Update (February 18, 2015): We released a follow-up patch in order to fix a few bugs and add Stimpacks to the Heroes of the Storm in-game Shop. The February 18 updates have been added to the User Interface and Bug Fixes sections of the patch notes below.

We’ve brought Heroes of the Storm offline for a period of extended maintenance today in order to bring you a brand new Closed Beta patch! Maintenance is ongoing, but don't worry; we'll let you know just as soon as the Nexus is back online. In the meantime, you can check out the complete patch notes below.

The Lost Vikings, (Olaf, Baleog, and Erik) just fell through a Nexus portal and are now available for play! Read on for a brief overview of their Abilities, as well as how to control the Vikings in-game.

Summon a Longboat and go on a Viking Raid!

All Vikings are revived and teleported to the summoning Viking.

Death time is reduced for The Lost Vikings.

The Vikings gain increased Movement Speed for a few seconds.

Go go go! (Z)

Go go go! (Z)

Can be unlocked at Level 16 by learning the Norse Force! Talent

Can be unlocked at Level 7 by learning the Jump! Talent

Can be unlocked at Level 4 by learning the Spin to Win! Talent

The Lost Vikings’ Basic Abilities must be unlocked through Talent Selection.

Use the activated Talent hotkeys “1”, “2”, and “3” to select and control the Vikings individually, or press the “4” key to guide them as a group.

Each Viking can move, attack, and be killed separately. They will also receive individual respawn timers on death.

Erik – Moves faster than the other Vikings and has a longer attack range

Baleog – Deals splash damage to enemies behind his attack target

Olaf – Has lots of Health, regenerates Health quickly, and charges to slow enemies

The Lost Vikings are three Heroes in one!

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General

Though Team League is not available with today’s patch, those who have achieved Player Level 40 will earn a new progression reward which indicates that they are eligible to compete in Team League. This reward will be displayed in Player Profiles, Quest Logs, and endgame Score Screens, but Team League will remain disabled until a future update is released.

Mac users can now find screenshots at the following location:

The Reconnect System has received several improvements, which should help players more quickly rejoin in-progress Heroes matches from which they’ve disconnected. The Reconnect System will continue to undergo evaluation going forward, and further improvements will be implemented as necessary with future updates.

The Reconnect System has received several improvements, which should help players more quickly rejoin in-progress Heroes matches from which they’ve disconnected. The Reconnect System will continue to undergo evaluation going forward, and further improvements will be implemented as necessary with future updates.

In-game Communication

The ability to send “GG” chat messages to opponents in the moments after a Core is destroyed.

The following items have been temporarily disabled for further evaluation and improvements:

It is now possible to view recent in-game chat messages by opening the chat box to type a new message. Only the most recent messages will be displayed in this way. Additional improvements will arrive with future updates.

Quest Log

The Quest Log will also be automatically displayed upon each login, which should help players more easily keep track of their Daily Quest and progression reward progress.

Click the Quest Log button to view active Daily Quest progression, Player Level progress, as well as the next progression reward.

The Quest Log will be locked prior to earning the Daily Quests reward at Player Level 6.

A new Quest Log button has been added to the lower-right portion of the bottom navigation bar, next to the Friends List button.

Player Profile

Please Note that some of the Player Profile statistics mentioned above will not contain data for games played prior to today’s patch. However, statistics for games played after the patch will be properly tracked.

Hover the mouse over any Portrait to display a tooltip that explains how it can be earned.

Portrait Selection has been moved from its previous location to this tab, making it easier than ever for players to find and choose among the portraits they’ve already earned, or simply browse through the portrait rewards they have yet to unlock.

Players can use this tab to view additional statistics about their performance in Heroes of the Storm, such as: Heroes they’ve scored the most takedowns or received the most deaths with, total games played, and Battleground win-rates.

The game mode, Hero, and Battleground selected, as well as the game’s result, and a timestamp will be displayed for each match in the list.

Select this tab to view a list of recently played Heroes of the Storm matches.

The Match History tab has been enabled.

Additionally, clicking any Hero portrait on the Hero Collection tab will bring up that Hero’s 3D model, as well as detailed information about its current Hero level and reward progress.

