RECENT CHANGS (BY PATCH)
05/17/16 (Chromie patch) - reviewed; no significant changes
01/20/16 (Cleanse/Balance patch) - just balance changes, but no real playstyle change
01/13/16 (Greymane patch) - reviewed; no significant changes
6/2/15 (Johanna patch and game launch) - reviewed guide.
5/26/15 (Kael'thas patch) - started this guide. |
Build Disclaimer: Don't let me tell you how to play this Hero. Play her how you play her best! There are many Heroes and many builds that can be viable in the right hands. This is just one guide amongst many and is my take on this Hero. Have fun, and enjoy!
If you want to talk shop, I can often be found playing with friend and steamer Kennigma on twitch.tv/kennigma. |
|
NAME |
|
Tyrande Whisperwind |
|
CLASS |
|
Support |
|
SUB-CLASS |
|
Hybrid Support: some heals, some damage, some cc utility |
|
MY DIFFICULTY RATING |
|
Hard: Usefulness relies on hitting skill shot stuns |
|
ATTACK DISTANCE |
|
Ranged |
|
ACTUAL FIGHT DISTANCE |
|
Mid to long range, she does not want to be focused |
|
MOBILITY |
|
Pretty bad, almost no escapes |
|
COMPETITIVE? |
|
Very, due to her vision, stun, damage burst augmentation, and heals |
LORE BONUS! Tyrande Whisperwind is married to Malfurion Stormrage. Illidan is Malfurion's brother, and his love interest is Tyrande. It's worth reading up on this backstory if you like lore, because the story of Illidan and the interaction between these three is some of the best written and most tragic stuff in Warcraft. In short, it makes Illidan into a sympathetic anti-hero. It helps that his look is iconic, his World of Warcraft story and boss fight is epic, and his voice-acting is chilling.
Tyrande is a Support Hero, but she is what I would consider a hybrid Support. She has CC utility with her
 Lunar Flare stun, a good heal, the ability to use
 Hunter's Mark on priority targets to make them vulnerable to attacks, an owl
 Sentinel for vision and sniping, and a great set of talents with excellent picks at every level for whatever style of play you want to pursue.
Tyrande is listed officially as a medium difficulty Hero to play, but she has an extremely high skill ceiling due to the skill required to land
Lunar Flare and
Sentinel, and the knowledge of when and against whom to use
Lunar Flare and
Hunter's Mark. Also, she needs lots of good instincts to know when to focus just a bit more on damage output in a team fight versus utility. And unlike other Supports, she wants to continue to poke [{Auto Attack]] shots in any time she can. There's a reason Tyrande is a near staple in the top competitive ranks with her high versatility; she makes anyone she interacts with better! Due to her reliance on landing the skill shot
Lunar Flare and high skill ceiling, I actually consider her a hard character to play. Many players pick Tyrande thinking she'll heal like a goddess, but then get upset that her healing stats are lower than most other Supports.
Tyrande can burst out some heals with the right talent picks, such as
 Overflowing Light and
 Rewind if necessary, or go the sustain route by mixing in other talents. She can also pop
 Shadowstalk for a full team heal. However, she will be hard-pressed to keep her team up against heavy damage, unlike other full healer Supports, and as such, she's popular with dual support teams.
Tyrande is very popular in competitive events, often being picked in the first series of picks or banned out. Her stun helps fuel stun chains with Heroes like ETC and Diablo and Thrall,
Hunter's Mark makes coordinated attacks by damage dealers much more potent,
Sentinel vision is priceless in games where split-second decisions need to be made based on where the enemy is or is not. Since she works so well with anyone, she's a safe early pick that doesn't really give away much at all about what comp you're running. She synergizes great with ETC/Diablo, and another stun (Kerrigan, Thrall, Kael'thas...) for early game roaming ganks with stun chains. Any time you see ETC and Tyrande picked up, expect them to gank early. It's good to keep a
 Cleanse ready to interrupt the stuns.
