xDaunt Profile Joined March 2010 United States 17732 Posts Last Edited: 2015-04-07 18:40:53 #1

The Big Book of Zeratul by xDaunt

We will do what we must...



About a month ago, Blizzard announced that Zeratul and Valla were the two most balanced heroes in HotS. Within weeks of that announcement, Blizzard nerfed them both. Go figure.



The nerf on Zeratul was particularly significant: Double Bombs now only grants 50% damage on the second casting of Singularity Spike. The significance of this change was obvious: Zeratul’s burst potential with the popular Wormhole/Double Bombs build had taken a huge hit. This begged the questions of whether Zeratul was still a good, viable hero, and whether other builds need a second look.



Now that Zeratul is a hero in flux, it is time to take a fresh look at the iconic Dark Templar and see precisely where he stands and how best to utilize his very particular set of skills.



I. An Overview of Zeratul



Let’s first take a look at Zeratul’s kit and see what he can do.





Zeratul's base stats and growths





Trait: Cloak



Automatically cloak when out of combat for 3 seconds. Taking damage, attacking, or channeling reveals you.



As in StarCraft, Zeratul’s defining characteristic in HotS is his ability to cloak and move around the battlefield virtually unseen. Receiving and dealing damage will make Zeratul visible again, as will using most other abilities, mounting, and recalling to base. Like with Nova, a shimmer will appear wherever Zeratul is moving. Accordingly, Zeratul can be hunted down even while cloaked if the enemy sees where he is. Nevertheless, cloak is invaluable for two reasons. First, Zeratul will not appear on the enemy team’s minimap when cloaked. This gives him virtually free reign to traverse the battlefield as long as he stays away from where enemy players are likely looking on screen. Second, Zeratul is almost completely invisible when he is not moving. There is only a slight shimmer from his idle animation, which is very difficult to see. This opens up some interesting ambush and escape opportunities for Zeratul. This also means that hiding in brush can be counterproductive for Zeratul. It often is better to just stand still out in the open than to stand in the brush where a team may actually go look for you. Still, be mindful of the fact that Zeratul still has collision when cloaked, meaning that Zeratul can give away his position if enemy heroes collide with him while moving and notice a deviation to their movement path.





(Q) Cleave

40 Mana

Cooldown: 6 seconds



Deals (92 + 17 per level) damage to nearby enemies.



Executing a spinning slash, cleave does flat damage to all enemies within a given radius of Zeratul. Critically, Cleave gives Zeratul the all-important ability to clear minion waves and merc camps. Through talents, Zeratul can increase the range and damage of the skill.





(W) Singularity Spike

60 Mana

Skillshot

Cooldown: 12 seconds



Flings a Singularity Spike that sticks to the first enemy hit. Deals 120 + 20 per level damage after 1 second and slows the enemy by 40% for 3 seconds.



This skill shot ability gives Zeratul additional single-target damage and a brief slow. This is his primary assassination skill. Talents provide increased range, the option to turn the ability into an area of effect nuke, and the ability to fire off a second bomb for 50% damage.





(E) Blink

75 Mana

Cooldown: 10 seconds



Teleport to the target location. Using this Ability does not break cloak.



This is arguably Zeratul’s most important ability. Blink gives Zeratul an instant teleport on a 10-second cooldown. In other words, Blink is Zeratul’s “Get out of Jail Free” card. Zeratul’s probability of escaping death is directly correlated to whether Blink is on cooldown or not. That said, Blink also has incredible offensive potential, allowing Zeratul to stick to targets far better than most everyone else and execute some truly sick body-blocking maneuvers. As a general rule, I recommend that new Zeratul players never use Blink offensively, no matter how tempting. Only experienced players should do it. The penalty for being over-aggressive (death) is too steep. Talents can reduce the cooldown of Blink and, with Wormhole at level 13, Blink becomes a two-way teleportation mechanism such that Zeratul can blink back to where he initially blinked from if he activates Blink again within 3 seconds. More on this later.





(R) Shadow Assault.

100 Mana

Heroic Ability

Cooldown: 100 seconds



Your Basic Attacks cause you to charge at enemies and have +20% Attack Speed. Lasts for 6 seconds.



