Varian Talents
Welcome to our Talents page for Varian. Here, we give you an overview of how strong each of Varian's talents is. Then, we present several viable builds, before analyzing each talent row separately, so that you can make informed decisions.
Varian's Talent Build
Level | Choices |
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1 |
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4 |
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7 |
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10 |
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13 |
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16 |
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20 |
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Varian's Talent Build Cheatsheet
Taunt Build
RecommendedTaunt Build turns Varian into a Tank who is capable of engaging and/or peeling for his team, but do not underestimate his damage. We highly recommend this Build when your team needs a Tank, but it can also be played as Solo Laner.
Colossus Smash Build
SituationalColossus Smash Build turns Varian into a highly explosive
Melee Assassin, who excels at
bursting down enemy priority targets using
Colossus Smash to engage and
exploit the Armor reduction effect to increase not only his
own damage, but also the damage of the rest of his team. We recommend this Build
when your team does not need a Tank or a
Solo Laner.
Twin Blades Build
SituationalTwin Blades Build turns Varian into a Bruiser
thanks to the additional damage that
Twin Blades of Fury provides. We think that this Build is
only viable when playing as Solo Laner, and not when
your team needs a Tank or a second
Assassin.
Level 1 Talents for Varian


Quest: Every time Lion's Fang hits a Hero, increase its damage by 6, up to 150.
Reward: After hitting 25 Heroes, the Slow is increased to 50% and its duration is increased to 2 seconds.
Lion's Maw is a Quest that provides a better
Slow and additional damage to
Lion's Fang upon being completed.
Pick this Talent when you want a better Slow in your kit.


When Parry blocks a Hero's Basic Attack, Heroic Strike's cooldown is refreshed and the next one does 40% more damage.
Overpower adds burst damage.
When playing against Heroes with high Attack Speed, you will get
double the value from it because the trigger will happen twice per activation,
if you can manage to Basic Attack an enemy Hero twice during
Parry.
While it is hard but possible for the enemies to suddenly stop using
Basic Attacks on Varian to avoid triggering this Talent,
it is worth mentioning that Taunt will negate any
counter-play besides crowd control that can stop you from casting Abilities.


Quest: Hit 50 Heroes with Basic Attacks.
Quest: Participate in 5 Hero Takedowns.
Quest: Gather 15 Regeneration Globes.
Reward: Completing a Quest grants 10 Base Attack Damage. Completing all 3 Quests grants an additional 30 Base Attack Damage.
High King's Quest is a group of Quests that increase
Varian's Basic Attack damage, something that is crucial when going
for
Twin Blades of Fury and works well when choosing
Colossus Smash too.
Level 4 Talents for Varian


- Mana: 20
- Cooldown: 16 seconds
Silence a target Hero and force them to attack Varian for 1.25 seconds.
Passive: Maximum Health and Health Regeneration increased by 40%.
Taunt turns Varian into a Tank
who is capable of engaging and/or peeling for his
team, while increasing his maximum Health at the same time. Choose this Heroic Ability when your
team needs a Tank, but it can also be played as Solo Laner.


- Mana: 40
- Cooldown: 20 seconds
Smash a target enemy, dealing 160 (+4% per level) damage and lowering their Armor by 20 for 3 seconds, causing them to take 20% increased damage.
Passive: Base Attack Damage increased by 100%.
Passive: Maximum Health and Health Regeneration reduced by 10%.
Colossus Smash turns Varian into a highly explosive
Melee Assassin, but it reduces his maximum Health.
Choose this Heroic Ability when a second Assassin is needed.


Basic Attacks reduce Heroic Strike's cooldown by 9 seconds, and increase Varian's Movement Speed by 30% for 2 seconds.
Passive: Attack Speed increased by 100%.
Passive: Base Attack Damage reduced by 25%.
Twin Blades of Fury turns Varian into a Bruiser.
Choose this Heroic Ability when a Solo Laner is needed.
Level 7 Talents for Varian


Increase Lion's Fang's healing from Heroes by 75%.
Lionheart is a decent Talent
which enhances Varian's self-healing if
Lion's Fang hits enemy Heroes.
It works better against team compositions that feature
multiple melee and/or low-mobility Heroes, since they are usually easier to hit.


