• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 11:25
CEST 17:25
KST 00:25
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
Team TLMC #5 - Finalists & Open Tournaments0[ASL20] Ro16 Preview Pt2: Turbulence6Classic Games #3: Rogue vs Serral at BlizzCon9[ASL20] Ro16 Preview Pt1: Ascent10Maestros of the Game: Week 1/Play-in Preview12
Community News
Weekly Cups (Sept 8-14): herO & MaxPax split cups3WardiTV TL Team Map Contest #5 Tournaments1SC4ALL $6,000 Open LAN in Philadelphia7Weekly Cups (Sept 1-7): MaxPax rebounds & Clem saga continues29LiuLi Cup - September 2025 Tournaments3
StarCraft 2
General
#1: Maru - Greatest Players of All Time Team Liquid Map Contest #21 - Presented by Monster Energy Weekly Cups (Sept 8-14): herO & MaxPax split cups SpeCial on The Tasteless Podcast Team TLMC #5 - Finalists & Open Tournaments
Tourneys
Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament WardiTV TL Team Map Contest #5 Tournaments Maestros of The Game—$20k event w/ live finals in Paris RSL: Revival, a new crowdfunded tournament series SC4ALL $6,000 Open LAN in Philadelphia
Strategy
Custom Maps
External Content
Mutation # 491 Night Drive Mutation # 490 Masters of Midnight Mutation # 489 Bannable Offense Mutation # 488 What Goes Around
Brood War
General
BGH Auto Balance -> http://bghmmr.eu/ [ASL20] Ro16 Preview Pt2: Turbulence Diplomacy, Cosmonarchy Edition BW General Discussion ASL20 General Discussion
Tourneys
[ASL20] Ro16 Group D [ASL20] Ro16 Group C [Megathread] Daily Proleagues SC4ALL $1,500 Open Bracket LAN
Strategy
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Muta micro map competition Fighting Spirit mining rates [G] Mineral Boosting
Other Games
General Games
Path of Exile Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread General RTS Discussion Thread Nintendo Switch Thread Borderlands 3
Dota 2
Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion LiquidDota to reintegrate into TL.net
League of Legends
Heroes of the Storm
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Heroes of StarCraft mini-set
TL Mafia
TL Mafia Community Thread
Community
General
Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine US Politics Mega-thread Canadian Politics Mega-thread Russo-Ukrainian War Thread The Big Programming Thread
Fan Clubs
The Happy Fan Club!
Media & Entertainment
Movie Discussion! [Manga] One Piece Anime Discussion Thread
Sports
2024 - 2026 Football Thread Formula 1 Discussion MLB/Baseball 2023
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Linksys AE2500 USB WIFI keeps disconnecting Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread High temperatures on bridge(s)
TL Community
BarCraft in Tokyo Japan for ASL Season5 Final The Automated Ban List
Blogs
The Personality of a Spender…
TrAiDoS
A very expensive lesson on ma…
Garnet
hello world
radishsoup
Lemme tell you a thing o…
JoinTheRain
RTS Design in Hypercoven
a11
Evil Gacha Games and the…
ffswowsucks
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 1111 users

Adjusting the Meta: Patch 54.4 Recap

Forum Index > Heroes of the Storm
3 CommentsPost a Reply

Adjusting the Meta: Patch 54.4 Recap

Text byTL.net ESPORTS
September 29th, 2021 16:33 GMT




Adjusting the Meta


Patch 54.4 Recap


Written by: Koznarov




Balance patch 54.4 has just arrived at the Nexus. Unlike many other patches, most of its adjustments are very subtle, trying to slightly alter the meta and some heroes’ builds. On the front-lane side we can find buffs to E.T.C and Thrall. Though still being somehow popular, these Horde characters were far from their peak performances, so these changes might be just what they needed. We’ll see how the Warchief and the Chieftain evolve with these improvements, which should help them overcome their worse matchups. Speaking of tanks and bruisers, Gazlowe has been slightly nerfed. Since the goblin got his new role as a bruiser, he has been one of the most contested picks in that role. Gazlowe mains should start thinking about more heroes to play, because the devs comment this may not be his last nerf.

