Hello fellow players!

I'm Ynozzar, I've been playing HotS since the technical alpha, and although at the start I did it really casually, lately my dedication hours have increased significantly.

I've played other MOBAs and MMOs for a long time, so even if I'm not a world championship player, I'm neither new to this. And, after playing non-stop with Kael'thas since the champion release, I'm pretty confident I found my personal way of playing him, and I kind of believe is really competitive, and thus I wanted to share it with all of you, specially since I don't really like the only "high liked" guide that now exists for him.

Oh, and I love fire mages in wow, Living bomb was my favortie skill, so when I saw Kael'thas kit, it was a no-brainer.

The Scourge devoured our ancient homeland of Quel'Thalas. The once-proud bloodline of my people is nearly spent. The few of us that remain now call ourselves blood elves, in homage to our murdered people.

So, there's two builds. The first one (Living Bomb) is the one I always use, and the one for which the guide is built. Flamestrike build is another fun way to play Kael'thas, but is much less reliable.

Living Bomb - Balanced Build

With this build we prioritze the use of Living Bomb. Adding all up, it does more damage on explosion, and spreads to nearby enemies when exploding. Therefore our objective is to be moderately close to the enemy (don't melee a diablo, seriously), so we can bomb the enemy and apply the bomb to everyone.

This can be achieved in two ways; first of all, using the passive to double-bomb one character. Therefore, everyone in the radius gets the damage from the explosion, and then everyone has a living bomb onto them. Once the primary target bomb explodes, all other people will have a second bomb on them. Note that only the bombs you cast can spread, it would be too awesome if spreaded bombs could spread.

The other way to bomb 'em, is to bomb different persons. If everyone would stand still and in range, this would do more damage, as you let the bombs tick, and then the original targets get both bomb-spreaded. But as this won't usually happen, you should aim for the first trick. Maybe if the enemy team is fighting a boss or something, you should go this way.

Then, the rest of the talent choices are done to improve survivability and play-making. More info on the talents themselves.

Flamestrike - Glass Cannon Build

The emphasis on this build is to nuke from afar with Flamestrike and Pyroblast. To help achieve this, the build sacrifices all survivability traits to invest the points into damage and range. Note that neter-wind helps a lot when trying to stay afar. This would be a more hit-and-run build, with a playstyle totally different than the living bomb build.

A magical sphere belonging to the lord of the blood elves. You can use your trait to empower your next skill. It has only 6 seconds cooldown, so it's advised to abuse it as much as you can!

Felomin ashal! You target an area, and after a short delay (0.5 seconds I believe), you deal some nice damage. Note that the delay is longer than it seems. And, as all areas in HotS, its effective area is a bit larger than what it's drawn on the floor. With Verdant Spheres, it increases the area and damage by 50%. The area increase is huge, and the damage increase is nice, but not that huge honestly. In any case, this gives you extra reach to kill escaping targets, or prevent enemies from channeling (doubloons, jewels, tributes, etc). This should be the only time you use flamestrike this way, once you have Chain Bomb. Before that, the damage increase is nice.

This was child's play. You target an enemy, and put them ablaze. A DoT ticks for three seconds, doing a bit less damage than Flamestrike, but in the end, it explodes, doing half the damage of the DoT, in area. So in the end, it does more damage than flamestrike as single target, and less as AoE. But this is fixed with Chain Bomb :). With Verdant Spheres, its mana cost and cooldown are nullified, enabling you to either keep spamming it each 6 seconds without using up mana, or using it twice in a row. While on lane, the first is strongly advised, as you are really mana-hungry.

Let us see how you fare when your world is turned upside down. You launch a slow forward-moving skillshot that lifts into the air (aka stuns) the first target hit for 1.5 seconds. Beware its short range, it's shorter than it seems, and the low speed makes you need some extra aim to hit moving targets. Everything gets really better with Nether Wind, but unfortunately you won't be using that too often. Also, if you happen to 1v1 someone, you can use this and inmediately after Pyroblast for a 'free' cast! With Verdant Spheres, it hits three targets instead of one. That's really something on teamfights. You'll miss some damage, but if you mange to stun three enemies, it's a huge advantage. Choosing between empowering Gravity Lapse or Living Bomb is an important choice. If your team has nice initatiors you'll want to start with the bomb and save the stun to use it with the trait. Oh, and this traited works wonders with Phoenix.

Energy. Power. My people are addicted to it. But dependence made manifest after the Sunwell was destroyed. This is the to-go talent. Kael'thas has serious mana problems, and this helps a lot with it, neting an easy increase of over 600 mana late game. Also, it synergizes really well with Arcane Barrier.

When the Flames settle, we shall see who still stands! At first it seems like a good DPS increase, but it's not really that good. Only one skill benefits from it, and only while the enemy is CC'd by you.

Do not get... too comfortable. This talent really good, as it lets your CC cooldown get reduced, up to 9 seconds if used with the passive, which is huge.

