DakMonkeyz Thrall - SpamFury, MelonSmasher (in-depth guide) by DakMonkeyz

DakMonkeyz Thrall - SpamFury, MelonSmasher (in-depth guide)

By: DakMonkeyz
Last Updated: Feb 24, 2015
18 Votes
Build Guides Discussion (12) More Guides
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Thrall

Build: Oprah SpamFury

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

Threats to Thrall with this build

Threat
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Threat Hero Notes
1
 Thrall I have started adding threats, more will come later. Green = Ez, Yellow = Annoying, Red = The heroes that can possibly kill you.
1
 E.T.C. ETC can't kill you. If you ever see his Mosh Pit with your friends dancing, interrupt with Sundering
1
 Tassadar Can deal a lot of damage if he pops archon, but he can't kill you 1v1, if you move away from his storms.
1
 Gazlowe Play around his bombs and you are fine. If you see gravity bomb, sprint/bolt away from the radius. If you see gaslowe bunkering at an objective with 4 turrets on the ground, it's wise to not go in alone.
1
 Sonya Your heals are too much for her 1v1.
1
 Chen Can't kill you 1v1 if you are build #2, but you can't kill him either if he uses heroic split. If he mans up and uses heroic split, just attack the nearest panda you see and outheal his damage.
2
   No Threat
3
   No Threat
4
 Murky Murky isn't too much of a threat until later in the game. You got nothing to stop him from bubbling away, which makes fighting a good murky quite annoying.
4
 Azmodan Can dish out a lot of damage, outrange his beam with the help of feral spirit or interrupt with sundering and you're fine.
4
 Nazeebo If you see Nazeebos ravenous spirit, interrupt with sundering.
4
 Brightwing If BW man ups in 1v1, she will hex you, nuke you, shield, rewind, hex again, nuke again and shield again. Dodge nukes while you're hexed and you should be fine. Be afraid of BW + other hero, During those two hexes, you wont get any selfheals.
4
 Tyrael After lvl16 Tyrael can't kill you alone. If tyrael went displacer + holy ground -build, it's often wise to not chase him.
4
 Raynor High damage and quite annoying knockback, not easy, not hard, somewhere in the middle.
4
 Anub'arak He can't kill you and you can't kill him, if he decides to retreat early enough.
4
 Muradin Annoying to play against, he has loads of stuns and the potential to harm you, but your heals should be too much for him.
4
 Sgt. Hammer Your sustained healing outheals her sustained damage. Would be wise to engage from bushes, if she sees you coming all the way she can get 3-4 free hits before u get close to her (+1-2 hits from knockback). Feral spirit messes with her escape plan.
4
 Tyrande Do not underestimate dps-tyrandes, they can burst pretty hard. Dodge stuns -> win
5
   No Threat
6
   No Threat
7
 Arthas Can be dangerous, but you can just outheal his damage, because he has nothing to stop you from using WF.
7
 Zeratul Zeratul can't manfight you, but he will do a lot of damage and then blink away and then come back to do a lot of damage and kill you if you don't heal up. If you can catch him, you can kill him too.
7
 Nova Get close to her and she is dead. She can poke and burst you from afar pretty fast tho.
7
 Valla Valla can kite you pretty good and dish out a lot of damage while doing so. Good valla is harder to beat than most other heroes, not the hardest matchup for thrall anyway. Glose gap, nuke, outheal with windfury and interrupt his strafe with your sundering.
7
 Falstad Be careful, especially when chasing him, he can deal a lot of damage in short time. You should be fine most cases.
7
 Uther Can't kill you 1v1, can be extremely devastating to play against during teamfights. He can double stun you which means during those stuns you can't get your self-heals to save you.
7
 Tychus Can hurt a lot. Try to counter his bomb with windfury speed and when he uses Overkill use feral spirits on him so he can't kite you that much.
8
   No Threat
9
   No Threat
10
 Illidan One of the hardest matchups to deal with as Thrall, You can fight him, but you need to outplay him by anticipating his jumps and being careful of not wasting your windfury on his evasion.
10
 Stitches Stitches alone in 1v1 can't take you, however be scared of his hooks. If you get hooked and gorged somewhere far away there's not much you can do before lvl20 bolt.
10
 Jaina Jainas burst is hard to deal with, if you survive her shattercombo and can get close to her she's dead. Getting close to her with all her slows is not going to be easy.
10
 Abathur abathur alone obviously can't do much against you, but If there's abathur on the enemy team, you can assume that every hero you attack has squid hat on em, which makes effectively every 1v1 for you a 1v2 against you.

Thrall

Build: MelonSmasherBasherTrasher

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

Threats to Thrall with this build

Threat
Low
High
Show all
Threat Hero Notes
1
 Thrall So far I've only added threats to build #1, I might split those threats up to other builds aswell, but for now: See build #1 for threats.
2
   No Threat
3
   No Threat
4
   No Threat
5
   No Threat
6
   No Threat
7
   No Threat
8
   No Threat
9
   No Threat
10
   No Threat

Thrall

Build: Ready for raiding,...

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

Threats to Thrall with this build

Threat
Low
High
Show all
Threat Hero Notes
1
 Thrall So far I've only added threats to build #1, I might split those threats up to other builds aswell, but for now: See build #1 for threats.
2
   No Threat
3
   No Threat
4
   No Threat
5
   No Threat
6
   No Threat
7
   No Threat
8
   No Threat
9
   No Threat
10
   No Threat

Thrall

Build: Whacky Lightning -build

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

Threats to Thrall with this build

Threat
Low
High
Show all
Threat Hero Notes
1
 Thrall So far I've only added threats to build #1, I might split those threats up to other builds aswell, but for now: See build #1 for threats.
2
   No Threat
3
   No Threat
4
   No Threat
5
   No Threat
6
   No Threat
7
   No Threat
8
   No Threat
9
   No Threat
10
   No Threat

Well met! Who am I? Opening words. Top

Hello, I'm DakMonkeyz. Welcome to my guide on Thrall.

I used to play Heroes of Newerth and I moved to playing Dota2 after that. I've been playing Heroes of the Storm for a few months now and I like it quite a lot. I'd like to quote my favorite e-sports commentator Sean Day[9] Plott: "I'm not the best, I'm not the worst, but I try really hard." You can check his videos and streams at www.day9.tv. Reason why I'm supporting Day[9] here is that he is an inspiration for me and many other gamers.

