Heroes of the Storm

Our next Heroes of the Storm patch has just hit the Public Test Realm and will be available for playtesting until August 6. 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:

• General
  
• New Hero
  
• Art
  
• Design
  
• Heroes
  
• Collection
  
• Bug Fixes

General

• Reduced the amount of bandwidth required to transfer gameplay information between the client and server.
  
• Reduced the size of replay files.

New Hero: Whitemane
As the High Inquisitor of the Scarlet Crusade, Sally Whitemane zealously leads her champions in a never-ending war against the undead. Under her guiding Light, all who have been touched by the plague of death will be purged by her cleansing flame… no matter how much they protest.

Trait

• Zeal
  
  • Whitemane’s Healing abilities apply Zeal for 8 seconds.
    
  • Allies with Zeal are healed for 100% of the damage Whitemane deals to Heroes.
    

Basic Abilities

• Desperate Plea (Q)
  
  • Mana: 30
    
  • No cooldown
    
  • Heal an allied Hero for 145 and gain Desperation for 4 seconds.
    
  • Desperation increases Desperate Plea’s Mana cost by 60 and stacks up to 3 times.
    
• Inquisition (W)
  
  • Channel on an enemy Hero for up to 3 seconds, dealing 53 damage every 0.5 seconds and slowing them by 30%
    
• Searing Lash (E)
  
  • After 0.5 seconds, smite enemies in a straight line for 82 damage.
    
  • If the first strike hits an enemy Hero, a second strike will occur after a short delay.
    

Heroic Abilities

• Scarlet Aegis (R)
  
  • Cooldown: 60 seconds
    
  • Bolster the spirits of nearby allied Heroes, healing them for 250 and granting them 40 Armor for 4 seconds.
    
• Divine Reckoning (R)
  
  • Cooldown: 100 seconds
    
  • After a 1 second delay, consecrate an area for 4 seconds, dealing 50 damage every 0.5 seconds to enemies in the area.​
    

Art

• Hero, Skin, and Mount platforms in the Collections menus have received a visual update.

Design
Summon Abilities

• Summoned creatures (Zagara Roaches, Azmodan Demons, etc.) now deal ability damage which can be enhanced by the Hero’s Ability Power.
  
• Summoned creatures now obey Blind and Evade rules.

Heroes

Assassin

Chromie


Stats

• Basic Attack Range has been increased from 5.5 to 7

Abilities

• Sand Blast (Q)
  
  • No longer gains bonus damage when hitting enemy Heroes
    
  • Range has been decreased from 17 to 15
    
  • Scaling damage increased from 2 to 4%
    
  • Echo scaling damage increased from 2 to 4%
    
  • Cast time decreased from 1 to .8 seconds
    
  • Mana cost decreased from 20 to 15
    
• Past and Future Me (Sand Blast Quest)
  
  • Echo unlock requirements reduced from 60 to 50 Sand Blast hits
    
• Dragon’s Breath (W)
  
  • Mana cost reduced from 70 to 50
    
  • Range decreased from 17 to 15
    
  • Dragon’s Breath’s ground splat is now visible to enemies .5 seconds after cast
    
  • Damage reduced from 480 to 360
    
  • Cooldown reduced from 12 to 9 seconds
    
• Trait Addition: Bronze Talons
  
  • Hitting an enemy Hero with a Basic Ability increases the damage of Chromie’s next Basic Attack by 100%
    

Talents

• Level 1
  
  • Mounting Sand (Q)
    
    • Additional Functionality:
      
      • Now also increases the damage of Sand Blast’s Echo by 40%
        
  • Timewalker’s Pursuit (Active)
    
    • Adjusted Functionality:
      
      • No longer grants Mana Regeneration per Regen Globe gathered. Now grants 1 extra Mana Regeneration on quest complete.
        
• Level 2
  
  • Bronze Talons (Passive)
    
    • Removed
      
  • New Talent: Draconic Barrage (Trait)
    
    • Increase the bonus Basic Attack damage from casting Abilities by an additional 100%. Hitting an enemy Hero with Sand Blast grants 2 empowered Basic Attacks.
      
