Introduction
Welcome to Method’s Tariq guide. I’m CJ, a former WoW M+ 0.1% title player, and a Tariq enjoyer since Fellowship's Steam NextFest beta in February 2025. I've achieved the top 0.1% platinum trim for Tariq in the first week of all three seasons of Early Access and have written this guide to be up-to-date on Tariq's best builds for Early Access Season 3.
This guide is meant to give you the best overall understanding of the basic fundamentals of Tariq as well as providing insight on how to master him in the endgame.
Overview
Tariq is a Melee DPS who utilizes his resource Fury to deal damage and his primary damage cooldown Thunder Call to empower his attacks with lightning.
Most of Tariq's damage will come in his Thunder Call window (45 second cooldown) and his ultimate Raging Tempest (which is just an empowered Thunder Call).
Strengths
- Easy to perform well as the rotation is simple
- Flexible damage profile enabled by multiple different viable talents and builds
- Tanky DPS with a high health pool
Weaknesses
- Poor mobility due to Leap Smash being part of your rotation if you use the respective talents and legendary
- Melee DPS are heavily punished by mechanics in some dungeons
Tariq Changes in Early Access Season 3
Tariq has received a massive rework for EA Season 3 (no more swing timer) and is going to play extremely differently from Season 2. He is much simpler now, so this is a good jumping-in point for new players who were intimidated by previous iterations of Tariq, as well as Tariq veterans looking for a fresh iteration on the hero.
Early Access Season 3 Changes
Keep in mind that the below changes do not include damage value tuning, just functionality changes.
Core Mechanics
- Fury generation and costs have been adjusted across the board. Tariq no longer generates fury based on damage dealt, and now only generates flat amounts per cast.
- The swing timer is gone, and Heavy Strike is now on the GCD, has an 8s cooldown, and generates 12 fury.
- Wild Swing generates 3 fury.
- Face Breaker no longer gains procs from Wild Swing misses, is now on the GCD, has a 6s cooldown, always cleaves for 50% damage, and generates 7 fury.
- Skull Crusher fury cost reduced to 25 fury.
- The old effect of Kill 'em All is now baseline for Hammer Storm: It spins 3 times over 1.5 seconds (1 GCD) and each consecutive spin deals 35% more damage. It also spends all 50 fury on initial cast now.
- Chain Lightning generates 1.2 fury per hit.
- Leap Smash no longer generates fury baseline, and its damage has been reduced substantially.
- Culling Strike now spends up to 10 fury (for the same damage bonus) and its cooldown was increased to 6 seconds.
- Focused Wrath damage bonus reduced to 10%.
- Intimidate now fears enemies in place instead of making them flee, and cooldown reduced to 90s.
Talents
- Left Hand Path now only increases Face Breaker crit chance by 40%.
- Ride The Lightning fury generation reduced to 30 fury.
- Square Hammer reworked: Heavy Strike grants 1 stack of Square Hammer, stacking up to 5 times. Skull Crusher and Hammer Storm consume all stacks to reduce cooldown of Thunder Call by 1 second per stack and grant +5% expertise for 4 seconds. Talent point cost reduced to 2 points.
- High Road reworked: Leap Smash cooldown reduced by 10 seconds if it doesn't deal damage, and generates 20 fury if it does deal damage.
- Blood & Thunder reworked: Heavy Strike has 20% chance to cast Chain Lightning on the primary target. Talent point cost reduced to 1 point.
- Bloodline fury generation reduced to 1 fury per second.
- Mouth For War talent point cost reduced to 2 points.
- Pneuma reworked: Start dungeons with 50 spirit points, and Culling Strike generates 1 spirit point.
- Far Beyond Driven spirit bonus reduced to 1.5% spirit per stack.
- Kill 'em All reworked: Offensive abilities have an 8% chance to reset cooldown of Heavy Strike and grant 2 stacks of Kill Em All for 8 seconds. While Kill Em All is active, your Heavy Strike has +60% CDA. Your next Heavy Strike consumes 1 stack to deal 150% more damage. Talent point cost increased to 3 points.
