Malthael was once the Archangel of Wisdom and the first leader of the Angiris Council, the ruling body of the High Heavens which also included Tyrael and Auriel, two heroes that could already be played in the Nexus. Malthael vanished after the destruction of the Worldstone, wandering the halls of Pandemonium to seek for answers to the incomprehensible mysteries of life and death. He returned later as the Reaper of Death to end the Eternal Conflict by annihilating everything corrupted by demonic vitiation, including mankind itself.

 Reaper's Mark – Trait. Malthael's basic attacks afflict non-structure targets with Reaper's Mark for 4 seconds. These marked enemies take damage equal to 2.25% of their maximum health every second and are revealed for the duration.  Death Shroud – E. After 0.25 seconds channeling time, Malthael unleashes a wave of dark mist that applies Reaper's Mark to enemies it hits.  Soul Rip – Q. Soul Rip extracts the souls of nearby enemies afflicted by Reaper's Mark, dealing 100 damage and healing Malthael for 44 per target hit. Heroic targets heal Malthael for an additional 3% of the hero's maximum health.  Wraith Strike – W. Instantly teleport through an enemy that is afflicted by Reaper's Mark, dealing 59 damage and refreshing Reaper's Mark.  Tormented Souls – R1. Malthael gains 10 armor and unleashs a torrent of souls, continually applying Reaper's Mark to nearby enemies for 4 seconds.  Last Rites – R2. Apply a death sentence to an enemy hero that, after 2 seconds, deals damage equal to 50% of their missing health. Last Rites also has a repeatable quest: Enemies killed while under the effect of Last Rites permanently reduce its cooldown by 5 seconds, to a minimum of 15 seconds.

E, W and Q of Malthael shortly after

Level 1

 Death's Reach – W. Death's Reach increases the range of Wraith Strike by 35%. It is a good talent to annoy the backline, to chase an enemy and it offers you more mobility during teamfights. Since Malthael has no escape, an unpredicted teleport that goes even further can save you with a good coordination from your team. However, you should always remember that you can only jump to marked enemies, so the use of Wraith Strike can often times be a double-edged sword and can get you in even more trouble. It definitely needs a bit of practice to get the most value out of your W.  On a Pale Horse – Z/Y. This talent improves the movement speed of Malthael's mount by 20%. On huge maps like Warhead Junction and Cursed Hollow, it can be a great tool to get to an objective faster and rotate more quickly. On smaller maps though it doesn't take much effect, so other talents on this level may be more useful.  Fear the Reaper – Num-key. You can activate this talent to increase your movement speed by 25% and pass through other units for 4 seconds. It is a great tool to escape body blocks, slows, chasing enemies, and can help you to reposition in choke points. However, you should always be aware that this talent doesn't make you Unstoppable in any way. A stun is a stun and you'll still die with a follow up by the enemy team.

Level 4

 Die Alone – Q. With Die Alone, Soul Rip deals 75% more damage if it hits only one hero and no other enemies. It's a talent that helps you shred a beefy warrior like Stitches, for example, but also needs you to be either lucky to hit only one enemy with your Death Shroud or to go in first and only apply basic attacks to the enemy target. Another way would be to jump in with Wraith Strike a second before every enemy would lose Reaper's Mark, so you can immediately get value out of this talent. The downside of it however is that you miss out on a lot of potential healing with your biggest ability to survive in a teamfight.  Throwing Shade – E. Throwing Shade is a quest talent that rewards you with a 33% increased range, 4 second reduced cooldown and a mana cost reduction of 50% on Death Shroud if you are able to hit 20 heroes with it. The talent itself doesn't sound bad on paper, but the possibility to see your E crawling towards your enemy over a larger distance, while being as slow as on baseline, makes it even easier to not get hit by it. It can be a good tool to poke on objectives that need to be captured but the possibilities of getting enough value out of it aren't that high, even more if you have to complete a quest for it in the first place.  Black Harvest – Trait. Another questing talent on level 4 is Black Harvest. If you keep applying Reaper's Mark to enemy heroes for a total of 150 seconds, Black Harvest permanently increases Reaper's Mark's duration by 2 seconds, allowing your trait to be applied for 6 seconds in total if you hit an enemy once. In clumped up teamfights you can get a lot of questing stacks for this talent, making it fairly easy to get. With the increase on your trait duration, you are applying more damage automatically and are able to use more abilities in teamfights, which provides even more damage but also more healing from Soul Rip.

