Abathur's main role in this game is to soak experience, assist hyper-carry/melee heroes, and to disrupt the enemy team's rotations through usage of mines. Abathur is a relatively weak hero before level 10, as usage of Symbiote (hat) is generally unable to make up for the map presence lost by only having 4 heroes active on the map. Abathur excels on large maps that allow for body-soaking, or staying near minions in order to gain experience, due to the global range of his abilities. Abathur can effectively soak two lanes at once, one with his hat and one with his body. Be careful doing this, as Abathur's low health pool makes him extremely easy to gank, especially by global heroes such as Dehaka and Falstad. Additionally, with his global teleport on a 30 second cooldown, Abathur technically has the fastest possible rotations in the game. Through the use of his mines, Abathur provides vision on important areas such as the boss, and can slow down enemy rotations. Abathur is the only hero in the game who still has the talent Calldown: Mule, which allows him to heal buildings over time. This talent is especially effective on maps such as Sky Temple and Cursed Hollow due to the nature of the bosses and objectives.

The basic ability rotation for Abathur is to Q a target, use all three abilities, and then cancel the symbiote. In between this rotations, place mines or change position to more effectively soak or to stay safe. After level 10, Abathur becomes much more effective in teamfights, through use of Ultimate Evolution.

Remember that these guidelines are not completely set in stone. Battlefield of Eternity Abathur can be completely viable if the team composition works well with it.

Let's start with the maps you should definitely not pick Abathur on.

-Haunted Mines: 2 lane maps are generally bad for Abathur, as the global soak is generally not necessary. Also, somewhat ironically, you can't place mines in the mines as far as I know. Any other hero with an actual body that can somewhat do the main objective of the map (sapper camps) is better.

-Braxis Holdout: Abathur's extremely weak early game means your team will lose the first objective more often than not, which puts your team at an extreme disadvantage due to how easy the map is to snowball.

-Hanamura: ha ha, funny joke, I know

-Tomb of the Spider Queen: Suffers from the similar problems as Braxis, even though it is a 3 lane map the lanes are so close together it might as well not be.

-Battlefield of Eternity: This is probably the best 2 lane map to play Abathur on, but it is still snowbally and difficult to come back on.

Next, the maps where Abathur is a decent, but not necessarily great, pick. Consider the team composition carefully before picking him.

-Garden of Terror: While this map is pretty large, it can be difficult to get value out of Ultimate Evolution, and Abathur does not contribute to camps or the objective at all, thus it is difficult to apply map pressure on Garden.

-Infernal Shrines: Abathur's not too bad on this map, but I find that due to the length of the objective phase, it can be hard to justify picking Abathur over a 'real' hero.

-Blackheart's Bay: Doesn't contribute to camps and thus, the map objective, which is the main way to win the game on this map.

-Warhead Junction: Against a competent enemy team Abathur should rarely, if ever, get a nuke. Other globals such as Dehaka or Falstad would be better on this map.

-Dragon Shire: This map is somewhat easier to comeback on than maps such as Braxis and Battlefield, however it's still very possible to lose the first few Dragons and be unable to come back.

Finally, Abathur's best maps. Don't necessarily instalock him on these though. Any time you want to pick Abathur should be thought through carefully.

-Cursed Hollow: Extremely large map, delayed objectives, objective only having an impact past level 10 at minimum, double bosses, and long rotations? What more could you possibly want?

-Volskaya Foundry: With the recent buffs to the Triglav Protector, this map is shorter and doesn't go to levels 22-23 on average in general anymore. However, I still think the relatively small impact of the objective and large size of the map makes this map one of the best for Abathur.

-Sky Temple: This is quite a large map with infrequent objectives that only have a gradual impact of the game. Calldown: MULE is great on this map. Additionally, rotations are quite telegraphed, especially between bottom and mid (there's only one choke to go through) that makes it easy for mines to get lots of value.

-Towers of Doom: If your team is smart and knows to not to over-commit to the first few objectives, your team should reach level 10 at roughly the same time as the enemy. The unique nature of the map objective makes it relatively easy to come-back on this map.

-Abathur can double-soak through objective phases or when the enemy team is all visible on the mini-map. Simply body-soak one lane and hat another. Both of these methods grant experience.

