Verdantshade's Tyrande Guide by Verdantshade

Verdantshade's Tyrande Guide

By: Verdantshade
Last Updated: Nov 12, 2016
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Build 1 of 4

Tyrande

Build: Utility

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

Tyrande

Build: Support

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

Tyrande

Build: Owl

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

Tyrande

Build: Auto attack

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

Introduction Top

Tyrande Whisperwind is a Support hero from the Warcraft universe. She excels at being a hybrid support - one that you pick for their utility, rather than healing. Without talents, she is able to heal with Light of Elune, provide vision with Sentinel, stun with Lunar Flare and provide vulnerability with Hunter's Mark. While her damage is significantly higher than the majority of supports, she has the lowest healing output.

I would consider her a hard hero to play - with a smaller heal, you require more skill to keep your team alive, her stun is one of the hardest skillshots to land in the game, and making the most of her utility requires not only a lot of experience with Tyrande, but with the game.

Tyrande can be drafted as a solo support, hybrid second support/ranged damage and a ranged assassin. However, the comps she works best in are those that already have heroes with a lot of crowd control (usually frontliners such as E.T.C., Diablo and Thrall). As a solo support, she tends to be drafted in aggressive comps, where crowd control is usually abused in the early game to pick off enemy heroes and gain an early lead. Tyrande's power will fall off in the mid to late game, as she does not have enough healing to sustain in extended teamfights.

Abilities Top

Q: Light of Elune
Light of Elune is Tyrande's heal. When cast on an ally, it heals them for double the amount and applies the standard heal to you. This means you should always be using Light of Elune on an allied hero, as using it on yourself is a waste of mana (unless it is the difference between life and death). Because of this, and Tyrande's sub-par waveclear, Tyrande should always be in a lane with another hero, or roaming to get a gank.

W: Sentinel
Sentinel is a straight-line skillshot that provides vision, ending when it hits a hero. It is incredibly useful for interrupting objective turn-ins, scouting boss and mercenary camps, and keeping track of where the enemy team is. However, it reveals your position and should not be used, say, while doing boss, as this will make the enemy aware of your location. Try to use it as often as possible to provide vision of the enemy team, but talents can change the usage of Sentinel.

E: Lunar Flare
One of the harder skillshots to land in the game, and best used for follow-up. In open play, try to predict where the enemy will be within the next second, rather than aiming it for where the enemy is standing. For example, if a hero is walking towards you in a straight line, aim it for slightly in front of them so they will walk into the stun. This takes a lot of practice and requires a bit of guesswork.
It cannot be used for zoning as the delay on the stun is too short for heroes to avoid it, but this means it is also hard to dodge.
Its main use is as a follow-up to crowd control that is easier to land (eg. Diablo's Shadow Charge, ETC's Powerslide and Xul's Bone Prison). It can also follow-up skillshots such as Thrall's Feral Spirit and Arthas' Howling Blast.

D: Hunter's Mark
Point and click vulnerability on a hero. This, in combination with her stun and another hero for follow-up damage usually guarantees kills, which is why Tyrande is so strong in a roaming composition. Best used before her stun, weaving in as many auto attacks as possible, then finishing with her owl for maximum damage.

Talents Top

Level 1

Celestial Attunement: Celestial Attunement should only be used if you're running a healing build Tyrande, and while she suffers from mana issues, solo support Tyrandes should instead be using Empower.

Ranger's Mark: Reduces Hunter's Mark cooldown by 30%. This means its cooldown is only 2 seconds longer than Lunar Flare, so you will nearly always be able to use them together. The safest talent choice on this tier, and recommended in hybrid builds.

Seasoned Marksman: Increases damage from killing heroes and minions. At a certain point, Tyrande gets an activatable buff which increases her attack speed and damage. With Tyrande's lacklustre waveclear, it is hard to get value from this talent. If you're set on playing an auto attack assassin Tyrande, this will be the foundation for your build.

Empower: Landing owls decreases the cooldown of your abilities. This stacks with level 4 talent Pierce. Extremely useful for solo support Tyrandes as they will be able to use their heal more frequently. While not having enough mana can be a problem, having your heal on cooldown is even worse.

Level 4

Pierce: Changes how you use Sentinel completely. While still using it for vision, it should be used when off cooldown to provide poke damage, especially in teamfights while enemies are lined up. Is a must-pick if you took Empower at Level 1. With Empower, landing a Sentinel on 5 heroes shaves 10 seconds off all your ability cooldowns. This is the foundation for Tyrande's owl build.

