Mouse over terms to see definitions:
- Unlocks New Capabilities, Performance Booster, Synergistic, Consistent Use, Flexible, Efficient Talent Point, Very Effective
- Opportunity Cost, Situationally Powerful, Skill Expression, Alternative, Teamplay, Map/Team Dependent
- Uncompetitive, One Trick Pony, Niche, No Agency, Easily Countered, Inflexible Playstyle
Exterminator ● Efficient Talent Point ● Map, Team Dependent
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Basic Attacks deal 50% more damage toMinions,Mercenaries, andMonsters. This is increased to 125% while
Inspire is active.
Passive:
Inspire does not expire on friendlyMinions andMercenaries. |
Goodness me, look at all that bonus damage.
Raynor transforms into a mercenary and objective killing machine! On such maps that feature them, Exterminator gives your team a leading edge in neutralizing and quickly capturing them. It's a must on
Battlefield of Eternity.
Also, don't forget
Exterminator[1] does not expire on minions & mercenaries. Always cast it right after you capture a camp so that they benefit.
Veteran Marksman ● High Risk, Low Reward ● Suboptimal Playstyle
|
❢ Quest: Every time the primary target of
Give 'Em Some Pepper is a Hero, permanently increase its damage bonus by 0.75%.
❢ Gambit: Gain 60% bonus
Give 'Em Some Pepper damage. Every Death reduces this bonus by 15%. |
Most gambit talents fulfill one role - filling your garbage bin.
Veteran Marksman is not one of the few good gambits, I'm afraid. The extreme tunnel vision on boosting your
trait's damage will leave you lacking in other areas. In my experience, I feel like I do more damage with other talents!
You should be doing more useful things than staying in lane all game long, hitting your opponent every so often. Capturing mercenaries, catching XP, rotating for map priority for an objective is how you win a game. Neglecting these for stacks, meager stacks I dare say, will lower your chance in winning the game. Furthermore, a skilled enemy team will simply avoid fights against
Raynor and seek to kill him to neuter his gambit trait.
Ace in the Hole ● Performance Booster ● Synergistic ● Teamplay
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Deal 12% more damage toStunned orSlowed Heroes.
Enemy Heroes hit by
Give 'Em Some Pepper areSlowed by 10% for 2.5 seconds. |
A lot of people have the impression they should pick this talent up only when your team has CC. Sure, it's even better with more CC in the mix, but
Raynor has a lot of agency in applying it himself. Read: Your
trait now applies a 10% slow to all targets hit.
Yeah, okay, sure? That's pretty pathetic! That's all the slowing you need to start dealing 12% more damage. Furthermore, remember that
Raynor gains 10% bonus speed from
Inspire. When you're slowing an enemy, you now have a 20% speed difference between your target. This talent's existence makes it so easy for Raynor to stay on top of an enemy continuously, even when they're running.
Charging your
trait before a teamfight begins is something you should be doing as Raynor - but this talent encourages this healthy habit even more. You start a fight - wham! Immediate slow and follow up damage ensue. Oh, I forgot to drive this point home - IT'S 12% ADDITIONAL DAMAGE! That's three whole levels worth of bonus damage above your opponent!
Fight or Flight ● Efficient Talent Point ● Very Effective ● Long Cooldown
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Reduce
Adrenaline Rush'scooldown by 10 seconds. Casting
Adrenaline Rush grants25 Armor for 3 seconds. |
In my eyes, people are likeliest to die within the first 3 seconds of taking damage about 80% of the time. That's because in HotS, players are smart enough to utilize CC and focus fire to quickly eliminate an enemy. I think the unbelievable +25 armor for THREE seconds from
Adrenaline Rush is absurdly powerful in almost every game because of this universal rule. You can confidently shrug off just about anything heading your way so long as your
E is ready to be used. Plus, ten seconds off the cooldown is just icing on a cake.
