Heroes of the Storm Balance Patch Notes - January 19, 2021

[kames-21940]

What a sad patch. This is a real balance patch? Buffing and adding new things for no reason? Just for fun and ruining the meta and the balance? What a joke.

[Matos-1991]

Whaaaaaaaaat ? Nerfing Imperius way too much… disgusting…

[OzymondiasKN-1893]

@kames-21940

Buffing and adding new things for no reason?

Someone can’t read the dev’s comments

[waterlong-1416]

I mean, choosing not to read the reasons is one thing but denying them all together is another all together.

[QueenBWthe3-2999]

@Maximus-12995

Now I’m worried they’re just going to give Imperius the Genji treatment – nerf him into the dirt and leave him there because bad players don’t understand how to counter him.

Hehe. Next they gonna nerf his trait build so he finally becomes useless Then DW and Leo mains finally has something to celebrate that he cant burst them down in 4 sec with full trait build.

[Owndiz3r-1975]

Also I really hate when the dev’s comment is saying what a hero’s winrate is at which justifies a buff or nerf, like Cassia’s winrate is at 53% so she will get nerfs. 53% winrate in what? QM? Unranked? SL? All of it combined? In what MMR? All of them? In lower ranks? Higher ranks in master and GM her winrate is 53%!?

[phaseshifter-1283]

Yeah. I can’t believe they didn’t touch the lvl 20.

[Avikon-1471]

@Maximus-12995

Right, so when are the buffs to his PvE coming, because he’s jealous of all the other bruisers’ waveclear?

It’s called W talents
But seriously I don’t think weak PvE (and low mobility) is as a good tradeoff for giving a Bruiser such high amounts of strong cc, damage and survivability.
It just makes him a teamfight beast, and more often than not you have plenty of teammates who can clear for you.

Nerfs like this might be a bit much since he already suffers a lot in lower leagues though.

@Owndiz3r-1975

I really hate when the dev’s comment is saying what a hero’s winrate is at which justifies a buff or nerf, like Cassia’s winrate is at 53% so she will get nerfs. 53% winrate in what? QM? Unranked? SL? All of it combined?

Google.
It’s across the board because her winrate in higher leagues is +60%.

[QueenBWthe3-2999]

What is more sad is Gazlowe is still overtuned with low cd Gravity Bomb and his lvl 20 got untoched so have fun with 4 more weeks of first ban Gaz i guess.

[Matos-1991]

Where is the Orphea Nerf ? Are they aware of how Orphea is OP in their game ? I don t think they play their own game at Blizzard… pathetic…

[Shadowmere-1860]

Dont think orphea is a massive issue tbh. Last set of nerfs put her in the right placd.

[waterlong-1416]

It would be nice if they were a bit more specific but its hard to deny thay cassias damage want high.

@kames-21940

“Gimme more” - a great dev comment, I’m really impressed of this and of your stupidity.

90% of the playerbase are QM and ARAM players, that never played Ranked, or if they did, they were Bronze/Silver/Gold, and know nothing about balance. Let’s add useless things and buff heroes for no reason because why not, let’s ruin the meta and the balance, and at the next patch let’s revert these changes, like in the past with the Anomaly.

Are you suggesting that talent was the single most obvious example of perfect balance in the game or something?

[OzymondiasKN-1893]

@kames-21940

“Gimme more” - a great dev comment, I’m really impressed of this and of your stupidity.

I’m impressed with your illiteracy.

@kames-21940

90% of the playerbase are QM and ARAM players, that never played Ranked, or if they did, they were Bronze/Silver/Gold, and know nothing about balance. Let’s add useless things and buff heroes for no reason because why not, let’s ruin the meta and the balance, and at the next patch let’s revert these changes, like in the past with the Anomaly.

Again, most buffs/nerfs/changes are explained by the dev’s comments right below it, maybe you need some help reading it, go ask your parents.

@kames-21940

“Gimme more” - a great dev comment, I’m really impressed of this and of your stupidity.

Not every change need to be explained in academic detail, the devs are allowed to be friendly and goofy about it. That is also a minority (1 out of 22 heroes given a goofy comment and only on one talent in level 20 that’s not even being complained excessively). Stop stirring up drama and overreacting because your favorite hero didn’t/got changed.

[QueenBWthe3-2999]

@waterlong-1416

cassias damage want high.

It was high lol. Good that she got nerfed too. Watching Cassia players run around having 50k more dmg done then nr 2 is just busted.

[waterlong-1416]

Mobile touch screen keybord op. Plz nerf.
And yeah, i was one of those cassias

[Maximus-12995]

Zul’jin changes look amazing.

I’m not even happy that he got buffs at all, I’m happy he got the right buffs. These changes are great for his build viability, but aren’t overkill at all.

Recklessness was basically garbage before this change. I never picked it – I always picked Headhunter when I could expect to complete it, and Boneslicer if I couldn’t.
Now, it provides its own unique bonus that neither of the other level 1 talents do, and can help get him stacking against rougher comps a bit more reliably.
Headhunter will probably still be my personal go-to in most situations, but now I can think of several situations I would pick Recklessness instead, compared to none before.

The Vicious Assault buff partially makes up for the bugfix-nerf they made back in early-mid 2020 where they changed the stacking between Grievous Throw and Berserker from additive to multiplicative.

Lacerate has always lagged a bit behind, but it was never a bad talent, so this small buff to its duration actually helps a good bit.

I almost never took Ensnare. It was too hit-or-miss. Now, it should hopefully be a little more consistent in its value.

No Mercy’s buff is just a great change. Giving it %-based damage now makes it viable against all Tanks, not just armor-focused ones like ETC and Garrosh. This will now be a standard pick in Q build, rather that usually being subbed out for LtKB or WP;WT.

[Tooton-1952]

They didn’t fix gazno at all. He’s still gonna be s tier

[Minky-11649]

@Maximus-12995

Right, so when are the buffs to his PvE coming, because he’s jealous of all the other bruisers’ waveclear?

I totally agree and maybe that’s why the funny dev quote, it sure deflects away from the valid points you’re making. I know it got a giggle out of me.

Hoku suggested reworking Imperius into a main tank. I’m even more open to the idea of this after this latest round of nerfs. As you say, he has very little pve, his strength in team fights was justified, considering the tradeoffs.

[waterlong-1416]

Atleast he wont be ss tier

[QueenBWthe3-2999]

He just got a small dmg nerf but the real thing that makes him a overtuned stun machine was not even nerfed so yea 4 more weeks with Gaz first ban.