Ragnaros
First Impressions
Analysis and Pro Opinions
Ragnaros, an elemental as old as the world of Azeroth, has been called to many realms…but rarely one so suited to his destructive nature as the Nexus. As he strives to reduce this new land to ash, Ragnaros hews about with the fiery hammer Sulfuras and takes command of allied and destroyed forts, scourging all who approach him with falling rocks and waves of magma. Though his power is vast, those who summon the Firelord must be prepared to watch the world burn.
Table of Contents
At BlizzCon, Blizzard revealed the next two heroes to enter the Nexus with a thrilling cinematic featuring an epic battle between Varian and Ragnaros. The Firelord was available for play at the venue, but it was over a month before he was actually released. Advertised as an assassin that could take over a fort and become a "raid boss", there was a lot of excitement for the upcoming hero.
Ragnaros lives up to the hype: he's big, does lots of fire things, and makes the game feel chaotic—but maybe a little too chaotic. Perhaps the most broken hero since Samuro, Ragnaros dominated matches during opening week, peaking at 70% on HotS Logs. He's since been nerfed a bit, but it still remains to be seen if Molten Core and Lava Wave are too impactful or potentially game-breaking. Let's take a closer look at this destructive Hero and his devastating abilities!
”By fire be purged!”
Strengths
- Strong solo laner
- Long range poke
- Good waveclear
- Dynamic zoning abilities
Weaknesses
- Weak escape
- No CC in his base kit
- Vulnerable to CC chains
Abilities
Trait
- Molten Core
- Channel on an allied or destroyed Fort or Keep to replace it with Ragnaros's ultimate form, temporarily gaining new Abilities, having 4155.84 Health that burns away over 18.72 seconds. 120s cooldown.
Ragnaros's returns to his normal form upon losing all Health in Molten Core.
- Channel on an allied or destroyed Fort or Keep to replace it with Ragnaros's ultimate form, temporarily gaining new Abilities, having 4155.84 Health that burns away over 18.72 seconds. 120s cooldown.
Basic Abilities
- Empower Sulfuras (Q)
- Ragnaros's next Basic Attack is instant, dealing 219.44 Ability damage in an area, and heals for 20% of the damage dealt. Healing doubled versus Heroes. 6s cooldown
- Living Meteor (W)
- Summon a meteor at the target point that deals 74.88 damage, then rolls in the target direction dealing 299.52 damage per second for 1.75 seconds. 12s cooldown
- Blast Wave (E)
- Ignite Ragnaros or an ally, granting 25% Movement Speed for 1.50 seconds before exploding dealing 108.16 damage to nearby enemies. 10s cooldown.
Heroic Abilities
- Sulfuras Smash (R)
- Hurl Sulfuras at the target area, landing after 0.75 seconds, dealing 205.92 damage. Enemies in the center take 617.76 damage instead and are Stunned for 0.50 seconds. 60s cooldown.
- Lava Wave (R)
- Release a wave of lava from Ragnaros's Core that travels down the targeted lane, dealing 249.60 damage per second to non-Structure enemies in its path and instantly killing enemy Minions. Damage increased by 100% versus Heroes. 120s cooldown
Ragnaros' basic abilities are a nice mix of poke, sustain, and utility. For his Heroics, Ragnaros can utilize either global pressure with Lava Wave or build more for teamfights with Sulfuras Smash. The combination of these factors make him a beast at solo laning and useful in a variety of compositions. There are certain battlegrounds, like Braxis Holdout and Tomb of the Spider Queen, in which he is exceptionally strong, but he isn't necessarily bad on any in the rotation.
Even though he's classified a melee assassin, Ragnaros can put out a lot of long range poke damage with Living Meteor. Using some of the Meteor talents like Molten Power and Meteor Bomb, Ragnaros can maximize his poke and deal insane damage from afar while still retaining the ability to walk up and smash someone with Empower Sulfuras. The ability to fight from both a distance and in close quarters is one of the factors that makes Ragnaros one of the most well-rounded characters in the game.
Molten Core and Lava Wave are game-changers. The way the abilities are designed makes him exceptional at pushing and defending forts and can even change the way objectives are played on some maps. For instance, Molten Core can delay close tributes on Cursed Hollow or Altars on Towers of Doom using the insane range on his second set of abilities. Lava Wave literally melts the Zerg rush on Braxis Holdout, making him a must-ban Hero on that map.
The one glaring weakness of Ragnaros is his lack of escape. Despite having great sustain with Empower Sulfuras and a small speed boost from Blast Wave, it can be difficult for Ragnaros to get out of a tough situation. Grabbing talents like Catching Fire and Resilient Flame can help boost his tankiness when he goes in too deep and hopefully him buy enough time to deal good return damage.
