by Jeff Woleslagle on Oct 12, 2017
Yesterday's HotS patch was particularly brutal to specialist and support classes - Nazeebo seems well and truly ruined as his Corpse Spider talent at 16 has been gutted. Stukov was likewise heavily nerfed, with his blind also removed. It's not all bad news, however, as Johanna and a few other Warrior heroes received some much needed tweaks.
Full balance patch notes follow, or you can view them on the official site:
Talents
Level 20 The Dragon Becomes Me (R) Duration increase per swing reduced from 1 to .75 secondsAbilities
Frost Blast (R) Cooldown reduced from 80 to 70 seconds Mana cost reduced from 70 to 60Talents
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'ThuzadAbilities
Wisp (E) Move cooldown reduced from 5 to 1 seconds Number of attacks required to kill the Wisp increased from 1 to 2Abilities
Reaper's Mark (Trait) Damage reduced from 2.25 to 2% of enemy Hero maximum HealthAbilities
Spike Burst (W) Damage increased from 116 to 120 Ultimate Evolution (R) Cooldown increased from 50 to 70 secondsStats
Health reduced from 1638 to 1502 Health Regeneration reduced from 3.4125 to 3.1291Abilities
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 1Talents
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 secondsDeveloper 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.
Abilities
Warp in Pylon (D) Health increased from 380 to 400Talents
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 14Stats
Base Maximum Health reduced from 1643 to 1575 Health regen reduced from 3.4 to 3.3Abilities
Devouring Maw (R) Cooldown reduced from 100 to 80 secondsStats
Basic Attack Damage increased from 30 to 33Talents
Level 4 Overdose (Passive) Adjusted functionality: No longer applies to Biotic Grenade Sleep Dart now applies 3 Doses to targets hitDeveloper 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.
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 350Talents
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 AttacksStats
Base Maximum Health reduced from 1605 to 1550 Health regen reduced from 3.34 to 3.23Talents
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 secondsStats
Health reduced from 1682 to 1590 Health regen reduced from 3.5 to 3.31Abilities
Healing Pathogen (Q) Heal amount reduced from 40 to 37Talents
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) RemovedTalents
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 secondsTalents
Level 20 Death Wish (R) No longer increases the duration of Warlord's ChallengeStats
Base Maximum Health increased from 2179 to 2350 Health regen increased from 4.5 to 4.9Abilities
Falling Sword (R) Slow duration increased from 2.5 to 3 secondsTalents
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 84General
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.User Interface
Right clicking a player in your friends list and choosing the Whisper option will once again open the chat input field.