heroes Balance Update Patch Notes: Jan 24

[Stan 5,244]

Blizzard released a new patch today in order to apply balance updates and various bug fixes.

Blizzard (Source)

Heroes

Assassin

Hanzo

Stats

• Basic Attack Damage reduced from 176 to 173

Abilities

• Storm Bow (Q)
  • Damage reduced from 297 to 291
• Scatter Arrow (W)
  • Ricochet damage reduced from 90 to 88

Talents

• Level 7
  • Sharpened Arrowheads (W)
    • Decreased Armor reduction from 5 (to a maximum of 25) to 4 (to a maximum of 20)

Valeera

Abilities

• Ambush (Q)
  • Armor reduction duration increased from 4 to 5 seconds

Talents

• Level 1
  • Vigor (Passive)
    • Passive energy regeneration increased from 2 to 2.5 per second.
  • Combat Readiness (Passive)
    • Physical Armor increased from 60 to 75
• Level 4
  • Relentless Strikes (Q)
    • Sinister Strike energy reduction increased from 10 to 15
• Level 7
  • Mutilate (Q)
    • Damage bonus increased from 100% to 125%
  • Fatal Finesse (W)
    • Damage gained per enemy Hero hit increased from 3 (to a maximum of 60) to 4 (to a maximum of 80)
• Level 13
  • Blind (W)
    • Bonus blind duration increased from 2 to 2.5 seconds
• Level 20
  • Adrenaline Rush (R)
    • Energy regeneration increased from 30 to 40 per second

Specialist

Sgt. Hammer

Talents

• Level 4
  • Regenerative Bio-Steel (D)
    • Healing reduced from 15% to 10% of Sgt. Hammer’s Basic Attack damage dealt in Siege Mode.
• Level 7
  • Graduating Range (D)
    • Range reduced from 1.1 to 1 per stack, up to a maximum of 3

Sylvanas

Stats

• Base Maximum Health reduced from 1456 to 1425
• Health Regen reduced from 3.04 to 2.97

Abilities

• Shadow Dagger (W)
  • Cooldown increased from 10 to 11 seconds

Talents

• Level 4
  • Lost Soul (W)
    • Cooldown reduction per Hero hit reduced from 1.25 to 1 second

Xul

Talents

• Level 4
  • Grim Scythe (Q)
    • Cooldown reduction per enemy hit increased from .75 to 1 second
  • Jailors (E)
    • Bonus Attack and Movement Speed reduced from 50 to 40%
• Level 7
  • Harvest Vitality (W)
    • Heal increased from 60 to 70%

Support

Brightwing

Stats

• Base Maximum Health increased from 1395 to 1450
• Health Regen increased from 2.91 to 3.02

Tyrande

Stats

• Basic Attack Damage increased from 80 to 82

Warrior

Blaze

Abilities

• Fortified Bunker (R)
  • Health increased from 1305 to 1435
• Combustion (R)
  • There is now a .5 second window after casting where Combustion cannot be canceled (this is to prevent accidental canceling from rapid key presses)

Talents

• Level 4
  • Feeding the Flame (Q)
    • Cooldown reduction increased from 1.5 to 2 seconds
• Level 7
  • Incinerator Gauntlets (Passive)
    • Bonus damage increased from 50% to 70%
  • Crossfire (Q)
    • Damage increased from 132 to 139
  • Grill and Kill (W)
    • Damage bonus decreased from 25% to 20%
• Level 13
  • Suppressive Fire (Q)
    • Spell Power reduction increased from 15% to 20% per stack
  • Nanomachine Coating (W)
    • Attack Speed slow now also applies to Oil Spills that are on fire
• Level 16
  • Juggernaut Plating (Active)
    • Shield bonus increased from 100% to 125% of damage reduced

Sonya

Stats

• Basic Attack damage reduced from 88 to 84

Talents

• Level 7
  • Poisoned Spear (Q)
    • Damage reduced from 125% to 100% of Ancient Spear’s damage.
• Level 16
  • Nerves of Steel (Active)
    • Duration reduced from 5 to 3 seconds
    • Shield amount reduced from 30% to 25% of Maximum Health
    • Cooldown reduced from 70 to 60 seconds

Bug Fixes

General

• Fixed a number of inaccuracies and grammatical issues in tooltips across the game.
• Korean Client: Updated the loading screen to the Korean localized version.

