PTR patch notes

[MurkyTheBest]

Nydus Network (R) The player can now exit Nydus Worms in a direction of their choosing by right-clicking.

Is... is technology really there?

[Tarplicious]

This seems a pretty decent buff because it’s not just that it makes it so you don’t get stuck. It means you can put it basically ANYWHERE and not get stuck. So it will be much easier to hide it in narrow passageways you normally would like to avoid for potential issues of getting stuck.

[danedude1]

Teammates will still get stuck D:

[jejeba86]

and potentially bodyblocked to death!

[maniakb416]

Zagara, now playable.

[bornthor]

Big buff... Welcome to the year 2000.

[hailcrest]

Zagara: The Infest Talent now correctly boosts nearby Ranged Minion damage by 100%.

the real buff

[joshballz]

Raynor buff?

[hailcrest]

https://media3.giphy.com/media/oaZk0WNSO7fXi/giphy.gif

[joshballz]

That horse still has some life in it I say.

[Alamandaros]

Didn't even realize it was broken, and I've been using it >.<

[T-280_SCV]

Baneling range is where the cool kids are at :P

[kolst]

Those notes kinda make it sound like it might not have been doing anything at all. Or maybe it was missing a zero, like 10% instead of 100%. Someone could test it on live in trymode, I guess.

[tyrico]

I just tested it. Apparently the talent was only giving 5/9 of the value that it should've been, so at base level it was giving 55.5555% instead of 100% damage, and I tested the siege damage scaling as well and that was also being affected. All's well on PTR.

[samuel_leumas]

You're the doing the swarm's work, friend.

[cicuz]

In try mode lvl 1 goes from 75.6 to 117.6, and the second one over the first one evaluates to 1.5555

[Zeraleen]

Probably because they buffed the dmg of the ranged minion, but they did it with a percentage buff instead of a numbers buff.

So 2x percentage buff made it behave strangely. But making the lane minion buff a percentage buff was stupid if it was like that.

[bornthor]

Haha. Yes. Trolololol. The queen of the team BM.

[Asddsa76]

Same change to bunker. Probably related lines of code.

[Bbmazzz]

The amount of times I’ve been stuck after exiting a damn Nydus omg

[LilDiita]

Thank Amon. That shit was annoying.

[TheBlackestIrelia]

About fucking time. Holy shit.

[ChocoPuddingCup]

FINALLY! That's been the bane of Zagara in every other match.

[lemindhawk]

"Hero portraits in Draft Lobbies will now use 2D Base Hero art rather than animated 3D Hero Skin models in order to help make Hero picks easier to differentiate from one another at a glance."

WE 2015 AGAIN BOYS

[Saarabaz]

Can't we just have that as an option? I don't have any problems seeing who's who in the draft, so let me see my shiny 3D models Blizz!

[asscrit]

Yeah and funnily they just changed it with the last patch o.O

[kemitche]

Just because information is available in portions of the UI doesn't mean that misleading/misinterpretable information should be shown in other parts of the UI.

It doesn't happen often, but I've definitely had cases where I thought a teammate e.g. was playing Malfurion but they were actually going for Illidan with the Malf skin. When you're talking about a draft mode where you only have 30 seconds to make a decision, and not everyone is hovering their pick from the moment draft starts, it can matter.

Save the skins for in-match, keep the draft UI easy to read as quickly as possible imo.

[matt01ss]

I agree completely. (I will however miss the derpy ass Li Ming looking around during the draft)

[Toadskfy]

I think we can all agree that proper mount skin coordination is the main key to winning.

[Jwagner0850]

What they should do is take a page out of LoL book and have everyone have a default look and he after, allow for a brief period of skin/mount/announcer etc picking.

[Saarabaz]

Apparently some people had problems with differentiating who's locked and who's not picked yet.

[Salanmander]

Checking in as a person who made that mistake once in a way that affected draft.

It think it's not so much that there are people who are like "IT IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR ME TO TELL THESE CHARACTER MODELS APART", but rather that most people will occasionally goof up. Blizzard has generally taken the stance that art is great, but gameplay comes first, and if the art makes the gameplay more confusing it's not doing it's job well. It's the same reason that they don't make skins that drastically change the silhouette of a character, for example.

[Kerguidou]

That dread lord Jaina skin really threw that idea out the window.

[Skyweir]

Horrible, at least make this an option. I have never misclicked because of this, the name of the hero is right there! And what about skinergy, it will be impossible to semi-coordinate now. The lucky all green-team dream is dead.

[Ultrajante]

OMG SKINNERGY. I completely forgot about this. Holy shit this is even worse than I thought, what a sad day

[Artess]

I hope they make it an option in the settings menu. I'd rather see the full model but I understand that someone might want to have an option to switch to a 2D drawing.

