Warden

Hurls a flask that damages enemies in a small area and leaves them dealing less weapon damage and moving more slowly. The weapon-damage penalty lasts considerably longer than the slow.

Purpose: His opener and his anti-carry button. Flask goes on the enemy's main damage dealer before the fight starts, so they spend the whole engagement hitting for 30% less.

Damage

60 base (about 0.63x spirit scaling); T2 adds +35

Crowd control

-16% movement slow for 3s

Defensive

The weapon damage reduction is effectively a defensive buff for his whole team

How to play against it

• The flask flies 40% faster since 30 October 2026, but its range is still the short one the 09-16-2026 patch gave it — sidestep the visible arc, and simply standing further back often makes it unthrowable
• Spirit-damage heroes (Victor, Yamato, Viscous) largely ignore it, because the debuff hits weapon damage and fire rate, not Spirit Damage
• Hold your Stamina: T1 drains one charge, so entering the Flask radius with full stamina leaves you enough dashes to clear a following Binding Word
• Debuff Remover and Viscous's T3 Cube strip the 7s weapon-damage penalty outright

Interactions

• The stamina drain at T1 is what makes the Flask-into-Binding-Word combo work: one less dash means one fewer way to clear the escape range
• A -55% weapon damage debuff at T2 on a 5s cooldown (T3)
• The 09-16-2026 patch reduced the Flask's projectile range and speed by 30%, which means he must be noticeably closer and the throw is easier to dodge
• The 7s debuff duration outlasts the 3s slow, so the correct read is that the slow tells you when it landed but the damage cut persists well beyond it

Warden shields himself with a temporary barrier and moves noticeably faster for a few seconds.

Purpose: His engage enabler. With a 6.3 m/s base movement speed, Willpower is the only way he closes the distance to land Flask and Binding Word, and the barrier is what lets him survive the approach.

Mobility

+20% move speed (T1 adds +20%, so up to +40%) for 5s (T2 adds +2s)

Defensive

125 barrier (about 0.8x spirit scaling); T3 adds +30% debuff resistance and improved barrier scaling

How to play against it

• Strip the 125+ barrier before committing burst — the barrier is a flat pool, so a cheap ability chunk removes it and your real damage then lands on health
• The duration is only 5-7s; kiting out the window is often better than trading into it
• Even at +35% he is starting from 6.3 m/s, so a genuinely mobile hero (Yamato at 8.2, Vindicta at 7.9, Vyper sliding) still outruns him
• Hold your displacement or Root for the Willpower engage, because once it expires he cannot reach you

Interactions

• Cooldown drops sharply at T2 (from 40s to 16s), which is the difference between one engage per fight and one every skirmish
• The T3 debuff resistance is what lets him push through slows and anti-heal that would otherwise stop the engage
• Both the T3 spirit scaling and the T3 debuff resistance were reduced in the 09-16-2026 patch
• It is purely self-targeted, so it contributes nothing to peeling an ally

Curses a targeted enemy hero. They are given a window to get far enough away from where they were standing when it was cast; if they fail to clear that distance in time, they take damage and are immobilised in place.

Purpose: His signature ability and the reason he is picked. It is a forced choice: burn your mobility resources to escape, or be rooted in the middle of his team.

Damage

110 (about 2.44x spirit scaling) when it lands

Crowd control

1.75s immobilise (T2 adds +0.75s, so up to 2.5s) if the target fails the check; T3 also silences them from cast until they either escape or are immobilised

Defensive

Rooting a diver in place is a strong self-peel

How to play against it

• Run IMMEDIATELY and in a straight line — you need 20m of separation within 2.8s, and hesitating for even half a second is what loses the check
• Hold Stamina specifically for this: two dashes plus sprint clears 20m comfortably, which is why you should not enter Flask range with your stamina already spent
• Once he has T3, the Silence means you cannot cast an escape ability during the window — you must clear it with Stamina and raw movement speed alone, so buy movement items rather than relying on Project Mind Project Mind 25m Range50s Cooldown After a brief channel, Wraith teleports to a chosen location at range. Mobility Teleport up to 25m (T1 adds +15m, so up to 40m) after a 1s interruptible… Defensive T2 grants a 300 barrier for 5s on arrival, scaling with Spirit Power 1 +15m cast range (25m base up to 40m) 2 300 barrier for 5s on arrival, scaling with Spirit Power 5 -32s cooldown (50s base down to 18s) , Flight Flight 13s Duration42s Cooldown Vindicta lifts off and flies freely for an extended duration. Damage +10 spirit damage per bullet while airborne (T3 adds +10 more with improved… Mobility 13s of free flight on a 42s cooldown; Defensive Being airborne dodges most ground-targeted abilities and puts her out of… 1 +50% base ammo capacity during Flight 2 +10s duration (13s base up to 23s) 5 hero kills refresh Flight's duration; or Flying Slash Flying Slash 23m Range36s Cooldown Throws a grappling hook at an enemy and pulls herself to them, landing a light melee hit and leaving them significantly slowed on arrival. Crowd Control -40% movement slow for 2.5s on the target Damage 66 melee damage Mobility Pulls her to the target from 23m base (T3 adds +8m, up to 31m) 1 -18s cooldown (36s base down to 18s) 2 gain +35 Spirit Power for 6s 5 alt-cast to grapple allies, +8m cast range, and +1 charge
• Verticality counts: a zipline, a mantle or dropping off a ledge covers the 20m faster than running along the ground
• Unstoppable Unstoppable 6,400 souls Tier 4ArmorInstantCast +60s Cooldown +5.5s Duration +125 Bonus Health +25% Debuff Resist Builds from Debuff Reducer effects (Yamato's Shadow Transformation Shadow Transformation 5s Duration160s Cooldown Yamato transforms with an initial invincible window, refreshes her ability cooldowns, and for the duration casts them much faster while immune to negative status effects and heavily… Damage No direct damage; the power is in refreshed abilities cast 60% faster Mobility T2 adds +4 m/s move speed during the transformation, on top of her already… Defensive Initial invincibility during the 1.5s transformation channel, immunity to… 1 +7 weapon damage 2 +4 m/s move speed and -30s cooldown (160s base) 5 +3s duration (5s base up to 8s) and +30% bullet resist and +30% spirit resist status immunity, Abrams' Siege) ignore the Root outright
• Deny the setup: if you avoid the Alchemical Flask, you keep your stamina charge and your 16% move speed, and the check becomes easy

