We’ve just released a patch to the live servers in order to apply some balance and map updates.
4 Likes
what a cute little patch
4 Likes
This patch is so hard to read.
- Level 4
- Possession
- Now has a 1 second cooldown between uses, down from 2 seconds.
- Now has a 1 second cooldown between uses, down from 2 seconds.
- Possession
Level 4???
**Warhead Junction**- Attacking a burning building now stops the duration of burn for 3 seconds
This is so poorly worded, what does this mean? Timer paused for 3 seconds? Or does it stop burning for 3 seconds??
4 Likes
Other than the wording I like it. Possession getting a 50% cooldown buff and Unstable Poison having bigger booms is a bonus.
They seem to not want to touch Mercenary Queen. I wonder if that too is on the chopping block or is really powerful in certain situations.
Haunting Arrows no longer affecting mercs is gooder. Both for camp taking and countering merc pushes.
2 Likes
Who tests these things?? Who can even complete the Thrall pinnacle without getting quest progress from Tempest Fury?? Game always ends before that when it’s going well, and when it isn’t you cant even get close. Kerrigan quest was already easy, didn’t need more quest progress from kills, and she’s an absolute monster. Falstad lightning rod quest takes 30+ full completions with kills to get pinnacle progress. It’s terrible. Bring back the extra strikes early and change something else.
5 Likes
The patch breaks Sylv. The Haunting Arrows skill now affects enemy Heroes, it’s busted. She can chain stun teams for 3 seconds.
6 Likes
Ravage [Q]
Baseline quest now provides 7 stacks per kill, up from 5.
Baseline quest requirements increased to 85/150, up from 75/125.
So you force Kerrigan to AFK farm even more? This is extremely bad.
Maelstrom Weapon
Completion requirements increased to 25/55/100, up from 20/40/100.
Why increase the requirements when the problem is within its absurd damage bonuses? This barely delays the inevitable.
Lightning Rod [W]
Now strikes every .8 seconds, down from 1 second. Total number of strikes stay the same.
Range increased by 1.
This ability was completely fine baseline. The problem is Dishonorable Discharge itself being impossible to complete.
Possession
Now has a 1 second cooldown between uses, down from 2 seconds.
Unstable Poison
Damage increased to 150, up from 130.
Haunting Arrows
No longer affects Mercs.
Why is Possession listed as a Level 4 talent when it is baseline now?
There is still no reason to select anything but Haunting Arrows at Level 4.
Ruinous Affliction
Damage reduced by 10%.
Was this really necessary?
Warhead Junction
Attacking a burning building now stops the duration of burn for 3 seconds.
Can you please just revert the warhead changes to this map? It looks ugly, plays clunky, and feels unintuitive.
I am disappointed. This “balance” patch is just pointless numerical changes that solve none of the issues and create even more.
5 Likes
Well if Haunting Arrows affected heroes they just obliterated it from orbit. It does not affect enemy heroes at all now from my most recent test.
They blitzed out an update while I was farming a match that lasted a good eighty minutes–during which time I read this thread–so they are on top of things. Grammar might be an issue, but they are smashing things everywhere else.
2 Likes
It’s probably meant to pause the timer of the burning instead of “refreshing” the duration. The changes were trying to incentivize attacking stuff instead of fire-and-forget.
However, with the other bugs abound, maybe the actual effect is it makes murky invulnerable for the duration instead 
3 Likes
Amazing QA, masterful gambit
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2641981374?t=4h30m55s
They removed the second award for Falstad’s Q?
https://i.imgur.com/dimTwld.png
I had a problem, my microwave wasnt working, but after I threw it out I no longer had a problem
This also broke the first award, you can now get it infinitely JUST LIKE HOW YOU COULD HAVE WITH THE 2ND REWARD THAT WAS DISABLED!!!
