Heroes of the Storm patch notes for November 17

GENERAL

Cho’gall has Arrived to the Nexus!

• Cho’gall is a unique new addition to Heroes of the Storm who requires two players to team up, each queuing as either Cho or Gall, in order to play together as one hero.
  • Learn more about Cho’gall by reviewing the New Hero section below.
• Cho’gall Awarded to BlizzCon Attendees
  • All players who attended BlizzCon 2015, or purchased a Virtual Ticket, will permanently receive Cho’gall in their Hero Collections.
• Unlock Cho’gall by Playing with Friends
  • Cho’gall cannot be purchased using Gold or real money.
  • Instead, players who don’t own the two-headed ogre can unlock him by completing a brand new Special Event Quest!
• Special Event Quest: Cho’gall Buddy Brawl
  • Win 2 Games as Cho or Gall while partied with a player who owns Cho’gall to permanently unlock the Hero.
  • Win 4 games as Cho or Gall while partied with players who have not yet unlocked the hero to earn 2,200 Gold.
    • Those who own Cho’gall may only earn this gold reward once. However, they can still help as many other players unlock the hero as they wish.

Hallow’s End has… Ended!

• The Hallow’s End celebration has come to a close, and the following items are no longer available:
  • The Hallow’s End Special Event Quest can no longer be completed, and the portrait reward it offered can no longer be earned.
  • The Hallow’s End and Ultimate Hallow’s End Bundles have been removed from the in-game Shop.

NEW BATTLEGROUND

Towers of Doom

The Grave Keeper and Raven Lord have risen over a dark and mysterious city, each seeking to add it to the territories under their control. Now, these Realm Lords call upon the aid of Heroes in their battle for dominance over the Towers of Doom.

• Please note: Towers of Doom is not currently available in the live version of Heroes of the Storm, as PTR testing has not yet concluded.

• Each Core on this Battleground is surrounded by an indestructible barrier, and cannot be razed by Heroes, Minions, or Mercenaries.
  • Instead, Heroes must capture the Altars that periodically activate within the city. Upon doing so, each of the Bell Towers controlled by the capturing team will fire a payload that damages the opposing Core.
• Bell Tower allegiance is fickle! A Bell Tower that has been destroyed will respawn after a short delay, aligning itself with the team that took it down.
  • Toppling a Bell Tower not only increases a team’s area of control over the Battleground, but also grants an additional payload in the volleys that fire on the enemy Core after capturing an Altar.

Towers of Doom Available Now on PTR

• Towers of Doom is the only Battleground available for play in PTR matchmaking queues.
  • Battleground pools on the PTR have been reduced so that more thorough Towers of Doom playtesting can be done, and any bugs discovered during this time can be fixed before the Battleground is officially released.
• Please note: Towers of Doom will not be available in the live version of Heroes immediately on patch day, but will remain playable on the PTR until playtesting concludes on November 24.

NEW HERO

Cho’gall has been added to Heroes of the Storm! This unique and powerful ogre is two Heroes in one body, requiring that two players team up and queue together as Cho and Gall.

Cho is a Warrior of unmatched might who charges fist-first into battle, controlling movement and Basic Attacks. While Gall cannot move on his own, he is a formidable Assassin armed with a devastating set of dark spells. Read on for a brief overview of their Abilities.

CHO

Trait

• Two-Headed
  • Gall is permanently attached to you, going where you go.

Basic Abilities

• Surging Fist (Q)
  • Wind up for at least 1 second, temporarily slowing yourself, then reactivate to charge in a direction. Enemies in your path are knocked aside and take damage.
• Consuming Blaze (W)
  • Ignite nearby enemies, dealing damage over 4 seconds. If this hits an enemy, gain Health over 4 seconds.
• Rune Bomb (E)
  • Roll a bomb that damages enemies in its path. Gall can use Runic Blast (E) to detonate it, dealing damage in an area.

Heroic Abilities

• Hammer of Twilight (R)
  • Passively increases Basic Attack damage by 25%. Activate to swing the Hammer, which deals damage, pushes enemies away, and stuns them for 0.75 seconds.
• Upheaval (R)
  • After 1 second, pull enemies toward your location, slowing them by 25% for 3 seconds and dealing a small amount of damage.

