History GameBreaker / HeroesOfTheStorm

* Valla was reworked in 2021 and had many of her Talents adjusted: her Multishot build is safest but weakest; Hungering Arrow is strong against minions and monsters; and her auto-attack build is a DeathOrGloryAttack playstyle since it uses one of the new "Gambit" talents in which you get a permanent boost but lose a portion of it ''permanently'' every time you die. But her Lv.20 auto-attack Talent gives her a major boost to attack range, to the point that she can ''potentially outrange Sgt. Hammer''. When combined with Manticore percent damage and other auto-attack talents, this build can be absurdly powerful and safe.

* Medivh is a highly unusual character with a laundry list of tools that should easily be considered amazing to any experienced player: A line skillshot that has very little cooldown as long as it hits an enemy hero; a shield which makes an ally or himself ''temporarily immune to damage'' and heals them for some of the damage they would have taken; setting {{Portal Door}}s for some incredible mobility; an ultimate that renders a target helpless aside from movement and probably forces nearby enemies to leave them to their fate for those two seconds lest it render them just as helpless soon too; a different ultimate that just stops enemies from existing for three seconds and can allow Medivh to steal mercenary and boss camps against entire enemy teams on his own; and even his mounted trait can allow him to fly over and see whatever he wants on the map while being totally invincible (and render him unable from doing a lot more than that while in the form, but still...). Making use of these tools and completing his quest -- which requires not dying until it's done -- must be quite difficult, because Medivh has one of the lowest global winrate in the game and only approaches a positive winrate at the higher ranks in the game. That said, in the right hands he is devastatingly powerful.

* Garrosh for the first few months of his release. Not only was he a generally strong tank, he had one the most punishing kits in the game. His Wrecking Ball was (and remains) a nightmare for any melee hero. Point, click, chuck an enemy to a target location, usually in the middle of your team or into your fort. The only downsides are its targeting system (it picks the nearest ''enemy'', with no priorities over heroes) and its puny grabbing range. The first problem can be alleviated by not fighting in lane, and the second was automatically made up for with the old version of Groundbreaker. While Groundbreaker ''is'' a pretty narrow skillshot, all you had to do was land it once to score a free kill. Compared to fellow displacement tanks Artanis and Stitches, Garrosh had less risks and was far less telegraphed, while also having the most rewarding displacement of the three. It was a nightmare to deal with.
** This lead to an almost total redesign, giving him far lower cooldowns so he's not just a one-trick but removing the pull effect from Groundbreaker entirely. Now he's more focused on personal positioning to land stuns and engage properly, although he still can make major plays with Wrecking Ball. This makes him ''far'' easy to handle.

* Maiev was an absolute monster at launch. Despite being touted as an anti-mobility hero, she did little to quell Genji's power[[labelnote:*]]he can very easily counter her "anti-mobility tools" by walking into Warden's Cage or out of Umbral Bind to break them and ''then'' dashing away[[/labelnote]]. Instead, she became another highly mobile assassin, this time capable of teamwide displacement, and with insane survivability and high damage. She terrorized non-mobile squishies, Blinking up to them, binding them to her, then yoinking them directly into her team. Add in a crap-pile of health, ten passive Armor, and an invulnerability button on an '''eight''' second cooldown, and Maiev was essentially unpunishable. It was so bad, Blizzard broke their "don't touch balance for at least two weeks so the meta settles" rule in only two days - issuing an emergency nerf that lowered her damage and outright removed her Armor. Later nerfs gutted her damage output, leaving her a high-skill (and still very desirable) CC monster.

* Falstad ascended to the top of the tier lists after his early-2021 rework due to the power of his ''Lightning Rod'' build. ''Lightning Rod'' zaps a target up to seven times if you manage to keep that target within the skill's radius. The opening talent alone is broken: in addition to being a stacking talent, it ''resets the skill's cooldown'' if you get a takedown, meaning Falstad can just use it ''again''. Add to this the fact that Falstad is relatively maneuverable -- he has a DashAttack, ''Barrel Roll'', on E, and his Trait increases his movespeed if he hasn't taken damage for a few seconds -- and you have an oppressive hero who essentially has an InstantDeathRadius.

