Thrall Build Guide “The Elements will destroy you!”
Welcome to our guide for Thrall, 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.
Thrall's Overview
Thrall is a durable Bruiser with extraordinary burst damage potential in close combat and a kit that provides his team powerful crowd control Abilities.
Thrall's Strengths and Weaknesses
- Strong self-sustain due to Frostwolf Resilience
- Solid crowd control
- Huge impact in team fights thanks to his Heroic Abilities
Thrall's Talent Build Cheatsheet
Chain Lightning Build
RecommendedThrall's Chain Lightning Build allows him to safely deal poke damage to enemy Heroes before the real team fight starts and then engage when they are not full Health.
Thunderstorm at Level 16 greatly empowers this kind of playstyle because it makes Chain Lightning deal more damage every time you switch target. Mana Tide at Level 4 lets you do that more often.
Choose this Build when the enemy team suffers against poke damage because they do not have a good Healer for that or they completely lack one.
Feral Spirit Build
AdvancedThrall's Feral Spirit Build allows him to take down melee Heroes more easily with the help of percent-based damage in the late game.
Alpha Wolf at Level 16 allows you to deal more damage on enemy Heroes that have high maximum Health (for example Azmodan). Frostwolf Pack at Level 4, once you complete its Quest, will let you do that more often. Alternatively, you can pick Feral Resilience at Level 4 to increase your survivability against Heroes with slow but heavy-hitting Basic Attacks.
Choose this Build when you want to burst down the enemy frontline, when the enemy team has more than 2 Heroes with high maximum Health, or to duel better on some Maps (notably Braxis Holdout).
ARAM Build
ARAMThrall's ARAM Build allows him to safely deal poke damage to enemy Heroes before the real team fight starts and then engage when they are not full Health.
Thunderstorm at Level 16 greatly empowers this kind of playstyle because it makes Chain Lightning deal more damage every time you switch target. Mana Tide at Level 4 lets you do that more often.
Thrall's Synergies and Counters
Thrall's Earthquake synergizes really well with other strong area of effect Abilities who benefit from the Slow to connect on enemy Heroes (such as Ring of Frost by Jaina), to deal bonus damage to them (for example Purification Salvo by Fenix), or to stop their retreat and engage them with powerful buffs for your team (for example Bloodlust by Rehgar).
Thrall suffers against Heroes who can kite (such as Lunara) as a consequence of him lacking mobility, even if he can overcome it by using his Heroic Abilities to engage. Well-timed Blind effects (like Blinding Wind by Li Li) will annoy him for sure, so try to play around them by holding your Windfury when they are debuffing you. Like most Heroes, he also suffers against crowd control followed by burst damage (for example Kael'thas).
Thrall's Maps
Thanks to his strong self-sustain, Thrall excels when played as Offlaner on Maps where this Role has more value than usual (for example Braxis Holdout); however, he can also be played in the 4-man using the Crash Lightning Build on Maps where team fights tend to last longer than usual (such as Volskaya Foundry). Due to his low waveclear, he is average on Maps where it is common to double soak (like Towers of Doom) but can compensate for it thanks to his team fight power and he suffers on Maps where he cannot benefit from his team fight power to compensate for that weakness (only Tomb of the Spider Queen).
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).
Thrall's Role in the Current Meta
Bruisers like Thrall are capable of initiating team fights, which makes them a powerful Hero in many games.
Even if some players like to play him as Offlaner, the best way to play Thrall in the current metagame is not that, but as second Assassin in the 4-man group.
While melee Heroes are in a risky position during team fights, fortunately for Thrall, he can become quite durable as the game goes thanks to strong defensive Talents (such as Ancestral Wrath at Level 7 and Frostwolf's Grace at Level 13). If you position properly and do not go too far from your backline, your Healer will help you survive for longer as well.
Changelog
- 17 Oct. 2024 (talents page): Guide reviewed for the latest Balance Update.
- 17 Oct. 2024 (abilities page): Guide reviewed for the latest Balance Update.
- 17 Oct. 2024 (this page): Guide reviewed for the latest Balance Update.
- 30 Mar. 2022 (talents page): Guide reviewed for the latest Balance Update.
- 30 Mar. 2022 (abilities page): Guide reviewed for the latest Balance Update.
