Heroes of the Storm Patch Notes – March 28, 2018

StarCraft 20th Anniversary

Join us in celebrating StarCraft’s 20th anniversary with new StarCraft-themed portraits you can earn just by logging into Heroes of the Storm from March 27 through April 23.

StarCraft 20th Anniversary Portrait Rewards

New Hero: Fenix

As one of the greatest heroes in protoss history, Fenix’s deeds on the battlefield are legendary. After falling to the zerg during the invasion of Aiur, his body was recovered and implanted into a dragoon so he could continue to fight. Not even death can stop Fenix from achieving glory and valor.

Trait

• Shield Capacitor

  <ul style="list-style-type:circle;">
      <li><span style="font-size:14px;">Fenix has a permanent 800 Shield, which regenerates at 80 per second after not taking damage for 5 seconds.</span></li>
  </ul>
  </li>
  

Basic Abilities

• Plasma Cutter (Q)

  <ul style="list-style-type:circle;">
      <li><span style="font-size:14px;">Create a laser beam at the target point that circles around Fenix twice, dealing 150 damage to enemies hit and Slowing them by 25% for 4 seconds.</span></li>
  </ul>
  </li>
  <li><span style="color:#0099ff;"><span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Switch Weapon Mode (W)</strong></span></span>
  <ul style="list-style-type:circle;">
      <li><span style="font-size:14px;">Activate to switch between Weapon Mode: Repeater Cannon and Weapon Mode: Phase Bomb.</span></li>
      <li><span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Weapon Mode: Phase Bomb</strong></span>
      <ul>
          <li><span style="font-size:14px;">Basic Attacks have 1.5 increased range, deal 25% more damage, and splash to nearby enemies.</span></li>
      </ul>
      </li>
      <li><span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Weapon Mode: Repeater Cannon</strong></span>
      <ul>
          <li><span style="font-size:14px;">Basic Attack speed increased by 150%.</span></li>
      </ul>
      </li>
  </ul>
  </li>
  <li><span style="color:#0099ff;"><span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Warp (E)</strong></span></span>
  <ul style="list-style-type:circle;">
      <li><span style="font-size:14px;">Warp to targeted location, phasing out after 0.5 seconds, and arriving 0.75 seconds later.</span></li>
  </ul>
  </li>
  

Heroic Abilities

• Purification Salvo (R)

  <ul style="list-style-type:circle;">
      <li><span style="font-size:14px;">Channel for 1.5 seconds, sweeping a laser in front of Fenix that locks onto enemy Heroes. Once Channeling finishes, fire 5 missiles at each locked Hero, dealing 86 damage each. Deals 50% increased damage to Slowed targets.</span></li>
  </ul>
  </li>
  <li><span style="color:#0099ff;"><span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Planet Cracker (R)</strong></span></span>
  <ul style="list-style-type:circle;">
      <li><span style="font-size:14px;">After 0.5 seconds, Channel a powerful beam that spans across the battleground for 4 seconds, dealing 105 damage every 0.25 seconds to non-Structure enemies hit.</span></li>
  </ul>
  </li>
  

Art

Heroes, Abilities, and Talents

• Heroes will no longer leave a behind a “ghost” that fades away after casting Hearthstone.

User Inteface

In-Game UI

• Party Frames

  <ul style="list-style-type:circle;">
      <li><span style="font-size:14px;">Muting another player’s pings will now also mute any death timer pings that player issues by ALT   clicking the party frames UI at the top of the screen.</span></li>
      <li><span style="font-size:14px;">While in Undying form, Leoric’s party frame Health bar will display how much time remains before he respawns.</span></li>
  </ul>
  </li>
  <li><span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Score Screen (TAB)</strong></span>
  <ul style="list-style-type:circle;">
      <li><span style="font-size:14px;">Icons have replaced the column headers on the in-game score screen. Hover the mouse cursor over the icons for a brief description of each column.</span></li>
  </ul>
  </li>
  

Draft Mode

• Hero and player nameplates that appear beneath Hero portraits have swapped positions.

  <ul>
      <li><span style="font-size:14px;">Hero names will now appear in the upper nameplate, and player names will appear in the lower nameplate.</span></li>
  </ul>
  </li>
  <li><span style="font-size:14px;">Allied Hero names are now visible to teammates before they lock in their picks.</span>
  <ul>
      <li><span style="font-size:14px;">The opposing team’s Hero names will not appear until those players lock in their picks.</span></li>
      <li><span style="font-size:14px;">Spectators cannot see Hero names for either team until each player locks in their pick.</span></li>
  </ul>
  </li>
  <li><span style="font-size:14px;">The opposing team’s player names are no longer visible during a draft.</span>
  <ul>
      <li><span style="font-size:14px;">Spectators cannot see player names for either team until all players in the draft lobby have locked in their Hero picks.</span></li>
  </ul>
  </li>
  

Battlegrounds

Try Mode

• Two additional target dummies have been added to Try Mode to assist in testing Abilities and Talents that can hit multiple targets.

