heroes Heroes of the Storm Balance Update: May 9

[Stan 5,240]

A new Heroes of the Storm patch is here with balance changes and various bug fixes.

Blizzard (Source)

Heroes

Assassin

Fenix

Stats

• Health reduced from 1200 to 1140.
• Health Regeneration reduced from 2.50 to 2.38.
• Shields reduced from 800 to 760.
• Shield Regeneration reduced from 80 to 76.

Abilities

• Weapon Mode: Phase Bomb (W)
  • Basic Attack range bonus reduced from 1.5 to 1.25.
• Warp (E)
  • Cooldown increased from 15 to 17 seconds.
  • Range reduced from 11 to 9.

Guldan

Talents

• Level 1
  • Glyph of Drain Life (W)
    • Removed.
  • Chaotic Energy (Passive)
    • Adjusted functionality:
      • Increases Drain Life’s range by 25%.
      • Regeneration Globes restore 50% more Health and Mana.
      • Reward: After collecting 20 Regeneration Globes, reduce all Mana costs by 20.
• Level 4
  • Health Funnel (W)
    • Additional functionality:
      • Drain Life’s cooldown recharges 100% faster while it is active.
• Level 7
  • Devour the Frail (W)
    • Removed.
  • Curse of Exhaustion (E)
    • Adjusted functionality:
      • When Drain Life is cast on an enemy who is affected by Corruption, it deals 50% increased damage and Slows the target by 25%.
• Level 20
  • Haunt (R)
    • Armor reduction amount decreased from 25 to 20.

Developer Comment: Our resident warlock has been in and out of the meta a couple times since his epic release and his Talent tree has become a bit lopsided. We began these changes by looking at Rain of Destruction (even going as far as testing the Ability without a channel!) but quickly realized that we would need more than just a balance patch to appropriately address the Heroic. We were, however, able to make some Talent adjustments that will hopefully give players fun new ways to drain the life from their opponents!

Hanzo

Stats

• Basic Attack range decreased from 7.5 to 6.5.

Abilities

• Natural Agility (Trait)
  • Range decreased from 10 to 9.

Talents

• Level 4
  • Explosive Arrows (Q)
    • Area of effect damage reduced from 100% to 75%.

Developer Comment: These changes require Hanzo to put himself at greater risk to deal the considerable amount of damage that he can dish out over the course of a game. While we believe Hanzo has a unique place as an Assassin who specializes in using his superior range to kite enemies, he was able to do so too safely, which was crowding out other ranged Assassins.

Kael'thas

Talents

• Level 4
  • Energy Roil (E)
    • Additional functionality:
      • Passively reduces the Mana cost of Gravity Lapse by 70.
• Level 7
  • Sunfire Enchantment (Trait)
    • Spell Damage reduced from 165 to 115.
    • Number of empowered Basic Attacks increased from 1 to 2.
    • If both empowered Basic Attacks hit enemy Heroes, gain 15% Spell Power for 10 seconds.
• Level 13
  • Pyromaniac (W)
    • Cooldown reduction applied per tick of Living Bomb damage decreased from 1 to 0.5 seconds.
• Level 16
  • Arcane Dynamo (Passive)
    • Removed
  • New Talent: Ignite (Q)
    • Flamestrikes that hit enemy Heroes also afflict them with Living Bomb .
    • Only 1 Living Bomb can be applied per Flamestrike cast.
• Level 20
  • Presence Of Mind
    • Hitting enemy Heroes with Pyroblast no longer reduces its cooldown.
    • New functionality:
      • Heroes who are hit by Flamestrike or have Living Bomb spread to them reduce the cooldown of Pyroblast by 10 seconds.

Developer Comment: We’re taking passes at some older Talent trees that, while not in need of a full rework, could use some design tweaks. The changes to Kael’thas in particular went through quite a bit of iteration. We’re happy to report that, unlike some of the insane Talents we tried internally, we managed to re-imagine and restore the power of Ignite!

