
“ | Today's victory belongs to all who stood against the shadow.
|
” |
(3/10)
(6/10)
(4/10)
(6/10)
Alexstrasza is a Ranged Support hero from the Warcraft universe. She is a Healer who shares her Health with allies and can also transform into a Dragon to empower her abilities.
Background[]
Alexstrasza the Life-Binder, Aspect Leader and Queen of the red dragonflight and Aspect of Life, is the guardian of all life in the world of Azeroth. She was one of five great dragons chosen by the titans to be empowered with a portion of the Pantheon's power and rule over her flight while they watched over Azeroth and its inhabitants. The titans also appointed her queen of all dragons.
Gameplay Summary[]
Alexstrasza is the first Support Hero in the game that focuses on healing percentage. Because of this, she excels on healing Warriors and other Heroes with larger healthpools, as their healing received will be higher. She is also unique as her trait, Dragonqueen, allows her to transform in her true form, gaining a massive boost in health, as well empowering all her abilities.
Overall, Alexstrasza works well in team compositions featuring multiple Warriors, and truly shines when paired with a supplementary Support to keep her at max health, given how Gift of Life performance is based directly on Alexstrasza current health. However, she is more than capable of solo healing.
Strengths[]
- Relatively low mana usage.
- High burst and sustained healing.
- All abilities have good range.
- Gift of Life costs no mana, instead depleting a percentage of Alexstrasza's health to heal the ally.
- While in Dragonqueen form, it becomes Breath of Life, healing 5% more, costing no health and having its cooldown set to 3 seconds.
- Abundance is a potent area of effect heal, specially in teams with multiple Warriors.
- While in Dragonqueen form, it becomes Preservation, healing 10% more and having a larger radius.
- Flame Buffet is a great poking tool, and deals increased damage when hitting a Hero already affected by Flame Buffet.
- While in Dragonqueen form, it becomes Wing Buffet, which instead deals knockback in area.
- Dragonqueen is a Heroic-level cooldown that greatly empowers Alexstrasza, being capable of changing the course of teamfights.
- The bonus health she gains while in this form scales with the team level.
- Life-Binder can completely heal either Alexstrasza or her target if either are at max health.
- Cleansing Flame provides Alexstrasza with a nearly global presence, allowing her to deal both healing and damage.
- Blessing of the Red provides a massive health bonus, and can be used on more than one ally, essentially allowing the entire team, save for Alexstrasza herself, to have 500 extra health.
Weaknesses[]
- Limited damage, waveclear and sieging outside of Dragonqueen.
- Reliant on other Heroes to keep allied structures safe.
- Limited self-healing.
- Susceptible to dives, focus fire and poke damage.
- Gift of Life healing is drastically lowered if Alexstrasza is at low health.
- Abundance has a quite lengthy cooldown, and requires proper timing and positioning to heal as many allies as possible.
- In addition, its telegraphed glyph on the floor can be seen by the enemy team, giving them time to intercept and prevent the team from being healed.
- While Dragonqueen is a powerful ability, it has very long cooldown, as well making Alexstrasza a much larger target (therefore more susceptible to skillshots and area damage).
- It is also very easy to intercept due its considerably long activation time.
- Has very poor mobility unless Cleansing Flame is taken.
- Life-Binder has little effect if both Alexstrasza and/or her target are at low health.
Abilities[]

Cooldown: 7 seconds
Sacrifice 15% of Alexstrasza's current Health, healing an ally for 150% of that amount.
Dragonqueen: Breath of Life: Cooldown greatly reduced and does not cost Health.

Mana: 75
Cooldown: 16 seconds
Plant a seed of healing that blooms after 3 seconds, healing nearby allied Heroes for 20% of their maximum Health.
Dragonqueen: Preservation: Heal area and amount greatly increased.

