It is Kolosalus here, a former competitive player and main tank/support player for one of the most famous HotS teams in UK. Recently, as I came back to video making and streaming and in the process I have been trying to be a more versatile player. I specialize in healers/supports therefore they will be the characters I will be able to give most advice on. I have given some of my attention to other classes though, fixating on specialists for a little while. Today I wanted to offer my own look at Nazeebo, a character, who has stayed consistently good in the amateur scene but pretty bad in the higher levels of play. He has recently seen a rework and the question falls... Is he good enough now for all levels of play? Short answer is yes but let me dive much deeper and explain all relevant builds at the moment.

If you guys have any suggestions about this build or any other, I encourage everyone to start to start a discussion down below in the comments :)

Note:

As I mentioned above, I came back to HotS video and stream making and I would appreciate if you would kindly check me out, to really express your opinion on the vids, streams and build. Streams are especially awesome as they allow me and you to have a 1on1 conversation! Here is my stream, my YouTube, Twitter and Facebook. Thanks, stay awesome!

Most believe Witch Doctors to be figments of legend. Indeed, few outlanders have encountered a Witch Doctor in the flesh without losing their own. In truth, the role of a Witch Doctor is a hallowed one in Umbaru society, though only a few men and women can ascend to the position for they must possess both a history of battle and a talent for communing with spirits.


With cabalistic incantations and vestments of feather and bone, the heretic Witch Doctor Nazeebo of the Umbaru tribe calls upon spirits from the Unformed Land to aid him in battle. Few outlanders ever encounter a Witch Doctor in the flesh, without losing their own.

Effective against groups of enemies by summoning Spiders, Zombies, and Frogs. Siphons Health and Mana from dying foes.

I need a foreword just before we jump into the build itself. ability has been changed to make it slower traveling, enabling some counter play, but on the other hand increasing the radius to make it a little more forgiving. Also note that spiders only spawn now if, and only if, an enemy is hit.

Level 1 Choice

Widowmakers
This build 100% focuses on spiders and buffing them therefore we pick up this quest talent. The spiders now have "jumping" as base(not really, they are just much faster than heroes), but this talents lets you receive the second effect, additional 30% spider damage, if completed. Don't let this quest fool you, it is tricky to complete as it requires you to practice with hitting the skillshot itself. Once completed the increase in damage and overall usability of the build goes through the roof.

Level 4 Choice

Hexed Crawlers
I think blizzard is trying to move away from builds which emphasize one ability... I do not like that as I like feeling rewarded when using that ability later. Why am I saying this? Well if we look at the tooltip, the mana and health returned does not depend on the damage dealt by spiders but rather on how many stacks of oyu r trait you have gathered(max health and mana). Regardless, I found this to be quite a nice survivability tool especially with some later talent picks.

Level 7 Choice

Spirit of Arachyr
I know that 1 more spider doesn't seem that impressive and that much help but trust me on this. With this build I was able to 1v1 most heroes in the game. I'm sure it wasn't because of that one spider, but it definitely helped! It also makes you use the ability in a different manner... instead of hitting as many enemies as possible and splitting the damage you want to try to hit only one enemy hero, building or merc at once.

Level 10 Choice

Gargantuan or Ravenous Spirit
When choosing a heroic I only look at 3 factors.

• How many interrupts does the enemy team have? If more than 2 I would highly suggest to go for Gargantuan.
• How focused I'm getting prior to level 10 with that hard CC. If even moderately I already tend to go for Gargantuan.
• Lastly, is your team focused on a crazy wombo combo? Gravo Bomb + Mosh + Ring of Frost? If so, then I will pick the Ravenous Spirit to contribute to the damage and try to finish of opponents before they can interrupt me.

It is important to remember that Gargantuan will not follow you anymore. He will now instead guard an area so its placement is crucial. Don't be afraid to place in your path when you are escaping, it can deal some significant damage and scare your pursuers off. It is also well used as a damage dealer when an enemy is trapped in your Zombie Wall. Trap your enemy with your Gargantuan and deal that uncontested damage to your target.
When placing it in a team fight, you have to predict where the fight will go and place him towards there. If every team fight went in your team's favor and you were able to push the enemy back, place it in their back line to allow him to deal damage to escaping enemies.
If on the other hand you team was pushed back, try to place him more defensively, so he can deal damage while the enemy is chasing.

