We’re ringing in the new year with a new Lunar Festival event, which includes new and returning skins and bundles, as well as new Special Event quests and rewards! Be sure to complete your quests and pick up a few skins before our 2017 Lunar Festival event concludes on Tuesday, February 14.
Lunar Festival Quests and Rewards: Quest: Complete the Rooster Race once. Reward: 200 Gold. Quest: Complete the Rooster Race 25 times during the 2017 Lunar Festival event. Rewards: Lunar Rooster Portrait and the Lunar Rooster Mount. Lunar Festival Quest Details Each day during Lunar Festival, players will receive a new event quest to complete the Rooster Race. If any players on a team have not yet finished that day’s quest, there’s a chance that the Lunar Rooster, and many festive items, will appear in the team’s starting area. Collect the required items and return them to the Rooster to advance his position. Return 4 items before time runs out to complete the Rooster Race! PTR Note: While elements of the Lunar Festival event may appear on the Test Realm, players will not be able to make progress toward quests or rewards until the patch is released to the live version of Heroes of the Storm next week.
A new version of Cursed Hollow has been added to Custom Games that will allow up to 10 players at once to use a wide variety of “cheats” to test the absolute limits of their Heroes in multiplayer, sandbox-style gameplay. A cheat menu will appear along the left side of the screen in-game. By default, only Player 1 will have access to the cheat menu. However, Player 1 can check the “Share Cheats” box at the top of the menu to give access to all other players. Players may close the cheat menu by clicking the “X” in the top-right corner of the panel. The menu can be restored by clicking the “Show Controls” button. All players will receive an in-game chat notification whenever a cheat is used. The cheat menu features a wide variety of different options: Set Game Speed: Change game speed among Slower, Slow, Normal, Fast, and Faster. Toggle Minions: Enable or disable Minion spawns for each team. Reset Structures: Restore all Structures to full Health. If a Structure was destroyed, it is rebuilt. Toggle Tribute Spawning: Enable or disable Raven Lord Tribute spawns. This button is only enabled before the first Tribute event begins. Move Here: Instantly moves the player's Hero to the camera location. Reset Talents: Reset all players’ Talent selections. If “Share Cheats” is enabled, this button will only reset Talents for the player that pressed it. Reset Cooldowns: Reset all players’ Ability cooldowns. Can be used once every 5 seconds. If “Share Cheats” is enabled, this button will only reset cooldowns for the player that pressed it. Set Team Level: Adjust each team's level from 1 up to 30. This will also affect the strength of Minions and neutral Mercenary Camps. Toggle Infinite Mana: Enable or disable Ability costs for each team. Set Damage Dealt: Adjust each team’s damage output from 0 up to 300% of normal damage. Set Damage Taken: Adjust the amount of damage received by each team from 0 up to 300% of normal damage.
Improved the performance of a rendering system that is used across most Hero Abilities and environment effects. This should improve framerates during team fights on many systems.
For a time, the gladiator Valeera Sanguinar served dutifully as one of Varian Wrynn’s personal bodyguards. Now, her shadowy skills find her a natural fit within the secretive rogue order, the Uncrowned, in their fight against the Legion.
Trait
Vanish (D) Valeera vanishes from sight, becoming Stealthed and increasing her Movement Speed by 10%. For the first second, she is Unrevealable and can pass through other units. Using Vanish grants Valeera an alternate set of Abilities that she can use while Stealthed.
Basic Abilities
Sinister Strike (Q) Dash forward, dealing damage to all enemies in a line. If Sinister Strike hits an enemy Hero, she stops dashing immediately and the cooldown is reduced to 1 second. Awards 1 Combo Point. Blade Flurry (W) Deal damage in an area around Valeera. Awards 1 Combo Point per enemy Hero hit. Eviscerate (E) Consume all stored Combo Points to Eviscerate an enemy, dealing increased damage per Combo Point spent. Valeera can store a maximum of 3 Combo Points.
Vanish Abilities
Ambush (Q) Ambush a target, instantly dealing damage to them. Awards 1 Combo Point. Cheap Shot (W) Deal a small amount of damage to an enemy and stun them for 1.5 seconds. Awards 1 Combo Point. Garrote (E) Garrote an enemy, instantly dealing a small amount of damage to the target, as well as a larger amount of bonus damage over 7 seconds, and Silencing them for 2 seconds. Awards 1 Combo Point.
Heroic Abilities
Smoke Bomb (R) Create a cloud of smoke. While in the smoke, Valeera is Unrevealable, can pass through other units, and gains 25 Armor, reducing damage taken by 25%. Valeera can continue to attack and use Abilities without being revealed. Lasts 5 seconds. Using this Ability does not break Vanish. Cloak of Shadows (R) Valeera is enveloped in a Cloak of Shadows, which immediately removes all damage over time effects from her. For 1 second, she becomes Unstoppable and gains 75 Spell Armor, reducing Ability damage taken by 75%. Using this Ability does not break Vanish.
Level 1
Vigor – Quest. Valeera regenerates an additional 2 energy per second. Reward: After gathering 20 regen globes Valeera’s maximum energy is increased to 120
Subtlety – After remaining vanished for 4 seconds, using Ambush, Cheap Shot, or Garrote causes Valeera to regenerate an additional 10 energy per second for 5 seconds.
Combat Readiness – Each combo point spent grants 50 physical armor against the next enemy hero basic attack reducing its damage by 50%. Stacks up to 3 times.
Crippling Poison – Cooldown 15 seconds. Activate to cause Valeera’s next instance of spell damage to slow enemy movement speed by 25% for 3 seconds. Activating Crippling Poison does not break Vanish.
Level 4
Relentless Strike – Reduces the energy cost of Sinister Strike by 10.
Hemorrhage – Valeera deals 25% increased basic attack damage to enemies affected by Garrote.
Initiative – Ambush, Cheap Shot, And Garrote award 2 combo points
Wound Poison – Cooldown 15 seconds. Activate to cause Valeera’s next instance of spell damage to reduce healing received by the victim by 50% for 4 seconds. Activating Wound Poison does not break Vanish.
Level 7
Mutilate – Sinister Strike now hits with both blades causing 100% additional damage but its range is reduced by 1.
Fatal Finesse – Quest. Each time Blade Flurry damages an enemy hero, its damage is increased by 3, up to 60. Reward: After damaging 20 heroes with Blade Flurry, permanently reduce its energy cost by 20.
Slice and Dice – Eviscerating the enemy with 3 combo points causes Valeera’s next 3 basic attacks to have their attack speed increased by 150%. Last 3 seconds.
Assassinate – Ambush deals 100% additional damage if no other enemy heroes are within 5 range of the victim.
Level 13
Elusiveness – Increase Valeera’s movement speed by an additional 10% when vanished.
Death from Above – Ambush now has 5 range and teleports her behind the victim.
Blind – When Cheap Shot expires the victim is blinded for 2.5 seconds.
Strangle – Garrote reduces ability damage dealt by the victim by 25% for 7 seconds.
Level 16
Seal Fate – Sinister Strike deals 50% additional damage and generates an additional combo point when used against silenced, stunned, or rooted enemy heroes.
Rupture – Valeera’s basic attacks refresh the damage over time effects of Garrote.
Expose Armor – Eviscerating an enemy with 3 combo points causes them to lose 25 armor for 2 seconds, increasing all damage take by 25%.
Thistle Tea – Cooldown 60 seconds. Activate to instantly restore 100 energy. Activating Thistle Tea does not break Vanish.
Level 20
Adrenaline Rush – While within the Smoke Bomb, Valeera regenerates an additional 30 energy per second.
Enveloping Shadows – Whenever Valeera uses Vanish, she also gains Cloak of Shadows.
Nightslayer – Reduces the cooldown of Vanish by 3 seconds.
Cold Blood – Cooldown 45 seconds. Activate to increase the damage of Valeera’s next Eviscerate by 100% Activating Cold Blood does not break Vanish.
The following Heroes have received updated icon art to coincide with their reworks:
Tassadar
Rexxar
The following Heroes, Abilities, and Talents have received updated visual effects:
Blood Elf Tyrande: Sentinel (W)
Malfurion: Innervate (D)
Rexxar: Misha, Focus! (D) Will now display visual effects above Misha and her target or target location when cast. Only the Rexxar player will see these effects.
Tassadar: Basic Attacks in Archon (R) form will now display splash effects more prominently.
Zagara: Envenomed Spines (Active Talent)
Shop PTR Note: Many of the following changes will not take place in the Shop until the Public Test Realm is brought offline and the patch is officially released to the live version of Heroes of the Storm next week.
New Bundles Demon Hunter Valeera Bundle – Available until January 31, 2017 2017 Lunar Festival Bundle – Available until February 14, 2017 Returning Bundles 2016 Lunar Festival Bundle – Available until February 14, 2017 Removed Bundles Luxorian Nights Bundle Ultimate Luxorian Nights Bundle
New Mounts Felsaber – Available by purchasing the Demon Hunter Valeera Bundle Nimbus Cloud – Available by purchasing the 2017 Lunar Festival Bundle Lunar Rooster – Awarded for completing the Rooster Race 25 times during the 2017 Lunar Festival event Golden Rooster – Available for gold purchase only Removed Mounts Nexus Charger Judgement Charger
Demon Hunter Valeera Master Valeera Monkey King Samuro – Available by purchasing the 2017 Lunar Festival Bundle. Available individually starting January 31, 2017 Lunar Li-Ming – Available by purchasing the 2017 Lunar Festival Bundle. Available individually starting February 7, 2017
Hover the cursor over MVP and Commendation icons that appear next to players’ names on the end game score screen to view a brief description of each award.
Ping Frequency
Players may now ping up to 5 times over 4 seconds, rather than 3 times over 3 seconds, before they are temporarily prevented from issuing additional pings. The amount of time that players will be prevented from issuing additional pings has been decreased from 6 to 5 seconds.
Try Mode
A “Complete Quests” button has been added that will allow players to instantly complete Quest Talent requirements. A “Select Ally” button has been added that will allow players to select any Hero as their Try Mode ally. Click “Select Ally” and then choose a Hero from the dropdown list, or select “None” to play without an ally.
Observer Mode
The first level of camera zoom (Z) for Observers has been lowered slightly in Replays and Custom Games.
Tutorial and Training
Gameplay tips that appear during Tutorial and Training games can now be accessed at any time while playing in those modes by clicking the new “Show Help” button added near the top-left corner of the screen. Clicking “Show Help” will display a Tutorial Tips panel that lists all of the tips the player has received so far, organized by category.
Level 1 Overpower (W) Added functionality: Can now trigger multiple times per Parry Now also increases the damage of the next Heroic Strike by 25%
Developer Comments: These simple changes should allow Varian players to "live the dream" and get multiple Overpower triggers more often, particularly when combined with Live by the Sword or Twin Blades of Fury. We want Overpower to allow Varian to gain a lot of value when used at just the right time, and found even the best cases of the old Talent design didn't compare to the other options on the tier. By also allowing it to increase the damage of Heroic Strike baseline, we think it will an additional vector that will make it an enticing option for all 3 builds..
Level 13 Elusive Feet (Trait) Now displays a button on the hotbar showing the cooldown Level 16 Shake It Off (Passive) Now displays a button on the hotbar showing the cooldown
Basic Attack Damage reduced from 69 to 10 Attack speed increased by 400% Added Functionality: Your basic attacks are channeled and slow the target’s Movement Speed by 20%
Abilities
Oracle (Trait) No longer costs Mana Cooldown reduced from 40 to 30 seconds Radius decreased by roughly 16%
Plasma Shield (Q) Cooldown increased from 5 to 8 seconds Duration increased from 5 to 8 seconds Mana cost increased from 40 to 50 Shield amount increased from 342 to 510 Removed Functionality: No longer gains 50% strength on allied Heroes Added Functionality: Now grants the target 20% Life Steal on Basic Attacks (while Shielded)
Psionic Storm (W) Damage decreased from 55 to 42 Added Functionality: Damage increases by 10% for each consecutive instance of damage
Dimensional Shift (E) Cooldown increased from 20 to 30 seconds Duration increased from 1.5 to 2 seconds Added Functionality: Now grants 25% Movement Speed for the duration You can now cancel out of Dimensional Shift early by re-activating the hotkey (Default: E)
Archon (R) Attack Damage increased from 111 to 175 Duration decreased from 12 to 10 seconds Added Functionality: Your Basic Attacks slow enemies by 40% for 1 second Added Functionality: Passively refreshes the cooldown of Dimensional Shift on activation Removed Functionality: No longer grants a generic Shield on activation Added Functionality: Now grants Tassadar a Plasma Shield on activation
Force Wall (R) Range increased from 8 to 10 Added Functionality: Passively increases the slow amount of Tassadar’s Basic Attacks from 20 to 30%
Talents
Level 1
Conjurer’s Pursuit (Passive) Removed
Reinforce Structure (Q) Removed
Overload (W) Removed
Psi-Infusion (W) New functionality: Quest: Restores 1 Mana for every non-Structure enemy damaged by Psionic Storm Quest Reward: After restoring 500 Mana, increase the area of Psionic Storm by 20% Quest Reward: After restoring 1000 Mana, increase the damage of your Psionic Storm by 20%
New Talent: Templar’s Will (Passive) Quest: Attacking enemy Heroes restores 4 Mana per second Quest Reward: After slowing Heroes for 30 seconds, increase your Basic Attack range by 20% Quest Reward: After slowing Heroes for 60 seconds, increase your Basic Attack range by an additional 20%
New Talent: Khaydarin Resonance (Passive) Quest: Regeneration Globes grant an additional 50% Mana Quest Reward: After collecting 20 Regeneration Globes, 50% of your Plasma Shield’s value remains after expiration Quest Reward: After collecting 40 Regeneration Globes, your Plasma Shield’s no longer have a duration
Level 4
Leeching Plasma (Q) Removed
Healing Ward (Active) Removed
Promote (Active) Removed
Mental Acuity (Trait) Moved to Level 7 New functionality: Quest: Each takedown lowers the cooldown of Oracle by 3 seconds, to a max of 15 seconds Quest Reward: Upon reaching 15 seconds of cooldown reduction, increase the sight range of Oracle by 50%
New Talent: Khala's Embrace (Q) Increases the Life Steal of your Plasma Shield by an additional 20%
New Talent: Khala’s Light(Q) Upon the expiration or breaking of Plasma Shield, grant the target 25 Armor for 3 seconds
New Talent: Khala’s Celerity (Q) Plasma Shield grants 25% Movement Speed for 5 seconds
Level 7
Khala’s Embrace (Q) Removed
Static Charge (W) Removed
Calldown: MULE (Active) Removed
Deep Shift (E) Moved to Tier 5 New functionality: Dimensional Shift’s Movement Speed and duration are increased by 50%
New Talent: Psionic Projection (Q, W) Increases the range of your Plasma Shield and Psionic Storm abilities by 40%
Level 13
Distortion Beam (Passive) Removed
Prescience (E) Removed
Scryer (Trait) Removed
Shrink Ray (Active) Removed
New Talent: Nullification (Active) Activate to reduce target Hero's damage by 75% for 3 seconds
New Talent: Adun's Wisdom (Trait) While Oracle is active, your Basic Abilities cooldown 50% faster
Level 16
Evasive Shielding (Q) Removed
Dimensional Warp (E) Removed
Resonation (W) Moved to Level 7 New functionality: Distortion Beam’s slow amount is increased to 40% while attacking an enemy affected by Psionic Storm
Second Strike (W) Renamed to Psionic Echo The window to cast the second Psionic Storm has been reduced from 3 to 1.5 seconds
New Talent: Phase Disruption (W) Enemies affected by Psionic Storm have their Physical Armor reduced by 25
New Talent: Focused Beam (Trait) While Oracle is active, your Basic Attacks deal an additional 1% of an enemy Heroes maximum Health
Level 20
Storm Shield (Active) Removed
Rewind (Active) Removed
Twilight Archon (R) New functionality: Basic Attacks while in Archon refresh the duration of Archon
Force Barrier (R) New functionality: Decreases the cooldown by 50% and increases the range by 100%
New Talent: Shield Battery (Active) Activate to grant all nearby allies a base version Plasma Shield
New Talent: Prismatic Link (Passive) Basic Attacks can now bounce to two nearby enemy targets for 50% damage
Developer Comments: We absolutely love releasing reworks and this one was a long-time-coming, as Tassadar has had a bit of an identity crisis from the moment he stepped foot into the Nexus. We knew that the design direction and changes were going to need to be a bit more expansive in scope compared to most of our other reworks, but we did our best to keep him as true to his High Templar heritage as possible. Our goals were to embrace him as a true utility-based support mage. The new "Distortion Beam" Basic Attack should allow you to help peel for your allies as well as secure kills that would be otherwise unobtainable. Plasma Shield has gained baseline utility that will continue to empower Basic Attackers, while also offering more diverse talents in order to better react to enemy and ally compositions. Archon has been surgically buffed and given a passive reset for Dimensional Shift which should be great news for our old-school fans as we fully expect to see a resurgence of back-line infiltration play. Overall, we hope the changes reinvigorate our steadfast Tassadar players while integrating many new ones into the Khala. En Taro Tassadar.
