Malfurion

This is from the Warcraft universe.

“

Let our enemies beware!

”

(4/10) (7/10) (5/10) (5/10)

Malfurion is a Ranged Support Hero from the Warcraft universe.

With the honorable title of "Archdruid", is the greatest druid on Azeroth, and a student of the demigod Cenarius. Communing with nature and Cenarius through the Emerald Dream, Malfurion protects the wilds from both demonic influences and the savage Horde.

Malfurion heals allies and restores their Mana. He is able to reveal and root groups of enemies from a distance.

Background Edit

Malfurion Stormrage was the first night elf druid, and initiated the mainstream use of druidism among the night elven people ten millennia ago under tutelage of the demigod Cenarius within Val'sharah. Through Malfurion's guidance, the kaldorei managed to successfully halt the Burning Legion's first invasion of Azeroth during the War of the Ancients. In its aftermath, he became the greatest of the world's archdruids. Malfurion Stormrage is the twin brother of Illidan Stormrage, as well as the loving and beloved husband of the high priestess of Elune, Tyrande Whisperwind. Together, the two have represented the highest leadership of the night elves ever since the fall of Queen Azshara and her Highborne caste.

Gameplay Summary Edit

Malfurion is a Ranged Support Hero that has powerful healing-over-time and can applies various debuffs to make easier for his allies to engage. He is also the only Hero in the game that can restore other Heroes' Mana.

Overall, Malfurion is best used in defensive teams or teams that already have considerable self-sustain, complementing his slow healing.

Strengths Edit

Considerable low Mana usage.
Regrowth has one of the strongest single target healing potentials in the game, especially when empowered by the talent Ysera's Gift.
Entangling Roots is a powerful area of effect crowd control ability, great for both offense and defense.
Moonfire provides Malfurion with a decent waveclear, utility and a global burst healing (as long there are any allies under the effects of Regrowth).
Can restore other Heroes' Mana with Innervate.
Tranquility provides a powerful area-of-effect healing while allowing Malfurion to continue using his other abilities.
Twilight Dream is very powerful at shutting down opponents in crucial team fight moments.

Weaknesses Edit

Lacks healing burst.
Cannot deal against aggressive teams focused on burst and dive.
Regrowth lacks burst healing unless hitting enemy Heroes with Moonfire.
Entangling Roots doesn't affect enemy minions and Mercenaries.
Innervate cannot be self cast.
Twilight Dream requires Malfurion to get in melee range, which can make him vulnerable.

Abilities Edit

Traits Edit

Heroic Abilities Edit

Talents Edit

Tier 1, Hero Level 1 Edit

Tier 2, Hero Level 4 Edit

Tier 3, Hero Level 7 Edit

Tier 4, Hero Level 10 Edit

Tier 5, Hero Level 13 Edit

Tier 6, Hero Level 16 Edit

Tier 7, Hero Level 20 Edit

Talent Builds Edit

Regrowth Build: focused on maximizing's Malfurion's healing potential from Regrowth. Key talents include Wild Growth and Ysera's Gift, which combined greatly boosts Regrowth by extending its duration and healing output; and Lifebloom adds a very much needed instant heal to Regrowth.
- This build is recommended for most situations, and it has a lot of flexibility, as some talents can be switched as the situation demands.
  - At level 4, Deep Roots can be replaced by Strangling Vines should the enemy team features two healers or various Heroes with strong self-sustain abilities.
  - At level 7, Wild Growth can be replaced by Nature's Cure should the enemy team features too many crowd controls. While Nature's Cure is potentially the strongest Cleanse in the game since it has global range, it requires targets to be affected by Regrowth in the first place.
  - At level 16, Ysera's Gift can be replaced by Moonlit Harmony should the enemy team features too many pokes, which can prevent Malfurion from staying at the minimum life threshold for Ysera's Gift to take effect.

Tips Edit

Use Regrowth when incoming damage is anticipated.
- However, avoid using on targets with nearly full health.
- Regrowth can be cast on Minions and Mercenaries.
Moonfire's low mana and cooldown makes it a efficient for scouting, as well a great poking tool; use it to check bushes, hit opponents in stealth, dismount enemies, and even to destroy Zagara's Creep Tumor.
Entangling Roots can be rather easy to avoid, so try using it to follow up other forms of crowd control (for example, right when an opponent is stunned).
Save Twilight Dream for big teamfights, and try to use it when opponents use their more powerful cooldowns and Heroic Abilities, or after a crowd control chain unleashed by your own team.
Use Tranquility preemptively during teamfights, when your opponents start taking damage. Malfurion will maintain Tranquility even if he is stunned.

