Zagara guide, Brood-queen. by Zombeh

Zagara guide, Brood-queen.

By: Zombeh
Last Updated: May 31, 2015
4 Votes
Rating Pending
Build 1 of 2

Zagara

Build: #1 Creep-Tumor

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

Threats to Zagara with this build

Threat
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Threat Hero Notes
1
Li Li Kill that panda, she's no threat to you. 'Devouring Maw' is a strong counter to her healing 'Heroic ability'.
2
Murky 1 Hydralisk -> He uses 'Safety Bubble' -> when it's on CD, kill him. Dispers your creep in possible hiding spots to make him put his egg in another place. Try to look at where he's coming from when he re-spawns after death (More optional when you have good vision from CT) then the next time you kill him go destroy the egg.
2
Rehgar He's not a threat as long as he's in a distance from you, if he starts chasing than you can kill him with your kit. Throw your Roachlings only after he finish using his 'W-Lightning shield'
3
Anub'arak If he jumps you with burrowing skill use your Hydralisk and Banelings and he'd run with his tail between his legs.
3
Azmodan You both have minions, your's are stronger when they're on CT, cover the lane in creep, push it hard and win.
3
Muradin Although he jumps you and stuns you he's not a real threat. If you sew him jump towards you cast Roachles at his landing point and Hydralisk afterwards to avoid his stun and you'd win the trade. Your units can block his stun!
4
Gazlowe Gazlowe by himself isn't much of a threat but his turrets may mean danger to you and your units, try taking them down (and also avoid letting him pick up the scraps). At Lvl-4 take "Envenomed Spines" and out-range his turrets.
4
Chen By himself he's not much of a threat but since he has no MP he can destroy your creep. Push lane, DMG him only when he's not drinking and if he jumps you use your Hydralisk.
4
E.T.C. Much CC so care. if he gets close punish him with Hydralisk. Devouring Maw is a strong counter to his dancing 'Heroic ability' (and so is 'Baneling Massacre')
4
Raynor Gradually make him use his 'E-stimpack' then kill him, when he uses inspire don't cast Roachlings and Hydras.
4
Sgt. Hammer The moment she left siege mode and started to progress towards you jump her. Other than that when she's in a siege I'd only recommend throwing your Roachlings->Banelings combo and use Hydralisk only after she used her thrusters
5
Brightwing This guy is really strong as long as he's in the lane (with another enemy hero) and has MP. Don't engage him when he has much MP, soak EXP, push lane, cover in creep and poke him when you can. You can try to engage him after he casted his 'W-Polymorth'
5
Falstad A very strong hero. If he starts casting 'W-Lightning Rod' at you than summon your Hydralisk and back off right away. If he used his dashing skill towards you punish him with a Hydralisk+Roachlings. If he bothers you or the player's good with him than 'Envenom' would punish him.
6
Malfurion What an annoying bugger. His Q is on such a low CD he can literally not let you have any creep on the map. If you see that he destroys your CT than don't let him see where you place your creep and you could go with the DMG build (Possible with 'Devouring Maw' to counter his healing ult).
7
Zeratul When fighting him, try to stay away from your units/Creep-Tumor because you'd not want him to destroy them with his Q. I'd recommend going with the DMG build if he focuses you. Detect him early and hit him with your Q or E and you'd be in an advantage
7
Diablo A strong counter to a hero without an escape like Zagara, be very careful not to get caught in his combo. If he jumps you use your Hydralisk and Roachlings ASAP to make him back away. I think the DMG build is stronger against him but you can deal with him with the CT build.
7
Nazeebo Has TONS of damage so don't even get near him, when he's over-extending use your units to deal some damage on him. Banelings are amazingly strong if you wanna escape his 'W-Zombie Wall' or if an enemy is caught in it.
7
Nova I'd recommend going with the DMG build if she focuses you. Being sharp and noticing where she is would mean you could throw roachlings/Banelings at her then a Hydralisk and hope that one of your units would soak the snipe for you.
7
Sonya You can damage her but she'd heal on your minion wave and come back for more action, don't throw Roachlings at her until she's done spinning other-wise you'd only be helping her. If you see she throws her chains at you cast a Hydralisk quickly and she'd catch him instead.
8
Jaina Got AoE against you and your units, can destroy your CT, has strong and constant slows. try to avoid laning against her.
9
Arthas Destroying your creep, killing your Roachlings with his 'W'. I'd suggest simply to stay away from this guy, don't be in his lane.
9
Illidan This guy is relentless, he'd dash away your CT, dash away your units, jump you when you're too close and run away. If he starts engaging you than use Hydralisk+Roachlings and he'd either back off or eat some damage. Use your Banelings ONLY after he used his 'Q-Dive' the second time! otherwise you're almost sure to miss it
9
Kerrigan Jumps, pulls, stuns. Destroys your CT and makes you cry. Poke her from afar and finish her when possible
9
Stitches Get pulled, get wrecked. Fight him only as long as his 'Q-Hook' is on CD. or behind minions
10
  No Threat

