A new patch has just been released, introducing a new Hero as well as a handful of balance changes to the Nexus. To learn more about the new changes check out the official release below.
Slay heroes in Kel'Thuzad's name to earn in-game rewards before the event concludes on September 25, 2017!
Each quest in this four-part chain must be completed in order, and only one quest will be active at any given time.
Games played in Versus A.I., Quick Match, Unranked, and Ranked modes all count toward quest progress.
Games played during the Acolyte, Necromancer, and Lich Lord quests must be won in order to earn takedown credit.
Quests and Rewards
Ghoul: Play a game with Kel'Thuzad present on either team.
Reward: Ghoul Portrait
Acolyte: Achieve 30 takedowns in winning games.
Reward: Acolyte Portrait
Necromancer: Achieve 60 takedowns in winning games.
Rewards: Necromancer Portrait and Necromancer's Blight Spray
The Lich Lord: Achieve 90 takedowns in winning games.
Rewards: Kel'Thuzad Portrait and Naxxramas Warcrest Banner
Ranked Play
2017 Ranked Season 3
Once today's patch arrives to the live version of Heroes of the Storm, 2017 Ranked Season 2 will officially come to a close, and Season 3 will begin!
League standings will be reset and all players will need to play through 10 Placement Matches in order to receive their new starting ranks in Hero and Team Leagues for 2017 Season 3.
The matchmaking system's certainty level in all players' matchmaking ratings will once again be loosened in order to make it a little easier to move up and down the rankings during initial matches this season.
Placement Matches
Players with high matchmaking ratings (MMR) can now place as high as 1,000 points into Master League.
Grandmaster League
Promotions into Grandmaster League will now occur 2 weeks after a new Ranked Season begins.
Kel'Thuzad has faithfully served the Lich King both in life and after death. Reanimated as the Archlich of the Scourge and given domain of the Dread Necropolis, Naxxramas, Kel'Thuzad remains Arthas's most trusted advisor and master of the cold dark.
Trait
Master of the Cold Dark
Quest: Gain 1 Blight every time a Hero is Rooted by Frost Nova or hit by Chains of Kel'Thuzad.
Reward: After gaining 15 Blight, the cooldown of all Basic Abilities is reduced by 2 seconds.
Reward: After gaining 30 Blight, gain 75% Spell Power.
Basic Abilities
Death and Decay (Q)
After 0.5 seconds, launch an orb that explodes upon hitting an enemy, dealing damage to enemies in the area. The explosion leaves behind a pool of decay that lasts 2 seconds, dealing damage every 0.5 seconds to enemies.
Frost Nova (W)
Create a nova that explodes after 1 second, dealing damage to enemies inside and Slowing them by 35% for 2.5 seconds. Enemies in the center are Rooted for 1 second.
Chains of Kel'Thuzad (E)
Launch a chain, dealing damage to the first enemy Hero or Structure hit. For 4 seconds after hitting an enemy, Chains can be reactivated to launch to an additional enemy, pulling both enemies together and Stunning them for 0.5 seconds.
Heroic Abilities
Frost Blast (R)
Launch a meteor of ice at an enemy Hero. Upon impact, the meteor deals damage to its target and damages enemies in the area. All enemies hit by Frozen Tomb are Rooted for 1.5 seconds.
Shadow Fissure (R)
Create a fissure anywhere on the Battleground that explodes after 1.5 seconds, dealing damage to enemies in its area.
A quest column has been added to the Talents tab on the in-game Score Screen.
Baseline quests, such as Kel'Thuzad's Master of the Cold Dark or Nazeebo's Voodoo Ritual, will appear in this column and quest progress will be visible to all players in the match.
Notifications will now appear in the in-game Event Log (AKA Kill Feed) whenever a player completes a quest or reaches an important quest milestone.
Quest resets will now appear next to the portrait of the slain enemy in the Event Log.
Ex: Flamestrike's icon art will appear next to Kael'thas' portrait in the Event Log if he is killed prior to completing the Convection quest.
Upon completing a quest, a personal notification will now display for the player at the top center of the screen stating the name of the completed quest.
The full Ranked Battleground Rotation is now as follows:
Battlefield of Eternity
Blackheart's Bay
Braxis Holdout
Cursed Hollow
Dragon Shire
Infernal Shrines
Sky Temple
Tomb of the Spider Queen
As a reminder, Hanamura has been temporarily removed from all play modes except Custom Games in order to undergo changes. As a result, the new rotation will feature 8 Battlegrounds, rather than 9.
