Heroes of the Storm Live Patch Notes - December 3, 2019

[Nerraw]

UPDATE: Deployment of the update has been delayed for EU and will be deployed at 0200 on December 5th CET.

Heroes of the Storm Live Patch Notes - December 3, 2019

The next Heroes of the Storm patch has arrived! The update brings a new Hero, Deathwing the Destroyer, new Experience Globes, new bundles, new skins, and much more! Dive on in for more information.

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


Quick Navigation:

• Nexus Anomaly
  
• General
  
• New Hero: Deathwing
  
• Collection
  
• Heroes
  
• Bug Fixes

Nexus Anomaly – Experience Globes

Nexus Anomalies are seasonal gameplay changes that directly affect all game modes in Heroes of the Storm. These events will last the entire season, allowing us time to receive feedback on them. Depending on this evaluation, some of them may become permanent additions to the game, while others may just be a limited time event.

The first Nexus Anomaly has arrived! In order to make collecting experience more satisfying and intuitive, we're changing how experience is collected from Minions in the Heroes of the Storm. Players will no longer get experience from simply being nearby, but instead need to gather an Experience Globe dropped by dying Minions.

Experience Globes

• Minions no longer give Experience by killing them, but instead drop an Experience Globe that must be collected.
  
  • Footman and Archer Minions (and their equivalent on different Battlegrounds) drop an Experience Globe that lasts for 6 seconds and awards 80 experience (plus 2 every minute).
    
  • Wizard Minions no longer give Experience, but Experience Globe values have been increased to compensate.
    
  • Experience Globes slowly move toward the closest allied Hero within 6 range, and are collected when an allied Hero comes within 1.5 range.
    
  • Experience Globes will not move toward Heroes that are hidden in bushes or Stealthed, but they can be still collected by these Heroes if they move within 1.5 range.
    
• A few Heroes have special interactions with Experience Globes.
  
  • Ragnaros Lava Wave will now instantly collect Experience Globes as it passes by.
    
  • Abathur's Symbiote is treated as a Hero for the purposes of collecting Experience Globes.
    
  • Hallucinations like Samuro's Mirror Images or Nova's Holo Clones are treated as a Hero for the purposes of collecting Experience Globes.
    

General

Storm League

• Team Leaders will now be chosen based solely on highest Rank.
  
• Players who are Master or above may only queue for Storm League in a party with a maximum of one other player. The second player must also be Master or above. Both players in the party must be within 5000 Rank Points of each other.
  
• Players who have completed their placement games may no longer play Storm League in a party with players who have not completed their placement games.

Toys 2 Event Quests

• Toys 2 is the winter event for Heroes of the Storm running from the week of December 16 to week of February 3, PST. Roll dice, complete quests, and join Tickle Mephisto on a board game adventure in the Nexus for awesome rewards... and sweet revenge!

Loot Chests

• During the Toys 2 event, all Loot Chests you earn through progression, Heroes Brawl, or by spending gold will be New Toy Loot Chests. (Except Hero-specific Chests, which will remain unchanged.) Most limited-time items shown above have a chance to drop from New Toy Loot Chests only. You can also score Items from previous years’ winter events limited-time loot chests!

User Interface

• User Interface improvements for heroes with multiple forms have been added to the Hero Collection and Hero Select Ability screens for Deathwing and to the Hero Select Ability screen for Greymane.

AI

• AI will now pay more attention to lanes that need to be defended or attacked.
  
• AI will no longer be aware of the status of mercenary camps they cannot see.
  
• AI will path through enemy towns less often.
  
• AI will more highly value preventing a mercenary camp from leashing.
  
• Mercenary camp goal base scores have been standardized on all maps. This will make it easier to observe and tweak AI agent mercenary capture behavior.
  
• Many map goal objective scores have been standardized on all maps. This will make it easier to observe and tweak AI agent objective behavior.
  
• Volskaya Foundry
  
  • AI will no longer wait 8 seconds before using the Triglav Protector unless there is a human player on their team.
    
  • Agents will be much more consistent and willing to pick up and use Turrets and Bio Emitters on Volskaya Foundry.
    

