Heroes of the Storm Balance Patch Notes - January 22, 2020

[Nerraw]

Heroes of the Storm Balance Patch Notes - January 22, 2020

Heroes of the Storm has just been updated with Hero balance changes! Read on for details.


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• General
  
• Heroes
  
• Bug Fixes

General

• Toys 2 Event
  
  • Toys 2 Event has been extended to April 7, 2020, PT.
    

Heroes

Tank

Anub'arak


Talents

• Level 16
  
  • Beetle, Juiced [Trait]
    
    • Bonus Health increased from 20% to 40%.
      
• Level 20
  
  • Hive Master [R1]
    
    • Healing increased from 37 to 50.
      
  • Cryptweave [R2]
    
    • Bonus Cocoon duration increased from 4 to 6 seconds.
      

Developer Comment: We’re giving Anub’arak some additional small buffs to underused talents, which should help increase his diversity in the latter portions of the game.


Arthas


Talents

• Level 4
  
  • Deathlord [Q]
    
    • Additional functionality: Increase the range of Death Coil by 30%.
      

Developer Comment: We heard you Kyle and Garrett. We’re sorry we took it away. Here, have it back.


Cho


Base

• Health increased from 2850 to 2950.
  
• Health Regeneration increased from 5.94 to 6.15.

Talents

• Level 10
  
  • Upheaval [R2]
    
    • Cooldown reduced from 60 to 40 seconds.
      
• Level 20
  
  • Favor of the Old Gods [R2]
    
    • Root duration increased from 1.5 to 2 seconds.
      

Developer Comment: Cho like buffs.


Bruiser

Chen


Talents

• Level 1
  
  • Stormstout Secret Recipe [Passive]
    
    • Healing increased from 3% to 3.5% maximum Health.
      
• Level 4
  
  • Withering Flames [W]
    
    • Spell Power reduction increased from 50% to 60%.
      
• Level 7
  
  • Gift of the Ox [E]
    
    • Bonus Stagger duration increased from 1 to 1.5 seconds.
      
• Level 10
  
  • Wandering Keg [R1]
    
    • Cooldown reduced from 60 to 50 seconds.
      
• Level 13
  
  • Pressure Point [Q]
    
    • Slow amount increased from 35% to 40%.
      
    • Slow amount when Chen has Shields from Fortifying Brew increased from 70% to 80%.
      
  • A Touch of Honey [W]
    
    • Slow amount bonus increased from 15% to 20%.
      

Developer Comment: While Chen’s talents are in a relatively good spot, there is generally one talent on every tier that is being picked a bit less than its counter-parts. We’re giving some significant buffs to the talents that aren’t currently as popular in hopes that players try out new ways to play the Panderan Brewmaster.


Deathwing


Base

• Health reduced from 2920 to 2850.
  
• Health Regeneration reduced from 6.08 to 5.94.
  
• Incinerate [W]
  
  • Damage reduced from 80 to 75.
    
• Onslaught [E]
  
  • Damage reduced from 40 to 38.
    
  • Damage at the end of the lunge reduced from 75 to 72.
    
• Lava Burst [W]
  
  • Periodic damage increased from 8 to 10 per second.
    
• Earth Shatter [E]
  
  • Damage increased from 80 to 90.
    

Talents

• Level 1
  
  • Molten Blood [Trait]
    
    • Healing increased from .4 to .5% per second.
      
  • Draconic Might [Trait]
    
    • Healing reduced from 30% to 25% damage dealt.
      
• Level 4
  
  • Heat Wave [W]
    
    • Damage after using Incinerate reduced from 16 to 14 per second.
      
  • Dragon’s Ire [Trait]
    
    • Bonus damage reduced from 30% to 25%.
      
• Level 7
  
  • Firestorm [Z]
    
    • Cooldown reduction increased from 12 to 25 seconds.
      
  • Skyfall [E]
    
    • Cooldown reduction reduced from 1.5 seconds to 1 second.
      
• Level 10
  
  • Burn Beneath My Shadow [R1]
    
    • Bonus damage reduced from 100% to 80%.
      

Developer Comment: While in a much better spot, Deathwing is still overperforming, so we’re bringing him down a peg in various ways. This time, however, we are including some buffs to parts of his kit that could use it, particularly to his Worldbreaker form and to some of his talents.


Thrall


Talents

• Level 1
  
  • Rolling Thunder [Q]
    
    • Bonus damage and healing on Heroic targets increased from 2% to 3%.
      

