heroes Heroes of the Storm Balance Update: August 28th

Stan · August 28, 2019

A new balance update has just hit the Nexus. The Triglav Protector on Volskaya Foundry has been buffed to sustain more damage and we have a plethora of Hero changes.

Blizzard (Source)

Heroes of the Storm has just been updated with Hero balance changes and bug fixes! Read on for details.

Battlegrounds

Volskaya Foundry
- Triglav Protector
  - Health increased from 10450 to 11500.
  - Health scaling in minutes 1-5 increased from 550 to 575.
  - Health scaling over time increased by a proportional amount.
  - Starting Basic Attack damage increased from 140 to 155.
  - Charge [Q]
    - Starting damage increased from 140 to 160.
    - Damage bonus vs. non-Heroic targets increased from 400% to 500%.

Developer Comment: Since our last round of changes, game times have gone up on Volskaya Foundry a little more than we would like. We’re buffing the Triglav Protector’s pushing power so that it can get more damage done when it’s taken.

Heroes

Tank

Blaze

Base

Jet Propulsion [E]
- Delay before charging reduced from .5 to .375 seconds.
- Cooldown increased from 8 to 10 seconds.
- Mana cost increased from 40 to 45.

Developer Comment: To help Blaze be a better front line for his team, we’re slightly reducing the delay on Jet Propulsion to make it more reliable, and increasing its cooldown to compensate.

Diablo

Talents

Level 7
- Eternal Flames [W]
  - Additional functionality: Also refunds 35 Mana when Stunning enemy Heroes with Shadow Charge or Overpower.
- Diabolical Momentum [Passive]
  - Cooldown reduction increased from 1 to 1.25 seconds.
Level 13
- Adjusted the order of talents to match other heroes (Q, W, E, etc.).
- Devastating Charge [Q]
  - Damage bonus reduced from 80% to 50%.
  - Adjusted functionality:
    - Quest: Hit 5 enemy Heroes against terrain with Shadow Charge.
    - Reward: Hitting enemy Heroes against terrain with Shadow Charge reduces their Armor by 15 for 4 seconds.
- Hellfire [W]
  - Additional functionality: When at maximum stacks, Diablo deals 15 damage to nearby enemies.

Developer Comment: We’ve had a lot of discussion recently on Diablo’s place in the meta and what makes him such a consistently popular pick, despite having a low win rate. We love the hero, and believe he’s an incredibly fun Warrior to play, but we’ve heard complaints from players about his burst potential, and we agree that it can be a bit much to be killed in a double Shadow Charge combo post 16. To help free up other options on his 13 and 16 tiers and to address issues with his burst, we are changing Devastating Charge to be a little less about his own burst damage, and more about debuffing his target so that his team can take advantage of his powerful initiation. In addition, we’re buffing up his other builds so that they can be more viable compared to the double wall-stun combo that currently dominates his late-game playstyle. We hope that these changes still retain the fun of lining up the perfect Domination combo for those who love the playstyle while also bringing other ways to play him into the forefront.

Johanna

Talents

Level 1
- Reinforce [Passive]
  - Physical Armor amount reduced from 75 to 50.
  - Adjusted functionality: Casting a Basic Ability gives Johanna 60 Physical Armor for 2.5 seconds.

Developer Comment: Reinforce has been a bit of an awkward talent compared to others on the tier. Instead of giving Johanna charges of Block, we’re changing it to give her Physical Armor for a duration. This should give Johanna the option to space her Abilities out to maximize the duration of the bonus.

Bruiser

Chen

Talents

Level 1
- Eye of the Tiger [W]
  - Bonus damage and healing reduced from 50% to 40%.
- Stormstout Secret Recipe [Passive]
  - Healing increased from 2.5% to 3% of Chen’s maximum Health.
Level 4
- Accumulating Flame [W]
  - Increased Ignited damage reduced from 25% to 20%.
- Withering Flames [W]
  - Spell Power reduction increased from 40% to 50%.
Level 7
- Gift of the Ox [E]
  - Stagger’s damage duration increased from .5 seconds to 1 second.
Level 10
- Storm, Earth, Fire [R2]
  - Cooldown increased from 100 to 120 seconds.
Level 13
- Ring of Fire [W]
  - Damage reduced from 60 to 55.
Level 16
- Celerity [E]
  - Armor bonus increased from 20 to 30.
- Combo Strikes [Trait]
  - Attack Speed bonus reduced from 50% to 35%.

