Cho Build Guide “This Nexus, all its power... it will be MINE!”
Welcome to our guide for Cho, a Tank in Heroes of the Storm. Within these pages, you will find everything required to understand how best to play this hero, in both different map styles and team compositions.
Cho's Overview
Cho is half of the entity controlled by two players known as Cho'gall. The player in charge of Cho has the burden of controlling the entity's movement and Basic Attacks, whereas the second player, in control of Gall, acts as a "turret" that uses Abilities from Cho's physical position. Cho's strongest points are his area of effect disruption, outstanding resilience, and ability to safely position Gall, whom can deal high levels of sustain damage, right into the midst of combat. Should Cho be killed, Gall will die with him, instantly yielding two kills worth of Experience to opponents.
Given the highly unusual nature of Cho, we highly recommend that you use this guide along with our guide for Gall, so as to get a better understanding of the Hero.
Cho's Strengths and Weaknesses
- Good waveclear
- Humongous Health pool
- Outstanding duelist
- Permanently tied to Gall, an Assassin, making coordination easy
- Strongest late game in Heroes of the Storm
- Good escape with Shove
- Provides vision for his team with Eye of Kilrogg
- Weak early game
- Requires a dedicated Healer
- Vulnerable to percent-based damage
- Easily countered during drafts
- Deaths are twice as punishing, as they mean losing two Heroes
- Only allows a team to have 4 Heroes, reducing overall Map presence
- Very reliant on Heroic Abilities to significantly impact team fights
Cho's Talent Build Cheatsheet
Standard Build
RecommendedThis standard build provides a balance between sustain and mobility. Calloused Hide greatly enhance Cho's teamfighting potential and escape capabilities when he is low on health, being a great Talent for surviving through the early game.
Like all the Cho and Gall builds, it has great power spikes at Level 13 and beyond. At this Level, Twilight Veil is the standard Talent, but Surging Dash is decent against poke compositions, while Molten Block is good against burst percent-based damage that armor cannot be reduced (such as Greymane's Cursed Bullet and Malthael's Last Rites).
Basic Attacks Build
SituationalCho's Basic Attacks build is totally focused on constantly delivering Basic Attacks against enemy Heroes. Since it has Consuming Fire and Firestarter, this build will be incredibly strong if you can keep hitting enemies, but falls behind other options when enemies can punish you during the early game.
A good point to note is that with this build, you can deal good damage while tanking, with either Ogre Hide or Twilight Veil to protect yourself.
Surging Fist Build
SituationalUppercut adds good percentage damage and insane mobility to Cho. Being able to cast Surging Fist again after hitting 2 targets with it can turn the tides of a fight easily. However, it can be easily canceled by any crowd control, greatly reducing this build's effectiveness. For this reason, we recommend going for this Build when enemies do not have many ways to cancel Surging Fist and if they do, it is better to wait for it to be wasted to cast the Ability again.
Since you do not get Seared Flesh at Level 4, attack speed will not be a great addition at Level 16, so Runed Gauntlet is a better choice at that tier.
Cho's Synergies and Counters
Cho'gall's nature makes him thrive when teamed up with a strong Healer, particularly those who possesses great single target healing, like Alexstrasza's Life-Binder, Brightwing's Phase Shift, or Ana's constant Healing. Furthermore, a good bruiser or tank to be with Cho in the frontline is a great addition to the composition.
Cho'gall's nature makes him particularly vulnerable to most forms of crowd control and percent-based damage sources. Fortunately, Cho'gall has plenty of Talent choices and maneuvers that allow him to adapt to a variety of less-than-ideal situations. However, Anub'arak's Cocoon can turn the fight into a 5v3, and is a major threat to Cho'gall.
Cho's Maps
Since Cho'gall is completely dependent on late game Talents, he excels on maps which will mostly reach Levels 16 and 20. He is extremely weak in snowball maps, like Battlefield of Eternity and Warhead Junction.
Cho's Tips and Tricks
- Surging Fist can be interrupted; be careful when casting it near opponents with crowd control.
- Consuming Blaze heals for each enemy hit; hit as many as possible with the Ability, and then try and attack an ignited target to gain even more healing.
