Honor of Kings - S24 English Patch Notes

Season 24 is now live and with it a lot of changes to the game has been made.
The most notable changes are:
The arrival of a new Warrior Hero: Yun Ying.
Storm Dragon received significant buffs.
The Ward Spirit mechanics have been changed.
"All-Star" Project giving gold for "beautiful" plays.

Game Mechanics

Storm Dragon Changes

Storm Dragon has been significantly buffed because they felt it was way too weak in S23. After killing the Storm Dragon, you will gain the usual shield and lightning buff, but you will also gain all 3 evolution buffs from the Tyrant.

After Killing the storm dragon the next 3 creep waves will also be replaced by a new dragon: the new dragon has all 3 of the original dragon evolution buffs, but it has a new special ability that disables enemy turrets for seconds, furthermore it also gains 1 out of 3 extra evolutions:
Torso evolution: The Dragons grows bigger and gains double resistance.
Head evolution: Further increases Range and Attack Speed.
Arm evolution: Further increases the Movement and Attack Speed debuff to enemies.

The lightning effect after killing the Storm Dragon has been nerfed: Deal 3.5% of Maximum Health True Damage to Heroes → Cause 2.0% of Maximum Health True Damage to Heroes.

The shield after killing the Storm Dragon has been nerfed: Gain a permanent shield for 20% of your Maximum Health after exiting a battle → Gain a shield for 15% of your Maximum Health after exiting a battle.

Dragon creeps: the strength of the dragon creep waves now adjusts as the game progresses: in Season 23 these dragons were often weaker than mobs in the lategame because the dragons didn't get stronger with time, but the mobs did.

Hero Changes

Li Xin
Passive: Basic Attacks and Skill 2 gives 5 Experience Points → 10 Experience Points
Maximum Health: 3418 (+270.4*hero level) → 3470 (+274.5*hero level)
Skill 1 (Dark form): Increase Attack Speed after accumulating Power: 30(+5/Lv) → 40(+6/Lv)
Skill 2: Damage: 250(+50/Lv)(+1.0Ad) → 300(+50/Lv)(+1.0Ad)
Skill 2 (Light form): Physical bonus to restore health: 0.1 → 0.15
Skill 2 (Dark form): Health Recovery: 25 (+5/Lv) → 35 (+7/Lv)

Marco Polo
Marco Polo has been changed and is no longer ridicilously strong after buying items that have on-hit effects. To offset this nerf his laning phase has been buffed.
Passive: on-hit effect damage changed to 50%
Passive: Skill damage: 70(+1*hero level)(+0.3Ad) → 40(+4*hero level)(+0.5Ad)
Skill 1: Skill damage: 150 (+10/lv) (+0.17Ad) → 130 (+10/lv) (+0.27Ad)
Skill 1: Skill range: 900→950
Skill 1: Can be used during Skill 3 (this interrupts Skill 3).
Skill 3: Skill damage: 150(+0.17Ad) →150(+25/Lv)(+0.35Ad)

Bian Que
(I don't really know this hero and don't really understand the changes, so this is a straight up google translate of the patchnotes here, sorry)
Passive: Effect adjustment: The healing of the imprint on friendly heroes per second only takes effect 70% of Bian Que's own.
Skill 2: effect adjustment: when released, it can automatically superimpose imprints and restore health to allied heroes in the range
Skill 3: effect adjustment: when the ultimate move is released, the number of layers of the enemy heroes and allied heroes will no longer be cleared (when the ultimate move is released, a layer of imprint can be superimposed and the imprint duration can be refreshed)

Luban Dashi
Maximum Health: 3398 (+304.2*hero level) → 3417 (+333.0*hero level)
Skill 2: Cooldown: 7(-0.2/Lv) → 10(-0.2/Lv)
Skill 2: If the teammate does not teleport to you, the cooldown is reduced by 30% (ie the cooldown will become what it was before this patch)

Taiyi Zhenren
He was too weak and defenseless if you missed you two first skills - and too strong if you hit. Cooldowns have been adjusted down while the stun duration has been nerfed, and casting the second skill no longer "stuns" yourself for such a long time making it possible to actaully escape if you miss it.
Skill 1: Skill Damage: 200(+60/Lv)(+0.6Ap)~ 600(+180/Lv)(+1.8Ap) → 200(+60/Lv)(+0.7Ap)~ 600(+180/ Lv)(+2.1Ap)
Skill 2: Reduced the time you stand still after casting.
Skill 2: Stun duration: 1 → 0.5
Skill 3: Reduced the time you stand still after casting.
Skill 3: Effective range: 600 → 800
Skill 3: Resurrection Health: 2000(+750/Lv)(+2.0Ap) → 1600(+750/Lv)(+2.0Ap)

Lan
Lans excessively fast combos and movement made the experience of fighting him bad: this has now been fixed but the fix left in greatly nerfed so his second skill has been slightly buffed in response.
Skill 2: Fixed a bug that made the downtime between casting the skill and being able to cast your enhanced attack too long.
Skill 2: Damage: 220 (+30/Lv) (+0.45 extra ad) → 225 (+35/Lv) (+0.45 extra ad)
Skill 2: Enhanced Attack: 30(+10/Lv)(+0.7ad)→35(+15/Lv)(+0.7ad)

Zhuang Zhou
Zhuang Zhou is/was considered a weak hero, so his s3 got buffed.
Skill 3: Teammates in range gain a 10% (+5%/Lv) damage reduction → Teammates in range gain a 500(+400/Lv) shield.