Misha Movement Speed has been increased from 100% to 115% when Misha has been issued an order to attack targets or when she is by Rexxar’s side.
Abilities
Misha, Attack! (D) / Misha, Follow! (D) Removed
Misha, Focus! (1) Moved to the Trait button (Default Hotkey: D) Self-casting Misha, Focus! now calls Misha to Rexxar. Once she reaches Rexxar, she will go to her neutral state.
Talents
Level 1
Survivalist Training (Passive) Removed
Grizzled Bear (Passive) Moved to Level 4 Renamed to Grizzled Fortitude Added functionality: Block charge gain rate increased from 5 to 7 seconds Added functionality: Rexxar now gains the Block charges in addition to Misha
Hunter-Gatherer (Passive) Moved to Level 4 Regeneration Globes required to complete the quest decreased from 30 to 20 Rexxar's Health Regeneration amount increased from 1 to 1.25 per second New Functionality: Upon Quest completion, Rexxar and Misha now gain 10 Armor
Flare (Active) Cooldown increased from 20 to 30 seconds Reveal duration increased from 5 seconds to 20 seconds
Bird of Prey (Q) Bonus damage reduced from 200% to 150% Now only does bonus damage to enemy Minions
Level 4
Easy Prey (Passive) Moved to Level 1
Crippling Talons (Q) Slow amount increased from 40 to 50%
Taking Flight (Q) Added functionality: If Spirit Swoop hits an enemy Hero, the cooldown is also reduced by 2 seconds
New Talent: Animal Husbandry (Passive) Rexxar and Misha gain 2 Maximum Health every second Rexxar remains alive. These bonuses are lost on Rexxar's death.
Level 7
Blood of the Rhino (E) Removed
Bird of Prey (Q) Moved to Level 1
Level 13
Bear Necessities (W) Removed
Barkskin (W) Removed
Aspect of the Hawk (Q) Added functionality: Misha Basic Attacks now increase the duration of the Attack Speed buff by 0.5 seconds
New Talent: Dire Beast (W) Rexxar and Misha's Basic Attacks increase the damage of the next Misha, Charge! by 40%, stacking up to 400% bonus.
Level 16
Critical Care (E) Removed
Developer Comments: Our goals for Misha Rexxar were twofold: to streamline his control scheme as much as we could and to give his talents some love. All of Misha’s controls should now be centralized on the D button, which should make it easier overall to play the hero. While this does result in a tiny loss of control (Rexxar no longer has the ability to recall Misha to his side and to keep her in a passive state), we felt that overall this functionality was not that huge of a loss for Rexxar and was worth the gain of making his controls centered around one button instead of two. We also made Misha’s Movement Speeds during her various states more consistent so that she feels better when being commanded by Rexxar, and we’ve added some talents that should help better sell the fantasy of Rexxar and Misha working together to take down their prey. We’ve had a blast playing with the new and improved Rexxar, and hope that you enjoy it as much as we have!
Display: Fixed an issue that prevented some laptops with Nvidia graphics cards from using Fullscreen mode. Display: Fixed an issue that could cause the game client to switch to Windowed Fullscreen on startup. Fixed a number of typos and tooltip errors across several aspects of the game.
Diablo: Fixed a visual issue affecting Diablo's tail during certain animations. Li-Ming: Fixed a minor animation issue affecting Li-Ming’s ball that could occur after exiting Archon form. Muradin: Fixed an issue causing Magni Muradin’s leg plates to appear to clip into his thighs. Try Mode: Grassy terrain will no longer appear inside of the allied Storm Portal.
Braxis Holdout: The Archangel will no longer leave its leash range to attack a nearby Murky Egg. Haunted Mines: The Neutral Grave Golem will no longer chase an invulnerable Hero beyond its normal leash range. Structures: Fixed an issue in which the Core could continue to reveal enemy Stealth Heroes in a small radius outside its intended reveal range.
Fixed an issue in which certain debuffs could still be applied to Invulnerable Heroes, including: Greymane: Marked for the Kill Li-Ming: Charged Blast Thrall: Rolling Thunder Zul’jin: Grievous Throw Scouting Drone: Will now properly reveal Creep Tumors and Toxic Nests. Alarak: Telekinesis will now correctly interrupt a Hero who is channeling to launch a Nuke on Warhead Junction. Alarak: The targeting reticle for Deadly Charge will no longer persist on the terrain if Alarak is killed while channeling. Anub'arak: Burrow Charge will now correctly allow Anub'arak to escape Zarya's Graviton Surge. Arthas: Army of the Dead will no longer fail to summon Ghouls if it is cast in the same moment that Arthas is targeted by Auriel’s Crystal Aegis. Auriel: A.I. Auriel can no longer cast Resurrect on Murky after he has already revived at his Egg. Brightwing: Polymorph will now properly interrupt an enemy Hero who is channeling on the Dragon Knight. Brightwing: The Critterize Talent’s negative effects will now be correctly removed if the target is Cleansed. Brightwing: The negative effects of Critterize will no longer persist beyond Polymorph’s duration. Diablo: Shadow Charge will now be properly interrupted if it would cause him to enter E.T.C.’s Mosh Pit. Gazlowe: Gazlowe’s Nuke Ability icon on Warhead Junction will no longer be visually replaced with a lock icon after casting Rock-It! Turret while carrying a warhead. Greymane: The tooltip for the Block buff granted by the Thick Skin Talent now correctly states that it reduces the next incoming Basic Attack by 50%, rather than 75%. Kael'Thas: The Burned Flesh Talent will now correctly deal damage equal to 8% of targets’ maximum Health, rather than 5%. Kael'thas: Fixed an issue in which Sun King's Fury could deal bonus damage to targets who were already affected by Living Bomb. Kharazim: Air Ally will now properly reveal Creep Tumors and Toxic Nests. Kharazim: Fixed an issue that could prevent Kharazim from automatically acquiring a new target after activating Deadly Reach outside of his attack range. Li-Ming: Casting Disintegrate a moment before Li-Ming would be hit by Abilities like Falstad’s Gust of Wind will no longer cause a short delay before she is pushed. Medivh: The second Portal granted by the Portal Mastery Talent can no longer be self-cast. Nova: The Holo Decoy’s Pinning Shot will no longer reset Nova’s Covert Ops Talent stacks. Raynor: Killing Samuro’s Mirror Images after learning A Card To Play will no longer reduce Raynor’s Heroic Ability cooldowns. Rehgar: Fixed several issues affecting Rehgar’s pathing while attempting to attack in Ghost Wolf form. Rehgar: Becoming Rooted while attacking an enemy from maximum lunge range in Ghost Wolf form will no longer cause Rehgar to continue the lunge when the Root effect expires. Rehgar: Fixed an issue causing Rehgar to become stuck in an attack animation when attempting to attack a moving Medivac Dropship while in wolf form. Rehgar: Fixed an issue causing Rehgar to exit wolf form if he deals damage with a Ragnaros Blast Wave. Rexxar: Fixed an issue with using the Hold Position (Hotkey: H) command causing Misha to move in an unintended way. Tracer: Fixed an issue prevent Tracer from attacking a revealed stealth Hero. Tracer: Fixed an issue preventing Tracer from changing directions immediately when using Quick Cast Blink (Q) while holding Right-Click to move. Uther: Benediction can no longer reduce the cooldown of two abilities if used in rapid succession. Valla: Fixed some inconsistencies with abilities that would reveal Valla at the edges of Fog of War or from Brush. Varian: Can no longer be selected through Autoselect – Support. Zagara: Fixed an issue causing the Creep Tumor tooltip to display an incorrect value. Zarya: Fixed an issue preventing the “Drop and give me Twenty” quest indicator from disappearing after the quest was completed. Zeratul: Fixed an issue preventing Zeratul from using Wormhole after casting a Blink gained from the Rewind talent.
Mounts: When ridden by a Hero in Stealth, mechanical Mounts will no longer play sound effects that are audible to nearby enemy Heroes. Quest Talents: Kharazim’s Insight will now properly play its quest completion sound effect. Tassadar: Distortion Beam will now correctly play sound effects when attacking enemy Walls, Gates, and Towers.
Profile: Fixed a visual issue that could cause Hero Kills to double after switching from an individual Hero’s stat page in the Hero Collection to the Profile’s Statistics tab, and back again.
Base Maximum Health reduced from 2100 to 2000 Base Health Regen reduced from 4.4 to 4.2 per second
Talents
Level 1 Sulfuras Hungers (Q) Quest completion damage bonus reduced from 120 to 100 Level 4 Catching Fire (Active) Health Regeneration bonus reduced from 2 to 1.5 per regen globe gathered Level 13 Cauterize Wounds (Q) Healing reduced from 60 to 50% of damage dealt
Earthquake (R) Slow amount reduced from 70 to 50% Sundering (R) Cooldown reduced from 80 to 60 seconds
Developer Comments: These changes are a continued effort to bring Thrall's two Heroics closer in line with each other. We realize that these are not the only pick-rate issues he has and are excited to look at him in more depth soon.
Twin Cleave (W) Mana cost reduced from 60 to 50 Guillotine (R) Cooldown reduced from 45 to 30 seconds
Talents
Level 1 Boneslicer (Q) Damage bonus increased from 15 to 20% Arcanite Axes (W) Cooldown reduction per Hero hit increased from .5 to .75 seconds You Want Axe? (Passive) Damage bonus per stack reduced from 1.5 to 1.25 Level 4 Let the Killing Begin (Passive) Buff duration reduced from 15 to 12 seconds Level 7 Wrong Place Wrong Time (W) Damage from 140 to 150 Level 13 Voodoo Shuffle (Active) Cooldown reduced from 45 to 30 seconds Level 16 Ferocity (Trait) Attack speed bonus reduced from 40 to 35%
Developer Comments: Our data shows a solid win-rate for Zul'jin's Basic Attack build (I guess enemies really don't want axe!) while his ability-supporting talents are slightly under-performing. These changes look to slightly help that while we continue to explore the flood of incoming data.
Creep Tumor (Trait) Movement Speed bonus from 15 to 20% Cooldown from 20 to 18 seconds Hunter Killer (W) Base damage from 62 to 65 Damage scaling from 3.5 to 4%
Talents
Level 20 Endless Creep (Trait) Movement Speed bonus from 15 to 10%
Developer Comments: This is the first of a few changes we want to make to Uther. We're attempting to ensure that he has a distinctive niche beyond bringing Divine Shield. This is the first step in the direction of making him a tankier healer.
Level 4 Shield Surge (Trait) Bonus shield amount reduced from 80 to 75% Level 7 Chrono Surge (Q) Duration of Attack Speed increased from 4 to 5 seconds Level 13 Templar's Zeal (Q) Cooldown recharge rate increased from 100 to 150% Graviton Vortex (E) Cooldown reduction decreased from 6 to 5 seconds Level 16 Titan Killer (W) Damage reduced from 2.5 to 2% of enemy Hero's maximum Health Plasma Burn (Trait) Damage increased from 50 to 55
Developer Comments: We're glad to see the Hierarch as a powerful entity in the Nexus! As players are growing more proficient with his new kit, he's becoming increasingly more powerful than his competition. We're using this time to adjust a few of the over performing Talents as a means of toning him down slightly, as well as creating more compelling choices.
Lightning Breath (R) Increase turn rate by 25% Damage reduced from 100 to 50 Damage effects per second increased from 2 to 4
Talents
Level 4 From the Shadows (Q) No longer grants additional stun time. Additional range increased from 33 to 40% Level 13 Fire Devil (W) Bonus attack damage reduced from 25 to 20% Hellfire (W) Bonus damage from Heroes hit increased from 10 to 12% Max damage value increased from 100 to 120% Level 16 Domination (E) No longer grants cooldown reduction on Overpower Level 20 Hellgate (Active) Cooldown increased from 90 to 120 seconds
Developer Comments: It's nice to see the Lord of Terror running amok inside the Nexus once again. These changes are targeted at talents that are slightly over or under tuned and should help equalize some of his Talent tiers.
Whirlwind (W) Damage increased from 339 to 441 over 3 seconds Healing increased from 20 to 25% of damage done (tripled versus Heroes)
Talents
Level 7 Poisoned Spear (Q) Damage increased from 100 to 150% of Ancient Spear Duration increased from 4 to 6 seconds Level 13 Life Funnel (E) Healing increased from 30 to 35% to correspond with base Whirlwind changes
Developer Comments: Sonya has steadily been dropping to the bottom of our Hero winrates, primarily because a lot of Heroes fulfill her role slightly better. The focus of these buffs is to improve her winrate, but also to solidify the reason to take Sonya: when you can get a lot of value out of Whirlwind because of the map mechanic, an abundance of Mercenaries, or an enemy team that consistently groups up.
Level 1 Maximum Charge (Trait) Energy gain from Regeneration Globes reduced from 20 to 15
Developer Comments: We're pretty happy with Zarya's gameplay and how often we're seeing her, but we think toning down her damage slightly is in order to keep her in line.
