[2018] Heroes of the Storm Balance Patch Notes – November 28, 2018

We’ve just released a new Heroes of the Storm patch to apply a number of balance changes and bug fixes. 

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• Bug Fixes

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General

Call of the Nexus

• Players who queue for Quickmatch games using roles that are in short supply will receive 50% bonus experience for being team players. Just look for the “Call of the Nexus” Bonus Experience indicator located above each Hero when viewing the Hero Selection screen.
• Quick Match will now prioritize creating teams with at least one Warrior, Support, and Ranged Assassin, and will enforce this rule for players queuing as parties of 3 or more as follows:
  • Parties of 3 must have at least one of the required Hero categories selected to queue.
  • Parties of 4 must have at least two of the required Hero categories selected to queue.
  • Parties of 5 are exempt from this rule.

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Heroes

Assassin	Specialist	Support	Warrior
Alarak	Abathur	Ana	Blaze
Genji	Azmodan	Deckard	Mal'Ganis
Hanzo		Stukov	Yrel
Kerrigan		Tyrande
Nova		Whitemane
Orphea

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Assassin

Alarak

Talents

• Level 1
  • Ruthless Momentum (Passive)
    • Health threshold for cooldown reduction reduced from 80% to 75%
• Level 4
  • Show of Force (Trait)
    • Damage Increased from 77 to 80
• Level 16
  • Mocking Strikes (Passive)
    • Cooldown reduction increased from 2.5 to 3 seconds 

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Genji

Stats

• Basic Attack range reduced from 5.5 to 4.5

Developer Comment:Genji continues to be an incredibly powerful force at the highest level of play. This change will force Genji players to put themselves at more risk when attacking enemy Heroes before they’re in his Swift Strike’s execute range. If this change is not enough, we have some additional ideas to curb Genji’s dominance that we will explore in the future.

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Hanzo

Stats

• Basic Attack damage increased from 188 to 198

Talents

• Level 7
  • Never Outmatched (W)
    • Cooldown reduction increased from 2.5 to 3 second per Basic Attack
    • Cooldown reduction only applies when hitting an enemy Hero with a Basic Attack

• Level 16
  • Flawless Technique (Passive)
    • Damage bonus increased from 25% to 30%
  • Giant Slayer (Passive)
    • Damage increased from 1.5% to 2% of an enemy Hero’s maximum Health

Developer Comment:We think that Hanzo is able to burst down bosses and map events too quickly, so we’re removing the synergy between Never Outmatched and Serrated Arrows. We’re making a few other tuning adjustments to make other Talents more attractive picks, as well as compensating some of the lost PvE power with some more PvP power.

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Kerrigan

Stats

• Basic Attack damage reduced from 120 to 115

Abilities

• Impaling Blades (W)
  • Damage reduced from 180 to 165
  • Mana cost increased from 75 to 80
• Psionic Pulse (E)
  • Explosion damage increased from 180 to 195
  • Mana cost increased from 60 to 65

Talents

• Level 1
  • Assimilation Mastery (Trait)
    • Health and Mana regeneration increased from 100 to 150%
• Level 4
  • Sharpened Blades (Q)
    • Damage for killing Minions increased from .5 to 1
    • Maximum damage bonus increased from 50 to 75
• Level 13
  • Chrysalis (Active)
    • Health increased from 550 to 750
• Level 16
  • Mounting Potency (Q)
    • Spell Power duration increased from 4 to 5 seconds
  • Unbridled Energy (Heroic)
    • Spell Power increased from 30 to 35%
• Level 20
  • Omegastorm (R)
    • Bonus duration increased from .188 to .25 seconds per tick

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Nova

Talents

• Level 7
  • Perfect Shot (Q)
    • No longer grants an additional stack of Snipe for hitting enemy Heroes
    • New functionality:
      • Hitting enemy Heroes now refunds the Mana cost of Snipe
• Level 13
  • Psionic Efficiency (Q)
    • Hitting enemy Heroes no longer refunds the Mana cost of Snipe
    • New functionality:
      • Now grants an additional stack of Snipe for hitting enemy Heroes

Developer Comment:We are switching some of the bonuses from Perfect Shot and Psionic Efficiency to better align their rewards and to make the Snipe build friendlier to players earlier on in the game. Most notably, players who pick Perfect Shot will no longer have to worry about running out of Mana quickly due to landing multiple Snipes in a teamfight.

