Heroes of the Storm

Raynor and Azmodan Gameplay Updates

Raynor and Azmodan Gameplay Updates

Launching in all regions with the Raiders  patch, we’re practicing our jump-shots, calibrating our lasers, and setting our sights on major gameplay updates for both Azmodan and Raynor. Read on for a high-level description of what’s changing and find out why we’re excited for you to get your hands on these remastered versions of your favorite Lord of Hell and Renegade Commander.


Raynor

There's a New Sheriff in Town

We are extremely excited to bring the long-awaited Raynor rework to the Nexus. We have been reading and absorbing all the amazing feedback that players have sent to us over the past year, implementing and iterating on these and other ideas, and are now confident that these gameplay updates will do the Renegade Commander justice! We have massively increased his wave-clear and burst damage potential with a brand-new Trait, and have completely overhauled his talent tree (which, by the way, was one of the oldest in the game). Raynor mains should have a whole new set of tools to play around with while newer players should still be able to pick him up and learn the ropes without too much hassle. We have been having a ton of fun with the changes and hope you do as well. As always – please send us any feedback you have and get ready to fill your enemies full of daylight!

Talent Preview:

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A new Level 13 Talent, Rallying Cry can drastically increase your teams damage output by granting them attack and movement speed whenever Raynor casts Inspire.

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Chosen at level 16, Bounty Hunter allows Raynor to manually activate his new trait, deal bonus damage based on the targets max HP, and grants Raynor some Armor for a little boost of survivability. Now that’s giving them some pepper!

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Fuel the Rush is a new Level 7 Talent option that reduces the cooldown of Adrenaline Rush with every basic attack Raynor lands while Inspire is active. Stay in the fight to stay alive!


Azmodan

Say Hello to a New Lord of Hell

For the Azmodan update, we’ve embraced his current role as a late-game siege monster while expanding his talent and ability choices and introducing some versatility to his kit. He now has a baseline stacking quest that’s a hybrid of the old ‘Taste for Blood’ and ‘Sieging Wrath’ talents built into ‘Globe of Annihilation’. With this new addition to his Q ability, regardless of if you’re focusing on PvE or PvP objectives, you should see your Globe of Annihilation become more powerful as the game progresses. As a counterbalance to this increase in baseline power, we’ve made the impact area of Globe of Annihilation more visible to enemies, giving them a chance to sidestep their impending doom. We’ve also made major mechanical changes to Black Pool (now called ‘Tide of Sin’) and focused it towards solely affecting Globe’s damage without the need for ground targeting. ‘All Shall Burn’ has also received some mechanical changes, and should be a much more consistently useful ability, especially when choosing E-focused talents. You’ll also notice a few minor changes to his other abilities, as long as a whole suite of new talents, to give him some more versatility against enemy Heroes without sacrificing his push potential in those solo-siege moments.

Talent Preview:

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Chosen at Level 16, Sin’s Grasp drastically shortens the cooldown of All Shall Burn if it channels for its full duration, granting Azmodan players a massive power-spike for laser-focused builds.

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Adding an area-of-effect explosion to All Shall Burn if it completes a full channel, Master of Destruction opens up even more waveclear opportunities for Azmodan while giving him some surprise damage in close-quarters team fights.

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Unlocked as a Storm Talent at Level 20, Trample grants Azmodan some previously unavailable mobility by allowing him to dash short distances, dealing damage and slowing anyone in his path.


We hope you’re as excited for these major gameplay updates as we are. We’ll see you in the Nexus!​

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