Maiev

Stats

• Health reduced from 2150 to 2021.
• Health Regeneration reduced from 4.48 to 4.21.
• Basic Attack damage reduced from 150 to 145.

Abilities

• Vault of the Wardens (R)
  • Cooldown increased from 12 to 13 seconds.

Thrall

Abilities

• Chain Lightning (Q)
  • Damage reduced from 178 to 162.
  • Bounce damage reduced from 89 to 81.

Talents

• Level 1
  • Rolling Thunder (Q)
    • No longer increases Chain Lightning’s range.
    • New functionality:
      • Hitting a marked enemy restores 2.5% of Thrall’s maximum Health.
• Level 4
  • Frostwolf Pack (W)
    • Quest requirement reduced from 7 to 6 Hero hits.

Tracer

Abilities

• Recall (E)
  • Tracer’s Recall destination is now visible to enemies.

Tychus

Abilities

• Overkill (Q)
  • Cooldown reduced from 13 to 12 seconds.
  • Mana cost reduced from 65 to 60.

Talents

• Level 4
  • Fully Loaded (Trait)
    • Removed.
  • The Bigger They Are... (Trait)
    • Additional functionality:
      • Reduces Minigun's cooldown by 2 seconds.

Specialist

Medivh

Talents

• Level 7
  • Arcane Explosion (W)
    • Bonus area of effect damage reduced from 100% to 50% of the damage prevented by Force of Will.

Support

Ana

Abilities

• Shrike (Trait)
  • Now Heals Ana for Dose damage dealt to all enemies, rather than only the damage dealt to Heroes.
• Healing Dart (Q)
  • Mana cost reduced from 15 to 10.
• Nano Boost (R)
  • Cooldown increased from 60 to 70 seconds.

Talents

• Level 1
  • Detachable Box Magazine (Passive)
    • First reward removed
    • Second reward requirements reduced from 15 to 12 maximum Dosage stacks.
• Level 7
  • Debilitating Dart (Active)
    • Reduced damage duration decreased from 4 to 3 seconds.
    • Additional functionality:
      • Also Slows the target by 50%.

Developer Comment: While Ana is showing a positive win rate, we’re still not seeing her picked up in the solo-Support position as often as we’d like. These changes should allow her to stick around longer in fights and limit wear and tear on your Hearthstone hotkey.

Auriel

Abilities

• Bestow Hope (Trait)
  • Energy stored when Auriel hits non-Heroes increased from 5% to 10% of the damage dealt.

Talents

• Level 4
  • Repeated Offense
    • Additional functionality:
      • Increases Detainment Strike’s knockback distance by 25%.
• Level 13
  • Repelling Strike (E)
    • Removed.
• Level 20
  • Diamond Resolve (R)
    • Armor granted upon Crystal Aegis expiration increased from 60 to 75.

Deckard

Abilities

• Lorenado (R)
  • Cooldown reduced from 45 to 40 seconds.

Talents

• Level 1
  • Sapphire (Active)
    • Bonus Slow amount increased from 25% to 30%.
• Level 4
  • Ruby (Active)
    • Lesser Healing Potion Heal amount increased from 190 to 205.
• Level 13
  • Ancient Blessings (Active)
    • Damage reduced from 76 to 72.
    • Healing reduced from 114 to 106.
• Level 20
  • Bottomless Flask (Q)
    • Healing Potion recharge rate increased from 5 to 6 seconds.

Developer Comment: Deckard’s foray into the Nexus has been incredibly successful from a balance perspective. He’s sitting at a healthy win rate of anywhere between 47% and 51% in high level play, depending on the experience of the Deckard player. Many of his Talents are also looking to be in good shape. We’re making some tuning changes intended to adjust under and overperforming Talents without impacting his overall win rate too much.

Li Li

Talents

• Level 1
  • Wind Serpent (W)
    • No longer reduces Cloud Serpent's cooldown.
  • Eager Adventurer (Trait)
    • Fast Feet duration bonus increased from 50% to 100%.
    • Mana regeneration bonus reduced from 150% to 100%.
• Level 4
  • Safety Sprint (Trait)
    • Additional Functionality:
      • Passively increases Fast Feet's base Movement Speed bonus from 10% to 15%.
• Level 16
  • Blessings Of Yu'lon (W)
    • Healing reduced from 1.5% to 1.25% of maximum Health.

