heroes Anduin Meta Tier List (May 2019)

[Oxygen 446]

Our twenty-sixth Heroes of the Storm Meta Tier list for the month of May is here!

The latest meta tier list for May 2019 is here!

Welcome to another Icy Veins's Meta Tier List for the April 30 patch. The goal of this list is to try and detail game's current metagame state. The prime goal of such lists is to inform players regarding popular and trending team composition drafting strategies (i.e. the drafting metagame).

Using the list

Spoiler

Although tier listings are generally the product of balance, many factors come into play when discussing the relative perceived strengths of heroes, including player regions, maps, play style, skill level, and, of course, personal perception. As such, any tier list—including this very one—should never be interpreted as gospel, but rather, as a guide to better grasp what to expect with regards to typical drafting experiences. One useful application of such lists is to allow you know which heroes to look out for in terms of practice and counterplay, ultimately improving your knowledge of the game.

As stated above, tier lists are easy to mistake for gospel. As new strategies are discovered and experimented with, so changes the perception of the relative strengths of each hero. Tier lists still prove to be useful as a snapshot of player expectations in terms of drafting. Although it is generally considered preferable to focus on high tier heroes (Prime and Core tiers), it is important to note that Heroes of the Storm's wild character and map designs make it so that any given hero's tier position is prone to fluctuate depending on the situation at hand.

One classic example of such is that of Kerrigan on the Infernal Shrines map. Although we currently judge her to be a mid-tier hero, her drafting priority shoots up to first-pick or first-ban material on this specific map due to the nature of its objective. Certain heroes also synergise so well with each other that the sole fact of having the opportunity of drafting them together is generally enough to increase their potential. Tassadar and Tracer, for instance, are generally nightmarish to deal with for many. There are too many examples of these interactions to reasonably produce here, but we invite you to consult our guides to know exactly where and when each hero shines. The guides have been linked in the lists below for your convenience - just click any of the hero names to access them.

A ↑ next to a hero's name means its tier list position has increased since the previous month whereas a ↓ means just the opposite. Additionally, a + or - sign indicates short-to-medium term predictions (which is to say, about a month) for tier increase(s) or decrease(s), respectively. These are often updated after significant balance patches and/or when clear trends are emerging. The (ban) comment is a ban recommendation; Meta heroes should be picked and banned first, though heroes from other groups should be considered as well depending on how team compositions are shaping up.

If you're newer to the game, also consider visiting our glossary for a comprehensive list of discrete Heroes of the Storm terms.

 

Current ranked mode map rotation (map rotation updated)

 

• Alterac Pass
• Battlefield of Eternity
• Braxis Holdout (removed)
• Cursed Hollow
• Dragon Shire
• Garden of Terror (added)
• Hanamura  (added)
• Infernal Shrines
• Sky Temple (removed)
• Tomb of the Spider Queen
• Towers of Doom
• Volskaya Foundry (removed)

 

Meta picks

Tank	Bruiser	Fighter	Stalker	Marksman	Mage	Support	Healer
Anub'arak (ban)	—	—	—	—	—	—	Ana
Diablo (ban)

 

High-tier generalists

Tank	Bruiser	Fighter	Stalker	Marksman	Mage	Support	Healer
E.T.C. (ban)	Artanis	Thrall	Genji (ban)	Hanzo (ban)	Azmodan↑	—	Malfurion
Garrosh (ban)↓	Imperius	Varian	Zeratul	Raynor (ban)	Jaina		Tyrande
Johanna					Kael'thas

 

Mid-tier generalists

Tank	Bruiser	Fighter	Stalker	Marksman	Mage	Support	Healer
Arthas	Dehaka (ban)	Alarak	Tracer (ban)	Cassia	Chromie↑	Abathur	Alexstrasza
Mal'Ganis	Sonya	Kerrigan		Falstad+	Gul'dan	Zarya	Anduin (new)
Muradin		Maiev		Fenix+	Junkrat		Auriel+
Stitches (ban)		Malthael		Greymane	Kel'Thuzad		Brightwing
Varian		Ragnaros		Lunara	Mephisto		Deckard↑
		Varian		Sgt.Hammer (ban)	Nazeebo		Kharazim
				Tychus	Orphea		Li Li
				Zul'jin	Sylvanas		Lt. Morales
					Zagara		Lúcio
							Rehgar
							Stukov
							Whitemane↑

 

Low-tier generalists

Tank	Bruiser	Fighter	Stalker	Marksman	Mage	Support	Healer
Blaze	Chen	Gazlowe	Valeera	Valla+	Li-Ming↓	Medivh (ban)+	—
	D.Va	Murky			Probius
	Yrel	The Butcher

 

Situational picks (map, team composition, or counterpick)

Tank	Bruiser	Fighter	Stalker	Marksman	Mage	Support	Healer
Cho'gall (ban)	Leoric	Illidan	Nova	—	Cho'gall (ban)	Tassadar	Uther (ban)
Tyrael	Rexxar	Xul	Samuro			The Lost Vikings (ban)

 

Meta heroes define the metagame. They are very often banned or picked right away, as they generally dictate the pace of most drafts and matches.

