Pro Players Pick: Tyrande - What's The #Hype?

Today our Heroes of the Storm boost team will focus on Tyrande Whisperwind: we have seen her dominating the pro scene, and she is also in a good spot for casual gaming, so we decided to offer you an extensive overview of her playstyle.

She is a powerful ranged support, but can often be used as a carrier. However she is a really squishy hero, so she should never leave the backline of her team.

Overview And Abilities

As we said, she is used mostly as a support, because her kit offers an incredible utility to her team in many compositions. Let’s take a closer look at her abilities:

Hero trait: Hunter’s Mark. It’s a single target spell active ability that increase the damage taken from any source for the targeted enemy. This is her signature ability, as it really allows her team to nuke down a priority target turning the tides of a fight. This trait alone makes her a worthwhile pick, even in the competitive scene.

Q: Light of Elune, it’s a pretty standard healing spell. Nothing special, but still gets the job done: having an healing spell is great for every support

W: Sentinel, Maybe this isn’t the flashiest ability, but surely provides a great utility increasing the vision for the team. Our Heroes of the Storm boost team can’t stress enough that vision control is the key to winning games! Excellent usage on Blackheart's Bay, Cursed Hollow.

E: Lunar Flare. It’s an AoE stun. This is another strong point of her kit, if not the strongest: despite its small radius, it offers a great crowd control. Lastly, let’s not forget that she has a decent base attack speed, making her great at stutter stepping. If you want to elaborate on this mechanic, be sure to check our guide!

Team Comps and Synergy

There are really a lot of picks that work with Tyrande: our Heroes of the Storm boost team can’t wait to see how the upcoming Heroes of the Storm hero Artanis will perform with her, we have our doubts but if nothing, Artanis will counter her easily.

Be sure to check out our guide with the best Artanis build soon and use it on the 27 October, Artanis’ official release date.

Johanna is surely a great fit in any team composition with Tyrande, as their combined crowd controls will make any battle easier, especially if their team can focus the enemy targeted by Hunter’s Mark when he is caught by a stun.

Jaina as well has a great sinergy with Tyrande’s hero trait: her insane damage output and slow enable this duo to nuke down priority targets in the blink of an eye Uther and Brightwing are both great picks with her, as they can really make hard for the enemy team to dive in the backline, where she can safely use her spell and create havoc. SolidJakeGG himself said that “She is an assassin with a heal, she is not a main support”, so focusing on protecting her is surely a great strategy.

Both Arthas and Muradin have amazing synergy with her because of the follow up on her stun or vice versa, ideally with Tyrande you want as many roots and stuns as possible to grab that one target and blow him up.

Now let’s talk about the pros’ strategies. Virtus.Pro used Tyrande vs Gamers2 together with Jaina, Johanna, Arthas and Kharazim during the EU BlizzCon Qualifiers. Despite their poor overall performance, it’s easy to see the strength of this composition: there is an insane damage with Jaina and Tyrande, great peeling with Kharazim and two massive tanks in Johanna and Arthas, to soak up damage for the backline. However this comp didn’t work for them.

In the same event, the EU BlizzCon Qualifiers, Na‘Vi locked Tyrande against Gamers2 as well, in a team with Malfurion, Arthas, Muradin and Kael’thas, with great success. This is a very innovative team comp, and a new use of Tyrande: they had a crowd-controls based front line, and a heavy damage oriented back line.

Pretty risky comp if you ask me, but with an extreme level of synergy and coordination it really shines, and their game is surely worth checking out. The best support for Tyrande is Malfurion. This Night Elves duo is really deadly, thanks to the spam of heals, crowd controls and extra vision. It really fits any hard engage comp, as you can just run at the enemy team with superior vision and catch them off guard with your high number of crowd controls, and this game is a great example of their strength, especially in combination with Arthas and Muradin’s extra crowd controls. And of course let’s not forget about Kael’thas absurd damage on top of this.

Counterplay and specific counters

So we have seen Tyrande’s great strengths; however as every HotS’s hero she has weaknesses too! And as every assassin, her weak point is the lack of tankiness. Yes, she is really, really squishy, and despite her heal she relies on her team peel to be effective. A challenging front line can make her almost useless without the needed protection and positioning.

For specific counters, the first who comes to mind is Kerrigan, because of her burst in close range. Tyrande is a pretty immobile hero, and a little positioning mistakes can cost her life.

Another common counter is Zeratul. If this hero is played properly and Tyrande doesn’t have enough protection from her team. he can annihilate our favourite assassin even before the fight starts, and if the comps is built around Tyrande this simple death will lead to the loss of a team fight or objectives.

Lastly, according to our Heroes of the Storm boost team the upcoming hero Artanis will be a great counter to Tyrande. Why, you ask? Let’s take a look at his Phase Prism ability: it allows Artanis to swap his position with the enemies.

So with the proper build Artanis can swap Tyrande putting her in a very unfavourable position, and still survive! So we can say that the latest addiction to the our roster in Heroes of the Storm, Artanis, will be a counter to Tyrande and a good pick versus immobile assassins in general. Remember that Artanis’ release date is 27 October.

However if you get counterpicked, you can still outplay your enemy and be influential in team fights, with a proper usage of Heroics, the best way to get the best out of your Tyrande’s pick. Let’s take a look at those in the last section of our guide!

Heroics

The first heroic is Starfall. It’s an AoE ability that deals a good amount of damage for 8 seconds. In addition to the area of effect damage, this heroic has also a 20% slow, making it a great, yet underrated, damage and utility tool, as it can be used for self peel too.

However the other heroic is surely more interesting: it’s Shadowstalk, an ability that stealths her whole team for eight seconds, and release a burst of heal at the end of the timer. So let’s pay attention: as long as your team is on the same page, this AoE invisibility (with a decent AoE heal at the end) is perfect to neutralize stealth assassins like Zeratul. It is also an incredible engage tool if you want to outsmart the enemy team thanks to the superior vision control, and get a really favourable team fight.

In conclusion, Tyrande is surely a strong pick, with insane damage, good CC and even an heal and a vision tool, after the latest buffs she's definitely a viable hero if picked with a proper composition, she isn't such a good solo healer yet so we recommend another healer with her, or atleast Tassadar. With her great kit she can fit many comp and turn the tides of a teamfight, and her constant presence in the pro scene is surely a sign of her strength.

Feel free to check out our regular Heroes of the Storm Tier List.