Kharazim Build Guide “Feel the wrath of Ytar!”
Welcome to our guide for Kharazim, a Healer in Heroes of the Storm. Within these pages, you will find everything required to understand how best to play this hero, in both different map styles and team compositions.
Kharazim's Overview
Kharazim is a hybrid character who fits into the role of both a melee Assassin and a Healer. He combines deadly Basic Attacks with great mobility in order to either damage his foes or assist his allies. There is hardly any other Hero in the game that compares to Kharazim's dynamic playstyle. It is important to mention, however, that he does require strong mechanics and a lot of experience in order to unfold his true potential, which is why we consider Kharazim to be one of the harder Heroes to truly master..
Kharazim's Strengths and Weaknesses
- Great utility
- Very mobile
- Can be played as either Healer or melee Assassin
- High damage against single targets
- 2 viable Heroic Abilities
- Great chase potential
- Has one of the best cleanses in the game
- Good against Heroes reliant on Basic Attacks, due to Earth Ally
- Weak against blinds
- Healing power is very dependent on Talents
- No crowd control
- Fairly high learning curve
- Both Heroic Abilities require experience to be properly used
Kharazim's Talent Build Cheatsheet
Radiant Dash Build
RecommendedKharazim's Radiant Dash Build relies on both outstanding mobility and good gameplay. While Talents like Cleansing Touch or Way of the Hundred Fists are hard to use correctly, they will be good in every match when used properly. At Level 13, Quicksilver is the default Talent, but it is important to carefully analyze the enemy team composition's main sources of damage. If they have strong Basic Attackers and crowd control effects, Sixth Sense gains a lot of value. However, if most of their damage comes from Abilities, Spell Shield can be a worthy replacement.
Way of the Hundred Fists will be a good Talent in every game. However, if you are used to Kharazim, we recommend going for Cleansing Touch instead. It is one of the best cleanse effects in the whole game, since it can be used multiple times on multiple allies. Even if the enemy team does not have Stuns or Roots, it can be very useful together with Quicksilver, because you will be able to use it on your Tank to enhance their engage. An Unstoppable Garrosh with 30% extra Movement Speed is very dangerous, for example.
Epiphany can be a good option at Level 20, it allows him to instantly restore Mana and two of his Radiant Dash charges at once. Still, other Talents at this tier are very relevant as well. We want to highlight that going for the Radiant Dash Build even when being the solo Healer in your team is doable due to the fact that you still put out enough healing while also providing a surprising amount of kill potential.
Breath of Heaven Build
BeginnerKharazim's Breath of Heaven Build is an easier build to use than the Radiant Dash one, we recommend it for new players using Kharazim as main Healer. Even though this is a healing build, we do not recommend Transcendence, because it only provides a heal that cannot be aimed, has small range, and is mostly unnecessary. Iron Fists will greatly increase all your damage, and in many situations it will be the difference between killing your target or not. It will also be a much better Talent when it comes to releasing Mercenaries or clearing them.
There are a few situational Talents available, which depend on what the enemy team's composition consists of. At Level 4, Earth Ally can be replaced by Air Ally if the enemy team does not have any Basic Attackers. At Level 13 Sixth Sense gains a lot of value against Basic Attackers and crowd control and is usually a safe bet in most games. If most of the damage comes from Abilities, Spell Shield can be a worthy replacement. Finally, at Level 20, Storm Shield is a good Talent against area of effect damage and can generally be picked instead of Peaceful Repose or Transgression.
Kharazim's Synergies and Counters
Kharazim's Maps
Kharazim is a solid pick on most maps with Braxis Holdout and Tomb of the Spider Queen being the two major exceptions. The most important reason why we do not recommend Kharazim on those maps is his utter lack of waveclear. On Battlefield of Eternity, however, his strong single-target damage and the ability to heal without using a lot of Mana make him a valuable asset to his team composition.
Kharazim excels at speeding up Mercenaries. Maps like Sky Temple, Dragon Shire, or Hanamura Temple are also good options for him, since Mercenaries are excellent on those maps.
