shiroiusagi Profile Blog Joined September 2011 SoCal, USA 3861 Posts #1 The Lost Vikings

Patch Notes

Commentary and Analysis by Oxygen



Disclaimer: Since I pretty much write these as soon as notes become available, some of the meta-gaming discussion is conjectural. I'm merely gifted, not an oracle!



Core • The Core is now invulnerable until both the Keep and Fort in a single lane are destroyed.



Before this change, the only condition for the Core's invulnerability effect to go away was to destroy a Keep. Now, the condition is actually three-fold: A destroyed Fort, a destroyed Keep... and both in the same lane.



What does this change?



I frankly haven't seen a tournament in the game's recent history (read: the last 6 months) in which a round was ended through a straight Keep > Core kill. However, this isn't to say that I've never seen it happen. Or that it isn't likely. Some team comps were built entirely around this, with map-wide movement skill for surprise kills, however, those were killed off two patches ago with the Core buffs. I could still see Cursed Hollow or Garden of Terror games ending through this method given exceptional team fights.



But, they changed it. Why?



I think it was mostly just to make things a bit less confusing/frustrating for newer players. Imagine defending a Fort all game (because that's what the game promotes!), and then somehow losing from behind it. I suppose it just wouldn't really make any sense.



Kills • All Heroes (including Murky and The Lost Vikings) now count as full credit toward Talents which require Hero kills (such as Gathering Power).

That's a pretty unforeseen nerf to Murky, who is intended to well, die a lot, by design. However, Gathering Power was nerfed a bit, which could theoretically compensate for that. And to be fair, Murky probably has a lot more to worry about right now. More on that further down…





Level 20 Talent Changes

• Swift Storm has been removed



And you'll be missed by approximately no one. The choice had some potentially interesting applications in terms of late game objective control and game ending threats, but not enough heroes that mattered had this choice in the first place.



Rewind • Now has a 60 seconds cooldown

Has been moved from Level 13 to Level 20

Has been removed from many Heroes

Found on the following Heroes:

Anub'arak, Arthas, Brightwing, Nova, Malfurion, Muradin, Murky, Tassadar, Tyrande, Rehgar, Zeratul



Dear Rewind,



You break certain heroes. The talent bred some notorious hate for anything that had skill-based burst damage (Nova) and crowd control machines (Anub'arak, Brightwing, Muradin). Nova and Anub'arak lost the choice for evident reasons, and now, they have it back - it just competes with other level 20 choices. Brightwing, Malfurion, Muradin and Tyrande were essentially "nerfed" in that regard, simply due to the fact that they don't get to pick it up as early, if so desired. Arthas Murky, Tassadar, Rehgar and Zeratul (!) are the boys who will get to experiment with it because they've never had access to it.



Let's talk about how the talent might impact everyone:



•Anub'arak: More crowd control, more mobility, more shields. What's not to love? We know the talent was a strong pick on our Crypt Lord friend, and it will remain as such. I'd rate it over the new Hardened Shield because all of Anub'arak's skills directly or indirectly provide survivability (and more!), and for your team as well.



•Arthas: Doesn't do anything for Frozen Tempest (toggled skills can't be reset), but the prospect of rooting a target for 3 seconds or healing twice with Death Coil is at least mildly interesting. However, I can't really see that compete with an extra ~1500 health from Army of the Dead, the ridiculously good team-wide freeze from Sindragosa, or the so-darn-reliable new Hardened Shield.



•Nova: Oh god, it's back. What hurts more than one Snipe? Two of them. However, now that the talent competes with Nova's extremely good level 20 talent choices, I have my doubts as to whether we'll see her pick that up. Bolt of the Storm on an escape-less hero and the potential to be using your heroic skill twice (or more, given lucky Triple Taps!) just can't be denied.



•Malfurion: Poor druid. Rewind has just always been awful for him. Moonfire already has a 3 seconds cooldown, so its damage and utility are tuned around that - it's not worth resetting. Regrowth has a pitiful instant healing effect, and the bulk of its power comes from the healing over time effect, so resetting that is rather bad as well. And then, we have Entangling Roots. A skill which, you'd think, could do outstanding work with Rewind. Until you realize that, being a debuff (as opposed to an area-based effect), you can't use it to root something that's already rooted, making it less-than-convenient to use, timing wise.



•Muradin: An unfortunate level 13 loss for our dwarven friend, the talent now competes with other solid choices that drastically improve his heroic skills. Two stuns, two jumps, two claps... the talent will always be good for Muradin, he just gets to use it way too late. I have to note, however, that I'd love to use Thunderstrike (300% damage Thunder Clap damage against an isolated target) with it now. That's about the only highlight of this change.



•Murky: I don't think anyone could predict that one, but here we are - Rewind Murky. Both Never-Ending Murlocs, and ...and a Shark Too! are extremely strong talent picks, so does Rewind have any potential here? It somewhat does - Slime deals three times more damage to already-Slimed targets, Pufferfish could potentially be used twice and followed up by an Octo-Grab (though that would feel clunky, due to the latter's casting time) and more Bubbles means more annoying. We'll need some Murky mains (I know you exist...) to experiment for us here.



•Tassadar: That's another strange one. I could discuss in lengths how Psionic Storm isn't too great to cast twice (he can already do it!), how shields are always nice, how Dimensional Shift provides oh-so-much survivability when talented, and so on... But that would mean that there's be a sliver of hope for Rewind to ever compete with Twilight Archon. There are none.



•Rehgar: And yet another surprise. Given that Rehgar's level 20 is less-than-impressive (Storm Shield is good, don't get me wrong), and given that his basic skills are pretty good themselves, we have a solid choice here. Chain Heal has a tonne of raw healing power, Lightning Shield's Earth Shield is a must pick, and Earthbind is the God of Kiting. All of these are on relatively long cooldowns, too, so you just get really good value out of Rewind.



•Zeratul: Yikes. Just when we thought that Nova had ridiculous burst, Zeratul is given the option of quadra-Bombing-double-Cleaving and, of course, using Blink twice - which is more or less like also getting a half Bolt of the Storm extra talent. I can tell that this will cause a lot of frustration, although pulling off a perfect combo may be more difficult than it sounds, especially against players with twitchy fingers (and escape skills).



Four new Talents have been added at Level 20 for a number of Heroes:





• Nexus Blades

-Provides 20% increased Attack Damage, and Basic Attacks slow enemies by 20% for 1 second

Found on the following Heroes: Illidan, Kerrigan, Sonya, Thrall, Tyrael and Zeratul.



To put a 20% slow into perspective, it's about the amount you need to have perfect attack up-time on something that's directly running away. If you've ever been chased by a Tenderizer-Stitches, you'll know how miserable that feeling of helplessness is. It's worth mentioning that the 20% increase in attack damage is actually added to the hero's base attack damage, making it multiplicative with effects such as Life Leeching, Seasoned Marksman, Marked for Death, Sweeping Strike, Searing Attacks, Wrath of the Berserker, Blade of Justice, Assassin's Blade, and so on. Which is great for that late-game scaling of our melee assassins.