Level 7

 Cold Hand – Q. Cold Hand gives Soul Rip the effect to slow enemies by 20% for 2.5 seconds. To shorten things up on this talent a simple question: What is bad about a 20% slow that lasts 2.5 seconds but you can apply every 2 seconds? This talent is not only offering a little bit of crowd control, it also offers the opportunity to not let an enemy get away from you if they don't have an escape ability.  Mortality – W. With Mortality, your Wraith Strike deals bonus damage equal to 4% of the hero's maximum health. It kind of lines in with Die Alone on 4 due to the capability of improving your single target burst, but without the downside of just having one Reaper's Mark applied near you and losing your healing ability for it.  Touch of Death – Numkey. Touch of Death is an extra ability that reduces healing received for heroes afflicted by Reaper's Mark by 50% for 4 seconds. Can be good against double heal line-ups or healers like Lucio and Auriel, but you are also missing out on potential damage.

Level 10

 Tormented Souls - R. The 20 Armor for 4 seconds this ultimate ability gives you can help quite a lot to make you more resistant in teamfights and apply your Reaper's Mark easier for this duration. Combined with Soul Rip, it can deal a lot of area damage and lets you heal for a lot if your ultimate can be executed safely. Of course, Tormented Souls should never be cast on two single targets under normal circumstances, because its potential increases highly, the more heroes you hit, similarly to Kerrigan's 'Maelstrom'.  Last Rites – R. Last Rites is more of a finishing Ultimate just like 'Go for the Throat' on Greymane and just like that, there is also an indicator over every enemy hero in range that would die if you cast Last Rites on it at this exact moment; namely when the enemy is below 33% of HP. The thing to consider though is that Last Rites doesn't apply instant damage like 'Go for the Throat', but release its power only after 2 seconds, so timing to secure a kill and get a quest stack on this heroic needs a little bit of practice. A benefit though is that you also get the quest stack if the marked enemy dies even before the damage of your Ultimate goes out, but on the other hand it is easily countered by any Stasis or Invulnerability effects. In my opinion, it's more of a situational pick.

Level 13

 Soul Siphon – Q. Soul Siphon increases the bonus healing from heroes you get to 4% of the hero's maximum health. Particularly against a big frontline or double tank compositions, this talent gains a lot of benefit. However, always consider that a reliable stun or silence oftentimes denies you the use of your Q, so against stun heavy comps you might face a problem during teamfights and might consider another survivability tool.  Ethereal Existence – Trait. With Ethereal Existence, Malthael gains 10 Physical Armor per enemy hero afflicted by Reaper's Mark, up to a maximum of 40. Altogether a great talent against team comps with less spell and more physical damage or certain heroes in particular. This talent also stacks with the 10 Armor of Tormented Souls, granting you up to a maximum of 50 Physical and 10 Spell Armor.  Inevitable End – Numkey. This is an extra ability with a 20 seconds cooldown, which makes Malthael Unstoppable for 2 seconds but also removes all active Reaper's Marks. Can be good against stun-heavy compositions, but losing all Reaper's Marks and not being able to cast any other ability (with the exception of Death Shroud and your Ultimate) is a big downside for this talent, that usually only gets you safe when your teammates are near and can peel for you, since you can only walk away. However, you can get a bit more value out if it by combining it with Fear the Reaper at level 1 to get more space between you and the enemy.  Shroud of Wisdom – Numkey. Another extra ability with a 30 seconds cooldown, but this one is grants 50 Spell Armor for 4 seconds, 2 seconds after activation. Of course, there are situations where it's pretty clear that you are going to be in trouble or you will need Spell Armor for, so with a bit of timing you can get value out of it, but in most circumstances, like when getting ganked, Shroud of Wisdom won't help you a lot for the upcoming burst damage.

Level 16

 Soul Collector – Q. Another talent for Soul Rip that reduces the cooldown of it by 0.5 seconds and increases its range by 50%. The talent itself is decent but can be better when you are going for more of a Q build or at least took some more Q-talents with it. Combined with Cold Hand at level 7, you get 20% slow with a 50% bigger range that lasts 2.5 seconds, but can be cast every 1.5 seconds.  Massacre – W. With Massacre, Wraith Strikes damage will also be applied to enemies around its target and will affect them with Reaper's Mark. The area of effect though is not that big, so it's kind of hard to get value out of it. Other talents at this tier are far more reliable to deal damage.  Memento Mori – Trait. Memento Mori alters Malthael's trait to deal 80% increased damage after afflicting an enemy for more than 4 seconds and is a huge power spike. This talent improves Malthael's damage over time by quite a lot and helps shredding healthy targets within seconds. Tanks be aware if your enemy Malthael hits level 16 and takes Memento Mori, because you have to be more careful now.

