Xul

Change 1:

Skeleton health reduced from 270 to 240

Change 2:

Skeletal Mages (R) Cooldown increased from 70 to 90 seconds



Change 3:

Level 7 Trag’Oul’s Essence (Trait) Healing reduced from 1% to .5% per Skeleton Basic Attack Mana return increased from .4% to .5% per Skeleton Basic Attack

Level 13 Echoes of Death (Q) Damage reduced from 70 to 60% of Spectral Scythe’s damage



Zagara

Change 1:

Mutalisk (W) Duration reduced from 45 to 30 seconds



Auriel

Change 1:

Hope generation ratio from hitting Heroes increased from 40 to 50%

Bursting Light (W) Removed



Change 2:

Sacred Sweep (Q) Outer damage reduced from 80 to 60 Center damage increased from 160 to 180

Detainment Strike (E) Initial damage reduced from 115 to 58 Stun damage increased from 115 to 174



Change 3:

Resurrect (R) Cooldown reduced from 120 to 100 seconds



Lucio

Change 1:

Base Maximum Health increased from 1380 to 1518

Health Regen increased from 2.86 to 3.16

Tassadar

Change 1:

Change 2:

Hi there, ChaosOS again. Today's article continues the coverage of the 8/23 balance patch (Notes found HERE ) for Specialists, Supports, and Warriors. This is a continuation of yesterday's article which covered the Assassin changes.Spreadsheet (Same as yesterday's): https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1iV39x8grmL3RmJNMsgFi8QjZxZ4tabHa2UU81HqA4Gk/edit?usp=sharing As usual, all numbers listed below are for base "level 0" numbers unless otherwise notedAnalysisContinuing the Skeleton nerfs from the Stukov update, Xul's skeletons lost another 30 base HP. One thing I didn't think to check last time but was pointed out by Bakery is that this can impact the number of tower shots his skeletons can tank at various levels. I did touch upon this in my Scaling Part II article, but I'll go over it again here. The primary impact of this change, rather than it being an 11% health nerf, is that it pushes back the point where skeletons can tank their fourth fort tower shot. Before the Stukov balance patch, when Skeletons had 300 HP, Skeletons could tank a 4th fort tower shot when Xul hit level 6 (7 accounting for the degen). After the first nerf, the level required became level 9 (10 w/ degen). Now, it's pushed back all the way to level 12 (13 w/ degen). These are major nerfs to Xul's ability to push towers throughout the game, as his skeletons will be much less tanky and absorb far fewer structure shots.AnalysisThis cooldown increase puts Skeletal Mages at the same cooldown as Poison Nova, most likely to target the general preference for Skeletal Mages over Poison Nova. This also means Xul can't constantly use Skeletal Mages as another fort diving assistance tool. The 20 second cooldown increase changes Xul from having an opening window on most other heroes based on their heroics having a longer cooldown to no longer having that window, further raising the impact of this change.AnalysisThe biggest trend in these patch notes is trying to even out talent pick rates. Halving the healing on Trag'oul's essence drops the HP restored from 19 HP per attack to 8.5 HP per attack, a very significant nerf. The 20% mana restoration buff is relatively insignificant compared to the impact of the healing nerf.The Echoes of Death change also tries to level out talent pick rates, dropping the damage of the side scythes from (240*.7)=168 to (240*.6)=144.AnalysisMutalisk's duration was frankly excessive at 45 seconds, and rarely lasted that long. This helps out low MMR games the most because it nerfs Zagara's who are uncontested while splitpushing while it should leave higher MMR games relatively unaffected. This is a good change to mitigate how strong specialists are at low levels without making them even weaker at higher levels (No, Glogan does not single handedly prove all split pushers are viable).AnalysisI've grouped these two changes together because they are the most related. Auriel's hope generaiton requirements have gone from (505/.4)=1262.5 damage dealt to heroes every 2 seconds, or 631.25 damage per second, to (505/.5)=1010 damage every 4 seconds, or 252.5 damage per second. This is a 60% reduction in the damage requirement for maximum healing output. Furthermore, Auriel will be generating significantly more hope through the remaining level 7 talents.Glimmer of Hope: The 75% Healing Rebate provided by Glimmer will make Auriel's sustained healing much better on maps such as Tomb of the Spider Queen, reducing her generation requirements to (1010*.25)=252.5 (2525 vs. minions) damage every 4 seconds, or 63.125 damage per second (631.25 vs. minions).Empathetic Link: In a sense Empathetic Link can be seen as 25% damage reduction on the crowned ally, as if Auriel is not filling her hope bar for every heal then that 25% of damage taken goes right back into heals for the crowned ally. This is the talent of choice if you want to crown a bruiser like Thrall or Sonya that is taking as well as dealing lots of damage.Energized Cord: This talent improves Auriel's hope generation from AAs from 37.5 per second (30 per attack @ 1.25 AS) to 75 per second. but more importantly improves her out of combat generation from 3.75 per second to 37.5 per second. This is my recommended talent for maps that don't have significant globe presence to utilize Glimmer of Hope, as the out of combat generation buff is huge for Auriel's sustained healing.AnalysisThese changes reduce the power level of "half-hit" skillshots without impacting the strength of fully hit ones. The "center damage' and "stun damage" numbers are additions to the initial and outer damage numbers, not replacements, so the buffs are fully compensated by the nerfs. This change is most likely intended to address the complaints that Auriel wasn't sufficiently skill reliant as a healer due to the ease of pressing W to heal.AnalysisThe careful buffs to Resurrect over time most likely reflect that Blizzard does not want Resurrect to become the ultimate of choice for Auriel, as resurrection effects can be frustrating because they completely negate all the work already put into getting a pick. To see how frustrating and damaging a powerful resurrect effect can be, check out the most recent Overwatch Developer Update where they talk about an upcoming Mercy Rework that shifts power away from her resurrect. Incidentally, these Mercy changes, combined with the upcoming Lt. Morales Rework, mean it is much more likely that she will come to the Nexus within the next year.AnalysisThese Lucio changes constitute a 10% health buff, which for a hero that is as slippery and escapable as Lucio, constitutes a massive survivability increase. Expect a lot more Lucio's escaping at just slivers of HP. The regeneration changes just exist to keep Lucio's base health regen at the targeted 1/480th of max HP.Bunker Build time Increased by 5 secondsAnalysisContinuing the recent trends, Terrandar has beeen declared as slightly overpowered and Blizzard is hoping this will give a small opening of vulnerability.

