heroes Heroes of the Storm Patch Notes: Mar 6

[Stan 5,240]

The latest Heroes of the Storm patch is now available for play, featuring updates for Anna, Sonya, Medivh, new Enforcer skins, and more.

Note: Orange text indicates a difference between the PTR and Live patch notes.

Blizzard (Source)

Art

Heroes, Abilities, and Talents

• Nova: Precision Strike has received updated visual effects.
• Sgt. Hammer: Has received a custom Hearthstone animation.
• Thrall: After learning the Thunderstorm Talent, a UI indicator will now appear under the Health bar of Thrall’s most recent Chain Lightning target.

Design

Trait Quests

• The following Hero Traits are now categorized as Repeatable Quests:
  • Alarak: Sadism
    • Quest progress visual and sound effects will now play when earning Takedown credit.
    • Alarak’s Sadism Quest will now appear on the in-game Score Screen (TAB)
  • Diablo: Black Soulstone
    • Quest progress and completion visual and sound effects will now play when Diablo gains Souls.
    • Quest completion will now appear in the Event Log on the left side of the screen.
    • Diablo’s Black Soulstone Quest will now appear in the in-game Score Screen (TAB).

Heroes

Specialist

Medivh

Medivh has received significant updates with today’s patch. Find his detailed changes below, and then head to the Sonya and Medivh Gameplay Updates blog for more insight behind these changes.

Stats

• Health scaling increased from 4% to 4.5% per level
• Health Regeneration scaling increased from 4% to 4.5% per level

Abilities

• Arcane Rift [Q]
  • Damage reduced from 200 to 170
  • Additional Functionality:
    • Quest: Hit 40 enemy Heroes without dying.
    • Reward: Permanently increase Arcane Rift’s damage by 75 and the cooldown reduction granted for hitting a Hero by 1 second
• Force of Will [W]
  • Cooldown increased from 5 to 8 seconds
  • Mana cost increased from 50 to 60
  • Upon expiration, allies are healed for 20% of the damage absorbed
• Portal [E]
  • Cooldown reduced from 20 to 16 seconds
  • Mana cost reduced from 75 to 65  

Talents

• Level 1
  • Winds of Celerity [Z]
    • Moved from Level 13
  • Portal Mastery (Active)
    • Additional Functionality:
      • Portals can now be cast while in Raven form
  • Raven’s Intellect (Z)
    • Additional Functionality:
      • Now also increases Health regeneration by 75% while in Raven form
    • Mana regeneration bonus reduced from 100% to 75%
• Level 4
  • Bird’s Eye View (Trait)
    • Removed
  • Mage Armor [E]
    • New functionality:
      • An ally now gains 25 Armor for 4 seconds the first time they enter a Portal
  • Raven Familiar [E]
    • Moved from Level 7
    • Additional functionality:
      • Now also Slows enemies by 30% for 2.5 seconds.
      • A Raven now joins an ally each time they enter a Portal
  • Dust of Appearance (Active)
    • Adjusted Functionality:
      • Permanently increases vision range in Raven Form by 25%.
      • Activate to greatly increase Medivh’s vision range for 5 seconds, and reveal enemy Heroes in the area for 8 seconds. Does not cancel Raven form
• Level 7
  • The Master’s Touch [Q]
    • Removed
  • Arcane Explosion [W]
    • New functionality:
      • Deals 90 damage to nearby enemies when Force of Will expires. Also deals an additional 100% of damage taken, up to 365 bonus damage
    • Explosion radius increased from 3 to 3.5
  • New Talent: Mystic Assault [Q]
    • If Arcane Rift hits an enemy Hero, Medivh’s next Basic Attack within 6 seconds deals 40% more damage and Heals for 40% of the damage dealt
  • New Talent: Force of Magic [W]
    • Preventing 268 or more damage with a single Force of Will grants Medivh 20% Spell Power for 12 seconds. This can stack up to 2 times
• Level 13
  • Quickening [Q]
    • Removed
  • Astral Projection [E]
    • Removed
  • Circle of Protection [W]
    • Moved from Level 16
    • Now applies a talented version of Force of Will to nearby allies
    • Radius increased from 2.5 to 3
  • Enduring Will [W]
    • Moved from Level 16
    • New functionality:
      • If Force of Will absorbs 268 damage, its cooldown is reduced to 3 seconds
  • Reabsorption [W]
    • Moved from Level 16
    • Increases Force of Will’s Healing to 50% of the damage taken
• Level 16
  • Arcane Charge [Q]
    • Moved from Level 7
    • Damage bonus reduced from 30% to 15%
  • Stable Portal [W]
    • Moved from Level 1
    • New Functionality:
      • Reduces Portal’s cooldown by 25% and increases Portal duration by 50%
  • New Talent: Temporal Flux (Passive)
    • Basic Attacks reduce Medivh’s Heroic cooldown by 1 second. Hitting enemy Heroes with Arcane Rift reduces Medivh’s Heroic cooldown by 3 seconds
• Level 20
  • Invisibility (Active) renamed to: Dust of Disappearance (Active)
    • No longer costs Mana