One of the targets of patch 54.4 has been shuffling the healer meta. Stukov and Brightwing used to perform much better than their counterparts. Malfurion also had his good share of competitive games, but the druid’s numbers in ranked games were—and still are—much worse. The meta might change drastically, as both Stukov and Brightwing have been nerfed and other unsung heroes have received some buffs. Li Li’s healings are based on proyectiles, and the speed of those proyectiles has been increased. This change makes her much more reliable and allows the panda to adopt a safer positioning in teamfights. Ana’s talents have received a few new functionalities, trying to improve her build diversity. We’ll need to keep an eye on the Overwatch sniper, as these new features could have unpredictable results. Apart from the healers, Zarya has received some great power-ups. Her basic attacks and energy generation have been remarkably improved. With a higher damage output, the support from Overwatch may now become a really serious threat.





Survivability of the Immobile


The last changes of this patch affect the assassins, especially some ranged ones. Valla’s W, Multishot, has been nerfed by reducing its damage and increasing its cooldown. Her gambit talent has been buffed, as it was the least popular level 1 choice. Nazeebo’s spiders have been nerfed, while his toads received small buffs. Zagara, after being hit by some of the toughest nerfs ever, has gained some base health and health regeneration. Those health buffs have also been applied to two other immobile heroes: Kel’Thuzad and Kael’thas. And they've also received a couple more improvements. The lich’s Glacial Spike now hits harder, as its damage has risen from 60 to 70. The Sunstrider has also improved his damage output with a more deadly Phoenix.

Will these KT & KT buffs bring a meta of mages? Probably not, as one of their natural predators has also received some improvements. Maiev’s D, Vault of the Wardens, now has an additional charge at level 20. This extra leap turns the Warcraft warden into a late game threat. Some of her talents have also been buffed for the sake of talent diversity. Though they weren’t the most popular choices, most of them were already viable, so there's a chance they now become too strong. The dev team acknowledges this situation, as Associate Game Designer Josh Kofalt explained on Reddit:

“Most of her changes were not focused on increasing Maiev's overall strength, and instead were about rising weaker and under-picked talents to be on par with the popular choice. At higher skill levels of play, buffs to weak talents often have a minor impact on a Hero's overall strength, as these players were not picking the weaker talents. That said, there are high-skilled Maiev players who picked some of these talents and are now going to be stronger.

So why the new baseline functionality? Simply because her 20 talents are weaker than her fellow Melee Assassins, and it's visible when comparing level 20 talent win rates. More popular Melee Assassins at Master Storm League include Heroes like Zeratul and Alarak, who have incredibly strong options such as Shadow Stride and Hasty Bargain. Maiev's level 20 talents have a wide range of effects with decent parity, which we like, but they don't help her secure wins as often.

Going forward, we are confident that if Maiev does become over dominant that we can address it. It wouldn't surprise us if some of these buffed talents were already strong enough to be a competitive option and they were just simply undervalued. We don't believe any of these recent changes affect Maiev's core identity, so we can easily reduce them or revert them if needed.”





Are you enjoying the buffs? Are you dealing with the nerfs? Let us know what you think of patch 54.4!





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

Heroes of the Summer: Storm League & X-Cup
The Zagara Case: Analysis of Patch 54.3
The NGS Update: Storm Division & HCI
CCL Season 2 Finals: A Sudden Patch
Masters Clash Championship Recap




Writer(s): Samuel Fuentes
Editor(s): Samuel Fuentes
Formatting: Samuel Fuentes
Design: shiroiusagi
Art Credit: Blizzard

Facebook Twitter Reddit
TL+ Member
mcmartini
Profile Blog Joined December 2010
Australia1972 Posts
September 30 2021 09:58 GMT
#2
Meant to be on HOTS forum?
I just want to say I have 370 APM - Liquid'Tyler SotG 14-12-2011 "I mean it's too bad you can't be paid to be, you know, a chicken shit fucking whiny bitch on the internet or we would have lots of rich community members" Nick "Tasteless" Plott
Beelzebub1
Profile Joined May 2015
1004 Posts
September 30 2021 13:47 GMT
#3
Amazing that they still actively patch this game (which I'm grateful for HOTS is still a very solid MOBA) but they won't even comment on Starcraft 2 meta or balance.
WombaT
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
Northern Ireland25635 Posts
October 03 2021 10:05 GMT
#4
On September 30 2021 22:47 Beelzebub1 wrote:
Amazing that they still actively patch this game (which I'm grateful for HOTS is still a very solid MOBA) but they won't even comment on Starcraft 2 meta or balance.