Developer Comment: Now that Chen’s rework has had some time to settle, we’re doing some larger talent tuning due to a few talents outperforming others. Eye of the Tiger and Combo Strikes in particular are too powerful compared to other options, and his Stagger-related talents are underperforming. These tuning changes should better round out his talent options while still ensuring that he remain a viable member of the team.

Imperius

Base

Valorous Brand [Trait]
- Healing amount increased from 70 to 75.

Talents

Level 1
- Impaling Light [Q]
  - Damage increased from 50% to 100%.
  - Cooldown reduction increased from 1 second to 1.25 seconds.
- Consuming Flame [W]
  - Center damage bonus increased from 100% to 125%.
Level 4
- Battle Hunger [Trait]
  - Healing increased from 50% to 60%.
Level 13
- Pathetic Mortals [Q]
  - Damage reduction increased from 35% to 40%.
Level 16
- Celestial Swiftness [Q]
  - Movement Speed bonus increased from 20% to 25%.

Developer Comment: Imperius has lost a bit of his teeth since our talent revamp, and these changes should bring him back to his former glory.

Leoric

Base

Health increased from 2468 to 2550.
Health Regeneration increased from 5.141 to 5.313.

Talents

Level 20
- Hardened Bones [W]
  - Armor increased from 40 to 50.
- Shroud of the Dead King [Active]
  - Cooldown reduced from 60 to 30 seconds.

Developer Comment: Too many traitors have escaped Leoric’s grasp lately. It’s time that they paid.

Support

Medivh

Talents

Level 20
- Dust of Disappearance [Active]
  - Allied Heroes who are given Stealth are unable to be revealed for .5 seconds.

Developer Comment: We heard feedback that Medivh’s Dust of Disappearance should mirror Brightwing’s Invisible Friends when it comes to its reliability in being able to give allies Stealth, and we agree!

Tassadar

Base

Health increased from 1287 to 1350.
Health Regeneration increased from 2.68 to 2.81.
Basic Attack damage increased from 14 to 15.
Distortion Beam Slow increased from 20% to 25%.

Talents

Level 1
- Khaydarin Resonance [Passive]
  - Regeneration Globe amounts for quest completion reduced from 15/30 to 10/20.
  - Plasma Shield quest completion bonuses reduced from 20%/40% to 15%/30%.
Level 7
- Resonation [W]
  - Slow amount increased from 50% to 60%.
Level 13
- Adun's Wisdom [Trait]
  - Cooldown reduction increased from 50% to 75%.
Level 16
- Phase Disruption [W]
  - Physical Armor reduction increased from 25 to 35.
- Focused Beam [Trait]
  - Bonus damage increased from 1% to 1.5% maximum Health.
Level 20
- Prismatic Link [Passive]
  - Damage increased from 40% to 50%.

Developer Comment: Leaving him on a good note ahead of nipping out some of his kit was important to us, so while we wait for Tassadar’s rework to come to the Nexus, we thought it would be fun to buff him a bit in the meantime.

Healer

Auriel

Base

Bestow Hope [Trait]
- Hope generation from damage that Auriel deals to enemy Heroes increased from 40% to 60%.
- Hope generation from damage that Auriel deals to non-Heroes increased from 10% to 20%.
- Hope generation from damage that allied Heroes deals to enemy Heroes decreased from 40% to 30%.

Talents

Level 4
- Heavy Burden [E]
  - Slow amount increased from 40% to 50%.

Developer Comment: We’re experimenting with changing Auriel to be a little less dependent on her Hope target in order to be effective. While we still want the connection between her and her chosen teammate to be a central part of the Hero, this should allow her to shine in more compositions, and reward good Auriel players with an increased effectiveness in their games.

