Completely rewritten seeing as were not getting any more balance patches.
Hi, I play Whitemane sometimes. So much sometimes in fact that there’s been a couple patches sense this was last written so lets get it all updated!
My accolades if your so inclined
Sense this was first posted my level on her has nearly doubled and and has surpassed 300. I’ve nearly touched the top of heroes profile’s QM duo leaderboard. Here I am last season:
https://www.heroesprofile.com/Global/Leaderboard/?type=hero&stack_size=2&hero=Whitemane&game_type=qm&season=22&tier=®ion=
Maybe that’s impressive, maybe that not, I hope you can at least forgive a healer main for preferring duo’s to solo : p.
I have also now played in a couple NGS seasons so I experience in some of the highest forms of compatition if the qm stuff is to lame.
also I swear if you ban wm against me in anything I’m gonna be so sad.
General playstyle
Just a quick crash course before things get complicated. You’ve got 2 different types of healing.
Direct heals, which are supplementary for the most part. Your direct heals being Desperate Plea, Clemency, Scarlet Aegis, and Radiance. These are your most reliable heals and should be used both before a fight and other then Clemency, as an immediate response to burst.
Then there are indirect heals which are the back bone of your healing arsenal. Your indirect heals being your damaging abilities, auto attacks and occasionally Radiance. These are what make you so strong in fights. They are wild and powerful heals that affect everyone who has Zeal and are stronger for each ally with zeal and for each enemy damaged.
Starting with Direct heals and intelligently weaving them in through out a fight combined with opportunistically putting out your indirect heals is key to sweeping through team fghts, invalidating enemy DPS, and just generally doubling the other teams healer.
Apart from a handful of good practices, there are no set ways to approach anything with Whitemane. It’s important to by ready to break some rules to try and keep someone important alive.
With that our of the way, let’s dive deeper in to the “how to play Whitemane” iceberg.
Starting with…
Mana Management
Easily the most important part of Whitemane. Done properly, Whitemane can out out thousands of healing while only spending 40 or even no mana at all.
Whitemane’s Q, Desperate Plea, is your easiest and most available way to apply Zeal but each use will increase the abilities mana cost by 40 for 4 seconds, up to 200 mana. This is where your Desperation stacks come from. To avoid casting the most expensive spell in the game you will need to have that 4 second timer engraved in to your very soul.
Whitemane can cast Q every 4 seconds with very little mana loss and can keep 2 zeals up at a time this way sense zeal lasts 8 seconds. For the most part, when your just healing one person it’s not to hard on your mana. It’s when you need to heal more then one person when Q starts getting expensive.
Clemency is your most efficient heal but is not as available as Desperate Plea. It heals for the same amount as it does damage so as long as you are only healing one person it does not lose you any hps. Clemency does however directly compete with Inquisition sense they share a cooldown. Sadly not even shared punishment at 16 will make this ability heal more then one ally so when to use either skill is another layer of complexity well get in to eventually.
Clemency costs no mana which makes it our best tool for healing outside of emergencies. Particularly when your just messing around in lane, using Clemency to apply zeals, then going in with your indirect healing, will make your mana last a long time.
Both Clemency and Inquisition also remove a Desperation stack when cast. Doing this after 2 stacks is ideal but any time after the first stack is good.
Lastly, both ultimates will help massively in the mana department. Reckoning will restore mana while Aegis can Zeal your whole team for free and you should look to spend your mana accordingly. Not only because it will enable to heal during longer fights but so that you wont need to hearth right after and are ready for the next fight.
Reckoning restoring mana means when its out you want to be spending mana while it’s doing it’s thing. A good Reckoning will give you all your mana back and a great Reckoning will over cap your mana 2 or 3 times over. Not that every fight requires a Q spam but if there’s ever a time to do it with out wasting mana, this is it. Also activating Zeal will increase the mana Reckoning will generate.
Aegis is a bit more preemptive. Even Zealing 3 allies is costly so even just getting that many allies is saving a ton of mana plus it’s also just got some solid healing. You can use Aegis right away to put off needing to use Q for a while or any time during desperation’s 4 second window in order buy time for your stacks to fall off while still putting out healing.
