Heroes of the Storm Balance Update — October 12, 2016
We've just released a new patch for Heroes of the Storm in order to apply a few balance changes to the Nexus. Check out the full patch notes below.
Battlegrounds
Warhead Junction
- Reduced Nuke inner damage bonus from 100 to 50%
- Time at which Nukes upgrade their damage changed from 14 to 18 minutes
Developer Comments: This is a temporary solution to prevent the Nuke Core rushes at the 14-minute mark. In a coming patch, we’ll likely be making further changes that makes Nukes gradually scale over time, so that they mirror the Core’s scaling over time.
Heroes
| Assassin | Support | Specialist | Warrior |
|---|---|---|---|
| Valla | Malfurion | Nazeebo | Chen |
| E.T.C. | |||
| Zarya |
Assassin
Valla
Abilities
- Rain of Vengeance (R)
- Damage increased from 225 to 250
Talents
- Level 1
- Caltrops (E)
- Slow amount increased from 20 to 25%
- Caltrop damage increased from 45 to 60
- Caltrops (E)
- Level 7
- Death Dealer (E)
- Damage per Hatred stack increased from 12 to 14%
- Death Dealer (E)
- Level 16
- Frost Shot (W)
- Slow duration reduced from 2 to 1.5 seconds
- Frost Shot (W)
Specialist
Nazeebo
Abilities
- Gargantuan (R)
- Reduced Gargantuan Basic Attack damage from 195 to 176
- Ravenous Spirit (R)
- Damage increased from 94 to 103
- Corpse Spiders (Q)
- Cooldown reduced from 10 to 9 seconds
Talents
- Level 7
- Spirit of Arachyr (Q)
- Increased the number of additional spiders spawned from 1 to 2
- Dead Rush (W)
- Reduced damage bonus from 100 to 75%
- Spirit of Arachyr (Q)
- Level 16
- Ring of Poison (W)
- Damage reduced by roughly 15%
- Soul Harvest (Active)
- Increased bonus per enemy hit from 3 to 4%, and maximum from 15 to 20%
- Ring of Poison (W)
- Level 20
- Humongoid (R)
- Cooldown increased from 20 to 25 seconds
- Humongoid (R)
Developer Comments: Right now Zombie Wall Talents are providing more utility and damage than the alternatives, which isn’t ideal. We’re providing buffs to Corpse Spiders, while also nerfing Gargantuan. In general we expect Nazeebo’s winrate to stay about the same (which is right in the middle), but increase the number of effective Talent options for different playstyles.
Support
Malfurion
Abilities
- Regrowth (Q)
- Mana cost increased from 35 to 40
- Entangling Roots (E)
- Cooldown increased from 10 to 14 seconds
- Mana cost increased from 65 to 75
- Initial delay increased from .25 to .3 seconds
Talents
- Level 4
- Rampant Growth (Q)
- Removed
- Rampant Growth (Q)
Developer Comments: We are happy with how Malfurion is now played after his changes, but he has come out a little too strong. We believe that his role as a sustained healing support should still be a primary strength, but we want to limit just how long he can keep his team going if he’s spamming his Regrowth on cooldown. We are also cutting Rampant Growth as it pushed Malfurion towards being a burst healer, which is against the role that he should be filling for his team. We also like that Entangling Roots allows Malfurion to make plays and initiate fights, but it’s a little too good right now at securing kills. We’re slightly increasing its initial delay to be between where it is now and where it used to be, which should give opponents more of a chance to dodge the root.
Warrior
Chen
Stats
- Base Maximum Health decreased from 2658 to 2550
- Base Health Regen decreased from 5.54 to 5.31 per second
Abilities
- Storm, Earth, Fire (R)
- Base Spirit Health reduced from 1994 to 1913 due to Chen’s Maximum Health change
Talents
- Level 7
- Refreshing Elixir (Trait)
- Base healing effect increased from 20 to 30%
- Refreshing Elixir (Trait)
- Level 13
- Pressure Point (Q)
- Baseline slow amount reduced from 40 to 35%
- Bonus slow amount reduced from 80 to 70%
- Pressure Point (Q)
- Level 20
- Elemental Conduit (R)
- Base Spirit Health reduced from 2658 to 2550 due to Chen’s Maximum Health change
- Elemental Conduit (R)
E.T.C.
Talents
- Level 1
- Guitar Hero (E)
- Increased the heal amount from 30 to 35% auto-attack damage dealt
- Guitar Hero (E)
- Level 7
- Pinball Wizard (W)
- Increased bonus damage from 150 to 200%
- Echo Pedal (Passive)
- Decreased pulse damage from 32 to 29
- Pinball Wizard (W)
- Level 13
- Mic Check (W)
- Increased the cooldown reduction of Face Melt from 5 to 6 seconds
- Mic Check (W)
Zarya
Stats
- Basic Attack damage reduced from 24 to 21
- Base Maximum Health reduced from 2336 to 2225
- Base Health Regeneration reduced from 4.87 to 4.64
Talents
- Level 1
- Maximum Charge (Trait)
- Reduced the bonus Energy on quest completion from 25 to 20
- Demolitions Expert (Q)
- Recharge rate reduction increased from .25 to .375, up to a total of 3 seconds
- Maximum Charge (Trait)
- Level 4
- Speed Barrier (E)
- Movement Speed increased from 25 to 35%
- Speed Barrier (E)
Developer Comments: We’re reverting some of the previous Zarya buffs to bring her power level back to where we want. We’re also nerfing the benefits of Maximum Charge, now that getting high Energy isn’t as difficult as it was previously. We’ve also buffed Demolitions Expert and Speed Barrier, as they were substantially underperforming when compared to the other Talents on their tiers.
Bug Fixes
General
- Observer: Fixed an issue causing Forts and Keeps to count as Hero takedowns under certain circumstances in replays and observer mode.
Heroes and Talents
- Nova: Fixed an issue causing Nova to retain Pinning Shot's fully stacked slow amount for the remainder of the match after choosing the Covert Ops talent.