Malfurion, one of the strongest and heavily contested support heroes in the meta at the moment, has an array of utility, sustain, and crowd control at his arsenal. He has a variety of interesting talents that can enhance his abilities. The decisions that go behind which talents are picked, for the most part, depend on the needs of your team and the situation at hand.

Q - REGROWTH: Heal target ally for 329 (156 + 4% per level) Health instantly and an additional 1102 (523 + 4% per level) Health over 15 seconds.

Regrowth is a moderate heal which gains more value with an additional heal over time, or HoT. Malfurion's Regrowth is best used on allies who are around 50% health or lower so that the HoT portion of heal can be taken full advantage of. Regrowth is a great heal for sustained skirmishes and teamfights because of the HoT, which will keep your teammates healthier over the duration of the fight more than a burst Chain Heal from the likes of Rehgar. Regrowth is less of a reactionary heal as it is backloaded, meaning that you don't get the full value of the heal immediately. Because of the nature of the heal, it is not well suited for situations that require a burst heal to avoid certain death.

 W- MOONFIRE: Deal 231 (110 + 4% per level) damage to enemies within target area and reveals them for 2 seconds.

To clear waves easily, spam Moonfire. The ability only has a 3 second cooldown, making it easy to spam onto clumped up minions in a lane. Moonfire does moderate damage to enemies, however it becomes more of a threat the longer a skirmish is due to being able to spam the ability onto multiple targets. The amazing part of Moonfire is the ability to reveal areas with it. Checking areas such as brushes or a boss pit with Moonfire gives your team valuable scouting information, letting you escape that 5 man stack in the brush waiting for you to turn in your coins on Blackheart's Bay. Moonfire has a decent sized range that can be extended through the talent, Elune's Grace, which can be useful to slap any enemies with, stopping them from capturing a tribute or shrine in maps such as Cursed Hallow or Towers of Doom.

E- ENTANGLING ROOTS: Root enemies within the target area for 1.5 seconds, and deals 257 (122 + 4% per level) damage over the duration. Affected area grows over 3 seconds.

The use of Entangling Roots is difference between an okay Malfurion player and an amazing Malfurion player. At the most simple use, Entangling Roots snares any targets in the area, preventing them from moving for 1.5 seconds, which comes in handy when trying to stop a Diablo charging at your team or catching a squishy target like Li-Ming and bursting them down in the short time window. Mastery of Malfurion comes with your placement of Entangling Roots. The ability is a great zoning tool, so sometimes it is best used not to root any targets but instead provide a cushion of space to keep your enemies at bay or block off pathways in the jungle areas to prevent the capturing of a tribute or shrine.

D- INNERVATE: Grant allied Hero 20% of their maximum Mana over 5 seconds. While affected by Innervate, their Basic Ability cooldowns recharge 50% faster.

Innervate is a blessing when your composition has two mages who are in desperate need of mana such as Kael'thas or Jaina. Giving your teammates extra mana comes in handy in many situations, such as staying in lanes longer to give your team a slight experience advantage or in extended teamfights, letting Li-Ming use her ult just one more time to finish any fleeing enemies. The added bonus of recharging basic ability cooldowns makes this ability great to use on teammates whose hero has long ability cooldowns, like Xul, granting them one more rotation of abilities in a fight.

Level 1

Shan'do's Clarity: Reduces the cooldown of Innervate to 20 seconds, down from 30 seconds.

Moonburn: Increases the damage Moonfire deals to non-Heroic sources — minions, Mercenaries, and certain map objectives — by 100%.

Scouting Drone: Places a Scouting Drone at target location, revealing a large area around it for 45 seconds. This drone cannot be hidden and is killed by enemies with 2 Basic Attacks. Stores up to 2 charges.

