Exploring the Classes in Heroes of the Storm

Heroes of the Storm has four different classes: Assassins, Warriors, Supports and Specialists. Due to the talent system each hero is different and there is no set way to build a hero, talents can be chosen to deal with the situation in hand. For example if you have a lot of tanks on your team but not much damage you may want to build more damage orientated. This guide will serve as an introduction to the different classes and how best to build them depending on the situation.

• Assassins are the damage dealers. They don’t have very high defence and can be burst down quickly if they’re caught alone. However, both their auto-attacks and their abilities allow them to deal huge amounts of damage to the enemy team. There are melee and ranged assassins, they are the key to winning team fights. The rest of the team should focus on keeping the assassins alive as they are the main damage output, so peeling for them is very important. Illidan and Nova are both examples of assassins; Illidan can dart about the battlefield quickly dispatching enemies before they have a chance to focus him, whilst Nova stealthily makes her way from lane to lane, invisible but for a shimmer in the air revealing herself only to shoot from afar. Talents for Assassins range from single target burst, sustained dps and heavy AoE output for team fights. While you want to be slaughtering the enemy team, you do no damage while you’re dead so a couple of mobility or sustain talents might be helpful. The talents you pick are also dependent upon the map, for example on Haunted Mines you might want to take more AoE damage to help clear out the mines faster.

• Warriors want to be up at the front of the battle, but don’t think of them as just tanks, they can also have a decent damage output as well as a lot of crowd control abilities. Generally warriors should be on the front lines trying to slow, stun and damage targets. Their talents also vary between damage, defence/sustain and crowd control. If you are the only warrior on a team it might be wise to go for tanky and crowd control talents to help absorb damage in team fights. However if there is another warrior on your team building tanky or if you don’t have enough damage on your team taking some higher damage talents can also help. Arthas and Tyrael are both warriors, Arthas has more chills useful for stopping an enemy from getting away or helping allies escape as well as AoE damage, however, Tyrael has more hard engage and greater mobility than Arthas.

• Supports in Heroes of the Storm take on a bit of a different role than in traditional MOBAs. They have a very active role in the game, they can heal and shield allies as well as stun enemies but these are usually a part of a damaging ability. Generally the supports are best paired with someone squishy who might get into trouble alone, such as an assassin. The supports can provide them with sustain as well as kill securing by stunning or slowing enemies. It’s their job to make sure their team mates make it out of team fights alive. In addition though there are some supports who take on a heavy damage role such as Tassadar with his Psionic Storm. Similar to assassins and warriors, supports can be built differently by choosing talents, Uther for example can be built very tanky or he can take on more of a sustain role by improving his healing abilities.

• Specialists are unlike any other role and there is no one type. They usually fill a niche which isn’t fulfilled by any other role. For example Sgt. Hammer is a siege tank which can become very immobile but deal huge amounts of damage; Zagara is a never ending pushing force as a queen of the Zerg swarm; Gazlowe can set up turrets which deal a large amount of damage and can take aggro from creeps making him a very proficient jungler; Abathur is not interested in getting his own hands dirty, but instead prefers to sit way back behind the lines and buff his allies from a distance until his heroic ability allows him to become a copy of an ally. No specialist is the same nor are they particularly similar to any other class, their talents do allow them to build differently but they usually just enhance the role that they do best.

Whichever class you prefer to play there is no strict way of building them. Different heroes even if they’re in the same class can have very different play styles so make sure you experiment and practise with them. Pick talents which will help provide your team with what they need in that particular game, because how you play in one match could be very different to how you’re needed to play the next.