Having played several games with and against the updated heroes on the PTR, I've come across several items of note that may or may not have real impact when it goes live.
Warhead Junction
As should be obvious to most, the map is HUGE. That means that the recent reduction in mount speed will have real impact in terms of getting where you need to go. That also means The Lost Vikings are ridiculously good. Every game I've played with and against the Vikings has been a complete ROFLstomp for whichever team has had them. Their soaking capacity often leads to a 2- or 3-level lead and all three of them are able to pick up the warheads, so when a 4-drop occurs, you'll often see the Vikings' side with 3 of them because it's so easy for them to slip in and pick one up even after you've scared them off because of Go Go Go!
Junction's mercs are the same as Braxis Holdout's. However, the boss is different. There are two of them, at the very top of the map and in the bottom third. Conversely to Braxis, the Junction bosses do less damage and in a wide area but have far more health. There are also fewer chokepoints, except around the center watchtower/point, the vision of which will be quite important for once, given the unusual size of the map.
The warheads spawn in groups of 2 and 4 and it's a 4-second channel to pick one up, either from the original drop point or where one is dropped by a dead hero. It's a 1-second channel to aim them and you can then walk away. The warheads do massive damage to structures (at level 4, they won't even take down a front wall, but at level 16, they'll wipe out a fort) and up to 25% of a hero's health, so dropping them on a team fight might have value if your opponents are overeager to stay in melee range. They're coded as auto-attacks, interestingly, so Blind and Block impact their damage (not sure if this is a bug or not.)
The Brewmaster has arrived.
Chen is the current terror of the PTR, as probably many long-time Chen players (like me) are eager to try out his new, focused gameplay. This is the build I've used for several of my games. The key elements are Deadly Strike at level 4, since it lets you maximize Brewmaster's Balance after a single combo (Q, W, E) since you'll be at 50 Brew with the free Kick, and, yes, Balance still seems to be the go-to talent at level 7. Bolder Flavor and Refreshing Elixir aren't bad, though. I have tried Flavor combined with the quest reward of Freshest Ingredients and his durability becomes even more ridiculous.
I like the new Storm, Earth, Fire, but the barrel still fits my style. Late in the game, the combination of Another Round and Stormstout Secret Recipe further adds to that durability. I've seen many complaints about Chen now being "unkillable" but I think that's a factor of so many people playing heroes without stuns (Zarya, Nazeebo), as every time I've run across an ETC player, things have been much more difficult. There are reports of bugs in Chen's talents, though (like Ingredients resetting when he's killed), so keep an eye out and report them if you see one.
Rocking on
Speaking of ETC, just like Chen being focused as a durable lane bully, ETC has been steered even more toward his role of semi-Support Warrior. This is what I've been using most often on ETC. Keep in mind two things, however: 1. Most of my games have been on Junction, so I've often swapped out Mosh Pit for Stage Dive. 2. I've stuck with Bolt out of habit and because most of my games have been on Junction and escapes are even more valuable.
The loss of Double-Necked Guitar does have an impact. Powerslide is no longer the universal answer and it, like everything else with the mount change, feels (and is) slower. However, even on as wide open a map as Junction, Crowd Surfer can be excellent. I've been in a number of team fights right around opposing forts and being able to slide through walls to get the Pit going can be huge. I went with the new Echo Pedal to give him some wave clear, which is also important on Junction. Again, he seems to be more of a Support-based Warrior now and, like Zarya, it's good to keep him in close to the rest of the team so they can take full advantage of things like Prog Rock. Segue...
From Russian with love
The first thing I noticed about Zarya is the number of her talents on each level. In the recent revisions, most heroes have had their trees pruned back to three per level. Even new heroes like Chromie and Gul'dan have frequently had only three. Alarak emerged with 4 on each level except 7. Zarya, OTOH, has a full 4 choices at every tier. I'm not sure whether that's a design trend or simply the devs adding more choices so they can experiment more.
I've played Zarya strictly within her role, which is definitely a supporting Warrior. I've been underwhelmed by most of the "get above X Energy" talents because they're strictly dependent on CDs and the opponents' behavior. If they don't attack, I don't get Energy and then it disappears quite rapidly and my bonuses go with it. I ended up preferring the Energy gain talents, instead, since Zarya with maxed-out Energy does pretty impressive damage.
As far as her basic abilities are concerned, both shields are really useful, as you might expect. I'm a little underwhelmed by Particle Grenade, because the range is pretty poor and the damage is likewise.
Unfortunately, barring a composition that works with it, I don't think Graviton Surge can compete with Repulsion Zone. Keeping the enemies pinned together for 2.5 seconds is really powerful, but Zone has no delay, can be used more precisely, can keep people off warhead and other channeling sites, and does damage. And, perhaps most importantly, Surge is on a 120 second CD, while Zone is only 45 seconds. As we've seen with almost every other heroic ability, a two minute CD is just too long for games that last 16 or 17 minutes on average.
Also, the above build means that you basically have what is almost Johanna's Iron Skin and a Cleanse on a 12 second CD, each. That's, um, kind of good. However, what people noted at Gamescom is still accurate: Zarya has no escapes. If you get ambushed and don't have Personal Barrier with Unstoppable Competitor off CD or aren't in a good spot to use Repulsion Field, you're pretty much dead. Stick with your team. They need you.
The new Voodoo
Nazeebo was one of my favorites when I started playing in the Alpha, mostly because my favorite toon in Diablo 3 is my witch doctor, Toussaint. However, as more heroes arrived, it became apparent that many of them did the same things that Nazeebo did, only better. Even in the current Specialist meta, Nazeebo isn't often seen since the damage bug on his toads was fixed. Given that, it's nice to see him get his long-awaited revision.
However, I'm left with the same feeling. As much as things have improved, I'm having trouble seeing how Nazeebo is going to outclass other Specialists/pseudo-mages. Here's what I've settled on for him at the moment:
Thing of the Deep feels essential now and the impact of finishing the Widowmakers quest really didn't stand out to me. Spirit of Arachyr feels like a level 1 talent, since you'll most often need it in the early laning phase, when you're doing a 1v1, and Toads of Hugeness has less impact (literally) with only three toads, but I'm reluctant to engage Pandemic at level 1 because of the requirement to hit opponents with the jar to even summon the Corpse Spiders (thus, the need for Thing of the Deep) and to have another talent effectively "on hold", since you gain nothing for the quest until it's completed.
Also, Gary (the Gargantuan), even somewhat nerfed, still seems better than standing still for 8 seconds with Ravenous Spirit. I kind of like that they retained Ice Block, but the old complaint of being unable to end it before your opponents surround you and wait out the 3 seconds is still extant. Superstition just seems like a red flag for most of the AA heroes in the game, so I've defaulted to Guardian Toads. I really like that they brought over Soul Harvest from D3 and it works well. At level 20, I'm still sticking with Gary, although I have had some good results from Vile Infection in late game fights around warhead spawn points.
Overall, I think my main problem is that the altered Voodoo Ritual just doesn't seem to make him as durable as he was before. Similarly to the original Witch Doctor when D3 was released, they wanted a short-ranged mage without the toughness to engage in short-ranged fights. Nazeebo is still that, in many ways.
So, that's the latest from the PTR. Get in there, try out the new (and revised) heroes, and nuke some opponents.
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