Kael'Thas Assassin Guide "You are too late!" [Hotfix Notes] by Hobo

Kael'Thas Assassin Guide "You are too late!" [Hotfix Notes]

By: Hobo
Last Updated: Nov 30, 2015
189 Votes
Build 1 of 1

Kael'thas

Build: Chain Bombs! Ranked

Level 1
Level 4
Level 7
Level 10
Level 13
Level 16
Level 20

KT Hotfix 9/8/2015 Top

This change does nerf the instant kill Chain Bomb's while a target is in minions and it also effects your damage in team fights. KT is still a strong pick, but I don't think he will be instant banned in higher levels of play.

Guide Updated! Top

As of 8/24 - Guide is up to date and changed for the Kharazim patch. Post any questions or comments that you have and I will be happy to reply.

Additionally, added two new videos - one of a full game on Dragon Shire and one of an insane combo blowing up a beetle.

-Hobo

About Hobo Top



[Rank 1 in Hero League] and I have been playing since Alpha, have also written top guides for Kael'Thas, The Butcher and Johanna. I have been hardcore gaming for nearly my entire life! Guide Links Here

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Table of Contents Top

Full Game Video Example Top


This is a full Hero League game on 8/23, after the Kael'Thas changes. It demonstrates the early gank ability, the crazy effective chain bombs and general ownage with Kael'Thas. Positioning is still very important as a squishy assassin, and I did get caught here and there.


Abilities Top


Intro



Kael'Thas has an amazing potential for single target AND area of effect damage. As of the Kharazim patch, Kael'Thas received some changes. The talent Ignite was removed from the game, whilc Living Bomb and Chain Bomb were buffed. They are now the go to build. Additionally, you have some insane early game roaming potential with Gravity Lapse getting buffed. Instead of Kael having a huge power spike at level 16, you now are a feared hero start at level one!

Combat Trait


Verdant Spheres


Cooldown: 6 seconds
Activate to make your next Basic Ability more powerful. Has a 6 second cooldown.



Abilities


Flamestrike

(Q)
Mana: 70
Cooldown: 7 seconds

After a short delay, deal 102 (+22 per level) damage in an area. Has a 7 second cool down.
Verdant Spheres increases the radius by 50% and deals 153 (+33 per level) damage.

Living Bomb

(W)
Mana: 50
Cooldown: 10 seconds
Deal 82 (+22 per level) damage over 3 seconds to an enemy, then they explode dealing 41 (+11 per level) damage to all nearby enemies. Casting a second Living Bomb on an enemy causes the previous Living Bomb to explode immediately. Has a 10 second cooldown.

Verdant Spheres makes this Ability cost no Mana and have no cooldown.

Gravity Lapse

(E)
Mana: 85
Cooldown: 13 seconds

Stun the first enemy hit for 1.5 seconds. Has a 13 second cooldown.

Verdant Spheres causes Gravity Lapse to stun the first 3 enemies hit

Heroic Abilities


Phoenix

(R)
Mana: 40
Cooldown: 40 seconds

Launch a Phoenix to an area, dealing 10 (+8 per level) damage to enemies along the way. The Phoenix persists for 7 seconds, attacking enemies for 10 (+8 per level) damage and splashing for 50% . Has a 40 second cooldown.



Pyroblast

(R)
Mana: 80
Cooldown: 50 seconds

After 2 seconds, cast a slow-moving fireball that deals 300 (+65 per level) damage to an enemy Hero and 150 (+32.5 per level) damage to enemies nearby. Has a 50 second cooldown.

Chain Bomb Combo Basics Top



Chain Bomb




The basic combo is Verdant Spheres into two living bombs. But the list below, is more of a priority list. You sometimes do not want to use Gravity Lapse as the opener and in a team fight, using the basic combo first will net you a ton of team damage! The combo isn't as devastating as flamestike + Ignite, but you still have outstanding damage, but it requires you to be in much closer range now that Flamethrower is no longer picked.

Revised Combo

+ + + + +


Living Bomb - The more living bombs you apply to a target, the more times they will explode for fantastic amounts of damage. The basic idea behind this build is getting as many living bombs out on your target in the shortest amount of time. This is accomplished by using the Combo shown above.

Open with Gravity Throw + Verdant Spheres + Apply First Living Bomb + Apply second Living Bomb. With this combo, I nearly could kill any target as it has huge damage potential! Once you add Chain Bomb into the mix, you can put a lot of pressure an entire team with a few explosions. Pick your targets carefully in Team fights! Try to pick someone who might retreat back into the group after your initial burst. This way you can get the chain bombs spreading to other targets.