Deckard

Base

Health increased from 1598 to 1700.
Health Regeneration increased from 3.328 to 3.542.

Talents

Level 7
- Cube Mastery [W]
  - Mana cost reduction of Scroll of Sealing changed from 30 to 25.
  - Scroll of Sealing cooldown reduction increased from 3 to 4.
Level 16
- Safety in Numbers [Passive]
  - Additional functionality: When 3 allied Heroes are nearby, Deckard’s Mana Regeneration is also increased by 50%.

Developer Comment: OK, Deckard. We have to have a talk. We’ve been buffing you since December and you still don’t want to become meta. At this point it’s not me, it’s you. Seriously we love Deckard. Hope you all enjoy these buffs!

Kharazim

Talents

Level 7
- Heavenly Zeal [W]
  - Increased Breath of Heaven Healing duration increased from 3 to 3.5 seconds.

Developer Comment: To help smooth out the interaction between Heavenly Zeal and Echo of Heaven, we’re slightly increasing the bonus Healing duration so that they can more reliably benefit from one another.

Rehgar

Base

Basic Attack damage reduced from 113 to 106.
Health reduced from 2049 to 2000.
Health Regeneration reduced from 4.27 to 4.167.

Talents

Level 1
- Electric Charge [W]
  - Additional functionality: Damage done with Lightning Shield to enemy Heroes heals Rehgar for 30% of the damage dealt.
- Colossal Totem [E]
  - Additional functionality: Earthbind Totem can be reactivated to move an existing totem to a new location once.
- Wolf Run [Z]
  - Additional functionality: Hitting an enemy Hero with Ghost Form’s Lunge attack reduces the cooldown of Ghost Wolf by 1 second.
Level 4
- Totemic Projection [E]
  - Removed.
Level 7
- Farsight [Active]
  - Removed.
- New talent: Grounded Totem [E]
  - Increase the Health of Earthbind Totem by 100%. Enemy Heroes who are Slowed by Earthbind Totem also have their Attack Speed Slowed by 40%.
Level 10
- Bloodlust [R2]
  - Range increased from 8 to 12.
  - Movement Speed bonus increased from 25% to 35%.

Developer Comment: Rehgar currently sits at the top of the Healer totem pole with the highest win-rate in the game. While he’s not the most popular yet, we wanted to make some of his talents more interesting, and at the same time we want to get ahead of how blatantly, obviously, incredibly, stunningly, and astonishingly overpowered he is.

Stukov

Talents

Level 10
- Flailing Swipe [R1]
  - Cooldown reduced from 80 to 60 seconds.
  - Mana cost reduced from 80 to 60.
Level 20
- Controlled Chaos [R1]
  - Cooldown of Flailing Swipe changed from 30 to 25 seconds.
  - Mana cost of Flailing Swipe changed from 30 to 25.

Developer Comment: We’re buffing Flailing Swipe to be a more viable option compared to Massive Shove. With this reduced cooldown, Stukov should feel more free to peel for his teammates between team fights without risking Flailing Swipe being on cooldown during the next engagement.

Tyrande

Talents

Level 1
- Everlasting Light [Q]
  - Healing increased from 40% to 45%.
- Mark of Mending [Trait]
  - Self-healing increased from 2% to 2.5% maximum Health.
- Elune's Chosen [Active]
  - Healing reduced from 200% to 175% of the damage dealt.
Level 4
- The talents on this tier have been moved to follow normal talent ordering conventions (Q, W, E, etc.).
- Ranger [Active]
  - Cooldown reduced from 30 to 25 seconds.
- Trueshot Aura [Active]
  - Cooldown reduced from 60 to 45 seconds.
Level 7
- Huntress' Fury [Trait]
  - Moved from Level 16.
Level 13
- Ranger's Mark [Trait]
  - Basic Attacks against marked targets no longer increase the duration of Hunter’s Mark.
  - New functionality: Basic Attacks against marked targets reduce the cooldown of Lunar Flare by 1.5 seconds.
Level 16
- Celestial Attunement [Q]
  - Moved from Level 7.