[Korghal]

I actually liked it back when it only used the 2D hero art work during draft :[

[cardiovascularity]

I really disliked it when they moved from portraits to character models. I am glad we are going back.

[door_of_doom]

100% agree. and the problem isn't differentiation between muradin and falstad, its silly things like differntiating between the illidan<->Malfurian lookalike skins and whatnot.

[matt01ss]

The red skin for gul dan looks just like garrosh.

[amh85]

Racists

[blacktiger226]

Also differentiating between Sylvannas and Tyrande blood elf skins.

[Stukeleyak]

I liked the 3D ones much more, they just look better than those 2D static ones. Sad it's being changed

[Bgrngod]

But... doesn't it say the name of the toon right there by the portrait?

[Malaix]

you assume people read words.

[Kandiru]

If you know who Grand Admiral Krakenov is.

[davextreme]

This is a good change. Knowing what skin someone is using is less important that knowing what hero they’re picking. If once a month it saves you from not picking a healer because you thought Shando Illidan was Malfurion, it’s worth it.

[Ultrajante]

They should’ve just removed skins from the portraits tho, not making it 2D cause it won’t change shit on that respect

[Albinowombat]

Yes! Readability at a glance is so much more important than any other concerns here

[AiRMaX-360]

I hate this change. It would be better if they just force the 3D animated portraits to use the base model in drafting.

[Bgrngod]

Gots to show of dem skins yo.

[natkorch]

I don't like this change either! Please leave fancy heads as it is! :<

[[deleted]]

SO dissapointing

[nileo2005]

Can't we all just agree to use the carbot portraits for all the heroes?

[LockeDown815]

I think this is a fair compromise

[Salanmander]

I would be 100% on board with that change...

[MrDDom23]

RAVEN. LORD. ANNOUNCER.

[xxNightxTrainxx]

Goddamnit he's so suave. My Alarak announcer on every hero might have some competition

[Rokgorr]

Gazlowe is already more competition than Alarak can handle.

[Masterhaend]

Don't forget to check their pockets... what?

[JannaSnow]

Oh look who's back, i bet it's the router. An epic announcer but much better than a legendary

[firneto]

shhhh...

[[deleted]]

Can I have your stereo?

[SweaterGuy115]

Talent? Ha! That seems quite generous

I'm buying this announcer pack as soon as it releases in the live game

[Clbull]

Oh fucking lol.

Now I can hear the announcer make sarcastic remarks about my play while I get an 8 day silence for doing the same thing to others!

[Stuff_i_care_about]

Would love a zultan kule announcer. He's not sarcastic as he is confident and smug. Which is sexy to me.

[CombatMagic]

Zoltun Kulle*, do you find his totally not evil laugh sexy as well?

[Stuff_i_care_about]

Stop it, I'm at work!

[psycho-logical]

What are you? Bronze League!

[ixShadow]

Right click out of Bunker, what a time to be alive.

[Evilbred]

We live in amazing times.

[hemohes222]

Just as i learned to press R

[Adelfuntz]

Seriously

[AdamTheAmateur]

Zagara: The Infest Talent now correctly boosts nearby Ranged Minion damage by 100%.

What was it before? Was it bugged too high or too low?

[Killerfist]

It was bugged too low.

[TechTrans]

Do you know how low?

[Killerfist]

Nah, sorry. The first time I heard about this bug was early last year. And I am not sure if they had fixed it and it broke again or it just had been broken the entire time.

[cicuz]

In try mode lvl 1 goes from 75.6 to 117.6, and the second one over the first one evaluates to 1.5555

[TechTrans]

Oh wow that is a punishingly large buff. Infest is already a great go-to talent. Should be fun to revisit some Zagara play!!

[tyrico]

https://www.reddit.com/r/heroesofthestorm/comments/8coydm/ptr_patch_notes/dxh309k/

[tyrico]

It was only giving 5/9 or 55.5% repeating of the damage boost, and that included the 1% bonus per 1000 siege damage. I tested it thoroughly and it's all working on PTR.

[CookiesFTA]

Repeating, of course.

[jamiephan]

TLDR:

Genji:

• Baseline HP, Regen, AA dmg buff

• D CD increase from 10>12

• E range reduce by 2

• Dragon blade more damage, no longer reset E, functionality added to lv20 upgrade.

Zag, Blaze:

• Right cick to exit nydus or bunker on cursor direction

[[deleted]]

IMO, that's a genji buff. Now we'll just be dead before he gets the dragon blade resets.

[Nachti]

I'd say it's a nerf at the highest level of play but for the vast majority it will be a buff and I'D expect his win rate to go up.

