Mei Build Guide “A-Mei-Zing!”

Last updated on Sep 20, 2023 at 16:15 by Elitesparkle 6 comments
General Information

Welcome to our guide for Mei, a Tank 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.

Mei's Overview

Mei is a Tank who relies on various types of crowd control to mess up the enemy plans and some peculiar forms of self-sustain to survive longer during team fights.

2.

Mei's Strengths and Weaknesses

V Strengths
X Weaknesses
3.

Mei's Talent Build Cheatsheet

Icing Build

Recommended
Level 1 Ice Storm Icon
Level 4 Cold Front Icon
Level 7 Skating Away Icon
Level 10 Ice Wall Icon Avalanche Icon ?
Level 13 Flurry Icon
Level 16 Black Ice Icon
Level 20 Shatter Icon Cascade Icon ?

Mei's Icing Build is focused on improving your damage to enemy Heroes and increasing the crowd control you can provide during team fights, at the cost of some survivability.

The cooldown reduction provided by Cold Front Icon Cold Front at Level 4 is great for using Black Ice Icon Black Ice at Level 16 more often and to have Icing Icon Icing up when Blizzard Icon Blizzard is up thanks to the cooldown reduction given by Flurry Icon Flurry at Level 13.

Cryo-Freeze Build

Situational
Level 1 Heat Transfer Icon
Level 4 Crystallize Icon
Level 7 Skating Away Icon
Level 10 Ice Wall Icon Avalanche Icon ?
Level 13 Cooling Servos Icon
Level 16 Acclimation Icon
Level 20 Shatter Icon Cascade Icon ?

Mei's Cryo-Freeze Build is designed to increase her survivability and sustain damage via Basic Attacks.

The additional survivability comes from Crystallize Icon Crystallize at Level 4, a defensive Talent that makes it harder for the enemy team to break the Shield provided by Cryo-Freeze Icon Cryo-Freeze.

The damage increase is primarily provided by Heat Transfer Icon Heat Transfer at Level 1, combined with the Passive effect from Cooling Servos Icon Cooling Servos at Level 13. With these Talents, you can pressure the enemy frontline.

Snow Blind Build

Situational
Level 1 Heavy Pack Icon
Level 4 Slushball Icon
Level 7 Skating Away Icon
Level 10 Ice Wall Icon Avalanche Icon ?
Level 13 Polar Vortex Icon
Level 16 Fresh Powder Icon
Level 20 Shatter Icon Cascade Icon ?

Mei's Snow Blind Build is quite good to counter enemy Heroes who primarily deal damage via Basic Attacks and also lack mobility (notably The Butcher and Zul'jin).

Blind them twice in a row thanks to Fresh Powder Icon Fresh Powder at Level 16 and then again thanks to Heavy Pack Icon Heavy Pack at Level 1 giving cooldown reduction. In addition to that, Skating Away Icon Skating Away at Level 7 grants Physical Armor, which also counters Basic Attacks.

ARAM Build

ARAM
Level 1 Ice Storm Icon
Level 4 Cold Front Icon
Level 7 Skating Away Icon
Level 10 Ice Wall Icon Avalanche Icon ?
Level 13 Flurry Icon
Level 16 Black Ice Icon
Level 20 Shatter Icon Cascade Icon ?

Mei's ARAM Build is focused on improving your damage to enemy Heroes and increasing the crowd control you can provide during team fights, at the cost of some survivability.

The cooldown reduction provided by Cold Front Icon Cold Front at Level 4 is great for using Black Ice Icon Black Ice at Level 16 more often and to have Icing Icon Icing up when Blizzard Icon Blizzard is up thanks to the cooldown reduction given by Flurry Icon Flurry at Level 13.

4.

Mei's Synergies and Counters

V Mei synergizes with

Considering that her Basic Abilities are not that reliable when trying to engage enemy Heroes, Mei prefers having allied Heroes who can initiate for her (for example Maiev).

Similarly, Mei benefits from Heroes that can help her to keep enemy Heroes within Blizzard Icon Blizzard by creating impassable terrain (like Tassadar with Force Wall Icon Force Wall) or by Knocking back enemy Heroes nearby (such as Maiev with Umbral Bind Icon Umbral Bind).

As she provides a lot of crowd control, Mei performs better with Heroes that can follow-up her Abilities with burst damage (for example Jaina).

The high Slow uptime is good for Heroes who get increased damage from it (such as Greymane with Executioner Icon Executioner at Level 16).

X Mei is countered by

Mei suffers while facing Heroes who have access to any kind of mobility because she will have a hard time trying to engage and her peeling tools will not accomplish anything (for example Tracer).

Roots (such as Entangling Roots Icon Entangling Roots by Malfurion) and Knockbacks (like Face Melt Icon Face Melt by E.T.C.) can stop her while trying to engage with Icing Icon Icing.

While she does not gets completely shut down by them, Mei also does not like effects that reduce healing (for example Biotic Grenade Icon Biotic Grenade by Ana), deal percent-based damage (such as Cursed Bullet Icon Cursed Bullet at Level 10 by Greymane), or deal bonus damage to Shields (like EMP Grenade Icon EMP Grenade at Level 13 by Lt. Morales). The same is true for Heroes who can poke her team from a long distance (such as Li-Ming).

Last but not the least, you can combine crowd control and burst damage to kill Mei before she can even use Cryo-Freeze Icon Cryo-Freeze defensively.

5.