Basic Attacks heal Varian for 1% of his maximum Health. While below 50% Health, they also heal him for 50% of the damage dealt.
Second Wind is a good Talent that
unconditionally increases Varian's self-healing, especially
if there are no Blinds or crowd control
to prevent him from landing Basic Attacks.
Due to the fact that Second Wind
scales with Varian's maximum Health too, and not only his
Attack Damage, it becomes quite strong if paired with Taunt.


Every 30 seconds, Varian's next Basic Attack will heal him for 350 (+4% per level) Health. When a nearby enemy Minion or Monster dies, the cooldown is reduced by 10 seconds.
Victory Rush is a strong Talent that gives a burst of healing,
however, it can be wasted if you are almost full and it overheals a lot. Considering that
it triggers more often if you have enemy Minions or Monsters nearby,
it should be your default choice on Maps where team fights happen near them
(such as Braxis Holdout, Dragon Shire, or
Infernal Shrines).
Level 10 Talents for Varian


Parry grants Protected, preventing all incoming damage while active. Additionally, Parry's cooldown is reduced by 5 seconds, but it loses 1 charge.
Shield Wall is a good Talent that can make you Invulnerable,
but this advantage comes at the cost of a Charge of
Overpower.
As a consequence, this Talent is not that good against Heroes who rely on Basic Attacks.
Pick this Talent when playing against burst damage and you
are scared of dying from it.


Reduce Charge's cooldown by 8 seconds and Mana cost from 45 to 22. Additionally, Charge can be cast on allied Heroes.
Warbringer is a strong Talent that lowers the cooldown on
Charge by 8 seconds, a nice boost to both his
chasing and peeling capabilities.
In addition to that, you will also be able to use
Charge on allied Heroes
as a form of escape or just to reposition yourself during team fights.
The cooldown reduction provided by this Talent has good synergy
with Juggernaut at Level 13.
Level 13 Talents for Varian


Charge deals bonus damage to Heroes equal to 4% of their maximum Health.
Juggernaut is a good choice when your team wants to
focus the enemy front line first and/or if the enemy team has several Heroes
with high maximum Health (such as Stitches, Chen,
and Azmodan). In case of prolonged team fights, this Talent
has good synergy with
Warbringer at Level 10.


Heroes hit by Heroic Strike receive 40% reduced healing for 4 seconds.
Mortal Strike is a strong choice most of the time
because every well-drafted team has a Healer; furthermore,
there are even some Heroes with self-healing capabilities (such as Arthas).
If you decided to go for the Taunt Build featuring Taunt
at Level 4 and
Overpower at Level 1, you can guarantee an
application of Mortal Strike after successfully Taunting an
enemy Hero and parrying the following Basic Attack even if
Heroic Strike is on cooldown when you
engage.


- Cooldown: 30 seconds
Activate to throw a sword at a target Hero that deals 50 (+4% per level) damage, and up to 1400 (+4% per level) bonus damage to their Shields.
Passive: Basic Attacks against Heroes deal up to 200% bonus Physical Damage to Shields.
Shattering Throw is a very powerful but situational
Talent that can be used to hard counter Shields (for example it can be used to
completely deny
Sound Barrier by LĂșcio on the
target that you and your team intend to focus).
Level 16 Talents for Varian


- Cooldown: 25 seconds
Activate to place a Banner that grants 25% increased Movement Speed to nearby allied Heroes. Lasts 12 seconds.
Banner of Stormwind is the least useful Talent in this
Tier because it only provides Movement Speed, a status effect
that does not really compete with the other options.


- Cooldown: 45 seconds
Activate to place a Banner that grants 20 Armor to nearby allied Heroes, reducing damage taken by 20%. Lasts 12 seconds.
Banner of Ironforge is a situational Talent that
provides Armor to Varian and nearby allied Heroes. Due to
its long cooldown compared to the alternatives, only pick it when the enemy team
is capable to one-shot an allied Hero with huge burst damage
and your team composition does not have the tools to handle that.


