Patch 1.4.2 Changes, Discuss!

Here are my thoughts on the patch:
 
Wraith buff: Nice change that will give the wraith a bit more survivability early on.  I'm interested to hear whether the shining helm and soulstone now give the wraith plus 80 hp.  That extra 30 hp doesn't sound like much but it will bring the 1350 hp barrier into play on a more frequent basis.
 
Paladin nerf: very situational nerf.  now that it essentially takes 1000 damage to kill an unupgraded paladin it makes them a bit more vulnerable early on.  It also now takes exactly 1800 damage to kill a fully upgraded paladin surrounded by her two brethren so it at least gives a 450 damage attacker a fighting chance if they have a scroll.  Not the change I would have made cause I think dwarves need more stability early on and a weaker late game but it will weaken a strong team nonetheless.
 
Heavy Nerf: I think this will have the least impact of all the changes.  mainly makes him more killable in the mirror matchup and lets a sworded chieftan or witch take him out in one meat shot and one more hit.  i personally didn't think the heavy needed a nerf as he's one of the few TF2 units with staying power.
 
Sniper nerf: perfect nerf as everyone before has been saying.  TF2 has enough high attack units without snipers being an auto jarate kill.
 
Monk buff: I personally would have preferred a resist buff to make him more of a wall but that may just be my personal playstyle creeping in.  Obviously this makes it easier to slap debuffs on key units without outright sacrifcing the monk everytime.  He definitely needed some sort of buff.
 
Poisoner buff: I was pretty surprised that they chose to buff the poisoner as well mainly because it goes against the combo flavor of the team.  This change should result in significantly better shaolin results so I don't have a huge problem with it.
 
Overall, I think dwarves and TF2 will probably still be a bit better but not by quite as much while I think the other 4 teams should play pretty evenly now.
 

I don't like the TF2 nerfs. I haven't been in an instance where I wished my heavy to have 1200 health back, but I loved chipping units with Sniper. If they don't have a healer; then free 400 damage. I can understand how cheap it is, but in my opinion, compared to the other teams and their respective strategies, it seemed balance. I admit, jarate, sniper, and scout seemed OP, but I find every faction has cheap tactics to them. I always cringed when my fully upgraded Ninja was stomped by Inferno, or a fully upgraded Void Monk gets healed from that AOE right next to my units. I'm OK with it now, 'cause I'm starting to see that's how the game is. Dealing 430 damage to a team where healers only heal 400 seemed like a good turn to me. Free 30 damage. Now, doing 350 seems like a worthless turn. I just bought the game two months ago, so I don't know what'll be balanced or not. I'm no expert; no professional player when I say this, but it's just an opinion; input, on the update. Everyone is entitled to their opinion.
And with the new changes to the map with the Speed Tile, if the player goes first, he/she can easily assert dominance over the tile. A simple two ranged unit can control it on the first turn, and then use it at ease. I personally didn't mind the two speed tiles next to the crystal prior to the update, but reading other people's opinions, I can see why. Judging by the Dwarve's Team Bonus, I can see how balancing the whole map would be an issue.

I very much dislike the way they updated it... ( i will probably change my opinion later.) but the paladan has 900 hp! Why? no unit ever has 900 hp always 650, 800, 1000. And if they change that now then where will they fall back on. Just some random number that fixes everything. (im being sarcastic but its also true) i mean sure this can balance some things but whatever happened to it following the rules but i like the hp decrease rather than anything else about the paladin it would changes the way the strategy or tactics of the dwarves pretty drastically, so overall i actual think its a plus i just dont like the way they did it.
And the sniper! Now what the heck is the point of the sniper. When the heck will you need more than 100 hp and less then 250. And in which the less than 250 is in your line of fire. And what the heck is the hp reduced to 1100 going to do with the sniper debuff? Honestly the 1100 does nothing for 200, 300, 450 damage. Tf2 is made of 9 units, 2 of each. So changing just 2 units i dont think is enough because not one unit is op. So i think that what they did to tf2 dull and pointless. This is a minus.
The new wraith update now made the dark elves my least fav team. I only liked them because they were unique and very different. With the stupid hp buff there just like all the other units but way less extreme and more op. Now i can foresee a balance change and dark elves will be the ones that are op. This is probably a minus... I thought the dark elves as a team was pretty good, and balanced. But adding this i think is screwing up everything good the dark elves had. So its a minus.
I do appreciate the bug fixes very much. And the shaolin fixes but i do think they are incomplete, and need so tiny tweaks. The poisoner did need a boost. But the windblade will need changing. And maybe even the combos they receive. But i would say this portion is a plus.
Overall i like this update but i did not like some of the "balance" parts of the update i appreciate the bug fixes, because it seemed like HA was falling into pieces, and now its starting to come back.

I remember writing somewhere here weeks ago something like: "Within 24 hours of the next balance adjustment, we'll be whining again." 
 
But I am really surprised at the quantity of moaning.  This is a significant balance adjustment. It may not change the order much but it does compress the extremes. They were being cautious, and I'm glad.
 
I would like to hear their reasoning about poisoner though. Do they have a theory that one powerful unit (poisoner) and one feable unit (windblade) makes more interesting game-play than two solid units? I guess it does increase volatility, giving a poor player a better chance of beating a better player.
 
Any other arguments you can think of?
 
An example of the balance adjustment's significance: Monk debuff on paladin now makes her very killable. (It just turned the tables in a game I'm playing.)
 

I'm glad they didn't go overboard, but I'm afraid of how long shaolin patch 2.0 will take if this isn't enough. 
 
Screw you dwarves. Hope you're at least a fun match now rather than an unmovable wall. You too tf2!

Wiz also gets access to scroll, so a sworded wiz chain lighting + inferno can be pretty brutal. Combo pots, slightly more meh.

Yeah, I agree with you there.... All of DW's units strike fear into my heart too, btw. >.>

Am i the only one that is giving less and less equipments on my archers and ninjas and start to focus alot more on knights, wizards and clerics?

Found that having more 300dmg units is lovely to have. And when they get the upgrades instead they will become the focused targets. So when they die you will have ninjas and archers left anyways to provide dmg. The equipping still depends alot on the situation tho :)

Wizards are a little situational, but certainly much better than Windblade.  Windblade is perhaps the least valuable unit of any team except TF2 which is a special case.  
 
Demomen are awesome and routinely win games, so yeah, as Writch or Adaza said, if they arent awesome for you, you arent doing it right.  I mean, they arent necessarily going to have a huge roll every single game, they are not like the archer in that way, but they are fairly commonly the MVP.  

Fair enough. I'll give the Demoman plenty of credit on the Shaolin map and the middle sword tile map. 3 range is always nice there.

I'm a little surprised that the patch applied to games ALREADY IN PROGRESS. I had guys sitting on a movement tile, not they are on it no longer. I had a fully loaded paladin in range of a poisoner. Now because of the buffs and nerfs he is at risk! This change really shifted 2 of my in progress games. I would have liked to see the patch apply to new games only...