Johanna Talents

Table of Contents

• +Introduction
  • 1. Quick Reference
  • 2. Overview
  • 3. Strengths
  • 4. Weaknesses
  • 5. Role in the Current Meta
  • 6. Reading Further
  • 7. ChangeLog
• +Abilities and Strategy
  • 1. Tips on Ability Usage
  • 2. Punish
  • 3. Condemn
  • 4. Shield Glare
  • 5. Blessed Shield
  • 6. Iron Skin
• ×Talent Build
  • 1. Talent Build
  • 2. Common Talent Paths
    • 2.1. Defensive Build
  • 3. Level 1 Talents
    • 3.1. Discussion
  • 4. Level 4 Talents
    • 4.1. Discussion
  • 5. Level 7 Talents
    • 5.1. Discussion
  • 6. Level 10 Talents
    • 6.1. Discussion
  • 7. Level 13 Talents
    • 7.1. Discussion
  • 8. Level 16 Talents
    • 8.1. Discussion
  • 9. Level 20 Talents
    • 9.1. Discussion
  • 10. ChangeLog

General Information

On this page, we present the viable talent choices for playing Johanna in a competitive environment in Heroes of the Storm. For each talent, we explain what they do and why they should or should not be taken.

The other pages of our Johanna guide can be accessed from the table of contents on the right.

About the Author

KendricSwissh is a Master League Warrior and Support player in Hero League. He has been playing Heroes of the Storm since the early stages of the Alpha version and has mastered a large number of Heroes. He is also creating Heroes of the Storm related content on YouTube, most notably his series called Epic Plays of the Week, which focuses on video clips submitted by his viewers. He is also a streamer on Twitch where he will gladly answer all of your questions about the game.

1. Talent Build

Level	Choices
1	? ✔ ✘
4	✘ ✘ ✔
7	✔ ✔ ✘ ✘
10	? ✔
13	✔ ✘ ?
16	✔ ? ✘ ?
20	✘ ? ✔ ?

Create your own build and share it with friends!

2. Common Talent Paths

3. Level 1 Talents

3.1. Discussion

Reinforce is nearly identical to the Block talent that other Warriors have access to, except Reinforce will usually produce more Block charges. We recommend using this talent if the enemy team composition consists of one or several strong Basic Attackers, such as Illidan or Valla.

Regeneration Master, as the name suggests, will provide you with significantly increased health regeneration. However, for the most part, Reinforce will reduce more damage than you would regenerate through Regeneration Master. We only recommend picking up Regeneration Master over Reinforce if you play on maps like Garden of Terror or Tomb of the Spider Queen on which you can collect several Regeneration Globes within a short period of time.

Righteous Smash's Mana restoration is not needed. Johanna does not have Mana issues, unless you are using your abilities needlessly. Righteous Smash requires you to use Mana to gain Mana, a mechanic that will almost never net you more Mana than you started with.

4. Level 4 Talents

4.1. Discussion

Laws of Hope provides health regeneration comparable to Regeneration Master, increasing Johanna's health regeneration by (approximately) a factor of 3, while also providing an on-demand heal for 20% of your maximum health over 4 seconds. Most of Laws of Hope's strength stems from its health regeneration, which goes relatively unnoticed. If you are not in a team fight, your healer is not nearby, and you have less than full health, it is perfectly acceptable to use Laws of Hope to heal. Otherwise, the heal should be saved for team fights.

Roar is a flat-out poor talent. A 50% increase is generally very significant, but Punish has abnormally low base damage, so the damage gained is very small.

Eternal Retaliation is only effective in very niche situations. Sometimes, being able to use Condemn a couple of seconds earlier will allow you to catch a fleeing enemy Hero, but most of the time it will make no difference in a fight. In team fights, you will be limited to hitting 5 enemies (with the exception of The Lost Vikings and summoned creatures), unless the fight occurs close to enemy minions, so you will be getting very little value for the ability. However, even if you are reducing the cooldown of Condemn by 5 seconds or more in perfect scenarios, Condemn still has very little impact in team fights. It does very little damage, only Stuns for 0.25 seconds, and really is only there to set up combos for your allies. It can be used in order to boost Johanna's waveclearing, but most of the cooldown reduction will go to waste, as Condemn is already enough to instantly clear minion waves.

