Why this guide? Top
I'm not saying by any means I'm the best Zeratul player ever, but I'm confident enough to say I'm a decent one. Most games with this build I die 0-2 times, with no more than 6 deaths at most unless the team in general is doing poorly. As of writing this guide, I have about 200 deaths, and over 1000 takedowns as Zeratul, and most games am top in hero damage, and occasionally carrying the whole team.
Most guides I've found on Zeratul often worship ability damage and the heroic ability "void prison." Now, many game are lost due to people using Zeratul for the first time not knowing proper placement or timing of this ability; or they simply are bad at using it during a fight. This guide is different because if focuses on dealing basic attack damage in a hit and run fashion; and escaping before the enemy can react. The damage is high enough to easily eliminate a tank like Stitches or Diablo in a 1v1; or take out the DPS in a team fight while keeping a large amount of health afterwards. However since it is a "hit and run" build; you're going to be squishy (low health) and will have to leave a fight after dealing your damage; and come back from another angle.
Basic Abilities (Hover over the icons for more detail) Top
| Permanent Cloak: Stealth when you don't take or deal damage for 3 seconds. You are difficult to see and untargetable; but people can see a shimmer if they pay attention.
| Cleave: Deal damage to nearby enemies;(This is a big damage dealer)
| Singularity Spike: Skillshot; after a short delay, deals damage and slows by 40% for 3 seconds.
| Blink: Teleport to a nearby location. Does not break cloak; and can go through walls.
Heroic Abilities Top
| Void Prison: Make all targets invulnerable and unable to do anything for 5 seconds; excluding you. This includes structures, minions, and heroes on both teams.
| Shadow Assault: Basic attacks cause you to charge at enemies (close the gap) and have 20% increased attack speed.
Tier 1 Talents (Level 1) Top
Red means don't get it
Yellow means it's not recommended, but CAN be useful if you really need it.
Green means it's recommended for this build.
| Block: Periodically blocks 50% damage from heroes' basic attacks. This is generally a bad talent for Zeratul, since you wouldn't be getting hit often anyways unless it's an ability or CC.
| Greater Cleave: Increases Cleave radius by 33%. I generally find this talent 'okay' at best. You won't be having trouble hitting at target with cleave; and you shouldn't be using it at a distance anyways. If you're going to attack, get in to melee range where it can't miss.
| Rapid Displacement: Reduces the cooldown of blink by 1.5 seconds. In all honesty, I don't find it very useful unless you find yourself needing blink more often. But it should be used almost exclusively for escapes unless you're using it to finish off a target. Never blink in to a fight if your goal isn't finishing someone off; and you should always have blink ready when you need it.
| Regeneration Master: Health regen increased by 4 per secnd for every 3 regen globes. A pretty bad talent for an assassin; you're not a tank, you don't need it.
| Seasoned Marksman: A highly useful talent if played correctly. Every 6 minion or mercenary kills near your hero, gain 1 basic attack damage. By late game you should be dealing 35-45 extra damage on average, and that stacks up very fast. Basic attack damage is essential to this guide, so of course you want it.
Tier 2 Talents (Level 4) Top
| Focused Attack: Every 10 seconds, your next basic attack deals 75% more damage. This talent can be useful for bursts, but it comes in to play only a couple times per fight. I generally would stray away from it unless that burst is really necessary.
| Vampiric Assault: Basic attacks heal for 15% of the damage dealt. It provides very little sustain, and while has it's pros, not as good as other talent choices you have.
| Gathering Power: Gain 5% ability power, and plus 2% every hero takedown up to 15%. It provides really good ability power, especially if you can escape. But since this guide is more towards basic attacks, we'll be skipping this as well.
| Sustained Anomaly: Singularity Spike explodes for area damage and area slow, even if it doesn't hit a target. This talent is extremely useful for escapes, and building stacks of seasoned marksman. You can use it to slow down an entire group of people if needed, turn a hero into a walking time bomb if they're next to a low health target, or combined with your Q, eliminate a minion wave quicker. I love this talent because of the different scenarios where it can be used, and can give you more ability to reveal cloaked heroes.
| Vorpal Blade: Teleport to the nearest non-structure target you attacked within 3 seconds. it sounds good on paper, but doesn't really have much use in the field. You should be chasing fine with your W slowing them down, and you'd only use this if you're finishing a hero off; but blink can accomplish the same thing. If you need the escape afterwards, it isn't a good idea to attack anyways.