Matchups Edit

Pairings Edit

Malfurion shines when paired with more defensive Heroes and resilient frontline Heroes, as his lack of burst makes hard for heal to deal with hard engage team compositions. Innervate makes nearly all "mage" characters very potent, as well any other Hero that relies heavily on mana. Lastly, Entangling Roots is great when having other Heroes that can follow it up for massive crowd control chains.

A well timed Entangling Roots after a Ruthless Onslaught allows The Butcher to secure many kills.

Chromie's Temporal Loop combo is already deadly by its own, and it becomes even more powerful when combined with Entangling Roots. Additionally, since Sandblast has low cooldown, it's not unusual for Chromie to be out of mana fast, where Innervate allows her to stay on the battlefield for longer.

Entangling Roots can greatly aids Gul'dan to land his Corruption multiple times. A well timed Entangling Roots can also incapacitate opponents during Horrify. While Gul'dan can recover his mana on his own with Life Tap, Innervate's cooldown reduction is very helpful for reducing Corruption, as well decreasing the use of Life Tap, as it puts Gul'dan at risk.

Jaina's natural crowd control in the form of Frostbite makes landing Entangling Roots easier, allowing them to combo their abilities together and secure kills with Blizzard and Ring of Frost. Being very mana intensive, Innervate becomes invaluable.

Similarly to Jaina, Kael'thas's Gravity Lapse can be combo'ed with Entangling Roots for a massive crowd control chain. Of all the "mage" characters, Kael'thas burns his mana the quickiest, where Innervate again plays a major role.

Li-Ming's high explosive cooldowns makes her a valuable ally to Malfurion. Her lack of crowd control abilities is balanced with Malfurion's Entangling Roots, allowing her to dish out damage. In addition, her very low cooldowns become even lower when affected by Innervate.

Nazeebo and Malfurion can set up a lot of traps with Zombie Wall and Entangling Roots, allowing them to secure chokepoints to prevent opponents from fleeing. Entangling Roots is also great to help Nazeebo with his Corpse Spiders build.

A combination of Entangling Roots and Lurking Arm can completely shutdown enemy Heroes. In addition, Malfurion's heal-over-time complements Stukov's.

Zarya helps shore up one of Malfurion’s biggest weaknesses: burst damage. Malfurion’s heals over time will continue to renew everyone’s Health behind the safety of a shields, making the whole team very hard to kill.

Effective against Edit

Malfurion doesn't actually excel against any Hero, as he should never engage directly. However, he can greatly capitalize against opponents with poor movement options thanks to Entangling Roots, as well shutdown the whole team with a well timed Twilight Dream.

Getting rooted is often a death-sentence for Cassia since Avoidance is only active while she is moving. Not only is Malfurion a master of rooting over-zealous Heroes, he also brings enough healing-over-time to help patch up any of the consistent damage Cassia wants to throw at his team. While Malfurion is rarely a direct threat to Cassia, any follow up from his team while she is rooted will quickly end in a one-way trip back to the fountain.

Malfurion's Roots not only stop D.Va in her tracks during Boosters, but can also root D.Va in pilot form after she pops out, helping the opposing team secure the kill on her.

Malfurion supports his allies in many ways that are detrimental to Genji’s options. His Regrowth ability makes it hard for Genji to trade favorably on his kill targets, Entangling Roots is an excellent follow-up CC to other stuns or roots, and Twilight Dream is an effective answer to controlling the assassin’s ability to utilize important defensive cooldowns at critical moments.

Altough Lunara technically has advantage over Malfurion, he can outheal her poison damage under the right conditions (namely Ysera's Gift).

Since Moonfire reveals opponents, it is an excellent tool to quickly start picking out the real Samuro from the imposters created by Mirror Image. Malfurion also brings both Entangling Roots and Twilight Dream to the table, both of which are very effective at locking-down and eliminating the illusive Blademaster.

Effective foes Edit

Malfurion's main issue is dealing with burst damage. Therefore, facing hard engage team compositions with explosive cooldowns can make difficult for his healing to be truly effective. Additionally, opponents with abilities that grants them the Unstoppable status (such as Cleanse) can negate his Entangling Roots. Lastly, his poor mobility can also be capitalized when Entangling Roots is on cooldown, preventing Malfurion from escaping.