Lt. Morales

Talents

• Level 4
  • Trauma Trigger (Passive)
    • Cooldown reduced from 60 to 30 seconds.
• Level 16
  • Extended Care (Q)
    • Range bonus reduced from 40 to 30%.

Malfurion

Stats

• Health reduced from 1598 to 1525.
• Health Regeneration reduced from 3.33 to 3.18.

Abilities

• Moonfire (W)
  • Healing reduced from 135 to 130.
• Twilight Dream (R)
  • Damage reduced from 355 to 310.

Stukov

Abilities

• Bio-Kill Switch (Trait)
  • Healing reduced from 475 to 435.
• Lurking Arm (E)
  • Cooldown increased from 8 to 10 seconds.

Talents

• Level 1
  • Growing Infestation (E)
    • Additional cooldown duration increased from 4 to 5 seconds.
• Level 4
  • One Good Spread... (Q)
    • Mana restoration reduced from 30 to 10.
• Level 7
  • It Hungers (E)
    • Mana restoration increased from 5 to 10.

Warrior

Garrosh

Abilities

• Groundbreaker (Q)
  • Stun duration reduced from 0.75 to 0.5 seconds.
  • Slow amount increased from 35% to 40%.

Talents

• Level 16
  • Rough Landing (Q)
    • Bonus Slow amount reduced from 15% to 10%.

Developer Comment: These changes are meant to make the immediate aftermath of being thrown by Wrecking Ball a little less punishing for Garrosh’s opponents, particularly when he throws an enemy Hero and then Stuns them with Groundbreaker. We’re slightly reducing Groundbreaker’s Stun duration so that enemy Heroes can more quickly pop defensive cooldowns to try to survive. We’re also compensating Garrosh with a slight increase to Groundbreaker's Slow. This way, he can still reliably catch enemies if he starts with Groundbreaker and wants to close in for a throw.

Sonya

Talents

• Level 4
  • Hurricane (W)
    • Cooldown reduction increased from 1 to 2 seconds.
  • Shot Of Fury (Trait)
    • Moved from Level 7.
• Level 7
  • Battle Rage (Active)
    • Moved from Level 4.
• Level 13
  • Mystical Spear (Q):
    • New functionality:
      • Ancient Spear always pulls Sonya to the target location even if it doesn’t hit an enemy. When used this way, its cooldown is reduced by 5 seconds.

Developer Comment: Battle Rage is proving to be the dominant pick on its Talent tier and provides a lot of generic power to Sonya’s kit. Rather than nerf it, we're placing it against stronger Talents at Level 7 to lessen the amount of generic power she can get overall. Similarly, Mystical Spear at 13 is giving a bit too much raw power in addition to its utility. It should now be more in-line with the more situational Talents at that tier.

Bug Fixes

Battlegrounds

• Dragon Shire: When attempting to capture a Dragon Knight, Channeling is now correctly paused when hit by a Time Stop effect, like Zeratul’s Void Prison.

Heroes, Abilities, and Talents

• Deckard: Non-Hero allied units no longer receive area of effect Healing from the Potion of Revival Talent.
• Falstad: Lightning Rod cooldown reduction applied by the Wingman Talent now correctly appends to both Lightning Rod’s Ability tooltip and Wingman’s Active Bar tooltip.
• Fenix: Purification Salvo Channeling can no longer be interrupted by displacement effects, like Raynor’s Penetrating Round.
• Hearthstone: Fixed an issue in which certain Hero Abilities would not interrupt Hearthstone Channeling.
• Ice Block: Fixed an issue in which certain Abilities remained castable during Ice Block.
• Li Li: Upon activating Safety Sprint, Fast Feet now correctly persists for its full 3 second duration.
• Stukov: The It Hungers Talent no longer grants cooldown reduction to Lurking Arm if the Ability is cast without hitting any enemy Heroes.

