heroes Balance Update Patch Notes: Aug 23

[Stan 5,243]

A new patch was released in order to apply balance changes and bug fixes. Some of them were spotted by redditor Homicidal_HotS yesterday in a post about upcoming Hero changes. We'll need to wait two more weeks for Jaina, Leoric , Lt. Morales & Chromie reworks.

Blizzard (Source)

Assassin

Alarak

Talents

• Level 4
  • Negatively Charged (E)
    • Damage bonus increased from 3 to 5%
• Level 13
  • Blade of the Highlord (Passive)
    • Bonus Sadism increased from 6 to 7%. Cap increased from 30 to 35%

Illidan

Abilities

• The Hunt (R)
  • Cooldown increased from 60 to 100 seconds

Developer Comment: With his built-in cooldown reduction from Betrayer’s Thirst, we wanted to give his enemies a bit more time to prepare – I’ll bet he didn’t see that coming.

Kerrigan

Abilities

• Ravage (Q)
  • Damage reduced from 228 to 210
• Impaling Blades (W)
  • Damage increased from 251 to 261
• Primal Grasp (E)
  • Damage increased from 110 to 114

Talents

• Level 1
  • Energizing Grasp (E)
    • Removed
• Level 7
  • Adaptation (Q)
    • Removed

The Butcher

Stats

• Basic Attack damage reduced from 130 to 125

Abilities

• Fresh Meat (Trait)
  • Meat from Hero kills reduced from 25 to 20
  • Meat lost on death increased from 10 to 15

Talents

• Level 7
  • Insatiable Blade (W)
    • Adjusted functionality:
      • Removed the bonus healing
      • Increased movement speed bonus from 20 to 25%
  • Victuals (Passive)
    • Heal increased from 4 to 5% per minion death
• Level 16
  • Crippling Slam (Q)
    • Bonus duration increased from 25 to 30%
  • Enraged (Passive)
    • Armor bonus reduced from 25 to 15

Developer Comment: May his enemies rest in fewer pieces.

Thrall

Abilities

• Chain Lightning (Q)
  • Mana cost reduced from 45 to 40

Talents

• Level 1
  • Crash Lightning (Q)
    • Damage per stack increased from 10 to 12
  • Rolling Thunder (Q)
    • Mana return per attack increased from 12 to 15
• Level 4
  • Mana Tide (Trait)
    • Mana return reduced from 20 to 15
• Level 16
  • Thunderstorm (Q)
    • Added functionality:
      • Damage from final quest reward now also applies to Chain Lightning bounces

Zul'jin

Talents

• Level 1
  • Boneslicer (Q)
    • Bonus damage increased from 20 to 30%

Specialist

Xul

Abilities

• Raise Skeleton (Trait)
  • Skeleton health reduced from 270 to 240
• Skeletal Mages (R)
  • Cooldown increased from 70 to 90 seconds

Talents

• Level 7
  • Trag’Oul’s Essence (Trait)
    • Healing reduced from 1% to .5% per Skeleton Basic Attack
    • Mana return increased from .4% to .5% per Skeleton Basic Attack
• Level 13
  • Echoes of Death (Q)
    • Damage reduced from 70 to 60% of Spectral Scythe’s damage

Zagara

Talents

• Level 16
  • Mutalisk (W)
    • Duration reduced from 45 to 30 seconds

Support

Auriel

Abilities

• Bestow Hope (D)
  • Hope generation ratio from hitting Heroes increased from 40 to 50%
• Sacred Sweep (Q)
  • Outer damage reduced from 80 to 60
  • Center damage increased from 160 to 180
• Detainment Strike (E)
  • Initial damage reduced from 115 to 58
  • Stun damage increased from 115 to 174
• Resurrect (R)
  • Cooldown reduced from 120 to 100 seconds

Talents

• Level 7
  • Bursting Light (W)
    • Removed

Developer Comment: These changes are designed to reduce the reliance that Auriel has upon a hyper-carry style character to be an effective healer.  By increasing the amount of Hope that she can generate but removing Bursting Light and its ability to reduce the cooldown of Ray of Heaven, Auriel will have more consistent healing output regardless of who is currently Bestowing Hope.  We’re also reducing the damage that Auriel does on average by gating it behind getting the most of her Basic Abilities.  By reducing the synergy that Auriel has with a single massive source of damage and reducing her damage output, we hope to make her less common in double support team compositions.

