Summary Top
Too many people are still hung up on the
Living Bomb build of the past, with the nerf to
Chain Bomb &
Fission Bomb and the inclusion of
Pyromaniac &
Fury of the Sunwell his
Flamestrike is way more effective for damage potential. I keep seeing people using
Living Bomb builds in every game and argueing that its the best build because its top picked on hotslogs, so I decided to make my own guide to explain why this one is more effective in detail.
Trait
Verdant Spheres
(D)
Cooldown: 6 seconds
Activate to make your next Basic Ability more powerful. Has a 6 second cooldown.
Abilities
Flamestrike
(Q)
Mana: 70
Cooldown: 7 seconds
After a short delay, deal 102 (+22 per level) damage in an area. Has a 7 second cool down.
Verdant Spheres increases the radius by 50% and deals 153 (+33 per level) damage.
Living Bomb
(W)
Mana: 50
Cooldown: 10 seconds
Deal 82 (+22 per level) damage over 3 seconds to an enemy, then they explode dealing 41 (+11 per level) damage to all nearby enemies. Casting a second Living Bomb on an enemy causes the previous Living Bomb to explode immediately. Has a 10 second cooldown.
Verdant Spheres makes this Ability cost no Mana and have no cooldown.
Gravity Lapse
(E)
Mana: 85
Cooldown: 13 seconds
Stun the first enemy hit for 1.5 seconds. Has a 13 second cooldown.
Verdant Spheres causes Gravity Lapse to stun the first 3 enemies hit
Heroic Abilities
Heroic Abilities
Phoenix
(R)
Mana: 40
Cooldown: 40 seconds
Launch a Phoenix to an area, dealing 10 (+8 per level) damage to enemies along the way. The Phoenix persists for 7 seconds, attacking enemies for 10 (+8 per level) damage and splashing for 50% . Has a 40 second cooldown.
Pyroblast
(R)
Mana: 80
Cooldown: 50 seconds
After 2 seconds, cast a slow-moving fireball that deals 300 (+65 per level) damage to an enemy Hero and 150 (+32.5 per level) damage to enemies nearby. Has a 50 second cooldown.
The Combo Top
+
+
+
+
or
Your main source of damage is going to be
Flamestrike and your cooldown reduction is going to be from
Living Bomb, The reason you do
Flamestrike before
Living Bomb is because you want the extra 20% damage from
Convection while they are in
Gravity Lapse. With
Fury of the Sunwell+
Pyromaniac you will have a another
Flamestrike ready around the time the second
Flamestrike hits allowing you to basically spam
Flamestrike nonestop, It is extremely effective in closed area teamfights. This is why this build has much higher damage potential than the
Living Bomb
Chain Bomb build.
Talent Build Top
This talent is a toss up between
Mana Addict and
Convection. I personally prefer
Convection for the extra single target damage, but
Mana Addict can keep your mana up for a long time late game, especially on maps where you are out of lane for long periods of time.
Convection is just a preference here,
Mana Addict is a very good pick if you so prefer.
With the nerfs to
Envenom and
Gathering Power there is no reason to get either of these talent, especially with a talent like
Mana Tap. With a full wave clear using
Verdant Spheres+
Flamestrike you will gain about 35% of your mana back in 1 flamestrike, at early game you will have to weaken the waves a little bit before using
Flamestrike. Mid-game you will need to throw a
Living Bomb on the Mage creep in the middle for extra damage to get the waveclear. Late game a
Flamestrike alone will kill the whole wave and net you 35% mana return. This is IMO an essential Talent for any
Kael'thas build.
Because this build is not dependent on spreading
Living Bomb,
Fission Bomb is not essential, especially since it's taken nerf after nerf. It is still a good pick, but is IMO outshined by
Clairvoyance in this build.
Clairvoyance becomes the optimal pick with this build because it allows you to see potentially dangerous areas and helps keep your team informed of maybe someone grabbing a boss, or if someone is grabbing a camp. This Talent is helpful to your team and you.
Both of these
Heroics are extremely useful. If you think you can get the kills with the
Pyroblast and don't need the area control, go with
Pyroblast. The
Phoenix on the other hand gives extremely good presence in lanepushes and objective teamfights. Both are extremely good
Heroics and need to be picked based on the map you are on and what team you are facing.
Pyromaniac is a must have for this build. As explained earlier in the combo, by the time your second
Flamestrike is done, you will have another one ready to use with
Living Bomb not far behind to lower your cooldown again.
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Not much to say here,
Fury of the Sunwell is essential to this build and can't be replaced. with
Pyromaniac+
Fury of the Sunwell you will be a
Flamestrike producing machine.
This talent choice is very dependent on your situation. If you position well you shouldn't really need
Bolt of the Storm, but it is still a better choice over
Presence Of Mind as its very unlikely you will get more than a 10 second cooldown reduction.
Rebirth allows you to have
Phoenix up for 17 seconds, which is almost half of it's cooldown, so it is extremely effective. I personally go with
Rebirthif I go
Phoenix and
Bolt of the Storm if I go
Pyroblast.
Final Notes Top
This is what I believe to be the strongest Kael'thas build as far as dps goes, this is not to say that the
Chain Bomb with
Arcane Barrier is not an effective build, it just doesn't produce the same damage.
I will eventually update this with a video gameplay of the build in action for anyone skeptical about the build.
Please leave any feedback if you want, I'm always open to discussion.
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