[2019] Heroes of the Storm Balance Patch Notes - November 22, 2019

Heroes of the Storm has just been updated with Hero balance changes! Read on for details.

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General

Generic Talents

• Seasoned Marksman
  • Cooldown reduced from 60 to 30 seconds.
  • Attack Speed bonus duration increased from 3 to 4 seconds.

Developer Comment: Since its removal on many Heroes, Seasoned Marksman has fallen off a bit due to needing to be tuned around so many different kits.  Now that it has a home in fewer places, we’re giving it a fairly substantial buff to make it more relevant.

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Heroes

TANK	BRUISER	HEALER	MELEE	RANGED
Arthas	Leoric	Alexstrasza	Alarak	Genji
Diablo	Sonya	Brightwing		Junkrat
		Rehgar		Kel'Thuzad
		Tyrande		Lunara
		Whitemane		Nazeebo
				Zagara

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Tank

Arthas

Talents

• Fixed Arthas’s talents so that they appear in the same order as other Heroes [Q, W, E, etc.]
• Level 4
  • Deathlord [Q]
    • No longer increases the range of Death Coil.
    • Additional functionality: If Death Coil is used on an enemy Hero, its Mana cost is refunded.

Developer Comment: Deathlord has been a fairly awkward talent for a long time, providing Arthas with little output and utility, even when going for a Q build. We’re changing it to now give Arthas a fairly potent Poke tool by making it possible for him to infinitely drain the Health of enemy Heroes over time if they stay near him, which should only become more powerful as he gets his other Q talents as the game goes on.

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Diablo

Talents

• Level 4
  • Sacrificial Soul [Q]
    • Souls gained from Stunning an enemy Hero with Shadow Charge increased from 5 to 10.

Developer Comment: Sacrificial Soul is not performing as well as its peers, so we’re buffing it!

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Bruiser

Leoric

Base

• Skeletal Swing [Q]
  • Cooldown reduced from 14 to 12 seconds.
  • Mana cost reduced from 80 to 70.

Talents

• Level 13
  • Unyielding Despair [W]
    • Cooldown reduction if Drain Hope finishes increased from 2 to 3 seconds.

Developer Comment: Swinging giant maces is awesome. Undead skeleton kings are awesome. Leoric’s now a little more awesome. Play him.

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Sonya

Base

• Whirlwind [W]
  • Damage increased from 63 to 69.

Talents

• Level 10
  • Leap [R1]
    • Cooldown reduced from 70 to 60 seconds.
• Level 16
  • Rampage [Passive]
    • Ancient Spear cooldown reduction increased from .5 seconds to 1.5 seconds.

Developer Comment: Sonya’s fallen off a bit, so we’re giving her a few small buffs which should make her feel better to play.

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Healer

Alexstrasza

Talents

• Level 1
  • Flames of Fury [E]
    • Additional functionality: Reduce the Mana cost of Flame Buffet from 50 to 40.
• Level 4
  • Heat Exhaustion [E]
    • Slow amount reduced from 60% to 50%.
    • Additional functionality: Also causes the Slow from Flame Buffet to no longer decay.
• Level 13
  • Dragon Scales [Passive]
    • Armor amount increased from 40 to 50.
• Level 16
  • Tough Love [Q]
    • Armor amount increased from 20 to 25.
    • Armor duration increased from 2 to 2.5 seconds.
• Level 20
  • Ancient Flame [Trait]
    • No longer reduces Alexstrasza’s attack speed.

Developer Comment: It’s been awhile since we made changes to Alexstrasza, so we did a pass and gave her some love.

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Brightwing

Talents

• Level 1
  • Greater Polymorph [W]
    • No longer resets the cooldown of Polymorph on Takedowns.
    • Additional functionality: If Brightwing hits an enemy Hero with Arcane Flare’s center damage while they are Polymorphed, then reduce Polymorph’s cooldown by 6 seconds and gain 50 Mana.
• Level 7
  • Critical Mist [Trait]
    • Adjusted functionality: Soothing Mist heals allied Heroes for 150. Double this healing if a disabling effect is removed.
• Level 13
  • Safety Dust [E]
    • Bonus allied healing increased from 25% to 75%.
    • Now has a Crit kicker to show when the bonus healing is applied.

Developer Comment: We’re changing Greater Polymorph to have a more reliable bonus provided she can combo her Arcane Flare with Polymorph. We also saw an opportunity to give Critical Mist some more reliable Healing output, so now it will Heal her teammates regardless if she removes a status effect or not.