New Hero: Deathwing, The Destroyer



Now prepare for the unmaking of your world as Deathwing descends upon the Nexus. The Worldbreaker has set his sights on the realms of the Nexus to spread his reign of death and destruction.

Trait

• The Aspect of Death
  
  • Deathwing is covered by Adamantium Armor Plates, granting him Armor.
    
  • He deals double damage to Heroes and is permanently Unstoppable but is unable to be affected by allied abilities.
    

Mount

• Dragonflight [Z]
  
  • After 3 seconds, fly into the air becoming immune to all effects and heal for 2.5% of your maximum Health per second. Once cast, this ability cannot be interrupted. Cannot be cast 4 seconds after taking damage, Basic Attacking or casting an Ability.
    
  • After remaining in the air for at least 8 seconds, Deathwing can channel for 1.75 seconds and land anywhere that his team has vision of in either Destroyer or Worldbreaker forms, dealing 75 damage to enemies. His abilities are put on a 3 second cooldown upon landing.
    
    • Energy: No Energy cost.
      
    • Cooldown: 45 seconds.
      

Basic Abilities

• Molten Flame [Q]
  
  • Breathe a stream of molten flame, dealing 192 damage per second.
    
    • Molten Flame has an initial cost of 10 Energy, then drains 30 Energy per second.
      
    • Cooldown: 3 seconds.
      
• Incinerate [W - Destroyer]
  
  • Flap your wings in a downward blast, dealing 85 damage to nearby enemies.
    
    • Energy: 15 Energy.
      
    • Cooldown: 4 seconds.
      
• Lava Burst [W - Worldbreaker]
  
  • After a 1 second delay, create a pool of magma that deals 16 damage per second and slows enemies by 35%. Lasts 6 seconds.
    
    • Energy: 20 Energy.
      
    • Cooldown: 6 seconds.
      
• Onslaught [E - Destroyer]
  
  • Lunge in a targeted direction, dealing 42 damage and slowing enemies by 35% for 2 seconds.
    
  • At the end of the lunge, Deathwing bites enemies for an additional 80 damage.
    
    • Energy: 20 Energy.
      
    • Cooldown: 5 seconds.
      
• Earth Shatter [E - Worldbreaker]
  
  • Create a fissure in the earth that deals 80 damage to enemies and stuns them for .75 seconds.
    
    • Energy: 25 Energy.
      
    • Cooldown: 12 seconds.
      

Heroic Ability

• Cataclysm [R]
  
  • After 2 seconds, fly in the targeted direction, dealing 90 damage on impact and leave scorched ground that deals an additional 48 damage per second for 6 seconds.
    
    • Energy: No Energy cost.
      
    • Cooldown: 90 seconds.
      

Collection

Many seasonal items will be returning to the Collection the week of December 16, PST, and will be available for crafting and in Loot Chests for a limited time!

New Bundles

• The following new bundles are only available for a limited time!
  
  • Destroyer Brightwing Bundle
    
  • Lil' Destroyers Bundle
    
• The following bundles will be available starting the week of December 16, PST:
  
  • Toys 2019 Bundle
    
  • Toys 2018 Bundle
    
  • Cosmonaut Qhira Bundle
    
  • Tickle Mephisto Bundle
    
  • Green Army Bundle
    
  • Train Bundle
    

New Skins

• Deathwing
  
  • Tyrannical Deathwing
    
  • Iron Deathwing
    
  • Glorious Deathwing
    
• Destroyer Brightwing
  
  • Savage Destroyer Brightwing
    
  • Ancient Destroyer Brightwing
    
  • Tyrannical Destroyer Brightwing
    
  • Iron Destroyer Brightwing
    
  • Glorious Destroyer Brightwing
    

The following skins will be available for a limited time starting the week of December 16, PST:

