Hi, I'm Zazar, from France and i've been playing Heroes since the Alpha, so I hope to share with you a bit of my experience in the game =). I used to play a lot of Starcraft II and reached Diamond league as a Zerg so I'm really into E-Sport and Blizzard games. This is a guide on my favorite hero in this game so I hope it will be useful, don't hesitate to post any comment to improve it, I'm not a pro, just someone who loves playing this hero ;).
Abathur is one of the kindest creatures in the whole universe... this is what you will hear from people who just don't know who Abathur is.
Abathur can be considered as the mad scientist of the Zerg swarm. He spends his days and nights on really nice experiments. He is in charge of the swarm's evolution, he is the one who will find a way to adapt the Zergs to every situation. Abathur was also the one who turned Kerrigan into what she is today.
So, now that you love him, let's see how this strange "hero" works hm ?
As Abathur, you'll not attack yourself as i said, you'll use the body of one of your allies and use your abilities from there. This means that you must have a constant map awareness, if you ever played Starcraft, you'll love this little guy.
This build will mostly focus on your Symbiote
ability. You'll be as much a support as a specialist. You must have constant map awareness to use this build at its full potential. No hero must die in your team without you knowing it. You must help him or watch him die because you're on Cooldown =). You'll stil be able to push hard, don't worry.
First, let's have a look at what this creature can do. If you ever played any other hero in this game, this one needs an explaination because he has really specific mechanics. Abathur will not go on the battlefield and hit anybody with his ridiculously long arms. As we said before, Abathur is here to improve the army, let's see how he does that.
Abathur's Abilities
First let's focus on his own abilities. When most of the heroes in the game have 3 basic skills, Abathur only has two, but i'ts enough, you'll see why.
Symbiote (Q)
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And this is how Abathur helps in the fight. Use this ability on another entity in the game and you'll enter in its body, yes. This skill works on heroes, minions, mercenaries (not on bosses) and also on towers, forts and even the Core. You cannot use this skill on yourself. Once in the body of... somebody, you'll get some abilities you will be able to use from your new hosts position. We'll talk about these abilities later in a specific section. |
Toxic Nest (W)
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Let's go back to a standard ability. This has a really high range, if you are on the middle lane, you should be able to use it on every other lane. This skill has 3 charges, each time you'll use it you will consume one. By using this skill on the ground, you'll create a toxic nest. This nest will be visible for a short amount of time and then become an invisible trap. If an ennemy (hero or minion) walk on that, he will take damages and be revealed. If you know something called a "Baneling Trap", you know how this works. |
Symbiote
As we said, using symbiote on an ally will make you enter his body and use some abilities from there. Let's see what you can do to improve your imperfect mates. Remember that you do not control your host's moves, you'll have to adapt to his position and behavior to land your skillshots.
Stab (Q)
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Your first ability is a simple skillshot. Some of you will call it a "Q spell". You just shoot a spike in a line. It can sometimes be hard to land because your host will move too fast (do you hear me Illidan ?). In early game, this Q is really weak but if you take the appropriate talents, it will become a real threat to your opponents. |
Spike Burst (W)
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This skill is an aoe. You'll shoot spikes all around your host, damaging ennemies in range. Nothing more to say, useful when your host is in the middle of a lot of minions. |
Carapace (E)
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Here is your "support" ability, when you use this, your host will gain a shield for 8 seconds. If you leave his body before the end of it, the shield will disappear. |
Cancel Symbiote (R)
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Don't need any explaination. Hit that to cancel the symbiote and return to your own body. |
Heroic abilities
Ultimate Evolution (R)
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This ability is really interesting, you'll use it on an allied hero and create a clone of this hero. This clone will have all the basic abilities of your target (not the heroic nor the ones you got from talents). You will control this clone for a time, so it's better to at least know how the targeted hero works. Thanks to this skill, I understood the mechanics of most of the heroes in the game ;). |
Evolve Monstrosity (R)
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Using this ability on an allied minion or locust will turn it into a Monstrosity. This creature will act like a minion and push the nearest lane. Everytime an ennemy minion is killed close to your monstrosity, it will gain attack damages and health. You can use your symbiote on it to gain total control (including movements) over the Monstrosity. |
Passive and mount
Locust Strain
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Every 15 seconds, a locust will spawn from Abathur's locations, it will reach the nearest lane and will push like any other minion. A locust only lasts 25 seconds. |
Deep Tunnel (Z)
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Abathur is really slow and do not have a mount. (Try to imagine a larva on a horse...) But he can tunnel to any visible location. This ability has a 30 seconds cooldown so use it carefuly to reach safe locations. |
Level 1 :
Pressurized Glands : Lower Cooldown and higher range on Spike Burst
. I don't use it but it's not a total waste.
Survival Insctincts : Your locusts will last longer and have more HP. Really good to push early. Also a good talent if you want to focus on your locusts (which is not the case in this guide).
Regenerative Microbes : Your carapace
ability now heals your host over time while it's active. The heal may seem small but you'll spam this skill when you are using Symbiote
so I recommend this one.
