The Roar
The Roar

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Mephisto's skillcap is somewhat high, but he can be lethal in the right hands

What impact will Mephisto have on the metagame? (Photo: Blizzard Entertainment)
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9th September, 2018
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It’s been barely a week since Heroes of the Storm’s newest character Mephisto hit the proper servers – but it’s never too early to dive in and make soon-to-be discredited assessments of his strengths, weaknesses, ideal builds and metagame impacts.

A ranged assassin from the Diablo universe, Mephisto – after a few playthroughs – feels like a high-risk, high-reward flanker who will heavily reward those with good positioning and mercilessly punish anyone who manages his meagre defence poorly.

In the right hands, Mephisto can deal large amounts of constant damage to multiple enemies. All three of his basic abilities have good utility, and are flexible enough to be used as an initiating move or to pick off a fleeing enemy.

While I’m certainly no Mephisto master, after a couple of playthroughs I found I had a great deal of success using Lightning Nova to contest objectives and contribute to teamfights and Skull Missile to poke or pick off retreaters.

Shade of Mephisto, arguably his least straightforward ability, works exceptionally well as a pick off move too, and can be combined with a useful talent at level 20 for devastating area of effect damage.

That said, his basic abilities can be difficult to use effectively. Skull Missile has a very long delay between casting and firing and, while that isn’t a huge issue if you’re approaching a teamfight from a flank, you need to lead your shots considerably.

Lightning Nova is a very powerful area-of-effect attack but, despite its appearance, only affects enemies standing in the actual ring – not the area between Mephisto and the ring itself. That does mean you can punish enemies trying to escape you, but it can be very hard to get full value from the ability against mobile foes.

The really tricky part with using him, initially, is understanding and getting value from his trait; Lord of Hatred. Reducing basic ability cooldowns by hitting enemy heroes with basic abilities can become insanely powerful, but it also means you need to commit to an engagement to get good value from it.

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If you whiff on one of your initial abilities too, you’re already on the back foot.

Couple this with the fact Mephisto has very little in the way of survivability and no means of escape, he’s very much a character that requires you to be on your game – any mistake you make will be punished.

Going after weakened enemies desperate to visit the healing fountain should therefore be his prime targets.

As far as ideal builds for the new character go, I’d actually suggest something of a beginner’s build as you play your first matches with him. This will let you still get as much value from the character as possible while you’re still getting a feel for his abilities. Once you start hitting with your basic abilities more reliably, move on to a more impactful build.

Beginner’s Build
Level Talent
1 Unyielding Power
4 Static Barrier
7 Frost Storm
10 Consume Souls
13 Abhorred Skull
16 Animosity
20 Consumed by Hatred

While being far from a ‘meta build’, this is a great build to use if you’re totally unfamiliar with the character and want to get better.

Taking the Skull Missile quest talent at level one simply forces you to learn how to aim the ability – and the rewards it grants are far from shabby either. You can definitely play Mephisto in a safer, pokier manner if you can pass the 40-hit barrier.

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Static Barrier gives you some much needed shielding and allows you to use Lightning Nova as a means of escape. While it’s temping to pick Hateful Mending in this spot, Mephisto’s vulnerability to being focused down makes this a more useful pick at level four.

Frost Storm at level seven is clearly the strongest option in my books. The slow on enemies is perfect for teeing up pick off kills on fleeing heroes – a skill you’ll need to pick up if you’re going to use this hero effectively.

As far as heroics go, it’s hard to think of a character with such a discrepancy between their two options. Consume Souls is hands down one of the best heroic abilities in the game, while Durance of Hate is just so bad. The ability to reveal all enemies on the map for a few seconds is incredible, while the immense damage it deals can just seem unfair after a gruelling teamfight.

Hysteria is the best of a pretty underwhelming bunch at level 13 – the only reason you wouldn’t pick it would be if you accidentally selected Durance of Hate at level 10. Reducing the cooldown on your heroic through basic abilities is vital given Consume Souls takes a full two minutes to become available again otherwise.

Animosity is an absolute no-no if you’re playing ranked, but the extension to Lightning Nova it provides is vital as you learn to use the ability well. Consume Souls at level 20 makes Mephisto’s already killer heroic even better with bonus damage and the truly ridiculous potential to cast it a second time.

Ideal Build
Level Talent
1 Furious Spark
4 Static Barrier
7 Trickery
10 Consume Souls
13 Hysteria
16 Static Field
20 Consumed by Hatred

While it doesn’t look like there’s a big difference between builds here, the increased focus on Lightning Nova as opposed to Skull Missile means this build is for diving a little deeper than the other one.

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Furious Spark at level one gives Lightning Nova that little bit more damage, while Trickery at seven grants you a movement bonus as opposed to slowing your enemy – making it more suitable for enemies with better escape plans, or setting up riskier pursuits past enemy turrets.

Static Field at 16 is an insanely good ability that, if you can land it properly, allows Lightning Nova to deal ridiculous amounts of damage.

Overall, this build requires you to play a little closer to the thick of it than you might feel comfortable as a ranged Assassin, but if you time your initiations right, you’ll be a huge thorn in your opponent’s side.

For maps that rely very heavily on contested objectives, like Hanamura and Dragon Shire, it’d be worth considering Malicious Intent at level one and Mimic at level 20 instead. While the combo will take a long time to set up, the ability to cast two simultaneous sets of damage-boosted Lightning Nova will make you an AoE menace on the crucial map points.

All in all, Mephisto is a challenging character to play, but feels very rewarding when you’re hitting the right notes. It’s hard to get a read on whether we’ll see a lot of him in the HGC just yet but, with a burst meta very much in play right now, he might get picked (or banned) for Consume Souls alone.

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