Heroes of the StormAug 25, 2017 3:00 pm CT

Kerrigan and The Butcher rebalanced in latest Heroes of the Storm patch

By Alex Ziebart
Editor-in-Chief, Emeritus

Heroes of the Storm released its latest balance patch earlier this week and some of the larger changes caught players by surprise. Notably, both Kerrigan and Chen received nerfs. Neither character is particularly popular in Heroes and what little data players can access through third party websites shows these characters with a less-than-stellar winrate. Initially, these nerfs felt like salt in open wounds.

Blizzard, of course, has more win/loss data at their fingertips than players do. According to their data, Kerrigan’s winrate has been steadily climbing over time and her changes aren’t meant to be a nerf, but a reallocation of damage. Kerrigan’s use of Ravage has been her niche thus far, but some of her Ravage damage has been moved to her other abilities. Why Chen deserved a nerf remains a mystery.

The Butcher has also received some changes to remove some cheese from his playstyle. Since his rework, Butcher earned 25 Meat towards his quest with every player kill — but only lost 10 on death. Dying in a one-for-one trade became a viable strategy. Now, Butcher will only earn 20 Meat per kill and lose 15 on death. He’ll still come out ahead in a one-for-one trade, but not so dramatically.

You can find the details of all of these changes and more in the patch notes below.

Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment (Official Post)

Assassin

Alarak

Talents

Level 4
- Negatively Charged (E)
  - Damage bonus increased from 3 to 5%
Level 13
- Blade of the Highlord (Passive)
  - Bonus Sadism increased from 6 to 7%. Cap increased from 30 to 35%

Illidan

Abilities

The Hunt (R)
- Cooldown increased from 60 to 100 seconds

Developer Comment: With his built-in cooldown reduction from Betrayer’s Thirst, we wanted to give his enemies a bit more time to prepare – I’ll bet he didn’t see that coming.

Kerrigan

Abilities

Ravage (Q)
- Damage reduced from 228 to 210
Impaling Blades (W)
- Damage increased from 251 to 261
Primal Grasp (E)
- Damage increased from 110 to 114

Talents

Level 1
- Energizing Grasp (E)
  - Removed
Level 7
- Adaptation (Q)
  - Removed

Developer Comment: Kerrigan’s win-rate has been at a steady 1-2% climb each patch for the last few months. While she is not demanding picks or bans at the moment, as of last week she was sitting on top of the Nexus. After closely analyzing her numbers, there was nothing standing out as a major reason for her climb upwards. So instead of doing anything massive, we felt it best to do a slight damage redistribution. Moving a small percentage of her Ravage damage into her other abilities will help with some talent pick/win rate issues while also bolstering her skill-shot abilities.

The Butcher

Stats

Basic Attack damage reduced from 130 to 125

Abilities

Fresh Meat (Trait)
- Meat from Hero kills reduced from 25 to 20
- Meat lost on death increased from 10 to 15

Talents

Level 7
- Insatiable Blade (W)
  - Adjusted functionality:
    - Removed the bonus healing
    - Increased movement speed bonus from 20 to 25%
- Victuals (Passive)
  - Heal increased from 4 to 5% per minion death
Level 16
- Crippling Slam (Q)
  - Bonus duration increased from 25 to 30%
- Enraged (Passive)
  - Armor bonus reduced from 25 to 15

Developer Comment: From inception, The Butcher has had a long healthy life amongst the top 5 win-rate Heroes in the game. Previously this was primarily isolated to Quick Match and his overall play-rate wasn’t high enough for us to have any major concerns. After the newest round of changes, he has stayed true to his name in Quick Match and is beginning to pick up steam in Ranked play. We agreed with the massive amounts of feedback that it felt odd that a Butcher could so willingly trade his life for an enemy kill to progress his quest. These changes to his Meat gain/loss should help bring these situations more in-line, while the talent changes were directed fully at bringing over and under-tuned talents closer to the power level expected at the respective tiers.

Thrall

Abilities

Chain Lightning (Q)
- Mana cost reduced from 45 to 40

Talents

Level 1
- Crash Lightning (Q)
  - Damage per stack increased from 10 to 12
- Rolling Thunder (Q)
  - Mana return per attack increased from 12 to 15
Level 4
- Mana Tide (Trait)
  - Mana return reduced from 20 to 15
Level 16
- Thunderstorm (Q)
  - Added functionality:
    - Damage from final quest reward now also applies to Chain Lightning bounces

Zul’jin

Talents

Level 1
- Boneslicer (Q)
  - Bonus damage increased from 20 to 30%

Specialist

Xul

Abilities

Raise Skeleton (Trait)
- Skeleton health reduced from 270 to 240
Skeletal Mages (R)
- Cooldown increased from 70 to 90 seconds

Talents

Level 7
- Trag’Oul’s Essence (Trait)
  - Healing reduced from 1% to .5% per Skeleton Basic Attack
  - Mana return increased from .4% to .5% per Skeleton Basic Attack
Level 13
- Echoes of Death (Q)
  - Damage reduced from 70 to 60% of Spectral Scythe’s damage