Zagara

Build: #2 Damage

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

Threats to Zagara with this build

Threat
Low
High
Show all
Threat Hero Notes
1
  No Threat
2
  No Threat
3
  No Threat
4
  No Threat
5
Sonya You can damage her but she'd heal on your minion wave and come back for more action, don't throw Roachlings at her until she's done spinning other-wise you'd only be helping her. If you see she throws her chains at you cast a Hydralisk quickly and she'd catch him instead. With this build you can kill her but it has to be in a small time window otherwise she'd heal up.
6
  No Threat
7
  No Threat
8
  No Threat
9
  No Threat
10
  No Threat

Introduction Top

This Zagara guide would look at her and her abilities in a different perspective than usual.

The guide is about playing Zag as a pusher, a very mobile and map present pain in the *** and as a medium strength engager with the potential of dealing and even killing 2 heroes at the early stage of the game.
playing Zagara this way doesn't end with the talents (as you could say about all heroes),
you'd need to add some of my spice and in the end you'll have something nice.

I'll use some acronyms or names from Starcraft in this guide so if something's not clear you could always come back to this point of the guide:
CT - Creep Tumor.
Hydralisk - Hunter Killer.
Roachling - Infested Drop's units.
BA- Basic attack
RPS - Regeneration Per Second, referring to HP.

* Well I tried to make this look good, but it only looks (sorta) good when the browser's zoom is at 90%

Why Zagara? Top

Zagara is one of the strongest specialists when it comes to end game statistics, she has tons of damage (even without going DMG talents). In this guide I'll present two possible talent trees;
1. Would focus on CT, for total map-control.
2. Would focus on dealing tons of damage.

I would dare and say that the only specialist who tops her when it comes to statistics is Nazeebo.


  • Nydus Network allows travel from n' to Base/Lane/Boss/Objectives.
  • The map dominator, she is the hero with the highest possibility of being anywhere, almost anytime.
  • An extremely powerful pusher that would manage to handle even 2 laners.
  • Can disperses wards ( Creep Tumor) all over the map (That last 4 frigging minutes).
  • Not mana hungry, got good HP-RPS at the laning-phase and can always jump in and out of lane to regen HP/MP at Lvl-10.
  • High siege and hero DPS especially for a Specialist.
  • Very challenging, fun and intresting to play.


Talents Top

Color meanings;
Of course purple is the best, how can love CT and not love purple?

A very good skill which I usually don't play with.

Not that recommended yet I see why people use it.

Not recommended and I have no idea why it's even in the game.



IMO this talent is a must in this tier, giving Zagara and her units a great bonus of HP-RPS to help them sustain lane (in many games I find myself staying in lane until Lvl-10 by conserving MP and maintaining my HP as high as possible, between fountain sips).

Tips


It is true that Roachlings are meant to be played so that they'd soak damage [instead of minions (by turrets for example)] but combined with Reconstitution and their low timer, before they burrow back into the ground they already don't lose all of their HP, they don't need more resistance.

