Arcturus Mengsk by Nima Nightmare

5 Votes

Arcturus Mengsk

By: Nima Nightmare
Last Updated: Sep 7, 2026
Quick Share

Arcturus Mengsk

Emperor of The Dominion

There's a name that is synonymous with terror, betrayal and violence. A living example of the ends justifying the means. The assassin of the Confederacy of Man. The hero of the blasted world of Korhal IV. King of the universe. A savage barbarian who never let anything or anyone get in his way. And yet, he is charming, erudite and intelligent. Now his control extends over to the Nexus.

Strengths:

  • Unique playstyle
  • Split-pushing potential
  • Supports allies through weakening enemies
  • Excellent team fight pressure thanks to Propaganda
  • High cast range for Abilities
  • Good zone control
  • Can help his team get to higher levels much faster.

Weaknesses:

  • Low Health pool
  • Very high Mana consumption
  • Not very threatening on his own, heavily reliant on allied follow-ups for full effectiveness
  • Somewhat complex and unconventional playstyle that can be detrimental to his own team if played poorly
  • No self-mobility options
  • No baseline healing or Shields to his allies, making his supporting capabilities purely aggression-oriented rather than survival enhancement which can be a problem in games with no Healers
  • Poor early game

Stats:


Health: 1400
Health Regen: 4.6 per second
Mana: 500
Mana Regen: 7.5 per second
Attack Damage: 70
Attack Range: 5.5
Attack Speed: 1 per second

Side Note


Mengsk's Abilities here are based on the datamined Abilities when Mengsk was discussed as an officially proposed Hero for Heroes of the Storm; Propaganda Tower, Post Bounty, Insurance Policy and Psi-Emitter. They had no description beyond names, so this concept is an application of those alongside original ideas.

Despite being a Support, Mengsk's way of "supporting" his team is less direct, albeit not in a similar fashion to The Lost Vikings, but rather he focuses mostly on consistently debuffing the enemy team rather than buffing his own.

Finally, while I am aware that Mengsk is canonically not a fighter (or at least not fighting his battles himself), I am against the idea of having him have no physical body because:
  1. Abathur exists. So in matches with both Abathur and Mengsk on the same team (unlikely outside of parties), their team would suffer even less physical presence with little compensation.
  2. It would destroy the purpose of being a playable Hero in a game. Non-fighter Heroes like Abathur still have physical bodies. They are just designed in different ways to accommodate to their home counterparts whilst feeling playable.

To compensate this, Mengsk's Health and damage stats are poor, but he excels with high cast ranges for his Abilities.

Mengsk's appearance (accompanied by a drone that is holding the Xel'Naga artifact for the Insurance Policy Ability)

Combat Trait

1
Propaganda
Enemy Heroes damaged by Mengsk deal 25% less damage for 2 seconds.
2
Propaganda Tower
Deploy a Propaganda Tower at the target location for 15 seconds that applies Propaganda to nearby enemy Heroes every 2 seconds.

Propaganda Tower Health: 400 (+4% per level)
Cooldown: 20 seconds

Cast Range: Global (requires vision)
Radius: 8

Primary Abilities

1
Indoctrination
Falsely inspire an allied Hero via a drone for 4 seconds, granting them 20% increased Attack Damage and Ability Damage.

When this effect ends, the drone explodes, dealing 270 (+4% per level) damage to all enemies near the target and 50% of the damage to the allied target.

Cannot be used on Mengsk.

Mana: 50
Cooldown: 15 seconds

Cast Range: 8
Radius: 4

Does not allow the allied target's Health to go below 1.
Similar to the Cavalry on Alterac Pass, despite the UI displaying the increased damage as Spell Power, healing effects are unaffected.
2
Post Bounty
Place bounty on the targeted enemy Hero for 6 seconds, marking them and dealing 110 (+4% per level) damage to them.

If the target is killed while Post Bounty is active, its cooldown is lowered by 10 seconds and your team gains 25% increased XP from the killed Hero.

Mana: 70
Cooldown: 30 seconds

Cast Range: 8

Like the other Supports, Mengsk should have a way to contribute to his team's XP soaking. This is his method.
The increased XP multiplies the XP gained through killing Heroes.
3
Insurance Policy
For 4 seconds, deal 20 (+4% per level) damage to all nearby enemies every 0.25 seconds and Slowing them by 25% for 1 second with each hit.