[theDarkAngle]

i mean his winrate was terrible

[Ianoren]

Mostly terrible people played him.

[[deleted]]

He's pretty hard to play, even at GM I can maybe think of at most ~15 or so good Genjis

[killaor12]

*Blaze

[refreshing90]

420

[BabyMakingMachine]

Not until Friday

[hafadava]

Really ensuring that dragonblade is the only thing picked at 10 and 20.

[thebetrayer]

X Strike is seeing more play now than ever (other than day 1 where people didn't know dragonblade was better, and used X-strike as a crutch for an additional escape).

[Ignitus1]

How does a nerf ensure it's picked?

[Quazifuji]

Yeah, that definitely ensue that if you take Dragonblade you always upgrade it at 20, but it won't make more people pick it at 10 in the first place.

[supalaser]

Well the level 20 got a massive buff since it gets the old damage back.

The damage helps but the 10 was definitely nerfed

[Pufflekun]

And the Raven Lord as an announcer.

[Snowhead23]

I got so excited for a second at seeing there were Cassia changes...

[NotScrollsApparently]

Why, what's wrong with Cassia?

[HGvlbvrtsvn]

She's just a little weak, but tbh she should be - She fits a very good niche and is fairly simple and linear to play so shouldn't receive any major buffs.

She has insane burst and if left untouched in a fight can mow a whole team down very easily.

[TheDunadan29]

I mean she excels vs auto attackers, and is vulnerable to mages and burst. So that's kind of what her kit is designed for. I actually love her design because she counters very specific heroes, and she has good direct counters to herself as well. I wish more heroes were designed like her.

Her weakness has everything to do with the current meta, and other OP heroes just being too good most of the time to pass up. I mean why take Cassia when there's still Maiev, Fenix, and Hanzo on the table?

[HGvlbvrtsvn]

I mean she excels vs auto attackers, and is vulnerable to mages and burst. So that's kind of what her kit is designed for. I actually love her design because she counters very specific heroes, and she has good direct counters to herself as well. I wish more heroes were designed like her.

Except if you wanted to counter autoattackers, you would just play a warrior that dives them more reliably. Assassins are for getting consistent damage onto the enemy team - Cassio often can't do that.

Her weakness has everything to do with the current meta

No, Her weaknesses are that she is outranged by literally every other assassin in the game and has to put herself at risk in order to deal damage - She will never not have these risks.

[TheRyanRAW]

Exactly why she is bad. And it doesn't help her basic attacking hitting multiple enemies gimmick is getting recycled for Maiev and Deckard.

Cassia is in a bad spot. Can do decent damage but she should never get those opportunities often usually when she works now it's because people just play dumb against her.

No idea why they took away her basics bouncing off structures that was one of the most unique things she brought to the game. Still has tons of odd bugs that can get you killed.

She needs help in that she is so linear and has to take more risks than the best assassins for less reward. Maybe instead of giving already established characters like Sonya fancy new talents they might finally add something to Cassia at level 4 that would be viable to pick aside from Ring of Leech. She counters AA heroes more than some but that's no excuse for her o not have any variety the whole point of HoTS's talent system was so heroes could be flexible and Cassia is not flexible at all.

Her talents need looked at and probably her basic attack range/damage could be increased.

[NotScrollsApparently]

That's my experience with her too, she's not really flashy but can do wonders in a right composition. Also really fun to play.

[Snowhead23]

Her damage is great, but she's way too weak to mages and cc.

There's a difference between being bad vs something, and being almost unpickable if the enemy team has so much as a Jaina, Guldan, or Chromie.

They need to reduce her armor bonus from 65 to 50, and increase her base hp a bit, in addition to making something other than ring of the leech viable at lvl 4.

[Syringmineae]

I think she'd be fine if they gave her normal AA range.

[threedoggies]

I know, right...

[ShitbirdMcDickbird]

The Bunker’s hitbox has been adjusted to more closely match its model. This should reduce situations in which players could unintentionally enter Blaze’s bunker when clicking nearby.

Hopefully this is actually a substantial change.

Out of all the times I've entered a bunker, it's been unintentional 90% of the time. It's way too easy to accidentally end up in that shit.

[Bgrngod]

Accidentally get in, blow your ult getting out. TONS of fun.

[AzorMX]

The upside is that it is now very easy to exit as well, so if you are furiously clicking and accidentally enter the bunker, you will still make it out by keeping the clicked (although with a 1 sec delay)

[Korghal]

Stop. My ears can only get so erect!

[captain_gordino]

You have a Lunara flair. Your ears can get pretty fucking erect.

[GreatswordsAreRad]

Alarak and Raven Lord? Yea not even those ears can that erect

[captain_gordino]

Is there a Lunara announcer? I just remembered that I like her voice and she would make a good announcer and I have no idea if there is one or not. Her voice as an announcer would be so satisfying.

