In all honesty, I'm a casual player who is looking to get more competitive. While I may not be a pro, when a new character comes out, it's fair game to build characters and find what works for you. This is my build (which varies from the current builds. I hope you like the build! Lets get started!

Tier one: Death's Reach

In my opinion, Death's Reach is one of the best options at level one. On a Pale Horse is a sub-par option at best. I would choose Fear the Reaper before the other. By increasing your range on your teleport, it gives your more options in the long haul for maneuvering in battle. Whether it be initiation after a well landed Death's Shroud, diving onto enemy's that are attacking your back line, or being a juke master to get out of a sticky situation. The increased range is vital to what we want to be doing.


Tier two: Black Harvest

This is where things get a little tricky. Honestly, I can see use for all of these choices. I dabbled a bit with Throwing Shade when I was newer to him. It made combat smooth and helped me develop the skills to get better with him. I highly recommend this skill for newer players, but as you progress, look into the other options. Die alone is fine if you want to play more of a catch out build, but honestly, I feel like it prevents your surviveability into the late game and synergizes poorly with Tormented Souls if you so choose to take that talent (spoiler, we wont be taking it with this build but we will talk about that later). In the end, Black Harvest is the strongest option. The added two seconds, doesn't seem like a lot, but as we delve deeper down the tree, it will all make sense.


Tier three: Mortality OR Cold Hand

This is one of the hardest talents to pick, so we will start with the talent we will not take, Touch of Death. I don't think it does enough as opposed to the other two talents in this tree. Don't get me wrong, preventing your opponents from gaining health is a strong ability, but for the purposes of this build, we want to deal damage, and a lot of it. So much, that we don't care if they gain health, because they will be dead. So in the ability list, I put Mortality only because it's in general "better" than Cold Hand due to the 4% max health damage. You kill their front line so smooth with this talent, it's amazing. With that said, Cold Hand is very good if their team comp is very mobile and you need them to take a chill pill (pun intended) and slow down. Again, tier three is very good for all it's abilities. Choose wisely based on your opponent's team composition and what your team needs to combat it.


Tier four: Last Rites

Ok, here is the one thing I take that most lists (when I'm writing this on 6/14/17) differ from mine. I LOVE this ability. Maybe I'm blinded by it and will change my mind later, but with our build, this talent is great. 50% of an opponent's missing health is a lot.... I mean a LOT. When you do it every 75s, it's not as fun as doing it every 15 seconds. Not to mention, in tier 7, it helps us stay in battle (will touch on that when the time comes). Long story short, questing on an ult seems insane. Lets talk about the other option though, because it's also very spicy! Tormented Souls lets you continue to apply your mark to your enemies for 4 seconds while gaining you 20 armor. For our build, It won't be helping us, but is still strong for being very present in a team fight. Personally, I think Last Rites is the best and will keep us fighting longer.


Tier 5: Soul Siphon

This choice is pretty easy. The only other option worth going into in this tree would be Ethereal Existence because armor is great, but I think the more we can heal while in combat, the better. We want to be focusing on the front line and getting them D-E-D as fast as possible. Killing them comes at a cost, and to balance that, the 4% healing will keep us going. I don't like the activate options because one removes your marks, and the other only gives you spell armor (which is fine if you need it) but all in all, Soul Siphon is the pick here, easily.

Tier 6: Memento Mori

Another difficult decision here, but I'll try to keep it brief. Soul Collector is good for CDR and increased range, but I'm not to sure it does what we want with our build. Massacre giving AOE damage is sweet, but not as sweet as dealing 100% damage after opponents are marked for 4s. Remember how we took Black Harvest? It's time to shine now. Ideally, you have that quest done by now (or close to done) which means our mark lasts for 6s. The plan is, mark them, Soul Rip a few times, Wraith Strike to get into position or just deal more damage (auto attacking as well) then hit them with that sweet sweet Last Rites aaaaaaaaand their gone. Seriously, it's great. Memento Mori is the pick here.


Tier 7: Angel of Death

It's all come down to this, there is no contest, this is the choice if you followed this build. The linger from Final Curtain is lack luster, but great for a newer player. No One Can Stop Death is meh at best, and we can't pick the other ult's option. Angel of Death is so satisfying and will keep you fighting. Then, 15s later, you do it again. Clear winner here.

As I previously stated, I'm no pro, and you can take this build and roll with it, or make tweaks to your playing style or team comp. Regardless of how you play him, [[Malthael}} is a lot of fun to play and has a ton of versatility in his build. While he is not the most complex hero in the roster, he does have a skill cap to play him well. This was my first ever Heroes Fire build and I hope you liked it!

Now... KILL THEM D-E-D DEAD!