Anduin is coming to Heroes of the Storm and I may never heal as anyone else.

It’s been almost four months since Imperius danced his way into the Heroes of the Storm pantheon and we’re finally getting another hero. King Anduin arrived on the PTR this week. Just like in Warcraft and Hearthstone, Anduin is a Holy Priest who wields the Light to heal his allies and burn his enemies. As he stands right now — I think he’s my favorite healer in the game. Sorry, Brightwing.

• [Trait] Leap of Faith (Cooldown: 80 seconds) – Faith instantly pulls an allied Hero to Anduin’s location, granting them Unstoppable while they travel.
• [Q] Flash Heal (Cooldown: 4 seconds) – Cast for 0.75 seconds to heal an allied Hero for 260.
• [W] Divine Star (Cooldown: 9 seconds) – Send light that deals 140 damage to enemies and then returns to Anduin, healing allied Heroes for 130 in a wider path. Healing increases by 25% per enemy Hero hit.
• [E] Chastise (Cooldown: 10 seconds) – Shove a swell of light forward, dealing 145 damage to the first enemy Hero hit and Rooting them for 1.25 seconds.
• [Heroic 1] Holy Word: Salvation (Cooldown: 80 seconds) – After 0.5 seconds, Channel to invoke the Light for 3 seconds. While nearby, allied Heroes heal for up to 25% of their max Health and are Protected.
• [Heroic 2] Lightbomb (Cooldown: 60 seconds) – Imbue an allied Hero with the Light. After 1.5 seconds, it explodes, dealing 150 damage to enemies and Stunning them for 1.25 seconds. The target gains a Shield that absorbs 140 damage per enemy Hero hit. Lasts for 5 seconds.

Anduin’s abilities are the greatest hits of World of Warcraft‘s Priest class. Not only does he have Leap of Faith as a baseline trait, but you can even talent into Lightwell — and nobody needs to click on this one. Plus, they all look gorgeous. The animation on his Light based spells gives them a nice light and shimmery quality. This shows the contrast between other the other Priest and Paladin in the Nexus. Uther’s abilities have always felt much heavier. While Whitemane’s feel sharp and pointed.

By the Light

Leap of Faith is an extremely strong tool to save an overeager teammate or someone who just got hooked by Stitches. You can pull someone over buildings, walls, or trees. Quickly extricating them from any danger they may be in. The one drawback is the 80-second cooldown, and even that can be mitigated if you choose Glyph of Faith At level 20. Which gives you a second charge of the spell.

If your team has a hard engaging hero like Butcher, Illidan, or Diablo you could choose the Lightbomb ultimate to compliment them. The only thing scarier than a Butcher charging you with Furnace about to go off is knowing that you have a second stun about to land alongside it. It’s a strong heroic ability, but not quite as strong as Holy Word: Salvation. The 25% heal you get is nice, but coupling that with preventing all damage to any friendly hero while inside of it is too much to pass up. If you find yourself facing Anduin, make sure you have some sort of stun, knockback, or stasis ability ready to counter it.

The Light and how to swing it

I love the possibilities in Anduin’s talents. At first glance, everything feels viable. If you’re running as a solo Healer you can make your Flash Heal into your big strong powerhouse. Use this build to focus on burst healing. You’ll buff your Flash heal to include a self-heal and additional heal over time on your target. When you reach 20 and unlock Inner Focus and Desperate Prayer, you can lead with Flash Heal, cast Desperate Prayer, and use Inner Focus to reset the cooldown on Flash Heal so you can cast it again for a truly outrageous amount of healing.

If you’re confident in your team’s ability to not die, consider choosing talents to turn Anduin into mid-range offensive support. You’ll make your auto-attacks heal allies around you, Divine Star will launch extra attacks at the enemy, and the more you attack the faster you’ll be. You’re not going to be leading the damage on your team, but you will make a big impact while still providing a large amount of healing with every ability. Plus you’ll be able to show Sylvanas that this “Little Lion” has claws after all.

Anduin is an extremely strong healer with seemingly few drawbacks. I haven’t played someone that feels this strong coming out of the gate in a long time. If you compare him to an earlier healer like Rehgar, you’ll quickly see that anything Rehgar brought to the table, Anduin can do better.