The Eternal Conflict between the Burning Hells and the High Heavens continues in the Nexus, and we've just unleashed our latest Heroes of the Storm patch! Today's update includes a brand new Hero, the addition of Dynamic Bundles to the Shop, Ranked Play changes, design and balance tweaks, as well as a new Battleground coming next week. Complete patch notes from today's patch can be found below.
Additionally, Game Designer Matt Cooper stepped in to provide some additional insight from the design team about many of the changes found in today's update. Read through his comments in the Design, Battlegrounds, Talents, and Heroes sections of the patch notes if you'd like to learn more about why we made each of these changes. Jump to Section
Diablo III and Diablo III: Reaper of Souls players who log in to Heroes during the three weeks following the release of the upcoming patch will permanently receive Diablo in Heroes of the Storm.
Malthael's Phantom
Starting with Season 4, Diablo III players who reach level 70 with a Seasonal character will receive Malthael’s Phantom in Heroes of the Storm.
Portrait Border & Pennant
Diablo III players who reach Player Level 12 in Heroes of the Storm will receive a new Heroes-themed Portrait Border and Pennant in Diablo III.
Kill 50 Treasure Goblins!
A new Special Event Quest has been added: Kill 50 Treasure Goblins
Any player who manages to rid the Nexus of 50 pesky Treasure Goblins during the Eternal Conflict event will receive a special portrait reward for their heroism!
New Portrait Rewards
Many new portrait rewards have been added! Unlock them by reaching Hero Level 10 with the following Heroes:
Diablo Villain Collection – Diablo, Leoric, The Butcher
Diablo Heroes Collection Series 1 – Nazeebo, Sonya, Valla
Diablo Heroes Collection Series 2 – Johanna, Kharazim
This three-lane Battleground features three Infernal Shrines that will periodically gather power. Only one Shrine will gather power at any given time, and either team can activate it to unleash its might.
Once activated, the Shrine’s Guardians will pour forth in waves to defend it. The first team to kill 30 Guardians will summon a devastating Punisher to fight for their cause.
A Punisher is a powerful boss that will attack down the lane that corresponds with the Shrine it was summoned from. Punishers will hunt down any nearby enemy Heroes that cross its path, and can spawn with one of three deadly affixes:
Arcane – The Punisher summons beams of arcane energy which rotate in a circular motion, and deal massive damage to enemy targets they pass through.
Frozen – The Punisher calls forth frigid ice shards, which explode after a short delay, dealing damage and freezing enemies in place for a short time.
Mortar – The Punisher launches a stream of firebombs high into the air, which explode and deal damage to any enemies they strike upon landing.
Please note: Infernal Shrines will not be added to the live version of Heroes of the Storm immediately on patch day.
Kharazim has been added to Heroes of the Storm and is now available for play! Read on for a brief overview of this new Support Hero’s Abilities.
Trait
Pick Your Trait
Learn Transcendence, Iron Fists, or Insight using the Talents panel to select your Trait.
Transcendence
Every third Basic Attack heals the lowest nearby allied Hero.
Iron Fists
Every third Basic Attack deals 100% bonus damage.
Insight
Every third Basic Attack restores Mana.
Basic Abilities
Radiant Dash (Q)
Jump to an ally or enemy. Enemies are immediately hit with a Basic Attack. Stores up to two charges. 12 second cooldown per charge.
Breath of Heaven (W)
Heal nearby allied Heroes, granting them a 10% Movement Speed bonus for 3 seconds.
Deadly Reach (E)
Your next Basic Attack increases your Attack Speed and Attack Range by 100% for 2 seconds.
Heroic Abilities
Seven-Sided Strike (R)
Become Invulnerable, striking 7 times over 2 seconds in a large area. Each strike deals 7% of the target’s maximum Health as damage, and prioritizes the Hero with the highest remaining Health.
Divine Palm (R)
Protect an allied Hero from death. The next source of fatal damage within 3 seconds is prevented, and the target is instead healed for a large amount.
The Demonic Tyrael Skin has returned to the Nexus!
After visiting the top smith that the Burning Hells have to offer, Demonic Tyrael has strapped into an intimidating new set of armor, imbued El’Druin with corruption, sprouted two wicked pairs of horns, and donned a crown worthy of his title as the Lord of Pride.
Demonic Tyrael now also features updated Ability art, which much more closely matches his theme.
Blood Elf Tyrande has also returned to the Nexus, and now sports updated Ability art, which much more closely matches her theme.
War World Sgt. Hammer has received updated Ability art for Napalm Strike, which more closely matches her theme.
Jade Dragon Kharazim Bundle - Available for a limited time.
Prisoner Tychus Bundle - Available for a limited time.
Conquest Bundle
Domination Bundle
Bundle Removals
The Nexus Bundle will be removed from the Shop one week following patch day, but will remain purchasable as a Dynamic Bundle until that time.
Heroes
Kharazim has been added to the in-game Shop!
Mounts
New Mounts
The Treasure Goblin Mount has been added for a limited time, and is exclusively available for purchase using Gold.
Malthael’s Phantom has been added and will become available exclusively to Diablo III players who reach level 70 with a Season Character, starting with Diablo III Season 4.
Mount Removals
The Nazeebra Mount, which is exclusive to the Nexus Bundle, will be removed from the Shop one week following patch day. During that time, players will still be able to purchase the Nexus Bundle to obtain the Nazeebra Mount.
Price Changes
Brightwing’s prices have been reduced to 7,000 Gold and $8.49 USD.
Bundles that contain three or more items are now listed as Dynamic Bundles in the Shop.
A Dynamic Bundle’s price will be automatically reduced if the player already owns one or more of the items that are part of that Bundle.
Two-item Bundles are not dynamic, and players will be unable to purchase a two-item Bundle if they already own one of the items it contains.
Check out our recent blog on Dynamic Bundles to learn more about this new feature.
In-Game UI
Ability & Activated Talent Hotbars
The Ability Hotbar has received new art, and is now more visually compact.
The Activated Talent Hotbar has received new art, and its buttons are now slightly larger.
Nameplates & Status Bars
Hero nameplates will now display the following status effects: Polymorphed, and Stasis
Hero Status Bars have received additional polish and improvements.
The color of allied Health bars has been changed from green to blue.
Hero Health bars now more clearly denote 1,000 and 250 Health segments.
Shields will now appear white, rather than blue, on Hero Health bars.
Damage, damage over time, and quick Healing effects are now much easier to distinguish on Health bars.
Game Server Selection
Players may now select which game server they’d like to play on by selecting it from the Preferred Game Server dropdown on the Language and Region options menu.
This setting will default to Best Match, but players may wish to change this if they notice connection issues when playing on a specific server.
Please note: As we continue to improve and expand our game sites, Best Match will provide the best play experience for most players. If you are not experiencing issues, it is highly recommend that you leave this set to Best Match.
If players in a party have conflicting server preferences, the server that is most commonly selected among the party’s members will be used.
Player Reporting
New Report Categories
Reporting Options have been reworked, and now include categories for Abusive Chat, AFK/Non-Participation, and Intentional Feeding.
Ranked Play
Hero and Team League are no longer separated in the out-of-game menus, and can now be found using the new Ranked page on the Play screen.
Placement Rank
All players’ Hero and Team League ranks have been reset with today’s update.
Please Note: Matchmaking ratings have not been reset.
A new placement system has been added
All players must now play 20 placement matches in order to receive an initial ranking for Hero League or Team League.
Hero League is now limited to a maximum party size of four players.
Team League
Five-player parties will now be automatically queued for Team League when attempting to find a Ranked match.
The ability to create a named team has been removed, while this feature undergoes additional review.
Players who have spent Gold to create named teams in the past will have that amount of Gold returned to them in the days to come.
Team League draft lobbies will still use the First Come First Served draft format.
Team League will still use a separate matchmaking rating (MMR) from Hero League.
However, because Team League parties do not have static rosters, Team League MMR will now functions much like it does for Hero League. This means that each player’s Team League MMR is based on their own individual performance in Team League matches.
A difficulty dropdown has been added to the Versus A.I. screen, which can be used to switch among five different A.I. difficulty settings: Beginner, Recruit, Adept, Veteran, and Elite.
Please note: Elite A.I. development is not yet complete, and improvements are slated to arrive with a future game update.
A.I. teammates will mirror the difficulty selected for A.I. opponents.
When playing in a party, only the party leader may change the A.I. difficulty setting.
When attempting to find a Versus A.I. game with human allies, the matchmaker will work to find other players who have selected the same A.I. difficulty level.
If it takes too long to find a suitable match, the matchmaker will expand its search to include difficulty levels above and below the player’s selection.
If the human players on a team had selected a variety of A.I. difficulties, an A.I. opponent of each selected difficulty will be used for that game.
For example: If two players selected Adept A.I. and three selected Veteran, the game will be filled with two adept and three veteran A.I. opponents.
Developer Comments: This change was aimed at removing odd gameplay where an Abathur player may actually want to sacrifice his Monstrosity or a Gargantuan for a more powerful one. This occurred if players kept summons alive for a very long time and gained several levels, as these levels were not reflected in the Summon’s Ability Power. For short term Summons, players will rarely gain a level or more while that Summon is alive, so we made these snapshot instead. With snapshotting, players can use a temporary power boost, such as Overdrive or Arcane Power, to create a more powerful summon.
To clarify the rules for temporary Ability Power gains, the following rules have been added:
For permanent or very long duration pets or persistent effects, their damage and maximum Health will now update dynamically when Ability Power or Hero levels are modified. This includes:
Abathur's Monstrosity
Nazeebo's Gargantuan (with the Humongoid Talent)
For short duration pets or persistent effects, their damage and maximum Health should snapshot based upon the Ability Power/level of the character when they are cast. This includes:
Jaina's Water Elemental
Sgt. Hammer's Blunt Force Gun
Tychus' Drakken Laser Drill
Bonus Effects from Kills
Developer Comments: This change will not have a major impact on today’s gameplay and was mostly done for consistency on how these type of talents worked. In the future, it may allow us to develop Battlegrounds with many small minions (think Haunted Mines) and not have to worry about special casing Seasoned Marksman so it doesn’t get out of control.
Talents and Abilities that gain bonus effects from kills will now only trigger from Minions and Mercenaries, and will no longer gain benefit from killing neutral Mercenaries, map event creatures, summoned units, etc.
When Immortals that are battling at the center of the Battleground swap locations for the first time, the Heaven Immortal will now always travel to right, and the Hell Immortal will always travel to the left.
Tomb of the Spider Queen
Developer Comments: A small number of Tomb games tend to run significantly longer than intended, so we altered the scaling of the Spider mechanic to prevent drawn out stalemates in the late game. Our hope is to see shorter matches overall.
Increased the damage and Health scaling of Webweavers and their minions by 50% past the 15 minute mark.
Developer Comments: We love this talent and think it can create a lot of really interesting moments, but the cooldown was just too short. At 70 seconds we think this talent is still a great level 20 pick, but now players will have to be more strategic with how they use it. Forcing someone to use their Bolt to avoid a gank can now be a meaningful moment with this increased cooldown. We hope this also entices players towards choosing their Heroic upgrades instead of Bolt when the situation calls for it.
Cooldown increased from 40 to 70 seconds
Cleanse
Developer Comments: We didn’t like the gameplay of casting Cleanse preemptively on a target that is about to be CC’ed. For example, you see Butcher charging your Valla, and right before impact you use Cleanse on Valla, allowing her to immediately Vault away. The change also prevents healers from cleansing themselves preemptively, providing a guaranteed target if the opposing team has only secured one Cleanse. As a side note, the original reason the Unstoppable functionality was available in the first place, was to help alleviate some persistent CC effects like Putrid Bile. We didn’t want you to cleanse a Putrid Bile only to have the slow immediately reapply.
No longer makes the target Unstoppable for 1 second
Now adds Relentless to the target for 2 seconds (50% shorter CC duration)
Focused Attacks
Developer Comments: This could be viewed as a buff or nerf depending on how players perceive it. You can still reduce the cooldown by attacking Minions, but won’t accidently waste a burst of damage on an unintended target. This talent will no longer be as effective at sieging, but it should be significantly better at harassing in lane. We will continue to monitor the talent, and tune as necessary.
The increased damage effect will now only trigger when hitting Heroes
Gathering Power
Developer Comments: Gathering Power was simply too good and was considered, by many, a mandatory pick on certain characters, which often lead to snowballing. We liked the ‘quest’ aspect of this talent, but it was far too easy to reach the cap and the quest didn’t feel meaningful to complete. Now, choosing this talent should no longer be mandatory, and the quest is much longer. Player’s will keep half of their stacks upon dying, which will help act as a ‘check point’.
The 5% starting Ability Power has been removed
Percentage gain from killing a Hero reduced from 2% to 1%
Instead of losing all stacks on death, players will now only lose half their stacks (rounding up)
Imposing Presence
Developer Comments: Statistically, it was almost never wrong to choose Imposing Presence. With this nerf, it’s still a great counter in the right situation, and as a result, we’re hoping we’ll see more play from our Basic Attack assassins.
Attack Speed slow reduced from 50% to 40%
The Attack Speed slow will now be removed when attacking a target that has not learned the Imposing Presence Talent
Mercenary Lord
Developer Comments: We’ve combined the talent Superiority into Mercenary Lord, and removed the damage reduction from structures to prevent degenerative backdoor strategies. The combination of the damage reduction vs. Mercenaries and the ability to empower these Mercenaries felt like a logical pairing. We hope incorporating the two talents into one will make this level 4 choice an enticing one, as the two talents separated had a low pick rate.
The functionality of the Superiority Talent has been rolled into Mercenary Lord, which is now available to the following Heroes at Level 4:
Anub'arak, Arthas, Azmodan, Gazlowe, Nazeebo, Sonya, Stitches, and The Lost Vikings
New combined functionality reads: Non-Boss Mercenaries near your Hero deal 50% more damage. Reduces damage taken from Minions and Mercenaries by 50%.
Seasoned Marksman
Developer Comments: Overall, we like the way Seasoned Marksman is playing but wanted to tune up its effectiveness to reward those able to secure a healthy number of takedowns, while simultaneously tuning the talent up due to prior changes. Ideally, this will become a great talent pick when facing The Lost Vikings or Murky players.
Stacks earned by killing enemy Heroes increased from 2 to 3
Only Minions, captured enemy Mercenaries, and Heroes will grant stacks upon death
Superiority
This Talent has been removed, and its functionality has been rolled into the revamped Mercenary Lord Talent
Developer Comments: Mighty Gust can be a great disengagement tool, but it is often outshined by the pure power of Hinterland Blast. We feel we can bring this Heroic into play more often with some simple tuning changes. Internally, it’s been much more powerful and can even be used as a counter to a hard engagement or aggressive dive teams.
Mighty Gust (R)
Cooldown decreased from 50 to 40 seconds
Slow duration increased from 2 to 5 seconds
Jaina
Developer Comments: The Jaina changes are a result of her being too powerful right now, and we have a secondary goal of increasing the play of Ring of Frost. By reducing the impact of summoning a Water Elemental, Jaina loses some of her burst potential unless she chooses Ring of Frost. Water Elemental is now more focused on producing sustained damage.
Ring of Frost (R)
Cooldown decreased from 100 to 80 seconds
Water Elemental (R)
No longer deals damage or Chills at the Water Elemental’s spawn location
Kael'thas
Developer Comments: Prior to these changes, Kael’Thas had a high win rate, but his win rate wasn’t alarming. Instead, we’re focusing on Kael’thas’ current gameplay, as it feels very set in stone and we’d like players to have the option to be creative. We’re smoothing out his power curve and making Pyroblast a more enticing choice.
Spell Shield (Talent) removed
Arcane Barrier (Talent)
Shield duration increased from 3 to 6 seconds
Verdant Spheres (Trait) (D)
Sunfire Enchantment (Talent)
Damage increased from 78 (+16 per level) to 85 (+18 per level)
Flamestrike (Q)
Damage increased from 74 (+20 per level) to 80 (+22 per level)
Mana Tap (Talent)
Now restores 5% Mana per target killed, rather than a flat amount
Ignite (Talent) removed
New Talent (Level 16): Fury of the Sunwell
Casting Flamestrike will cause a second Flamestrike to be cast 1 second after the first explodes
Living Bomb (W)
Damage over time increased from 60 (+18 per level) to 60 (+22 per level)
Explosion damage increased from 30 (+9 per level) to 30 (+11 per level)
Fission Bomb (Talent)
Damage bonus reduced from 75% to 30%
Now also increases the explosion radius by 30%
Pyromaniac (Talent)
Cooldown reduction increased from 1 to 2 seconds per tick
Backdraft (Talent)
Slow amount increased from 40% to 50%
Slow duration reduced from 2.5 to 2 seconds
Gravity Lapse (E)
Range increased by 25%
Gravity Throw (Talent) moved from Level 16 to Level 13
Pyroblast (R)
Range increased by 20%
Kerrigan
Developer Comments: These changes are intended as a slight buff overall, and to provide Kerrigan with more options. Her level 1 range increase talent was almost always picked, so we made that baseline. Several new talents and mana alterations should allow Kerrigan players to try out some Ravage and Trait based builds.
Seasoned Marksman (Talent) removed
Focused Attack (Talent) removed
Searing Attacks (Talent) removed
Sprint (Talent) removed
Blood for Blood (Talent) removed
New Talent (Level 13): Queen’s Rush
Activate to increase Movement Speed by 25% for 4 seconds. Hero Takedowns automatically activate this effect.
New Talent (Level 16): Essence for Essence
Activate to steal 10% of an enemy Hero’s Health, and gain twice that amount as Assimilation Shields
Assimilation (Trait)
Lingering Essence (Talent)
Assimilation Shield duration increased from 12 to 20 seconds
New Talent (Level 7): Assimilation Mastery
Increases Health and Mana Regneration by 100% while Assimilation Shields are active
Ravage (Q)
Damage increased from 50 (+20 per level) to 60 (+22 per level)
Mana cost decreased from 75 to 50
Clean Kill (Talent)
Now also increases the damage dealt by Kerrigan’s next Ravage by 20%
Adaptation (Talent)
Half of Ravage’s Mana cost is now refunded when jumping to an ally
Eviscerate (Talent)
Range bonus increased from 25% to 40%
Impaling Blades (W)
Mana cost increased from 60 to 75
Primal Grasp (E)
Range increased by 20%
Mana cost increased from 50 to 60
Cooldown increased from 8 to 10 seconds
Damage decreased from 50 (+13 per level) to 40 (+10 per level)
Sweeping Grasp (Talent) removed
Psionic Pulse (Talent)
Damage per second increased from 12 (+2.4 per level) to 15 (+3 per level)
New Talent (Level 1): Energizing Grasp
Refunds 10 Mana per enemy hit, up to a maximum of 60
Maelstrom (R)
Damage per second increased from 25 (+2.5 per level) to 30 (+3 per level)
Cooldown reduced from 120 to 100 seconds
Duration reduced from 9 to 7 seconds
Ultralisk (R)
Cooldown now begins once the Ultralisk is killed
Torrasque (Talent)
Ultralisk can now be reborn more than once, so long as the egg isn’t destroyed within 8 seconds of the Ultralisk’s death
Raynor
Developer Comments: Overall Raynor’s win rate is low and using Inspire can feel clunky as it resets your Basic Attack period. These changes should help Raynor feel more responsive to play, while also making him a bit more powerful. We also did a pass at shuffling around and tuning up some of his least picked talents.