However, against certain enemy compositions, they deal more sustained damage than burst. It's very challenging to utilize the armor for the aforementioned scenario when the damage is so spread out. That's where your alternative talents come into play...
Sustaining Rounds ● Uncompetitive
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Give 'Em Some Pepper heals Raynor for 3% of hismaximum Health, increased to 6% if the primary target is a Hero. |
A very, very meager source of sustain. If
Raynor really needs health, he's happy to trade mana for healing with his
E. Then, globes and fountain keep him topped off. During a fight, the absence of
armor and more drugs, or a
smaller health pool, makes Raynor much more liable to getting blown up. What good is healing if you're dead?
My only pick-case for
Sustaining Rounds[4] is if I'm thinking about
Sergeant Pepper[20] at level 20 for a little more value. And if the enemy team is so damage-starved that Raynor is never in threat. This kind of draft liability never happens.
Behemoth Armor ● Alternative ● Suboptimal Playstyle
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Gain 200 bonusmaximum Health.
❢ Quest: Every time
Give 'Em Some Pepper primary target is a Hero, gain an additional 8maximum Health. |
Behemoth Armor suffers from the same opportunity cost that
Veteran Marksman[1] suffers from. Time spent clicking on Heroes in meaningless fights is not better than improving your map control. However,
Behemoth Armor[4] provides a much more useful stat - that isn't lost on death - maximum health! Now,
Raynor enters each and every fight with a larger health pool. A bigger health pool means more time before your death, a bigger margin for your healer to come stitch you up, and it doesn't get in the way of any armor boosting effect from your team.
Behemoth Armor[4] usually gives you anywhere from 15%-25% bonus health in a game, so it's a very big boost. Remember, your Adrenaline Rush heals %HP, so if you get a lot of health from this talent, then you are healing for more! Win, win, baby. I like to pick this talent up when I don't need the temporary armor off
Fight or Flight's[4], and I envision fighting enemy heroes very often.
Heavy Slugs ● Opportunity Cost ● Niche
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Increase
Penetrating Round'sSlow by 15% and its duration by 2 seconds. |
An... admittedly decent talent that I don't really take too often. A 35% slow is very nasty, for a whopping 4 seconds it's absolutely crippling composition with a lot of melee heroes. If they're a big issue, then adding additional CC can keep them in check.
Still, I lean away from the talent in favor of CDR from
Unstable Compound[7] for a reason. If you get jumped, it's because the enemy used mobility spells. Not their movement.
Raynor's range, speed, and slowing is more than enough to keep someone far away. They need special tools to get up close and personal. So, if you get jumped on, what do you use to get them off? It's your
Q's knockback. The slow is too little too late.
Fuel the Rush ● One Trick Pony ● Synergistic
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Reduce theMana cost of
Adrenaline Rush from 75 to 45. While
Inspire is active, increase
Adrenaline Rush'scooldown reduction fromBasic Attacks by 300%. |
So, Einstein, is it a good idea to put all your talent eggs in one ability basket? No. This is where the dramatic CDR talent comes in to save the day.
Fueling the Rush[7] gives you a shocking amount of CDR on your
E. In fact, with
Inspire active, you're shaving off 3 seconds per auto attack tossed out. You can
easily cast your
E several times in a fight. Use it liberally to shrug off damage that's headed your way, and you'll have another one before the enemy team rears their head toward you.
This is a talent you should
only take in
Adrenaline Rush focused builds.
Unstable Compound ● Flexible ● Synergistic ● Performance Booster
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Increase the area of
Give 'Em Some Pepper by 15%. Each enemy Hero hit by
Give 'Em Some Pepper grants Raynor10 Mana and reduces thecooldown of
Penetrating Round by 1.5 seconds. |
Truth of the matter, it's rather disappointing that a damage dealer like
Raynor has so few talents that meaningfully increase his damage output. Which is why
Unstable Compound[7] so happens to be the begrudging child we must accept. Still! It's a pretty good talent; knowing the hipster I am, I'd totally still pick it.
