HOTS Tier List June 2021: Best Assassins, Bruisers, Tanks, Healers

Heroes of the Storm is Blizzard Entertainment’s MOBA. The theme of HOTS brings in and connects many Heroes from their Warcraft, Diablo, StarCraft, and Overwatch universes. There are even appearances from some other Blizzard’s titles they no longer expand upon. With that said, there 90+ Heroes in the hots. It can be difficult to think what sort of heroes are good, so here are the best Heroes ranked in our HOTS Tier List.

Since Blizzard separated Heroes into better categories, there is no clear team anymore. However, the best performing composition uses two bruisers, a healer, and two ranged assassins. Alternatively, another good comp works with a second healer, dropping a bruiser in the process. A few other variants have a 50-52% win-ratio, including two bruisers, healer, ranged, and melee assassin. The most common one uses a tank, bruiser, and healer, with two ranged assassins. With this in mind, we will aim to keep these comps in mind as we rank our HOTS Tier List. The complete list of played comps is available at Hotslogs.

As for the Heroes themselves, we will separate them into brackets of strength, meta and viability. 

S Tier is the bracket Heroes who need to get banned and/or picked to get as big of an advantage as possible.

A Tier  Heroes in the bracket are solid, good in their own right and not broken enough to be OP S Tier. Also worth noting they have a fairly good win rate themselves or are popular and strong.

B Tier Heroes are balanced, often sitting around a 50% win-ratio.

C Tier Are underpowered, with a sub 50% win ratio. Either that or they are a counter to something specific and not often seen because of it.

D Tier picks are underpowered and not worth it in the current meta.

Heroes Ranked 

S Tier: D.Va, Falstad, Gazlowe, Lost Vikings, Mei, Sonya, Rexxar, Uther.

A Tier: Anub’arak, Azmodan, Cassia, Deathwing, Gall, Hogger, Kharazim, Kerrigan, Lucio, Mal’Ganis, Samuro, Tassadar, Tychus, Varien, Xul, Zul’Jin.

B Tier: Alarak, Ana, Artanis, Arthas, Auriel, Alexstraza, Brightwing, Butcher, Chromie, Chen, Cho, Fenix, Garrosh, Greymane, Gul’dan, Illidan, Jaina, Kel’Thuzad, Leoric, Lunara, Maiev, Malfurion, Malthael, Mephisto, Murky, Orphea, Probius, Ragnaros, Raynor, Rehgar, Sgt. Hammer, Stukov, Sylvanas, Tracer, Tyrael, Tyrande.

C Tier: Anduin, Blaze, Dehaka, Diablo, E.T.C., Li Li, Li-Ming, Junkrat, Kael’thas, Lt. Morales, Muradin, Nazeebo, Thrall, Valeera, Valla, Whitemane, Zagara.

D Tier: Abathur, Deckard, Genji, Hanzo, Johanna, Medivh, Nova, Stitches, Zarya, Zeratul.

Azmodan is one of the best Ranged Assassins in the game right now. The core of his hit allows him to be fairly sustainable, a trait not too familiar with the role. Besides, Azmodan is a great wave clearer, sieger, and provides large amounts of AOE and single target. He can even provide higher sustain and burst if he talents into it. The key here is his Master of Destruction and the Demonic Invasion talents at LVL 7 and 10. As for his siege, his trait ability makes pushing even easier, getting more pressure on Towers and accelerating map advantages.

Falstad is the most popular Ranged Assassin in the HOTS Tier List. Like Deatjhwing, Falstad has great map coverage with his Flight ability. Also, the ranged assassin has great wave clear to help his team level. In addition, he has nice single target damage with Lightning Rod as long as he can stay on top of them. Although, that is easy enough, with many meta Healers and Bruisers providing the slows to prevent their escape. With that said, he also has a strong sustain for a carry, gaining a shield with his barrel role and Might Gust. 

Tassadar has one of the safest carry potentials in the game. He has long-range poke on his channelled auto-attack, Shock Ray and Storm. When he ults into an Archon, he becomes much more healthy, gaining shields and empowering his auto attacks beam to provide high sustain DPS. Furthermore, his Force Wall is a powerful piece of utility, setting up picks or peeling for allies.

Physical Attacks

Tracer is the only Ranged Assassin highlight currently in the B Tier of our HOTS Tier List. The notable aspect of Tracer’s kit is that she can counter many of the meta and congested picks in the A and S Tier. For example, Bruisers like Sonya and Deathwing and strong carries like Azmodan are relatively slow or kiteable. Tracer is one of the fastest moving Ranged assassins in the game, allowing her to abuse prominent meta weaknesses. Also, she is hard to lock down with her short-ranged. She is an honourable mention for those looking for counter picks.