I suspect this Talent to be solid competitors for Bolt of the Storm for Illidan (especially outstanding here), Sonya and Thrall. Just be careful, right?



• Nexus Frenzy

-Increases both Attack Speed and Basic Attack range by 20%

-Found on the following Heroes: Jaina, Raynor, Sgt. Hammer, Tychus, Valla.





And here's our ranged assassin equivalent to Nexus Blades. Don't feel like you'll need Bolt either? For Raynor and Valla, this is THE prime offensive pick. I mean, you get to deal more damage from a safer distance? What's not to love! As for Hammer and Tychus, the choice is harder. Advanced Lava Strike, Orbital BFG, Big Red Button and Focusing Diodes have always been outstanding choices for their corresponding heroic skills. It'll really come down for personal preference here, though builds including Giant Killer would most certainly benefit from the range and attack speed.



Please, don't get this on Jaina. The fact that she even gets access to this talent is a pretty big blunder on Blizzard's part, showing a pretty clear disconnection with the hero's play-style.



•Hardened Shield

-Activate to reduce all incoming damage by 75% for 4 seconds; 60 second cooldown

-Found on the following Heroes: Anub’arak, Arthas, Chen, E.T.C., Gazlowe, Muradin, Sonya, Stitches, Tyrael.



Tanks (and Gazlowe), rejoice moderately! Simply put, we're talking about four seconds of figurative invulnerability. This is obviously nothing to scoff at, though it'll require some very good timing and knowledge from the user's part (unlike the two former choices) to fully benefit. It's hard to tell, as of right now, if this talent is good enough to compete with other level 20 choices. It's not that it's bad in itself, but 60 seconds is a long time to wait in the late game, and good players have a tendency to try and avoid focusing tanks when they can.



•Fury of the Storm

-Every 5 seconds, the next Basic Attack will deal an additional 200 damage to the primary target, and 500 damage to each nearby Minion or Mercenary.

-Found on the following Heroes: Gazlowe, Nazeebo, Sgt. Hammer, Zagara.



Now, don't get confused by the tooltip like your boy Oxy did - the 200 extra damage will be dealt to ANYTHING (including heroes and structures) that you hit. Then, 500 damage will be dealt to any minion or mercenary around (a circle about the size of Void Prison) whatever you hit.



And so, what's the deal with this? It makes dealing with minions and lane mercenaries a non-issue. It gives you a tiny bit of extra damage for team fights, and unimpressively shines when it comes down to poking and sieging. The problem is getting there - by picking a talent that contributes very little to team fighting (or staying alive - hello Bolt!), you rely on either an already outstanding team fighting composition, or a crushing lead (and in both cases, you probably already won). The talent just comes off as a "win-more" pick to me.



•Calldown: MULE

-Multiple M.U.L.E.s can no longer repair the same structure.

-Duration reduced from 60 to 40 seconds; Cooldown remains 60 seconds

-M.U.L.E.s now restore ammunition more quickly.

-M.U.L.E. Health is now 140 (+43 per level), rather than remaining at 500 Health for the duration of the match.





A Big nerf to the small MULE. Not much to say here - it'll heal less and restore about the same amount of ammo it used to over a shorter duration. The healing being the important part, of course, because ammo is by design expandable and replenishes, whereas health doesn't, and the former won't hand out a bunch of experience once it runs out. Plus, running two of them isn't going to be nearly as useful as it used to be.



Why the change? Speeding up games is my guess.



•Gathering Power

-Initial Ability Power amount reduced from 8% to 5%

-Maximum Ability Power bonus reduced from 20% to 15%



Gathering Power has been a must-pick talent for anyone that can get it ever since its introduction. Given that the general theme of this patch was to kill such talents, it isn't surprising to see it being nerfed. It still remains a prime pick for anyone but the odd attack-damage-centered Falstad player.



•Regeneration Master

-Now grants 4 Health regeneration upon learning the Talent



In the Jaina patch analysis, I discussed how talents were meant to feel like they could pay off instantly, with the Conjurer's Pursuit changes. Well, this right here falls into that line of thought. Not a huge change by any means, especially given Regen Master's relative unpopularity, but a good one from a design standpoint.



Hero changes



Abathur • Evolve Monstrosity (R)

-Minion Stack bonus increased from 4% to 5% Health and Damage.

-Monstrosity Health increased from 600 (+60 per level) to 600 (+72 per level).

-Monstrosity now takes 50% less damage from Minions and Structures.





It's quickly became clear that Abathur's Monstrosity heroic wasn't fulfilling its split-pushing role as well as it was intended to. It just came off as a glorified minion, but the damage and health buffs, combined with the new significant PvE damage reduction should make it an actual threat. Right...? Here's to hoping!



Anub’Arak

•Basic Attack

-Locust Needles (Talent) damage increased from 35% to 50%



•Impale (Q)

-Stun duration decreased from 1.25 to 1 second



•Harden Carapace (W)

-Persistent Carapace (Talent)

-Duration bonus increased from 2 to 3 seconds

-Chitinous Plating (Talent)

-Shield bonus reduced from 50% to 40%



•Burrow Charge (E)

-Cooldown increased from 14 to 16 seconds

-Epicenter (Talent)

-Impact area and Damage bonuses reduced from 100% to 85%



•Web Blast (R)

-Duration increased from 5 to 8 seconds

-Cooldown increased from 45 to 60 seconds

•Cryptweave (Talent)

-Now channels for 4 seconds to increase the duration of Web Blast for 4 seconds. Usable once per Web Blast cast.



I have to admit that I'm rather shocked to see these for Anub'arak. He hasn't seen any serious play since his December round of nerfs, and yet, here we are again. Locust Needles is a horribly misplaced talent (Anub isn't exactly the boss of attack damage, plus it competes with the outstanding Underking), so any buffing to it is meaningless. The Impale stun reduction hurts, the Burrow Charge cooldown nerf hurts, and the Carapace duration increase (in exchange of a Plating nerf) is ill-advised - that thing usually breaks before it expires! Anub is already touted as the squishiest of tanks, is seeing abysmal pick rates, so I just don't understand what's going on here.



Regarding Web Blast: The heroic skill's potential - when you somehow deemed wise to skip Locust Swarm - came from the skill's really short cooldown. Its role? To punish rotational mistakes to let your team collapse on isolated targets and to instantly interrupt strong channeled skills. The cocoon isn't hard at all to break, and as such, an increased duration is essentially an overkill here. The trade-off of the increased cooldown is obviously undesirable given the underlined strengths of the skill. Bleh.



