Home Heroes of the Storm hero guide: Sonya the Barbarian

Heroes of the Storm hero guide: Sonya the Barbarian

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SONYA

Alright folks, it’s time to check out another character from Heroes of the Storm! Last week, I showed you Anub’arak the traitor king. This week, we take a look at Sonya, the badass, dual-wielding female barbarian from Diablo III.

Sadly, she doesn’t have an official trailer for Heroes of the Storm. At least you can learn her origins from this Barbarian cinematic.

I’ve played Sonya a fair number of times now. For some reason, I perceive her as a tank. She can certainly take a blow or two, but she isn’t nearly as tanky as other heroes like Diablo or Stitches. I see her more as a combination of initiator and damage dealer.

She will cost you either 4000 gold or €5,99€. Here’s what she can do.

Skills

Sonya Skills

Passive – Fury

Sonya is unique in that she has no mana pool. Instead, she has Fury, a passive bar which builds up when she takes or deals damage. She can use Fury to cast some of her other abilities. Talents include increasing the maximum fury from 100 to 150, or spending it to heal for 10% of her maximum health.

Q – Ancient Spear

Ancient Spear costs 0 fury, and will generate 20 if it hits the target. It does a decent amount of damage, but is best suited for initiating. There are some awesome talents for this ability. You can improve its range, its damage, or even make it so you pull yourself to the target location, regardless of whether an enemy is hit with it or not.

W – Seismic Slam

This can only be used on an enemy target. Seismic slam will deal a certain amount of damage to the primary target, and splash to those behind for less. It’s not the strongest in my opinion. It does have a short cooldown of one second though, meaning it can be spammed should you have the fury to do so. Talents include the likes of improving the splash, the damage, and reducing the fury cost.

E – Whirlwind

Easily one of my favourite abilities, Whirlwind is a nice balance of damage and healing. It allows Sonya to harass constantly, healing her up while enemies feel the hurt. Players can take talents which will increase the duration or make it generate additional tornadoes which do extra damage.

Ultimate Abilities

Sonya Ulti

Leap

Leap is my favourite of the two ultimate abilities. Sonya jumps onto her enemies, stunning them for 1.5 seconds and doing damage. It is the perfect way to initiate. It can also be used to make a hasty escape if needed. With a 50 second cooldown, it’s quite spammable. At level 20, a talent can be chosen which will leave an impassable created for 4 seconds at the target location of the leap.

Wrath of the Berzerker

This turns Sonya into one heck of a damage dealer. Activating Wrath of the Berzerker will grant 30% bonus damage to all basic attacks and abilities, and reduce all negative effects (stuns, roots, etc) by 50%. Attacking and generating fury will increase the duration of the ability. Thanks to that and the short 30 second cooldown, it can be used very often. Duration is even better if you take the Anger Management talent at level 20.

Gameplay

Sonya should be at the front of every battle. As I’ve said already, she isn’t quite as tanky as other heroes, but she is certainly strong enough to start the fight and live through it. Make sure you spend some time building up fury whenever you can. Attacking creeps will do the job just fine.

Regardless of how you skill her, you will always start a fight with your Ancient Spear. Landing it will generate fury and take you right to your enemy. This can be followed up with a seismic slam or two, and a spin to heal yourself as well as deal even more damage.

In terms of her ultimate, Leap is the obvious choice if you are looking to initiate. If you have other heroes who fill this role and your team lacks a damage dealer, it may be best to go for Wrath of the Berzerker. This amplifies her damage immensely, and makes it difficult for enemies to keep you in place.

Here’s my gameplay video showing Sonya in action. I missed some Ancient Spears horrendously at the beginning. Thankfully, by the end I was landing most of my skills, and my team were almost always there to back me up. Communication is key, so be sure to let your teammates know exactly what your intentions are before leaping in.

(Vidme link)

Keep in mind that the game is still in Alpha, meaning that changes more than likely will happen as it develops. If you have any recommendations, questions, suggestions, or hero guide requests, please do leave them below.

Last Updated: November 28, 2014

4 Comments

  1. Nice vid budd. Pretty cool that you become the garden terror. Really starting to enjoy MOBA’s. Need to organize a PC so I can play more of these. Waiting for your Vain Glory review. Give me a shout when we can play again.

    Reply

    • hairyknees

      December 5, 2014 at 09:40

      Ah thanks man 🙂 only saw your comment now! Yeah get a PC 😛 come to Dota 2 and this!

      Reply

      • Guild

        December 5, 2014 at 09:47

        My issue with PC is the constant upgrading. You spend a fortune on it, then next year it’s outdated. That’s why I prefer console. I don’t have to mess around with it all the time.

        Reply

        • hairyknees

          December 5, 2014 at 10:58

          Not really 😛 if you buy a decent PC first time, it will last for many years. My PC for example is about 4-5 years old now, and it still runs most games full HD on medium detail at least.

          Reply

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