Heroes of the Storm > NewsJun 28, 2017 12:20 pm CT

Latest Heroes of the Storm hotfixes nerf Genji, Malthael, and more

By Mitch

It was less than an hour ago that Blizzard teased what we expect to be Stukov’s arrival in the Nexus, which means it’s also time to make adjustments to Heroes of the Storm’s previous new hotness, Malthael. Today’s hotfixes nerf quite a few of Malthael’s talents, particularly those which interacted with his Tormented Souls Heroic ability. These changes will hopefully bring him down to a lower winrate — though, given how squishy I found him to be, I’m a bit surprised to hear he was apparently performing so well.

Less surprising are the nerfs to Genji, who has been tearing opponents apart when in the right hands — and gleefully hopping around to the chagrin of his teammates when in the wrong ones. These two heroes are just the beginning, however, and it’s worth taking a look at the notes below to see if your favorite hero received any nerfs or buffs.

Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment (Official Post)

Assassin

Genji

Talents

Level 4
- Shuriken Mastery (Q)
  - Bonus damage reduced from 30 to 25
- Dragon Claw (Active)
  - Damage required reduced from 375 to 330
  - Damage dealt increased from 180 to 190
Level 7
- Dodge (Passive)
  - Cooldown increased from 8 to 12 seconds

Malthael

Abilities

Tormented Souls (R)
- Cooldown increased from 80 to 100 seconds

Talents

Level 4
- Throwing Shade (E)
  - Cooldown reduction increased from 2 to 4 seconds
  - Added functionality:
    - Now also reduces the Mana cost of Death Shroud on quest completion from 50 to 25
Level 13
- Ethereal Existence (Trait)
  - Armor reduced from 15 to 10 per Hero hit
  - Maximum Armor bonus increased from 45 to 50
- Inevitable End (Active)
  - Cooldown reduced from 30 to 20 seconds
Level 16
- Memento Mori (Trait)
  - Damage bonus reduced from 100% to 80%
Level 20
- Reaper of Souls (R)
  - Added functionality:
    - Now passively increases the duration of Tormented Souls by 1 second

Developer Comment: Death has arrived, and he’s definitely doing his job (somewhat too well). His winrate has climbed a lot faster (and higher) than anticipated, so the majority of these changes are nerfs. In particular, there was really powerful synergy between Trait focused Talent choices and Tormented Souls. We think that by reducing the power of each individual part, it will bring this angel down to Earth.

Thrall

Abilities

Frostwolf Resilience (Trait)
- Heal amount increased from 210 to 223

Talents

Level 1
- Rolling Thunder (Q)
  - Mana return increased from 10 to 12
Level 4
- Feral Resilience (W)
  - New functionality:
    - Heroes hit by Feral Spirit grant Thrall 3 charges of Frostwolf Resilience
Level 13
- Spirit Shield (Passive)
  - Cooldown reduction per Frostwolf Resilience stack increased from 5 to 8 seconds
Level 20
- Wind Rush (Active)
  - Cooldown increased from 70 to 80 seconds

Zeratul

Talents

Level 16
- Sentenced to Death (W)
  - Bonus damage decreased from 50% to 40%

Zul’jin

Abilities

Guillotine (R)
- Base damage increased from 210 to 350
- Damage multiplier at extremely low health decreased from 500% to 300%

Talents

Level 20
- Ensnare (Active)
  - Range increased from 7.8 to 10
  - Cooldown reduced from 60 to 45 seconds
  - Duration increased from 2 to 3 seconds

Specialist

Medivh

Talents

Level 7
- Raven Familiar (E)
  - Ravens created by this talent will now only attack Heroic targets

Probius

Abilities

Pylon Overcharge (R)
- No longer gives Pylons bonus Health

Support

Brightwing

Abilities

Pixie Dust (E)
- Movement Speed duration reduced from 4 to 3 seconds
- No longer grants Block charges
- New functionality:
  - Grants 30% Spell Armor for 3 seconds

