Hello Reddit Family,
I just wanted to chime in quickly for two main points:
Thank you for the bug callouts, we see them and will address.
You're amazing and we love you, enjoy the patch <3
Have a wonderful night/morning!
Good things, like Zagara's banelings, come in twos!
Heroes of the Storm has just been updated with Hero balance changes! Read on for details.
;)
New? At this point I'm psychologically incapable of not injecting memes into everything I do.
*Through the shimmering iridescence of the summoning portal you hear the distant clamoring of battle, the rustling of dense brush, and a... car horn?*
You're absolutely correct - we don't expect these changes to fundamentally change how Jaina competes with other mages. While I understand how it can be disappointing to be in situations where it's better to draft another mage / have picked another mage, I feel Jaina is in healthy standing. She's strong enough that making her more well rounded would requires nerfs for her best case scenarios, but she's already popular enough that I don't feel that's a great deal.
I hear ya on looking to increase her flexibility through just a talent or two, and I'll chew on it, but no promises!
I absolutely hear that concern - whenever we make a talent valuable in a wider number of situations, we run the risk of cutting the reward from players who have developed mastery of the previous functionality. This absolutely something I weigh when making this style of change, so your concern is heard. For Ice Floes, I still felt the depth in our playtests. I felt the drive to tag enemies with Cone of Cold beyond my focus target as the reward was quite juicy, and I find encouraging aggression goes hand in hand with room for mastery.
That all said, I also feel that talent builds can have a wide range of depth - I'm not too concerned about 'breaking the magic' when this change is contained to her Cone of Cold build. It's not my goal here, so if you have a different experience in your games, please make a post after the patch hits!
Believe it or not, Jaina players keep picking it and winning games with Snowstorm. The pick rate does drop quite a bit at high levels SL, but it keeps winning at comparable/higher than its competition on the tier. That doesn't mean we won't do ANYTHING to Snowstorm, but it's not a high priority for our attention.
You're cool and can keep a secret, right?
While I can't speak to the original intent, I enjoy the decision making for which ability to apply Chill. Jaina's abilities have varying amounts of damage/difficult landing, so choosing the ability to apply Chill has a different answer due to the situation, and your confidence. With Chill being both a Slow (easier to land abilities) and a percent damage increase (lose more damage if you choose to Chill with Cone of Cold), I think there are solid trade-offs. I hear ya on how this can become slightly more awkward with some of her talents, but overall I'm quite happy with how Chill works.
Thanks for the post! I do think there's room for a bit of spice among Jaina's later tier talents, and some love to even the pick rates. I'll be putting these thoughts into my back pocket for the next time we plan to touch the Daughter of the Sea. Right now we're looking to touch up her earlier talent paths, as they've started to stagnate.
Here's what we're doing in the next patch:
Level 4
Frost Shards (Q)
Frost Bolt pierce increased from one to two additional targets.
Level 7
Ice Lance (Q)
Cooldown reduction increased from 1.25 to 1.5 seconds.
Ice Floes (W)
Changed functionality: Cone of Cold hitting an enemy Hero reduces its cooldown by 2 seconds, doubled if they are chilled, up to a maximum of 8 seconds per cast.
Level 10
Ring of Frost (R1)
Cooldown reduced from 80 seconds to 70 seconds.
Level 16
Northern Exposure (W)
Armor reduction increased from 20 to 25.
Level 20
Cold Snap (R1)
Cooldown reduction increased from 10 to 15 seconds.
Pretty much this. :)
I love it - well done!
This was simply magical.
👀
Hey all, just adding my confirmation that this is legit! Please keep firing away those questions, but keep in mind that I'll be primarily speaking on what I'm most qualified to talk about - my experience/role on the team.
I could find myself agreeing that there is room to make her Heroics more exciting - even if I may not agree that they need oodles of additional strength.
What did you have in mind?
Hey rovvann,
Go check again, he may make a guest appearance soon!