Level 20

 Reaper of Souls – R1. The upgrade for Tormented Souls extends its duration by 4 seconds for every hero takedown while Tormented Souls is active and passively increases Tormented Souls duration by 1 second. It can get decent value when facing enemies like The Lost Vikings that are certainly to grant some extra seconds, but it's not as impactful as a reset by Li-Ming for example.  Angel of Death – R2. Last Rites heals for 100% of the damage dealt and its current and future cooldown reduction bonuses are doubled, if Angel of Death is picked. It's another healing source for Maltheal that can be powerful, when already a few stacks could be gained and you can blow up high health pool targets with it when you are in trouble (More health over all = still a lot of health at 33% = a lot of damage with Last Rites and therefore a large heal for Malthael).  Final Curtain – E. Final Curtain lets Death Shroud leave a trail in its wake for 4 seconds, applying Reaper's Mark to enemies in its area. It's a good zoning tool, improves Malthael's damage over time, helps with applying Reaper's Mark and excels in clumped up fights and choke points.  No One Can Stop Death – Numkey. Last but not least the talent, everyone was hyping at the announcement of Malthael. With No One Can Stop Death, Malthael can immediately respawn at the Altar after activation, but also increases his next respawn time by 25%, while this talent has a cooldown of 180 seconds. So if you can plan to die only every 3 minutes in the late game, you would get the most value out of it, but in a real match there for sure is no guarantee for that. It is really situational and should only be considered if you died and your team lost an important teamfight and the enemy has the potential to end the game or get an objective that will end it and you haven't chosen your level 20 talent yet or your team just hit 20.

  Death's Reach on level 1 is grants chase potential to dive the backline or get out of it and helps me when juking abilities and heroes. When the enemy team does not have a lot of Stuns or Roots, I often pick Fear the Reaper as well because it can be really good in clumped up situations. I only choose 'On a Pale Horse' on maps like Warhead Junction and Cursed Hollow.    On level 4, I go with Black Harvest. The increase on my trait's duration that already applies damage over time, which also allows me to use more abilities without being forced to apply Reaper's Mark again once I completed the quest, is really strong and will come in handy with the rest of the build.    Cold Hand on level 7 is the talent to go due to the possibility of chasing or even keeping an enemy away from you. Also, it can synergize pretty well with heroes on your team that can skill Executioner later on in the game. However, 'Mortality' can be good too, but Cold Hand will get a bit more value in this build.    Level 10 is normally the place to take Tormented Souls to get more trait value and apply massive area damage. However, in some circumstances, 'Last Rites' is also a pick that can be considered for blowing up a specific enemy hero for example.   At level 13, I go with either Soul Siphon when facing enemies that are often clumped up or having a double tank frontline and more spell then physical damage or with Ethereal Existence in nearly any other case. 'Shroud of Wisdom' is just not reliable enough to get decent value out of it, fighting against teams with only one mage for instance, so I try to juke enemy spells more and get better healing when diving in. However it can be an option, facing teams that almost only have spell damage . 'Inevitable End' is a quite situational pick which you might consider when facing huge amounts of Crowd Control.    Memento Mori is the biggest power spike for Malthael going into the late game and synergizes pretty well with the level 4 talent if you finished the quest, because by only applying Reaper's Mark once there are already 2 seconds of extra time in which the enemy gets 80% more damage out of your trait. Combining this with Tormented Souls at 10 increases your damage potential significantly.    With Final Curtain on level 20, this build gets another good tool to apply lots of Reaper's Marks onto the opposing team and therefore, with the rest of the build, get a lot of trait value. 'No One Can Stop Death' is quite situational, as already said, but can also be considered under certain conditions.

Malthael's damage rises exponentially towards the late game, just like Nazeebo. Therefore, Malthael is a good pick on maps that are guaranteed to last a bit longer. His potential to deal massive amounts of damage to enemies with a high health pool makes him strong against double warrior line-ups or single heroes like Cho'Gall or Stitches. He also can be a really good pick on maps like Garden of Terror or Dragon Shire, shrinking the health bar of an objective. His decent wave clear and his sustain allow him to be considered as a solo laner and he can be at least a bit annoying against a Sonya or other higher healthed matchups in the solo lane.

Although Malthael's waveclear is decent, he clearly lacks structure damage throughout the whole game, due to the fact that his Reaper's Mark cannot be cast on structures and he has to use his normal and quite slow auto attacks to get structural damage done.

Malthael is all about his trait. Players that are able to get the most value out of this damage-over-time ability will be able to deal lots of damage. Reaper's Mark can be kept on up to 3 different targets at a time just by auto-attacking due to his attackspeed of 0.91 attacks per second.

Due to his lack of escapes, you have to be aware of your own and the enemies positioning even more. Wraith Strike can be a good tool to juke impending skillshots and enemy heroes, but it is not a teleport to a free location, so you should try and get a good feeling for what you can and cannot do with it. On the other hand, though Malthael has a good chase potential and can secure important last hits.

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