Whitemane Build Guide “Burn in the Light!”
Welcome to our guide for Whitemane, 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.
Whitemane's Overview
Whitemane is a Healer who can heal her allies with Zeal by damaging her enemies. She is capable of trading damage favourably against most Heroes, and must do so in order to maximise her healing. If she is able to consistently deal damage, she can generate immense healing for her team.
Whitemane's Strengths and Weaknesses
- Very poor waveclear and Camp clear
- Lack of mobility
- Healing output largely dependent on damage dealt, therefore low out-of-combat healing
- No crowd control
- Weak to healing reduction effects
Whitemane's Talent Build Cheatsheet
Inquisition Build
RecommendedWhitemane's Inquisition Build is based on Talents that increase the defensive and offensive effectiveness of Inquisition, making it a useful peeling tool and a powerful follow up for allied engages.
Subjugation at Level 13 will reduce the damage done by enemy Heroes and Shared Punishment at Level 16 will reduce their Armor, a great combination of Talents that will shift damage and healing in your team's favor. To do all of this more often, we have Pity the Frail at Level 1.
Searing Lash Build
SituationalWhitemane's Searing Lash Build empowers Searing Lash, increasing your damage output and giving you access to crowd control in the late game. Consider going for this Build when you expect Inquisition to be interrupted too often and too quickly.
Block enemy Heroes with Harsh Discipline at Level 16 to help your team deal more damage to them or to peel when needed. When doing so, you can easily get a cooldown reset from Lashing Out at Level 13.
ARAM Build
ARAMWhitemane's ARAM Build is based on Talents that increase the defensive and offensive effectiveness of Inquisition, making it a useful peeling tool and a powerful follow up for allied engages.
Subjugation at Level 13 will reduce the damage done by enemy Heroes and Shared Punishment at Level 16 will reduce their Armor, a great combination of Talents that will shift damage and healing in your team's favor. To do all of this more often, we have Pity the Frail at Level 1.
Whitemane's Synergies and Counters
Whitemane has very limited mobility, and must remain within the threat range of enemies in order to deal damage to heal her allies. She will struggle against Heroes who can displace her, as she lacks any kind of escape once caught, or crowd control her to death.
Heroes who can deal damage to Whitemane and her teammates while she cannot damage them back (for example Chromie) may be difficult to play against. Additionally, Heroes who can significantly reduce or prevent healing received can greatly reduce the effectiveness of Zeal during teamfights.
Whitemane's Maps
Whitemane excels in short team fights and at contesting Objectives that take less than 30 seconds to be secured (for example Infernal Shrines). If the fight takes too long, she struggles to keep up with her Mana consumption.
The least interesting Maps to play Whitemane on are the ones where she cannot abuse her kit around the Objective, that are heavily focused on Mercenaries (such as Sky Temple), or where the early game is too important (notably Braxis Holdout).
Whitemane's Tips and Tricks
- Desperate Plea is the only Ability in Whitemane's kit that has a Mana cost, but you have to manage your Mana wisely because of the Desperation mechanic.
- Use Inquisition immediately after Searing Lash to maximise your damage output.
- Cast Searing Lash when you can hit enemy Heroes, preferably when they are under crowd control effects that impair their movements.
- Scarlet Aegis can be used during team fights to apply Zeal to multiple allied Heroes without having to pay Desperation cost, given they are in range.
- Divine Reckoning should be preferably used as a follow-up to allied crowd control effects that can keep enemy Heroes in place.
- Make sure to apply Zeal to allied Heroes before using your Abilities to deal damage.
- Rely on Clemency when you need to sustain your team with out-of-combat healing: use Desperate Plea, use Clemency to remove Desperation, use Desperate Plea again.
Whitemane's Role in the Current Meta
Whitemane excels at relatively quick team fights, during which she can get value from her burst healing and have time to go back for restoring her Mana. Among her Talents, she has various tools to save teammates from enemy Heroes who hard engage, leading the opponents to expose for getting a kill and then suddenly deny it.
