Tassadar was one of the main, if not only reason, I really got into Heroes of the Storm. Having a background in SC2 and Mobas like Hero Attack arcade for many years I loved using High Templar, and that style of play. Since playing Heroes I have 357 games with T*** and currently lvl 17 (not quite 18) with him... so I've played a few games.
Historically when I FIRST started playing the game as T*** like a year and a half ago, I remember I was rocking Khala's, Shrink Ray, and Wall back when almost nobody was using that, I LOVED using force wall to chase players down to block them off, split team fights, and so on. Back when picking wall would literally cause teammates to start raging and threatening to report you for trolling (till you absolutely crush other team with it and they take it back). Eventually that style though caught on fast and everyone was about Shield build and Wall.
Flash forward to the recent patch... his entire build has been scrambled like eggs, his entire playstyle has really been warped. Sure, he can still storm, still shield, but attempting to play the old style of Wall and Shields is like a watered down version of what he was before-- which was already not a popular meta choice. What I realized is that I either need to find an alternative way of making him work or just don't use him at all, because in his current state trying to focus on shields and storm is not viable. It wasn't till I started YOLO focusing on his Distortion/Prismatic beam talents till I started really utilizing his new potential.
TIER 1: Templar's Will
This Trait right off the bat, I know it sounds like I'm trolling, but it's the key to the entire build. Hitting 30 & 60 seconds to get the extra +150% damage and 20 range is cake, by shielding yourself and harassing you'll easily have it up by mid game. This is when you TRULY become annoying. The thing is you can zone any heroes from a far range slowing them and preventing escapes, this can really make life easy for your mages and assassins for chasing down-- especially when you get the range, it can make it nearly impossible for them to escape.
TIER 2: Khala's Light
I feel like it's usually between this one and the Speed (Celerity)... the reason I like this one is that since the cd nerf on Plasma Shields, this trait sort of "extends" its impact by another 3 seconds giving that extra 25% damage reduction. Having the Innate 20% already, I feel like that's good enough, I've tried the +40% life leech one and I really didn't like it. The thing is you want your shield to have like... an immediate impact, so the Khala's Celerity gives an INSTANT speed boost to save a teammate so he can escape, the Khala's Light gives an immediate 25% armor when expiring, I feel like the traits that have a more dramatic impact to save players when they need it takes priority over something that just boosts something already available.
TIER 3: Resonation
Since players don't go for Templar's Will build almost ever... everyone seems to dismiss this trait as trash. But it's not. Early on you'll be wondering why the hell you ever picked this, but when you hit late game with full range and your chaining distortion beam through 3 targets this will all make sense. The thing is, 99% of the time you're going to be storming them anyways, now they have 50% slow whoever gets affected.
TIER 4: Archon
Archon damage now is INSANE. Let me just disclaimer really quickly though, there is DEFINITELY a right and a wrong way of using this. DO NOT FRONTLINE and activate this or you will get annihilated by enemy team after 1 auto attack, you are NOT a tank. The BEST way of using this is to bait light assassins and casters-- get them to go in on you 1v1 when your at half life, activate Archon and shield yourself and take them down in a few hits. In team fights you almost want to wait till the engagement has started, delay a sec to make a smart decision of who to focus, THEN activate to swing the fight. I see so many Tassadar's activate Archon charge into a fight and get melted. If you play more conservative with it and make smarter decisions of when to pop it you'll start snowballing in kills very easily, but timing is everything.
TIER 5: Adun's Wisdom
I usually pick this or Deep Shift in most occasions, but its functional. I think the 50% cd reduction is very nice because with how you'll see this build works, your going to be popping Oracle offensively for fights for bonus damage and for the cd reduction. It's really helpful 'cause every second matters, being able to get an extra shield or Storm in can make a huge difference, and since you'll see coming up you're going to be utilizing it anyways... well, might as well get full use. The Nullification is actually useful if they have Illidan or Butcher on enemy team-- if you want an easy way to absolutely crush those kind of sustained bruiser comps... there you go. I was a huge fan of Shrink Ray. I think I liked Shrink Ray a bit more imo, but Null isn't horrible, it's just not amazing tbh.
TIER 6: Focused Beam
"Focused Beam? what you're trolling, no Echo?" Actually no, so basic "attacks" take 1% of enemy heroes max health but only when Oracle is active (5 seconds). Uh... Tassadar's attacks tick 4 attacks per second, I'm not a math person but assuming the depreciation you're looking at like ~15% life stolen in that ALONE. Now lets jump ahead and throw in Prismatic Link at lvl 20, you're now potentially chain-beam'ing up to 3 target Heroes at once with this ****, that's awesome as long as you play it smart with Oracle.
TIER 7: Prismatic Link
I have no idea why I didn't give this Trait a chance for so long, it's what really completes the build. Yeah, your auto attacks suck with T***... but you chain 3 targets for rest of game, that's 3 targets for Siege Camps, 3 enemy Heroes, you can focus Towers and have it ricochet hitting 2 other heroes all the while slowing them. When Oracle is active like mentioned you can start draining down tanky heroes with focused beam too, this trait is really really good and I suggest giving it a fair try.
And last but definitely not least, it says "Basic Attacks" bounce to 2 additional targets... and YES, this will snowball you with Archon. Sure, it'll be a short & sweet 10.5 seconds but you will be smashing their entire team while bouncing archon attacks off everywhere, enemy heroes will drop like flies.
I think to play Tassadar with this build you're going to need to redefine his role. This isn't going to work as a solo Healer build, but frankly I honestly think Tassadar sucks and isn't viable at that role already. But this works as a very solid DPS-Control build that can supplement heroes like Rehgar, Tyrande, Kharazim, Mediv, and Brightwing pretty well as support/Healer roles for the team. The one area where I see traditional "Force Wall" T*** builds fail is when you go up against heavy tank teams with Morales/Auriel/Malf backing them up... without any actual big damage like Archon to break through that you just tickle them with storm and your whole team gets stampeded. The "Prismatic Tassadar Build" shines because it's actually the opposite, you continue to gets more and more powerful the longer the game goes where the traditional builds tend to stay weak and rely heavily on clutch walls to dictate fights, the moment that goes sour and without your team for dps you become completely worthless. This build you never become useless, your own attacks will chain lightning and deal huge slow affects and your team fight capability stays strong throughout the game. I suggest everyone give this build a try and see if you like it. I personally am not a fan of just being a shield bot, I find it pretty boring, so if you want a more hands on build this is the one for you. Thanks
Here's an image below just for kicks, this was the FIRST attempt trying this build and my results, yeah not bad getting MvP on an experimental build considering my average before when I'd always go wall was like 1-2 kills, 0-2 deaths, this demonstrates you can actually be a useful threat for your team.
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