heroes Heroes of the Storm Patch Notes: Jul 25

[Stan 5,240]

Blizzard just released a new balance update. Check out the full patch notes!

Balance Update Highlights

• Hammer's Blunt Force Gun no longer deals damage to Structures.
• Hanzo's Sonic Arrow and Natural Agility were nerfed, but they increased his Basic Attack damage.
• Raynor's Level 1/4/7 talents received nerfs.
• Azmodan's Level 7/13 talents received new functionalities.
• Malfurion's Ice Block (Level 13 talent) removed. Nature's Swiftness was moved to Level 13. He now has a new Rejuvenation (Q) talent at Level 1:
  • Malfurion gains 5 Health per Second for every active Regrowth.
• Artanis received talent tweaks; the goal was to create different playstyles and synergies between his talents and give him more power in late game.

Check out the full patch notes for more details and developer comments.

Blizzard (Source)

HEROES

ASSASSIN

ALARAK

Stats

• Basic Attack damage increased from 140 to 150

FENIX

Stats

• Basic Attack damage reduced from 86 to 83

Talents

• Level 1
  • Arsenal Synergy (W)
    • Damage bonus reduced from 175 to 150%
  • Mobile Offense (Passive)
    • Damage bonus increased from 30 to 35%

Developer Comment: Fenix is still stronger than desired, especially when taking the Arsenal Synergy Talent.  We’re toning down his Basic Attack damage and the bonus that Arsenal Synergy provides, while also buffing Mobile Offense slightly to offset the reduced Basic Attack damage.

GENJI

Abilities

• Swift Strike (E)
  • Reset window reduced from 2 to 1.5 seconds
  • Damage reduced from 215 to 205

Talents

• Level 20
  • The Dragon Becomes Me (R)
    • Reset window reduced from 2 to 1.5 seconds

HANZO

Stats

• Basic Attack damage increased from 173 to 188

Abilities

• Sonic Arrow (E)
  • Reveal radius reduced from 10 to 7
  • Reveal duration reduced from 8 to 5 seconds
• Natural Agility (D)
  • Cooldown increased from 25 to 30 seconds

Talents

• Level 20
  • Perfect Agility (D)
    • Cooldown reduction increased from 5 to 10 seconds

Developer Comment: Hanzo, while extremely desired and powerful in professional play, doesn’t have the same success across all levels of Hero League.  We think that by reducing the power of Sonic Arrow and shifting that into Basic Attacks, not only will Redemption be a more attractive option, but Hanzo’s success should rise in Hero League without making him any more powerful in organized team play.

KAEL'THAS

Abilities

• Flamestrike (Q)
  • Damage increased from 320 to 345
• Living Bomb (W)
  • Explosion damage increased from 200 to 215

RAYNOR

Abilities

• Raynor's Raider (R)
  • Weapon damage reduced from 24 to 21

Talents

• Level 1
  • Ace In The Hole (Passive)
    • Damage reduced from 30 to 20%
• Level 4
  • Behemoth Armor (Trait)
    • Base Health gain reduced from 250 to 200
  • Fight or Flight (E)
    • Armor duration reduced from 4 to 3 seconds
• Level 7
  • Unstable Compound (Trait)
    • Slow duration reduced from 3 to 2.5 seconds

Developer Comment: Raynor’s pepper is bringing a bit too much salt 

TRACER

Stats

• Basic Attack damage reduced from 27 to 26

Abilities

• Quantum Spike (R)
  • Damage reduced from 8 to 7% of target’s Maximum Health

SPECIALIST

AZMODAN

Abilities

• Globe of Annihilation (Q)
  • Damage increased from 164 to 192
  • Damage scaling reduced from 4 to 3% 
• Summon Demon Warrior (W)
  • Attack damage increased from 28 to 30
  • Periodic damage increased from 6 to 8
  • Health increased from 390 to 435 
• All Shall Burn (E)
  • Cooldown reduced from 8 to 6 seconds
  • Mana cost increased from 30 to 40
  • Periodic damage reduced from 34 to 30
  • Final damage increased from 272 to 320 
• Demon Lieutenant (D)
  • Attack damage increased from 27 to 41
  • Health increased from 548 to 593 
• Demonic Invasion (R)
  • Duration increased from 8 to 10 seconds
  • Final explosion damage increased from 65 to 97.5
  • Demon Grunt weapon range increased from .75 to 1

