This week saw the release of Garrosh, the ex-warchief of the Horde, in Heroes of the Storm and while his arrival may not be as monumental as his impact on the world of Azeroth, his playstyle in the Blizzard MOBA is one that I found to be a lot of fun.
As a bit of a disclaimer, I am not an expert at MOBA’s. In fact, I’m not even all that good at them. I do however, enjoy playing Heroes on the odd occasion with friends and when I do play, it is usually on Varian or Jaina. So, moving onto Garrosh was a bit strange for me, but also rather refreshing.
He is a warrior, a tank, and has a skillset that lets you really get amongst the other team and wreak havoc amongst their line. I played several games and often found myself going for a stable build of talents that gave me equal measure of survivability and damage output. But of course, I was playing with and vs the AI. Being self sustainable is important when you play solo.
When Blizzard release a new hero into the wild of the Nexus, it is often met with cries of either “Too overpowered” or “Too weak”, and the community collectively lose their minds for a week or two until a patch gives them a buff or nerf. Garrosh may well suffer from this as well. I found him to be slow and a bit clunky to play. His skill shots were easy enough to get but his auto attack, was slow and didn’t seem to hit very hard.
On the other hand, he is a tank more than he is a dps class, so his ability to dish out the pain shouldn’t be as high as an assassin or specialist. But after playing a warrior like Varian, it’s hard to think why someone might pick Garrosh instead.
With only slight changes to his swing speed and maybe a slight buff to his damage abilities, if not his whole kit, would make him feel more like the monster that Garrosh, Warchief of the Horde, is meant to be. Varian feels like the hero he is in the story of Warcraft, so why does Garrosh not get equal treatment.
Again, I am a complete amateur in the context of this game so my feedback may be pointless but as a very, very casual player, that was my impression of him. Despite my gripes though, playing him is great fun, and if you are patient enough to find a build and playstyle you enjoy, or even play with other people, then he is probably a lot stronger than I give him credit for.
Pulling fleeing enemies towards me and hitting them with a slow then maybe tossing them further away from their path of retreat is greatly satisfying. I recommend trying it at least once.
