Hanzo Build Guide “Ryuu ga waga teki wo kurau!”
Welcome to our guide for Hanzo, 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.
Hanzo's Overview
Hanzo is a long-ranged Assassin who must land skillshots from precise angles in order to deal damage effectively. He excels in areas that have many terrain features, where his Abilities are most effective. All his Abilities grant exceptional vision utility, and allow him to keep track of enemy movements beyond the fog of war. One of his main strengths is being one of the few ranged assassins that are able to start fights, through Dragon's Arrow.
Hanzo's Strengths and Weaknesses
- Somewhat locked into build paths after Level 1 Talent choice
- Limited usefulness of Basic Abilities without Talents
- No self-sustain
- Hard to play
- Very squishy
- Dependent on skillshots
Hanzo's Talent Build Cheatsheet
Scatter Arrow Build
RecommendedScatter Arrow Build focuses on Talents that improve Scatter Arrow, transforming it into your primary Ability. Of the 3 builds, this one is the hardest to use, and an inexperienced Hanzo will deal much less consistent Hero damage with it. However, this build can perform well if you really want a playstyle focused around Scatter Arrow. This build works best on maps that have narrow corridors, where Scatter Arrow's ricochets are more likely to hit enemies.
Grab Simple Geometry at Level 1 to improve Scatter Arrow once you complete the quest. Serrated Arrows will only be good at Battlefield of Eternity or Hanamura Temple. Explosive Arrows has better waveclear than Serrated Arrows; pick it up at Level 4, if you are not in one of the 2 mentioned maps. Furthermore, Ignore All Distractions is an excellent choice on Volskaya Foundry.
This build really comes online at Level 16. We recommend choosing Giant Slayer, as it greatly improves your burst damage with Scatter Arrow and your sustained damage with Basic Attacks. However, Piercing Arrows is also a good option. It allows Scatter Arrow to be shot into terrain through an enemy Hero. This opens up many more angles for Scatter Arrow, and makes it much harder for enemies to prevent it from colliding with terrain. Piercing Arrows also allows Explosive Arrows to explode twice with each Storm Bow arrow, greatly improving your waveclear, being relevant in maps such as Infernal Shrines or Tomb of the Spider Queen.
At Level 10, you should usually take Dragon's Arrow. It gives you some much needed crowd control, which can be used to turn a team fight, or to set up and secure kills. Dragonstrike can also work with this build, but requires your team to have some way to set up a wombo-combo. The Dragon Awakens makes it possible to reset Dragonstrike quickly enough to cast it more than once in a team fight after Level 20.
Basic Attack Build
SituationalThe Basic Attack Build takes Talents that dramatically improve Hanzo's sustained damage. As with any ranged Basic Attack strategy, you want to position yourself near maximum range while delivering Basic Attacks to enemy Heroes.
Redemption significantly increases Hanzo's otherwise sluggish attack speed. This is important for a playstyle centered around Basic Attacks, and works well with the other Talents you will be taking. Ignore All Distractions serves as the primary PvE tool for this build. Because it causes your Basic Attacks to instantly kill Minions, it will get more value when used on Minions with more Health (like melee minions or catapults). Remember that it increases your Basic Attack range each time you Basic Attack a Minion; use this range to harass nearby enemy Heroes. This can be very useful while laning.
Sharpened Arrowheads is an excellent way to enhance your damage, and will increase your team's damage as well. Each consecutive Basic Attack or Storm Bow arrow against an Enemy Hero will reduce their armor for several seconds. Never Outmatched will also be a good choice, but is much harder to use, and we only recommend it for very experienced Hanzo players. Giant Slayer works very well against enemy Tanks with large health pools. If the enemy frontline is lacking and you need finishing power against squishy enemy Heroes, Flawless Technique can be a good choice instead.
Storm Bow Build
BeginnerThe Storm Bow Build has excellent poke damage, good waveclear, and very long range. This build requires accurate and successful Storm Bow hits in order to be effective. It will be more difficult to use against highly mobile Heroes, as they are likely to avoid skillshots. This build should never be used against Abathur; the slug can easily prevent you from ever completing Target Practice.
Explosive Arrows enhances your waveclear and gives you a stronger presence in lanes; you can easily hit enemies with explosions if they position themselves near their Minions. The Dragon Hungers is a good choice at Level 7, as it will always be useful. However, Never Outmatched adds more damage overall, but requires much more experience to use.
Piercing Arrows has several synergies with the rest of the Talents in the build. When you pair Explosive Arrows with Piercing Arrows, it becomes possible to cause two explosions with each Storm Bow arrow. There must be sufficient space between Minions for this to occur, but it allows you to clear Minion waves very quickly during the late game. Piercing Arrows also enables you to hit Heroes near their Minions with Storm Bow and an explosion, effectively dealing double damage to them. Piercing Arrows also has synergy with Ninja Assassin, because you can reset Natural Agility's much faster by hitting 2 heroes with Storm Bow. However, Flawless Technique can also be picked at Level 16 as an option when enemy team has weak frontline.
Hanzo's Synergies and Counters
Both of Hanzo's Heroics are excellent follow-ups, and can prove devastating to enemies caught by setup Heroics like Zeratul's Void Prison or E.T.C.'s Mosh Pit. However, Dragon's Arrow can also be used as an engage tool, having great synergy with Diablo's Apocalypse or Blaze's Jet Propulsion.
