Latest Heroes of the Storm balance patch makes welcome changes across the board

Heroes

Assassin

Fenix

• Health reduced from 1200 to 1140.
• Health Regeneration reduced from 2.50 to 2.38.
• Shields reduced from 800 to 760.
• Shield Regeneration reduced from 80 to 76.

• Weapon Mode: Phase Bomb (W)
  • Basic Attack range bonus reduced from 1.5 to 1.25.
• Warp (E)
  • Cooldown increased from 15 to 17 seconds.
  • Range reduced from 11 to 9.

Guldan

• Level 1
  • Glyph of Drain Life (W)
    • Removed.
  • Chaotic Energy (Passive)
    • Adjusted functionality:
      • Increases Drain Life’s range by 25%.
      • Regeneration Globes restore 50% more Health and Mana.
      • Reward: After collecting 20 Regeneration Globes, reduce all Mana costs by 20.
• Level 4
  • Health Funnel (W)
    • Additional functionality:
      • Drain Life’s cooldown recharges 100% faster while it is active.
• Level 7
  • Devour the Frail (W)
    • Removed.
  • Curse of Exhaustion (E)
    • Adjusted functionality:
      • When Drain Life is cast on an enemy who is affected by Corruption, it deals 50% increased damage and Slows the target by 25%.
• Level 20
  • Haunt (R)
    • Armor reduction amount decreased from 25 to 20.

Developer Comment: Our resident warlock has been in and out of the meta a couple times since his epic release and his Talent tree has become a bit lopsided. We began these changes by looking at Rain of Destruction (even going as far as testing the Ability without a channel!) but quickly realized that we would need more than just a balance patch to appropriately address the Heroic. We were, however, able to make some Talent adjustments that will hopefully give players fun new ways to drain the life from their opponents!

Hanzo

• Basic Attack range decreased from 7.5 to 6.5.

Abilities

• Natural Agility (Trait)
  • Range decreased from 10 to 9.

• Level 4
  • Explosive Arrows (Q)
    • Area of effect damage reduced from 100% to 75%.

Developer Comment: These changes require Hanzo to put himself at greater risk to deal the considerable amount of damage that he can dish out over the course of a game. While we believe Hanzo has a unique place as an Assassin who specializes in using his superior range to kite enemies, he was able to do so too safely, which was crowding out other ranged Assassins.

Kael’thas

• Level 4
  • Energy Roil (E)
    • Additional functionality:
      • Passively reduces the Mana cost of Gravity Lapse by 70.
• Level 7
  • Sunfire Enchantment (Trait)
    • Spell Damage reduced from 165 to 115.
    • Number of empowered Basic Attacks increased from 1 to 2.
    • If both empowered Basic Attacks hit enemy Heroes, gain 15% Spell Power for 10 seconds.
• Level 13
  • Pyromaniac (W)
    • Cooldown reduction applied per tick of Living Bomb damage decreased from 1 to 0.5 seconds.
• Level 16
  • Arcane Dynamo (Passive)
    • Removed
  • New Talent: Ignite (Q)
    • Flamestrikes that hit enemy Heroes also afflict them with Living Bomb.
    • Only 1 Living Bomb can be applied per Flamestrike cast.
• Level 20
  • Presence of Mind
    • Hitting enemy Heroes with Pyroblast no longer reduces its cooldown.
    • New functionality:
      • Heroes who are hit by Flamestrike or have Living Bomb spread to them reduce the cooldown of Pyroblast by 10 seconds.

Developer Comment: We’re taking passes at some older Talent trees that, while not in need of a full rework, could use some design tweaks. The changes to Kael’thas in particular went through quite a bit of iteration. We’re happy to report that, unlike some of the insane Talents we tried internally, we managed to re-imagine and restore the power of Ignite!

Maiev

• Health reduced from 2150 to 2021.
• Health Regeneration reduced from 4.48 to 4.21.
• Basic Attack damage reduced from 150 to 145.

