The Basics Top
Kael'thas is a rather different sort of Assassin.
Unlike most Assassins that need only wait for the right opportunity to blow all their cooldowns; Kael'thas relies much more on patience. In fact, you almost never want to use one of his abilities unless his verdant spheres are active. This means needing to exercise patience more often than you might expect.
Below is list of his abilities along some basic suggestions of how I've found best use them.
I've also included a talent build that I personally use quite often, and find works well in most situations for Kael'thas.
Abilities Top
Abilities
Flamestrike
This is your AOE minion killer.
Like most of Kael's abilities, don't use this without first empowering it; unless it will seal a hero kill for you. The empowered version hits a much larger area, and later on, will one-shot entire packs of lane minions.
Living Bomb
This is your Hero killer.
Your tricky, tricky, they wont know what hit them Hero killer.
Living bomb deals the majority of its damage over time. This means players wont see large chunks of their health hacked off at a time like they will with burst Heros like Nova, and will often overstay a fight, not taking the potential loss bar seriously enough until it's to late.
This also once again means patience though.
With Verdant Spheres, Casting Empowered Living Bomb twice in quick succession on an enemy target is a tempting knee-jerk reaction. But again, with Kael'thas, patience is your virtue.
Casting it a second time right after the first prematurely detonates your Living Bomb. Meaning the majority of your damage over time is negated. Let living bomb tick a few times, or even explode, before casting it again.
Your first cast of Empowered living bomb is free. So even if they "get away" you've done reasonable damage to them at no cost to your manna.
You also might consider casting your first living bomb on one target, and your second on another. This spreads out your damage, but can make it difficult for a healer to chose an ally to focus, and pairs well with talents like chain bomb later.
Gravity Lapse
This is your most versatile, and arguably most valuable ability.
Gravity Lapse stuns for honestly rather absurd 1.5 seconds.
That's usually more than enough time to close the gap on an escaping victim, finish one off, or make an escape yourself.
Empower it, and Hit 3 enemy heroes?
That's a recipe for a tipple or even mega team kill.
Keep in mind though that it wont just affect heroes. Gravity Lapse will hit the first Minions, Mercenaries, or large unsuspecting pebble it encounters. In fact sometimes it's worth empowering against even 1 hero, just to ensure you hit them.
There's nothing worse than your grand plans of destruction or escape being foiled by a random minion stepping out of place.
Verdant Spheres is a 4 second cooldown.
Gravity Lapse is 13.
Once again, if you can afford to, sometimes waiting really is the best option with Kael.
But if your an Ace with skill shots, you'll can have a blast with this ability.
Basic Kael'thas Build Top
Talents
Manna Addict
True to his peoples stereotype, Kael's a manna guzzler. Manna Addict helps keep his tenancies... Mannagable. ;) Use Flamestrike to burn down minions and harvest globes, and you'll be amazed how quickly his reserves add up.
Gathering Power
Kaels abilities already hurt. This makes them hurt more...
Fission Bomb
Step 1 in a 3 part plan to make them all die a horrible fiery death.
This adds a reasonable amount of damage to Living Bomb, and will come in even more handy later on.
Pyroblast
Possibly the most fun you'll have playing Kael'thas is with Pyroblast.
It's like tripple tap, on half the cooldown with AoE damage added in just for giggles.
Plus it's loads of fun to watch them run as they try to escape imminent fiery doom. ^_^
Keep in mind thought that it has a target range, and is a channel.
So it's not always the best choice for an escaping enemy, or to attempt mid team fight.
Try casting this from the bushes before your enemies know your there, and then dive in to the ensuing chaos.
Pyroblast is a fantastic way to ether do massive damage to an entire enemy team, or scatter them, leaving members vulnerable to being picked off.
Chain Bomb
Step 2 in Kaels master plan to bring people together, and blast them apart.
Chain Bomb can make Kaels overall damage go through the roof.
Living bomb will spread to minions, buildings, and perhaps most importantly, other Heroes...
Now is the time when it's finally OK to cast Living Bomb, and detonate it prematurely to spread the sickness. Just watch for heroes or minions clumped up that will allow for a nice rolling chain reaction.
Ignite
Step 3 is finally here...
Where before Flamestrike was a moderate damage ability best used on minions, now it's a cheap dirty way of applying your Chaining Living Bombs to multiple heroes.
Drop a Flamestrike now, and watch as they break apart, or blow each other to pieces.
With proper timing, you can now alternate between Flamestrike, and Living Bomb to keep the chain reaction going, and have damage constantly ticking on multiple targets.
Presence of Mind
Pyroblast is already a devastating attack on a relatively short cooldown.
This makes it even MORE devastating, and puts it on and even shorter cooldown... Whats not to love?
So that's the breakdown of my basic Kael'thas Build.
Like any hero or build, it wont be perfect for every situation. However it should get you pretty far in most.
Things to remember & keep in mind. Top
Grouping
Kael'thas, excels most when enemies clump up, and suffers when they spread out. So Kael pairs nicely with Heroes such as Illidan or Valla who can pick off strays who get separated from their group. However Heroes who naturally disperse enemies such as E.T.C. can sometimes work against you by pushing enemies out of Flamestrike, or preventing Living Bomb from Chaining properly. This is not their fault But take it into consideration when playing Kael.
Damage
You are not burst.
You will probably not have the highest kill count.
You SHOULD however have massive hero damage.
You are a DOT BEAST.
You are most dangerous when you go un-noticed.
Farm
Your a fantastic farmer.
Use Flamestrike to farm minion XP and globes for Mana addict. (as well as other heroes who thrive on globes)If your not team fighting, you should be lane farming.
Patience
Again... Patience.
Patience Patience Patience.
Your not Illidan. Your DPS does not heavily depend on how fast you can mash Q-W.
It's all about Patience, Timing, and Set Up.
D
And Last but not least, remember D.
If it's not active it better be on Cooldown.
Forgetting to keep D active at all possible times can mean the difference between being Good and Terrible. Activating it wont even dismount you. So spam it like a nervous twitch if you have to.
Have Fun & See you in the Nexus. :D
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