Azmodan is a very strong specialist hero capable of dominating nearly every lane on a map at the same time. There are several Azmodan builds and play styles and in my guide I'll discuss 3 of them: My favorite is the anti-melee I term 'the burninator', the hard push, and the bomber. Each has a different methodology but I enjoy them all.

Azmodan's Abilities:
Globe of Annihilation : This is your signature move. The unmistakable fire ball from the sky. Massive range and a large impact zone allows you to use this talent to damage adjacent lanes as well as to finish those pesky fleeing heroes with low health by shooting behind their walls. Focus on striking as many people as possible at the start of team fights and then cleaning up fleeing heroes once your CD is up.

Summon Demon Warrior : The often under-appreciated ability that makes Azmodan easily push his own lane. Stack up all your demons for maximum effectiveness. As long as you have the mana to use these, use them. This is a judgment call, but as a general rule I will drop these every time I come to a lane to reestablish my push.

All Shall Burn : Azmodan's feared beam of death. If your enemies don't have a healthy respect for your damage, this ability will teach them. Regrettably it is channeled and until mid game makes you immobile, making you VERY susceptible to stuns and an easy target for skill shots.

General of Hell : Your global push ability. The General strengthens ALL nearby minions, from Raynor's Raiders to Zombie Wall to Mercenary camps and especially your Demon Warriors. The goal is to use these guys to maximize your advantage from all these things. If your team takes a merc camp in a far lane, assist that push. If your team is struggling with merc camps, stack up your demon warriors and then drop the general in your own lane. If the enemy team went 'oh god it's Azmodan, stop his push at all costs', toss this guy in whichever lane your team IS winning to help allied heroes rack up the siege damage.

Heroic Abilities:
Demonic Invasion : A bunch of little guys fall from the sky and deal damage where they land. Good for finishing off a keep or dropping into a pack of enemy heroes in a team fight. Not a guaranteed source of damage, but a guaranteed source of lane push and generally will force enemies to reposition. An uncoordinated enemy team will frequently have one member run up or down instead of back into his own team, making for an easy first kill each team fight.

Black Pool : A 5s massive damage burst for Azmodan AND HIS MINIONS. Normally this talent is just used to increase the slam of a Globe of Annihilation at the start of a team fight. While this is strong and recommended, also use this talent when your Demon Warriors and General of Hell are pushing keeps and walls. Stand close, drop this under them and yourself and All Shall Burn down the target. Remarkably effective and unexpected.

The Burninator is a spec based on devastating enemy melee heroes that try to engage. All Shall Burn deals massive damage while restoring your health. At it's most basic this spec wants you to bait these heroes into thinking they can 1v1 you and then melting their face off when they try. Be at the forefront of every push, but be conservative about wasting a flame beam on any buildings. If you can see all their melee is elsewhere on your minimap, burn away, but otherwise focus on pushing with your demons until they show up to stop you. Generally you will need a degree of support to dominate in this build. If you aren't consistently high health, you might lose your dps war with a melee assassin. Also you want someone else on your team to be the stun target in team fights. When it comes to team fighting generally you want to be at the back of your 5-man and count out the enemy stuns while you walk through to the center. Drop your Demonic Invasion on as many targets as possible and channel All Shall Burn on anyone who overextends. As Azmodan you have no escapes and only Gluttony to self heal, so if the team fight falls you are probably going to die.

Talents:
Tier 1:
Sieging Wrath: This talent allows you to bomb away from massive range. However, it requires good timing and excellent map presence. Watch your minimap for engagements in the next lane over and you can frequently turn the battle in your teams favor with a well placed lob. In your own lane, slam every creep wave, attempting to tag enemy heroes. EVERY TIME YOU FOUNTAIN, fire a lob. You just put yourself at high range, take advantage of it instead of letting them push back.


Alternatives:
Taste for Blood: This talent requires you to ping your lane every time multiple creeps will die from the orb. Auto attack creeps one after another to low hp and then drop the bomb. Done properly and focused on the entire game, this talent is stronger than Sieging Wrath. However, it generally requires you to burn your CDs in-lane instead of having multi-lane dominance.