- Cooldown: 25 seconds
Activate to place a Banner that grants 20% increased Spell Power to nearby allied Heroes. Lasts 12 seconds.
Banner of Dalaran is always a strong Talent because
it increases damage and healing of everyone in your team, and it also has a
short cooldown, a characteristic that allows you to use it with more freedom.
Level 20 Talents for Varian


Being hit by a Hero Basic Attack reduces the cooldown of Taunt by 1 second.
Vigilance is a situational Talent that works
only when facing Heroes with high Attack Speed (such as Tychus)
because it allows you to use cast your Heroic Ability twice in quick succession
and snowball the team fight from there.


Colossus Smash affects all enemies near the target, and its cooldown is reduced by 10 seconds.
Master at Arms is a decent Talent to boost the
area of effect burst damage of your team. The cooldown
reduction is good when you want to pick isolated targets with the help of
your team, but it is not the reason why you pick this Talent because a late game
team fight where your team focuses on burst damage will not last that much anyways.


Twin Blades of Fury increases Heroic Strike damage by an additional 25%, and Basic Attacks increase his Movement Speed by an additional 10%.
Frenzy is a decent Talent to increase your own
damage, and it also increases your Movement Speed by a small amount.


Banner now also increases health regeneration and all healing received for nearby allied Heroes by 50%, and the cooldown is reduced by 50%.
Glory to the Alliance is a strong Talent because it
provides both increased healing to the whole team and cooldown reduction on any
Level 16 Talent. If paired with
Banner of Dalaran that has only
25 seconds of cooldown, you can basically spam it every 12 seconds, even if
just for checking a bush after another because a trap by the enemy team in the
late game can have a devastating outcome.


- Cooldown: 20 seconds
Activate to demoralize nearby enemy Heroes, reducing damage they deal by 40% for 5 seconds.
Demoralizing Shout is a situational Talent to use
as counter against team compositions that focus a lot on
burst damage. Being able to debuff
several Heroes at the same time allows Varian to protect not only himself
but also nearby allied Heroes who might be in danger. Do not hesitate to use
Demoralizing Shout on a single Hero when needed.
Changelog
- 25 Feb. 2021: New layout.
- 21 Feb. 2021: Updated Talent discussions and builds.
- 15 Feb. 2021: Builds updated.
- 05 Nov. 2020: Guide updated for the latest Balance Update.
- 03 Apr. 2020: 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.
- 19 Dec. 2019: Updated Frenzy's description in accordance with the latest Balance Update.
- 16 Oct. 2019: Updated Varian's Talents and Builds in accordance with the latest Balance Update.
- 09 Sep. 2019: Updated Varian's Talents and Talent Builds.
- 18 Apr. 2019: Updated Varian's early Talents and Talent Builds in accordance with the latest Balance Update.
- 13 Oct. 2018: Updated Talent Builds and changed Frenzy from Not Recommended to Situational.
- 06 Apr. 2018: Changed Second Wind from Situational to Recommended.
- 04 Apr. 2018: Changed Warbringer from Situational to Recommended.
- 28 Mar. 2018: Completely overhauled Varian's Builds and Talents in accordance with his recent Rework.
- 11 Jul. 2017: Changed High King's Quest from Situational to Recommended.
- 03 Jul. 2017: Updated Varian's Level 1 Talents.
- 16 May 2017: Updated Warbringer's description.
- 11 Mar. 2017: Updated Varian's talent section to fit the current meta.
- 28 Feb. 2017: Updated Warbringer in accordance with the latest Balance Update.
- 18 Feb. 2017: Re-arranged Varian's Level 13 and 16 talent tiers in accordance with the Lucio Update.
- 04 Feb. 2017: Updated Level 7 talent discussions and assessments.
- 20 Dec. 2016: Updated text for some talent discussions, but assessments remain the same.
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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 — especially on Reddit — who likes to teach new and veteran players all he knows about his favorite game.
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