0.0 General Information for Uther
FIRST BUILD THREATS are threats to your allies and your ability to deal with them which aren't necessarily build specific. SECOND BUILD THREATS are teammates who pair well with Uther

~Change Log~
- Apr/09/2018 Guide exists

Guide Contents
0.0 General Information for Uther
1.1 Core Talents
2.2 Wave of Light (Organic Healing) Build Specifics
3.3 Silver Touch (Better Burst + Stun) Build Specifics
4.4 Guardian/Protection (Armour, AoE cc counter)
5.5 Talent Alternatives
6.6 Healing Priority and Threat Assessment

In the support role Uther has:
Burst healing: Single target and AoE
Armour buff
Single target stun
AoE stun
Target invulnerability
Unstoppable talent "Cleanse" ( Hand of Protection)
Spell shield
High cooldowns
High mana costs
No Vision or Reveal Talents
No natural mobility (Can be caught easily)

Healing Motto

Laning with an ally
- Heal while damage is being taken instead of in response to it
- Don't heal poke damage immediately. Heal immediately when taking sustained damage to reduce further damage

During team fights
- Your focus is the enemy's focus. Keep that target alive and keep others healthy, prioritizing assassins

80% Healing Playstyle

80% Healing is a playstyle for Uther that emphasizes mana conservation. Instead of setting yourself the goal of keeping each teammate at 100% HP, try to keep everyone's health floating around 80%. There are many alternative methods of healing in the game including regen globes, the fountain, and self-sustain capabilities. Healing to 80% and having allies make use of any of the 3 alternative methods of healing should be able to bridge them to 100%. Following this playstyle will cut down on the tendency to overheal (ex: Healing to 100% then picking up a regen globe) and keep Uther from being constantly strapped for mana. The exception to the rule is situations where you will have an excess amount of mana, from the fountain or globes, which is when you should be trading heals for that excess mana.

When an ally engages at 80% HP, the healing they receive from Uther is twice as effective because they will regain missing health and have incoming damage mitigated by 15 armour. The difference between healing before a fight and during the fight is the armour usefulness, but also the deception that an enemy believes they can secure a kill on your damaged ally. For example Genji relies on his confidence that he will be able to get a kill and reset Swift Strike however Uther's big burst heals and armour application will commonly leave him scrambling to overcome the healing, or finding an escape.

Mana Management

The key to a good Uther is mana management and having the resources available when healing is needed. The goal each game is to not be in a situation where you are calling off a fight or running away in the middle of one because you have no mana. Ways to improve mana management:

- Hearthstone, don't fountain, for mana when there's a lull in action (before or after team fights and objectives)
- Let a damaged ally who's safe Hearthstone to replenish their HP and mana. Trying to heal 60% missing health is taxing for Uther's mana. Let them B and walk back into lane, Uther can cover for 20 seconds
- When allies are low enough (30%ish) and it looks like they'll use the fountain, let them
- Let allies heal themselves with their self-sustain ( Guitar Solo, Devour)
- Focus on replenishing mana through regen globes (from minions and objective)
- Be reserved in using abilities ( Hammer of Justice in particular)
- Be efficient with heals Holy Light vs Holy Radiance


- To make effective use of the armour gain, you'll want to drop heals on a target right before they take damage
- When you die, keep Uther positioned so he will always be able to hit something with Flash of Light



- Use when target's HP is 50% and dropping; or to top up HP
- Best used when allies are too low to be healed efficiently with Holy Radiance
- High mana cost! Be consiverative with its use. I try to keep Holy Light in reserve for the ally who's being focused and can't be saved with Holy Radiance



- Use when multiple allies HP is 60%-75% and dropping; Use as a conduit to apply armour
- Always try to hit the most allies possible, prioritizing low health assassins
- Positioning yourself vertically to you allies is a good technique to hit all of them because people typically don't stand in a horizontal line
- Don't be tempted to use it purely to poke because the damage isn't that good. It can however be helpful in finishing distant kills.



