Winning matches in Heroes of the Storm is all about understanding the different characters in the game and using each of them to the best possible effect. There are several different types of characters in the game including assassins, warriors, specialists, and support.  While characters fit into specific roles, each character plays very differently from the others and that is where this guide comes in.

Azmodan – Basics

Azmodan is a ranged specialist character in Heroes of the Storm that comes from the Diablo universe. Azmodan is best described as a siege specialist rather than a ranged specialist since he deals mainly in methods to help push lanes and destroy buildings. How he does that though can vary, he has several viable builds and many viable talents along the way.  This guide will look at the talents that are most useful and describe two builds that I really like.

Strengths

  • Amazing range with his basic abilities
  • Can split push lanes with his General of Hell ability
  • Huge health pool
  • Extremely dangerous when unwatched

Weaknesses

  • Low mobility
  • No escapes or CC
  • Will be focused by enemies due to his power

Cost: 10,000 Gold or $9.99 USD

Azmodan – Abilities

Globe of Annihilation (Q) [10 second cooldown] – This attack lobs a long range AOE attack at your target.  Long range means, essentially from your towers to the enemy towers!  It deals moderate damage though and is best used clearing lane minions.

Summon Demon Warrior (W) [10 second cooldown] – This ability summons a demon warrior that will march along in the path you select and attack whatever gets in its way.  This ability can hold 2 stacks and are best saved to stack along with your General of Hell ability.

All Shall Burn (E) [6 second cooldown] – This is a channelled attack that deals bonus damage the longer you channel it, and even more bonus damage to enemy structures.  It is a very strong attack and will keep going until you cancel it or run out of mana.  You must remain stationary though and that limits its use, at least early on until you take the talent that allows you to move while channelling it.

Demonic Invasion (R) [100 second cooldown] – This is the first of the level 10 options.  When activated this ability rains down demons on an AOE.  Each demon deals impact damage as well as leaving a demon in place that will attack the closest target.  While each demons damage is low, they deal double damage to non-hero targets, making them ideal for pushing down towers and keeps. 

Black Pool (R) [20 second cooldown] – This is the second of the level 10 options. This ability creates a pool on the ground that allows yourself, demons, minions, and mercenaries to deal an additional 75% damage for 5 seconds. It can hold two charges and can dramatically increase damage output, but makes you become immobile for 5 seconds if you want to make the most use of it.

General of Hell (D) (30 second cooldown) – Azmodan’s trait is a very powerful one that allows you to summon a powerful minion that marches along with lane minions or mercenaries and increases their damage and health by 15% while he is active.  Best of all it has a global range, meaning you can use it anywhere on the map to help push that lane.

Anub’arak – Talents

Every hero in Heroes of the Storm has several talents that they gain access to as they level in each match.  Rather than look at every talent here, I am going to focus on the best talents at each level.

Level 1

At the first level there are a few good options but they depend on what you want to end up doing later in the game.  Taste for Blood and Sieging Wrath are the most common picks as they both increase your main damage ability in different ways.  My preference would be Taste for Blood as it boosts your late game damage more, which is where you really need it. A less common pick, but one that I really like is Spare Nothing, which removes ammo from towers as you hit them with All Shall Burn.  While not useful on all maps, it can be extremely strong for early game pushes to take down towers on the Haunted Mines or Garden of Terror maps.

Level 4

This level has only two decent choices, which are Burn the Weak and Bound Minion.  Burn the Weak boosts your All Shall Burn damage against mercenary camps by 50% allowing you to grab them quickly.  Bound Minion boosts the health and damage of a lane minion that you use General of Hell on, making it very useful for pushing lanes quickly.

Level 7

This level grants access to one of your best talents, Infernal Globe.  This talent speeds up your cast time and the travel time of your Globe of Annihilation ability by 40%.  Since this is one of your key abilities and since it is such a long cast time, and slow travel time, this talent is almost a must take talent.  It makes hitting with your Globe of Annihilation much easier for both siege attacks and in team fights.  If you are focusing on talents based on mercenaries them Mercenary Lord is also a fair option but to make the most of it you need to focus on a merc build which means the rest of the team will need to support you.

Level 10

At this level you gain access to either Demonic Invasion or Black Pool.  Initially most players pick up Demonic Invasion as they feel it deals the most damage and helps with structures the most.  While a strong talent, it is not the best once you learn to use the other.  Black Pool requires a lot more thought and positioning when being used, but can be utterly devastating when used correctly.  Ignoring the boost to your own damage, which is substantial, this talent can melt enemy structures insanely fast.  Use it while you have a General of Hell near a group of lane minions or mercenaries that are attacking an enemy structure and it literally melts in seconds.  On maps with siege giants this ability can spell the end of the game quickly.