- Schism proc chance is now 25% flat, instead of PPM.
- Concatenation removed.
- Magic Ward removed.
- Spit It Out removed.
- Spirited Fortitude removed.
- New talent The Motherload, 2 points: Chain Lightning deals 10% more damage, and gains stacking +40% more damage each time it hits a new enemy.
- New talent Sledgehammer, 1 point: Skull Crusher cleaves for 10% damage.
- New talent Ace Of Spades, 3 points: Skull Crusher and Hammer Storm damage has a chance to cast a free Chain Lightning (3.0 PPM), and Chain Lightning now has 2 charges.
- New talent Killing In The Name, 1 point: Culling Strike crit chance increased by 50%.
Legendaries
- Slayer's Mosh (from Drape Of The Slayer King) damage bonus increased to 20% and duration increased to 6 seconds.
- Culling Strikes from Executioner's Unsanitary Bands deal damage as if 30 fury was spent (so now 13x base damage as opposed to 9x base damage last season).
- Bloodied Brass Pendant removed.
- New legendary Loop Of The Thundering Vortex: Each time your Chain Lightning bounces you gain 1 stack of Thundering Vortex. Once you have 20 stacks of Thundering Vortex your next Chain Lightning deals 100% more damage.
General Gameplay
There have also been some general gameplay changes not specific to Tariq, but still important to mention here:
- Spirit procs now grant Rising Spirit in addition to their other effects, a stacking buff that gives +5% main stat per stack up to 5 stacks with a max duration of 20 seconds.
- The secondary stat rating diminishing return scaling has been significantly reduced, meaning stacking stat rating into a single secondary stat is much less punished, and players will generally have higher values for all secondary stats this season.
What these changes mean
- With the swing timer gone, Heavy Strike and Face Breaker both now on the GCD, and Face Breaker now no longer interacting with Wild Swing, Tariq now has a much simpler rotation.
- Hammer Storm costs 50 fury as usual while Skull Crusher only costs 25 fury. Be aware of how "much" of each spender you are banking up when pooling fury.
- Leap Smash will only be meaningfully part of your rotation if you take the talents High Road and/or Mouth For War, and/or the Drape Of The Slayer King legendary. Otherwise you can hold onto it for mobility.
- The removal of Spit It Out and Face Breaker always cleaving mean crit is now relatively much worse for Tariq than previous seasons, and possibly his worst secondary stat as he can get so much flat crit chance from other sources, such as talents and blessings.
- The addition of Rising Spirit to spirit procs makes spirit a slightly more valuable secondary stat for Tariq. However, the benefit from this new buff is limited as Hammer Storm can only proc a spirit refund once per cast now.
- Two of the existing legendary effects (from Drape Of The Slayer King and Executioner's Unsanitary Bands) were significantly buffed, and a new legendary was added in place of Bloodied Brass Pendant. These stronger effects in addition to the generic boons of additional 10% main stat and cooldown acceleration on all Legendaries make obtaining a legendary a much greater immediate increase on your throughput.
- The reduction to diminishing returns for secondary stat rating means that it will be much easier to focus builds around stacking whatever secondary stats are best to better take advantage of their synergies.
- Intimidate was significantly buffed as a CC tool and can be used without worrying about spreading out trash packs.
EAS3 Changes: Expand the section above to see a full list of changes for Early Access Season 3!
Tariq Cheat Sheet
Stat Priority
Haste is Tariq's best secondary stat this season as his previous crit synergies were removed, while haste synergizes with some talents. Expertise and crit are less useful though not useless, with crit a little less valuable due to how much bonus flat crit chance Tariq can get from talents, gear, and the bonus +5% crit chance with which all heroes start. Spirit is likely still the worst secondary stat, as although it received a buff through the new Rising Spirit effect, Tariq's ability to benefit is limited due to Hammer Storm now only proccing spirit refunds once per cast and the tighter fury economy.
