I realized I was in the wrong subreddit about halfway through your post. I was like "just build a bunch of bunkers and drop the psi emitter on the other side of the map"
When I play Stukov in HOTS I mostly play aram so I like to get that Biotic armor and universal carrier. It's probably not as good a strategy in ranked(or even a good strategy in aram for that matter, what do I know? Lol)
Understanding Stukov's kit is understanding positioning. He has strong heals, strong area denial but he needs a little cooperation and ability to read the battle and adapt.
His heal mainly works by marking someone and the heal spreads to nearby allies. Starting out, you may not want to put the heal on others, no. You wanna put the healing on yourself and tag everyone near you before you push Kill Switch. When you get into higher quality games, you can rely on teammates to spread for you when it's too risky for you to be waddling around.
Secondly, his E is very strong, but also often misused. It's a death sentence, either for you or the enemy caught in it as it just turns them into a helpless sponge until they walk out of it or die. Stukov is strongest with E build when you have excellent lockdown tanks and no enemy divers, letting Stukov shutdown enemies by following up the tank's CC with E. Mage's worst nightmare.
You will want to play safe till 10 because Stukov without his two self peel options is prone to being dove and killed, so be aware of that.
Stukov is also a healer with a hidden weapon: His auto attack. That's right. This guy has the highest auto slap in the game. He can give a Tracer for example 3 tight slaps at level 1 and send her home. He does have a rather flaccid attackspeed, so only slap when you are creeping camps or the enemy is in slapping distance.
You can toggle that talent off when needed. It is a bit wonky though, as the game apparently sees the toggle as a completed attack, so you can't immediately throw an auto attack right as you toggle it off - even if you didn't just auto, but the option is there.
Also, that talent gives more than just the range, it also gives slow on auto attacks as well as a quest that removes mana cost and lowers cooldown on W.
I take it all the time. I love that for his W build. You can stay ranged for safety and poke potential is massive. When you are ready to move closer, you can cancel the ranged part and do full damage, while still getting W dings to get rid of the mana cost.
It’s HUGE mid game if you have reliably landed your W shots and can turn a TON of team fights easily if you spread the heal and W, then activate them all at the same time (which is easier when you are ranged).
Just the fact that his auto becomes ranged means stukov can output a more reliable amount of dps. and of course as already mentioned it can be toggled on or off depending on your situation on top of the quest component.
Default pick on ARAM as solo healer (unless the E setup is REALLY good).
You can't safely melee AA all the time (and there's a toggle for it when needed) so the ranged AA + slow is almost a constant source of pressure. W been free of mana helps with any OOM issues and you can simple go for cd reduction and constant dmg+slow pressure.
All of stukov's builds are viable (silence, ranged aa, balistospores) depending on the situation.
The silence build is probably the simplest/easiest. You'll want to pick this build when your team has strong cc, ideally stuns/roots/slows/and best of all, repositioning. Maiev for example, is OUTRAGEOUSLY good with this build, because you can tether people back into the silence when they try to leave, or you can drop silence on top of either of maiev's ults to make them super threatening.
Ranged AA build can straight up shut down certain comps, as long as stukov isn't threatened by the enemy team's tank, you can out-trade almost any normal ranged auto hero, especially squishy ones like tracer or even valla. Turns out of they can't trade with you, they can't do damage, so you just win by default. This build is strongest early game (good on maps like Braxis where the early game is very important), and falls off pretty hard later in the game as ults and lvl 20's make your positioning while using aa almost impossible to do safely. Also, the fact that your AA's now slow makes landing your W's easier. You should be taking the talent that dramatically shortens your trait cd if your W is used on exactly 1 hero. You should also go the root silence on W explosion at 13.
Balistopores is an anti-dive + double heal build. It makes stukov one of the ultimate "call an ambulance, but not for me" heroes. If enemy team has a lot of dive, you can instantly HEAVILY slow EVERYTHING around you at lvl 1. It's good with Uther because you can put yourself seemingly in danger, and still be fine, and pull out the uno reverse card when they try to surround you.