First off, all enemy Heroes hit with your
trait refund 10 mana each. That's a pretty big number and literally solves all your mana issues as
Raynor. Even at a moderate, or low amount of mana, he can still stay and operate on the field since his primary damage source are his AAs. The more important quality of the talent, however, is the cooldown reduction on your
Q. Shaving off 1.5s on your
Penetrating Round is great in of itself. The fact that it stacks per enemy Hero is unbelievably good. Hitting a dead center mass of enemy Heroes just refunds 4.5/6/7.5 seconds. Bonkers!
Sure, the radius of your
trait is increased, whatever. All the easier to ensure your trait gets the listed bonuses.
Hyperion ● Situationally Powerful ● Map Dependent ● Teamplay ● Easily Countered
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Order the Hyperion to make a strafing run for 12 seconds, hitting up to 4 enemies for 66 damage every second. Every 4 seconds, it can fire itsYamato Cannon at aStructure, dealing 794 damage. |
Hyperion suffers a lot from the fact that it's pretty easy to just... step aside from the big circle. Then you just blew an ultimate. I find it best if you frequently plan to conduct sieges - when you send it against the structures, it just deals more damage via Yamato Cannon in the background. Opponents are often forced behind their gate, which puts them in the line of fire. Lastly, if no one shows up, at the bare minimum the
Hyperion hit some buildings.
Alternatively, maps with an infrequent but lengthy objective - such as Hanamura Temple's payload (on offense) and Volskaya Foundry - will discourage opponents from contesting the objective. If you capture it, it's completely worth it! Otherwise, you need a good opportunity for it to really lay down some good teamfighting damage.
In all other circumstances -
Hyperion's just straight up bad. And you become a weaker hero when it is on cooldown, unlike
Raynor's Raider.
Raynor's Raider ● Performance Booster ● Unlocks New Capabilities
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Summon a Banshee that assists Raynor. The Banshee deals 84 damage per second and regenerates 75 Health per second if it hasn't taken damage in the last 4 seconds. Can reactivate to retarget or move the Banshee.
The Banshee respawns automatically after 45 seconds. |
Raynor's Raider is an excellent all-purpose assistant to everything you do as
Raynor. Unlike
Hyperion, you don't rely on a 100 second cooldown.
Banshee is on 24/7. If the team is relying on Raynor to do really do some carrying,
Banshee is a necessity so that you can be more independent and pump out more damage. It can help with all sorts of scenarios, like killing enemies, tanking mercenaries, sieging fortifications, and scouting for vision. All of that is immensely useful and is exactly what Raynor wants to do. If you need an all-rounder performance booster in and out of teamfights, call on some
Raiders.
Line 'Em Up ● Performance Booster ● Skill Expression
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Reduce thecooldown of
Penetrating Round by 3 seconds.
Penetrating Round
hitting two or more enemy Heroes reduces itscooldown by an additional 3 seconds. |
Here's a free 33%
cooldown reduction on an
excellent ability. The only damaging ability for
Raynor, mind you. And here's another 33% cooldown reduction you can score in a relatively common scenario.
Line ‘Em Up[13] is the only talent on this tier that gives Raynor more damage through more
Qs. I also believe it enhances his safety by giving him more
Qs to play with. When it's off cooldown all the time, I can afford to play more recklessly because I can just shove away my problems as they come. Constantly. This talent's awesome!
It takes a little bit of practice to get into the groove of things, but try your best to score as many 2+ Heroes in one shot as you can. You'll build confidence, awareness, and familiarity as you go and spot opportunities as they come. Since the width of your
Q is abysmally small, you need to line yourself up in a straight line from your enemies. I recommend stutter stepping in that direction so that you keep your damage up and fire a round off if the enemies are still standing behind one another.
SYNERGY:
-
Unstable Compound[7] will fully refresh your Q cooldown if you hit 2+ heroes with both talents. Incredible combo!