Developer Comment: Rolling Thunder’s tuning was a bit low initially. This should make it much more appropriately attractive compared to the other powerful options Thrall has on the tier.


Support

Abathur


Base

• Locust Strain [Trait]
  
  • Locust Health increased from 316 to 350.
    
  • Additional functionality: Locusts deal 50% bonus damage to enemy Structures.
    

Talents

• Level 1
  
  • Envenomed Nest [W]
    
    • Additional functionality: Enemy Heroes who are hit by Toxic Nests have their Armor reduced by 10 for 4 seconds.
      
  • Reinforced Carapace [E]
    
    • Shield amount increased from 30% to 40%.
      
• Level 16
  
  • Volatile Mutation [R]
    
    • Healing increased from 75% to 100% of damage dealt.
      
• Level 20
  
  • Evolutionary Link [R1]
    
    • Shield amount Increased from 25% to 35% maximum Health.
      

Developer Comment: In addition to buffing underperforming talents, we’re experimenting with giving Locusts a larger presence in Abathur’s kit. If left unattended, they will now do increased damage to Structures, which will reward good Abathur players who pay close attention to their position on the map and the state of the game.


Healer

Auriel


Talents

• Level 10
  
  • Resurrect [R1]
    
    • Cast range reduced from 7 to 5.
      
    • Cast time increased from .5 seconds to 1 second.
      

Developer Comment: We knew Auriel’s Resurrect changes were going to be a big deal, and for the most part they have been going fairly well. It’s now picked much more often, and, to our pleasant surprise, isn’t winning by a large margin over Crystal Aegis. While we like the epic moment of power that the current iteration offers, there is understandably a bit of frustration with Heroic now. To add some more counter-play, we’re reducing its cast range and adding more to its cast time to give opponents a better chance to interrupt her. Auriel players will now have to choose their moments much more wisely if they hope to get a Resurrect off on a key ally who recently died.


Kharazim


Base

• Basic Attack damage increased from 60 to 64.

Talents

• Level 1
  
  • Transcendence [Trait]
    
    • Movement Speed bonus duration increased from 2 to 2.5 seconds.
      
  • Iron Fists [Trait]
    
    • Movement Speed bonus duration increased from 2 to 2.5 seconds.
      
  • Insight [Trait]
    
    • Movement Speed bonus duration increased from 2 to 2.5 seconds.
      
• Level 4
  
  • Air Ally [Active]
    
    • Cooldown increased from 20 to 30 seconds.
      
    • Health increased from 75 to 200.
      
    • Duration reduced from 40 to 10 seconds.
      
    • Charges reduced from 2 to 1.
      
    • Additional functionality: Now also grants nearby allied Heroes 15% Spell Power for its duration.
      

Developer Comment: Play Kharazim! Also, Air Ally does cool things now. Play that too.


Stukov


Talents

• Level 20
  
  • Bio-Explosion Switch [Trait]
    
    • Silence duration increased from 2 to 2.5 seconds.
      
    • Additional functionality: Detonating Lurking Arm also deals 230 damage to enemies caught in its explosion.
      

Developer Comment: Bio-Explosion Switch has always been in a bit of an awkward spot due to the opportunity cost of ending Lurking Arm early. To make the talent more obviously powerful, we’re adding some significant damage to the explosion and a larger Silence duration to the detonation to make up for the fact that Stukov’s Lurking Arm goes away when the explosion happens. Now, if Stukov players properly detonate the Lurking Arm right as their enemies are leaving it, they should have a significant benefit when taking this talent.


Whitemane


Talents

• Level 13
  
  • Saintly Greatstaff [E]
    
    • Damage increased from 50 to 55.
      

Developer Comment: Due to an issue with Saintly Greatstaff causing Whitemane’s Basic Attacks to heal for more than intended, we are buffing the talent to compensate for the fix.


Melee Assassin

Maiev


Talents

• Level 16
  
  • Cruel Chain [W]
    
    • New functionality: Umbral Bind grants 25% Movement Speed for 2.5 seconds, and its pull damage is increased by 30% for each tethered target beyond the first, up to 120%.
      
  • Vengeful Knives [E]
    
    • New functionality: for 5 seconds after teleporting with Spirit of Vengeance, Fan of Knives will deal 1% maximum Health as bonus damage to enemy Heroes. Increase this damage bonus by an additional 1% for each enemy Hero hit by Spirit of Vengeance.
      