Spare Nothing: This contributes nothing to killing enemy heroes and your minions burn ammo anyway, so it's NOT RECOMMENDED.

Healing Ward: It's quite interesting that a siege specialist has this talent. Hopefully you have a healer on your team and hopefully they'll have their own healing ward. As the Burninator, this talent is actually quite powerful if dropped under your feet against a team that can't CC you. I only take this if my team has no support OR Tassadar. Tassadar's inability to recover a team's health after fighting can be made up for by Azmo's odd talent choice.

Bribe: This talent is amazingly powerful if you keep it in the back of your head all game. Stroll up to siege camps and buy them off. Disable half of a bruiser camp and get those mercs. Since General of Hell assists mercenaries, this talent is really quite good on Azmodan. However... as with Spare Nothing this is not helping kill enemy heroes. Only take this talent if you are going to be relied upon as the only Mercenary Lord on your team. If ANYONE can take camps with ease on your team (Sonya, Gazlowe, etc...) do not get this. Also, if ANYONE ELSE is taking Bribe, DO NOT GET THIS.


Tier 2:
Gluttony: The core of the Burninator's dominance in melee combat. Healing yourself with your stream of death is what makes you outlast everyone else, even high damage assassins. In this build this is the ONLY talent choice in this tier.

Tier 3:
Master of Destruction: This enables you to burn longer. Generally your supports will only be able to assist you with health (<3 Malfurion), but you'll be low on mana plenty of the time. With this talent you can generally kill any enemy melee even when low. HOWEVER, if you keep getting focused and keep having to hearth anyway, you'll be topping yourself for the rest of the game and this is less essential.

Alternatives:
Enduring Warriors: Just no. Not in this spec. Warriors are too weak to waste a strong talent choice on here. NOT RECOMMENDED.

Infernal Globe: Not a super-pro Azmodan who lands his half-the-map skill shot all the time? Well here's some help plus bonus damage. Generally not the best choice here, but if you keep having excess mana this is the only damage boost you get tier 3 AND it makes your life easier. Since we took Sieging Wrath, this synergizes well in our build and will assist with the multi-lane bomber approach.

Mercenary Lord: If your team is dominating the merc camps (or you took Bribe), take this talent. This will make your already dominant lane push astonishing. General of Hell + Merc Lord + Bruiser camp is a sight to behold.

First Aid: Are you the focus of every engagement? Did you not take Healing Ward tier 1 since you had a strong healer but he doesn't heal you? This will help you survive. Generally I only take this talent if I'm at such a level disadvantage I can no longer solo Illidan, but very situationally this is useful. Remember, you have no escapes so First Aid only helps sustain you a bit longer.


Heroic Ability:

Demonic Invasion: AOE Damage. Softens the enemy team for team fights, generally causes enemy players to get out of position, pushes down keeps and forts and cores. This is the bread and butter of being Azmodan. Don't use this ability lightly. With an almost two minute cooldown if misplayed you could severely damage your ability to team fight. However, generally if it's the only way to guarantee a fort or keep, drop it.

Alternative:
Black Pool: This ability has a good number of uses and definitely helps you burninate. Drop this under your feet before channeling and you'll crush down everyone. Unfortunately, the 5s duration is just to short to be very useful outside of a 1v1. In team fights, drop this, firebomb the enemy to soften them up, and then engage. If I'm absolutely ROCKING my skill shots from massive distance, I take this.


Tier 5:
March of Sin: Finally you can kind of chase those enemy heroes that realize All Shall Burn is OP. At this point in the game, the enemy usually has a healthy respect for Azmodan and runs away when they see the face melter turn on. This will greatly assist you in team fights as well since you are burning the melee that engaged your team and they always try to run. Again, this is the ONLY TALENT for this build.

Tier 6:
Blood for Blood: Anything that stops the enemy from running away is huge. Especially since so many melee are tanks with huge health pools, an instant-cast 15% of their life is a lot of damage. Getting some healing in return is a bonus. This talent is the go-to, especially if people keep escaping with a sliver of life.