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Orphea

Stats

• Basic Attack Damage increased from 80 to 88

Abilities

• Shadow Waltz (Q)
  • Damage increased from 150 to 165
• Crushing Jaws (R)
  • Cooldown increased from 50 to 70 seconds

Talents

• Level 1
  • En Pointe (Q)
    • Damage bonus increased from 50 to 75%
• Level 16
  • Lurking Terror (W/E)
    • Now shares a cooldown with Chomp (W)

Developer Comment:The first Nexus-born Hero has arrived and is showing a bit of teeth, especially in the burst department. The combination of a high-stacked Ravenous Hunger combined with double-Chomps with Lurking Terror was a bit over-the-top, especially since she could set everything up fairly safely with Crushing Jaws. We have taken the bite out of that combo by linking the cooldowns of Chomp and Lurking Terror. We are offsetting this loss of burst by increasing her sustained damage potential and will continue to closely monitor. We realize that the loss of her blow-up potential will make Lurking Terror a much less exciting talent to pick and have future design ideas on how to spruce it up.

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Specialist

Abathur

Talents

• Level 1
  • Regenerative Microbes (E)
    • Healing reduced from 68 to 62

Developer Comment:Regenerative Microbes is dominating Abathur’s Level 1 talent tier, as well as causing issues at the pro level of play. We are taking a look at Abathur to see what improvements can be made, but wanted to get this change out sooner rather than later while we iterate on him.

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Azmodan

Talents

• Level 7
  • Bombardment (Q)
    • Range bonus decreased from 2 to 1.5
• Level 20
  • Pride (Q)
    • Damage bonus reduced from 125 to 100

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Support

Ana

Abilities

• Healing Dart (Q)
  • Base Heal amount decreased from 215 to 205

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Deckard 

Abilities

• Healing Potion (Q)
  • Cooldown increased from 3 to 4 seconds
  • Mana cost increased from 20 to 25
  • Healing increased from 219 to 240

Developer Comment:We agree with the feedback that games play out better when there are windows of time to take advantage of enemy cooldowns, particularly when it relates to Supports. This change is intended to reduce Deckard’s ability to keep himself or his allies alive when multiple enemies dive onto them. Going forward, we will be looking at ways to increase counter-play by adding these windows of time for players to take advantage of each other’s cooldowns.

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Stukov

Abilities

• Lurking Arm (E)
  • Range increased from 10 to 11

Developer Comment:Stukov’s changes a few months ago were intended to create new build paths while also reducing the dominance of his Lurking Arm build. While this had the effect we intended, Lurking Arm is now a much more risky ability to use for the majority of the game, whether or not he takes talents related to improving the ability. This change is intended to round this out a bit by letting Stukov use Lurking Arm a little more safely.

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Tyrande

Abilities

• Light of Elune (Q)
  • Charge cooldown increased from 15 to 16 seconds 

Talents

• Level 1
  • All Level 1 Talents have been moved to Level 7
• Level 7
  • All Level 7 Talents have been moved to Level 1

Developer Comment:The healing rework to Tyrande has made her a formidable force as of late and with this round of changes we think she will sit in a great spot. The swap of her level 1 and 7 talent tiers should open some new early-game decision-making while pushing back her cleanse mechanic a bit further into the game. We are still evaluating Celestial Attunement on the design side and may make larger changes at a later date.

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Whitemane

Abilities

• Desperate Plea (Q)
  • Cooldown increased from .3 to .5 seconds

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Warrior

Blaze

Abilities

• Bunker Drop (R)
  • Allies now have to channel for .5 seconds to enter the Bunker

Talents

• Level 4
  • Feeding the Flame (Q)
    • Cooldown reduction decreased from 2.5 seconds to 2 seconds
    • Additional functionality:
      • Now also refunds 5 Mana each time Flame Stream damages an enemy Hero
  • Oil Dispersal (W)
    • No longer increases the Slow amount of Oil Spill
  • Meltdown (Trait)
    • Damage reduction increased from 5 to 7% per stack
    • Maximum Stack Count reduced from 6 to 5
    • Maximum damage reduction increased from 30% to 35%

Developer Comment:These changes are intended to better round out Blaze’s Level 4 talents, as well as to address the disparity in his power between casual and pro play. Bunker Drop in particular has been used to great effectiveness at higher level play to avoid nearly all damage from enemy teams with little risk due to the ability to instantly get in and out of the Bunker. While players will still be able to avoid large amounts of burst damage with the Heroic, they will no longer be able to easily go in and out of the Bunker without putting themselves at risk.

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Mal'Ganis

Stats

• Basic Attack damage reduced from 105 to 100

Abilities

• Fel Claws (Q)
  • Cooldown increased from 8 to 9 seconds 
• Carrion Swarm (R)
  • Damage reduced from 66 to 63

Talents

• Level 7
  • Will of Tichondrius (Q)
    • Damage reduced from 4 to 3% of maximum Health

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Yrel

Talents

• Level 1
  • Maraad’s Insight (Passive)
    • Now only applies the buff when hitting an enemy Hero with a Basic Ability

Return 

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Bug Fixes

General

• Fixed a number of tooltip issues across the game.

Heroes

• Lt. Morales: Fixed an issue causing Safeguard to grant an incorrect amount of Armor.

User Interface

• Fixed an issue causing the discount amount displayed over Boosts to appear in the wrong place.

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