Envenomed Nest : Your Toxic Nexts
will deal more damages. If you're not lucky or not smart enough on your nest's position, nobody will walk on it and you will have wasted this talent.
Level 4 :
Prolific Dispersal : More charges for your Toxic Nest
ability. I don't recommend it for the same reason as the last level 1 talent.
Ballistospores : You can now place Nests
anywhere on the map. Once again, I don't like upgrading the nests.
Sustained Carapace : Your carapace
now lasts longer and persists after you left your host. A good talent if you took the Carapace upgrade Level 1.
Adrenal Overload : My favorite talent for this level, but quite situational, it gives your host +25% attack speed, that's a lot. If you have any hero in your team relying on attack speed like Valla or Illidan, go for it and try to symbiote them when you can, their damages will thank you later.
Level 7 :
Needlespine : +20% on the range and the damages of your Stab
. I never miss this one. Your Stab was useless before, it's deadly now. As this guide focuses on Symbiote
this is a must have.
Vile Nest : Your Nests
now slow the victim. Once again, I never upgrade nests.
Networked Carapace : When you use your Carapace
, every minions/mercenaries around will also get a shield. If your build is based on pushing hard with locusts and stuff, why not.
Calldown: MULE : You call a MULE to heal and rearm structures. Come on, will you really use a Terran ability with a Zerg hero ?!
Level 10 :
Ultimate Evolution : This heroic used to be OP but now you cannot use the heroic ability of the hero you clone. It's still a good skill but remember that you cannot Symbiote
anything while using this.
Evolve Monstrosity : This is what I use now. If you can cast it on a pushing lane while the ennemy team is doing something else, don't hesitate, this monster can push really hard.
Level 13 :
Assault Strain : Your locusts now cleave and explode. Once again if you're on a "pushing locusts" build, you can go for this.
Bombard Strain : Locusts now have a ranged attack. This will be a choice between this and the previous one if you focus on locusts.
Spatial Efficiency : One more charge for your Stab
. I always go for this, if you are focusing on Symbiote
it's really good.
Soma Transference : Your Spike Burst
heals your host for each Hero hit. Too situationnal, if it's used on a tank in the middle of a teamfight it's ok, but in any other situation, I don't consider this one worth it.
Level 16 :
Envenomed Spikes : Your Spike Burst
now slows the movement speed of the victims. I don't consider the range long enough to be a really useful talent.
Adrenaline Boost : Your Carapace
now gives your host 40% bonus movement speed for 3 seconds. I love this one, it can really save people's *** or help them chase a dying ennemy.
Locust Brood : Spawn 3 locusts near you. Good for locus oriented builds.
Volatile Mutation : I must admit I never used that. I think it can help your monstrosity push lanes. It's no so powerful but it can help. For push oriented builds only.
Level 20 :
Evolutionary Link : The target of your Ultimate Evolution
will gain a pretty good shield, use it if you took this heroic ability.
Evolution Complete : Your Evolve Monstrosity
now lasts longer and can use Deep Tunnel
. It's great if you often find weak spots in the ennemy team's defenses. You can push a lane and then dig away to another when you are spotted.
Hivemind : My usual choice. Whenever you Symbiote
something, if an allied hero is close enough to your host, he will be symbioted too. Every ability you use while in the host will be cast from both symbiote. Really cool with the lost Vikings ;). If the "bonus" Symbiote moves too far away, the link is destroyed.
Locust Nest : You create a nest than can spawn locusts over time. It's exactly as if you were standing at two places at the same time. If you're focused on locusts, go for it.
Now that you know how Abathur works, let's talk about my experience playing it. Here is how i think you should play him with this build (and how you should play it in general).
Positioning
Main tips
Of course you'll not go in the middle of the fight. But don't stay all game long behind the walls of your base. The closer to the pushing area you are, the better. Your locusts will reach the place where they are needed faster and will last longer in fight. You will also be able to spawn Toxic Nests
closer to the fight.
Hide and Seek
There are plenty of places where you can hide on every map, they are designed to allow Abathur to hide his body and Murky to hide his egg. Here are some examples of these locations (more screenshots will come):
Dragon Shire :
Toxic Nests
Try to think about you Nests position. Place them near the objectives, the Shrines on DragonShire, the pirate in Blackheart's Bay etc...
In really early game, before the arrival of the first minions, place them in the bushed of a lane, so you may be able to locate your ennemies.
Having balls
Yes you can hold a shrine, take a DragonKnight or a Terror... but remember that the Cooldown of your Deep Tunnel
is quite long. You'll become really vulnerable if you're out of your terror/dragon. But still, your tunnel can help you tanke an objective really quick. If you think you must, go fot ir, it's always fun. And your ennemies will get angry if you kill a fort with a terror and dig away without dying ;).
Thank you for reading this guide, I hope you liked it. I put some efforts in it and hope it will help people play this hero. Don't hesitate to post a comment if you have any suggestion =)
See you in the Nexus !
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