Please welcome Thrall , our latest addition to the Heroes of the Storm roster!

Please welcome Thrall , our latest addition to the Heroes of the Storm roster!

Earlier today, we brought Heroes of the Storm offline for a period of extended maintenance today in order to kick off our Closed Beta testing phase, and bring you a brand new patch! The Technical Alpha testing phase has officially come to an end, and we’ve got a new Battleground, a new Hero, our first iteration for Ranked Play, and much, much more in store for you with today’s update. Check out the complete patch notes below, and welcome to the Heroes of the Storm Closed Beta !

New Portrait Rewards

These portrait rewards are not available for use just yet, but will be added to qualifying players’ accounts very soon!

Two new portrait rewards have also been added for players who accomplish the above during the Closed Beta testing phase.

Played one or more games during the Heroes Technical Alpha.

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Sky Temple, a brand new 3-lane Battleground, has been added to Heroes of the Storm and is now available for play in all game modes!

Temples will deactivate once their Ammunition is depleted.

One, two, or three Temples will activate at a time, and Temple activation will occur periodically throughout a game.

A Temple will cease firing shortly after all players have left its grounds, and can then be recaptured by either team. Be ready to fend off enemy players who seek to wrest control of the Temples for their own benefit.

Beware! Once a Temple has been captured, its Guardians will rise and attempt to remove players by force. Defeat them to maintain control of an active Temple.

Temples at the center of each lane will activate after 90 seconds, and can be captured to fire devastating beams of energy at enemy Structures.

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Thrall, Warchief of the Horde, has entered the Nexus and is now available for play! Read on for a brief overview of his abilities, and then check out Thrall’s Hero Week blog for much more information on our new melee assassin.

Sunder the earth in a line, damaging and stunning enemies in its path.

Casting Abilities on enemies grant charges that Heal you.

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General

All Daily Quests can now be completed in Practice Mode.

Versus Mode has been renamed to Quick Match.

Hero League

Leaving a Hero League game during Draft Mode will result in a loss of 300 ranked points in addition to the above penalty, and all of that player’s party members at the time of Draft Mode abandonment will also receive these penalties.

A player that leaves an in-progress Hero League or Quick Match game will not be allowed to queue for Ranked Play until a new Quick Match game is completed.

Players can view their own Rank and win/loss record at any time on the Hero League Play Screen.

Losing games will result in a loss of points, and enough losses can cause demotion to the previous rank (though not below Rank 50.)

Win games to earn points that count toward promotion to the next rank, up to a maximum of Rank 1.

All Hero League players will be ranked individually, starting at Rank 50.

Once locked in, a Hero can no longer be selected by any other player.

Each player will have 30 seconds to select a Hero during their turn. If no selection is made, a Hero will be locked in automatically.

Players may only choose from the pool of Heroes that they already own.

The team that wins the coin toss will be prompted to pick one Hero on the first turn, after which, teams will alternate picking two Heroes per turn until just one player remains on the team that lost the coin toss.

A coin toss will determine which team will pick first.

After finding a match, players will enter Draft Mode, in which teams will take turns picking the Heroes they’d like to use for the upcoming game.

Own 10 or more Heroes (weekly free rotation Heroes do not count toward this requirement.)

In order to queue for Hero League, players must meet the following requirements:

With Hero League, players will be able to queue up alone, or in a party of any size, for ranked, competitive matches against others of similar skill and party size.

Initial implementation for Hero League, the first Ranked Play mode in Heroes of the Storm, has been added to the game!

Custom Games

First Come First Served (FCFS)

First Come First Served (FCFS) - Utilizes a different Draft Mode format, which allows each team to freely decide the order in which its players will select their Heroes.

Predetermined - Causes Hero Select to mirror the same Draft Mode format used for Hero League games.

Standard - Mirrors the same Hero Select format used in Quick Match games.