"Well why should we believe what you say???"
Well you shouldn't. Take everything I say, chew it a little and then decide what you want to swallow. Never just blindly take someones advice, use your own brain to judge what is worth taking and what should be ignored. A great advice for life in general.

I hope you enjoy my guide and I apologize for any grammar errors, I'm sure there are some. If you like the guide, please give it a thumbs up so others can see it as well! :)


This guide is now updated to match the patch released February 2015 (Lost Vikings -patch)




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Table of Contents Top

  1. Who am I?
  2. Introducing Thrall
  3. Abilities
  4. Talents
  5. Builds explanation
  6. Game Timings
  7. Map Strategies
  8. RNDM stuff about combos
  9. Tips & Tricks
  10. WomboCombos
  11. Last words & ToDoList
  12. Updates

.

Introducing Thrall, son of Durotan, Warchief of the Horde Top



Thrall, son of Durotan, Warchief of the Horde is a melee assassin hero with good mobility, good sustained damage, big burst with cooldowns and nice durability via self-heals. Thrall whacks his enemies with his mighty doomhammer, throws lightning out of his hands, hurls spirit wolves to root his enemies, rides the wind, makes the earth in front of him crack and creates earthquakes. Talk about one powerful shaman.

Background


As a child, Thrall served the cruel Aedelas Blackmoore as a slave. After gaining his freedom, he guided the liberated orcs to a land of their own, and worked to recover their ancient traditions. Now and forever, he is the Warchief of the Horde.

Fun facts


  1. Thrall's orcish name, which his parents chose but were unable to give him, is "Go'el." (Source)
  2. Go'el could have been inspired by Superman's Kryptonian name Kal-El. Thrall and Superman's origins are alike in many ways: both are aliens from a doomed planet, both their birth parents were killed while at a young age, and of course they both have special powers. (Source
  3. Thrall was chosen to represent the shaman class by being the most well known shaman of Warcraft. In order to distinguish him from Za'Muro (Za'muro was a confirmed hero in Blizzard DOTA, but he hasn't been confirmed officially in Heroes of the Storm yet.), he was given a cyber wolf to ride. This sparked the idea of mounts in the game (Source)
  4. Rehgar's kit (other than his trait) originally belonged to Thrall. It was moved to Rehgar so Thrall could be redesigned as a more aggressive hero. (Source)
  5. Thrall is married to a female orc named Aggra and they have a son named Durak. (Source)

If you're intrested in Thralls history, lore and who he really is or if you just want more information, you can check these websites for it:

http://www.wowwiki.com/Thrall
http://wow.gamepedia.com/Thrall
http://wow.joystiq.com/2010/11/28/know-your-lore-goel-son-of-durotan/

Pros & Cons


Pros
Cons
  • No stun/slow/hex without heroic ability
  • Main damage ability Windfury is main escape ability as well.
  • Escape ability Windfury easily countered by roots/stuns/any cc.
  • Root from Feral Spirit is single target and has medium range.


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Abilities Top

Frostwolf Resilience (Trait) instantly heals you after you reach 5 stacks of Frostwolf resilience. You get a stack each time you deal damage with your abilities. This helps you a lot through the whole game. Without this going to the jungle to take mercs would be a real pain. You get stacks from all Thralls abilities except Earthquake, because it doesn't deal damage.


Chain Lightning is Thralls spam-nuke. Deals damage to your target and half of that damage to 2 nearby enemies. With a low cooldown of 6 seconds, you get to use this all the time. This also helps you stay alive as it often gives you 3 stacks of Frostwolf Resilience.


Feral Spirit is another ability that you get to spam for the whole game. Charges through enemies, stops when hits a hero and roots that hero for 1 second. The root doesn't sound like it's a big deal, 1 second root, but it's actually a huge deal. 1 second is a long time to stand still while chasing/escaping. 1 second is enough to guarantee a hit from Murkys Pufferfish or Gazlowes Xplodium Charge. Feral Spirit is perfect for setting up skill-shot stuns like Tyrandes Lunar Flare.


Windfury, the signature spell for shamans. It's the most awesome ability ever. It gives you +25% movement speed for 4 seconds and +100% faster basic attacks for 3 attacks or 6 seconds. One thing to note here is that the movement speed and attack speed buffs are separate, which means that you can bash those 3 attacks fast and then use the movement speed for escaping.


Sundering creates a long line to the ground that cracks, shoves enemies to the side and stuns them for 1.5 seconds. (More info can be found below in the talents -chapter)


Earthquake summons a massive earthquake around Thrall that lasts for 10 seconds and periodically slows enemies in the area by 70%. (More info can be found below in the talents -chapter)


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Few words about the talents Top

Level 1

Awesome! Wind Shear reduces the cooldown of Windfury by 3 seconds. This increases your overall damage a bit and overall healing from Frostwolf Resilience. Also, more Windfury means +25% mobility more often. Pretty straightforward talent. Good talent to take, especially when taking other talents that buff Windfury as well.

Situational seasoned marksman gives you 1 basic attack damage for every 6 minion or mercenary kills (hero takedowns count as 2 kills). Increases your damage by from average to a lot, depending on how many stacks you get. You can get 25-35 stacks most games. Highest for myself so far has been 48 stacks (1 stack = 6 minion kills = 1 damage).

Both Wind Shear and seasoned marksman are viable choices here. If the game is going to be a long game seasoned marksman gets a bit better. If the game is going to be short Wind Shear is slightly better. If you are going to take Tempest Fury and/or Grace Of Air, Wind Shear is a lot better choice than it would otherwise be. Both are fine and the choice comes down to personal preference, what other talents you are going to take and playstyle.


Other talents:
Spoiler: Click to view


Level 4

Awesome! Envenom is an instant medium range poison damage ability that deals damage over 6 seconds. Deals 210 (+35 per level) damage over 6 seconds. This is my most favourite talent of this tier. Gives that extra little burst that is needed to crush enemy supports/assassins early game and helps you later when bursting down any targets with your team-mates.

