Heroes of the Storm > NewsNov 1, 2017 7:01 pm CT

Heroes balance patch changes stealth

By Anna Bell

Most of the team at Blizzard are burning the midnight oil to get everything done on time for BlizzCon 2017. However, all their day to day operations are still going on, including hotfixes for Heroes of the Storm. Junkrat is getting his traditional post-release tuning pass, but surprisingly most of those tweaks are slight buffs.

The change which will affect the most players is a difference in how the fog of war and stealth works. Before, abilities like Chain Lightning wouldn’t chain to heroes that couldn’t be seen. After the hotfix, they do. It’s something even non-stealth heroes need to be aware of. It gives certain characters a way to scout out bushes, but it also means waiting in the bushes to gank a straggler is a little bit less viable.

An amusing change came about for Leoric, as pointed out to me by Alex Ziebart. His Entomb cooldown is now down to 50 seconds. This is actually what it was before they started messing around with Entomb’s cooldown. Well, not all design decisions can be good ones!

Keep on reading for the full patch notes.

Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment (Official Post)

We just released a new patch for Heroes of the Storm in order to apply balance changes alongside a few bug fixes.

Design

Stealth

Bouncing or chaining abilities (Chain Lightning, Shadow Dagger, etc.) will now bounce to targets that are outside allied vision.

Heroes

Assassin

Junkrat

Stats

Base Maximum Health increased from 1273 to 1350
Health Regeneration increased from 2.7 to 2.8

Abilities

Frag Launcher (Q)
- Damage increased from 117 to 128

Talents

Level 4
- Taste for Explosions (Q)
  - Damage decreased from .75 to .5 per hit, maximum damage decreased from 150 to 100
- Bonzer Hits (W)
  - Bonus damage increased from 30 to 40%
- Gotta Trap ‘Em All (E)
  - Heroes hit requirement reduced from 8 to 7
Level 7
- Sticky Wicket (E)
  - Slow duration increased from 3 to 3.5 seconds

Raynor

Abilities

Adrenaline Rush (E)
- Cooldown reduced from 40 to 30 seconds

Talents

Level 4
- Relentless Leader (Passive)
  - Cooldown reduction of Adrenaline Rush decreased from 15 to 10 seconds

Tychus

Stats

Basic Attack Damage increased from 44 to 48

Abilities

Overkill (Q)
- Primary Damage increased from 43 to 46
- Secondary damage increased from 21 to 23

Valla

Abilities

Hungering Arrow (Q)
- Primary damage reduced from 151 to 140
- Secondary (bounce) damage reduced from 86 to 80

Talents

Level 1
- Caltrops (E)
  - Time required at 10 stacks of Hatred to unlock reward reduced from 180 to 160 seconds

Zul’jin

Abilities

Guillotine (R)
- Cooldown increased from 30 to 40 seconds

Talents

Level 1
- Boneslicer (Q)
  - Mana refund increased from 10 to 15
Level 4
- Voodoo Shuffle (Active)
  - Cooldown and Mana cost reduction increased from 33 to 40%
Level 7
- Ferocity (Passive)
  - Attack speed bonus increased from 35 to 40%
- Vicious Assault (Q)
  - Damage bonus increased from 30 to 35%
Level 13
- Eye of Zul’jin (Passive)
  - Movement speed per stack increased from 3 to 6%
    - Cap remains at 30%

Specialist

Azmodan

Abilities

General of Hell (D)
- No longer grants additional Minion & Mercenary Health
- Minion & Mercenary damage increased from 15 to 25%

Talents

Level 1
- Sieging Wrath (Q)
  - Damage per player hit reduced from 4 to 3
  - Damage needed to unlock quest reduced from 100 to 90

Zagara

Abilities

Nydus Network (R)
- Charge cooldown increased from 60 to 100 seconds.

Support

Kharazim

Talents

Level 1
- Iron Fists (Trait)
  - Movement Speed bonus reduced from 30 to 25%
- Transcendence (Trait)
  - Added Functionality:
    - Now also grants Kharazim 25% Movement Speed on the third punch
- Insight (Trait)
  - Added Functionality:
    - Now also grants Kharazim 25% Movement Speed on the third punch

Stukov

Stats

Base Maximum Health increased from 1590 to 1682
Health regen increased from 3.31 to 3.5

Warrior

Garrosh

Talents

Level 16
- Earthshaker (E)
  - Stun duration decreased from .75 to .6 seconds

Leoric

Abilities

Entomb (R)
- Cooldown reduced from 60 to 50 seconds

Talents

Level 4
- Kneel Peasants! (Q)
  - Damage bonus to Minions increased from 75 to 100%

Muradin

Abilities

Storm Bolt (Q)
- Mana cost decreased from 50 to 45

Talents

Level 4
- Sledgehammer (Q)
  - Bonus damage increased from 300% > 350%
Level 7
- Skullcracker (Passive)
  - Damage bonus increased from 60 to 70%
- Heavy Impact (E)
  - Adjusted functionality:
    - Now slows enemies by 80% for .75 seconds

Bug Fixes

Heroes, Abilities, and Talents

Kerrigan: Triggering the Double Strike Talent after learning Fury of the Storm will no longer cause the next Basic Attack to deal more than the intended amount of cleave damage to secondary targets.
Muradin: After learning Thunder Burn, Thunder Clap will no longer fail to fire a second time if an enemy was struck by the outer-edge of the initial cast’s area of effect.
Muradin: Fixed an issue causing Muradin’s Second Wind Trait and Third Wind Talent to restore less than the intended amount of Health.
Nazeebo: The Superstition Talent’s visual effects will no longer persist after Nazeebo is killed.
Zul’jin: The Troll’s Blood Talent will now correctly restore 10% of Zul’jin’s maximum Mana when Regeneration channeling completes.