Level 13

This level provides a few solid options.  The most common choice is March of Sin which allows you to move while channelling All Shall Burn.  This really improves the basic ability allowing you to move with fleeing enemies to finish them off, and is the go to talent here.  Relentless should be take if your opponents have a lot of CC being used as it should allow you to live longer by being able to get away more often.  However since Azmodan has low mobility anyway, it should be a judgement call on taking it, sometimes being able to kill someone before you die is just as good as “potentially” avoiding that death.  Lastly Hellforged Armor allows you to push lanes faster, so if the game is going slow and there are still lots of towers up, this may be an option to help get them down.

Level 16

This tier once again has several good options, in fact all of the choices here are good.  My go to talent is Battleborn since it summons a demon each time you use Globe of Annihilation, which you will use often.  Demonic Smite is also a strong choice for almost any occasion since it boosts your General of Hells damage by a huge amount and means that he simply can not be ignored by your enemies.  The other two talents are a bit more situational, but excellent when that situation is met.  Imposing Presence should be taken any time the opponents have high auto attack based heroes that are focusing on you, such as Valla, Illidan, and others, it will slow down their attacks by 50% and almost completely shut down their damage to you.  Blood for Blood provides both healing and damage, and can help you stay alive or even provide kills when the enemy has a lot of tank based heroes.  If you are being focused by Diablo, Stitches, Tyrael, or Arthas, then this talent is well worth taking.

Level 20

Your top level talents provide some really good options and many are worth considering based on the state of the battle.  My go to talent here tends to be Storm Shield since being able to keep everyone alive in a team fight for a few seconds more often turns the tide of battle in your favour more than any extra damage will.  Perishing Flame or Fifth Circle both boost your level 10 talent choice significantly and are good options if you need the extra damage.  Lastly, on maps where escaping situations is key, such as Blackheart’s Bay, Bolt of the Storm can be extremely useful and keep you alive with a lot of coins on you.

Azmodan -  Strategy

Azmodan can be a lot of fun to play and is extremely powerful when played correctly.  He plays differently than many other heroes since he can play in the lane or location where he is, as well as participating in other lanes with his General of Hell and even sometimes his Globe of Annihilation.  This means he can impact the game more than many other heroes since he can essentially be in two places at once.

In the early game Azmodan should setup in a lane and try to push the first set of towers down quickly.  To do this you can send some demons forward early to waste some of the towers ammo, then summon your general of hell once your first wave of minions arrive.  Then hit the enemy minions with your Globe of Annihilation and keep summoning demons.  This should get you to the towers by the time the second wave is coming (assuming no heavy opposition).  At this point you can start to burn down the towers in between summoning demons and blasting enemy minions with your globes.

Once the mid-game arrives, you can start to exert more pressure with your level 10 talents and push down buildings any chance you get.  Keep in mind though that you can be caught easily by the enemy, so stay as far back as possible.  Also, even though you can push lanes, you need to keep the team fights that start to occur in mind and focus on getting to them, or to map objectives, quickly to help your team.  Luckily you can keep up pressure on a lane even when you are not there, thanks to your General of Hell.

In the late game, your focus stays much the same, pushing down enemy buildings.  Here though you need to be even more cautious as the enemy assassins will have much greater damage output than you do, and if caught alone will kill you quickly.  Stay grouped up, and keep pushing ahead.

Like many specialists, Azmodan can deal a lot of structure damage quickly.  It is well worth discussing with your team about staying in a lane to push while they deal with map objectives and potentially even team fights.  This will be dependant on the map and your teams ability to deal with the map and the enemy team though, so be prepared to adapt to each game.  As an example, if you can continue to push a lane while everyone is in the Haunted Mines though, it can easily put your team a level or two ahead and put the game in your favour, assuming that they can still get enough skulls to keep the golems roughly equal.  If your team can not keep the skull count close without you though, then you need to help out, or the push you provide will not help enough to counter what the golems can do.  This is true on the Garden of Terror and Sky Temple maps as well, where a strong push while the rest of the teams are focused on map objectives can easily push your team into a big lead.


Be sure to visit our complete Guide Portal for Heroes of the Storm for more Hero Guides, updated Tier Lists, and more. To read the latest news, features, and eSports coverage you can also visit our main Heroes of the Storm Game Page.


To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our Heroes of the Storm Game Page.

Last Updated: Mar 13, 2016

About The Author

Byron has been playing and writing about World of Warcraft for the past ten years. He also plays pretty much ever other Blizzard game, currently focusing on Heroes of the Storm and Hearthstone, while still finding time to jump into Diablo III with his son.

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