With the release of Legacy of the Void coming up, all Protoss fans are rejoicing behind their pylons and warp gates. Today, I will look at my favorite Protoss in the Nexus: Tassadar, the High Templar.
Tassadars Passive is called Oracle. On activation, it greatly increases your vision radius and allows you to detect stealthed enemy Heroes for 5 seconds. It has a 40 second cooldown.
His active Skills are:
Q: Plasma Shield – Grant a Shield that absorbs 750 (180 + 30 per level) damage over 5 seconds. The Shield is 50% stronger when cast on another allied Hero.
W: Psionic Storm – Deal 240 (50 + 10 per level) damage per second to enemies in target area for 3 seconds.
Not catching me this time Stitches!
E: Dimensional Shift – Become invulnerable and fully invisible for 1.5 seconds.
R1: Archon – Transform into an Archon, gaining a 1000 (240 + 40 per level) point Shield, causing Basic Attacks to deal 243.2 (60.8 + 9.6 per level) damage and splash for 121.6 (30.4 + 4.8 per level) additional damage. Lasts for 12 seconds.
R2: Forcewall – Create a wall that blocks all units from moving through it for 2.5 seconds.
Tassadar’s kit paints the picture of a solid backline-support that can influence teamfights with well-placed abilities. Added to that comes the security of Phase Shift, that not only lets you reposition easily, but also encourages you to not “waste” your shields on yourself. The buffs they received the last few patches gives you space for amazing last-minute saves, since the low cooldown and moderately high numbers regularly turns dives around.
After the last patch, a lot of people are discussing which Heroic choice is “superior”. I personally see both having their place. While Archon provides you with additional damage and a great shield, making it a great pickup against bursty squishies like Nova or Jaina, Force Wall is an amazing tool in the right hands. Not only can you block the enemy team in with yours, you can also ensure safe retreats. This amazing utility combined with the low cooldown of 12 seconds makes this a high-skill, high-impact ability.
As always, instead of dissecting his whole talent-tree, I will go over a few synergies that you can keep in mind when building your Protoss for the game.
The first combo are two late-game choices that can vastly improve the amount of CC you bring to a fight. Combine Distortion Beam (Basic Attacks slow enemies by 20% for 1.5 seconds (Level 13)) with Resonation (Psionic Storm targets are slowed by 25% for 1 second (Level 16)) to halt your enemies dead in their tracks (or rather slow them for 45%). This not only throws a wrench in every Melee-Assassins wheels, but also gives you amazing chasing capabilities. The talent Overload (Increases Psionic Storm’s range by 33%. (Level 1)) will allow you to cover more ground with your Static Storm. This gets further augmented by the Talent Static Charge (Enemies damaged by Psionic Storm are marked with Static Charge. Your Basic Attacks consume the Static Charge to deal 24 damage (Level 7)), which is an excellent pickup for any Tassadar build. It boosts your damage considerably and makes your opponents want to step into your storms even less. I recommend picking this combo up with the Force-Wall Heroic for ultimate battlefield control.
Are you having issues with a pesky invis-hero that keeps sneaking up on your team? Or can you never seem to find the Nazeebo or Sgt. Hammer when they start pounding your team from a distance? Fear no more, because the following talents will provide your with almost constant vision in your proximity. Pick up Mental Acuity, reducing your Cooldown by a massive 20 seconds. When you combine this with Scryer (Oracle duration increased by 3 seconds and grants 20% increased Movement Speed ) at Level 13, the downtime on your passive will shrink down to a ridiculous 12 seconds. This is perfect for tense late-game scenarios. With all this information at hand you should never run into ambushes or have one of your backline teammates picked off by this one well positioned Nova.
This last build is lovingly called the “Racecar Build” by a majority of the community. It centers around his phaseshift and makes Tassadar almost impossible to catch, let alone kill. The core of this build is the combination of Prescience (Dimensional Shift will automatically activate when you fall below 15% Health. This effect has a separate 45 second cooldown (Level 13)) and Dimensional Warp (While Dimensional Shifted, gain 50% Movement Speed and heal for 40 Health (Level 16)). If everything works out, you will have 2 high-speed dimensional shifts at your disposal. The whole thing can be enhanced with Deep shift (Dimensional Shift duration increased by 1.5 seconds (Level 7)), which puts your total invincibility-time to a whooping 6s. The heal is the icing on a very slippery, durable cake. Yelling “VROOM-VROOM” while escaping your enemies is entirely optional.
I would like to give a special mention to Tassadar’s level 20 talents. Every choice here is absolutely valid, although most people opt for the respective heroic upgrades since they both increase Tassadar’s effective range, letting him play from even greater distances while still achieving results. If you have to take care of your team on your own, Storm Shield is a great pickup to add raw survivability to everybody. Alternatively, you can choose Rewind, which not only boosts your shielding-numbers to ridiculous levels, but also let’s you lay down even more Static Storms or add a third shift to your escape-arsenal.
All in all, Tassadar brings amazing utility and a huge potential for damage with him. Even though he might not be an ideal solo-support, he will always be a solid secondary. Especially now, when most people are trying to pick up Lt. Morales and Sale-Novas run rampant, is an ideal time to pick up this noble Templar.
MENTIONED BUILDS:
Disclaimer: Adjusting builds according to who you are facing in a game is the mark of high skill. These are simply recommendations, not definite builds you should always use.
PSIONIC-CC-TORM
Level 1: Overload
Level 4: Healing Ward
Level 7: Static Charge
Heroic: Forcewall
Level 13: Distortion Beam
Level 16: Resonance
Level 20: Force Barrier
I CAN SEE EVERYTHING
Level 1: Overload
Level 4: Mental Acuity
Level 7: Static Charge
Heroic: Archon
Level 13: Scryer
Level 16: Dimensional Warp
Level 20: Phase Shift
RACECAR
Level 1: Conjurors Pursuit
Level 4: Mental Acuity
Level 7: Deep Shift
Heroic: Forcewall
Level 13: Prescience
Level 16: Dimensional Warp
Level 20: Rewind