What is up HeroesHearth, McIntyre here, bringing you my first ever blog post on this website! While I have been holding off on posting because I wanted to post something that I felt would be helpful to the community, I have finally come up with an idea that I think will not only be fun for me, but fun and helpful for you as readers. I've also never really created much written content in my past, so hopefully what I'm writing is understandable and enjoyable.



With that said, I want to start by saying that I plan on posting a weekly a deep dive into a certain Hero, providing in-depth build discussion, pros/cons, when to pick, and why to pick for these Heroes. This week, I will be talking about the newest Hero to the competitive pool in my opinion, Zul’jin.



I fully believe that the talent changes to this Hero have solved a ton of his problems, while also rewarding the player for playing the Hero correctly. What talent's did they change that you think did this, McIntyre? Well, let's talk about that now.



1. Moving his Level 1 auto quest to his kit. This not only allows for more flexible talent choices at Level 1, but allows for Zul’jin to scale the entire game starting right from the beginning. Outside of unlocking both increased range/double spin on W (which is pretty OP with the build I like), it also means that you will continue to increase your auto damage until the game ends. Prior to these changes, this Level 1 talent was taken, but having it built-in allows you to be more flexible in your kit and not rely solely on auto attacks.



2. Amani Rage - An absolute powerhouse of a talent. Giving you the ability to enable the strengths from your Hero’s kit without putting you at risk is actually insane. This ability reminds me of Attack on Titans, you can unlock your potential without fully killing yourself, then you just regen all of it back.





What do I mean by all of this?



Paired with your Level 1 Recklessness talent giving you 20% AP when low health, your Guillotine at 10 scaling with how low health you are, and your auto attack speed scaling with low health as well – all get an immediate power burst when activating this talent. Not only that, but adding armor and giving healing as a heal over time means you can activate it in a team fight, get armor and regen, then get fully healed by an Uther with both armor and regen still ticking on you. Absolutely mad, lad.



3. Guillotine. This ability was always on the cusp of being really good, but it was held back by the rest of Zul’jin’s kit. A 30-second cooldown Nova heroic at a non-global range seems absurd and it is exactly that, absurd. Being able to auto attack frontline then follow up any dive from your teammates on the backline can be extremely powerful in a teamfight, as most times ranged auto heroes cannot assist in killing backline very easily. This ability allows you – at any second in a teamfight – to drop a 1000-plus damage axe on the head of the enemy team's Medic, while your Muradin jumps on top of her. Also, when used with ensnare at 13 and your axes at 7 and 16, you can practically one-shot most squishy Heroes in the late-game if you hit the combo together.



What is that combo?



Ensnare > Amani Rage > R + W + Q > Auto Attack



This can be cast raw (without CC in front of it) or as follow up (after an ETC slide) to create a super lethal burst combo from an already crazy sustained auto attacker. This is why I find this Hero to be so strong, because of this ability to execute such a high damage combo.



P.S. In the video below, you'll see how strong the axe heal reset can be at 20 as well, which is also an insane addition to this Hero’s kit.



So let's talk pros and cons:



Pros:

Troll Regen can be a dead ability in teamfights at times if you do get dove

Great sustained auto damage (Diablo can’t step to you for free)

Great burst follow-up (on-shot all the Vallas FeelsGoodMan)

Good single-target damage (Boss/Siege speed)



Cons:

Zero Mobility: once you get out of position, you have to hold your ground and fight

Terrible waveclear, while his W does okay at killing ranged minions, he is unsafe to waveclear and is very slow at it.



Map Strengths: Because of his strength in dueling and trading damage, maps that fight over channel abilities or promote posturing are maps where Zul’jin will excel. He also wants maps that you don't have to waveclear too much and don't get flanked as easily.

Zul'jin : McIntyre - New ZuljinDGAF Recklessness While Zul'Jin is below 75% Health, his Basic Attack damage and Spell Power is increased by 10%. While he is below 50% Health, he gains 20% Spell Power and Attack damage. Amani Hide Lower the cooldown of Amani Rage by 10 seconds and gain 15 Armor while you are regenerating Health from it. Arcanite Axes Quest: Twin Cleave's damage is permanently increased by 0.75 every time it hits a Hero. Guillotine Zul'jin launches a massive axe into the air that drops on the targeted area, dealing 330 damage plus bonus damage the lower his Health is. Ensnare Throw a net forward, rooting the first enemy hit for 1.5 seconds. Wrong Place Wrong Time If an enemy is hit by both Twin Cleave axes at the same time, they take an additional 100 damage and count as 5 Hero hits for You Want Axe?. Buzzsaw After impact, the Guillotine continues forward, dealing 75% damage to enemies hit. If a Hero is killed by Guillotine, Zul'jin is instantly healed to full.

Promote strong three-mans, waveclear can be achieved by other heroes, strong jungle pressure.If you can hold control of your side of the map, the flank angles are limited for the other team – but still there. Good at posturing on all of these objectives are they are out in the open.Rotational/waveclear based maps, lots of flanks

Video:



Conclusion:



With the introduction of these new talents, Zul’jin now creates hybrid damage much like other high-tier ranged Heroes (Valla, Greymane). Being able to sustain damage with powerful auto attacks, then follow-up on kill opportunities with magic damage from his W/R brings this guy up much higher in the ranged Hero department. I expect to see Zul’jin at Blizzcon this year and can't wait. :D



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Also, check back next week as I break down my personal favorite Hero Kerrigan in next week’s blog post.