First of all, I may state the obvious for someone, but you are to understand that Tyrande is a “Supportâ€, definitely, but please, think a bit about this word: “Supportâ€.
It does not mean she is a healer as too many people think a support has to be. Actually, her healing output itself is quiet weaker than others (it can be boosted as to become really acceptable, above all since last Lt. Morales patch – we’ll see that later).
However, think about the utility of the role of a support. Same question has been raised in few guides by the way and in my opinion, every single player worth his salt should wonder about it.
The most important thing here is that all support characters are unique, but each one embodies some traits you can award to the role. I’d say those traits are: healing, giving invulnerability, making you unstoppable, giving movement speed, giving attack speed, rooting, stunning, slowing movement or attack speed, making the enemy vulnerable, providing vision, providing stealth, adding a damage output bonus,… And I may forget some others.
Her set of abilities
That being said, Tyrande’s strength goes through her whole set of abilities: it is
complete, for her three basic abilities (her trait and her heroics as well) cover each different aspect of utility, and so bring a lot of
versatility and powerfulness to your gameplays either in team fight, ganks, or team moves (she is only not designed for wave clearing nor mercenaries -except bosses because of
Hunter's Mark-), and in all stages of the game (and I would even add that the later the game goes, the better she is).
Complete and versatile, but not really efficient on its own. Let me explain myself:
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- For
Light of Elune, it is quiet obvious, it's the way you heal allies! All the more obvious for Tyrande’s one: you should always heal an ally since you are healed anyway.
- You (and your team) have to give a look to your
Sentinel when it’s thrown for vision. It also reveals foes for 4 seconds.
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Lunar Flare itself is good but not good enough, so it has to hit when an ally can follow with high damages (and/or engage firstly or follow with another stun, because Tyrande’s one is quiet difficult to land).
- Exactly the same for your trait
Hunter's Mark.
- And your heroic ability (either it is
Starfall or
Shadowstalk) is done for team fights/team moves, and at least it might be the only easy to cast ability of Tyrande since they are not skill shots, therefore, it might be one of the hardest to use because of the awareness it requires.
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So, in few lines, you easily see that everything you would do as Tyrande is deeply linked to your understanding of the whole game’s mechanics and to your team. Though, it is really complete since you have healing, vision, stun, vulnerability, reveal, stealth.
Tyrande and her team
You can properly play as the only support (since Lt. Morales patch) or as a second one (as I love to do). According to playstyle and talents you choose, you can fill a lot of roles and bring a lot of different aspect of utility.
The fact that your efficiency relies on your team and on synergizes make Tyrande a hard, but formidable hero to play.
Some say that it is because she relies on her stunning ability
Lunar Flare, which is one of the hardest skillshot to land in HotS (1.2 seconds before landing for 1 second stun). True, but not relevant I think: the potential of a character doesn’t rely on only one skill nor one move nor statistics.
For others, she lacks mobility (which is a real problem). Not relevant as well: Raynor lacks mobility too, but him still being in the metagame in all ranks.
There are not any other Hero that brings such a versatile vision as Tyrande thanks to
Sentinel. Ok,
Zagara's
Creep Tumor gives a lot of vision, but she has to set it up and so she cannot do it on crucial points. That's why you have to always be concentrate on the minimap all the game long. If you see that some ennemies are missing, send your owl to their supposed position. Actually, it is like in all games (either it is MOBA, RTS, RPG, FPS,...), vision on the ennemies' moves is so important. Think about it also when you are playing with a Tyrande.
You should also know all the abilities of your allies that knock back or pull the ennemy and all abilities of your foes that give them quick moves or dashes, for hitting
Lunar Flare easier.
Some examples (but i may forget some):
Diablo's
Shadow Charge and
Empower,
Raynor's
Penetrating Round,
E.T.C.'s
Face Melt,
Lt. Morales's
Displacement Grenade,
Tychus's
Frag Grenade,
Sgt. Hammer's
Concussive Blast (those terrans might hate Tyrande); and for dashes,
Valla's
Vault,
Zeratul's
Blink,
Kharazim's
Radiant Dash,
Illidan's
Dive and
Sweeping Strike,... You've got the idea.
I do think that, as Tyrande, you and your team have to understand deeply how work your set of abilities, your teammates’ potential, and the game itself. You could think that those things are true whoever you play, but in my opinion, it is all the more true with Tyrande according to what I previously said. And I think that’s the reason why she’s seen more in higher ranks than in lower, and also why she’s better when played in team or with friends than in solo queue.
Give me experience!
Another thing you should know is that the scaling of Tyrande is quiet special.
