EPT
Probius
First Impressions
Analysis and Pro Opinions
“Since his activation, Probius has always wanted to prove himself. He may be small, but he made a big difference by warping in a critical pylon during the retaking of Aiur. As the bravest of probes, Probius is eager to fulfill his purpose in the Nexus.”
Table of Contents
Following in the footsteps of Lt. Morales and Sgt. Hammer, the newest hero in the Nexus is a re-imagined worker unit from StarCraft. Probius is a zone control specialist and combo mage who plays something like a cross between Gazlowe and Jaina.
Many fans expected a builder hero and were sorely disappointed by Probius on release. While the topic has died down some, Probius's abysmal win rate on opening week did not do the poor probe any favors. Despite assertions from a few top level players, his viability has been hotly contested among professional players, casters, streamers, and fans alike. Let's break down his abilities and construct an image of the probe and his fantastic new talents!
NOTE: Probius just got some much-needed buffs, so the contents of this article may differ from his current form.
Strengths and Weaknesses
Strengths
Weaknesses
- Excellent waveclear
- Significant burst damage
- Great zone control
Weaknesses
- Very fragile, few self-sustain options
- Takes a long time to set up his zone
- Requires enemies to walk into danger
Abilities
Mount
- Worker Rush
- Activate to gain an additional 60% Movement Speed for 5 seconds. Taking damage ends this effect early. 40 second cooldown. Passive: Probius moves 10% faster by hovering over the ground.
Trait
- Warp in Pylon
- Warp in a Pylon that generates a Power Field and grants vision of the surrounding area. Probius only regenerates mana while inside a Power Field. Up to 2 Pylons can be active at a time. 14 second cooldown.
Basic Abilities
- Disruption Pulse (Q)
- Fire a burst of energy forward, dealing 150 damage to all enemies it passes through. Hitting the center of a Warp Rift will cause it to explode, dealing additional damage. 3 second cooldown.
- Warp Rift (W)
- Open an unstable Warp Rift at a location that takes 1.25 seconds to arm, which then slows nearby enemies by 20% lasting 9 seconds. 6 second cooldown. Armed Warp Rifts explode when hit by Disruption Pulse, dealing 261 damage to nearby enemies.
- Photon Cannon (E)
- Warp in a Photon Cannon that deals 95 damage per second. Lasts for 11 seconds. 15 second cooldown. Must be placed within a Pylon's Power Field. Deactivates if it doesn't have a Pylon powering it.
Heroic Abilities
- Pylon Overcharge (R)
- Increase the size of Pylon power fields and allow them to attack enemies within it for 110 damage per second. Lasts 10 seconds. 80 second cooldown. Passive: Pylons gain permanent Shields equal to 50% of their max Health.
- Null Gate (R)
- Project a barrier of negative energy in the target direction that lasts 4 seconds. Enemies who touch the barrier take 64 damage per second and are slowed by 80% for as long as they remain in contact with it. 40 second cooldown.
Rather than mounting, Probius moves at 110% speed by default and has an activatable speed boost similar to Sgt. Hammer’s. Unlike most heroes, he does not passively regenerate mana over time, but his pylons grant him mana as long as he stays close to one. This means that Probius can only use a couple abilities outside of pylon range before he runs out of mana and has to either return to a pylon he placed earlier or construct an additional pylon. Warp in Pylon is on a 14 second cooldown, so using his trait represents a significant commitment to staying in a particular area or else he loses effectiveness quickly.
Probius’s auto attacks do very little damage so he relies on his (Q) Disruption Pulse and (W) Warp Rift combo as his primary attack. Probius can put out a lot of burst damage with his Q/W combo, but it takes some time to set up a zone, making the probe much more effective when defending than going on the offensive. Probius can also use this combo to instantly clear a minion wave, giving him one of the most powerful waveclear options in the game.
His last basic ability will be very familiar to StarCraft players. (E) Photon Cannon warps in a turret with timed life anywhere within pylon power that deals damage to nearby targets until it expires. While a well placed photon cannon can help Probius control an area, they generally don’t have enough health or damage to make a significant impact in a fight.
Probius’s Heroics are heavily imbalanced in popularity, with most people favoring Pylon Overcharge. This ability passively makes Probius’s pylons tankier and can also be activated to weaponize them for 10 seconds. This Heroic is strong if Probius can set up multiple pylons and lure an enemy into them, especially with the help of a good Disruption Pulse/Warp Rift combo. His other heroic option, Null Gate, takes a second to set up and deals little damage, so it’s difficult for Probius to get value out of the slow by himself and is best used as a zoning tool or to help allies get picks.
Talents
Each choice at Level 1 significantly changes how Probius is played. Echo Pulse causes Probius’s Disruption Pulse to return to him like a boomerang when fired, functionally allowing him to detonate Warp Rifts twice as often. This talent synergizes with Particle Accelerator at level 7 to give Probius a damage option outside of his standard combo, but even with these talents most of his damage will come from detonating Warp Rifts.
Warp Resonance empowers Warp Rift explosions after hitting enemy heroes, incentivizing Probius to poke at opponents with his combo as much as possible in the early game and paying off in improved burst by the late game. When paired with Rift Shock this W build maximises Probius’s hero damage potential, but the short range of his W necessitates risky positioning to get value from it. He can choose a defensive option at 4 like Shield Capacitor or Photon Barrier to compensate for this vulnerability.
Gather Minerals encourages Probius to stay in lane to empower his Photon Cannons and to provide vision. It has potential to synergize well with Tower Defense at level 7, but the targeting AI of the cannons make it difficult to consistently get value out of a Photon Cannon build.