In less competitive Hero League games, she's also very good to augment pretty much any team, but it's hard to ban her out. There are better damage dealers and better healers, and other carries that are more interesting to ban in HL. It's also a lot harder to coordinate stuns or value the information given by owl vision, however. Her value is very dependent on the player playing her and the team's ability to work with her. Any time she's picked, she probably should be paired up with another Support or someone with additional support effects, such as Tyrael or ETC who have group shields/heals respectively.
As far as stats numbers go in solo queues, you can sometimes see Tyrande creep up her Hero damage to Assassin numbers until about level 16 or so when the Assassins really get their damage spikes. Her healing stats will probably be behind other Supports not named
 Tassadar (only because he uses Shields, not Heals). She should have minimal siege damage. |
|
(Q) Light of Elune
Cooldown: 8 seconds | Tyrande's healing spell. You should always cast this on an ally instead of yourself when you have the choice. Tyrande has other abilities, but always remember healing is what you're primarily expected to do first. Don't forget to heal! |
|
|
|
(W) Sentinel
Cooldown: 18 seconds | An owl that travels across the map unless it hits an enemy Hero, at which point it will stop. Great snipe ability to score long-range kills on fleeing Heroes. Also, grants vision along its path so you can scout out enemy positions and activity. Priceless on Blackheart's Bay or Cursed Hollow. Does take some skill and experience to land this properly for damage. |
|
|
(E) Lunar Flare
Cooldown: 12 seconds | This is Tyrande's skill shot stun ability, and possibly one of the more useful abilities in the game. This gives Tyrande the chance to stun an enemy every 12 seconds, which means multiple times in a team fight. Can be used to stop escapes, blunt dives, and otherwise wreck other abilities like a
 Li Li heroic or
 Sonya
 Whirlwind. Master this ability or move on to another Hero. |
|
|
|
(Trait) Hunter's Mark
Cooldown: 20 seconds | Great way for an organized team to focus and burst down a Hero. Also still useful in solo queue to passively direct some focus fire. This ability should be used on cooldown when damage is being traded. Also works on Golems, Structures, and map bosses. If you are on voice comms, you should always call out your
Hunter's Mark targets so your DPS can capitalize on it. Also, be aware that
Hunter's Mark has a relatively short range, so you will sneak up to about mid-range in fights to mark divers. Also, it does not stack with other abilities that cause Vulnerable, like
 Jaina and
 Sylvanas talents can give. |
COMBO ALERT!
|
Main Stun Combo |
Lunar Flare
|
> |
Hunter's Mark
|
> |
Auto Attack
|
> |
Sentinel
|
> |
Auto Attack
|
So, what's going on here is you can use the longer range
Lunar Flare to hit and stun your enemy, so you can get a few steps in closer to land
Hunter's Mark, throw an Auto Attack, then a
Sentinel owl, and finish with another Auto Attack. If you're already in range, you can actually flip
Hunter's Mark to be the first ability used, thereby increasing the damage you get on
Lunar Flare. This works best with
Ranger's Mark at level 1 to get the cooldowns on both starting abilities to be 12 seconds.
LET'S TALK ABOUT BUILDS
Tyrande's talents are quite varied, and most of them are good and actively picked in many builds. There are a few duds that are easy to argue never taking, like
Sprint and
Quickening Blessing and
Calldown: MULE. She can mix and match several talents to support more of a healing build or a damage build or even an Owl (
Sentinel) build. Tyrande has a high skill ceiling, meaning she can take lots of skill to master, and you should pick talents that fit your own playstyle or that of your team. In the end, though, talents won't make a good Tyrande player. Her success will be far more dependent on your skill in landing
Lunar Flare and
Sentinel shots, picking
Hunter's Mark targets, using
Light of Elune when heals are needed, and simply not dying needlessly.
Tyrande's talents make a good Tyrande player better, but won't make a poor Tyrande player suddenly good.