• Vault of the Wardens (R)
  • Cooldown increased from 12 to 13 seconds.

Thrall

• Chain Lightning (Q)
  • Damage reduced from 178 to 162.
  • Bounce damage reduced from 89 to 81.

• Level 1
  • Rolling Thunder (Q)
    • No longer increases Chain Lightning’s range.
    • New functionality:
      • Hitting a marked enemy restores 2.5% of Thrall’s maximum Health.
• Level 4
  • Frostwolf Pack (W)
    • Quest requirement reduced from 7 to 6 Hero hits.

Tracer

• Recall (E)
  • Tracer’s Recall destination is now visible to enemies.

Tychus

• Overkill (Q)
  • Cooldown reduced from 13 to 12 seconds.
  • Mana cost reduced from 65 to 60.

• Level 4
  • Fully Loaded (Trait)
    • Removed.
  • The Bigger They Are (Trait)
    • Additional functionality:
      • Reduces Minigun’s cooldown by 2 seconds.

Specialist

Medivh

• Level 7
  • Arcane Explosion (W)
    • Bonus area of effect damage reduced from 100% to 50% of the damage prevented by Force of Will.

Ana

• Shrike (Trait)
  • Now Heals Ana for Dose damage dealt to all enemies, rather than only the damage dealt to Heroes.
• Healing Dart (Q)
  • Mana cost reduced from 15 to 10.
• Nano Boost (R)
  • Cooldown increased from 60 to 70 seconds.

• Level 1
  • Detachable Box Magazine (Passive)
    • First reward removed
    • Second reward requirements reduced from 15 to 12 maximum Dosage stacks.
• Level 7
  • Debilitating Dart (Active)
    • Reduced damage duration decreased from 4 to 3 seconds.
    • Additional functionality:
      • Also Slows the target by 50%.

Developer Comment: While Ana is showing a positive win rate, we’re still not seeing her picked up in the solo-Support position as often as we’d like. These changes should allow her to stick around longer in fights and limit wear and tear on your Hearthstone hotkey.

Auriel

• Bestow Hope (Trait)
  • Energy stored when Auriel hits non-Heroes increased from 5% to 10% of the damage dealt.

• Level 4
  • Repeated Offense
    • Additional functionality:
      • Increases Detainment Strike’s knockback distance by 25%.
• Level 13
  • Repelling Strike (E)
    • Removed.
• Level 20
  • Diamond Resolve (R)
    • Armor granted upon Crystal Aegis expiration increased from 60 to 75.

Deckard

• Lorenado (R)
  • Cooldown reduced from 45 to 40 seconds.

• Level 1
  • Sapphire (Active)
    • Bonus Slow amount increased from 25% to 30%.
• Level 4
  • Ruby (Active)
    • Lesser Healing Potion Heal amount increased from 190 to 205.
• Level 13
  • Ancient Blessings (Active)
    • Damage reduced from 76 to 72.
    • Healing reduced from 114 to 106.
• Level 20
  • Bottomless Flask (Q)
    • Healing Potion recharge rate increased from 5 to 6 seconds.

Developer Comment: Deckard’s foray into the Nexus has been incredibly successful from a balance perspective. He’s sitting at a healthy win rate of anywhere between 47% and 51% in high level play, depending on the experience of the Deckard player. Many of his Talents are also looking to be in good shape. We’re making some tuning changes intended to adjust under and overperforming Talents without impacting his overall win rate too much.

Li Li

• Level 1
  • Wind Serpent (W)
    • No longer reduces Cloud Serpent’s cooldown.
  • Eager Adventurer (Trait)
    • Fast Feet duration bonus increased from 50% to 100%.
    • Mana regeneration bonus reduced from 150% to 100%.
• Level 4
  • Safety Sprint (Trait)
    • Additional Functionality:
      • Passively increases Fast Feet’s base Movement Speed bonus from 10% to 15%.
• Level 16
  • Blessings of Yu’lon (W)
    • Healing reduced from 1.5% to 1.25% of maximum Health.

