heroes Heroes of the Storm Balance Update: Jun 6

[Stan 5,240]

A new patch is now live with balance changes and various bug fixes.

• Blizzard removed baseline Armor from multiple Heroes, because it was something difficult to communicate visually. Going forward, Armor should be tied to a window of time and have an obvious indicator on the Hero when it's active.
• Experience from outer towers has been distributed amongst other Structures.
• The team's satisfied with Lunara's rework and she received some tuning in the latest patch.
• Diablo is underperforming since the rework and some of his talents have been buffed.
• Zagara's talents have been updated with the goal to reduce her early-game laning presence and buff her late-game teamfight capability.

Blizzard (Source)

User Interface

Main Menu

• The region selector dropdown has been removed from the Main Menu (ESC) in order to help prevent edge-case issues that could affect other game features and result in a poor experience for the player.

Design

Armor

• Baseline Armor has been removed from a number of Heroes. Please see the specific changes to individual Heroes below.

Developer Comment: We have experimented with baseline Armor on some of our Heroes for some time, but we’ve decided to remove this functionality for now. The problem with it that we’ve found over time is that baseline Armor was difficult to communicate visually. It therefore ended up being a largely hidden power that didn’t have any major changes on gameplay. Going forward, we’ll prefer to make Armor—and other mechanics that are effective against Heroes and damage types—more interesting when they are tied to game mechanics. To clarify, while we are removing baseline Armor from Heroes, we still like Armor that is tied to a window of time or has an obvious display on the Hero when it is active. Some examples include Greymane in Worgen form and Cho’gall’s Ogre hide.

Structures

• Fort Tower experience reduced from 500 to 250.
• Fort experience increased from 1,000 to 1,200
• Keep experience increased from 1,650 to 2,050
• Towers of Doom
  • Fort Tower experience reduced from 500 to 250.
  • Fort experience increased from 1,100 to 1,200.
  • Keep experience increased from 1,900 to 2,050.
    • Note: Towers of Doom Forts upgrade to Keeps when the Tunnels open, approximately 12 minutes into a match.

Developer Comment: We’re taking some of the experience offered by outer Towers and distributing it amongst other Structures in an effort to keep teams closer in levels for a little while longer. We still want to reward skillful play, but a team that completes the first objective is frequently able take out a lot of the opposing team’s outer Structures. Not only did this open up a strategic advantage (Healing Fountains get destroyed, Fortifications provide less safety), but it also pushes the winning team further ahead. Usually, this results in one team reaching level 10 before their opponents, allowing them to snowball to an even greater lead. We’d like to instead slow down early game leads, so that winning teams have to play well for a longer period of time.

Heroes

Assassin

Cassia

Stats

• Health increased from 1,660 to 1,840
• Health Regeneration decreased from 4.0 to 3.828.

Abilities

• Avoidance (Trait)
  • Physical Armor while moving unmounted decreased from 65 to 40.

Fenix

Stats

• Unit radius reduced from 1.25 to 1.125. Fenix’s radius now matches Heroes like Stitches and Ragnaros.

Genji

Abilities

• Cyber Agility (Trait)
  • Cooldown increased from 12 to 15 seconds.

Talents

• Level 1
  • Agile Dismount (Trait)
    • Cooldown reduction increased from 7 to 10 seconds.

Kael'thas

Stats

• Unit radius reduced from 1.15 to 1.0. Kael’thas’ radius now matches Heroes like E.T.C. and Zagara.

Abilities

• Living Bomb (W)
  • Periodic damage increased from 40 to 42.

Developer Comment: After years of battling in the Nexus, Kael’thas finally learned the reason why puny interlopers could foil his clearly superior plans and went to the tailor to get his cape trimmed.

Maiev

Abilities

• Umbral Bind (W)
  • Cooldown increased from 12 to 14 seconds.
• Spirit of Vengeance (E)
  • Cooldown increased from 10 to 13 seconds.
  • Damage increased from 100 to 180.
  • Adjusted functionality:
    • No longer deals bonus damage to Heroes.
    • Instead, if Spirit of Vengeance hits an enemy Hero, its cooldown is reduced by 4 seconds.

Talents

• Level 4
  • Blade Dance (Q)
    • Area of effect reduced from 4 to 3.5.

