Patch 46.1 Feedback

General Discussion
1

Notice how the patch notes listed in Blizzard client have so many grammatical mistakes that it’s quite hilarious.


General

  • Increase the base movement speed of Heroes from 4.4 to 4.84 (+10%)
    • I’m getting some vibes from SSBU just because the developers there aim at making the gameplay faster. I can see how this could make immobile heroes a little more playable and survivable.
  • Gem purchasing has a new checkout interface. This streamlined system gives access to more payment options from directly within the client.
    • A little slower to load up, but inconsequential nonetheless.

Heroes

  • Anub’arak
    • Epicenter was quite dominant compared to the other options. In my opinion, nerf was deserved. Last thing I want to see redesigned is his Lvl 13 Burning Rage talent (it’s generic).
  • E.T.C
    • :+1:
  • Mal’Ganis
    • :+1:
  • Artanis
    • Psionic Synergy is still such a lackluster talent compared to the other talents that I wish it were implemented baseline to help him have better chances of surviving godswaps (recent patch increases this Armor to 30, but reduce it to 15 to account it for being baseline now).
    • In place of Psionic Synergy becoming baseline, Psionic Invigoration will take its place.
      • This talent that would increase range of Phase Prism by 20% and grant Artanis 15% Movement Speed for 3 seconds when he swaps.
  • Chen
    • Thank goodness they made him way more fluid by reducing the delay before being able to cast Breath of Fire.
    • I still feel upset about Wandering Keg because it’s harder to use because when you bump into enemies, they are knocked back way further, causing way more disruption to an enemy formation. This may sound good, until you use the heroic for isolating a single target. You have to be super precise with using the barrel now.
  • Imperius
    • So many changes are being made that it feels like he just got a mini rework to all of his talents. WOW.
    • Impaling LIght + Flash of Anger + Celestial Swiftness + Brand of Solarion is brutally overpowered if you land Q on multiple dummies in Try Mode.
  • Sonya
    • I rarely play her, but :+1:
  • Yrel
    • Being able to use Hand of Freedom on yourself is huge.
    • Sad to see Samaara’s Light removed since I loved the talent.
    • The developers are trying way too hard to making Righteous Momentum good. Charging Righteous Hammer (W) is never a good way to use the ability. You are better off empowering it with Divine Purpose (Trait).
  • Ana
    • Before the patch, I stopped playing Ana entirely due to her becoming way easier to play and only one build was viable, making her not that fun anymore.
    • After the changes, I still don’t believe the talents on tier’s 1-3 excluding the W talents are that good and don’t synergize well together except Overdose and Night Terrors.
  • Anduin
    • Boring to play, but :+1:
  • Rehgar
    • :+1:
    • Apparently, Tidal Waves is Level 4 now (it’s actually not).
  • Medivh
    • Good changes :+1:
  • Illidan
    • Amazing changes for my boy. Never thought Rapid Chase would be buffed.
  • Maiev
    • :+1:
  • Valeera
    • Yesss, finally some useful Valeera buffs
    • Initiative buff looks really interesting
      • Note you don’t have to teleport to gain the talent benefits unlike Subtlety, which I still dislike due to you being required to teleport with an opener.
  • Zeratul
    • Abolish the Q build nubs :+1:
    • Where my single target burst build players at?!
  • Falstad
    • :+1:
  • Greymane
    • :+1:
  • Mephisto
    • Hot dang, Spite was already powerful as is, now it’s getting massive buffs. Good with me! I’ll get some time to abuse it now.
  • Orphea
    • The incarnation of powercreep :-1:
  • Valla
    • She’s finally no longer a wet noodle

Bug Fixes/Updates

  • Remove Sgt. Hammer from ARAM
    • About time… about time!
2 Likes
2

This patch is exciting! The buffs made skill shots harder, but my muscle memory and reflex will adapt, After-all, I have the real life essence of Dehoka.

People are worried in what the tide will shifts in. What the Devs did with buffing bruisers and AA heroes is trying to shift the meta back to where it’s suppose to be. IMO AA heroes were already strong? That’s why I played leeway more on skill shot heroes.

Nevertheless, the buff with Illidan makes him a beast. Dat Blade of Azinoth scares me, especially now people are farming for deeps at talent 1. The answer to that is to play more tanks that will blind or counter him on qm. Hopefully the meta will shift back to where qm can be more balanced. It makes sense why there’s usually double mages perhaps? Or maybe I find double AA’s more tolerable and is just biased about it and don’t notice it as much.

