(banner courtesy of /u/Somber99 Hello again! After each balance patch, I've taken it upon myself to track how the balance changes have affected the Nexus. It's become something of a habit for me, and I thought it might be fun to share my data with the community.In case you've forgotten what changed in the last patch, here's a link All data provided in this post was collected from Hotslogs , which is a database of player-submitted games. Data was collected between 3:30 PM and 4:30 PM EST each day, using the special filter "Last 7 Days (Current Build)" and focusing exclusively on Hero League data (with the exception of heroes like Cho'Gall, whose unique nature requires pulling data from Team League). As usual, keep in mind that my numbers may differ slightly from Hotslogs's "official" figures as the site regularly updates older information as more games are added. Therefore, our data may not match up perfectly, but it should give a generally accurate view of how the week progressed. Here is a link to the spreadsheet with the data I've collected. The spreadsheet contains all of my original data, split into two categories: "Composite" (which represents all data across the entire week) and "Daily" (which represents data from each individual day). It also contains a number of graphs showing how each hero is performing in both win rate and popularity. If you'd prefer a summarized report, read on!Remember, only the heroes whose win rates are highlighted blue/orange with white text have exceeded their margin of error.Note that the error column assumes a 95% confidence interval. To put it simply, a 95% confidence interval is a numerical way to measure whether the win rate has changed in any significant way. If the change to a win rate exceeds the error, then we can assume that there is approximately a 95% chance that the win rate has changed.Win rates are shown as a bar indicating their relative distance from 50%. Blue bars shown above the line are win rates that are above 50%, and orange bars below the line show win rates that are below 50%. This gives a visual representation of how the win rate has changed each day. The final column splits the pick rate and ban rate into blue and orange sections, respectively, to show their overall influence on the popularity. The bar above is the original popularity, and the bar below represents the popularity after the designated period.The seven-day analysis is below. Please note that while I try to cover all heroes, not all heroes are in need of in-depth analysis of their changes, so some heroes may have short summaries or may even be omitted entirely. Also, be aware that the contents of this section are primarily my own opinion of the changes, albeit backed with data. If you disagree, feel free to explain why in the comments below.In HGC Week 1 across NA/EU/KR, Johanna was picked or banned about 59% of the time. This placed her second among tanks, only losing out to Blaze (who was more frequently drafted as an off-lane). And this was on the patch right before this one, in which her health was considerably lower. With these new buffs, it is entirely possible that Johanna will be taking the position of top tank in the HGC.Zagara's early spike in win rate has disappeared, leaving the impression of those first 48 hours being nothing more than a false positive. But with her win rate now falling within the margin of error, it's no longer possible to determine if the patch has affected her at all. The only way we'll know for sure is if we see further nerfs in a new patch. As for Nazeebo, his nerfs have dropped him slightly beyond the margin of error, suggesting a measurable decrease in win rate. Both heroes received nerfs to combat their steady increases in win rate over the last few weeks, and will hopefully feel a bit better to face off against now.Fenix was the 8th most popular hero in HGC Week 1 across NA/EU/KR with a 57% pick/ban rate. While seemingly not as big of a priority as Blaze, his raw power and wave clear make him a strong secondary choice in that role. These nerfs target his scaling, which tended to make him a solid generalist pick for late game power, so we'll have to see if this change reduces the pros' emphasis on him, or if his continued strength in wave clear allows him to stick around.Tracer's changes are now the third straight patch to nerf her since the normalization changes in March. Despite prior nerfs, her popularity in the HGC during Week 1 ranked her 4th overall at a 80% pick/ban. It seems that almost nothing can keep Tracer down for very long, as she remains a top selection among assassins, with the brothers Shimada keeping pace. It is becoming increasingly concerning that, despite the best efforts of the team to normalize these heroes, these three remain outliers that continue to perform exceedingly well at the highest levels of play, while their Hero League performance is all over the place (very poor for the Shimada Bros, but very good for Tracer). If this third attempt to nerf her doesn't drive her pick rate down much in professional play, what will the devs' next moves be?There can be no denying Rehgar's considerable increase in win rate in HL, and it has definitely improved how he feels in my own experience. But what about Ancestral? To date, it remains the most popular and successful heroic choice, at 90.9% PR and 52.1% WR (compared to Bloodlust's 9.1% PR and 52.7% WR). However, the 20% reduction of Ancestral's strength could end up being a very big dealbreaker in the professional scene, where Rehgar is often used for that clutch healing strength to save his allies. With Kharazim on the rise in the HGC (46% pick/ban) as an alternative healer who can also dive and save team mates in a similar fashion to Rehgar, will the church of Rehgar rise again, or will this reduction in playmaking strength push him further away from the HGC? We'll have to see in the coming weeks.Her win rate change seems tame enough for Hero League play at 50.5%, but once again, the professional scene has an effect on the proceedings here. Yrel had a 3-0 record over the previous week of HGC play. Two of those games featured Jonathan "Wubby" Gunnarsson on our favorite space goat, and he really showcased her potential as a powerful objective bully who is very difficult to chase away. Now it's true that Wubby could take just about any hero and make it look good in the off-lane, but these games do force us to consider the possibility that Yrel is about to become a very prominent hero in the HGC. If she was able to be this effective while still in a pre-buff state, how monstrous might she be now?Looking for more of my work? I recently finished an article discussing Deckard Cain's use in the HGC Mid-Season Brawl. That article is located here. Feel free to let me know your thoughts to this article in the comments section below, or on Twitter at my handle @CriticKitten . I look forward to your replies!Hope to see you again next time!