heroes Heroes of the Storm Balance Update: October 10th

[Stan 5,240]

A new balance patch will hit live servers this week with nerfs to Kerrigan's survivability and changes to Junkrat's Concussion Mine.

The patch is now available for testing on PTR, and will be released as a separate patch later this week. PTR patch notes can be found here.

Blizzard (Source)

We're about to release a new Heroes of the Storm patch to apply a number of balance changes and bug fixes. Read on for details.

NOTE: These changes are already playable on the PTR, and will be released as a separate balance patch later this week.

Heroes

Assassin

Cassia

Abilities

• Lightning Fury (Q)
  • Damage scaling reduced from 4.5% per level to 4% per level

Talents

• Level 7
  • Surge of Light (Trait)
    • Damage reduced from 225 to 210

Return

Junkrat

Stats

• Basic Attack damage increased from 110 to 116

Abilities

• Concussion Mine (W)
  • Now shows its area of effect to enemies upon being launched
  • Range increased from 10 to 10.5

Developer Comment: While we like the awesome plays that Junkrat can make by throwing enemies into his team with Concussion Mine, the ability is fairly hard to see coming for opponents for how powerful it is.  To help this, we are showing enemies its area of effect the moment that Junkrat throws the mine so that they have a better chance to reposition themselves before being blown up.  To compensate Junkrat, we are slightly increasing its range and giving him more Basic Attack damage, which should help both his waveclear and teamfight capabilities.

Kerrigan

Stats

• Health increased from 1680 to 1764
• Health Regeneration increased from 3.5 to 3.675

 

Abilities

• Assimilation (Trait)
  • Shield amount reduced from 15% to 10% of damage dealt

Talents

• Level 1
  • Fury of the Swarm (Passive)
    • Number of splash attacks after casting Ravage reduced from 2 to 1
• Level 4
  • Kinetic Fulmination (W)
    • Damage bonus decreased from 15% to 10% per stack
    • Maximum damage bonus decreased from 150% to 100%
• Level 7
  • Queen of Blades (Q)
    • Cooldown reduction increased from 4 to 6 second per enemy hit by Primal Grasp
    • Maximum damage bonus decreased from 150% to 100%
• Level 13
  • Volatile Power (Trait)
    • Bonus shields reduced from 15% to 10%
• Level 16
  • Painful Spikes (W)
    • Damage reduced from 75 to 70
• Level 20
  • Omegastorm (R1)
  • Bonus duration per tick increased from .125 to .1875

Developer Comment: Kerrigan has one build that is particularly powerful at the moment, and these changes aim to bring her back in line with the rest of the cast.  We’ve also made a change to her baseline Assimilation to revert it to it’s previous levels, as her overall survivability is a little higher than desired from a melee assassin.

Mephisto

Abilities

• Durance of Hate (R)
  • Cooldown reduced from 80 to 60 seconds

Talents

• Level 1
  • Malicious Intent (Q)
    • Spell Power reduced from 20% to 15%
• Level 4
  • Hateful Mending (Q)
    • Healing increased from 50% to 60%
  • Static Barrier (W)
    • Shield duration reduced from 7 to 5 seconds
  • Spite (Trait)
    • Bonus globe duration increased from 60% to 100%

Specialist

Azmodan

Abilities

• Globe of Annihilation (Q)
  • Damage decreased from 192 to 184

Talents

• Level 7
  • Master of Destruction (E)
    • Annihilation granted for hitting a Hero increased from 2 to 3

Medivh

Abilities

• Force of Will (W)
  • Cooldown increased from 8 to 9 seconds

Talents

• Level 4
  • Mage Armor (E)
    • Armor amount increased from 25 to 30
• Level 7
  • Force of Magic (W)
    • Spell Power bonus increased from 25% to 30%
• Level 13
  • Enduring Will (W)
    • Set cooldown of Force of Will increased from 3 seconds to 4 seconds

Support

Brightwing

Abilities

• Soothing Mist (Trait)
  • Healing amount increased from 100 to 105
  • Cooldown reduced from 120 to 100 seconds
• Level 7
  • Critical Mist (Trait)
    • Healing amount increased from 200 to 250

