Heroes of the Storm Balance Patch Notes - December 20, 2017

[Ryme]

We just released a new patch for Heroes of the Storm to apply balance changes and a few bug fixes.

Alongside this patch, we’ve also manually corrected rankings and matchmaking ratings for a small number of Hero and Team League players who rose or fell more than 1 League (5 Divisions) higher or lower than where they ended 2017 Ranked Season 3. Read our recent forum post for more details.


Heroes

Assassin

Hanzo

Abilities

• Dragonstrike (R)
  
  • Damage increased from 58 to 64

Nova

Stats

• Health reduced from 1350 to 1300
• Health Regeneration reduced from 2.81 to 2.71

Abilities

• Snipe (Q)
  
  • Damage reduced from 255 to 245

Talents

• Level 16
  
  • Lethal Decoy (E)
    
    • Holo Decoy damage bonus reduced from 50% to 40% of Nova’s damage

Thrall

Stats

• Basic Attack damage increased from 165 to 173

Talents

• Level 13
  
  • Spirit Shield (Active)
    
    • Cooldown reduction granted by Frostwolf Resilience increased from 8 to 10 seconds

Specialist

Nazeebo

Abilities

• Corpse Spiders (Q)
  
  • Damage increased from 36 to 38
• Ravenous Spirit (R)
  
  • Damage increased from 103.4 to 108
• Gargantuan (R)
  
  • Health reduced from 2300 to 2185

Talents

• Level 4
  
  • Hexed Crawlers (Q)
    
    • Health and Mana return increased from 0.75% to 1%
• Level 20
  
  • Vile Infection (Trait)
    
    • Damage bonus reduced from 200% to 150%

Support

Alexstrasza

Abilities

• Lifebinder (R)
  
  • Cooldown reduced from 75 to 60 seconds
  • Mana cost reduced from 100 to 80
• Cleansing Flame (R)
  
  • Cooldown increased from 90 to 100 seconds
  • Damage reduced from 150 to 135

Talents

• Level 16
  
  • Draconic Discipline (Trait)
    
    • Dragonqueen duration bonus reduced from 9 to 7 seconds

Brightwing

Abilities

• Polymorph (W)
  
  • Cooldown reduced from 12 to 10 seconds
  • Mana cost reduced from 60 to 50

Li Li

Abilities

• Cloud Serpent (W)
  
  • Health restored per attack increased from 15 to 20

Talents

• Level 1
  
  • Wind Serpent (W)
    
    • Cooldown reduction granted per Hero hit by Blinding Wind increased from 3 to 4 seconds
  
  
• Level 4
  
  • Serpent Sidekick (W)
    
    • Cloud Serpent duration bonus granted per attack increased from 0.5 to 0.6 seconds
  • Safety Sprint (Trait)
    
    • Duration increased from 2 to 3 seconds
  
  
• Level 7
  
  • Let’s Go (Active)
    
    • Range increased from 4 to 6
  
  
• Level 13
  
  • Gale Force (E)
    
    • Bonus Basic Attack damage against Blinded Heroes increased from 50% to 75%

Lúcio

Abilities

• Amp It Up (E)
  
  • Healing per second reduced from 120 to 114

Stukov

Talents

• Level 4
  
  • One Good Spread (Q)
    
    • Mana restoration reduced from 40 to 30

Warrior

Artanis

Talents

• Level 7
  
  • Chrono Surge (E)
    
    • Attack Speed bonus increased from 50% to 75%
• Level 13
  
  • Templar’s Zeal (Q)
    
    • Cooldown reduction increased from 150% to 200%
  • Phase Bulwark (Trait)
    
    • Spell Armor increased from 40 to 50

D.Va

Stats

• Basic Attack damage in Mech form increased from 21 to 24

Garrosh

Stats

• Health increased from 1970 to 2060
• Health Regeneration increased from 4.102 to 4.293

Abilities

• Groundbreaker (Q)
  
