Blizzard continues to tweak the PTR patch with buffs to Valla and Azmodan and nerfs to Falstad and Zagara, among other things.
Valla
- Basic attack damage increased from 60 to 75.
- Hatred stack duration increased from 4 to 6 seconds.
Those of you with math aptitude will note that that's a 25% increase in damage and a 50% increase in stack duration, so these are more than the usual "tweaks". It became apparent upon repeated plays that Valla's AA build was simply too difficult for most to make proper use of, especially since Hatred stacks now disappear entirely when out of combat, rather that slowly diminishing as they currently do on live. Despite their goal of making Valla a "high skill ceiling" hero, there's a point of diminishing returns to that aspiration and even skilled Valla players were reaching it.
Azmodan
- Taste for Blood's lead time for enemy deaths to add to Globe of Annhilation's damage is returned to 1.5 seconds from 1 second.
The snark on the subReddit is that this talent is becoming the "Bunker build time" of Heroes. What's more likely is that the nerf to Taste was part of a number of mild adjustments that Azmodan received 3 patches ago and the combination of all of them had too much impact on the Q build, such that it was being avoided entirely, rather than serving as one of three.
And now the bad news (for some of us):
Falstad
- Hammerang damage reduced from 132 to 121
- Updraft now increases Barrel Roll's shield by 40%.
- BOOMerang detonation damage reduced from 175 to 165.
- Charged Up range bonus increased from 15% to 25%.
- Aerie Gusts' CD reduction for Tailwind reduced from 4 seconds to 3 seconds.
That's a series of nerfs to Falstad's mage (Hammer) build, a restriction to his movement rate, and a buff to the W build that no one uses. Falstad, the moving embodiment of Taste for Blood, has seen some wild swings between his mage and AA builds dominating, so I think the intent here is not only to diversify his talent selection but also to (again) reduce his power somewhat, as he remains one of the best heroes in the game, at present.
Zagara
- Attack damage reduced from 86 to 82.
- Baneling Barrage damage reduced from 91 to 86.
- Hunter Killer damage reduced from 68 to 62.
- Infested Drop damage reduced from 155 to 147.
- Mutalisk duration reduced from 60 to 45 seconds.
Nerfs across the board (5%, 10%, and 5% on her three basic abilities) for the Broodmother. She's still a dominating presence in the game for her ability to wreck defenses and still contribute heavily to laning and teamfights (55% winrate on 76% usage in the latest Hotslogs.) Since the rework, Zagara has been hit with the nerf hammer in 2 of 3 patches. No telling if this will be the final pass for a while, but basic damage adjustment is usually a significant step (see: Valla.)
Sgt. Hammer
- Slowing Mines has been removed.
- Mine Field has been moved from level 16 to level 7 as a replacement.
Hammer's seemingly small movement buffs in the last patch rocketed (ahem) her winrate to best in the game (55.2%) in the latest Hotslogs, despite only a 10% pick rate. There's no telling whether this was experienced Hammer players coming out of the woodwork because attention was being paid to one of their favorites or whether there are a lot of people who just don't know how to deal with Hammer's small resurgence in popularity. Regardless, the devs felt that the Mines were too powerful.
Lt. Morales
- Displacement Grenade's detonation delay reduced from .30 to .0625 seconds.
There was a broad community discussion a couple months back about the idea that Supports were boring because too few of them possessed the ability to make plays that had significant impact on the game and that's why it was so difficult to find them in QM, why people had to be cajoled into playing them in Hero League, and why pro players like Merryday were complaining that it was almost bad enough for them to consider leaving the game.
Morales was one particularly disdained for this reason. Blizzard's response mentioned that they'd been considering a change to the way Morales' grenade functioned so that players had better control over where and when it detonated, so that they could "make plays". That change is currently on the PTR. An unintended side effect is that some players have begun detonating the grenade right away as a consequence of hitting their E multiple times and too rapidly. This latest tweak is an attempt to address that.
Battlegrounds
Battlefield of Eternity and Infernal Shrines
- Khazra Impaler (siege camp) attack damage increased from 40 to 46.
The Khazra do seem pretty inconsequential much of the time, as the Fallen Shaman camps are vastly preferred, not least because the constant dog summoning makes them much better at sieging enemy forts. This change is a good thing.
Towers of Doom
- Headless Horseman attack damage increased from 145 to 158.
The boss is supposed to be kind of a threat. Once you've done the Horseman a couple times, it's conceivable that the entire party can capture him taking very little to no damage, just by understanding how his abilities are timed. This basic increase means that Supports might have to work a little harder to earn their 4 shots on the enemy's core.
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