-Locusts only grant experience when the last-hit a target. This is essentially impossible to control, so ensure that you hat a minion or soak with your body.

-Consider asking your team to give up or not fully commit to map objectives, until your team reaches Level 10, when Abathur gains Ultimate Evolution

-Due to the short range of Abathur's Symbiote ability, make sure that your team has several (2+) melee heroes that allow Abathur to actually do damage.

-Abathur pairs exceptionally well with melee 'hyper-carries' such as Illidan, Greymane, and Kerrigan. Other heroes that work well with Abathur are Muradin, Blaze, Sonya, Tyrael, and Genji.

-Make sure you have a good clone target on your team. These should be high damage heroes such as Greymane, Jaina, and Li-Ming, as you can play extremely aggressive with the clone. Remember, when you use Ultimate Evolution, your health pool becomes a resource and trading 1 for 1 is always good.

-Spike Burst (W) has a 6 second cooldown (5 with talent) and Carapace has a 12 second cooldown. The cooldown of Symbiote is 5 seconds. Thus, it is usually better to hat someone, quickly use all three abilities, and then cancel Symbiote. In this 5 second downtime you can place mines, or reposition yourself to bodysoak.

-Place mines in bushes or common areas that the enemy will rotate through. An example of this are the Towers of Doom bottom altars, where there are many chokepoints.

-Don't be afraid to use mines just for waveclear, especially if the enemy team doesn't appear to be rotating. 2-3 mines and a hat quickly kills waves from level 1.

-On maps with player-driven objectives (Garden, Shire, Volskaya) you can, and in some cases, should take the objective. Especially on Garden.

-For whatever reason, Spike Burst (W)'s range is incredibly large when used on some mercenaries, at least the visual effect is. Also, keep in mind what you can and cannot hat. You can hat all non-boss mercenaries, catapults, your locusts, and other heroes' spawns such as Anub'arak's beetles.

-Spike Burst (W) is Abathur's main damage source. Be sure to hat melee heroes, rather than ranged ones to get the full value out of this ability.

-Never keep a hat on a target for longer than to get the second shield. Most of the time it should be cancelled right after the first shield.

-Do not use Ultimate Evolution in small skirmishes, unless it will directly lead to you winning some major objective. The cooldown is quite long and not having it ready for important teamfights (bosses, objectives) can cripple your team.

-You can take risks with your life, especially in the early game. Death timers are so low and you have a global on a 30 second cooldown anyway. If one person on their team is hunting you, that's one less person to do the objective.

Cursed Hollow

-Take global mines at level 4 (Ballistospores) to scout bosses globally. Bosses are honestly the main win condition and knowing what the enemy team is doing in regards to them is a massive advantage.

-During the first few tributes, ask your team to poke, but not over-commit to them. While the tribute phase is stalled, you can easily double-soak, putting your team at a massive advantage.

Sky Temple

-Similar to Cursed Hollow, put mines near the boss.

-Since you have Calldown: MULE, your team doesn't necessarily need to fight over each temple. If there is a 2-temple phase, it's perfectly viable to stay safe and send everyone to one of them.

Towers of Doom

-Don't be afraid to capture altars, especially your team's altar in the first 3-altar phase. If the enemy team sends someone to kill you, that's one less person they have to fight over the other altars.

-Put mines on the two bottom sapper camps. In addition to providing vision, this could cause enemies to feel unsafe when they attempt to do the camps and leave.

Volskaya Foundry

-On the top and bottom lanes, the two capture points make for great hiding spaces. Be careful though, as your locusts will inform the enemy team of your general position.

-Don't try to be cute and put mines on conveyor belts. When you think about it, this doesn't give you any advantage at all. In fact, it can be a disadvantage because it makes it easier for competent enemies to clear them.

Dragon Shire

-Capture the shrines if it's safe. No need to make your teammates walk halfway across the map and back.

-If you place mines on the enemy team's side next to the Dragon Knight, those can get lots of value because that's by far the most common way people rotate from mid to top. Similarly, bot-mid rotations are also quite telegraphed.

Level 1 Talents

Pressurized Glands: This is, in my opinion, by far the best choice in this tier. The 25% range increase allows you to hit far more targets such as the ranged minions while hatting a fort or keep. The 1 second cooldown reduction is far from insignificant and allows you to do about 15% more damage if you decide to leave a hat on a target.

