I offer you my Thrall build

General Discussion
1

I’m not a pro or GM (yet) and the following is my opinion as a Thrall main who has played him for years at high level (WR over all my accounts of 3 averages 65%+. This season average WR at 86% currently)

Referencing HEROESPROFILE he sits at a less than ideal 48% win rate in SL. And I think considering his kit and potential is a big underperformance in general. And in short answer I blame people trying to follow the meta builds rather than actually understanding how Thrall works first of all, and what situations require which talent.

How Thrall works? He is listed as a bruiser. His HP is bruiser worthy yes, and he has self sustain. But don’t let this fool you into thinking he is tough and survivable. He gets blown up by CC and pokes as easily and as fast as Illidan. If you outright play him as a bruiser and Frontline too much you’re up for some rough awakening.
You should think of him as a high sustain assassin, and yes through talents that I’m going to show you next that later in the game you can be both a full fledged bruiser (borderline tank) and an assassin into one which makes him a late game nightmare.

Talent tier 1

Talent Choice: Crash Lightening

This Talent has a very low popularity and winrate. And probably the most misunderstood Talent. Yes it is a quest Talent. You need to hit two heroes with lightning 30 times for it’s reward to come which is prioritize the heroes. But that’s not actually the real reward. The real reward is it’s damage increase every time you hit 2 heroes. Even if you don’t finish the quest the chain lightning will hurt. A lot. And this Talent allows you to become a late game ranged assassin with poke that would put to shame even Liming whether or not you finish the quest. It will also allow you to not take unnecessary risks as is the case when you choose the other talent Rolling Thunder which will require you to be close and personal with enemy heroes for its full potential. (Hidden pro: Late game chain lightning can be a finisher ranged skill to low HP heroes especially squishies due to accumulated stacks and damage)

Talent Tier 4

Talent Choice: Feral Resilience

Again, another unpopular misunderstood Talent with low win rate. This is where you start to feel like a bruiser. But not yet. This Talent allows you to not only stack faster frostwolf resilience for better sustain, but most importantly is a great counter to AA heroes especially the ones who rely heavily on AA (like ZJ, Ray, Valla, Butcher, Artanis etc…). You can almost never go wrong with this Talent because every comp unless all of them are mages will have heroes that rely somewhat on AA.

Talent Tier 7

Talent Choice: Ancestral Wrath

The most popular Talent for a good reason. This Talent makes Thrall a fully fledged bruiser that can grant you lifesteal while increasing greatly your chances of survival, allowing you to even take some risks or even start frontlining more often. Always a must pick!

Talent Tier 10

*Heroic choice: Sundering"

Possibly the best heroic in the game, and I’m not even joking. Most heroics are very situational, but not this. And rarely a heroic can have its impact or turn a tide of a team fight. Initiating a favorable TF? Check. Singling out a hero for a kill? Check. Killing a low hp hero trying to escape? Check. Interrupting another heroic? Check. Saving an ally from a death chase? Check. Saving yourself from a death chase? Check. Zonning? Check. AOE damage? Check. But there’s a bigger reward later.

Talent Tier 13

*Talent Choice: Spirit shield"

Again the most unpopular choice and the least understood. Congratulations. You just became a superior Bruiser Assassin that can actually tank with a wise use of this Talent. Every comp will have a spell caster or two. But that won’t be a problem for you anymore to start taking even greater risks and wreck havoc with your melee attacks after rooting your prey with W. You now are a hero melter with a very high survivability. But the best is yet to come.

Talent Tier 16

*Talent Choice: Alpha Wolf"

The most popular choice for an obvious reason. Congratulations, now you’re a fully fledged assassin with the survivability of a pseudo tank (better than a bruiser) that can melt other Frontlines. Your efficiency relies greatly on not missing your W skill. If you’re good at rooting heroes then again Congratulations. That is one of the skills that actually distinguishes a great Thrall from an average one.

Talent Tier 20

Talent Choice: Worldbreaker

The upgrade on Sundering. Now not only you possess the best heroic in the game, but you can spam it with a 40 seconds reduced CD and an added feature: it creates an impassable rift for 3 seconds that can be utilized in ways you couldn’t before. Now you can split enemy team in 2 and burst down isolated heroes while the rest of their team can’t come to their aid due to the rift. You can also save your team from a wipe late game by creating a rift between your team and enemies so they have 3 seconds time to escape.

I can talk a lot longer about Thrall, but the above sums up easily why he’s my favorite hero and why I have a very high win rate with him.

3 Likes
2

are there any variations worth mentioning?
like, do i still take spirit shield even if the other team is mostly auto attacks?

3

You should explain your reasoning why you don’t pick the others to begin with, you can’t simply just say it is misunderstood without considering why these picked to begin with.

While I advocate picking Sundering for the CC it’s not the best ult in the game in paper, if I wanted to bruise hard with Sundering I’d just pick Sonya with Leap while helping in a much better oriented matter.

The biggest issue sundering is it’s competing with one of the most broken ultimates in the game post 20 that behaves like Sound Barrier that keeps applying in reasonable delay, for the next 8 seconds, with slows on it, and amp up healing for yourself while keeping teammates safe is a lot of things.