Tychus maintains his place as one of the best Ranged Assasins simply because he is hard to pin down. One of Tychus’ best damage tools is Overkill, which also allows him to kite. Moreso, his frag grenade is another light damaging tool, with a push back attached to it to keep baddies away. Lastly, this Thor ultimate grants him a whole new health bar, extra range, armor and damage while inside. Also, his trait allows him to shred 2.5% max hp on his targets, making him an effective tank and bruiser nuker.

Zul’Jin is a higher risk, high reward ranged assassin, and that is down to his Berserker trait. When he activates it, he can do incredible sustained damage at the cost of his health. Although his attacks do so much damage by the late game, the trade-off is worth it. For this reason, he is one of the most successful Ranged assassins in the game, especially with a solid healer by his side. Although, it is not entirely necessary, with his Regeneration and Taz’Dingo ultimate ability helping him survive through his breakpoints.

Melee Assassins are not exactly the most defined role in HOTS, nor do they rank that high in the HOTS Tier List. Although there are two excellent picks at the moment.

Kerrigan is one such melee assassin that is doing good work. Karrigan’s success is all about making sure her dive isn’t going to get interrupted. If she successfully dives, she can generate a shield by doing damage with her trait and then doing consistent and burst damage through her abilities. The sustained damage is her Maelstrom ultimate, which also deals AOE damage. She also has a reliable stun with her Spikes, allowing her to stun a threat placing pressure on her, prevent a healer from healing, or locking down a carry in a dive.

The other best Melee Assassin in the HOTS TIer list is Samuro. Samuro is a Blademaster who has many different strengths to Kerrigan. His key strength is his ability to do damage while not being the focus, and he has a few tricks up his sleeve to achieve this. The first is his Mirror Images, which can combine with his guarantee crits., he can then blade storm to make it even harder to tell his true form. However, if he gets locked down, he doesn’t have the tools to stop it. Very strong, but rather balanced in perspective and performs well when comps are thought through.

The Must Ban Bruisers

Gazlowe is one of the most contested Bruisers in the game. He is the biggest enigma in the game, with a 53% win rate and the biggest ban rate in the entire game. The core of his team fight is his Grav ultimate, which has a large radius but a delay. When it goes off, Gazlowe deals huge AOE damage and increases the strength of the rest of his abilities by 30%. It means that his Explodium charge ramps up to do even more damage, with his turrets and death lazer chipping away at enemies with ease. It easy to see why he scales so hard, especially when played in the right hands.

Another S Tier Bruiser is Sonya. Sonya has always been rather strong in HOTS, and the current meta hasn’t stopped that. She has a 54% win rate, with plenty of picks and bans to match. Her success is because it is easy for her to stun a target and whale at them, doing lots of damage. To top it off, the Wrath of the Berserker ultimate makes it, so it is hard to get Sonya off-targets, with 40% reduced lengths of slows, stuns and roots. For that reason, she has lots of kill pressure without necessarily feeling the pressure herself.

The Picked Bruisers

Ever since Deathwing launched, the tainted Dragon has caused a cataclysm on the meta. Deathwing has a 54% win ratio but is not seeing as much priority in the draft, making him a sleeper OP, especially in lower elos where he can get through more often. With his kit, he has the freedom to rotate with Dragonflight and is immune to CC as he does so. With that said, Deathwing has the ability to create map pressure and be a massive threat in team fights.

D.Va is another Overwatch ported character having made her way to HOTS. Like her friend Mei, she is one of the best Bruisers in our HOTS Tier List. She has a 54% win ratio and is often banned more than she is played. It is easy to see why most, since many maps are either small or medium sizes, where she gets a lot out of her boosters ability. Combine this with her self destruct, and missile barrage in tight areas and she will burst or control fights perfectly. Imagine it paired with Mei’s wall; for example, that’s a combination!

Rexxar is another bruiser living the S Tier life. He has a 55% win rate but nowhere near as much popularity in the pick and ban department as other S Tier bruisers. The reason why Rexxar is so good is down to the amount of control. Misha’s charge is a nice stun, which can become easier to land when paired with his Unleash the Boars ultimate. Moreso, this ability is an amazing tool for following up on engages, or being an engage option if your team lacks dives. For a Bruiser, he also has nice wave control abilities with Swoop and becomes incredibly tanky through both his and Misha’s sustain.

Mei is currently dominating the tank meta at the moment, with her 55% win-ratio and an incredibly high pick and ban rate to match. Her LVL 1 talent allows her to increase her damage against slowed targets. It is basically a permanent buff as her core ability all slow. Also, she has the ability to engage and dive the backline with Icing and two ultimates that basically prevent enemies from escaping her slows in two different ways. Very adaptive to team comps and very powerful indeed.

