heroes Balance Update: Apr 20

[Stan 5,240]

A new balance update was released with changes to Cassia, Greymane, Nazeebo, Auriel, Li Li, Tassadar, Anub'arak, E.T.C., Stitches and Zarya.

Blizzard (Source)

We've just released a new patch for Heroes of the Storm in order to make a few balance changes and fix a bug.

Heroes

Assassin

Cassia

Abilities

• Fend (E)
  • Cooldown decreased from 10 to 8 seconds
  • Mana cost reduced from 50 to 40
• Ball Lightning (R)
  • Mana cost increased from 40 to 60
• Valkyrie (R)
  • Cooldown decreased from 90 to 60 seconds
  • Mana cost reduced from 70 to 60

Talents

• Level 1
  • True Sight (W)
    • Quest requirement reduced from 80 to 60 hits
    • Passive damage bonus against Blind targets increased from 10% to 15%
• Level 7
  • Impale (E)
    • Health required to trigger bonus damage increased from 40% to 50%
  • War Traveler (Trait)
    • Movement Speed bonus increased from 3% to 4% per stack
  • Surge of Light (Trait)
    • Damage dealt on activation reduced from 250 to 225
• Level 20
  • Infinite Lightning (R)
    • Cooldown reduction reduced from 4 to 3 seconds per bounce

Developer Comment:  Cassia has hit the Nexus right in stride. Showing around a 48% win rate this early lets us know she is tuned pretty well. We expect her to go up a bit more over the next few weeks but wanted to make some lightning quick adjustments to some under/over performing talents. The base buff to Fend should help players get more value out of those talents as well..

Greymane

Abilities

• Inner Beast (W)
  • Cooldown increased from 16 to 20 seconds
  • Every Basic Attack while Inner Beast is active now reduces its cooldown by 0.5 seconds
• Cursed Bullet (R)
  • Damage increased from 35% to 40% of the enemy’s current Health

Talents

• Level 1
  • Wolfheart (W)
    • Now increases the cooldown reduction per Basic Attack from 0.5 to 1 second while Inner Beast is active
• Level 4
  • Insatiable (W)
    • No longer has a restriction on the amount of Mana that can be restored

Developer Comment:  We think that the mini-game of keeping your Inner Beast active as long as you can is enjoyable gameplay, and we want to celebrate those giant combos with gameplay rewards. To do so, we’ve baked part of the functionality of the old Wolfheart Talent into the baseline ability.

Specialist

Nazeebo

Abilities

• Plague of Toads (E)
  • Damage increased from 126 to 140 over 6 seconds
• Gargantuan (R)
  • Basic Attack damage reduced from 175.5 to 150
  • Health reduced from 2500 to 2300

Talents

• Level 13
  • Superstition (Passive)
    • Spell Armor reduced from 50 to 40
• Level 20
  • Humongoid (R)
    • Cooldown reduced from 45 to 40 seconds
  • Vile Infection (Trait)
    • Voodoo Ritual stacks required increased from 150 to 175

Support

Auriel

Abilities

• Sacred Sweep (Q)
  • Damage increased from 75 to 80
  • Center damage increased from 150 to 160
• Detainment Strike (E)
  • Damage increased from 100 to 115
  • Terrain collision damage increased from 100 to 115

Talents

• Level 1
  • Increase Clarity (Q)
    • Damage bonus for completing the quest increased from 120 to 150
  • Righteous Assault (Q)
    • Cooldown reduction increased from 2 to 3 seconds per Hero hit
    • No longer has a cap
• Level 4
  • Repeated Offense (E)
    • Quest reward damage bonus increased from 200 to 250
• Level 7
  • Glimmer of Hope (Trait)
    • Energy cost reduction increased from 50% to 75%
  • Empathic Link (Trait)
    • Energy stored for damage taken by Bestow Hope’s target increased from 20% to 25%
• Level 13
  • Blinding Flash (Q)
    • Blind duration reduced from 3 to 2.25 seconds
  • Piercing Lash (E)
    • Now also reduces the cooldown by 2 seconds for each enemy Hero hit
• Level 20
  • Shield of Hope (Active)
    • Cooldown increased from 45 to 60 seconds

Li Li

Abilities

• Blinding Wind (E)
  • Cooldown decreased from 10 to 8 seconds
  • Mana cost reduced from 40 to 30
  • Damage increased from 132 to 140

Developer Comment:  Adventures are hard to have when you keep getting bogged down by pesky Basic Attackers. She is too mild-mannered to demand buffs, so Chen sat us down, handed us some brew and talked us into helping her out a bit.

Tassadar

Stats

• Basic Attack damage increased from 10 to 12

Abilities

• Plasma Shield (Q)
  • Duration decreased from 5 to 4 seconds
  • Shield amount decreased from 550 to 475
• Force Wall (R)
  • Cooldown reduced from 10 to 8 seconds
  • Mana cost reduced from 30 to 25

Talents

• Level 1
  • Khaydarin Resonance (Passive)
    • New functionality:
      • Quest: Regeneration Globes grant 50% more Mana to Tassadar
      • Reward: After collecting 15 Globes, increase the Shield amount of Plasma Shield by 15%
      • Reward: After collecting 30 Globes, increase the Shield amount by an additional 15%
• Level 4
  • Khala’s Celerity (Q)
    • Movement Speed bonus reduced from 25 to 20%
    • Movement Speed bonus duration reduced from 5 to 4 seconds
  • Khala’s Embrace (Q)
    • Life steal increased from 50% to 60%
• Level 20
  • Twilight Archon (R)
    • Updated functionality:
      • Basic Attacks while in Archon form increase Archon’s duration by 2 seconds

Developer Comment:  It’s no secret that Khaydarin Resonance has consistently proven to be a problematic talent on Tassadar. We want to keep the talent ‘support natured’ which the new design embraces. With the volatility of him in competitive drafts we are striking at his Plasma Shield duration again and offsetting the nerfs with some base damage buffs. The rest of the changes address some talent imbalances and should help even out a few of his Talent Tiers.