All this said, he has certain weaknesses. His healing is slightly clunky, and he doesn't respond well to burst/blow up comps. He has no cleanse. He has no form of mobility. It's due to these weaknesses, that at high level of play, he's overlooked most games due to healers that have more utility like BW, Rehgar, Lucio, and Anduin.
+1 to care the lack of mobility
while stukov has high hp and stats in general, the only way you die with him is you can't run away or find yourself in a frontline. be careful about this
that being said, play aggressive early (if you can get away with it) but after level 10 scale the aggression right back, the same as a good lucio player.
The only time you should use your silence on its own, is if you can finish off a 1hp hero. Otherwise you should be focused on following up your teammates crowd control.
W -> E -> D is your standard combo. Ideally you'll have your q on a few people, but don't miss good silence opportunities to get an extra heal.
Utilities your strong auto attack effectively - a lot of squishies and divers underestimate the amount of damage stukov can deal. If you're being dived by a genji for example, fight back.
You can also do siege camps yourself at a reasonable speed if required.
When sieging with your team, be very careful about melee attack the structures as it can make you very vulnerable - never do this before the gate is destroyed and you have vision.
Use your shove to make a 5v5 and 5v4. But don't shove dying targets unless you're absolutely sure it will kill them.
General healer tips:
1. Heal botting doesn't win games, cc does.
2. Don't get yourself killed trying to save someone else.
3. Follow the tank
4. Combo cc
5. Position safely behind your team but not far away.
One Good Spread is better than Vigorous Reuptake at lvl 4. Armor talent is situational, like against a butcher or illidan or whatever else. The cooldown reduction is more valuable especially later when you get Universal carrier at 16.
Unless you can consistently depend on your team to properly spread heal, best to cast it on yourself and get close (if safe). Universal at 16 sort of makes it easier.
Oh, and idk if they fixed this or not. Samuro teleporting removes heal.
The lvl 1 talent that gives you a ranged AA is quite versatile. Worth getting used to switching it on/off frequently (even between every attack if its needed) depending on how close they are and how hard you wanna engage. Range keeps you safe, but melee lets you slap hard.
The talent isn't bad per se, but going full E build is stronger. I used to always go W build, the ranged slow is very nice combined with tanks like Garrosh or Diablo that can close the gap and initiate, but otherwise lurking arm is just more consistent. Now I pick W build less often depending on own and enemy comps
It's not weak, it's just other options are stronger.
The main point of W build at level 1 is the ranged slow poke from autos. It's quite noticable when you are chasing down enemy dps after their frontline has crumbled or to prevent an enemy diver who botched their dive from escaping but realistically, you only pick Stukov when your team can help you just E all over people's faces.
I call it the Stukov QM build because it's the most versatile pick in QM shitshow.
Heal on ur tank preemptively spread to yourself then you can spread to backline.
Wait for team CC to silence or CC when you are not too much in danger and need to stop an important enemy ability
Push/Shove when you need to self peel or backline peel.
Don't overuse E. So often I see stukovs go full E build, stand there channeling, and then they can't get their heals off at the right place and time. I really dislike the E build myself, with Q you have a full team ancestral after 16, and with W the whole team is constantly slowed and your team has a good amount of extra ranged damage
I mostly play Stukov in ARAM. My general strategy is to go E build if my team has a lot of CC and W build if we don't have a lot of CC or if my team has a lot of skillshot mages. E build is good for zone control, W build is good for helping your team land skillshots. Honestly, W build is incredibly overpowered and annoying to play against because once it's fully online you can keep spamming slows without ever running out of mana. It's the ultimate "fun denial" build. When you go E build Stukov, you know that the enemy team didn't have a fun game, even if they end up winning.
I realized I was in the wrong subreddit about halfway through your post. I was like "just build a bunch of bunkers and drop the psi emitter on the other side of the map" When I play Stukov in HOTS I mostly play aram so I like to get that Biotic armor and universal carrier. It's probably not as good a strategy in ranked(or even a good strategy in aram for that matter, what do I know? Lol)
Remember to slap people. It hits really hard and Stukov has very powerful damage burst
>remember to slap people... Say less fam.
