heroes Balance Update Patch Notes: Nov 1

[Stan 5,248]

Blizzard released a new patch today with Hero changes and various improvements to the game.

Blizzard (Source)

Design

Stealth

• Bouncing or chaining abilities (Chain Lightning, Shadow Dagger, etc.) will now bounce to targets that are outside allied vision.

Heroes

Assassin

Junkrat

Stats

• Base Maximum Health increased from 1273 to 1350
• Health Regeneration increased from 2.7 to 2.8

Abilities

• Frag Launcher (Q)
  • Damage increased from 117 to 128

Talents

• Level 4
  • Taste for Explosions (Q)
    • Damage decreased from .75 to .5 per hit, maximum damage decreased from 150 to 100
  • Bonzer Hits (W)
    • Bonus damage increased from 30 to 40%
  • Gotta Trap 'Em All (E)
    • Heroes hit requirement reduced from 8 to 7
• Level 7
  • Sticky Wicket (E)
    • Slow duration increased from 3 to 3.5 seconds

Raynor

Abilities

• Adrenaline Rush (E)
  • Cooldown reduced from 40 to 30 seconds

Talents

• Level 4
  • Relentless Leader (Passive)
    • Cooldown reduction of Adrenaline Rush decreased from 15 to 10 seconds

Tychus

Stats

• Basic Attack Damage increased from 44 to 48

Abilities

• Overkill (Q)
  • Primary Damage increased from 43 to 46
  • Secondary damage increased from 21 to 23

Valla

Abilities

• Hungering Arrow (Q)
  • Primary damage reduced from 151 to 140
  • Secondary (bounce) damage reduced from 86 to 80

Talents

• Level 1
  • Caltrops (E)
    • Time required at 10 stacks of Hatred to unlock reward reduced from 180 to 160 seconds

Zul'jin

Abilities

• Guillotine (R)
  • Cooldown increased from 30 to 40 seconds

Talents

• Level 1
  • Boneslicer (Q)
    • Mana refund increased from 10 to 15
• Level 4
  • Voodoo Shuffle (Active)
    • Cooldown and Mana cost reduction increased from 33 to 40%
• Level 7
  • Ferocity (Passive)
    • Attack speed bonus increased from 35 to 40%
  • Vicious Assault (Q)
    • Damage bonus increased from 30 to 35%
• Level 13
  • Eye of Zul’jin (Passive)
    • Movement speed per stack increased from 3 to 6%
      • Cap remains at 30%

Specialist

Azmodan

Abilities

• General of Hell (D)
  • No longer grants additional Minion & Mercenary Health
  • Minion & Mercenary damage increased from 15 to 25%

Talents

• Level 1
  • Sieging Wrath (Q)
    • Damage per player hit reduced from 4 to 3
    • Damage needed to unlock quest reduced from 100 to 90

Zagara

Abilities

• Nydus Network (R)
  • Charge cooldown increased from 60 to 100 seconds

 

Support

Kharazim

Talents

• Level 1
  • Iron Fists (Trait)
    • Movement Speed bonus reduced from 30 to 25%
  • Transcendence (Trait)
    • Added Functionality:
      • Now also grants Kharazim 25% Movement Speed on the third punch
  • Insight (Trait)
    • Added Functionality:
      • Now also grants Kharazim 25% Movement Speed on the third punch

Stukov

Stats

• Base Maximum Health increased from 1590 to 1682
• Health regen increased from 3.31 to 3.5 

Warrior

Garrosh

Talents

• Level 16
  • Earthshaker (E)
    • Stun duration decreased from .75 to .6 seconds

Leoric

Abilities

• Entomb (R)
  • Cooldown reduced from 60 to 50 seconds

Talents

• Level 4
  • Kneel Peasants! (Q)
    • Damage bonus to Minions increased from 75 to 100%