Rooster Race: Turning in the final Lunar Festival item required just before time expires will now properly grant credit for completing the Rooster Race.
A.I.
General: Error messages will no longer display on-screen when A.I. players use Abilities. Try Mode: Fixed an issue causing Abathur to behave strangely when chosen as an ally in Try Mode.
Art
Samuro: Monkey King Samuro’s Mirror Images will no longer use a different skin variation than the real Samuro.
Battlegrounds
Battlefield of Eternity: Tyrael’s Holy Ground and Zagara’s Devouring Maw can no longer be used to displace the opposing Immortal while the Immortals are fighting.
Heroes, Abilities, and Talents
Chromie: Timewalker’s Pursuit quest rewards will no longer be granted immediately upon selecting the Talent. Dehaka: Essence Devourer will now grant the intended amount of Essence per Regeneration Globe collected before and after completing its quest. Dehaka: Bonus Essence granted by Regeneration Globes after completing the Essence Devourer quest will now properly grant credit toward Enhanced Agility and Tissue Regeneration quests. Greymane: Marked for the Kill now correctly reduces the target’s armor by 25, increasing their damage taken. Ragnaros: Fixed an issue that made it possible for Empower Sulfuras to occasionally deal double damage. Rexxar: After learning Thrill of the Hunt, Misha’s Basic Attacks will no longer provide Rexxar with a Movement Speed bonus. Stitches: The Hungry for More talent will now correctly grant maximum Health bonuses after collecting Regeneration Globes. Stitches: Savor the Flavor no longer grants bonus Health Regeneration after using Devour on non-Heroic targets. Tassadar: Fixed an issue causing damage absorbed by Plasma Shield to display as double on the tab/score screen. Tassadar: Khala’s Light will no longer grant Armor to Structures affected by Plasma Shield. Tassadar: Fixed an issue in which Basic Attacks did not always count toward Templar’s Will quest progress. The Lost Vikings: Fixed an issue causing the Viking Hoard talent to fail to grant bonuses to Health Regeneration. Tychus: Fixed an issue causing Overkill to deal less damage than expected. Valeera: Dealing Shield damage to a Stealthed Valeera after the Unrevealable phase of Vanish has expired will now properly reveal her. Valla: Hungering Arrows after the first will no longer fail to deal damage when cast multiple times on the same target. Zeratul: Bonus Ability Power granted by Grim Task is now properly removed on death. Zeratul: Fixed an issue in which Vorpal Blade could fail to teleport Zeratul the full distance to his target.
User Interface
Draft Mode: Fixed an issue that prevented players from selecting the Lunar Rooster and Festive Treasure Goblin Mounts in Draft Lobbies.
Valeera is the true Rogue from WoW, she is amazing. Her talents will probably allow her to make a choice between more damage, more CC or more mobility, can't wait to see them.
Rexxar semi rework seems interesting, some cool talents. As much as we all waited for Tassadar rework, he is going to be a real pain and I've seen it from miles away since we got datamined talents from PTR. Another first ban/first pick, and he will be insanely broken, probably more than any of the current supports that we have and even worse as second support as it seems that he is back to doing insane amount of damage if talented correctly.
Rexxar looks great but i am not sure about only "D" movement. I must try that.
New Tass looks great too but still... In HL people hate picking supports and starts screaming when they see an off/utility support. But for Team League he looks purrfect!
We’ve seen a lot of discussions about our recent hero releases in the community lately, and we agree that we definitely overdid it a little bit with the Warcraft assassins over the past few months. I wanted to step into this thread to say thank you for sharing your feedback on this with us, and to hopefully give you a little more context into how we wound up with what’s happened.
Something that’s important to consider is that our development process for each hero starts nine months to a full year ahead of their planned release dates. After a certain point in the pipeline it becomes very difficult to shuffle heroes around without slipping on our goal of putting a new hero into your hands every three to four weeks. By the time we took a step back and said “You know, we sure have released a lot of assassins lately…” we were well past the point where we could change things up. :-(
First up was Samuro, whom this team has been wanting to do for over 2 years, and we were finally in a place we could ship him. Awesome! Next up we had Varian. He was what we had labeled a “Gladiator” archetype, which would later be renamed to Multi-Class (as we felt it was more true to what it meant).
Next up was Ragnaros. Originally, we had pitched him as a Core-Replacement Hero, who would influence the battlefield from afar. Something we had penciled in as a Specialist. About 2 months into development, however, we moved away from that design to the Ragnaros you know today. We considered leaving him a Specialist, but thought his role as a Bruiser would be more accurately reflected as Assassin, a la Thrall.
A while after we were into Rag and Varian design, we realized that Zul’jin would make an excellent addition, as we hadn’t added a Sustained Ranged Attacker to the game in quite some time. However, we realized we now had 4 Warcraft Heroes in a row. We decided to stick with it, due to what kind of flexibility we had (or really, didn’t have) in maneuvering the schedule.
About 3 months after we had started work on the next set of Heroes to follow Zul’jin, we had to shuffle up Valeera to follow Zul’jin first, due the needs of the team as a whole. At the time, we didn’t pause to consider the ramifications of what it would mean as a player experience, in terms of getting a diverse roster of Heroes in regards to our Archetype definitions and our Universes.
At the time, we were looking at the Heroes, and from a very Game Designer view, we saw this:
Stealthed 3-Card-Monté assassin
Multi-Class Hero: Warrior, Bruiser, Dive Assassin
Bruiser with Heavy Map Implications
Sustained Ranged Attacker
Enemy Carry Disabler
Now, while to us that’s 5 very different experiences (and in fact a new role in the form of a Hero that focuses on Disabling a team’s primary damage), in the current Heroes Archetype listing, that’s 5 Heroes that can be called “Assassin”.
We realize that unleashing so many Warcraft assassins back to back wasn’t the best decision in terms of hero diversity, and isn’t quite as exciting for those of you who don’t necessarily enjoy assassins as much as the other roles.
However, once you’ve had the chance to try out Valeera, we’re confident you’ll find her playstyle is pretty different from our other assassins. Internally, we’ve had a blast striking from the shadows and figuring out all of the various ways to use her combo mechanics effectively, and we hope that you’ll find her just as fun to play as we do.
We know there are also some of you who have concerns about another stealth hero joining the Nexus so soon after Samuro’s release. Valeera has undergone many rounds of playtesting and iteration, and one of our primary focuses was on not only how much fun it is to play as her, but how it feels to play against her as well. We think we’ve reached a nice middle ground, and we’d love to hear your thoughts after you’ve played a few games with and against the rogue.
Now that Valeera is out in the wild, we think you’re going to be pretty happy with the rest of the heroes we have planned for 2017. The feedback you, the community, has provided us has greatly influenced our planning. You can definitely expect more diversity in terms of both role and universe compared to 2016. I would hope that in January of 2018, we’ll be able to look back and see a much wider offering of Heroes (including, yes, Supports!).
We can’t wait to show you what we have in store! Thank you so much for continuing to provide feedback! We’ll see you in the Nexus!
New Tass looks interesting. Endless shields and endless Archon on 20. Damn. His shield is weaker though. No 50% bonus on heroes and now an 8 second cooldown. No more constantly negating damage.
And without reinforce structure on 1 he won't be special on haunted mines anymore.
Getting the AA range quest and then a 30% or even 40% slow seems strong. Not sure if I like the talents dependant on Oracle being active though.
A bit vague but still you can get the picture. She seems quite interesting, Zeratul with a twist, less mobility and probably less damage traded for more survivability and CC. I like her a lot. As someone said on reddit, her talents seems dependable on which character/hero types she is playing against and what she wants to shut down. Really cool design, and she stays true to the WoW Rogue class.
On January 18 2017 05:48 Thezzy wrote: New Tass looks interesting. Endless shields and endless Archon on 20. Damn. His shield is weaker though. No 50% bonus on heroes and now an 8 second cooldown. No more constantly negating damage.
His shields aren't exactly weaker, they removed 50% bonus on allies but increased absorbed amount by quite a bit, so they ended up the same, except that it will be stronger on buildings now. And you get baseline something you had to talent previously. Also he has some crazy talents like giving 25 armor when shield ends, or shields that never expire when you finish the quest.
They buffed the shields yes but the cooldown is also increased from 5 seconds to 8. So in a fight where the shield expires before 5 seconds there is now 3 more seconds where Tass can't shield you again.
I'll have to see for myself when I get on the PTR.
On January 18 2017 03:36 karazax wrote: Developer Comments: We absolutely love releasing reworks and this one was a long-time-coming, as Tassadar has had a bit of an identity crisis from the moment he stepped foot into the Nexus. We knew that the design direction and changes were going to need to be a bit more expansive in scope compared to most of our other reworks, but we did our best to keep him as true to his High Templar heritage as possible.
On January 18 2017 04:47 Aceace wrote: Rexxar looks great but i am not sure about only "D" movement. I must try that.
New Tass looks great too but still... In HL people hate picking supports and starts screaming when they see an off/utility support. But for Team League he looks purrfect!
This is literally the controls we asked for when he was first released. It's a much smoother system that doesn't have redundant buttons. Now all they have to do is fix the problem with Misha going retarded if commands are issued too quickly....
In other news, I'm in love with Valeera. Literally.
Also can the developers be more consistent? One skill has "increased area" of a circular skill, another has "increased radius" of a circular skill. Stick to one or the other!
On January 18 2017 08:45 xDaunt wrote: Valeera is pure bullshit. Totally unfun to play against. I have no idea what Blizzard is thinking.
So is every stealth hero to be honest, and Rogue was one of the most cancerous classes to play against in WoW. I can definitely see her stun being nerfed to 1.25 and her silence to 1.5 in few weeks after release, but they have to make her powerful so people throw money at them for skins and whatnot.
On January 18 2017 08:45 xDaunt wrote: Valeera is pure bullshit. Totally unfun to play against. I have no idea what Blizzard is thinking.
So is every stealth hero to be honest, and Rogue was one of the most cancerous classes to play against in WoW. I can definitely see her stun being nerfed to 1.25 and her silence to 1.5 in few weeks after release, but they have to make her powerful so people throw money at them for skins and whatnot.
Zeratul was never as OP as Valeera is now. The only thing that comes close is Alpha Nova, who was broken as fuck.
On January 18 2017 10:17 JacobShock wrote: One thing still fucks with me, what's with the pointy ass eye brows that elves have in WoW? It looks so silly
Eh. Not sillier than anything else. I still find it weird that Malfurion has a beard.
On January 18 2017 08:45 xDaunt wrote: Valeera is pure bullshit. Totally unfun to play against. I have no idea what Blizzard is thinking.
So is every stealth hero to be honest, and Rogue was one of the most cancerous classes to play against in WoW. I can definitely see her stun being nerfed to 1.25 and her silence to 1.5 in few weeks after release, but they have to make her powerful so people throw money at them for skins and whatnot.
Zeratul was never as OP as Valeera is now. The only thing that comes close is Alpha Nova, who was broken as fuck.
Uh, old Void Prison says hello... when you were doing boss and suddenly you are all caught into Void Prison together on capture point, except that capture point was no longer yours. I am not even sure how that's comparable, on one hand you have clearly op melee assassin that is pain to deal with but is quite doable if you are not alone, on the other hand you had melee assassin that was uncatchable, roaming around, killing you no matter what and at the same time stealing boss from your whole team, and there was nothing you could do about it.
You are probably talking about damage coupled with CC of Valeera, but I am taking everything into account, there is nothing, literally nothing that could top old Void Prison, now that was pure bullshit.
On January 18 2017 06:28 Ramiz1989 wrote: His shields aren't exactly weaker, they removed 50% bonus on allies but increased absorbed amount by quite a bit, so they ended up the same, except that it will be stronger on buildings now. And you get baseline something you had to talent previously. Also he has some crazy talents like giving 25 armor when shield ends, or shields that never expire when you finish the quest. He is going to be crazy good.
I don't think you can ever take into consideraton a talent that takes 40 globes to activate.
Also 8sec cooldown compared to 5. Will matter wont it? Or is the shield stronger than before? That was one thing i liked about tassadar, the shortish cooldown, which made it more about reactionary skills. Blizzard dont want that?
On January 18 2017 06:28 Ramiz1989 wrote: His shields aren't exactly weaker, they removed 50% bonus on allies but increased absorbed amount by quite a bit, so they ended up the same, except that it will be stronger on buildings now. And you get baseline something you had to talent previously. Also he has some crazy talents like giving 25 armor when shield ends, or shields that never expire when you finish the quest. He is going to be crazy good.
I don't think you can ever take into consideraton a talent that takes 40 globes to activate.
It depends on the map of course, but I was regularly getting between 30 and 50 globes with old regeneration master that had no cap on heroes such as Leoric, Arthas and so on. And still, that talent has two quest rewards, and one is on 20 globes where 50% of shields last indefinitely, and 20 globes can be quite easy to complete so it's not like a wasteful talent until you have 40 globes.
Am I the only one who literally cant win games in solo queue anymore?
First pick tracer who ends with less damage than tassadar. ETC who AA attacks keep to 'not waste nuke' while his team gets wiped. A Diablo with 13 fucking deaths, a Thrall that loses solo lane to flipping Valla and dies 5 times before lv 7. A Valla that end the game with under 20K hero damage because she facetansk EVERYTHING (AA build amirite)....
On January 18 2017 19:07 Foxxan wrote: Also 8sec cooldown compared to 5. Will matter wont it? Or is the shield stronger than before? That was one thing i liked about tassadar, the shortish cooldown, which made it more about reactionary skills. Blizzard dont want that?
Shield is indeed stronger: "Shield amount increased from 342 to 510". Depends on the situation if it is a net buff. If damge is concentrated on the shielded target, it will be a buff unless the fight lasts extremely long. If damage is spread, it tends to be a nerf.
On January 18 2017 06:28 Ramiz1989 wrote: His shields aren't exactly weaker, they removed 50% bonus on allies but increased absorbed amount by quite a bit, so they ended up the same, except that it will be stronger on buildings now. And you get baseline something you had to talent previously. Also he has some crazy talents like giving 25 armor when shield ends, or shields that never expire when you finish the quest. He is going to be crazy good.
I don't think you can ever take into consideraton a talent that takes 40 globes to activate.
On January 18 2017 08:45 xDaunt wrote: Valeera is pure bullshit. Totally unfun to play against. I have no idea what Blizzard is thinking.
So is every stealth hero to be honest, and Rogue was one of the most cancerous classes to play against in WoW. I can definitely see her stun being nerfed to 1.25 and her silence to 1.5 in few weeks after release, but they have to make her powerful so people throw money at them for skins and whatnot.
Zeratul was never as OP as Valeera is now. The only thing that comes close is Alpha Nova, who was broken as fuck.
Uh, old Void Prison says hello... when you were doing boss and suddenly you are all caught into Void Prison together on capture point, except that capture point was no longer yours. I am not even sure how that's comparable, on one hand you have clearly op melee assassin that is pain to deal with but is quite doable if you are not alone, on the other hand you had melee assassin that was uncatchable, roaming around, killing you no matter what and at the same time stealing boss from your whole team, and there was nothing you could do about it.
