Hi all! My name is DrHouse (b-tag DrHouse#2166) and you can see me playing on EU servers. I've been playing since closed beta and Zeratul was my first hero that I bought. In this guide I would love to share my experience from hundreds of games that I played with him. I hope it will be helpful!

Curently under construction, please be patient!!!

Pros

- High damage output
- Escape/Chase ability
- Cloak
- More viable builds
- Cool looking, nice skins
- Slow

Cons

- Melee
- Sensitive to CC
- No hard CC skill

Trait - Permanent Cloak



After 3 second of not taking damage you gain cloak that makes you almost invisible. Attacking or using skills (except Blink) breaks it. Great trait. Just remember that you are not completly invisible!

Q - Cleave



Low cooldown AoE DMG skill. It has some nice dmg. Also very useful for cleaning lanes. In this build you will mostly open combo with this skill.

W - Singularity Spike



Medium cooldown skillshot with great DMG and slow. With various talents can be upgraded in various ways such as AoE dmg tool, casting it twice or usable while cloaked without breaking it.

E - Blink



Your main escaping tool. Never waste it, nor engage with it (unless you take Wormhole talent). This doesn't break your cloak so don't be afraid to use it while escaping.

R1 - Shadow Assault



Makes you charge at your opponent and incerase attack speed by 20%. Not that bad skill, actually quite good if you are new to Zeratul and don't want to screw up fights with Void Prison. Combined with AA build this gives you ability to duel even with tanks. Upgraded with lvl 20 talent it lasts even longer, gains life steal and makes you 1v1 literally anyone without giving them chance to escape. If you are new to Zeratul, definitely pick this over Void Prison. In higher ranks most of players will try to focus you down/CC you, preventing you from AA. Also compared to Void Prison this cannot be used as escape tool.

R2 - Void Prison



Slows time in an area to a near standstill, making allies and enemies invulnerable and unable to act for 5 seconds. You are not affected. One of the best abilities in this game. Used properly can be game-changer. I will talk more about when to use this skill later in guide.

Tier 1

Block - Not the worst pick, but doesn't affect your damage in any way. If enemy team focuses you hard this still won't help you.

Greater Cleave - Incerased range is nice and I have been using this talent for a long time. But now in my opinion it doesn't affect your single target damage and as assassin I think that is your priority. Still viable pick!

Rapid Displacement - That 1,5s won't make difference.

Regeneration Master - Just not worth it.

Seasoned Marksman - This. At early game it doesn't really matter but at late game I usually have about +30 dmg and that quite helps combined with Focused Attack and Follow Through. If you are playing AA build ALWAYS go for this talent.

Tier 2

Focused Attack - This talent rapidly incerase your burst dmg, and that's what are we going for!

Vampiric Strike - With AA build and Nerazim Fury gives you 55% life steal at lvl 20. I would pick that if you need the sustain (missing healer). Not good with burst build though. New talent after Butchers patch, now I would prefer it over Focused Attack due to damn nice healing you can get in AA build.

Gathering Power - With the recent monk patch, this talent was nerfed and opens up a place for other picks. With Vorpal Blade being useless, there are still 3 other, quite viable choices.

Sustained Anomaly - Incerase AoE dmg, not really our role.

Vorpal Blade - Fun talent, but not as useful as any of the choices above.

Tier 3

Follow Through - This skill is recommended only for more experienced Zeratuls. The reason why I pick this will be explained below.

Void Slash - "To go" talent. Greatly incerases your Cleave dmg. Just remember that it only works if you use it while cloaked!

Shadow Spike - Meh, you are not Nova to snipe people form far away and any of the talents in this tier are much better.

First Aid - Heals for around 1k, you should have healer for that. Also since it's over time heal it won't save you from Pyroblast and such skills anyway.

Searing Attacks - One of the core abilities for AA build.

Tier 4

Shadow Assault - Explained in skills and in What to do and when section.

Void Prison - Explained in skills and in What to do and when section.

Tier 5

Giant Killer - Nor against the strongest tank this ability can compare it bonus dmg to Assassin's Blade

Burning Rage - More like tank ability. Bonus dmg still cannot compete with Assassin's Blade

Wormhole - Not bad choice, pick it if you need that extra mobility or if you are new Zeratul player and want to have more control over your movement.

