Winter Veil 2017 Event Quest Celebrate Winter Veil this year by with a stocking full of in-game treats that you can earn by playing Heroes of the Storm! The event kicks off Tuesday, December 12, and lasts until the week of January 8, so be sure to complete the quests below before they disappear!
4 Part Quest Chain
Part 1: Play 2 Games
Reward: Nostalgic Reign-Deer Spray
Part 2: Play 5 Games
Reward: Winter Veil Warbanner
Part 3: Play 8 Games
Reward: Red Nosed Reign-Deer Portrait
Part 4: Win 5 Games
Reward: Arctic Reign-Deer Mount
2018 Ranked Season 1 Begins
Our new ranked season has begun! Find out more about rewards and requirements here.
Performance-Based Matchmaking
The matchmaking system has been updated to include a performance-based data-driven system, which takes individual player performance into account when determining MMR gains and losses.
Under this new system, players will now reach their intended Matchmaking Rating quicker and more accurately.
In-game Camera height has been significantly increased in order to provide more visibility of the battlefield.
Terrain Outlines
Outlines will now display on terrain when playing Junkrat or Lúcio. This should allow for a more accurate view of what can be used for Frag Launcher bounces and Wall Rides.
Once heir to the Shimada clan's criminal empire, Hanzo abandoned his birthright after he almost killed his younger brother. He now strives to perfect his skills as a warrior, and sees the Nexus and its endless conflict as the ideal training ground.
Trait
Natural Agility (D)
Target unpathable terrain or a Structure to jump to the other side of it.
Basic Abilities
Storm Bow (Q)
Activate to charge an arrow that deals 270 damage to the first enemy hit. Storm Bow's range increases the longer it is Channeled. Reactivate to fire.
Scatter Arrow (W)
Fire an arrow that deals 85 to the first enemy Hero hit. Scatter Arrow can collide with terrain and Structures, splitting into 5 arrows that travel extra distance, ricochet up to 4 additional times, and deal 85 damage each to the first enemy hit.
Sonic Arrow (E)
Fire an arrow that grants vision in a large area 8 seconds. Enemies inside are revealed for 1 second. If Sonic Arrow lands directly on an enemy, it deals 150 damage to them and follows them as they move.
Heroic Abilities
Dragonstrike (R)
After 1.5 seconds, summon a pair of Spirit Dragons which travel forward, dealing 52 damage every 0.25 seconds to enemy Heroes in its area. Enemies in the center take 150% damage.
Dragon's Arrow (R)
Fire a missile that travels across the battleground. Explodes upon hitting an enemy Hero, dealing 100 damage to all nearby enemies and Stunning them for 0.5 seconds.
After traveling a medium distance, the damage is increased to 200 and the Stun duration to 1.25 seconds.
After traveling a long distance, the damage is increased to 350 and the Stun duration to 2 seconds.
The first Battleground objective event will now activate 90 seconds into the match, following a 30-second warning, for the following Battlegrounds:
Blackheart's Bay
Doubloon Chests will now consistently spawn 3 minutes after the final Chest of the previous event has been captured.
Braxis Holdout
Beacon events after the first will now consistently spawn 2 minutes and 10 seconds after a previous Zerg wave has been defeated.
Dragon Shire
Shrines will now consistently spawn 2 minutes after a Dragon Knight has been killed.
The first Battleground objective event will now activate 3 minutes into the match, following a 30-second warning, for the following Battlegrounds:
Battlefield of Eternity
Cursed Hollow
Garden of Terror
Haunted Mines
Infernal Shrines
Sky Temple
Towers of Doom
Warhead Junction
The following Battleground objective timers are unchanged:
Tomb of the Spider Queen
Volskaya Foundry
The Minimap will now indicate the next objective spawn location for the following Battlegrounds:
Cursed Hollow
The first Tribute indicator will appear on the Minimap 30 seconds after the game begins, and subsequent indicators will appear 15 seconds after the previous Tribute has been captured.
Infernal Shrines
The first Shrine indicator will appear on the Minimap 30 seconds after the game begins, and subsequent indicators will appear 30 seconds after a Punisher is defeated.
Hover the cursor over a Shrine indicator on the Minimap to display whether it will be a Mortar, Frost, or Arcane Shrine.
Sky Temple
The first Temple indicators will appear on the Minimap 30 seconds after the game begins, as well as 30 seconds after all Temples in the same event have been depleted.