-
Heavy Slugs[7] will appreciate the additional CDR.
Giddy-Up ● Opportunity Cost ● Consistent Use
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Gain 10%Movement Speed while mounted and unmounted.
Inspire grants 10%more Movement Speed. |
A serviceable talent that keeps you faster on your feet and gain more map control. If macro is king and there is too much to do on the map, the additional speed gets
Raynor to a lane faster, and back to his team faster. The constant speed edge is also pretty cool in fights, I suppose.
SYNERGY:
-
Raynor's Raider acts as a wingman to your Houdini impression.
-
Exterminator[1] requires you to travel the map significantly more. Giddy-Up[13] can cut your time spent drastically.
Give Me More! ● Alternative
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Increase
Adrenaline Rush healing by 50%. While
Inspire is active, gain 1Basic Attack range. |
First off, this is
technically not more healing. It's 50% longer duration on your
Adrenaline Rush. This distinction is trivial, unless
Raiders Roll[20] is in the mix.
Anyhow, this talent is a key step in becoming invincible as
Raynor on his Druglord build. You get lots of value off the big cooldown reduction. Also, since your primary method of damage is auto attacking, you'll appreciate the additional range tremendously!
SYNERGY:
- All prior
Adrenaline Rush related talents.
-
Trait related builds will find it easier to charge up attacks from a safer range. Range is also handy when staying on target with your big hits.
-
Behemoth Armor[4] gets a special mention - the +50% additional healing goes further when you have a bigger healthpool.
Paint Them Red ● Consistent Use ● Synergistic
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Increase the damage of
Penetrating Round by 50% andheal for 90% of the damage
Penetrating Round deals to Heroes. |
So, uh, where is
Raynor getting his healing from??? The healing kind of put me in for the loop... until I realized that the talent not only increased your damage, but it also gives additional healing based off that same damage. Straight up, at level 16, your
Penetrating Round will heal you for 450 health per enemy Hero hit. You hit two or three Heroes and your healing just skyrockets to the stratosphere. Of course, that additional damage is delicious. The talent synergy with your previous talents really enables this talent to shine as an outstanding damage dealer and survivability tool.
SYNERGY:
-
Line ‘Em Up[13] triples the Penetrating Rounds in the same time frame.
-
Unstable Compound[7] provides an additional source of cooldown reduction and keeps you fueled for mana.
-
Ace In The Hole[1] multiplies the damage, and hence, the healing.
Rallying Cry ● Performance Booster ● Synergistic
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Increase theAttack Speed bonus of
Inspire by 20%.
Passive: After every 12Basic Attacks, cast
Inspire for free. |
Raynor is ALL about
auto attacking. Straight up increasing the attack speed boost by 66% (which also applies to your minions & mercs btw) is a big deal. An even bigger deal is the completely free
Inspire every 12 attacks. More attackspeed, you reach that 12 attack threshold, it casts again and you get attackspeed, repeat...
Down in the bottom left, under Raynor's health, are his buffs.
Rallying Cry's[16] buff counter is indicated there. Keep a side eye on it - you will win fights 20% more often if you don't waste your Inspire when it comes for free.
SYNERGY:
-
Exterminator[1] provides more damage when Inspire is active - free W casts skyrockets your endurance. Rallying Cry's bonus attack speed extends to minions & mercs, and they won't expire from Exterminator!
-
Give Me More's[13] one additional attack range, and targeting circle, gives Raynor more control over his attacks.
- If the %HP damage from
Bounty Hunter[16] is unnecessary, then trait builds will enjoy higher attack speed against all targets.
Bounty Hunter ● Uncompetitive ● Niche ● Skill Expression
|
Cooldown: 40 seconds
Activate
Give 'Em Some Pepper to apply it to Raynor's nextBasic Attack.
