heroes Free-to-Play Hero Rotation: Week of March 1st

[Stan 5,239]

A new week (and month) has begun and the free Hero rotation has been updated as well.

Free-to-Play Hero Rotation: March 1, 2022

• Malfurion
• Valla
• Gazlowe
• Johanna
• Thrall
• Dehaka
• Tychus
• Sylvanas
• Fenix
• Ana
• Malthael
• Deckard
• Orphea

Data taken from The Nexus Compendium

[Apologised 20]

So, this weeks theme it would appear is: "pick a F-ing healer for once you pieces of *filtered*!" with no less than four in rotation. Some good choices in the other classes as well at least.

Malfurion
I can't think of a worse healer in this game than Malf. His base heal is essentially a regen effects, no more impressive than Brightwings, and whilst yes he can supplement that by hitting heroes with his Skillshot. That skillshot has the tiniest AoE in the world and the healing amount still isn't that great. Compare this to say Brightwing or Lucio who can heal their team just by standing near them. It's too much work for too little effort, and outside of an incredibly easy to dodge AoE root the only thing he has going for him is a Mana regen ability... in a game where something like a third to half of the heroes don't have mana, and when they do, they often don't really ever worry about it running out.
Trash. He's trash. I'm sorry, but he is.

Valla
As I've said before her old Multishot build no longer brings all the boys from the yard. So most people go Hungering Arrow build now, and it works. AA build can also be pretty nasty and there's loads of ways to build that. She's fragile as hell and tempting as it is, you probably shouldn't use her Vault as an engage unless you absolutely know you will get a kill from it and wont die immiediately afterwards. ESPECIALLY if you picked the gambit talent.

Gazlowe
Offlaner and Jungler, Gazlowe can't tank like he used to before they nerfed some of his talents post rework. His Melee build is pretty decent if you like that sort of thing and his Grav-Bomb can pull off some insane results if you get it right, but he definitely feels like he's been overnerfed somewhere. Not a bad hero, but his a middle of the pack bruiser as it stands.

Johanna
The tankiest tank in all of tankdom. Jo has incredible survivability which you can buff even further by giving her an escape in the form of Falling Sword. But Blessed Shield can work well also. Hell, they even gave her a LVL7 escape talent in the form of Steed Charge, allowing her to just horse up and nope out of trouble. A walking black hole of incredible denseness, killing her will only happen if she seriously F's up or you have better than usual team coordination for QM.

Thrall
A bruiser who falls more on the damage dealer side of that class. Thrall has a similar feel to Raynor, both with how his trait works, but also with how they're both decent middle of pack, reliable heroes who can get things done and can fill a role no matter where needed. Earthquake is probably better than Sundering as  heroics go, a tarpit over that kind of area can really ruin certain team compositions and usually will cause people to panic and break formation.
Like Raynor, he's a decent Jungler as well, so always check to see if anyone is doing that and if not, START DOING IT YOURSELF.
SERIOUSLY. THIS IS HEROES OF THE STORM. THESE MERC CAMPS ARE *NOT* OPTIONAL. SOMEBODY HAS TO BE TAKING THEM EVERY GAME.

Dehaka
Falling on the Tanky side of the bruiser equation, to the point that frankly I feel like he should be classed as such, Dahaka is amazingly good. He needs his essence stacks though, so he can't just re-engage whenever he likes however. By lategame he could also be doing a decent chunk of damage per swipe, and with Feeding Frenzy, you could be constantly stunlocking a target in the middle of a teamfight. Great Bruiser.

Tychus
The Devs forgot he existed. No really. They had to rework on release Malth because they forgot they already HAD a guy who did exactly the same thing as that version of Malth did. Well, believe that or not, the fact is that Tychus was a hero the devs had completely forgot existed... and then they released Deathwing. They noticed then. Oh boy did they. In the face of EVERY GAME having an unstunnable hyper-opressive, hard to kill dragon that could also dish out completely broken levels of damage, one man answered the call to heroism.
Tychus is pretty good now that you can just buff his range on level one. I've seen people do Grenade build with him, and then lose, because that's a S*** build for plebs. In the Rythymn, apart from being impossible to spell, is a great source of seratonin as you melt enemy Stitches to goo. Odin however is a massive letdown and even though it's not the best of heroics, you should always pick Mining Laser over that, because what IS amazing, is the amount of damage your minigun trait will do. WAY more than the Odin heroic would be capable of.
Oh, and combat tactician is so good, it should be baseline.

