Ok, so I recently played a match as Varian, and one of my team was absolutely certain he was a Tank, even though in the menus it clearly places him as a bruiser. So i wanna know if he was a tank at one point, or if my team mate was just miss remembering, because they got pretty defensive about it.
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Taunt Varian is a tank. If you’re going TB then of course you’re a bruiser. CS is also more of a bruiser/assassin role so they gave him an overall rating of a bruiser.
Nevertheless, your teammates were probably trying to communicate for you to go taunt instead of TB or CS.
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Varian was advertised on release as a Multicalss, who can build (by Heroic picking) either to be a tank or a bruiser (or some can argue there’s a 3rd option, a melee assassin). Now Varian is still often used as a tank in ranked matches with Taunt, and in QM and Aram, he is treated as a Tank.
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Pretty much this. He originally was branded as tank, people complained that everyone was going twinblades and they had no tank, so he got rebranded to bruiser.
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Thank you, I was just so confused. To be honest, most tanks don’t feel tanky to me, and varian just doesn’t feel tanky. guess its just how you use him that counts.
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The Taunt deal of Varian is pretty big , even though it did get nerfed (Taunt used to not only give you more max hp , but it also gave you permanent armor on top of it all , making him a very good tank that synergized with healers the same way how Garrosh does with his trait mechanic) it’s still a very good tempo gain at level 4 and it’s not like he loses damage when he picks it , it’s just that it feels lackluster to the other options (you can pick Overpower at level 1 and still feel impactful damage wise with Taunt imo - and to clarify : it feels lackluster DAMAGE WISE but as long as your teammates follow you and they follow your taunt target , you will melt people usually)
TB doesn’t hold up as much unless you’re perma pushing/doing camps (Even then it’s still meh tbh) , and Colossal is good if you have another tank in your team to lock down your target while you apply the ult on said target (so like a Tyrande’s hunter mark basically , except you deal a lot of damage as a follow up on that)
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Most Tanks got baseline perma Armor which got changed, iirc in the same patch when Taunt lost its own. It was a design direction which they ditched.
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He gets his stuff at 10.
He is quite flexible.
Many people are a bit binary about choices when discussing them - including choices not being binary - but my reality is, you should pick whichever talent suits you and the matchup to perform the role you are actually in.
Since he can pick two talents immensely empowering his tanking (peeling, blocking, controlling) role - Taunt-4 and Protected-10 - he is (usually) matched in QM against another tank which effectively tells you to play as such.
Sometimes the correct choice is neither of those talents, the point is that you either behave as a tank (peel, block, control, lead) or communicate your strategy clearly.
A couple examples for clarification.
- In a standard penta matchup (tank-bruiser-AA-mage-heal) you’d likely go Taunt-Protected for most value.
- When playing against squishies, Colossus Smash might hard carry, or enable your team to follow up and at worst trade tanks. At best, you go 20 kills like one recent opponent of mine.
- When there is too much beef with followup on your side, you can go anything but likely CS.
- When there is too much beef or no healers, Twin Blades WINS mega hard (with Protected). Initiate (use E+Q+W), run, heal back on a wave, repeat.
- If you face AA, you’ll want reflective Parry at 1 for sure.
- Under certain constellations, you want your team to cannon down the enemy while you do what a good tank does, soak damage solo in the off lane.
- By the way, when paired with shield (Zarya) or protection (Medivh), Varian becomes disgusting. The challenge between you two is to have at least 10:1 damage absorbed to taken ratio. In other news, run it down baby, you cannot lose.
Case in point - flexibility.
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Varian is one of my favorite tanks, I play Taunt far more often than the other 2 level 4 talents. He has a bit of an odd history, in that Blizzard wanted to try something different, and it sorta-kinda worked. Originally his level 4 talents were all on level 10 (!), so he was basically useless for the first 9 levels. They reworked him to make it so his build starts to come online much earlier.