LEVEL (TIER)	MEDIVH TALENTS
1 (1)	Winds of Celerity [Z]	Raven’s Intellect [Z]	Portal Mastery (Active)	—	—
4 (2)	Mage Armor [E]	Raven Familiar [E]	Dust of Appearance (Active)	—	—
7 (3)	Mystic Assault [Q]	Arcane Explosion [W]	Force of Magic [W]	—	—
10 (4)	Poly Bomb [R]	Ley Line Seal [R]	—	—	—
13 (5)	Circle of Protection [W]	Enduring Will [W]	Reabsorption [W]	—	—
16 (6)	Arcane Charge [Q]	Temporal Flux [Q]	Stable Portal [E]	—	—
20 (7)	Glyph of Poly Bomb [R]	Medivh Cheats! [R]	Guardian of Tirisfal [Q]	Arcane Brilliance (Active)	Dust of Disappearance (Active)

• (!) indicates a Questing Talent.
• Italic text indicates a NEW Talent.
• Underlined text indicates a MOVED Talent.

Support

Ana

Abilities

• Shrike (Trait)
  • Added functionality:
    • Ana Heals for 50% of Shrike damage dealt to Heroes
• Healing Dart [Q]
  • Healing reduced from 237 to 215
• Biotic Grenade [W]
  • Adjusted functionality:
    • Amplified Healing now only affects Ana’s Healing output
    • Amplified Healing duration increased from 3 to 4 seconds
• Nano Boost [R]
  • Cooldown increased from 50 to 60 seconds
  • Mana cost increased from 40 to 60
• Eye of Horus [R]
  • Self-cancelling no longer places the Ability on a 10 second cooldown
  • Cooldown reduced from 60 to 45 seconds
  • Mana cost reduced from 75 to 45
  • Number of shots reduced from 8 to 6

Talents

• Level 1
  • Grenade Calibration [W]
    • Add base functionality
    • The amplified healing effect of Biotic Grenade now works on all healing
  • Piercing Darts [E]
    • 1st quest unlock
      • Range increase from 50 to 25%
    • 2nd quest unlock
      • Range increase from 50 to 25%
  • Detachable Box Magazine (Passive)
    • 1st quest unlock
      • New functionality
        • The self-healing for Shrike now also applies to non-Heroes
• Level 4
  • Aim Down Sights (Trait)
    • Shrike activation cooldown reduced from 10 to 3 seconds
  • Air Strike [W]
    • Airborne duration reduced from 4 to 3 seconds
• Level 7
  • Debilitating Dart (Active)
    • Cooldown reduced from 45 to 20 seconds
  • Mind-Numbing Agent (Trait)
    • Spell Power reduction per Shrike stack decreased from 15% to 10%

Developer Comment: While Ana’s current win-rate is sitting above most other Healers, and North of 50%, we have made some changes to make her feel more meaningful in solo-Support compositions. Along with the addition to self-sustain through Shrike, we also took the opportunity to do some Talent balancing as well. While there are no major outliers in terms of win-rate, she definitely has some Talents that are overshadowing others in terms of pick-rates. We have tried to address the majority of these to hopefully open up some new strategic choices for Ana players. We really enjoyed the changes internally, and we’re excited to see what players can do with them.

Warrior

Sonya

Sonya has received significant updates with today’s patch. Find her detailed changes below, and then head to the Sonya and Medivh Gameplay Updates blog for more insight behind these changes.