Awesome! Mana Tide makes your Frostwolf Resilience also restore 20 mana. This is the best mana regen talent you can take. I recommend taking this talent, if you are going Build #1: Oprah SpamFury and if you are taking talents Battle Momentum and Tempest Fury. If you are going Build #2: For the Damage, Smash dem melons, you don't need Mana Tide, you aren't going to be spamming yourself out of mana anyway.

Envenom is awesome and I would like to take it every game, but unfortunate I feel like I have to go with the boring Mana Tide most games. With build #1 Mana Tide is a better choice, but if you feel like you want the extra burst and want to be mana starved for the whole game you can take Envenom instead.


Other talents:
Spoiler: Click to view


Level 7

Awesome! Follow Through increases the damage of your next basic attack by 25% after using a basic ability. Thrall has 3 active basic abilities with relatively short cooldowns, which makes this talent quite good. If you are taking Restless Wolves you get 2 abilities with 6 second cooldown (given that you will land your Feral Spirit, which you will :) ) and one with 12 second cooldown (9 seconds if you took Wind Shear level 1). So lets say you start with Windfury, use Feral Spirit and Chain Lightning, use Feral Spirit and Chain Lightning again and after that Windfury again. You get +25% damage to 6 basic attacks in 10 seconds. Seems like a good talent to have? it is. This is a bit harder talent to execute than other talents in this tier, because you need to remember to hit your enemy between each ability to maximize the effectiveness of Follow Through. With the removal of Battle Momentum, this talent takes the place of the go-to-talent of this tier.

Other talents:
Spoiler: Click to view


Level 10

Awesome! Sundering displaces enemies, deals damage and stuns in a large area. What more could you ask from a heroic ability? When using this ability, be smart with it, please. Don't just randomly panic and toss this whenever you can. This ability has the potential to harm your enemies and/or your allies. Use this wisely.

Awesome! Earthquake creates an earthquake in a large area around Thrall. Instantly slows enemies in that area by 70% for 1-2 seconds. The duration of Earthquake is 10 seconds and during that time it slows enemies 3 times. Seemed somewhat underwhelming to me first, but it's actually really good. This helps you chase, engage, set up combos and retreat. If you take Earthen Shields at level 20, this heroic really shines.

Level 13


Situational Restless Wolves reduces the cooldown of your Feral Spirit by 50%, if it hits a hero. This talent increases your utility by giving you twice as many 1 second roots from Feral Spirit, if you land those wolves. Not much to explain here, good talent to take.

Situational Giant Killer makes your basic attacks deal bonus damage equal to 1.5% of the enemy hero's health. Increases your damage a lot, especially if there is many high health heroes on the enemy side. One thing to note here is that currently this talent doesn't increase the damage of Tempest Furys third strike. I'm not sure if it's supposed to be like that, but that is how it is at the moment.

Situational Spell Shield gives you a shield that can trigger once every 30 seconds. Upon taking ability damage, reduces ability damage taken by 50% for 2 seconds. This is a very good survival talent against some heavy bursters. I take this talent when I feel that I need to counter the damage of Jaina, Nova, Zeratul or Falstad.

Awesome! Grace Of Air increases the amount of Frostwolf Resilience granted by windfury to grant twice as many stacks. This is really a survival, situational talent. However, with few other talents this talent becomes surprisingly powerful. Taking Wind Shear, Mana Tide and Tempest Fury with Grace Of Air makes your Windfury grant 10 stacks of Frostwolf Resilience. 10 stacks of frostwolf resilience heals you instantly by 1538 health (at level 20), which is about 40% of your max health. Also 10 stacks each Windfury means that you use 50 mana when you cast Windfury and get 40 mana back from Mana Tide, which pretty much means you only spend 10 mana per Windfury. To sum it up: Talent with great synergy with some other talents. Taking all talents above makes your Windfury heal you for ~40% health, cost 10 mana and have 9 second cooldown.


Level 16

Situational Blood for Blood steals 15% of the target enemy's max health and slows the target enemy by 30% for 3 seconds. So I'm going to break this down a bit. Steals 15% of the targets enemy's max health means, that it deals damage to the enemy and heals you for the same amount. If the enemy has more max health than you do, you will be healed for more than just 15% of your max health. Also the health steal isn't returned after 3 seconds like some players assume. In addition to that it slows the target enemy's movement speed for 3 seconds. This is one of my favourite talents in-game, because it's so versatile. Blood for Blood is instant damage, instant heal and a slow smashed into one button and it costs 0 mana to cast it. Strong talent to take.

Awesome! Tempest Fury makes the final strike (3rd attack) of Windfury hit 3 times for 75% of normal damage. 3 hits for 75% damage is total of 225% damage into one swing. I already mention this once above, but those 3 hits for 75% damage are not affected by Giant Killer. However, if you have Follow Through and use it before the last 3 attacks of windfury, you will get a 25% buff to the first of the three attacks. NOTE: it's not +25% from the 75% damage, it's +25% damage from your normal attack damage. This talent shines with other Windfury related talents.

Other talents
Spoiler: Click to view


Level 20

Awesome! Bolt of the Storm allows you to teleport to a nearby location. The range on teleport is slightly longer than on Chain Lightning and slightly shorter than on Feral Spirit. This upgrades your good mobility to amazing mobility. Helps you with chasing and escaping. Helps you position yourself, if you took Sundering at level 10. I'm a big fan of Bolt of the Storm, because it makes life easier and you know, it's a free blink.

NO! Worldbreaker makes Sundering travel indefinitely, that means that your Sundering can hit stuff at the other side of the map. Sounds amazing, but it's not that good. Honestly, I have never felt like I needed this and those few games I did take Worldbreaker for whatever reasons, I felt that it wasn't really useful and missed my Bolt of the Storm. I don't recommend taking this.

Awesome! Earthen Shields gives Thrall and his allies a shield for 15% of their max health with each pulse created by Earthquake. Shield lasts for 4 seconds and is refreshed by each pulse. Total of 3 pulses means that you can potentially get 45% of max health as shields from this ability, for the whole team. If you took Earthquake, I strongly recommend taking Earthen Shields as well. Note: Earthquake stays wherever you used it and your enemies must be within range of Earthquake to be slowed and allies must be within the range of Earthquake to get the shield from each pulse.