BUILD: SUPPORT/UTILITY (MAIN)
Tyrande is a favorite Hero of mine. She's difficult to play well due to her high skill ceiling. She has skillshots you need to land and choices to constantly make. She's not great at any one thing, but her entire kit means she can do a little bit of anything, especially when you factor in some of the alternate talents to the main build.
Ranger's Mark is great, because no matter what else Tyrande is doing, she should always be using
Hunter's Mark on cooldown to get targets down quicker.
Lunar Blaze and
Shooting Star augment
Lunar Flare, which should also be used surgically on cooldown during team fights to neutralize key Heroes at key moments. There may not be another stun as surgical and effective as
Lunar Flare when it lands.
Sentinel is a great scouting tool, but it's most satisfying when used to score a long range snipe kill on a fleeing enemy. On the healing front, I find
Overflowing Light a better raw healing pick than
Shrink Ray, but each has a purpose. Similarly,
Storm Shield and
Protective Shield can have their uses in certain games.
BUILD: DPS BUILD
This build is best for a Tyrande that needs to assist with her team's damage output, and probably has a second Support to cover main healing duties. We swap out most talents in favor of those that boost her Auto Attack damage and usefulness, since she shoots relatively fast and hits relatively hard by default. Never forget to heal and always still land those
Lunar Flare stuns. Picking up
Nexus Frenzy should make you a late game terror in team fights.
BUILD: OWL VISION BUILD
We just really pick up the
Sentinel talents at levels 1, 4, and 16. I threw in
Shadowstalk here, since it does give some stealth utility and healing, and can be useful on maps with area control that you could use 8 seconds to hide and surprise the enemy that you've scouted out with your owls. Still, this build style has gone slightly out of fashion in recent months.
|
|
Ranger's Mark [ good ] - This is always my pick at level 1. Reducing
Hunter's Mark cooldown from 20 seconds to 12 seconds is a big deal as you should always be using this on cooldown during team fights. Also, this will now match the cooldown of
Lunar Flare at 12 seconds, giving you the chance to synchronize both abilities much easier. It is very hard to suggest someone not take this talent. |
|
|
 Celestial Attunement [ situational ] - Tyrande will certainly run into mana issues in late game team fights, especially if she's being active in between her
Light of Elune cooldowns. This talent can help, and I don't think I'd disparage anyone from taking it, but I prefer
Ranger's Mark 100% of the time. |
|
|
 Empower [ not recommended ] - Some people take this talent, especially if they still believe in the power of
Sentinel. I don't take this talent, as I can only send out an owl roughly once every 18 seconds, and I have to make sure it hits a target. This talent also won't help you much at this level anyway. |
|
|
Seasoned Marksman [ not recommended ] - Tier 1 is a very competitive tier for Tyrande, and this talent is really dropped down into 4th place. If you're going straight basic attack damage, you can think about this talent, but I'd even say
Ranger's Mark is still a better option for you. |
|
|
 Pierce [ good ] - If you really want to go with an Owl Build, this is a talent to take as you can hit multiple enemies in a team fight and make sure you get guaranteed vision where you want it. For other builds, there aren't really huge compelling choices at this tier anymore.
