Why?

Global abilities allow certain heroes to get across battlegrounds much quicker than mounted heroes. These abilities come in a variety of types that depend on the hero. Global heroes are quite common in drafts at any level of competition. Since some Heroes of the Storm battleground strategies revolve around rotating between lanes for quick kills, global heroes can offer a constant threat of suddenly changing the advantage of any team fight. The higher amount of effective globals a team has, the better they can quickly engage on enemies. The best global heroes also add a lot of value to being a solo laner. While globals may not always be first priority on all battlegrounds, having one around that fits a composition well can be a large advantage if played correctly. Just be careful what you are jumping into! Engaging alone with your global against a full enemy team will not turn out well in most cases.

Who?

Falstad - One of the top picks for global presence. He can solo soak lanes very well and is a great matchup against most other solo laning heroes. His Z, Flight, is his mode of mobility that allows him to fly to a target location across the battleground. It has a relatively short cooldown which can be reduced by a lot at level 20. His ultimate, Mighty Gust, offers him a lot of versatility in team fights.

Dehaka - With the new patch (Dec 14th 2016), Dehaka is looking to be in a strong bruiser position. His Z, Brushstalker, works by targeting any bush on the battleground and then he burrows to that location after a short cast time. It allows him global presence for ganks or finishing off kills. He is also an exceptional solo laner and, with his Drag ability, he can offer great team engages and isolation on enemy heroes.

E.T.C. - This global comes from E.T.C.’s heroic, Stage Dive. All-around, E.T.C. is a great tank and usually sees a very high first-pick/first-ban priority in draft. He has effective crowd control and can stun with his Powerslide, which lets him set up for specific enemy kills. He can solo soak a lane and Stage Dive in for a team fight, or Stage Dive behind a retreating enemy team to slow them down enough to allow for follow-up kills.

Brightwing - The global on Brightwing, Phase Shift on the Z key, is very handy if she is split soaking and needs to come in for a team fight. The only downside is that her split soaking is relatively weak in comparison to the other global heroes. Brightwing would have a difficult time matching up against some of the most popular solo laners, but Phase Shift offers her so much value when helping in team fights or saving a teammate caught in a bad situation. Since there are not many meta healers currently, Brightwing often finds her way into a draft.

Illidan - This global comes with Illidan’s heroic, The Hunt. It’s a really risky heroic to take, as it charges Illidan across the battleground to the enemy target. It alerts this target that Illidan is coming, so the enemy team has a bit of time to prepare for his arrival. This isn’t a very strong global and Illidan would rarely ever be drafted specifically for that global heroic, but with the right composition Illidan is a great sticky melee assassin. If he has the proper support, there are some opportunities where The Hunt can be picked over Metamorphosis.

(Illidan image from reddit user ScarletBliss)

Lt. Morales - This is another global that comes from the heroic talent tier. Medivac Dropship allows Lt. Morales and nearby teammates to hop into an airship that takes them to a chosen spot on the battleground. This is often used as a cheesy strategy for rushing a low health core, or getting to objectives that are on opposite sides of the map. She is a very squishy healer who needs to be protected and sometimes one will see a Lt. Morales use Medivac just to escape taking a lot of damage in a team fight. What she lacks in hit points, she offers great sustained healing and, if her team can get ahead, the threat of a backdoor onto an enemy core can give her team control of the battleground.

Zagara - Zagara has fallen out of the current meta quite a bit. The higher rank you go in Hero League or Competitive play, the less she is seen. She does have a global ability with her heroic, Nydus Network, but the value of her other option, Devouring Maw, is very hard to pass up. If a Zagara can be left to solo soak a lane and spread her creep and Nydus Network throughout a battleground, she can be very mobile for soaking neglected lanes or coming in for team fights when needed. She is at her best with her global ability if she can cause a snowball effect of lane pressure throughout the battleground while her team does objectives.

Abathur - Abathur’s Z ability, Deep Tunnel, allows him to burrow and appear at a specified visible location on the battleground. An effective Abathur will be on a larger battleground where he is free to (cautiously) soak a lane with his body while either soaking a second lane with his Symbiote ability on a minion, helping out a team fight with Symbiote, or applying battleground control with his Toxic Nests. Abathur is a very battleground and composition specific hero, as he can get countered quick easily in draft if picked too early. He is very vulnerable when he is out body soaking in a lane and not paying attention to enemy heroes on the mini map. His Deep Tunnel lets him switch lane presence very quickly to add pressure to neglected lanes. He can also play a bit risky and sneak objective captures, like in Cursed Hollow, if his team is engaging the enemy team.

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The Lost Vikings - Okay, this hero doesn’t really have a true global. They can have a global presence but do not possess the ability to quickly jump to different locations on the battleground. They can be split up into three separately controlled heroes, so they can be all over the battleground at once. The Vikings are very battleground specific and are normally seen on battlegrounds with three lanes. They work best if they can be left to solo soak lanes while the rest of the team does objectives or team fights. A great Vikings player will be able to soak carefully while microing each Viking separately and grouping up when/if needed for team fights. They are also great for sneaking objective captures on battlegrounds like Cursed Hollow and Towers of Doom, and can be used to capture the Garden Terror with one Viking while the other two soak. The Vikings have an ultimate choice called Play Again! which lets one Viking summon, fully heal, and revive the other Vikings to a target location. This helps the Vikings fit a semi-global role, as this allows them to quickly group up for team fights or turn the tides of a losing team fight to their favour.

When?

These are some of the best battlegrounds for having a global hero, ranked from most necessary to least necessary:

Towers of Doom - When 3 altars spawn, there is often a team split to maximize objective capture. If a global hero can get to the single altar and capture it, then they can join the team fight at the other two altars more quickly than other heroes. Or, the global hero has the power to quickly go down and grab the leftover altar if the full team fight happens first at the top two altars.

Warhead Junction - This battleground is enormous and globals are highly prioritized here. The nukes spawns happen all over the battleground and skirmishes are also taking place at nearly each location. Having global abilities allows a hero to be more quick to grab nukes or join team fights. As well, a global hero has the ability to drop a nuke on enemy structures then quickly get away. Being able to rotate across the battleground more quickly than the enemy team is key.

Blackheart’s Bay - This battleground really revolves around map control. Collecting coins and laning are pretty important. Whichever team has the advantage in experience will likely have a better chance collecting coins. Team fights aren't as common until later game, but globals on this battleground make a decent impact in ability to collect coins quickly, rotate to lanes to soak, or stop a boss steal in top lane.

Dragon Shire - This battleground is a total cat-and-mouse game. Rotating is very important to this battleground so globals can really help with holding a shrine, ganging up at one shrine to get kills, or quickly capture the Dragon Knight in the middle lane.

Braxis Holdout - This battleground is really similar to Dragon Shire in that it requires heavy rotations and constant back-and-forth between the two capture points. Any global that fits with a composition can allow a quick advantage in winning over one capture point.

Cursed Hollow - Another large battleground where globals aren’t completely needed 100% of the time, but it can't’ hurt to have a good Falstad or Brightwing on the team. As well, this battleground is quite good for Abathur as it’s large and has a lot of jungle skirmishes where mines can have value.

Garden of Terror - Normally a global hero wouldn’t matter so much on this battleground, but it is especially great for The Lost Vikings.

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