Q
Your gonna be pressing Q a lot so it gets it’s own section. Now that we know how to not waste mana, lets go over how to not waste healing or time by pressing Q.
Whitemane does her best healing when she’s in the thick of things. The best way to go about it is often to already have a Zeal on your self when you go in to get some healing done. Not only does this save you from needing to interrupt your self when you get hit but it also starts your Desperation timer earlier so that your next Q is less likely to cost more. In a similar vein, you almost always want to Q your self before you channel Inquisition sense during the channel is when your at your most vulnerable.
Searing Lash, auto attacks, and Divine Reckoning all have a short delay before they do anything. This short time window is a great way to fit in a Q with out interrupting anything else. Additionally using these delayed attacks and then pressing Q is just a faster way to start healing.
Q is also not just for applying Zeal. It may not be mana efficient but using to to supplement your healing on an already Zealed ally can often save someone where otherwise pure indirect healing wouldn’t have. If that’s not enough, outright spamming Q is always an option for saving someone. It’s very mana intensive but it’s usually worth it. Just make sure you find the time or use an ult to get that mana back.
Efficient DPS
How much damage you do is arguably more important then how much damage your teams DPS is doing. Not only is it well over half your healing but helping your team get kills faster will stop the incoming damage sooner. You don’t particularly want to try and focus someone down but just his whoever is safest to hit. Most of the time this is going to be the enemy tank or bruiser. Keep in mind that many of these heroes can give them selves armor which will reduce your healing so switch targets accordingly.
Searing Lash is your biggest indirect heal and a core skill in every build, thus your most important attack. With lash it’s all about getting the most hits with each cast. Clumped enemies, people being CCed, and tight spaces are what your looking out for and if immediate healing is not necessary, delaying your cast to look for these opportunities is often a good idea. If nothing else, the lesser slow from Inquisition and/or you personally body blocking someone can help you land this in a pinch.
Despite its fanfare, Inquisition is often secondary to the rest of your kit. Occasionally even to auto attacks. The damage is good but not as good as Searing Lash or auto attacks with a bunch of zeals out with unwavering faith at 4 plus the attack sped from Righteous Flame at 1. Don’t feel bad about dropping the channel when you gotta move or something else needs doing.
That being said, after Inquisition’s initial cast it’s “tether” range is very long (11.25. for reference, hammer’s siege range is 11) and makes for an excellent parting gift for enemies that start to run away. A quick channel while waiting for your auto attack timer or your E cooldown is also totally fine. When you activate Zeal tho, Ws damage gets actually good and it’s worth trying to channel the whole thing for some solid healing.
Speaking of which, activating Zeal is your most exciting moment. Pressing this should mean a red guy is about to die or a blue guy is about to not die or both :D. Any time something big is about to happen like E is about to get a ton of hits, W is gonna get a full channel, an ult, Radiance, it’s Q spamming time, or all of that at the same time, is a good time to hit D. It’s cooldown is 40 seconds so give it some of the respect that you for an ult but also dont just sit on it waiting for the right time. What that means is very context sensitive so give it some thought while in game.
With your ults however are much more straight forward and you should always use zeal during them unless its gonna kill you. Sense the mana regen of Reckoning is based on damage dealt, activating Zeal will restore more mana. This is also a rare instance of a mana restore effect critting :p. Then with Aegis its not quite as fancy but the armor gain of Aegis and the armor loss of Zeal will cancel each other out leaving you with a still positive, 15 armor.
Also sadly activating Zeal will not buff your auto attacks healing despite the crit kicker.
And then auto attacks. These are basically free healing and are good to throw out at every opportunity no matter the build. Use them in between E casts and right before W casts if in range. If you’ve taken saintly great staff at 7 try to pop as many marks as you can.
Your Ultimates
The default choice is usually Divine Reckoning but knowing when to take Scarlet Aegis is important for whitemane and her teams survivability. The main difference between the two ultimates is how quickly they start healing people. Divine reckoning takes a second before it starts doing damage and it can take even longer to put zeals on everyone whos gonna need them while Aegis has instant zeal application and healing.
