Heroes of the Storm Tychus Talents Guide

Heroes of the Storm Tychus Talents Guide by Rean

The point of this guide is to analyze every single talent in Tychus tree.

TL:DR Version
Tanky build: http://www.heroesfire.com/hots/talent-calculator?hero=8#oPgu
Pure damage build: http://www.heroesfire.com/hots/talent-calculator?hero=8#oPgk

So lets start with Tier 1:

Tier 1:

• Path of the Warrior
  Your Hero gains an extra 25 Health for every level gained.

625 health at level 25 is nothing. Its just 2-3 attacks. Quite useless talent.

• Regeneration Master
  Gather 3 Regeneration Globes to permanently grant you +3 health per second. Stacks.

Regen is useless in general, besides Tychus has lifesteal to heal himself (more about that later)

• Armor Piercing Rounds (Q)
  Overkill’s damage to the primary target is increased by 20%.

Overkill does A LOT of damage, so 20% increase is noticable. Best talent in this tier.

• Dash (E)
  Increases the range of Run and Gun by 25%.

Run and Gun dash range is pretty short as is, so 25% does almost nothing.

Conclusion for tier 1:
Armor Piercing Rounds is your best option.

Tier 2:

• Focused Attack
  Every 5 seconds, your next Basic Attack deals 30% additional damage.

Why its even in Tychus tree is beyond me. Tychus attacks 9000 times per second with a very low basic attack damage, so 30% does literally nothing. Just forget this talent exists.

• Vampiric Assault
  Basic Attacks heal you for 15% of your auto attack damage.

Very good talent for Tychus. Lets him regen health fast, and since he doesnt have mana problems, it means that you’ll never have to go to base.

• Melting Point (W)
  Frag Grenade deals 120 damage over 10 seconds to minions and buildings hit by the blast.

Very little damage buff, not really worth it.

Conclusion for tier 2:
Vampiric assault will solve all your hp problems in game. Best talent in this tier.

Tier 3:

• Rapid Fire (Trait)
  After attacking for 3 seconds, Tychus gains 50% increased Attack Speed.

Even more attack speed. 50% increase is a lot, its passive. Whats more to say, great talent that boosts Tychus damage output significantly.

• Quarterback (W)
  Increases the range of Frag Grenade by 50%.

Nice, but Rapid Fire gives you more benefits.

• First Aid
  Activate to heal 7.9% of your max Health over 4 seconds.

8% is really low, besides you have lifesteal to heal yourself.

• Searing Attacks
  Activate to increase Basic Attack damage by 50% for 5 seconds. Attacks cost 20 Mana per hit.

While it sounds nice on paper, in reality its not that good talent. Most of your damage comes from Overkill ability, and Searing attacks has no effect on it. As for basic attacks, your attack range is limited and you can get kited around very easily. 5 seconds is a short window, so its only useful versus stunned enemies or structures. Besides, Rapid Fire does almost the same thing, but passively and indefinitely. So i’d say Rapid Fire is better option for you.

Conclusion for tier 3:
Rapid Fire is the best option you have. Passive, gives a nice damage boots, great talent all around.

Ultimate Abilities:

• Commandeer Odin
  Cooldown: 100 seconds
  Duration: 17.5 seconds
  Tychus pilots the Odin, gaining a second health pool and reducing the duration of Crowd Control effects by 50%. Basic Attacks in the Odin do not require a windup. Odin has the Raganrok Missile and Annihilate abilities.

Odin is pretty bad at this moment (24th march 2014). Damage output is pretty weak, abilities are quite weak, it doesnt last long enough and even the nuke upgrade for it barely does anything. I do not recommend taking this ultimate. While it looks badass, its quite useless.

• Drakken Laser Drill
  Cooldown: 100 seconds
  Duration: 17.5 seconds
  Summons a Laser Drill that deals 15 damage per second.

Laser is okay. You can still DPS with your hero, and Laser deals quite a lot of damage later on (up to 380 damage per second with talent upgrade). Its a nice damaging ability that helps in teamfights.

Conclusion for ultimate abilites:
Take Laser. As much as i like Odin, its quite useless at this moment

Tier 5:

• Giant Killer
  Basic Attacks against enemy Heroes deal an additional 0.5% of the target’s max Health in damage.

Due to high attack speed of Tychus, this talent ability has its bonus reduced to 0.5% health. Again, most of your damage comes from overkill ability so your basic attacks dont matter that much. Besides, 0.5% is a really small bonus. Skip this talent.

• Relentless
  Reduces the duration of silences, stuns, slows, and roots against your Hero by 50%.

While its a good talent, it loses competition to the other talents in this tier.

• Lead Rain (Q)
  Overkill applies a stacking slow onto damaged enemies, slowing by up to 40%.

40% slow over 5 seconds makes your Overkill extremely deadly ability. Helps picking off targets, makes it close to impossible to run away from Tychus. Extremely useful talent.

• Stim Pack (E)
  After using Run and Gun, Tychus gains 20% Attack Speed and 20% Move Speed for 3 seconds.

Bonus is nice, but Lead Rain is hands down better utility talent in this tier.

Conclusion for tier 5:
Lead rain is the obvious winner. Slow is extremely useful in this game.

Tier 6:

• Executioner
  Basic Attacks deal 50% more damage against slowed, rooted, or stunned targets.

Doesnt work with overkill because it only applies to basic attacks. Take this only if your team has a lot of stuns/slows, like ETC for example. You dont have slows/stuns youself so you cant really make this talent useful on your own.

• Lock and Load (Trait)
  While the minigun is wound up, Tychus gets 15% increased move speed.

15% buff is quite unnoticable, skip this talent.

• Concussion Grenade (W)
  Increases the knockback of Frag Grenade by 100%

Good frag can give you a kill, bad frag will save the enemy. Its a good talent, but use it wisely.

• Stoneskin
  Activate to gain 30% of your max health in Shields for 5 seconds.

Useful talent, basicly gives you additional 30% health in teamfights. Pick this if you are uncomfortable with landing good frags or if you want additional surivability.

Conclusion for tier 6:
Get stoneskin if you want to be more tanky, take concussion if you prefer more offensive style of gameplay.

Tier 7:

• Fury of the Storm
  Basic Attacks bounce twice to nearby enemies, doing 25% less damage each bounce.

Its not a bad talent, but i think its not worth it for Tychus. You rely on your Overkill to do damage mostly, so basic attack AoE doesnt matter that much. Viable choice, but not preferred one.

• Bolt of the Storm
  Activate to teleport to the target location.

Useful ability, take this if you desperately need more mobility.

• Big Red Button (R)
  Odin lasts 50% longer and gains a new ability: Nuclear Blast.

Quite useless at this point as Odin himself isnt that useful.

• Focusing Diodes (R)
  Increases the range of the Drakken Laser Drill by 50%, and increases the damage dealt to a target the longer it focuses on them, up to 100% extra damage.

Extra range, extra damage, nice buff to your ultimate.

Conclusion for tier 7:
Everything except Odin upgrade is a viable choice. Pick the talent based on your playstyle.

Final builds:
Tanky build: http://www.heroesfire.com/hots/talent-calculator?hero=8#oPgu
Pure damage build: http://www.heroesfire.com/hots/talent-calculator?hero=8#oPgk

I hope this guide has been helpful for you, if you have any questions or suggestions leave comments below.