Developer Comment: Outside of normal talent tuning changes, we wanted to move Celestial Attunement to a later talent tier. While it wasn’t unreasonably blowing out games from a win rate perspective, we feel that it comes online too early for its powerful effect due to how it can make many other Heroes significantly less effective and fun to play for too much of a match. We like that it’s a unique reason to bring Tyrande, but, similar to Kharazim’s Cleansing Touch, we think it’s more appropriate for these kinds of effects to come online later in the game.

Melee Assassin

Alarak

Talents

Level 1
- Ruthless Momentum [W]
  - Cooldown recharge rate reduced from 100% to 75%.
Level 4
- Show of Force [Trait]
  - Damage reduced from 68 to 65.
Level 7
- Hindered Motion [W]
  - Slow duration increased from 2 to 3 seconds.

Developer Comment: We went a little overboard with our changes to Ruthless Momentum and Show of Force. We’re toning both of these talents down a bit, while at the same time giving Hindered Motion a small buff.

Murky

Talents

Level 4
- Slime Time [Q]
  - Required number of times enemy Heroes need to be Slimed to receive quest rewards reduced from 15/30 to 10/20.
- Living the Dream [Passive]
  - Maximum Spell Power bonus increased from 20% to 25%.

Developer Comment: Mrrgl mrrgl mrrrrrrrgl. Mrrrrrgl! Mrgl?

Qhira

Base

Health reduced from 2075 to 1950.
Health Regeneration reduced from 4.32 to 4.06
Grappling Hook [Trait]
- Range reduced from 12 to 11.

Talents

Level 1
- Maximum Effort [Q]
  - Slow increased from 20% for 2 seconds to 25% for 2.5 seconds.
- Fatal Wounds [W]
  - Quest completion requirement increased from 125 to 200.
  - Bonus Blood Rage bleed damage reduced from 50% to 40%.
- Finishing Touch [Passive]
  - Bonus damage increased from 25% to 30%.
  - Duration increased from 2.5 to 3 seconds.
Level 4
- Ensnaring Swing [E]
  - Primary target Slow increased from 25% to 30%.
  - Secondary target Slow increased from 35% to 40%.
Level 7
- Healmonger [W]
  - Healing reduced from 205 to 190.
Level 10
- Unrelenting Strikes [R1]
  - Stun duration increased from .75 seconds to 1 second.
  - Final damage increased from 83 to 160.
- Final Strike [R2]
  - Damage reduced from 415 to 395.

Developer Comment: Qhira has been performing well since her release, though due to a bug with Fatal Wounds that we recently fixed she was initially quite a bit more powerful than intended. We’re making these changes in the meantime to get her into a more appropriate place while we wait for more data to come in.

Zeratul

Talents

Level 13
- Shroud of Adun [Trait]
  - Shield amount increased from 15% to 20%.
  - Shield gain reduced from being over 5 seconds to over 3 seconds.

Developer Comment: Shroud of Adun is slightly underperforming compared to its alternatives. It now has synergy with Move Unseen due to our last round of changes to Zeratul, and hopefully with this buff Shroud of Adun gets pushed into the limelight.

Ranged Assassin

Chromie

Talents

Level 1
- Timewalker's Pursuit [Active]
  - Spellpower bonus increased from 10% to 15%.
Level 7
- Bronze Talons [Q]
  - Bonus Basic Attack damage increased from 30% to 40%.
- Mobius Loop [W]
  - Cooldown reduction increased from 1.5 to 1.75 seconds.
Level 13
- Here and There [Active]
  - Cooldown reduced from 25 to 20 seconds.
Level 16
- Fast Forward [Q]
  - Additional functionality: Also refunds 10 Mana when Sand Blast travels 50% of its base distance and hits an enemy Hero.
Level 20
- Blessing of the Bronze [Active]
  - Additional functionality: Hitting enemy Heroes with Sand Blast from Chromie or her Echoes reduces the cooldown of Blessing of the Bronze by 8 seconds.

Developer Comment: Chromie’s fallen a bit out of favor in recent months, so we are beefing her up to be a bit more viable.