Alternative:
Imposing Presence: The only other option here. If you find yourself actually LOSING to enemy melee (should not be happening), this talent drastically drops their damage on you. You can literally expect to outheal some of the weaker melee heroes with Gluttony.

Tier 7:
Perishing Flame: Gives a bonus to Demonic Invasion AND synergizes with our anti-melee build. Nothing is quite so hilarious as watching a Zeratul Cleave your grunts and take huge damage as they all explode on him.

Alternative:
Storm Shield: Again, if your team has no healer but you've been dropping healing wards and generally sustaining everything, this is one of the strongest healer abilities in the game, often deciding team fights single-handedly. Only take this talent if you are capable of reacting to incoming aoe burst quickly and have a desire to play a bit of support.




MAP CHOICES:
The Burninator thrives in maps that cause frequent 2v2s and 3v3s. Dragon Shire has this every spawn. Sky Temple will have this every time multiple temples spawn. Haunted Mines frequently has this at golem fights (if the enemy is using 4 and 1 on golems, take the 1v1). Blackheart's Bay will also have small engagements over the chests and mercenary camps, but there are also a large number of 5v5s. In Cursed Hollow and Garden of Terror, most fights are 5v5 or 4v4 (cause someone isn't where their supposed to be...) and this build is not at it's most powerful but is still awesome.

This build is all about pushing YOUR lane as hard as possible. Use your large numbers of Demon Warriors and give them a General of Hell to drop a lane faster than almost any other hero in the game. This build is fun for solo queue because it assumes the enemy team is not watching their minimaps and will not realize just how devastating you are until it's too late. This is also the meanest spec to your own team because you will not, in general, actually be performing many objectives. Communicate with your team before choosing to do this. Let them know that you are basically going to do more siege damage than someone completing objectives as long as you are left alone. If the enemy is smart and shuts you down, they will generally have to 2v1 your lane, giving your other lanes a strong advantage. The other strong point of this build is that you can... kind of... perform it before hitting level 3 as Azmodan. So it's quite good for new Azmo players. Once the enemy team responds to your lane with an inevitable assassination (hopefully after dropping reaching their core lol), rotate to a new lane and start over. If the enemy is REALLY not paying attention, you can return to your first lane. Generally do not hit the same lane over and over, it makes you too predictable and easily countered.

Talents:
Tier 1:
Sieging Wrath: Every time you go to fountain, bomb the creep. Every time the cd is about to be up, start walking back to bomb the enemy walls... forts... whatever. Just bomb things at max range to maximize your siege output. Focus on creep if at all possible.

Alternatives:
Taste for Blood: You're going to be bombing every creep wave. If you can time this to slam 2-3 kills over and over, you will not regret this talent choice. However, this is much more difficult than most people realize. Generally, take Sieging Wrath but PRETEND you took Taste for Blood and see if you are any good at this. If you are, take this talent instead.

Bribe: You are going to be pushing lanes. If you can get merc camps to help you in lane, get them. This talent will help you with that. As usual, DO NOT TAKE THIS IF ANYONE ELSE TOOK BRIBE.

Tier 2:
Army of Hell: Nearly necessary to spec. This heavily increases your lane push when you stack all 3 warriors at the same time. Also, since General of Hell is stronger the more targets he can boost, this is awesome.

Alternatives:
Bound Minion: Is your lane not pushing well because your 1v2 or 1v3? This lets you force them out. Drop your General in the lane you ARE winning and suddenly their in trouble. No matter which lane minion you put him on this is a good talent. I personally go for the second melee minion in line because that means he won't be focused first by enemy minions and towers. The bonus health doesn't seem to be enough to get that front minion to live through much.

Superiority: A widely under-used talent that allows Azmodan to finish off towers and forts after his minions are all dead. Not a great choice, but it is usable if you find you can't quite get the push you need. This talent also helps you solo mercenary camps as needed and if you are being relied upon to do that, take this.

Tier 3:
Enduring Warriors: Yes. Since you are bursting out your warriors in packs of 3 with a General of Hell, you want to maximize the benefit of your mana. it will take you a full 30s to recover all 3 charges, so giving your minions 50% more time on field is essential. This talent also synergizes very well with our tier 5 choice.