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In early game, she is quiet weak for laning, whatever you choose on talents-tree. But
Lunar Flare is devastating: 108 damages level 1, it is tantamount to one bullet of the Nova’s
 Triple Tap! And 76 for her
Sentinel! Combined with
Hunter's Mark, adding 25% extra-damages, and some basics arrows, you almost are about 300 damages/rotation at level 1! Without mentioning the healing which is quiet impressive (but mono-target). That’s why strange as it may seem, you are strong on some sides and weak on some others in early game; you have strong abilities allowing you to get early kills on pretentious opponentsif ganking with an appropriate ally (ganks are facilitated by vision provided by the owl by the way). But as a consequence, you are depending a lot on your mana and your mates, once again. So, play wisely your early game, gank often but not too much.
The later the game stretches, the more powerful Tyrande becomes since her AA and abilities powers scale are really good, and because her talents give her a lot of versatility and synergizes. Look at hotslogs statistics, and look at the curve of win rate over game time here!
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The missunderstood support
Also, I really often see guys saying she is a “hybrid supportâ€, which isn’t wrong for a few points. But I think it’s misleading the concept. In fact she is a support, a real one (why do you think Blizzard has put her in the “Support†category? Blibli is never wrong). But she has some abilities/talents/playstyle which make her closer to the assassins than others supports (except
Kharazim probably), and many Tyrande players find it funnier to emphasize on this side.
Few words about her global damage output, because it is not negligible.
It is mostly single target, and I would say in an acceptable average (Auto-attack
statistics: 30 +9 per level, for a 1.25 attack speed, which is really high for a support, above all in late game), but lacks any kind of significant burst and damage dealing abilities. Yes,
Lunar Flare and
Sentinel present nice potentials as I said previously, but you should not use or see them as damaging abilities because they are better used for their utility potential. For instance, stopping a Nazzebo’s
Ravenous Spirit is far more important than stunning and bursting down a
Stitches (all the more that he would probably have picked
Relentless as he faces you).
It accounts for she is definitely not an assassin, who likely would have burst and/or aoe (just compare with Kael Thas’ stuff, the perfect assassin in my opinion). Still with specific talents and above all a particular playstyle, you can definitely compete with assassin in statistics… But if you are statistics-focused, I fear you might completely misunderstand Heroes, and should go back on Dota or LoL, and keep farming your stuff with your favorite carry AD.
In a nutshell
As a Tyrande, consider you are playing a support, and never ever forget it.
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- Always use
Light of Elune on an ally (even a minion) except if no one is in range and you really need some heals on yourself asap.
- Try to think about how
Sentinel can be used and be aware of movements of your foes so that you will get the full potential of this ability, avoiding unpunished camps, ganks or even just fearing your enemy by telling them “I can see youâ€. Creativity and awareness are the best allies of your owl!
- You should always have at least 1 or 2 stuns among your team mates, so in team fights try to land
Lunar Flare right after one of those ones, all the more if you find difficulties in hitting the enemy with it. Remember that some channeled abilities can be canceled with it.
- Talk with your team and decide a target to focus in team fights (always do it in HotS, but even more important with Tyrande) to give
Hunter's Mark its maximal power, or so wait few moments after the team fight begin if it is too messy, and use it on the enemy mostly targeted.
- Your heroics are easy to cast, just do it at the right moment. Since last patch, I would consider more Shadow Stalk in any cases, even if there is another support in my team, because it brings too many things to your entire team (I will explain later in the guide).
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According to stats (because I know that it interests some of you), you should be something like 80-90% (since last patch) of your healer in “Roleâ€, and 55-65% your first hero damage dealer, but it really depends on the compositions, the way you decide to play her and the feeling of the game, so don’t rely too much on those figures and remember that it is just a reference.
I deeply think that Tyrande has to rely on her abilities. So I like to pick what will improve that side of the gameplay. But still that many talents are affordable and viable (proof in the
figures on hotslogs) depending on the situation and your feeling with her.
Tier 1 – Level 1
I personally prefer the 40% cooldown reduction on
Hunter's Mark provided by
Ranger's Mark as this trait might be one of the most powerful ability of Tyrande (and even of HotS), and this talent allows you to use it at least twice during team fights, and generally more often on lanes or objectives which will last a significant time such as with immortals. Also it synergizes a lot with
Battle Momentum (level 7) and
Huntress' Fury (level 13).
Celestial Attunement, though not advised, can be affordable if you have difficulties in both managing your mana pool and spamming
Light of Elune, otherwise it is not really necessary.
