A thread to discuss the Whitemane rework on the PTR; i´ll start with my first impression after looking at the changes as presented ingame (there seem to be some differences to the notes). I will update this once i had a chance to play her, but usually my oppinion does not change much after.
Talent Tree
Base
- Weapon
- Damage from 60 to 55
- Desperate Plea [Q]
- Range from 7.5 to 8
- Mana cost from 30 to 45
- Compounding Mana cost from 60 to 45
- Inquisition [W]
- Damage from 350 to 329
- Searing Lash [E]
- Range from 8.5 to 8
- Damage from 82 to 75
- Clemency [1]
- Now available baseline
- Now costs 75 Mana
Talents
- Level 1
- Righteous Flame
- Changed Functionality: Increase the damage of Searing Lash by 25%. Increase this to 50% if the target is Stunned, Rooted, Silenced, or Slowed
- Pity the Frail
- Changed Functionality: Enemy Heroes hit by Searing Lash reduce the Cooldown of Inquisition by 1 second. All of your Healing is increased by 25% on targets below 25% Health [ingame says 30%]
- [New Talent] - Inquisitor’s Prayer
- Quest: Hit Heroes with Searing Lash
- Reward: Each Hero hit grants 3 permanent Health and 2 permanent Mana. Heroes hit with the second strike count as 2 hits
- Righteous Flame
- Level 4
- High Inquisitor
- Removed
- Unwavering Faith
- New Functionality: Gain 20% Basic Attack range. Each active Zeal buff increases your Basic Attack damage by 20%
- Martyrdom
- Moved from Level 1
- Changed Functionality: Increase Desperate Prayer’s healing by 10%. Each active Zeal buff increases this by an additional 10%
- Indulgence
- New Functionality: Gain 5% Movement Speed. Each active Zeal buff increases this by an additional 5%
- High Inquisitor
- Level 7
- Intercession
- Cooldown from 60 to 45 seconds
- [New Talent] - Scarlet Wrath
- Basic Attacks against enemy Heroes increase the duration of Zeal by .75 seconds
- Intercession
- Level 10
- Scarlet Aegis
- Cooldown from 60 to 90 seconds
- Divine Reckoning
- Cooldown from 100 to 75 seconds
- Added Functionality : Restore Mana equal to 25% of the damage dealt to Heroes
- Scarlet Aegis
- Level 13
- Self-Righteous
- Removed
- Guiding Light
- Removed
- Subjugation
- Moved from Level 20
- Damage reduction from 75 to 50%
- Lashing Out
- Moved from Level 16
- Removed Functionality: No longer grants bonus damage on the second strike of Searing Lash
- [New Talent]: Saintly Greatstafff
- Zeal heals for an additional 100% from Basic Attacks
- Self-Righteous
- Level 16
- Harsh Discipline
- Moved from Level 13
- Shared Punishment
- Added Functionality: Enemies affected by Inquisition lose 10 Armor
- Harsh Discipline
- Level 20
- Judgement Day
- Bonus damage from 30 to 50%
- Fanatical Power
- Moved from Level 7
- New Functionality : Activate to grant target ally a permanent Zeal. Only one Hero can have this at a time (15 second CD)
- Judgement Day
Discussion
First off, all the mana restoration talents are gone and her Q cost has gone up, whereas she will be able to heal for 8 seconds with reduced efficiency due to damage reductions, and thats it. Unless the enemy only hits one or two targets, which is illusory.
The mana restoration on the new Divine Reckoning is insufficient and too late; this needs to be baseline on lvl 1 or a talent choice at level 7 latest. The duration increase on basic attacks might help out a little, but if so make it a mandatory talent for all longer fights, which is in itself bad.
The Basic Attack build looks nice, though the basic attack decrease should have been part of a talent, not baseline. I can definitely see me taking this quite a bit in any case as those talents look very nice.
Why was there a need to decrease the overall damage of Searing Lash both in base and in Righteous Flame and the removal of the bonus damage on the second hit? The range decrease is also nonsensical, it already was a risky ability with it´s previous range. This makes the more demanding playstyle less rewarding. Apart from that i like the quest and the CDR being one tier earlier.
The talents for Inquisition look good, especially as the damage reduction comes a tier earlier on 16.
Pity the Frail needs it´s condition raised to 35% at minimum, so that one can actually get allies out of danger.
Her new level 20 talent Fanatical Power looks pretty strong, but also comes very, probably too late.
Summary
- Whitemane has been heavily nerfed overall
- At least in regard to her E build i find the fun of playing reduced
- Her mana management was an integral part of her gamplay and must be reintegrated via talents or baseline before this can go live.
- Her Q-build is still the only one with any interaction with Desparation stacks, which is sad
- Her Cleanse is still rather boring and still only interacts with her Q build
We’re hoping these changes will secure Whitemane a strong, healthy spot in the meta.
I do not see how limiting builds and overall weaking a hero will achieve this.
While the playstyle you’re accustomed to with Whitemane’s hasn’t fundamentally changed
This is fundamentally wrong as detailed above. There needs a lot to be changed before hitting the live servers in both numbers and functionality.
Well, there´s quite some good, but definitely a lot do change also.
What do you think?