On Cursed Hollow, high elo.
Banned:
Sonya, Hogger, Stukov, Falstad, Uther and TLV.
Team 1:
Lucio, Hanzo, Diablo, Li-Ming and Ragnaros.
Team 2:
Cassia, Mei, D.Va, Malfurion and (???).
Who’s the best last pick? List up to 4 heroes and explain your choice(s).
Bonus for the talent build and strategy.
You’re not the player, but the drafter. It’s just theory.
1. Raynor.
You can go with either “Ace in the Hole”, or “Exterminator” if you’re planning on being agressive with merc camps and going for boss. Allows you to Q Diablo between his Q and his E. Synergy with Mei if going “AitO” Mutiple talents possible, but I’d go “Bounty Hunter” at 16 for sure" And you can interrut chanels with either Hyperion or Raiders. Though Ming and Hanzo can kill the Banshee rather quickly.
2. Abathur
If you wanna go with Cassia as Hypercarry, and Macro since the enemy isn’t heavy on wave clear They’re probably going for Apoc. + Arrow + Sulfuras smash. So you shouldn’t have to worry about Lava wave. But if they do pick it you have the counter push.
3. Tychus
Ragnaros has no defense against him, and he’s a problem for Diablo as long as he doesn’t hug him while Q and E are up. Lucio’s healing doesn’t deal well with him either, and Odin is great at zoning the tribute. Once the frontline starts getting shredded the enemy comp will have issues. Unlike Cassia, Ming and Hanzo can’t step up. Only drawback is that the team would have to two-man the bruiser camp.
4. Samuro
They have two supersquishies in the backline and their peel is limited. Plus, It’s Samuro. He woukd be the best candidate to take camps in that comp.
Edit: Oh, forgot to add that, no matter which 5th you go with, having access to double blinds gives your team a better engage, and Diablo won’t be optimized if he goes AA build.
Tassadar might work due to objective zoning, some synergy with Malfurion’s roots, adding macro push against Ragnaros, and can pop Archon if mildly dived. Won’t be about kills as pad healer offsets pad damage.
Following that train, burst? Orphea possibly if the player can avoid being blown up. Especially as Ming will be tempted to go shield build.
Junkrat can stall objective.
I certainly wouldn’t pick melee into this, Hanzo can poke and Ragnaros can Q heal, Lucio can Reverse Amp, Diablo control and Li-Ming can go full Q and just shred Team 2. A bit squish and you just get blown upon engage.
Also thinking mage in general because that’s what the team lacks. Mei and DVa aren’t particularly scary. For example, drafting Anub could add more control and anti-spell but there wouldn’t be kills. Not even Stitcheese could work.
Can’t look away from “being the player” though.
I’d go with Zeratul tbh, they’ve got some super easy targets like the Hanzo and Ming., even Lucio is pretty squishy if you can manage to land a W on him.
indeed, Samuro is so overtuned how can you go wrong? Even with Rag’s AOE abilities that should not be enough to deter one of the most OP bullcrap heroes plaguing this game.
I overall think a nice diver dmg is great there.
Greymane: CB is great against Dibbles, has high burst dive.
Zera: slippery backline diver, save laner, VP (good follow up setup)
Samuro: another good diver, soft-TLV, just as slippery as Zera
Chromie: good poke, can catch even Lùcio with Traps, provides Vision
No matter last pick, what matters is the team with more potatoes…
My instinct is to go for something that either wins more at the frontline or can chase Hanzo and Ming:
Tychus comes to mind since he’s strong against Diablo up front, has access to move speed for chase/escape, and the grenade build can be a pain for squishy heroes like Lucio, Hanzo and Ming.
Butcher is a strong last pick here. He scales very hard and can chase both Hanzo and Ming effectively. This team has strong CC with Mei and Malf so Butch can tear up anything they catch. Dva gives him some help when he goes deep after squishy heroes and can limit some incoming damage with matrix.
The best option to me is Zagara. She has ranged poke that can stall objectives, summons that are difficult for that team to clear (outside Ragnaros), and gains % based damage to really melt enemies. Those summons are also good at soaking Ming orbs too. Her Nydus ult makes it easy to soak and get around the map as well.
Team one’s early weakness is defending against the hard camp. Diablo doesn’t have much souls to camp invade and Ragnaros’s trait is online only at 2:00 in.
Lucio can’t keep on healing Diablo if he gets chunked. Summons are lowkey good against their backline, but since the map can end quickly (avg. 17 min), late game heroes like Naz and Zag are not ideal. Team one doesn’t have the best peel against constant mobile aggression.
Greymane would be my first choice. Both of his ults works fine, either to chunk Diablo with CB until he retreats or have a good flank on the others with GFTT. His camp clear is amazing and will get lots of value early game.
Raynor with Exterminator works similarly, but with a better self sustain and self peel. Raynor’s Raider to scout an anchoring Diablo.
Sylvanas is overall well suited if she decides to split push and take one by one forts. Wailing Arrow on Lucio and heroes around him.
Jaina is not great if left unprotected, but has great follow ups and can play from far back with Blizzard build. She’s good at taking camps and sieging. The comp has just enough chain CC for the Blizzard to fully hit. (3.5 sec CC + slow). Lucio can’t cleanse a centered Entangling Roots, unless he smurfs it by pre cleansing himself before going in. Water Elemental preferably.
