Developer Blizzard Entertainment shared the patch notes for the latest Heroes of the Storm update, now available on the live servers. In addition to general updates such as the new Shop Bundles, Items, and the addition of the Brawl Mode, the patch also goes through a meticulous balance update and bug fixing pass.
As a reminder, Heroes of the Storm is Blizzard’s first proper entry into the MOBA genre, excluding a variety of maps for WarCraft 3 and StarCraft. In the game, players can choose a hero from a roster composed of various of the company’s titles, including but not limited to Warcraft, StarCraft and Diablo.
The game was moved into a maintenance mode in 2022, affirming that there will be no more active development. The servers remain operational with the seasonal rolls and hero rotations. Future patches primarily focus on client sustainability and bug fixing, with balance updates coming as needed. However, the game still has a small but passionate community that welcomes every new patch… unless it nerfs their favorite hero, like it happened with ol’ Zuljin. Blizzard giveth, and Blizzard taketh away.
Heroes of the Storm – January 27 Update Includes:
General:
- Updated Homescreen and Startup Music.
- Updated Shop Bundles and Items.
- NEW: Brawl Mode added! Brawls will rotate on the 1st and 15th of every month.
- Experience Globes can now path through gates.
- Fixed issues related to root visual effects.
- Updated decaying and ramping Slows to scale their speed with CC reduction effects.
Balance Update:
- Auriel – Bestow Hope had the amount of energy stored from damage to Heroes increased from 60% to 80%; additionally, the amount of energy stored from damage to non-heroes had been increased from 20% to 50%. Searing Light now only deals damage to enemy Heroes.
- Zuljin – You Want Axe? [Trait] Basic Attack damage increased from 94 to 96, but now has limit of 50 stacks. Quite a few nerfs to talents as well.
- Tracer – Healing from Regen Globes increased, healing from Pulse Generator reduced. Additionally, Jumper talent cooldown refresh and shield reduced.
- Johanna – many talents had their numerical values change, with health and damage taken reduction increase while damage done had been decreased.
Heroes Bug Fixes:
- A number of heroes such as Alexstrasza, Falstad, Fenix, Johanna, E.T.C. and others received fixes for their Slows not applying properly;
- Azmodan – Chain of Command will now properly apply Demonic Invasion’s on-death explosion.
- Chen – Fixed an issue that caused Storm, Earth, Fire Spirits to not contest Capture Points. Wandering Keg will now act like any other instant Abilities and will cast as soon as possible. It also received fixes to the issue that caused it to occasionally not be cast at all.
- Cho’Gall – Fixed an issue that caused Cho’Gall to contest points while Cho is in Stasis.
- E.T.C. – Pinball Wizard bonus damage updated to be additive.
- Imperius – Fixed an issue that caused Unrelenting Descent’s Heal to be delayed.
- Kerrigan – Fixed an issue that caused Boundless Fury to refund charges against a target already marked.
- Muradin – Thunder Strike damage increase is now additive.
- Sylvanas – Fixed an issue that caused Unfurling Shadows to not grant quest progress for the impact damage of Shadow Dagger created by spread.
- Zagara – Fixed an issue that caused Devouring Maw to gain more bonuses than intended from Pack Instinct.
- Zuljin. Fixed an issue that caused Basic Attack damage in Zul’jin’s Target Info Panel to not increase while Berserker is active. Additionally, You Want Axe had been gaining progress while at maximum Basic Attack bonus (now fixed). Wrong Place Wrong Time had an issue that caused it to not respect the stack cap of You Want Axe? (now fixed).
The list above includes only some of the changes. Check out the official site to see the full list.