The Varian patch is live but with slight changes. Let’s take a quick look at the new orange changes to the current patch.
Blizzard has rolled out some slight adjustments to the newest patch. Thankfully, they make it easy for us to see changes to the changes by posting them in orange. Let’s take a look at what’s new.
The Nexus Challenge has Begun!
Until January 4th, play 15 games with a friend to earn Zaria, the Oni Genji Portrait, and the accompanying skin in Overwatch. Play 15 more games to earn Auriel, Greymane, Kerrigan, Li Ming, the Orochi Hovercycle mount, and a 30 day stimpack! Crazyness! Full detail on the Nexus Challenge here.
Illidan Adjustments
There are some interesting adjustments to the proposed Illidan changes. On the Battered Assault talent at Level 1 they removed the extra bonus damage from hitting 2+ Heroes with Sweeping Strike.
Blizzard also scratched out the proposed change at Level 7 called Thirsting Blade which increased healing from 50-60%
Seems like Blizzard is learning from their mistakes. As we’ve seen in the past, sometimes too many changes at once compound into unpredictable power spikes. I’m looking at you 1st week Zarya.
Check out Illidan's full changes here.
Varian Change adjustments
The Taunt heroic cooldown was reduced from 25 seconds to 16 seconds. Sounds like during PTR testing Varian needed a little enticement to fit comfortably into the Tank role.
Colossus Smash has had its damage adjusted from 187 to 160.
And at Level 20 the Vigilance Heroic had its cooldown reduced from 1 to .75seconds per Basic Attack.
Wrapping up
It’s been a major improvement to see small adjustments coming out during PTR. In the past, what happened on PTR was considered as good as live, testing mostly for bugs. Blizzard has really stepped up their game by bringing balance adjustments mid PTR testing; a great sign for Heroes. It will be interesting to see if any more changes come in the coming weeks that may have seen to be missed this time around.
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