Alexstrasza Abilities and Strategy

• Gift of Life costs Health instead of Mana, so try to keep your Health high.
• Abundance should be positioned trying to predict how your team will move in the next 3 seconds and without putting them in danger to get the healing.
• Flame Buffet costs a lot of Mana, unless you hit the same target multiple times in a row, so stop using it for a dozen of seconds when you missed too many times in a row and you want to keep your Mana high.
• Life-Binder should be used on a Hero who has low Health when Alexstrasza has high Health or on a Hero who has high Health when Alexstrasza has low Health, but not when they have a similar percentage of Health.
• Cleansing Flame can be used as a form of escape or as a global if you are away from your team and want to help them immediately.
• Dragonqueen is an important Ability that must be used strategically, when the enemy team cannot disengage because they are committed or because there is an Objective to contest.
• Breath of Life costs no Health and no Mana, so you should usually cast it on cooldown.
• Preservation should usually be positioned aggressively, forcing the enemy team to fight in an unfavorable scenario while they try to disengage and wait for Dragonqueen to end.
• Wing Buffet can be used to peel, interrupt, or even disengage if really needed.
• Life-Binder has more range while Dragonqueen is active.
• Cleansing Flame has no cast time while Dragonqueen is active and can be used to extend its duration.

Gift of Life is a Basic Ability that does not cost Mana but Health. The amount of Health paid for casting it gets amplified 1.5 times and then applied as healing on the target allied Hero.

As a consequence of the Health cost, each consecutive cast will heal for a lower amount than the previous one, unless Alexstrasza gets her Health back. The increased Health Regeneration provided helps with that.

We recommend healing Alexstrasza herself by using Abundance as much as possible, else Gift of Life will quickly become ineffective.

Abundance is a Basic Ability that provides delayed area of effect healing.

The healing provided is based on the maximum Health of the affected allied Heroes, particularly effective on Heroes who have it high (usually Tanks and Bruisers, but there are a few exceptions across other Roles).

The healing happens after a few seconds that the circle has been on the ground, where both allies (colored in green) and enemies (colored in grey) can see it. You do not have to stay in the circle from the beginning and completely inside it, but you need a part of your hitbox (the circle below your Hero) to be inside when the healing will happen. Using this method will make it easier to dodge enemy Abilities that counter Abundance (for example Concussion Mine by Junkrat).

Considering all of this, its position should be chosen based on how allied Heroes will move in the next few seconds:

• if your team wants to engage, use it at maximum range towards the allied frontline;
• if your team wants to control the area, use it near yourself;
• if your team wants to retreat, use it at maximum range behind the allied backline.

Last but not the least, if the enemy team is playing in a way that makes Abundance more dangerous than helpful for your team, then just use it to keep your Health high by casting it where the enemy team cannot see it and heal allied Heroes with Gift of Life instead.

Flame Buffet is a Basic Ability that provides a good Slow effect and constant damage, unless you miss.

While it has an extremely low cooldown, it requires precise aim because the high Mana cost will easily add up if you do not get the Mana refund by hitting the same target multiple times in a row.

If you have less than 200 Mana, avoid using this Ability for a while and keep your Mana only for Abundance instead—a strategy that will allow you to heal for one more minute before going out of Mana when you do not have time to Hearthstone and/or cannot use the Healing Fountain.

In this section we discuss how this Heroic Ability works and give some tips on how to use it. If you are looking for a detailed explanation on when and why you should pick it, check the dedicated section in the Talent Build page.

Life-Binder is a defensive Heroic Ability that allows Alexstrasza to transfer Health percentage between Alexstrasza and the target allied Hero, a powerful effect to save a Hero who is getting focused down by the enemy team, even if the 2-second delay makes it not that easy to use against burst damage (for example Jaina).

Thanks to its design, you can use it in two different ways:

• if you have low Health, cast it on an allied Hero who has high Health to heal yourself;
• if you have high Health, cast it on an allied Hero who has low Health to heal them.

While Dragonqueen is active, Life-Binder has 33% more range.

In this section we discuss how this Heroic Ability works and give some tips on how to use it. If you are looking for a detailed explanation on when and why you should pick it, check the dedicated section in the Talent Build page.