Mana: 60
Cooldown: 14 seconds

Radius: 4.5

Ideally used for countering dives against Mengsk.

Secondary Abilities

1
Ordnance Swap
Swap Earthsplitter Ordnance's firing mode between Bombardment and Contaminated Strike.

Available if Earthsplitter Ordnance was the selected Heroic Ability.

Heroic Abilities

1
Psi-Destroyer
Deploy a Psi-Destroyer at the target area that activates after 1 second. Whenever an enemy Hero uses an Ability while within the Psi-Destroyer's radius, they take 250 (+4% per level) damage.

The Psi-Destroyer lasts 8 seconds after activation.

Psi-Destroyer Health: 800 (+4% per level)
Cooldown: 80 seconds
Mana: 100

Cast Range: 6
Radius: 8

Initially the damage was supposed to be based on Mana spent, but given that there are Heroes who don't use Mana, and to reduce complexity, the damage is flat and triggers with any Ability that is used within.
2
Psi-Emitter
Deploy a Psi-Emitter at the targeted location for 20 seconds. After 1 second of being deployed, it deploys 3 Zerglings each second which charge down the nearest lane. Can have up to 15 Zerglings at once.

Cooldown: 75 seconds
Mana: 100

Psi-Emitter Health: 750 (+4% per level)
Zergling Health: 300 (+4% per level)
Zergling Attack Damage: 45 (+4% per level)
Zergling Attack Speed: 1.25 per second
Zergling Movement Speed: 5.6
Cast Range: 3

Zergling target priority (from first to last): Minions --> Mercenaries--> Monsters --> Structures --> Heroes.
Cooldown starts when Psi-Emitter is destroyed or when manually cancelled by reactivating the Ability..
When reaching the maximum number of Zerglings, the Psi-Emitter stops summoning them until one is destroyed.
3
Earthsplitter Ordnance
Passive: Spawns an Earthsplitter Ordnance at the Hall of Storms.


Bombardment

Fire a missile at the target location that lands after 1 second, dealing 170 (+4% per level) damage to all non-Structure enemies in the area. Deals 100% increased damage to Heroes.

Radius: 6


Contaminated Strike

Call down a missile at the target location that lands after 1 second. Upon impact, it deals 65 (+4% per level) damage to all non-Structure enemies in its area and creates a contaminated puddle in its wake for 4 seconds which deals 87 (+4% per level) damage to all non-Structure enemies inside every 0.5 seconds. Deals 100% increased damage to non-Heroes.

Radius: 5

Cooldown: 12 seconds
Mana: 80

Cast Range: Global

Unlike most other Heroes, Mengsk has 3 options for Heroic Abilities as opposed to 2. The purpose of Earthsplitter Ordnance is versatility between team fight and wave clear as each firing mode specializes in one field, serving as a middle ground between Psi-Destroyer (team fight) and Psi-Emitter (siege and wave clear), but the other two remain better specialized for their intended purposes.

Level 1 Talents

Unquestioned Authority (W)
Post Bounty Slows enemy Heroes by 25% for 1.5 seconds upon casting. When Post Bounty expires, the target is Slowed by 40% for 2 seconds.

Passive: Post Bounty recharges 50% faster while it is active.

Amplified Keystone (E)
Increase the radius of Insurance Policy by 25%, and its damage by 50%. Casting Insurance Policy next to an enemy Hero refunds 60 Mana.

Dominion Contract (Active)
Enemy Minions or captured Mercenaries killed near Mengsk grant stacks of Bribe. Use 10 stacks to bribe a target Mercenary, instantly defeating them. Does not work on Elite Mercenaries.

Mercenaries captured with Dominion Contract have 50% reduced Health, but they deal 25% increased damage to non-Heroes, and if a camp is defeated entirely using Dominion Contract, it takes 35% less time to respawn.

Max Stacks: 40
Cast Range: 6

Level 4 Talents

Promotion Granted (Q)
Quest: Hit enemy Heroes with Indoctrination explosions.
Reward: After hitting 6 Heroes, Indoctrination grants 25% Movement Speed to allied Heroes while active and for 2 seconds after expiring.
Reward: After hitting 12 Heroes, Indoctrination no longer damages allies, and its explosion deals 40% increased damage to enemy Heroes below 50% Health.
Reward: Hitting 5 Heroes with a single Indoctrination explosion grants all other rewards and reduces Indoctrination's Mana cost by 30.