Lt. Morales

• Level 4
  • Trauma Trigger (Passive)
    • Cooldown reduced from 60 to 30 seconds.
• Level 16
  • Extended Care (Q)
    • Range bonus reduced from 40 to 30%.

Malfurion

• Health reduced from 1598 to 1525.
• Health Regeneration reduced from 3.33 to 3.18.

• Moonfire (W)
  • Healing reduced from 135 to 130.
• Twilight Dream (R)
  • Damage reduced from 355 to 310.

Stukov

• Bio-Kill Switch (Trait)
  • Healing reduced from 475 to 435.
• Lurking Arm (E)
  • Cooldown increased from 8 to 10 seconds.

• Level 1
  • Growing Infestation (E)
    • Additional cooldown duration increased from 4 to 5 seconds.
• Level 4
  • One Good Spread (Q)
    • Mana restoration reduced from 30 to 10.
• Level 7
  • It Hungers (E)
    • Mana restoration increased from 5 to 10.

Warrior

Garrosh

• Groundbreaker (Q)
  • Stun duration reduced from 0.75 to 0.5 seconds.
  • Slow amount increased from 35% to 40%.

• Level 16
  • Rough Landing (Q)
    • Bonus Slow amount reduced from 15% to 10%.

Developer Comment: These changes are meant to make the immediate aftermath of being thrown by Wrecking Ball a little less punishing for Garrosh’s opponents, particularly when he throws an enemy Hero and then Stuns them with Groundbreaker. We’re slightly reducing Groundbreaker’s Stun duration so that enemy Heroes can more quickly pop defensive cooldowns to try to survive. We’re also compensating Garrosh with a slight increase to Groundbreaker’s Slow. This way, he can still reliably catch enemies if he starts with Groundbreaker and wants to close in for a throw.

Sonya

• Level 4
  • Hurricane (W)
    • Cooldown reduction increased from 1 to 2 seconds.
  • Shot of Fury (Trait)
    • Moved from Level 7.
• Level 7
  • Battle Rage (Active)
    • Moved from Level 4.
• Level 13
  • Mystical Spear (Q):
    • New functionality:
      • Ancient Spear always pulls Sonya to the target location even if it doesn’t hit an enemy. When used this way, its cooldown is reduced by 5 seconds.

Developer Comment: Battle Rage is proving to be the dominant pick on its Talent tier and provides a lot of generic power to Sonya’s kit. Rather than nerf it, we’re placing it against stronger Talents at Level 7 to lessen the amount of generic power she can get overall. Similarly, Mystical Spear at 13 is giving a bit too much raw power in addition to its utility. It should now be more in-line with the more situational Talents at that tier.

Bug Fixes

• Dragon Shire: When attempting to capture a Dragon Knight, Channeling is now correctly paused when hit by a Time Stop effect, like Zeratul’s Void Prison.

• Deckard: Non-Hero allied units no longer receive area of effect Healing from the Potion of Revival Talent.
• Falstad: Lightning Rod cooldown reduction applied by the Wingman Talent now correctly appends to both Lightning Rod’s Ability tooltip and Wingman’s Active Bar tooltip.
• Fenix: Purification Salvo Channeling can no longer be interrupted by displacement effects, like Raynor’s Penetrating Round.
• Hearthstone: Fixed an issue in which certain Hero Abilities would not interrupt Hearthstone Channeling.
• Ice Block: Fixed an issue in which certain Abilities remained castable during Ice Block.
• Li Li: Upon activating Safety Sprint, Fast Feet now correctly persists for its full 3 second duration.
• Stukov: The It Hungers Talent no longer grants cooldown reduction to Lurking Arm if the Ability is cast without hitting any enemy Heroes.