Developer Comment: The cooldown increase for Umbral Bind will grant the Warden’s enemies a bit more of a reprieve between cases of being chained. We are also shifting some of the complexity of Spirit of Vengeance into cooldown reduction upon hitting a Hero, rather than providing bonus Hero damage. This increases Maiev’s capability for wave-clear, rewards players that use the ability to engage, and reduces its usefulness as an escape. Overall, Maiev’s kit is still slightly over-performing, and we’re hoping these changes will get her into a sweet spot.

Lunara

Talents

• Level 4
  • Nature's Culling (Trait)
    • Bonus damage reduced from 150% to 125%.
• Level 7
  • Choking Pollen (Q)
    • Bonus damage against enemies who have 1 stack of Nature's Toxin increased from 50% to 75%.
    • Bonus damage against enemies who have 3 stacks of Nature's Toxin increased from 100% to 125%.

Developer Comment: Lunara’s rework has put her pick rate, win rate, and Talent pick rates in a pretty good spot. These changes are to address Talent outliers, which we’ll continue to keep an eye on going forward.

Multiclass

Varian

Stats

• Health increased from 1,924 to 2,116.
• Health Regeneration increased from 4.001 to 4.406.

Abilities

• Taunt (R)
  • Passive Armor bonus removed
  • Passive maximum Health bonus increased from 25% to 30%.

Specialist

Zagara

Abilities

• Creep Tumor (Trait)
  • Health reduced from 150 to 125.
  • Health scaling increased from 3% to 4% per level.
• Hunter Killer (W)
  • Health decreased from 471 to 420.
  • Health scaling increased from 3.5% to 4.5% per level.
  • Damage scaling increased from 4% to 5% per level.
  • Movement Speed increased by 4%.
• Infested Drop (E)
  • Impact damage scaling increased from 3% to 4% per level.
  • Roachling Health reduced from 346 to 328.
  • Roachling Health scaling increased from 3% to 4% per level.
  • Roachling Damage scaling increased from 3% to 4% per level.
• Devouring Maw (R)
  • Damage increased from 80 to 88.
• Nydus Network (R)
  • Health reduced from 664 to 550.
  • Health scaling increased from 3% to 4% per level.

Developer Comment: The Nexus has changed a lot since Zagara first arrived. Originally, she was the ultimate lane bully, known for pushing enemies out of lane with Hunter Killer and draining tower ammo with her summons. The arrival of new solo-laners who can challenge her power, combined with the removal of tower ammo, has made this part of her identity less special. The goals of these changes are twofold: first, to slightly reduce her early-game laning presence, largely by reducing the early-game Health of Hunter Killer. Our second goal is to buff her late-game teamfight capability, which we’re doing by improving the scaling on her abilities. Our general thinking is that she is mostly frustrating to lane against during the early game, and then she falls off in power and has less impact in teamfights, which results in allies relying on her to split-push instead of playing with her team. We’re hoping that with these changes she will be a more standard Hero in team compositions, and can be played as a solid backline damage dealer.

Talents

• Level 1
  • Corpse Feeders (E)
    • Damage reduction from non-Heroic sources increased from 40% to 50%.
• Level 16
  • Brood Expansion (W)
    • Cooldown reduction increased from 6 to 7 seconds.
    • Now also reduces Hunter Killer’s Mana cost by 30.
  • Corrosive Saliva (W)
    • Damage increased from 2% to 2.5% of the target Hero’s maximum Health.

Support

Auriel

Stats

• Health reduced from 1,758 to 1,700.
• Health regeneration reduced from 3.66 to 3.54.

Abilities

• Sacred Sweep (Q)
  • Outer area damage reduced from 57 to 45.
  • Inner area damage increased from 171 to 180.

Brightwing

Abilities

• Soothing Mist (Trait)
  • Heal amount increased from 109 to 112.
• Blink Heal (R)
  • Heal amount increased from 192 to 200.

Stukov

Abilities

• Bio-Kill Switch (Trait)
  • Amount Healed after detonating a Healing Pathogen increased from 435 to 450.
• Healing Pathogen (Q)
  • Healing per tick increased from 35 to 37.

Warrior

Anub'arak

Stats

• Base Spell Armor removed.
• Health increased from 1,925 to 2,100.
• Health Regeneration increased from 4.012 to 4.375.

