Auriel, Archangel of Hope by Valhalen

Auriel, Archangel of Hope

By: Valhalen
Last Updated: May 19, 2020
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Build 1 of 2

Auriel

Build: Eternal Hope

Level 1
Level 4
Level 7
Level 10
Level 13
Level 16
Level 20

Threats to Auriel with this build

Threat
Low
High
Show all
Threat Hero Notes
1
  No Threat
2
  No Threat
3
  No Threat
4
Ana Ana's ability to completely negate healing through Biotic Grenade can be a problem for Auriel, making her fully waste her energy and endangering her team in times of need.
5
  No Threat
6
Maiev While Maiev lacks the burst damage of other dive-oriented Heroes, she can capitalize on Auriel's poor mobility and lack of movement options to pin her down.
6
Tassadar Following his recent rework as of May 6th 2020, Tassadar is now packed with surprising damage output and baseline access to Force Wall, which can be used to isolate Auriel from her team.
7
Anub'arak Anub'arak's ability to dive into the backline and pin down Auriel with his many stuns and Cocoon can effectively isolate her from the enemy team.
8
  No Threat
9
Tracer Tracer is difficult to pin down due to her mobility. Her ability to get in and out of the backline can be troubling. Her recent rework as of May 6th 2020 made her even more of a threat. She can stick on Auriel and pressure while dodging all of Auriel's telegraphed attacks at ease.
9
Diablo Diablo can easily close the gap and pull Auriel out position, allowing the enemy team to capitalize on that.
10
Kerrigan In organized teams with a lot of crowd-control, Kerrigan can pick off Auriel with ease and burst her down.

Auriel

Build: Eternal Hope: Blind Faith

Level 1
Level 4
Level 7
Level 10
Level 13
Level 16
Level 20

Threats to Auriel with this build

Threat
Low
High
Show all
Threat Hero Notes
1
  No Threat
2
  No Threat
3
  No Threat
4
Ana Ana's ability to completely negate healing through Biotic Grenade can be a problem for Auriel, making her fully waste her energy and endangering her team in times of need.
5
Maiev While Maiev lacks the burst damage of other dive-oriented Heroes, she can capitalize on Auriel's poor mobility and lack of movement options to pin her down. She becomes slightly less of a threat in the "Blind Faith" build, however, since Auriel can blind her with the combined talents of Sacred Sweep, which will negate her Umbral Bind.
6
Tassadar Following his recent rework as of May 6th 2020, Tassadar is now packed with surprising damage output and baseline access to Force Wall, which can be used to isolate Auriel from her team.
7
Anub'arak Anub'arak's ability to dive into the backline and pin down Auriel with his many stuns and Cocoon can effectively isolate her from the enemy team.
8
Tracer Tracer is difficult to pin down due to her mobility. Her ability to get in and out of the backline can be troubling. Her recent rework as of May 6th 2020 made her even more of a threat. She can stick on Auriel and pressure while dodging all of Auriel's telegraphed attacks at ease. She becomes slightly less of a threat in the "Blind Faith" build, however, since Auriel can shut her down almost completely with the combined talents of Sacred Sweep.
9
Diablo Diablo can easily close the gap and pull Auriel out position, allowing the enemy team to capitalize on that.
10
Kerrigan In organized teams with a lot of crowd-control, Kerrigan can pick off Auriel with ease and burst her down.

The Archangel of Hope Top

Auriel, the Archangel of Hope, is a ranged Healer hero from the Diablo universe. It is through the archangel Auriel that the power of hope flows into the fabric of creation. Her eternal light illuminates even the darkest souls. Seeking harmony in all things, she is a mediator, a counselor, and when the need arises, a fearless warrior.

Auriel provides the team with a powerful area-of-effect burst healing, Ray of Heaven. She is unique as being the only Healer in the game that doesn't use mana as fuel for her healing. Instead, her trait, Bestow Hope, allows her to link herself with an allied Hero, converting any damage they deal into energy (called "Hope"), that she can use to heal; the more energy she has, the more powerful the healing will be.

