Heroes of the Storm Balance Patch Notes - January 23, 2019

[Nerraw]

Heroes of the Storm Balance Patch Notes - January 23, 2019

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


Quick Navigation:

• Heroes
  
• Bug Fixes

Heroes

Assassin

Gul'dan


Talents

• Level 7
  
  • Curse of Exhaustion (E)
    
    • Movement Speed Slow increased from 25 to 35%
      
• Level 13
  
  • Harvest Life (W)
    
    • Healing increased from 50 to 75%
      
  • Dark Bargain (Passive)
    
    • Health bonus increased from 25 to 30%
      

Illidan


Abilities

• Metamorphosis (R)
  
  • Bonus Health increased from 200 to 220
    

Talents

• Level 16
  
  • Fiery Brand (Passive)
    
    • Damage bonus increased from 6 to 7% Maximum Health
      

Jaina


Abilities

• Frostbolt (Q)
  
  • Damage reduced from 190 to 184
    
• Cone of Cold (E)
  
  • Damage reduced from 230 to 220
    

Talents

• Level 7
  
  • Ice Floes (E)
    
    • Cooldown reduction increased from 2 to 3 seconds
      
  • Icefury Wand (Passive)
    
    • Damage bonus increased from 75 to 100%
      
    • Cooldown reduction increased from 1 to 1.5 seconds
      
• Level 16
  
  • Northern Exposure (E)
    
    • Armor reduction decreased from 25 to 20
      

Junkrat


Abilities

• Rocket Ride (R)
  
  • Cooldown reduced from 100 to 75 seconds
    

Talents

• Level 20
  
  • Puckish Scamp (R)
    
    • Cooldown reduction reduced from 70 to 45 seconds
      
    • Additional functionality:
      
      • Now also increases the damage off Rocket Ride by 15%
        
  • BOOM POW (W)
    
    • Cooldown reduction increased from 10 to 12 seconds
      

Kerrigan


Talents

• Level 1
  
  • Assimilation Mastery (Trait)
    
    • Shield amount increased from 40 to 45
      
• Level 13
  
  • Psionic Barrier (E)
    
    • Spell Armor increased from 15 to 20
      

Li-Ming


Talents

• Level 1
  
  • Aether Walker (E)
    
    • Damage taken time requirement for bonuses reduced from 4 to 3 seconds
      
• Level 13
  
  • Diamond Skin (E)
    
    • Shield increased from 20 to 25%
      

Maiev


Talents

• Level 4
  
  • Pin Down (Q)
    
    • First Reward damage bonus increased from 15 to 25%
      
• Level 7
  
  • Bonds of Corruption (W)
    
    • Armor reduction duration increased from 3 to 4 seconds
      
• Level 13
  
  • Shadow Armor (E)
    
    • Duration increased from 3 to 3.5 seconds
      

Mephisto


Abilities

• Lightning Nova (W)
  
  • Mana cost reduced from 55 to 50
    
• Shade of Mephisto (E)
  
  • Mana cost reduced from 40 to 35
    
• Durance of Hate (R)
  
  • Cooldown reduced from 60 to 50 seconds
    
  • Mana cost reduced from 60 to 50
    

Nova


Talents

• Level 1
  
  • Covert Ops (W)
    
    • Stealth requirement reduced from 5 to 4 seconds
      
• Level 4
  
  • Rapid Projection (E)
    
    • Cooldown and Mana cost reduction increased from 40% to 50%
      
  • Holo Stability (E)
    
    • Duration bonus increased from 100% to 120%
      
• Level 16
  
  • Explosive Round (Q)
    
    • Damage bonus Increased from 80 to 90%
      

Ragnaros


Talents

• Level 1
  
  • Shifting Meteor (W)
    
    • Damage bonus increased from 3 to 5%
      

Zeratul


Talents

• Level 16
  
  • Void Slash (Q)
    
    • Damage bonus reduced from 50 to 40%
      
• Level 20
  
  • Shadow Mending (Passive)
    
    • Healing reduced from 75 to 60%
      

Specialist

Gazlowe


Abilities

• Grav-O-Bomb 3000 (R)
  
  • Cooldown reduced from 110 to 90 seconds
    
  • Mana cost reduced from 100 to 80
    

Talents

• Level 20
  
  • It’s Raining Scrap (Active)
    
