Blizzard, breaking with holiday tradition, released a balance patch after their big winter changes but before the team went on their year-end break. While the biggest design change of the patch was to Garrosh, the numerical changes to D.Va and Li Li have the most potential in affecting real power level. Nova did receive nerfs, however the size of the nerfs was fairly small compared to the 56% ish winrate she has boasted since the stealth rework.

The spreadsheet for today’s article can be found here.

Nova

Crippling Shot relevant pick vs heavily armored targets, general nerfs

Stats

• Health reduced from 1350 to 1300
  
• Health Regeneration reduced from 2.81 to 2.71

Nova ate a 4% base HP nerf, which should help balance out Ghost Protocol’s ability to shake off most heroes. Revealing Nova so she doesn’t get a completely free cold opener requires a single skillshot, and activating Ghost Protocol after the initial barrage can make Nova much harder to catch. Combined with the added movespeed from stealth to juke skillshots, balancing Nova as a low HP evasive hero seems to be a more interesting decision than her pre-patch self.

Abilities

• Snipe (Q)
  
  • Damage reduced from 255 to 245
  
  Talents
  
• Level 16
  
  • Lethal Decoy
    
    • Holo Decoy damage bonus reduced from 50% to 40% of Nova's damage

Snipe received a 4% damage nerf, and Lethal Decoy got a 25% nerf to its added damage. Accounting for both nerfs, a level 20 Rewind combo is a 10% total nerf to Nova’s burst. This reduction makes Crippling Shot significantly more desirable. Before the nerfs, the target needed approximately 60 armor for Crippling Shot to be the preferred talent, but now that threshold has been lowered to approximately 40 armor. This threshold is much more reasonable given sources like Spell Shield granting 50 spell armor, etc.

Thrall

Laning changes didn't help Thrall, Blizz targeting with direct buffs

Stats

• Basic Attack Damage increased from 165 to 173

Thrall received a base attack damage buff to hopefully bring him back into the meta in a way that the laning changes didn’t. The attack damage buffs Follow Through at level 7, increasing the damage per proc from 66 to 69.2. The relative power of Maelstrom Weapon at 7, which is an already problematic talent due to the difficulty of stacking it.

Talents

• Level 13
  
  • Spirit Shield (Active)
    
    • Cooldown reduction granted by Frostwolf Resilience increased from 8 to 10 seconds

Spirit Shield potentially becomes better than Spell Shield with this change. Spirit Shield can go down to a 15 second cooldown compared to the default 30 seconds of Spell Shield. In an extended fight that allows Thrall to proc Frostwolf Resilience 4 times, Spirit Shield’s cooldown can go as low as 5 seconds. Previously, 4 procs only brought the cooldown to 13 seconds.

Nazeebo

Small pre-20 buff, larger post-20 nerf

Abilities

• Corpse Spiders (Q)
  
  • Damage increased from 36 to 38
  
  
• Ravenous Spirit (R)
  
  • Damage increased from 103.4 to 108
  
  
• Gargantuan (R)
  
  • Health reduced from 2300 to 2185
  
  
  Talents
  
• Level 4
  
  • Hexed Crawlers (Q)
    
    • Health and Mana return increased from 0.75% to 1%
  
  
• Level 20
  
  • Vile Infection (Trait)
    
    • Damage bonus reduced from 200% to 150%

Nazeebo received a 5.5% buff to his Corpse Spider damage, increasing total damage from an untalented Corpse Spider by 24. With Widowmakers, this is an increase of 2.6 damage per second per spider, increasing total spider damage by 31.2. With Spirit of Arachyr and the completed Widowmakers quest, total Corpse Spider damage is increased by 52. Given the cooldown of 9 seconds, this averages out to a gain of 5.8 DPS.

The Vile Infection nerf, by comparison, is a loss of 6.5 DPS per affected target and a loss of 39 damage over the full 6 second duration, meaning even for a full spider build Nazeebo this is a net nerf to Nazeebo’s level 20 power.

