Zeratul Build Guide : Zeratul - Nuke n Run [updated 07.03.2015] :: Heroes of the Storm (HotS) Strategy Builds

Zeratul

Build: NukeÂ´n Run

Level 1

Level 4

Level 7

Level 10

Level 13

Level 16

Level 20

Threats to Zeratul with this build

Threat

Low

High

Show all

Threat		Notes
1		No Threat
2		No Threat
3	Diablo
4		No Threat
5		No Threat
6	Muradin
7		No Threat
8	E.T.C.
9		No Threat
10	Illidan

Think about this if the enemy avoids teamfights: Top

In case the match runs great to you as a single target hunter, you should
maybe choose ->Asassins Blade instead of Wormhole at T5. But keep in mind that u will spend nearly 33% of your survivability in the lategame by using this "way".

The decision depends on the enemy lineup and their playstyle.
If they are starting to permanently move togehter in midgame you should better
use Wormhole. Without it you will have to be very well positioned in upcoming teamfights.

Think about it and choose.

To tell basicaly: Top

This primary should work as a kind of archive i will use to collect, conclude and rate several builds i created (or will create in future dasys) to try out different ways
to play Zeratul and check out if my theoretical ideas are working in practice.

Advices or and opinions are welcome!

Basic words about Zeratul: Top

The bigest disadvantage about Zeratul is his very low healthpool and the risk to get into realy critical situations, very fast. Most times i get into trouble because of a greedy or simply bad timed use of the .
In cases when gets disabled while he has just began an assassination with his teleport(s)on cd you will wonder how fast a damn fearsome Assassin becomes into an hunted smurf.

To avoid to get into that situations is the key to let the enemy rly fear Zeratul.
Try to save your Blink to be and stay in the position to abbort your hunt, get away alive
and try to resume the hunt if you got the chance. In that situation you have to decide wiseley if
it is more effective to change the lane/location and hunt an other target then spending time to wait for a new chance to initiate a new attack to your first target. Of course it could be a choice to use the time to get camps or mechanics or simply reg up at a fountain. This depends on the whole matchsituation.

To be able to compensate his disadvatages, caused by his weaks, Zeratul deals huge AreaDmg due his -ability and the combination of + in addition
to and Zeratuls heroic . If u stack the boots in the right moment, it will rise up your AA Speed to a temporaly level that gives you the possibility to take out and kill your targets in seconds and get out of the spotlight before your victims body touches the ground.

In combination with
his PERMANENT CLOAK due and the ability to blink into fights or leave them instantly can be have a high psychological use in the later gamephase and especialy in the teamfights. If Zeratul kills constantly single targets in the early till midgame (must not be that much kills but constantly) at different locations on the map it will be recognized by the enemy players amd have usualy the effect that most players think you are more dangerous as you realy are. In later Teamfights you can use that to decoordinate team attacks of the enemy by in use and instantly disapear by using . You dint do much damage or kill a char but you can bet on the fact that one or two enemy players will stop following their aimed target and try to beat you down because they mostly only remember that everytime they saw you, a mate or them self died. No matter if you got 8 or 20 kills. They dont see Zeratul and if they do one of them dies! Thats what you have to let them think.

Some ppl. will laugh about this theory but im realy sure it is like i say, try it out. A few fast kills and Zeratul is the maintarget from the second he appears in a teamfight, unfortunatly its hard to kill him in a 2,5 seconds window before he disapears. If someone is interessted in that he could take a look 2 chapters below this one.

Attackroutine - A theoretical, perfect executed assassination Top

Imagine you are playing a match with Zeratul and you are mentaly listing up how you will do the THEORETICALY MOST EFFICIANT AND POWERFULL ATTACK that is possible. My build is made to get on it that way for my personal goals.

As i am playing Zeratul, my pers. goals are:

- to avoid enemy heroes from taking advantage of mapmechanics
- to get the most mapcontrol by controling neutral camps and mechanics
- to avoid enemy players from controling neutral camps
- seek for enemy players splitted from team and assassinate them
- scout areas for tactical uses

- to pick enemy characters out of teamfights
- harrass enemy groups by "hit&run-Method" to decoordinate their attacks
- avoid the enemy to succesfully flee from fights to reg up and regroup.

Watch the enemys teams lineup and deceide which are your priorised vitims. Could be a strategical keyCharacter like f.exmp. an healer that needs to get out taken to win teamfights or it could be a character that Zeratul can kill that fast and smart that you use the kill resulting experience andvantage.

If you have scouted and spotted your victim try to sneak around him/her and watch for the right time to start bringing the pain. For safest results try to get a situation where your focused Character is a bit seperated from his teammates to capture a camp or sthn. like that.

- Get in range
- Place a hit with ,reuse it everytime you can hit
- Use and hold it on cd as long u hit
- Stay in range for aa dmg
- If your victim is not dead yet or get fastet kills possbl. finish with:
+ +

In the most cases your target should be dead now and you could use the saved teleport to get out of the area and prepare for the next hunt. If your victim is not dead yet you could "simply" redo the steps of that attack routine as long as you have mana enough and your "rescue-teleport" is rdy to survive if u get trbl.

Till today i never needed a 2nd round of the routine....usualy targets are down without the heroic ability..
if its not it usualy depends on the fact that i had to abbort the hunt to stay alive and/or change the target or of course....i simply fked up something ;p

Basic behaviors depending on what direction the match moves: Top

In cases you get disabled before you are able to finish your target you can fast port out of sight and range and give a new try. Wormhole will finaly give you the option to harrass enemy players in a rly "ugly" way, without having a high risk to get beaten down. If you let your enemy fear you enough they will try to catch you out of teamfights in the moment you are entering the tf, you only use your Cleave to hit as many oppoents as possible and instantly return to your first blink position (by using Wormhole ) If you see trouble coming get simply out, cloak again and as soon your cds are down start a new attack of that kind.

You are maybe not able to kill an enemy in that 3 sec. timewindow but the enemy will focus you in the most cases without havin a high chance to kill you. They start hunting a ghost and in a lot of cases they will loose their coordination and leaving their focused targets by switching the focus on Zeratul till they notice they wont get you fast enough to kill Zeratul and backoff to their Teammates before the fight ist lost because of some singletarget hunting players. This raises the survivability of your teammates and force situations your team can use to start a conteroffence.

If things went better and you dont have to leave a teamfight within your 3 secs window u have to choose your victim (squisheeees first) and bring him the maximum pain by sneaking near the victim of your choice and start by threw in an Singularity Spike for dmg and slow. Stay near the victim and
use Cleave on cd as long you hit your target. At that point nearly every single target will have taken a good amount of dmg and you have to finish it.

Depending on your choice of victim and if it got help by supporter (esp. healers) you have to choose how much talents you need to use to finish your victim. For the maximum efficiancy and fastet results you now use your Blink to get IN FRONT of your slowed, hard beaten, enemy and imidiatly use

- Cleave
followed by
- Searing Attacks + Berserk
to stack the aa and mvmt. boosts with
- Shadow Assault

Usualy the target will be down very fast and you should fast as possible change your position and prepare for the next hunt. Important thing all the time is to dont forget to check the map for situations your team needs you. In some cases you better abort a easy hunt for a higher goal. So be carefull to not become a pure solo player!!!

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