Shadow Assault is a pure assassination skill. When activated, it grants Zeratul both an attack speed steroid and the ability to instantly teleport to any auto-attack target that is within range. Levelling it again at level 20 provides life leach and a longer duration. This skill is best used in auto-attack centric builds. The damage that it can generate during its duration is quite impressive. There are two problems, however. First, pursuing auto-attack builds on Zeratul is a very dicey proposition given how squishy he is. Second, Zeratul’s other heroic ability is a game breaker.





(R) Void Prison

100 Mana

Heroic Ability

Cooldown: 100 seconds



Trap ALL targets for 5 seconds, making them become invulnerable. You are not affected.



Void Prison is one of those abilities that is so good that the rest of the hero’s kit almost doesn’t matter. It is also very difficult to use to maximum effect, and infamously hazardous in the hands of inexperienced Zeratul players.



Void Prison freezes and removes from the arena all heroes, minions, buildings, and mercs from the battlefield during the course of its 5-second duration. This includes friendly heroes, but not Zeratul. Anything caught in the Void Prison will be immune to all damage and effects. Anything that enters the Void Prison after it is cast will also be under the Void Prison’s effects for the balance of its duration. Merc camps and other objectives cannot be captured when a Void Prison is placed over them. Zeratul can cancel Void Prison early by pressing R a second time. Simply put, this ability is tremendously powerful and versatile in application. Let’s review some of its uses:



Teamfight Initiation: This is Void Prison’s best and most powerful use. A well-placed Void Prison can trap multiple enemy players (even the entire team). This gives Zeratul’s team five seconds to perfectly position themselves to destroy the trapped players. The combo potential is absolutely devastating. Zeratul can make it child’s play for other heroes like ETC, Jaina, and Valla to land their big, heavy hitting abilities on multiple enemy heroes. Good teamfight initiation is critical to a team’s success in HotS. Zeratul is one of the best at doing it.

