I never ever expected to do a breakdown for this hero, but I needed to because he’s probably one of the most technical mages in the game. After figuring out Junkrat. I felt I can do almost anything, so I made my way back to Kel’Thuzad.
Yes he’s the toughest mage by far to master in heroes of the storm and it all comes down to one thing, skill shots, which web together for a devastating combination. I knew this all along, but it’s been tough to figure out on my own. Most players are not aware of this combination and how it’s so effective, it can produce 150K in just three minutes of play.
To start off NotParadox has a video for the combination and I suggest trying it in TRY mode with the talents he has first and getting comfortable doing it. However as you walk out of that realm and into AI. Even QM you will find you need great front line to pull off that kind of play, or do you?
Here is where I am going to give you a list of talents that allows you to play Kel’Thuzad solo in QM. Without a front line and I really need to thank Emobard. For opening my eyes to some more parts of his play because he’s not just about landing this combo.
(Note: You can place Glacier Spike any time before or after chains and you will still have time to combo. You can even use it after a combo, to set up your next combo.)
He’s so much more than just combos though. His priority is Chains > Frost Nova > Shadow Fissure > Death and Decay.
The idea of listing his abilities as a priority will really help players understand how to solo lane in the beginning too and what to do without his ultimate ability. Now you clearly can’t chain any minions in a lane. So you’re going to use his next ability in the priority.
We want to Frost Nova, specifically the ranger minions, because they’re what actually wipes a wave, by eliminating these minions you give yourself time to use to sets of cd’s to clear a wave. You want to position yourself so that you can land your next ability after too. Death and Decay so that it hits the channeler minion and the three rangers. This will kill them instantly, by the time they’re dead, your frost nova will reset. Followed by your next death and decay. Your own minions will stay alive longer and thus you can use your next set of abilities.
This is how you lane as Kel’Thuzad (KTZ) and practising this in AI will improve your own skill to land these abilities on enemy players.
However, this is just the start to this thread.
We’re going to go through all of it. Start to finish.
For this next part. I highly suggest watching NotParadox video on YouTube on KTZ, since I know the explanation will be tough to visualize.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eP9eWpH5LoI
Basically as Paradox says. You want to start with landing your chain on an enemy hero. However I want to add in that you shouldn’t worry about trying to set up the combo, because chains itself does base damage. Once it’s landed quickly worry about where you’re going to place your frost nova.
If you can chain another hero place the nova between the targets. If not, place it on them to try and lock them down. This will increase you base damage drastically and it will kind of roll together easier.
After they’re Rooted from the Nova. Use your ultimate to try and do bonus damage. After that’s used, fire a Death and Decay. It will do initial damage, plus damage over time so long as they’re standing in the pool on the ground.
Ok, this covers how to play him at the core.
I want to go over a basic talent selection, that I choose and why. Now KTZ, really doesn’t have a bad talent. Everything I find has a place and is very helpful.
What I find helps me the most soloing, is the build we’re going to talk about because it’s very dependable and it will help you develop your play to what NotParadox shows.
Starting with level 1.
Barbed Chains.
This talent is key to KTZ and keeps him versatile at end game because of what his blight quest does which lowers armor by 10 for 4 seconds which will increase your own damage on targets snared and will enturn cause them to take more damage from Shadow Fissure. As well it increases your base hero damage from that ability and any chance you can, you’re going to land chains. Even if Frost Nova is on Cool down.
Chances are you used it. Two seconds ago on minions and now you’re transitioning to using the combo, by the time chains lands on an enemy hero, a second will have passed. You now have 3 seconds left on chains to land it and place your next frost nova between almost 2 to 1 second more.
Level 4
Depends on the kind of game you’re playing. If there will be tones of team fighting, Strip Shield is fantastic because it stacks. If there is a tone of dive, Armor of the Archlich will keep them off you and allow you to run away. Phylactery of Kel’Thuzad, allows you to help your healer if there will be lots of dot damage in the fight as well give you the chance to respawn faster if you’re collecting globes and laning for exp.
Level 7
Again depends on the type of games you’re about to play, however assuming you will land chains often because you have a front line. Accelerated Decay will help you do more hero damage when you use Death and Decay as a follow through. Again we’re utilizing talents that will help you advance your own play.
Chilling touch has great utility for wave clear ever 8 seconds and can benefit the team in team fights if you can land a few basic attacks while you combo
Ice Cold, reduces the cooldown on Glacial Spike and increases it’s damage by 400%. It helps you out when you need to solo lane against another hero.
Level 10
Shadow Fissure. Every 15 seconds you can use it and if you hit a hero it resets again in 1.5 seconds. Meaning it will be available for every combo if you lock down a hero.
Level 13
I see some redundancy of taking a slow for chains, if you’re going to use Frost Nova right after. So I suggest Icy Grip. Always. It reduces the cooldown if you hit enemy hero by 0.5 seconds which gives you more thinking time It also increase the slow giving you more reaction time. It goes hand in hand with the combo and believe me it’s the majority of your damage. As you get better at chaining. You might find Chain Link helps throw off the enemy team. It also will help increase you damage. However, it will place chains on cool down when your Frost Nova and Death and Decay finish their cool down. So it will slow down your consistency to combo.
Level 16
Hungering Cold. There is that extra damage you really wanted. Need I say more?
Level 20
Might of the Scourge, is single handedly the best talent at 20 for KTZ. If you have a party that follow up on your root or stun on whatever you’ve locked down. It’s 100% dead on the next free Shadow Fissure that Spawns 1 seconds later under whoever was hit. Meaning if you hit three heroes with one fissure. Get ready for 3 more and surprise you shadow fissure is off cooldown. So you can combo and do it all over again. You will wipe any party, you do almost 5K damage instantly twice. There isn’t a tank in the game that has 10K health. It doesn’t exist.
I tell you this because I too was a bad KTZ. I had 4 K hero damage, barley 60K siege damage and no kills to show for my effort and believe me I tried whatever I could think of including NotParadox for help and still wasn’t able to do it in QM. because 50% of the time I didn’t have a front line. It was a pain to learn, but I will gladly help anyone else who just can’t grasp it like I could.
Thanks for reading and have fun Playing Kel’Thuzad.
. Once they learned to hit, they will learn to hit the fissure quickly enough aswel.
. KTZ is probably the most fun hero in the game imo, but can be an absolute pain to play in QM.