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[2019] Heroes of the Storm Balance Patch Notes - July 10, 2019

over 5 years ago - Blizzard Entertainment - Direct link

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

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General

Movement Speed Increase
- Increase the base Movement Speed of Heroes from 4.4 to 4.84 (+10%)

Developer Comment: We were evaluating this change last year for the gameplay updates but wanted some more time to soak it. While this is a modest increase, we feel like it makes the game feel a bit snappier, especially while in combat. We will be carefully watching how this affects Heroes with lots of skillshots and will balance as needed.

Each Mecha Tyrael's repeatable Mission can now only be completed up to 50 times
Gem purchasing has a new checkout interface. This streamlined system gives players access to more payment options from directly within the client

Heroes

Tank	Bruiser	Healer	Support	Melee	Ranged
Anub'arak	Artanis	Ana	Medivh	Illidan	Falstad
ETC	Chen	Anduin		Maiev	Greymane
Mal'Ganis	Imperius	Rehgar		Valeera	Mephisto
	Sonya			Zeratul	Orphea
	Yrel				Valla

Tank

Anub'arak

Base

Harden Carapace [W]
- Cooldown increased from 6 to 7 seconds

Abilities

Level 16
- Epicenter [E]
  - Cooldown reduction reduced from 1.25 seconds to 1 second

Developer Comment: Anub’arak is still slightly too powerful and popular compared to other Warriors, so we’re making some more adjustments to his overall power level to bring him in line. In the past, we reduced Harden Carapace’s cooldown soon after changing the Ability to provide significant Spell Armor, which greatly increased Anuba’rak’s overall survivability. We’re pulling back on that change now which should help other Warriors better compete with him.

ETC

Base

Guitar Solo [E]
- Cooldown increased from 8 to 9 seconds

Abilities

Level 1
Guitar Hero [E]
- Healing amount increased from 40% to 60%

Developer Comment: ETC is the Warrior with the highest win-rate in the game, and his popularity has seen a spike since our last balance patch. To get ahead of any issues, we’re slightly nerfing Guitar Solo’s cooldown and buffing Guitar Hero to compensate for the nerf.

Mal'Ganis

Base

Fel Claws [Q]
- Cooldown reduced from 9 to 8 seconds
- Mana cost reduced from 50 to 45

Developer Comment: We’re slightly buffing Mal’ganis’s base kit to make him a little more competitive with other Warriors. Since so much of his power is tied to Fel Claws, even 1 second off of its cooldown should be a meaningful boon to his ability to engage, disengage, and CC opponents.

Bruiser

Artanis

Abilities

Level 4
- Psionic Synergy [E]
  - Armor bonus increased from 20 to 30
- Shield Battery [Trait]
  - Cooldown reduction increased from 100% to 125%
Level 13
- Graviton Vortex [E]
  - Cooldown reduction increased from 1.25 to 1.75 seconds
- Templar's Zeal [Q]
  - Cooldown reduction increased from 5 to 6 seconds

Developer Comment: MY BUFFS FOR AIUR!

Chen

Base

Keg Smash [W]
- Delay before being able to cast Breath of Fire reduced from 1.5 to 1.25 seconds
- Duration of 10% Slow reduced from 1.5 to 1.25 seconds
- Duration of 40% Slow increased from 1.5 to 1.75 seconds

Abilities

Level 1
- Freshest Ingredients [Trait]
  - Additional Functionality: Upon quest completion, also reduces the cooldown of Fortifying Brew by 1 second
- Stormstout Secret Recipe [Passive]
  - Heal amount increased from 2% to 2.5%
Level 4
- Withering Flames
  - Spell Power reduction increased from 30% to 40%
Level 10
- Wandering Keg [R1]
  - Additional Functionality: Now also grants Chen 25 Armor for its duration
  - Cooldown reduced from 70 to 60 seconds
Level 13
- Touch of Honey [W]
  - Slow amount increased from 15 to 20
Level 16
- Celerity [E]
  - Armor bonus increased from 15 to 20

Developer Comment: Our favorite Brewmaster has made a big splash in the Nexus. We’ve read the feedback that players want the interaction between Keg Smash and Breath of Fire to be more fluid, so we’re reducing the delay between the two abilities, which should make them feel better to play with as people get used to his new cadence. We’re also buffing many of Chen’s talents, particularly those that are related to his survivability, which should help him stay in fights longer.

