This is from May 22nd, but I never posted it: Balance Patch notes 5/22/19
General
New Bundles
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Glory to the Firstborn Bundle
Reaver Bundle
New Mount
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Solarite Reaver
Tal’darim Reaver
New Skins
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Fenix
Crystalline Ruinwalker Fenix
Arcane Ruinwalker Fenix
Falstad
Spectral Buccaneer Falstad
Zagara
Smoldering Desert Queen Zagara
Anub'arak
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Abilities
Level 1
Legion of Beetles [Trait]
Cooldown to spawn a Beetle increased from 8 seconds to 12 seconds
Level 10
Cocoon [R2]
Health reduced from 32 to 28
This reduces the time that the Cocoon naturally decays from 8 to 7 seconds
Developer Comment: Anub’arak is still overperforming compared to other Warriors, so this time we are reducing the power of Legion of Beetles and Cocoon, which are still stand out talents for him. We are hesitant to over-nerf him, so our strategy going forward is to combine these smaller nerfs with buffs to other Warriors to create a healthier meta for the role.
Blaze
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Jet Propulsion [E]
Cooldown reduced from 9 to 8 seconds
Mana cost reduced from 45 to 40
Pyromania [Trait]
Armor bonus increased from 35 to 40
Abilities
Level 4
Oil Dispersal [W]
Additional functionality: Each enemy Hero hit with Flame Stream reduces the cooldown of Oil Spill by 1 second and refunds 5 Mana
Feeding the Flame [Q]
Removed
Level 10
Bunker Drop [R1]
Cooldown reduced from 80 to 70 seconds
Mana cost reduced from 80 to 70
Level 13
Suppressive Fire [Q]
Spell Power reduction increased from 20% to 25% per stack
Level 16
Thermal Protection [E]
Cooldown reduction reduced from 1.5 to 1.25 seconds
Developer Comment: Blaze has been outperformed by other heroes in the last few months, and these changes are intended to bring him a bit more back into the meta. Most of these buffs are intended to help his tanking capabilities, particularly when it comes to his initiation and survivability.
ETC
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Abilities
Level 1
Guitar Hero [E]
Additional functionality: Basic Attacks now increase the duration of Guitar Solo by .25 seconds
Healing reduced from 50% to 40%
Block Party [Trait]
Physical Armor amount increased from 50 to 75
Level 4
Speed Metal [Trait]
Bonus Movement Speed increased from 15% to 20%
Level 7
Hammer-On [Passive]
Bonus damage increased from 35% to 40%
Developer Comment: Some of ETC’s talents could use some beefing up, so we’re milking this opportunity to bring ETC more into the meta so he can better compete with the likes of Anub’arak, Diablo, and Garrosh. Don’t worry, if these changes butcher his balance we’ll take stock of the situation and nerf him appropriately.
Garrosh
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Base
Wrecking Ball [E]
Cooldown increased from 14 to 16 seconds
Abilities
Level 1
Unrivaled Strength [E]
Damage bonus increased from 75% to 125%
Body Check [Active]
Slow amount reduced from 30% to 35%
No longer deals bonus damage or Slow amount based on Armor Up’s bonus
Additional functionality: Now causes enemies to receive 40% reduced Healing for the next 3 seconds
Level 7
Brute Force [Active]
Removed
Level 10
Decimate [R1]
Slow amount increased from 30% to 40%
Level 16
Mortal Combo [Q]
Cooldown reduction increased from 9 to 10 seconds
Additional Functionality: Now also gives Garrosh cooldown reduction if an enemy Hero is hit by Groundbreaker within 3 seconds of being hit by Wrecking Ball.