Alternative:
Mercenary Lord: If your team is dominating the merc camps (or you took Bribe), takee this talent. This will make your already dominant lane push astonishing. General of Hell + Merc Lord + Bruiser camp is a sight to behold.

Heroic Ability:
Demonic Invasion: AOE Damage. Great for finishing off a fort or keep in your push... or for locking down a path between buildings to help you escape when the enemy does show up. In this build, this talent is for hammering your way through the higher health buildings.

Alternative:
Black Pool: This is usable to boost your push by dropping it under your feet and all your minions at the same time. With a much shorter cooldown than Demonic Invasion AND two charges, you can wreck your way through forts faster than invasion. Why is this not my talent of choice you ask? Mana. The biggest issue here is the constant mana drain that you are enduring as you push a lane. Black pool will use quite a bit more mana than Demonic Invasion to get the same effect. However, if you are finding you successfully hearth out of your push every time the enemy shows up and that's before you run out of mana, this is a good choice. Also synergizes with Sieging Wrath to allow you to bomb 4v5s (cause you're in lane like a jerk).

Tier 5:
Hellforged Armor: Lower damage to my minions? WOO! This will REALLY help you solo merc camps, even without having Bribe. Also this will massively increase your sustainability against enemy towers and forts since your 3 Warriors last twice as long while being shot at.

Alternatives:
Blazing Demons: Gives Warriors AOE damage. Good if you keep LOSING merc camps or if you are constantly running to lanes that your enemy has pushed with a double wave. The more enemy creeps you keep running into, the more useful this talent is. Not stronger than Hellforged Armor, but pretty solid in a pinch.

Relentless: This *helps* you get out after they respond to your lane. Not the strongest idea, but pretty useful in some situations. Not my go-to, but if I'm getting really frustrated when Nova slows me, I take this.

Tier 6:
Bloodborn: Effectively a 4th Demon Warrior. Yes. The only reason this is not the only choice in this tier is the strength of the alternative.

Alternative:
Demonic Smite: Holy cow. This is a MASSIVE, generally one-shot-enemy-creep ability given to your General of Hell. The only problem is you don't get to choose his target. Sometimes he shoots stupid things, sometimes not. This talent is AMAZING if you are multipushing by dropping Generals in other lanes... unfortunately that's not really the goal in your build. Synergizes with Bound Minion to some degree.

Blood for Blood and Imposing Presence: In this spec these will be used to escape your lane once jumped or to finish off a low health warrior who thought he could handle the Lord of Sin. Not recommended most of the time, but situationally useful. In the end game, Blood for Blood is much stronger to help your team win that 5v5 and crush the core.

Tier 7:
Perishing Flame: At this point you are hopefully strolling up to the enemy core and dropping Demonic Invasion on it. This will massively increase the amount of damage output Demonic Invasion is doing for you. Definitely recommended.

Alternatives:
Fifth Circle: Obviously if you took Black Pool, you're looking at this. Huge improvement for that final team fight to finish the core. Drop your pool and start poking enemy attack damage carries and cackling in sinful glee.

Swift Storm (Deprecated): No one has ever recommended this talent until now. If you can mount before the enemy shows up in your solo pushes and you haven't managed to reach the core yet, this talent is AMAZING. Stroll into a lane, drop your General and Warriors, and then run. Even if the enemy responds to you they HAVE TO DISMOUNT to attack you. Meaning you escape, every time. Up until now you've probably been feeding the enemy team and your own team is raging at you. No longer. Now you are free to be the every-lane-push you were meant to be and will severely piss off the enemy team. Don't expect your own team to forgive you quickly though.