• Level 5
  
  • Mobius Loop (W)
    
    • New functionality:
      
      • If an enemy Hero is hit by Dragon’s Breath, lower the cooldown by 2 seconds and refund the Mana cost
        
  • Chrono Sickness (E)
    
    • Slow amount reduced from 50 to 35%
      
• Level 11
  
  • Time Out (Active)
    
    • Duration reduced from 7 to 5 seconds
      
• Level 14
  
  • Fast Forward (Q)
    
    • Range requirement reduced from 75 to 70%
      
  • Quantum Overdrive (Active)
    
    • Ability Power bonus increased from 20 to 25%
      

Developer Comment: We’re making a few changes to Chromie to reduce the frustration when playing against her and to reduce her wide power variance between games. A number of these changes are designed to increase counter-play when playing against Chromie, like reducing her range on her abilities and letting enemies see Dragon’s Breath shortly after it has been cast. In exchange, Chromie’s Sand Blast has a shorter cast time, and she will now have a modified version of Bronze Talons baseline, where she can weave in auto-attacks for hitting enemy Heroes with her abilities. The reason we decided to give her the additional Bronze Talons trait is so that Chromie players are encouraged to interact more with their opponents. We’re rewarding them for getting into more dangerous positions with the possibility of increased damage output. This also lets us redistribute her damage away from her high burst, long range abilities, and more into something her opponents have a better opportunity to play around. We like Chromie’s unique place in our game as a long-range, artillery mage that requires enemies to pay attention to their positioning but over time we found that she simply had too much range and burst for players to feel like they had an engaging experience when playing against her. While we’ve had a blast with these changes, we’ll continue to keep an eye on her going forward and are prepared to make additional tweaks as needed.


Support

Stukov


Talents

• Level 1
  
  • Low Blow (E)
    
    • Moved from Level 13
      
    • Bonus damage reduced from 150 to 100%
      
  • Poppin’ Pustules (D)
    
    • No longer has a Quest component
      
    • New functionality:
      
      • Detonating a Weighted Pustule within 1.5 seconds of it expiring increases its damage by 100% and applies its damage and slow in an area
        
    • Explosion radius reduced from 4.5 to 3.75
      
• Level 4
  
  • Biotic Armor (Q)
    
    • Physical Armor reduced from 50 to 15
      
    • Now works on all targets that have Healing Pathogen
      
    • Additional Functionality:
      
      • Now also grants 50 Physical Armor for 2.5 seconds to targets who have Healing Pathogen when Bio-Kill Switch is detonated
        
  • Vigorous Reuptake (D)
    
    • No longer has a Quest component
      
    • New functionality:
      
      • Bio-Kill Switch’s healing is increased by 25% if 3 or more targets have Healing Pathogen on them when Bio-Kill Switch is detonated
        
• Level 7
  
  • Within My Reach (E)
    
    • Removed
      
  • The Long Pitch (W)
    
    • Bonus range reduced from 100 to 50%
      
    • Additional functionality:
      
      • Detonating 2 or more Weighted Pustules with a single cast of Bio-Kill Switch causes the cooldowns of non-Heroic abilities to recharge 100% faster for 3 seconds.
        
  • Growing Infestation (E)
    
    • Moved from Level 1
      
    • No longer increases the cooldown of Lurking Arm
      
    • New functionality:
      
      • Now reduces Lurking Arm’s channel duration to 4 seconds
        
• Level 13
  
  • It Hungers (E)
    
    • Moved from Level 7
      
    • New functionality:
      
      • Increase the range of Lurking Arm by 20%. If Lurking Arm hits enemy Heroes 15 times, reset its cooldown and refund its Mana cost
        
• Level 20
  
  • Push Comes to Shove (R)
    
    • Speed bonus removed
      
    • Additional functionality:
      
      • After colliding with terrain, enemy Heroes are slowed by 50% for 4 seconds
        
  • Top Off (Q)
    
    • Moved from Level 4
      
    • Bonus healing reduced from 50% to 30%
      
    • Adjusted Functionality:
      
      • Increased healing is now applied to all targets that have Healing Pathogen
        

Developer Comment: In the same vein as our earlier changes to Kael’thas, we felt that Stukov could use some love in the talent diversity department. We’ve made a number of functionality changes that should open up new builds and play styles, particularly in his earlier talent tiers.