Emperor's Decree (W)
Killing enemy Heroes within the last 2 seconds of Post Bounty’s duration increases the bonus XP to 50%, and reduces its cooldown by an additional 10 seconds.
Quest: Kill enemy Heroes within the last 2 seconds of Post Bounty.
Reward: After killing 5 Heroes, Post Bounty's duration is increased to 8 seconds.
Reward: After killing 10 Heroes, Post Bounty reduces the Armor of enemy Heroes by 10 while active.

Imperial Threat (Trait)
If Propaganda lasts for 8 consecutive seconds on the same enemy Hero, lower the cooldowns of Indoctrination and Insurance Policy by 3 seconds. This effect has a 20 second cooldown per Hero.
Quest: Apply Propaganda to enemy Heroes.
Reward: After applying Propaganda for 50 seconds, the cooldown reduction of Indoctrination and Insurance Policy through Propaganda is increased to 6 seconds.
Reward: After applying Propaganda for 100 seconds, increase the duration of Propaganda to 4 seconds.

Level 7 Talents

Brave Sacrifice (Q)
Increase the explosion radius of Indoctrination by 35%. Each time the affected allied Hero deals damage to an enemy Hero, Indoctrination's current explosion damage is increased by 15 (+4% per level), up to a maximum bonus 135 (+4% per level).

Wolves of War (W)
Post Bounty deals 40% more damage, and reveals its target for the duration. Upon expiring, the target is Silenced for 1 second.

Passive: Reduce the cooldown of Post Bounty by 5 seconds.

Shocking Revelation (E)
Every 4th hit of Insurance Policy deals an additional damage based on 1% of enemy Heroes’ maximum Health. If Insurance Policy’s final hit damages at least 2 enemy Heroes, it deals an additional damage based on 7% of enemy Heroes’ maximum Health.

Level 13 Talents

Elite Insurance (E)
Increase Insurance Policy's duration by 1 second. Every 20 times a Hero is damaged with Insurance Policy, it emits a heavy shockwave that stuns nearby enemies for 0.25 seconds.

Narcissism (E)
Every time Insurance Policy damages an enemy Hero, Mengsk gains 30 (+4% per level) Shields for 4 seconds, up to a maximum of 540 (+4% per level) Shields.

If Mengsk gains Shields from Insurance Policy, it can be reactivated to distribute 25% of this Shield to nearby allied Heroes once Insurance Policy ends.

Law and Order (Trait)
While Mengsk is near his own Propaganda Tower, he gains 25 Armor for 2 seconds with each pulse that the Tower emits.

Passive: Increase the radius and the duration of Propaganda Tower by 25%.

Level 16 Talents

Pride of Augustgrad (Q)
Indoctrination grants 25 Armor to allied Heroes while active and for 3 seconds after expiring. Each enemy Hero hit with Indoctrination's explosion damage grants an additional 5 Armor.

Sons of Korhal (Q)
Indoctrination removes all disabling effects from allied Heroes upon expiring, and allows the affected ally to retain the damage bonus for 4 seconds when doing so.

Passive: Increase the damage bonus of Indoctrination to 40%.

Medical Blackout (Trait)
Enemies affected with Propaganda receive 25% less healing, and heal Mengsk’s allies near them for 50 (+4% per level) Health per second.

Radius: 5

Expanded Arsenal (Active)
Increase an allied Minion's Attack Damage by 50% and cause it to apply Propaganda to nearby enemies every 2 seconds. When this Minion dies, nearby allied Minions gain this Attack Damage bonus with an additional increased 5% Attack Damage for each new Minion affected.

Passive: Indoctrination can now also be cast on allied Minions and non-Elite Mercenaries.
Passive: Propaganda also applies to enemy Minions and non-Elite Mercenaries.

Cooldown: 45 seconds
Cast Range: 5
Search Radius (for Minion death): 7
Propaganda Radius: 6

Level 20 Talents

I Rule This Realm (Heroic R)
Psi-Destroyer applies Post Bounty to enemy Heroes within its radius, and its cooldown is reduced by 5 seconds each time it damages an enemy Hero.

Burn This Realm to Ashes (Heroic R)
Psi-Emitter can now summon up to an additional maximum of 10 Zerglings and the amount of Zerglings it summons each second is increased by 3.