  • Groundbreaker no longer pulls enemy Heroes to Garrosh
    
    • Instead, Groundbreaker now knocks enemy Heroes into the air, Stunning them for 0.75 seconds, and then Slowing them by 30% for 2 seconds
  • Talent tooltips for Warbreaker, Defensive Measures, Rough Landing, and Mortal Combo have been updated to reflect this change
• Wrecking Ball (E)
  
  • Cooldown reduced from 16 to 14 seconds
  • Mana cost reduced from 70 to 65

Talents

• Level 16
  
  • Mortal Combo (Q)
    
    • Cooldown reduction granted to Wrecking Ball decreased from 10 to 8 seconds
    • Window of time to throw enemies increased from 2 to 3 seconds

Developer Comment: While he is well balanced with regard to his win-rate, Garrosh has been widely considered more punishing than other Warriors compared to the amount of counter-play he offers. While we love his playstyle and the epic moments he can create, we wanted to reduce the amount of frustration he can cause opponents. We’ve added a window of time between being hit by Groundbreaker and being thrown into the enemy team, which should help players have more opportunity to outplay him. We’re also looking at other Heroes who are lacking in counter-play, or are overly frustrating to play against, and are planning to make similar changes to them in the future.


Bug Fixes

General

• Quick Cast: Fixed a bug causing Heroes to repeatedly cast Mount or other self-cast Abilities if the initial cast was interrupted by issuing another command using Quick Cast On Release.
• Quick Cast: Fixed a bug in which holding right-click to move while attempting to cast Abilities using Quick Cast On Release could interrupt movement or prevent those Abilities from casting.

Heroes, Abilities, and Talents

• Brightwing: Phase Shift can now be correctly cast on the entirety of an allied Hero’s Minimap portrait.
• Hanzo: Coming under the effects of Zarya’s Graviton Surge while casting Storm Bow will no longer prevent the player from using Hanzo’s Abilities after Graviton Surge ends.
• Hanzo: Rejoining a game while AI Hanzo was casting Storm Bow will no longer prevent the player from using Hanzo’s Abilities.
• The Butcher: Fixed an issue preventing The Butcher from using consumable items such as Healing Pulse or Turrets on Volskaya Foundry.

Garrosh finally changed!

[Nerraw]

You were faster! D:

[Ryme]

Haha just this once!

[DesoPL]

Damn son dat Garrosh nerf!

[Twen]

... Even more healing reduction for Lúcio? Weren't the nerfs during the great support slam enough? It's not like his healing was OP or anything, why just him now? What the actual fuck? D:

Also curious to see how this works for Garrosh.

[DesoPL]

I played against Garrosh today on QM's. Is not anymore anyoing that much when released.

[Adramelch]

... Even more healing reduction for Lúcio? Weren't the nerfs during the great support slam enough? It's not like his healing was OP or anything, why just him now? What the actual fuck? D:

Also curious to see how this works for Garrosh.

He's by far the best support at the moment. I would probably have gone for his movement speed rather than his healing though.

[ophion1990]

Can't have Christmas without buffing green jesus. I love the Li Li buffs aswell, I already thought she could be strong but the extra range on her Cleanse should help a lot. Not gonna complain about buffs to some of the weaker Artanis talents either.

As for Garrosh, I actually like it. I played a game with him earlier and I felt like his E felt more responsive aswell, could just have been a placebo from the changes and not having played him a while.

[Well]

Honestly, playing Hanzo for some the last days:

I cannot for the life of me understand why a Valla can literally /dance inside Dragonstrike's centre for the full duration and come out at ~40%. It should absolutely kill her without question, and Dragonstrike's damage should be buffed for that to be true.

[Deleted]

Honestly, playing Hanzo for some the last days:

I cannot for the life of me understand why a Valla can literally /dance inside Dragonstrike's centre for the full duration and come out at ~40%. It should absolutely kill her without question, and Dragonstrike's damage should be buffed for that to be true.

Because Dragonstrike is far too easy to setup and far too safe to use.