Malthael

Hi there, ChaosOS again. Patch 26.3 had a lot going on with not all the changes being together. If you want to read about Stukov go to yesterday's post here and if you want to know about the "white text" changes check out last week's post here (These cover). Today we're going over the "orange text" changes, the balance changes that did not make it to last week's PTR.The spreadsheet of the day can be found here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1xKfC6C70_wFl-cANEx3zsVwej9jHBbgFiwbUYyVOXzI/edit?usp=sharing

TL;DR Significant nerf to both damage and survivability, but he was so strong before he's probably still good

Change

Reaper’s Mark (Trait)

Damage reduced from 2.5% to 2.25%

Analysis

2.5 to 2.25% is a 10% damage nerf. This changes the total mark damage from 10% with one application to 9%. With black harvest completed it goes from 15% to 13.5% of max HP. Memento Mori was also affected by this nerf, changed from 4.5% of max HP to 4.05% of max HP. This makes Memento Mori increase the damage by (4.05-2.25)=1.8% instead of (4.5-2.5)=2%. This reduces the damage the “Single application with Black Harvest” damage from 19% to 17.1% damage.

The important question at 16 now is, with all the nerfs to Memento Mori, does Soul Rip sometimes provide more damage? Soul Rip has a base damage of 100, which scales up to 219 at level 20. With a base CD of 2 seconds this is 109.5 DPS. Soul Rip increases this to (219/1.5)=146 DPS, or an improvement of 36.5 DPS. Memento Mori is still an 80 to 90% damage increase over Soul Rip, but with the narrowing of the gap it may be preferable to increase Malthael’s sustain over his damage.

Change

Abillities

Tormented Souls (R) Armor reduced from 20 to 10



Talents

​ Level 13 Ethereal Existence (Trait) Maximum Physical Armor reduced from 50 to 40



Analysis

The armor changes can be best summarized by the table below

Heroes affected Old New EHP Decrease 0 20 10 11.11% 1 30 20 12.50% 2 40 30 14.29% 3 50 40 16.67% 4 60 50 20.00% 5 70 50 40.00%

Overall the nerfs are a ~15% nerf to Malthael’s physical EHP, and a ~11% nerf to his spell EHP. This is probably enough to bring Malthael down to a reasonable level and out of his first ban status. Ethereal Existence is still a powerful talent but it is unlikely we will see plays like Grubby's 1v5 continue to happen.

Tyrande

TL;DR She’s still a squishy ranged hero with no mobility, but ~6% buff to dps and healing

Change

Stats

Basic Attacks per second increased from 1.25 to 1.33

Analysis

This is the most significant change out of all the Tyrande changes. 1.25 AS (0.8 attack period) to 1.33 AS (0.75 attack period) is a 6.4% increase in DPS. Check out the spreadsheet for the breakdown of how the attack speed exactly affects her cooldowns, but in short you still need 5 attacks to get back your Light of Elune (4 with Moonlit Arrows at 4). This buff doesn’t do anything for the many situations where Tyrande is not able to consistently AA and gain value on her built-in battle momentum.

Change

Level 13

Quickening Blessing (Q) Movement Speed increased from 25 to 30%



Analysis

Quickening Blessing being buffed to 30% makes it give full mount speed rather than being just a bit slower. Moving from 125% movespeed to 130% movespeed is a 4% increase in the distance covered during the duration. From the UnitData.xml file, base movespeed is 4.3984 units per second, so a 30% bonus for one second is 1.31952 units, and for the full duration of 3 seconds is 3.95856 additional units covered. This is up from 1.0996 additional units covered in one second, and 3.2988 additional units covered in three seconds. The difference of 0.6598 may not be much, but may be the difference between a successful and failed chase.

Change

Level 16

Mark of Mending (D) Heal amount while a target is Marked reduced from 3 to 2% of attacker’s maximum health

Elune’s Chosen (Active) Cooldown reduced from 40 to 30 seconds



Analysis

The level 16 changes seem to be intended to even out the tier. Mark of Mending sees a 33% nerf to the healing a team receives from hitting a marked target, while Elune’s Chosen gets a mostly irrelevant cooldown buff. It is unlikely that Tyrande will get the opportunity to use a 30 second cooldown twice in a fight, so this buff is irrelevant. The 33% nerf makes it more likely that Elune’s Chosen or Overflowing light can be competitive with Mark of Mending. As it stands (level 20 numbers), Mark of Mending was cut from ~150 HPS per target attacking the marked target to ~100 HPS per target attacking the marked target. Overflowing Light’s HPS increase is consistent, but only applies to a single target and shuts off if Tyrande is focused, while Mark of Mending provides 92.7 HPS to Tyrande at all times. Elune’s Chosen suffers from ease of use issues but in an ideal situation provides a large amount of healing.

