Lunar Festival Join us in celebrating Lunar Festival this year by completing matches in Versus A.I., Quick Match, Unranked, or Ranked modes, and you’ll pick up some sweet new loot! The event kicks off during the week of Tuesday, February 6, and concludes on Monday, March 5, so be sure to complete the quests below before Lunar Festival comes to an end.
Quests and Rewards
Part 1: Play 2 Games
Reward: Cute Lunar Skyrocket Spray
Part 2: Play 5 Games
Reward: Lunar Warcrest Banner
Part 3: Play 8 Games
Reward: Cute Lunar Guardian Portrait
Part 4: Win 5 Games
Reward: Lunar Skyrocket Mount
You can also stop by the Lunar Festival 2018 mini-site to learn more about the event and find out how you can earn ornate Lunar Festival 2018 Loot Chests just by playing Heroes of the Storm!
New Hero - Maiev
Maiev Shadowsong stood watch over the imprisoned Betrayer for ten thousand years, and hunted him relentlessly after he was released. Some say she’s determined; others say she’s obsessed. Either way, she will stop at nothing to ensure the security of her world.
Trait
Vault of the Wardens (D)
Leap into the air, becoming immune to all hostile effects for 0.75 seconds. Passive: Maiev has 15 Armor.
Basic Abilities
Fan of Knives (Q)
Deal 180 damage to enemies in a crescent area. Hitting at least 2 enemy Heroes with Fan of Knives reduces its cooldown to 0.5 seconds, and refunds the Mana cost.
Umbral Bind (W)
Maiev’s next Basic Attack cleaves and applies a tether to enemy Heroes hit for 2.5 seconds. If a tethered Hero moves too far from Maiev, they are pulled toward her, dealing 110 damage and breaking the tether.
Spirit of Vengeance (E)
Send a shadow of Maiev outward that will return to its cast location, dealing 100 damage to enemies along both paths. Deals 100% more damage to enemy Heroes. Reactivate to Blink to the shadow’s location.
Heroic Abilities
Containment Disc (R)
Throw a glaive in the target direction. If an enemy Hero is hit, Containment Disk can be reactivated to remove their vision and Time Stop them for 4 seconds. Containment Disc automatically activates 6 seconds after hitting a Hero. Warden's Cage (R) Summon 8 Warden Avatars as a cage around Maiev. After 1.5 seconds, enemy Heroes that come in contact with an Avatar re knocked to the center of the cage, and that Avatar is consumed. Warden Avatars last 7 seconds.
User Interface
Voice Chat
NOTE: While available in the PTR, Voice Chat will not be enabled on the live servers until a later date. Voice chat for Parties and Teams has been introduced to Heroes of the Storm.
By default, players will automatically join Party voice chat. Team voice chat is opt-in, but can be toggled to auto-join in the Voice Chat settings. There is a team voice reminder dialog at the beginning of matches that is enabled by default, but can be disabled. If Team voice auto-join is enabled and you are already in party voice, a confirmation dialog will appear that defaults to Join.
Voice settings can be adjusted in the Voice Chat tab of the Options menu.
A voice chat widget is also available in the top left of most screens. This widget lets you quickly change channels or join/leave voice channels.
This can be found in the Tab screen while in a match.
Microphone and speaker icons can be clicked on to mute/unmute.
Target Info Panel
Target Info Panels have been introduced to allow players to investigate a unit's gameplay stats in real time.
The Target Info Panel will display in the top left of the screen after selecting a friendly or enemy target with left-click. The Target Info Panel will display the following information:
Health and Health Regen Mana and Mana Regen Basic Attack Damage Attacks per Second Attack Range Spell Power Modifier Movement Speed Physical & Spell Armor
Battleground Objective Counters
All Battlegrounds with turn-in mechanics (Blackheart’s Bay, Tomb of the Spider Queen, Booty Coffers Heroes Brawl) will now show a visual indicator when a team’s gathered objective count is high enough to complete a turn-in.