Interactions

• Cast range 15m, escape range 20m, escape time 2.8s — so you must move 20m from your position within 2.8 seconds or be rooted. That is a real mobility check, not an automatic Root
• A hero with no dash, no blink and no gap-close essentially cannot pass the check without a head start
• T3's Silence is applied for the entire escape window, which means you cannot cast the very mobility ability you need to clear the range
• Alchemical Flask's T1 stamina drain and -16% slow directly sabotage the escape check, which is why Flask-then-Binding-Word is the standard combo
• Cooldown drops from 34s to 20s at T3

After a two-second charge-up, Warden pulses damage in a wide radius around himself twice a second, healing for a large share of the damage he deals. Throughout the channel he has greatly increased bullet and spirit resistance.

Purpose: His teamfight win condition and his objective-holding tool. A rooted enemy inside Last Stand is dead; an enemy team that stays to fight it feeds him health directly.

Damage

70 DPS base (about 1.3x spirit scaling) over 6s in a 12m radius; T2 adds +50 DPS and T1 adds +4m radius

Crowd control

None directly — its power comes from being paired with Binding Word

Mobility

None, and he is channelling

Defensive

50% Bullet Resist and 50% Spirit Resist while channelling (T3 adds +30% to both); 75% Lifesteal against heroes, 10% against non-heroes

How to play against it

• Leave the radius. He heals 75% of the damage he does to heroes, so every second you spend inside is health transferred to him — walking out is strictly better than trading
• Interrupt the 2s charge-up: any Stun, Knockup or displacement (Viscous's Puddle Punch Puddle Punch 40m Range24s Cooldown Materialises a fist at a chosen point up to a long distance away, punching everyone in a small area upward. Crowd Control Knockup on everyone in the 4m radius plus a -24% movement slow for 3s Damage 20 damage base plus about 0.6x melee scaling; Mobility Grants Viscous and allies increased air control when caught in it 1 +1 charge and +20 damage 2 +1.5m radius and +60% lifesteal 5 -14s cooldown and deals Heavy Melee damage , Wraith's Telekinesis Telekinesis 10m Range2.3s Duration150s Cooldown Lifts one enemy hero into the air, holding them helpless for a couple of seconds, then slams them toward a location Wraith chooses. Crowd Control stunned during the 1.25s channel, then the target is airborne and unable to… Damage 100 spirit base (about 1.0x spirit scaling); Mobility none for Wraith — she channels for 1.25s while aiming the throw 1 +100 damage 2 -45s cooldown (150s base down to 105s) 5 +1.5s debuff duration and +6m throw and cast range , Vyper's Petrifying Bola Petrifying Bola 115s Cooldown Throws an explosive bola. Crowd Control 2.2s petrify on a direct hit (T3 adds +1s, up to 3.2s); Damage 50 area damage (about 0.74x spirit scaling); Defensive Petrifying an incoming diver removes them from the fight for over two… 1 +49.5 petrify damage 2 -20s cooldown 5 +1s petrify duration and petrifies all enemies in the area, not just direct hits , Venator's Gutshot Gutshot 10m Range23s Cooldown A point-blank shotgun burst within about 10m that shoves everyone hit backwards. Crowd Control knockback on everyone hit; Damage 60 base (about 0.7x weapon scaling) plus 30 bonus (about 0.8x scaling) when… Mobility none for Venator himself 1 +25 damage 2 -10s cooldown (23s base) and +0.4s stun duration 5 after a wall stun, Venator's next heavy melee becomes blessed wall Stun) cancels it
• Once he has T3 the channel lasts 10s with +30% more resists, so disengage and re-engage after it rather than trading into it
• 50-80% resists mean burning damage into him during the channel is wasted; kill his teammates instead and let the ultimate expire
• Deny the setup rather than the ultimate: if you clear Binding Word's 20m escape check, Last Stand is a big glowing zone with nobody trapped in it

Interactions

• The combo that defines him: Alchemical Flask, then Binding Word, then Last Stand on top of the rooted target — the Root duration is specifically long enough to eat several pulses
• 75% hero Lifesteal means fighting him inside the radius actively heals him; the ultimate is a sustain tool as much as a damage tool
• Cooldown falls from 180s to 140s at T2, and the duration extends to 10s at T3
• Ricochet Ricochet 6,400 souls Tier 4WeaponPassive +65% Ricochet Damage +18% Fire Rate is a common late purchase because his pulses and bullets both benefit while he holds position in a fight