Imperius

Base

Molten Armor [E]
- Healing reduced from 100% to 50% of the damage dealt
- Bonus healing against Heroes reworded to say it is increased to 100% (baseline functionality is the same)

Valorous Brand [Trait]
- Consuming a mark heals Imperius for 70
- Damage bonus reduced from 30% to 20%

Abilities

Level 1
- Impaling Light [Q]
  - Redesigned: Celestial Charge’s final damage is increased by 50% and cooldown is reduced by 1 second for each Valorous Brand on the target when the Stun completes
- Consuming Flame [W]
  - The first enemy Hero hit with Solarion’s Fire also restores 30 Mana

Level 4
- Bulwark of Flame [W]
  - Removed
- Unshakeable Faith [E]
  - Removed
- Battle Hunger [Trait]
  - Redesigned: Increased the healing of Valorous Brand by 50%
- Sovereign Armor [E]
  - Moved from 16
  - Armor reduced from 50 to 25
  - Duration reduced from 2.5 to 1.5 seconds
  - Damaging an enemy Hero with Molten Armor increased the duration by 0.5 seconds
- [NEW] Press Forward [Passive]
  - Damaging an enemy Hero sets the duration of a Regeneration Globe on Imperius to 5 seconds (unless it was already higher)

Level 7
- Blaze of Glory [W]
  - The secondary explosion from Blaze of Glory now consumes and benefits from Valorous Brand
- Holy Fervor [Active]
  - Now has a maximum duration of 10 seconds
  - The cooldown for the Ability begins after the first attack, instead of the last
  - Cooldown increased from 25 to 30 seconds
  - Tooltip updated to reflect that the damage is a percentage bonus and stacks additively with other percentage bonuses

Level 13
- Divine Rage [E]
  - Redesigned: Consuming a Valorous Brand reduces the cooldown of Molten Armor by 1 second
- Heat of Battle [E]
  - Redesigned: Increase Molten Armor’s healing against Heroes by 2% for every 1% Health Imperius is missing
Level 16
- Celestial Swiftness [Q]
  - Redesigned: Gain 20% Movement Speed for 5 seconds after casting Celestial Charge; Gain 40% Attack Speed for 5 seconds for each Hero Stunned with Celestial Charge

Valorous Pursuit [Active]
- Moved from level 20
- Cooldown increased from 12 to 20 seconds

Level 20
- [NEW] Brand of Solarion [Trait]
  - Reduce the duration of Valorous Brand to 3 seconds, but it is no longer consumed when triggered
- Impervious [Active]
  - Duration increased from 2 to 3 seconds

Developer Comment: Most of these changes are designed to make a few more of Imperius' Talents viable and interesting, as well as provide more opportunity for Imperius' players to show their skill with the Hero while also allowing for mechanics that opponents have more counterplay with. We shouldn't see a large shift in Imperius' role or playstyle, but rather more interesting interactions between him and his opponents.

Sonya

Base

Health increased from 2341 to 2450
Health Regeneration increased from 4.879 to 5.105

Developer Comment: Sonya has been a bit out of the meta in recent months. She has a good talent tree and no outstanding issues, so we’re giving her a small buff to help her compete with other heroes in her role.

Yrel

Abilities

Level 4
- Hand of Freedom [Active]
  - Can now be used on Yrel
  - Cooldown reduced from 22 to 20 seconds
  - Movement Speed bonus reduced from 50% to 35%
Level 7
- Samaara's Light [Passive]
  - Removed
- Righteous Momentum [W]
  - Removed Functionality: No longer increases Yrel’s Movement Speed while at maximum charge
  - Additional Functionality: Yrel’s Movement Speed is increased by 5%. Instead of being Slowed while charging Righteous Hammer, she instead quadruples the bonus
Level 13
- Aldor Peacekeeper [Q]
  - Damage reduction increased from 30% to 40%
- Repentance [E]
  - Slow duration increased from .5 to .75 seconds

Level 16
- Templar's Verdict [W]
  - Damage bonus increased 4% to 6% maximum Health

Developer Comment: We gave Yrel some buffs not too long ago, and we’re doing it again to slowly bring her power level up. Like Illidan, Yrel can be a monster when she gets going, so we’re incrementally increasing her power so that she doesn’t go out of control. She can now cast Hand of Freedom on herself, which should make the talent much less situational. With this round of buffs, we are looking at bringing up her mid-late game power so that she has a more meaningful power spike as the game goes on and her enemies gain more options to deal with her.

Healer

Ana

Abilities

Level 1
- Slumber Shells [E]
  - New Functionality: Enemy Heroes are Slowed by 25% for 3 seconds when they wake up from Sleep Dart
Level 4
- Overdose [E]
  - Doses applied with Sleeping Dart increased from 3 to 4

Level 4
- Anti-Healer [W]
  - Bonus area of Biotic Grenade reduced from 100% to 25%
  - Fixed a bug where the bonus duration was showing as 20% when it is 25%

Developer Comment: We’re changing up some of Ana’s talents to better compete with Biotic Grenade-related choices. Slumber Shells and Overdose are receiving some buffs and changes, and Anti-Healer’s bonus radius to Biotic Grenade is being dramatically reduced. While it still remains a powerful talent, Ana players will now have to be much more precise to deny healing on multiple members of the enemy team.