Basic Attack damage increased from 35 to 40
Mercenary Lord (Talent) removed
Puttin’ on a Clinic (Talent) moved from Level 13 to Level 7
Relentless Leader (Talent) moved from Level 16 to Level 13
A Card to Play (Talent)
Cooldown reduction per Hero killed increased from 10 to 15 seconds
Penetrating Round (Q)
Cluster Round (Talent)
Damage bonus per target hit increased from 10% to 20%, up to a maximum of 100%
Bullseye (Talent)
Bonus damage removed
Stun duration increased from 1 to 1.5 seconds
Inspire (W)
No longer places Raynor’s Basic Attack on cooldown
Adrenaline Rush (E)
Cooldown reduced from 45 to 40 seconds
Activated Rush (Talent) removed
Fight or Flight (Talent)
Now also allows manual activation of Adrenaline Rush
No longer removes movement impairing effects, and instead reduces damage taken by 25% for 4 seconds after activating Adrenaline Rush
Thrall
Thrall’s Basic Attacks have received improvements in responsiveness, especially when stutter-stepping
Thrall’s first Basic Attack after Windfury ends will no longer have an abnormally long weapon period
Developer Comments: We’ve tuned up some of his weaker talent picks to make them more viable. We really like the level 20 Hivemind talent, but it can feel clunky to use as when allies move out of range, you have to decide whether to cancel and recast it, or stay focused on only a single target. With these changes, Hivemind will be much more fluid to play with and consistent in its effectiveness.
Volatile Mutation (Talent)
Damage increased from 36 (+7 per level) to 50 (+10 per level)
Damage radius increased by 20%
Locust Strain (Trait)
Survival Instincts (Talent)
Locust Health bonus increased from 30% to 50%
Symbiote (Q)
Carapace (E)
Regenerative Microbes (Talent)
Healing per second increased from 7 (+2 per level) to 9 (+3 per level)
Hivemind (Talent)
Now searches for a new Hivemind target every second, rather than only on the first cast
The secondary Symbiote target’s Stab and Spike Burst deal half their normal damage, and Carapace grants half its normal Shield amount
Toxic Nest (W)
Cooldown reduced from 12 to 10 seconds
Envenomed Nest (Talent)
Bonus damage increased from 50% to 75%
Azmodan
Developer Comments: Right now, Azmodan has one competitive build at high levels of play where he stacks Globe of Annihilation (Q) talents. We think this build is a ton of fun, so we didn’t want to negatively impact this build. Instead, we wanted to give Azmodan some other build options. Right now, it’s almost always a mistake to summon one of his Demons and waste your mana. With the new tuning, and the talent changes, the Demons become a legitimate option to use. The Demons start with much more damage than previously, but scale close to what they use to be at higher levels. For players who still plan to go the (Q) build, it’s mostly the same, but we’ve offered a few additional talent choices to make options that best fit your play style. Finally, we are removing some of the Support nature of Healing Ward and Storm Shield from Azmodan. It makes more sense for him to be a greedy character, not someone who can become a hybrid support in the right situation.
Healing Ward (Talent) removed
Superiority (Talent) removed
First Aid (Talent) removed
Storm Shield (Talent) removed
Mercenary Lord (Talent) moved from Level 7 to Level 4
New Talent (Level 4): Sin’s Grasp
Activate to deal 115 (+19 per level) damage over 6 seconds to the target enemy Hero; can be cast while channeling All Shall Burn
Minion kills each reduce Sin’s Grasp’s 100 second cooldown by 5 seconds
New Talent (Level 7): Gluttonous Ward
Activate to place a ward that restores 25% of Azmodan’s maximum Health and Mana over 10 seconds
General of Hell (Trait) (D)
Bound Minion (Talent) moved from Level 4 to Level 7
New Talent (Level 20): Forced Recruitment
Reduces General of Hell’s cooldown from 30 to 20 seconds
Allows Azmodan to store up to two General of Hell charges
Globe of Annihilation (Q)
New Talent (Level 13): Hedonism
Reduces Globe of Annihilation’s Mana cost from 60 to 30
Summon Demon Warrior (W)
Demon Warrior damage changed from 20 (+3 per level) per second to 40 (+2 per level) per second
Enduring Warriors (Talent) removed
Blazing Demons (Talent) removed
Army of Hell (Talent)
No longer increases maximum Demon charges
Now increases Demon Warrior damage by 20%, and reduces Demon Warrior's Mana cost from 40 to 20
Hellforged Armor (Talent)
Now also causes Demon Warriors to deal 10 (+1 per level) damage per second to nearby enemies
All Shall Burn (E)
Spare Nothing (Talent) removed
Master of Destruction (Talent) moved from Level 7 to Level 1
Now also increases damage against Structures by 25%
New Talent (Level 7): Infused Power
All Shall Burn gains an additional charge-up level, increasing its damage by 25%
Nazeebo
Developer Comments: We looked at tuning up talents that wouldn’t impact his core Spider build. We’ve reverted some of the Ravenous Spirit nerfs as we saw a large shift from Ravenous to Gargantuan and wanted to see a better mix of the two.
M.U.L.E. (Talent) removed
Clairvoyance (Talent) removed
Sprint (Talent) removed
Stoneskin (Talent) removed
Hardened Focus (Talent) added at level 16
Gidbinn (Talent)
No longer increases the Plague of Toads explosion radius
Zombie Wall and Corpse Spider duration bonuses increased from 25% to 33%
New Talent (Level 13): Thing of the Deep
Increases the range for all of Nazeebo’s Basic Abilities by 25%
Voodoo Ritual (Trait)
Blood Ritual (Talent)
Health and Mana restoration bonuses increased from 100% to 125%
Zombie Wall (W)
Fresh Corpses (Talent)
No longer increases Zombie damage
Now permanently reduces Zombie Wall’s cooldown by 4 seconds
Dead Rush (Talent)
Now also increases Zombie damage by 50%
Plague of Toads (E)
Toads of Hugeness (Talent)
Now also increases Toad explosion radius by 20% each time they hop
New Talent (Level 7): Toad Affinity
Each enemy hit by Plague of Toads restores 5 Mana and reduces its cooldown by 1 second
Gargantuan (R)
Gargantuan Stomp (R)
Animation duration reduced from 1 to 0.5 seconds
Hovering the cursor over Gargantuan Stomp on the Ability Hotbar will now display a range indicator
Ravenous Spirit (R)
Damage changed from 30 (+8 per level) to 25 (+9 per level)
Damage radius increased by approximately 22%
Sgt. Hammer
Developer Comments: Hammer is one of our lowest win rate characters so we looked at some easy buffs we could make. We feel like she has a great playstyle and wanted to highlight her fantasy more. The increased health will let you be a bit more aggressive and the increased damage will better reinforce her long range, high damage capabilities. Finally, her Siege Mode can be used much more frequently and with less emphasis on securing the perfect location. It’s okay now to Siege up, get a couple shots in, and then get out of danger.
Health increased from 720 (+140 per level) to 740 (+150 per level)
Artillery (Trait)
Damage bonus against distant targets increased from 20% to 30%
Developer Comments: We like a lot of what the rework did for Brightwing, but overall her healing output went down more than intended. This change will give her back a big portion of the lost healing and should increase her total healing output (tab screen wise) by about 15-20%.
Soothing Mist (Trait)
Healing increased from 25 (+7.5 per level) to 30 (+9 per level)
Malfurion
Developer Comments: Player feedback brought to our attention that this particular level 4 talent on Malfurion was an obvious trap at 20%. While we don’t want to give Malfurion a solid burst healing option, we agreed and have tuned this talent up to 50%. At 50%, and in a vacuum, this talent may still be undertuned, but it eventually adds up to a decent additional amount of healing. Over a sustained period of time, this additional 50% outpaces Protective Shield, for example.
Regrowth (Q)
Rampant Growth (Talent)
Initial Heal bonus increased from 20% to 50%
Rehgar
Developer Comments: Bloodlust is rarely picked right now, but we feel like both Heroics are extremely powerful. Without changing anything massive, we’re simply reducing the CD of Bloodlust so it can be used more frequently. We believe if Basic Attack based heroes become more prevalent in the Meta, this Heroic could become dominant, so we’ll be taking a cautious approach.
Bloodlust (R)
Cooldown decreased from 120 to 90 seconds
Tassadar
Spell Shield (Talent) removed
Oracle (Trait) (D)
Cooldown increased from 30 to 40 seconds
Mental Acuity (Talent)
Cooldown reduction increased from 15 to 20 seconds
Plasma Shield (Q)
Mana Cost decreased from 60 to 50
Minion Bulwark (Talent) removed
Reinforce Structure (Talent) moved from Level 4 to Level 1
Flying Kick is now much more accurate and will hit enemies much more consistently.
Leoric
Undying (Trait)
Many of Leoric’s healing effects during Undying are now half as effective
Reanimation (Talent)
Health regeneration during Undying decreased from 1.5 to 0.75 Health per second
Ossein Renewal (Talent)
Heal amount during Undying reduced from 20% to 10% of Leoric’s maximum Health
Ghastly Swing (Q)
Consume Vitality (Talent)
Healing reduced during Undying from 2% to 1% of Leroic’s maximum Health per target hit, capping at 5%
Drain Essence (W)
Now restores up to 12.5% of Leroic’s maximum Health during Undying, rather than a flat amount (was approximately 10%)
Willing Vessel (Talent)
Now also increases Drain Essence’s healing to 15% during Undying
Skeletal Swing (Q)
No longer deals 100% increased damage to structures
Sonya
Developer Comments: Overall, we’re looking to tune Sonya up slightly. With the health increases, she’ll be a bit more tanky. Previously, Whirlwind could be very frustrating to lane against if you didn’t have a stun. With the shift of less healing from minions and more from heroes, this will make Sonya less of a lane bully and more of an effective skirmisher.
Health increased from 930 (+210 per level) to 950 (+220 per level)
Fury (Trait)
Shot of Fury (Talent)
No longer dismounts Sonya on activation
Whirlwind (E)
Healing reduced from 25% to 20% of damage dealt
Healing for damage dealt to Heroes has increased from double to triple
Life Funnel (Talent)
Healing bonus decreased from +10% to +5% of damage dealt
Tyrael
Developer Comments: Overall, our goal was to make Sanctification a viable Heroic for players. We increased its effectiveness and fixed a few bugs to make the ability more consistent. With the changes, Sanctification can become extremely powerful at countering Wombos or Hard Engage teams, making it an enticing choice over Judgement in certain situations.
El’Druin’s Might (Q)
After throwing El’Druin, a timer bar will now display on screen to indicate how much time remains before El’Druin’s Might expires
New Talent (Level 1): Horadric Reforging
Reduces the cooldown for El’Druin’s Might by 3 seconds if it hits an enemy
Sanctification (R)
No longer requires Tyrael to channel the Ability. All Heroes, including Tyrael, will be invulnerable while within Sanctification’s area of effect
Now has a 0.5 second cast time
Cooldown increased from 50 to 70 seconds
Area of effect radius reduced by approximately 53%
Judgment (R)
Casting time increased from 0.5 to 0.75 seconds
Judgment’s target is now briefly revealed upon casting
New art has been added that will better notify the target of an incoming Judgment
The distance that an enemy targeted by Judgment must travel beyond the Ability’s maximum cast range in order to interrupt it has been increased by 66%
The Wonder Billie Mount can now be properly selected for use in Hero League and Custom Games.
Fixed a rare issue that could sometimes cause matchmade games to start with fewer than 10 players.
Fixed an issue that could cause French AZERTY and German QWERTZ keyboards to revert to using QWERTY keyboard hotkeys.
Fixed an issue that could cause a noticeable gamma change for some Mac users.
Art
The visual effects preceding Furnace Blast’s explosion will now remain visible while The Butcher is affected by Brightwing’s Polymorph.
Battlegrounds
Heroes that are near a Dragon Knight when it is killed will no longer exhibit unexpected movement behavior.
Battlefield of Eternity Minions affected by Sylvanas’ Possession will now properly grant vision to the controlling team.
Captured Bruiser Mercenary Camps on Battlefield of Eternity will now properly display their respawn timers when mousing over them on the minimap.
Fixed a rare issue that could cause Mercenary Camps to permanently vanish on Battlefield of Eternity.
Visual effects from Basic Attacks and Hero Abilities against an Immortal are no longer visible through the fog of war.
Fixed an issue in which certain movement-based Abilities, such as Kerrigan’s Ravage or Chen’s Flying Kick, could not target the Doubloon Chests on Blackheart’s Bay, or Plant Terror Overgrowths on Garden of Terror.
Enemy Heroes within a Dragon Knight or Garden Terror will no longer become unresponsive if that vehicle is killed by Sylvanas’ Unstable Poison.
Heroes and Talents
Abathur’s Evolve Monstrosity cooldown will no longer begin counting down when Abathur is killed while a Monstrosity remains alive.
Fixed an issue that could allow Abathur to become permanently invulnerable under certain circumstances.
Abathur’s Stab and Spike Burst Abilities will now deal the proper amount of damage to Promoted Minions.
After learning the Evolution Complete Talent, Abathur’s Monstrosity will no longer retain some of the Minions Absorbed stacks earned by a previous Monstrosity.
Casting Abathur’s Ultimate Evolution on Tyrael just as Tyrael is killed will now properly place Ultimate Evolution on a reduced cooldown.
Anub’arak’s Web Wrap and Stitches' Gorge will now work properly when used against Unstoppable targets, which is consistent with Zagara's Devouring Maw.
Chen’s Flying Kick will now be properly canceled when cast on an enemy that is transitioning between levels on the Haunted Mines.
Illidan will no longer fly to the enemy Hall of Storms if the target of The Hunt is killed before the Ability completes.
After learning the Wintermute Talent, Jaina’s Water Elemental will now properly mirror her Blizzard casts.
Kerrigan's Aggressive Defense Talent now correctly increases the Assimilation Shield amount gained from Basic Attacks and Abilities by 100% when paired with her Fury of the Swarm Talent.
Li Li's Cloud Serpent will now attack at the proper speed whether Li Li is moving or standing still.
Malfurion's Tranquility will no longer heal him for double the intended amount.
Nazeebo’s Gargantuan Stomp tooltip now properly reflects a 5 second Ability cooldown for the Ability.
Fixed an issue that could cause the Gargantuan Stomp button to persist on Nazeebo’s Ability Hotbar after his Gargantuan had been killed.
Fixed an issue in which Ability effects, such as Giant Killer, Focused Attack, and Zagara’s Envenomed Spines, could be applied while Blinded.
Fixed an issue that could prevent Abilities like Brightwing's Soothing Mist or Malfurion's Life Seed from auto-casting during Iceblock, or periods during which players are stunned or silenced.
Leoric’s Reanimation Talent will no longer allow him to benefit from enemy Regen Globes during Undying.
Fixed a bug that could allow Leoric’s Consume Vitality to heal him for more than the five target maximum during Undying.
Fixed a bug that could cause Leoric’s Consume Vitality to trigger multiple times after striking a single target.
Murky can no longer use Pufferfish to permanently reveal parts of the fog of war before the match starts.
Fixed an issue that could cause Stitches’ Hook to become visually stuck to an enemy Hero and fail to pull the target under certain circumstances.
The Butcher’s Savage Charge Talent will now properly apply its damage bonus when using Ruthless Onslaught on an enemy Hero that has less than 50% Health remaining.
Ruthless Onslaught will no longer cause The Butcher to continue searching for the target even after losing vision of that Hero.
Minions affected by Sylvanas’ Possession will no longer occasionally appear to attack one another.
Right-clicking Tassadar as he begins using Dimensional Shift will no longer cause the auto-attack reticule to appear while he is invisible.
Tyrael will no longer fly to the enemy Hall of Storms if his Judgment target is killed before the Ability completes.
Fixed an issue that could occasionally cause Tyrael's Judgment to fail to cast properly on the intended target.
Tyrael's Judgment will no longer affect Heroes inside Zagara's Devouring Maw.
Heroes that are struck by Tyrael’s Judgment and another knockback effect, such as The Butcher’s Ruthless Onslaught, in rapid succession will no longer be pushed farther than intended.
Fixed an issue in which the following Abilities and Talents were not damaging or destroying Zagara's Creep Tumors:
Brightwing's Peekaboo, Diablo's Firestorm (returning fireballs), Johanna's Blessed Hammer, Leoric's Buried Alive, Nova's Railgun, Sgt. Hammer's Napalm Strike (impact damage) and Tychus' Big Red Button (the nuke portion)
Casting Zeratul's Void Prison on Forts or Keeps should no longer cause targeting issues for Blackheart’s cannons.
Sound
Entering Void Prison while using The Butcher’s Ruthless Onslaught will no longer cause Ruthless Onslaught’s sound effects to loop.
User Interface
Takedown and Death counters in Player Profiles have been updated with totals from all previous patches, and will no longer reset with each Heroes patch.
The recipient for an incomplete chat message will no longer switch back to Allies upon re-opening the chat box.
Most Takedowns As, Most Deaths As, and Games Played statistics will now update correctly when a Hero in the Top 3 is replaced.
apparently you get diablo if you have ever played diablo 3 before, since I just auto-got him and didn't have to log in. (I don't think I've played d3 since the real auction house went down)
On August 19 2015 02:15 MotherFox wrote: apparently you get diablo if you have ever played diablo 3 before, since I just auto-got him and didn't have to log in. (I don't think I've played d3 since the real auction house went down)
Yep, we covered that in the Roundup! There are also other prizes depending on your hero level, etc., in Diablo.
That's the nice thing about it being based on game license.
Also just played the monk (my first release hero! the queue time was insane for him...). The 'resting lotus bubble' after SSS is really annoying. Means you can't use the invulnerability to buy you time to escape cuz you're just sitting there. Likewise if you catch a hero in SSS it'l be hard to chase them down since you're meditating while they run away.
Tricky skill to use. I also took the reveal on Q and the vision is bigger than the radius of the reveal (or the reveal is bigger than the graphic?), it's a little confusing but still useful against Zeratul.
I wish he had some wave clear, his early laning game is pretty painful =\.
On August 19 2015 02:48 Wuster wrote: I also took the reveal on Q and the vision is bigger than the radius of the reveal (or the reveal is bigger than the graphic?), it's a little confusing but still useful against Zeratul.
I think the normal revelation talent has a smaller area than your natural sight, so when you use the Q reveal it looks like more is revealed. I have yet to test the ring between the graphic's extent and your vision for whether it counters stealth there...not sure how I would test it outside of a custom game with a friend, though.
I've had a lot of success taking Radiant Dash against Zeratul and Nova (particularly Zeratul). It is also surprisingly useful for revealing what's going on in bushes near teamfights. In short, Radiant Dash seems to prophylactically solve a lot of problems. I may start taking it in all circumstances.
Just like Peekaboo on Brightwing. Phaseshift build is really fun, but to much predict where the damage will go on her. Monk is a bit more forgiving in that regard.
On August 19 2015 01:58 xDaunt wrote: Monk is a fucking boss. My build:
1: Transcendence 4: Overtake (or Radiant Dash if stealth) 7: WotHF 10: SSS (DP is for pussies) 13: Spellshield 16: Radiant Dash 20: Transgression
Hmm i'm preferring this: 1: Transcendence 4: protective shield 7: breath of heaven 10: SSS or DP (depending on comp a bit and how good team is, SSS is safer always decent) 13: speed bonus on Radiant Dash 16: increased heal on breath of heaven (or the pseudocleanse) 20: storm shield.
His damage talents, except SSS, feel quite lackluster. Overtake gives an ok speed boost but with deadly reach on you attack too fast to stutter step anyway and you want to proc your trait as much as possible typically, rather just attack the tank staying close to my team and using Q for mobility. The attack talent at 7 does alright damage but the animation lasts fairly long so compared to just attacking (where you also activate trait) it's not all that great, plus I prefer using dash defensively often and taking a talent that only has offensive use is not great. SSS or DP are both fine, DP gets a bit better if the level of play is high I think as people know how to play with it but SSS is a good easy call. Often a bit lackluster though as you either spread your damage over too many heroes or they tend to run out if you don't have accompanying stuns and isolated a target, key to good usage is probably just proccing it on a slow tank with the edge of the ability so you hit him the full 7 times. Spell shield is alright but the speed boost feels too good to pass on, saves allies and helps position so damn well. The extra heal talents at 16 combine too well with the lvl 7 talent I think to pass up on that combo and the radiant dash combo feels so lackluster. SSS upgrade at 20 also feels a bit of an lackluster improvement compared to just having a storm shield.