Talents

• Level 1
  • Block (Passive)
    • Removed
  • Furious Blow [W]
    • Moved from Level 16
    • New functionality
      • Every fourth Seismic Slam deals 40% more damage and costs no Fury
  • New Talent: Tough as Nails (Passive)
    • Every 12 seconds gain a stack of Block that grants 75 Physical Armor against the next Hero Basic Attack. Stores up to 3 charges. Cooldown refreshes 200% faster while Fury is active
• Level 4
  • Focused Attack (Passive)
    • Removed
  • Shattered Ground [W]
    • New Functionality:
      • Seismic Slam deals 75% damage to all targets hit and its splash damage travels 66% farther
  • Mercenary Lord (Passive)
    • Removed
  • New Talent: Battle Rage (Active)
    • Passively increases damage dealt to Mercenaries by 25%
    • Activate to Heal for 10% of Sonya’s maximum Health. 30 second charge cooldown. Stores up to 3 charges
• Level 7
  • Follow Through (Passive)
    • Removed
  • Ferocious Healing (Active)
    • Removed
  • Shot of Fury (Trait)
    • Moved from Level 1
    • New Functionality:
      • Activate to instantly gain 50 Fury. 40 Second cooldown
      • After casting Seismic Slam, your next Basic Attack deals 40% more damage
• Level 13
  • Aftershock [W]
    • Removed
  • Spell Shield (Passive)
    • Removed
  • No Escape (Trait)
    • Moved from Level 16
    • Movement Speed bonus reduced from 25% to 20%
  • New Talent: Ruthless [E]
    • Whirlwind deals an additional 50 damage to Heroes below 33% Health. This damage does not generate additional Healing
• Level 16
  • Imposing Presence (Active)
    • Removed
  • New Talent: Giant Slammer [W]
    • Seismic Slam deals an additional 2% of Heroes’ maximum Health as damage
  • New Talent: Rampage (Passive)
    • Increases Basic Attack damage by 25%
    • Basic Attacks decrease the Ancient Spear’s cooldown 0.75 seconds
• Level 20
  • Anger Management [R]
    • Removed
  • Nexus Blades (Passive)
    • Removed
  • Ignore Pain (Active)
    • Armor reduced from 75 to 60
  • Composite Spear [Q]
    • Moved from Level 7
    • New functionality:
      • Increases Ancient Spear’s range by 50%.
      • Hitting an enemy Hero with Ancient Spear grants 25 armor for 4 seconds
  • New Talent: Striding Giant [R]
    • Wrath of The Berserker increases maximum Health by 10% and grants the Striding Giant Ability while it is active
    • Striding Giant can be activated to become Unstoppable for 2 seconds. 30 second cooldown

LEVEL (TIER)	SONYA TALENTS
1 (1)	Furious Blow [W]	War Paint (Passive)	Tough as Nails (Passive)	—
4 (2)	Shattered Ground [W]	Hurricane [E]	Battle Rage (Active)	—
7 (3)	Poisoned Spear [Q]	Life Funnel (E)	Shot of Fury (Trait)	—
10 (4)	Leap (R)	Wrath of the Berserker (R)	—	—
13 (5)	Mystical Spear [Q]	Ruthless [E]	No Escape (Trait)	—
16 (6)	Giant Slammer [W]	Rampage (Passive)	Nerves of Steel (Active)	—
20 (7)	Arreat Crater [R]	Striding Giant [R]	Composite Spear [Q]	Ignore Pain (Active)

• (!) indicates a Questing Talent.
• Italic text indicates a NEW Talent.
• Underlined text indicates a MOVED Talent.

Collection

New Bundles

• The following new bundles are available for a limited time!
  • Enforcers Bundle
  • Enforcer Johanna Heroic Bundle
  • Paramedic Morales Heroic Bundle
  • Watchdog Greymane Heroic Bundle
  • Medivh Remastered Bundle
  • Sonya Remastered Bundle

New Skins

• Greymane
  • Watchdog Greymane
  • Arctic Watchdog Greymane
  • Desert Watchdog Greymane
• Johanna
  • Enforcer Johanna
  • Arctic Enforcer Johanna
  • Vigilante Enforcer Johanna
• Lt. Morales
  • Paramedic Morales
  • Covert Paramedic Morales
  • Fiery Paramedic Morales
• Azmodan
  • Competitive Azmodunk
• Lúcio
  • Vermelho Lúcio
• Medivh
  • Dark Medivh
• Sonya
  • Angelic Sonya

New Mounts

• STORM Strider
  • Smart STORM Strider
  • Supercharged STORM Strider
• Lucky Piggy Bank
  • The Lucky Piggy Bank mount can be purchased for 7,000 gold.
• Ranked Season Mount Rewards
  • The following Mounts have been awarded to players who reached Platinum in Hero League or Bronze in Team League:
    • Elemental Boar
    • Azure Elemental Boar
    • Verdant Elemental Boar
  • The following Mounts have been awarded to players who reached Master or higher in Hero League or Team League:
    • Epic Elemental Boar
    • Epic Azure Elemental Boar
    • Epic Verdant Elemental Boar

Bug Fixes

General

• Fixed a number of typo and tooltip errors across several aspects of the game.