Every 1 second, a Guardian is also summoned. Guardians have higher Health and long-ranged attacks that deal splash damage, but they attack much slower than the Zerglings do. Can have up to a maximum of 5 Guardians at a time.

Guardian Health: 850 (+4% per level)
Guardian Attack Damage: 150 (+4% per level)
Guardian Attack Range: 10
Guardian Attack Speed: 0.4 per second
Guardian Attack Splash Radius: 3

Contaminated Bounty (W)
While Post Bounty is active on a target, a Bombardment Missile is fired at their last location every 1 second, dealing 170 (+4% per level) damage to all enemies in the area, increased by 100% against Heroes.

If the target of Post Bounty survives when it ends, create a Contaminated Strike puddle underneath them for 4 seconds, dealing 87 (+4% per level) damage to all enemies inside every 0.5 seconds, increased by 100% against non-Heroes.

Bombardment Radius: 6
Contaminated Strike Puddle Radius: 5
Does not require Earthsplitter Ordnance at level 10.

Second in Command (E)
While both Indoctrination and Insurance Policy are active, Insurance Policy also activates around the Indoctrination target.

Benefits from all Insurance Policy Talents.

Our Snake Now (Passive)
Dominion Contract can also be used on Elite Mercenary Camps at the cost of 40 stacks of Bribe. Elite Mercenaries captured with Dominion Contract deal 35% increased damage, but their Health is reduced by 75%.

Prerequisite Talent: Dominion Contract

Changelog

07/09/2026


Talents


Level 4


Emperor's Decree (ADJUSTED)
  • Quest Requirement Changed: Kill enemy Heroes within the last 2 seconds of Post Bounty.
  • Quest requirement for the first Reward changed from 10 to 5.
  • Quest requirement for the second Reward changed from 20 to 10.

Imperial Threat (ADJUSTED)
  • Reward Changed: After applying Propaganda for 50 seconds, the cooldown reduction of Indoctrination and Insurance Policy through Propaganda is increased to 6 seconds.
  • Second Reward is unchanged.
  • No longer grants Mengsk Spell Power.

Level 16


Sons of Korhal
  • Now passively increases Indoctrination's damage increase to 40%.

03/09/2026


Abilities


Trait Active: Propaganda Tower (D)
  • Moved to its own slot in the concept page. In game, this still shares a spot with Propaganda's hotkey.

Indoctrination (Q)
  • Now only increases Ability damage instead of Spell Power (still provides Attack Damage increase). The UI will still display this as Spell Power, but healing effects are unaffected.

Talents


Level 7


Wolves of War (ADJUSTED)
  • No longer causes Post Bounty to apply Propaganda for full duration.
  • Adjusted Functionality: Increases the damage of Post Bounty by 40%.
  • The Reveal and Silence effects are retained.

Level 16


Medical Blackout
  • Healing no longer stacks with multiple Heroes affected with Propaganda.

02/09/2026


General
  • Health increased from 1150 to 1400.

Abilities


Trait: Propaganda (D)
  • Damage reduction increased from 15% to 25%.
  • Affected enemies no longer deal additionally reduced damage to Mengsk while affected with Propaganda.

Active: Propaganda Tower (D)
  • Moved to Propaganda's hotkey as an activatable rather than being a secondary Ability.
  • Health increased from 200 to 400.
  • Radius increased from 6 to 8.
  • Cooldown increased from 16 to 20 seconds.

Royal Guard (Q)
  • Renamed to Indoctrination.
  • Now also increases Spell Power by 20%.
  • Attack Damage bonus reduced from 40% to 20%.
  • Explosion radius reduced from 6 to 4.

Post Bounty (W)
  • No longer applies amplified Propaganda for the duration.
  • Now deals 110 damage upon casting.

Insurance Policy (E)
  • Damage increased to from 18 to 20.
  • Slow increased from 15% to 25%.
  • No longer does bonus damage or Slow with every 4th hit.

Psi-Destroyer (R)
  • Damage increased from 210 to 250.
  • Psi-Destroyer's Health increased from 400 to 800.

Psi-Emitter(R)
  • Zergling Health increased from 50 to 300.
  • Zergling Attack Speed increased from 1 to 1.25 per second.

Earthsplitter Ordnance (R)
  • No longer damages Structures.

Talents


Level 1


Amplified Keystone
  • Damage increase of Insurance Policy increased from 25% to 50%. Radius increase remains the same.

