Heroes of the Storm Uther Skills and Talents Guide

Heroes of the Storm Uther Skills and Talents Guide by Refuel456

Sometimes the Light at the end of the tunnel is a train!

Uther is an incredibly strong hero who is relatively easy to play, and has become my one of my favorite heroes since I was blessed with an invite to the alpha on April 1st. His capability to pump out some serious healing as well as providing utility with stuns puts him in a very strong place in the current state of the game. I’ve been spamming Uther games, and in an attempt to help get some traction on this subreddit, I thought it would be a good idea to provide a detailed insight into the talents and skills of the Lightbringer.

SKILLS

• Eternal Devotion(Trait)-When Uther dies, he returns for 10 seconds as an invincible spirit, but he only does 50% damage+healing. It’s not bad, it can be very useful in team fights considering it resets your basic cooldowns upon activating. 10 seconds is usually long enough to use all of your abilities again, so it adds another potential rotation. I’ve definitely netted kills with it, but sometimes I wish I could trade it for an auto-attack passive or something that doesn’t require me to die to use.
• Holy Light(Q)-This is your moneymaker. It’s a heavy heal with a hefty mana cost of 90 and a cooldown of 12 seconds. It’s better to save this heal for when an ally is about to die instead of keeping it on cooldown by healing up the party. This heal needs to be saved for combat targets, because chances are someone’s going to drop low right when you waste it on the Witch Doctor who is already out of harm’s way. The same goes for using the heal on yourself: if you’re safe but low health, use it on someone who isn’t safe with low health. Don’t be afraid to be on the edges of fights; your auto-attack isn’t going to do much anyway. Holy Light gives you incredible sustain in lane, but it will deplete your mana quickly; and the healing fountain barely gives you enough mana for another rotation.
• Holy Radiance(W)-A skillshot that deals damage to enemies and heals allies. This is your AoE heal, and since it’s 25 mana less than Holy Light it’s going to be the one you want to spam. Although it doesn’t hit for much, providing AoE damage and healing in a skirmish with one move is invaluable. Try to hit as many enemies+allies with this as you can, since it deals consistent damage+healing to everyone it hits. Use this spell to top your party off, and save the single-target heal for more threatening issues.
• Hammer of Justice(E)-If you’ve ever played WoW you’re definitely familiar with this spell. It’s good ol’ Hammer of Justice, the traditional pally stun. It doesn’t deal a lot of damage, has a very short range, and only stuns for one second. But it’s 40 mana with a cooldown of 8 seconds, so take it for what it’s worth. It’s a stun, that’s it. Don’t try to be a hero with it, use it to peel for your damage dealers.

TALENTS

Tier One

• Path of the Wizard-Gain 5 mana and 0.2 mana regen for every level gained. This talent is on every support hero and it really isn’t that bad. It’s a great talent to take if you’re not comfortable with mana management, and it’s very noticeable late game.
• Reach(Q)-This is my personal preference, it increases the range of your Holy Light by 25% (by 2). This makes the cast range on your Holy Light absolutely huge! This is a great talent because it allows your roaming heals to be even more clutch, and allows you to heal with low health from a distance. I believe this talent provides more value than any other in the tier.
• Wave of Light(W)-Increases Holy Radiance’s healing done to minions by 98%. While this talent isn’t particularly useful, it still is a good idea to hit your minions and the enemy’s minions with Holy Radiance to help push. This talent appears to be the least useful in the tier.
• Retribution(E)-Increases the damage done by Hammer of Justice by 40%. This is about 24 extra damage at level 1, and 100 extra damage at level 25. While more damage is always nice, it’s not really enough damage to be noticeable.

Tier Two

• Hammer of the Lightbringer-Basic attacks restore 5 mana to Uther. I’m accustomed to this talent, but it may not be the most useful in the tier. If you take Path of the Wizard, there’s no point in taking this talent. Personally I take this talent because I’m always auto-attacking minions. It helps you sustain in lane, and it procs on every single hit. It restores mana while clearing mines, pushing keeps, or taking merc camps, and I think it pays for itself throughout the game.
• Fist of Justice(E)-Basic attacks reduce the cooldown of Hammer of Justice by 1 second. This helps the most in skirmishes, and it really pays off while in spirit form, but usually no one’s going to stand around and let you smack them with your short stubby arms for long, so at best you’ll get 2, maybe 3, seconds off of the 8 second cooldown. And Uther’s arms are actually very short, his auto-attack range is atrocious. He needs to be on top of something in order to auto-attack it.
• Protect the Weak(Q)-Casting Holy Light on minions and mercs refunds the mana and cooldown by 50%. So you can heal creep, instead of healing your teammates. If someone can make this talent useful, I will be very impressed.
• Shield Ally-A common talent that shields an ally for 300 damage, lasts 5 seconds. This is a useful talent indeed, and it may be the most useful in the tier. It acts as an emergency for a priority target, and works well with a Holy Light to save your teammates. The only issue I have with this is that you cannot cast it on yourself, and while that bothers me, it is still extremely valuable. I take it in games against assassin-heavy team comps.

Tier Three

• Holy Devotion(Trait)-This gives your passive 100% damage and healing. I usually take it because it’s fun surprising people with a spirit that actually does damage. Also in the rare cases where you die without using your ultimate, you will still get full use out of it.
• Spirit of Wrath(Trait)-Enemy takedowns while in Spirit Form reduce your respawn timer by 5 seconds. While you will eventually get kills with your passive, the chances of this happening on a consistent basis to make this talent valuable is very low; especially with 50% reduced healing+damage.
• Clairvoyance-Sight is pretty important in this game so Clairvoyance is more of a threat. It helps in checking merc camps and detecting ambushes, but its use is rather limited.
• Cleanse-Great talent to take, difficult talent to make effective. Works best when playing with people you can communicate to. Cleanse not only removes all stuns/roots/silences/slows, but it also prevents their reapplication for 1 second. So in order to get the most value out of Cleanse, it should be used on a stunned ally with an incoming stun, or against any stuns lasting longer than 1 second; this includes E.T.C Mosh Pit, Arthas CC, Muradin CC, Malfurion roots, Uther’s Divine Storm, and Gazlowe CC.