    • Cooldown reduced from 60 to 30 seconds
      

The Lost Vikings


Talents

• Level 4
  
  • It's A Sabotage! (Passive)
    
    • Damage increased from 35 to 50
      
    • Damage is now dealt over 5 seconds instead of 10 seconds
      
• Level 7
  
  • Norse Force (Q)
    
    • Shield amount for 1 Viking increased from 110 to 130
      
    • Shield amount for 2 Vikings increased from 165 to 195
      
    • Shield amount for 3 Vikings increased from 220 to 260
      
• Level 13
  
  • Nordic Attack Squad (W)
    
    • Cooldown reduced from 30 to 20 seconds
      
    • Damage increased from 1% to 1.25%
      

Murky


Abilities

• Spawn Egg (Trait)
  
  • Cast time reduced from 2 to 1.5 seconds
    

Talents

• Level 4
  
  • Living the Dream (Trait)
    
    • Maximum stacks increased from 15 to 20%
      

Zagara


Talents

• Level 7
  
  • Bile Drop (E)
    
    • New Functionality:
      
      • Increase the impact radius of Infested Drop by 20%. Quest: After hitting 15 enemy Heroes with Infested Drop, an additional Roach is spawned.
        

Support

Alexstrasza


Abilities

• Abundance (W)
  
  • Cooldown reduced from 16 to 14 seconds
    
• Life-Binder (R)
  
  • Mana cost reduced from 80 to 60
    

Talents

• Level 13
  
  • Dragon Scales (Passive)
    
    • Armor amount increased from 30 to 40
      

Deckard


Abilities

• Healing Potion (Q)
  
  • Healing increased from 240 to 255
    

Talents

• Level 1
  
  • Scroll of Identify (E)
    
    • Quest requirement reduced from 20 to 16
      
  • Field Study (E)
    
    • Duration increased from 14 to 16 seconds
      
• Level 13
  
  • Super Healing Potion (Q)
    
    • Healing increased from 100 to 120%
      
  • Potion of Revival (Q)
    
    • Healing increased from 45 to 50%
      

Kharazim


Abilities

• Divine Palm (R)
  
  • Healing increased from 1084 to 1200
    

Li Li


Abilities

• Cloud Serpent (W)
  
  • Cooldown increased from 10 to 11 seconds
    

Talents

• Level 1
  
  • Eager Adventurer (Trait)
    
    • Fast Feet duration bonus increased from 100 to 125%
      
• Level 4
  
  • Safety Sprint (Trait)
    
    • Cooldown reduced from 30 to 25 seconds
      

Lt. Morales


Abilities

• Safeguard (W)
  
  • Cooldown increased from 10 to 11 seconds
    

Malfurion


Talents

• Level 4
  
  • Strangling Vines (E)
    
    • Healing reduction increased from 30% to 40%
      
  • Deep Roots (E)
    
    • Duration bonus increased from 25% to 40%
      
  • Vengeful Roots (E)
    
    • Treant damage reduced from 65 to 58
      

Warrior

Anub'arak


Stats

• Basic Attack damage reduced from 91 to 85

Abilities

• Impale (Q)
  
  • Damage reduced from 100 to 95
    

Talents

• Level 1
  
  • Legion of Beetles (Trait)
    
    • Moved from Level 4
      
    • Additional Functionality:
      
      • Now also increases the Spell Armor of Beetles by 40
        
  • Resilient Scarabs (Trait)
    
    • Removed
      

Developer Comment: Anub’arak’s Beetle Build has been a difficult sell, particularly at level 1, due to the power discrepancy of Resilient Scarabs compared to other talents on the tier. In order to help the build, we’re reducing the opportunity cost of picking its talents by removing Resilient Scarabs and baking its functionality into Legion of Beetles. This should make for a much more attractive talent at level 1 against his other options, and should open up other build paths for players who like to slay their enemies with many tiny little friends. Anub’arak is a bit too strong overall right now, so we’re reducing his damage so that he’s not quite so dominant compared to the other tanks in our game.


