Cpl. Miles "Blaze" Lewis has always been drawn to the flame, but it wasn't until he joined up with Raynor's Raiders that he put his pyromania to good use. He's seen his fair share of battles since then, and has never failed to bring the heat.
Trait
Pyromania Gain 25 Armor and deal 40 damage to nearby enemies every 0.5 seconds for 4 seconds. Each Hero hit by Flame Stream reduces Pyromania's cooldown by 5 seconds.
Basic Abilities
Flame Stream (Q) Fire two streams of flame that deal 83 damage to enemies hit. Flame Stream sets fire to Oil Spills it comes in contact with. Oil Spill (W) Vector Targeting. Dispense a slick of oil that lasts for 5 seconds and Slows enemies that come in contact with it by 40%. Flame Stream can set Oil Spills on fire for 2.5 seconds, dealing 18 damage every 0.3 seconds to enemies inside. While on fire, Oil Spills no longer Slow enemies. Additionally, Blaze is Healed for 49 Health every 0.3 seconds while standing in flaming Oil Spills. Stores up to 2 charges. Jet Propulsion (E) After 0.5 seconds, charge forward, colliding with the first enemy Hero hit, dealing 52 damage to them and nearby enemy Heroes. Enemies hit are also Stunned for 1.25 seconds.
Heroic Abilities
Bunker Drop (R) After 0.5 seconds, deploy and enter a Bunker with 1300 Health. Blaze and his allies can enter and exit the Bunker at will. While in the Bunker, occupants gain access to Flamethrower, dealing 179 damage to enemies in a line. Exiting the Bunker grants 25 Armor for 2 seconds. Bunkers last 10 seconds, or until destroyed. Combustion (R) Channel up to 2.6 seconds. Once Channeling ends, nearby enemies are Slowed by 60% and take 48 damage every 0.5 seconds. Combustion's Slow and damage over time durations are extended the longer Blaze Channels, from 1 second up to 5 seconds. Blaze's Movement Speed is reduced by 50% while Channeling.
The Minimap will now indicate upcoming Immortal spawn locations 30 seconds after the game begins. Subsequent Immortal indicators will appear on the Minimap shortly after a previously summoned Immortal has been defeated. Swap locations will not appear on the Minimap when an Immortal has been reduced to 50% Health.
Dodge Brawl Chromie’s Health has been increased from 3 to 5 Ghost Chromies now display player names overhead The in-game camera will now lock to Ghost Chromie until a new round begins
Ranked Battleground Rotation
The Battleground rotation for Ranked Play has not been changed.
Regrowth (Q) Mana cost reduced from 45 to 35 No longer has an initial heal effect Heal amount per tick decreased from 27 to 20 Duration increased from 15 to 20 seconds Moonfire (W) Mana cost reduced from 15 to 10 Damage reduced from 100 to 90 Added functionality: For every enemy Hero hit with Moonfire, instantly heal all targets with an active Regrowth for 140 Entangling Roots (E) No longer effects non-Heroic targets Tranquility (R) Duration reduced from 10 to 8 seconds Cooldown reduced from 100 to 80 seconds Mana cost reduced from 100 to 80 Added functionality: All Heroes with an active Regrowth effect gain 10 Armor while in range of Tranquility
Talents
Level 1 Shan’do’s Clarity (D) Functionality changed: The cooldown of Innervate regenerates 25% faster for each active Regrowth Scouting Drone (Active) Removed New Talent – Nature’s Swiftness (Q) Malfurion passively gains 5% Movement Speed for each active Regrowth Level 4 Full Moonfire (W) Removed Strangling Vines (E) Moved from Level 7 New functionality: Enemy Heroes rooted by Entangling Roots receive 25% less healing for 2 seconds New Talent – Deep Roots (E) Entangling Roots grow 25% larger and last 25% longer Level 7 Tenacious Roots (E) Moved from Level 16 New functionality: Root duration is increased by 25%. If Malfurion becomes stunned, refresh the cooldown of Entangling Roots New Talent – Nature’s Cure (Active) Activate: Remove all stuns, roots and slows from allies with an active Regrowth. 45 second cooldown. New Talent – Wild Growth (W) Every time your Moonfire hits an enemy Hero, increase the duration of all active Regrowths by 1 second Level 13 Shrink Ray (Active) Removed Life Seed (Passive) Removed Revitalize (Q) Moved from Level 16 Hindering Moonfire (W) Moved from Level 7 Level 16 Ysera’s Gift (Q) Bonus heal amount increased from 40 to 60% New Talent – Moonlit Harmony (W) Increase the heal of your Moonfire by 15% for every active Regrowth New Talent – Nature's Balance (W) Increase the area of Moonfire by 25% and the duration of Regrowth by 5 seconds Level 20 Serenity (R) New functionality: Every Hero hit with Moonfire lowers the cooldown of Tranquility by 3 seconds. While active, Tranquility's healing is increased by 10% for each active Regrowth Storm Shield (Active) Removed Rewind (Active) Removed Lunar Shower (W) Moved from Level 7 New functionality: Hitting an enemy Hero reduces the cooldown of Moonfire by 1 second and ramps the damage of the next Moonfire by 20%, stacking up to 3 times New Talent – Lifebloom (Q) Casting Regrowth on a player instantly heals them for 10% of their missing Health
Items in the Collection have received updated UI colors to improve readability
New Bundle
Blaze Heroic Bundle – Available until January 22, 2017
New Announcer
Blaze
New Skins
Blaze Hazardous Blaze Veteran Blaze Fel Reaver Blaze Abominable Fel Reaver Blaze Coldfire Fel Reaver Blaze Infernal Fel Reaver Blaze Smoldering Fel Reaver Blaze Probius Ara Tribe Probius Nerazim Probius
Fixed a number of typo and tooltip errors across several aspects of the game.
