Zurvan by Demolij

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Zurvan

By: Demolij
Last Updated: Aug 20, 2018
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Zurvan

The Ancient One

Long before the Swarm there was Zerus. Within the primordial Spawning Pool one creature devoured another and became stronger; the origin of the Zerg. For milennia these primal creatures constantly fought and evolved, and Zurvan was amoung them. He hid as the Xel'naga came and bound the Zerg to the Hive Mind, and remained as the Primal Zerg. Once he was the strongest on the planet, he rested. Until many years later he was awakened by Kerrigan, and helped her regain her powers in the intention of claiming her new and powerful essence for the first time in a millenia. As old as time itself, Zurvan is one of the strongest Zerg to exist.
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Zurvan is all about being imposing. Early on your stats are quite low (around the level of a ranged support) so you should focus on protecting your allies like a support. Mid-game is where you start to take off, since at level 10 you have stats equivalent to other heroes' level 20, so you can start performing as a warrior at this stage. Late-game heroes have all these powerful attacks, so you have to rely on your amazing health pool to survive instead, but now you can start entering the enemy's lines to disrupt them rather than playing pure defense at this point. This is balanced by the fact that your standard abilities are strong but highly defensive, limiting your offensive potency even in the late-game.

Ensnare creates a temporary slowing pool that deals small damage to dissuade pursuing enemies. It's not a super powerful move, but it can disrupt enemies well enough and is one of your only ranged attacks. Terrifying Roar is your strongest cc move at base, letting you peel rather well while nerfing the enemy massively, but bear in mind that it has short range and deals literally no damage. Since it's hard to keep up with enemies and your damage isn't very high you should focus on using your abilities for protecting the weaklings nearby rather than trying to assault the enemy.

Consume is like a melee Crystal Aegis that deals no damage. With no mobility it might be hard to stick with the hero you want to save, but it can easily save the life of a squishy in the middle of a fight and then extract them unharmed. It can also be used to bring an initiator into the enemy team, even though the enemy can see that you've eaten the hero it can still be a shock. Even if you don't want to use it on allies, you can still eat minions, which is the only form of experience denial the game will have so far. Depending on what minion you eat you gain all these special effects, which can be saved for use mid-combat or just for some sustain. If you don't want to lose a valuable minion you can also Lob it, which is your only real poke option and can be great for repositioning minions where you want them. You could spit a minion behind a wall for vision, or a catapult from one lane to another, who knows.

Latent Energy is a super deadly AoE damage spell that forces the enemy to split or suffer a lot of damage. The initial hit deals quite a bit of damage but the secondary DoTs can also rack up some high numbers, and if the enemy doesn't split at all they can suffer the way they would with Chain Bomb, though it also is applied on your allies making it harder for the enemy to engage. Meanwhile Crushing Tendrils is the actual cc heroic that knocks enemies back with a point-blank but quick hit, then slams down knocking all enemies in a quite large AoE (somewhat larger than Phoenix) an even further distance. The displacement is really big, much more potent than Face Melt, and can be a devastating disengage or tool for splitting the enemy team. Both heroics are not perfect though, since Latent Energy can be hard to be effectual with, and Crushing Tendrils does not make you unstoppable so a fast enemy can stun you out of the second slam.
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Statistics
HEALTH: 1638 + 4%lvl
REGEN: 3.41 + 4%lvl
DAMAGE: 70 + 4%lvl
ATTACK SPEED: 1 per second
RANGE: 1.2

Combat Trait

1
Ancient One
Each level grants an additional +4% health, +4% health regen, +4% attack damage, +0.1 attack range, -0.01 attack speed, and a 10% larger model. Enemy minions and summons that are smaller than him are pushed out of the way when he moves.

Zurvan starts about as wide as a small hero, while late-game he's slightly smaller than Alexstrasza's dragon. He also uses no mana, with the resource bar showing who he has in his belly.

Primary Abilities

1
Ensnare
14s cooldown

Creating an AoE a set distance in the target direction for 2 seconds, enemies take 38 (+4% per level) damage per second and deal 30% reduced damage when standing in it and 3 seconds after.
2
Terrifying Roar
16s cooldown

Nearby enemies are slowed by 40% for 1.5 seconds, increased to 80% on enemies in front of Zurvan.
3
Consume
10s cooldown (starts at end of effect)

Devour the target ally, placing them in stasis inside your stomach after 0.5 seconds and making any attacks aimed at them hit you instead. If the target is a hero they can leave at any time or when Zurvan dies, but cannot target a channeling or mounted ally. If the target is a minion it can be reactivated at any time to destroy it gaining a bonus depending on what minion was consumed:

- Melee minion grants 25 armor for 5 seconds.
- Ranged minion grants 30% increased attack damage for 5 seconds.
- Wizard minion heals Zurvan for 9% of his max health over 5 seconds.
- Siege minion grants all the above bonuses.