Survival Instincts: I don't like Abathur's locusts talents because the value you gain from them is so gradual. It's not worth giving up teamfight talents to get slightly better pushing power.

Regenerative Microbes: This talent can be useful if you have a healer such as Uther who has trouble sustaining the entire team. However, the interesting thing about this talent is that it only works while the shield is still active. If it's broken, then the healing will stop. Thus, this talent can't really help anyone who's currently in combat, and that's why it's not the best talent on this tier.

Envenomed Nest: 75% damage increase is a lot, but you need lots of experience, not only with Abathur, but with the game in order to effectively use the mines. Good on 2-lane maps such as Battlefield though.

Level 4 Talents

Level 4 on Abathur is probably the most flexible tier. All four options are viable depending on comp and map.

Prolific Dispersal: This talent simply allows you to place more mines, faster. If you don't need global mines or your team doesn't have some sort of AA hero, pick this option.

Ballistospores: The range of mines is actually not that long, and often I find myself wanting to place them somewhere out of range, especially since Abathur should usually be far away from the enemy. Especially good on Cursed Hollow and Sky Temple.

Sustained Carapace: I personally don't like the shield talents on Abathur, as I feel they don't give enough value to be viable. None of them are necessarily bad, I just prefer other options.

Adrenal Overload: Pretty simple talent. Pick if you have a strong AA hero, don't if you don't.


Level 7 Talents

Needlespine: This talent simply increases your damage. Not really much to say here, pick this if Mule likely won't get much value (for example if your team is winning)

Vile Nest : Even if I was playing Mine build, I still wouldn't take this talent. It's just plain bad. There are much better options here.

Networked Carapace: See Sustained Carapace.

Calldown: MULE: If you haven't figured it out already, I really like this talent. I've outlined previously why I think it's so good, and I truly think this talent can win games by itself if used correctly. Needlespine at this tier is a good option as well, though.


Level 10 Talent(s)

Ultimate Evolution: Simply the easiest to use and best ultimate to pick. Solves Abathur's main weakness (being down a body in teamfights) and allows your team to double up on high burst heroes such as Greymane.

Evolve Monstrosity: Granted, there are some scenarios where Monstrosity can be viable. Most of the time however, just pick Evolution. I like to say that if you think Monstrosity is the better choice, you shouldn't have picked Abathur in the first place.

Level 13 Talents

Assault Strain/Bombard Strain: See Survival Instincts.

Soma Transference: This is, in my opinion, by far the best talent in the tier. You should get 3-4 procs of this talent most times you hat your tank or melee assassin. That's about 400 healing at level 13, on a 5 second cooldown.

Spatial Efficiency: This talent is basically a trap. You shouldn't be in Symbiote long enough to get full value with this talent. It's anti-synergy with playing Abathur 'correctly'. Pick Soma Transference.


Level 16 Talents

The nature of this tier, with Locust Brood and Volatile Mutation essentially being terrible make it simply a choice between Envenomed Spikes and Adrenaline Boost.

Envenomed Spikes: Honestly, both Envenomed Spikes and Adrenaline Boost fulfill the same role (enabling chases). Pick this one if you feel like you can usually hit 2-4 people with Spike Burst, otherwise go for Adrenaline Boost.

Adrenaline Boost: See above.

Locust Brood: See Survival Instincts.

Volatile Mutation: This only affects your heroic summons, and simply adding Burning Rage onto your clone doesn't really justify giving up 40% bonus movespeed or a 40% slow on a 5 second cooldown.

Level 20 Talents

Evolutionary Link: This talent doesn't really have enough of an impact to compete with the best talent on this tier, Hivemind. It can be hard for the shield to get value, as it requires the clone to be alive and only provides the shield on the target you cloned.

Evolution Complete: A great Storm talent on a terrible Heroic. Shouldn't ever have the option to pick this, as you picked Ultimate Evolution.

Hivemind: Increases your hat's DPS and shielding by almost 50%. This talent offers so much value that it's hard to compete with. This is by far the most consistent and safest pick on the tier.

Locust Nest: See Survival Instincts.