About a month ago, Blizzard announced that Zeratul and Valla were the two most balanced heroes in HotS. Within weeks of that announcement, Blizzard nerfed them both. Go figure.The nerf on Zeratul was particularly significant: Double Bombs now only grants 50% damage on the second casting of Singularity Spike. The significance of this change was obvious: Zeratul’s burst potential with the popular Wormhole/Double Bombs build had taken a huge hit. This begged the questions of whether Zeratul was still a good, viable hero, and whether other builds need a second look.Now that Zeratul is a hero in flux, it is time to take a fresh look at the iconic Dark Templar and see precisely where he stands and how best to utilize his very particular set of skills.Let’s first take a look at Zeratul’s kit and see what he can do.Automatically cloak when out of combat for 3 seconds. Taking damage, attacking, or channeling reveals you.As in StarCraft, Zeratul’s defining characteristic in HotS is his ability to cloak and move around the battlefield virtually unseen. Receiving and dealing damage will make Zeratul visible again, as will using most other abilities, mounting, and recalling to base. Like with Nova, a shimmer will appear wherever Zeratul is moving. Accordingly, Zeratul can be hunted down even while cloaked if the enemy sees where he is. Nevertheless, cloak is invaluable for two reasons. First, Zeratul will not appear on the enemy team’s minimap when cloaked. This gives him virtually free reign to traverse the battlefield as long as he stays away from where enemy players are likely looking on screen. Second, Zeratul is almost completely invisible when he is not moving. There is only a slight shimmer from his idle animation, which is very difficult to see. This opens up some interesting ambush and escape opportunities for Zeratul. This also means that hiding in brush can be counterproductive for Zeratul. It often is better to just stand still out in the open than to stand in the brush where a team may actually go look for you. Still, be mindful of the fact that Zeratul still has collision when cloaked, meaning that Zeratul can give away his position if enemy heroes collide with him while moving and notice a deviation to their movement path.40 ManaCooldown: 6 secondsDeals (92 + 17 per level) damage to nearby enemies.Executing a spinning slash, cleave does flat damage to all enemies within a given radius of Zeratul. Critically, Cleave gives Zeratul the all-important ability to clear minion waves and merc camps. Through talents, Zeratul can increase the range and damage of the skill.60 ManaSkillshotCooldown: 12 secondsFlings a Singularity Spike that sticks to the first enemy hit. Deals 120 + 20 per level damage after 1 second and slows the enemy by 40% for 3 seconds.This skill shot ability gives Zeratul additional single-target damage and a brief slow. This is his primary assassination skill. Talents provide increased range, the option to turn the ability into an area of effect nuke, and the ability to fire off a second bomb for 50% damage.75 ManaCooldown: 10 secondsTeleport to the target location. Using this Ability does not break cloak.This is arguably Zeratul’s most important ability. Blink gives Zeratul an instant teleport on a 10-second cooldown. In other words, Blink is Zeratul’s “Get out of Jail Free” card. Zeratul’s probability of escaping death is directly correlated to whether Blink is on cooldown or not. That said, Blink also has incredible offensive potential, allowing Zeratul to stick to targets far better than most everyone else and execute some truly sick body-blocking maneuvers. As a general rule, I recommend that new Zeratul players never use Blink offensively, no matter how tempting. Only experienced players should do it. The penalty for being over-aggressive (death) is too steep. Talents can reduce the cooldown of Blink and, with Wormhole at level 13, Blink becomes a two-way teleportation mechanism such that Zeratul can blink back to where he initially blinked from if he activates Blink again within 3 seconds. More on this later.100 ManaHeroic AbilityCooldown: 100 secondsYour Basic Attacks cause you to charge at enemies and have +20% Attack Speed. Lasts for 6 seconds.Shadow Assault is a pure assassination skill. When activated, it grants Zeratul both an attack speed steroid and the ability to instantly teleport to any auto-attack target that is within range. Levelling it again at level 20 provides life leach and a longer duration. This skill is best used in auto-attack centric builds. The damage that it can generate during its duration is quite impressive. There are two problems, however. First, pursuing auto-attack builds on Zeratul is a very dicey proposition given how squishy he is. Second, Zeratul’s other heroic ability is a game breaker.100 ManaHeroic AbilityCooldown: 100 secondsTrap ALL targets for 5 seconds, making them become invulnerable. You are not affected.Void Prison is one of those abilities that is so good that the rest of the hero’s kit almost doesn’t matter. It is also very difficult to use to maximum effect, and infamously hazardous in the hands of inexperienced Zeratul players.Void Prison freezes and removes from the arena all heroes, minions, buildings, and mercs from the battlefield during the course of its 5-second duration. This includes friendly heroes, but not Zeratul. Anything caught in the Void Prison will be immune to all damage and effects. Anything that enters the Void Prison after it is cast will also be under the Void Prison’s effects for the balance of its duration. Merc camps and other objectives cannot be captured when a Void Prison is placed over them. Zeratul can cancel Void Prison early by pressing R a second time. Simply put, this ability is tremendously powerful and versatile in application. Let’s review some of its uses:Teamfight Initiation: This is Void Prison’s best and most powerful use. A well-placed Void Prison can trap multiple enemy players (even the entire team). This gives Zeratul’s team five seconds to perfectly position themselves to destroy the trapped players. The combo potential is absolutely devastating. Zeratul can make it child’s play for other heroes like ETC, Jaina, and Valla to land their big, heavy hitting abilities on multiple enemy heroes. Good teamfight initiation is critical to a team’s success in HotS. Zeratul is one of the best at doing it.

Bad things are about to happen to Red Team.



Splitting the Enemy Team: Even if Zeratul is unable to use Void Prison to initiate a teamfight, he can still use Void Prison after the teamfight as begun to split the enemy team in half for five seconds. The best place to drop a Void Prison in this circumstance is on the enemy team’s back line, where the healers and ranged damage dealers are likely to be. This then frees up your team quickly kill the enemy frontline heroes. Just make sure that you don’t place Void Prison on either your teammates or their targets. With proper coordination and good Void Prison placement, Zeratul and his teammates can win shorthanded situations. For example:



Splitting the Enemy Team: Even if Zeratul is unable to use Void Prison to initiate a teamfight, he can still use Void Prison after the teamfight as begun to split the enemy team in half for five seconds. The best place to drop a Void Prison in this circumstance is on the enemy team’s back line, where the healers and ranged damage dealers are likely to be. This then frees up your team quickly kill the enemy frontline heroes. Just make sure that you don’t place Void Prison on either your teammates or their targets. With proper coordination and good Void Prison placement, Zeratul and his teammates can win shorthanded situations. For example:

Zeratul drops Void Prison on Azmodan and Valla to turn a 3v5 into a 3v3. Meanwhile, Blue Team assassinates Malfurion and prepares to turn on Jaina and ETC….





