Top 5 Buffed Heroes - Post Scaling Patch

Today our Heroes of the Storm Boost team will talk about the latest changes in our favourite MOBA, and about how they changed the meta. As you know, there were a lot of changes in the scaling of health and damage: this means that the old tier list are probably outdated since many heroes are now stronger and other are weaker.

While waiting for our definitive HotS tier list for this patch, we decided to offer you this guide about the heroes that will mostly benefit from these changes. Our boosters are wondering how the next hero Lunara will perform and how these changes will influence her, but it’s hard to say it before her release. Anyway, let’s take a closer look at a few heroes that are definitely stronger in the new patch.

Thrall

Thrall wasn’t really strong according to our old HotS tier list because he was way too weak early game. However after the new changes his main problem was fixed and he is definitely in a good spot now: he has a lot of early game power and is pretty good at roaming. Now our Heroes of the Storm Boost team recommends the Windfury build for the late game: with all the tweaks Thrall is now able to burst down an enemy squishy from full health with a single rotation if he can hit his Sundering ability.

What really made Thrall viable are the buffs to his health points. Now he is tankier in the early game, so he can abuse his Frostwolf Resilience. This means that he can stay in lane soaking experience safely, even if he can’t push effectively or pressure the enemies he will still be able to defend his structures. Don’t forget that he is not a tier 1 hero because of his mana issues and the lack of a good gap closer or dash: anyway he has a lot of strengths and he is well worth playing.

Tychus

Tychus was a tier 3 hero according to our old Heroes of the Storm tier list: sure, he had an incredible burst, but his high damage was not enough to make viable because of his short range. He was outclassed by many other ranged assassin with lower burst but more range, since safety is always a priority.

Well, the patch didn’t change his range but increased his damage and his health pool. This means that his powerful burst is even scarier now, and he has more survivability on top of that. If you add the structures nerfs to this picture and you won’t be surprised to see a Tychus destroying a building in a matter of seconds in the mid-late game. Sure, he still has his weaknesses, but his cores strengths were increased so much to make him viable again.

According to our HotS Boost team, Tychus was also in a bad spot because of Raynor’s popularity, but since the meta has changed he will probably be picked more often with great success.

Diablo

Diablo is another warrior who had a lot of problems before the patch: finally now he is viable again and our HotS Boost Team predicts that he will become a contested pick in this new meta after the warrior rebalance.

As you know, Diablo is a tank that benefits a lot from having a big health pool in order to maximize the value of his Soulstone. After the new patch is not unusual to see a Diablo with 7k health (yeah, 7000 health, no joke) in the late game (with proper talents, of course). This means that he gets an incredible sustain thanks to his Soulstone, becoming almost impossible to kill and creating havoc in the enemy team. Good luck killing that.

What really makes Diablo shines is the new meta is the fact that he deals a surprising amount of damage with his auto attacks while also having great tankiness and good crowd controls in his kit. Yeah, you read it right, with Lightning Breath Diablo can deal an absurd amount of damage while being still tanky and with great utility. He is no longer the classical low damage, high tankiness warrior but his kit is really complete now.

The attack and health buffs surely improved Diablo’s power, making him definitely a tier one hero in our Heroes of the Storm tier list, maybe even overpowered.

Illidan

Illidan is another hero that will might make a comeback in popularity after the new patch. Before the changes many Illidan players asked us, during our HotS Duo Queue Boosting session, why Illidan wasn’t played a lot. Well, he had a common problem: like many other melee assassins, his early game was terrible. Despite having a good mid and late game, he basically wasn’t worth picking because of how little pressure he can apply in the early game, when he can be bullied easily.

Well, if Diablo has been buffed mainly because of the health increase, Illidan really likes the extra damage added in the patch. As you know, Illidan needs to auto attack not only to deal damage, but also to heal using his passive. Having more damage means that he kills enemy faster and heals for a surprising amount: he is ultimate duelist.

If you remember its state before this patch, he used to be played only in certain comp where there was another hero buffing him. Without some extra damage provided by an ally, he almost felt useless. Now he doesn’t need that anymore and is a strong independent hero fitting in almost any composition. Illidan is definitely strong now and can make some crazy play with proper team coordination: he can literally backdoor the enemy core using his Demon Form talent, so watch out for cheesy plays if you have him on the enemy team... or just start playing him yourself!

Sgt. Hammer

Finally we have a specialist on this list: Sgt. Hammer. She became pretty strong thanks to the changes: the extra tankiness is really useful, but the real change is the increase in damage. Before this patch, her main problem was that her damage in non siege mode was really, really low (and the lack of a mount). After the changes, her damage is decent, especially when sieging: during our HotS Duo Queue Boost sessions we tried recently a comp based around protecting Sgt. Hammer while she was sieging.

Needless to say, our little specialist was able to destroy the new, weaker buildings in a matter of seconds. If you have the right team comp and enough peeling from your team, turtling is pretty easy and rewarding in the late game. However keep in mind that in the new meta there are a lot of heroes with long stuns and hard engages that can punish Sgt. Hammer instantly if she is out of position: playing her means either way relying on your team mates for peeling or having a perfect positioning all the time. However, she is so strong that it’s worth to take a calculated risk.



If you liked our article, check our site in the next few days for more guides and news about the next HotS heroes Lunara announced at Blizzcon.