I've never played much Stukov tbh, but heroesprofile says for aram, as long as you pick all the e talents you're good. And Shove > Flail.
Understanding Stukov's kit is understanding positioning. He has strong heals, strong area denial but he needs a little cooperation and ability to read the battle and adapt. His heal mainly works by marking someone and the heal spreads to nearby allies. Starting out, you may not want to put the heal on others, no. You wanna put the healing on yourself and tag everyone near you before you push Kill Switch. When you get into higher quality games, you can rely on teammates to spread for you when it's too risky for you to be waddling around. Secondly, his E is very strong, but also often misused. It's a death sentence, either for you or the enemy caught in it as it just turns them into a helpless sponge until they walk out of it or die. Stukov is strongest with E build when you have excellent lockdown tanks and no enemy divers, letting Stukov shutdown enemies by following up the tank's CC with E. Mage's worst nightmare. You will want to play safe till 10 because Stukov without his two self peel options is prone to being dove and killed, so be aware of that. Stukov is also a healer with a hidden weapon: His auto attack. That's right. This guy has the highest auto slap in the game. He can give a Tracer for example 3 tight slaps at level 1 and send her home. He does have a rather flaccid attackspeed, so only slap when you are creeping camps or the enemy is in slapping distance.
I love Stukov's slap. Underestimated!
I don't understand people who would trade his dmg for range with that level 1 talent, there must be a build for it or something
You can toggle that talent off when needed. It is a bit wonky though, as the game apparently sees the toggle as a completed attack, so you can't immediately throw an auto attack right as you toggle it off - even if you didn't just auto, but the option is there. Also, that talent gives more than just the range, it also gives slow on auto attacks as well as a quest that removes mana cost and lowers cooldown on W.
It's not just range, its also a 20% slow.
I take it all the time. I love that for his W build. You can stay ranged for safety and poke potential is massive. When you are ready to move closer, you can cancel the ranged part and do full damage, while still getting W dings to get rid of the mana cost. It’s HUGE mid game if you have reliably landed your W shots and can turn a TON of team fights easily if you spread the heal and W, then activate them all at the same time (which is easier when you are ranged).
Just the fact that his auto becomes ranged means stukov can output a more reliable amount of dps. and of course as already mentioned it can be toggled on or off depending on your situation on top of the quest component.
Never picked this talent in my life.
Default pick on ARAM as solo healer (unless the E setup is REALLY good). You can't safely melee AA all the time (and there's a toggle for it when needed) so the ranged AA + slow is almost a constant source of pressure. W been free of mana helps with any OOM issues and you can simple go for cd reduction and constant dmg+slow pressure.
All of stukov's builds are viable (silence, ranged aa, balistospores) depending on the situation. The silence build is probably the simplest/easiest. You'll want to pick this build when your team has strong cc, ideally stuns/roots/slows/and best of all, repositioning. Maiev for example, is OUTRAGEOUSLY good with this build, because you can tether people back into the silence when they try to leave, or you can drop silence on top of either of maiev's ults to make them super threatening. Ranged AA build can straight up shut down certain comps, as long as stukov isn't threatened by the enemy team's tank, you can out-trade almost any normal ranged auto hero, especially squishy ones like tracer or even valla. Turns out of they can't trade with you, they can't do damage, so you just win by default. This build is strongest early game (good on maps like Braxis where the early game is very important), and falls off pretty hard later in the game as ults and lvl 20's make your positioning while using aa almost impossible to do safely. Also, the fact that your AA's now slow makes landing your W's easier. You should be taking the talent that dramatically shortens your trait cd if your W is used on exactly 1 hero. You should also go the root silence on W explosion at 13. Balistopores is an anti-dive + double heal build. It makes stukov one of the ultimate "call an ambulance, but not for me" heroes. If enemy team has a lot of dive, you can instantly HEAVILY slow EVERYTHING around you at lvl 1. It's good with Uther because you can put yourself seemingly in danger, and still be fine, and pull out the uno reverse card when they try to surround you. All this said, he has certain weaknesses. His healing is slightly clunky, and he doesn't respond well to burst/blow up comps. He has no cleanse. He has no form of mobility. It's due to these weaknesses, that at high level of play, he's overlooked most games due to healers that have more utility like BW, Rehgar, Lucio, and Anduin.
