Johanna Abilities and Strategy
Welcome to our Abilities page for Johanna. Here, we give you an overview of every ability in Johanna's kit. For each of them, we explain what it does, how to best use it, and how it works in combination with Johanna's other abilities. We also give you strategy tips to play Johanna efficiently.
Johanna's Tips and Tricks
- Try to damage and Slow adjacent enemy Heroes with Punish, usually after casting Condemn to group them.
- Condemn can interrupt animations (such as Dwarf Toss by Muradin) or channelling Abilities (for example Mosh Pit by E.T.C.).
- Use Shield Glare to Blind enemies that deal significant damage with Basic Attacks.
- Use Blessed Shield to engage, buy time to flee, or to interrupt enemies that are channelling Abilities (such as Holy Word: Salvation by Anduin).
- Use Iron Skin just prior to an enemy using crowd control on you and/or to mitigate incoming burst damage.
Punish
- Mana: 40
- Cooldown: 8 seconds
Step forward dealing 113 (+4% per level) damage and Slowing enemies by 60% decaying over 2 seconds.
Punish is a Basic Ability that deals a minor amount of damage and applies a decaying Slow to enemies in a small area in front of Johanna, useful for peeling melee Heroes away from your team and/or for engaging on enemy Heroes.
The short range requires you to be in the midst of the fighting in order to hit enemy Heroes, but Condemn can be used to line up targets for Punish, pulling all nearby enemies within range and thus allowing you to easily hit multiple enemy Heroes at the same time.
Condemn
- Mana: 50
- Cooldown: 10 seconds
After 1 second, Johanna pulls nearby enemies toward her, Stunning them for 0.25 seconds and dealing 55 (+4% per level) damage. Deals 200% increased damage to Minions and Mercenaries.
Condemn is a Basic Ability that, after a short delay, briefly Stuns all enemies around Johanna.
With the exception of clearing Minions and Mercenaries who will take triple damage from it, Condemn should be used purely for its utility because it does not deal a lot of damage.
When you want to engage and you do not have your Heroic Ability available, you should usually start the fight with Condemn to pull one or more enemy Heroes towards you and then follow up with Punish while your team adds crowd control and damage.
In case you need to interrupt a particular enemy Ability (for example Holy Word: Salvation by Anduin, especially if he has Light of Stormwind at Level 20), you better keep Condemn ready to use rather than wasting it on cooldown.
Shield Glare
- Mana: 45
- Cooldown: 12 seconds
Deal 59 (+4% per level) damage to enemies and Blind them for 1.5 seconds.
Shield Glare is a Basic Ability whose primary effect is to Blind, even if it deals a small amount of damage to them.
Rather than using it only to deal damage, you better use Shield Glare to get Valeera out of Stealth, dismount enemy Heroes who are trying to engage (important against Garrosh), or reduce the damage done by enemy Heroes that heavily rely on Basic Attacks (for example Greymane, especially when he commits in Worgen Form).
Falling Sword
In this section we discuss how this Heroic Ability works and give some tips on how to use it. If you are looking for a detailed explanation on when and why you should pick it, check out the dedicated section in the Talent Build page.
- Heroic
- Mana: 60
- Cooldown: 50 seconds
Johanna leaps into the air for 2 seconds and she can steer the landing location by moving. While in the air, allies below Johanna are Unstoppable. Upon landing enemies hit take 225 (+4% per level) damage and are Stunned for 0.25 seconds.
Falling Sword is a Heroic Ability that makes Johanna disappear from the battlefield for 2 seconds while in the air, give Unstoppable to allied Heroes below her while flying, and then land in the chosen position, damaging and briefly Stunning enemies hit.
While flying, Johanna goes into Stasis, meaning that you can cast this Ability to dodge targeted effects (for example Last Rites by Malthael) or to remove from yourself damage over time that would otherwise kill you.
At the end of the flying animation, Johanna will hit all enemies around her landing point. In particular, the impact will deal a moderate amount of damage and briefly Stun all enemies in the area.
Even if you can use it to escape from danger when necessary, Falling Sword is a powerful dive tool that can be used offensively to close the gap between her and enemy Heroes. Keep in mind that going in aggressively could backfire because Johanna will be isolated from her team for a few seconds and her team will be without a Tank to peel for them, giving the enemy team a big opportunity to burst down someone, however, the ability to make allied Heroes Unstoppable can help with that.
Blessed Shield
In this section we discuss how this Heroic Ability works and give some tips on how to use it. If you are looking for a detailed explanation on when and why you should pick it, check out the dedicated section in the Talent Build page.
- Heroic
- Mana: 90
- Cooldown: 60 seconds
Deal 114 (+4% per level) damage and Stun the first enemy hit for 1.5 seconds. Blessed Shield then bounces to 2 nearby enemies, dealing 57 (+4% per level) damage and Stunning them for 0.75 seconds.
Blessed Shield is a Heroic Ability that Johanna can use to patch out her lack of engage tools and to further improve her peeling capabilities.
The long Stun it provides on the primary target gives you enough time to close the gap between you and the target enemy Hero when using it from maximum range. This kind of engage requires you to have good aim and your team to be ready to follow up. In case you miss, you can even consider to disengage and try again later, unless you really have to fight, in which case you will play defensively rather than aggressively while waiting for its cooldown.
Iron Skin
- Cooldown: 22 seconds
Activate to grant Johanna a Shield that absorbs 810 (+4% per level) damage for 4 seconds. While this Shield is active, Johanna is Unstoppable.
Iron Skin is a Trait that gives Johanna a huge Shield which also makes her Unstoppable for the duration, meaning that destroying the Shield will make the Unstoppable end preemptively.
The ability to become Unstoppable can help you to survive situations that would have otherwise meant certain death as it allows you to completely negate enemy crowd control effects. Do not waste it because Johanna without Iron Skin can easily be killed.
You should generally use Iron Skin to prevent crowd control that is going to be lethal, so when you expect a powerful follow-up. Sometimes it is also fine to use it when engaging with Condemn, to deny enemy crowd control that would otherwise stop you, but keep in mind that you are vulnerable right after.
Changelog
- 16 Nov. 2024: Guide reviewed.
- 30 Mar. 2022: Guide reviewed for the latest Balance Update.
- 07 Dec. 2021: Guide reviewed for the latest Major Patch.
- 18 Jun. 2021: Guide reviewed for the latest Balance Update.
- 17 May 2021: Guide reviewed for the latest Patch.
- 09 Nov. 2020: Ability descriptions fixed.
- 16 Jul. 2020: Guide reviewed for the latest Balance Update.
- 10 Jul. 2020: Ability Descriptions modified to better explain how to use Abilities effectively.
- 29 Jan. 2018: Added Falling Sword to the page.
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Elitesparkle is a multiple times Master player in Europe who plays Heroes of the Storm since its release. He is an active member of the community who likes to teach new and veteran players all he knows about his favorite game.
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