While Tyrande is an amazing character, you've probably heard more opinions expressing their frustration with her style of game play than supporting it. Although she is labeled as a "
Support" and has a healing ability, she doesn't have the potential to heal her teammates as much as other supports like
Malfurion or
Uther. She also doesn't have the obvious damage potential of a
Tassadar. So what does Tyrande do well? The purpose of this guide is to explain the roles in which Tyrande shines and offer tips on how to maximize her effectiveness.
Summary
Tyrande is a damage dealer/support hybrid that excels at providing vision, objective control, and team utility all from (very) long range. While she has the potential to be played purely as a back line healer, you'll be neglecting the majority of her kit to do so.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Extremely long range, including two damage abilities that are global
- The best vision control in the game
- Only support-class character with a ranged stun
- High damage late game
- Permanent team buff aura
Cons
- Low mobility
- Low survivability
- Mana starved throughout the game
- Minimal healing for a support
- Low damage early game
Builds
I've ranked the above suggested builds as follows:
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1 |
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Owl Scouting Build
This build provides the best mix of utility, damage and survability. It depends on the empowered
 Sentinel to output high amounts of damage after level 16. Moreover, this build takes advantage of the map information and cloaking provided by
 Shadowstalk, while keeping Tyrande at a safe distance with
 Bolt of the Storm.
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2 |
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Owl Damage Build
This build maximizes your damage with
 Rewind and provides a lot of global damage through
Sentinel and
 Starfall/
 Celestial Wrath. It's also very helpful for defending against or supplementing your own mercenary/golem pushes.
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3 |
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General Support Build
Use this build if your team has sufficient damage and you need to neutralize threats with
 Shrink Ray. Although
 Light of Elune is fully empowered with this build, Tyrande will never have the throughput of a dedicated healer like
Malfurion or
 Brightwing.
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4 |
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Hunter's Mark Support Build
This is an alternative support build that focuses on maximizing the rest of your team's damage potential by fully empowering
 Hunter's Mark. However, this build severely hampers Tyrande's own damage.
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5 |
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Attack Damage Build
Don't be fooled, Tyrande has the potential to put out a surprising amount of auto attack damage, especially when buffed by
 Searing Arrows and
 Trueshot Aura. At level 20, her basic attack is 201 damage unbuffed, compared to Valla's 199. While this build certainly has the potential to be amazing, it requires Tyrande to farm lanes instead of helping with objectives. Furthermore, it requires her to be within auto attack range for much of the team fight, which is a dangerous position for the immobile Tyrande.
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Trait (D): Hunter's Mark
Placing Hunter's Mark on a target under focus fire by the rest of the team will melt even the tankiest character's health. Tyrande's overall damage is balanced against this ability, so always remember to use it, even when taking down NPCs.
One drawback is that the range on this skill is slightly smaller than her autoattack range, significantly reducing Tyrande's range advantage. Don't go out of your way to cast it if doing so means that you will take unnecessary damage.
Never use Hunter's Mark solely for the vision component. Tyrande has much better options--in
Sentinel and
Shadowstalk--for keeping vision of the enemy team.
First Ability (Q): Light of Elune
Light of Elune has two healing components--an allied heal and a self heal. The increased allied heal will never affect Tyrande. Therefore, it is always more mana efficient to cast Light of Elune on an ally, including minions and mercenaries.
Light of Elune is not as powerful a heal as many of the other supports' heal/shield abilities. However, where her heal lacks in throughput, it makes up for it in utility. Consider grabbing the
Quickening Blessing or
Shroud talents, but keep in mind that the respective buffs will not affect Tyrande.
Second Ability (W): Sentinel
Sentinel is Tyrande's character defining ability, and provides the namesake for the "owl" builds. It is a global range skill shot that damages heroes and provides vision. This includes enemies hidden by the brush, even if the owl does not pass through the brush. This skill has three distinct uses, which share the same cooldown--use your Sentinel intelligently to maximize its effectiveness.
Spoiler: Click to view
Scouting
Use the skill for scouting when there are no current threats on the map and you're in a relatively safe position. This includes scouting mercenary camps, objective points, or the position of Abathur or Murky's egg. Moreover, use Sentinel to scout the enemy's position when you and/or your team is pushed to take an important objective, or dangerous merc camps (like the golem or knights).
Be aware that Sentinel only provides stealth vision if it hits an enemy
hero. This means that Sentinel, unlike Tassadar's
Oracle, never provides vision of cloaked non-player units, e.g., Zagara's
Creep Tumor or Raynor's Banshees. Shadowstalk also has this same limitation; as such Tyrande has no ability to reveal these units.
Objective Control
Tyrande can interrupt tribute captures, dragon shrine captures, or doubloon turn ins, all from the opposite side of the map. However, make sure to coordinate with your team before doing so. If you use Sentinel to interrupt a capture from a great distance, only to have your closer teammate interrupt the capture before your Sentinel arrives, you'll have wasted an opportunity to interrupt later. Also, if you are close enough to interrupt a capture point with an autoattack, do so and save your Sentinel for if/when you get pushed away form the point. Ability priority for interrupting captures should generally be:
autoattack > Lunar Flare > Sentinel > Starfall
Keep in mind that if you are relying on Tyrande for objective control, it is imperative that you take the Pierce talent at level 1. Also, remember that Sentinel provides both the vision component and the damage component on the same cooldown, which creates a conundrum on the
Blackheart's Bay map. On the
Cursed Hollow map the tribute point provides global vision, and on the
Dragon Shire map, there's only one position an enemy can capture the dragon shrine. However, on the
Blackheart's Bay map, you'll likely need additional vision to interrupt the doubloon turn in. If you don't have Shadowstalk, or if it's on cooldown, ask your friendly Zagara or Abathur to provide vision in the area so you you can interrupt more accurately.