- Scaling reduced from 4% to 2% per level.
- Damage reduced from 400 to 300.
- Quest added: Hit 80 Heroes with Sand Blast. Hitting with consecutive casts counts as 2 hits.
- Reward: Increase Sand Blast damage by 5 for each Hero hit.
- Reward: After hitting 80 Heroes, Sand Blast leaves an Echo behind. The next time Sand Blast is cast, the Echo also casts an untalented Sand Blast that deals 40% damage.
Talents
Mounting Sand
Compounding Aether
- Removed
Timely Surprise
Here and There
Reaching through Time
- Removed
Past and Future Me
- Removed.
Piercing Sands
- Moved from Level 2.
- Adjusted functionality: Sand Blast now pierces targets, dealing damage to any additional Heroes hit.
Loophole
- Removed.
Stuck in a Loop
Developer Comment: Chromie's baseline Quest on Sand Blast is designed to balance hitting a lot of Heroes with precision. We've reduced the damage of Sand Blast to move more of that into the Quest, so that there can be a greater variance between the performance of an okay Chromie player and a great Chromie player. We removed Piercing Sands because we felt that the longer Chromie's range gets, the less interactive Chromie can be for enemies, and replaced it with a Talent with a little more interesting gameplay.
- Quest added: Deal 15,000 damage to Chilled enemy Heroes
- Reward: Gain the Improved Ice Block ability
- Improved Ice Block: Activate to place Jaina in Stasis and gain Invulnerability for 2.5 seconds. When this effect expires, nearby enemies are Chilled. 40 second cooldown
Summon Water Elemental(R)
- Cooldown reduced from 80 to 60 seconds
- Mana cost reduced from 75 to 60
Talents
Conjurer's Pursuit
- Removed
Fingers of Frost
Frostbitten
- Removed
Ice Floes
- New functionality: Doubles the width of Cone of Cold. Hitting Chilled enemy Heroes with Cone of Cold reduces its cooldown by 2.5 seconds, up to a 5 second maximum reduction.
Icefury Wand
Improved Ice Block
- Removed
Arcane Power
- Removed
Ice Blink
Cold Snap
- Now also reduces the cooldown of Ring of Frost by 10 seconds per enemy Hero hit.
Deep Chill
- Moved from Level 1
- New functionality: Frostbite's slow amount now stacks a second time, slowing enemy Heroes by up to 40%.
Developer Comment: Our main goal for Jaina's changes was to spruce up her talent tree while disrupting as few of her existing builds as possible. Her new baseline quest to unlock Improved Ice Block should allow for more play making potential, which we are adding as a response to players who were disappointed when we moved the talent to Level 20. We also heard feedback from many players that the removal of Bolt of the Storm off of heroes like Jaina has hurt their play making ability and overall fun, so we're going back a bit on our decision to take it away on her. While we want to be more careful where we add these Blink-type abilities, we believe there is a place for it on Jaina, and have added an offensive use case which should hopefully allow her to make more aggressive plays in the late game.
LEVEL (TIER)
Jaina Talents
1 (1)
Winter's Reach (Q)
Lingering Chill (Trait)
(!) Fingers of Frost (Passive)
4 (2)
Frost Shards (Q)
Arcane Intellect (Trait)
Frost Armor (Passive)
7 (3)
Ice Floes (E)
Ice Lance (Q)
Icefury Wand (Passive)
10 (4)
Summon Water Elemental
Ring of Frost
-
-
13 (5)
Storm Front (W)
Ice Barrier (Trait)
Ice Veins (Active)
16 (6)
Snowstorm (W)
Northern Exposure (E)
Numbing Blast (E)
20 (7)
Cold Snap (R)
Wintermute (R)
Ice Blink (Active)
Deep Chill (Trait)
(!) indicates a Questing Talent. Italic text indicates a NEW Talent. Underlined text indicates a MOVED Talent.
- Morales now uses Energy to fuel her Healing Beam. All other abilities are free to cast.
- Morales can hold up to 100 Energy.
Abilities
Caduceus Reactor(Combat Trait)
- New functionality: While channeling Healing Beam, Morales heals herself for 2% of her maximum life per second.
