Heroes of the Storm Balance Patch Notes - December 19, 2018
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker)

We’ve just released a new Heroes of the Storm patch to apply a number of balance changes and bug fixes.


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Heroes

Assassin

Gall


Abilities
  • Runic Blast (E)
    • Damage from 233 to 210

Talents
  • Level 1
    • Taskmaster (Z)
      • No longer reduces the cooldown of Shove by 10 seconds
  • Level 4
    • Bomb’s Away (E)
      • Bonus damage now caps at 200
  • Level 7
    • Double Trouble (Q)
      • Quest unlock cooldown reduction decreased from 1 to .5 seconds


Orphea


Stats
  • Maximum Health reduced from 1662 to 1525
  • Health Regen reduced from 3.46 to 3.18

Abilities
  • Crushing Jaws (R)
    • Damage reduced from 275 to 250
    • Stun duration reduced from .75 to .5 seconds

Talents
  • Level 1
    • Ancestral Strength (Trait)
      • Damage bonus reduced from 25 to 20%
  • Level 4
    • Fright (E)
      • The slow effects no longer stack
    • Backbiter (W)
      • Added functionality:
        • Passively increase your maximum Health by 10%


Samuro


Abilities
  • Illusion Master (R)
    • Cooldown increased from 8 to 10 seconds
    • No longer grants Samuro bonus Basic Attack damage

Talents
  • Level 1
    • Way of Illusion (Q)
      • Bonus Attack Damage per quest stack reduced from .5 to .25

Developer Comment: Samuro has become a bit of a nuisance for many players to deal with, particularly when playing against people who are competent in using Illusion Master. We’re reducing the power of Way of Illusion and Illusion Master, which should generally reduce the overall damage that Samuro can deal throughout the game.


Specialist

Sylvanas


Stats
  • Maximum Health increased from 1550 to 1650
  • Health Regeneration increased from 3.23 to 3.44

Abilities
  • Shadow Dagger (W)
    • Damage increased from 29 to 32

Developer Comment: We are still gathering and evaluating data on Sylvanas, but her win rate is looking a little low, so we are giving her some small preliminary buffs while people figure out how to play with her updated kit and talents.


Zagara


Stats
  • Basic Attack Damage reduced from 80 to 76

Abilities
  • Hunter Killer (W)
    • Cooldown increased from 14 to 16 seconds
    • Damage reduced from 65 to 71
    • Health increased from 420 to 450
    • Mana cost increased from 60 to 75
  • Nydus Network (R)
    • Cooldown reduction per Basic Attack reduced from .5 to .4 seconds

Talents
  • Level 13
    • Hydralisk Transfusion (W)
      • Life Leech reduced from 75 to 60% of damage dealt


Support

Auriel


Talents
  • Level 1
    • Increasing Clarity (Q)
      • Damage bonus upon quest completion increased from 150 to 180


Deckard


Talents
  • Level 1
    • Field Study (E)
      • Spell Power bonus increased from 15 to 20% per stack
  • Level 4
    • Ruby (Active)
      • Healing increased from 205 to 220
  • Level 13
    • Potion of Revival (Q)
      • Healing increased from 35 to 45%
    • Super Healing Potion (Q)
      • Healing increased from 80 to 100%
  • Level 16
    • Safety in Numbers (Trait)
      • Armor bonus increased from 10 to 15

Developer Comment: After the last round of changes, Deckard’s win rate has fallen more than we would like. Rather than put more power back into his base kit, we are buffing some of his talents on various tiers to make his talent choices more impactful and to increase his power growth throughout the game.


Lt. Morales


Talents
  • Level 7
    • Physical Therapy (W)
      • No longer grants cooldown reduction when removing Slows with Safeguard
        • Additional functionality:
          • Reduce the cooldown of Safeguard by 2 seconds


Uther


Talents
  • Level 7
    • Armor of Faith (Q)
      • Now has a 20-second cooldown
      • Additional functionality:
        • Now also restores 90 Mana when Uther is Stunned, Rooted, or Silenced

Developer Comment: There was a large disparity of the value that Uther could receive when taking Armor of Faith against various heroes who have small stuns that proc often against enemies (such as Johanna.) While we still like the idea of this talent turning crowd control against Uther into a boon for him, we want to be able to control its frequency so that his output isn’t drastically different when facing off against certain heroes. To compensate for the loss of uptime in these situations, we are giving him a fairly significant Mana return, which should offset the cooldown reduction that he receives on Holy Light when this talent activates.


