Helena is a Strength-based tank in Fellowship. She is great at damage resistance and crowd control. Helena’s gameplay is all about managing her Toughness and rotating cooldowns through the Veteran of War mechanic. She has strong defenses, stuns, and AoE control.
In this Helena Fellowship guide, we will cover her strengths, weaknesses, abilities, playstyle, talents, and stat priorities. If you’re looking for general tanking fundamentals, check out our dedicated Fellowship Tanking Guide.
Key takeaways
- Helena is a Strength-based tank who relies on Toughness for damage resistance.
- She has great crowd control with stuns, knockdowns, and AoE.
- Her downsides are low mobility and no self-sustain.
4.9Fellowship Helena Strengths and Weaknesses
Helena is perfect for players who like defensive playstyles and cooldown management. She is at her best in fights with steady incoming damage. However, she has no self-healing and relies entirely on a healer to stay alive.
| Strengths | Weaknesses |
|---|---|
| Takes very low damage when Toughness is managed properly. | No self-sustain or healing. |
| Strong crowd control with a 20s stun and a 120s AoE lockdown. | Limited mobility and no free movement skills. |
| Veteran of War mechanic gives flexible cooldown management. | Rotation punishes mistakes—low Toughness means heavy damage taken. |
Want to learn how to tank confidently with Helena? Our Fellowship Quickplay Matches service is the perfect way to practice her cooldowns and Toughness management in real runs.
Helena’s Abilities
Helena’s toolkit focuses on generating Toughness, reducing cooldowns, and controlling enemies. Many of her core attacks trigger Veteran of War, reducing the cooldown of her defensive abilities. Below are her most important abilities and their roles:
| Ability | Description | Cooldown |
|---|---|---|
| Measured Strike | Strike the target enemy with your sword, dealing physical damage to them and nearby enemies. Veteran of War: Reduces the cooldown of your Shield Slam and Shield Throw abilities by 1.5 seconds. | – |
| Power Strike | Perform a heavy strike, dealing physical damage to the target. Veteran of War: Reduces the cooldown of your Shield Slam and Shield Throw abilities by 1.5 seconds. | 6 Seconds |
| Shield Slam | Deals physical damage to your target and physical damage to other enemies near your target. Shield Slam generates 25% Toughness. Toughness: This is displayed as a bar to the right of your character. The more Toughness you have, the less damage Helena takes. Your maximum Toughness value is equal to strength. Every 1% of Critical Strike, Haste, Expertise, and Spirit you have further increases the final amount by 2%. | 7.5 Seconds |
| Shield Throw | Throw your shield at the target enemy dealing physical damage. The shield bounces to up to 5 additional nearby enemies. Veteran of War: Reduces the cooldown of your Shockwave ability by 3.0 seconds. | 21 Seconds |
| Shockwave | Slam sword and shield together, creating a forceful explosion, dealing physical damage to enemies in a large radius. Enemies that take damage from Shockwave have reduced movement speed for 5 seconds, starting at 90% and diminishing by 10% every 0.5 seconds. Veteran of War: Reduces the cooldown of your Shields Up ability by 6 seconds. | 30 Seconds |
| Charge | Charge at target enemy, dealing physical damage and Stunning them for 2 seconds. Veteran of War: Charge reduces the cooldown of your Shield Slam, Shield Throw, Shields Up, and Shockwave abilities by 6 seconds. | 20 Seconds |
| Shields Up | Raise your shield, increasing your Toughness by 60% and increasing your Block chance by 25% for 12 sec. Each time you succesfully Block an attack, you generate 3% Toughness. | 30 Seconds (2 charges) |
| Taunt | Taunt the target, forcing it to attack you for 6 sec. Can be used during Global Cooldown | 8 Seconds |
| Bash | Interrupt the target’s spellcasting and prevent it from casting for 4 sec. Must interrupt a spell, or it will have no effect. | 12 Seconds |
| Sweeping Strike | Deals physical damage to your target and other nearby enemies. Enemies hit by Sweeping Strike bleed for physical damage every couple of seconds for 12 seconds. | 30 Seconds |
| Iron Wall | Your Toughness can not be reduced for 12 seconds. Can be used during Global Cooldown | 1.5 Minutes |
| Grand Melee | For the next 10 seconds, Incite all enemies in a large radius around you, forcing them to only use Auto Attacks and only attack you. All allies within the radius of Grand Melee take 20% reduced magic damage while it is active. | 2 Minutes |
| Hold the Line | Resets Shield Slam + adds barrier. | 30 Seconds |
| Siegebreaker (Spirit Ability) | For the next 20 seconds, the cooldown reduction granted by your Veteran of War is doubled. While Siegebreaker is active, you take 25% reduced damage and your Shield Slam, Shield Throw and Shockwave abilities deal 25% increased damage. Spirit Ability: When you activate your Spirit ability you gain Spirit of Heroism, granting +30% Haste for 20 sec. | – |
How to Play Helena
Helena’s gameplay revolves around keeping your Toughness high by using Shields Up often. Open with it after your first global cooldown, then use it whenever you fall below 40% Toughness, when its block buff has expired, or before you cap charges. Between casts, Shield Slam helps refill Toughness, and Hold the Line can reset it instantly—use this frequently to avoid dropping too low.