Kharazim's Tips and Tricks
- Radiant Dash can be used on your Elemental Allies (even over Walls and other unpassable terrain) in order to escape pursuing enemies.
- Avoid smashing your Q-button too quickly when playing Kharazim, as it may cause Radiant Dash to use both charges on the same target.
- Do not use any healing or shielding abilities on the target you used Divine Palm on before it gets triggered.
- During team fights, especially in the later stages of the game, it is often better to use Radiant Dash on allies in order to heal them and reposition yourself.
- It is incredibly important to wait for the right moment before you use Seven-Sided Strike. Ideally, you want to focus its damage on one enemy only to unfold all its damage on the same target. It is good to wait for the target to be immobile to dash towards a point in which your ult will only hit that specific target.
- Use your Earth Ally very early into the fight, since it has a long duration and will mitigate much damage.
- Both Quicksilver and Cleansing Touch can be used either as a peeling Ability, or as an engage tool. By dashing towards your tank, you will be enabling an unstoppable Garrosh with extra Movement Speed to catch an enemy.
Kharazim's Role in the Current Meta
Kharazim's potent defensive and offensive skills make him one of the most flexible Heroes in the game, which causes him to fit into a variety of team compositions, even if your team already has a Healer. Although he does not always have an easy time at keeping an entire team alive on his own, Breath of Heaven provides a useful low-cooldown healing spell that is capable of healing and accelerating several allies at the same time. If you team lacks damage, a Radiant Dash centric Talent Build turns Kharazim into a dangerous brawler, capable of wreaking havoc within the enemy ranks.
We find Kharazim to be a rather situational pick in competitive play, depending on what your team composition needs you to be. What makes Kharazim a very interesting choice as well is the fact that his talent tree is incredibly versatile. Talents such as Spirit Ally, Earth Ally, or Spell Shield allow him to adapt to nearly any situation.
Changelog
- 11 Dec. 2022 (talents page): Updated Talent recommendations to match Kharazim's main Build.
- 24 Jul. 2021 (talents page): Added Fists of Legend's description.
- 26 Mar. 2021 (talents page): Updated Talent recommendations.
- 31 Jul. 2020 (this page): Updated Kharazim's level 16 Talent relevance.
- 16 Jul. 2020 (this page): Guide reviewed after recent balance patch and no changes are necessary.
- 06 Jun. 2020 (talents page): Removed a misleading information in Echo of Heaven's description.
- 15 May 2020 (abilities page): Updated Transcendence and Insight descriptions to match Talent discussion.
- 15 May 2020 (this page): Made small changes to ensure meta relevance.
- 16 Apr. 2020 (talents page): Updated Kharazim's Builds and Talents to better reflect current meta.
- 23 Jan. 2020 (talents page): Updated Kharazim's Builds in accordance with the latest Balance Update. Air Ally is now a Situational choice in both Builds.
- 13 Dec. 2019 (this page): Added an entry about the current Anomaly to the guide.
- 12 Jun. 2019 (talents page): Updated the entire Kharazim guide to better reflect the current state of the game.
- 23 May 2019 (talents page): Updated Kharazim's talents and builds in accordance with the latest Balance Update.
- 02 Nov. 2017 (talents page): Updated Kharazim's Level 1 talents following the latest balance update.
- 02 Nov. 2017 (abilities page): Updated Transcendence, Iron Fists, and Insight following the latest balance update.
- 21 May 2017 (talents page): Changed and updated Kharazim's Level 13 and 16 talents.
- 06 Jan. 2017 (talents page): Revisited Tier 1 talent assessments.
- 22 Nov. 2016 (this page): Kharazim rework under the new guide format.
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Derenash has been playing Heroes of the Storm since 2015 and has achieved Grandmaster in multiple seasons, peaking at Top 1 in Season 3 and 4 of 2018. He participated in the HGC Copa America in 2018 where his team had a strong victory. He is passionate about teaching others about the game, and streams often on Twitch in Portuguese, and you can find him in Wind Striders' Discord as well where he is happy to answer any questions in English or Portuguese.
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