Lt. Morales 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. Healing Beam
  • 3. Safeguard
  • 4. Displacement Grenade
  • 5. Stim Drone
  • 6. Medivac Dropship
  • 7. Caduceus Reactor
• ×Talent Build
  • 1. Talent Build
  • 2. Common Talent Paths
  • 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

General Information

On this page, we present the viable talent choices for playing Lt. Morales 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 Lt. Morales 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

Trauma Trigger is an important talent to pick at Level 1, since it automatically provides Lt. Morales with Safeguard if she gets focused by the enemy team. The 25% damage reduction really helps Lt. Morales to stay in team fights for a longer period of time, especially since good opponents will almost certainly try to take her down as quickly as possible.

Prolonged Safeguard is not a decent talent and works best on aggressive Bruisers and melee Assassins, as it provides them with more durability. However, ignoring Trauma Trigger causes Lt. Morales to lose a lot of survivability herself, which makes her very susceptible to enemy burst damage.

Scouting Drone can be a viable talent choice if the enemy features at least one stealthed Hero, such as Nova or Zeratul. Due to this limited effectiveness, Scouting Drones remains a situational talent.

Feedback Loop is an underwhelming talent although Lt. Morales can suffer from Mana issues, especially during the early-mid game. However, a small amount of restored Mana cannot compensate for the loss of self-protection by neglecting Trauma Trigger.

4. Level 4 Talents

4.1. Discussion

Automated Block is a very efficient defensive talent against enemy team compositions that rely heavily on dealing damage with Basic Attacks. Automated Block makes Lt. Morales considerably more durable if she is forced to stay in lane against strong Assassins or Specialists like Sgt. Hammer or Raynor.

Bioshield can be an incredibly powerful talent if used on aggressive Bruisers and melee Assassins like Kerrigan or Illidan. The bonus protection that comes from Bioshield's shielding can be used in multiple ways. It allows your targeted ally to engage the enemy team more safely, to clear Mercenary Camps more easily, or to tank neutral Map Objectives like the Garden Terror or Grave Golem without taking too much damage.

Infused Grenade suffers from similar problems as Feedback Loop. While the Mana refund can potentially compensate Lt. Morales' early Mana hunger, it stands in no comparison to the additional protection coming from Bioshield or the very useful self-protection provided by Automated Block. All in all, experienced Lt. Morales players know how to spend their Mana wisely, which ultimately makes talents like Infused Grenade redundant.

5. Level 7 Talents

5.1. Discussion

Cleanse is an outstanding activatable talent that counters crowd control. Cleansing a threatened allied target can potentially make the difference between life and death. If timed well, it can also be used on an ally preemptively in order to completely prevent the effect of dangerous crowd control abilities such as Muradin's Storm Bolt or Tyrande's Lunar Flare.

Irradiate is a useful talent under some circumstances. First of all, your team needs to consist of at least two aggressive Warriors or melee Assassins to have enough targets surrounded by enemies to make Irradiate work. Next, you need to make sure that you have enough sustain power to protect your entire team. An additional Support or a Semi-Support like Tassadar or Tyrande can help out in that regard. Finally, your team should at least be even or slightly ahead in terms of global experience. Otherwise, the damage provided by Irradiate will be too little to be relevant.

Calldown: MULE can be a legitimate alternative choice to Cleanse on maps like Haunted Mines or Sky Temple due to the way the Map Objectives work on those maps. Keep in mind, however, that Lt. Morales loses a lot of utility if she goes for this talent and she will thus suffer more from this choice than other Heroes with Mule in their talent trees like Abathur. Nevertheless, Calldown MULE can be a rewarding talent on the maps mentioned above, as it is able to repair a lot of damage done to your Structures by the enemy team.

Clear! offers nothing that a Support like Lt. Morales would want in her kit. The increase in explosion radius and knockback distance does not support your teammates in any way. Besides, Displacement Grenade is quite hard to land correctly in its original state. Clear! will make it even more difficult for less experienced players to hit enemy Heroes the way they want to. We strongly suggest avoiding this talent.

6. Level 10 Talents

6.1. Discussion

At this level, Heroic Abilities become available. Stim Drone has already been described in the Abilities section.

Stim Drone's incredible offensive potential boosts the combat performance of Assassins like Illidan, Raynor, or Valla, who rely heavily on their Basic Attacks, drastically. The increase of both attack and movement speed also provides them with more mobility, which adds a defensive component to Stim Drone. Keep in mind, however, that Stim Drone has a short channeling animation. If Lt. Morales gets stunned, silenced, or knocked out of range from her allied target during the channeling process, Stim Drone will be placed on a 10-second cooldown.

Medivac Dropship can have a huge impact on the course of a match, in a positive or negative way. If communication with your teammates is on point, Medivac transport can allow your team to execute deadly ambushes or sneaky Objective captures. While this works particularly well in a 5v5 environment, the same cannot be said in most Quick Match or Hero League games.

7. Level 13 Talents

7.1. Discussion

Intensive Care works well if your main goal is to keep a single priority target alive. This mostly includes melee Assassins and Bruisers, but if your team consists of only one Warrior they can become a valuable target as well.

Couples Therapy finally adds a self-healing component to Lt. Morales' kit. What makes Couples Therapy particularly useful is the fact that you can still heal yourself without spending any Mana if you use Healing Beam on a target with full health.

Preventative Care is too situational of a talent to be viable. Slowing the attack speed rate of potentially several enemies at the same time can potentially have a huge impact on the course of a team fight. However, choosing Preventative Care causes you to lose too much (self-)healing power throughout the mid-late game.

Spell Shield can be a viable option if the enemy team consists of two or more spell-dependent Assassins, such as Jaina and Kael'thas. However, in most situations the self-heal generated from Couples Therapy offers better and more reliable protection than Spell Shield.

8. Level 16 Talents

8.1. Discussion

System Shock provides Lt. Morales with a useful Movement Speed slow, which can be quite significant when trying to either catch fleeing enemies or keep engaging enemies away from you.

Shield Sequencer allows Lt. Morales to cast another instance of Safeguard after the first one was cast. This works particularly well if the enemy team has a lot of burst damage, which could cause less tanky teammembers to die without the protection coming from Safeguard.

Second Opinion is quite the useful talent, since getting a second charge of Displacement Grenade allows you to keep dangerous enemy Warriors and melee Assassin at a safe distance more reliably.

9. Level 20 Talents

9.1. Discussion

Caduceus Reactor 2.0 marks a significant late game power spike for Lt. Morales. Adding Mana regeneration and a shield to Lt. Morales balances both of her greatest weaknesses at the same time. If you position yourself well during team fights and skirmishes, Caduceus Reactor 2.0 restores enough Mana to continously keep Healing Beam up. At the same time, the generated shields offer enough protection to prevent the enemy team from bursting Lt. Morales down.

Storm Shield can be a solid alternative to Caduceus Reactor 2.0 if you need AoE shielding instead of single-target protection and Mana regeneration. Storm Shield also allows you to sustain ongoing pushes and sieges, and is a great tool to stop enemy AoE burst damage, especially from spell-dependant Assassins like Jaina or Kael'thas.

Transfusion adds Stim Drone's effect to Lt. Morales as well. Since her damage output is already irrelevant, this effect does not contribute anything to her overall combat performance. Sacrificing all the utility and protection offered by Caduceus Reactor 2.0 for some extra attack and movement speed on a Support Hero is definitely a bad trade.

Medbay becomes an irrelevant talent choice at Level 20, since we do not recommend picking Medivac Dropship in the first place.