Falstad
Falstads Mighty Gust has recieved the long awaited nerf due to the fact that it can be spammed frequently because of its 40 second cooldown. The nerf has put the cooldown to 60 seconds, requiring players to consider its use more. Fan however believes that the nerf won't have that much of an impact due to the fact that 60 seconds is still relatively short. He believes that Mighty Gust will still be somewhat spammable and that Falstad has remained unchanged overall. All in all, Falstad is still very powerful and can provide good disengage/engage albeit a slightly longer cooldown.
Conclusion: The Mighty gust nerf isn't too bad and the heroic will still see lots of play.
Illidan
It is unanimously agreed upon that Illidan is very powerful ever since the Dehaka patch. Without a doubt, Illidan is the duelist hero that can defeat nearly all heroes in a solo combat situation. In some cases, with a good player, he has been able to take on multiple heroes. The balance update has seen some nerfs to Illidan, although not too many, and it is still a powerful option.
Fan agrees, stating that Illidan will still be very good. He does think the 40% to 30% life steal nerf will be noticeable and probably the most notable of the nerfs, whilst the dive range is a 'negligible' nerf in his eyes. On the other hand the Reflexive block talent (3 charges of block to 2) nerf won't have so much of an impact as Fan states that dive can be used frequently. Since dive can be used frequently the number of charges won't matter as much.
Conclusion: Illidan is still super strong, ableit not as 'God-like' as before.
Kael'thas
Kael'thas has receieved many buffs, including health regeneration and damage, meaning his overall numbers have gone up. However as stated by Fan, Kael'thas alongside Jaina has a problem, namely that they don't have mobility or escape tools. Kael'thas lost his arcane barrier and bolt of the storm which makes him easily targeted. For this particular reason, Fan believes Kael'thas to be 'playable' but not very good. He has pointed out that heroes like Li-Ming, Valla or Falstad who have forms of mobility like dash are better.
Conclusion: Kael'thas is playable but not very good due to a lack of mobility.
Li Ming
Unlike the other two mages, Li Ming is in a pretty good place. Her burst damage was nerfed, however she has remained an excellent poke hero. She is able to do good damage from afar whilst having low cooldowns. Fan isn't particularly entusiatic about the 10% damage reduction with Arcane Orb as it will be harder to 'one shot' heroes, but he believes it is a good approach in the balancing of the hero and making her less of a burst mage. The nerf to the calamity build is also not too much of an change as the radius of the teleport is already quite large. If anything, Fan thinks that it will weaken her wave clear capabilities by a bit. He thinks that Li Ming is one of the best range assassins in the game.
Conclusion: Still a very good hero that is becoming less burst and more poke oriented.
Thrall
Thralls sundering was nerfed to a stun duration of 1.25 seconds. Fan thinks that this will hurt Thrall players overall as the heroic has been subject to lots of nerfs as of late. With the longer cooldown and lower stun duration, he believes it will have an impact in the game as sundering is usually used as an engage.
Tychus
Fan states that he hasn't played enough games with Tychus to evaluate the changes. However he believes that the changes look very promising. In addition to that, it is evident that Tychus will be a 'tank killer' as his trait and a lot of his damage is percentage based, potentially seeing more play than he has before against a tanky frontline. He hopes that Tychus will become more viable of an assassin.
General unused heroic buffs
Many heroes with unpopular heroics have recieved buffs. To name a few, Brightwings Emerald Wind, E.T.C.s stage dive, and LiLi's water dragon. For the most part, Fan thinks that the buffs won't be significant enough to take over the primary heroics such as Blink Heal for Brightwing. The only exception to this is LiLi. Fan believes that the water dragon ultimate may make an impact in some situations like a double healer composition. The damage increase is pretty significant, enough so that it might see some play. Other notable buffs are Uther's divine storm and Tyrandes starfall. The divine storm stun duration was increased and this may see more play due to the heavy Illidan use in the meta. Tyrandes starfall will be more of a competitve heroic as it can see some use with the mana reduction and damage increase.
Conclusion: Some of the changes, although good additions, won't be impactful enough. LiLi, Uther and Tyrandes buffs may see some increase in selection for their heroics.
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