Heroes, Abilities, and Talents

• Blaze: Fixed an issue that allowed Heroes to bypass the movement speed reduction from ignited Oil Spills if Blaze chose the Adhesive Petroleum talent.
• Blaze: Fixed an issue causing Stimpack and Pyromania voiceover lines to be heard globally.
• Tyrael: Fixed an issue preventing Tyrael from gaining stacks of Ardent Restoration from the damage dealt by the Burning Halo talent.

[Dejo93 1,023]

I know I'm being petty, but Blizz

Just remove Mercenary Lord on Sonya

It's such an archaic talent

[Valhalen 1,484]

50 minutes ago, Dejo93 said:

I know I'm being petty, but Blizz

Just remove Mercenary Lord on Sonya

It's such an archaic talent

They need to rework her. Or at least tweak. I'd love to see some changes to allow more diverse talent builds. And making Shot of Fury baseline is all I want.

Edited January 24, 2018 by Valhalen

[Hypersonic 119]

Valeera buff would be so cool if she would be usable after this stealth rework.. I'm just came back after some break and now realized this rework killed all stealth hero, I hope they gonna think through it again.

Edited January 26, 2018 by Hypersonic

[Plergoth 277]

Some interesting and unexpected tweaks here, along with a couple of expected - even overdue - ones. Sonya's seem a little too much though, I've read elsewhere that Poisoned Spear is actually WORSE than it was before it got buffed last year with her update back then but I haven't looked through the patch note history yet to confirm. I'd love to see her with a bit more work as I feel she's became a bit of a stale hero; the Slam talents in particular lack oomph compared to the much more useful burst or survival options she gets. 

 

[Erathis 53]

I'm glad to see Valeera getting a pretty broad set of buffs and happy to see some of the blanket support nerfs pulled back.  Minor Hanzo/Sonya nerfs are fine with me though I'm sad Sylvanas got hit a bit.  Xul and Hammer are "eh" changes to me (though did they really need to nerf Jailors?).

Blaze probably got the biggest talent change though (beyond his general buffing) with Nanomachine Coating working on ignited oil!  That turns the talent from weakish (or at least tough to make use of) and makes it very viable against it's intended targets.

Edited January 25, 2018 by TSRD

[Plergoth 277]

15 minutes ago, Hypersonic said:

Valeera buff would be so cool if she would be usable after this invisiblity rework.. I'm just came back after some break and now realized this rework killed all invisiblity hero, I hope they gonna think through it again.

The stealth heroes have actually been doing pretty well for the most part and some have been on the receiving end of some nerfs lol. Nova is pretty reliable due to being ranged but I've been enjoying Samuro a lot, who wasn't quite a permanent stealth hero in the first place I admit, but he doesn't quite suffer the same way the other stealth heroes sometimes do with hard reveals or vision if you want to give him a shot. 

 

2 minutes ago, TSRD said:

I'm sad Sylvanas got hit a bit.  Xul and Hammer are "eh" changes to me (though did they really need to nerf Jailors?).

I think they were looking at the bigger picture there, in regards to the battleground and building changes, trimming down a bit of the free push pressure during snowballing type objectives where a Sylvanas or Hammer behind a Zerg Wave or Weeb Weavers could completely destroy your early game and severely hinder your chances of the overall outcome of the match as a result if not straight up win with the first objective. 

[Amit 17]

1 hour ago, Valhalen said:

And making Shot of Fury baseline is all I want

I'm with you on that wish (Y)

[xevex 41]

2 hours ago, Hypersonic said:

Valeera buff would be so cool if she would be usable after this invisiblity rework.. I'm just came back after some break and now realized this rework killed all invisiblity hero, I hope they gonna think through it again.

Valeera has been wrecking everyone since the rework. Until recent nerfs. 
But these changes are very positive for her. 
Actually i think they just broke her again. 