Towers of Doom
The first Altar indicators will appear on the Minimap 30 seconds after the game begins, as well as 30 seconds after the final Altars in an event has been captured.
Warhead Junction
The first Warhead indicators will appear on the Minimap 30 seconds after the game begins, as well as 30 seconds after the final Warhead in an event has been collected.
Regeneration Globes
Regeneration Globes will now become neutral (claimable by both teams) if not claimed within 3 seconds.
Structures
All attacking structures no longer have ammunition.
Walls will now be destroyed if their connected Towers and Gate are also destroyed. Walls can still be attacked normally.
After reviewing community feedback, we've decided to revert this change. Destroying the Gate and Towers will no longer automatically destroy connected Walls.
Tower vision range has been increased by 25%
Tower damage to minions has been reduced by 25%
Structures now have a warmup period of .5 seconds before firing and must face their targets completely
Structure attack warning responsiveness has been significantly improved
Standalone Towers (found next to Forts and Keeps) have been removed.
The Health, granted Experience, and Damage of Standalone Towers has been redistributed into their surrounding gate Towers, Forts, and Keeps.
Forts and Keeps now have True Sight, meaning they will reveal and attack Stealthed Heroes.
True Sight is disabled while the Structure is disabled by effects such as the Raven Lord's Curse or Sylvanas' Black Arrow Trait.
Minions
Minion base damage has been increased by roughly 10%
The 5 second delay before Minions spawn after the game begins has been removed.
Mercenaries
Respawn Timers
Mercenary Camps will now spawn 60 seconds after the game begins
Siege Giant Camp
Siege Defenders
Defending Siege Giant attacks are now telegraphed on the terrain and can be dodged.
Siege Laners
Attack telegraphing and missile trajectory has been significantly improved.
Hellbat Camp
Respawn times have been doubled
Hellbats will now prioritize structures
Defender Hellbat Stats
Base health increased by 114%,
Health scaling increased by 160%
Damage increased by 83%
Damage scaling reduced by roughly 60%
Laner Hellbat Stats
Base health increased by roughly 18%
Health scaling increased by 25%
Base damage increased by 25%
Damage scaling decreased by 66%
Damage scaling will now stop after 20 minutes (previously 30)
Damage taken from structures reduced by 50%
Attacks now apply a 3-second stacking -5 Armor debuff to all targets, stacking up to 20 times (structures included)
Knight Camp
Wizard Knight Laner
Wizard Knight Laner has a Spell Armor Aura
Grants all nearby Allies (Minions, Mercenaries, and Heroes) 30 Spell Armor
Spell Armor is immediately removed upon leaving the aura area.
This Aura is destroyed when the Wizard is killed
Wizard Knight Defender
Grants nearby Knight Defenders a 15 Spell Armor aura
This Aura is destroyed when the Wizard is killed
Sapper Camp
Sapper Defenders
Now fire their attacks at target areas, instead of directly at Heroes. This behaves like the laning Sappers
Sapper Explosion damage now scales over time
Laning Sappers Health scaling increased by 33%
Respawn timer across all maps increased from 105 to 120 seconds
Laning Sappers now have 100 Armor vs Structures while charging and Towers will ignore charging Sappers
The following new cheats have been added to Sandbox Custom Games:
Spawn Camps
Respawn all Mercenary Camps.
Spawn Dummy
Creates a dialog allowing players to choose a type of dummy to spawn.
Player can then click in the game world to create a dummy of the selected dummy type at mouse cursor position.
One player cannot spawn more than 20 dummies.
When a player deals damage or heals a target dummy the Target Dummy Panel will pop up displaying the damage or healing dealt.
If player deals damage to multiple dummies with an AOE ability, the number will be the combination of damage done to all dummies.
If the team hasn't dealt damage or healing to any of the dummies for 8 seconds, the Target Dummy Panel will disappear for that team.
If a player hasn't dealt damage or healing to any of the dummies for 8 seconds, their damage and DPS will be reset to 0.
Clear Dummies
If the "Share Cheat" checkbox is unchecked, remove all the dummies created by all players.
If the "Share Cheat" checkbox is checked, remove all the dummies created by that player.
Toggle Fog of War
Disabling Fog of War for a team will remove Fog of War, revealing the whole map for that team.