Art
Abathur: Casting Ultimate Evolution will no longer cause visual effects to persist on the terrain at Abathur’s previous location. Valla: The color of Lavendar Deputy Valla’s scarf has been updated to match the rest of the skin.
Heroes, Abilities, and Talents
Abathur: Locusts will now correctly retain their selected skins during Ultimate Evolution. Chen: Fixed an issue that could cause Chen to become unresponsive if Wandering Keg’s duration expired while the barrel was too close to unpathable terrain. Garrosh: Talent descriptions for Inner Rage and Brute Force will no longer swap when selecting either Talent. Junkrat: Total Mayhem will no longer trigger twice if Junkrat is killed by the secondary Basic Attack damaged granted by the Giant Killer Talent. Junkrat: Casting Rocket Ride will no longer cause an empty Health Bar to appear. Junkrat: Fixed an issue in which Ripper Air could grant cooldown reduction to Concussion Mine if a Summon, such as a Creep Tumor, Healing Ward, etc., was also hit when the Mine was detonated. Nazeebo: Gargantuan Stomp can no longer be cast while the Gargantuan is stunned or polymorphed. Samuro: Illusion Master can no longer be cast while Samuro is airborne after being hit by an effects like Junkrat’s Concussion Mine detonation. Samuro: Issuing a Hold Position command to Samuro’s Mirror Images and then selecting one of them will no longer cause the others to cancel the Hold Position command. Zul’jin: Lacerate’s Talent icon is now correctly colored blue, rather than purple.
Blaze looks amazing. Been a while since I've seen a hero I actually really want right now. Cool.
On the flipside, Malfurion feels extremely unreliable now. You *have* to hit specifically an enemy Hero to trigger any burst heal. Outside of a direct teamfight, how is Malfurion going to be able to save someone? If an ally is running towards me with an enemy Hero (say Valla) behind them, the Q alone does effectively nothing until I manage to get in range to hit said enemy Hero. And then it's only a small amount. The heal over time itself is also not anything special. Baseline is 400 health over 20 seconds (20 ticks of 20 health). You can get more than that with Regeneration Master.
I can get that they want to push Malfurion more into healing over time and all his talents seem to strengthen that but I seriously wonder if he'll be able to actually save anyone. Currently that is already his weakness due to the limited instant heal you get but now...I don't know. And Roots no longer works on minions so he has zero waveclear. Great. I don't know if Blizzard is actively killing off what little waveclear the supports have but I don't like it. Having a support that can clear a wave atleast moderately well adds quite a bit of value them. Makes them less of a Morales that just has to stick with an ally 24/7.
There's also no way to currently keep good track of which Regrowth is about to expire. Blizzard obviously put talents in that benefit from having multiple Regrowths active but without an actual indicator on each Hero you won't know who needs priority on refreshing it. Good luck keeping track of it yourself throughout a game with 5 Heroes and 20+ durations on each Regrowth combined with your cooldowns.
Blaze seems like a combination of the WC3 Brewmaster and Probius, especially when you look at the synergy between Oil Spill and Flame Stream, plus his bunker ult that lets you and your allies fortify an objective.
On January 03 2018 03:48 Thezzy wrote: Blaze looks amazing. Been a while since I've seen a hero I actually really want right now. Cool.
On the flipside, Malfurion feels extremely unreliable now. You *have* to hit specifically an enemy Hero to trigger any burst heal. Outside of a direct teamfight, how is Malfurion going to be able to save someone? If an ally is running towards me with an enemy Hero (say Valla) behind them, the Q alone does effectively nothing until I manage to get in range to hit said enemy Hero. And then it's only a small amount. The heal over time itself is also not anything special. Baseline is 400 health over 20 seconds (20 ticks of 20 health). You can get more than that with Regeneration Master.
I can get that they want to push Malfurion more into healing over time and all his talents seem to strengthen that but I seriously wonder if he'll be able to actually save anyone. Currently that is already his weakness due to the limited instant heal you get but now...I don't know. And Roots no longer works on minions so he has zero waveclear. Great. I don't know if Blizzard is actively killing off what little waveclear the supports have but I don't like it. Having a support that can clear a wave atleast moderately well adds quite a bit of value them. Makes them less of a Morales that just has to stick with an ally 24/7.
There's also no way to currently keep good track of which Regrowth is about to expire. Blizzard obviously put talents in that benefit from having multiple Regrowths active but without an actual indicator on each Hero you won't know who needs priority on refreshing it. Good luck keeping track of it yourself throughout a game with 5 Heroes and 20+ durations on each Regrowth combined with your cooldowns.
Guess we'll have to wait and see.
But in team fights now, any Malfurion that's decently played should get a multi-target burst heal every 3 seconds. IMO that more than makes up for the lost upfront heal which was underwhelming to begin with.