Abilities

• Harden Carapace (W)
  • Mana cost reduced from 30 to 25.
  • Additional functionality:
    • Now also grants 40 Spell Armor while active.

Arthas

Stats

• Base Physical Armor removed.
• Health increased from 2,524 to 2,650.
• Health Regeneration increased from 5.258 to 5.52.

Talents

• Level 1
  • Rime (Passive)
    • Physical Armor bonus increased from 60 to 75.

Diablo

Stats

• Health increased from 2,567 to 2,618.
• Health Regeneration increased from 5.3515 to 5.4542.
• Basic Attack speed increased from 0.91 to 0.95.

Abilities

• Fire Stomp (W)
  • Healing increased from 125% to 130% of the damage dealt.

Talents

• Level 1
  • Feast on Fear (Q/E)
    • Healing per second increased from 3.75% to 4%.
    • Duration reduced from 4 to 3 seconds.
  • Devil's Due (Trait)
    • Regeneration Globe and Healing Fountain bonuses increased from 2% to 2.25% per Soul.
  • Soul Shield (Active)
    • Cooldown reduced from 60 to 45 seconds.
• Level 4
  • Sacrificial Soul (Q)
    • Armor increased from 15 to 20.
    • Armor granted after gathering 100 Souls increased from 30 to 40.
  • Souls to the Flame (W)
    • Healing increased from 1.25% to 1.3% per Soul.
• Level 13
  • Devastating Charge (Q)
    • Initial damage bonus reduced from 100% to 80%.
    • Quest damage bonus increased from 15% to 20% per stack.
    • Maximum quest damage bonus increased from 75% to 120%.

Developer Comment: Diablo is underperforming since his recent rework, so we’ve increased his baseline survivability. We expect him to rise as players settle into new builds and playstyles, but there was still room to buff the Lord of Terror. We’ve also addressed a few of the Talents that weren’t as strong as their counterparts. Additionally, we’ve reduced the duration of Feast on Fear, but increased its healing per tick, so Diablo players can get more value out of a few healing ticks before overriding it.

Garrosh

Abilities

• Groundbreaker (Q)
  • Cooldown increased from 7 to 8 seconds.
• Wrecking Ball (E)
  • Cooldown increased from 12 to 14 seconds.

Talents

• Level 16
  • Mortal Combo (Q)
    • Cooldown reduction increased from 7 to 9 seconds.

Johanna

Abilities

• Base Physical Armor removed.
• Health increased from 2,350 to 2,540.
• Health Regeneration increased from 4.895 to 5.289.

Talents

• Level 1
  • Reinforce (Passive)
    • Armor bonus increased from 50 to 75.

Bug Fixes

General

• Addressed an issue that could cause the game client to crash on startup.

Heroes, Abilities, and Talents

• Cassia: Fixed an issue causing Cassia’s Health Regeneration to be higher than intended.
• Diablo: Lightning Breath’s visual effects can no longer be right-clicked.
• Diablo: The visual effects that display within Diablo’s Hero ring after he has collected 100 Souls will no longer appear underneath Vehicles that Diablo is piloting, such as the Dragon Knight.
• D.Va: Fixed an issue in which Defense Matrix’s search area could become disjointed from the Ability’s visual effects.
• Lunara: Fixed an issue in which the Blossom Swell Talent granted more bonus area to Noxious Blossom than intended.
• Lunara: The Hippity Hop Talent no longer grants more Movement Speed to Dryad’s Swiftness than intended.
• Muradin: Placeholder art will no longer appear after casting Haymaker.

User Interface

• Brawl Screen: Event-themed Loot Chest models now correctly appear centered within the reward panel on the Brawl screen.

[Alkasar 55]

Armor is a cool mechanic. But I can see that it is a problem to properly show them on screen. The Armor Icon next to the Health Bars is supposed to show temporary Armors. Instead of having that display all the time for the basic Armor Heroes, I think it is better to change it into extra health.

[Sombra 28]

stukov buff ? wutt ?

[Haemir 4]

9 minutes ago, Sombra said:

stukov buff ? wutt ?

He's been under performing a fair bit since the nerfs he got, although he still seems to be the most popular support

[Aasgier 36]

The Stukov buff is pretty nonsensical indeed. Sure his winrate is lower than that of other supports but he has a very high pickrate still... Though it may not be a bad idea to buff his healing a bit (as this patch has done) and nerf his Silence pool instead on a future patch.