And the result is a wiped Red Team and the fall of Red Team’s top keep.



Disengaging from a Fight: As simple as it sounds. Is the enemy team running your team down? Drop a Void Prison on them and you’ll have all of the time in the world to disengage and run away.



Saving Teammates and Friendly Buildings: This is a very niche use, but you can use Void Prison to prevent friendly heroes and buildings from taking damage that they otherwise would take. For example, in core races, Void Prison can buy Zeratul’s team an extra 5 seconds to finish off the enemy core. This is significant.



Securing Map Objectives: I can’t even begin to count how many times I have secured an easy Dragon Knight with Zeratul just by dropping Void Prison on the enemy team players. It’s almost not fair. This will work on any map objective that can be secured in under 5 seconds. Dragon Knight is the main example at present. As Blizzard rolls out more maps, I’m sure that there will be other opportunities.



Disengaging from a Fight: As simple as it sounds. Is the enemy team running your team down? Drop a Void Prison on them and you’ll have all of the time in the world to disengage and run away.Saving Teammates and Friendly Buildings: This is a very niche use, but you can use Void Prison to prevent friendly heroes and buildings from taking damage that they otherwise would take. For example, in core races, Void Prison can buy Zeratul’s team an extra 5 seconds to finish off the enemy core. This is significant.Securing Map Objectives: I can’t even begin to count how many times I have secured an easy Dragon Knight with Zeratul just by dropping Void Prison on the enemy team players. It’s almost not fair. This will work on any map objective that can be secured in under 5 seconds. Dragon Knight is the main example at present. As Blizzard rolls out more maps, I’m sure that there will be other opportunities.

No chance.



Let’s move on to the rest of Zeratul’s Talents.





Hotslogs info on talent selection



Level 1

Let’s move on to the rest of Zeratul’s Talents.



Frankly, Zeratul’s level 1 talent options are very uninspired. Block, Regeneration Master, and Seasoned Marksman are common to many other heroes. Zeratul’s hero-specific talent choices aren’t very impactful. Greater Cleave only provides a radius boost to Cleave, and Rapid Displacement takes 1.5 seconds off of Blink’s cooldown. Interestingly, the probable worst talent available – Greater Cleave – is the most popular as of the writing of this article. Just don’t pick it. If you consistently need the extended range on Cleave, then you’re doing something wrong. In the past, Block and Rapid Displacement have been popular takes. For my money, the best talents available here are the two most generally overlooked ones: Regeneration Master and Seasoned Marksman.



Zeratul players have long unfairly neglected Regeneration Master, which is an absolute shame. Regeneration Master provides Zeratul with constant health regeneration of about 1-1.5% of his total health pool per second, depending upon his rate of orb collection. That may not sound like much, but consider how Zeratul is played. He is at his best roaming the map looking for targets of opportunity. He generally does not commit himself to prolonged fights. Instead, he goes in, does his damage, and gets out. If he is out of combat for just 10 seconds, Zeratul will passively recover 10-15% of his health with this talent. This allows Zeratul to remain in the field far longer than he otherwise could. It also opens up the possibility of safely taking merc camps (especially enemy Siege Giant camps) and clearing creep waves without running too low on health and having to go back to base to heal. Regeneration Master is a deceptively good talent on Zeratul.



Seasoned Marksman is the go-to level 1 talent for any auto-attack centric Zeratul build. With his burst build being nerfed, this talent is likely going to get a second look very soon. Note that the Seasoned Marksman damage bonus is added to Zeratul’s base damage before other attack damage modifiers like Searing Attacks, Assassin’s Blade, and Nexus Blades are factored in. This means that a +40 bonus at level 20 becomes a +78 bonus with all of those modifiers active. Cool, right?



