Table of contents Top
This Guide Top
Welcome to this guide for everyone's favourite space slug,
Abathur! In this guide I will go over a unique playstyle of Abathur that includes his Monstrosity that I have not seen anyone else discuss in depth.
This build focuses around the
Evolve Monstrosity and its usage in a game. I believe this build to be viable in competetive in specific situations, when your team can support you and stay alive in teamfights. This guide I will be going over how to properly use the Monstrosity and how to play this build with Abathur. Let us start by going over the evolution master's talent choices for this build:
Talents Top
Level 1:
We will choose
Regenerative Microbes, one of my favourite talents in all of Heroes of the storm! It grants a good way of supporting your team or your monstrosity, allowing you to infulence the battle and heal any injured ally in the fog of war. This talent will allow us to utilize our Carapace to support allies and give our monstrosity an important sustain tool which will be very useful.
Level 4:
Sustained Carapace is crucial for this build. It gives us more shields and makes the
Carapace to persist even after
Symbiote! This means we can shield an ally, exit Symbiote and then shield them again after the 4 second cooldown of Symbiote and thus we have a constant healing output (on monstrosity or an ally)! What's even better is that we can shield allies and then exit Symbiote, look at who needs aid and then Symbiote the one who needs help, presumably the ally we shieled first has the Carapace still active which grants more survivability for your team because now you can shield two people at once with full effect and its bonuses.
Level 7:
At this level we are choosing
Needlespine to give us a longer poke and damage potential while using Symbiote on allies or our monstrosity. It is very useful for boosting your damage and allows you to chase down fleeing enemies or punish enemies that chase you. I prefer this talent over the others just because the extra range that it gives, offering more poke and damage. Optionally you can choose
Calldown: MULE if you feel like your enemies are not doing big pushes and you want more defense potential, which lets you heal towers which is really useful.
Level 10:
This build requires
Evolve Monstrosity. It allows you to deal a lot of damage in teamfights and to seige so much more efficiently than with your tiny locusts. I will not talk about the monstrosity so much here, I will talk more about it later in this guide.
Level 13:
Soma Transference is a talent which grants even more sustain for this build. It allows you to heal allies who like to dive into the enemy team and it can also help your monstrosity survive enemy attacks. It pairs especially well with heroes that dive into the enemies or minions, like
Sonya,
Illidan and
Tyrael.
Level 16:
Picking
Adrenaline Boost will allow you to be much more supportive with your Carapace uses. As I discussed earlier, you can pop in and out of Symbiote while providing both healing and speed if you picked these talents. Use Carapace to aid fleeing allies and to secure a takedown by boosting an ally trying to chase down an enemy hero. This is also a great tool for your monstrosity because it lets you get away or chase down an enemy who foolishly thought they could kill your mighty creation.
Level 20:
Now,
Evolution Complete might not seem like a good talent overall but for this build, it is the most important talent besides the actual monstrosity. This talent lets you act globally and safely heal your monstrosity and then get back into the fight. Will discuss this talent further together with the monstrosity later in this guide.
Matchups, threats and synergies Top
Weak against...
Threats to this build are heroes with large melee damage, mobility and crowd control. Additionally they tend to kill minions and seige in a game. This is troubling for you because they can quickly kill the monstrosity and chase it down if you try to save it. The crowd control can stop it from escaping or interrupt a deep tunnel. Examples of these kinds of heroes are
The Butcher,
Zagara and
Ragnaros. These heroes are also pretty hard to stop with your symbiote too because they deal high damage and can overwhelm your ally.
Works well against...
Heroes that abathur can counter while using this build are heroes who lack mobility, health or seige damage. Your monstrosity will kill them easily even if they try to escape and using symbiote can punish them. Examples of these kinds of heroes are
Alarak,
Kel'Thuzad and
Ana.
Works well with...
This build works best with a team that can sustain themselves and escape. Abathur can work well with, for example, a
Sonya and
Lúcio because abathur can symbiote sonya while Lucio grants an escape or support. Together they can stay alive. When the time comes, you can deep tunnel with your monstrosity and engage in the fight with them, chasing down enemies that Lucio's speed boost can't reach.
Map specifics Top
This build is not that dependant on map but it is stronger on certain maps. For example, this build is better on
Cursed Hollow than on
Towers of Doom because the monstrosity can push a lane without fearing walking into the deadly barrage of shots near the core and it can also contribute more against taking down the enemy core and gaining experience on a map with more buildings like cursed hollow. When playing on maps that don't need or can have seiging the core in normal ways, this build should be played differently.
On towers of doom and hanamura you may use the monstrosity even more in teamfights and to help out stall the payload with your attacks but remember that you can't contest objectives with the monstrosity! Though you can stall and prevent captures of altars or map objectives. Try to fight together with your team or put pressure in a lane with monstrosity so that the enemies split and you can win the objective and teamfights. During this you may want to sacriface your monstrosity and support your team with symbiote.
How to play Top
There are 4 points I suggest to know to master Abathur and play this build correctly.
1. Map Awarness
2. Positioning
3. Prioritizing
4. Abilities
Map Awarness
Being aware of the map is crucial. You need to know where your allies and enemies are otherwise you can fail to save an ally or to finish of an enemy. You could also be killed by an enemy finding you hiding in a bush or the fog. A good way to have good map awarness is to constantly check the minimap and to disable camera follow in options. Checking the minimap allows you to know where every ally is quickly and to see if any enemy is missing or close to you. Disabling camera follow allows you to use your mouse cursor at the edges of your screen to move the screen which is very important to see much further in a direction without having to walk there or click on the minimap.
