Introduction Top
I played Nazeebo for over 100 hours in an effort to find a build that I enjoyed and worked well. I have used every possible talent combination in my quest.
I have gazed into the Unformed Land and it has gazed back at me. It has rewarded my devotion by giving me the answer.
Now, I write this Ultimate Guide to save others from the suffering that I have experienced. Follow this guide, and you will:
- Crush minions whenever they incidentally cross your path
- Never sit there farming Voodoo stacks when something else is going on.
- Stay in the backline, raining death from afar without ever putting yourself in danger.
- Disrupt enemy heroes with legions of servants.
- Inflict catastrophic damage to unwary enemies; deal consistent damage to everyone else.
- Get top hero & siege damage, fewest deaths, most kill involvement, most exp contribution, and MVP in almost every game you play.
Pros: If you concentrate really hard, you can make yourself believe that the Witch Doctor is a worthy successor to Diablo 2's Necromancer.
Cons: If you encounter Xul, your illusions and dreams will be shattered, and you will remember that Witch Doctors are not Necromancers.
Level 1 Top
Widowmakers -
"After hitting enemy Heroes 100 times with Corpse Spiders, increase their damage by 30%"
This quest isn't too difficult to complete, but it still takes some time. The outcome is giving your spiders some extra damage, which only comes into play if you land a spider attack on an enemy.
Pandemic -
"After hitting enemy Heroes with Toads 40 times, spawn 2 additional toads"
This quest is harder to complete. I've seen some bad Nazeebo players take 17 minutes to complete it, because the toads aren't hitting anything. An essential talent for toad builds, it makes the toad ability do more damage overall if more toads hit an opponent.
Thing of the Deep -
"Increase the range of all of Nazeebo's basic abilities by 20%"
Giving all of your basic abilities extra range at all times as a passive is huge. It increases survivability, increases the odds of you getting the jump on your opponent before they can anticipate or react to your move, and increases makes the attacks actually hit people more often than they would have. The talent has an immediate effect on the game as soon as it starts, and the effect persists throughout the entire match. With Thing of the Deep, I die an average of once per match. Without it, I die an average of 7 times.
Level 4 Top
Hexed Crawlers -
Corpse spiders restore 1% of Nazeebo's maximum health when they attack an enemy hero.
This talent can give you some extra healing power if you need it during specific lane battles, but without putting additional talents into spiders, the amount of healing generated by this is extremely negligible and barely a difference-maker. Also, the healing only goes off if you hit an enemy hero and if you're injured.
Big Voodoo -
"Doubles the health and mana bonus generated by the Voodoo Ritual trait"
This is a non-stop passive that just gets better and better as the game goes on. Even if you aren't focusing on farming stacks, you'll end up getting an extra 1000 health minimum at the late-game stages. The extra health and mana gives you more survivability and in late-game, the extra health pool far surpasses any amount of healing that could be generated by the other two talents in this tier.
Blood Ritual - "If an enemy dies while poisoned, increase Nazeebo's health and mana by 2%"
If you happen to need healing and if an enemy minion dies while poisoned, you regain health. This talent can help you push a lane if you aren't good at avoiding damage, but its value drastically falls off as the game goes on.
Level 7 Top
Spirit of Arachyr - "If the spiders hit only one enemy, create two additional spiders"
The neglected brother of level 1's Pandemic trait, this is a must-take for a spider build. But the effect only goes off if it hits one enemy. That means in a teamfight, or even if some minions are nearby, the trait gets absolutely no value.
Dead Rush -
"Your zombies do 75% extra damage and up to 5 zombies uproot and attack enemies when the wall expires"
A passive buff that always applies to your zombie ability, the damage boost that it gives the zombies is huge, and there's really nothing like seeing zombies chasing after your opponents. Makes it much easier to clear waves of minions due to the added damage.
Toads of Hugeness -
"Your toads get bigger after each hop and do extra damage, up to 100% extra by the final hop"
This makes your toads pretty deadly and is a must-have for a toad build, but it only comes into play if the toads hop to an extended distance and they actually hit an enemy. Most competent players will just run away from the toads, which makes it a good zoning tool, but if you take this trait, you really have to take Pandemic at level 1 to get maximum value out of it.
Level 10 Top
Gargantuan -
"Summon a hulking abomination that guards an area and beats your enemies to a pulp"
The best friend of any minion master, this beast will always put the hurt on opponents. Even when his master dies, he continues to fight and stomp the ground in an effort to avenge him.
Ravenous Spirit -
"Channel a spirit to attack an enemy; lasts 8 seconds and you are immobile while channeling"
This ability can hurt your opponent if it manages to connect with them, and if you aren't murdered while the channeling immobilizes you, which obviously makes you extremely vulnerable. While channeling the ability, you can't cast any other abilities or do anything else, so consider casting your abilities first.
Level 13 Top
Guardian Toads -
"When your toads hit an enemy hero, gain 25 armor for 2 seconds."
This talent will give you 25 armor if your toad hits a hero, and only comes into play if you get hit in the 2 seconds that the armor is being applied.