Yeah it seems odd to me but hey can’t begrudge at least one title getting a little love.
'You'll always be the cuddly marsupial of my heart, despite the inherent flaws of your ancestry' - Squat
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
OSC
13:00
King of the Hill #225
iHatsuTV 35
Liquipedia
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
Creator 200
ProTech82
Codebar 48
StarCraft: Brood War
Calm 8992
Rain 4030
Hyuk 3639
Flash 2746
Bisu 2383
GuemChi 2150
Horang2 1437
Zeus 1433
EffOrt 1419
PianO 1388
[ Show more ]
BeSt 788
Mini 664
hero 299
ZerO 231
Soulkey 147
Snow 131
Backho 117
ggaemo 110
Aegong 104
Hyun 101
Rush 88
Mong 77
sorry 70
Mind 65
Sea.KH 63
Movie 52
JYJ41
soO 39
sas.Sziky 30
Free 21
Sacsri 16
ajuk12(nOOB) 14
Terrorterran 12
IntoTheRainbow 11
HiyA 10
SilentControl 7
Noble 6
Hm[arnc] 4
Dota 2
Gorgc7037
singsing3714
qojqva2797
Dendi1697
Fuzer 258
XcaliburYe146
Counter-Strike
zeus622
markeloff157
oskar146
Other Games
hiko1685
B2W.Neo852
Hui .436
Lowko330
crisheroes323
Happy261
RotterdaM169
QueenE98
Trikslyr48
FunKaTv 39
NeuroSwarm39
ToD26
ZerO(Twitch)6
fpsfer 1
Organizations
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
sctven
[ Show 16 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• sooper7s
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• Migwel
• intothetv
• LaughNgamezSOOP
StarCraft: Brood War
• Michael_bg 4
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
• BSLYoutube
Dota 2
• C_a_k_e 3721
• WagamamaTV482
League of Legends
• Nemesis5374
• TFBlade416
Other Games
• Shiphtur55
Upcoming Events
OSC
7h 35m
PiGosaur Monday
8h 35m
LiuLi Cup
19h 35m
OSC
1d 3h
RSL Revival
1d 18h
Maru vs Reynor
Cure vs TriGGeR
The PondCast
1d 21h
RSL Revival
2 days
Zoun vs Classic
Korean StarCraft League
3 days
BSL Open LAN 2025 - War…
3 days
RSL Revival
3 days
[ Show More ]
BSL Open LAN 2025 - War…
4 days
RSL Revival
4 days
Online Event
5 days
Wardi Open
5 days
Sparkling Tuna Cup
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

Proleague 2025-09-10
Chzzk MurlocKing SC1 vs SC2 Cup #2
HCC Europe

Ongoing

BSL 20 Team Wars
KCM Race Survival 2025 Season 3
BSL 21 Points
ASL Season 20
CSL 2025 AUTUMN (S18)
LASL Season 20
RSL Revival: Season 2
Maestros of the Game
FISSURE Playground #2
BLAST Open Fall 2025
BLAST Open Fall Qual
Esports World Cup 2025
BLAST Bounty Fall 2025
BLAST Bounty Fall Qual
IEM Cologne 2025
FISSURE Playground #1

Upcoming

2025 Chongqing Offline CUP
BSL World Championship of Poland 2025
IPSL Winter 2025-26
BSL Season 21
SC4ALL: Brood War
BSL 21 Team A
Stellar Fest
SC4ALL: StarCraft II
EC S1
ESL Impact League Season 8
SL Budapest Major 2025
BLAST Rivals Fall 2025
IEM Chengdu 2025
PGL Masters Bucharest 2025
MESA Nomadic Masters Fall
Thunderpick World Champ.
CS Asia Championships 2025
ESL Pro League S22
StarSeries Fall 2025
TLPD

1. ByuN
2. TY
3. Dark
4. Solar
5. Stats
6. Nerchio
7. sOs
8. soO
9. INnoVation
10. Elazer
1. Rain
2. Flash
3. EffOrt
4. Last
5. Bisu
6. Soulkey
7. Mini
8. Sharp
Sidebar Settings...

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

Original banner artwork: Jim Warren
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 2025 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.