Malfurion Talents

Table of Contents

• +Introduction
  • 1. Quick Reference
  • 2. Introduction
  • 3. Strengths
  • 4. Weaknesses
  • 5. Role in the Current Meta
  • 6. Reading Further
  • 7. ChangeLog
• +Abilities and Strategy
  • 1. Tips on Ability Usage
  • 2. Regrowth
  • 3. Entangling Roots
  • 4. Moonfire
  • 5. Tranquility
  • 6. Twilight Dream
  • 7. Innervate
• ×Talent Build
  • 1. Talent Build
  • 2. Common Talent Paths
    • 2.1. Moonkin 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 Malfurion 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 Malfurion guide can be accessed from the table of contents on the right.

About the Author

Oxygen is a veteran of the MOBA genre, which he has been playing for nearly 15 years. He has coached some of Heroes of the Storm's most prominent North American players and teams alike, including Team Liquid. As a Master player, he enjoys playing all Heroes and roles.

1. Talent Build

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

Create your own build and share it with friends!

2. Common Talent Paths

3. Level 1 Talents

3.1. Discussion

If your team features enough waveclearing, Shan'do's Clarity provides a significant increase to Innervate's uptime. This is especially effective when accompanied by strong Cooldown-reliant Heroes, such as Jaina, Kael'thas, and Li-Ming.

Moonburn provides Malfurion with surprisingly effective ranged wave clearing potential. Moonburn scales extremely well into the mid and late-game, to the point where Malfurion becomes one of the stronger Minion and Mercenary killers in the game. The Talent is useful when your team lacks other effective wave clearing.

Although Scouting Drone's instant reveal function is easily fulfilled by Moonfire by casting the latter into Bushes and other areas you would generally like to have vision of, Scouting Drone certainly has niche use against team compositions that features one or several Cloaked Heroes, as it could make it difficult for them to engage on your backline when placed where it is difficult to pick off. It also makes Malfurion notoriously difficult to catch off-guard.

It should be noted that although we recommend Scouting Drone, all of Malfurion's tier 1 Talents are very situational by nature.

4. Level 4 Talents

4.1. Discussion

Although Malfurion's Abilities already have relatively long ranges, Elune's Grace promotes much safer positioning on your part, as well as more aggressive usage of Entangling Roots and Moonfire.

Full Moonfire trivially improves Malfurion's least important Ability. If the increased area of effect is large enough to allow Moonfire to hit an entire Minion wave, the reduced Mana cost is welcomed but ultimately unimportant. This Talent is solely useful for Moonfire-centric builds, though you may also find Elune's Grace to be useful then.

Vengeful Roots brings an Ability's extremely low damage to a mediocre and situational amount. There is not much to say about this Talent; it tries to turn Entangling Roots into something that it is not. Poor broccoli just dies too quickly to incidental damage.

5. Level 7 Talents

5.1. Discussion

Hindering Moonfire provides you with a moderate but extremely reliable movement speed reduction effect. Apart from the general benefits of slowing opponents, the Talent can help you land Entangling Roots much more reliably. Hindering Moonfire is particularly useful for triggering Executioner-like Talents.

Lunar Shower pushes Malfurion's damage potential to the upper echelons of healers. When combined with Moonburn, Lunar Shower also turns Malfurion into one of the best and safest waveclearing Heroes in the game. As such, Moonfire-centric builds are generally recommended when your team features two healers and little waveclear.

The potency of Strangling Vines's healing reduction effect is weak on top of having an extremely short 1.25-second duration. Preventing any healing due to this Talent would generally be a matter of godlike timing or sheer luck — usually the latter.

6. Level 10 Talents

6.1. Discussion

Tranquility's popularity stems from its simplicity and effectiveness. There is little that can go wrong with delivering a sizeable amount of healing in a large area of effect; it just needs to be used at the right time, which is to say, during important team fights.

Although Malfurion is a Support Hero, Twilight Dream deals a surprisingly large amount of area of effect damage. The silencing effect, however, is what makes Twilight Dream so dangerous. Silencing an entire team for such a long duration is more than debilitating; it is fight-winning, especially when valuable channeled abilities end up interrupted by it. Though hitting multiple enemies can be mechanically easy due to the Ability's enormous area of effect, Malfurion is seldom going to be allowed to freely position himself where it would be optimal. This is why Twilight Dream is typically used as a secondary piece of an Ability combo, or as a means of counter-initiating.

7. Level 13 Talents

7.1. Discussion

Life Seed greatly helps with Mana Management and sustain, theoretically allowing you to have Regrowth's healing-over-time active on up to 3 different targets at once. One should look into picking Shrink Ray against strong Assassins, or Ice Block against high burst damage team compositions.

Shrink Ray is an all around useful ability that should be picked to temporarily shut down Heroes, especially those who rely on Basic Attacks and Heroic Abilities to deal damage or survive. Ideal targets are Falstad, Illidan, Jaina, Kerrigan, Nova, Sonya, Tychus, Zeratul, amongst others. Offensively, the movement speed reduction can be used to prevent escapes, or even help you or your teammates escape when used against a chasing Hero. Shrink Ray also sets you up nicely for an Entangling Roots hit.

If you find yourself becoming the focus target of a team dedicated to quickly taking out individual targets, Ice Block becomes a very appropriate choice. An interesting aspect of the Ability is that you can use Tranquility followed by Ice Block to heal your teammates while being completely invulnerable. Ice Block also works well with Twilight Dream as it allows you to protect yourself after positioning aggressively.

8. Level 16 Talents

8.1. Discussion

Ysera's Gift provides you with a modest but situationally reliable increase to Regrowth's healing over time potential. The Talent should be avoided, however, if you have been under pressure and relatively unable to maintain your Health pool above the required threshold. Otherwise, the increase synergises particularly well with Life Seed.

Tenacious Roots makes an outstanding crowd-control Ability even better. The larger area of effect also improves accuracy on top of helping with peeling and zoning.

Revitalize is the alternative to Ysera's Gift if Shan'do's Clarity was chosen. Although the bonuses are not particularly significant — the Cooldown reduction amounts to about 1.5 seconds on Regrowth, 1 second on Moonfire, and 4.5 seconds on Entangling Roots — the Mana recovery turns Malfurion into one of the most sustainable healer.

9. Level 20 Talents

9.1. Discussion

Serenity, although not a bad choice, does not fill the important niche of instantaneous protection that is provided by Storm Shield. The Mana recovery aspect is underwhelming as well; 50 Mana on such a long Cooldown is less than significant.

Astral Communion allows Malfurion to make offensive plays. Whether or not Astral Communion is worth the investment depends on the team compositions in play; if your team has been the aggressor, Astral Communion allows you to follow up very nicely. If you have been defensive or struggling to survive, Storm Shield will serve you much better.

Storm Shield provides Malfurion with the instantaneous protection that his Ability set lacks, and in an area of effect. This Talent is very effective when coupled with Regrowth and Tranquility, as the provided shields can keep you or your allies alive while your healing-over-time Abilities are active. Just try and use Storm Shield to diminish the effects of burst damage.

Although Rewind is typically a very strong Talent, Malfurion suffers from the fact that refreshing Regrowth and Moonfire is not very impactful due to their already short Cooldown. Entangling Roots is also awkward to refresh in that a target that is already rooted cannot be rooted again, making the Ability difficult to chain with itself.

10. ChangeLog

+ show all entries - show only 10 entries

• 13 Jun. 2017: Complete revamp of the page following Malfurion's rework in Malthael's patch.
• 26 Apr. 2017: Made Scouting Drone situation (was previously not recommended).