February 17 Balance updates: Li-Ming, Rehgar nerfs, minor Anubarak/Stitches changes

Blizzard has released the latest balance update, primarily focusing on the damage output of Li-Ming and Rehgar.

This update brought a minor buff to Anub’arak’s Hardened Carapace as well as nerfs to Stitches last bite talent that were the cause of some "unkillable" Stitches moments when he was near a minion wave. However, the largest updates were to Li-Ming with some more Rehgar nerfs on the side. Li-Ming had some of her most powerful talents nerfed, including the removal of the much feared Ess of Johan talent.

Astral Presence (Talent)

• Mana Regeneration bonus now only triggers while below 25% Mana, rather than 50%
   

Diamond Skin (Talent)

• Shield amount decreased from 25% to 20% of maximum Health
   

Tal Rasha’s Elements (Talent)

• Ability Power bonus decreased from 20% to 10%
   

Magic Missiles (Q)

• Damage reduced from 147 (+3.5% per level) to 147 (+3% per level)
   

Arcane Orb (W)

• Ess of Johan (Talent) removed

• Triumvirate (Talent)

  • Distance traveled requirement reduced from 80% to 65% of maximum distance

Li-Ming is a little too strong right now. Her ability to deal incredible damage is awesome, it was just happening too often, too easily. We’ve nerfed Astral Presence and Diamond Skin to preserve a couple of her core weaknesses: Mana tension and fragility. We’ve also removed Ess of Johan, because we found that it made landing Magic Missiles too easy. While we know that a lot of players really enjoy Ess of Johan, we think that it will be better for Li-Ming in the long run to preserve her high skill cap.”

With Li-Ming toned down, the developers than turned to her partner in crime, Rehgar. Everyone seems to agree that Rehgar as a healer is a fine adiition to the game, but once again, we see the damage potential of Lighting Shield nerfed.

Rising Storm (Talent)

• Maximum stacks increased from 10 to 20

• Damage bonus reduced from  20% to 10% per stack

 

Rehgar is still doing too much damage with his Lightning Shield. We like the high potential for damage output in this Talent, as chasing the dream is fun! However, we found that Rehgar players were reaching high damage values too fast, and reaching maximum stacks early became the rule rather than the exception.”

The last significant change was to the often ignored and largely underpowered underking him self, Anu'barak:

Hardened Carapace (W)

• Shield amount increased from 242 (+4% per level) to 260 (+4% per level)

 

“Anub’arak’s survivability is a little low right now, though not by much. We think that increasing it by buffing his low cooldown Shield helps him feel unique, and will give him a slight nudge toward becoming another enticing Warrior option at all levels of play.”

When they say slight nudge, they mean it. It's hard to tell whether this buff will make a difference, but anything that makes Anub'arak stronger is a step in the right direction.

With the Los Angeles Spring Finals approaching soon, these changes hopefully look to reign in Li-Ming and Rehgar and even out the pick/ban phase. Many on tiwtter were curious about the Li-Ming changes and lack of an update on the Stitches hook lag bug. 

The patch notes can be found on the Heroes of the Storm site here. 

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