Talents
Ragnaros has one of the most adaptable talent trees in the game at the moment, but that might be largely due to his colossal damage numbers; when his numbers get nerfed a bit, we may see a bit more stability in talent choices. As with most assassins, his builds usually empower one ability and take defensive or utility talents where necessary.
Perhaps the most common build right now is the Living Meteor build, which does insane amounts of poke damage from a safe distance. Talenting into Shifting Meteor allows Ragnaros to keep the ball on someone for the maximum possible damage; it also makes it easier to consistently build stacks on Molten Power. Once he gets Meteor Bomb at level 16, he can wreck the back line and dish out some serious AoE damage.
If you're looking to play more of a melee style, you can go for a Q build. Sulfuras Hungers at level 1 is similar to Azmodan's Taste for Blood talent because it requires Ragnaros to last hit minions, and in turn, it greatly increases the damage of Empower Sulfuras. The quest doesn't take that long, but requires him to solo a bit so to gain maximum value out of his Qs without teammates accidentally clearing minion waves too quickly. Once you tack on Hand of Ragnaros and Giant Scorcher, Ragnaros does some insane burst damage with his Q on an absurdly low cooldown.
His level 20 Storm talents are all very good and situational. Heroic Difficulty makes it easier for Ragnaros to abuse his trait and push/defend far more often. When he's taking a lot of damage in teamfights, Submerge can help him survive for a bit longer and potentially dodge lethal damage. If he takes Lava Wave at 10, he can significantly increase its efficiency with Lava Surge; not only does it provide a second wave which can be staggered with the first, but it also lowers the cooldown by 10 seconds. More lava equals more winning.
Professional Opinions
On Kit, Design and Implementation:
Wings, Super Perfect Team (SPT)
![](/staff/Heyoka/HeroesoftheSwarm/QuoteStart.png)
m, ZeroPanda
![](/staff/Heyoka/HeroesoftheSwarm/QuoteStart.png)
Baphomet, Please Buff Arthas
![](/staff/Heyoka/HeroesoftheSwarm/QuoteStart.png)
Sunshine, Coach
![](/staff/Heyoka/HeroesoftheSwarm/QuoteStart.png)
His passive seems a little broken to be honest though. Love the concept, but it does so much. Prevents building damage, has massive range, very high damage output, slows, stuns, and just feels way to hard to play around. I feel like they left out a weakness to it, but that might just be me complaining about the OP hero being OP.
Youngbaek, Coach
![](/staff/Heyoka/HeroesoftheSwarm/QuoteStart.png)
sCsC, L5 (Ballistix)
![](/staff/Heyoka/HeroesoftheSwarm/QuoteStart.png)
On Professional Play and Meta Changes:
Baphomet, Please Buff Arthas
![](/staff/Heyoka/HeroesoftheSwarm/QuoteStart.png)
Sunshine, Coach
![](/staff/Heyoka/HeroesoftheSwarm/QuoteStart.png)
Youngbaek, Coach
![](/staff/Heyoka/HeroesoftheSwarm/QuoteStart.png)
On Map and Composition Viability:
Wings, Super Perfect Team (SPT)
![](/staff/Heyoka/HeroesoftheSwarm/QuoteStart.png)
m, ZeroPanda
![](/staff/Heyoka/HeroesoftheSwarm/QuoteStart.png)
Baphomet, Please Buff Arthas
![](/staff/Heyoka/HeroesoftheSwarm/QuoteStart.png)
Sunshine, Coach
![](/staff/Heyoka/HeroesoftheSwarm/QuoteStart.png)
Youngbaek, Coach
![](/staff/Heyoka/HeroesoftheSwarm/QuoteStart.png)
Final Thoughts:
Wings, Super Perfect Team (SPT)
![](/staff/Heyoka/HeroesoftheSwarm/QuoteStart.png)
Baphomet, Please Buff Arthas
![](/staff/Heyoka/HeroesoftheSwarm/QuoteStart.png)
Sunshine, Coach
![](/staff/Heyoka/HeroesoftheSwarm/QuoteStart.png)
Youngbaek, Coach
![](/staff/Heyoka/HeroesoftheSwarm/QuoteStart.png)
sCsC, L5 (Ballistix)
![](/staff/Heyoka/HeroesoftheSwarm/QuoteStart.png)
So what do you think about Ragnaros? Is Lava Wave OP? Let us know!
Huge thanks also to yaya, DogRay, and RallyJaffa for translations!