heroes Heroes 2.0 Open Beta Patch Notes: Apr 17

[Stan 5,244]

Genji and Hanamura are now live on Heroes 2.0 PTR. The newest patch contains many Hero changes and the long-awaited Uther rework.

We've previewed both Genji and the Hanumara Battleground in detail here. Don't forget that Heroes 2.0 goes live on April 25! Below are full patch notes.

Blizzard (Source)

Our latest update for the Heroes of the Storm 2.0 Open Beta brings a new Hero and Battleground, as well as a host of balance changes and bug fixes, to the Nexus!

New Hero: Genji

Once the carefree youngest scion of the Shimada clan, Genji was cut down by his own brother for refusing to take part in their illegal ventures. Grafted into a cyborg body by Overwatch, Genji walks his own path as one who fights for what’s right.

Trait

• Cyber Agility (D)
  • Activate to jump to the target area.

Basic Abilities

• Shuriken (Q)
  • Throw 3 Shuriken in a spread pattern, each damaging the first enemy it hits.
  • Stores up to 3 charges. Shuriken’s cooldown replenishes all charges at the same time.
• Deflect (W)
  • Become Protected for 1.25 seconds. Any damage blocked during this period causes Genji to throw a Kunai toward the nearest enemy, prioritizing Heroes and dealing damage.
• Swift Strike (E)
  • Dash forward, dealing damage to all enemies in a line. Enemy Heroes who die within 2 seconds after being hit by Swift Strike cause the cooldown and Mana cost to be refunded.

Heroic Abilities

• Dragonblade (R)
  • Unleash the Dragonblade for 8 seconds. While active, Dragonblade can be reactivated to lunge forward and slash in a huge arc. If any enemy Heroes are killed within 2 seconds after being hit by Dragonblade, Swift Strike’s cooldown is reset.
• X-Strike (R)
  • Perform 2 perpendicular slashes that deal damage and ignite after 1.25 seconds, dealing additional damage to enemies in their area of effect.

New Battleground: Hanamura

Objectives

• Protected Cores
  • Both Cores are protected by a barrier that cannot be attacked by Heroes.
  • Payloads must be escorted across the Battleground in order to deal damage to the enemy Core.
• Escort Payloads
  • The first set of Payloads spawn for each team after 2:30 into the match, and additional waves will periodically spawn throughout the rest of the game.
  • Stand near an allied payload to escort it. The more allies who are present to escort a payload, the faster it will move. This effect caps at 3 nearby allies.
  • Payloads that haven’t been escorted for a period of time will begin to slowly move backward.
• Empowered Payloads
  • Destroying enemy Forts will cause the next allied Payload to deal additional damage when it arrives at its destination.
  • Destroying enemy Keeps will cause Sappers to spawn with allied Minion waves, which will fire on the Core upon reaching the end of their lanes.
  • Deal a total of 7 damage the opposing Core to claim victory!

Mercenary Camps

• Three types of Mercenary Camps exist on Hanamura, and captured Mercenaries will not travel down a lane to attack enemies.
  • Instead, captured Mercenary Camps will each award one of three consumable power-ups.
  • Right-click a power-up to collect it, and then use the “Map Mechanic Ability” hotkey (Default: F) to activate it.
• Recon Camp
  • Reward: Dragon Spirits
    • Release 3 Dragon Spirits that seek out enemy Heroes, who are then revealed for 5 seconds. Dragon Spirits are destroyed after finding enemy Heroes or after 10 seconds.
• Fortification Camp
  • Reward: Turret
    • Place a Turret on the ground or on your team’s payload.
• Support Camp
  • Reward: Healing Pulse
    • Restore 35% Health and 23% Mana to you and your allies over 15 seconds.
• Mega Enforcer
  • Defeat the Mega Enforcer found at the center of Hanamura to fire 1 shot on the opposing Core.

Art

General

• Visual effects that indicate Movement Speed bonuses have received updates.
• Sprays have received additional polish that should help them feel more integrated with battleground environments.

Heroes, Abilities, and Talents

• Tassadar: Nullification (Talent) has received updated visual effects.

Collection

Open Beta Note

• As a reminder, real-money purchases have been disabled in the Open Beta, and any items unlocked via Gold, Shards, Gems, or Loot Chests will not transfer to the live version of the game when Heroes of the Storm 2.0 is released.

