In honor of the official start of Open Beta for Wrath of Heroes and Glowgob being free, here’s my take on Glowgob da Green. The other 2 free heroes are counterpicks to Glowgob so it’ll be rough on him this week.

Glowgob is a healing support hero. Three of his five abilities heal his team. He racks up assists while still focusing on healing his team.

Glowgob’s passive is Blessed. It increases his healing by 5% per other Greenskin in the warband.

Glowgob’s 1 is Life Leaka. It deals 25 damage and heals allies around him for up to 63 damage. His mastery Life Steala will up the damage to 33 and the heal to 80.

Glowgob’s 2 is Shroom Tossin’. It heals allies around him for up to 213 damage on a 5s cooldown. His mastery Big Shrooms increases the range of the heal by 10 feet.

His 1 and 2 divide the healing among all damaged allies, including him, in range of the heal. His range is fairly short. In order to heal someone, he has to be almost right next to him. Glowgob can use this to target his heals on specific players. He can also target the heal onto himself by running away from his allies. His enemies can exploit this by pulling him or his allies out of range of the healing. Also the heals will target Glowgob if he is damaged, so by putting some pressure on him, his healing done to a specific target is cut by at least half.

Glowgob’s 3 is ‘Ere We Go! On a 10s cooldown, he does additional damage to targets his nearby allies hit in proportion to how hard his allies hit their targets. This is how Glowgob racks up assists easily, making him the perfect candidate for assist perks like Massive Smash and Power Unbound. His mastery An’ We Means It! increases the damage done.

Glowgob’s 4 is Look it’s Mork! On a 20s cooldown, Glowgob drops a totem on the ground that heals every ally around it for 62 every 2s. The totem lasts 10s. This heal is not divided amongst all eligible allies unlike his 1 and 2. This is best used when the fight is not moving. It can be used preemptively to heal up damage as it comes in passively. It can also be used to help recover someone’s health as fast as possible. He can replace this with his Look it’s Gork! alternate ability to drop a totem that deals 48 area damage repeatedly instead.

Glowgob’s 5 is Mork’s Touch. On a 30s cooldown, it absorbs 267 damage and deals 24 damage per second to surrounding enemies for 4 seconds. This is Glowgob’s personal survival cooldown. It looks like a stream of green water shooting up and around him.

Countering Glowgob

Glowgob is a healer, and that’s about it unless he slots Look it’s Gork! His heals have two characteristics to exploit. His heals are all melee range and they are divided amongst damaged enemies around him. The healing can be reduced by damaging multiple heroes around Glowgob. The healing can be stopped by moving him or a target to be focused down out of range. Counterpicks to Glowgob include heroes that deal area damage, like Felicia, or heroes that can reposition enemies, like Volrik or Aessa with Fetch, or heroes with a heal debuff, like Volrik.

Glowgob himself is pretty survivable. The best time to burst Glowgob is after he’s blown Mork’s Touch and Look it’s Mork! If he has a friendly Aessa around that still has her Elite Bodyguard available, that’s another cooldown to watch for before going for the burst. It may be better to burst Aessa first with magic damage before going for Glowgob.

If area damage, a pull, and a heal debuff are all not available, it’s time for target switching with hard crowd control. Damage either Glowgob or another enemy on his team and switch every 5-10 seconds to force his healing to spread. Once the Vision of Mork, the totem summoned by Look it’s Mork!, is used and disappears, silence, knockdown or stagger Glowgob and burst someone down.

Playing Glowgob

Glowgob is first and foremost a healer for his group. His heals are all melee range, so he needs to stay with his group. He can vary his positioning somewhat to target heals to certain allies but he has to be very close to his team to be of any benefit. It’s usually more important to be in position to heal your team than be in position for yourself. That’s not to say idiots shouldn’t be left to die. They should be. If Aessa pounces halfway across the map before the team can reasonably engage, he shouldn’t go try to save her.

Glowgob needs to be very aware of his cooldowns and those of his team at all times. The quickest way to die on Glowgob is to be out of position without Mork’s Touch and/or Look it’s Mork! ready. Smart players will watch for him to use those and then burst once those wear off. If a Volrik is in sight, he needs to be extremely careful and ready to break line of sight at any moment. This is especially true if there is no other healer in the warband. Aessa can also pull, but it is rare to have one slot the pull since it replaces her Pounce. Despite his survivability, he’s a popular first target purely because of the kill the healer first mantra.

When owned, Glowgob can be played a few different ways. He’s no good dead though, so if certain heroes are giving him trouble, he should slot a Mastery to help defend against that hero. For example, if Ilanya is giving him trouble, he should slot Adaptation to reduce the number of times he is critically hit. If Volrik or Aessa are giving him problems with roots, he should slot Agility to reduce the duration of roots in half.  If that Nethys is perfectly timing those staggers, then Balance will help fix that. Desperation is good if he has trouble recovering from focus fire. This is doubly important if building perks since a death resets all progress on the perk.

Once survival is taken care of, Glowgob can decide to increase his damage, increase his healing, or carry his team with perks, provided he still has Mastery slots left. A Glowgob player should always communicate with his group prior to building for damage so his group knows about it. A group getting a Glowgob is expecting a full healer. A few examples are below.

For damage, Glowgob can slot Look it’s Gork!, An’ We Means It!, and Bloodbath. With Look it’s Gork!, Mork’s Touch, and ‘Ere We Go! active, Glowgob can put out a surprising amount of area damage ticking very rapidly giving Bloodbath ample opportunity to activate.

For healing, Glowgob can slot Life Steala, Big Shrooms, and Steady Aim. Yes, Steady Aim will increase the chance of heals going critical as well. It’s actually a very noticeable difference. This gives bigger heals over a larger area.

To carry the team to late game, Glowgob can slot Glory, Power Unbound and something to help him survive. Glory will grant his entire group 100% critical chance for 10s once he heals for 3,000 in a single life. Yes, this even includes healing. Combined with ‘Ere We Go!, and An’ We Means It! if his group can protect him well enough without any survival mastery, enemies melt in seconds. Power Unbound activates upon reaching a 20 assist streak, allowing transformation into a Lord of Change for 10s. This will fully heal the player in addition to dealing massive area damage. A player cannot move while being a Lord of Change, but he can 1 v 12 with it active.

Glowgob is a team player. He won’t get much done by himself, but with a group, he’s a force to be reckoned with. See you on the battlefield.