Li Li

Stats

• Health increased from 1475 to 1534
• Health Regeneration increased from 3.07 to 3.1953

Abilities

• Cloud Serpent (W)
  • Cooldown reduced from 12 seconds to 10 seconds
• Jug of 1,000 Cups (R)
  • Healing per Jug reduced from 70 to 66

Lt. Morales

Stats

• Health increased from 1472 to 1545
• Health Regeneration increased from 3.07 to 3.2187

Abilities

• Safeguard (W)
  • Cooldown reduced from 12 to 10 seconds
  • Armor increased from 25 to 30
• Displacement Grenade (E)
  • Damage increased from 198 to 208

Talents

• Level 7
  • Physical Therapy (W)
    • Cooldown reduction increased from 4 to 5 seconds
  • Vanadium Plating (W)
    • Armor bonus now also applies to Root effects
• Level 13
  • EMP Grenade (E)
    • Total damage over 2 seconds increased from 80 to 100

Stukov

Talents

Level 13

• It Hungers (E)
  • Required Heroes hit reduced from 15 to 12 

Tyrande

Abilities

• Shadowstalk (R)
  • Cooldown from 80 to 90 seconds

Talents

• Level 1
  • Kaldorei Resistance (Q)
    • Spell Armor from 15 to 10
• Level 4
  • Lunar Blaze (E)
    • Bonus range from reduced 40% to 30%
• Level 10
  • Shadowstalk
    • Cooldown increased from 80 to 90 seconds
• Level 13
  • Quickening Blessing (Q)
    • Movement Speed granted to Tyrande reduced from 10 to 5%

Whitemane

Stats

• Health reduced from 1434 to 1400
• Health regen from 2.99 to 2.92

Abilities

• Inquisition (W)
  • Damage reduced from 53 to 50
• Searing Lash (E)
  • Damage reduced from 82 to 78

Warrior

Diablo

Abilities

• Lightning Breath (R)
  • Cooldown increased from 70 to 90 seconds

Talents

• Level 7
  • Diabolical Momentum (Passive)
    • Cooldown reduction increased from .75 to 1 second per Basic Attack

Rexxar

Talents

• Level 4
  • Grizzled Fortitude (Passive)
    • Cooldown reduced from 7 to 6 seconds
• Level 7
  • Crippling Talons (Q)
    • Slow duration increased from 3 to 3.5 seconds

Yrel

Talents

• Level 4
  • Aegis of Light (E)
    • Armor reduced from 35 to 25
    • Duration reduced from 5 to 4 seconds

Bug Fixes

General

• Fixed a crash that could effect Murky.
• We've improved authentication when launching the game through the Blizzard App.

Heroes

• [Brightwing]: Fixed an issue where Phase Shift (Z) could be cast on vehicles (such as the Dragon Knight).
• [D.Va]: Fixed a UI issue with D.Va's Self-Destruct where it expanded beyond the button's frame.
• [Tracer]: Fixed a UI issue with Tracer's Pulse Bomb where it expanded beyond the button's frame..

[Lampanelli 75]

As someone who plays Whitemane and Mephisto a lot,  I was afraid they'd get ruined in these patch notes, but it's surprisingly fair, actually.

Whitemane loses a sliver of her damage potential, hut her CC talent and stuff remains intact, so she's still perfectly fine, just a little easier to kill if she gets reckless.

And Mephisto... I think he is overall buffed actually. Endurance now have half the CD of his other heroic, which may make it highly desired against teams with less mobility, and the duration nerf to Static Barrier is fair. It could be a little too much. I still think it's gonna be the best talent, but just a little more in line.

[pupperito 0]

R.I.P Tyrande, she was already fucked by the patch before, also diablos level 7 talent buffed?? Do they even play this game?

Edited October 9, 2018 by pupperito

[shanghaied 55]

I think Tyrande is still alright after this.  Slight spell power reduction on lvl 1 talent and shadowstalk nerf wont cripple her.  The lunar blaze range nerf hurts the worst of those nerfs IMO, the range on that thing made securing kills really easy.