As for Hexed Crawlers, that is a gain of 3.755 HP per spider attack (scaling with levels) plus 0.015 hp per stack of his passive (does not scale with levels). For full duration of 3 spiders over four seconds, that’s 45.06 additional hp plus 0.18 hp per stack of his passive. With Spirit of Arachyr, that’s 75.1 additional hp plus 0.3 hp per stack. To use a level 20 Nazeebo with 175 passive stacks and Spirit of Arachyr as an example, this translates into 217.05 bonus HP compared to pre patch.

For the talent as a whole, this increases the total healing from 651.15 to 868.2 HP. By comparison, a 175 stack Nazeebo would have 1050 bonus HP from Big Voodoo. This change makes spider build more competitive in extended teamfights where he can reliably get two casts of Q and gain healing value, rebalancing after the indirect buff Big Voodoo received from the previous changes to his passive.

Alexstrasza

Attempt at balancing ultimate pick rates

Abilities

• Lifebinder (R)
  
  • Cooldown reduced from 75 to 60 seconds
    
  • Mana cost reduced from 100 to 80
  
  
• Cleansing Flame (R)
  
  • Cooldown increased from 90 to 100 seconds
    
  • Damage reduced from 150 to 135
  
  
  Talents
  
• Level 16
  
  • Draconic Discipline (Trait)
    
    • Dragonqueen duration bonus reduced from 9 to 7 seconds

Cleansing Flame has become an overwhelming favorite due to its impressive versatility, but Life Binder suffers from a multitude of drawbacks. The total damage on a single target for Cleansing Flame has been reduced from 750 to 675, a 75 damage drop. This means an equal level Alexstrasza can no longer 100-0 an Abathur.

Dragonqueen’s duration with Draconic Discipline was reduced from 25 seconds to 23, which is significant in combination with Cleansing Flame. Because Cleansing Flame pauses Dragonform for 8 seconds while still rolling cooldowns, it was possible to get three casts of Preservation off pre-patch while this is no longer possible post-patch.

Brightwing

Polymorph cooldown lines up better against mobility skills

Abilities

• Polymorph (W)
  
  • Cooldown reduced from 12 to 10 seconds
    
  • Mana cost reduced from 60 to 50

Brightwing sees a small buff with a decrease in Polymorph’s cooldown. This has incidental value to Polymorph talents at 4 and 16, but more importantly helps in the Brightwing vs Genji matchup. Polymorph’s cooldown was matched to Swift Strike at 12 seconds before the patch. This meant that if Brightwing polymorphed Genji after he dove in, Polymorph would come off cooldown after Genji used Swift Strike to disengage. While it is uncommon for a Genji to wait the full 12 seconds for Swift Strike, this change will make it much easier for Brightwing to counter the elusive ninja alone.

Li Li

Serpent build viable though still suffers mana issues, “hybrid” builds skip key talents at 1 and 7 for relevant throughput.

Abilities

• Cloud Serpent (W)
  
  • Health restored per attack increased from 15 to 20
  
  
  Talents
  
• Level 1
  
  • Wind Serpent (W)
    
    • Cooldown reduction granted per Hero hit by Blinding Wind increased from 3 to 4 seconds
  
  
• Level 4
  
  • Serpent Sidekick (W)
    
    • Cloud Serpent duration bonus granted per attack increased from 0.5 to 0.6 seconds
    
    
  • Safety Sprint (Trait)
    
    • Duration increased from 2 to 3 seconds
  
  
• Level 7
  
  • Let’s Go (Active)
    
    • Range increased from 4 to 6
  
  
• Level 13
  
  • Gale Force (E)
    
    • Bonus Basic Attack damage against Blinded Heroes increased from 50% to 75%

Blizzard returns to attempting to buff Serpent Build into viability with a 33% buff to Cloud Serpent’s healing output and significant buffs to both Wind Serpent and Serpent Sidekick. The new sidekick, at 20 HPS up from the post-rework 13.5 HPS, contributes significantly more to Li Li’s HPS. This buff actually pulls Li Li ahead of Uther for sustained healing on average.