Blaze is everything what I wanted Butcher to be if he was a Warrior and not an Assassin. At first I didn't care about Firebat hero, even though it is from Starcraft, but his kit seems really fun. Can't wait to play him.
On January 04 2018 11:14 Ramiz1989 wrote: Blaze is everything what I wanted Butcher to be if he was a Warrior and not an Assassin. At first I didn't care about Firebat hero, even though it is from Starcraft, but his kit seems really fun. Can't wait to play him.
His kit is awesome. I thought the same thing initially. I've played with firebats in the SC2 campaign...I know how clunky and dumb they are. For Blizzard to create a hero that is as fluid and cool as Blaze from that model is a miracle. Can't wait to play him on live.
One of the issues with the current strenghts of merc and the general easiness of taking them (you can dodge the shots on siege) is that the game honestly has become more reliant on teamplay.
The logic behind the above statement is that the ability to take camps- if you are playing the "jungle"-role - is actually dependant on whether your teammates can prevent an invade or better: initiate an invade.
Whenever I was on a team with solid teammates, decent laners and a tank that took initiative and everyone would follow him: Invading enemy camps is the easiest thing in the world and can secure you significant early game leads that can be almost impossibly to countersnowball.
And yet when you are on the opposite end and plays as the jungler, being invaded is the most frustrating thing in the world. Too some extent, you can learn to identify when there is a risk of being invaded, but in many cases your laners can all be alive but be pushed towards their towers/or just "sleeping", and due to the strenght of mercs "you have to start them". If you don't start them and the enemy team takes their camps, you get soo far behind anyway.
This issue may not exists at lower levels because people there can't identify when to invade and usually it's only 1-2 guys invading. But against a good enemy team invading as 4 can be very strong.
The solution here might be too buff structures so they can better defend against mercs in the early game. Late game heroes are just way underpowere
Another problem with the current jungling-role is that it honestly doens't have that much depth. There are very unflexible routes you have to do given the strenght of the mercs and the objective timers. And in my opinion that is just a complete fail from a game that wants to reward pvp because afk jungling is the opposite.
Instead jungling should be a strategic decision you make that isn't super neccasary but doing it well can add you +10-20%.
And on some maps like Cursed jungling is safe, on other maps it's just gambling that your teammates know how to cover for you.
Invades and ganks wouldn't be so bad if warding were an actual thing in Heroes. Part of what makes the game so volatile and snowbally right now is the lack of scouting info you have on your minimap.
On January 08 2018 09:38 Clbull wrote: Invades and ganks wouldn't be so bad if warding were an actual thing in Heroes. Part of what makes the game so volatile and snowbally right now is the lack of scouting info you have on your minimap.
Your teammates (especially the tank) should be the ward. They should be in position to help you asap.
The issue is that they don't understand where to be on the lane to cover an invade properly. It's honestly one of the most frustrating things in the world. Too often they rather wanna go for some pointless 4v3 or 3v2 on the other side of the map where they at best will get 1 kill. However, securing camps should have first priority.
Generally speaking there are two win conditions in the current meta:
1. Get a ton of picksc with high bust/cc comp (tytpically involves a nova/valeera + maybe a diablo etc as tanks). With this comp you can avoid getting camps and instead just punish opponent for overextending.
2. A composition with good laners/waweclear and then you just spam camps and win by map control.
Too often drafts will invovler either, or perhaps some mix between the two and playing a mixed style is just the worst way too win. Like if you have one jungler + a nova on the team --> you probably lose.
So the new meta changes have just introduced a new element to the game that isn't particilarly skillbased but instead is soooo dependant on your teammates. You can in theory do everything correct as a player but still lose... That obviously also happened before, but now there is just another way it can happen.
So understanding drafts and making pick suggestions during draft is very important. Babysitting teammates throughout the game is also important but ofc bad players tend to react 10-15 seconds too late too everything.
And then there are maps like braxis holdout. I argue that over 50% of games played on this map at diamond/master/gm are determined by drafts. By that i mean that over 50% of the games can be predicted before it begins with 90%'ish accuracy because all that matters is whether you have better laners. An absolute horribe map in my opinion.
I come to long after a map like Summoners Rift that is big, has 3 lanes and generally offer different types of options for players throughout the game. And ofc add some type of objective to make it HOTS. Cursed hollow is probably the closest we get to that.
As mentioned previously, the problem with current map pool is that it almost always is so easy to predict where the jungler is going to be on the map at any given point in time - unlike LOL - where there usually are multiple viable places you can be. It doesn't require skill to succesfully invade and fuck up the jungler.
As an example I recently had a game where we got a kill and i immediatelly told my team to go for the invade and pinged the location. Eveyrone except nazeebo who for whatever reason thought he should go top went for the invade.
As a consequence we lost the 4v4 and the camp and we were in a 25-75 situation. Had nazeebo followed we would likely have won the teamfight + taken the camp --> 75-25 situation.
I have always be frustrated in LOL where one misplay from a teammate could mess up your ability to do anything (aka have fun) for the rest of the game. HOTS is just starting to feel more and more like that.
Anyway, for the jungle-role to actually work in HOTS, blizzard need to completely rework the entire map system because it doesn't work well atm imo. With a larger map plus more different merc options, invading becomes a skill and it could also become viable to soloinvade.