Art
General
Pings: Ping icons that appear overhead have received updated visual effects.
Heroes, Abilities, and Talents
Abathur: A crown icon will now appear above Heroes’ Minimap portraits when they are affected by Abathur’s Symbiote. Ana: An overlay will now display for Heroes affected by Nano Boost. Archangel Diablo: Apocalypse visual effects that appear on the terrain have been updated to make them more obvious to players on both teams. Falstad: Hinterland Blast visual effects now more closely match the edges of its area of effect. Junkrat: Frag Launcher’s targeting reticle has received updated art. Leoric: Entomb’s targeting reticle has received updated art to better reflect the Ability’s shape. Li-Ming: Magic Missiles have received updated visual effects to make them more apparent. Lt. Morales: An overlay will now display for Heroes affected by Stim Drone. Tychus: Minigun visual effects have been updated to make the Ability more apparent while it is active. Tychus: Overkill’s retargeting icon has received updated art. The following heroes have received updated visual effects to coincide with Talent changes:
Greymane Malthael
Battlegrounds
Ranked Battleground Rotation
The Battleground rotation for Ranked Play is unchanged, and remains as follows:
Battlefield of Eternity Braxis Holdout Cursed Hollow Dragon Shire Infernal Shrines Sky Temple Tomb of the Spider Queen Towers of Doom Volskaya Foundry
Volskaya Foundry
Triglav Protector
The Protector will gain 10 Armor and 25% increased damage if both the Pilot and Gunner seats are occupied Base Health has been increased from 9500 to 10450 Health Scaling has been increased by 10% Pilot: Rocket Fist (W)
Duration has been increased from 2 to 4 seconds
Gunner: Gatling Cannon (W)
Gatling Cannon will now fire immediately, instead of after a short delay Gatling Cannon rounds will now fire 50% faster
Greymane
Abilities
Gilnean Cocktail (Q)
Mana cost reduced from 70 to 55 Explosion area increased by ~15%
Talents
Level 1
Perfect Aim (Q)
Mana refund for hitting a Hero reduced from 50 to 35
Level 4
Draught Overflow (Q)
Removed
Level 7
Wizened Duelist (Passive)
New functionality:
Every 6 Attacks against an enemy Hero increases Greymane’s Basic Attack damage by 1%, up to 30%. Gain triple benefit from attacking in Worgen form. These bonuses are lost on death.
Developer Comment: We made these changes in an effort to increase Greymane’s build diversity. Gilnean Cocktail felt a little lackluster without its associated Talents, so made parts of them baseline. While you can still enhance Gilnean Cocktail through talents, we wanted it to feel like a valuable part of your kit if you choose a more Basic Attack-oriented build. We've also redesigned Wizened Duelist to be less of a feast or famine Quest by shifting its requirements to something that a Greymane in a losing game can still accomplish. This also has the added benefit of being a reward that can be accomplished regardless of the lethality of a game (since the average number of deaths can vary greatly between different levels of play).
