Yrel Talents
Welcome to our Talents page for Yrel. Here, we give you an overview of how strong each of Yrel's talents is. Then, we present several viable builds, before analyzing each talent row separately, so that you can make informed decisions.
Yrel's Talent Build
Level | Choices |
---|---|
1 | ? ✓ ✘︎ |
4 | ? ✘︎ ✓ |
7 | ? ? ✓ |
10 | ✓ ? |
13 | ? ? ✓ |
16 | ✓ ✘︎ ✘︎ |
20 | ? ? ✘︎ ✓ |
Yrel's Talent Build Cheatsheet
Bruiser Build
RecommendedThe Bruiser Build is designed to make Yrel a formidable solo laner and—as the name suggests—a Bruiser. Both Dauntless and Light of Karabor will greatly increase Yrel's survivability, making sure that you have enough resistance to outlast most other Heroes in lane or at least trade evenly.
Every Talent at Level 7 is excellent in its niche.
- Divine Steed excels in double soak situations by speeding up your rotation. It is also good for Yrel to reposition herself in a team fight, so she can either play aggresively or defensively.
- Righteous Momentum will very often be the best Talent in team fights, because it not only helps Yrel to peel her allies, but it also improves her flanks with Righteous Hammer.
- Holy Avenger can greatly increase your damage against certain compositions. However, it may have no value if enemies can easily cancel Avenging Wrath.
Seraphim at Level 20 removes one of Yrel's core weaknesses and makes her much less susceptible to enemy crowd control by giving her a short time window during which she becomes Unstoppable. Be aware that you can activate Seraphim during the channeling of an ability, denying a premeditated interrupt.
Level 1 Talents for Yrel
Increase Vindication's radius by 15%. Hitting an enemy Hero increases Vindication's healing by 45%. If more than one Hero is hit, the bonus is increased to 90%.
Casting a Basic Ability grants Yrel 35 Physical Armor for 2.5 seconds.
After damaging an enemy Hero with a Basic Ability, Yrel's next Basic Attack heals her for 140 (+4% per level).
Discussion
Light of Karabor will greatly increase Yrel's Healing, while also increasing the poke range of Vindication. It has a great synergy with Aldor Peacekeeper at Level 13. This Talent will be a good choice if you do not need Dauntless's armor.
Dauntless is the standard choice for level 1. It will greatly reduce damage dealt by all enemy Heroes in the game. Your Abilities should be used with around 3 seconds between each others, so Dauntless will have a 100% uptime.
Maraad's Insight's healing is not as significant as Dauntless. Even though it gives Yrel slightly more self sustain, it is not necessary. Dauntless will be a better choice, as the damage mitigation it provides is excellent.
Level 4 Talents for Yrel
Upon landing, Avenging Wrath grants other nearby allied Heroes 30 Armor for 4 seconds.
Divine Purpose heals the lowest Health nearby allied Hero other than Yrel for 275 (+4% per level).
- Cooldown: 30 seconds
Grant an allied Hero 30% Movement Speed for 3 seconds and remove all Slows and Roots from them.
Discussion
Aegis of Light is a good talent if your team has a dive composition, since you will be diving with them, providing more resistance to all your team.
Gift of the Naaru is not a good choice. The healing provided by it is mostly minimum and it cannot compare to the usefulness and versatility of Hand of Freedom.
Hand of Freedom's effect is strong against enemy Slows and Roots. But even if no ally is currently affected by these debuffs, the mere Movement Speed is great to empower Yrel, since the Movement Speed can be enough for you to land an Avenging Wrath or to reach enemy targets.
Level 7 Talents for Yrel
Gain 5% Movement Speed. Yrel is no longer Slowed while Channeling Righteous Hammer, and instead this bonus is quadrupled.
Hitting an enemy Hero with Avenging Wrath at maximum charge deals 25% more damage and reduces its cooldown to 1 second.
Mounting is instant and grants 60% Movement Speed that decays over 3 seconds.
Discussion
Righteous Momentum permanently increases Yrel's Movement Speed which is always useful. Furthermore, it allows Yrel to land Righteous Hammer more reliably, which definitely helps her combat performance. It is specially useful to peel for your teammates, especially the most vulnerable ones. Furthermore, it is important to note that getting this Talent gives Yrel more options in team fights. With it she does not need to constantly use Divine Purpose with Righteous Hammer, enabling a more versatile playstyle.
Holy Avenger will greatly increase Yrel's performance, damage and mobility in fights and solo lane. However, this Talent will not be good against team compositions with many interrupts for Avenging Wrath, like Lúcio or E.T.C. have.
Divine Steed causes Yrel to rotate very swiftly. Without a channel time and with the initial Movement Speed boost on her Mount, Yrel can get out of many dangerous situations. It can also be used during fights to give you a small speed boost, so you reach your target faster.
Level 10 Talents for Yrel
- Mana: 80
- Cooldown: 120 seconds
Surround Yrel in a barrier for 3 seconds, absorbing all damage taken and healing her for 50% of the damage received.
- Mana: 40
- Cooldown: 40 seconds
Yrel sanctifies the ground around her, gaining 50 Armor until she leaves the area.
Discussion
In this section we discuss when and why to pick a given Heroic Ability. If you want to read how they work in detail and/or you are looking for some tips on how to use them, check them out on the Abilities and Strategy page.
