heroes Heroes of the Storm Balance Update Patch Notes: June 3rd

Stan · June 3, 2020

Blizzard released a new balance patch today with changes for multiple Heroes and the Call for Help Nexus Anomaly.

Blizzard made some adjustments to the Call for Help Nexus Anomaly in the patch, claiming those were already committed for this patch before they asked for community feedback.

(Source)

I think it's worth pointing out here that these changes for the Call for Help Anomaly were planned and committed for this patch before we went to the community for feedback (for some development cycle insight, patch changes generally take up to multiple weeks to implement, test, go through QA, then push to the final release client). Our next major patch is when you'll see the results of that feedback being taken into account.

Check out the official patch notes below for more details.

Blizzard (Source)

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

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General

A Call For Help - Balance Update
- Tower, Fort, and Keep damage to enemy Heroes reduced by 10%.
- Maximum Armor reduction from Structures reduced from -40 to -20.

Developer Comment: Thank you for your discussions and feedback regarding the Call For Help system. We’ve seen a trend that players believe towers are still too punishing to dive under for lengthy periods of time, so we’re going to reduce their damage as well as how powerful their Armor debuff is so that players are more incentivized to make aggressive plays when pushing. We’ll be continuing to keep an eye on how these changes unfold, so please continue to give us your feedback.

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Heroes

TANK	SUPPORT	HEALER	MELEE	RANGED
Anub'arak	The Lost Vikings	Lt. Morales	Qhira	Cassia
Stitches		Rehgar	Zeratul	Genji
Tyrael		Tyrande		Gul'dan
		Uther		Hanzo
		Whitemane		Raynor
				Tracer
				Zagara

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Tank

Anub'arak

Base

Harden Carapace [W]
- Shield amount increased from 315 to 340.

Talents

Level 7
- Leeching Scarabs [Trait]
  - Bonus attack damage increased from 20% to 30%.

Developer Comment: Anub’arak is slightly underperforming compared to other Warriors. We believe his survivability could use a little boost, so we’re increasing the Shield amount of Harden Carapace, which should make him even better at surviving burst damage, particularly from Abilities.

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Stitches

Base

Health increased from 3060 to 3150.
Health regeneration increased from 6.38 to 6.56.

Talents

Level 4
- Chop Chop [W]
  - Adjusted functionality: Hitting an enemy Hero with Slam grants 25% increased Attack Speed for 3 seconds. Double the Attack Speed bonus and duration if they are hit by the inner impact area of Slam.

Developer Comment: The two defining unique attributes to Stitches are his ability to displace enemies from long range and his incredibly high Health pool that he is able to manipulate with Devour and various talent interactions. We’re doubling down in his Health pool in this buff, which should let him stick around even longer in teamfights to harass enemies and protect his teammates.

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Tyrael

Talents

Level 1
- Salvation [W]
  - Shield amount bonus increased from 25% to 40%.
Level 4
- Divine Vigor [E]
  - Healing increased from 60% to 75%.
Level 7
- Purge Evil [E]
  - Attack damage bonus increased from 55% to 60%.
Level 13
- Law and Order [Passive]
  - Smite damage bonus increased from 25% to 35%.

Developer Comment: Tyrael’s talents are in a decent spot, but there is generally one talent on each tier that players are gravitating towards a bit more than the others. These changes are targeted at one talent on each of those tiers to even them out more.

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Support

The Lost Vikings

Talents

Level 1
- Olaf the Stout [Passive]
  - Additional functionality: Increase Olaf’s Health by 20%.
- Spy Games [Passive]
  - Additional functionality: After leaving Stealth, Erik gains 75% Basic Attack damage for 6 seconds.
- Viking Bribery [E]
  - No longer causes camps to respawn 50% faster.
Level 7
- Baleog the Fierce [Passive]
  - New functionality: Increase Baleog’s attack range by 2.5. While near Olaf and Erik, he becomes inspired by the power of teamwork and his Attack Speed is increased by 50%.
- Spin To Win! [Q]
  - Damage reduced from 101 to 85.
  - Additional functionality: Deals double damage against enemy Heroes.
- Norse Force! [Q]
  - Cooldown reduced from 30 to 15 seconds.
Level 10
- Longboat Raid! [R1]
  - Health increased from 685 to 750.
  - Health bonus per Viking increased from 171 to 185.
- Play Again! [R2]
  - Cooldown increased from 80 to 100 seconds.
Level 13
- Nordic Attack Squad [W]
  - Changed from a [W] to a passive talent.
  - New functionality: While Olaf, Baleog, and Erik are near each of the other Vikings, their Basic Attacks deal bonus damage equal to 1.25% maximum Health to enemy Heroes.

