heroes Heroes of the Storm Balance Update: Mar 21

[Stan 5,242]

A surprise balance update has hit the Nexus with changes to Blaze's Bunker Drop, Thrall's Chain Lightning, Greymane's Razor Swipe, and much more.

Overview

• The cooldown of Greymane's Razor Swipe has been increased. His playstyle is great, which makes him a safe pick most of the time. The removal of some PvE-oriented power from his kit should fix the problem.
• A new round of Maiev nerfs is here. The damage of Fan of Knives & Blade Dance has been decreased and the cooldowns of her Vault of the Wardens trait and Warden's Cage increased. At the same time they reduced the armor gain from Shadow Armor.
• Thrall's Crash Lightning quest talent was too powerful and moved back to 30 stacks.
• Blizzard increased Auriel's self-Hope generation and play-making potential. Her Basic Attack damage was increased and the cooldown of Detainment Strike decreased.
• Blaze's Bunker Drop was too effective in higher levels of play and Exit Bunker now has a 1 second cooldown before it can be used again.

Blizzard (Source)

Our most recent Heroes of the Storm patch is now live containing a number of balance changes and bug fixes.

Quick Navigation:

• Battlegrounds
• Heroes
• Bug Fixes

Battlegrounds 

Towers of Doom

• Increased the respawn timer of Sapper Camps by 30 seconds.

Heroes 

Assassin

Greymane

Abilities

• Razor Swipe (Q)
  • Cooldown increased from 3 to 4 seconds

Talents

• Level 13
  • Visceral Attacks (Q)
    • Cooldown reduction increased from 1 to 1.5 seconds per Basic Attack

Developer Comment: We’re increasing the cooldown of Razor Swipe in an effort to stem some of Greymane’s effectiveness when taking Mercenaries and clearing Minion waves.  Currently, Greymane’s play-style is great, but he does everything a little too well, which makes him a consistently safe pick. To curb this, we’d like to remove some of the PvE-oriented power from his kit.

Maiev

Abilities

• Vault of the Wardens (D)
  • Cooldown increased from 9 to 12 seconds
• Fan of Knives (Q)
  • Damage reduced from 162 to 152
• Containment Disc (R)
  • Cooldown reduced from 65 to 50 seconds
• Warden's Cage (R)
  • Cooldown increased from 80 to 100 seconds

Talents

• Level 7
  • Blade Dance (Q)
    • Damage reduced from 54 to 50
• Level 13
  • Shadow Armor (E)
    • Armor reduced from 25 to 20

Developer Comment: Maiev is still a powerhouse in the Nexus. To combat this, we’re reducing Maiev’s damage potential by lowering Fan of Knives damage and Blade Dance (which has powerful synergy with Armored Assault, another overperforming Talent.) We’re also allowing opponents more opportunities to punish Maiev by increasing Vault of the Wardens’ cooldown and reducing the power of Shadow Armor.

Thrall

Talents

• Level 1
  • Crash Lightning (Q)
    • Maximum damage bonus reduced from 480 to 360
    • Quest completion reward requirement increased from 20 to 30 stacks

Developer Comment: With the increased bounce range of Chain lightning, the Crash Lightning talent has become overly dominant. While we enjoy the build, as it allows Thrall to play outside of the solo-lane, in its current state it is simply too powerful. By lowering the maximum stacks, we’re reducing the upper damage limit to lessen the impact of the extreme situations where Thrall is completely stacked. Additionally, with the Quest Completion moving back to 30 stacks, it’s going to be harder for Thrall to finish the talent, pushing this power-spike to later in the match.