Secondary Abilities

1
Lob
1s cooldown

Launch a Consumed minion in the target direction, dealing 119 (+4% per level) damage to enemies in the path and lowering the cooldown of Consume by 4s. On impact with an enemy hero or terrain the minion stops dealing an additional 119 (+4% per level) damage in an AoE.

Heroic Abilities

1
Latent Energy
60s cooldown

Fire lightning in a cone dealing 290 (+4% per level) damage to all enemies hit, and causing all non-structure enemies in the area to pulse energy dealing 34 (+4% per level) damage per second to enemies around them for 5 seconds. Pulses from non-heroes deal half damage.
2
Crushing Tendrils
60s cooldown

After a .5 second delay slam the ground, launching 8 tentacles out of the ground dealing 154 (+4% per level) and knocking back all enemies in a small AoE around you, then after a .75 second delay the tentacles slam down dealing 166 (+4% per level) damage and stunning for 1.25s in 8 lines all around you.

Talents

[Level 1]
Growth: Gain an additional 15 base health and 2% increased size per level.
Full Belly: Consume grants a shield for 426 (+4% per level) health that lasts until destroyed or the stomach is empty.
Development: Every talent tier grants 3% increased damage.

[Level 4]
Enzymes: Ensnare damage reduction increases by 5% per second, up to an additional 20%.
Hurl: Lob range increased by 20%, and reduces the cooldown of Consume by an additional 2s.
Primal Screech: Terrifying Roar fears enemy minions and mercenaries for 2 seconds, increased to 4 seconds in front of Zurvan.

[Level 7]
Chomp: Consume can target enemy minions affected by Ensnare.
Bite-size: Consume bonuses from destroying a minion lasts 3 seconds longer, and instantly heals Zurvan for 4% of his max health.
Gaping Stomach: Consume can hold an additional target, but can no longer destroy minions.

[Level 10]
Latent Energy: Electrocute enemies in a cone, causing them to damage nearby enemies.
Crushing Tendrils: Short knockback followed by large AoE stun.

[Level 13]
Shed Skin: Activate to become 25% smaller, reducing armor by 25 and gaining 20% movement speed for 4 seconds. 40 second cooldown.
War Howl: Terrifying Roar increases the damage of Zurvan and nearby allies by 8% for 6 seconds.
Bashing Fist: Basic Attacks splash for 100% damage in a small area around the target but lose 10% attack speed.

[Level 16]
Protective Coating: Allies affected by Consume are healed for 65 (+4% per level) health per second, and gain 40 armor for 4 seconds on leaving.
Rooted in Terror: Terrifying Roar roots enemy heroes in front of Zurvan for 1.5 seconds.
Barrel Through: Moving pushes aside enemy heroes that are smaller than Zurvan.

[Level 20]
Echoing Pulses: Latent Energy causes allies hit to also release pulses, and the pulsation lasts 2 seconds longer.
Armored Tendrils: Crushing Tendrils grants Zurvan 50 armor on cast, dropping to 25 armor after 1.25 seconds that lasts for 3.25 seconds.
Heavy Lobber: Lob can shoot Consumed heroes and mercenaries, but does not reduce the cooldown of Consume.
Expansion: Gain a bonus level of Ancient One.

Counters and Synergies

Works well with:

Notes

I had a really old design for this guy but I threw it out since it wasn't very good. Then after a while I decided I should take a look at him again, and the size idea popped out. I had some difficulty with his kit since all he really has going for him were his looks, tentacles, and energy blasts, and I had already decided the energy blast should be a heroic. But then I though about Deathwing being in the game and the size issue, and thus his Trait was born. I had to give him a niche where his mouth was a part of his kit but didn't overlap with Stitches, while still involving a few Primal Zerg features without intruding on Dehaka's area. It was a pretty boring process and it's a bit more complicated than my other designs, but the results speak for themselves!

If you want to see more awesome designs click this link! You won't be disappointed, really.

EDIT 1: Replaced Grappling Tentacles with Tackle to make room for Old God concepts.
EDIT 2: Added talents, traded Ensnare and Roar functionalities, tweaked Ancient One.

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