Healing Beam(Q)
- Channeling Healing Beam costs 6 Energy per second
- Morales generates 6 Energy per second after not channeling Healing Beam for 3 seconds.
- Healing amount reduced from 96 to 90
Safeguard(W)
- Cooldown reduced from 15 seconds to 12 seconds
Displacement Grenade(E)
- A visual indicator for the detonation area is now visible to Lt. Morales.
Stim Drone(R)
- Cast time reduced from 1 second to .5 seconds
Medivac Dropship(R)
- Takeoff minimum delay reduced from 4 seconds to 3 seconds
- Health reduced from 1593 to 956
Talents
Feedback Loop
- Removed
Scouting Drone
- Removed
Clear!
- Moved from Level 7
- New functionality: Quest: Hit Heroes with Displacement Grenade.
- New functionality: Reward: After hitting 15 Heroes, Displacement Grenade's cooldown is reduced from 12 seconds to 8 seconds.
- New functionality: Reward: After hitting 30 Heroes, Displacement Grenade's area is increased by 25%.
Caduceus Feedback
Life Support
Bioshield
- Removed
Automated Block
- Removed
Infused Grenade
- Removed
Trauma Trigger
- Moved from Level 1
- Cooldown Increased to 60 Seconds
- New functionality: Gain 30 Armor for 3 seconds after taking damage while under 40% life.
Cellular Reactor
Blast Shield
Calldown: MULE
- Removed
Cleanse
- Removed
Physical Therapy
Vanadium Plating
Prolonged Safeguard
- Moved from Level 1
- New functionality: Increase Safeguard duration by 50%.
Intensive Care
- Removed
Couples Therapy
- Removed
Preventative Care
- Removed
Spell Shield
- Removed
EMP Grenade
System Shock
- Moved from Level 16
- New functionality: Heroes hit by Displacement Grenade have their damage reduced by 30% for 4 seconds.
Second Opinion
- Moved from Level 16
- New functionality: If Displacement Grenade hits 2 or more Heroes, its cooldown is reduced to 1 second.
Extended Care
First Responder
Shield Sequencer
- New functionality: Safeguard gains an additional charge.
Transfusion
- Removed
Medbay
- Removed
Caduceus Reactor 2.0
- New functionality: Increases the healing of Caduceus Reactor from 2% to 6%.
Storm Shield
- Removed
Hyperactivity
Safe Zone
Reinforcements
Developer Comment: Our big two goals for the Lt. Morales changes were to offer a bit more variety in the viability of her talent choices, and to increase the amount of utility she brings to the field. In the past, Lt. Morales tended towards a passive play-style, where talents that increased her survivability were usually the best options because her base kit was already very strong. This can be very frustrating for team compositions that lacked specific tools to deal with her. With how much raw healing output she offers, we found it hard to inject more power into her other abilities or talents without it affecting her overall balance or play style. We found a solution to both these problems in her new energy system. Morales players should still be able to keep their team alive for long periods of time, but, with pressure, clever enemies can exhaust her energy and eventually run her down. Although this does add an additional layer of complexity to Lt. Morales, it is offset by a new set of tools that skilled players can leverage to keep her team happy and healthy.
LEVEL (TIER)
Lt. Morales Talents
1 (1)
Caduceus Feedback (Passive)
Life Support (W)
Clear! (E)
4 (2)
Cellular Reactor (Active)
Trauma Trigger (Passive)
Blast Shield (E)
7 (3)
Physical Therapy (W)
Vanadium Plating (W)
Prolonged Safeguard (W)
10 (4)
Medivac Dropship
Stim Drone
-
-
13 (5)
EMP Grenade (Q)
System Shock (E)
Second Opinion (E)
16 (6)
Extended Care (Q)
First Responder (Q)
Shield Sequencer (W)
20 (7)
Hyperactivity (R)
Safe Zone (R)
Reinforcements (Active)
Caduceus Reactor 2.0 (Trait)
(!) indicates a Questing Talent. Italic text indicates a NEW Talent. Underlined text indicates a MOVED Talent.