Overall more support build also feels nice as monk is a fine solo support with it. But even without that the talents just feel better to me than the damage options.
On August 19 2015 01:58 xDaunt wrote: Monk is a fucking boss. My build:
1: Transcendence 4: Overtake (or Radiant Dash if stealth) 7: WotHF 10: SSS (DP is for pussies) 13: Spellshield 16: Radiant Dash 20: Transgression
Hmm i'm preferring this: 1: Transcendence 4: protective shield 7: breath of heaven 10: SSS or DP (depending on comp a bit and how good team is, SSS is safer always decent) 13: speed bonus on Radiant Dash 16: increased heal on breath of heaven (or the pseudocleanse) 20: storm shield.
His damage talents, except SSS, feel quite lackluster. Overtake gives an ok speed boost but with deadly reach on you attack too fast to stutter step anyway and you want to proc your trait as much as possible typically, rather just attack the tank staying close to my team and using Q for mobility. The attack talent at 7 does alright damage but the animation lasts fairly long so compared to just attacking (where you also activate trait) it's not all that great, plus I prefer using dash defensively often and taking a talent that only has offensive use is not great. SSS or DP are both fine, DP gets a bit better if the level of play is high I think as people know how to play with it but SSS is a good easy call. Often a bit lackluster though as you either spread your damage over too many heroes or they tend to run out if you don't have accompanying stuns and isolated a target, key to good usage is probably just proccing it on a slow tank with the edge of the ability so you hit him the full 7 times. Spell shield is alright but the speed boost feels too good to pass on, saves allies and helps position so damn well. The extra heal talents at 16 combine too well with the lvl 7 talent I think to pass up on that combo and the radiant dash combo feels so lackluster. SSS upgrade at 20 also feels a bit of an lackluster improvement compared to just having a storm shield.
Overall more support build also feels nice as monk is a fine solo support with it. But even without that the talents just feel better to me than the damage options.
I generally agree that the Monk's damage comes from SSS more than any other talent. I also kinda agree on Overtake. Like my earlier comments, I think that Foresight is a great pick here for a variety of reasons -- especially against stealth. Where I really don't agree with you is at Level 13. I think Spell Shield is necessary for him to survive teamfights. None of the other talent options there are that compelling. I also think that you're greatly underestimating WotHF. That's a great talent for securing kills because it is not affected by blinds/evasion and it can hit people while the Monk is on the move. You basically aren't a threat without it. The double heal talent is good, but again, it is highly dependent upon the Monk staying near the targets that he's trying to heal. This may take the Monk out of the fight for longer than he'd want in some situations.
As for SSS, I'm starting to think that it is simply better than DP in most circumstances. There are so many cool plays that you can make with it that are more game changing than DP. We'll see though.
On August 19 2015 01:58 xDaunt wrote: Monk is a fucking boss. My build:
1: Transcendence 4: Overtake (or Radiant Dash if stealth) 7: WotHF 10: SSS (DP is for pussies) 13: Spellshield 16: Radiant Dash 20: Transgression
Hmm i'm preferring this: 1: Transcendence 4: protective shield 7: breath of heaven 10: SSS or DP (depending on comp a bit and how good team is, SSS is safer always decent) 13: speed bonus on Radiant Dash 16: increased heal on breath of heaven (or the pseudocleanse) 20: storm shield.
His damage talents, except SSS, feel quite lackluster. Overtake gives an ok speed boost but with deadly reach on you attack too fast to stutter step anyway and you want to proc your trait as much as possible typically, rather just attack the tank staying close to my team and using Q for mobility. The attack talent at 7 does alright damage but the animation lasts fairly long so compared to just attacking (where you also activate trait) it's not all that great, plus I prefer using dash defensively often and taking a talent that only has offensive use is not great. SSS or DP are both fine, DP gets a bit better if the level of play is high I think as people know how to play with it but SSS is a good easy call. Often a bit lackluster though as you either spread your damage over too many heroes or they tend to run out if you don't have accompanying stuns and isolated a target, key to good usage is probably just proccing it on a slow tank with the edge of the ability so you hit him the full 7 times. Spell shield is alright but the speed boost feels too good to pass on, saves allies and helps position so damn well. The extra heal talents at 16 combine too well with the lvl 7 talent I think to pass up on that combo and the radiant dash combo feels so lackluster. SSS upgrade at 20 also feels a bit of an lackluster improvement compared to just having a storm shield.
Overall more support build also feels nice as monk is a fine solo support with it. But even without that the talents just feel better to me than the damage options.
I generally agree that the Monk's damage comes from SSS more than any other talent. I also kinda agree on Overtake. Like my earlier comments, I think that Foresight is a great pick here for a variety of reasons -- especially against stealth. Where I really don't agree with you is at Level 13. I think Spell Shield is necessary for him to survive teamfights. None of the other talent options there are that compelling. I also think that you're greatly underestimating WotHF. That's a great talent for securing kills because it is not affected by blinds/evasion and it can hit people while the Monk is on the move. You basically aren't a threat without it. The double heal talent is good, but again, it is highly dependent upon the Monk staying near the targets that he's trying to heal. This may take the Monk out of the fight for longer than he'd want in some situations.
As for SSS, I'm starting to think that it is simply better than DP in most circumstances. There are so many cool plays that you can make with it that are more game changing than DP. We'll see though.
Hmm I'm not a fan of spellshield typically on melee heroes though as it get's procced by random stuff so much on them. And by not taking WotHF you can position safer and you have the speed bonus at 13 to help allies more safely and get out. Problem I have with WotHF is that it interferes too often with where you want to be, since you have aoe heal on W and with transcendence you just want to stay in the middle of your team I feel, taking WotHF and going after them worsens your other overall healing too much I think. Without the level 16 talents i'd consider taking WotHF over breath of heaven talent but the lvl 16 talents put the double heal over the top imo.
"Any player who manages to rid the Nexus of 50 pesky Treasure Goblins during the Eternal Conflict event will receive a special portrait reward for their heroism!"
When does the Eternal Conflict end? Just trying to figure out how many games I'll need to play per day/ week, starting now, to get to the 50 Goblins.
On August 19 2015 04:40 MotherFox wrote: I just realized that it takes 20 matches to get placed in hero league. I'm surprised its this many--- isn't sc2 still just 5?
I guess they need more to make sure it's not just lousy allies/lucky opponents?
I think they're trying to ensure that you don't get placed erroneously after having such a cluster fuck on their hands up until now in terms of ranking not corresponding to MMR.
Once the player base is larger it will be easier to place people.
Really like the direction they are going to. Kerri needed a rework, and going for her trait is a nice touch. Aba was already in good spot (design-wise) but they proved to me that they can make even Tyrande better. I do believe he becomes more flexible now. Balance tweaks for weak talents and heroes, and nerfs to the strongest ones are always welcome too. Responsiveness improvements are also a big deal, lets not forget how much it makes the game better just because its on Thrall and Chen
There are a lot of monks misusing their ults out there, including myself. I think I only hit about 50% of my divine palm opportunities tonight, and I have yet to see a SSS in a real game go well for the opposing monk. [I have not been taking SSS in any of my games]
On August 19 2015 04:40 MotherFox wrote: I just realized that it takes 20 matches to get placed in hero league. I'm surprised its this many--- isn't sc2 still just 5?
I guess they need more to make sure it's not just lousy allies/lucky opponents?
Well 5 matches and you can get into diamond I think.
But variance in Heroes of the Storm is much higher due to to being reliant on teammates, so you need a larger dataset to accurately asses your skill in Heroes.
I went in at rank 30. - started playing a few weeks ago - was at 50% w:l
I won 12/20 of my games. I am placed at rank 50.
Looks promising.
I'm not a fan of that. The Diablo promotion was months and months after WoW/Hearthstone promotion. And its a hero in several of the bundles, including the one they extensively promoted to buy access to the game.
It would have been nice if i was bonus gold instead.
can't believe the asia server is still not patched but the patch note etc are all up on the launcher (and somehow the demon Tyreal skin is up but not with the new sanctification.
So far, I've absolutely hated playing both my mains.
KT is just a complete shadow of his former self. Probably low tier at best. The new CC bot role just doesn't fit him.
Nazeebo is in a much better state than KT, but I found myself missing Sprint in every single game I played him more than once. Taking backdoor ability away from Naz makes him explicitly a worse version of Zagara.
However, it was fun playing Thrall again. Leoric still seems super strong, and Khara is very very good.
Wow Sergeant Hammer buffed so hard :O. 2 second siege sounds amazing.
Tyreal gets omniknight ultra now . Good thing since the old version was terrible.
Why the nerf on Tassadars oracle?? I liked the racing archon build.
Just as I bought Leoric he gets nerfed . Same thing happened to me with Brightwing. I wish they would refund gold like they do with card changes in hearthstone.
Kael is still retardedly strong, his damage just isn't pants on the head retarded anymore. I don't know how anyone could've thought that massive range+living bomb on top of the already good damage was balanced.
We did a little thingie on the patch from Xingua here also we're doing a bracket contest for MSI MGA next weekend where the grand prize is an MSI PC here. It's single elim so you don't have THAT many choices for this sort of thing.
might mean we see hammer again as the poke heh, with Kael not being a ranged nuke thrower. Kerrigan is fun with her Mana talents. Can Waveclear with Skills without worrying about Mana now.
Yeah, there's nothing wrong with Kael. He can still carry with Living Bomb/Chain Bomb builds. You're just doing it wrong if you spec for Flamestrike now.
On August 19 2015 22:12 FueledUpAndReadyToGo wrote: Just as I bought Leoric he gets nerfed . Same thing happened to me with Brightwing. I wish they would refund gold like they do with card changes in hearthstone.
But Leoric is nerfed the right way, he isn't destroyed with nerfs, just his trait is weaker that was too good to begin with. I am playing quite a bit of Leoric and I'm happy to see these nerfs.
This ranked reset has made me not want to play Hero league until they put bans in. Leoric and Sylvanas are both completely broken on certain maps and random lowbies can't handle Illidan with The Hunt because they're always out of fucking position.
I don't like having half my hero league screen taken up by team league--- something I'm unlikely to enter now since most of my RL friends have gotten bored with & moved on from heroes.
Team League last night, we were raping until lvl 13 when KT took chain bomb. Basically KT and the monk in his team carried their team to victory. It was frustrating as hell. He's not a nuker like before but imho he is stronger than before.
So I hate to be that guy but I'm new to the game and I just play, I haven't lurked on forums, much less posted there, and I have the definite feeling that they release new heroes OP to some extent (sometimes very OP, other times just slightly). This time around the monk has been fucking my shit while being hard to kill and healing a lot and often. Previously Leoric fucked my shit and while it's possible to adapt I think it's hard to argue that the new heroes are very strong.
Is there an general opinion about this? I feel like Blizzard's plan is (somewhat understandably?) to release heroes that are very strong and to subsequently nerf them after people have bought them for a rise. Or is that opinion frowned upon by the people who think blizzard can do no wrong?
I'm posting this at the risk of sounding whiny, because it has been 2 days now and Monk has made it really hard to get anything done around him. He's super good alone, even better in small groups, and a fucking monster in team fights, being excellent across the board with good speed, mobility, offensive and defensive capabilities... Why the fuck would anyone play something like Tyrande over him, the cons are too much. And it deals more damage than many assassins, too.
And if people don't find some kind of way to work around the very powerful new character, he'll be nerfed by the time the next very powerful hero gets released. Am I just a whining communist or?
I've been playing the monk for a week now on PTR and a bunch of QM games yesterday.
The monk has weak burst heal outside of his ult, which is very difficult to land. He is also fairly squishy and prone to diving to the front line of fights--- a short stun and focus fire can wreck him pretty handily. Catching him alone is especially good--- if he doesn't have any allies behind him, he can not jump backwards.
As far as new characters being very good, I think it would be more accurate to say that new characters haven't been very bad for a while. Butcher felt about right in terms of quality--- once you know his mini-game, he's fairly easy to counter. But every new hero will have a big advantage in being obscure to a large number of players. In the monk's case, for instance--- allies in my games frequently don't even know that I have divine palm, and are surprised when they don't die. Some smart enemies even know how to stop attacking for a few seconds in order to secure kills that would otherwise be saved by palm.
Also, I don't think most monk players out there are used to playing support, or don't know how to leverage their w properly. I've been routinely doing 20k more healing in all QM games I play than the monk on the other team, even when they are taking all the same healing talents I am. This might explain the character's current relatively low win-rate across almost all leagues in hotslogs.
On August 20 2015 01:38 MotherFox wrote: Also, I don't think most monk players out there are used to playing support, or don't know how to leverage their w properly. I've been routinely doing 20k more healing in all QM games I play than the monk on the other team, even when they are taking all the same healing talents I am.
May be true, may not be true. It's really hard to top those healing numbers when your teammate decides to die in a global or 2. Same goes for damage and tanking numbers, sure you may have done a lot of damage, but no one really cares if it was some poke that got shrugged off etc.
On August 20 2015 01:38 MotherFox wrote: Also, I don't think most monk players out there are used to playing support, or don't know how to leverage their w properly. I've been routinely doing 20k more healing in all QM games I play than the monk on the other team, even when they are taking all the same healing talents I am.
May be true, may not be true. It's really hard to top those healing numbers when your teammate decides to die in a global or 2. Same goes for damage and tanking numbers, sure you may have done a lot of damage, but no one really cares if it was some poke that got shrugged off etc.
Nothing more frustrating than playing support with bad players. I never know how to try and carry--- I guess with the monk I at least have solo gank options, unlike most other supports.
As far as non-useful healing, I feel like the main category of this is supports who heal when someone is out of mana//obviously going to hearth soon. Unless you are saving their life, the only thing you are doing is boosting your stats while wasting resources. I suspect the healing gap between me and other monks is that I've seen lots of monks trying to go it solo, and that 20k probably is the difference between healing just themselves most of the time and healing yourself AND a teammate or two.
Observations so far: Pyroblast didn't seem good in bot games. The extra cast range is nice, but 2 seconds to cast is still a long time, it would often cancel against an opponent that was running away, or if they're moving forward they get dangerously close in those 2 seconds. The zoning and damage of phoenix is still awesome and better. Also there's still several things that nullify pyroblast.
Merc lord, seems a touch weak, still needs testing though. The loss of tower resistance makes it much weaker as a backdoor tool. It really requires a different playstyle than normal. Normally the plan with mercs is more often to release them and rely on their pressure to keep the enemy busy while you take objectives elsewhere. With this you really have to be pushing with them to get value; but if you have a local disadvantage in number of heroes, the mercs dont' provide enough cover to keep you alive, and there's still a lot of high damage heroes around that can clear mercs pretty fast.
The Raynor changes definitely shift things around a fair bit, will take awhile to see how they shake out due to the subtlety. Good fun so far.
On August 20 2015 01:22 Djzapz wrote: So I hate to be that guy but I'm new to the game and I just play, I haven't lurked on forums, much less posted there, and I have the definite feeling that they release new heroes OP to some extent (sometimes very OP, other times just slightly). This time around the monk has been fucking my shit while being hard to kill and healing a lot and often. Previously Leoric fucked my shit and while it's possible to adapt I think it's hard to argue that the new heroes are very strong.
Is there an general opinion about this? I feel like Blizzard's plan is (somewhat understandably?) to release heroes that are very strong and to subsequently nerf them after people have bought them for a rise. Or is that opinion frowned upon by the people who think blizzard can do no wrong?
I'm posting this at the risk of sounding whiny, because it has been 2 days now and Monk has made it really hard to get anything done around him. He's super good alone, even better in small groups, and a fucking monster in team fights, being excellent across the board with good speed, mobility, offensive and defensive capabilities... Why the fuck would anyone play something like Tyrande over him, the cons are too much. And it deals more damage than many assassins, too.
And if people don't find some kind of way to work around the very powerful new character, he'll be nerfed by the time the next very powerful hero gets released. Am I just a whining communist or?
Cheers
I think what MotherFox said is closer to the truth. If a hero's viable, then when it's released everyone has to adapt. That gives the hero an advantage that might not hold up (see Thrall, although he was also nerfed, some people found him manageable even before that though).
I started playing when Jaina was released and she was not considered very good then (if you get a chance to look at builds people have been using with her, it's changed drastically over time; plus she got a pretty big buff in between). It was also when Azmodan and Anub'arak were still new and not considered particularly good (other than people crying about Azmodan's unstoppable push power).
Now, KT and TLV were definitely overpowered on release, so I can see why people think Blizzard is releasing OP heroes (to be fair, Blizzard said time and time again they suspected TLV were going to need nerfs, but their skill cap was too high to reach in internal testing).
As for the Monk, I think once you realize he has no AoE, no CC, no team buffs/debuffs (say Tyrande's Hunter's Mark or Trueshot Aura) and a very low hp pool that he really does have downsides. I've been playing the Monk this week and been experimenting trying to figure out which characters I can duel and which ones I can't. I really have no idea and neither do most people. So we're all just committing to fights without knowing what to expect. It seems premature to base his power level off that, even if some of those fights turn out one-sided for the Monk.
Alright then, I'll keep an open mind. Was harder though when Leoric was released, he'd just die in our base and destroy forts and there's nothing we could do about it. And then he was also doing a shitload of damage while tanking like a pro... workarounds were a lot harder than just playing that setup, anyway at my level.
Well Kerrigan is fun again, the trait talents are quite solid when put together. The lvl 7 talent helps a lot with mana regen, lvl 13 allows you to start building up shields and lvl 16 doubles the amount you get. One combo on a creep wave at 16 and you're nearly at full shields, which equals to 5.8k health total (2.2k shields) at lvl 20. Having a Kharazim next to you also really helps.
Also managed to win a 1v1 against Valla who threw everything at me and I managed to barely scrap out a win thanks to all the shields I was getting from whacking her.
I don't really get Queen's Rush though. It's only 25% (compared to 75% from Sprint) and although it activates on a takedown, how helpful is that really? If a hero is weak enough to chase, you could always Ravage to them and with only 25% it doesn't really do all that much.
On August 20 2015 04:14 Thezzy wrote: I don't really get Queen's Rush though. It's only 25% (compared to 75% from Sprint) and although it activates on a takedown, how helpful is that really? If a hero is weak enough to chase, you could always Ravage to them and with only 25% it doesn't really do all that much.
Yeah, I've found Queen's Rush to be a really lackluster talent, some other choices at that tier are definitely better.
I think Djzapz is right. Of course the Butcher had weaknesses, a melee assassin with that much potential couldn't work without some solid way to counter play. And he was the weakest hero released since Open beta. Butcher was about right while Johanna, Jaina (specially after the chill on structures patch), Leoric, Lost Vikings and Kaelthas used to be or still are too strong.
Blizzard mentioned they are not scared to release powerful abilities since they can fix later. This is great because it allows them to push the limits of the gameplay. But at this point im pretty sure they are not even trying to release the heroes in a balanced state. They are probably trying to release each hero very strong to boost sales. They can just nerf broken stuff later.
Sylvanas and butcher, the most balanced hero releases since open beta, were above average, all others were too strong (nerfing them makes the game better). Ideally all heroes are released in a balanced state, but i don't think its a big deal, there are even some good gameplay points to release them strong. New heroes must be picked and tested, if they miss the balance bar to the weak side nobody buys them and thus nobody plays them and they are never showcased by pros (i even uderstand why they don't tell us that).
However i think its too early to ask why you ever pick Tyrande. I don't think thats the case, she is quite good herself and quite different wich makes it hard to compare.
Yeah, I wouldn't compare the monk to tyrande--- the monk's healing is quite a bit better, and tyrande's ability to amp damage and do a ranged stun is phenomenal.