Level 13 Choice

Guardian Toads or Ice Block
Again, a highly dependent pick on the enemy team. If there is no Pyroblast, Temporal Loop, Pulse Bomb or Bone Prison, I highly suggest going for Guardian Toads. In case of an absence of those abilities, flat damage reduction should be enough. If otherwise go for Ice Block to protect yourself from an imminent death.

Level 16 Choice

Spider Colony
Definitely the best talent in this whole talent build. Reducing the cooldown of our main damaging ability our health is above a very forgiving threshold. Very easy to use and keep up and increases our damage dramatically.

Level 20 Choice

Vile Infection or FotS
150 stacks is a lengthy process and I wasn't able to achieve it every game. If I was below 140 stacks at the time of level 20 hitting, I would pick up Fury of the Storm for some additional damage and some easier wave clear. If I was above the 140 trait stacks goal I would pick Vile Infection for some crazy damage increase. This talent alone can put fate of the battle in your hands. It is really strong but needs a long build up. It is really up to you.

I would label this as the best utility build as the Toads can now be used much more frequently and can be used on everything ranging from heroes to minions, mercs, bosses, objectives and more... All of this while you also deal damage with the spiders and walls of course.

Level 1 Choice

Pandemic
Very easy quest to complete. I generally play on plat/diamond and I on average complete within 10 minutes of the start of the game. Imagine, having 2 charges of original 5 toad ability... sick. Very nice talent starting off the build focusing on the AoE ability of Zeebro.

Level 4 Choice

Big Voodoo
I think that this talent is straight up broken. Doubling the effect of our trait is just nuts instead of gaining 4 health and 1 mana you gain 8 life 2 mana. In the late game, with 100 stacks it is 800 additional health and 200 more mana. I just think that this talent is way to good to pass especially with this build, which is probably best for stacking our trait.

Level 7 Choice

Toads of Hugeness
So apparently the functionality of this talent was "cleaned up" according to blizzard... whatever that means. The change also brought a small nerf to the damage increase every hop but the toads still do respectable damage, especially if the level 1 talent quest has been completed. Believe me when I say that 2 charges of 5 huge toads can really burst people down, especially those closed inside of the zombie wall.

Level 10 Choice

Gargantuan or Ravenous Spirit
I have no special preference to the heroic with this build, just refer to choice guide in the "Creepy Crawlers" section.

Level 13 Choice

Guardian Toads or Ice Block
Again, a highly dependent pick on the enemy team. If there is no Pyroblast, Temporal Loop, Pulse Bomb or Bone Prison, I highly suggest going for Guardian Toads. In case of an absence of those abilities, flat damage reduction should be enough. If otherwise go for Ice Block to protect yourself from an imminent death.

Level 16 Choice

Soul Harvest
This is definitely a talent I don't see enough, but is really good. An example is that I was a one to bring it up and test that it actually works on minions too. That makes it super easy to stack and use efficiently. I had a lot of success with the talent and I want to you to too. How about every 15 seconds try to walk into a wave of minions or into a heavy team fight and press your key assigned with this talent. You will see a drastic change in your damage and survivability.

Level 20 Choice

Vile Infection or FotS
150 stacks is a lengthy process and I wasn't able to achieve it every game. If I was below 140 stacks at the time of level 20 hitting, I would pick up Fury of the Storm for some additional damage and some easier wave clear. If I was above the 140 trait stacks goal I would pick Vile Infection for some crazy damage increase. This talent alone can put fate of the battle in your hands. It is really strong but needs a long build up. It is really up to you.

Again a little bit of a foreward before hopping into the "competitive build". This is a build revolving around the Zombie Wall ability. The rework brought more health to the zombies and also the wall now prohibits some abilities from getting out of the circle of death. Few examples being Powerslide, Whirlwind or Shove. Also what was really surprising to me is, if someone can't get out of the wall quickly they will be bursted down by your damage... it gets crazy, believe me. I was able to kill a full health Azmodan with a full combo.

