- •Passive damage reduction: 25% → 20%
Toro — Patch 1.62 Verdict
[Liquipedia RPL: S] Pro play (RPL 2026): 112 picks, 48.2% WR, 64.6% pick/ban rate. Note: pro meta may differ from ranked.
Toro — Tank Guide
Toro is a roaming tank you pick to run at five people and watch them scatter. Forget the Baldum or Lumburr peel-and-protect style. Toro wants to sit in the middle of the enemy formation, and his passive makes him close to CC-immune every time he casts. That is the whole reason he is S+ right now. The current meta is full of chain-CC: Maloch ultimates, Amily stuns, Riktor hooks. Toro walks through all of it the moment he presses Q, W or R, because each cast re-triggers Tough Hide's short CC-immunity and 20% damage reduction. Bull Rush is his gap-closer and his airborne in one button. Brazen Bellow hands him an armor steroid plus an on-demand slow to catch runners. Earth Shatter's three stomps turn a teamfight into a slow-motion disaster for anyone who stays in range. The 48.2% win rate looks ordinary until you put it next to a 39.3% pick rate and a 25.3% ban rate. The Thai server already knows: he is contested in almost every lobby and wins most fights he starts. If you can land the Q-dash-into-ultimate pattern on demand, he is one of the most impactful roamers in the game this patch.
Strengths
- +Tough Hide grants CC immunity on every ability activation, making Toro one of the only roaming tanks who can walk through Maloch ultimates, Riktor chains, and Amily burst-stuns without being stopped mid-engage.
- +Bull Rush into Earth Shatter is a reliable two-button airborne-into-airborne chain that guarantees a full ultimate connection on any single target, giving Toro kill-threat that most support tanks simply do not have.
- +Brazen Bellow's armor steroid stacks well with the core build's physical resistance items, making Toro disproportionately durable against the AD-heavy compositions that currently dominate Thai-server ranked.
- +His kit has built-in disruption at every phase, a gap-closer, a slow, and a three-hit AoE ultimate, so even if the team is behind, Toro can stall objectives and force unfavorable fights just by being present in the enemy backline.
Weaknesses
- −Toro has zero ranged tools and no ability to threaten enemies at a distance, so coordinated poke compositions, Elsu, Tel'Annas, Violet, can simply kite him to death before he ever closes the gap.
- −Earth Shatter's three-stomp channel is highly telegraphed, and any hero with a dash or blink can step out of stomps two and three if Bull Rush's airborne has already expired before you start the ultimate.
- −His damage output is entirely physical and front-loaded in the ultimate, making him noticeably less threatening against teams that build Spear of Longinus or stack physical defense on their carries.
- −Heal as the recommended summoner spell means Toro offers no hard engage tool beyond Bull Rush, he cannot Flicker-engage like Baldum can, so if the initial Q is dodged the play is effectively dead.
Abilities
PTough Hide
When using a skill, Toro's body becomes steel (cannot be controlled by crowd control) and receives 20% reduced damage.
1Bull Rush
Toro charges at his enemies, dealing physical damage and knocking them airborne.
2Brazen Bellow
Toro generates armor, increasing physical defense. Enemies in range take physical damage and are slowed by 35% for 1 second.
REarth Shatter
Toro stomps the ground 3 times. The first two stomps deal physical damage; the first slows enemies by 30% for 1 second, the second slows by 40% for 1 second. The third stomp knocks nearby enemies airborne and deals physical damage.
How to Use Toro's Kit
The passive does not need activation, it fires automatically on every ability use, granting brief CC immunity and 20% damage reduction. The key insight is that the window is tied to skill activation, not a cooldown of its own, so weaving Q, W, and R intelligently lets you layer the protection windows back-to-back during a sustained engage. The single biggest mistake Diamond players make is activating Q to engage, then waiting, you need to follow immediately with W to keep the passive's protection alive while you walk through incoming CC.
Bull Rush is a targeted dash that airbornes on contact, and it is your primary engage tool, treat it the way other tanks treat Grakk's hook, something you never waste without vision of the target's escape path. The airborne is brief, so you must have R or W already in mind before the dash lands or the target will walk away. A common high-rank mistake is using Q to chase a fleeing carry at the edge of its range; at max range the dash leaves you isolated past your team with nothing left for the actual fight.
Brazen Bellow is simultaneously a self-armor buff and a point-blank AoE slow, which makes it one of the more deceptively layered W skills in the support roster. The 35% slow for one second is short but enough to let a following Earth Shatter stomp connect on enemies who would otherwise dodge backward out of range. Use it immediately after Bull Rush lands so the armor buff is live before the target's teammates can respond, do not save it as a panic button, because by then you've already taken the burst without the reduction.