Tier 4 – Heroic Talents

• Divine Shield(R)-Pally Bubble made it to the game too! This makes an ally invulnerable for 3 seconds, and increases their movement speed by 20%. Very useful for saving a single target that is about to die. But if the target is in such a bad position that they’re going to die after 3 seconds anyway, then you just wasted a 120 second cooldown for nothing. Is it good? Can be. Is it worth more than Divine Storm? Probably not.
• Divine Storm(R)-AoE ult that stuns for 1.5 seconds and deals decent damage. Battle Uther is armed and ready! This talent is so useful, and can win teamfights with the right positioning. The range on it isn’t too wonderful, but it stuns anyone next to Uther, so it can punish enemies for stacking. This makes for great ganks, great initiation, great peel, and great for dueling as well. The cooldown is only 70 seconds, so you have plenty of chances to get use out of it. Not only is it the most useful talent in this tier, but it will also be the most useful talent in the final tier.

Tier 5

• Spell Shield-Periodically reduces the damage received from Hero Abilities by 50%. Stores up to two charges. This talent is kind of bland, but if you need to be tanky for your team this talent could come in handy.
• Burning Rage-Deals damage per second to nearby enemies. This one can be pretty fun, but it doesn’t add up to much damage late game, and instead puts you in a dangerous position if you try to get use out of it. Helps with clearing merc camps, and helps in skirmishes where you can sit on top of your enemy; but overall not the best talent in the tier.
• Sprint-If you like Sprint and can make it work, go for it. A 75% increase to movement speed is nothing to scoff at. Helps you chase enemies, and it helps you get in the middle of a teamfight to deliver a devastating Divine Storm. It only lasts for 3 seconds, so there’s no room for hesitation.
• Shrink Ray-The best general talent in the game in my opinion. It is extremely valuable in the fact that it shuts down an enemy completely. Zeratul? Metamorphosed Illidan? Strafing Demon Hunter? Dragon Knight? All completely destroyed by Shrink Ray. It’s use in Heroes is unrivaled.

Tier 6

• Imposing Presence-Makes enemies pay for attacking you by reducing their attack speed by 30%. Useful against assassins like Demon Hunter and Raynor, but not useful against enemies with ability-based damage.
• Holy Shock(Q)-This talent is hilarious. It lets you cast Holy Light on an enemy and deal half of what you would heal as damage. If your team needs more damage than healing, then this talent can be very useful. Remember that your main heal is your Holy Light, so wasting it as a nuke is not recommended. But if you’re ahead, take this talent and watch people drop from your full combo. It also works well with Reach, making you able to pick off low health targets from afar.
• Gathering Radiance(W)-Increases the damage and healing by 10% for each target hit, up to 50%. This talent is neat, and I used to take it all the time. You can get some big numbers at the end of each Holy Radiance if shot through minions. However, since it caps at a 50% increase, it probably isn’t worth it, considering you’d end up getting more damage than healing if you’re positioned behind your team.
• Rewind-This talent works wonders with Uther. With Rewind you can go through a full combo twice in a row, since Holy Light and Holy Radiance have 12 second cooldowns. Having the ability to pump out two Holy Lights in a row will make your enemy’s damage negligible. Having Rewind increases your usefulness as a healer, and a Hammer of Justice -> Divine Storm -> Hammer of Justice -> Rewind -> Hammer of Justice provides some serious stunning capabilities. Cooldowns will not limit the Lightbringer if you take this talent.

Tier 7

• Resurgence of the Storm-Upon dying, revive back at your Altar after 5 seconds. This neat revive has a cooldown of 120 seconds, so assuming you don’t die twice in two minutes your bound to get some use out of this talent. However, I really hate taking talents that capitalize on when you die, because you should be trying your best not to die. While reducing the late game death timers to a mere five seconds is valuable, as Uther it probably wouldn’t be the best. If the enemy kills your entire team, and you rez five seconds later all by yourself, you’re not going to stop them from taking that important merc camp, or worse, your Palace.
• Storm Shield-An AoE shield that shields your entire team for 20% of their max health. The only problem is that it only lasts 3 seconds. This potentially gives you a chance of popping it too early, and not getting the full use out of the talent. This talent is extremely helpful against damaging AoE abilities, and will pay off if used correctly. Then you’re also faced with the dilemma of popping it for a single person instead of the rest of your team. It’s a large shield and will catch your opponents off-guard.
• Heavenly Shield(R)-If you took Divine Shield at level 10, then this improves on it tenfold. Although it only increases the duration by 1 second, it heals the target over time for 40% of their health. This ensures a safe escape for one of your allies.
• Hurricane(R)-I always take this talent, because I always take Divine Storm. It increases the range by 100% and lowers its cooldown by 20 seconds, making it a 50 second cooldown. Now the range on the ult is doubled, which makes it twice as useful, and with the lowered cooldown, you should drop the ult whenever you can; whether to win a teamfight or make a safe-retreat.

Well, that’s it for Uther. If you disagree or want to discuss potential builds please comment in the section below. Thanks for reading and I look forward to hearing your opinions. If you want to add me on Heroes my tag is Refuel#1820.

TL;DR: Uther brings the fucking light.