Divine Reckoning is crazy powerful but its tricky to get the most out of it. The ult takes at least a full second to start healing so you’ve got to do a little preemptive. The absolute best time to use the ult is when its going to hit a lot of enemies, most of your team needs a lot of healing, and your low on mana. Of course, this perfect ult wont happen every time but checking as many of those boxes as you can with each cast will yield good results.
Some things to keep in mind when using this ult. Sense it takes a second to start up you can use that time to Q 2 allies before Reckoning starts doing damage which is more efficient then doing 2 Qs after ulting. It’s also not to hard to just walk of a poorly placed Reckoning. The best targets to hit with it are front liners who busy with something or anyone in a tight space or being CCed. Reckoning can also be placed in between the enemy and the people needing healing as enemies would need to walk in to it to finish people off. You can also bait melee in to it by standing in the ult your self sense Whitemane is often a big target.
Scarlet Aegis is the more defensive and user friendly of the two ults. It’s biggest claim to fame is it’s speed. The instant heal plus 40 armor is invaluable against heavy burst and makes it easier to both some of the faster heroes heroes and those with very high damage spikes like KTZ, Kael, or Zeratul. It’s a strong dependable ult that you can’t go wrong with compared to Reckoning which while potentially stronger, you can go wrong with.
Help, someone is diving me!
Despite what Whitemane’s tiny heath bar might lead you to believe, a competent Whitemane can be difficult to dive on. If anything, Whitemane is actually very good against dive. A lot of surviving a dive involves avoiding CC and not letting your divee distract you from your healing.
Often you can either just tank the guy diving you or kill them your self. Which is the right call is again, very context sensitive. Whether your team needs the healing, if you can fight the guy your self, or if you being dived apon is even an something worth dealing with at all are al important factors.
If despite being Whitemane your having trouble or know your gonna have trouble with a certain hero you can take Scarlet Aegis and /or Radiance at 16 to dramatically increase your survivability.
Buttons and apm
For most heroes this is pretty much personal preference but sense there’s so much Whitemane can do with in the span of 2 seconds any efficiencies you can squeeze out of your button mappings can make a real a difference.
If your not already, use quick cast on just about everything. Having to do an extra click between every AA, Q, and E will seriously slow you down. You can get away with “on release” for most things but I recommend putting Q on the fastest setting and just getting used to its range. Having your attack move prefer the enemies closest to your mouse rather then the closest to Whitemane can take a bit to get used to but will dramatically reduce the number of times you accidentally hit a non hero when minions or summons are involved.
When to pick Whitemane
Whitemane’s whole thing is that she does massive healing and not much else. If for whatever reason you can’t heal or do damage your almost worthless. What is a good or bad time to take Whitemane is a little unique compared to other healers. For the most part all you need is a good or ok matchup against 1 or 2 heroes on the enemy team to invalidate any non hard counter picks the enemy team might have.
For example, Varian and Brightwing soft counter Whitemane. Varian with his anti heal and or armor flag and Brightwing with her having an easy W interrupt and ability to give spell armor to whoever your attacking. However if that team also has like a Diablo or Artanis who are either far or predictable can provide your team with all the healing they need.
Poke can be a little different. If the entire enemy team decides to let their pokers do their thing, you will have a hard time keeping up. That being said, if your team has ways to force a fight then who cares if your being sniped at.
Specific heroes can wreck you regardless of you having good matchups against other heroes.
Sense mega healing is pretty much all that you do, powerful anti healing effects are pretty crippling. Ana’s grenade and Deckard’s emerald suck to play against. In a similar vein, to much armor and damage reduction can also make things hard.
Although in my experience, that’s not usually something that even crosses peoples minds so you can often get away with these kind of matchups anyway. Especially in lower ranks.
Anubarak, Ana, and Zeratul are worth going over specifically as well.
Anub’s unique combination of big spell armor and ability to CC you no matter how far you stand back makes him already threatening. On top of that, being cocooned will throw you off your game very hard.
Ana has her grenade of course but also 2 power damage reductions, sleep dart can knock you out of W from almost any range, and nano boost can make some heroes a little to bursty to deal with.
Then Zeratul is a unique diver who doesn’t need the support of his team to dive you and can burst you before you have time to ramp up your healing. Aegis can help but it’s very committal while Zeratul is not. Leaving you down an entire ult and him only down only a 10 second cooldown.
