•Certain game visuals now appear smoother, such as Channel/Duration progress bars and Fog of War. •Dynamic Spell Power Updating •Ability Damage is now calculated while abilities are in flight instead of only at the time of cast.
•Hanamura Temple •Hanamura has been renamed to Hanamura Temple and has received a significant gameplay update. •Hanamura Temple has been added to the Battleground Rotation.
•Battleground Rotation •The Unranked Battleground Rotation has been updated to the following (For PTR, only Hanamura Temple will be available in queues): •Cursed Hollow •Dragon Shire •Alterac Pass •Hanamura Temple •Towers of Doom •Infernal Shrines
Dul’Mephistos, the Lord of Hatred, is said to the be most cunning among his brethren. Even while imprisoned in a soulstone, his vile influence corrupted the Zakarum and manipulated them into breaking the seal, giving him free reign to reunite the Prime Evils and enslave humanity.
Trait •Lord of Hatred •Hitting enemy Heroes with Basic Abilities reduces Mephisto's Basic Ability cooldowns. •Skull Missile and Shade of Mephisto grant 1.5 seconds of cooldown reduction per Hero hit, and Lightning Nova grants 0.3 seconds per Hero hit.
Basic Abilities •Skull Missile (Q) •Conjure a skull that travels in the target direction after 0.75 seconds, dealing 127 damage to enemies hit and Slowing Heroes hit by 25% for 2 seconds.
•Lightning Nova (W) •A ring of lightning appears around Mephisto for 2.5 seconds. Enemies within the ring take 48 damage every 0.25 seconds. •Each time a cast of Lightning Nova hits a Hero, its damage is increased by 4%, up to 40%.
•Shade of Mephisto (E) •Teleport to a location, dealing 78 damage to nearby enemies and leaving behind a Shade of Mephisto at Mephisto's original location. After 2.5 seconds, Mephisto is teleported back to the Shade's location.
Heroic Abilities •Consume Souls (R) •Channel for 2.5 seconds, revealing all enemy Heroes. After the Channel completes, all enemy Heroes take 357 damage and are Slowed by 40% for 2.5 seconds.
•Durance of Hate (R) •After 1 second, unleash a wave of evil spirits that Root the first enemy Hero hit for 2 seconds and deal 160 damage to them over the same duration. •Durance of Hate spreads outwards from its initial target, Rooting and damaging additional nearby enemy Heroes.
•Basic Attack damage reduced from 82 to 55 •Basic Attack range increased from 5.5 to 6 Abilities•Light of Elune (Q) •Heal increased from 270 to 275 •Cooldown increased from 11 to 15 seconds •Mana cost reduced from 30 to 10 •New functionality: •Now has two charges that refresh simultaneously. •The cooldown is lowered by 1.5 seconds every time you Basic Attack. •The cooldown is lowered by 1.5 seconds every time you damage an enemy Hero with an ability. •There is a one second cooldown between charge uses.
•Sentinel (W) •Mana cost reduced from 70 to 50 •Cooldown reduced from 18 to 15 seconds •Damage reduced from 165 to 120 •The Sentinel baseline quest has been removed.
•Lunar Flare (E) •Damage reduced from 195 to 150
•Hunter’s Mark (D) •Armor reduction decreased from 25 to 15 •Range increased from 5.5 to 6
•Shadowstalk (R) •Cooldown increased from 60 to 80 seconds •New functionality: •Grant Stealth to all Allied Heroes and heal them for 400 Health over 10 seconds.
Talents •Level 1 •Moonlit Arrows (Q) •Moved from Level 4
•Celestial Attunement (Q) •Moved from Level 4 •New functionality: •Light of Elune now removes all Stuns and Slows from its target
•Kaldorei Resistance (Q) •Moved from Level 4 •Duration of Spell Armor decreased from 6 to 3 seconds •Maximum stacks of Spell Armor decreased from 3 to 2
•Level 4 •Ranger (W) •Moved from Level 1 •Bonus travel damage increased from 75 to 150% •Added functionality: •Activate to have your next Sentinel pierce all targets. 30 second cooldown.
•Lunar Blaze (E) •Moved from Level 1 •New functionality: •Increase the range of Lunar Flare by 50% •Quest: Hitting a Hero increases the damage of Lunar Flare by 5% up to a maximum of 100%
•Trueshot Aura (Active) •Moved from Level 7 •New functionality: •Tyrande permanently gains 20% Basic Attack damage. •Activate - Instantly reset Hunter’s Mark and grant nearby allies 20% additional Basic Attack damage for 5 seconds. 60 second cooldown.
•Level 7 •Mark of Mending (D) •Moved from Level 16
•Elune’s Chosen (Active) •Moved from Level 16 •Duration increased from 5 to 10 seconds •Your Basic Attacks heal your target for 200% of the damage they deal. 30 second Cooldown.