Developer Comment: It’s been awhile since we last changed the Lost Vikings. This round of changes is targeted at making the Lost Vikings significantly more potent in PvP situations while keeping their map pressure in check. There are a few talents in particular that will give the Vikings powerful benefits when they fight together, which should reward players who are able to properly micro them during combat. We hope these changes open up new playstyles that never existed before, which should be exciting for those who take the time to master these Heroes.

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Healer

Lt. Morales

Talents

Level 4
- Trauma Trigger [Passive]
  - Cooldown reduced from 30 to 20 seconds.
Level 7
- Physical Therapy [W]
  - Cooldown reduction increased from 2 to 3 seconds.
- Medi-Drone [W]
  - Healing increased from 50% to 75%.
Level 16
- First Responder [Q]
  - Energy requirement for bonus healing reduced from 70 to 60.

Developer Comment: We’re making some small buffs to underperforming talents throughout Lt. Morales’s tree. She is performing appropriately overall, so we don’t expect these buffs to be a massive change for her outside of improving her pick rates.

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Rehgar

Talents

Level 20
- Farseer's Blessing [R1]
  - New functionality: After 1.5 seconds, Ancestral Healing is cast a second time on the same target. Allies near the target are healed for 590.

Developer Comment: We’re changing Farseer’s Blessing to have a more universally powerful effect by having it proc a second time after its initial cast. This should give Ancestral Healing a lot more flexibility in its use cases since it can now save a single ally over a long period of time or potentially even heal Rehgar’s team for a massive amount if they stay grouped together.

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Tyrande

Talents

Level 1
- Ranger [W]
  - Moved from level 4.
  - No longer has an activated ability to make the next Sentinel pierce all Heroes hit.
  - New functionality: Sentinel pierces the first enemy Hero hit.
- Lunar Blaze [E]
  - Moved from level 4.
- Trueshot Aura [Active]
  - Moved from level 4.
Level 4
- Everlasting Light [Q]
  - Moved from level 1.
  - Bonus Healing increased from 60% to 80%.
- Mark of Mending [Trait]
  - Moved from level 1.
- Elune's Chosen [Active]
  - Moved from level 1.
Level 7
- Huntress' Fury [Trait]
  - Adjusted functionality: Basic Attacks only splash to nearby enemy Heroes.
  - Basic Attacks that splash from Huntress’ Fury also give cooldown reduction to Light of Elune.
Level 16
- Darnassian Archery [Passive]
  - Duration reduced from 6 to 4 seconds.
  - No longer loses its bonus when attacking non-Heroes.

Developer Comment: We experimented a bit with Ranger and Darnassian Archery by making them fairly sharp in their use cases with incredibly high theoretical rewards. In Tyrande’s case this hasn’t panned out as we had hoped, so we’re making them more generally useful, which we believe will be a net increase to their power.

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Uther

Talents

Level 20
- Bulwark of Light [R1]
  - Adjusted functionality: Divine Shield is also applied to all nearby Heroes near its initial target and lasts 1 second longer.
- Divine Protection [Trait]
  - Armor amount increased from 40 to 50.

Developer Comment: Bulwark of Light’s original planned change a few months ago was to give Divine Shield to all nearby Heroes. We thought that was too crazy, so we toned it down to only give 1 additional Hero the ability. The current iteration is not performing as well as we had hoped, so we’re going back to our crazy idea. Hopefully this doesn’t break the game.

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Whitemane

Talents

Level 1
- Righteous Flame [E]
  - New functionality: Increase the damage of Searing Lash by 25%. If the second strike of Searing Lash hits an enemy Hero, the bonus damage is increased to 50% and grants Whitemane 25% increased Attack Speed for 4 seconds.
Level 7
- Saintly Greatstaff [E]
  - Moved from Level 13.
Level 13
- Scarlet Wrath [Trait]
  - Moved from Level 7.
  - Additional functionality: Basic Attacks against enemy Heroes reduce Zeal’s cooldown by 1 second.
Level 16
- Radiance [Q]
  - Additional functionality: If Zeal is cast while Whitemane has 3 stacks of Desperation, then instead of reducing Whitemane’s Armor it instead increases her Armor by 10.