Cleansing Flame is a versatile Heroic Ability that, after a short cast time, makes Alexstrasza fly in the air and shoot 5 fireballs over 6 seconds where your mouse cursor is in that given moment.

If its initial channel gets interrupted, it goes on a 10-second cooldown, so try to cast it from a safe position.

Once successfully cast, Alexstrasza becomes untargetable and you can move the mouse cursor to choose where to shoot a fireball on the ground once every second and then you will be able to choose where to land, so be careful not to end up in the enemy formation.

Each fireball will heal allied Heroes for a fixed amount and damage enemy Heroes for about half of that value, therefore you should prefer using them to heal.

In case you want to heal an allied Hero that is out of range, you can use Cleansing Flame as a global by using a few fireballs at maximum range on the ground while you get closer and then use the remaining ones to heal. The further you are, the less effective this trick is.

While Dragonqueen is active, Cleansing Flame is instant cast and impossible to interrupt for that reason.

Dragonqueen is a very powerful Trait that can easily decide the outcome of a team fight in your team's favor by improving all your Basic and Heroic Abilities.

If its initial channel gets interrupted, it goes on a 10-second cooldown, so try to cast it from a safe position.

When the effect starts and ends, Alexstrasza goes through an invulnerable frame that will sometimes cause her to dodge the healing from Abundance or Preservation but will also make her dodge any damage (for example Pyroblast by Kael'thas) for a moment.

Since it comes with a long cooldown, Dragonqueen should be used strategically. As a general rule, you should use Dragonqueen based on the current game phase:

• early game: to contest the Objective, but not to save an allied Hero or to win a team fight when the Objective is not available;
• mid game: to contest the Objective or to win a team fight, but not to save an allied Hero when the Objective is not available;
• late game: to contest the Objective, to win a team fight, or to save an allied Hero even if the Objective is not available.

While Dragonqueen is active, Basic Attacks used on enemy Heroes deal damage in an arc in front of Alexstrasza and heal allied Heroes in the same area for about 1/3 of that; furthermore, the duration of Stuns, Roots, and Slow applied to her is reduced by 50%.

To make up for its power, Dragonqueen will be on cooldown at the start of the game, until around 1:55 Game Time.

Breath of Life a special Basic Ability usable only when Dragonqueen is active and is the empowered version of Gift of Life.

Contrary to its counterpart, it has a bit more range that helps you target the frontline of your team while keeping a safe position in chaotic moments.

Use it as much as possible to keep allied Heroes alive during team fights because it costs no Health and no Mana, but pay attention to not waste its short but still meaningful cooldown by overhealing—healing more than the Health missing on a given Hero.

Talents that improve Gift of Life do not affect Breath of Life because it is treated as a completely separate Ability.

Preservation is a special Basic Ability usable only when Dragonqueen is active and is the empowered version of Abundance.

Contrary to its counterpart, it has a significantly bigger radius and also heals for more maximum Health at the cost of no Mana. Talents that improve Abundance do not affect Preservation because it is treated as a completely separate Ability.

You can usually cast it only once per Dragonqueen, unless you use an effect to prolong the duration of your Trait:

• Cleansing Flame at Level 10, if you cast the first Preservation when Dragonqueen has more than 50% duration remaining and then use your Heroic Ability to extend that time by 8 seconds;
• Draconic Discipline at Level 16, if you cast it within 4 seconds of Dragonqueen being used.

Using both the effects mentioned above will not allow you to cast 3 Preservation with a single Dragonqueen.

Wing Buffet is a special Basic Ability usable only when Dragonqueen is active and is the empowered version of Flame Buffet.

Contrary to its counterpart, it costs no Mana and the damage done is instant rather than over time while the Slow provided lasts a bit longer and does not decay anymore, but it has less range.

In addition to that, it provides a Knockback which can prove to be crucial to save threatened allied Heroes or herself and can eventually be used to interrupt powerful channeled Abilities (such as Mosh Pit by E.T.C.).

Talents that improve Flame Buffet do not affect Wing Buffet because it is treated as a completely separate Ability.