Ardent Defender is the ultimate defensive ability available for Yrel. It makes her Invulnerable, however, unlike Uther's Divine Shield, Yrel remains targetable for the enemy team. The more damage she absorbs while Ardent Defender is active, the more healing she receives. Use this ability to shut down hard-hitting abilities, such as Jaina's Ring of Frost or Kael'thas's Pyroblast and strike back with replenished health. It is absolutely worth mentioning that Ardent Defender should usually be used while Yrel is still at 50% of her health or higher, in order to guarantee her participation during a team fight once the ability has expired. If used while Yrel is on the brink of death, it will usually result in her retreating anyway.
Sacred Ground has a relatively low cooldown when compared to Ardent Defender, so it can be used to reset Divine Purpose's cooldown, to frequently jump behind squishy targets to stun them towards your team with an empowered Righteous Hammer. Unfortunately, its armor does not stack with Dauntless, not being as useful as it could be. For these reasons, we only recommend Sacred Ground in point control maps, when Yrel's against low mobility heroes.
Level 13 Talents for Yrel
Enemy Heroes hit by Vindication at maximum charge deal 40% less damage for 3 seconds.
Increase Avenging Wrath's Slow by 25% and duration by 0.75 seconds.
Hitting an enemy Hero with a Basic Ability at maximum charge grants 10% Spell Power for 10 seconds, up to 30%.
Discussion
Aldor Peacekeeper provides relatively consistent damage mitigation on enemy Heroes. When you do not pick Holy Avenger, Aldor Peacekeeper should be the choice in this tier, since Velen's Chosen will not increase damage as much as it would with Holy Avenger.
Repentance greatly enhances Yrel's slow. It is a good choice if your team has many skillshots, as it will be easier to hit them. However, it should only be picked together with Holy Avenger.
Velen's Chosen will greatly increase Yrel's damage output when picked together with Holy Avenger, it is the default talent at this tier.
Level 16 Talents for Yrel
Righteous Hammer reduces the Armor of enemy Heroes hit by 20 for 4 seconds and deals bonus damage equal to 7% of their maximum Health.
Casting a Basic Ability reduces the cooldown of Divine Purpose by 2.5 seconds.
After casting a Basic Ability, Yrel's next Basic Attack splashes for 35% increased damage around the target.
Discussion
Templar's Verdict is one of the best Talents in the game, it reduces the armor of many targets by 20 for 4 seconds in a 6-second Cooldown. The percentage damage is also very impactful, allowing your team to easily kill a target after you push it towards them. Remember that Righteous Hammer does not need to be charged to get value out of this Talent, making it even more powerful.
Divine Favor is not really needed, since the innate cooldown on Divine Purpose feels low enough already.
Holy Wrath's damage bonus is good. It allows Yrel to consistently (as long as she uses Basic Abilities) deal with Minion Waves but also nearby enemy Heroes. Since the bonus damage also applies to Structures, it makes her a pretty formidable Hero during pushes or while defending against one. However, Templar's Verdict is mostly too strong to be passed on. Holy Wrath still can be picked, but be aware that the counterpart is much more versatile and useful in fights.
Level 20 Talents for Yrel
Increase the amount that Yrel heals from damage received from 50% to 75%. Ardent Defender heals nearby allied Heroes for 100% of the healing received by Yrel.
Casting Avenging Wrath while inside Sacred Ground moves Sacred Ground to Yrel's location upon landing.
- Cooldown: 80 seconds
After 1 second, Yrel becomes Invulnerable and casts Hearthstone. Cannot be canceled.
- Cooldown: 10 seconds
Activate to become Unstoppable for 2 seconds.
Discussion
Word of Glory can be good against much AoE damage, since you could easily protect your team with it. However, since Yrel gets easily punished by crowd control, it is recommended to go for Seraphim every game.
Hallowed Ground is a good option at 20. However, be aware that Seraphim will be the better choice if you got Holy Avenger at level 7, since the unstoppable is necessary to be able to properly get value from that Talent.
Bubble Hearth is a fun talent. Unfortunately, it offers very little value in most situations. Yrel needs to channel it for a short period of time and any Stun or Silence she receives during that channel will cause Bubble Hearth to get interrupted.
Seraphim basically nullifies all Yrel's counters. It can be used while channeling an Ability, making her unstoppable for 2 seconds. It should be the pick in all games. It also nullifies slows, roots, and blinds on her.
Changelog
- 11 Dec. 2022: Updated Level 7 Talents recommendations and discussions.
- 09 Feb. 2022: Updated Builds and Talents after recent balance patch.
- 26 Mar. 2021: Updated Talent recommendations.
- 25 Jan. 2021: Updated Righteous Momentum's description and relevancy.
- 30 Jul. 2020: Updated Builds and Talents to reflect Level 1 Talent changes.
- 13 Apr. 2020: Updated Builds and Talent to better reflect current meta.
- 12 Jul. 2019: Revised and overhauled Yrel's Talents and Builds in accordance with the latest Balance Update.
- 28 Jun. 2018: Completely overhauled Yrel's talents section in accordance with the latest Balance Update.
- 15 Jun. 2018: Changed Maraad's Insight from Not Recommended to Recommended.
More Bruiser Guides
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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