Heroes of the Storm - Johanna

Charging into the fray behind mighty shield and flail, Johanna remains one of the strongest frontline Warriors available in Heroes of the Storm. She's immune to most forms of peel and can lockdown high priority targets for long periods of time, making her one of the best initiators in the game.

Talents and Abilities

Punish (Q) is a source of melee damage and slow that allows Jo to stick to her targets once she closes in. By using your Q on close targets you can ensure they don't get away from you when laying into them with auto-attacks, or gain valuable distance from targets like the Butcher or Leoric.

Used in conjunction with Condemn (W), Q can ensure enemies don't escape your reach. W's range may be small, but it allows you to set up teams for AoE abilities, including Q and your Heroics. Condemn's ability to engage is limited by Johanna's ability to get into the enemy team, but talents can increase her speed while using it as well as increase the damage of the abilities.

Shield Glare (E) doesn't provide Jo with additional lockdown, but it allows her to make favorable trades in lane. It also gives her utility against auto-attack centered heroes like Illidan and the Butcher. In team-fights, E provides Johanna's entire team with a second of reduced damage that the Supports can use to bolster the wounded.

Iron Skin (D) grants Johanna survivability as well as the ability to rush into the back line by making her unstoppable. In lane, D gives her the ability to trade profitably on cooldown, as well as make dive attempts without the fear that she'll be trapped under the fort. While the instinctive thing is to use D when starting the fight, you cleanse CC effects on use. While you can't use it while silenced or stunned, using it to break out of a root or slow can surprise your victims

Both of Johanna's Heroics offer her substantial amounts of crowd control, but while Falling Sword has the greater potential for disruption, its long wind-up makes it easy to dodge. With Blessed Shield, you're given a similarly powerful crowd control ability that can reliably be used when pursuing your enemies.

Johanna has a wide variety of talents that she can use to give her team utility and increase her presence in team-fights. At level 1, Regeneration Master can give her substantial amounts of late-game sustain but Knight Takes Pawn gives W the ability to clear entire minion waves as well as quickly take merc camps. At level 4, Laws of Hope will give you additional health regeneration while providing significant survivability in teamfights with the 20% heal.

At level 7, Battle Momentum gives Johanna the ability to continually lock the enemy backline down with Q and W while Conviction allows Jo to pursue her foes and drag them back into the fight. Level 13 gives Johanna Burning Rage which gives her a large damage increase in the middle of fights. At level 16, Imposing Presence gives her even more tools to fight auto-attack oriented heroes and Blessed Hammer adds substantial damage to Condemn. Her ability to gain 100% of her health in a shield when she dies using Indestructible at level 20 allows Johanna to quickly regenerate her health while using the shield.

Using Johanna In Lane

If Jo has a weakness, it is her relative low pressure during the laning phase. While her sustainability makes it hard for her to be pushed out of lane herself, Johanna doesn't have the damage to threaten her opponents. While running at them screaming with your shield and Iron Skin is fun, it really doesn't do much other than get your blood pumping.

One of the benefits she has is her ability to trade just about freely in lane. When engaging the enemy with Condemn, use Iron Skin to soak the minion wave's damage. If they turn to fight you, blinding them with E will allow you a few more free smacks before slowing them with Q and retreating. While you won't kill the enemy this way, you can chip their health down and set a pattern of behavior that will let your Assassins join in later without arousing suspicion.

Use your W (especially if you took Knight Takes Pawn) to quickly clear the enemy minions and move your way out of lane. Before 10, prioritize taking mercenary camps for the experience, but if they're all down, attempt to gank the enemy in other lanes. While you don't provide much pressure alone, with additional CC or sustained damage you can threaten a kill on an enemy. At worst, you'll reduce the pressure that the enemy is placing on your teammates.

Using Johanna in Team-Fights

In team-fights Johanna is a disruptive force that the enemy has to fight around. By using D and W to penetrate deep into the enemy team, she can force the enemy Warriors to try and pry her off the back-line. The important thing to decide on is whether you want to make that dive or not. The decision is really based on your team composition and the enemy damage dealers. Against melee damage dealers like Illidan, the Butcher and high damage Warriors, you're better off standing between them and your carries.

Once the enemy damage dealer dives in, use W to peel them back and then use your Heroic to give your team the time to focus them down. Against sustained ranged DPS, you need to get them out of the fight as quickly as possible. Dash towards them and force them out of auto-attack range. Use E when closing in to blind them to reduce damage, while using your Blessed Shield behind you to peel for your own Assassins. After forcing them away from the fight, retreat back towards your backline and peel until their DPS tries to get back into the fight.

The real danger in teamfights are those spell-based damage dealers, Mages and Specialists. Simply forcing them out isn't enough because they'll be able to come back in and throw all their damage out in those brief intervals. In these cases, you can't just run them off, you need to stick to them until they're dead or your teammates follow up.

The last thing that Jo is great at is layering CC. With Blessed Shield or Condemn, you can set up large team-fights for your team. In "Magical-Christmas-land" moments, Falling Sword can be combined with Gazlowe or Zagara's Heroics to hold down entire teams for 5+ seconds. You can use Blessed Shield to stun targets from medium range to allow your teammates to follow up with their own CC, letting you chase down high priority targets as a team.

Conclusion

With Johanna, you're able to hold down objectives, gank easily, and peel most enemies from your carries, making her a high priority pick. While she doesn't have the lane presence of Leoric, or the ganking power of ETC, Jo can provide your teams with a solid frontline that doesn't require any specific team composition.

Tristam Mizak