Warrior

Cho


Stats
  • Maximum Health reduced from 2950 to 2750
  • Health regeneration reduced from 6.15 to 5.73


D.Va


Stats
  • Mech Basic Attack damage increased from 24 to 26


Mal'Ganis


Talents
  • Level 4
    • Fueled by Torment (W)
      • Healing reduced from 12 to 11


Stitches


Stats
  • Base Maximum Health increased from 3000 to 3060
  • Health Regen increased from 6.25 to 6.38

Talents
  • Level 4
    • Chop Chop (W)
      • Attack Speed slow duration increased from 4 to 5 seconds
  • Level 13
    • Digestive Juices (E)
      • Damage reduction bonus increased from 40 to 50%
      • Duration increased from 4 to 5 seconds


Bug Fixes

General
  • Fixed a number of tooltip issues across the game.

Heroes
  • Sylvanas: Fixed an issue preventing Banshee’s Curse from working against Battleground event monsters.
This article was originally published in forum thread: Heroes of the Storm Balance Patch Notes - December 19, 2018 started by Nerraw View original post
Comments 30 Comments
  1. mmoca5aab067b5's Avatar
    But, is this game still alive?
  1. shadowmatrix's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Pedrolo View Post
    But, is this game still alive?
    Yes it is until they announce that they are shutting it down. Why? Do people stop playing basketball just because the local NBA team moves away?
  1. Vlaid's Avatar
    Wow, those Zagara nerfs.
  1. Charge me Doctor's Avatar
    I like this patch and probably will get through the salt to play it again
  1. DesoPL's Avatar
    Samuro nerfs good riddiance.
  1. Nerraw's Avatar
    For Zagara, I checked ingame and her Hunter Killer damage is increased to 71. Just in case someone was wondering which way it went.
  1. ophion1990's Avatar
    Not really a fan of a tankier and higher damage Hydralisk, it does come on a longer cooldown and increased mana cost, though.

    D.Va buffs are kinda nice but she's gonna need more, imo. A bruiser with no sustain isn't much of a bruiser. Even if she does have her self-destruct/call mech.


    Quote Originally Posted by Nerraw View Post
    For Zagara, I checked ingame and her Hunter Killer damage is increased to 71. Just in case someone was wondering which way it went.
    I didn't even notice that, I guess I was too focused on the numbers. x)
  1. mmoc18f7b69303's Avatar
    I like and agree with almost all changes, wow...

    "Damage reduced from 65 to 71" this is funny. Imho it should be "from 65 to 61".... :P
  1. roboscorcher's Avatar
    Scalpel changes.

    Getting closer to perfectly balanced, as all things should be.
  1. dragnipur's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Pedrolo View Post
    But, is this game still alive?
    Just because something doesn't have Esport scene doesn't mean the game is dead.D2,SC:BW,Battle.net,D3 are still alive and supported games.From all 4 things only SC:R/BW is active as Esport.Hots will be the same as the rest Blizzard games which don't have Esports.It will be supported and alive.Everyone who likes it will play it.If you like something and care about then it won't matter does it have Esports or not.Games can survive and will strive for improvements even without profetionals playing them.Games are made to be played as something you enjoy.

    In my opinion Hots was never a good game for Esports.It is hard to be watched and follow.SC2 and SC:R are doing much better job in that aspect.I prefer Blizzard spent more time in them then Hots.They leaps and bounds ahead of Hots.
  1. mmoc5ef3a4fb0f's Avatar
    It will take some time for the impact of the HOTS development announcement to fully show up ingame. You don't just do changes 1 day to the next, and you have a large development cycle ahead usually. For example back when Kel'Thuzad was released(in august), the 2 new heroes Alex and Hanzo were already deep enough in development to be shown and discussed internally @ Blizz(and that was 3 months ahead of Blizzcon when they were released).

    The full effect of HOTS team transfer will be felt ~end of February/March.

    Quote Originally Posted by dragnipur View Post
    Just because something doesn't have Esport scene doesn't mean the game is dead.D2,SC:BW,Battle.net,D3 are still alive and supported games.From all 4 things only SC:R/BW is active as Esport.Hots will be the same as the rest Blizzard games which don't have Esports.It will be supported and alive.Everyone who likes it will play it
    The Esport scene part of the announcement is irrelevant(for most consumers), the important part was moving the developers away and putting the game in maintenance mode. Most of your examples are pretty bad. A moba game, which is extremely focused on multiplayer, needs active development and needs to actively attract players or queue times will dramatically increase as more and more players leave. No matter how much you like to play HOTS today, you won't play it if you are 10+ minutes in queue or playing vs the same boring AI(lol) over and over.
  1. OmniSkribe's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by dragnipur View Post
    Just because something doesn't have Esport scene doesn't mean the game is dead.D2,SC:BW,Battle.net,D3 are still alive and supported games.From all 4 things only SC:R/BW is active as Esport.Hots will be the same as the rest Blizzard games which don't have Esports.It will be supported and alive.Everyone who likes it will play it.If you like something and care about then it won't matter does it have Esports or not.Games can survive and will strive for improvements even without profetionals playing them.Games are made to be played as something you enjoy.

