History Characters / HeroesOfTheStormDiabloUniverse

* SkillGateCharacter: The Butcher combines a simplistic playstyle with huge damage potential, making him relatively easy to use and nightmarish to face once he maxes out on ''Fresh Meat''; if the enemy can't keep him under control, he'll simply become too powerful to deal with. However, his kit is almost entirely geared towards picking off lone, out-of-position enemies in order to collect Meat and is extremely unsafe. A coordinated team can avoid getting picked off and easily punish The Butcher's attempts to charge in, making it much harder for him to snowball out of control, and a Butcher that can't snowball is mostly dead weight.

* SkillGateCharacter: How to beat Johanna, step 1: Just ignore her and kill the people she's (theoretically) protecting. Her peeling and set-up is outclassed by Muradin and ETC, and her waveclear by Arthas, Dehaka and (especially) Blaze; one [[https://heroeshearth.com/b/trentesports/read/johanna-the-trap-card-of-hots/ HeroesHearth blogger]] is of the opinion that Johanna is basically the worst tank in the game because she can't actually help you win, only help you lose more slowly. Downplayed, as Johanna continues to see top-level play because [[JackOfAllStats she can handle anything you need a main tank to do with some effectiveness, whereas other tanks are lacking in certain areas.]]

* SkillGateCharacter: Despite being a Healer, he's actually a really good introduction to Melee Assassins. Kills typically require three ingredients: an enemy out of position (either by allied crowd control or misplay), someone to whittle down most of that enemy's HP, and someone to finish off the last bit, confirming the kill. Melee Assassins are designed to provide the last part, featuring gap closers and good damage but lacking self-sustain and/or escape options. Kharazim can confirm kills ''and'' keep himself alive if you overextend, making him a forgiving hero to make mistakes on. By the time you get impatient with his [[CompetitiveBalance restricted damage output]], you'll already have a good sense of when his replacement Melee Assassin should or should not go in, something you may not learn if you just plunge straight in on, say, The Butcher.

* HateSink: Whether it's cutthroat assassins, undead sorcerers, the Queen of the Zerg or the ''Angel of Death itself'', nobody has anything positive to say about the Butcher.

* AchillesHeel:
** Both his primary burst spells have major drawbacks. His fireballs have absurd range, but their damage is subpar, and it takes a few moments to channel and throw the fireball, necessitating LeadTheTarget on mobile targets. His beam does immense damage over time, but requires him to be right on top of the enemy and renders him a big shiny target for the duration. Talents can alleviate some of these weaknesses, but not entirely.
** His spells are expensive and his mana pool is relatively strict, so he needs to be conservative with his spellcasting or risk running out of mana at a crucial moment.
** Azmodan is one of the most vulnerable heroes to ganks. He has no mobility and is fairly sluggish, and his [[FatBastard giant hitbox]] is easy to hit with skillshots and stuns. Not to mention, both his orb and beam slow his movement to cast and can be interrupted with crowd control, giving him almost no way to deter a pursuer.

* AchillesHeel:
** Due to how her ''Avoidance'' trait works, Cassia is vulnerable to being stunned or rooted since she only has a couple of mobility options on her talent tree.
** Due to her limited options, she also has problems to close in on a target. As her attack range is shorter than average, Slow and Daze effects are also effective to kite her. A talent can increase her attack range to the likes of Raynor and Hanzo, though.
** As a self-rooting channeled attack, ''Fend'' not only puts a massive target on her head when she engages, she also can just be interrupted by Silence, Stun and Daze effects. The former can be fixed with a talent, which grants her the Protected status.

* AchillesHeel: Mobile Assassins that can stick very close to Li-Ming is deadly on her, as they will minimize Arcane Orb's damage output, make it hard for her to land her Magic Missile and it will be hard for her to escape via her short range Teleport if they can still stick with her, even with talented Calamity, it won't be enough to blow them up quickly [[GlassCannon before she gets blown off first.]]

