Mitchbttk's In Depth Support Guide to "Kharazim, the monk of Ivgorod" (Chromie Patch) by Mitchbttk

Mitchbttk's In Depth Support Guide to "Kharazim, the monk of Ivgorod" (Chromie Patch)

By: Mitchbttk
Last Updated: May 20, 2016
32 Votes
Build 1 of 1

Kharazim

Build: Ideal build.

Level 1
Level 4
Level 7
Level 10
Level 13
Level 16
Level 20

Threats to Kharazim with this build

Threat
Low
High
Show all
Threat Hero Notes
1
  No Threat
2
E.T.C. E.T.C can for sure disrupt a lot with his Power Slide and Face Melt abilities and sometimes it might be enough just to knock you out of position and possibly make you "miss" your Breath of Heaven. Not to mention that a good Mosh Pit(though extremely hard to land) can have you dancing helpless to the sound of your impending doom. Groovy huh?
3
The Butcher The Butcher overall isn't a really big threat to Kharazim once you realize that he used his Butcher's Brand ability on you just dash away to prevent him from draining you. Always keep in mind though that he can charge and obliterate you if his team coordinates well enough so keep your distances.
3
Murky Octo-Grab as weak as it's damage might seem prior to level 20 it can still lock you down especially when you dash to the front-line for those quick heals on the warriors.
3
Chromie Chromie isn't a huge threat to Kharazim, just keep your eyes open for her combo and use your Divine Palm in time to save your ally or yourself
4
Anub'arak Anub'arak has been the terror of support characters, mainly because of his outstanding Cocoon heroic ability, which enables him to render you useless and force your team to quickly react quickly and nuke it. Not to mention that he can also lock you down if you jump in.
4
Li Li Li Li is actually a mediocre threat to you mainly because of her Blinding Wind ability which, if timed correctly, can nullify your Deadly Reach / Transcendence combo
4
Nazeebo Ravenous Spirit has seen a lot of play recently due to a slight buff, just make sure Nazeebo gets interrupted or that you're spread enough after you heal the team in order to minimize the damage. Oh I also forgot to mention: Leaping Spiders are really,really,really,really annoying.
4
Tracer Tracer, as much as any high mobility hero, can be very annoying to deal with, she doesn't pose any huge threats towards you though as long as you have your eyes open in order to protect your backline
5
Jaina Jaina has probably the most ''burst'' damage in the game and when she's used correctly you might not be able to get close enough to the focused target in order to save him with your Divine Palm, which makes her a decent threat
6
Brightwing Most of you will probably be thinking "what the hell? How on earth is Brightwing a threat?!". Well, after her complete talent rework people stopped picking Brightwing basically because her healing numbers had a huge drop. Guess what, that sneaky faerie dragon is slowly crawling back to this melee-heavy meta in some comps, and you'll actually be surprised to see how most people (even at high MMR) have forgotten how strong her Polymorph ability was/is, making you lose control of your hero for 1.5 secs, you'll discover that's more than enough time to score a kill on either you or a friendly hero.
6
Johanna Johanna might not be one of the top threats to Kharazim, but her Shield Glare ability can counter your auto attacks for a while and if combined correctly with Blessed Shield it can be hard to put out enough healing for the team
6
Zagara Zagara's Devouring Maw along with Zeratul's Void Prison are definitely 2 ultimate abilities that can turn the game around. Also those annoying Hydralisks, once they evolve into Mutalisks can force you into using Breath of Heaven on a single target just to top them up, which is not really optimal since you mainly want to be healing multiple allies for maximum value.
7
Tyrael If Tyrael decides that you should be his Judgement target,it can prove to be lethal when executed correctly by the enemy team
7
Greymane Greymane with his high burst kit can be dangerous, pretty much as dangerous as Tyrande. So keep your eyes open, if he is on the enemy team be rdy with your Divine Palm to save your teamate from becoming his dinner
7
Xul Xul hasn't been a huge issue against me when I'm playing Kharazim, his level 20 talent though is very annoying against any healer in the game right now (75% healing reduction to the targets that are hit by his Scythe for 4 secs)
8
Kerrigan Once ''the Queen of Blades'' is in the right hands she's one of the best play-makers of the game. She isn't a huge threat though since her combo is easy to avoid, especially when you get used to your Radiant Dash ability, which enables you to dodge it.
8
Zeratul Ah...Zeratul, how the mighty have fallen. He's always a force to be feared when playing against(or sometimes even playing with) since his Void Prison can lock you down easily because you're stacked, and create momentum by allowing the enemy team to kill that juicy warrior that remains alone at the frontline
8
Falstad Falstad can prove quite annoying with his Gust ability and his huge burst potential
8
Azmodan Azmodan might see play in specific maps like Tomb of the Spider Queen, Dragon Shire and Blackheart's Bay but still his Globe of Annihilation is a deadly talent that can send your team flying, especially if you're stacked in order to heal. He only falls behind Kael'thas in the threat-zone only because he has to farm his stacks with the "Taste for Blood" talent which can be countered with good early ganks and disruption.
8
Li-Ming Li Ming deals a huge amount of aoe damage so Kharazim isn't the ideal support in dealing with her since you have to stack for the aoe heals. However if you still play against her be sure that your positioning is always close to the target that's being nuked
9
Tyrande Tyrande when played at her full potential can pretty much shut down almost every melee hero in the game (yes that includes even the tankiest of Warriors). mainly because of her Lunar Flare ability combined with Hunter's Mark. The main counter to her bread and butter combo is Cleanse and Divine Shield. Too bad you can't pre-cleanse yourself anymore to avoid that danger and I don't see both Uther and Kharazim on the same team with both at the support role for a while. So basically if you aren't fast enough when facing her she can easily shut you down. You can always use Divine Palm on yourself just before getting caught but that mostly will be a waste since you wanna save it for that ranged DPS that's being focused to death or for that poor tank/melee assasin that's taking the beating for the team
9
Sonya Sonya is exceptionally good against melee heavy line-ups. Yes I know you have a really nice auto-attack range buff once you're using your Deadly Reach ability, unfortunately the range boost doesn't last forever and you'll also discover that sometimes, your mobility won't be enough to get you out of her claws.
9
Raynor Raynor and auto attackers in general are very annoying to play against, since they make it really hard for you to hit your DP (they can always stop DPSing which is kind of nasty). Also Raynor's insane solo target damage at late game will make you waste your W too often onto 1 target which isn't optimal
10
Muradin Possibly the main counter to Kharazim along with Kael'thas. The crowd control that Muradin provides can be devastating to play against especially if you are to jump in to heal the front-liner(s) you might find yourself getting stun-locked to death. Of course if you master your positioning and find the correct openings you can overcome the dwarf obstacle
10
Kael'thas On the first look at Kharazim you'd think that his healing numbers come from abusing his auto attacks mostly, unfortunately once you get the hang of the hero you'll realize that it all comes down to your W ability,Breath of Heaven, and since its' range is ridiculously small you'll find yourself stacking with your allies in order to maximize the healing value. Yes you guessed correctly, that makes you an exceptional ''Special living bomb delivery'' target. If you work your positioning and keep your eyes open though, you should be able to minimize the damage by spreading quickly after you cast your healing ability.
10
Dehaka I'm gonna do a long guess here and say that Dehaka so far seems like the perfect counter to solo support with his Isolation Ultimate, might wanna think twice about going solo heal against him

