E.T.C. Talents

Level	Choices
1	✓ ? ?
4	? ✓ ?
7	? ✓ ?
10	✓ ?
13	? ✓ ?
16	✓ ? ?
20	? ? ? ? ✓

Guitar Hero is a strong Talent which provides a moderate amount of self-sustain while hitting enemies with Basic Attacks during Guitar Solo, regardless of them being Heroes or not. In addition to that, it also extends the duration of Guitar Solo by a considerable amount, allowing you get more value from other Talents which empower it.

We find this Talent quite powerful while laning and in prolonged team fights, but pretty much useless against burst damage. Furthermore, since it works off Basic Attacks, it is countered by Blinds.

Prog Rock is a good Quest-based Talent that provides a reasonable and reliable amount of self sustain for each Regeneration Globe collected, and, after getting 20 of them during the course of the game, this effect is also extended to allied Heroes, making it an effective counter to some amount of poke damage and just generally good for recuperating Health.

Block Party is a strong Talent which gives to you and allied Heroes nearby Block charges every time you use an Ability, including Heroic Abilities.

In particular, Block Party is especially valuable when playing against Heroes with slow but heavy-hitting Basic Attacks (such as Hanzo) and really bad when playing against Heroes with fast-hitting Basic Attacks (like Tychus).

Crowd Surfer is a situational Talent that allows E.T.C. to pass through otherwise impassable terrain, giving him extra defensive and aggressive opportunities in narrow areas (for example on Cursed Hollow), and reduces the cooldown of Powerslide when it doesn't hit anyone.

Consider going for this Talent when playing against Heroes who can block your path (such as Tassadar with Force Wall) to avoid being stuck in a dangerous position.

Loud Speakers is a strong Talent that significantly increases the range of Face Melt, allowing you to make plays that would be otherwise impossible.

You can use this Talent to split the enemy team, to better peel for allied Heroes, to save yourself from danger, or even have an easier time when trying to interrupt enemy Abilities.

Speed Metal is a good Talent which, when using Abilities, provides a constant and solid Movement Speed buff to E.T.C. and nearby allied Heroes.

Movement Speed gives both offensive and defensive utility: it helps with Basic Attacks uptime, positioning, body-blocking, escaping, and avoiding skillshot-based Abilities.

Consider picking this Talent when you have gone for Guitar Hero at Level 1 and are planning to go for Hammer-on at Level 7 as it helps you to stick on enemy Heroes while hitting them with Basic Attacks.

Pinball Wizard is a good Talent that greatly increases the damage done by Face Melt if it deals damage within 2 seconds after Powerslide hit the same target.

As a general rule, you should wait for Powerslide's Stun to end before using Face Melt, even when having Pinball Wizard. The 2-second window is more than enough for waiting allied Heroes to follow up with their skillshot-based Abilities the 1.25-second Stun provided by Powerslide before you suddenly move the targets with Face Melt.

You should avoid using Pinball Wizard for clearing Minions and Mercenaries, however, sometimes it may be the correct play. Just make sure that there are no enemy Heroes nearby before wasting all your survivability tools like that and that you will not need them to fight in the next dozen of seconds.

Stage Dive requires you to have Powerslide ready to use at any moment, so you cannot waste it for clearing Minions and Mercenaries. As a consequence, if you are playing E.T.C. as Offlaner and thus plan to pick Stage Dive later on, do not pick Pinball Wizard.

Hammer-on is a strong Talent which increases your Attack damage while Guitar Solo is active. Without the help of Talents, this effect lasts 4 seconds.

If you want to empower this Talent, you can go for Guitar Hero at Level 1 to increase its duration by up to 7 seconds, from 4 seconds to a maximum of 11 seconds when you are allowed to constantly use Basic Attacks. Furthermore, the fact it increases the damage you deal with Basic Attacks means you will get more healing from Guitar Hero at Level 1.

Keep in mind that Blinds can be used to counter this Talent as it works off Basic Attacks. When that is the case, consider replacing it with either Pinball Wizard or Echo Pedal.

Echo Pedal is a good Talent which boosts your waveclear after using any Ability, allowing you to easily kill enemy Minions and Mercenaries.

We recommend this Talent when playing E.T.C. as Offlaner because it allows you to get rid of enemy Minions and Mercenaries by using Guitar Solo. This way you will be able to keep Powerslide off cooldown, available for offensive or defensive usage immediately after landing with Stage Dive.

In this section we discuss when and why to pick a given Heroic Ability. If you want to read how they work in detail and/or you are looking for some tips on how to use them, check them out on the Abilities and Strategy page.

Mosh Pit is a strong Heroic Ability even when the enemy team has multiple interrupts at their disposal, however, in that case it will be harder to use because you will need to mentally track their cooldowns and only use Mosh Pit when none capable of interrupting it will be nearby, outside of its area.

The best interrupts for Mosh Pit are ranged ones (for example Wave of Force by Li-Ming) because Heroes who can stay at a distance are not easy to catch, especially if they also have mobility tools. So, when facing many of them, you will have a hard time finding a good Mosh Pit during the game, however, the enemy team will still have to constantly respect it by saving interrupts and by positioning accordingly.

Encore at Level 13 is a great Talent to pick when going for Mosh Pit as your Heroic Ability as it allows you to reduce its extremely long cooldown, so that you can use it more often when not interrupted or that you can get it back faster when interrupted.

If you get interrupted during the initial wind-up, Mosh Pit will go on a 10-second cooldown. Encore at Level 13 can also reduce that cooldown, however, smart opponents will first let you successfully cast Mosh Pit and then interrupt it.

