A new patch has just been released, applying bug fixes along with balance changes aimed at Cassia, Kel'Thuzad, Brightwing and more. To learn more about the new changes check out the official release below.
- Reduced the number of Sand Blast hits required to unlock the Sand Blast echo from 80 to 60
Talents
Timely Surprise
- Now also increases the cast range of Time Trap by 33%
Developer Comment: Only about 40% of Chromie players were unlocking the echo over the course of a game, and among players that did it was occurring later than we'd like. By reducing the requirements for completing Chromie's quest, we won't increase her late game power at all, but make her output a little more consistent.
- Damage reduced from 440 to 400
- Cooldown increased from 15 to 20 seconds
- Mana cost increased from 50 to 60
Talents
Phylactery of Kel'Thuzad
- Quest requirement increased from 10 to 12 Regen Globes
Accelerated Decay
- Bonus damage increased from 20 to 25%
Glacial Spike(Talent)
- Damage reduced from 220 to 60
- Delay before the spike spawns increased from .5 to 1 seconds
Chains of Ice
- Slow duration reduced from 1.25 to 1 second
- Slow amount decreased from 70 to 60%
Hungering Cold
- Bonus damage reduced from 60 to 55
Developer Comment: As expected, there is a fairly large discrepancy between Kel'Thuzad's performance across the entire game vs. players who are getting experienced with him at a higher level. His win-rate has climbed more than most of our other releases as players get used to his kit, so most of our changes are aimed at talent balance and toning his power down. While we like the sharpness of his power spike due to Master of the Cold Dark, we'll continue to keep an eye on his burst potential and his overall strength going forward.
- Basic Attack damage increased from 125 to 130
- Health scaling per level increased from 4 to 4.5 %
- Health Regeneration scaling per level increased from 4 to 4.5 %
Developer Comment: While we'll be continuing to keep an eye on it, we believe that the Butcher's quest tuning is appropriate. He has seen a significant drop in win rate in Hero League since our last round of changes, so we felt it was appropriate to increase his late-game Health so that he can keep up with other heroes, who often get many tools to survive his initial damage in teamfights.
- New functionality: Increases the range of Arcane Flare by 50%
- New functionality: Hitting an enemy Hero in the center portion of Arcane Flare reduces the cooldown of Arcane Flare to 1 second
Hyper Shift
- Cooldown reduction per Hero healed increased from 2 to 3 seconds
Unfurling Spray
- Removed
Arcane Barrage
- Removed
Peekaboo!
- Revealed area radius reduced from 20 to 15
- Added functionality: Pixie Dust is now applied to the target of Phase Shift
Phase Shield
- Added functionality: Now applies Shield to Brightwing and her target
Developer Comment: While Brightwing has been seeing a bit more play recently, her talent tree had some low-hanging fruit that we wanted to trim. Granting her a slightly larger range of Soothing Mist baseline will free up a more impactful choice at level 1. The addition of Arcane Barrage's functionality into Dream Shot should also make that talent a bit more exciting to pick up. Overall, we were looking at giving the Faerie Dragon a few minor buffs and adjusting some talents in order to increase parity amongst her talent tiers.
- Base Maximum Health increased from 1528 to 1605
- Base Life Regen increased from 3.18 to 3.34
Abilities
Healing Beam(Q)
- Energy Regeneration cooldown reduced from 3 to 2 seconds
- You can no longer redirect Healing Beam to a target that is already being healed by your Healing Beam
Talents
Caduceus Feedback
- Now increases Basic Attack Range by 1.1 and only generates Energy from Basic Attacks against Heroic targets.
- Cooldown reduced from 45 to 15 seconds
- Added functionality: Chen now gains 30 Spell Armor while channeling Fortifying Brew
Developer Comment: We realize how difficult it is for most Chen players to pass up Brewmaster's Balance on Tier 3. We moved a powerful level 20 down to compete with it a couple patches ago but the data is still showing it as an underperformer. Lowering the cooldown drastically and granting it the functionality of Grounding Brew should incentivize players into choosing it when playing against certain team compositions.
Developer Comment: These changes are a response to community feedback about Garrosh's Mana costs. We initially kept them relatively low, as he is a fairly low impact Warrior when his combo is not available to him, however we agreed with the feedback and felt that he could use more Mana management.
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