i went to my level 7 talents to specifically look at what talent isn’t rendered worthless by only being able to get 1 attack in. I thought maybe I could just build samuro for a burst build – go in, hit him with a strong crit burst and then get out. And what I realized is that there are actually no builds for samuro. He has talents that make different parts of his kit better, sure, and maybe you prefer some talents to other talents, but no matter what talents you take with him you will always be playing him the exact same way.
1 Like
Eh, Wind Walk build is a thing (it has four different E talents), Q build is a thing (Way of Illusion, Mirage, Press the Attack), he also has a full Critical strike build which isn’t too bad.
The only thing a bit one dimensional about him is lv13, Shukuchi is so good you rarely want to take other talents on that tier (Kawarimi is a questionable talent but I guess it has its fans)
And Arthas is supposed to counter him. I frequently list him as a decent counter when people claim he can’t be countered. I’ve yet to see more than a couple people counterpick him with an Arthas.
You are not supposed to win that duel vs Arthas (though there is no way you should die to him either, he will just drive you away from objectives or camps and win that way)
1 Like
okay but how does his E build differ in playstyle from his Q build (before the 20)? Even if you don’t take a single E talent you’re still using it the exact same way as if you had because it already gives you a movespeed bonus so you use it to catch up to enemies you’re about to dive on, which is also exactly how you use it in the E build. Or, like, there’s a talent that makes your W do more damage after you use your Q, but again – you’re already holding off on using your W until after you Q because it shares between them. No talents change the way you play him.
Well, that’s a given - he has zero damage of any kind besides auto attacks (or critical auto attacks), unless you count the dubious Bladestorm heroic. The greatest talent that changes him from a base hero that just spawns clones, is Illusion Master.
E build is a partly defensive build that gives you armor, a teleport and self healing, as well as 40% movement speed. You might need it if the enemy has a good Zeratul or Genji who is determined on hunting you down and have the tools to chase you even after you swapped places with a Mirror Image.
Harsh Winds is also good against two tanks because it greatly reduces the armor of enemies late game. Without Harsh Winds it’s really hard to make a dent in some heroes HP pools like a fully souled Diablo, or a Stitches, even if Abathur is hatting you. I’d say that is a crucial talent in some matches.
1 Like
Stealthies have a dangerous design philosophy and it doesn’t take much to accidentally make them busted.
Giving them a diversified talent tree would just generalize them, and really they’re supposed to fit a more niche theme as an assassin that needs to wait to strike. Drafting would be miserable if you could pick heroes like Sam and not get massively punished for it.
That being said Sam is definitely one of the higher skill floor heroes, let alone stealthy.
He’s much more viable at higher ranks than the majority of them but he requires a lot more game knowledge and awareness to utilize well.
A good Sam can play the enemy team like a fiddle and have them chasing around clones all day. If he has more than 1 death by the end of the game than either he wasn’t a good Sam or his team failed him by not being able to output enough pressure to keep the enemy team from focusing him down.