Heroes of the Storm Balance
Patch Notes - June 31, 2069

Sombra New Hero

Role: Ranged Assassin  |  Universe: Overwatch

Sombra currently has no Abilities.

Developer Comment

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EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-

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Abathur Reworked

• Role changed from Support to Tank.
• Description changed: "A Tank with even lower health than as a Support, but creates space for his team by out-stupiding his teammates and enemies."

Stats

• Health reduced to 510 (at level 1).
• Attack Damage increased to 160 (at level 1).

Abilities

• Locust Strain (Trait)
  • Removed.
• Slapbathur (New Trait)
  • Every 3rd Basic Attack of Abathur Stuns, Silences, Roots, Mind-Controls, Time Stops, Taunts, or Polymorphs a random non-Structure unit on the map for 1 second, regardless of being an ally or enemy. Abathur included.
  • Baseline Quest: Apply Slapbathur debuffs on any unit. Enemy Heroes grant 100 stacks. Allied Heroes grant 200 stacks. Slapbathurs on Abathur grant 1,000,000 stacks. Slapbathur debuffs on Minions remove all stacks. For every 100 Slapbathur stacks, gain 500 Health.
• Symbiote [Q] (Reworked)
  • No longer requires a target. Instead, activating Symbiote puts it on Abathur himself. Its abilities (Stab, Spike Burst, and Carapace) now activate automatically and their cooldowns are reduced by 100%.
  • Cooldown increased to 10 seconds.
  • Duration reduced to 4 seconds.
• Toxic Nest [W]
  • Arming time reduced to 1 second.
  • Damaged enemies are teleported out of the map for 0.0000001 seconds before returning to their previous location.
  • Grants Unrevealable Cloak to a random Structure for 10 seconds. Stacks.
• HUGE Slap [E] (New)
  • After 0.15 seconds, Abathur delivers a HUGE slap in an arc in front of him, dealing 350 (+4% per level) damage to all enemies hit and Silencing them for 2 seconds. Counts as a proc for Slapbathur.
  • Cooldown: 9 seconds.
• Ultimate Evolution [R1] (Reworked)
  • No longer requires a target. No longer clones an allied Hero.
  • Upon learning this talent, Abathur's Heroic Ability slot is occupied by the battleground Core's ability (see below).
  • Cooldown reduced to 25 seconds.
  • Battlefield of Eternity / Infernal Shrines: Summons 6 circles around Abathur. After 1.5 seconds, enemies on them take 5% of their max Health as damage and are Rooted for 2 seconds.
  • Blackheart's Bay: Shoots a missile at target location dealing 5% max Health damage and knocking enemies up.
  • Braxis Holdout: Fires 5 successive barrages of missiles along a targeted line dealing 7% max Health.
  • Cursed Hollow / Haunted Mines / Towers of Doom: After 1.5 seconds, enemies in area take 5% max Health and lose 75 Armor for 4 seconds.
  • Dragonshire: Hurls a boulder; enemies stunned for 1.75 seconds and take 5% max Health.
  • Garden of Terror: Throws a seed for 3 seconds; every 0.5 seconds, enemy Heroes are Polymorphed for 3 seconds. Does not stack.
  • Hanamura Temple: Fires 6 missiles at random locations; damaged enemies take 9% max Health and are Slowed 80% for 0.75 seconds.
  • Sky Temple: Spawns orbiting tornadoes that push away contact enemies.
  • Tomb of the Spider Queen: Fires a slow wave; damaged enemies take 5% max Health and are Slowed 70% for 1.5 seconds.
  • Volskaya Foundry: Fires a rocket fist; first enemy Hero hit is pushed back and Stunned for 2 seconds.
  • Warhead Junction: Channel 2 seconds, then a nuclear warhead detonates after 4 seconds for 30% max Health in area.
• Evolve Monstrosity [R2] (Reworked)
  • No longer targets Locusts. No longer scales with nearby enemy Minion deaths.
  • Transforms the target allied Minion into the map's Boss or Vehicle.
    • Battlefield of Eternity: The Immortal.
    • Infernal Shrines: Punisher (Top Lane: Frozen. Middle Lane: Arcane. Bottom Lane: Mortar).
    • Blackheart's Bay, Cursed Hollow, Haunted Mines: Grave Golem.
    • Braxis Holdout: Archangel.
    • Sky Temple: Sand Golem.
    • Tomb of the Spider Queen: Webweaver.
    • Towers of Doom: Altar (can be captured by either team to deal damage to the enemy team's Core).
    • Volskaya Foundry: Triglav Protector.
    • Dragonshire: Dragon Knight.
    • Hanamura Temple: Sentinel.
    • Warhead Junction: Slime Boss.
    • Garden of Terror: Garden Terror.
  • Cooldown reduced from 90 to 85 seconds.