Level 4





This is one of the worst selections of talents at a given level for any hero. Focused Attack and Vampiric Assault are outright bad. Vorpal Blade is fairly useless given how well Zeratul sticks to targets already with Blink. Sustained Anomaly was interesting before Double Bombs got nerfed, but now it just seems underpowered. This leaves Gathering Power as the default level 4 talent, even though it has lost a bit of its luster following its recent nerf from a 20% ability power bonus to 15%.



Level 7





I really like Searing Attacks, Void Slash, and Shadow Spike. Each of these talents has their uses depending upon Zeratul’s build. The problem is that First Aid is a sine qua non. Zeratul simply has to have it to survive, regardless of how he is built.



Level 10





Unsurprisingly, Void Prison is the overwhelming favorite. Nothing more to comment on here.



Level 13





Traditionally, Wormhole has been the go-to talent at this tier. The increased mobility and the ability to freely use Blink offensively are simply awesome. The problem, however, is that Zeratul’s burst damage has been nerfed as a consequence of the change to Double Bombs. Therefore, this is a tier where players should consider some offensive options to fill the void. Because he doesn’t like to hang around in teamfights, Burning Rage is just awful on Zeratul, so let’s skip that. Giant Killer is sub-optimal because Zeratul should generally not be attacking high-health targets like tanks. He needs to be on the squishies. Assassin’s Blade suits this purpose very well. A 5-second, 25% bonus to Zeratul’s already-high-damage auto-attacks is no joke. At level 16, Zeratul attacks 1.11 times per second for 242 damage (without Seasoned Marksman). Without any further attack speed steroid, Zeratul will attack 5 times during the 5-second Assassin’s Blade period, doing an additional 302.5 damage. Presuming full stacks of Gathering Power, this can make up for the 253 damage lost from having Double Bombs nerfed. With some stacks of Seasoned Marksman, Assassin’s Blade does even more damage. Yes, the damage from Assassin’s Blade is not instant. But keep in mind that this is a Level 13 talent it, so its damage bonus comes at a time when Zeratul’s burst is starting to wane before hitting Level 16. The result is a more even power curve for Zeratul. And for those Zeratul players who want to do an auto-attack build, this talent is a no-brainer selection. I fully expect to see Assassin’s Blade get more play.



Level 16





Double Bombs was, and probably still is, the go-to talent at this tier. Though nerfed, the bonus burst damage is still pretty good. Rending Cleave and Berserk are starting to see some additional looks now. Rending Cleave is the best selection for those Zeratuls that took Void Slash at level 7, and Berserk is probably the best selection for those who are pursuing auto-attack builds – particularly those who took Shadow Assault. The problems with Berserk, however, are the short duration, the long cooldown, and the resulting degree to which Zeratul players are screwed if they are interrupted/stunned after activating it. I tend to think that Blizzard needs to buff the skill overall.



Let’s just ignore that Stoneskin is an option here. It should be replaced with something more interesting (and probably will).



Level 20





This is another rough tier for talent selection. Nerazim Fury is an option for auto-attack Zeratuls who have Shadow Assault, but more often than not, they’d be better served getting Nexus Blades. Protective Prison is hot garbage and should be ignored. This leaves Rewind and Nexus Blades as the two most viable options. Rewind now effectively lets Zeratul fire off three full bombs (2 full bombs and 2 half bombs) and two Cleaves. This isn’t a trivial amount of damage. But what are you left with after blowing your load on one enemy hero? What if he’s still not dead? Because of this, I foresee Nexus Blades becoming more popular, especially when used in builds that also utilize Seasoned Marksman and Assassin’s Blade. Presuming 40 stacks of Seasoned Marksman, a Level 20 Zeratul will do 484 damage per hit with Assassin’s Blade and Nexus Blades. That’s a lot.



II. Builds



Looking at all of the above, it is very clear that Zeratul fits the mold of a stealthy, burst assassin. He has both naturally high auto-attack damage and two skills that provide excellent burst damage. Cleave has the added bonus of being a decent wave clearing skill, allowing Zeratul to be far more versatile than his ranged counterpart, Nova. Zeratul also can seize some merc camps and take other objectives. In short, Zeratul can do far more than just kill heroes efficiently.



