Heroes of the Storm

This world is ailing. Together we shall cure it.

Greetings Heroes!

Season 3 has now been live for a couple of weeks, and with it came a number of ranked play improvements. The central idea behind these changes was to address the feedback from players that some ranked matches didn’t feel competitive due to a skill gap between players. The matchmaker had previously placed a higher value on match creation speed than on the quality of the matches themselves. In high-population servers, we’ve seen a big upswing in match quality. However, in our lower-population servers, we’ve seen a significant increase in wait times for ranked games.

We want to find the right balance between queue times and match quality, and it isn’t acceptable to us that players in less-populated regions are having difficulty finding matches in a reasonable amount of time. In an effort to address these concerns, we will be changing the matchmaking configurations on low-population servers only to match those from Season 2, 2018.

Please keep sharing your ranked play and matchmaking feedback with us. We’ll continue to review the impact of our recent ranked play changes in all regions and make further adjustments as necessary as the season continues.

We’ve just released a new Heroes of the Storm patch to apply a number of balance changes and bug fixes.

Quick Navigation:

• Heroes
  
• Bug Fixes

Heroes

Assassin

Alarak


Stats

• Basic Attack damage increased from 140 to 150

Fenix


Stats

• Basic Attack damage reduced from 86 to 83​

Talents

• Level 1
  
  • Arsenal Synergy (W)
    
    • Damage bonus reduced from 175 to 150%
      
  • Mobile Offense (Passive)
    
    • Damage bonus increased from 30 to 35%
      

Developer Comment: Fenix is still stronger than desired, especially when taking the Arsenal Synergy Talent. We’re toning down his Basic Attack damage and the bonus that Arsenal Synergy provides, while also buffing Mobile Offense slightly to offset the reduced Basic Attack damage.


Genji


Abilities

• Swift Strike (E)
  
  • Reset window reduced from 2 to 1.5 seconds
    
  • Damage reduced from 215 to 205
    

Talents

• Level 20
  
  • The Dragon Becomes Me (R)
    
    • Reset window reduced from 2 to 1.5 seconds
      

Hanzo


Stats

• Basic Attack damage increased from 173 to 188

Abilities

• Sonic Arrow (E)
  
  • Reveal radius reduced from 10 to 7
    
  • Reveal duration reduced from 8 to 5 seconds
    
• Natural Agility (D)
  
  • Cooldown increased from 25 to 30 seconds
    

Talents

• Level 20
  
  • Perfect Agility (D)
    
    • Cooldown reduction increased from 5 to 10 seconds
      

Developer Comment: Hanzo, while extremely desired and powerful in professional play, doesn’t have the same success across all levels of Hero League. We think that by reducing the power of Sonic Arrow and shifting that into Basic Attacks, not only will Redemption be a more attractive option, but Hanzo’s success should rise in Hero League without making him any more powerful in organized team play.


Kael'thas


Abilities

• Flamestrike (Q)
  
  • Damage increased from 320 to 345
    
• Living Bomb (W)
  
  • Explosion damage increased from 200 to 215
    

Raynor


Abilities

• Raynor’s Raider (R)
  
  • Weapon damage reduced from 24 to 21
    

Talents

• Level 1
  
  • Ace in the Hole (Passive)
    
    • Damage reduced from 30 to 20%
      
• Level 4
  
  • Behemoth Armor (Trait)
    
    • Base Health gain reduced from 250 to 200
      
  • Fight or Flight (E)
    
    • Armor duration reduced from 4 to 3 seconds
      
• Level 7
  
  • Unstable Compound (Trait)
    
    • Slow duration reduced from 3 to 2.5 seconds
      

Developer Comment: Raynor’s pepper is bringing a bit too much salt


Tracer


Stats

• Basic Attack damage reduced from 27 to 26

Abilities

• Quantum Spike (R)
  
  • Damage reduced from 8 to 7% of target’s Maximum Health
    

Specialist

Azmodan


Abilities

• Globe of Annihilation (Q)
  
  • Damage increased from 164 to 192
    
  • Damage scaling reduced from 4 to 3%
    
• Summon Demon Warrior (W)
  
  • Attack damage increased from 28 to 30
    
  • Periodic damage increased from 6 to 8
    
  • Health increased from 390 to 435
    
• All Shall Burn (E)
  
  • Cooldown reduced from 8 to 6 seconds
    
  • Mana cost increased from 30 to 40
    
  • Periodic damage reduced from 34 to 30
    
  • Final damage increased from 272 to 320
    
• Demon Lieutenant (D)
  
  • Attack damage increased from 27 to 41
    
  • Health increased from 548 to 593
    
• Demonic Invasion (R)
  