Hero Progress has been visually reworked, allowing many more Heroes, their current Hero Levels, and progress toward the next level, to be displayed on each page of the Hero Collection tab.

The Hero Progress tab has been renamed to Hero Collection

This tab can be used to view current Player Level, progress toward the next level, and all Player Level progression rewards.

The Rewards tab has been renamed to Player Progression

Players can use this tab to view general information about their Heroes of the Storm account, such as: Recent Victory, Most Played Heroes, Total Hero Level, Ranked Play win-rates, games played with each Hero role, and much more!

The Profile Summary tab has been enabled.

The Daily Quests tab has been removed.

The Player Profile screen has received an overhaul.

Penalties for Leaving Games

In addition, the flagged player will still lose a significant number of Ranked Points upon leaving Draft Mode.

Leaving a Hero League game during Draft Mode will now only penalize and flag the player who left the draft, and will no longer penalize the rest of that player’s party members.

Players penalized in this way can earn back the ability to play in Hero League, and be matched with non-leaving teammates. Simply play the assigned number of Quick Match games to completion (and stop leaving games).

Please note that this will not cause party members to be flagged individually . These penalties will be lifted from the party once the flagged player either completes the requirements noted above, or leaves the party.

When a player who is flagged for leaving games early joins a party, the entire party will also become subject to these penalties.

The system will track players’ recent games. If a player has not left any games prematurely for some time, then leaving a single game (for reasons outside of that player’s control) will not trigger these penalties.

When queuing for Quick Match games, the flagged player will be teamed up with other flagged players who have similarly left games early.

Leaving additional games early will cause the number of Quick Match games required to increase.

The flagged player will be disallowed from queuing for Hero League games until a Quick Match game is played to completion.

Leaving multiple Hero League or Quick Match games without reconnecting will now flag the player to receive the following penalties:

The tracking and penalties for leaving in-progress Quick Match and Hero League games before they are finished have been changed:

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Battlegrounds

Various Battleground assets have received additional optimization to help improve performance.

Watchtowers on the Sky Temple Battleground have received updated art.

The following units have received updated animations:

Upon destruction, the Core now produces a Nexus coin rather than a crystal.

The Core now displays Shield impact effects when attacked, so long as Shields remain.

Heroes, Mounts, and Skins

A number of summoned units have received visual updates and polish:

Several Hero Abilities and Talents have received updated visual effects:

Several Hero Skins have received new art for certain Abilities, which more closely match that Skin’s theme:

Several Heroes and Hero Skins have received animation polish:

Jaina Skins and all Variations have received minor updates.

Additionally, Grunty Murky has wriggled his way into a brand new suit of Terran power armor, and dropped his fish for a much creepier weapon: a Zerg Larva!

Grunty Murky and its Variations have received updated art.

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

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

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Bundle Packs

The Pajama Party Lost Vikings Bundle has been added to the in-game Shop for a limited time.

Heroes

The Lost Vikings have been added to the in-game Shop!

Skins

The Pajama Party Lost Vikings Skin has been added to the Shop.

A Master Skin has been added for The Lost Vikings.

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Heroes and Skins

The following Heroes and Hero Skins have received sound effect updates:

The following Hero Skins have received unique dialog effects:

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General

Abathur's Ultimate Evolution clones, Murky, and The Lost Vikings’ deaths are now represented in 0.25 increments on score screens, as killing them awards 25% of the normal XP amount earned by killing another hero.

A loss of control channel bar will now appear when Heroes are Silenced (as they do with Stuns).

Heroes can no longer use Activated Talents while channeling.

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General

Collecting various Battleground items (Doubloons, Skulls, Seeds, Regeneration Globes) should now be more responsive.

Human teams can now begin Coop games on either side of the Battleground, rather than only on the left side.

Structures

This is now consistent with the way in which Catapult Minions are spawned.

The Core is now invulnerable until both the Keep and Fort in a single lane are destroyed.

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General

All Heroes (including Murky and The Lost Vikings) now count as full credit toward Talents which require Hero kills (such as Gathering Power).

Level 20 Talent Changes

Found on the following Heroes:

Every 5 seconds, the next Basic Attack will deal an additional 200 damage to the primary target, and 500 damage to each nearby Minion or Mercenary.