Zeratul’s damage potential is offset by a low health pool no natural damage mitigation. Zeratul’s defense is his stealth and the mobility from Blink, which is on a 10-second cooldown. The obvious conclusion reached by most Zeratul players was that Zeratul is not built for slugging it out in the fray of team combat. He needs to get in, drop his damage, and get out before getting tagged by the enemy team. So let’s look at some builds.



The Classic Burst Build



1: Block/Regeneration Master

4: Gathering Power

7: First Aid

10: Void Prison

13: Wormhole

16: Double Bombs

20: Rewind



The most popular Zeratul build by the end of the HotS Alpha came to be one that maximized Zeratul’s burst potential and mobility. The key talents taken were Gathering Power at level 4, Wormhole at level 13, Double Bombs at level 16, and Bolt of the Storm at level 20. Wormhole was particularly critical, because it opened up the offensive usage of Blink or Zeratul. Specifically, it allowed Zeratul engage a hero with Blink, drop all of his damage (usually killing the target if it was squishy), and Blink back to his starting place – all within three seconds. For whatever reason, Blizzard decided that it would be a good idea to remove Bolt of the Storm and give Zeratul Rewind at level 20 in the Lost Vikings patch, effectively turning Zeratul into a quad-bombing, burst monster at level 20. And yes, using Rewind, some very naughty things were done with Zeratul. A change was warranted. But for whatever reason, Blizzard decided to nerf Double Bombs instead of revisiting Rewind.



This nerf to Double Bombs significantly hurts Zeratul’s late game ability to quickly kill enemy heroes. In most circumstances, Zeratul will be unable to 100-0 a target within the Wormhole interval, which has a couple important implications. First, this means that Zeratul needs help from teammates to kill targets. In teamfights, this likely will result in Zeratul having to fight somewhere in the middle of the fray as opposed to on the periphery. This is not really where he wants to be. Second, if Zeratul does attack someone on the periphery, his inability to kill that target in a timely fashion will make it very difficult for him to escape. Smart teams turn on Zeratul and kill him as soon as he shows up.



I suspect that this build will continue to see a lot of use for the foreseeable future. But as a Zeratul player, I am not sure that it is Zeratul’s best option anymore.



Auto-attack Zeratul



1: Seasoned Marksman

4: Focused Attack

7: Searing Attacks

10: Shadow Assault

13: Assassin’s Blade

16: Berserk

20: Nexus Blades



At the other end of the spectrum, we have the full auto-attack Zeratul build. This is a dangerous, glass-cannon build that puts out a ton of sustained damage. At Level 20, with all abilities activated and 40 stacks of seasoned marksman, Zeratul deals 651 damage per hit with 1.33 attacks per second. Ouch. Combined with Cleave and Singularity Spike, Zeratul is going to kill anyone pretty damned quickly if left to his own devices. But that’s the rub. Good players will never leave an enemy Zeratul to his own devices, meaning that an auto-attack Zeratul needs to be incredibly careful when picking his spots to go all in. The other problem is that burst healing makes it very difficult to actually finish an enemy off. Doing a lot of damage means little when no one dies.



Hybrid Zeratul



1: Seasoned Marksman

4: Gathering Power

7: First Aid

10: Void Prison

13: Assassin’s Blade

16: Double Bombs

20: Nexus Blades



Between the two extremes of the Classic Burst and Auto-attack builds, there are a lot of options for melding the two. This particular hybrid build combines a lot of burst potential with most of the damage from the auto-attack build. It is safer than the Auto-attack build in that it utilizes First Aid. It sacrifices Wormhole for the added damage of Assassin’s Blade, which is the most critical tradeoff. This means that Blink cannot always be used safely as an offensive, engagement tool. Instead, Blink must be preserved as an escape. This has become my go-to Zeratul build.



III. Gameplay



Now that we have talked about how to build Zeratul, let’s discuss what Zeratul players should be doing during all three phases of the game: the laning phase, the mid-game phase, and the end-game deathball phase.