Mana: 50
Cooldown: 2 seconds
Launch a fireball, Burning enemies hit for 75 (+4% per level) damage over 5.5 seconds.
Hitting enemies that are already Burning deals 125 (+4% per level) bonus damage upon impact, Slows them by 40% decaying over 2 seconds, and refunds the Mana cost.
Dragonqueen: Wing Buffet: Damage and Knockback enemies in an arc.
Traits[]

Cooldown: 150 seconds
After 1.25 seconds, transform into a dragon and gain 500 (+4% per level) Health.
While Dragonqueen is active, Alexstrasza's Abilities are empowered, and her Basic Attacks deals 143 (+4% per level) damage and heal allied Heroes for 43 (+4% per level) in an arc in front of her. Additionally, the duration of incoming Stuns, Roots, Slows, and Blinds is reduced by 50%. Lasts 15 seconds.
Heroic Abilities[]

Tier 4 (Hero Level 10)
Mana: 80
Cooldown: 60 seconds
Bind Alexstrasza's life force with an allied Hero. After 2 seconds, the Hero with a lower percentage of Health is set to the same Health as the other Hero.

Tier 4 (Hero Level 10)
Mana: 100
Cooldown: 100 seconds
After 1.25 seconds, take to the sky and drop 5 fireballs over 6 seconds at the position of the mouse cursor. Fireballs deal 135 (+4% per level) damage to enemies and heal allied Heroes for 300 (+4% per level) Health.
2 seconds after dropping all fireballs, Alexstrasza lands at the position of the mouse cursor.
Talents[]
Tier 1, Hero Level 1[]

Tier 1 (Hero Level 1)
While Alexstrasza is above 75% Health, Gift of Life's cooldown recharges 100% faster.

Tier 1 (Hero Level 1)
Quest: Collect Regeneration Globes.
Reward: After collecting 15 Regeneration Globes, Abundance heals for an additional 5% maximum Health.
Reward: After collecting 25 Regeneration Globes, Abundance's healing burst creates a Regeneration Globe.

Tier 1 (Hero Level 1)
Quest: Hit 20 Burning Heroes with Flame Buffet.
Reward: Hitting a Burning Hero with Flame Buffet reduces Dragonqueen's cooldown by 5 seconds.
Tier 2, Hero Level 4[]

Tier 2 (Hero Level 4)
Abundance's healing burst grants allied Heroes 30% Movement Speed for 3 seconds.
Tier 3, Hero Level 7[]

Tier 3 (Hero Level 7)
While Alexstrasza is above 75% Health, Gift of Life creates a Lifeblossom at the target's location. Alexstrasza can collect the Lifeblossom to make her next Gift of Life cost no Health.

Tier 3 (Hero Level 7)
Alexstrasza receives 30% more healing from Abundance and 100% more healin from Regeneration Globes.

Tier 3 (Hero Level 7)
Hitting a Burning Hero with Flame Buffet heals Alexstrasza for 10% of her maximum Health.
Tier 4, Hero Level 10[]

Tier 4 (Hero Level 10)
Mana: 80
Cooldown: 60 seconds
Bind Alexstrasza's life force with an allied Hero. After 2 seconds, the Hero with a lower percentage of Health is set to the same Health as the other Hero.

Tier 4 (Hero Level 10)
Mana: 100
Cooldown: 100 seconds
After 1.25 seconds, take to the sky and drop 5 fireballs over 6 seconds at the position of the mouse cursor. Fireballs deal 135 (+4% per level) damage to enemies and heal allied Heroes for 300 (+4% per level) Health.
2 seconds after dropping all fireballs, Alexstrasza lands at the position of the mouse cursor.
Tier 5, Hero Level 13[]

Tier 5 (Hero Level 13)
Gain 30 Armor while Stunned, Silenced, or Rooted, and for 2 seconds after. Can only trigger once every 10 seconds.

Tier 5 (Hero Level 13)
Cooldown: 90 seconds
Activate to heal an allied Hero for 15% of their maximum Health and deal 200 (+4% per level) damage to nearby enemies.
Healing a Stunned, Rooted, or Silenced ally reduces Life Unbound's cooldown by 30 seconds.
Cannot be used on Alexstrasza.
Tier 6, Hero Level 16[]

Tier 6 (Hero Level 16)
While Alexstrasza is above 75% Health, Gift of Life grants its target 20 Armor for 2 seconds.

Tier 6 (Hero Level 16)
Heroes healed by Abundance gain a Shield for 3 seconds equal to 60% of the amount healed.
Tier 7, Hero Level 20[]

Tier 7 (Hero Level 20)
Healing or damaging Heroes 8 or more times with Cleansing Flame activates Dragonqueen for 15 seconds upon landing.