Art

• Abathur: Fixed a pair of small holes in Xenotech Abathur’s model.
• Blaze: Talent icons for Adhesive Petroleum and Oil Dispersal now use different colors so they are easier to differentiate at a glance.
• Greymane: Greymane’s Health bar will no longer move during his victory animation.
• Greymane: The Doctor Wolf & Stein skin’s Inner Beast visual effects no longer appear misaligned during Greymane’s Hearthstone animation.
• Sgt. Hammer: Neosteel Plating’s visual effects now correctly match Sgt. Hammer’s model while in Siege Mode.
• Tassadar: Moving while in the Mecha Tassadar Skin’s Mount form on Sky Temple will no longer cause flickering visual effects to appear on-screen.
• Valeera: After activating Crippling Poison and Wound Poison, visual effects on Valeera’s blades will no longer flicker while she is riding certain mounts.

Battlegrounds

• Mage Wars (Brawl): Kael’thas can now correctly cast Verdant Spheres as soon as its cooldown completes.
• Mercenaries: Fixed an issue in which neutral Mercenaries could spawn twice at their Mercenary Camp under specific circumstances.
• Try Mode: Zul’jin’s Headhunter Talent will now progress correctly after killing The Lost Vikings.

Heroes, Abilities, and Talents

• Brightwing: Soothing Mist will no longer Heal allies who are standing nearby while Brightwing is inside Anub’arak’s Cocoon, Lt. Morales’ Medivac, Stitches’ Gorge, or Zagara’s Devouring Maw.
• Brightwing: Phase Shift can no longer be cast on Allies who are in Stasis.
• D.Va: Fixed an issue that could cause Big Shot to deal no damage after learning the Pew! Pew! Pew! Talent and becoming affected by another damage or Spell Power reduction effect.
• Gall: Shadow Bolt Volley’s targeting reticle is no longer visible to enemies through the Fog of War.
• General: Fixed an issue that allowed certain Abilities to affect enemy Heroes in their own Hall of Storms:
  • Alarak – Telekinesis [W]
  • Brightwing – Emerald Wind [R]
  • Dehaka – Drag [Q]
  • Medivh – Ley Line Seal [R]
  • Stitches – Hook [Q]
• Hanzo: Casting Storm Bow with Quick Cast turned off will no longer prevent the player from issuing movement commands by holding down right-click.
• Hanzo: Issuing a Stop or Hold command will now correctly halt Hanzo’s movement and cancel Storm Bow’s primed state.
• Hanzo: Casting Storm Bow immediately after Dragon's Arrow will no longer cause Hanzo to become stuck in Storm Bow’s primed state.
• Hanzo: Striking an enemy Hero with Sonic Arrow just before they enter their Hall of Storms will no longer cause Sonic Arrow to display odd visual effects.
• Nazeebo: Using a mine entrance or exit on Haunted Mines during Gargantuan’s summoning animation will no longer cause Nazeebo to lose control of the Gargantuan.
• Raynor: Cooldown reduction granted by A Card to Play will no longer trigger twice after killing Leoric or Uther.
• Rexxar: Entering a Garden Terror while Misha is dead will no longer prevent Rexxar from issuing commands to Misha after she respawns.
• Samuro: Can no longer swap places with a Mirror Image that is in the allied Hall of Storms.
  • After some consideration, we believe this tactic can make for clever plays and have decided to revert this change.
• Samuro: Mirror Images now correctly play Level Up and Quest Completion visual effects when Samuro levels up or completes a quest.
• Sgt. Hammer: Commands can now correctly be queued while Sgt. Hammer is returning to Tank Mode.
• Tassadar: Fixed an issue that could cause Basic Attacks in Archon form to deal splash damage twice to secondary attack targets after learning Prismatic Link.
• Tassadar: Completing the Templar’s Will quest and learning Twilight Archon will no longer grant extended range to Tassadar’s first Basic Attack in Twilight Archon form.
• Tracer: The Bullet Spray Talent now correctly increases the Melee’s radius by 40%.
• Tyrael: The remaining duration on bonus Armor granted by the Stalwart Angel Talent after using El’Druin’s Might to teleport will now correctly appear in the Buff Bar.
• Tyrande: The Darnassian Archery Talent’s Buff Bar icon now correctly displays the current number of stacks in addition to its duration.
• Zagara: Fixed an issue that could cause Heroes who were caught in the center of Devouring Maw to display their exit locations before Devouring Maw expired.

