- Is there a world where Thrall beats Artanis in the solo?
- What are Hogger’s strenghts in a 1V1?
- Is there any reason to ever pick Sonya?
- Replace Sonya by Ragnaros
- Which non-bruiser hero is the best bruiser besides Blaze?
- As a melee, how do you lane against the Infernal Spawn of Evil? (Lunara)
I can’t answer 1 Because I don’t play thrall much, but I think his q does enough to poke art down it would just take so long and you’d have to play so passive that ultimately it’d be kind of hard.
2 Hogger’s sustain and clear is one of the best in the game. Its easy to outpush people in lane and so long as you don’t play hyper aggro he can beat most people non ranged AA in a 1v1.
3 Sonya is amazing she’s a really good bruiser. Shes probably one of my go tos in the instance I don’t know what I want to play because she’s a good all arounder, but not really a specialist.
4 Rag is kind of weak, but so long as you’re not overextending he’s decent after 10 although honestly if you’re playing rag you’re better off in the 4 man.
5 Orphea or Junkrat. Both of them have insane clear and escape options. Orphea with w quest has one of if not the best clears in the game.
6 I dunno I also hate luna. Slow talents definitely help
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1, go for short bursty trades, then wolf him after your wind fury to get out. Art wants to you to let him trade blows with him all day so dont let that happen. Thrall also just outscales him like crazy so you can also just do nothing.
2, hes butsty and super ultra safe. You’ll never kill a good one in lane. In a straight up duel, hes just ok. If he lands his burst, hes in a good spot, if he doesn’t, hell probably look for a way out.
3, mostly Teamfight reasons. Leap is stronk and hard to react to. I also wouldn’t say she has any terrible matchups in top outside of some ranged heroes.
4, I mean, you could. If all you do is soak and stall the game, hes 10/10.
5, yep
6, really depends on who your playing. One thing she’ll consistently struggle to do vs a top layer is stop you from taking her camps. Luna lane is a struggle tho.
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You mean with On the prowl and Joggers or with Bones to Gnaw?
What makes her a better pick than another bruiser though? Imperius feels like he has Sonya’s Leap baseline. Both heal more the more targets are hit by their E, but Imp has more healing output from single targets. She’s better at taking camps though, but besides burning Leap, escaping is a problem. In a lot of games Hurricane (remove slows and roots) feels mandatory.
Isn’t Orphea easy to gank though?
With on the prowl so long as you play slow you basically never need to back unless you get ganked. When you get garbage fire at 7 you can now just casually sit back and let it clear lane without any risk. The only downside is that this makes hogger kind of bad in teamfights because you can’t stay in very long.
#2 Sonya does not rely on mana for sustained fights. So long as you aren’t rushing fights to win sonya can outsustain most heroes and also due to how her e works you never need to back if you’re playing on a three lane because you can just go to a different lane and use the minions to heal. Imp does get better basekit CC but she has for more sustain talents. She gets a 10% heal/ armor/ slows/ a free reposition/ a shield and another string of armor. On top of that she heals from her E which costs no mana and she does camps faster than imp pre lv 7 so its easy to get her to snowball.
Orph is easy to gank if you can, but if you’re paying attention to minimap so long as you can get to half lane before they get up on you you can just land one q and get to safety unless its a point and click stun. Even if you could catch her though she double soaks so quick once fed by the time you get to her lane she could just rotate away to another. She also wins most 1v1s if you’re good with her.
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- Thrall has actually sustain, Artanis has temporary mitigation, so with his range, Thrall can play at his own pace and doesn’t have to take unfavorable trades with Artanis.
- Hogger has a lot of escapes, but his actually 1v1 power comes later than other bruisers. Other duelist heroes might not have Hogger’s ability to take camps, so as least as far as a solo lane goes, Hogger can get mercenary support to his lane.
- Sonya is more a ‘generalist’ of bruisers these days. Any one thing that sets her apart, another bruiser could arguably do better, so the reason for picking sonya is combination of comfort and preference, and wanting more a ‘generalist’ hero compared to more focused ones.
e.g Both Sonya and Imperius can talent into a 2-stun combo, but sonya has better merc/boss clear than Imperius. Alternatively, Sonya can spec for whirlwind aoe chaos, but Hogger has unstoppable when he does it.