4 hours ago, Stan said:

• Level 4
  • Relentless Strikes (Q)
    • Sinister Strike energy reduction increased from 10 to 15
• Level 7
  • Mutilate (Q)
    • Damage bonus increased from 100% to 125%

These 2 changes are just huge. But i think its correct to push her into this direction. Stealth Heroes should be bursty. 
Altough im afraid that "Seal Fate" will make her very oppressive with the added bonus dmg from Mutilate.
Before: Baseline>110>Mutilate>220>Seal Fate>330
Now:     Baseline>110>Mutilate>247>Seal Fate>370
Thats some seriously huge late-game burst dmg. 
Seems like they really dont want the openers to have a finishing power like they did before stealth rework when you could just ambush on a low hp hero for a fast kill. So instead they putting more dmg into her SS. Which is nice since she always felt like some mesh-up between sustain and burst.

Not to mention 0.75s stun + 4.5s blind it seems to me that Valeera is becoming a late-game Cassia enabler. :D

Tyrandes raised basic attack dmg is very nice, i seriously never seen the point nerfing Tassadar and Tyrande with the rest of the Supports when they dont even provide reliable healing.

Hanzos nerfs were pretty much expected. Sharpened Arrowhead was just too OP. 

Well im happy about the Valeera/Tyrande buffs. Even Hanzo nerfs. Dont get me wrong im a Hanzo main but Sharpened Arrowheads was just too strong and this will make the talent much more viable with Storm Bow builds too. 
 

Edited January 25, 2018 by xevex

[SMOrcMan 76]

All I can think of is Chen and The Lost Vikings and why they never get balanced.

[SteveFrost 97]

10 hours ago, Dejo93 said:

I know I'm being petty, but Blizz

Just remove Mercenary Lord on Sonya

It's such an archaic talent

Inb4 Kerrigan still has Envenom and Jimmy specialist talents lul

[Dejo93 1,023]

7 hours ago, SteveFrost said:

Inb4 Kerrigan still has Envenom and Jimmy specialist talents lul

Oh God, I forgot about those :D

Seriously, it just takes a minor patch to remove it from the game

I really don't get it

[Valhalen 1,484]

1 hour ago, Dejo93 said:

Oh God, I forgot about those :D

Seriously, it just takes a minor patch to remove it from the game

I really don't get it

I think they will remove it when they finally rework her again.

But if you think about, Malfurion was reworked but he still has the generic Ice Block, which from a lore perspective doesn't fit the fantasy of the character since Druids cannot use water-based spells.

[SleepySheepy 41]

I just don't get why would they nerf Hammer. Yes, she might have good wirante (apparently), but when was the last time you actually saw her? I don't recall seeing her in last 3 weeks.

By the way, Grubby made good point regarding Sylvanas and Hanzo. Sylvanas nerf was complete flop, missed whole point. They needed to nerf/change Trait and buff her ability to affect damage in TF. 
And Hanzo blank nerfs don't make sense when it's only few talents that are over the board and they should be touched. At least one of them was.

[SteveFrost 97]

5 hours ago, Dejo93 said:

Oh God, I forgot about those :D

Seriously, it just takes a minor patch to remove it from the game

I really don't get it

They never do stuff like just remove 1 or few talents but some big or small overhaul, from what I remember at least. Guess they're waiting til then (hopefully). Kerrigan is in dire need of one and a big one at that, Jimmy can still function very well imho though he could definitely use some love as well.

[EDL666 18]

On 1/24/2018 at 7:15 PM, Plergoth said:

I think they were looking at the bigger picture there, in regards to the battleground and building changes, trimming down a bit of the free push pressure during snowballing type objectives where a Sylvanas or Hammer behind a Zerg Wave or Weeb Weavers could completely destroy your early game and severely hinder your chances of the overall outcome of the match as a result if not straight up win with the first objective. 

That's clearly it, I've won too many games from the first objective push(or any objective push) just because we had one of these 2 just hiding behind the Zergs to almost completely eliminate their main weakness and it's just devastating and sad...

[Valks 2,377]

On 26/01/2018 at 11:22 AM, EDL666 said:

That's clearly it, I've won too many games from the first objective push(or any objective push) just because we had one of these 2 just hiding behind the Zergs to almost completely eliminate their main weakness and it's just devastating and sad...

Going through a 50/50 coin flip at the start of the game is also just horrible - if you guess the wrong lane and the enemy team stacks on one, you'll lose the early game immediately. I'd love something to stop that early "pile-on" push behind a Sylv/Hammer. Increased defences on the buildings, for example, or that they regenerate HP if they don't die during the first few minutes. It would encourage people to commit rather than getting everything low and just retreating, knowing creeps will push it over.