5. Level 7 Talents

5.1. Discussion

Blessed Momentum is by far the most effective talent in this tier. Heroes like Johanna, whose abilities deal very little damage but instead offer utility, benefit greatly from reduced cooldowns. Since Johanna is a melee fighter, you will always be within melee range and able to use Basic Attacks. Blessed Momentum will also indirectly increase your damage output because you will be using your abilities more often.

Conviction can be useful when the enemy team has mobile Heroes attempting to kite you, as the biggest problem you will face is reaching the enemy, rather than keeping up with them. Conviction can also help when fleeing from pursuing enemies.

Sins Exposed doubles the damage of Shield Glare if the mark is procced, which is almost always (when team fighting). However, Shield Glare (and Sins Exposed) does very little damage and you can achieve just as much damage from Blessed Momentum, while also benefiting from lower cooldowns.

The Crusade Marches On lures you into a dangerous way of playing Johanna. It encourages you to always use your abilities in a precise order to maximise the cooldown reduction that it is providing, which you should absolutely not be doing.

6. Level 10 Talents

6.1. Discussion

Blessed Shield provides you with the hard crowd control that Johanna's basic abilities are sorely lacking. As a standalone ability, it is not very impressive, being very similar to Muradin's Storm Bolt, except with a 60-second cooldown, rather than a 10-second cooldown. However, to its credit, it is easier to hit. The range is reasonably long, it travels quickly, and it automatically bounces to additional targets. It can be used in a variety of ways, including as an engage tool, to stop pursuing enemies, to interrupt channelled abilities, or to lockdown high-priority targets. Never use Blessed Shield for its damage or against an enemy Tank, lest you waste it. Try to only hit important, vulnerable targets, like Illidan, Kael'thas, or Kerrigan. At 60 seconds, Blessed Shield is on a relatively low cooldown, encouraging liberal use.

Falling Sword deals solid damage, has a short Stun, and is quite hard for the enemy to avoid. It is very effective at putting you into the fight, while talents like Burning Rage and Blessed Hammer provide decent follow up damage. Falling Sword is also a great escape tool, but should only be used like this in the case of an emergency. Falling Sword should be picked if your team has at least one additional Warrior, such as Muradin or Sonya, that can chain their crowd control abilities with Falling Sword.

7. Level 13 Talents

7.1. Discussion

Burning Rage provides you with a significant damage increase. Johanna is extremely difficult to kill and always within melee range, so Burning Rage will deal very consistent damage to multiple targets. It can also be used to waveclear more effectively.

Subdue exponentially increases the duration of the Slow from Punish. Since the Slow mechanic is based on decay, an increase in the effectiveness of the Slow from 60% to 80% also translates into a longer duration of effective Slow. For example, after 1.5 seconds of a normal Punish, the Slow would be 15% with 0.5 seconds remaining. However, after 1.5 seconds of a Punish with Subdue, the Slow would be 40% with 1.5 seconds remaining. That being said, Punish's Slow is usually good enough and an increase is somewhat redundant. Subdue can be good in situations where the enemy has very mobile Heroes and your team lacks the required lockdown.

Hold Your Ground has little practical use. Johanna is almost never focused first because she takes too much time to kill. One of the reasons behind her survivability is that the shield from Iron Skin is massive and absorbs a lot of damage. The shield is rarely fully utilised and a further 20% increase in its strength makes it even harder to break, preventing the 4-second cooldown reduction from Hold Your Ground from being used.