Lúcio

Stats

• Base Maximum Health increased from 1380 to 1518
• Health Regen increased from 2.86 to 3.16

Tassadar

Stats

• Basic Attack Damage reduced from 15 to 14
• Based Maximum Health reduced from 1426 to 1355
• Health regen reduced from 2.97 to 2.8

Talents

• Level 1
  • Khaydarin Resonance (Passive)
    • Bonus Mana from Regen Globes increased from 50 to 100%

Tyrande

Talents

• Level 4
  • Celestial Attunement (Q)
    • Added functionality:
      • Also removes Silences
  • Kaldorei Resistance
    • Max Spell Armor stacks reduced from 4 to 3
• Level 13
  • Empower (W)
    • Added functionality:
      • Also lowers the base cooldown of Sentinel by 4 seconds
  • Harsh Moonlight (W)
    • Slow amount reduced from 30 to 25%
    • Damage reduction amount from 30 to 25%

Uther

Abilities

• Eternal Vanguard (Trait)
  • Armor for healing allies with Basic Abilites reduced from 25 to 15
• Holy Light (Q)
  • Healing increased from 360 to 380
  • Self-healing increased from 180 to 190
• Holy Radiance (W)
  • Healing and damage increased from 160 to 185

Talents

• Level 1
  • Wave of Light (W)
    • Bonus duration to Armor buff on Quest Completion reduced from 1 to .5 seconds
    • Mana return reduced from 8 to 5 per Hero hit
• Level 4
  • Holy Fire (Passive)
    • Damage reduced from 16 to 14 per second

Developer Comment:  We’ve found that by increasing the niche of Uther, players could easily build teams with 2 Supports that were incredibly difficult to counter, thereby creating a slow gameplay trend that could be frustrating to play against.  We think it’s great to see double support every once in a while, but Uther enabled it too well when paired with almost any other healer.  By reducing the Armor he grants via his Trait and getting a little more healing throughput, Uther should feel slightly more well-rounded.

Warriors

Chen

Stats

• Base Maximum Health reduced from 2550 to 2473
• Health regeneration reduced from 5.31 to 5.15

Talents

• Level 7
  • Refreshing Elixir (Passive)
    • Removed
  • Purifying Brew (Passive)
    • Moved from Level 20
    • Cooldown increased from 10 to 45 seconds
• Level 16
  • Flying Leap (Q)
    • Bonus range reduced from 20 to 15%

Garrosh

Abilities

• Warlord's Challenge (R)
  • Taunt duration increased from 1.5 to 2 seconds

Talents

• Level 1
  • Unrivaled Strength (E)
    • Increased throw range from 20 to 30%, and bonus damage from 100 to 125%
• Level 4
  • In for the Kill (W)
    • Increased bonus damage from 60 to 70%
• Level 7
  • Into the Fray (Active)
    • No longer costs Mana

Bug Fixes

Heroes, Abilities, and Talents

• Auriel: Resurrecting Uther before Eternal Vanguard expires will no longer prevent him from respawning.
• Cassia: Casting Fend on a target who is near a wall will no longer cause her to path in unintended directions before the Ability fires.
• Genji: Fixed an issue that prevented Fort attacks from slowing Genji’s Movement and Attack Speeds if he had Dodge stacks remaining.
• Kharazim: Fixed an issue that could cause Kharazim to dash to unexpected locations after casting Radiant Dash.
• Tassadar: Fixed an issue causing some Attack Speed modifier effects, such as Xul’s Cursed Strikes, to persist indefinitely if the effect expired during Dimensional Shift.
• Xul: Waiting 4 or more seconds to attack after activating Cursed Strikes will no longer cause the Ability’s visual effects to out of sync with Xul’s attack animations
• Tychus: In the Rhythm Talent will now correctly display quest progress on the in-game Score Screen’s Talents tab.