Talents

Level 13
- Shield Dust (E)
  - Added functionality:
    - Pixie Dust also grants 50 Physical Armor for the duration

Lúcio

Abilities

Healing Boost (W)
- Amp it Up Healing increased from 14.5 to 15.5

Talents

Level 16
- Up the Frequency (E)
  - Cooldown per Basic Attack increased from .35 to .45 seconds

Developer Comment: The idea here is to give back his intentional healing since we took out so much of his passive healing away. This may also hopefully help Reverse Amp/Bring it Together pick rates on their tiers as well.

Tassadar

Abilities

Plasma Shield (Q)
- Lifesteal amount reduced from 45% to 40%

Talents

Level 1
- Khaydarin Resonance (Q)
  - First unlock shield value bonus increased from 15% to 20%
  - Second unlock shield bonus increased from 30% to 40%
- Templar’s Will (Passive)
  - Damage bonus of first quest unlock reduced from 150% to 125%
Level 4
- Khala’s Embrace (Q)
  - Life steal amount reduced from 90% to 75%

Uther

Talents

Level 1
- Hammer of the Lightbringer (E)
  - Cooldown reduction per Basic Attack increased from 1 to 1.5 seconds
Level 4
- Pursuit of Justice (E)
  - Movement Speed increased from 20% to 25%
Level 7
- Guardian of Ancient Kings (Trait)
  - Armor reduced from 75 to 50
Level 16
- Benediction (Active)
  - Cooldown increased from 40 to 60 seconds

Developer Comment: When we looked at how to nerf our Paladin, we knew that Uther was designed to be great at shutting down enemy teams with lockdown, and we want to continue with that as one of his major strengths, but Guardian of Ancient Kings negated these enemy plays too well. Statistically, it isn’t outperforming the other Talents on the tier by a significant margin unless you look at the highest levels of play, but at those levels the power of this talent could feel frustrating to play against. After these changes, we think it will be a situational pick against teams with a lot of hard disables, but may not be the best choice if the team only has 1 or 2 things that will provide the increased Armor.

Warriors

D.Va

Stats

Mech Basic Attack Damage reduced from 22.5 to 21
Mech Health reduced from 2060 to 2000
Mech Health Regeneration reduced from 4.86 to 4.17

Talents

Level 1
- Hit the Nitrous (Q)
  - Damage bonus reduced from 100% to 50%

Dehaka

Stats

Basic Attack damage reduced from 110 to 105

Abilities

Brushstalker (Z)
- Cooldown increased from 50 to 60 seconds

Talents

Level 13
- Ferocious Stalker (W)
  - New functionality:
    - Increase the damage of Dark Swarm by 40% while the Brushstalker buff is active

Bug Fixes

General

Fixed several issues that could cause the game client to crash.

Art

Malthael: Casting Last Rites multiple times on the same target will no longer cause overhead visual effects from the second cast to appear untextured.

Heroes, Abilities, and Talents

Chromie: Fixed an issue that could allow two instances of Slowing Sands to exist at once.
Dehaka: Completing Tissue Regeneration’s Quest will no longer prevent Essence earned via Hero takedowns from Healing Dehaka.
Samuro: Fixed an issue causing Windwalk to last 9 seconds rather than 10.
Tassadar: Nullification will now correctly apply multiplicatively when the target is also affected by other damage reduction effects.
Tassadar: Can no longer use his Basic Attack during Dimensional Shift while in Archon form.
Thrall: Percent Health damage dealt by Basic Attacks after casting Feral Spirit with the Alpha Wolf Talent now correctly count as Ability Damage.
Thrall: The bonus Heal amount granted by Frostwolf’s Grace will no longer apply to all Frostwolf Resilience procs.
Tyrande: The Bonus Damage amount that appears in Ranger’s buff bar tooltip will now update properly.