Hello there Dignitas readers, missed me? Well I sure missed you, but worry not I am back! This time I’ve cooked up an article that goes over combinations of tanks and healers in Heroes of the Storm. Who synergizes with who and how to optimally make use of it. Here and there I put in an additional draft suggestion, but otherwise this is specifically meant for these two roles.

Disclaimer: this is what is fun and nice to play in my opinion, I’m in no way claiming it’s the best. You may notice Tyrande is very high on the priority list, that is because I’m a one trick pony. Alright now I’ve said that, let's jump into it!

Diablo

Very much an all-in tank. Diablo offers good CC paired with damage, but very much lacks an escape and disengage.

Anduin: I’ve got you! Anduin provides solid healing for the whole team and with his trait can pull Diablo out when he needs to.

Tyrande: A classic CC combo which is all about going in and either starting the fight off with one-shotting a backliner or picking someone off in the rotation. This combo provides a big amount of damage on its own and is not as dependent on landing kills as ETC with Tyrande for example. This is because Diablo can pick talents that heal him on landing a stun with his Q but also build more damage into that stun potential. This is why, between Tyrande and Diablo, they most often can land a kill on a squishy by themselves. The trick to this combo is to as Diablo very clearly pick a way to use your Q and E ability. For example you Q into a wall and then E, Tyrande stuns on top. Or only use E and after Tyrande stuns you use Q to push the target into your backline (if it’s not dead yet).

As the Tyrande you have to pay close attention to Diablo and make sure you follow up at the right time. The easiest thing is to take the E range talent at level 1 and aim your stun at Diablo’s tail.

Alexstrasza: This combo is talent dependent as Alexstrasza has to pick up Circle of Life on level 1 and Diablo picks Devil's Due. This way Diablo always gets extra healing from globes that Alex provides with her W ability. In the late game, he barely takes damage as long as he can stand on that green circle. It's a late game duo, but absolutely worth it for taking long fights on Infernal Shrines for example.

ETC

A great all round tank that is good at peeling, picking off enemies and taking back and forth fights.

Tyrande: Pick them off. That tells you exactly what you want to do with either of these healers. With Tyrande and ETC you want to rotate around and make sure you get kills while you do so. Picking off enemies that are alone. Powerslide, stun and -15 armor on top makes sure that you will almost always land a kill, depending on the damage dealers on your team of course. This duo lacks the damage to kill a squishy target between the two of them, unlike the combination with Diablo.

Ana: Secure the kills. Ana is overall a powerful healer in terms of what her kit has to offer. With ETC’s Powerslide and her Biotic Grenade on top of that she can easily secure kills for her team, as there is no saving the enemy if they can’t receive healing when they are low. She’s not great at healing in big numbers, but ETC’s Guitar Solo will gladly make up for that to sustain him just enough.

Stitches

Stitches is a big meat shield that tends to stay near his team. He can sustain himself quite well if he's in direct contact with an enemy. The playstyle you want with Stitches is playing around his hook.

Malfurion: Do a ho(o)key pokey: Malfurion is good at sustain healing and offers good CC to follow up on the hook. He’s good at dealing with poke and can offer small amounts of burst healing in fights.

Uther: Is a better choice if the enemy team is looking to burst Stitches down, since he prevents that with his healing and also has point and click CC to follow up on hooks.

Garrosh:

A hero that requires a lot of single target sustain from his healer, since he is not very good at taking damage up front. Garrosh wants to isolate a target and kill it, but in a 5 on 5 teamfight requires a fair amount of healing.

Anduin: In terms of lore, these 2 might seem a very unlikely pair, as they didn't quite get along. But in terms of what Anduin's kit has to offer it suits Garrosh very well. Single target healing on a short cooldown, a root to follow up on the throw, and Leap of Faith to pull Garrosh out of tricky situations.

Alexstrasza: Pumps out the heals and can position very safely as most attention will be drawn to Garrosh. Having Dragonqueen is not only an advantage for some maps, but also to make sure the teamfight can keep going or turn around once Garrosh runs a little low on health.

Stukov: A healer that can heal for big amounts and provides solid crowd control to help Garrosh out or follow up for him.