Damage
Finally, Sentinel can be used to damage heroes. Before level 16, the damage on Sentinel is, unfortunately, quite negligible. However, it can be used to snipe escaping enemies who have only a sliver of health. Otherwise, before level 16--or if you don't intend to take the Ranger talent--save Sentinel for scouting purposes.
Once you've acquired the Ranger talent at level 16, Tyrande's damage shoots up significantly (for instance, I will usually go from one of the lowest hero damage players to the one of the top three by level 20). At full power, Sentinel will knock out about 30% to 50% of a squishy target's (e.g. Valla, Nova) health and 80% of Murky and Abathur's health. And because the Ranger talent increases the damage of the ability the further it flies, you should definitely be trying to poke and pick off your enemies from long distances. Of course, it's easiest to do this when your enemy is standing still. Enemies are most likely to be standing still while attacking minions/mercenaries/golems/siege vehicles (either to capture them or defeat those you've captured), or when using their Hearthstone. You will have vision of the enemy while they are attacking captured mercenaries/golems. Use Shadowstalk to get vision of the enemy otherwise.
If you've gone the full owl build, then Sentinel becomes amazing in team fights. You have a much greater chance of hitting multiple enemies during team fights. Because the Empower talent syngergizes with the Pierce talent, it will reduce your cooldowns for each enemy hit by Sentinel. As such, you will be able to shoot multiple Sentinels, doing 500+ damage each to several enemies at a time over the course of a team fight. And you will be able to do this from far in the back of your team (or even on the other side of the map if you've got great aim). The talents that improve Sentinel allow you to pump out a lot of damage to your enemy's back line from relative safety. Keep this in mind if you're playing an owl build: because Sentinel affords so much liberty in choosing her position, Tyrande should never die in team fights. Of course accidents happen, but when playing an owl build, you should strive to have the fewest deaths on your team.
Third Ability (E): Lunar Flare
Where the other supports provide more healing, Tyrande is the only one that provides long ranged, "hard" crowd control. Because there is a delay between the casting of Lunar Flare and when it hits, you will have to "lead" the enemy with it (i.e., estimate where the enemy will be when the Lunar Flare lands). You will win trades, secure kills, and ensure escapes with well timed/placed Lunar Flares.
Spoiler: Click to view
Tips for Hitting Lunar Flare
A good Tyrande
must hit her Lunar Flares. Fortunately, Lunar Flare has a fairly long range, and the level 13 talent
Lunar Blaze makes hitting Lunar Flare even easier and safer. Here are some tips that may be helpful when deciding when/how to use Lunar Flare.
- If you must use Lunar Flare to initiate a fight, do so only if the enemy is standing still or moving in a predictable direction. Normally, you will want to save Lunar Flare to secure a kill, as using it to set up a kill has a higher chance of failure, because you simply don't know where the enemy will be moving. However, if the enemy is moving in a predictable pattern (or not moving at all), you will have a greater chance of hitting Lunar Flare. This is especially true when the enemy does not have vision of you--e.g., when you are in brush, or behind a fort gate. In fact,
Lunar Blaze increases the range of Lunar Flare so much that you can hit any enemy from the fog of war in order to set up a kill.
- Let your teammates get the initial round of crowd control if they are in range. Even before level 13, Lunar Flare has a long enough range that it can easily hit a fleeing target. Save Lunar Flare until the target begins to flee--at which point he won't be thinking about dodging skill shots while running to his fort. When an enemy flees like this, his movement becomes predictable, which makes hitting Lunar Flare very, very easy.
- Pick one enemy. I know, I know... in team fights we want to hit multiple enemies with our area of effect abilities. But most of the time, attempting this often ends up threading the needle between multiple enemies who have run off in different directions. Pick one enemy, track his movements, and secure a more accurate Lunar Flare.
- Landing Lunar Flare is easiest when enemies are chasing you or your allies. Typically, in such cases, the enemy will be blindly walking, running, leaping, etc. toward your position. Their bloodlust makes their movement very predictable. If you can keep your calm while you're being run down, you will have a high chance of hitting your Lunar Flare, thereby ensuring your or your teammate's escape.
- Finally, wait for enemies to use key abilities before trying to hit them with Lunar Flare. This includes leap, dash and blink abilities, and also includes Tassadar's Dimensional Shift or Murky's Safety Bubble.
Additional Lunar Flare Tips
It is imperative that you be able to consistently hit your Lunar Flare. If you get caught 1 vs 1 against anyone (except Abathur) and you miss your Lunar Flare, you
will die.
