Blizzard released a patch to the PTR Tuesday that made some of the biggest changes in a long time with many talent reworks for heroes across the board, including some significant changes to Zagara.
On tuesday we examined some of the major changes happening to minion waves, as well as the significant Jaina changes coming in next week's patch. Jaina wasn't the only hero changed, however. Blizzard has made a point in trying to rework some specific heroes and particularly make more viable build options.
The new Brood Queen
Easily the most changed hero in the new patch was Zagara. She's fallen in and out of the meta recently and these changes to her kit are an attempt to give her a bit more flexibility. Previously, Zagara played very much like a sustained damage dealer and while Nydus Network was an interesting mechanic, her kit was almost entirely dependant on Devouring Maw. Multiple changes across the board have given her a new-found potential to carry many roles.
While almost all of Zagara's kit has been reworked, there are a couple major changes to point out.
- Creep Tumor (Trait)
- ?Now grants Zagara 20% bonus attack range while on Creep
- Health increased from 111 to 150
- No longer costs Mana
- Increased cast range from 0 to 2.5
- No longer grants additional ealth regeneration while on Creep
- Charge cooldown increased from 15 to 20 seconds
- Base Creep spread distance increased by 33%
One of the most powerful aspects of Zagara is her Creep. It gives the team so much visability, which in turn helps them control the map. The baseline spread distance increase is pretty significant, as well as the increase in cast range. While the cast range increase isn't all that substantial, it will allow Zagara to play safer and still get the benefits from the creep. Plust the added 20% bonus attack range while on Creep is going to make her even more of a bully in lane.
- Baneling Barrage (Q)
- ?Now fires a single baneling at a time (4 charges) at a cost of 10 mana per baneling.
- Damage per Baneling increased from 75 to 91
- Banelings no longer have health and can no longer be targeted
The baneling changes for Zagara are rather significant and will likely improve her already noteworthy laning ability. They now have a pretty decent damage increase, but more importantly they can no longer be targeted and killed. This gives her banelings more of a presence as they can't just be killed off anymore. This will make her lane presence rather hard to neglect.
Another massive change comes to her Nydus Network ultimate.
- Nydus Network (R)
- ?Passively increases your Creep spread by 25%
- Passively causes all Basic Attacks to lower cooldowns by 1 second while on Creep
- Nydus Canals can now only be placed on Creep
- Entering Nydus Canals is now cancelled by taking damage
- The channel time to enter Nydus Canal decreased from 2 to 1.5
- Health regeneration while in the network increased from 8 to 10%
- Mana regeneration while in the network increased from 8 to 10%
- Max amount of Nydus Canal's on the map increased from 4 to 10
These changes to Nydus Network will probably bring new life to this ultimate. The new added passive bonuses to Creep spread and Basic Attack cooldowns are pretty major in themselves, but there's more. The old Nydus Network only allowed for 4 Nydus Canals to be placed, and the new functionality increases that to 10. This change will make her able to be quite literally everywhere on the map. Nydus Network changes along with the newly powerful minion waves will make for some serious split-push potential. Her functionality might change from being a walking Maw to being an even bigger threat in lane. Also as a side note, damaging now cancelling the Nydus Network chanel is an interesting change that seemed needed. Yes this ultimate got exponentially more powerful, but this change alone will punish any Zagara who is overly confident.
Zagara is one of the top specialists in the game and her newfound reworks, as well as the numerous balances to her Talents will make her able to fill a lot of different roles, and should offer some interesting new ways for her to be played.
Gilneas will rise...again?
Greymane has been a pretty solid contender for one of the top assassins in the game but this patch is giving him a nice little buff in a couple of different areas. Greymane's baseline human damage was dropped a bit from 145 to 140, but almost all of his other basic skills got some sort of buff.
- Curse of the Worgen (Trait)
- ?Increased Worgen form's damage bonus from 40% to 50%
- Gilnean Cocktail (Q)
- ?Secondary explosion damage increased from 177 to 236
- Cooldown increased from 8 to 10 seconds
- Go for the Throat (R)
- ?Increased cooldown from 60 to 80 seconds
- Increased damage from 125 to 140
These three skills, minus the minor cooldown increases, got a definite power increase. Greymane is relatively squishy, considering he's a ranged assassin, so the 10% damage increase to his Worgen form offers a bit more reward for the risk. This will make players utilize this more, and hopefully show postivie results for skilled players. The buff to Gilnean Cocktail is rather large too, but this one felt necessary. Gilnean Cocktail always felt like it should do more damage so it's nice that this is finally coming about. Go for the Throat also got a damage increase that will make it a bit easier to kill targets.
The bigger changes, though, come to Marked for the Kill.
- Marked for the Kill (R)
- ?When Greymane deals damage to the Marked target, the duration of the vulnerable effect is refreshed. This can happen indefinitely
- No longer allows you to reactivate to leap to the opponent
- Reduced cooldown from 60 to 50 seconds
- Range reduced by 40%
It's hard to tell whether this is ultimately a buff or a nerf to this skill. On one hand, the potential indefinite vulnerability could be very powerful, but could also be hard to keep up. The removal of the leap is a surprising change - that seemed like one of the more alluring aspects of picking Marked for the Kill and it's an interesting change. Maybe the two skills felt too similar with this and Blizzard is trying to set them apart. The cooldown reduction is a nice bonus, but the real kicker is the 40% range reduction. It will be interesting to see if this influences players to pick it more, or pick it even less (if that was possible).
Greymane was already pretty powerful and these buffs seem to target players who will be extremely skilled on the hero.
Keep an eye out for Part 3 tomorrow where we'll break down some of the major changes to Warriors!
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