You are probably talking about damage coupled with CC of Valeera, but I am taking everything into account, there is nothing, literally nothing that could top old Void Prison, now that was pure bullshit.
I'm talking about pure damage output. Old Zeratul couldn't erase people like Valeera can.
Depends whats old, in double bombs times Zeratul could do that and so much more. But disruption types shouldn't do as much damage as pure assassins. It makes pure assassins obsolete.
On January 18 2017 20:59 SC2Toastie wrote: I think it is a nerf regardless because he doesn't get the bonus when shielding allies anymore, and the shield/sec is roughly the same.
The point is, he doesn't get bonus for allies but base shield is pretty much 50% stronger, so it ended up the same. Except that you can shield yourself for full amount now, as well as buildings, something you couldn't do before.
Shield/sec is indeed weaker but he would be way too broken with all these changes if Shield was left on 5 seconds cooldown.
On January 18 2017 06:28 Ramiz1989 wrote: His shields aren't exactly weaker, they removed 50% bonus on allies but increased absorbed amount by quite a bit, so they ended up the same, except that it will be stronger on buildings now. And you get baseline something you had to talent previously. Also he has some crazy talents like giving 25 armor when shield ends, or shields that never expire when you finish the quest. He is going to be crazy good.
I don't think you can ever take into consideraton a talent that takes 40 globes to activate.
Correct. It's a useless talent at 40 globes.
Quest: Regeneration Globes grant an additional 50% Mana Quest Reward: After collecting 20 Regeneration Globes, 50% of your Plasma Shield’s value remains after expiration Quest Reward: After collecting 40 Regeneration Globes, your Plasma Shield’s no longer have a duration
???
Like you have any better talents at level 1. This talent helps you with mana management, probably the only thing that Tassadar really struggles with.
Also a discussion on Tassadar rework, with the general opinion that he is worse overall.
Well like with a lot of other reworks in my opinion his design got much better, the rest are number tweaks that they will probably do in 2 weeks as usual. I have no doubt at all that he will become a lot more fun and popular if they get his numbers right.
There are also things like his quest talent being better at 20 globes than at 40, because at 20 you get half the shield that never expires that stacks with full shield, and with 25 armor when shield is broken, you get 25 armor for 3 seconds after they destroy weaker shield, then same thing after they full shield, so you get 25 armor for 6 seconds and first time you get the armor the rest of the shield isn't even destroyed yet. From my understanding that is just a mistake on their part as it shouldn't work like that, half the shield stacks with the full, but when you reach 40 globes it is just full and it doesn't stack anymore, nor does it trigger 2 times unless you wait for it to get destroyed first.
His design is different, I'm not sure that it's really any better. A lot of people feel he is worse, but I doubt anything changes significantly before the PTR patch goes live. We will find out next week.
Rich's current favorite build so far is Globes - Relentless Strikes - Fatal Finesse - Smoke Bomb - Elusiveness - Thistle Tea - Cold Blood. Once he is in combat he often first Qs, then vanish and uses one of the openers. He isn't sure how strong Valeera is, but thinks she is fun. Thinks she is similar to Samuro competitively.
Tass rework seems cool, the new hero is going to be fucking ridiculous OP just like every other new assassin..I mean er..every new hero that Blizzard releases.
On the upside probably every team will have a tassadar as well as Valeera so Oracles are going to make her a bit weaker right off the bat but with the stun she is going to pretty much hard counter slow squishies
Some of the bruisers really need some love, Arthas and Sonya need buffs so badly they are crap in the current meta, Arthas got the rework not too long ago which was desperately needed but he still suffers from no escapes/engage outside of a skill shot root, an unusual vulnerability to CC like Artanis except Artanis does the same job that Arthas does but WAY better, Sonya just needs a rework, shes old and outdated, both of their win rates have been in the dumpster for awhile though.
I like that Valeera seems to be very close to the kind of gameplay rogue has in world of warcraft. That's what I was hoping for with varian (as I do like warriors in WoW too) but I ended up being quite disappointed with him. He's fine, but valeera just seems to replicate her class from WoW in a much better and authentic way.
On January 19 2017 02:29 jpg06051992 wrote: Tass rework seems cool, the new hero is going to be fucking ridiculous OP just like every other new assassin..I mean er..every new hero that Blizzard releases.
On the upside probably every team will have a tassadar as well as Valeera so Oracles are going to make her a bit weaker right off the bat but with the stun she is going to pretty much hard counter slow squishies
Some of the bruisers really need some love, Arthas and Sonya need buffs so badly they are crap in the current meta, Arthas got the rework not too long ago which was desperately needed but he still suffers from no escapes/engage outside of a skill shot root, an unusual vulnerability to CC like Artanis except Artanis does the same job that Arthas does but WAY better, Sonya just needs a rework, shes old and outdated, both of their win rates have been in the dumpster for awhile though.
Arthas is ok as a niche pick imo, he could do with a few numbers tweaked but nothing substantial - you can still get pretty good value out of him on some maps. Sonya could do with a decent buff but she's the type of hero where a small buff can lead to her becoming extremely strong again.
Both Uther and Stitches are those fringe case heroes with extremes; Divine Shield resp. Hook are so insanely powerful that it holds the rest of their kit back, I'm afraid...
Main thing with Uther is his ridiculous 90 mana cost for his main heal. I think that's the most mana expensive ability in the game and the heal isn't that high.
Granted, with mana globe talent it gets easier later on but it hurts so much in the early game. After about 5 heals you're out of mana. He has no mana sustain as a result.
His AA is also pitiful. I wouldn't mind Uther being a good tank-healer hybrid who can frontline with more emphasis on tanking, healing and his stun than say a Rehgar doing some nibbling but he could use a generic buff. Piano Uther still remains one my favorite supports to play, you can pull off some real saving magic with that build.
Uther will get some buffs, they already said that near the end of the previous year. Now that they introduced armor to so many characters and abilities, it would be cool for him to get some kind of devotion aura where he would give 15-25 armor to ally heroes around him, depending on the level of that talent. That could address him being tanky support as they want and help him with his weakness, which is weak AoE healing.
Not sure what Stitches needs, with tanks like Dehaka, Diablo and Artanis being top picks in the meta, he feels kind of weak. His hook is pretty much the only thing that made him special and beside that and being really strong against spell damage he doesn't bring much to the table compared to all these Warriors, while they do both of these things and a lot more.
In other mobas, hook characters often do huge damage with their hook, which is something they could consider. AlexTheProG is a fan of Arthas as a second tank. He doesn't stream a lot, but he is one of the most educational streamers, esp for warrior play.
On January 20 2017 03:40 Ramiz1989 wrote: Uther will get some buffs, they already said that near the end of the previous year. Now that they introduced armor to so many characters and abilities, it would be cool for him to get some kind of devotion aura where he would give 15-25 armor to ally heroes around him, depending on the level of that talent. That could address him being tanky support as they want and help him with his weakness, which is weak AoE healing.
Could be cool if they built that the same way they do his Holy Fire - every time he auto-attacks, the aura becomes stronger by five armour or something. Capped, obviously.
On January 19 2017 02:29 jpg06051992 wrote: Tass rework seems cool, the new hero is going to be fucking ridiculous OP just like every other new assassin..I mean er..every new hero that Blizzard releases.
On the upside probably every team will have a tassadar as well as Valeera so Oracles are going to make her a bit weaker right off the bat but with the stun she is going to pretty much hard counter slow squishies
Some of the bruisers really need some love, Arthas and Sonya need buffs so badly they are crap in the current meta, Arthas got the rework not too long ago which was desperately needed but he still suffers from no escapes/engage outside of a skill shot root, an unusual vulnerability to CC like Artanis except Artanis does the same job that Arthas does but WAY better, Sonya just needs a rework, shes old and outdated, both of their win rates have been in the dumpster for awhile though.
Arthas is ok as a niche pick imo, he could do with a few numbers tweaked but nothing substantial - you can still get pretty good value out of him on some maps. Sonya could do with a decent buff but she's the type of hero where a small buff can lead to her becoming extremely strong again.
Uther and Stiches really need some love.
Yea he really does just need a few numbers tweak, I just have Arthas at 14 and Artanis/Leo/Mura all at level 10 -12 so I'm decently well versed in the role, and for Arthas you need to kind of build around his weaknesses to really shine, where as Artanis excels with pretty much any other tank helping him to soak up some damage and Leoric and Muradin just kinda do well on most team comps because they are generic damage sponges with strong escapes.
Oh lord Stitches is so bad as well, don't know how I didn't mention him in the, "bruisers needing some love" whine because he sure as hell does. I think if he was just straight up beefier or did a bit more damage he'd be good, kind of like Arthas, he does good damage and the roots can be clutch but he's very brittle and vulnerable to CC, and in the current meta, there is fucking CC for days.
With Arthas I've found he's great for a few things:
He counters AA melee assassins pretty hard with his E talent on 13, slowing down attack speed by 40%.
I go for the Death Coil talents on 4 and 7, which effectively gives you a 900+ heal on lvl 20 on a 7 second cooldown at 50 mana and it does poke damage to the enemy. Great sustain.
If you don't have to main tank and you don't have Sylvanas, Sindragosa can be amazing for pushing with objectives. You just got a Punisher on Infernal Shrines? Throw Sindragosa on the lane it is pushing in and watch as all structures are shut down for 20 seconds. You can fight with the Punisher 5v5 and the Fort/Keep is just sitting there being useless.
He can root quite frequently (especially with the 16 talent) which can really hamper certain heroes.
Lastly, he can deal decent damage over time with Frostmourne and his E.
is 1 second a long stun on this game? i see so many complaints about 1.5 seconds and all i can sit and think is, how would anyone manage dota where some stuns are like 5 seconds.
something ive wanted to get into but not really sure if its for me
On January 22 2017 17:01 arb wrote: is 1 second a long stun on this game? i see so many complaints about 1.5 seconds and all i can sit and think is, how would anyone manage dota where some stuns are like 5 seconds.
something ive wanted to get into but not really sure if its for me
Yup, game is really fast paced and people often die in 2 seconds stun. Blizzard nerfed disabled all over the board because of the stun lock meta, Muradin had 1.5 seconds stun, now 1.25, Arthas had 1.5 seconds root, now it is 1.25, Brightwing had 1.5 seconds Polymorph, now it is 1.25 and so on... Valeera being melee assassin with huge burst potential while having 1.5 seconds stun and 2 seconds silence is quite insane and she is getting at least stun or both CCs nerfed for sure.
There are a lot of heroes that melts 3/4 of anyone's HP in 1-2 seconds, imagine what whole team can do in that time.
hahaha I knew Artanis was strong when they gave him an engage, but playing him now... He's the perfect off-tank. Stupid damage, ridiculous initiation range, silly survivability
oh and Amateur Opponent also makes him a PvE monster
On January 23 2017 01:00 Ej_ wrote: hahaha I knew Artanis was strong when they gave him an engage, but playing him now... He's the perfect off-tank. Stupid damage, ridiculous initiation range, silly survivability
oh and Amateur Opponent also makes him a PvE monster
Yup, I started playing with him after they put his Purifier skin on sale, and thats when I noticed how ridiculously good of an off tank he was compared to good old Arthas/Stitches/Sonya.
To the guy above, any hero can be good if played perfectly, even heroes that are considered poor in the meta can do well with a team comp built around them or with someone who is very skilled with said hero, that doesn't make the hero not weak or not in need of tweaks though. The older bruisers need love, the game is full of too many burst assassins so we need some more heroes in the game who don't just die in seconds.
Copying from the reddit post of the orange text summary:
Changes since PTR:
Abilities
Valeera
- Cloak of Shadows (R): Cooldown decreased from 25 to 18 seconds
Tassadar
- Basic Attack: Tether range has been slightly increased - Plasma Shield: Shield amount increased from 342 to 510 550 - Psionic Storm: Damage decreased from 55 to 42 44 - Damage increases by 10% 12% for each consecutive instance of damage
Store
- Lunar Tiger returning to the store
Ping Frequency
- Players may now ping up to 5 times over 4 seconds, rather than 3 times over 3 seconds, before they are temporarily prevented from issuing additional pings. - The amount of time that players will be prevented from issuing additional pings has been decreased from 6 to 5 seconds.
Try Mode
- A “Complete Quests” button has been added that will allow players to instantly complete Quest Talent requirements. - A “Select Ally” button has been added that will allow players to select any Hero as their Try Mode ally. - Click “Select Ally” and then choose a Hero from the dropdown list, or select “None” to play without an ally.
Display
Display: Fixed an issue that could cause the game client to switch to Windowed Fullscreen on startup.
This bug fix has been reverted due to additional complications discovered during PTR testing. We plan to resolve this and roll out a new fix in a future patch.
Good to see they buffed tass's stats a bit--- his shield was shielding for fewer hp on allies than before but had a longer cooldown. It made no sense to me.
I'm a little surprised that they so radically changed his playstyle with these changes. It really feels like they decided they just didn't like the character and decided to completely overhaul him with existing tools. At this point the character is so warped he doesn't even resemble a templar. (he's more like some kind of sentry/science vessel/adapt hybrid...with leeching plasma added on for some reason, which is....weird. I'm guessing the developers never played much starcraft or care about sc lore)
I mean, let's get serious here. They added an auto-attack build to a templar. That uses a beam weapon.
A beam weapon with pitiful DPS. If you're going to give a character an AA that can't kite at all, at least make it worthwhile to use. Tychus gets away with it due to his insane damage with his trait. Just a slow on a single target isn't worth *that* much really. Usually when someone is slowed by any meaningful amount, they get dived on and blown up. Having a constant slow isn't needed. If you want a long slow just get Jaina and pick the lvl 1 talent that keeps enemies chilled for 6 seconds.
If it did worthwhile damage or if it ramped up like with Azmodan's beam, then the slow makes sense because you don't want to stay in said beam for very long in that case and the slow would enable that to happen more easily.
Right now, who cares if Tassadar decides to slow you in lane or in a teamfight? What difference does it make? *Maybe* if he could hit the vulnerable no-escape squishies like Morales it might have some value but since when is Tassadar going to be in a position where he can keep his beam on a Morales for that long?
Best I can figure is bliz thinks that giving a 1% giant killer on a 4x/sec attack at level 16 makes it "worth it" to go autoattack. In fact, they probably wanted tass to have a lot of attacks per second so that level 16 skill could apply to both him and archon without making archon super OP.
Personally I think these kinds of design decisions show how little bliz really knows about good play, but whatever -_-
edit-> patch notes are incorrect--- Tassadar's attack speed only increased by 300%, not 400%. (so he has 4 attacks per second instead of 5, which is relevant for the purposes of that giant killer talent)
Lol, so Zeratul and Nova will be pretty much 100% obsolete with Valeera in her current form. 10 games in, 8 losses all of which completely hinged on whether our Valeera was carrying or theirs was.
Guess just run Brightwing/Tass every game combo until the flash nerf comes, Jesus Christ man these new champs are just more and more OP with each release.
On January 25 2017 04:23 jpg06051992 wrote: Jesus Christ man these new champs are just more and more OP with each release.