That said, don't be afraid to 1 v 1 an enemy if you're protecting an important objective. Hunter's Mark, plus Lunar Flare, plus Sentinel, plus Starfall is deceptively strong, especially against assassin characters. For instance, a lot of Novas like to unload their full combo on an isolated Tyrande; however, when they do so they will typically stand in place (in order to get off all the shots on their Triple Tap). What you do in that situation is calmly take in the fact that she's dropped you from 100% to 20% life in about 1.5 sec, then turn to her and say, "Not today." Since she will be in close range, apply Hunters Mark, hit her with an easy Lunar Flare (stopping the Triple Tap), hit her with a Sentinel, and watch as Starfall chunks the rest of her life away before she can kill you.
Finally, Lunar Flare is Tyrande's only non-Heroic ability that can damage non-player units. Moreover, because it does only moderate damage, and because her self heal is lackluster, this makes her a weak candidate for capturing mercenary camps solo. This also means that Tyrande has sub par wave clearing ability, making her one of the poorer choices to send to a solo lane. However, Lunar Flare is useful for clearing Zagara's Creep Tumors (aim Lunar Flare at the center of the creep spread), but even an ability like Tassadar's Psionic Storm is better suited for that job.
Heroic Ability (R): Shadowstalk
Affectionately referred to as "map hacks," Shadowstalk deserves the euphemism. This ability alone is what makes Tyrande a significant counter to Nova, Zeratul, Murky and Abathur. While Shadowstalk itself does no damage it is extremely powerful and should be respected by Tyrande's enemies.
Shadowstalk has a relatively short cooldown (only half that of Starfall) and can be further reduced by the Empower ability. This means that, at least in solo queue, you should feel free to spam Shadowstalk in order get map information as frequently as possible. However, Sentinel will often be a better choice for scouting. Below are a few circumstances for which you may want to save your Shadowstalk.
Spoiler: Click to view
When to Use Shadowstalk
- Zero Vision of Enemy - If you know where one or two of the enemy team is, there is very little reason to use Shadowstalk. This is especially true if mercenary camps or objectives are still available on the map. You're better served using Sentinel to scout those areas, as that is most likely where the remaining enemies will be. However, if you truly cannot make a reasonable guess as to where the enemy is, hit Shadowstalk to see where they are headed so they can't surprise your team.
- Vision in
Haunted Mines - In the mines themselves there are no towers, and no friendly minions or mercs. There's nothing there to provide vision of your enemies. It's a visionless wasteland where your enemies are waiting to surround and murder you. Watching the minimap for disappearing purple dots only gives you so much information. However, Shadowstalk will tell you which enemy is grabbing skulls, and what direction they are headed in. Shadowstalk also sets up great ganks in the Mines again because of the whole zero vision hellhole thing. Furthermore, Shadowstalk may help you escape from the mines with your life, by letting you know which and how many enemies are converging on your position, and from what direction.
- Amazing Gank Potential - So you know the enemy team is in the middle of capturing their golem in Cursed Hollow. Full-team charge them, and pop Shadowstalk just before you arrive in order to maximize the element of surprise. This works best with a team that can coordinate by voice, so they know not to blow their cloak before the entire team is ready to attack.
- Objective Control - As mentioned above in the Sentinel section, Tyrande has the unique ability to control objectives from the opposite side of the map. However, she needs vision to ensure that her Sentinel will hit. Use Shadowstalk to obtain that vision if you can't rely on your teammates to supply such vision.
- Disengaging - A lot of attention is paid to the reveal mechanic of Shadowstalk while its cloak mechanic is often overlooked. Shadowstalk can be a great disengage tool (even better when empowered at level 20 with
Hunter's Prey), however it is not an invisible/invulnerable buff like Tassadar's Abilities/Dimensional Shift. The cloak from Shadowstalk follows the same rules as
Permanent Cloak for Zeratul and Nova: you are revealed if you take damage, you are revealed when you attack, cast an ability or mount, and you leave behind a visible blur while cloaked. As such, you'll want to use Shadowstalk to disengage earlier than later so the cloak mechanic can maintain its full effect.
- Against
Murky - While Shadowstalk does not reveal Murky's egg, it will reveal Murky himself. Accordingly, you'll want to time your Shadowstalk to reveal where he has spawned on the map. Once you've confirmed that location, send a Sentinel to the area to determine the exact location of the egg. Finally, make your way to his egg and destroy it if you can. If you're the same level as Murky and he hasn't taken the level 4 talent
Assault Egg, then a single Lunar Flare will destroy the egg. Sometimes, he will place the egg behind the walls of his base, so you have to be judicious about whether you can reach the egg with your Lunar Flare (and whether you can escape with your life once the enemy knows you're there).
- Against
Abathur - Never mind that this ridiculous character can perform all of his abilities while sitting in the comfort of invulnerability at his spawn point. Never mind that he can be completely invulnerable for up to 60 seconds, while replicating all the abilities of one of his teammates (i.e.,
Evolution Master). Never mind that if you kill that replica, absolutely nothing happens to him as punishment for the death of this fully replicated character (complete with regular and heroic abilities). Never mind that he promotes mindless gameplay of the highest order, but Blizzard still ranks his difficulty as "Hard." If you manage to ignore all that, Abathur becomes tolerable nuisance against a competent Tyrande. Shadowstalk plus an empowered Sentinel versus an Abathur that sits in one place the entire game makes for a frequently dead Abathur. Now, if Abathur moves to the Altar of Storms and becomes invulnerable, Tyrande is SOL, but she's also done her job because at least Abathur's locusts aren't pushing a lane. Even if you don't get a kill, you're still forcing Abathur to fight for his survival instead of using Symbiote, which makes the game 4v5 for a short while.
