So, Tassadar was the first hero I purchased. I honestly don't even remember why, I'm pretty sure I fell in love with him right off the hop, but before I got to play others like Rehgar(who is my favourite for heals). As I got to play other heroes, I felt like I was getting worst with Tassadar. I think it comes down to I play the support role much better than the dps role, and all the guides I find for Tassadar are dps builds.
Now that the beta is out, I'm lvl 40, with all but 3 heroes are level 5 and up, and I tried my hand at ranked matches. One match comes to mind. I tell people that I got the support the need as Rehgar, and I'm damn good at what I do, which is maintaining my front line to keep pushing and survive a 5 man onslaught. However, the first pick the opposing team is Zeratul, then they pick Zagara. Comes to my pick, and I think, hmm, some vision could go a long way in this match, but I don't feel comfortable in my Tassadar skills, so I stick with Rehgar. Sure enough, Zaratul ran amok, and Zagara had growth covering the majority of the map, making it impossible to pin her down.
So, now I go back to the drawing board. I need to figure Tassadar out, so that if I know that the opponents are picking heroes with stealth mechanics, I can counter with T***. I went right back to practice mode to try out new builds and try out his Force Wall ult. Once I think I figured it out, I try out my build in co-op. We win everytime, but still needed some ironing out, until I was able to make it through a co-op with little to no deaths. Once I managed this, it was time to try it out in team battle. After I win 3 pugs back to back, and being the only support for 2 out of 3 of those matches, I now feel like I may have found a good build that works with my play style.
This build will help your entire time sustain through out a match. Things are touch and go from level 1-6, but once you get to lvl 7 and take khala's embrace, momentum will shift into your favour. This build has now put Tassadar, my first love, back on top of my favorite heroes to play, even above Rehgar.
Tier 1
All the talents off the start are good and can fit pretty much any build. They all have their merits, so my suggestion is play with each a few times, take a look at the difference of your performance, and make a decision that works for your play style.
Conjurer's Pursuit This is my normal go to talent. I want to stress that this is not a dps build, it's meant for support, and conjurer's pursuit will help with being always present during fights, not having to go mana up as often. Keep in mind that you do not have to be the one grabbing the globes, just be around for the sharing of said globe.
Overload This WAS my go to talent, since I was going by all other guides, which are made for dps. If you find your mana management is fine and conjurer's pursuit isn't necessary, than feel free to grab this one. The extra range you get on
Psionic Storm will help you catch more heroes running away, and also allow you to lay siege from further away. I would shield up, get close to the enemy's gate and drop psi storms on their mana wells. Very fun to play with.
Psi-Infusion I've never taken this talent. There are better talents in this tier. This would bring down the cost for your psi storms, sure, as long as you are constantly hittin more than 2 or 3 targets. However, I feel like the long term benifits of Conjurer's pursuit is greater, especially since you will be shielding more often than psi storming. But I guess it can be argued that the less mana you are spending on your psi storms is more mana for your
Plasma Shields and dimensional shift. BTW, try to never be caught with no mana which means no dimensional shifting out of trouble, which means you are one dead Tassadar.
Minion Bulwark I have yet to try this, but I am very tempted. Early on, and through out the match as well, I will find myself shielding a minion, just so that it takes that much more hits to be killed by an opponent, or to soak up more ammo from towers and keeps. Later on, while pushing a core, until we get opposition(if opponents are around, be smart and shield your teammates), I'll shield a knight. The longer the core takes to kill it is the less damage the rest of my team takes.
Tier 2
Also has a bunch of good choices, but I find that it's an easier choice for me.
mental acuity Reducing the cooldown time of oracle is alright I guess, if you are up against Nova, Zeratul, AND Zagara, then it would be beneficial to be able to use
Oracle as often as possible, but there is more practical talents in this tier. Later on I take
Scryer which helps maintaining oracle longer, which I find is more useful.
Leeching Plasma When I first tried this build, especially combined with my tier 3 pick, that this talent was very helpful in keeping my team topped off. If you have a healer on your team like Lili or Rehgar, then you can pass on this talent too though.