Collection
New Bundles

• The following new bundles are available for a limited time! Be sure to check out the latest In-Development blog for more details.
  
  • Bow Before Viper Bundle
    
  • Whitemane Heroic Bundle
    
  • Sidewinder Ana Skin Pack
    
  • Imperator Stukov Skin Pack
    
  • Deathfang Genji Skin Pack
    

New Announcers

• Whitemane

New Skins

• Whitemane
  
  • Scarlet Whitemane
    
  • Twilight Whitemane
    
  • Celestial Empress Whitemane
    
  • Galactic Empress Whitemane
    
  • Warpspace Empress Whitemane
    
• Ana
  
  • Sidewinder Ana
    
  • Noxious Sidewinder Ana
    
  • Arctic Sidewinder Ana
    
• Stukov
  
  • Imperator Stukov
    
  • Noxious Imperator Stukov
    
  • Arctic Imperator Stukov
    
• Genji
  
  • Deathfang Genji
    
  • Noxious Deathfang Genji
    
  • Arctic Deathfang Genji
    
• Muradin
  
  • Butterscotch Kandy King Muradin
    
  • Frosted Kandy King Muradin
    
• Lunara
  
  • Emerald Lunara
    
• Murky
  
  • Clownfish Murky
    
• Chen
  
  • Pristine Chen
    
• Chromie
  
  • Obsidian Chromie
    

New Mounts

• Viper Dominator
  
  • Hazardous Viper Dominator
    
  • Noxious Viper Dominator
    

New Portraits, Sprays, and Emojis

• Several new emoji packs and portraits have also been added to the game. You can get a look in our most recent In-Development blog.

Bug Fixes
General

• Fixed a number of typo and tooltip errors across several aspects of the game.
  
• Fixed an issue causing some abilities to repeatedly automatically cast if right-click was held.
  
• Quick Cast: Fixed an issue causing some vector targeted abilities to behave as if quick cast was always enabled.

Sound

• Increased the volume of Alarak’s announcer pack.

Art

• Diablo: Fixed an issue with the geometry of Diablo’s tail.

Battlegrounds

• Alterac Pass: Fixed an issue that could cause the Cavalry’s aura effect to fail to display on low settings.

Heroes, Abilities, and Talents

• Hanzo: The Target Practice quest tracker will now differentiate between targets that have been hit 3 times and those who haven’t been hit at all.
  
• Leoric: Fixed an issue causing the visual effect seen on Heroes affected by Ominous Wraith to fail to appear.
  
• Lt. Morales: Healing Beam will no longer heal units affected by Time Stop.
  
• Medivh: Medivh the Black’s raven has been updated to match the theme of the skin.
  
• Medivh: Medivh can now be selected while in Raven Form when attempting to view his target info panel.
  
• Medivh: Portal Mastery portals can now be affected by cooldown reduction.

This week's Heroes Brawl mode is Garden Arena: a best-of-three Arena match featuring the Garden Terror and its Shamblers. Gather seeds and overrun the enemies’ core with the power of nature!

Rules:

• Choose from one of three randomly selected Heroes before entering the Arena. Be quick about it though, you only have 30 seconds to choose!
  
• Everyone will begin the round at level 10 and will be asked to choose a Heroic Ability. No other talents will be available.
  
• During each round, slay the enemy team’s Heroes and capture Seeds from the Garden Terror and its Shamblers.
  
  • The first team to gather 100 Seeds wins the round!
    
• The first team to win two rounds will claim victory!

Rewards:

• Complete three matches of Garden Arena to earn a Loot Chest!

Bug Fixes
Heroes, Abilities, and Talents

• Artanis: Fixed an issue that could cause Shield Overload to trigger twice in some rare instances.
• Malfurion: Fixed an issue that could cause Malfurion to have negative Health Regeneration.