Heroes of the Storm Patch Notes - January 24, 2018

[Nerraw]

We’ve just released a patch to the live servers in order to apply some balance updates and bug fixes.


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• Heroes
• Bug Fixes

Heroes

Assassin

Hanzo

Stats

• Basic Attack Damage reduced from 176 to 173

Abilities

• Storm Bow (Q)
  
  • Damage reduced from 297 to 291
• Scatter Arrow (W)
  
  • Ricochet damage reduced from 90 to 88

Talents

• Level 7
  
  • Sharpened Arrowheads (W)
    
    • Decreased Armor reduction from 5 (to a maximum of 25) to 4 (to a maximum of 20)

Valeera

Abilities

• Ambush (Q)
  
  • Armor reduction duration increased from 4 to 5 seconds

Talents

• Level 1
  
  • Vigor (Passive)
    
    • Passive energy regeneration increased from 2 to 2.5 per second.
  • Combat Readiness (Passive)
    
    • Physical Armor increased from 60 to 75
• Level 4
  
  • Relentless Strikes (Q)
    
    • Sinister Strike energy reduction increased from 10 to 15
• Level 7
  
  • Mutilate (Q)
    
    • Damage bonus increased from 100% to 125%
  • Fatal Finesse (W)
    
    • Damage gained per enemy Hero hit increased from 3 (to a maximum of 60) to 4 (to a maximum of 80)
• Level 13
  
  • Blind (W)
    
    • Bonus blind duration increased from 2 to 2.5 seconds
• Level 20
  
  • Adrenaline Rush (R)
    
    • Energy regeneration increased from 30 to 40 per second

Specialist

Sgt. Hammer

Talents

• Level 4
  
  • Regenerative Bio-Steel (D)
    
    • Healing reduced from 15% to 10% of Sgt. Hammer’s Basic Attack damage dealt in Siege Mode.
• Level 7
  
  • Graduating Range (D)
    
    • Range reduced from 1.1 to 1 per stack, up to a maximum of 3

Sylvanas

Stats

• Base Maximum Health reduced from 1456 to 1425
• Health Regen reduced from 3.04 to 2.97

Abilities

• Shadow Dagger (W)
  
  • Cooldown increased from 10 to 11 seconds

Talents

• Level 4
  
  • Lost Soul (W)
    
    • Cooldown reduction per Hero hit reduced from 1.25 to 1 second

Xul

Talents

• Level 4
  
  • Grim Scythe (Q)
    
    • Cooldown reduction per enemy hit increased from .75 to 1 second
  • Jailors (E)
    
    • Bonus Attack and Movement Speed reduced from 50 to 40%
• Level 7
  
  • Harvest Vitality (W)
    
    • Heal increased from 60 to 70%

Support

Brightwing

Stats

• Base Maximum Health increased from 1395 to 1450
• Health Regen increased from 2.91 to 3.02

Tyrande

Stats

• Basic Attack Damage increased from 80 to 82

Warrior

Blaze

Abilities

• Fortified Bunker (R)
  
  • Health increased from 1305 to 1435
• Combustion (R)
  
  • There is now a .5 second window after casting where Combustion cannot be canceled (this is to prevent accidental canceling from rapid key presses)

Talents

• Level 4
  
  • Feeding the Flame (Q)
    
    • Cooldown reduction increased from 1.5 to 2 seconds
• Level 7
  
  • Incinerator Gauntlets (Passive)
    
    • Bonus damage increased from 50% to 70%
  • Crossfire (Q)
    
    • Damage increased from 132 to 139
  • Grill and Kill (W)
    
    • Damage bonus decreased from 25% to 20%
• Level 13
  
  • Suppressive Fire (Q)
    
    • Spell Power reduction increased from 15% to 20% per stack
  • Nanomachine Coating (W)
    
    • Attack Speed slow now also applies to Oil Spills that are on fire
• Level 16
  
  • Juggernaut Plating (Active)
    
    • Shield bonus increased from 100% to 125% of damage reduced

Sonya

Stats

• Basic Attack damage reduced from 88 to 84

Talents

• Level 7
  
  • Poisoned Spear (Q)
    
    • Damage reduced from 125% to 100% of Ancient Spear’s damage.
• Level 16
  
  • Nerves of Steel (Active)
    
    • Duration reduced from 5 to 3 seconds
    • Shield amount reduced from 30% to 25% of Maximum Health
    • Cooldown reduced from 70 to 60 seconds

Bug Fixes

General

• Fixed a number of inaccuracies and grammatical issues in tooltips across the game.
• Korean Client: Updated the loading screen to the Korean localized version.

Heroes, Abilities, and Talents

• Blaze: Fixed an issue that allowed Heroes to bypass the movement speed reduction from ignited Oil Spills if Blaze chose the Adhesive Petroleum talent.
• Blaze: Fixed an issue causing Stimpack and Pyromania voiceover lines to be heard globally.
• Tyrael: Fixed an issue preventing Tyrael from gaining stacks of Ardent Restoration from the damage dealt by the Burning Halo talent.

[PPN]

YaY!!! Now i can die even faster as Sylvanas against Valeera

[DesoPL]

Waiting for Blaze bunker memes, we need it.

[Deleted]

Was hammer good in any region?