Four choices huh? Okay here we go
That said if this path is taken Cassia and D’va need to be ON POINT with camps because this strat will sacrifice some level of camps and Rag might be able to put a lot of pressure on with lava wave if he decides to take it over Smash
Graymane
I’m no expert on Graymane but he does most of what Qhira does in this scenario minus having extra CC to make Diablo’s life a bit harder and gains some camp taking power
Orphea
I mean it’s Oprhea with 2 heroes who can zone or CC multiple heroes, what’s not to love?
zul’jin
This is dependant a lot more on protecting Zul’jin and is almost like a protect the carry comp in that sense as the Diablo will mostlikely want to fucs, however with a Zul’jin and a Cassia, especially if ZJ goes Q build I am confident even if ZJ isn’t stacked super well Team 2 will be able to win Tank Tug of War
Bonus points if Mei is able to use wall or snowball to isolate one or more members of the enemy team not diablo so Diablo dies alone with no friends
Question should be: Do I have enough makro against enemys? Do I need more dive against the enemy backline? And how you answer questions the picks becomes obvious. I think Zeratul would be my number one choice here.
I love all the dive picks people have brought for the reasons they brought, so im just gonna post 1 - Brightwing
I see dibbles hitting a charge? poly baby!
All that scary poke? 2x healer, 1 is AOE free with a spot teleport, pixie dust, and depending on how the game plays out i think both her ults could be good picks.
Need a side lane soaker cuase lava wave? BW’s global lets Dva rotate on time and you can still be there in a flash!
Does kinda leave you really depending on a good cassia, but i kinda wanted to find something no one else was saying and it still be decent.
Your team lacks mobility vs ming and hanzo they have low cc
So zera genji or W+Q build tychus
Aba also works
Thrall, Malthael, Maeiv, Samuro/Genji
Thrall: helps melt Diablo when he goes with percent damage talents. Point and click Q’s keep enemy backline honest. Not the strongest waveclear for a solo, but dva can help make up for it.
Malthael: macro god. Enemy Rag will have to waveclear, and they will need at least 2-3 others to take bruisers. Can outsoak and deal with Diablo. Might have issues with reaching backline, but rest of the team and a macro advantage might be fine.
Maeiv: dva/cage combo stronk. Yoinks Hanzo and Ming away from jumping away.
Samuro: generally good and difficult to kill. Should be able to put on good macro pressure, and pressure backline, if not snipe Hanzo or Ming.
Genji: once Diablo uses charge Genji has very little to threaten him from the enemy team. He can position aggressively and auto attack poke.
Ragnaros is really squishy and this composition is very frontline material, with only Rag and Diablo themselves, on the other hand Cassia is very in the front with Mei and D.Va meaning his sustain is supplied and they will excel in keeping him quite up the front.
I believe best suited is either mid range attacked with giant killer talent baked in or long ranged poke that can harass the front line from far away safely, or even the other backliners.
So…
Chromie: Long poke and high damage can cause a lot of problems for Ragnaros also excels into Li-Ming and Hanzo if she hits her shots or predict where they are.
Sylvanas: Mid range combat who can go into a lot of sustain AoE/Single target damage if she goes something like this.
Basic strategy is to constantly AA, make sure you don’t get yourself in a situation in which you are stunned, their only viable CC is Diablo with dragon arrow in the mix or Raganaros picking sulfuras smash and knows how to guarantee hitting it (just slow them lol), so their CC is in a nutshell limited and not problematic, which allows a lot of play making.
Any divers work in this to be honest, in high league Malf does quite a lot of good especially when played properly and mastered.
So Tracer or Zeratul if they are not playing dumb will make Diablo’s life a living hell, Raganaros unable to keep up and back liners just completely harassed constantly.
Either who Jaina works too, a lot of slow and roots from her kit can do a lot of melee frontline disruption.
I also like kerrigan into this
Don’t forget, it’s a high ELO game. Butcher is easily countered by experienced players.
My first pick would be Chromie. Excellent synergy with Malfurion (Root/Sleep) and D.Va (Self destruct). Both her Ults are great here, I would tend to pick temporal loop in combination with Root and Self Destruct to take Diablo out.
My second take would be Tychus, who is one of the strongest heroes at the moment and an excellent counter to Diablo. He can also compete with Li Ming and Hanzo going Grenade Build.
My third consideration would be Medivh. He allows to collapse on the backline even without Dive heroes. Ley line seal can take Li Ming and Hanzo out before she can get resets and before he can stack damage.
Fourth choice is a bit risky but worth the try. Ana as second healer with grenade build. Anti heal is devastating against Lucio, who can only heal over time. Same goes for Diablo. Li Ming and Hanzo can also get taken out quite easily with sleep darts. The double healer combo can diminish the burst damage by Hanzo and Li Ming
I’ll probably be the odd ball here. I like:
I know Butcher can be countered but that team has nothing to really counter him especially once stacked. They have zero peel and being high skilled doesn’t fill holes that only hero’s kits can fill.
My first thought was Fenix, with warp warfare.
Good waveclear for laning. Potential to dive backline, and good tank busting capability.
Both ults would synergize well with team.
Greymane would be a great pick. Strong sustained damage, good dive capabilities. I think that’s probably who I would go with here.