Li Bai
Skill 1: Cooldown: 10(-1/Lv) → 8(-0.6/Lv)
Skill 1: Skill Damage: 300(+50/Lv)(+1.1*AD) → 350(+45/Lv)(+1.1*AD)

Huang Zhong
Passive: Hitting an enemy increases Attack Damage by 8 and adds 1.5% Critical Rate for 1.5 second, effect is doubled in turret state (up to 5 stacks) → Hitting an enemy increases Attack Damage by 12 and adds 1.5% Critical Rate for 1.5 second, effect is doubled in turret state (up to 5 stacks)

Zhao Yun
Optimized the use of Zhao Yuns skills (easier to chain skills together and form a combo)
Skill 2: Skill damage: 100(+15/Lv)(+0.45Ad) → 100(+15/Lv)(+0.48Ad)

Item Changes

Purple Jungle Blade (Stage 2): Maximum amount of layers: 15 → 20
Purple Jungle Blade (Stage 2): Burn 1% of enemy max health per second, and an additional 1% of enemy mobs max health per second → Burn (0.6%+0.02%*layers) of enemy max health per second, and an additional 1.5% of enemy mobs max health per second

Purple Jungle Blade (Final stage): Maximum amount of layers: 25 → 30
Purple Jungle Blade (Final Stage): Burn 2% of enemy max health per second, and an additional 2% of enemy mobs max health per second → Burn (1.1%+0.03%*layers) of enemy max health per second, and an additional 2.5% of enemy mobs max health per second

Mask of Agony(tongku mianju): The passive now deals damage every 0.5 seconds instead of every 0.4 seconds.

Thornmail: Passive trigger condition: Physical Damage exceeds 20% of Maximum Health within 2 seconds → Physical Damage exceeds 1000+10% of maximum health within 2 seconds.

Ward Spirit Changes

When the Ward Spirit is triggered - it will no longer run around the map and patrol, instead it will run to a bush in enemy jungle and provide vision.

When you go near a Ward Spirit (enter it's bush) it will be revealed to you and you can destroy it and earn 1 gold

Duration: 55 seconds → 60 seconds
Cooldown: 180 seconds → 120 seconds

Creep Changes

Creeps now start attacking faster as the game goes on as opposed to only hitting harder - one attack in the lategame doesnt deal a ton of damage anymore, but if you let them continously attack you without you moving their actual dps has not changed.

Creeps now grow in size after 20 minutes to better reflect the big buff they receive at this time.

Super creeps have been nerfed a little bit so the game doesnt feel like you have to constantly defend your base once your turrets are gone - you are actually able to push out a bit now and dont have to stay in base hoping you get an ace and can push the entire way to enemy nexus.

Grass Changes

The grass has literally been trimmed: you're now able to easier see where grass begins and ends (the edges of grass); the grass used to have many stray grass that was outside of the actual hiding limits.

Grass height has been reduced so you can see small heroes in the grass easier.

Some grass has been slightly moved (mainly grass near turrets)

Other Changes

You can now steal the blue refreshing orb behind the enemy tower even if you have full Health and Mana.

Tyrant gold (the dragon that gives hero buffs) gain when killed has been nerfed to 60 gold before 10 minutes and 80 gold after 10 minutes.

The "All-Star" Project

The All-star project was made to make all heroes feel like they have an impact, this was done by creating highlight reels you could watch after the game ended showing off things like instant blink-kills, stealing dragons and so on. This system has been changed to also have an impact on the match as you are playing it now.

Highlights

Five "Highlights" have been added to the game, they are similar to "first blood" - if you achieve any of the highlights you are rewarded with 60 match gold.

Stunner:Stun 3 people or more for a total of 2 seconds (example: 4 people * 0.5 seconds) leading to a kill for you or one of your teammates.
Bandit:Successfully steal an enemy blue or red buff from their jungle.
Opener:Be the first to stun an enemy hero in a teamfight leading to you or your teammates killing at least one enemy hero.
Injured:Take a lot of damage from enemy heroes leading to you or your teammates killing at least one enemy hero.
Damage-dealer:Deal a lot of damage to enemy heroes leading to you or your teammates killing at least one enemy hero.

Assist gold changes

I don't fully understand this change - but it seems like you will gain a little bit extra assist gold if your contribution the the kill was significant (high damage, long stun etc)

Creep Wave

Due to players earning more gold from highlights and assists - the gold from creep waves have been slightly reduced. After 10 minutes creeps used to give 150% of the base creep wave gold, now it only gives 145%.

New hero: Yun Ying

I recommend you to check the hero page for Yun Ying if you want to see how all her skills look.

Passive:Every time you cast a skill you gain 1 ability layer up to a maximum of 3 ability layers. If you do an autoattack while having 1, 2 or 3 ability layers your autoattack will be enhanced.
Layer 1:Yun Ying spins her spear continously dealing damage to nearby enemies, gains a 2 second shield and is able to move during the attack
Layer 2:Yun Ying stabs in front of her 3 times, restoring health on every hit. The lower her health is the more she restores.
Layer 3:Yun Ying jumps into the air and deals damage in a long line in front of her. The lower the enemy health is the more damage she deals to them.

Skill 1:Yun Ying knock up her enemy in the air before knocking them down again, dealing damage twice.
Skill 2:Yun Ying starts charging, when the charge is over (or when you release the skill) it causes damage and slows the enemy. Yun Yings Movement Speed is increased while charging.
Skill 3:Yun Ying rushes forward and knocks everyone in her path into the air, then turns around and hits the enemy again. After using the ability it unlocks a second stage of the ability where she will sweep her spear in front of her damaging any enemy she hits and leaving the ground burning dealing damage to whoever stands there.