These are adjusted to account for these two bruiser builds. Other builds will naturally have different threat levels than the ones I show here.
Ex.: Tychus and Gul'Dan would become a higher threat level.
I have yet to put up a threat level for the Tank build.
Hello all! I've been playing since Beta and have logged hundreds of games as my favorite warrior of all time: Tyrael.
I will admit I am not a pro-gamer giving this guide, but I hope this helps you to consider a few builds you normally wouldn't to throw your opponents off just enough to turn the tide in your favor.
I decided that I loved the new buffs to Tyrael so much that I'm going to put in my two cents into this guide. I may add on to this guide at a later date and discuss the merits of other talents, but I will give the rough idea of how these two bruiser builds work for now.
Please note that the idea behind these two builds is taking out one or more heroes every time you die. While you should avoid dying, these builds make it rather punishing for your enemy to finish you off.
The recent buff to his trait's damage and the movement of Even in Death to the first level make Tyrael a psychological nightmare to take down. If you begin to retreat and the enemy manages to kill you or trap you, you can make that squishy mage pay dearly for their mistake and land your trait 90% of the time instead of hoping they make a dumb move. The 25% increase to his trait's damage often catches people by surprise and takes a nice healthy chunk off of anyone and leaves them nice and weak for your teammates to finish off if you made an unlucky/unwise dive. I personally see it as a second ultimate and a deterrant for a low health character to finish you off in otherwise hopeless situations. Do you want to purposefully die? Not really. But you can make your death a much more punishing experience for your enemy than it normally would be.
This talent goes well with a bruiser/chaser build. With his recent shield buff, he can tank rather nicely provided he takes vigorous strike.
The removal of Angelic Momentum hurt, but it does make Tyrael focus on how he brings his damage to bear.
1.
Even In Death
25% extra damage and easy to land trait plus possibly forcing enemy to take survival talents instead of standard damage talents.
Other Talents:
Purge Evil
A decent choice for some extra damage and could be used for the Ability Bruiser. I still prefer the trait buff.
Protection in Death
Theoretically sound since it's easier to hit your teammates. However, when you think about the fact that you have to die
first, be close enough to your teammates to do it, and sacrifice hitting the enemy this talent does not bode well.
The only time I would consider this would be if your team is heavy on the melee and you have ways to make sure the enemy doesn't move from them. However, this is still so situational that I pass this up.
Tank Build:
Regeneration Master
Good if you're going for a tank build. Extra hp regen and max hp help. The only problem is that this caps out eventually, limiting its usefulness in late game. Still handy for the quick regen that is usually reserved for specialists.
4.
Vigorous Strike
You're going to be hitting pretty fast and this gives surprisingly good mileage no matter which bruiser you go for. A melee bruiser benefits the most since the buffs to attack and attack speed allow you to leech health in amazing time.
Swift Retribution
While this isn't my go-to talent, it's hard not to ignore the extra movement speed and the extra uptime on it. This would probably do better with a tank/utility build since you can't benefit from your own speed buff if you took
Even In Death. If you took
Regeneration Master, this could work well for a sustain build if you are relying on your ability to stick with your opponent and don't plan on using your trait for much except to chase the enemy away.
Horadric Reforging
I haven't had the opportunity to test this out but it looks like it could synergize well with Blade of Justice.
Tank Build:
Amplified Healing
Amplified Healing is good later on and if you have a healer. This is somewhat situational though so take caution when choosing this one.
7.
Follow Through
I've recently been running with
Follow Through and I find the extra bit of damage does wonders for Tyrael's bruiser capabilities. If you took Vigorous Strikes it tacks on a little extra healing that will keep you going.
NOTE:
El'druin's Might can be used to
twice for this. Once on casting and again when you teleport. While this can be risky if you do this wrong, it allows you to pump out some extra damage. Believe me, this talent should not be overlooked just because it isn't as flashy.
Angel's Grace or
Reciprocate
This gives a lot of good mobility after you teleport and allows you to get some extra time in for
Vigorous Strike. This will also help you to land your
Archangel's Wrath since you were supposed to go with
Even In Death.
Otherwise go with Reciprocate to tack on some extra damage with another ability.
NOTE: With the recent patch,
Reciprocate does not activate during
Even In Death. It is now impossible to add on some extra damage to finish off those squishies.
Tank Build:
Zealotry
Good to keep your shields up for longer and to spam them on minion waves or in the middle of a heated fight. It's not going to hold up for long if you don't go for shield buffing talents so be aware of that and plan your talents accordingly.
10.
Judgment
Useful in almost all situations. The ability to dive the back-line and disrupt the positioning of everyone around them can be just what you need. The stun capability is always handy in disrupting channeled ults.
