E.T.C. Talents
Welcome to our Talents page for E.T.C.. Here, we give you an overview of how strong each of E.T.C.'s talents is. Then, we present several viable builds, before analyzing each talent row separately, so that you can make informed decisions.
E.T.C.'s Talent Build
Level | Choices |
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1 |
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4 |
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7 |
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10 |
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13 |
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16 |
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20 |
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E.T.C.'s Talent Build Cheatsheet
Standard Build
RecommendedThis standard build provides superior survivability, utility, and
crowd control. Key aspects of the build lie in
greatly improving the disruption potential of Face Melt.
Although
Mosh Pit is suggested as a Heroic
Ability,
Stage Dive can be a valid choice as well for
certain strategies.
Level 1 Talents for E.T.C.


While Guitar Solo is active, E.T.C. heals for 50% of his damage dealt by Basic Attacks. Basic Attacks increase the duration of Guitar Solo by 0.5 seconds.


Quest: Gathering a Regeneration Globe permanently increases the healing per second of Guitar Solo by 5, to a maximum of 100
Reward: After gathering 20 Regeneration Globes, Guitar Solo also heals nearby allied Heroes for 50 (+4% per level) Health every second while it is active.


Using a Basic or Heroic ability also gives nearby allied Heroes a stack of Block, granting 75 Physical Armor against the next Hero Basic Attack for 8 seconds, reducing the damage taken by 75%. Maximum 2 stacks of Block.
Discussion
This Talent tier improves E.T.C.'s survivability.
Due to its attack requirement, Guitar Hero is much less
reliable than its
Prog Rock counterpart, even if its
overall potential healing output is a bit higher.
Prog Rock provides a reasonable and reliable amount of
self sustain. In the late-game, this effect is
also extended to allies, making it an effective counter to some amount of
poke damage and just generally good for recuperating
Health.
Certain team compositions feature several Heroes that heavily rely on Basic
Attacks to deal damage. Block Party, then, offers a modest
increase to your raw survivability and to that of your teammates. This Talent
is particularly useful against Greymane and The Butcher.
Level 4 Talents for E.T.C.


Allows Powerslide to travel over walls and terrain. If no enemies are hit, reduce the cooldown by 5 seconds and refund the Mana cost.


Increases Face Melt range and knockback by 50%.


Using a Basic or Heroic ability also gives nearby allied Heroes 20% Movement Speed for 2 seconds.
Discussion
This Talent tier provides offensive utility.
Crowd Surfer has interesting implications in terms of
mobility, but is so situational when compared to the other existing choices
that it can rarely if ever be justified. Still, the Talent has room on tight
Maps such as Cursed Hollow and Tomb of the Spider Queen.
Loud Speakers is a significant and reliable increase to
Face Melt's peeling and disruptive
power. This becomes particularly obvious when paired with the
Mic Check and
Face Smelt Talents. Loud
Speaker also increases E.T.C.'s effective range for
interrupting and generally reaching opponents
without having to use
Powerslide.
Speed Metal's movement speed increase is invaluable for
you and the rest of your team. In general, movement speed provides both
offensive and defensive utility; it helps with uptime,
positioning, escaping, and avoiding skillshots.
Particularly effective against melee-heavy team compositions.
Level 7 Talents for E.T.C.


Face Melt does 300% more damage to enemies recently affected by Powerslide.


While Guitar Solo is active your Basic Attacks deal 30% more damage.


Using a Basic or Heroic Ability releases two pulses of 15 (+4% per level) damage. This deals 250% bonus damage to Minions, Mercenaries, and Monsters. The first occurs instantly, the second occurs 2 seconds later.
Discussion
This Talent tier improves E.T.C.'s damage.
Pinball Wizard provides a good amount of burst damage with a
major downside over Echo Pedal in terms of waveclearing: it requires E.T.C. to commit his most important
Abilities. The Talent's utility is also limited to targets hit by
Powerslide, which can be difficult or outright negative when
Face Melt should not be used. If you are not in a solo lane situation,
Pinball Wizard is E.T.C.'s only way of dealing any significant amount of burst
damage. In other words, if your team composition is well-rounded, Pinball Wizard
is a solid choice.
Echo Pedal is an incredible boon to E.T.C., who
generally heavily lacks any decent waveclearing or
Mercenary Camp claiming capacity. Echo Pedal greatly helps with this, on top
of adding a very respectable amount of damage to his general kit. Proper when
solo laning.
Hammer-on provides more single-target damage than the
two other Talent choices on this tier, but falls much shorter in terms of
utility and area of effect damage.
Level 10 Talents for E.T.C.


- Mana: 100
- Cooldown: 120 seconds
After 0.75 seconds, channel to stun nearby enemies for 4 seconds.


- Mana: 100
- Cooldown: 75 seconds
Leap to target location, landing after 2.75 seconds, dealing 495 (+4.0% per level) damage to enemies in the area, and slowing them by 50% for 3 seconds.
Discussion
At this Level, Heroic Abilities become available. Both Heroic Abilities have already been described in the Abilities section.
Mosh Pit is notable for single handedly altering the way
that your opponents play due to its team fight-winning potential. This Heroic
Ability's power is as considerable as is its difficulty to use; many factors
must be considered when using Mosh Pit, such as the availability of
interrupts or movement Abilities on the opposing
team, the map that is being played, or your own team composition.
Stage Dive can essentially act as a mapwide mobility
Ability, opening up the possibility of
split-pushing for E.T.C. due to its
global cast range. This allows you to generate an
Experience lead and simultaneously threaten Structures without the downsides of
leaving your team at a man disadvantage, should a fight erupt.
Omitting this aspect, Stage Dive is an excellent
initiation tool that may force an enemy team to split
up or use movement Ability Cooldowns in order to avoid its effect.
Level 13 Talents for E.T.C.