* AchillesHeel:
** His durability is bound to the number of souls he has, and he consumes most or all of them to resurrect early if he dies, should he reach 100 souls. This means that while he can rejoin the fight almost immediately, he'll typically be quite a bit easier to kill the second time around, and will take time to get back to his previous state. He's also fairly dependent on his mana pool.
** Before his rework, he had no form of self-heal beyond a few talents, and his durability largely comes in the form of an over-sized health pool, making him an extreme burden on his team's healers and an easy victim for percentage-based damage.

* AchillesHeel:
** Like a few other Bruiser heroes, Leoric lacks a true crowd control such as a Stun or a Root to force the enemy to stay and engage him, or to disrupt a channeling spell. That said, his damage output is ''huge'' against high-health targets.
** ''Entomb'' also has one in the form of {{Flash Step}}s, {{Intangibility}}, and any ability that lets you jump over walls, turning what is normally a death sentence into a wasted ultimate for Leoric and a minor inconvenience for your intended target. Subverted if he takes the Storm Talent, ''Buried Alive'', to improve it; it reduces the duration to 3 seconds and deals minimal damage, but also ''silences'' anyone caught inside, making them truly helpless.

* AchillesHeel: Malthael's kit is heavily dependent on ''Reaper's Mark'', which can only be applied by his melee attacks or the slow-moving ''Death Shroud''. High-mobility heroes, or Heroes who can put down on-demand Slows, can stay out of his reach while avoiding ''Death Shroud'' to prevent Malthael from jumping on them at all. (Lunara has both, and is by consensus the exact counter to Malthael.)

* AchillesHeel:
** Auriel needs a teammate nearby in order to heal effectively, and has no actual escape until ''Angelic Flight'' at level 20. If she's isolated, she will go down.
** Auriel is one of three Healers in the game whose heals can ''miss'', because they're skillshots. She is far less likely to do this than the other two (Ana and Deckard Cain), because her heal is this giant circle that could probably heal 15 Heroes at once, if you could somehow hack the game enough to get that many into one match, and has no wind-up or animation... but it is absolutely possible to fire it off on no one whatsoever (from, say, Morales booping your teammates away with ''Displacement Grenade'' just before you press the button).

* AchillesHeel: Crowd control and burst damage. Unlike most healers, he has no way to remove disables from your team, and he has no burst healing aside from putting down multiple potions and waiting for a teammate to walk over them (or the ''Super Healing Potion'' talent, which also requires the potion to remain on the ground for a few seconds and then picked up), which obviously can't happen if they get blown up and/or chain-stunned.

His current skins are [[InTheHood Executioner Butcher]], [[ClingyCostume Iron Butcher]], [[VideoGame/StarCraft The Butcherlisk]], [[MechanicalMonster Cyber Oni Butcher]], and [[VideoGame/DiabloI Tristram Butcher]].

His current skins are [[CoolMask Hellflame Nazeebo]], [[Videogame/{{Diablo}} Grimskull Nazeebo]], [[MonsterClown Harlequin Nazeebo]], [[Literature/TheGingerbreadMan Gingerdread Nazeebo]], and [[TheApunkalypse Diesel Speaker Nazeebo]].

One of the members of the Angiris Council ruling the High Heavens, Tyrael is the Aspect of Justice. He witnessed the true potential of humanity in Sanctuary when he witnessed the sacrifice of the nephalem Uldyssian ul-Diomed, and saved humanity from extinction by voting against its destruction when the Council held the vote. From that point on, Tyrael kept his eye on the Prime Evils' actions in Sanctuary and helped stave them off to protect humanity by forming the Horadrim, a group of mages with considerable knowledge of the Burning Hells and its inhabitants. He helped [[VideoGame/{{Diablo II}} a group of seven heroes]] vanquish the Prime Evils, but made the sacrifice of destroying the Worldstone to save it from corruption, losing his angelic form. He reformed 20 years later, but as he tried to help humanity again, fellow archangel Imperius did not approve of him helping mortals -- which was a problem, as Imperius was, and still is, the ''de facto'' ruler of the High Heavens. Adamant in his belief that the innocents must be protected, Tyrael renounced his angelhood and became mortal, falling from the sky to New Tristram.\\

