SoI’ve spent my fair share of time on Qhira, level 65 so far, not quite as high some other people here but given I can’t play her that often in the game mode I play most I’d say this is still a lot for me
Anyway I decided to heck with it I’m going to share some tidbits on what I think works to make you good at playing Qhira, some of these things I actually had to learn as it was different form what I normally do and I can admit I’m not always perfect in some of these regards
Okay so here we go
A Huntress’ Caution
So here’s the rub, despite what most people who don’t play her might think about her due to her crazy heal potential, (which does exist under certain circumstances I can admit) she is still quite fragile, those famed Invincibility frames of hers put an enemy in control of your positioning and her only escape tool has a slight delay and can be body blocked
Put simply her escape on such a long cooldown is closer to the bottom of melee assassins, it’s better then Cassia and Butcher but she’s no zeratul with her escape ability.
Thus it is very important that with few exceptions you have to often times hold back pick your moment to engage and always keep in mind your escape plan, every time you engage the enemy you should have a worst case scenario planned and if you can’t at least have a chance of getting away you don’t take that engage.
Always take note of every enemy even if you’re focusing, keep a close eye on all CC,
And if the enemy have too much CC for it to be reasonable to keep track of like a stun lock then you may want to avoid Qhria all together
The right hunting weapon
First things first, E build sucks, there is almost never a time where it will ever be the way to go, and this is not something that will be changed any time soon, the reason for this is because the E build encourages you to stay attached to targets with Qhira’s revolving sweep for as long as possible, something that any competant enemy team can take full advantage of and goes back to point 1 about a cautious huntress
With that in mind there are two builds that are somewhat viable, I have utilized both in certain circumstances though my preference is the AA build
Now the AA build is built primarily on 2 talents, Finishing Touch at 1 and The Hunted at 13 The pro’s of this build are that it has superior single target damage, Even without percent damage or anti armour this build has the potential to shred through a Deathwing, Also thanks to Your Pain my Gain at level 4 it gains superior dueling capacity, in fact in my experience Imperius is the only hero labelled Bruiser who has a chance to kill a Qhira in a 1v1, and even that is more of a skill match then a hard counter.
The other is the Bleed Build, Now with this build you aren’t going to be melting big hitters like Artanis in 1v1’s nearly as well but you can put out a lot of stressful AOE damage, non AOE healers like Morales will feel the stress especially once you get Chainsaw at 13.
With this build you need to adapt your playstyle a bit, for those of you who play Lunara this way of life will be second nature, spreading the poison
This build has much better survivability in team fights due to more reliably having more BLood Rage stackson more people due to chainsaw shorter cooldown and the longer duration from the quest at level 1
However on the flip side is you won’t be really hampering down on single targets and the list of healers who can shut you don’t to an extreme is much longer then the AA build
KNowing both these builds is major
That said some of you who paid close attention will notice For both builds I only mentioned 2 talents on two specific tiers and that plays into my next point
When the prey evolves You evolve faster
Now here’s something that some of you might find rather interesting
Talent Tiers 4, 7, 10, 16 and even 20 are pretty open for adaptation Despite the build you choose at level 1. Allow me to break it down
Level 4: at Level 4 is 9 times out of 10 a defensive option, you either have Upstage or Your Pain My Gain, now despite what your gut might tell you about going upstage if you go the Bleed Build that might not be the best option, Your Pain My Gain is pure armour so if the enemy is built out of heavy Spell Damage this will still be better, likewise if you find yourself fighting a zul’jin and Artanis or some other VERY heavy AA comp then even in the AA build Upstage might serve you better in the team fights (though it is worth noting that the Armour is still important for qhira’s dueling power.
Even the Slow can be considered under certain circumstances if none of your opponents have teleports or other displacement but again VERY rare
Level 7. Now I know many people might tell you HealMonger is the go to, and very often you might be right, that is some crazy sustain however don’t count out the competition The Thirst
The thirst is to put it simply the only Burst damage Qhira has access to outside of Final Strike, and one thing you might find interesting is the heal that the THirst provides is calculated based on the damage of the attack as a whole, which means all other AA damage multipliers are applied for the heal, of which Qhira has a whopping total of 4 in her talent tree (Finishing Touch 1, The Thirst at 7, the Hunted at 13 and No Sanctuary at 20)
So this tier is more dependant on two things, 1 how desperate are you for healing and 2 how well can YOUR healer provide
If you’ve got some wicked enabler and crazy healing output like Whitemane, A good alex or Morales, or even better you’re the target of an Aba hat and can rely on that then the Thirst might serve you better then heal monger, altenratively if you know you’ll be taking lots of damage, covering somewhat for a frontline or just have a healer who might not be able to reach yo uas well like a Stukov or an Ana then Healmonger might be the way to go.
