Data provided by Heroes Profile
Published on May 6, 2020
Heroes of the Storm has just been updated with Hero balance changes! Read on for details.
Developer Comment: We’re making some changes to the Call for Help system that should help the overall player experience. We believe that currently Towers are punishing aggressive play too much, so we’re lowering their damage to give diving Heroes more time to make plays before they have to escape. Our goal overall with the system is to still have aggressive play be possible and rewarded, but to also give the defending team a way to punish prolonged Tower dives, which is primarily due to the stacking Armor debuff. We’re also changing the A.I. of structures to require that both the attacking and defending Hero be in their range in order for them to switch aggro onto an aggressor. This means that the defending Hero needs to also be near their structures in order to be defended, and it removes some unintuitive situations where a Hero can get aggro from attacks that are happening in far away places. Lastly, periodic damage will no longer cause structures to focus Heroes, so Heroes like Lunara will no longer pull aggro for the entirety of their DoT effects.
Developer Comment: We’ve heard feedback that players believe the pushing Samurai camp is too strong and the objective is too weak. For some insight, we purposefully designed the map so that the Samurai camp was uniquely powerful, and we wanted it to be a viable, effective strategy that was available for a large portion of the game, particularly since the map only has 2 lanes. Now that the map has been out for some time, we believe that the balance of power can shift a little in favor of the objective being a more central way to win the game.
** Now that we have more data, we’re making some more targeted nerfs to parts of Xul’s kit that are overperforming. In addition to various talents, we’re also slightly nerfing his base kit to simply bring his win rate down. ### Healer
General Base Stats
Spectral Scythe [Q]
Raise Skeleton [Trait]
Jailors [Trait]
Echoes of Death [Q]
Decrepify [Q]
** Sustaining Power has been a difficult sell as a competitive option for Alarak. Players who want to improve Lightning Surge are more inclined to go for Extended Lightning, since it adds more benefits that synergize with later talents. Instead of buffing Sustaining Power in hopes that it outshines Extended Lightning, we’re changing it to do its own unique effect. Overwhelming Power should synergize well with talents like Hindered Motion and Mocking Strikes, allowing Alarak players who are able to stick to their targets to do a lot of sustained damage while keeping themselves alive. ### Ranged Assassin
Sustaining Power [E]
New Talent: Overwhelming Power [Q]
Hindered Motion [W]
** Anduin’s Level 13 talents are a little too similar, so we’re adding reasons for players who choose one talent over the other outside of how they want to gain Movement Speed.
Holy Reach [E]
Speed of the Pious [W]
Enchant Boots – Lion’s Speed [Trait]
Push Forward! [Passive]
Desperate Prayer [Active]
** Since her release, Cassia has been a great counter-pick against teams bringing multiple Basic Attackers. When she was being created, the Hero Designer was working closely with the Live Design team to find a good niche for her to fill. Since that time, however, our design philosophies have changed, and you have been seeing us pull-back from any individual Hero being too sharp in their designs. The War Matron is no exception and her rework tries to keep her original playstyle intact while also opening up options for players to bring her into more team compositions. Our other goals with the rework were to enhance her Lightning Javazon fantasy and introduce new talent-interactions for aficionados to really sink their teeth into. It would seem that with Cassia lightning does in fact strike twice and we are excited to see what you can do with her!
Vitals
Basic Attack
Lightning Fury [Q]
Blinding Light [W]
Fend [E]
Avoidance [Trait]
Thunderstroke
Impale
Charged Strikes
Seraph’s Hymn
Surge of Light
New Talent: Debilitating Thrusts
New Talent: War Matron
Inner Light
Ring of the Leech
Plate of the Whale
Grounding Bolt
Thundergod’s Vigor
Lunging Strike
New Talent: Gloves of Alacrity
War Traveler
Pierce
Penetrate
New Talent: Power Strike
New Talent: Static Electricity
Infinite Lightning
Imprisoning Light
Titan’s Revenge
New Talent: Rockstopper
** It’s been quite awhile since we last changed Dehaka, and the game has changed significantly since that time. We’re giving him a small buff to Dark Swarm and combining Constriction and Paralyzing Enzymes to create a more powerful, single talent. We’re also adding a strong defensive option at Level 16 that plays into his desire to fight near bushes.
Dark Swarm [W]
Constriction [Q]
Paralyzing Enzymes [Q]
New talent: Pack Leader [Z]
** We haven’t given Orphea many changes since her release, and we’re giving her some pretty massive amounts of love in this patch. She should now be a great addition to most teams, with all of her base abilities getting a buff as well as many of her talents.