GALL

Mount

• Hurry Up, Oaf! (Z)
  • Increase Cho’s Movement Speed by 60%. This effect decays over 3 seconds.

Trait

• Two-Headed
  • Permanently attached to Cho, going where he goes. You are immune to Stun and Silence effects.

Basic Abilities

• Shadowflame (Q)
  • Deal damage to enemies in a line.
• Dread Orb (W)
  • Throw a bomb that will bounce three times, dealing damage to enemies on each bounce.
• Runic Blast (E)
  • Detonate Cho’s Rune Bomb, dealing damage around it.

Heroic Abilities

• Twisting Nether (R)
  • After 1 second, enemies are slowed by 40% while you channel, up to 5 seconds. Activate to deal damage.
• Shadow Bolt Volley (R)
  • Unleash 20 Shadow Bolts over 4 seconds, each dealing damage to the first target hit. The bolts fire in the direction of your cursor.

ART

General

• Tower targeting ring size reduced by 50%

Heroes

• Artanis has received improvements for his walk animations
• Stitches has received additional facial animation polish.

Hero Abilities

• The following Hero Abilities and Talents have received visual polish:
  • Magni Muradin – Storm Bolt (Q)
  • Imposing Presence (Talent) – Heroes affected by Imposing Presence’s Attack Speed Slow will now display visual effects.

SHOP

Bundles

• New Bundles have been added, and are available for a limited time.
  • BlizzCon 2015 Championship Bundle
  • Powerhouse Bundle
  • Ultimate Powerhouse Bundle

• Bundle Removals
  • Hallow’s End Bundle
  • Ultimate Hallow’s End Bundle

Heroes

• New Hero
  • Cho’gall has been added to Heroes of the Storm, but cannot be purchased at this time.

Mounts

• New Mounts
  • Felstalker – Unlocked exclusively by pre-purchasing the Digital Deluxe or Collector’s Edition for World of Warcraft: Legion. 

Price Changes

• Jaina’s prices have been reduced to 4,000 Gold and $6.49 USD.

Skins

• New Skins
  • Corruptor Cho’gall
  • Master Cho’gall

USER INTERFACE

General

• Party and game invitation pop-ups will now display the inviting player’s portrait frame.
• Two-player parties in Hero League Draft Lobbies will no longer receive single pick slots, and will now always select their Heroes on the same turn.
  • This way, partied players who would like to select Cho’gall can pick Cho and Gall at the same time.

In-Game UI

• In-Game Score Screen
  • The Takedown column on the in-game Score Screen (TAB) has been split into two new columns: Kills and Assists.
    • Kills can be earned by scoring the final blow on an enemy Hero.
    • Assists function in much the same way that Takedowns did in previous versions of the game. Any ally that is nearby when an enemy Hero is slain will receive an Assist for that kill.
• Minimap
  • The minimap will now visually indicate when allied Heroes are using Hearthstone to return to the Hall of Storms.
    • Additionally, a chat message will be displayed whenever an ally activates Hearthstone.This message will not display more than once every 10 seconds.

DESIGN & GAMEPLAY

Scaling Changes

• Health and damage scaling for all Heroes, Battleground Events, Minions, and Mercenaries has been changed from flat, additive values to values that are multiplicative by percentage.
• A large portion of Heroes’ total scaling amounts, which were previously gained over the course of a game, have been added to their base values.
  • Please review our recent blog on scaling and respawn timer changes for more details.

Developer Comments: Due to the way that our old level scaling system worked, early game level discrepancies created a larger difference in power level than we liked.  This often led to situations where a team could be up two or more levels early in a game, and use this advantage to create a larger lead.  We didn’t feel that games were fun for the winning or losing team in these types of scenarios.

As a result of these changes, all Heroes will have more power early, but gain less from each level.  Battleground Events, Minions, Mercenaries, and Structures have all been adjusted to compensate for this and should feel close to what they did previously.

