Tychus Talents

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

Quarterback's increased range on Frag Grenade can help you land the killing blow on enemies who are fleeing from combat. You can safely poke for decent damage when coupled with Titan Grenade. Quarterback can be an effective means of canceling channeled Abilities, especially when used to cancel Heroics. Quarterback is also useful on Maps where it can be used to interrupt enemy Heroes who are channeling an Objective.

Dash greatly increases Run and Gun's effect on Tychus's mobility. This can further your ability to kite effectively, and allows you to deliver additional Basic Attacks to enemy Heroes who are moving away from you. Dash is strong against teams that rely heavily on skillshots that can be avoided.

Press the Advantage helps Tychus deal Minigun damage from a safer distance. It is a great way to open up more opportunities to use Minigun. However, it is not very effective if you have excellent crowd control in your team, as you will be able to hit the target with any Talent.

In the Rhythm is a great Talent because it allows you to increase Minigun's duration. This is dependent on efficiently gaining stacks of In the Rhythm, which can be extremely difficult against team compositions that can outrange Minigun. In addition to this weakness, In the Rhythm will increase the amount of time you will need to wait for Minigun to end. We recommend going for In the Rhythm if you will not be able to get much value out of The Bigger They Are..., which will happen against Garrosh, Medivh or against a good Johanna.

The Bigger They Are... is an excellent way to get an enemy Hero to low Health more quickly, which can inspire your allies to assist with a Takedown. Although Minigun will no longer affect low Health enemy Heroes, you can often secure a kill by using your other damage dealing Abilities. This is a great Talent against Tanks with high Health, like Cho, Diablo, or Stitches.

Master Assassin may not be able to compete with its counterparts in pure Basic Attack damage, but it is the only Talent that will enhance Tychus during Commandeer Odin. During the mid to late game, most fights will happen while Tychus is in Odin. This is an excellent Talent for that reason.

Melting Point greatly increases Tychus's waveclear, while also adding a good extra damage into fights. This Talent is excellent with Quarterback, since it will allow you to poke enemies from a safer distance, by using Frag Grenade more frequently.

Combat Tactician greatly reduces the cooldown of Minigun whenever Run and Gun is cast. However, the cooldown reduction will not apply while Minigun is active. This Talent is good against compositions with many Heroes with a high Health pool, like Blaze and Diablo.

Relentless Soldier is a powerful Talent when the enemy team has many Stuns or Roots. You are able to live in situations that would otherwise kill you, and this can be the difference between your team winning or losing a team fight. Remember that Armor from different sources does not stack.

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.

Commandeer Odin provides Tychus with a powerful set of alternate Abilities, which cost no Mana once Odin is cast. The main drawback of Commandeer Odin is that Tychus cannot use Minigun while inside of the Odin. Minigun is often the main reason Tychus is picked, as the percent-based damage is a very good way to deal damage to enemy Heroes who have high maximum Health, which is great in team compositions who want to focus the enemy Tank first. It is good to use Minigun before activating the Odin, in order to get the maximum value out of the Hero. However, on some Maps where the Objective is stationary and takes a while, you should use Commandeer Odin strategically: before the confrotation starts, around 20/40 Objective's progress on Infernal Shrines, or at 99% Objective's progress on Volskaya Foundry. The Odin does increased damage, but can actually result in less meaningful damage to the enemy's frontline because you cannot use Minigun during it. Consider taking Commandeer Odin in situations where you need area of effect damage and increased range.

Drakken Laser Drill is an exceptional zoning tool, able to deal very high sustain damage in the area around where it is placed. Tychus will still have access to all of his Basic Abilities while the laser is active. This is an important difference between Drakken Laser Drill and Commandeer Odin, because many of your Talents may be invested into your Basic Abilities. However, Drakken should only be the pick if enemies have many Heroes with high Armor and Health, like Deathwing and Garrosh.

Spray 'n' Pray greatly increases the range of Overkill, while also Slowing targets, which will allow you to harass more effectively with it. You will be able to lock onto fleeing enemies from much further away, or keep pursuing foes at a safer distance while you dissuade their advance. This Talent should be always picked with Armor Piercing Rounds.

That's the Stuff! helps you win trades with enemy Heroes, but does not allow you to heal from damaging non-Heroic units. That's the Stuff! will not heal you until Minigun's duration ends, so it can be thought of as a Health refund after a trade. As with all Minigun use, it is vulnerable to crowd control effects, which will eat up the active duration of Minigun. Using Commandeer Odin before Minigun runs out will instantly activate the Healing from That's the stuff. That's the Stuff does not have any value during Odin as well, while Neosteel Coating can be activated. This Talent will be underwhelming in most games, since Neosteel Coating will be better by mitigating burst damage at any time.

Neosteel Coating is a great way to prevent huge amounts of forecasted Ability damage. It can work well against team compositions that set up ability-chains with Roots. It is the standard Talent for this tier, but if you are not facing any enemies reliant on Spell Damage it might be a good option to go for Spray 'n' Pray and Armor Piercing Rounds.

Armor Piercing Rounds allows you to deal more damage with Overkill. This Talent has strong synergy with Spray 'n' Pray, as you can deal a lot of damage from a safe range, something Tychus otherwise struggles with. This Talent combination is a great way to finish off low Health enemy Heroes!

Titan Grenade adds another way to deal damage based on the maximum Health of your enemies. It is excellent together with The Bigger They Are..., because it can be used to finish targets that Minigun cannot damage. It also has strong synergy with Quarterback.

Sizzlin' Attacks stacks with Minigun to allow you to deal even more maximum Health damage with Basic Attacks. This Talent will greatly increase Tychus's damage towards Heroes, and should be the choice in most games.

Big Red Button dramatically increases your damage, especially in team fights that last a long time. The 50% extra duration of Commandeer Odin allows Odin to last the full length of most team fights. Since the range of Odin's attacks is so large, you will be able to deal damage throughout the late game team fights. The Nuclear Missile fired with Ragnarok Missiles does a massive amount of damage, but it has a several second delay before exploding. Despite this, just landing a single Nuclear Missile on multiple enemy Heroes will usually turn the fight in your team's favor.

Focusing Diodes exponentially bolsters the strength of Drakken Laser Drill. The increased range allows Laser Drill to outrange most Abilities in the game, and zone out enemy Heroes more effectively. The damage of the Laser Drill is essentially doubled. The downside is that Laser Drill can be destroyed by the enemy team rather quickly, especially if the fight takes place somewhere in the open.

Can Do This All Day will greatly increases Tychus's resistance during Overkill cast, while also reducing the cooldown of it. Even thought it sounds decent, Tychus already has many different ways to get Armor, and any cancels to Overkill will also remove the extra Armor from the Talent. For these reasons we do not recommend Can Do This All Day.

Bob and Weave can result in hyper-mobility when combined with Dash, and will greatly enhance your Basic Attack range when paired with Press the Advantage. As long as In the Rhythm is sufficiently stacked, you can apply Minigun active damage almost constantly during late-game team fights.