• Tickle Mephisto
  
  • Grumpy Tickle Mephisto
    
  • Crazed Tickle Mephisto
    
  • Shocking Tickle Mephisto
    
  • Cuddly Tickle Mephisto
    
  • Unlucky Tickle Mephisto
    
• Cosmonaut Qhira
  
  • Commander Cosmonaut Qhira
    
  • Blazing Cosmonaut Qhira
    
  • Explorer Cosmonaut Qhira
    
  • Eternal Cosmonaut Qhira
    
  • Super Cosmonaut Qhira
    
• Green Army Deckard Pain
  
• Green Army Commandant Varian
  
• Green Army Raynor
  
• Bitter Bear Stitches
  
• Shabby Bear Stitches
  
• Fuzzy Bear Stitches
  
• Galactic Force Valeera
  
• Proto Force Valeera
  
• Ferocious Dehakasaurus Rex
  
• X-Treme Dehakasaurus Rex

New Mount

The following mounts will be available for a limited time starting the week of December 16, PST:

• Toy Train
  
  • Speedy Toy Train
    
  • Blazing Toy Train
    
  • Cosmic Toy Train
    
  • Royal Toy Train
    
  • Grimrail Toy Train
    
• Galactic Lion
  
• Proto Lion
  
• Gloomy Plush Unicorn
  
• Shabby Plush Unicorn
  
• Mellow Snowflake
  
• Periwinkle Snowflake

New Announcer

• Deathwing Announcer

New Content

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

Heroes

The Lost Vikings


Base

• Baleog
  
  • Health increased from 1095 to 1180.
    
  • Health Regeneration increased from 2.22 to 2.46.
    
  • Basic Attack damage increased from 73 to 78.
    
• Erik
  
  • Health increased from 767 to 840.
    
  • Health Regeneration increased from 1.6 to 1.75.
    
  • Basic Attack damage increased from 60 to 65.
    
• Olaf
  
  • Health increased from 1424 to 1540.
    
  • Health Regeneration increased from 2.97 to 3.21.
    
  • Basic Attack damage increased from 52 to 57.
    

Talent

• Level 10
  
  • Longboat Raid [R1]
    
    • Mortar damage increased from 205 to 228.
      
    • Viking Stun duration when the Longboat is destroyed reduced from 1.5 to 1 second.
      

Developer Comment: Due to the changes to how experience is gathered, we expect the Lost Vikings to have a harder time filling their role on a team. To help them out a bit, we’re giving them a bit of a baseline buff, as well as buffing Longboat Raid.


Mephisto


Talent

• Level 1
  
  • Furious Spark [W]
    
    • Bonus damage is now dealt every 3rd hit.
      
    • Damage reduced from 95 to 72.
      
    • Additional functionality: Now also grants Mephisto 2 Mana when dealing damage with Furious Spark.
      
  • Malicious Intent [E]
    
    • Additional functionality: If Mephisto hits enemy Heroes at least 20 times with Basic Abilities while Shade of Mephisto is active, then increase the duration of the Spell Power bonus to 10 seconds after it ends.
      
• Level 4
  
  • Spite [Passive]
    
    • Regeneration Globe duration increased from 125% to 150%.
      
    • Cooldown reduction increased from .75 seconds to 1 second.
      
• Level 7
  
  • Frost Storm [E]
    
    • No longer Slows enemy Heroes near the Shade of Mephisto.
      
    • Additional functionality: Enemy Heroes who are hit by Lightning Nova while Shade of Mephisto is active are Slowed by 15% for 1 second.
      
  • Trickery [E]
    
    • No longer removes Slows and Roots from Mephisto.
      
    • Additional functionality: If Mephisto hits enemy Heroes at least 20 times with Basic Abilities while Shade of Mephisto is active, then reset its cooldown.
      
• Level 13
  
  • Hysteria [Trait]
    
    • Additional functionality: Mephisto gains 15% of his maximum Health and Mana when he casts his Heroic Ability.
      
• Level 16
  
  • Animosity [W]
    
    • New functionality: Increase the duration of Lightning Nova by .5 seconds Basic Attacks against enemy Heroes while Lightning Nova is active increase the duration of Lightning Nova by an additional .25 seconds.
      

