Hello, my name is Fred "NorthSwed" Olsson Forsberg and I'm going to tell you about the basics of Thrall. I've played over 200 matches with him and consider him one of the strongest melee assassins in the game. I've tried many different builds and I find the Windfury build the most effective.

His abilities are:

Trait: Frostwolf Resilience. Whenever you damage an enemy hero or minion with a spell, gain a stack of Frostwolf Resilience. At 5 stacks, you'll get healed for 313,04 (+4% per level) health instantly.

Q: Chain Lightning. Thrall fires a lightning bolt towards an enemy target, dealing 185.12 (+4% per level) to the first target and then half of the initial damage to 2 other nearby enemies. You target enemies with this spell so you can't miss it. This grants 3 stacks of Frostwolf Resilience at most.

W: Feral Spirit. Thrall sends a spirit wolf that deals 159,12 (+4% per level) damage every enemy in it's path. The wolf will stop and snare the target for 1 second upon hitting an enemy hero. This spell is a skillshot so you'll have to aim it right to be as impactful as possible. You can heal yourself by making the wolf run through a minion wave. You'll get as many stacks of Frostwolf Resilience as the number of enemies you hit.

E: Windfury. Thrall empowers Doomhammer, gaining 25% more movement speed for 4 seconds and makes his next 3 attacks occur 100% faster. Use this to gain ground or to hunt down fleeing enemies. This is your main damage source so try to use it against the assassins of your enemy. This grants a stack of Frostwolf Resilience per empowered attack.

R: Sundering. Thrall sunders the earth in a long line in front of him, dealing 284.96 (+4% per level) and shoving enemies to the side, stunning them for 1.5 seconds. I always pick this heroic since it deals so much damage and if positioned right, can turn the tide of a fight in 1 second. This will give you as many stacks of Frostwolf Resilience as the number of enemies you hit.

R: Earthquake. Thrall summons a massive Earthquake that periodically slow enemies in the area by 70% for 10 sec. I don't fancy this heroic at all. It doesn't bring the same impact as Sundering since it doesn't deal any damage or bring any heavy CC, which is the biggest reason why I prefer to use Sundering. Earthquake doesn't trigger Frostwolf Resilience at all.

Pros with Thrall

Insane sustained damage.
Good mobility with Windfury.
Has some hard CC (Root and Stun if you pick Sundering).
High sustain with passive.
Really high burst damage.
Can solo mercenary camps with ease.

Cons with Thrall

Can be weak early levels.
High Mana costs, small Mana pool.
Feral spirit is only a 1 second root and is a single target spell.
Vulnerable to heavy CC.

Talents:

Tier 1: Rolling Thunder. Increases Chain Lightning's range by 30% and attacking enemies recently hit by Chain Lightning restores 10 Mana. I prefer this one over the others because it enables you to poke other melee assassins so you can dominate your part of the map. You will find the early game really tough due to his lack of sustain in the early levels, so this talent really helps out with keeping you in the lane for longer periods of time.

Tier 2: Envenom. Activate to poison an enemy hero, dealing 366.08 (+4% per level) damage over 10 seconds. Thrall is a melee assassin and his main goal is to reach the enemy team's ranged assassins. Once you've caught them, Envenom will make your damage output to hard for them to handle, forcing them to flee or die.

Tier 3: Wind Shear. Reduces the cooldown of Windfury by 4 seconds. Easy pick. The main damage output of this build is Windfury so lowering the cooldown will make you deal way more damage than before.

Tier 4: Sundering. The strongest pick here. It deals a lot of damage and can break the lines of melee warriors that are trying to protect the assassins. Try to hit as many enemies as possible because you will most likely win the fight if you hit 3 or more enemies.

Tier 5: Grace of Air. Windfury attacks will grant twice as many Frostwolf Resilience stacks. Grace of Air makes to incredibly hard to duel and you'll win most or your skirmishes vs other assassins. This will also help you survive because you'll only need to use Windfury once while attacking minions to heal a third of your health.

Tier 6: Tempest Fury. The final strike of Windfury hits 3 times for 75% of the normal damage. You're basically the strongest melee assassin now. The amount of damage you deal with Windfury now is more than what any assassin. The last attack that attacks 3 times will also trigger Frostwolf Resilience for each and every one of the 3 attacks, which makes dueling you impossible and enemies will run as soon as they spot you.

Tier 7: Bolt of the Storm. Activate to teleport a short distance. I prefer this talent over the upgraded Sundering because this talent gives you the mobility you need to keep up with fleeing enemies or get away from any tricky situation that you might run into. The range is long enough to teleport over most of the walls so it's a really effective escape tool.

Early game (level 1-7)

I'd advise you to play really safe. Thrall has a quite weak early game, so try to avoid being bullied out of lane. Soak XP and try to help with objectives like gathering seeds or capturing shrines, but try to avoid skirmishes with ranged assassins like Valla or Nova. They can kite you and pick up easy kills which puts you and your team behind.

Mid game (level 7-13)

Here's where you'll start to shine. Try to group up with other teammates and force fights with the enemy team. If the fight occurs after your team reached level 10, start out with using Sundering to split the enemies from each other. Move in while the warriors are stunned and focus on the assassins. Your damage will make them at least fall back, giving your team a great edge when trying to win the fight. Sundering is perfect if the fight occur within the forests around the lanes. The width of the ability will cover an entire pathway and destroy the enemies before the upcoming fight even starts.

Late game (level 13-20->)

You've basically won if your team is ahead now. The damage output from Winfury combined with Sundring will break the toughest of tanks. You are now impossible to duel and have tons of sustain and better ways to get away from ambushes. Try to position yourself with some distance from your melee warriors/tanks so you can flank their assassins before their tanks can react. Use Sundering as you've done before and you'll be all good, the damage and CC will make you win most of the fights. You are no longer easy to kite due to the reduced cooldown of Windfury and the mobility of Bolt of the Storm.

When to use specific abilities

Whenever you are trying to catch up to someone before level 10, use Windfury to get in range for Feral Spirit. If you manage to land Feral Spirit, get close to your target before using Chain Lightning because the spell will cancel your movement and your target might get away. Use the 3 buffed attacks from Windfury to set the spell on cooldown. To finish off your burst, use Chain lightning to remove the last points of health and claim the victory for your team!

The order is the same after level 10 but you use Sundering first to get close to your enemies.

Thanks for reading this guide and I hope that you learned something that will help you in your future games with Thrall!

Are you into fantasy leagues? Then check out AlphaDraft and put together your allstar lineup!