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Heroes7 years agoGosu "GosuGamers" Gamers

Arms! (OK, maybe Prot. Or Fury.)

With the arrival of Heroes' first multiclass hero also came the game's first hero with three Heroics (yes, I know Tracer has three options, but the central ability is still the same thing.) With many Heroes essentially reduced to one option because the other simply isn't competitive, it's exciting to not only have the option of three genuinely viable abilities, but ones that really tend to dictate the character's role in the game.

Having spent a couple weeks with him, I vastly prefer the Arms build (For those not steeped in WoW: Arms, Protection, and Fury are the three talent specs for Warriors in that game.) Colossus Smash is, quite frankly, insane. An attack that causes Vulnerable, on a 20 second CD just like Tyrande's Hunter's Mark, and which also increases your AA damage by 75%? Great. I'll take 5. I just think it makes him one of the most reliable single target deleters in the game, which often leads right to a 5v4 and another teamfight victory and/or objective capture. From what I've been watching, it seems like many notable figures in the game, like Grubby, agree with me. The other builds are absolutely viable in many circumstances, but the central one is Arms/Colossus Smash.

But Srey, who is an actual pro player, says that the only viable build for competitive is actually Protection/Taunt because Varian can be easily left stranded by kiting and with any kind of CC.

Srey makes a valid point. Varian's mitigation, and thus survivability, is limited unless you talent into it so extending into the enemy team with Charge can leave you dead in relatively short order. However, the build he is suggesting for the tank role doesn't even take advantage of many of the talents that enhance that capacity, other than Taunt, which is huge in and of itself.

The player base, of course, disagrees with all of us, with the Fury/Twin Blades build being far and away the preferred Heroic at 62% and still preferred by a plurality even in Master league with almost 47%. Twin Blades directly addresses Srey's concern by granting Mounted speed to Varian for 2 seconds with every strike. But the fact is that Blinds and Block can neuter its effectiveness somewhat and Varian becomes that much more of a solo attacker since, unlike Colossus Smash, his Heroic is passive and doesn't grant any advantage to his teammates... other than having a roving engine of destruction in the midst of the enemy team.

One thing to keep in mind is that Varian's versatility in Heroics extends to the rest of his talent tree. There are very few options that appear not to be viable in the current meta. All three builds shown above can have talents swapped out for other choices on multiple tiers. However, keep in mind the universal choice taken by all three builds on 3 of those tiers.

Tier 2: There is no replacement for Warbringer. Shield Wall can be good if you're going with ultimate survivability, but given that the role of a warrior is also to initiate and protect the back line, there's almost no way to replace a ranged 1-second stun on a 6-second cooldown. Since Varian is a melee assassin even in the other two roles, keeping someone in place to be hit more often makes Warbringer the default choice.

Tier 5: Again, even for assassin builds, 25% Resistant with Banner of Ironforge is just too good to replace, especially since it makes it slightly less risky for you to overextend. You can drop said banner just to save you from the enemy's counterattack. Stormwind Banner is nice situationally, and Dalaran Banner is great if you have a team of mages. Unfortunately, it does nothing for you directly and not much for some of the stronger heroes in the game like Illidan.

Tier 6: Shattering Throw, while a very cool idea, is simply too niche and not helpful at all if you're not facing Tassdar or Zarya. It also doesn't work on building shields, like Wells or the Core. Mortal Strike is amazing, but it requires a very coordinated team that can notice when Heroic Strike occurs and applies it and can then turn their attention to burning down the target without having to focus Morales(!) or whoever is healing. But you can do that already every 20 seconds with Colossus Smash and have about the same effect. That makes Juggernaut the default pick, which is kind of superfluous if you've gone Prot, although it adds considerably to the other two builds. It also makes Varian one of the few heroes (like Chen) who doesn't gain a significant power spike at 16.

Again, his versatility is more obvious on the other tiers, since Master at Arms and the two non-Heroic buffs at 20 are fine choices in almost any situation and one can debate the choice between Second Wind and Victory Rush at 7 for a long time. The main thing to take away is that Varian seems workable (49% win rate, which is right about where Blizzard likes it) in a variety of ways, which means he can play well in almost anyone's playstyle.

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