  • Duration increased from 8 to 10 seconds
    
  • Final explosion damage increased from 65 to 97.5
    
  • Demon Grunt weapon range increased from .75 to 1
    

Talents

• Level 1
  
  • Wrath (Q)
    
    • Bonus damage window reduced from 4 to 3 seconds
      
• Level 4
  
  • Hellforged Armor (W/D)
    
    • Armor bonus reduced from 35 to 30
      
  • Battleborn (W/D)
    
    • Demon Warrior cooldown reduction increased from .5 to .75 seconds
      
    • Demon Lieutenant cooldown reduction increased from 1 to 1.5 seconds
      
• Level 7
  
  • Art of Chaos (Q)
    
    • New Functionality:
      
      • Hitting 2 or more Heroes with Globe of Annihilation restores 30 mana and generates 4 Annihilation
        
• Level 13
  
  • Brutish Vanguard (W/D)
    
    • Added functionality:
      
      • Health bonus now applies to Demon Lieutenants in addition to Demon Warriors
        
  • Chain of Command (D)
    
    • Added functionality:
      
      • Also decreases the cooldown of Demon Lieutenants’ Demonic Smite by 2 seconds
        
• Level 16
  
  • Hell Rift (E)
    
    • Demon Warrior damage bonus duration increased from 4 to 6 seconds
      
• Level 20
  
  • Pride (Q)
    
    • Damage bonus increased from 100 to 125
      

Developer Comment: Azmodan's win rate has slowly crept up as players get the hang of his rework, but we feel his PvE inclined elements are less impactful then we'd like. We're making a number of small adjustments to Azmodan's various Demons and All Shall Burn to help ensure their talents are competitive choices. We're also giving Globe a bit more baseline damage at the cost of its scaling to make it slightly easier to stack early in the game.


Murky


Talents

• Level 13
  
  • Fish Tank (Passive)
    
    • New functionality:
      
      • Murky is healed for 25% of all damage he deals with Basic Attacks and Basic Abilities
        

Developer Comment: We’re adjusting Fish Tank to not be so binary in the situations where it is powerful. While granting 75 Physical Armor was an appropriate amount of power against the other talents on the tier, it resulted in some situations where Murky could not be killed when playing against certain enemies. We’re changing the talent to be more generally useful so that Murky can get a lot of value as long as he is hitting enemies, but he can still be killed by more conventional methods.


Sgt. Hammer


Abilities

• Blunt Force Gun (R)
  
  • No longer deals damage to enemy Structures
    

Developer Comment: This change is to address situations where Orbital BFG could kill enemy Forts, Keeps, and potentially end the game with no counter-play from the opposing team. We realize that this is a minor nerf to Blunt Force Gun and a fairly hefty nerf to Orbital BFG. Both talents are performing well right now, so we will be waiting to see if they need a buff in some other area to compensate for this loss in functionality.


Support

Deckard


Abilities

• Healing Potion (Q)
  
  • Healing reduced from 230 to 219
    

Talents

• Level 13
  
  • Ancient Blessings (Trait)
    
    • Damage reduced from 72 to 68
      
    • Healing reduced from 106 to 100
      

Malfurion


Talents

• Level 1
  
  • New Talent: Rejuvenation (Q)
    
    • Malfurion gains 5 Health per Second for every active Regrowth
      
• Level 13
  
  • Iceblock (Active)
    
    • Removed
      
  • Nature’s Swiftness (Q)
    
    • Moved from Level 1
      
    • Movement speed per Regrowth increased from 4 to 6%
      

Warrior

Artanis


Abilities

• Blade Dash (Q)
  
  • Mana cost decreased from 55 to 50
    

Talents

• Level 4
  
  • Psionic Synergy (E)
    
    • New functionality:
      
      • Hitting an enemy Hero with Phase Prism grants Artanis 15 Armor for 3 seconds
        
  • Shield Battery (Trait)
    
    • Cooldown reduction increased from 50 to 100%
      
• Level 13
  
  • Templar’s Zeal (Q)
    
    • New functionality:
      
      • Reduce the Mana cost of Blade Dash by 50%. Each time that Shield Overload activates, reduce the cooldown of Blade Dash by 5 seconds
        
  • Graviton Vortex (E)
    
    • New functionality:
      
      • Reduce the Mana cost of Phase Prism by 50%. Hitting an enemy Hero with Basic Attacks or Blade Dash lowers the cooldown of Phase Prism by 1.25 seconds
        
  • Phase Bulwark (Trait)
    
    • Adjusted functionality:
      
      • While Artanis has shields from Shield Overload, gain 50 Spell Armor. This Armor lasts for 2 seconds after Shield Overload expires
        
