As a child, Thrall was a slave in the service of the cruel Aedelas Landenoire. After winning his freedom, he guided the orcs to a land of their own and worked to reclaim their ancestral traditions. He was and always will be the warchief of the Horde. We meet today for a guide on Thrall, the Warchief of the Horde!
Introduction
Thrall is a devastating melee damage assassin, having few issues when it comes to sticking to his opponent. Capable of bursting * a target in a rather incredible way, the Horde Warchief also has a very good sustain * thanks to his passive. Being a melee assassin, he suffers a bit from his lack of direct gap-closer *. Well mastered, it remains very dangerous for the opposing life bars! Useful at any point of the game, it can in particular clean the mercenary camps in a very effective way and alone, after level 16.
We therefore summarize:
Forces :- Good damage
- Very good duelist
- Two useful ultimates
- Sustain more than correct
- Good mate of the god Thor
- Sensitive to controls
- No gap-closer
- Easy to kite *
- Quilts, REALLY?
Glossary
* Burst : Deal a large amount of damage in a short period of time.
* Sustain : Ability to regenerate health points alone.
* Gap-Closer : Ability or mechanic to quickly reduce the distance between you and your target.
* Kite : When you are being chased, it is about managing to maintain a safe distance between you and your enemy whereby you can inflict damage on your enemy, but they cannot.
Hero's Abilities
- Passive
- A
- Z
- E
- R
Frostwolf Resilience (Passive): Dealing damage with an ability grants 1 point of Frostwolf Resilience. At 5 points, instantly heals a significant number of points.
Chain of Lightning (A): Deals moderate damage to one enemy and twice the damage to 2 nearby enemies.
Wild Spirit (Z): Sends a fierce spirit that deals moderate damage to enemies in its path. When it hits an enemy hero, the wolf stops and immobilizes it for 1 second.
Windfury (E): Increases movement speed by 25% for 4 seconds. The next 3 Basic Attacks are hit 100% faster.
Earthquake (R): Causes a large earthquake that regularly slows enemies in the area by 70%. Lasts 10 seconds.
Fracture (R): After a short delay, slices through the ground in a long line, dealing massive damage, knocks enemies aside and stuns them for 1,5 seconds.
gameplay">Build & Gameplay
The build to follow
NB: Click here to be redirected to the talent calculator.
This build is very focused on your ability Windfury (E) and will allow you to be a little more resistant in teamfight. You will also keep a good utility by having at level 16 the ability to do alone the mercenary camps and even the boss! The choice of the ultimate will really depend on the lineup of the team, both of which are very interesting in two different areas. In SoloQ, however, we prefer the Fracture (R), more focused hero assassination.
Tier-by-tier choices
- Lvl 1
- Lvl 4
- Lvl 7
- Lvl 10
- Lvl 13
- Lvl 16
- Lvl 20
blocking Periodically reduces damage from Hero Basic Attacks taken by 50%. Gives maximum 2 charges.
Why? This talent gives us better durability in teamfighting, increasing our chances of survival.
Envenom : Poisons an enemy Hero, dealing moderate damage over 6 seconds. Cooldown: 60 seconds.
Why? Envenom Purely adds significant damage to your burst. This is the best talent available at level 4.
Wind shear (E): Reduces the cooldown of Windfury by 4 seconds.
Why? Your primary ability is Windfury (E). This talent allows you to use Windfury (E) more often. So this talent is good!
Earthquake (R): Causes a large earthquake that regularly slows enemies in the area by 70%. Lasts 10 seconds.
Fracture (R): After a short delay, slices through the ground in a long line, dealing massive damage, knocks enemies aside and stuns them for 1,5 seconds.
Why? Both heroic abilities are interesting in Thrall. In SoloQ, we will orient ourselves 99% of the time on the Fracture (R) which will allow us to create even more chaos in less orderly teams than in a team already made up of several players. On the contrary, as a team, and depending on the allied heroes, we will move towards Earthquake (R). In the advanced mechanics, I will detail more the cases in which we will prefer earthquakes (R) à Fracture (R).
Air Grace (E): Double the loads of Frostwolf Resilience (Passive) granted by attacks from Windfury (AND).
Why? With this talent, the three attacks performed under Windfury (E) will give us a total of 6 charges of Frostwolf Resilience (Passive) thus automatically making a consequent personal care. We therefore gain a lot in sustain.
Stormfury (E): La frappe finale de Windfury (E) Hit 3 times for 75% of normal damage.
