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Hi guys. This is a playthrough guide with one way to use Kerrigan as an assassin that is useful in keeping teammates alive while simultaneously being able to help teammates focus select target(s) down quickly.
Please note that this was my first playthrough as the queen of blades and I may not be unlocking her fullest potential. In this guide I am telling you what I did, and also what I should have done.
Scoreboard at the end of the game. + Show Spoiler +
Pros:
* Very strong anti-escape mechanisms if used correctly, making chase-downs viable. * In some situations, using Ravage (Q) can heal you very quickly and effectively, but it will take much practice to master this. * In other situations, Ravage (Q) can allow for Kerrigan to assassinate an enemy target, and jump back to safety. * Stacked CC. * Slight lane-pushing potential.
Cons:
* In order for this version of Kerrigan to be effective, there must be a healer on the team. * Not the strongest form of damage output. * Solo'ing bruiser camps will be difficult, if not impossible below level 10.
List of talents selected: Siphoning Impact (Q) Fury of The Swarm (W) Impaling Swarm (W) Maelstrom (R) Eviscerate (Q) Blade Torrent (W)
Ideally, you would want to take a tankier form of Kerrigan, one that your team can revolve around a bit more. I didn't know what I was doing in this one as, again, it was my first playthrough as Kerrigan. That being said, do not take Eviscerate and Blade Torrent. Take Lingering Essence and Aggressive Defense. These will both fuel Kerrigan's passive known as Assimilation, where Kerrigan's attacks build a shield on her, allowing her to take more damage from enemies.
playthrough below
+ Show Spoiler +
Again, your feedback on this guide is highly appreciated.
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No offense, why make a "guide" after just one playthrough.
Also those talents taken are generally regarded as quite bad.. You can find the 'general' build here: https://www.hotslogs.com/Sitewide/HeroDetails Basically it's sweeping grasp - envenom - battle momentum - maelstrom/ultralisk - sprint - blood for blood - bolt of the storm.
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On March 27 2015 05:01 Markwerf wrote:No offense, why make a "guide" after just one playthrough. Also those talents taken are generally regarded as quite bad.. You can find the 'general' build here: https://www.hotslogs.com/Sitewide/HeroDetailsBasically it's sweeping grasp - envenom - battle momentum - maelstrom/ultralisk - sprint - blood for blood - bolt of the storm. Taking builds from HotsLogs is not a good idea. It works for Kerrigan tough, except that the variations are not clear and if you try to figure out the variations on HotsLogs its misleading. Anyway, alternate builds are always appreciated, and when you do need one HotsLogs might convince you to kill your own brain cells. Because potentially solid builds that are rarely played are mixed up with random builds from clueless people.
Said that, i have a hard time thinking of a situation when i would play Kerri "non-standard". Maybe she needs a re-work? despite her fine balance?
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I usually go: sweeping grasp - Cleave (fury of the storm) - battle momentum - ultralisk - sprint - blood for blood - nexus blades.
Cleave + BM is great for clearing camps and lanes. Once you have the ultralisk you can solo bruisers easily, and BM + cleave makes sure you have your ulti up farily often. I do find that mana is an issue with this build and you really want to save it for the kerrigan combo on heroes in a team fight. Sweeping grasp range is just too good for finishing off heroes and making the kerrigan combo more effective.
I haven't tried the ultralisk upgrade at level 20 which would be nice with BM and cleave. nexus blades is great with cleave though I find.
Alternatively, I used to go sharpened blades - envenom - impaling swarm - ultralisk - sprint - blade torrent - ultralisk upgrade
This focused on upgrading the stun. Adding the lings at level 7 allows you to solo camps. The stun + E is good for cleaving minion waves, and adds extra damage to your kerrigan combo. Envenom gives you the burst. Sprint is pretty much required to add some escapability.
note that this is mostly from quick matches.
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I don't think you have nearly enough experience with Kerrigan to guide others in their choices regarding her play. Kerrigan doesn't really depends on the talents you get to be successful, she depends on proper positioning and being able to land your combo. Being able to land her combo makes her an amazing initiator and allows her to really control the flow of the game.
IF you can land the combo.
If you can't, Kerrigan is substandard compared to other melee heroes. She doesn't have tools to survive like the movement of Illidan, the heals of Thrall. She relies on doing a lot of burst damage to generate a powerful short-term shield and engaging when things are on her terms. Her only real survival tools are things you must spec into, either adaptation+eviscerate or sprint.