Talents

• Level 1
  • Survival Instincts
    • Removed.
  • Killer Instinct (New)
    • Slapbathur now also has a chance to knock back the affected unit by 20 units in a random direction.
• Level 7
  • Calldown: MULE
    • Removed.
  • Calldown: Battlecruiser (New)
    • Calldown a Battlecruiser at the target location with 12 Attack Range, 800 (+4% per level) Health, and random projectiles dealing 10 (+4% per level) damage. During the last 4 seconds, it charges its Yamato Cannon — if fully charged, it fires beneath itself dealing 5,000 (+4% per level) damage to every non-Structure unit in the area, including enemies, allies, Abathur, and the Battlecruiser itself. Lasts 10 seconds. Despite resenting Terran technology, Abathur certainly can't get his hands off of them.
• Level 13
  • Bombard Strain
    • Removed.
  • Bombardment (New)
    • HUGE Slap creates impassable craters at the location of enemies it damages for 4 seconds. HUGE Slap also fires Pyroblasts with 75% reduced damage.
• Level 16
  • Volatile Mutation
    • Removed.
  • Locust Brood
    • Removed.
  • Violating Foundation (New)
    • For every stack of Slapbathur, gain 10% increased Attack Speed.
  • Slapstick Extractor (New)
    • HUGE Slap hits lower the cooldown of Abathur's Heroic Ability by 10% when damaging Heroes.
• Level 20
  • Evolutionary Link (Reworked)
    • Gain another map's Core Ability in the Trait slot (random). Increase Ultimate Evolution's cooldown to 26 seconds.
  • Evolution Complete (Reworked)
    • Evolve Monstrosity Summons gain 100% increased Health. Altars fired by Evolve Monstrosity fire an additional shot at the enemy Core.
  • Hivemind (Reworked)
    • Symbiote also applies a mini Symbiote on top of itself with its own cooldowns but 50% less damage and Shielding.
  • Locust Nest
    • Removed.
  • Perfected Slap (New)
    • Slapbathur no longer affects Minions.

Developer Comment

"Players always complain that Abathur has no interactivity. This rework should serve as a response to this valuable feedback."

Alarak Reworked

• Role changed from Melee Assassin to Support.

Abilities

• Sadism (Trait): Removed.
• Masochism (New Trait)
  • Increased by 100% upon dying.
  • No longer increases Alarak's Ability Damage and Self-Healing against enemy Heroes.
  • Increases Alarak's damage against Walls and Gates. Damage against Forts, Keeps, and Core remains unaffected.
• Discord Strike [Q]
  • After the 0.5 seconds delay, Alarak rotates 180 degrees to hit the enemies behind him instead. 360 no scope, read like a book.
• Telekinesis [W]
  • Can now move impassable terrain.
  • No longer affects Alarak or enemies.
• Lightning Surge [E]
  • While at more than 100% Masochism, gains 1000% range.
  • Heals enemy Forts, Keeps, and Core.
  • Can now target allies.
• Counter-Strike [R2]
  • Can now be Vector Targeted.
  • Damage always procs after 1 second.
  • Does nothing if Alarak takes damage while channeling.
  • Length increased by 800%.
  • Also Mind-Controls and Roots Alarak while channeling.
  • No longer grants Unstoppable or Protected for Alarak.