Introduction Top

Greetings everybody and welcome to my guide! I'm Mitchbttk, the support player for Elysium Gaming's "Heroes of the Storm" team and I'll be giving you my personal view on Kharazim so, sit comfortably and enjoy the ride!

Pros and Cons Top

So, Kharazim is a unique hero and the first of many to come with the trait choice at level 1. However on this guide we'll be focusing on his support side since that's where he actually "shines" the most. Let's jump straight into his strengths and weaknesses:

Strengths

-One of the strongest early game healers available due to his passive, Transcendence

-Insane mobility through Radiant Dash which can be used either to chase or get out of sticky situations

- Divine Palm if mastered can turn the fight around

-Very strong talent choices on every tier

Weaknesses

-Has to jump to the front-line in order to heal the tanks which is easy to punish if you're not fast enough

- Divine Palm is probably the hardest heroic ability to land when playing against a well coordinated team

-Can't solo soak a lane due to his slow wave clearing

-Doesn't provide any crowd control

Overall monk is a really fun hero to play with, although he might be hard to master, he can bring good results and enable you to even carry your team with his powerful kit

Abilities Top

Trait
This is the default choice for the support build on Kharazim. It is a very strong passive healing ability especially at the laning phase where you can keep everyone alive and topped-up(not mention that your attack speed is at 2 attacks per second and you can almost always proc the heal).

- Insight is also a viable choice if you find yourself having mana issues but in general, Kharazim's mana regeneration, combined with the mana cost of his abilities, is very balanced and you won't find yourself running out of mana in many situations.

