Hi there again, ChaosOS here. Today's article will be focusing on Malthael, Aspect of Death. Hopefully this will form a template for analyzing future heroes. As usual, all numbers presented scale at 4% per level unless otherwise noted. Here's a link to Malthael spotlight if you are unfamiliar with the hero: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSBHR77CqTE



If you didn't see last week's Thrall and Malfurion changes analysis, check out that post too! https://heroeshearth.com/b/chaosos/read/math-of-the-storm-malthaels-damage/



TL;DR Meh. Percentage damage sounds a lot stronger than it works out to be.





Image credit to Wallpapers of the Storm dude from Reddit (/u/DrEvilGenius)



Today's spreadsheeet for Immortal damage comparison, Self Healing from Soul Rip, and Reaper's Mark damage: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1lV-XVvcLGmP27bshnYeXIHzSB93DUj1PAj8lzMjkdSg/edit?usp=sharing

Base Functionality and Role

Trait (Reaper's Mark):

Q (Soul Rip):

W (Wraith Strike):

E (Death Shroud):

Sustain

Damage

Hero name Immortal DPS at level 20 Valla (Q Build) 990 Greymane (Eager Wolf) 915 Malthael (Memento Mori) 794 Butcher (Full Stacks) 739 D.Va (Pilot) (GG WP) 723 Greymane (No talents) 644 Malthael (No talents) 594 Samuro (No talents) 554 Lunara (Nature's Culling)* 512 D.Va (Pilot) (No talents) 482 Artanis (Amateur Opponent) 395 Tychus 387 Alarak 368 Cassia 365 Illidan (Untalented) 311

