" Gazlowe, the Boss of Ratchet, is a melee specialist hero from the Blizzard Entertainment Warcraft franchise. Few would consider the diminutive goblin tinkers fighters, but what they lack in height, they more than make up in mechanical cunning. Gazlowe's mechanical exoskeleton is an especially effective war machine - whenever it's working." -heroesofthestorm.gamepedia.com

What Gazlowe IS:

Pusher - Gaz excels at keeping the enemy creep pushed back whilst soaking experience for his team. Knocking down gates, crumbling turrets and destroying forts is what Gaz does best.
Lane Bully - In addition to keeping the creep at bay, he does the same to enemy heroes. Using his turrets plus his bomb, enemy heroes don't want to get too close to your allied creep.
Merc-Lord - Far as I can tell, Gazlowe is by far the best hero to capture any merc camps. After level 10, Gaz can effortlessly capture any camp, and with timing and proper placement, even solo a boss!
Team Fighter - Don't underestimate Gaz's melee attacks. Just because he has turrets and a big bomb to do his dirty work doesn't mean Gaz can't get his claws dirty (with the blood of his enemies) and punish the enemy heroes. Especially effective after level 20!


What Gazlowe IS NOT:

Tanky - Even though Gaz can take a few hits from enemy mercs and minions, don't let this fool you into thinking he can do the same with heroes.
Chaser - In my early days I used to build Gaz to actually slow and chase down enemies. While it was kinda fun, it was a waste of Gaz's abilities as he is much more effective at seiging the enemy structures.
Initiator - Never let Gaz initiate a team fight. It's not his job and he's not good at it because he is too squishy. Let the tank jump in then throw down a bomb (or two) with turrets. Once the enemy is weakened, then Gaz can jump in and get his claws dirty.

1. Introduction
2. The Build
3. Mastering the Master
4. Changelog

I'm Jeff, a.k.a. PerfectH, and I've been playing Blizzard games ever since StarCraft. My first MOBA was DotA which admittedly I didn't play very much of. Almost a year after League of Legends was released I begun to play that quite a bit, then began to become a seasoned player. Ever since Heroes of the Storm was released, I fell in love with this MOBA and never looked back.

Your Toolkit

(Trait) (D) Salvager

Gazlowe is very frugal. Why buy more metal when he can reuse his old scrap metal from his broken turrets? Hell, why wait for the turrets to break? With this ability, Gaz can dismantle his turrets early and pick up scrap metal (the little glowing bolts) to restore 30 mana. It will also reduce the cooldown on basic abilities. It is also worth noting that you can use Salvager while mounted.

(Q) Rock-It! Turret

Gaz used to spend a lot of time fighting enemy minions with his robot's bare claws. He begun to think "there's got to be a better way to do this!" and surely there was. Gaz invented the Rock-It! Turret and before you knew it he was drinking iced-tea while his turrets did all the work for him. Turrets aren't just great for shooting the enemies, but also distracting them.

(W) Deth Lazor

With its slow charge time, light damage and high cooldown, Gaz's Deth Lazor will not be a very well utilized ability for this build. Not to say it doesn't have it's purpose, but the only time Gaz will really need this ability is when an enemy is fleeing and he needs to zap them just enough to finish them off. Otherwise, don't waste his mana using this too much.

(E) Xplodium Charge

Is it an alarm clock? Is it a toaster? No! It's Gaz's bomb! This handy little explody thing is fantastic for taking out a group of minions and mercs. What makes it more handy is anyone caught in the explosion is stunned for 2 seconds. It has a 2.5 second long fuse, so placement of this bomb is key. The best application of Gaz's bomb is centering it on a gate or encompassing an entire group of minions. Using this build, the more targets the bomb hits when it explodes, the more damage it will do overall, so it's not the best on single targets (except for a boss or hero).

Robo-Goblin

Gaz is always looking for improvements...if the price is right. Robo-Goblin will throw out those rusty old claws and replace them with shiny, deadly, super-sharp saws. These fancy new hands for Gaz's robot allow him to chop down minions, mercs and structures much faster. This is what gives Gaz the ultimate advantage over all other heroes for merc camp capturing (besides Bribe) because he can kill mercs faster than anyone. Something to keep in mind when defending against mercs, minions and bosses, too!

I mentioned before that it is possible to have Gaz solo a boss. I would NEVER attempt to solo a boss until I had this heroic ability. Additionally, Mercenary Lord is required to go mono-y-mono with a boss.

Talent Selection

Yo,

Since this guide has two builds, the levels with two possible choices are highlighted in green. The first pick is for the first build, the second is for the second build.

Level 1

Extra TNT

This talent is great early game talent. How it works is it increases the damage of your bomb's explosion by 10% per enemy hit (max of 100%). What this means is if you threw the bomb down on a full group of minions (7 total), if the bomb hit all of them, it would increase the damage by 70%. If a hero was caught in the same explosion, that would bring it up to 80%. This makes it easier for your turrets to pick off the minions as well as giving your own minions less resistance to fight against.