The “Lobby Mode” dropdown found at the top-right corner of Custom Game lobbies has been enabled, and can now be used to switch between Hero Select formats:

For a much more in-depth look at the features mentioned above, check out our recent Hero League and Draft Mode blog post. Furthermore, kindly keep in mind that today’s addition of Hero League and Draft Mode represent an early look at Ranked Play, and a number of improvements are planned for each of these features with future game updates. Feel free to share your thoughts on these features with us using the official feedback forums.

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General

New 3D art has been added for Stimpacks in the Heroes of the Storm Shop.

Battlegrounds

Various assets have been optimized to help improve performance.

Healing Wells have received updated visual effects when activated by a player.

Heroes, Mounts, and Skins

Golden Cyberwolf’s second Mount Variation has been made more distinct

Countess Kerrigan while using Mounts other than her Bat

The following Heroes, Mounts, Skins, and Skin Variations have received visual improvements:

Various portraits have received updated lighting and animations.

Sgt. Hammer has received additional polish for a number of her animations.

Dance, victory, and taunt animations have been added to a number of Heroes.

Several Hero Skins have received brand new art for certain abilities, which match that Skin’s theme:

The following Heroes have received new Ability icon art:

The following Skin Variations have had their order swapped:

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Weekly Sales

Stay up-to-date with the latest Weekly Sale using the Battle.net application’s Heroes of the Storm tab, or by heading to the official Heroes forums

Initially, Weekly Sales will take on one of two forms:

At that time, items from the previous Weekly Sale will return to normal price, and three new items will become available at a discount.

Weekly Sales will start and end on Mondays at 2:30 p.m. PST

Weekly Sales will start and end on Mondays at 2:30 p.m. PST .

Three items per week will be placed on sale.

Weekly sales are coming to Nexus, starting with today’s patch.

Bundle Packs

The following Bundle Packs have been removed from the Shop:

The following Bundle Packs have been added to the Shop, and are available for a limited time:

Heroes

Thrall, Warchief of the Horde, has been added to the in-game Shop!

Mounts

The Reign-deer Mount has been temporarily removed from the Shop.

Please note that the Magic Carpet Mount will eventually become available for purchase as an individual item with a future game update.

The Magic Carpet Mount has been added, and is available with purchase of the Luxoria Skin Bundle or Luxoria Complete Bundle.

Price Changes

Prices for Stitches have been reduced to $8.49 USD or 7,000 Gold

Skins

The following Skins have been temporarily removed from the Shop:

The following brand new Hero Skins have been added to the Shop:

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Cloak

Hearthstone (B)

Can no longer be cast within the Altar of Storms

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Structures

This was done to align with a previous change, in which the rate of tower ammo regeneration was reduced to 1 per 15 seconds. As such, towers will now come back online with 2 ammunition.

The amount of time that towers are disabled while regenerating ammunition has been increased from 20 to 30 seconds.

Abathur’s Symbiote and Tassadar’s Plasma Shield can once again be cast on the Core.

Mercenaries

Stomp will not be cast unless the Grave Golem is already stationary.

Stomp will now be cast when there are at least 2 Heroic units around the Grave Golem, or at least 3 Minions.

The post-cast delay on Stomp has been removed.

Root will now be cast on ranged Minions.

Grave Golems will no longer pause when casting Root.

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General

Level 20 Talents have been re-ordered in the Talent Select Pane for all Heroes so that Talents which modify Heroic Abilities are listed in the first and second slots.

Resurgence of the Storm

This Talent has been removed from the game.

Calldown: MULE

After all Structures in range are healed, a MULE will then prioritize based on their need for ammunition.

If two Structures with equal priority are in range of the MULE’s placement, it will begin repairing the one it was dropped closer to.

MULEs will now prioritize Town Halls and Towers, then Gates and Moonwells, and then Walls.

MULEs now prioritize repairing Structures over replenishing ammunition (if a building has ammunition, its ammunition will still be replenished while it is being repaired.)