Empower is as strong as
Ranger's Mark, which delivers quietly the same job if you choose the appropriate follow-up and add more synergizes because of the vulnerablity. Though, as the Tyrande's abilities-lover that I am, i admit that the common "Owl build" is something I really like. Just, be careful about your rotations because
Sentinel has to be thrown after you used both
Light of Elune and
Lunar Flare (and also
Hunter's Mark for more c-c-c-combo!) to get the entire potential of
Empower. Properly done, you could also lack mana quickly!
Seasoned marksman can be fun in Quick Match for an auto-attacks oriented playstyle, but even if I plan to focus on dealing more damages, I would prefer
Ranger's Mark.
Tier 2 – Level 4
Here is a hard choice to make… Just read that, and pick whatever you need/prefer/want:
Defensive options:
Protective Shield and
Healing Ward are both good if your team needs extra damage mitigation despite nerfs on both. The shield if enemy team is burst-damage-oriented,and the
Healing Ward if sustain- damage-oriented. Go on one of them if you are the only support, nevertheless don’t avoid them if there is another one. They are strong options.
Offensive options:
Focused Attack and
Searing Arrows maximize your auto-attacks' damage output, so once again, just consider it for fun in Quick match.
Searing Arrows is slightly better for with a bit of math you find easily that it improves more your damages and also because it’s likely your only burst option, above all since Lt Morales patch’s increase. But
Focused Attack can be better for some reasons: new players would prefer it since it is a passive ability and it doesn’t requires mana, which can be hard to manage with Tyrande. Up to you!
My preference:
Pierce seemed me so weak when I started to play Tyrande. In fact, now, it’s my go-to talent this tier. It insures your
Sentinel to go across the end of the map either it touches an enemy or not and synergizes a lot with
Ranger (level 16) since you’ll be able to touch at least 2 or 3 enemies in team fight, which happen a lot at level 16+. Also, when I play her, I love to emphasize on her abilities’ potential and synergies you can set up with specific talents. With
Pierce, just be careful since it is a late game choice, so insure that your mates will be able to carry early game.
Tier 3 – Level 7
I really don’t know why
Lunar Blaze is that popular. Yes, it is comfortable to have a 50% increased range on such a powerful ability as
Lunar Flare, but I feel like this talent is overkill since you have to get closer to the enemy for your
Hunter's Mark(and auto-attack in a less important way). Without saying that the basic range is already enough in my opinion.
As I said, I love the Tyrande’s set of abilities. So, as you could expect, the lower cooldown provided by
Battle Momentum is my bread and butter here.
The
Calldown: MULE can be really interesting here on appropriate map if you play with a constructed team. Tyrande is one of the last hero who still have this option. When I’m not going on the full combo
Ranger's Mark-
Battle Momentum-
Huntress' Fury, I really consider the
Calldown: MULE (even before
Lunar Blaze).
Quickening Blessing can be reliable if you play with a friend on
The Butcher, otherwise, 25% movement speed for 3 seconds on
Light of Elune which is an 8 seconds cooldown is quiet weaker than others choices here I think. Still that you can imagine builds including this talent. Could be better if it would apply to yourself, but it isn’t the case yet.
Tier 4 – Level 10 - Heroics
I used to always pick
Starfall as it is easy to set, a good plus in team fights and even if it isn’t an amazing ability, it is “okâ€. Also, I never played with a real team, so
Shadowstalk wasn’t any kind of possibility. But now… Waow! I love this terran medic and what she has brought in her sack!
Shadowstalk is a really powerful ability with a lot of advantages. The healing is quiet low and allies has to survive until the end (8 seconds) to benefit the burst, I agree. Remains that this heroic affects all your team without exception (whereas
Malfurion’s
Tranquility, with which it is often compared, is an area often only including 2 or 3 allies). So, for team fights, it is not negligible boost for your whole team! It gives stealth, which is always good, either it is before, during or after a fight, offering a lot of moves opportunities. If enemies are really bursting your team down, prevent the engage so that burst healing will occur soon enough. Also, it is global, so you can save allied who overextend or engage without you even if you are on the opposite lane, or in base. The cooldown is really low (50 seconds, without considering
Battle Momentum), and you will probably be able use it as often as you need, so don’t hesitate if a single ally needs assistance. Definitely something to pick whatever compositions and map! What else? Once again, be aware of what happen all around the whole map, and not only around your screen, and be imaginative, as it offers a lot of possibilities.
By the way, keep in mind that
Starfall adds a significant amount of sustain damages, and slows by 20% the enemies into the circle, so It can help you and your allies to land some skill shots!
Tier 5 – Level 13
This tier is once again decisive for the way you want to play.
Defensive option:
Overflowing Light makes you a really greater healer. That’s your best option if you have to support your team alone. As
Light of Elune always heals you, you should always be above 50% health, but don’t forget it by the way, and if you have another healer on your team, tell him about your pick so that he will maintain you above those 50%.
