Patch notes reveal multiple hero balances

In a round of patch notes released on Monday, Blizzard showed they are balancing two of the highest performing heroes, as well as giving Chromie a slight buff.

Blizzard's latest balance update attempts to tone down two of the more sought-after heroes in the game right now, Kael'thas and Rehgar, as well as play up the importance of strategic positioning by Chromie. 

The changes coming to Kael'thas are going to decrease his damage, but are only actually reducing the questionably high single-target damage from his Living Bomb.

 

• Damage over time reduced from 84 to 50.
• Explosion damage increased from 138 to 200.

 

Kael'thas' damage is a bit too high, so we're nerfing his single-target Living Bomb damage by 10%. We want to point him towards being more of an AoE mage, and this is the beginning of that process. Expect to see some tweaks in the future to continue pointing him in that direction.”

Kael'thas is currently one of the most contested heroes in the competitive scene right now and Blizzard felt he was a bit more powerful then they were comfortable with.

The second change coming in the balance update will give Chromie a slight buff, specifically her Time Trap. 

 

• Mana cost reduced from 50 to 25. 
• Cast range increased by 50%.
• Time Trap Base Health increased from 200 to 300.

 

Chromie hasn't seen a lot of competitive play, if at all, and the changes to time trap are to stress the importance of positioning with her.

We want to play up the strategic positioning that Chromie uses to stay alive. These buffs will make it easier for Chromie to protect herself from the enemies that she knows are coming... or will know were coming... time dragons are confusing.”

There's a lot of discussion around the current state of supports in the game and there's no doubt that Rehgar is easily the top pick right now. He's getting multiple changes, especially to his healing, to try and balance him a bit with some of the other support heroes.

 

• Basic attack damage increased from 95 to 99.
• Chain Heal
  • Primary heal amount reduced from 372 to 334.
  • Secondary bounce heal amount reduced from 186 to 167.
• Lightening Shield
  • Damage increased from 60 damage per second to 64 damage per second.
• Talents
  • ?Level 4 - Stormcaller
    • Mana return increased from 3 to 4 per Hero hit.
    • Maximum Mana returned increased from 30 to 40.

 

Rehgar is still performing too well in competitive play. We agree with the majority of the community that we'd rather see him being a more aggressive support, so we're offsetting some of the healing nerfs by increasing his damage potential. This should be an overall nerf to Rehgar, but he is almost universally regarded as one of the best supports at all levels of play and with all team compositions.”

These hero changes, along with some minor bug fixes, will be coming June 22 and should hopefully begin to shift the current meta.

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