I have over 600 Murky games played. I know what I'm doing.
People know how to build Murky, but few know how to truly
play Murky. This guide will teach you about the tiny details that every other Murky guide has missed. Follow this guide and you will be able to 1v1 literally anyone, no problems. Hell, sometimes 2v1 isn't even a problem. (With an Abathur hat, feel free to try 3v1, you'll win, I'll go over how to correctly play Murkathur later)
Murky is a monster. Murky must be feared. Murky will kill you and there's nothing you can do about it.
This build focuses around a pretty standard pufferfish build. This guide isn't about the build, it's about how to use it so effectively that the enemy team will run away from you whenever they see you because they know they're about to die.
Block is essential to the fast hit-and-run Murky style gameplay you'll be using. There are no other choices here. Bubble breeze is useless don't you dare pick it.
Why?
Block negates tons of damage and is able to save your pufferfish from being focused down by using your body to cover it while laning. You NEED to have reduced damage against auto-attacks or this tactic won't work. More on that later. Not to mention some of the only Heroes that pose a threat to Murky are auto-attack based.
This is an AMAZING SKILL, even after the 5% nerf. Were you thinking about taking envenom for the extra burst? **** you. Do some math, you'll be hitting so so so much harder with a few stacks of Dream later on, it doesn't make envenom worth anything. Don't pick that. Living the dream gives you incredible burst potential.
But I thought this talent was for noobs who can't aim a regular pufferfish?? Pick Slime advantage duh!
You are so, so wrong.
Why?
The huge radius on this fish gives you an amazing ability to zone people out, or make an entire team suffer for ignoring it. You will find yourself auto-attacking so little with this playstyle that picking slime advantage would be a complete waste of a talent to begin with. A Murky trying to auto-attack things to death is a bad Murky.
Octo-Grab is one of the best ults in the game, why would you pick something as bad as March of the Murlocs?
Why?
Octo-Grab is the skill that will ensure your incredible bursts nail people, and shut down enemy ults, such as Lili or Valla. It's great for chasing, it's great for ganking, it's just ****ing great. March of the Murlocs is the worst skill ever. You might like to think it turns teamfights around, but you're wrong. Killing people turns teamfights around, having baby murlocs annoy people is not what turns teamfights around.
Ah, level 13. This talent makes you something to be feared. combined with a max stack living the dream you should easily be able to burst down any assassin. Nothing else in this tier is useful.
Why?
More damage. You're a suicide bomber, you need that.
One of my personal favorite talents. This has SO MUCH utility, far more than bubble rejuvenation.
Why?
You now have a ranged slime attack. Throw one at someone you're chasing, they won't get away. Throw one behind you at people chasing you, you'll get away. Throw one just for the stack of slime to heavily burst someone down. Use it to save your friends by slowing the entire angry mob that's chasing them. Lastly, use it like the monster fish you are and combo it with your octo-grab. Q W R to win.
GAME OVER. IF YOU REACH LEVEL 20 YOU HAVE WON THE GAME.
Rewind is on a 60 second cooldown. You know what else is? The enemy spawn timer. Make sure they never have a healer again for the rest of the game.
Why?
6,000+ ****ing damage.
Hit and run tactics are the absolute core of pre-level 16 Murky play, and so many other guides completely ignore this. Auto attack builds (anything using Slime Advantage
) are worthless. Hit and run will keep you alive and keep extreme pressure on the enemy.
Early Game Lane Tactics:
Murky is an absolute monster at wave clearing, and since all of his attacks are AoE, you can also damage the enemy laners while taking out waves.
Tactic #1: Puffer defense.
When a wave spawns and settles down in the middle of the lane, toss a puffer straight at the mage minion, then immediately slime while standing on top of your pufferfish. This GUARANTEES that no one can pop your pufferfish since only auto-attacks can pop them and in order for them to attack it, they have to click on the fish which is now completely covered by your body. And remember you took block as your level 1 talent? You can absorb those auto-attacks until your fish blows. If anyone is focusing your puffer you can shut them down using this. You can also shut down their attempt to pop by simply running straight at them and sliming them, they will generally forget about the puffer and target you instead. Run away after every slime, your health will regen, your block stacks will regen, and you can do it againJust always make sure to hit them with consecutive slimes before the last one wears off. Your first slime is a love tap, your second slime is a wrecking ball.
Tactic #2: Puffer zoning
If you're laning with melee attackers, you're in luck and can push down your wave and put some serious hurt on the enemy at the same time. Try to slime both the melee enemy and as many minions as you can and then run away, keep doing this as soon as slime is off cooldown. Once the enemy melee is at about half HP, you need to position yourself for a body block. Slime him once you're in position (he's going to try to go back and drink once he drops below half HP) and BODY BLOCK THE **** OUT OF HIM WHILE SLIMING. As he gets closer and closer to his gate, toss a puffer fish right in the center of his gate, so he has no choice but to either die from your slimes or if he manages to make it past you, he dies from the pufferfish. Get back to laning.
If you're laning against ranged heroes. Just keep playing puffer defense, you'll clear waves far faster than they can. Slime them when possible and chip down their HP. Get them to drink from the fountain as often as you can. Be aggressive in your hit and runs. Don't sit in a lane autoattacking with a ranged hero, you don't need to. Slime and puffers are crazy powerful.