Situational Nexus Blades increases your basic attack damage by 20% and makes your basic attacks slow the target for 1 second. This talent provides an alternative to blink, you now have a choice to sacrifice godlike mobility for better damage. Slow is also pretty nice, because Thrall doesn't have that much CC. (except heroic abilities and 1 second roots, but still..) Works better with Sundering than Earthquake. I'm still playing around with nexus blades and I might add more to this later. I love bolt a lot and it's hard for me to swap for this.



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The three builds above Top

Before going into the builds I'd like to mention here, that none of the builds above are absolutes. Games are different and there isn't a one-way build that cuts perfect for every game. Adapt to your current game and take more defensive/offensive/counter-talents when needed.

Build #1: Oprah SpamFury


This Build has loads of damage in it and truckloads of self-healing in it. Compared to build #2, this build sacrifices some of single target burst potential for an increased sustained damage and better survivability. Mana Tide can be changed to Envenom, if u want to get a little bit more burst on demand. However if you are going "Oprah SpamFury", you are spamming yourself out of mana pretty fast without Mana Tide.

What makes this build extremely good is the buffs on Windfury. If you take Wind Shear, Mana Tide, Grace Of Air and Tempest Fury, your hits from Windfury heals you for ~40% of your max health, costs 10 mana and has 9 seconds cooldown.

This is my go-to build for most games currently. I use this build as a base and I make slight changes some games depending of what I need.

Build #2: For the Damage, Smash dem melons


This build gives Thrall a huge single target burst. Your single target burst plays start at level 4 with Envenom and increases throughout the game. After you hit level 16 and get Blood for Blood your burst build is ready and you can take down most non-tank/non-high-hp heroes within seconds. At level 20 you get nice increased mobility with Bolt of the Storm.

Downside of this build is that you are much, much squishier and more mana starved than you would be, if you went Build #1.

Which build is better?
Well, build #1 is better for most games with current meta of lots of tanks and high health & durable assassins and supports. Build #2 is better if you need higher instant burst.

My advice:
Try out both builds and try to choose accordingly at the start of the game when you see the line-up of both teams.

Build #3: Ready for raiding, extra-defensive-mode activated


NOTE! Sometimes you are not given any tanks to your team and at those times it's most often the best choice to go somewhat damage build and just pick defensive talents that actually counter some of the enemy teams heroes. Build #3 is more like a theory craft of what could be the most defensive thrall ever, but in reality it doesn't work too well.

As the title reveals, this is extremely defensive build. When to play a build like this? When you got no tanks? Maybe.. Don't misunderstand me, even if u build Thrall like this, it doesn't make him a good tank, a decent semi-tank maybe..

Anyways.. few defensive combos from the talents:
Talents Block and Spell Shield provide a nice damage mitigation.
Blood for Blood and Frostwolf's Grace gives you double instant heal.

If you don't need Blood for Blood and Spell Shield:
Grace Of Air + Tempest Fury increases your self heals a lot.


Build #4: Whacky Lightning Thrall
So the core idea of this build is to take as much Chain Lightning spells as possible. Fun trollish build. Key to success with this build is to spam lightning and not expecting to win the game.


One last thing I'd like to mention: Try out both heroic abilities. Then choose whatever you feel like is needed more. Both are viable options to all builds.

NOTE! My heroic ability recommendations are:

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Game timings & General information about what to do and when Top

All of this chapter is assuming that you went for build #1: Oprah SpamFury (Most of this chapter is relevant for all builds. :) )

Early game, levels 1-9


You are weak during the early game when compared to your strong mid and late game. You aren't weak as in easy to kill, but you can't do much harm to the enemies yet. You are a melee hero and your enemies are most likely ranged so be very careful during the early game.

Go for objectives when they spawn, don't be the first to engage in teamfights, you are pretty squishy when focused by the enemy team. Before the teamfight begins you can try to poke with your Chain Lightning, but remain in a good position while doing so.

When there's no objectives, you can take mercenary camps, if there's no-one better in your team for that. Keep in mind that you should have atleast 1 player on each lane to maximize the experience soak. More info on mercenary camps can be found here.

General Laning tips:
You can use Feral Spirit and Chain Lightning for harass and for clearing minions. You can use Windfury for escape, if the enemy makes a move on you and as damage, if some melee enemy over-extends for no reason.

If you are against a healer in your lane, don't try to harass enemies, save your mana for when you are going for a kill or for clearing the minions. Exception: If you are in a tri-lane you can harass line-ups with healers if one or more of your buddies help you with that.

You can initiate early game kills with: Feral Spirit -> Chain Lightning -> hopefully some stun/cc from your allies -> Windfury chase and kill.

Solo-laning:
Play safe. If you are against a solo-lane, still play safe. You are not the best early game hero and you are not the best solo-lane hero either.

You can try to harass non-healers out of the lane with your ranged abilities, but most solo-lane heroes can out-last you during the early game so it's often wise to just soak experience and clear the minions.

You can trade blows with melee enemies by using Windfury to your advantage. Example, WF -> 3 hits to the face -> use WF movement speed to retreat -> repeat after WF is back from cooldown.

Against ranged enemies trading blows is not recommended.

Dual-laning:
Same as above, except you can play a bit more aggressive, if you have some good early game fighter with you at the lane. If your lane-buddy gets jumped by enemies you can help him escape with Feral Spirit.

Tri-laning:
Play aggressive, but don't over-extend. If you are against a tri-lane, be careful. If you are against solo/dual lane, you can melee attack minions and harass away as much as you want, but don't take unnecessary damage. If you get some damage on an enemy, preferably a non-tank hero, you can go for kill with your buddies. If you are playing with strangers, ping that hero few times before going in.

Push push push the lane with your tri-lane, make those towers waste ammo and having a lane pushed gives you better position when w.e. objective spawns.

Mid Game, Levels 10-15


You got your heroic ability and you can start to make some real plays now. You are still weak when focused by multiple enemies, but with your heroic ability you can start to initiate fights. When initiating, try to remain in a somewhat safe position from where you can turn back and slip away, if the enemy starts to focus you.

Nothing too much special here, you are much stronger than you were early game so you don't have to hide all the time, but don't go yolo-balls-out-over-extend all over the map either.

