In the wake of the changes to stealth and stealth heroes.

[Leadblast 28]

What are your impressions after the changes to stealth are out? In particular, how do the changes affect to the 4 heroes in particular?

 

The new stealth effects seems to work as intended for the most part. It's next to impossible to sneak onto players just by stealth alone. Although, it makes for some mind games. For instance, I quickly realized that Malthael's Death Shroud (which applies his Reaper's Mark at enemies on the targeted area, and thus, fully reveals stealth enemies should it hit them) can still be dodged rather easily from a distance, so it's almost not worth the effort to use it to reveal a cloaked enemy. But you could still use it to check bushes and smoke areas as always.

 

I tried Nova and Zeratul a few times, Nova still feels very much bottom tier, in spite of the few buffs she had to her decoys, Ghost Protocol can sometimes save your ass from certain death in battle, but that's about it. Her cloak is good, however not in the proper stealth sense like how it used to be before, but it gives extra movespeed when unmounted. You can dodge some skillshots (like the aforementioned Death Shroud) with the extra movespeed, you can move and chase better, but that's it. The decoys (both the E and the 1) are useless in laning, they don't engage minions at all, so be ware of that. The new talent at 13 that gives her +armor when losing cloak also applies to her decoys though.

I tried changing my build to adjust to the changes, but it really did no good for me. Armor-Piercing Shells for example remains a questionable choice, it's bad if you get bursted down OR if the enemy has ways to survive bursts (Varian's parry for instance, Blind skills or Illidan's evasion would also qualify) and it makes her attack very unefficient for dealing with minion waves (and that's particularly bad for Nova since her only real means of waveclear comes only at level 16). Also, the problem with the decoys is that they don't always engage the target you want. Thus the One in the Chamber build remains the best build overall, but it's worse than before because Snipe is nerfed (yes it's nerfed despite the baseline Snipe Master), Pinning Shot is nerfed and the bonus damage from the talent itself is nerfed, so in my mind she's completely nerfed.

Zeratul on the other hands feels really buffed, baseline Vorpal Blade means you can actually go for other talents at 1 like the quest one to empower Blink (get 15 regen globes) then at 4 you can get the attack speed from the old Shadow Assault heroic (which has been replaced), he feels really nice and can get in and out from battle much better.

I don't play Valeera but from the ones I've played against she feels pretty much better and more annoying than ever too. Samuro I didn't play with or against very much.

Edited December 13, 2017 by Leadblast

[gamerk2 20]

To be fair, Nova is supposed to suck at waveclear and surviving in a fight.  Her thing is *supposed* to be nuking one hero then getting out of dodge.

If you're trying to burst down a Varian, you aren't doing Nova the right way.

[Leadblast 28]

Admittedly even the "nuking one hero down" part is more difficult with sneaking into victims more difficult plus all her watered damage. She should have gotten more damage (and no, not more damage from decoys lol) or at least more utility, but she got neither and just nerfs for her burst damage.

At least Triple Tap is slightly better now

Edited December 14, 2017 by Leadblast

[gamerk2 20]

On 12/13/2017 at 10:17 PM, Leadblast said:

Admittedly even the "nuking one hero down" part is more difficult with sneaking into victims more difficult plus all her watered damage. She should have gotten more damage (and no, not more damage from decoys lol) or at least more utility, but she got neither and just nerfs for her burst damage.

At least Triple Tap is slightly better now

I agree.  Nova should be all burst, little survivability or utility.  That should be her entire deal.  As she is now, she fills a similar role to Genji: Someone who can easily burst down weakened heroes.