Hello everyone !
I posted the following message on Reddit two weeks ago but since I didn’t have a lot of answers, I try to post it on the official forum today. All I want is to have an interesting debate with a lot of people 
! Here is the original message :
This is my very first message. I’m not someone who usually write on forums or socials medias but I’ve decided to make a post today to speak with you about Tyrande and share my point of view about my favorite character . I love Tyrande. I love her since Warcraft 3 and when I started Heroes, I was so excited to be able to play her again in a new video game. She was the first hero that I bought and since the begining she is my main (level 138, 1000+ games played).
This post is gonna be long but I have a lot to say. I’m waiting to see your answers. Hopefully, we will be able to talk together in a pleasant and intelligent atmosphere (English is not my mother tongue so forgive my mistakes, be kind !). If I write it today it’s because I have a big problem with her recent rework and the direction taken by Blizzard for her.
So, who is Tyrande ?
- In Warcraft 3 , she is a ranged agility hero who rely on strong auto-attacks boosted by Searing Arrows and Trueshot Aura. She has one of the most strongest ability in the game, Starfall, which allow her to do a lot of magical damages. She has a “support vibe” with the utility she can provide to her army : vision with the owl and damage boost to all ranged units with Trueshot Aura.
- In the lore , she is at the same time the general of the night elf sentinels, the high priestess of the goddess Elune, the leader of the Sisterhood of Elune and the co-ruler of the Night-Elves.
- In Heroes of the Storm , she is classified as a ranged support. Through the reworks, she had differents evolutions :
- Tyrande during alpha and Tyrande 1.0 (2014 – 2015) : She is an aggressive off-support who can’t solo heal. She deals decent damages (with Starfall, an auto-attack build and the owl build), provide a lot of utility and some heal. Shadowstalk doesn’t heal but cloak all her team and reveal ennemies heroes (move speed to allies instead of revealing ennemies heroes during the alpha).
- Tyrande 2.0 (2015 – 2017) : She is close to the previous version. She is still an aggressive off-support who can deals good damages and bring utility but now she has better heals and she can solo heal in some aggressives compositions with a lot of cc and burst. Shadowstlalk now heal allies. Developer Comments : “We think that it’s important that Tyrande has the capability to be a viable solo healer, as she might be the only Support on your team in Quick Match. Shadowstalk is generally an under-picked Heroic, so we decided to focus it more toward healing so that it can become a “support” option. Tyrande still brings less healing than some of our other Supports due to the rest of her kit, but we hope that the Shadowstalk change will bring her closer to what players expect when fulfilling the primary Support role.” (https://heroesofthestorm.com/en-us/blog/19893628/#Tyrande). At this time, all the supports heroes were put in the same category in QM, so it was possible to have Tyrande or Tassadar as solo support vs a true support in the ennemy team.
- Tyrande 3.0 (2017-2018) : That rework refreshed her talent tree (which became old and dusty). She is still an aggressive off-support. Before this rework, Blizzard created a new category for QM (sustain heroes) and now heroes like Tyrande or Tassadar face another sustain hero during QM matchs instead of a true support. Since Blizzard still consider Tyrande as an aggressive off-support, they now can remove the option for her to be a main support and they rework her as a true hybrid between assassin and support. She can deals a lot of damages, she still provide a lot of utility and she can assist the main support by bringing some heals. Shadowstalk is now an ability which only work on Tyrande and give her attack and move speed.
- Tyrande 4.0 (2018-) : Blizzard decide to turn Tyrande into a true main support. She lost a lot of her damages but got a lot of healing potential instead. The basics of her previous version are still here but the numbers are changed and some talents are displaced. She still bring a lot of utility and she still has an aggressive gameplay but she is not an off-support anymore.
This little historic of Tyrande was a bit long but necessary for me to explain why I disagree with the direction taken by Blizzard for her. I don’t like what Tyrande became, I don’t like her as a solo healer. To play healer instead of a damage hero is not the problem for me. I’m not a heavy healer player but I don’t have anything against it. Alexstrasza is one of my favorite hero in the game and she is a healer. If they had changed her into an assasin, I would be dissapointed as well .
The problem is the core of the character and the perception of it. I don’t want Tyrande as a healer because I don’t consider the character like that. I never saw Tyrande as a healer. In Warcraft 3, she does a lot damage and bring some utility to her army. In the lore, she is at the same time the general of the night elf sentinels and the high priestess of the goddess Elune, which means she is a strong, wild warrior and a priestress with some healing gifts . During 4 years of Heroes of the Storm, she was an aggressive off-support , who dealt a lot of damages , brought utility and heals . When Blizzard gave her the possibility to become more of a main healer, it was optional only . At this time, she still had the possibility to choose to increase her damage or increase her healing.
