Heroes of the Storm Balance Patch Notes – August 23, 2017
We just released a new patch for Heroes of the Storm in order to apply balance changes and a few bug fixes.
Heroes
| Assassin | Specialist | Support | Warrior |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alarak | Xul | Auriel | Chen |
| Illidan | Zagara | Lúcio | Garrosh |
| Kerrigan | Tassadar | ||
| Thrall | Tyrande | ||
| The Butcher | Uther | ||
| Zul'jin |
Assassin
Alarak
Talents
- Level 4
- Negatively Charged (E)
- Damage bonus increased from 3 to 5%
- Negatively Charged (E)
- Level 13
- Blade of the Highlord (Passive)
- Bonus Sadism increased from 6 to 7%. Cap increased from 30 to 35%
- Blade of the Highlord (Passive)
Illidan
Abilities
- The Hunt (R)
- Cooldown increased from 60 to 100 seconds
Developer Comment: With his built-in cooldown reduction from Betrayer’s Thirst, we wanted to give his enemies a bit more time to prepare – I’ll bet he didn’t see that coming.
Kerrigan
Abilities
- Ravage (Q)
- Damage reduced from 228 to 210
- Impaling Blades (W)
- Damage increased from 251 to 261
- Primal Grasp (E)
- Damage increased from 110 to 114
Talents
- Level 1
- Energizing Grasp (E)
- Removed
- Energizing Grasp (E)
- Level 7
- Adaptation (Q)
- Removed
- Adaptation (Q)
Developer Comment: Kerrigan’s win-rate has been at a steady 1-2% climb each patch for the last few months. While she is not demanding picks or bans at the moment, as of last week she was sitting on top of the Nexus. After closely analyzing her numbers, there was nothing standing out as a major reason for her climb upwards. So instead of doing anything massive, we felt it best to do a slight damage redistribution. Moving a small percentage of her Ravage damage into her other abilities will help with some talent pick/win rate issues while also bolstering her skill-shot abilities.
The Butcher
Stats
- Basic Attack damage reduced from 130 to 125
Abilities
- Fresh Meat (Trait)
- Meat from Hero kills reduced from 25 to 20
- Meat lost on death increased from 10 to 15
Talents
- Level 7
- Insatiable Blade (W)
- Adjusted functionality:
- Removed the bonus healing
- Increased movement speed bonus from 20 to 25%
- Adjusted functionality:
- Victuals (Passive)
- Heal increased from 4 to 5% per minion death
- Insatiable Blade (W)
- Level 16
- Crippling Slam (Q)
- Bonus duration increased from 25 to 30%
- Enraged (Passive)
- Armor bonus reduced from 25 to 15
- Crippling Slam (Q)
Developer Comment: From inception, The Butcher has had a long healthy life amongst the top 5 win-rate Heroes in the game. Previously this was primarily isolated to Quick Match and his overall play-rate wasn’t high enough for us to have any major concerns. After the newest round of changes, he has stayed true to his name in Quick Match and is beginning to pick up steam in Ranked play. We agreed with the massive amounts of feedback that it felt odd that a Butcher could so willingly trade his life for an enemy kill to progress his quest. These changes to his Meat gain/loss should help bring these situations more in-line, while the talent changes were directed fully at bringing over and under-tuned talents closer to the power level expected at the respective tiers.
Thrall
Abilities
- Chain Lightning (Q)
- Mana cost reduced from 45 to 40
Talents
- Level 1
- Crash Lightning (Q)
- Damage per stack increased from 10 to 12
- Rolling Thunder (Q)
- Mana return per attack increased from 12 to 15
- Crash Lightning (Q)
- Level 4
- Mana Tide (Trait)
- Mana return reduced from 20 to 15
- Mana Tide (Trait)
- Level 16
- Thunderstorm (Q)
- Added functionality:
- Damage from final quest reward now also applies to Chain Lightning bounces
- Added functionality:
- Thunderstorm (Q)
Zul'jin
Talents
- Level 1
- Boneslicer (Q)
- Bonus damage increased from 20 to 30%
- Boneslicer (Q)
Specialist
Xul
Abilities
- Raise Skeleton (Trait)
- Skeleton health reduced from 270 to 240
- Skeletal Mages (R)
- Cooldown increased from 70 to 90 seconds
Talents
- Level 7
- Trag’Oul’s Essence (Trait)
- Healing reduced from 1% to .5% per Skeleton Basic Attack
- Mana return increased from .4% to .5% per Skeleton Basic Attack
- Trag’Oul’s Essence (Trait)
- Level 13
- Echoes of Death (Q)
- Damage reduced from 70 to 60% of Spectral Scythe’s damage
- Echoes of Death (Q)
Zagara
Talents
- Level 16
- Mutalisk (W)
- Duration reduced from 45 to 30 seconds
- Mutalisk (W)
Support
Auriel
Abilities
- Bestow Hope (D)
- Hope generation ratio from hitting Heroes increased from 40 to 50%
- Sacred Sweep (Q)
- Outer damage reduced from 80 to 60
- Center damage increased from 160 to 180
- Detainment Strike (E)
- Initial damage reduced from 115 to 58
- Stun damage increased from 115 to 174
- Resurrect (R)
- Cooldown reduced from 120 to 100 seconds
Talents
- Level 7
- Bursting Light (W)
- Removed
- Bursting Light (W)
Developer Comment: These changes are designed to reduce the reliance that Auriel has upon a hyper-carry style character to be an effective healer. By increasing the amount of Hope that she can generate but removing Bursting Light and its ability to reduce the cooldown of Ray of Heaven, Auriel will have more consistent healing output regardless of who is currently Bestowing Hope. We’re also reducing the damage that Auriel does on average by gating it behind getting the most of her Basic Abilities. By reducing the synergy that Auriel has with a single massive source of damage and reducing her damage output, we hope to make her less common in double support team compositions.