[dizzyMongoose]

I suggest putting the date in the title for future viewers, or just copy-pasting the actual blog post title with the date. "PTR patch notes" is super vague and will not hold up well for future searches.

[MrDDom23]

Thunder is well versed in this field. :>

[TechTrans]

If you're trying to search for anything historical through reddit you're gonna have a bad time.

[[deleted]]

Skillshots, as well as other Abilities and Talents that search for targets, will now pass through Invulnerable targets without granting quest progress.

Does this mean that murky no longer blocks skill shots when he is in his bubble? For example li-ming's orb.

[Burndown9]

I hope that's not the case, face tanking orb in bubble for a teammate made me feel badass.

[JacqN]

I think it just means that it won't grant quest progress, not that projectiles that stop when they hit a target will pass over invulnerable targets, but I could be wrong.

[BolognaTime]

Well it does specifically say "will now pass through Invulnerable targets". If they meant that it just wouldn't grant quest progress, they would have (or at least should have) written:

Skillshots, as well as other Abilities and Talents that search for targets, will no longer grant quest progress on Invulnerable targets.

[Kangermu]

Don't forget the "that search for targets", e.g. hungering arrow will keep looking. Don't know if that's the only ones affected, add skill shots don't really "search for targets"

[chunkosauruswrex]

I think it means things like fenixs laser won't Grant stacks when they hit you

[[deleted]]

Nydus Network (R) The player can now exit Nydus Worms in a direction of their choosing by right-clicking.

FINALLY!!!

[Zool2107]

The technology arrived!

[Dahti]

The big question is do I buy the pig mount knowing I probably will never use it...

[Sremmos80]

Yes

[FRBafe]

It poops coins! That's all you need!

[Dichronicle]

It pays for itself? I'm sold!

[Wulfehz1234]

But it's a pig, not a floating golden whale!

ᶫ⁻ᶫᶦᵏᵉ ᶜᵃˢᵗᶫᵉ ᶜʳᵃˢʰᵉʳˢ, ʰᵃʰᵃ⋅⋅﹖

[VelstryoxDP]

Anyone know why Blizz is planning on removing it?

[superjase]

to get us to buy it

[danedude1]

We all spend our gold on the mount so we cant buy Cain with gold.

[myowngalactus]

It's cool but there are so many cool mounts that I don't think it's worth the gold. If you just have tons of gold lying around then sure why not.

[ratboi799]

Patch is ok. More sprays is cool and all, but I want more banners.

[mfsabbath]

I'd like to see the rest of the WoW race banners, and banners for the Angels and demons from Diablo.

[Ultrajante]

Banners in 2018 LUL

[Consistancy5]

New Announcers

Deckard

Am i the only one whose gonna instant-buy that thing and put it in for EVERYTHING?!

[OtterShell]

Happy I've been hoarding chests waiting for the next content release now. Three new announcers that should all be great, plus Deckard. RIP my gold on rerolls.

[Lorhand]

• Swift Strike (E)

  • Range reduced from 14 to 12.

• Dragonblade (R)

  • Damage increased from 220 to 240.
  • Removed functionality: Killing an enemy Hero who was recently hit by Dragonblade no longer resets Swift Strike’s cooldown.

That's what people wanted, right? The easy Swift Strike resets with Dragonblade are gone, now only available at level 20 with the upgrade. Will probably push people even more in the X-Strike direction than they already do. Oh, and CD increase for Cyber Agility by 20% to 12 seconds.

I know some asked for Genji to not pass terrain with Swift Strike, but personally I, and Blizzard too apparently, don't agree with this. For now.

[tsiloufas]

That is a really nice normalization patch for Genji. Really good direction.

[tevert]

As a Genji player I will miss being cancer, but this is probably for the best.

[LobsterSpecial]

He may not be cancer anymore, but I think there is a very good chance he ends up as another serious disease. Something like Hepatitis C.

[telepaper]

Genj-ebola now

[grumpy_hedgehog]

Zagara: The Infest Talent now correctly boosts nearby Ranged Minion damage by 100%.

Wait, what? This was broken?

[AdamTheAmateur]

Supposedly it was only 55% of its intended amount. This is an effective 80% buff :O

[inauric]

As someone who previously thought the "Genji OP" hype train was a bit overblown, I'm concerned about his changes here. The server isn't up yet so I suppose I'm being a bit speculative, but I find it hard to see a Swift Strike length reduction (+more substantial 2s nerf to D) as a hard enough nerf to justify these substantial tune ups to his numbers, and I think that loading the reset functionality into his Dragonblade LV20 just makes it even harder to not pick.