“While a lot of players loved her hybrid Support/Assassin playstyle, she was having a hard time finding a solid spot in the meta. Since her rework last year, we have read a lot of feedback saying that our support players really missed playing her as a healer. When starting her most recent rework, we took the opportunity to shift her role and rebuilt her talent tree and kit around embracing that.” Blizz_Daybringer (Live Game Designer) (https://www.reddit.com/r/heroesofthestorm/comments/9gzoe0/game_design_balance_ama_with_heroes_developers/)
So the problem was her poor pickrate/winrate in pro league ? Of course she has better winrate now but I feel like the character is denatured a little bit. The old Tyrande was fine, she just needed some little buffs (an increased range for example) to shine.
I personnaly thing that the core of the character is to be an hybrid between assassin and support, to be at the same time the general of the night elf sentinels and the high priestess of the goddess Elune. I was very happy with the rework last year. For me, it was the true representation of the character. Of course she is very strong now as a solo support, I don’t deny it, her winrate has increased and she is played a lot in pro games. But for me it’s not a question of winrate or pickrate but a question of what is the nature , the core and the personnality of the character. I feel like she is not in the right place now. To be a solo healer doesn’t fit the core and the nature of the character. For me it’s not a problem of power, winrate or pickrate in HGC but a problem of design. Tyrande is actually designed as a solo healer which, I think, doesn’t fit the initial character.
I feel like the new rework distorts the character. The main point of Heroes is the possibility to play the iconic heroes and unities from the Blizzard universes in a MOBA (and this is strengh of Heroes compared to the others games). The thing is now when I play Tyrande, I don’t have the impression to play the “true” Tyrande, to play that iconic character from Warcraft. I don’t think she is actually well represented in Hots.
During Blizzcon, Blizzard revealed the upcoming new roles system . I’m both happy and sad about it. Happy because I wanted it since a long time and it was necessary. As a Tyrande main, I was even more happy because the off-support role is often misunderstood by players (and I personnaly think this role is very interesting). But I’m also sad. Because of the recent rework of Tyrande, she is now classified as a Healer. I waited so long for the new roles and when it finally come out, I feel like Tyrande is not classified in her true role. She should be classified as a Support , not a healer, along with Tassadar, Abathur, Zarya…
I don’t mind the idea to have Tyrande as main healer, but only if it is optional (because the nature of the character is not to be a healer for me). It would have been easy to give her the possibility to be a main healer while letting her to be an hybrid : give her talents which increase her heals but passively reduce her damages, put damages and heals talents at the same tier… I think it was possible to save her hybrid identity while allowing her the possibility to be a main healer through some talents. I also think it would have been cool to emphazise on utility of Light of Elune more than heal. Celestial Attunement , Kaldorei Resistance and Quickening Blessing are the perfects examples : these talents don’t increase the healing potential of Light of Elune but add utility to it. More talents like this would have been very interesting I think (like the old talent Shroud) to fit the new Support role. There a lot of possiblities with Light of Elune in term of utility, but also with the others abilities/talents : The owl, for example, is a tool which give vision, we could imagine talents which increase this to emphasize the scouting huntress gameplay (like in Warcraft 3). We also can imagine a talent that give the possibility to hit allies heroes with the owl to give them a benediction.
She could totally fit into the new Support category and be an hybrid between an assassin and a support which give A LOT of utility to her team (and she could fit into a lot of draft like this I think) while being able to do good damages. The others Support heroes are kind of hybrid too : Medivh and Abathur are hybrids assassin/support and they work well. They have their place in the game. Tyrande can find her place as a support (not a healer) too.
I’m realistic so I’m not asking for a new rework because I know it won’t happen now (and I must say it would be a very bad move from Blizzard to rework again a hero few months only after the last rework). Maybe one day she will regain her hybrid identity, maybe not. If people are happy with the new rework, it’s cool. I just want to open the debate and show a different opinion.
For now, I wish that the actual Tyrande would be a little more flexible . Tyrande 2.0 was an off-support with the possibility to solo heal in some situationals compositions and with the right talents for it. It would be cool to have Tyrande 4.0 as a healer but with the possibility to play more like a damage off-support in some situationals compositions (double heal). It would be a good first step for me.
A little suggestion : since Everlasting Light (level 7) is the lowest winrate talent and the least picked of the tier, why don’t replace it by a damage talent, or add a new talent at this level (maybe give her back Searing Arrow) ? So with the damages talents of the level 4, this new talent level 7, Starfall, the damages talents level 16 and eventually the level 13 and 20, she would be able to make a “damage” build while remaining a healer. In the past, some healers had the possibility to make a damage build (the old Moonfire build on Malfurion for example) which was situational (in double heal compostion). Blizzard removed damages and waveclear on the supports when they wanted to stop the double support meta last year. But since Tyrande is meant to be the most aggressive healer (and since her waveclear is poor), it won’t break anything I think.
Finally, I’m confused. As I said, I consider the character to be an aggressive off-support (I rely my vision on what she is on Warcraft, her lore and and what she was for 4 years in Hots) but she is not like this anymore. So what is the vision of Blizzard ? How they consider her ? What are the future plans for her ? Will she regain her hybrid identity one day ? And how the player consider her ?