Earth Shatter is a channeled three-stomp ultimate with escalating slows, 30% on stomp one, 40% on stomp two, and a full airborne on stomp three, which means the enemy team has around two seconds to walk out of it if you start it without any preceding CC. This is why Bull Rush must land before you press R: the airborne from Q buys exactly enough time for all three stomps to connect on the primary target. Never open a fight cold with R; the first stomp lands but the second and third will miss every mobile carry in Diamond bracket.
Skill Order
Priority: R > Q > W| Skill | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1Bull Rush | 1 | · | 3 | · | 5 | · | 7 | · | 9 | · | · | · | 13 | · | · |
2Brazen Bellow | · | 2 | · | 4 | · | · | · | 8 | · | 10 | · | 12 | · | 14 | · |
REarth Shatter | · | · | · | · | · | 6 | · | · | · | · | 11 | · | · | · | 15 |
Loadout
Golden Body
Protect
ProwessStandard Build
1
2
3
4
5
6Core Combos
Standard Full Engage
12RThe bread-and-butter: Q airbornes the target, immediately W for the armor buff and slow, then full R channel while they're grounded, all three stomps connect and the third airborne re-launches them.
Passive-Weave Sustain
1P2PRPConsciously note each passive window as you activate skills in a prolonged teamfight, ensuring you are always pressing an ability before the previous CC-immunity window expires to stay untouchable through enemy chain-CC.
Peel Reversal
21RWhen an assassin dives your carry, drop W first to slow them in place, then Q into them to airborne and interrupt, then R to finish, skip the engage version when you're already in melee range.
Gameplan
Toro's first real spike is level 4, when his full kit is up. That is the earliest you should try a complete Q-W-R combo in the side lanes. Poseidon Emblem into Gilded Greaves gives him the movement speed and mana to roam hard in the mid game, which is his best window. Once The Aegis and Gaia's Standard come online he is nearly unkillable in a straight fight. He drops off in the true late game, when hyper-carries out-damage Tough Hide's cycle faster than it can refresh, so force objectives before the 20-minute mark. Dragon and Abyssal Dragon especially.
Early Game
Levels 1–6- →Start at the buff nearest the enemy roamer's expected path and contest level 1 — Toro's passive means he cannot be stunned mid-skirmish, giving him a decisive edge in early 1v1 roamer fights.
- →Rotate to the closest side lane at level 2 and use Bull Rush to airborne the enemy laner into your ally's damage; you do not need level 4 for a single-ability gank, just vision and a clean angle.
- →Buy Poseidon Emblem as your first item before your initial roam — the mana sustain lets you use W repeatedly to harass and zone without running dry before your first back.
Mid Game
Post Broken Spear- →Once your core tank items are coming online, stack with your mid-laner before every Dragon spawn and force the objective with a Q-W-R engage on the enemy roamer or support — kill the frontline enabler first, not the carry.
- →Rotate between side lanes proactively after every successful engage; Toro's movement speed from Gilded Greaves makes him one of the faster roamers on the map and most teams do not respect how quickly he can re-appear.
- →Peel for your carry in 2v2 skirmishes by using W to slow divers and Q to interrupt channeled ultimates — do not always be the one to initiate; sometimes the highest value play is eating an ability with Tough Hide active and letting your damage dealers clean up.
Late Game
Teamfight phase- →In late-game teamfights, identify the highest-threat enemy damage dealer and tunnel Q onto them first — an airborne on a fully-itemized carry is more valuable than a perfect multi-target ultimate that misses the win condition.
- →Position at the edge of the enemy team before a fight, not behind your team; Toro needs to be in engage range the moment a fight starts, and being a step too far back means your Q engages into a kill rather than a setup.
- →If your team is defending high ground, use Earth Shatter defensively at the choke point — the escalating slows and final airborne punish grouped enemies hard and force them to spread, buying time for your team to regroup.
Matchups
Toro is best drafted after you have seen at least one immobile, grouped-up enemy comp. Maloch, Tulen, Tel'Annas on the other side is the dream. If Butterfly, Nakroth or Violet are already locked, do not first-pick him. His engage lives and dies on closing the gap with Q, and high-mobility assassins or carries with built-in escapes make every Earth Shatter feel like a wet stamp. In those games, play him as a vision roamer instead of a lane threat, soak the poke, and wait for level 4 before you commit. Draft him with confidence when your carries are artillery types who need a bodyguard that can also start the fight.
Toro gets countered by
VioletViolet's long-range burst and built-in dodge mechanic let her kite Toro indefinitely and sidestep Earth Shatter's third stomp before the airborne lands, negating his primary teamfight tool.