Talents

• Level 1
  • Wrath (Q)
    • Bonus damage window reduced from 4 to 3 seconds 
• Level 4
  • Hellforged Armor (W/D)
    • Armor bonus reduced from 35 to 30 
  • Battleborn (W/D)
    • Demon Warrior cooldown reduction increased from .5 to .75 seconds
    • Demon Lieutenant cooldown reduction increased from 1 to 1.5 seconds
• Level 7
  • Art of Chaos (Q)
    • New Functionality:
      • Hitting 2 or more Heroes with Globe of Annihilation restores 30 mana and generates 4 Annihilation
• Level 13
  • Brutish Vanguard (W/D)
    • Added functionality:
      • Health bonus now applies to Demon Lieutenants in addition to Demon Warriors
  • Chain of Command (D)
    • Added functionality:
      • Also decreases the cooldown of Demon Lieutenants’ Demonic Smite by 2 seconds
• Level 16
  • Hell Rift (E)
    • Demon Warrior damage bonus duration increased from 4 to 6 seconds
• Level 20
  • Pride (Q)
    • Damage bonus increased from 100 to 125

Developer Comment: Azmodan's win rate has slowly crept up as players get the hang of his rework, but we feel his PvE inclined elements are less impactful then we'd like. We're making a number of small adjustments to Azmodan's various Demons and All Shall Burn to help ensure their talents are competitive choices. We're also giving Globe a bit more baseline damage at the cost of its scaling to make it slightly easier to stack early in the game.

MURKY

Talents

• Level 13
  • Fish Tank (Passive)
    • New functionality:
      • Murky is healed for 25% of all damage he deals with Basic Attacks and Basic Abilities

Developer Comment: We’re adjusting Fish Tank to not be so binary in the situations where it is powerful. While granting 75 Physical Armor was an appropriate amount of power against the other talents on the tier, it resulted in some situations where Murky could not be killed when playing against certain enemies. We’re changing the talent to be more generally useful so that Murky can get a lot of value as long as he is hitting enemies, but he can still be killed by more conventional methods.

SGT. HAMMER

Abilities

• Blunt Force Gun (R)
  • No longer deals damage to enemy Structures

Developer Comment: This change is to address situations where Orbital BFG could kill enemy Forts, Keeps, and potentially end the game with no counter-play from the opposing team. We realize that this is a minor nerf to Blunt Force Gun and a fairly hefty nerf to Orbital BFG. Both talents are performing well right now, so we will be waiting to see if they need a buff in some other area to compensate for this loss in functionality. 

SUPPORT

DECKARD

Abilities

• Healing Potion (Q)
  • Healing reduced from 230 to 219

Talents

• Level 13
  • Ancient Blessings (Trait)
    • Damage reduced from 72 to 68
    • Healing reduced from 106 to 100

MALFURION

Talents

• Level 1
  • New Talent: Rejuvenation (Q)
    • Malfurion gains 5 Health per Second for every active Regrowth
• Level 13
  • Ice Block (Active)
    • Removed
  • Nature's Swiftness (Q)
    • Moved from Level 1
    • Movement speed per Regrowth increased from 4 to 6%