- Against
Zeratul and
Nova - You will want to spam Shadowstalk as frequently as seems intelligent when playing against these characters. Not only because it will save your teammates from a gank (it will), but because most Zeratuls and Novas have become way too comfortable with their stealth. As such, they will often be sitting very close in vision range of your team (waiting for an opportunity to gank) as you're grabbing an objective. For any other character, this would be considered extremely out of position, but the stealth counteracts that predicament. So obviously, when you remove the stealth element, Zeratul and Nova become extremely easy to neutralize because they are now caught out of position. If the Zeratul and Nova are smart, they won't do this when there's a Tyrande on the opposite team. However, no matter how smart the Zeratul/Nova is, they will still try to flank your team during team fights. As such, you'll want to wait for the team fight to start, pop Shadowstalk in the middle of it to catch Zeratul/Nova out of position as they are trying to flank, and now it's suddenly a four versus five game.
While Shadowstalk has a lot of commendable attributes, it has a few faults. It provides zero damage itself on a character that is lacking in damage already. Furthermore, you'll need a lot of coordination from your teammates to make the most use out of Shadowstalk. It's not a bad idea to take Starfall over Shadowstalk if you don't trust your team to take advantage of the map information.
Heroic Ability (R): Starfall
Starfall creates a rather large field that slows all enemies, both heroes and non-player units, and damages them for the duration they are in the field. While Starfall does hurt (at level 20, Starfall with the
Celestial Wrath talent does 1456 damage over its duration), its value as a zoning tool is much greater than its ability to do damage.
Spoiler: Click to view
I've also found that Starfall instinctively causes
Malfurion and Heroes/Lili to pop their heroic healing abilities (
Tranquility and
Jug of 1,000 Cups, respectively). As such, it may be good to use Starfall at the beginning of the fight to bait out those abilities, then wait until they're over before re-engaging.
Starfall is amazing for clearing minion waves. A golem, a knight camp, and two ogre camps knocking down your door? Starfall appears to be able to affect an infinite number of units within its field, so it will help clear out every minion that's heading your way. Furthermore, Starfall will dissuade the enemy team from pushing along with the minion wave, forestalling the additional siege they might bring. And because Starfall also affects buildings, you can use it to supplement your team's siege on the enemy's structures.
Lastly, with the
Celestial Wrath talent, Tyrande can afford to split from her team to replenish mana or grab a mercenary camp. If a team fight begins, Tyrande can remain where she is, place Starfall in the appropriate position, throw a Sentinel or two into the team fight, and go back to what she was doing on the other side of the map. That said, your team will be missing out on your Hunter's Mark and your stun if you're too far from the battle, so it's advised to stick with your team as much as possible.
I've ranked Tyrande's talents by tier as follows:
Level 1
Spoiler: Click to view
1. Pierce
This talent is so god-like it should be a raid boss. Pierce helps to fulfill the promise of the global range Sentinel as a scouting tool. This talent ensures that you are able to interrupt objective captures, no matter how many enemies are in the way. This talent synergizes heavily with the level 4 talent Empower, by reducing your cooldowns for each enemy hit. For instance, if you hit three heroes with your Sentinel, that's 12 seconds you've shaved off ALL your ability cooldowns, something that simply would not be possible without the Pierce talent. Furthermore Pierce ensures that you will hit as many back line enemies as possible during teamfights later in the game. If you are planning on doing any type of "owl" build, this talent is mandatory.
2. Celestial Attunement
This talent is a simple 33% decrease to the cost of Light of Elune. That is a huge improvement for Tyrande's mana efficiency. Without the talent, Tyrande can cast 11 Light of Elunes at level 1; with the talent, Tyrande can cast 16. That amounts to 550 additional health for a teammate (e.g., Nova has 700 health at level 1) and 275 additional health for you. Tyrande runs out of mana very quickly, and this talent goes a long way to helping her sustain. As such, if you plan on using a healing support build, this talent is mandatory.
3. Ranger's Mark
This talent reduces the cooldown of Hunter's Mark from 20 sec to 12 sec--a 40% reduction in the ability's cooldown--and turns Tyrande's trait from a sustained 5% damage increase to a sustained 8.3% damage increase from all sources. This talent has a place in any build, but is especially effective if you are focusing on improving your Hunter's Mark trait. However, keep in mind that Hunter's Mark requires Tyrande to be in close range to apply it, and the Ranger's Mark talent encourages Tyrande to be in close range more often. Consider the other team's composition before settling on a build that requires you to use the Ranger's Mark talent.
4. Seasoned Marksman
Use this talent only if you're planning on using an attack damage heavy build for Tyrande. By level 20 you may have as much as 10-15 stacks of additional attack damage, pushing your auto attack damage from 201 to 211-216. That's a 5% to 7.5% permanent auto attack damage increase; however it's just as likely you won't have the chance to improve your auto attack damage more than 3% (i.e., 6 stacks of Seasoned Marksman).
