Nazeebo and his design problems

tl;dr: he’s too good against certain heroes but too weak against other heroes. You either completely stomp Naz, or Naz completely stomps you.

What are the positives of Nazeebo? He deals the highest damage out of all mages. When going full Q talent, a single Q on an enemy will deal more damage than an entire KTZ combo, and same goes with all 5 toads landed on an enemy. He’s also tanky enough to be able to take a lot of damage, as well as having access to Ice Block.

Now what are the negatives of Nazeebo? No mobility, no hard CC, no burst, literally every ability is a skillshot. His Q will deal the highest damage in the game if the enemy is standing still or walking at normal speed; problem is most heroes can dash away or activate their MS. His W and E are very telegraphed; any hero that are fast can dodge his walls, and a lot of other heroes can free either themselves or their teammates from their walls.

See the theme? The more mobile you are, the better you are countering him. As if it’s not mentioned a million times that mobility is the most important thing in this game, here you have a hero that punishes anyone for being immobile. He’s effectively a hero that turns the enemy’s mobility into their defense.

One scenario is Nazeebo vs Sylvanas. You trap her into a wall and dump all your abilities on her. She haunting waves away and takes only 25% of her total health as damage, comes back and fights you while your abilities are on cooldown.

The other end of a scenario is Nazeebo vs Cassia. You trap her in a wall and poof she’s dead. She has no escapes, no spell damage mitigation, no ice blocks.

This is why Nazeebo is a godsend in lower leagues, but close to unplayable in higher levels of play. Most lower league players don’t dodge, don’t stutterstep, eats spiders and toads for breakfast, or waste their escape abilities willy nilly. