Free Hero of the Week: Tyrael
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.
Possible Talent Choices
Free Hero Rundown is covering another melee warrior this week, Tyrael. Unlike most of the other melee warriors covered so far, Tyrael doesn’t excel at tanking. While he is very durable and can be built with tanky talents, he has quite a bit of damage in his kit.
If Heroes of the Storm had more archetypes, Tyrael would probably fit the classification of a brawler. He definitely wants to be close up fighting enemy heroes, but he’s not interested in absorbing damage or disrupting the fight. Tyrael wants to dish out damage.
Tyrael’s trait also reinforces this strategy of dealing damage up close to your enemies. When Tyrael dies, he becomes invulnerable and can move around for 3.5 seconds. After that time runs out, he will explode dealing massive damage to enemies near him.
While dying is never ideal, Tyrael can use his trait to finish off a messy team fight or soften up enemies for your allies to finish off. Because Tyrael will be in the enemy’s face, he will be a focus for damage, making him one of the first to die in a fight usually. If that happens, the threat of an explosion can zone the enemy out of your team or chase a weak enemy damage dealer away.
Basic Abilities
Tyrael’s Q, El’Durin’s Might, is a damage dealing teleport ability. Tyrael throws his sword to a target location which deals damage and slows enemies hit. He can then reactivate Q to teleport to his sword, again slowing enemies. This has all the uses of other blink abilities, but you usually want to use this ability to initiate a fight.
Righteousness is his W ability. This provides him with a large shield and any nearby allies with a weaker shield. This shield, combined with his high health, is what makes Tyrael so durable. It can even be enhanced with talents to deal damage when it expires, heal when it absorbs damage, or slow enemy attackers.
Smite, Tyrael’s E ability, is another AOE damage ability. Its particular bonus though is that it acts as a speed gate for allies. When Smite hits the ground, it deals damage and leaves a glowing effect on the ground. When allies pass through this effect, they gain a speed boost for 2 seconds. This can help them catch up after Tyrael engages a fight or help them run away if they get ambushed.
Heroic Abilities
Tyrael starts with his Judgment heroic ability unlocked. Judgment causes Tyrael to charge at a target enemy. When he reaches the target, they take damage and are stunned for 1.5 seconds. If there are other enemies nearby, they take a little less damage but are also knocked back. This is a good general purpose heroic ability and a solid choice if you are playing solo.
After leveling up, Tyrael unlocks Sanctification. When Tyrael begins channeling Sanctification, all nearby allied heroes become invulnerable and unstoppable. Tyrael channels this ability for 3 seconds, but he is not effected by it’s buff. That means he can be stunned or silenced to end the ability early. This heroic ability is best used when you can communicate with your team, so they know what’s coming. Also, the more coordinated they invincible team is, the more havoc they can wreak on the enemy team.
Talents
I focused on Tyrael’s damage dealing talents with this build. Early on I took increased Q damage, healing from basic attacks, and the explosion when Righteousness ends. I also took Judgment for his heroic ability because it’s easier to use when learning to play Tyrael. The stun is also a helpful addition to Tyrael’s kit.
In the back half of the talent spec, I took more damage including Burning Rage and increased basic attack damage after teleporting with El’Druin’s Might. Nexus Blades finishes the talents off, which makes basic attacks deal 20% more damage and slows the target. This just makes him more of a threat late game, forcing the enemy team to deal with Tyrael before they can worry about the rest of your team.
As I said before, Tyrael is a brawler. You can poke with his sword and Smite abilities, but don’t be afraid to get up close and personal with the enemy. In lane, try and bully the enemy with Tyrael’s basic attacks and absorb their attacks with Righteousness. Finally, when you die, pick one target to chase before you explode. If you hesitate too much, all the enemies will escape, so just stick to a single target to zone them out of the fight, even if you can’t explode on them.
Thanks for reading this week’s Free Hero Rundown. Tyrael fits in with the Eternal Conflict theme that Heroes of the Storm has been focused on lately, so he’s also a fun choice if you want to role play in game a bit. If you have any epic wins or other comments, let me hear about them, either here in the comments or on Twitter @AGRitterific.
