Varian Talents

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

Lion's Maw is a good Quest-based Talent that provides a better Slow and additional damage to Lion's Fang upon being completed.

Pick this Talent when you want a better Slow in your kit, usually because you are not playing for burst damage as your team is not good enough for that approach.

Overpower is a strong Talent that adds burst damage. When playing against Heroes with high Attack Speed, you will get double the value from it because the trigger will happen twice per activation, if you can manage to Basic Attack an enemy Hero twice during Parry.

While it is hard but possible for the enemies to suddenly stop using Basic Attacks on Varian to avoid triggering this Talent, it is worth mentioning that Taunt will negate any counter-play besides crowd control that can stop you from casting Abilities.

High King's Quest is a good Quest-based Talent that increase Varian's Basic Attack damage, something that is crucial when going for Twin Blades of Fury and works well when choosing Colossus Smash too.

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.

Taunt is a strong Heroic Ability that turns Varian into a Tank who is capable of engaging and/or peeling for his team, while increasing his maximum Health at the same time. Choose this Heroic Ability when your team needs a Tank, but it can also be played as Offlaner.

Colossus Smash is a good Heroic Ability that turns Varian into a highly explosive Melee Assassin, but it reduces his maximum Health.

Choose this Heroic Ability when a second Assassin is needed. The Armor reduction effect provided will drastically increase your team's damage output when correctly focusing the damage on the same target.

Twin Blades of Fury is a decent Heroic Ability that turns Varian into a Bruiser. Choose this Heroic Ability when an Offlaner is needed.

Lionheart is a good Talent which enhances Varian's self-healing if Lion's Fang hits enemy Heroes, without the need of getting personal as it can be done from the distance.

Being based on a skillshot with the possibility to hit multiple Heroes for extra value, this Talent works better against team compositions that feature multiple melee and/or low-mobility Heroes, since they are usually easier to hit.

Second Wind is a good Talent that unconditionally increases Varian's self-healing, especially if there are no Blinds or crowd control to prevent him from landing Basic Attacks.

Second Wind is obviously good when paired with Colossus Smash or Twin Blades of Fury. Due to the fact that Second Wind's second effect scales with Varian's maximum Health, it becomes quite strong if paired with Taunt too.

Victory Rush is a strong Talent that gives a burst of healing when you Basic Attack any target, however, it only works once every 30 seconds and its cooldown can be reduced by staying near dying Minions and Monsters.

While this Talent does not go off when you have full Health, its main downside is that it can end up overhealing you if you are almost full Health when it goes off.

Considering that it triggers more often if you have enemy Minions or Monsters nearby, this Talent is way better on Maps where team fights happen near them (such as Braxis Holdout, Dragon Shire, or Infernal Shrines).

Shield Wall is a good Talent that can make you Invulnerable, but this advantage comes at the cost of a Charge of Overpower. As a consequence, this Talent is not that good against Heroes who rely on Basic Attacks. Pick this Talent when playing against burst damage and you are scared of dying from it.

Warbringer is a strong Talent that lowers the cooldown on Charge by 8 seconds, a nice boost to both his chasing and peeling capabilities. In addition to that, you will also be able to use Charge on allied Heroes as a form of escape or just to reposition yourself during team fights.

The cooldown reduction provided by this Talent has good synergy with Juggernaut at Level 13, allowing you to deal more damage in prolonged team fights.

Juggernaut is a good choice when your team wants to focus the enemy front line first and/or if the enemy team has several Heroes with high maximum Health (such as Stitches, Chen, and Azmodan). In case of prolonged team fights, this Talent has good synergy with Warbringer at Level 10.

Mortal Strike is a strong Talent that reduces the healing received by enemy Heroes recently hit with Heroic Strike, which automatically goes off when you Basic Attack. Make sure it's not on cooldown when you need it.

We recommend this Talent against team compositions featuring 2 Healers or when you want to counter some Heroes with self-healing capabilities (such as Arthas), but not against solo Healers with limited healing (notably Lúcio).

If you decided to go for a Taunt Build featuring Taunt at Level 4 and Overpower at Level 1, you can guarantee an application of Mortal Strike after successfully Taunting an enemy Hero and Parrying the following Basic Attack even if Heroic Strike is on cooldown when you engage.

Shattering Throw is a very powerful but situational Talent that can be used to hard counter Shields (for example it can be used to completely deny Sound Barrier by Lúcio on the target that you and your team intend to focus).

Banner of Stormwind is a situational Talent that can be used to give your whole team Movement Speed in a given area, allowing Varian and allied Heroes to reposition, chase, or escape.

The short cooldown allows you to use it with more freedom, especially when combined with Glory to the Alliance at Level 20.

Banner of Ironforge is a situational Talent that provides Armor to Varian and nearby allied Heroes, decreasing the amount of damage they take from all sources.

Due to its long cooldown compared to the alternatives, only pick it when the enemy team is capable of one-shotting an allied Hero with huge burst damage and your team composition does not have the tools to handle that.

Banner of Dalaran is a strong Talent that increases the damage and healing done by allied Heroes nearby, useful for either quick team fights or drawn-out battles.

The short cooldown allows you to use it with more freedom, especially when combined with Glory to the Alliance at Level 20.

Vigilance is a situational Talent that works only when facing Heroes with high Attack Speed (such as Tychus) because it allows you to use cast your Heroic Ability twice in quick succession and snowball the team fight from there.

Master at Arms is a decent Talent to boost the area of effect burst damage of your team. The cooldown reduction is good when you want to pick isolated targets with the help of your team, but it is not the reason why you pick this Talent because a late game team fight where your team focuses on burst damage will not last that much anyways.

Frenzy is a decent Talent to increase your own damage, and it also increases your Movement Speed by a small amount.

Glory to the Alliance is a strong Talent because it provides both increased healing to the whole team and cooldown reduction on any Level 16 Talent.

Together with the healing reduction from Mortal Strike at Level 13, the extra healing provided by this Talent makes Varian great against team compositions featuring 2 Healers.

If paired with Banner of Dalaran or Banner of Stormwind that have only 25 seconds of cooldown, you can basically spam it every 12 seconds, even if just for checking a bush after another—a trap by the enemy team in the late game can have a devastating outcome.

Demoralizing Shout is a situational Talent that can be activated to reduce the damage done by enemy Heroes within 5.5 range. Furthermore, whenever allied Heroes take damage from enemy Heroes affected by Demoralizing Shout, its cooldown and Parry's cooldown will be slightly reduced.

This kind of effect works best against Heroes who deal burst damage from a relatively short distance. Being able to debuff enemy Heroes allows Varian to protect not only himself but also nearby allied Heroes who might be in danger. While it is ideal to hit multiple Heroes with it, do not hesitate to use Demoralizing Shout on a single Hero when needed.