WARRIOR

ARTANIS

Abilities

• Blade Dash (Q)
  • Mana cost decreased from 55 to 50

Talents

• Level 4
  • Psionic Synergy (E)
    • New functionality:
      • Hitting an enemy Hero with Phase Prism grants Artanis 15 Armor for 3 seconds
  • Shield Battery (Trait)
    • Cooldown reduction increased from 50 to 100%
• Level 13
  • Templar's Zeal (Q)
    • New functionality:
      • Reduce the Mana cost of Blade Dash by 50%.  Each time that Shield Overload activates, reduce the cooldown of Blade Dash by 5 seconds
  • Graviton Vortex (E)
    • New functionality:
      • Reduce the Mana cost of Phase Prism by 50%.  Hitting an enemy Hero with Basic Attacks or Blade Dash lowers the cooldown of Phase Prism by 1.25 seconds
  • Phase Bulwark (Trait)
    • Adjusted functionality:
      • While Artanis has shields from Shield Overload, gain 50 Spell Armor.  This Armor lasts for 2 seconds after Shield Overload expires
• Level 16
  • New Talent: Blades of a Templar (Passive)
    • Increase Basic Attack speed by 30%.  Basic Attacks slow enemy Movement Speed by 20% for 1.25 seconds
  • Psionic Wound (W)
    • Removed
  • Force of Will (Trait)
    • Moved from Level 20
    • New functionality:
      • Casting Basic Abilities reduces the cooldown of Shield Overload by 5 seconds
  • Titan Killer (W)
    • Adjusted functionality:
      • Basic Attacks against Heroes deal an additional .5% of their maximum Health in damage.  Twin Blades attacks against Heroes deal an additional 1.5% of their maximum Health as damage
• Level 20
  • Nexus Blades (Passive)
    • Removed
  • Target Purified (R)
    • Additional Functionality:
      • Now also increases the speed of Purifier Beam by 15%
  • Zealot Charge (W)
    • Moved from Level 16
  • Plasma Burn (Trait)
    • Moved from Level 16
    • Damage increased from 55 to 60

Developer Comment: We saw an opportunity to give Artanis some more competitive talents, particularly on his later tiers. Our goal with these changes was to create some different playstyles and synergies between his talents, and to give him a little more punch as the game goes on and the enemy team becomes more capable of locking him down.

BLAZE

Stats

• Hero radius increased from .875 to 1

Talents

• Level 1
  • Neural Stimpack (Active)
    • Now only reduces the cooldowns of Basic Abilities

CHO

Talents

• Level 16
  • Surging Dash (Q)
    • No longer grants Cho Unstoppable

DIABLO

Abilities

• Lightning Breath (R)
  • Slow amount per tick reduced from 5 to 4%
  • Maximum slow amount reduced from 50 to 40%

YREL

Abilities

• Ardent Defender (R)
  • Cooldown increased from 100 to 120 seconds

Talents

• Level 1
  • Maraad's Insight (Passive)
    • Healing reduced from 148 to 128

• Level 4
  • Hand of Freedom (Active)
    • Cooldown reduced from 30 to 22 seconds

• Level 7
  • Divine Steed (Z)
    • Movement Speed bonus reduced from 80 to 60%

• Level 16
  • Templar's Verdict (W)
    • Now also deals 4% of enemy Heroes Maximum Health as damage
  • Holy Wrath (Passive)
    • Damage bonus reduced from 30 to 20%

Developer Comment: Yrel has been very strong since her last balance update, and a few of her Talent tiers are dominated by a single Talent. By applying some nerfs to the overperforming Talents, we think that Yrel will be brought back in lane with other Heroes and have more diversity in her Talent choices.

BUG FIXES

General

• Fixed an issue allowing several effects to be seen at the edges of fog of war.
• AI – Fixed an issue causing player-following AI-controlled Heroes to use Hearthstone and long-distance movement abilities at inappropriate times.
• Fixed an issue preventing the antialiasing graphics setting from being enabled.

Heroes, Abilities, and Talents

• Alarak - Fixed an issue preventing the targeting indicator for Deadly Charge from appearing.
• Alarak – Fixed an issue that allowed Alarak to move while channeling Deadly Charge.
• Alexstrasza – Fixed an issue preventing Life-Binder from going on a full cooldown if interrupted during the channel time.
• Diablo – Fixed an issue causing Diablo’s Shadow Charge to not push stunned targets the full expected distance after choosing the Domination talent.
• Genji – Fixed a number of issues with interactions between the Dragonblade and Swift Strike reset duration bars.
• Medivh – Fixed an issue allowing Medivh to cast two sets of Portals after choosing the Portal Mastery talent.
• Raynor – Fixed an issue that could cause Raynor's Raider to become stuck outside of the map when navigating in and out of the mines on Haunted Mines.
• Raynor – Raynor's Raider will now hearth back to base with Raynor.
• Zagara – Zagara will now exit Nydus Worms in the direction of the player’s cursor.
• Zul’jin – Fixed a number of issues with the Amani Rage tooltip.

[DimensionDerper 26]

9 minutes ago, Stan said:

Developer Comment: Raynor’s pepper is bringing a bit too much salt 

Oh my lord.