Alternatively, you may want to consider the Ranger's Mark talent instead. The Ranger's Mark talent increases your auto attack damage (and all other damage) by 25% on a single target for 4 sec every 12 sec. Therefore Ranger's Mark, compared to the baseline Hunter's Mark cooldown, is equivalent to a 3.3% permanent increase to your auto attack damage.
Moreover, Seasoned Marksman synergizes with the Searing Arrows and Trueshot Aura talents, making the Seasoned Marksman talent the better choice only if you're dedicated to building stacks. However, Season Marksman encourages you to stay in lane as opposed to helping your team capture objectives, thereby promoting sub-optimal gameplay. Therefore, only use this talent (and the accompanying autoattack build) if your team is comfortable with your desired play style.
Level 4
Spoiler: Click to view
1. Empower
Of the three main talents that make up the "Owl" build, this one is the most replaceable. However, I would highly recommend sticking with the Empower talent if you plan on using the owl build. For each enemy hit by Sentinel, Empower reduces the cooldown of all your abilities, including your heroic abilities Starfall and Shadowstalk. Unfortunately, it does not reduce the cooldown on Hunter's Mark or on your numbered abilities. Alternatively, if you're focused on precision sniping, and not sustained team fight damage, you may consider taking another talent on this tier. You'll still retain all the benefits of Pierce and Ranger, you just will have to wait a bit longer on your heroic ability cooldowns. For instance, you might attempt a hybrid support/damage build by taking Overflowing Light or Protective Shield instead.
2. Overflowing Light
Tyrande has significant healing throughput issues compared to other healers. While her baseline healing per second is comparable to the other supports' main heals, she doesn't have a healing heroic ability. This talent will help make up for that shortcoming--but it still won't put Tyrande at the top of the healing chart. Moreover, the increased throughput provided by this talent is conditioned upon Tyrande maintaining her own health over 90%. Such a consideration will force the immobile Tyrande to stay far in the back of the fight, potentially impeding her ability to use Lunar Flare or Hunter's Mark effectively. Overflowing Light has enough drawbacks that a support Tyrande might consider taking Protective Shield instead.
3. Protective Shield
This talent provides you with an additional ability on your numbered bar that acts as targeted, instant cast shield. Incidentally, this shield will save your or a teammate's life much more readily than your heal alone (even with the Overflowing Light talent). However, its relatively long cooldown will require you to make judicious use of the ability. If you've decided that Overflowing Light does not suit your needs as a support, I would recommend Protective Shield over Healing Ward as a replacement.
4. Searing Arrows
This ability significantly increases your autoattack damage in exchange for mana, and synergizes well with the Seasoned Marksman and Trueshot Aura talents. Accordingly, only take this talent if you intend on using an attack damage build. You'll actually be surprised with the autoattack damage Tyrande can put out with this talent. However, it requires you to be in close range, so choose your moments well.
5. Healing Ward
While not a bad talent, Healing Ward is not impressive. It does not synergize with any of Tyrande's abilities or her need to stay at maximum range. It heals 20% of a teammate's health over 10 sec, which is a long time to heal very little health. It may be helpful for sustain in lane or even healing up minions/mercs while pushing. However, its value in highly mobile team fights is negligible, and that's only if your opponent doesn't destroy the ward shortly after it's placed. Healing Ward is probably the most lackluster talent in this tier, whereas Overflowing Light or Protective Shield provide better support options.
Level 7
Spoiler: Click to view
1. Trueshot Aura
Trueshot Aura is probably the best talent in the game, so it's difficult to recommend any other talent in this tier. A permanent, passive attack speed and attack damage buff to your entire team that scales throughout the game is very, very powerful. Not only does Trueshot Aura affect you and your teammates, but it also affects your minions and mercenaries. This makes Tyrande a fantastic team member for pushing with your minion/merc waves.
However Trueshot Aura has its limitations. Its effective range is greater than Tyrande's autoattack range, but slightly shorter than the range of her Light of Elune (i.e., if you can't heal your teammate, they are not being affected by the aura). Moreover, it is only effective in those situations where your team can autoattack your enemies for an extended time period. This is a difficult proposition in team fights, where auttoattacking necessarily puts you and your teammates in dangerous positions. Trueshot Aura is great for defending against minion and mercenary waves, but its use in team fights is clearly more limited. Despite these (rather minimal) shortcomings, Trueshot Aura is an amazing talent that has a place in any Tyrande build.
2. Quickening Blessing
Quickening Blessing and Shroud add some much needed utility to Tyrande's heal. The upside is that Quickening Blessing is a very helpful movement speed boost, which can save your teammates life more than the heal alone. This talent can also help your teammate chase down a fleeing target. The downside to this skill is that it will never affect Tyrande herself. This is a huge disappointment for the immobile Tyrande.
I would recommend this talent over Shroud in a support build. Whereas the cloaking mechanic can be easily negated, the movement speed buff of Quickening Blessing is much more versatile. Frankly, it's hard to justify either talent with Trueshot Aura in the same tier. However, there are important limitations to the Trueshot Aura and if you're just planning on heal-botting (i.e., taking Overflowing Light and sitting in the back line to heal), Quickening Blessing is probably the better option.