Level 20
Deadly Calm [R2]
Damage reduction increased from 20% to 25%
Developer Comment: While Garrosh is incredibly popular due to his ability to heavily displace enemy Heroes, he is not outperforming other Heroes in the game, sitting at a 48% win rate at higher levels of play in the hands of people who are skilled with him specifically. At lower levels of play his win rate drops to 47.2%, where he wins the award for being the second lowest win-rate Warrior in the game. We’re slightly nerfing Wrecking Ball’s cooldown to help address his high popularity and frustrations playing against him, and buffing some of his under-picked talents to better compete with their peers to help stabilize his talent tree.
Johanna
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Base
Condemn [W]
Damage increased from 55 to 58
Abilities
Level 1
Hold Your Ground [Trait]
Cooldown reduction increased from 4 to 5 seconds
Shield bonus increased from 50% to 60
Level 4
Eternal Retaliation [W]
Cooldown reduction per enemy hit increased from .5 to .75 seconds
Maximum targets reduced from 10 to 8
Zealous Glare [E]
Shield Glare duration increased from .75 seconds to 1 second
Level 20
Radiating Faith [R2]
Additional functionality: Additional enemies hit by Blessed Shield are now Stunned for its full duration
Developer Comment: Johanna is a solid, versatile Warrior that brings a strong frontline presence to her team. In addition to giving her some talent buffs, we’re increasing the damage of Condemn to further push her unique role as a Warrior who brings a considerable amount of waveclear.
Mal'Ganis
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Abilities
Level 1
Winged Guard [W]
Physical Armor bonus increased from 50 to 75
Vampiric Aura [Trait]
Healing increased from 10% to 15% of Physical damage dealt
Time to Feed [Passive]
Healing increased from 48 to 52
Level 4
Might of Sargeras [W]
Armor bonus duration increased from 2 seconds to 2.5 seconds
Level 7
Black Claws [Q]
Damage bonus increased from 45% to 60%
Spreading Plague [E]
Duration increased from 4 to 5 seconds
Nightmare Fuel [Passive]
No longer grants Mal’ganis 30% bonus damage while in a bush or after leaving a bush
Additional Functionality: Increase the duration of Night Rush by .75 seconds when it is cast from a bush
Bonus damage when waking Sleeping targets increased from 150% to 200%
Level 16
Frenzied Assault [Passive]
Bonus Attack Speed increased from 40% to 50%
Bonus Physical damage increased from 15% to 20%
Developer Comment: We’ve nerfed Mal’ganis multiple times since his release, and he has fallen off a bit too much since our last round. These buffs to various talents are meant to increase his overall effectiveness while also rounding out his talent tiers to be more competitive.
Muradin
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Abilities
Level 1
Changed the order of Muradin’s Level 1 talents to be the same as other Heroes (Q, W, E, etc.)
Third Wind [Trait]
Health Restoration rate increased from 83 to 90, and the improved rate from 166 to 180
Level 4
Sledgehammer
Additional functionality: Enemy Heroes hit grant an additional stack of his baseline quest
Reverberation [W]
Additional functionality: Every enemy Hero hit reduces Muradin’s Heroic Ability cooldown by 5%Enemy
Level 7
Heavy Impact [E]
Slow duration increased from .75 to 1.25 seconds
Skullcracker [Passvie]
Bonus damage increased from 70% to 90%
Level 13
Thunder Strike [W]
Additional functionality: Now also increases Muradin's Dwarf Toss Armor duration from 2 to 4 seconds
Bronzebeard Rage [Passive]
Damage increased from 19 to 20
Additional functionality: Now also heals Muradin for 75% of the damage dealt
Developer Comment: We’re buffing some of Muradin’s underutilized talents, and giving all of his Level 13 options some kind of survivability so that they better compete with Healing Static.
Stitches
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Abilities
Level 4
Chop Chop [W]
Duration increased from 5 to 6 seconds
Level 13
Digestive Juices [E]
No longer increases the damage of Devour to enemy Heroes
Additional functionality: Hitting enemy Heroes with Devour reduces its cooldown by 5 seconds
Gas Flare [Passive]
Bonus damage duration after hitting enemy Heroes with Hook increased from 4 to 8 seconds
Level 16
Meat Hook [Q]
Bonus Healing increased from 16% to 20%
Developer Comment: Stitches like buffs. We like Stitches. We give Stitches buffs. When Stitches happy, you happy too!
