Important Note: There are 4 separate builds in the chart above, hover over the picture and click the left and right arrows on the picture to cycle through them. They correspond to the advice and discussion below.

In the section above you may notice some characters listed as a high threat that don't make sense. I've tried to add notes where possible.

Characters are marked as a threat if:

A) They have skills or talents that can get around your build. For example Falstad and Li-Ming dash around the battle field and won't care about your Zoner build. If 1-2 heroes can ignore you in a team fight then it tips the odds.

B) You need to be more 'aware' of them then usual. For example, longer stuns/traps like that of Nazeebo and E.T.C. can cause a real challenge for Xul as it allows other heroes to easily gank him and he is slow to escape. Be more aware of these heroes and their distance from you than you are on other characters.

Xul is an interesting character that is about to shake up the games meta. In Blizzard's promo video we learn that the goal of Necromancers is to maintain the balance between different forces and Xul embodies that perfectly. Xul's responsive style isn't designed for one style of play or for a specific build to win out but rather for a character that responds to maps, team comps, and events throughout the match. A good Xul won't follow a specific build but will be dynamic and responsive.

In this guide I've outlined 4 main build types but you should expect to shift between them responding to your enemy team and match development. A good Xul should have a strong understanding not only of the maps but of their opponents. Being aware of if the enemy's team revolves around bruisers you can zone out or healers whose power you can limit is the key to leading your undead army to victory.

Be sure to cycle through the four builds above to get a feel for each so you know how to respond on the battlefield

As mentioned above there are a few main build types that Xul can embody, but since a player can expect to move dynamically through them we'll outline the goals behind each build in this stage of the guide.

While your goal should be to respond to enemy changes there is an obvious added benefit to selecting the right response early game and being able to build bonuses on a specific stream of abilities.

The Pusher:
One of Xul's best strengths is his ability to maintain a push. His raise the dead trait will summon up to 4 skeletons from the deaths of enemy minions that will help Xul in his lane, and his ability to rapidly clear minion waves with cursed strikes allow him to build on this push quite rapidly. In times when your team has the clear upper hand, or has strong harassment abilities to distract your enemies this build is the right choice. Being able to play it along side other strong pushing enemies such as Abathur or Zagara may also allow you to overwhelm your enemy's in lanes while you respond to map objectives.

The Zoner:
On maps where objectives rely heavily on a few second engagement (Cursed Hollow, Towers of Doom, and Tomb of the Spider Queen) Xul commands the battlefield with multiple stacking slows and his skeletal mages to buy his team those few precious moments in heated situations. On other maps his ability to control the flow of a fight from within the fray allows him to split off tanks and healers from damage-strong enemies or to quickly negate a surprise attack.

The Sweeper:
Aside from burst damage assassins like Li-Ming, Jaina and Kael'thas, very few characters have the ability to sweep out an entire 5 man team. This build on Xul is great as part of an aggressive team that is heavy on tanks or support. Xul quickly engages enemies in the fray, locking the key target into a bone prism most enemy teams will take this moment to respond, Xul can then take this time to launch his Poison Nova, his bone armor and then his cursed strikes to focus on cleaning out his enemies. Remaining foes can be easily brought down by a spectral scythe or agile ranged assassins on the ally team.

The Nullifier:
Perhaps Xul's, largest impact to the meta will be his ability to neutralize healing heroes usefulness in battle from the front-lines. In a normal fight Assassins are challenged to break the enemy front-line in order to put pressure on a healer. Xul's level 20 talent "Moral Wound" brings an end to that by being able to reduce the impact of healing for 75% for 4 seconds on any target, allowing his team to focus on the front line tanks and breakthrough. This build is a great counter to teams with Reghar or Lt. Morales, but the strategy of focusing the front-line will require a strong amount of damage from your allied team.

Pros:

• Sturdy Lane Pusher
• Effective at Zoning
• High PVP output
• Can nerf healing
• Dynamic game play

Cons:

• Slow
• Minimal escape
• Limited range
• Dynamic play challenging for indecisive players
• Requires knowledge of enemy team's heroes

[1]Bone Armor Activate to gain a Shield equal to 25% of your maximum Health for 3 seconds.

[Q]Spectral Scythe Summon a scythe at target location that travels toward you after a 1-second delay, damaging enemies in its path.

[W]Cursed Strikes Once activated, your Basic Attacks over the next 4 seconds deal damage in a wide arc and reduce the Attack Speed of enemies hit by 50% for 2 seconds.