Tier 7 (Hero Level 20)
While Dragonqueen is active, Alexstrasza's Basic Attacks apply Flame Buffet, but her Attack Speed is reduced by 25%.

Tier 7 (Hero Level 20)
Cooldown: 40 seconds
Activate to grant an allied Hero 500 bonus maximum Health until they die.
Cannot be used on Alexstrasza, or on a Hero who already has Blessing of the Red.
Talent Builds[]
- Gift of Life Build: focused on greatly buffing Gift of Life, at the expense of only doing so when Alexstrasza is above 75%. However, the level 7 quest Life Blossom provides Alexstrasza with a massive powerspike that makes her Gift of Life cost no health. This build is useful in most situations and team compositions, however truly shines in double Support Teams, as the secondary healer can keep Alexstrasza above 75% health most of the time to ensure she will get the added effects of the Gift of Life talents.
- Abundance Build: focused on maximizing the area healing of Abundance with the addition of more utility and benefits. The level 1 quest talent, Circle of Life, has a powerful synergy with the level 4 talent, Verdant Flourish, which makes not only Alexstrasza a powerful fountain of health globes for her team, but in turn can also help team members that are also pursuing to complete health globe talents. This build is mostly recommended in teams that are not very mobile and on maps where defending static objectives is a must.
- Flame Buffet Build: focused on maximizing the damage output and utility of Flame Buffet, as well her usage of Dragonqueen to gain the upper hand during teamfights. The key level 1 quest talent, Flames of Fury, once completed, adds more value to Dragonqueen, allowing Alexstrasza to slowly reduce its very high cooldown each time she hits an enemy consecutively with Flame Buffet. This build is mostly recommended when the team needs additional sources of damage and already has a dedicated healer.
Tips[]
- Positioning is key when playing with Alexstrasza. She has to keep away from enemy fire as much as possible in order to maximize the effects of Gift of Life.
- Picking any of the Gift of Life talents will display a small indicator on Alexstrasza's healthbar to show when she is above 75% health. The Gift of Life icon in the action bar will also glow to alert the player.
- Try to hit as many Heroes as possible with Flame Buffet, especially if pursuing the Flames of Fury quest talent.
- In addition, it is quite useful for waveclear as long at least one target that is already under its burning effect is hit, as it will refund the mana.
- Do not use Dragonqueen unless really necessary, since it has very long cooldown; treat it as a Heroic Ability, using it during crucial teamfights.
- While Alexstrasza gains a bonus to her maximum health during Dragonqueen, it is important to remember that by default her base health is quite low, so avoid direct conflict even when in Dragonqueen form.
- When transforming back to her elf form, Alexstrasza is cleared of most negative effects and debuffs. One notable example is how Malthael's Last Rites will clear if Dragonqueen ends before it triggers.
- Due the nature of Abundance, Alexstrasza truly shines on static map objectives, such as Infernal Shrines and Braxis Holdout. Make sure to cover enough area to heal allies within its range.
- Additionally, use it on a safe spot, that won't make the allied team open to enemy retaliation.
- Life-Binder is useful to save either Alexstrasza or her target, as long the difference in health percentage is significant (i.e. if both have around 40% health)
- Cleansing Flame is incredibly versatile, being a both offensive and defensive cooldown, which provides Alexstrasza with a strong escape tool.
- It gets the highest value during teamfights in small areas, where allies and foes are more likely to cluster, therefore allowing Alexstrasza do deal healing and damage at the same time.
- This Heroic Ability is great to use against heavy dive compositions, where Alexstrasza is more likely to become a priority target due her low mobility.
- If using Cleansing Flame while in Dragonqueen, its duration won't be affected by the Heroic Ability, meaning the player can use the ability and return in dragon form.
Matchups[]
Pairings[]
While Alexstrasza is perfectly capable of solo-healing, she is best when paired with another healer to keep her at high health all, to maximize the effectiveness of Gift of Life (especially when talented into it). Also, given that her healing is percentage-based, she shines in team compositions featuring multiple Warriors (where a strong frontline can enable her to heal safely) or other Heroes with high healthpool.
