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 franchise. 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.

Background

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

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

Considerable low Mana usage.
Regrowth has one of the strongest single target healing potentials in the game, especially when empowered by the talents Life Seed and Ysera's Gift.
Entangling Roots is a powerful area of effect crowd control ability, great for both offense and defense.
If talented, Moonfire gives Malfurion a strong waveclear potential.
Can restore other Heroes' Mana with Innervate.

Weaknesses

Lacks healing burst.
Cannot deal against aggressive teams focused on burst and dive.
Innervate cannot be self cast.

Abilities

Traits

Heroic Abilities

Talents

Tier 1, Hero Level 1

Tier 2, Hero Level 4

Tier 3, Hero Level 7

Tier 4, Hero Level 10

Tier 5, Hero Level 13

Tier 6, Hero Level 16

Tier 7, Hero Level 20

Talent Builds

Balanced Build: This build gives Malfurion a lot of versatility, increasing his already high utility. Tweaks can be made depending on the map and matches. For example, should the allied team already has good peeling, enough to keep Malfurion safe, Ice Block can be replaced with Life Seed, to further increase Malfurion's healing capabilities with an auto-cast smart heal.
Moonfire Build: Also known as the "Moonkin Build", it gives Malfurion a remarkable waveclear potential by, as the name suggests, improving Moonfire to its maximum effectiveness. This build is useful in maps that require high waveclear (such as Tomb of the Spider Queen), and is recommended when the team already have another healer, or Heroes with good self-sustain (such as The Butcher and Thrall).

Tips

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 great scouting tool even if Scout Drone is taken, as well a great poking tool; use it to check bushes, hit opponents in stealth, dismount opponents, 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

Pairings

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

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 Gift of Ysera).

Although a lot of people might not know this, Moonfire is also a revealer! This means that Malfurion can quickly start picking out the real Samuro from the imposters. He also brings both Entangling Roots and Twilight Dream, both of which are very effective at locking-down and eliminating the illusive Blademaster.

Effective foes

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 Entangling Roots. 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 (altough a well timed Twilight Dream can cancel The Butcher's 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

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.


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.


Druid of the Flame	Fel	Molten	Exiled 600

Development

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

Patch changes

(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

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

External Links

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

[1] 2016-11-21, BlizzCon 2016 Heroes of the Storm Deep Dive Panel Transcript. Blizzplanet, accessed on 2016-11-21

[1]