1. Deaths are more costly
When you die, getting back to a lane or battleground objective wiill take longer. While the change is slight, the difference between securing an objective and losing is usually a matter of seconds, so every kill during a Cursed Hallow or Towers of Doom altar battle is more impactful.
2. Rotations carry risk
When it takes longer to travel to a lane, rotations carry a heavier chance of going wrong. Since there will be more time spent in transit, the enemy team can prepare for you, making rotations less likely to have a positive effect. Since transit takes more time , non-ganking heroes will gain more time to soak and push lanes. However slight, it all adds up, which leads me to our next point...
3. Specialists gain value
When the opposing team rotates, it’s now more likely you can react before they get to you. At the same time, Specialists thrive on solo-laning, making it even more risky for the enemy team to ignore you. This could cause sustain heroes and Specialists to rise in priority during drafts.
4. Globals gain more value
Since travel will take more time, globals that allow you to travel between lanes quickly or let you be in two places at once all gain more value. All of the following are examples of that potential advantage:
- Zagara’s Nydus Network
- Falstad’s Flight and Tailwind trait
- Abathur’s Deep Tunnel, Evolve Monstrosity, and Symbiote
- Lost Vikings’ Triple Trouble
- Brightwing’s Phase Shift trait
- Azmodan’s global Globes of Annihilation and Generals of Hell
- Dehaka’s Brushstalker mount
Some abilities you might not have thought of will have extra value, such as:
- Diablo’s Black Soulstone,
- Medic’s Medivac Dropship
- E.T.C.’s Stage Dive
- Johanna’s Falling Sword
- Illidan’s The Hunt
- Sgt. Hammer’s Hyper-Cooling Engines
- Abathur’s mines (dismounting & vision)
5. Vision becomes slightly more valuable
When enemy Heroes move slower around the battleground, each time you spot them, it's a little more valuable. Moving slower means they will stay in the same area for longer, giving you more time to react to their movement. It all boils down to travel being more of a time investment, so anything that punishes rotations, like vision, gains value.
6. Camps and camp timing takes on added value
If you pick up mercenaries, the enemy team has to make a commitment to do something about it. If you take the camp opposite of the objective right as it’s spawning, the opposing team is faced with a travel problem.
It’s a catch-22. Since travel takes longer, going the opposite direction means an even longer time to get back and stop a mercenary push. If the enemy team stays to clear up the mercenaries first, they’ll be extra late to the objective. This has always been the case, but now it's even more punishing.
7. Sustain becomes more valuable
Heroes like Auriel, Illidan, Chen, Cho-Gall, Gul’dan, Murky, to go up in value because they can simply stay longer in lane or in fight. Even heroes like Thrall, Kael’thas, and Lunara have some mana sustain talents, which also become more valuable; all because it will take longer to travel back from base after hearthing.
Wrapping up
With two new battlegrounds and this mount speed change, Heroes has changed. It's safe to expect a shift in the meta and possibly a different approach to rotations, early game laning, and mercenary camps. Blizzard's new Nexus Games and Arcane8's Bloodlust will be the first tournaments to showcase the Machines of War patch changes and, until then, we can only speculate on how they might affect the competitive meta.
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