Stage Dive is a good Heroic Ability which can be picked for one or more of the following reasons:

• the enemy team has too many ways to play around Mosh Pit and you don't want to risk it;
• your team has another main Tank and you have planned to play E.T.C. as Offlaner, at least after Level 10;
• your team wants to dive the enemy backline to exploit their vulnerability;
• the enemy team has powerful targeted Abilities which can be dodged with the Invulnerable frames you get while in the air.

When playing Stage Dive as main Tank, it is extremely important to stay with your team and not split to soak like you would do when playing Stage Dive as an Offlaner instead.

Mic Check is a good Talent which heavily reduces the cooldown of Face Melt when hitting multiple enemies.

You should pick this Talent when you need extra peeling for your team. If you see that team fights are not lasting more than 5 seconds, however, you may want to avoid this Talent as it will rarely give you value.

Loud Speakers at Level 4 is quite important to have when planning to go for this Talent later on, else you will rarely be able to hit multiple Heroes with it.

Encore is a strong Talent that provides a powerful cooldown reduction effect for your Heroic Abilities (5% corresponds to 6 seconds for Mosh Pit and 3.75 seconds for Stage Dive) as well as a second pulse of Face Melt after a short delay.

If you do not need more peeling tools to protect allied Heroes, you can take Encore to greatly decrease the cooldown of Mosh Pit. The cooldown reduction also works on the 10-second cooldown you get on Mosh Pit when interrupted during the initial wind-up, however, smart opponents will first let you successfully cast Mosh Pit and then interrupt it.

Loud Speakers at Level 4 only increases the radius of the first hit but will help you hit multiple enemy Heroes with the first hit. On the other hand, when not having Loud Speakers at Level 4 you will be able to hit same Hero with both the first and second hit by using Face Melt at melee distance and Powerslide on them immediately after.

Face Smelt is a decent Talent that empowers the already strong Face Melt by making it apply a decaying Slow to all enemy Heroes hit.

Consider picking this Talent when having picked Guitar Hero at Level 1 and Hammer-on at Level 7 as it helps you with sticking on enemy Heroes while hitting them with Basic Attacks, or in synergy with allied Heroes who benefit from Slows (such as Raynor with Ace In The Hole at Level 1).

Show Stopper is a strong Talent which gives you a fair amount of Armor for a few seconds after Powerslide's animation ends.

If you find yourself getting inexplicably bursted down too often after initiating fights, Show Stopper is there to provide you with all necessary added survivability.

Since you already get 20 Armor from Rockstar and considering that Armor does not stack additively with other sources, Show Stopper basically gives you 15 Armor on top of it. All that said, do not underestimate its value because Armor gets exponentially more powerful the higher it becomes.

Aggressive Shredding is a decent Talent that increases your self-sustain by significantly improving Guitar Solo's uptime, but only when you get to use Basic Attacks uncontested.

A less obvious benefit of this Talent is the ability to cheaply and frequently trigger Echo Pedal at Level 7, which is great when playing as Offlaner, or Prog Rock at Level 1, which gives team-wide healing.

Imposing Presence is a situational Talent that passively reduces the Attack Speed of enemy Heroes attacking E.T.C and, when activated, applies a Slow and reduces the Attack Speed of nearby enemy Heroes and Summons.

Reducing the Attack Speed is multiplicative with Block Party at Level 1, so you will get more value from them when combined together. That said, Imposing Presence helps you in a situation where Block Party is not effective: facing Heroes with high Attack Speed (such as Tracer) or with Basic Attacks that can hit multiple times (see Genji).

Tour Bus is a situational Talent that makes Mosh Pit extremely punishing against teams that lack the interruption to deal with the channel. In some occasions, however, you can use the free Powerslide to dodge interrupts.

Use it to catch more enemy Heroes than you typically would by only using the regular Mosh Pit instead, as the Powerslide reset feature gives you a second chance to hit enemy Heroes you missed.

When having this Talent, you can even cast a Mosh Pit that hits no one in the beginning and then move it on top of enemy Heroes thanks to the free Powerslide you will get when it starts.

Crowd Pleaser is a good Talent that turns Stage Dive into an absolutely fearsome engage tool. With such a wide area of effect, it becomes difficult for everyone to avoid the Ability. In addition to that, its Slow will be more potent than before.

Death Metal is an extremely situational Talent which usually requires you to die specifically near enemy Heroes to be impactful, and also requires allied Heroes to be able to follow up on the impending Mosh Pit.

The upside is that a Mosh Pit coming from a dead E.T.C. cannot be interrupted. If you find yourself dying often, this Talent may have significant payoff, especially if you manage to position yourself right next to your opponents when you expect to die within 2 seconds.

You may need this Talent when playing with Stage Dive against enemy teams who tend to focus E.T.C. immediately after landing, but you can also pick it in other circumstances for similar reasons. Alternatively, it can be used against team compositions featuring 4 melee or low-range Heroes because they will struggle to finish you off without being caught by Death Metal immediately after, especially if they lack mobility tools.

Storm Shield is a situational Talent that may be useful when you feel like your peeling tools are not enough to keep allied Heroes alive, whether because the enemy team has too much burst damage or mobility. You can also use it to boost E.T.C's own survivability.

When using Storm Shield, keep in mind two things:

• the Shield provided does not stack with Shields coming from other Talents with the exact same name, but only refreshes its amount and duration;
• being based on maximum Health, the Shield generated is more effective on some Heroes and less effective on others.

Bolt of the Storm is a strong Talent which can be used to instantly teleport from a position to another within range.

You can use this Talent for either offensive or defensive plays, from simply repositioning to dodging an enemy Ability. When in danger, use it to increase the distance from enemy Heroes, preferably by teleporting across impassable terrain. When your team is ready to follow up, feel free to use it as a range extender for your Powerslide and try to get a good Mosh Pit.