- Great for disrupting channelled heroics ( Disintegrate), catching and peeling mobile heroes ( Genji, Illidan, Tracer), and stopping mobility Cyber Agility
- Great to chain with consecutive stuns and roots
- DON'T USE RECKLESSLY. It's tempting to run foward and stun an enemy in lane but unless they're out of position or about to be ganked, there's no point. The damage is low, the stun is short, and this will end up eating your mana unless it directly leads to a kill.



- Use when target's HP is 20% and dropping
- In a team fight, the same target of Divine Shield should NOT recieve Holy Light. Enemy focus will usually shift away from the shielded ally for its duration.
- Put the shieled ally out of your mind for the 3 seconds and focus on saving your other 3 teammates, finding the one who is most likely to die next.
- 20% move speed can help secure a kill that's just outside of range
- Bulwark of Light 2 extra seconds of not having to stress about an ally is great and allows a critically low ally to survive to the end of a fight. Letting you use it 20 seconds quicker is gravy
- The duration can be long enough for an ally to capture an objective ( Cursed Hollow, Dragon Shire, Towers of Doom, etc.)




1.1 Core Talents

Level 4

Pursuit of Justice
- Let's you peel without becoming a substitute target, Stun and Run!
- Allows you to move into position during a team fight for heals
- Doesn't stack with itself via Benediction

Level 7

Hand of Protection
- Saves allies when they're caught and enables them to escape instead of powering through it ( Guardian of Ancient Kings)
- Enables allies to dive without being stopped
- Can be used aggressively to prolong the need to use Divine Shield to initiate (even for 1 second)

Level 13

Well Met
- Capitalizes on Uther's ability to shut down diving enemies by further reducing their damage and move speed
- Coupled with Devotion, Eternal Vanguard's 15 armour, the enemy will have a 40% harder time dealing damage (Devastating for Illidan, Genji)
- Improves peeling, Stun and Run!, and lockdown capability
- Doesn't stack with itself via Benediction

2.2 Wave of Light (Organic Healing) Build Specifics

- This build highlights longer armour gain, less stress on mana, and improves your team's ability to heal overall
- Synergizes very well with high health Warriors and assassins who have self-sustain or self-shielding and second healers
- Encourages allies to heal themselves by buffing the heal from fountains, globes, and self-sustain
- In the early game if you can hit 3 stacks or more with Holy Radiance while healing back damage, do it. You could hit max stacks as early as 11 depending on the map and enemy composition but it shouldn't take longer than 16. Uther counts as 1 stack if you cast while damaged so you'd only need to hit 2 targets for it to be worth it
- Without Benediction you're trading Uther's maximum amount of single target healing ( a second Holy Light) to enable allies to be healed 40% better
- Without Benediction you're best healing is not restricted to a 60 second cooldown. 40% better Holy Lights all the time


3.3 Silver Touch (Larger + Stun) Build Specifics

- This build highlights clutch saves through big burst healing and keeping one or two carries alive at all cost, warriors be damned!
- Burst healing from Benediction should be reserved for assassins and not wasted on warriors. You're supposed to keep your carries alive, surviving the initial engagement, through to the end of the fight where you wiped the enemy team.
- Silver Touch's range increase is necessary to keep distant allies alive who've dived into the enemy team
- Synergizes very well with hyper carries who like to run into the enemy team ( Greymane, Genji, Sonya, Thrall) and high healthed warriors who don't require a lot of direct healing ( Johanna, Garrosh)

Benediction
- x2 Holy Light via Benediction is enough healing to bring most assassins to 100%
- x2 Holy Radiance via Benediction is underwhelming healing but is worth it if you spec into Divine Protection and Guardian of Ancient Kings and can get both to activate. These do not stack to 100 armour... in an ideal situation you'll get 50 + 15 = 65 armour total
- x2 Hammer of Justice gives Uther stun-lock that is frustrating to play against. Pursuit of Justice and Well Met do not stack twice.