Dominion Contract (REWORKED)
  • Now functions like a modified Bribe talent.
  • No longer has starting charges.
  • Cannot use 1 charge for an entire Mercenary camp anymore.
  • Cooldown is no longer reduced by Propaganda uptimes.
  • Reworked Functionality: Enemy Minions or captured Mercenaries killed near Mengsk grant stacks of Bribe. Use 10 stacks to bribe a target Mercenary, instantly defeating them. Does not work on Elite Mercenaries. Can have up to a max of 40 stacks at a time.
  • The modifications to the Mercenary Camp itself remain unchanged.

Level 4


Promotion Granted (Moved from level 7)


Emperor's Decree (Moved from level 7)
  • Timing threshold for bonuses from this Talent changed from the first 2 seconds to the last 2 seconds of Post Bounty's activation.
  • Quest requirements for the first Reward changed from 15 to 10.
  • Quest requirements for the second Reward changed from 30 to 20.

Imperial Threat (Moved from level 7)


Level 7


Brave Sacrifice (Moved from level 4)
  • Damage increase also triggers by sources of damage beyond Basic Attacks.

Wolves of War (Moved from level 4)
  • No longer deals damage.
  • Now applies Propaganda for the full duration of Post Bounty.

Shocking Revelation (Moved from level 4)
  • Percent damage from every 4th hit reduced from 2% to 1% of Heroes' maximum Health.

Level 13


Narcissism
  • Shield amount increased from 20 to 30.
  • Max Shield amount increased from 360 to 540.

Law and Order
  • Armor increased from 20 to 25.

Level 13


Pride of Augustgrad
  • Base Armor increased from 15 to 25.

Sons of Korhal (ADJUSTED)
  • Removal of disabling effects occur when Indoctrination expires, instead of upon casting.
  • Reworked Functionality: If Indoctrination's expiration removes a disabling effect, the affected ally retains the damage bonus for 4 seconds.

Medical Blackout
  • Healing reduction increased from 15% to 25%.
  • Healing reduced from 56 to 50 per second.

Level 20


I Rule This Nexus
  • Renamed to I Rule This Realm.

Burn This Nexus to Ashes
  • Renamed to Burn This Realm to Ashes.
  • Guardian Health increased from 350 to 850.
  • Guardian Attack Damage increased from 100 to 150.
  • Guardian Attack splash radius increased from 2.5 to 3.

Our Snake Now (ADJUSTED)
  • Elite Mercenaries cost 40 stacks of Bribe.
  • Health reduction of Elite Mercenaries captured with Dominion Contract increased from 60% to 75%.

01/09/2026

  • Created.

Quick Comment

You need to log in before commenting.

[-] Collapse All Comments

Sort Comments By
1
[-]
SMILE (1) | September 2, 2026 2:35am
I have some major issues with this concept:
1) [Royal Guard] has almost the same design flaw as Support Tassadar. Giving 40% bonus Attack Damage for 4 seconds from the get go means that Mengsk would be used for "hypercarry" comps and not much else. What is worse is that the enemy team cannot do anything about it, and the "drawback" of the target taking some damage when the effect ends is insignificant. Also, thematically, what does this have to with guarding?
2) [Earthsplitter Ordnance] can damage Structures. Without even requiring vision.
3) [Dominion Contract] starts with charges. It is not the best idea to give Mengsk an ability to steal the enemy camps from the very start of the match.
4) [Promotion Granted] exacerbates what I was saying. Also, since this Quest that relies on your teammates, placing it on Level 7 makes it one of the hardest to complete.
5) [Emperor's Decree] is toxic for both sides. It forces Mengsk to always "wait" for the cast and makes the enemy team suffer if they have characters like Rexxar or TLV.
There are other things that I am not so sure about, like [Sons of Korhal] being basically mandatory (like every Cleansing talent) and [Our Snake Now] doing what it is doing, but these five is what concerns me the most.

Overall, I feel like this concept is greatly limited by [Royal Guard] being the way it is right now. It is also really mild when it comes to "weakening" the enemy team, despite that supposedly being the main theme.