Mei's Maps

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

Mei is good on Maps that have narrow passages where she can get more value from her Abilities (for example Cursed Hollow), especially if there is a Boss to contest because her Abilities are great for that.

Mei has good waveclear, making her a good pick on Maps where macro is important. Keep in mind, though, that she will not be able to help you capture Mercenary Camps quickly.

While she can fight just fine in open space, Mei loses a lot of value when enemy Heroes are not forced into a choke point (Hanamura Temple comes to mind).

6.

Mei's Tips and Tricks

  • The moderate Slow provided by Snow Blind Icon Snow Blind can be used to slightly increase the chance that Blizzard Icon Blizzard will connect and that Icing Icon Icing will hit enemy Heroes from a good angle.
  • The high but decaying Slow provided by Icing Icon Icing must be used to drastically increase the chance that the Stun at the end of Blizzard Icon Blizzard will trigger.
  • Avalanche Icon Avalanche can split the enemy team by pushing some enemy Heroes away, even behind impassable terrain.
  • After you aggressively get behind an enemy Hero by using Icing Icon Icing, you can push them towards your team with Avalanche Icon Avalanche.
  • If you catch 3 enemy Heroes with Avalanche Icon Avalanche, you can follow the snowball with Icing Icon Icing to be in range for casting Blizzard Icon Blizzard as a follow-up to the prolonged Stun.
  • Ice Wall Icon Ice Wall can be used to split the enemy team by putting in Time Stop some Heroes and fighting the others.
  • A well-timed Blizzard Icon Blizzard—exactly 0.5 seconds after your Heroic Ability connects—will always Stun enemy Heroes affected by Ice Wall Icon Ice Wall.
  • You can use Ice Wall Icon Ice Wall behind enemy Heroes to block their retreat or in front of them to stop their engage.
7.

Mei's Role in the Current Meta

Mei is a Tank that excels at punishing enemy Heroes who lack mobility to play around her Slows.

She has access to powerful Heroic Abilities that, when having a Mage in team, can be used to make scary combos. That said, Avalanche Icon Avalanche and Ice Wall Icon Ice Wall are already strong on their own, both for engaging and for peeling. With a bit of creativity, you can make powerful tricks with them.

8.

Changelog

  • 20 Sep. 2023 (talents page): ARAM Build added.
  • 20 Sep. 2023 (this page): ARAM Build added.
  • 04 Sep. 2022 (talents page): Builds updated.
  • 04 Sep. 2022 (this page): Builds updated.
  • 01 Dec. 2021 (talents page): Builds updated.
  • 01 Dec. 2021 (this page): Builds updated.
  • 13 Aug. 2021 (this page): Maps updated.
  • 17 May 2021 (talents page): Guide reviewed for the latest Patch.
  • 17 May 2021 (abilities page): Guide reviewed for the latest Patch.
  • 17 May 2021 (this page): Guide reviewed for the latest Patch.
  • 24 Mar. 2021 (abilities page): Descriptions improved.
  • 24 Mar. 2021 (this page): Synergies and Counters updated.
  • 10 Mar. 2021 (talents page): Builds updated.
  • 10 Mar. 2021 (this page): Builds updated.
  • 06 Mar. 2021 (talents page): Builds updated.
  • 06 Mar. 2021 (this page): Builds updated.
  • 16 Feb. 2021 (talents page): Builds updated.
  • 16 Feb. 2021 (this page): Builds updated.
  • 15 Feb. 2021 (talents page): Builds updated.
  • 15 Feb. 2021 (this page): Builds updated.
  • 20 Jan. 2021 (talents page): Guide reviewed for the latest Balance Update.
  • 20 Jan. 2021 (abilities page): Guide reviewed for the latest Balance Update.
  • 20 Jan. 2021 (this page): Guide reviewed for the latest Balance Update.
  • 16 Jan. 2021 (talents page): Builds updated.
  • 16 Jan. 2021 (this page): Builds updated.
  • 05 Oct. 2020 (abilities page): Ability Descriptions modified to better explain how to use Abilities effectively.
  • 21 Aug. 2020 (talents page): Talent Build page updated.
    • Balance Update revision.
    • Minor fixes.
    • New layout.
  • 21 Aug. 2020 (abilities page): Abilities and Strategy page updated.
    • Balance Update revision.
    • Minor fixes.
    • New layout.
  • 21 Aug. 2020 (this page): Introduction page updated.
    • Balance Update revision.
    • Minor fixes.
    • New layout.
  • 03 Aug. 2020 (talents page): Talent Descriptions updated.
  • 03 Aug. 2020 (this page): Talent Descriptions updated.
  • 16 Jul. 2020 (talents page): Guide reviewed for the latest Balance Update.
  • 16 Jul. 2020 (abilities page): Guide reviewed for the latest Balance Update.
  • 16 Jul. 2020 (this page): Guide reviewed for the latest Balance Update.
  • 10 Jul. 2020 (talents page): Builds updated.
  • 10 Jul. 2020 (this page): Builds updated.
  • 24 Jun. 2020 (talents page): Guide updated.
  • 24 Jun. 2020 (abilities page): Guide updated.
  • 24 Jun. 2020 (this page): Guide updated.
  • 20 Jun. 2020 (talents page): Guide created.
  • 20 Jun. 2020 (abilities page): Guide created.
  • 20 Jun. 2020 (this page): Guide created.
  • 20 Jan. 2020 (talents page): Descriptions changed according to the latest Balance Update.
Show more
Show less