Hanamura

The Changes

Core Life increased from 7 to 8

Sapper Minions will no longer spawn for the enemy team after a Keep is destroyed

Map Objective: First Payload spawn time increased by 15 seconds Second Payload spawn time increased by 15 seconds Payloads now grant 1200 XP upon reaching their destination

Mercenaries: Fortification Camp Turret power-up will now prioritize attacking Heroes Turret power-up health has been increased by 10% Turret power-up now deals double damage to Minions Recon Camp Dragon Spirits power-up no longer dismounts enemy Heroes Support Camp Initial Spawn time increased by 15 seconds Health total decreased by 10% Base attack damage decreased by 12% Attack damage scaling reduced by roughly 60% Self-heal ability cooldown increased by 2 seconds



Map Objective Changes

Hi there, ChaosOS again. Today we'll be going over all the changes found in Patch 26.3, more commonly known as the Stukov PTR patch. I will not be going over Stukov himself today, instead expect an article on our favorite Vice Admiral next Tuesday when he comes out.Here is today's spreadsheet, a bit less exciting than previous week's: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1YgUWPex4Kw7p5Lc5E0v3AXekaIGHvNfnFSw6HIHg0xA And of course a reminder that unless otherwise noted numbers below are presented in the base "Level 0" values, which are the values Blizzard uses to communicate in patch notes and in tooltips in the collection.These changes can be broken up into two parts: Map Objective changes, and the Mercenary changes. Unfortunately Blizzard did not identify their goals with these changes via developer notes, so we can only hypothesize as to what the goals where. In my best judgment the changes have two goals: Increase average game time, and increase the emphasis on fighting over payloads.

The Health change is strictly intended to increase game length. A “typical” win scenario on Hanamura involves taking both forts, four payloads, and a boss to top it off. If a team is turning in all their payloads, requiring an a additional payload will increase average game length by 4 minutes. A second scenario has an end game state featuring an “Either-or” double payload split, which now require both payloads to be turned in. This allows the team that is behind to either accomplish an objective (Such as soak to 20) while the team that is ahead 5 man pushes a payload, or to group and pick a 5-man fight. A third scenario does exist, where inefficiencies in fort destruction lead to a team overkilling the enemy core. In those scenarios this health change has no impact. This ultimately means that with a longer game time there is more room for comebacks on Hanamura, an issue that had been significantly complained about.

An alternative way teams can handle the increased core health is by pushing a keep, however this poses an additional risk by going deep into enemy territory. Furthermore, pushing a keep takes additional time, helping the goal of extending game time. Those two combined make even this route allow for more comebacks.

The sapper change most likely has two intentions. First, it helps mitigate hyper-push comps that (mostly) ignored the payloads until they pushed down the whole map. Second, it reduces the “Wait, we lost???” factor. Pushing a keep is an extraordinarily rare event in normal Hanamura play, and so many players were unaware that catapults functioned as sappers. This also adds additional emphasis to the payloads by making them the only way to actually end a game and score core damage.

The delayed payload is again to lengthen the game by at least 15 seconds. This doesn’t appear to do anything appreciable relative to the other timings, but it does give an extra wave of soak for both teams “for free”. The experience on payloads helps accelerate the leveling process and de-emphasize the strength of pushing. 1200 experience is over half a level at level 1, but by late game scales down to about 1/5th of a level. I couldn’t find anything I considered reliable for the amount of XP per level and how it scales up as game length increases, but from my experience those estimations are about right.

Mercenary Changes

Fortification Camp: The turret prioritizing heroes is a change that makes the turrets significantly stronger when placed in lane. Combined with the health increase and dealing double damage to minions, I suggest the optimal place to drop the turret in the adjacent lane as a push assistant rather than simply on the payload. Putting the turret on the payload frequently wastes the use if the enemy team decides not to contest the payload, and the critical fights are often in the lane. Thus, putting the turret in the lane seems like a powerful way to hedge the bets between the enemy contesting and needing to push.



Recon Camp: The dismount was an annoying feature that seemed unintended. The intended function of the recon camp appears to be twofold: Give vision on a map with many bushes to hide in, and help heroes like Li Li deal with stealth heroes contesting payloads. Because of the stealth factor the recon camp functions much better than a watchtower for enabling a team to pursue a vision and map control oriented strategy.