The Laning Phase



For the first 10 levels, Zeratul is a hero who should always be roaming between the lanes looking for opportunities to gank enemy heroes and secure early kills. With stealth, high damage, and Blink, he excels at this. Zeratul should be at whichever lane that the enemy has pushed in the most. This gives Zeratul the most room to secure a kill before the enemy hero can retreat behind a gate. The basic gank mechanic is this:



1. Signal to your teammate(s) in lane whom you want to kill.

2. Let your teammate(s) engage the target first.

3. While mounted, run behind the target to cut the target off from escape. Do not use Blink to engage.

4. Start attacking the target.

5. If necessary, use Blink to body block the target one last time to secure the kill. This is why you need to save Blink, which is particularly important when trying to kill heroes with escape abilities such as Valla and Sylvanas. Do not be afraid to execute the body block underneath enemy towers if you have enough health, but also make sure that you are not committing suicide by doing so – particularly if you took Gathering Power.



The best lanes to gank are those where your teammates have some form of CC available (stuns, roots, or slows) and where the potential targets are squishy targets.



If you take Seasoned Marksman or Regeneration Master, you can accumulate a fair number of stacks by roaming between the lanes. In general, you should only stay in one particular lane if either your teammates cannot hold against a particular pusher composition and need help or if no one else is available to soak a lane, because someone on your team died.



The Mid-game Phase



As the game enters the mid-game phase, Zeratul’s duties expand. He should continue to roam between lanes looking for targets of opportunity and pushing back minion waves as needed. However, Zeratul should also roam the map, keeping tabs on what the enemy team is doing. In particular, check their merc camps to see whether an easy kill can be secured. The Zeratul players that will succeed the most during this phase are the ones with a keen sense of map awareness. In other words, they’ll know where the enemy team is and what the enemy team is doing just by looking at the minimap – even if not all of the enemy heroes are visible. This is also the time to start hunting enemy Abathurs.



Regardless, make sure that you stay with your team when everyone gathers to seize map objectives or otherwise attack and defend forts. Be very conscious of what is happening on the minimap so that you are never out of position.



It will be during this phase that some of the larger teamfights will begin to occur, so let’s review what Zeratul’s role in these fights is. We will leave Void Prison out of this analysis given that its usage is discussed above. Zeratul’s job, as the assassin, is to kill someone important as quickly as possible and not die in the process. It’s a simple enough concept, but it’s very difficult in practice. Here are some things that should be considered:



1. The target must be squishy. As a general rule, never, ever, try to burst down a tank at the start of a 5v5 teamfight.



2. The target must be vulnerable. Only attack someone that you are likely to kill. Targets without escape abilities or hard CC should be prioritized. If the target has some kind of CC, wait for that ability to be used. Also, your target needs to be sufficiently isolated such that there’s minimal risk of other enemy team players turning on you and killing you. Do not dive the entire enemy backline by yourself. Bad things will happen.



3. Ideally, the target should be a critical component of the enemy team’s composition. This will typically be a damage dealer or a healer. Heroes like Valla, Tychus, Falstad, and Zagara usually should be considered priorities. If the enemy team has a lone healer, assassinating that hero is often the better option. Whatever you do, make sure that you coordinate your target (as best as possible) with the rest of your team. This is particularly important if your team has a dive composition, using someone like Tyrael to initiate fights on vulnerable targets.



Keep two things in mind for teamfights. First, always wait for your team to engage before attacking. If you show yourself too early, you’re just going to die. Second, do not use Blink to engage unless there’s a very, very good reason to do so. After you attack (and hopefully kill) your target, there’s a good chance that the enemy team is going to turn on you. Make sure that you can get away.



With your initial target dead, move on to the next target, who will likely be the hero that your team presently focusing on. Depending upon the circumstances (particularly your positioning relative to your team), it may make sense to temporarily disengage from the fight, mount, and recloak before attacking again. If your team is winning, ruthlessly hunt down anyone who tries to flee. Zeratul is one of the best mop-up artists in the game.



The Late Game Phase



When the late game rolls around, Zeratul should generally stop roaming and stay with the team. Ganking opportunities will basically disappear as the enemy team starts to stay grouped as well. The most likely thing to happen when roaming alone is death, which often leads to an instant loss at this stage in the game. The risk is not worth it.



