Upcoming Heroes of the Storm patch will nerf many movement impairing abilities

Any (good) MOBA player will tell you that a solid disable can make or break a game. One stun or root for example, can be enough to secure a much needed a kill.

Sometimes though, a chain of spells from various teammates is what’s needed to get the job done. This usually requires a lot of communication, teamwork, and sometimes, just plain intuition and skill.

When it comes to Heroes of the Storm, chaining spells is supposedly a lot easier. According to Blizzard, the disables in their MOBA are just a little too strong for their liking. As a result, they’re dished out some nerfs in the latest PTR balance update.

We’ve received a lot of feedback from players regarding the popular strategy of chaining movement impairing effects, like Stuns and Roots, on an enemy Hero. While we want this to be a viable way to play, we feel it’s currently too prominent and powerful at higher levels of play. As a result, we are reducing the duration of many of these effects in the game.

In scenarios where this change nerfs a character we don’t otherwise want to nerf, we’re coupling it with a buff to help offset the difference. While this change hasn’t reduced all the effects that might make you lose control of your Hero, we feel these are some of the more egregious ones. As always, we will make further changes if necessary.

So who exactly is getting nerfed? Quite a few heroes actually, including Gazlowe, Xul, Brightwing, Uther, Arthas, Diablo, Muradin, and Sonya. All of their offending spells have been tuned down by 0.25 seconds. Hang on, is that all? It seems like a minor nerf, but believe me, when you’re trying to chain a whole lot of roots and stuns together, that lower duration will make a world of difference. Teams have to pay much closer attention to each other’s actions, and communicate clearer if they’re use their disables to maximum effect.

This is exactly what Blizzard want. As they stated, these chains are a little too prominent and powerful at higher levels of play. These changes should at least alleviate that issue somewhat. Remember, they are only out in the Public Test Realm at the moment. They’ll be out in full force in the actual game itself sometime next week.

Last Updated: May 13, 2016