Heroes of the Storm Balance Update — August 24, 2016

Official Patch Notes v 19.5

We've just released a new patch in order to apply a few balance changes. Check out the detailed patch notes below.

General

The expanded free-to-play Hero roster for Training and Versus A.I. games that began in July has now come to an end. We hope many of you got the chance to level-up a few Heroes that you may not have tried before during this temporary promotion.

Heroes

Assassin Support Specialist Warrior
Gall Auriel Sgt. Hammer Cho
Greymane Stitches
Gul'dan Tyrael

Assassin

Gall

Talents

  • Level 1
    • Shove (Active)
      • Cooldown reduced from 30 to 20 seconds
  • Level 7
    • Double Trouble (Q)
      • Cooldown reduction increased from 1 to 1.25 seconds
  • Level 16
    • Giant Scorcher (Q)
      • Damage increased from 3 to 3.5% of target’s maximum Health

Return

Greymane

Abilities

  • Razor Swipe (Q)
    • Damage reduced from 159 to 135
  • Go for the Throat (R)
    • Damage reduced from 420 to 355
  • Marked for the Kill (R)
    • Damage increased from 68 to 190

Talents

  • Level 1
    • Wolfheart (W)
      • Cooldown reduction per attack reduced from 1 to .8 seconds
  • Level 4
    • Eyes in the Dark (E)
      • Stealth duration reduced from 4 to 3 seconds
  • Level 7
    • Incendiary Elixir (Q)
      • Increased the damage bonus per quest stack from 10 to 15
      • Increased the maximum damage bonus from 150 to 225
  • Level 20
    • Unleashed (R)
      • Damage bonus per kill increased from 25 to 35%, up to a maximum of 140%

Developer Comments: We’re pretty happy with the way Greymane is playing, but think that he’s doing more burst damage than we want from a Basic Attack focused Hero (at a very consistent rate). We’ve decided to address this by reducing the damage of Go for the Throat and Razor Swipe. We’re also increasing the damage of Marked for the Kill. While the focus of the Heroic is the long term Vulnerable, by increasing the damage we’re reducing the opportunity cost of giving up Marked for the Kill.

Return

Gul'dan

Talents

  • Level 1
    • Echoed Corruption (E)
      • Number of hits required to complete quest increased from 30 to 35
  • Level 7
    • Curse of Exhaustion (E)
      • Slow duration increased from 2 to 2.5 seconds
  • Level 13
    • Fel Armor (Q)
      • Ability damage reduction increased from 30 to 40%
  • Level 16
    • Rampant Hellfire (Q)
      • Damage bonus increased from 6% per stack (30% max) to 8% per stack (40% max)
    • Darkness Within (Trait)
      • Damage bonus increased from 20 to 25%

Developer Comments: While he has an acceptable win rate in the hands of experienced players, we felt that Gul'dan could use a few minor buffs and talent tweaks to help make his talent tiers more competitive. His Echo of Corruption quest ended up being completed earlier than we intended for such a strong effect, so we’re increasing the amount of Hero hits required. We are also are seeing a higher win rate for his Ruinous Affliction talent compared to others on his Level 16 tier. Rather than nerf this talent, we decided to buff the other options to make the tier more competitive and to make his late- game power spike more powerful.

Return

Support

Auriel

Stats

  • Basic Attack damage increased from 48 to 60

Abilities

  • Sacred Sweep (Q)
    • Outer damage reduced from 80 to 75
    • Inner damage reduced from 160 to 150
  • Resurrect (R)
    • Cooldown reduced from 90 to 70 seconds
    • Range increased from 4 to 5

Talents

  • Level 1
    • Increasing Clarity (Q)
      • Lowered the quest bonus damage for each stack from 3 to 2
      • Increased the number of hits required to complete the quest from 20 to 25
      • Quest completion bonus increased from 60 to 70. The total damage bonus will remain at 120
  • Level 4
    • Majestic Span (Q)
      • Radius increase reduced from 20 to 15%.
    • Heavy Burden (E)
      • Increased the Slow amount from 35 to 40%
    • Repeated Offense (E)
      • Reduced the number of hits required to complete the quest from 10 to 6
      • Bonus for quest completion increased from 100 to 140. The total bonus damage will remain at 200
  • Level 7
    • Empathic Link (D)
      • Energy reduced from 25 to 20% of Bestow Hope target’s damage taken
    • Glimmer of Hope (W)
      • Energy reduction from globes increased from 35 to 50%
    • Energized Cord (W)
      • Increased Energy gain from Auriel’s Basic Attacks from 100%/30% to 100%/50%
  • Level 13
    • Blinding Flash (Q)
      • Blind duration reduced from 4 to 3 seconds
  • Level 20
    • Diamond Resolve (R)
      • Damage resistance duration increased from 4 to 5 seconds