Take this if you want to be a stronger pusher but only if you're not going CT build, still not recommended.

None recommended talents




This tier has 3 fantastic talents, from which I find it really hard to pick. Always add your play-style into account when picking your talents (Remember this is only a guide, just sharing some information with you about how I play Zagara).

With this talent you can spread your CT literally everywhere and it's a great early-game-creep-advantage. You could spam it without being concerned about MP and having it on 33% lower CD means you'd have 33% more CT, great for map domination not as good for

Tips

This skill allows you to deal more burst DMG Vs. enemy Heroes, if you think that you're not enough in shape to deal with enemy heroes 1v1 (mostly in-lane but this talent remains useful, late-game) than this in addition to Brood Expansion (Lvl-16) allows you to become a frightening burster, good if you're getting targeted by enemy assassins.
Tips

in team fights dispersing BA buffed by Envenomed Spines to different heroes allows you to deal more total DMG compared to Envenom and as long as you aren't getting focused (and you shouldn't be since Zagara's a back-liner) this skill may be very efficient for annihilating the entire enemy team.
This skill is a good combination with Battle Momentum (Lvl-7) for it allows you to land BA more easily to activate Battle Momentum's CDR.
Tips

None recommended talents




Allows you to maintain map domination with your creep and it could help you cover it from top to bottom without leaving a gap, making your creep center harder to find/destroy making you spam less CT since each unit covers more ground and making sure you'd have more creep as is as long as it isn't destroyed.
Tips


This skill allows you to summon your units much more often but if you see that it's hard for you to land basic attacks (As if when-ever you do a Warrior/ Assassin targets you) than I wouldn't recommend it as much as I would Endless Creep or another possibility is to combine this talent with Envenomed Spines to give you 20% more distance from your target.

This skill scales good with Envenomed Spines since it allows you to be 20% further from the enemies you BA and activating Battle Momentum.
Tips

Might be a good talent but if you need to restore HP/MP you always have Nydus Worm and if you're mid-fight and need to restore HP quickly this skill isn't the best since it's a channeling skill and it takes 3 seconds to finish so I don't really think it's a good rescue.

None recommended talents




95% of the time I play with this skill. IMO this skill is very under-rated, completing your map domination with Nydus worms at all corners of the map allows you to;
  • Push W.E. lane you want.
  • Group quickly to join fights, help bosses or objectives.
  • Do camps and go back to base to heal up or escape.
  • You're constantly on the map, no more wasting time walking from bot to top, from base to boss, the options are end-less.

As I mentioned above, I almost never play with this 'Heroic abillity'.
This skill is VERY strong in team-fights when placed properly and the team follows up to clear who-ever isn't caught in it. It allows you to:
  • Assure kills.
  • Escape fights.
  • Take out enemies from the fight to focus on those who aren't caught.
  • Don't forget it's a CC so it can stop every channeling skill or a frighting opponent.
  • Combos quite good with other heroes if your team has good synergy.



I don't feel as if there's any reason to go much in-depth when it comes to picking in this tier, I feel as if this skill is a must and not argue-able. Given the fact that your Hydralisk IS your hero damage, this skill that buffs him quite allot is simply the best in this tier.
Tips

Do you die too much, you might want to take this skill.
I have come to realize that if I were to take Baneling Massacre than improving the Hydralisk might be less efficient than taking this talent, considering you're not suppose to be taking DMG this skill should most of the time be available for you.
Tips


None recommended talents





After upgrading the Hydralisk with Grooved Spines having two of these in your kit allows you to deal much damage very quickly to any enemy target.This is a very strong upgrade to a very strong anti-hero skill.
Tips

If you went with the full CT build this skill is pretty much a must, allowing you to be as fast as on a mount without channeling 'Z', Metabolic Boost allows you to;
  • Have faster units, Hydralisk would chase down an enemy very efficiently, Banelings would reach the target in no time and Roachles would get to their target (if it's an enemy or pushing a wave) faster.
  • Roam much faster, never need to be on a mount (unless you are going to un-creeped area).
  • Chase kills.
  • Escape fights.