[E]Bone Prison After a 2-second delay, root target enemy in place for 2 seconds

Backlash is a must have for the sweeper build. Upon expiration of Backlash your armor will damage enemies for a whopping 15% of their maximum health. Activating this after the first few seconds of your engagement will cause it to expire just as enemies are starting to pull out of a fight allowing you to put in a burst of unexpected damage and clean up with a well placed scythe.

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This tier 1 ability is perfect for the sweeper or the zoner, being able to stack on additional slow to an enemy to control the flow of battle. In dire situations this can even be used for Xul to act as an almost-off-tank absorbing the damage with his 65% shield and applying a 1 second slow when squishy teammates are on their last legs. This may be tempting to couple with Executioner for damage builds but it's important to note that in most cases +40% of basic attacks for 4 seconds will not outweigh the 15% of max health damage caused by backlash

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Shade is another strong choice for teams that go heavy on auto attack. If you plan to push or sweep on a team against enemies like Valla, Raynor or Illidan this skill will help keep you in the head of the battle longer and capable of pushing out far more damage.

This skill is the go to when looking to sweep or push as it allows you to put your scythe on the far end of enemy minion waves when they are still in a line, or gives you a few more seconds of time advantage to close the deal on a fleeing enemy.

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If you're playing a zoning game then Jailors is a great pick for you, on maps like on Cursed Hollows where a single poke can sway an objective this skill is great to drop on to a fleeing enemy, it helps to counter the enemies natural regen lowering their ability to be aggressive.

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In a pure pushing build this skill is a strong choice when stacked with later skeletal buffs as it helps relieve your dependence on wells or hearthing and lets you easily rack up extra XP for your team. In a match where you expect to be able to maintain map control in the early game this is an ideal choice to help steamroll your XP advantage.

Weaken is the top skill in my mind for most of these builds forcing down the enemy attack speed significantly. In the event that auto-attack doesn't matter to the enemy you'd be better served with one of the other choices, but those builds are rare in the current meta.

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If you're looking to play the sweeper style against a team that doesn't have a strong auto-attack build then this is the choice for you. Once again with how Xul operates the longer you can stay in the fray of battle and dish out damage, slows, and stuns the better.

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If your playing the lane push and finding at this point you've managed to maintain strong map control in at least two lanes feel free to grab this skill and keep the pressure up. This combined with bone shield can be a saving grace during a surprise attack if your cursed strikes are active and enemy minions are in range.

When picking your ultimate on Xul don't solely focus on your current build strategy but take a moment to consider your play style as well if your experienced in casting strategic walls or stuns then Skeletal Mages can still be a great choice for sweep focused characters.

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This is the right choice when looking to sweep, your ability to pour out a massive amount of damage with this skill makes you a nightmare during the course of a battle. Your DPS outweighs most healing options in the game and can be strongly buffed at level 20. When fighting opponents who are less confident and experienced on their heroes this amount of poison damage usually causes a scattered reaction allowing you to zone out key teammates. (Also the victorious irony that can be unleashed when dropping a poison crusade on Nova is fantastic).

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The mage wall is the perfect choice for zoning and maps like Cursed Hollows and Towers of doom. A wall of damage producing and slowing mages can help block off or split up enemy teams that attempt to poke or engage you on an objective point. However this skill also has a lot of great use when thrown behind an enemy on the Nullifier build allowing your to split off the healer even further, or can make great plays being thrown behind a squishy fleeing assassin in a lane fight. This skill has also shown a lot of promise in lane pushing as it can distract minion waves and waste tower ammo.

Adding to your Sycthes slow enemies will now slow by 40% for 3 seconds, this is a great way to finish off fleeing foes or to zone out assassins and healers during a team fight. This is the right choice for zoning plays or nullifier builds.

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This is the best choice, by far, for sweeping Xul's, cursed strikes already devastate a wide AoE and dealing an additional 2% of an enemy's hero max health to multiple enemies allows you to close down a team fight fast.

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This is a powerful trait for lane pushing but one I'd like to have seen earlier in the game. If you are still controlling lanes at this point going a bit more aggressive on Xul may be the right choice, and your XP contribution should put your team a levels above the enemy due to consistent control. The only case for taking this is when you are facing a team with a bad composition that your teammates can control/distract allowing you to split push 2 lanes (An example may be the top two lanes on Blackheart's Bay).

Executioner is a power trait for a melee heavy character who has his own stun. You'll be able to deal 40% more damage to slowed rooted or stunned enemies with your basic attacks making this a great choice for zoners or sweepers.