Sylvanus
Didn't come out too badly from the transition from Support to Assassin. Like most though she's still more comfortable taking down creep waves and knocking down towers by herself. Mercenary Queen is a good talent on maps with Turrets, but otherwise, Possession is probably better for fort pressure.
She can do a tonne of damage if she's allowed, but she's pretty easy to take down if she hasn't set up an escape route first so in a teamfight she's usually the first one killed. As for heroics... please stop picking Mind Control. It's vastly gimped compared to how it used to be and Black Arrow is vastly better now. A teamwide Silence is more useful than 1.75 second crowd control effect. No it's not situational. Shut up.

Fenix
Really nice Ranged Assassin, but not as tanky as you think he is, once the shields go down you are in real trouble. Learn to teleport out of danger ahead of time. Or you'll die. Working out how to get Plasma Cutter to work how you want it is a big part of his gameplan. Pretty decent on waveclear and AA damage, working out when to switch between the two is also important. Essentially he's got a lot going on for him, but he's worth the effort. As for heroics, they both kind of feel a little weaker than you would think. Purification Salvo never really seems to do the damage you'd want it to (Note: With the 50% damage increase to slowed targets, AND Thrall's Earthquake in rotation, now might be the time to actually press enter and talk to another human being in QM!) Whilst Planet Cracker can do amazing damage... IF you can have another hero set it up with a big AOE Crowd Control. He takes a lot of practice, but can work great when he clicks.

Whitemane.
Exists. I guess? Easier to use than Malf. But... that's really damning with faint praise. She's fine, but... she doesn't really excel anywhere.

Ana
You try to shoot health into people they juke you. Then complain that you aren't healing them. Welcome to the sisphyean hell that is trying to play QM with an Ana. That's basically it for her. You shoot health. You sometimes throw it. Other times you shoot sleepy times at people.
Okay. Now that THATS out of the way, let's discuss something I said I would last week with Morales.
STOP PICKING NANO BOOST IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT IT DOES YOU FREAKING MORONS. NANO BOOST IS THE ONE THAT BUFFS MAGES. MORALES IS THE ONE WITH THE BUFFS FOR AUTO ATTACKERS.
YOU SHOULD BE PICKING EYE OF OSIRIS ANYWAY YOU ABSOLUTELY SHAMBLES.
Seriously Eye is better in QM in almost all situations. This is QM, you didn't set up a combo for Nano-Boost, so don't take it. Just sit in the backline TRY to shoot health into ingrates in front of you, and if they don't get a kill, press R and start shooting retreating heroes.

Malth
The other %health damage dealer. The not as good one. A bruiser with the tank of a Melee Assassin (and not Qhira either) and the damage output of a Tank.
Keen.
The only real way you can do decent damage with him is a very janky Wraith Strike build that abuses Tormented Souls CD resets of that skill. But even then...
Where he really shines however is in Jungling. This guy is probably the best Solo Merc Camp taker in the entire game, beating Illidan for speed. Can't solo boss camps though, unlike a later game Varian. So, if you do pick Malth, make THAT your aim.

Deckard
The most forgiving of the skillshot healers since if he misses, the potion is still there on the floor to be picked up later. Some level of thinking ahead is always welcome however and it might be worth getting into the habit of setting up a few potions near an upcoming objective, or at least, somewhere the rest of your party isn't going to die trying to get. A good slow that synergises with his root rounds out his kit neatly. He's also one of the few healers who can heal himself as well as others, not something that common. Just remember, in a pinch, pressing Alt+Q will autocast the ability on yourself.
As for heroics, Lorenado can be disruptive in small tight corridors, but Stay Awhile is probably the one with more utility. Neither are anything more than a part of a well rounded kit though. Endless Flasks is usually my lvl20 talent of choice, but Respect the Elderly has tons of impact as well.

Orphea
A very rewarding mage assassin who demands you to get gud with your skillshots. Capable of amazing damage and mobility, as well as surprising tankiness later one, Orph can get the job done if you personally know what your doing. Very satisfying when it comes together. Awkward heroics though. One needs a decent AoE crowd control to combo with (or a battleground) whilst the other is good for setting up wombo combos... but this is QM my doods. Wombo Combo's require teamwork. Worth a go for sure.