Assassin's Blade - After days of Wormhole I finally switched to this talent and I am happy. The 25% damage bonus makes you hit extremly hard after decloaking, combined with Focused Attack and Follow Through. This incerases your burst to maximum.

Spell Shield - No. Tank talent. Tank talents no.

Tier 6

Rending Cleave - Probably the best choice after Double Bombs nerf. Also much more reliable. Difference between this and double bombs is around 50dmg, that is 100 dmg with Rewind. Still it's much harder to land 4 bombs in a row than 2 Cleave. Definitely pick this over Double Bombs on maps where it's critical to kill creep camps (Mines, Garden).

Double Bombs - Viable choice but harder to preform and takes longer time to preform than double Cleave, giving opponents more time.

Stoneskin - When I see talents like this, I was once thinking about tank Zeratul build. Never tested it tho. And you shouldn't test it either if you don't want be blamed whole game.

Berserk - Another core talent for AA build.

Tier 7

Nerazim Fury - One of the AA viable choices, altough I still prefered Nexus Blades.

Protective Prison - Actually pretty good choice for some good combos. For example if you have ETC, you can trap their team into Void Prison and he can walk in and start Mosh Pit without an opportunity for opponents to interrupt it.

Nexus Blades - With this you can reach the fastest burst dmg possible as Zeratul - 2405DMG. How to do that will be explained later in What to do and when.

Rewind - I pick this often. With the great timing you can deal up to 4500dmg. Again, how to preform that I am going to explain in later section. Another advantage is double blink in case of desperate needs.

Coming soon!

Damage is counted at lvl 20.

Main combos for Burstul build -

Combo 1

Basic combo for opponents that are very squishy or not full HP and you don't want to waste Rewind or simply don't have time for that.

Open with Singularity Spike, then Auto Attack once to proc Follow Through, continue with Cleave and another Auto Attack for proc. If neccessary escape with Blink. Deals around 2365 damage.

Combo 2

Strongest combo used to kill even stronger enemies with more HP. The problem is that it requires some time to preform. Usually best for 1v1 situation.

Open with Singularity Spike, then Auto Attack once to proc Follow Through, continue with Cleave and another Auto Attack for proc. Use Rewind and again Singularity Spike and Auto Attack, then Cleave and your last Auto Attack. Whole combo can deal around 4500 dmg.

More coming soon!

Void Prison Mechanics

Void Prison is for me the most unique Heroic Ability in this game. It can be game changing, but for both sides. In the next few lines I'll try to explain when and how you should use this skill.

In duels it's mostly a wasted use. If you are in desperate need this can still win you your 1v1. It gives you time to activate Permanent Cloak and also finish the cooldown on Cleave. While opponent is trapped you should fast consider if it's time to escape or finish your opponent. I don't usually use this skill in straight 1v1 fights, since mostly I either kill the opponent or end up Blink away. Only worth option when to use this is to dodge aimed abilities that would finish you off like Ilidan's The Hunt or Nova's Triple Tap.

Here is what you should know - Void Prison will stop Ilidan in mid flight in The Hunt, stopping his ultimate and saving you. It also stops Tyrael in his Judgment ability. Remember that unless you get cloaked, both Tyrael and Ilidan will finish their ultimates in most cases (not sure about the mechanics though). Same way you can stop Pyroblast or Triple Tap. Also notice that it "stops time" - it doesn't stun. Heroes cooldowns in Void Prison are stopped, same goes for their channels. Lili or Malfurion will continue in their heroics after Void Prison ends. I recommend checking out "SunGlare, the Italian Gamer" science of the storm videos for better understanding the game mechanics. You can find Void Prison interactions in almost every video.

More on way!!!

21/8/2015 - Edited for the newest patch.
26/7/2015 - Edited threats, Leoric added.
08/7/2015 - Butchers patch update - threats.
01/7/2015 - Butchers patch update with Vampiric Strike.
21/6/2015 - Added info about Void Prison.
17/6/2015 - Visual rework, added Combos.
16/6/2015 - First version, under construction. Johanna's patch.