- Rune Bomb's slow travel time makes it much more effective at short range. Be sure to call out your cast for Gall to detonate the bomb.
- Upheaval has a short cast time, and Displaces opponents behind your position; be sure to account for these factors.
- Hammer of Twilight is an excellent tool for quickly interrupting opponents.
- Ogre Hide should be active whenever you are about to take a significant amount of damage.
Cho's Role in the Current Meta
Cho, differently from all the other Heroes in the game, occupies 2 slots in a composition, greatly reducing the flexibility in the draft. Even though he is mentioned as a Tank in the game, he performs better being the only Assassin of a composition. Due to how Cho'gall requires a personal Healer, having a fragile damage dealer in the composition might be a burden for his teammates. Cho'gall excels with a resistant frontline, a good resilient Bruiser with waveclear to compensates for his lacking macro play, and a personal Healer with good single-target healing, as mentioned in the Synergies Section.
Cho'gall has a large Health pool and several defensive Talents, being a unique ranged Bruiser-like Hero that exploits Gall's damage to safely poke several opponents before following up on the crowd control of teammates or initiating with a double Heroic Ability chain so as to brute-force kills.
Given the nature of Cho'gall, communication is extremely important between the two players that are sharing the Hero, but also, with the remaining members of the team that must deal with the unusual situation of playing with only four total bodies.
Cho'gall may be the best hero in the game after Level 16 or 20, due to the combination of Gall's Dread Orb's Talents. As long as you reach those levels and play the fight carefully without dying early, game will be very easy. However, Cho'gall's 2 bodies debility and his dependence on Talents greatly reduces his early-game effectiveness. Since the opposing team can get good leads during the beginning of the match, it is better to maximize soak with your team, than to contest the first objectives. A match might become snowbally if you die during an objective and lose it due to Cho'gall's nature.
Changelog
- 12 Feb. 2021 (abilities page): Consuming Blaze's discussion updated.
- 08 Oct. 2020 (this page): The Guide has been reviewed and is in accordance with the latest patch.
- 03 Oct. 2020 (talents page): Builds and Talents updated to reflect current meta.
- 03 Oct. 2020 (abilities page): Abilities updated to match Build changes.
- 03 Oct. 2020 (this page): Guide updated to reflect current meta.
- 30 Aug. 2020 (this page): Role in Current Meta section updated.
- 15 Feb. 2020 (talents page): Talents and recommendations updated to reflect February 12 patch rework.
- 27 Jan. 2020 (talents page): Guide reviewed following January 22 balance patch. No changes to Talent recommendations.
- 12 Dec. 2019 (this page): Added a note about current Anomaly.
- 11 Oct. 2019 (talents page): Talent builds and recommendations reviewed and updated.
- 11 Oct. 2019 (abilities page): Abilities section reviewed.
- 11 Oct. 2019 (this page): Guide updated.
- 03 Mar. 2019 (talents page): Talents and recommendations updated to reflect February 27 patch rework.
- 28 Jul. 2018 (talents page): Talents and recommendations updated to reflect July 25 balance patch changes.
- 17 Mar. 2017 (this page): Guide updated for Probius' patch and moved to the new format.
More Tank Guides
Derenash has been playing Heroes of the Storm since 2015 and has achieved Grandmaster in multiple seasons, peaking at Top 1 in Season 3 and 4 of 2018. He participated in the HGC Copa America in 2018 where his team had a strong victory. He is passionate about teaching others about the game, and streams often on Twitch in Portuguese, and you can find him in Wind Striders' Discord as well where he is happy to answer any questions in English or Portuguese.
- Heroes of the Storm Live Patch Notes: December 9th
- Heroes of the Storm Updated PTR Patch Notes: November 26th
- Celebrating 30 Years of Warcraft in Heroes of the Storm
- Heroes of the Storm PTR Patch Notes: November 14th
- Heroes of the Storm Patch Notes: October 14th
- Heroes of the Storm PTR Patch Notes: September 26th
- Heroes of the Storm Live Patch Notes: August 12th
- Heroes of the Storm PTR Patch Notes: July 15th