Tier 3 Talents (Level 7) Top
| Follow Through: Within 6 seconds after using an ability, your next basic attack deals 40% more damage. Good for a quick burst, but not as good another talent you can be getting.
| Void Slash: Cleave deals 30% more damage if used while cloaked. While the damage is nice, I actually find myself never needing that extra damage. I generally use my spike before cleave; and this ability is only useful a couple times at most per fight. Unless you plan on re-engaging, this talent is only useful if you attack first. Since it relies on you stealthing, you have to be wary of Tassadar or taking AOE damage.
| Shadow Spike: No decloak on singularity spike, and 20% more range. I admit, I did start out with this move, but it's rather useless. People can see where the spike comes from, and can follow you from there. If you're going to escape after using it, cloak isn't necessary afterwards; especially if you can blink away.
| First Aid: Heal roughly about 35.5% of your max health over 6 seconds. Only get this if you either lack any healers, or find yourself with low health often.
| Searing Attacks: Increase basic attack damage by 50% for 5 seconds. Uses 15 mana per attack. This talent will absolutely destroy your target if you get as many hits in as possible. Your abilities use very little mana, so you should be able to spare the 15 mana per hit. If you don't have that kind of mana, you should be escaping; not fighting. Later on, this ability will be extremely useful for dueling or chasing enemies. It also helps you at level 20 if you pick the right talents to give you some decent sustain.
Heroic Ability (Level 10) Top
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| Shadow Assault: This was discussed already above. This gives you the ability to stick to your target and deal extra damage. Paired up with other talents, this ability becomes your door to destroying tanks in a 1v1; or taking down multiple fleeing targets.
| Void Prison: This talent, also described above, can be one of the best in the entire game. However, that's only if used correctly. Since you're using this guide instead of another, you either are bad at using it, or are trying a new build. It has it's uses, such as stopping targets in their tracks and either letting you escape, catch up to them, or buy time for objectives. However I find shadow assault way too good to pass up, unless you can use this very well. However with this build, it won't synergize well.
Tier 5 Talents (Level 13) Top
| Giant Killer: Basic attacks deal bonus damage equal to 1.5% of the hero's max health. I find this talent pretty bad, and nowhere near as good as other talent choices.
| Burning Rage: Deal 10 damage per second to nearby enemies. Dealing damage while cloaked?! Awesome right?! wrong. It's very little damage, and while it will help you detect stealth heroes, or do a bit of extra damage; it's nowhere near as useful as another talent.
| Wormhole: 3 seconds after using blink, activate it again to return to your original location. Very useful for tricking enemies, escaping enemies with gap closers, or will literally be the run part of your hit and run tactic. It makes you more mobile, so it's possible to go a few steps farther with your second blink if you need it; but I don't often have many uses for it.
| Assassin's Blade: gain 25% attack damage for 5 seconds while breaking cloak, and 10% increased movement speed while cloaked. While the damage comes in to play only a couple times at most per fight, that 25% will give you huge burst potential. The move speed while cloaked will help with escapes greatly, or help you chase enemies.
| Spell Shield: Every 30 seconds, reduce the next ability damage you take by 50% and any further ability damage for 2 seconds. While you may not be taking much damage anyways, this talent can be useful for if you're decloaked while escaping. Specifically Nova will be most affected by this, for her main damage source, snipe, will deal only half as much damage. However the usefulness stops when it comes to escapes or dueling, so it's not quite as useful as Assassin's Blade.