Malthael
Stats
Basic Attacks now cleave in a radius of 3.25 in an arc in front of Malthael Damage reduced from 117 to 82
Abilities
Soul Rip (Q)
Healing reduced from 44 to 36 per enemy hit
Death’s Shroud (E)
Width increased from 2.25 to 3
Reaper's Mark (Trait)
Damage reduced from 2% to 1.75% of an enemy's maximum Health
Tormented Souls (R)
No longer applies Armor to Malthael
Last Rites (R)
Cooldown reduced from 75 to 65 seconds Malthael can now also gain Quest credit if the enemy Hero dies within 1.5 seconds of Last Rites damage Range increased from 4 to 5
Talents
Level 4
Die Alone (Q)
This now once again applies bonus damage if only 1 Hero is marked, even if multiple other non-Heroes are also marked
Throwing Shade (E)
Reduced the hits needed to complete the quest from 20 to 15
Black Harvest (Trait)
Quest completion requirement increased from 150 to 180 seconds
Level 7
Massacre (W)
Moved from Level 16 to Level 7
Touch of Death (Active)
Cooldown reduced from 30 to 25 seconds
Level 13
Soul Siphon (Q)
Reduced the healing from 4% to 3.75% versus Heroes
Ethereal Existence (Trait)
Maximum Physical Armor reduced from 40 to 30
Level 16
Mortality (W)
Moved from Level 7 to Level 16 Damage increased from 4 to 6% of an enemy Hero's maximum Health
Developer Comment: Malthael, while powerful, has relied heavily on Tormented Souls to apply his Reaper's Mark during team fights. By making his Basic Attacks cleave and increasing the usability of Death's Shroud, we're providing more ways to him to apply his Mark to multiple enemies. Not only does this increase his survivability and damage without relying solely on Tormented Souls, it also gives him more options to use Wraith Strike. We've also sought to increase the usability of Last Rites to make it a more enticing Heroic option. Lastly, the ability to apply Reaper's Mark reliably makes it much more powerful, so we've adjusted the tuning of its damage and associated Talents.
Tyrael
Talents
Level 1
Salvation (W)
Healing on shield destruction increased from 125 to 140
Ardent Restoration (Passive)
Healing increased from 12.5 to 13.75 per stack over 5 seconds
Level 4
Stalwart Armor (Q)
Armor reduced from 25 to 20
Collection
Head over to the latest In-Development blog to catch a preview of all the new cosmetic items coming to the Nexus with this patch.
New Bundles
Maiev Heroic Bundle – Available until February 19, 2018 Lunar Festival 2018 Bundle – Available until March 5, 2018 Lunar Festival Classic Bundle – Available until March 5, 2018
Lunar Skyrocket – Unlocked by completing the Lunar Festival 2018 event quest.
Golden Lunar Skyrocket – Purchasable using Gold
Lunar Guardian
Jade Lunar Guardian Marble Lunar Guardian
Bug Fixes
General
Fixed a number of typo and tooltip errors across several aspects of the game.
Art
Jaina: Corrected some minor clipping affecting Arcanist Jaina’s clothing. Samuro: Shadows will no longer appear to flicker behind Monkey King Samuro on the post-match score screen.
Battlegrounds
Battlefield of Eternity: Fixed a visual issue that could cause the outlines generated by Natural Agility to dip below the terrain in certain locations. Braxis Holdout: Fixed an issue in which A.I. Heroes would pace near an enemy Gate rather than attack the Core. Garden of Terror: Fixed an issue in which Structures affected by Overgrowth could stop attacking indefinitely under specific circumstances. Blackheart’s Revenge Brawl: Damage will no longer interrupt channeling while Heroes are attempting to use teleportation portals. Escape from Braxis Brawl: Bosses can no longer push unpathable terrain created by Tyrael’s Holy Ground Talent. Try Mode: The effects of Ana’s Aim Down the Sights Talent are now correctly removed after using the Reset Talents Button. Try Mode: Sgt. Hammer’s bonus attack range, granted by the Graduating Range Talent, is now correctly removed after using the Reset Talents Button.
Heroes, Abilities, and Talents
Ana: Shrike Doses after the first will now correctly deal bonus damage when Ana is affected by increased Spell Power. Auriel: Basic Attack damage dealt by Auriel’s Bestow Hope target will no longer generate less than the intended amount of Energy. D.Va: A.I. Heroes will now attempt to flee the area surrounding D.Va’s Mech during Self-Destruct. Junkrat: Will no longer become separated from his rocket when issuing movement commands during Rocket Ride. Li Li: Blinding Wind will now correctly deal damage to neutral Mercenaries. Li-Ming: The Astral Presence icon is no longer missing its mouseover tooltip. Lunara: Leaping Strike can no longer be cast while Rooted. Rehgar: Fixed an issue preventing the Hunger of the Wolf Talent from applying bonus damage to Ghost Wolf attacks at level 16. Tassadar: The Psionic Echo Talent’s timer bar will now correctly appear next to the Archon timer when both are active at once. Valeera: The Cheap Shot tooltip appended to Blade Flurry after breaking Stealth now correctly states it will Blind the target. Zeratul: Blink will now correctly break invisibility.