Developer Comment: While Maiev is a terror in the hands of the more elite portion of our playerbase, we don’t want that to be a reason to not improve talents that we feel could use the help. Cruel Chain and Vengeful Knives have parts of their functionality that didn’t feel particularly impactful, so we’re adding more clear and useful benefits to each of them, which should make them more usable.


Samuro


Talents

• Level 1
  
  • Way of Illusion [Q]
    
    • Quest reward bonus damage increased from 20 to 30.
      
• Level 4
  
  • Deflection [Passive]
    
    • Armor bonus increased from 30 to 35.
      

Developer Comment: Samuro’s rework, statistically, has gone very well. His pick and win rates across his talents are in a better spot, and we believe his frustration levels have decreased since the changes. We’re being tame with our initial changes due to some bug fixes that can change how some talents pan out over the long haul. While we wait, we wanted to buff a couple underperforming talents that shouldn’t be affected by these fixes.


Ranged Assassin

Azmodan


Base

• Summon Demon Warrior [W]
  
  • Basic Attack damage increased from 30 to 35.
    
  • Damage per second to nearby enemies increased from 16 to 18.
    
• All Shall Burn [E]
  
  • Periodic damage per second increased from 120 to 128.
    
  • Final explosion damage increased from 320 to 340.
    

Talents

• Level 4
  
  • Battleborn [Passive]
    
    • Additional functionality: Reduce the Mana cost of Summon Demon Warrior from 25 to 20.
      
• Level 7
  
  • Bombardment [Q]
    
    • Empowered Basic Attacks duration increased from 3 to 4 seconds.
      
  • Master of Destruction [E]
    
    • Bonus Annihilation per Hero hit increased from 3 to 4.
      

Developer Comment: Azmodan’s been in a decent spot in regards to his talent diversity for some time, but he has been slightly underperforming compared to other heroes as a whole. We’re giving him some buffs to his base kit and to a couple underperforming talents, which should help players feel better about having the Lord of Sin on their team.


Mephisto


Talents

• Level 1
  
  • Malicious Intent [E]
    
    • Spellpower bonus increased from 20% to 25%.
      
• Level 16
  
  • Animosity [W]
    
    • Bonus duration increased from .5 seconds to 1 second.
      
    • No longer increases the duration of Lightning Nova as a result of Basic Attacking enemy Heroes.
      
    • Additional functionality: Increase the maximum bonus damage of Lightning Nova from 30% to 36%.
      

Developer Comment: Mephisto’s talents are in a much better place since our last changes, but Malicious Intent and Animosity were underperforming so we’re giving them some buffs.


Nazeebo


Talents

• Level 10
  
  • Ravenous Spirit [R2]
    
    • Damage increased from 108 to 115.
      

Developer Comment: Yep.


Orphea


Talents

• Level 1
  
  • Growing Nightmare [E]
    
    • Additional functionality: Increase the damage of Dread’s explosion by 25%.
      
    • Now shows Crit kickers when hitting 2 or more enemy Heroes.
      
  • Ancestral Strength [Trait]
    
    • No longer grants additional Chaos when hitting Stunned, Rooted, Silenced, or Slowed enemy Heroes.
      
    • Additional functionality: Enemy Heroes who are hit with Overflowing Chaos are Slowed by 20% for 2.5 seconds.
      
• Level 4
  
  • Fright [E]
    
    • Removed.
      
  • New talent: Chaotic Assault [Trait]
    
    • Basic attacks against enemy Heroes while having 3 stacks of Chaos deal an additional 50% bonus damage.
      
• Level 16
  
  • Lurking terror [Active]
    
    • Additional functionality: If Chomp is cast in this way, then it Slows enemy Heroes hit by 70% for 1 second.
      

Developer Comment: We’re trying to solve a few issues with Orphea’s current talent tree. Firstly, we’re getting rid of the necessary synergy between Ancestral Strength and Fright, opting to instead bake a more reliable way to Slow enemies into Ancestral Strength. We’re also buffing Growing Nightmare so that it’s the premier E talent in an E build, as well as giving Lurking Terror some love. Ideally, Lurking Terror can now be used as a more unique way to set up Q and W hits on enemies who are far away from Orphea, particularly when combined with Insatiable for quick double W combos.


Probius


Talents

• Level 7
  
  • Particle Accelerator [Q]
    
    • Maximum bonus damage for enemies hit reduced from 50% to 40%.
      
