Hi guys. This is my first guide about HotS and this guide will be about the badass Mortal Ko... the badass Diablo grill Sonya. IDK about lore but Barbarian was always my least favorite class in Diablo series. But in this game, I fell in love with the barbarian, hope you like her too and don't call her a troll pick in hero league anymore. Hope you guys enjoy my guide and get enlightened *tips fedora*.

PROS

+ Hardcore engage with Leap
+ High DPS for a "warrior"
+ Endless sustain in lane thanks to Whirlwind and War Paint
+ Doesn't use mana
+ Strong ganks and strong laning
+ Strong duelist, splitpusher, teamfighter
+ Can build versatile

CONS

- Falls of late game
- Just dies every time, really sad :((
- Easy to kite
- Squishy for a "warrior"
- Your teammates will blame you for picking her, to be honest, not picking one of Muradin E.T.C. Tyrael Diablo. Because they are all French/Polish ex-lol players...

• When your team lacks damage but still needs a tank.
  
• When your is a engage based team but lacks engage.
  
• When your team is a wombo-combo team and needs even more spicy stuff.

Otherwise, just pick your boring E.T.C..

Pretty self-explaining. Will talk about this mechanic later.

Your gapcloser. Use it to generate fury, lock targets or escape. Fantastic, right?

Your main damage ability. Spam it all day and check your Fury when doing it. A nice way to use Seismic Slam is, using the combo AA + W + AA + AA + W, this way, you will deal the top DPS while not consuming too much Fury.

Your sustain and waveclear ability. It used to be really strong before the Kael'thas patch, but I think now it's just better for Sonya's week late game. Now, you don't have to care if they CC you, because now it has a pretty short cooldown. Again, try to to use it after your basic attacks for most dps. Another way of using it is, finishing of really low health heroes. When you are doing your Seismic Slam + AA combos, for example, enemy Nova may just be entring through her team's gates. Because you don't have enough frames to do another Seismic Slam or auto attack, you Whirlwind to walls, stay there for a 0.2 second Whirlwinding, and Seismic Slam the gate, hoping for splash damage to kill her. I got a lot of kills using this technique, so yeah, really OP.

Your team's engage tool. Try to dive to their backlines, but never do it without support of your team. This skill is really important and will differ a good Sonya from a noob Sonya. And hey, you can also use it to escape and finish of annoying Zeratuls.

It really explains itself. Not recommended because you will get kited really hard, best with a 1v5 split-push build.

LEVEL 1

Because Sonya really synergizes well with Follow Through thanks to Seismic Slam, because you will probably want to take Nexus Blades and Focused Attack, and because it gives much more sustain compared to Block in many cases, you are going to take it.

8/10

You may want to consider taking this against a Nova. Pretty solid spell but War Paint gives much more tankyness.

6/10

Yes. Endless to fill too. I tried it a couple of times. Pretty disappointing talent to be honest.

2/10

Pretty bad, but actually synergizes pretty good with wrath of the berzerker. Other than that, it's still viable if you can't manage your fury in fights.

5/10

LEVEL 4

Serious talk. This talent isn't that good, but, it's still something. More burst can't hurt. Plus, it has a strong synergy with your other talents.

7/10

This is just, plain bad. No matter what you build, you won't get use of %25 more splash damage.

1/10

Good against roots and slows :)) Situational.

6/10

It's a decent talent. Because you want to be using Whirlwind when you are inside a minion wave when also dueling. Remember the fact that can do the same thing without taking Superiority. In late game, this is pretty much useless. Can work with split-push Sonya, where you will face-tank the turrets.

5/10

LEVEL 7

A damage talent that is inferior to floow through. Used to take it before patch because it used to decrase the spears cooldown by 4 when it hit something. Now, just don't bother with it.

2/10

Pretty good utility talent. I think it can fit the utility tank Sonya build.

6/10

This talent = tons of damage. Hello trinity force.

10/10

Yep, this is pretty good with a tanky build. You can bait a lot of noobs when you use this correctly.

6/10

LEVEL 10

Be a good guy and take this.

10/10

If you are bored of your team and you decide dedicate yourself to 1v9 splitpush, jungle, add pressure all day.

5/10

LEVEL 13

To become a unkillable tank against a non-cc team. Used to be better, +%10 is not that great to be honest.

5/10

You will need this if you are planning to get Furious Blow. Just saying.

7/10

Really strong utility talent [9000]. Good when splitpushing. Also 4 second cooldown reduction is like the cherry on the pie.

6/10

Spellshield can't be bad. Take it if you want to be tankier a bit.

5/10

LEVEL 16

More damage. Let me get that. As I said before, you will need Aftershock because you will run out of steam really fast.

9/10

Still kited, allways kited. Can be good whit Wrath of the Berserker, but other than that, it's pretty weak.

4/10

Really bad. Just pass. OK, maybe good against Sgt. Hammer and Raynor. But there is always a Stoneskin.

2/10

Become more tanky. Simple.

7/10

LEVEL 20

Take this when you have to kill a specific target with no escape. This is actually pretty awesome addition to Jarva... Sonya's kit hue.

6/10

Oh, so you picked Wrath of the Berserker?!?! No explanation. Bad overall.

3/10

Nexus blades synergizes really well with Sonya Blades. Slow on hit is, I think really strong, and because we picked auto attack based talents before... It's just really solid.

8/10

To become even more tanky. Yes.

6/10

Early game, you want to be a dominant laner. Harrass them hard with your combo, try to use Whirlwind inside the creepwave. Send you opponent laner to the fountain or to oblivion, then gank after pushing your lane.

If you go for one of the dps builds, you must play a bit safer. You can split and teamfight pretty effectively. You can kill their carries much easier. Don't use a lot of Whirlwinds, just Ancient Spear them and Seismic Slam them to death.

If you go for a really tanky build, you don't have the luxury to spend your fury on Seismic Slams. Hold it for Whirlwind. Zone their carries, or protect yours with Ancient Spear. Staying alive is easier but dealing damage is also harder.

Chain stun burst combo:
Leap + aa + Seismic Slam + Ancient Spear + aa
Then Whirlwind for aoe damage/sustain, Seismic Slam auto-attack combos for single-target dps.

If you go for IDGAF splitpush Sonya build, just create pressure. Use your ult Wrath of the Berserker to kill buildings faster. If you use your skills correctly, it's duration won't run of. They can gank you and kill you, but they will need at least 2. Did I say that you can out-duel every character in the game? Don't forget to get their siege camp to help with you. If you get caught a lot, you can just get Mystical Spear. You can get Furious Blow if you get an Endless Fury or Shot of Fury earlier. But you will lack the sustain of War Paint, which is already really good without your super saiyan ultimate. If you want to team fight with this ultimate, you MUST flank, and this is really hard to do in a game like this.

Sonya is fun.