You mean like Varian, Zul, Zarya, Alarak, Auriel, and Guldan? [all of which seems fine] Rag and samaro is/was pretty bad, but bliz has had pretty consistent releases otherwise.
you know, archon is kind of cool right now. he's got a built in pseudo-rewind: you get a talented shield for free as well as dimensional warp refreshed. The talent at level 1 that increases basic attack range also works with the archon basic attack, which is satisfying in test mode at least. his damage numbers look pretty good too when I compare them to other auto attack characters. (especially if his range is 7.5(!!!))
I think I'm going to play around with combining the move speed buff on shields at 4 with archon. charging in with dimensional warp(with gives a move speed buff now) combined with turning into a super speedy archon at the end of it might make for some fun moments.
On January 25 2017 04:23 jpg06051992 wrote: Jesus Christ man these new champs are just more and more OP with each release.
You mean like Varian, Zul, Zarya, Alarak, Auriel, and Guldan? [all of which seems fine] Rag and samaro is/was pretty bad, but bliz has had pretty consistent releases otherwise.
Rag/Samuro/Varian/Xul were all pretty much OP on release, Ragnaros and Samuro especially.
I'm not crying in a fit, just all new heroes are OP, I always have faith that Blizzard will come out with the flash patch in a timely manner so I'd say they are more consistent with getting them in line quickly.
On January 25 2017 04:23 jpg06051992 wrote: Jesus Christ man these new champs are just more and more OP with each release.
You mean like Varian, Zul, Zarya, Alarak, Auriel, and Guldan? [all of which seems fine] Rag and samaro is/was pretty bad, but bliz has had pretty consistent releases otherwise.
Rag/Samuro/Varian/Xul were all pretty much OP on release, Ragnaros and Samuro especially.
I'm not crying in a fit, just all new heroes are OP, I always have faith that Blizzard will come out with the flash patch in a timely manner so I'd say they are more consistent with getting them in line quickly.
Unlike in Starcraft 2 >: |
You seem to be remembering things differently than I do. Varian has consistently had very lackluster winrates even though he has been very popular. Zul(I'm assuming you meant zul and not xul) is one of the most balanced releases to date in terms of winrates.
If it's your personal opinion that heroes have been OP at start then I guess that's one thing, but going by actual data tells a different story. Only samaro and rag had to be reined back by bliz (and rag probably still needs to be reined in a bit, that level 13 DR talent is stupid strong in the right situation). That's two out of the last 8 heroes that were OP, the others were alright.
Sure, but let's look at the past year of releases: http://heroesofthestorm.gamepedia.com/List_of_heroes_by_release_date Lunara (December 2015) - Hilariously bad, 33% winrate on release. Still took ages for her to finally be buffed up to "decent" Greymane (January 2016) - Bad on release, got buffed up. Has had a... Tumultuous balance history the past year Li Ming (February 2016) - Ess of Johan OP, has been nerfed many times over the past year but with buffs to Q and W builds Xul (March 2016) - OP for sure, 60% winrate Dehaka (March 2016) - Very meh on release, only came into prominence at blizzcon and with the recent talent update Tracer (April 2016) - Kinda OP? Numbers weren't crazy but was an annoying shit. Chromie (May 2016) - Underwhelming release, has had buffs since but not too many Medivh (June 2016) - Hailed as the God King at the super secret party, but has held a steady sub-40% winrate. Powerful hero but absurdly hard to play Gul'dan (July 2016) - Underpowered on release, has had some buffs since (Although nerfs to his E quest) Auriel (August 2016) - Hasn't been changed beyond some talent diversity tuning, has been in and out of the meta Alarak (September 2016) - Lots of potential on release but undertuned, has seen relevant buffs Zarya (September 2016) - Interesting story. Day 1 sub-40%, but due to blizzcon panic (Last hero to be available for blizzcon) got buffed in record time up to 60%, then has been thwacked down since Samuro (October 2016) - OPOPOP, now decidedly meh. Ran into issue of Stealtherino=Pub Stomperino Varian (November 2016) - People whined about Fury and Warbringer but Tank got significant buffs since. Honestly had "butcher syndrome" of melee carry with lifesteal that people try to facetank. Ragnaros (December 2016) - OPOPOP, has seen significant nerfs and is still very powerful Zul'jin (January 2017) - Remarkably balanced
my one change to your posting is that tracer did receive nerfs after release to pull her into line. [and I think they further adjusted her later to require more skill]
But yeah, overall I agree that generally new hero releases have been done well. I think they went through a phase(sylvanas/KT/leoric/johanna, which spanned several months since releases were wider apart) where new heroes were always considered god tier, but bliz learned from those mistakes.
All talents that said "after a short delay" now tell how long it takes to activate the ability. For example Chromie's Dragon's Breath now says 1.5 seconds
On January 25 2017 02:49 MotherFox wrote: Good to see they buffed tass's stats a bit--- his shield was shielding for fewer hp on allies than before but had a longer cooldown. It made no sense to me.
I'm a little surprised that they so radically changed his playstyle with these changes. It really feels like they decided they just didn't like the character and decided to completely overhaul him with existing tools. At this point the character is so warped he doesn't even resemble a templar. (he's more like some kind of sentry/science vessel/adapt hybrid...with leeching plasma added on for some reason, which is....weird. I'm guessing the developers never played much starcraft or care about sc lore)
I mean, let's get serious here. They added an auto-attack build to a templar. That uses a beam weapon.
He was a Sentry from the start, actually. I'm pretty sure I remember that he was a literal Sentry back when this was an SC2 mod.
Fun fact, Tassadar had an auto-attack in StarCraft. It wasn't a beam though.
I'm kinda disappointed with the Shield talent at level 1. I imagine better people than I (and/or people whose teammates cooperate with their globe hunt) may get much better results, but I can't get the 20 globes until around level 13, for what is basically the old level 7 Khala's Embrace. I got the 40 globes once, and by then the game was already over. I feel like the talent needs to do something better than more mana off regen globes, I get more mana by going Psi Infusion.
EDIT: Shouldn't the icon for Psionic Projection be the reaching icon? I just realised it also affected Storm.
On January 25 2017 04:23 jpg06051992 wrote: Jesus Christ man these new champs are just more and more OP with each release.
You mean like Varian, Zul, Zarya, Alarak, Auriel, and Guldan? [all of which seems fine] Rag and samaro is/was pretty bad, but bliz has had pretty consistent releases otherwise.
Rag/Samuro/Varian/Xul were all pretty much OP on release, Ragnaros and Samuro especially.
I'm not crying in a fit, just all new heroes are OP, I always have faith that Blizzard will come out with the flash patch in a timely manner so I'd say they are more consistent with getting them in line quickly.
Unlike in Starcraft 2 >: |
You seem to be remembering things differently than I do. Varian has consistently had very lackluster winrates even though he has been very popular. Zul(I'm assuming you meant zul and not xul) is one of the most balanced releases to date in terms of winrates.
If it's your personal opinion that heroes have been OP at start then I guess that's one thing, but going by actual data tells a different story. Only samaro and rag had to be reined back by bliz (and rag probably still needs to be reined in a bit, that level 13 DR talent is stupid strong in the right situation). That's two out of the last 8 heroes that were OP, the others were alright.
Haha I definitely meant Zul with a Z, Varian just got figured out quickly because polymorph still wrecks him, he might have just struck me as OP because I played a bunch of champions who were vulnerable to him, and I also don't think win rates always mean everything, Artanis definitely isn't OP and he currently has the highest win rate in the game, I think if he got nerfed he'd be total poop. Malfurion is considered pretty OP and he is sitting pretty at 51% win rate.
Not trying to argue I'm not pro, perhaps I was wrong about Varian, I've probably played like 1K games since he came out so maybe I was just extra garbage back then and thought he was OP.
Well, to be completely frank blizzard nowadays use words alot - Saying they wanted to make him a hightemplar are just that - words. I dont think of him as a "hightemplar" with all his tools. Besides that, tassadar with the 5 sec cooldown Q skill was the most fun thing about him, they decided to remove that - Alright.
The hightemplar skill he have is psistorm, thats all. What the hell man, that doesnt feel like a hightemplar.
Add an illusion skill, and with that illusion he can morph with that illusion making an archon. My point is, they use words these past years A TON and pretty much in every game they make.
people got used to playing against stealth, but samuro and to some extend Zeratul never trained people how to play with stealth. So expected that Valeera wouldn't look so good atm. While the usual Assassin OP talks are still there like they always are. I wonder if that will ever stop.
I like playing anything sneaky, so she is pretty cool. The situational awareness you need with her to not feed is insane though.
Tass can actually quite some damage. With the range upgrade at 1, slow on storm at 7 and vuln at 16 you got yourself a lvl 20 Archon biest that can wreck face ^^
On January 26 2017 04:45 Harris1st wrote: Tass can actually quite some damage. With the range upgrade at 1, slow on storm at 7 and vuln at 16 you got yourself a lvl 20 Archon biest that can wreck face ^^
Other than that i dont like him
It is strange--- in at least two of my QM games last night with him I got 130k+seige damage, 80-90k hero damage(top for the team in both games) with him. But, on hotslogs I noticed that several of my enemies (and allies) were 1k MMR below me. I think matchmaking is a little broken right now in QM, which means all numbers are suspect. (it's very easy to get free damage in against less-skilled opponents)
My build is pretty stable at this point. I'm going..
There is room to swap in psionic projection at tier 3, but that may make adun's wisdom not worth it anymore. I guess nullification is a fine stand-in, but I don't like the implementation of the skill currently so I am avoiding it. Once you get up to level 13 you can be pretty tanky. Dimensional shift into thier back line during a fight and pop archon and lightning your target: now you have a shield which when it gets burned through will leave you with resistance for 3 seconds. pop oracle and self-apply another shield, and in 5 seconds or so you'll have shield available again AND another lightning. If you feel yourself getting in trouble (but how could you with three shields in rapid succession and each one giving you resistance?) you can always dimensional fight away.
Once you get 16 with lightning that reduces physical armor your archon starts doing even crazier damage. Before 20 the biggest issue is that archon has such a high cooldown-- you have to pick your moments very carefully.
edit-> in trying to mana globe talent, I think it might be OK. amusingly once you take khala's light and you get 20 globes, the resistance will apply both when the original shield expires AND when the shield stops. This means a few things: if you get lucky you will get an extra round of resistance during a fight, and also when a teammate is being bursted down who was pre-shielded, if you wait until the half-shield is gone and re-cast, then it's a shield with resistance built in and a shield which will grant resistance when it pops or in a few seconds(whichever comes first) I can't help but think that khaydarin resonance is the correct way to go--- going into a teamfight in the lategame with everyone having resistance AND you being able to apply vulnerability in a small area is really really deadly. The 40 globe thing is OK, but the 20 globe thing is AMAZING with khala's light. [even starting fights with your two carrys with resistance is a big deal]
I'm pretty sure khala's light is the key to shield-style tassadar now. It's so strong to put resistance on two or three teammates, and it is almost necessary for archon to be survivable. I'm also pretty sure that archon is necessary too, since it's tassadar's primary source of self-healing during fights. (20% off the archon's basic attack with splash damage is pretty intense. you can even heal off minion waves after a fight)
Kael'thas' Pyroblast follows Tyreal after death before he explodes and will trigger a 2nd death.
Zeratul's Vorpal Blade talent's distance is currently only the same as his blink ability
Zeratul's 'Grim Task' talent does not cause him to lose his ability damage after death, despite the tooltip saying so
The Garden Terror's basic attacks are completely missing minions in some cases
Artanis' 'Titan Killer' causes you to do double damage from his Seasoned Marksman stacks
Ragnaros' 'Empower Sulfuras' ability can proc twice with one cast
Rexxar's pet Misha has numerous bugs in terms of pathing, causing loss of control of her
Stitches' 'Hungry for More' talent does not work
Tassadar's healing stats are doubled in the stats screen
Tassadar's level 1 talent Templars Will does not count toward the quest unless Tassadar attacks for 1+ seconds per time
Tassadar's Archon ultimate sometimes will not change to the correct model, and will appear in his normal form
Self-casting Tassadar's shield activates his trait
Anub'arak's 'Chitinous Plating' talent does nothing
The Lost Viking's 16 talent for Olaf's stun charge can be cast on destroyed buildings
The Lost Vikings' trait does not work
Tracer cannot hit posessed minions
Queueing commands on Valeera removes stealth before she follows the commands, rather than when they are done
Li Li's 'Gale Force' talent does not work
The sorting order for heroes does not remember your preferred selection
The immortals on Battlefield of Eternity are commonly not displaying their attacks as circles on the ground as intended
The christmas treasure goblin mount is still not available, regardless of owning it
AI heroes can see Valeera whilst stealthed
Chromie's 'Timewalkers Pursuit' quest is completed from the momnent you choose it
Brightwing's 'Pixie Dust' now only reduces the damage of 1 ability rather than persisting for the 1.5 seconds it is meant to EDIT: Other way round, this is infact a tooltip error, not an ability bug
Samuro's new Monkey King skin displays his clones in the 1st colour tint, regardless of if you switch from it
Colour blind mode camp colours are the same regardless of status
If Nazeebo misses his Q, the vase no longer shatters, just falls through the ground
Valeera's Garrote sometimes will not cast at all, but you will still leave stealth
Tychus' 'In The Rhythm' talent permenantly displays 0 stacks in the tooltip
Artanis can use his dash if his swap is about to hit to travel the full distance of the dash without returning to his original position
Malfurion's Moonfire bonus damage talent sometimes procs despite passing the 3-second window
The Punisher on Infernal Shrines can get stuck chasing the enemy into their spawn zone
Battlefield of Eternity's Immortals can be displaced by Tyreal's holy ground talent
Samuro's 'Bladestorm' ultimate can be interrupted by Anub'arak's stuns
Leoric's "Fealty Unto Death" not currently working
Valeera's smoke bomb can cause her to stay unrevealable longer than intended and/or when outside of smoke bomb's radius
Samuro clones are acting out of the ordinary (and Misha, similarly mentioned above) (details here)
Also Gosugamers wrote an article about the new sandbox mode added with this patch.
Self-casting Tassadar's shield activates his trait
I wonder if my build I posted above has been unjustly taking advantage of this. I'll have to do some testing when I get home tonight: since I use the trait for 5 seconds of CD reduction, this would effectively allow a self-shielding tassadar to get permanent 50% CD reduction on his psi storm. (and vision, which happens to help with landing good psi storms)
Base Maximum Health reduced from 2100 to 2000 Base Health Regen reduced from 4.4 to 4.2 per second
Talents
Level 1 Sulfuras Hungers (Q) Quest completion damage bonus reduced from 120 to 100 Level 4 Catching Fire (Active) Health Regeneration bonus reduced from 2 to 1.5 per regen globe gathered Level 13 Cauterize Wounds (Q) Healing reduced from 60 to 50% of damage dealt
Earthquake (R) Slow amount reduced from 70 to 50% Sundering (R) Cooldown reduced from 80 to 60 seconds
Developer Comments: These changes are a continued effort to bring Thrall's two Heroics closer in line with each other. We realize that these are not the only pick-rate issues he has and are excited to look at him in more depth soon.
