• Home
  • Talking Top Tier Initiators

Talking Top Tier Initiators

by - 10 years ago

Your team is rolling down the lane as five, primed and ready to take the enemy’s palace and claim victory. All appears to be going well, and then out of nowhere a hook flies out of the bushes, grabs your Demon Hunter and drags her away to certain death. Your team now stands at a grave disadvantage and has almost no chance of winning a direct confrontation. In one masterful stroke you’ve been put on the defensive. Ah, the power of initiation.

Victory in a team fight usually requires a lot of different things. You’ll need heals, damage and survivability. You’ll also need an initiator. After all, someone has to start the fights. Stitches is used as an example above, but there are other stellar initiators available in the current Heroes of the Storm hero pool. In this article I’ll rank my top five.

5. Diablo

The Lord of Terror doesn’t actually boast a very rich skillset when it comes to pure initiation. Still, the combination of Shadow Charge and Overpower allows Diablo to focus in on one target and keep them locked down for a few seconds. This proves exceedingly handy when dealing with annoying single target DPS enemies such as Illidan, Zeratul or Valla. Diablo can also be absurdly durable with the right build, making him very difficult to bring down. That’s a definite plus in an initiator.

tyrael

4. Tyrael

The Archangel of Justice still feels somewhat unfinished, but even now he’s a solid initiator if built accordingly.  He starts out with Punishing Blade, allowing him to throw his sword and teleport to it. The sword slows, meaning Tyrael’s allies can quickly get on top of an enemy and chain stuns and snares to quickly bring them down. Punishing Blade is hardly a death sentence (unless used by someone with an incredibly coordinated team) but it does force opponents to play a bit afraid as at any moment Justice could appear on top of them.

Judgment becomes available at level 10, allowing Tyrael another tool for starting fights. The charge ability stuns and damages the primary target and also scatters nearby enemies. This is a fantastic initiation ability with a great deal of versatility. Judgment, in conjunction with Punishing Blade, allows Tyrael to be a constant threat when it comes to capitalizing on enemies that are not where they should be.

I’d expect Tyrael to get some love down the road in terms of talents and become a top pick as an initiator.

3. Elite Tauren Chieftan

Yes, Mosh Pit is amazing. It is essentially the Heroes of the Storm version of Enigma’s Black Hole. However, it’s got a 100 second cooldown, and when it’s not available, ETC is frankly underwhelming. He’s great at pushing people around, and he does have a stun, but he basically doesn’t do any damage whatsoever. Ranking him higher than Tyrael and Diablo is basically a testament to how great Mosh Pit is. It just wins fights if executed correctly.

2. Muradin

What really makes a solid initiator? To me, a good initiator is someone who can reliably begin fights on a favorable note. While Muradin lacks a lot of flashy gimmicks, he is great for starting fights. Stormbolt and Dwarf Toss are not heroic talents and thus feature pedestrian cooldowns. More importantly, he starts with these abilities and, even if he chooses to go for a more DPS oriented build, (which currently feels like a painful waste of his potential) Muradin will still have presence as an initiator.

Should the Muradin in question go for a build that focuses on being the first into the fray, Dwarf Toss slowly goes from being a good ability to an amazing one. By level 16, you can increase the range and area of effect (AoE) on Dwarf Toss and also give it a .75 second stun. It’s no Mosh Pit, but it’s also on a substantially shorter cooldown and can often be used multiple times over the course of a fight. The only real issue is whether or not Muradin’s sketchy mana pool can support all of his aggression.

Stormbolt can also be upgraded to hit two targets, meaning Muradin basically jumps in, stuns with Dwarf Toss, stuns again with Stormbolt and then slows with Thunderclap. Choosing Avatar as heroic talent just makes him more annoying because he gets a substantial amount of  bonus health and mini-stuns on hit. All of this, combined with how easy he is to use makes him my second favorite initiator currently available.

FUN

1. Stitches

One word: Hook.

No, but seriously. Hook.

All Stitches needs to do is land a Hook at the right time and he’s basically won the fight for his team, assuming they’re alert enough to help murder the hero that’s been dragged in. Stitches will always have the potential to make a 5v5 into a 4v5. In the late game this utility is brutal as games often come downs to one final decisive fight followed by a game ending push. Amazingly enough, this ability is on a 14 second cooldown, and Stitches is not nearly as mana intensive as his genre counterparts. This means that, from the very beginning, Stitches can be perpetually fishing for an unfortunate foe.

As the game progresses, Stitches can pick up either Gorge or Putrid Bile depending on the situation. Both are great abilities based on the opposing team’s composition. Do you see Illidan, Zeratul or Valla? Take Gorge, drag them away from their team and take them out. If you don’t see those heroes, go with Putrid Bile. Stitches other core abilities are not necessarily great for initiation (although Slam can be upgraded to feature a mini-stun) but that’s okay, because at level 20 Bolt of the Storm becomes an option. This allows Stitches to blink in and either grab someone, drop Bile, whatever. Oh. Stitches also gets Sprint, which is just silly. Sprint and Bile? So strong.

Do you disagree with this list? Post your own rankings in the comment below!

 


posted in Heroes of the Storm Tags:
JR Cook

JR has been writing for fan sites since 2000 and has been involved with Blizzard Exclusive fansites since 2003. JR was also a co-host for 6 years on the Hearthstone podcast Well Met! He helped co-found BlizzPro in 2013.


Comments are closed.