Support Camp: The spawn time change is to bring the initial support camp spawn in line with the payload spawn. This is both good and bad, as part of the reason Bribe is so strong on Hanamura is they can pick up the Support camp for free when it spawns while other heroes need to sacrifice significant amounts of time to have the healing pack available. However, the other changes are intended to make it significantly easier to solo the support camp, especially as the game goes on. Whether it becomes worth it to have someone such as a Sonya or Rexxar do more dedicated jungling is still unclear and untestable in an environment like PTR.

Xul Changes

Credit to reddit user dizzymongoose for many of the numbers in this section, I usually use him to verify my numbers but for this section I simply wouldn’t have enough information to do the breakdown without his spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1QTStBbvf9o5RuJBeM0X1rHrQxd3PCOT4y4li3Mwu9jY/pubhtml#

The list of changes here is rather long, so rather than presenting them as a whole I will present them as I analyze them.

Mana Changes

Spectral Scythe (Q) Mana cost reduced from 65 to 55

Cursed Strikes (W) Mana cost reduced from 65 to 60



TL;DR Noticeable difference in mana sustain, double clear with globes but not well breaks even at level 1 instead of level 7

Spectral Scythe spam goes from (65/8)=8.125 mana per second to (55/8)=6.875 mana per second. Cursed Strikes changes from (65/15)=4.333 mana per second to (60/15)=4 mana per second. A more relevant analysis is the double clear scenario. Double clearing involves using QW to clear one lane then Q and autos to clear the other. This technique is most commonly used on maps such as Tomb of the Spider Queen or Blackheart's bay where there are two lanes with a short distance between them.

The old mana consumption was (65*2+65)/30 seconds per wave=6.5 mana per second, and now is (55*2+60)/30=5.67 mana per second. This scenario never pulls even at a reasonable level. Accounting for globes, which restore (38.2+0.8*level) mana over 5 seconds, the old break even point was level 7 and is now level 1. This is a significant change to Xul's sustainability and will probably account for a surprising amount of any winrate change.

"Fixation"

Now causes all active Skeletons to fixate on the target.

The E change can be summarized by analyzing how much DPS and total damage skeletons do during their fixation. The fixation appears to work by commanding all existing skeletons and any summoned by Jailor to attack the target, and giving them the +50% MS and AS buff for the rest of their lives. Skeleton lives work by having 300 base HP and -20 health regeneration, both numbers scaling at 4% per level. Theoretical max damage is rather high, but given that any damage they take decreases their lifespan it’s more realistic to give a 5 second total.



Number of Skeletons Skeleton DPS Skeleton DPS (Jailor) 5 second total 5 second total (Jailor) 1 23 34=.5 115 172.5 2 (eg Jailor) 46 69 230 345 3 69 103.5 345 517.5 4 (eg Full wave) 92 138 460 690 5 115 172.5 575 862.5 6 (Max w Jailor) 138 207 690 1035



These numbers can be further enhanced with the new level 20 talent Andariel’s visage, which heals Xul for 50% of all damage dealt by poison nova and increases his skeleton damage by 50%, and made more likely by taking the new Cold Hand of Death which causes Xul's skeletons to slow.



Talent Pot Pourri

The overall effect of the talent changes is difficult to pull apart, as both old builds (Q and Skeleton focused) have been completely removed from the game with the removal of Skeleton Mastery and Decrepify.

Shackler (Active)

Added functionality: Basic Attacking a Hero that is slowed, rooted, or stunned reduces the cooldown of Bone Armor by 2 seconds.