I do think it can still work. I have a lot of suggestions:
1) More Health. Mengsk has almost the same amount of HP as Baleog. He will get killed the moment he shows up on the map.
2) Increase the [Propaganda] damage reduction to 25%, but remove the bonus damage reduction.
3) Move [Propaganda Tower] from Active to D. I do not see why it needs to take up an Active slot.
4) [Propaganda Tower] has an extremely small HP and reach. Either increase its Health to 500 or radius to 10.
5) Replace the 40% Attack Damage bonus of [Royal Guard] with 20% damage bonus total. This allows it to be used on more than just AA monsters.
6) Make [Post Bounty] deal 110 damage instead of applying an empowered [Propaganda] effect.
7) Increase the damage of [Insurance Policy] to 20 and its Slow to 25%, but remove the bonuses of every 4th hit.
8) [Psi-Destroyer] needs a lot of buffs. It is so fragile that it would get destroyed before it could even start working. I am not even sure what to do with it.
9) [Psi-Emitter] Zerglings need a lot more Health. They are getting killed by Minions before even reaching them.
10) [Earthsplitter Ordnance] requires vision OR cannot damage Structures.
11) Either make [Dominion Contract] start on a cooldown or replace it with a new talent.
12) [Brave Sacrifice] increases the damage with each hit instead of Basic Attack.
13) [Wolves of War] applies [Propaganda] instead of dealing damage.
14) If Quests are to remain Quests, switch Level 4 and Level 7 talents. However, I suggest to simply rework them into normal talents.
15) [Emperor's Decree] increases the XP bonus within the LAST 2 seconds OR it does not increase the XP bonus at all.
16) [Shocking Revelation] and [Elite Insurance] are offensive talents for a "get off of me" tool. Strange.
17) Increase the Armor bonus of [Law and Order] to 25.
18) Rework [Sons of Korhal] to remove disabling effects upon explosion and keeping the damage bonus for 4 seconds upon doing so.
19) Increase the healing reduction of [Medical Blackout] to 25%, but decrease its healing to 50 and remove the healing bonus per affected enemy Hero.
20) 'I Rule This Nexus' and 'Burn This Nexus to Ashes' renamed to 'I Rule This Realm' and 'Burn This Realm to Ashes' respectively.
1
[-]
Nima Nightmare (2) | September 2, 2026 1:28pm
Thanks for the feedback! I've changed a lot of stuff based on what you suggested. As for specific parts:

Quoted:
1) [Royal Guard] has almost the same design flaw as Support Tassadar. Giving 40% bonus Attack Damage for 4 seconds from the get go means that Mengks would be used for "hypercarry" comps and not much else. What is worse is that the enemy team cannot do anything about it, and the "drawback" of the target taking some damage when the effect ends is really not significant. Also, thematically, what does this have to with guarding?

I was initially hesitant on giving allied Spell Power on a Basic Ability since in game, there are no baseline ways of increasing the Spell Power of another ally at level 1.
Regarding its name, it was initially supposed to be 'Royal "Guard"', a play of words on Mengsk's Royal Guard from SC2 co-op army, but yeah it doesn't really have much to do with guarding as Mengsk is not a direct buffer to allies. To lessen the confusion, I've changed the name to 'Indoctrination'.
As for the counterplay part, I've reduced its explosion radius. Now it's only really a problem to enemies who are very close to this target.
Quoted:
2) [Earthsplitter Ordnance] can damage Structures. Without even requiring vision.

It wasn't supposed to. I've changed that. Thanks for pointing it out.
Quoted:
3) [Dominion Contract] starts with charges. It is not the best idea to give Mengsk an ability to steal the enemy camps from the very start of the match.

So the idea was for Mengsk having his own powerful yet flawed version of [Bribe] in a similar way Alarak has with [Bolt of the Storm] through [Last Laugh] (different talents, but I mean as in 'modified generic talents'), hence why it was easier to capture Mercenaries, but said Mercs would be weaker. I've reworked this to function like a modified Bribe, but for Mengsk, he requires much less stacks to bribe a Merc (10 stacks). The modification of the Mercs themselves remain.
Quoted:
1) More Health. Mengsk has almost the same amount of HP as Baleog. He will get killed the moment he shows up on the map.

I was really hesitant on making Mengsk tanky by default since he's a loose adaptation of his home counterpart where he doesn't frontline by himself. I now see 1150 was extremely low even for someone who isn't supposed to frontline. I've increased it to 1400. Still not frontline-worthy, but definitely more manageable.
Quoted:
like [Sons of Korhal] being basically mandatory (like every Cleansing talent) and [Our Snake Now] doing what it is doing

I wouldn't really call [Sons of Korhal] mandatory since there are few instances where a Cleanse isn't worth picking (i.e. the enemy team's CC isn't that oppressive), but I see your point. Regarding [Our Snake Now], I believe it's a fair talent given the tier it is placed in.
Quoted:
2) Increase the [Propaganda] damage reduction to 25%, but remove the bonus damage reduction.