Valla

Abilities

• Multishot (W)
  • Damage increased from 165 to 172

Zul'jin

Stats

• Basic Attack damage increased from 90 to 94

Talents

• Level 13
  • Ensnare (Active)
    • Cooldown reduced from 60 to 45 seconds

Specialist

Medivh

Talents

• Level 7
  • Arcane Explosion (W)
    • Additional damage from enemy damage absorbed reduced from 365 to 350
  • Force of Magic (W)
    • Bonus Spell Power duration increased from 12 to 15 seconds
• Level 13
  • Reabsorption (W)
    • Healing amount increased from 50 to 60%

Support

Auriel

Stats

• Basic Attack damage increased from 57 to 68

Abilities

• Detainment Strike (E)
  • Cooldown reduced from 14 to 12 seconds
• Resurrect (R)
  • Range increased from 5 to 7
  • Cooldown reduced from 100 to 80 seconds

Talents

• Level 7
  • Energized Cord (Passive)
    • Energy stored from Basic Attacks against non-Heroic targets reduced from 50 to 40%
• Level 13
  • Blinding Flash (Q)
    • Blind duration reduced from 2.25 to 2 seconds
• Level 20
  • Diamond Resolve (R)
    • Armor increased from 50 to 60
  • Angelic Flightt (Active)
    • Cooldown reduced from 45 to 30 seconds

Developer Comment: Auriel has been overlooked in favor of other supports recently, so to increase her self-Hope generation and play-making potential, we’re increasing her Basic Attack damage and reducing the cooldown of Detainment Strike. We’ve also made some Talent adjustments so players feel like they have a greater variety of choices at the various tiers.

Malfurion

Talents

• Level 1
  • Nature's Swiftness (Q)
    • Movement Speed reduced from 5 to 4% per Hero affected by Regrowth
• Level 16
  • Nature's Balance (Q/W)
    • Bonus Regrowth duration reduced from 5 to 3 seconds

Warrior

Artanis

Abilities

• Blade Dash (Q)
  • Mana cost reduced from 65 to 55
• Twin Blades (W)
  • Mana cost reduced from 25 to 20

Talents

• Level 13
  • Templar's Zeal (Q)
    • Faster cooldown rate increased from 200 to 300%

Blaze

Abilities

• Bunker Drop (R)
  • Cooldown increased from 40 to 50 seconds
  • Exit Bunker now has a 1 Second cooldown before it can be used

Developer Comment: While we love the creative uses of Bunker Drop, at the higher levels of play it is slightly too effective.  These changes are designed to decrease the overall power of the Bunker when it’s used purely to dodge enemy abilities and clear debuffs. We’d like to ensure that players who get into the Bunker are committed to being inside, if only briefly. 

Sonya

Talents

• Level 1
  • Furious Blow (W)
    • Damage bonus increased from 40 to 50%
• Level 4
  • Battle Rage (Active)
    • Max charges reduced from 3 to 2
    • Charge use cooldown increased from 5 to 8 seconds
• Level 13
  • Mystical Spear (Q)
    • Cooldown reduction reduced from 3 to 2 seconds
• Level 16
  • Rampage (Passive)
    • Ancient Spear cooldown reduction decreased from .75 to .5 seconds

Developer Comment: Sonya is getting a bit too much value out of the combination of all the Ancient Spea talents, so we’re reducing the amount of cooldown reduction she gets to keep these from being the default choices. We’re also reducing the healing potential of Battle Rage at level 4 as it was providing a bit too much generic survivability for an early game talent. Finally, we’re increasing the damage bonus provided by Furious Blows to make it a more attractive damage option against the other two survivability talents.

Tyrael

Talents

• Level 1
  • Justice for All (W)
    • Allied Shield bonus reduced from 100 to 75%

Bug Fixes 

General

• Tyrael: Fixed an issue causing some Mecha Tyrael skins to appear untextured.
• Johanna: Fixed an issue causing a placeholder sphere to appear when using Johanna’s Shield Glare ability with an Enforcer skin equipped.

Heroes, Abilities, and Talents

• Heroes can no longer cast Area-of-Effect abilities globally before the gates open.
• Malthael: Fixed an issue with the size of Death Shroud’s area of effect.
• Samuro: Fixed an issue with the Three Blade Style talent that prevented Mirror Images from gaining bonus health.
• Samuro: Fixed an issue causing the Quest Complete fanfare to play every time Mirror Images was cast after choosing the Way of Illusion talent.
• Valla: Fixed an issue causing the Punishment talent to deal less bonus damage than intended.

[leapingshadow 50]

More Maiev nerfs gief refund.

