The high damage specialist and plenty of revamped heroes are playable starting today, March 6th, on the PTR. Huge Cho'gall changes and Gazlowe buffs!
This patch has some clear winners:
Cho'Gall has received huge changes and is likely very more powerful. Gall has been given new talents capable of stunning enemy heroes and the baseline Eye of Killrog negates a lot of the early game weakness Cho'Gall has against being ganked in lane.
Gazlowe will play like an entirely new hero. One of his level 13 talents highlights the huge different in playstyle:
- 13 - X-Tra Large Bombs (E)
No longer increases cast range (still increases the size of the bombs)
Added functionality:
Whenever Gazlowe is stunned or rooted, he drops a Xplodium charge at his feet
Combined with his new regeneration talents and Robo-Goblin adding melee damage and activatable Armor, Gazlowe seems like a viable off-tank that, when fighting in the think of it, creates tons of zoning and stray stun/damage potential.
Anub'arak seems tailor made to dive on mage heroes. His new Burrow Charge slow functionality slows on hit and his beetles can be upgraded to have 50 spell armor. One of his level 13 talents grants him a whopping 70% increased damage to auto attacks for 3 seconds after attacking a slowed enemy!
Other big changes include the transition of Arthas from a bruiser to a hard counter against physical attacking hero and Johanna's new 25% physical armor.
As well as the PTR, Blizzard also released the Heroes spotlight for Probius:
Though some of the changes aren't going down too well with the pros. Particularly, the changes to Tyrael:
However, most can agree the most powerful talent in the game, Imposing Will, deserved to be removed. While I don't think all of Tyrael's power level was due to this one talent, some people do:
What is likely a bigger change is the removal of Hardened Shield for Tyrael and Anub'arak. In its place, they are getting Nullification Shield:
New Talent: Nullification Shield (Active)
Activate to gain 60 Spell Armor for 5 seconds.
As with all PTR changes, it's difficult to make an accurate assessment of these changes. Most people are concerned with only playing new heroes on the PTR (understandably) and the result is environments that don't reflect the actual meta or high level of play.
So for all of those wondering whether Gazlowe is the new hotness, you are gonna have to wait until these changes make it into the live version of the game sometime in the middle of March.
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