These changes significantly increase the value of the level 7 Lightning Serpent, which now adds 20 HPS, up from 15 HPS, to the main target. By comparison, the Good Stuff adds 14 HPS, or 28 HPS if Li Li has Fast Feet active. Thus, with two serpents active, Lightning Serpent now easily outperforms The Good Stuff, even with Fast Feet active.

The change to Wind Serpent reduces Cloud Serpent’s cooldown to an effective 2.67 seconds. Hitting two targets with Blinding Wind reduces the cooldown to 4 seconds, and Fast Feet further reduces it to 2.67 seconds. This CDR increase is made even more powerful when considering Mass Vortex at level 13, which would allow Li Li to instantly refresh the cooldown on her serpent.

The duration increase on Serpent Sidekick boosts serpent duration (assuming the serpent doesn’t miss an attack) from 15 seconds to 18 seconds, meaning Li Li can potentially juggle between three to four serpents at a time. With three serpents and her own basic attacks (which occur every 0.8 seconds), Li Li can cast Mistweaver almost every 6 seconds, which is a significant amount of healing output given that Mistweaver is valued at about half of a Storm Shield.

Gale Force got a minor damage buff that may simply be to compensate for the basic attack damage nerf Li Li received in the broad healer nerfs. Gale Force now adds 45 damage per basic attack against blinded heroes, of which Li Li can fit in 3 during the 2.5s blind.

Lucio

Rejuvenescia now better than Bring it Together for important heroes

Abilities

• Amp It Up (E)
  
  • Healing per second reduced from 120 to 114

The Amp It Up nerf is a ~3% nerf to Lucio’s base healing throughput, and a 5% nerf to Up the Frequency output. Continuing their trend of indirectly rebalancing Lucio’s 16 tier by modifying his Amp It Up heal, this change is important because it moves a few breakpoints. Specifically, Uther, Greymane, and Garrosh all are more healed by Rejuvenescia than Bring It Together, which is especially important given how popular it is to pair Lucio with each of those three heroes.

Stukov

Worse mana sustain

Talents

• Level 4
  
  • One Good Spread (Q)
    
    • Mana restoration reduced from 40 to 30

One Good Spread remains a premier mana talent for Stukov, however the change in mana restoration will impact his mana consumption in a noticeable fashion. Ten mana every 8 seconds, rather than a free Healing Pathogen, puts a significant hamper on Stukov’s mana regeneration, especially if he is casting Weighted Pustule to stack his level 1 Fetid Touch quest.

Artanis

Buffs to underused talents may not be significant

Talents

• Level 7
  
  • Chrono Surge (E)
    
    • Attack Speed bonus increased from 50% to 75%
  
  
• Level 13
  
  • Templar’s Zeal (Q)
    
    • Cooldown reduction increased from 150% to 200%
    
    
  • Phase Bulwark (Trait)
    
    • Spell Armor increased from 40 to 50

Buffs to underpowered talents are always appreciated. Chrono Surge faces inherent difficulties in utilizing the attack speed buff, but Artanis also scales his defenses with improved attack speed, making this a much more attractive talent.

Templar’s Zeal now reduces the cooldown of Blade Dash from 4 seconds to 3.33, which can mean life or death by reducing the cooldown on Shield Overload. The actual utility of this talent is heavily dependent on Artanis’ ability to hit multiple heroes with Blade Dash, but in a heavily melee matchup this talent can accrue significant value.

Phase Bulwark is an impressively strong anti-caster talent for Artanis. 50 spell armor is 100% increased EHP, as opposed to 40 spell armor only being a 66% EHP boost. Because armor grows in value as it is accrued, even a seemingly small change like 40 armor to 50 armor can be a major change for real survivability.