Level 1 Choice

Thing of the Deep
The talent got slightly nerfed(less range on abilities) but was moved to make level 1 tier more competitive. Rightly so because it fits into a Zombie Wall focused skill tree. I do not have to say how useful it is to have more range on your skill shots. Your toads travel faster, you can more easily hit people with spiders and you can catch people much further away with your walls. The possibilities are endless.

Level 4 Choice

Big Voodoo
Very similarly to Hoppy Frogs build, the zombies will spread your trait as well securing even more stacks of it for you. More health and mana for you in a long run and a little more incentive to go for that 150 stack mark in the end game.

Level 7 Choice

Dead Rush
This ability will actually make the Zombie Wall damage significant plus also turn the zombies into annoying minions after it expires. Really good for the final combo burst and for lane control.

Level 10 Choice

Gargantuan or Ravenous Spirit
I have no special preference to the heroic with this build, just refer to choice guide in the "Creepy Crawlers" section. Although for this build I prefer the Ravenous Spirit. Target trapped inside of the wall won't be able to avoid the full on damage from the heroic. It just adds so much more to your burst potential.

Level 13 Choice

Guardian Toads or Ice Block
Again, a highly dependent pick on the enemy team. If there is no Pyroblast, Temporal Loop, Pulse Bomb or Bone Prison, I highly suggest going for Guardian Toads. In case of an absence of those abilities, flat damage reduction should be enough. If otherwise go for Ice Block to protect yourself from an imminent death. Note, someone trapped in the Zombie Wall will give you guaranteed damage reduction.

Level 16 Choice

Ring of Poison
That is where most of damage comes from. Seriously I was surprised how much damage I was able to do to a innocent Azmodan trapped inside of my Zombie Wall. This paired up with my damage increase along with other abilities meant not so pleasant death for my adversary.

Level 20 Choice

Vile Infection or FotS
150 stacks is a lengthy process and I wasn't able to achieve it every game. If I was below 140 stacks at the time of level 20 hitting, I would pick up Fury of the Storm for some additional damage and some easier wave clear. If I was above the 140 trait stacks goal I would pick Vile Infection for some crazy damage increase. This talent alone can put fate of the battle in your hands. It is really strong but needs a long build up. It is really up to you.

One more word about the level 20 tier with this build... When playing this build you need to focus on getting stacks because Vile Infection just gives you so much more value than FotS.

A lot of success from playing Nazeebo now is from just hitting your skill shots. I feel like a lot of previous Nazeebo players are less skilled because of his past low skill cap. They went back to the character after the reworks, didn't get the results they were expecting or differed from their results from before, left a negative win rate and never gave him another try. I used to play Nazeebo from time to time, just for ***** and giggles but now he actually feels like a viable pick, if played correctly. He doesn't have a solid counter and he counter quite a lot of heroes now with unmitigated spiders damage and more frequent toads.

Nazeebo is such a specialist who can do a little bit of everything. He can contribute to team fights and deal a lot of single target damage with his abilities. He can also be a very useful siege and pushing hero, as his spiders and toads if aimed correctly, cannot be killed before dealing their full damage.

A definite tip I can give is to lead your skill shots. They are all slow travelling or activate after a delay. For an enemy to be closed inside of the wall, they would have to be on the edge or completely out of it upon casting it. Spiders jug also travels pretty slow and it is something you need to practice and get good at.

Second tip I can give is to know your build. When playing with the Spiders build know the strengths and weaknesses of that certain build. YOU have to know that you do get a little sustain out of the build and you should be able to at least predict if you can win an encounter or not. If you are playing toads you should know that you are a more poke hero and you should position that way. With the last build it is a jack of all traits therefore the knowledge of movement patterns of certain characters but also learning your new range with the Thing of the Deep talent is the key. All I'm saying is to practice practice and once again practice.

Nazeebo was super fun to test and play with and actually proved to me to be a very viable choice in almost any situation. His skill ceiling was raised by a mile but he is much more rewarding and scary to play against. Hopefully you guys will find this guide very interesting and useful. I will add a video guide soon to complement the entirety of the write up. Have fun and happy hunting.

08/10/16 05:13 PM CEST (Post Zarya Buff Hotfix) - All build write ups added. Added the General tips and strategy and also final thouughts. Enjoy!

05/10/16 10:13 PM CEST (Post Zarya Buff Hotfix) - Build Created with all chapters added. About chapter completed!