Arthas

•Envenom (Talent) removed

-Frozen Wastes (Talent) moved from Level 1 to Level 4

-Eternal Hunter (Talent) moved from Level 4 to Level 1



•Basic Attack

-Rune Tap (Talent)

-Heal amount reduced from 4% to 3% of maximum Health



•Frostmourne Hungers (Trait)

-Obliterate (Talent)

-Search radius increased by 25%



•Death Coil (Q)

-Mana Cost decreased from 55 to 50

-Death Touch (Talent)

-Now also deals its normal damage to other nearby enemies when killing a Minion.



•Howling Blast (W)

-Mana cost decreased from 75 to 70

•Frost Presence (Talent)

-Cooldown reduction increased from 2 to 3 seconds



•Frozen Tempest (E)

-Mana drain increased from 12 to 15 per second

-Radius increased by approximately 15%

-Initial damage per second increased from 20 to 26

-Scaling damage increased from 3 to 4

•Frozen Wastes (Talent)

-No longer increases Frozen Tempest’s radius

-Now decreases Frozen Tempest’s Mana cost by 3 per second

•Biting Cold (Talent)

-No longer increases Frozen Tempest’s Mana cost

-Scaling damage increased from 5.5 to 6



•Summon Sindragosa (R)

-Cooldown decreased from 90 to 80 seconds

-Slow duration on Heroes increased from 3 to 4 seconds

•Absolute Zero (Talent)

-Hero root duration increased from 1.5 to 2 seconds

-Hero slow duration increased from 1.5 to 2 seconds



•Army of the Dead (R)

-Cooldown increased from 90 to 100 seconds

-Initial Ghoul heal reduced from 150 to 104

-Scaling Ghoul heal reduced from 30 to 24

•Legion of Northrend (Talent)

-Ghoul duration bonus changed from a 50% increase to a 5 second increase

-Now increases Ghoul heal by 25%



Woah, alright. That's a lot of changes. Let's go over the main notable stuff.



-First, Envenom is gone, making Arthas lose his status as only tank with that talent choice. Good.

-Second, Rune Tap was nerfed for the third time, giving him less passive sustain. Good.

-Third, his mana costs were shuffled around. In a nutshell, you have to toggle Frozen Tempest off every once in a while now. Good.

-Fourth, Sindragosa has a reduced cooldown and offers more control. Good.

-Fifth, Army of the Dead has an increased cooldown heals for less. Good.



So, what were the issues with Arthas? Simply put, too much early game strength and too much self-healing. Both of which have been appropriately thumped by the nerf hammer. It's unlike me to be satisfied with anything, ever, but I might have to change my stance here.



Good night, sweet prince. After nearly 10 months of nearly uncontested dominance, you have finally been dethroned. But, who may don the crown now? Stitches?



Brightwing

•Starting Health decreased from 775 to 750

•Scaling Health decreased from 140 to 130



•Rewind (Talent) moved from Level 13 to Level 20

•Bolt of the Storm (Talent) removed



•Phase Shift (Z)

-Cooldown increased from 30 to 45 seconds

•Phase Shield (Talent)

-Shield scaling increased from 25 to 50 per level



•Polymorph (W)

-Mana Cost increased from 60 to 75



•Pixie Dust (E)

-Buff duration decreased from 4 to 3 seconds

-Movement Speed bonus decreased from 25% to 20%

-Block charges granted reduced from 2 to 1

-Cooldown decreased from 12 to 10 seconds

-Mana Cost reduced from 75 to 60



Next on the nerfing list is Brokenwing. Most of these changes are self-explanatory. Our favourite Faerie Dragon's outrageously high healing output was barely touched, but almost everything else saw bigger changes. It's pretty rare nowadays to see changes to anyone's health (because that entails a lot more than it seems), but here we are, with a ~5% reduction. Another big change: A 50% increase (15 seconds) on Phase Shift's cooldown makes Brightwing that much less of a map-wide threat. But the biggest of it all is the bumping of Rewind to the level 20 tier. This means no more double Polymorphing and that much less potential burst healing from Regenerative Rains. Last but not least, Pixie Dust now only blocks one attack. Perhaps it'll be possible to positively trade with a Brightwing lane now!



Chen

•Swift Reflexes (Talent) moved from Level 7 to Level 4



•Basic Attack

-Attack Speed increased by 11%



•Fortifying Brew (Trait)

-Last Drop (Talent) removed

-Bottomless Mug (Talent) moved from Level 4 to Level 1

-Chug (Talent) moved from Level 4 to Level 16

-Combat Stance (Talent) moved from Level 16 to Level 7

-Starting Brew regeneration increased from 30 to 40 Brew per second upon activation

-Bolder Flavor (Talent)

-Moved from Level 7 to Level 16

-Shield regeneration rate and maximum Shield amount increased from 33% to 40%



•Brewmaster’s Balance (Talent)

-Health regeneration bonus increased from 5 (+1 per level) to 10 (+1.5 per level)

-Movement Speed bonus increased from 15% to 20%

-Health regeneration and Movement Speed Bonuses have been swapped

-While at or below 50 Brew, gain 20% Movement Speed

-While at or above 50 Brew, regenerate an additional 10 (+1.5 per level) Health per second



•Flying Kick (Q)

-Deadly Strike (Talent) moved from Level 1 to Level 4

-Pressure Point (Talent)

-Moved from Level 7 to Level 16

-No longer roots the target for 1 second, and instead applies a 90% slow for 1 second

-Combination Attack (Talent)

-Attack damage bonus decreased from 200% to 100%



•Keg Smash (W)

-Keg Toss (Talent)

-Moved from Level 16 to Level 7

-Range bonus reduced from 200% to 125%



•Breath of Fire (E)

-Combustion (Talent) removed

-Deep Breath (Talent)

-Increases for Breath of Fire’s range and arc changed from 20% to 30%

-Ring of Fire (Talent)

-Damage scaling increased from 2 to 2.5



•Storm, Earth, Fire (R)

-Elemental Conduit (Talent)

-Spirit timed life decreased from 5 to 4 seconds

-Spirit generation cooldown decreased from 9 to 4 seconds



Let's summarize this awful wall of text: Rest in peace, panda.



As if last patch's Storm, Earth, Fire nerfs hadn't been enough, we're now seeing Chen's best talents nerfed, bumped up in higher tiers and in a position where they have to compete with each other. Blizzard's justification for this? "No talent should ever be the clear-cut choice."



The problem here is that Chen lacks appealing talent choices. A bit of increased duration here, a bit of slow there, and arbitrary damage and range increases don't exactly make for the most exciting of tiers. The talents that used to make Chen a viable pick (Pressure Point, Bolder Flavor, Combination Attack) now all sit at level 16 instead of their respective 4 and 7 for the former two. Pressure Point no longer roots (thus allowing escape skills to function) and Combination Attack provides half the damage bonus it once did. Never mind every other change - Chen now lies as a prime example of how the talent system can actually go wrong. Reaching talent-granting tiers should make players excited. You should look forward to these, and Chen's really don't do it.