    • Additional functionality: Reduce the cooldown of Disruption Pulse by .5 seconds, plus an additional .5 seconds whenever Warp Rift explodes.
      
  • Tower Defense [E]
    
    • New functionality: Reduce the cooldown of Photon Cannon by 4 seconds whenever Probius damages an enemy Hero with Disruption Pulse or Warp Rift.
      
• Level 16
  
  • Repulsor [W]
    
    • Removed.
      
  • Interference [W]
    
    • Additional functionality: Enemies that are hit by Warp Rift’s explosion are knocked away from its center.
      

Developer Comment: We haven’t done many functionality changes to Probius’s talents since his release, so we’re now taking a look at places that could use some design love. We’re targeting Tower Defense and Particle Accelerator as talents that should feel more prominent in their respective builds, as well as removing Repulsor and baking its functionality into Interference, as it wasn’t enough of a stand-alone talent to be worth picking the majority of the time.


Sgt. Hammer


Talents

• Level 4
  
  • Barricade [W]
    
    • Additional functionality: Reduce the cooldown of Concussive Blast by 3 seconds.
      
• Level 7
  
  • Pulse Detonation Core [Q]
    
    • Additional functionality: Basic Attacks against enemy Heroes grant 5 Mana and reduce the cooldown of Spider Mines by 1 second. Increase this bonus to 1.5 seconds while in Siege Mode.
      

Developer Comment: Both Barricade and Pulse Detonation Core have very low pick rates, so we’re giving them some love, which should hopefully incentivize players to try them out more often.


Bug Fixes

General

• Updated missing tooltips in a certain language.

Heroes

• Arthas
  
  • Updated the Deathlord's advanced tooltip description.
    
• Deathwing
  
  • Fixed an issue where Lava Burst's targeting guide range indicator could be shorter than its cast range.
    
  • Fixed an issue where Deathwing could be affected by Blinds.
    
• Samuro
  
  • Fixed an issue where Casting Image Transmission while selecting an Illusion, could place the ability on the wrong cooldown with Illusion Master.
    
  • Phantom Pain's bonus damage no longer affects non-Heroic targets.
    
  • Updated a few tooltip descriptions.
    
• Whitemane
  
  • Fixed an issue where Saintly Greatstaff could be doubling Zeal healing from basic attacks.
    

[skorpio]

Come on! Stop buffing Abathur already! Instead buffing underpicked talents, nerf overpicked ones!

[Caperfin]

that beetle hp boost 0.o, is split pushing making a come back?

[Nerraw]

Some short thoughts on the changes that I am qualified (heroes that I play or encounter often) to comment on:

Anub'arak

Combined with the spell armor beetle at level 1, this health upgrade will definitely make them even better at absorbing skill shots. I'm not sure it'll have much of an effect beyond the existing general annoyance level of the beetles.

Hive Master has been out of favor for years, and I don't think this change does anything in that regard. Cryptweave, however, will become a legit consideration now. You can potentially keep someone out of the game for 13 seconds. That's a fifth of a death timer at level 20.


Cho

Ugh. Enough said.


Chen

The rest of the changes are nice, but Withering Flames is insane. 60% spell power reduction for 4 seconds? You can seriously sodomize mages and healers if timed well. Yes, spell power affects healing! This is basically a discount Ana grenade on a much shorter cooldown.


Deathwing

Good nerfs all around, though I'm not sure the World-breaker buffs are enough to bring it up to parity.


Abathur

The locust buff is insanity. If the game goes to level 16, you're going to lose if you don't have any global hero(es) to deal with the Abathur.

The Volatile Mutation and Evolutionary Link buffs should bring a bit more light to a pocket strategy utilizing those two talents. Queue up with a friend who's playing Muradin and you'll have a lot of fun once you figure it out. It works with other similar tanks too, like for example ETC.


Auriel

Not enough. The nerf is good, but it won't be enough. The range reduction may have an effect, but the window to interrupt the cast is still extremely low for just how powerful the ability is.


Kharazim

As a Kharazim fan, this looks fun. He's already strong when not specifically countered, and this will make him even more so. You now also can get a discount Varian spell power banner at level 4. Mages will love you!


Azmodan

Good buffs that'll have an effect in the lower leagues, although I'm not sure the specific talent buffs will be enough to end the reign of the Globe build at higher ranks.