[ArtVandelay 24]

Glad they boosted Auriel.  I only play her with Chogall right now.  she was too dependant on the battery for energy IMO.

[Valhalen 1,484]

Auriel still needs more love. With some more powerful healers in the meta that are not dependent on the rest of the team in order to heal, I feel that Auriel could use some minor-reworks. 

One thing they could do would be that Bestow Hope also generates Energy when allies near the "Bestowed" deal damage; that would make less punishing for Auriel to keep switching who she Bestows Hope to, and would increase her Energy generation in general. The bonus Energy granted by allies near the Bestowed could be something small, but really significant (maybe 10% of the damage done). If that sounds too OP, maybe could be a talent or something.

Edited March 21, 2018 by Valhalen

[Fliits 112]

Some much needed changes and some strange ones. Buffs to Zul'Jin, Artanis and Valla are really something I didn't expect. Nerfs to Maiev, Thrall, Malfurion, Sonya, Greymane and Bunker Drop were definitely needed, even if they didn't do that much to nerf them. Boost to Auriel I didn't see coming, but it was definitely needed.

Edited March 21, 2018 by Fliits

[xevex 41]

More Maiev nerfs god. Shes literally in the same place as Genji. She was hard to play on launch. After nerfs shes even more difficult to play.

Medivh recieved some great buffs. So happy.

[Lampanelli 75]

Tyrael nerf confuses me. He is already in a pretty weak spot, so why nerf  the one talent he had at level 1 that was worth it? He'd still pick it regardless, it's just weaker now.

[Mefi 4]

Tyrael's not that weak. His shield is very valuable, as it can nullify a lot of aoe damage, his rework helped his mana issues, also made him a bit more durable, a pretty solid pick vs burst/aoe mages, given that there is another warrior with CC in your team.
However he's not too good against sustained damage, so he's struggling against thrall and sonya, but if those are already banned, he might be a fit.

[Lampanelli 75]

1 hour ago, Mefi said:

Tyrael's not that weak. His shield is very valuable, as it can nullify a lot of aoe damage, his rework helped his mana issues, also made him a bit more durable, a pretty solid pick vs burst/aoe mages, given that there is another warrior with CC in your team.
However he's not too good against sustained damage, so he's struggling against thrall and sonya, but if those are already banned, he might be a fit.

Fair points. I simply meant that in the games I see, he doesn't do too well. Perhaps I have simply missed the good ones though.

[Lovestud500 2]

I think the strongest hero in the game right now is Diablo. I thought for sure he would be somewhere here.

[MurkyFelix 51]

I feel like for Thrall they could have simply put the Hero bounce priority reward to 30 a left it; the damage nerf seems a slight bit too much (on paper as always). Agree with Auriel needing more love; tweaking Bestow Hope would bring her right back. 

On another note; it would be funny if she could Bestow Hope onto a structure; would make her quite the anti-push hero xD

[Mortalo 1]

Auriel ideas:

Maybe every ally in D range gives Auriel hope, while D hero gains bonuses (similar to 16 talents). While hyper-carry won't be as much needed to provide her hope, that one hero could get even stronger when with her.

Maybe give her a pull towards the end of Detainment Strike, as a sort of an escape (when hitting thin air) or dive (when going aggressively with i.e. Tyrael). Though that could make her an angel version of Kharazim.

[MurkyFelix 51]

37 minutes ago, Mortalo said:

Auriel ideas:

Maybe give her a pull towards the end of Detainment Strike, as a sort of an escape (when hitting thin air) or dive (when going aggressively with i.e. Tyrael). Though that could make her an angel version of Kharazim.

The pull would be a cool talent addition. Something along the lines of where it pulls her if it hits impassable terrain? (thin air might be a bit much I believe)

[SteveFrost 97]

Thrall always was good all-around, last rework pushed him way over the edge, nerfs to heroes who do everything too well are expected and welcome. Artanis could use a(nother) rework imho, these buffs won't do much. Auriel wasn't in a bad spot imho, she can be a really mean non-stop healing machine. Energized Cord pretty much solves the issues of having to rely on the linked ally. What would help imo would be to make one of the first tier talents baseline cause all are pretty good to have.