From the Starcraft Universe, Abathur is a Zerg "Evolution Master" who is known for manipulating DNA and initiating mutation of the Zerg swarm. I consider Abathur the most unique of all the characters in Heroes of the Storm which is one of the main reasons I enjoy playing him so much. Unlike other heroes who you individually control on the map, Abathur himself does no fighting. The majority of his gameplay revolves around inhabiting other teammates either through his Symbiote ability or his heroic ability Ultimate Evolution Abathur is not only a hero with a high skill ceiling, he has a variety of play styles that are all viable and dependent on both map and team composition.

Pros & Cons

Pros

• Ultimate map awareness
• Potential for massive xp gains
• Highly versatile
• Excellent at helping with skirmishes

Cons

• Steep learning curve
• Very dependent on teammates
• Requires heavy mini-map attention
• Weak in team fights until level 10
• Difficult to "capture" objectives with

Abilities

• Symbiote(Q): Abathur infests an ally and gains three new abilities. While infesting the ally, Abathur cannot control their movement and must react according to how the infested character is controlled.
  • Stab(Q): A skill-shot with medium range, this is Abathur's single-target damage ability while infesting an ally.
  • Spike Burst(W): A short-medium range circular AoE from the ally, this is Abathur's multi-target damage ability while infesting an ally.
  • Carapace(E): A small-medium strength shield that is placed on the ally, this is Abathur's defensive ability while infesting an ally.
• Toxic Nest(W): Abathur places a mine on the map that is visible during its during its arming time, but is then invisible. The mine is triggered when contacted by an enemy, damaging and revealing it.
• Ultimate Evolution(R): Abathur is the only hero in the game with a single heroic ability. Abathur selects an allied hero and clones them allowing the use of their abilities including the heroic ability that ally chose.

• Locust Strain(D): Abathur automatically spawns a locust that travels down the nearest lane functioning as a minion.
• Deep Tunnel(Z): Abathur tunnels to any location on the map with allied vision. This takes the place of his mount ability.

Gaining Experience as Abathur

Although a good Abathur is an active Abathur, his actual body is often behind defenses and not in the middle of the fight. As a result, Abathur has unique experience mechanics that are critical to understand. Learning how to maximize Abathur's experience contribution provides yet another bolster to your team's effectiveness.

Abathur Gains Experience From:

• Enemies killed near your body, even during Symbiote
• Enemies killed near the target you are on with Symbiote
• Enemies killed by, or while taking damage from, Toxic Nest
• Enemies killed near you during Ultimate Evolution
• Enemies killed near locusts spawned by his level 16 talent Locust Swarm

Abathur Does Not Gain Experience From:

• His body being away from the action in the base
• The locust spawned by his trait Locust Strain

Improving Experience Contribution:

With a variety of ways to gain experience, it is possible to double or even triple up on experience gains by simultaneously being active in multiple lanes. This is a list of potential ways to optimize experience gains on Abathur:

• Use Symbiote on a minion in a lane with no allied hero
• Use Toxic Nest in the path of multiple minions
• Place Abathur's body near enemy minions while using Symbiote in a different lane
• Use Deep Tunnel to mercenary camps then hearth back to base
• Use Locust Swarm to push lanes without active heroes

Friends & Foes

Since you will spend much of the game as a passenger on your allied heroes, and your heroic ability is to literally copy an allied hero, Abathur has stronger synergy with certain heroes. Conversely, like all heroes in the game, he is particularly vulnerable to others

Friends

• Heroes who are always in the thick of the fight allowing you to maximize damage with Stab and Spike Burst such as Arthas, Sonya, and Diablo
• Heroes who heavily benefit from Carapace such as Illidan and Murky
• Heroes who have strong mobility such as Brightwing and Falstad
• Heroes who have high impact heroic abilities such as Tychus, Valla, and Uther

Foes

• Heroes who can stealth and pick off your body such as Nova and Zeratul
• Heroes who can reveal your location such as Tyrande and Tassadar

Toxic Nest Focus

My personal favorite build to go as Abathur, this build focuses on Toxic Nest for map control, lane pushing, and a strong defense.

Talents and Rationale

• Envenomed NestThe crux of this talent is that it allows you to 1-shot minions at certain levels. I've noticed that some levels it does not do full damage to them, but especially later in the game you can kill a minion wave with 1 or 2 well-placed nests. This allows you to always keep the lanes pushed in your team's favor and is a significant boost to Abathur's experience contribution.
• BallistosporesGlobal range is a must with a toxic nest build. Since you will be placing mines in all three lanes it is crucial to be able to reach them, especially later in the game when your first forts are destroyed and the enemy's are also which increases the distance needed to place mines.
• Calldown: MULEOne of the best hero-agnostic talents in the game, MULE has so many great uses. Of course it can be used to repair structures and replenish ammo (something that will be needed given Abathur's weaker lane presence early game). Additionally it can be used as a scout. When I'm out on the map with Abathur, I'll often drop a MULE in high traffic areas so alert myself (and my teammates) of enemy movement.
• Prolific DispersalThe additional 2 mine charges open up a great deal of potential with this build. They allow you to both push lanes and ward high traffic areas, whereas with only 3 charges you're spread to do one or the other. Also, unloading all 5 charges underneath enemy knights or siege giants will basically wipe them out. This relieves a huge burden from your team needing to give up map presence because of mercenaries.
• Adrenaline BoostDo not underestimate this speed boost. Taking this talent helps allies chase down enemies, squishy allies survive team engagements, and fleeing allies escape after a bad fight.