Reinforce Structure It's alright, but I'll go ahead and agree with what most guides will say and that this talent is better in early stages, not so much in the late game, and mostly it is mostly map specific.
Promote If you combine this with the tier 1 talent
Minion Bulwark, you can be a very effect lane pusher. I don't feel like that's the role Tassadar should be filling, but if that's what you want to do with your support hero, all the power to you.
Healing Ward This was my go to talent based on other guides. If I'm playing Rehgar, you bet ya I'm taking
Healing Totem, but Tassadar? He's not much of a healer, more of a damage mitigater(is that even a word? spell check says no. lol), and I find as the game progresses, I used this less and less, so I'm dropping it for now.
Tier 3
Now we are cooking. This is the tier that made this build for me. Actually, this is the tier that decides your overall build, whether you are going full support, full dps, or full lane master.
khala's embrace I forget the argument on why not to take this talent. All I know is that I never tested this out. When I finally did, however, I immediately noticed the difference. The 50% of the shield strength is very noticeable. Combine this with the tier 2 talent
Leeching Plasma, and for as long as the shield lasts, your party members will be healed for their basic attacks. This shield will save a hero from 2-3 basic attack hits, and if that hero has a talent like
Block, or Lili's
Blinding Wind, or any other ability that mitigates basic attack damage, then this shield will just add that much more durability. I like to see my entire party with shield bubbles as much as possible.
Static Charge Was my go to talent, once again because I was following other guides, which are dps builds. This talent really does help in that department, you can see the difference on how quickly you can bring down a hero's health. My problem is, if I'm picking a support, I'm looking to support my team. If I wanted to do dps, I'll pick Thrall, or Nova, or Zeratul, or one of my personal favorites, Nazeebo.
deep shift I'd like to say that if you are having survivability issues, then take this talent, but khala's embrace is too critical to my build.
Calldown: MULE Pretty much everything I said about
Reinforce Structure applies here. If you combined the two however, you can really stall a match if you are falling behind, depending on the map. As I wright this though, I wonder how much cannon fire you can withstand in Booty Bay if you did combine those two talents...
Tier 4
I'm still tossing these 2 around. Sometimes I find Archon handy and deadly, others I find it wasted. On the other hand, I'm finding a hard time making the most of force wall, and often times my uses of it is detrimental to my own team
Archon No lie, this talent dishes out lots of damage, and if you manage to go into this mode and not get focused on, then you will wreck havoc on your opponents. However in team fights, I find that my intended victims will either run away until it wears out, or focus me down, and even with all that shielding, you WILL go down fast if you get focused on. I just need more practice in it's use. Where I have found more success with this ult is when a dps hero catches me alone and thinks that it's going to be an easy kill. Turn into an archon and prove them right, it was an easy kill, for you.
Force Wall There is so much of this ult that I like, and it makes me really want to be good with it. Protoss was the race I played in all Star Crafts and proper use of Force Wall is key. This isn't SC however, but I still feel like if you can master this, it is Tassadar's best choice. Yes, it doesn't add any dps, but if you can use it to split up a 5 man rush, or to block off escape routes, it can really turn a battle into your team's favor. Unfortunately, until you get better with this, you will be blocking off your teammate's pursuit, and just generally get in the way.
Tier 5
This tier would be the tier that matters the least. My best advice for this talent is to pick the best talent that supports the match. I'll explain the pros and cons that I've figured out. Most are used for survivability.
Distortion Beam I'm a big fan of this talent. I could be wrong, and I haven't done any research on this, but it feels like you do deal more dps with this beam. There's more to why I like this talent than that. Your job as Tassadar isn't to burst a hero down, but with this, it will help slow down escaping victims, helping your bruisers to do their bursting. I take this when I don't have survivability issues and not dealing with stealth.
Prescience This is good for survivability if you tend to forget to use dimensional shift, but if you are up against big ability users, then there are better options in this tier since his doesn't actually give any benefit.