Ruthless Onslaught and Lamb to the Slaughter allows The Butcher to completely shutdown Malfurion before he has any time to react (although a well timed Twilight Dream can cancel Ruthless Onslaught).

Tracer's slippery nature makes hard to land Entangling Roots reliably, as even if caught, she can simply use Recall. She is also sticky and can easily focus on Malfurion, capitalizing on his poor movement options.

If specced into Twin Blades of Fury and Mortal Strike, Varian can effectively negate Malfurion's healing if he manages to stick on him.

Skins Edit

Archdruid (base)



Archdruid	Raven	Tundra

Storm Mantle 100: Although Broll Bearmantle had saved the Archdruid's life, it had cost him his own. Even now, Malfurion wears his armor to remind himself of the sacrifices that saved Hyjal.


Storm Mantle	Autumn	Ice	Shadow

Waywatcher 100: Malorne the Waywatcher's power transcends death itself. Those who dedicate their lives to fighting for nature carry on his great work.


Waywatcher	Dream	Nightmare

Betrayer 400: Sargeras's whispers of power were impossible for Malfurion to resist. She had called him "Betrayer"...Soon, they would all call him Master.; _{Features altered voice-over and themed abilities.}


Betrayer	Satyr	Wild

Druid of the Flame 400: Majordomo Stormrage felt the change instantly. Though only a small spark, it was enough to signify his incantations had finally broken through. When the Firelord arrived, the Nexus would burn.; _{Features themed abilities.}


Druid of the Flame	Fel	Molten	Exiled 600

Greatfather Winter 600: With little else to do once the creatures of the wild begin their long hibernation, Malfurion has taken to celebrating the Feast of Winter Veil as the jolliest shan'do of all.; _{This skin is related to the Winter Veil themed-skins. Features themed abilities and themed animations.}


Greatfather Winter	Coal	Icy


Naughty	Rosy

Development Edit

Malfurion was conceived within the first two years of the game's development.^[1]

Patch changes Edit

(Patch May 9, 2018) Note: Health reduced from 1598 to 1525.; Health Regeneration reduced from 3.33 to 3.18.
(Patch March 27, 2018) Note: A.I. Malfurion will no longer attempt to cast Entangling Roots on non-Heroic enemies.
(Patch January 9, 2018) Note: Malfurion has received updated visual effects to coincide with Talent changes.; Basic Attack Damage reduced from 64 to 60.
(Patch November 29, 2017) Note: Base Maximum Health reduced from 1682 to 1598; Health Regen reduced from 3.5 to 3.33; Basic Attack Damage reduced from 67 to 64.
(Patch September 5, 2017) Note: Exiled Druid of the Flame skin added.
(Patch June 13, 2017) Note: Received updated visual effects to coincide with Talent updates.
(Patch October 6, 2015) Note: Betrayer Malfurion has received additional visual polish for certain Abilities and Talents.

References Edit

↑ 2016-11-21, BlizzCon 2016 Heroes of the Storm Deep Dive Panel Transcript. Blizzplanet, accessed on 2016-11-21

External links Edit

Heroes

Assassins

Alarak • Cassia • Chromie • Falstad • Fenix • Gall • Genji • Greymane • Gul'dan • Hanzo • Illidan • Jaina • Junkrat • Kael'thas • Kel'Thuzad • Kerrigan • Li-Ming • Lunara • Maiev • Malthael • Mephisto • Nova • Orphea • Ragnaros • Raynor • Samuro • The Butcher • Thrall • Tracer • Tychus • Valeera • Valla • Varian • Zeratul • Zul'jin

Specialists

Abathur • Azmodan • Gazlowe • Lost Vikings • Medivh • Murky • Nazeebo • Probius • Sgt. Hammer • Sylvanas • Xul • Zagara

Supports

Alexstrasza • Ana • Auriel • Brightwing • Deckard • Kharazim • Li Li • Lt. Morales • Lúcio • Malfurion • Rehgar • Stukov • Tassadar • Tyrande • Uther • Whitemane

Warriors

Anub'arak • Artanis • Arthas • Blaze • Chen • Cho • Dehaka • Diablo • D.Va • E.T.C. • Garrosh • Imperius • Johanna • Leoric • Mal'Ganis • Muradin • Rexxar • Sonya • Stitches • Tyrael • Varian • Yrel • Zarya

[0] 2016-11-21, BlizzCon 2016 Heroes of the Storm Deep Dive Panel Transcript. Blizzplanet, accessed on 2016-11-21

[1]

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