4.4 Guardian/Protection (Armour, AoE cc counter)

- This build does very very very well against AoE stuns and roots especially when the enemy team does not have the damage to back it up
- You will not lose out on healing output, but depending on which heal you double up will affect the amount of healing done and the number of targets who'll recieve a higher armour buff
- In order to maximize this build, it requires a high level of timing to maintain 65 armour for as long as possible and to proc Guardian of Ancient Kings right when the ally is cc'd
- Basic mindset: use Benediction to reach 65 armour with 2 Holy Radiance and use Holy Light to further extend the duration or specifically keep a carry alive. Always keep Divine Shield in your back pocket

Armour and Healing example given multiple allies hit by AoE cc

Benediction > Holy Radiance > Holy Radiance > Holy Light > Divine Shield
+ 65 armour to multiple targets; Holy Light and Divine Shield reserved for additional saving potential
Benediction > Holy Light > Holy Radiance > Holy Light > Divine Shield
+ 65 armour to 2 targets max; better healing for a single target, 15/50 armour for multiple allies
(Target 1 gets 65 from first half of combo HL > HR, Target 2 gets 65 from last half HR > HL)




5.5 Talent Alternatives
Hammer of the Lightbringer Holy Fire Blessed Champion

+ The 3 talents shine before and after teamfights while laning to replenish your own mana, clear minion waves, and heal back damage without spending extra mana.

- Damage and mana benefits can be compensated through better mana management and help from the team
- The requirement for all 3 of the above talents require Uther be basic attacking in order to gain full benefits which I believe was added to Uther's kit as a percieved tanky healer. Basic attacking as Uther puts you in a dangerous position during a teamfight, leading you to a lot more of early fight deaths (which is why so many take Redemption)
-In teamfights? the benefits are negligable and won't contribute directly to winning fights.
Recommendation: You won't need Hammer of the Lightbringer with good mana management.
You don't need Holy Fire's extra damage, you can use Holy Radiance to clear waves and reveal stealthies.
The benefit from Blessed Champion is outweighed from the potential damage sustained trying to get that extra healing... Well Met has greater utillity

Holy Shock
+ Potentially very long ranged poke
+ Fun to use

- Weak damage (slightly better than Holy Radiance)
- Puts your greatest heal on a 6 second cooldown. Enemies can exploit this
Recommendation: Take this for fun. In serious times, take Pursuit of Justice and give Uther the ability to escape deaths

Divine Storm
+ AoE stun
+ Good peel
+ Long stun duration and stun-lock potential; great to chain with Hammer of Justice (2.5 seconds + Benediction = 3.25 seconds potential max)

- Weak damage
- Short range at 10. Targets need to be within melee range for guaranteed stun
- Doesn't prevent death

Recommendation: Very situational, wouldn't recommend taking it frequently. To compensate for Divine Shield your team needs to be a tanky comp (2 or more warriors/bruisers) have a second healer (ex: Tassadar) or beefy assassins (ex: Thrall)

Redemption
+ Brings you back into a fight
+ Continuous healing from Flash of Light while you're dead
+ Deters enemies from making you the initial target

- Long 180 second cooldown
- Abilities aren't reset. Holy Light and Holy Radiance may still be on cooldown if used right before death
- Could get killed a second time if you're one of the last to die.
- If you're the last to die, Uther has very limited defending capabilities
- If you don't die this talent has no use! As a healer, you shouldn't be dying all the time
Recommendation: This talent is a common pick because it gives you a chance to get back into a fight and be able to close it out through continuous healing. The downside however requires Uther to be one of the first to die in order to retain max value and after the enemy knows you have this talent they'll not want to kill you first. Flash of Light is good healing but can't always keep an ally alive against high sustained or burst damage (Remember when Uther could use abilities as a spirit? That was cool.) In the end this talent is very useful. Take it when you've been the focus of previous teamfights and are getting killed early.