Sound
Valeera: Thistle Tea activation is no longer audible to nearby enemies while Valeera is in Stealth. Settings: Hero voice reactions are no longer audible when the Voices setting is disabled.
User Interface
Hotkeys: Basic Hotkeys can now be assigned to mouse buttons. Loading Screen: Removed an outdated loading screen tooltip relating to Tower Ammunition.
If you go for Cocktail build post patch, it's the same as before except the explosion radius was nerfed by around 15%, which translates to around 27.5% nerf to area of effect. Does't seem like much, but it does affect Greymane's ability to pressure backline from afar, and also affects how quickly Incendiary Elixir quest can be completed, so this is a significant nerf nonetheless. The reworked Wizened Duelist is interesting tho, but I still don't think it can offset the removal of Drought Overflow.
I'm starting to think Maiev is going to be very strong. Her damage might not be quite as much as a lot of the recent assassins, but she's quite tanky with a large health pool + 15 base armor + her lvl 16 talents are all armor based. That's not taking into account her mobility with Spirit of Vengeance (in every way a better haunting wave - more damage, moves faster, also comes back) and her trait, which frankly seems a bit broken. 8 second cooldown on that? Insane.
As far as builds i don't think full Fan of Knives talents will be very good, and it's going to be an auto attack build (maybe hybrid with some Spirit of Vengeance talents) or an Umbral Bind build. I was testing some rotations on the target dummy and at level 20 the Umbral build did around 3322 damage in under 1.5 seconds, with sustained 1k dps. That's single target. The pull on Umbral Bind hits for 1138 on all heroes pulled so in a team fight she can do some huge aoe.
I'm predicting the first change she gets will be a health reduction.
Side note the Character Info panel is great. You can also move it around with click and drag to anywhere on the screen.
All Battlegrounds with turn-in mechanics (Blackheart’s Bay, Tomb of the Spider Queen, Booty Coffers Heroes Brawl) will now show a visual indicator when a team’s gathered objective count is high enough to complete a turn-in.
That is a good one. Apparently basic math is really hard
All Battlegrounds with turn-in mechanics (Blackheart’s Bay, Tomb of the Spider Queen, Booty Coffers Heroes Brawl) will now show a visual indicator when a team’s gathered objective count is high enough to complete a turn-in.
That is a good one. Apparently basic math is really hard
Your teammates will still simultanously turn in 24 gems when you need 3 more instead of zoning out the enemy.
At least there will (eventually) be voice chat to try and tell them to do something else. The voice chat quality was impressive watching Dunktrain and Bakery on stream last night, though Dunktrain had some problems with it working for several games perfectly, and then randomly stop working completely for his mic. It will probably be a few patches before it goes live.
The Info panel will be great for watching pro games too. Click on the core and it tells you exactly how many hit points were left in those close core race games.
On January 30 2018 14:02 dyDrawer wrote: If you go for Cocktail build post patch, it's the same as before except the explosion radius was nerfed by around 15%, which translates to around 27.5% nerf to area of effect. Does't seem like much, but it does affect Greymane's ability to pressure backline from afar, and also affects how quickly Incendiary Elixir quest can be completed, so this is a significant nerf nonetheless. The reworked Wizened Duelist is interesting tho, but I still don't think it can offset the removal of Drought Overflow.
The default cocktail ability was buffed by 15% and the mana reduced by 15 for all builds, so you basically get a nerfed version of Drought Overflow baseline and get a new lvl 4 talent for free. Cocktail will be worse, but will the new level 4 talent choice make up for it or even exceed it in value?