[ArtVandelay 24]

Another tracer nerf?  OK...

I don't understand KT buff.  He has %50 win rate and is very popular (picked around %40 of time).  Why buff him?  And if so, why buff a non skill shot like living bomb?

 

[Primici 7]

Still no Chromie nerfs. Ok then.

[Jierark 2]

rip orbital bfg

 

[Kuarinofu 78]

So, removed Malf's Ice Block just like that? 

So, now we have like 2 viable healers? Alexstrasza and Stukov?

[Aasgier 36]

12 minutes ago, Kuarinofu said:

So, removed Malf's Ice Block just like that? 

So, now we have like 2 viable healers? Alexstrasza and Stukov?

If you call Alexstrasza and Stukov viable, I have surprising news for you...

At low MMR we are reaching the point that a zero support meta is the way to go as long as it doesn't tilt your team (though this nerf actually doesn't change that, because both Malf and Deckard are awful at low MMR).

[Migol 433]

Wait, people were taking BFG as an ult?   Did I miss something?

[Laragon 269]

20 minutes ago, Migol said:

Wait, people were taking BFG as an ult?   Did I miss something?

BFG is often the go to in HGC and competitive play. It's a huge wombo damage if you line it up with good CC like a dragon arrow or wardens cage. In HL, it's pretty terrible. This nerf does nothing to it's real use, but scraps the cheese.

[Morcalivan 86]

3 hours ago, Stan said:

 

Blizzard (Source)

SPECIALIST

AZMODAN

Abilities

• Globe of Annihilation (Q)
  • Damage increased from 164 to 192
  • Damage scaling reduced from 4 to 3% 
• Summon Demon Warrior (W)
  • Attack damage increased from 28 to 30
  • Periodic damage increased from 6 to 8
  • Health increased from 390 to 435 
• All Shall Burn (E)
  • Cooldown reduced from 8 to 6 seconds
  • Mana cost increased from 30 to 40
  • Periodic damage reduced from 34 to 30
  • Final damage increased from 272 to 320 
• Demon Lieutenant (D)
  • Attack damage increased from 27 to 41
  • Health increased from 548 to 593 
• Demonic Invasion (R)
  • Duration increased from 8 to 10 seconds
  • Final explosion damage increased from 65 to 97.5
  • Demon Grunt weapon range increased from .75 to 1

Talents

• Level 1
  • Wrath (Q)
    • Bonus damage window reduced from 4 to 3 seconds 
• Level 4
  • Hellforged Armor (W/D)
    • Armor bonus reduced from 35 to 30 
  • Battleborn (W/D)
    • Demon Warrior cooldown reduction increased from .5 to .75 seconds
    • Demon Lieutenant cooldown reduction increased from 1 to 1.5 seconds
• Level 7
  • Art of Chaos (Q)
    • New Functionality:
      • Hitting 2 or more Heroes with Globe of Annihilation restores 30 mana and generates 4 Annihilation
• Level 13
  • Brutish Vanguard (W/D)
    • Added functionality:
      • Health bonus now applies to Demon Lieutenants in addition to Demon Warriors
  • Chain of Command (D)
    • Added functionality:
      • Also decreases the cooldown of Demon Lieutenants’ Demonic Smite by 2 seconds
• Level 16
  • Hell Rift (E)
    • Demon Warrior damage bonus duration increased from 4 to 6 seconds
• Level 20
  • Pride (Q)
    • Damage bonus increased from 100 to 125

Developer Comment: Azmodan's win rate has slowly crept up as players get the hang of his rework, but we feel his PvE inclined elements are less impactful then we'd like. We're making a number of small adjustments to Azmodan's various Demons and All Shall Burn to help ensure their talents are competitive choices. We're also giving Globe a bit more baseline damage at the cost of its scaling to make it slightly easier to stack early in the game.