New Items

• The items listed below have been added to the Collection, and will be available for Gem purchase for a limited time.
• New Skins
  • Genji
    • Oni Genji, Vengeful Oni Genji, Moss Oni Genji
  • Auriel
    • Sakura Auriel, Spring Sakura Auriel, Scarlet Sakura Auriel
  • Zarya
    • Cyberdemon Zarya, Indigo Cyberdemon Zarya, Cyborgdemon Zarya
• New Bundles and Skin Packs
  • Genji Heroic Bundle
  • Sakura Auriel Skin Pack
  • Cyberdemon Zarya Skin Pack
• Much like new Heroes receive a Gold price reduction once they’ve been in the Nexus for a few weeks, new skins and mounts that are unlockable using Gems start at a higher than normal Shard price. These items will receive a Shard price reduction a few weeks after they are added to the game.
  • New items that are only unlockable via Loot Chests and Forging (such as a new version of an existing Skin) will not start at a higher Shard price, or receive a Shard price reduction.

User Interface

General

• Attack Move Target Point
  • Attack Move Target Point has been added to the Gameplay Options menu.
    • If enabled, attack move (default: A + Left-Click) concentrates on the closest enemy to the target point.
    • If disabled, attack move concentrates on the closest enemy to your Hero.

Collection

• Item borders have received updated art to make it easier to differentiate between owned and unowned items in your Collection.
• Heroes
  • An “All Heroes” tab has been added to the Heroes page in your Collection.
• Portraits
  • Selecting the Basic Portrait Border in your Collection will now display your current Player Level on loading screens, in the party panel, and the player’s profile.
  • All Player Level Progression Badge and Portrait Borders have received updated art.

Heroes Brawl

• Completing matches in Heroes Brawl will now award Hero XP.
  • In cases where multiple Heroes are used during the same Heroes Brawl, the total XP earned will be divided evenly among them.
• Completing the weekly Heroes Brawl quest will now award a Loot Chest, rather than a Portrait and Gold.

In-Game U.I.

• The in-game Chat box has been slightly lowered to provide more visibility in the center of the screen.

Mastery Taunts

• Issuing an in-game Taunt using a Hero who has reached level 15 or higher will now display unique “mastery” visual effects.
  • The Hero will also play its taunt animation and voiceover.
  • Issue an in-game Taunt using the radial emote menu (default: X), by pressing the Taunt hotkey (default: J), or by typing “/Taunt” into chat.
• Additional Hero Mastery Taunts will be added to the game in future patches, unlocking at levels 25, 50, 75, and 100.
• Read our recent blog on Mastery Taunts for more information.

Loot Chests

• Upon re-rolling a Loot Chest that contains a Rare, Epic, or Legendary item, a warning dialog will now appear that asks the player to confirm whether or not they’d like to re-roll the chest.
  • Previously, this warning would only appear when re-rolling chests that contained Legendary Items. This will not occur for chests that only contain common items.

Score Screen

• Lightning bolt visual effects will now display when leveling-up on the post-game Summary screen.

Heroes

Assassin

Cassia

Abilities

• Fend (E)
  • Cooldown decreased from 10 to 8 seconds
  • Mana cost reduced from 50 to 40
• Ball Lightning (R)
  • Mana cost increased from 40 to 60
• Valkyrie (R)
  • Cooldown decreased from 90 to 60 seconds
  • Mana cost reduced from 70 to 60

Talents

• Level 1
  • True Sight (W)
    • Quest requirement reduced from 80 to 60 hits
    • Passive damage bonus against Blind targets increased from 10% to 15%
• Level 7
  • Impale (E)
    • Health required to trigger bonus damage increased from 40% to 50%
  • War Traveler (Trait)
    • Movement Speed bonus increased from 3% to 4% per stack
  • Surge of Light (Trait)
    • Damage dealt on activation reduced from 250 to 225
• Level 20
  • Infinite Lightning (R)
    • Cooldown reduction reduced from 4 to 3 seconds per bounce

Greymane

Abilities

• Inner Beast (W)
  • Cooldown increased from 16 to 20 seconds
  • Every Basic Attack while Inner Beast is active now reduces its cooldown by 0.5 seconds
• Cursed Bullet (R)
  • Damage increased from 35% to 40% of the enemy’s current Health

Talents

• Level 1
  • Wolfheart (W)
    • Now increases the cooldown reduction per Basic Attack from 0.5 to 1 second while Inner Beast is active
• Level 4
  • Insatiable (W)
    • No longer has a restriction on the amount of Mana that can be restored

Specialist

Nazeebo

Abilities

• Plague of Toads (E)
  • Damage increased from 126 to 140 over 6 seconds
• Gargantuan (R)
  • Basic Attack damage reduced from 175.5 to 150
  • Health reduced from 2500 to 2300

