Heroes of the Storm News: PTR Patch Notes

New Hero: Medivh

Medivh, The Last Guardian, is ready to join the Heroes of the Storm team!

Medivh’s Trait (Z)

• Raven Form
• Medivh does not have a mount, but he turns into a raven (basic speed is increased by 15%). When transformed into a raven, Medivh is immune to enemies’ effects and can fly over the battlefield. When Medivh uses any ability being transformed into a raven, he turns back into a human again.

Medivh’s Basic Abilities

• Arcane Rift (Q)
• Medivh launched a magic wave which damages all the enemies which are standing on its trajectory. Arcane Rift CD time in lowered by 5 seconds when any enemy is affected. Medivh restores 30 mana points under the same conditions.
• Force of Will (W)
• Medivh protects any ally hero for 1.5 seconds from any damage,
• Portal (E)
• Medivh creates two portals on the battlefield: the first one near himself, and the second one on the selected area. Allies can use these portals to teleport between these two areas. Portals are active for 6 seconds.

Hero’s Abilities

• Poly Bomb (R)
• Medivh transforms an enemy hero into a sheep. Enemy under this effect cannot attack or use any abilities for 2 seconds. When Poly Bomb effect is over, all enemies near the original target are affected with the same effects.
• Ley Line Seal (R)
• Effect starts after 0.5 seconds. Medivh releases a wave of energy to put enemy heroes into Statis for 3 seconds.

General

Training Mode

• Added Away From Keyboard function for inactive players in the Training mode.

Veteran Introduction

• Added new tutorial mode for experienced players - Veteran Introduction
• To start a new game in this mode, click Challenges button in menu or choose Veteran when you enter the game.

System Changes

Matchmaking updates

• The process of matchmaking was optimized for players with very low and very high rank.
• This update is going to make queues for different types of players shorter and not affect the balance of teams during the match.

Seeding of the matchmaking

• Matchmaking for the players who participate into Hero League for the first time will be conducted taking into consideration their rates in Quick Matches.
• Unranked Draft Mode for Hero League matchmaking will be used in the following seasons.
• The same will be with the Team League: an average rake of a player will be taken into consideration when choosing players into a match
• Matchmaking for the players who participate into Hero League for the first time will be conducted taking into consideration their rates in Quick Matches for Unranked Draft Mode as well.

In-game shop

Bundles

• Added new bundles!
• Knight Owl Medivh Bundle – can be purchased until June 28, 2016.
• Multiverse Bundle – can be purchased until June 28, 2016.
• Ultimate Multiverse Bundle – can be purchased until June 28, 2016.

Mounts

• The following mounts will reappear in the in-game shop:
• Cyberwolf
• The following mounts will be deleted from the in-game shop:
• Billie the Kid
• Ringmaster’s Pride

New Hero

• Added new hero: Medivh.

Skins

• Master Medivh
• Knight Owl Medivh

Special offers with price reduction:

• Lunara is now available only for $8.49 USD or 7,000 Gold.

User Interface Updates

General

• Added clock at game main menu.

New Heroes of the Storm Mode: Unranked Draft

• Added new Unranked Draft mode with the ability to pick and block heroes (like in Hero League)
• Unranked Draft mode has no limits with party sizes
• Unranked Draft Mode has its own matchmaking rating:
• Unranked Draft matchmaking rating is seeded taking into account results of the Quick Matches. Detailed information about these updates look at the System Changes section (Seeding of the matchmaking)

Ranking games updates

• Heroes of the Storm ranking system is totally updated. Instead of 50 separated ranks several League Tiers divided by Divisions appear.
• There are 5 basic League Tiers: Bronze, Dilver, Gold, Platinum and Diamond, and two additional League Tiers: Master and Grand Master. The progression is the following:
• Bronze – Diamond: Players are separated into divisions (each league has 5 divisions). A player starts a game being in the 5-th division, and when he reaches the 1-st division, he can progress into the following league.
• Master: This league has no divisions, but they have special ranking system which helps track player’s progression.
• Grand Master: Only 500 players from each region can join this league. Badge indicates player’s position within these 500 players.
• A player needs to join 10 Placement Matches of Hero League or Team League to join a League and a division.
• For instance: Placement Matches qualified a player into the 3-rd division of the Gold League. If a player shows good results, he can join the 1-st division soon. When he has enough wins, he can join a Promotion Match. If he wins this match, he joins 5-th division of the Platinum league.
• If a player shows bad results, he can drop into the division with lower rank (for example, he is now in the 5-th division of the Gold league). When he has enough defeats, he joins a Demotion Match. If he loses this match, he drops into the 1-the division of the Silver league. If he wins this match, he stays in the 5-th division of the Gold league.

General Fixes

General

• Fixed bug with sound effects of some Quest talents and popups indicating the progression.

Sounds

• Tracer: Polymorph effects are no longer guided by Basic Attack sounds.
• Fixed bug with sounds played with healing abilities.
• Fixed bug with some Basic Attack sound louder than other Basic Attacks.

Battleground changes and fized

• Towers of Doom: Now FSP does not drop with Bell Towers fire.
• Garden of Terror: Now Garden Terror's basic attack which inflicts several targets deals the correct damage to the buildings under Overgrowth effect.
• Tomb of the Spider Queen: Fixed bug with Webweavers spawning at Core of ally team if some of the enemy minions are present.

Heroes and Talents

• Chen: distances are equal for the Storm, Earth, and Fire clones.
• The Butcher: Enraged talent CD time is now 25 seconds and tooltip shows the correct countdown. 
• Tyrael: Archangel’s Wrath will no longer explode without delay in some situations. 
• Kael’Thas: Empowered Living Bombs can be used with less than 50 mana point. 
• Cho’Gall: Shadow Bolt Volley cannot be deactivated with right clicking of the mouse. 
• Tracer: fixed range and change bugs with The Pulse Rounds talent.
• Abathur: Hearthstone will no longer be used for porting back to base when Ultimate Evolution is activated. 
• The Butcher: fixed bug with Hamstring damage over the enemy hero targeted when Cheap Shot and Chop Meat talents are activated.
• Brightwing: Now Continuous Winds pulses push back enemy heroes in a proper way. 
• Brightwing: Brightwing will no longer heal allies when Soothing Mist is dead. 
• Dehaka: Fixed bug with Essence Collection. Now the ability heals Dehaka correctly. 
• Sylvanas and Xul: Fixed bug when a player lost control over Xul when Sylvanas is casting Mind Control while Zul  is using Bone Prison on each other. 
• Abathur: Evolve Monstosity creature will no longer lose picked up coins and gems when dies.

User Interface

• Fixed bug with Draft UI elements occasionally disappear in Hero League and Team League lobbies.