Teach me how in order to lessen the pain of those matched up with me while I practice him. All tips are appreciated <3
3 Likes
Be safe in beginning. Hes very weak until 10+ so its not a horrid idea to double soak/get camps. I generally go cleave build with MofN because vp is hard to use and coordination from teammates makes it alot more effective. That being said it’s considered his better ultimate.
Id also recommend w tp at 7 rather than wormhole. It forces you to learn/practice landing w’s which is important. At 20 get spell dmg heals… you wont regret.
1 Like
If you have a decent team
1 )Wait till 10
2) Face roll keyboard
3) Win
If team is bad.
- Wait till 10
- lose
6 Likes
Depending on the cooperation and coordination of your teammates, Void Prison can be more impactful than Might of the Nerazim, but it’s not as reliable, especially once you get to level 20. Void Prison is the playmaker ult, Might of the Nerazim is the carry ult.
Generally, if you’re playing QM or Brawl, I’d stick to MotN.
As for mechanical play and ability combos/chains, Zeratul doesn’t really have any one combo to stick to. He has a ton of flexibility due to how many teleports he has and how MotN works. Depending on how you use your teleports, you can get just about any combination of abilities.
There are literally so many possible combinations of his abilities when he has MotN that I would be here for hours listing them and explaining when and why you’d use them. Instead of spending that much time I don’t have, here’s the three basic ones I’ve found work as a good foundations to branch out from listed from least to most complex:
- Go full Q build and pick Wormhole at level 7 and MotN at level 10.
AA a target before they walk back into their team and use Vorpal Blade to follow them back in, or simply just Blink into the middle of their team. Throw out a W at the lowest health target, then press Q and then R. Then depending on how you got in, either Blink back out, or reactivate Blink to teleport back with Wormhole.
If you pick Twilight Falls at level 20, just throw an extra Q and W into the mix after you hit R before you reactivate your E to retreat with Wormhole.
Full Combo: (AA->1)/E->W->Q->R(Q)->W->Q->E.
This is literally Zeratul’s most basic full combo. It is his easiest and most reliable but also his most counterable combo due to Wormhole’s reactivation delay (notice “most counterable” does not mean “easily counterable”). You can chunk entire teams down to half health if they are clumped up and do not react with hard CC the instant you appear in the middle of them.
I don’t recommend this combo if the enemy team has an Uther. Then again, I don’t recommend picking Zeratul at all if the enemy team has an Uther, but I especially don’t recommend picking Wormhole into an Uther.
- This is a slightly more complex variation of the first combo that requires Twilight Falls. Go Q build with Wormhole again.
Teleport in with Blink, AA an enemy and cast W then Q once (the order which you work that AA in is not terribly important, but casting an ability right after AAing is slightly faster), then reactivate Blink to teleport back with Wormhole. Then teleport back in with Vorpal Blade, cast Cleave with MotN, then cast your W and Q again before using Blink to escape again, this time freely because you didn’t use it to engage.
Full Combo: E->AA->W->Q->E, 1->R(Q)->W->Q->E.
If need be and it’s safe enough, you can then reactivate Blink and teleport back in with Wormhole, but you won’t have any escape options left over.
This is a more harassment oriented version of the first combo that you can only do with Twilight Falls, but it often causes enemies to burn abilities trying to hit you when you engage, only for them to miss as you retreat. Then you re-engage when those abilities are down to finish up your combo. It’s not as bursty, so if you think you can actually finish off a target the first version is generally better, but if you don’t then can actually cause people to burn abilities fruitlessly on you instead of your teammates.
- Pick Seeker in the Dark at level 7, MotN at level 10, and Marked for Death at level 16.
Hit your target with W and reactivate it to teleport to them with Seeker in the dark, hit them with your Q and an AA (again, AA/ability order interchangeable, but AA->ability is slightly faster), then Blink away. Then re-engage with Vorpal Blade, hit your target with an AA (or a few if it’s safe) and then use MotN to Blink away again.
If you have have Twilight Falls at this point, you can now repeat the whole first half of your combo from the start again.
Full Combo: W->W->AA->Q->E, 1->AA->R(E), W->W->Q->E.
This is Zeratul’s most complex combo of these three, and also the most infuriating to play against. They won’t be able to catch you unless you make a mistake and/or they have an Uther who is absolutely on top of things. This is basically your “run amok” build, which allows you to engage and then disengage at your leisure. You want to be virtually untouchable? Master this combo.
This last combo also has a ton of variations, mainly because they all share the use of Seeker in the Dark as their engagement and reserve Blink for escape, but everything in between and after is entirely up to you.
For all of these, it’s good to work in as many AAs as possible, so I only emphasized where you need AAs in order to make the combos work.
Commas represent breaks in the combo where you disengaged.
Parentheses following an “R” are to indicate which ability you are using MotN to copy.
Also, walls are your friends. A lot of other heroes have movement abilities that let them travel as far as Zeratul, but almost all of them are far more conditional, requiring direct pathing, vision, a target, etc. If you go over a wall, movement abilities that require vision of a target or cannot pass through terrain will not be able to follow you.
Additionally, there are no other heroes who can go over a wall as many times as Zeratul can; Muradin may be able to Dwarf Toss himself over a wall after you once, but he probably isn’t doing it a second time (he’d need to burn Rewind for that) and he certainly isn’t doing it a third. If you play your hand right with the third combo I laid out, you can teleport over walls up to 6 times in a row.
3 Likes
K so I’ve been playing him and this is the best hero in the game why did no one tell me about him before what in the world
Before 7
Walk up to the target and use your abilities use E to escape or dodge
After 7
Do the usuall zera stuff. People who say he is a only late game hero are sort of right but the guy can do great in all stages of the game. His waveclear is great
2 Likes
don’t do this to meeeeee hahahahaha 
NotParadox displays the combo really well here.
1 Like
I want to Zeratul tooo
If only I had seen all this stuff before I started playing him lmao, it would have saved me from learning how to do all that on my own in qm. I’m too impatient :C
I have been playing this QM / Ranked death machine all week with no prior experience and that’s all I’ve learned from my time.
My games either result in an overwhelming rofl stomp or I just sit cloaked and watch people 1v3 while being 4 levels down. So it’s pretty much like normal games but in my winning games I don’t have to try 1/30 as hard as I would to auto win as genji.
From lv7 I get to make up for the person who should be doing camps.
Lv10 I get more lane clear / insta 100-0 burst (most of the time)
13-20 I have now become a silent death machine clearing every lane, taking all your camps, and killing everyone in my path while never worrying about getting killed cauzzz blink blink blink blink blink - 30 speeeeeeeed boooooost
1 Like
lmao blink blink blink blink blink. so many escapes indeed! i might learn zeratul after all lol
2 Likes
Play safe till 7, do not jump in with blink unless you are sure you can get away.
At 7 get the W talent and use that to initiate, do damage, then Blink to safety when you need to. This should help you start to learn how to be effective. Once you get better, you will be able to play more aggressively with E.
It’s honestly worth it. The dude just feels out right broken after playing genji for years. You can just do way to much and have so little to fear when built / played properly.