They also need to rework camps where you can take 0% damage in the proces (like siege camps), because in those situations you can never solo invade a stronger 1v1 jungler. As a compensation some jungle camps could provide you with 2 or 3 regen globes instead.
I don't think the merc system will ever be changed to force one player to concentrate on it on every map. It would make laneplay stale. And well there is Sylv and Zagara who can clean up faster then one can spam mercs. That siege camps are doable by assassins now is just to lessen the early game effect of those heroes that cleaned camps before like nothing. Because now you can do yours if they do theirs, without having to tp back.
Of course that makes heroes more about picking the right hero. But thats already a given with the talent system instead of an item system. And Drafts are predictable, because you can see which side has more ego picks instead of picks aimed at winning. That cannot be fixed by the game.
I don't think the merc system will ever be changed to force one player to concentrate on it on every map. It would make laneplay stale.
That's what the meta is now om most maps - unless you draft a pick comp. You only stop taking mercs when the objective is up (and then mercs will be pushing enemy lane). And as I argued, it's really dumb because the ability to take camps has nothing to do with your own skill.
And if you don't take early game camps and the opponent does --> You lose the map control.
In my opinion, it's the wrong direction for the game whenever it moves towards being more dependant on your teammates.
And well there is Sylv and Zagara who can clean up faster then one can spam mercs.
Sylvaanas is primarily an early game pusher along with the team. Her primary early game role is definitely not to take camps. Zagara is more about late game camp taking and an early game solo lane bully. She is definitely not the early game camp taker.
Instead the jungler can often just be anyone with good damage against camps where shots can be dodged. Against camps where shots cannot be dodged it can be various bruisers/heroes with life steal etc.
FeyFey Profile PM Joined September 2010 Germany10072 Posts 6 hours ago #16 I don't think the merc system will ever be changed to force one player to concentrate on it on every map. It would make laneplay stale. And well there is Sylv and Zagara who can clean up faster then one can spam mercs. That siege camps are doable by assassins now is just to lessen the early game effect of those heroes that cleaned camps before like nothing. Because now you can do yours if they do theirs, without having to tp back.
Of course that makes heroes more about picking the right hero. But thats already a given with the talent system instead of an item system. And Drafts are predictable, because you can see which side has more ego picks instead of picks aimed at winning. That cannot be fixed by the game.
hey, would you mind to elaborate? i have been looking for a detailed draft guide for quite a while but havent really found anything that doesn´t over generalize
And Drafts are predictable, because you can see which side has more ego picks instead of picks aimed at winning. That cannot be fixed by the game.
I don't even think that's as much the issue on braxxis. Often time teams are trying to draft as well as they can (maybe 1-3 picks are ego picks, but 4-5 tries to fill). And when you just have to pick either the strongest laners or the ones with strongest waweclear, it leads to a very boring map.
Eh I was kinda wrong. Anyway seems like decent changes overall. Probably puts the game in a better direction.
Samuro buffs is nice and somewhat unexpected. I was actually starting to play him again as he didn't feel as nerfed as I initially had thought.
Initially I had problems engaging with the stealth change, however by taking his new lvl 1 stealth buff talent it becomes a million times easier to get close to enemy heroes and then you can use Q to engage. It's a slightly different playstyle as he now is more of an anti-squishy whereas he previously functioned well to kill more immobile targets.
With new buffs I think he is definitely as strong as the old Samuro and I believe bladestorm benefits more from health buff than illusion.
Zeratul with the new lvl 1 talent can now move as fast unmounted while stealthed as when mounting.
That talent was almost useless before and I still don't see the purpose. I almost found no cases of where I am moving around stealthed as stealth just doesn't fit into zeratul at all anymore. And on the other hand, the regen globe talent is sooo good.
Aside from buffing that talent, they should have given his default stealth a significant buff. 4 seconds is simply way too much given how bad stealth is on him. And they could have done that while nerfing the CD of his new ult from 20 to 25 seconds (to make VP more viable).
Hanzo could also be a strong pick in the next patch. Right now, he seems very good if played correctly due to his ability to kill boss in like 10'ish seconds. And with his buffs to his passive he could be one of the stronger ranged carries.
Fortified Bunker (R) Health increased from 1300 to 1305
I don't know. I feel like 1310 would be the perfect value for the HP of the bunker. Probably gonna get buffed next patch before seeing consecutive nerfs back to 1300.
Added functionality: For every enemy Hero hit with Moonfire, instantly heal all targets with an active Regrowth for 140
This is actually similar to concepts I want to see for more supports: Skillbased healing. It is somewhat surprising that they are doing this for Malfurion as the skillcap on the hero already is reasonably high.
