points.
    
  • Made some changes to matchmaking rules that should improve the quality of matches for Master and Grand Master players.
    

Developer Comment: We have been actively monitoring matchmaking throughout the season and are going to be making some changes which will help the player experience. Firstly, we found that our party size restrictions for Masters players didn’t give the experience that we had envisioned, so we are reverting these changes. The limit for queueing as a party will require players to be within 2 leagues of each other, with Diamond players being able to queue up with Master and Grand Master players. Additionally, we have made some changes to all regions so that players who are Masters and above should find games being made with as many high level players as possible, which should result in better matches.


Experience

• Floating Combat Text for experience earned from killing blows now has a unique purple color and displays at the position of the killed unit. Floating Combat Text from experience earned from Experience Globes remains unchanged.

Experience Globes

• Pickup Radius increased from 1.5 to 1.75.
  
• Experience Globes that are actively travelling to a Hero will attempt to follow more closely.

Developer Comment: We're making some small improvements to Experience Globes to make them more readable and to improve how they feel to pick up by adding a unique purple text that displays where they are killed. With these changes, players should more clearly see when they gained experience via a killing blow. We also found that sometimes picking up experience globes while mounted could be a bit of a hassle due to the pickup radius of the globes as well as how quickly they travel to players, so we are slightly buffing both of these aspects to make them a little easier to collect in these instances.


US Region Selection

• After looking at the causes for North American players' longer wait times and instances of not queuing together, we are bundling matchmaking for our US regions together. This will only happen for players if they have good pings to both sites, and our simulations have shown that we can create better games faster this way. If you don't experience this, please let us know!

Collection

Many seasonal items will be returning to the collection, and will be available for crafting and in Loot Chests for a limited time!

New Bundles (Limited Time Only!)

• Fragments of the Dark Nexus Bundle
  
• Dark Nexus Harbingers Bundle
  
• Dark Nexus Deathwing Bundle
  
• Dark Nexus Fenix Bundle
  
• Dark Nexus Tassadar Bundle
  
• Dark Nexus Beast Pack
  
• Caldeum Complex Bundle

New Skins

• The following skins will be available for a limited time:
  
  • Dark Nexus Deathwing
    
    • Shattered Dark Nexus Deathwing
      
    • Forgotten Dark Nexus Deathwing
      
    • Awakened Dark Nexus Deathwing
      
    • Astral Dark Nexus Deathwing
      
  • Dark Nexus Fenix
    
    • Imperial Dark Nexus Fenix
      
    • Awakened Dark Nexus Fenix
      
    • Eldritch Dark Nexus Fenix
      
    • Astral Dark Nexus Fenix
      
  • Dark Nexus Tassadar
    
    • Forgotten Dark Nexus Tassadar
      
    • Awakened Dark Nexus Tassadar
      
    • Eldritch Dark Nexus Tassadar
      
    • Astral Dark Nexus Tassadar
      
  • Dark Nexus Gul’dan
    
    • Entropic Dark Nexus Gul’dan
      
    • Sadistic Dark Nexus Gul’dan
      
  • Dark Nexus Alarak
    
    • Astral Dark Nexus Alarak
      
    • Awakened Dark Nexus Alarak
      

New Mounts

• The following mounts will be available for a limited time:
  
  • Dark Nexus Beast
    
    • Shattered Dark Nexus Beast
      
    • Forgotten Dark Nexus Beast
      
    • Wild Dark Nexus Beast
      
    • Awakened Dark Nexus Beast
      
    • Astral Dark Nexus Beast
      
  • Astral Dark Nexus Hound
    
  • Awakened Dark Nexus Hound
    
  • Astral Dark Nexus Manta
    
  • Awakened Dark Nexus Manta
    

New Content

• Several new portraits, sprays and other items have been added to the collection for a limited time!

Heroes

Tassadar Rework


Trait

• Resonance Beam
  
  • Tassadar’s Basic Attack is a long range channeled beam that deals 14 damage every .25 seconds and Slows its target for 10%. While channeling, your Basic Attack damage and Mana Regeneration increase by 25% a second, to a maximum of 100% bonus. While fully charged, gain an additional 3 mana per second. This bonus is lost after 6 seconds of not channeling.
    