Found on the following Heroes:

Activate to reduce all incoming damage by 75% for 4 seconds; 60 second cooldown

Found on the following Heroes:

Increases both Attack Speed and Basic Attack range by 20%

Found on the following Heroes:

Provides 20% increased Attack Damage, and Basic Attacks slow enemies by 20% for 1 second

Four new Talents have been added at Level 20 for a number of Heroes:

Found on the following Heroes:

Has been removed from many Heroes

Has been moved from Level 13 to Level 20

Calldown: MULE

M.U.L.E. Health is now 140 (+43 per level), rather than remaining at 500 Health for the duration of the match.

Multiple M.U.L.E.s can no longer repair the same structure.

Gathering Power

Ice Block

Ability cooldowns will now continue to run, and persistent auras will continue to take effect, throughout Ice Block’s duration (this was added with the previous patch).

Regeneration Master

Now grants 4 Health regeneration upon learning the Talent

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

Monstrosity now takes 50% less damage from Minions and Structures.

Monstrosity Health increased from 600 (+60 per level) to 600 (+72 per level).

Minion Stack bonus increased from 4% to 5% Health and Damage.

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Stun duration decreased from 1.25 to 1 second

Impact area and Damage bonuses reduced from 100% to 85%

Now channels for 4 seconds to increase the duration of Web Blast for 4 seconds. Usable once per Web Blast cast

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Ghoul duration bonus changed from a 50% increase to a 5 second increase

Slow duration on Heroes increased from 3 to 4 seconds

Now decreases Frozen Tempest’s Mana cost by 3 per second

Initial damage per second increased from 20 to 26

Mana drain increased from 12 to 15 per second

Heal amount reduced from 4% to 3% of maximum Health

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Bolt of the Storm (Talent) added at Level 20

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Shield scaling increased from 25 to 50 per level

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Increases for Breath of Fire’s range and arc changed from 20% to 30%

No longer roots the target for 1 second, and instead applies a 90% slow for 1 second

While at or above 50 Brew, regenerate an additional 10 (+1.5 per level) Health per second

While at or below 50 Brew, gain 20% Movement Speed

Health regeneration and Movement Speed Bonuses have been swapped

Health regeneration bonus increased from 5 (+1 per level) to 10 (+1.5 per level)

Shield regeneration rate and maximum Shield amount increased from 33% to 40%

Starting Brew regeneration increased from 30 to 40 Brew per second upon activation

The color of Chen’s Brew resource bar has been changed to yellow.

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Issuing additional commands after casting Overpower should now be much more responsive.

The number of fire waves created by Fire Stomp has been reduced from 10 to 8.

Now orients according to cardinal directions with respect to the direction that Diablo is currently facing

Can now be used on Structures without potentially landing inside of them

The pushback distance on the target is now consistent, which should allow for more fluid combos with Overpower.

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Heal amount increased from 5% to 10% of maximum Health

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Now restores 50% Health, rather than all Health

Wrath of Cod (Talent) moved from Level 16 to Level 13

Spawn Egg’s placement cooldown after Murky’s Egg is destroyed has been decreased from 20 to 15 seconds.

The amount of time Murky is revealed after his Egg is killed has been increased from 10 to 15 seconds.

Murky will now lose Kill Streak flames any time he is killed, even if an Egg has been placed prior to death.

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Banshees remain cloaked while firing, and fire 50% more frequently.

If Raynor dies, the Banshees will travel to the nearest lane to help push.

If their target dies, the Banshees will attempt to acquire a new target nearby, preferring heroes.

Raynor’s Banshees can now be re-targeted by pressing R and clicking an enemy, or issued Move commands by pressing R and clicking the terrain.

This Heroic Ability now requires a target before it can be cast.

An additional set of lasers continually blast the ground, dealing area-of-effect damage.

Now starts with the Yamato Cannon effect that was previously granted by the Battle Hyperion Talent

No longer requires activation in order to reduce the cooldown for Adrenaline Rush

Increases Inspire’s duration by 50% and causes Adrenaline Rush to automatically apply Inspire

No longer visually scales up Minions and Mercenaries

Nearby allies still benefit from 50% of this bonus.

Penetrating Round becomes charge-based, with a maximum of 2 charges.