I'd like to make a quick note regarding Elemental Conduit: It was quite possibly one of the worst level 20 talent in the game, and this "buff" does very little to correct this. Why? The summoned pandas are, for the most part, very bad. Over their entire duration, Storm, Earth and Fire each respectively deal 650, 160 and 190 damage. Storm isn't actually too shabby, partly because it had 4 times the potential of other summons and partly because it has a ranged attack, but the two other summons are not only insignificantly weak, but also can they be kited, limiting their damage even more.



I don't know what data was used to justify these changes, but I don't like em' one bit.



Diablo •Basic Attack

-Scaling damage increased from 7 to 11



•Shadow Charge (Q)

-The pushback distance on the target is now consistent, which should allow for more fluid combos with Overpower.

-Can now be used on Structures without potentially landing inside of them



•Fire Stomp (W)

-Now orients according to cardinal directions with respect to the direction that Diablo is currently facing

-The number of fire waves created by Fire Stomp has been reduced from 10 to 8.



•Overpower (E)

-Issuing additional commands after casting Overpower should now be much more responsive.



These aren't buffs - aside from the attack damage increase, which makes Diablo the hardest hitting tank, by the way! - as much as quality of life (read: less clunkiness) changes. These were certainly both expected and awaited for. Unfortunately, Shadow Charge appears to not knock heroes back nearly as far (about 50% less) as the skill's range indicator arrow suggests, making the game lie to you and the wall stun condition nearly impossible to meet. Another issue is that this is putting off the rework that was announced some time ago.



Anyhow, what of this? Will Dibbles see more play? Yeah, I think so. He's pretty solid in an aggressively roaming composition and his ultimate choices are flexible and always devastating.



Illidan •Executioner (Talent) removed

Oh no!



Kerrigan •Executioner (Talent) removed



•Ravage (Q)

-Siphoning Impact (Talent)

-Heal amount increased from 5% to 10% of maximum Health



•Impaling Blades (W)

-Starting damage decreased from 125 to 110

-Scaling damage increased from 20 to 22



•Primal Grasp (E)

-Psionic Pulse (Talent)

-Base damage tick increased from 3 to 6

-Scaling damage tick increased from .65 to 1.2



Okay, let's expand a bit more about the removal of Executioner (which also affects Zeratul, mind you). Melee assassins are getting that Nexus Blade talent choice at level 20 which we've talked about earlier. Combined with Executioner, that thing would boost your damage against anything you'd attack by a whopping ~60%. Passively. We can't have that.



As for Kerrigan's other changes? Meh. Siphoning Impact doesn't work in conjunction with Adaptation (jumping to allies at half cooldown) and still heals for too little with a cool down that's too long to really make an impact, even despite the reset clause. Impaling Blades deal 15 less damage early on, and about 15 more later on, which is completely insignificant. Psionic Pulse isn't even a real talent in a world where Envenom and Fury of the Swarm exist, both dealing more single target and area of effect damage, respectively, with Fury also synergizing with Battle Momentum.



Oh yeah, how could I forget? She lost Rewind, and doesn't even get to pick it up at 20. Ouch. Yes, it was arguably broken on her. Still, I'm surprised she wasn't given something else to make up for that a bit.



Murky

•Gathering Power (Talent) removed



•Spawn Egg (Trait)

-Egg placement cooldown reduced from 45 to 20 seconds

-The amount of time Murky is revealed after his Egg is killed has been increased from 10 to 15 seconds.

-Spawn Egg’s placement cooldown after Murky’s Egg is destroyed has been decreased from 20 to 15 seconds.



•Pufferfish (W)

-Slimy Pufferfish (Talent) moved from Level 7 to Level 16

-Compressed Air (Talent) moved from Level 13 to Level 7

-Wrath of Cod (Talent) moved from Level 16 to Level 13



•Safety Bubble (E)

-Rejuvenation Bubble (Talent)

-Now restores 50% Health, rather than all Health





Gathering Power was awesome on Murky. Awesome in the sense that it allowed him to actually put out some damage, and without the usual risks associated with the talent. But that is no more. In fact, Murky is no more. Slimy Pufferfish was core to initiating a Slime chain, the bulk of his sustained damage. It now comes much later into the game for a hero that was broadly recognized as one of the weakest in the early stages of the game, competing with the ever-so-important Rejuvenating Bubble. The latter which was nerfed by 50%. Like, I'm shocked. How hard can you kick Murky while he's down?



Let's talk about the Spawn Egg changes. According to the devs, the skill's cooldown reduction is to "encourage aggressive use of the egg". This change unfortunately shows a deep disconnection with the speed at which players actually deal with the egg. It's not exactly hard to see where Murky rides from when he revives. This issue only further compounds by the fact that the egg's collision is about twice as large as the egg itself, making it hard to hide. Not that there are many places to even hide it in the first place. Point being: This doesn't change much at all, besides giving a larger window of vulnerability when the egg gets killed.



Some of the most misguided changes in this entire patch.



Raynor •Raynor has received a significant Talent update.



There's too much to say about our boy Jimmy Ray. That'll be for a separate article!



Rehgar •Earthbind Totem (E) - Earthgrasp Totem (Talent)

-No longer roots the target for 1 second, and instead applies a 90% slow for 1 second





So, Earthgrasp Totem is getting the Pressure Point treatment. While being slowed by such an amount is essentially the same as being rooted, mechanically, the talent no longer function as a root for the purpose of preventing the use of mobility skills. This is just a big ol' nerf to a talent that gave Earthbind an extremely interesting dual purpose, and that's a shame. Fortunately for Rehgar, he's considered the top support pick as of this patch, independently of this change.



SGT. Hammer •Spider Mines (Q) - Bullhead Mines (Talent)

-Enemies are now knocked back slightly farther, but only the center of the three Spider Mines will knock the target back.



Bullhead Mines were fun... but only when you were the Hammer player. Anything that can cause a character to be uncontrollably pushed around needs serious reconsideration, and Bullheads were a prime example of this, especially when combined with Mine Field.





https://www.youtube.com/embed/G3GaxkJ8uCo





Is the talent still useful? I doubt it, even if the new effect is "stronger". The staggered effect is what made this useful in the first place.



Sonya •The color of Sonya’s Fury resource bar has been changed to orange.

•Ferocious Healing (Activated Talent)

•Fury cost upon activation increased from 10 to 20



•Basic Attack

-Damage increased from 38 (+7 per level) to 40 (+8 per level)



•Fury (Trait)

-Fury generated per Basic Attack increased from 4 to 6

-Fury generated upon taking damage increased from 1 to 2



•Shot of Fury (Talent)

-Fury generated upon activation increased from 25 to 50



•Ancient Spear (Q)

-Fury generation increased from 20 to 40



•Seismic Slam (W)

-Fury cost increased from 15 to 25

•Furious Blow (Talent)

-Damage bonus increased from 30% to 40%

-Increase to Seismic Slam’s Fury cost changed from 5 to 10



•Whirlwind (E)

-Fury cost increased from 30 to 50



•Wrath of the Berserker (R)

-Cooldown increased from 30 to 45 seconds

-Damage bonus increased from 30% to 40%

-Duration increased from 10 to 15 seconds

-Fury required to extend Wrath of the Berserker’s duration increased from 4 to 10 Fury





That's a lot of text to basically say this: Slam and attacks deal some more attack damage. Wrath of the Berserker gives more damage. Fury costs and generation approximately doubled. What does it mean? A lot less downtime, for one - your fury bar is a roller coaster that replenishes quickly and empties just as quickly. That's some fun stuff. Two, if you're fury starved, your basic attack feels a lot more rewarding.