You know, he's actually almost more comparable to rehgar. With one target the monk's w heals more than rehgar's q does with 2 targets at most levels.
All Rehgar's numbers are for himself plus two targets. I'm assuming a build of SWG/feral heart/earth shield/ancestral/healing surge/tidal waves/storm shield
All Monk's numbers are for himself plus one adjacent teammate. (breath of heaven) I'm assuming the build I've been using in QM with great success: trans/lvl 4 flex/echo of heaven/divine palm/ lvl13 flex /circle of life/storm shield
level 7: (Monk takes echo of heaven) Monk increases to 48.75 + 8.25 per level (per second)
level 13: Rehgar takes healing surge (at this point I assume rehgar can hit with all three healing bounces) rehgar increases to 27.5 + 8.5 per level (per second)
level 16: rehgar takes tidal waves, monk takes circle of life rehgar increases to 41.25 + 12.8333 per level (per second) monk increases to 55.25 + 9.35 per level (per second)
So Rehgar doesn't really catch up on healing until level 16. And I think these numbers are pretty slanted towards rehgar: he won't always have two or three targets for healing, and the monk certainly won't always have only one other teammate near him for healing.
It's not quite as clean cut as this obviously--- ancestral is much easier to use than divine palm in general, though maybe in some circumstances divine palm is easier. But in general on paper it seems like the monk outheals one of the best healers in the game? I didn't even take into account transcendence, which may or may not heal a significant amount depending on how much you get zoned out of combat.
edit-> I also overlooked earth shield vs protective shield/healing ward. Obviously earth shield has a ton more damage soaking over time, but this is a difficult thing to compare since the shields on earth shield won't be in use all the time. I'm not sure how to directly compare them.
On August 20 2015 06:11 MotherFox wrote: You know, he's actually almost more comparable to rehgar. With one target the monk's w heals more than rehgar's q does with 2 targets at most levels.
All Rehgar's numbers are for himself plus two targets. I'm assuming a build of SWG/feral heart/earth shield/ancestral/healing surge/tidal waves/storm shield
All Monk's numbers are for himself plus one adjacent teammate. (breath of heaven) I'm assuming the build I've been using in QM with great success: trans/lvl 4 flex/echo of heaven/divine palm/ lvl13 flex /circle of life/storm shield
level 7: (Monk takes echo of heaven) Monk increases to 48.75 + 8.25 per level (per second)
level 13: Rehgar takes healing surge (at this point I assume rehgar can hit with all three healing bounces) rehgar increases to 27.5 + 8.5 per level (per second)
level 16: rehgar takes tidal waves, monk takes circle of life rehgar increases to 41.25 + 12.8333 per level (per second) monk increases to 55.25 + 9.35 per level (per second)
So Rehgar doesn't really catch up on healing until level 16. And I think these numbers are pretty slanted towards rehgar: he won't always have two or three targets for healing, and the monk certainly won't always have only one other teammate near him for healing.
It's not quite as clean cut as this obviously--- ancestral is much easier to use than divine palm in general, though maybe in some circumstances divine palm is easier. But in general on paper it seems like the monk outheals one of the best healers in the game? I didn't even take into account transcendence, which may or may not heal a significant amount depending on how much you get zoned out of combat.
edit-> I also overlooked earth shield vs protective shield/healing ward. Obviously earth shield has a ton more damage soaking over time, but this is a difficult thing to compare since the shields on earth shield won't be in use all the time. I'm not sure how to directly compare them.
Monk does seem like a better version of rehgar yes although it has to be said rehgar's heal is much less likely to be wasted. Kharazim always heals himself and typically just 1 ally while rehgar has much nicer range on him and can do good healing even if he is full himself. Ancestral healing is also much better than divine palm i feel. Both have tricky timing issues, ancestral is oftne too late, divine palm often too early. Perhaps divine palm is a bit easier to time even. However Divine palm heals far less (600 +140*level vs 500+100*level) and divine palm has that stupid ~2 second statis after it's used. On the retreat for example divine palm can be goddamn awful as the one you save is stuck and often immediately killed again afterwards. And on offense it often puts your damage dealer out of action and let's them retreat plus or hit good combo's afterwards. Sevensided strike is the choice for monk I feel because of these limitations of divine palm, it often does lackluster damage as people tend to use it in teamfights and just do spread out damage which is consequently healed very easily. But if you position properly (and have allies land a stun) you can aim to hit just 1 or 2 guys and then it's great. Plus it's a nice saving tool, if you get focussed you can just activate it very nice to prevent incoming combo's.
Overall kharazim seems to heal more than monk and do more damage but he has worse waveclear and less cc (although that of rehgar is terrible too). Rehgar has better single target heal though if you really need to keep something alive but overall I think monk is better and probably top support now along with malf who is least hurt by the cleanse nerf.
One tricky thing though, because kharazim is useless for ganking and has terrible waveclear i think you really want to go 3-1-1 with him often. He is very powerful early in a push comp as his early healing is very high and he really wants to pair up in lane, whereas rehgar and malf can solo hold a lane much better.
Kharazim seems ok at ganking because his E is a ton of burst (especially on a CC-ed target) and his Q lets you follow-up on escape attempts and jump in from out of vision.
I was playing with a Kerrigan yesterday and anytime I saw her land combo I could instantly jump in and unload. Got a lot of ganks like that, but any assassin could. I guess the real value is gaining that potential from the support spot (but even Uther / Tyrande can chain-CC and let Kerrigan do the job herself). I'll just say he's not gimped when it comes to roaming... now waveclear, that's just painful. Especially annoying since Deadly Reach / Way of the Hundred Fists are aoe attacks in D3.
I think more specifically, kharazim has chase. Like, if a fight is ending and someone is slinking away behind a fort with a sliver of life, kharazim can easily get in, finish the guy, and get out. Neither malf nor rehgar can do that very safely.
After 4 QM games all with 2 monks I cant wait to finally get healed by one. I feel for ranged DDs in QM its best to spec like you have no healer for a few days.
Well, I played only a few games, but Kharazim seems so OP to me atm. In each game he had around twice the healing amount of Malfurion.
Also, i might be wrong, but his ulti is a mix of Reghar and Uther one : invincible for a few sec (am I right? There is a short time of invincibility?), then crazy high heal.
Can't wait for next patch for the nerf, like every time a new heroe is released
On August 20 2015 07:37 SChlafmann wrote: Well, I played only a few games, but Kharazim seems so OP to me atm. In each game he had around twice the healing amount of Malfurion.
Also, i might be wrong, but his ulti is a mix of Reghar and Uther one : invincible for a few sec (am I right? There is a short time of invincibility?), then crazy high heal.
Can't wait for next patch for the nerf, like every time a new heroe is released
Here was my QQ, cya tomorrow folks.
Yeah I noticed that too. He's damn good at healing, and is pretty strong and quick too.
On August 20 2015 07:47 Kotreb wrote: So, is there any way to play monk as DD successfully? Kinda disheartened that he's only viable as support
If there is I suspect you'll be taking Insight and not Iron Fists as that seems really lack luster. Then again, you might still want Transcendence since you're going to be a sustain damage dealer type (like Illidan).
By the way, I just read Dreadnaught's write up on Kharazim and he bought up a good point about Wayl of the Hundred Fists, it changes the strike from an auto to a special, so you don't get that instant stack for his trait (plus I'm pretty sure the animation prevents you from auto-ing during that time). So, I'm starting to wonder just how severe the trade-off for this talent is going to be.
I read on Reddit that his fists light up to show you his trait progress, I'll have to turn up my graphics settings, but that sounds awesome.
Also awesome, I just noticed that the icon for Transcendence has the same leaf that Lili has to show you who gets Healing Brew.
Compositions tailored around monk/melee combat are really, really strong. Adding in Abathurs to the equation is a real difficult thing to deal with: Monk/Abathur/Illidan is a great thing now, if you add in someone like Anub'arak and Kael'Thas.
throw in Raynor for even more attack speed haha. I think they made the Monk a bit to good at supporting too though, seems like they put good parts of every healer in there and improved them. But Mawing Heroes with the revive ult on is fun.
Oh Goblin hunt seems to be going smoothly I see them more rarely now.
Did some playing with sgt hammer; still doesn't seem good enough. Though it was somewhat hard to tell as some games were lost simply due to bad team. The issues with hammer still seem like they used to: siege range doesn't outrange foes by enough to be strong; a lot of chars have nukes/stuns which outrange siege mode, and even if they don't, they do enough damage for them to walk in nuke and walk out with a favorable trade; the basic abilities have pretty low damage AND short range, so they often do nothing against a ranged foe;
On August 20 2015 07:37 SChlafmann wrote: Well, I played only a few games, but Kharazim seems so OP to me atm. In each game he had around twice the healing amount of Malfurion.
Also, i might be wrong, but his ulti is a mix of Reghar and Uther one : invincible for a few sec (am I right? There is a short time of invincibility?), then crazy high heal.
Can't wait for next patch for the nerf, like every time a new heroe is released
Here was my QQ, cya tomorrow folks.
I kinda feel the opposite way. Kharazim seems insanely weak to me. So far every hero league game I played, the team with Kharazim lost. Or at least he doesn't work as a single healer at all. Yes, his healing numbers are insanely high, but in a fight, I think he does pretty damn poorly. Might work with a 2nd supporter though (haven't done that yet), because his overall heal is really strong.
On August 20 2015 21:11 FeyFey wrote: throw in Raynor for even more attack speed haha. I think they made the Monk a bit to good at supporting too though, seems like they put good parts of every healer in there and improved them. But Mawing Heroes with the revive ult on is fun.
Oh Goblin hunt seems to be going smoothly I see them more rarely now.
I've seen them in 8/8 of my games since the patch, but maybe because I've been mostly playing in the mornings (where I guess it's more likely for it to be someone's first game of the day?).
I've been spamming beginner ai games to farm goblins, but a bunch of sleazy goblin farmers seem to be doing the same so now only 1 out of 3 games have goblins :/
On August 21 2015 02:25 JeosAdn wrote: I've been spamming beginner ai games to farm goblins, but a bunch of sleazy goblin farmers seem to be doing the same so now only 1 out of 3 games have goblins :/
What if you moved up to the next AI difficulty level, and so on?
Quick question: Did they change Nazeebo's Gargantuan AI? I couldn't get it to do anything at all in the last few games, but his AI suddenly becomes really good if you die.
Basically, past level 20, the optimal sequence goes like this: Summon gargantuan, Slam the ground on the enemy warrior, then he runs around for a while, usually doing nothing. Both team trade heroes and disengage. Then, the Gargantuan goes on to push a lane on his own for your entire respawn duration, and you can still trigger his ground slam. He can easily take 3 waves on his own and tank a few tower shots, and you just have to resummon when you respawn. I'm pretty sure he gets XP from all those minion kills as well.
But he doesn't even try to attack the hero right next to me in a fight. And sometimes he'll just focus his entire duration on a single building or on a merc and you can't make him disengage unless you run 1+ screen away. Was it always this bad?
On August 21 2015 03:02 Pwere wrote: Quick question: Did they change Nazeebo's Gargantuan AI? I couldn't get it to do anything at all in the last few games, but his AI suddenly becomes really good if you die.
Basically, past level 20, the optimal sequence goes like this: Summon gargantuan, Slam the ground on the enemy warrior, then he runs around for a while, usually doing nothing. Both team trade heroes and disengage. Then, the Gargantuan goes on to push a lane on his own for your entire respawn duration, and you can still trigger his ground slam. He can easily take 3 waves on his own and tank a few tower shots, and you just have to resummon when you respawn. I'm pretty sure he gets XP from all those minion kills as well.
But he doesn't even try to attack the hero right next to me in a fight. And sometimes he'll just focus his entire duration on a single building or on a merc and you can't make him disengage unless you run 1+ screen away. Was it always this bad?
Gargantuan is completely different than any other summon. The gargantuan will attack who you attack and move where you move. Essentially you have two characters under the same controls.
On August 21 2015 03:02 Pwere wrote: Quick question: Did they change Nazeebo's Gargantuan AI? I couldn't get it to do anything at all in the last few games, but his AI suddenly becomes really good if you die.
Basically, past level 20, the optimal sequence goes like this: Summon gargantuan, Slam the ground on the enemy warrior, then he runs around for a while, usually doing nothing. Both team trade heroes and disengage. Then, the Gargantuan goes on to push a lane on his own for your entire respawn duration, and you can still trigger his ground slam. He can easily take 3 waves on his own and tank a few tower shots, and you just have to resummon when you respawn. I'm pretty sure he gets XP from all those minion kills as well.
But he doesn't even try to attack the hero right next to me in a fight. And sometimes he'll just focus his entire duration on a single building or on a merc and you can't make him disengage unless you run 1+ screen away. Was it always this bad?
Gargantuan is completely different than any other summon. The gargantuan will attack who you attack and move where you move. Essentially you have two characters under the same controls.
It doesn't feel like it does that all the time. I know in some games I've been running away from battle and the garg kept on attacking the enemy team. In this case, I was thankful since he was drawing aggro while I made my escape. also, if you are hiding in a bush he WILL just attack people vaguely close by, giving away your location.
I never know exactly how long his leash is. It kind of becomes a guessing game when figuring out how far I have to disengage from combat to get him to a closer/safer location.
On August 21 2015 02:25 JeosAdn wrote: I've been spamming beginner ai games to farm goblins, but a bunch of sleazy goblin farmers seem to be doing the same so now only 1 out of 3 games have goblins :/
What if you moved up to the next AI difficulty level, and so on?
It works, but only up to recruit. At adept the bots don't ignore you while you destroy everything with Sgt hammer, so the game time goes up significantly
On August 21 2015 02:25 JeosAdn wrote: I've been spamming beginner ai games to farm goblins, but a bunch of sleazy goblin farmers seem to be doing the same so now only 1 out of 3 games have goblins :/
What if you moved up to the next AI difficulty level, and so on?
It works, but only up to recruit. At adept the bots don't ignore you while you destroy everything with Sgt hammer, so the game time goes up significantly
How long do the games typically take at the lowest/ easiest levels?
On August 21 2015 03:02 Pwere wrote: Quick question: Did they change Nazeebo's Gargantuan AI? I couldn't get it to do anything at all in the last few games, but his AI suddenly becomes really good if you die.
Basically, past level 20, the optimal sequence goes like this: Summon gargantuan, Slam the ground on the enemy warrior, then he runs around for a while, usually doing nothing. Both team trade heroes and disengage. Then, the Gargantuan goes on to push a lane on his own for your entire respawn duration, and you can still trigger his ground slam. He can easily take 3 waves on his own and tank a few tower shots, and you just have to resummon when you respawn. I'm pretty sure he gets XP from all those minion kills as well.
But he doesn't even try to attack the hero right next to me in a fight. And sometimes he'll just focus his entire duration on a single building or on a merc and you can't make him disengage unless you run 1+ screen away. Was it always this bad?
Gargantuan is completely different than any other summon. The gargantuan will attack who you attack and move where you move. Essentially you have two characters under the same controls.
On August 21 2015 02:25 JeosAdn wrote: I've been spamming beginner ai games to farm goblins, but a bunch of sleazy goblin farmers seem to be doing the same so now only 1 out of 3 games have goblins :/
What if you moved up to the next AI difficulty level, and so on?
It works, but only up to recruit. At adept the bots don't ignore you while you destroy everything with Sgt hammer, so the game time goes up significantly
How long do the games typically take at the lowest/ easiest levels?
The smallest maps can get down to 5min, the bigger ones up to 10-12min. 8 min on average I'd say
Is the easiest level as bad as the 5on5 tutorial sample game? Cuz that one you could literally start pushing down forts at lvl 1 and just keep going to core.
Then again, I assume that difficulty is the same as Arthas in try mode.
It seems likely Kael'thas chain bomb explosion off of minions will be nerfed. Any number of heroes inside a pack of minions will pretty much insta die when the pack all chain explodes at once.
Well I know they nerfed the same thing from Sylvanas with Unstable Poison. If the entire wave explodes in one go, heroes will only get hit once instead of from all of them. Kinda silly really, you should just not position yourself in a minion wave when fighting Sylvanas.
On August 21 2015 17:15 Thezzy wrote: Well I know they nerfed the same thing from Sylvanas with Unstable Poison. If the entire wave explodes in one go, heroes will only get hit once instead of from all of them. Kinda silly really, you should just not position yourself in a minion wave when fighting Sylvanas.
Whether they nerf it or not is another question, but you can't really compare Sylvanas with KT. One is pushing specialist that has great utility with Poison's Vulnerability and Ulti, has solid single target damage and is one of the best pushers in the game, another one is mage that punishes people for grouping up too much and has great zoning out tools, but also is very immobile and squishy and doesn't have escape mechanic up to level 20. At that point Sylvanas was just doing way too many things at once and was nerfed, KT is still quite strong now but has to come close to the fight to be able to do something he has done before with ease from miles away.
So even if they nerf KT, I wouldn't follow the same logic as with Sylvana's nerfs.
[Clemlepred][FR] What numbers and data do you use, to determine if a character is over/under played and under/over powered?
We receive a VAST amount of statistics and have 'dashboards' that drive all sorts of metrics (we are flooded with data, which is a good thing). The win/loss rate of a Hero is only one of a very large amount of data that we look into when balancing the game as a whole.
(Blizz_Daybringer)
Hope this clears things regarding balancing heroes. Source
BW is back ! <3 (well maybe needs to win a few games first XD )
And roflmao that Minigame in the starting/monk screen of heroes.
I love the patch for Kerrigan. My shields made up 3/4 of my healthbar after the enemy team got evaporated, by a wombo combo involving a gazlow and me hitting 5 heroes with my combo. I miss seasoned Marksman and Focus Attack though. But with the mana issues gone its not that bad.
I know that Brightwing only got a small buff, but wow. I had a 5 game win streak with her yesterday in QM. Thanks blizzard for my support quest yesterday!
In the last 8 to 10 games I've played, I'm not even kidding, Kael'Thas was picked by the first guy on the other team every. single. time. No exception. 100%, 8+ times in a row.
On August 24 2015 02:48 Djzapz wrote: In the last 8 to 10 games I've played, I'm not even kidding, Kael'Thas was picked by the first guy on the other team every. single. time. No exception. 100%, 8+ times in a row.
Which is why I refuse to play hero league until they introduce bans.
Raynor and lili are on the rise in win-rates on hotslogs. Amusingly, it looks like people simply aren't using the skill re-arrangements that bliz provided for raynor--- the increased damage alone is enough to spark his rise.
Well they buffed Piercing Rounds but didn't add a skill that reduces the pushback. So it is still only good for disengaging, but then you could simple take a tank. And I would have prefered if they kept his old talents. Now 2 of my favorites are on 13 with giant slayer and 16 is pretty meh. Inspire not messing with your autoattacks is a huge buff on its own though. And the new damage reduction is also pretty nice.
And Lili is also a good counter to the Monk. Not as good as Brightwing though. But Lili is a better Healer then BW and still got cleanse.
I wonder if it is intended that Abathur can just wild spam copys now x.x . Doubt its fun for the enemy to see 2 Jainas coming from the side.
I'm not sure that the Monk has any particularly good counters. Yeah, you can try to CC the hell out of him, but that's kind of the answer of last resort for all heroes. He still isn't going to be blown up as easily as someone like Illidan.
I'm winning like 70% of my games with Monk, and I've been playing him almost exclusively since release. He just feels very, very strong despite his obvious kit limitations.
I've been told before that the monk has serious weaknesses but I have yet to find them. He can do very serious damage if he specs for it, he can heal steadily and has his clutch heal thing that'll disrupt focus fire. At higher levels I guess people can cope with this but with random people in matchmaking, it's really difficult to recover from his shit.