Edited June 6, 2018 by Aasgier

[lChronosl 182]

So that armor removal means I am to expect a Johanna chain mail bikini skin incoming?

[Aasgier 36]

14 minutes ago, lChronosl said:

So that armor removal means I am to expect a Johanna chain mail bikini skin incoming?

No, but we might get Arthas in a mankini.

[DimensionDerper 26]

1 hour ago, Aasgier said:

No, but we might get Arthas in a mankini.

But what about Anub'arak in a... um... beetlekini?

[ArusVicious 156]

6 hours ago, lChronosl said:

So that armor removal means I am to expect a Johanna chain mail bikini skin incoming?

If anything I wanna see a Kael'thas bikini skin

[ShadowerDerek 69]

Is Diablo really that weak that they have to buff every single Lv 1 talents? Like as if Devil's Due isn't OP enough.

[ArusVicious 156]

10 minutes ago, ShadowerDerek said:

Is Diablo really that weak that they have to buff every single Lv 1 talents? Like as if Devil's Due isn't OP enough.

It just felt weaker in general post rework than it did before. Plus he was lacking overall so they buffed him quite a bit.

[Aasgier 36]

A big problem with Dibbles is that people played him like the melee assassin he used to be in the past even past his nerfs. And he can no longer do that.

For those that played Dibbles like a tank, Dibbles probably only needed minor buffs around his survivability.

This being said, the Devil's Due buff is total nonsense and I don't really like the Devastating Charge buff either.

Edited June 7, 2018 by Aasgier

[VegaPl 88]

11 hours ago, DimensionDerper said:

But what about Anub'arak in a... um... beetlekini?

Wouldn't that just be called Beekini?

[Valhalen 1,484]

3 hours ago, Aasgier said:

A big problem with Dibbles is that people played him like the melee assassin he used to be in the past even past his nerfs. And he can no longer do that.

Yeah, I miss that so damn much. I'd rather Blizzard reworked him as a Melee Assassin instead. It was way more fun. He really felt like the "Lord of Terror" because he could kill you in a single rotation as long there were any walls nearby. Now he feels so bland and boring to play; just another Tank with self-sustain.

Edited June 7, 2018 by Valhalen

[Aasgier 36]

4 hours ago, Valhalen said:

Yeah, I miss that so damn much. I'd rather Blizzard reworked him as a Melee Assassin instead. It was way more fun. He really felt like the "Lord of Terror" because he could kill you in a single rotation as long there were any walls nearby. Now he feels so bland and boring to play; just another Tank with self-sustain.

Diablo would probably lose about half of his survivability in the process, so while he would do more damage than he does now, I think it'd be overall actually a much bigger nerf.

Let's face it, there are very few melee assassins that see actual play at higher levels of Hero League, let alone HGC.

Maiev, Samuro, Thrall (which has Poke Lightning) and Greymane (which also has a ranged attack)... then what?!

 

 

Edited June 7, 2018 by Aasgier

[Valhalen 1,484]

12 minutes ago, Aasgier said:

Diablo would probably lose about half of his survivability in the process, so while he would do more damage than he does now, I think it'd be overall actually a much bigger nerf.

Let's face it, there are very few melee assassins that see actual play at higher levels of Hero League, let alone HGC.

Maiev, Samuro, Thrall (which has Poke Lightning) and Greymane (which also has a ranged attack)... then what?!

I wouldn't mind them cutting Diablo's health in half while giving him those buffs for survivability he got in that rework. Would be fun to have that explosive high-risk, high-reward gameplay style that currently only The Butcher has.

A pro Alarak can do some nasty shit. Same as The Butcher (if he is a last pick). However, the problem with Melee Assassins is their squishness, which makes much safe to just play Ranged. They're still fun pubstompers, though.

Edited June 7, 2018 by Valhalen

[SteveFrost 97]

22 hours ago, lChronosl said:

So that armor removal means I am to expect a Johanna chain mail bikini skin incoming?

21 hours ago, Aasgier said:

No, but we might get Arthas in a mankini.

20 hours ago, DimensionDerper said:

But what about Anub'arak in a... um... beetlekini?

15 hours ago, Maxkitty said:

If anything I wanna see a Kael'thas bikini skin

8 hours ago, VegaPl said:

Wouldn't that just be called Beekini?

