Tassadar Build Guide “Executor, I stand ready!”
Welcome to our guide for Tassadar, a Ranged 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.
Tassadar's Overview
Tassadar is a Ranged Assassin with good damage output from high range. All his abilities deal AoE damage, being an excellent Hero if enemies tend to stay close together. Force Wall is an interesting ability. If used well, it can be very impactful, but without proper care, it can even harm your team. Even though Tassadar can get some Talents that improve his survivability, he is a squishy and immobile Hero. Without proper positioning, Tassadar will be an easy target for any tank or Melee Assassin.
Tassadar's Strengths and Weaknesses
- Psionic Storm and Shock Ray are great waveclear tools
- Heavy AoE damage
- High poke range
- Can help to get pickoffs with Shock Ray's slow and Force Wall
- Has great zoning potential, being good in small choke points
- Is very squishy, and can be easily killed or ganked
- Weak against high mobility Heroes, since all his Abilities can be easily dodged.
- No mobility outside of specific Talents
- Force Wall is hard to use and has a high Mana cost.
- Weak against crowd control, including Knockbacks, since those will cancel Shock Ray.
Tassadar's Talent Build Cheatsheet
Standard Build
RecommendedTassadar's Standard Build is an excellent approach for every game, as it provides tassadar with a good mix of burst damage, resistance and sustain damage.
At Levels 4 and 13, there are several Talents that improve your safety. Induction's extra Movement Speed is excellent against Compositions with several skillshots. However, Plasma Shield is better against poke Heroes or against enemies that will chase you no matter how fast you move, like Zeratul or Genji. At Level 13, while Shadow Walk is excellent against divers, Oracle gives you a very good resistance against Spell Damage. Furthermore, Tassadar does not need all this safety in every game. Sometimes it will be better to get Electric Fence and Feedback instead, to increase your damage and crowd control.
At Level 7, Arc Discharge is a good option, since it will greatly increase Basic Attack range, enhancing Archon and providing good damage from Psionic Storm. However, the other Talents are also very effective. Psionic Echo adds a good burst damage, which is useful to follow up your Tank, but it does not enhance his DPS as much as Beam Alignment does. We always recommend going for Twilight Archon here, because this build is very dependent on Archon's Basic Attacks and having Beam Alignment charged.
Psionic Storm Build
SituationalTassadar's Psionic Storm Build allows Tassadar to be poking enemies from a long and safe range. It may not have the same damage capabilities as a Shock Ray Build, but due to the long range of all Abilities, it is a great choice if you are concerned about enemies easily reaching you. This build's playstyle is focused on using Psionic Storm from a long range, to then use Shock Ray in the direction the enemy is moving, so that in the moment they leave Psionic Storm area, Psionic Echo will spawn another one, being a great poke and harass tool.
Psi-Infusion does not increase Tassadar's damage, but it enables him to be constantly poking enemies with the combo described above while also giving him good Mana sustain. However, it is not necessary if the enemy team's composition do not feature any high range Hero, and we recommend getting Static Charge in that situation. The main power spike from this Build comes with Psionic Echo, which greatly increases your damage output.
All the Talents at Level 13 can be good; Shadow Walk can save Tassadar from divers, Oracle gives him a very good resistance against Spell Damage, and Feedback will be outstanding during Archon, being a good pick if you do not need the extra survivability from the other 2 Talents.
Tassadar's Synergies and Counters
Tassadar relies on hitting Shock Ray, so he excels with E.T.C. or Johanna, Heroes with powerful crowd controls, that can easily setup enemies for his Abilities. Tassadar also has a hard time finishing enemies, so Assassins with high mobility can be used with him in order to kill the low-Health targets.
Tassadar is countered by highly mobile Heroes who can easily dive or stun him. His lack of mobility and low health pool turns him into an easy target for mobile Heroes, being very dependent of allies to peel him against those.
Tassadar's Maps
Tassadar's insane AoE damage makes him exceptional on maps where waveclear is necessary, or on maps with many choke points. However, he will not be able to fight in maps where objective forces him to fight outside the wave, because he will be easily dived when there are no safe spots nearby.
Tassadar's Tips and Tricks
- Shock Ray can be used from bushes or vents so enemies do not see the channeling, and consequently do not dodge it.
- Shock Ray is a slow Ability, so we recommend using it to follow slows or aim it towards a target leaving Psionic Storm.