Artanis


Abilities

• Phase Prism (E)
  
  • Cooldown reduced from 14 to 12 seconds
    
  • Mana cost reduced from 60 to 50
    

Talents

• Level 1
  
  • Reactive Parry (W)
    
    • Armor amount increased from 50 to 75
      
• Level 13
  
  • Graviton Vortex (E)
    
    • Mana cost reduction decreased from 30 to 25
      

Blaze

Talents

• Level 16
  
  • Juggernaut Plating (Active)
    
    • Cooldown reduced from 40 to 30 seconds
      

Chen


Stats

• Basic Attack damage increased from 84 to 90

Abilities

• Flying Kick (Q)
  
  • Damage increased from 112 to 120
    
• Fortifying Brew (Trait)
  
  • Shield amount reduced from 106 to 98
    

Talents

• Level 1
  
  • Accumulating Flame (E)
    
    • Armor bonus upon quest completion increased from 15 to 20
      
• Level 7
  
  • Purifying Brew (Trait)
    
    • Cooldown reduced from 15 to 12 seconds
      
• Level 13
  
  • Withering Flames (E)
    
    • Spell Power reduction increased from 25 to 30%
      

Developer Comment: We’re pushing Chen towards more of a Bruiser role with these changes. One of the longstanding issues with Chen is that due to his trait functionality and tuning, he can either be shut down fairly easily or be too powerful depending on if the enemy team has the necessary CC and burst damage to deal with him. We’re beginning to experiment with smoothing this out a but by increasing his sustained survivability and reducing the amount of burst he can tackle while also increasing his damage. While we are still iterating on him, we wanted to get some preliminary changes out sooner rather than hold back until we are finished.


Garrosh


Talents

• Level 1
  
  • Body Check (Active)
    
    • Minimum Movement Speed Slow increased from 30 to 40%. Maximum Movement Speed Slow remains at 60%
      
• Level 13
  
  • Bloodcraze (W)
    
    • Healing increased from 10% to 15% maximum Health
      
  • Double Up (Active)
    
    • Cooldown reduced from 40 to 30 seconds
      

Imperius


Abilities

• Angelic Armaments (R)
  
  • Cooldown increased from 60 to 70 seconds
    
  • Mana cost increased from 60 to 70
    

Talents

• Level 1
  
  • Burn the Impure (W)
    
    • Now works with all Valorous Brand marks
      
    • Damage bonus decreased from 3 to 2.5%
      
• Level 4
  
  • Bulwark of Flame (W)
    
    • Physical Armor increased from 60 to 70
      
• Level 7
  
  • Flash of Anger (Q)
    
    • Damage increased from 160 to 180
      
• Level 13
  
  • Heat of Battle (E)
    
    • Healing bonus increased from 25% to 35%
      
• Level 20
  
  • Valorous Pursuit (Active)
    
    • Cooldown reduced from 15 to 12 seconds
      
    • Now also provides 25 Armor for 3 seconds
      

Developer Comment: Judging from data gained from more experienced Imperius players, our newest Hero will trend right into the sweet spot with his overall balance. We do want to make some tuning adjustments to a few of the Talents to make sure that they're all attractive choices however, which is what the majority of these balance changes aim to address.


Johanna


Abilities

• Falling Sword (R)
  
  • Damage increased from 183 to 210
    
  • Cooldown reduced from 60 to 50 seconds
    
  • Mana cost reduced from 90 to 60
    

Talents

• Level 1
  
  • Reinforce (Passive)
    
    • Maximum stacks increased from 2 to 3
      
  • Hold Your Ground (Trait)
    
    • Shield bonus increased from 30% to 50%
      
• Level 4
  
  • Eternal Retaliation (W)
    
    • Mana refund increased from 2.5 to 3
      
• Level 7
  
  • Zealous Glare (E)
    
    • Blind duration bonus increased from .5 to .75 seconds
      

Leoric


Talents

• Level 1
  
  • Fealty unto Death (Trait)
    
    • Health restoration increased from 1 to 1.25% maximum Health
      
    • Mana restoration increased from 5 to 6
      
• Level 13
  
  • Hardened Bones (E)
    
    • Armor bonus increased from 20 to 40
      
    • Bonus Armor duration decreased from 3 to 2 seconds
      
• Level 20
  
  • Shroud of the Dead King (Active)
    
    • Cooldown reduced from 75 to 60 seconds
      

Rexxar


Talents

• Level 13
  
  • Aspect of the Hawk Attack (Q)
    
    • Attack Speed bonus duration increased from 3 to 4 seconds
      

Stitches


Abilities

• Gorge (R)
  
  • Cooldown reduced from 70 to 65 seconds
    

Talents

• Level 1
  
  • Savor the Flavor (E)
    
    • Health regeneration per stack increased from 1 to 1.5
      
• Level 7
  
  • Cannibalize (Passive)
    
    • Healing increased from 1.75 to 2%
      
• Level 13
  
  • Digestive Juices (E)
    
    • Additional functionality:
      
      • Devour deals 40% more damage to Heroes
        

Bug Fixes

General

• Fixed a number of tooltip issues across the game.

