A personal favorite hero recently re-introduced into Brawl mode, Azmodan is a powerful character from the Diablo franchise that has made his way into Heroes of the Storm. A grotesque, spider-legged demon, this specialist excels at forcing lane pressure as well as pushing down structures, but quickly loses effectiveness when faced with stiff, up-close competition, against which he has no escape.
Many Azmodan builds focus around his All Shall Burn and various demon-summoning abilities, but today I want to discuss one of his most visible and noteworthy skills: Globe of Annihilation. Because he lobs this sphere onto the battlefield like he’s shooting a free throw, the community has taken to calling being hit by the Globe as “being dunked on.” The Blizzard developers liked the term so much they even gave Azmodan several basketball-related outfits—complete with buzzer-beater sound effects—some years ago.
As with most specialist heroes, Azmodan has a mechanic that is unique to the ungainly demon—Annihilation. He gains stacks of Annihilation by killing enemy minions and hitting opposing heroes, usually with his Globe. His Globe gets more powerful the more stacks of Annihilation he collects, making a late-game Azmodan truly a force to behold.
This post focuses on maximizing Azmodan’s Globe damage against enemy heroes.
Crucial for building Annihilation is the level one talent Gluttony. This increases the amount of Annihilation gained by hitting enemy heroes and, after a time, helps reduce the cooldown of throwing more Globes, compounding the amount of damage Azmodan can inflict in a short amount of time. Adding level seven’s Art of Chaos talent greatly increases the rate of Annihilation gain—if hitting multiple heroes with each Globe—and helps with mana management by refunding more than half of the ability’s cost.
Tide of Sin is a wonderful heroic ability at level ten which, for 100 mana, makes the next Globe throw free and adds a 50% damage boost. Level 16 sees the talent Total Annihilation add a damage boost to all Globes equal to 4% of the target hero struck, and the final talent at level 20—Pride—adds a flat 100 damage and 15% bonus area to all Globes.
How much damage can a fully-powered Globe of Annihilation do? Much like with the calculations of Xul’s powerful melee hits, it’s highly-dependent on the number of enemy heroes struck. I’ll give three examples to show how this mass ability can be used to the greatest effect.
Single-Target: Murky
Murky is rarely the ideal target for spells and abilities, but with the power of a level 20 Globe of Annihilation, it’s a fair bet that the squishy murlock will die in one hit. Let’s test that theory.
Level 20 Globe (base): 301.51 damage
Annihilation Bonus (max): +400
Pride Bonus: +100
Tide of Sin bonus (+50%): x1.5
Total Annihilation Bonus (4% of Murky health): 63.98
Total Damage: 1,202.23
Murky’s Health: 1,599.52
Remainder: 397.29 (24.81%)
So it looks like a fully-powered Globe of Annihilation can bring Murky down 75% in one blast. While that may not seem very objectively powerful, remember that Globe is an area of effect ability, with one of the longest viable ranges in the game. The amount of damage it deals scales linearly with the number of heroes struck.
Single Target: Deathwing
The newest hero to grace the arena is Deathwing, a literal fire-breathing dragon. What kind of damage could a maximized Globe of Annihilation do to this behemoth? Most of the math looks very similar to the calculations for Murky, but that 4% health damage becomes much more significant against the larger and more powerful hero.
Level 20 Globe (base): 301.51 damage
Annihilation Bonus (max): +400
Pride Bonus: +100
Tide of Sin bonus (+50%): x1.5
Total Annihilation Bonus (4% of Deathwing health): 255.92
Total Damage: 1458.19
Deathwing’s Health: 6,398.08
Remainder: 4,939.89 (77.20%)
Multi-Target: Deathwing, Diablo, and Garrosh
Where this skill really shines is when hitting multiple targets. Let’s see what the total damage looks like when it hits a trio of beefy characters.
Level 20 Globe (base): 301.51 damage
Annihilation Bonus (max): +400
Pride Bonus: +100
Tide of Sin bonus (+50%): x1.5
# of heroes hit: x3
Sub-Total: 3,606.80 damage
Total Annihilation Bonus (4% of Deathwing health): 255.92
Total Annihilation Bonus (4% of Diablo health): 321.88
Total Annihilation Bonus (4% of Garrosh health): 180.55
Total Damage: 4,365.15
Who’s laughing now? Not bad at all for an ability which cost 100 mana, has huge range, and can be re-cast in 8.5 seconds.
Bonus Calculation: Nano-Boosted Azmodan
But wait—there’s more! The Overwatch hero Ana has a wonderful level 10 heroic ability called Nano-Boost which increases spell damage by 30% and reduces associated cooldowns by 150%. Let’s see what that does to our multi-hit example above.
Level 20 Globe (base): 301.51 damage
Annihilation Bonus (max): +400
Pride Bonus: +100
Tide of Sin bonus (+50%): x1.5
# of heroes hit: x3
Nano-Boost Bonus (+30%): x1.3
Sub-Total: 4,688.84 damage
Total Annihilation Bonus (4% of Deathwing health): 255.92
Total Annihilation Bonus (4% of Diablo health): 321.88
Total Annihilation Bonus (4% of Garrosh health): 180.55
Total Damage: 5,447.19
Definitely not bad for an ability which costs 100 mana, has insane range, and can be re-cast in 4.25 seconds! This means Azmodan can launch three of these bad-boys in 10 seconds, dealing a whopping 14,778.62 damage with the above targets.
This slow and unassuming specialist can single-handedly destroy whole teams of closely-packed targets, particularly in-lane or as they cluster to complete map objectives. When it comes to spreading the warmest wishes of the land of sin, Azmodan is the right demon for the job.