Changes from the PTR patch notes: Target Info Panel + Show Spoiler +
Target Info Panels have been introduced to allow players to investigate a unit's gameplay stats in real time. The Target Info Panel will display in the top left of the screen after selecting a friendly or enemy target with left-click. The Target Info Panel can be repositioned by clicking and dragging to your desired location. Double-clicking the info panel will reset it to the default position.
Gilnean Cocktail (Q) Mana cost reduced from 70 to 55 Explosion area increased by ~15% Initial damage reduced from 59 to 55 Spread damage reduced from 236 to 220 Razor Swipe (Q) Damage reduced from 135 to 126 Level 7
Wizened Duelist (Passive) New functionality: Every 6 Attacks against an enemy Hero increases Greymane’s Basic Attack damage by 1%, up to 30%. Gain triple benefit from attacking in Worgen form. Half of these bonuses are lost on death.
Level 7 Never Outmatched (W) Cooldown reduction reduced from 4 to 2.5 seconds per Basic Attack Sharpened Arrowheads (Passive) Armor reduction reduced from 4 to 2 Maximum stacks increased from 5 to 10, so that the maximum negative Armor remains 20 Armor reduction duration reduced from 4 to 3 seconds
Spirit of the Vengeance is OP. Not saying the other abilities aren't viable but imho E build is the way to go as a dueler.
W build is great if you are vs a team that dives/groups alot, allows you to keep them oh so close to you and do big deeps as well if paired with someone that needs AOE to be effective like Jaina, KT or Chromie.
Basic Attack Damage reduced from 162 to 150 Base Maximum Health increased from 2150 to 2236 Health Regeneration increased from 4.48 to 4.66
Abilities
Fan of Knives (Q) Damage decreased from 180 to 170 Vault of the Wardens (D) No longer grants passive Armor
Talents
Level 1 Naisha’s Memento (Active) Bounces no longer deal bonus damage Level 16 Armored Assault (Passive) Physical Damage bonus decreased from 35 to 25% Now activates if Maiev has any amount of bonus Armor
Developer Comment: Maiev has arrived in the Nexus and seems to be obliterating her foes (as she should) but is slightly deadlier than we intended. The Warden’s survivability is currently too high, which allows her to get tons of resets on Fan of Knives while ignoring enemy threats. To address this, we’re removing her armor gain from Vault of the Wardens, while slightly lowering her damage output so that she has to stick around in the fight a little longer to take down her opponents. After these changes, we’ll continue to keep an eye on Maiev to be sure that she has enough survivability to perform her melee Assassin role, without it feeling like her enemies have little-to-no options for counterplay
Health reduced from 2236 to 2150 Health Regeneration reduced from 4.66 to 4.48
Abilities
Vault of the Wardens (Trait) Cooldown increased from 8 to 9 seconds Fan of Knives (Q) Damage reduced from 170 to 162
Talents
Level 16 Armored Assault (Passive) Damage bonus reduced from 25% to 20% Vengeful Knives (E) Bonus damage per Hero hit increased from 1% to 1.2%
Developer Comment: The changes we released on January 9 helped bring Maiev’s win-rate down to mortal levels, but she was still a bit too powerful, overall. Today’s changes are aimed at slightly lowering both her survivability and burst damage throughput. Our data is showing the majority of her Talents are in healthy spots, but we will keep an eye on them as players start adapting to certain playstyles.
Soul Rip (Q) Mana cost increased from 20 to 25 Healing reduced from 36 to 25 per target hit Healing from Heroic targets increased from 3% to 4% of the Hero’s maximum Health Tormented Souls (R) Cooldown reduced from 100 to 80 seconds
Talents
Level 4 Die Alone (Q) Damage bonus reduced from 75% to 50% Level 16 Soul Collector (Q) Bonus range reduced from 50% to 25%
Developer Comment: Malthael was designed to be powerful in the solo lane, but his dominance in the game’s early laning phase was unrivaled. We’re reducing this by making him heal less when Soul Ripping Minions, but increasing his Hero-only healing so that he can still keep himself alive in late-game team fights. We’re also reducing the power of Die Alone and increasing his Mana tension to taper some of his early game power. By increasing Soul Rip’s Mana usage, we’re also reducing some of the power Malthael had when double-soaking lanes (especially when combined with On a Pale Horse), as he tends to use Soul Rip twice as often when doing so. The overall goal is to reduce the power of a few particularly dominating builds, while making sure that he still feels powerful past the early game.