Thinking about it, I've never taken this skill although when i'm looking into it more thoroughly I see that it has great potential. If you manage to land your Banelings good enough this can literally double your DMG with them.

Are you dying too much? Are you getting caught and drained out of your HP too often? this might be a good talent for you, yet you're not suppose to get into these situations as Zagara in the first place, you're supposed to be a back-liner who summons her Zerg units.




Very under-rated, this skill allows your minion wave to have a very violent addition with Broodlings;
  • With Metabolic Boost their movement speed (Which is already fast) is even faster, they'd usually be attacking enemy minions/gates/forts/enemies and when it'd come to closing the gap between those enemies they'd do it in no time.
  • They'd almost always be first in line so they'd be the ones taking the turret/minions/fort damage. That fact in addition to Reconstitution allows them to tank a lane and protect the minions behind them.
  • Highly under-rated and un-common so people don't usually even focus them or even notice that they're taking damage by them.
Tips

It's a good escape and a good initiator. This doesn't work like flash in League of Legends since it wouldn't activate as long as you're not in the appropriate distance and it has a far greater range.
I would recommend this skill if you didn't take Metabolic Boost and wouldn't recommend it if you did, since she has to have at least one of those considering she has no escape what-so-ever (on account that you didn't take Devouring Maw, you could try and use Nydus Network as an escape but it's really hard, wouldn't work most of the time and as long as an enemy hero has an active CC he'd stop you before you could get in).

A very strong upgrade to a very strong skill, I would highly recommend it if you've taken Devouring Maw. For now I don't play much with Devouring Maw so I can't tell you really how it's benificial but it's basically a buff so I don't feel as if there's much depth to go into when explaining this, anyway.

None recommended



First build, CT focused
  • Map control (defending objectives, vision, HP-RPS, hyper speed on creep and the ability to pop-up where-ever you have vision with the Nydus Network)
  • Creep routes that give her (and her units):
    3*(+0.3125 Per Lvl) HP-Regeneration Per Second (For example, bonus of 14 HP RPS at Lvl-15)
    with an extra 40% movemnt speed on creep ( Metabolic Boost)this also allows her and her units to kite much efficiently.
  • Her Zerg units are (or at last should) always to be on creep for the bonuse from Reconstitution and Metabolic Boost
  • CT isn't destroyed as easily since Endless Creep allows the creep to be less obvious as to where the center is and it's HP is doubled. You'd need to know how her creep works (which isn't that hard) to destroy it. Your goal is to cover EVERYTHING in creep, leave no gaps and by doing so people would have a harder time destroying it for they wouldn't know where the center is.
  • Broodling Nest allows your pushes to be even more violent, they push a lane on their own very efficiently, also when fighting enemy champions if they're targeted by the Broodlings you're almost sure to win that fight.


Second build option, DPS focused

Playing tips Top


Let's start with my favorite Creep Tumor:
Giving vision for the entire team CT can act as vision wards and is extremely efficient when placed;
* Between lanes for countering ganks.
* Near objectives such as camps, shrines, mines Etc'...
* Inside enemy territory to know enemy players' location and direction.
  • CT should also be used as routes, towards existing forts, Nydus Network's worms and if losing than the base.
    These routes give you high HP-RPS and with Metabolic Boost bonus of 40% movement speed (mount speed).
  • Your top priority (especially with the #1 build) is to cover everywhere on the map at which you are active, at first it's your lane and it's proximity, and later on it should be every-where you and your team go.
  • Put a single CT in your base to regenerate HP even faster.
* Play on creep the entire game and not you nor your enemy would notice it but you'd get a big advantage, this includes your units they are effected by your CT buffs.



* Artist's Deviant-Art is linked in the image.