Why? Coupled with our level 13 talent, Air Grace (E), we get a total of 5 strikes instead of three with Windfury (E). As you can see, our passive will be triggered twice with a single spell. In the event that the opposing team has several characters with a lot of life points, we will rather orient ourselves towards Blood for Blood.
Blood for Blood : Activation: Steals 15% of the target's maximum health and reduces their movement speed by 30% for 3 seconds.
Light of the Nexus : Teleports to a nearby location. Cooldown: 60 seconds.
Why? This talent allows us to reposition ourselves easily, whether it is because we were out of position or to punish someone who was, it is a very useful Swiss Army knife talent. If we have chosen Earthquake (R) at level 10, we can move towards Earth Shields (R) in order to help our support and therefore to gain usefulness in the team.
Earth Shields (R): Gives to yourself and allies in the area of the Earthquake (R) a shield equal to 15% of maximum health for each shake. This shield lasts 4 seconds.
gameplay
You are an assassin, so your role is to inflict damage on the opposing team but being careful to stay alive as long as possible. Indeed, your relatively small amount of life points does not allow you to take as much damage as a warrior. As a melee assassin, you do not enter combat first, but engage in second wave after your warrior. Your main goal? The crispy-fondant assassins (yes, crispy AND melting, whatever we love!) Opponents! It will be necessary to analyze what are your windows of opportunity in order to quickly eliminate the threats and be able to start again like a lord afterwards.
Thrall is quite simple as to the instructions for use: you have a big hammer that hurts: TAP! If we analyze more in depth, we realize that it is more complex than that. Thrall requires good positioning in the melee, his fragility coming from the fact that he cannot regain health if he does not hit an opponent with his spells. Very sensitive to bursts, it holds the length very well thanks to its Frostwolf Resilience (Passive). You will therefore try to arrive from the combat side once the warriors have entered the fray, and take advantage of the general confusion to find what interests you: the enemy assassins. Your Chain of Lightning (A) allows you, before a fight takes place, to bring down the life of the opposing team a little before literally melting them under the blows of your hammer!
However, do not hesitate to try to catch an enemy out of position with your Wild Spirit (Z), an immobilized enemy will be easy to maintain in a near certain position of death by your team, and the range of your spell is more than decent.
Advanced mechanics
Lane or gank?
In the lane phase, your sustain is absolutely scandalous thanks to theWild Spirit (Z): launched in the servants, it almost certainly works your passive, Frostwolf Resilience. You can maintain constant pressure on your opponent thanks to your Chain of Lightning (A).
You can also choose to wander around the map and try to gank your opponents in order to kill them. If you can hit your target with Wild Spirit (Z), type a first time normally before activating the Windfury (E), this ending the attack animation and allowing you to directly chain 4 attacks instead of 3. Do not waste time launching a Chain of Lightning (A) on the way once you hit your immobilizer you would waste time. Instead, keep it in case your enemy tries to escape, in order to finish him off or take his life down further. If you still have time, don't hesitate: no damage is wasted in this case!
Earthquake or Fracture ?
Most of the time, you will orient yourself on the Fracture (R) which provides good direct crowd control if it is well placed, and can even allow you to block your opponents when arriving at the side, to send them back to your team thanks to the displacement component of the out, or catching an opponent a little too far for your Wild Spirit (Z). Very flexible therefore, this is the reason why we mainly orient ourselves towards this one.
However, with the arrival of Jaina and Kael'Thas, two area damage assassins, opponents can often be taken out of their devastating areas by casting Fracture (R) at the wrong time, or by simply being poorly coordinated. In this case, it can be extremely interesting to orient yourself towards the Earthquake (R) which will strongly slow down the opponents in a large area. Also, he has a good synergy with supports such as Malfurion, especially at level 20 where we will preferably choose the talent. Earth Shields (R). Adding such a large shield to your team will give Malfurion time to heal over time.
Le Earthquake (R) is also a very interesting and useful choice on maps where combat takes place in restricted areas. We think in particular of the Celestial Temple or the County of the Dragon, where a slowing down in the restricted combat zones will be very handicapping for the enemies who will then be at your mercy, because you will walk around freely by delivering hammer blows at all costs!
Conclusion
Thrall is an often underrated hero who remains solid in some compositions as a "niche" choice. However, he continues to be a solid choice in SoloQ and will wreak havoc in a disorganized squad. For the Horde!