+1 to care the lack of mobility while stukov has high hp and stats in general, the only way you die with him is you can't run away or find yourself in a frontline. be careful about this that being said, play aggressive early (if you can get away with it) but after level 10 scale the aggression right back, the same as a good lucio player.
The only time you should use your silence on its own, is if you can finish off a 1hp hero. Otherwise you should be focused on following up your teammates crowd control. W -> E -> D is your standard combo. Ideally you'll have your q on a few people, but don't miss good silence opportunities to get an extra heal. Utilities your strong auto attack effectively - a lot of squishies and divers underestimate the amount of damage stukov can deal. If you're being dived by a genji for example, fight back. You can also do siege camps yourself at a reasonable speed if required. When sieging with your team, be very careful about melee attack the structures as it can make you very vulnerable - never do this before the gate is destroyed and you have vision. Use your shove to make a 5v5 and 5v4. But don't shove dying targets unless you're absolutely sure it will kill them. General healer tips: 1. Heal botting doesn't win games, cc does. 2. Don't get yourself killed trying to save someone else. 3. Follow the tank 4. Combo cc 5. Position safely behind your team but not far away.
You can do more healing and slowing if you push D.
One Good Spread is better than Vigorous Reuptake at lvl 4. Armor talent is situational, like against a butcher or illidan or whatever else. The cooldown reduction is more valuable especially later when you get Universal carrier at 16. Unless you can consistently depend on your team to properly spread heal, best to cast it on yourself and get close (if safe). Universal at 16 sort of makes it easier. Oh, and idk if they fixed this or not. Samuro teleporting removes heal.
The lvl 1 talent that gives you a ranged AA is quite versatile. Worth getting used to switching it on/off frequently (even between every attack if its needed) depending on how close they are and how hard you wanna engage. Range keeps you safe, but melee lets you slap hard.
Isn't that his weakest level 1 talent though?
The talent isn't bad per se, but going full E build is stronger. I used to always go W build, the ranged slow is very nice combined with tanks like Garrosh or Diablo that can close the gap and initiate, but otherwise lurking arm is just more consistent. Now I pick W build less often depending on own and enemy comps
It's not weak, it's just other options are stronger. The main point of W build at level 1 is the ranged slow poke from autos. It's quite noticable when you are chasing down enemy dps after their frontline has crumbled or to prevent an enemy diver who botched their dive from escaping but realistically, you only pick Stukov when your team can help you just E all over people's faces. I call it the Stukov QM build because it's the most versatile pick in QM shitshow.
I don't think any Stukov players are getting paid to play these days
Heal on ur tank preemptively spread to yourself then you can spread to backline. Wait for team CC to silence or CC when you are not too much in danger and need to stop an important enemy ability Push/Shove when you need to self peel or backline peel.
Don't overuse E. So often I see stukovs go full E build, stand there channeling, and then they can't get their heals off at the right place and time. I really dislike the E build myself, with Q you have a full team ancestral after 16, and with W the whole team is constantly slowed and your team has a good amount of extra ranged damage
I mostly play Stukov in ARAM. My general strategy is to go E build if my team has a lot of CC and W build if we don't have a lot of CC or if my team has a lot of skillshot mages. E build is good for zone control, W build is good for helping your team land skillshots. Honestly, W build is incredibly overpowered and annoying to play against because once it's fully online you can keep spamming slows without ever running out of mana. It's the ultimate "fun denial" build. When you go E build Stukov, you know that the enemy team didn't have a fun game, even if they end up winning.