Tier 6 Talents (Level 16) Top
| Rending Cleave: Cleave deals an additional 50% damage over 5 seconds. While this talent gives you some burst and more damage, I don't really like the idea of 50% extra damage over 5 seconds; it means they have a chance to heal back that damage in the mean time.
| Double Bombs: After you cast singularity spike, you can cast another for free within 3 seconds for 50% damage. This can be incredibly useful for escapes, or dealing extra damage to enemies. However I don't find it as useful as when i first started. An alternative route would be to combine this with Shadow spike to stealthily attack heroes or structures without getting caught. Killing Abathur with this is possible, but again, this is a basic attack based guide. Our previous talent choices won't synergize well with this.
| Stoneskin: Activate to gain a 30% of your max health shield for 5 seconds. Only useful for escapes or duels. Though you're not a tank, so that 30% isn't much at all.
| Berserk: Increase attack speed by 40% and movement speed by 10%. This can be useful for escapes after you decloak, but that's not the idea behind it. The main thing is the 40% attack speed increase. Using this with Shadow Assault and Searing Attacks at the same time will destroy anything. Your DPS will be extremely high, especially if you have a Rehgar on your team that has bloodlust.
Tier 7 Talents (Level 20) Top
| Nerazim Fury: 50% increased duration of shadow assault, and 30% life steal. This means more damage, and you have some decent sustain while you do it. Also, this results in the ability to take out multiple targets easier, even if they have high health.
| Protective Prison: Even though we didn't pick on void prison, if you did, this takes away some utility from your ability. While it means that you could save allies and let them escape; it can also mean that they are vulnerable again. If they are being chased and near cannon towers, they will continue to take damage if you didn't hit that either. Also, you can no longer protect your structures with your ult if you really need it.
| Nexus Blades: Adds some more damage to your basic attacks, and slows enemies. It's only really more useful that Nerazim Fury if the game is near ending, and you already used your shadow assault by the time you hit level 20, and need just a tad bit more damage to destroy the core.
| Rewind: reset the cooldowns on your basic abilities. Obviously it's useful if you need some extra escape, extra chasing ability while your shadow assault is on cooldowm, or need to deal a high burst of damage ASAP. It does not reset your heroic ability's cooldown, but it does reset your Q, W, and E. Meaning you get a second (or fourth) blink, a second (or fourth) singularity spike, and a second cleave.
Stay on your mount as often as possible, you'll want to move fast while cloaked.
Go the extra mile to finish off enemies. it's worth sacrificing yourself to kill the Diablo holding 34 doubloons for your teammates.
That being said, be an aggressive hero. It's worth taking damage if you can finish off enemies. Don't purposely get hurt just to damage heroes; but do it if you think you can take them out.
Use stealth to your advantage; scout areas for Abathur, or Murky's egg.
Don't overestimate your stealth; you're still partially visible to the people who pay attention to shimmering near them, and any damage will reveal you. Abathur may surround himself in invisible pods that will hurt you.
Don't use blink unless you're escaping or chasing.
Stick to a hit and run plan; don't stay in a fight while revealed for too long. Pull back, stealth, and possibly gank.
Target Supports, DPS, then tanks.
If your team can lane without you, feel free to roam and gank lanes.
If your team can't lane very well, make sure to regularly take out minion waves. Spike the center most minion, cleave, then basic attack the survivors. You should be able to build stacks very quickly.
If you are targeted by "The Hunt" blink right before it hits you to dodge it.
(the same goes for Kael' thas' slow moving pyroblast.
If a Nova is on your team, work together to deal massive damage.
When fighting another Zeratul, make sure to strike first, and deal as much damage as quickly as possible.
If a teammate is being targeted by Nova's Triple tap, follow the laser and kill her if you're close. If they're about to die and you have high health, stand in front of her while you do it.
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