Sgt. Hammer

I pick Barricade in ranked a couple of times a year, it's been extremely situational given that it competes with a healing talent and an Unstoppable talent. I might pick it more often now, but probably not by much.

I've never picked Pulse Detonation Core for the sole reason that the mines stop moving while they explode. If I'm picking this talent in the future now, it'll be solely because of the cooldown reduction that will allow a proper minefield to be spawned. Good change, might experiement.

- - - Updated - - -

that beetle hp boost 0.o, is split pushing making a come back?

Not to any great effect. Their duration is still too low for that, and their damage is not amazing either.

[Caperfin]

Not enough. The nerf is good, but it won't be enough. The range reduction may have an effect, but the window to interrupt the cast is still extremely low for just how powerful the ability is.

True, Auriel is still way above the rest.

[Raugnaut]

I really laugh at their "buff" to the lvl 1 DW talent that gives him a %health heal. It barely makes up for the nerf to his HP in terms of the amount of healing he can do, useless talent.

Beyond that, while his Destroyer build did get nerfed a solid amount with the nerf to the talent, the sustain barely got touched - -7.5 heals per target per W. Granted, with his lower HP pool, he won't be able to stay in quite as long to do as much damage, so maybe it'll help. Buffs to Worldbreaker is... eeeh, idk. No talent support for Worldbreaker is the general problem more then anything else.

- - - Updated - - -

I've never picked Pulse Detonation Core for the sole reason that the mines stop moving while they explode. If I'm picking this talent in the future now, it'll be solely because of the cooldown reduction that will allow a proper minefield to be spawned. Good change, might experiement.

Pulse Detonation Core is amazing against teams with heavy dive, it just completely deletes them. The main issue is that it shares the tier with the 2 talents that you would take in a hammer comp, and the only time you don't take hammer into a hammer comp is QM. It's more of a pug talent overall, where the movement speed reduction will get you killed because nobody is peeling for you, and the increased range is useless because your team believes your attack range is the worst place ever to fight in.

[Nerraw]

Pulse Detonation Core is amazing against teams with heavy dive, it just completely deletes them. The main issue is that it shares the tier with the 2 talents that you would take in a hammer comp, and the only time you don't take hammer into a hammer comp is QM. It's more of a pug talent overall, where the movement speed reduction will get you killed because nobody is peeling for you, and the increased range is useless because your team believes your attack range is the worst place ever to fight in.

The way I usually handle heavy dive is with Unstoppable at 4 and Z cooldown at 13. Hover at 7 is just so good. I could see maybe experimenting with PDC on Volskaya, maybe BoE, since you're fighting over one spot for so long that you don't need to move much. But again, giving up Hover is a tough sell for me.

[Raugnaut]

The way I usually handle heavy dive is with Unstoppable at 4 and Z cooldown at 13. Hover at 7 is just so good. I could see maybe experimenting with PDC on Volskaya, maybe BoE, since you're fighting over one spot for so long that you don't need to move much. But again, giving up Hover is a tough sell for me.

As I said, it's more of a QM talent more then a drafted talent.

IF someone stands in all 3 pulses of just 3 mines, they will take 1200 damage. 6 mines is 2400 damage - Basically everybody dies. Against dive/melee heavy comps in QM, it's basically "Kill anybody who gets close to you", because scrubs just wade into a full thing of mines.

It might even be good, now that you give it an effective 6 second CD with that talent.

[ophion1990]

I agree with what most other people here said.

Anub'arak's Beetle buff is nice but there is no real way of picking that talent, since it competes with "Epic Enter". His beetles as a whole kinda feel like they were just slapped into is kit since the Crypt Lord from WC3 had it, kinda makes you realize he was one of the team's first heroes aswell. His 20 buffs are cool but I still feel like Cocoon is usually the go-to ult and it's hard to warrant picking Locust Swarm in the first place. Maybe if the enemy team has a hero that can melt your Cocoon quickly, especially if you can bait the Ming into a Disintegrate pick before you lock your own ult or something, granetd that this is relying on a mistake from your enemy. That said, both 20s compete with Rewind, which gives Anub survivability, CC and mobility all rolled in one.

Arthas' buff is cool. Ironically, this also does make him better in the offlane, even though the devs seem adamant about him being a main tank. It's nice on maps where you wanna get interrupts in aswell, so it's a nice change overall.

I though Cho was already kinda strong and might not have needed buffs. The problem with the hero is that after the initial hype of playing a 2-man hero is over, everyone realizes what a bore/annoyance Gall is and never really plays him again, making it hard for the Cho player to find a partner.