Regeneration Globes •Total Health regen over 5 seconds reduced from 11.7% Maximum Health to 9% •Total Mana regen over 5 seconds reduced from 7.8% Maximum Mana to 7% Mercenaries •Hellbats •Defender •Armor Shred amount reduced from 5 to 4% per stack •Base Health reduced from 4275 to 3420
•Laner •Armor Shred amount reduced from 5 to 4% per stack •Base Health reduced from 4700 to 3760 •Health Scaling (Minutes 1-5) reduced from 50 to 40 •Health Scaling (Minutes 6-10) increased from 75 to 110 •Health Scaling (Minutes 11 -15) increased from 100 to 150 •Health Scaling (Minutes 16-20) increased from 125 to 235
•Knights •Defender Mage Knight •Spell Armor Aura amount increased from 15 to 20
•Laner Mage Knight •Spell Armor Aura amount reduced from 30 to 20
•Slime Boss (Warhead Junction) •Laner •Base Health amount reduced from 20000 to 16000 •Scaling (Minutes 1-5) reduced from 630 to 500 •Scaling (Minutes 6-10) increased from 945 to 1050 •Scaling (Minutes 11 -15) increased from 1260 to 1400 •Scaling (Minutes 16-20) increased from 1575 to 2250
•Base Basic Attack damage reduced from 400 to 320 •Scaling (Minutes 1-5) reduced from 10 to 8 •Scaling (Minutes 6-10) increased from 15 to 17 •Scaling (Minutes 11 -15) increased from 20 to 23 •Scaling (Minutes 16-20) increased from 25 to 38
•Base Spit impact damage reduced from 250 to 200 •Scaling (Minutes 6-10) increased from 5 to 6.25% •Scaling (Minutes 11 -15) increased from 6 to 7.25% •Scaling (Minutes 16-20) increased from 6 to 8.25%
•Base Spit ‘Damage over Time’ damage reduced from 150 to 120 •Scaling (Minutes 6-10) increased from 5 to 6.25% •Scaling (Minutes 11 -15) increased from 6 to 7.25% •Scaling (Minutes 16-20) increased from 6 to 8.25%
•Acid Trail Base damage reduced from 80 to 64 •Scaling (Minutes 6-10) increased from 5 to 6.25% •Scaling (Minutes 11 -15) increased from 6 to 7.25% •Scaling (Minutes 16-20) increased from 6 to 8.25%
Forts •Gate Tower Damage to Minions, Mercenaries, Monsters, and Heroes increased by 33%. •Fort Damage to Minions, Mercenaries, Monsters, and Heroes increased by 33% Keeps •Gate Tower Damage to Minions, Mercenaries, Monsters, and Heroes increased by 33% •Keep Damage to Minions, Mercenaries, Monsters, and Heroes increased by 33% •Keep Health increased from 16,000 to 17,000 Towers of Doom •Altar respawn time increased from 90 to 110 seconds. Battlefield of Eternity •The initial stage of the first event will always be South vs North (Heaven South, Hell North) •The second stage of the first event will always be East vs West (Heaven East, Hell West) •All subsequent event stages will be randomized
•The Minimap will now indicate upcoming Immortal spawn locations 30 seconds after the game begins. •Subsequent Immortal indicators will appear on the Minimap shortly after a previously summoned Immortal has been defeated. •Swap locations will not appear on the Minimap when an Immortal has been reduced to 50% Health.
Developer Comment: As expected, our gameplay update for 2018 resulted in large changes to many of our game systems. While we’re overall happy with the direction of the update, there have been some unintended side effects that we’re hoping to remedy. We overestimated how much more powerful unlimited ammo would be for Structures, and as a result pushing mechanics have become too strong, resulting in lower game times on nearly all maps. We’re giving our towers some of their teeth back with this update, which should help teams hold pushes from Mercenary Camps and map events. We’re also making some tuning changes to some of our Mercenary Camps now that we have had some time to see how they have been performing. Hellbats and Knights in particular are pushing harder than we would like, so we’re reducing their power. We’re also taking a look at the Warhead Junction boss and reducing its early and mid-game pushing power, as right now it is too strong when combined with Nukes from the map event. Lastly, we are reducing the power of Regeneration Globes. While we like the new mini-game that Neutral Regen globes provide in the laning phase, we are not comfortable with how much they are currently benefitting the team that is ahead while they are pushing into a defending team. We’re also seeing players picking up more Regeneration Globes in general, so this will help to keep the game’s overall sustain in check. These are some hefty changes, and it’s likely that there will be more needed to be done over time as things continue to settle. We’ll be keeping an eye on things, and are prepared to make more updates as they’re needed. Heroes Brawl •Dodge Brawl •Chromie’s Health has been increased from 3 to 5 •Ghost Chromies now display player names overhead •The in-game camera will now lock to Ghost Chromie until a new round begins
Abilities •Scatter Arrow (W) •Spread of Scatter Arrows narrowed by 20% •Damage reduced from 93 to 90
•Natural Agility (D) •Cooldown reduced from 25 to 20 seconds •Range increased from 8 to 10
Talents •Level 7 •Shieldbreaker (Q) •Removed
•Sharpened Arrowheads (W) •Moved from level 20 •New functionality: •Hitting a Hero with Storm Bow or Basic Attacks reduces their Armor by 5 for 4 seconds, stacking up to 25.
•Level 13 •Mounted Archery (Z) •Bonus Movement Speed reduced from 30 to 20%
•Level 16 •Giant Slayer (W) •Damage increased from 1.25 to 1.5% of enemy Hero’s Health
•Level 20 •(New) Perfect Agility (D) •Gain a second charge of Natural Agility, and reduce the cooldown by 5 seconds
Developer Comment: We’re reducing the spread of Scatter Arrows so that they’re more effective when opponents aren’t directly next to a wall, while also reducing the damage slightly to compensate. We’ve increased the range of Natural Agility so that it will jump over a wider variety of terrain. We’ve also removed Shieldbreaker because we found that it required a very specific set of circumstances to be effective, but it was extremely powerful in those rare situations. We’ve moved Sharpened Arrowheads to replace it while changing its functionality to be more consistent in all situations.