Played a game where the other team had Kael'Thas and the Monk. Kael now just hard as fuck to play against, he can just drop insane damage with such incredible ease it's ridiculous, it seems too easy. Now I'm only rank 10 (though rising rapidly) and I don't know shit but it just seems too easy to be proficient with. Kael can move up and overextend like a motherfucker in team fight, deal an absolutely insane amount of damage sending the other team into disarray and still fucking survive because the monk decides nope you don't die today and boop 70% health and we're all too low hp to switch targets and we're still blowing up left and right.
I don't consider myself good enough to say it's OP, but it certainly feels that way, and it certainly is a pain to play against, especially in a game which makes communicating with teammates in real time fucking impossible. (Wouldn't want to hurt anybody's feelings).
On August 24 2015 23:23 Djzapz wrote: I've been told before that the monk has serious weaknesses but I have yet to find them. He can do very serious damage if he specs for it, he can heal steadily and has his clutch heal thing that'll disrupt focus fire. At higher levels I guess people can cope with this but with random people in matchmaking, it's really difficult to recover from his shit.
Played a game where the other team had Kael'Thas and the Monk. Kael now just hard as fuck to play against, he can just drop insane damage with such incredible ease it's ridiculous, it seems too easy. Now I'm only rank 10 (though rising rapidly) and I don't know shit but it just seems too easy to be proficient with. Kael can move up and overextend like a motherfucker in team fight, deal an absolutely insane amount of damage sending the other team into disarray and still fucking survive because the monk decides nope you don't die today and boop 70% health and we're all too low hp to switch targets and we're still blowing up left and right.
I don't consider myself good enough to say it's OP, but it certainly feels that way, and it certainly is a pain to play against, especially in a game which makes communicating with teammates in real time fucking impossible. (Wouldn't want to hurt anybody's feelings).
Monk's two biggest weaknesses are lack of CC and lack of good wave clear. Each is significant. However, he compensates very well for these shortcomings by being an absolute menace in teamfights with his high mobility, high damage (if SSS), and ability to crap out a significant amount of healing -- even without taking the BoH talents at 7 and 16. He excels as a clean up artist if you take WotHF at 7 (which I always do). Finally, he may actually be a legitimate counterpick against Zeratul if you take Foresight at 4 and WotHF at 7. You can disrupt Zeratul's ganks, chase him down, and kill him off with your WotHF empowered Q.
Well those are weaknesses but everyone has those kinds of weaknesses. It seems like considering his roles, his inability to CC and wave clear are more than made up by his strengths.
Also it seems like many people are now saying that Zeratul is OP. I've never played him, I find him really annoying but is he actually considered OP?
On August 24 2015 23:58 Djzapz wrote: Also it seems like many people are now saying that Zeratul is OP. I've never played him, I find him really annoying but is he actually considered OP?
He is pretty much considered to be the best assassin in the game and is banned in majority of pro matches. He is just too versatile.
On August 24 2015 23:58 Djzapz wrote: Well those are weaknesses but everyone has those kinds of weaknesses. It seems like considering his roles, his inability to CC and wave clear are more than made up by his strengths.
Also it seems like many people are now saying that Zeratul is OP. I've never played him, I find him really annoying but is he actually considered OP?
A good Zeratul can dominate games to a degree that no other hero can. His damage is probably a little bit out of order with the new AA builds (he hurts more now than he did with pre-nerf double bombs), but even if they tone it down, Zeratul will still be a beast with his kit.
He's pretty strong yes, but what pushes him over the top for pro games is Void Prison. For a well coordinated team this is the best Heroic in the game, bar none.
On August 25 2015 01:01 Djzapz wrote: Alright. Guess those monster zeratuls are not present at rank 10!
Anyone who is a monster Zeratul will be high MMR and at or near Rank 1.
Well I'll get around there soon enough probably... Would probably help if I watched some pro plays to see what they do. I've been pretty good with Sylvanas but I assume I'm playing it wrong.
On August 24 2015 23:23 Djzapz wrote: I've been told before that the monk has serious weaknesses but I have yet to find them. He can do very serious damage if he specs for it, he can heal steadily and has his clutch heal thing that'll disrupt focus fire. At higher levels I guess people can cope with this but with random people in matchmaking, it's really difficult to recover from his shit.
Played a game where the other team had Kael'Thas and the Monk. Kael now just hard as fuck to play against, he can just drop insane damage with such incredible ease it's ridiculous, it seems too easy. Now I'm only rank 10 (though rising rapidly) and I don't know shit but it just seems too easy to be proficient with. Kael can move up and overextend like a motherfucker in team fight, deal an absolutely insane amount of damage sending the other team into disarray and still fucking survive because the monk decides nope you don't die today and boop 70% health and we're all too low hp to switch targets and we're still blowing up left and right.
I don't consider myself good enough to say it's OP, but it certainly feels that way, and it certainly is a pain to play against, especially in a game which makes communicating with teammates in real time fucking impossible. (Wouldn't want to hurt anybody's feelings).
Part of your problem is that KT is stupid good right now. Anyone saying he was nerfed hasn't been paying attention.
His E having range and speed baked in makes it incredibly hard to avoid. From what I can tell, it's around the same speed as Muradin's hammer, maybe faster even. And I consider that a pretty easy to land skillshot. Then his direct damage was amped up and you can see how he's just a monster now (rather than all being on Flamestrike + Chainbomb via Ignite).
In your scenario the Monk is just the normal vanilla burst healer (Ancestral Healing, Divine Shield would be doing the same thing, but actually better in your hypothetical since KT would still be messing stuff up!).
Not saying, Monk isn't good or anything (he is really good), but you just seem to be confusing your issue here.
From my perspective ancestral healing is harder to use because there's enough of a delay where it sometimes fails. Plus, the invincibility period causes confusion. With Ancestral healing, if you have the guy pinned properly you can just burst him down again. Divine shield makes it easier to switch seamlessly because you instantly see he's invincible and you can move on or continue following him. The monk's thing is very jarring and IMO particularly effective against Kael who's locked but still deals damage and comes out of it fresh and ready to blow you up some more.
I think it's mostly a Kael issue but when you add the monk to the whole ordeal in my (limited) experience, it makes it everything that much harder.
Divine Palm changes the rhythm of how things work, but KT is just as dead as he was before once people get used to it. I think that's all the Monk is doing in your scenario.
Of course he was doing more in your games, for example I think the Monk does better damage than Uther and has better AoE healing. But it really doesn't sound like you're describing a Monk issue.
Monk is only the melee support I have any idea how to play, could be because he's that good or because a reverse-Illidan is something that meshes well with my playstyle (I play a lot of Illidan).
FYI, targetting switching Divine Shield target isn't seamless when you're furiously spamming out skill shots and aoes...
Can't forget that the Monk has 2 really bad ults for high level play. Atleast until there will be a hero that can kill himself. But honestly I didn't expected pros to already be that good at evading divine palm.
But hey its like a cleanse, you escape or get full health. Just like Ancestral just that you don't get healed if you escape.
Also congrats to the writers your doing really good work. I like the articles especially since they have so much purple.
Not exactly, Gazlow can now go brb on Level 4 and suddenly you have a giant camp pushing hurting alot. He is basically the only here were no one cares that he does this. And its pretty cool on the Vikings too I guess.
Yeah scrap that I pushed 2 lanes with merc lord on the vikings, while objectives where up. Freaking OP Merc timing with Bribe around the second objective on cursed.
On August 26 2015 10:41 mordek wrote: Pulled the trigger and bought the piggy bank mount. Lol.
Congratulations, you just gained 300 nerdballer points on my book. That makes you one sick nerdballer even if you had no swag before.
This means a lot, thanks! I figured I'll have 10k by the time I get one of my three almost level 9s to 10 anyways. I'm not really competitive, I have the heroes I like and free rotation is fine. Woot.
Honestly, it doesn't take very long to unlock everything. I've been playing for ~4 months and have all but four heroes unlocked with only about $40 spent on extras.
I assume it'll stick around until the end of Eternal Conflict, which will probably be around another month or two. So three weeks of treasure goblin kills will let you tame one!
From August 26 to September 2, the six Battlegrounds in rotation are: Infernal Shrines, Battlefield of Eternity, Cursed Hollow, Dragon Shire, Sky Temple, and Tomb of the Spider Queen.
So Blackheart's Bay, Haunted Mines, Garden of Terror are the removed maps.
Not surprised about the first two, I guess Garden is just the odd map out this time.
I'm assuming Blackheart's and Mines are permanently removed, because if so, why rotate 6 of 7 maps? I do wonder if they'll be tuned while they're gone though.
yah Raynor is a badass single target Damage Dealer who can save stupid allies by pushing enemies away. And he is basically unkillable when his adrenalin rush is ready. But you can't turn around games with him on your own. So it doesn't matter how badass you are, if your teammates suck your screwed on him.
Doesn't help that healers usually ignore you. Without the stat increase though I would consider the current changes a nerf. On the other hand now he cancels every stun Ult against him already on level 13.
But after every change Raynor went high on the winrate, because other people played him. Not only the one lane all day farmers. You know from Carbot episode 1
Started a new account tonight, so I'd have an account with the name MotherFox on it--- and so I can have an account to just kind of screw around on. I did not realize players were so bad in the lower MMR dregs---- literally players worse than AI. Simply soaking correctly is winning me games. At one point as Sgt Hammer with graduating range I sat there for ~3 minutes while the enemy team a-moved towards me and died in staggered order constantly. This included an enemy hammer who tried hover siege-sliding towards me....
I feel bad for anyone starting the game this week. After you are through the tutorial, your options for characters are Lili, Sgt Hammer, Rehgar, ETC, and Gazlowe. Not exactly characters that are the most fun to start with, IMO. (Except for maybe ETC, but even then)
Monk is so fun, imo a bit too good because of mobility and is very flexible because of it. I just wished they had the bell drop skill in the game (the seven side strike is cool but The weird pause animation after the spell ends is awkward)
On August 27 2015 00:30 MotherFox wrote: Honestly, it doesn't take very long to unlock everything. I've been playing for ~4 months and have all but four heroes unlocked with only about $40 spent on extras.
no idea how you pulled that off. i've been playing since beta (~1000 games), have maybe half the heroes unlocked. Guess i do take a week off here and there though.
On August 27 2015 00:30 MotherFox wrote: Honestly, it doesn't take very long to unlock everything. I've been playing for ~4 months and have all but four heroes unlocked with only about $40 spent on extras.
no idea how you pulled that off. i've been playing since beta (~1000 games), have maybe half the heroes unlocked. Guess i do take a week off here and there though.
I play at least 10 games a day, with few exceptions. Not grinding, though--- the game has just held my interest.
edit-> my main account says I have played 1419 games. I've also enjoyed the effects of 3 or 4 stimpacks: one from when I was leveling my account, one from the giveaway a few months ago, a partial one given as an apology for ending a stimpack early, and a final one I just received for buying the warhorse for $2.50.
Since I was bored, I went ahead and did a breakdown on my account:
I've been playing heroes for 149 days. Assuming a daily quest value of 355 gold, that I complete them almost immediately, and I played 1419 games, I get the following-
Daily quests- 52,895 gold Hero League Games- 1,710 from 57 wins and 1,100 from 55 losses Quickmatch games- 9,240 from 308 wins and 5,860 from 293 losses AI- 3,390 from all wins
16k from player level up 20 characters at level 9: 20*750 = 15,000 40 characters at level 5 = 20,000
altogether that's 109,000 gold.
edit-> PLUS 58 days of eternal conflict
114,800 gold!
I've purchased with real money zeratul, sonya, zagara, jaina, arthas, kerrigan, chen, gazlowe, kharazim, and azmodan for a total of around $54. I also received Diablo for free from a recent promotion.
All I have left is johanna, abathur, thrall, butcher, and nova.
I underestimated a little bit on how much I've spent on the game---but not by much. And I could have all current characters in another two months, especially since I anticipate getting a starcraft warrior for free with LOTV.
So, it's pretty possible to buy all the characters with gold in a fairly short amount of time with comparable cash investment to other games. I've been playing since early april.
Of course, I also didn't account for the gold increase from stimpacks. Getting 75 gold per win instead of 30 is pretty darn good if you play as much as I do.
Of course, I also didn't account for the gold increase from stimpacks. Getting 75 gold per win instead of 30 is pretty darn good if you play as much as I do.
No they just updated it July 21. If you look at the comments there are ones from June 23rd, which is when the original ptr notes went up, then it came out a week later. Blizzard really shouldn't change the post date at the top though, that's odd.
Oh, and despite all my riches, my most treasured possession in the game is still my wonder billie. There's just something about blasting a trail of hearts everywhere I go that brings joy to my inner soul.
Of course, I also didn't account for the gold increase from stimpacks. Getting 75 gold per win instead of 30 is pretty darn good if you play as much as I do.
No they just updated it July 21. If you look at the comments there are ones from June 23rd, which is when the original ptr notes went up, then it came out a week later. Blizzard really shouldn't change the post date at the top though, that's odd.
Ahhh, I see where I went wrong. I seem to remember this happening to me before with a blizzard post of some sort--- maybe for a map rotation in sc2. I should have known better.
On August 28 2015 06:01 MotherFox wrote: Since I was bored, I went ahead and did a breakdown on my account:
I've been playing heroes for 149 days. Assuming a daily quest value of 355 gold, that I complete them almost immediately, and I played 1419 games, I get the following-
Daily quests- 52,895 gold Hero League Games- 1,710 from 57 wins and 1,100 from 55 losses Quickmatch games- 9,240 from 308 wins and 5,860 from 293 losses AI- 3,390 from all wins
16k from player level up 20 characters at level 9: 20*750 = 15,000 40 characters at level 5 = 20,000
altogether that's 109,000 gold.
edit-> PLUS 58 days of eternal conflict
114,800 gold!
I've purchased with real money zeratul, sonya, zagara, jaina, arthas, kerrigan, chen, gazlowe, kharazim, and azmodan for a total of around $54. I also received Diablo for free from a recent promotion.
All I have left is johanna, abathur, thrall, butcher, and nova.
I underestimated a little bit on how much I've spent on the game---but not by much. And I could have all current characters in another two months, especially since I anticipate getting a starcraft warrior for free with LOTV.
So, it's pretty possible to buy all the characters with gold in a fairly short amount of time with comparable cash investment to other games. I've been playing since early april.
Interesting, I have a shade over 500 games under my belt spread out since *alpha*. So some weeks I just logged in enough to knock out the quests (and I've been skipping way too many goblins this summer =\).
I currently have 75k in the bank, so our gold income is roughly the same. Goes to show you just how good quests have been.
But then again, you aren't counting how much in Stimpack gold you've gotten and that actually adds up really really fast (3 wins = 225g, almost as much as the 3 win quest!).
stim packs really help the gold gain. But even without its not hard to get enough gold for a hero. But with a stimpack and playing alot you feel like getting more then you can spend. What 10k already again ? But I just started this new hero D: .
3 Win ist 600 gold. They basically thing you'll lose 3 games and win 3. So like every daily 100 gold per game.
On August 28 2015 06:01 MotherFox wrote: Since I was bored, I went ahead and did a breakdown on my account:
I've been playing heroes for 149 days. Assuming a daily quest value of 355 gold, that I complete them almost immediately, and I played 1419 games, I get the following-
Daily quests- 52,895 gold Hero League Games- 1,710 from 57 wins and 1,100 from 55 losses Quickmatch games- 9,240 from 308 wins and 5,860 from 293 losses AI- 3,390 from all wins
16k from player level up 20 characters at level 9: 20*750 = 15,000 40 characters at level 5 = 20,000
altogether that's 109,000 gold.
edit-> PLUS 58 days of eternal conflict
114,800 gold!
I've purchased with real money zeratul, sonya, zagara, jaina, arthas, kerrigan, chen, gazlowe, kharazim, and azmodan for a total of around $54. I also received Diablo for free from a recent promotion.
All I have left is johanna, abathur, thrall, butcher, and nova.
I underestimated a little bit on how much I've spent on the game---but not by much. And I could have all current characters in another two months, especially since I anticipate getting a starcraft warrior for free with LOTV.
So, it's pretty possible to buy all the characters with gold in a fairly short amount of time with comparable cash investment to other games. I've been playing since early april.
Interesting, I have a shade over 500 games under my belt spread out since *alpha*. So some weeks I just logged in enough to knock out the quests (and I've been skipping way too many goblins this summer =\).
I currently have 75k in the bank, so our gold income is roughly the same. Goes to show you just how good quests have been.
But then again, you aren't counting how much in Stimpack gold you've gotten and that actually adds up really really fast (3 wins = 225g, almost as much as the 3 win quest!).
Yeah, daily quests are very powerful-- consider that they are about 50% of my gold earnings, and I could easily play a mere third of the games I've played and still accomplish them.
Stimpacks are too, though I don't think I'd ever buy one for actual money. Gold and xp are already so plentiful, and bliz seems content to give them out on occasion.
With the goblins and dailies you get around 11k per three weeks. Playing 3 games a day. If they remove the goblins you'd have to play 5 games a day to reach 10k per three weeks.
If you still need old heroes you need to play 40 games per 1k gold extra.
So I would say right now its easy to keep up but hard to catch up.
Up to 9 doesn't take that long, hehe Been playing since alpha, have yet to get a hero to 9 XD. I primarily just try to stay on top of quests and have a session once or twice a weekend. I also prioritize getting free week heroes to 5. Do you group often? I usually just queue up AI to knock out quests in 30 min.
On August 28 2015 21:22 mordek wrote: Up to 9 doesn't take that long, hehe Been playing since alpha, have yet to get a hero to 9 XD. I primarily just try to stay on top of quests and have a session once or twice a weekend. I also prioritize getting free week heroes to 5. Do you group often? I usually just queue up AI to knock out quests in 30 min.
I frequently play with one other friend, and now of days I prefer playing only QM and Heroleague. QM does give more xp than AI, so that could color why I think level 9 is pretty easy.
Though in AI games, grouping with people is pretty easy. Just ask everyone in one game if they want to group for the next--- quality of teammate doesn't really matter since two players can literally go AFK and you can still win.
I'm really enjoying Falstad this patch. I'm running an AA-build for the first time ever (power throw, vampiric assault, secret weapon, giant killer, hammer time, nexus frenzy) almost every game. I like that with this style I can go mighty gust almost every game, but I can swap in hinterlands blast if I need a bit more ranged poke for securing kills.
Mighty gust feels really good right now. You can spam it to your hearts content, using it as escape, kill secure, or objective secure. My damage isn't even being hurt that much, since the AA build doesn't rely on hinterlands for damage burst.
though all that comes with the caveat of "...in quickmatch". I'm not sure when I'd draft falstad in heroleague--- I guess whenever I don't need to worry about nova or zeratul, which have been my only nemesis thus far.
On August 28 2015 11:01 MotherFox wrote: well, you also end up getting over 1k back for each hero if you just get them up to 9, which doesn't take that long.
This is true, you get a nice rebate if you actually buy a hero you like playing. Which makes some of the cheaper heroes that much cheaper.
For record I have 3 heroes at lvl 9 (Valla, Illidan and Stiches), but I have roughly 30 heroes at lvl 5 so I've been spreading my games out other than a few hero league favorites (or beta favorite for Stiches).
Also regarding Falstad: I was surprised about people saying he was dead after the GP nerf because I was under the impression the AA build was the way to go! At least it was popular for a while, and I used it when he was free. He's quite the monster with an Abathur hat just machine-gunning guys down.
Kind of curious to try it out with Mighty Gust, but I don't actually own him. I can see it being a poor man's Void Prison with the lowered cooldown and clever targeting.
It does! And in my games yesterday there were at least two very confused and very dead novas who did not know that. (OR they panicked and used abilities as soon as I gusted them. Hard to be sure in QM.)
As far as the builds for falstad go--- I think the spellcasting build that focused on boomerang/hinterlands blast combos were popular because they were safer. the AA build is difficult to get close with, but maybe that's just a matter of knowing your limitations.