- Basic Attack Damage reduced from 150 to 105
- New functionality – Wrath of the Bone King: Leoric's first two Basic Attacks cleave for 100% damage. His third Basic Attack deals 100% additional damage to his main target
Abilities
Skeletal Swing(Q)
- No longer deals bonus damage to non-Heroic targets
- Cooldown increased from 8 to 14 seconds
- Mana Cost increased from 50 to 80
- Damage increased from 125 to 150
- Additional functionality: If Skeletal Swing hits a Hero, refund 50% of the Cooldown and Mana Cost
Drain Hope(W)
- Lowered damage and healing from 25% to 20% of the target's maximum Health
Drain Essence(W)
- Lowered healing from 12.5 % to 10% of target's maximum Health
- Lowered cooldown from 11 to 9 seconds
Entomb(R)
- Cooldown increased from 50 to 75 seconds
- Mana cost increased from 75 to 90
March of the Black King(R)
- Cooldown reduced from 80 to 50 seconds
- Mana cost reduced from 100 to 75
- Damage increased from 183 to 250
- Heal increased from 7% to 12%
Talents
Mana Thirst
- Removed
Block
- Removed
Reanimation
- Removed
Fealty Unto Death
- Moved from Level 4
Consume Vitality
- Moved from Level 16
- New functionality: Lowers the Cooldown of Skeletal Swing by 2 seconds
- New functionality: Heroes hit by Skeletal Swing heal Leoric for 4% of his maximum health
- New functionality: No longer adds any additional effect while in Undying form
Ossein Renewal
- Moved from Level 7
- New functionality: Activate to heal Leoric for 30% of his maximum Health over 5 seconds. Regeneration Globes lower the Cooldown of this ability by 20 seconds. 120 second cooldown.
Ghastly Reach
- Moved from Level 7
Paralyzing Rage
- Moved from Level 7
Kneel, Peasants!
Drain Momentum
- Moved from Level 13
- No longer grants a movement speed bonus (removes the self-slow)
- Added functionality: If Drain Hope lasts the full duration, gain 30% movement speed for 4 seconds
Lingering Apparition
- Removed
Willing Vessel
- Moved from Level 4
- Drain Hope's healing is increased from 20% to 25% of the target's maximum Health
- Added functionality: If Drain Hope lasts the full duration, immediately heal for an additional 5% of your max health
Burning Rage
- Removed
Spell Shield
- Removed
Unyielding Despair
- Moved from Level 16
- Cooldown reduction per second Drain Hope is active decreased from 1 to .5 seconds
- Added functionality: If you complete a full duration Drain Hope, lower its Cooldown by an additional 3 seconds
- Moved from Level 4
- New functionality: Leoric gains 20 Armor while Drain Hope is active. If Drain Hope lasts the full duration, the Armor remains for 3 seconds
Ominous Wraith
Renewed Swing
- Removed
Imposing Presence(Talent)
- Removed
Royal Focus
- Moved from Level 4
- New functionality: Increase the damage of your next Skeletal Swing by 50% after using Wraith Walk. Every enemy Hero hit with Skeletal Swing lowers the Cooldown of Wraith Walk by 7 seconds
Crushing Hope
- Moved from Level 13
- Bonus damage dealt by a full duration Drain Hope increased from 10 to 15% of target's maximum Health
Mithril Mace
Hardened Shield(Talent)
- Removed
Buried Alive
- Added functionality: Enemies inside the Entomb are silenced. The duration of Entomb is lowered from 4 to 3 seconds
Death March
- New functionality: The attached Drain Hopes are now gain all talent bonuses
Spectral Leech
- Leoric's Basic Attacks deal an additional 2.5 % of the targets max HP and heals Leoric for twice that amount
Burning Despair
Shroud of the Dead King
Developer Comment: The Dead King has been reanimated with a plethora of new talents and mechanics. One of our main goals with his rework was to add some depth into his wave clear routine. Early in development we noticed the cadence and deliberateness of his Basic Attacks and wanted to build around that. Between Wrath of the Bone King and the tuning changes to Skeletal Swing, we feel like we hit that goal. The other big focuses with this update were to remove the death state healing interactions of talents and update the talent tree to our newer philosophies. We know it was a long time in coming, but we appreciate your patience and look forward to your feedback!
