New PTR update introduces Zarya and talent reworks for Nazeebo, Chen, and E.T.C.

In addition to Zarya and Warhead Junction, the new PTR update added a few more surprising reworks of older heroes.

View the full patch notes here.

Zarya and Warhead Junction

Players can now play new hero, Zarya, and another new Starcraft-themed map, Warhead Junction, on the current PTR update. Zarya represents the second character from Overwatch to enter the Nexus. Like Rexxar, she is a ranged warrior, and she will bring significant team support with her multiple barrier and shield abilities.

The new map, Warhead Junction, introduces a new map mechanic: players can pick up a warhead and manually activate it via a new map ability hotkey to deal significant damage to structures and opposing heroes.

 

Nazeebo – Higher skill cap

View Nazeebo’s changes here.

While Blizzard reworked Valla and the Butcher last week, three more heroes received talent tree overhauls in the new PTR patch.

Overall, Nazeebo’s skill cap has increased, but he appears to maintain the same play style as before. Nazeebo’s basic abilities and trait have undergone some changes.

 

• Corpse Spiders (Q)?
  • Spiders will now fixate on whatever enemies are hit with the jar, dividing their focus among all available targets. Prefers Heroic targets.
  • Spiders will now only spawn if you hit an enemy with the jar 
• Plague of Toads (E)?
  • Number of Toads spawned reduced from 5 to 3
  • Now has 2 charges
• Voodoo Ritual (Trait)
  • Damage over time effect is now only applied to non-Heroes
  • Duration increased from 4 to 6 seconds
  • Killing an enemy affected by Voodoo Ritual no longer restores Health and Mana
  • New Functionality:
    • You now permanently gain 4 Maximum Health and 1 Maximum Mana if an enemy Minion dies while affected by Voodoo Ritual
• Gargantuan (R)
  • Gargantuan now stays near the area where cast and attempts to attack any enemies that come nearby. Prefers Heroic targets.

 

The Corpse Spiders ability now requires the player to actually hit a target with the jar for the spiders to be spawned. Meanwhile, Nazeebo’s trait lost its sustainability function, but incorporated Nazeebo’s old level 1 talent, Death Ritual. Many Nazeebo players have complained about Gargantuan's A.I., so Blizzard responded and changed the functionality of the ability. Now, the heroic acts more like a zoning ability, but the Gargantuan will no longer travel with Nazeebo as a pet.

In addition to his ability changes, Nazeebo’s talents received a significant overhaul. You can view his full changes here.

 

Chen – Can he now solo-tank?

View Chen’s changes here.

With Chen’s new talent changes, Blizzard hopes to make Chen more capable of solo-tanking, but still maintain his old play style. In addition to substantial changes to Chen’s talent tree, his Storm, Earth, Fire heroic now possesses new functionality.

 

• Storm, Earth, Fire (R)
  • New Functionality:
    • If all 3 Spirits die, Chen is killed
    • Spirit Health increased from 50 to 75% of Chen’s maximum Health
    • Each Spirit grants Chen a special ability:
      • Storm (Q): Increases the Movement Speed of your Spirits by 50% for 5 seconds
      • Earth (W): Fire and Earth Spirits leap at the target, slowing enemies in a large area by 70% for 1.5 seconds
      • Fire (E): Increase the Basic Attack speed of your Spirits by 100% for 5 seconds

 

Storm, Earth, Fire now includes three special abilities, making the heroic more interactive. Many of Chen’s old talents have been changed, moved, or removed. Some of his new talents are listed below.

 

• Level 13
  • New Talent: Withering Flames (E)
    • Setting an enemy Hero on fire reduces their Ability Power by 25% for 3 seconds.
• Level 20
  • New Talent: Purifying Brew (Trait)
    • Passively reduce the duration of the next Stun or Silence effect by 75% and reset the cooldown of Fortifying Brew. This can only happen once every 10 seconds.
  • New Talent: Stormstout Secret Recipe (Passive)
    • Heal for 1.5% of your Maximum Health every time your Basic Abilities hit an enemy Hero.

 

Chen’s new level 13 talent, Withering Flames, provides him with a new means of peeling for his teammates by reducing the ability power of his opponents. One of his new level 20 talents, Purifying Brew, significantly reduces Chen’s weakness against stuns. On the other hand, his other new level 20 talent, Stormstout Secret Recipe, drastically increases Chen's sustainability. These are just a few of the numerous changes to Chen. You can view his full talent changes here.

 

E.T.C. – The split pushing tauren returns

View E.T.C.’s changes here.

E.T.C.’s changes have increased the emphasis on his Rockstar trait and his Guitar Solo ability. In order to improve his talent diversity, Blizzard removed some of his most popular talents such as Rolling Like a Stone (increases the range of Powerslide by 25%) and Double-Necked Guitar (increases Powerslide's width by 100% and you slide 30% faster).

Abilities

• Powerslide (Q)
  • Range increased by 25%
• Rockstar (Trait)
  • Radius increased by 10%

 

Rolling Like a Stone has been incorporated into E.T.C’s baseline Powerslide. However, the effects of Double-Necked Guitar will be greatly missed by veteran E.T.C. players. Like Chen and Nazeebo, many of E.T.C.’s old talents have been changed or removed. Some of his most interesting talent changes are listed below.

 

• Level 4
  • ?New Talent: Crowd Surfer (Q)
    • Powerslide can now travel over walls and unpathable areas.
• Level 7
  • ?Echo Pedal (Passive)
    • Moved to Level 7 (from Level 16)
    • Damage decreased from 59 to 32. 
    • Added Functionality:
      • Now deals double damage vs. Minions and Mercenaries.

 

Similar to Illidan’s Unbound talent, E.T.C.’s new Crowd Surfer talent provides the tauren with a stronger escape tool. Echo Pedal has been moved from level 16 to level 7, meaning that E.T.C. can wave clear more effectively and earlier. Such changes may bring back E.T.C’s ability to split push and, as a result, may increase the pick rate of his Stage Dive heroic. These are just a few of the numerous changes to E.T.C. You can view his full talent changes here.

 

Malfurion buff and slight changes to Li-Ming, Kharazim, and Tychus

View Malfurion’s changes here.

Li-Ming, Kharazim, and Tychus received slight changes. However, Malfurion received significant buffs.

 

• Regrowth (Q)
  • Cooldown reduced from 7 to 5 seconds
  • Mana cost reduced from 60 to 35
  • Duration increased from 10 to 15 seconds
  • Periodic heal reduced from 75 to 60
• Entangling Roots (E)
  • Increased range by roughly 12%
  • Delay before initial root reduced from .5 seconds to .25 seconds
• Innervate (Trait)
  • Added Functionality:
    • Now causes the target’s Basic Abilities to cooldown 50% faster for the duration of Innervate 

 

The overall healing of Malfurion’s Regrowth increased, and the utility of Entangling Roots improved. However, the added cooldown reduction functionality to his trait represents the most interesting change and may have some strong synergies with certain heroes. In addition to these changes, Blizzard plans to revise Malfurion’s talent tree in the future.

 

Conclusion

In just two weeks after the Alarak patch, Blizzard plans to introduce another set of significant changes with this Zarya patch. In four weeks, Heroes of the Storm will have added two new heroes, two new maps, and five reworked heroes.

The PTR update is currently available for playtesting until September 26. So, log on now and try out the new content for yourselves.

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