Hey, I’m a main Malthael player, level 64 as him currently, and I would call myself… good as him, at least I can carry with him sometimes.
This is a big thread and takes a lot of time to read, that’s why I also added a quick cheatsheet if you wanna read everything really fast, but there’s also a detailed explanation of every single talent.
Also these aren’t my thoughts, I’ve also written some of my thought about this, but this is mostly mutual thinking of most Malthael players, and Malthael mains. Also the talent builds are 100% costumizable, so dont worry about changing the talent build, because the only important part of Malthael’s talent is only his level 16, that’s his HUGE power spike.
I would love it if you guys could like this thread, and comment if there’s anything in your mind, ill respond to it as fast as I can!
Wish you a great day/night!
First of all, let me tell you how to use your abilities perfectly:
Q: Use it when you want to clear a lane faster, heal up or just deal damage in a game. Fun fact: you can hold your Q to cast it instantly when it gets off cooldown. otherwise, don’t use it if you’re even slightly low on mana, because if there’s gonna be a fight or a teamfight, you’re gonna be low on mana.
W: Useless in laning, and spamming it is a waste of mana unless you are going for W build, and don’t use it in teamfights as soon as it gets off cooldown, because it might teleport you to a spot you wouldn’t like to be, AKA overextention.
E: If you are laning and clearing the lane 0.5 seconds faster actually helps, then you should use it, otherwise its a BIG mana waste, and also bad to spam in teamfights cuz its gonna lower your mana pretty dramatically.
Now for the talent picks:
First of all, there’s 3 talent builds:
Q build: Great against low-hp targets and to poke from back. [T3212114,Malthael]
W build: extremely lategame talent build because till 16 your talents even ult is useless, great against frontline. [T1221124,Malthael]
Trait build: Absolutely useless, everybody agrees on this, literally the worst talent build. [T1311133,Malthael]
I recommend playing Q build if new, and recommend W build only if you are at least level 25 as Malthael. I personally play W build mostly.
Fast cheatsheet:
Level 1: Death’s Reach only good for W build, On a Pale Horse amazing for laning, Fear the Reaper better in any ways.
Level 4: Die Alone for 1v1, Throwing Shade totally good recommend this one, Black harvest useless unless trait build.
Level 7: Cold Hand basically permanent 20% slow recommended, Massacre useless unless W build, Touch of Death only recommended if you know what you are doing.
Level 10: Tormented Souls if W build or trait build or if you are a Malthael pro, otherwise Last Rites all the way.
Level 13: Soul Siphon recommended specially for Q build or against high-hp enemies, Ethereal existence against high AA enemies if you encounter them a lot, Inevitable End great unstoppable, Shroud of Wisdom never take it unless you know the game perfectly.
Level 16: Soul Collector main talent for Q build good against squishies, Mortality main talent for W build good against high-hp frontline, Memento Mori main talent for trait build but it sucks don’t get it.
Level 20: Reaper of Souls useless never take, Angel of Death only take if need to finish quest heal is useless, Final Curtain good to zone enemies in or out, No One Can Stop Death 100% recommended no reason why not to.
Detailed explanations of talents:
Level 1:
Death’s Reach: Increase Wraith Strike’s range by 35%.
When I was a noob playing Malthael, I always thought this talent is useless its bad no one should pick this, but now I can understand its actually a pretty powerful tool, granting you to go in easier, get out faster, and just really good in total. I almost always pick this when playing W build, but if not playing W build, I prefer the other talents more, they are more useful.
On a Pale Horse: Gain an additional 20% Movement Speed while mounted.
This is a MUST-HAVE if you will be focusing on laning, its a very powerful talent, causing you to double soak, or soak a lane real quick then come back in action in a matter of seconds. And I pick this if I don’t think i’m gonna get ganked much, because the other 2 are kind-of a life saver, and this doesn’t really contribute that much, tho it can be really good if chasing someone or trying to run away really fast.
Fear the Reaper: Activate to increase Movement Speed by 25% and pass through other units for 4 seconds.
Absolute life saver if you run into troubles a lot. REALLY recommend this if you are just starting to play Malthael, and don’t know when to engage, when to not, and if you think you are gonna die a lot. This is pickable in any talent build, because of just how good it is, to engage, run back, or even great against Artanis swap or Diablo dash. This could be basically a replace to the other level 1 talent, “Death’s Reach” because it does the same thing, better, but in a very longer cooldown time.
Level 4:
Die Alone: Soul Rip deals 50% more damage to Heroes if it hits only one Hero.
Great for 1v1, and I used to always pick this, until another level 4 talent got buffed, which I will be talking about it. But now, the only time I would pick this if ill be 1v1ing a lot against a low-hp target a lot, lets say Zagara is laning, or for example Murky (a great example), I would pick this 100%.
Throwing Shade: Increase Death Shroud’s range by 33%, reduce its cooldown by 3 seconds, and reduce its Mana cost from 50 to 30.
Death Shroud’s initial impact deals 2% maximum Health as damage to non-Structure enemies.
The 2nd line, in this talent description, is the newest buff to this talent, since no one seemed to get this, because improved range, cooldown and mana cost wouldn’t be useful a lot really. But now, the 2% damage is kind of better than “Die Alone”, against more tankier heroes, plus, causes you to be able to poke in teamfights if you cant engage, and able to spam it more if needed with the lower mana cost. I basically just spam this when 1v1ing someone, when laning and in teamfights, because its really useful and does a bit of damage for a kinda low mana cost. I almost always pick this.
Black Harvest: Quest: Apply Reaper’s Mark to Heroes for a total of 180 seconds.