Imperius
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Abilities
Level 1
Consuming Flame [W]
Damage bonus changed from 125% to 100%
This slightly reduces the bonus damage at Level 1 from 281 to 260, but at Level 20 will change from 454 to 54
Level 7
Flash of Anger [Q]
Adjusted functionality: Consuming a mark from Celestial Charge deals damage around the target and gives Imperius a Shield for 300 over 4 seconds
Damage reduced from 198 to 180
Developer Comment: To make it more consistent with other damage modifiers, we are changing Consuming Flame’s bonus from a flat amount to a percent bonus, which will make it scale with Imperius’s level. This is a slight nerf to his Level 1 damage, but overall a fairly significant buff to the talent during the middle and later portions of the game. To make Flash of Anger more reliable, we are changing its functionality to be about consuming marks of Celestial Charge instead of trying to hit enemy Heroes first with Solarion’s Fire. To compensate for the power and reliability bonuses we’re giving, we are reverting the damage bonus that we gave to the talent last patch. This functionality change should make the use case for the talent much more clear: Impale enemies, gain benefits.
Malthael
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Abilities
Level 4
Throwing Shade [E]
Quest requirement reduced from 15 to 12
Level 10
Tormented Souls [R1]
Mana cost reduced from 100 to 20
Level 16
Mortality [W]
Damage increased from 6% to 8% maximum Health
Developer Comment: We read the feedback that it is difficult to capitalize on the cooldown resets on Wraith Strike due to the high Mana cost of casting the ability multiple times. To compensate for this, we are drastically reducing the Mana cost of Tormented Souls, which should make it much easier to get value.
Ragnaros
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Base
Health increased from 2000 to 2075
Health Regeneration increased from 4.168 to 4.323
Basic Attack damage increased from 171 to 180
Abilities
Level 20
Flames of Sulfuron [R1]
Bonus Stun duration increased from .5 seconds to 1 second
Slow duration increased from 2 to 2.5 seconds
Submerge [Active]
Cooldown reduced from 90 to 60 seconds
Developer Comment: It’s been awhile since we’ve reevaluated the Firelord’s place in the Nexus. Overall he’s doing fairly well, but we felt he could use a small buff to compete with the current meta heroes in the game. We also saw this as an opportunity to help his Level 20 pick rates out, so we’re buffing Flames of Sulfuron to be a fairly meaningful Stun increase and increasing the uptime of Submerge.
Rexxar
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Base
Misha’s Health reduced from 1762 to 1620
Misha’s Health Regeneration reduced from 3.671 to 3.375
Misha’s Health scaling increased from 4% to 4.75%
Misha’s Health Regeneration scaling increased from 4% to 4.75%
Developer Comment: These changes are to make Rexxar’s laning phase a little less overwhelming for the majority of opponents, particularly on maps with control points. We're slightly lowering Misha's power in the early game, but increasing her scaling so that she is less powerful in early-game trades, but is still a threat in the mid to late portions of the game.
Ana
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Base
Biotic Grenade [W]
Allied Healing amount reduced from 166 to 152
Developer Comment: While Ana is currently not greatly outperforming other Healers, even at the highest level of play, she is being seen much more often compared to her peers. We’re reducing the healing power of Biotic Grenade, which should bring her down a notch as well as reduce the power of its associated talents.
