by JR Cook - 8 years ago     show comments

There were two different posts today containing sneak peaks at changes that are coming in next week’s patch.

The first was a forum post from CM Spyrian previewing tweaks to Rehgar and Nova that will go live in a patch on Tuesday, March 1st.

The Nova buffs continue with an increase to Snipe’s base damage, as well as an increase to the percentage bonus damage provided by her Snipe Master Talent.

Rehgar is getting tuned down, primarily by reducing the effectiveness of Lightning Shield and related Talents. Ancestral Healing is also getting a slight nerf, with it’s cooldown being increased from 80 to 100 seconds. Bloodlust continues to be made more and more attractive, this time by having it’s mana cost reduced significantly.

We already know that this patch will also include Xul the Necromancer, and it is safe to expect the usual assortment of quality of life improvements as well. I wouldn’t expect any other significant changes to Heroes in this patch since the EU Regional Finals is only four days later. I think that is why Blizzard has taken the unusual step of announcing these changes in advance, so the teams have at least a few more days to theory craft how they will adjust to these changes.

Speaking of quality of life changes coming in the next patch, Blizzard released a separate news article today announcing increased observer spots and an ability cooldown announcement tool.

The community has long requested additional observer slots, but the fact that Heroes is built on the Starcraft engine limited Blizzard’s ability to add more. In a bit of a surprise announcement, the number of observer slots will be increasing to six in the next patch. This will be a huge benefit to casters and organizers of community events.

The patch is also going to bring with it a tool that will allow players to share information with their team about such things as Heroic cooldowns, or the fact that they are low on health or mana. This can be done by holding down the Alt key while clicking on the relevant ability. This should be a great feature given the fast paced nature of Heroes and the fact that most players are not on voice chat together. Overwatch already has a similar feature, so players fortunate enough to be in the beta will be familiar with its usefulness.

If you would like to read these posts in their entirety simply click here to read about the Nova/Rehgar changes, or here to read about the observer and ability announcement feature.

Is it Tuesday yet?