 Healing Ward is immobile and easily killed,
Protective Shield isn't that impactful of a shield, and the other two talents are damage output. |
|
|
Protective Shield [ situational ] - A shield helps you play the Support healer role better, and it will save your buddies when they trying to escape or handle some incoming damage when
Light of Elune is on cooldown. I used to switch this out with
Healing Ward, but with recent minor nerfs to the Ward, I have switched to this talent more often if I'm not picking up
Pierce. |
|
|
 Focused Attack [ not recommended ] - If you're doing a basic attack DPS build, this talent may look useful. But Tyrande actually has decent damage on her basic attacks already, and I feel like most teams would prefer Tyrande to do more healing work. |
|
|
 Searing Arrows [ not recommended ] - Another DPS boosting talent, with a cooldown of 25 seconds and expenditure of mana. I have not crunched any numbers to compare against
Focused Attack, but I would probably pick
Focused Attack over this talent simply because I don't need to micromanage anything with the passive
Focused Attack, nor lose any precious mana for it. |
|
|
Healing Ward [ situational ] - Even with recent nerfs to make
Healing Ward easier to kill and heal for less, I still like this talent if you have another support picking
Protective Shield or expect to be standing in the same spot for a while in team fights (for instance on Cursed Hollow or Sky Temple). You might be able to use this quickly to block incoming skill attacks, or even get vision on the turn-in on the Tomb of the Spider Queen, but vision is usually not a problem for Tyrande anyway. Still, a good talent pickup that competes with
Protective Shield |
|
|
Quickening Blessing [ not recommended ] - While this talent might help someone escape or dive into the enemy, the movement buff is not much, and ultimately won't impact that outcome of a team fight; the need to heal outweighs buffing their speed anyway, so it's not like you'll ever use
Light of Elune more due to this talent. Also, there are better options at this tier. |
|
|
Lunar Blaze [ good ] - This is the typical pick at this level, as the range for
Lunar Flare means you will almost always have the best chance possible to land your skill shot stun, especially on fleeing enemies. Also helps you snag
Li Li or
 Valla in the back lines to stop some heals or damage coming in, without putting yourself into major danger in the middle of a team fight. And if you're not trying to land that stun, you probably should either play an assassin or a full heals Support. |
|
|
 Battle Momentum [ situational ] - This can be a good pick, especially if you feel like you will be doing more basic attack damage in team fights. If you're the only support and you feel like you will have your hands full with handling stuns and heals, you can skip this talent. But be aware of two things: First, Tyrande's basic abilities have long cooldowns, which means you will be shooting basic attacks as filler pretty regularly. Second, especially in solo queue games, you'll be the first person to notice
Hunter's Mark on a target and probably want to make that application worthwhile by pinging that target with your
Lunar Flare and/or basic attacks. Overall, I pick this ability maybe 10% of my matches. |
|
|
Calldown: MULE [ not recommended ] - Unfortunately, this talent is lackluster in this tier compared to other picks. Also, this talent does not help you heal better, do utility stuns better, do more damage, or survive longer. |
|
|
 Starfall [ good ] - Use this to punish teams that want to fight, or to get them to reposition out of the way. The damage isn't amazing, but if you have a
 Raynor
 Hyperion down as well and maybe a slow from a
Valla
 Frost Shot
 Multishot going on, you can really hurt the enemy team quite a bit. Add in a
Lunar Flare stun and
Hunter's Mark vulnerability, and someone is going to be near death. |
|
|
Shadowstalk [ good ] - If you're the sole healer on the team, or you need to provide significant healing to your team, you probably are going to look long and hard and likely even pick up
Shadowstalk after it was changed in the Lt. Morales patch. It now does significant group healing over 8 seconds, a burst at the end, and 8 seconds of stealth. That's pretty cool, and the stealth could open up some really fun mechanics on maps with area control objectives (Sky Temple, Infernal Shrines...) where you can scout the incoming enemy, group stealth, and surprise them hard. |
|
|
Overflowing Light [ good ] - I really like this talent, but it does carry the condition that you stay above 50% hp. This isn't very hard, as every time you heal someone else you also heal yourself. By this level of the match, you should know whether the enemy team is focusing damage on you or leaving you alone. If they're focusing you, I'd suggest
Shrink Ray every time, but if you're being all but ignored in every fight, you can definitely try out
Overflowing Light for the raw heal improvement. |
|
|
Shrink Ray [ good ] - Always an absolutely great talent to nullify a
Tassadar in
 Archon form or
 Illidan diving into your front line. I almost always pick this to blunt those attacks and give me a chance to recover heals and focus some damage to priority targets.