Anduin
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Base
Flash Heal [Q]
Mana cost reduced from 30 to 25
Divine Star [Q]
Mana cost increased from 45 to 50
Abilities
Level 1
Renew [Q]
Healing increased from 23 to 26 per second
Pursued by Grace [Passive]
Healing increased from 28 to 33
Bold Strategy [Passive]
Cooldown increase increased from 1 to 2 seconds
Level 4
Holy Reach [E]
Bonus Basic Attack damage increased from 50% to 75%
Healing increased from 90 to 100
Level 7
Binding Heal [Q]
Healing increased from 80 to 95
Power Word: Shield [W]
Shielding increased from 165 to 172
Level 10
Light Bomb [R2]
Shielding increased from 140 to 165
Level 13
Enchant Boots – Lion’s Speed [Trait]
Movement Speed increased from triple to quadruple while Leap of Faith’s cooldown is available
Push Forward [Passive]
Maximum Movement Speed increased from 15% to 20%
Movement Speed per enemy hit increased from 2% to 2.5%
Level 16
Evenhanded Blessings [Q]
Cooldown reduction increased from 40% to 50%
Holy Nova [W]
Damage increased from 100 to 105
Healing increased from 100 to 105
Inner Focus [Active]
Cooldown reduction per Hero hit with Divine Star reduced from 10 to 8 seconds
Lightwell [Active]
Cooldown increased from 70 to 80 seconds
Developer Comment: Anduin’s Light is bringing victory! Just about 48% of the time, which is great for a new Hero release. What we’re aiming to do though is buff up a lot of the lesser chosen Talents on him so that he feels like he has a greater variety of options. We’re also looking to make Bold Strategy a little more bold, and a little less automatic. We’re aiming to do this by reducing his higher than typical Mana tension baseline (which Bold Strategy helped alleviated by increasing Flash Heal’s cooldown and making his healing more efficient), while also increasing the cooldown penalty for Bold Strategy. This is in addition to buffing up the other two Talents on the tier, which also buffs Bold Strategy. Net result is that Pursued by Grace and Renew will give Anduin a little more consistent healing, and potentially open up synergy with the significantly buffed Binding Heal at level 7.
Deckard Cain
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Abilities
Level 20
Perfect Gems [W]
Horadric Cube cooldown reduction increased from 5 to 6 seconds
Respect the Elderly [R1]
Silence and Blind duration increased from 2 to 3 seconds
Morenados! [R2]
Cooldown reduction increased from 6 to 10 seconds
Developer Comment: Deckard has been performing well since his last round of buffs. These changes are to increase the competitiveness of his Level 20 talents, which are all currently being outshone by Bottomless Flask.
Kharazim
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Base
Radiant Dash [Q]
Mana cost reduced from 30 to 25
Deadly Reach [E]
Mana cost reduced from 50 to 45
Abilities
Level 7
Heavenly Zeal [W]
Additional functionality: Radiant Dashing to an ally increases the healing they receive from Breath of Heaven by 50% for 3 seconds
Now shows Crit kickers for when allies gain increased healing
Blazing Fists [E]
Additional functionality: Now also increases the duration of Deadly Reach by 100%
Level 10
Divine Palm [R1]
Cooldown reduced from 60 to 50 seconds
Level 13
Fists of Fury [E]
Removed
Level 16
Dash of Light [W]
Removed
Developer Comment: To better round out Kharazim’s Level 7 talents, we are baking in some of the functionality of talents that normally come online for him later on. This should make this tier more competitive while also opening up other options for players to take as a replacement for the talents that have been removed. For example, players who want to get in and punch a lot with Blazing Fists will now have a defensive option to take at Level 13 since they no longer have to take Fists of Fury to complete the build.
Stukov
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Abilities
Level 1
Fetid Touch [W]
Additional functionality: After hitting 15 enemy Heroes with Weghted Pustule, remove half of its Mana cost
Level 7
Targeted Excision [Trait]
Additional functionality: Also reduces the cooldowns of Stukov’s Basic Abilities by 1.5 seconds
Level 13
It Hungers [E]
Enemy Heroes hit required reduced from 12 to 10
Poppin’ Pustules [Trait]
Additional functionality: Enemies hit by the explosion also have a Weighted Pustule applied to them
Level 16
Universal Carrier [Q]
Healing reduction on Healing Pathogen reduced from 50% to 40%
Developer Comment: We’re making some quality of life changes to some of Stukov’s talents to make them better. Targeted Excision in particular suffered from some awkwardness where when used properly, the cooldown of Bio-Kill Switch would often be lower than the cooldowns of his Healing Pathogen and Weighted Pustule, which made part of its benefit meaningless. This change should make its 5-second cooldown more important, as he can use his other abilities sooner after his initial cast of Bio-Kill Switch.