Level 4

Mercenary Lord This is a passive upgrade for Gaz. With this talent, Gaz now takes 50% less damage from minions and mercs and deals 50% more damage back to them. This is an extremely important ability when soloing merc camps or even trying to take on a boss by yourself.

Clockwerk Steam Fists This is Gaz's first turret upgrade. Since Gaz will pick Robo-Goblin at level 10, it only made sense to pick this ability to extend the life of a turret. This combination could become deadly as you can continue to add more turrets if you remember to keep Gaz's fists swinging!

Level 7

First Aid

The healer on Gaz's team won't always be by his side. Gaz didn't pay him. Instead you will find yourself in situations where you have to take Gaz's health into your own hands. Not much to say about this spell.

Level 10

Robo-Goblin

Awww yeeee!! Gaz just made the mercs and minions of the Nexus wet themselves upon choosing this heroic. With the 150% increased damage to structures, minions and mercs, Gaz can slice through them like butter. Will make Gaz even more effective to push lanes and knock down structures.

Level 13

Burning Rage This is a little damage upgrade for Gaz, allowing him to deal AoE damage passively to nearby enemies. Effective against minions and merc camps.

Turret Storage Simple talent that allows you to sore up to 3 charges of turrets instead of just 2. This will allow you to throw down many, many turrets!

Level 16

Kwik Release Charge

This is a sweet talent because it allows you to store another charge of Xplodium Charge. Great for overwhelming the enemy's choke points and taking out large groups of minions. If you find you're doing great with your turrets, Long-Ranged Turrets isn't a bad choice.

Level 20

Mecha-Lord

So just when the mercs and minions of the Nexus thought things couldn't get worse, things got worse. Now your 150% damage bonus works against heroes, making you very dangerous in a fist fight. It's time to start getting your claws dirty and smack some heroes up!

Early Game

Pick your lane depending on the map. Because Gaz has decent sustainability, he's usually okay to lane by himself as long as there is only one enemy hero in the lane with him. If you are playing on the Dragon Shire map, I find Gaz performs the best in either the top or bottom lane as his turrets can discourage enemy heroes from wanting to capture the shrines.

Continue to keep the enemy minions pushed back; play conservatively. When the objectives pop, be ready to go help your team mates. If you're playing the mines, a single bomb explosion can wipe out an entire group of cave creeps so you can pick up skulls and move on. Just about any map you play you are going to want to be with your team for the objective. Saving your First Aid for early team fights can be the difference between life and death.

Don't try to grab camps before level 10 as I find they aren't worth the hassle unless your team is already ahead. Soon as the objectives are secured, you need to get back to your lane and continue soaking experience. As Gazlowe, you should be trying to focus down structures while the enemy team deals with the objective at hand.

Mid Game

By now you just hit level 10 and acquired Robo-Goblin. If your team is still ahead and you're not needed to focus objectives, now would be an ideal time to start grabbing merc camps. Since you have your heroic, merc camps should come fairly easy to you.

Structures will start falling faster for you now. Needless to say be wary if you start seiging a fort alone. Keep a sharp eye on your map. If you don't see where the enemy team is, that's a good indication you should retreat and either switch lanes or regroup with your team. However, at this point, besides objectives, merc camps and bringing down forts should be your primary focus.

Forts are worth a lot of experience, the quicker you can bring them down, the faster your team will level up and gain an advantage over the enemy. Just be careful not to get yourself killed or you may give your enemy a chance to catch up.

Late Game

You should be almost getting level 20. Continue to keep lanes pushed back far as possible. Switch often if you have to so that your lanes aren't overwhelmed with enemy minions. At the same time, don't wander too far off from your team if you can help it because they will need you in the team fights. Once you hit level 20 and get Mecha-Lord you will be very dangerous in team fights.

If an objective is not being contested and the enemy team is busy, you could try to solo a boss. By choosing Mercenary Lord and First Aid you will have the tools you need to convince the boss to fight for you. It is extremely risky to try and solo a boss yourself because it takes longer to kill a boss by yourself and if you aren't paying attention the enemy team can come and kill you easily. Communicate with your team and convince them to keep the enemy distracted while you capture the boss by yourself.

After level 20, you should be sticking with your team very tightly. You are very effective against minions and heroes now, so don't be shy to start swinging at the enemy heroes with your team. If you see a weakened enemy trying to retreat, immediately charge your Deth Lazor and fire a quick shot at them; it's not necessary to let it fully charge if they only have a sliver of health left.

Once at the core, let your tank or minions soak up the core's attacks then let it have it. Gaz does massive damage to the enemy core at this point and should try to stick it out until victory is secured.