Garrosh Build Guide “This will prove useful.”

1. Garrosh's Overview

Garrosh is a melee Warrior able to fill the role of either a main tank or a frontline bruiser (although his damage output is not particularly the greatest). His Trait ability, Armor Up, causes Garrosh to become more difficult to kill the closer he is to death. For every 2% of Health Garrosh is missing, he is granted 1 Bonus Armor. This Armor, aside from providing Garrosh impressive amounts of damage mitigation, also interacts directly with specific Talents such as Body Check and Inner Rage. A shield icon displayed directly next to Garrosh's Health Bar allows players to easily track his current amount of Bonus Armor.

Arguably, one of Garrosh's strongest mechanics is his ability to displace both enemy and allied Heroes over relatively large distances via Wrecking Ball and Into the Fray. His kit also contains yet another method of crowd-control in the form of a Stun known as Groundbreaker. This ability will knock-up all enemies caught within a specific region of its area of effect into the air. Constant repositioning of players will immensely impact the outcome of a team fight, sometimes for better or for worse. This is why it is heavily encouraged that players wishing to master Garrosh to spend time practicing the way both Groundbreaker and Wrecking Ball work in try mode before attempting to take him to the Nexus in pursuit of Honor and glory on the battlefield.

2. Garrosh's Strengths and Weaknesses

Strengths

• Incredibly durable via Armor Up, becomes harder to kill the closer he is to death
• Can reposition enemies or allies with Wrecking Ball and Into the Fray
• Great ganking potential and can easily setup takedowns, very strong playmaker
• Provides a reliable frontline, with excellent damage mitigation
• Impressive versatility, can talent around the needs of each team composition and match-up
• Very high skill ceiling

Weaknesses

• Rather poor damage output, especially during the early game
• Can be easily kited, particularly by ranged assassins
• Absolutely no method of increased mobility, relies entirely on abilities and crowd-control to reach a desired target
• Very complex Hero, requires mastery of many subtle nuances to be most effective

3. Garrosh's Talent Build Cheatsheet

Decimate Build

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Level 1

Level 4

Level 7

Level 10

Level 13

Level 16

Level 20

The Decimate Build and its optimal playstyle revolve around the incredible strength that lies within Decimate, particularly when empowered at Level 20 with Deadly Calm. The primary goal of The Decimate Build is for Garrosh to try to stick to the most threatening enemy Heroes in order to relentlessly apply the Decimate debuff to them. This debuff will not only slow all enemies struck by 30% for 1.5 seconds, but will also reduce their damage by 20% for 3 seconds. This single ability has the potential to significantly reduce the entire enemy teams damage output, should Garrosh be able to consistently strike them with charges of Decimate. Because the cooldown of Decimate is reduced by 1 second for each enemy Hero struck, and Deadly Calm will effect a target for 3 seconds, theoretically the damage mitigation of Deadly Calm can be applied indefinitely as long as Garrosh continually strikes the entire enemy team with Decimate. Although it might be tempting to dive the enemy backline in order to prevent them from dealing significant damage, Garrosh should keep an eye out for his backline in case Decimate is required to peel and assist his own allies.

Main Tank Build

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Level 1

Level 4

Level 7

Level 10

Level 13

Level 16

Level 20

The Main Tank Build focuses on Garrosh's need to provide his team with a strong frontline that can effectively soak enemy damage and lock-down Heroes with reliable crowd-control. Unrivaled Strength allows Wrecking Ball to become an even more powerful tool of displacement while Indomitable will ease the difficulties that come with being kited around or held back from assisting vulnerable allies. Into the Fray can be used to create distance between an ally and an enemy pursuing them or to help secure kills from out-of-reach targets in the enemy backline. Warlord's Challenge empowered by Death Wish will give Garrosh's team great lock-down which can be easily followed up by additional crowd-control or massive amounts of damage. Should Garrosh need to use Warlord's Challenge to secure a kill on an isolated target, the cooldown reduction provided by Death Wish will ensure the ability will be available for the next, potentially imminent fight.

