HI! I'm Smittyzips. I'm Rank 1 Team and Hero League and play on the amateur team T.B.D. I mostly play bruisers and Assassins, but i play a wide array of heroes in every role. I stream heroes of the storm everyday at Twitch.tv/Smittyzips. if you want to watch live play of a hero you're trying to learn drop by the stream and let me know in chat and i'll be glad to show you and answer any question you may have.

Chain lightning is big poke ability and a huge part of why you can dominate lanes. Its a range ability that deals max damage to its target then arcs to 2 nearby random targets for half damage.

Feral spirit Travels its range until it hits a hero who it will then root for 1 second. It's a great tool for securing kills, and Can be used on minion waves for free healing from frostwolf resilience.

Windfury increases your movement speed by 30 Precent and makes your next three attacks attack twice as fast. It is an incredible tool for both sticking to an enemy to deal that final damage you need, catching up to them for an easy root or lightning kill, and is amazing for getting out of trouble when you find yourself in it.

Thralls trait frostwolf resilience provides him with healing whenever he's clocked 5 stacks of ability damage. All three swings of windfury count, as well as all three Arcs of chain lightning. damage on minions and mercenaries also count towards frostwolf resilience.

Cuts a chasm into the ground in a line outwards from you pushing enemies outward from the line, dealing Moderate damage and stunning them for 1.25 seconds. One of the most powerful ults in the game. It can be used for hard engage over an entire enemy team, to lock down a kill of a low health opponent who's barely escaped, or as a strong disengage when a fight is going poorly or you're being ganked.

Earthquake is a decent ult that provides 4 pulses of extreme slow in a huge area around where thrall is standing when he casts it. A decent ult, but pales in comparison to Sunder. However, earthquake can be incredibly helpful as part of a "Wombo Combo" where it helps other higher impact ults to land. casting at the same time as an apocalypse from diablo guarantees huge value, with other ults like gazlowe's gravbomb or jaina's ring of frost to follow up from there you can guarantee HUGE damage.

Level 1

Situational. Can be decently strong against an auto attack heavy team. (Tychus and Tracer excluded) but the mana problems you run into without Rolling Thunder make it hardly worth it.

Highly recommended Strongest Talent on this tier. Lets you poke from a safe distance, secure kills from a further distance, and sustain your own mana, which is one of thralls weakest points.

Not recommended Completely unneccisary. You get plenty of sustain from your abilities without this talent. Maybe considerable if you're trying a full Feral Spirit build, but such a build is impractical

Situational/not recommended If you're looking into using a full Windfury build and just want to nuke a solo target seasoned marksman can be alright, but the chain lightning + followthrough combo offers more damage than Seasoned Marksmen + Windshear.

Level 4

Highly recommended Strongest talent at this tier. Combos very well with Rolling Thunder to keep your mana up, and helps put more AoE over the enemy team in team fights.

Situational Not a horrible talent, but traditionally you'll be able to close gaps with Windfury to get close enough to land your root with its base range.

Not recommended Rolling Thunder at level 1 solves your mana problems making this ability completely unnecessary. Even when not using Rolling Thunder, 15 mana per frostwolf Resilience heal isn't enough to to be worth talenting into

Situational Can be the Difference between locking down a kill and Them getting away. if you're aim is nuking solo targets 1v1 Envenom can be a strong asset.

Level 7

Situational When building a windfury build this talent can be worth taking. more windfuries = more damage if auto attack and windfury are talented into.

Situational An extra half second lock down can be valuable; However, this talent pales in comparison to the Damage spike you get from Follow Through.

Highly recommended The Majority of Thralls damage comes from auto attacks, and Follow Through Is a huge buff to auto attacks. You want to make sure you use only 1 ability between every auto attack to make the most of Follow Through. Don't use abilities between each swing of Windfury as the ability animations slow down the attack speed bonus you get from Windfury.

Not Reccomended Not worth using. may save your life once every 3 games, missing out on other big value picks at this talent tier.

Level 10

Highly recommended One of the Strongest Ults in Heroes, see the "Abilities" section above

Situational See the "Abilities" section above

Level 13

Situational Not a Horrible Talent, try it if it seems interesting to you, but Grace of Air, and Spell Shields Contribution is too good to pass up.

Highly recommended Greatly increases your sustain through Windfury. Take if the enemy team doesnt have strong Spellcasters and mages.

Situational Can be used in a tank buster build with Tempest fury at 16.

Highly recommended If you're against strong spellcasters such as Kaelthas, Li Ming, Nova, Mage Falstad, Jaina, or Chromie Spell Shield is the best talent

Level 16

Highly recommended Best talent here. hits 5 enemies with your level 4 Ride The Lightning Procing Frostwolf Resilience, and Gives you another ability to Proc Followthrough bonus damage. you'll be using chain lightning like crazy with this talent.

Situational Makes your third hit of Windfury hit three times for 75% damage for each hit. This may sound strong, but its one hit doing 125% more damage than it would have done on a 12 second cooldown. chain lightning deals its own damage please half on 4 additional targets and procs follow through for 40% additional damage on a 6 second cooldown.

Not recommended The increased movement speed isnt necessary, Wind fury already speed you up enough.

Not recommended Blood for blood can be valuable against a Tank heavy team, but with the fact that Thrall sustains himself, Giant killer + Tempest fury is better for breaking tanky teams.

Level 20

Not recommended Completely worthless. only good for show. fun to hit enemies from the safety of your base. bonus points if you get the core killing blow from across the map.

Situational This talent is actually pretty good if you've taken earthquake. the shields really add up to giving your team a lot more sustain.

Situational/not recommended It can be very tempting to take increased damage in the form of nexus blades since you're playing an assassin. however aggressive blinks will help you secure more kills then nexus blades ever could, and blink can be used defensively when needed as well.

Highly recommended Bolting next to someone to guarantee a kill or bolting away from the enemy team to deny a kill, in both cases bolt of the storm is HUGELY valuable.