Healers might need an increment next! Like a bunch of them. Some a little heals, some a little survivability and most of all, utilities and talents.

3

All I want for Christmas is a toggle option to enable QM matchmaking to give you at least one tank, one ranged assassin, and one healer.

4

  • Eye of the Tiger not nerfed

  • Other Chen talents and W/W buffed

FeelsAmazingMan

Orphea Q and Malganis Q buffs AlsoFeelsGoodMan
:ok_hand: Patch :ok_hand: Good :ok_hand: :ok_hand::ok_hand:

1 Like
5
  • Anoob’alarak - a minor change, but it’s targeting the main issue with him.
  • ETC - they nerfed Guitar Hero from 50 to 40% and now they are buffing it to 60% xD But yeah, it’s not always easy to get value out of this talent. The enemy needs to be willing to fight you head on with another melee hero.
  • Mal’Tanis - okay, I guess.
  • Artanis - I always thought that the 20 armor from Psionic Synergy is a funny amount to be worth taking. Now it’s a bit more appealing. The rest are also good changes.
  • Chen - while the delay between Keg and Breath was indeed too long and felt clunky, I’m unsure if 16,67% reduction of that delay will be sufficient to make it feel right. It is a step in the right direction tho.
    Stormstout Secret Recipe used to be a lvl 20 talent and it was giving just 1,5% HP heal, now as level 1 talent it’s giving 2,5% xD This tells a lot about it’s previous balance level.
  • Imperius - this guy got a mini rework! Just by looking at the changes tho, I’m not quite impressed, and I feel like this is an overall nerf. I have yet to test him tho.
  • Sonya - I’ve been hesitant to pick her since her rework. But I’m willing to try her now, when she has a bit more survivability :stuck_out_tongue:
  • Yrel - Interesting changes at the very least.
    Hand of Freedom can now be used on herself. So she gets an effect similar to her Divine Steed, that grants a bit lower speed, but also clears slows and roots, and can’t be interrupted by damage.
    Righteous Momentum is also interesting, as she can use her hammer channel time as a semi-engage tool. I still think that Holy Avenger has the biggest potential tho.
    The rest of the buffs are okay.
  • Ana - Slumber Shells finally does something meaningful. The speed bonus it used to give was terrible, and only useful when you are trying to escape from a single enemy 1 v 1. Which is not the type of situation Ana should be in. Now this talent can be used to set up some kills.
    Overdose can now promote some Vampiric Rounds plays (more so than before). Although that build starts shining way too late in order to be good - level 20.
    Anti-Healer got significantly nerfed, but rightfully so. Grenade build shoul no longer be the no-brainer go-to option.
  • Anduin - meh… I already am going for Binding Heal most of the time, so it’s an okay buff, I guess.
  • Rehgar - I like how the devs didn’t mention Farsight as a level 7 talent option in the comment :smiley: It’s almost as if they know it’s a bad talent that can’t compete with the other 2 options. Otherwise the changes are… okay, although I still think Rehgar needs a bit bigger rework in order to have a healthy talent diversity.
  • Medivh - the buffs are okay. He will have a bit of a dueling potential now with Mystic Assault, giving him some power outside of “playmaking”, when his team is bad. I still think he should have his portal as a level 1 talent, that competes with 2 other abilities, completely different in their nature, so he’d be viable in lower levels of play as well.
  • Illidan - I see it, but I don’t believe it! Illidan is getting some buffs! The devs shouldn’t worry tho. I can’t see him getting out of control with just these buffs. Maybe Fiery Brand could become troublesome, but the rest just buff underperforming talents.
  • My Eve - Bonds of Corruption… I liked its old version better. Sure, now it’s useful in wider variety of situations, but less powerful in the situations it was good at before. As for Sudden Vengence, the buff is welcome.
  • Leera - haven’t seen Leera changed for a long time.
    Vigor n.r.g. regen increased to 3 from 2,5. That’s okay… Talent will be more appealing, although Leera needs her Crippling Poison in order to stick to the enemy. Unless she gets some sort of baseline slow, I don’t see any other talent being useful on level 1.
    Subtlety used to give 10 n.r.g./sec (until 12-th dec 2017) which was nerfed to 8, and now it’s back to 10 :smiley: but yeah, same as Vigor, she needs Crippling Poison. Her Garrote and Cheap Shot prevent enemies from doing anything useful apart from running away, so she needs to make this less effective as well.
