Who am I?

A player with not enough experience but just enough ego to think others might like to read about builds he found and enjoys. These aren't guaranteed to fit in the meta, or be super competitive, or anything really, but they're builds I enjoy, and that's what matters to me.

Who is Raynor?

In Heroes of the Storm, Raynor is a ranged assassin, classified as Easy. He has an assassin's respectable damage, but also enough burst survivability to be forgiving despite his lack of an escape. His clear and push are respectable, his burst is decent to mediocre, his chase is poor.

What's this build?

While generally an auto-attack based build, it passes over some damage-boosting talents for more utility. It doesn't invest heavily in survivability, but between the lifesteal and Raynor's low mana usage you have pretty impressive sustain.

D: Advanced Optics - Raynor's passive trait is simple enough - he sees and shoots farther. This lets him kite and poke in relative safety.

Q: Penetrating Round - Raynor's Q is a simple skillshot that pierces through all enemies in a narrow line, damaging and pushing them back. Simple, but very effective. Use this to push chasers away, pin victims into corners, or help clear waves. It has a low mana cost and cooldown so you shouldn't be too concerned about saving it for emergencies.

W: Inspire - Raynor's W is an activated buff with ~53% uptime out of the box. It gives him 8s of 25% extra attack speed, which is nice on its own, but also gives half that to all nearby allies. This is huge. That's an extra 12.5% attack speed - so, 12.5% more damage - for your allied Siege Giants. Or Bone Golem. Or Dragon Knight. Or Sgt. Hammer. Or Illidan. Or... you get the point. Use this to support your teammates in teamfights.

E: Adrenaline Rush - Raynor's E... isn't actually on E, it's a passive that triggers whenever his health goes low to heal him for ~30% of his health, then goes on cooldown. This is a handy little tool to have, as it forgiveth a lot of sins. Still, don't rely on it overmuch - it's handy, but you're no warrior.

R: Hyperion - Raynor's first heroic calls in his battlecruiser to hover over the battlefield, slowly advancing and bombarding enemies in a large area with laser artillery and Yamato cannon blasts. This is quite the fun toy - dropped on a teamfight it's a good source of damage, and even if enemies get out of the area, well, that's called zoning. The 'slowly advancing' nature of the area makes it difficult to run away from if they can't nip off to the side. Further, his power really benefited from having the building-mauling Yamato cannon rolled into the base power. When possible, try to hit both the towers and the fort/keep with it.

R: Raynor's Raiders - Raynor's second heroic calls a part of quick-moving, cloaking Banshees to attack targets of his choice. It lacks the team fight utility of Hyperion, but is better for burst damage and chasing down fleeing enemies. Still, in my experience, it isn't good enough for either, and I have better results with the big guns. Still, your mileage may vary!

Lvl 1: Seasoned Marksman - I like Seasoned Marksman. I think it's much more powerful than it actually is, but you can't argue with extra auto-attack damage on an auto-attack hero with an auto-attack speed steroid. Give More More! pushes your passive's heal from ~30% to ~45% though, and is worth considering if you want some extra survivability. Raiders Recruitment is like Bribe but better, but I'm not a fan of it - jungle camps are easy enough to take as is. Scouting Drone offers nice vision but I don't think it's flexible enough to be anything but a situational choice.

Lvl 4: Vampiric Assault - No contest, lifesteal keeps you topped off and in-lane much longer, and much more likely to win duels. Focused Attack would be better for damage, obviously, but 50% more alpha and ~8% damage increase sustained doesn't seem worth it. Confident Aim is nice but not really worth it either, Penetrating Round's CD is good as is and it's unreliable as a damage source. Activated Rush helps your sustain, but Vampire Assault does that and better.

Lvl 7: Revolution Overdrive - This is a bit of a personal choice. 10% movement speed might not seem like much but it's the only escape you have, and it works pretty well. Plus, you gain extra speed for every ally affected, which most often happens in chase situations, exactly when it's needed. That said, it has an extremely strong contender in Mercenary Lord. I already enjoy pushing Siege Giants into enemy fortifications with just Inspire, adding 50% more damage on top of that is just crazy. Still, not having that movement speed is a risk. Fight or Flight may help you survive that one gank but I think it's too situational to consider often. Maybe against extremely root and slow happy enemies out to get you. Finally. Hamstring Shot is nice and it synergizes well later, but it won't help you catch somebody already out of your range the way Overdrive will. Really, there's no bad choices here.

Lvl 10: Hyperion - Personal preference here. I like the teamfight presence and siege damage that the flying brick brings to the table. Plus, I love the simplicity of its graphics design and the sound of its Yamato. But the build works just as well with the chase and burst potential of Raynor's Raiders

Lvl 13: Steel Resolve - Oh this isn't an easy level. Giant Killer makes you carve off ~2.34% of a tank's HP every second. Double-Barreled turns your Penetrating Shot from useful to deadly, but we haven't built for it. Puttin' On a Clinic is... well, it's like Battle Momentum, if Battle Momentum sucked, so it's not really a choice. But I really like Steel Resolve. The extra 4s pushes its uptime from ~53% to 80%. Simple but effective. On top of that, you get a free cast of Inspire whenever Adrenaline Rush triggers, giving you extra attack speed to win that duel - or, with Revolution Overdrive, extra movement speed to escape that chase. Highly personal choice here.

Lvl 16: Bullseye - Another tricky choice, but Bullseye's 50% damage and stun is great for putting the hurt on that lone target that might be channeling something nasty. Cluster Round is also a nice choice, though much more situational - it's brilliant for hitting that one enemy (or building!) that's hiding behind a creep wave or summoned minions. Executioner would synergize well with Hamstring Shot but, well. We didn't pick it. Berserk is a really nice steroid if you want some extra burst and frankly it's personal preference that I avoid it - I'm not going for pure damage here. Relentless Leader, meanwhile, offers nice survivability against CC happy enemies but, again, that's not what I build for.

Lvl 20: Nexus Frenzy - You just can't go wrong with 20% more attack speed and range, especially since Raynor already has excellent both. Scorched Earth isn't, in my opinion, worth it. It may have been back when it gave Yamato (though it was far too late for it to be as useful as it is baseline), but now it just adds a small bit more damage to something people already avoid. A Card to Play is nice if you want to drop Hyperion (or Raynor's Raiders) more often, but at lvl 20 heroes take 60s or more to respawn anyway, but I'm not sure it's worth it. Unless Murky or the Vikings are in play, the 10s reduction just doesn't come into play enough. Plus, if it's your folks dying, it won't save you, and if it's theirs, you don't need it to win that much. Plus, you have to give up Nexus Frenzy. Bolt of the Storm is always nice if you have trouble surviving long enough to use Nexus Frenzy. As for Dusk Wings, I haven't nearly enough experience to judge it, but a 50% damage increase and making it much more reliable sounds just what it needs, but again, at the cost of Nexus Frenzy.