I have had ten people ask me today “Hey Kith, did you see the patch notes?”
The patch notes?
The patch notes about Varian?
The patch notes that involved rebalancing some of Varian’s stats and talents?
Varian’s patch notes?
Yes. I have seen them.
“Well, how do you feel about them?”
ehhhhhhhhhhhhh
Good change. Makes it a more competitive choice against HKQ.
Also a good change. Taunt Varian needs a little more oomph and this is a nice amount of oomph.
“But Kith, your Rework has way less of a Health Bonus than that. Why are you okay with it?”
I’ll tell you, Strawman Representing Four Different People Asking Me The Same Question! My Rework involved giving Taunt Varian Shield Wall for free, which should significantly increase his durability by virtue of being able to completely ignore all damage whenever he feels like it. Given that I don’t actually know how that would ultimately shake out performance-wise because I don’t have the means to test the full design, I was conservative with the Health Bonus that Taunt gave and had the backup plan “tune it later” in the unlikely event of the Rework actually going live.
Not a terrible change. A neutral change? Something like that. Regardless of the classification, it doesn’t cure the Best Build Syndrome that Varian has, but it should at least make Twin Blades slightly less stompy. Of course, it’ll still be incredibly stompy in all of the right situations, but making it less stompy while keeping it viable would require some kind of Rework.
Still only works on Heroes. Still isn’t worth it. If anyone from Blizzard is reading this post and you only take away one thing, please make it this:
Talenting for Lion’s Fang is a dead end without completely new talents or a total overhaul like my Rework.
Nobody is going to trade practically guaranteed sustain or burst (in either damage or healing) for a poke skillshot that does a poor job of both. Unless something radically changes, it will always be far more valuable to build on Varian’s strengths and synergies and keep Lion’s Fang around as a utility spell.
If there’s anything that took me by surprise, it’s this. I can understand the Banner of Stormwind getting a buff because Movement Speed is harder to take full advantage of than Armor in a hectic teamfight, but Banner of Dalaran too? Really? That, uh… seems a bit misguided when one of the goals of the changes was to tone down Twin Blades’ performance.
Jeez. I mean, yeah, good change, definitely goes a long way towards to making Glory to the Alliance compete better with Demoralizing Shout, but a 12.5 second cooldown on the Banner of Stormwind/Dalaran? The Banners themselves last 12 seconds. That basically makes them permanent. Definitely Level 20 Material, but now there’s literally no reason to take Frenzy.
Overall Thoughts
I don’t know what you want me to say, guys. The changes are positive to be sure and will probably influence pickrates a bit, but it’s not nearly enough to solve the underlying problems. It’s a nice band-aid, but the patient needs surgery.