* Every character's been accused of this at some point or another, but special mention must be given to Nova (whose combination of stealth, range, and fast/high damage can destroy unprepared teams, killing players almost before they can react in some cases) and Abathur (who's difficult to play, but very effective, particularly against teams who haven't figured out how he operates) towards the end of the alpha. Blizzard responded to this by nerfing both of them into TierInducedScrappy status at the beginning of the beta, with Thrall seemingly taking their place as a highly complained-about strong character... then nerfed him to ground while Kael'thas reigns as the king of meta, thanks to his high [=AoE=] burst designed to melt down team fights, and apparently, a patch that removed one of his key Talents to do so (Ignite) ''wasn't enough to bring him down yet.'' His only contenders so far (overpowered hero release) are just Li-Ming and Xul (see below), but in spite of that, Kael'thas is still sitting on top of the meta throne.

* Genji was pretty much single-handedly responsible for breaking the entire ''metagame'', easily dethroning Kael'thas as the king of the meta. He's probably the single best diver in the entire game, with nearly unrivaled mobility that lets him easily rip squishy backlines apart and heavily punish enemy slip-ups while being nigh-impossible to punish thanks to ''Deflect''. He also has a good amount of teamfight presence with his ''Dragonblade'' Heroic letting him dish out huge amounts of area damage; with his level 20 talent, ''The Dragon Becomes Me'', he can keep ''Dragonblade'' active almost ''indefinitely'' as long as he can keep hitting heroes with it. All of this pretty much [[CharacterSelectForcing forced most teams to run double Supports and made squishy backline heroes almost extinct, just so that Genji doesn't tear them a new one]]. Even after being nerfed significantly and repeatedly, he was still a guaranteed pick/ban for quite a while - the fact that Blizzard released an entire hero (Maiev) just to counter dive heroes like Genji should speak volumes. Eventually he was nerfed enough that he had one of the worst win-rates in the game and having him on your team is considered a sign of defeat; but considering his previous aforementioned state, many players express that they have no problem with this whatsoever.

* Medivh is a highly unusual character with a laundry list of tools that should easily be considered amazing to any experienced player: A line skillshot that has very little cooldown as long as it hits an enemy hero; a shield which makes an ally or himself ''temporarily immune to damage'' and heals them for some of the damage they would have taken; setting {{Portal Door}}s for some incredible mobility; an ultimate that renders a target helpless aside from movement and probably forces nearby enemies to leave them to their fate for those two seconds lest it render them just as helpless soon too; a different ultimate that just stops enemies from existing for three seconds and can allow Medivh to steal mercenary and boss camps against entire enemy teams on his own; and even his mounted trait can allow him to fly over and see whatever he wants on the map while being totally invincible (and render him unable from doing a lot more than that while in the form, but still...). Making use of these tools and completing his quest -- which requires not dying until it's done -- must be quite difficult, because Medivh has one of the lowest global win-rates in the game and only approaches a positive winrate at the higher ranks in the game. That said, in the right hands he is devastatingly powerful.

* Samuro can be an absolute terror. He's like a melee-range hybrid of Valla and Nova: the more he hits, the faster he hits and moves; and he can spawn illusory-but-still-damage-dealing copies of himself & turn invisible to escape or position for a kill. If you're sharp, you can tell which of the copies is the real one -- it's the one who acts as though his HitPoints matter -- but when all three of them literally spawn on top of you, with full HP, in the midst of a teamfight, it can be hard to be that sharp. In the meanwhile, all three of them: get attack- and move-speed buffs every time they hit a hero (which can be strengthened by Talents); deliver Critical Strike (double damage) every few attacks (which can ''also'' be strengthened by Talents); and ''are tangible'', meaning they can body-block you into a corner. He will almost certainly be nerfed, hovering at a 62% win-rate as of this writing.

