Welcome to our guide for The Butcher, a Melee Assassin in Heroes of the Storm. Within these pages, you will find everything required to understand how best to play this hero, in both different map styles and team compositions.

1. The Butcher's Overview

The Butcher is a melee Assassin who utilizes his Fresh Meat mechanic to grow drastically in power as a match progresses. The early part of the match should consist of The Butcher trying to complete the quest portion of Fresh Meat as soon as possible. This increase in Attack Damage and Attack Speed provide a huge power spike to The Butcher. His Basic Attacks hit incredibly hard, providing him with very high sustained damage. With the help of Furnace Blast however, he is also able to deal extremely high AoE burst damage. Crowd control and focus fire from the enemy team pose the biggest threats, since both inhibit his ability to heal with Butcher's Brand, his only defensive ability.

2. The Butcher's Strengths and Weaknesses

Strengths Extremely high sustained damage

Butcher's Brand Can recover massive amounts of health with

Strong duelist

Furnace Blast Exceptional burst damage with

Ruthless Onslaught allows for easy engages and ganks Weaknesses Extremely vulnerable to burst damage and crowd control , including Blinds

Multiple ways for enemy Heroes to negate both of his Heroic abilities

Butcher's Brand If he is unable to use Basic Attacks on on the target marked with, he will fall very quickly in team fights

Fresh Meat Losingon death can make it difficult to recover

Usually requires a team composition to be built around him

3. The Butcher's Talent Build Cheatsheet

4. The Butcher's Synergies and Counters

The Butcher synergizes with The Butcher performs best with allies who are able to provide him with bonus means of survival after he charges into the enemy team. This is because often times The Butcher will become the primary target of focusfire after engaging with Ruthless Onslaught. Allies with some form of hard crowd-control who can followup on Ruthless Onslaught are also a welcomed addition. The Butcher is countered by The Butcher's "all-in" play style tends to suffer against Heroes who are able to completely shut down his damage output through mitigation or hard crowd-control. Blinds, Silences, Stuns, and Invulnerability work well to keep The Butcher at bay.

5. The Butcher's Maps

The Butcher's stronger maps The Butcher's average maps The Butcher's weaker maps One of The Butcher's greatest strength lies in his ganking potential as he roams the Battleground, particularly during the early portion of the match. This is why he is most valuable on maps with 3 lanes that require a heavy amount of rotation. This constant rotation will often times result in enemy Heroes being isolated as they try to soak experience or push in lanes. The Butcher and his allies should try to capitalize on this mis-positioning and take down over-extended enemies.

6. The Butcher's Tips and Tricks

7.

The Butcher can be a strong pick in the current meta, although he usually requires a team to be built around him. This is because he is very susceptible to crowd control effects and burst damage, due to his lack of mobility and defensive abilities. The Butcher will be the enemy team's highest priority the moment he engages and is within range, so attacking the right target at the right time is key. The Butcher excels in pick compositions, where the objective is to immediately kill one enemy Hero when they are out of position. Tyrande pairs excellently with The Butcher, as she can Hunter's Mark a target and then follow up on Ruthless Onslaught with a Lunar Flare that is guaranteed to land. This makes The Butcher's already strong early game ganks even more deadly.

The Butcher falls into the odd category of being a burst damage Hero, even though he has excellent sustained damage. While this is not a problem, it is something that is important to be aware of. The Butcher should be used in gank-heavy teams, rather than ones that focus on longer, more sustained fights, since he is very vulnerable, despite his large health pool. He should also be avoided in games where the enemy team has lots of crowd control, including Heroes with Blinds, like Johanna and Li Li. The Butcher is definitely a viable Hero, but he also should not be picked blindly and regardless of the enemies' team composition.

8. Changelog