[Nerraw]

Was hammer good in any region?

Currently the highest winrate hero in Hero League overall. She's not the highest in the higher leagues, but generally sitting at 56% winrate no matter the league. Small nerf was warranted.

[Deleted]

YaY!!! Now i can die even faster as Sylvanas against Valeera

Looking at current data, Sylvanas has a 64.4% WR against Valeera. That's basically winning two out of three matchups.

For hero league, the Sonya, Hammer, Sylvanas nerfs make sense. For HGC, and I'm watching less than last year already, the point where I'm sick of Genji and Tracer is officially reached.

Currently the highest winrate hero in Hero League overall. She's not the highest in the higher leagues, but generally sitting at 56% winrate no matter the league. Small nerf was warranted.

But that was mostly me . Virtually nobody else plays her and I was 14 or 15-0 since the last buff. Sadly mostly in Unranked.

[ophion1990]

So Sonya got a nerf to her best talents on 4 of her talent tiers without buffing the garbage ones noone picks. I hope this is a sign for the rework people have been talking about for around 698068 years to finally happen. Or atleast buffs to her weaker talents, granted that both her DPS options at 7 see a nerf and she only has 1 survival option at 16 aswell.

[Deleted]

Currently the highest winrate hero in Hero League overall. She's not the highest in the higher leagues, but generally sitting at 56% winrate no matter the league. Small nerf was warranted.

Wow... almost all (grand)masters in EU ranked her bottom tier :P

Ahh I see this is hotslogs data I guess. Well not valued lots here either

[Nerraw]

Patch notes blog was updated with some corrections and additions. They've been added to the OP as well. All new changes are in orange.

[Nikkaszal]

Wow... almost all (grand)masters in EU ranked her bottom tier :P

Ahh I see this is hotslogs data I guess. Well not valued lots here either

Balance doesn't just come at the highest echelons, it has to be averaged over a wide level of play.

So even though Hammer isn't picked a lot in Grandmaster etc, she is still pretty damn popular elsewhere, especially in this Specialist Seige meta

[Frozen Death Knight]

So Sonya got a nerf to her best talents on 4 of her talent tiers without buffing the garbage ones noone picks. I hope this is a sign for the rework people have been talking about for around 698068 years to finally happen. Or atleast buffs to her weaker talents, granted that both her DPS options at 7 see a nerf and she only has 1 survival option at 16 aswell.

Her nerf was well deserved and a long time coming. Sonya has been the sole reason why several melee Assassins have been out of the meta or simply are not as viable in the solo lane. She has been the best solo laner for months on end with a ton of perks that other Heroes can't bring. She has the damage of an Assassin, the survivability of a lesser Tank, and the wave clear/camp soloer of a Specialist. She can even solo several bosses, something that is and should be unique to Rexxar and Gazlowe.

How she managed to stay in that state for so long is a mystery to me. Sonya is a nuisance in QM and on the ladder, and she is rarely a bad pick because she can fit in most comps with a 2nd frontline Hero being needed. Heck, even with the nerf to Ancient Spear and her AAs she is still going to be picked as a solo laner, because very few Heroes are able to kill her 1v1.

[Deleted]

Balance doesn't just come at the highest echelons, it has to be averaged over a wide level of play.

So even though Hammer isn't picked a lot in Grandmaster etc, she is still pretty damn popular elsewhere, especially in this Specialist Seige meta

Lol he wanted to tell you: US league is garbage, same with chinese and korean. Europeans don't take you serious if you mention hotslogs

[Charge me Doctor]

Currently the highest winrate hero in Hero League overall. She's not the highest in the higher leagues, but generally sitting at 56% winrate no matter the league. Small nerf was warranted.

It's fun to see first ban being Chromie, and second being Hammer in almost all games :3

Really love to see changes to blase, now i actually have a choice on level 7, 13 and 16

[ophion1990]

Did they actually not fix the global casting?

Her nerf was well deserved and a long time coming. Sonya has been the sole reason why several melee Assassins have been out of the meta or simply are not as viable in the solo lane. She has been the best solo laner for months on end with a ton of perks that other Heroes can't bring. She has the damage of an Assassin, the survivability of a lesser Tank, and the wave clear/camp soloer of a Specialist. She can even solo several bosses, something that is and should be unique to Rexxar and Gazlowe.

How she managed to stay in that state for so long is a mystery to me. Sonya is a nuisance in QM and on the ladder, and she is rarely a bad pick because she can fit in most comps with a 2nd frontline Hero being needed. Heck, even with the nerf to Ancient Spear and her AAs she is still going to be picked as a solo laner, because very few Heroes are able to kill her 1v1.

I never said her nerf was undeserved, this doesn't help Sonya's position at all though. As you mentioned, she'll still be the easy solo lane pick because she never really loses the lane. They just made her teamfighting worse and, as I mentioned, she still has a bunch of talents that'll remain at a sub 5% pickrate. As for Sonya being a generalist, so are heroes like Greymane and Rehgar. There's nothing wrong with having heroes that aren't shoved into a niche. About the boss soloing, it isn't unique to Gazlowe or Rexxar at all. She also has to pick a talent to allow her to do it, so it's even less of an issue. Butcher has always been able to solo it, so can Varian, Butcher doesn't even need a specific build to do so.