For the level one talent pick, it is between Shan'do's Clarity and Moonburn. Scouting Drone is an interesting talent and it could have its merit if it weren't for the fact that it is so easy to destroy the drone with only two auto-attacks, that fact the enemy team can see the drone at all times, and the long 45 second cooldown of the talent. If the drone was invisible, but had a shorter duration than 45 seconds then it could be viable. If your team needs more wave clear, or you need to burn minions quick on maps such as Garden of Terror or Infernal Shrine, Moonburn would be ideal. Shan'do's Clarity is a must if your team has mana hungry mages such as Kael'thas or Li-Ming, plus the additional 50% recharge of basic abilities cooldowns is always handy for length cooldowns.

Level 4

Elune's Grace: Increases the cast range of Regrowth, Moonfire, and Entangling Roots by 30%.

Versatile: Increases the amount of Mana granted by Innervate to 25%, up from 20% of the target's total Mana.

Vengeful Roots: Entangling Roots also spawns a Treant that does 141 (67 + 4% per level) damage per second and lasts 10 seconds.

Generally speaking, Elune's Grace is the best level 4 talent. The extra 30% ability range keeps you at a safe distance from the likes of Diablo's flip or Stitch's hook, letting you cast Entangling Roots further, and cast Regrowth on your teammates safely behind your frontline. The other two talents are more situational. Versatile is seems like a good talent, but that extra 5% mana granted won't make too much of a difference. Vengeful Roots is an interesting talent that can be useless most of the time, but can be taken if extra wave clear is needed. It does have the added bonus of harassing an enemy, preventing them from capping a shrine or grabbing a tribute if Entangling Roots was cast in that area.

Level 7

Strangling Vines: Entangling Roots deals 100% more damage.

Calldown MULE: Activate to calldown a Mule that repairs Structures, one at a time, near target point for 40 seconds, healing for 100 Health every 1 second. Grants 1 ammo every 3 seconds. Cooldown: 60 seconds.

Cleanse: Activate to remove all stuns, roots, silences, and slows from the target and reduce the duration of their reapplication by 50% for 2 seconds. Cooldown: 60 seconds.

Cleanse is the best pickup for level 7. Being able to cast Cleanse on your Assassins that were rooted, stunned, etc. is too valuable to pass up. Having Cleanse can be the make-or-break factor in a teamfight. The MULE can be a useful asset on maps like Sky Temple, Blackheart's Bay or Garden of Terror to fortify and repair damaged structures, giving you a slight experience edge over your enemy. Strangling Vines adds extra damage onto your roots, but the extra damage is negligible compared to how useful Cleanse or the MULE talent can be.

Level 10 Heroics

Tranquility: Heals 176 (84 + 4% per level) Health per second to nearby allies over 10 seconds. Cooldown:100 seconds.

Twilight Dream: After a short delay, deal 820 (389 + 4% per level) damage in a large area around you, silencing enemies making them unable to use Abilities for 3 seconds. Also passively increases your Mana Regeneration by 1.5. Cooldown: 90 seconds.

These two Heroic abilities do two drastically different things and the talent picked depends on the needs of your team and the situation. Tranquility is useful for compositions that have two warriors and against teams that have low burst damage. The AoE heal can be the difference between wiping or wrecking the enemy team with low health bars. Twilight Dream can be useful if you find that your heals aren't being used effectively or that there is too much burst on the enemy team to get the most out of Tranquility. The extra damage and silence can shut down mages like Jaina, or Li-Ming, letting your team delete them off the map before their abilities come back. The issue with this Heroic though is that the range is short, meaning you would have to be in the middle of the fight to make it useful. The extra Mana Regen and shorter cooldown are small perks, but ultimately the deciding factor between these two talents is based on the composition and situation.

Level 13

Life Seed: Nearby damaged allied Heroes will automatically gain the heal over time portion of Regrowth. This effect has a 20 second cooldown.

Shrink Ray: Activate to reduce an enemy Hero's damage by 50% and Movement Speed by 50% for 4 seconds.

Ice Block: Activate to place yourself in Stasis and gain Invulnerability for 3 seconds. Cooldown: 60 seconds

Full Moonfire: Increases Moonfire's radius by 60% and reduces its Mana cost by 50%.