• Level 16
  
  • New Talent: Blades of a Templar (Passive)
    
    • Increase Basic Attack speed by 30%. Basic Attacks slow enemy Movement Speed by 20% for 1.25 seconds
      
  • Psionic Wound (W)
    
    • Removed
      
  • Force of Will (Trait)
    
    • Moved from Level 20
      
    • New functionality:
      
      • Casting Basic Abilities reduces the cooldown of Shield Overload by 5 seconds
        
  • Titan Killer (W)
    
    • Adjusted functionality:
      
      • Basic Attacks against Heroes deal an additional .5% of their maximum Health in damage. Twin Blades attacks against Heroes deal an additional 1.5% of their maximum Health as damage
        
• Level 20
  
  • Nexus Blades (Passive)
    
    • Removed
      
  • Target Purified (R)
    
    • Additional Functionality:
      
      • Now also increases the speed of Purifier Beam by 15%
        
  • Zealot Charge (W)
    
    • Moved from Level 16
      
  • Plasma Burn (Trait)
    
    • Moved from Level 16
      
    • Damage increased from 55 to 60
      

Developer Comment: We saw an opportunity to give Artanis some more competitive talents, particularly on his later tiers. Our goal with these changes was to create some different playstyles and synergies between his talents, and to give him a little more punch as the game goes on and the enemy team becomes more capable of locking him down.


Blaze


Stats

• Hero radius increased from .875 to 1​

Talents

• Level 1
  
  • Neural Stimpack (Active)
    
    • Now only reduces the cooldowns of Basic Abilities
      

Cho

Talents

• Level 16
  
  • Surging Dash (Q)
    
    • No longer grants Cho Unstoppable
      

Diablo


Abilities

• Lightning Breath (R)
  
  • Slow amount per tick reduced from 5 to 4%
    
  • Maximum slow amount reduced from 50 to 40%
    

Yrel


Abilities

• Ardent Defender (R)
  
  • Cooldown increased from 100 to 120 seconds
    

Talents

• Level 1
  
  • Maraad’s Insight (Passive)
    
    • Healing reduced from 148 to 128
      
• Level 4
  
  • Hand of Freedom (Active)
    
    • Cooldown reduced from 30 to 22 seconds
      
• Level 7
  
  • Divine Steed (Z)
    
    • Movement Speed bonus reduced from 80 to 60%
      
• Level 16
  
  • Templar’s Verdict (W)
    
    • Now also deals 4% of enemy Heroes Maximum Health as damage
      
  • Holy Wrath (Passive)
    
    • Damage bonus reduced from 30 to 20%
      

Developer Comment: Yrel has been very strong since her last balance update, and a few of her Talent tiers are dominated by a single Talent. By applying some nerfs to the overperforming Talents, we think that Yrel will be brought back in line with other Heroes and have more diversity in her Talent choices.


Bug Fixes
General

• Fixed an issue allowing several effects to be seen at the edges of fog of war.
  
• AI – Fixed an issue causing player-following AI-controlled Heroes to use Hearthstone and long-distance movement abilities at inappropriate times.
  
• Fixed an issue preventing the antialiasing graphics setting from being enabled.

Heroes, Abilities, and Talents

• Alarak - Fixed an issue preventing the targeting indicator for Deadly Charge from appearing.
  
• Alarak – Fixed an issue that allowed Alarak to move while channeling Deadly Charge.
  
• Alexstrasza – Fixed an issue preventing Life Binder from going on a full cooldown if interrupted during the channel time.
  
• Diablo – Fixed an issue causing Diablo’s Shadow Charge to not push stunned targets the full expected distance after choosing the Domination talent.
  
• Genji – Fixed a number of issues with interactions between the Dragon Blade and Swift Strike reset duration bars.
  
• Medivh – Fixed an issue allowing Medivh to cast two sets of Portals after choosing the Portal Mastery talent.
  
• Raynor – Fixed an issue that could cause Raynor’s Raider to become stuck outside of the map when navigating in and out of the mines on Haunted Mines.
  
• Raynor – Raynor’s Raider will now hearth back to base with Raynor.
  
• Zagara – Zagara will now exit Nydus Worms in the direction of the player’s cursor.
  
• Zul’jin – Fixed a number of issues with the Amani Rage tooltip.

I think what you're feeling here is caused by two distinct but related issues.

First, there was a period of time where our Support design was focused on trying to give each Support hero a very distinct niche so they'd have clear draft implications. Ultimately this led to a scenario where Supports were very powerful, but all had key weaknesses that you'd want to cover for - perhaps by bringing another complimentary Support.

