Cho'Gall is one of the most unique characters released in a MOBA to date. His individual power far surpasses that of any other single hero, but he requires TWO people to play him. This presents unique strategies for a team comp and unique weaknesses. 2Arc was the first team brave enough to play him competitively and they adjusted both their playstyle and draft to accommodate the two headed ogre.
How do you even draft this?
To be able to safely pick such a new and crazy hero, 2Arc had a very clever drafting strategy. Cho'Gall is unique to draft in the first place, as you can't first or last pick him. You can only pick him with a double slot. 2Arc drafted fairly normally until their second ban, where they locked out The Lost Vikings. TLV excel at soaking multiple lanes at once, which would be a huge counter to Cho'Gall since he has a hard time soaking lanes due to having two heroes in one place at all times.
Picking him almost last gave little wiggle room for Stellar Lotus to pick an appropriate counter, and ideally you would have two heroes that can stand up to him well. But with 2Arc's draft strategy, Stellar Lotus was only able to pick Kharazim, an admittedly good counter to the high health of Cho'Gall with his Seven Sided Strike, but not nearly enough.
'Sun'Roen' takes center stage
So they've picked Cho'Gall. That's great, and interesting, and a first, but what exactly can he do now to justify that pick? There are a few key strategies that Cho'Gall brings to the table that 2Arc made full use of. The first of which is something I like to call 'The Siege'.
2Arc puts Cho'Gall in top lane and right away they go to work at tearing down the first wall. Gall's magical abilities far outrange the towers, and can do significant damage to them if he's left alone. This easy siege is great for helping make up the soaking difficulty of having two heroes in one. They also have an Uther on standby to ensure that any and all ganks against the brute are unsuccessful. After all, one kill on Cho'Gall gives double the experience and hurts twice as hard.
The next strategy is more a feature of the character than anything else. Cho'Gall is Quite the Bully.
With his damage and high health pool, Cho'Gall can be very aggressive. You can see that when he positions himself forward, the entire enemy team is forced to react to him. Even with four of them at the shrine, he's still able to do the objective since focusing on him could be dangerous. They don't end up securing the objective in the end due to a pick on Kael'thas, but it's still a testament to the bullying power of Cho'Gall that they managed to force themselves in for so long.
With so many defensive options at his disposal, a Cho'Gall can be very hard to take down. He's really something of a Brick Wall.
You can see Stellar Lotus collapse hard on Cho'Gall as he is just slightly out of position. This would ordinarily spell certain doom for any given hero, but Cho'Gall is not any given hero. As soon as he has an opportunity to, Cho uses his Molten Block talent. It's basically an Ice Block that also damages nearby enemies. Stellar Lotus wastes everything on him. The dreaded Seven Sided Strike, a Blessed Shield, Tyrande stun, almost everything is wasted as Cho'Gall sits comfortably inside their molten home. With a hammer swing and 'Hurry up, Oaf' to follow it up, Cho'Gall is home free, none the worse for wear.
Cho'Galls damage isn't amazing since it isn't all that bursty, but his sustained and chip damage is nothing to sneeze at. He can easily Clean up the Fight.
Cho charges in as Gall unleashes doom from the nether with his ult. This damage alone is enough to force Stellar Lotus back, but there's more where that came from. Slowly but surely, Gall chips away at the healthbars while they run eventually taking out E.T.C. and Tyrande (with a little help from his team of course).
And all together now
This is the fight that showcases all Cho'Gall's most useful qualities. It starts out with him being a bit further back, whittling down his opponents. As they collapse on him, he uses Molten Block to negate damage and waste the other team's abilities. From there, things go a little bit south and it looks like 2Arc might lose the fight, but with Gall's incredibly clean up power they are able to completely wipe SL and put themselves in a game winning position.
So what have they taught us?
Cho'Gall can be a devastating force on the battlefield if played properly. He has very glaring weaknesses (such as inferior soak and percent-based damage) but can more than make up it for it with his ability to bully around the other team, and act as a huge imposing wall of meat that is difficult to get through. He can have great battle control with his hammer ult, and that only adds to his already astounding survivability. He might be weird, he might be difficult to pull off, but he definitely has a place in the meta.
Follow us @GosuGamersHotS for more eSports news.
