Heroes of the Storm Build Guides
Hunter's Mark, so it had to be changed as well. While I'm aware it's an iconic part of Zenyatta, it wasn't easy to conceptualize as a Basic Ability. So it is reworked into a Heroic Ability to be more healthy and strong without overlapping with
Hunter's Mark.
Nova's
Triple Tap, Orb Volley projectiles hit the first enemy in their path instead of their intended target, meaning Minions, Mercenaries, Structures and other Heroes can be used as cover to block these projectiles.
Overwatch, Healers are designed with 2 Healers per team in mind while in HotS, they are designed with 1 per team in mind. The bonus healing aspect is there to allow Zenyatta to help his team on his own while also differentiating the Ability from similar ones (e.g.
Lt. Morales's
Healing Beam).
Overwatch due to existing Abilities fulfilling its niche (namely
Holy Word: Salvation and
Tranquility), with the healing being significantly lower than it is in
Overwatch.
Dragon's Arrow.
Free Mind (W)
Walking in Harmony (E)
Karmic Retribution (Passive)
Repeatable Quest: Participating in Hero takedowns grants a stack of Karma, with each stack increasing Zenyatta’s Attack Speed by 3% and reducing his Armor by 5. Can stack up to 5 Karma. Repeatable Reward: While at max stacks, Zenyatta gains an additional 15% Attack Speed and 1 bonus Attack Range, but his Abilities cost 100% more Orbs.
Salvation Seeker (Q)Vampiric Gaze (W)
Risky Prayer (Active)False Promise (Q)Inner Peace (E)
Guiding Light (Trait)Tranquility (Trait)
Iris' Protection (Trait)
Welcomed Adversity (Trait)Strike at Weakness (Q)Overflow (W)Equanimity (E)
Dissonance (Heroic R)
Lesson in Humility (Heroic R)Shared Serenity (W)Spiritual Successor (E)
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1)[Enlightenment] suffers from the same problem as every Block effect. It is too unstable.
2)Why ever use [Orb Volley] over Basic Attacks? Am I missing something?
3)I do not get why he needs the "every 3rd basic attack" mechanic when he has 2.5 Attack Speed.
4)[Transcendence] is practically impossible to balance. Default cast time, cleanse, immunity for 2 seconds, strong damage bonus, and Unkillable on top of that.
5)[Orb of Discord] is overpowered. Imagine if Hanzo could manually explode [Dragon's Arrow] instead of having to aim and predict the enemy movement.
6)[Snap Kick] is irrelevant compared to the other option. However, even if [Orb of Discord] was not so strong, this ability is simply too clunky to use.
7)[Free Mind] has a major flaw of allowing you to not spend any resources on [Orb of Harmony] by spamming it.
8)[Karmic Retribution] granting 60% bonus Attack Damage at the cost of... breaking your resource management and losing 15 Armor on a Hero with no mobility and less Health than Probius is... a pretty bad tradeoff, not to mention the cost of participating in 6 Takedowns. Also, it is strange that it increases Attack Damage when this kit cares about the quantity of Basic Attacks, not their quality.
9)How many orbs does [Salvation Seeker] create? Is it per allied Hero in range?
10)[Risky Prayer] does not need any of the downsides. It already disables your abilities.
11)[False Promise] makes [Orb Volley] go from detrimental to unfair, as it allows you to burst down enemies out of nowhere, similar to Xal'atath's [Void Volley].
12)[Inner Peace] encourages bad positioning due to how small the radius of [Transcendence] is.
13)Does the 50% damage bonus of [Strike at Weakness] affect the base damage or the percentage damage?
14)[Overflow] is overpowered. It neutralizes any attempt by the enemy team to use CC because [Orb of Harmony] has no downtime. It also makes [Free Mind] even stronger.
15)[Equanimity] has the same problem as [Inner Peace]. However, if the radius was any bigger, this would be one of the strongest buffs in the game.
16)[Dissonance] is overloaded to the brim. It practically wins the game on the spot.
I'm sorry to hear that, but I disagree with the unfeasibility. Unless you mean this iteration in isolation and not compared to its previous iterations, I personally disliked most of the previous iteration, which was even more unfeasible in practice, and I'd rather not work on a concept I'm not interested in.
