heroes Heroes of the Storm Balance Update: January 23rd

[Stan 5,247]

A new Heroes of the Storm patch arrived on live servers today with plenty of Hero changes. Check out the official patch notes for details.

Blizzard (Source)

Heroes

Assassin

Gul'dan

Talents

• Level 7
  • Curse of Exhaustion (E)
    • Movement Speed Slow increased from 25 to 35%
• Level 13
  • Harvest Life (W)
    • Healing increased from 50 to 75%
  • Dark Bargain (Passive)
    • Health bonus increased from 25 to 30%

Illidan

Abilities

• Metamorphosis (R)
  • Bonus Health increased from 200 to 220

Talents

• Level 16
  • Fiery Brand (Passive)
    • Damage bonus increased from 6 to 7% Maximum Health

Jaina

Abilities

• Frostbolt (Q)
  • Damage reduced from 190 to 184
• Cone of Cold (E)
  • Damage reduced from 230 to 220

Talents

• Level 7
  • Ice Floes (E)
    • Cooldown reduction increased from 2 to 3 seconds
  • Icefury Wand (Passive)
    • Damage bonus increased from 75 to 100%
    • Cooldown reduction increased from 1 to 1.5 seconds
• Level 16
  • Northern Exposure (E)
    • Armor reduction decreased from 25 to 20

Junkrat

Abilities

• Rocket Ride (R)
  • Cooldown reduced from 100 to 75 seconds

Talents

• Level 20
  • Puckish Scamp (R)
    • Cooldown reduction reduced from 70 to 45 seconds
    • Additional functionality:
      •  Now also increases the damage off Rocket Ride by 15%
  • BOOM POW (W)
    • Cooldown reduction increased from 10 to 12 seconds

Kerrigan

Talents

• Level 1
  • Assimilation Mastery (Trait)
    • Shield amount increased from 40 to 45
• Level 13
  • Psionic Barrier (E)
    • Spell Armor increased from 15 to 20

Li-Ming

Talents

• Level 1
  • Aether Walker (E)
    • Damage taken time requirement for bonuses reduced from 4 to 3 seconds
• Level 13
  • Diamond Skin (E)
    • Shield increased from 20 to 25%

Maiev

Talents

• Level 4
  • Pin Down (Q)
    • First Reward damage bonus increased from 15 to 25%
• Level 7
  • Bonds of Corruption (W)
    • Armor reduction duration increased from 3 to 4 seconds
• Level 13
  • Shadow Armor (E)
    • Duration increased from 3 to 3.5 seconds  

Mephisto

Abilities

• Lightning Nova (W)
  • Mana cost reduced from 55 to 50
• Shade of Mephisto (E)
  • Mana cost reduced from 40 to 35
• Durance of Hate (R)
  • Cooldown reduced from 60 to 50 seconds
  • Mana cost reduced from 60 to 50

Nova

Talents

• Level 1
  • Covert Ops (W)
    • Stealth requirement reduced from 5 to 4 seconds
• Level 4
  • Rapid Projection (E)
    • Cooldown and Mana cost reduction increased from 40% to 50%
  • Holo Stability (E)
    • Duration bonus increased from 100% to 120%
• Level 16
  • Explosive Round (Q)
    • Damage bonus Increased from 80 to 90%

Ragnaros

Talents

• Level 1
  • Shifting Meteor (W)
    • Damage bonus increased from 3 to 5%

Zeratul

Talents

• Level 16
  • Void Slash (Q)
    • Damage bonus reduced from 50 to 40%
• Level 20
  • Shadow Mending (Passive)
    • Healing reduced from 75 to 60%

Specialist

Gazlowe

Abilities

• Grav-O-Bomb 3000 (R)
  • Cooldown reduced from 110 to 90 seconds
  • Mana cost reduced from 100 to 80

Talents

• Level 20
  • It's Raining Scrap (Active)
    • Cooldown reduced from 60 to 30 seconds

The Lost Vikings

Talents

• Level 4
  • It's a Sabotage!  (Passive)
    • Damage increased from 35 to 50
    • Damage is now dealt over 5 seconds instead of 10 seconds
• Level 7
  • Norse Force! (Q)
    • Shield amount for 1 Viking increased from 110 to 130
    • Shield amount for 2 Vikings increased from 165 to 195
    • Shield amount for 3 Vikings increased from 220 to 260
• Level 13
  • Nordic Attack Squad (W)
    • Cooldown reduced from 30 to 20 seconds
    • Damage increased from 1% to 1.25%