If
Give 'Em Some Pepper's target is a Hero, it deals an additional 3% of theirmaximum Health as damage and grants Raynor 10Armor for 3 seconds. |
Unfortunately, one of
Raynor's downsides is that he lacks a proper giant killer talent, unlike other Ranged Assassins. This is technically it. And it SUCKS! If you really think about it, it's 3% HP in dmg every 4
attacks. Or, 0.75%HP/attack.
Greymane's is
3%HP/attack,
ZJ's
2%HP/attack, even
Valla outperforms with
1.66%HP/attack when she has higher attack speed and damage to boot. Although Raynor has decent attack speed, he attacks
slower than all the aforementioned Heroes. It's just bad news all around.
The one good fact about BH is that it offers outstanding burst damage against armored tanks, making you a mini
Tychus. But it pales in its role against everything else in comparison to other builds.
The 10 armor is whatever. It often gets trumped on by allied armor effects, or
Fight or Flight's[4] itself.
SYNERGY:
- Minor synergy with
Behemoth Armor[4], for the higher maximum health + 10% armor.
Cavalry's Arrived ● Uncompetitive ● Niche ● Opportunity Cost
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Give 'Em Some Pepper lowers thecooldown of
Hyperion by 5 seconds if the primary target is a Hero. These Heroes are targeted by Hyperion for 100% increased damage for 6 seconds. |
Admittedly, I haven't played with this talent enough to give you an honest opinion. But I've almost never seen it in play. The
Hyperion does significant damage, so doubling it is very intriguing. The problem is - the enemy team can still just side step your ultimate. The CDR is pretty dope though, more assaults and a reliable ultimate every fight. But keep in mind we are level 20. The game will likely end after a final team wipe.
Dusk Wing ● Performance Booster ● Unlocks New Capabilities
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Increase theHealth andleash range of
Raynor’s Raider by 100%. Its Basic Attack lowers enemy HeroArmor by 3 for 1 second, stacking up to 30. |
Raynor's Raider is definitely his better ultimate, but
Dusk Wing[20] turns it into a complete
monstrosity. Let's talk about that armor shred. Put into perspective - one of
BW's best talents is
Critterize[16], a -25% armor shred for 1.5 seconds.
Varian's Heroic
Colossus Smash shreds -25% armor.
Tyrande's
trait, a core component to her contribution to the team, is -15% armor. All forms of armor, and armor shredding, is highly valuable in HotS. The developers designed it so that only the
strongest armor buff/debuff is applied at a time, so typically your limit to shredding armor is -25% and no further. There are very few that exceed this critical number.
Raynor, a high damage dealer, gets access to -30% Armor shred for a PERMANENT duration, so long as the
Banshee is focusing on them. Which is, by the way, a trivial requirement given the other upgrades in this talent.
Mind you, at level 20, your
Banshee does 150 damage a second. Factor in the -30% armor shred, maybe
Ace In The Hole[1], and it's dealing
220 damage a second. Oh my dear god.
Raynor himself does ~250 damage per hit on the target after the same calculations, but we haven't factored in his incredible attack speed like we did with the
Banshee. Or his
Q damage. Or... damage from your entire bloody team. That is an earth shattering amount of firepower you're dropping on someone's head. It's so unbelievably high that I feel
jittery and
impatient when I want to find and kill someone.
Okay, back to the stats, the
Banshee attacks twice per second, and each attack sends two rockets each. So, 4 attacks/second. It takes the
Banshee 2.5 seconds to completely shred their armor. If the enemy tank, bruiser, anyone foolish enough steps up a little too close, you can just focus fire that target and incinerate them.
You know what's better? Double leash range. Seriously, your
Banshee can travel more than a screen around Raynor. You can check out any unknown area you want, or have it chase after a target as far as it wants to. An enemy will rightfully want to get away from the assaulting
banshee - but they can't run because the leash range is the size of the Milky Way. And what if they do fight it straight on? HAH! The
Banshee has double health now. 3600 HP at level 20, to be exact.