Developer Comment: Mephisto’s talents have been largely unchanged since his release. While many of them seem to be in a good spot, some talents and talent tiers had some systemic issues that we felt could be improved with some changed functionality. We’re not looking to overhaul the Mephisto that you know and love, but we felt that he could use some new builds to play with.


Bug Fixes

General

• Fixed an issue where some parts of Sky Temple and Blackheart’s Bay would be invisible when using Low graphics settings.

Heroes

• Genji
  
  • Fixed an issue where Swift Strike's reset UI appeared when Genji hit an enemy Hero with Dragonblade but did not have The Dragon Becomes Me talent.
    
• Nova
  
  • Nova Holo Decoy Snipe no longer deals full damage if the Decoy dies while Snipe is in flight.
    
• Samuro
  
  • Samuro's Press The Attack Talent will now correctly grant Attack Speed on his first Basic Attack.
    

Mac

• Fixed an issue that could cause Blackheart’s Bay to crash on load.
  
• Fixed an issue where some parts of Sky Temple and Blackheart’s Bay would render with a strobing/flickering effect when using Low graphics settings.

[Jotaux]

I'm not a fan of the changes to storm league, I only ever play with friends and they probably will do their placement matches before I do. One of my friends was grand master so I guess he won't be playing with us either. Looks like I won't play storm league at all.

[ophion1990]

So, did they remove XP rom the Sky Temple mobs or did they just remove the "XP" pop-up from them, when they removed it from normal minions aswell? Only played one game on the map and it's kinda hard to keep track of it all during an objective phase, not to mention the game wa a shitshow.

Overall the globes don't seem to be too bad, granted that I haven't played a ton and especially haven't played a lot of ranged assassins. It is kinda weird how you suck in the XP globes but the range on the regen globe is so small. granted that it's probably better that it remains small.

[msdos]

The XP globes don't bother me, but I think Deathwing is a disappointment. Seems more like a detriment to a team than a benefit. I'd rather have Abathur, but then again they changed the XP lol..

[october breeze]

Anyone knows what happened to dota2 forum?

[NoiseTank13]

I've not noticed a real difference with the exp changes- if anything it made it easier to grab some exp if I'm a few seconds late to a lane.

Have not played Abathur, will try tomorrow to play a few games as him.

- - - Updated - - -

Yeah okay, Abathur is shit awful now, took away his one thing, lane soak

[therealstegblob]

Deathwing feels like absolute shit to play. He's slow as fuck, doesn't compensate for it in power, his design in general is INCREDIBLY FUCKING CLUNKY and he's not very good in general to boot.

Like he feels like absolute shit to play.

[Nerraw]

Deathwing is currently sitting at more than 60% win rate in both quick match and ranked.

[Nikkaszal]

Deathwing feels like absolute shit to play. He's slow as fuck, doesn't compensate for it in power, his design in general is INCREDIBLY FUCKING CLUNKY and he's not very good in general to boot.

Like he feels like absolute shit to play.

Try this for a better DW experience:

1) Dragon Soul
4) Heat Wave
7) Death Drop (Skyfall if you find yourself needing to heal quicker in flight or if you need to stall point caps)
10) Burn Beneath My Shadow
13) Ruination
16) Gaze Onto Destruction
20) Destroyers Rampage

The cornerstone of this build is the stacking damage aura from Heat Wave, coupled with the self-sustain from Dragon Soul. You will be in Destroyer Form 90% of the time and only ever use Q to clear a wave or if someone sets up a big wombo like ETC or Jaina. Worldbreaker is only really used in levels 1-3 until you come online with Heatwave, or if you're getting constantly kited/zoned.

Ideally you're going to want to start each teamfight in the air, not only so you can choose exactly where to position yourself but also to apply your powerful landing debuffs to people. Death Drop provides some solid Spell Armor shred to benefit your team, and also cuts down on your CDs after landing so you can start being aggressive. Gaze Onto Destruction will straight-up win a fight on its own if you hit one or two important carries.