Zarya
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Abilities
Level 1
Together We Are Strong [E]
Damage done by allies per energy gained reduced from 6 to 5
Maximum energy gain per Shield increased from 30 to 40
Level 20
Gravity Kills [R1]
No longer deals damage to enemy Heroes
Additional functionality: Now Silences enemy Heroes for its duration
Clear Out [R2]
No longer increases Zarya’s maximum Energy
Additional functionality: Now increases the duration of Expulsion Zone by 1.5 seconds
Developer Comment: We saw an opportunity to improve Zarya’s Heroic options, and while taking a look at her saw that Together We Are Strong was also underperforming compared to its peers, so we’re giving all of these talents a bit more punch.
Alarak
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Abilities
Level 4
Chaos Reigns [Q]
Damage bonus after hitting 15 Heroes increased from 50 to 60
Damage bonus after hitting 2 Heroes with a single Discord Strike increased from 50 to 60
Damage bonus for hitting 3 enemy Heroes in a single Discord Strike increased from 80 to 100
Negatively Charged [E]
Damage bonus per stack reduced from 5% to 4%
Show of Force [Trait]
Damage reduced from 80 to 68
Additional Functionality: Hitting an enemy Hero with 3 of Alarak’s abilities within 2 seconds also grants Alarak 2% Sadism, up to 20% maximum. This bonus Sadism is lost on death
Developer Comment: These changes are meant to create better competition between Alarak’s Level 4 talents. We are buffing Chaos Reigns and giving Show of Force an exciting new scaling bonus, while also reducing the power of Negatively Charged. While we realize that Negatively Charged is an extremely attractive talent that can sometimes get out of control when Alarak gets a lot of stacks, and an obvious way to nerf it would be to cap its stacks, a large part of the enjoyment of playing Alarak and of taking talents like Negatively Charged is about living the dream when playing well. We are instead going to try simply reducing the bonus and making the other talents on the tier more attractive, which should hopefully help talent picks on other tiers as well.
Maiev
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Base
Spirit of Vengeance [E]
Damage reduced from 180 to 150
Abilities
Level 4
Sudden Vengeance [E]
No longer requires Maiev to Blink within .35 seconds of the Spirit of Vengeance hitting an enemy Hero for its effect to proc
Level 7
Ruthless Spirit [E]
New functionality: Hitting an enemy Hero with Spirit of Vengeance causes Maiev to deal 15% increased damage for 4 seconds. This can stack up to 2 times.
Developer Comment: To help curb Maiev’s performance at the highest levels of play, we are reducing her wave clear damage with Spirit of Vengeance, which should mitigate her ability to easily rotate between lanes for ganks. Due to the fairly low pick rates of talents related to the ability, we also saw an opportunity to beef them up and make them more meaningful options compared to others on their tiers.
Zeratul
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Abilities
Cleave [Q]
Damage reduced from 212 to 200
Developer Comment: Zeratul has been a considerable threat, particularly at the higher levels of play. This change is meant to simply reduce his power. We chose to nerf Cleave because it is his least interactive way of dealing damage, particularly when combined with Wormhole.