Abilities •Snipe (Q) •Damage reduced from 245 to 230
•Pinning Shot (W) •Damage reduced from 105 to 100
•Precision Strike (R) •Damage reduced from 456 to 435
•Precision Sniper (Trait) •Damage per stack increased from 5 to 6%
Abilities •Level 7 •Perfect Shot (Q) •Cooldown refund for hitting Heroes increased from 2 to 3 seconds
•One in the Chamber (Passive) •Damage bonus reduced from 70 to 60%
•Level 16 •Lethal Decoy (E) •Clone damage reduced from 40 to 35%
Developer Comment: It’s nice to see that the recent changes to Nova have been so widely embraced by players. However, with the addition of some new escape tools and her ability to have multiple clones out at once, we feel like her damage potential against single targets is still a bit too high. Our data is showing that her talent tree is in a very good spot balance wise (besides a couple outliers, which you see here) so we are also lowering her base output and compensating by increasing Precision Sniper’s damage.
Stats •Base Maximum Health increased from 1650 to 1725 •Health Regen increased from 3.4 to 3.6 Abilities •Mirror Image (Q) •Image Health increased from 825 to 862.5 •Image Health Regen increased from 1.7 to 1.8
Talents •Level 4 •Deflection (Trait) •Armor increased from 25 to 30
•Level 7 •Burning Blade (W) •Damage bonus decreased from 65 to 50%
•Phantom Pain (W) •Damage bonus increased from 40 to 45%
•Crushing Blows (W) •Cooldown reduction increased from 1.5 to 1.75 seconds
Developer Comment: Samuro’s rework has put him in a good position regarding his talent pick and win rates, as well as his overall performance. In addition to some talent tuning changes, we decided to slightly increase his Health to compensate for the fact that he now has to put himself into dangerous positions much more often to deal damage.
Abilities •Garrote (E) •Silence duration reduced from 2.75 to 2.5 seconds
Talents •Level 1 •Crippling Poison (Active) •Slow reduced from 25 to 20%
•Level 4 •Hemorrhage (E) •Damage bonus reduced from 50 to 30%
Developer Comment: We’re reducing the duration of Garrote’s Silence slightly so that all openers feel viable, and reducing the damage of Hemorrhage so that Valeera doesn’t have as much damage while also being able to shut down her target.
Talents •Level 1 •Move Unseen (Trait) •Movement Speed increased from 25 to 30%
•Level 4 •Darkness Descends (Active) •Passive Attack Speed bonus increased from 10 to 20%
•Level 7 •Warp Skirmisher (1) •Bonus Attack Damage increased from 30 to 40%
Developer Comment: Zeratul currently has the lowest win rate out of all of our Stealth characters, so we’re tuning up some of his underperforming talents. He traditionally has been a high performer as players learn to master him, so we will be keeping an eye on him over time to see if he needs any more changes.
Abilities •Groundbreaker (Q) •Slow amount increased from 30 to 35% •Cooldown decreased from 8 to 7 seconds •Mana cost decreased from 35 to 30
•Wrecking Ball (E) •Cooldown decreased from 14 to 12 seconds •Mana cost decreased from 65 to 60
Talents •Level 1 •Warbreaker (Q) •Cooldown reduction decreased from 3 to 2 seconds •Damage increased from 50 to 55
•Unrivaled Strength (E) •Bonus damage reduced from 125 to 75%
•Level 7 •Into the Fray (1) •Cooldown increased from 40 to 45 seconds
•Level 16 •Earthshaker (E) •Stun duration reduced from .6 to .5 seconds
•Mortal Combo (E) •Cooldown reduction decreased from 8 to 7 seconds
•Rough Landing (Q) •Slow bonus amount decreased from 20 to 15%
Developer Comment: While the changes to Groundbreaker have helped Garrosh feel better to play against, we believe he can use some help with his ability to peel for his team and control the battlefield. We’re also making some tuning changes to his talents to help their pick and win rates.
Fortified Bunker (R) Health increased from 1300 to 1305
I don't know. I feel like 1310 would be the perfect value for the HP of the bunker. Probably gonna get buffed next patch before seeing consecutive nerfs back to 1300.
FeyFey Profile PM Joined September 2010 Germany10072 Posts 6 hours ago #16 I don't think the merc system will ever be changed to force one player to concentrate on it on every map. It would make laneplay stale. And well there is Sylv and Zagara who can clean up faster then one can spam mercs. That siege camps are doable by assassins now is just to lessen the early game effect of those heroes that cleaned camps before like nothing. Because now you can do yours if they do theirs, without having to tp back.
Of course that makes heroes more about picking the right hero. But thats already a given with the talent system instead of an item system. And Drafts are predictable, because you can see which side has more ego picks instead of picks aimed at winning. That cannot be fixed by the game.
hey, would you mind to elaborate? i have been looking for a detailed draft guide for quite a while but havent really found anything that doesn´t over generalize
detailed draft guides doesn't exists because it is honestly too complicated to go through all different scenarios that exists. The best thing you can do is just to look at the "set-up" for each map and figure out what the optimal lane-assignments are for your team and for your opponents team.
And if you still get behind in the game despite optimal lane assignemnts and don't have superior scaling, chances are your draft was suboptimal.