- Iron Fists is mostly picked with the DPS build which is irrelevant when playing Kharazim as a support no matter how cool that extra damage might look.

Basic Abilities
This is your Q ability and a personal favorite. It provides you with great mobility in general and enables you to escape some very sticky situations. You get 2 charges and later on you have the choice to get an extra charge, but once you practice Kharazim a lot, you'll figure out that the extra charge isn't really necessary since you'll mostly be staying near the ranged assassins and occasionally going in with 1 stack of Radiant Dash to either drop Divine Palm to a dying target or just use Breath of Heaven to regenerate the health points of your warriors and melee assassins. Of course the 2nd stack is your ''get the hell outta here" option.

This is your W ability and the one that you'll be spamming the most in order to get those healing numbers up. The numbers might seem to be a bit low when compared to Uther's Holy Light but keep in mind that Breath of Heaven is an AoE (Area of Effect) ability and can heal basically every target that's nearby. You'll also see at the talents section that you get an upgrade for a second auto-cast after 2 seconds for 50% of the initial value. The only problem (which would make this ability and Kharazim in general broken) is that you can only heal allied heroes and not mercenaries/minions.

This ability, might seem random and awkward at first, but in secret it is a burst-heal ability combined with your trait, Transcendence . Let me do the math for you; as I mentioned earlier, your basic attack speed is fairly high (2 attacks/second), now combined with this ability you reach the insane amount of 4 attacks a second and a total of 8 attacks through the whole duration (roughly 240 healing at level 1). Also the 100% increased attack range enables you to use your auto attacks from a safer distance. If you still think that this talent is not "cool" enough just check its' visual animation where you actually unleash a flurry of punches/kicks to your opponents. How about that?


Heroic Abilities

Kharazim's first heroic ability is Seven-Sided Strike. Although this ability is almost always the def-choice of Kharazims DPS build, sometimes you'll find it useful even as a support, since it basically is just like Jainas Improved Ice Block talent with some differences: you can't cancel it and you also deal damage to your enemies (especially those HP heavy warriors, yes Johanna and Muradin , I'm pointing my finger at you). BUT, however fun it may be to have this heroic ability, Divine Palm remains a better choice, most of the time, for Kharazim's support build.

Last but not least in our abilities section is Divine Palm, Kharazim's form of Ancestral Healing. This is a really tricky heroic ability and insanely hard to master. It basically requires the target to actually die within 3 seconds in order to have any effect. Now you'll just think "Come on, how hard can it be to die?", well my friends, if you're playing against a team that knows how Kharazim works you'll be more than surprised to find that the enemy teams' focus target might change for a bit if Divine Palm is used. I strongly suggest, especially when picking Kharazim as a full support for the first time and until you master him, to almost always pick the Peaceful Repose talent at level 20 just to make sure you have your Divine Palm ready as soon as possible if you fail landing it the first time.

Talent Breakdown Top

After understanding all of Kharazim's abilities it's time to dive into his talents.

Level 1
At level 1 as explained at the Abilities section your main choice as a support monk should be Transcendence

Level 4

-At level 4 both Protective Shield and Healing Ward are both very solid choices with Protective Shield being slightly better because of the recent nerf to the survivability of Healing Ward.

-When playing against an invisible threat though such as Zeratul and Nova, Foresight is a great talent for revealing them.

- Overtake is a fine talent but not a must-have as a support role monk.

Level 7

-At level 7 the best choice will be Echo of Heaven since it makes your basic healing ability, Breath of Heaven, even better.

- Cleanse is also a situational choice against heavy crowd control compositions.

- Clairvoyance is a fine talent but both Cleanse and Echo of Heaven are by far the best talent choices on this tier since you always have the choice at level 4 to go with the Foresight talent for that extra vision.

- Way of the Hundred Fists is the choice for a DPS Kharazim build so we'll be skipping this talent for this time.

Level 10
As explained at the Abilities section, Seven-Sided Strike can be a fine choice against heavy melee compositions but Divine Palm should be the choice most of the times you'll be playing Kharazim at the support role.

Level 13

-The level 13 talents will provide you with a big amount of choices, mostly depending on the enemy team. If the enemy team runs multiple spell-casting heroes such as Kael'thas , Jaina , Nazeebo, etc (not E.T.C), then you should by all means go for the Spell Shield talent, which will reduce the spell damage you'll get during those long mid and late game fights.