8. Level 16 Talents

8.1. Discussion

Holy Renewal is a fantastic talent that can heal you for a significant amount, up to approximately 22% of your maximum health if you hit 5 enemy Heroes. While hitting 5 enemy Heroes is optimistic, you can reliably hit 2 or 3 Heroes with each use, restoring 9%-13.5% of your maximum health. This is a very significant amount, considering that Shield Glare only has a cooldown of 12 seconds. Holy Renewal incentivises using Shield Glare on the maximum number of targets possible, rather than targeting specific Heroes, such as Illidan or Valla. If priority targets exist for Blind, they should still be targeted but you should also try to hit other members of the enemy team. Holy Renewal is exceptionally good versus The Lost Vikings, as each of the 3 Vikings counts as an enemy Hero, increasing the potential amount of enemy Heroes hit from 5 to 7.

Blessed Hammer provides modest AoE damage. The problem is that it deals unreliable damage. Blessed Hammer can strike a target 3 times but it can also strike a target only once. If it hits 3 times, its damage is slightly above Punish, although Punish deals fairly low damage. When compared to Burning Rage, it has the potential to deal more damage while it is active, but when Condemn is on cooldown, Burning Rage will dramatically outdamage Blessed Hammer with its consistent damage. Still, Blessed Hammer offers modest damage, which can sometimes be needed if you have several Tanks or Supports. Choose Blessed Hammer when you have no fear of dying and your team lacks damage in long team fights.

Imposing Presence significantly reduces the damage of Heroes that rely on Basic Attacks to deal damage, including (but not limited to) Illidan, Raynor, Sgt. Hammer, Tassadar (with Archon), Thrall, and Valla. When against Heroes that do not rely on Basic Attacks, it is almost totally useless and will only trivially affect your survivability. Note that Holy Renewal performs the same task of keeping you alive, so it is your job to decide which will be more effective in your current situation. Holy Renewal's performance is very reliable, while Imposing Presence's effectiveness varies dramatically. Choose Imposing Presence when you are the primary focus versus an enemy team with significant Basic Attack damage.

Fanaticism is too unreliable to be viable choice. Although you will usually be fighting in the midst of the enemy team (since Johanna is a Tank), it can sometimes take several seconds to gain a noticable amount of movement speed with Fanaticism. The duration of Iron Skin is only 4 seconds, so the gain in movement speed will generally only be for a very short amount of time. Additionally, the movement speed once in a team fight is not really needed, since Johanna is able to stick to targets quite effectively. When chasing Kael'thas, for example, you will only need to move as quickly as he does to keep up with him.

9. Level 20 Talents

9.1. Discussion

Indestructible is an excellent talent that will not only keep you alive in team fights, but discourage enemies from targeting you altogether, lest you survive and their efforts (and cooldowns) be in vain. To prevent enemies from simply ignoring you and killing your allies, you need to play extremely aggressively, forcing them to deal with you to prevent their vulnerable, damage-dealing allies from dying to you. Once Indestructible is used, you must immediately retreat from combat, unless you are immediately healed, or you will die once the shield ends. Holy Renewal and Laws of Hope can be helpful in providing you with self healing. Rehgar's Ancestral Healing works very well with Indestructible, giving him plenty of time to heal you while the shield holds.

Storm Shield can be useful if you are never being targeted by the enemy team. Since Storm Shield only has a duration of 3 seconds, only use it immediately before significant AoE burst damage, or it could be wasted. At 45 seconds, the cooldown is very short, so do not be afraid of using it.

Heaven's Fury can be picked in the rare case of Johanna being played as an aggressive hard engager after picking Falling Sword at Level 10. We only recommend this playstyle in casual gamemodes like Quick Match or if your team composition features at least one more Tank.

Radiating Faith provides a 33% increased Stun duration for Blessed Shield. For a Level 20 talent, this is extremely underwhelming, as it only increases the Stun duration for the first and additional targets struck by 0.5 seconds and 0.25 seconds respectively. Indestructible is a much, much more impactful talent.

10. ChangeLog

+ show all entries - show only 10 entries

• 04 May 2017: Updated Heaven's Fury's talent description and recommendation.