Scryer If I'm up against heroes with any kind of stealth mechanic, then I'll take this talent. that's 3 additional seconds where they will be standing essentially naked. The movement speed is helpful too, maybe pop
Oracle for an emergency escape if dimensional shift is on cooldown.
Spell Shield This is great for survivability. With spell shield and your own
Plasma Shield on, you can easily survive a heavy burst barrage like from Nova.
Shrink Ray Not the biggest fan of this ability. Sure it causes slow, and sure it can potentially save a team mate, but it doesn't deal any damage and is single target. It just makes me wish it was
Blood for Blood.
Tier 6
There's only one talent I've ever used here, or not since I got to level 4. I've never experimented with the other talents because the one is just so good.
Evasive Shielding If this speed boost was as long as they are shielded, then it would be a no brainer for me to pick this one. Alas, it is on a fixed time, so this is more of an escape tool and there is a better talent in this tier for that.
resonation This one's okay, it was the talent I picked until I got second strike, and I found it useful. You got a running Lili your Tychus budy is trying to finish off, drop a psi storm for a quick slow effect, just enough to get the kill. The next talent is just simply more useful.
Second Strike This talent is great. You can use your double psi storm one in front of the other so that a running hero has to walk through both, or cast one at one group of minions and the other at an other group of minions, attack 2 towers at once, take out 2 creep tumours at once. To sum it up, it's kinda like a talent that increases psi storm's area of effect, but instead gives more utility and possibilities.
Dimensional Warp If by this point you are still getting focused, and your opponents are really good at guessing your movement while dimensional shifted, if you're still having survivability issues, then take his talent. The description says it all. It's all useful. Tassadar is one of the slipperiest heroes of the roster, and this talent really enhances that ability to escape a gank.
Tier 6
As for level 20 talents, I find Tassadar's choice underwhelming. Keep in mind that this is my own personal opinion based on my experiences and successes vs failures
Twilight Archon There isn't much for me to say that's not self explanatory. This is just a buff to your ult., everything it did before, it now does better. The extra range is nice for really punishing that Thrall or Zeratul who thought you would be easy pray.
Force Barrier This talent is super useful, if you've mastered the ult.'s function. That extra range helps to close off choke points safely, and the added duration will really insure that your team can maximize on your trap. Keep in mind that if you screw up on the cast and your wall is in the way of your team mates, it will be that much more annoying for that much longer. I really encourage to practice this though as it is very useful if you can master it.
Storm Shield I've never picked this. I find that this talent is redundant for Tassadar. If I'm wrong, let me know, and I'll give it a shot.
So, if you've read my guide from beginning to end, I've talked about how to play Tassadar as the support hero that he's categorized as throughout. For those that couldn't bother, I'll break it down simply.
STAY WITH YOUR TEAM! nothing annoys me more than a support hero, especially if he/she is the only support hero in your party make-up, that is off on their own while the rest of the team is stuck in a 4v5 or a 3v5. Now your party is dead where your presence could have turned the tide for the win.
Shield lots. Try to manage your mana so you can
Plasma Shield when needed. You see someone getting focused, through a shield. Heck, you see someone's health drop once, drop a shield. Once I have khala's embrace, if I see anyone without a shield bubble around them, I'll put one on. The more shields are up, the less you have to work to keeping your team up. Even if you have a dedicated healer in your group, put up shields. If you can help your healer conserve on their mana expenditure will help prolong your entire team.
Try not to be caught with no mana, with no means to dimensional shift away. This is why I take
Conjurer's Pursuit at lvl 1.
At the start of the match, you can be in a lane by yourself IF there's an other support. Tassadar can push a lane solo very well, but his primary function should be to support the rest of your comrades.
Use
Oracle smartly, especially in group fights, it's the main reason why you picked Tassadar over any other support hero. That vision is very important.
Practice a lot. There is always room to improve. Tassadar is listed as very hard for a reason. He's very strong, but does require practice to be good with.
Rehgar
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