Elaborate on instability? Because this seems vague. The internal cooldown is there to ensure Zenyatta can't make his allies permanently immune to Basic Attacks with [Orb of Harmony].
Higher DPS than Basic Attacks, longer range, allows Zenyatta to move back from danger and still hit targets (added a max range to ensure it's not abusable). Zenyatta cannot move while Basic Attacking.
[Orb of Harmony] in
I wouldn't call it "default" cast time, but alright, it's been changed to be after 0.25 seconds. It used to be 0.5 seconds before because back then, it was a Heroic Ability. Reduced the damage bonus, but everything else is in my opinion fair until proven unbalanced in practice. I think Unkillable is way more oversaturated than it actually is, especially for just 2 seconds on a considerably high cooldown. If
I see the concern, but there is a difference;
Elaborate on the clunkiness and irrelevancy? A slightly delayed mobility tool with a generously short cooldown for a Heroic that can be used as a displacement/CC when used offensively doesn't seem irrelevant to me. As explained, [Orb of Discord] may not always be reliable.
Fair, a leftover of the previous iteration. Made it so that it must remain on the same ally for 3 consecutive seconds first. Also this does not benefit from [Overflow]. I wrote a clarification.
That's kind of the theme of this talent; getting stronger offensively at the cost of weakened utility. Changed it a bit now. Also regarding the Attack Damage quality rather than quantity, another leftover. In the previous iteration, because [Orb of Discord] was exclusively for reducing Physical Armor, I had it increase the Attack Damage. Now it only increases Attack Speed and max Karma is reduced to 5, slightly easier to achieve.
So this is basically just a typical AoE (one per ally). I visualized it as 1 small orb flying to nearby allies within the search radius for each ally that was there.
Fair. Removed the extra downsides.
All this does is removing Orb Volley's channeling time in exchange for it costing twice the Orbs. Also I've made this talent (and this iteration of Orb Volley) for over a year before
I wouldn't really call it bad positioning since Zenyatta can still move around during [Transcendence], but with the increased radius, it should be better to use now.
Both of them. I've added a clarification after this comment.
Added an internal 3 second cooldown per ally.
Reduced the damage bonus.
It's a level 20 talent, they are meant to be strong. Also as mentioned for [Orb of Discord] itself, enemies can usually walk out of the area unless obstructed by Zenyatta's team.
Block effects either do nothing or do too much.
I do not see how 196 (98x2) damage over 3 seconds that costs 5 orbs per second, can be blocked, and locks you out of other abilities is better than 420 damage (60x7) over the same time period from basic attacks, unless the idea was to instantly recast it, but then it is both clunky (having to press the button twice) and does not match its Overwatch version.
I was talking about the "every 3rd" mechanic because of how clunky it is. It should simply activate with every Basic Attack.
Most of the abilities in the game are not instantly cast. This is why it is possible to interrupt almost everything.
I disagree. This is practically a delayed [Ice Block] on a Healer. It also contradicts itself mechanically, as granting Stasis and Unkillable makes it look like the last resort button, yet granting bonus damage makes it look like an offensive tool. It is frustrating to use and even more frustrating to face.
[Force of Will] is the only way for Medivh to "heal" his allies. This comparison does not make sense.
[Orb of Discord] is an area denial that cannot be dodged. However, even if you remove the manual activation, it still crosses with [Dragon's Arrow] too much.
It takes 0.5 seconds to cast. You are playing an extremely fragile character who needs to use Basic Attacks as often as possible. It is simply too dangerous. I called it irrelevant only because [Orb of Discord] can win games on its own.
This theme would work if the upside was worth the downside. You become incredibly fragile at full stacks. This is not even talking about how long it actually takes to stack.
Why not just make it instantly heal allied Heroes in an area around the target?
Are you sure the current description of [Orb Volley] is correct?
Target an enemy to channel for up to 3 seconds, creating 2 projectiles that are launched at the targeted enemy by reactivating the Ability or by channeling Orb Volley to its maximum duration, each dealing 98 (+4% per level) damage to the first enemy or Structure they come in contact with.
