Heroes of the Storm: Ragnaros Talent Build Guide

Ragnaros is a unique Bruiser like a fighting mage. His ability to deal wide-area damage proficiently is offset by the avoidable nature of his Skills. The enemy insects have no chance against him as he passes Structures (or their smoldering ruins), as his true power can then be released … until a properly oriented group of adventurers go and reclaim their weekly treasure, that is.

Table of Contents

Strengths and Weaknesses of Ragnaros

Strengths:

Excellent area of damage explosion effects and random waves
Ability to single-handedly handle or reduce some mechanics on the Map via Molten Core and Lava Wave
Ability to combine well through Sulfuras Smash
Reasonable self-maintenance through Empower Sulfuras

Weaknesses:

Most Powers are marked by telegram and therefore avoidable
Utilities limit in addition to raw and wave damage
Mana-hungry
Mediocre survivability

Talent Build of Ragnaros

Empower Sulfuras Build

His Empower Sulfuras Build has strong single-target damage and offers high survivability, especially in lane.

The damage from Blistering Attacks at Level 7, Giant Scorcher at Level 16, and Sulfuras Smash at Level 10.

After hitting enemy Heroes hit with Blast Wave, Level 4 Slow Burn gives you additional Basic Attacks on fleeing enemy Heroes and helps you connect Sulfuras Smash.

Survivability on the road from Sulfuras Hungers at Level 1, upon completing a Quest, will allow you to gain more health while hitting all Minions with Molten Power.

Synergies and Counters

Synergizes with:

Ragnaros is at its best when paired with Heroes who have some form of dependable long-range crowd control to help him set up his own Abilities. He is especially effective on Bruisers due to the increased Movement Speed provided by Blast Wave.

Countered by:

As a generalist, Ragnaros is not particularly vulnerable or effective to anyone; His lack of crowd control, however, leaves him underpowered against certain heroes, especially Chen. He is also susceptible to being controlled due to the lack of a closer effective distance.

Maps of Ragnaros

Since he offers both excellent anti-wave and sustained damage and a decent amount of self-sustaining, he’s not particularly weak on any of the Maps. However, Molten Core and Lava Wave make him special at handling Map-specific mechanics.

A special Molten Core can be used to absorb some of the mechanic’s attacks on the Map of Blackheart’s Bay or the Sky Temple and otherwise target Structures. Lava Wave does heavy damage to the Zerg wave on the Braxis Holdout, and a valuable wave of Webweavers on the Tomb of the Spider Queen. Molten Code also does a great job of dealing with these mechanisms, making Ragnaros particularly effective on these Maps.

Tips and Tricks

Empower Sulfuras to reset your Base Attack; hit once, and then activate Skill to deal quick damage.
Living Meteor works best against Heroes who are running in a particular direction, such as during chases or runs.
Blast Wave can be quickly self-administered by holding ALT, then pressing the Ability’s hotkey (default is E).
The stunning effect of Sulfuras Smash can be used to set up your own E-W-Q series.
The Lava Wave moves very slowly but may surprise an opponent’s attention.
Molten Core’s effects can be used to minimize the damage of certain Map Targets, such as Blackheart Bay or Sky Temple.