[ShadowerDerek 69]

LOL. I actually posted an overview on the tier list post before this post comes out. :P

Diablo untouched btw.

Edited May 9, 2018 by ShadowerDerek

[Lampanelli 75]

Interesting. I wonder if this means a Life Drain build for Gul'dan is viable? Some testing required.

[Valhalen 1,484]

1 hour ago, ShadowerDerek said:

LOL. I actually posted an overview on the tier list post before this post comes out. :P

Diablo untouched btw.

There is no point on touching Diablo, he is fine as he is.

[Aasgier 36]

30 minutes ago, Valhalen said:

There is no point on touching Diablo, he is fine as he is.

...

Almost 80% pickrate and 54% WR in Hero League (Diamond and Master Hero League, not including the lower ranks, though even then it's barely lower (72% PR and 52% WR respectively) should tell you otherwise. He is pretty much on par with Fenix. Probably better now, considering this is looking at statistics prior to today's balance patch.

If that does not need a nerf (possibly paired with a full talent rework, considering how little deviation there is in his talent tree) I don't know anymore.

Edited May 9, 2018 by Aasgier
I looked at the numbers incorrectly and wrote down Diablo's pick rate as a few % lower than it actually was.

[Valhalen 1,484]

19 minutes ago, Aasgier said:

...

78% pickrate and 54% WR in Hero League (Diamond and Master Hero League, not including the lower ranks, though even then it's barely lower (72% PR and 52% WR respectively) should tell you otherwise. He is pretty much on par with Fenix.

If that does not need a nerf (possibly paired with a full talent rework, considering how little deviation there is in his talent tree) I don't know anymore.

That doesn't mean anything, really. People just realized how strong he has always been. Heck, the last time he had a significant patch note was on 2017-01-27. It's not that he suddenly became powerful; the meta has shifted to a moment where he became more relevant, and that is perfectly fine.

Blizzard themselves said in the April 13 Reddit AMA: "I don’t think we view Diablo or Garrosh as that frustrating to play against." when someone asked "You’ve been talking about reworking heroes with frustrating playstyles - what heroes are in queue for changes? Chromie? Diablo? Garrosh? Genji?".

Diablo is one of those high-risk / high-reward Heroes that can either sink or carry a team. I've always said that Diablo was Prime Tier way before he was put there, same for Stukov. There is no reason to change him other than general QQ from the playerbase. Now Fenix needed a nerf because his kit is overtuned.

Edited May 9, 2018 by Valhalen

[Aasgier 36]

Nearly 80% pickrate and 54% WR is beyond crazy tho, especially when you consider that a high pickrate and a high winrate tend to not go very well together (as it means bad players are gravitating towards this hero too). That's not just "favoured by the meta" anymore (though that is definately the case too). Diablo deals damage on par with Assassins at least half the time and if not it's still a serious bruiser, while simultaneously also being one of the most survivable tanks. I sometimes see people draft Diablo in place of Melee Assassins because they can (while simultaneously denying him from the enemy team). Diablo is just that good.

Also you completely ignored the point about Diablo's talent tree. Just check the statistics - he has literally the least flexible talent tree in the game. Only level 7 and 20 see some significant deviation - the other talents are commonly accepted to be set in stone. Devil's Due, From The Shadows, Apocalypse, Devastating Charge, Domination. This is ridiculous in its own right. Whether players are bad or good - they pick pretty much the same talents (as even in Bronze there's little deviation).

So, TLDR: Diablo is the strongest Warrior by far and has only one talent build. Needs rework.

Edited May 9, 2018 by Aasgier

[Valhalen 1,484]

9 minutes ago, Aasgier said:

Nearly 80% pickrate and 54% WR is beyond crazy tho, especially when you consider that a high pickrate and a high winrate tend to not go very well together (as it means bad players are gravitating towards this hero too). That's not just "favoured by the meta" anymore (though that is definately the case too). Diablo deals damage on par with Assassins at least half the time and if not it's still a serious bruiser, while simultaneously also being one of the most survivable tanks. I sometimes see people draft Diablo in place of Melee Assassins because they can. Diablo is just that good.