Will Sonya see some play? It's hard to tell. None of these changes are necessarily buffs, however, in the current meta, there might be a place for her.



Stitches

•Hook (Q)

-Cooldown increased from 14 to 16 seconds

•Gorge (R)

-Damage reduced from 200 (+50 per level) to 100 (+25 per level)



Here are the nerfs! ...and they're pretty underwhelming. Stitches has been a dominant farce for quite some time now, and these changes do little to... well, change that. The problem with Hook is that it's a binary skill with infinite upfront power. Its cooldown doesn't matter if it initially lands - the landing is what needs to be looked at, either through the projectile's speed, its range, or its function (Helping Hand by default like DotA's Pudge, anyone?). As for Gorge's damage reduction, good. That's all there is to say to a long targeted displacing disable. All in all, our favourite abomination is still going to see just as much play. And bans.



Thrall

•Battle Momentum (Talent) removed



•Frostwolf Resilience (Trait)

-Heal amount changed from 49 (+36 per level) to 60 (+23 per level)



•Chain Lightning (Q)

-Primary target scaling damage reduced from 17 per level to 15 per level





Such quick changes to new heroes are quite unusual. What happened here? I believe that Thrall is quite the... "pubstomper", if I may, in that he's not overly hard to play and punished misplays and limited knowledge extremely harshly. And as such, he was probably last patch's prime complaint flavor of the month, bar Stitches.



Competitively, Thrall saw some play, though not that much beyond the novelty factor. Thus, this makes it rather difficult to call how these are going to have an impact.



What I do know is that this is a ~30% late game hit to his self healing, potentially more when accounting for the fact that Battle Momentum no longer provides him with a ludicrous amount of cooldown reduction. It was overtuned, so this is warranted. As for Chain Lightning, I can only figure that they wanted Thrall to actually have to commit in melee range to deal consequential damage. Or that they just brought the spell in line with whatever internal data they use to balance stuff out, since the nerf is so small (~40 damage at level 20).





Tychus •Commandeer Odin (R)

-The functionality of Commandeer Odin has been changed significantly.

-The Odin’s Health total will now be set to Tychus’ current Health at the time that Commandeer Odin is cast.

-Tychus will now die if the Odin is destroyed while he is piloting it.

T -he Odin no longer has 50% Crowd Control reduction.

-Basic Attack Range increased by approximately 30%

-Attack Speed increased by 9%

-Basic Attack damage decreased from 70 (+20 per level) to 63 (+18 per level)

•Annihilate (Q)

-Scaling damage increased from 13 to 18 per level

•Ragnarok Missiles (W)

-This Ability’s functionality has changed.

-Target a point to damage and slow enemies in an area.

•New Ability: Thrusters (E)

-Dash in target direction

•Big Red Button (Talent)

-This Talent no longer grants Nuclear Blast (E) as a separate Ability.

Instead, Ragnarok Missiles now also launches a Nuclear Missile at the target location in addition to its other effects.





We did it! This is more or less the Odin nerf everybody was looking for. What is there to say about it? It hits harder, from farther away, and it'll kill Tychus if it dies. That makes it better than the old version in any situation where Tychus isn't being focused and gets rid of that obnoxious ugly second life bar.



Tyrael

•Cast Aside (Talent) removed



•Righteousness (W)

-Angelic Absorption (Talent)

-Moved from Level 4 to Level 13

-Healing increased from 10 (+2 per level) to 20 (+4 per level) each second for 3 seconds



•Smite (E)

-Purge Evil (Talent)

-Damage bonus decreased from 30% to 25%







There's just no justice left in the world. Cast Aside was the cornerstone of Tyrael as a viable pick, and now it's gone. Why? Apparently, it felt "too mandatory for its own good", according to our good devs. So, why not just make Cast Aside part of the base skill? Was it too confusing? If anything, they should strive to create more talents that do crazy stuff. Now, this just makes Tyrael the only tank without access to some form of crowd control outside of his heroic, a rather bleak situation since he doesn't make up for that through outstanding damage, utility or anything else, really.



Regarding Angelic Absorption, eh. It remains unimpressive, despite the buff. At level 20, we're looking at 300 points of healing over 3 seconds. Of course, being hit multiple times over the duration of the shield could refresh the buff. A best case scenario would have something strike the shield (if it manages to last that long) at the last moment for total of 700. This number could go up, considering Zealotry (100% duration bonus on Righteousness), but the likeliness of the shield lasting for its entire duration is pretty low in most team fighting situations. I suppose it'd be good in a situation where they just can't bust the shield open, such as having to focus actual threats.



Zeratul

•Executioner (Talent) removed

•Bolt of the Storm (Talent) removed



•Cleave (Q)

-Rending Cleave (Talent) moved from Level 7 to Level 16

-Void Slash (Talent) moved from Level 16 to Level 7



•Void Prison (R)

-Now pauses Capture Points (Mercenary Camps, Watchtowers, Dragon Shrines). -While paused, these points cannot be captured.





I can't say I've ever been a fan of Void Slash because its condition - being Cloaked upon use - is something that seldom occurs. Long lasting team fights don't really let you Cloak, and even then, Singularity Spike will often be what you use to initiate your attacks against something that's moving away from you. Strictly speaking of versatility, Rending Cleave is a lot better. And this is probably why their talent tiers were exchanged. That was a lot simpler than redesigning Void Slash! Anyhow, I doubt we'll ever see anyone pick up Rend' again. It competes with Double Bomb, and that's... the bomb. Especially with Rewind.



As for the Void Prison changes, well, it was fun while it lasted (for the Zeratul players, anyway). No more stealing Mercenary Camps - you'll have to work for them now.



Conclusion



I'm saddened by the number of nerfs handed out in comparison to the number buffs, a trend that isn't new to this patch. While some of the game's more blatant issues have been hammered out after what felt like too long (Brightwing, Stitches, Tychus), other unwarranted changes have fate sealed heroes that already saw very limited play (Chen, Murky, Tyrael) in some awkward attempt to get rid of mandatory talent choices. The newest level 20 talents are very interesting - if not for Rewind - in that they offer clear-cut, valid choices between defense, offense and utility. They should use these as a model for everything else!