The aim of these adjustments to the scaling system is to make level differences have a similar impact on your Hero’s statistics at all points in a game.  Now, each level offers about 4% Health and 4% damage, which mirrors what late game leads felt like in our previous version of the game.  It is important to note, that while being down a few levels will be less punishing than it was previously, Talent tier advantages can and will still have a noticeable impact on enemy engagements.

Respawn Timers

• Respawn timers have been increased for levels 1 – 10.
  • Please review our recent blog on scaling and respawn timer changes for more details.

Developer Comments: In order to reward players for getting early game Takedowns, we’re also increasing the respawn time of dead Heroes at low levels.  Now, getting early game Takedowns (and the experience associated with it) won’t give your team as much pure power as it did previously. Instead, early kills will offer a “power play” moment, in which your team can destroy enemy Structures, complete Battleground Events, or take more Mercenaries.  These meaningful strategic advantages will position a team closer to victory, without giving them a large stat advantage and the ability to bully the opposing enemy team.

Attack Speed Slows

• Attack speed slows now apply only to Heroes and Summons.

Tooltips

• Several tooltips that lacked specific details regarding delays, charges gained, etc., have been updated with exact details.

BATTLEGROUNDS

Haunted Mines

• This Battleground has been removed from all matchmaking queues for the foreseeable future, but is still playable in Custom Games

Developer Comments: We’ll be adding Towers of Doom to the map pool in an upcoming patch. This will expand the size of our map pool to 10 total Battlegrounds. To prevent the number of maps we have available to players in Quick Match and Hero League from being overbearing, we’ve decided to temporarily rotate out Haunted Mines. We feel the number of maps we have available are reaching a threshold that we may not be comfortable with.

TALENTS

Gathering Power

• Hero takedowns now increase Ability Power by 2% per kill, up to a maximum of 30%.  All stacks are now also lost upon death.

Developer Comments: We wanted to make Gathering Power a more high risk, high reward talent that encouraged specific gameplay. Now, with a much higher cap, the reward for this talent is much higher. The counterplay becomes the burden of the opposing team, as they’ll need to focus the Hero who has Gathering Power to reset their stacks.

HEROES

ASSASSIN

FALSTAD

• Hammerang (Q)
  • Conjurer’s Pursuit (Talent) removed
  • Gathering Power (Talent) removed
  • Power Throw (Talent) moved from Level 1 to Level 4
  • New Talent (Level 1): Gathering Storm
    • Permanently increases Hammerang’s damage by 1 every time it damages an enemy Hero
• Flow Rider (Talent)
  • No longer decreases Barrel Roll’s cooldown
  • Now causes Basic Abilities to recharge 100% faster while the Tailwind trait is active

Developer Comments: Our Falstad changes were geared towards supporting Talent diversity. We wanted to make small changes while still providing a meaningful impact. The new and changed talents will add some higher skill options to confident Falstad players.

JAINA

• Frostbite (Trait)
  • Deep Chill (Talent)
    • Bonus to the Movement Speed slow applied by Chill decreased from 35% to 30%

Developer Comments: Jaina having a 35% slow available at level 1 is very hard to play against, and resulted in a majority of Jaina players picking Deep Chill. This is a small decrease, but has had a positive impact on our playtesting.

ZERATUL

• Focused Attack (Talent) removed
• New Talent (Level 4): Master Warp-Blade
  • Every 3rd consecutive Basic Attack against the same Hero deals 100% bonus damage

Developer Comments: Focused Attack was providing Zeratul with a little too much burst damage. Now with the consecutive hit requirement, Zeratul will now gain a more substantial damage boost if he is able to stick to his target for a few seconds.

 

SUPPORT

KHARAZIM

• Insight (Trait)
  • Mana regeneration granted on every third hit increased from 12 (+0.21 per level) to 14 (+0.36 per level)
• Iron Fists (Trait)
  • Damage bonus granted on every third hit increased from 100% to 125%

Developer Comments: Most Kharazim players pick Transcendence at level 1, and this is often the most powerful option regardless of the situation. We tuned up the other two options here to help provide Kharazim players with different options.