Mercenary Lord

A player with the Mercenary Lord Talent must be within proximity of Siege and Bruiser Mercenaries in order for them to receive the damage bonus.

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Technical Designer John "Johnzee" Hodgson and the balance team posted their thoughts behind some of these changes in the Closed Beta Hero Feedback forum. Click here to read up on and discuss these changes.

As long as an Ultimate Evolution clone is alive, Ultimate Evolution’s original target gains a Shield equal to 20% of their maximum Health that refreshes every 5 seconds.

Ultimate Evolution clones now provide a small amount of XP when they are killed.

Now also increases Toxic Nest duration by 25%, in addition to granting unlimited placement range.

Damage reduced from 44 (+13 per level) to 44 (+9 per level)

Now increases Stab’s range and damage by 20%.

Casting Symbiote now creates an additional Symbiote on a nearby allied Hero. This Symbiote mimics the commands of the first. If the second host moves too far away, it is destroyed.

Using Symbiote’s Carapace (E) on a Minion or Mercenary also applies Carapace to all nearby allied Minions and Mercenaries.

Increases the duration of Symbiote’s Carapace (E) by 50%, and allows it to persist after Symbiote ends.

Activate to create a nest that periodically spawns Locusts. Only one Locust Nest can be active at a time.

In addition to the 30% bonus to Locust Health, Locusts now last an additional 10 seconds.

Explosion damage reduced from 60 (+12 per level) to 50 (+5 per level)

Increases the Monstrosity’s duration by 50%, and the Monstrosity gains the Ability to Deep Tunnel to any visible location every 30 seconds.

Ultimate Evolution clones and Monstrosities deal damage to nearby enemies every 3 seconds, as well as when they die.

Using Symbiote on the Monstrosity allows Abathur to control it, in addition to Symbiote’s normal benefits.

When enemy Minions near the Monstrosity die, it gains 4% Health and 4% Basic Attack damage, stacking up to 30 times.

Turn an allied Minion or Locust into a Monstrosity for 60 seconds.

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Demonic Grunts now have real Health, rather than Doubloon Chest-style Health.

Damage bonus per kill increased from 1 to 2

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Now has a 1 second cast time, during which the Ability can be interrupted.

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Falstad’s first Basic Attack against a target slowed by Hammerang will now stun them for 0.75 seconds.

Basic Attack damage increased by 80% while Hammerang is in flight

Increases Hammerang’s range by 40% and its slow duration by 25%.

Reduces Flight’s cooldown by 20 seconds, reduces the casting time by 0.5 seconds, and increases flying speed by 50%.

Reduces Tailwind’s activation time to 2 seconds and increases the Movement Speed bonus from 20% to 30%.

Gust of Wind (Talent) has been renamed to Aerie Gusts.

Blast of Awe (Talent) has been renamed to Call of the Wildhammer.

Shock and Awe (R) has been renamed to Hinterland Blast.

Mighty Gust creates a wind tunnel for 4 seconds. Enemies caught in the tunnel will be pushed back periodically over the duration.

Pushes enemies away in a gust of wind, slowing them by 60%. This slow decays over 3 seconds.

Gain a stacking Shield worth 5% of Falstad’s maximum Health after every Lightning Rod strike. Lasts for 4 seconds.

Lightning Rod deals 15% more damage with each subsequent strike.

Damages an enemy and deals additional damage over 4 seconds if Falstad remains within proximity of the target.

Thunderstorm (W), Aerial Blitzkrieg (R), and their supporting Talents have been removed.

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Is now a passive Heroic Ability that is always active. Gazlowe is still able to mount after choosing this Heroic Ability.

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The tooltip does not accurately reflect this change in-game and will be corrected in a future patch.