Talents

• Level 13
  • Superstition (Passive)
    • Spell Armor reduced from 50 to 40
• Level 20
  • Humongoid (R)
    • Cooldown reduced from 45 to 40 seconds
  • Vile Infection (Trait)
    • Voodoo Ritual stacks required increased from 150 to 175

Probius

Abilities

• Photon Cannon (E)
  • Can now be self-cast

Support

Auriel

Abilities

• Sacred Sweep (Q)
  • Damage increased from 75 to 80
  • Center damage increased from 150 to 160
• Detainment Strike (E)
  • Damage increased from 100 to 115
  • Terrain collision damage increased from 100 to 115
• Resurrect (R)
  • New Functionality
    • Increased cooldown from 70 to 120 seconds
    • Reduced channel time from 3 to 0.5 seconds
    • Added a 5 second delay between finishing the cast and the Hero coming back to life

Talents

• Level 1
  • Increase Clarity (Q)
    • Damage bonus for completing the quest increased from 120 to 150
  • Righteous Assault (Q)
    • Cooldown reduction increased from 2 to 3 seconds per Hero hit
    • No longer has a cap
• Level 4
  • Repeated Offense (E)
    • Quest reward damage bonus increased from 200 to 250
• Level 7
  • Glimmer of Hope (Trait)
    • Energy cost reduction increased from 50% to 75%
  • Empathic Link (Trait)
    • Energy stored for damage taken by Bestow Hope’s target increased from 20% to 25%
• Level 13
  • Blinding Flash (Q)
    • Blind duration reduced from 3 to 2.25 seconds
  • Piercing Lash (E)
    • Now also reduces the cooldown by 2 seconds for each enemy Hero hit
• Level 20
  • Shield of Hope (Active)
    • Cooldown increased from 45 to 60 seconds
  • Light Speed (R)
    • New Functionality
      • Removed the increased Health upon reviving
      • Now causes the cooldown of Resurrect to recharge 100% faster while previous target is alive

Brightwing

Abilities

• Soothing Mist (Trait)
  • Now displays a range ring around Brightwing that conveys the radius of her heal. This is only visible to Brightwing.

Li Li

Abilities

• Blinding Wind (E)
  • Cooldown decreased from 10 to 8 seconds
  • Mana cost reduced from 40 to 30
  • Damage increased from 132 to 140

Tassadar

Stats

• Basic Attack damage increased from 10 to 12

Abilities

• Plasma Shield (Q)
  • Duration decreased from 5 to 4 seconds
  • Shield amount decreased from 550 to 475
• Force Wall (R)
  • Cooldown reduced from 10 to 8 seconds
  • Mana cost reduced from 30 to 25

Talents

• Level 1
  • Khaydarin Resonance (Passive)
    • New functionality:
      • Quest: Regeneration Globes grant 50% more Mana to Tassadar
      • Reward: After collecting 15 Globes, increase the Shield amount of Plasma Shield by 15%
      • Reward: After collecting 30 Globes, increase the Shield amount by an additional 15%
• Level 4
  • Khala’s Celerity (Q)
    • Movement Speed bonus reduced from 25 to 20%
    • Movement Speed bonus duration reduced from 5 to 4 seconds
  • Khala’s Embrace (Q)
    • Life steal increased from 50% to 60%
• Level 20
  • Twilight Archon (R)
    • Updated functionality:
      • Basic Attacks while in Archon form increase Archon’s duration by 2 seconds

Uther

Stats

• Removed passive Armor
• Base maximum Health increased from 2054 to 2156
• Health Regeneration increased from 4.28 to 4.49

Abilities

• Holy Light (Q)
  • Healing amount reduced from 427 to 380
  • Now also heals Uther for 190 if cast on an ally
• Holy Radiance (W)
  • Healing amount reduced from 219 to 160 (now matches damage)
  • Mana cost reduced from 65 to 60
• Eternal Devotion (Trait)
  • Added Functionality:
    • When Uther heals anyone with a Basic Ability, they gain 25 Armor for 2 seconds.  This effect does not stack with itself.