Just like all the other marksmen, he is excellent with heroes that can easily create space for him to attack, like Johanna, Mal'Ganis, or Blaze can.
Hanzo has very limited mobility during combat, and must keep his distance from enemies in order to survive. Hanzo will struggle to shake highly mobile Heroes when they get within melee range of him, especially if they can follow him over walls when he uses Natural Agility to escape.
Hanzo's Maps
Hanzo does well on maps that feature objectives in small areas where movement is restricted by terrain walls. This makes all of his skillshots easier to land, and provides several surfaces for him to split Scatter Arrow with. He can also use Natural Agility on one of the several surrounding terrain features to escape threats. By the same reasoning, Hanzo can struggle on maps that feature large areas that are free of terrain features.
Hanzo's Tips and Tricks
- Use Natural Agility as a shortcut around long walls, or to escape danger.
- Use Storm Bow to poke enemies from a safe distance.
- Move back and forth to keep enemies near Storm Bow's maximum range as it channels.
- Scatter Arrow can be used to quickly dismount enemies or prevent hearthing, as it does not require channeling.
- Always check bushes and vents with Sonic Arrow or Scatter Arrow before entering them.
- Use Dragon's Arrow when enemies are retreating in a straight line, so you make sure to hit them, enabling your team to follow up.
- During fights, if possible, you should only use Dragon's Arrow at the middle range of it, to stun enemies for 1,25 seconds. Use the stun to land your Basic Abilities dealing high damage to the targets.
- Bullseye can be used as follow up to any crowd control, including Dragon's Arrow's stun.
Hanzo's Role in the Current Meta
Hanzo can build for long range poke or sustain damage, has strong vision utility, and has access to powerful follow-up Heroics. He can fit into many different team compositions, due to a variety of viable builds with waveclear. Hanzo is best picked late in the draft when it is clear that one of his builds can be exploited for its specific strengths. It is not ideal to lock him early in the draft, as this leaves him vulnerable to Heroes who can follow him when he uses Natural Agility to reposition or escape.
Hanzo is a very squishy Hero that mostly should not be alone. You will be constantly attacking the enemy frontline in most teamfights, while using Basic Abilities when available. Because of Hanzo's great range from Abilities, it is recommended to be always dismounting enemies rotating with Scatter Arrow. Besides all that, the thing that mostly differs your average Hanzo player to an excellent one is using Dragon's Arrow properly. It can be probably tagged as one of the best Heroics in the game. Take your time, aim it to hit the maximum number of squisy targets you can, to then turn a teamfight around.
Changelog
- 11 Dec. 2022 (talents page): Scatter Arrow Build updated.
- 17 Feb. 2021 (talents page): Builds and Talents updated to better reflect current meta.
- 17 Feb. 2021 (this page): Updated Builds to better reflect current meta.
- 06 Feb. 2021 (this page): Updated Storm Bow Build.
- 24 Aug. 2020 (talents page): Builds and Talents updated to reflect current meta.
- 24 Aug. 2020 (this page): Updated Builds to better reflect current meta.
- 04 Jun. 2020 (this page): Guide has been reviewed and is in accordance with the latest patch.
- 27 Apr. 2020 (abilities page): Added extra information about how to properly use each ability.
- 27 Apr. 2020 (this page): Updated whole Introduction page to better reflect current meta.
- 14 Apr. 2020 (talents page): Builds and Talents updated to better reflect current meta.
- 15 Dec. 2019 (this page): Updated Role in the Current Meta to include information on current Nexus Anomaly.
- 30 Aug. 2019 (talents page): Guide reviewed to ensure meta relevance after balance patch.
- 30 Aug. 2019 (abilities page): Guide reviewed to ensure meta relevance after balance patch.
- 30 Aug. 2019 (this page): Guide reviewed to ensure meta relevance after balance patch.
- 21 Jun. 2019 (talents page): Builds, Talents, Abilities, Maps, and Role discussion updated to reflect current meta.
- 21 Jun. 2019 (abilities page): Builds, Talents, Abilities, Maps, and Role discussion updated to reflect current meta.
- 21 Jun. 2019 (this page): Builds, Talents, Abilities, Maps, and Role discussion updated to reflect current meta.
- 10 Jan. 2018 (talents page): Talent choices and descriptions updated to reflect Blaze patch changes.
- 10 Jan. 2018 (this page): Builds updated to reflect Blaze patch changes.
- 04 Jan. 2018 (talents page): Updated Talents to reflect meta changes.
- 04 Jan. 2018 (this page): Updated builds to reflect meta changes.
- 12 Dec. 2017 (this page): Added Hanzo guide.
More Ranged Assassin Guides
Derenash has been playing Heroes of the Storm since 2015 and has achieved Grandmaster in multiple seasons, peaking at Top 1 in Season 3 and 4 of 2018. He participated in the HGC Copa America in 2018 where his team had a strong victory. He is passionate about teaching others about the game, and streams often on Twitch in Portuguese, and you can find him in Wind Striders' Discord as well where he is happy to answer any questions in English or Portuguese.
- Heroes of the Storm Patch Notes: October 14th
- Heroes of the Storm PTR Patch Notes: September 26th
- Heroes of the Storm Live Patch Notes: August 12th
- Heroes of the Storm PTR Patch Notes: July 15th
- Blizzard at Gamescom 2024
- Icy Veins Seeking Writers for Zenless Zone Zero: Apply Today!
- Heroes of the Storm Live Patch Notes: May 21st
- No BlizzCon in 2024