-If the enemy team has a ton of CC abilities, then you should be going for Relentless since it will give you an escape ticket from a possible chain CC scenario against you.

- Quicksilver is a really nice buff to your already strong Radiant Dash ability and a personal choice for support monk because of the mobility it provides to not only you but also your squishy ranged assassins or your melee warriors/assassins. It enables you to escape everybody (yes even an Illidan) or, chase down, everybody.

- Fists of Fury is a nice talent boost to your Deadly Reach ability but slightly worse than the rest of the talent choices on this tier because of the small time-buff (1 second). This talent is a bit weaker only due to the fact that almost never you'll be able to land a full duration Deadly Reach during a team-fight because you'll always need to dash across the battlefield. So most of the times that extra second will go to waste.

Level 16

- Circle of Life will be your default choice most times, since the buff it provides to your already strong Breath of Heaven talent is insane. Almost always it's a guaranteed 10% extra (at least 1 ally affected), though if practiced and positioned well, you should almost always be getting an extra 30% value.

- Soothing Breeze is also a very strong but situational talent. For example, if the enemy team has an Arthas with Summon Sindragosa or a Malfurion with those nasty Tenacious Roots or in general a hero with massive AoE slow/root/silence this is a must-have spell and can save your team multiple times. I didn't mention the blind removal since the only heroes with blinding abilities are Li Li and Johanna, where Li Li needs to get close to your team in order to affect you and the ranged assassins (which means that she will go heavily out of position and will be exposed and probably punished for that) and Johanna simply shouldn't be hitting more than 2-3 heroes with her Shield Glare ability.

- Blinding Speed and Blazing Fists are solid talents but slightly worse when compared to the rest on this tier.


Level 20

-The final tier where the "Storm" talents reside. The best choices here are Storm Shield (if you are at least 99% sure that you can land your Divine Palm ability correctly) and Peaceful Repose (if you are not comfortable enough with landing your Divine Palm).

- Epiphany is a really situational talent and falls behind from the rest of the talents on this tier just because you shouldn't be struggling that much with your mana. If you find yourself though in super slow and long fights than you might consider this talent as a trump card against the enemy teams' support (since he/she will eventually run out of mana while you can always get an extra 32.81% every 60 secs).

- Transgression shouldn't be picked if you're running support Kharazim even if you picked Seven-Sided Strike at level 10.

Tips and Tricks Top

Now that you've got an idea on how Kharazims abilities and talents work, let me provide you with some extra info on how I mainly play the hero through the whole game.

Early Game/Laning Phase

Kharazims laning phase as mentioned above is extremely strong. All the sustain that you will be able to provide with your auto attacks and your strong healing abilities, should be able to win those early trades and possibly help your team score some kills or just force the enemy team to retreat and enable your team to either push or go for Mercenary camps or, if they are up, map objectives.

Mid Game/Late Game

Let's say that you and your team have done well and won the early game. While advancing towards the mid-game you should always follow your team, no matter how dumb their choices might seem to you, you are NOT the right person to soak for that extra experience to maintain your experience lead. If you lost the early game and your team is behind the same rules apply, stick with your team and try to take care of them, go for Mercenary camps with them, soak the lanes with them, in general avoid roaming solo.

WHAT and WHEN to auto attack during a team-fight

As a support you'll mainly be positioning near your ranged Assassins and keeping them safe. If, for example, an enemy Warrior/Melee Assassin approaches, use him as a punching-bag to start generating even more heals through your trait, Transcendence. Be careful though, don't over-commit to your auto attacks, since the focus might change on you. Always know when to go back. When your front-line is in danger, all you have to do is use your Radiant Dash to quickly go in range, throw some heals (or even a Divine Palm if needed) and use your 2nd Radiant Dash charge to fall back to your ranged assassins. This will become a habit, at first you might get caught by the enemy team, but eventually you'll be fast enough to get out of there quickly.

NOTE

Pay attention to the battle and what's going on around you, if for example Zagara has spawned some Hydralisks/Mutalisks/Banelings or if there is a minion nearby, make sure that you throw in some auto-attacks just to get that extra trait value, sometimes it might make a huge impact on the fight

Final Thoughts Top

We've come to the end of this guide. At this point I'd like to thank you all for reading my guide for Kharazim , the Monk of Ivgorod. I'll keep the guide updated with every new patch. Feel free to comment below for extra advice/clarifications! I hope that you found the guide helpful and that you enjoyed it, don't forget to upvote/share it. Thank you for your time, until next time, see ya!

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