Also, leoric provides a really convenient target for the AA build, since he constantly wants to get close. He melts real fast vs falstad.
I finally got to play Infernal Shrines, and depending on comp it can just be hopeless.
It was Nova, Raynor, BW, Monk, Gaz versus Nova, Leoric, Malfurion, Nazeebo, Abathur
We team wiped them at the first shrine, but were down 15-4 on spiders, and even fighting uninterrupted we were still behind when they came running back...
Sure our Gaz wasn't very good, but it just seemed a foregone conclusion who was going to kill more spiders.
We did kill the first and second punisher incredibly quickly and still asserted team fight dominance... but eventually getting no punishers meant we just fell behind in levels so that was all false hope.
I don't like the new map. The guardians are too OP; their presence is way too impactful and thus greatly diminishes hero interactions, making infrastructure go down faster for shorter games. Might as well make a PvE map with a boss encounter.
On August 29 2015 10:49 Hier wrote: I don't like the new map. The guardians are too OP; their presence is way too impactful and thus greatly diminishes hero interactions, making infrastructure go down faster for shorter games. Might as well make a PvE map with a boss encounter.
Games on that map feel a lot faster-paced to me than other maps, but that might just be because I'm still new to the map.
I've been playing with the monk and holy crap is he good. I've pretty much outhealed every non-monk every game, even when I pick the lvl 1 damage talent instead of the lvl 1 healing talent. And his Q chase/ escapes are sick good too. I'm used to playing as characters with a little more CC/ AoE, but he's just too versatile for me not to play right now. I just gotta keep working on timing my ultimate revival ability thing perfectly so that I don't waste it ^^;;
I do wish there was a better indication of when you have monk's ultimate on you though. Cause it's very hard to see the little hands, especially if you're in the middle of a fight. My immediate reaction when low is to get the hell out of dodge so on more than one occasion I've survived when monk was going to revive me, thus putting it to waste, as I wasn't aware it was on me. I wish you could have a nice icon on your head to see it more clearly.
Hey I got some money banked now from doin the quests and want to buy another hero for HL: I'm currently considering 1 of the 3: -Illidian (the cheapest at 4k) -Zeratul (the best obv) -Nazeebo (the easiest to play out of the 3?)
I'm currently rank 26 and got 1 specialist in Zagara, but no melee assassins (Jaina and Valla are my only assassins at all). Also I only played Zeratul out of the 3 and wasn't doing that great. Any advice on who I should pick?
On August 30 2015 19:21 Ej_ wrote: Hey I got some money banked now from doin the quests and want to buy another hero for HL: I'm currently considering 1 of the 3: -Illidian (the cheapest at 4k) -Zeratul (the best obv) -Nazeebo (the easiest to play out of the 3?)
I'm currently rank 26 and got 1 specialist in Zagara, but no melee assassins (Jaina and Valla are my only assassins at all). Also I only played Zeratul out of the 3 and wasn't doing that great. Any advice on who I should pick?
Since you say its for HL i don't recommend Illidan. He is viable, but he is not "top", hard, relies a lot on the rest of the team and you still have some awesome guys to buy.
Its usually fine to draft without melee assassins, i don't think its an issue. Nobody can say no to zera so he should be fine. I do think Nazeebo is the easiest to play, very strong too.
I will cheat and say it doesn't matter, buy either Naz or Zera and then save to buy the other
On August 29 2015 10:49 Hier wrote: I don't like the new map. The guardians are too OP; their presence is way too impactful and thus greatly diminishes hero interactions, making infrastructure go down faster for shorter games. Might as well make a PvE map with a boss encounter.
I feel like this map really punishes bad team compositions and lack of team play -> 95% of QM and a lot of HL if you are not playing in a party with at least 3 players.
Just played on the new map on HL, where we lost the first immortal then crushed the enemy team. Some notes-
* When defending a first-lost immortal, it's important to go 1-1-3 on lanes, with 3 defending against the immortal. Soaking is very important at this stage since you will likely have a level deficit to deal with. * Sgt Hammer is an important consideration, but probably no more so than any other objective-based map. The issue is there are many more places to hide, so it's important to have dps that can reach hammer and kill him. The enemy team took hammer, but Illidan/myself were frequently able to simply walk around the objective and kill her from behind. * Valla's W build is VERY strong on this map. I've won every game I've played with the valla W build on infernal shrines. (3 games so far)
I have yet to see a long and protracted fight on this map, but I have seen games where multiple teams get punishers. It feels like a map where once you have a lead, you can lose it if you make misteps--- and if you keep the lead you will win fairly shortly.
Also, I think Infernal Shrines is less of a problem in hero league than it is in QM. QM matchmaking can be frustrating, but many times it feels like infernal shrines games are win/lose based on comp alone moreso than other maps feel that way.
Just got Infernal Shrines during placement matches, someone shows Falstad, which is meh on the map. I typed out "Wave clear is a premium" and showed Muradin (if I had Leoric or Johanna I would have pre-picked them instead).
4th pick shows Uther which is good, but first pick wants Lili, tries to talk it over with Uther who is AFK.
So needless to say we ended up with Lili, Muradin (me), Falstad, Raynor and Nazeebo. So ya, you still get terribad comps in Hero League.
We faced against a Johanna, Jaina, Malf, KT and Gazlowe of course.
The worst part was the other team played like crap, we wiped half their team out defending punishers or contesting shrines even down levels but just look at those comps! I'll chalk it up to people being inexperienced at the map.
Come to think of it I've been in some wacky comps during placement.
Game before that we had triple warrior + monk and KT. We rocked the other team other than the first map objective. And before that, we had Abathur, Leoric, Illidan, Valla, Nazeebo which also somehow worked out.
hmm your comp actually sounds good, if you can avoid standing in creep waves. I mean Solo tank against Fal and Raynor with Malf as a healer? Thats not ending well even if its Johanna. And you got the poke with Nazebo. But yeah its bad for that map.
New map isn't that bad. If you can convince your team not to beeline for the objective. If you do and the opponent does too, its like a win the teamfight win the game. But that happened every map so far.
On September 02 2015 05:45 FeyFey wrote: hmm your comp actually sounds good, if you can avoid standing in creep waves. I mean Solo tank against Fal and Raynor with Malf as a healer? Thats not ending well even if its Johanna. And you got the poke with Nazebo. But yeah its bad for that map.
New map isn't that bad. If you can convince your team not to beeline for the objective. If you do and the opponent does too, its like a win the teamfight win the game. But that happened every map so far.
Ya, that was the problem, we killed Johanna several times and even managed to pick off a few dps (and Gaz was easy to punish when he tried to over-push) and this was true even with a constant level disadvantage. But fighting near the shrine meant they were picking up lots of spider kills without trying. And on that map you can't not fight near the shrines since it was too big for us to get there in time to zone them out.
If this were say BoE, we would have dominated them. Like I said, half our team just drafted poorly for the map. I don't think they were bad players by any means.
On September 03 2015 12:40 MotherFox wrote: Finally hit infernal shrines on HL tonight. Other team first picked rehgar. So we responded by making Johanna and Leoric our first picks.
It was not a pretty game for the other team.
It's interesting building comps for that map specifically. I've been trying to think of an ultimate comp for it.
Leoric-Sylvanas-Kerrigan-Tassadar seems to be a really good 4 - with Leoric the first shrine is pretty much guaranteed yours due to his respawns, Sylv's black arrows (especially past level 7) help clear them super quick (not to mention the bug), Kerrigan's Q with clean kill allows her to 1 hit them (so she can just jump around to each one), and Tass can shield in the fights and drop storms. The 5th can be interchangeable, Sonya, Abathur, Kharazim, Jaina, Kael'Thas, Anub'arak, Tyrael, Arthas, Azmodan all would work well. I'm leaning towards taking a second tank for it.
Since the games can be over so quickly, it's possible to play with only Tassadar for support. The other team will be forced into trying to take the game into the lategame, but since it snowballs so hard you can have a keep and a significant level advantage after the second shrine and usually push to win.
I think I'd be hesitant to field tass as a solo support on this map unless I was really sure we were going to take the game by level 14 or 15. Though, I can certainly see some interesting opportunities for force wall...
In general, the more I think of it the more I think this map is amazing for drafting--- but the same aspects that make it great for drafting make it awful for quickmatch. There are loads of characters that are just plain bad on this map, and it feels like that is more true for this map than other maps.
On September 04 2015 00:49 MotherFox wrote: I think I'd be hesitant to field tass as a solo support on this map unless I was really sure we were going to take the game by level 14 or 15. Though, I can certainly see some interesting opportunities for force wall...
In general, the more I think of it the more I think this map is amazing for drafting--- but the same aspects that make it great for drafting make it awful for quickmatch. There are loads of characters that are just plain bad on this map, and it feels like that is more true for this map than other maps.
Yes, which is what I was saying. With that kind of comp, you can win the game (or as good as have the game won) by the second shrine. Or you can play monk too for the added heal and the heroic to save Kerrigan in the fights.
Last night I tried playing a night of games with allied chat disabled. Wow, what an improvement on my stress levels during games. I had no idea I was getting so wound up due to taking time to rage at people and responding to people irrationally raging.
How do you guys feel about warriors? Like, I don't mind the double warrior meta, but specially with Leoric and Johanna, I think warriors are back into the "does too much stuff" design we had in Alpha. I don't think they should be able to clear minion waves faster than specialists, for example. It looks like Rexxard isn't that kind of warrior though, it will be interesting to see how he plays with Misha.
It's hard to gauge from the video how well his abilities work vs minions, since minions are not featured very strongly. For all we know the first ability (the bird) could be as good as Tyreal's smite against minion waves. In combination with misha's charge, if it clears a wave he could have significant wave clear.
On September 05 2015 01:44 MotherFox wrote: Last night I tried playing a night of games with allied chat disabled. Wow, what an improvement on my stress levels during games. I had no idea I was getting so wound up due to taking time to rage at people and responding to people irrationally raging.
Yeah, the problem is you can miss out on some important stuff. I have thicker skin than most so I can just ignore people who are raging/flaming. But I don't want to jeopardise a game because I miss someone typing something strategic rather than pinging it.
On September 05 2015 01:44 MotherFox wrote: Last night I tried playing a night of games with allied chat disabled. Wow, what an improvement on my stress levels during games. I had no idea I was getting so wound up due to taking time to rage at people and responding to people irrationally raging.
Yeah, the problem is you can miss out on some important stuff. I have thicker skin than most so I can just ignore people who are raging/flaming. But I don't want to jeopardise a game because I miss someone typing something strategic rather than pinging it.
Fortunately I'm frequently in voicechat with friends who can see the chat, so they have been tasked with telling me anything people talk about strategically.
So far, nothing has been passed on other than little tidbits like "wow, nova's raging"
I'm not a fan of Leoric and Johanna having as much wave clear as they have. I'm more ok with Johanna having to talent into it, but given that she also has unstoppable on a stick, it seems her kit is just a little too all-encompassing. At least she doesn't do very high damage in a fight.
Now Leoric also has unstoppable (and un-bodyblockable) on a stick and built in wave clear, so he definitely seems to do too much when you consider how much damage he can output against heroes. He's also surprisingly durable, so it's not like he's Tyrael / Anub who can do damage but also get blown up easily.
They also both have aoe snares on a short-ish cooldown so if AA heroes becomes a thing to counter warriors, well they're still going to be the prefered warriors as they can easily proc Executioner. So it seems less that there needs to be warrior counters and more that those two are just too good relative to other warriors.
I think Muradin is well balanced right now, he has ok waveclear, but it doesn't one-shot creep waves until really late in the game. He doesn't do a ton of damage natively, but can spec into it, and he has a really disruptive kit that lets him do his thing even when they try to ignore him (like Johanna, Leoric just does a ton of damage if you try to ignore him). Then there's Dwarf Toss, which while unstoppable, it's less of a get out of jail card than Iron Skin / Wraith Walk as he can't use it when rooted like them.
Is there a 4th warrior tank worth talking about? I guess Arthas in the right situation, but he lacks the damage and escapability of these three (he has good wave clear, but boy does that eat into his mana).
Now, I'll caveat this by saying I haven't played a ton of Johanna / Leoric, and I'm sure they have weaknesses, but compared to all the other warriors? They just don't seem to have enough, which is surprising because Johanna seemed well balanced on release - she doesn't have any big damage moves and she actually has less hp than *Stitches*. She's just a little too well rounded and that can cover these apparent weaknesses. It seems that Iron Skin is a big culprit here (unstoppable keeps her alive and lets her get to where condemn will do the most damage in a fight). Then again, every single one of her moves is a form of CC (even both ults) and that starts to seem like bit much.
You just have to compare Johanna to Chen to see how Johanna is a little too well-rounded (iirc she does more damage than Chen too!).
On September 05 2015 02:19 [Phantom] wrote: Also, does anyone else think the Rexxar model is very ugly? Compare his first heroes model, which funnily enough was first shown in the annoucement gameplay video in 2013, with his new model.
Yeah, don't care for the way his jaw/face looks. One of my favorite characters though so will still buy
Mura can clear waves super fast as well, but there is one problem with it, you will be out of Mana really fast. Johanna and Leoric don't even need to take their mana talents to constantly clear, since orbs are enough. But Mura ist just way better in team fights. Right now people just take the tanks as waveclear, since they have an easier time surviving. People just got to good at sniping people that clear waves.
I did full Blizzard build on the new map. Funny as hell, since its kill the altar spawns and not collect something and you can guess when new waves spawn rather well. And I am just waiting for a Kael video, going in alone against 5 and making chain bomb fireworks.
I don't have a problem with double Warrior meta, depending on the playstyle and heroes you prefer everything has its counters. That being said I do think that Johanna and Leoric do too much stuff as Warriors and that Muradin is a bit too tanky. Rest of the Warriors are fine, but these three need some tweaks, especially Johanna in my opinion.
Johanna is fairly balanced. She's tanky as hell and has good CC, but her damage is pretty shit in general.
Leoric is too good right now. Specifically, he's way too good in lane. His inherent wave clear should be nerfed if not his damage overall.
Muradin is balanced and in a good state. Very solid all around with lots of viable builds, but very mana hungry. He may be the model warrior right now in terms of overall design.
Tyrael needs a rework. He has one good build. Too many of his talents are garbage. His damage is pretty pathetic, too, but it's not worth commenting on it until he goes through a rework.
Arthas is in a good spot.
Anub is in a good spot.
Chen is garbage. I don't understand what Blizzard wants us to do with him.
Stitches is in a good spot. Again, Stitches is all about the hook. Players who can't land hooks shouldn't play Stitches. The rest of his capabilities should be sub-par compared to other warriors given how gamebreakingly strong his hook can be.
ETC is fine.
Diablo could use some buffs to his survivability.
Sonya is fine for what she does. She needs to be played like a melee assassin.
I'd say ETC is a little weak, and stitches is also too weak. Sure hook is nice, but it needs team stun followups, and team stuns are good on their own. Stitches also doesn't survive all that well and doesn't have much other disruption. The winrates say enough for me, he's just too low across the spectrum. That's a clear sign of a hero that's too weak imho. Also, to me, this is the assassin meta we're in; cuz mass assassins seem to be everywhere I play. usually 2+ assassins per team.
Stiches has low winrate because people that play him still go full slam and don't land hooks =p. I had one of those in HL with me recently.
That said you aren't wrong. I played a game with Stitches where I hooked a Nova out of stealth twice and both times she just walked away because I couldn't kill her without help. Yesterday, I unstealthed Nova with a Dwarf Toss and she was dead before my team could ask me where I was going. I dunno what Stiches needs, maybe he's doomed to be a niche pick. You have to plan to play around hook and since I solo queue, why wouldn't I just play Muradin where landing hammers is easier and easier to follow-up on?
Question for xDaunt - do you find Sonya playable over the other commonly picked melee assassins?
Edit - something that annoys me about ETC is that they buffed Regen Master but didn't change Prog Rock. For a while that seemed to be good burst healing option, but now it's +1/3 as effective as Regen Master with half the uptime so why bother? I suppose the fact that he can't take Regen Master makes this his 'unique' version of it, but it shouldn't have worse throughput imo (especially when it's pegged to a mana using ability).
I'm not a huge fan of Sonya because of how badly CC shuts her down relative to other melee heroes. Interrupts to Whirlwind are just brutal because her sustain goes right out the window when it happens.
In my opinion, there are Johanna and Muradin as a class apart from the other tanks; they can take huge amounts of damage and are just fine as the only warrior in the comp, Johanna especially due to her waveclear and stuns.
Tyrael and Anub'arak are the next two, which struggle in single warrior comps (apart from with Abathur) due to the fact they can be burst down quite quickly. They work well in double warrior camps due to Tyrael's heroics, team buffs, and Anub's stuns. I like them alongside Johanna or Mura. Sonya and Arthas in similar roles too, but more for direct damage or pushing power. They are both too weak to solo tank unless they have Abathur. I disagree with xDaunt about Tyrael's damage - just using the standard smite build with a tweak here and there has given me plenty of games where I have dished out good damage with him.
ETC is a great counter to melee compositions due to Moshpit. Other than that, he doesn't contribute all that much - he doesn't have much health or do much damage, though his team buffs can be nice. Death Metal is also a great troll ability.
Chen is garbage, though the barrel can disrupt the fuck out of a team. He doesn't do much damage and can't do anything while drinking, so he's basically useless.
Diablo can be great in a ganking squad, but is crap as a tank. Despite his high health, he just goes down so easy and can't really contribute. He doesn't do enough damage, clear waves, or engage with targets unless he is right on top of them.
Leoric is great. Too good. His trait gives him too much strength on Infernal Shrines as he can respawn straight into the first shrine fight and turn the tide. He works well in double warrior comps or alone. Both his heroics can be used in multiple comps.
Stitches' damage is too low, but if you can land good hooks, he can be great at picking off valuable targets with the team working with him. Again, not one for solo tanking.
nerf Leoric: either his lane presence/wave clear or overall damage.
nerf Mura: could be on Avatar (something small like the recent water elemental nerf). Its not OP but that makes haymaker viable and the hero more balanced.
nerf Johanna: Maybe on her tankiness since nerfing the rest makes her a moving wall.
buff Chen: More cc. Brew is OP if not countered, so its ok that any decent team comp can make him not immortal. Problem is that he is a moving wall.
buff ETC: More self sustain, he already lost the huge health bar so it should be fine.
buff Stiches: damage is fine imo, his talent tree is also nice. Some number tweaking could work, maybe something in between his old and new health bar.
rework Diablo: last rework didn't accomplished a lot, they should try again.
rework Tyrael: needs a better talent tree, but balance-wise he is in the perfect spot.
Sonya and Anub are fine.
Both Leoric and Johanna could be nerfed with a rework, since they lack build diversity too.
actually the problem for Stitches was that his hook could get cleansed away. So he is actually pretty good again. Just not played because its so different.
Chen is still great, if you don't face a disposition hero. Which gotten a bit harder. And Sonja just needs a talent to make her Whirlwind continue while stunned. Like sleep twirling. Making her immune to stun in WW would make it to op.
I think the new map needs the Battlefield of Eternal mechanic, where the objectives goes for the strongest lane. That way you have 3 lives, before a keep goes bye bee.
Part of sonya's problem is that she's really more of a melee assassin with sustain, like thrall, than a warrior. The line kind of blurs for those two really; as to what makes assassin vs warrior. Or perhaps, the issue is more that when people see warrior, they think tank role; whereas some warriors aren't tanks. Sonya doesn't like to be the only warrior on a team, as she doesn't survive that well if focused.
On September 07 2015 01:35 Roe wrote: After the latest patch is Brightwing still good for solo heals? I like how differently she plays from other supports
I don't think she does enough healing to be a solo healer tbh. You will lose out in heal over time
Not really, Malfurion lacks burst heal and he is one of the best healers at the moment. In truth, Brightwing Healing numbers aren't that bad, it is just that she doesn't have as much utility as before. While Uther/Rehgar/Malf are undoubtedly better, I think Brightwing still has a place on maps where you can exploit her mobility. If you are worried about her overall heal picking self-sustained heroes like Leoric, Arthas or Thrall can help a lot.
