Greetings fellow geeks. This week, I’ll take a look at one of the most solid tanks in the game as of now. Not only does he provide endless CC, but he also brings a titanic health pool and a really safe engage / disengage with him. I am of course talking about Muradin, the Mountain King.

Let’s jump right into his skills:

Passive: Second Wind – Restore 84 (15.6 + 3.6 per level) Health per second when you have not taken damage for 4 seconds. When below 40% Health, increased to 168 (31.2 + 7.2 per level) Health per second.

Q: Storm Bolt – Throw a hammer, dealing 240 (50 + 10 per level) damage to the first enemy hit and stunning it for 1.5 seconds.

W: Thunder Clap – Deals 210 (58 + 8 per level) damage and slows enemies by 25% for 2.5 seconds.

E: Dwarf Toss – Leap to target location, dealing 130 (35 + 5 per level) damage to enemies on landing.

R1: Avatar – Transform for 20 seconds, gaining 2240 (416 + 96 per level) Health and causing your Basic Attacks to stun enemies.

R2: Haymaker – Stun target enemy Hero, and wind up a punch dealing 700 (320 + 20 per level) damage and knocking the target back, hitting enemies in the way for 175 (80 + 5 per level) damage and knocking them aside.

Muradin’s kit spells disruption through and through. This simplicity is what makes it beautiful. Every skill has it’s clear use, although it should be mentioned that you can add additional layers with certain talents or combinations thereof. You can utilize Stormbolt to land a safe stun, lock down your target further with Thunderclap and either chase to finish them off with Dwarf toss or utilize it so escape to safety. His passive further encourages this hit-and-run playstyle, making you a perfect roamer.

On the topic of heroics, most people would recommend Avatar over Haymaker every time. Not only does Avatar greatly add to Muradin’s survivability, it’ll also give you a way to contribute CC without expending mana, which is huge when you look at his limited resources, especially early-game. This does not mean that Haymaker doesn’t have it’s place though. If you already have a primary target like Johanna or Chen on your team, the second heroic choice is an excellent tool to throw people into your team or get a safe disengage. Nothing is more fun than slamming away a Furnace-Butcher.

As always, I will talk about certain talent combinations instead of full builds so you’ll know what part of a build is suited to which situation.

Muradin is one of those heroes that has a lot of talents that resonate with his kit so well that they’re almost always picked up. Let’s start with Reverberation (Enemies hit by Thunder Clap have their Attack Speed reduced by 50% for 3 seconds) and Thunder Burn (Thunder Clap leaves a zone on the ground that explodes after 2 seconds dealing 25 damage and applying a 25% slow for 2.5 seconds.). Even the remnant from Thunder Burn doesn’t apply Reverberation, it still greatly increases the slow-time as well as puts some additional damage on the board. It’s a great against auto-attack based heroes, especially melee-assassins that want to get all in your face.

Let’s continue on how to tank up considerably for the late-game. Stoneform (Activate to heal for 50% of your maximum Health over 8 seconds. Second Wind is disabled during this time) and Hardened Shield ( ) are almost a must for every match with few exceptions. If you activate these during your Avatar, you will achieve the status of a true tank-god with a monstrous EHP of 20000 without any action needed from your healer.

If you’re more into landing skillshots, you might prefer utilizing your Stormbolt. Luckily for you, there are multiple ways to turn this ability into so much more than “just” a ranged stun.

First off, there’s the old-school way of combining Infused Hammer (Refunds 45 Mana for each enemy hit) with Piercing Bolt (Penetrates through the first target hit, hitting 1 additional target). This makes you regain a flat 30 Mana for every stun you land. Since Muradin is very mana-hungry, this is a great tool to build if you expect drawn out or lots of consecutive fights.

If you’d rather have some pushing / clearing power, I recommend combining Perfect Storm (Storm Bolt’s damage is permanently increased by 5 for each enemy Hero hit) with Sledgehammer (Deals 400% damage to Minions, Structures and Mercenaries. Destroys 4 ammo from Structures). I normally do not recommend PS, since the additional damage does not make a huge difference against other players until way too late in the game. If you amplify it by 400% however, the damage starts stacking up rather quickly against any non-hero units, making you able to quickly solo camps or even take on a golem on your own.

Some games call for exceptional tankiness, even greater as the raw numbers that Avatar provides. For those cases, you should pick up Stoneform (Activate to heal for 50% of your maximum Health over 8 seconds. Second Wind is disabled during this time) and Hardened Shield (). If you activate this during your Avatar, you will achieve the status of a true tank-god with a monstrous EHP of 20000 without any action needed from your healer.

As a last, fun treat, I’d like to introduce you to the Shotgun-Build. This little treat is all about single-target damage, letting you isolate and burst down one squishy opponent. Main components of this build are Thunderstrike (Thunder Clap deals 300% damage if only one target is hit) and Haymaker . If you’d go all out, you can combine it with Perfect Storm (Storm Bolt’s damage is permanently increased by 5 for each enemy Hero hit) so you can deal the maximum amount of single-target damage.

All in all, Muradin provides a variety of ways to protect your back line and mess up the enemy’s. Brutal CC combined with his great mobility and sustain make him into a force to be reckoned with, and always a safe pickup for the warrior-slot in your team. Happy stunning.

BUILDS:

DISCLAIMER: Adjusting builds according to who you are facing in a game is the mark of high skill. These are simply recommendations, not definite builds you should always use.

Standard Disruptadin:

Level 1: Reverberation (Perfect Storm for PVE-Adin)

Level 4: Thunderburn (Sledgehammer for PVE-Adin)

Level 7: Piercing Bolt

Heroic: Avatar

Level 13: Thunderstrike

Level 16: Stoneform

Level 20: Hardened Shield

Shotgun:

Level 1: Perfect Storm

Level 4: Thunderburn

Level 7: Piercing Bolt

Heroic: Haymaker

Level 13: Thunderstrike

Level 16: Heavy Impact

Level 20: Grand Slam or Rewind