Talents

• Level 1
  • Conjurer’s Pursuit (Passive)
    • Removed
  • Wave of Light (W)
    • No longer has a cap on the Mana return and Cooldown Reduction amounts
    • Now grants the benefits when enemy Heroes are damaged
    • Increased the amount of Mana returned from 8 to 10
    • Added a quest component:
      • !Quest: Heal or damage 60 Heroes with Holy Radiance
      • !Reward: Increase the duration of Eternal Devotion’s Armor effect to 3 seconds
  • Hammer of the Lightbringer (E)
    • New functionality:
      • Uther’s Basic Attacks restore 1.5% of his maximum Mana
      • !Quest: Hit 75 enemy Heroes with Basic Attacks
      • !Reward: Basic Attacks also reduce the cooldown of Hammer of Justice by 1 second
  • Fist of Justice (E)
    • Removed
  • (New) Silver Touch (Q)
    • !Quest:  Reduce damage taken from Heroes using Eternal Devotion's Armor effect
    • !Reward:  After reducing 40 sources of Hero damage, reduce the Mana cost of Holy Light by 20
    • !Reward:  After reducing 80 sources of Hero damage, reduce the Mana cost of Holy Light by an additional 20 and increase the cast range by 50%
• Level 4
  • Beacon of Light (Q)
    • Moved to level 16
    • New functionality:
      • While below 50% Health, Uther receives 200% more self-healing when healing others with Holy Light
  • Boundless Conviction (W)
    • Removed
  • Protective Shield (Active)
    • Removed
  • (New) Pursuit of Justice (E)
    • Casting Hammer of Justice increases Uther's Movement Speed by 20% for 3 seconds
• Level 7
  • Burden of Guilt (E)
    • Removed
  • Holy Fire (Passive)
    • Moved to level 4
    • Damage reduced from 18 to 16 per second
  • Cleanse (Active)
    • Removed
  • (New) Armor of Faith (Trait)
    • Holy Light recharges 100% faster for 6 seconds when Uther is Stunned, Rooted, or Silenced
  • (New) Guardian of Ancient Kings (Trait)
    • Healing a Stunned, Rooted, or Silenced Hero with a Basic Ability increases the Armor bonus of Eternal Devotion from 25 to 75
  • (New) Hand of Protection (Active)
    • Activate to make target ally Unstoppable for 1 second.  Cannot be cast on yourself.  90 second cooldown.  Basic Attack reduce this cooldown by 5 seconds.
• Level 13
  • Blessed Champion (Q)
    • Healing from Basic Attacks reduced from 20% to 15% of Holy Light, but is calculated from the combined total of Holy Light’s Ally and self heal
  • Holy Shock (Q)
    • Moved to level 4
    • No longer increases the value of Uther’s next Holy Light, but instead refunds 45 Mana when cast on an enemy
      • Holy Shock still heals Uther for 200 if cast on an enemy
  • Shrink Ray (Active)
    • Removed
  • (New) Well Met (E)
    • Hammer of Justice also reduces enemy Hero Movement Speed by 25% and damage by 25% for 3 seconds
• Level 16
  • Hardened Focus (Passive)
    • Removed
  • Righteous Defense (Q)
    • Removed
  • Gathering Radiance (W)
    • Removed
  • (New) Tyr's Deliverance (W)
    • Hitting an allied Hero with Holy Radiance increases their healing received by 40% for 6 seconds
• Level 20
  • (New) Divine Protection (Trait)
    • Eternal Devotion's Armor can now stack twice. Each new application will refresh the duration of both armor effects

LEVEL (TIER)		UTHER TALENTS
1 (1)	(!) Silver Touch (Q)	(!) Wave of Light (W)	(!) Hammer of the Lightbringer (E)
4 (2)	Holy Shock (Q)	Pursuit of Justice (E)	Holy Fire (Passive)
7 (3)	Armor of Faith (Q)	Guardian of Ancient Kings (Trait)	Hand of Protection (Active)
10 (4)	Divine Shield	Divine Storm	—	—
13 (5)	Blessed Champion (Q)	Well Met (E)	Spell Shield (Passive)
16 (6)	Beacon of Light (Q)	Tyr's Deliverance (W)	Benediction (Active)
20 (7)	Bulwark of Light (R)	Divine Hurricane (R)	Redemption (Passive)	Divine Protection (Passive)

• (!) indicates a Questing Talent.
• Italic text indicates a NEW Talent.
• Bold text indicates a MOVED Talent.

Warrior

Anub'arak

Abilities

• Burrow Charge (E)
  • Hovering over this ability will now show the range indicator for distance traveled, as well as the area affected when he emerges from burrow
• Locust Swarm (R)
  • Damage per second reduced from 60 to 55
  • A range indicator will now appear to Anub’arak while Locust Swarm is active

Talents

• Level 7
  • Subterranean Shield (E)
    • Shield amount reduced from 365 to 345
• Level 13
  • Urticating Spines (W)
    • Hovering over the ability button after selecting this talent will now show a range indicator
• Level 16
  • Epicenter (E)
    • Cooldown reduction decreased from 2 to 1.5 seconds per Hero hit

E.T.C.