UTHER

• Eternal Devotion (Trait)
  • Spirit form duration decreased from 10 to 8 seconds
• Divine Shield (R)
  • Cooldown increased from 70 to 90 seconds

Developer Comments: Uther is highly contested at high levels of competitive play, so we wanted to target a few nerfs that would have a larger impact at that level. We also wanted to focus our changes on two abilities that offer very little counterplay for the enemy team.

 

WARRIOR

LEORIC

• Drain Hope (W)
  • Cooldown decreased from 12 to 11 seconds
  • If Leoric is stunned while casting Drain Hope, the stun will no longer cancel the Ability and the missile will continue to travel
  • Damage dealt and Health gained reduced from 25% to 20%
  • Damage and Healing no longer gradually increase over the Ability’s duration, but instead does a consistent amount of damage and healing with each tick.

Developer Comments: We wanted to remove the scaling damage and heal amount on Drain Hope, but knew the change alone would be a significant buff as much of the value is loaded at the end of the ability. In response, we lowered this value by 5% and also reduced the cooldown by 1 second.

REXXAR

• Misha (Trait) (D)
  • Misha’s death timer portrait will now appear in the death timer bar while she is respawning
  • The frequency at which Rexxar’s voiceover will play when commanding Misha has been reduced
• Misha, Fixate (1)
  • Misha, Fixate has been renamed Misha, Focus!

BUG FIXES

General

• Fixed an issue which could cause a team with no Support Heroes to be matched against a team with Support Heroes in the Quick Match queue.
• Fixed an issue in which the Auto-Select Hero could occasionally fail to give the player a Support Hero on teams that lacked Supports.
• Fixed an issue that could cause French AZERTY keyboards to revert to using QWERTY keyboard hotkeys.

Battlegrounds

• The tooltip for the Plant Terror’s Overgrowth Ability no longer states that it does not disable the enemy Core.
• Fixed an issue that prevented Hero vision radiuses from displaying on Infernal Shrines and Battlefield of Eternity minimaps.

Heroes and Talents

• Abathur can no longer capture objectives at his body’s location while using Ultimate Evolution.
• Abathur’s Adrenal Overload Talent now properly increases Monstrosity’s attack speed while it is under the effects of Symbiote.
• Ultimate Evolution Clones and Monstrosities will now properly receive the benefits of Abathur’s Volatile Mutation Talent if it is selected after a Summon is already active.
• Heroes with the Relentless Talent that become Polymorphed will now properly receive damage from Brightwing’s Unstable Anomaly Talent when Polymorph expires.
• The visual effects for Butcher’s Brand will no longer persist on a target that is protected from death by Kharazim’s Divine Palm.
• Chen’s Spirit forms will now properly leave Stealth after casting an Ability during Storm, Earth, Fire.
• Heroes that are simultaneously struck by Diablo’s Overpower and Stitches’ Hook will no longer be thrown outside the playable area.
• A Hero that activates Ice Block while simultaneously coming under the effects of Stitches’ Gorge will now properly retain Ice Block’s visual effects for the duration of the Talent’s effects.
• Fixed a bug that could cause Stealthed Heroes to fire a Basic Attack at a nearby enemy immediately after Mounting.
• Fixed an issue that could allow Leoric to change direction while using March of the Black King.
• Fixed an issue that could cause a Medivac to persist on the battlefield if Lt. Morales was killed while casting Medivac Dropship.
• Damage prevented by Lt. Morales’ Safeguard will now always be displayed in whole numbers.
• The cooldown for Kerrigan’s Ravage will now be properly reset when it is used to destroy an enemy Structure.
• Misha can now properly return to Rexxar if she is on the opposite side of an enemy Gate and an open path exists where a Wall was destroyed.
• Sonya’s next Basic Attack after casting Ancient Spear will now properly benefit from the Follow Through Talent.
• Heal over time and damage over time previews for Tyrande’s Shadowstalk and Kael’thas’ Living Bomb will now more accurately reflect the burst Healing and burst damage amounts at the end of each Ability’s effects.

User Interface

• Legendary and Epic Hero Skins are now appropriately labeled as such on the Hero Select screen.
• Fixed an issue that prevented mouse-wheel scrolling through the Friends List while browsing the Shop.
• Players in Hero League draft lobbies can no longer be invited to join a Real-ID friend’s party.