Muradin

Abilities

• Storm Bolt (Q)
  • Mana cost decreased from 50 to 45

Talents

• Level 4
  • Sledgehammer (Q)
    • Bonus damage increased from 300% > 350%
• Level 7
  • Skullcracker (Passive)
    • Damage bonus increased from 60 to 70%
  • Heavy Impact (E)
    • Adjusted functionality:
      • Now slows enemies by 80% for .75 seconds

Bug Fixes

Heroes, Abilities, and Talents

• Kerrigan: Triggering the Double Strike Talent after learning Fury of the Storm will no longer cause the next Basic Attack to deal more than the intended amount of cleave damage to secondary targets.
• Muradin: After learning Thunder Burn, Thunder Clap will no longer fail to fire a second time if an enemy was struck by the outer-edge of the initial cast’s area of effect.
• Muradin: Fixed an issue causing Muradin’s Second Wind Trait and Third Wind Talent to restore less than the intended amount of Health.
• Nazeebo: The Superstition Talent’s visual effects will no longer persist after Nazeebo is killed.
• Zul’jin: The Troll’s Blood Talent will now correctly restore 10% of Zul’jin’s maximum Mana when Regeneration channeling completes.

User Interface

• Draft Mode: Fixed an issue that prevented players from selecting the Garden Shambler Murky Skin in draft lobbies.

[Orshova 31]

Looks like they gave muradin the Varian treatment. 

[Valhalen 1,485]

26 minutes ago, Orshova said:

Looks like they gave muradin the Varian treatment. 

My exact thoughts. It is fair, though. That Dwarf Toss > Storm Bolt stun combo was very broken.

[Plergoth 277]

53 minutes ago, Valhalen said:

My exact thoughts. It is fair, though. That Dwarf Toss > Storm Bolt stun combo was very broken.

Yeah. He was quickly becoming extremely contested at the weekend's HGC games, and it was easy to see the reasons why. He should still be very strong, especially considering Garrosh's nerf to his level 16 stun talent too. 

Personally keeping an eye on how Kharazim does now with the speed buff made baseline for all level 1 talents. Iron Fists was taken a lot of the time purely for a reliable way to be able to keep up with anyone, not strictly the damage itself. He should be a lot more potent now on paper with more situations for even Transcendence to be useful (am thinking against double support comps that lack blinds).  

Leoric buffs creeping up there too! 

Edited November 1, 2017 by Plergoth

[MZLICH 43]

well,i dont know why they're still buffing stukov even if its small buff.. he's still the best sup in meta and needs more nerfs

and about junkrat.. well we wanted more damage from (Q) but actually they didnt do anything by buffing (Q)'s base damage and nerfing level4(Q)'s talent which most of people take.

[Dejo93 1,023]

They really want that AA Zul'jin, don't they?

[ecO1 9]

3 hours ago, Stan said:

Earthshaker (E)

• Stun duration decreased from .75 to .6 seconds

 

Thank god, in the german translation it said it was increased from .75 to 1,75. That would not have been broken at all ....
 

21 minutes ago, Dejo93 said:

They really want that AA Zul'jin, don't they?

So do I, the old one, prepatch. Me not like new troll.

And about those Junkrat changes - Meh. Don't really feel like those are going to help at all. Maybe he can survive 1 or 2 combos now that would have killed him earlier but let's be honest, soon as they catch you, Junkrat is dead anyways and since his damage in the late game did not get any better I think his winrate won't change.

[Hanz39 53]

The base damage of Q scales with level while quest damage is just additive and not scales. This way on paper is a good buff on him he does more damage than before.

[Voltorocks 40]

2 hours ago, Hanz39 said:

The base damage of Q scales with level while quest damage is just additive and not scales. This way on paper is a good buff on him he does more damage than before.

can confirm, this is a noticeable buff to his Q damage, even when taking the nerfed talent.

I still think his kit is a bit weak at a base level - imo the really need to reduce setup time for the trap, and/or divide his mine damage into 2 charges to boost his mobility/self peel. something to stop him from just evaporating in every fight involving a dive assassin of any kind...