Your main cooldowns cover gaps. Iron Wall prevents Toughness loss for 12 seconds and should be used after you’ve run out of Shields Up charges. Aim to stay above 60% when you activate it so you can finish the effect at 100%. Grand Melee locks down large packs and interrupts nearly everything, but it also provides 20% magic DR on bosses, making it useful in both dungeon and raid play. Siegebreaker, your Spirit ability, boosts damage, reduces incoming damage, and speeds up your rotation to help maintain Toughness during heavy phases.
The key to Helena is consistency. Keep Shields Up rolling, weave in Shield Slams, and rotate your cooldowns so you rarely drop below the 75% Toughness bracket. If you plan ahead, you’ll always feel stable and hard to bring down. Completing content shouldn’t be a problem when you memorize her rotations. If it is, however, we can help you clear dungeons while you learn as well.
Toughness Mechanic
Toughness is Helena’s core class feature, shown as a bar on the right side of the screen. Its maximum value scales with your Strength—capped at 2000%—and increases further with secondary stats, where every 1% adds an extra 2% to the total. The higher your Toughness, the less damage you take, with the bar divided into four notches that each grant a set level of damage reduction: above 75% gives 70% DR, 50–75% gives 50% DR, 25–50% gives 30% DR, and below 25% gives only 10% DR.
Every point of incoming damage reduces your Toughness by the same amount before mitigation, and barriers do not prevent this loss. This means the key to playing Helena is maintaining Toughness as consistently as possible. Staying above the 75% threshold is ideal, as it makes you significantly tankier, while dipping into lower brackets quickly increases the damage you take. Proper cooldown usage and rotation management are essential to keeping Toughness high in both trash pulls and boss fights.
Helena Talents in Fellowship
Helena’s talents focus on strengthening her core rotation of Shields Up, Shield Slam, and defensive cooldowns, while also offering options to improve survivability, damage, or utility depending on the encounter. Here we have prepared a full list of Helena Talents in Fellowship:
Tier I
- Shield Mastery: The cooldown of your Shields Up and Shield Throw abilities are reduced relative to the amount of damage you mitigate with Toughness.
- Sword & Board: Your Power Strike has a chance to grant you Empowered Shield Slam for 12 seconds, causing your next Shield Slam to apply an absorb on you for 2000% Strength that lasts for 8 seconds.
- The Best Defense: Each time you Block an attack with your shield, you have a chance to reset the cooldown of Shield Throw. Your next Shield Throw within 12 seconds deals 20% increased damage.
Tier II
- Reinforced Steel: Your Armor is increased by 20%.
- Guarded Veteran: Your chance to Block is increased by 10%.
- Punishing Strikes: Your Power Strike and Shield Slam deal 15% increased damage.
Tier III
- Aftershock: Enemies that take damage from your Shockwave ability take 30% more damage from you for 5 seconds.
- Razor Shrapnel: Your Shield Throw hits have a 20% chance to trigger an explosion of metal, dealing damage equal to 40% of the Shield Throw hit that triggered the explosion to the target and up to 7 additional nearby enemies.
- Skull Cracker: Your Shield Throw has 20% additional Critical Strike chance and deals 100% increased damage to the first target it hits.
Tier IV
- High Command: Your “Hold the Line” cooldown is reduced by 6 seconds each time you use Shields Up.
- Magic Ward: You take 10% less Magic damage.
- Commander’s Advance: Your “Hold the Line” ability increases your movement speed by 50% and the movement speed of your allies by 25% for 5 seconds.
Tier V
- Second Wind: When your Toughness has reduced an amount of damage equal to 50% of your Maximum Health, you gain 30% increased Strength for 8 sec.