Sound

• Ana: Debilitating Dart activation is no longer audible when the player camera is far from Ana’s location.
• Falstad: Lightning Rod is no longer audible to enemies through the Fog of War.
• Greymane: Gilnean Cocktail will now correctly play sound effects when it hits a target in the Fog of War.

User Interface

• Draft Mode: Using the voice volume control in a draft lobby will no longer prevent players from viewing teammates’ profiles using the right-click context menu.
• Minimap: Ping icons will no longer appear faded on the Minimap while shaders are set to medium.
• Score Screen: The in-game Score Screen will now correctly track quest progress for D.Va’s Crash Course Talent.

[Laragon 269]

The reign of King Blaze and Queen Maiev has been extended by 2+ weeks. Long live the king!

[Valhalen 1,484]

Just now, Laragon said:

The reign of King Blaze and Queen Maiev has been extended by 2+ weeks. Long live the king!

Blaze is easily the most balanced tank in the game. He will never be nerfed or buffed.

Maiev still stomps teams, but only with the right setup and proper follow ups.

[Laragon 269]

29 minutes ago, Valhalen said:

Blaze is easily the most balanced tank in the game. He will never be nerfed or buffed.

Maiev still stomps teams, but only with the right setup and proper follow ups.

Blaze is broken. Bunker gives sanc level team fight saves and is only a 40 seconds CD. His self sustain wins essentially every solo lane, while also being flexible enough to run as a solo tank if your draft shifts. His wave clear is some of the best in the game while also giving constant peels and self sustain. Unless you constantly spam CD off cooldown he never goes oom. How is any of that balanced?

His bunker needs a CD nerf, badly. And his health/sustain needs adjusted, lower one of the two. His top league win rates and HGC priority rate should be a sign.

Maiev isn't as broken, but she's still genji/hanzo levels OP where she's a total game changer in the type of team you're required to draft to deal with her.

[Plergoth 277]

Blaze is great, but Bunker has proven time and time again in the last few weeks across many levels of play why it should be looked at. Not entirely sure he's oppressive in solo lane, but he is definitely one of those who's simply good at everything. 

[MurkyFelix 51]

2 hours ago, Laragon said:

Blaze is broken. Bunker gives sanc level team fight saves and is only a 40 seconds CD. 

His bunker needs a CD nerf, badly.

I feel like it's not even the cooldown; but the de-buff removal from Bunker and the armor you get when exiting it is a bit much. I've seen so often Tracer's Pulse Bomb just vanishing when they enter Bunker. Maybe the de-buffs (damage ones) being applied to the Bunker itself might make it a bit less forgiving to just pop in and out and/or tweak the armor? 

Other than that (if even) tossing the cooldown up to 55-60 would be sufficient too ;-;

[Brutalis 165]

2 hours ago, Laragon said:

Maiev isn't as broken, but she's still genji/hanzo levels OP where she's a total game changer in the type of team you're required to draft to deal with her.

There is nothing wrong with strong and powerful heroes. Now I firmly believe that every hero in the game should be viable and useful and have their place and get picked now and then, it is a simple fact that because of the nature of certain hero skillsets that drafting them requires the enemy to respond in a certain way, or be at a distinct disadvantage. The fact that the meta revolves around a few top picks isn't a bad thing so long as there isn't a huge gap between the top heroes and the bottom ones.

I think the biggest problem HOTS has compared to other MOBAs is that there isn't a hardcarry role and one player can't just go out of control and win the game off their own back. Maiev/Genji/Hanzo are wonderful because they can do just that. If they don't get shut down and controlled they can mess up your entire team. And that's ok. It's not something that should be changed IMO. It adds a new dimension that HOTS previously lacked. The "assassin" archetype just doesn't feel weighty enough and many of them fit the name far too well and focus on solokills and don't have much use after they've done their job. Having a tiny subset of assassins who do more than that and can fulfill the traditional MOBA carry role is a good thing.

