I got into the closed alpha for Heroes of the Storm about two weeks ago. This is the one Blizzard game I’ve been interested in for a while now. I bounce into WoW every now and again to hang out with guild mates, but the game lacks pull to keep me logged in every day. For the past two weeks I’ve been mostly maining Tassadar. I’m close to unlocking Level 10 on him. My plan as the game’s development goes forward is to main Tassadar and Nova and expand out to another support and assassin. In general, the game feels good. It’s quite distinct from LoL’s style. Most pleasant is how anti-snowbally HotS is compared to LoL. Very, very rarely do games feel hopeless. Even if you’re several levels behind, one good team fight can completely turn the game around. It makes playing the game decidedly less miserable than LoL, although not as engaging. I’d say that’s a fair exchange.

Anyway, onto the actual feedback:

Tassadar is designed to be a support/assassin. I put “support” first simply because all his core abilities fulfill that role. You’re not going to do the most damage on your team, but your clutch Q’s can save the day, a well-placed W’s can decimate an enemy team, and a Force Wall or Archon can turn a teamfight in your favor. Regardless, Tassadar always servers to augment his team’s abilities. To be honest, I’m not really sold on calling Tassadar an “assassin” either, unless Blizzard is just using “assassin” as a blank term for “damage dealer,” a nomenclature I deem problematic. Needless to say, there’s a very good reason Tassadar is marked as “Very Hard” on the champion select screen. His base kit is doesn’t seem terribly focused or intuitive, and I think this will make new players shy away from him. It takes time to really grasp what Tassadar can do. What’s worse, a lot of it doesn’t feel very interactive. You throw out shields, you throw out Storms and hope and your enemy stands in them, you cast Oracle at opportune times, and Archon is really just a temporary DPS buff. The most interactive and fun ability he has is Force Wall, which unfortunately feels weak compared to his assassin build.

HotS is built off its talent system, which I won’t take too much time to explain. Any one with a passing familiarity in RPGs or gaming should understand the concept of a talent system. A full list of Tassadar’s talents can be found here. Overall, Tassadar’s talent choices after his latest rework don’t feel particularly compelling. As you’ll see below, most of his tiers have one or two good talents that crowd out the rest. Talent trees have always been haunted by the specter of opportunity cast. It’s just as important to consider what you’re going to give up as much as what you’re going to get from a talent. As such, on Tassadar you really know what you’re going to pick beforehand, so long as you’ve decided on which path to proceed down.

Tier 1:

• Conjurer’s Pursuit – due a lack of options, this is mandatory for a support-build Tassadar. You’ll be spamming out spells as much as you can. Having a steady amount of regen is vital on a champion as mana-hungry as Tassadar is. You have to be pretty proactive about building up your regen, though, which I like. It doesn’t come necessarily for free.
• Overload – useless talent due to Psi-Infusion.  Scrap it and provide something more for assassin-Tassdar, or change other talents to make it more attractive. A simple increase to Psionic Storm’s range serves no real purpose, as nine times out of ten your enemies will walk out of it, and that tenth time you need the range to snipe a target means you’ve done something wrong. Given that this talent is taken significantly more often than Psi-Infusion, yet gives the same win-rate, I rest my case.
• Psi-Infusion – very good for assassin Tassadar, largely for the same reasons as Conjurer’s Pursuit. You need to hit 9 targets to really break even with it, but it saves you a ton of mana nonetheless and allows you to lane and team fight without worrying about going OOM quickly.
• Minion Bulwark – absolutely useless. Scrap it and provide something more for support Tassadar. There are a handful of times where I’ve ever even thought about using my shield on a minion, and it’s almost always been a waste of mana.

Tier 2:

• Mental Acuity – my default talent on any build. Frankly, this tier doesn’t have very many options. Oracle is a key component of Tassadar’s presence, and being able to cast it twice as often offers near unrivaled utility.
• Leeching Plasma – this talent might be good if you’re paired with a tank or such, but it’s usefulness seems pretty situational. I don’t pick it too often.
• Promote – Terrible. This game is not minion-focused whatsoever. Scrap it.
• Healing Ward – can heal allies for 33% of their health if they stand in it for 10 seconds. I guess that’s not awful, but really, why would I take this?
• Reinforce Structure – borderline useless. Borderline OP on Haunted Mines. This talent alone has won games for me on that map, particularly if the enemy team gets a stronger golem. However, this is entirely due to the golem’s behavior. The counterargument is that other talents in this tier can help you prevent that situation from even happening, so there’s not a very strong argument for it. Needs a buff or rework.

Tier 3:

• Khala’s Embrace – Default talent on support Tassadin. An extra few hundred health everywhere you or your allies go is always useful. Synergizes well with other talents too, and makes sure shield absorbs do not get wasted ever. Very good talent.
• Static Charge – default talent on assassin Tassadar. Greatly increases his DPS output and provides some much needed interactivity to his playstyle. Good talent.
• Deep Shift – useless. Scrap it. You use your E to dodge abilities or break out of roots and such. Its duration is secondary. At no point can I think an extra 0.75 seconds would be worth it compared to the other talents in this tree.
• Calldown: MULE. People were calling this talent OP somewhere, but I really, really don’t see it. You just snipe the thing down, and 100 HPS cannot counteract a full team push. Maybe I’m missing something.

