Zagara, Kerrigan, Uther, Abathur and more have changed significantly as well as several core game mechanics. Is this the patch of the split push ?
Old is new again
It's an exciting time to be a Zagara main. Or an Uther main. Or an Abathur main-- you get the picture. Blizzard has made sweeping changes to a lot of classic heroes, while also pushing the envelope for buffing heroes that used to be powerful, but no longer see much play.
- Jaina's baseline abilities have all been buffed, most drastically Blizzard now has a default third crash after the initial two.
- Zagara is, essentially, a completely new hero.
- Uther has been given more incentive to auto-attack and may be part of a larger incentive to give support heroes more playmaking abilities
- Kerrigan has had nearly every aspect of her kit buffed with the intent of making her less of a "one-trick-pony"
- Stitches has been given baseline Helping Hand that you can toggle on and off.
- Abathur has been given the Tassadar treatment, with increased shielding capabilities and heavy shield specialization talents
- Big Tyrael buffs. Many of them allow his trait to do much more damage.
The small changes that are big
The latest patch is massive and all of the shiny new hero updates and Guldan clearly steal the show. However, two very significant changes to Heroes gameplay have passed under most radars with limited fanfare:
Regeneration Globes
- Health Regeneration
- Previously: Restore 6.24% of maximum Health over 4 seconds
- Now: Restore 12% of maximum Health over 5 seconds
- Mana Regeneration
- Previously: Restore 32 Mana over 4 seconds.
- Now: Restore 8% of maximum Mana over 5 seconds
Regen globes are even more useful and more importantly, heroes without much self-sustain will have an easier time surviving against popular lane bullies like Thrall or Zagara. Percentage based mana restoration allows mana hungry heroes like Gazlowe and Valla to push their limits early in the game for more siege damage and lane clear.
Minions
- Ranged, Melee, and Wizard Minions
- Now deal double damage to Structures.
The best way to understand this change is to visualize it. Imagine you are a tanky hero absorbing the shots from enemy fortifications while 5 minions fight beside you. You might be able to get some solid damage done.
With this new change, those 5 minions push as hard as 10 minions would. Even if you had 10 minions, they would push as hard as 20 minions. This is a huge difference that allows split push heroes to threaten structural damage more efficiently than ever. Simply put, any situation where a hero can escort minions to the enemy structure is now twice as effective.
The verdict?
The best way to grasp the impact of these changes is to, of course, play the PTR! There are Gazlowe buffs to be tested and Kael'thas nerfs to be gauged. If I was forced to predict right now, I'd say that Jaina seems to be in a good place right now, however, it really gives no real reason to ever choose Chromie again.
Tyrael also seems very powerful, as does the newly buffed Kerrigan. These heroes, in this writer's opinion, will make the biggest splash in competitive Heroes. As for Guldan? His usefulness lies in his fear based Heroic, Horrify. It seems very, very powerful and it seems nearly impossible to lose a team fight if you hit 3 or more heroes with it.
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