Gameplay
At the start of the game, use your Toxic Nest as wards by putting them in bushes and pathways between lanes. You want to do what you can to make sure your teammates do not get ganked. Into the mid-game expand your mine placement to mercenary camps, specifically the enemy camps. Knowing the team is at a particular camp will let your team either setup a gank or push uninhibited. Also at this point in the game, look for lanes that are pushed on your half of the map. A well-placed mine will outright kill or severely damage a minion wave giving your team experience as well as keeping the pressure on the opponent. Into the late game, once you have Prolific Dispersal you are able to do all of the above functions as well as clear enemy mercenary waves and capture the Knight camp yourself. Synch your cooldowns so you place 5 mines under the knights as your locust spawns. Symbiote the locust and clean up what is remaining of the mercenaries after the mines go off.

Between placing mines you should always be using Symbiote whenever possible. Hop on heroes to support them in skirmishes and hop on minions in empty lanes to soak up experience. Remember you can use Carapace on a minion in order to postpone its death and the minion wave from progressing forward in order to line up a Toxic Nest discharge.

Locust Focus

The cookie-cutter Abathur build that I see the most. The focus of this build is in pressuring a lane through Abathur's locusts.

Talents and Rationale

• Survival Instincts Increasing the health of Abathur's locusts enables them to stay alive longer, pushing lane and draining tower ammunition.
• Ballistospores Global range on your mines means global vision on the map allowing you to Deep Tunnel aggressively to merc camps, the enemy base, or map objectives throughout the game.
• Calldown: MULE The other talents do nothing to improve your locust capabilities so take this as a strong defensive talent.
• Assault Strain This talent gives your locusts some real teeth. The cleave damage is nothing to scoff at, but the explosion damage can be substantial.
• Locust Swarm What's better than a locust? How about three more! This talent enables Abathur to kill mercenary camps, siege towers, and massacre minion waves. They are also an excellent deterrent to melee heroes who are pushing a tower because having multiple locusts explode on a target can severely cripple a hero's health or outright kill them.

Gameplay
With this build, your locust will be a more substantial presence in lane. Support lanes where you have a weaker early game hero. Primarily use your Toxic Nest charges for scouting. Cover line-of-sight blockers, key map areas, and common pathways. The mines do not do enough damage to impact a lane so make sure your map vision is as good as possible. Once you unlock Locust Swarm it's time to really go to work. You can easily capture Knights or Siege Giants by yourself. Also use your mines to grant vision in a forward position for Deep Tunnel to siege down any remaining Forts and Keeps. Remember the Palace has a strong AoE attack so the locusts will be less effective.

Symbiote Focus

A specialized build I use only on Haunted Mines, the lack of a third lane severely limits the strengths of the other two builds. This build is variable at tier 2 and 6 depending on team compositions.

Talents and Rationale

• Eradicate Minions Strengthening area of effect damage to non-heroic units helps push lanes, damage towers, and quickly kill contested mercenary camps.
• Pressurized Glands/ Barbed Spines I generally take the range increase to ensure a maximum number of targets are hit. But, to maximize pure damage output the increase to Stab is a better choice.
• Calldown: MULE A case could be made for Regenerative Microbes. The heal amount is small, but in compositions where there is no healer it is better than nothing. Otherwise go with MULE.
• Spatial Efficiency The extra Stab charge enables a full rotation with two spike bursts and no downtime which is helpful for this build.
• Envenomed Spikes/ Adrenaline Boost If the range talent was taken at tier 2, then the enemy slow has the potential to be more impactful, but there are cases where the speed boost can accomplish more. If your team has heroes with Executioner the slow represents a significant damage boost also. If you are playing against multiple ranged high-mobility heroes than the speed boost will allow your warriors and/or assassins to chase them down with ease.

Gameplay
This build is specifically used for Haunted Mines because with two lanes there is not enough of a spread to make use of Toxic Nest and the mercenary camps are so open it's very risky using Abathur to capture them. Instead we will focus on his Symbiote ability, specifically the AoE aspects of the kit. Eradicate Minions is a misleading name for the talent. The damage increase applies not only to minions but mercenaries, neutrals, and structures. The increased damage and range helps clear mercenaries (especially Knights) quickly with your team as well as collecting skulls in the mine. Depending on team composition Tier 2 and 6 talents will be different. The combination of increased Spike Burst range plus the slow create an ideal situation for heroes with Executioner such as Valla, Illidan, or Tychus. But, if you find poking hero damage more important than take Barbed Spines at Tier 2. If you go this route, also consider Adrenaline Boost at Tier 6. The speed increase will help you get in range for Stab as well as help vulnerable allies escape.

Work in Progress, Coming Soon