Heroes of the StormOct 11, 2017 2:27 pm CT

Heroes balance patch brings Nazeebo changes

By Anna Bell

This Heroes of the Storm balance patch is mostly just some small tweaks and bug fixes. There’s a slight change to Ana’s talents which the developers hope will help her have more synergy with her team, for instance. Johanna is also getting a little bit of love after being hit by the nerf bat last patch. The only big change is to Nazeebo.

There was a slight redesign around Nazeebo’s Trait. The developers pulled his max health and regen down in favor of making his Voodoo Ritual restore more health per kill. This should make him considerably less tanky at higher levels, but also possibly give him better staying power in lanes. They also changed up some talents to avoid players feeling ‘locked in’ to one particular path once his first few talents were chosen, particularly with regard to his spiders.

The timing of this seems kind of strange, since Nazeebo was just beginning to poke his head back into the pro meta. The season end HGC championship taking place at BlizzCon 2017 is being played on the patch before this one though. Maybe we’ll see a lot of the witch doctor at BlizzCon!

Sadly, any changes made in this balance patch couldn’t bring Gingerdread Nazeebo out of the top spot in the creepiness meta. Nerf it already Blizzard, please.

Read on for the full patch notes.

(Blue Tracker)

HEROES OF THE STORM BALANCE PATCH NOTES — OCTOBER 11, 2017

BLIZZARD ENTERTAINMENT 10/11/2017

We just released a new patch for Heroes of the Storm in order to apply balance changes alongside a few bug fixes.

Assassin

Genji

Talents

Level 20
- The Dragon Becomes Me (R)
  - Duration increase per swing reduced from 1 to .75 seconds

Kel’Thuzad

Abilities

Frost Blast (R)
- Cooldown reduced from 80 to 70 seconds
- Mana cost reduced from 70 to 60

Talents

Level 4
- Strip Shields (E)
  - Shield amount increased from 112 to 120
Level 13
- Icy Grasp (W)
  - Increased slow duration from 1.5 to 2 seconds
- Chain-Link (E)
  - Added functionality:
    - Also refunds the Mana cost of Chains Of Kel’Thuzad

Lunara

Abilities

Wisp (E)
- Move cooldown reduced from 5 to 1 seconds
- Number of attacks required to kill the Wisp increased from 1 to 2

Malthael

Abilities

Reaper’s Mark (Trait)
- Damage reduced from 2.25 to 2% of enemy Hero maximum Health

Specialist

Abathur

Abilities

Spike Burst (W)
- Damage increased from 116 to 120
Ultimate Evolution (R)
- Cooldown increased from 50 to 70 seconds

Nazeebo

Stats

Health reduced from 1638 to 1502
Health Regeneration reduced from 3.4125 to 3.1291

Abilities

Corpse Spiders (Q)
- Damage increased from 35 to 36
Plague of Toads (E)
- Damage reduced from 20 to 18
Voodoo Ritual (Trait)
- Health per stack of Voodoo Ritual increased from 4 to 6
Ravenous Spirit (R)
- Cast range increased by 1

Talents

Level 13
- Superstition (Passive)
  - New functionality:
    - Gain 40 Spell Armor, taking 40% less damage from Abilities. Basic Attacks from enemy Heroes remove this bonus for 3 seconds
Level 16
- Spider Colony (Q)
  - New functionality:
    - Every time a Spider attacks an enemy Hero, reduce the cooldown of Wall of Zombies and Plague of Toads by .25 seconds

Developer Comment: We want to shift more of Nazeebo’s Health into the amount of Voodoo Ritual stacks he has, as the reward for Voodoo Ritual was mostly felt in unlocking Vile Infection at level 20. We’re changing Spider Colony to no longer reduce the cooldown of Corpse Spiders, because the synergy between the Spider Talents were so high that if you picked any one of them the rest of your Talent choices were locked in. Since we are changing the level 16 Talent to now affect Plague of Toads instead of Corpse Spiders, we’re shifting some of the damage out of Plague of Toads into Corpse Spiders. For Superstition, we wanted to get most of the spirit of what the old Talent did, but have more gameplay interactions. Often the only counter play to Superstition lied in what the enemy team composition was, and we’d rather have more counter play relying in decisions made during the course of the game.