Zagara

Talents

Level 16
- Mutalisk (W)
  - Duration reduced from 45 to 30 seconds

Support

Auriel

Abilities

Bestow Hope (D)
- Hope generation ratio from hitting Heroes increased from 40 to 50%
Sacred Sweep (Q)
- Outer damage reduced from 80 to 60
- Center damage increased from 160 to 180
Detainment Strike (E)
- Initial damage reduced from 115 to 58
- Stun damage increased from 115 to 174
Resurrect (R)
- Cooldown reduced from 120 to 100 seconds

Talents

Level 7
- Bursting Light (W)
  - Removed

Developer Comment: These changes are designed to reduce the reliance that Auriel has upon a hyper-carry style character to be an effective healer. By increasing the amount of Hope that she can generate but removing Bursting Light and its ability to reduce the cooldown of Ray of Heaven, Auriel will have more consistent healing output regardless of who is currently Bestowing Hope. We’re also reducing the damage that Auriel does on average by gating it behind getting the most of her Basic Abilities. By reducing the synergy that Auriel has with a single massive source of damage and reducing her damage output, we hope to make her less common in double support team compositions.

Lúcio

Stats

Base Maximum Health increased from 1380 to 1518
Health Regen increased from 2.86 to 3.16

Tassadar

Stats

Basic Attack Damage reduced from 15 to 14
Based Maximum Health reduced from 1426 to 1355
Health regen reduced from 2.97 to 2.8

Talents

Level 1
- Khaydarin Resonance (Passive)
  - Bonus Mana from Regen Globes increased from 50 to 100%

Tyrande

Talents

Level 4
- Celestial Attunement (Q)
  - Added functionality:
    - Also removes Silences
- Kaldorei Resistance
  - Max Spell Armor stacks reduced from 4 to 3
Level 13
- Empower (W)
  - Added functionality:
    - Also lowers the base cooldown of Sentinel by 4 seconds
- Harsh Moonlight (W)
  - Slow amount reduced from 30 to 25%
  - Damage reduction amount from 30 to 25%

Uther

Abilities

Eternal Vanguard (Trait)
- Armor for healing allies with Basic Abilites reduced from 25 to 15
Holy Light (Q)
- Healing increased from 360 to 380
- Self-healing increased from 180 to 190
Holy Radiance (W)
- Healing and damage increased from 160 to 185

Talents

Level 1
- Wave of Light (W)
  - Bonus duration to Armor buff on Quest Completion reduced from 1 to .5 seconds
  - Mana return reduced from 8 to 5 per Hero hit
Level 4
- Holy Fire (Passive)
  - Damage reduced from 16 to 14 per second

Developer Comment: We’ve found that by increasing the niche of Uther, players could easily build teams with 2 Supports that were incredibly difficult to counter, thereby creating a slow gameplay trend that could be frustrating to play against. We think it’s great to see double support every once in a while, but Uther enabled it too well when paired with almost any other healer. By reducing the Armor he grants via his Trait and getting a little more healing throughput, Uther should feel slightly more well-rounded.

Warriors

Chen

Stats

Base Maximum Health reduced from 2550 to 2473
Health regeneration reduced from 5.31 to 5.15

Talents

Level 7
- Refreshing Elixir (Passive)
  - Removed
- Purifying Brew (Passive)
  - Moved from Level 20
  - Cooldown increased from 10 to 45 seconds
Level 16
- Flying Leap (Q)
  - Bonus range reduced from 20 to 15%

Garrosh

Abilities

Warlord’s Challenge (R)
- Taunt duration increased from 1.5 to 2 seconds

Talents

Level 1
- Unrivaled Strength (E)
  - Increased throw range from 20 to 30%, and bonus damage from 100 to 125%
Level 4
- In for the Kill (W)
  - Increased bonus damage from 60 to 70%
Level 7
- Into the Fray (Active)
  - No longer costs Mana

Bug Fixes

Heroes, Abilities, and Talents

Auriel: Resurrecting Uther before Eternal Vanguard expires will no longer prevent him from respawning.
Cassia: Casting Fend on a target who is near a wall will no longer cause her to path in unintended directions before the Ability fires.
Genji: Fixed an issue that prevented Fort attacks from slowing Genji’s Movement and Attack Speeds if he had Dodge stacks remaining.
Kharazim: Fixed an issue that could cause Kharazim to dash to unexpected locations after casting Radiant Dash.
Tassadar: Fixed an issue causing some Attack Speed modifier effects, such as Xul’s Cursed Strikes, to persist indefinitely if the effect expired during Dimensional Shift.
Xul: Waiting 4 or more seconds to attack after activating Cursed Strikes will no longer cause the Ability’s visual effects to out of sync with Xul’s attack animations
Tychus: In the Rhythm Talent will now correctly display quest progress on the in-game Score Screen’s Talents tab.

User Interface

Emojis: Sending an “Embarrased” Emoji (:oops:) as Garrosh, or while he is selected for play, will now correctly display the Garrosh Embarrased Emoji if the player owns the corresponding Emoji pack.

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