Baneling Barrage is a very powerful burst DMG skill, when it comes to doing AoE damage it's your best, if it's on a minion wave, a quick push, a burst on an enemy or on a cluster of enemies.

- Never use this skill before your other skills, you'd be wasting your DPS and kit over spitting out those rolling bastards, use it only after you summoned Hydralisks and Roachlings.

-Aim this skill properly, for it is one of your only 2 skill-shots.
it's not an easy skill and you'd learn how to use it properly with more games on Zag, here are a bit tips about how to angle this skill;
  • If you want to push a wave with Banelings than go to the center of the minion wave and aim for the caster minion, usually it'd cause most if not all of the minions to get hurt.
  • If you attempt to finish a hero with this skill (which you mostly would considering you should use it last in a combo) than aim so that the wall of Banelings would block their escape route and if they attempt to cross it they'd be punished by green explosives.
  • Although it's supposedly a hard skill-shot you are not suppose to miss it, if you are bad with it keep practicing until you perfect it.


* Artist's DeviantArt is linked in the image.

Hydralisks:
Your highest DMG Vs. 1 target (Not including Banelings if you manage to hit most of 'em), this skill is meant for heroes, bosses, camps, buildings. After the target is eliminated the Hydralisk burrows back to take a nap so don't cast it on a mercenary with half HP.

When to use this powerful skill;
* Especially at lower levels people would almost never target an Hydralisk neither would they notice it damaging them, use these facts to your advantage;
  • Are you getting harassed by a melee champ? cast a Hydralisk on him at the right moment and attempt to keep him in a distance where he wouldn't hurt you much (You wanna bait him for the Hydralisk's damage and keep basic hitting him yet obviously don't eat too much damage).
  • If you see you are getting hunted before you start running towards safety (base, fort, other team-matez) summon a Hydralisk, not once it's damage saved me from a chase or even helped me get a kill out of it.
  • Don't use Hunter Killer if you see that the enemy hero can run away fearing for his life or if you know in advance that the Hydralisk would not deal much DMG, it has a rather low movement speed, keep it for situations when you are certain that it would lay out most of it's damage.
    * Take down these turrets, at a later stage a Hydralisk and a minions wave could take down a (estimated) 40% turret. Knowing that, don't aim basics/skills on a turret that this mega-snake is attacking for it would disappear once the turret is down.



    Infested Drop is a skill-shot that you could either use when pushing a wave, to tank minions/mercs/buildings or a boss (For example you could solo the Garden Terror quite easily), as far as I care Roachlings are meant to soak damage since they burrow back quickly and can take the most amount of hits from your units.
    • When I want to push a wave {and not do it right there and then (Which is when I'd use Banelings)} I'll drop down Roachlings, mostly I'd let them be front-liners, even before the warrior minions since I'd rather have them tank than the minions since they'd burrow anyway and they have HP-RPS from creep and Reconstitution.
    • If you land/want to land your Infested Drop somewhere where there isn't CT if possible I'll recommend going to wherever that spot is and put creep in there, they would love the bonus HP-RPS.
    • Could supply you or your team with a quick vision, always take that into account.
    • After lacking a target in their proximity they'd start heading towards the nearest lane, most of the time it wouldn't matter since they'd disappear before being able to reach somewhere and do something.


    * Link to the artist's DeviantArt is embedded in the image.
    This is a queen unit from the fantastic game Stacraft II, Zagara is a Brood-Mother which is basically a queen which has evolved, as Abathur had said;
    "Added muscle density, expanded brain matter. Now able to Hypothesize multiple scenarios. Cognitive flexibility, also increased independence. This contradicts imperative: all Zerg must present no threat to the leader of the Swarm".


    Heroic Abilities

Work is still in progress Top



I only accidentally published this guide, it's still in works and it'd take some time to take form.

For now I feel as if I've finished it's basic look, still furbishing it, daily.

*if you're reading this I'd love to have some feed-back about anything related to this guide, it's my first one and I wanna perfect it (besides I'd love up-votes, it'd make me happy :)

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