Effective against[]
Effective foes[]
Alexstrasza's bread and butter heal, Gift of Life, becomes less and less effective the lower her health is. Because of that, Heroes capable of efficient poke damage can hinder her full potential. In addition, Alexstrasza very poor mobility and lack of self-peel outside of Dragonqueen makes her extremely vulnerable to diving and focus fire.
Skins[]
- The Life-Binder (base)
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
The Life-Binder | Ascendant ![]() |
Jade ![]() |
Saronite |
![]() |
Snowfall |
- Dragon Aspect
400
- The many realms of the Nexus teem with myriad living beings who both empower Alexstrasza and beseech her for protection. The Aspect of Life stands ready to safeguard them all.
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() | |
Dragon Aspect | Death | Kaldorei | Timeless |
![]() |
![]() |
Wild |
- Dark Queen (all skins are in a
2000 bundle)
- Sealed away by the Star Princesses millennia ago, the Dark Queen of the Dragons has finally broken free of her imprisonment. At long last, she will have her revenge on the people of Earth.
- This skin is related to the Eternal Empire themed-skins. Features altered voice-over and themed abilities.
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
Dark Queen | Divine | Ice | Iridescent |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
Molten | Dark Queen Dragon form |
Molten Dragon form |
- Spectral Wyrm Alexstrasza
After the Grave Keeper's domination by the Raven Lord, Spectral Wyrm Alexstrasza pledged her phantoms to his side. With the Aspect of Undeath serving as a general of his armies, what hope does King's Crest have?
Development[]
Concept art for Alexstrasza began with her elf form, then her dragon form. The developers used Diablo and Azmodan' size (based on his size from the Diablo lore) as a baseline model for her dragon form (to be made larger), and Uther was used as a frame of reference for her elf form (who is used as base for all Heroes). In addition, Alexstrasza has extra animation frames when turning around, as the developers judged it would be weird to make her turn and spin around instantly.[1] Her de facto appearance is taken from Warcraft, but was altered to make her appear more "queenly".[2] She is decked out in ornments and jewellry, in order to reflect her regal status as the queen of dragons.[3] This, by extent, helps differentiate Alexstrasza from Sylvanas, since in World of Warcraft they both share the same base model and armor design.
"Dragons" and "Life" were the two main themes the developers used to build Alexstrasza's gameplay mechanics. It was important to convey that she isn't any dragon: she is the Dragon Aspect of Life. The developers created her abilities based on similar dragon mechanics and abilities:
- Abundance is based on the ability Healing Well used by the Young Storm Dragons seen in the Vortex Pinnacle, a dungeon from World of Warcraft: Cataclysm.
- Flame Buffet is based on the ability of the same name used by the Firemaw in Blackwing Lair, a raid from the original World of Warcraft.
- Life Binder is based on Alexstrasza's card in Hearthstone.
- Cleansing Flame's core concept was originally meant for Probius, where he would summon a protoss mothership to bombard his enemies. The development team found that to contradict with his builder-oriented gameplay, and scrapped the idea. This was later moved to Alexstrasza instead.[4]
Trivia[]
- Alexstrasza is the first 2.0 hero to have a "master skin" equivalent in the form of the "Dragon Aspect" skin.
- The last Hero to have a Master Skin before Heroes of the Storm 2.0 was D.Va.
- Alexstrasza is the second dragon Hero added to the game, after Chromie.
Patch changes[]
(Patch November 29, 2017) Note: Base Maximum Health reduced from 1787 to 1698; Health Regen reduced from 3.72 to 3.54.
(Patch November 14, 2017) Note: Added.
References[]
- ↑ 2017-11-04, BlizzCon 2017: Heroes of the Storm Deep Dive Panel Live Blog. Blizzard Watch, accessed on 2017-11-05
- ↑ 2017-11-07, BlizzCon 2017 Heroes of the Storm Interview | Blizzplanet. YouTube, accessed on 2017-11-15
- ↑ 2017-11-23, BlizzCon 2017 Heroes of the Storm Deep Dive Panel Transcript. Blizzplanet, accessed on 2017-11-26
- ↑ 2017-11-23, BlizzCon 2017 Heroes of the Storm Deep Dive Panel Transcript. Blizzplanet, accessed on 2017-11-26
External links[]
- Alexstrasza's article on WoWWiki