Samuro Build Guide “My humble skills are yours.”
Welcome to our guide for Samuro, a Melee Assassin 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.
Samuro's Overview
Samuro is a Melee Assassin who can Stealth and create Images of himself on demand. His Mirror Images can confuse his enemies, causing them to waste resources and cooldowns. Samuro is an excellent solo laner. With proper micro, his clones become a great nuisance for the enemy team, while Samuro will shred through any target.
Samuro's Strengths and Weaknesses
Has very good DPS if he is free to hit
Has 2 different cleanses for DoTs or debuffs
Can tank many skillshots with clones
Decent at capturing Mercenary Camps
Has a very high skill ceiling
Can distract and confuse enemy Heroes with
Illusion Master
Easily escape from any gank attempts
Has great self-sustain by using the Hearth Trick
Weak early game
Images can help enemies complete Quests
Vulnerable if Revealed
Vulnerable to peel and knockbacks
Hard to play
No crowd control as a Bruiser
Samuro's Talent Build Cheatsheet
Illusion Master Build
RecommendedThe Illusion Master build focuses on Talents that increase the damage,
durability, and frequency of Mirror Images.
Although Illusion Master is very strong, it is so much harder to
use that we recommend a more accessible build for beginners first. All builds
can perform well at any rank, but they do play quite differently.
Illusion Master adds a significant layer of complexity,
as it enables the player to control 3 units at the same time. This build is
recommended for players who are already comfortable with Samuro's other
mechanics.
Way of Illusion adds much damage, but
Way of the Blade is a good option if you are not going to stack
Way of illusion.
Mirage and
Deflection
can both be good at Level 4, depending on what type of damage the enemy team has
access to. AoE damage that enemy Heroes will use to quickly dispatch your
Images will usually be from Ability Damage, which is why Mirage is recommended
as a baseline. However, Deflection can help your Images tank more tower shots
when you dive Heroes under structures.
Burning Blade Build
SituationalBladestorm Build
BeginnerThe Bladestorm build focuses on Talents that increase Wind Walk's utility. This helps Samuro get into and out of melee range, where Samuro deals all of his meaningful damage. This build is a great starting point for players new to Samuro, and can perform well at all levels of play.
Bladestorm can also be used to clear Minions and Mercenaries effectively,
due to its low Cooldown and high AoE damage.
At Level 16, you hit a huge power spike which gives you kill potential against
many Heroes in the game, even when they are at full health. This is
accomplished by applying
Harsh Winds with a stored Critical Strike,
activating Critical Strike immediately after in order to reset your Basic
Attack, and then using Blade Storm while you still have extra movement speed
from Wind Walk.
Shukuchi makes it possible to close into melee range very
quickly in order to deliver your lethal combo.
Wind Strider allows you to
benefit from most of your other Talents much more often.
Samuro's Synergies and Counters
Samuro does well with Heroes who can increase the stats of his Images, or that can heal
him from afar, like Malfurion and Deckard can. He also excels with Abathur,
the only thing better than Three Blade Style is
Six Blade Style.
You, improved.
As Samuro has a hard time dealing with knockbacks, Lúcio
and E.T.C. can greatly reduce his effectiveness by pushing him away at every
possible aggression. He also suffers against Heroes that can easily kill his images,
like Jaina, Orphea or Cassia with Surge of Light.
Furthermore, Heroes that benefit from hitting clones can be a problem, such as
Medivh, Sonya, or Diablo.
Stukov is exceptional against Samuro
because of Biotic Armor and
Flailing Swipe,
which can greatly reduce Samuro's damage.
Samuro's Maps














Samuro does very well on maps dependent on point capture, like Dragon Shire or Braxis Holdout, because he can easily beat almost every hero after Level 7. He is also very good on big maps where you need to channel objectives, due to his great stall capabilities and great duel potential during them. Samuro excels on maps with many different flank angles, where you can chase enemies or hit them from behind during objectives.
Samuro's Tips and Tricks
- Hearth Trick: Mirror Image can be used to heal in an unconventional way. When you are outside of combat, hold Left-Shift and cast
Image Transmission on a Mirror Image while channeling Hearthstone. If the Mirror Image is still alive when Hearthstone's channel completes, you will instantly return to lane with the health restoration provided by the Hall of Storms.
- Clones' initial focus or movement can be controlled prior to Level 10, by using an Attack-Move command in the same moment they are created (This can be done by holding the button during the
Mirror Image usage).
- Use
Mirror Image to tank tower shots while ganking, or to damage structures without a friendly minion wave.
Critical Strike resets your Basic Attacks; activate it immediately after delivering a Critical Strike for optimal effect.
Wind Walk can be used to quickly approach enemies, or to help you escape dangerous situations. Remember the cooldown starts ticking as soon as the ability is activated
- Use
Bladestorm to clear waves or to deal some AoE damage in fights, when enemy has no crowd controls available.
- The Movement Speed provided by
Image Transmission can be used not only to chase, but to dodge or to disengage from combat as well.
- Activate
Image Transmission to engage on a Hero near one of your Images, or to reposition to safety when you are in danger.
Samuro's Role in the Current Meta
Samuro fits well into team compositions that need a Melee Offlane (Sololane) Assassin, but that also does not require extra peeling for the Assassins. Samuro can be a liability against certain Heroes because his Images can help enemies to quickly finish quests, or to enhance Healing dependent on hitting Heroes, like Malfurion and Diablo have.
Despite all of Samuro's Weaknesses, an excellent player can have great impact
playing as him in all situations, due to his high skill ceiling.
With Illusion Master,
Samuro should be constantly harassing enemy backline, being
aware of when they spend their Abilities, to use
Image Transmission
and kill them.
Changelog
- 20 Nov. 2020 (this page): Builds updated to reflect current meta.
- 20 Nov. 2020 (talents page): Builds and Talent recommendations updated to reflect current meta.
- 14 Oct. 2020 (this page): Builds updated after recent balance patch.
- 14 Oct. 2020 (talents page): Updated Builds and Talents after recent balance patch.
- 30 Jul. 2020 (this page): Updated Bladestorm Build.
- 25 Jun. 2020 (this page): Updated Guide to better reflect current meta.
- 25 Jun. 2020 (abilities page): Updated Abilities to address Samuro's most recent rework.
- 09 Apr. 2020 (talents page): Updated builds and Talents to reflect current meta.
- 15 Dec. 2019 (this page): Updated Role in the Current Meta to include information on current Nexus Anomaly.
- 02 Jul. 2019 (talents page): Recommended builds and Talents updated to reflect current meta.
- 02 Jul. 2019 (this page): Recommended builds and Talents udpated to reflect current meta.
- 02 Jul. 2019 (abilities page): Updated abilities section.
- 04 Mar. 2018 (talents page): Talent section updated to reflect current meta.
- 14 Dec. 2017 (talents page): Talent section updated to reflect Samuro's rework.
- 14 Dec. 2017 (this page): Guide updated to reflect Samuro's rework and general changes to the Stealth mechanic.
- 14 Dec. 2017 (abilities page): Abilities section updated to reflect Samuro's rework.
- 20 Nov. 2016 (this page): Guide added.
More Melee Assassin Guides
Derenash has been playing Heroes of the Storm since 2015 and has achieved Grandmaster in multiple seasons, peaking at Top 1 in Season 3 and 4 of 2018. He participated in the HGC Copa America in 2018 where his team had a strong victory. He is passionate about teaching others about the game, and streams often on Twitch in Portuguese, and you can find him in Wind Striders' Discord as well where he is happy to answer any questions in English or Portuguese.
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