Also you completely ignored the point about Diablo's talent tree. Just check the statistics - he has literally the least flexible talent tree in the game. Only level 7 and 20 see some significant deviation - the other talents are commonly accepted to be set in stone. Devil's Due, From The Shadows, Apocalypse, Devastating Charge, Domination. This is ridiculous in its own right. Whether players are bad or good - they pick pretty much the same talents (as even in Bronze there's little deviation).

Oh no, I'm completely aware of how limited his talent tree is. I've actually pointed that before, somewhere, alongside that Sonya needed a rework for the same reason (which she eventually got). I agree that he definitely could get more talent variety, but I don't want to see this at the expense of reducing him to a versatile character that doesn't excel at anything. He is all about that "in your face" gameplay, but he struggles against over-defensive teams where he can't dive.

He IS favored by the meta, he definitely is. Like I pointed out, the last time he was subject to any significant changes was over a year ago, and now he is suddenly considered overpowered because...? The meta, which at the moment favors dives a lot (if you look at @Oxygen's Tier List, most of the Warriors and Assassins in Prime / Core are hard engage ones). Plus people learned how to use him even better with Devastating Charge, which was an underpicked talent in the past under the excuse of "being too situational because of the lack of walls".

Edited May 9, 2018 by Valhalen

[Aasgier 36]

The problem now is that Diablo is too versatile despite his specific role in the dive-meta that favours him. He deals more damage than most Melee Assassins, and has some of the best survivability to boot.

He does not need to make sacrifices. Compare him with Kerrigan or other bursty dive heroes? You don't see them - because Diablo is better than most of them. Only Genji is really an exception and we all know how people see this particular hero.

Also, Diablo does not have a playstyle problem - he is not that frustrating to face. In his case, it's pretty much a numbers thing (not too dissimilar to Fenix). What needs to happen to Diablo is that he gets a big talent rework (and maybe this includes his Trait) that forces him to choose one of three paths:

- Tank build (which is probably more tanky overall than current Diablo, but will obviously deal way less damage)

- Waveclear/Utility Build (W-focused and AoE Crowd Control - which is not even a thing right now).

- Wallbanging Build (Dealing about the same damage as current Diablo, maybe slightly more, but will obviously be significantly less survivable).

 

 

 

[MrPumpson 4]

3 hours ago, Stan said:

We began these changes by looking at Rain of Destruction (even going as far as testing the Ability without a channel!) but quickly realized that we would need more than just a balance patch to appropriately address the Heroic.

Omg, I hope this is a hint that they are working on big changes for Rain of Destruction because what a FUBAR heroic.

I'd love to see him summon an Infernal instead that he gets to control for a bit. Need to have our WARLOCK do something with demons!

[Asthreon 0]

2 hours ago, Valhalen said:

There is no point on touching Diablo, he is fine as he is.

Indeed, I find Diablo tends to be better/worse depending on the characters he is playing with. Which suits his Kit. That and people stand next to walls constantly whilst vsing him and then complain when they get slammed against them all the time. 

He's susceptible to CC and if focused down late game and killed losing his Soul Stacks can make him weak compared to most tanks.
 

[Gaarkan 1]

Dekard didn't get a mega nerf only the bare minimum nerf and not only that, but blizz buffed cubes! I was very disappointed with that. 

[ArusVicious 156]

I might be switching back to a KT main after this, and stop being a Maiev main. It's hard for me to justify Maiev's survivalability at the moment with the nerfs. Don't get me wrong, she still has top tier utility, but KT's buffs are too hard to pass up.

[Plergoth 277]

Some nice Ana changes there, more than makes up for Nanoboost being on a longer cd. Still unsure about how viable Shrike is, but ok. 

I keep mixing up Shrike (her passive) with the level 4 talent, Aim Down Sights, which is what I actually meant. 