•New Talent: Everlasting Light (Q) •The healing granted by the second charge of Light of Elune is increased by 40% if used on a different target.
•Level 13 •Quickening Blessing (Q) •Movement Speed decreased from 30 to 20% •Added functionality: •Tyrande permanently gains 10% Movement Speed
•Ranger’s Mark (D) •Moved from Level 1 •New functionality: •Basic Attacks lower the cooldown of Hunter’s Mark by 1 second. Tyrande’s Basic Attacks against marked targets extend the duration of Hunter’s Mark by .5 seconds
•Harsh Moonlight (W) •Adjusted functionality: •The first Hero hit with Sentinel is slowed by 40% and deals 40% less damage for 4 seconds.
•Level 16 •Overflowing Light (Q) •Removed
•Huntress’ Fury (D) •Moved from Level 7 •Basic Attacks now splash to all nearby targets •Range increase reduced from 50 to 25% •Added functionality: •Increases the duration of Hunter’s Mark by 1 second
•Empower (W) •Moved from Level 13 •New functionality: •Reduce the cooldown of Sentinel by 3 seconds. The first enemy hit takes an additional 7% of their Maximum Health in damage.
•Darnassian Archery (Passive) •Moved from Level 7 •Damage bonus per attack increased from 5 to 10% •Duration increased from 4 to 8 seconds
•Level 20 •Eyes of the Huntress (R) •Enemy reveal duration reduced from 3 to 2 seconds •Added functionality: •Increase Shadowstalk’s heal by 50% for allies who are under 50% of their Maximum Health
•Shooting Star (Passive) •Attacks needed reduced from 10 to 8 •No longer requires Heroic targets to gain stacks •No longer only targets Heroic units (but does prefer them)
Developer Comment: While we enjoy the flexibility of Tyrande's kit, she has struggled to find a home in the current meta. As we started looking at broadening our Hero roles, we felt like we had an opportunity to make some simple yet very substantial changes to our Night Elf Priestess. This rework pulls her slightly away from her hybrid status, reducing her damage output potential while introducing a lot more healing potential. While she keeps the vast majority of her older talents, they have been updated and shuffled to better coincide with her changes. We have enjoyed playing her internally and are excited to see what our players can do with her!
New Bundles •The following new bundles are available for a limited time! Be sure to check out the latest In-Development blog for more details. •Mephisto Heroic Bundle •Hellforged Heroes Bundle
New Announcers •Mephisto •Beleth •Athena
New Skins •Mephisto •Star Wraith Mephisto •Cybernetic Star Wraith Mephisto •Eternal Star Wraith Mephisto •Golden Mephisto •Soulburn Mephisto
New Portraits, Sprays, and Emojis •Several new emoji packs and portraits have also been added to the game. You can get a look in our most recent In-Development blog.
General •Loading Screen: Fixed an issue that could cause a vertical black line to appear on loading screens in certain resolutions. •Custom Games: Fixed an issue that could cause game stalls when launching custom games with more than 8 players.
Art •Fixed an issue that could cause Heroes to appear to walk on their mounts if certain abilities were cast immediately after mounting.
Battlegrounds •Volskaya Foundry: Fixed an issue that caused Time Stop effects to fail to cancel channels on the Volskaya Protector.
User Interface
•The Unstoppable effect now has a status duration bar underneath nameplates. •Alarak: Alarak's Deadly Charge now has an icon in the death recap screen. •Ana: Ana's abilities amplified by Nano Boost's Spell Power buff now display critical effects.
Heroes, Abilities, and Talents •Cassia: Fixed an issue that could cause the stun effect from Valkyrie to end early if the target collided with terrain. •Diablo: Fixed an issue that prevented Diablo from being thrown by Garrosh’s Wrecking Ball if Diablo was casting Overpower. •Johanna & Li-Ming: Fixed an issue that prevented some “marked” effects from being consumed if the target was Shielded or Protected. •Lunara & Stitches: Fixed an issue that could cause permanent screen shaking if Lunara was hooked by Stitches under certain conditions.
Mac •Fixed an issue that caused responsiveness degradation when using the middle-mouse button on fullscreen settings.
Ability Damage is now calculated while abilities are in flight instead of only at the time of cast.
And yet another most dubious change. 'time of cast' is an EXACT point in time that I - as the player - can identify, and act accordingly. 'in flight' is not. Take a wild guess why airlines tell people their plane starts at 6 and lands at 9 and not tells them they will be airborne at 8.
It could have a significant effect for Mephisto with Malicious Intent, which gives 20% spell power while active and for 2 seconds after Shade of Mephisto is active.
Also should be a buff for Li Ming with Tal'Rasha's Elements at 20 for rapidly cast combos.