Tactic #3: Chasing
Similar to #2, if you see yourself chasing someone down trying to get a kill, DO NOT AUTOATTACK WHILE CHASING. You slow yourself down and the person may be able to escape. Instead, body block! They're slowed for a long time with slime (8 seconds) which is more than enough time to get in front of them and block them while sliming (this is also why I don't feel the need to pick
. Toss a pufferfish way in front of where that person was running to limit their choices of where they can go (especially after you get
, you will make it very easy to secure kills by zoning out enemy path choices. This tactic also allows you to save your octograb for when it's really necessary.
Tactic #4: OctoGrab
This is the entire reason Murky is so good. Q W R combo. Once you reach level 10 you need to use this combo ONLY when you have a teammate near you to secure a kill until level 13, because it doesn't become powerful until then, and you won't be able to solo people as easily. After level 13, pick the squishiest enemy hero and KEEP TARGETING THEM EVERY CHANCE YOU GET. They will develop a fear of you throughout the next few levels and avoid you like the plague, which comes in handy sometimes.
Use your Octocombo during teamfights to shut down healers. (Make sure your team knows to focus down the people who are octograbbed...I'm looking at you, quickmatch people *squinty eyes*). You won't be able to kill most healers with your solo octocombo between level 13 and 15, so revert to tactic #3 after the grab is over.
If you are trying to octocombo heroes that have teleport escapes (bolt or blink) or iceblock, then you need to delay your octograb at least a half second after the pufferfish lands. The reason is that your octograb lasts about a half second shorter than the timer on your pufferfish, which allows heroes like Zeratul to simply blink away without taking puffer damage (another reason increased pufferfish radius is so good, it gives you the ability to delay the grab in order to hit people like Zeratul and Brightwing with the puffer explosion).
Tactic #5: Teamfight Zoning.
Later in the game when teamfights are breaking out, throw your puffer at their ranged back line. This not only gets their backline out of position and essentially out of the fight for a few seconds, but it also has the possibility of pushing their backline toward the front to avoid the puffer damage AND gives the frontline no escape, or if they ignore it then they get nuked and you win the fight. There is no downside to this.
Tactic #6: Ranged slimes.
Level 16 brings about a whole new way to burst, chase, and escape.
has incredible utility. Now you can use your puffer to slow a target who's running away in order to catch back up and start sliming/bodyblocking. You can use it as an escape by tossing it behind you at chasers (or save teammates, same idea). Most importantly you can use it to burst down massive amounts of HP with your octocombo since now you can fire off 3 slimes and a puffer (Slime, slime from pufferfish, slime again after octograb ends). Use your Q W R combo to solo pretty much any assassin now.
Tactic #7: Rewind combo. Fear the fish.
Congratulations on reaching level 20. You have won the game. This combo has the absolute highest burst damage in the game and it's damn near a 100% guaranteed kill on whoever you want. Turn on quickcast, get out your gaming keyboards and program this ****ing macro into your **** on a 46ms delay between presses. Q W 1 Q W R. Or at least get really good at pressing that combo fast. The enemy team now has a permanent 4 man team, because you can literally kill ANYONE you want to now including tanks. This combo does over 6,000 damage at max Dream stacks. Rush straight at the enemy healer and blow him the **** up, doesn't even matter if it's in a 5v1, you'll die, but they'll have a long *** death timer and you won't. They will almost never even ATTEMPT to pop your pufferfish to save their teammate because there are two fish now, they will just get out of the way and watch their teammate die.
The other utility to this (which I only use in very specific situations, is to instantly capture a bruiser camp. I use this when the enemy team has a few people dead already and it's an opportune time to grab the camp. You lose your ability to burst down tanks and healers for 60 seconds, so use this only when necessary.
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Murky is not that hard to keep alive once you get good with him. Bubble builds are unnecessary. Once you get great at body blocking, the slime builds are useless as well. If you find yourself dying too much with this build, then you need to play smarter hit-and-runs. Running away after each slime or puffer ensures that you have near-full health the entire time, and still do massive damage to the enemy. Murky shouldn't just be some annoyance to the enemy team, he should be a solid team fighter and a valuable asset to the team, especially after level 20. He wins games by taking out key opponents, so don't just blow your rewind combo on just anyone. Take out their tank or healer and the rest will fall.
OKAY THIS COMBO IS JUST UNFAIR.
Playing exactly like this guide teaches when combined with an Abathur hat is truly frightening. In some cases you will be able to 3v1 (in quickmatch sometimes 4v1) and come out on top. It gives you unbelievable chase potential, and allows you to burst down all healers by level 10-13. You are able to hit and run yet still have ranged attacks while healing and waiting for cooldowns, giving constant damage + slows so no one can escape and the shield gives you the extra stamina you need to continue destroying teams.
Abathur on a Murky seems like it would be a bad idea at first, but if you take this guide seriously, it is probably THE most overpowered Abathur combo in the game. Abathur's hat and Murky's death timer are on par with each other, so you can literally just keep throwing yourself at the enemy team until they're all dead. This combination is the most unfair thing ever.
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