Heroes

• Imperius: Fixed an issue that could cause projectiles to appear disjointed when targeting Imperius during Celestial Charge.
  
• Imperius: Fixed an issue that could cause Heroes to appear at the wrong height after being affected by Celestial Charge.
  
• Imperius: Fixed an issue causing Valorous Pursuit to occasionally teleport Imperius to an incorrect location.

Collection

• Imperius: The “Silence!” line now correctly appears in the collection.

[ophion1990]

This is the type of balance patch I wanted more of, buff weak heroes and talents, rather than only focusing on the stuff that recently got reworked. Pretty nice to finally see Murky, Chen and Vikings get some love, even if they might need some more.

Only real surprise is the increase of Imperius' mana cost on his ult. He's already one of the more mana hungry heroes, while many others rarely run out of mana.

[DesoPL]

This is probably biggest balance patch ever.

[Nerraw]

We’re pushing Chen towards more of a Bruiser role with these changes.

Interesting choice of words and capitalization. It seems like the role rework is still on. This pleases me.

[Stormcall]

Only real surprise is the increase of Imperius' mana cost on his ult. He's already one of the more mana hungry heroes, while many others rarely run out of mana.

No joke, I was scrolling through the patch notes waiting to get to the part where it said "Imperius, reduced mana cost of (skill Y) by X". And instead I see "increased mana cost". My immediate reaction was:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BE1HriDzlJs

[The Stormbringer]

This is probably biggest balance patch ever.

How dare you say that when we all know it's a dead game?! /s

[msdos]

Well I said call me when they change Anub, Chen and TLV... Lmao..

Except they actually acknowledge Anub is very proficient and want the beetle build to work.. Did everyone there suddenly decide to get with the program over night? I'm impressed!

[Charge me Doctor]

Well I said call me when they change Anub, Chen and TLV... Lmao..

Except they actually acknowledge Anub is very proficient and want the beetle build to work.. Did everyone there suddenly decide to get with the program over night? I'm impressed!

Regardless of changes - beetle build is good only for filling empty spaces with useless targets to eat skillshots. There is no way blizzard can make this build actually interesting

[msdos]

I disagree. I think they can make it work if they tried and it looks like they're trying.. Why be pessimistic about it?

[Charge me Doctor]

I disagree. I think they can make it work if they tried and it looks like they're trying.. Why be pessimistic about it?

all they are doing here is the same as with Uther - it's a talent cleanup, you are not required to dump 4 talents and pre-determine your build from level 1.

It's a good thing indeed, but beetle build is underwhelming and serves one purpose - block enemy skillshots. Deny enemy li-ming from landing fat orbs into your team from back line (forcing her to flank where she can be exposed), that's it. And pushing (why would you want your anub'arak to push faster is completely different story). It's not me shitting on this build, it's just how uncontrollable summons work. You just shit beetles all over the place, they barely do any damage and die quickly (a bit slower with this change without you dumping 3 talents into them).

Before change, you had to predetermine if you are if you are going to go for beetle build (say, you have lots of squishy mid-range heroes and enemy has li-ming who will just lob spheres of destruction into them from backline without being contested, because they have good backline protection), and your level 1 and level 4 talent choices are literally locked for this to work, now you have to get a near-useless talent at level one (compared to other choices at level 1) just to justly level 4 talent pickup, which is bad game design. If you have any LoL experience - it's akin to building nasus in AP without picking his Spirit Fire ability. Now they moved level 4 talent to level 1 and merged it with old level 1 talent, which is really good solution and gives Anub'Arak players more options.

It doesn't change the fact that beetle build is incredibly niche and that times when you want to use it can be easily denied on the draft phase. You either build your team around it (somehow, i have hard time imagining this) or you pick it when you got outdrafted and it's your only choice.