Developer Comments: Auriel has had a very strong release. We’re happy to see some fresh blood (or hope) in the support scene, but do think that as players continue to master the newest Hero in the Nexus that her winrate will continue to climb. As such, we’re reducing the power of her Sacred Sweep Talents, as well as reducing some of her Energy gain from Empathic Link. We’ve also transferred some of her damage (and consequently her Energy gain) from Sacred Sweep into her Basic Attacks, as we found them more lackluster than we’d like and not worth the risk necessary to use them.

Return

Specialist

Sgt. Hammer

Abilities

  • Thrusters (Z)
    • Thrusters are now always active while in the Altar of Storms
  • Artillery (Trait)
    • Now also increases Sgt. Hammer’s Basic Attack range by 20%

Talents

  • Level 1
    • Lethal Blast (W)
      • Removed
  • Level 4
    • Maelstrom Shells (Passive)
      • Removed
  • Level 7
    • Hyper-Cooling Engines (Z)
      • Cooldown reduction increased from 10 to 15 seconds
      • No longer makes Thrusters always active while in the Hall of Storms

Developer Comments: We’re planning to do a deeper dive into our favorite Siege Tank down the road, but in the meantime we felt Sgt. Hammer could use a few changes to make her feel more competitive compared to other heroes. Sgt. Hammer was originally designed to be the master of ranged damage, but has since become outshined by other poke heroes like Li-Ming and Chromie. To help her assert her spot again as a scary ranged damage-dealer, we’re making Maelstrom Shells a part of her baseline Artillery Trait, which should also help that tier’s pick rates. We’re also giving her a bit of a quality of life improvement by making her Thrusters always active when she leaves the Hall of Storms, which should help her get back to the game faster from her base.

Return

Warrior

Cho

Talents

  • Level 7
    • I AM Hurrying! (Z)
      • Duration increased from 1.5 to 2 seconds
  • Level 13
    • Runic Feedback (E)
      • Cooldown reduction increased from 1 to 1.25 seconds

Return

Stitches

Abilities

  • Gorge (R)
    • Cooldown reduced from 80 to 60 seconds
    • Mana cost reduced from 80 to 70

Return

Tyrael

Abilities

  • El'druin's Might (Q)
    • Cooldown increased from 11 to 12 seconds
  • Judgment (R)
    • Cooldown reduced from 80 to 70 seconds
  • ​Sanctification (R)
    • Cooldown increased from 70 to 80 seconds

Talents

  • Level 4
    • Horadric Reforging (Q)
      • Cooldown reduction increased from 3 to 5 seconds
  • Level 7
    • Reciprocate (W)
      • Damage reduced from 200 to 170
    • Angel’s Grace (Q)
      • Movement Speed increased from 30 to 40%
    • Searing Attacks (Active)
      • Removed
    • Follow Through (Passive)
      • Added
  • Level 13
    • Imposing Will (W)
      • Fixed bug that was causing the Movement Speed slow to inconsistently stack with all other Movement Speed slows
    • Angelic Absorption (W)
      • Increased healing amount from 156 over 3 seconds to 208 over 4 seconds
  • Level 16
    • Salvation (W)
      • Increased bonus Shields from 35 to 45% per affected ally

Developer Comments: Tyrael has been trending upward since he last received a Talent update, and has reached a point where we’re ready to do a few nerfs to our Archangel of Justice. The major target points are a few of the over performing Talents, as well as some slight adjustments to a few of his cooldowns. Coupled with these nerfs, we’re also buffing a few of the lesser picked Talents so that he has more compelling options at every tier.

Return

Bug Fixes

Heroes, Abilities, and Talents

  • Auriel: Auriel can no longer become polymorphed indefinitely if she exits a self-cast Crystal Aegis in the same moment that she comes under the effects of the Garden Terror’s Queen’s Curse Ability.
  • Auriel: The simple tooltip for Auriel’s Energized Cord Talent no longer incorrectly states that it doubles the energy stored by Basic Attacks.

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