Some balance feedback…
Heroes
Zul’jin
Having played it and judging from winrate estimates, it seems like the stack loss on death is too punishing. Even 2 deaths brings you from 180 → 150 autos, which honestly is a huge punishment in hindsight. Not to mention it can be repeated infinitely. Valla can die 5+ times, but at least still pull up to late game with some great range and burst if she got a good amount of stacks while she had the attack speed bonus. Zul’jin is just a wet noodle above 4 deaths and will usually collect more since he stops being effective.
Build wise it looks like the only viable one is back to Recklessness + Attack Speed + Taz’dingo stuff since it’s the only one that can realistically offset the stack loss from dying. It’s a shame since I had been enjoying Q build the most with the previous iteration, and magey builds were not awful with the Guillotine CD buffs.
Falstad
Not a fan of how the changes have played out, this hero feels weaker and even more matchup reliant than ever before. I’m seeing more early pick Falstads getting hard countered very effectively in draft where before he was somewhat manageable even into counters. The AA build actually seemed to be in an okay spot balance-wise except in games where Falstad was getting a lot of hero kills, but unfortunately Frequent Flyer is getting double nerfed and not in the right area. I think part of the issue is the other 2 quests are terrible in comparison. W build still meme build (which the W base change may help with), but the death loss on Q sucks hard when the reward is just okay.
Sylvanas
Despite her low-ish winrate from new adopters, I think she feels in a good spot balance wise. The possession charge CD change is great. I’m still not sure how I feel about forcing the player to use possession and give up structure disable if they want a different level 4 though. One of the best ways to stack the pinnacle is to hit buildings, so even with Haunting Arrows no longer affecting mercs, it still is a must pick imo.
Thrall
I think I will have to agree that the issue is the numbers not really the milestones. Previously Thrall could get +40-60 AD on average from his E quest. Now he can get 115 pretty consistently, so about double. As I predicted, Rolling Thunder (7) is very unpopular. Numerically it seems not that bad, but there isn’t a big reason to take it over the other options.
Kerrigan
Not really a Kerrigan player, but these changes LGTM.
Gul’dan
Yeah the Q pinnacle healing felt pretty low. The damage adjustment at 16 should help it not be too strong.
Maps
Blackheart’s Bay
This map really sucks in ranked, and increasing cannonball damage is not helping. The objective is not very fun, and yet it’s still the most effective way to win. Fighting in the choke areas around turnin is just bad gameplay for most heroes, although I will admit the vision towers helped a little. The boss should be much stronger late game.
Alterac Pass
Capping the time seems good. It feels pretty awkward standing around so long lategame.
Volskaya Foundry
Triglov is still probably too weak damage-wise late game. The health helps a little but the biggest issue is that enemies can quickly dive past the mech for kills while the mech just tickles them, unless your team manages to find a perfect CC combo on an isolated hero.
Warhead Junction
Fully refreshing the duration encourages awkward gameplay where you keep stepping under fort for 1 auto so this is a good solution. This map has not been that bad in ranked, although learning to play it competitively is a bit strange. Side lanes being unsafe from cross-map ganks unless vision towers are capped is very unique.
7 Likes
Can you explain what happened to have such a long stun at lvl 5 ? I’ve tried to check it myself on PTR but i don’t see anything among talents that could cause something like that.
Please tell me you are getting paid for creating embarrassing comments like this one.
The game gets the most broken bug the we’ve ever seen and you don’t immediately jump on it?
I’m so disappointed.
1 Like
oh no you shouldn’t be
after all he must be the low IQ person he keeps preaching about
take pity on him
4 Likes
Mid patch, Thrall basic attack dmg is still too much and self healing is busted with lvl 1 basic attack quest. Uther rework when? worst useless hero in the game for years now.
I saw the patch got rolled back at one point who knows.
While I like the changes, they were definitely a bit fast and sloppy with this one, and I am not just commenting on the grammar.
While I like the changes to the Banshee Queen the last few patches have been…rough. Seems that whomever is working on them is not quite accustomed to tinkering with HotS to avoid serious hiccups.
What kind of HOTS are you playing?