Your goal is to stick like glue to important targets and bully the absolute shit out of them, using W on cooldown and gapclosing with E (The bite at the end does a LOT of damage and has a huge slow when you get Ruination at 16). When fully stacked, Heat Wave aura does more damage than an auto attack so you can kill people by just staying on top of them. Look for opportunities to secure kills and zone denial with Cataclysm, but be mindful that it's your best escape tool if the fight goes bad - not only for yourself but for the team, since the damage area deters the other team from chasing your escape path

Remember that you don't have to drop out of the air as soon as you're healed! Oftentimes if there's not anything important to do nearby (e.g. lanes are being soaked, you're not actively pushing, team doesn't need you nearby in the next 10sec or so) or if an objective is about to come up, it's best to just take off and wait for a good opportunity to drop when a fight breaks out - even if you are at full HP! You are VERY VERY SLOW when walking, so even if you're up top for 20sec or so you're still better off than if you were glacially lumbering about. It means you're ready and primed to be exactly where you need to be without waiting for the landing CDs. It's far better to spend an extra 10sec in the air to find an effective drop than to land early just because you feel like you should be somewhere on the map.

You want to mostly be looking for fights and ganks to suddenly turn in your team's favour by dropping in. DWing's PvE game is rubbish so leave that for other people if you can.

[therealstegblob]

After playing Deathwing more: He feels like total garbage. His talents and abilities aren't the problem, he's just a fucking mess.

Personally I would've just made him a more conventional hero with his (really cool) human form design that was made for Cataclysm AND THEN NEVER EVEN USED EXCEPT FOR A COMEDIC LEVELING QUEST LOL; and have his ults involve turning into a huge dragon to fly around and spew lava all over or whatever.

He's supposed to be a larger than life unstoppable beast monster, but he feels like a normal hero with a bunch of road blocks. It feels completely unnecessary that you can't use abilities for 2 seconds or so after landing, especially when your Q has such an ungodly long windup time as it is. It's not that he lacks power, it's that he feels like dogshit. It's sort of funny to be unstoppable and just fly out of a fight when you're getting low, but it doesn't help him feel like he has much identity as a hero. Is he a big, raid boss dragon or just a normal hero? I don't feel like I'm playing either, I feel like Deathwing is fucked up. Like they were too afraid of making him too strong but at the same time had to make him not overpowered; the premise is just fucking dumb and set Deathwing up for being bad.

The whole design is a mess. It's like an intern designed him. At least off-color heroes like Cho'gall and Murky feel fine to play.

[melzas]

Luckily overwhelming majority of feedback I've seen in regards to Deathwing is positive and I agree with it. Devs nailed the feeling of a badass, gigantic dragon and the design itself is unique and fun to play.

After playing him (and against him) in SL, I think he is pretty well balanced too. I would say he is Butcher tier - if enemy team is packed with his counters, he is very easy to shut down, but if there are none... he wrecks faces. Overall my favourite hero release since Blaze, very happy with Deathwing! (wish he had more skins though).

[therealstegblob]

I dunno where you're looking, because most people seem to think he plays like shit.

They didn't nail the feeling at all. I don't feel like a big dragon, I feel like a normal hero with abilities that feel bad to use. Like I said, it's like they couldn't go all out and just make him a crazy super overpowered dragon monster (obviously) so the middle road is another weird hero that isn't fun to play with or against ala Cho'gall.

[Nikkaszal]

Dunno where you're getting your "most people" from, buddy

Pretty much the entire HotS subreddit talks about DWing being impressively strong with a satisfying kit, and his winrate as of today is now over 68%

[NoiseTank13]

I've played more Abathur, and, well, I think it made bad Abathur's more apparent and good ones stand out. There's a lot more busywork in lane soaking, yes, but I'm starting to account for it, it does feel like I lost maybe a quarter of exp gathered since the changes but I'm still the highest generated exp farmer on the team. I also think it sort of pidgeon holed me into one build to have a more balanced experience in lanes and in team fights.

It's still massively bullshit you can't pick up globes while in a bush, even if it's in range.

[Nikkaszal]

It's still massively bullshit you can't pick up globes while in a bush, even if it's in range.