Superstition -
"Gain 40 spell armor; ability is disabled for 3 seconds if you get hit by a basic attack"
This is a very strong passive shield that is always on, unless you get hit by an attack. But it only takes three seconds to turn back on, so it's a pretty short cooldown. Gives you a huge defensive bonus against random magical attacks that are flying around the battlefield, nasty ultimate abilities, and mages trying to nuke you.
Ice Block -
"Become invulnerable and immobile for 3 seconds, 60 second cooldown"
If you happen to be in a very dangerous situation and if and three seconds is a difference maker, such as allowing your other abilities to come off cooldown, for your poison to soak in, or for allies to bail you out, this ability is a lifesaver. Otherwise, you're just out of action for an extra 3 seconds if you die. Can only be used if it isn't on its lengthy 60 second cooldown.
Level 16 Top
Spider Colony - "When a spider attacks an enemy hero, reduce the cooldown of zombies and toads by 0.25 seconds per attack"
If this attack strikes an enemy hero and if your other two abilities are on cooldown, this talent will come into play. As with all spider talents, it works better if you take only spider talents.
Ring of Poison -
"Zombie Wall lasts 1 second longer and the center of it is filled with poison"
This is a passive buff that will always make the zombies last longer, allowing the wall to trap or section the battlefield off for a greater length of time, and also enabling the zombies to do more damage since they're alive longer. This talent also has a hidden ability that isn't listed - it synergizes with the Dead Rush talent, making the uprooted Zombies last for 4 seconds total instead of 3. This means that by taking both Zombie talents, you increase the amount of time your undead minions are on the field from 6 seconds to 8. The poisonous pit is an extra bonus that will zone an area off even when you uproot the zombies early, do extra damage to trapped heroes, and make the zombies devastating against minions and structures.
Soul Harvest - "Gain 7% health and ability power for each nearby enemy, up to a maximum of 35%; Lasts 15 seconds, 15 second cooldown"
This is a great talent that gives you a massive boost to both the damage of all your abilities and your health pool...if you were near the maximum of 5 enemies to trigger it, and if you get into a fight before the buff runs out. In my experience, this talent looks good on paper, and even contributes to some fights, but when it comes down to a gameplay reality, you end up losing more than the 35% health you gain because you have to dive face-first into a mob of enemies to absorb the power, resulting in a sum zero situation more often than not. Also, while you haven't harvested any souls, this talent does nothing, and having your health pool suddenly drop 35% during a fight can be detrimental.
Level 20 Top
Humongoid -
"Your Gargantuan costs less mana and has a drastically reduced cooldown"
Nothing complicated here, just makes it so your undead bodyguard is always able to be deployed at the start of any fight.
Annihilating Spirit - "The spirit moves 30% faster and has 50% more range"
This is a huge boost to the damage and movement speed of the spirit, if you don't die while using it.
Fury of the Storm -
"Every 5 seconds, your basic attack does some bonus damage to the target, and even more bonus damage to nearby minions/mercenaries/monsters"
This gives you the ability to clear waves really fast and some extra consolation prize damage to the primary target with your basic attack, if you're using your basic attack on someone.
Vile Infection -
"After reaching 175 stacks of Voodoo Ritual, gain 150% extra damage to its poison, which will now also apply to enemy heroes"
The talent that everyone says you have to take, but it only comes into play if you've managed to collect 175 stacks in a timely manner, which means very close to whenever you hit level 20. Sure, it gives you a huge boost to your damage output, but at what cost?
There are people that will tell you that it's OK to ignore objectives and group fights and mercenary camps to farm stacks. Those people are wrong. If you happen to lose the game before 20 because you were ignoring teamfights all game, it's your fault, and if you do reach 20 while you were farming, you were going to win anyway and you just made your team carry your dead weight for most of the match. In other words, the benefit of doing a ton more damage in the last 10% of the match is completely offset if you're a useless AFK lane farmer for the other 90% of it.
But if you can accidentally collect the 175 stacks through normal gameplay without sacrificing a single teamfight or objective, then sure, you can grab this talent if you'd rather do more poison damage instead of taking any of the other three talents at this tier.
Final Words Top
Commanding legions of
Undead into battle is the natural outcome of following the path of talents that are always active and are always providing value. It's the best way to consistently maximize Nazeebo's survivability and damage output.
The other talents and builds are inconsistent and unreliable; their benefits only work sometimes, their effects only go off if specific things happen, and their talents only come into play situationally.
I originally wanted to have a balanced build that made all of his abilities stronger, that utilized Soul Harvest, that made the spiders and the toads and the zombies and Nazeebo himself a deadly force to be reckoned with. Well, it couldn't happen.
Other mages can basically do the same thing that the spiders and toad build can do, but better. Compare Nazeebo's spider or toad damage to Gul'dan's kit, for example. The Undead are what make Nazeebo unique, so use them.
Besides, it's animal cruelty to send spiders and toads on a suicide mission anyway, even if they are magic spiders and toads. So, in the end, Nazeebo's other abilities are only there to make the enemy run around stupidly and squeeze some extra damage in.
And remember: if you're farming stacks instead of contributing to objectives and teamfights and mercenary camps, then you're playing the hero wrong. Vile Infection is not more important than playing the game correctly.
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