Heroes of the Storm is Blizzard’s word in the MOBA genre, and today we’re taking a look at the melee assassin character, Maiev. Maiev joins The Nexus from the Warcraft universe, and she was added to the game on the 6th of February 2018. She is currently sitting at a cost of 750 gems, or 10,000 gold to unlock. Since her inception, Maiev has seen nerfs to her abilities in practically every form, but that does not mean she is to be underestimated.
Let’s go over those nerfs quickly, as they’re going to be quite relevant in understanding the shift in Maiev’s play-style. She’s certainly still very lethal, but her resets and armor changes have made choosing engagements wisely more of a necessity than ever.
9th of February 2018 Patch:
Stats
- Basic Attack Damage reduced from 162 to 150
- Base Maximum Health increased from 2150 to 2236
- Health Regeneration increased from 4.48 to 4.66
Abilities
- Fan of Knives (Q)
- Damage decreased from 180 to 170
- Vault of the Wardens (D)
- No longer grants passive Armor
Talents
- Level 1
- Naisha’s Memento (Active)
- Bounces no longer deal bonus damage
- Naisha’s Memento (Active)
- Level 16
- Armored Assault (Passive)
- Physical Damage bonus decreased from 35 to 25%
- Now activates if Maiev has any amount of bonus Armor
- Armored Assault (Passive)
“Maiev has arrived in the Nexus and seems to be obliterating her foes (as she should) but is slightly deadlier than we intended.
The Warden’s survivability is currently too high, which allows her to get tons of resets on Fan of Knives while ignoring enemy threats. To address this, we’re removing her armor gain from Vault of the Wardens, while slightly lowering her damage output so that she has to stick around in the fight a little longer to take down her opponents.
After these changes, we’ll continue to keep an eye on Maiev to be sure that she has enough survivability to perform her melee Assassin role, without it feeling like her enemies have little-to-no options for counterplay.”
– Developer Comment
21st of February 2018 Patch:
Stats
- Health reduced from 2236 to 2150
- Health Regeneration reduced from 4.66 to 4.48
Abilities
- Vault of the Wardens (D)
- Cooldown increased from 8 to 9 seconds
- Fan of Knives (Q)
- Damage reduced from 170 to 162
Talents
- Level 16
- Armored Assault (Passive)
- Damage bonus reduced from 25% to 20%
- Vengeful Knives (E)
- Bonus damage per Hero hit increased from 1% to 1.2%
- Armored Assault (Passive)
“The changes we released on February 9 helped bring Maiev’s win-rate down to mortal levels, but she was still a bit too powerful, overall. Today’s changes are aimed at slightly lowering both her survivability and burst damage throughput.
Our data is showing the majority of her Talents are in healthy spots, but we will keep an eye on them as players start adapting to certain playstyles.”
– Developer Comment
You can see from the patch history for Maiev that her current iteration is the weakest that she’s been during her lifecycle in the Nexus. But does that make her weak? No. This is a really common misconception surrounding Maiev – that her nerfs have made her less of a hero compared to other melee assassins and that she doesn’t have a place in anyone’s team composition.
Now, while Maiev’s changes certainly have made her weaker than she was, she isn’t weak on the whole. It would be fairer to say that the changes have made her more balanced, and have brought her back in line with other melee assassins. Not only does she still have the potential to shred through enemies and keep herself alive through agility and armor, but she has some extremely potent displacement which is not often seen in her hero type.
Using Maiev
Using Maiev effectively will look like disabling multiple foes and displacing enemies with poor position with her pull. Whilst Maiev might not have the potential for burst, her damage and utility can easily be applied to multiple heroes that are grouped up, and this area damage can be ramped up with the use of select Talents.
Get nice and close to enemies by fading in, get your area damage and displacement in, then get out using her Fade, or dodge damage on the way out with her active trait.
Where does Maiev not excel? Well, her wave clear isn’t amazing. Sure, you can use her abilities to clear waves, but the utility is lost somewhat, and the speed is nothing to be too excited about. Oh, and you’re going to want to pair her with a healer or be much more careful with your engagements and siege, as she has no form of self-sustain.
Abilities
- Fan of Knives
Deal 152 damage to enemies in a crescent area.
Hitting at least 2 enemy Heroes with Fan of Knives reduces its cooldown to 0.5 seconds, and refunds its Mana cost.
Like I mentioned earlier, Maiev excels when enemies group up, and this can be seen throughout her abilities and talents beginning with Fan of Knives. You can use the crescent below or above a wave to aid in your clear. But be sure that you have a cooldown if you anticipate a team-fight over an objective/camp/significant event.
Talents-wise, I have found some potency in combining the effect of Fan of Knives providing armor when hitting heroes, and Maiev gaining 20% bonus damage whilst she has an armor buff active.
- Umbral Bind
Maiev’s next Basic Attack cleaves and applies a tether to enemy Heroes hit for 2.5 seconds. If a tethered Hero moves too far from Maiev, they are pulled toward her, dealing 110 damage and breaking the tether.
You can see the trend in Maiev’s abilities applying liberally to multiple foes here again with Umbral. You can certainly single-target the basic attack to an enemy with that intention, but the strength in her play-style is trapping foes that are foolish enough to group up.
You can combine this ability with Maiev’s Fade for some guaranteed tether results as well, or just force foes to move with you to avoid triggering the pull and damage.
- Spirit of Vengeance
Send a shadow of Maiev outward that will return to its cast location, dealing 150 damage to enemies along both paths. If an enemy Hero is hit, cooldown is reduced by 4 seconds.