Body Check Build

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Level 1

Level 4

Level 7

Level 10

Level 13

Level 16

Level 20

The Body Check Build is designed to get the most damage and utility out of Garrosh's Level 1 Talented Ability, Body Check. On a competitive level, this particular build is realively weak when compared to Garrosh's alternatives and should taken with caution by players who are attempting a specific play-style in less serious Matches. Body Check is essentially a fifth ability Garrosh can activate to deal damage and heavily slow an enemy on a 20-second cooldown. The damage of Body Check is increased by 200% of Armor Up's current bonus meaning the less Health Garrosh has (or the more Bonus Armor), the more damage Body Check will do. Also important to note is that if Garrosh has over 25 Bonus Armor, the Slow provided by Body Check will be increased from 30% to 60% for 3 seconds. Double Up is a crucial Talent in the Body Check Build as the additional Bonus Armor it provides will not only further increase the damage Body Check will deal, but it will allow Garrosh to apply the bonus slow when he is only missing just over 25% of his Health instead of 50%. Inner Rage is also essential as it effectively doubles the value of Body Check, granting Garrosh an additional charge of the Ability as well as a much faster rate of recharge when at or above 25 Bonus Armor. The two charges of Body Check can either be used in quick succession to deal burst damage, or can be spread out to more effectively manage applications of the Slow.

See our Talents page for further information »

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4. Garrosh's Synergies and Counters

Garrosh synergizes with

Garrosh works well with most Heroes, as they will likely be able to provide him with a much needed source of healing, shields, burst damage, waveclear, or follow-up crowd-control; ideally a mix of several of these things. Some noteable mentions are Stitches and E.T.C. who both will assist Garrosh in locking down targets, while Malfurion and Uther can keep Garrosh nice and healthy while stunning an isolated target tossed into the team by Wrecking Ball with Entangling Roots or Hammer of Justice.

Garrosh is countered by

Garrosh struggles against ranged Heroes who are able to easily kite him and dodge his Groundbreaker with some form of gap-closer such as Valla's Vault or Tychus' Run and Gun. Often times if Groundbreaker is missed against one of these types of Heroes, Garrosh may consider backing off instead of chasing into them while taking massive amounts of Basic Attack damage.

5. Garrosh's Maps

Garrosh's stronger maps

Garrosh's average maps

Garrosh's weaker maps

None

Garrosh thrives in situations where his enemies are forced to clump together in groups. This is because most of his abilities ( Groundbreaker, Warlord's Challenge, Decimate) all gain value when they are able to strike more than one target. Maps with many narrow chokepoints provide Garrosh a playground of opportunities to catch out his enemies. Wrecking Ball is a lot of fun on maps with lots of terrain as Garrosh can use it to completely isolate an enemy Hero away from their allies by flipping them over a wall or structure into his team.

6. Garrosh's Tips and Tricks

• 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 knock an enemy Hero into the air before throwing them into his allies 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 always throw the enemy closest to Garrosh when cast (including Minions and Mercenaries).
• Due to the small radius of Warlord's Challenge, it will sometimes be difficult to strike multiple Heroes with the ability. 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.
• The low cooldown of Decimate allows Garrosh to use the ability quite often, especially when needing to waveclear a pushed in Minion wave.

7. Role in the Current Meta

Garrosh is a great Hero choice for teams that are in need of a strong frontline and happen to lack a reliable source of crowd-control. He works best with Heroes who are able to follow up on his initiations, either with additional crowd-control or large amounts of burst damage. One of Garrosh's greatest strengths is the ability to focus his Talent choices around the specific needs of his team, whether they be peel, damage mitigation, or crowd-control in the form of stuns, slows, and repositioning.

Due to Garrosh's lack of threatening damage, many times an enemy team will try to ignore Garrosh and prioritize more valuable targets such as a support or ranged assassin. Because of this Garrosh will need to keep an eye on his backline while attempting to zone away potential threats. Similar to Stitches, Garrosh specializes in isolating an enemy Heroes from their team. Most often this will be done with a quick combo of the stun from Groundbreaker followed by Wrecking Ball, sending an enemy right into the jaws of his waiting allies. Keep in mind that a poorly executed Wrecking Ball or Into the Fray can have detrimental effects, so think ahead before sending players flying around the battlefield!

8. Changelog