Garrosh Build Guide “This will prove useful.”
Welcome to our guide for Garrosh, 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.
Garrosh's Overview
Garrosh is a melee Tank who becomes 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.
Garrosh's Strengths and Weaknesses
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
Very strong playmaker
Provides a reliable frontline, with excellent damage mitigation
Very high skill ceiling
Rather poor damage output, especially during the late game
Can be easily kited, particularly by ranged assassins
Absolutely no method of increasing mobility; relies entirely on abilities and crowd-control to reach his desired target
Very complex Hero, requires mastery of many subtle nuances to be most effective
Garrosh's Talent Build Cheatsheet
Groundbreaker Build
RecommendedGarrosh's Groundbreaker Build gives him more survivability in the form of Shields
when hitting enemy Heroes with Groundbreaker,
something that will not work against high-mobility Heroes.
In particular, Garrosh becomes more durable thanks to the synergy
between the cooldown reduction on Groundbreaker
by
Warbreaker at Level 1 and the Shield generation
by
Defensive Measures at Level 16.
Earthshaker further increases
Garrosh's already good crowd control
by giving him another tool to interrupt enemy Heroes.
Bloodthirst Build
SituationalGarrosh's Bloodthirst Build gives him more survivability in the form of healing
when hitting enemy Heroes with Bloodthirst,
something that is weak to healing reduction effects.
In particular, Garrosh can heal himself more than usual thanks to the synergy
between Seasoned Soldier at Level 16
and
Bloodcraze at Level 13.
Garrosh's Synergies and Counters
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 notable mentions are
Malfurion and
Tyrande who
can keep Garrosh nice and healthy while stunning or rooting an isolated target tossed into the team by
Wrecking Ball with
Entangling Roots
or
Lunar Flare.
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.
Oftentimes 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. Furthermore, any form of percentage based True Damage becomes particularly
lethal against Garrosh, as it completely disregards his Trait. Thus, Heroes like Tychus
or Malthael become a severe threat.
Garrosh's Maps














Garrosh thrives in situations where his enemies are forced to
clump together in groups. This is because most of his abilities,
notably Groundbreaker and
Warlord's Challenge,
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.
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.
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
Healer 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!
Changelog
- 24 Oct. 2020 (this page): Builds updated.
- 24 Oct. 2020 (talents page): Builds updated.
- 16 Jul. 2020 (this page): Builds and Descriptions changed according to the latest Balance Update.
- 16 Jul. 2020 (talents page): Builds and Descriptions changed according to the latest Balance Update.
- 11 Apr. 2020 (talents page): Talent Build partially revised to match new standards.
- Talent Build and Talent Build Cheatsheet modified to reflect the current metagame.
- Talent Descriptions modified to better describe when to pick them.
- 11 Apr. 2020 (abilities page): Ability and Strategy partially revised to match new standards.
- 11 Apr. 2020 (this page): Introduction partially revised to match new standards.
- Talent Build Cheatsheet updated to reflect the current metagame.
- Role in the Current Meta modified to remove the unnecessary part about the now fixed Experience Globes.
- 12 Dec. 2019 (this page): Added an entry about the current Anomaly to the guide.
- 10 Jun. 2019 (talents page): Revised the Garrosh guide and fixed minor issues. The guide is, overall, up-to-date.
- 25 May 2019 (talents page): Updated Garrosh's talents and builds due to a major overhaul of the guide.
- 24 Dec. 2017 (this page): Guide updated to reflect the Dec. 20 balance patch notes, particularly the Groundbreaker Ability changes.
- 24 Dec. 2017 (talents page): Talents page updated to reflect the Dec. 20 balance patch notes, particularly the Groundbreaker Ability changes.
- 24 Dec. 2017 (abilities page): Ability page updated to reflect the Dec. 20 balance patch notes, particularly the Groundbreaker Ability changes.
- 17 Oct. 2017 (abilities page): The increased duration of Warlord's Challenge by the Level 20 Talent Death Wish has been removed.
- 17 Oct. 2017 (talents page): The increased duration of Warlord's Challenge by the Level 20 Talent Death Wish has been removed.
- 01 Sep. 2017 (abilities page): Duration of Warlord's Challenge has been increased from 1.5 to 2 seconds.
- 01 Sep. 2017 (talents page): Full Descriptions have been added to Talent page.
- 08 Aug. 2017 (this page): Added Garrosh guide.
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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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