3. Shroud
Like Quickening Blessing, Shroud is a viable option for a support focused Tyrande. Unfortunately, this talent also has the same shortcoming of Quickening Blessing in that it will never affect Tyrande herself. This skill would probably be mandatory in most builds if it affected Tyrande, as a five second cloak would turn Tyrande from a super-scouter into the ultimate scouter. Alas, the talent only affects Tyrande's teammates, who, without coordination, likely won't make full use of the cloak. You're better off with Quickening Blessing in a full support build.
4. Calldown: MULE
You might consider taking MULE when you're facing a Zagara or Sgt. Hammer who are constantly seiging your bases. However, the MULE isn't particularly intelligent at the moment, and will often prioritize targets with missing ammunition over those with very little health. For team utility, Trueshot Aura is the better option in this tier, but be mindful of the enemy team's composition (and your team's ability to react to it) before overlooking MULE.
5. Battle Momentum
This talent syngergizes nicely with Empower; however it requires Tyrande to be in autoattack range to be effective. On one hand, this becomes very valuable for shooting off multiple, full-map Sentinels while Tyrande is attacking minions/mercenaries. On the other hand, this talent becomes a liability in team fights, forcing Tyrande into an unsafe position in order take advantage of the cooldown reduction. In a tier with so much team utility, and when Empower already provides a lot of cooldown reduction, it's hard to justify taking Battle Momentum for any build.
Level 10
>
Spoiler: Click to view
Shadowstalk vs Starfall
See the Abilities section above for a description of these abilities. When deciding whether to take Shadowstalk over Starfall, here are a few considerations I keep in mind:
- Nova and Zeratul - You must take
Shadowstalk when these two characters are on the enemy team. You will save your teammates and set up kills on these characters much more effectively with Shadowstalk.
- Murky and Abathur - Your ability to counter Murky and Abathur requires you to take
Shadowstalk. However, these two characters don't have the capacity to instantly destroy one of your teammates from the shadows like Nova and Zeratul do. Moreover, Shadowstalk becomes useless against these characters once they've decided to place themselves/their egg within their Altar of Storms. Only take Starfall against these two characters if your team has a significant lead by level 10.
- Enemy Team is Very Mobile - If the opposing team has several blinks, dashes, leaps, etc., then Starfall becomes little more than a pure zoning tool. Instead,
Shadowstalk will grant you vision of these mobile characters as they're running away or attempting to flank you.
- Enemy Team Is Good at Keeping Themselves Hidden - If the enemy team is focused on taking mercenary camps and hidden objectives instead of getting lane experience,
Shadowstalk will provide your team with very valuable map information.
- Your Team is Significantly Behind by Level 10 - I find that
Shadowstalk is the more effective heroic ability for facilitating comebacks. The vision it provides will reveal opponents who are out of position because they are assured of their win. That is, Shadowstalk will punish mistakes much more effectively than Starfall, an can become invaluable against a winning team who has become lazy.
- Malfurion and Lili - While
Tranquility and
Jug of 1,000 Cups outheals the damage of Starfall by a large margin, these two characters will often instinctively use those heroic abilities when Starfall hits their team. You can use this fact to bait out these massive team heals early in the fight so your team can re-engage afterward. Accordingly, if there is a Malfurion and/or Lili on the enemy team and no Nova or Zeratul, I'd recommend taking
Starfall instead of Shadowstalk.
- Your Team is Lacking Damage - If your team is made up of several supports, or has an Illidan or Zeratul who just can't stay in the fight to do their job, consider taking
Starfall to supplement your team's damage.
Level 13
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1. Lunar Blaze
It's really difficult to recommend any other ability in this tier other than Lunar Blaze. The range and area of effect improvement that this talent provides for Lunar Flare are astounding. This talent significantly lowers the skill cap for landing a Lunar Flare, which in turn significantly increases your accuracy with the ability. This talent allows Tyrande to set up ganks from the fog of war, and keeps her at a safe distance during team fights. This talent fits in every Tyrande build, far surpassing the usefulness of any other talent in this tier. The only build where Lunar Blaze is not the be-all-end-all of talents is the autoattack damage build, where the increased range on Lunar Flare is not as important.
2. Shrink Ray
Shrink Ray is very nice for defending against golems and siege vehicles. It's also great for neutralizing an enemy who is diving one of your squishies. Moreover, it can be helpful in a one-on-one fight, e.g., where you have to protect an objective alone. However, a long range stun that locks down an enemy Valla or Sgt. Hammer is much more valuable. Only pick up Shrink Ray if your team has trouble getting to your enemy's back line to take advantage of the Lunar Blaze talent.
3. Rewind
This talent provides Tyrande with the ability to significantly increase the damage of her Lunar Flaze - Sentinel combo. It synergizes well with Empower, providing significant lockdown potential. However, like every other ability on this tier, Lunar Blaze outshines Rewind. Furthermore, this talent will help you in taking on squishy targets alone, but won't be as helpful against warriors like Sonya or Tyreal, where Shrink Ray may be the better option.
4. Sprint
You may have heard, Tyrande is very immobile. Sprint will provide her with much needed mobility, particularly in an autoattack build where you'll find yourself chasing an enemy down. However, Lunar Blaze and even Shrink Ray are much better options in most situations.
5. Purging Mark
Only use this talent if you find yourself pushing enemy structures on your own. Purging Mark, in isolation (and possibly at an earlier level--bliz pls!) is a very nice talent; however its team utility is heavily overshadowed by Lunar Blaze.