Another thing worth mentioning is that your PVE is among the worst if not the worst in the game. If your team is a little light in the PVE department, go play Rehgar or something.
As for things Whitemane preys on. Enemy tanks or bruisers with big hitboxes are great.
Diablo, Stitches, Artanis, or anyone who just wants to stand there and do their thing is just a battery to you. As long as you can avoid CC, a lot of dive heroes have a hard time against Whitemane as well. Tracer, Illidan, and Genji aren’t so scary when they do less damage then their average assassin and your whole thing is out healing the damage.
Talents
Whitemanes talents are a lot more well rounded and flexible then people give them credit for. Nearly all of her talents have at least dome kind of niche and mixing and matching is encouraged.
Level 1
Pity the Frail
Plays well in to Whitemane’s more utility focused talents and is a good all round choice. If your not sure what to take, just pick this one. You can go wrong with Pity the Frail.
Righteous Flame
Offers far more throughput (both damage and healing) then Pity the Frail but in return, offers less utility down the road.
Inquisitor’s Prayer
Not the best for ranked play. It’s not bad if you can stack it high enough but Whitemanes other level 1 talents are just crazy good right out of the gate. If you do take Inquisitor’s Prayer, it pairs particularly well with Radiance at 16.
Level 4
Flexible talents. For the most part, these are personal preference. Some builds prefer one over the other but its not like everything falls apart if you choose something else. It’s also worth mentioning that Scarlet Aegis can instantly boost all of these to full power.
Unwavering Faith
Decent sustained healing increase with a small range increase. The best part of this talent is that it puts the range of your AAs closer to the range of your E which is great for quality of life. At 4 zeals, AAs heal more then W.
Martyrdom
Increases your burst healing. Also notably makes playing against a lot of poke easier. Also has some nice synergy with Pity the Frail for a really big Q.
Indulgence
One of Whitemanes more situational talents. Makes you harder to catch which is really nice against a Garrosh or anyone else who has to run at you.
Level 7
Zealous Spirit
Not recommended. You can take it if your still getting used to Whitemane but any benefit this talent would provide is also gained by just getting good. In other words, this talent does almost nothing. Zealous Spirit is also not a cleanse.
Sad days for Zealous Spirit.
Saintly Greatstaff
If you can keep up with it, this is a powerful talent. Essentially adding an extra 55-100 healing to every E (E does 164 with both lashes for reference). Can be taken in any build and has only minor synergy with the AA talents. Unfortunately Greatstaff really suffers from not being a cleanse so it can be hard to take at times.
Intercession
idk why they gave Whitemane such a good cleanse but here we are. At 45 seconds it’s a shorter cooldown then most other cleanses.
Not sure where to mention this so I’ll put it here. You can occasionally get away with relying on using Aegis to keep people alive through CC which lets you take Greatstaff for more throughput.
Level 13
Subjugation
Very strong talent. Instant, easy, on demand 50% damage reduction and on up to 2 targets at 16 complements the nature of Whitemane’s healing very well.
Lashing Out
A fairly competitive choice with the potential for massive healing. However, can be difficult to get consistent value out of. Lashing out is particularly powerful against heavy frontline teams or with spammy CC.
Scarlet Wrath
An interesting talent. The main benefit here is being able to activate Zeal along Inquisition just about every time. It’s a bit of an an acquired taste but a good talent nevertheless.
Level 16
Everything at 16 is strong. Like with the level 4 talents, these can all be taken in any build and I encourage you to take what fits the situation rather then strictly following a build. Whitemanes other talent synergies aren’t so busted that your locked in to a specific talent. Even with W build.
Radiance
This is Whitemanes burstiest and most reliable heals. You can use Inquisition or Clemency to Radiance twice in rapid succession to do more healing then Scarlet Aegis. Combined with your other heals, Radiance can do some really dumb healing. Resetting the duration of all your Zeals is great quality of life as well. Radiance is a great talent to flex in to if your having trouble with burst or need to heal an ally who likes to dive out of your range.