Level 16,
All three talents on this tier have their time and place and there is basically no reason to write any of them off as useless,
- Booming Kick: Booming Kick i my usual go to, and I don’t think I really need to explain the insane benefits this talent can have often times, We’re talking a stun that hits mutliple people and knocks entire tams back, this not only can set up wombo combo’s if the enemy dosen’t move out of the team can be a gret intiation it also can enable better escapes and let Qhira be a bit more blazse about going in as she’ll have an easier time getting away with fewer people shooting her as she retreats
- Lingering Ailment: This one might fly under the radar a lot however I think it’s especailly useful when you have a bigdps you can trust alongside you, I particularly enjoy this when I have an mpehisto or other big mage on my team, also when the enemy ahve a big frontline (This is also the best option against Deathwing) Just keep an eye, if you find you have hte oppurtunity to swing a lot and your team can capitalize on half if not the entire enemy team having reduced armour consider this option
- Swing Life Away: This one is Qhira’s defence option on this tier, Now I want to stress that you SHOULD NOT feel obligated to swing for the entire duration for the cooldown reduction, remember what I explained in the first sub category about Caution on Qhira, however the spell armour can be amazing especially if Qhira is playing the role of bruiser and is a second frotnline, definitely consider this if your Healer is saying Qhira is putting stress on them. Due to what she’s taking in
The Storm Tier: Now in my experience the Final Strike upgrade might seem flashy and awesome but here’s one thing to note
If you can’t trigger the ability reset consistently then all you’re getting is an extra 25 damage on one ability, So the Final strike upgrade is kind of bleh if you arne’t able to consistently get the kill (which is not easy and I would never bank on personally)
NO Sanctuary however how the math works, means you only get 5% less damage on final strike, and on no sanctuary you also gain a speed boost and 20% damage on everything else on targets below 50% health, it’s actually kind of crazy I never pick anything else
However Grappling Hook ugprade is also good under certain circusmtances especially gagainst heroes who have good teleports to get out of the fight it’ll be better at chasing then No Sanctuary’s speed boost.
My Point of this entire section is simple, Qhira’s telent tree is not set in stone regardless of what build you take, so make sure you understand all her options
Know what Prey not to hunt
Throughout my time playing Qhira I have made a short list of heroes I absolutely positively refuse to play Qhira into if I can avoid it, if the players of these heroes are competant and in your skill bracket they will beat you
- Tracer: this one is pretty self explanitory, qhira heavily relies heavily on narrow skillshots to do a lot of what she does so Tracer can be a royal pain
- Lunara: Simialr reasons, in fact worse because she can also out range and kite Qhira even after No Sanctuary is triggered
- Arthas: Arthas due to his consistent reduction in attack speed can shut down a lot of Qhira’s damage as even Bleed build still relies on AAs for a good deal of output
- Malfurion. Not only doesh e completely negate the Bleed Build but his roots are crazy good at punishing any and all uses of Revolving Sweep
- Brightwing: This is dependant on map, but Qhira thrives on ganks and smaller engagements so Brightwing being able to be in a fight in top lane instantly can be a huge counter
The Right Hunting Guide
Now While I think Qhira can fit her way into most comps, maybe not the greatest in any particular, anything except dedicated poke comps can she weave her way into to a greater or lesser degree, that said there are a few great synnergies she has
- Initiation CC. Anyone who has easy to land roots, stuns or anything, Remember Qhira’s revolving Sweep is a narrow skillshot not the easiest thing to land, but if a point and click stun like Taunt or Butchers charge is used the knockback and stun duration of Qhira’s can make it absolutely deadly
- Dive Tanks and self sufficent backline: Put simply if you have an anubarak or a muradin who can dive in with you, get irght up in the enemies grill even as Qhira goes into the back she can really reak some havoc, it’s one thing if Qhira gets cleansed off and ends up in the backline alone to get focused, it’s another if she gets cleansed off but a Muradin is already right nexto her and now a meleee asassin and a tank are in the backline together
- Abather: there’s nothing to really say here, Qhira is a great target for Aba hat especially when going AA build
- Tychus: this one is a recent addition to my list however it makes sense when you look at it, So Tychus has a talent called the Bigger they Are which makes his trait go up to 4% of a targets health per hit but no longer does any bonus damage after the target is below 35% health
Well guess who has both of her viable builds built around executing targets below 50% health to finish off what Tychus starts.
Conclusion
While not as OP as some people think Qhira can be very dangerous in the right hands, her kit isn’t hard mechanically but her skillshots can make her ery difficult under certain circumstances
I hope you all found this helpful and if you have any mistakes I made in here or anything you’d like to mention feel free to tell me.