TIP

- if you happen to have the oppourtunity to use Chain Bomb on an enemy that is in a minion wave, you can have insane burst! Just ask this poor beetle tank Anub:

Detailed Talent Build Top




Increase your maximum Mana by 15 when you pick up a Regeneration Globe.

Mana Addict - Oh the Mana woes that KT has - taking this talent seemed to help prevent my constant state of no mana. I have tested this and Mana Addict, in my opinion is a mandatory talent. Without this talent, in the later game, I was going oom and couldn't apply the constant pressure that I normally could apply with an extra 300-400 mana from Mana Addict.

Other Alternatives




Increases Gravity Lapse's range and speed by 30%

Nether Wind - Gravity Lapse increased range and speed is fantastic and
it is highly competitive with the other selections. The travel time speed increase will help you land the critical stuns on your target. Nether Wind is now the BEST choice hands down. The range and speed of this ability make it insanely good for early roaming ganks. Try to set this up with your team and roam those lanes.


Gathering Power - was gutted and nerfed into oblivion. It should never be taken, as the "quest" to level it up takes far to many kills. The bonus 5% was a great pick, but it now takes 5 kills just to get to that old base line.






Increases Living Bomb's explosion damage and radius by 30%.

This is the key to the entire build. It makes Living Bomb start to really hurt! See combo description for more details. I don't consider any other talent in this tier competitive with Fission Bomb. This talent is mandatory for nearly all KT builds (other than a CC type build).



Launch a Phoenix to an area, dealing 10 (+8 per level) damage to enemies along the way. The Phoenix persists for 7 seconds, attacking enemies for 10 (+8 per level) damage and splashing for 50%


This choice will depend on the map and your team set up (Phoenix can zone extremely well AND it is unkillable!). I personally have started to prefer Phoenix over Pyroblast. I would recommend to evaluate the game and your team to make a decision. In some competitive games, I have taken Pyro blast to use as an opener in team fights. If you get a good position, you can take out their support or even a threat like Jaina or Valla from the team fight. Note that position is key in this approach and it can be extremely risky. When it does work out, you certainly tip the advantage in your teams favor.

Pyroblast can be used as a great set-up for an ambush or initiation for a team fight. This can be used well with coordinated teams. Pyro looks good on paper, but the 2 second cast time can be interrupted and the travel time is quite slow. I did get quite a few finishers on Champions running away from a team fight using Pyroblast, but I still feel that phoenix can pull ahead of pyro is most games.

*Update*
With the increase range from the recent patch, Pyroblast is a bit better and it did see a few picks on professional play, but pheonix still reigns supreme!



Chain Bomb - After the recent patch, Chain Bomb is back! This talent is extremely good now that fission bomb grants an additional 30% radius to the explosion. This makes it even easier to set up combos and blow up an entire team!

I do not consider any other talent in this tier viable, as Chain Bomb is too good to pass up.




The selection in this talent tier depends entirely on the opposing team. If they have melee assassins that will be trying to dive you, then Arcane Barrier is a must. With the Kharazim patch, Arcane Barrier was buffed to last 6 seconds and it gives you a 200% of your mana as a shield. Since this is comboed with Mana Addict the shield can get massive. It can help you survive some assassins like The Butcher, Nova or Zeratul.

If you feel that you will not be focused down or the other team doesn't have melee assassins, then Backdraft is an outstanding pick as it is a 50% slow on your living bomb. With the increased radius of Living Bomb , this is one of the largest AoE slows in the game. This is great utility for your team.

Again, make this selection based on the other team, it is not set in stone every game.


Bolt of the Storm Standard selection here - KT is no exception, he really can use the escape, especially if Gravity Lapse is on cooldown. This is really the only viable pick, even with the increase cooldown, this is too good not to have!

Early Game Top

Early Game Guide




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+




Your early game is now strong after the Kharazim Patch changes. You can burst down heroes in a Gravity Lapse combo with some help from a teammate. You now excel in is sustain, free poke, and early game ganks!!

Your main goal for early game is to collect Regeneration Orbs. By level 10, I have seen an increase of 160-200 mana. This drastically helps keep you casting spells in the later game and keeps you in lane early. Making lane rotations for ganks can also add to your orb collection!

One other key to early game is to abuse Verdant Spheres with Living Bomb. The catch here is that you just want to use this combo to poke down the other champion. Do NOT cast two in a row early!
With Verdant Spheres, Living Bomb will no longer cost mana OR have a cooldown. You essentially get a free, 6 sec CD Living Bomb.

By Level 7, you can start your burst. Fission Bomb can be very bursty, abuse this! You can score easy kills in a CC chain, but watch your mana. You can empty it quick trying to go for ganks, be sure to be full by the time the objectives roll around.