Developer Comment: Whitemane is performing very well in regards to her overall power, but we think her talents could use some work in their competitiveness. These changes should open up some new synergies that did not exist before, which should help her tree be more healthy overall. We believe the changes to Scarlet Wrath and Radiance in particular will enable some new and interesting ways to play Whitemane by rewarding her for properly managing her Desperation Stacks in conjunction with when she chooses to cast Zeal.

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Melee Assassin

Qhira

Base

Health increased from 1950 to 2000.
Health regeneration increased from 4.06 to 4.17.

Talents

Level 1
- Fatal Wounds [W]
  - Bonus damage to enemy Heroes below 50% Health reduced from 40% to 30%.
- Finishing Touch [Passive]
  - Basic Attack damage bonus increased from 15% to 20%.
  - Basic Attack damage bonus to enemy Heroes below 50% Health increased from 15% to 20%.
Level 4
- Ensnaring Swing [E]
  - Primary target Slow increased from 30% to 40%.
Level 10
- Unrelenting Strikes [R1]
  - Cooldown reduced from 75 to 60 seconds.
  - Mana cost reduced from 60 to 50.
  - Final Stun duration increased from 1 to 1.5 seconds.
Level 16
- Swing Life Away [E]
  - Cooldown reduction increased from 150% to 200%.
  - Spell Armor duration increased from 2 to 2.5 seconds.
Level 20
- Silent Killer [R1]
  - No longer Silences enemy Heroes on its initial cast.
  - Additional functionality: Enemy Heroes who are hit by Unrelenting Strikes are Silenced for .5 seconds.

Developer Comment: It’s been awhile since we’ve made any large changes to Qhira. She is a little underperforming, so we’re buffing her Health and making some changes to various talents to improve their competitiveness and Qhira’s overall power. Fatal Wounds is currently representing too much of her power pie, so we’re reducing that talent’s power while improving various other parts of her tree to compensate.

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Zeratul

Talents

Level 20
- Gift of the Xel’Naga [R2]
  - Removed.
- Nexus Blades [Passive]
  - Removed.
- New talent: Unwavering Pressure [W]
  - Basic Attacks against enemy Heroes who are marked or Slowed by Singularity Spike reduce the cooldown of Singularity Spike by 1.25 seconds.
- New talent: Shadow Stride [Passive]
  - Reduce the cooldown of Vorpal Blade by 10 seconds.

Developer Comment: Zeratul’s Level 20 talents have been dominated for a long time by Twilight Falls and Shadow Mending. We’re removing the two options that have seen very little play and are instead adding talents that should be more viable.

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Ranged Assassin

Cassia

Base

Vitals
- Health increased from 1510 to 1700.
- Health regeneration increased from 3.15 to 3.54 per second.
Weapon
- Damage from 122 to 130.
- Attacks per second from 1 to 1.11.
Lightning Fury [Q]
- Damage from 150 to 165.
- Mana cost from 25 to 20.
Avoidance [Trait]
- Now works while Mounted.
- Adjusted functionality: After remaining stationary for .75 seconds the Armor is rapidly lost over .5 seconds.

Talents

Level 1
- Thunderstroke [Q]
  - No longer grants Avoidance Armor.
  - Quest damage per Hero hit from 1 to 1.5.
Level 7
- Debilitating Thrusts [E]
  - Name changed to Grounding Rod.
  - New functionality: Enemies hit by Lightning Fury or Fend are Slowed by 20% for 2 seconds.
Level 16
- Martial Law [Passive]
  - Adjusted functionality: Basic Attacks against enemy Heroes deal 1% maximum Health as damage. This is increased to 3% maximum Health against Heroes who are Stunned, Rooted, or Slowed.

Developer Comment: Cassia came out lower than we anticipated, largely due to us going too far with her base kit nerfs that were intended to compensate for the power she gained in talents. We’re making some changes to increase her power level and to make her more accessible, which should make her a lot more formidable.

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Genji

Base

Health increased from 1620 to 1675.
Health regeneration increased from 3.38 to 3.49.
Cyber Agility [Trait]
- Cooldown increased from 15 to 20 seconds.