More like, make Jaina-kini, Nova-kini, Kerri-kini (you get the point) skins. A guy needs his eye candy, don't judge me.

1 hour ago, Aasgier said:

Let's face it, there are very few melee assassins that see actual play at higher levels of Hero League, let alone HGC.

Maiev, Samuro, Thrall (which has Poke Lightning) and Greymane (which also has a ranged attack)... then what?!

 

 

Zera can very much still still see play imho has the potential for flashy blow-ups and Mending Strikes makes you a sustain beast. Illi maybe too since he can take camps from rather early without needing to take talents specifically for that, tho he needs a lot of enabling (HGC is all about coordination ofc)

 

 

 

 

[Valhalen 1,484]

I just want this skin for Deckard Cain.

Edited June 7, 2018 by Valhalen

[ArusVicious 156]

2 hours ago, Valhalen said:

I just this skin for Deckard Cain.

That would be PRICELESS!

[SteveFrost 97]

13 hours ago, Valhalen said:

I just want this skin for Deckard Cain.

To be true to the source material, it should have an altered VO where he hits on every female he sees... literally 

[Aasgier 36]

35 minutes ago, SteveFrost said:

To be true to the source material, it should have an altered VO where he hits on every female he sees... literally 

Including Li Li and Zagara?

Also, make everybody refuse his request - while Azmodan asks him on a date instead.

14 hours ago, SteveFrost said:

More like, make Jaina-kini, Nova-kini, Kerri-kini (you get the point) skins. A guy needs his eye candy, don't judge me.

Yes, I understand.

But not every gamer is a straight male (or lesbian female). Personally, I don't really care about a half-naked skin that much unless for comedy value (which both Tychus and Stitches have, for different reasons) and Tracer is also an odd one out because her bikini skin is probably less sexualized than the playsuit she wears by default?

14 hours ago, SteveFrost said:

Zera can very much still still see play imho has the potential for flashy blow-ups and Mending Strikes makes you a sustain beast. Illi maybe too since he can take camps from rather early without needing to take talents specifically for that, tho he needs a lot of enabling (HGC is all about coordination ofc)

Fair enough. It's just that most of the Zerathul I see are complete and utter dogshit ?

[Valhalen 1,484]

3 hours ago, SteveFrost said:

To be true to the source material, it should have an altered VO where he hits on every female he sees... literally 

As well this dance:

3 hours ago, Aasgier said:

But not every gamer is a straight male (or lesbian female). Personally, I don't really care about a half-naked skin that much unless for comedy value (which both Tychus and Stitches have, for different reasons) and Tracer is also an odd one out because her bikini skin is probably less sexualized than the playsuit she wears by default

Kerrigan is already naked, so having her with a bikini is pretty much covering her scaly tits.

I agree with you. I don't think it IS necessary to have skins with sexy appeal just for the sake of it (like LoL does). LoL pretty much does that because their characters are uninteresting and bland on their own, so they need that extra fanservice.

Having sexy skins with a comedy value is much more interesting, like the ones you pointed out.

[Oxygen 446]

I've been a day one critic of armor (and most things!) being added to the game. This patch is an unexpected surprise.

Baseline armor adds a lot of hidden, passive, and hard-to-exploit power to heroes. Exceptions, such as Cassia, are fine (well, that's also up to debate, see above parenthesis), though that's niche and not entirely mindless.

[XeaKon 23]

I see that Blizzard is trying to make a lot of things skill based and situational. They removed baseline armor and incorporated into talents; reworked Diablo and Lunara by adding requirements to talents. They probably don't want general heroes anymore and are trying to rise the niche ones into the spotlight.

[Valhalen 1,484]

2 hours ago, Oxygen said:

I've been a day one critic of armor (and most things!) being added to the game. This patch is an unexpected surprise.

Baseline armor adds a lot of hidden, passive, and hard-to-exploit power to heroes. Exceptions, such as Cassia, are fine (well, that's also up to debate, see above parenthesis), though that's niche and not entirely mindless.

Cassia is a special case because her shield glows while she moves, which is a huge visual indicator, plus basic attacks done against her also have a different sound effect, which is additional cue. Her passive armor is the basis for her kit, so I don't think it adds a "hidden power", unlike passive armor for tanks just for the sake of it.

Edited June 8, 2018 by Valhalen