Twin Cleave (W) Mana cost reduced from 60 to 50 Guillotine (R) Cooldown reduced from 45 to 30 seconds
Talents
Level 1 Boneslicer (Q) Damage bonus increased from 15 to 20% Arcanite Axes (W) Cooldown reduction per Hero hit increased from .5 to .75 seconds You Want Axe? (Passive) Damage bonus per stack reduced from 1.5 to 1.25 Level 4 Let the Killing Begin (Passive) Buff duration reduced from 15 to 12 seconds Level 7 Wrong Place Wrong Time (W) Damage from 140 to 150 Level 13 Voodoo Shuffle (Active) Cooldown reduced from 45 to 30 seconds Level 16 Ferocity (Trait) Attack speed bonus reduced from 40 to 35%
Developer Comments: Our data shows a solid win-rate for Zul'jin's Basic Attack build (I guess enemies really don't want axe!) while his ability-supporting talents are slightly under-performing. These changes look to slightly help that while we continue to explore the flood of incoming data.
Creep Tumor (Trait) Movement Speed bonus from 15 to 20% Cooldown from 20 to 18 seconds Hunter Killer (W) Base damage from 62 to 65 Damage scaling from 3.5 to 4%
Talents
Level 20 Endless Creep (Trait) Movement Speed bonus from 15 to 10%
Developer Comments: This is the first of a few changes we want to make to Uther. We're attempting to ensure that he has a distinctive niche beyond bringing Divine Shield. This is the first step in the direction of making him a tankier healer.
Level 4 Shield Surge (Trait) Bonus shield amount reduced from 80 to 75% Level 7 Chrono Surge (Q) Duration of Attack Speed increased from 4 to 5 seconds Level 13 Templar's Zeal (Q) Cooldown recharge rate increased from 100 to 150% Graviton Vortex (E) Cooldown reduction decreased from 6 to 5 seconds Level 16 Titan Killer (W) Damage reduced from 2.5 to 2% of enemy Hero's maximum Health Plasma Burn (Trait) Damage increased from 50 to 55
Developer Comments: We're glad to see the Hierarch as a powerful entity in the Nexus! As players are growing more proficient with his new kit, he's becoming increasingly more powerful than his competition. We're using this time to adjust a few of the over performing Talents as a means of toning him down slightly, as well as creating more compelling choices.
Lightning Breath (R) Increase turn rate by 25% Damage reduced from 100 to 50 Damage effects per second increased from 2 to 4
Talents
Level 4 From the Shadows (Q) No longer grants additional stun time. Additional range increased from 33 to 40% Level 13 Fire Devil (W) Bonus attack damage reduced from 25 to 20% Hellfire (W) Bonus damage from Heroes hit increased from 10 to 12% Max damage value increased from 100 to 120% Level 16 Domination (E) No longer grants cooldown reduction on Overpower Level 20 Hellgate (Active) Cooldown increased from 90 to 120 seconds
Developer Comments: It's nice to see the Lord of Terror running amok inside the Nexus once again. These changes are targeted at talents that are slightly over or under tuned and should help equalize some of his Talent tiers.
Whirlwind (W) Damage increased from 339 to 441 over 3 seconds Healing increased from 20 to 25% of damage done (tripled versus Heroes)
Talents
Level 7 Poisoned Spear (Q) Damage increased from 100 to 150% of Ancient Spear Duration increased from 4 to 6 seconds Level 13 Life Funnel (E) Healing increased from 30 to 35% to correspond with base Whirlwind changes
Developer Comments: Sonya has steadily been dropping to the bottom of our Hero winrates, primarily because a lot of Heroes fulfill her role slightly better. The focus of these buffs is to improve her winrate, but also to solidify the reason to take Sonya: when you can get a lot of value out of Whirlwind because of the map mechanic, an abundance of Mercenaries, or an enemy team that consistently groups up.
Level 1 Maximum Charge (Trait) Energy gain from Regeneration Globes reduced from 20 to 15
Developer Comments: We're pretty happy with Zarya's gameplay and how often we're seeing her, but we think toning down her damage slightly is in order to keep her in line.
Rooster Race: Turning in the final Lunar Festival item required just before time expires will now properly grant credit for completing the Rooster Race.
A.I.
General: Error messages will no longer display on-screen when A.I. players use Abilities. Try Mode: Fixed an issue causing Abathur to behave strangely when chosen as an ally in Try Mode.
Art
Samuro: Monkey King Samuro’s Mirror Images will no longer use a different skin variation than the real Samuro.
Battlegrounds
Battlefield of Eternity: Tyrael’s Holy Ground and Zagara’s Devouring Maw can no longer be used to displace the opposing Immortal while the Immortals are fighting.
Heroes, Abilities, and Talents
Chromie: Timewalker’s Pursuit quest rewards will no longer be granted immediately upon selecting the Talent. Dehaka: Essence Devourer will now grant the intended amount of Essence per Regeneration Globe collected before and after completing its quest. Dehaka: Bonus Essence granted by Regeneration Globes after completing the Essence Devourer quest will now properly grant credit toward Enhanced Agility and Tissue Regeneration quests. Greymane: Marked for the Kill now correctly reduces the target’s armor by 25, increasing their damage taken. Ragnaros: Fixed an issue that made it possible for Empower Sulfuras to occasionally deal double damage. Rexxar: After learning Thrill of the Hunt, Misha’s Basic Attacks will no longer provide Rexxar with a Movement Speed bonus. Stitches: The Hungry for More talent will now correctly grant maximum Health bonuses after collecting Regeneration Globes. Stitches: Savor the Flavor no longer grants bonus Health Regeneration after using Devour on non-Heroic targets. Tassadar: Fixed an issue causing damage absorbed by Plasma Shield to display as double on the tab/score screen. Tassadar: Khala’s Light will no longer grant Armor to Structures affected by Plasma Shield. Tassadar: Fixed an issue in which Basic Attacks did not always count toward Templar’s Will quest progress. The Lost Vikings: Fixed an issue causing the Viking Hoard talent to fail to grant bonuses to Health Regeneration. Tychus: Fixed an issue causing Overkill to deal less damage than expected. Valeera: Dealing Shield damage to a Stealthed Valeera after the Unrevealable phase of Vanish has expired will now properly reveal her. Valla: Hungering Arrows after the first will no longer fail to deal damage when cast multiple times on the same target. Zeratul: Bonus Ability Power granted by Grim Task is now properly removed on death. Zeratul: Fixed an issue in which Vorpal Blade could fail to teleport Zeratul the full distance to his target.
User Interface
Draft Mode: Fixed an issue that prevented players from selecting the Lunar Rooster and Festive Treasure Goblin Mounts in Draft Lobbies.
Dragoon Fenix would still be so cool, make him like a durable front line specialist, maybe like Azmodan with extra offensive capability?
Valeera also doesn't seem as OP as some other champs on release, if anything she just has twice the utility and kill potential of Zeratul because her silence is so good on squishies that have no escape. If anything needs to get toned down it's that, but there really doesn't seem like a really good reason to pick Zeratul lately, it's not that he's bad, Valeera just does his job better.
These are all fantastic and warranted changes in my opinion, people complaining about Tassadar need to learn to play, he is very strong right now especially with all the cloak action running around. Kind of surprised about Rag though, he doesn't feel like he needs nerfs.
Very thankful to see Sonya and Stitches buffs, I don't play either hero but I've seen how far they've fallen in the meta, I'm a little surprised they werent a bit more generous with the Stitches buffs but they know what they're doing. Now all that's left is to do a little bit of a numbers tweak on Arthas and perhaps a slight bit more love to Uther (who just flat out pales in comparison to Malf/Rhegar beyond Divine Shield) and I think HOTS balance is going to be in a great place.
Strong tanks are needed so everything doesn't die in seconds, so this is the right direction, buff the off tanks.
Valeera is a relatively high skill cap hero and can be a terror in quick match, but she is sitting at the second worst win rate in the game. Win rates do tend to go up 2-3% as players get experience but it seems unlikely she will move out of the bottom 5 without buffs. Which doesn't mean she is bad as Medivh has the worst win rate in the game and is a terror when played at max skill. But if I had to guess, I would predict Zeratul sees more pro play than she will if she isn't buffed. Void Prism and better mobility matter more than solo gank potential.
On January 28 2017 03:49 JacobShock wrote: Man these Zuljin nerfs on his auto kit.. :/ I don't get it.
Whole patch is pretty lackluster... I mean Uther got 10 armor? Wow, he is for sure tier 1 again!
There are some buffs/nerfs that are good, but overall they are either overdone and completely missed. Ragnaros will still be tier 1 bruiser as long as he has Resilient flames talent at 13. Zul'Jin wasn't even that good unless supported correctly, well glad that they have nerfed his one viable build and buffed the unreliable one... Stitches doesn't need more HP, he needs more damage/utility compared to the Warriors. Whirlwind on Sonya is now completely overtuned and she will probably be back in the meta as solo laner and immortal bruiser.
Don't know, these patches are usually good but for me this one is disappointing. I mean, this is probably just a small patch until we wait for some reworks/more buffs to these heroes, so they can see how we feel like about these but yeah, could've been a lot better.
At least Diablo and Artanis changes feel correct, well sort of.
Keep in mind we have never gotten this many hero changes in a separate patch the same week a new hero was released, so even this many changes is more than I expected.
Sonya has steadily been dropping to the bottom of our Hero winrates, primarily because a lot of Heroes fulfill her role slightly better.
More like primarily because focused attack was nerfed and nothing was put in place to replace it. Way to pass the buck on responsibility for her current state.
These are all fantastic and warranted changes in my opinion, people complaining about Tassadar need to learn to play, he is very strong right now especially with all the cloak action running around. Kind of surprised about Rag though, he doesn't feel like he needs nerfs.
I do agree about tassadar--- since I dedicated to that build I posted earlier my winrate in quickmatch has been 75% with him over about fifteen or so games. I'm pleased to see it's also the top winrate build which has emerged on hotslogs stats in heroleague.
Sonya has steadily been dropping to the bottom of our Hero winrates, primarily because a lot of Heroes fulfill her role slightly better.
More like primarily because focused attack was nerfed and nothing was put in place to replace it. Way to pass the buck on responsibility for her current state.
I don't feel that statement was false at all. While the focus attack nerf definitely dropped her a tier down, it wasn't until the arrivals of heroes like Varian that did most of what she provided while being way easier to play that saw her presence dropped significantly.
Sonya wasn't played much after a number of nerfs hit her a while back, significantly before Varian's release. To be fair her previous state was very powerful and would have further decreased any reason to play Varian as a bruiser. The buff to whirlwind is pretty huge since the damage and increased healing % stack.
Sonya has steadily been dropping to the bottom of our Hero winrates, primarily because a lot of Heroes fulfill her role slightly better.
More like primarily because focused attack was nerfed and nothing was put in place to replace it. Way to pass the buck on responsibility for her current state.
I don't feel that statement was false at all. While the focus attack nerf definitely dropped her a tier down, it wasn't until the arrivals of heroes like Varian that did most of what she provided while being way easier to play that saw her presence dropped significantly.
She was a mobile backline high-damage harasser who was also extremely good at jungling. She also could solo lanes pretty well thanks to whirlwind. It might be just because varian is so bad, but I don't see him as being able to fill her role at all.
Tried Sonya in few games, these buffed talents and whirlwind definitely feels stronger. She could already take a lot of punishment before, but now the healing can be ridiculous. I did pick up the 35% healing from whirlwind at level 13 that I usually don't pick just to try it out, and I've managed to get from like 20% to 60-70% of HP in one whirlwind while hitting 3 heroes, and I am not even kidding.
She could arrive again, especially in this heavy melee/bruiser meta, after all she became popular in the similar meta back in the days when Leoric was the most broken hero in the game. Her laning capabilities got increased as well.
On January 28 2017 03:11 jpg06051992 wrote: These are all fantastic and warranted changes in my opinion, people complaining about Tassadar need to learn to play, he is very strong right now especially with all the cloak action running around. Kind of surprised about Rag though, he doesn't feel like he needs nerfs.
Also about Tassadar, I think that he is more than fine and I've been talking with friends about the rework, people whine a lot on the PTR as they aren't flexible with the changes and don't understand that heroes can change their playstyle after the rework.
And About Ragnaros... dunno if you were watching any HGC matches, he basically had 90% pick rate and 70% win rate in EU lol. He was absolutely broken and will still be too good in my opinion. Way too tanky for melee assassin, his wave clear is comparable to Xul, his AoE melee damage and self-healing is insane, his ranged damage with Meteor and Sulfuras Smash can delete most ranged assassins, and his trait can single-handedly win a team fight. It's a joke to call it a trait, it is straight up second heroic.
As someone with 400+ Butcher games I am absolutely furious about Ragnaros being in this state for so long while Butcher is literally "okaish" on 2 maps, and that is if you pick 4 other heroes supporting him.
On January 28 2017 04:06 karazax wrote: Valeera is a relatively high skill cap hero and can be a terror in quick match, but she is sitting at the second worst win rate in the game. Win rates do tend to go up 2-3% as players get experience but it seems unlikely she will move out of the bottom 5 without buffs. Which doesn't mean she is bad as Medivh has the worst win rate in the game and is a terror when played at max skill. But if I had to guess, I would predict Zeratul sees more pro play than she will if she isn't buffed. Void Prism and better mobility matter more than solo gank potential.
Medivh also has the problem that it requires your allies to actually use your goddamn portals. I swear playing Medivh is going to kill me.
Sonya buffs seem good, she gets some crazy healing from whirlwind now. I was in lane against her as Leoric and drain hope wasn't having the slightest effect.
Wonder why they nerfed Diablo again (huge nerf to domination at 16) to that extent but left Anub and Artanis either untouched or with only a small nerf. Similarly Rag nerf not strong enough imo.
On January 28 2017 10:12 Larkin wrote: Sonya buffs seem good, she gets some crazy healing from whirlwind now. I was in lane against her as Leoric and drain hope wasn't having the slightest effect.
Wonder why they nerfed Diablo again (huge nerf to domination at 16) to that extent but left Anub and Artanis either untouched or with only a small nerf. Similarly Rag nerf not strong enough imo.
She's OP now for sure, but she was very weak before hand but yea I also was running a Leoric against her and going for a full tank killer W build, she can whirlwind and heal right through it like nothing while still dishing out huge damage, I'm predicting a flash nerf to her and probably a small buff to Diablo because he feels gimped in the late game.
Raganaros buffs thank god, that hero is just flat out OP as shit, great burst, great waveclear, great poke and self heal, a trait that acts like an ultimate, no wonder he's been first pick first ban for so long.
Arthas and Stitches really need some love, like super bad, it's pathetic how terrible they are compared to the other tanks and bruisers, what role do they fill that another tank or bruiser can't do better? I know Arthas root can be powerful but he is only semi viable with a correct composition to be any good at all, same with Stitches.
On January 28 2017 10:12 Larkin wrote: Sonya buffs seem good, she gets some crazy healing from whirlwind now. I was in lane against her as Leoric and drain hope wasn't having the slightest effect.
