Blizzard revealed the latest Heroes of the Storm patch on Tuesday, featuring Johanna nerfs, Gul’dan buffs, a Chromie ARAM update and more.
Tanks: Anub’arak buff and Johanna nerf in Heroes of the Storm
Anub’arak and Johanna received balance changes. While Anub’arak got buffed in terms of spell armor, shields and damage, Johanna received nerfs to her levels 1 and 13 talents. At level 20, she can now hit six targets instead of four with Heaven’s Fury [R1].
“Johanna is dealing too much damage, so we’re partially reverting some of her recent buffs,” according to the announcement.
“We’re also taking this opportunity to alter how Heaven’s Fury functions,” the Heroes of the Storm developers added. “Heaven’s Fury previously fired 8 barrages of bolts, hitting up to 2 enemies and up to 2 allies with each barrage. We’re increasing both enemies and allies hit up to 3 while lowering its cooldown reduction to further differentiate good and great casts of Falling Sword.”
Bruisers: Artanis nerf, Thrall buff and Varian buff
As for Artanis, the StarCraft character now has reduced health regeneration alongside a reduced health total. However, his Shield Surge [Trait] talent at level 4 received a slight buff.
Meanwhile, Thrall got a health and health regeneration increase plus a tripled cooldown reduction for his Elemental Momentum [Passive] level 20 talent.
As for the former leader of the Alliance, the cooldown reduction for Heroic Strike [Trait] increased slightly. Varian also acquired more damage and armor reduction at levels 1 and 4.
Healers: Alexstrasza buff, Rehgar nerf and Whitemane buff
Next, Alexstrasza received an additional functionality for Gift of Life [Q]. Her health regeneration got increased by 150%. The World of Warcraft dragon also acquired buffs to her level 16 talents.
Hailing from the same universe is Rehgar, who received several nerfs. These include a reduction in his base health and nerfs to talents at levels 1, 4, 7 and 16.
As for Whitemane, she received changed and updated functionalities alongside buffs in her baseline to help with the early game.
“Similar to Alexstrasza, Whitemane has often struggled to compete with other Healers,” the Heroes of the Storm developers explained. “We’re hoping these baseline changes smooth out her early game experience.”
Melee Assassin: Alarak buff in Heroes of the Storm
Since other Alarak builds have fallen behind compared to the ones related to Discord Strike [Q], slight adjustments were made to specific talents at levels 1, 4 and 16.
Ranged Assassins: Cassia buff, Gul’dan buff, Sgt. Hammer buff and Chromie ARAM update
As for the ranged assassins, Cassia received buffs to encourage her basic attack build. At level 16, Martial Law [Passive] obtained an additional functionality that rewards players with bonus damage.
Meanwhile, Gul’dan received several buffs to bring Fel Flame [Q] and Corruption [E] up to par with his Drain Life [W] build. Sgt. Hammer also received buffs for several talents to separate her different builds.
As for Chromie, the Slowing Sands [R1] ultimate got removed from ARAM games. According to the developers, ARAM can be frustrating to players because those maps contain less space to move around.
Published: Mar 29, 2022 08:51 pm