D.Va

Faster waveclear, more teamfight damage

Stats

• Basic Attack damage in Mech form increased from 21 to 24

While on the surface this is the simplest change in the patch, a 14% basic attack damage boost has significant ripple effects. This significantly improves D.Va’s waveclear, shaving a second off early game which scales down to about half a second late game. This second is assuming she can hit the full wave with her autos. If she took something else besides Hit the Nitrous at Level 1, the time savings are even greater since she would rely even more on her basic attacks to clear waves.

Garrosh

Target needs to be in standard AA range to combo, early game functionality nerf but late game buff

Stats

• Health increased from 1970 to 2060
  
• Health Regeneration increased from 4.102 to 4.293
  
  Abilities
  
• Groundbreaker (Q)
  
  • Groundbreaker no longer pulls enemy Heroes to Garrosh
    
  • Instead, Groundbreaker now knocks enemy Heroes into the air, Stunning them for 0.75 seconds, and then Slowing them by 30% for 2 seconds
    
  • Talent tooltips for Warbreaker, Defensive Measures, Rough Landing, and Mortal Combo have been updated to reflect this change
  
  
• Wrecking Ball (E)
  
  • Cooldown reduced from 16 to 14 seconds
    
  • Mana cost reduced from 70 to 65
  
  
  Talents
  
• Level 16
  
  • Mortal Combo (Q)
    
    • Cooldown reduction granted to Wrecking Ball decreased from 10 to 8 seconds
      
    • Window of time to throw enemies increased from 2 to 3 seconds

Garrosh saw the largest set of changes this patch. To start, the new Garrosh has a much harder time comboing his Groundbreaker and Wrecking Ball. Groundbreaker stuns for 0.75s but also has a 0.125s cast outro, which leaves only 0.625s for Garrosh to move. In that time, Garrosh can move 2.75m. Combined with the 2.75m grab range on Wrecking Ball, this means the closest edge of the hero must be at most 5.5m away. Accounting for Groundbreaker’s half second cast time, which allows for 2.2m of movement, a character moving directly away from Garrosh would have to have their nearest edge no further than 3.8m away from Garrosh, which is only a 1m margin from his throw radius of 2.75m.

Given that the inner catch radius is 6.25m away, and many smaller heroes have radii of 0.75m, this change means that over half of the hero’s hitbox must be on the inside of Groundbreaker for Garrosh to catch them during the stun. This means heroes that have mobility skills which require Garrosh to catch them during the stun rather than the slow such as Li Ming or Genji, so long as they look to actively juke a Groundbreaker in front of them it will be functionally impossible for Garrosh to catch them. However, if the target lacks mobility skills then the slow is sufficient to guarantee Garrosh catches the target.

Another impact of this change is the net real displacement. Previously, Garrosh’s Q-E combo could displace the target upwards of 13m. Garrosh can now only displace the target up to 7.5m (the range of Wrecking Ball), which opens up significant counterplay to Garrosh’s combo.

As for the other changes, Garrosh’s 4.5% base health increase is fairly powerful due to the ~35% EHP boost his passive grants. Mortal Combo is essentially unchanged aside from the window of time, as the CDR decrease is matched by a base CD decrease.

Commenting in a more general scope, Garrosh previously relied on a fairly strong early game but had a tendency to drop off late game due to weakness in teamfights. The new stun is stronger in teamfights but weaker for early game picks, somewhat normalizing Garrosh’s power curve. If he continues to struggle with teamfights, buffs to level 13 and 16 talents could improve his presence without relying on raw base stat increases.

Final Thoughts

These balance changes are an excellent start to properly balancing the meta in the wake of the 2018 gameplay changes. While some heroes *cough* Valeera *cough* managed to escape the nerfbat, a wide array of changes are expected after the major design changes. Unfortunately, due to the low data quality of HotS Logs and HotS API, it’s hard to draw a detailed analysis of what further changes should be made.

2018 will bring several improvements to Heroes of the Storm, but the lack of a stats API was a big disappointment at BlizzCon this year. Hopefully Blizzard will recognize the issue and come out with one in the next six months, but an open API seems to be wishful thinking at this point.