User Interface

• Emojis: Sending an “Embarrased” Emoji (:oops:) as Garrosh, or while he is selected for play, will now correctly display the Garrosh Embarrased Emoji if the player owns the corresponding Emoji pack.

[Fliits 112]

Lucio's healing wasn't buffed...

 

 

 

Never mind, Alarak got buffed and The Butcher is no longer the noobs tool for ridiculous triple kills!

Never thought Auriel was that good, then again I've never seen one in a double support team play well, neither have I seen Uther in a double support team, but the ban hammer had been definitely hanging over Uther's head for a long time.

Kerrigan is greater, Xul is no longer the bane of the Bay and Thrall is now Emperor Palpatine's favourite hero. There are some questionable buffs and nerfs, like nerfing Chen and buffing Garrosh. In my opinion it should have been the other way, but I don't work at Blizzard so who am I to judge.

Then there's the obligatory changes that don't affect the meta in any meaningful way (Zul'jin, Zagara, Tassadar, Illidan) and lastly Tyrande is stronger again, since no one under the sun (moon?) was able to play her without resorting to playing her like an AA assassin, so now she's more like one? Why is she still then classified as a support? Blizzard please, decide what you're going to do with her already. 

Edited August 23, 2017 by Fliits

[Valhalen 1,484]

Godamnit those Auriel nerfs. There was no reason to do so. At least they increased the Hope Generation.

[MvonTzeskagrad 11]

Mind telling me why has Chen been nerfed?

It makes no sense.

Most of the other changes make sense.

[Fransoa 25]

whewww this patch, Get Nerfed Supports :DD

3 hours ago, Stan said:

Cassia: Casting Fend on a target who is near a wall will no longer cause her to path in unintended directions before the Ability fires.

I'm so glad they fixed this, it was frustrating me so much.

3 hours ago, Stan said:

Level 1

• Unrivaled Strength (E)
  • Increased throw range from 20 to 30%, and bonus damage from 100 to 125%

 

Really, now Garrosh will throw people into the core with this

 

[Fransoa 25]

9 minutes ago, MvonTzeskagrad said:

Mind telling me why has Chen been nerfed?

It makes no sense.

Most of the other changes make sense.

Chen was op man, best counter for Zagara

[Erathis 53]

I'm so glad Garrosh didn't get nerfed.  Instead they buff one of my favorite talents on him.

An even better In For The Kill?  IMO his best talent at level 4 already? Yes please.

[Anastriana 9]

5 hours ago, Stan said:

Level 7

• Adaptation (Q)
  • Removed

 

Aww.. no more Falstad/Kerrigan taxi service. :<

[Valhalen 1,484]

1 hour ago, Anastriana said:

Aww.. no more Falstad/Kerrigan taxi service. :<

I'm surprised it took Blizzard this long to remove that talent.

[MvonTzeskagrad 11]

1 hour ago, Valhalen said:

I'm surprised it took Blizzard this long to remove that talent.

They are very slow for many things. Keep in mind they spent entire months nerfing Ragnaros until it stopped to be broken.

[SteveFrost 97]

16 hours ago, Valhalen said:

Godamnit those Auriel nerfs. There was no reason to do so. At least they increased the Hope Generation.

You can thank pro players for that. Generally, the #1 reason something is nerfed or removed altogether is because it is spammed in comp play (near perma pick/ban status), which in turn causes many others to... "adopt" it (Copycats of the Storm). To me personally, it doesn't seem like she was hit that hard (could be wrong ofc). I never really understood why they ALWAYS went with Bursting Light in tournaments; both Energized Cord and Empathic Link were always much better and all-around choices imho. Oh well...

If anything, I believe Uther was hit rather hard (another victim of "being too meta"). The Armor from his Trait seems rather insignificant now and won't make much of a difference imho (deja vus of when Khala's Light was the go to talent pick for Tass, they decreased it to 15 and since then, it was sent to oblivion)

[Valhalen 1,484]

23 minutes ago, SteveFrost said:

I never really understood why they ALWAYS went with Bursting Light in tournaments; both Energized Cord and Empathic Link were always much better and all-around choices imho. Oh well... 

