Shield, Spear and Mace - Master The Warrior Class Today (Guide)

Who are the best Warriors? Learn about Warrior types and how to utilize this knowledge in order to skyrocket your win rate with Warriors today.

THE THREE TYPES

Many people these days classify warriors as tanks, disregarding warriors that arent tanky and not realising that every warrior has a place in a certain team composition, I hope this guide will make you change your mind on warriors and help you pick certain warriors in certain situations. It's best that you learn about this today because the Rank reset is on Tuesday and surely this information will help you win most of your HotS Placement Matches.

I came up with this little analogy of mine called: Shield, Spear & Mace.

When it comes to heavily armored guys, Shield (and not the MARVEL's SHIELD) is obviously focused on that, a powerful block for your team, the mountain. Just like every type, shield has it's weaknesses, they lack in offense and usually mobility, but they compensate for that with their stamina, resolve and capability of guarding their allies.

Engage potential is the Spear. They are the engagers, designed to effectively jump into the core of the enemy team or teamfight, possibly disrupting enemies. Their weakness is usually low stamina and defensive stats, while their strength is ofcourse mobility and often damage.

The last one being, the Mace. Back in history, Mace was designed to be a heavy weapon which can fight heavy plated warriors. When you cannot pierce through the heavy armor, you use your strength to smash and cave in the armor. Maces' duty is to take out enemy heavily armored heroes.

Each Warrior is built around these three types to some degree, if not, they can often pick talents that make them into a type they want. You will often see a Shield going into full offense talents and for instance a Mace going into full defense talents, so when I set up examples I might put some warriors into both types (ETC being one), I will note where the talents differ so you know what's the difference.

Also, a clear Rock – Papper – Scissors template where you will win every single game isn't guaranteed, this guide is only intended for you to see the good and bad points of the warriors, learn how you can fit them into your composition, how to manipulate and work around them. You really need to grasp this correctly for next week's HotS Placement Matches.

SHIELDS

.

When is a Shield a good pick?.

You will see a shield in most of the games and it looks like you can't miss with them, but there are times when shield isn't such a great pick. .

Yes.

- Maps that are smaller with a lot of tight, choke points. Shield's spells work great in smaller tighter areas where the enemy team cannot manuever much (Mines, Spider Queen, Cursed Hollow).

- If your team consists of squishy long range carries such as Zagara, Sgt. Hammer, Kael, Jaina).

- You're not really an experienced warrior and they force you to play one. Just grab one of the heavy guys and do your best..

No.

- Enemy heroes are very mobile, you really won't be doing much if enemies have Zera and Sylvanas in your team, you'll just end up being kited like a baby..

- This time if enemy has long range carries, you will soak so much damage by trying to close the gap between you and them, and when the kiting and damage finally stops, you leave your backline exposed for easy assasinations..

- The larger maps with not many tighter choke points, remember that Shield's abilities work the best in smaller maps..

Give me names of Shields!.

Johanna – Obviously, by far the best shield currently in the game, great CC and survivability. Our HotS boost employees just love her. Even tho she isn't really THE CARRY, we will use her a lot in the HotS Placement Matches boosting..

Muradin - Big fat guy with lots of health and crowd control. He's a little trickier to play but he at least has a jump that can be used well to lock down or reposition fast..

ETC - Like I mentioned, ETC is a very diverse hero. He's able to move around quickly with his Q and can protect your backline really well with the Q and W comboes..

Stitches - While he is currently not the strongest, meaning he's dying for a buff, help him Blizzard. He can still be very deadly if played well, ofcourse I mean the hooks. He can also peel well, body block and even do some damage..

SPEARS.



The type that goes all in, forcing yourself into the core of the fight. This type of warriors is designed to dive in, to engage. Mostly by isolating out a single hero or maybe even crowd controlling the whole team. Most often they have very high mobility. Some even have ways to get in and quickly get out if necessary.

When is Spear a good pick? Basically when someone yells or you see that you really have no hard engage.

Yes

- When you need to disrupt the enemy back line as soon as possible so they dont wreak havoc over your team.

- You need high mobility to chase their high mobility heroes.

- You feel YOLO today.

No

- Enemies have a lot of instant healing and immunity buffs such as Uther or Rehgar.

- Enemies have a lot of burst damage, such as Jaina. If the enemy team can lock you down and burst you within a single combo, that's a big no.

- Primary targets have more mobility than you, this isn't set in stone but count on it when picking.

Give me names of Spears!

- Tyrael – Probably the best spear. Your R is an amazing gap closer and a stun. It even knocks people around spreading their formation. Of course your Q is also a great gap closer, slow and a ticket out! We love boosting with Tyrael and we'll definitely use him a lot next week when we start doing the HotS Placement Matches orders.

- ETC – If you build him focused on his Q and W, it has really long range and makes a great Spear, little squishier but amazing engager that can also escape if needed.

- Sonya – While Sonya isn't the strongest right now, she can be very deadly in good hands. Her heroic is a great AoE stun that is usually followed up by a second short stun with her Q. If you talent into her Mystical Spear you gain great mobility, over walls too. The weakness is ofcourse her low stamina so make sure you go in well timed.

- Anub'arak - Great engaging potential but very low stamina just like Sonya. I wouldn't use E as an engage unless you have your R ready to use.

MACES



Often called bruisers, these heroes are great duelers (very good in 1v1), they're sort of a Shield and Spear hybrids, they can take some pounding and deal some damage but cannot really survive or kill anyone alone. They will often get called out with an excuse that they cannot solo tank, that is sometimes true but much more often it isn't. We'll get on it in the Yes/No section.

When to pick a Mace? When you 'need a tank!' but still you want to make a somewhat bigger impact than just be a wall of meat.

Yes

- If enemies' frontline isn't really high damage, you can make some quick work out of those that invested too much in defense.

- Your team can take care of themselves, if they're smart enough and won't be dying because you aren't babysitting, go for it.

- Maps with lots of objectives such as Garden, Sky Temple and the Mines, Maces usually have some sustain and decent damage so soloing is often an option.

- You want to play an assassin but don't feel like learning all the positioning and mechanics.

No

- Your healer is weak, you will take a pounding and you need someone to lift you up often.

- Their team composition consists of many hard crowd control heroes, many Maces need to be continuously hitting targets in order to sustain so if you're controlled, count on dying fast.

- Your team composition isn't very good at peeling, meaning that bad players in your team will keep dying because no one is peeling and you're not peeling specialized. Will lose you a game.

Give me names of Maces!

- Leoric – Can take some decent pounding, has great sustain and even damage. Perfect Mace. We use this dude often because he's really really strong now, probably one of top picks for our HotS Placement Matches boosting next week.

- Sonya – Even tho she's a bit weak, she can be great in good hands like I said, you can build her very versatile, she sustains a lot, doesn't really have high stamina but isn't a squishy either.

-Arthas - Low mobility but can take a pounding, sustain well and lock others, also can provide some amazing damage if he chokes people into a tight spot. His both Heroics are very useful depending on a situation, if you build him like a Mace you will likely take Sindragosa.

- Diablo – Another dude that needs a buff but can actually still be very useful when played properly, great peeling and offensive potential, some sustain, and great Heroics.

I hope you learned something today, thank you for reading! :)

Credits: GetEquipped

Make sure to check out our HotS Placement Matches boosting service for next tuesday when the ranks reset. This week we're offering 30% off but next week it will be 10% off so hurry up with purchasing some boosting to get your MMR up and get placed higher after your Placement Matches because the MMR does not reset!

Make sure to check our other guides such as Competitive Play Strategy and Cursed Hollow 101.