"Laning-phase" stops around here and your team will be more grouped up more often.

What to do during mid game:
  • Claim objectives.
  • Defend enemy objectives if there are some to defend.
  • Take mercenaries.
  • Gank over-extending enemies.
  • Mini-Push towers/forts & Defend enemy pushes.

Late Game, Levels 16+


This is the time when you become godly. You can dish out sick damage and your heals are unfairly good. Your weakness still is stuns/cc/anything that stops you from using your Windfury. Play right and you are almost unkillable.

Go for objectives with your team and take mercenaries when there's no objectives.

Level 16 is the magic level when you can easily solo every camp/objective mobs, if needed.

Healing during big fights:
If you drop to low health in a teamfight, you can back away from the fight for a moment and go use 1 or 2 Windfurys to nearby mercenaries or minions. This will heal you to full health and you can go back to the fight. When you go heal you will be away from the fight for ~7seconds+travel time, assuming that you use 2 Windfurys for healing. If you are in a hurry, you don't necessarily have to stay for 2 Windfurys. If you go to a bruiser camp or minion wave, Chain Lightning + Feral Spirit (I'm assuming that you can hit atleast 2 targets with your wolf and 3 with lightning) + Windfury will heal you for ~60% of your max health.

Dance like you've never danced before:
Initiate fights if you see an opening, but don't stay and tank the enemy team after initiating. If they start to focus you, back away from the fight until they stop attacking you and then go back in. Dance back and forth with the enemies. Dancing is the key to good fights. The enemy will try to focus you often, dance away and remember that you are the Dancing King with your +25% movement speed from Windfury.

Winning one teamfight can mean winning the game here.



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Map Specific Strategies & Information Top

BLACKHEART'S BAY


Introduction:
The ghost pirate Blackheart has staked his claim upon the realm of Mistharbor. His undead pirate crew has poured onto the streets, claiming the once thriving marketplace as their new den of villainy.

Objective:
Collect doubloons from treasure chests, mercenaries, and small pirate skeletons. Don't die while carrying doubloons. Give those doubloons to Blackheart.

Start of the game (0/4/1):


Preferably go to the middle lane with 3 of your team-mates and secure the chest for your team. Try to push the middle lane before the chests spawn to give your team a better position. After you have (hopefully) collected 5 coins from the chest at the middle lane, go help your solo bot laner with the bottom chest, if it has not been collected yet.

Alternatively you can go solo bot lane and 1v1 for the bottom chest. (Only go bot lane if there's nobody else in your team that is going there.)

Note:
  • Ignore top lane for now. Chests are more important than the top lane.
  • Don't be obsessed with the watch tower at the start of the game. You don't need that yet, you need the coins from the chests.

Early Game after chests:
  • Soak experience, when you have the time for it.
  • Kill small pirate camps, when they spawn/respawn.
  • After level 4-5 you can go take giants camps.
  • Help your team in teamfights.

Mid Game:

  • Keep collecting doubloons from any camps or chests.
  • Group up with your team-mates. Don't split up too far from each other, teamfights happen too often on Blackheart's Bay.
  • Keep an eye on the enemy doubloon count from "Leader panel" (tab by default). If you see that some of the enemy heroes has got lots of doubloons, you know that they are going to turn them in soon. Inform your team and go counter your enemies attempts.
  • Mid game is where you can push some of their forts down, every fort/tower pushed here will save cannon shots for more important targets later.

Late Game:

  • Collect doubloons and get Blackheart to bomb the remaining enemy structures down.
  • Intercept enemies when they are trying to do the same.
  • Win teamfights, Win Blackheart, Win game.

Special Notes:
Spoiler: Click to view


CURSED HOLLOW


Introduction:
As one of the first and most ancient realms pulled into the Nexus, the realm of Raven Court has grown large and prosperous over the millennia. The province of Cursed Hollow, a gothic landscape of twisting villages and farmlands, serves as an ideal trial grounds for the Heroes of the Storm.

Objective:
Gather the Raven Lords tributes for your team. Watch the Raven Lord curse your enemies upon after you have captured three tributes. Repeat.

Early Game (1/3/1)


Go to whatever lane you wish to. Your team will preferably have two lanes with a solo hero and one lane with a tri-lane. Keeping the tri-lane at middle gives your team easy access to the tributes having 4 heroes nearby regardless of where the tribute spawns.
  • Group up with your team when tributes spawn.
  • After first tribute you are most likely level 4+ and can go take a siege giants camp.
  • Soaking experience is important, make sure your team always has atleast 1 player in each lane during early game, if nothing special is happening.

Mid Game


Nothing special happening here. Tributes, Curses, Pushing, Defending, Fighting.
  • Group up for tributes.
  • Take mercenary camps when you have time for it.
  • soak experience when you have nothing else to do.
  • Kill enemies who over-extends.
  • If you have the chance for it you can push down some towers near the middle of each lane.

Late Game

  • Losing a teamfight here can easily mean losing a game.
  • Same as above, except pushing should be left for the times when your enemy-team has few heroes dead.

Special notes (tribute skipping, curses and golems):

Spoiler: Click to view


DRAGON SHIRE


Introduction:
These lush and deceptively peaceful gardens have grown over time, covering the once molten realm known as Dragon Spire. Beneath this verdant paradise, the ancient power of the dragons was sealed away... and their descendants have neither forgotten nor forgiven the trespasses of those who wronged them.

Objective:
Control shrines. When you control both shrine of the sun and shrine of the moon, free the Dragon Knight and use it's power to take down your enemies.

Early Game (1/1/3)


Choose whatever lane is most suited for you depending on your team. You are not the best solo lane, but if there's no-one better you can solo. Have solo lanes on top and middle and a tri-lane at the bottom lane.

Mid and Top Lane (solo):
  • Play safe, soak exp, push/counterpush the lanes as needed.
  • Take control of shrine/dragon knight when it's safe or when people from your tri-lane rotates to you.

Bot (tri-lane):
  • Push the lane
  • Fight for the bottom shrine when shrines activate.
  • After getting the shrine, rotate to top and mid, leave 1 behind to bot for exp-soak and defense.
  • Have 2 players go take the Siege Giants mercs a.s.a.p. (Don't go take mercs, if you can go fight for shrines)
  • If your enemy gets the Dragon Knight, group up, defend and kill it.