[ExorionAether 11]

4 hours ago, Stan said:

Samuro: Can no longer swap places with a Mirror Image that is in the allied Hall of Storms.

• After some consideration, we believe this tactic can make for clever plays and have decided to revert this change.

Good thing the Devs came to their senses.

Time to test around with the changes on the live-servers.

[ecO1 9]

Personally I think that heroes like Maiev, Genji, Illidan, Tracer and Hanzo and Zeratul to a degree who have a great mobility on the battlefield are never gonna be really balanced over the whole game, simply due to the fact that those are heroes that have to be counterpicked specifically. Any form of cc can help and if your team lacks cc, you are likely doomed vs those heroes.

Maiev is just the newest example to undergo that „Oh no, the hero is way to strong, nerf her!!“ treatment that all the other heroes mentioned above had to endure as well.
The only goal here can be, to balance them in a scenario where they are not entirely counterless but also have at least some counters to them and I can imagine that this will take a little while like it did on the other heroes as well.

Imo it would be enough to increas Maiev's cc on E and D for 1 second and she should be fine. Her damage will stil be more than enough, especially vs clumped teams but you will have to think more about going all in with her.

The major problem that Hots is facing with those heroes at the moment is that 2 bans are just not enough to deal with those situationally overpowered heroes. Since there are other heroes that thrive as well when not counterpicked correctely. Just coming into my mind are heroes like Cho'Gall, Zagara and Sylvanas. Some hero combinations are even worse to deal with like Cho'Gall + Auriel, Genji + Devine Shield Uther, Tracer + Tassadar + other support.

Including a third ban would help to counteract that, as well as it would help to increase the number of heroes played in the game.

Blaze is a really great allrounder, better than every other allrounder before him. Tankier than Sonya, more waveclear than ETC and so on. He can basically always be picked to round up your team and even as a solo tank. At the moment I feel like his lane sustain needs a little nerf since, especially with the 2 globes that he can easily gather he basically never runs out of mana or hp in a 1on1 scenario and even ganking him is really hard due to his survivabilty. Slight numbertweaks and a 10 to 15 second increase on his bunker and he should be the most balanced hero in the game.

Forgot to talk about the patch btw... Does anyone else think the fact, that Ana's grenade only increases heals from her feels more like a nerf to her than what the other changes could buff her?
The only reason she sits abouve 50% is the Nano boost since she can just drop it on her hard carry and then run for her life while the nano boosted hero ripps apart the enemy team. Really feel that her other talents don't need any kind of nerf to change that.
Medivh looks so promising, really looking forward to experimenting with his build since so far I only ever played one.

The Sonya changes I did not dare to look at yet, since I main her and I am really afraid she will be nerfed and fall out of the meta, just like my former main Thrall used to (though I feel he is playable again since the latest changes)

[xevex 41]

5 hours ago, Valhalen said:

Maiev still stomps teams, but only with the right setup and proper follow ups.

Shes pretty much nerfed to oblivion. Hp as any other melee assassin but sorry no sustain. She either stomps or is completly useless.
She feels like a squishy now. 

2 hours ago, Brutalis said:

I think the biggest problem HOTS has compared to other MOBAs is that there isn't a hardcarry role and one player can't just go out of control and win the game off their own back. Maiev/Genji/Hanzo are wonderful because they can do just that. If they don't get shut down and controlled they can mess up your entire team. And that's ok. It's not something that should be changed IMO. It adds a new dimension that HOTS previously lacked. The "assassin" archetype just doesn't feel weighty enough and many of them fit the name far too well and focus on solokills and don't have much use after they've done their job. Having a tiny subset of assassins who do more than that and can fulfill the traditional MOBA carry role is a good thing.

There are multiple heroes that can "do just that" if ignored. If you dont shut down an Abathur your structures will slowly fall, you will be hind exp and late game he can take down structures in seconds. Just an example. There are multiple other heroes that can carry like Medivh. Maiev isnt really a carry. If her team doesnt follow up shes useless. Without a sustain heal she has no staying power either. 

1 hour ago, ecO1 said:

but you will have to think more about going all in with her.

You cant go all in with her anymore. You just get focused down in 2 second without acomplishing anything. If your team doesnt dive with you youre dead before you can get a second reset on your Q. She recieved unnecessary nerfs to her Q dmg which now feels like its doing nothing and her HP which is too low considering she has no selfsustain. I think the idea that they had in mind just doesnt work. Shes melee and shes exposed to dmg. Having too much armor makes her OP. Having no armor makes her unplayable in QM. 
Melee without selfsustain just doesnt work. 