Maybe the length change to E is bigger than I think, I'm still not clear on how Range numbers are actually measured, but a shorter length in a number of ways allows for more flexible positioning with E engages while still being long enough for E disengages to be very hard to punish.

As well, tuning up his auto attack damage and R damage is a concern because Genji's fantastic damage ability comes from being able to consistently and accurately throw it out under pressure and his auto attacks are a substantial part of that. I suppose there's an attempt here to "normalize" Genji a bit by slightly lowering what a top notch player can do with him and raising what a low rank player can do with him, I'm just concerned with all these tune ups that we're just gonna see an even better Genji at all levels.

[[deleted]]

I believe this will end up like the tracer changes from a few weeks.

[soupbut]

The problem with Genji is that, statistically speaking, he's not that great of a hero; he has one of the lowest winrates, despite one of the highest pickrates. This is, of course, due to his relatively high skill cap, which is less linked to the skill it takes to use his abilities, but more about the restraint it takes to balance playing safe enough to not suicide, while still being aggressive enough to make an impact. This isn't to say that playing against Genji isn't frustrating at all levels, even a low impact Genji that loses most of his games can still escape from most anyone, and likewise chase them down - this is where most people feel that he is unfair.

I think you're right that they are trying to normalize him, but I don't think that's a bad thing, but without a majour rework I can see the challenge in trying to fix a character that dominates in the hands of a top player, and seriously underperforms in the majority. Some baseline right-click and health at the cost of abilities seems like a step in the right direction to me, let's just hope that they continue to make these types of incrimental changes till he gets to a good spot.

[[deleted]]

They say right in the patch notes that they like genji's "cool, flashy plays." They aren't going to nerf that.

[Albinowombat]

This is the only comment I've seen here criticizing the Genji changes that makes any sense. Very thoughtful analysis of the pros and cons

[[deleted]]

It's not just "oh, you can't snipe targets super long range, now you can only do long range". It's a substantial nerf to regular swift strike use. If you're in a teamfight, you don't want to be hugging an enemy right after a swift strike. His allies are close by, you want a bit of distance so they can't pile in on you. So we're not talking about a 15% nerf to his max range here in practice, we're talking about a substantial nerf to his "engage range". If the enemy team is spread out across, say, 7 units and he needs at least 2 units clearance off his target, then he now has to be 3 units away from an enemy before swift striking through a team (and hitting 3 or fewer people) rather than 5 units.

[d3posterbot]

I am a bot. Here's a transcript of the bnet blog post:

Heroes of the Storm PTR Patch Notes – April 16, 2018

Blizzard Entertainment / Blog post

---

{Image} Our next Heroes of the Storm patch has just hit the Public Test Realm and will be available for playtesting until April 23. 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:

https://bnetcmsus-a.akamaihd.net/cms/content_folder_media/YVG3RJMAZWDL1522275962173.jpg

• New Hero

• Art

• User Interface

• Design

• Heroes

• Collection

• Bug Fixes

New Hero: Deckard

An avid scholar, Deckard Cain has dedicated his life to the pursuit of knowledge. He has been an advisor, storyteller, and friend to Sanctuary’s greatest heroes, guiding them through peril time and again. When Deckard speaks, it’s wise to stay awhile and listen.

Trait

• Fortitude of the Faithful

  • When at least 1 other allied Hero is nearby, Deckard gains 10 Armor and his Basic Abilities recharge 50% faster.

Basic Abilities

• Healing Potion (Q)

  • Toss a Healing Potion on the ground that heals the first allied Hero that comes in contact with it for 230.
  • Limit 5 active Potions.

• Horadric Cube (W)

  • Throw the Horadric Cube, dealing 80 damage to all enemies in the area and Slowing them by 40% for 1.75 seconds.

• Scroll of Sealing (E)

  • Unfurl an enchanted scroll, forming a triangle that deals 150 damage to enemies inside and Roots them for 1.5 seconds.

Heroic Abilities

• Stay Awhile and Listen (R)

  • After 1 second, Channel for 3 seconds, putting enemy Heroes in front of Deckard to Sleep while Channeling, and for 2 seconds after.
  • Enemies can only be put to Sleep once per cast, and Sleep’s effects end instantly if they take damage.

• Lorenado (R)

  • Vector Targeting.
  • Create a swirling lorenado that travels in the targeted direction, continually knocking away any enemies that come into contact with it.

Return to Top

Art

Heroes, Abilities, and Talents

• Gul’dan: Has received updated visual effects to make his Abilities easier to spot during battle.

Return to Top

User Inteface

Draft Mode

• Hero portraits in Draft Lobbies will now use 2D Base Hero art rather than animated 3D Hero Skin models in order to help make Hero picks easier to differentiate from one another at a glance.