I believe less range on sweeping strike is always the incorrect decision at level 1 because it greatly interferes with your ability to land an impaling blades + primal grasp combo. Without the increased range, I have difficulty picking single heroes out of balls of 5. As far as picking off heroes and contributing to a teamfight, I believe sweeping grasp is mandatory.
I see no reason to ever pick anything outside of envenom at level 4. An argument can be made that increasing Kerrigan's basic attack damage will increase her shields will increase her survivability, and this is true to an extent. In my experience however I've found that envenom is the difference between being able to flat out kill some heroes and not, and also being able to take a hero to critical health vs. half health. The thing is, when you land your combo, you always have the opportunity to throw an envenom on the stack. In conclusion, I find the threat of being able to add envenom to your combo better than increasing basic attack damage -- envenom is the right damage at the right time.
I think you can spec one of two ways for survivability. At level 7 you can go for Adaptation and pair it with Eviscerate at 13. I find this more useful to go when I think I'll be around my team more. It's extremely useful for protecting your allies too and repositioning yourself. I don't think it's better than sprint, but it's stylistically different in a way that I think helps a lot on certain maps (Sky Temple, Cursed Hollow). Offensively, it allows you the ability to initiate your combo at greater distance and pick off heroes you wouldn't normally get. It's more difficult to play with this, and you give up battle momentum, but I find it to be far safer and possessing far more control. If I'm doing a lot of mercing on blackhearts or something, sometimes I'll pick up the zergling talent.
I like sprint when I think I'll be alone and roaming around, picking off heroes. I like the fact that sprint can be used offensively in conjunction with maelstrom, which is my preference.
I don't think Lingering Defense can compete with either spring or the adaptation//eviscerate combo because it doesn't add any offensive options. It only allows your shield to last longer, which if you are in an important fight, is kind of irrelevant. The shield lasts 6 seconds, a long enough duration that if you're in danger of losing it, you should be able to hit a wall or something like that.
That said, I think Aggressive Defense is awesome and I always go for it. I find later in the game the extra shields are the difference between surviving a dive/attempted kill and not surviving. That's why I pick it over Blood for Blood, though I think Blood for Blood is just as viable. I think it's a stylistic preference. Overdrive might be useful, but I'm usually so mana starved as Kerrigan that I can't see it. I think it could be viable, but I don't know, I think you would run out of mana much faster. It's good, but compared to aggressive defense or blood for blood, I think it's much riskier.
I always go Nexus Blades at 20, but I'm not 100% sure it's the correct choice. I don't have enough experience to say that you're more survivable with your Nexus Blades than you are with your upgraded shield. Bolt is always viable, especially with Kerrigan, but I find that sprint or adaptation+eviscerate is enough mobility for the way I play, and I prefer going for more damage.
I will say that I think sprint is more powerful with Maelstrom, since it allows you to keep enemies in your dps radius even if they attempt to flee, and that I would more heavily consider going for upgraded Maelstrom over Nexus Blades if I had sprint, whereas I think I would always go for Nexus Blades with the adaptation+eviscerate combo.
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Having played with Kerrigan for about 15 games now (not a lot, I know) the only thing I've adjusted compared to her usual build is going for Siphon and Clean Kill. When you go for Grasp and Envenom, Kerrigan has no way to get any health back. She constantly has to go back and forth between the fountain or she needs a healer.
With Siphon and Clean Kill, every creep wave turns into a health source, especially in the lategame where the minions die more easily. You can throw a grasp on a creep wave and then finish them all off one by one very quickly with Ravage, free of mana and getting 50%+ health back. Any low health minion, merc or Hero is at any point a mana free 10% health kill.
The only downside is no Grasp range so landing the combo is trickier but I still manage to land it most of the time anyway. Sprint and Blood for Blood are a no-brainer since Kerrigan has no escapes and Blood for Blood helps in a 1v1. I haven't tried Adaption yet, I always go for Battle Momentum to shorten cooldowns.
I always go for Nexus Blades as well, Kerrigan is already risking enough jumping into a fight to not take that additional damage.
Note that I have only played in QM so far, so maybe Kerrigan always gets paired with a healer in HL, but in QM being able to self-heal (and kill creep waves a little faster) is quite handy.
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