Malf double self heal got fixed as well I think ? So he is falling of a bit. Brightwing has the same issue, her selfheal isn't that good. And Brightwing can heal just fine with the right talents. But you need to be good with pixie dust regardless. And pre shields are always harder to use then heals. Uther is currently the best, because of Divine shield.
I think people don't experiment with other healers though. And stick to the high impact ults. I mean how long did it take till ETC came back against tripple melee comps.
On September 07 2015 03:54 [Phantom] wrote: Not really, Malfurion lacks burst heal and he is one of the best healers at the moment. In truth, Brightwing Healing numbers aren't that bad, it is just that she doesn't have as much utility as before. While Uther/Rehgar/Malf are undoubtedly better, I think Brightwing still has a place on maps where you can exploit her mobility. If you are worried about her overall heal picking self-sustained heroes like Leoric, Arthas or Thrall can help a lot.
Based on what people who played BW complain about, it's more that her Q is almost completely useless rather than her healing numbers being weak. I mean she never had great burst healing but was more than able to make do and brought a lot to a team. I dunno, I thought about buying her as I'm out of 4k heroes to buy and I she's pretty unique so maybe I'll give her a spin.
So I finally hit rank 1 on HL. This is after being 40 points away from rank 1 and then going on a massive losing streak taking me down to rank 8. Pulled it together and won 11 in a row
The colour variations on the newer heroes looks really good. Whenever I flip through the paint jobs of some of the older heroes I don't see a bloody difference at all.
With Sonya being so popular at the Americas Championship, it seems like it's only a matter of time before Thrall starts getting more action. I have a very hard time seeing Sonya as a superior pick in most circumstances.
I was on vacation for a week and have not really Heroleagued since the restrictions on 3/4 man teams came down the line. On reviewing that tourney, it seems like the meta has shifted so much that the team comps are almost alien to me.
Sonya being picked everywhere suddenly, I feel like I missed a patchnote. But Sonya was always good, just hard to play her in team fights.
I want some Splatoon like color meter in Zagara vs Zagara QM. But that was the best QM game ever. covered almost 80% of the map in creep after the enemy just gave up clearing creep. Aslo 13 needs a creep talent !
On September 22 2015 23:40 FeyFey wrote: Sonya being picked everywhere suddenly, I feel like I missed a patchnote. But Sonya was always good, just hard to play her in team fights.
I want some Splatoon like color meter in Zagara vs Zagara QM. But that was the best QM game ever. covered almost 80% of the map in creep after the enemy just gave up clearing creep. Aslo 13 needs a creep talent !
SONYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA. I just discovered how amazing she is.
The key to playing her correctly in team fights is to play her like Illidan. Poke around the sides a bit, throw down a slam or two, but don't commit unless you see someone is clearly out of position. After that, you just chase down some poor squishy until they die and clean up fights. Sonya doesn't actually tank a whole lot, so it drives me crazy when people playing Sonya dive into the middle of a fight and then wonder why they melted so fast :/.
Playing Sonya into Illidan is AMAZZZZZING. He can't even come close to competing with her, not even in Metamorphosis.
On September 22 2015 23:40 FeyFey wrote: Sonya being picked everywhere suddenly, I feel like I missed a patchnote. But Sonya was always good, just hard to play her in team fights.
I want some Splatoon like color meter in Zagara vs Zagara QM. But that was the best QM game ever. covered almost 80% of the map in creep after the enemy just gave up clearing creep. Aslo 13 needs a creep talent !
SONYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA. I just discovered how amazing she is.
The key to playing her correctly in team fights is to play her like Illidan. Poke around the sides a bit, throw down a slam or two, but don't commit unless you see someone is clearly out of position. After that, you just chase down some poor squishy until they die and clean up fights. Sonya doesn't actually tank a whole lot, so it drives me crazy when people playing Sonya dive into the middle of a fight and then wonder why they melted so fast :/.
Playing Sonya into Illidan is AMAZZZZZING. He can't even come close to competing with her, not even in Metamorphosis.
Steps on how to play Sonya correctly:
1. Dive into the enemy team because Sonya is immortal. 2. Get melted instantly. 3. Blame SC2John for not healing.
Yeah I saw that. There is another interview on the reddit I think where they suggest that Zeratul and KT are going to get some nerfs/changes. Tyrande and Tassadar are also getting some changes, and I think that they are being changed to full supports or something like that from what I've heard.
On September 24 2015 23:02 FreeZEternal wrote: The issue with zeratul is not wormhole imo. It is his VP.
Yeah, this is definitely the case at the pro level and at the higher levels of HL. That said, his burst damage is probably a little bit too high following the buffs to Focused Attack and Follow Through, so I wouldn't be surprised if some adjustments were made to compensate. I wouldn't mind seeing a bit of a nerf to him just so that people don't pick him away from me as much anymore.
On September 24 2015 23:02 FreeZEternal wrote: The issue with zeratul is not wormhole imo. It is his VP.
Yeah, this is definitely the case at the pro level and at the higher levels of HL. That said, his burst damage is probably a little bit too high following the buffs to Focused Attack and Follow Through, so I wouldn't be surprised if some adjustments were made to compensate. I wouldn't mind seeing a bit of a nerf to him just so that people don't pick him away from me as much anymore.
The problem I have with that is Blizzard likes to nerf everything making heroes mediocre. That happened with Thrall, Arthas and Stiches where they nerfed their damage, their survaibility, and their mana cost instead of just focusing on nerfing just one thing.
I wouldn't like Zeratul damage nerfed, but Void Prision. About Worm hole that is a tricky one, because it is one of those must pick talents, and so it is likely Blizzard will nerf it. Altough frankly I think some of the must pick talents should be integrated into the ability itself and nerf them a little to compensate (not wormhole though, that would be imba, but others like Rune Tap for Arthas or the long dead Cast Aside).
On September 24 2015 23:02 FreeZEternal wrote: The issue with zeratul is not wormhole imo. It is his VP.
Yeah, this is definitely the case at the pro level and at the higher levels of HL. That said, his burst damage is probably a little bit too high following the buffs to Focused Attack and Follow Through, so I wouldn't be surprised if some adjustments were made to compensate. I wouldn't mind seeing a bit of a nerf to him just so that people don't pick him away from me as much anymore.
The problem I have with that is Blizzard likes to nerf everything making heroes mediocre. That happened with Thrall, Arthas and Stiches where they nerfed their damage, their survaibility, and their mana cost instead of just focusing on nerfing just one thing.
Yeah, I listened to that video and all I heard is, "we're going to take away zeratul's burst damage, nerf wormhole so you can't micro with it, and nerf void prism". I'm pretty sure all three of those together will be overkill.
Well to be fair, Tychus, Valla and Tyrael each only had the one ability changed (although messing with an ult was enough to wreck Tychus).
Stiches also had some pretty mild nerfs, it took them 3 tries to completely destroy him =p.
After listening to all the things they think are problematic with Zeratul is probably why he hasn't been changed yet. I still don't know why they buffed his burst in the first place though.
On September 24 2015 23:02 FreeZEternal wrote: The issue with zeratul is not wormhole imo. It is his VP.
Yeah, this is definitely the case at the pro level and at the higher levels of HL. That said, his burst damage is probably a little bit too high following the buffs to Focused Attack and Follow Through, so I wouldn't be surprised if some adjustments were made to compensate. I wouldn't mind seeing a bit of a nerf to him just so that people don't pick him away from me as much anymore.
The problem I have with that is Blizzard likes to nerf everything making heroes mediocre. That happened with Thrall, Arthas and Stiches where they nerfed their damage, their survaibility, and their mana cost instead of just focusing on nerfing just one thing.
Yeah, I listened to that video and all I heard is, "we're going to take away zeratul's burst damage, nerf wormhole so you can't micro with it, and nerf void prism". I'm pretty sure all three of those together will be overkill.
Datamined path note: Zera's aa scaling decreased by 1, Wormhole window nerfed 1 second and VP range halfed. So they did hit all three but I'm hoping it's relatively benign... but we'll see as it is a lot at once.
I'm hopeful for the ETC and Stiches buffs though! Especially Prog Rock which really should have been buffed when they buffed regen master. Not sure what to make of Chen and Diablo changes, I don't play enough of them.
Oh right, wave clear nerfed on Johanna, Leoric and Rexxar, thank goodness.
Stitches is becoming too good again in my opinion... giving him a talent that permanently increases his max HP by 30 with every globe, while in some average games I manage to get 30-40 globes means that he will easily have 1200 more HP than he usually has and will probably become the tankiest hero in the game considering his raw HP. His Devour works from max HP, so does Stone Skin, I really think that he will become too good at tanking.
Can't believe that they have changed Butcher's Savage Charge talent just the way I wanted them to change it, same with Wormhole. Blizzard reading my mind lately.
Our next major Heroes of the Storm patch has just arrived to the Public Test Realm and will be available for playtesting until October 5. During this time, we kindly request your assistance in trying out some of the new content and balance changes it contains before we officially release the patch to the live version of Heroes next week. Just like last time, if you encounter any bugs or other issues during your PTR play sessions, please stop by the PTR Bug Report forum to let us know about your experiences.
Patch notes for our impending Heroes of the Storm update can be found below.
General
New Maximum Graphic Settings for 32-bit Operating Systems + Show Spoiler +
•Players who do not have sufficient addressable memory to effectively run Heroes of the Storm using High or Ultra graphic settings will have their settings redetected and reset to Medium or lower upon logging in to Heroes of the Storm after downloading today’s patch. •These players will no longer be able to select graphic settings above Medium •This will primarily affect players who use 32-bit operating systems. •Please read our recent support article to learn more about this change.
New Hero
Lt. Morales has been added to Heroes of the Storm and is now available for play! Read on for a brief overview of this new Support Hero’s Abilities.
Trait •Caduceus Reactor •Regenerate 3% of your maximum Health per second after not taking any damage for 4 seconds.
Basic Abilities •Healing Beam (Q) •Heal an ally for 20 Health per second as long as they are in range. Reactivate to switch targets, or activate your Trait to cancel channeling.
•Safeguard (W) •Grant target ally Resistant, reducing damage taken by 25% for 3 seconds.
•Displacement Grenade (E) •Fire a grenade that explodes on the first enemy hit, dealing damage, and knocking enemies away.
Heroic Abilities •Stim Drone (R) •Grant an allied Hero 75% Attack Speed and 25% Movement Speed for 10 seconds.
•Medivac Dropship (R) •Target a location for a Medivac transport. For up to 10 seconds before takeoff, allies can right-click to enter the Medivac.
•New visual effects have been added which will better alert players when they are targeted by an enemy structure. •Range indicators have received visual improvements across the board and should now be much easier to distinguish across all Battleground tilesets. •Various Try Mode Battleground assets have received additional optimization to help improve load times. •A number of Mercenaries have received additional animation and effect polish.
Heroes •A unique new Egg overlay has been added for Murky. This overlay will be displayed for Murky players when they receive a reduced death timer as a result of respawning from a living Egg. •Kharazim has received various animation updates. •Uther has received updated cloth physics.
Hero Abilities •The following Hero Abilities and Talents have received additional visual polish: + Show Spoiler +
•Jaina – Water Elemental (R) •Kael’thas – Living Bomb (W), Gravity Lapse (E) •Murky – Slime (Q) debuff •The Butcher – Ruthless Onslaught (E), Lamb to the Slaughter (R) •Tyrael and all Tyrael Skins – Archangel’s Wrath form (Trait) •Uther and all Uther Skins – Eternal Devotion form (Trait) •Rexxar – Misha’s model has received updates.
•Centurion Johanna has received updated cloth physics •The following Hero Skins have received additional visual polish for certain Abilities and Talents, which more closely match that Skin’s theme: •Angelic Valla – Multishot (W), Vault (E) •Betrayer Malfurion – Moonfire (W), Entangling Roots (E) •Chef Stitches – Hook (Q), Slam (W) •Magni Muradin – Storm Bolt (Q), Thunder Clap (W), Dwarf Toss (E), Avatar (R) •Spectre Nova – Basic Attack, Snipe (Q), Pinning Shot (W), Triple Tap (R), Precision Strike (R)
•New Bundles •Apothecary Morales Bundle – Available for a limited time. •Marshal Raynor Bundle – Available for a limited time. •Altered Fates Bundle – Available for a limited time. •Altered Fates Ultimate Bundle – Available for a limited time.
•Players now have a chance to receive a one-question survey following Hero League, Team League, and Quick Match games. •Survey questions will ask players to give a rating from one to five stars on a variety of game-related topics. •These surveys will help us to continue making improvements to Heroes of the Storm with future updates.
•A new Healing Fountain icon has been added to the right of the Hero portrait to indicate whether Healing Fountains are available for use, or on cooldown. •Buffs granted via Talents have been reworked, and now appear underneath the player’s Health and resource bars, to the right of the Healing Fountain icon. •Buff icons for Talents such as Seasoned Marksman, Focused Attack, Regeneration Master, etc., will also indicate the number of stacks earned.
•Loading Screens will now display the players on each team along the left and right edges of the screen, and include the following information: •Player name, portrait, and portrait border •Loading progress •Selected Hero for that game
•Objective descriptions on Battleground Loading Screens have received visual improvements, and can now be found near the bottom-center of the screen.
Looking for Party •The Looking for Party panel will no longer list players who are marked as Away.
•A new Watch with Others button has been added to the Watch tab, which will allow multiple players to view Replays together. •Clicking Watch with Others will open a replay lobby. The replay host can then invite up to 11 other players to view that replay simultaneously. •Only the host will have access to replay controls, which will determine playback for all viewers. •If the host exits the replay, another player will become host and gain access to playback controls.
Shop •The Featured Item pane in the Shop will now only be displayed on the first page of items under each Shop category. •Additionally, the mouse wheel can now be used to scroll through item pages in the Shop while the cursor is hovering over the Featured Item pane.
•A.I. controlled Heroes will now select their Talents from a group of preset Talent builds.
Developer Comments: A.I. players will now choose from predetermined Talent builds instead of randomly selecting Talents. This is especially important for players who disconnect as the A.I. will now no longer randomly choose Talents, but instead try to pick builds that are closer to what players would expect. In addition, A.I. controlled Heroes in Versus A.I. games will also have their own Talent builds to choose from.
•Regeneration Globes will no longer heal Dragon Knights and Garden Terrors •Instead, Regeneration Globe effects will now be applied directly to the Hero inside the Dragon Knight or Garden Terror.
•Players within a Dragon Knight or Garden Terror can now also accumulate stacks for Talents such as Seasoned Marksman, Gathering Power, Regeneration Master, etc.
Summoned Unit Attacks •Summoned unit Basic Attacks will now miss if that Summon is Blinded or the target is Evading. •Summoned unit Basic Attacks will no longer consume Block Talent stacks.
•The Dragon Shire and Sky Temple Battlegrounds have received several A.I. improvements. •A.I. controlled Heroes can now travel long distances more effectively, and will travel to take part in objectives from anywhere on the Battleground. •A.I. controlled Heroes will now wait near an objective until enough allies have arrived that they can commit to a team fight at that objective.
•The allied Hall of Storms has been moved much closer to the Gate. •The size of the Try Mode Battleground has been increased to accommodate a new playable area below the lane. •Siege and Bruiser Mercenary Camps have been added. •A Target Dummy has been added. •When attacking the Target Dummy, a new panel will display on-screen that will track damage per second and total damage dealt to the Dummy.
•The Try Mode in-game controls have been reworked and moved to the left-hand side of the screen. Additionally, several new Try Mode controls have been added, and others have been updated: •Toggle Ally – Enable or disable Malfurion in-lane •Toggle Cooldowns – Enable to remove Ability cooldowns •Set Level – Drag the slider to select the desired level, up to 30. •Reset Talents – Click to reselect all Talents
•Try Mode will now remember which settings were selected during the previous game, and will apply them when entering a new Try Mode game.
•Immortal •Basic Attack damage increased from 360 (+22 per minute) to 360 (+25 per minute) after 11 minutes have passed, and 360 (+30 per level) after 16 minutes
Developer Comments: Matches on Battlefield could occasionally go quite long as the Immortals weren’t scaling high enough into the late game. With this slight damage increase they’ll be more of a threat as the game progresses.
•Garden Terror •Overgrowth (W) •Now also disables the enemy Core •Health now increases the longer the game progresses
Developer Comments: We didn’t like the gameplay of Garden Terrors being used defensively to slow down an enemy Garden Terror push. Now that the Overgrowth can disable the Core, it will be much less effective to defend as a Garden Terror, encouraging teams to be more offensive with their Garden Terrors.
•Punisher •Starting and scaling Health decreased by 10% •Now leap to the nearest enemy Hero within range, rather than selecting one at random
•Skeletal Defenders •The amount of Skeletal Defenders required to summon a Punisher has been increased from 30 to 40. •Skeletal Defenders will no longer take increased damage from abilities and talents that deal bonus damage to minions. •The range at which Skeletal Defenders will detect and attack players has been decreased by 25%
Developer Comments: Player feedback has been centered around how hard it is to comeback when falling behind on Infernal Shrines. We agree that the Punishers are overly punishing, so we’re nerfing their Health slightly. Teams that successfully bait the Punishers deep within their base will be able to put an end to this threat sooner.
•Events in which all three Temples activate simultaneously will no longer occur.
Developer Comments: While the three temple event could be fun, it didn’t leave the defending team with many options. It almost always meant whoever had the advantage at that point in time could secure the majority of the temples and win the match with little for the other team to do.
•Ruthless Onslaught (E) •Savage Charge (Talent) •Bonus damage changed from 15% of the target’s current Health to 10% of the target’s maximum Health
•Lamb to the Slaughter (R) •New art has been added that will better indicate which players are affected by Lamb to the Slaughter
Developer Comments: We’d like to avoid ‘current Health’ for the Savage Charge Talent, as what players get out of this can vary wildly. Using Savage Charge against a low Health target could net less than a Basic Attack, so the damage will be much more consistent with this change.
•Basic Attack damage reduced from 47 (+13 per level) to 47 (+12 per level) •Blink (E) •Wormhole (Talent) •Blink reactivation time reduced from 3 to 2 seconds
•Void Prison (R) •Casting range reduced by 50%
Developer Comments: Zeratul is a little bit too strong, especially at competitive and tournament level play. Wormhole remains extremely powerful, but decreasing this timer from 3 to 2 seconds will give increased counter play options to the enemy team, primarily if they can disable Zeratul during this shorter time window. Void Prison remains one of the most powerful Heroics in the game, but with the decreased range, Zeratul will now likely have to use Blink or aggressive positioning to get into place for the perfect Void Prison.
•Locust Strain (Trait) •Locusts will no longer spawn as soon as the game begins, and will now wait until the first Minion wave spawns
Developer Comments: Abathur’s initial Locust would previously sit idle until Minions spawned. This change will allow Abathur to get in position before the first Locust spawns at the start of a game.
•Corpse Spiders (Q) •Spiders attack damage decreased from 10 (+1 per level) to 9.5 (+0.95 per level) •Leaping Spiders (Talent) •Spider attack damage bonus decreased from 25% to 15%
•Ravenous Spirit (R) •Vision radius granted by the Spirit increased by approximately 66%
Developer Comments: Nazeebo was dealing a little more damage than we’d like, specifically when looking at his spiders. We’ve tuned his base spiders and their leaping talent down to bring him more in line.
