Malthael Build Guide “Death is beyond your reach.”

Last updated on Feb 03, 2022 at 12:30 by Derenash 32 comments
General Information

Welcome to our guide for Malthael, 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.

1.

Malthael's Overview

Malthael is a Bruiser who naturally counters high-Health Heroes. Calm players who are able to apply Reaper's Mark Icon Reaper's Mark onto multiple targets will be rewarded with overwhelming sustain damage and great survivability.

2.

Malthael's Strengths and Weaknesses

V Strengths
X Weaknesses
3.

Malthael's Talent Build Cheatsheet

Standard Build

Recommended
Level 1 Fear the Reaper Icon On a Pale Horse Icon ?
Level 4 Die Alone Icon
Level 7 Touch of Death Icon Massacre Icon ? Cold Hand Icon ?
Level 10 Last Rites Icon
Level 13 Inevitable End Icon Shroud of Wisdom Icon ?
Level 16 Soul Collector Icon
Level 20 No One Can Stop Death Icon

Malthael's Standard Build provides superior survivability and sustain damage. It provides you with powerful self-sustain and continuous area of effect damage that force your opponents to spread out, reducing their effectiveness.

Massacre Build

Situational
Level 1 Fear the Reaper Icon Death's Reach Icon ? On a Pale Horse Icon ?
Level 4 Die Alone Icon
Level 7 Massacre Icon
Level 10 Tormented Souls Icon Last Rites Icon ?
Level 13 Inevitable End Icon Shroud of Wisdom Icon ?
Level 16 Mortality Icon
Level 20 No One Can Stop Death Icon

Malthael's Massacre Icon Massacre Build is focused on dealing the maximum possible damage through Massacre Icon Massacre and Mortality Icon Mortality. Tormented Souls Icon Tormented Souls adds extra damage and mobility to Malthael through multiples uses of Wraith Strike Icon Wraith Strike.

4.

Malthael's Synergies and Counters

V Malthael synergizes with

Heroes that displace enemies, like Garrosh and E.T.C. are excellent with Malthael, as they will ease the focus on a target, allowing Last Rites Icon Last Rites to execute it. One of Malthael's problems is that he takes too long to reduce an enemy's health to Last Rites Icon Last Rites's threshold, so he is great with Greymane's Cursed Bullet Icon Cursed Bullet or with Tychus's The Bigger They Are... Icon The Bigger They Are....

Due to how Malthael's damage and self sustain is completely tied to Soul Rip Icon Soul Rip, he has excellent synergy with Heroes that can reduce his Cooldowns. While Ana with Nano Boost Icon Nano Boost turns Malthael into an immortal killing machine, Malfurion can enhance his effectiveness very often through Innervate Icon Innervate.

X Malthael is countered by

As a Melee Assassin with a rather telegraphed play style, Malthael is very vulnerable to any form of targeted crowd control. Furthermore, since his main gap closer, Wraith Strike Icon Wraith Strike, requires him to either attack or hit a slow skillshot, he is naturally bound to be kited by nimble ranged Heroes.

Against experienced players, Blaze will be an excellent counter to Malthael. Bunker Drop Icon Bunker Drop cleanses Reaper's Mark Icon Reaper's Mark from anyone that enters it. It also denies Last Rites Icon Last Rites's damage. Considering enemies will be inside bunker, Malthael's self-sustain will be very limited, as Malthael will not be able to use Soul Rip Icon Soul Rip to sustain himself.

5.

Malthael's Maps

Malthael's stronger maps
Blackheart's Bay Dragon Shire Garden of Terror Infernal Shrines Sky Temple Tomb of the Spider Queen Towers of Doom Warhead Junction
Malthael's average maps
Alterac Pass Braxis Holdout Cursed Hollow Volskaya Foundry
Malthael's weaker maps
Battlefield of Eternity Hanamura Temple

Malthael is a very versatile Hero that is excellent in many different maps. On a Pale Horse Icon On a Pale Horse enhances Malthael's effectiveness in large maps, while his outstanding double soak makes him a good pick on Infernal Shrines, Sky Temple, and Towers of Doom. His good dueling capabilities can be abused on Dragon Shire and Tomb of the Spider Queen. Additionally, since Malthael can easily capture Mercenary Camps, due to his good self-sustain, he is good on macro-heavy maps, like Garden of Terror and Blackheart's Bay.