Level 7
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1. Ranger
Another god-like talent for Tyrande. By increasing the size of Sentinel, Ranger reduces the skill cap for that ability. Further, the damage provided by a long-range Sentinel will often surprise your opponents, as it can take off 33-50% of a squishy target's health (i.e., more than many heroic abilities in the game). This talent syngergizes extremely well with Pierce and Empower, and becomes they key reason for Tyrande's huge damage spike at level 16. Furthermore, this talent actually supplements Tyrande's desire to stay in the back of team fights, as doing so actually increases her damage.
Again, it's difficult to recommend any other talent in this tier; however if you haven't taken the Pierce talent, Ranger loses a lot of its power. Also, keep in mind that if you want to counter Abathur, it is mandatory that you take the Ranger talent. You won't significantly pressure him without it.
2. Shooting Star
This talent can be very useful in the non-owl builds, in that it adds additional damage and mana efficiency to Tyrande's kit. Take this talent if you're not taking Ranger.
3. Huntress' Fury
This talent will increase your and your teammates' attack speed by a lot, and it synergizes very nicely with Trueshot Aura. Take this ability if you expect to be in a position to use your Hunter's Mark frequently and reliably against your opponents.
4. Mark of Mending
Simply put, if you are going to focus on improving Hunter's Mark in this tier, Huntress' Fury is far and away the better choice. Mark of Mending's heal isn't significant enough over the short duration of Hunter's Mark to be particularly impressive.
Level 20
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1. Bolt of the Storm
A blink with a 60 second cooldown that can move Tyrande through walls? Um, yes please! Normally, if Tyrande gets caught out of position, she will die because she has no means of escape. Often, even a well placed Lunar Flare won't save her. Bolt of the Storm gives her the mobility she so sorely needs, allowing her to escape even the most aggressive Illidans and Sonyas.
2. Celestial Wrath
What can I say, I pick this talent up 95% of the time that I pick Starfall simply because it's too much fun. A global Starfall provides a significant amount of map control, while its increased damage will supplement Tyrande's kill potential. Moreover, Starfall normally has a very short cast range; this talent will allow her to stay in the back of a team fight, where she belongs, while still casting Starfall on the enemy's back line. That being the case, I don't find myself needing Bolt of the Storm, because I will never be in the enemy's threat range, allowing me to engage and disengage fights at will. The only time I take Bolt of the Storm over Celestial Wrath is when the enemy has a team composition that can severely put me out of position (e.g., a Stitches with the Fishing Hook talent or Tychus with the Concussion Grenade talent).
3. Storm Shield
Storm Shield is a very good option for a support focused Tyrande. However, Bolt of the Storm increases Tyrande's survivability exponentially, and Celestial Wrath is, frankly, just more fun.
4. Hunter's Prey
This talent will add a Bloodlust-like buff to your team when you cast Shadowstalk, and as such improves your ability to engage team fights. However, I find that I don't often save Shadowstalk for team fights, since I am constantly scouting the map. Like Shadowstalk itself, Hunter's Prey will find a better home with a coordinated team. In contrast, the survivability provided by Bolt of the Storm will serve you much better in public games.
5. Fury of the Storm
Only take this ability if you're using an autoattack damage build, and even then Bolt of the Storm is the safer option.
General
After Murky and Abathur, Tyrande has the lowest starting health of all characters at the beginning of the game. Fortunately, she has higher health scaling than all of the other supports and assassins (only Kerrigan and Malfurion have equal health scaling). I bring up this point as an example of Tyrande's skewed scaling throughout the game. Early game she is particularly weak. She doesn't have the damage of Ranger or Starfall, she doesn't have the range of Lunar Blaze, and her autoattack damage is pitiful. However, late game she will provide a significant amount of damage from a range that your enemies cannot respond to, along with the map vision to make that damage possible. Accordingly, you will want to play very safe early, but as the game progresses later, you'll be the one trying to make plays for your team.
Stay Safe and Bring a Friend
Keep in mind that Tyrande can't do very much by herself, at all stages of the game. Her effectiveness increases by a (metaphorical) order of magnitude when she has even one additional teammate helping her. The other supports--who all have better individual self-sustain and damage--have a much flatter improvement curve when supporting teammates. This is because Tyrande is balanced around her Hunter's Mark and her range advantage, neither of which are very powerful when she's fighting or taking objectives alone. Furthermore, she does not have many options for damaging non-player units, and her self healing is disappointingly low.
Compared to any other character, I've found it to be the most difficult to take mercenary camps solo as Tyrande. Her lack of damage, and lack of self heal/mitigation makes even the ogre camps slow and dangerous. It's impossible for her to take knights alone without Starfall, and don't even attempt the golem by yourself. Early in the game, ask a teammate to tank the mercenaries, as you'll be able to heal your ally for much more, and Hunter's Mark will be doubly effective.
Tyrande thrives in the back line of fights. The further away from her enemies, the more effective her healing and damage becomes (depending on talents). Accordingly, don't be ashamed to keep your distance as Tyrande. Unless you're applying your Hunter's Mark (which you would preferably apply to an enemy who has dived your teammates), there's no need for Tyrande to be near the front lines of the fight. If your friendly Illidan or Zeratul have dived the enemy back line without pre-planning their escape, don't get yourself killed trying to heal them. Because of her range advantage, Tyrande should be the last to die in team fights (especially once you grab the Lunar Blaze talent), and should have the least deaths on your team by the end of the game.