Chen didn't really need buffs either, though it targets his weak(er) talents. I still don't think SSR will ever be worth it. EotT givs you the bonus AA damage aswell, which is more convincing in helping you win the lane matchup, rather than a talent that just gives you flat healing. I guess there's an argument to be made for FI/SSR on 1 and going Withering Flames on 4 if there's a hero you really feel like you have to control, as 60% is pretty bonkers, as Nerraw said. The other changes are pretty nice as they happened on tiers where you already had a choice. Wandering Keg is probably still bad, though. SEF is very strong and the knockback on barrel is too large now, so people can escape you.

The Thrall buff is nice, the talent was already fine, guess it's finer now!

Kharazim buffs are also nice. Insight stacking still makes you weak in the early game and it's usually not easy for Kharazim to get a lot of AAs in, which is why Iron Fist normally shines. So overall I don't think his level 1 is really gonna look all that different. The new Air ally is awesome, though.

Deathwing changes are kinda odd to me. Destroyer W still seems king, with Q being your waveclear. Molten Blood now heals marginally more than it did before the first HP nerf, yet the timeframe in which is heals is now considerably smaller, so it's still pretty not good. Lava burst went from doing almost no damage to doing slightly more than almost no damage and Earth Shatter damage still feels tame aswell. Though I'll admit I might not have played enough to feel the full effect of the changes. The level 10 nerf is fine, I think both picks were already viable. I still feel like his 2 forms feel awkward, if you wanna make Worldbreaker shine, I think Q build is the way, yet it requires setup or an enemy team who likes standing still. Going Q build also makes it impossible to talent into healing from E or CDR on E. IDK, more changes will be needed if they ever want people to build for the less consistent abilities, that's my 2 cents atleast.

[Nerraw]

"Epic Enter"

I see that you too are a person of culture.

[ThatsOurEric]

The Deathwing nerfs weren't necessary. He's already a terrible character to begin with, now they're making him worse than
freakin' Cho'Gall.

[Nerraw]

The Deathwing nerfs weren't necessary. He's already a terrible character to begin with, now they're making him worse than
freakin' Cho'Gall.

He was at a sustained 59% winrate in ranked before this update. The nerfs were needed.

[ThatsOurEric]

If he has a high winrate, it's because the other team isn't actively countering him.

Which isn't hard, considering that a significant portion of the roster does. So no, the nerfs
weren't needed. He still has terrible wave clear, terrible camp capture, is the largest target
in the game, can't be healed, can't be buffed, etc.

Now he's good for Quick Match and vs AI.

[Nerraw]

If he has a high winrate, it's because the other team isn't actively countering him.

Which isn't hard, considering that a significant portion of the roster does. So no, the nerfs
weren't needed. He still has terrible wave clear, terrible camp capture, is the largest target
in the game, can't be healed, can't be buffed, etc.

Now he's good for Quick Match and vs AI.

He's banned in most Division S games as well.

[ThatsOurEric]

I just don't see how. He offers so little, if anything.

[ophion1990]

The problem with DW, IMO, is that he has (or had) a very strong early game, even if you ignore his early Heroic. On most maps you can handily secure the first objective or even invade enemy mercs and usually snowball a talent advantage for the second objective. DW was also strong enough that if he had an unfavourable lane match up (Malthael or maybe Leo), he could move to the 4-man and have a ranged deal with the off-lane. Heck, you can send you tank to the off-lane and probably still convincingly win the 4-man. Once you're 16 you also get Elementium Plating, which helps dealing with stuff like Bullet or especially Rites. It gives your opponent such a small window to really make stuff happen.

As for his wave clear, one of my first DW matches was a TotSQ QM game where I double soaked mid and top (my team still fed and somehow lost the easy camp, good times). Especially once your Q is strong enough to kill the ranged minions as well, his wave clear is quite potent. That said, you don't normally want to double soak as DW, since he doesn't have a mount or movement speed like Dehaka does and his energy does inhibit his double soaking capabilities, but when in Rome...

As for Div S, I'm pretty sure he hasn't lost a single game with W build either. The only loss I saw was the one with the AA build, which was noticeably less effective and impactful than the standard build. Which kinda highlights the discrepancy between his talents as well. That said, the patch does seem to have evened things out a bit. Dragon's Ire might ironically be better now, since it has more uptime due to the HP nerf.