Talents

Level 1
- Agile Dismount [Trait]
  - Cooldown reduction increased from 10 to 14 seconds.
Level 7
- Augmented Guard [W]
  - Shield amount increased from 75% to 100% of damage blocked.
- Cyber Shield [Trait]
  - Spell Armor duration increased from 2.5 to 4 seconds.
Level 10
- X-Strike [R2]
  - Cooldown reduced from 80 to 60 seconds.
  - Mana cost reduced from 90 to 70.
Level 13
- Double Jump [Trait]
  - Removed.
- New talent: Way Of The Shimada [Passive]
  - Increase Genji’s Basic Attack range by 1. Each time Genji hits an enemy Hero with a Basic Attack, increase his Basic Attack damage by 1% for 3 seconds, stacking up to 15%.
Level 20
- Living Weapon [R2]
  - Cooldown reduction reduced from 12 to 10 seconds.

Developer Comment: Genji has posted a low overall win rate for some time. While we believe he is still quite powerful in the hands of capable players, the skill requirement to be effective on him is a little too high for the vast majority of players. We’re slightly buffing his health and reducing his overall mobility with Cyber Agility, in addition to buffing a few of his underperforming talents. This should move him into a better place, particularly in regards to his survivability in more general situations.

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Gul'dan

Base

Fel Flame [Q]
- Damage increased from 200 to 210.

Talents

Level 7
- Curse of Exhaustion [W]
  - Slow reduced from 50% to 40%.
  - No longer requires enemies to be afflicted by Corruption for the bonuses to take effect.
Level 13
- Dark Bargain [Passive]
  - Additional respawn time reduced from 15 to 10 seconds.

Developer Comment: We’re doing some small upward tweaks to Gul’dan’s overall power. Curse of Exhaustion in particular is getting a substantial buff in its number of use cases, which we felt was too narrow in the past due to its requirement to combo with Corruption to gain any benefit.

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Hanzo

Talents

Level 10
- Dragonstrike [R1]
  - Damage increased from 78 to 84.
Level 13
- Mounted Archery [Passive]
  - Additional functionality: Reduce the cooldown of Summon Mount by 2 seconds.
Level 16
- Flawless Technique [Passive]
  - Storm Bow and Basic Attack damage bonuses increased from 30% to 40%.

Developer Comment: We’re buffing up some of Hanzo’s underperforming talents. Overall he is in a fairly good place at higher levels of play, so we’re being a little conservative with where to increase his power.

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Raynor

Talents

Level 1
- Exterminator [Passive]
  - Bonus damage to Minions, Mercenaries, and Monsters reduced from 75% to 50%.

Developer Comment: Since our last buff to Exterminator, it’s become too universally good in nearly all situations. We want the talent to be powerful, but we want the maps that Raynor is playing on to be more of a consideration when taking the talent.

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Tracer

Base

Reload [Trait]
- Healing from Basic Attacks reduced from 15% to 10%.

Talents

Level 13
- Untouchable [Q]
  - No longer increases Tracer’s Blink range.
  - New functionality: After using Blink, Tracer’s Movement Speed is increased by 20% for 2 seconds.
- Telefrag [E]
  - Cooldown reduction on Recall increased from .1875 to .25 seconds.

Developer Comment: Tracer is doing a bit too well since her rework, so we’re toning down the power of her baseline life leech and changing Untouchable’s functionality. These changes should let her trade effectively with enemy Heroes less often, which should in turn open up more possibilities for counter-play.

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Zagara

Talents

Level 16
- Jagged Barbs [Trait]
  - Attack range bonus increased from 10% to 20%.

Developer Comment: Jagged Barbs is still underperforming compared to other talents on the tier. We think it could be more powerful, so we’re enabling Zagara to be a fairly safe ranged auto-attacker as long as she is able to fight on her Creep.

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Bug Fixes

General

Watching replays from previous versions of the game will no longer crash the client.

Heroes

Chromie
- Every talent that is affected by Sand Blast correctly references 'Primary Sand Blast' or references Sand Blasts 'from Chromie or her Echoes' that matches its functionality.
Deathwing
- Updated a tooltip for Bellowing Roar's Fear to correctly state its duration as 1.5 seconds.
Garrosh
- Helping Hand and Into the Fray no longer can be cast on Turrets placed by themselves or allies.
Kael'thas
- Both Fel Infusion and Sunfire Enchantment now properly increase Kael'thas' healing from Fel Infusion.
Mal'ganis
- Spreading Plague's duration is now set to 5 seconds when Mal'ganis basic attacks an enemy Hero, which is its full duration.
Orphea
- Shadow Waltz now refunds mana cost equal to its cast.
Ragnaros
- Sulfuras Smash now has the same cooldown and effect when Ragnaros casts it during Molten Core.
Tracer
- Bullet Spray's range now increases 30%, and a tooltip description has been updated to match it as well.
- Heavy Handed's armor debuff is now properly applied after Melee damage.

