Thrall Abilities and Strategy
Welcome to our Abilities page for Thrall. Here, we give you an overview of every ability in Thrall's kit. For each of them, we explain what it does, how to best use it, and how it works in combination with Thrall's other abilities. We also give you strategy tips to play Thrall efficiently.
Thrall's Tips and Tricks
- Chain Lightning can be used to dismount enemy Heroes or to poke them, especially valuable while they are channeling an Objective.
- Feral Spirit can be cast on Minions to easily trigger the heal from Frostwolf Resilience.
- Windfury can be used as a gap-closer or as an escape mechanism, other than for burst damage. If you want to use it for damage rather than utility, be sure that Thrall does not have any Blind effect on him.
- Earthquake synergizes very well with other area of effect Abilities (such as Apocalypse by Diablo), but also acts as a powerful engage by denying the enemy team's retreat.
- Sundering is your only tool to interrupt channeled Heroic Abilities (for example Jug of 1,000 Cups by Li Li).
Chain Lightning
- Mana: 40
- Cooldown: 7 seconds
Shock an enemy with lightning, dealing 162 (+4% per level) damage. The lightning then bounces 3 times to nearby enemies, dealing 81 (+4% per level) damage to each enemy hit.
Chain Lightning allows you to deal damage from distance. If you play Thrall as an Offlaner, Chain Lightning can prove to be a formidable tool to poke the enemy Offlaner, basically winning the Health trade without committing. Sometimes it can even be used to dismount a mounted Hero that you want to engage in melee combat or to kill fleeing enemy Heroes who are low on Health.
Feral Spirit
- Mana: 40
- Cooldown: 12 seconds
Unleash a Feral Spirit that deals 153 (+4% per level) damage to enemies in its path and Roots Heroes hit for 1 second. Each Hero hit increases the distance traveled by 25%.
Thrall has low mobility to quickly engage enemies in close combat and therefore he counts on Feral Spirit to close the gap by Rooting them in place.
Keep in mind that Feral Spirit travels through enemies and damages all of them, which makes it an effective Ability to use on Minions in order to relieve lane pressure; furthermore, when it pierces an enemy Hero, its distance traveled will be increased by a small amount that could be enough to hit another Hero.
Windfury
- Mana: 60
- Cooldown: 12 seconds
Increase Thrall's Movement Speed by 30% for 4 seconds. His next 3 Basic Attacks occur 100% faster and generate stacks of Frostwolf Resilience.
Windfury is an important Basic Ability that provides a bit of burst damage and a decent amount of mobility, something that Thrall heavily lacks otherwise.
Windfury requires decent timing against certain opponents. In particular, do not use it while affected by Blind effects (for example Shield Glare by Johanna) or you will end up wasting it.
Sundering
In this section we discuss how this Heroic Ability works and give some tips on how to use it. If you are looking for a detailed explanation on when and why you should pick it, check out the dedicated section in the Talent Build page.
- Heroic
- Mana: 75
- Cooldown: 70 seconds
After 0.5 seconds, sunder the earth in a long line, dealing 290 (+4% per level) damage and shoving enemies to the side, Stunning them for 1 second.
Sundering is a versatile Heroic Ability that can be used offensively to engage with a good flank or even defensively to either peel or disengage; furthermore, it can be used to interrupt any powerful enemy channeled Heroic Ability (for example Mosh Pit by E.T.C.).
Being able to potentially Stun multiple enemy Heroes at the same time can provide your own team with a massive advantage during team fights, however, do not underestimate the knockback effect that has the potential to completely split the enemy team into two groups and do not hesitate to use it for a single Hero when needed.
As you can see from the image above, the line that separates which enemy Heroes will be pushed on one side or another is not in the middle, but at 1/3 of the affected area, starting from Thrall's right side. To easily remember on which side is located this invisible line, just check in which hand he is holding his weapon.
Earthquake
In this section we discuss how this Heroic Ability works and give some tips on how to use it. If you are looking for a detailed explanation on when and why you should pick it, check out the dedicated section in the Talent Build page.
- Heroic
- Mana: 90
- Cooldown: 100 seconds
After 0.5 seconds, summon a massive Earthquake that pulses every 4 seconds. Each pulse lasts 2 seconds, Slowing all enemies in the area by 50%, and deals 50 (+4% per level) damage to enemy Heroes. Does 3 pulses.
Earthquake is a powerful Heroic Ability that gives your team a huge advantage during team fights by drastically Slowing enemy Heroes that happen to be in the affected area while it pulses.
Frostwolf Resilience
- Cooldown: 15 seconds
Dealing damage with Abilities grants 1 stack of Frostwolf Resilience. At 5 stacks, Thrall is instantly healed for 223 (+4% per level) Health.
Frostwolf Resilience provides Thrall with a solid amount of sustain, a characteristic that is important to have on an Offlaner.
The mechanic behind this Trait is simple. Each time you deal damage by using one of your Abilities, you get 1 stack of Frostwolf Resilience. When you reach 5 stacks, you get healed for a fixed amount.
While not that easy to check during a team fight, the tracker in the bottom-right corner of the screen will help you keep track of the current number of stacks. Just remember that the healing happens when the circle gets completed. When that happens, the indicator will immediately start counting again from zero. The remaining part of the Ability that made that happen will not get wasted, but it will be immediately taken into account for the next cycle.
To maximize the value coming from Frostwolf Resilience, try to remember the number of stacks that you can receive by using a given Ability. Even if some Talents can alter those values by a little, take a look at them to better understand how many stacks you can potentially get with each Ability:
- Chain Lightning gives from 1 to 4 stacks;
- Feral Spirit gives 1 stack per each enemy hit, meaning that enemy Minions can potentially give you 7 stacks if still aligned;
- Windfury gives 1 stack per empowered Basic Attack, up to 3 total.
- Sundering gives 1 stack per each enemy hit;
- Earthquake gives 1 stack per each enemy Hero hit by a pulse, that are 3 in total.
Changelog
- 30 Mar. 2022: Guide reviewed for the latest Balance Update.
- 28 Sep. 2021: Guide reviewed for the latest Balance Update.
- 01 Dec. 2020: Guide reviewed for the latest Patch.
- 13 May 2020: Ability and Strategy fully revised to match new standards.
- Tips and Tricks modified to add important tips that were missing and to remove obvious ones that were not worth mentioning.
- Ability Descriptions modified to better explain how to use Abilities effectively.
- 02 Sep. 2019: Updated Thrall's abilities.
- 13 Jun. 2017: Updated descriptions to account for Thrall's rework in Malthael's patch.
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Elitesparkle is a multiple times Master player in Europe who plays Heroes of the Storm since its release. He is an active member of the community who likes to teach new and veteran players all he knows about his favorite game.
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