The Three Strong Tanks You’ll Likely See.

Anub’arak is a rather squishy tank considering his playstyle but is one of the best initiators and pickers in the game. Anub has a safe tunnel that can get him into combat, even knocking someone up. Also, his Cocoon ultimate is the go-to that can even stun someone at range. Follow this up with Impale’s stun with the added slow from talents, and he is a pain to deal with. 

Mal’Ganis a tank that is quite strong at dealing damage and remaining in his fight through healing effects. The focus of Mla’Ganis is his Carrion Warm ultimate, which makes him invulnerable for a short period, with advanced healing from his vampiric touch passive. Also, he has a nice damage kit, which does CC effects to enemies, so he can be a pain to handle. The worst example of this is the Night Rush, as it puts enemies to sleep for 2.5 seconds and acts as a gap closer.

Varian is technically a Bruiser, although his stances make him a decent tank too. One of the most popular level 4 talents is his Protection Warrior stance, Taunt ability. Enemies get silenced for 1.25 seconds and are forced to attack him. During that time, he gains increased passive healing by 40%. Furthermore, Varien has a nice gap closer, which can sustain off his Lion’s Fang ability. Fairly decent and flexible as a non-traditional tank.

Uther is the best Healer at the minute, as his win rate sits at a solid 55%. It is easy to see why, as he has one of the strongest single-target heals with Holy Light, which comes in handy when a double assassin or bruiser pile on a kill target. His Holy Radiance is strong in team fights for general healing, hitting all allies in range and doing light damage to enemies. But the best part of his kit is his Divine Shield ultimate, preventing all damage on a target for several seconds, granting them 20% movement speed. This ability is so versatile in tealights, avoiding getting caught and more. In games with less kill pressure, Uther can take Divine Storm, doing an AOE stun, disengaging multiple dive threats, buying time for all of your team.

Lucio has the ability to be one of the best healers on the HOTS Tier List. Unlike most healers, he naturally has a higher movement speed through his movement speed aura on his W and amplifying it further on his E. He also has a knockback built-in, removing tanks and bruisers from their ideal position. As for his ult option, doing large spot healing for an ally or a team fight AOE shield ult has great value.

Rehgar is another amazing healer, especially in the spot healing department. His primary heal is chain heal, which is a fairly strong team heal. He also has a lightning shield, chipping away at enemies nearby. This ability is better suited for tanks, who lack damage. Therefore, he is better in Tank based comps rather than Double Bruisers. One of the unique strengths of Rehgar is his persistent AOE slow for 8 seconds, but the enemies can kill the  Totem emitting the slow. Either way, it stalls time. More often than not, Rehgar will choose the single target heal for his ult, which provides huge healing after a delay. It is slightly hard to use, but it will restore a large chunk of a carry’s health up when it works.

The Utility Healers

Kharazim is the battle monk healer, designed to do some fighting and some healing. Because his abilities protect allies and do some damage, Kharazim is one of the better early game healers. While his healing falls off, he instead grants resistance buffs, along with two viable ultimates. The first is his DPS build one, becoming a nuisance. Alternatively, he can get an ult that prevents death on a target. Both require some game knowledge, but when successful, it pops off.

Stukov is a great healer, with utility that makes him handle the bruiser meta fairly well. The Healing Pathogen proves strong healing, which can spread to other allies. When Stukov uses his trait, he can provide burst healing at the cost of the buff. Also, his Weighted Pustule is a great slowing mechanic, which gets worse the longer it lasts. Considering many of the best Ranged Assassins like Falstad and Azmodan are weak against silences, Stukov’s Lurking Arm is an awesome counter. Finally, his entered arm is a great ultimate for team fights. He can throw enemies out of team fights, making tanks and bruisers a little frustrated. If he manages to launch his opponents into a wall, they are stunned too. With all these options, Stukov is a great pick, albeit a little hard to master.

Brightwing is one of the more popular Healers in the game at the moment. The reality is the amount of pressure Brightwing can place on enemies is incredible. She has a polymorph, making tanks and bruisers diving her allies useless for 1.25 seconds. Also, her passive allows her to remove CC effects on nearby allies if she lands her Arcaneflare correctly. And she can teleport to allies and heal them too. Overall, a compelling pick.

Here is our HOTS Tier List, with all the Heroes in the game ranked. We have provided a few highlights, showing the statistics behind the S Tier picks and contextualising the strengths of the highlights on many of the best Tanks, Healers, Ranged and Melee Assassins. Please note, we did not include a Support section because there are few ‘Support’ Heroes, and they are all low win-rate. If things change, we will be sure to reflect that. If you enjoyed this HOTS Tier List, we have many more MOBA Tier Lists, including Smite and LoL, if you fancy checking them out too.