There's a slew of issues with the globes. For one thing, they won't go through enemy gates (so if you clear a wave behind a gate, the orbs just bunch up at the gate and vanish). Secondly, you can see enemy orbs through the fog of war, including moving as enemies come near them, which is unintended vision information. Then you have the issue where orbs won't magnetise if you're in a bush (possibly because they give away your position by moving towards you).

This seems to mostly stem from being able to see enemy orbs. But its not just a simple matter of turning off that visual to make them work better, because you want to see enemy orbs when you're actively denying

[therealstegblob]

Dunno where you're getting your "most people" from, buddy

Pretty much the entire HotS subreddit talks about DWing being impressively strong with a satisfying kit, and his winrate as of today is now over 68%

You mean a dead subreddit filled with only hanger on fans, where almost any negative opinion isn’t allowed to exist? Wow, great case argument.

Citing win rate for such a new and especially odd hero in a game that is dwindling in players by the day? Wow, another great case argument. I mean, I can really see the correlation between win rate and how he feels to play. That just makes too much sense, after all.

Guess what? I think Deathwing feels like shit to play and a lot of people agree with me. Don’t like it? Too motherfucking bad lol.

[Stormcall]

I think Deathwing feels like shit to play and a lot of people agree with me.

Where are you getting this info from? You think HotS reddit "doesn't count"(LOL), there aren't tons of people complaining about it here, none of the HotS youtube player vids I've seen have complained(esp once they started experimenting with different builds), and I haven't seen people agreeing with you in game, either. So where are all these "lots of people" who agree with you congregating, if not, you know, the places HotS players tend to congregate?

[therealstegblob]

Where are you getting this info from? You think HotS reddit "doesn't count"(LOL), there aren't tons of people complaining about it here, none of the HotS youtube player vids I've seen have complained(esp once they started experimenting with different builds), and I haven't seen people agreeing with you in game, either. So where are all these "lots of people" who agree with you congregating, if not, you know, the places HotS players tend to congregate?

There’s like less than five people who regularly post here, on a rather inactive sub forum. The hots subreddit hardly ever has more than 1k people on it at a time, and their front page (hottest posts) are all threads with like a few hundred to only a few dozen upvotes, which is super inactive for a subreddit.

I didn’t say the subreddit “didn’t count”, I said they were small communities where negative opinions are quickly buried. English isn’t hard, dude. Learn to read it the right way, okay? The point to takeaway is that the hots subreddit isn’t a place where many people outside of very loyal fans go to anymore, so you’re going to be hard pressed to find any popular negative opinion concerning anything in the game there.

I’ve seen tons of people complaining about him in game and in other communities I visit. But you go on plugging your ears and pretending no one disagrees with you like a child would do. I think Deathwing plays like shit, some of the people on this forum don’t. Only *one* of us is stamping their feet and screaming NO ONE AGREES WITH U, though. Gotta stop and ask yourself, why are you like that? Is there a reason for it?

[ophion1990]

The two things bothering me about globes right now is their slow travel speed, you can outrun them to some extent (they move at mounted speed, afaik), making it so picking them up under certain circumstances feels kinda awkward. Secondarily, I really don't think we should be able to see enemy globes in the fog of war, we should especially not be able to see enemy heroes picking them up, since it does reveal their location and I've even had it reveal a rotation. Both things take some getting used to, sure but the last one really houldn't happen, IMO. No vision means just that, you don't have vision of anything going on in that locale.

[Beefhammer]

I dunno where you're looking, because most people seem to think he plays like shit.

They didn't nail the feeling at all. I don't feel like a big dragon, I feel like a normal hero with abilities that feel bad to use. Like I said, it's like they couldn't go all out and just make him a crazy super overpowered dragon monster (obviously) so the middle road is another weird hero that isn't fun to play with or against ala Cho'gall.

I don't think he plays like shit.

Dunno where you're getting your "most people" from, buddy

Pretty much the entire HotS subreddit talks about DWing being impressively strong with a satisfying kit, and his winrate as of today is now over 68%

Pretty much. There are some talents I would change up, and would reduce some of the delays before his attacks, and would lower his auto attack damage and make it a cleave, because he is a dragon. But overall I am satisfied with DW.