Heroes of the Storm Balance Update Boosts Chen's Trait and More

Heroes of the Storm got a balance update, making changes to ten heroes. Almost everyone on this list went through some kind of a downgrade. As it was expected, Alexei Stukov has the biggest update impact to his abilities and talents.

The last major balance update was almost a month ago, on June 29. Malthael and Thrall were in focus back then. Chen’s trait change in this update was revealed on forums by the senior game designer Matt Villers.

HOTS Version 2.26.4 Patch Notes

The balance update, marked as version 2.26.4, also got full patch notes, including all bug fixes which can be found on the official blog, as well as from your HOTS Blizzard launcher.

Genji Stats, Abilities and Talents

• Health reduced from 1600 to 1550
• Health Regen reduced from 3.3 to 3.2
• Shuriken (Q) – Mana cost increased from 15 to 20
• Dragonblade (R) – Cooldown increased from 80 to 100 seconds / Mana cost increased from 50 to 75
• Level 7 Dodge (Passive)- Charges reduced from 3 to 1 / Cooldown reduced from 12 to 8 seconds

Greymane Abilities

• Cursed Bullet (R) – Damage reduced from 40 to 35% of enemy Heroes’ current Health

Tychus Talents

• Level 4 Fully Loaded (D) – Cooldown reduction increased from 33% (4 seconds) to ~41% (5 seconds)

Xul Abilities and Talents

• Raise Skeleton (Trait) – Health reduced from 300 to 270
• Cursed Strikes (W) – Cooldown increased from 15 to 16 seconds
• Level 1 Backlash (Trait) – Damage reduced from 15 to 12% of enemy Heroes’ maximum Health
• Level 4 Grim Scythe (W) – Cooldown reduction per attack increased from .5 to .75 seconds / Maximum cooldown reduction increased from 10 to 12 seconds

Stukov Abilities and Talents

• Healing Pathogen (Q) – Mana cost increased from 30 to 40
• Flailing Swipe (R) – Pushback distance increased by 50%
• Level 1
  • Spine Launcher (Passive) – Slow duration increased from 1 to 1.5 seconds (now matches his attack speed)
  • Fetid Touch (W) – Quest requirements reduced from 20 and 40 Heroes hit to 15 and 30
  • Growing Infestation (E) – Added functionality: Now increases the Cooldown of Lurking Arm by 4 seconds
• Level 4
  • One Good Spread… (Q) – Spreading requirement reduced from 4 to 3 Heroes / Mana refund increased from 30 to 40
  • Vigorous Reuptake (D) – Healing bonus reduced from 50 to 40%
• Level 16 Pox Populi (D) – Adjusted functionality: Detonating Bio-Kill Switch no longer refreshes heal duration, but instead sets the duration to 3 seconds
• Level 20
  
  • Controlled Chaos (R) – Cooldown between casts reduced from 3 to 1 second / Cooldown for each charge reduced from 40 to 30 seconds
  • Push Comes to Shove (R) – Duration requirement reduced from 1.5 to 1.25 seconds

Uther Abilities

• Holy Light (Q) – Healing reduced from 380 to 360 / Self-healing reduced from 190 to 180
• Holy Radiance (W) – Mana cost increased from 60 to 70

Chen Abilities and Talents

• Fortifying Brew (Trait) – Brew per second reduced from 40 to 30 / Chen will now instantly gain 25 Brew upon activation
• Level 1 Elusive Brawler (Active) – Cooldown increased from 20 to 25 seconds / Cooldown reduction from Basic Attacks reduced from 3 to 2 seconds

Muradin Stats

• Health increased from 2633 to 2765
• Health regen increased from 5.5 to 5.8

Rexxar Talents

• Level 1 Flare (Active) – Cooldown reduced from 25 to 20 seconds

Stitches Abilities and Changes

• Vile Gas (Trait) – Damage reduced from 18 to 17
• Level 1 Heavy Slam (W) – Bonus damage reduced from 50 to 40%