I've applied this, but I'm still hesitant on a baseline Spell Power reduction that is very easy to apply, that's why it was 15% by default and 35% against Mengsk.
Quoted:
13) Make [Post Bounty] deal 110 damage instead of applying an empowered [Propaganda] effect. [Wolves of War] applies [Propaganda] instead of dealing damage.

May I know the reason for this swap? I've made this change, but I'm curious. The reason [Wolves of War] dealt damage is because level 4 (now level 7) talents were categorized to be the 'damage tier'.
Quoted:
8) [Psi-Destroyer] needs a lot of buffs. It is so fragile that it would get destroyed before it could even start working. I am not even sure what to do with it.

Both Health and damage are increased.
Quoted:
9) [Psi-Emitter] Zerglings need a lot more Health. They are getting killed by Minions before even reaching them.

I didn't realize that base Minions had way more Health. This is changed now. Zerglings are drastically buffed.
Quoted:
14) If Quests are to remain Quests, switch Level 4 and Level 7 talents. However, I suggest to simply rework them into normal talents.

Applied (the tier swap). I wanted Mengsk to have a tier exclusive to power increase through Quests.
Quoted:
16) [Shocking Revelation] and [Elite Insurance] are offensive talents for an "get off of me" tool. Strange.

So for [Shocking Revelation], because of its tier, its purpose is to increase damage, while level 13 talents are for Mengsk's own survival. While I did say that [Insurance Policy] is primarily for "get off me", I think it's okay for it to have damage increase and added utility.
Quoted:
19) Increase the healing reduction of [Medical Blackout] to 25%, but decrease its healing to 50 and remove the healing bonus per affected enemy Hero.

Like the default Propaganda, I was hesitant on its percent values cause Propaganda itself is very easy to apply and maintain. I did apply this change in the end.
1
[-]
SMILE (1) | September 2, 2026 7:00pm
Quoted:
I was initially hesitant on giving allied Spell Power on a Basic Ability since in game, there are no baseline ways of increasing the Spell Power of another ally at level 1

I did not mean Spell Power, just increased damage output. These are mechanically different, as Spell Power also affects healing.

Quoted:
So the idea was for Mengsk having his own powerful yet flawed version of [Bribe]

I do not mind the idea, just the execution.

Quoted:
hence why it was easier to capture Mercenaries, but said Mercs would be weaker

The problem is that it was too easy, and said Mercenaries also gained bonus damage.

Quoted:
May I know the reason for this swap?

1) Since the damage reduction of [Propaganda] was increased, allowing Mengsk to almost halve the damage of a Hero with a point-and-click ability for 6 seconds would be unwise.
2) Making [Post Bounty] deal damage baseline allows for funny early game kills and grants Mengsk a reliable source of damage, as he was forced to either rely on his allies diving or risking himself by being very close to enemies.
3) I miscalculated with the [Wolves of War] change, as [Post Bounty] would already apply [Propaganda] because it now deals damage. My bad.

I now suggest changing [Wolves of War] to:
Post Bounty deals 40% more damage and reveals the target for the duration. When it expires, the target is Silenced for 1 second.
Pasive: Reduce the cooldown of Post Bounty by 5 seconds.

Quoted:
I was hesitant on its percent values cause Propaganda itself is very easy to apply and maintain

Again, going off the fact that Mengsk is supposed to "debuff" enemies more than he "buffs" allies, it was strange how this talent was much more about healing than antihealing.

Quoted:
I did apply this change in the end

But only half of it? May I ask why?

Quoted:
Moved to Propaganda's hotkey as an activatable rather than being a secondary Ability

I suggest giving [Propaganda Tower] its own slot in the concept instead of putting it inside the [Propaganda] description. You can have more than one Combat Trait.
Load more comments (1 more replies) →
Loading Comments...
Load More Comments

HeroesFire is the place to find the perfect build guide to take your game to the next level. Learn how to play a new hero, or fine tune your favorite HotS hero’s build and strategy.

Copyright © 2019 HeroesFire | All Rights Reserved