So the new Tyrande is pretty strong. I don't know about competitive, but in casual play she seems first pick/first ban. Stupid high healing output + very good utility with W/E/D. And her damage is pretty ok too.
Definitely can't be played as flex anymore, but as support, jesus...
What does the HOTS player base look like? I played a few QM games for the first time in like a year, and matchmaking takes forever and the players that I'm matched with have no idea what they're doing.
It's pretty similar to what it was a year ago as far as I can tell. If you tried QM using Mephisto or Tyrande then the queue times would make sense for the long wait time as they do everything in their power to prevent duplicate heroes in the same game which causes delays when a new or reworked hero is in high demand.
Also if you were playing Mephisto or any low level hero you get matched against lower MMR opponents to make up for the fact that you are playing a hero you aren't experienced with.
On September 06 2018 07:48 karazax wrote: It's pretty similar to what it was a year ago as far as I can tell. If you tried QM using Mephisto or Tyrande then the queue times would make sense for the long wait time as they do everything in their power to prevent duplicate heroes in the same game which causes delays when a new or reworked hero is in high demand.
Also if you were playing Mephisto or any low level hero you get matched against lower MMR opponents to make up for the fact that you are playing a hero you aren't experienced with.
On September 06 2018 07:48 karazax wrote: ...Also if you were playing Mephisto or any low level hero you get matched against lower MMR opponents to make up for the fact that you are playing a hero you aren't experienced with.
This is not true any more. I am too lazy to dig up the time when it changed, but they stepped away from this idea quite awhile ago.
Playing lower MMR opponents when you play a low level hero is still documented as being the case on the wiki. If anyone can find the documentation of that change I would be interested in seeing it and reading why they would change it.
Re: Artanis and long queue times, I have no idea why that would be the case. There is always a higher chance of people not knowing what they are doing in QM though.
Can someone explain to me why Tyrael isn’t considered OP right now? I remember during Alpha and into release when they repeatedly had to nerf his damage because his judgment/eraser play was too good. Now, it seems like he does more damage than he ever did previously with the new talents. Maybe my perception is a little skewed because my total mmr decay has me playing with gold league players, but Tyrael just feels really strong. I’ve been absolutely terrifying enemy back lines with him.
only thing i can come up with is that his out of combat self heal stinks nowadays. personally i havnt really touched him since they removed his amp healing.
On September 10 2018 12:37 alpenrahm wrote: btw daunt. when are you gonna update your hl 101
Probably never. I’m not TL staff anymore. More importantly, and until recently, I basically hadn’t played the game for over 2 years. Not only are there two years worth of heroes who I don’t really understand, but pretty much every other hero has been changed significantly as well. For example, I have about 1,000 games with Zeratul, but I barely recognize him anymore. Yeah, the cleave build is there, but everything else is different. It would take me a long time to get fully up to speed with all of the maps, heroes, and meta such that I could competently update the guide to bring it current. And really, the only stuff that’s missing is the meta-centric. The basic principles in the guide still hold true and are still incredibly relevant.
On September 10 2018 19:05 Ej_ wrote: Tyrael has awful laning.
Eh, it's not that bad for a warrior. And it certainly isn't bad enough to outweigh his teamfight utility.
In a game with Dehaka, Blaze. Yrel and Leoric, it is terrible. He can't match the offlane clear. So he always has to main tank, which pidgeonholes the team into all-in melee comp.
Hard engage is also quite shit into many meta heroes.
On September 10 2018 19:05 Ej_ wrote: Tyrael has awful laning.
Eh, it's not that bad for a warrior. And it certainly isn't bad enough to outweigh his teamfight utility.
In a game with Dehaka, Blaze. Yrel and Leoric, it is terrible. He can't match the offlane clear. So he always has to main tank, which pidgeonholes the team into all-in melee comp.
Hard engage is also quite shit into many meta heroes.
I understand the concept of hard engage being problematic against certain heroes, but I don't understand why taking Tyrael necessarily forces an all melee team or even forces a team to use Tyrael in a one-warrior comp.
On September 11 2018 20:39 ShoCkeyy wrote: Who else thinks mephisto is broken right now?
edit: to re-iterate, some one that knows how to play mephisto, can clearly show why he's broken.
I agree. He is super busted. I'm only a QM hero, but whichever team has Mephisto tends to win, as long as the player has any skill whatsoever on the hero. His shade allows him to dive and deal crazy damage with no drawback... he shades right out of stuns and CC. His global damage ultimate is insanely overpowered, punishes an entire team if any 1 hero is low. Just check out the first 2m40s of this video: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/heroes/491978-hots-wp-and-funny-moments?page=11#202
I started playing hero league, and despite going 8-2 in placement matches, I got dropped into Gold 5 because of my complete mmr decay. I’ve been winning about 80% of my games since then and have moved up to gold 3, but it has been a slog and I’m not getting any skill bonus. What exactly do I have to do move up faster?
