Heroes of the Storm's Latest Update Implements Balancing Changes to Tracer and Sgt. Hammer

Heroes of the Storm Sgt. Hammer — (Photo : Blizzard)

Even though Heroes of the Storm no longer gets new content, Blizzard still puts out minor patches to its MOBA game from time to time.

In the game's most recent update, the company has applied some adjustments to certain heroes, most notably Sgt. Hammer and Tracer.

Beware of the Mines

Sgt. Hammer is a ranged assassin hero in Heroes of the Storm. Although she is best known for her Siege Mode, Sgt. Hammer can actually deploy Spider Mines on the battlefield. As one can probably tell, these landmines can chase down enemies if they come too close.

That being said, Blizzard has made some adjustments to Sgt. Hammer's Spider Mines. For one, the damage of these mines is now affected by Abathur's Ultimate Evolution or D.Va's Defense Matrix abilities. Whenever D.Va deploys her Defense Matrix, for example, and the Spider Mines happen to detonate within its area of effect, the damage that these mines deal is reduced by 50%.

Spider Mines can last on the battlefield for 35 seconds. In the game's most recent update, the duration of these mines will continue while they are chasing down targets.

Armed and Ready

Tracer is another ranged assassin hero, but instead of relying on heavy firepower like Sgt. Hammer does, she focuses on being more mobile. She has this talent called "Locked and Loaded" where reloading at the right time will cause her basic attacks to gain a considerable damage boost until all of the bullets from that magazine are fired.

Now, when the Locked and Loaded damage boost is active, Tracer's basic attacks will be displayed as critical hits to make this buff more apparent.

Highlights

BALANCING CHANGES

Lili
- Jug of 1,000 Cups healing increased from 66 to 75.
Medivh
- Mage Armor duration increased from 4 seconds to 5 seconds.
- Mage Armor increased from 30 to 40 Armor.
Nova
- Advanced Cloaking bonus mana regen increased from 3 to 6.
- Anti-Armor Shells duration increased from 3 seconds to 4 seconds.

BUG FIXES

General
- Fixed an issue that caused Shielding to not be displayed correctly in the Death Recap.
- Fixed an issue that caused Hellbats and Gnolls to reduce the Armor of enemies before damage was dealt.
- Fixed an issue that caused Heroes that use non-standard attack abilities to display the incorrect confirmation visuals. Certain Heroes would show a red confirmation arrow instead of a green arrow when moving.
- Fixed an issue that caused place of death to reveal into nearby shrubs.
- Fixed an issue that caused player-located cooldowns to continue refreshing after a Core is destroyed.
Lost Cavern
- Fixed an issue that caused minions to grant 1 XP for being in range of them dying.

HEROES

Abathur
- Evolve Monstrosity Stacks are now a Heroic Quest. Players will now be able to see how many stacks the Monstrosity has on the scoreboard, and when it has full stacks, it will display a quest complete indicator.
- Toxic Nest is no longer triggered by Invulnerable enemies.
Ana
- Fixed an issue that caused Eye of Horus to hit Invulnerable Heroes.
Anduin
- Divine Star Sword will no longer be destroyed when leaving the base during the game start period.
Auriel
- Fixed an issue that caused Searing Light to not grant energy when hitting a Protected enemy.
Azmodan
- Fixed an issue that caused Azmodan's Demon Warriors to leave permanent burning visuals if killed at the same moment they spawn.
- Fixed an issue that caused Tide of Sin to leave visual markers at place of death.
Blaze
- Fixed an issue that caused Blaze to deal bonus damage to enemies hit by another Blaze's Flame Streams.
D.Va
- Fixed an issue that caused Nuclear Option to trigger on an already exploded Mech.
- Micro Missiles no longer hits Invulnerable targets.
Garrosh
- Unrivaled Strength bonus is now additive.