Heroes Brawl

• New Co-operative Brawl: Deadman’s Stand

  <ul style="list-style-type:circle;">
      <li><span style="color:#FF8C00;"><span style="font-size:14px;">Deadman’s Port is under siege by the voracious zerg Swarm.</span></span>
  
      <ul>
          <li><span style="color:#FF8C00;"><span style="font-size:14px;">Choose one Hero from a curated roster and work together with your allies to defend the Port’s fortifications.</span></span></li>
          <li><span style="color:#FF8C00;"><span style="font-size:14px;">Hold off the invading zerg long enough for Mira Han to activate the Psi Disruptor.</span></span></li>
          <li><span style="color:#FF8C00;"><span style="font-size:14px;">Stay on the lookout for infested Heroes and devastating Infested Archangels, which have been sighted in the area.</span></span></li>
          <li><span style="color:#FF8C00;"><span style="font-size:14px;">Deadman's Stand will be available starting March 30.</span></span></li>
      </ul>
      </li>
  </ul>
  </li>
  <li><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="color:#0099ff;"><strong>AzmoDUNK!</strong></span></span>
  <ul style="list-style-type:circle;">
      <li><span style="font-size:14px;">Each Gem turned in now grants 3 Taste for Blood stacks.</span></li>
      <li><span style="font-size:14px;">Killing a Hero with Globe of Annihilation now resets its cooldown and refunds its Mana cost.</span></li>
  </ul>
  </li>
  

Developer Comment: With AzmoDUNK, we want to really reward successful dunks. To do so, we’ve added a free throw after a successful kill with a Globe. This should allow for some really exciting hot streaks. We’ve also updated the Tomb mechanic to give stacks of Taste for Blood, allowing a team who plays the mechanic to build stacks quite a bit quicker.

Design

Shields

• Armor will now mitigate bonus damage dealt to Shields by effects like Varian's Shattering Throw and Kel'Thuzad's Strip Shields.

Heroes

Collection

New Bundles

Bug Fixes

General

• Fixed a number of typo and tooltip errors across several aspects of the game.
• Loot Chests: Fixed a rare issue that could prevent players from receiving a Loot Chest on Hero level-up.

A.I.

• Chromie: Fixed an issue preventing A.I. Chromie from casting Sand Blast.
• Gazlowe: A.I. Gazlowe will no longer interrupt its own Doubloon turn-ins on Blackhearts Bay in order to place Rock-It! Turrets.
• Leoric: A.I. Leoric will no longer remain stationary after activating Wraith Walk.
• Malfurion: A.I. Malfurion will no longer attempt to cast Entangling Roots on non-Heroic enemies.
• Medivh: A.I. Medivh wil no longer become stuck after attempting to use a Mine Entrance on Haunted Mines while in Raven Form.
• Murky: Fixed an issue that could cause A.I. Murky to repeatedly place Egg in the same location, even if its existing Egg was undamaged.

Art

• Gazlowe: Dying and respawning after learning Robo-Goblin will no longer remove the player’s selected skin from the Robo-Goblin model.
• Malthael: Reaper's Mark visual effects will no longer persist if the target is killed just before Reaper’s Mark is applied.
• Nazeebo: Choosing the Superstition Talent while Nazeebo is dead will no longer cause Spell Shield visual effects to persist on the terrain after subsequent deaths.
• Loot Chests: The D.Haka portrait will no longer display placeholder art on the Loot Chest rewards screen.
• Mecha Tassadar: Attacking while using the Mecha Morph Mount will no longer cause Distortion Beam to visually originate above Mecha Tassadar’s head.

Battlegrounds

• Battlefield of Eternity: Destroying a Healing Fountain in the middle lane will no longer cause Minimap icons for Healing Fountains in other lanes to disappear.
• Braxis Holdout: Destroying a Healing Fountain will no longer cause Minimap icons for Healing Fountains in the top lane to disappear.
• Haunted Mines: Queueing movement commands during Hearthstone Channeling while in the Mines will no longer cancel Hearthstone.
• Volskaya Foundry: Fixed an issue that could cause Heroes who were piloting a Triglav Protector to become unresponsive after the Protector is destroyed by a Damage over Time effect.
• Warhead Junction: Fixed an issue that could cause Heroes to teleport back to the Hall of Storms after moving to a specific area of terrain before the game begins.

