New Season,
New Reworks

New Kits on D.Va and Gazlowe

Written by: Koznarov

The last Heroes of the Storm patch brought some hero tweaks and gameplay changes, including two new reworks: D.Va and Gazlowe. We also have a new ranked season and thus, a new anomaly. We’ve talked to the French players Iksir (former Crystal Gaming) and Mascarade (Washed Up) about the novelties of this patch.

Gladiator's Medallion

Gladiator’s Medallion is the new anomaly. After the unsuccessful Climate Phenomena, this new experimental feature includes an extra ability for all heroes (except for Gall). When activated, the medallion instantly clears most disabling effects and makes heroes unstoppable for a brief time. The cooldown of this tool is 5 minutes, which makes players think it twice before using it.

The dev team conceived this anomaly as a second chance for overextending players but also as an offensive tool to prevent being disabled while engaging. Iksir thinks most of the players are ignoring the second purpose and just using it as a panic button:

“About the Medallion, I have noticed two things: players often used it to save themselves instead of walking into possible CC to get a kill. I think it’s due to the large cooldown, so reducing it could be nice for this issue. However, my second point is that it actually nerfs all-in heroes, especially in late game where you can’t really disengage after you go in. I'm thinking about Anub'arak, Diablo, or Butcher, who weren't really strong before. But now I really think a good use of the Medallion can make them almost useless in a close game. I think having the effect of Lunara cleanse would be better: it can save you from a CC chain but not from Butcher’s ultimate, for example.”

Mascarade agrees in this last aspect, he explains that “it rewards mistakes and allows some outpositioning to go unpunished sometimes. Especially as a tank it is frustrating to almost catch a guy but actually not.” Having a powerful escape or disengage tool in all the heroes makes life harder for CC-dependent characters, but it’s also bad for heroes who already had this kind of tools in their set because they’ve lost some of their uniqueness. On the other hand, heroes with low mobility can be played more safely. If the Medallion made it to the core game (as the experience globes), these viability changes should be taken into account for upcoming balance patches.

The Reworks

When reworking D.Va, the developers wanted to turn her into a traditional bruiser by giving her more tools against other offlaners. They wanted to balance the offensive and defensive aspects of the hero. However, according to Mascarade, she is somehow overtuned, exceeding in both aspects:

“She is definitely first pick or ban. She is new, so people still suck with her but for strong people, it's horrendous. Damage, CC, wave clear, objective control, unkillable...you name it. she has it.”

Before the rework, D.Va wasn’t a popular hero. We barely saw her, but sometimes she would pop in competitive games as a pocket pick for some players. Iksir was one of those players, so he has a good insight on the hero:

“I played her [the reworked version] a few games (I have seen her a lot though). Her baseline kit seems good (as an old D.Va player, I'm just sad about her W, but it’s a logical change), but she seems a bit too strong. I think most of her power comes from two talents: Rushdown (level 4), where the lifesteal is very strong combined with a lot of more waveclear; and Micro Missiles (heroic ability), which gives her the burst she lacks plus a 35% slow, which is really something. Without these two talents, she clearly has less damage, and I think a hero like D.Va must have low damage overall like other "tank/solo" heroes such as Yrel or Blaze, for example. The fact is she has low CC but insane utility (the matrix, the bomb, etc.), and I'm actually surprised that a hero with almost 0 CC is contested like that at inhouse games.”

Unlike D.Va, there’s not much info about Gazlowe yet. So far his rework hasn’t been successful in terms of win rate or popularity, so players are reluctant to try him and discover the wonders of the new kit. The concept behind this rework is to turn him into a bruiser and get rid of one the last specialists. Iksir explains us a few issues of the reworked kit:

“A bruiser/sololaner is always hard to play without mobility, but he also has low sustain. His kit is weird anyway because his W is channeled, and it’s more like an ability for a ranged DPS. And even his E can be used from a safe spot. He just feels like a Rexxar without Misha: some range pressure but can't really hold the front.”

We’ll see how Gazlowe evolves, if the right build hasn’t been found yet or if he’s actually underperforming. Anyway, he’ll probably receive some buffs in the upcoming balance patches, so we should keep track of the goblin.

Thanks to Iksir and Mascarade for sharing with us their knowledge on the new features!

If you enjoyed this piece, check out our latest articles:

The New Wave of North America
By The Numbers
Heroes of the Summer
Diablo 3 Archetypes Reimagined: Part 2
Method to the Mayhem