Master, grant me strength. A little heal with low cooldown and no mana cost may seem nice, but it's a bit meaningless actually. Furthermore, the other talent choices offer greater benefits.

For Quel'thalas! An utterly bad talent if you ask me. You have to worry about last-hitting minions with Flamestrike. Also, I think there's other ways to preserve your mana, specially with Mana Addict

Having trouble staying grounded? One more time, upgrading your CC is always a good idea. It may not seem so, but the speed and range increase is huge, it really helps CCing from afar and makes the skillshot harder to dodge.

I had a brief taste of TRUE power...before it was taken from me! Well, just no. 5% increase in damage is to little, and if you manage to be always alive to make it 15%, I'm pretty sure you could have a better use for this talent slot.

As you see, I have many weapons in my arsenal. The best bet for me. The damage in this is HUGE, and it's a DoT, so it actually is really useful to deceive enemies. Eearly game works wonders paired with Living Bomb for fast surprise kills.

In a Living Bomb heavy-orientated build, this is godsend. In any case, all talents in this tier are really good, so you can tune it the way you like.

Each time you use your trait, your next attack deals double damage, approximately. I think it's the less worth talent, but it's better than Fission Bomb for single-target damage.

Basically, you can cast your passive twice if you use it first with Gravity Lapse. Combined with Energy Roil, adds up to a hell lot of CC.

This is a highly situational talent. Not having wards and the like really makes this useful when fighting for objectives, but you should only pick this when playing premade.

By the power of the sun! Analanel Balorei! Extremely useful skill, lets you zone like a boss, and also does lots of damage if enemies stay into it long enough. I would only take this if you're playing premade, though, as it can become wasted really easily. Also, serves really well when pushing or backdooring, as the damage on structures is huge, since they can't run from it =D.

I have not come this far to be stopped! The future I have planned will not be jeopardized! Now you will taste true power! Ohhhhh baby, I love this. Even if Phoenix is better for teamplay, this is so much fun. Easily take 60% of any assassin's HP feels so good! Anyway this skill is also super nice to gank from bushes, where you can cast in the shadows for a surprise headshot. Note that if enemies exit the range limit, the cast will cancel and enter a 10-seconds cooldown, so avoid using it when chasing fast opponents. In any case this is what I you'll want to take if playing solo, or you just want to have tons of fun!

Not really good on this build, as you won't be using Flamestrike that much, but becomes really good with the alternative build.

I love this! This is the essence of Living Bomb! What's better than one explosion? MOAR explosions! With this, the bomb will spread, potentially making each use of it hit five times in a teamfight. Not to mention you'll only need one bomb to kill an entire creep wave if you put it into the wizard minion.

This is also good, specially if you aim for a more CC-orientated build instead of damage.

You're an assassin, so this is kind of meh in my opinion. I think it's best suited for tanks. Maybe if the other talents weren't so nice it would be worth.

You gambled. And lost. This is a really really useful talent, does extremely well in teamfights. If you're just caring for damage, this is a no-brainer.

You will not prevail! More CC! The only problem about this, I don't like to wait for CC's, as using your trait is better placed on Gravity Lapse in terms of CC. But it's nice if you're going for a more defensive, CC-orientated build.

Bow to my will. Well, I don't really like this, I feel it's not really worth seeing the other options we have.

Alas, sometimes one must take matters into one's own hands. Balamore shanal! This is a bliss! So much survivability in one talent! You have 700 mana at level 20, which translates to a 1400 health shield, which is huge. Paired with Mana Addict, it pretty much doubles the shield value. This really saves the day on teamfights, and lets you 1v1 other assassins like a boss.

Vengeance burns! This talent is good, but I'm sure you won't need it if your Phoenix is well placed.

Welcome to the future. A pity you're too late to stop it, no one can stop me now. Salama A'shalanorei! I don't like this at all. Pyroblast is already hard to cast, so having it's cooldown decreased is kind of a waste. Faster cast or even more damage would be better. For the moment, this is worthless.

Obey me. Oh la la! This is extremely powerful. It lets you initiate or escape extremely easily, you can cross walls, exit from danger zones, etc. And paired with Arcane Barrier it let's you pull really good plays.

You will drown in your own blood! The world shall burn! Aaaghh! The damage increase and mana refund is good, but I find it less useful than Bolt of the Storm. In any case, it works wonders for a glass cannon build.

I'm using some images that I've seen in other guides. As the image route involves heroesfire I figured it's some kind of fankit maybe? Be it the case or not, thanks for whom made them.

And, I'd love to put colors into the talents icons, but I don't know how. If anyone reads this far, I'd thank if he or she could give me the info!

Last but not least, criticism is appreciated! Either for the guide contents or structure, any help is welcome!

Changelog

• 14/05/2015: Added lore quotes.
• 14/05/2015: Guide created.