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Imperius Build Guide “Valor will be victorious!”
Welcome to our guide for Imperius, a Bruiser 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.
Imperius' Overview
Imperius is a high-damage melee Bruiser that excels in close combat. He has a variety of self-healing mechanisms allowing him to pursue his enemies relentlessly. While his damage is to be respected, his limited mobility and underwhelming peel potential usually require him to be paired with another frontliner.
Imperius' Strengths and Weaknesses
Strengths
Outstanding self-healing- Strong burst damage
- Decent in lane
- Good late game
Weaknesses
Susceptible to anti-healing abilities- Limited mobility
- Can be kited easily by mobile enemies
- Mediocre waveclear
Imperius' Talent Build Cheatsheet
Angelic Armaments Build
Talent calculator »
The Angelic Armament Build focuses on Imperius' self-healing and team fight
utility. His first major power spike
arrives after unlocking 
Angelic Armaments at Level 10.
This Heroic Ability protects Imperius with a massive shield, allowing him to
charge right into the enemy team's ranks. At Level 13,
Divine Rage significantly lowers
Molten Armor's cooldown, which greatly increases
Imperius' survivability. Furthermore, it possesses great synergy with
Melting Touch at Level 16. Alternatively, 
Valorous Pursuit
is a good choice if there is need for additional mobility. This is usually the case when the enemy
team features a lot of crowd control and/or slow nimble targets that otherwise could not be
chases. Imperius' second major
power spike comes with Level 20. Heavenly Host turns
Angelic Armaments into an amazing team fighting
ability protecting all nearby allied Heroes with a potent shield.
Celestial Charge Build
Talent calculator »
The Celestial Charge Build aims to maximize Imperius' burst damage
after successfully landing 
Celestial Charge.
This comes with a somewhat great risk great reward playstyle, which can be extremely
rewarding if working out fine, but can also feel slightly underwhelming if the enemy
team has several nimble Heroes that can dodge Imperius' Celestial Charge
easily. Thus, we advise to carefully analyze the enemy team composition first, before committing to
this Build.
After the obvious Level 1 choice, Impaling Light, to increase
Imperius' damage, Sovereign Armor at Level 4 is a great follow-up,
as it boosts Imperius' durability significantly. At Level 7, Flash of Anger
syngergizes well with Impaling Light to further increase damage dealt.
For Level 13 we recommend Divine Rage, as it is exceptionally
strong if combined with Sovereign Armor. Level 16 remains completely
situational and thus we do not have a clear favorite for this tier. At Level 20, 
Impervious'
Unstoppable effect makes this talent a
golden one that eliminates one of the greatest weaknesses of this Build, which is enemy
crowd control that can prevent Imperius from using Celestial Charge
in the first place.
Imperius' Synergies and Counters
Imperius synergizes with
Imperius' mobility is one of his greatest weaknesses, consequently, he pairs extremely well with Heroes like Lucio that can boost his Movement Speed. On the other hand, Heroes like Jaina or Arthas possess enough Slows and Roots to keep enemy Heroes crippled, which allows Imperius to unleash his full damage potential.
Imperius is countered by
Imperius does not really get hard-countered by a specific Hero, however,
there are several foes that can cause some serious problems for him. First of all,
high-mobility Heroes, such as Genji
or Tracer, can kite him
extensively. Secondly, anti-healing abilities, such as Ana's
Biotic Grenade can shut down his important self-healing. Ultimately,
Blinds are Imperius' bane, since they prevent 
Valorous Brand
from getting triggered.
Imperius' Maps
Imperius is not really a map-dependent Hero. However, he usually performs well on battlegrounds like Battlefield of Eternity or Infernal Shrines, on which he can use his superior damage to weaken PvE Objectives. On maps like Sky Temple or Volskaya Foundry that usually offer plenty of room for mobile Heroes to outmaneuver him, Imperius' lack of mobility can potentially cause difficulties for himself.
Imperius' Tips and Tricks
Molten Armor is very strong in a 1-versus-1 situation, as it focuses all of its damage on the same target. 
Angelic Armaments can be used to take down enemy Heroes, so do not hesitate to use the activatable component if you do not have to worry about getting damaged. 
Celestial Charge can be used to impale and Stun several enemies at once, however, keep in mind that Imperius cannot move during the animation. - Molten Armor can be activated while Imperius is impaling enemies with Celestial Charge to maximize his damage output.
- Stutter-stepping is crucial when playing Imperius in order to maximize
Valorous Brand's damage output. - To improve Imperius' waveclear, use
Solarion's Fire when the enemy Minion wave is lined up in a straight line.
Role in the Current Meta
While Imperius' sustained damage may be slightly higher than that of other Bruisers, his limited mobility also makes him susceptible to getting kited. Thus, picking allies with strong crowd control can boost his combat performance significantly.
Imperius' early game is decent, however, he truly shines in the later stages of the game with
increased self-sustain thanks to talents such as Divine Rage at Level 13,
Melting Touch at Level 16, and Heavenly Host at Level 20.
When reaching these levels, Imperius can draw a lot of fire onto himself,
potentially buying enough time for his allies
to take down enemies.
Changelog
- 12 Jul. 2019 (talents page): Updated Imperius' Talents and Builds in accordance with the latest Balance Update.
- 12 Jul. 2019 (abilities page): Updated Imperius' abilities in accordance with the latest Balance Update.
- 10 Jun. 2019 (talents page): Revised the Imperius guide and applied several minor updates.
- 28 Jan. 2019 (talents page): Changed Burn the Impure from from Situational to Recommended and updated the Build accordingly.
- 10 Jan. 2019 (talents page): Changed Sovereign Armor from Situational to Recommended.
- 08 Jan. 2019 (this page): Guide added.
More Bruiser Guides
KendricSwissh has achieved Grandmaster rank in multiple seasons while playing Heroes of the Storm since the early stages of the Alpha version. He is also creating game related content on Twitch where he will gladly answer all of your questions about the game or guides here on Icy Veins.
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