Better dust off your Starcraft multitasking skills for our latest heroes, the Lost Vikings! Raiding the homes and stealing the women of your enemies has never been more fun. Or has it? As per usual, I'll be going over the balance patch notes and analyzing them from a competitive point of view.Since I pretty much write these as soon as notes become available, some of the meta-gaming discussion is conjectural. I'm merely gifted, not an oracle!Before this change, the only condition for the Core's invulnerability effect to go away was to destroy a Keep. Now, the condition is actually three-fold: A destroyed Fort, a destroyed Keep... and both in the same lane.What does this change?I frankly haven't seen a tournament in the game's recent history (read: the last 6 months) in which a round was ended through a straight Keep > Core kill. However, this isn't to say that I've never seen it happen. Or that it isn't likely. Some team comps were built entirely around this, with map-wide movement skill for surprise kills, however, those were killed off two patches ago with the Core buffs. I could still see Cursed Hollow or Garden of Terror games ending through this method given exceptional team fights.But, they changed it. Why?I think it was mostly just to make things a bit less confusing/frustrating for newer players. Imagine defending a Fort all game (because that's what the game promotes!), and then somehow losing from behind it. I suppose it just wouldn't really make any sense.That's a pretty unforeseen nerf to Murky, who is intended to well, die a lot, by design. However, Gathering Power was nerfed a bit, which could theoretically compensate for that. And to be fair, Murky probably has a lot more to worry about right now. More on that further down…And you'll be missed by approximately no one. The choice had some potentially interesting applications in terms of late game objective control and game ending threats, but not enough heroes that mattered had this choice in the first place.Dear Rewind,You break certain heroes. The talent bred some notorious hate for anything that had skill-based burst damage (Nova) and crowd control machines (Anub'arak, Brightwing, Muradin). Nova and Anub'arak lost the choice for evident reasons, and now, they have it back - it just competes with other level 20 choices. Brightwing, Malfurion, Muradin and Tyrande were essentially "nerfed" in that regard, simply due to the fact that they don't get to pick it up as early, if so desired. Arthas Murky, Tassadar, Rehgar and Zeratul (!) are the boys who will get to experiment with it because they've never had access to it.Let's talk about how the talent might impact everyone:More crowd control, more mobility, more shields. What's not to love? We know the talent was a strong pick on our Crypt Lord friend, and it will remain as such. I'd rate it over the new Hardened Shield because all of Anub'arak's skills directly or indirectly provide survivability (and more!), and for your team as well.Doesn't do anything for Frozen Tempest (toggled skills can't be reset), but the prospect of rooting a target for 3 seconds or healing twice with Death Coil is at least mildly interesting. However, I can't really see that compete with an extra ~1500 health from Army of the Dead, the ridiculously good team-wide freeze from Sindragosa, or the so-darn-reliable new Hardened Shield.Oh god, it's back. What hurts more than one Snipe? Two of them. However, now that the talent competes with Nova's extremely good level 20 talent choices, I have my doubts as to whether we'll see her pick that up. Bolt of the Storm on an escape-less hero and the potential to be using your heroic skill twice (or more, given lucky Triple Taps!) just can't be denied.Poor druid. Rewind has just always been awful for him. Moonfire already has a 3 seconds cooldown, so its damage and utility are tuned around that - it's not worth resetting. Regrowth has a pitiful instant healing effect, and the bulk of its power comes from the healing over time effect, so resetting that is rather bad as well. And then, we have Entangling Roots. A skill which, you'd think, could do outstanding work with Rewind. Until you realize that, being a debuff (as opposed to an area-based effect), you can't use it to root something that's already rooted, making it less-than-convenient to use, timing wise.An unfortunate level 13 loss for our dwarven friend, the talent now competes with other solid choices that drastically improve his heroic skills. Two stuns, two jumps, two claps... the talent will always be good for Muradin, he just gets to use it way too late. I have to note, however, that I'd love to use Thunderstrike (300% damage Thunder Clap damage against an isolated target) with it now. That's about the only highlight of this change.I don't think anyone could predict that one, but here we are - Rewind Murky. Both Never-Ending Murlocs, and ...and a Shark Too! are extremely strong talent picks, so does Rewind have any potential here? It somewhat does - Slime deals three times more damage to already-Slimed targets, Pufferfish could potentially be used twice and followed up by an Octo-Grab (though that would feel clunky, due to the latter's casting time) and more Bubbles means more annoying. We'll need some Murky mains (I know you exist...) to experiment for us here.That's another strange one. I could discuss in lengths how Psionic Storm isn't too great to cast twice (he can already do it!), how shields are always nice, how Dimensional Shift provides oh-so-much survivability when talented, and so on... But that would mean that there's be a sliver of hope for Rewind to ever compete with Twilight Archon. There are none.And yet another surprise. Given that Rehgar's level 20 is less-than-impressive (Storm Shield is good, don't get me wrong), and given that his basic skills are pretty good themselves, we have a solid choice here. Chain Heal has a tonne of raw healing power, Lightning Shield's Earth Shield is a must pick, and Earthbind is the God of Kiting. All of these are on relatively long cooldowns, too, so you just get really good value out of Rewind.Yikes. Just when we thought that Nova had ridiculous burst, Zeratul is given the option of quadra-Bombing-double-Cleaving and, of course, using Blink twice - which is more or less like also getting a half Bolt of the Storm extra talent. I can tell that this will cause a lot of frustration, although pulling off a perfect combo may be more difficult than it sounds, especially against players with twitchy fingers (and escape skills).To put a 20% slow into perspective, it's about the amount you need to have perfect attack up-time on something that's directly running away. If you've ever been chased by a Tenderizer-Stitches, you'll know how miserable that feeling of helplessness is. It's worth mentioning that the 20% increase in attack damage is actually added to the hero's base attack damage, making it multiplicative with effects such as Life Leeching, Seasoned Marksman, Marked for Death, Sweeping Strike, Searing Attacks, Wrath of the Berserker, Blade of Justice, Assassin's Blade, and so on. Which is great for that late-game scaling of our melee assassins.I suspect this Talent to be solid competitors for Bolt of the Storm for Illidan (especially outstanding here), Sonya and Thrall. Just be careful, right?And here's our ranged assassin equivalent to Nexus Blades. Don't feel like you'll need Bolt either? For Raynor and Valla, this is THE prime offensive pick. I mean, you get to deal more damage from a safer distance? What's not to love! As for Hammer and Tychus, the choice is harder. Advanced Lava Strike, Orbital BFG, Big Red Button and Focusing Diodes have always been outstanding choices for their corresponding heroic skills. It'll really come down for personal preference here, though builds including Giant Killer would most certainly benefit from the range and attack speed.Please, don't get this on Jaina. The fact that she even gets access to this talent is a pretty big blunder on Blizzard's part, showing a pretty clear disconnection with the hero's play-style.Tanks (and Gazlowe), rejoice moderately! Simply put, we're talking about four seconds of figurative invulnerability. This is obviously nothing to scoff at, though it'll require some very good timing and knowledge from