Stats

• Health increased from 2100 to 2180
• Health Regeneration increased from 4.375 to 4.543

Talents

• Level 1
  • Guitar Hero (E)
    • Healing increased from 40% to 50% of damage dealt by Basic Attacks
• Level 4
  • Speed Metal (Passive)
    • Movement Speed increased from 10% to 15%
• Level 7
  • Pinball Wizard (W)
    • Damage increased from 200% to 300%
  • Hammer-On (Passive)
    • Damage increased from 30% to 35%

Stitches

Stats

• Health increased from 2900 to 3000
• Health Regeneration increased from 6.043 to 6.25

Abilities

• Slam (W)
  • Damage increased from 96 to 104

Zarya

Abilities

• Energy (Trait)
  • Rate of decay increased from 2.5 to 3 per second
• Graviton Surge (R)
  • Cooldown reduced from 100 to 80 seconds

Talents

• Level 1
  • Demolitions Expert (Q)
    • Cooldown reduction decreased from 0.5 to 0.4375 seconds per 5 Heroes hit, up to 3.5 seconds
  • Together We Are Strong (E)
    • Damage needed per point of Energy gained reduced from 9 to 6
  • Maximum Charge (Trait)
    • Energy gained from Regeneration Globes increased from 15 to 20

• Level 4
  • Give Me Twenty (E)
    • Cooldown reduction granted upon completing the quest decreased from 3 to 2 seconds
  • Speed Barrier (E)
    • Movement Speed bonus increased from 35% to 50%
• Level 16
  • Cleansing Shield (E)
    • Cooldown reduction increased from 2 to 3 seconds
  • Plasma Shock (Q)
    • Slow duration increased from 1.5 to 2 seconds
• Level 20
  • Gravity Kills (R)
    • Damage increased from 140 to 175 over the duration
  • Clear Out (R)
    • Bonus maximum Energy increased from 10 to 15 per Hero hit

Bug Fixes

General

• Mac: Launching Heroes of the Storm using the Mac 10.12 OS will no longer adjust the player’s mouse acceleration setting.

Battlegrounds

• Battlefield of Eternity: Fixed a rare issue in which an Immortal could be awarded to the wrong team if both Immortals were killed at nearly the same time.
• Haunted Mines: The terrain surrounding Sapper Merc Camps will now correctly block vision of the camp.
• Haunted Mines: Leoric will no longer fail to respawn properly after being killed via damage dealt by a nearby spawning Grave Golem.
• Tomb of the Spider Queen: Webweavers will no longer become distracted by Summoned units.
• Try Mode: The Complete Quests button will now correctly set Zul’jin’s You Want Axe quest to 120 attacks, rather than 500.
• Try Mode: The Reset Talents button will now correctly remove bonus Hungering Arrow strikes earned by previously completing the Puncturing Arrow quest.
• Try Mode: Tassadar’s Oracle cooldown will now be correctly reduced by 15 seconds when completing the Mental Acuity quest via the Complete Quests button.

Art

• Cyber Ram: Fixed an issue in which the Cyber Ram’s hind legs appeared slanted.
• Gazlowe: Restored missing visual effects during Gazlowe’s transformation into Robo-Goblin form.
• Greymane: Restored missing visual effects during Go for the Throat.
• Rexxar: Misha, Focus! now uses the same Ability icon in-game as it does on Rexxar’s detail page in the Collection.
• Valla: Strafe visual effects will no longer continue to play after the Ability expires.
• Varian: Will no longer appear scaled-down on the Ranked Play screen.
• Xul: Will no longer appear offset on the Ranked Play screen.