Basic Abilities

• Shock Ray [Q]
  
  • After a .375 second cast, channel a fast moving electric beam that deals 280 damage and slows all enemies in a line by 25% for 2 seconds.
    
  • Mana: 55 Mana.
    
  • Cooldown: 7 seconds.
    
• Psionic Storm [W]
  
  • Create a storm of psionic energy at the targeted location, dealing 38 damage every .5 seconds to enemies within its area for 3 seconds. This damage increases by 10% for each consecutive hit, to a maximum of 50% increased damage.
    
  • Mana: 60 Mana.
    
  • Cooldown: 8 seconds.
    
• Force Wall [E]
  
  • After a .5 second delay, create a wall that blocks all units from moving through it for 2 seconds.
    
  • Mana: 70 Mana.
    
  • Cooldown: 21 seconds.
    

Heroic Abilities

• Archon [R1]
  
  • Transform into a powerful Archon, gaining 40% of your maximum health as a shield and empowering Basic Attacks for 12 seconds. Empowered Basic Attacks deal more damage, splash in a small area, and reduce the Spell Armor of Heroes by 20 for 2 seconds. While in Archon form, Resonance Beam is fully charged.
    
  • Mana: 100 Mana.
    
  • Cooldown: 90 seconds.
    
• Black Hole [R2]
  
  • After a .5 second cast, launch a Black Hole that travels in a long line. While travelling, the Black Hole quickly pulls enemy Heroes towards its center. Touching the center deals 310 damage and stuns for 1.25 seconds.
    
  • Mana: 80 Mana.
    
  • Cooldown: 70 seconds.
    

Talent

• Level 1
  
  • Static Charge [Q]
    
    • Quest: Heroes hit by Shock Ray permanently increase its damage by 4 and grant 33% Resonance Beam charge.
      
    • Maximum of 200 additional damage.
      
  • Psi-Infusion [W]
    
    • Increase Psionic Storm’s range by 33%. Each non-structure enemy hit by Psionic Storm restores .5 mana, increased to 5 against Heroes.
      
  • Khaydarin Amulet [Trait]
    
    • Quest: Resonance Beam charges 50% faster.
      
    • Reward: After remaining at full charge for 80 seconds, Resonance Beam bounces to hit 1 additional target for 50% damage.
      
    • Reward: After remaining at full charge for 160 seconds, Resonance Beam bounces to hit 2 additional targets for 50% damage.
      
• Level 4
  
  • Induction [Q]
    
    • Casting Shock Ray increases Tassadar’s move speed by 15% for 3 seconds. If an enemy Hero is hit, increase this bonus by 10%.
      
  • Electric Fence [E]
    
    • Enemies near Force Wall take 46 damage every .5 seconds and are slowed by 35%.
      
  • Plasma Shield [Trait]
    
    • While Resonance Beam is fully charged, gain a shield equal to 3% of max health every second. Stacking up to 15% maximum health.
      
• Level 7
  
  • Beam Alignment [Q]
    
    • When Resonance Beam is fully charged, your Basic Attack range is increased by 1 and the cooldown of Shock Ray refreshes 100% faster.
      
  • Psionic Echo [Q/E]
    
    • Casting Psionic Storm causes your next Shock Ray within 3 seconds to cost 30 mana and create a Psionic Storm on the first Hero it hits.
      
  • Arc Discharge [Trait]
    
    • After reaching full charge, the next instance of Resonance Beam damage creates a Psionic Storm at the target’s location. This effect has a 20 second cooldown that decays twice as fast while Resonance Beam is at full charge.
      
• Level 13
  
  • Feedback [W/Trait]
    
    • On targets afflicted with Psionic Storm, Resonance Beam’s slow is increased to 60% and it also reduces Physical Armor by 25.
      
  • Shadow Walk [Active]
    
    • Activate to gain unrevealable Stealth, 40% movement speed and 25 Armor for 1.5 seconds. 60 second cooldown. Can be cast while channeling Shock Ray or Black Hole.
      
