Early on Sonya lacks a lot of power, its best if you team up in lane, it doesn't matter much with who though so long as its not Nova or Zeratul since she's squishy for a warrior. You want someone who is going to have a full time presence able to keep some of the heat off you. Slam is not very good at this level but it will be more or less all you use by level 10 or so. Focus on sustaining(whirl wind down trash) and poking heroes with your spear. Try to keep your fury up and whirlwind as often as you can so you do not have to back as map objectives spawn. Try to avoid unnecessary fights, if you out number go for it but try to limit the damage you take and poke carefully. Sonya can easily turn into an exp feed for the other team if you are aggressive early on. There are some exceptions, as there always is but they key here is playing to sustain early on. At level 7 you can take Shattered Ground, if you are more worried about pushing keeps in, or if you are doing Raven God where 5v5 team fights are common, but in Gardens, or Blackheart I prefer the extra solo target damage. I wont say one is better than the other, you just have to know what you are up against, and play for the map as well as the opponents team composition accordingly.
By now you are able to do some damage. and it will really kick off at 13 when you get Aftershock. With Wrath of the Berzerker, you can keep it up almost indefinitely when you are fighting a keep, or the duration of any team fight with minimal effort. Spear will reset it's duration almost in full. While fighting keeps you can more or less spam 60% boosted Seismic Slams, with spear management, you can keep them going for the duration of a keeps life which with this spec and any help is not terribly long. Sure there are other characters that do way better seige damage, however; in team fights the spam slams make Sonya a real threat. Even with the splash being 50% of the base, its still heightened from Furious blow and Wrath of the Berzerker so it can leave a mark on pretty much any assassin, support or specialist. It will also entirely negate Malfurions Tranquility for anyone getting hit by the splash and then some. Another thing to consider is, so long as you are hitting at least 1 person with the splash, its going to make any healers job significantly harder since you will do doing significantly more damage than the whirlwind spec Sonya's most people are used to seeing and the slash range is fairly decent.
Sonya is pretty good at chasing people down, whirlwind is not bad for this since you get to ignore collision radii, and now you have no escape giving you 20% movement boost when you activate any ability. Stone skin is a more effective choice if you are fighting against nova, zeratul or illian. but again this is situational and if they haven't given you any problems through the mid game, chances are you still aren't too worried so plan accordingly. Coming in at 20, Resurgence is amazing. Lets face it, the extra 25% reduction in disables is nice, but you are still able to easily keep Wrath of the Berzerker up during fights and its such a short cool down you will have it again when you need it. Late game I have seen so many final pushes fall short of victory by only a few % of core, and without a global ultimate or the entire team dead, you're a sitting suck and its most likely over. Will you 5v1 and win? No. Can you buy some time to get another hero or 2 up to win? Possibly. Most importantly will you cost your team the game if you make a mistake, or get caught out of position and die? As long as its not every 2 minutes no, you wont. Sonya is a great character that takes a bit more skill to play than some of the others. And it doesn't matter even the best players die, its the nature of the game. This is just a good talent/safety blanket that most teams appreciate, especially when you weigh it again the other final tier talents. It is significantly more useful.
Here is a break down of what Sonya, with this build is strong against and weak against.
Stengths:
Malfurion, you are easily able to negate his ultimate with great aoe damage, from slam as well as whirlwind. You just have to be mindful of root early game, once you have Berzerker, the root does some damage but the actual disable effect will be next to nothing, so it will not pose a real threat. Also end game he only heals for about 280 initial with the massive heal over time, thats not much for Sonya to overcome instantly.
Li Li, Not many arent strong against this efficient and elusive healer. 1,000 Cups, and 1,000,000 will definitely neutralize damage for your entire team for a few seconds, however again with slam or whirlwind, you are doing aoe damage ensuring that more than 1 person is taking damage, then with the help of your team, it really limits the effectiveness. Sonya's aoe is not the best but its up there, and it works great in this situation.
Azmodan, an insanely good pusher, but the lane clear potential you have mid and late game can really hinder his abilities. I won't say you can shut him down 100%, but you can definitely keep him in check without many problems.
Illidan, 1 v 1 you will win the dps race since his evasion wont stop your slams. If you are caught low life or out of fury it may be a death for you but normally you can do enough damage to make him run or kill him without much effort.
Weaknesses:
Brightwing, with a character specialized in AoE damage, its little wonder why this dragon of constant small aoe heals is a problem. Not to mention his blink heal can get him out of range, making him harder to kill, or if he gets Emerald Wind, he can easily push you and your team out, allowing time to flee or a tick or 2 of heal to go off, the latter being less effective since you can skill shot yourself back into combat, but it still does some decent damage to you. But the point is try and kill him he will make Sonya very ineffective.
Anub'arak, Very tanky, lots of control. And good damage, not to mention high mobility, and the ease of escaping through impassible terrain. He doesn't do the damage that Sonya does, but with the control mitigation and beetles assisting him, you wont be beating him 1 v 1 commonly. Try to avoid lane fighting with him since if you spear him, he will just retaliate with a stun, and a beetle to chew on you. He will win the poke fight.
Rehgar, This just comes down again to much like Brightwing, he can AoE heal well. Also with Earthbind Totem, he will negate your ability to pursue pretty well. Bloodlust can make most people able to beat you 1 v 1 and if he get its globally, it can be a real nuisance if they are a coordinated team making that sure win in 1 v 1, and very frustrating death for you. Ancestral Heal, lets face it, will complete heal most characters, and if it splashes with his level 20 talent, it will soak up a large portion of your AoE damage output.
Heroes of the Storm Build Guides
Quick Comment () View Comments
You need to log in before commenting.