What does this have to do with removing its cast time?
That is great. I do not, however, see what this changes.
Yes, they are meant to be strong, but only if the ability itself is not already insanely powerful.
They will still have 25 less Armor, 40% less Physical Damage, and 40% less Spell Power for 2 seconds. It all boils down to you being able to manually detonate it. There is no counterplay because of that.
Okay. I will see what I can do about it to make it more balanced.
Okay now I see what made it so confusing. I left out writing in "2 projectiles per second". The total DPS is 98x6 (at full charge). It's technically still true to its Overwatch version, but the only difference is this is a unit-targeted Ability that is blocked by any enemy rather than always hitting its intended target. It's like this because having a channeling skillshot on a fragile Hero would be too mechanically demanding.
With every Basic Attack would've been be too much. That's 175 healing with every Basic Attack, which would be 437 HPS, and I'd rather not give it more compensation than it already has because it is still -5 Orbs/s.
Not really an
I meant the Protected status it provides.
Reduced the zone radius to start off at 2 and grow to its largest at 6, but other than that, I still don't see why this is an issue. If this were a Basic Ability, then I'd agree, but this is a Heroic Ability on a long cooldown with a small contact radius that doesn't let Zenyatta simply look away once launched unlike
Removed the cast delay.
+20% Attack Speed is plenty helpful, especially for the [Orb of Harmony] bonus healing mechanic and the synergy with [Vampiric Gaze].
Target an enemy to channel for up to 3 seconds, creating 2 projectiles that are launched at the targeted enemy by reactivating the Ability or by channeling Orb Volley to its maximum duration, each dealing 98 (+4% per level) damage to the first enemy or Structure they come in contact with.
What does this have to do with removing its cast time?
Corrected this now, but yes it still does what it's intended to do; makes [Orb Volley] instantly launchable for no channeling time at the cost of 5 Orbs per charge (normal [Orb Volley] is 5 per second, a total of 15). All charges are used at once upon activation.
Just saying it's an unfair comparison.
2 seconds is not that long in a team fight, not unless they are hit with CC or walk back in the area. Other buffs from teammates like healing and Shields can help as well.
You did the opposite. Giving 2 seconds of Evasion to allies every 7 seconds is insane. Imagine how painful it would be to play against as Kharazim or Raynor.
I do think it will be okay with the duration decreased to 1 second and the cooldown increased to 9 seconds.
While 0.5% may sound minor, this is increased to 2.5% per Basic Attack against Heroes below 50% Health, so almost 7.5% per second, which is a lot. I do not think he should have this sustain while [Transcendence] and [Walking in Harmony] work like they do.
Also, while we are at it, I suggest renaming Orbs to Energy. Makes the kit less confusing. Yes, this is going backwards, but there is practically no difference now.
Alright. Now it makes sense.
I forgot to say that the healing would be proportionally decreased. My bad.
Speaking of healing, I suggest decreasing the base healing from 93 to 90, decreasing the secondary healing to 60, and making the secondary healing trigger every Basic Attack instead of 6.
I just noticed that the description of [Orb of Harmony] does not say that it cannot be cast on Zenyatta. Is that intentional?
[Burrow] is practically a stronger [Ice Block]. What matters here is that it belongs to a Healer. They are supposed to be vulnerable. Giving them [Burrow] forces the enemy team to bait it out before they can engage.
It does grant healing by blocking the damage. It is still the only "utility" button in his basekit.
Again, it is not that the upside is bad, it is that the condition and the downside are too severe.
Is it really unfair if they have the same use case of bursting down enemies? They even share the mechanic of being blocked by the first target hit.
Anyway, I suggest renaming [False Promise] to [Orb Barrage] to make the text less convoluted, as reading [Orb Volley (False Promise)] makes it sound way more confusing than it is.
I really dislike it when one talent is not allowed to interact with another. This screams bad design to me, as the same thing happened to Thrall's [Tempest Fury] because of his Mythic Quest, and we know how terrible those are for the game.
I disagree, as 2 seconds is pretty much everything in the late game, especially when those 2 seconds remove almost half of your power.