[PixieKnight 10]

1 hour ago, ecO1 said:

*stuff*

Including a third ban would help to counteract that, as well as it would help to increase the number of heroes played in the game.

*stuff*

I agree on adding a third or even fourth ban. Dota 2 has 4 bans a side, and over 100 heroes. While HotS doesn't have QUITE that many, it's getting close (can't be bothered to count). 2 bans a side was fine when we had ~50 heroes, but it's not enough now. Having a third ban would open up a greater variety of heroes at both low and high level. It would also make the second ban phase far more meaningful. Consider the following scenario: second ban phase, neither team has picked a Support yet. I intend to pick Alexstrasza, and I am captain. Do I ban Lucio? Stukov? Malfurion? Uther? Aside from the map, I have little way of knowing what the opposing healer intends to pick. What usually happens is I ban Lucio because that's the one I least like playing.

[MasterKast 15]

i like how ana changes looks like. i hope it does on actual game as well. self heal was a long needed skill

[Valhalen 1,484]

13 hours ago, ecO1 said:

Does anyone else think the fact, that Ana's grenade only increases heals from her feels more like a nerf to her than what the other changes could buff her?

Yes, it is. In fact they made some minor tweak nerfs all around so she can only truly shine with specific builds. Now you can only increase the global bonus heal with the Biotic Grenade build, which I'm fine with since it's my choice of build.

On the other hand, now the Shrike build looks very tempting to play with.

[SteveFrost 97]

11 hours ago, xevex said:

Shes pretty much nerfed to oblivion. Hp as any other melee assassin but sorry no sustain If her team doesnt follow up shes useless. Without a sustain heal she has no staying power either. Melee without selfsustain just doesnt work. 

There are LONG ways to go before you can call Maiev "nerfed to oblivion" imo. That happened to Tyrael pre-rework; numbers nerf, mana cost increases, removal of good talents leaving him pretty much with 1 choice per tier. He kept getting picked in competitive because his Heroics were and remain very good and because of Holy Ground but it was just that; he was pretty much trash anywhere else than tournaments.

Now, if Maiev had any form of self-sustain, she would 1v5 ez, without breaking a sweat. Her only real "counter", if you could even call it that, would be those really strong 1v1 Heroes or if anyone or 3-4/5 people on enemy team have access to ability damage reduction. But whether it is dueling power (she's never meant to solo anyways, if you do you're doing something wrong) or magic armor, they come later in the game when she's able to have her armor + damage increase imbaOPbroken talent combination. Zeratul gets redonkulous sustain with Mending Strikes provided he can keep whacking but even he can't dive in the whole enemy team and kill 2-3 at least with ease-if Maiev had that... the horrors... Artanis could use some self-sustain imho. 

[xevex 41]

 

There are LONG ways to go before you can call Maiev "nerfed to oblivion" imo. That happened to Tyrael pre-rework; numbers nerf, mana cost increases, removal of good talents leaving him pretty much with 1 choice per tier. He kept getting picked in competitive because his Heroics were and remain very good and because of Holy Ground but it was just that; he was pretty much trash anywhere else than tournaments.

Now, if Maiev had any form of self-sustain, she would 1v5 ez, without breaking a sweat. Her only real "counter", if you could even call it that, would be those really strong 1v1 Heroes or if anyone or 3-4/5 people on enemy team have access to ability damage reduction. But whether it is dueling power (she's never meant to solo anyways, if you do you're doing something wrong) or magic armor, they come later in the game when she's able to have her armor + damage increase imbaOPbroken talent combination. Zeratul gets redonkulous sustain with Mending Strikes provided he can keep whacking but even he can't dive in the whole enemy team and kill 2-3 at least with ease-if Maiev had that... the horrors... Artanis could use some self-sustain imho. 

If you cant even pull heroes without dying or taking a massive amount of dmg in the best case scenario then thats what i call "nerfed to oblivion". Not to mention her Q doesnt even feel threatening anymore. 

Im not talking Iliidans/Zeratuls sort of selfsustain. Im talking about self-sustain that let you not hearth back after every engage attempt if you somehow end up with a non-sustain healer that cant top you off or no healer at all. 

I certainly know shes is not a duelist never expected her to be or wanted her to be. 