Wonder why they nerfed Diablo again (huge nerf to domination at 16) to that extent but left Anub and Artanis either untouched or with only a small nerf. Similarly Rag nerf not strong enough imo.
She's OP now for sure, but she was very weak before hand but yea I also was running a Leoric against her and going for a full tank killer W build, she can whirlwind and heal right through it like nothing while still dishing out huge damage, I'm predicting a flash nerf to her and probably a small buff to Diablo because he feels gimped in the late game.
Raganaros buffs thank god, that hero is just flat out OP as shit, great burst, great waveclear, great poke and self heal, a trait that acts like an ultimate, no wonder he's been first pick first ban for so long.
Arthas and Stitches really need some love, like super bad, it's pathetic how terrible they are compared to the other tanks and bruisers, what role do they fill that another tank or bruiser can't do better? I know Arthas root can be powerful but he is only semi viable with a correct composition to be any good at all, same with Stitches.
Stitches, yes, but Arthas seems like he is in a decent spot, it is just his competitors, notably Artanis, do his job slightly better. His 15 physical armor was a decent buff, he has his nieche as an anti melee-assasin, and his aura is good vs stealth.
It's a great idea in theory, but Quick match already matches a warrior and/or support for both sides if there are any queued. The reason most Quick Matches don't feature one or both of these roles is because neither is played much in compared to assassins, specialists and bruiser warriors who really don't count as tanks. It's easy to say all QM should have one of each, but there isn't much incentive for players to pick those roles in QM. If you want to play a solo capable tank or healer it's rarely something you will have to fight team mates over in draft modes. You don't need to play QM to play those roles almost whenever you want. Requiring one of each would increase queue times for QM by a huge amount, especially when a new hero is released that everyone wants to play at the same time. Beyond that I don't think the vast majority of people who refuse to play warriors or supports in hero league do so because they don't know any better or because that's what they played in QM.
They could actually remove all the rules from Quick Match and let anything go through, but not give any exp from it, turning it into something like the Brawls. Make Unranked the 'default' training ground instead.
That would be an exceptionally unpopular decision. QM is the most popular game mode based on the numbers they gave at blizzcon and the numbers shown on hotslogs. Plus it would make leveling new heroes take forever if you could only get xp in unranked draft. Links to guides and information from inside the game or at least on the launcher would be a good first step to help players improve.
On February 01 2017 14:28 karazax wrote: That would be an exceptionally unpopular decision. QM is the most popular game mode based on the numbers they gave at blizzcon and the numbers shown on hotslogs.
I really want to like Khaldor since he is so analytical, but then he busts out sentences saying most people don't play QM unless they don't care about the game. It really makes me question his ability to reason. In the reddit threads he seemed to stand by the comment that enforcing 1 main tank / 1 support in QM wouldn't increase queue times, but again blizzard has stated many times that this would increase queue times by quite a bit due to people just not queuing up as these roles as often.
Ive always felt that QM should just be an anything goes game mode, its called QM for a reason, i shouldnt be sitting there for ages queuing just because the system can't find a warrior and support, put me in a team with loads of assassins, might not be optimal but at least i am getting games.
If any of you have played WoW, there's the same problem: Heal/Tank would get instant queues, DPS get huge ones. Khaldor's idea is fundamentally flawed because it's really gonna screw over players like me who just like to binge heroes without much regards for having truly "competitive" compositions. Just because I like QM doesn't mean I don't understand the game, I got placed into Diamond 3 so I know something at the bare minimum.
Honestly if you want to address people not knowing the meta, HGC is one of the best things that could happen, as is an increase in real content production by top players. Back in the early days of LoL, pre-LCS, the meta was in shambles. Look at season 1 worlds, Mid-lane ashe? With ult middle into teleport? Even season 2 was a shitshow, but the rise of streaming personalities and the formalization of the pro scene increases general awareness of the meta and how to play. The biggest damage to HOTS so far has been that none of the pros have been willing to put in the work to actually educate the community and instead spend their time blowing hot air about how much better they are than the unwashed masses. Chu8 is really the only "major" HOTS streamer, and his personality is not that compelling to me (and many others who don't watch his stream). Not trying to bash on Chu, more that there's been a lack of high level play to be observed.
They should make a box you can tick, requesting to be in a balanced game with a tank and support and then accepting longer load times. Then the people wanting a crazy game here and now won't miss out on the fast que times too much. However I don't know how easy it is to implement, I just know that when you play random choosing a specific role works well.
On February 01 2017 14:28 karazax wrote: That would be an exceptionally unpopular decision. QM is the most popular game mode based on the numbers they gave at blizzcon and the numbers shown on hotslogs.
I really want to like Khaldor since he is so analytical, but then he busts out sentences saying most people don't play QM unless they don't care about the game. It really makes me question his ability to reason. In the reddit threads he seemed to stand by the comment that enforcing 1 main tank / 1 support in QM wouldn't increase queue times, but again blizzard has stated many times that this would increase queue times by quite a bit due to people just not queuing up as these roles as often.
He's a big fan of blanket statements on camera at least. It can be distracting because he seems to be throwing so much by the wayside, but I kind of assume it comes from years of doing this kind of thing.
Not really much of a video if he doesn't take a definitive position.
QUOTE]On February 01 2017 09:41 karazax wrote: If you want to play a solo capable tank or healer it's rarely something you will have to fight team mates over in draft modes. You don't need to play QM to play those roles almost whenever you want. [/QUOTE]
I only play tank and ranked, and I have never to fight for the tank pick. This too could be changed if Blizzard would promote supports (more gold ?). It was wayyyyyyyy more tiring when I was maining Nova, having to explain myself every single game.
On February 01 2017 15:23 MotherFox wrote:
I really want to like Khaldor since he is so analytical, but then he busts out sentences saying most people don't play QM unless they don't care about the game.
I somehow agree. QM is too random to be taken seriously, so it's good for certain things (learning mechanics, playing vs high burst comps, learning to play vs stealth). But overall too many people lurk in QM instead of really playing the game. I wish they'd make some rules to promote ranked. And it's even more true this season, as a lot of ranked duos are forced to do QM because TL is unplayable as 2 (un-queue-able).
On February 01 2017 19:28 JacobShock wrote: They should make a box you can tick, requesting to be in a balanced game with a tank and support and then accepting longer load times.
I'd like that too even though I play QM once in a blue.
I'd suggest adding daily quests to play hero league or unranked draft games, and add the option to swap a quest out for a different quest once per day for the people who absolutely don't want to play those modes. They could also add XP incentives for warriors and supports in Quick Match to encourage more people to play them, but I still don't think it would be enough to count on one of each in most games.
One thing I would like to see them change for QM is that when players are in a party it seems to completely ignore the roles of the party members when making matches. So one team may end up with two supports, or two warriors when the other team doesn't because of this.
I have no idea who the hell that hair fire victim is, but he better not fucking educate me on how exactly I should relax in QM after a day of work. My days of competitive play stay right there in the past with Brood War, when I log on to HotS, I'm only there to have fun and the least thing I want is some tard tinkering with my perfectly working QM because someone out there is having problems with people "not having the right habits when entering low levels of the Hero League".
QM is played for three reasons as far as I can see:
1. You need to level a hero. (vs AI takes longer due to lower XP and Unranked won't guarantee you get to play the hero) 2. You want to play a specific hero no matter what. (trying out a build or just feeling like it) 3. You just want a quick game and go. (no drafting, just quickly into a game)
The problem is that some assume QM should be as good and balanced as Unranked but Unranked requires commitments and sacrifices from the team in the sense that should play what is best and not so much what they would like to play the most. This sadly also means that certain heroes are abysmal in QM due to said heroes being reliant on support or a specific partner. They can still work but heroes such as Illidan, Greymane or Kerrigan work far better with a good support. Other heroes require a frontline to avoid being dived and destroyed in every teamfight.
I'd make it an checkable option when searching for a QM. You can check the box and then it will only search QM for games that have a tank and a healer. If you don't check the box you get the same result as you do now.
The only other thing I could see QM improving in is a bit more of a general composition guideline. Getting Azmodan, Morales, Murky, Tracer and Anub'Arak vs Muradin, KT, Raynor, Malfurion, Thrall would be an instant loss in 95% of the games. If certain heroes could get some tags or such and have the search engine take preferences for certain tags into account you could get a bit more of a balanced match going. Naturally, this could increase search times a lot and if so, maybe make that a checkable option as well.
On February 01 2017 14:28 karazax wrote: That would be an exceptionally unpopular decision. QM is the most popular game mode based on the numbers they gave at blizzcon and the numbers shown on hotslogs.
I really want to like Khaldor since he is so analytical, but then he busts out sentences saying most people don't play QM unless they don't care about the game. It really makes me question his ability to reason. In the reddit threads he seemed to stand by the comment that enforcing 1 main tank / 1 support in QM wouldn't increase queue times, but again blizzard has stated many times that this would increase queue times by quite a bit due to people just not queuing up as these roles as often.
He's a big fan of blanket statements on camera at least. It can be distracting because he seems to be throwing so much by the wayside, but I kind of assume it comes from years of doing this kind of thing.
Not really much of a video if he doesn't take a definitive position.
I think it's possible to to take definitive positions without resorting to lazy tactics. Examples:
* easily disproved statements (Khaldor said there aren't many people who play heroes for quickmatch--- actual facts are most people play more QM than anything else, according to blizzard) * elitist rhetoric(Khaldor claimed people who play QM don't care about the game. This line amounts to telling people whether they "care" about their entertainment choices, which is pretty shaky ground since the reality is more likely that QM players have different goals and value different things in games than Khaldor, which is fine.)
Khaldor is a noob when it comes to these things. I remember when he released some videos on youtube talking about "why people prefer teamgames over 1v1 games" and then kept repeating himself over and over in the same video without adding anything new or creative.
On February 01 2017 14:28 karazax wrote: That would be an exceptionally unpopular decision. QM is the most popular game mode based on the numbers they gave at blizzcon and the numbers shown on hotslogs. Plus it would make leveling new heroes take forever if you could only get xp in unranked draft. Links to guides and information from inside the game or at least on the launcher would be a good first step to help players improve.
True, but for that I feel part of the problem is that Quick Match was the only mode available initially and kinda became 'normal mode'. Then again, proposing solutions that require going back in time to launch the game differently is kinda absurd, so I don't even know why I said it .
On February 02 2017 00:50 Thezzy wrote: QM is played for three reasons as far as I can see:
1. You need to level a hero. (vs AI takes longer due to lower XP and Unranked won't guarantee you get to play the hero) 2. You want to play a specific hero no matter what. (trying out a build or just feeling like it) 3. You just want a quick game and go. (no drafting, just quickly into a game)
Do not forget: 4: Playing with a friend with ladder anxiety (see 8.) 5: Trying a certain combination of heroes with friends, which you probably will not get in a draft. 6: Playing with a high level friend who does not wat to risk his TL points with you. 7: Warming up for TL or HL. 8: You do not feel like losing ranking points yourself for whatever reason, ladder anxiety, tired, not on top of your heroes etc.
The list probably goes on even longer.
However, I often get frustrated by the BS compositions in QM, and I enjoy the strategy of drafting, which is an important part of the game.
On February 02 2017 00:50 Thezzy wrote: QM is played for three reasons as far as I can see:
1. You need to level a hero. (vs AI takes longer due to lower XP and Unranked won't guarantee you get to play the hero) 2. You want to play a specific hero no matter what. (trying out a build or just feeling like it) 3. You just want a quick game and go. (no drafting, just quickly into a game)
Do not forget: 4: Playing with a friend with ladder anxiety (see 8.) 5: Trying a certain combination of heroes with friends, which you probably will not get in a draft. 6: Playing with a high level friend who does not wat to risk his TL points with you. 7: Warming up for TL or HL. 8: You do not feel like losing ranking points yourself for whatever reason, ladder anxiety, tired, not on top of your heroes etc.
The list probably goes on even longer.
However, I often get frustrated by the BS compositions in QM, and I enjoy the strategy of drafting, which is an important part of the game.
Many of those examples you can play unranked. Thats what I do to warm up.
On February 02 2017 00:50 Thezzy wrote: QM is played for three reasons as far as I can see:
1. You need to level a hero. (vs AI takes longer due to lower XP and Unranked won't guarantee you get to play the hero) 2. You want to play a specific hero no matter what. (trying out a build or just feeling like it) 3. You just want a quick game and go. (no drafting, just quickly into a game)
Do not forget: 4: Playing with a friend with ladder anxiety (see 8.) 5: Trying a certain combination of heroes with friends, which you probably will not get in a draft. 6: Playing with a high level friend who does not wat to risk his TL points with you. 7: Warming up for TL or HL. 8: You do not feel like losing ranking points yourself for whatever reason, ladder anxiety, tired, not on top of your heroes etc.
The list probably goes on even longer.
However, I often get frustrated by the BS compositions in QM, and I enjoy the strategy of drafting, which is an important part of the game.
Except 5, all those points are perfectly applicable to unranked draft, and basically what I use that mode for.
On February 02 2017 00:50 Thezzy wrote: QM is played for three reasons as far as I can see:
1. You need to level a hero. (vs AI takes longer due to lower XP and Unranked won't guarantee you get to play the hero) 2. You want to play a specific hero no matter what. (trying out a build or just feeling like it) 3. You just want a quick game and go. (no drafting, just quickly into a game)
Do not forget: 4: Playing with a friend with ladder anxiety (see 8.) 5: Trying a certain combination of heroes with friends, which you probably will not get in a draft. 6: Playing with a high level friend who does not wat to risk his TL points with you. 7: Warming up for TL or HL. 8: You do not feel like losing ranking points yourself for whatever reason, ladder anxiety, tired, not on top of your heroes etc.
The list probably goes on even longer.
However, I often get frustrated by the BS compositions in QM, and I enjoy the strategy of drafting, which is an important part of the game.
Except 5, all those points are perfectly applicable to unranked draft, and basically what I use that mode for.
Yes. However, some actually feel more preasure when drafting, it takes more time, and you can get forced into a role you do not want.
My friend plays at least 90% vs AI, so even QM is a stretch for him some times...
I have friends like that too. They play a lot of AI, sometimes QM, but they're willing to TL as 5 with me and my friends who like ranked. The problem is their level is around silver HL, ours is low diamond HL so it doesn't work well.
The only remedy is GO FUCKING QUEUE FOR A MORE STRESSFUL MODE UNTIL YOU'VE BEAT YOUR FEAR.
If you only want to play AI, go QM. If you only want to QM go UD / TL (TL if you're 3). If you mostly play UD, go fucking play HL.
Me too, when I started, I enjoyed the occasionnal difficult AI game or QM afternoon. Fortunately I beat the fear of the ladder and now I don't want to do anything else than ranked.
My buddies and I have a thing we call the Zen of Quick Match, which is just learning to enjoy the hand you're dealt. Sometimes you bop, sometimes you get bopped.
On February 03 2017 01:59 ThomasjServo wrote: My buddies and I have a thing we call the Zen of Quick Match, which is just learning to enjoy the hand you're dealt. Sometimes you bop, sometimes you get bopped.
