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Falstad Build Guide “Time to drop the hammer!”
Welcome to our guide for Falstad, a Ranged Assassin 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.
Falstad's Overview
Falstad is a versatile and flexible ranged damage dealer. His strong points are his solid single-target DPS, extreme on-demand area of effect ranged burst damage, and map-wide mobility. However, his relative fragility makes him a high priority target.
Falstad's Strengths and Weaknesses
Strengths
Good waveclear- Global thanks to
Flight - Access to
Mighty Gust
Weaknesses
Extremely dependent on good positioning- Mediocre damage output during the early game
- Vulnerable to crowd control
Falstad's Talent Build Cheatsheet
Basic Attacks Build
Recommended
Falstad's Basic Attacks Build provides a fair amount of sustain damage
on a single target thanks to 
Giant Killer at Level 13
while 
BOOMerang keeps your waveclear
high enough to double soak for your team when necessary
and/or to collect stacks for 
Seasoned Marksman at Level 1 by killing Minions.
Tailwind Build
Situational
Falstad's Tailwind Build provides both poke damage
while fighting and macro value while laning
thanks to 
Flow Rider at Level 13 halving the cooldown
of Basic Abilities when Falstad has not taken damage for 6 seconds, reduced to
3 seconds thanks to Aerie Gusts at Level 16, which
basically doubles the value you can get from BOOMerang at Level 7.
While it is highly recommended to choose 
Wingman at Level 1
because you will spend most of the time soaking on your own,
you can occasionally go for 
Gathering Storm on two-lane
Battlegrounds or better in ARAM because having to take care of a single lane
will allow you to hit enemy Heroes more often.
Lightning Rod Build
Situational
Falstad's Lightning Rod Build offers a scary amount of burst damage
on a single target by empowering 
Lightning Rod
with multiple Talents at the cost of some waveclear
due to the lack of BOOMerang at Level 7.
Falstad's Synergies and Counters
Falstad synergizes with
Falstad is at his best when something stands between him and his enemies. Large, Healthy Tanks are particularly desirable as they draw attention away from Falstad, and often provide their own form of crowd control for potential follow-ups. Otherwise, anything that can protect Falstad is also desirable. Shielding effects are particularly impactful due to his limited Health pool.
Falstad is countered by
As a frail ranged Assassin, Falstad tends to
naturally struggle against other high damage Assassins who have the ability to
effectively gap close past his
Barrel Roll's range or otherwise sneak up on him. With
little in the way of self-peeling, see to stay near your
Healer when possible against such Heroes, and make no
bold attempts at outplaying your opponents. Also consider running a
Lightning Rod-centric build, as such builds tend to do
better against the majority of Falstad's counters.
Falstad's Maps
Flight makes Falstad particularly effective on
larger Maps that feature multiple Objectives that must be contested, as it
allows him to effectively soak and
push without giving up potential team fighting presence,
as would other Heroes. Falstad's 
Mighty Gust also
makes him potent on Maps that feature Bosses, as he makes
it particularly difficult for opponents to safely try and claim or contest due
to the fear of being pushed away. With the Wingman
Talent, Falstad is also fearsome on any Map where Siege Giants are present.
Otherwise, Falstad's versatility makes him a viable pick almost anywhere.
Falstad's Tips and Tricks
- Capitalize on Flight's global range to split push or soak Experience. It can also be used to gank.
- Using
Hammerang and 
Hinterland Blast against targets under crowd control will greatly improves your accuracy. Nothing beats practice, however. - Limit your offensive use of
Barrel Roll, as it leaves you vulnerable. - Use Mighty Gust to disengage a losing battle, to split the opposing forces in half, push your enemies into your team for blocking their retreat, or steal Capture Points.
Role in the Current Meta
Falstad is preferred over other Ranged Assassin when a given team composition needs a global to handle side lanes, especially if the rest of the team can poke the enemy team that is trying to capture the Objective while Falstad is soaking and therefore slowly giving an Experience advantage to his whole team.
Changelog
- 30 Nov. 2020 (talents page): Talent Descriptions fixed.
- 05 Nov. 2020 (talents page): Guide reviewed for the latest Balance Update.
- 05 Nov. 2020 (this page): Guide reviewed for the latest Balance Update.
- 05 Nov. 2020 (abilities page): Guide reviewed for the latest Balance Update.
- 20 Sep. 2020 (talents page): Builds and Talent discussions updated.
- 20 Sep. 2020 (this page): Builds updated.
- 20 Sep. 2020 (abilities page): Minor fixes.
- 30 Aug. 2020 (this page): Role in Current Meta section updated.
- 19 Jul. 2020 (talents page): Talents reviewed and updated; AA build added.
- 05 Apr. 2020 (talents page): Mage build recommendation added.
- 13 Dec. 2019 (this page): Added a note about current Anomaly.
- 12 Oct. 2019 (talents page): Talents section reviewed and updated.
- 12 Oct. 2019 (this page): Guide updated.
- 12 Oct. 2019 (abilities page): Abilities section reviewed.
- 03 May 2017 (this page): Guide updated and moved to new format.
More Ranged Assassin Guides
Elitesparkle is a multiple times Master player in Europe who plays Heroes of the Storm since its release. He is an active member of the community — especially on Reddit — who likes to teach new and veteran players all he knows about his favorite game.
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