the user's part (unlike the two former choices) to fully benefit. It's hard to tell, as of right now, if this talent is good enough to compete with other level 20 choices. It's not that it's bad in itself, but 60 seconds is a long time to wait in the late game, and good players have a tendency to try and avoid focusing tanks when they can.Now, don't get confused by the tooltip like your boy Oxy did - the 200 extra damage will be dealt to ANYTHING (including heroes and structures) that you hit. Then, 500 damage will be dealt to any minion or mercenary around (a circle about the size of Void Prison) whatever you hit.And so, what's the deal with this? It makes dealing with minions and lane mercenaries a non-issue. It gives you a tiny bit of extra damage for team fights, and unimpressively shines when it comes down to poking and sieging. The problem is getting there - by picking a talent that contributes very little to team fighting (or staying alive - hello Bolt!), you rely on either an already outstanding team fighting composition, or a crushing lead (and in both cases, you probably already won). The talent just comes off as a "win-more" pick to me.A Big nerf to the small MULE. Not much to say here - it'll heal less and restore about the same amount of ammo it used to over a shorter duration. The healing being the important part, of course, because ammo is by design expandable and replenishes, whereas health doesn't, and the former won't hand out a bunch of experience once it runs out. Plus, running two of them isn't going to be nearly as useful as it used to be.Why the change? Speeding up games is my guess.Gathering Power has been a must-pick talent for anyone that can get it ever since its introduction. Given that the general theme of this patch was to kill such talents, it isn't surprising to see it being nerfed. It still remains a prime pick for anyone but the odd attack-damage-centered Falstad player.In the Jaina patch analysis, I discussed how talents were meant to feel like they could pay off instantly, with the Conjurer's Pursuit changes. Well, this right here falls into that line of thought. Not a huge change by any means, especially given Regen Master's relative unpopularity, but a good one from a design standpoint.It's quickly became clear that Abathur's Monstrosity heroic wasn't fulfilling its split-pushing role as well as it was intended to. It just came off as a glorified minion, but the damage and health buffs, combined with the new significant PvE damage reduction should make it an actual threat. Right...? Here's to hoping!I have to admit that I'm rather shocked to see these for Anub'arak. He hasn't seen any serious play since his December round of nerfs, and yet, here we are again. Locust Needles is a horribly misplaced talent (Anub isn't exactly the boss of attack damage, plus it competes with the outstanding Underking), so any buffing to it is meaningless. The Impale stun reduction hurts, the Burrow Charge cooldown nerf hurts, and the Carapace duration increase (in exchange of a Plating nerf) is ill-advised - that thing usually breaks before it expires! Anub is already touted as the squishiest of tanks, is seeing abysmal pick rates, so I just don't understand what's going on here.Regarding Web Blast: The heroic skill's potential - when you somehow deemed wise to skip Locust Swarm - came from the skill's really short cooldown. Its role? To punish rotational mistakes to let your team collapse on isolated targets and to instantly interrupt strong channeled skills. The cocoon isn't hard at all to break, and as such, an increased duration is essentially an overkill here. The trade-off of the increased cooldown is obviously undesirable given the underlined strengths of the skill. Bleh.Woah, alright. That's a lot of changes. Let's go over the main notable stuff., Envenom is gone, making Arthas lose his status as only tank with that talent choice. Good., Rune Tap was nerfed for the third time, giving him less passive sustain. Good., his mana costs were shuffled around. In a nutshell, you have to toggle Frozen Tempest off every once in a while now. Good., Sindragosa has a reduced cooldown and offers more control. Good., Army of the Dead has an increased cooldown heals for less. Good.So, what were the issues with Arthas? Simply put, too much early game strength and too much self-healing. Both of which have been appropriately thumped by the nerf hammer. It's unlike me to be satisfied with anything, ever, but I might have to change my stance here.Good night, sweet prince. After nearly 10 months of nearly uncontested dominance, you have finally been dethroned. But, who may don the crown now? Stitches?Next on the nerfing list is Brokenwing. Most of these changes are self-explanatory. Our favourite Faerie Dragon's outrageously high healing output was barely touched, but almost everything else saw bigger changes. It's pretty rare nowadays to see changes to anyone's health (because that entails a lot more than it seems), but here we are, with a ~5% reduction. Another big change: A 50% increase (15 seconds) on Phase Shift's cooldown makes Brightwing that much less of a map-wide threat. But the biggest of it all is the bumping of Rewind to the level 20 tier. This means no more double Polymorphing and that much less potential burst healing from Regenerative Rains. Last but not least, Pixie Dust now only blocks one attack. Perhaps it'll be possible to positively trade with a Brightwing lane now!Let's summarize this awful wall of text: Rest in peace, panda.As if last patch's Storm, Earth, Fire nerfs hadn't been enough, we're now seeing Chen's best talentsin higher tiers and in a position where they have towith each other. Blizzard's justification for this? "No talent should ever be the clear-cut choice."The problem here is that Chen lacks appealing talent choices. A bit of increased duration here, a bit of slow there, and arbitrary damage and range increases don't exactly make for the most exciting of tiers. The talents that used to make Chen a viable pick (Pressure Point, Bolder Flavor, Combination Attack) now all sit at level 16 instead of their respective 4 and 7 for the former two. Pressure Point no longer roots (thus allowing escape skills to function) and Combination Attack provides half the damage bonus it once did. Never mind every other change - Chen now lies as a prime example of how the talent system can actually go wrong. Reaching talent-granting tiers should make players excited. You should look forward to these, and Chen's really don't do it.I'd like to make a quick note regarding Elemental Conduit: It was quite possibly one of the worst level 20 talent in the game, and this "buff" does very little to correct this. Why? The summoned pandas are, for the most part, very bad. Over their entire duration, Storm, Earth and Fire each respectively deal 650, 160 and 190 damage. Storm isn't actually too shabby, partly because it had 4 times the potential of other summons and partly because it has a ranged attack, but the two other summons are not only insignificantly weak, but also can they be kited, limiting their damage even more.I don't know what data was used to justify these changes, but I don't like em' one bit.These aren't buffs - aside from the attack damage increase, which makes Diablo the hardest hitting tank, by the way! - as much as quality of life (read: less clunkiness) changes. These were certainly both expected and awaited for. Unfortunately, Shadow Charge appears to not knock heroes back nearly as far (about 50% less) as the skill's range indicator arrow suggests, making the game lie to you and the wall stun condition nearly impossible to meet. Another issue is that this is putting off the rework that was announced some time ago.Anyhow, what of this? Will Dibbles see more play? Yeah, I think so. He's pretty solid in an aggressively roaming composition and his ultimate choices are flexible and always devastating.Oh no!Okay, let's expand a bit more about the removal of Executioner (which also affects Zeratul, mind you). Melee assassins are getting that Nexus Blade talent choice at level 20 which we've talked about earlier. Combined with Executioner, that thing would boost your damage against anything you'd attack by a whopping ~60%. Passively. We can't have that.As for Kerrigan's