But diving the whole enemy team is her whole point. Ofc shes not supposed to dive alone since she would be dead in 2 seconds but still. Right now shes has to tap a well after every dive if shes doesnt die which is the most likely scenario. 

And her whole talent tree is just plain. They are maybe 2 builds. 1/3 of it is just completly unviable.

[CyberDVonaven 82]

18 hours ago, PixieKnight said:

agree on adding a third or even fourth ban. Dota 2 has 4 bans a side, and over 100 heroes. While HotS doesn't have QUITE that many, it's getting close (can't be bothered to count). 2 bans a side was fine when we had ~50 heroes, but it's not enough now. Having a third ban would open up a greater variety of heroes at both low and high level.

I TOTALLY agree with we need a 3rd ban in draft now. I was just thinking about this the other day too. Two DEFINITELY isn't enough anymore. There's just way to many counters to the ones you ban now. You ban Genji, they just go Maiev or Greymane. You ban Tychus and pick two tanks. Then they just go Maltheal instead.

 And the current count on heroes now as of Maiev is 77. So yeah, every 25 heroes you need another ban added to draft. Once we reach over 100 heroes we need a 4th ban added like you mentioned is in DOTA2.

[PixieKnight 10]

Tell me, if I have a losing streak in Ranked Season qualifiers, should I quit Heroes? I'm sick of playing healer, cranking out a ton of healing, never dying, and losing every game because two guys start arguing at draft and don't give it a rest the whole game.

[BigFrenchNose 1]

I am not sure if someone has already commented on it, but I didn't expected the new police skins to be just Epic and not Legendary. Now we just need Blizzard to remove gem only skins and I will be super glad :D

Cheers everone!

 

[PrivateJoker 27]

19 minutes ago, BigFrenchNose said:

I am not sure if someone has already commented on it, but I didn't expected the new police skins to be just Epic and not Legendary. Now we just need Blizzard to remove gem only skins and I will be super glad :D

Cheers everone!

 

Yea I just checked those out a little while ago and was pleasantly surprised to see none of them were legendary. Lunar Festival stuff tapped me out on shards, but it won't take long to afford Epics.

[SteveFrost 97]

On 7/3/2018 at 7:21 PM, xevex said:

If you cant even pull heroes without dying or taking a massive amount of dmg in the best case scenario then thats what i call "nerfed to oblivion". Not to mention her Q doesnt even feel threatening anymore. 

Im not talking Iliidans/Zeratuls sort of selfsustain. Im talking about self-sustain that let you not hearth back after every engage attempt if you somehow end up with a non-sustain healer that cant top you off or no healer at all. 

I certainly know shes is not a duelist never expected her to be or wanted her to be. 

But diving the whole enemy team is her whole point. Ofc shes not supposed to dive alone since she would be dead in 2 seconds but still. Right now shes has to tap a well after every dive if shes doesnt die which is the most likely scenario. 

And her whole talent tree is just plain. They are maybe 2 builds. 1/3 of it is just completly unviable.

Lacking a healer plus no way to heal yourself is surely bad, I've experienced that with Jaina a lot (for a long while she was the only assassin incapable of healing herself). Maiev is still in a more than ok spot imho, wouldn't call her overnerfed like pre-rework Tyrael, 2 builds is a lot better than barely having 1 available every single time. Indeed you can't just dive alone an enemy team who's smart without proper follow-up but she surely still has the capacity for insta-gib imho (you can do the trick with the Spirit of Vengeance to make sure you'll get the proc).

[xevex 41]

58 minutes ago, SteveFrost said:

Lacking a healer plus no way to heal yourself is surely bad, I've experienced that with Jaina a lot (for a long while she was the only assassin incapable of healing herself). Maiev is still in a more than ok spot imho, wouldn't call her overnerfed like pre-rework Tyrael, 2 builds is a lot better than barely having 1 available every single time. Indeed you can't just dive alone an enemy team who's smart without proper follow-up but she surely still has the capacity for insta-gib imho (you can do the trick with the Spirit of Vengeance to make sure you'll get the proc).

Yeah but try playing her in QM. Its a completly different story. Blizzard is always trying to make all heroes playable across all levels of play but Maiev in QM is a disaster. Played her in HL she was pretty good, Ana kept me alive a lot but she still dies easy even with a healer. 

Actually, i notice that the Spirit of Vengeance into Umbral Bind is only really good when you want to make use of enemies positions and lock them down in a Warden's Cage. Otherwise its better to just Umbral Bind and Spirit of Vengeance to get an insta pull.