In Heroes of the Storm, as the game goes on, you'll choose Talents to improve your hero when you level up. The collection of those talents is usually called a build. Now since you have to choose between different options, it means there is usually no bad option, but how do you decide which is the best one in your current game?

In this Guide: General Cohesion / Counter the Enemy / Be Comfortable / Balance in your Build / Questions when Choosing a Talent



General Cohesion

This is the reason why the association of talents is called a build, because you build something and you want it to be solid and coherent enough so it will get value in the game.

You want to pick talents that go well with each other, talents that have synergy between them or at the very least don't have anti-synergy... About synergy, a big part of choosing talents can result from what your team can provide for you and what they need from you. Here are a few examples:

If your team can provide Slows/Roots/Stuns for you, you should pick Merciless Strikes to get maximum value out of it.

Titan Killer will have a good synergy with your Triple Strike, while Blades of a Templar will synergize strongly with your Trait.

Is your main Assassin an auto-attacker or a spell-based DPS?



Counter the Enemy

Watch what the enemy team has. Pay attention to what talents they pick, especially their Heroic Abilities. It is important to know which options you take to counter the enemy, since winning is not always caused by being stronger, but also by making your opponent weaker.

There are specific counters, depending on what the enemies want to do with their talents, and general counters, based on who the enemy heroes are. I'll list some examples again:

Touch of Death can secure a kill if the enemy goes for Ancestral Healing, Divine Palm, or Life-Binder.

Enemy Varian took Taunt at lvl 4. A cleanse can save the target!

The enemy has a tank with a High Health Pool. The percentage damage of Cursed Bullet can help.



Be Comfortable

Sometimes, your build is not optimal, but you're playing it better than the optimal option. It's alright! Play what you are comfortable with, adapt your build as much as you can, but don't try too hard to do something you don't feel good doing. Maybe the burst damage from Nazeebo's spiders is the way to go, but I prefer the toads because of the spacing they provide in teamfights.

Just be true to yourself, find your build, but keep adapting to become a better player. Don't be too stubborn either... (Picking Kael'thas' Pyroblast when the enemies have a lot of stasis effects is not good...)

While Illusion Master brings a lot more than Bladestorm, if you don't know how to play it, don't pick it in ranked.



Balance in your Build

It's usually good to build on a specific ability, since the talents for it mostly synergize together. Nevertheless, do not hesitate to switch one talent to balance your build. This way you don't need to rely on a single ability for most of what you're doing!

The damage from the spiders is here, but instead of wanting more, you can pick the zoning at lvl 7 with big Toads!



Ask Yourself These Questions When You Choose a Talent

Do I know how to use this talent? (Learn to do so if you can.)

Is this talent worth taking? Is it not too much of a risk?

Will this talent help me against the enemy team?

Will this talent help my team?

Does this talent have a synergy with other talents I took/will take?

Is this talent completely unviable? (Which is something you should learn ASAP when playing a hero seriously)

Do not hesitate to go in Try Mode to test some builds on the target dummies, see what your talents do, and how to use them better.

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