Introduction: Top
Hello! My name is Will. I go by himynameiswill on nearly everything I am signed up to, except for
Battle.net where I sadly ran out of room and settled for himynameiswi. I started playing HotS a few weeks before its full release and have been enjoying myself a lot. I play mainly quick match atm as there is less pressure to play well and it is just a more relaxed environment. I played League of Legends for 2 and a bit years, stopped for a year and then started to play this.
Murky is one of my favourite heroes in the game due to his unique style of play. Half of my playtime with him has been using one build, whereas the other is using another (this one!). My recent history is 12 consecutive wins (my current record), 10 with Murky and 2 with Gazlowe. All the games were quick matches, so it should be taken with a grain of salt, but I think to have 10 wins in a row indicates I'm doing something right, right? So here is my guide to playing Murky, the Baby Murloc.
*Disclaimer* I'm in no way trying to say my build is the best. This is simply a build that has been working for me and I would like to explain to others how to use the hero.
Pros and Cons Top
Murky's playstyle is very different to most others and as a result he has a variety of pros and cons.
Pros:
- Good at pushing lanes
- Great burst late game
- Can remove heroes from teamfights with
Octo-Grab
- Near instant respawn
- Gives less xp on death
- Low cooldown on
Octo-Grab
Cons:
- Low health
- Weak early game
- Reliant on a good team comp
Abilities Top
Talents Top
Level 1
Level 1 gives you a fair amount of choice, 3 of the 4 being viable.
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In my experience,
Block is my favourite to use as although it mainly helps you early game, it also helps late game due to your low health pool anyway. In lane, you can throw down your
 Pufferfish and attack the enemy with
 Slime to ensure they don't destroy your fish before it blows up. Block lets you reduce the amount of damage you take from their basic attacks. If you come up against an ability based hero such as
 Kael'thas or
 Jaina, the other talents may work better for you.
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This can help a lot for chasing. Not so much for escaping as you really shouldn't be worrying if you die or not (unless you are on
 Blackheart's Bay and you are carrying gold). If you are up against a Lili, she can escape you pretty easily due to her talent and possibly
 Herbal Cleanse later in the game. Taking this will allow you to catch up to her without mounting.
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This works really well on maps with a lot of camps. On
 Cursed Hollow, you can take the enemy teams Golems easily with bribe and if they don't act quickly, they can destroy a lanes defenses. This also works pretty well on Eternal Conflict as you can take the camps quickly. I feel the other two give a lot more than this, and unless you are on
Cursed Hollow, I'd recommend the other two.
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Other talents
Assault Egg is rubbish. Never take it. Your egg should never be used for map awareness and if you are using it for that, you're playing Murky wrong. In addition, the health boost isn't useful at all. It's far too little and they shouldn't be finding your egg so much that you need a talent to make it beefier.
Level 4
There are two abilities that stand out in this group.
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I feel
Living the Dream is the best talent here personally and really does stand out late game. After being alive for 1 minute 15 seconds, you will have a 20% increase to your abilities damage. That can be the difference between killing someone and letting them edge away on 100hp. Of course, as Murky you will die a lot, so I can see the argument for this being weak. However, again, late game you should have time to get a decent 12% increase before dying (if you do).
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Envenom is pretty good on any hero that has it. At level 4, you will still lack damage, this could force your enemy laner out of the lane, allowing you to deal some serious siege damage. If you just want to deal more damage, then choose this. It eliminates the wait time for
Living the Dream to kick in, so I can understand its use.
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Other talents
Bigger Slime in theory is decent, but in practise isn't that useful. To play Murky, you will be up in the enemies face constantly, meaning you don't need increased range. Extra damage > extra range.
Tufferfish is fine in a pufferfish build, but not in this one. Even in a pufferfish build it does not exceed the usefulness of the first two talents.
Level 7
This is where you start dealing proper damage
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Slime Advantage is brilliant, simply put. With this, you can really start to put pressure onto your fellow laner if you are still in lanes. If not, it's still more damage. It sadly doesn't apply to structures, but the damage towards minions and heroes is still fantastic.
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If you are lacking CC, you may want to use this to increase your slow. Your Q can be spammed a lot so you can chase and slow heroes pretty well with this. However, chasing and slowing isn't that hard without this anyway. The 10% increase won't be that apparent and to miss out on more damage for a little bit more CC on Murky doesn't really sound logical.
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Other talents
Compressed Air Very much a crutch for newer players. You can position your E in a way to hit multiple targets anyway so this doesn't really help unless you are new to Murky. Not a pufferfish build however, so don't bother.
Clairvoyance Why does Murky have this?
Level 10
I explained this simply in the ability section and I don't really have much more to say about it. Take Octo-Grab, kids.
Level 13
This selection depends on your situation, although I think there is 1 winner here
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Spam. Spam. Spam. Spam. Spam.
Continuous Slime allows you to (you guessed it) spam your Q more. 1 second may not seem like a lot, but it is. Every 3 seconds you can be dealing 726 damage at level 30. That is crazy.
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Wrath of Cod is again another pufferfish skill, but it can increase your damage a fair amount with this build if you spam your Q. Then again, you could spam your Q a lot better if you took
Continuous Slime...
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This is alright, but no where near as good as the first two. You will die a lot. Try to increase your damage rather than your movement if possible.
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Other talents
Hidden Assault is just too weak and illogical. Why are you putting your egg so close to the enemy team? If you're not, then this is useless, as it only lasts 5 seconds. The stealth may help if your heroic is up but again, you only have 5 seconds from spawn to get close to an enemy. Don't take it.