Mid Game

  • Take Merc camps
  • Group up and take shrines and the Dragon Knight
  • This is the time to do some random small pushes to take down those towers/forts near the middle of the lanes, just be careful not to over-extend. Strike fast, strike hard, retreat before they have time to react. Rule is: If you don't know where they are, they are about to ambush you.

Late Game

  • Push after winning teamfights.
  • Stay grouped up for most time.
  • Take objectives as a group.

Special tactics wins games:
Spoiler: Click to view


Controlling Donkey Kong:


Spoiler: Click to view



GARDEN OF TERROR


Introduction:
Once the royal gardens were a splendor to behold. But lately a shadow has fallen over them... Writhing tendrils creep across the grounds at night, and a number of servants have disappeared while walking its twisting paths. Queen Nightshade claims to be unaware of these incidents, but some are beginning to suspect she has gone mad.

Objective:
Gather seeds during nighttime from garden horrors. After gathering 100 seeds for your team, take control of the Garden Terror and destroy your enemies.

Early Game (1/1/3)


Laning explanation:
Spoiler: Click to view

  • Push with tri-lane, play safe with solo lanes.
  • Group up for nights to collect seeds
  • Group up to defend enemy Garden Terror when they get theirs.
  • Soak experience and take mercenary camps during day-time.

Note:
  • Each small garden terror camp gives 15 seeds.
  • Both big garden terrors gives 60 seeds.
  • Each night a total of 180 seeds can be collected.

After the first night ends, you can group up with 1 of your team-mates and go take giants or bruiser camp, depending on your level and who that other hero is, go giants if you are unsure. Make sure that you have 1 person on each lane while you are taking that mercenary camp to maximize your experience soak.

Mid Game

  • Terrors during night
  • Mercenaries and experience during days
  • Group up to defend their terror
  • Group up to attack with your terror, or split push some lane while they defend your terror.

Late Game

  • Mercenaries during days, group up for most of the time.
  • Group up to attack with your terror
  • Group up to defend their terror

Garden terror tricks, tips and how to be a good flower.


It's often not your job to take the terror, but it's important that you know how to use it, in case you are forced to control it.

How to be a pretty flower:
Spoiler: Click to view



HAUNTED MINES


Introduction:
Far from the Cursed Hollow, on the very borders of Raven Court, lie the Haunted Mines. Sealed beneath a shadowy graveyard, the undead clamor to be released from their earthen prison.

Objective:
Enter Haunted Mines when they open. Collect skulls from the undead in the mines. After the undead army has been defeated watch golems rise for both teams and attack the opposing teams structures.

Early Game (4/1)

  • Have 1 solo-lane and rest 4 on the lane that golem is going to push.
  • You are preferably one of the 4 members on the golem-lane.
  • Push the lane and wait for the mines.
  • As soon as mines open, go in there as a team and make way to the center-camps, collect as many skulls as you can.
  • If some of your team dies, they have a full team and you clearly are at disadvantage, don't challenge the golem, go straight for mercenaries.
  • Take mid bruiser knights camp and possibly siege giants camp after mines.
  • You will most likely fight the enemy team inside the mines and after the mines at brusier knights.

Handling golems:
If your team collects:
  • 0-40 skulls: All defend enemy golem.
  • 40-70 skulls: 1 Defend and 4 attack with the golem.
  • 70-100 skulls: All attack with your golem.

Mid Game


Same as above. You can move to mines earlier to be in position when the undead spawns.

Late Game


Same as above.

Special tactics for special players:
Spoiler: Click to view


SKY TEMPLE


Introduction:
Floating above the vast desert sands of Luxoria, the Sky Temple serves as a center of worship for the snake god, Ka. He stores his great power within the temples, each of them secured by guardians. With such defenses, no warriors would think to seize the god's power for themselves... or would they?

Objective:
Stand within the grounds of the temples to capture their power. Hold the temples for your team and defend them from enemies and temple guardians. Watch LazerBeams wreck your enemies forts.

Early Game (3/1/1)


Have a tri-lane top and solo-lanes mid and bot. Having tri-lane top gives you easy access to either of the first temples. First temples activate at top and middle. After the first temples you can move your tri-lane to bottom lane, because that's where the second temple activates.
  • Push with tri-lane to get into better position for temples
  • Play safe with solo-lanes and soak experience.
  • Group up as soon as temple countdown begins and secure temple.
  • After temples have atleast 1 on each lane, possibly take mercenaries and move the tri-lane to bottom after that.

Mid Game

  • Group up for temples
  • Take mercenaries when there's no temples to fight over
  • mini-pushes can be made during mid game if possible.
  • If you get 1-2 kills you can group up and take boss (golem= scarab this map?) camp.

Late Game


Same as above.

Managing temples:
This map is pretty straightforward. Win temples = win game.
  • If you feel confident you can send 1 to scout/possibly capture a temple solo, while the rest of your team take another temple.
  • If you have control of one temple and the enemy has control of one temple, you can leave 1 to your temple and go attack the other with 4. Just don't over-extend when going 4v5.
  • If your enemy splits to temples with 2 on one temple and 3 on one temple, go ahead and take over either of the temples 5v2-3, leave one to keep that temple for your team and proceed to win the other temple 4v2-3.
  • When 3 temples spawn and all enemy heroes are alive, don't be greedy and try to take 3 temples, have 1 go scout south/north temple and rest go mid.
  • If the enemy team decides to be greedy and split to 3 temples, punish them by going as a group through all temples.


.

Tips & Tricks & Wombos & Combos & Stuff Top

RANDOM STUFF ABOUT COMBOS



Build #1: Oprah SpamFury



Furious SpamFury Spam-rotation:

>> >> >> ( Bolt of the Storm ) >> ( or if needed ) >> Whatever comes off cooldown next

Explanation:
Feral Spirit roots the target and gives easy hits.

Windfury is the main damage ability, awesome for sticking to your target after the root from Feral Spirit ends.

Chain Lightning is low cooldown and ranged, so use it when your other abilities are on cooldown or when you aren't in melee range.


