Heroes of the StormJul 26, 2017 2:02 pm CT

Latest Heroes balance update reworks Stukov

Keeping all of the heroes in Heroes of the Storm on par with one another is a constant balancing act, as indicated by regular balance patches. The latest batch of updates hits both Genji and Xul with some nerfs, cutting their health and increasing cooldown times. Though neither have complete reworks, players will probably feel it. Beyond that, it’s a mixed bag of minor buffs and nerfs for Greymane, Tychus, Uther, Chen, Muradin, Rexxar, and Stitches.

But Nexus newcomer Stukov, whose price dropped to 10k gold this week, has received the most extensive changes, mostly in the form of buffs. Lurking Arm — a silence that Stukov’s opponents often find overpowered — remains untouched, while the pushback distance of Flailing Swipe has been increased to give him a little more room to maneuver. He’s a decent pickup at the reduced price, but be aware that heroes with good single-target burst can take him down easily and his Healing Pathogen (which encourages a team to group up for the best healing) means he can leave his team vulnerable to enemies with strong AOE attacks. We’ll have to see how this round of changes affects him.

A few bug fixes round out the patch. You can read up on all of the changes below.

Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment (Official Post)

Assassin

Genji

Stats

Health reduced from 1600 to 1550
Health Regen reduced from 3.3 to 3.2

Abilities

Shuriken (Q)
- Mana cost increased from 15 to 20
Dragonblade (R)
- Cooldown increased from 80 to 100 seconds
- Mana cost increased from 50 to 75

Talents

Level 7
- Dodge (Passive)
  - Charges reduced from 3 to 1
  - Cooldown reduced from 12 to 8 seconds

Greymane

Abilities

Cursed Bullet (R)
- Damage reduced from 40 to 35% of enemy Heroes’ current Health

Tychus

Talents

Level 4
- Fully Loaded (Q)
  - Cooldown reduction increased from 33% (4 seconds) to ~41% (5 seconds)

Specialist

Xul

Abilities

Raise Skeleton (Trait)
- Health reduced from 300 to 270
Cursed Strikes (W)
- Cooldown increased from 15 to 16 seconds

Talents

Level 1
- Backlash (Trait)
  - Damage reduced from 15 to 12% of enemy Heroes’ maximum Health
Level 4
- Grim Scythe (W)
  - Cooldown reduction per attack increased from .5 to .75 seconds
  - Maximum cooldown reduction increased from 10 to 12 seconds

Support

Stukov

Abilities

Healing Pathogen (Q)
- Mana cost increased from 30 to 40
Flailing Swipe (R)
- Pushback distance increased by 50%

Talents

Level 1
- Spine Launcher (Passive)
  - Slow duration increased from 1 to 1.5 seconds (now matches his attack speed)
- Fetid Touch (W)
  - Quest requirements reduced from 20 and 40 Heroes hit to 15 and 30
- Growing Infestation (E)
  - Added functionality:
    - Now increases the Cooldown of Lurking Arm by 4 seconds
Level 4
- One Good Spread… (Q)
  - Spreading requirement reduced from 4 to 3 Heroes
  - Mana refund increased from 30 to 40
- Vigorous Reuptake (D)
  - Healing bonus reduced from 50 to 40%
Level 16
- Pox Populi (D)
  - Adjusted functionality:
    - Detonating Bio-Kill Switch no longer refreshes heal duration, but instead extends it by 3 seconds
Level 20
- Controlled Chaos (R)
  - Cooldown between casts reduced from 3 to 1 second
  - Cooldown for each charge reduced from 40 to 30 seconds
- Push Comes to Shove (R)
  - Duration requirement reduced from 1.5 to 1.25 seconds

Uther

Abilities

Holy Light (Q)
- Healing reduced from 380 to 360
- Self-healing reduced from 190 to 180
Holy Radiance (W)
- Mana cost increased from 60 to 70

Warriors

Chen

Abilities

Fortifying Brew (Trait)
- Brew per second reduced from 40 to 30
- Chen will now instantly gain 25 Brew upon activation

Talents

Level 1
- Elusive Brawler (Active)
  - Cooldown increased from 20 to 25 seconds
  - Cooldown reduction from Basic Attacks reduced from 3 to 2 seconds

Muradin

Stats

Health increased from 2633 to 2765
Health regen increased from 5.5 to 5.8

Rexxar

Talents

Level 1
- Flare (Active)
  - Cooldown reduced from 25 to 20 seconds

Stitches

Abilities

Vile Gas (Trait)
- Damage reduced from 18 to 17

Talents

Level 1
- Heavy Slam (W)
  - Bonus damage reduced from 50 to 40%

Bug Fixes

Heroes, Abilities, and Talents

Diablo: Casting Shadow Charge on Sgt. Hammer while she is in Siege Mode will no longer cause Diablo to pass through her.
Malfurion: The Moonburn Talent will no longer cause Moonfire to deal bonus damage to Mercenaries and Monsters prior to reaching 25% bonus damage against Minions.
Malfurion: Casting Astral Communion now properly consumes 100 Mana.
Nazeebo: Fixed an issue that could prevent Voodoo Ritual from gaining stacks after scoring the killing blow on a Minion.
Stukov: Fixed a typo in the tooltip for Fetid Touch.
Stukov: Stop, Hold Fire, Taunt, and Dance commands can no longer be issued while casting or channeling Lurking Arm.
Stukov: Fixed an issue that could cause FPS to drop to 30 when targeting Lurking Arm.
Stukov: Massive Shove will no longer be cancelled when used on Sgt. Hammer while she is in Siege Mode.
Tyrande: After learning Huntress’ Fury, Basic Attacks against targets with Hunter’s Mark will now correctly splash to nearby enemy Mercenaries.
Tyrande: Fixed an issue causing Sentinel to benefit from increased width prior to learning the Ranger Talent.