* Medivh is a highly unusual character with a laundry list of tools that should easily be considered amazing to any experienced player: A line skillshot that has very little cooldown as long as it hits an enemy hero; a shield which makes an ally or himself ''temporarily immune to damage'' and heals them for some of the damage they would have taken; setting {{Portal Door}}s for some incredible mobility; an ultimate that renders a target helpless aside from movement and probably forces nearby enemies to leave them to their fate for those two seconds lest it render them just as helpless soon too; a different ultimate that just stops enemies from existing for three seconds and can allow Medivh to steal mercenary and boss camps against entire enemy teams on his own; and even his mounted trait can allow him to fly over and see whatever he wants on the map while being totally invincible (and render him unable from doing a lot more than that while in the form, but still...). Making use of these tools and completing his quest -- which requires not dying until it's done -- must be quite difficult, because Medivh has one of the lowest global win-rates in the game and only approaches a positive win-rate at the higher ranks in the game. That said, in the right hands he is devastatingly powerful.

* After his nerfs, Murky had the lowest win rate of all heroes in ranked play, and as a result, tended to get a lot of hate. Good Murky players existed, but people were generally better off picking other heroes. His rework on the Lucio Patch, on the other hand, made him the most overpowered thing since Xul (see above), with effectively no weaknesses and a plethora of abilities that essentially negated all counterplay. It upped his respawn time by an extra 3 seconds, but also greatly increased his health pool, giving him more time to escape from a gank with Safety Bubble. He also received many new, extremely powerful talents. Even if you did take him down, he was still worth a measly 25% XP and respawned shortly after. Most of his talents were nerfed to a more reasonable level by the Probius patch though, keeping him viable, but not unbeatable.

* Deathwing was released as an utter pubstomper. He is completely unhealable, and while he has a ton of HitPoints and armor, he's very weak to percentage-based damage and coordinated play... which are purely matters of the RandomNumberGod matchmaker when you're playing Quick Match. Meanwhile, he is ''permanently'' immune to all forms of crowd control. In a game where Tank characters have HitPoints, CC and ''nothing else'', this has the side effect of turning one (or more!) of your five teammates into TheLoad. (Diablo and Anub'arak are two of the best tanks in the game because two of their three Basic Abilities provide crowd control... and thus ''cannot be used'' on Deathwing. They literally must fight him one-handed.) It's now a 4v5... and in ''[=HotS=]'', outnumbering the enemy is an almost-insurmountable advantage. Meanwhile Deathwing is furnished with a kit that lets him hang back and poke; even if the opponent ''could'' win a 4v5 fight, the Deathwing player is not required to offer them one, and can simply win through attrition. The devs are on record as wanting Deathwing players to feel like they can steamroll the entire enemy team singlehandedly. [[GoneHorriblyRight They succeeded]], resulting in a character who boasts a ''62.4% win rate'' in QM, and a similarly-lopsided 59.1% in ranked play.

* Medivh is a highly unusual character with a laundry list of tools that should easily be considered amazing to any experienced player: A line skillshot that has very little cooldown as long as it hits an enemy hero, making an ally or himself ''temporarily immune to damage'' and heals them for some of the damage they would of taken, setting down two portals that can allow himself and any teammate to go into them for some incredible mobility, an ultimate that renders a target helpless aside from movement and probably forces nearby enemies to leave them to their fate for those two seconds lest it render them just as helpless soon too, a different ultimate that just stops enemies from existing for three seconds and can allow Medivh to steal mercenary and boss camps against entire enemy teams on his own, and even his mounted trait can allow him to fly over and see whatever he wants on the map while being totally invincible (and render him unable from doing a lot more than that while in the form, but still...). Obviously, making use of these tools and completing his quest which requires not dying until it's done is quite difficult because Medivh has one of the lowest global win-rates in the game and only approaches a positive win-rate at the higher ranks in the game.