His first Heroic ability, ''Apocalypse'', summons runes beneath every enemy hero on the map which explode a moment later, dealing damage and stunning any enemies caught in the blast; his second Heroic ability, ''Lightning Breath'', channels a cone of high-damage lightning that slows enemies more and more the longer they stay in the area, which can be aimed with the mouse.\\

His Heroic abilities include ''Judgment'', an unstoppable dash which stuns his intended target and knocks back other enemies, and ''Sanctification'', creating a field of holy energy that renders Tyrael and his allies invulnerable while they are inside.\\

His first heroic ability is ''Angelic Armaments'', surrounding Imperius with holy swords and granting him a large shield for a duration. If the shield is unbroken when the ability ends, Imperius can fire the swords at his enemies. His other option, ''Wrath of the Angiris'', allows him to charge at an enemy and carry them into the sky. Imperius then has a moment to reposition before crashing down to earth, stunning his target.\\

Her first heroic ability, ''Crystal Aegis'', places an allied hero or herself into Stasis, preventing them from moving or taking damage, and deals damage to all nearby enemies on expiration. Her second heroic ability, ''Resurrect'', allows her to see the spirits of fallen allied heroes. Auriel can select one to bring back to life, resurrecting them at full health after a delay. Auriel can also cast it after dying to resurrect herself.\\

His heroic ability choices are ''Divine Palm'', placing a temporary buff on an ally that activates if they take fatal damage, preventing it and healing them for a huge amount; and ''Seven-Sided Strike'', which puts Kharazim in an invulnerable meditation state as he strikes nearby enemies up to seven times for [[PercentDamageAttack max health-based damage]].\\

Her first Heroic ability, ''Strafe'', lets Valla unleash a whirling barrage of arrows, striking all surrounding enemies in a large area. ''Rain of Vengeance'', her other choice, is a skill with two charges that summons Shadow Beasts to stun enemies in an area in front of Valla.\\

Leoric is a highly aggressive Bruiser who never truly leaves the battlefield. His trait has two parts. ''Wrath of the Bone King'' causes his Basic Attacks to strike in a 3-hit pattern, with the first two cleaving to damage nearby enemies, while the third hits a single target for double damage. ''Undying'', the second part, allows him to remain on the field as a ghost after he's killed. While he cannot deal damage in this form, Leoric can still scout, slow enemies with ''Ghastly Swing'', and reduce his death timer with ''Drain Essence''. Once his death timer has run out, Leoric will respawn at the location of his ghost. His active abilities include: ''Skeletal Swing'', a heavy mace swing in a large arc to slow and damage enemies; ''Drain Hope'' drains the health of the first hero hit as long as they remain in range while also healing Leoric; and ''Wraith Walk'', leaving his body to become a wraith, moving faster and becoming Unstoppable before snapping his body to the wraith's location once the ability ends or is cancelled.\\

Auriel is a Healer who pairs well with high DPS heroes, providing strong teamwide healing and utility. She doesn't use mana; instead her ''Bestow Hope'' trait converts damage she deals into Energy. She can also activate her trait to mark an ally as her champion, turning their damage into Energy as well. Her healing ability, ''Ray of Heaven'', spends all of her Energy to heal all allies in a small area for the amount spent. Her other basic abilities are ''Sacred Sweep'', a HerdHittingAttack in a large arc that deals extra damage in the center, and ''Detainment Strike'', which knocks an enemy hero back and stuns them if they collide with the terrain.\\

Her current skins are Archon Li-Ming, [[MagicalGirl Star Princess Li-Ming]], [[PassionateSportsGirl Striker Li-Ming]], [[AnimeChineseGirl Lunar Li-Ming]], Star Queen Li-Ming, [[Videogame/Diablo2 Tal Rasha Li-Ming]], [[VideoGame/StarCraft Templar Li-Ming]], and [[VideoGame/DiabloII Zann Esu Li-Ming]].