Garrosh Abilities and Strategy

• Armor Up gives Garrosh an impressive amount of damage mitigation while at low Health, allowing him to stay in combat longer than most other Heroes.
• Groundbreaker can be used to Stun an enemy Hero before or after throwing them with Wrecking Ball.
• Bloodthirst's self-sustain is most effective after Garrosh has suffered damage as it heals for a percentage of his missing Health.
• Remember that Wrecking Ball is not a targeted Ability and will automatically target the closest non-Unstoppable Hero (including Misha), Clone, Minion, or Mercenary within range. Summons and Monsters are invalid targets.
• Due to the small radius of Warlord's Challenge, it will sometimes be difficult to strike multiple Heroes with it. It will often times be worth using Warlord's Challenge on a single Hero should it help secure a kill and ensure a numbers advantage for Garrosh's team.
• To play around Abilities that give mobility or Unstoppable, you can use Wrecking Ball and immediately cast Warlord's Challenge before the target enemy Hero lands.

Groundbreaker deals some damage to all enemies in its whole area and briefly Stuns and then Slows all enemy Heroes on its edge. Since it has a short delay from when it is cast to when the Ability strikes, you will have to somewhat anticipate the movements of the enemy Heroes to catch them on the outer area.

Based on the situation, it can be used to engage enemy Heroes, peel for allied Heroes, or interrupt impactful channeled Abiliites (such as the powerful Mosh Pit by E.T.C. or the useful Drain Life by Gul'dan).

Bloodthirst is an incredibly important tool Garrosh will utilize for self-sustain and staying power throughout all phases of a match. It is crucial to note that the amount Garrosh will heal from Bloodthirst is based off of his missing Health when the Ability is cast. This means that the less Health Garrosh has, the more value he will receive from Bloodthirst. Also, the healing received from Bloodthirst is doubled when the Ability used against an enemy Hero. Due to the rather long cooldown of Bloodthirst (12 seconds), it is vital Garrosh uses this Ability wisely. It may sometimes be advantageous for Garrosh to wait until he has taken a significant amount of damage to cast Bloodthirst as this will grant him significantly more Health than if he had used it right at the beginning of a trade.

Wrecking Ball is a powerful Ability featuring a displacement effect that Garrosh can use both offensively and defensively. Rather than applying a daze effect, this Ability works as a Stun. As a consequence, you can use this Ability to interrupt both stationary (such as Dark Conversion by Mal'Ganis) and mobile channeled Abilities (for example Sound Barrier by Lúcio), given who is casting them is within range.

A good Garrosh should flank to surprise enemy Heroes with a sudden close-range engage that will allow him to start with Wrecking Ball—usually but not always towards your team before unlocking Warlord's Challenge and towards the enemy team after that—and then follow-up with Groundbreaker.

Sometimes you can use Groundbreaker to Slow an enemy Hero and then cast Wrecking Ball on them as soon as you get in range. In some situations you may also need to use Groundbreaker to peel away an enemy Hero from a teammate in danger.

Keep in mind that this Ability will always target the closest enemy Hero, Minion, or Mercenary to Garrosh at the moment of its cast. The closest valid enemy will have a red Horde symbol on them. Unstoppable enemies are ignored, meaning that Garrosh will look for the next closest valid target after them. The position of your mouse cursor will determine where the target will be thrown by this Ability, allowing you to reposition the closest enemy to a specific location within range.

You can use this unique effect to throw enemy Heroes into dangerous spots to help your teammates connect their Abilities (notably Steel Trap by Junkrat). In some situations, you can also throw enemy Heroes on the spot, to use Wrecking Ball as a pseudo-Stun in order to not mess up your teammates' follow up.

Here we explain how this Heroic Ability works. If you are looking for more information about it, check the dedicated section in the Talent Build page.

Warlord's Challenge is a Heroic Ability which provides a powerful crowd control effect in the form of Taunt. Once cast, all enemies caught within a small radius around Garrosh will become Silenced and forced to hit Garrosh with their Basic Attacks for 2 seconds.

Due to his lack of mobility or gap closer, Garrosh will likely have to rely on a well placed Groundbreaker in order to get in close enough to successfully cast Warlord's Challenge.

Warlord's Challenge can be used to set up cataclysmic Ability combos, especially when Garrosh is teamed up with Assassins who can deal large amounts of burst damage.

Although Warlord's Challenge can Taunt all enemy Heroes found within its radius, Garrosh should not be afraid to cast it on a single target should it help secure a kill for his team. In Heroes of the Storm, being able to gain a numerical advantage over the enemy team (especially in the late game) will often times allow your team to build an advantage.

Here we explain how this Heroic Ability works. If you are looking for more information about it, check the dedicated section in the Talent Build page.

Decimate is a Heroic Ability with multiple charges that focuses more on sustain damage, doubled against enemy Heroes, and crowd control in the form of a Slow. Both effects are area of effect.

You can hold up to 3 charges of Decimate and each charge will take 8 seconds to regenerate, however, each Hero hit will reduce its cooldown by 1 second. Assuming that Garrosh is able to hit the entire enemy team with a single cast of Decimate, the remaining cooldown of the next charge of Decimate will be brought down to 3 seconds.

Armor Up is Garrosh's foremost source of damage mitigation and one of the primary factors behind his role as a main tank. The mechanic is simple, the more Health Garrosh is missing, the more Armor he is granted.

It is important to note that this Armor reduces the damage Garrosh receives from all sources, including both Basic Attacks and Abilities. Garrosh will be granted 1 Armor for every 2% of Health he is missing, meaning that Garrosh will mitigate almost half of the damage he receives when at very low Health.

Although Armor Up is strongest when Garrosh is near death, that does not mean he should be reckless with his positioning during fights and skirmishes. Heavy focus-fire from the enemy team will still bring down Garrosh very quickly despite his durability. Garrosh's Armor can be always easily viewed by looking at the number under the shield directly to the right of his Health Bar. This number is useful to track as some of his Abilities and Talents will be dependent on his current Armor value.

Into the Fray is an additional Basic Ability which can be used to displace allies and give them some Armor for a few seconds. While in the air, they become Unstoppable and they cannot cast Abilities due to being dazed. Upon landing, they deal damage to all enemies nearby and Slow them by a small amount.

Into the Fray is a repositioning tool that works similarly to Wrecking Ball. You can use it both offensively to help a strong frontline allied Hero engage or defensively to either peel a vulnerable teammate away from a threatening enemy or to give them Unstoppable as a way to deny a dangerous Ability (for example Temporal Loop by Chromie).