other changes? Meh. Siphoning Impact doesn't work in conjunction with Adaptation (jumping to allies at half cooldown) and still heals for too little with a cool down that's too long to really make an impact, even despite the reset clause. Impaling Blades deal 15 less damage early on, and about 15 more later on, which is completely insignificant. Psionic Pulse isn't even a real talent in a world where Envenom and Fury of the Swarm exist, both dealing more single target and area of effect damage, respectively, with Fury also synergizing with Battle Momentum.Oh yeah, how could I forget? She lost Rewind, and doesn't even get to pick it up at 20. Ouch. Yes, it was arguably broken on her. Still, I'm surprised she wasn't given something else to make up for that a bit.Gathering Power was awesome on Murky. Awesome in the sense that it allowed him to actually put out some damage, and without the usual risks associated with the talent. But that is no more. In fact, Murky is no more. Slimy Pufferfish was core to initiating a Slime chain, the bulk of his sustained damage. It now comes much later into the game for a hero that was broadly recognized as one of the weakest in the early stages of the game, competing with the ever-so-important Rejuvenating Bubble. The latter which was nerfed by 50%. Like, I'm shocked. How hard can you kick Murky while he's down?Let's talk about the Spawn Egg changes. According to the devs, the skill's cooldown reduction is to "encourage aggressive use of the egg". This change unfortunately shows a deep disconnection with the speed at which players actually deal with the egg. It's not exactly hard to see where Murky rides from when he revives. This issue only further compounds by the fact that the egg's collision is about twice as large as the egg itself, making it hard to hide. Not that there are many places to even hide it in the first place. Point being: This doesn't change much at all, besides giving a larger window of vulnerability when the egg gets killed.Some of the most misguided changes in this entire patch.There's too much to say about our boy Jimmy Ray. That'll be for a separate article!So, Earthgrasp Totem is getting the Pressure Point treatment. While being slowed by such an amount is essentially the same as being rooted, mechanically, the talent no longer function as a root for the purpose of preventing the use of mobility skills. This is just a big ol' nerf to a talent that gave Earthbind an extremely interesting dual purpose, and that's a shame. Fortunately for Rehgar, he's considered the top support pick as of this patch, independently of this change.Bullhead Mines were fun... but only when you were the Hammer player. Anything that can cause a character to be uncontrollably pushed around needs serious reconsideration, and Bullheads were a prime example of this, especially when combined with Mine Field.Is the talent still useful? I doubt it, even if the new effect is "stronger". The staggered effect is what made this useful in the first place.That's a lot of text to basically say this: Slam and attacks deal some more attack damage. Wrath of the Berserker gives more damage. Fury costs and generation approximately doubled. What does it mean? A lot less downtime, for one - your fury bar is a roller coaster that replenishes quickly and empties just as quickly. That's some fun stuff. Two, if you're fury starved, your basic attack feels a lot more rewarding.Will Sonya see some play? It's hard to tell. None of these changes are necessarily buffs, however, in the current meta, there might be a place for her.Here are the nerfs! ...and they're pretty underwhelming. Stitches has been a dominant farce for quite some time now, and these changes do little to... well, change that. The problem with Hook is that it's a binary skill with infinite upfront power. Its cooldown doesn't matter if it initially lands - the landing is what needs to be looked at, either through the projectile's speed, its range, or its function (Helping Hand by default like DotA's Pudge, anyone?). As for Gorge's damage reduction, good. That's all there is to say to a long targeted displacing disable. All in all, our favourite abomination is still going to see just as much play. And bans.Such quick changes to new heroes are quite unusual. What happened here? I believe that Thrall is quite the... "pubstomper", if I may, in that he's not overly hard to play and punished misplays and limited knowledge extremely harshly. And as such, he was probably last patch's prime complaint flavor of the month, bar Stitches.Competitively, Thrall saw some play, though not that much beyond the novelty factor. Thus, this makes it rather difficult to call how these are going to have an impact.What I do know is that this is a ~30% late game hit to his self healing, potentially more when accounting for the fact that Battle Momentum no longer provides him with a ludicrous amount of cooldown reduction. It was overtuned, so this is warranted. As for Chain Lightning, I can only figure that they wanted Thrall to actually have to commit in melee range to deal consequential damage. Or that they just brought the spell in line with whatever internal data they use to balance stuff out, since the nerf is so small (~40 damage at level 20).We did it! This is more or less the Odin nerf everybody was looking for. What is there to say about it? It hits harder, from farther away, and it'll kill Tychus if it dies. That makes it better than the old version in any situation where Tychus isn't being focused and gets rid of that obnoxious ugly second life bar.There's just no justice left in the world. Cast Aside was the cornerstone of Tyrael as a viable pick, and now it's gone. Why? Apparently, it felt "too mandatory for its own good", according to our good devs. So, why not just make Cast Aside part of the base skill? Was it too confusing? If anything, they should strive to create more talents that do crazy stuff. Now, this just makes Tyrael the only tank without access to some form of crowd control outside of his heroic, a rather bleak situation since he doesn't make up for that through outstanding damage, utility or anything else, really.Regarding Angelic Absorption, eh. It remains unimpressive, despite the buff. At level 20, we're looking at 300 points of healing over 3 seconds. Of course, being hit multiple times over the duration of the shield could refresh the buff. A best case scenario would have something strike the shield (if it manages to last that long) at the last moment for total of 700. This number could go up, considering Zealotry (100% duration bonus on Righteousness), but the likeliness of the shield lasting for its entire duration is pretty low in most team fighting situations. I suppose it'd be good in a situation where they just can't bust the shield open, such as having to focus actual threats.I can't say I've ever been a fan of Void Slash because its condition - being Cloaked upon use - is something that seldom occurs. Long lasting team fights don't really let you Cloak, and even then, Singularity Spike will often be what you use to initiate your attacks against something that's moving away from you. Strictly speaking of versatility, Rending Cleave is a lot better. And this is probably why their talent tiers were exchanged. That was a lot simpler than redesigning Void Slash! Anyhow, I doubt we'll ever see anyone pick up Rend' again. It competes with Double Bomb, and that's... the bomb. Especially with Rewind.As for the Void Prison changes, well, it was fun while it lasted (for the Zeratul players, anyway). No more stealing Mercenary Camps - you'll have to work for them now.I'm saddened by the number of nerfs handed out in comparison to the number buffs, a trend that isn't new to this patch. While some of the game's more blatant issues have been hammered out after what felt like too long (Brightwing, Stitches, Tychus), other unwarranted changes have fate sealed heroes that already saw very limited play (Chen, Murky, Tyrael) in some awkward attempt to get rid of mandatory talent choices. The newest level 20 talents are very interesting - if not for Rewind - in that they offer clear-cut, valid choices between defense, offense and utility. They should use these as a model for everything else! Graphics @shiroiusagi_ | shiroiusagi.net