•Plasma Shield (Q) •Shield amount decreased from 200 (+40 per level) to 150 (+30 per level) •Shield amount is now increased by 50% when cast on allied Heroes •Mana cost reduced from 50 to 40 •Cooldown reduced from 8 to 5 seconds •Leeching Plasma (Talent) •Basic Attack damage returned as Health increased from 20% to 30%
•Evasive Shielding (Talent) •Movement Speed bonus duration increased from 4 to 5 seconds
•Archon (R) •Damage bonus decreased from 100% to 60% •Twilight Archon (Talent) •Damage bonus decreased from 200% to 140%
Developer Comments: It’s important that Tassadar players can queue for Quick Match and not be worried that they are going to cause a negative experience for their team. A Tassadar player who chooses the Support Talents will be much more viable as a Support character. We still expect Tassadar to put out smaller numbers when compared to the highest healing Supports, but with the huge amount of utility Tassadar brings, we think this is an okay trade off. The second change here targets Archon providing a little too much power; we’ve reduced some numbers to tune him appropriately. Internally, we’ve seen more Force Wall play as a result, which has been exciting.
•Searing Arrows (Talent) •Basic Attack damage bonus increased from 40% to 50%
•Shadowstalk (R) •No longer reveals enemies. •Instead, allied Heroes are now healed over 8 seconds, and then receive a large burst of healing when Shadowstalk expires •Hunter’s Prey (Talent) has been renamed to Hunter’s Swiftness •Allied Heroes no longer gain a Basic Attack damage bonus, and instead receive a 40% Movement Speed bonus for 8 seconds
Developer Comments: We think that it’s important that Tyrande has the capability to be a viable solo healer, as she might be the only Support on your team in Quick Match. Shadowstalk is generally an under-picked Heroic, so we decided to focus it more toward healing so that it can become a “support” option. Tyrande still brings less healing than some of our other Supports due to the rest of her kit, but we hope that the Shadowstalk change will bring her closer to what players expect when fulfilling the primary Support role.
•Fortifying Brew (Trait) (D) •Shield amount changed from 20 (+12 per level) to 33 (+10 per level) •Brew will now regenerate in increments of 5 while channeling Fortifying Brew •Keg Toss (Talent) moved from Level 7 to Level 1 •Bottomless Mug (Talent) moved from Level 1 to Level 16 •This Talent’s functionality has changed •Now decreases the cooldown of Fortifying Brew from 5 to 3 seconds
•Combat Stance (Talent) •Shield duration after Fortifying Brew channeling ends increased from 2 to 3 seconds
•New Talent (Level 1): Grounding Brew •Now decreases all incoming Ability damage by 25% while channeling Fortifying Brew
•Flying Kick (Q) •Flying Kick speed increased by approximately 20% •Brew Strike (Talent) •This Talent’s functionality has changed •Now reduces Flying Kick’s cooldown by 1 second for every Hero hit by Keg Smash
•Keg Smash (W) •Slow duration increased from 2.5 to 3 seconds •Full Keg (Talent) moved from Level 1 to Level 7 •This Talent’s functionality has changed •Now increases Keg Smash damage and area of effect by 50%
•Breath of Fire (E) •Deep Breath (Talent) •Now also reduces Breath of Fire’s Brew cost from 30 to 20
•Ring of Fire (Talent) •Damage increased from 10 (+2.5 per level) to 11 (+2.75 per level)
•Storm, Earth, Fire (R) •Brew cost removed
•Wandering Keg (R) •Brew cost removed •Cooldown decreased from 90 to 70 seconds
Developer Comments: While we see a fair amount of Talent diversity within Chen players, we found that some of these Talents were traps, so these changes will help. We also added a bit of power into Chen’s core playstyle to help him at competitive levels.
•Black Soulstone (Trait) •Maximum Health gained per Soul increased from 0.15% to 0.2% •Essence of the Slain (Talent) •Now also grants 10 Health for each enemy slain nearby
•Shadow Charge (Q) •Range increased by approximately 15% •Stun duration after knocking an enemy into a wall increased from 0.75 to 1 second •Devastating Charge (Talent) •Now reduces movement impairing effects for 6 seconds, up from 3 seconds
•Fire Stomp (W) •Damage increased from 30 (+9 per level) to 33 (+10 per level) •Mana cost decreased from 50 to 40
•Overpower (E) •Domination (Talent) •Cooldown reduction for Shadow Charge increased from 8 to 10 seconds
Developer Comments: The buffs to Shadow Charge should help to reinforce Diablo as the premier gank Warrior. The rest of his kit gets a little bit of love to help his overall play.
•Health increased from 1040 (+240 per level) to 1050 (+250 per level) •Power Slide (Q) •Stun duration increased from 1 to 1.25 seconds
•Face Melt (W) •Mana cost decreased from 60 to 50 •Cooldown decreased from 12 to 10 seconds •Mic Check (Talent) •Cooldown reduction increased from 4 to 5 seconds
•Guitar Solo (E) •Heal amount increased from 25 (+6 per level) to 27 (+6.5 per level) •Pwn Shop Guitar (Talent) •Mana cost reduction increased from 40% to 60%
•Prog Rock (Talent) •Bonus healing granted per Regeneration Globe increased from 2 to 3 Health per second.
Developer Comments: We wanted to further emphasize E.T.C.’s ability to disrupt enemies with his Face Melt and Power Slide Abilities. With these buffs, we feel he’ll fall in line as a viable main Warrior.
•Condemn (W) •Knight Takes Pawn (Talent) •Damage bonus against Minions and Mercenaries decreased from 400% to 300% •Stun duration against Minions and Mercenaries decreased from 4 to 3 seconds
•Blessed Shield (R) •Stun duration decreased from 2 to 1.5 seconds for the first target struck, and decreased from 1 to 0.75 seconds for additional targets. •Radiating Faith (Talent) •No longer increases Blessed Shield range. •Now increases the stun duration to 2 seconds for the first target struck, and 1 second for additional targets
Developer Comments: Johanna is powerful right now, and we think a large part of her strength is due to her ability to quickly clear large Minion waves. We also felt that the stun duration on her Blessed Shield could be frustrating to play against during the mid-game. Players who are looking to get that extra stun duration back can elect to build into it at level 20.
•Ossein Renewal (Talent) •Now dismounts Leoric upon activation •No longer causes Leoric to pause briefly when activated while moving
•Skeletal Swing (Q) •Damage decreased from 100 (+10 per level) to 85 (+8.5 per level)
Developer Comments: Leoric is too powerful right now. We’re targeting his Skeletal Swing, as we believe it does everything a little too well. The damage output for this Ability has been decreased overall, and we’ve reduced its strength at clearing Minion waves significantly.
•New Ability: Misha, Fixate! (1) •“Misha, Fixate!” will have two functions, depending on its target: •If “Misha, Fixate!” is used on an enemy, Misha will move to attack the target until the target dies, a new order is issued, Misha leashes, or Misha dies •If “Misha, Fixate!” is used on the ground, Misha will move to that area and hold position until a new order is issued, Misha leashes, or Misha dies •Using "Misha, Fixate!" will automatically place Rexxar's passive into the "Misha, Follow!" state •Misha retains her current behavior when issuing commands using “Misha, Follow!” (D) and “Misha, Attack!” (D) •Misha (Trait) •Misha’s leash range has been significantly increased •Misha will now hide when Rexxar is hidden in a Bush
•Spirit Swoop (Q) •Bird of Prey (Talent) •Bonus damage to non-Heroic targets has been reduced from 300% to 200%.
Developer Comments: We’ve received a lot of both positive and negative feedback about Misha’s controls and wanted to offer a little more to our players without completely overhauling her current control scheme. We will continue to monitor this and may make future adjustments to Rexxar and Misha if necessary to balance for this increased level of control.
•Health increased from 1060 (+230 per level) to 1060 (+260 per level) •Block (Talent) removed •Regeneration Master (Talent) removed •Imposing Presence (Talent) removed •Stoneskin (Talent) added at Level 16 •New Talent (Level 1): Dampen Magic •Every 8 seconds, gain a charge that reduces damage taken from the next incoming enemy Ability by 50%. Stores up to 2 charges.
•New Talent (Level 1): Hungry for More •Collecting Regeneration Globes permanently increases maximum Health by 30
•Hook (Q) •Helping Hand (Talent) •Now also reduces Hook’s cooldown by 8 seconds when pulling an ally
•Slam (W) •Mana cost reduced from 45 to 40
•Devour (E) •Mana cost reduced from 65 to 55 •Cooldown reduced from 24 to 20 seconds •Last Bite (Talent) •Now grants cooldown reduction for enemies that are killed within 3 seconds after being damaged by Devour
•Indigestion (Talent) •Retchlings now apply the effects of Vile Gas to the targets they attack
•Gorge (R) •Duration increased from 3.5 to 4 seconds •Stitches’ Movement Speed is no longer reduced while using Gorge •Targets under the effect of Stitches’ Gorge will now be instantly expelled if Stitches enters Stasis (Divine Palm, Devouring Maw, Cocoon, Medivac) •Hungry Hungry Stitches (Talent) •No longer increases Gorge duration •Now increases Gorge damage by 40%
Developer Comments: We wanted to buff Stitches and position him to be more powerful against Mages. His regeneration build has been nerfed, due to the removal of Regeneration Master, but instead he now has a high Health build which also increases Devour’s effectiveness. His core kit was improved at a basic level, which will help bring him back into competitive play. Finally, we wanted to clean up the rules associated with Gorge and the level 20 upgrade, so we cut the unnecessary components of those two Abilities.
•Corrected a variety of typos and tooltip errors. •Fixed an issue that could cause a number of Heroes to fly back to their death locations after respawning if they were killed while using certain Abilities. •Players using Macs with system configurations at or below Heroes of the Storm’s minimum specifications will no longer experience excessive loading times. •During Practice Mode games, Abilities with delayed AOE damage effects will no longer continue to fire after the match is paused by accessing the Talent pane.
•Skeletal Defender Health will now properly scale over time on the Infernal Shrines Battleground. •Fixed an issue that allowed Punishers to attack structures while enraged on the Infernal Shrines Battleground. •Corrected an issue that could cause Punishers to prioritize attacking enemy Structures after initially targeting a Hero. •Fixed an issue that could allow skulls to spawn outside the playable area in the Haunted Mines. •Fixed an issue that could allow A.I. controlled Garden Terrors to briefly continue casting their Abilities after death.
•The Focused Attack Talent now properly uses a 10 second cooldown between bonuses to Basic Attack damage. •The Battle Momentum Talent will now properly reduce Tyrael's Sanctification cooldown. •Abathur will now properly receive Takedown credit after dealing the killing blow to Leoric. •Abathur will no longer receive Takedown credit after casting Symbiote on an allied Leoric that is then killed by the enemy team. •Abathur's Hivemind Symbiote will no longer persist on Leoric after he enters Undying form. •A Sgt. Hammer clone created by Abathur’s Ultimate Evolution will no longer be granted the Napalm Strike Heroic Ability after entering Siege Mode. •Fixed an issue that could allow Arthas’ Summon Sindragosa to be placed on reduced cooldown despite being successfully cast. •Azmodan’s movement commands are now properly interrupted when casting All Shall Burn after learning the March of Sin Talent. •Chen will no longer earn three extra Brew after casting another Ability during Fortifying Brew. •Falstad’s Hinterland Blast will no longer be placed on reduced cooldown when it is successfully cast at the same moment that Falstad is stunned by The Butcher’s Ruthless Onslaught. •Illidan's Sweeping Strike will now properly deal damage when the Immolation Talent damages the target at the same moment. •The visual effects for Johanna's Shield Glare are no longer visible through the Fog of War. •Kerrigan will no longer receive multiplicative bonuses to Shield generation after learning the Aggressive Defense and Omegastorm Talents. •Kharazim’s Overtake Talent will now properly last for its full duration. •Camera Follow will no longer cease functioning if Leoric enters Undying form in mid-air. •Leoric’s Reanimation Talent will no longer allow him to regenerate Health after picking up a Regeneration Globe while controlling a Dragon Knight or Garden Terror. •The visual and sound effects for Murky’s Octo-Grab will no longer persist if the target is killed at the same moment that the Ability is cast. •Nazeebo's Gargantuan will no longer continue to follow an enemy Leoric that has entered Undying form. •Rehgar’s Feral Lunge will no longer be reset if he is knocked back while lunging. •Sonya’s Seismic Slam, Tyrande’s Light of Elune, and Zeratul’s Cleave will no longer place the Hero’s Basic Attack on cooldown. •Stitches will no longer become briefly unresponsive after casting Hook on a target that has just died. •Fixed an issue that could prevent Tassadar's Plasma Shield with the Khala’s Embrace Talent from providing bonus Shields to Structures. •The Butcher will no longer stop his Ruthless Onslaught charge if Abathur's Ultimate Evolution clone charges the target first. •The Lost Vikings are no longer teleported back to their Hall of Storms if they would have been killed by Zagara’s Devouring Maw while in Longboat Raid! form. •Tychus's Drakken Laser Drill will no longer target Heroes while they are hidden in bushes. •Tychus’s Overkill will no longer track enemies while he is trapped by Void Prison. •Uther will no longer be teleported back to the Hall of Storms if his Redemption Talent cooldown expires while he is in Eternal Devotion form.
•The voiceover for Johanna's Falling Sword can no longer be heard globally. •The sound effects for Murky’s March of the Murlocs will no longer continue to play if casting is interrupted. •Allied Heroes will no longer tell Leoric to use a Healing Fountain while he is in Undying form.
•Fixed an issue affecting chat spacing and readability. •Ability and Talent icons will no longer experience clipping with button frames. •Holo Decoy status bar frames are now more visually consistent with Nova’s. •The targeting icon for Drakken Laser Drill will no longer persist on Tychus’ Ability hotbar after the drill has been destroyed. •The targeting icon for Raynor's Raiders will no longer persist on Raynor’s Ability hotbar after the Banshees have been destroyed. •Leoric’s in-game portrait will no longer switch to his Wraith Walk portrait if an enemy Leoric is killed nearby. •Changing the screenshot file format no longer causes screenshots to exhibit rendering issues.
UPDATE: Due to unexpected issues encountered while launching the PTR, we have chosen to delay this release. Our new estimated release date is Monday, September 28 PDT.
So, I've finally read the full patch notes and they are full of pretty amazing stuff.
First of all, randomly after some games you'll get small surveys about different topics so it will be a great way to get feedback directly to developers. The loading screens will also show the heroes, players and portraits which is pretty nice.
Finally you can watch replays with other players. Up to 11 other players to be exact which is amazing. Depending on how they achieved this, more observer slots may be very close to be implemented which would be a big boost to the competitive scene.
They nerfed the Punishers on infernal Shrines and made it harder to kill the little demons. They also have removed the three simultaneous Temple Spawn on Sky Temple which is HUGE. Also, "•Garden Terror •Overgrowth (W) •Now also disables the enemy Core" lol wut?
Pretty interesting changes. From a balance perspective on the Heroes, Idk about that nerf on Tassadar Archon, and while they did buff his shields I don't know if that will make him viable as a solo support. Tyrande changes are fine, as well as Chen's, ETC's, Diablo and the rest of the tanks. I really like they nerfed their absurd wave clear, although that is going to make it harder to carry with them.
I don't think that they took the right approach at Nerfing Zeratul, but he will remain a viable pick.
And that Rexxar rework..That new ability is replacing his trait right?
Pretty interesting patch, one of the biggest we've ever had. Also Medic OP.
On September 26 2015 12:35 xDaunt wrote: Artanis is going to be a fucking boss. I can't wait to play him. He's basically going to be a more fun version of Thrall.
To be honest, his abilities sounds fun but both of his heroics are kind of... I don't know, unimaginative and bad for a Warrior hero. When I say bad I don't mean useless, but they don't really fit that role and are not interesting in my opinion.
Garden Terror Overgrowth (W) Now also disables the enemy Core
Skeletal Defenders The amount of Skeletal Defenders required to summon a Punisher has been increased from 30 to 40.
I think these changes will make those maps far more interesting.
Basic Attack damage reduced from 47 (+13 per level) to 47 (+12 per level) Blink (E) Wormhole (Talent) Blink reactivation time reduced from 3 to 2 seconds Void Prison (R) Casting range reduced by 50%
As a Zeratul main, I think these are 100% fair. I don't know if all 3 of these nerfs were needed, but we'll see!
Even with the Tyrande changes, I don't think she can go toe-to-toe with other true healers. Still a support/ specialist imo.
Wow Chen got buffed big time. Too bad he's one of my least favorite heroes to play as... maybe that'll change now.
It's nice to see Diablo and E.T.C. and Stitches get buffed too. More warrior options are always good. I'm not sure if the slight nerfs to Johanna and Leoric will make them less valuable.
Overall, I like the changes; I think they were pretty well thought out.
On September 26 2015 12:35 xDaunt wrote: Artanis is going to be a fucking boss. I can't wait to play him. He's basically going to be a more fun version of Thrall.
To be honest, his abilities sounds fun but both of his heroics are kind of... I don't know, unimaginative and bad for a Warrior hero. When I say bad I don't mean useless, but they don't really fit that role and are not interesting in my opinion.
HIs kit reminds me of Wolverine from MvC and I think his blind heroic is very warrior-like. The chasing bean thiugh is weird for him, but he's also angrier Sonya so I guess killing guys fits him too.
EPT
![[image loading]](https://bnetcmsus-a.akamaihd.net/cms/content_folder_media/XZ4PPH8K5IF51417483334088.png)
![[image loading]](https://bnetcmsus-a.akamaihd.net/cms/content_folder_media/LTMUKLG8D4FC1417483334394.png)
![[image loading]](https://bnetcmsus-a.akamaihd.net/cms/content_folder_media/RRZWEAEXJ8441439221492336.png)
![[image loading]](https://bnetcmsus-a.akamaihd.net/cms/content_folder_media/2J7BGIC3KXS41417483334398.png)
![[image loading]](https://bnetcmsus-a.akamaihd.net/cms/content_folder_media/L1FZEBIMXPLI1417483335075.png)
![[image loading]](https://bnetcmsus-a.akamaihd.net/cms/content_folder_media/FJ7AAFOTWHJ31417483335508.png)
![[image loading]](https://bnetcmsus-a.akamaihd.net/cms/content_folder_media/3PMD0Y6QQOHO1417483333660.png)
![[image loading]](https://bnetcmsus-a.akamaihd.net/cms/content_folder_media/MPC0MT16C6I91417483333902.png)
![[image loading]](https://bnetcmsus-a.akamaihd.net/cms/content_folder_media/O8ZNMK9MAPYM1417483334973.png)
![[image loading]](https://bnetcmsus-a.akamaihd.net/cms/content_folder_media/3448NN16TK6K1417483335280.png)
![[image loading]](https://bnetcmsus-a.akamaihd.net/cms/content_folder_media/I6HR01N9WF0Y1439221492511.png)
![[image loading]](https://bnetcmsus-a.akamaihd.net/cms/content_folder_media/PI2CATL8H1IZ1417483333975.png)
![[image loading]](https://bnetcmsus-a.akamaihd.net/cms/content_folder_media/1JZXW9JSV6ZW1417483334684.png)
![[image loading]](https://bnetcmsus-a.akamaihd.net/cms/content_folder_media/HM0ECRA7F3U91417483335126.png)
![[image loading]](https://bnetcmsus-a.akamaihd.net/cms/content_folder_media/2J5UMQ9U8Y951417483335330.png)
![[image loading]](https://bnetcmsus-a.akamaihd.net/cms/content_folder_media/0WB1N574QT991417483333970.png)
![[image loading]](https://bnetcmsus-a.akamaihd.net/cms/content_folder_media/10VUJ6C6M9DG1439221492653.png)
![[image loading]](https://bnetcmsus-a.akamaihd.net/cms/content_folder_media/3276TQ7WFVM51417483335193.png)
![[image loading]](https://bnetcmsus-a.akamaihd.net/cms/content_folder_media/MUSK7R1KG1O11417483335506.png)
. Same thing happened to me with Brightwing. I wish they would refund gold like they do with card changes in hearthstone.