- 30 Mar. 2022 (this page): Guide reviewed for the latest Balance Update.
- 12 Mar. 2022 (talents page): ARAM Build added.
- 12 Mar. 2022 (this page): ARAM Build added.
- 28 Sep. 2021 (talents page): Guide reviewed for the latest Balance Update.
- 28 Sep. 2021 (abilities page): Guide reviewed for the latest Balance Update.
- 28 Sep. 2021 (this page): Guide reviewed for the latest Balance Update.
- 06 Jul. 2021 (talents page): Builds updated.
- 06 Jul. 2021 (this page): Builds updated.
- 25 Feb. 2021 (talents page): New layout.
- 01 Dec. 2020 (talents page): Guide reviewed for the latest Patch.
- 01 Dec. 2020 (abilities page): Guide reviewed for the latest Patch.
- 01 Dec. 2020 (this page): Guide reviewed for the latest Patch.
- 05 Oct. 2020 (talents page): Builds updated.
- 05 Oct. 2020 (this page): Builds updated.
- 25 Jun. 2020 (talents page): Talent Build updated to reflect the current metagame.
- 25 Jun. 2020 (this page): Introduction updated to reflect the current metagame.
- 13 May 2020 (talents page): Talent Build fully revised to match new standards.
- Talent Build and Talent Build Cheatsheet modified to reflect the current metagame.
- Talent Descriptions modified to better describe when to pick them.
- 13 May 2020 (abilities page): 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.
- 13 May 2020 (this page): Introduction fully revised to match new standards.
- Overview rewritten to better describe the Hero.
- Strengths and Weaknesses modified to give a better idea about the Hero when being played right.
- Talent Build Cheatsheet updated to reflect the current metagame.
- Synergies and Counters modified to mention notable Heroes that were missing and to remove misleading Heroes that were listed.
- Maps modified to focus on the main aspects of the Hero when evaluating a Map.
- Tips and Tricks modified to list important tips that were missing before and to delete more obvious ones.
- Role in the Current Meta modified to reflect the current metagame and to remove the unnecessary part about the now fixed Experience Globes.
- 04 Apr. 2020 (talents page): Talent Build partially revised to match new standards.
- Talent Build and Talent Build Cheatsheet modified to reflect the current metagame.
- 04 Apr. 2020 (this page): Introduction partially revised to match new standards.
- Talent Build Cheatsheet updated to reflect the current metagame.
- Role in the Current Meta modified to remove the unnecessary part about the now fixed Experience Globes.
- 23 Jan. 2020 (talents page): Updated Thrall's Solo Lane Build. Rolling Thunder is now Recommended.
- 19 Dec. 2019 (talents page): Updated Rolling Thunder's decription and labelled it Situational for the time being until further play testing has been done.
- 16 Dec. 2019 (this page): Added the current Anomaly (Experience Globes) to the guide.
- 02 Sep. 2019 (talents page): Updated Thrall's Talent Builds and general Talents section to more precisely reflect the current state of the game.
- 02 Sep. 2019 (abilities page): Updated Thrall's abilities.
- 02 Sep. 2019 (this page): Updated Thrall's introduction page.
- 10 May 2018 (talents page): Changed Rolling Thunder from Not Recommended to Recommended and created the Rolling Thunder Build.
- 08 May 2018 (talents page): Changed Crash Lightning from Recommended to Situational.
- 02 Mar. 2018 (talents page): Greatly updated Thrall's Talent Builds and their descriptions. Re-evaluated several talents in accordance with the new Crash Lightning Build.
- 02 Mar. 2018 (this page): Adjusted Thrall's introduction according to the recent guide update.
- 24 Oct. 2017 (this page): Updated Volskaya Foundry ranking and Feral Spirit build.
- 18 Jun. 2017 (talents page): Changed and updated Worldbreaker's description.
- 13 Jun. 2017 (talents page): Complete revamp of the page, following Thrall's rework in Malthael's patch.
- 13 Jun. 2017 (abilities page): Updated descriptions to account for Thrall's rework in Malthael's patch.
- 12 May 2017 (talents page): Updated Stonewolves' and Tempest Fury's talent descriptions.
- 22 Dec. 2016 (this page): Moved Thrall guide to the new format.
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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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