Just a week after its latest patch for Heroes of the Storm, Blizzard has dropped a slew of major changes into the game, including major reworks of five heroes.
The patch, which is currently live on the public test realm, will see significant changes to the talents and abilities of Illidan, Kael’Thas, Sylvannas, Tychus and Gazlowe.
Each hero had a significant number of talents completely removed from their kit and replaced with brand new ones—in the case of Tychus, almost a dozen talents were replaced.
The patch also includes changes to lesser used heroic abilities, like Mind Control for Sylvannas and The Hunt for Illidan, in the hope of diversifying picks.
Players have long called for changes to Gazlowe in particular. Blizzard signaled that a potential rework was on the cards as early as last November.
In general the patch has been met with significant praise, both for the large scale reworks and the smaller changes to characters like Abathur.
Hero reworks aren’t the only thing included in this jumbo-sized patch. The objectives on Dragonshire and Gardens of Terror have also seen significant alterations. Both player-controlled objectives have been changed, with the Dragon Knight now immune to attack slowing from tower attacks. On Gardens, the Terror has been given more damage to both structures and minions from basic attacks.
The patch also brings another long-sought-after feature to the game—bans for ranked play drafts. Both modes will now include two bans, one at the start of the draft and one in the middle. As a result players are now required to have 14 heroes to take part, but the requirement to be at level 30 to play hero league has been removed.
This is one of the most significant patches in the game’s history, with some in the community even describing it as “Heroes of the Storm 2.0.” The changes will be available for playtesting on the PTR until March 29.