Talents

• Level 1
  • Overwhelming Power (Reworked)
    • After hitting an enemy Minion with Discord Strike, gain 1,000,000 Attack Speed that rapidly decays over 2 seconds and causes Masochism to work on enemy Minions, but reduces Alarak's damage to enemy Heroes by 1,000,000%. Basic Attacking enemy Minions refreshes this duration. Death by a thousand cuts, you don't even realize you're already dead.
  • Ruthless Momentum (Adjusted)
    • While near impassable terrain, Telekinesis has no cooldown. Increase the Mana cost of Telekinesis to 150.
  • Extended Lightning (Quest Adjusted)
    • Quest: Hit 30 enemy Minions with a single use of Lightning Surge.
      • Reward: After doing so, Lightning Surge has 1,000,000% additional range while above 100% Masochism and can now be cast on Alarak himself.
• Level 4
  • Chaos Reigns (Reworked)
    • No longer requires hitting enemy Heroes with Discord Strike.
      • Quest: Deal 100,000 Siege Damage, including the Siege Damage Alarak has done so far.
      • Reward: Discord Strike's cast delay reduced by 0.25s and length increased by 100%.
      • Reward: After dealing 500,000 Siege Damage, cooldown reduced by 2 seconds. If Discord Strike hits nothing, reduce its cooldown by an additional 5 seconds.
      • Mythic Reward: After dealing 1,000,000 Siege Damage, Discord Strike permanently shuts down non-Core Structures it hits.
  • Negatively Charged
    • Hitting Heroes with the direct hit of Lightning Surge reduces its bonus damage by 10%. Hitting Walls or Gates with its center increases its bonus damage by 100%.
  • Show of Force (Reworked)
    • Hitting an enemy Minion with Discord Strike, a wall with Lightning Surge, and moving impassable terrain with Telekinesis all within 2 seconds doubles the current Masochism bonus.
• Level 7
  • Dissonance (Nerfed)
    • The duration increase of Discord Strike's Silence has been reduced to 0.25 seconds.
  • Hindered Motion
    • Removed.
  • Fast As a Blur (New)
    • Moving impassable terrain with Telekinesis Mind-Controls said terrain and grants it permanent Unrevealable Cloak. Only one piece of terrain may be affected at a time.
  • Applied Force (Adjusted)
    • Sets Masochism to −500%, but Telekinesis now works on the enemy Core.
• Level 13
  • Pure Malice
    • Removed.
  • Impure Benevolence (New)
    • Taking damage increases Masochism by 1%, plus an additional 1% per 100 damage received. Allied deaths reduce Masochism by 3,000,000,000,000% as it should've been Alarak, not them.
  • Rite of Rak'Shir (Reworked)
    • Marked Heroes no longer grant Sadism when hit with Discord Strike. Instead, Marked Heroes are transformed into a Wall/Gate for 300 seconds — they can still walk around and function normally, but can no longer be targeted by abilities that require a Hero target. Walls and Gates take bonus damage from Masochism.
• Level 16
  • Lethal Onslaught (Reworked)
    • Damaging an enemy Mercenary with Discord Strike Mind-Controls that Mercenary to fight for Alarak's team.
  • Lightning Barrage (Reworked)
    • Lightning Surge gains 10 charges.
  • Mocking Strikes
    • Removed.
  • Taunting Strikes (New)
    • Basic Attacks Taunt enemies for 1 second, including Structures.
• Level 20
  • Wrath of the Highlord
    • If Deadly Charge was selected, Alarak gains 75% increased max Health for each Structure damaged with Deadly Charge (lasts 4 seconds). If Counter-Strike was selected, it briefly turns impassable terrain into passable for 5 seconds.
  • Last Laugh (Reworked)
    • If Alarak fails to hit Walls or Gates with his abilities 3 times within 4 seconds after teleporting, he dies. Previously would reduce Health to 1 and required hitting Heroes instead. Cooldown reduced to 10 seconds.
  • Hasty Bargain (Reworked)
    • Activating Hasty Bargain permanently reduces Masochism by 900,000,000,000,000 to cause the next Discord Strike or Lightning Surge to drop a Nuclear Warhead at the damaged enemy Minions' location, dealing 3,000 (+4%) to all Heroes in those areas after 4 seconds if still present — allies and Alarak included. Cooldown reduced to 15 seconds.

Developer Comment

"Do you think God stays in heaven because he too lives in fear of what he's created?"

The Butcher

General: No changes.

Developer Comment

"The Butcher is perfectly balanced (he's not) and requires no changes (he does)."

Garrosh Reworked

• Role changed to Healer (from Tank).

Stats

• Health increased to 2,984.
• Attack Damage reduced to 0.0000000001 (down from 137).