Anduin

Anduin Header

Abilities

Level 7
- Blessed Recovery [Passive]
  - Tooltip now shows the required damage taken to proc its effect
- Blinding Heal [Q]
  - Heal amount increased from 95 to 104

Developer Comment: To give players more insight into what the damage threshold is that they need to meet for its effect, Blessed Recovery will now show the damage required for its effect to proc.

Rehgar

Abilities

Changed the order of various talents ot better match other Heroes (Q, W, E, etc.)

Level 4
- Spiritwalker's Grace [Q]
  - Removed
- Totemic Projection [E]
  - Moved to Level 7
Level 4
- Tidal Waves [Q]
  - Additional Functionality: Also reduces the Mana cost of Chain Heal from 55 to 40

Developer Comment: Spiritwalker’s Grace is not performing compared to other options on its tier, and its synergy with Tidal Waves is strong enough that it warrants the talents being combined. To add some flavor to his Level 4 talents, we’re also giving Rehgar the option to pick Totemic Projection on this tier, which should open up some new options now that it can be picked in combination with talents like Blood and Thunder and Cleanse.

Support

Medivh

Abilities

Level 7
- Mystic Assault [Q]
  - Damage and Healing bonuses increased from 40% to 50% of damage dealt
Level 20
- Arcane Brilliance [Active]
  - Spell Power bonus increased from 10% to 15%
- Dust of Disappearance [Active]
  - Duration increased from 20 to 40 seconds

Developer Comment: We’re making some small adjustments to Medivh’s under-picked talents. Mystic Assault sees a fairly significant buff to its overall output as long as Medivh can consistently land Arcane Rifts, whereas Arcane Brilliance and Dust of Disappearance should now better be able to compete with the other Level 20 options.

Melee

Illidan

Abilities

Level 4
- Rapid Chase [Q]
  - Movement Speed bonus increased from 15% to 20%
  - Movement Speed bonus duration increased from 2 to 3 seconds
Level 7
- Reflexive Block [Q]
  - Number of attacks blocked increased from 2 to 3

Level 16
- Fiery Brand [Passive]
  - Damage increased from 7% to 8% maximum Health
- Blades of Azzinoth [Active]
  - Now starts with Blades of Azzinoth able to be cast when the talent is picked

Developer Comment: Due to his resourceless, infinitely life-stealing, highly mobile nature, even a small buff can turn Illidan into an unstoppable nightmare. It’s been long enough though, and a few talent buffs couldn’t possibly cause him to go wildly out of control… right? Right.

Maiev

Abilities

Level 4
- Sudden Vengeance [E]
  - Damage increased from 5% to 6% maximum Health
Level 7
- Bonds of Corruption [W]
  - Adjusted Functionality: Now reduces Armor by 10 for 4 seconds

Developer Comment: We’re slightly adjusting Bonds of Corruption to better take advantage of Maiev’s ability to capitalize on good Umbral Bind pulls by following up with multiple casts of Fan of Knives. This should allow the talent to be more generally useful outside of teams that primarily take advantage of auto-attacks for their damage.

Valeera

Abilities

Level 1
- Vigor [Passive]
  - Energy Regeneration increased from 2.5 to 3 per second
- Subtlety [Trait]
  - Energy Regeneration increased from 8 to 10

Level 4
- Hemorrhage [E]
  - Bonus Basic Attack damage increased from 30% to 40%
- Initiative [Trait]
  - Additional Functionality: Also grants Valeera an additional 15% Movement Speed for 3 seconds when using Ambush, Cheap Shot, or Garrote

Level 7
- Fatal Finesse [W]
  - Damage bonus per stack increased from 4 to 6
  - Stacks required to finish quest reduced from 20 to 15
  - This changes the maximum bonus damage to Blade Flurry from 80 to 90
Level 16
- Thistle Tea [Active]
  - Cooldown reduced from 60 to 40 seconds

Developer Comment: Since we have not made changes to her for some time, we took a pass at Valeera’s talents and found some that could use improvements.

Zeratul

Abilities

Level 1
- Shadow Hunter [E]
  - Cooldown reduction from Basic Attacks increased from 1 to 1.5 seconds
- Move Unseen [Trait]
  - Additional functionality: Reduce the cooldown of Permanent Cloak by 1 second
Level 7
- Wormhole [E]
  - Adjusted Functionality: Wormhole cannot be cast for 1.25 seconds after Blink is used
  - Duration that Zeratul can use Wormhole increased from 3 to 4 seconds
- Warp Skirmisher [Passive]
  - Bonus damage increased from 40% to 50%
  - No longer requires Zeratul to attack a target within 6 seconds of teleporting with Vorpal Blade
  - Additional Functionality: Bonus damage also activates on Zeratul’s first Basic Attack after entering Stealth
Level 16
- Sentenced to Death [W]
  - Adjusted Functionality: Bonus damage also applies to enemies who are Slowed by Singularity Spike
  - Damage bonus reduced from 30% to 25%

