Mal'Ganis Guide

Mal'Ganis is a character from the Warcraft franchise that joined the Nexus as a melee warrior. Our Heroes of the Storm boosting team has predicted that Mal'Ganis will be joining the Nexus in our Who Is The Next HotS Hero infopost. Mal'Ganis' release date is October 16th, 2018. Without further ado, let's dig in...

"I am Mal'Ganis. I AM ETERNAL!"

Pros & Cons

+ Self sustain

+ Decent Crowd Control

+ Sustained Damage

+ Fair wave clear

- Can be interrupted during cast times

- Easy to kite him

- Weak vs healing reduction

Abilities

[TRAIT] Vampiric Touch - Mal’Ganis heals for 45% of damage dealt to enemy Heroes and 15% of damage dealt to non-Heroes. Mal'Ganis' healh pool is about 2809, similar are Muradin and Arthas. His damage isn't that big but the self sustain and AoE damage make him sustainable and threatening, annoying at best. He clears waves decently and returns about 20% health when clearing a full wave. The healing increases vs Heroes.

[Q] Fel Claws - Violently slash in the chosen direction, dealing 75 damage to enemies. Reactivate to slash up to 2 more times. The third slash Stuns enemies for 0.75 seconds. This ability makes you lash out in a frontal cone and deal damage similar to Greymane's Razor Swipe, it provides you sustained damage, self healing from the trait and CC with the last swipe. Each swipe activates a 3 second window to cast another swipe. The ability cooldown starts on the first swipe, so don't worry about speeding swipes to lower the cooldown, use the 3 seconds after each swipe if necessary to maximize output.

[W] Necrotic Embrace - Desecrate the air, dealing 114 damage to nearby enemies and gaining 25 armor for 3 seconds. This ability provides you moderate area of effect damage and 25 armor. It can also be talented well in the build.

[E] Night Rush - After 0.75 seconds, gain 50% Movement Speed for 2 seconds. While activated, Mal’Ganis can move through enemy Heroes and put them to Sleep for 2.5 seconds. Night Rush has a casting time of 0.75s, therefore it's susceptible to interrupts and you need to be careful. It can be used as a great engage ability, a CC ability or an escape tool due to movement speed increase.

[R1] Carrion Swarm - After 1 second, disperse into an Invulnerable swarm of bats for 3 seconds, dealing 289 damage per second to enemies. Vampiric Touch [TRAIT] heals for 100% of Carrion Swarm’s damage to Heroes. First Heroic ability that our HotS boosting team believes will see the most light. It's consistent, provides amazing self sustain and damage.

[R2] Dark Conversion - Channel on an enemy Hero for 0.75 seconds, then swap Health percentages with the target over 3 seconds. This is a very situational heroic ability that can be used for taking down high health targets such as tanks, or you can save yourself when being focused by the enemy team and maybe even pick up a kill. Not so consistent as Carrion Swarm.

Mal'Ganis Build

Level 1 - Time to Feed
Mal'Ganis heals for 48 when damaging a nearby enemy Hero. This can occur once every 6 seconds against each enemy Hero.
Great option for sustained healing in team fights. Choose Winged Guard talent if they have 2 or more strong auto attackers such as Raynor, Zul'jin, Greymane...

Level 4 - Fueled by Torment
While Necrotic Embrace is active, Mal'Ganis heals for 12 when damage is taken and Vampiric Touch converts 15% more Hero damage into healing.

Another great self sustain option, also very good vs fast attackers like Tracer, Zul'jin, Tassadar and even minion waves. Choose Might of Sargeras vs heavy burst damage heroes like Jaina, Kael'Thas...

Level 7 - Black Claws
After Mal'Ganis hits an enemy Hero with Fel Claws, his next Basic Attack deals 45% more damage.
Great talent for more damage for stutter stepping players.

Level 10 - Carrion Swarm
Mal'Ganis heals for 48 when damaging a nearby enemy Hero. This can occur once every 6 seconds against each enemy Hero.
Even though the other heroic is good too, this one is more consistent and will bring better results overall.

Level 13 - Deep Sleep
Increase Night Rush's Sleep duration by 0.75 seconds and its Movement Speed bonus by 10%.
Deep Sleep increases your crowd control duration and your movement speed, allowing you to set up your plays more efficiently, whether that is engaging, escaping or peeling.

Level 16 - Blind as a Bat
Activate to erupt with blind rage, removing the cooldown and Mana cost of Fel Claws, but losing all vision. Lasts 6 seconds.
This is one of the most fun talents in the game. Your vision is removed but you will mostly use it when you know the enemy team is stacked up or hard crowd controlled + predicting their escape path in clutch areas. You will pull out immense damage by Clawing around. If you have a team in voice chat it will be even easier. If you aren't much of a YOLO person, take Plague Bats.

Level 20 - Seeker Swarm
Upon expiring, Carrion Swarm's bats seek nearby enemy Heroes, dealing 132 damage and Sleeping them for 2.5 seconds.
Pretty self explainatory, after a successful Carrion Swarm, you will deal even more damage and sleep the enemy team to set up more burst and plays.

Counters

Mal'Ganis is countered by all heroes who can easily interrupt his channels.

1. E.T.C.

2. Ana

3. Garrosh

4. Dehaka

Tips & Tricks

1. Be careful versus heroes who have healing reduction such as Deckard's Emeral, Malthael's Touch of Death or Ana's Biotic Grenade. Good players will time their abilities when you most need healing to kill you.

2. Stunning or silencing you during Fel Claws (Q) won't stop you from doing your second or third swipe unless it's longer than 3 seconds. However, good players will time their CC in order to interrupt you just before your 3 second window expires, effectively denying you more swipes until the cooldown resets.

3. Fel Claws [Q] can also be used as an escape ability, for instance moving out of a dangerous AoE such as Kael'Thas' abilities.

4. A great combo for Mal'Ganis is opening with Night Rush [E] into as many players possible without exposing yourself too much, casting Necrotic Embrace [W] for maximum damage and healing and finishing with Fel Claws [Q].

5. Make sure to stutter step in between your Fel Claws casts, as in Q, auto attack, Q, auto attack, Q auto attack. Especially if you went with Black Claws talent.

6. Don't forget to sometimes use Night Rush to help your backline friendly players.

7. Try to setup your full combo including Carrion Swarm after your team has used abilities like Jaina's Frost Ring, E.T.C's dance, Zeratul's Void Prison and so on...

Thank you for reading our guide, good luck with Mal'Ganis, for even better Mal'Ganis coaching, hire our professional HotS coaching experts.