Franco is a non-conventional tank. What this means is that he isn’t your typical tank that goes straight into battles and can tank enemies a lot. He requires good positioning and rewards players that are capable of positioning themselves well. He is a high-ceiling hero, and requires a lot of practice to master because of his gameplay. Mastery of his Iron Hook skill is important to one’s growth as a Franco player.
Franco Awesome Detailed Guide
I. Skills Tips and Skill Combination Tips
(Passive) Wasteland Force – When out of combat, the hero increases own movement speed by 10% and regens 0.5% of maximum HP per second.
Tips:
Wasteland Force is passive skill that makes Franco a fearsome ganker and a mobile tank. This passive lets you last longer on a lane and will allow you to position yourself in the bush properly.
Notes:
“Out of Combat” means not attacking/being attacked for 5 seconds.
(1st Skill) Iron Hook – Launches an iron hook toward a unit or location. The hook will snag the first unit it encounters, dragging the unit back to Franco and dealing damage.
Damage: 500/540/580/620/660/700 Physical
Tips:
This is Franco’s bread and butter skill. This is a skill shot, and is hard to master, but through the right usage it makes Franco a scary hero to play against. You can pick off enemies using Iron Hook, and drag them away from their team into your towers or to your team. Landing this skill almost guarantees a kill for your team. Mastering this skill is vital to your success as a Franco player.
It is important to put your skill points into this skill when you have extra as it also increase your Iron Hook’s length and the additional damage gained from the levels is higher than Fury Shock’s. At max level of Iron Hook you will deal 300 more physical damage compared to the max level of Fury Shock.
Note:
You can use Iron Hook and use Flicker to drag the enemies farther than where your initial position is. This trick essentially increases Iron Hook’s range, but requires a bit of practicing to do.
Also, it can hit minions so it is important to judge whether your hook will hit them or not. This will ruin your ganks, so beware of minions when ganking mid lane or side lanes.
(2nd Skill) Fury Shock – Lashes out and terrifies enemies, dealing physical damage to nearby enemies and slowing their movement speed for a duration.
Damage: 275/300/325/350/375/400 Physical
Movement Speed Slow: 70%
Duration: 1.5 seconds
Tips:
Fury Shock is an area of effect (AOE) skill that serves as a follow up Franco’s Iron Hook or as a harassment tool in the laning stages. This is useful for early kills especially when you hit your Iron Hook on an enemy. With a teammate, it is possible to get kills as early as levels 2-3 without using your ultimate skill.
You can also use this to get last htis on multiple minions that are about to die to get additional gold.
(3rd Skill – Ultimate) Brutal Massacre – Suppresses an enemy unit with hacks in a row, disabling it and dealing physical damageper each hit.
Attacks: 6
Damage: 60/80/100 Physical
Tips:
Brutal Massacre is also a follow up to Franco’s Iron Hook skill. This is used on the hero that you land a hook on. This skill will disalbe them for a few seconds and will deal phyiscal damage over time.
This skill is important in ganking and in killing enemy heroes. By hooking enemies into your tower and using Brutal Massacre, you can disable them for a few seconds and deal some damage along with the tower. This is a strong skill, but has its ups and downs as noted below.
Note:
During the skill’s duration, both you and your target are disabled. You can’t move not use your battleground spell, which can be harmful when you are trying to escape. Try to maintain a safe distance between you and the enemy team when using this.
Skill Combination
Level 1: Fury Shock (1/6)
Level 2: Iron Hook (1/6)
Level 3: Iron Hook (2/6)
Level 4: Brutal Massacre (1/3)
Level 5: Iron Hook (3/6)
Level 6: Fury Shock (2/6)
Level 7: Iron Hook (4/6)
Level 8: Brutal Massacre (2/3)
Level 9: Iron Hook (5/6)
Level 10: Fury Shock (3/6)
Level 11: Iron Hook (6/6)
Level 12: Brutal Massacre (3/3)
Level 13: Fury Shock (4/6)
Level 14: Fury Shock (5/6)
Level 15: Fury Shock (6/6)
Note Skill priority is leveling Iron Hook and Brutal Massacre when available. Max Fury shock last at it doesn’t scale as much as Iron Hook and Brutal Massacre do in late game.
III. Recommended Battleground Spells
Note:
Flicker can “increase” your Iron Hook range if you cast Iron Hook and then Flicker backwards before the target is pulled to your position.
Weaken – This is an alternative to Flicker, but also useful if you can’t use Flicker yet. This will help you secure kills and chase down enemies that survive your combo.
IV. Equipment
1. Boots of Tranquility – +20 HP Regen, +20 Mana Regen, Unique: +40 Movement Speed, HP regen effect increased by 10%
This item is important because it gives you necessary regen during the laning stage and it gives you good amounts of movement speed to move around, position yourself and create plays for your team by ganking.
2. Athena’s Shield – +900 HP, +56 Magic Resistance, +20 HP Regen, Unique: Damage-absorbing shield every 30 seconds, amount shielded increases as match goes longer, peaking at 1150
This item lets you tank enemy heroes especially Mages. This item is a good item for most tanks, and building it first would save you a lot of times more than not. The shield is really strong early game and the short cooldown helps Franco’s sustain. Partnered with good regen, he won’t need to go home that much to regenerate HP and Mana.
