Globe of Annihilation - When your enemies see that they're playing against an Azmodan, this is what they'll be nervously anticipating every second thereafter. When minions get tucked in at night, they can't get to sleep for fear of this ability. Is great for sieging, soaking, initiating, and of course
DUNKING
Summon Demon Warrior - Press W and a cute little demon warrior pops out. Good to help soak damage when taking merc camps, decent enough at helping push a lane. As Azmodan is extremely mana dependent, I try to limit myself when using it though - both of his other abilities are far superior.
All Shall Burn - This is Azmo's game changer beam. If it weren't for this ability and it's insane power, I would fully suggest you just camping out 20 miles away from your team and raining meteors on them. Your enemies will learn to respect the beam, because if left unchecked this ability will allow you to 1v1 almost anyone hero in the game. Beware characters with good CC however, it interrupts the beam and can leave you vulnerable
General of Hell - I love this trait. It has global range and a 30 second cooldown meaning you get one for every wave of creeps that spawns. Generally you want to put this in lanes without heroes, alongside mercenaries, and lanes where you have a bunch of minions clumped up together pushing hard. *NOTE* remember to never stop casting it every 30 seconds- ABDG: Always Be Demon-Generaling
Demonic Invasion - Is there an empty lane that you just need to demolish now? Then this is the talent for you! Plop this down along side a wave of creeps and a demon general and if the other team doesn't respond, you can easily take a fort with the one push. Be careful with it around heroes with good AoE though,
Tassadar and
Jaina make short work of these guys
Black Pool - This used to be the underrated heroic pick, but I love that I'm seeing it more and more. It's mostly used to power your abilities, and trust, the added ability damage is RIDICULOUS, but don't forget it also works on your minions/mercs. If you end up picking
Fifth Circle at level 20, it can also be used for some quick escapes by placing it under friendly minions and then running behind them.
But first, a quick note on playing "The Dan"...
As I've mentioned before, Azmo is a versatile character and his build is subject to change depending on your needs in every game. That being said, there are two distinct ways to play him for team-fights:
Dunkmodan (more damage and more dunks) and
Tankmodan (more heals and more heals).
Both styles are oriented toward a late-game team-fight style play, but with Dunkmodan you'll be doing heavy damage with your
Globe of Annihilation and with Tankmodan you'll be near the front taking damage and healing forever. Think about what your team needs very early and build your Azmo accordingly (do you already have two tanks? Then go Dunkmodan. Does your team need a little extra in the support department? Then go Tankmodan).
Alright, now on to the talents...
BEST CHOICES
Taste for Blood - If you're going for damage, this is the most important pick on any tier for Azmo. It increases the damage of your meteors by 2 for every enemy killed, including minions, heroes, mercs, and map specific minions like shamblers and skull minions. While you most likely wont get up to the 500 dmg cap for this talent (my record is 300), with a little work you should end up with at least 150-200 dmg by 20 minutes in. Practice your timing with your meteors so that the get the final kill, and early game, try to get another hero with decent AoE to help you weaken the minions enough for the kill.
IMPORTANT NOTE you HAVE to get
Black Pool to make this talent useful. The
Black Pool +
Globe of Annihilation combo makes building your bonus damage much easier.
Healing Ward - I started trying this after I saw it used in the round of 16 during the Heroes of the Dorm tournament, and found it extremely powerful if your team is looking some extra support/tankiness out of you. When you're not using it to help in team fights (like you will be in the late-game), you can use it to help heal minions while you push out lanes. If used on an empty lane in conjunction with two charges of
Summon Demon Warrior and your general of hell, you can easily push your team's first wave of minions right up to your enemies gate to start soaking up some ammo early.
ALTERNATE CHOICE
Sieging Wrath - The poor man's
Taste for Blood. It's easier to play than taste for blood and is great for picking off fleeing enemies, but since the damage is based on the distance the globe traveled, this talent encourages you to stay far back during engagements which is typically not something you want to do. However, if you want something to add more damage to your globe of annihilation and are unwilling to pick up
Black Pool, it wouldn't be the worst idea to pick this up.
DO NOT PICK
Spare Nothing - While it can be fun running around from tower to tower sucking them dry of ammo, there are just too many extremely powerful talents on this tier for it to be at all worth it.
Bribe - Like with
Spare Nothing, this can be a very fun talent to take, especially since Azmo isn't all that good at taking mercs until much later in the game (level 13 for bruisers in my experience). Also similar to spare nothing however, it's just not worth it given the other talents at this level.
MUST PICK
Gluttony - This talent is what gives Azmo ridiculous presence in team-fights. Azmodan already has a crazy health pool that your enemies have to eat through to be able to finish you - this ability makes eating through that health pool that much more difficult. Hands down the talent to pick at this level.
ALTERNATE CHOICE
Burn the Weak - There aren't many times you're going to be using your beam on minions, but a 50% boost of damage on mercs and structures is big. If you think you can get by without the ridiculous healing power of
Gluttony (which 90% of the time, you can't), pick this one up.
DO NOT PICK
Bound Minion - Like
Promote, but has global range and only one charge at a time. The global range makes it more useful than the average promote and it's very good for pushing out lanes... that's all I can really say about this talent. Not the best, not the worst.
Army of Hell - This talent is only ever useful if you pair it with
Hellforged Armor or
Blazing Demons and
Battleborn, but *spoiler alert* you're not going to want to pick either of those up either.
