1. Introduction 1.1 Who am I? 1.1 Who's Johanna? 2. Pros & Cons 3. Abilities 4. Ability Usage 5. Talent Breakdown 6. Standard Build 7. Anti AA Build 8. What Synergizes 5. What Counters 5. TL;DR 5. Final Notes

1.1 Who am I?

Hi, i'm Blitz! In this guide i want to showcase my knowledge about Johanna. She's a crusader which was one of my favorite classes in Diablo 3. She is not that hard to play and really reminds me of my fun from Diablo 3. In the following guide, i'll explain Johanna as clear and informative as possible.

Happy Reading!

1.2 Who's Johanna?

Johanna is a heavy frontline warrior that can stand very long in the whilst of battle to disrupt the enemies backline. She has a self cleanse and is capable of applying slows, stuns and blinds. She can also pull enemies towards her. She's a great counter against auto attack heroes, because of her blinds and physical armor. For this reason, i would like to classify her as an anti auto attack tank.

Pros

+ Great waveclear
+ Very disruptive
+ Has self cleanse and shield
+ Huge survivability
+ Has a blind in her basekit
+ Has nice setup for AoE abilities

Cons

- Low sustained damage that can be ignored
- No hard engage (except Falling Sword)
- Not that great peeling
- No gap-closer in her basekit
- Can be kited easily

(Q) - Damage and apply a slow on enemies that decays over time.

(W) - Pulls and damages enemies near you, while also applying a mini stun. Does bonus damage on minions and mercenaries.

(E) - Damage and blind enemies, causing them to miss basic attacks.

(Trait) - Activate to become unstoppable and get a shield.

(R) - Jump to a location, while in the air you can steer the landing location, deals damage and knocks enemies up.

(R) - Throw out a shield that stuns the first enemy hit and then bounces to 2 more enemies applying a shorter stun.

(Q) - Punish applies a 60% slow decaying over 2 seconds. It helps to hold enemies in place or to peel for your allies. If you are escaping from a fight, make sure you use Punish before you run, so they are slowed.

(W) - This is your wave clearing tool. Make sure you use this first, before using Punish or Shield Glare. This way you get more value from your abilities. It's a great setup for AoE damage to follow up. Remember that Condemn is a mini stun and therefore can be used to cancel channeled abilities like ETC's Mosh Pit or Sonya's Whirlwind. This ability can also be used to peel for your allies. Make sure you pull them away from your allies and slow them right after with your Punish.

(E) - This is a 1,5 seconds blind. It has a lot of range so you could use it to interrupt channels on Black Heart's Bay or Towers of Doom. Never use it for the damage, unless you are very sure you can kill the target. Make sure you hit as much targets as possible to maximize it's value, especially when Holy Renewal is taken. It's also a great ability for revealing heroes or for checking brushes.

(Trait) - Iron Skin is great for dodging CC chains. Try to predict incoming CC. Sometimes i just use it for the shield it gives, which will buy your healer some time. The cooldown on Iron Skin isn't really low so make sure you don't waste it. With Iron Skin on you can bait the Punisher from Infernal Shrines more safely. You can also use it to tank tower shots without getting slowed.

(R) - This heroic gives you a way to engage, but it can also be used to escape from bad situations. It's a nice heroic for finishing off those last remaining heroes or for diving the backline. A major drawback though is that you are up in the air for 2 seconds, so there is no tank for your team during this time. If you want to interrupt channeled abilities, don't take this heroic. Try to use this heroic after your Condemn + Punish combo so the targets are close together and slowed down a bit. You can also follow up on a setup.

(R) - Blessed Shield is a great heroic for setting up combo's. For example with Diablo's Apocalypse or Jaina's Ring of Frost. It's also great for disengaging a fight. Furthermore, you can reliably interrupt channeled abilities like ETC's Mosh Pit or Chen's Storm, Earth, Fire.

green = my preferred talent choice
orange = situational/viable

Recommended

Regeneration Master is my preferred choice here. Each globe collected gives you +1 health regen, up to 30. On quest completion, you also get 500 health.
It's a great talent on maps like Tomb of the Spider Queen or Dragon Shire, where you can rotate between 2 lanes. Make sure you only pick this if you can finish it.

Reinforce is a solid option, if you are facing a team with hard hitting auto attacks or can't get globes that easily. Every time you use an ability it grants 50 physical armor against the next hero basic attack, has 2 charges. It's value greatly reduces against high attack speed heroes like Tracer or Zarya.

Not Recommended

Righteous Smash is not that good compared to the other talents in this tier. It adds nothing to your tankyness and you need to use mana to get mana, which often won't get you value.

Recommended

Laws of Hope is the only viable talent choice in this tier. Laws of Hope gives you +10 health regen instantly and also an activatable burst heal. This greatly enhances your survivability early game.

Not Recommended

Roar is a very poor talent for Johanna. She is not about dealing damage so a 50% increase on your Punish isn't that much.

Eternal Retaliation is also a talent that seems bad to me. It is hard to get value from. I think it is decent for defending against the Zergs on Braxis Holdout or clearing the Shrines on Infernal, but Condemn doesn't do much damage and no bonus damage to Monsters. I believe it is better to build yourself tankier so you can win team fights. Your waveclear is already better then most tanks.