Focused Attack: Adds some extra DPS. Is again a safe pick, like Ranger's Mark when going for a hybrid build or unsure of what talent to pick.

Protective Shield: Recommended when playing solo support Tyrande. The extra cooldown reduction from Pierce may not always be needed, especially if you take Lunar Momentum at Level 7. Instead, Protective Shield is a mana-less way to protect an ally - usually bruisers such as thrall], [[xul and Varian, and is usually enough to keep them alive to secure a kill.

Healing Ward: The weaker counterpart to Protective Shield. An AoE HoT that can be destroyed. Provides little value in teamfights and best used to save a trip to the base.

Searing Arrows: Powerful in combination with seasoned marksman. A more bursty alternative to Focused Attack and recommended in auto attack builds, as the mana cost will be less of an issue.

Level 7

Quickening Blessing: Niche talent used to increase an ally's chase or escape potential.

Lunar Blaze: An insane range increase for Lunar Flare. It lets Tyrande safely hit stuns on the enemy backline without needing to go to deep. Also can be used to snipe enemies behind walls and gates.

Lunar Momentum: Essential for solo support Tyrandes. Combined with Empower, provides nearly permanent uptime on her heal and is generally useful as it means more healing, more vision and stuns more often. DOES NOT DECREASE HEROIC COOLDOWNS ANYMORE.

Calldown: Mule: While a decent talent for most heroes, Mule is outshined by the other talents on this tier.

Level 10

Shadowstalk: Once one of the weakest heroics in the game, Shadowstalk was buffed to heal all heroes on your team. Now it is the recommended heroic for Tyrande as it provides the healing that she lacks in her base kit and can help set up ganks and help your team escape.

Starfall: Massive AoE with a slow. Best used in wombo combos, such as alongside Stage Dive and Ring of Frost to dish out incredible damage. Add Lunar Flare and Hunter's Mark to it and you could have a team wipe!

Level 13

Overflowing Light: Again, essential for solo support Tyrande. Makes a huge difference in keeping the rest of the team alive and when combined with Empower and Lunar Momentum, she'll be able to use Light of Elune frequently enough to be over 50% health all the time.

Huntress' Fury: Possibly useful in auto attack builds, but require's Ranger's Mark to get the most out of it. Niche pick at best.

Sprint: One of the few heroes left with Sprint, along with Gazlowe and Kerrigan. Useful for chasing and escaping, along with added mobility in teamfights and flanks. A recommended pick if your positioning is awful. However, can be seen as a crutch.

Shrink Ray: Easily my favourite talent at this tier. Incredible at nullifying diving heroes such as Illidan and Kerrigan and helps the team turn on them. The slow also makes landing your stun easier and unless used against heroes with insane mobility such as Tracer, it usually results in a guaranteed kill.

Level 16

Trueshot Aura: Essential in auto attack builds and usually the go-to talent on this tier. However, check your team to see if they benefit from it. If your team largely consists of heroes that deal ability damage such as Kael'thas, avoid this talent, but go for it if you have heroes like Raynor or heroes specced into auto attack builds, such as Valla.

Mark of Mending: At best, all the heroes on your team get a 5% heal. Hard to get value from it and is nearly always wasted.

Ranger: The follow-up to Pierce for Tyrande's owl build. Extremely fun and is the core to the various gifs and videos of Tyrandes wiping entire teams from her base. Does good damage, especially against enemies who group.

Shooting Star: You only get value from this if you're landing your stuns (which you should be!). However, this means it is a very situational talent and at this point in the game, it isn't very useful.

Level 20

Hunter's Swiftness: A fun talent that gives your team a weaker Sprint. Again, it is useful for setting up ganks or disengaging, but if you picked Quickening Blessing and/or Sprint you get less value from this. The extra mobility can also wreak havoc in teamfights, where your frontliners can chase squishy targets and give the enemy a hard time landing skillshots.

Celestial Wrath: You should always be with your team... if you're picking this talent, where are you?

Nexus Frenzy: The final piece to Tyrande's auto attack build. However, you get little to no value from this in hybrid builds (unless you picked Focused Attack) or support builds.

Storm Shield: Extremely useful in teamfights as it keeps your entire team alive. Always the safe choice and extremely useful in solo suppport builds.

Rewind: Most commonly found in owl builds to send double owls, instantly killing heroes such as Abathur and can deal massive damage in teamfights. If you didn't pick Lunar Momentum and/or Empower, this should be your go-to choice.

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