THAT'S MORE HEALTH THAN
Raynor! And it's on a tiny hitbox that flies over terrain!
I go
Dusk Wing[20] 90% of the time at level 20. This is the talent that cures you of any insecurity you may have over not dealing enough damage.
SYNERGY:
-
Paint Them Red[16] provides additional healing for hitting a vulnerable target harder, and of course, big damage.
-
Ace In The Hole[1] significantly amplifies the Banshee's damage on its own, not to mention yours.
Raiders Roll ● Situationally Powerful ● Unlocks New Capabilities
|
Adrenaline Rush grantsUnstoppable and continues healing for an additional 2 seconds. The additional duration ends upon reaching 70%Health. |
Finally, the shipments from
Walter White made it safe. It's time to party. As if your
Adrenaline Rush wasn't one of the better emergency buttons a carry can ask for, how about... triple the healing, if you are seriously injured? How about 2 seconds of instant unstoppable on top of that? Man, that's good.
One of the funniest memories I have of this game is shoving an
Imperius into the mud with my
Q on Alterac Pass. We spent the last 10 seconds dancing, him desperately trying to kill me. I just stood there when I pressed
E. I full healed from 5% health. And you can
Adrenaline Rush several times a fight, dodging the most important CC with the unstoppable. S tier talent!
SYNERGY:
- All Adrenaline Rush related talents. Especially
Fuel The Rush[7], which can give you multiple activations of
Raiders Roll[20].
Sergeant Pepper ● Uncompetitive ● One Trick Pony
|
Give 'Em Some Pepper now activates every 3Basic Attacks. |
Oh, you picked up Hyperion? Ah, getting creative with your
trait talents? Then be left with the disgusting after taste... of
Sergeant Pepper[20]. Haha, I'm being rather ruthless, it's not too bad of a talent. Mathematically speaking, the talent increases your single target damage output by about 10%. That's worse than
Ace In The Hole[1], 20 levels ago. On the flipside, it bolsters your AoE damage, and your any traits related to your trait will greatly appreciate it. Still, aside from
Unstable Compound[7], every talent related to
Raynor's crit is hot garbage. If you have non-stop, constant auto attacking battles that last 20+ seconds, then
Sergeant Pepper[20] can come in handy. Otherwise, stick to
Dusk Wing[20] for damage output.
SYNERGY:
- All former trait-related talents, especially
Veteran Marksman[1] and
Bounty Hunter[16].
-
Rallying Cry[16] provides outstanding attack speed to keep chaining crit after crit.
Execute Orders ● No Agency ● Niche ● Opportunity Cost
|
When Raynor iskilled, the Hyperion is cast toward the closest enemy Hero. It lasts 12 seconds, hitting up to 4 enemy Heroes of the lowest Health in the area for 66 damage every second. Every 4 seconds, it will also fire its Yamato Cannon at the lowest Health enemy Hero, dealing 395 damage.
Passive: Reduce Raynor'sdeath timer by 35 seconds. |
God Bless the tyrannical reign of suicide-into-core Execute Orders Raynor is finally over. Stupid ******* talent. Ugh. I'm biased.
I usually despise any type of talent that relies on you dying. If your whole team dies together, it is under the assumption that the enemy team won the fight and there's still a few Heroes (or more) on the map. You have no priority in securing anything important by yourself, aside from a pitiful defense against a fort.
If he dies first in a fight, awesome! You get good
Execute Orders[20] value. Problem is, your team is now in a huge fight disadvantage lacking a critical damage dealer.
Raynor is also a special case. Because of his strong defensive abilities, he rarely dies solo. His death is usually a result of the entire enemy team collapsing on him. If the enemy team has such an easy time doing so, then the battle is already decided.
If the enemy team is indecisive with how they spend their time, or you quite literally are dying first in every case, this talent is ok. But the lack of agency, especially when on the offensive, turns me away.
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