Hello everyone, I’m new to posting on forums but I’ve played HotS on/off since Beta. You may recognize me as that guy who posts guides on HeroesFire.
What talents have you previously underestimated, or the community as a whole neglected, only to find that they were actually incredible? To me, I’ve underestimated ultimates like Jaina’s Water Elemental, Ragnaros’s Sulfuras Smash, and Lunara’s Thornwood Vines. After trying them out, I realize that they’re a reliable component that completes the hero. I found a whole new love and light in playing the Hero a different, yet viable way!
Other smaller talents include Lunara’s Endless Spores at 13, Imperius’s cleave at 7, and Ragnaros slow burn at 4. These talents seemed underwhelming but they actually synergize with future talents that make them explode with potential.
Pun:
Yes, I like E build on Ana. Sometimes on Malfurion, too. Mal’ganis not so much.
Serious:
I still firmly believe that Insect Swarm is the best ult (for me at least) on Anub’arak.
I also enjoy shotgun Jaina and Missi-Li-Ming (both Q builds).
Historical shift:
I used Circle on Jaina forever because that’s how you do it. I got gradually less results from it, eventually flipped to Water Elemental. Best decision of my life.
Coming to senses:
I used QQQ Nazeebo. Because it’s the teamfight talent.
Yes, it works in those specific conditions, like Hanamura, or Cursed / Garden.
But eventually realized that the 4 should be something else (usually take leech on kill). Much better for lane sustain.
Li-Ming was one of my worst mages for years. I tried to play her Calamity build over and over and it just wasn’t clicking for me. I felt useless and had a horrible winrate on her. Then, one day I decided to try Orb build. Then it fell into place. Ming is one of my highest winrate heroes on this account.
Sometimes, it’s not about whatever the most meta build is. You will get better results playing whatever you’re comfortable with that plays to your strengths as a player. For me, I learned that I have a crap reaction time, but I’m good at positioning and leading targets.
Funny my team got wrecked by anub last night. They had had him and whats-her-face always asking where’s illidan at. Cocoon and warden’s cage(?) made the fight 3 v 5 every time those ults where up . I wish he went swarm!
I salute you, shotgun Jaina player! I’m not much of a Li-Ming person, but of all the builds I tried on her I seemed to like Q/AA + Fireflies on her best. Feels like I can properly do some reliable damage, even though everyone else goes calamity and vibe check the Garrosh.
I used to underestimate Viking’s Longboat, I think a lot of other people do too, it is likely the worse choice in most situations, but I think with over 100 games under my belt using the ultimate I can say with some confidence it has its niches where it outshines recall pretty considerably, the main one being situations where teamfighting is better then pushing out lanes, boat can act as a level 10 jump with its weird cast conditions and enable you to more safely pick grouped viking talents without the concern of sacrificing your only escape, plus if you need more escapes you can also just go for jump too and make boat just be an extra jump, to top it off it enables you to pick what I would argue is vikings strongest talent, ragnarok and roll, which makes boat a legitimately major threat to the enemy team and lets you cast it more often.
I definitely wish they’d buff it but I don’t think its unusable, people just don’t really know how and when to use it, including me cuz I learn some weird interaction with it every 3 or so games I pick it.
I personally underestimated recklessness on Zuljin for a very long time. What sucks is that I can never use it in a game with a healer. Reasons include they have no clue how Zuljin or the talent works, I ask nicely to heal me less so they heal me more, or my personal favorite, “I’m padding my heals”.
Utility, defensives and dispel talents in general have been slept on, especially in QM.
Jaina’s Frost Armor, for which half of players don’t know affects even range attacks and you don’t pick this only to reduce a single AA every 10 seconds
Lili’s Safety Sprint can save her from stuns and roots where she hurts most in the early game
Tracer’s Rewind talents 1-13-20 can be insane against melees with combo/charge
Garrosh Body Check always overlooked (slow and heal reduction)
Lunara’s Abolish Poison(?) dispels Chen’s Stagger and some other nasty things
both of Johanna’s CDR talents in general especially against Dva, ETC and others where more frequent interrupts for power slide, mosh and mech reset are a game changer
Kael’s Energy Roil with double Verdant Spheres vs heavy melee
BW’s extended Polymorph range, the most insane point and click in the game (8% pickrate)
Now this is a good example of under used /underrated! Unlike other’s post with their examples these can be used almost all of the time with no set backs.
Once you start using the word “niches” that means it gets used but you have to wait for the time to be right to used it, more then people don’t know the value or the power of it.
Talents and heroics being under used because they are niche picks is a consequents of it only being able to be used at right times which are infrequent and rare inflating the feeling of being sleepers when they are not.
Take Deckard’s green gem, it’s not a “niche” pick because 9 times out of 10 you are going to be against other healers but I also never see other Deckard players picking it. If you only ran into a healer 1 time out of 10 games then it becomes a niche pick no one uses but it’s unfair to call it a “sleeper” talent at that point if 99% of your games never “needs” it.
This is why some of post above yours are iffy to say the lest as far as “sleepers” go.
P.S love safety sprint it’s your trait on demand! Powerful stuff for a Lili.
That reminds me of a game where I was playing Ch0’de’Gall and the enemy team had an Anub and Maiev that timed me out for 12 seconds every single fight. The Gall was so pissed lmao
Oh i love sleeper talents. I love it especially when you know that the enemy has a certain expectation on how a hero should work and you throw them off guard.
Ill be revisiting this thread with more ideas, but for now off the top of my head Deckard’s Ancient Blessing at 13 comes to mind. 7% pick rate, but it’s like a secret bloodlust without the flashy graphic. Just press this button and reasons you cant explain, 3+ enemies magically disappear.
Solarite Reaper at level 7 on Artanis. It has the lowest pick rate, yet the highest win rate. Chrono Surge is certainly the go to if you are playing Stacktanis (which most people do), but Solarite Reaper helps in the off-lane by mitigating one of his biggest weaknesses when solo laning.
Not exactly a sleeper talent but Abathur map pressure does not function without extended Spike Burst range, the basic one isn’t wide enough to catch all enemy minions with AOE when opposing waves clash.
Remember when most healers had Shrink Ray? As you noted, Pacify is not just a defensive talent, it can help you secure kills, and it makes heroes tiny, which is just adorable seeing a tiny Butcher running around.
She can shrink two people at once with Shared Punishment at level 16. So she can have two itty bitty heroes wabbling around like toddlers while she laughs at them.