Positioning
A good abathur will not sit in spawn or behind a fort. By using your map awarness you can hide in bushes or fog to soak experience and to contribute more with your Locusts spawned. By positioning yourself right you can grant your team a lot more experience and be a better Abathur. An example could be to hide in a bush and soak a lane while a mab objective is opened on the other side. Be careful to not be killed by looking at the minimap from time to time so that enemies don't catch you off guard. Use deep tunnel to get away.
Prioritizing
What I mean by prioritizing is not just to prioritize which heroes to symbiote or enemies to kill, it's also about prioritizing the usage of your abilities and switching between monstrosity, symbiote and toxic nest placing. When you are to use Symbiote on an ally hero, choose the most suitable canditate. Don't choose Kel'Thuzad over Sonya for example because Kel'Thuzad keeps a distance from his enemies and if you speed boost him you might throw off his ability cast. Sonya is better because you can help her sustain and reach enemies with your abilities in symbiote. But you should use Symbiote to aid allies trying to flee by using Carapace's speed boost and then quickly switch to another ally that needs help to do the same thing. If you can and have time, try to launch some attacks at the enemy, especially if they have low health. If you have a monstrosity you might want to save its life instead of aiding with symbiote in a teamfight BUT don't do this if your team has less levels or if one of your allies is about to die! Support your team when possible!
Abilities
Using Abathur's abilities is rewarding because he doesn't use mana. Toxic nest may be the hardest ability to get used to and use consistently between symbiotes.
Symbiote
Use your Symbiote often to influence the battle, help teammates and control your monstrosity. Utilize the minimap to find allies and support them. Use stab to poke and damage enemies from range, use spike burst to heal allies and to wave clear. Carapace will, in this build, heal and boost your target ally to help them win a fight while shielding them. The best way to utilize the symbiote's abilities is to unleash all of them. Use 2
Stabs, 1
Spike Burst and 1
Carapace, then exit the symbiote and select the same ally again! The cooldowns are all reset and you can quickly launch them again! You don't lose anything by doing this either because we don't grant symbiote a passive boost and we focus on the Carapace instead which will persist after symbiote ends. Perfect combination of damage and constant shielding!
Toxic Nest
While you are not using Symbiote, place toxic nests in tight spaces and between paths that needs to be travelled across to reach a lane. This will allow your team to have better vision and to drastically slow down enemeis trying to rotate by demounting them from the damage. Place toxic nests often, you could theoretically have 8 toxic nests active at all times. But don't prioritize this over using symbiote! Toxic nest can also be used to protect your location by revealing enemies before they get to you. Place in bushes to reveal enemies trying to hide. There are many possibilities!
Deep Tunnel
Your primary mobility. Use it to transport between lanes and to flee if an enemy would come near your hiding spot. Remember that it can be interrupted so try to use it as quickly as you can when you sense danger. Hearthstoning is not required since you don't need to heal or get mana, simply use a healing fountain since you will not be needing it again for too long and then the cooldown should have refreshed. Deep Tunnel is often more reliable and safer than walking to a target point.
Monstrosity Top
Here is the part you have been waiting for, the focus of this guide; the monstrosity.
Evolve Monstrosity
How to use it
The first thing you want to do with the monstrosity is to kill 40 minions. This does not only increase the damage of the monstrosity but also its health. Spawn the monstrosity in a lane that has no enemy heroes, this way it doesn't get killed before doing anything. Use Symbiote if you can to save the monstrosity and heal it using the talents we picked. You can also switch lanes by moving it to that lane you want it to push in. Assist allies by using the monstrosity. For example, if Sylvanas is fighting a Genji, you can help her by using Symbiote and the monstrosity to damage Genji and kill him because the monstrosity does a lot more damage than only your symbiote. You can use monstrosity in many different ways, try to use it for seiging too and capturing mercenary camps with your allies. Remember! You cannot capture things with monstrosity! Treat your monstrosity good by keeping it alive, but don't forget to prioritize saving allied heroes if you can.
Tips and tricks
Help your monstrosity survive by making the minions tank the damage while the monstrosity hits them behind the tanking minions (especially mercenary and catapult attacks). Each time an enemy minion dies, the monstrosity is healed! Use
Carapace and
Spike Burst to heal from the talents in this build. Did you know you can heal the monstrosity in the hall of storms? (The Hearthstone area). But only walk/tunnel there if all lanes are occupied by enemy heroes or if your monstrosity has really low health because it takes a long time to get there and back into the fights. Though once you unlock the deep tunnel at level 20 you should be using it to save and heal your monstrosity.
Monstrosity deep tunnel
Once you reach level 20, the monstrosity becomes much more viable, dangerous and important. 25 second cooldown is not long and it lets you quickly switch lanes to clear minions or gain stacks for the monstrosity. When a smaller teamfight is happening or when an ally needs help to kill an enemy, use the monstrosity's deep tunnel to reach them and start punishing them with it. You should also use deep tunnel to escape if an enemy tries to kill the monstrosity or if it needs healing. Tunnel to an empty lane or the hearthstone area to heal. Be careful of catapults and mercenaries if you put it in a lane because they deal high damage. Sometimes it is best to use deep tunnel to get the monstrosity to protect a fort so the building doesn't get destroyed! Be careful of enemy heroes trying to push with the minions though as they could kill your monstrosity if you forget to check the minimap!
When not to use symbiote on monstrosity
There are times when you should not use your symbiote on your monstrosity. For example when a teamfight happens, it is more beneficial if your monstrosity pushes a lane (seiging) while you support your team with symbiote. Keep in mind that the monstrosity takes more damage from heroes, so don't just tunnel into a group of 5 enemy heroes because that will kill it. Let it gain experience from a lane while you symbiote an ally.
The End Top
Thanks for reading this guide! I hope it helped you and gave you a new perspective on playing Abathur! Good luck to you in the Nexus!
/Slombeeper
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