No longer removes Illidan’s ability to mount, but also no longer provides bonus Movement Speed when out of combat

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Basic Attack damage reduced from 65 (+6 per level) to 50 (+6 per level)

Initial explosion damage increased from 50 (+6 per level) to 65 (+7 per level)

Damage increased from 40 (+13 per level) to 50 (+17 per level)

Damage reduced from 50 (+16 per level) to 45 (+14 per level)

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The Torrasque now morphs into an egg when it dies or expires. If the egg is not killed within a short time, a new Torrasque is spawned. This effect can only occur once.

This talent has been reworked. Duration and Health increases have been removed.

The Ultralisk can now be re-targeted using the “R” key.

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Li Li gains 5% Ability Power for 8 seconds per target hit by Blinding Wind. Additional enemies hit refresh the buff duration and further increase Ability Power. Stacks up to 4 times.

Increases the number of Basic Attacks missed from 2 to 3

Number of Basic Attacks missed increased from 1 to 2

Li Li gains her own Cloud Serpent after casting Cloud Serpent on an ally.

Cloud Serpent heals its host each time it attacks.

Damage dealt to targets after the first increased from 25% to 50%

Cloud Serpent now automatically attacks nearby enemies. Only 1 Cloud Serpent can be active on a Hero at a time.

Now increases Healing Brew’s cooldown from 3 to 4.5 seconds

Two For One (Talent) functionality has changed

Healing Brew now heals for an additional 30% over 6 seconds. Multiple heals extend the duration of this heal over time.

After casting Healing Brew, its cost is reduced by 10 Mana for 6 seconds. This effect does not stack.

Increases Fast Feet’s Movement Speed bonus 10% to 20% while Li Li is under 50% Health.

Reduces the duration of the next Stun or Root by 75%. Can only trigger once every 15 seconds.

New Talent (Level 7): Shake It Off

New Talent (Level 7): Shake It Off

Abilities recharge 3 times as fast when Fast Feet is active.

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Now also reduces the Mana cost of Haymaker from 80 to 40

A cast bar has been added during the 0.5 second wind-up to make the cast more apparent.

Bonus range and area decreased from 75 to 50%

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The AI movement component of this Talent has been removed.

Digital Shrapnel’s 2 second cooldown reduction has been added to the Remote Delivery Talent.

Holo Clones now have movement AI as part of their base functionality.

Now increases Pinning Shot’s slow amount by 1% for every second Nova is cloaked, to a maximum of 50%. This effect expires if Nova is decloaked for more than 1 second.

Nova now regenerates 2% Health per second while cloaked.

Reduces Ability cooldowns by 4 seconds after killing an enemy Hero

Damage and Attack Speed slow reduced from 300% to 250%

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Tychus no longer has to wind-up his Minigun to attack. Instead, it now instantly attacks, beginning at a slow rate of fire, and increases to its previous maximum speed after 1.5 seconds.

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Cooldown reduction from this talent is no longer dependent on Zagara killing a Hero inside of Devouring Maw. This is now a passive bonus. Anytime Zagara is credited with a Hero takedown, Devouring Maw’s cooldown is reduced by 25 seconds.

Now decreases the damage that non-Heroic units deal to Roachlings by 30%

Now deals the 100% bonus damage on impact, rather than damaging over time.

Zagara can now see the duration remaining on her Creep Tumors.

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General

Corrected several typos and tooltip errors across multiple aspects of the game.

Fixed an issue which caused exceptionally bright lighting to appear on certain Heroes while watching a Replay.

Fixed several issues that could cause Abilities to not fire appropriately while holding down the right mouse button to move with Quick Cast enabled.

Art

Fixed a slight animation pop that could occur while Tyrande was riding the Battle Beast Mount.

Battlegrounds

Summoned Grave Golems on the Haunted Mines now properly ignore summoned units.

Neutral Garden Terrors will no longer drop regeneration globes inside of walls.

Muradin’s Haymaker will no longer knock enemies out of the playable area in the Haunted Mines.

Fixed an issue in which summoned Grave Golems on the Haunted Mines dealt significantly more damage to Heroes than expected.

