Patch Notes - February 27, 2017 :: Heroes of the Storm discussion on HeroesFire

Amp It Up(E)

- Healing Boost changed from 16.5 (+4%) to 15.5 (+4%)

Boombox(Talent)

- Duration changed from 20 seconds to 30 seconds

Party Mix

- Bonus Range changed from 25 to 20%

Malfurion has seen a lot of play at all levels to the point that he is crowding out other Support heroes. While we like his established place in the Nexus, his Entangling Roots is much stronger for its consistency relative to the CC that other heroes in the game provide, particularly when he takes the Tenacious Roots talent. We’re also happy to see that Twilight Dream is so highly valued considering it’s against a strong Healing heroic, but wanted to lower some of the hidden power that it provides in its Mana regeneration to make the decision of which Heroic to take a little more thoughtful.

Entangling Roots(E)

- Duration changed from 1.5 seconds to 1.25 seconds

Twilight Dream(R)

- Mana regen changed from 1.5 to 1.25

Tenacious Roots

- Root duration bonus decreased from .5 to .25 seconds

Murky slimed his way back to the top of the Nexus, and we’re all still cleaning the gunk out of our shoes as a result. His release pushed him much further than intended, so we’re targeting a series of nerfs at some of the frustrating aspects of the Hero. Overall, his effectiveness will be less reliable, and his ability to slow and zone opponents will be less powerful. Nerrrrfgggle Mrrggl.

General.display_name(General.keybind)

- Health decreased from 791.232 to 759.2
- Health Regeneration decreased from 31.646784 to 30.367168

March of the Murlocs(R)

- Cooldown increased from 80 to 110 seconds

Slime(Q)

- Duration changed from 8 seconds to 6 seconds
- Movement Speed changed from 25 to 20

A Fishy Deal(Talent)

- Number of Bribe stacks needed to bribe a Mercenary changed from 7 to 8
- Maximum stacks changed from 30 to 32

Slime Time

- Slow changed from 35 to 30%

Slippery When Wet

- Movement Speed changed from 35 to 40%

Time to Krill

- Movement Speed changed from 8 to 7%

Rejuvenating Bubble

- Healing changed from 50 to 40% of maximum health

One of our major goals with Hero reworks is attempting to keep as many of the current builds and playstyles that exist for a Hero, trim out older or unhealthy ones, and hopefully open doors for new ones to emerge. When shifting the old Khala’s Embrace to a questing talent (Khaydarin Resonance), we had hoped to lock the immense power that it brought behind a barrier that was difficult to overcome on a lot of maps. In theory, this would make it feel rewarding to take on certain maps, but rarely the most powerful choice. Instead, we found that locking this kind of potential behind an extremely difficult Globe-collecting talent made for a more frustrating experience than a fun one. When taking a step back and considering our options, we felt it best to remove the permanent shielding capabilities and replace it with a less-powerful questing talent.

Talents/Khaydarin Resonance.display_name(Talents/Khaydarin Resonance.keybind)

General.display_name(General.keybind)

- Basic Attack Range decreased from 5.5 to 4.5

Commandeer Odin(R)

- TychusOdinRange changed from 8.8 to 9

Overkill(Q)

- Energy decreased from 75 to 65
- Cooldown decreased from 15 to 13 seconds

Neosteel Coating(Talent)

- Spell Armor changed from 50 to 75

Press the Advantage

- Range changed from 1.925 to 1.5
- Duration changed from 4 seconds to 3 seconds

That's the Stuff!

The frequency and power of a ranged point click stun was too powerful from Warbringer. While it may have been “balanced” in terms of winrate, its potency wasn’t healthy or fun for opponents. It didn’t offer many options for opponents that were stunned and then Taunted for over 2 seconds, greatly increasing the reliability of other abilities (like Sulfuras Smash). By making Warbringer a massive slow instead of a stun, it allows enemies to use abilities to defend themselves (or forces a Varian to use Taunt early, greatly reducing the duration of his opening crowd control). We’ve shifted more of the power of Warbringer over into the mobility aspect to compensate (since Warbringer makes Charge a 6 second cooldown now). The other part of these changes is providing some buffs to the Assassin focused Heroics to bring them up to par with Taunt, so that Varian can frequently opt into any of the Heroic choices to really fulfill the multi-class Hero fantasy that makes him unique.