EPT
Professional players give their thoughts about Lt. Morales.
Lt. Morales the StarCraft Medic is the newest hero to join the Nexus. She brings a high amount of sustained healing and utility to her team, but she has limited ways to protect herself. We set out to ask some professional players their thoughts about her, and they shared their opinion about her design, viability, playing experience, and what would they change, if anything. This is what they had to say:
Madtimmy, Support player for Murloc Geniuses.
I think Morales is really strong. Morales has a higher skill cap then any other support, not for yourself, but for the whole team. Morales' kit is incredible. It has crazy heals, a crazy shield, and good CC with two very strong ultis. Morales has two different unique styles depending on which ultimate you take: Medivac, which is good for split pushing; and Stim Drone, which used on autoattacker heavy carries for team fights. Both are very strong in the strategy you use it in. She is a high skill-cap hero, and when you don't have a coordinated team behind you, it's kinda hard to position correctly.
When asked about his thoughts about the comment from Dustin Browder about buffing her health he had this to say: I think any buff is good, but i think helping her mana problems would be a better overall buff or increasing the range on her heal.
Toejamnearl, Support player for Stellar Lotus
- Experience so far: Playing Medic has been very hit or miss. She's vulnerable to heavy dive herself and can't quite seem to keep others up through high burst. Though, if you can somehow manage to live through a team fight, her sustained single target healing is amazing and the rotation potential of Medivac can be devastating. She's very dependent on good positioning and getting peels to survive which is probably why she is seeing low win percentages in Hero League.
- Kit: I really like the theme of her kit, even if she doesn't have blind grenades. I feel like a Medic from StarCraft. I can do almost exactly what that unit did. I do think she could stand to have a more practical way to deal with all-in type play. Stim Drone is better suited for solo queue type play, as it's less dependent on a team to function well and a drugged up Illidan or Hammer can wreck people pretty quick if left alone. I think Medivac would be the choice for competitive. Being able to move your team to nearly anywhere on the map in about 6 seconds is very powerful to say the least. It also provides a sort of panic survival button for herself which is very much needed on an immobile hero.
- Viability: I'm sad to say it, but I don't think she's very viable outside of a two support set up. She needs help staying alive via peeling or another source of healing. She pairs well with heroes that can push well once Medivac is available. She also likes sustained bruiser types like Sonya or Illidan who are less susceptible to getting nuked. Playing her as a solo healer is very taxing on her mana early, but in the later stages of the game this isn't an issue. Her survivability is her biggest detractor. If that gets addressed, you will see her rise in in popularity. The things a good team can do with Medivac rotations will be crippling to the enemy.
When asked about his thoughts about the comment from Dustin Browder about buffing her health he had this to say: I don't think the health will help. She needs either better disengage or better self heal. She can't do anything to help herself once someone can stick to her.
GranPkt, Support player for TeamLiquid
I personally think her Q is very interesting. Having a focused heal that you can change targets whenever you want all while you can still do other things like attacking and using the rest of your abilities.
Her W and E however are very underwhelming for me both lore-wise and utility-wise.
Medics in Starcraft have always had an ability to blind enemies, and I expected to find something like that in her kit or even in a talent. About her grenade, I think it’s weird how it is a straight line skillshot instead of launching it to an specific area like Tychus, but I don’t mind it very much. Both heroics are pretty interesting, although the Medivac is without a doubt the most fun one, and I’m sure it will find a place in competitive play.
To resume, I think her kit is okay but it doesn’t really convince me as a good one. Even though she does heal a lot she has the disadvantage of not being able to heal herself and being very vulnerable.
I think with today’s meta she will be very situational and won’t find her place in the competitive scene anytime soon. About Browder's tweet, I think buffing her health wouldn’t be enough to make her good enough to be an all around great healer. We’ll have to wait and see, but I think something more drastic may be needed.
Iakona, Support player for COGnitive Gaming
Overall, Medic has a really strong base kit, the only downside is the lack of self heals and the short range of healing beam. To account for the lack of self heals, you take quite a few defensive talents like Advanced Block and Couple's Therapy.
I think Medic is going to see some play competitively, but she is going to be a niche pick in the sense that you can't slap her into any composition and it'll work. I feel her best comp is the triple back line, which takes advantage of her short healing beam range.
You'll probably see people using both heroics on her since they each have their place. Stim Drone is going to see play with Raynor/Sonya comps, while Medivac is going to see play on larger maps (to best take advantage of the global ability).
While Medic can be viable as a solo support, I think you'll often see her used in "1.5 support" comps or possibly double. What I mean by 1.5 is medic + Tassadar or Tyrande. In case the Medic gets focused, the extra "support" can throw some heals her way, or if you have more of a dive comp, then the half support can help keep them alive outside of healing beam range.