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Rehgar

Talents

• Level 4
  • Feral Heart [Z]
    • No longer increases Rehgar’s Mana regeneration while in Ghost Form.
    • Additional functionality: Ghost Wolf attacks give Rehgar 1% of his maximum Mana, quadrupled against enemy Heroes.

Developer Comment: We found it a little awkward that Feral Heart primarily motivates Rehgar to stay in Ghost Wolf form, and to not attack enemies or do things that are engaging for the hero. We’re changing the Mana bonus portion of the talent to reward Rehgar for paying aggressively, and also allowing the talent to better synergize with other Z talents on his tree.

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Tyrande

Talents

• Level 1
  • Everlasting Light [Q]
    • Healing bonus increased from 45% to 60%.
• Level 4
  • Trueshot Aura [Active]
    • Active damage bonus increased from 15% to 25%.
• Level 10
  • Starfall [R2]
    • Damage increased from 88 to 92.
• Level 13
  • Quickening Blessing [Q]
    • Light of Elune’s bonus Movement Speed increased from 15% to 20%.
• Level 20
  • Eyes of the Huntress [R1]
    • Reveal duration increased from 2 to 10 seconds.
    • No longer requires allies to be below 50% Health to gain bonus healing.
  • Celestial Wrath [R2]
    • Additional functionality: Increase the Slow from Starfall to 40%.

Developer Comment: While powerful in the right circumstances, Tyrande has not been seen as much as we would like. There were a few outliers in Tyrande’s talents in regards to their performance which we are addressing with these changes that should help bring her more into the meta.

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Whitemane

• Indulgence at Level 4 has been changed to be classified as a Trait talent.

Base

• Inquisition [W]
  • Cooldown reduced from 14 to 12 seconds.
  • Damage increased from 47 to 50.
• Zeal [Trait]
  • Cooldown reduced from 60 to 40 seconds.

Talents

• Level 1
  • Pity the Frail [W]
    • Cooldown reduction increased from 1 to 1.5 seconds.
• Level 4
  • Martyrdom [Q]
    • Bonus Healing increased from 20% to 30%.
• Level 10
  • Scarlet Aegis [R1]
    • Cooldown reduced from 90 to 60 seconds.
• Level 20
  • Scarlet Crusade [R1]
    • Unstoppable duration increased from 1 to 2 seconds.

Developer Comment: We’re buffing some of Whitemane’s kit to allow her to better compete against other Healers, and to better round out her talent tree. We believe the buffs to Inquisition should make it feel much better to use, and we’re finally reducing Scarlet Aegis’s cooldown (no really we are, we double-checked this time!), which we missed implementing with the last patch.

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Melee Assassin

Alarak

Base

• Discord Strike [Q]
  • Damage reduced from 175 to 165.

Talents

• Level 1
  • Ruthless Momentum [W]
    • Health threshold for cooldown reduction increased from 75% to 80%.
• Level 4
  • Show of Force [Trait]
    • Damage reduced from 65 to 61.

Developer Comment: Alarak has become a dominant force, particularly at higher levels of play. We’re toning him down a bit to make room for other heroes to shine.

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Ranged Assassin

Genji

Talents

• Level 4
  • Strike at the Heart [E]
    • Damage dealt reduced from 138 to 134.
    • Damage is now dealt after 1 second instead of over 2 seconds.
• Level 7
  • Augmented Shield [W]
    • Shield amount increased from 50% to 75% of damage taken.
  • Dodge [Passive]
    • Time before gaining a stack of Dodge reduced from 8 to 7 seconds.
• Level 10
  • X-Strike [R2]
    • Initial damage increased from 135 to 145.
    • Final damage increased from 270 to 290.

Developer Comment: We saw some feedback that Strike at the Heart is a little awkward now that it doesn’t match the duration of Genji’s reset window on Swift Strike, so we’re changing it to now deal all of its damage after 1 second. We’re also changing a few of his other talents to better compete with their peers.

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Junkrat

Talents

• Level 4
  • Boom Pow [W]
    • Cooldown reduction increased from 9 to 10 seconds.
• Level 7
  • Sticky Wicket [E]
    • Silence duration reduced from 2.5 to 2 seconds.
• Level 10
  • RIP-Tire [R1]
    • Maximum damage reduced from 775 to 720.
    • Minimum damage reduced from 475 to 445.

Developer Comment: Junkrat has been performing very well since his rework. His W build is still not up to par compared to its competitors, but we believe it’s very close, so we’re slightly nerfing Sticky Wicket while also buffing BOOM POW since it’s his lynchpin talent to make the W build come online. We’re also nerfing the damage of RIP-Tire, as it is outperforming compared to Rocket Ride, as well as influencing team fights a little much, especially when upgraded at Level 20. We like the powerful, game-breaking feeling that Extra Oomph provides at Level 20 (the dream is that all talents at this stage of the game can feel just as epic), so we’re going to hold off on nerfing it until we see how this change pans out.