IV. Final Thoughts



Now that we have covered what Zeratul can and should be doing, let’s review when he should be picked. If we consider that the three core functions that any team needs to cover are tanking, dealing damage, and healing, it should be noted that Zeratul does not fill any of those roles by himself. He certainly can provide a lot of burst damage, but he should not be relied upon to be a team’s primary damage dealer. Squishy melee assassins are ill-suited for that role. This is particularly true of Zeratul who generally will not maintain a sustained presence in a teamfight. Typically, Zeratul carefully picks his spots to attack, dumps as much damage as he can, and runs before he dies. He is not a hero who can afford to spam damage to pad his stats. Zeratul, for this reason, often will have low hero damage figures in game.



Instead of a primary damage dealer, think of Zeratul as a fourth or fifth pick (though he may very well be taken out of order) utility hero. Unlike Nova, Zeratul fits very well on most teams because of his versatility. He is particularly potent on teams with wombo combo potential, having great synergy with any heroes who lick their chops when they see lots of enemy heroes trapped in a Void Prison.



Other heroes with a global presence can enhance Zeratul’s ganking ability. Abathur is Zeratul’s BFF (as long as he’s on Zeratul’s team, otherwise Zeratul treats Abathur like a lover scorned). Symbiote on Zeratul makes almost everyone killable in ganks. It is an incredibly strong combination that is outright devastating when a good Abathur and a good Zeratul work in tandem. Brightwing is another hero who can work wonders when paired with Zeratul, particularly in the mid-game. When Zeratul roams and finds targets of opportunity, good ol’ Brightwing can Phase Shift right to him, dumping Envenom, Polymorph, and other nastiness on Zeratul’s target, virtually guaranteeing a kill. For the not-so-good Zeratul players among us, Brightwing can also be a life preserver, bailing Zeratul out of bad ganks and over-aggressive play.



Because of Zeratul’s overall utility, there aren’t too many team compositions where he does not fit. Only four major cases come to mind. First, do not pick Zeratul if your team is light on CC. It is too critical of a team component to leave out. Second, be wary of picking Zeratul as a fourth melee hero on the team. Most of the time, your team will be better off with second ranged hero. Third, if your team really needs a second damage dealer to crank out a lot of damage in teamfights, and if your team otherwise does not have wombo combo potential, then pick someone other than Zeratul. Lastly, Nova is not a good partner for Zeratul. Yes, dual stealth ganks are cute, but the problem is that Nova provides zero utility to the team outside of killing heroes. She cannot sit in lane. She cannot push. She cannot take merc camps. What inevitably happens in games where Nova and Zeratul are on the same team is that Zeratul gets knocked off his game as he is forced to cover for Nova’s shortcomings.



Nor does Zeratul have any particularly weak maps. His weakest might be Haunted Mines. Though he is not a particularly good siege hero, Zeratul thrives in the chaos of the mines and is a very adept skull collector. In contrast, Zeratul absolutely excels on any map that requires a lot of player rotation between lanes. Blackheart’s Bay, Dragonshire, and Tomb of the Spider Queen are all excellent maps for Zeratul. Tomb of the Spider Queen should probably be renamed to “Zeratul’s Paradise.”



Now, let me throw an idea out there that may seem a little controversial: there is no hard counter to Zeratul. No, Tassadar is not a hard counter to Zeratul, nor are burst healers, nor anyone else who makes Zeratul’s life of stealthy assassination more difficult. There are plenty of heroes who can beat Zeratul in a straight-up, mano-a-mano fight, but they aren’t hard counters to Zeratul, either. Zeratul does not play by any traditional rules. He makes his own. The fact of the matter is that a good Zeratul can play around anything and anyone, because asymmetric warfare is Zeratul’s game. The real upper limits of Zeratul play are not realized through mechanical prowess. Mechanically, he is one of the easier heroes to play. Zeratul’s real limits are the cunning and creativity of the player using him. As a Zeratul player, your specialties are creating opportunities for your team and ruthlessly punishing the mistakes of the opposition. It does not really matter which heroes are on the enemy team when you are continuously putting them in shorthanded situations. And I promise you, from Rank 50 to Rank 1, those opportunities will always be there.



Good hunting.