WARRIOR

ARTANIS

Abilities

• Blade Dash (Q)
  • Mana cost decreased from 55 to 50

Talents

• Level 4
  • Psionic Synergy (E)
    • New functionality:
      • Hitting an enemy Hero with Phase Prism grants Artanis 15 Armor for 3 seconds
  • Shield Battery (Trait)
    • Cooldown reduction increased from 50 to 100%
• Level 13
  • Templar's Zeal (Q)
    • New functionality:
      • Reduce the Mana cost of Blade Dash by 50%.  Each time that Shield Overload activates, reduce the cooldown of Blade Dash by 5 seconds
  • Graviton Vortex (E)
    • New functionality:
      • Reduce the Mana cost of Phase Prism by 50%.  Hitting an enemy Hero with Basic Attacks or Blade Dash lowers the cooldown of Phase Prism by 1.25 seconds
  • Phase Bulwark (Trait)
    • Adjusted functionality:
      • While Artanis has shields from Shield Overload, gain 50 Spell Armor.  This Armor lasts for 2 seconds after Shield Overload expires
• Level 16
  • New Talent: Blades of a Templar (Passive)
    • Increase Basic Attack speed by 30%.  Basic Attacks slow enemy Movement Speed by 20% for 1.25 seconds
  • Psionic Wound (W)
    • Removed
  • Force of Will (Trait)
    • Moved from Level 20
    • New functionality:
      • Casting Basic Abilities reduces the cooldown of Shield Overload by 5 seconds
  • Titan Killer (W)
    • Adjusted functionality:
      • Basic Attacks against Heroes deal an additional .5% of their maximum Health in damage.  Twin Blades attacks against Heroes deal an additional 1.5% of their maximum Health as damage
• Level 20
  • Nexus Blades (Passive)
    • Removed
  • Target Purified (R)
    • Additional Functionality:
      • Now also increases the speed of Purifier Beam by 15%
  • Zealot Charge (W)
    • Moved from Level 16
  • Plasma Burn (Trait)
    • Moved from Level 16
    • Damage increased from 55 to 60

Developer Comment: We saw an opportunity to give Artanis some more competitive talents, particularly on his later tiers. Our goal with these changes was to create some different playstyles and synergies between his talents, and to give him a little more punch as the game goes on and the enemy team becomes more capable of locking him down.

CHO

Talents

• Level 16
  • Surging Dash (Q)
    • No longer grants Cho Unstoppable

From Bottom to Top:

CHO

Just when I figured out how to do well with Cho his key tool got taken out. :p

Without that unstoppable I can't see him as I threat anymore. His attack speed buff + unstoppable + it's healing was a pretty easy and effective combo to use. Don't see him surviving even average players now.

ARTANIS

Wow. Scary updates. Phase Prism armour to survive swaps? Yes please! Faster shield recovery with Shield Battery, thank you!

Force of Will and Plasma Burn shuffle is very welcome and makes more sense. Can't do PB without the shield speed.

Purifier Beam at lvl 20 finally has a use now with a speed boost, that can be taken at the same time as the basic attack slow. That is just scary. Might not even need the Prism slow anymore and can use the new Graviton Vortex for Prism cooldowns.

Really liking the variety of combinations this opens up. From a funny shield build, to dashing, to prism and basic attack focus.

Good stuff!

Azmodan

A lot of the stuff here didn't actually need buffing, but a lot of it did slightly and was welcome.

Generally, there is a lot of base damage, health, and cooldown buffing in this update.

Art of Chaos got a huger buff for stacking. This makes Gluttony way more powerful since it does not need 3 to gain 5 stacks anymore.

2 Heroes is pretty easy to do, especially if you focus on the healer or the tank. There is usually someone nearby.

That means 10 stacks per Globe from a position of safety without the need for auto attacking like with Bombardment.

Master of Destruction still junk choice for lvl 7 unfortunately. That's the one that needed the buff.

Wrath is not really affected by the nerf. Wrath users use Bombardment which makes it pretty easy to auto attack in one or two seconds. By 3 seconds, Bombardment range increase ends, as does it's triple auto attack. So, Wrath can go to 2 seconds and still be unaffacted after level 7 since they are both Globe triggered. In fact, the Wrath trigger lasts longer due to starting after the hit, not the throw.

Pride even more useful, not that it wasn't the favourite already. Not sure why they have other choices other than Trample.

All Shall Burn is faster to reuse and now more rewarding to finish channel. Yay!

Demons all got buffed, directly and through talents in almost every way. But Demonic Invasion still not going to compete.

Battleborn and Brutish Vanguard, while buffed for Warriors and Lieutenant still don't touch Demonic Invasion.

The rediculous cooldown still untouched.