Murky

Abilities

• Spawn Egg (Trait)
  • Cast time reduced from 2 to 1.5 seconds

Talents

• Level 4
  • Living the Dream (Trait)
    • Maximum stacks increased from 15 to 20%

Zagara

Talents

• Level 7
  • Bile Drop (E)
    • New Functionality:
      • Increase the impact radius of Infested Drop by 20%.  Quest: After hitting 15 enemy Heroes with Infested Drop, an additional Roach is spawned.

Support

Alexstrasza

Abilities

• Abundance (W)
  • Cooldown reduced from 16 to 14 seconds
• Life-Binder (R)
  • Mana cost reduced from 80 to 60

Talents

• Level 13
  • Dragon Scales (Passive)
    • Armor amount increased from 30 to 40

Deckard 

Abilities

• Healing Potion (Q)
  • Healing increased from 240 to 255

Talents

• Level 1
  • Scroll of Identify (E)
    • Quest requirement reduced from 20 to 16
  • Field Study (E)
    • Duration increased from 14 to 16 seconds
• Level 13
  • Super Healing Potion (Q)
    • Healing increased from 100 to 120%
  • Potion of Revival (Q)
    • Healing increased from 45 to 50%

Kharazim

Abilities

• Divine Palm (R)
  • Healing increased from 1084 to 1200

Li Li

Abilities

• Cloud Serpent (W)
  • Cooldown increased from 10 to 11 seconds

Talents

• Level 1
  • Eager Adventurer (Trait)
    • Fast Feet duration bonus increased from 100 to 125%
• Level 4
  • Safety Sprint (Trait)
    • Cooldown reduced from 30 to 25 seconds

Lt. Morales

Abilities

• Safeguard (W)
  • Cooldown increased from 10 to 11 seconds

Malfurion

Talents

• Level 4
  • Strangling Vines (E)
    • Healing reduction increased from 30% to 40%
  • Deep Roots (E)
    • Duration bonus increased from 25% to 40%
  • Vengeful Roots (E)
    • Treant damage reduced from 65 to 58

Warrior

Anub'arak

Stats

• Basic Attack damage reduced from 91 to 85

Abilities

• Impale (Q)
  • Damage reduced from 100 to 95

Talents

• Level 1
  • Legion of Beetles (Trait)
    • Moved from Level 4
    • Additional Functionality:
      •  Now also increases the Spell Armor of Beetles by 40
  • Resilient Scarabs (Trait)
    • Removed

Developer Comment: Anub’arak’s Beetle Build has been a difficult sell, particularly at level 1, due to the power discrepancy of Resilient Scarabs compared to other talents on the tier. In order to help the build, we’re reducing the opportunity cost of picking its talents by removing Resilient Scarabs and baking its functionality into Legion of Beetles. This should make for a much more attractive talent at level 1 against his other options, and should open up other build paths for players who like to slay their enemies with many tiny little friends. Anub’arak is a bit too strong overall right now, so we’re reducing his damage so that he’s not quite so dominant compared to the other tanks in our game.

Artanis

Abilities

• Phase Prism (E)
  • Cooldown reduced from 14 to 12 seconds
  • Mana cost reduced from 60 to 50

Talents

• Level 1
  • Reactive Parry (W)
    • Armor amount increased from 50 to 75
• Level 13
  • Graviton Vortex (E)
    • Mana cost reduction decreased from 30 to 25

Blaze

Talents

• Level 16
  • Juggernaut Plating (Active)
    • Cooldown reduced from 40 to 30 seconds

Chen

Stats

• Basic Attack damage increased from 84 to 90

Abilities

• Flying Kick (Q)
  • Damage increased from 112 to 120
• Fortifying Brew (Trait)
  • Shield amount reduced from 106 to 98

Talents

• Level 1
  • Accumulating Flame (E)
    • Armor bonus upon quest completion increased from 15 to 20
• Level 7
  • Purifying Brew (Trait)
    • Cooldown reduced from 15 to 12 seconds
• Level 13
  • Withering Flames (E)
    • Spell Power reduction increased from 25 to 30%