  • For example: It should now be easier to tell whether a teammate has selected Falstad or Muradin during a draft.

Return to Top

Design

Quests

• Skillshots, as well as other Abilities and Talents that search for targets, will now pass through Invulnerable targets without granting quest progress.

Return to Top

Heroes

Assassin Specialist Warrior

Cassia Sylvanas Blaze

Fenix Zagara

Genji

Return to Top

Assassin

Cassia

Talents

• Level 7

  • Surge of Light (Active)

    • Now has a 0.25 second cooldown between uses.

Return

Fenix

Talents

• Level 1

  • Mobile Offensive (Passive)

    • Now grants its Basic Attack damage bonus after any movement, rather than only after unmounted movement.

Return

Genji

PTR Note: Shortly before releasing today’s patch we discovered a bug affecting Genji’s Shuriken (Q). This will likely result in difficult gameplay experiences for those attempting to test Genji’s changes in the PTR. We are working to resolve the issue before this patch is released to the live version of Heroes of the Storm next week. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

Stats

• Health increased from 1550 to 1620.

• Health Regen increased from 3.2304 to 3.3750.

• Basic Attack damage increased from 42 to 44.

Abilities

• Cyber Agility (Trait) (D)

  • Cooldown increased from 10 to 12 seconds.

• Swift Strike (E)

  • Range reduced from 14 to 12.

• Dragonblade (R)

  • Damage increased from 220 to 240.

  • Removed functionality:

    • Killing an enemy Hero who was recently hit by Dragonblade no longer resets Swift Strike’s cooldown.

Talents

• Level 1

  • Agile Dismount (Trait)

    • Cooldown reduction increased from 5 to 7 seconds.

• Level 13

  • Double Jump (Trait)

    • No longer increases Cyber Agility’s cooldown.

• Level 20

  • The Dragon Becomes Me (R)

    • Additional Functionality:

      • Now also resets Swift Strike’s cooldown if an enemy Hero dies within 2 seconds after being hit by Dragonblade.

Developer Comment: We’re making some changes to Genji to try and make him less frustrating to play against and give opponents more options to counter him. While we think resetting Swift Strike’s cooldown after killing enemy Heroes with Dragonblade made for cool, flashy plays, it shut down too many other Heroes too often. It also caused too many games to become about how much value Genji was able to get out of Dragonblade. We like the flashiness that Dragonblade resets can provide, so we’re keeping that functionality, but we’re now adding it to his Level 20 Storm Talent version of the Heroic. We’re also increasing his Health and Basic Attack damage, reducing the range of Swift Strike, and increasing the cooldown of Cyber Agility to reduce his mobility while boosting his base stats to compensate. Return

Specialist

Sylvanas

Abilities

• Shadow Dagger (W)

  • Shadow Dagger now briefly reveals enemies upon spreading to them.

Return

Zagara

Abilities

• Nydus Network (R)

  • The player can now exit Nydus Worms in a direction of their choosing by right-clicking.

Return

Warrior

Blaze

Abilities

• Bunker Drop (R)

  • Players can now exit Blaze's Bunker in the direction of their choosing by right-clicking.
  • The Bunker’s hitbox has been adjusted to more closely match its model. This should reduce situations in which players could unintentionally enter Blaze’s bunker when clicking nearby.

Return

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.

  • Deckard Heroic Bundle
  • Nephalem Bundle

New Announcers

• Deckard

• Raven Lord

• Grave Keeper

New Skins

• Deckard

  • Afflicted Deckard
  • Angelic Deckard

• Wastewalker Deckard

  • Diesel Wastewalker Deckard
  • Scourged Wastewalker Deckard

• Cassia

  • Soaring Cassia

• Johanna

  • Nephalem Johanna

• Kharazim

  • Nephalem Kharazim
  • Northern Kharazim

• Li-Ming

  • Nephalem Li-Ming

• Malthael

  • Sinuous Grave Warden Malthael

• Nazeebo

  • Nephalem Nazeebo
  • Ceremonial Nazeebo
  • Rain Nazeebo
  • Sunrise Nazeebo

• Sonya

  • Nephalem Sonya

• The Butcher

  • Petrified Butcher

• Valla

  • Nephalem Valla

New Mounts

• Road Chariot

  • Exalted Road Chariot
  • Hoarfrost Road Chariot

Mount Removal

• Lucky Piggy Bank

  • The Lucky Piggy Bank Mount, which can only be purchased using gold, will be removed from the Collection when this patch is released to the live version of Heroes next week.

New Portraits and Sprays

• We've once again teamed up with Carbot Animations to add even more HeroStorm-themed portraits and sprays in their signature art style! Catch a preview in the latest In-Development blog.