- Ragnaros – and Malthael – aren’t really ‘bruisers’ and don’t match well into that typing.. The two main reasons to pick Ragnaros – over another ‘bruiser’ – are Molten Core, and Lava Wave. Some teams build MC as the “tank” of the game and stack support/healers for a wonky comp for either QM stacks, or ‘Meta madness’ rulesets where other frontliners aren’t available.
Otherwise lavawave is there for a semi-global-ish impact on the game for stalling for time.
- Illidan is probably the best non-bruiser ‘bruiser’ if he’s allowed space to get his quest/build and has support to let him lifeleach in fights.
- I don’t have Lunara tips since I only see her in aram
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That’s actually something that always bothered me about Sonya. A lot of her talent real estate has to be devoted to damage mitigation due to the way she’s designed. The fact that you lose your sustain if CC’ed means you can’t avoid taking at least some of those talents unless the enemy comp is CC light. (Which usually makes for an easier game either way)
In that optic. Ragnaros feels like kind of a Sonya without the damage mitigation talents. And case in point, he tends to die more.
The time you want to pick Sonya is when the opposing team picks Samuro. She is the hardest Sam counter in the game.
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I actually tried picking her against Sam as I figured going full spin would give me the advantage. Maybe I was doing something wrong but it wasn’t working. I don’t know which talents he had picked though.
Nope, W Dehaka is the best samuro counter, after 7 samuro just run like a girl 
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Oh right. I do use Dark swarm build when the enemy is heavy frontline/ melee and/or low CC. Despite the fact that it worked well against Sam. I kept overlooking that option. Possibly because it often happened in ARAM.
Btw, good to see you. Haven’t seen you post in a while.
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Q to trigger shield, run away for it to get on cd, then force a trade. Preferably have a feel for when shield goes off cd because you’ll have to back and waste his shield as much as possible.
I’ve been playing some Lunara lately… she’s pretty much only good vs melees early, and even then, struggles vs anything that cant be freely kited. If you’re something like chen, artanis or imperius, it might be better to look to trade a full combo then back, wait for cooldowns. Her damage is only decent in prolonged fights.
If you’re specifically asking about dehaka vs lunara… I don’t think he has the tools to win lane.
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Yeah, forgot about Illidan. He can make some one sided matchups
It isn’t her spin that makes her great against Samuro, it’s her mobility and gap closers. I might take W at 13 if he is Illusion Master, but since 90% of Sams take Bladestorm, I just go No Escape so he has a hard time outrunning me. While a W Dehaka will make Samuro run away, a Slam/Spear/Leap Sonya will be able to chase and kill him.
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Wait, did you mean W talent at 4? There’s no W talent at 13. Unless you meant the Q talent for mobility?
Ragnaros, Thrall, and Malthael should all be melee assassins. I feel like Rag and Malthael got boxed in because they have decent laneclear, and Thrall is there because… I dunno, he’s tanky? None of them play like other bruisers, though. Ragnaros is so squishy and has no CC, while the other two are obviously meant for hero-killing.
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I find Thrall to very much be a bruiser. He has the sustain to stay in lane almost indefinitely, has more HP/ survivability than an assassin, has CC and an escape and is decent at taking camps.
Malthael is mostly good at clearing wave. He is of no help when sieging a structure, has absolutely no burst if he doesn’t pick Last rites, and doesn’t do well against range dps.
Ragnaros I guess could be a melee assassin. But Lava wave wouldn’t make sense in that case.
Gah, I was confusing W with E. I meant her whirlwind talent at 13.
Too much reading about W build Dehaka. 
actually the match up with sam depends on his lv 1 and his ult selection. If he chooses the armor drop lv 1 paired with the control over clones ult he wins against sonya in an even match. Otherwise sonya stomps him so he has to result to beating her by soak.
never take this talent, even in E build. Movement speed or escape with spear is so much more important than a relatively small damage buff to whirlwind.