Generalists form the core of your team and are generally picked after Meta picks have been distributed. They tend to work on most maps, and as part of and against most team compositions. Since this group includes most heroes, I elected to split it into three tiers. High-tier rankings are a result of performance (i.e. win rates) and popularity (i.e. pick and ban rates). This means that heroes with high win rates can be set in low tier; the opposite may also be true.

Situational picks shine on specific maps or as part of specific team compositions.

Our Meta Tier List has been updated for the April patch!

[Valhalen 1,484]

Interesting placement of Anduin. While a lot of people are saying that he is "broken" or "overpowered", I don't think he is at all. In fact, I'd say he is one of the most balanced Heroes ever on launch, and also the first in a very long time that has no Quest Talents.

I also strongly agree that Ana is the best Healer in the game right now, something I've always said about her even before her amazing rework.

[Kuarinofu 78]

Malfurion as high tier healer say whaaa?

I mean, putting Auriel, new Lucio and Alexstraza below Malf after he was stripped of all his saves and useful talents? Wow

[LouW 0]

What the " ban " exactly means here ?

[DanHawkshot 0]

Nice tier list as always. Just one thing about the current ranked map rotation, Sky Temple was not removed, it is still in the rotation ❤️

[Mortalo 1]

Are Blaze and Yrel really not good right now, or is it lack of HGC hitting them hard. They were very big at the end of last year and outside of Bunker nerf I don't recall any other nerfs (though I might be wrong).

Happy to see KT so high, he is very strong right now, melting squishes after 16.

[Valhalen 1,484]

2 hours ago, Mortalo said:

Are Blaze and Yrel really not good right now, or is it lack of HGC hitting them hard. They were very big at the end of last year and outside of Bunker nerf I don't recall any other nerfs (though I might be wrong).

Happy to see KT so high, he is very strong right now, melting squishes after 16.

Both Yrel and Blaze got nerfs that hurt their solo laner capabilities with increased mana costs, among some other minor nerfs and tweaks. I still consider Blaze a very solid off-tank, but he fell in favor of other Heroes, such as Mal'Ganis and post-rework Stitches, both that can outlast him in the laning phase.

6 hours ago, LouW said:

What the " ban " exactly means here ?

It refers to ranked matches, where you can ban Heroes from being selected by either team. In this case, Oxygen is pinpointing Heroes that should be prioritized as ban material during the draft.

Edited May 9, 2019 by Valhalen

[EdenL 0]

Thanks for the effort to make this tier list, however, I believe this Overwatch tier list is more accurate since everyone can contribute to it and there are no single player favorable characters.

[ShadowerDerek 69]

1 hour ago, EdenL said:

Thanks for the effort to make this tier list, however, I believe this Overwatch tier list is more accurate since everyone can contribute to it and there are no single player favorable characters.

Yeah, let's compare 2 tier lists that belongs to 2 different games.

[EdenL 0]

On 5/22/2019 at 3:08 PM, ShadowerDerek said:

Yeah, let's compare 2 tier lists that belongs to 2 different games.

What do you mean?

OOpss... Seems like I copied the wrong link!

Edited May 23, 2019 by EdenL
mistake

[Apologised 20]

On 5/9/2019 at 4:01 PM, Valhalen said:

Interesting placement of Anduin. While a lot of people are saying that he is "broken" or "overpowered", I don't think he is at all. In fact, I'd say he is one of the most balanced Heroes ever on launch, and also the first in a very long time that has no Quest Talents.

I also strongly agree that Ana is the best Healer in the game right now, something I've always said about her even before her amazing rework.

I agree with Ana, the only thing the rework did was give you options for level 1 talents instead of always having to take piercing darts. Lategame Ana with that Quest completed was basically functional immortality for bruisers and tanks in the frontline.

Anduin I can't agree with however. His basic skills seem balanced enough but Holy Word is great big elephant in the corner of the room. It's a literal WIN TEAMFIGHT button that doesn't really require THAT much skill to use, I mean sure it's less brainless than LiLi, but what isn't? Being able to, in the middle of a teamfight, just throw down a great big circle that autocasts protected on everyone inside and then heals 25% life to everyone is WAY too strong.