Gul'dan
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Abilities
Level 1
Pursuit of Flame [Q]
Quest requirement reduced from 40 to 30
Chaotic Energy [W]
Regen Globes required for quest reduced from 20 to 15
Level 7
Bound by Shadow [Q]
Cooldown reduction increased from 1 to 1.5 seconds
Curse of Exhaustion [W]
Slow amount increased from 35% to 50%
Level 10
Rain of Destruction [R2]
Adjusted functionality: Now has a 1.5 second cast time. No longer requires Gul’dan to channel for its duration
Cast range reduced from 15 to 10
Level 16
Darkness Within [Trait]
Bonus damage increased from 25% to 30%
Developer Comment: Rain of Destruction has not been the predominant Heroic since Gul’dan’s release. We believe there are two reasons for this: the first being that it has some randomness to its output in regards to where the meteors land, and the second being that it requires Gul’dan to channel for 7 seconds, which gives his opponents an incredibly long time to interrupt him while also not allowing him to use his other abilities or provide any other output during that time. We’re targeting the second issue with this change, which will allow Gul’dan to gain the ability to move and use his abilities while the Rain of Destruction is happening. We may in the future look at the randomness of the Heoric’s meteors, but at this time we want to try this change as it retains most of the original fantasy of Gul’dan raining Hellfire upon his enemies. We’re also improving some of Gul’dan’s lesser picked talents. We realize that he has some fundamental issues with Corruption focused talents dominating his talent tree, and are looking at exploring ways in the future to make alternative ways to play more meaningfully competitive.
Jaina
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Abilities
Level 7
Ice Lance [Q]
Cooldown reduction reduced from 2 to 1.5 seconds
Icefury Wand [Passive]
Cooldown reduction increased from 1.5 to 2 seconds
Level 13
Storm Front [W]
Cast range increase reduced from 100% to 75%
Additional functionality: Now also increases the radius of Blizzard by 30%
Level 16
Snowstorm [W]
New functionality: The second wave of Blizzard deals 20% bonus damage. The third wave of Blizzard deals 60% bonus damage.
Developer Comment: Ice Lance has been outperforming the other talents on its tier for a long time. While we enjoy the playstyle that it enables, it is slightly too powerful compared to the other options. We are reducing its cooldown reduction while also giving Jaina other build paths to consider.
Lunara
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Abilities
Level 1
Hippity Hop [Z]
Out of combat requirement for the Movement Speed bonus reduced from 5 to 4 seconds
Level 4
Blossom Swell [Q]
Movement Speed bonus increased from 12% to 15%
Level 7
Choking Pollen [Q]
Damage bonus to targets with Nature’s Toxin increased from 85% to 100%
Damage bonus to targets with 3 stacks of Nature’s Toxin increased from 135% to 150%
Level 10
Thornwood Vine [R1]
Damage increased from 164 to 176
Level 13
Abolish Magic [Active]
Cooldown reduced from 35 to 30 seconds
Endless Spores [W]
Cooldown reduction increased from 3 to 4 seconds
Level 16
Accelerated Contamination [Q]
Additional functionality: Now also reduces the Mana cost of Noxious Blossom from 60 to 40
Developer Comment: Lunara is in the middle of the pack in regards to her performance against other ranged assassins. We’re buffing a slew of her talents to make her stand out more, and to make playstyles more attractive that currently aren’t as popular on her.
Raynor
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Abilities
Level 7
Fuel the Rush [Passive]
Additional functionality: Reduce the Mana cost of Adrenaline Rush from 75 to 50
Level 13
Debilitating Roungs [Passive]
Additional functionality: Also reduces the Mana cost of Pentetrating Round from 65 to 45
Developer Comment: Now that Raynor has fairly meaningful Mana costs on his abilities, we are adding some reductions in his talents so that he isn’t punished in regards to his Mana consumption when taking them.
Sylvanas
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Abilities
Shadow Dagger [W]
Damage reduced from 32 > 30
Developer Comment: Sylvanas is a little bit too powerful, so we’re slightly lowering her damage to bring her more in line with other ranged assassins.
Bug Fixes
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General
Fixed some display issues with Season Time Remaining
Garden Terror Spawning Vines will no longer get stuck at Gates while trying to path through them
EPT