[Plergoth 277]

4 hours ago, MZLICH said:

well,i dont know why they're still buffing stukov even if its small buff.. he's still the best sup in meta and needs more nerfs

Last big patch really tuned him down a lot, and it reflected in his win rates, sliding near the bottom overall and the worst performing Support recently. He can be good in the right hands and comp, but is less capable of doing a bit of everything except Cleanse and fixing the kitchen sink. I have to disagree he's the best support in the meta when double support is so prevalent and he's not really a priority pick in those. Before he gets anymore changes, nerfs, buffs or otherwise, something has to be done to bring back some kind of indicator for his Pathogen on allies to be shown again; no one except Stukov can see the timers above people's heads and it can be and often is extremely unreliable to rely on your team mates to know what to do and to spread the virus to others who don't have it in solo queue or casual play. Once that is addressed, I will pick him up again, as there's simply better options right now. 

[CyberDVonaven 82]

2 hours ago, Plergoth said:

something has to be done to bring back some kind of indicator for his Pathogen on allies to be shown again; no one except Stukov can see the timers above people's heads and it can be and often is extremely unreliable to rely on your team mates to know what to do and to spread the virus to others who don't have it in solo queue or casual play.

Yeah, I totally agree with this statement about Stukov's pathogen. Infact I always forget when playing Stukov that only I can see the timer's over my allies heads for the heal. It seems really stupid to me that all allied teammates can't see that timer above their heads too just like Stukov can. You would think that would just be an obvious thing that would happen that they would have visible to everyone. Rather then that slight green glow on them that little to no one will notice is there to show they have it. So yeah, this should have been fixed after week one of Stukov coming to the Live servers. It seems like an easy but very impactful fix to help with the way he works. And explains why so many people just run off away from Stukov and each other when you put the virus on them. Because they have no idea that they even have it on them to begin with. And other then the big jump in their health when you pop the virus they don't know you've even healed them any otherwise. My friends are always acting like I didn't heal them any when using Stukov unless they see that big jump in HP from the Kill Switch. Cause they can't see any other obvious way to know like I can when using him. It's truely ridiculous. And I'm glad someone else thought to bring this up. Cause it's something I keep forgetting is a real issue.

[MZLICH 43]

i mean yes,they nerfed him but he still has the best healing and i still use him on hl and hes prefect

his Q is ok if u judge between lili and stukov's Q(lili heals for small amount of heal but stukov heals more but overtime)  n maybe stukov win it since his Q splits between others and you can't select target for lili's healing! and..

we usually dont use Q itself.. we use Q+D combo which is horrible! its something like this:

how to cast Ancestral Healing(rehgar's ult) on all allies without much coldowns:

pick stukov.cast Q on an ally.wait about 2secs.press D. and you have a full health team :)

and about his E: im 100% sure! its the best basic *damaging* ability which supports ever had! silence and damage enemies in large area till anytime you want! 

im sure hes the best since i was testing all of supports during these 2 weeks. you should do this too to see hes a overpowered healer who got much damage too and has great abilities

 

Edited November 2, 2017 by MZLICH

[Fliits 112]

Loving those specialist nerfs! Azmodan's General was always a pain the Az to deal with and Zagara will now be easier to capture. (Don't have use master ball so easily!) 

Raynor's buff really did nothing to benefit him, but I'm glad to see Blizzard hasn't forgotten the poor chap. Tychus, on the other hand, got some great buffs to his damage.

Valla nerf has been a long time coming and that shouldn't surprise anyone. Same with Garrosh, but I was hoping they had done some more nerfs to him.

I saw that Kharazim change on the Heroes Of The Storm reddit page recently. Nice to see Blizzard listen to the fans. Maybe it had nothing to do with the change, but I like to think Blizzard trusts its fans more on these things.

And Leoric, well, what can I say?