Developer Comment: We’re pushing Chen towards more of a Bruiser role with these changes. One of the longstanding issues with Chen is that due to his trait functionality and tuning, he can either be shut down fairly easily or be too powerful depending on if the enemy team has the necessary CC and burst damage to deal with him. We’re beginning to experiment with smoothing this out a but by increasing his sustained survivability and reducing the amount of burst he can tackle while also increasing his damage. While we are still iterating on him, we wanted to get some preliminary changes out sooner rather than hold back until we are finished. 

Garrosh

Talents

• Level 1
  • Body Check (Active)
    • Minimum Movement Speed Slow increased from 30 to 40%.  Maximum Movement Speed Slow remains at 60%
• Level 13
  • Bloodcraze (W)
    • Healing increased from 10% to 15% maximum Health
  • Double Up (Active)
    • Cooldown reduced from 40 to 30 seconds

Imperius

Abilities

• Angelic Armaments (R)
  • Cooldown increased from 60 to 70 seconds
  • Mana cost increased from 60 to 70

Talents

• Level 1
  • Burn the Impure (W)
    • Now works with all Valorous Brand marks
    • Damage bonus decreased from 3 to 2.5%
• Level 4
  • Bulwark of Flame (W)
    • Physical Armor increased from 60 to 70
• Level 7
  • Flash of Anger (Q)
    • Damage increased from 160 to 180
• Level 13
  • Heat of Battle (E)
    • Healing bonus increased from 25% to 35%
• Level 20
  • Valorous Pursuit (Active)
    • Cooldown reduced from 15 to 12 seconds
    • Now also provides 25 Armor for 3 seconds

Developer Comment: Judging from data gained from more experienced Imperius players, our newest Hero will trend right into the sweet spot with his overall balance. We do want to make some tuning adjustments to a few of the Talents to make sure that they're all attractive choices however, which is what the majority of these balance changes aim to address.

Johanna

Abilities

• Falling Sword (R)
  • Damage increased from 183 to 210
  • Cooldown reduced from 60 to 50 seconds
  • Mana cost reduced from 90 to 60

Talents

• Level 1
  • Reinforce (Passive)
    • Maximum stacks increased from 2 to 3
  • Hold Your Ground (Trait)
    • Shield bonus increased from 30% to 50%
• Level 4
  • Eternal Retaliation (W)
    • Mana refund increased from 2.5 to 3
• Level 7
  • Zealous Glare (E)
    • Blind duration bonus increased from .5 to .75 seconds

Leoric

Talents

• Level 1
  • Fealty Unto Death (Trait)
    • Health restoration increased from 1 to 1.25% maximum Health
    • Mana restoration increased from 5 to 6
• Level 13
  • Hardened Bones (E)
    • Armor bonus increased from 20 to 40
    • Bonus Armor duration decreased from 3 to 2 seconds
• Level 20
  • Shroud of the Dead King (Active)
    • Cooldown reduced from 75 to 60 seconds

Rexxar

Talents

• Level 13
  • Aspect of the Hawk Attack (Q)
    • Attack Speed bonus duration increased from 3 to 4 seconds

Stitches

Abilities

• Gorge (R)
  • Cooldown reduced from 70 to 65 seconds

Talents

• Level 1
  • Savor the Flavor (E)
    • Health regeneration per stack increased from 1 to 1.5
• Level 7
  • Cannibalize (Passive)
    • Healing increased from 1.75 to 2%
• Level 13
  • Digestive Juices (E)
    • Additional functionality:
      • Devour deals 40% more damage to Heroes

Bug Fixes

General

• Fixed a number of tooltip issues across the game.

Heroes

• Imperius: Fixed an issue that could cause projectiles to appear disjointed when targeting Imperius during Celestial Charge.
• Imperius: Fixed an issue that could cause Heroes to appear at the wrong height after being affected by Celestial Charge.
• Imperius: Fixed an issue causing Valorous Pursuit to occasionally teleport Imperius to an incorrect location.

Collection

• Imperius: The “Silence!” line now correctly appears in the collection.