There's no single talent that must be picked here and each has their own merit. Life Seed is useful for double Warrior compositions, keeping your frontline healthy while saving some mana because it is essentially a free cast of Regrowth. Shrink Ray can be picked if there is a pesky Assassin that needs to be shutdown before they kill your squishy backline. Ice Block is a great pick if you find that you are constantly being preyed upon by the enemy team. It keeps you alive if used correctly and gives your team a chance to capitalize on the enemy team focusing you. Full Moonfire is the weakest talent in the bunch, only being useful if your team desperately needs wave clear.

Level 16

Hardened Focus: While above 80% life, your Basic Ability cooldowns regenerate 50% faster.

Tenacious Roots: Entangling Roots grows 25% larger, lasts 25% longer, and roots targets for 0.5 seconds longer.

Hindering Moonfire: Moonfire slows targets by 25% for 2 seconds.

Lunar Shower: Using Moonfire reduces the cooldown of your next Moonfire by 0.5 seconds, and increases the damage by 15%. Stacks up to 3 times and resets after 6 seconds.

Tenacious Roots is a must pick talent. The extra root range makes it easier to get multiple targets stuck in your roots while making it even harder to avoid being rooted. The extended duration lets your team burn down almost any enemy affected by the roots. Hardened Focus is a win-more talent. Staying above 80% life is a hard task to take on in an even game, and in a losing game, it's almost impossible. Hindering Moonfire shouldn't be picked, the slow is nothing compared to the CC that Tenacious Roots offers. Lunar Shower isn't worth taking at all, as spamming Moonfire like that will cause you to be out of mana quickly.

 Level 20 Serenity: Increases Tranquility's healing by 25% and it also restores 5 Mana per second. Nightmare: Increases Twilight Dream's silence duration to 4 seconds and it also slows enemies by 50%. Storm Shield: Activate to give all nearby allied Heroes a Shield for 20% of their max Health for 3 seconds. Rewind: Activate to reset the cooldowns of your Basic Abilities. Cooldown: 60 seconds. Bolt of the Storm: Activate to teleport to a nearby location. Cooldown: 60 seconds.

Storm Shield is the strongest talent in the bunch and should be picked most of the time. The 20% max HP shields will make your heals over time more effective and the shield it gives will help counter heavy bust combo's and compositions. Extra healing on the Tranquility Heroic could be helpful, as well as the added mana restoration when taking the Serenity talent if your team is running a double warrior composition. The Nightmare talent is not that useful when compared to the other talents here. An extra second on the silence isn't that much of a difference but the added slow is nice if your team is low on CC. Rewind shouldn't be taken as Malfurion's basic abilities have such short cooldowns already. Sure you get an extra Regrowth and Moonfire, but you can't recast Entangling Roots on a target that has already been rooted, so that ability would be wasted unless you managed to root a different target. Bolt of the Storm is a get-out-of-jail-free ability that lets you correct positional mistakes. It can be used aggressively to snare a target just out of reach, or heal someone just out of range, but if the Elune's Grace talent was taken, one shouldn't also take the blink. You can stay safe without the use of the teleport and use your abilities with quite some range.

Generally, Malfurion is an asset in any composition that wants to kite when fighting because of his kit. A Malfurion player should spam Moonfire while trying to get in as many auto attacks as possible with the use of the attack move key, A, while kiting backwards with their team. Use Entangling Roots to provide a zone or cushion of space for your team to comfortably fight in to avoid being engaged on by the enemy team.

Malfurion can be picked in almost any composition; however, he is vulnerable to high burst Assassins because of his immobility. In a draft, Malfurion should not be picked if there are heroes that can cause Malfurion to be mispositioned or can burst Malfurion down in one rotation of abilities. Playing against heroes such as Alarak, Artanis, Diablo, Zeratul and Kerrigan are a Malfurion player's worst nightmare.

Malfurion is an all-around great healer, especially true in double warrior compositions that can take full advantage of his heals over time from Regrowth. His ability to zone with Entangling Roots, clear waves with Moonfire, give teammates mana and shorten their cooldown on basic abilities with Innervate, root enemies, and, if the Twilight Dream Heroic was taken, silence troublesome mages makes him a strong pick in any composition, as well as a constant target to be banned.

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