Q: So there is no MMR decay for players that don't play HL over seasons? So if a player quit playing say...a year ago, and comes back say....6 months from today. Their MMR wouldn't have been decaying over that period?
A: That is correct I completely understand your concerns, and they are things we continuously consider. With a feature like this, we'd like to see the impact of it and evaluate all the data before we iterate on it further to ensure we can make as informed a decision as possible. As always we look at the community feedback as well as measure the impact of these changes to make sure we are providing the best possible experience for all players across the community. Thank you again for your feedback.
On September 12 2018 22:46 xDaunt wrote: I started playing hero league, and despite going 8-2 in placement matches, I got dropped into Gold 5 because of my complete mmr decay. I’ve been winning about 80% of my games since then and have moved up to gold 3, but it has been a slog and I’m not getting any skill bonus. What exactly do I have to do move up faster?
Have you played since they converted over to the leagues instead of the numerics? I went 2-8 and got placed into Plat 4, but had 10 games from the first preseason league years ago that I assume calibrated me higher.
Q: So there is no MMR decay for players that don't play HL over seasons? So if a player quit playing say...a year ago, and comes back say....6 months from today. Their MMR wouldn't have been decaying over that period?
A: That is correct I completely understand your concerns, and they are things we continuously consider. With a feature like this, we'd like to see the impact of it and evaluate all the data before we iterate on it further to ensure we can make as informed a decision as possible. As always we look at the community feedback as well as measure the impact of these changes to make sure we are providing the best possible experience for all players across the community. Thank you again for your feedback.
I last did hero league like 2 years ago, and was a Diamond 1 or 2 player when I stopped. Why would they drop me into Gold 5 if my MMR hadn’t completely decayed?
As I recall they made some changes to placements quite a while back in an attempt to reduce the number of players who initially placed in the highest ranks, which reduced most former diamond/plat players rank in placement.
There were also a number of changes to ranked play at the start of the season, but I don't see any changes there that would effect someone who was previously diamond (The patch notes say that people who never played hero league are capped at gold 5 for example and quick match and other game modes no longer factor into placements).
Q: So there is no MMR decay for players that don't play HL over seasons? So if a player quit playing say...a year ago, and comes back say....6 months from today. Their MMR wouldn't have been decaying over that period?
A: That is correct I completely understand your concerns, and they are things we continuously consider. With a feature like this, we'd like to see the impact of it and evaluate all the data before we iterate on it further to ensure we can make as informed a decision as possible. As always we look at the community feedback as well as measure the impact of these changes to make sure we are providing the best possible experience for all players across the community. Thank you again for your feedback.
I last did hero league like 2 years ago, and was a Diamond 1 or 2 player when I stopped. Why would they drop me into Gold 5 if my MMR hadn’t completely decayed?
That is odd indeed. I mean even with some sort of soft decay, Gold 5 is reeeeally low. Have you tried contacting support? I imagine playing so low gotta make you crazy ^^
On September 10 2018 19:05 Ej_ wrote: Tyrael has awful laning.
Eh, it's not that bad for a warrior. And it certainly isn't bad enough to outweigh his teamfight utility.
In a game with Dehaka, Blaze. Yrel and Leoric, it is terrible. He can't match the offlane clear. So he always has to main tank, which pidgeonholes the team into all-in melee comp.
Hard engage is also quite shit into many meta heroes.
Dunno about that. Imagine Tyrael and Blaze together makes your team near unkillable with bunker and sanct, so there is no biggie if you have 2 squishy backliners. And Blaze has the necessary hard CC Though I'm far from a drafting expert.
Q: So there is no MMR decay for players that don't play HL over seasons? So if a player quit playing say...a year ago, and comes back say....6 months from today. Their MMR wouldn't have been decaying over that period?
A: That is correct I completely understand your concerns, and they are things we continuously consider. With a feature like this, we'd like to see the impact of it and evaluate all the data before we iterate on it further to ensure we can make as informed a decision as possible. As always we look at the community feedback as well as measure the impact of these changes to make sure we are providing the best possible experience for all players across the community. Thank you again for your feedback.
I last did hero league like 2 years ago, and was a Diamond 1 or 2 player when I stopped. Why would they drop me into Gold 5 if my MMR hadn’t completely decayed?
That is odd indeed. I mean even with some sort of soft decay, Gold 5 is reeeeally low. Have you tried contacting support? I imagine playing so low gotta make you crazy ^^
No, didn't bother contacting support. The truth is that I could use some practice before playing back at diamond again. And I don't think that climbing up will be that hard. I'm winning pretty much every game where my team doesn't do something outright retarded like first pick Illidan (though that has happened twice). When I solo lane with someone like Artanis at this level, it just isn't fair.