Anub’Arak:

In my opinion one of the hardest tanks to play, because Anub is very unforgiving. One wrong engage with your E can often result in the beetle dying, because he doesn’t have a big amount of health. It works well to look for short fights and have a hero in the team that could take care of the disengage.

Kharazim: Both quite mobile, and you can look into blowing up the enemy frontline with this combo.

Malfurion/Tyrande: Anub’arak E, Malf or Tyrande E on top. It's good. It works. This combo helps your team get quick picks. With both healers, you can take sustained fights, depending on Anub'araks health bar after the initial kill.

Mal’Ganis

Ana: Naptime! The enemy team will take very long naps if you overlap your abilities perfectly. Just for the setup, this combo is very lethal, with loads of disruption and of course the healing negation. This is a great combo with a mage that benefits from some set-up, like Kel'Thuzad or Jaina.

Uther:Mal’Ganis with Winged Guard gains 75 armor and Uther provides 25 more with his healing. Where Uther has long cooldowns on his healing abilities, Mal'Ganis can make up for that with the healing he gets from his auto attacks.

Tyrael

Kharazim: Two mobile heroes that go well together in specific situations. Tyrael gives a bit of shields, Kharazim a bit of healing, but both don't give too much in terms of actual sustain. Mainly good for a team that is focusing on the front line or a quick dive in and out. So that is how you want to play the fights. Go for a bruiser with CC like Blaze and a good sustained damage dealer. 

Otherwise I would suggest taking a strong sustain healer with CC that is easy to land like Malfurion.

Muradin

Tyrande: Stunning! That’s what this combo is about, follow up on Muradin's Stormbolt with Lunar Flare. This combo is also good in teamfights depending on 2 things: Muradin's health bar and Tyrande's ability to auto attack. If Muradin is high on health and Tyrande is allowed to auto attack freely, taking a fight is very good for this combo. Muradin can jump in and cause a lot of disruption on his own, while Tyrande can provide everyone with healing as she is allowed to auto attack freely. This means she gets CDR on her Light of Elune heal, while meanwhile healing *probably* Muradin with the Elune’s Chosen mark on him. Other heroes that work in this combo are Ana, Malfurion.

Lucio: Lucio and Muradin synergize because they are both very good at harassing the enemy backline and are hard to catch. Once caught, both will die quickly though.

Mei

Mei goes very well with healers that are good at taking care of themselves in my opinion. I haven’t played enough games with Mei as a main tank to be able to give good feedback on what works with her.

Johanna

A popular tank that can take a lot of hits before she goes down.

Auriel: Endurance squad. Auriel has a significant cooldown on her only healing ability, which Johanna can handle because she is good at taking damage. This works as long as the damage doesn't exceed the amount that Auriel can top Johanna up with.

Anduin: The crusade from above! Lightbomb with Falling Sword, do I need to say more? It was very popular some time ago. A very easy combo to pull off; Lightbomb on Johanna, she immediately uses Falling Sword to hover above the target, it gets stunned by Lightbomb, it gets stunned by Falling Sword and, if your DPS heroes are awake, they will die.

Arthas

Let me get this out of the way first; Arthas is typically not the best main/solo tank. BUT sometimes he can be very useful, or when everything else is banned and taken.

Morales: Morales provides Arthas with (almost) endless healing. This means Arthas can easily walk in and out of fights.

Lucio: There is no escape! With Arthas’s constant slow and Lucio speeding him up, it makes it easy for Arthas to find his target and once he is on them, they won’t escape anymore. Lucio offers sustain alongside Arthas to keep going for a long fight.

Varian

You either hate him or love him. I still felt like mentioning him, since he is still picked fairly often as main tank in Storm League.

Tyrande/Malfurion: A very solid and easy combo if you draft it with a burst mage like Li Ming or Jaina. Varian taunts a target, Tyrande stuns or Malfurion roots and the mage dumps all damage on top of it. In the lower ranks this should be an effective combo to practise.

So here I have summed up the combinations that I often see or that I think synergize well together. Thinking about the healer you want with your tank is often also looking at the enemy composition. Then you have to decide what kind of healer your team needs, depending on the kind of damage the enemies have. Building your foundation, tank and healer, to counter them or to have a great combo together will help win you fights. And winning fights often means winning games!