Brightwing’s Phase Shift can no longer target the Dragon Statue while it is capturable on the Dragon Shire Battleground.

The Burning Rage Talent no longer deals double damage to towers affected by the Raven Lord’s Curse on the Cursed Hollow Battleground.

Catapult Minions no longer deal half their intended damage, and once again deal area of effect damage around their target.

Heroes and Talents

Abathur’s Symbiote is no longer visible when near the edge of the Fog of War.

Casting Abathur’s Ultimate Evolution on a target affected by the Garden Terror’s Spore Queen’s Curse no longer causes a plant model to persist on the clone.

Arthas Ghouls no longer instantly die to Anub’arak’s Web Blast

Glow effects for Arthas’ Frostmourne Hungers no longer visually persist through polymorph-type abilities.

Bolt of the Storm and Zeratul’s Blink can no longer be cast while rooted.

Chen’s Storm, Earth, Fire Spirits no longer become unable to cast Abilities if Triple Attack is used to jump into the enemy Altar of Storms.

E.T.C.’s Mosh Pit now properly reveals Cloaked Heroes.

Visual effects for E.T.C.’s Guitar Solo are no longer visible through the Fog of War.

Gazlowe’s Deth Lazor should now properly freeze enemy Structures and Minions after learning the EZ-PZ Dimensional Ripper Talent.

Fixed an issue in which Illidan’s The Hunt could cause unexpected behavior with Zeratul’s Cloak.

Fixed an issue that could cause Illidan to fly out of the playable area when casting the Hunt and then shift-queuing Dive into Zeratul’s Void Prison.

Heroes that activate the Ice Block Talent can no longer queue Abilities until Ice Block has expired.

Kerrigan’s Assimilation Trait now appropriately grants Shields for damage dealt by her Psionic Pulse Talent.

Li Li’s Cloud Serpent will now attack mounted Heroes.

Li Li’s Timeless Creature Talent no longer allows two Cloud Serpents to be present simultaneously on the same target.

A range indicator is now displayed when hovering the mouse over Malfurion’s Innervate Ability icon.

Fixed an issue in which Muradin’s starting Health regeneration was much higher than intended.

Muradin’s Haymaker targeting arrow will no longer persist on the target, nor display through the Fog of War, if Muradin is killed before Haymaker can be cast.

Nova’s Holo Decoy will now appropriately use Basic Attacks even if it does not have enough Mana to cast Abilities when it is spawned.

Fixed several inconsistencies that could occur with Raynor’s Penetrating Round after learning Talents that modify its damage.

Fixed an issue that could cause Rehgar to briefly pause before his first Basic Attack after casting Feral Lunge.

The cooldown for Rehgar’s Ancestral Healing is now appropriately reduced to 10 seconds if the Ability is cancelled.

Rehgar will no longer exit Ghost Wolf form when activating the Farsight Talent.

A Stitches that Gorges a hero and then becomes affected by Zagara’s Devouring Maw will now continue to hold onto the Gorge target until Devouring Maw expires.

Stitches’ Hook will no longer become visually stuck to targets that cannot be pulled.

Fixed an issue which caused summoned units to deal half damage to Heroes with the Superiority Talent.

The duration bar for Tassadar’s Archon will no longer remain visible on the death screen if Tassadar is killed while transforming into his Archon form.

Casting Tassadar’s Dimensional Shift immediately after being struck by Tyrande’s Sentinel will no longer cause the revealed indicator to persist on Tassadar until his next death.

Fixed a rare issue in which Tychus could be immediately killed upon exiting the Odin after entering it at full Health.

Corrected a tooltip which incorrectly indicated that Tychus’ Drakken Laser Drill was only dealing half its actual damage.

If Tyrael’s Judgment is cancelled prior to reaching the target, he will now continue to fly toward the target’s previous location rather than drop into unpathable terrain.

Casting Tyrande’s Sentinel now displays an appropriate minimap icon after learning the Ranger Talent.