Second, we'd gotten to a point where most Supports were so strong there was no drawback to bringing two of them to cover each other's weaknesses. You could bring in all that extra healing and utility and not have things like damage or waveclear suffer enough to matter. These two factors converged to make "Double Support" a very popular strategy for a period that I'm sure most of you remember well.

The power issue has since been addressed, but the changes required to make supports a little less niche are more involved, and have been happening over time. It's not that we want to eliminate strengths & weaknesses from our Supports, but in many cases they're simply too pointed and need to move to a place where they feel more versatile. Malfurion's rework is a reflection of this, as are the designs you've seen on Supports released within the last year or so.

Another goal we're focused on is ensuring each of our Supports has ways to show off their individual skill and don't feel like they're just playing whack-a-mole with Health bars. Play-making CC is the most obvious form this can take, but it can also be represented in things like skill-based buff & debuff management, making aggressive play feel rewarding, giving large benefits for strategic use of abilities and planning ahead... There are many possibilities, but the point is we want you to be able to demonstrate your skill as a Support in a very tangible way.

Supports are a work in progress for us and we plan to continue this forward trend of both releasing new Supports that feel interesting and powerful, as well as updating our existing roster so they feel every bit as competitive and satisfying to play.

A few quick additional thoughts-

• I don't think the popularity situation is nearly as extreme as some posts here are making it out to be. With 15 Supports and idealized pick distribution, you'd expect each Support to have a pick rate of ~12-15%. I'm not sure exactly how LCD got those numbers out of Hotslogs, but even based on that most of our Supports are seeing a respectable (if not ideal) amount of play in high-level HL.
• While I recognize that there's still room for improvement, I think that overall we've done a great job with our Support heroes, and they feel powerful and impactful in a way that's hard to find outside the Nexus. If you don't enjoy the Support role currently that's totally fair feedback, but keep in mind that there are also many people who do. Maybe you just haven't found a Support who's "clicked" for you yet.
• As we continue to work on improvements to the game including Supports, we welcome feedback and constructive discussion from our players and are always reading posts like these even if we don't always respond. Keep it coming!

Blizzard, is it time for a second part of your "AI improvements" article/series?
Hey all, we’re hearing your feedback about the state of the AI and we’re aware of the repeated hearthing/b-stepping issue. We’re currently planning to implement a fix to address this a little over week from now in an upcoming patch. We’re also working towards improvements that will help address AI decision making across all Battlegrounds, and we’ll have more information to share as we get closer to rolling out those adjustments. (u/Spyrian)

Blizzard, can you please not take a year to fix antialiasing? Something happened in the last patch and the game looks like butt now.
We aren't fans of jagged edges either so we're aiming to fix this with our next balance patch! (u/Blizz_AKlontzas)

Orbital BFG is ruining ARAM
Not for long... (u/Blizz_AKlontzas)

Why is Medivh allowes to pickup Regen Orbs in bird form?
Medivh cheats! That said, thank you for the post - I agree with your feelings and we will discuss it. Have a wonderful Monday!

Can we get an announcement of an announcement post regarding the next hero?
I am here to announce, that at some point in the indeterminate future, there will be an announcement regarding a new Hero. Maybe. (u/Blizz_AKlontzas)

Free-to-Play Hero Rotation: July 24, 2018

• Malfurion
• Valla
• Gazlowe
• Johanna
• Thrall
• Dehaka
• Tychus
• Malthael
• Diablo
• Lunara
• Blaze(Slot unlocked at Player Level 5)
• Deckard (Slot unlocked at Player Level 10)
• Illidan (Slot unlocked at Player Level 15)
• Medivh (Slot unlocked at Player Level 20)

Our next set of Heroic Deals will begin on Tuesday, July 24! Check out the list of upcoming featured items and Hero discounts below.

Upcoming Hero Sales

• Artanis — Sale Price: 312 gems
• Hanzo — Sale Price: 375 Gems

The following skins and mounts will be added to the featured item rotation and will become purchasable with gems until this round of Heroic Deals comes to an end:

Upcoming Featured Skins

• Farstrider Hanzo Skin Pack*
• Stealth Mecha Dehaka
• Fever Scarlet Dream Genie Chromie
• Citrine Knight Owl Medivh
• Death Knight Sonya

Upcoming Featured Mounts

• Brown Dire Wolf
• Amber Spectre Phantom
• Drakkari War Bear

* First time featured item!

Gold Mounts
The following Gold Mount changes will take place once this week’s round of Heroic Deals begins:

• Ripper Mount — Will become purchasable for 10,000 gold through August 20.
• Piggy Bank — Will no longer be purchasable in the Collection.