Reset HP/MP
If the "Share Cheat" checkbox is unchecked, reset all players' Health and Mana to full.
If the "Share Cheat" checkbox is checked, reset the player's Health and Mana to full.
Complete Quests
If the "Share Cheat" checkbox is unchecked, complete all talent quests for all player.
If the "Share Cheat" checkbox is checked, complete all talent quests for that player.
Instant Respawn
If the "Share Cheat" checkbox is unchecked, instantly respawn all dead Heroes.
If the "Share Cheat" checkbox is checked, instantly respawn the player's Hero.
Haunted Mines
Issuing a Move command within the Mines while on the Battleground's upper level, or vice versa, will now cause the Hero to use the Mine Entrance or Exit that is the shortest distance from the issued order.
Summoned Grave Golem
Fort and Keep attacks no longer reduce attack speed
Will no longer interrupt its attacks mid-swing to use an Ability
Now passes through player-created walls rather than stopping to destroy them
Ranked Battleground Rotation Update
Added to Rotation
Warhead Junction
Removed from Rotation
Volskaya Foundry
Garden of Terror
The full Ranked Battleground Rotation is now as follows:
Stealth players will now become "Invisible" after remaining still for 1.5 seconds.
Invisible Heroes will not display the Stealth visual effect and can still be removed from Stealth by taking damage. This includes Heroes under the effects of temporary Stealth effects such as Samuro's Windwalk or Tyrande's Shadowstalk.
Additionally, Heroes cannot become Invisible while occupying a capture point, such as Braxis Holdout or Mercenary Camp Beacons. Instead, they will retain normal Stealth visual effects.
Hero portraits will now be displayed when heroes are inside the following Vehicles, Battleground objectives, or Hero Abilities:
Dragon Knight
Garden Terror
Triglav Protector
Anub'arak - Cocoon
Lt. Morales – Medivac Dropship
Stitches - Gorge
Zagara - Devouring Maw
Manual Talent Tier and Hero Status Callouts
Players can now press ALT + left-click Hero portraits and the Team Level UI at the top of the screen to generate notifications for the following situations:
Press ALT + left-click an ally's Hero portrait to inform teammates when that ally needs assistance.
ALT + left-clicking a dead Hero's portrait will generate a chat message indicating that Hero's remaining respawn time.
ALT + left-clicking an enemy Hero portrait will ping that Hero's location on the Minimap if they are within allied vision. If that enemy is outside of allied vision, a chat message will inform allies that the Hero is missing.
Press ALT + right-click the Team Level UI to indicate when both teams are on even Talent tiers, or when one team has a Talent tier advantage over the other.
- Damage reduced from 310 to 255.
- Baseline quest added: Hitting an enemy Hero increases the damage of Snipe by 5% stacking 5 times. When at max stacks (5) it gains an additional 25% damage. If Snipe fails to hit a target, all stacks are lost.
Pinning Shot(W)
- Damage reduced from 110 to 105
Holo Decoy(E)
- Added functionality: Decoys now deal 10% of Nova's damage
- Added functionality: Improved A.I. functionality
Permanent Cloak(Combat Trait)
- Added functionality: Gain 15% movement speed while Stealthed
Triple Tap(R)
- Damage per shot increased from 338 to 372
Ghost Protocol(1)
- New! (1) Activate to instantly cloak, leave a Holo Decoy at your feet, and become unrevealable for .5 seconds.
Talents
Advanced Cloaking
- New functionality: Increase your Stealth movement speed by 5% after remaining stealthed for 2 seconds. While Stealthed, gain 2 additional mana regeneration per second.
Snipe Master
- Removed
One in the Chamber
- Bonus damage reduced from 80 to 70%
Perfect Shot
- Moved from Level 16
- Cooldown reduction on Hero hit reduced from 3 to 2 seconds
Psionic Efficiency
- Bonus range increased from 10 to 15%
- Adjusted functionality: Now refunds the cost of Snipe on a successful Hero hit.
Ionic Force Field
Lethal Decoy
- Damage bonus from clones increased from 40 to 50%
Explosive Round
- Moved from Level 13
Apollo Suit
Precision Barrage
- Added functionality: Now also reduces the cooldown of Precision Strike by 30 seconds.
- Samuro will now appear in the direction of the player's Mouse Cursor when Mirror Image is cast.