Abilities

• Armor Up (Trait): Removed.
• Racism (New Trait)
  • Garrosh's damage and healing is modified based on Hero type:
  • Orcs: 10,000,000% increased Healing. 0% damage against enemy.
  • Horde: 100% increased Healing. 50% reduced damage.
  • Alliance: −100% healing. 80,000,000,000% increased damage.
  • Humans: −500% reduced Healing. 999,999,999,999% increased damage.
  • Damage to Garrosh heals nearby allies for 50% of the received damage.
• Groundbreaker [Q]
  • Also heals allies in its radius for 160 Health. Allies at the edge also become Protected for 0.5 seconds.
• Bloodthirst [W]
  • Can now also target allies. Doing so sacrifices 10% of Garrosh's Health to that ally and causes Bloodthirst to refresh 1,000% faster.
• Wrecking Ball [E]
  • Allies near the thrown enemy are Taunted toward them for 2 seconds, forcing them to attack the target.
  • Taunted allies gain 75% increased Attack Damage.
• Into the Fray (Active)
  • Thrown allies also gain 90% Spell Power for 0.5 seconds after landing.
• Warlord's Challenge [R1]
  • Also Taunts allies.
• Decimate [R2]
  • Also grants 50 Armor to nearby allies for 1 second.

Developer Comment

"Fixed a bug where Garrosh's abilities impact Heroes the same way regardless of his views towards them. This should be fixed now."

Hanzo

General

• Deals 100% more damage to Genji. Can damage allied Genji.

Abilities

• Dragon Strike [R1]
  • Damage reduced to 50 per second.

Talents

• Level 20
  • Play of the Game [R]
    • Removed.
  • Orbital DA [R] (New)
    • Dragon's Arrow orbits the battleground when it hits no Heroes. For every orbit, a new Dragon's Arrow is created going in a different direction.

Developer Comment

"Hanzo mains are truly parasites, affecting two games at once."

Illidan

General

• Illidan is permanently immune to Blinds.
• Takes 200% more damage from enemy Maiev.
• Vision Radius reduced to 1%.

Developer Comment

"Players criticize that Illidan is the most power-crept Melee Assassin in the game and does not feel as powerful as he is in the lore. These changes should make him more accurate to the lore."

Kel'Thuzad

General: No changes.

Developer Comment

"As stated previously with The Butcher, Kel'Thuzad is perfectly balanced (he's not) and requires no changes (again… he does)."

Li Li Reworked

• Role changed to Bruiser (from Healer).

Abilities

• Fast Feet (Trait)
  • Increases Li Li's Movement Speed by 90% when activated (up from 10%).
  • Cooldown reduction bonus increased to 150%.
  • Duration reduced to 0.5 seconds.
• Healing Brew [Q]
  • Now prioritizes the furthest ally with the highest Health, instead of the nearest with lowest.
  • Healing reduced to 190 (down from 210).
• Cloud Serpent [W]
  • Renamed to Mushu™.
  • Size scaled up by 50%.
• Blinding Wind [E] (Reworked)
  • Taunts instead of Blinding.
  • Increases Li Li's Attack Damage per Hero affected by 50% and causes her Basic Attacks to heal the nearest allied Hero for 50% of the damage dealt (increased by an additional 100% if the target is a Minion).
  • Target amount increased to 4 if Fast Feet is active.
• Jug of 1000 Cups [R1]
  • Renamed from Jug of 1,000 Cups
• Water Dragon [R2]
  • Cast radius is now global.

Talents

• Level 20
  • Jug of 1,000,000 Cups
    • Renamed from Jug of 50 Cups.

Developer Comment

"Jug of 1000 Cups and Jug of 1000000 Cups were misleading names as we calculated how many cups are actually used with this ability. This should clear out any confusion."

Maiev

General

• Takes 50% less damage from enemy Illidan.
• Gets "assist" credit whenever allied Illidan dies.

Abilities

• Vault of the Wardens (Trait)
  • Vigorous Vaulter Quest renamed to Wigorous Walter White.
  • Extra Vault of the Wardens charges gained at level 20 increased to 4 (up from 1).
• Containment Disc [R1]
  • Duration reduced to 1 second.
  • Duration increased to 10,000 years on enemy Illidan.
  • No longer removes Vision from the contained target.

Talents

• Level 20
  • Disc-o Inferno (New)
    • Containment Disc pierces all enemies.
  • AND HER NAME IS MAIEV SHADOWSONG (New)
    • Casting Vault of the Wardens while Warden's Cage is active causes Maiev to do a drop-down smash, dealing 12% of all nearby enemy Heroes' maximum Health as damage and Slowing them by 90% for 0.25 seconds, before forcing Maiev into Sleep for 0.5 seconds.

Developer Comment

"As much as the players will tell you Maiev is broken (she is), she's not (again, she is)."

Mephisto

Abilities

• Consume Souls [R1]
  • Makes all interactable units (Heroes, Minions, Structures, Mercenaries, Vehicles, Objectives) Unrevealable during the channel instead of revealing enemy Heroes.
  • Damage increased by 200% against Heroes above 50% Health.