Shackler gives Xul a 3 range slowing aura that slows nearby enemies by 35% as long as Bone Armor is active. Bone Armor has a base 30 second cooldown, but reduces the cooldown by 2 seconds whenever you attack an enemy hero that is stunned, rooted, or slowed. Bone armor baseline lasts 3 seconds but can be attacked down. Assuming Bone armor lasts the full 3 seconds, Xul’s attack speed of 1.2 (Attack period of 0.83) allows for 4 attacks during the duration. This takes 8 seconds off the cooldown, pulling it down to 22 second cooldown, a 26.67% cooldown reduction. This can be further decreased either by attacking a hero rooted by Xul’s E (3 attacks possible), by attacking a hero slowed by Xul’s skeleton mages ultimate, or by attacking any hero otherwise CC’d. Normally I would theorycraft the “minimum” time, however Xul’s Cursed Strikes allows you to hit multiple CC’d heroes at a time. This can come from a commonly available AOE slow such as Arthas Tempest or an AOE stun ultimate like Diablo’s apocalypse. I would generally estimate Shackler has a “real” cooldown of 20 seconds barring any shenanigans, but it is good to know that based on composition and build choices it is certainly possible to get a second bone armor in a fight.

(New) Grim Scythe (W)

Every time Cursed Strikes damages enemies, reduce its cooldown by 0.5 seconds, up to 10 seconds.

Grime Scythe gives Xul upwards of 10 seconds off the cooldown of Cursed Strikes, requiring hitting a total of 20 targets with the 5 swings of cursed strikes (Note: 5 swings is for continuous auto attacks at base attack speed. If you reposition or are affected by an attack speed increase/decrease this number will likely change). That averages out to 4 targets hit per swing. This talent is the lynchpin of the new “Cursed Strikes” build, changing the ability from 26.67% uptime to 80% uptime. An additional note: This talent significantly improves Xul's double clear, allowing him to use Cursed Strikes to clear both waves. Depending on how fast and safely you need to be clearing waves this can either increase your mana consumption to (55*2+60*2)=230 every 30 seconds or decrease it to (60*2)=120 every 30 seconds.

Trag’Oul’s Essence (Trait)

Moved from level 4 to level 7

Redesigned: Skeleton Basic Attacks restore 1% Health and .4% Mana.



Removed

Rathma's Blessing (Trait)

Trag’Oul’s Essence on live restores 8 mana per skeleton raised, while Rathma’s Blessing restores 55 HP per skeleton raised. These two talents have been functionally combined into the new Trag’Oul’s essence, which restores both health and mana. Notably the mana number now scales with levels unlike the flat 8 per skeleton. Rather than analyzing what each individual skeleton restores I will analyze this on a “per-wave” basis, as you rarely get optimal skeleton usage. Most frequently with Xul you will “overwrite” some of your skeletons, clearing 5 minions at once and “wasting” a skeleton. Thus, a full wave of 7 minions will restore (8*7)=56 mana and (55*7)=385 HP. The new Trag’Oul’s restores (1900*.01)=19 hp per skeleton attack baseline. Mana does not scale exponentially, unlike everything else, instead scaling linearly. The base mana restoration is 1.96+.004 per level, or 2.24 at level 7. Thus, to equal out to a full wave of Trag’oul’s essence+Rathma’s blessing your skeletons need to attack (385/19)=20.26 times for HP, and at level 7 they need to attack (56/2.24)=25 times for mana, scaling down to ~20 attacks by level 20. While this has the benefit of condensing two talents down to a single talent, you’re losing out significantly on regeneration unless your skeletons are getting many attacks.

One consideration is changing how Xul clears waves. Rather than full clearing with scythes, doing a half clear prioritizing the ranged minions may instead be preferable, leaving your skeletons to finish off the melees. One risk with this approach is missing out XP if you fully leave the lane and your skeletons don't get get the last hits on the new minions.

EDIT: 490 base mana not 290

Harvest Vitality (W)

Redesigned:

Cursed Strikes heals Xul for 60% of the damage it deals to Heroes.

Harvest Vitality is another talent that saw some changes. On live it provides 66 healing per enemy hero hit by Xul’s Cursed Strikes. The new Harvest Vitality gives 60% lifesteal against heroes. Given that both numbers scale at 4% per level and are applicable the same way (per hero hit), it’s a direct comparison. Xul’s base damage is 104, so (104*.6)=62.4 health restored per hero hit. This is a (62.4/66)=~5% nerf to the healing, however the new version is affected by armor and attack damage buffs such as Executioner. Whether it is better or worse given those modifiers is conditional on the nature of the team compositions.

