Tyrael Abilities and Strategy

• Use your abilities wisely while laning. If you are not careful, Tyrael will run out of Mana very quickly.
• Since Tyrael is not as durable as some of the other Tanks, make sure to use his outstanding mobility to mitigate damage by dodging abilities.
• El'druin's Might can be used to juke opponents while Tyrael is on the retreat.
• If you play with Sanctification, save it for the enemy team's most dangerious abilities and track their Cooldowns accordingly. It can also be used when diving with your full-health allies, since it will make them immune to any crowd control, reducing the peeling options from enemy team.
• Tyrael's Holy Ground can steal Mercenary and Boss Camps if its projectile is aimed at the very center of the capture platform.

El'druin's Might is a gap-closer which allows Tyrael to cover great distances by directly teleporting to his sword. One of the greatest advantages of this ability is the fact that you will not be impaired by obstacles, such as walls or trees. El'druin's Might can be used offensively to slow down fleeing enemies and catch up to them by quickly using Angelic Flash. By the same token, Tyrael can rely on El'druin's Might in order to get out of dangerous situations by throwing his sword in the direction he wants to escape and using Angelic Flash immediately after. One thing to keep in mind, however, is the 6-second time frame that comes with El'druin's Might. If you fail to use Angelic Flash within that period of time, Tyrael will lose the ability to teleport, which is why you always want to make sure to avoid getting disabled by any form of crowd control before that window closes.

It is good to use Eldruin's Might in a direction and run the opposite way, so that enemies have to choose between going towards you or waiting at the sword. If there are more enemies on you than around the sword, it is better to blink towards it, to then use Smite on yourself to run away to safety.

Righteousness is a very straightforward protective ability that does not require a lot of expertise. Most of the time, you should wait until there is at least one or more allied Heroes near Tyrael before casting Righteousness, in order to maximise its efficiency. During the early stages of the game, especially while laning or clearing Mercenary Camps, you can make an exception to this rule. You should not cast Righteousness on yourself when alone, since it spends much mana and will not be worth it. Always try to use it to peel your team, or around a wave to protect it. Pokes on Tyrael can be healed through globes or passive regeneration.

Smite is your weapon of choice when it comes to clearing enemy Minion waves and damaging enemy Heroes. It can be used both offensively, by damaging enemies and providing a Movement Speed boost to chasing allies, and defensively, by making fleeing allies run faster. Smite is a great ability to damage your opponents in lane and — unlike El'druin's Might, which should usually not be used to just harass your enemy — bully them out of range of your Minions, which can prevent them from soaking experience. Still, we would like to remind you that using Smite too frequently can cause Tyrael to suffer from a serious Mana deficit, especially during the early laning phases of the game. To prevent this from happening, you should use Smite, as well as Tyrael's other Basic Abilities, very reasonably and avoid spamming them at all cost.

Judgment is Tyrael's infamous gap-closing Heroic ability, which will allow you to hit and stun your selected enemy target with great force. Judgment does have a short activation timer of roughly 0.5 seconds, which means that targeting an enemy from maximum casting range may actually cancel Judgment's casting animation if your target runs out of range while the animation is still building up. Another thing to keep in mind is the fact that enemies who possess an innate teleport escaping mechanism, such as Zeratul's Blink ability or the Bolt of the Storm talent, can deliberately use these tools to dodge the impact of Judgment. Thus, it is of utmost importance to choose your target carefully, as a misplaced Judgment may sometimes ruin your follow up strategy. To help you choose the right target, especially high priority targets like Healers and Assassin, it is recommended to keep an eye out for enemy Heroes who have just used their escape Abilities, or do not possess any of those in the first place.

Sanctification is the ultimate defensive ability. Being capable of single-handedly deciding the outcome of a team fight, it is crucial to know how to use it correctly when playing as Tyrael. We generally recommend using Sactification if:

• the enemy team features multiple strong crowd control abilities, such as Mighty Gust or Sundering or;
• one or several of your teammates, mostly Melee Assassin and Bruisers like Illidan or Sonya require special protection in order to unleash their full potential.

Similar to Leoric's Undying trait, Archangel's Wrath allows you to command Tyrael for a short moment after he died. During that period of time, you will not be able to use any of Tyrael's abilities, but you can still move him towards a target location. The 4 seconds of invulnerability and 3 seconds after the explosion will greatly reduce the enemy team's Damage over the duration. To get the most out of the damage reduction, Tyrael should try to be over a priority Assassin that cannot dash outside of Archangel's Wrath's area, such as Raynor, Gul'dan, or Cassia. However, if you can, it is better to use it to execute a dying target.