Developer Comment

"We have received no requests for this, but we're doing it anyway."

Murky

Talents

• Level 7
  • Time to Krill
    • Removed.
  • Pulse-Bomb Fish (New)
    • Pufferfish gains 100% increased Health and now sticks to Slimed enemies, prioritizing Heroes. Pufferfish deals 25% bonus damage to stuck enemies.
• Level 16
  • Fish Oil
    • Removed.
  • Faster Fish
    • (moved from Level 20): Pufferfish detonates 150% faster (up from 80%). Creates another Pufferfish upon detonation. This secondary Pufferfish explodes at regular speed and does not create another Pufferfish.
• Level 20
  • Faster Fish
    • Moved to Level 16.
  • Counter-Strike Fish (New)
    • Pufferfish is Protected and Unstoppable during the first 1 second of its activation. If it takes damage from an enemy Hero during this, it unleashes a wave of Slime around itself, Sliming nearby enemies. Already-Slimed enemies are attacked by a Murloc, taking 125 damage and being Slowed by 15% for 5 seconds.

Developer Comment

"Despite being labeled as a Melee Assassin, Murky's Health is way too low for approaching his targets. These changes should help him out more."

Nova

Abilities

• Triple Tap [R1]
  • Can now also hit Minions.

Developer Comment

"Despite her abysmal win rate and the high demand for her rework, low ranked Quick Match players have been complaining about her being oppressive. So we don't wanna hear it."

Probius

Abilities

• Pylon Overcharge [R1] (Reworked)
  • Transforms every Structure in the map into weapons, granting them 500 Attack Range and 2 Attack Speed.
  • Temporarily forces enemy Structures to fight for Probius's team.
  • Mind-Controls Structures, but they can still attack.
  • Disables Hall of Storms for the enemy team while active.
  • Duration increased to 10 seconds.

Developer Comment

"Probius currently sits at the bottom of the leaderboard in terms of pickrate. These changes should make the Curious Probe more effective at his job."

Tracer

Abilities

• Recall [E]
  • No longer teleports Tracer.
  • Fast-forwards the game 20 seconds forward.

Developer Comment

"Looks like Winston didn't properly engineer Tracer's Chrono Accelerator when she was sent into the Nexus."

Tyrande

General

• If Maiev is present on Tyrande's team and Illidan is present on either team, Tyrande's name will be changed to "Fking Traitor".

Abilities

• Light of Elune [Q]
  • Reduces allied Maiev's Health to 1. Definitely not a victim mentality on Maiev's part.

Developer Comment

"We're trying to respect the lore as much as we can as we know our players care about the source material of the beloved Heroes in Heroes of the Storm."

Uther

Abilities

• Eternal Vanguard (Trait, Reworked Functionality)
  • Now activatable. Uther can permanently transform into an Invulnerable Spirit that can cast Flash of Light (1.5 second cooldown) on allies to heal them for 230 (+4% per level) Health, but is unable to Basic Attack or use any other abilities. Activate again to switch back to regular form.
  • Spirit Form no longer activates on death.

Developer Comment

"Once again, we have received no requests for this, but we're doing it anyway."

Valeera

General

• Teleporting with Ambush, Cheapshot, or Garrote causes Valeera to be teleported 6 units away from her target, increased to 7 if Valeera has been under the effects of Vanish for 3 seconds.

Developer Comment

"Turns out being invisible means no reflected light on an object, that includes the vision of the person who is invisible."

Varian

Abilities

• Twin Blades of Fury [R3]
  • Grants the following permanent debuff — Dishonorable King: You hate your team. This is also visible to both allies and enemies. Varian is permanently revealed and Parry's damage reduction is reduced to −100%.
• Colossus Smash [R2]
  • Shouting volume increased by 100%.
  • Colossus Smash also affects nearby allies.

Developer Comment

"Why do you pick Twin Blades? Also, the shout from Colossus is ear-grating, please be mindful of the noise violations."

Zeratul

Abilities

• Permanent Cloak (Trait)
  • Cooldown increased to 10 seconds.
• Blink [E]
  • While under the effects of Stealth, range is increased by 600%.
  • −80% range otherwise.
• Void Prison [R2]
  • Radius increased by 50%.
  • Zeratul is no longer affected by the enemy Zeratul's Void Prison.

Developer Comment

"Some players have been complaining that it doesn't matter if they can see Zeratul in Stealth as there is nothing they can do about him even if they do see him coming. These changes should address those concerns."