3. Dominance Ice – +500 Mana, +70 Armor, +5% Crit Chance Reduction, Unique: +15% CD Reduction, Lowers movement speed by 5% and attack speed by 30% for nearby enemy heroes
A tank item that also gives you a good mount of cooldown reduction. Good for Franco, and improves his chasing abilities with the unique ability provided by the item.
4. Oracle – +850 HP, +36 Magic Resistance, +35 HP Regen, +10% CD Reduction, Unique: Within 4 seconds after being attacked, the hero will regen 8% HP with a cooldown of 6 seconds
The counterpart of Dominance Ice but for mages. Oracle has a useful unique ability that will further increase Franco’s tankiness by giving him an HP regen if he gets hit by an enemy hero. The longer a teamfight goes, the more powerful this item is.
5. Blade Armor – +90 Armor, Unique: Deals 25% of opponent’s physical attack as physical damage to an attacker when a basic attack is received.
This is important especially during the late game when the enemy physical damage carries are farmed and itemized already. This nullifies a lot of their damage, and gives the highest amount of armor in teh game. The unique ability is also cherry on the top.
6. Immortality– +800 HP, +40 Magic Resistance, Unique: Resurrect 2 seconds after dying, get 15% HP and a shield that can absorb 300-1000 points of damage. Shield lasts for 3 seconds, with a cooldown of 180 seconds.
During the late game you will sometimes die faster than you think and end up losing the game for your team. This item prevents that. Immortality is one of the strongest items in the game used by any role. Its use if flexible, it can be used offensively or defensively depending on how the game goes.
Note:
This build focuses on bulking up Franco, and is not about maximizing his cooldown reduction. This build will give you a decent amount of cooldown reduction, while also giving you the necessary amount of tankiness to be in the middle of fights and serve as the main tank.
The problem with maximizing cooldown reduction is that it makes you softer than other tanks and you will have to reply purely on your hooking skills to win the game. This build will allow players more breathing room to play Franco as a hybrid of a tank and a crowd controller.
V. Hero Partners
- Odette – Odette is one of the best heroes you can partner Franco with. The two heroes will have two disables which will let Odette use all of her ultimate skill dealing as much damage as she can while the enemy is stunned.
- Aurora – A burst mage hero, Aurora can deal a lot of damage and will give Franco an extra disable to an unlucky opponent that gets hooked by him.
- Chou – These two combined can easily take enemy heroes into your own towers in seconds. The combination of Iron Hook and Chou’s The Way of Dragon skill will ruin an enemy hero’s position from the get-go.
- Kagura – A burst mage hero that is also mobile, this makes her a good partner of Franco’s. Her ultimate skill Yin Yang Overturn paired with Franco’s skillset will almost assuredly kill most enemy heroes. She also has the mobility skills to chase heroes that escapes the clutches of Franco.
- Hilda – A pesky hero that has both mobility and disable that synergizes with Franco’s skillset. The two heroes have good mobility and can easily chase around most heroes and gank together to cause some havoc.
VI. Heroes Countered
- Odette – Franco has two ways of cancelling her ultimate skill: his Iron Hook and Brutal Massacre can cancel Odette’s ultimate skill and ruin her positioning. Consider picking Franco against an Odette and scout for her when she starts to cast her ultimate skill and strike.
- Gord -Like Odette, Gord has a channeling ultimate ability that acn be cancelled by Franco’s skills. However, only Brutal Massacre can cancel this, but Iron Hook is useful in making Gord out of position for the duration of his ultimate ability.
- Alice – An Alice that has already activate her ultimate ability can be countered with a quick Iron Hook. Whern your teammates get caught by her, you save them with a quick hook to her. This removes a lot of time from her ultimate and it lessens the amount of heroes that are hit by her ultimate.
- Layla – One of Layla’s nightmares are stuns and Franco has the skillset to ruin a Layla player’s day. Ganking enemy Laylas will help your team a lot, and her subpar mobility makes her a good target for your Iron Hook.
VII. Hero Counters
- Fanny – Franco lacks the means to land a sure-fire Iron Hook and the astounding mobility Fanny has makes her one of the hardest heroes to kill for a Franco user. Franco’s Brutal Massacre range is pretty low, and this makes targetting her a hard feat.
- Tigreal – Hooking Tigreal gives him a chance of hitting a multi-hero Implosion. Beware of hooking this tank as it could backfire for you and your team especially if you can’t burst him within seconds of your ultimate.
- Akai – Akai thrives on going near your team and permanently disabling them or pushing them into his team/tower. Accidental hooks can cause a bad start for a teamfight especially if you can’t burst him down as he can use his mobility skill to push one of your teammates into his team.
- Lolita – Her shield can nullify your Iron Hook, your bread and butter. That alone makes her a huge counter for you. She can go in front of his team while they are pushing and you won’t be able to do anything unless you remove her shield. She is a pesky tank to play against, and will cancel out a lot of your hooks.
VIII. Emblem
He is best suited as a “support” type of tank. He can’t kill heroes by himself unless he’s near a tower, and he will need a partner most of the time to do the dirty work for him.
He is a high risk, high reward tank and is fun to play with once you get the hang of him.
Hope you all enjoyed, have a good day!
so franco is basically road hog from overwatch