So, a better Azmodan in most areas. Play him while you can before they realize they just f'd up and need to nerf him!

When you're not playing Artanis.

[gerbercage 15]

8 hours ago, Primici said:

Still no Chromie nerfs. Ok then.

You want what chromie nerfs? reduce range? reduce dmg? immobile? root herself for 2 sec after casting?

 

[ShadowerDerek 69]

I don't like the way they balance the support.

It's not like Deckard and Malfurion are OP or something, it's just that the other supports all have their own problems to be viable at all.

Alexstraza: she's very map dependant - really good on objective-fights oriented maps like Infernal Shrine and Volskaya Foundry, but bad on skirmish oriented maps like Braxis Holdout and Tomb of the Spider Queen. 

Stukov: his heroics are relatively weak.

Ana: same problems as ever.

Auriel: relies on having a high sustain damage dealer to constantly fill up her energy bar to have the similar level of sustain healing as other supports.

Kharazim: only good on offensive team comps; Transcendent and Insight are still meme builds; weak against poke damage.

Li Li: her healing mechanics can be outplayed by good opponents; also offers too little utility besides a blind.

Morales: very vulnerable to mobile divers who can pass through her frontline to reach her.

Lucio: extremely low healing output pre-16.

Brightwing: healing is way too low and slow to deal with any kind of burst damage.

Uther: get absolutely bullied by any kind of poke and sustain damage.

All these supports have their own issues to prevent them from picked first, or just being versatile in general. Nerfing popular supports will NOT fix these issues, and will result in people not wanting to play supports at all. Heck, even solo Abathur 'support' comp are seeing plays in HGC.

People are worrying that buffing supports will bring back double support meta. HELL NO. Unless Blizzard revert those 5% overall stats nerf for all supports, double support meta won't have ANY chance to come back, especially when there're a lot of 'meta' assassins that doesn't fit into double support comps at all, most notably Genji, Maiev, Jaina, Junkrat and Tychus. You won't replace those assassins with an under-stated support. 

[gamerk2 20]

25 minutes ago, ShadowerDerek said:

I don't like the way they balance the support.

It's not like Deckard and Malfurion are OP or something, it's just that the other supports all have their own problems to be viable at all.

Alexstraza: she's very map dependant - really good on objective-fights oriented maps like Infernal Shrine and Volskaya Foundry, but bad on skirmish oriented maps like Braxis Holdout and Tomb of the Spider Queen. 

Stukov: his heroics are relatively weak.

Ana: same problems as ever.

Auriel: relies on having a high sustain damage dealer to constantly fill up her energy bar to have the similar level of sustain healing as other supports.

Kharazim: only good on offensive team comps; Transcendent and Insight are still meme builds; weak against poke damage.

Li Li: her healing mechanics can be outplayed by good opponents; also offers too little utility besides a blind.

Morales: very vulnerable to mobile divers who can pass through her frontline to reach her.

Lucio: extremely low healing output pre-16.

Brightwing: healing is way too low and slow to deal with any kind of burst damage.

Uther: get absolutely bullied by any kind of poke and sustain damage.

All these supports have their own issues to prevent them from picked first, or just being versatile in general. Nerfing popular supports will NOT fix these issues, and will result in people not wanting to play supports at all. Heck, even solo Abathur 'support' comp are seeing plays in HGC.

People are worrying that buffing supports will bring back double support meta. HELL NO. Unless Blizzard revert those 5% overall stats nerf for all supports, double support meta won't have ANY chance to come back, especially when there're a lot of 'meta' assassins that doesn't fit into double support comps at all, most notably Genji, Maiev, Jaina, Junkrat and Tychus. You won't replace those assassins with an under-stated support. 

I'll go a step farther: Supports are getting so weak compared to both the burst and sustain out there, while Tanks are getting enough self-sustain, where I can see cases where the optimal lineup is two tanks, a bruiser, and two assassins.

I understand the issue here: Tanks are getting so good at surviving to start with where it's forcing nerfs to supports in order to let teams actually kill them.

The real fix here is that Blizzards needs to start removing all forms of self-sustain except for maybe a handful of use cases (Blaze is a good example of a "good" use case; ETC by contrast is the exact opposite).

I feel there's a lot of long-term balance problems that are starting to pop up.