Warrior

Anub'arak

Abilities

• Burrow Charge (E)
  • Hovering over this ability will now show the range indicator for distance traveled, as well as the area affected when he emerges from burrow
• Locust Swarm (R)
  • Damage per second reduced from 60 to 55
  • A range indicator will now appear to Anub’arak while Locust Swarm is active

Talents

• Level 7
  • Subterranean Shield (E)
    • Shield amount reduced from 365 to 345
• Level 13
  • Urticating Spines (W)
    • Hovering over the ability button after selecting this talent will now show a range indicator
• Level 16
  • Epicenter (E)
    • Cooldown reduction decreased from 2 to 1.5 seconds per Hero hit

E.T.C.

Stats

• Health increased from 2100 to 2180
• Health Regeneration increased from 4.375 to 4.543

Talents

• Level 1
  • Guitar Hero (E)
    • Healing increased from 40% to 50% of damage dealt by Basic Attacks
• Level 4
  • Speed Metal (Passive)
    • Movement Speed increased from 10% to 15%
• Level 7
  • Pinball Wizard (W)
    • Damage increased from 200% to 300%
  • Hammer-On (Passive)
    • Damage increased from 30% to 35%

Stitches

Stats

• Health increased from 2900 to 3000
• Health Regeneration increased from 6.043 to 6.25

Abilities

• Slam (W)
  • Damage increased from 96 to 104

Zarya

Abilities

• Energy (Trait)
  • Rate of decay increased from 2.5 to 3 per second
• Graviton Surge (R)
  • Cooldown reduced from 100 to 80 seconds

Talents

• Level 1
  • Demolitions Expert (Q)
    • Cooldown reduction decreased from 0.5 to 0.4375 seconds per 5 Heroes hit, up to 3.5 seconds
  • Together We Are Strong (E)
    • Damage needed per point of Energy gained reduced from 9 to 6
  • Maximum Charge (Trait)
    • Energy gained from Regeneration Globes increased from 15 to 20

• Level 4
  • Give Me Twenty (E)
    • Cooldown reduction granted upon completing the quest decreased from 3 to 2 seconds
  • Speed Barrier (E)
    • Movement Speed bonus increased from 35% to 50%
• Level 16
  • Cleansing Shield (E)
    • Cooldown reduction increased from 2 to 3 seconds
  • Plasma Shock (Q)
    • Slow duration increased from 1.5 to 2 seconds
• Level 20
  • Gravity Kills (R)
    • Damage increased from 140 to 175 over the duration
  • Clear Out (R)
    • Bonus maximum Energy increased from 10 to 15 per Hero hit

Developer Comment:  Zarya has continued to be one of the most powerful Heroes in the Nexus. We’re targeting a nerf at her Energy decay rate because we think that’s it’s too easy for Zarya to stay at really high Energy amounts over a long period of time. Rather than continuing to reduce her potential damage output, we want to make the moments that she gets to maximum Energy more rare (but still scary).

Bug Fixes

Heroes and Talents

• E.T.C. – Fixed an issue causing Powerslide to fail to trigger the Rockstar effect after learning the Crowd Surfer talent.
• Medivh – Fixed an issue that could cause Medivh to become unresponsive when entering vehicles. (Dragon Knight, Garden Terror, etc.)

[Plergoth 277]

Did Greymane really need any buffs? Was he struggling? I've seen him go nuts in both tournies and in HL, but maybe I am missing something. 

Support love is nice, was hoping for the Uther rework to hit live as well, but I guess they're still tweaking with it yet. Auriel changes look insane! 

[Laragon 269]

7 minutes ago, Plergoth said:

Did Greymane really need any buffs? Was he struggling? I've seen him go nuts in both tournies and in HL, but maybe I am missing something. 

Not sure this is even a buff. Looks like a small tweak that actually makes him a little weaker on average. Inner beast has to be more selectively used because of the increased cool-down and decreased reset impact mean you have to turret a little longer to get the same value. Cursed bullet was also rarely picked because go for the throat was so important at securing kills, so that is a buff, but minimal and only good if you decided to burn down a tank.

[Skyewalker 20]

I'm just glad that they realise Tassadar is still broken. decreased shield duration and the quest changes should help make it at least possible to create a dent in a double support (tass & X) comp.

[Fliits 112]

Good amount of not very big changes. Anub'arak wasn't really that overpowered, just overused.

Nice to see old Greymane hasn't been buried yet.

Auriel and Tassa doing more damage will make them more useful overall, since they've been struggling.

Nazeebo was pretty overpowered in my opinion, good thing that they nerfed him at least a little amount.

Could Stitches make a return in the current meta? Would be nice to see an old friend.

[Valks 2,375]

Crazy happy about the Support buffs tbh. I love playing Auriel, but they still need to change Lucio/Malf. I hate that every comp game is just about who picks Lucio first and who picks Malf second since nobody wants to ban a support (no idea why tbh).