- Mirror Image damage is no longer a fraction of Samuro's Attack Damage. Mirror Image base damage has been greatly reduced to 9.
- Mirror Images are no longer instantly destroyed by Structures
Critical Strike(W)
- Cooldown increased from 8 to 10 seconds
Illusion Master(R)
- New functionality: Reduce the cooldown of Advancing Strikes to 8 seconds
- New functionality: Now increases the attack damage of Mirror Images by 100%
- New functionality: Now also increases Samuro's Basic Attack damage by 10%
Image Transmission(Combat Trait)
- Additional functionality: Activate to switch places with the target Mirror Image, removing most negative effects from Samuro and the target Mirror Image. 25-second cooldown.
Talents
Tooltips for various talents have been updated to reflect whether Samuro or his Mirror Images benefit from their effects
Way of the Wind
- New Functionality: Gain 40% Movement Speed for 3 seconds upon entering or exiting Stealth by using Wind Walk
Way of the Blade
- No longer grants bonus Critical Strike damage
Way of Illusion
- Mirror Images no longer benefit from this talent
One With The Wind
- Armor gain now also lasts for 3 seconds after being revealed
- Mirror Images now also gain Armor
- Armor amount reduced from 60 to 30
Phantom Pain
- Mirror Images no longer benefit from this talent
Crushing Blows
- Mirror Images no longer benefit from this talent
- Bonus Critical Strike damage has been removed
- Additional functionality: Samuro's Basic Attacks against enemy Heroes reduce the cooldown of Critical Strike by 1.5 seconds
Kawarimi
- Reduced the time between Samuro issuing a new order after using Wind Walk and the image following it. It should now be harder for the new Image to follow Samuro's new movements after using Wind Walk.
Press the Attack
- Attack Speed bonus reduced from 15% to 10% per stack. Maximum bonus decreased from 60% to 40%
Harsh Winds
- Mirror Images no longer benefit from this talent
Merciless Strikes
- Mirror Images no longer benefit from this talent
- If Valeera is Vanished for 3 seconds, this ability has 5 range and teleports Valeera behind her target.
- Damage reduced from 180 to 130
- Now also reduces enemy Armor by 10 for 4 seconds
Cheap Shot
- Stun duration reduced from 1.25 to .75 seconds
- Now Blinds the target for 2 seconds after the stun effect ends
- If Valeera is Vanished for 3 seconds, this ability has 5 range and teleports Valeera behind her target
Garrote(E)
- Silence duration increased from 2.25 to 2.75 seconds
- If Valeera is Vanished for 3 seconds, this ability has 5 range and teleports Valeera behind her target
Talents
Subtlety
- Adjusted functionality: Now triggers when Valeera teleports to her target with Ambush, Cheap Shot, and Garrote.
- Adjusted functionality: Energy return reduced from 10 to 8 per second.
Crippling Poison(Talent)
- Slow duration reduced from 5 to 4 seconds.
- Valeera's poison is no longer removed after the first damaging Ability, but instead is applied by all Valeera's Abilities for 4 seconds. This duration does not start until Valeera damages her first enemy.
Combat Readiness
- Physical Armor increased from 50 to 60
Wound Poison(Talent)
- Healing reduction duration decreased from 5 to 4 seconds
- Valeera's poison is no longer removed after the first damaging Ability, but instead is applied by all Valeera's Abilities for 4 seconds. This duration does not start until Valeera damages her first enemy
Hemorrhage
- Bonus damage to targets affected by Garrote increased from 25 to 50%
Slice and Dice
- Valeera's Basic Attacks now restore 2 Energy.
Death From Above
- New functionality: Ambush reduces the cooldown of Vanish by 4 seconds.
Blind
- Now increases the duration of Cheap Shot's Blind from 2 to 4 seconds.
Strangle
- Spell Power reduction increased from 25% to 40%
- Duration reduced from 7 to 6 seconds
Assassinate
- Bonus damage reduced from 100% to 50%
- Now also increases the Armor reduction of Ambush by 10 when the target is isolated.
- Moved from level 7
Expose Armor
- Removed.
Nightslayer
- Removed.
Rupture
- Damage bonus now stacks immediately to 100%, instead of stacking up to 30%.