    In my opinion Hots was never a good game for Esports.It is hard to be watched and follow.SC2 and SC:R are doing much better job in that aspect.I prefer Blizzard spent more time in them then Hots.They leaps and bounds ahead of Hots.
    Non of the games you've listed had constant content updates. If Hots will stop receiving new maps, heroes, skins and balance passes then it IS dead. Just because servers are online doesn't mean game is alive.
  1. stomination's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by shadowmatrix View Post
    Yes it is until they announce that they are shutting it down. Why? Do people stop playing basketball just because the local NBA team moves away?
    Nba doesnt play basketball. They just shoot around.
  1. dragnipur's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Aladya View Post
    It will take some time for the impact of the HOTS development announcement to fully show up ingame. You don't just do changes 1 day to the next, and you have a large development cycle ahead usually. For example back when Kel'Thuzad was released(in august), the 2 new heroes Alex and Hanzo were already deep enough in development to be shown and discussed internally @ Blizz(and that was 3 months ahead of Blizzcon when they were released).

    The full effect of HOTS team transfer will be felt ~end of February/March.



    The Esport scene part of the announcement is irrelevant(for most consumers), the important part was moving the developers away and putting the game in maintenance mode. Most of your examples are pretty bad. A moba game, which is extremely focused on multiplayer, needs active development and needs to actively attract players or queue times will dramatically increase as more and more players leave. No matter how much you like to play HOTS today, you won't play it if you are 10+ minutes in queue or playing vs the same boring AI(lol) over and over.
    After Hots was released Smite was pushed to 4th spot.And i can't say this moba is dead.Even with less population than Hots.It is doing quite well.On the topic yes moving developers is not good.It will slow the development of the game.The quetion is so what?If Smite is doing well enough with their current player base Hots should be fine.
  1. teidden's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by dragnipur View Post
    After Hots was released Smite was pushed to 4th spot.And i can't say this moba is dead.Even with less population than Hots.It is doing quite well.On the topic yes moving developers is not good.It will slow the development of the game.The quetion is so what?If Smite is doing well enough with their current player base Hots should be fine.

    Smite has millions that play it Hots does not. Aftwer the debacle as of late their are plenty like my self who have taken EVERy former blizzard game off my PC will not reinstall them ever again.
  1. Ealyssa's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by shadowmatrix View Post
    Yes it is until they announce that they are shutting it down. Why? Do people stop playing basketball just because the local NBA team moves away?
    But they didn't "move a team", they actually killed the whole "NBA". And that without giving the teams any info or delay. Your dishonesty is astonishing, to say the least.
  1. mmoc5ef3a4fb0f's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by dragnipur View Post
    After Hots was released Smite was pushed to 4th spot.And i can't say this moba is dead.Even with less population than Hots.It is doing quite well.On the topic yes moving developers is not good.It will slow the development of the game.The quetion is so what?If Smite is doing well enough with their current player base Hots should be fine.
    I'm not sure exactly what you're saying here so let me push in some facts.

    1)Smite is actively developed. Heroes is in maintenance mode. As i said in the previous post, it may take up to February for the effects of no development to show off(since development of heroes used to be ~3 months ahead)

    2)Smite was never actually pushed aside by Hots to the 4th place. You can have a look on google on the amount of searches for SMITE compared to HEROESOFTHESTORM but outside of launch and hots 2.0, heroes was never more popular than Smite

    3)Smite has an established console population that HOTS doesn't.
  1. Charge me Doctor's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by dragnipur View Post
    After Hots was released Smite was pushed to 4th spot.And i can't say this moba is dead.Even with less population than Hots.It is doing quite well.On the topic yes moving developers is not good.It will slow the development of the game.The quetion is so what?If Smite is doing well enough with their current player base Hots should be fine.
    Smite is actively developed and their community team does better job than blizzard. Also recent notion of "if the game doesn't make all the money - we stop developing it further" by blizzard is alarming. Blizzard isn't hi-rez (not implying that one better than another, just stating the obvious - they aren't the same, and approach things differently, and hi-rez handles smite way better than blizzard handles hots).
  1. shadowmatrix's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Ealyssa View Post
    But they didn't "move a team", they actually killed the whole "NBA". And that without giving the teams any info or delay. Your dishonesty is astonishing, to say the least.
    My dishonesty? Show me where I lied. They shutdown the official esports section which has nothing to do with the average players. Until they announce the game is shutting down there is nothing stopping the players from playing.
  1. Charge me Doctor's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by shadowmatrix View Post
    My dishonesty? Show me where I lied. They shutdown the official esports section which has nothing to do with the average players. Until they announce the game is shutting down there is nothing stopping the players from playing.
    Except average players may enjoy watching esports, and maybe learn a thing or two from it. It doesn't stop players from playing, but it definitely detriments from experience. Esports scene is a very big thing for dota-likes.
    I'm 100% sure that there will be community-managed championships, but losing official tournaments is going to hurt playerbase.

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