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Medivh and Sonya revamps coming to Heroes of the Storm

League of Legends. How good is G2? (CHRISTOPHE SIMON/AFP/Getty Images)
27th February, 2018
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Blizzard have announced the newest patch for Heroes of the Storm, landing next week, will see changes in the public test realm for Medivh, the Last Guardian and Sonya, the Wandering Barbarian.

While the new patch will add a bevy of exciting new skins and sprays, it was revealed there would also be some “modernising and refreshing [of] the talents and kits” for both Medivh and Sonya.

Citing Medivh’s steep learning curve – both for those using him and those playing against him – the developers said they “wanted to add even more opportunities for players to show off their skills, while simultaneously reducing some of the frustration players can experience when playing against [him]”.

The result is sweeping changes to Medivh’s talents, talent tree and abilities.

For starters, his Arcane Rift ability has had its damage reduced from 200 to 170, but now has quest functionality in that hitting 40 enemy heroes without dying will grant Arcane Rift a permanent boost of 75 damage.

Force of Will now has a longer cooldown, going from five seconds to eight, while also having its mana cost increased from 50 to 60.

It will, however, convert one fifth of its damage dealt into HP for his allies.

Portal is also having its uptime reduced, but also getting deductions in cooldown (16 seconds, down from 20) and mana (65, from 75).

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As far as talents go, there’s been a fair bit of shuffling as far as tiers and levels go.

Winds of Celerity has been brought down to Level 1, Circle of Protection, Enduring Will and Reabsorption have been shuffled down to Level 13, while Arcane Charge and Stable Portal have been brought up to Level 16.

Cirlce of Protection is having its radius boosted from 2.5 to 3, Enduring Will will now see Force of Will’s cooldown reduced to three seconds if it absorbs 268 damage or more, Arcane Charge has had its damage bonus halved, while Stable Portal reduces Portal’s cooldown by 25% and increases its duration by 50%.

If that wasn’t enough, some of Medivh’s talents are being replaced, with Bird’s Eye View, The Master’s Touch, Quickening and Astral Projection all being removed in favour of new talents.

Those new talents include Mystic Assault, a Level 7 ability that allows Medivh’s basic attack to deal 40 per cent more damage and heal for 40 per cent of the damage dealt if performed within six seconds of Arcane Rift hitting an enemy hero.

Force of Magic, also a Level 7, will see Medivh gain 20 per cent more spell power for 12 seconds if Force of Will prevents 268 or more damage.

The other new talent, Temporal Flux, can be earned at Level 16, and sees Medivh’s heroic cooldown reduced by one second for a basic attack or three seconds for hitting an enemy hero with Arcane Rift.

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But that’s still not all, with several of Medivh’s existing talents also getting minor reworks, while both his health scaling and health regeneration have been boosted from four per cent per level to 4.5.

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While her abilities are being left alone, Sonya is also receiving a host of talent changes and is also seeing a whopping ten talents removed to make way for six new ones.

In Sonya’s case, the developers felt her metagame was quite stale, claiming they noticed “very little wiggle room in what’s generally considered her default talent path.”

The changes to her infamously common abilites are minimal, with Ignore Pain having its armour reduced by 15 and Nerves of Steel actually going unchanged, but the new talents will hopefully allow for “interesting opportunities for poking opponents in lane, or dishing out tons of damage in a teamfight.”

Block, Focused Attack, Mercenary Lord, Follow Through, Ferocious Healing, Aftershock, Spell Shield, Imposing Presence, Anger Management and Nexus Blades have all been shown the door in a comprehensive rework for the Diablo character.

Her new abilites include the passive Level 1 talent Tough as Nails. This new early-game option sees Sonya gain a stack of block that grants 75 physical armour against the next basic hero attack every 12 seconds.

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Up to three charges of this armour can be stored at once, while its cooldown plummets while Fury is active.

At Level 4, she has a new option in Battle Rage, which passively increases damage dealt to mercenaries by 25 per cent and, when activated, heals ten per cent of Sonya’s maximum HP.

Once again, this talent can store three charges.

The new Level 13 talent is Ruthless, which will see Whirlwind deal 50 more damage to heroes sitting on a third or less for their HP, while two new options are available at Level 16 in Giant Slammer and Rampage.

The former sees Seismic Slam deal an additional two percent of the hero’s maxium HP as damage, while the latter is a passive that increases basic attack damage by 25 per cent and sees basic attacks decrease Ancient Spear’s cooldown by 0.75 seconds.

Striding Giant, the new Level 20 talent, sees Sonya become Unstoppable for two seconds upon activation, while also seeing Wrath of the Berserker increase maximum health by ten per cent and activate Striding Giant too.

Like Medivh, Sonya is also getting several minor changes to existing talents, while some of her talents have moved tiers too.

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If that sounds like a lot of changes for one patch – it is.

That said, fan reaction to the announcement post on the game’s blog was very positive, with the only criticism being that Medivh will remain in the specialist category, where many fans believe he should be support.

You’ll be able to try out these reworks when the patch hits next week.

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