Upon impact, Penetrating Round slows enemies by 20% for 3 seconds.

Penetrating Round’s cooldown is reduced by 4 seconds upon striking an enemy Hero.

Damage reduced from 40 (+12 per level) to 35 (+11 per level)

Reduces Ability cooldowns by 1.5 seconds whenever an enemy that was recently damaged by Raynor is destroyed

Now also increases Raynor’s vision by 10%

has been converted into Raynor's new Trait.

Raynor’s Heroic Ability cooldown is reduced by 10 seconds whenever any Hero (ally or enemy) is killed.

Additionally, once every 5 seconds, Raynor will knock back nearby enemies if he becomes stunned.

This is an improved version of the Bribe Talent that requires only 15 stacks to bribe a Mercenary instead of 20.

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No longer roots the target for 1 second, and instead applies a 90% slow for 1 second

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Enemies are now knocked back slightly farther, but only the center of the three Spider Mines will knock the target back.

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Fury required to extend Wrath of the Berserker’s duration increased from 4 to 10 Fury

Increase to Seismic Slam’s Fury cost changed from 5 to 10

Fury generated upon activation increased from 25 to 50

Fury generated upon taking damage increased from 1 to 2

Fury generated per Basic Attack increased from 4 to 6

Damage increased from 38 (+7 per level) to 40 (+8 per level)

Fury cost upon activation increased from 10 to 20

The color of Sonya’s Fury resource bar has been changed to orange.

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Damage reduced from 200 (+50 per level) to 100 (+25 per level)

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Primary target scaling damage reduced from 17 per level to 15 per level

Heal amount changed from 49 (+36 per level) to 60 (+23 per level)

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Instead, Ragnarok Missiles now also launches a Nuclear Missile at the target location in addition to its other effects.

This Talent no longer grants Nuclear Blast (E) as a separate Ability.

Target a point to damage and slow enemies in an area.

Scaling damage increased from 13 to 18 per level

Basic Attack damage decreased from 70 (+20 per level) to 63 (+18 per level)

Tychus can now use Activated Talents while piloting the Odin.

The Odin no longer has 50% Crowd Control reduction.

Tychus will now die if the Odin is destroyed while he is piloting it.

The Odin’s Health total will now be set to Tychus’ current Health at the time that Commandeer Odin is cast.

The functionality of Commandeer Odin has been changed significantly.

Now allows Minigun's Attack Speed bonus to stack up to two additional times

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Healing increased from 10 (+2 per level) to 20 (+4 per level) each second for 3 seconds

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No longer increases healing done, and instead increases damage dealt by 10% for each enemy hit up to a maximum of 100%.

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Now pauses Capture Points (Mercenary Camps, Watch Towers, Dragon Shrines). While paused, these points cannot be captured.

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Bug Fixes

were added with our follow-up patch on February 18, 2015.

General

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

Heroes that have transformation effects will no longer revert back to their default Skin color after Cloaking and Decloaking.

Opening the Talent Select pane in Practice Mode will no longer interrupt an in-progress Hearthstone cast.

Resolved an issue in which some Hero Abilities were not properly revealing their targets after damaging them.

Fixed an issue affecting machines with NVIDIA GTX 900 series Optimus graphics cards, which could cause greatly reduced framerates when Textures were set to Ultra.

Try Me and Training modes will no longer generate error text.

Try Me and Training modes will no longer generate error text.

Fixed an issue that could cause the player to lose control of his or her Hero after reconnecting to an in-progress game multiple times.

Fixed an issue that could cause the player to lose control of his or her Hero after reconnecting to an in-progress game multiple times.

Fixed an issue in which players could be repeatedly prompted to reconnect to a match that had already been completed.

Fixed an issue in which players could be repeatedly prompted to reconnect to a match that had already been completed.

Art

Tassadar no longer exhibits an animation pop when sitting idle on the Battle Beast Mount.

Great-father Winter Rehgar’s appearance while in Ghost Wolf form will now appropriately match his selected Skin Variation.

Battlegrounds

Spirits created by Chen’s Storm, Earth, Fire Heroic Ability can no longer capture the Dragon Knight on Dragon Shire.