Reward: Permanently increase Reaper’s Mark’s duration by 2 seconds.
Black Harvest, absolutely useless, Unless using it for trait build, which picking any random talent other than the trait talents would come out as a better result. Basically what I’m trying to say is, trait build sucks, don’t use it, just don’t.
Level 7:
Cold Hand: Soul Rip Slows enemies by 20% for 2.5 seconds.
This is an amazing talent, this is basically a permanent 20% slow, absolute madness. And chaos. I take this most of the time.
Massacre: Wraith Strike now damages and applies Reaper’s Mark to enemies around its target.
This would be useless unless going for W build. W build would only make this useful. But even with W build, “Cold Hand” would still come in really useful.
Touch of Death: Activate to reduce healing received by Heroes afflicted by Reaper’s Mark by 50% for 4 seconds.
This is a strong talent, cant deny that at all. But it could only be useful in various places, I don’t really pick it much, because I like the 20% slow more, or the other talent for W build. This would be only recommended if you actually know what you are doing and good at this game or Malthael.
Level 10:
Tormented Souls: Unleash a torrent of souls, continually applying Reaper’s Mark to nearby enemies for 4 seconds. When Tormented Souls is cast and when it expires, reset the cooldown of Wraith Strike.
Last Rites: Apply a death sentence to an enemy Hero that, after 2 seconds, deals damage equal to 50% of their missing Health.
Quest: Enemies killed between the application of Last Rites and within 1.5 seconds of it dealing damage permanently reduce its cooldown by 5 seconds, to a minimum of 20 seconds.
Ok lets talk about this, everyone says Last Rites is better, Tormented Souls trash or whatever, it’s all around the HotS community, but there’s space to talk here. First of all let me tell you the reason why Tormented Souls gets so much hate, first of all Tormented Souls basically does what your AA does, just slightly better and some more teleports, not much, but before, it used to be better by giving Malthael some armor, which made it easier for him to dive in and just cause havoc behind the frontline. But after this massive nerf to him, everyone is just moving to Last Rites as the main ultimate. Well there’s nothing much to talk about Last Rites but that its just really good, and also scaleable as the game progresses with the massive cooldown reduction quest. But now let me talk about why to pick Tormented Souls if you are a pro as Malthael: there’s no need to AA anymore, you just have to position yourself correctly, dodge stuff and you still deal damage, plus, 2 free Ws, that’s nice, but only for 2 reasons, W build and trait build, which trait build sucks so there would only be one reason to go tormented souls and that would be W build, that’s 3x8% damage in a matter of seconds in a large area + no need to AA. But unless W build, I also find tormented souls… worse… than last rites.
Level 13:
Soul Siphon: Increase Soul Rip’s bonus healing from Heroes to 4.75% of the Hero’s maximum Health.
Pick this 100% if you are going for Q build, unless you find more survivability in the other talents. But this is recommended to new players. Or if the enemy has a lot of HP, for example Diablo + Deathwing in one comp, oh you are going this talent 100%, because as long as you aren’t stunned or silenced, you are unkillable, not even joking.
Ethereal Existence: Gain 10 Physical Armor per enemy Hero afflicted by Reaper’s Mark, up to a maximum of 30.
This is a not bad talent. This means an almost-always 30 armor in teamfights, adding great survivability against AA heroes. But not recommended much.
Inevitable End: Activate to become Unstoppable for 2 seconds, but remove all active Reaper’s Marks.
Large unstoppable. 2 seconds is kind-of a lot of time for an unstoppable ability, but pay attention, its gonna drain all the traits from the enemy, but its not a big deal. take it against butcher or high CC enemies, a very good talent indeed.
Shroud of Wisdom: After 2 seconds, gain 50 Spell Armor for 4 seconds.
People say a lot of things about this, mostly bad comments, but its not that bad if you are an absolute madman at the game, predicting everything, or if you encounter a lot of small teamfights against a lot of mage heroes, its really cool. Otherwise if you don’t know what you are doing most of the time (even me), yeah never pick this talent.
Level 16:
Soul Collector: Reduce Soul Rip’s cooldown by 0.5 seconds and increase its range by 25%.
Main talent for Q build, and a very powerful talent just in total, great against a lot of squishies in teamfights, also a big help in laning or doing camps. But BEWARE, mana is a thing.
Mortality: When damaging a Hero, Wraith Strike deals bonus damage equal to 8% of the Hero’s maximum Health.
Main talent for W build, very powerful against high-hp targets in frontline specially, great synergy with Tormented Souls.
Memento Mori: Reaper’s Mark deals 90% increased damage after afflicting an enemy for more than 4 seconds.
Main talent for trait build, which well trait build is useless.
Level 20:
Reaper of Souls: Increase Tormented Souls’ duration by 2 seconds. While Tormented Souls is active, Hero Takedowns refresh the duration.
Useless never take this, unless trait build but “Final Curtain” on level 20 would be more useful than this.
Angle of Death: Last Rites heals for 100% of the damage dealt, and its current and future cooldown reduction bonuses are doubled.
The heal here isn’t the matter here, don’t think the healing would be useful at all, only take this if you desperately need to reduce ult cooldown to finish quest. Not recommended by me.
Final Curtain: Death Shroud leaves a trail in its wake for 4 seconds, applying Reaper’s Mark to enemies in its area.
Great synergy with level 4 “Throwing Shade” but its not really that big of a deal, but still its a great tool to zone enemies. in or out of a place. Not recommended by me.
No One Can Stop Death: Activate while dead to immediately respawn at the Hall of Storms but increase Malthaels next respawn time by 25%.
I personally always take this talent, there’s really no reason why not to take this.