Build #2: For the damage, smash dem melons



MelonSmasher kill-combo:

-> -> -> -> -> -> -> Dead

Explanation:
It's a kill combo. Use your abilities and talents and the target should be dead. Start with Feral Spirit, because you get easier start with the root from it and if you miss, you don't have to commit to the combo.


If you need to position yourself better for Sundering. You can blink in front of them and knock them backwards to help you chase.

You can use bolt to get near your enemy instantly after sundering to get more out of the stun.


Build #1 and Build #2 Bolt of the Storm usage doesn't differ much. With Build #1 you have much more uptime on the movement speed buff from Windfury and you don't have to use Bolt of the Storm for chase that much, but that's about all.


General:



Follow Through:
You want to try to auto attack after each basic ability to maximize the effectiveness of Follow Through. To clear things up: Attack at least once after using Windfury, Feral Spirit or Chain Lightning, if possible. BUT!! If you can't get the hit between (for example) lightning and feral spirit, don't be obsessed with it. If you need to root someone, then throw that wolf and be happy. It's better to miss one attack with +25% bonus damage than to miss a kill.

Envenom:
Best time to use envenom is in the "middle of combo". Starting with Envenom gives your enemy a chance to adjust to the damage it deals. Using Envenom as a finisher gives your enemy a chance to get healing before the envenom ticks kill him. Be aware that many players get scared and start escaping instantly after you use Envenom, if it looks like you are having the upper hand of the fight. Use this to your advantage by being prepared with Feral Spirit, Bolt of the Storm or Windfury.

Blood for Blood:
It's instant damage, which means that it's perfect as a finisher, if it's needed for that. If you have Blood for Blood and you see any enemies running around with 20% health, use Blood for Blood and Chain Lightning on them to instantly kill them. Blood for Blood can be used earlier in fight as well if you need the heal from it and can be used as a slow if an enemy is retreating. Only place where I don't recommend using Blood for Blood is as an opener.

Bolt of the Storm:
I've already talked a lot about blinkage in this guide. Here's for those that love blinking as much as I do. When to use blink:
  • You need to close the gap between you and your enemy = chasing, preferably not just close the gap, but blink in front of the enemy to cause pathing issues for him via body blocking.
  • You are being ganked and need to escape.
  • In teamfights to get into better position for your Sundering or earhtquake.
  • You want to save a team-mate from Novas Triple Tap and need to re-position yourself quick.
  • To re-position yourself for w.e. reasons.
Be careful when using Bolt of the Storm offensively. Where is the rest of the enemy team? If I blink in to grab a kill, can I get out? Can I get the kill using my many other chase abilities? Those are the questions you need to ask yourself before you go (Dak)Monkey(z)-jump in.


TIPS & TRICKS



Body Blocking:


Body blocking is using your hero as a barrier in the direction an enemy wants to travel. It's using your hero's body to block/slow the enemy movements.

How to Body Block:
After understanding the meaning of body blocking, it's fairly easy to just go and try it in games. In the end you just need to be like Gandalf: "You shall not pass!"

There's few different ways to Body Block. Get in front of your enemy, anticipate your enemy's movement path..
  • and dance back and forth sideways in front of them so they can't go wherever they are trying to go.
  • and move slightly towards them so your and your enemy's paths collide, causing yours and your enemy's movement to stop briefly.
  • and run in front of your enemy spamming "S" for stop and rightclick to move, causing your hero to walk/crawl instead of running normal.

Slows on enemy and/or movement speed buffs on you makes body blocking a lot easier.

Bolt of the Storm helps you get in front of your enemy.

Why to Body Block:
  • To create space between your friend and your enemy, so your enemy isn't in range to cast abilities, attack or harm your friend in any way.
  • To reduce the rate an enemy can move away from a potential threat, like your friends are closing in, but he's not in range with his abilities/attacks yet or your abilities are coming off cooldown.


Sundering Tips:


There's so many ways to use Sundering and it has only 70 seconds cooldown. (Cooldown is much lower if you went build #2 and got Battle Momentum) With the removal of Battle Momentum you can't spam use this like you used to, but don't be afraid to use Sundering anyway. If you can get a kill, save an ally, get objective or w.e, sunder away.

Stealing camps:
One, fun, way to use Sundering is to steal mercenary camps from your enemies. You can do this by observing from some bushes while the enemies are clearing the camp and just when they are about to get the camp, blink in with Bolt of the Storm or run in with Windfury and knock the enemies out of the ring with Sundering.

NOTE: You need to be within the radius of the mercenary camps ring when you use Sundering for the steal to be successful. You can secure the steal by going to the side of the ring to body block enemies that are desperately trying to get back to that boss camp after you knocked them away.

Also after lvl20 you can try to run in with Windfury, knock the enemies out with Sundering and escape after you captured the camp with Bolt of the Storm.

Winning teamfights before they start with initiation:
If you are in a situation where you can see your enemy team nearby and your team is nearby as well, but the engage isn't happening yet. You can blink with Bolt of the Storm to your enemy teams side and try to knock 1-2 heroes towards your team and 2-4 heroes away from your team. This splits the enemy team in half and exposes few of their members, effectively making the start of the teamfight a 5v1 or 5v2 in your teams favor.

Saving your allies:
This is something you can do a lot with sundering. If you see 2 of your allies being chased by your enemies, run towards them and knock the enemies away. Don't be afraid of "wasting" your heroic ability.

Saving yourself:
For example, if you get Gorged by stitches and he takes you to the middle of his team. As soon as he spits you out, blink away with Bolt of the Storm, throw Sundering on the enemy team and dash away with Windfury. Sometimes you can get away without Sundering, use your own judgement. It's better to be alive with Sundering on cooldown for 70 seconds than to be dead for 50 seconds.

STUFF



Mercenary Camps


  • Mercenary camps spawn at 2 minute mark.
  • When mercenaries spawn, you will be level 3 or 4 most likely.
  • Thrall can eventually solo any mercenaries there is with Build #1: Oprah SpamFury.
  • All of the information below is for Build #1.

Giants Camps:
You can solo Giants at level 4, but I recommend waiting for level 5, because it's much easier at that time.