MAP CHOICES:
You need a map where lanes are frequently left alone in the pursuit of objectives that do not turn the tide by themselves. Basically this is Dragon Shire and Garden of Horror. Yes, if you lose the objectives the enemy gets a great siege damage bonus. However your own siege damage will generally outperform these until late game. Usually you will get more forts than the Dragon Knight or Garden Horror by yourself and give your team an exp advantage for the 4v5s they keep doing. If your team is good, they'll start to win 4v5 because of their exp advantage. Blackheart's Bay is another map where this spec is solid. Go top to prevent the enemy from ever getting a boss claim, but expect to leave lane frequently for merc camps and occasionally to bomb the turn in. Don't expect your team to win on turning in coins without you, but eventually the other team will either have to put people in your lane to counter you, meaning you win the 4v4 or 4v3 over coins or you *should* out push the cannons as long as your team is continually contesting the turn ins. In Sky Temple you will probably not out push the temples. In Haunted Mines, with only two close-to-eachother lanes you will never get ignored long enough to solo push. In Cursed Hollow... usually you can easily push through getting cursed, but the fact that you are cursed puts your whole team on the defensive. Leaving you an easy kill for their roaming team.

The Bomber build focuses on dropping giant fireballs of massive damage on enemy's heads. This build will allow you slam adjacent lanes and dominate team fights. Its weakness is a lack of survivability when focused and a reduced push on your own lane. Get a lot of practice dropping Globe of Annihilation before getting in this spec. If every team fight you only manage to hit a couple heroes... you failed. If you consistently don't get your Taste for Blood stacks... ouch. Remember (as I've said a few times already) you have no escapes. Hanging in the back in team fights is what you do. This build will help you increase your effectiveness from the back line as much as possible. This build requires excellent skill shotting and knowledge of when to engage and disengage from team fights. Not for novices.

Talents:
Tier 1:
Taste for Blood: Building stacks of bonus damage is essential to this build. Done properly, this increases the damage of Globe of Annihilation more than Sieging Wrath ESPECIALLY because in team fights you should not be hurling globes from max range. If the enemy is literally standing in a small cluster waiting for you to show up... okay. But outside of that just... no. This talent is where it's at.

Alternative:
Sieging Wrath: Your hubris is only outmatched by your madness. This talent is only better than Taste for Blood if you can SUCCESSFULLY hit multiple enemy heroes with your Globe from near max range. If you are this amazing, why are you reading a guide?

Tier 2:
Gluttony: Increasing your survivability in team fights. If you've read my whole guide so far you might be excited to realize you are STILL THE BURNINATOR. You just ALSO have globes of horror.

Alternative:
Bound Minion: If the match is almost constantly going to be 5v5 team fights... you are going to maximize General of Hell to split push every lane while they're distracted.

Tier 3:
Infernal Globe: More damage on the Globe of Annihilation. Essential. Also helps you hit your globes on more targets.

Heroic Ability:
Black Pool: Drop pool. Hurl Globe of stupid absurd fire damage. Cackle in delight. Wait for Globe CD. Repeat. This is the center of this spec. You will not believe how much damage you can do with this if you've stacked Taste for Blood. Late game you'll be AOE'ing for almost 1000 damage every 10 seconds. Nothing will survive for long.

Tier 5:
March of Sin: Chasing the fleeing enemy team with burning beams of fire is always fun. Also lets you move around to try and dodge skill shot stuns.

Alternative:
Relentless: What?? Yes. If every team fight someone stuns you the second you drop pool but BEFORE you can globe, take this to still dominate. Also if you are consistently BARELY failing to escape lost fights because of Arthas or Jaina's slows, this will help.

Tier 6:
Battle Born: You are at the back lines, throwing minions into a team fight. This is remarkably solid.

Alternatives:
Demonic Smite: Remember earlier, when the enemy was distracted all the time by team fighting and you took Bound Minion? Now you REALLY put it to them in every other lane and essentially can force them to 4v5 because they're stopping a push in a lane YOU AREN'T EVEN IN. Yea...

Blood for Blood: Enemy team has 2 high health warriors? Get them down on your level. Also good for Sonyas and Illidans that keep escaping.

Tier 7:
Fifth Circle: Globes of severely reduced movement and damage as well as 1000 damage? The enemy will no longer get to run from the team fights. They are dead.

Alternative:
Storm Shield: REALLY REALLY helps you win a team fight. Absorbs massive incoming AOEs and has been known to completely decide a team fight. As the team fight monster you are, this really puts a nail in the coffin.