Sky Temple Map Mechanic stats are now properly recorded on the end-game score screen.

Kerrigan’s Ultralisk can now properly walk through uncollected Doubloons on Blackheart’s Bay.

Fixed a rare issue in which Skulls occasionally spawn outside of the playable area on Haunted Mines.

Grave Golems, Mercenaries, and Minions will no longer completely ignore Structures affected by Zeratul’s Void Prison.

Fixed an issue that could cause Grave Golems to deviate from their intended attack paths (Hotfixed on January 22).

Falstad’s Flight cooldown is now properly reset after pressing the “Clear Cooldowns” button in Try Mode.

Battleground objective units such as Grave Golems, Garden Terrors, and Mercenaries will now become invulnerable while leashing.

Abathur’s Hivemind Talent can no longer benefit the Dragon Knight or player-controlled Garden Terrors.

Resolved a crash that could occur while playing on the Garden of Terror Battleground.

Resolved a crash that could occur while playing on the Garden of Terror Battleground.

Heroes and Talents

Brightwing’s Soothing Mist Trait will no longer stop functioning after coming under the effects of Zeratul’s Void Prison.

Fixed an issue which could allow Zeratul’s Singularity Spike to deal more damage than intended when cast multiple times using the Double Bombs Talents.

Raynor’s Adrenaline Rush Ability will no longer cleanse movement impairing effects prior to learning the Fight or Flight Talent.

Respawn waypoints set from The Lost Vikings’ tombstones onto an enemy Hero will no longer track that Hero through the Fog of War.

Spirits created by Chen’s Storm, Earth, Fire Heroic Ability will no longer fly across the Battleground after using their Triple Attack or Split Up Abilities to cross an enemy Zeratul’s Void Prison.

Players will no longer permanently lose control of Abathur if he is killed immediately after the Ultimate Evolution Heroic Ability expires (Hotfixed on January 22).

Fixed an issue in which Abathur could become permanently stuck in Symbiote form under very specific circumstances.

The Bombard Strain Talent for Abathur’s Locust Strain Trait now appropriately lists a 66% damage bonus for Locusts in its tooltip.

Visual effects for Abathur’s Deep Tunnel are no longer visible through line of sight blockers for opponents when Symbiote is cancelled.

Fixed an issue that could cause Anub’arak to become stuck after using Burrow Charge near a Wall.

Internal text will no longer display when Azmodan's Demons kill Murky's Egg.

Visual explosion effects for Azmodan’s Globe of Annihilation with the Sieging Wrath Talent will now properly appear at long distances.

Visual effects for Chen's Brewmaster's Balance Talent will no longer persist after Chen is killed.

Fixed a rare issue which could allow Gazlowe to use both Grav-O-Bomb 3,000 and Robo-Goblin in the same match.

Muradin's Haymaker now deals the appropriate amount of damage to Grave Golems and player-controlled Garden Terrors.

Lighting issues will no longer occur when Murky is revived at an Egg placed in the Haunted Mines.

Nova’s Holo Decoy will no longer pick up Doubloons if Nova is killed before the Decoy expires.

Nova's Holo Decoy now appropriately displays any Doubloons it collects on Blackheart’s Bay.

Fixed an issue in which Shrink Ray could fail to apply its 50% damage reduction if the target had already begun casting an Ability prior to coming under Shrink Ray’s effects.

A Sgt. Hammer in Siege Mode now properly becomes mobile while under the effects of Brightwing’s Polymorph, and will no longer be in Siege Mode when Polymorph expires.

Visual explosion effects from Sgt. Hammer's Basic Attacks while in Siege Mode now appear at the appropriate location when attacking flying enemies.

Heroes will no longer be teleported back to Stitches if they are Gorged when Stitches comes under the effects of Anub’arak’s Web Blast.

Fixed an issue in which Tassadar could gain additional range on Psionic Storm when selecting the talent Second Strike.

Tassadar will no longer display a targeting reticule during Dimensional Shift if he was being actively targeted before casting the Ability.

Fixed a rare issue in which Earthquake could still be cast, and then receive a reduced cooldown, if Thrall was stunned while channeling the Ability.

Thrall's Chain Lightning will no longer bounce to, or reveal, Cloaked units.