Edited May 10, 2018 by Plergoth

[Laragon 269]

2 hours ago, MrPumpson said:

Omg, I hope this is a hint that they are working on big changes for Rain of Destruction because what a FUBAR heroic.

I'd love to see him summon an Infernal instead that he gets to control for a bit. Need to have our WARLOCK do something with demons!

I think it would be better to have an infernal similar to Kharazan (and others) raid mechanics, where it impacts for damage (maybe a small stun but that might be too much) and then has an AOE pulse for zoning. Fits the flavor, works as the zoning tool they intended, but is much less RNG. Burns itself out and crumbles after a little just for pretty animation

[Fliits 112]

I like that Thrall is becoming tankier, but they definitely have to hurry up with adding a bruiser class to the game. Thrall and Sonya just no longer fit their roles.

Otherwise nothing to really mention. Easily predictable nerfs, Tracer made an easier matchup against noobs, Tychus getting more stealthy buffs as well as Morales. I've been hoping that they would make Convection a less important option, to make KT a bit more unpredictable. Making Gul'Dan a viable match up to KT also helps to lover his pickrate as the standard mage. If only the other KT would be as viable. Also Garrosh nerfs:

 

jk he's pretty good, but still nerfing him is a pretty paranoid move on their part.

[CyberDVonaven 82]

38 minutes ago, Fliits said:

I've been hoping that they would make Convection a less important option, to make KT a bit more unpredictable

Convection isn't as good as people seem to think it is. Mana Addict is far better and more reliable and far to over looked by most.

Convection is only good if you can get it completed in the early game since it's dmg buff doesn't scale up with lvls. You end up running out of mana too often with KT. And if you die with Convection not completed, oh well, gotta start over.  Where as Mana Addict fixes the issue of constantly running out of mana. Once completed getting the 20 globes (200 more mana by then) it gives you a very nice size shield for 4secs. Which is usually around 800 or so by then. AND the mana increase per globe doesn't stop once you have completed the quest. Which means that shield amount just keeps going up higher too. And you still get all the other nice flamestrike talents. And since you're far less likely to run out of mana you're not having to run off from combat and getting things done.

So yeah. Convection is definitely not the most important option.

[CyberDVonaven 82]

Oh the topic of the Gul'dan changes.... YES! These look great. It means a Drain Life build is far more viable. And means I'm not wondering why in the world someone would go with those talents over the others in their tiers. And makes Gul'dan's overall viable options wider which is always a good thing. Hell I could even see people preferring Chaotic Energy now with that 50% increase in HP & MP from globes in the same way that Ming's Power Hungry is the preferred talent for her tier 1. A talent that did one thing now does 3. That's just better math, people :p

[ArusVicious 156]

4 hours ago, Fliits said:

I like that Thrall is becoming tankier, but they definitely have to hurry up with adding a bruiser class to the game. Thrall and Sonya just no longer fit their roles.

Otherwise nothing to really mention. Easily predictable nerfs, Tracer made an easier matchup against noobs, Tychus getting more stealthy buffs as well as Morales. I've been hoping that they would make Convection a less important option, to make KT a bit more unpredictable. Making Gul'Dan a viable match up to KT also helps to lover his pickrate as the standard mage. If only the other KT would be as viable. Also Garrosh nerfs:

 

jk he's pretty good, but still nerfing him is a pretty paranoid move on their part.

Garrosh is pretty much the best tank in the game right now, behind only Diablo. Diablo is way ahead though.

[MrPumpson 4]

8 hours ago, Laragon said:

I think it would be better to have an infernal similar to Kharazan (and others) raid mechanics, where it impacts for damage (maybe a small stun but that might be too much) and then has an AOE pulse for zoning. Fits the flavor, works as the zoning tool they intended, but is much less RNG. Burns itself out and crumbles after a little just for pretty animation

EXACTLY what I had in mind. 

I mean, it sucks that it would step on Zeeb's Gargantuan a bit but it just makes perfect sense.