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Kel'Thuzad

Talents

• Level 7
  • Chilling Touch [Passive]
    • Bonus damage reduced from 100% to 80%.
• Level 10
  • Frost Blast [R1]
    • Starting missile speed increased by 60%.
• Level 13
  • Icy Grasp [W]
    • Bonus Slow amount increased from 15% to 20%.
    • Cooldown reduction increased from .4 to .5 seconds.

Developer Comment: These changes should be fairly minor, and are just intended to better round out some of Kel’thuzad’s talent tiers.

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Lunara

Base

• Nature’s Toxin [Trait]
  • Damage scaling per level reduced from 5% to 4%.
  • Damage increased from 30 to 36.

Developer Comment: As the information can be a bit hidden, we’re re-evaluating where we have scaling on heroes that deviates from the normal 4% per level. While we have some good balance reasons for doing this, Lunara’s Nature’s Toxin was not one of them. Because of this, we’re changing its scaling to match other heroes, which will result in a decent buff in the early-mid game and a very slight nerf to her in the late game. Overall this should be a moderate buff for her for most of the game.

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Nazeebo

Talents

• Level 1
  • Widowmakers [Q]
    • Additional functionality: Reduce the Mana cost of Corpse Spiders by 10.
    • Additional functionality: Upon quest completion, reduce the cooldown of Corpse Spiders by 2 seconds.
  • Thing of the Deep [Passive]
    • Additional functionality: Quest: After reaching 50 stacks of Voodoo Ritual gain 10% Spell Power. After reaching 100 stacks of Voodoo Ritual, gain an additional 10% Spell Power.
• Level 7
  • Dead Rush [W]
    • Bonus damage increased from 75% to 100%.
• Level 20
  • Annihilating Spirit [R2]
    • No longer increases the Movement Speed of Ravenous Spirit.
    • Additional functionality: Each time Ravenous Spirit deals damage to an enemy Hero, its damage during that cast is increased by 5%.

Developer Comment: We saw an opportunity to make some of Nazeebo’s lesser-picked talents more powerful, and more importantly, more fun. So we took it!

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Zagara

Base

• Basic Attack damage increased from 76 to 85.

Talents

• Level 1
  • Volatile Acid [Q]
    • No longer increases Baneling damage against non-Heroic targets.
    • Additional functionality: Increase the damage of Banelings by 20%.
  • Corpse Feeders [E]
    • No longer reduces Roachling damage against non-Heroic sources.
    • Additional functionality: Increase the Health of Roachlings by 30%.
  • Infest [Active]
    • Initial Damage bonus for Ranged Minions increased from 100% to 125%.
• Level 4
  • Serrated Spines [Passive]
    • Bonus attack damage changed from .3 flat damage to .2% per stack.
• Level 7
  • Baneling Massacre [Q]
    • No longer increases the damage of Banelings.
    • Additional functionality: Reduce the Charge cooldown of Banelings by .5 seconds.
• Level 10
  • Devouring Maw [R1]
    • Mana cost reduced from 100 to 70.
    • Damage increased from 88 to 94.
• Level 16
  • Brood Expansion [W]
    • Removed.
  • Corrosive Saliva [W]
    • Damage reduced from 2.5% to 1.75% maximum Health.
    • Additional functionality: Now also causes Roachlings to deal additional damage equal to 1.75% maximum Health to enemy Heroes.
  • Mutalisk [W]
    • Additional functionality: Reduce the cooldown of Hunter Killer by 4 seconds.
  • New Talent: Jagged Barbs [Trait]
    • When on Creep, Zagara’s attack range is increased by an additional 10% and her Basic Attack damage is increased by 30%.

Developer Comment: We’re changing around quite a bit about Zagara, with a few goals in mind. Firstly, we believe we went a little far in reducing her power in the solo-lane, so we’re increasing her Basic Attack damage, which will help her throughout the game in a way that enemies should always be able to react to and punish her accordingly if she misplays. We’re also changing around her Level 1 talents to be more universally usable outside of PvE scenarios. For Zagara players who want to specialize in Sieging enemy bases, Infest will be the go-to talent on the tier, whereas the other talents will be more generally useful. Lastly, we’re significantly buffing her late-game power, but making her Level 16 talents fairly impactful, which should help her scale into the late game as a competent damage dealer during team fights.

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