Heroes of the StormJan 6, 2017 2:00 pm CT

Heroes of the Storm balance patch nerfs Ragnaros, Thrall, and Zul’jin

By Alex Ziebart
Editor-in-Chief, Emeritus

Hot on the heels of Zul’jin’s release in Heroes of the Storm, the developers have released the latest balance patch which includes a number of buffs, nerfs, and bug fixes. Ragnaros, Thrall, Dehaka, Rehgar, and Zul’jin are all being tuned down in various ways — notably Thrall’s Earthquake and Zul’jin’s Taz’dingo. Taz’dingo is receiving a cooldown increase to 90 seconds from 60 seconds, while Thrall’s Earthquake is receiving a cooldown increase to 100 seconds from 60 seconds. Thrall’s Sundering is receiving a slight damage buff, bringing it closer to what it was before the ability’s initial nerf.

It’s not all nerfs, though. Varian is receiving slight buffs to Charge — reducing its mana cost and shaving a couple of seconds off of its cooldown. You can check the full patch notes below or over on Battle.net.

Originally Posted by The post author (Official Post)

Assassin

Ragnaros

Abilities

Empower Sulfuras (Q)
- Damage reduced from 211 to 201

Talents

Level 20
- Heroic Difficulty (D)
  - Health and Damage bonus reduced from 50 to 25%

Thrall

Abilities

Earthquake (R)
- Cooldown increased from 60 to 100 seconds
Sundering (R)
- Damage increased from 274 to 290

Zul’jin

Abilities

Taz’dingo! (R)
- Cooldown increased from 60 to 90 seconds
- Mana cost increased from 50 to 75

Developer Comments: We were testing Taz’dingo internally at 60 seconds but had planned on shipping it at 90. This change didn’t make it into the release for Zul’jin but we wanted to get it in place as quickly as possible.

Multi-Class

Varian

Abilities

Charge (E)
- Cooldown reduced from 16 to 14 seconds
- Mana cost reduced from 50 to 45

Talents

Level 4
- Warbringer (E)
  - Cooldown reduction decreased from 8 to 6 seconds

Support

Lt. Morales

Talents

Level 16
- Inoculation (W)
  - Removed

Developer Comments: With the newly implemented Armor system, Inoculation and Shield Sequencer were both doing very similar things for Morales. We like the interaction and decision making that Shield Sequencer grants, so we have decided to keep it and remove Inoculation for now.

Rehgar

Abilities

Bloodlust (R)
- Duration reduced from 10 to 8 seconds
- Movement Speed bonus reduced from 30 to 25%

Warrior

Dehaka

Talents

Level 1
- Primal Aggression (W)
  - Bonus damage to Minions and Mercenaries reduced from 100 to 90%
Level 7
- Symbiosis (W)
  - Cooldown reduction per Hero hit decreased from 0.5 to 0.4 seconds
Level 13
- Primal Swarm (W)
  - Armor reduction after being hit by Dark Swarm decreased from -15 to -10

Diablo

Abilities

Fire Stomp (W)
- Initial damage reduced from 60 to 54
- Return damage reduced from 90 to 81

Talents

Level 13
- Fire Devil (W)
  - Damage reduced from 22 to 20 per second

Bug Fixes

Heroes, Abilities, and Talents

Azmodan: Can no longer mount while channeling All Shall Burn.
Dehaka: Fixed an issue that caused Dark Swarm to deal more damage than intended to Minions, and Mercenaries after learning Primal Aggression.
Dehaka: Fixed an issue that caused Dark Swarm to deal bonus damage to Monsters after learning Primal Aggression.

Blizzard Watch is made possible by people like you.
Please consider supporting our Patreon!