[ShadowerDerek 69]

11 hours ago, Valhalen said:

(if you look at @Oxygen's Tier List, most of the Warriors and Assassins in Prime / Core are hard engage ones)

Uh, Oxygen literally dropped Anub'arak to Viable Tier because:

The current metagame state is not particularly friendly to diving and to most melee assassins, leaving Anub'arak quite lonely for the time being.

[SleepySheepy 41]

I think they mean diving with mobile heroes, OW gang to be precise and not Ragnaros, Thrall (before nerf you might call him mage with his Q damage presence).

One thing that I don't like is Stukov and Malf nerfs instead of buffing other Supports in general.
It's not that Malf and Stukov were OP, it's just that they were only Supports to have good impact beyond healing. Why would you pick Morales? Even at what she is supposed to do, sustain healing, she is mediocre. Why would you get BW after support nerf? Healing is mediocre at best and waveclear nerf was just unnecesary and bad idea.
Why would you get Auriel? Win more Hero, she needs total rework if you ask me, her current design is not about Hope, but rather more... Bullying?

She should be something like get Energy whenever any Hero gets damaged (let's say about 20%) and she can get Energy with her actions. That way she can actually bring hope to dire situation, rather than let's crush our best, be crushed by our worst.

Edited May 10, 2018 by SleepySheepy

[Warper 12]

Agreed that convection is overrated. When Genji, Tracer, Sonya, and Diablo are in literally every game unless banned, having mana-addict’s shield is a must.

[ShadowerDerek 69]

Diablo is not just a dive hero: he's also an anti-dive hero, because his Shadow Charge is a targeted ability, not a skillshot. That means he can reliably charge (and possibly stun) even the most mobile heroes in the game (cough cough Genji Tracer cough cough). 

2 hours ago, SleepySheepy said:

One thing that I don't like is Stukov and Malf nerfs instead of buffing other Supports in general.
It's not that Malf and Stukov were OP, it's just that they were only Supports to have good impact beyond healing. Why would you pick Morales? Even at what she is supposed to do, sustain healing, she is mediocre. Why would you get BW after support nerf? Healing is mediocre at best and waveclear nerf was just unnecesary and bad idea.
Why would you get Auriel? Win more Hero, she needs total rework if you ask me, her current design is not about Hope, but rather more... Bullying?

Nerfing Malf and Stukov is definitely the right way. 

They are OP because their healing outputs are arguably one(s) of the best in the game, WHILE having access to very, VERY impactful CC and heroics. They just completely outshine every other support.

And I don't even think these nerfs are enough, especially for Stukov. They should outright remove either Growing Infestation or Virulent Reaction. Even a certain EU ~10k Master Alarak main agree with me. 

It's not that the other supports are weak (apart from those actually weak supports like Ana and Auriel): it's that Malf and Stukov are way too strong and well-rounded. 

[ShadowerDerek 69]

My thought on the other changes: 

Gul'dan's changes are interesting, but I doubt the new Drain Life build is better than the Corruption build. It just......looks like a QM build.

I don't like the Explosion Arrow nerf. Yes, it's indeed strong, but the other talents are just too weak. Serrated Arrow is now a niche talent for damaging Immortal after its nerf, while Ignore All Distraction is flat out bad. I think they should buff SA to 125%, and give IAD a passive AA range buff, especially when Hanzo's AA range is nerfed. 

The KT buff is quite exciting tbh, but you still shouldn't pick Pyroblast.

Maiev nerf is unnecessary.

Rolling Thunder is still not as good as Echoes of Elements, and Frostwolf Pack is still a meme talent. 

RIP Tracer. You will not be missed.

Arcane Explosion finally gets the nerf it deserves. Fuck that 8s cd Counterstrike.

Ana finally has some basic self-sustain she needs. She might be viable now. But they should give something else to Detachable Box Magazine; its only reward right now is still very hard to get.

Battle Rage is now exactly the old Ferocious Healing. 

 

 

And I'm 99% sure that Diablo WILL get a rework soon, since Blizzard don't even bother to change anything about him currently.

Edited May 10, 2018 by ShadowerDerek