The trashman role that I have come to know and love!



At times, this role can feel unimpactful. But in reality, without it, your team could not function on many battlegrounds. It’s important for you to play safe, not die, and soak lanes. You do this by picking heroes that have high self-sustain, high health, and efficient waveclear and PvE damage. Or you do this by taking high-mobility/high-waveclear/high-damage heroes (Junkrat, for example). Either type of trashman works, it just needs to be selected and needs to be known going into the game that you plan on doing that and your team is aware you will be soaking for most of the game. With that said, there are two types of trashmen in my opinion, see below.



**For further study, check out my in-depth blog on the Trashman role here.





Early-Game Dominance: Malthael/Artanis/Arthas



These types of offlaners tend to do very well in the early stages of the game since talents have not come online yet. Their base kit strength and 1 through 7 talents are huge power spikes for the character. In most cases, these Heroes can be weak in early teamfights, but hope to bring a level lead from their dominance to simply coast on until the game ends. Since you will mostly be focused on fighting the enemy’s opposing laner, this strategy is only safe if the enemy has weak rotation options or lacks a roamer that can relieve pressure in that lane. On the other hand, if you have a roamer on your team with a dominate offlane, then you can push advantage through tower destruction or Hero kills to gain an XP lead.

Late-Game Scaling: Leoric/Zeratul/Ragnaros/Junkrat



Late-game scalers are meant to soak a lot. A lot. That’s pretty much their only job as their ability to teamfight before certain powerspikes is pretty weak, only giving them one or two options in a fight. How do these Heroes influence a game if they can’t fight? Well, good question. The answer: through pushing waves and soaking aggressively, these Heroes force the enemy to respond in order to keep up in experience. These strategies/Heroes are harder to play in Hero League due to teammates forcing 4v5s, but if you are given space and your team drafts a very strong 4-man, then you can find an easy level advantage to get you to the late-game when your Hero comes online. Usually, at level 10 your effectiveness in teamfights spikes, then post-16 you become a monster. This type of pick works very well with strong waveclear and kill-pressure 4-mans as the enemy is under constant threat elsewhere on the map.

Rocks: Blaze/Dehaka/Sonya/Tyrael



The name kinda explains the pick. The Rock doesn’t go anywhere, it can’t be pushed in, it can’t be hurt, it just sits and waits. Most of the time this pick is almost never bad, because you aren’t winning or losing and for the most part that’s basically what the solo lane is all about. Rocks are pretty effective at all points in the game, but don’t do anything right or wrong. For me, having these picks means I’m cozied up in a blanket and I’m drinking my coffee, because I got a nice 50/50 ahead of me. Good at defending, good at sieging, good at creating kills, good at not getting killed. If you have read this article up to this point, you now know that you should probably just always pick these guys in the offlane. In reality, the other Heroes are good – don’t get me wrong – and they have advantages to them, but they aren’t Rocks. Pick Rocks.

Overall Tip for Offlane Picks:



Whatever you do, don’t die. If that means standing behind your wall and playing a game of tetris and losing a few minions, it’s much better than getting yourself killed. Once you’ve been taken down, you ruin your teams rotation and that’s when objectives start to go to the other team uncontested. Don’t be that person.



This wraps up our third part of five for How to Draft a Basic Composition, next week I'll be talking about every ones favorite role, the Flex and what exactly falls under the Flex category. Get your Medivh 1 tricks ready!