- If your team is retreating, remember that Psionic Storm can be used to dismount pursuing enemies.
- Resonance Beam is you main way to regen your mana. When it starts to run out, you can start only using Psionic Storm to clear the wave, while keeping Resonance Beam up.
- Archon can be used to peel yourself; 25% of your health as shields may save you in many situations.
Tassadar's Role in the Current Meta
Tassadar will be an excellent pick if your team composition needs more waveclear, and will be even better when paired with heroes that can setup enemies for his abilities.
Tassadar's early game is different based of his Level 1 Talent. With a quest, it is better to focus on stacking it while clearing waves, but Psi-Infusion allows you to have use all your potential to speed up the waveclear to get good advantage in the early game. It is very important as Tassadar to be in a safe position while using Shock Ray. He will run out of Mana very easily when using both Shock Ray and Psionic Storm. To play around this, you can either be constantly replenishing Resonance Beam or be rotating with someone else, so you will only need to use Psionic Storm to clear the minions.
Tassadar has an excellent poke damage. It is recommended to use your Abilities to reduce enemies' HP before committing to an important fight. Since Tassadar does not have any mechanics that favor chasing enemies, it is better to only use your Heroic Ability when you are sure that enemies will not be able to just walk away from it.
Changelog
- 30 Jun. 2021 (talents page): Updated Induction's description.
- 30 Jun. 2021 (this page): Builds updated to reflect meta development.
- 04 Jun. 2021 (this page): Guide reviewed after May 18 balance patch and no changes are necessary.
- 25 Jan. 2021 (talents page): Updated recommended Builds and Talents.
- 25 Nov. 2020 (talents page): Updated Talent recommendations.
- 25 Nov. 2020 (this page): Updated builds.
- 29 Oct. 2020 (talents page): Guide updated after last balance patch.
- 29 Oct. 2020 (abilities page): Updated Tassadar's Black Hole description.
- 03 Oct. 2020 (talents page): Executor's Will's relevance updated.
- 03 Oct. 2020 (this page): Updated the Shock Ray build.
- 14 Sep. 2020 (this page): Guide reviewed after recent balance patch and no changes are necessary.
- 16 Jul. 2020 (talents page): Guide updated after recent balance patch.
- 16 Jul. 2020 (this page): Guide updated after recent balance patch.
- 24 May 2020 (this page): Updated builds.
- 15 Apr. 2020 (talents page): Updated Tassadar's Guide accordingly to his Rework.
- 15 Apr. 2020 (abilities page): Updated Tassadar's Guide accordingly to his Rework.
- 15 Apr. 2020 (this page): Updated Tassadar's Guide accordingly to his Rework.
- 16 Dec. 2019 (this page): Added the current Anomaly (Experience Globes) to the guide.
- 29 Aug. 2019 (talents page): Updated Tassadar's Talent Builds and several of his Talent priorities in accordance with the latest Balance Update.
- 29 Aug. 2019 (abilities page): Updated Tassadar's ability descriptions.
- 29 Aug. 2019 (this page): Updated Tassadar's introduction to reflect the current meta more accurately.
- 19 Feb. 2019 (talents page): Updated Tassadar's talent builds.
- 19 Feb. 2019 (this page): Updated Tassadar's introduction.
- 30 Jan. 2018 (talents page): Changed Khaydarin Resonance from Recommended to Not Recommended.
- 29 Jan. 2018 (talents page): Updated Khala's Light description and updated Tassadar's Talent Builds.
- 03 Sep. 2017 (talents page): Changed Force Barrier from Not Recommended to Situational and updated several other talent descriptions.
- 07 Aug. 2017 (this page): Removed Tassadar's Full Support build.
- 06 Jul. 2017 (talents page): Updated Adun's Wisdom's description.
- 06 Jul. 2017 (abilities page): Updated Tassadar's Plasma Shield description.
- 09 Jun. 2017 (talents page): Changed Khala's Embrace from Not Recommended to Recommended and updated Talent Builds.
- 04 May 2017 (talents page): Updated several of Tassadar's talent descriptions.
- 28 Feb. 2017 (talents page): Updated Khaydarin Resonance in accordance with the latest Balance Update.
- 31 Jan. 2017 (talents page): Changed some Level 7 and Level 13 talent recommendations.
- 25 Jan. 2017 (this page): Guide moved to the new format and updated following the changes in Valeera's patch.
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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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