Battlegrounds

Dragon Shire
- The Dragon Knight's Savage no longer interrupts missile movers of targets that are Unstoppable, but continues to properly interrupt missile movers of targets that are not Unstoppable.
Hanamura Temple
- The Sentinel's Warning Splat for Horizontal Slash properly matches its searches.

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The latest patch brings changes for the Call for Help Nexus Anomaly and several Heroes.

Halock · June 3, 2020

'Hopefully this doesn't break the game.'

Amazing.

Edited June 3, 2020 by Halock

darkgreenwax · June 4, 2020

damn, I'm excited to try cassia again. following her rework I played her heavily for a few days to great results. my only complaint for her playstyle was that she wasn't necessarily hard to play, but her avoidance mechanic was annoying to play. this is a great fix that forces you to keep your uptime at top priority while also allowing you to abuse your mouse less with spamming clicks/stutter steps.

Apologised · June 4, 2020

Yeah those Cassia changes are exactly what the community was asking for. So it'll be interesting to see what happens to her winrate and games played stats now. The nerfs to Tracer feel slight, but after a few games I'm tentatively saying you can feel them all the same and some nerfing was definitely required.

What's interesting is the more teamfight PvP emphasis they are putting onto TLV, who definitely have felt like a hero without a purpose since the XP Orb change. Maybe a full rework might be forthcoming? But the amount of work that would take makes me a little doubtful.

What I'm less sanguine about is the nerf to Jimmy. The main reason why people picked that 75% non-hero damage bonus talent was because Rexxar has been in the top 3 for winrate for almost a year straight. THATS why it get's picked, so you can delete the bear. A whopping 25% damage nerf only empowers Rexxar and puts him further ahead. I literally had a game last night where if I was doing 25% more damage I would have killed the bear three times in the first 5 minutes.

Edited June 4, 2020 by Apologised

Arcling · June 4, 2020

That Untouchable change doesn't seem that bad, might be even considered a buff for Tracer in some situations when you are chasing an enemy. So far those Cassia buffs are looking good and well deserved.

Edited June 4, 2020 by Arcling

Valhalen · June 4, 2020

To me the spotlight of this patch are the changes to The Lost Vikings. It is the closest of the fabled rework the devs talked about a few years ago, by adding talents that makes the Vikings stronger when they're together. Hopefully they'll continue to tamper with this mechanic in the future, because I sure love this idea.

maxisfreak315 · June 5, 2020

On 6/4/2020 at 6:19 AM, Apologised said:

Yeah those Cassia changes are exactly what the community was asking for. So it'll be interesting to see what happens to her winrate and games played stats now. The nerfs to Tracer feel slight, but after a few games I'm tentatively saying you can feel them all the same and some nerfing was definitely required.

What's interesting is the more teamfight PvP emphasis they are putting onto TLV, who definitely have felt like a hero without a purpose since the XP Orb change. Maybe a full rework might be forthcoming? But the amount of work that would take makes me a little doubtful.

What I'm less sanguine about is the nerf to Jimmy. The main reason why people picked that 75% non-hero damage bonus talent was because Rexxar has been in the top 3 for winrate for almost a year straight. THATS why it get's picked, so you can delete the bear. A whopping 25% damage nerf only empowers Rexxar and puts him further ahead. I literally had a game last night where if I was doing 25% more damage I would have killed the bear three times in the first 5 minutes.

Exterminator does not work on Misha because she is considered as a Hero.

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heroes Heroes of the Storm Balance Update Patch Notes: June 3rd

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Quick Navigation:

General

Heroes

Tank

Anub'arak

Stitches

Tyrael

Support

The Lost Vikings

Healer

Lt. Morales

Rehgar

Tyrande

Uther

Whitemane

Melee Assassin

Qhira

Zeratul

Ranged Assassin

Cassia

Genji

Gul'dan

Hanzo

Raynor

Tracer

Zagara

Bug Fixes

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