Probius’s Level 13 talents are reminiscent of Varian’s banner talents. The probe can pick Aggressive Matrix or Power Overflowing to provide a damage boost to his team, or spec into Shield Battery for a defensive option. While the max shield from Shield Battery may seem small, it is worth noting that the shield per second it grants before the shield is full is greater than the heal per second from Lúcio’s passive healing, so it may be a strong choice for a team lacking in survivability.
All of the Level 16 talents affect Warp Rifts. The talents that empower the slow of the rifts are significantly more popular than the other choices, but each option has a place in the right situation. Repulsor even gives Probius an interrupt against channeled abilities like Mosh Pit or Rain of Destruction.
Construct Additional Pylons is the most popular Storm talent by far––the ability to place an extra pylon makes Probius much more flexible, and the damage buff to Pylon Overcharge is significant. While Probius Loop seems strong on paper, in actuality it is difficult to get value from it in any but the most ideal circumstances.
Shoot ‘Em Up is a unique option that fires projectiles out of any detonated Warp Rift, and each of those projectiles can then detonate other warp rifts. This is a big power spike for Probius’s burst combo, allowing him to trigger chain reactions of closely spaced Warp Rifts with a single Disruption Pulse. Combined with Warp Rift talents at 1 and 7, this combo can delete many squishy targets outright if they’re foolish enough to wander into Probius’s zone.
Professional Opinions
Disconcur, Caster and Streamer
I really like the concept of Probius: a ranged specialist with great zone control and burst AoE damage. The AoE damage also provides pretty reliable waveclear, really allowing him to own the lane he is in. His Heroic choices at Level 10 give him a decent choice between damage or utility.
What I like is that his kit/design is offset by his low health pool, making him more vulnerable to CC. However, his kit is about slowing people’s advance and controlling that space. The only thing I would say about his kit is that he doesn't have access to hard CC—it is all slows. At Level 16, he can take the Repulsor talent to add a knock back. If he did have stun or roots though, I think he would be too good.
I'm not sure where we’ll see him, to be honest. I think he could be a viable pick, and we will see him in competitive play. His burst damage and slow have a place, but I am just not sure how much of priority he is going to be.
Due to his low health and vulnerability to CC, he needs a strong frontline comp ready to peel for him when he gets in trouble. He plays like a ranged poker in teamfights. He will also be looking to other heroes for the hard CC. He’s better on larger battlegrounds focused around pickup/controlling objects like Cursed Hollow, Infernal Shrines, Sky Temple and Towers of Doom.
A final balancing point for Probius is that he is a hard hero to play well, as everything works together, and you need to have the time to set up for fights. He is very unforgiving with his abilities, so any missed shots, bad setups, or being out of position will lead to people feeling very weak with him. He is a hero that will take time to get used to for a player. Not newbie friendly but could be worth investing the time to learn.
Arcaner, Nomia
I think his design is great. It's simple but unique amongst specialists/mages. I always wanted Blizzard to make a hero that had to combo abilities to do damage, so I enjoy his Q/W interaction. The only part of his kit I don't like is his Null Gate ultimate.
I think a lot of people misunderstand how the hero should be played, so they think it's a useless/underpowered hero, but if you know how to do damage with the hero, he’s really strong. He has the best waveclear in the game. He has good mobility, great damage, and I can see him being useful on pretty much all HGC maps. It's hard to accurately assess his place whether it's in the meta or as a niche pick, mainly because he has a more unique playstyle that a few teams might be hesitant to play with at first. It's not that he requires setup, it's moreso how your team approaches teamfights. You can't dive or continuously kite or he runs out of pylons. He seems to be countered pretty hard by picks like Anub, Valeera, Zera, Tracer...there are actually quite a lot of counters compared to other heroes. So I guess he won't be picked early in drafts unless they buff his numbers to a point where he's overtuned. He is good in so many comps and maps that he has the potential to be meta but is held back by draft risks. which make him niche in a way.
But I love the hero so far. He seems strong in HL, and I'm interested to see how EU players will execute him in HGC if they pick him.
YoDa, Team 8
To be honest, when we saw the introductory video onstage in Poland, we thought it was an elaborate troll. We already have Gazlowe, why do we need a hero like this? After playing with him in Hero League and some scrims, my opinion has not changed.
He’s much too weak right now. Gazlowe is already a niche pick at best and has much more impact than Probius. If he got some massive buffs, I think the first map we'd see him on is Braxis Holdout. Probius is a point control hero with good waveclear, and Braxis allows him to leverage both of those strengths.
There are so many cool characters that need to be introduced/reworked. I hope Blizzard hero design team will stop wasting time. The last time we got a real mage was Gul'dan over half a year ago.
adrd, Team expert
When they said Probius is the next hero, I expected something different than what we got. His cannon isn't even an important part of his kit. [His current form] is probably healthier for game, as builders are almost impossible to be balanced in all levels of play.
Probius is very unique and hard to play. I would say it's one of the hardest heroes to play well on, this is why we might not see him popping up in competitive instantly. Korea is especially known for not jumping in on new heroes very fast unless they are extremely strong, so Probius might not be played there much. As for me, I really like Probius and think he is good enough in his current state and how I play him, and I know I can still play him much better. He is definitely not first pick worthy, but he has his place. I am not sure if any other EU teams will play him, as I haven't seen many people practicing him at all.
Probius is especially strong at holding positions or when enemies want to engage on him, as his spells are short range. His waveclear might be the best in game, so he is good on maps where it's important. Maps with big empty spaces are bad for him since he cannot do much when ambushed if he isn’t prepared. If enemies just run into you, it's much easier to hit them compared to when they are escaping or dancing around. For those reasons, he is better in organized play because you won't end up with situations where your team dives enemies when you can't follow.
Its late but no problem. Pro opinions doesn't change that fast unless an absurd nerf/buff happenes.