However, if you have another healer, Shrink Way can be a more reliable choice when used accordingly. Obviously, prefer focusing the damage dealer of the other team with this talent-based ability. Choice is up to you, they both deliver the good, depends on the situation.
Self-sustain option:
Sprint. As I previously said, one of the biggest drawback of Tyrande is her mobility. In addition to her low health pool, it makes her a fantastic target for any
Zeratul or
Nova players, but also for all damage dealers in general. So, some would enjoy relying on an ability such as
Sprint. I don’t, but I have to admit that it is viable.
My preference: I really love the synergy between
Ranger's Mark,
Battle Momentum and
Huntress' Fury. It gives you more damages and approximatively 1 additional second cooldown reduction each 12 seconds. One would say it is negligible, compared with others possibilities this tier. But according to the strength of Tyrande’s abilities, 1 second is pretty much. Up to you once again!
Tier 6 – Level 16
Mark of Mending is the weak link here. Still that in solo-queue in Quick Match, as an only healer, you can see some synergies with
Overflowing Light if you find difficulties in maintaining yourself at 50%+ HP. But 2.5% of your damages return as health is low. Would it be for all the team, it would be a talent to consider, but there I don’t see other possibilities than the one I said 2 lines above.
Trueshot Aura is definitely a good talent. It’s a passive aura so you “just†have to be careful of your positioning. Pick that if you have a
Raynor,
The Butcher,
Valla or any damage dealer(s) focusing on auto-attacks. Do not if your main damage dealer is Kael’Thas or
Jaina. (NB: it increases your own basic attacks.)
Shooting Star is tempting. You have to notice the damages of
Lunar Flare which is quiet impressive: 108 (+18 per level). So, 50% increase is something you would like to have within your kit if you succeed to land your shots. Also, mana refunding is interesting, even if not really needed in late game. However, I personally think the last talent incoming this tier is slightly better.
Ranger is something fantastic if you picked
Pierce at tier 2. Double the width and give a huge increase in damages dealt by your
Sentinel making you the best sniper of the game (outclassing the ghost!). Consider that you hit at least 2 or 3 enemies; nothing to add, all is said. Without
Pierce, it loses a lot of interest.
Tier 7 – Level 20
Here is another really hard choice to make…
Defensive option:
Storm Shield is always a really good ability in team fight. Just be aware of health pools of your allies for the amount of shield depends on it, and the way your enemies deal their damage (AOE or not, good focus or not…).
Aggressive option:
Nexus Frenzy is so powerful if you really want to capitalize on
Battle Momentum! That’s the point, because damage output bonus and range is like icing on the cake, but real strength of the talent lies in cooldown reduction. Consider it if you don’t feel yourself able to use
Rewind properly and/or look after a bit more damages through auto-attacks.
Ultimate upgrades:
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Celestial Wrath: there’s no reason why you should go on this one. Global range isn’t that needed as you have to be grouped at level 20, and 30% damages increase isn’t enough to make this
Starfall's upgrade viable.
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Hunter's Swiftness: it can be a good buff to
Shadowstalk, because 40% movement speed is quite a lot, and it lasts 8 seconds, which is so long! Something to test, relying on situations and above all compositions once again, but a strong pick. At last, they made this heroic so strong!
Rewind: If you love Tyrande’s basic set of abilities as I do,
Rewind is done for you! Some advices: if you plan to pick it, consider
Pierce and
Ranger because without those talents,
Sentinel loses a lot of utility and damages, so it’s not that worth to use
Rewind on it. Also, try to use it after an entire rotation of your abilities (easier said than done, I agree). On the other hand, you can avoid
Battle Momentum and
Huntress' Fury as it could be considered as overkill on cooldowns reduction, and above all allowing you to pick
Calldown: MULE and
Shrink Ray for instance. (But I personally enjoy that kind of overkill, all the more that it can be taken in account an avoided in your way to use abilities: use a rotation ASAP at the beginning of a team fight,
Rewind, and then another rotation coupled with
Hunter's Mark this time. Ask for a bit of practice but results in so awesome moments!).
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As you might have understood, there is a lot of conceivable builds with Tyrande. That's why I won't tell you to absolutely pick this or that. Just keep in mind the explanations i gave and with a bit of practice you should find your own preferences and the modulations to apply when it is recquired!
A short list of the most seen builds without details (all are above) :
"Full Support Jacket"
"Which elf hunter doesn't fight with an op owl ?"
"Stupid matchmaking! Three supports! No problem..."
"My own go-to build"
Tyrande. It might seem way too long for many people, but I do think that those who come on such sites (whom I’m part of) are curious about the game and:
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