You also missed one of the biggest gimmicks of Sundering, a guaranteed hit with your W, that small interaction itself means that Thrall doesn’t explicitly rely on teammates to follow up, while increasing the duration of following up on said target due the root increasing the CC amount.

You proceed to make a massive confliction to go a poke talent with a melee talent on 16 which makes absolutely no sense, melee is also optional talent that isn’t necessary to pick because it depends on the game, if you can safely bully someone constantly it’s worth it, if you are pressured by squishies then pick Echo of the Elements with Q16 is a priority for both safe damage increase and the mandatory part of closing the gap.

Also level 13 is versatile for both trait activation and Spell Barrier while E talent is a joke.

Rest is ok, but personally calling Alpha wolf to difference between an average and a good thrall player is just asking players to misunderstood the functionality, yet the usage of the talent.

Thrall is one of my favorites but he suffers in a lot of areas that are easily outperformed by bruisers and is a joke into heroes like Sonya and Qhira.

5 Likes
4

Lol… sure. Hope you catched your breath during your comment because you sound too rushed to give a remotely sound opinion. You didn’t even read my review properly. :rofl:

But hey as I said I can talk a lot about Thrall but chose to talk only about my build. Take it or leave it :kissing_heart:

5

Why are you responding like that? Your going to nuke your credibility if you keep that up.

6 Likes
6

That’s a lot of insecurities in a single reply, should have just left that one in the drafts, or actually reply with a counter point, but you go off.

1 Like
7

It’s a solid build for a solid hero. Will mention that Rolling Thunder + Alpha Wolf is a nice synergy: whether CL => auto or FS => auto you deal 3% (Or CL => FS => auto for 6%). Throw an AW on top and that is one endangered front-liner.

2 Likes
8

Because it’s another alt of posters who have been derailing threads with uncalled for personal attacks and insults for the past few weeks.

2 Likes
9

Not an alt. It’s first time I actually create a forum account. Gave it a try anyway. Posted my thoughts about my build and some guy without even reading my post properly is ready to debate and fight my reasoning even though he himself doesn’t even pay attention what I was talking about. I’m not here to argue. Take it or leave it. I was just trying to help people see a different perspective on Thrall playstyle and the guy just wants to fight with words my logic lol

10

This isn’t Steam, where you can post a review and disable comments. This is a forum where, by definition, people can respond as they see fit (within the ToS). Take it or leave it.

1 Like
11

You gave yours, I gave mine, you act like I’m here to win a debate, I just added to the topic as fit of how I interperted the topic, all you’ve been doing is assumptions, I’m a very chill guy for different perspectives, I am just trying to understand your build.

1 Like
12

You can think of yourself what you want. You sounded edgy to me for many reasons. The most obvious for not even paying proper attention to my post. You said I called Alpha Wolf the difference between an average Thrall and a great one when I actually never remotely said that lol… and that’s just one example. But I won’t waste anymore time on this pointless debate. As I said agree or not with what I presented my intention was just to leave a piece of my thought on a hero that I know from head to toe and play comfortably in Master/D. Have a great forum day :grin:

13

but you did…

you might have been technically right had you not used the word “remotely” :stuck_out_tongue:

2 Likes
14

Well, he does seem to be saying hitting W or not as skill that distinguishes a great Thrall from an average one, not regarding Alpha Wolf. Then again, no s***. It’s what distinguishes good player and a bad player, landing skillshots, not just Thrall.

I still don’t get why he got so butthurt, sensitive though. Debating in a forum is natural, but he took criticism, debate points way too personally.

My problem with OP is this part,

Yet, OP seemed to be presenting that one build for others to follow. There was no need for that kind of response if he really thought Thrall builds are versatile, each talent picks differing depending on situation, comps. Aside from Ancestral Wrath, I think most Thrall talent picks can be versatile (well even Ancestral Wrath too in some cases).

2 Likes
15

Thrall has some really diverse pathways for builds, and most of the talents don’t necessarily require previous ones, a lot of the talents don’t necessarily need to picked together and mostly depends on the comp against, thrall does his things in a lot of flexibility but he isn’t really good at a very specific purpose outside of both of his heroics.

For the record Rolling Thunder is an extremely meta pick, in comparison I always pick Echo the Elements, even in the solo lane, that extra targeted damage helps and with a lot of procing with Follow Through, even when combined with Frostwolf Grace if I necessarily required to pick it.

Thrall is versatile than just meta, a lot of situations he doesn’t specifically have a build and you can pick based on what you are looking at, it wins… at least for me.

And heroes like this are even present on Tyrande and Qhira where hybrid building can be a common point to win the game.

2 Likes
16

I’m really bad at Thrall. Still play the old school build, double lighting at one, follow through, and the tempest fury. I should try other talents. Wish I was better, pretty cool hero

17

I mean if you offer a build and there are differing opinions, people will challenge your ideas…that’s just a healthy conversation.

No need to get defensive friend.

2 Likes