Auriel was added in Heroes of the Storm in August 9, 2016, and has remained consistent through the balance patches since her arrival. She has seen her up and downs, and while she has never truly been meta due the way her healing mechanics work, she has her dedicated niche and can be a powerful healer in the right hands.

This guide will try to remain up to date with possible meta-changing patch notes regarding Auriel, and it is focused on maximizing Auriel's healing output, which has infinite potential. This build has a second variation specifically made for dealing with basic attackers, called "Eternal Hope: Blind Faith", which should be picked when there is no other sources for inflicting Blind on enemies.

To minimize scrolling and make this guide less of a chore to navigate through, I've included a bunch of spoiler tags to function as collapse/expand windows of content.

Contents Top

Strengths and Weaknesses Top

Strengths

  • Strong area-of-effect healing.
  • Does not use mana as resource.
  • Hope only fuels her healing; her other abilities are cooldown based.
  • Strong waveclear for a Healer.
  • Can bring allied Heroes back to life.
  • Can peel for her allies.

Weaknesses

  • Relies too much on her allies to provide energy, although she can generate on her own.
  • Has no access to a Cleanse type of ability.
  • Can only store Hope through dealing damage on combat.
  • Requires allies to cluster together in order to heal multiple characters, which is not always optimal or possible during teamfights.
  • Lack of mobility makes her susceptible to dives and focus-fire.
  • Very frail when isolated from the rest of the team.

Abilities Top

Bestow Hope (Trait)

Spoiler: Click to view

Sacred Sweep (Q)

Spoiler: Click to view

Ray of Heaven (W)

Spoiler: Click to view

Detainment Strike (E)

Spoiler: Click to view

Resurrect (R)

Spoiler: Click to view

Crystal Aegis (R)

Spoiler: Click to view

Talent Build breakdown Top

The "Hope Eternal" build focuses on maxizing Auriel's healing output while improving her peeling capabilities.

Level 1: Searing Light

Spoiler: Click to view

Level 4: Repeated Offense

Spoiler: Click to view

Level 7: Glimmer of Hope

Spoiler: Click to view

Level 10: Crystal Aegis

Spoiler: Click to view

Level 13: Piercing Lash

Spoiler: Click to view

Level 16: Reservoir of Hope

Spoiler: Click to view

Level 20: Shield of Hope

Spoiler: Click to view

Hero Synergies & Best Hope Bearers Top

Auriel has a very niche fit in the meta due to how her healing works. A team featuring Auriel often has to be more or less built around her, as it is required to have at least one Hero capable of providing her with reliable Hope generation.

This is a list I've made on Icy Veins with the best Heroes to be paired with Bestow Hope. For convenience I'll not list it here, as that thread is always up to date and updated regularly as new patches drop. Please access the link for the full thread.

Additionally, below I list a Heroes that are synergize with Auriel in terms of team composition to play to her strentghs and cover her weaknesses; mostly composed of tanks. The order of Heroes is based on their overall performance when paired with Auriel.

Spoiler: Click to view

How to effectively play as "Eternal Hope" Top

These tips are mostly aimed for this guide's specific talent build, "Eternal Hope", but also apply in general regardless of build.

Positioning is key to play Auriel, as her Ray of Heaven is a skillshot, meaning she must manually aim the ability to try hitting as many allies as possible.

Spoiler: Click to view

Conclusion & Links Top

Auriel is a healer that might not be as useful as other high tier healers due to her reliance on her team to provide her energy. However, a well-played Auriel in organized teams can top her allies with heals at surprising rates. Given that the current meta is focused on "nuking", she can still find her spot among the other giants, as burst-oriented teams will often provide her with a healthy supply of Hope.

Helfpul links


Heroes of the Storm Gamepedia page on Deckard Cain

Icy Veins page on Auriel

"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKeZO8YwuFQ" by NotParadox > (old video but still up to date since her gameplay didn't change much)

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"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKeZO8YwuFQ" by NotParadox > (old video but still up to date since her gameplay didn't change much)

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