ButterflyButterfly's passive dodge chance combined with her blink-based kit means Bull Rush frequently whiffs or connects on her invincibility frame, and her true damage ignores the damage reduction from Tough Hide.
NakrothNakroth's extreme mobility allows him to hop out of Earth Shatter after stomp one, stranding Toro mid-channel in the enemy team without having secured any meaningful CC on a priority target.
QuillenQuillen can go invisible to bait Bull Rush, punish the missed dash cooldown window, and execute isolated engages on Toro's carries while Toro has no gap-closer available to respond.
Toro synergizes with
TulenTulen's chain lightning and AoE slow pair perfectly with Earth Shatter's grouped CC, Toro airbornes a cluster, Tulen's follow-up ultimate hits every enemy simultaneously before they can scatter.
LaurielLauriel's own CC immunity during her ultimate combined with Toro's engage means both frontline and carry are unkillable during the combo window, making the pairing nearly unpeelable in teamfights.
Tel'AnnasTel'Annas's long-range slowing arrows extend the slow chain from Toro's Brazen Bellow and Earth Shatter, keeping priority targets in the stomp zone well past the natural slow duration.
MalochMaloch's ultimate fears the enemy team into Toro's Earth Shatter radius, and Toro's Tough Hide means he can walk through the secondary fear aura that would stop lesser tanks mid-engage.
Pro Tips
- →Track the duration of your Tough Hide window after each ability activation, experienced Toro players deliberately delay the next skill press by a fraction of a second to overlap passive windows and maintain near-continuous CC immunity during extended brawls.
- →Bull Rush can be used to dash through thin walls at certain points on the map (notably near the Dragon pit brushes); learning even two of these wall-dash angles will let you appear from unexpected positions that enemies at Diamond rank simply don't have mapped.
- →Against Violet or other poke-heavy marksmen, use W proactively as you walk toward them rather than saving it for post-engage, the armor buff is live before you take the burst, and the brief slow forces them to reposition rather than keep free-casting.
- →In a losing teamfight, Earth Shatter used defensively at the retreat choke buys more for your team than a missed offensive engage; the 40% slow on stomp two is enough to let a retreating teammate escape while the third airborne punishes overchasing enemies.
Toro is for players tired of babysitting who would rather start fights than react to them. The S+ rating holds up: his kit genuinely cannot be locked down by the CC-chain comps that define Thai-server Diamond play, and his build path forgives a slightly wrong item order. The one thing to drill is Q-into-R timing. Bull Rush's airborne has to still be active when the first Earth Shatter stomp lands, or the combo tickles a sprinting carry instead of chaining all three stomps. Get that window right and he becomes one of your highest win-rate roamers this season.
Toro — Frequently Asked Questions
Is Toro good in the current ROV patch?+
Yes, Toro is S+ tier on the Thai server right now, with a 25.3% ban rate confirming that high-rank lobbies respect his threat level even before the game begins. His 39.3% pick rate means that when he goes unbanned he is selected in nearly four out of ten games, driven by his unique combination of CC immunity, chain airborne, and pure physical durability that fits almost every teamfight composition. If you can pilot the Q-into-R combo reliably, he is one of the highest-impact roamers in the meta.
What is the best build for Toro?+
The recommended core is Poseidon Emblem into Gilded Greaves, then The Aegis, Gaia's Standard, Mail of Pain, and Blade of Eternity, this sequence prioritizes mana and movement speed early for roaming, transitions into physical resistance to synergize with Brazen Bellow's armor buff, and closes with Blade of Eternity's revive passive so you can survive the isolated engages that Toro naturally creates. Heal is the summoner spell of choice because it keeps you alive through the brief windows between Tough Hide activations when you are taking damage without mitigation.
How do you counter Toro?+
The most reliable way to counter Toro is to pick high-mobility heroes who can dash out of Earth Shatter after the first or second stomp, Butterfly, Nakroth, and Violet are the three most effective. Alternatively, a coordinated team can body-block for the target of Bull Rush so Toro dashes into a cluster rather than a vulnerable carry, wasting the combo window. Toro also struggles against sustained poke from range; if you can whittle him down before he closes the gap, his engage threat disappears entirely.
Is Toro hard to play / good for beginners?+
Toro is rated Medium difficulty, the individual ability mechanics are straightforward, but optimizing Tough Hide's passive windows and knowing exactly when to commit Bull Rush are skills that take several dozen games to internalize. He is a reasonable pickup for newer Diamond players because even a simple Q-W-R rotation does meaningful work, but he rewards deeper investment: players who understand the passive cycling and map-positioning nuances will produce significantly better results than those who just rush in and press buttons.