Thanks for the kind comments and I am glad it is working for you! It certainly changes depending on who the other team has.

Sorry I missed this, it is a small radius around you, for exact distance and to get a feel for it, go into training and level up to 13. Walk towards a minion until you see them taking damage - this should give you a visual idea of the range.

It will uncloak Zeratul, Nova etc.

Thanks for the guide.
I use this as my go to build, but it does very change depending on the team comp, and the enemy team.

Thank again :)

Blessed tanky in action from a high MMR player.

Regarding Burning Rage & its damage to "nearby enemies", any idea how big the radius actually is? Also, will it uncloak Zeratul or Nova on the opposing team if u walk by them? Just want to confirm...

Tx for the great guide btw!

Thanks for the comments! You mention a lot about pro players, but yet you make selections that I have yet to see taken in EU or NA competitive scenes. Maybe we aren't watching the same games?

Lvl 1 - Knight Takes Pawn is a good choice, and many pros take it 100% of the time. Reinforce is also a decent option and has a similar win rate percentage. It is a good choice on maps with less wave clear.

Lvl 7: This one is split between Conviction and Battle Momentum. I have seen both taken and they are both viable. I do like the little extra chase and harassment potential that [Conviction] has. I also like having my abilities off cool down much more quickly. A few seconds is a huge deal.

Lvl 13: I've yet to see a pro take this in a game. I don't agree with your assessment of Burning Rage. The constant damage output of Burning Rage is low, but it keeps heroes from mounting, it makes it harder for stealties to go into stealth when you chase etc. It has many utilities which makes it a superior choice. I think you are missing out on Burning Rage. The new Spell Shield is decent now, but I don't think it is a good selection over Burning Rage.

Lvl 16: Again - you are missing the value of hammer goes beyond the "meh" damage. I've yet to see a different selection in a pro game other than the occasional Imposing Presence.

Lvl 20: Again - have yet to see anyone take Storm Shield as Johanna.

You have some good opinions, but I respectfully disagree with a few.

Hardcore Casual - meaning I'm not pro, but I love to min/max the **** outa the game.

Thanks again - Hobo

Hi, have you checked a bit what is picked in competitive / high lvl hero league ?
Because this all thing seems to me that it only reflects your opinion alone with not that much practice.

LvL 1: You have to take Knight Takes Pawn. This is the only talent which helps you waveclear and make you somewhat usefull outside of a teamfight. Without it, you can't even clear a wave in less than 10 sec ... You can't just be a tank bot, following people around and do nothing. That's why this talent is the go-to in competitive.

LvL 7: Battle Momentum is the talent most people take, but Since Johanna has the lowest attack speed in the game (with Stiches), this talent will not help much with your basic abilities CD. So I would only take this for the same reason Kerrigan does: to reset your utlimate which isn't as long as Kerrigans. So I don't see any point taking this.
I Find (and a lot of pros) the talent Conviction way more usefull as it allows you to catch maybe one more target in your Condemn. Once you've tested this talent, you can't go back to play without it.

LvL 13: you probably take Burning Rage beceause you lack waveclear and try to compensate for not having Knight Takes Pawn. And if you think this talent has any impact alone in a teamfight, you are wrong. This talent is great on Anub'arak for example beceause he has a lot of sources of damages. This isnt the same playstyle at all on Johanna, and burning rage would just add useless scoreboard dmg no one cares.
With all those magic damage comps and with the buff he got, Spell Shield is the go-to talent here.
When it's really not needed, I personaly get Subdue as it is like an AOE Pressure Point and it increases drastically your teamfight presence / peel.


LvL 16: You are right, all the talents are "meh" here. So just get Imposing Presence: with The Butcher and Zeratul being so strong at the moment, it's surely the best.
I used to take Holy Renewal but that is kinda bad as it makes you want to use the blind on as many targets as possible while you should 90% of the time just blind the 1 Zeratul or Illidan who jumped in the backline (also the CD is quite long, so if you waste it...)
About Blessed Hammer: I would love this talent to be good, but I find the damage really underwelming (this needs a buff I think).
When Imposing Presence is really not needed (i.e. no auto-attacks dmg at all which also mean i won't need the blind of Shield Glare), I still take Holy Renewal as Fanaticism is not good aswell. (I go for Imposing presence 8/10 games)


LvL 20: Indestructible is good if the opposite team is running a Tank kill setup (with Tyrande and some blood for bloods) but otherwise, It's kinda useless as you will most likely die the last in a teamfight anyway. Getting Storm Shield is better as it helps your team survive longer instead of only yourself. Also the CD of Indestructible is twice as long.


As always your guides are nicely done. You also call yourself "Hardcore Casual player".. what does it mean ? are you a casual player ? or a Hardcore player ? in that case, is this guide made for casuals players ? or rank 1 hero league ?

I hope you'll take my critics objectively and try to get what I meant. (Feel free to check my guide and critic it yourself :D)

Have a good one.

She is really versatile and a pain for the other team since she can cater her build to counter them! I'm never glad to see the other team pick Johanna in the draft.

she has so many great builds. i generally get the pseudo-specialist one you've outlined here for casual games or when there's already plenty of cc/dps on my team. she's a fun hero. :)

Thanks for the comment - Note that the tooltip does say "Enemies" - not only heros, this will include Nova's decoys and if she is talented with One in the Chamber it is an easy choice. To avoid confusion, I did remove since the One in the Chamber build is not that common.

In regards to level 13 - I don't actually think any of the other talents are good picks. I will update.

Excuse me? Since when is Nova an auto attack focus champion?

I'm not that happy with this guide. A lot of stuff remains vague and there could be some more infos and in-depth analysis of some skills. At level 13 there is almost nothing.

Welcome to HoTS - its really a great game and there is plenty of new things that I even pick up everyday!

The other two "go to" talents in this tier are just better for a tank build Johanna. This guide focuses on that, now if you were going for a specialist type build, DPS or even a double warrior meta group, then this might be an okay pick. But even in those builds, I would likely pick Knight Takes Pawn over Righteous Smash. Just my thoughts.