Recommended

Conviction is my preferred choice in this tier. It helps a lot with hitting as many enemies as possible with your Condemn. It also helps to stick better on targets, especially when they are very mobile. With this talent you lower one of Johanna's weaknesses, her mobility. It also helps with quickly repositioning to peel for your allies.

Blessed Momentum is the other viable option for me. I would strongly recommend this if you want to bring more utility with your blinds,slows and pulls. It's a must pick talent for an anti AA build, because you will be able to blind more often but also get more charges of Reinforce.

Not Recommended

Sins Exposed is giving you better waveclear, but i don't believe that it has much value in a team fight, compared to Blessed Momentum or Conviction. Blessed Momentum lowers your cooldowns as well,so this also enhances your waveclear, utility and damage. I wouldn't take Sins Exposed ever.

The Crusade Marches On forces you to use your abilities in a certain order to get the most value from it. It is kind of strange to walk into a fight and immediately pop your trait. For this reason, i won't take this. If you keep your trait ready for real trouble, then you don't need lower cooldowns.

Viable

Falling Sword is a lot of fun to take. I like to take it when i don't need a fast interrupt or don't have huge follow up for Blessed Shield. Falling Sword has become a lot more viable in this double warrior meta, because it helps a lot with reaching the backline. It's also useful to escape a bad situation. If your team already got great setups, then just pick this heroic to follow up on them. One thing to mention is that some heroes can easily dodge this heroic.

Here's a pretty nasty example of a team with already a lot of setups.

Recommended

Blessed Shield is mostly better, because you can use it to retreat from a fight, use it as a setup for heroics like Apocalypse or Sulfuras Smash or use it to catch fleeing enemies. Make sure you take this if you don't need the engage from Falling Sword or your team could use a setup.

Recommended

Burning Rage is my go-to pick here. You are very tanky with Johanna so you get a lot of damage out with this talent as long as you got enemies near you. It also helps a bit for waveclearing.

Subdue seems as an decent talent. it's a nice increase on your Punish slow, but it still decays. It keeps enemies a bit longer in place for your team to follow up, but you already do that very well with the untalented Punish. The extra slow also helps a bit with peeling for your allies.

Not Recommended

Hold Your Ground seems as a bad choice to me. It will increase your shield amount with 20% and when it's destroyed, it's cooldown will be reduced by 4 seconds. You won't get that cooldown reduction off, because you are too tough to burst through. If the enemy does focus you, then your allies should be able to safely counter damage them.

Recommended

Holy Renewal is my pick at 16. It brings you a lot more survivability, which you can use to tank more damage and create more chaos. Just make sure you hit as many heroes as possible to get the greatest value from this talent.

Imposing Presence is a very situational pick. It's good against teams that rely a lot on auto attacks. It's especially good against melee auto attackers like Illidan or Greymane, who like to dive on your backline. Those are mostly close to you so its easy to get value from your active. All by all, Holy Renewal is never a bad pick, because it's more reliable.

Not Recommended

Blessed Hammer is very random extra damage and for that reason not viable in my opinion. I would never pick this talent.

Fanaticism is not needed for Johanna, you can pull people to you, have a slow and you could pick up Conviction early on if you need a way to stick better on targets or escape from a fight. It's also unreliable, because people have to hit you in order to grant movement speed.

Recommended

Indestructible is my go-to talent at 20. Indestructible is so powerful, especially together with Holy Renewal and Laws of Hope. You will be so hard to kill and by the time the massive shield pops, you can probably heal yourself with Holy Renewal and Laws of Hope.

Storm Shield is a viable option if your allies are having a hard time to stay alive, but you don't need Indestructible.

Not Recommended

Heaven's Fury is definitely not bad, but it competes with more survivability for you or your allies. I might take this when i'm really certain my team doesn't need more survivability and has another warrior to defend them.

Radiating Faith has to less value. It's duration is still pretty short and hitting two extra targets doesn't make much difference, because that won't happen that often. This also competes with more survivability for you or your allies.

Johanna can survive for a long time and has great setup. For those reasons, she's very strong with AoE damage dealers or with heroes who deal damage through other heroes. One of her weaknesses is her mobility so heroes that can increase her movement speed or decrease enemy movement speed are making it easier for her to stick on targets and to escape.

Johanna has low mobility and for that reason she's not that great against high mobility heroes or heroes that slow her down. As with all tanks, another counter is % damage.

- Johanna is great against auto attack heavy teams with her blinds and physical armor, make sure you don't draft her too early. This way the enemy can't counter pick with spell casters.
- Always try to use Punish or Shield Glare after your Condemn, to maximize its value
- Punish and Condemn can be used to peel for your allies
- Condemn is very good for clearing waves of minions. It also creates a setup for AoE abilities.
- Condemn can interrupt channeled abilities like ETC's Mosh Pit or Chen's Storm, Earth, Fire.
- Iron Skin is great for dodging CC chains. Try to predict enemy CC. Be sure not to waste it, since the cooldown isn't low.
- Falling Sword is a great way to engage, but never take this if you need an interrupt or setup.
- Use Condemn + Punish before your Falling Sword, so the targets are close together and a bit slowed. This makes it harder for enemies to dodge it.
- Blessed Shield is great for a setup, disengage or interrupt.

Thanks for reading through this guide. I hope i was clear and informative enough. I will continue to improve my guides, add more guides and i'm looking forward for your opinions and tips. Please feel free to criticize.

~Blitz