(New) Rapid Harvest (W)

When Xul damages an enemy with Cursed Strikes, he gains 5% Attack Speed for 3 seconds, up to 75%.

Rapid Harvest is complicated to analyze because the number of targets you hit with each attack affects when your next attack is. 5% bonus attack speed is .06 attacks per second (1.2*.05=.06), and 75% bonus attack is 2.1 attacks per second (Attack period of ~0.43). To get to full stacks you need to hit (75/5)=15 enemies. The buff stacks and refreshes with each swing, so the final buff of 75% will likely last a full 3 seconds after Cursed Strikes end. Combined with Grim Scythe at 4 you can reach 100% uptime on this buff, a significant amount of DPS given Xul’s ability to cleave for 100% damage. This translates to 9 attacks during a single Cursed Strikes, assuming you have the max attack speed for the whole duration.

Level 16

Skeleton Mastery (Trait) Removed

Corpse Exposion (Trait) Moved from level 13 to level 16

Bone Spear (Active) Moved from level 20 to level 16 Cooldown increased from 10 to 12 seconds.



Note: Amplify Damage is unchanged

Comparing the level 16 talents is difficult because each provides a unique function and is overwhelmingly powerful in that function. Corpse Explosion has a significant lead even on Bone Spear for clear speed, Bone Spear provides AOE damage and poke, and then Amplify Damage massively increases your team’s ability to pick your Bone Prison target.



(New) Andariel’s Visage (R)

Xul is healed for 50% of the damage done by Poison Nova. Skeleton Warriors become Poison Skeletons, dealing 50% increased damage.

Andariel’s Visage heals Xul for 50% of the damage with Poison Nova. Ignoring armor, that translates to (570/10*.5)=28.5 healing per second per target hit, or 1.5% of Xul’s max HP per second per target hit. These are level 0 numbers, so at level 20 that’s 68.4 HP per second per target hit.

(New) Kalan’s Edict (Trait)

Every time a Skeleton deals Basic Attack damage, reduce Xul’s Heroic cooldown by 1%.

Kalan’s Edict takes off .7 seconds per skeleton attack off Skeleton Mage, or .9 seconds per skeleton attack off Poison Nova. Depending on how much you’re pushing and your skeleton’s attack uptime you’ll get a variable amount, but with 4 skeletons attacking that’s 2.8 or 3.6 extra seconds of cooldown per second, reducing them to a minimum of 18.4 seconds on Skeleton Mages and 19.6 seconds on Poison Nova. Jailor theoretically can reduce the numbers below this, but any realistic scenario likely has cooldowns hovering in the 30 to 40 second range.

Other notable changes

D.Va – Fixed an issue causing Defense Matrix to unintentionally reduce the effects of percentage damage abilities.

Closing Thoughts

Surprisingly enough this patch only brought direct balance changes to Xul. However, there is one bug fix I would like to highlight:This change is yet another D.Va nerf piled on top of last week's balance patch. Personally, I'm surprised they decided to fix the bug now, because when an interaction is bugged since a character's release and makes it through multiple patches including a major release that interaction usually morphs into "Working as intended". However, if D.Va is anything like her Overwatch self, trying to code "Two heroes in one" is a gigantic mess and it's not surprising that some bugs were just too sticky to fix in the usual time span. However, this is not a bug fix for a different issue: Ablative armor mitigating percentage HP damage. Given that the majority of sources of percentage HP in the game are sub 4%, this still means Ablative Armor is a powerful mitigation tool against heroes such as Leoric and Tychus.The Hanamura changes at least appear to be pushing the map in a positive direction, even if they are not the most widely requested community changes (AKA Bakery's map fixes). I would reserve judgment until you play the new Hanamura, as the core health change especially changes the dynamic of the map.The Xul changes create a hero who can conditionally output massive damage in teamfights. Given that his previous status involved no contribution to teamfights, this is greatly improved from where he was. Whether our favorite Necromancer is truly viable though is something that is mostly impossible to discern.Overall I was surprised at how empty the PTR patch notes were in overall hero changes, but it appears Blizzard wants to split the balance patch and the content patches. When Malthael gets nerfed seems to be one of the more important questions hanging, but without any blue posts confirming their plans anything said here would be pure speculation.