Level 16
An interesting and varied selection for you to choose from here
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This build revolves around
Slime.
Slime is your friend and like good friends, they will gladly help you kill a Zagara if you need (What? Do your friends not help you with that?). This helps in a variety of situations. If you are chasing, you can slap this down and slow the one you are chasing, to which you follow up with your Q to deal some damage. Most of the time I use this.
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This is also really good. It doesn't utilise
Slime, but it deals damage and that's what we are after. Unlike
Envenom, the damage is instant and it also heals you. This can be a great finisher or use if you are low on health. You may have low health, but you do take a few hits to put down. Using this on someone like
 Illidan will allow you to regen all your health and start attacking again. It's up to you whether you choose this or
Slimy Pufferfish. Both essentially do the same job.
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Meh, I can see the use and this is what I used to use, but the other two talents are simply more useful. If you didn't take
Bubble Machine, don't take this. If you did take
Bubble Machine, this can be useful. But again, it ain't damage. And as Murky, you need to be dealing damage.
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Other talents
Slimy End is just way too situational and relies on luck. If the enemy team has a lot of ranged heroes, this is useless. They will pick you off and you wont be in range for this to have an effect.
Level 20
2 good, 2 bad.
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 ... And a Shark Too! is my favourite. You will deal a fair amount of damage and this is useful for finishing squishy assassins like
 Valla and
 Nova. With only a 50 seconds cooldown on the heroic, you can deal a lot of damage constantly in addition to your basic abilities.
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Rewind is useful for your W and E, both having a fairly long cooldown. Being able to pop off two pufferfish in a second is nice, and being able to escape with your E is also, but is it worth missing out on more damage. Sure, two pufferfish will deal incredible damage and will be good for pushing, but at level 20, will you need that? It's for you to decide.
... And a Shark Too! is a safe, reliable talent.
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Map and egg tips Top
On some maps, I have provided a map of the points at which you are safe to place your egg. I am using "safe" as they are spots that heroes usually don't go into.
If it is circled in
green, it is safe.
If it is circled in
orange, it is somewhat safe. It is semi hidden and enemies may not spot it, but they are areas they may pass through.
Areas such as near forts are also safe.
Blackheart's Bay is easily Murky's weakest map purely down to how the objective on this map works. You will be carrying coins and you are Murky, a character that dies a lot. If you have coins on you, you can't die or you will give the other team the coins.
The only solution to this is trying to avoid picking up the coins. This is problematic, especially in quickmatch, as you are going to have to get your team to follow you can take the coins when you take a camp or chest. Other than that, if you do have coins, cash them as soon as possible.
There are a few safe spots on this map:
Cursed Hollow is a good map for Murky. As stated in the talent section, bribe works really well here and having golems attack lanes means maybe someone will have to stop fighting for the Tribute to deal with them.
There are multiple safe spots on this map:
Dragon Shire is a map where Murky can apply pressure to the objective constantly and slowly whittle down the enemy down so they have to go back to the nexus. I advise not going mid as if Murky dies, the enemy can take mid within 3 seconds, whereas Murky needs 5 seconds just to respawn. Taking top or bottom is good to apply pressure.
This map contains no safe spots:
Haunted Mines is decent for Murky, as he can quickly respawn when dead and enter the mines. He can stop the enemy team from taking the big mine golem through harassment without a care in the world.
When the golems spawn, it is recommended that you attack rather than defend (unless they get something like 90 to 10), as you won't do a lot to defend. However, in attack, you can harass the enemy and stop them from defending.
There are several safe spots on this map:
*WILL FINISH SOON*
Strategy Top
Although your strategy will alter slightly map to map, there is a general way to play Murky.
Early game:
During the laning stages, you should focus on clearing the minions as quickly as possible and dealing as much siege damage as you can. If you die, don't sweat it. That is in the rulebook for Murky. Dying 4 times is equivalent to 1 normal kill, and even then, you would have pushed the lane to win the xp back.
When objectives spawn, help your team. Heroes of the Storm is incredibly team focused, and although weak at the start, you are still needed. To learn more about the objectives, check the "Map and egg tips" section. If you are confident your team can take it, then stay in lane and push like crazy.
Mid game:
A few objectives have been taken and people are starting to leave lanes to gank. What do you do? Push. Until you hit level 10, just keep pushing and trying to soak as much xp for your team. If you win your lane, you may push others from other lanes into yours, helping your team win theirs.
At level 10, you shouldn't be sticking to a lane. Spread throughout the map where needed and gank if you have your heroic up. Again, you are there to soak xp. Make life easier for your team by ensuring you win the level race.
If you are winning lanes, start to push into their half of the map and take their camps. Taking camps not only gives you xp but will force the enemy team to defend lanes, freeing up room on others.
End game:
Move with your team and Octo-Grab enemies for your team to kill. If you are still below level 20, try to soak xp when your team aren't grouped up. If your team are grouped, they're likely ready for a team fight. Don't leave them when there is a team fight. If you die, then you respawn straight away, no biggie.
Final words Top
Thank you for your time if you read this and I hoped it helped. Seeing as Murky is the hero I play the most, I will try to update this as patches roll out.
I can't stress enough; I am not a pro. This guide lacks detailed stats and figures because it is meant to give new Murky players a feel on the hero and hopefully help them. Constructive criticism is always helpful and I am open to it. If there are sections you feel I should add, let me know.
If you wish to add me on stuff, my steam is himynameiswill, twitter is _LameImpala_ and
Blizz.net is himynameiswi.
Thanks,
Will.
E.T.C.
Mosh Pit
Never-Ending Murlocs
Bolt of the Storm
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