When soloing Giants, position yourself so that your Feral Spirit hits both giants to maximize the damage and healing from Frostwolf Resilience. Use all 3 abilities on cooldown and watch out for enemy gankers.


Knights Camps:
You can solo Knights at level 7, but I recommend waiting for level 8, because it's much easier at that time.

When soloing Knights. Use all your abilities on cooldown. Try to hit 3 targets with your Feral Spirit. Abuse the fact that you can move through them, but they can't move through each other. (well not exactly through them, but almost.)

How to take advantage of that?
Stutter step! (= Hit -> move a little -> hit again -> move a little.) If there's a Knight#1 standing next to a wall (like there is with every knight camp in the game, if u just kite them a little) Go next to that knight#1 and hug the wall yourself. Wait for the other knights to surround you, then move through the knight#1 that is next to the wall and the other knights have to run around Knight#1 to get to you again. (Knight#1 is often the ranged Knight)


Boss Golem Camps:
You can solo Bosses at level 16. That is when your windfury will heal so much it's ridiculous.

Move away from boss stuns, use your abilities on cooldown. Be aware of what's happening in the minimap, there's nothing more annoying mercenary-wise than nuking boss down and then have the enemy team come steal it from you.


WOMBO COMBOS, RUINING EM AND YOU



What is a Wombo Combo?


Wombo Combo is the catchphrase derived from a recorded Super Smash Bros. Melee match that became famous for both the incredible combo pulled off during the match as well as the overly excited reaction that could be heard in the background as the match was being recorded. (Source)

Many years ago (6-7) I heard of the amazing wombo combo. I was so excited about this wombo combo -video (see below). I'm happy to see that the phrase "Wombo Combo" has spread from smash-scene to other games as well.


So what is a wombo combo in Heroes of the Storm?


Wombo Combo is an incredible combo made by 2 or more players, often by using heroic abilities that hit multiple players.

Example of wombo combo could be:
Zagara uses Devouring Maw and traps 5 enemy heroes inside.
Gazlowe times Grav-O-Bomb 3000 + Xplodium Charge to hit all 5 enemy heroes right after maw ends.
Nova shoots Precision Strike and hits all 5 enemy heroes.
E.T.C. casts Mosh Pit at the same time as Gazlowes stuns end and forces the whole enemy team to dance.
Thrall causes Earthquake and slows whatever is left of the enemy team.

Note: I'm not saying that Zagara, Gazlowe, Nova, E.T.C. and Thrall is the DreamTeam or that that it's even a good team. The example is just to give an idea of what a wombo combo could be.


So what's Thralls role in wombo combos?
With Earthquake:
  • Thrall can slow the enemy team with to finish a wombo combo.
  • Thrall can slow the enemy team to help set up a wombo combo.
With Sundering:
  • Thrall can knock enemies back after wombo combo.
  • Thrall can knock enemies into wombo combos.
  • Thrall can knock enemies together to help set up a wombo combo.

As you can see, Thralls role in wombo combos aint much more than use heroic ability in a way that helps your team kill the enemy team.

Ruining Wombo Combos???


That's right, Thralls role in wombo combos might not be that big, but Thrall has exceptionally good potential ( Sundering) to ruin things for your team and/or your enemy team.

Most wombo combos requires for the targets to be near each other. If your team-mate starts a wombo combo on the enemy team and you go herpderp knocking the enemies back or splitting their team in half, you have effectively ruined the wombo combo and most likely saved the enemy team.


It's important to not mess up your teams wombo combos. Fortunately Sundering can also be used to wreck some of your enemies wombo combos.


If your team-mates are getting into a wombo combo, you can knock the enemy team away from them or interrupt channeled abilities such as E.T.C.s Mosh Pit.

With Earthquake you don't have to worry about wombo combos that much, after level 20 you can and should help your team survive wombo combos with Earthen Shields.

You can WounterCounter (see what I did there?) these heroes with their wombo combo spells: The following heroes + spells are some that you can't actually counter, but you can and should counter the follow up from their allies by stunning and knocking them back.

.

To-Do-List and Few last words Top

To-Do-List, what you can expect to see in this guide in the near future. (Strikethrough = done)
  • Gameplay, how to play, when to do what -chapter
  • Pros and Cons -list
  • Introduction -chapter
  • abilities breakdown -chapter
  • In-depth talents -update
  • Map specific shenanigans -chapter
  • Tips and Tricks -chapter
  • Overall visual improvements to the guide
  • Additional builds
  • Builds explanation page
  • Table of contents

Thank you for reading this far!

This ends my guide, if you liked it and want to show some support, please give a thumbs up and/or leave a comment below.

All suggestions and constructive critisism is welcome!

If you want to check my other guide, a Murky guide, you can find it here: DakMonkeyz Murky


Cheers, gl gg hf, cu in the nexus.
DakMonkeyz


.

Updates & Edits Top

Released: 14.1.2015

EDITS: There has been minor EDITS like grammar errors, code mistakes and stuff pretty much every day so I'm going to just not mark those up, updates should be enough info.

Update 1 (15.1.2015): Added 2 additional builds, "The three builds above" -chapter and "Updates & Edits" -chapter
Update 2 (16.1.2015): Added abilities -chapter and improved the talents -chapter a bit.
Update 3 (17.1.2015): Added Introducing Thrall, son of Durotan, warchief of the Horde -chapter and fixed/improved some visual stuff and reworked opening and last words. Updated to-do-list.
Update 4 (18.1.2015): Upgraded "few words about talents" -chapter and "the three builds above" -chapter
Update 5 (18.1.2015): Added "Tips & Tricks & Wombos & Combos & Stuff" -chapter
Update 6 (19.1.2015): Continued work on tips & tricks -chapter. Added Threats.
Update 7 (20.1.2015): Added Table of contents. Removed some useless stuff from all chapters. Added WomboCombo and Stuff chapters. Swapped build order.
Update 8 (21.1.2015 & 22.1.2015): Started working on Map strategies -chapter.
Update 9 (26.1.2015): Reworked some chapters like builds above and combos. Removed some stuff that was there for no reason.
Update 10 (27.1.2015): Hid some details under "spoilers" to make the guide look less intimidating. Updated Maps specific chapter.
Update 11 (2.1.2015): Added Game timings -chapter

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