Gul'dan

Talents

Level 10
- Rain of Destruction [R2]
  - Cooldown reduced from 100 to 70 seconds.
  - Mana cost reduced from 90 to 80.
Level 16
- Darkness Within [Trait]
  - New functionality: Dealing 600 damage to enemy Heroes causes the next cast of Life Tap to cost no Health and grant Gul’dan 25% Spell Power for 5 seconds.

Developer Comment: Darkness Within has always been a bit of an outlier compared to Gul’dan’s other talents at 16. We’re trying something new with this iteration, which is now about keeping a rolling Spell Power buff going by continuing to deal damage to enemy Heroes and, if Gul’dan can do this, having a better engine to fuel his abilities. We’re hoping that this makes Darkness Within a powerful and different feeling option compared to the other talents on the tier.

Hanzo

Talents

Level 4
- Explosive Arrows [Q]
  - Bonus damage reduced from 75% to 60%.
Level 10
- Dragonstrike [R1]
  - Cooldown reduced from 100 to 60 seconds.
  - Mana cost reduced from 100 to 60.
  - Damage increased from 70 to 78.
Level 13
- Mounted Archery [Passive]
  - Movement Speed bonus increased from 20% to 25%.
Level 20
- The Dragon Awakens [R1]
  - Cooldown reduction reduced from 5 to 4 seconds.

Developer Comment: We’re nerfing the dominance of Explosive Arrows while also giving Dragonstrike a much needed buff. Yep.

Kel'Thuzad

Talents

Level 7
- Accelerated Decay [Q]
  - Bonus damage increased from 20% to 25%.
  - Maximum stacks reduced from 6 to 4.
- Ice Cold [Passive]
  - Cooldown reduction increased from 5 to 8 seconds.
  - Bonus damage increased from 300% to 400%.
Level 10
- Frost Blast [R1]
  - Cooldown reduced from 60 to 50 seconds.
  - Mana cost reduced from 50 to 45.
  - Root duration increased from 1.75 to 2 seconds.
- Shadow Fissure [R2]
  - Mana cost reduced from 45 to 40.
  - Damage reduced from 360 to 320.
  - New functionality: Damaging an enemy Hero with Shadow Fissure resets its cooldown.
Level 13
- Icy Grasp [W]
  - Damaging enemy Heroes who are slowed by Frost Nova no longer increases its slow duration.
  - New functionality: Damaging enemy Heroes who are slowed by Frost Nova reduces the cooldown of Frost Nova by .4 seconds.
Level 20
- Might of the Scourge [R2]
  - If an enemy Hero is hit by Shadow Fissure, then it will explode a second time below them 1 second later. This second cast will not duplicate itself.

Developer Comment: We’re making some changes to Kel’Thuzad to reduce his burst damage combo with Shadow Fissure, as well as to make some adjustments to his talents to make them more competitive with one another.

Li-Ming

Base

Magic Missiles [Q]
- Damage scaling increased from 3% to 3.5%.

Talents

Rearranged talents at Levels 1 and 13 to appear in the same order as other Heroes (Q, W, E, etc.).
Level 1
- Astral Presence [Passive]
  - Mana threshold for Mana gain increased from 25% to 35%.
Level 7
- Seeker [Q]
  - Damage increased from 125 to 140.
- Zei's Vengeance [W]
  - Damage increase bonus for distance traveled increased from 25% to 30%.
Level 10
- Disintegrate [R1]
  - Damage increased from 11 to 12.
Level 13
- Glass Cannon [Passive]
  - Spell Power bonus increased from 15% to 20%.

Developer Comment: While we haven’t seen a huge change in Li-Ming’s overall power since the Movement Speed changes to the game, we took a look at her and wanted to give her a few buffs, particularly to under-powered talents. While a popular suggestion, we don’t feel that it’s necessary yet to increase the speed of her Ability casts. We’ll continue to keep an eye on her as we get more data on her performance over time.

Tychus

Talents

Level 1
- Press the Advantage [E]
  - Duration increased from 3 to 5 seconds.
- Dash [E]
  - No longer has a quest component.
  - Adjusted functionality: Increase the range of Run and Gun by 50%. Casting Run and Gun grants Tychus 20% Movement Speed for 2.5 seconds.
- Combat Tactician [E]
  - New functionality: Casting Run and Gun reduces the cooldown of Minigun by 8 seconds.