Last Rites

Overall Thoughts

Malthael's base stats are as follows:Health: 1963 HPHealth Regeneration: 4.06 per second (Normal)Basic Attack: 117 damageAttack Speed: 0.91 attacks per secondAttack Range: 1.5Let's start by seeing how these base stats stack up to the rest of the cast. His health pool is the 23rd highest in the game at level 1, putting him right below the 33rd percentile. The three heroes above him are Ragnaros (2000 hp), Anub'arak (2003 hp), and Valeera (2047 hp). The three heroes below him are Kharazim (1949), Tychus (1925), and Alarak (1900 hp). His health regeneration is normal, taking approximately 480 seconds to return to full health (We know this is Blizzard's way of determining health regeneration from the Valeera changes a while back).His basic attack damage is low for his role, 15th in the game but in the lower half of all heroes for DPS at 20 due to his slow attack speed at .91 (No talents for anyone there). By comparison Thrall's auto attacks do more than 40% more damage at the same base attack speed, and Thrall has windfury to further enhance his DPS. Malthael's autoattack range is typical for most melee heroes at 1.5What does this mean for Malthael? I'm expecting that the strength his kit will make up for his otherwise mediocre base stats. The hero spotlight calls him a "Deadly melee assassin that shreds apart high health foes", meaning it should be expected for him to fulfill a similar role to Zeratul, Illidan, or Thrall. As a solo laner he needs sustain, escapes, and trading power.So, let's look at his abilities:Malthael's basic attacks against non-structures apply a DoT effect that deals 2.5% of the afflicted unit's max HP per second and lasts 4 seconds since the last application. Note: % HP effects are capped at an effective hit points (EHP) of 3650 (+4% per level of the attacker), so while this will do a significant amount of damage to objectives such as the Dragon Knight, Garden Terror, or Immortal on Battlefield of Eternity, it will not do as much as you might expect. Also, since the Cho'Gall changes, which reduced his base HP in exchange for Ogre Hide armor, there are no heroes who run into this damage cap by themselves. Jump to the bottom of the article if you want to see how Malthael's Battlefield of Eternity (Boe) immortal DPS compares to the rest of the cast.20 mana, 2 second cooldown. Deals 100 damage to each nearby enemy affected by Reaper's mark, healing Malthael for 44 life per target hit. Heroes hit by Soul Rip increase Malthael's healing by 3% of that hero's max HP. This 3 percent healing is capped similarly to percentage damage sources, at an EHP of 3650 (+4% per level). Small trick: You can hold down Q to cast it on cooldown, similar to Li Li's Healing Brew or Blinding Winds.30 mana, 5 second cooldown. Deals 59 damage, consumes his auto-attack cooldown (testing courtesy of https://www.twitch.tv/dunktrain ), and teleports him to the opposite side of the target.50 mana, 8 second cooldown. After .25s of flapping his wings he sends out a fat but medium-fast skillshot that applies his passive.What I immediately notice upon looking at these is the only real damage beyond his base stats comes from his Reaper's Mark and Soul Rip. Soul rip (Untalented) provides 50 DPS to all nearby enemies that have his Reaper's Mark, while his Reaper's Mark provides upwards of 91.3 DPS against damage capped foes. Furthermore, he has very little burst, as his cooldowns are short and do not provide much additional damage. Finally, his mobility (without talents) is limited to Wraith Strike. While Wraith Strike has a very low cooldown for a blink at 5 seconds, it is extremely limited in its targeting options compared to Zeratul's blink or even Kerrigan's leaping strike.Malthael's sustain comes in two methods: Using death shroud on a wave of minions then soul ripping twice, and what he gains during fights/trades.Malthael will heal for (44*7*2)=616 HP while expending (50+20+20)=90 mana, which is approximately 32% of his max HP recovered in just under a 2 second window. What I can conclude from this is that you really shouldn't fight Malthael in a minion wave as he will heal significantly off of the available sources. The most similar comparison is Ragnaros' molten swing, who on a full minion wave heals for (191*0.2*7)=267 health every 4 seconds. This value can be modified by taking the Q quest at level 1, which increases the damage of his Empower Sulfuras but encourages him to use it to strategically last hit rather than just use it on the full wave for healing. A higher sustain hero to can compare him to is Sonya with whirlwind, who heals for (441*.25*7)=771.75 HP over 3 seconds if she can hit a full minion wave.Malthael's healing here is variable based on who and how many heroes he has marked, but I'll use two examples: Sonya and Valla, as our representative solo laner and squishy assassin matchup. Against Sonya, Malthael heals for 114.2 health per cast (57.1 health per second) (5.8% of his max HP), while against Valla he would heal for 82.2 health per cast (41.1 health per second) (4.2% of his max HP). The scaling here is not a straight 4% per level, as the flat value scales based on Malthael's levels while the percentage heal scales based on his target's level. This value is fairly small relative to the healing he gains from hitting many targets, so it can be concluded that it is generally preferable for Malthael to be fighting within the comfort of a minion wave. Another thing to can conclude from these numbers is the level 13 talent, Soul Siphon, which increases the percent healing from 3% to 4% is approximately a 15% to 25% increase in healing intake.Malthael's talent tree is diverse and generally offers the tradeoff of utility versus raw damage. For example, the level 7 slow on Q vs. added percentage HP damage on W vs. healing reduction, leaving little room for damage calculations like last week's Thrall analysis. However, one topic consistently has come up, and that is Malthael's immortal DPS. To start let's look at a quick table of common "High Immortal DPS heroes"*Lunara's Nature's Toxin scales at 5% per level, meaning her relative standing changes based on what level is selected for comparison.Malthael's DPS stacks up favorably to most other "Strong immortal DPS" heroes, especially if you select the level 16 talent Memento Mori. However, because of the damage cap on % based damage he is no scarier than a Valla or a Greymane, both of whom eclipse him for raw DPS. As for ease of application of DPS, my vote actually goes to Lunara who suffers a 15% DPS loss relative to Malthael when accounting for pure race but can more easily apply her poison than Malthael can apply his Reaper's Mark, and with 5% scaling on nature's toxin overtakes him on passive DPS at level 8 (124.95 Malthael vs. 125.58 Lunara).: Malthael's damage is closer to a melee Lunara than a true auto-attack carry like Greymane or Valla. Given that his only ranged application of his passive is from his E ability, Death Shroud, I wouldn't prioritize him over other already strong BoE heroes like Greymane, Valla, and Lunara. However, if those other heroes are banned out or picked and you need a melee assassin that can also provide strong immortal DPS, Malthael is certainly an option.There's nothing too complicated going on here with this ultimate, but there are some tidbits of information. First off, Last Rites executes when a hero is at 33% health or less, as the missing HP will be 66% and half of that is 33%. Secondly, the cooldown reduction from the quest applies to the kill you gain. Theoretically perfect use of his ult makes it a minimum of (70+65+60+55+50+45+40+35+30+25+20)=495 seconds to quest completion, or 8 minutes and 15 seconds. While it was bugged on the PTR to reduce the cooldown too much, level 20 ultimate usage would require (65+55+45+35+25)=225 seconds, or 3 minutes and 45 seconds. These are ideal scenarios, as real ultimate usage will not always involve it getting the killing blow or involve having to wait between uses rather than immediately once it comes off cooldown. Furthermore, Last Rites will not get the cooldown reduction if the target dies before the 2 seconds is up, complicating the usage (EDIT: This appears to be inconsistent and buggy, hopefully the behavior will be cleared up when he comes to Live today. It may be that you are supposed to get the quest credit and I simply ran into bugs during my observations)Don't expect to finish the Last Rites quest unless you get the level 20 upgrade, 12 kills with it in a match is an unrealistic amount.Malthael is an interesting addition to the Heroes of the Storm roster, filling in somewhere between the melee carry Illidan/Dragonblade Genji/Butcher and more slippery, gank oriented heroes like Zeratul and Kerrigan. Bulk-wise he has lower base HP than most of the "Bruisers" like Thrall or Sonya but higher than CC oriented heroes like Alarak or Kerrigan. His sustain is high, comparable to Sonya's, making a strong choice for a solo laner.