- Martial Command: While Siegebreaker is active you deal 25% more damage and your damage reduction from Toughness is shared with all allies. Your Spirit is increased by +5% passively.
- Gleaming Shield: While Shields up is active your Shield Slam deals 40% increased damage and all healing effects on you are increased by 20%.
Tier VI
- Front Line Defender: The efficiency of your Toughness mechanic is increased by 20%.
- Master of War: Your Grand Melee ability has 20% reduced cooldown.
- Greater Shockwave: Your Shockwave deals 20% increased damage.
Helena Build
As Helena, your priority is to maximize defense while maintaining reliable damage through Shockwave. The best build leans heavily into defensive talents with a few key offensive picks to smooth out your rotation.
- Tier I: Shield Mastery (1B) — strong scaling with Toughness.
- Tier II: Guarded Veteran (2B) — efficient one-point block increase.
- Tier III: Aftershock (3A) — solid damage boost; swap to The Best Defense (1A) if more defense is needed.
- Tier IV: High Command (4A) — more Hold the Line resets and Shield Slam uptime.
- Tier V: Second Wind (5A) — strong at higher difficulties with high uptime on Strength and added Toughness.
- Tier VI: Front Line Defender (6A) and Master of War (6B) — both efficient one-point talents; Greater Shockwave (6C) if you want extra AoE damage.
📌Always adjust based on your available legendaries and weapon trees.
These talents offer a strong foundation, but being able to change your talents to better suit the content you are trying to clear is the key to being a better Helena player in Fellowship.
Helena Stat Priority
Item level is the most important stat for Helena. It increases both survivability and damage. Here is a full breakdown of Helena stats in Fellowship:
- Haste: Best secondary stat. It reduces cooldowns on all abilities, including Shields Up, and makes Veteran of War more efficient.
- Spirit: It increases Spirit ability uptime and can occasionally double Veteran of War cooldown reduction.
- Expertise: Boosts damage and absorption from Empowered Shield Slam, but does not improve Toughness.
- Critical Strike: Least valuable, as it only increases damage and has no synergy with Helena’s defensive mechanics.
Item level is still king, however, and if you need more of it, we are here to help!
Helena Gearing Priority in Fellowship
When gearing Helena, first get the pieces that most directly improve your defense and rotation. Weapons and legendaries give the largest power spikes. Set bonuses and armor upgrades come next. After those, item level upgrades on all slots are your baseline priority, with substats only mattering when item levels are close.
Gearing priority:
- Weapon Tree
- Legendary Item
- Item level on armor pieces
- Completed set bonus
- Item level on other slots
- Haste / Spirit
- Expertise
- Crit
📌All secondary stats contribute equally, adding 2% Toughness cap for every 1% gained.
Helena Tips
Helena is a great tank built around the Toughness mechanic. Playing her well means managing cooldowns and keeping Toughness as high as possible. Here are some tips that will make your Helena gameplay easier:
- Keep Shields Up active as often as possible. Never let your Toughness drop below 40%.
- Use Shield Slam to refill Toughness between cooldowns.
- Rotate Iron Wall and Grand Melee to cover gaps when Shields Up isn’t available.
- Siegebreaker powers up your whole kit, save it for heavy damage phases.
- Stay above the 75% Toughness threshold for max damage reduction.
If you manage Toughness well and rotate defensives correctly, she becomes one of the most reliable tanks in Fellowship.
Fellowship Helena FAQ
To get the most out of Helena, it helps to know which talents and stats really push her strengths further, so let’s break it down.
What Role Is Helena in Fellowship?
Helena is a Strength-based tank. She focuses on building and maintaining Toughness for damage reduction while locking down enemies with stuns, knockdowns, and AoE control.
How Does Helena’s Toughness Mechanic Work?
Toughness reduces incoming damage based on its level. The higher the bar, the less damage Helena takes, with maximum efficiency above 75%. It scales with Strength and gains extra value from all secondary stats.
Does Helena Have Self-Healing in Fellowship?
No. Helena has no built-in healing and depends on Toughness and cooldowns for survival. She always needs support from healers to stay alive.
Is Helena Beginner-Friendly in Fellowship?
She is easier than most tanks in terms of damage rotation, but her defensive rhythm is punishing if you fall behind. If you forget to press Shields Up or mismanage cooldowns, you’ll take massive damage fast. She rewards players who can plan ahead and stay consistent.
4.9Helena is one of the best characters in Fellowship once you get the hang of her gameplay. She works best for players who like steady, methodical gameplay, and if you stay consistent, she will always be the tank your group can rely on.