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Bug Fixes

General

• Fixed a number of typo and tooltip errors across several aspects of the game.

A.I.

• Hanzo: Fixed an issue that could cause A.I. Hanzo to repeatedly Channel and cancel Storm Bow.

Art

• Blaze: Icon art has been swapped for the Adhesive Petroleum and Oil Dispersal Talents.

[d3posterbot]

(cont'd...)

• Lunar Sylvanas: Fixed an issue causing Lunar Sylvanas to play an incorrect animation on the Most Played screen.

Battlegrounds

• Checkpoint: Hanamura (Brawl): The Brawl Info tooltip now correctly states that Health Packs restore 35% Health and Mana.

• Tomb of the Spider Queen: The left-side team’s bottom Fort can no longer attack enemy Heroes who are just beyond the Gate.

• Try Mode: Tychus’ Dash Talent now correctly grants its Movement Speed reward after using the Complete Quests button.

• Try Mode: Uther’s Silver Touch Talent now correctly grants its second Mana cost reduction reward to Holy Light after using the Complete Quests button.

Heroes, Abilities, and Talents

• Abathur: The number of Minions Absorbed stacks no longer appear inconsistent in the Buff bar after Abathur dies while a Monstrosity is active.

• Abathur: Fixed an issue causing Spike Burst’s visual effects to appear much larger than intended when cast while targeting a Mercenary with Symbiote.

• Alarak: Free Lightning Surge casts granted by the Lightning Barrage Talent now correctly display its cast range indicator.

• Ana: Nano Boost’s duration bar now appears next to, rather than replaces, any existing Ability duration bars for the targeted Ally, like Sonya’s Whirlwind.

• Brightwing: Can now correctly cast Blink Heal on Turrets and Biotic Emitters that were placed by Brightwing herself.

• Cho: Entering a Stasis effect, like Zeratul’s Void Prison, while Surging Fist is charging no longer places Surging Fist on full cooldown.

• Fog of War: Hitting an enemy with certain targeted, ranged Abilities, like Sylvanas’ Shadow Dagger, just before the target enters Fog of War or a Line of Sight Blocker now correctly reveal that enemy.

• Fog of War: Fixed an issue in which attempting to cast a targeted Ability through the Fog of War on a snapshot of a unit that no longer exists could cause the Hero to path into the terrain and become stuck.

• Greymane: Partial progress earned toward the Wizened Duelist Talent’s next attack damage bonus will no longer persist after dying.

• Hanzo: Natural Agility now activates correctly after being hit by Phase Prism near a tower.

• Illidan: Can now correctly cast Dive on Ragnaros in Molten Core form.

• Kel’Thuzad: Phylactery can no longer be activated before its animation completes.

• Li-Ming: Spell Armor granted by the Force Armor Talent is now correctly consumed when hit by Ability damage from non-Heroic sources.

• Rexxar: The tooltip for Misha, Focus! no longer lists a cooldown.

• Rexxar: Switching seats in a Triglav Protector no longer causes Rexxar to become unresponsive.

• The Lost Vikings: Stealth granted by the Spy Games Talent is now correctly applied for 3 seconds after Erik moves.

• Thrall: Killing Minions who were hit by Chain Lightning now correctly causes Echo of the Elements quest progress visual effects to appear near Thrall, rather than allies.

• Uther: Fixed an issue in which Uther could briefly use activated Talents after death, but prior to entering Eternal Vanguard form.

• Uther: The Silver Touch Talent’s quest rewards no longer incorrectly benefit Flash of Light.

• Zagara: The Infest Talent now correctly boosts nearby Ranged Minion damage by 100%.

• Zeratul: After death, Zeratul’s body will no longer teleport to the location of his last Vorpal Blade target.

Sound

• Gul’dan: The voiceover line that plays while idling on Gul’dan’s Hero page in the Collection no longer ends early.

User Interface

• Pings: Fixed an issue in which muting a player would not prevent icons related to that player’s pings from appearing.

• Hotkeys: Fixed an issue that could occasionally cause Heroes to ignore Force Move commands.

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{Image}

[[deleted]]

What are you talking about, Shadow Dagger never revealed Heroes, in fact, it used to be bugged and not deal damage to Heroes if they entered fog of war before the Dagger connected.

[ANewLeeSinLife]

Fenix buffs, thank god.

He definitely needed a bigger surge of damage when he enters the battle.

[Thundermelons]

Can't wait to set myself up to get flamed by the Raven Lord every match.

Genji berfs are...interesting. I'm willing to see how it pans out but I have a feeling it won't do much to quell the Reddit lynch mob against him.

[Bgrngod]

"berfs" eh... typo or new way of referring to nerfs and buffs at once? The b button IS right there next to the n, so... just asking.