LEVEL (TIER)
Leoric Talents
1 (1)
Consume Vitality (Q)
Fealty Unto Death (Trait)
Ossein Renewal (Active)
4 (2)
Ghastly Reach (Q)
Paralyzing Rage (Q)
Kneel, Peasants! (Q)
7 (3)
Willing Vessel (W)
Drain Momentum (W)
Hopelessness (W)
10 (4)
Entomb
March of the Black King
-
-
13 (5)
Unyielding Despair (W)
Hardened Bones (W)
Ominous Wraith (E)
16 (6)
Crushing Hope (W)
Royal Focus (E)
(!) Mithril Mace (Passive)
20 (7)
Buried Alive (R)
Death March (R)
Spectral Leech (Passive)
Burning Despair (Passive)
Shroud of the Dead King (Active)
(!) indicates a Questing Talent. Italic text indicates a NEW Talent. Underlined text indicates a MOVED Talent.
Fixed a number of typo and tooltip errors across several aspects of the game.
Battlegrounds
Boss: Captured Bosses will now correctly use their area of effect Abilities when attacking down a lane.
Haunted Mines: Fixed an issue that could cause Heroes to become Invulnerable for a fraction of a second while entering or exiting the Mines.
Try Mode: Sentinel will now correctly gain bonus damage after completing the Ranger Talent's quest using the Complete Quests button.
Heroes, Abilities, and Talents
Stasis: Fixed an issue in which cooldowns for self-cast Stasis effects, such as Ice Block, or Chromie's Time Out, would not count down until respawn if the Hero was killed immediately after that Stasis effect concluded.
Arthas: After learning the Shattered Armor Talent, Heroes rooted by Frost Presence's quest reward will now correctly have their Armor reduced.
Azmodan: Manually clicking the All Shall Burn Ability will no longer cause a framerate drop.
Chen: Will no longer gain multiple Freshest Ingredient stacks when collecting a single Regeneration Globe if multiple allied Heroes are nearby.
Chen: Medivh's Ley Line Seal can no longer cause Chen and his Storm, Earth, Fire Spirits to exist at the same time.
Cho: Rune Bomb's area of effect indicator will no longer visually shrink if Cho'gall was affected by the Shrink Ray Talent while casting Rune Bomb.
D.Va: Fixed an issue that could cause D.Va to become unresponsive when entering the Dragon Knight or Garden Terror after using Lt. Morales' Medivac.
Garrosh: Intimidation will no longer slow non-Heroic enemies' attack speeds.
Garrosh: Fixed an issue that could cause Wrecking Ball to fail to throw a target but go on a full cooldown.
Greymane: Can now correctly cast Go for the Throat a second time after using the Ability to kill D.Va's Mech.
Muradin: Haymaker will now properly knock back and damage secondary targets in its path.
Muradin: Fixed an issue that caused Muradin's abilities to cast quickly and without animations if queued up during Dwarf Toss.
Li-Ming: Learning the Zei's Vengeance and Arcane Orbit Talents will no longer cause Arcane Orb to deal reduced damage at close-range.
Lt. Morales: Medivac UI will no longer persist on-screen when entering the Medivac as it is destroyed.
Samuro: Switching places with a Mirror Image will no longer cancel queued commands.
Samuro: Clicking a control group to select a Mirror Image after learning Illusion Master will no longer cancel active Move Commands being carried out by that Image.
Stitches: Hook will now cancel abilities that can be channeled while moving, such as Azmodan's All Shall Burn.
The Butcher: Floating Combat Text will now correctly display Crit damage dealt by Basic Attacks benefitting from the Brutal Strike Talent.
Sound
Stukov: Massive Shove's sound effects will no longer persist after the target is killed or collides with terrain.
User Interface
Draft Mode: Fixed an issue preventing players from selecting the Lunar Rooster Mount in Draft Lobbies.
September 8, 2017 Hotfix
Bug Fixes
Art
Anub'arak: Fixed an issue causing the Neon Cyb'arak Skin to replace the base Cyb'arak Anub'arak Skin in-game and in the Collection.
Heroes, Abilities, and Talents
Gazlowe: Scrap will no longer be created when Leoric's Entomb expires.
Lt. Morales: Fixed an issue that could allow the Lt. Morales player to issue Move Commands to an active Medivac under certain circumstances.
Rehgar: Can no longer cast Lightning Shield on allied Vehicles, such as the Dragon Knight or Garden Terror.
Zeratul: The Seeker in the Dark talent's tooltip text will now display correctly in localized game clients.
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