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Flowing wounds doesn't have a strong case for being picked unless you feel your missing out on closing a lot of kills in a team fight. If fleeing enemies cause issue then a reduction in your Spectral Sycthe's cooldown poses some value.

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This is the go to choice for zoning out enemies if you have a damage heavy ally team. Enemies rooted by the Bone Prison become Vulnerable for 2 seconds taking an increased 65% damage. While this trait is strong make sure to only pick it in teams with clear shot-calling and communication. If you are relying on your team to note the grab and respond without communication you'll be wasting this bonus. In situations where you go it alone the Executioner skill allows you to push out more solo damage.

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The case for this in the late game seems minimal, however, there is the rare occasion where minion waves are decending through a lane and cause undue pressure on your keeps or core in the late game (especially true if your facing an Abathur or Zagara), this choice is your go to in the event you need to regain a lane due to strong enemy minion pressure, a lost keep or a lack of soak in the late game.

This is a great skill for nullifiers allowing you to add on an additional 1% of an enemies max health per second for the duration of poison storms damage, which works great for slowed enemies in a group. It can also make some strong plays in a sweeper build if you face a lot of auto-attack enemies but Bone Spear will serve you better against assassins. Last but not least this is great for closing matches against squishy assassins or agile characters (you're mine Murky!)

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This skill increases the slowing impact of your mage wall from 40%-50% and summons a frost mage from the corpse of any fallen foe upon their death. This skill can quickly turn the tide of 5v5 fights and is powerful for fights inside the enemies base or lanes. When outside of lanes, or in small fights the upside isn't there to justify this choice all the time.

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This is the definitive skill that makes Xul a responder and not simply a specific build. I've heard some complaints that this skill comes in the late game, but that's exactly when it should appear. By level 20 you know the flow of the game, you know if you need more attack power, more zoning or if Lt. Morales is constantly forcing the tide of your battles. This is no doubt the right choice for the Nullify build (hell its the only reason its a separate build), but it can make a great choice for sweepers or zoners in late game that are facing a strong support team.

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Bone spear is one of the skills is a strong damage oriented skill with a quick cooldown, its also one that travels through enemies dishing out major damage. It's a great choice for sweepers who are going for an aggressive late game.

While a lot of the build choice comes down to what your enemy team composition is, and how they are playing this particular match its worth going into each match with a lay of the battlefield and an understanding about how you can play to those specific objectives:

Cursed Hollows Cursed Hollows lends itself well to the zoning build due to objectives where enemy teams can try and poke to maintain control. The narrow engage points also make this a great map for Skeletal Mages to trap an enemy for a fleeing kill.

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Towers of Doom This is another map where zoning control can really make or break the map. Since pushing isn't key to this map you can throw that build aside and focus on objective control or taking care of healers as the nullifier

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Blackheart's Bay While in this map you won't contest for objectives in the same way as the ones above it's worth taking into consideration the fact that zoning out a turn in can lead to a quick shifting tide in this map as you can claim the enemy coins. In this map I like to focus on zoning or an aggressive split push on the top two lanes.

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Sky Temple Due to the need to hold single positions for an extended period on this map then it makes the most sense to go sweeper style and focus on bursts of damage output. The only exception to this is cases where your enemy team lacks wave clear in the early game and can be easily controlled. In this case take the pusher build to maintain map control while your team clears objectives.

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Dragon Shire Just like on Sky Temple this map requires holding a position, while zoning could be valuable noting is as effective as a good offensive strike. Push the sweeper build for maximum damage.

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Garden of Terror With objectives being in the center of the map pushing enemy minion waves results in the opposing team being forced to choose between responding or giving up XP and buildings to your assault. Another option is zoning depending on the enemies build, but an effective push here can ruin their ability to aggressively collect seeds.

March 9th:
After some community discussion and more play time on Xul I've made a few changes to really polish these builds.

1) Sweeper builds now suggest Bone Spear instead of Call of the Grave for your late game pickup. There is just a way better damage output from that build unless you are facing a super tanky team where the 1% damage helps.

2) Based on community suggestions I've changed out some talents in the Nullifier build to up the focus on the spectral scythe. Adding further reach and slows will really help keep the pressure on the enemy team

3) In our Pusher build we changed out Backlash for Shade after it was noted that Backlash does nothing for minions.

4) Also in the Pusher build we changed out Poison Nova for Dead Mages who can help drain tower ammo in lane.