Superiority - I have yet to see superiority worked into a good build. I suppose if you're going for a merc build, this would help you take camps... maybe if you picked up
Spare Nothing you could stand in front of towers and just soak up ammo without risk of death. Really though, just don't take this one.
BEST CHOICE
Master of Destruction - With Azmodan being as mana dependent as he is, this is a natural pick at this point. You'll be using your beam frequently to assist in team fights, take out mercs, and focus down structures. This will keep you doing more damage and healing more (if you picked up
Gluttony) for longer.
First Aid - Best taken if you didn't pick up
Gluttony for whatever reason. Azmo has a huge health pool, so 35% health regeneration is a big deal. If you really are looking for survivability, couple it with some of Azmo's other healing talents (
Gluttony,
Healing Ward,
Blood for Blood) and watch the opposing team never kill you... ever
ALTERNATE CHOICE
Infernal Globe - Unless the extra burn damage eventually gets a buff, the only real use for this is to make your
Globe of Annihilation land faster. If your dunks need training wheels, then take it - but know by taking this talent you're admitting you're a pansy who can't dunk like a real man.
Mercenary Lord - Mercenary lord, if used in conjunction with demon general, will wreck a fort very very quickly. If you're just a designated sieger for you team, it might be useful, but otherwise steer clear.
DO NOT PICK
Enduring Warriors - If your warriors are doing what they're supposed to, they'll most likely be dying before this talent becomes useful, which is a nice way of saying this talent is useless
BEST CHOICE
Black Pool - The better choice in heroic abilities thanks to its versatility. For the most part you'll be using it to amp up your
Globe of Annihilation and your
All Shall Burn, but if you can place it under some mercs at the same time, all the better really. If you picked up [[taste for blood], starting after this point you'll be getting some insane damage boosts as you eat up entire waves of minions at a time. When engaging it team fights, you generally want to drop a pool, bring down a meteor on the opposing team's heads, and then use the next charge to help boost your beam damage to focus a particularly annoying hero super fast.
ALTERNATE CHOICE
Demonic Invasion - Taken directly from the abilities section I wrote: Is there an empty lane that you just need to demolish now? Then this is the talent for you! Plop this down along side a wave of creeps and a demon general and if the other team doesn't respond, you can easily take a fort with the one push. Be careful with it around heroes with good AoE though,
Tassadar and
Jaina make short work of these guys
BEST CHOICE
March of Sin - You get another huge buff with this talent. The biggest thing that has been in between you and completely annihilating the other team with your laser beam is that you can't use it while moving so they run away. Escape won't be so easy once you get this talent. Also gives you a way to heal while on the run and well as a way to take on grave golem's and garden terrors without having to worry about those green/purple circles popping up on the ground.
ALTERNATE CHOICE
Hellforged Armor - If you REALLY have to push, and for some reason you picked up
Army of Hell instead of something better, this can actually be a very viable choice. It's like
Superiority for your minions, which makes it much better than superiority because your minions should be the ones taking non-heroic damage, not you. Use it to help push towers, pick up mercs, clear out camps... you know, non-hero fighting things
Relentless - You're not going to be a big target for stuns apart from when people are trying to interrupt your laser, so 9 times out of 10 you're not going to want to pick this up over march of sin. If the other team is really heavy on the cc and you're playing tank, this might be useful to pick up.
DO NOT PICK
Blazing Demons - A less useful version of hellforged armor... just don't get it
BEST CHOICE
Imposing Presence - This is best when your opponents are auto attack dependent *cough cough
Illidan*. It'll keep you alive longer in the fight, which will allow you to heal longer and do more damage. Win win win. Plus if you combine it with
Fifth Circle, you can slow your opponent's attack speed to a grinding halt.
Blood for Blood - Works best when your opponents have a couple of high HP heroes. It's even more healing on top of your already powerful healing laser, and also can function as a means of escape if you're being chased by a hero. With offensive and defensive capabilities, you really can't go wrong. The only downside is that it can't be cast while using
All Shall Burn
ALTERNATE CHOICE
Battleborn - If you already have a bunch of demon warrior buffs, this could be useful. Great to help push hard in one lane. Otherwise... just no.
Demonic Smite - Makes your already useful general of hell even more useful. Excellent to help push lanes that aren't being addressed by the other team and help keep a constant pressure on the opposing team.
BEST CHOICE
Fifth Circle - This ability of choice in this tier because of the crazy utility it has. That 40 percent attack speed and movement speed decrease is pretty brutal and can be used to help you escape and prevent your opponent's from escaping. If you can land a globe on 2 or 3 opposing heroes when your team engages, you'll have a significant advantage right out of the gate. Is especially powerful vs teams whose assassins are auto-attack dependent.
ALTERNATE CHOICE
Storm Shield - Always a good choice, especially if your team is lacking in the support department. If you're going tankmodan, this is the storm talent of choice.
Bolt of the Storm - Another all around good talent. Increases your survivability, which is great because Azmo is severely lacking in the escape department. Also excellent if you went a push build, as you will be a big target for the enemy team.
DO NOT PICK
Perishing Flame - I find this to be the least useful of the storm talents. While it's undeniably powerful, you really only want to pick it up if you're going a push build, and I find that
Bolt of the Storm tends to be more useful late game when the death timers get so long.
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