Free Hero Rundown will focus on one hero from the weekly set of free heroes. During the week, except for daily quests, you’ll see me playing this hero, hopefully kicking butt and taking names.
Free Hero of the Week: Malfurion
Possible Talent Choices
Last week in Free Hero Rundown, I looked at a damage dealing hero, Raynor. Damage dealers are easily the most popular heroes to play as they tend to be flashy, impactful in a fight, and very interactive or fun to play. This week however, I want to look at a character who fills a role that Blizzard has even come out and said wins more games, the support.
Here’s a link to the post. In the “Team Compositions in Quick Match” section, they show some numbers. Those numbers, put in basics terms, mean that if you have a support on your team and the other team doesn’t, you will win more games. Since most people like to win games, it might be beneficial to play a support, that way you are guaranteed to have one!
Malfurion is a good support to start with. He has a lot of utility and access to crowd control. He has some great support talents. Finally, his Tranquility Heroic Ability, when timed right, can completely change the course of a team fight.
Basic Abilities
First off, Malfurion’s trait, Innervate, isn’t a passive ability like most heroes have. You have to activate it, and it can only target friendly heroes, not yourself. However, Innervate is one of Malfurion’s best utilities. It will regenerate the mana of your allied hero, letting them stay in lane longer or giving them that last little bit of burst to finish off a foe.
Malfurion’s Q ability is Regrowth, his heal. He can target any friendly allied unit with this, including himself, minions, or mercenaries. This heal does a small amount of healing when cast, but the bulk of it’s healing power comes over time. So, cast this at the beginning of a fight to get the most out of it.
Moonfire is his W ability. This deals a moderate amount of damage in the target area and both the area and damage can be boosted by talents. In a support build, this mostly just used for extra damage, but it can be helpful for clearing a lane of minions.
Finally, Malfurion’s other big utility ability is his E, Entangling Roots. This spell deals damage over time in a area, but it’s best effect is rooting enemies in place for 1.5 seconds. If you can effectively lead your opponent when you cast this, it is very hard for them to dodge. The root will give your damage dealers time to catch up or secure an easy kill if you catch someone out of position.
Heroic Abilities
Malfurion’s starting Heroic Ability is Tranquility. This ability turns Malfurion into a walking healing totem on steroids. The amount of healing that this does can easily turn a losing fight into a winning one. Of course, it’s always best to keep as many allied heroes in it’s effect radius as possible for maximum healing output. This is usually his go-to Heroic Ability and I recommend it unless you’re playing 100% damage Malfurion.
His second Heroic Ability, learned at hero level 2, is Twilight Dream. This spell has a short delay after being cast, then Malfurion basically explodes with energy, dealing damage and silencing any enemies near him. Now, while the damage is good and a 3 second silence is excellent, this ability is much harder to use well than Tranquility. Malfurion is again the center of the effect, which means you have to place yourself in the center of the enemy team to get the most damage and utility from it. This is not always easy since Malfurion is not a very tanky character.
Talents
The talent specialization I chose for this Rundown is full healing and utility. I got the scouting drone, because most of his level 1 talents are lackluster anyway, the healing totem, a powerful healing tool, and Shrink Ray, which slows and reduces the damage of enemy heroes. I got Tranquility because it’s simply his most powerful Heroic Ability. Even if you’re doing a hybrid damage/healing build, the healing Tranquility proves is just too good to pass up.
I finished his talents up with bigger Entangling Roots and Rewind. The extra size and extended root effect from Entangling Roots can help pick off heroes later in the game. Rewind resets the cooldown on all your basic abilities, letting you heal for more and cast twice the Entangling Roots. Bolt of the Storm is also a strong pick, but as a support, Malfurion will usually be in the back lines anyway.
In the early game, try to partner up with someone in a lane. You can’t cast Innervate on yourself, so if you are alone in lane, your trait is going to waste. Keep your lane partner topped off with Regrowth and Innervate and try to catch people out with Entangling Roots when you can. Once you get Tranquility, try and wait out the enemy’s big burst, then use Tranquility to heal up your team. If you hit at least 3 other team members, the healing you do will make it very hard for the enemy team to finish your group off.
Supports are a key factor for success in Heroes of the Storm. If you learn how to play them well, you will have no shortage of people asking you to join their teams. Everyone loves a good healer! If you want to play a game with me, find me in game as AGRitterific. You can also PM me at ritterific@agentsofgame.com for a friend invite as well.