Lúcio
Stats
- Base Maximum Health increased from 1380 to 1518
- Health Regen increased from 2.86 to 3.16
Tassadar
Stats
- Basic Attack Damage reduced from 15 to 14
- Based Maximum Health reduced from 1426 to 1355
- Health regen reduced from 2.97 to 2.8
Talents
- Level 1
- Khaydarin Resonance (Passive)
- Bonus Mana from Regen Globes increased from 50 to 100%
- Khaydarin Resonance (Passive)
Tyrande
Talents
- Level 4
- Celestial Attunement (Q)
- Added functionality:
- Also removes Silences
- Added functionality:
- Kaldorei Resistance
- Max Spell Armor stacks reduced from 4 to 3
- Celestial Attunement (Q)
- Level 13
- Empower (W)
- Added functionality:
- Also lowers the base cooldown of Sentinel by 4 seconds
- Added functionality:
- Harsh Moonlight (W)
- Slow amount reduced from 30 to 25%
- Damage reduction amount from 30 to 25%
- Empower (W)
Uther
Abilities
- Eternal Vanguard (Trait)
- Armor for healing allies with Basic Abilites reduced from 25 to 15
- Holy Light (Q)
- Healing increased from 360 to 380
- Self-healing increased from 180 to 190
- Holy Radiance (W)
- Healing and damage increased from 160 to 185
Talents
- Level 1
- Wave of Light (W)
- Bonus duration to Armor buff on Quest Completion reduced from 1 to .5 seconds
- Mana return reduced from 8 to 5 per Hero hit
- Wave of Light (W)
- Level 4
- Holy Fire (Passive)
- Damage reduced from 16 to 14 per second
- Holy Fire (Passive)
Developer Comment: We’ve found that by increasing the niche of Uther, players could easily build teams with 2 Supports that were incredibly difficult to counter, thereby creating a slow gameplay trend that could be frustrating to play against. We think it’s great to see double support every once in a while, but Uther enabled it too well when paired with almost any other healer. By reducing the Armor he grants via his Trait and getting a little more healing throughput, Uther should feel slightly more well-rounded.
Warriors
Chen
Stats
- Base Maximum Health reduced from 2550 to 2473
- Health regeneration reduced from 5.31 to 5.15
Talents
- Level 7
- Refreshing Elixir (Passive)
- Removed
- Purifying Brew (Passive)
- Moved from Level 20
- Cooldown increased from 10 to 45 seconds
- Refreshing Elixir (Passive)
- Level 16
- Flying Leap (Q)
- Bonus range reduced from 20 to 15%
- Flying Leap (Q)
Garrosh
Abilities
- Warlord's Challenge (R)
- Taunt duration increased from 1.5 to 2 seconds
Talents
- Level 1
- Unrivaled Strength (E)
- Increased throw range from 20 to 25%, and bonus damage from 100 to 125%
- Unrivaled Strength (E)
- Level 4
- In for the Kill (W)
- Increased bonus damage from 60 to 70%
- In for the Kill (W)
- Level 7
- Into the Fray (Active)
- No longer costs Mana
- Into the Fray (Active)
Bug Fixes
Heroes, Abilities, and Talents
- Auriel: Resurrecting Uther before Eternal Vanguard expires will no longer prevent him from respawning.
- Cassia: Casting Fend on a target who is near a wall will no longer cause her to path in unintended directions before the Ability fires.
- Genji: Fixed an issue that prevented Fort attacks from slowing Genji’s Movement and Attack Speeds if he had Dodge stacks remaining.
- Kharazim: Fixed an issue that could cause Kharazim to dash to unexpected locations after casting Radiant Dash.
- Tassadar: Fixed an issue causing some Attack Speed modifier effects, such as Xul’s Cursed Strikes, to persist indefinitely if the effect expired during Dimensional Shift.
- Xul: Waiting 4 or more seconds to attack after activating Cursed Strikes will no longer cause the Ability’s visual effects to out of sync with Xul’s attack animations
- Tychus: In the Rhythm Talent will now correctly display quest progress on the in-game Score Screen’s Talents tab.
User Interface
- Emojis: Sending an “Embarrased” Emoji (:oops:) as Garrosh, or while he is selected for play, will now correctly display the Garrosh Embarrased Emoji if the player owns the corresponding Emoji pack.