I'm fine being given a hard composition to fight and will always try to eek out a victory no matter what, I absolutely loathe players who AFK in spawn for whatever reason. But it just feels very frustrating and annoying when you get a worthless composition against a great one and you know after 2-3 minutes of play that your teammates won't be able to help close the gap. Some of them then instantly go GG and just sit at spawn, effectively guaranteeing the loss.
Frustrating as it gets, even if I got 5 Morales' against 5 Nova's (can't happen I know) I would keep trying till the end, the opponent can still screw up or get overconfident. There have been victories against compositions that should've been a complete loss from the start, but then I remember that we're not playing against top level masters and that we're not top level masters ourselves and that strange victories do happen.
In one game before certain QM improvements I wanted to play a last game before going off to bed so I figured a quick QM game would be just fine. Hadn't played Abathur in a while and felt like it so why not. Ended up getting Morales, Nova, Murky, Brightwing and myself as Abathur on BHB. Against KT, Greymane, Thrall, Uther and Valla. The entire team (myself included) LOL'ed over it at the start of the game. It was so bad it was actually funny and luckily my team felt the same way. We ended up having an amazingly silly and funny game where we had the epic moment of Brightwing being the only hero left alive at one point and their Greymane was low. Ultimate Evolution just came off cooldown so I just copied Brightwing and actually killed their Greymane with it. The whole team cheered like crazy. We actually got a whole kill. We managed to stretch the game to 22 minutes before we lost and they had to get a boss to do it. On BHB. Shame on them! Sadly however, 99% of such games end up with the team raging and crying like mad, flaming everyone and sitting in spawn, making the entire experience miserable.
My frustration is honestly more that it shouldn't be *that* hard to make QM a little smarter in matching general composition. Just a few basic tags such as Frontline and AA vs Burst or not getting Tassadar as your only Support when you have no AA heroes or not being stuck with 5 melee against Raynor and Chromie would make the worst of it go away.
When moving alongside impassable terrain, Lúcio can walk through other units, and his Movement Speed is increased by 20%. This effect stacks with other Movement Speed bonuses.
Basic Abilities
Soundwave (Q)
Deal damage to enemies in a cone-shaped area and knock them back.
Crossfade (W)
Play one of two tracks that passively provide allied Heroes with either a Speed Boost or a Healing Boost in a large radius around you. Activate Crossfade to swap tracks.
Healing Boost: Restore a small amount of Health every second to Lúcio and nearby allied Heroes.
Speed Boost: Increase the Movement Speed of Lúcio and nearby allied Heroes by 15%.
Amp It Up (E)
Raise Lúcio’s Crossfade track volume for 3 seconds, amping Speed Boost to 45% increased Movement Speed, and significantly increasing the Healing rate of Healing Boost.
Heroic Abilities
Sound Barrier (R)
After 1 second, Lúcio and nearby allied Heroes gain a massive Shield that rapidly decays over the next 6 seconds.
Reverse Amp (R)
Blast Lúcio’s Crossfade track at enemy Heroes for 4 seconds, causing Healing Boost to inflict damage every second, and Speed Boost to Slow Movement Speed by 45%.
Passive: Increase Amp It Up’s duration to 4 seconds.
Talents Level 1
[W] We Move Together Increase the passive movement speed bonus of Speed Boost to 20% (from 15%).
[E] Maximum Tempo Quest: Kill 5 enemy Heroes while Speed Boost is active. Reward: Increase Amped Speed Boost to 60%.
[Trait] Accelerando Increase the Movement Speed bonus of Wall Ride from 20% to 40% over 4 seconds, and maintain that speed as long as you maintain the Wall Riding movement speed bonus.
[Trait] Slip Increase the Movement Speed bonus of Wall Ride to 70% for 1 second when near or passing through an enemy Hero.
Level 4
[Q] Subwoofer Increase the knockback of Soundwave by up to 50%, based on how close to you they are.
[Q] Off the Wall If you hit an enemy Hero while you have the Wall Riding Movement Speed bonus, reduce the cooldown by 3 seconds.
[Q] Chase the Bass Quest: After hitting 20 enemy Heroes with Soundwave, increase the arc by 50% and the range by 20%.
Level 7
[W] Block Party Quest: Support allies with your aura for a total of 8 minutes (supporting multiple allies rewards more time). Reward: Increase its radius by 25%.
[E] Loudspeaker If your aura is currently affecting 2 or more allies when you cast Amp It Up, increase its radius by 50% for the duration.
[Active] Boombox Place a permanent killable ward on the ground that gives nearby allies your Crossfade and Amp It Up auras (auras do not stack). 20 second cooldown. Max 1.
Level 10
[R1] Sound Barrier After a 1 second delay, grant yourself and all nearby allied Heroes an X point shield that decays to 0 over 6 seconds.
[R2] Reverse Amp If your current Crossfade track is Speed Boost, slow nearby enemy Heroes by 40% for 3 seconds. If your current Crossfade track is Healing Boost, damage nearby enemy Heroes for X damage per second for 3 seconds.
Level 13
[W] Beat Mixing Gain a permanent x point shield 1.5 seconds after switching tracks. Switching tracks also immediately clears any current shield from this talent.
[Trait] Can't Stop, Won't Stop You cannot be slowed or rooted while you have the Wall Riding Movement Speed bonus.
[Trait] Hard Style Gain 25 Armor while you have the Wall Riding movement speed boost, reducing damage by 25%.
Back in the Mix Heal yourself for x after exiting from an enemy Stun, Silence, or Stasis. This effect cannot happen more than once every 10 seconds.
Level 16
[Q] Heliotropics Soundwave also Blinds enemies for 2.5 seconds.
[E] Rejuvenescencia While Amp It Up is active, Crossfade’s Healing Boost heals for an additional 3% of the target’s maximum health per second.
[W] Bring it Together If your aura is currently affecting 2 or more allies when you cast Amp It Up, Crossfade’s Healing Boost is increased by 40% for the duration.
[E] Up the Frequency Amp It Up’s mana cost is reduced to 80 from 100, and dealing Basic Attack damage to enemy Heroes reduces the cooldown of Amp It Up by 0.35 seconds.
Level 20
[R1] Bossa Nova Reduce the cooldown of Sound Barrier to 30 seconds, but the shield now decays over 4 seconds (from 6).
[R2] Nonstop Remix The duration of Reverse Amp is paused while it effects 2 or more enemy Heroes.
[E] Encore Using Crossfade while Amp It Up is active resets the duration of Amp It Up back to its max duration. This can only occur once per cast.
[E] Synaesthesia Auditiva Casting Amp It Up removes all Stun, Slow, and Root effects from nearby allies, and all Slow and Root effects on Lúcio.
On February 04 2017 04:02 Aceace wrote: Casting Amp It Up removes all Stun, Slow, and Root effects from nearby allies, and all Slow and Root effects on Lúcio.
A huge aoe cleanse? WHAT THE???
Gotta keep upping the bar. I'm just hoping it is one of 3 supports to come out in a row.
It's a level 20 talent, I'm actually not sure how crazy that will be given that it doesn't provide continued unstoppable (No pre-cleanse) and many AOE ccs will also disable Lucio. Only exception is if say your whole team gets rooted by something like Malfurion
On February 04 2017 04:02 Aceace wrote: Casting Amp It Up removes all Stun, Slow, and Root effects from nearby allies, and all Slow and Root effects on Lúcio.
A huge aoe cleanse? WHAT THE???
simply removing effects is not a cleanse. for instance, this would be worthless against a mosh (as worded in your quote)
this is one of the reasons that lunara's level 20 cleanse-lite is so useless.
But his W looks like a really big aoe. This talent basicly removes every single followup from game. I mean... If i remove 2 guy from RoF root i am completely happy. Or malf roots, stuns... You can almost guarantee to get a lot of value from it.
Also he looks like a utility-support. You don't expect Lunara to remove effect from her teammates. She is there to deal damage. If we compare Lucio to existing supports, no one has that big removal effect. Its basicly saying "'You want WOMBOCOMBO?' Nope it won't happen in this match".
On February 04 2017 07:18 Aceace wrote: Yeah. Cleanse was wrong wording.
But his W looks like a really big aoe. This talent basicly removes every single followup from game. I mean... If i remove 2 guy from RoF root i am completely happy. Or malf roots, stuns... You can almost guarantee to get a lot of value from it.
Also he looks like a utility-support. You don't expect Lunara to remove effect from her teammates. She is there to deal damage. If we compare Lucio to existing supports, no one has that big removal effect. Its basicly saying "'You want WOMBOCOMBO?' Nope it won't happen in this match".
The reason these kinds of abilities tend to be useless is in the details. If you can't precleanse, you have to do it after the effect. What if it was a ring of frost into apoc? Well, the delay between being rooted by ring and getting cleansed is probably still long enough for the apoc to hit unfortunately. Unless it protects for a period of 1 second, even if it removes the current cc, it likely won't be able to free the person in time for them to dodge the followup cc/damage.
thats a 15k for me in a long while. Give me my why Lucio voicelines too though! Luckily Heroes has bans and Jaina and only 5 players per team, otherwise Lucio would be near 100% pickrate in yet another game :p .
Yeah he is going to be pretty op at the start. Insane movement speed that he provides is more than enough utility to compensate for lower healing and no cleanse as players will be dodging skill shots quite easily or can just rush in, kill one target and back off.
This is not DotA 2 or LoL, in a game that is all about different objectives and timings, this is just way too huge.
do i get this right that his Ult not just reverses is W, but play both "songs" at the same time? meaning your team got speed boost while the other is slowed? and with the lvl 20 this basically can happen forever? I call OP
On February 04 2017 17:48 Harris1st wrote: do i get this right that his Ult not just reverses is W, but play both "songs" at the same time? meaning your team got speed boost while the other is slowed? and with the lvl 20 this basically can happen forever? I call OP
It works that way if you use both Ulti and Amp it Up, Ulti is still just reverse Amp it Up that either slows or damages enemies around him, while Amp it Up either speeds up or heals allies around him.
But yes, you can have both aura and reverse aura at the same time if that's what you are asking.
Yeah he'll be the perfect support for Tracer. Heals her on the move whilst knocking back anything that dives her and auto-attack alongside her. Will be a nasty combo to deal with.
On February 06 2017 03:08 karazax wrote: Think he may be a huge boost for Arthas, give him move speed and he is slowing everything around him.
Arthas either needs to be more tanky or do more damage (being slightly less mana hungry for him or slightly lowering the cool down on his trait would go a long way to helping this) or making him slightly faster (some type of gap closer, maybe give death coil a slight haste?) because currently, I play both him and Artanis extensively, and Arthas just sucks in comparison lol
Especially with the sudden rise in Sonya and Anub, I feel like Arthas and Stitches could really use a few tweaks in the right direction, the game has plenty of assassins, having more capable bruisers on the field will only increase meta diversity.
On February 06 2017 03:08 karazax wrote: Think he may be a huge boost for Arthas, give him move speed and he is slowing everything around him.
Not just Arthas, but a lot of other low mobility heroes as well. There are quite a few heroes without escape mechanics that will get a lot of value from his speed boost aura, or others like Arthas that have hard time engaging the enemy.
On February 06 2017 03:08 karazax wrote: Think he may be a huge boost for Arthas, give him move speed and he is slowing everything around him.
Arthas either needs to be more tanky or do more damage (being slightly less mana hungry for him or slightly lowering the cool down on his trait would go a long way to helping this) or making him slightly faster (some type of gap closer, maybe give death coil a slight haste?) because currently, I play both him and Artanis extensively, and Arthas just sucks in comparison lol
Especially with the sudden rise in Sonya and Anub, I feel like Arthas and Stitches could really use a few tweaks in the right direction, the game has plenty of assassins, having more capable bruisers on the field will only increase meta diversity.
Stitches needs quite a few buffs, Arthas maybe a bit more tankiness but not too much. He is niche pick but he isn't compareable to Artanis, Artanis deals a lot more single-target damage but simply doesn't offer any form of CC, Arthas is anti-melee CC Warrior that also deals a lot of AoE damage and has self sustain which Artanis lacks(new shield doesn't provide nearly as much survivability as it used to).
I believe Arthas is getting better every day. Meta is getting even more melee heavy (At least in EU) Arthas is one of the best (if not THE best) anti-melee hero in game. He is not supposed to be a solo tank. He has a niche role and he is great at it. I believe he is fine atm.
About Stitches... I don't know.. Baseline hook as an ability tooo strong. If you manage to hook someone you have a 4v5 teamfight in your hand. If Blizz buff Stitches, they may break the competetive scene. Maybe a buff to trait can do the job. Not damage buff type. Maybe %5 slow? Maybe reduce enemy healing by %10? Something like that
Yeah... Reducing enemy healing by %10 doesn't look that broken to me...
On February 06 2017 11:34 Aceace wrote: About Stitches... I don't know.. Baseline hook as an ability tooo strong. If you manage to hook someone you have a 4v5 teamfight in your hand. If Blizz buff Stitches, they may break the competetive scene. Maybe a buff to trait can do the job. Not damage buff type. Maybe %5 slow? Maybe reduce enemy healing by %10? Something like that
Yeah... Reducing enemy healing by %10 doesn't look that broken to me...
Not gonna talk about balance here, but this just reminded me so much of playing WarCraft III and how those Abominations with disease in The Scourge of Lordaeron would end up draining all my Priests' mana because they kept healing forever.
I'm more in favor of baseline slow on passive or W, he really suffers from not having good follow up to a solo hook outside of gorging someone into your base. Compare him to Pudge, Blitzcrank, Thresh, or Roadhog (Or any other number of hook-based heroes in modern video games). All of them are serious threats if they 1v1 hook you. Comparitively, getting hooked by stitches is more of an annoyance than a real threat if he's alone and not gorging you into his fort. Level 1 pudge hooks hurt and Rot provides strong 1v1 potential, Blitzcrank and Thresh keep you CC'd for an extra 2 seconds, Roadhog one shots you. Simply adding a slow means you're not going to be able to just immediately run away from stitches and escape.
Yeah, except for tankiness against mages and hook he really doesn't provide much. Slam should have Putrid Ground baseline imo, and damage of the Slam should be buffed overall so he has some sort of wave clear. Right now you are only dealing damage if you go for full Slam build and that damage is mediocre at best compared to all of the other Warriors in the meta and your wave clear is pathetic.
With these few buffs I don't think that he will become OP, just another option compared to Diablo/ETC/Muradin/Anub... and all of them can deal quite a bit of damage.
Dates February 14, 10 a.m. PST – March 14, 10 a.m. PST Quest Complete 15 Heroes of the Storm matches with a friend, while playing as Warcraft Heroes, before the event concludes. Players who select Warcraft Heroes will earn quest credit regardless of which Heroes their friends choose, but remember, credit is only granted to those playing Warcraft Heroes. Players do not need to complete all 15 matches with the same friend in order to complete the quest. Rewards World of Warcraft: Primal Flamesaber Mount Heroes of the Storm: 10-day Stimpack Heroes of the Storm: Flames of Judgement Charger Mount
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