Developer Comment: For a long time, Zeratul’s talent picks have been dominated by the combination of Wormhole and Cleave-related talents. We’ve tried to nerf various Cleave talents in the past to promote other playstyles, but it has not yielded effective-enough results. We believe that the main culprit is the power of Wormhole giving Zeratul too much control over dealing damage incredibly quickly with Cleave before enemies can respond. With this change, Zeratul will have to commit for a little over 1 second to where he teleports to before being able to return to his starting location, which should give opponents who are paying attention to him time to punish him for mistakes. In addition to this change, we’re buffing some of Zeratul’s alternative talents to promote his other playstyles.

Ranged Assassin

Falstad

Abilities

Level 4
- Updraft [E]
  - Shield bonus increased from 40% to 60%
Level 7
- Secret Weapon [Q]
  - Bonus damage increased from 60% to 80%
Level 16
- Crippling Hammer [Q]
  - Slow amount increased from 50% to 60%

Developer Comment: It’s been awhile since we last touched Falstad, so we took a look at his talents and found some spots that could use some buffs.

Greymane

Base

Basic Attack damage increased from 140 to 148

Abilities

Level 7
- Incendiary Elixir [Q]
  - Damage bonus per stack increased from 15 to 20
Level 10
- Cursed Bullet [R2]
  - Damage increased from 35% to 40%

Developer Comment: Greymane has a storied history of being an incredibly powerful, consistent hero in the hands of experienced players. While we had to nerf him several times over the years, we believe it’s been long enough, and so we’re giving him some small buffs to be brought back into the meta.

Mephisto

Abilities

Level 1
- Anger [Passive]
  - Removed
- Furiour Spark [W]
  - Damage increased from 90 to 95
- Malicious Intent [E]
  - Spell Power bonus increased from 15% to 20%

Level 4
- Spite [Passive]
  - Healing Globe duration bonus increased from 100% to 125%
  - Cooldown reduction increased from .5 to .75 seconds

Level 13
- Shard of Hate [Passive]
  - Additional Functionality: Now also causes Mephisto’s attacks to activate Lord of Hatred, reducing Basic Ability cooldowns by 1 second

Developer Comment: Anger and Shard of Hate have such obvious synergy that it is too often a mistake to not take one without the other. We’re combining their functionalities while also doing a pass on his other underperforming talents.

Orphea

Abilities

Level 1
- En Pointe [Q]
  - Bonus damage increased from 75% to 90%
- Growing Nightmare [E]
  - Adjusted functionality: If at least 2 enemy Heroes are hit by Wave of Dread, then its eruption’s damage is increased by 60%

Level 4
- Allegrissimo [Q]
  - Shadow Waltz cooldown when hitting enemy Heroes at its end changed from 1 second to .75 seconds
- Backbiter [W]
  - Bonus maximum Health increased from 10% to 15%

Level 7
- Insatiable [W]
  - Chomp’s cooldown when hitting enemy Heroes changed from 2 seconds to 1.5 seconds

Developer Comment: The combination of Ancestral Strength and Fright is both powerful and currently too attractive compared to other options, so we’re beefing up alternatives to promote Orphea’s other playstyles.

Valla

Base

Health increased from 1273 to 1340

Abilities

Level 1
- Caltrops [E]
  - Slow amount increased from 25% to 40%
Level 16
- Seething Hatred [Trait]
  - Removed Functionality: No longer increases the duration of Hatred
  - New Functionality: Valla gains 15% Spell Power while at 10 stacks of Hatred

Developer Comment: Similar to Greymane, Valla has had a storied history of being a powerhouse hero in the right situations. She has not been meta for some time, so we’re buffing her up some to incentivize people to try her a little more often.

Bug Fixes/Updates

General

Removed Sgt. Hammer from ARAM

Developer Comment: We have been receiving a lot of feedback regarding Sergeant Hammer's playstyle in ARAM. While we are looking to make larger changes to the game mode in the near future, we decided it was best to remove her from the ARAM shuffle-pick for the time being

[MechaStorm II] Fixed MechaStorm countdown timer
[MechaStorm II] Fixed MechaStorm repeatable event quests to 50 times
Fixed issue where voice lines for Maltheal couldn’t be used while equipped with the Xenotech Malthael skin
[MechaStorm II] Fixed issues with text being cut off during Special Event Quest Tooltip Windows when switching Tooltip Windows

Battlegrounds

Hanamura Temple
- Swordsman Mercenary camps respawn timer increased from 120 to 150 seconds
Mercenary
- Impaler Mercenary Basic Attack damage has been increased from 50 to 65

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