I've always preferred Energized Cord as well. I'm bummed with the nerfs to her damage output from her two other skills.

[Fliits 112]

16 hours ago, Fransoa said:

I'm so glad they fixed this, it was frustrating me so much.

It was pretty funny though, seeing cassia running against Entomb walls at light speed.

[Valks 2,377]

18 hours ago, Fransoa said:

Really, now Garrosh will throw people into the core with this

I'm 100% prepared to rage.

[positiv2 953]

8 minutes ago, Blainie said:

I'm 100% prepared to rage.

Illidan says otherwise. You are not prepared!

[Godeyes 25]

21 hours ago, Fliits said:

There are some questionable buffs and nerfs, like nerfing Chen and buffing Garrosh. In my opinion it should have been the other way,

My thoughts exactly ;)

 

15 hours ago, Valhalen said:

I'm surprised it took Blizzard this long to remove that talent.

And that is why ?
You have to be extremely good with her to utilize her full potential but when that happens you don't pick Adaptation lol. AND even then she is still excluded from any high level team compos. Not to mention pro scene... So yeah - lets make normal/weak chars even weaker - especially for newer/worse players.

Edited August 24, 2017 by Godeyes

[Valhalen 1,484]

2 hours ago, Godeyes said:

And that is why ?
You have to be extremely good with her to utilize her full potential but when that happens you don't pick Adaptation lol. AND even then she is still excluded from any high level team compos. Not to mention pro scene... So yeah - lets make normal/weak chars even weaker - especially for newer/worse players.

I just said that because of that exploit with Falstad. The talent itself was very useful for those clutch moments where you need that quick escape.

Sadly, Kerrigan is one of those Heroes that will always be in a Niche Tier because she requires very specific compositions to be really good. She is hard to balance without making her overpowered, but I wouldn't say she is weak at all.

Edited August 24, 2017 by Valhalen

[Godeyes 25]

@Valhalen

Didn't know about this bug with falstad - just checked it on YT when you mentioned it, It really looks broken heh ;)
But I agree she isn't "weak" in a conventional meaning.

[Wolke 0]

10 hours ago, SteveFrost said:

You can thank pro players for that. Generally, the #1 reason something is nerfed or removed altogether is because it is spammed in comp play (near perma pick/ban status), which in turn causes many others to... "adopt" it (Copycats of the Storm). To me personally, it doesn't seem like she was hit that hard (could be wrong ofc). I never really understood why they ALWAYS went with Bursting Light in tournaments; both Energized Cord and Empathic Link were always much better and all-around choices imho. Oh well...

The thing with auriel is that, having a good battery like Valla or Guldan actuallly fills her energy bar reaaaally quick so the lower cd on the healing is really rewarding, specially if the players are good, the high ranks (GMs and Master) been really tilted about this kind of comps and yeah Blizzard is responding on that, I actually think is accurate.

Auriel might be really weak on QM or disorganized teams without a proper battery but with a capable one is really hard to play against and really easy to play with.

[SteveFrost 97]

8 hours ago, Wolke said:

The thing with auriel is that, having a good battery like Valla or Guldan actuallly fills her energy bar reaaaally quick so the lower cd on the healing is really rewarding, specially if the players are good, the high ranks (GMs and Master) been really tilted about this kind of comps and yeah Blizzard is responding on that, I actually think is accurate.

Auriel might be really weak on QM or disorganized teams without a proper battery but with a capable one is really hard to play against and really easy to play with.

Pros do practice veeeery specific stuff and hang on to them. The issue is, reduced cd on W won't help that much if said battery can't Bestow Hope (Valla for example can be easily jumped on, chain cc'ed etc or just blinded). While it was the 'standard' build in comp play, I did see some.. deviations sometimes. And it didn't reassure that Auriel & her team would do well.

And that's why the other 2 aforementioned talents are better overall choices imho; if you can keep the Hope generation up, you don't really have to worry about having a reliable battery or not. You just keep throwing the heals in. W's cd is already not that big imho.