Shadow Waltz [Q]
Chomp [W]
Dread [E]
Growing Nightmare [E]
Chaotic Assault [Trait]
Abyssal Symbiosis [W]
Dead Magic [Trait]
Lurking Terror [Active]
** We always have to be careful about introducing too much power into Hero designs that are both mobile and bursty, because even if they are balanced on paper, they can feel extremely oppressive to play against. When this does happen, our normal reaction is to slowly tune those Heroes down until they don’t feel awful to play against. Unfortunately, this can cause a variety of issues; in Tracer’s case, she became extremely reliant on a handful of other Heroes to really open up her kit and make it work. With her rework, we focused on trying to make her feel a bit more self-reliant while also giving opponents a bit more time to react to her Recall and lock her down. On top of this, we have rebuilt her talent tree in order to give our Pulse-Pistol wielding Heroine some fun new options while she time-jumps around the Nexus. BRUISER HEALER MELEE RANGED Artanis Anduin Alarak Chromie Deathwing Brightwing Jaina Dehaka Deckard Li-Ming Imperius Orphea Ragnaros Probius Xul Tassadar ### Bruiser
Weapon
Melee [W]
Recall [E]
Pulse Bomb [R]
Reload [Trait]
Pulse Strike [W]
Parting Gift [E]
Slipsteam [E]
Tracer Rounds [Passive]
New Talent: One-Two Punch [W]
New Talent: Pulse Generator [R1]
Is That a Health Pack?! [Passive]
Leeching Rounds
New Talent: Telefrag [E]
Sleight of Hand [Trait]
Focus Fire [Trait]
Locked and Loaded [Trait]
Leeching Rounds
Bullet Spray [W]
Quantum Spike [R]
Jumper [Q]
Bullet Time [Q]
Untouchable [Q/Passive]
New Talent: Heavy-Handed [W]
Ricochet
New Talent: Chrono Triggers [Q]
Get Stuffed [W]
Total Recall [E]
** We’re giving Artanis some small baseline buffs and changing some of his lesser-picked talents to have more practical use cases. We’re also combining the effects of Warp Sickness and Chrono Surge into one talent, which should make that choice at Level 7 more powerful overall while also giving a clearer choice for Artanis players who want to build around hitting enemy Heroes with Phase Prism.
General Base Stats
Shield Overload [Trait]
Seasoned Marksman [Passive]
Reactive Parry [W]
New Talent: Protector of Aiur [Passive]
Warp Sickness [E]
Chrono Surge [E]
** It’s been some time since we last changed Chromie. We’re giving her some baseline love with a little more damage to Dragon’s Breath, as well as improving some of her talents that are not quite measuring up to their peers.
Dragon’s Breath [W]
Bronze Talons [Q]
Mobius Loop [W]
Slowing Sands [R1]
Quantum Overdrive [Active]
Blessing of the Bronze [Active]
** Deckard is still a little less powerful compared to other Healers, so we’re giving him some more Health and buffing up some of his talents. ### Melee Assassin
General Base Stats
Scroll of Identify [E]
Ruby [Active]
Lorenado [R2]
** As Li-Ming has evolved, Wave of Force has become the more consistently powerful Heroic. It provides burst damage, CC, and is instantly cast, whereas Disintegrate does its damage over time and causes Li-Ming to root herself and become vulnerable. Because of this, we’re swapping the cooldowns of these Heroics to better match their power levels.
Disintegrate [R1]
Wave of Force [R2]
** We’re doing some talent tuning on Probius which should make his tiers more competitive. We’re particularly excited for the change to Gate Keeper, which makes it possible to potentially have multiple Null Gates up if the enemy doesn’t manage to kill the Pylons powering them.
Warp Resonance [W]
Photon Barrier [E]
Particle Accelerator [Q]
Null Gate [R2]
Gate Keeper [R2]
** To help it compete with other talents on its tier and to give it a little more identity, we’re adding a Slow to Pathetic Mortals. This change will also help the talent’s visual clarity since enemies will be Slowed while they have the damage reduction debuff.
Pathetic Mortals [Q]
** It’s been a long time since Sulfuras Smash was the premier Heroic on Ragnaros, back when he and his best buddy Taunt Varian dominated the competitive scene. Things have changed, and over the years Lava Wave has risen to dominance, so we’re giving Sulfuras Smash some love so that it can see a return to its glory days.
Sulfuras Smash [R1]
** While he deals a whole lot of damage, Tassadar is performing a bit lower than we would like, so we are buffing up various parts of his kit that relate to his survivability and utility, while also increasing the potency of some of his talents. We expect these changes to put him in a much more competitive spot, while also filling a unique role with his ability to control the battlefield with various Slows and with Force Wall.
General Base Stats
Shock Ray [Q]
Force Wall [E]
Resonance Beam [Trait]
Static Charge [Q]
Khaydarian Amulet [Trait]
Induction [Q]
Executor’s Will [Active]
** Deathwing continues to be a terror in the Nexus. While he’s in a much better place now, he can use some more toning down. We’re also addressing Skyfall’s domination of his Level 7 talents but removing one of its effects and giving it to Firestorm. For players who want to build around going up and landing more often, Firestorm will now be the premier talent for that playstyle, whereas players who want to do damage while in the air, interrupt objectives, or heal themselves more can continue to take Skyfall.
General Base Stats
Cataclysm [R1]
Heat Wave [W]
Firestorm [Z]
Skyfall [E]
** Brightwing is slightly underperforming compared to other Healers, so we’re buffing up the aspects of her kit that make her a unique choice to put onto a team.
Polymorph [W]
Pixie Dust [E]
Phase Shift [Z]
Hyper Shift [Z]
Magic Spit [Passive]
Critical Mist [Trait]
General
Heroes
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