- Moved from level 16
Elusiveness
- Moved from Level 13
- Movement Speed bonus increased from 10% to 20%
LEVEL (TIER)
Valeera Talents
1 (1)
(!) Vigor (Passive)
Subtlety (D)
Combat Readiness (Passive)
Crippling Poison (Active)
4 (2)
Relentless Strikes (Q)
Hemorrhage (E)
Initiative (D)
Wound Poison (Active)
7 (3)
Mutilate (Q)
(!) Fatal Finesse (W)
Slice and Dice (E)
10 (4)
Smoke Bomb (R)
Cloak of Shadows (R)
-
-
13 (5)
Death from Above (Q)
Blind (W)
Strangle (E)
16 (6)
Seal Fate (Q)
Assassinate (Q)
Thistle Tea (Active)
20 (7)
Adrenaline Rush (R)
Enveloping Shadows (R)
Rupture (E)
Elusiveness (D)
(!) indicates a Questing Talent. Italic text indicates a NEW Talent. Underlined text indicates a MOVED Talent.
Vorpal Blade (1)
Added as a baseline ability. Default Hotkey: 1
Move Unseen
Shadow Hunter
- Regen Globe required for quest completion reduced from 20 to 15
- Mana cost reduction of Blink increased from 2 to 3
Combo Slash
- Removed
Grim Task
- Removed
Psionic Strength
Darkness Descends(Talent)
Wormhole
- Duration increased from 2 to 3 seconds
Slip into Shadow
- Removed
- (New Talent) Warp Skirmisher (1)
- Vorpal Blade now has 2 charges. Casting Vorpal Blade also causes Zeratul's next Basic Attack within 6 seconds to deal 30% bonus damage
Fixed a number of typo and tooltip errors across several aspects of the game.
Art
Kharazim: Kharazim's arms and upper body now animated correctly during his dizzy animation.
Leoric: The Shroud of the Dead King Talent will now correctly play an animation and a sound when activated.
Samuro: Monkey King Samuro's model will no longer exhibit flickering during Hero Select while running Medium or High graphic settings.
The Lost Vikings: Fixed an issue causing Baelog to cast superfluous shadows on the terrain.
Battlegrounds
Sky Temple: Fixed an issue that could prevent Temple lasers from appearing correctly on the Minimap.
Structures: Auriel's Blinding Flash and Artanis' Suppression Pulse can no longer Blind Structures.
Towers of Doom: The Headless Horseman Boss is no longer incorrectly categorized as a Monster.
Volskaya Foundry: Fixed an issue in which Heroes on the outer edge of the Hall of Storms would not receive Healing or protection.
Heroes, Abilities, and Talents
Alexstrasza: Life-Binder is no longer interrupted when entering or exiting Dragonqueen.
Diablo: Fixed an issue that could cause Shadow Charge to deal its collision damage multiple times under certain circumstances.
Garrosh: Casting Wrecking Ball on Mercenaries will no longer cause them to leash while in combat.
Gul'dan: Movement caused by a conveyor belt will no longer cancel Rain of Destruction channeling.
Kel'thuzad: The Power of Icecrown Talent will now correctly grant bonus Spell Power for enemy Heroes Slowed by Chains of Kel'Thuzad with the Chains of Ice Talent.
Li-Ming: Zei's Vengeance and Arcane Orb tooltips have been updated to clarify bonus damage functionality. Damage amounts have not been changed.
Lt. Morales: The Second Opinion Talent will now correctly grant cooldown reduction when one of the Heroes struck by Displacement Grenade is piloting a Vehicle, like the Garden Terror.
Lunara: Fixed an inconsistency that allowed Lunara to cast Leaping Strike over some, but not all, allied units after learning Boundless Stride.
Medivh: Creating a Portal entrance after learning Portal Mastery and then entering the Triglav Protector will no longer prevent him from using the Protector's abilities.
Muradin: Learning Reverberation no longer incorrectly updates the Attack Speed Slow amount in Thunder Clap's tooltip.
Murky: Spawn Egg with the Egg Hunt Talent can now be cast correctly on Volskaya Foundry's conveyor belts.
Sgt. Hammer: The Hyper-Cooling Engines talent will no longer grant cooldown reduction from basic attacks against non-Heroic targets while in Siege Mode.
Tychus & Stitches: Tychus can now be affected by Stitches' Gorge while in Commandeer Odin.
User Interface
Death Recap: Fortification Camp Turret attacks now display a Turret icon in the Death Recap screen.
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