This is also why GM is the best 1st pick in almost every draft because it will almost never be a "bad choice" as it can cover most of the weakness's in all drafts. It can off-lane. It can play with team, it can solo camps + it has decent wawe-clear + decent dive potential.
You know something is broken when a teammate of yours does a "play" that just feels unfair and makes you emphasize with your opponent. Hanzo's ability to kill bosses way too fast constantly manages too surprise me. This really needs a nerf.
Also, I think more who enjoy melee assasins should actually start playing Samuro atm. He is by far the best burst assasin in the game right now. (well if you count genji then soso). At lvl 16 he can kill any squishy in 4 auto-attacks and he has 2 gap-closers.
Currently on a 15-1 streak with him in HL. He will be my way into grandmaster. You honestly don't have to micro the illusions a whole lot in order to outperform a Zeratul (in his role). The illusion master micro is just an extra little bonus.
We know mecha skins are coming for several heroes, but generally those don't get teaser tweets and they have already been fully revealed in the In Development video.
Tyrael will now face the target of his Basic Attack after attacking. This is a visual change, and does not directly affect gameplay Passive Spell Armor has been removed
Stats
Base Maximum Health increased from 2296 to 2468 Health Regeneration increased from 4.78 to 5.14
Abilities
El’druin’s Might (Q) Mana cost reduced from 50 to 45
Righteousness (W) Mana cost reduced from 60 to 50 Allied Shield amount changed from a flat value to 40% of the Tyrael-only Shield value. This is the same amount of Shields, but it makes it easier to understand new Talent interactions
Smite (E) Can now be cast while moving Damage increased from 144 to 150
Talents
Level 1
Salvation (W) Moved from level 16 New functionality: Increase Righteousness’ Tyrael-only Shield amount by 25%. If the Shield is destroyed, heal Tyrael for 125 Health.
(New) Justice for All (W) Increases Righteousness’ allied shield value to 100% of the Tyrael-only Shield amount. (New) Ardent Restoration (Passive) Damaging an enemy Hero grants 2.5 Health per Second to Tyrael for 5 seconds. Stacks up to 10 times.
Protection in Death (Trait) Removed
Even in Death (Trait) Removed
Regeneration Master (Passive) Removed
Level 4
(New) Stalwart Angel (Q) Tyrael gains 25 Armor while El'druin's Might is out, and for 3 seconds after teleporting.
(New) Bound by Law (Q) Increases El’druin’s Might’s slow amount from 25 to 35%. Tyrael’s Basic Attacks increase the duration of the slow by 1 second, up to 4 seconds.
(New) Divine Vigor (Passive) Damaging an enemy with Smite causes Tyrael's Basic Attacks to heal him for 50% of their damage for 4 seconds.
Vigorous Strike (Passive) Removed
Level 7
Purge Evil (E) Moved from level 1 New functionality: Every enemy Hero hit by Smite increases Tyrael's Basic Attack damage by 30% for 4 seconds
Swift Retribution (E) Movement Speed bonus increased from 10 to 20% No longer increases the duration of Smite’s Movement Speed bonus Added functionality: Now also causes Smite’s friendly effect to increase Attack Speed by 25%
Angel’s Grace (Q) Removed
Zealotry (W) Removed
Follow Through (Passive) Removed
Level 13
Sword of Justice (Q) Moved from level 16 New functionality: Can teleport with El'druin's Might twice, returning to Tyrael’s original position.
Holy Ground (Q) Moved from level 16 Duration reduced from 4 to 3 seconds
(New) Law and Order (W) Reduce the cooldown of Righteousness by 1 second for each enemy Hero hit by Smite. Righteousness increases the damage of your next Smite by 25% for each ally affected.
Burning Rage (Passive) Removed
Angelic Absorption (W) Removed
Angelic Might (E) Removed
Level 16
(New) Burning Halo (Q) El'druin and Tyrael deal 15 damage per second to nearby enemies. This damage is increased by 100% for Tyrael for 3 seconds after teleporting to El’Druin.
Horadric Reforging (Q) Moved from level 4 New functionality: Basic Attacks reduce the cooldown of El'druin's Might by 1.5 seconds
(New) Smite the Wicked (E) Smite’s cooldown recharges 100% faster while El'druin is out and for 3 seconds after teleporting to El’Druin
Blood for Blood (Active) Removed
Level 20
(New) Defense of the Angels (Active) Activate to reduce all incoming damage by 40% for 5 seconds. Any time Tyrael or an ally shielded by Righteousness take damage, reduce the cooldown by 3 seconds. 120 second cooldown
(New) Seal of El’druin (Passive) Every time Tyrael casts a Basic Ability, increase his Attack Speed by 50% for 3 seconds
Blaze: Fixed an issue allowing players to cast Flame Stream while dead if they entered a Bunker while dying. Blaze: Fixed an issue that could cause Heroes to enter permanent Stasis if they were killed just as they entered a Bunker. Hanzo & Leoric: Fixed an issue causing Towers to spawn if Leoric was directly impacted by Sonic Arrow. Malfurion & Stitches: Fixed an issue that could cause Heroes to become unplayable if Nature’s Cure was cast while they were affected by Stitches’ Gorge. Malfurion & Zagara: Nature’s Cure can no longer cleanse Heroes of the Devouring Maw effect. Uther: The Well Met talent will no longer affect non-Heroic units. Valeera: The Strangle talent will no longer affect non-Heroic units.
