Situational Talents - When To Select Them?

What is up guys! Today, your Heroes of the Storm boosting team will be talking about using the unusual Talents that can be really useful in certain situations. Our hero guides tell about the best general Talent routes, but without context, they end up not being ideal. Sometimes, choosing a different Talent may do the difference between winning or losing on your precious Heroes of the Storm account.

Changing is good.

Before beginning, if you have always been following standard builds, you will need to change your mentality about situational talents. So stop frowning when hovering your mouse over a different talent than the one you always pick. Players tend to forget that they can(and should!) choose different options and take new routes.

Start asking yourself the big questions. Will this talent have more benefits than the other? Is it viable? Does it counter the enemy heroes? In every match, begin by considering the options presented to you. Even if it didn’t work out well at the end, you learned something.

Memorize the other Talent’s effects

If you don’t know what a hero’s talents’ do, it’s hard to adjust yourself in the middle of a game. Take that hero to the Try mode and experience the talents for yourself. Read the tooltips and learn the key information. Don’t hop on the “X Hero who is high on the HotS Tier list because of Y Talent” hype if you don’t know what you’re doing.

Numbers are important as well. What do you think is better to persue: flat instant damage, stacking damage, more range? Learning the details will make you understand the impact you can make when picking it. Doing your research for your favourite heroes’ talents is time-expensive, sure, but in the end it’s worth it.

Knowing when a talent is viable or not

You’re ready to accept change. You’ve learned the talents. Now you need to let yourself influenciate. Maybe your HotS boost partner has such a nice win-rate because of the talents he chooses. There are sites with stats of win-rates in different talents between Heroes of the Storm accounts. You may notice that a lot of people have a more solid win-rate when picking unusual talents compared to the most popular ones. So keep identifying the most successful picks to have an idea of your own.

Of course, it is nice to have a personal preference, but assuming that X Talent is good dosn’t mean that it is currently viable.

Map synergies

Maps can influenciate your success as well! Start thinking how the map’s attributes interact with your hero and its’ talents. Do you find yourself stronger or do you feel effectively worse?

For example, some maps have wide-open areas perfect for teamfights, while others have both teams locked into choke points. Can you limit the mobility of your foes, or wreck them in small places with your AOE damage? Some maps will incourage you to do more siege damage, while other involve more fighting. Choose your talents accordingly.

Adapt to your team’s composition

It’s essencial to know your team’s strengths and weaknesses. When your team has two support roles, one of them might build for more damage to accomodate the rest of the composition. Regardless of your role, you should always look out to synergize with your allies. Consider this even before you pick your hero, don’t just pick because it’s high on our HotS Tier List.

If the healer has little or no AOE heals, build towards more survivability. If your DPS teammate doesn’t have enough crowd control to secure kills, work on talents with slows and stuns. If your tank has low total health, emphasize on more burst damage for quicker fights.

Don’t forget the enemy team’s composition as well

The enemy composition might be the most impostant aspect of picking different talents. Some talents are even designed to counter specific types of heroes. Blocking serves as a limit to basic attack damage. Spell Shield exists to take less burst ability damage. Many hero-exclusive talents are fantastic against other kinds of heroes. Choosing talents based on your counters can make you win games easily.

In the end, is it worth it?

Situational talent picks aren’t always worth if they just counter an enemy in theory or if they just add a little advantage. Why would you need Block if you can kill them before they even stratch you? Why even bother to Spell Shield if they rarely hit a skillshot(Don’t play difficult heroes just because they are on a Heroes of the Storm Tier List, guys!)?

General guides are popular for a reason, so you should only switch your build route if you have strong reasons to do so. Try to imagine the impact of a different talent, not just its potential.

The tips above are telling you what niche talents would work like on paper, so the only real way for you to adjust yourself is by playing. Choosing a talent that doesn’t adapt to your playstyle is always a bad choice despite of how good it sounds. The best way to make it work is by practise.

For example, most Uther players pick Benediction right after hitting level 16. Combinated with the rest of Uther’s active talents, the player will need to have quite the mechanical skill to pull of his playstyle(although it isn’t really worth it, seeing he’s quite low on our Heroes of the Storm Tier List). If you’re unable to do this, it will be much easier to pick alternate talents and going for a more passive playstyle.

Some talents call for a more aggressive playstyle, while others give you more range to play safer. Choose your talents depending on how you’re more confortable to play. Don’t feel yourself attached to a talent just because guides say it’s “good”. When you buy a HotS account you have to accomodate your skill as well. Playstyles and skillcaps are to be considerated.

Basically, if you want to increase your win-rate, you need to identify and think on why, how and when should you pick alternate talents. Do you think it’s worth to stray away from your normal build? Do you feel sa´fe doing so? Then go for it!