Malthael cannot abuse his fast rotation and waveclear in 2-lane maps. Therefore, we do not recommend him on Hanamura Temple and Battlefield of Eternity.

6.

Malthael's Tips and Tricks

  • Malthael's Basic Attacks hit enemies in a 180 degree arc; use this to maintain Reaper's Mark Icon Reaper's Mark on as many targets as possible.
  • Reaper's Mark's damage also works against most non-Structure units, making it effective against Bosses and Map Objectives.
  • You can hold the default Q hotkey to repeatedly cast Soul Rip Icon Soul Rip without effort.
  • Wraith Strike Icon Wraith Strike is useful for quickly avoiding impending skillshots and areas of effect.
  • Tormented Souls Icon Tormented Souls resets Wraith Strike's Cooldown on-use AND when Tormented Souls ends.
  • A skull marker appears above Heroes that would die to Last Rites Icon Last Rites's damage.
  • Do not be conservative with Last Rites Icon Last Rites, as it is better to guarantee a kill and get the Cooldown reduction than to hold it.
  • Inevitable End Icon Inevitable End can be used to bait important Abilities from the enemy team, as the Cooldown is relatively low.
  • Due to Shroud of Wisdom Icon Shroud of Wisdom's delay, it should be activated around 1.5 seconds before going in, as most Abilities will be used on you in the first seconds. Using it too quickly might result in having reduced uptime, while taking too long might cost your life.
7.

Malthael's Role in the Current Meta

As a strong duelist with outstanding self-sustain and good waveclear, Malthael makes for a strong Offlaner, though he can also dispatch Mercenary Camps with ease.

Reaper's Mark Icon Reaper's Mark defines Malthael as a premiere counterpick to team compositions that are melee-heavy or otherwise feature Heroes with large Health pools. This Trait also allows Malthael to deal a significant amount of damage to Bosses and Monsters from Objectives. In general however, he tends to do poorly against ranged Heroes, and should not be picked if enemies can easily kite you.

Malthael's macro playstyle consists on constantly clearing waves while damaging the opposing Offlaner through Reaper's Mark Icon Reaper's Mark and Soul Rip Icon Soul Rip. At fights, we recommend to poke the enemy frontline with Death Shroud Icon Death Shroud and Soul Rip Icon Soul Rip until the opposing team wastes important Abilities. If you try to engage by yourself, enemies will easily burst you down, because of Malthael's low maximum Health. For this reason, it is better to be patient until a good opportunity shows up.

8.

Changelog

  • 03 Feb. 2022 (this page): Guide has been reviewed and no changes are necessary.
  • 26 Mar. 2021 (talents page): Updated Talent recommendations.
  • 05 Nov. 2020 (abilities page): Abilities section reviewed.
  • 27 Oct. 2020 (talents page): Touch of Death's discussion and relevance updated.
  • 27 Oct. 2020 (this page): Standard Build updated.
  • 17 Oct. 2020 (talents page): Builds and Talents updated to better reflect current meta.
  • 17 Oct. 2020 (abilities page): Updated Wraith Strike's discussion.
  • 17 Oct. 2020 (this page): Guide updated to better reflect current meta.
  • 30 Aug. 2020 (this page): Role in Current Meta section updated.
  • 14 Apr. 2020 (talents page): Description for Tormented Souls updated.
  • 14 Apr. 2020 (abilities page): Note added about Malthael's unique Basic Attack and section reviewed and description for Tormented Souls updated.
  • 14 Apr. 2020 (this page): Guide fully reviewed.
  • 15 Feb. 2020 (talents page): Talents and recommendations reviewed following February 12 patch changes.
  • 12 Dec. 2019 (this page): Added a note about current Anomaly.
  • 11 Oct. 2019 (talents page): Talent builds and recommendations reviewed and updated.
  • 11 Oct. 2019 (abilities page): Abilities section reviewed.
  • 11 Oct. 2019 (this page): Guide updated.
  • 15 Feb. 2018 (talents page): Talents and builds updated to better reflect current metagame state.
  • 06 Feb. 2018 (talents page): Talents and builds updated following Maiev patch changes.
  • 14 Jan. 2018 (talents page): Updated Heroic Talent discussion. Updated Soul Rip and Reaper builds.
  • 14 Jun. 2017 (talents page): Added Talent discussions.
  • 13 Jun. 2017 (talents page): Guide created.
  • 13 Jun. 2017 (abilities page): Guide created.
  • 13 Jun. 2017 (this page): Guide created.
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