I wanted to make as this for a while after hearing about the possible WM and Tyrande talent tree changes; but as it is raining blue posts this might be the best time.
The concept is simple: If your hero was to receive changes, what is important for you to stay and what would you like to see?
Heroes mentioned or known to receive changes in the future are:
Tassadar
D.Va
Tyrande (talent tree changes were mentioned in the AMA)
WM (mention for talent updates in an AMA)
There is of course no guarantee that any of this finds it´s way on a PTR patch, but maybe it helps to prevent frustration when the rework hits.
So for starters:
Whitemane
For me her E build exemplifies what is fun about WM: land your abilities at the right time and place and gain massive heals. Q and W are way too passive for my tastes. So if you do any changes, please preserve her E playstyle.
Her E is the only ability without an interaction with Desparation stacks, maybe there is some way for improvement.
Her Cleanse feels a bit clumsy and might need a little love; Li-Li´s variant is in my oppinion a great example for a personal variant that ties greatly into her playstyle.
Tyrande
I was not a great fan of her last rework, and stopped playing her completely. It would be great if she could have an actual W, E and D build again.
Especially her E with a single talent that got nerfed multiple times by now would be desperately in need of something to build into.
I was personally the design-point on Whitemane’s incoming rework, so you can blame me for anything you dislike =)
The main goal for the rework was to reevaluate her Trait and Mana-interactions, with the primary focus on either streamlining or removing her Level 4 talents. This, of course, causes ripples throughout her entire Talent Tree, and a lot of additional changes had to be made. While I can’t give any super-detailed spoilers, I will say that her aggressive Searing Lash build is still there (and improved), and will be joined by some other aggression-based Basic Attack talents.
I kind of feel like clemency should be base line. It’s her only out of combat heal. I know I never take anything else because it just makes her work for me.
For Tassadar I want the AA build to stick around and the force wall. There’s just something really fun about prismatic link. Too bad it’s easily the worst level 20. The wall feels so fun to use. It’s truly a part of Tass’ utility and identity at this point.
Tyrande
-Is too dependent on being able to auto-attack. If you’re teamfighting out of a lane, it’s harder. If you’re against a chain-CC team where you can’t get close, it’s harder. If you’re against a poke team, it’s harder. Her heal has a 12 sec cd. That’s a very long time in a teamfight where people get focused and killed within 2-3 seconds. Her supplemental healing (Lvl 1 talent or Mark) is also gated behind AAs. In essence, for many games, she’s like Auriel with no battery, and it’s painful to play.
-The owl build needs to come back. If she’s going to have poor healing, she needs to be able to do some damage. The owl build sniping required talent and skill to get value. Getting killed by a owl as you run is no different than a Hanzo snipe or Mephisto’s IWIN button. Right now, you use the owl for Harsh Light and a slow, but that’s about it.
About Train build:
I think the problem with trait build is that current D build goes directly against trait’s main purpose: Securing kills.
Good Tyrande usually uses her trait to secure kill. You use it on a target focused by all your teammates. You don’t want to waste it on some AA poke. On the other hand if you use it correctly, the target dies quickly so even AA heroes won’t get much healing from Mark of Mending.
I see current D build was probably an attempt so save some of her pre-rework 1v1 power, but it just bad outside 1v1… Additionally you pretty much need all three D talents to get some reasonable benefits, while Elune’s Chosen, Lunar Blaze and Celestial Attunement(the most picked talents) all work independently.
On the other hand if you buff D build in her current state Tyrande would easily end OP ah hell.
At the end, I would like to say if they want to make D build viable they need to make a decision what should it do. Make it 1v1 build, bur reduce its “secure kills” potential or make it more team healing orientated, but reduce its 1v1 power.
It’s not guaranteed. Getting to press Q more often is kind of a buff, but if you can’t heal yourself with clone mechanics anymore or if you don’t even have time to clear a wave and then swap out, that would suck. But yeah if the changes feel bad after testing, I think I’m probably done. Besides, my life needs me outside of hots so playing much more occasionally would be samuro sad but fulfillment good
Samuro is probably half of my enjoyment of this game with playing oddball heroes, with friends, and drafting well being the other half. When I read that those changes were being toyed with I just stared for a second /WatchPeopleDieInside
It might be ok. We’ll see. Engages are always pretty much E>Q anyway, even when using a clone to get to the fight. So long as you can still solo a boss, or clear a wave and swap out, or do the alternate-hearth trick that only takes 7s to complete instead of 17, then he is not a dead hero. If his pve ability is gone outside of what he could do with bladestorm and he can’t solo bosses then RIP me
Correct. She’s one of my highest level healers. It can be done, but I find that it’s a frenetic mess to play constantly trying to ensure that I’m in range to hit something, trying to prioritize heroes when possible, moving appropriate to the fight so I’m not out of position, watching where heals need to be, stunning, using Mark.
The autoattack requirement makes it harder (not impossible), such that I end up doing a lot more work playing this healer relative to others, and often getting poorer results since the rework. Lili, Anduin, Lucio, BW, and Morales are all significantly easier to play and I’m able to put out much better heals. Alex and Auriel can be beasts with the right team and both are certainly fun. Uther is tankier and has reliable point and click stuns which often do far more than his heals. IMO, only Ana has a similarly high level of micro required to play her and most of that can be negated by using her trait so your heal shots pierce.
Chromie.
Long story short: she doesn’t feel the same to me when I played her before her rework.
Sure she felt oppressive to some players, but her skillshots could easily be avoided if you kept an eye on her position
Q felt more potent before the reworks
I personally do not like the sand clones because they split the damage of the main Sand Blast
W in its current state, is just a glorified Gul’dan W, but more flexible and not poison damage
Am I the only one who enjoyed guessing where W was going to land?
The Level 13 talent tier was greatly diversified, but Here and There feels very clunky after the rework patch
It was a silly shenanigan to cast Q to place your Echo, hearth back for health and mana, and then teleport to your Echo, but it isn’t really that OP compared to what Time Out brought to the table (ensuring Chromie doesn’t die instantly to any gank or dive unlike other ranged assassins with their defenses
Level 20 Piercing Sands is a must pick while Blessing of the Bronze is a victim of being a talent that was so broken on release that it immediately became dumpster tier after a balance patch or two
I’ve said a lot that I think Lúcio took Brightwing’s place as a healer after his rework, and now BW is just a worse Lúcio in basically every aspect but CC and she needs changes that make her unique and fun again.
I’m not entirely sure as what I would do to her, to be honest. I could come up with a rework, if anyone is interested, that better shows what her role is as a healer in my point of view.
I was sad to see Keg Toss go but so happy about everything else it was ok
I stopped playing chromie when they removed trap build lol. That was the only reason I picked her up instead of always just playing junkrat or sometimes Hammer for that long-ranged role, and within a week of me buying her on my alt she got surprise-reworkd and instashelved
I do not think there is something to do, i really like BW for her insane disrupting potential. Maybe classify as a support as utility-oriented heroes fit in there well.
Perhaps, perhaps.
Then again, being a healer is part of her essence, and the possibility to having to re-classify her as a support only shows how hard Lúcio’s rework hit her by displacing her to a completely different role in a game.
Besides, LĂşcio can cause just as much disruption, with Boops and a clever use of his Trait, and to surpass him you are forced to go Q build with BW and possibly take Greater Polymorph at level 1 and Emerald Winds at 10, reducing your overall healing and having no way of dealing with high bursts of damage.
But, this is just the opinion of a low-Plat player that should probably be in Bronze and is for some unknown reason in Platinum.