Shared Punishment
This over doubles the healing of Inquisition and Clemency while also essentially applying hunter mark to enemies it latches on to. Additionally, using Clemency on an ally while an enemy is near enough to be chained on is a way to both massively extend the range of W and help allies chase people with Ws slow. This little tech is useful enough to even make Shared Punishment situationally worth considering in an E build. Then of course, Shared Punishment has very strong synergy with Subjugation and Pity the Frail.
Harsh Discipline
An almost instant, ranged root with a potentially very short cooldown when combined with Pity the Frail and Lashing out.
A bit more situational then the other 2 choices but can be just as powerful when the time arises.
Level 20
Whitemane’s 20s are somehow more busted then her level 1s.
Scarlet Crusade
Team wide unstoppable for twice as long as Unstoppables usually last. What more do I need to say. This has the potential to easily invalidate an entire enemy team.
Judgment Day
Also very powerful. Pairs great with lots of ally aoe or wombos. Even with out synergy, sucking enemies in just makes the ult more reliable as it takes longer for enemies to get out and enemies can no longer get away with just sticking their toe in. Additionally, with the right timing you can guarantee a massive E hit on everyone sucked in.
Purge the Wicked
An extremely flexible alternative to the ult upgrades. If you want to start 100-0ing people, this is how you do it. Can be used offensively to blow someone up as a fight starts or defensively for its massive healing potential as it hits pretty hard.
Guiding Light
Except this one, Guiding Light is not op. Alot of what this talent offers can also be obtained by just getting good with the hero and it doesn’t have the game ending potential that the other choices have. Guiding Light in theory pairs really well with allies who dive really far but in reality that’s just not a safe way for your team to play and you take Guiding Light out of frustration more then anything.
Builds
Whitemane has 2 main builds each with a couple variations.
Her most popular build, and the one I recommend to new players is as follows…
1 Pity the Frail
4 Martyrdom or Indulgence
7 Intercession or Saintly Greatstaff
10 Either ult
13 Subjugation
16 Shared Punishment or Radiance
20 Ult upgrade or Purge
Probably her most straightforward build. W build does less overall healing and damage but has powerful utility. You’ll be somewhat weak until 13 and 16 where you then become pretty scary to fight. Subjugation is particularly strong against most heroes who rely on life steal and some high damage bruisers and Shared Punishment is equally devastating against the enemy frontline with its armor reduction. Subjugation can help you survive against auto attackers as well.
If you don’t need the damage reduction from Subjugation or just want to have a good time, Lashing out can be taken instead. This is a fun variation of that build where all of your basic abilities essentially have no cooldown. Additionally, you can also take Harsh Discipline at 16 for a root with an extremely low cooldown. (Fun fact: if you can hit enough enemies with E, you can technically permanently root someone :D)
E /AA build
1 Righteous Flame
4 Unwavering Faith
7 Intercession or Saintly Greatstaff
10 Either ult
13 Lashing Out
16 your choice
20 Ult upgrade or Purge
A volatile build will test your apm and your like no other. That being said, the raw healing output of E build is enough to invalidate a good number of heroes and is particularly good against a heavy frontline where getting big E hits is easier. When piloting this build, you want to primary focus on getting good Es with auto attacks as more supplemental healing. W should be used either as clemency to save mana or as a way to keep the healing coming if you miss an E post level 13.
At 16, nothing has any crazy synergy with the build so you pick whatever the situation calls for. Radiance is great for burst the the build otherwise lacks and will help keep the healing coming if you miss an E. Radiance can also salvage a game where the build just isn’t working out for whatever reason.
Shared Punishment can be picked as a win more talent. The utility it provides can really help with securing kills.
Harsh Discipline is good when more CC is good.
Just kidding here’s a secret sorta Q build
1 Inquisitor’s Prayer
4 Martyrdom
7 Intercession or Saintly Greatstaff
10 Divine Reckoning
13 Lashing Out
16 Radiance
20 Ult upgrade
This build technically exists. The build relies on having near infinite mana to spam Radiance which is fairly effective if you can get there but it takes hundreds of stacks to get there.
Welp, there yall go. I was going to also go in to detail about every matchup but this was already pretty long. If you still want to know feel free to ask about specific matchups.