Mid Game Top

Mid Game Guide




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Welcome to the mid game! This is where it really gets to be fun and you become devastating to the other team. After you add Fission Bomb, you can start putting out pressure on nearly any champion.
While laning, be sure to still abuse your 6 second Living Bomb. When you see a window for a kill opportunity, dive into the full combo.

When you hit level 13 and you pick up Chain Bomb - your team fighting capability increases drastically, Bombs Away!! As an assassin, your positioning is always important. You need to know where the other teams assassins are, especially if they are melee. Once a team fight is engaged, jump in with a double Chain Bomb. Try to pick a target that is within range or others for explosions, this will spread more Living Bomb's around to turn the tide of the fight in your team's favor. If the other team is not fully committing, try just using Verdant Spheres + Living Bomb one time. Again, this will give you great poke and you can really start the team fight with a hit point advantage.

You will also gain your heroic ability Phoenix at level 10. The cooldown is only 40 seconds! Abuse this as much as possible and you can even add it to the beginning or end of your rotation.

If you happen to choose pyroblast (in certain situations, it can be good). Watch your placement when you cast it. You can essentially take someone out of a team fight, but be sure you aren't targeting someone that can negate the damage (Iceblock other immunities etc..)

Late Game Top


Late Game Guide




or



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You are now enjoying some impressive 1v1 and area of effect burst. The other team might start focusing you and it is key that you keep your engage positioning in mind. I like to mount up, hit my Chain Bomb combo with (and I usually save Gravity Lapse if things start to get sketchy) then back up to wait for CDs. Your auto attack isn't very strong and staying alive to get another chain bombo combo off on the enemy team is paramount!

There is one option for more sustained damage over the course of a fight, it is similar to the early game in which you abuse Verdant Spheres with Living Bomb. Now that you can also apply a Living Bomb with Chain Bomb, it can actually put quite a bit of damage out. You also now have a 6 second cool down on your Living Bomb.

Basically combo Verdant Spheres with Living Bomb then, instead of jumping right into another Living Bomb, cast a normal Flamestrike. You can then wait until the timing is right to blow both Living Bombs to get a kill.

Additionally, with the buff to Nether Wind and Gravity Lapse, you might see a window to catch the other team in an empowered Nether Wind, which will land on three targets, keep an eye out for these windows! Also watch for ultimate that you can interrupt, for example LiLi's cups and Valla's strafe.


Matchups Top

(more coming soon)

Ouch, Long Range|Can Survive Burst
[if=Falstad has your number! Early, mid and late game are a challenge if you were to meet him 1v1. If you happen to be in a bad position, Gravity Lapse and try to gtfo! His shielding, auto attacking and mobility are rough for any squishy to deal with, like Kael]Falstad has your number! Early, mid and late game are a challenge if you were to meet him 1v1. If you happen to be in a bad position, Gravity Lapse and try to gtfo! His shielding, auto attacking and mobility are rough for any squishy to deal with, like Kael[/if]


dimensional shift|Shields!
[if=Early on, your Living Bomb may not be able to put much pressure on Tassadar. His damage is quite avoidable, but avoid getting hit by Psionic Storm If you do get the window of opportunity for a kill, he will simply dimensional shift to escape easily. In the later game, you slowly start to gain enough burst to kill him in a CC chain, but again, its difficult with dimensional shift.]Early on, your Living Bomb may not be able to put much pressure on Tassadar. His damage is quite avoidable, but avoid getting hit by Psionic Storm If you do get the window of opportunity for a kill, he will simply dimensional shift to escape easily. In the later game, you slowly start to gain enough burst to kill him in a CC chain, but again, its difficult with dimensional shift.[/if]






Change Log: Top


5/12/15: Initial Version
5/13/15: Updates to content, formatting
5/14/15: Loads of updates, table of contents added
5/15/15: Content Updates, Video Added, formatting updates
5/16/15: Content Updates, Theorycraft section added
5/18/15: Adding matchups, other talents, added 2 other builds
5/19/15: 50,000 Views! Thanks everyone!!
5/21/15: Updating other talent selections
5/27/15: Added Hotfix notes
6/1/15: 100,000 Views! Fixed more content for hotfix
6/17/15: Wow 200,000 Views! Thanks everyone for the support. Hope this guide has helped your KT gameplay.
6/21/15: 300,000 Views! Don't forget to follow on Twitch
6/23/15: Updated Format and content of Mid/Late Game (thanks for the reminder - Tappin)
7/08/15: 400,000 Views! Almost a half of million!
7/29/15: 500k views!!
8/20/15: Tons of changes coming since Kharazim patch
8/23/15: Updated content and 600k views!
9/30/15: 700k views!

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