Upcoming patch (PTR) notes.

[Acidbaron]

Link

Quite a few changes, Just picking out the most important ones for me and ignoring small QoL ones.

Zeratul's, Void Prison range decrease will make escaping harder and locking down teams also since you need to be in range. Although still a stealth class.

Tassadar personal defense is taking a small nerf to compensate for a more effective team shielding. (Q) And his offensive ult is taking a small hit.
Tyrande is getting a small offensive buff and a big change to her Shadowstalk ult what is now a healing CD.

Personally find these odd since well Tyrande was already strong offensively and all Tassadar really had was the ult, still no change to barrier...

Nazeebo spiders nerfed both base and the damage talent. They were strong and the go to pick so understandable.

Chen, major changes there. A lot more survivability and ults that require no resources. Sadly even with that. It still requires the other team to be silly enough to focus Chen while he's channeling.

Diablo, buffs across the board on the base abilities and trait will be interesting to see how this plays out as i didn't find it to be a top tier but neither a weak hero either. Same goes for ETC and stitches

With those changes to old warriors we can expect the obvious, Nerfs to both Johanna and Leoric base abilities and talents purely on the offensive side of things. Honestly with Leoric Q clearing lanes it was fun while it last but everyone saw that coming.

Really interested into seeing stitches and diablo after this, Seems to me Tyrande might become a much more popular hero also.

(If said thread already exists feel free to just move it in there)

[Tirilka]

Zeratul nerf is needed and welcome.
It's good to see old warriors changes. We'll see if that's enough.

And oh my god, so many Quality of Life improvements, I love it. A.I. seems to become much better. Visuals improved in both art and UI department. And holy hell, a hugely improved Try Mode, awesome.

[Frozen Death Knight]

I am honestly thinking of playing Stitches and Tyrande a bit with the new changes (Possibly Tassadar as well.). Stitches becoming the anti-Mage tank in a meta full with casters like Kael and Jaina will make him quite potent in the right hands. Making his Hook stun was needed. It's one of the hardest skills in the game to hit with and despite that I've seen people easily walk away from a well landed Hook without issue.

Overall, I think the Hero changes look pretty good.

[Fallen Angel]

The problem I feel with Stitches even after the changes is that now AA champs will wreck him hardcore. He won't have block or imposing presence to stop giant killers from shredding him apart. High hp pool means nothing when you're taking % damage.

[PosPosPos]

Tassadar personal defense is taking a small nerf to compensate for a more effective team shielding.

Uh what? It's actually a 20% buff to his survivability, if you bothered to actually to math it out.

all Tassadar really had was the ult, still no change to barrier...

If you are talking about Force Wall, it's actually really good and powerful. It's just not the pick for all situations, and that's fine.

Seems to me Tyrande might become a much more popular hero also.

In the end, she's still going to be relegated to second support in ranked/organized play. Shadowstalk's remake heals a pittance, so you will still require the "real" healers to sustain the team. Her quick match pick rate is probably going to go up though.

[mongoose6]

Sigh, when will they fix the Leoric camera settings bug!!!!!!!!

[Nerraw]

The problem I feel with Stitches even after the changes is that now AA champs will wreck him hardcore. He won't have block or imposing presence to stop giant killers from shredding him apart. High hp pool means nothing when you're taking % damage.

Good thing there are different heroes for different tasks.

[Acidbaron]

Uh what? It's actually a 20% buff to his survivability, if you bothered to actually to math it out.




If you are talking about Force Wall, it's actually really good and powerful. It's just not the pick for all situations, and that's fine.



In the end, she's still going to be relegated to second support in ranked/organized play. Shadowstalk's remake heals a pittance, so you will still require the "real" healers to sustain the team. Her quick match pick rate is probably going to go up though.

You are right when doing simple math the up time compensates for the base absorb reduction on self. Still don't understand the damage buff being nerfed on the ult however.

Force wall is one of those ultimate's that well, there are gap closers that do not suffer the ability to also lock your team, it can also work as a defensive one but again you might as well do more harm then good in a well coordinated group i see its purposes outside of that not so much.

She can be viable support for some heals but yes it will depend on your team composition with assassins heavy setup that can't self heal and or sustain etc, i don't see her replacing Uther, Malfurion or Rehgar.

[Fallen Angel]

Good thing there are different heroes for different tasks.

You're only going to need to pick one AA hero to counter him. Not that hard even in the current meta.

[PosPosPos]

Force wall is one of those ultimate's that well, there are gap closers that do not suffer the ability to also lock your team, it can also work as a defensive one but again you might as well do more harm then good in a well coordinated group i see its purposes outside of that not so much.

You can cancel Force Wall just like Void Prison. It can never "harm" your team unless you intend to do it or are unskilled with Tassadar. Regardless of which case, the problem lies solely with the user because there are already sufficient tools to avoid the case where you might harm your own teammates because your opponent can vault over the wall or something similar.

[ophion1990]

Kinda surprised with the Tass ult nerf, I can't even remember the last time I saw him in HL. I guess they wanted to even out the ults a bit.

Everything else seems okay. Pretty silly how even the simple trait change from Diablo took months though but... better late than never, I guess.

[Ryme]

Leroic wasn't nerfed enough in comparison to Johanna.

The zeratul VP nerf isn't going to fix the problem, the ult could be melee range it would still be OP.

Tassadar heroic nerfs made no sense, Force Wall only needed a very slight improvement to being picked - perhaps something as small as giving all enemies who hit it vulnerability for short duration. I'm not convinced that the support improvements warrent such an offensive nerf.

[Deleted]

lol'd pretty hard at the Tassadar nerf.. I don't get it at all. And as Ryme said, VP is still and always will be OP as fuck.

[Nerraw]

Leroic wasn't nerfed enough in comparison to Johanna.

The thing is that the skeletal minions on Infernal Shrines won't actually count as minions for bonus damage abilities anymore.

[ldev]

That wormhole nerf doe. ://

[Sir Andy]

Thank god for the Johanna nerf. The Leoric nerf is good news as well, but he's fun to play at least.

Thank god for 3rd rate tank buffs. Diablo was one of my favorites to play and Chen is still a favorite even in his gimpy state.

I like the Zeratul nerf and the Nazeebo nerfs as well, the latter because the Spider build felt so fucking cheesy.

[Deleted]

and the Nazeebo nerfs as well, the latter because the Spider build felt so fucking cheesy.

Yea. Played a game today as Illidan, the spiders actually took like 20%+ of my HP... Only them. That is way too much.

[Mormolyce]

These changes are mostly good but pretty conservative IMO. I don't think this will do much for Chen sadly.

I also have no idea why they think Archon is strong. I've used it and faced people using it, it's one of the least threatening ultis in the game.

- - - Updated - - -

Yea. Played a game today as Illidan, the spiders actually took like 20%+ of my HP... Only them. That is way too much.

Worst thing is there's really nothing you can do about them. Can't kill em, can't escape em.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Did Rexxar get his mounted animation fixed?

[Ryme]

Worst thing is there's really nothing you can do about them. Can't kill em, can't escape em.

I suspect this will be enough to keep them in use, leaping spiders <3