I really like Zul’jin. I’ve been playing a lot of him since he’s free at the moment. I’ve noticed how he feels pretty weak for a ranged assassin/auto attacker. All the other assassins have either better mobility, sustain or burst. Sometimes a combination of several of these.
Zul’jin feels too stationary. He relies on sustained damage (in the early game) but has no reliable way to reach targets or sustain him when the enemy engages.
Look at Raynor. He’s similar to Zul’jin but far more playable and effective. He has a knock back for disengage and a self heal. Zul’jin has no knock back and his heal is a stationary channel.
I’m not saying Zul’jin needs to be like Raynor. I just think he need something to help enable his kit more. Right now Zul’jin is an all in hero that either kills the enemy or dies. His Taz ult is the perfect analogy for this. You can’t really rely on it to escape and if the enemy has mobility or healing it’s almost pointless.
Adding to the problem is he really needs to hit late game to get those rewarding talents that boost his kit.
Am I wrong? Is Zul’jin in a good place? If he does need changes what should change?
He is quite strong but he needs a team built aroud him. I enjoy playing him more than Raynor. He can be played in different styles but he is a late game hero in all of them. He has a build that ignores armor (hey there garrosh). His risky play style makes him a little tricky. I don’t know why he doesn’t see a lot of plays.
TBH there isnt a better AA in the game that can pick different builds to adapt to enemy comps.
For instance if enemy team has a thicc frontline like double tank or diablo/garrosh single tank, pick up Q talents and melt them. If enemy team has a good backline combo depending on who it is u can go full AA build or go twin cleave build.
ZJ is all about completing his baseline quest which means getting in as many auto attacks as u can early. If you can complete your quest by level 13 you become a monster.
The only thing what i can immagine as a bonus is a lvl 4 talent what dosen’t let loose your hp while you using your treat. You “loose” it , so your hp will be decreased, but after you stop using your treat, you get back your hp slowly.
I can’t immagine anything else what could make him more balanced, better.
I think his problem is a quest. It is too much depends on the constant attack of enemy heroes. I believe that it is necessary to increase his basic damage, and the quest to weaken or completely remove.
Personally, I play it only in ARAM mode.
Not really or rather you can’t build around him particularly. To function he needs enemy team that has frontline and comp that can’t advance to him(so never in the current state of game). The same kind of heroes(shields and burst heals) that work with him work with AA heroes in general only those heroes bring more value with the support.
Gary is also all that talent is any good for at all. Gary is also very strong hero against ZJ due to ZJs zero mobility. Also that talent is not that good even against Gary, regular GKs provide much more value. It will realistically only add couple extra full AA worth damage in battle which is not a whole lot. Ever since they removed armor from tanks that talent became completely outdated
Because practically every ranged assassin is better than him. He is one of my favorite heroes personally(I play AA heroes the most) but in serious game I would never pick him. If you want limited kit like his Raynor is the better version straight up. Other heroes can bring jungling, burst, wave-clear, even survivability over ZJ while still bring same if not higher sustained damage too. When you actually start listing the things he provides and compare them to other AA heroes it does not look pretty. He is so heavily balanced around his quest in mid-low level games that the potential he has holds his numbers and viability back in high end games.
You will barely notice the difference. With Tazzdingo the stim at 1hp is only about 25% increase(due to how AS stacks). Other AA heroes get ton more value from stim unless we talk crazy stacked ZJ which won’t happen in actual high level games.
Yes and no. On one hand he is balanced around gold-plat where the quest reward vs risk is fine but that leaves him useless in high level games. On the other hand if they gated more of power behind his quest taking more skill he could become viable option in high level games(to get reasonable risk vs reward) but leaving him worse for low-end players. If you took the quest away or lowered it with better baseline he would suddenly lose big part of his identity and he wouldn’t actually reward the skillful players(essentially you would dumb him down).
You Want Axe? only stacks off of Heroes. This makes soaking an empty lane feel detrimental. Suggestion: He should get some stacks when laning.
Zul’jin has two infinite-stacking quests - You Want Axe? and Arcanite Axes. I think having two such quests overloads him in the late game, especially when You Want Axe? is completed. Suggestion: Remove infinite-stacking from You Want Axe? and make Level 7 Talents the “infinite-stacking tier.” Ferocity - should grant the current infinite-stacking of You Want Axe? Arcanite Axes - can probably remain the same. Maybe slightly increase the stacking rate. Vicious Assult - I’m open to ideas, but essentially it could tie into You Want Axe? to increase the damage percentage of Grievous Throw.
I think it would be better to rework it’s stacking mechanism. Increase the quest requirements slightly, but allow killing a minion to grant progress as well. This would also make solo-laning with him worthwhile.
He is perfectly fine, with a higher winrate thatn the hero you mentioned. He is just not easy to play and requires managing your health, mana, and positioning more than the average hero.
No he does not need changes, no he should not be made easier to play.
First thing first. Do you go axe build. Like extra slow,wrong place wrong time and stacking lvl 7 quest.
That is his main and strongest build.If you cant stack it(like there are only mages) then he aint the right pick.
His aa is bad since there are pure aa heroes like raynor who are better.
Also never go tazdingo. The other ulti is better.From this you can extrapolate is he good for you. I know a master who uses him and he is top dmg every fight with this build.
Tazdingo is a crutch while aa does nothing but dmg.
He is similar to ragnaros. All of their builds look viable but most aint. Rag has his e build that is far better then others. It just does not look like that.
My wn with rag went from like 30% to 65% when i switched to e build. That is how powerful it is.Zul axe build is similar.
The faster Zul completes You Want Axe? the more powerful he is. Because it only stacks on Heroes, it forces players to choose fighting over soaking an empty lane. If Zul chooses to soak, he is essentially hamstringing his teamfight potential. It’s pretty much a double-negative.