Abathur, not a banana slug.
by JR Cook - 8 years ago show comments
Abathur is a still constantly picked hero in the on many levels in the game. The automatic synergy he provides to the right team comp can turn any team fight in his favor. What’s better, is that Abathur can pressure a lane almost like no other character in the game. This constant simultaneous lane pressure and team fight synergy can make any game turn out in your favor. The following build will provide you some insight on how to build this slippery slug into a constant lane menace to force enemies to choose to take that team fight and lose a keep or a fort, or pull back and lose people by running away.
Skills
Q Symboite
A.K.A. “The Hat” This puts a “buff” on the target ally or ally creep, that lets you access your secondary abilities, which will be covered later. Keep in mind this has a 3 second cool down after you remove the hat.
A.K.A. “HOW MANY OF THESE THINGS AM I GOING TO RUN INTO?!” Probably his most annoying ability. Using this will place a mine on the ground that when triggered will deal a base 336 damage and slow the enemy for 4 seconds.
D Trait Locus Strain
Abathur will spawn a locust every 15 seconds to the closest lane he is to. We’re going to abuse these little buggers a lot in this build.
Symboite Skills
Q Stab
This will be your primary poke while you are hatting someone. This does a base 237 damage on a target. This also has a 3 second cool down so spam it hard when you’re hatted on someone.
W Spike Burst
This skill fires spikes in all directions in a small AOE for a base 233 damage. This has a slightly longer cool down at 6 seconds, but again, feel free to hit that button when there’s more than one enemy around.
E Carapace
This skill has a 12 second cool down but also provides the hat bearer with a shield that soaks up 301 damage for an ally.
Ultimates
This is a good ult for Abathur for split pushing. This is not the ult we’ll be taking for this build, but don’t write this ult off, the monster gets crazy strong due to it gathering stacks as creeps die around it you can also hat the monster and control it directly.
This is the ult we’ll be taking because everyone hates someone who entirely avoids team fights. This ult will create a clone of one of your allies. Clone that DPS and go nuts for as long as the ult is alive. This ult is also very handy because it “hides” you entirely from the map.
Build
Level 1 Envenomed Nest
You’re going to be dropping mines everywhere to slow enemies moving to objectives if you have a mine off cool down, you’re hyper focusing on something for too long. Drop mines constantly. The added damage is going to be a great boon to your team over the course of the game.
Level 4 Adrenal Overload
This is for your DPS, the extra attack speed that they’re going to get is never ever a bad thing. When a team fight breaks out, get yourself in a safe spot, hat your DPS and let them go nuts.
Level 7 Vile Nest
Again, you want to be as annoying as possible to the enemy team by placing mines all over the place, especially massing them on the way to objectives. With this talent, you’re also going to be slowing them even more. Delaying them and damaging them, its never a bad thing.
Level 10 Ultimate Evolution
See above in ultimate section.
Level 13 Bombard Strain
The first key part in this pushing strat. These upgrade the locusts into a ranged creep that deals 70% more damage. Now, you’re thinking “that’s not that much.” Yes it is, that’s an additional ranged attacker pushing lanes down for you which will lead us into our next talent.
Level 16 Locust Brood
Why hello there, a skill that allows me to place an additional 3 locusts at a location. Granted you have to physically be there, but you’re a sneaky slug, no big deal. The additional damage from the level 13 talent coupled with this, starts making opponents if they really need to start countering your push.
Level 20 Locust Nest
Now they can’t figure out where you are easily. Is that Abathur in the bush or is that a nest. This will place a nest on the ground that will periodically spawn locusts from it to push the closest lane. Its really strong for this build and shouldn’t be underestimated.
Strategy
Be where everyone else isn’t. In objective heavy maps, like sky temple, cursed hollow, even haunted mines to an extent. Your job is to be that extra body to soak lane XP while everyone is freaking out over the objectives. Especially in the later levels where fighting a man short can be catastrophic to the opposing team, with all the extra lane push you bring to the table, they’re going to have a really hard time deciding which threat to deal with first. The angry night elf demon guy with a bug hat on his head, or the legion of zerg hammering away on their forts and keeps. Being clever with mine placement is also very key, finding a nice aggressive hidey hole with choke points is always a good idea. There’s limited ability to dodge mines in those tight spaces, leading to free mine damage on someone trying to get to you. It might even lead you to getting a chance to bust out “slapathur” for a quick comedy kill on someone. When team fights break out, make sure to clone your teams DPS for some huge damage. Double Jaina is terrifying to deal with, even if it is a just a squishy clone. People will criticize you if you get sniffed out and killed, but ignore that, keep being aggressive and trying to push the lanes as hard as possible at the appropriate times. Pulling the enemy apart for easy pickings is preferable to slamming your head against brick wall trying to get that victory. Now everything said, there are some maps that I feel Abathur does not excel on. Towers of Doom and Battlefield I feel are two of his weakest possible maps so keep that in mind if you’re doing quick match, you’ll have to step your game up extra hard or play super safe, which won’t be this build, this build rewards aggressive lane pushing.