Heroes, Abilities, and Talents

• Quest Talents: Fixed a bug that caused quest talents that track every second to ping continuously. They will now only ping every 5 seconds as intended.
• Regeneration Globes: Will now play an animation upon expiration rather than suddenly disappearing.
• Spell Shield: Toggling Spell Shield will no longer cancel an active Hearthstone channel.
• Abathur: Heroes can no longer push a player-controlled Monstrosity by walking into it.
• Auriel: Detainment Strike will now correctly stun enemies who collide with corners of terrain.
• Auriel: Fixed an issue that could cause Resurrect’s revive message to appear on the MVP screen.
• Chen: Freshest Ingredients will no longer grant 3 Health Regeneration stacks for Regeneration Globes collected during Storm, Earth Fire.
• Diablo: Fixed an issue preventing Diablo from using Basic Attacks against his Overpower target if Overpower was interrupted by Zeratul’s Void Prison.
• Cho: Twilight Hammer will now deal damage to Murky’s Pufferfish.
• Gall: Fixed an issue that could cause Gall to use his base skin on the MVP screen despite using an alternate skin during the match.
• Gazlowe: Can now correctly issue commands to active Rock-It! Turrets while dead.
• Illidan: Fixed an issue that could cause Illidan to respawn at his death location if he cast Sweeping Strikes in the same moment that he was killed.
• Murky: Can no longer call down a Nuke during Safety Bubble on Warhead Junction.
  Nazeebo: Corpse Spiders will no longer prioritize Kharazim’s Air Ally or Lúcio’s Boombox over enemy Heroes.
• Probius: Pylons and Photon Cannons will no longer be affected by Power Overflowing when Probius is not inside a Pylon’s Power Field.
• Samuro: Way of Illusion will no longer continue to generate quest progress icons after its quest is complete.
• Tassadar: Prismatic Link will no longer cause Basic Attacks to continue to hit the tertiary target if the primary and secondary targets move out of range of one another.
• The Butcher: Victuals will no longer stop functioning after completing Fresh Meat’s quest.
• The Butcher: Butcher’s Brand visual effects will no longer persist on a Punisher until it is killed.
• The Butcher: Will now properly receive Healing for Basic Attack damage dealt to a Punisher affected by Butcher’s Brand.
• The Lost Vikings: Fixed an issue causing Olaf to begin attacking the nearest enemy after using Charge, rather than the intended target.
• Tracer: After using Blink, Tracer will now correctly continue to walk in the direction she was originally moving prior to the cast.
• Tyrael: Fixed an issue that could cause Archangel’s Wrath to immediately explode on death, and prevent Tyrael from respawning.
• Varian: After learning Second Wind, Varian will now correctly earn bonus Healing for bonus damage dealt by Shattering Throw against a Shielded target.
• Zagara: Damage dealt by Hunter Killer and Roach summons will no longer be reduced by Armor.
• Zeratul: A revealed icon will no longer appear above enemies hit by Rending Cleave.
• Zul’jin: Taz'dingo! Will now correctly prevent Zul’jin from dying when cast at the same moment that he would have taken fatal damage.

Sound

• E.T.C.: Enemies affected by a Mosh Pit that was cast from inside of a bush or vent will now correctly hear the Ability’s sound effects.

User Interface

• Hotkeys: Control group hotkeys in the default Standard for Lefties profile now correctly mirror the Standard profile, with the first slot bound to the 7 key.
• Heroes Brawl: Brawls that only require completion of 2 matches will no longer state that 3 matches are needed in order to earn rewards.
• Kill Feed: The Kill Feed will no longer display blank portraits for Heroes who are killed by an Immortal while the Immortals are dueling on Battlefield of Eternity.

[Dejo93 1,023]

>Well met Uther talent

 

My sides XD

[Caldyrvan 377]

Not sure about Uther, need to see it in action. Most things look ok and reasonable but does anyone know why they nerf Tassadar so deep into the ground that he could be mistaken with a hole?

Edited April 17, 2017 by Caldyrvan

[Valhalen 1,484]

Nice buffs to the Supports.

[PumpkinRow 18]

They must have gotten SUPER high to think ETC needed a buff. Also, Valeera nerf when?

Edited April 17, 2017 by PumpkinRow

[Laragon 269]

2 hours ago, Caldyrvan said:

does anyone know why they nerf Tassadar so deep into the ground that he could be mistaken with a hole?

Because he was still a complete auto-ban in high-level team league play. The nerf might finally allow him to be played again, but his vision and choke point poke is still so damn good I'm not sure it will.
 

1 hour ago, PumpkinRow said:

They must have gotten SUPER high to think ETC needed a buff. Also, Valeera nerf when?

ETC buff isn't even much of a change, he still can't solo tank, but can at least not get blown up as hard since he is required to dive deep to be even useful.

I'm not even sure Valeera needs nerfs. Yeah, she's powerful if someone is good with her, but so is zeratul or probius or chromie or... point is a lot of heroes can be game changing if played at a really high level. She still has her hard counters and if you catch her out of stealth she can be dropped. Only nerf that might need to happen is to cloak of shadows because it makes it super high survivablity, but that would just be cooldown based if anything.