Cleave (Q) Damage increased from 200 to 212 Singularity Spike (W) Damage increased from 228 to 240 Void Prison (R) Mana cost reduced from 100 to 80 Might of the Nerazim (R) Basic Attack damage bonus reduced from 40% to 30%
Developer Comment: These tuning changes are meant to redistribute Zeratul’s damage while also giving him a slight buff. Zeratul should now be a bit stronger during the earlier portions of the game if he takes Might of the Nerazim, but should have less opportunity cost if he chooses to take Void Prison, instead.
Health increased from 1900 to 2000 Health Regeneration increased 3.957 to 4.168 Basic Attack damage increased from 104 to 110
Abilities
Raise Skeleton (Trait) Skeletal Warrior Health reduced from 240 to 225 Skeletal Warrior damage reduced from 23 to 21 Bone Prison (E) Cooldown reduced from 12 to 10 seconds Mana cost reduced from 80 to 70
Talents
Level 7 Trag’Oul’s Essence (Trait) Mana restoration per Skeletal Warrior attack reduced from 0.5% to 0.2% of Xul’s maximum Mana
Developer Comment: We like that Xul is a strong pushing Hero who has an identity as a great duo-lane soaker, but believe that his identity has been pushed too far into this role, and we would like to see him have more presence in team fights. We’re making adjustments to push him in this direction by buffing his base stats and toning down his split-push potential.
Level 7 Poisoned Spear (Q) Damage reduced from 125% to 100% of Ancient Spear’s damage. Level 16 Nerves of Steel (Active) Duration reduced from 5 to 3 seconds Shield amount reduced from 30% to 25% of Maximum Health Cooldown reduced from 70 to 60 seconds
Developer Comment: We originally applied these adjustments in a patch on January 24, but Sonya was so eager to get back into battle that she forgot to take them with her. We're giving these changes back to the Barbarian, and have (politely) asked her to remember to bring them along the next time she leaps into the fray.
Diablo: Lightning Breath sound effects will no longer stop playing before the Ability is finished channeling. Junkrat: Heroes killed by Concussion Mine will no longer respawn at their death location and then slide across the Battleground. Junkrat: Issuing movement commands during Rocket Ride will no longer cause Junkrat to become separated from his Mount. Junkrat: Movement commands that the player did not issue will no longer appear on the terrain in front of RIP-Tire’s model. Junkrat: Targeting unpathable terrain with Rocket Ride will no longer cause Total Mayhem Grenades to visually persist on the Battleground. Junkrat: Concussion Mine can no longer displace Leoric from Wraith Walk’s starting location if the Mine is detonated in the same moment that Wraith Walk ends. Li Li: After learning the Lighting Serpent Talent, Cloud Serpent attacks that are bouncing to additional targets when the Ability expires will now correctly deal damage. Lt. Morales: The tooltip for the Healing Beam icon next to Lt. Morales’ in-game portrait will now correctly display the Ability’s cooldown duration. Malfurion: An ally who is affected by multiple Regrowths will now be correctly healed by Moonfire and have Stuns, Roots, and Slows removed by Nature’s Cure. Movement Abilities: Certain movement-based Abilities, like Greymane’s Dark Flight or Chen’s Flying Kick, will no longer fail to move the Hero toward a target currently affected by Varian’s Taunt or Garrosh’s Warlord’s Challenge. Sgt. Hammer: Can now correctly deploy Biotic Emitters on Volskaya Foundry while in Siege Mode. The Butcher: Fixed an issue that prevented The Butcher from collecting Meat while piloting the Triglav Protector, Dragon Knight, or Garden Terror.