Shrink Ray into
Hunter's Mark can make short work of a diving Hero. |
|
|
Sprint [ not recommended ] - Tyrande's main weakness is having no escapes other than hitting a lucky
Lunar Flare on pursuers. So, you'd think this talent is a no-brainer. But it's not. Not when it's in a tier with talents that improve your primary healing role:
Shrink Ray to reduce incoming damage (and focus fire on a target along with
Hunter's Mark), and
Overflowing Light for more raw healing. |
|
|
 Huntress' Fury [ not recommended ] - This talent can be considered if you're doing a basic attack damage build and picked up
Ranger's Mark at level 1. This will mean that for 1/3 of the time in team fights, you should have 40% increased basic attack speed. Unless you're going specifically for that build, other talents at this tier are far more useful. |
|
|
 Ranger [ not recommended ] - If you're specifically going for a
Sentinel owl build, this talent is mandatory. Beyond that, though, other picks are far stronger. |
|
|
Shooting Star [ good ] - Tyrande's second weakness is running out of mana. You should be using
Lunar Flare any chance you get, and you should be landing it at least 50% of the time late in the game. Being able to increase the damage a bit (especially if you've thrown this on a
Hunter's Mark target) and refund the mana of an ability you always use is always good. If you just aren't landing your stuns (it happens, due either to a very mobile team that is hard to hit or just a bad game on your part),
 Trueshot Aura at least always works. |
|
|
 Mark of Mending [ not recommended ] -
Hunter's Mark lasts for 4 seconds, meaning your entire team can get about 2 basic attacks onto the marked Hero if they react immediately. That's not bad healing considering this is a scaling percentage heal. But there is the condition that people attack the marked target. Definitely an interesting talent to keep an eye on and even experiment with, but this is a competitive tier and I prefer other talents. |
|
|
Trueshot Aura [ good ] - This talent is a great talent, as it just passively increases your team's basic attack damage. If you have a team with basic attackers, pick this talent. If your team is heavily reliant on abilities to do damage, skip this talent. For some heroes, like
Raynor, check out their talents as the match unfolds, to see if they're sticking to basic attacks or not. |
|
|
 Celestial Wrath [ not recommended ] - A pretty nice talent, but other options at this tier are more worthwhile. |
|
|
 Hunter's Swiftness [ situational ] - If you're planning on using
Shadowstalk for coordinated team-based ambushes, this might be a useful talent, or if you're experiencing a lot of retreating/disengage where you need heals and speed to get away. But otherwise, other options are still better at this tier for most situations. |
|
|
Nexus Frenzy [ not recommended ] - If your team is rolling the enemy (and if you are, you probably didn't even get to level 20), or they are damage-challenged and you don't need either
Storm Shield or
Rewind to keep your team alive, then pick this. Also, if you're doing a basic attack damage build, this is a great talent to boost your damage output. |
|
|
Storm Shield [ good ] - This is always a great talent, and fixes another weak spot in Tyrande's kit: team-wide healing/protection. Proper use of this talent is imperative, however, and you should get comfortable predicting incoming team-wide damage so you can pop this before your team is already hurting too badly. When in doubt, pick
Rewind instead. If you have lots of high-health teammates, this talent becomes very tempting. |
|
|
Rewind [ good ] - Always a great talent, this is still great with Tyrande. You can throw double
Sentinel, double stuns, or double healing when you need it. Get used to using this talent any chance you get to both heal and lock down priority targets. |
ABOUT ME
I'm an aggressively casual player looking to climb the ranks and enjoy my free time in Heroes of the Storm. If you want to talk shop, I can often be found playing with friend and steamer Kennigma on twitch.tv/kennigma.
Please comment and let me know what works and what doesn't. Thank you for reading, and remember to not be a toxic community member!
Other people have done better guides:
Master of Vision, a Tyrande Guide, by Equinox |
Offline
Quick Comment (2) View Comments
You need to log in before commenting.