[gamerk2 20]

7 hours ago, Migol said:

Wait, people were taking BFG as an ult?   Did I miss something?

It's a very strong combo attack, and good for hitting targets retreating.  Combine that with the level 20, and you can have hammer just nuke down Keeps over time by herself.  This is and always has been stupid.

That being said, I dislike skills that don't hit structures at all.  I think the real solution was to heavily nerf Orbital BFG, not remove the structure damage entirely.

 

As for some of the changes, is there a major reason for Artanis's mana reduction picks at 13?  Late game, it's not like Artanis is struggling for mana.

Edited July 26, 2018 by gamerk2

[MrPumpson 4]

2 hours ago, gamerk2 said:

"...is there a major reason for Artanis's mana reduction picks at 13?  Late game, it's not like Artanis is struggling for mana.

I just played a bunch of games with him and tried an AA build and a blade dash build. Either way, you can go through your mana FAST even at lvl 20.

For the Blade dash build, once you hit lvl16, your shields recharge 100% faster while up, each basic ability you use reduces shield CD by 5 seconds, and each time your shield activates, you get 5 seconds off Blade dash. You end up blade dashing CONSTANTLY. 

Likewise with the AA build, get a swap with chrono surge at lvl 7, graviton vortex at 13 and Blades of a Templar at 16, you're attacking so 'effing fast, your Phase Prism is off CD veeery fast, so you're flyin' all over the damn place and burning through your mana like crazy. Obviously, it doesn't always work out perfectly in a game, but in Try Mode, I was dominating Thrall 1v1.

Honestly, without the reduction, he'd be unplayable with how much he can spam abilities.


 

Edited July 26, 2018 by MrPumpson

[Aasgier 36]

2 hours ago, gamerk2 said:

I'll go a step farther: Supports are getting so weak compared to both the burst and sustain out there, while Tanks are getting enough self-sustain, where I can see cases where the optimal lineup is two tanks, a bruiser, and two assassins.

I understand the issue here: Tanks are getting so good at surviving to start with where it's forcing nerfs to supports in order to let teams actually kill them.

The real fix here is that Blizzards needs to start removing all forms of self-sustain except for maybe a handful of use cases (Blaze is a good example of a "good" use case; ETC by contrast is the exact opposite).

I feel there's a lot of long-term balance problems that are starting to pop up.

Actually, I think E.T.C. is fine as well considering he is much more 'fragile' than other main tanks and easy to burst down, though a cooldown increase on the ability would not hurt. Johanna's Laws of Hope however heal just as much at level 1 as Muradin's Stoneform heals at level 16 (!) and talking about Muradin, he has a rather ridiculous trait... Unlike E.T.C., neither need a support to function.

Garrosh and Dibbles both have too much sustain too - I find Garrosh' sustain far more aggrevating than E.T.C.s and Dibbles has some ridiculous level 1 talents if it comes to self-sustain.

That does not mean there are no other examples of self-sustain that I like: For example; how it's handled with Leoric.

 

Edited July 26, 2018 by Aasgier

[SteveFrost 97]

Ma boi Fenix keeps getting hammered... Tho, they don't seem like a huge hit and I actually like them cause perhaps there isn't one level 1 talent choice that overshadowes all the others now and there was compensation.

I saw them Jimmy nerfs coming. I think they should move Ace In The Hole further down tier instead of directly "nerfing" it cause I don't think this is gonna change anything (drafting in abundance of slows + Jimmy). They could do some small buffs to the underused talents too (never pick Behemoth Armor, couldn't care less). 

Tracer's gonna be the new Tyrael apparently; keep getting butchered by nerfs (both by numbers and by removing good talents) until she'll be screaming "REWORK ME YOU EEDJITS!" (it's not like she has many talent options anyways).

I was saying Artanis needed some thorough makeover cause he was lacking pretty much everywhere, this... could be a start. Still gonna ask in those AMAs.

Cho nerf? w0t??

[ArtVandelay 24]

I agree they need to buff the healing of Uther, BW type supports instead of nerfing the viable ones.  They have good utility but their healing output is simply too low to deal with burst heroes.  Instead, they buff KT because he is on the lower end of mages.  So we just improve burst damage and nerf viable supports.

This feels like the NFL, where all they care about is offense.