Anub’arak

Change

Stats

Basic Attack damage reduced from 95 to 91

Base Maximum Health reduced from 2003 to 1925

Analysis

These base stat nerfs will impact Anub’arak’s overall winrate indiscriminately. The attack damage nerf is at 4.2% damage nerf, while the base maximum health nerf is a 3.9% decrease. This base health decrease cements Anub’arak as the tank with the lowest base HP, with the next tank on the list being Johanna at 2179, who has 13% more HP than Anub’arak. Johanna and Anub’arak’s survivability look remarkably similar, with both heroes featuring an active self-shield and having a significant amount of armor to make their HP go farther.

The base HP nerf does not tell the full story of Anub’arak’s survivability. Factoring in his Harden Carapace ability, which adds 315 HP to Anub’arak. This changes his HP from (2003+315)=2318 to (1925+315)=2240, a 3.36% decrease. Adding in the 345 point shield granted by Subterranean Shield at level 7, this changes Anub’arak’s HP from (2318+345)=2663 to (2240+345)=2585, a 3% decrease.

The base damage nerf affects Anub’arak’s Acid Drenched Mandibles talent at level 13, which functions as a unique version of executioner. Acid drenched mandibles now adds (91*.7)=63.7 base damage per basic attack rather than (95*.7)=66.5. Anub’arak’s attack speed is 1.0 so those are also the “Base DPS added numbers”. Comparitively, Burning Rage provides 23 damage per second against each nearby enemy, and Urticating Spines shoots out for 160 (80 vs. no heroes) damage with every cast of Harden Carapace. Assuming Anub’arak also took the Chitinous Plating talent at level 7 (and is getting max value from it), 160 damage every 4 seconds works out to 40 damage per second. This damage is more bursty and more controllable than Burning Rage, but is significantly worse for wave clear. In the end, Anub’arak’s level 13 talent tier still has Acid Drenched Mandibles as a go-to for additional single target damage, Urticating Spines for AOE teamfight damage, and Burning Rage can add much-needed wave clear if necessary.

Change

Locust Swarm (R)

Damage increased from 50 to 62

Heal increased from 17 to 21

Duration reduced from 8 to 6 seconds

Analysis

First, to understand Locust Swarm, know that it ticks twice per second. Thus, the damage was increased from 100 damage per second to 124 damage per second, a 24% increase. The healing was increased from 34 per target per second to 42 per target per second, a ~23.5% increase. The duration cut was a 25% nerf. The total damage changed from (100*8)=800 per target to (124*6)=744, a 7% cut, while the total healing changed from (34*8)=272 per target to (42*6)=252 per target, a ~7.5% cut. Overall this should be a buff to Locust Swarm though, as you often could not take full advantage of the duration and would have to leave a fight before the 8 seconds was up. By concentrating the healing and the damage Anub’arak will be more able to sustain and survive in a crowded teamfight.

Change

Cocoon (R)

Range reduced from 9 to 6

Missile Speed reduced by 33%

Analysis

Cocoon’s range decrease was a 33% nerf coupled with a 33% decrease in the speed. Going through the XML files, the old projectile speed was 30 units per second while the new one is 20 units per second. Because the projectile speed and max range were both reduced by the same percentage, a max range cocoon on both patches would take (9/30 and 6/20)=0.3 seconds to reach its target. Cocoon has a 0.2 second cast intro time, so a max range cocoon gives you up to an entire half second to react. However, a more accurate way to look at this is by how long a 6 range cocoon takes. Previously you only had (6/30+0.2)=0.4 seconds, so the speed decrease gives you 25% longer to react. Given the proficiency players such as Bakery show in clips like this, the additional 1 tenth of a second will result in many more clips like this. The range nerf will bring it in line as a point and click initiation spell, usually forcing Anub'arak to burrow charge in first to get in range for Cocoon rather than using cocoon and saving Burrow Charge for the rest of the enemy team.

Change

Level 16

Epicenter (E) Bonus area reduced from 85 to 60%



Analysis

Burrow charge has a base impact radius of 1.75 according to AnubarakData.xml. 85% added radius increases this number to 3.2375, while 60% added radius only increases this to 2.8. In terms of added area, ((2.8^2*pi)/(3.2375^2*pi)) is a ~25% decrease in area, even though the talent change is only a (1.6/1.85)=~14% decrease in radius

Final Thoughts

These balance changes continue Blizzard's recent trend of considered, conservative balance changes. Malthael seems to be dethroned from his first ban status, Tyrande is a little bit more effective, and Anub'arak saw some key changes to his ability to lockdown and isolate enemy teams.