  • Oracle [Active]
    
    • While stationary, gain 30 Spell Armor for .75 seconds and heal for 12 health each second. Activate to channel for up to 4 seconds, revealing a gradually increasing area anywhere on the map. 45 second cooldown.
      
• Level 16
  
  • Thermal Lance [Q]
    
    • The first enemy Hero hit by Shock Ray takes 8% of their maximum health as damage.
      
  • Psychic Shock [W]
    
    • Psionic Storm deals damage 25% faster.
      
  • Executor’s Will [Active]
    
    • Activate to gain full Resonance Beam charge, 15 Spell Power, and cause Ability cooldowns to refresh 25% faster. This effect lasts as long as Resonance Beam is fully charged. 60 sec cooldown.
      
• Level 20
  
  • Twilight Archon [R1]
    
    • Basic Attacks while in Archon form increase its duration by 2 seconds.
      
  • Kugelblitz [R2]
    
    • Each Hero hit by Black Hole creates a Psionic Storm at their location.
      
  • Force Barrier [E]
    
    • Increases the range of Force Wall by 50%, its duration by .5 seconds, and reduces its cooldown by 10 seconds.
      
  • Khala’s Gift [Passive]
    
    • Gain 4 spell power for yourself and each nearby ally Hero, up to 20. Your total bonus is shared with all contributing allies.
      

Developer Comment: We’ve been teasing the Tassadar rework for a long time and it’s finally here! Tassadar was previously considered a support Hero, but we felt there was a disconnect between his kit/playstyle and the core fantasy of a High Templar or the other Protoss magic users. Because of this, we’ve re-imagined Tassadar from the ground up as an ability based Ranged Assassin, similar to characters like Kael’thas and Gul’dan. He retains his Psionic Storm, Force Wall and Archon abilities and has gained two new abilities: Shock Ray and Black Hole. His talent tree has also been radically transformed, giving him a slew of powerful new ways to play. We’re very excited to finally get Tassadar into your hands and hope you all enjoy the rework as much as we have!


Xul


Base

• Health reduced from 2200 to 2080.
  
• Health Regeneration reduced from 4.58 to 4.33.

Developer Comment: We’re happy with how Xul’s rework has gone overall in improving his gameplay and talent diversity. He is, however, overperforming, so while we wait for more data, we’re doing a reduction in the Health he gained to bring him more in line.


Bug Fixes

General

• Toy Train Mount
  
  • Worgen Greymane, Metamorphosis Illidan, Dragonqueen Alexstrasza, Odin Tychus, and Archon Tassadar can no longer mount as a caboose on the Toy Train.
    

Heroes

• Fixed an issue where various Physical Armor buffs were not appropriately reducing damage from non-Heroic targets.
  
• Arthas
  
  • Army of the Dead Ghouls no longer stop following Arthas when affected by certain abilities.
    
• Deathwing
  
  • Deathwing's Energy tooltip while in Dragonflight now is correctly called Energy instead of Mana.
    
• Garrosh
  
  • Fixed an issue where Garrosh would fail to throw moving targets.
    
• Imperius
  
  • Imperius' Flash of Anger will now properly trigger if it kills a target.
    
  • Clarified Flash of Anger's tooltip to reflect that it deals damage to the target as well as all targets around them.
    
  • Fixed an issue where players were unable to issue attack commands while using Celestial Charge, causing them to auto-acquire nearby targets.
    
• Nazeebo
  
  • Crowd Control effects on Nazeebo's Zombie Wall with Dead Rush no longer causes Zombie Wall to become unresponsive.
    
• Stukov
  
  • Fixed an issue where Weighted Pustule was removed by Unstoppable.
    
• Tracer
  
  • Fixed an issue where Tracer's A.I. would sometimes stop using her weapons to auto-attack targets.
    
• Xul
  
  • Fixed an issue where Corpse Explosion did not link to an ability in the Death Recap.
    
• Zarya
  
  • Zarya's To The Limit no longer causes Zarya's weapon beam to appear shorter at certain energy levels.