He is very tanky, but as you noted, it is all in how you play him. In draft, he is typically picked in what is known as a pick or blow up comp, where the team is designed to quickly focus on a specific target, and destroy them instantly. Having a healer like Anduin, Malfurion, Stukov, Brightwing, or Tyrande behind him for follow-up CC after the Taunt means anything in range of his R will just die. Even the enemy tank.
With that said, like all heroes, he does have his weaknesses. His wave clear is poo, he doesn’t have reliable escapes, so shouldn’t be diving into their back line, and he needs to save his abilities for either a hard engage or peeling. Outside of his Taunt, his peeling is limited to slows and just being in the way, so if the enemy team goes with a full dive comp, things can get dicey for him.
Some of the keys to winning with Taunt Varian is his talents. While there is a little flexibility, the main thing to remember is he is meant to single someone out and destroy them, so here is the talent build I generally recommend and why.
Level 1 - Overpower. His trait does a lot of damage, even in tank build, and this talent makes it even stronger. It gives him the burst needed to explode any target quickly.
Level 4 - Taunt. Oddly enough, there are comps you can run with a Smash tank, but we are talking about Taunt right now!
Level 7 - Victory Rush. Yes, yes, I know, everyone goes Second Wind, but trust me on this one. VR procs off of minions as well as monsters, so you become an unkillable beast in lane, or on a map like Infernal Shrines, as those little shrine monsters you have to kill on the objective proc this talent! I can easily top 100k healing on Varian if I am constantly auto-attacking while in this sort of fight. On any tank you want to be getting in as many AAs as possible, but on Varian, it’s what makes him so hard to kill.
Level 10 - Either one is fine, but there are some nuances to be aware of. If they have something like a Malthael, Ming, KTZ, or Pyro KT that wants to one shot you, definitely take Shield Wall (protected, btw). However, I most often take Warbringer when I am playing him as a tank. If they are relying on AA hits for anything, like a Zul’jin, Tychus, or Tyrande, it gives him better Parry uptime, especially since Parry also blocks tower shots if you are fighting under their buildings. In addition, and a lot of people miss this, Warbringer allows you to charge to a friendly target, including both heroes and minions! This can be nice for repositioning or getting out of danger. If I am playing him with friends in voice comms, you will sometimes hear me saying something like, “Run to me so I can Charge out!”
Level 13 - This will depend on what you are facing. Mortal Strike for the healing reduction is the one I normally use, especially against tanks that rely on self healing like a Diablo or Stitches. It is also amazing against heroes like Rehgar or Brightwing who have a huge burst heal. Shattering Throw is the go to if you are up against a tank like Johanna or Mei who rely on fat shields to survive. They use their trait, and you press 1 (or whatever key you have it bound to), and they pop like a soap bubble. It is also good into Zarya, Tyrael, Artanis, or Fenix. I often refer to Shattering Throw as the “Delete Fenix button”.
Level 16 - Banner of Dalaran. Always. Don’t get me wrong, the other banners are strong, but this one is just the Swiss Army knife of banners, and at level 20, it is completely busted. Remember that the spell power benefits your healer as well as any mage, and it boosts your trait damage that is already boosted by your level 1 talent. You can also drop the banner to tank things for you.
Level 20 - Glory to the Alliance. Always. This makes it such that Banner of Dalaran has an insanely short CD, so you can be spamming it. The healing boost makes your entire team extremely hard to kill. Make sure you are positioning it close to your backline for maximum benefits.
I hope this helps!
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You are incorrect here. He is not a tank in Taunt form. He’s a bruiser.
Incorrect. Taunt varian is literally classified as a tank. Whether you see him as a tank or not is something I care nothing about.
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Varian is having his primary role changed from Bruiser to Tank next update.
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He’s a Brank.
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I play Smash tank, it’s great TBH and I’ve rarely lost with it when I use it
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That makes me a brankster. I take it!
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