    Hemorrhage used to give her 50% damage, which was hammered down to the ground and reduced to 30%… now it’s up to 40%. Hopefully it will be useful again, and Leera will have an alternative for her SS build again.
    Initiative used to be good back in the Cold Blood days… Leera’s main damage source isn’t Eviscerate anymore, so this talent is just bad now. Even if you want to go for Slice and Dice on 7, Hemorrhage is the better level 4 option. I don’t know why wasn’t Cold Blood just nerfed… instead it got deleted -.- just like that.An okay buff for Fatal Finesse will be coming online much sooner, and will have higher damage than before. Definitely a viable alternative for Mutilate. Although I’ve already seen Leeras do really well with the old Fatal Finesse.
    Anyways… I’m surprised to see no nerfs to her at all. She’s the type of hero who prevents any kind of counterplay, gets a kill, and gets out. At the very least she should have a 0,25 sec cast time on her openers, so when the enemy uses a skillshot to reveal her, she doesn’t just juke it by blinking behind them. This happens so often that it’s not even funny.
  • Zeratul - finally a change that will make Cleave + Wormhole build less popular, and not just less powerful. I do believe that some of the Cleave nerfs can be reverted now tho.
    As for his basic attack build… it was insanely strong before (although unappreciated by many) , and now with these buffs, I think Zera will be a bit overpowered (talking about the Warp Skirmisher buff).
    And Permanent Cloak is actually kind a interesting now :smiley:
    I was actually expecting Singularity Spike to have its damage increased by 25% too with Sentenced to Death, since it increases Zera’s dmg by 25% before exploding and by 25% after exploding, but seems like it doesn’t increase it while it’s exploding. But I guess that’s for balance purposes, unless it’s a bug.
  • Falstad - I’d love to see Khaldor badmouthing Secret Weapon now :smiley: Yeah, sure, Falstad is giving up on waveclear to take it, but man, this talent gives him so much burst damage, and now with this buff, even more! He just kills a squishy by the time his hammer returns.
    Crippling Hammer too… 50% slow is quite insane. 60% slow is almost like being rooted. I suppose this change is there because of the baseline movespeed increase…
    And a welcome buff for Updraft, it can’t really compete with the other level 4 options, which provide him with better sustain overall.
  • Greymane - I like how they are reverting old nerfs from 2017 xD
    I’m not sure about the basic attack damage buff, as he already can hit like a truck, but the cocktail and bullet changes are nice.
  • Fisto - more nerfs being reverted :smiley:
    His Malicious Intent was nerfed from 20% to 15% in the end of 2018, and now it’s back to 20% :smiley: Just shows how badly aimed some of the nerfs were.
    The changes are okay, I guess.
  • Orphea - The buffs are nice, but I still wonder, even more so than before, what’s the point of her level 20 Final Toccata, when she can already make plays as if she has it since level 4, when she has taken Allegrissimo. Only difference is that Final Toccata can activate even if the enemy is near her, but it also lasts for limited time.
  • Valla - Wow! She now has more HP than Nova! The change in Seething Hatred is nice for her Multishot build, as she can now go for more damage on 16 instead of more utility. While I liked the increased Hatred duration, I understand that it was a badly designed talent, that now has a better purpose, so I guess it’s okay for the duration to go.

And last, but not least - Move speed of all heroes increased by 10%. I like this change, as heroes kind a seem to be moving in slow motion when watching replays xD
However, when you consider the reduced hitbox sizes (from several patches ago) and the increased movespeed, landing skillshots is suddenly quite harder than before. But I guess the devs will be monitoring that :stuck_out_tongue:

6

It feels like seeing a replay on 2x speed, except it is not a replay. I only did three games after the patch so far, but luckily i can still land most of my skillshots. The impact is noticeable though.

My go-to talent on that tier :frowning_face:

Her E-build was good even before that buffs. Slows on enemy, 40% spell-power reduction with Mind Numbing and enhanced synergy with Concentrated Doses sure are nice.

Now they only need to turn Vampiric rounds into a Q-talent and move talents so that other Q and W talents are on the same tier.