[Hanz39 53]

ETC is in dire need of a buff because he got ultra nerfed losing his trait to get a complete shit trait (4 seconds aoe buff to 2 seconds crappy armor on self that other heroes ,namely Johanna, have with 100% uptime baseline), and lv 7 talent got nerfed so hard to levels of tassadar auto hits so at least with this buff you can take Pinball Wizard to replace the deceased Echo Pedal (killed by blizz).

Tassadar level of joke is beyond limit... now his shield last less than what was when he coulda cast it every 5 sec...just delete that hero then so i stop get this garbage in quick match when enemy has real supports.

Uther finally got rid of those generic talents and got his abilities buffed that was what he needed to return in the game (still waiting Tyrande rework that has still the generics infesting talents...)

Zarya RIP... now is back to 3 per second decay that was when she got released and was so bad that got even buffed in 2 days from release... wondering why make same mistake twice... 3 per seconds doesn't work is too much unless you dance under enemy forts you can't keep high energy with that insane decay.

Auriel got a new R that seems relevant now you don't have to suicide to resurrect something and also the other buffs will make her much more appealing than before since now you aren't forced to take the aegis when it has close to zero value because the other R was like saying hey guys i'm resurrecting this enemy you just killed but hey i take 3 seconds afk here so if you wanna nuke me you've all the time you need.

[BrightwingMain 26]

7 hours ago, Hanz39 said:

ETC is in dire need of a buff because he got ultra nerfed losing his trait to get a complete shit trait (4 seconds aoe buff to 2 seconds crappy armor on self that other heroes ,namely Johanna, have with 100% uptime baseline), and lv 7 talent got nerfed so hard to levels of tassadar auto hits so at least with this buff you can take Pinball Wizard to replace the deceased Echo Pedal (killed by blizz).

Tassadar level of joke is beyond limit... now his shield last less than what was when he coulda cast it every 5 sec...just delete that hero then so i stop get this garbage in quick match when enemy has real supports.

Uther finally got rid of those generic talents and got his abilities buffed that was what he needed to return in the game (still waiting Tyrande rework that has still the generics infesting talents...)

Zarya RIP... now is back to 3 per second decay that was when she got released and was so bad that got even buffed in 2 days from release... wondering why make same mistake twice... 3 per seconds doesn't work is too much unless you dance under enemy forts you can't keep high energy with that insane decay.

Auriel got a new R that seems relevant now you don't have to suicide to resurrect something and also the other buffs will make her much more appealing than before since now you aren't forced to take the aegis when it has close to zero value because the other R was like saying hey guys i'm resurrecting this enemy you just killed but hey i take 3 seconds afk here so if you wanna nuke me you've all the time you need.

ETC definitely became mid to low tier after nerfs, but still was playable, just not a faceroll tank anymore. His current armor trait is really good, adds significant survivability if you pay attention to your trait uptime and save guitar solo to refresh its duration instead of mindlessly spamming it instantly after using powerslide and face melt. Still considering that he was definitely not super high tier after nerfs, the buffs were nice. The original trait's range was actually so short most AA heroes couldn't benefit from it just because they would need to literally hug you to proc the effect; the trait was only really op in racing PvE creeps like on Battlefield of Eternity. Echo pedal was way too strong, as it was basically an improved burning rage but on lv7 instead of lv13, and was gloriously overpowered in both split-pushing with stage dive and getting quick kills after locking enemies down. Now you have to choose at lv7 if you want to either have blowup potential (pinball wizard) or waveclear and split push potential (echo pedal), as there isn't a clear cut choice at lv7 anymore.

Tassadar wasn't a real support ever, and especially after his initial rework he was defined as a pseudo support, as original khala's embrace was removed. The nerfs hurt QM definitely, but in competitive gamemodes, especially in higher levels of play, Tassadar was way too strong of a character and needed some kind of nerf.

Uther's rework is something we all have been waiting for, really hoping he will now have a real niche where he is playable, the lv1 mana cost reduction quest seems like one of the most solid foundations of a talent build we have had in a long time, and hopefully the new build eliminates some of the structural flaws that have hindered Uther's performance since... forever.

Zarya is same deal as Tassadar, a hero that becomes significantly more powerful in coordinated environment and needed something to make her less oppressive in high level meta. Hoping she (and Tassadar) will still remain playable in lower tier play too. Both of those heroes are both able to do significant damage (Tassadar with his Archon, Zarya with auto-attack and Q) and dictate damage trades very efficiently with low cooldown shielding as well as enable numerous carry heroes like Illidan, Valla or Tracer to become huge threats to the enemy team.