Edited November 2, 2017 by Fliits

[Laragon 269]

7 hours ago, MZLICH said:

i mean yes,they nerfed him but he still has the best healing and i still use him on hl and hes prefect

im sure hes the best since i was testing all of supports during these 2 weeks. you should do this too to see hes a overpowered healer who got much damage too and has great abilities

This is the problem with all balancing debates... "I still use him on HL and he's perfect". What league, do you draft him always or when you team works with it, I doubt he's perfect if your team is 5 melee because you take him...

He's not at all over powered. You rant about the ancestral, but this requires your team to still spread it. That's also his only heal/negation on a single CD and has to have a quest done, which isn't easy if it's a large 3 lane map to pop enough without purely spamming it, which you can't do unless it's a double support or you put your whole team at risk while rushing it.

Point is, he's balanced even with the "ancestral" and you being perfect is an oddity, not a fact of him being top tier above all.

[SociKraft 1]

What the hell, no Chromie buffs and Malthael nerfs, something is wrong here.

[Valhalen 1,485]

10 hours ago, Plergoth said:

something has to be done to bring back some kind of indicator for his Pathogen on allies to be shown again; no one except Stukov can see the timers above people's heads and it can be and often is extremely unreliable to rely on your team mates to know what to do and to spread the virus to others who don't have it in solo queue or casual play.

 

8 hours ago, CyberDVonaven said:

It seems really stupid to me that all allied teammates can't see that timer above their heads too just like Stukov can. You would think that would just be an obvious thing that would happen that they would have visible to everyone. Rather then that slight green glow on them that little to no one will notice is there to show they have it.

As a Stukov main, I totally agree that it would be good if other players could see the timers so they would be able to spread Healing Pathogen more efficiently to the rest of the team. However, I think that having a big timer over other players' heads would end up being a nuisance, since each player already has their own buffs and mechanics to pay full attention to; having another gimmick such as a big ass green timer over their heads could be a problem more than a solution, because they might freak out ("OH MY GOD, it is on me. I HAVE TO SPREAD."). And I think Blizzard knows that.

As Stukov, it is your job to position yourself the best as possible to spread the Pathogen. If you have enough communication, it helps a lot. But even when not using voice chats, it is not that hard. I usually pop Pathogen on myself and move towards other players to spread it; I found that to be the best strategy in QM. And it is not that dangerous since the spread radius is quite large, so if you position yourself well enough, you can spread it to everyone without putting yourself at risk. In other cases, I pop it on a frontline and/or diver, as they will charge ahead while the Pathogen spreads to the backline.

The HoT effect and green glow is quite enough for the ally to know they have the Pathogen, to be honest. If you're playing with someone who knows that, they will aid in the spreading. I think Blizzard could add a timer if it was very very small, so it doesn't interfere with the other characters UI. Or maybe they could just make the green glow more evident (more "glowy"?).

8 hours ago, MZLICH said:

im sure hes the best since i was testing all of supports during these 2 weeks. you should do this too to see hes a overpowered healer who got much damage too and has great abilities

As much as I love playing him, I wouldn't say he is THE BEST HEALER OF ALL. But he is definitely Core Tier material due his healing output and utility, and he is absolutely fantastic in the Double Support Meta, specially when paired with Ana specced for Biotic Grenade. With the healing buff, Bio-Kill Switch heals absurdly high.

The thing is: most people are too shy to play Stukov; he doesn't have the right tools to go melee, but he shouldn't be afraid to throw a slap here and there, because the Admiral HITS HARD (200 Basic Attack on level 1 is amazing). One slap sometimes can make all the difference.

I'm gonna leave this video here again, so you can understand:

 

[Valks 2,387]

On 11/2/2017 at 12:57 PM, Valhalen said:

I'm gonna leave this video here again, so you can understand

Thank you for bringing this back into my life.

[Valks 2,387]

On 11/2/2017 at 11:58 AM, SociKraft said:

What the hell, no Chromie buffs and Malthael nerfs, something is wrong here.

Chromie needs an auto-target Q IMO. No more skillshot, just tracked, fast moving object.