Don't Forget the D
Remember to use your Hunter's Mark. A lot of players who are new to Tyrande forget to do this. It is not an automated ability like it was in previous builds. Be judicious when applying Hunter's Mark: you should apply it to a target your team is focusing in order to secure a kill. Don't be afraid to apply it to the high-health enemies, like Muradin or Tyreal, who have dived your team. With a well timed Hunter's Mark, they don't expect their health to melt so quickly, and you can easily net your team a kill.
Conserve Your Mana
Tyrande has significant mana issues that plague her throughout the game, and without the Conjurer's Pursuit talent, these issues never improve. The only mana efficiency improving talents she has are Celestial Attunement and Shooting Star. Conversely, Empower and Rewind encourage her to spend her mana very frequently. As such, you'll want to make prudent use of your mana whenever possible. Here are some tips for conserving mana:
- Don't try to harass with Lunar Flare or Sentinel unless you've got a high chance of hitting.
- Don't push your lane with Lunar Flare, but stay in range of your minions so Trueshot Aura can do its job.
- When your team is capturing a mercenary camp or golem/plant horror, your Hunter's Mark and Trueshot Aura are sufficient to secure a speedy capture.
- If you haven't taken Celestial Attunement, save your heals for your squishy teammates. Most warriors have enough health and sustain that your heal will be no more than a drop in the bucket. Save Light of Elune for emergencies or when your friendly Valla or Illidan are taking damage.
Early Game (Levels 1-9)
Avoid sending her to a solo lane, unless the enemy is melee (even then, most melee characters have the ability to jump on Tyrande rather easily). She doesn't have the self-sustain to take a lot of harass, and she doesn't do much damage early on to be a threat to high-health champions, or champions that can life steal the damage back. Also, she can't push minion waves, as her Lunar Flare is her only ability that can damage non-player units. Preferably send her into a duo-lane, so your teammates can take advantage of or set up opportunities to use her Lunar Flare, and so that Light of Elune can have its full effect.
Alternatively, have Tyrande roam lanes. An unexpected stun from the brush can help secure a kill or at least push an enemy out of lane.
DO not use Sentinel for harassing unless you've hit your Lunar Flare. It costs too much mana and does very little damage, which your enemy can easily heal up.
Instead save your Sentinel to scout incoming ganks, side brushes, or potential early mercenary captures (very important if there's a Gazlowe on the enemy team), or to interrupt objective captures.
Always use Light of Elune on an ally, even if it's a minion/mercenary. It will help you push a lane while providing yourself with the same heal as a self-cast. In fact, if you're in a lane with minions pushing and you've taken the Celestial Attunement talent, feel free to heal minions on cooldown.
Try to push your lane as much as possible. This is difficult because Tyrande doesn't have many options for damaging non-player units. However, at level 7, when she gets the Trueshot Aura talent, she will be able to push with her minion wave (while healing them) more effectively.
In early game team fights,
your job is to hit your stun as reliably as possible and stay in range so that your Trueshot Aura affects all of your teammates. Because you don't have as much range early game, you'll be in a better position to use your Hunter's Mark as compared to late game. That being said, remember to keep your distance and aid escaping teammates, while maintaining vision on escaping enemies.
If you've decided to go for a non-owl build, your focus objectives do not change throughout the game. You'll want to gain as much vision as possible, while healing, stunning and marking for your teammates. Only if you're going for an attack damage build should you be focusing on autoattacking the enemy.
Mid Game (Levels 10-15)
Your team fight ability and scouting abilities become more impressive at levels 10 and 13. Help your team set up ganks at objectives/mercenary camps, or help your mercenary waves push with Trueshot Aura.
In team fights, your ability to set up stuns on kill targets becomes much easier if you've taken the Lunar Blaze talent.
Late Game (Levels 16+)
Late game is when Tyrande truly shines and becomes a huge threat to the opposing team. However, because she does a lot of burst damage from the back line, no one ever considers her as much of a menace as sustained damage dealers like Valla or Sgt. Hammer (which, of course, inures to Tyrande's favor!). Accordingly, if you've gone for an owl build, your job in the late game team fights switches from landing your Lunar Flare to hitting as many enemies as possible with Sentinel. Focus on positioning yourself so that you can angle Sentinel to hit multiple enemies, thereby maximizing the effectiveness of Empower, which in turn allows you to pump out more Sentinels. You'll still want to hit targets with your Lunar Flare (aim for your enemy's squishies in the back line), but after level 16 you should be focusing on putting out as much damage as you can.
When your team isn't engaged in a team fight, you should still continue to scout, but your focus changes from merely gaining vision to doing damage. Because of the damage potential on long ranged Sentinels you will push your enemies away from objectives before the team fight starts. You'd be surprised how often and easily you can damage (or even kill) a Valla who's decided to solo capture a mercenary camp on the other side of the map. Also, if the enemy is standing in place to kill your captured mercenaries/golems, you'll have constant vision of them, providing a perfect opportunity to send in multiple Sentinels for damage or kills.
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