On January 17 2018 05:42 FeyFey wrote: hope one day they grab inspiration from eastern anime instead of western cartoons for a skin theme. heh
I'm not sure if I get what you mean, but I think they have a line that are inspired by American superhero comics - Super Sonya, Cyberhawk Kael'thas, Eagle Eye Tyrande, Knight Owl Medivh, maybe others?
I like the new Tyrael redesign, I'm looking forward to seeing the builds that'll come out. I'm wondering if he'll have a solid main-tankable build with the Stalwart Angel talent and Salvation. I wonder if Defense of the Angels is gonna be top tier or not, I imagine that'd make a good article, the mathematics of what the effective CD of Defense of the Angels would be given the average map and whether or not that competes with the other talents on the Storm Tier.
Combined with the talent that increases your atack after every E for four seconds, and the talent that reduces the cooldown on E, Ive found he just wrecks any squishy hero like hanzo
Tyrael looks quite strong to me. With the flat buffs to baseline and a talent tree rework that looks much stronger than before, this is quite a significant buff to a hero that was already seeing strong usage in pro play.
He can now be properly built as a bruiser. If you so choose, his ability to facilitate dive comps has been buffed as well. Justice for All on 1, Swift Retribution on 7, Sanctification look pretty scary with a teammate like Greymane or Illidan.
Someone on twitter found a pretty convincing picture of Maiev. Guessing it's her
Don't know her lore really but odds are another mobile assassin type of hero
From the wiki:
Maiev prefers to strike vulnerable targets by surprise, often sending her forces to distract the enemy while she uses her blink ability to appear behind them. She throws a slicing torrent against lesser opponents, or uses her Fan of Knives if surrounded. If facing her quarry, she uses the umbra crescents greater shadow strike ability before moving in to attack. After one strike, she blinks away and casts hold person. If the target succumbs to the spell, she moves forward quickly to finish him off or secure the captive. If he resists hold person, Maiev activates her weapon's quickened shadow strike abilities to assail her target at range. If the enemy still stands, she uses her own lesser shadow strike ability and charges into melee, where she wields her umbra crescent with two hands. If pressed, Maiev flees via blink, greater invisibility, and expeditious retreat.[2]
Ambush (Q) Armor reduction duration increased from 4 to 5 seconds
Talents
Level 1 Vigor (Passive) Passive energy regeneration increased from 2 to 2.5 per second. Combat Readiness (Passive) Physical Armor increased from 60 to 75 Level 4 Relentless Strikes (Q) Sinister Strike energy reduction increased from 10 to 15 Level 7 Mutilate (Q) Damage bonus increased from 100% to 125% Fatal Finesse (W) Damage gained per enemy Hero hit increased from 3 (to a maximum of 60) to 4 (to a maximum of 80) Level 13 Blind (W) Bonus blind duration increased from 2 to 2.5 seconds Level 20 Adrenaline Rush (R) Energy regeneration increased from 30 to 40 per second
Level 4 Regenerative Bio-Steel (D) Healing reduced from 15% to 10% of Sgt. Hammer’s Basic Attack damage dealt in Siege Mode. Level 7 Graduating Range (D) Range reduced from 1.1 to 1 per stack, up to a maximum of 3
Fortified Bunker (R) Health increased from 1305 to 1435 Combustion (R) There is now a .5 second window after casting where Combustion cannot be canceled (this is to prevent accidental canceling from rapid key presses)
Talents
Level 4 Feeding the Flame (Q) Cooldown reduction increased from 1.5 to 2 seconds Level 7 Incinerator Gauntlets (Passive) Bonus damage increased from 50% to 70% Crossfire (Q) Damage increased from 132 to 139 Grill and Kill (W) Damage bonus decreased from 25% to 20% Level 13 Suppressive Fire (Q) Spell Power reduction increased from 15% to 20% per stack Nanomachine Coating (W) Attack Speed slow now only applies to Oil Spills that are on fire Level 16 Juggernaut Plating (Active) Shield bonus increased from 100% to 125% of damage reduced
Level 7 Poisoned Spear (Q) Damage reduced from 125% to 100% of Ancient Spear’s damage. Level 16 Nerves of Steel (Active) Duration reduced from 5 to 3 seconds Shield amount reduced from 30% to 25% of Maximum Health Cooldown reduced from 70 to 60 seconds
Fixed a number of inaccuracies and grammatical issues in tooltips across the game. Korean Client: Updated the loading screen to the Korean localized version.
Heroes, Abilities, and Talents
Blaze: Fixed an issue that allowed Heroes to bypass the movement speed reduction from ignited Oil Spills if Blaze chose the Adhesive Petroleum talent. Blaze: Fixed an issue causing Stimpack and Pyromania voiceover lines to be heard globally. Tyrael: Fixed an issue preventing Tyrael from gaining stacks of Ardent Restoration from the damage dealt by the Burning Halo talent.
to bad they used her wow model ? instead of the warcraft 3 model. Liked that way more. Don't think AoE works in heroes, so she will be to good or to bad.
That snare seems really strong. Can imagine quite a few lethal combos with that. No sustain and probably poor waveclear so a bit like a Nova/Chromie in that sense, primarily aimed at killing enemy Heroes rather than doing anything on the side. Will be curious to see her on PTR.