This is your achieve mobility and engagement tool. Absolutely you can use it in a pinch for some wave-clear utility, but the cooldown can be punishing if you find an opportune moment to engage, or need to get off a guaranteed Umbral Bind pull.
Throw the spirit through walls or onto the enemy backline to confuse and disable the enemy’s key heroes.
- Vault of the Wardens
Leap into the air, becoming immune to all hostile effects for 0.75 seconds.
A little play on the words with the vault here. Maiev’s trait is an active skill that allows her to jump in the air and avoid any incoming damage and crowd control. You’re going to give the enemy Kael’Thas headaches with this one. Incoming Pyroblast ultimate? I don’t think so.
Heroic Abilities
- Containment Disc
Throw a glaive in the target direction. If an enemy Hero is hit, Containment Disc can be reactivated to remove their vision and Time Stop them for 4 seconds. Leaving containment Silences the enemy Hero for 1.5 seconds.
Containment Disc automatically activates 6 seconds after hitting a Hero.
Containment Disc can be described as a mini-VP. It’s a skillshot that takes quite the amount of finesse to land and time well with its subsequent activation. But, if done properly, it can make engagement entirely in your favor every time the cooldown is up.
Think about taking every fight 5v4. It sounds pretty appealing, right? Well, that’s what makes practicing with the Disc worthwhile.
- Warden’s Cage
Summon 8 Warden Avatars as a cage around Maiev. After 1.5 seconds, enemy Heroes that come in contact with an Avatar consume it and are knocked to the center of the cage.
Warden Avatars last 5 seconds.
Warden is the easier of the two ultimates to land, but don’t think that means that it is any less influential in a game. The Warden’s zoning can save your bacon in a sticky situation or isolate a dangerous foe for you and your allies to explode. Zoning, utility, and save all rolled into one!
Fade in on an unsuspecting enemy, drop the circle of Wardens on them, then follow up with the damage. Getting chased and ran out of utility? Why not drop the Wardens to survive? It’s only a cooldown!
Talents:
Level 1:
Bonds of Justice
Quest: Each tether applied to a secondary target of Umbral Bind permanently increases Umbral Bind’s pull damage by 15.
Reward: After applying 5 tethers to secondary targets, increase Umbral Bind’s pull damage by 75.
Reward: After applying 10 tethers to secondary targets, increase Umbral Bind’s cleave damage by 30%.
Pursuit of Vengeance
Each Hero tethered by Umbral Bind reduces the cooldown of Spirit of Vengeance by 2.5 seconds, and each Hero hit by Spirit of Vengeance reduces the cooldown of Umbral Bind by 1 second.
Naisha’s Memento
Activate to make primary Basic Attacks bounce between nearby enemies up to 2 times. Lasts 8 seconds.
Level 4:
Pin Down
Quest: Hit 3 enemy Heroes with a single Fan of Knives.
Reward: Increase Fan of Knives’ damage by 35%.
Reward: Each additional time 3 enemy Heroes are hit by a single Fan of Knives, gain an additional 5% damage, up to 50%.
Reward: Hit 4 enemy Heroes with a single Fan of Knives to instantly gain all Rewards.
Blade Dance
Using Fan of Knives deals 50 Physical Damage to enemies around Maiev.
Sudden Vengeance
After Blinking with Spirit of Vengeance, the shadow explodes, damaging all nearby enemy Heroes for 6% of their maximum Health.
Level 7:
Elune’s Wrath
Hitting at least 2 Heroes with a single Fan of Knives causes the next Fan of Knives to drop a star on targets that deals 77 damage when it impacts.
Bonds of Corruption
Enemy Heroes pulled by Umbral Bind have their Armor reduced by 15 and are Slowed by 25% for 3 seconds.
Ruthless Spirit
Each enemy Hero hit by Spirit of Vengeance increases all of Maiev’s damage by 15% for 4 seconds, stacking up to 30%.
Level 13:
Bladed Armor
Each enemy Hero hit by Fan of Knives grants 5 Armor for 5 seconds, up to 20 Armor.
Chain Gang
Tethering at least 2 enemy Heroes with Umbral Bind grants 35 Armor for 4 seconds.
Shadow Armor
Blink grants 20 Armor for 3.5 seconds. Maiev’s Basic Attacks against enemy Heroes refresh this duration.
Level 16:
Vengeful Knives
Dealing damage to enemy Heroes causes the next casting of Fan of Knives that hits enemy Heroes to deal 1% maximum Health as bonus damage, up to 5%.
Cruel Chain
Umbral Bind grants 25% Movement Speed for 2.5 seconds. In addition, each time Maiev deals damage to tethered targets, Umbral Bind’s pull damage to all targets is increased by 30%, up to 150%
Armored Assault
While Maiev has Armor of any kind, all Physical Damage dealt is increased by 25%.
Level 20:
Shadow Orb: Vengeance
Activate to reset the cooldown of Spirit of Vengeance.
Recharge Shadow Orb by damaging enemy Heroes with Spirit of Vengeance 5 times.
Shadow Orb: Huntress
Activate to increase Movement Speed and Attack Speed by 40% for 5 seconds.
Recharge Shadow Orb by dealing Physical Damage to enemy Heroes 10 times.
Shadow Orb: Shadow Strike
Activate to deal 75 damage to an enemy Hero, Slowing them by 30% and reducing their Armor by 20 for 4 seconds.
Recharge Shadow Orb by dealing Spell Damage to enemy Heroes 10 times.
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Credits
| Program | Founding Writers |
| Author | Luke Cowling |
| Publisher | MGN |
| Game | Heroes of the Storm |