Whitemane needs to be able to deal damage in order to heal optimally, so a strong frontline is necessary for her to reach peak performance. Her complete lack of waveclear is another weakness that will limit the team compositions she can fit into. She must have allies who can generate enough map pressure to make up for her weak macro. Although Whitemane has clearly defined weaknesses, she can be powerful in many team compositions, given they have a strong frontline and plenty of waveclear.
Changelog
- 21 Sep. 2023 (talents page): ARAM Build added.
- 21 Sep. 2023 (this page): ARAM Build added.
- 16 Jul. 2022 (this page): Maps updated.
- 30 Mar. 2022 (talents page): Guide reviewed for the latest Balance Update.
- 30 Mar. 2022 (abilities page): Guide reviewed for the latest Balance Update.
- 30 Mar. 2022 (this page): Guide reviewed for the latest Balance Update.
- 12 Mar. 2022 (talents page): Builds updated.
- 12 Mar. 2022 (this page): Builds updated.
- 06 Mar. 2021 (talents page): Builds updated.
- 06 Mar. 2021 (this page): Builds updated.
- 03 Mar. 2021 (talents page): Guide reviewed for the latest Balance Update.
- 03 Mar. 2021 (abilities page): Guide reviewed for the latest Balance Update.
- 03 Mar. 2021 (this page): Guide reviewed for the latest Balance Update.
- 25 Feb. 2021 (talents page): New layout.
- 16 Feb. 2021 (talents page): Builds and Maps updated.
- 16 Feb. 2021 (this page): Builds and Maps updated.
- 07 Jun. 2020 (talents page): Builds and Descriptions changed according to the latest Balance Update.
- 07 Jun. 2020 (abilities page): Builds and Descriptions changed according to the latest Balance Update.
- 07 Jun. 2020 (this page): Builds and Descriptions changed according to the latest Balance Update.
- 05 Apr. 2020 (talents page): Talent Build partially revised to match new standards.
- Talent Build and Talent Build Cheatsheet modified to reflect the current metagame.
- Talent Descriptions modified to better describe when to pick them.
- 05 Apr. 2020 (this page): Introduction partially revised to match new standards.
- Talent Build Cheatsheet updated to reflect the current metagame.
- Role in the Current Meta modified to reflect the current metagame and to remove the unnecessary part about the now fixed Experience Globes.
- 23 Mar. 2020 (talents page): Missing information added.
- 23 Mar. 2020 (abilities page): Outdated, misleading, and wrong information corrected.
- 23 Mar. 2020 (this page): Outdated and misleading information corrected.
- 15 Dec. 2019 (this page): Updated Role in the Current Meta to include information on current Nexus Anomaly.
- 28 Nov. 2019 (talents page): Updated suggested builds to reflect changes in balance patch.
- 28 Nov. 2019 (abilities page): Abilities section reviewed.
- 28 Nov. 2019 (this page): Updated suggested builds to reflect changes in balance patch.
- 17 Oct. 2019 (talents page): Updated Talent discussion and recommended builds to account for balance patch.
- 17 Oct. 2019 (abilities page): Updated Abilities discussion to account for balance patch.
- 17 Oct. 2019 (this page): Updated Talent and Abilities discussions, recommended builds, and Role in the Current Meta to account for balance patch.
- 26 Sep. 2019 (talents page): Updated Talent discussion to account for Hero rework.
- 26 Sep. 2019 (abilities page): Updated Talent discussion to account for Hero rework.
- 26 Sep. 2019 (this page): Updated guide to account for Hero rework.
- 23 Aug. 2018 (talents page): Updated Talent discussion to reflect balance patch.
- 11 Aug. 2018 (talents page): Updated builds and added Desperate Plea build.
- 07 Aug. 2018 (abilities page): Guide added.
- 07 Aug. 2018 (this page): Guide added.
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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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