Either Lightbomb needs a buff, or it needs to come down in power. Go from 3 seconds to 1.5 duration or reduce the bubble size, or take away the healing, or buff the healing but take away protected (But that would make it too much like LiLi's) or something because right now it's just impossible to win a teamfight if it's off cooldown.

[Valhalen 1,484]

1 hour ago, Apologised said:

Anduin I can't agree with however. His basic skills seem balanced enough but Holy Word is great big elephant in the corner of the room. It's a literal WIN TEAMFIGHT button that doesn't really require THAT much skill to use, I mean sure it's less brainless than LiLi, but what isn't? Being able to, in the middle of a teamfight, just throw down a great big circle that autocasts protected on everyone inside and then heals 25% life to everyone is WAY too strong.

Either Lightbomb needs a buff, or it needs to come down in power. Go from 3 seconds to 1.5 duration or reduce the bubble size, or take away the healing, or buff the healing but take away protected (But that would make it too much like LiLi's) or something because right now it's just impossible to win a teamfight if it's off cooldown.

Holy Word: Salvation is extremely overrated. Sure, you can use it in the middle of a teamfight, but will also put a huge target on your head. Organized teams will see it coming and save their cooldowns to interrupt Anduin at easy; any stun, sleep, silence or displacement will ruin it. And if Anduin is picked early on during the draft, the opposing team will be smart enough to pick Heroes that can interrupt it. Holy Word: Salvation only works after the enemy team burned all their hard CCs, and by the time that happened your team will probably be dead already. In that regard, Tyrael's Sanctification can be considered much better since there is no way to interrupt it.

Lightbomb is very powerful on the right circumstances and can lead to some nasty CC-chains, but I agree that it needs some buffs, specially given the Heroic has no level upgrade at level 20. It is usually the Heroic I pick since most of the time there is something to counter Holy Word: Salvation. If they increased the stun duration PER enemy Hero hit, then this Heroic would be way more interesting.

Edited May 27, 2019 by Valhalen

[Apologised 20]

1 hour ago, Valhalen said:

Holy Word: Salvation is extremely overrated. Sure, you can use it in the middle of a teamfight, but will also put a huge target on your head. Organized teams will see it coming and save their cooldowns to interrupt Anduin at easy; any stun, sleep, silence or displacement will ruin it. And if Anduin is picked early on during the draft, the opposing team will be smart enough to pick Heroes that can interrupt it. Holy Word: Salvation only works after the enemy team burned all their hard CCs, and by the time that happened your team will probably be dead already. In that regard, Tyrael's Sanctification can be considered much better since there is no way to interrupt it.

Lightbomb is very powerful on the right circumstances and can lead to some nasty CC-chains, but I agree that it needs some buffs, specially given the Heroic has no level upgrade at level 20. It is usually the Heroic I pick since most of the time there is something to counter Holy Word: Salvation. If they increased the stun duration PER enemy Hero hit, then this Heroic would be way more interesting.

I feel this all relates to one of the larger problems HotS has always had: Some Heroes only really have the one Heroic. I mean, even with the changes Gul'Dan's Asteroid Summoning is still trash compared to Horrify, the only time I've EVER seen anyone pick Mephisto's other Heroic was due to a missclick... Fenix, Artanis, Vala, Anuburak, Johanna, Malphael, li-ming, all of them are heroes with one Heroic being noticiably more useful than the other.

[Valhalen 1,484]

On 5/27/2019 at 9:55 AM, Apologised said:

I feel this all relates to one of the larger problems HotS has always had: Some Heroes only really have the one Heroic. I mean, even with the changes Gul'Dan's Asteroid Summoning is still trash compared to Horrify, the only time I've EVER seen anyone pick Mephisto's other Heroic was due to a missclick... Fenix, Artanis, Vala, Anuburak, Johanna, Malphael, li-ming, all of them are heroes with one Heroic being noticiably more useful than the other.

Yeah, sadly that is how it is. But those Heroics do have their niche, though.

Rain of Destruction is much better now, but still can't compare to Horrify, like you said. They need to tweak it a bit more to increase its effectiveness in the competitive scene. However, it is fun (and powerful) on ARAM Brawls, though.

Durance of Hate can be quite powerful in some cases and can lead to a lot of follow ups, specially if the enemy team drafted Heroes to counter Consume Souls (such as Lúcio, Kharazim, Tyrael and Anduin).

I hate Planet Cracker, but it does work if you combo it with Entomb or Mosh Pit.

Locust Swarm and Strafe are garbage, indeed; there are little if no situations where they should be picked. Tormented Souls is no longer useful because Malthael can now cleave with Basic Attacks. As for Johanna and Li-Ming, I am unsure which Heroics do you refer to because they both have very reliable ones that fit different situations.

Edited May 28, 2019 by Valhalen