Stats

Basic Attack Damage reduced from 15 to 14

Based Maximum Health reduced from 1426 to 1355

Health regen reduced from 2.97 to 2.8

Change 3:

Level 1 Khaydarin Resonance (Passive) Bonus Mana from Regen Globes increased from 50 to 100%



Tyrande

Change 1:

Celestial Attunement (Q) Added functionality: Also removes Silences

Kaldorei Resistance Max Spell Armor stacks reduced from 4 to 3



Change 2:

Level 13 Empower (W) Added functionality: Also lowers the base cooldown of Sentinel by 4 seconds Harsh Moonlight (W) Slow amount reduced from 30 to 25% Damage reduction amount from 30 to 25%



Uther

Change 1:

Eternal Vanguard (Trait) Armor for healing allies with Basic Abilites reduced from 25 to 15

Holy Light (Q) Healing increased from 360 to 380 Self-healing increased from 180 to 190

Holy Radiance (W) Healing and damage increased from 160 to 180



Change 2:

Level 1 Wave of Light (W) Bonus duration to Armor buff on Quest Completion reduced from 1 to .5 seconds Mana return reduced from 8 to 5 per Hero hit



Targets hit Mana cost (old) Mana cost (new) % Increase 0 70 70 0 1 62 65 ~5% 2 54 60 ~11% 3 46 55 ~20% 4 38 50 ~32% 5 30 45 50% 6 22 40 ~82%

Change 2:

Level 4 Holy Fire (Passive) Damage reduced from 16 to 14 per second



Chen

Change 1:

Base Maximum Health reduced from 2550 to 2473

Health regeneration reduced from 5.31 to 5.15

Change 2:

Refreshing Elixir (Passive) Removed

Purifying Brew (Passive) Moved from Level 20 Cooldown increased from 10 to 45 seconds



Change 3:

Level 16 Flying Leap (Q) Bonus range reduced from 20 to 15%



Garrosh

Change 1:

Taunt duration increased from 1.5 to 2 seconds

Change 2:

Unrivaled Strength (E) Increased throw range from 20 to 30%, and bonus damage from 100 to 125%



Change 3:

Level 4 In for the Kill (W) Increased bonus damage from 60 to 70%



Change 4:

Level 7 Into the Fray (Active) No longer costs Mana



Closing Thoughts

AnalysisThese Tassadar changes are a small 7% nerf to AA damage and a 5% nerf to maximum HP. While these changes will be impactful towards Tassadar's winrate, they do not overly impact his talent choices. The AA change reduces the added damage from the 1st part of Templar's will from 18.75 to 17.5, decreasing his total AA damage from 33.75 to 31.5. This reduces his self healing during Plasma Shield from 54 per second (101.25 with Khala's Embrace) to 50.4 per second (94.5 with Khala's Embrace).AnalysisAnother change seeking to balance out talent pick rates, this change to Khaydrin Resonance changes globes from providing (38.2*1.5)=57.3 (+1.2 per level) mana to 76.4 (+1.6 per level) mana. This functionally means a Tassadar that goes Khaydrin Resonance should never run out of mana so long as they are regularly collecting globes.AnalysisYet another attempt at evening out the talent tiers, the Celestial Attunement change also failed to mention that it changed the functionality of the reward: Rather than giving a free cast within the next 4 seconds, it reduces the cooldown to 4 seconds. This extra cast functionally comes whenever Tyrande makes two more basic attacks, as each basic attack reduces the cooldown of her heal by 2 seconds. Cleansing silences is a major improvement to the power of this talent, as not only is it helpful vs. direct silences such as Alarak's Discord Strike or Sylvanas' Wailing Arrow, but it also allows her to cleanse effects such as Garrosh and Varian's taunts or Gul'dans Horrify.The Kaldorei Resistance change seems targeted at the new FotM Tyrande build which turns Tyrande into a Stealth hypercarry that uses Shadowstalk to position and then can ignore all spell damage that comes her way through a combination of 60 spell armor and her self healing. The reduction from 60 to 45 spell armor is a 27% EHP decrease, AKA a 27% decrease in the amount of magic damage that a max stacks Tyrande can take.AnalysisEmpower now may enable a Ranger or "Owl" build, but it is less likely. With Empower, the cooldown of Sentinel is 14/10/6/2 seconds rather than the default 18. Essentially this change gives one hit of Sentinel for free with regards to the cooldown reduction.The Slow and Damage Reduction on Harsh Moonlight last for 4 seconds, so the slow nerf translates to an extra (.05*4*4.3984)=~0.88 potential meters of movement. The damage reduction change improves affected heroes damage from 70% to 75%, a ~7% buff. Given that Sentinel has a baseline piercing element, this change is a minor nerf to the preferred talent on the tier.AnalysisThe Uther changes seem to be targeting the power level of double support compositions ft. Uther. Because Armor reduces damage taken, it has a multiplicative effect with healing. The reduction from 25 to 15 armor reduces the EHP multiplier (on a hero with no other sources of armor) from ~133% to ~118%, a ~12% decrease. This effect is compounded on heroes that have other sources of armor, as each point of armor is worth more than the last.AnalysisWave of Light has been the go-to talent for Uther since his rework. The bonus duration on armor nerfs the post-quest completion armor duration from 3 seconds to 2.5 seconds, significantly decreasing the strength of Wave of Light combined with Guardian of Ancient Kings. Furthermore, the mana nerfs continue the trend of nerfing Uther's sustain.As can be seen in the table, the nerf significantly impacts Uther's mana sustain, especially for high skill Uthers that were hitting more targets with Wave of Light.AnalysisA 12.5% damage reduction to the damage of Holy Fire, this further incentivizes Uther's to go for Pursuit of Justice and utilize the move speed provided there. This also targets the wave clear that Uther could provide, an important part of double support compositions that traditionally have struggle with wave clear.AnalysisA 3% health nerf is not too major, but does represent a targeted reduction of Chen's overall power level.AnalysisThese changes again target talent diversity. Previously the level 7 talent tier was dominated by Brewmaster's Balance and Fortifying Brew, with the healing amplification of Refreshing Elixir considered too fringe a benefit. Moving Purifying Brew to level 7 (And due to an apparent bug not actually increasing the cooldown) will theoretically provide some competition for when Chens are worried about CC, however due to the recent brew generation changes it is unlikely to see a high pickrate.AnalysisThis change reduces the range of an improved Flying Kick from (6*1.2)=7.2 to (6*1.15)=6.9, a ~4% reduction.AnalysisA 33% increase in the duration of a CC is nothing to sneeze at, and this change also makes the improved Warlord's Challenge last an entire 2.5 seconds, also increasing the window for the 90% cooldown reset from the level 20 talent. Because Garrosh does not have a parry like Varian does, the taunt on Warlord's Challenge is much more of a root+silence rather than a true stun, meaning that even if Garrosh does catch 3 people with his Taunt his is liable to simply die from the basic attacks.AnalysisWhile the patch notes read the improvement as from 20 to 30%, the XML files and in game tooltip read a 25% increase to the range. The range of an Unrivaled Strength-enhanced throw improves from (5.5*1.2)=6.6 to 6.875, a ~4% increase in the throw range. The enhanced damage was improved from 182 to 204.75, a 12.5% increase.AnalysisThis changes the damage of Bloodthirst against non-heroes from (156*1.6)=249.6 to (156*1.7)=265.2, a 6.25% increase.AnalysisPreviously, Into the Fray cost 70 mana. This should help mitigate non-existant mana issues. Realistically this change is a consistency one as there are no other active talents that cost mana.Overall, this patch primarily consisted of talent changes to over- and under-picked talents. Hopefully this will result in better talent diversity in the long run. While breaking up this balance patch into two articles was not intended, next week I intend to break up the PTR patch notes up into two articles simply due to the number of reworks that will be coming in the patch. Kel'thuzad will be covered the following week on the Tuesday of his release.