Probius

Abilities

Warp in Pylon (D)
- Health increased from 380 to 400

Talents

Level 1
- Gather Minerals (Passive)
  - Damage bonus increased from 25 to 35%
Level 13
- Shield Battery (D)
  - Shield duration after leaving Pylon field reduced from 4 to 2 seconds
  - Shield amount increased from 12 to 14

Zagara

Stats

Base Maximum Health reduced from 1643 to 1575
Health regen reduced from 3.4 to 3.3

Abilities

Devouring Maw (R)
- Cooldown reduced from 100 to 80 seconds

Support

Ana

Stats

Basic Attack Damage increased from 30 to 33

Talents

Level 4
- Overdose (Passive)
  - Adjusted functionality:
    - No longer applies to Biotic Grenade
    - Sleep Dart now applies 3 Doses to targets hit

Developer Comment: Ana has had an incredibly successful launch into the Nexus, and seems to be falling into a great place balance-wise. We are still light on high-level data for her, so our changes this patch are very light. We realize that she has some synergy concerns and wanted to get a small jump on the largest catalyst to those – Overdose. While playing her internally before launch, we knew she had the potential to single-handedly shift the meta, not to mention increase the amount of double-support we see. Rest assured that we are keeping a close eye on both of these concerns and are prepared to act accordingly if the need arises.

Brightwing

Abilities

Pixie Dust (E)
- Spell Armor reduced from 30 to 25
Emerald Wind (R)
- Soothing Mist bonus healing amount reduced from 8 to 5%

Talents

Level 7
- Phase Shield (Z)
  - Shield amount reduced from 400 to 350

Kharazim

Talents

Level 1
- Transcendence (Trait)
  - Healing increased from 96 to 103 per 3 Basic Attacks
- Insight (Trait)
  - Cooldown reduction increased from 1.5 to 1.75 seconds per 3 Basic Attacks

Lt. Morales

Stats

Base Maximum Health reduced from 1605 to 1550
Health regen reduced from 3.34 to 3.23

Talents

Level 1
- Clear (E)
  - Cooldown Reduction from first quest unlock reduced from 4 to 3 seconds
Level 4
- Blast Shield (E)
  - Shield amount reduced from 8 to 6% of maximum Health
Level 13
- Second Opinion (E)
  - Cooldown reduction for hitting 2 Heroes increased from 1 to 2 seconds

Stukov

Stats

Health reduced from 1682 to 1590
Health regen reduced from 3.5 to 3.31

Abilities

Healing Pathogen (Q)
- Heal amount reduced from 40 to 37

Talents

Level 1
- Spine Launcher (Passive)
  - Damage reduction increased from 30 to 40%
- Poppin Pustules (D)
  - Added functionality:
    - Now increases the final damage of Weighted Pustule by 50%
Level 16
- Superstrain (Q)
  - Added functionality:
    - Now also applies to targets who are Rooted while under the effect of Healing Pathogen
- Universal Carrier (Q)
  - Heal reduction decreased from 60 to 50%
- Eye Infection (W)
  - Removed

Warrior

D.Va

Talents

Level 1
- Rush-down (Q)
  - Cooldown reduction from avoiding dealing or taking damage increased from 5 to 7 seconds
- Crash Course (Q)
  - Number of Heroes hit to complete Quest reduced from 25 to 20
- Pro Moves (Passive)
  - Duration of the Movement Speed bonus increased from 1.25 to 1.5 seconds
Level 4
- Diverting Power (W)
  - Movement Speed penalty reduced from 50 to 30%
Level 7
- Nuclear Option (E)
  - Damage bonus increased from 50 to 70%
Level 20
- Stop and Pop (R)
  - Damage bonus increased from 150 to 200%
- Concussive Pulse (Active)
  - Cooldown reduced from 8 to 7 seconds

Garrosh

Talents

Level 20
- Death Wish (R)
  - No longer increases the duration of Warlord’s Challenge

Johanna

Stats

Base Maximum Health increased from 2179 to 2350
Health regen increased from 4.5 to 4.9

Abilities

Falling Sword (R)
- Slow duration increased from 2.5 to 3 seconds

Talents

Level 1
- Hold Your Ground (D)
  - Additional Shield amount increased from 20 to 30%
Level 13
- Roar (Q)
  - Damage for hitting 2 or more Heroes increased from 125 to 150%
- Blessed Hammer (Active)
  - Damage increased from 80 to 84

Bug Fixes

General

Fixed a number of typo and tooltip errors across several aspects of the game.

AI

AI Heroes controlling the Garden Terror will no longer become unresponsive.

Heroes, Abilities, and Talents

Brightwing: The channel for Phase Shift will now properly cancel if the allied target dies.
Brightwing: The channel for Phase Shift will now properly cancel if Brightwing is Rooted.
Johanna: Fixed an issue causing the Shield Glare to lower the cooldown of the Blinded by the Light talent by an incorrect amount.
Kel’Thuzad: Shadow Fissure can now be cast on the minimap.
Kel’Thuzad: Shadow Fissure can now be cast between map levels on the Haunted Mines battleground.
Leoric: Fixed an issue causing enemy Heroes affected by Leoric’s Entomb ability to lose allied vision after Leoric had chosen the Buried Alive talent.
Lunara: Fixed an issue preventing Lunara from Leaping over several different friendly units after choosing the Boundless Stride talent.
Rehgar: Fixed an issue that drastically reduced the attack range of Feral Lunge.