* Genji was pretty much single-handedly responsible for breaking the entire ''metagame'', easily dethroning Kael'thas as the king of the meta. He's probably the single best diver in the entire game, with nearly unrivaled mobility that lets him easily rip squishy backlines apart and heavily punish enemy slip-ups while being nigh-impossible to punish thanks to ''Deflect''. He also has a good amount of teamfight presence with his ''Dragonblade'' Heroic letting him dish out huge amounts of area damage; with his level 20 talent, ''The Dragon Becomes Me'', he can keep ''Dragonblade'' active almost ''indefinitely'' as long as he can keep hitting heroes with it. All of this pretty much [[CharacterSelectForcing forced most teams to run double Supports and made squishy backline heroes almost extinct, just so that Genji doesn't tear them a new one]]. Even after being nerfed significantly and repeatedly, he's still a guaranteed pick/ban, with no signs of slowing down. The fact that Blizzard released an entire hero (Maiev) just to counter dive heroes like Genji should speak volumes.

* Falstad ascended to the top of the tier lists after his early-2021 rework due to the power of his ''Lightning Rod'' build. ''Lightning Rod'' zaps a target up to seven times if you manage to keep that target within the skill's radius. The opening talent alone is broken: in addition to being a stacking talent, it ''resets the skill's cooldown'' if you get a takedown, meaning Falstad can just use it ''again''. Add to this the fact that Falstad is relatively maneuverable -- he has a DashAttack, ''Barrel Roll'', on E, and his Trait increases his movespeed if he hasn't taken damage for a few seconds -- and you have an oppressive hero who essentially has an InstantDeathRadius.

* Li-Ming has gained this status since her release and is been dubbed the most overpowered hero in the entire game. To elaborate why, she has three abilities: Magic Missile, Teleport, and Arcane Orb. Magic Missile is a very useful poke based attack that is a instant cast and will prioritize hitting enemy heroes when they're near; Teleport allows her to escape fights and with the right talent can allow her to deal damage; and Arcane Orb throws out a small orb that increases in size, is fast, and if it hits it stuns and knocks you up for a second. Her passive ability automatically refreshes all her cooldowns with a kill. [[UpToEleven Think about that for a second]]. Making this even worse is how one of her heroics, called [[NamesToRunAwayFrom Disintegrate]], is a [[DeathByAThousandCuts ridiculously fast and powerful]] KamehameHadoken. A Li-Ming player can kill most heroes with simply combing Magic Missiles, Arcane Orb, and Disintegrate. Her two primary weaknesses are her abilities using up a lot of mana and her being a SquishyMage but both are easily manageable as she gets very powerful talents that can increase her mana regeneration by [[FromBadToWorse 100%]] if she's below half mana. Her talents all increase various parts of her abilities, including allowing Teleport to deal upwards of 500 damage for being near when she hits her spot or, the one players most hate, is her talent Ess of Johan, which makes Arcane Orb, when it damages a enemy, drag the enemy to the center. All of these, combined with her ability to spam heroics when no other hero can, has made her seen as the most broken hero in the games history right after Kael'thas. Li-Ming was so broken in fact, that Blizzard's {{Nerf}} for her in the Patch Notes out right states she was "[[{{Understatement}} a little too strong right now]]" and reduced many of her most game breaking talents, with Ess Of Johan being outright removed as well (much like Kael lost his Ignite). However, she looks less broken with the release of Tracer, not because she got nerfed but simply because [[AchillesHeel Tracer counters her]]. ''Hard''. The same goes for Genji as well, who can even cause Li-Ming to self-destruct (more-or-less) if he times his Deflect to counter her Disintegrate.
* Xul is pretty much what every overpowered hero wishes they could be. He's capable at doing almost everything, being durable enough to take a lot punishment with his Bone Armor and a health pool almost equivalent to Anub'arak's, able to push down waves and forts quickly due to the combination of his spells and passive, and having the damage and crowd control to contribute to ganks and fights very well. That's all combined with very varied and great talents that allow him to be extremely flexible with his builds. Even with his notable flaws, such as a lack of escape and gap-closers and his reliance on his team to get his spells off and fight effectively, he very quickly climbed to the top during the week of his release, and, as of this writing, has the highest winrate in the entire game, with his most popular builds maintaining above a ''70%'' winrate '''and climbing'''. His [[{{Nerf}} nerfs]] two weeks after his release, which brought him more in line with the other heroes without making him useless, were well received by the fanbase.