[Valhalen 1,484]

That was very unexpected. What is even more unexpected is that they buffed Imperius, he is already annoying enough and dealing way too much damage for a Bruiser.

Edited January 23, 2019 by Valhalen

[VinsX 33]

Is the payload bug in Hanamura fixed? 

[ArusVicious 156]

Imperius is officially a god now.

Edited January 24, 2019 by Maxkitty

[SleepySheepy 41]

Burn The Impure (Imperius level 1) is insane now, it does count for each mark consumed, which means your AA against target with 3 marks will deal 1.9 AA + 7.5% of their max HP. 

[Twych 24]

Yay chen and TLV buffs. Never thought I'd see the day.

1 hour ago, Stan said:

Level 1

• Burn the Impure (W)
  • Now works with all Valorous Brand marks
  • Damage bonus decreased from 3 to 2.5%

 

WHAT?!? All hail our new king, Imperius. Combining this with the celestial charge attack speed at level 16 could be a cool albeit extremely niche (maybe even useless when the trade is for Melting Touch) additional damage with Molten Armor marks. 

1 hour ago, Valhalen said:

That was very unexpected. What is even more unexpected is that they buffed Imperius, he is already annoying enough and dealing way too much damage for a Bruiser.

To be fair the only talent that was at all used that was buffed was Burn the Impure (Though to a ridiculous degree but still). Hell, they even nerfed Angelic Armaments. The nerf isn't going to change much, but hey.

[Erathis 53]

I think looking at Imperius's Burn the Impure buff while assuming you'll be getting three stacks is complete nonsense.  Getting the Q mark is amazingly circumstantial, both in situations where it's reasonable to land it (both due to range/hit box issues and the problems with self stunning) and in situations where the mark matters (because the target isn't already dead from your teammates).  The W is a bit more reasonable to expect (though the cooldown isn't short) and the E is almost a gimmie (though not completely if you're fighting in a minion wave).  It's certainly a big buff to that talent to be sure but I doubt it'll change his power level that much.

[ShadowerDerek 69]

LETS GO FOR A RIDE!!!!!!!!!!

[VegaPl 88]

Haven't seen such a vast update in a long time. I don't even know what to focus on :P

[Valhalen 1,484]

10 hours ago, Twych said:

To be fair the only talent that was at all used that was buffed was Burn the Impure (Though to a ridiculous degree but still). Hell, they even nerfed Angelic Armaments. The nerf isn't going to change much, but hey.

They nerfed Angelic Armaments and buffed everything else, *filtered*.

[Twych 24]

6 hours ago, Valhalen said:

They nerfed Angelic Armaments and buffed everything else, *filtered*.

They buffed 4 talents that weren't used and 1 talent that was picked up on occasion. The damage buff to Flash of anger or healing from Heat of Battle isn't making him that much better since those talents still have fundamental problems that make them unrewarding to use in comparison to what those talent levels compete with. The Bulwark of the Flame buff makes it actually compete in some cases. The Valorous Pursuit is still competing with an aggressive storm shield. These buffs didn't make him that much better. Other than Burn the Impure.

[lChronosl 182]

I am surprisingly happy, because many of the talents buffed were my favourites already, even if they are not "meta".

Beetle Anub'Arak, Fast Feed Li Li, Iron Skin Jojo, Assimilation Mastery Kerrigan, Drain Life Gul'dan and Explosive Rounds Nova are my favourite builds on these heroes.

Also, I do prefer the "small buffs to under-picked talents" rather than "nerfs to most picked talents" balance philosophy.

[Morcalivan 86]

Compensating for power creep?

[gerbercage 15]

nothing done for chromie and orphea, so sad.

[SleepySheepy 41]

On 1/24/2019 at 8:56 AM, ShadowerDerek said:

LETS GO FOR A RIDE!!!!!!!!!!

When I first heard that Heroic, I always thought he said: "LET'S COUNT TO FIVE!" Man, I wish that was also an option...

[VegaPl 88]

I was thinking that they could revisit Alarak. Mainly, lvl 1 questing talent for Lightning Surge could be made baseline, as it is his bread and butter anyway. They could alter the thresholds to 10/20 to balance it. Perhaps then there would be more balance and variety between his builds. AA build could surely use some love