Developer Comment: Tychus’s Level 1 talents have traditionally not been the most exciting or impactful. We’re making some changes to make them feel more powerful and different from one another.

Valla

Talents

Level 1
- Caltrops [E]
  - Additional functionality: Upon completing the quest, Vault’s Mana cost is reduced from 50 to 25.

Developer Comment: Since Valla has a fair bit of Mana tension, and to be consistent with other talents that significantly reduce the cooldown of an ability, we’re giving a Mana reduction to Vault on Caltrops so that it remains Mana-neutral when the quest is completed.

Bug Fixes

Qhira
- Qhira's Grappling Hook should no longer pull her after she has been Rooted.
- Qhira's Grappling Hook visuals should clean up correctly if she dies at the same time it connects.
- Qhira's Revolving Sweep kinetics have been cleaned up and should play nicer with sub-game-loop interactions.
- Qhira's Unleashed Potential talent will no longer cause ability resets when killing Illusions.

The latest Heroes of the Storm balance update is now live!

Dejo93 · August 28, 2019

Hold on, didn't they nerf healing supports earlier? Why bring them back to the same old ?

leapingshadow · August 28, 2019

KTZ buffs ?

Kurosu · August 28, 2019

40 minutes ago, Dejo93 said:

Hold on, didn't they nerf healing supports earlier? Why bring them back to the same old ?

New to blizz games?

ShadowerDerek · August 29, 2019

7 hours ago, Stan said:

how blatantly, obviously, incredibly, stunningly, and astonishingly overpowered he is.

Cough cough Ana cough cough

7 hours ago, Stan said:

We’re nerfing the dominance of Explosive Arrows while also giving Dragonstrike a much needed buff. Yep.

Nerfing Explosive Arrow won't do anything. It's Hanzo's ONLY source of waveclear. You can't afford NOT to take it in 90% of your game. Serrated Arrow is for mercs and Immortals. No, Ignore All Distractions does not give you waveclear because of his slow attack speed. And no, you should not pick Redemption since it's easily the worst Lv 1 talent.

Alkasar · August 29, 2019

9 hours ago, Dejo93 said:

Hold on, didn't they nerf healing supports earlier? Why bring them back to the same old ?

They probably didn't like the end result. Happened in many games with many changes.

Valhalen · August 29, 2019

I'm very happy with the Deckard and Auriel changes. By the way, NotParadox said there are some undocumented Auriel buffs that are not in the patch notes, so he is unsure if they were intentional or bugs. Does anyone know what are those?

Morcalivan · August 30, 2019

So Qhira gets buffed. That makes sense. :/

lChronosl · August 30, 2019

I'm itching to try the new changes on Rehgar. I bet solo laner Rehgar is back. Changes for Tyrande and Tassadar seem cool too.

Angela · September 14, 2019

On 8/30/2019 at 5:56 AM, Valhalen said:

I'm very happy with the Deckard and Auriel changes. By the way, NotParadox said there are some undocumented Auriel buffs that are not in the patch notes, so he is unsure if they were intentional or bugs. Does anyone know what are those?

What are the undocumented buffs?

Valhalen · September 16, 2019

On 9/14/2019 at 8:42 PM, Angela said:

What are the undocumented buffs?

I have no idea. He never touched the subject again,

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heroes Heroes of the Storm Balance Update: August 28th

Recommended Posts

Stan 5,249

Blizzard (Source)

Battlegrounds

Heroes

Tank

Blaze

Diablo

Johanna

Bruiser

Chen

Imperius

Leoric

Support

Medivh

Tassadar

Healer

Auriel

Deckard

Kharazim

Rehgar

Stukov

Tyrande

Melee Assassin

Alarak

Murky

Qhira

Zeratul

Ranged Assassin

Chromie

Gul'dan

Hanzo

Kel'Thuzad

Li-Ming

Tychus

Valla

Bug Fixes

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