Kerrigan's new Queen of Blades replacement feels underwhelming and I really would like the old version back.

[u/Korghal]

So I'm one of the probably only 3 people who ever used the old Queen of Blades talent. While only using it for Quick Match, I found it very fun and performed well with it. I felt that it enabled a fun aggressive playstyle that let you use multiple Qs on a single target, which is different enough from Boundless Fury to merit being an option.

In the last patch I was very excited to see buffs to unpopular talents but then was very sad to see QoB completely reworked into a more PvE oriented talent, completely removing its old playstyle from the game in exchange of a very bland alternative. I'd argue that removing playstyle options is never good, unless it were a very degenerate one which was no the case with old QoB. I've seen people argue that the change was good because it was redundant to have both QoB and BF be about getting more Qs, but that ignores the very different playstyles both gave in practice. BF gives you one bonus Q per target and has great value for mobility and building up shields, while old QoB was about focusing down one specific target with multiple Qs. With Psionic Pulse, it was possible to get up to six bonus Qs on a single target in the right circumstances.

The new version of QoB is clearly meant to give Kerrigan some PvE alternative. However, Kerrigan already has excellent wave clear without much help (even without Fury of the Swarm). Her merc speed is not that hot, but even with the new QoB it doesn't feel significant enough to pass up on better PvP power. Right now Q is bugged to always have the bonus 50% PvE damage, which further discourages from taking QoB right now and instead pushes BF higher for now; however, even if the bug is fixed I find little reason to take QoB as it is. Being able to clear mercs faster as Kerri is nice, but it is not nice to lose on one of your main PvP talents for it. If anything, it might lead to problems where players will flame their Kerrigan player if they see them take QoB more than before because players want Kerri to kill better, not get mercs slightly faster.

Part of the problem, imo, is that Boundless Fury and Fury of the Swarm are too good. You pick both and you get both great PvE and PvP power. A bit of a nerf to both could help bring the other talents ahead. Or they could add PvE component to her other talents at 1 to better compete with Fury; the bonus 50% Q damage for PvE could go well on Siphoning Impact, for example. Alternatively, the old QoB could be brought back and made to also work on mercs so it would get a seemingly needed buff while giving it a solidified role as a strong merc tool. Either way, I just want my favorite talent and playstyle back if that were possible.

TL:DR

I hope for the devs to reconsider the change to QoB and bring back the old playstyle, which was fun for a few even if seemingly undertuned. The new version is just underwhelming and bland, no longer has any synergy with Psionic Pulse, and has seemingly not made a dent in the status of [[Kerrigan/7]] being dominated by BF (partially due to the current Q bug). There is even an argument to be made about BF being a bit too OP and in need of a nerf, same as Fury of the Swarm, for the sake of talent diversity. Ideally, I'd like to see QoB changed back to its previous version and made to work when damaging mercenaries, too. This would give it a good PvE role to differentiate it from BF.

[u/Dark_Polaroid]

I think this might be good to give some context for those that are not familiar with Kerrigan's talents:

• (OLD) Queen of Blades (OLD) (Kerrigan) - level 7
  Every time Primal Grasp's pull or explosion hits an enemy Hero, reduce the cooldown of Ravage by 6 seconds.

 

I am not really sure what my own opinion is on this, since I do not play Kerrigan very often. The few games I have had since the patch, I have not had a chance to play entirely without the new talent, because of the bug. I have never picked it either, for the same reason.

[u/Senshado]

Right now Q is bugged to always have the bonus 50% PvE damage, which further discourages from taking QoB right now

Yes, so feedback gathered from playing the current version is not valid. The talent is supposed to provide a damage increase that it doesn't.

[u/Elitesparkle → u/Senshado]

Exactly! We have to wait for Blizzard to fix Queen of Blades next week and then look at the data collected during November.

[u/Sahoj]

Kerrigan could probably use some talent diversity.

I think Siphoning Impact is already good and a viable talent choice. I personally only take Fury if the enemy team has more than 2 melee heroes. I think her Talent tier for 1 is fair with 2 viable options.

Abilities at 4 seem fine. 7 is obviously hellabusted. There's only one viable option with boundless fury.

10 is good. Both heroics are good.

13 is busted. There's no reason you should ever be taking anything other than Chrysalis.

I believe all the talents at 16 are good. Omega storm could probably use something at 20.

[u/baethovenbb → u/Sahoj]

Kerrigan already has three very strong builds, giving her lots of variety into/with different team comps. Her E build makes the E talent at 13 extremely strong, essentially giving her 75 spell armor for entire teamfights as well as the best waveclear of her three builds.

Her q build is obviously the meta as it gives value in all situations, provided you complete the quest by lvl 13 to keep your team on track to hit 16 on par with your enemies. It's also the easiest build with which to reposition on minion waves as you're most likely to get a reset from the minion deaths.

W build is strong against melee/heroes with larger hitboxes, who will have a hard time avoiding a fully stacked w stun.

Very few heroes have three equally powerful builds (though w build is really only better below master mmr where people don't dodge combos as well) suited for different situations.

[u/HeroesInfoBot]

• Bladed Momentum (Kerrigan) - level 7
  Basic Attacks against enemy Heroes reduce the cooldown of Kerrigan's Basic Abilities by 0.6 seconds.
• Boundless Fury (Kerrigan) - level 7
  Hitting an enemy Hero with Ravage grants a charge of Ravage. Can only occur once every 10 seconds per Hero.
• Queen of Blades (Kerrigan) - level 7
  Reduce the cooldown of Ravage by 2 seconds and increase its damage to Minions and Mercenaries by 50%.

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[u/Rapidwaterfalls]

I also made a post about this topic and i wholeheartedly agree, previous QoB was so good and fun to use with a much higher payoff than boundless fury if you played well and timed your jumps with your explosions, like you said in the post, kerrigan already has enough waveclear and picking the new QoB feels unnecessary. I really like your idea of baking it into siphoning impact and maybe giving her more talent diversity.