Heroes, Abilities, and Talents

• Abathur: Monstrosities will no longer deal area of effect damage on death if Abathur hasn’t learned the Volatile Mutation Talent.
• Alarak: Rite of Rak’shir can no longer be removed when Samuro casts Mirror Image or Chen casts Storm, Earth, Fire.
• Anub’arak: Cocoon will no longer trap Pilot-form D.Va if she has already successfully cast Call Mech.
• Blaze: After learning Oil Dispersal, Oil Spill’s targeting indicator now correctly increases in size to reflect the Ability’s new area of effect.
• Blaze: Casting Flame Stream on a target who is standing in an unignited Oil Spill will now correctly register as two Flame Stream hits, rather than one.
• Blaze: Unignited Oil Spills will no longer reduce enemy Structures’ Attack Speeds after learning the Nanomachine Coating Talent.
• Blaze: Flame Stream is no longer visible through the Fog of War when cast near the edge of the enemy team’s vision.
• Dehaka: Fixed an issue that could cause Drag visual effects to persist indefinitely if the Ability connected across unpathable terrain.
• D.Va: Self-Destruct’s charge percentage will now correctly reset to 0% between rounds during Heroes Brawls.
• Gall: Shove can no longer be cast while Cho is being pulled by Stitches’ Hook.
• Genji: Fixed an issue that could cause enemy targeted Abilities to hit Genji rather than the intended target during Dragonblade.
• Greymane: Fixed an issue that could cause Razor Swipe’s area of effect and damage to become disjointed from Greymane’s location.
• Hanzo: Reactivating Dragon’s Arrow via the Play of the Game Talent after the Arrow has traveled beyond Warhead Junction’s playable area will no longer teleport Hanzo to an unreachable location.
• Illidan: Hitting two Heroes with Sweeping Strike at maximum range will now correctly apply the bonus damage granted by the Battered Assault Talent.
• Kel’Thuzad: Chilling Touch can now correctly deal damage to Gall’s Eye of Kilrogg.
• Kharazim: Seven-Sided Strike will now correctly target Stealth enemy Heroes who have been revealed.
• Leoric: Will no longer become permanently Unstoppable if he is affected by Stasis during Wraith Walk.
• Li Li: Casting Cloud Serpent on Pilot-form D.Va just before she casts Call Mech will no longer prevent the Serpent from following Mech-form D.Va.
• Lunara: Queued Leaping Strikes will no longer continue to target an enemy Hero who enters Stealth before the Heroic Ability actually fires.
• Malfurion: Entangling Roots will no longer affect non-Heroic targets.
• Ragnaros: Blind and Evasion effects will no longer cause Empower Sulfuras’s Ability Damage to miss.
• Rexxar: Completing the Hunter-Gatherer Talent’s quest now correctly grants bonus Armor to Misha.
• Rexxar: Misha, Focus! will now correctly grant Misha its passive 15% Movement Speed bonus.
• Samuro: Casting Mirror Image now correctly clears any Move commands that had been queued for the real Samuro.
• Stitches: Hook visual effects will no longer persist indefinitely if the target is thrown by Garrosh’s Wrecking Ball while being pulled toward Stitches.
• Stukov: Will no longer become unresponsive after attempting to cast Lurking Arm behind the allied Hall of Storms.
• The Lost Vikings: Spin to Win! visual effects are no longer visible through the Fog of War near the edge of the enemy team’s vision.
• Tracer: Can no longer cast Pulse Bomb while Channeling to launch a Nuke on Warhead Junction.
• Tyrande: Fixed an issue that could cause Sentinel’s visual effects to become slightly disjointed from the Ability’s path of travel.
• Uther: Devotion’s tooltip now more clearly communicates that allied Heroes affected by Uther’s Basic Abilities will gain Armor, rather than Heroes Healed by Uther’s Basic Abilities. This is a tooltip correction only; the Trait’s functionality has not been changed.
• Valeera: Activating Crippling Poison, Wound Poison, or Thistle Tea will no longer clear queued orders or Abilities.
• Valla: Fixed an issue that could prevent Hungering Arrow from seeking, or dealing damage to, targets after the first when cast at maximum range.

Sound

• Hanzo: Will no longer play an incorrect voiceover line to allies upon casting Hearthstone.
• Illidan: The volume for Illidan’s voiceover during The Hunt has been reduced to better match other game sounds.