Hitting at least 2 targets with Face Melt reduces its cooldown by 6 seconds.


Face Melt leaves an Amp behind, which will knock enemies away again 2 seconds later.
Passive: Each enemy Hero hit by Face Melt or the Amp reduces your Heroic Ability cooldown by 5%.


Face Melt slows enemies by 50% fading over 2 seconds.
Discussion
This Talent tier improves Face Melt.
Mic Check's condition is so easy to meet that it
essentially cuts the Cooldown of
Face Melt by half. This
makes E.T.C. excessively disruptive, especially against melee Heroes.
Encore provides a unique effect that is noteworthy due to E.T.C.'s otherwise
long Heroic Ability Cooldowns. Although less powerful as a combat tool than
its Mic Check alternative, the stated Cooldown reduction is worth considering
in longer or otherwise indecisive matches.
Face Smelt is not as strong as may first appears on paper
due to the the "fading" clause of the Talent's Slowing effect.
Level 16 Talents for E.T.C.


After using Powerslide, gain 35 Armor for 4 seconds, reducing all damage taken by 35%.


E.T.C.'s Basic Attacks reduce the cooldown of Guitar Solo by 0.75 seconds.


- Cooldown: 20 seconds
Activate to reduce the Attack Speed by 50% and Movement Speed by 20% of nearby Heroes and Summons for 2.5 seconds.
Passive: Heroes and Summons that attack your Hero have their Attack Speed Slowed by 20% for 2.5 seconds.
Discussion
This Talent tier improves E.T.C.'s survivability.
If you find yourself getting inexplicably bursted down too often after
initiating fights, Show Stopper is there to provide you
with all necessary added survivability. Consider, however, that
Imposing Presence does better against Basic Attacks.
Aggressive Shredding provides you with a large amount of
survivability by significantly improving
Guitar Solo's
uptime. Another added benefit of this Talent is the ability to cheaply and
rapidly trigger
Echo Pedal through the added Guitar Solo
casts.
Imposing Presence offers an unparalleled amount of
survivability against Basic Attacks. The Talent's effects are multiplicative
when used with
Block Party and
Rockstar. As with the former choice, it is of limited
use against team compositions that rely on Ability-based damage. Imposing
Presence should be picked if your opponent's team features two or more Basic
Attack-reliant Assassins.
Level 20 Talents for E.T.C.


Mosh Pit refreshes the cooldown of Powerslide. E.T.C. can Powerslide during Mosh Pit, which also increases its duration by 2 seconds.


Stage Dive's impact area is 50% bigger, and its Slow is increased by 30%.


Upon dying, a ghost uses Mosh Pit at E.T.C's location.


- Cooldown: 45 seconds
Activate to give all nearby allied Heroes a Shield for 20% of their max Health for 3 seconds.


- Cooldown: 70 seconds
Activate to teleport to a nearby location.
Discussion
This Talent tier provides powerful offensive utility.
Tour Bus makes
Mosh Pit extremely
punishing against teams that lack the interruption
to deal with the channel. It also helps you
catch more players than you typically would by only using the regular Mosh Pit,
as the
Powerslide reset feature gives you a second chance
to hit enemy Heroes should you initially miss.
Crowd Pleaser turns
Stage Dive into
an absolutely fearsome initiation tool. With such a wide area of effect, it
becomes difficult for everyone to avoid the Ability. The caveat is that Crowd
Pleaser is hardly useful against teams that tend to
split-push, or hard-engage against your own
teammates for quick kills. Against such teams, you should look into either
Bolt of the Storm or
Storm Shield.
There are situations where no amount of peel that
E.T.C. provides can seem to help your teammates stay alive.
Storm Shield then shines, as the instant shielding can
effectively be used to prevent a good amount of burst damage. It should be
noted that E.T.C.'s large Health pool makes Storm Shield a good Ability to use
when it is difficult for him to stay alive. Just be sure to coordinate with
your teammates as to not use two Storm Shields at once, as the effects do not
stack.
Death Metal requires you to die specifically near enemy
Heroes to be of any use, and also requires your allies to be able to
follow up on the impending
Mosh Pit cast. The upside is that a dead E.T.C. cannot be
interrupted. If you find yourself dying often, this
Talent may have significant payoff, especially if you manage to position
yourself right next to your opponents.
Bolt of the Storm is the ultimate form of defensive and
offensive utility. It works especially well when paired with
Mosh Pit, as you can teleport onto unsuspecting enemies,
chaining into
Powerslide, followed by your Heroic Ability
for hits that are difficult to prevent. Bolt of the Storm is also useful
Ability in general, be it for catching up to escaping Heroes, escaping
yourself, or avoiding very dangerous skillshots.
Changelog
- 27 Oct. 2020: Talents and builds reviewed and updated.
- 07 Sep. 2020: Talents and builds reviewed and updated.
- 19 Jul. 2020: Talents reviewed and updated.
- 05 Apr. 2020: Description and recommendation updated for Pinball Wizard.
- 11 Oct. 2019: Talents section updated.
More Tank Guides
Oxygen is a veteran of the MOBA genre, which he has been playing for nearly 15 years. He has coached some of Heroes of the Storm's most prominent North American players and teams alike, including Team Liquid. As a Master player, he enjoys playing all Heroes and roles.
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