Sanctification
My go to Ultimate as of late. The ability to put down a zone of invulnerability if you're about to die and you need to dish out just that little bit of damage to kill that annoying mage is brilliant. Most players take a second before they realize why they aren't attacking and by then you've taken a good chunk out of their life if you've gone with a melee bruiser build.
Sanctification could also be used if you have no supports and the enemy team have a few ults with a long wind up time.
13.
Angelic Might or
Burning Rage
Angelic Might if you chose
Angel's Grace or
Follow Through earlier. Think of it as a souped up
Follow Through that you can activate and it gives surprisingly good burst if the enemy is all grouped up or you're facing multiple heroes like
Samuro. Burning rage is good for waveclear and for chasing since you don't have to stop and attack your target for it to work. As always, it's handy against invisible heroes and against
Zagara's creep.
Tank Build:
Angelic Absorption or
Imposing Will
Both of these are very handy talents for a tank. Angelic absorption helps with some extra sustain and gives you a way to exploit lone enemy waves that have not engaged your wave. Also handy for taking camps out solo.
Imposing Will not only decreases attack speed but it also decreases their movement speed too. Got a Tracer that just won't leave you alone? Put up your shield and she'll be screaming for help or dashing away.
16. Blade of Justice
This gives you incredible sustain for
Vigorous Strike and it ramps up your damage capability right after you teleport on top of someone. Also comes in handy as a follow-up after you use
Smite with
Angelic Might.
Blood for Blood
This talent makes it safer for you to engage tanks and helps you to stay on top. 10% damage and heal for twice that amount or more if you took
Amplified Healing? Yes please. This would probably fit better in the Ability Bruiser build but is a worthy choice in any build in all honesty.
Tank Build:
Holy Ground or
Salvation
Land your Q on the opposite side of your opponent after casting Judgement on them to make an easy target for you and your allies to pick off.
Alternatively, use it to ensure an escape by making a temporary wall. Use your imagination with this skill. (Ex.: Pushing Nazeebo inside his own zombie wall. Yes, I've done it and it was hilarious)
NOTE: Although this talent might make it harder to land your trait if you took
Even In Death, the utility of this talent is too good to pass up for a tank. Also, you can make some interesting traps by putting some holy ground to completely wall up a narrow passage and blow up on the enemy that has unwittingly grouped up into a nice compact ball for you.
If the enemy is focusing you, a big mistake in all honesty, you might want to try
Salvation. Getting a better shield by shielding your teammates in the middle of a team fight = more chances to debuff/heal depending on your 13 talent.
20.
Angel of Justice
The increased Range and 40 second CD makes this a spammable Ultimate that you can use in the combo listed at Talent 16. Single out a high priority target and let Justice fall on the poor soul who dares to challenge you.
If you chose
Sanctification at lvl. 10, go for
Holy Arena. The extra time and damage boost make it a decent choice.
Nexus Blades
I've recently begun taking this with a melee bruiser build and it provides a good amount of sticking power and continues to ramp up Tyrael's damage. You'll miss out on a spammable ultimate or an extra second of invulnerability but being able to make sure a target stays put and gets a good dose of El'Druin is hard to say no to.
Hardened Shields
Good for a tank build. I have not tested this but I have seen many tanks use this in conjunction with
Angelic Absorption. This allows them to heal for free and tank an ultimate since they only take 25% damage and their shield lasts for the entire duration of Hardened Shields. The sustain is crazy.
Both builds rely on you being aware of when retreat is the better part of valor or to continue the assault on a single character that you can later blow up on.
The Melee Bruiser has more flexibility in my opinion due to it's ability to move about freely and better sticking ability. The Melee Bruiser build works best when your enemy has not chosen block talents. It honestly has more potential burst than the Ability power does. You just need to know when to use your Q ability as a dive option or as an escape option.
The most deadly threat is your ability to be wherever you want and dish out a bunch of damage to a very low mobility based hero. This is the incentive for the enemy to focus you in a melee bruiser. They cannot ignore you like they can in a Tank build or they
will take losses. This puts you in danger but
Even In Death will punish them terribly for their transgression to try to defy the Angel of Justice.
The Ability Bruiser can use the shield offensively and as an extra bit of waveclear. The best part about this build is the ability to tack on an extra bit of damage with a defensive talent. This build does not rely on skill shots as much and allows you to save your Q ability to escape instead of diving and finding out it was a bad idea.
I hope you enjoyed reading through this brief explanation of this Aspect of Justice. Feel free to leave comments and don't be afraid to modify these builds to how you like them. After all, this is a guide and my personal preferences.
I might come back and update this at some later point.
11/23/2016
Updated title and talents pertaining to melee bruiser. Added additional opinion on all other talents not chosen for the builds and their possible uses.
Also added extra emphasis for viability of Melee Bruiser
8/23/16
Updated title and talents of the two bruiser builds. Added an optional tank build.
7/27/16
Updated Reciprocate talent with update.
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