Strength > Haste > Expertise > Crit > Spirit
Best In Slot Gear
- BIS Weapons: Sahril's Reckoning for AOE or Fateful Basher for Thunder Call burst.
- BIS Relics: (Any that have haste if going purely for stats, but you will play what your group needs per dungeon) Saltwash Elixir, Sinbinding Stone, Bloodrite Drums
- BIS Legendary: Loop Of The Thundering Vortex for Lightning build, Executioner's Unsanitary Bands for Schism build
Recommended Talent Builds
Talent Points:
2
/
14
2
2
2
1
1
1
2
2
2
1
1
1
3
3
3
1
1
1
Talent Points:
3
/
14
2
2
2
1
1
1
2
2
2
1
1
1
3
3
3
1
1
1
Talent Points:
4
/
14
2
2
2
1
1
1
2
2
2
1
1
1
3
3
3
1
1
1
Talent Points:
5
/
14
2
2
2
1
1
1
2
2
2
1
1
1
3
3
3
1
1
1
Talent Points:
6
/
14
2
2
2
1
1
1
2
2
2
1
1
1
3
3
3
1
1
1
Talent Points:
7
/
14
2
2
2
1
1
1
2
2
2
1
1
1
3
3
3
1
1
1
Talent Points:
8
/
14
2
2
2
1
1
1
2
2
2
1
1
1
3
3
3
1
1
1
Talent Points:
9
/
14
2
2
2
1
1
1
2
2
2
1
1
1
3
3
3
1
1
1
Talent Points:
10
/
14
2
2
2
1
1
1
2
2
2
1
1
1
3
3
3
1
1
1
Talent Points:
11
/
14
2
2
2
1
1
1
2
2
2
1
1
1
3
3
3
1
1
1
Talent Points:
12
/
14
2
2
2
1
1
1
2
2
2
1
1
1
3
3
3
1
1
1
Talent Points:
13
/
14
2
2
2
1
1
1
2
2
2
1
1
1
3
3
3
1
1
1
Talent Points:
14
/
14
2
2
2
1
1
1
2
2
2
1
1
1
3
3
3
1
1
1
Talent Points:
2
/
14
2
2
2
1
1
1
2
2
2
1
1
1
3
3
3
1
1
1
Talent Points:
3
/
14
2
2
2
1
1
1
2
2
2
1
1
1
3
3
3
1
1
1
Talent Points:
4
/
14
2
2
2
1
1
1
2
2
2
1
1
1
3
3
3
1
1
1
Talent Points:
5
/
14
2
2
2
1
1
1
2
2
2
1
1
1
3
3
3
1
1
1
Talent Points:
6
/
14
2
2
2
1
1
1
2
2
2
1
1
1
3
3
3
1
1
1
Talent Points:
7
/
14
2
2
2
1
1
1
2
2
2
1
1
1
3
3
3
1
1
1
Talent Points:
8
/
14
2
2
2
1
1
1
2
2
2
1
1
1
3
3
3
1
1
1
Talent Points:
9
/
14
2
2
2
1
1
1
2
2
2
1
1
1
3
3
3
1
1
1
Talent Points:
10
/
14
2
2
2
1
1
1
2
2
2
1
1
1
3
3
3
1
1
1
Talent Points:
11
/
14
2
2
2
1
1
1
2
2
2
1
1
1
3
3
3
1
1
1
Talent Points:
12
/
14
2
2
2
1
1
1
2
2
2
1
1
1
3
3
3
1
1
1
Talent Points:
13
/
14
2
2
2
1
1
1
2
2
2
1
1
1
3
3
3
1
1
1
Talent Points:
14
/
14
2
2
2
1
1
1
2
2
2
1
1
1
3
3
3
1
1
1
Best In Slot Modifier Set-up
Points (Gear): 0 / 35
Points (Weapon): 0 / 5
Major Traits
0
0
Heroic Traits
0
0
Defensive Traits
0
0
Blessings 0
Bonus Stats 0
Set Bonuses 0
Gems (+100) 0