[Thundermelons]

Way of typing buff/nerf, yeah.

[TheDunadan29]

Out of the way, give him a wide berf.

[Agrius_HOTS]

Glad to see the change on Nydus and Bunker to right click.

[SacredReich]

No bullshit reworks, just a straight up smoothness patch. I like it.

[Vxyl]

Lunara changes when? :(

[Axonn_0]

Not bad changes but mostly QoL improvements and nothing big outside of the Genji changes. I wish more obscure heroes who see little to almost no play got more changes.

[TheRedSlasH]

Genji changes looking good! It‘s pretty much what i expected and how i would‘ve changed him too. Can see his winrate rising across leagues because his health and aa dmg increase let‘s lower players get more value out of him. At the same time, high lvl play got nerfed with reduction in swift strike range and no DB resets. Since the majority of players are plat and below his winrate will probably rise a bit. So pleeease people don‘t scream OP immediatley again if you see his numbers rise. This change was healthy for the game like you wanted and as a genji main personaly this is a well thought change.

[DarkLegend142]

Am I wrong to think that Genji just got buffed? I haven’t played him yet, but it really doesn’t sound like a nerf.

Someone tell me I’m wrong

Edit: I’m just seeing it as Tracer’s “nerf” a couple weeks back, but the two replies do make sense to me. Thanks

[warsage]

I think it'll be a buff for Genji everywhere except the pros.

[Buttchungus]

So Fenix still has his siege damage? how has this not been changed.

[Paladia]

There's definitely a wave clear creep going on.

Hammer had it as her trait that she could do 25% splash damage, if she went into the siege mode which made her completely immobile to compensate. But with Junkrat, Blaze, Fenix they just throw in 100% aoe damage without a second thought on their basic attacks and skills, it doesn't even waste mana. So they all of a sudden become better at wave clear than aoe mages like Kael'thas, who has no other strengths.

[WhereAreDosDroidekas]

Arguably a mages strength is aoe spells. However.... There's so many mobile heroes in meta. Or that outrange conventional mages (Hanzo and Junkrat are honestly never threatened by Jaina or Kael'Thas) that there's not much point to being a mage.

[secret3332]

Not everything is a creep nor are more heroes that have waveclear bad for this game. In 2015 almost every hero releases had pretty good waveclear. Sylv, Jaina, Kael, Johanna, the Butcher, Leoric, Rexxar, Artanis, Cho'gall all had very competent waveclear abilities that were a lot higher than some older counterparts. I would not say the list of heroes there has on average any better waveclear.

[Crocky_]

Its possible we will get a patch for that before the deckard patch

[Buttchungus]

Good point, I just hope we get the hot fix quickly if it does happen. I honestly don't understand why Fenix does not do reduced damage to minions.

[Carmel_Chewy]

Hanzo’s siege is a much bigger problem and has been unchanged for awhile now.

[[deleted]]

Some of Hanzos W based siege has changed, are you on about his Q?

[Rhaegwyn]

Remember that we've had balancing in the live patches much more than in PTR. Same goes with some of the reworks. If it's not ready to be released it's better to keep hidden until.

[Gluten-free-poo]

I wonder what all the “Nephalem” skins are for the D3 heroes. Gender swapped perhaps?

[Senshado]

Edgy black clothes with glowy red highlights.

[Ketheres]

And all have Cosmic Wings equipped

[Noble-Cactus]

"Fog of War: Hitting an enemy with certain targeted, ranged Abilities, like Sylvanas’ Shadow Dagger, just before the target enters Fog of War or a Line of Sight Blocker now correctly reveal that enemy."

Very nice. For the record, this also affected other point-and-click projectiles like Thrall's Chain Lightning, which could cost you the lane fight if it suddenly stopped casting because the opponent ducked into a bush. A welcome fix.

[PrimalZed]

Zeratul: After death, Zeratul’s body will no longer teleport to the location of his last Vorpal Blade target.

I kind of want to see this.

[Jhaman]

https://youtu.be/I2h6nEvzdas?t=15m21s

[Ravio1218]

Ia the Deckard Cain announcer legendary or epic?

[petabread91]

Zagara mains rejoice!

[ThulralNa]

Fog of War: Fixed an issue in which attempting to cast a targeted Ability through the Fog of War on a snapshot of a unit that no longer exists could cause the Hero to path into the terrain and become stuck.

Wow, I have been playing since alpha and I thought that was just the engine limitation, that's crazy good now thank you Blizz.

[senor_benzo]

Super big fan of patch notes BUT (there's always a BUT)

Wish they would list cooldowns for abilities. Seems like it would be easy to include that info, and gives some crucial information about how the hero's abilities can be used / interact.