* Deathwing was released as an utter pubstomper. He is completely unhealable, and while he has a ton of HitPoints and armor, he's very weak to percentage-based damage and coordinated play... which are purely matters of the RandomNumberGod matchmaker when you're playing Quick Match. Meanwhile, he is ''permanently'' immune to all forms of crowd control. In a game where Tank characters have HitPoints, CC and ''nothing else'', this has the side effect of turning one (or more!) of your five teammates into TheLoad. (Diablo and Anub'arak are two of the best tanks in the game because two of their three Basic Abilities provide crowd control... and thus ''cannot be used'' on Deathwing. They literally must fight him one-handed.) It's now a 4v5... and in ''[=HotS=]'', outnumbering the enemy is an almost-insurmountable advantage. Meanwhile Deathwing is furnished with a kit that lets him hang back and poke; even if the opponent ''could'' win a 4v5 fight, the Deathwing player is not required to offer them one, and can simply win through attrition. The devs are on record as wanting Deathwing players to feel like they can steamroll the entire enemy team singlehandedly. [[GoneHorriblyRight They succeeded]], resulting in a character who boasts a ''62.4% win rate'' in QM, and a similarly-lopsided 59.1% in ranked play.

* ''Overwatch'' characters in general can be somewhat problematic. Where the ''VideoGame/{{Diablo}}'' universe focuses on {{Stone Wall}}s, ''VideoGame/StarCraft'' on {{Glass Cannon}}s and ''VideoGame/{{Warcraft}}'' on {{Mechanically Unusual Fighter}}s, ''Overwatch'' specializes in {{Fragile Speedster}}s; as of Junkrat's release into the Nexus, 75% of them of them have one (or more!) enhanced movement ability. That doesn't sound like much of a problem until we start talking about just how prevalent manually-aimed skillshots are in {{MOBA}}s, and how valuable mobility is as a result. You can't kill what you can't hit... and most ''Overwatch'' characters are ''very'' slippery.

** In 2017 the metagame developed to favor double-support compositions, as this allowed teams to quickly and efficiently recover from misplays. In the same vein, double-tank became prominent, resulting in a team that had just one Assassin on it. While this state of affairs wouldn't necessarily be a problem in ''VideoGame/LeagueOfLegends'' or ''VideoGame/Dota2'', ''Heroes'' is a game about combat; ''40%'' of all characters in the game are Assassins (30 of them, 19 Warriors, 14 Supports, 12 Specialists), and there are four or five other DPS characters masquerading as other classes. Despite this, only two of them were getting picked per match... and they were always "hyper-carries" who could reliably deliver an entire team's worth of damage ([[EscortMission if properly babysat]]), of which there are less than 10. Meanwhile, at least 25% of the Warrior and Support pool were present in every match, as though being overrun by a bunch of {{Fake Guest Star}}s. Finally, almost all Supports are {{Combat Medic}}s in one way or another; pound-for-pound, they are actually [[http://us.battle.net/heroes/en/blog/21273600/developer-insights-double-support-team-compositions-11-27-2017 more powerful]] than Heroes from the other categories. The end result was that the same 20 or so Heroes comprised the entire character roster at the 2017 Heroes Global Championship, with the other 55 ignored except for in very rare cases. Blizzard's response was to simply ''nerf every Healer in the game'' by about 5%. One wonders whether their next move will be to nerf Warriors as well, since a real solution -- releasing nothing but Warriors and Supports until there are as many of those as there are Assassins -- would require Hanzo (released Dec 2017) to be the last new Assassin until ''June 2020''.