Tier 4:

• Archon – core talent for assassin Tassadar, but, frankly, a really boring one. It’s a DPS buff, as I said above. You get some juicy damage output for a few seconds, and data says it’s far more effective than Force Wall in winning games, yet that’s also a factor of sheer popularity.
• Force Wall – core talent for support Tassadar. Can make or break teamfights. Has saved my ass countless times. Best ability Tassadar has in his arsenal as far as fun and feel goes. Effectiveness is suspect, though. I think it needs a buff.

Tier 5:

• Distortion Beam – my default talent on either Tassadar build. A 25% slow is such good utility it’s almost impossible to resist.
• Presence – mediocre talent. See Deep Shift. It’s some convenient grace, but that’s about it. The flipside is that Dimensional Shift effectively silences you, so it can trigger at inopportune times.
• Scryer – mediocre talent. I don’t see what it really adds. Evasive Shielding fulfills this roll in the talent tree.
• Spell Shield – no one takes this. There’s a good reason why.
• Shrink Ray – the anti-assassin talent. It’s not bad. It’s not great, but it’s not bad.

Tier 6:

• Evasive Shielding. Awesome talent for support Tassadin. Don’t change this.
• Resonation – meh. A slight slow that doesn’t really do much. Scrap it.
• Second Strike – a free Psychic Storm every cast greatly multiplies the effectiveness of the ability.
• Dimensional Warp – why? Again, Dimensional Shift is something you want to be using as little as possible.

Tier 7:

• Resurgence of the Storm – bullshit talent. I predict Blizzard will delete this talent soon. No MOBA has ever made a generally available instant-revive component work. It’s either useless or broken beyond belief. Right now it’s the latter.
• Storm Shield – no one takes this.
• Twilight Archon – everyone takes this.
• Force Barrier – makes Force Barrier easy to use. I think the range should be baked into Force Wall and the talent given another component.

Current State and recommendations:

Tassadar’s support side needs some buffs. Right now everyone seems to go assassin Tassadar, and I think the reason is the same one behind his recent nerfs: he doesn’t give up much to do damage, so why would you go support unless you’re overloaded on damage already? Tassadar support needs to bring a little more active and reliable utility to the battlefield. Until Level 20, Force Wall is hard to use due to its short range, and Oracle is great but very, very passive and boring. On the other side of the spectrum, assassin Tassadar needs more flavor and some toning down to give support Tassadar room to shine, namely some tradeoffs for his damage.

Suggested talent changes. These are brainstorming ideas, nothing more. They are not meant to be taken too seriously:

Tier 1:

• Minion Bulwark replaced with Khala’s Wisdom – If your shield is consumed with X seconds or expires without absorbing any damage, Y(%) of the mana cost is refunded.
  • Do you want to go for long-term mana regeneration for more general utility, or shield heavy for support Tassadar? It at least offers a potential decision, as opposed to now.

Tier 2:

• Leeching Plasma (active talent) – Tassadar converts X of his remaining shield into Y stored damage that will be dealt by his next basic attack. This damage can stack up to Z, but will be lost if not used within A seconds.
  • Such a component would add some interactivity to his damage build and force you to make decisions on whether to risk your shield for burst. It would also tone down his innate utility by motivating him to shield himself over his allies.
• Reinforce Structure – Reinforce Structure now reduces damage taken by the building by X% for Y seconds.
  • Gives the talent some added value. It might not save the talent, but it’s at least something.

Tier 3:

• Deep Shift replaced with Dimensional Distortion – Deep Shift costs no mana and stuns enemies around you for Y seconds upon exiting it.
  • Allows Deep Shift to be used offensively, and makes the other Deep Shift-themed talents more appealing. Could also consider a cooldown reduction element instead of a mana cost one.

Tier 4:

• Force Wall – make Force Barrier’s range increase baseline; nerf Force Wall’s baseline duration to compensate.

Tier 5:

• Scryer – No longer gives increased duration. Casting Scryer grants X% movement speed to yourself and all allied champions in its initial cast range for Y seconds. Enemy champions revealed by Oracle are visible for Z seconds even if they leave Oracle’s range.
  • By making Scryer an active speed boost to your teammates, it makes the spell a little more interactive.

Tier 6:

• Resonation – reduces Psionic Storm’s duration/damage by X%, but enemies struck by Psionic Storm are rooted for Y seconds.
  • Y would have to be brief, but making Psionic Storm a brief root or stun would add some reliability to spell and make Overload a much more attractive talent. As a tradeoff, its duration or damage would be reduced.

Tier 7:

• Force Barrier – Force Wall’s cooldown is reduced by X seconds and its duration is increased by Y seconds.

Despite all of this feedback, Tassadar is a pretty fun champion, one I look forward to making one of my support mains as the game progresses towards release.