Auriel changes are nice, glad to see that Blizzard tries to make both heroics of a hero playable, like they did with Greymane. Auriel was in a fine spot pre-nerf, and hopefully will now become a staple, i kinda like that hero actually.

TL: DR

All changes have reasoning and all were more or less needed on the long run to balance out the game.

Still waiting for Arthas nerfs tho.

[Valhalen 1,484]

5 hours ago, BrightwingMain said:

ETC definitely became mid to low tier after nerfs, but still was playable, just not a faceroll tank anymore. His current armor trait is really good, adds significant survivability if you pay attention to your trait uptime and save guitar solo to refresh its duration instead of mindlessly spamming it instantly after using powerslide and face melt. Still considering that he was definitely not super high tier after nerfs, the buffs were nice. The original trait's range was actually so short most AA heroes couldn't benefit from it just because they would need to literally hug you to proc the effect; the trait was only really op in racing PvE creeps like on Battlefield of Eternity. Echo pedal was way too strong, as it was basically an improved burning rage but on lv7 instead of lv13, and was gloriously overpowered in both split-pushing with stage dive and getting quick kills after locking enemies down. Now you have to choose at lv7 if you want to either have blowup potential (pinball wizard) or waveclear and split push potential (echo pedal), as there isn't a clear cut choice at lv7 anymore.

Tassadar wasn't a real support ever, and especially after his initial rework he was defined as a pseudo support, as original khala's embrace was removed. The nerfs hurt QM definitely, but in competitive gamemodes, especially in higher levels of play, Tassadar was way too strong of a character and needed some kind of nerf.

Uther's rework is something we all have been waiting for, really hoping he will now have a real niche where he is playable, the lv1 mana cost reduction quest seems like one of the most solid foundations of a talent build we have had in a long time, and hopefully the new build eliminates some of the structural flaws that have hindered Uther's performance since... forever.

Zarya is same deal as Tassadar, a hero that becomes significantly more powerful in coordinated environment and needed something to make her less oppressive in high level meta. Hoping she (and Tassadar) will still remain playable in lower tier play too. Both of those heroes are both able to do significant damage (Tassadar with his Archon, Zarya with auto-attack and Q) and dictate damage trades very efficiently with low cooldown shielding as well as enable numerous carry heroes like Illidan, Valla or Tracer to become huge threats to the enemy team.

Auriel changes are nice, glad to see that Blizzard tries to make both heroics of a hero playable, like they did with Greymane. Auriel was in a fine spot pre-nerf, and hopefully will now become a staple, i kinda like that hero actually.

TL: DR

All changes have reasoning and all were more or less needed on the long run to balance out the game.

Still waiting for Arthas nerfs tho.

I think that ETC's change on his trait was indeed for the better. Considering the current explosive bursty meta, and how you literally have to hug ETC in order to benefit from the small attack speed buff, adding more survivability for him is much better. In my eyes ETC still is one of most versatile tanks in the game, and if he were to be released today, in the current state of the game, he would be considered overpowered, since he has engage and escape tools, stuns, knockback, self heal and global presence (with Stage Dive). I think the tweaks are slowly giving him shape, and I really like that. He still is a very disruptive character that can fit into any team composition, even better now with his new trait.

Much like you said, Tassadar was never a true Support; if anything, his niche falls in the Specialist department. Back when he was released, Blizzard was still unsure how to handle the Specialist class, but they changed it when Medivh was introduced, and later the even changed the Specialist icon to better reflect their versatility; before that Specialist were know as "Heroes that attack structures". I think Blizzard should just change Tassadar to a Specialist so people stop saying he is a bad Support. Even with the nerfs he is still very strong.

Uther will finally have his spotlight as a Support; those changes were awesome. I hope Tyrande is the next on the line. Although I think that Li Li could also get a few tweaks.

Zarya is one of those problem-Heroes: it is very easy to make her absurdly overpowered, so Blizzard have a hard time balancing her. Under the right circumstances she was way too powerful for a Warrior, so I think this small tweak might be a small push in the right direction. I think Blizzard will soon revert some of those nerfs, though.

As an Auriel main, I'm quite surprised (and very happy) with the changes. I wasn't expecting Blizzard to tamper with her again so soon, and I'm so glad it was a majority of buffs. The changes to Righteous Assault now rivals Increasing Clarity in terms of utility, which will be great when facing groups of melee Heroes. I'm a bit sad with the small nerfs to Blinding Flash and Shield of Hope, but oh well.