Where should we start? The complete Butcher and Valla reworks or the brand new Bribe mechanics that may be powerful enough to change the meta?
Big changes to the Butcher
The Butcher was drastically reworked this patch and I suggest you read the specific Butcher changes to get a full picture. For brevity, here is the biggest change that will impact his game play the most:
- Quest: Nearby Minions drop 1 Fresh Meat and Heroes drop 5 Fresh Meat when they die. You can pick up Fresh Meat to gain 1 Basic Attack damage per Meat. Can hold up to 125 Meat. You drop up to 10 Fresh Meat upon dying.
- Reward: After acquiring 125 pieces of Fresh Meat, gain and additional 100 Basic Attack damage and 25% increased Attack Speed. You also no longer lose Fresh Meat on death.
This means that Butcher is the first hero to receive a passive quest attached to his trait. Now not only does this cement Butcher's role as a late game threat, but it rewards Butcher players who stay alive early and patiently collect meat.
A new Valla
Valla was also changed drastically, and you can see her specific talent changes here. All in all, her skill cap has been increased with more of her auto attack damage dependent on her trait and stacking it often. Vault has also be reworked to increase the damage of Valla's next auto attack directly after Vaulting:
Stats
- Basic Attack damage reduced from 94 to 60
Hatred (Trait)
- Damage increase per stack increased from 3 to 8%
- After 4 seconds without landing a Basic Attack, lose all stacks of Hatred
New Talent (7): Death Dealer (E)
- Increase the bonus damage granted by Vault from 50 to 100%. If this shot kills your target, refund the mana cost and cooldown of Vault
The new Death Dealer talent seems very powerful and allows Valla to do Kerrigan-esque maneuvers, resetting the cool down on her Vault repeatedly every time she kills a minion with an increased auto attack. The developer commentary for Valla reveals that this rework, while unexpected, was a long time coming. The main goal was to better distinguish great Valla players from mediocre ones.
A better Bribe
The last major change brought to this patch is the new Bribe abilities given to Brightwing, Nova, and Falstad. These bribe abilities represent the latest departure from generic talents and each one comes with a unique upside to better encourage Bribe based gameplay.
This change and the decreased mount speed (combined with the last big patches minion change) are the result of an apparently big shift in game direction. Blizzard wants to support a more diverse set of strategies and, believe it or not, seems to be embracing more traditional aspects of the MOBA genre, such as a set laning phase, split pushing, and dedicated "Jungler" heroes in the form of these new Bribes:
Level 1
New Talent: Pixie Charm (Active)
- Each time Soothing Mist heals an allied Hero, excluding yourself, gain a stack of Bribe. Use 20 stacks to Bribe a Mercenary, instantly defeating them. Does not work on Bosses. Maximum of 80 stacks.
Level 4
New Talent: Covert Mission (Active)
- Enemy Minions killed near you grant a stack of Bribe. Hero Take downs grant 10 stacks of Bribe. Use 25 stacks to Bribe a Mercenary, instantly defeating them. Does not work on Bosses. Maximum of 100 stacks. If a camp is defeated entirely with Bribe, the camp respawns 50% faster.
Level 1
New Talent: Wingman (Active)
- Enemy Minions killed near you grant a stack of Bribe. Use 20 stacks to Bribe a Mercenary, instantly defeating them and permanently increasing the damage of Lightning Rod by 5%. Does not work on Bosses. Maximum of 80 stacks.
On the other hand, Raynor, Azmodan, and Nazeebo have had their bribe talents removed.
Conclusion
All in all, this is a pretty major patch with sweeping changes that, without a doubt, will change the highest levels of competitive Heroes of the Storm. At the very least, the changes to Mercenary spawn times will shake up the tried and true rotation timings of older Battlegrounds, and even the convention Tier list might look a bit different with Heroes like Stitches, Lt. Morales and SGT. Hammer getting some new talents and buffs.
Of, and of course, Alarak enters the Nexus. Compared to the rest of these changes, the new hero seems like small news.
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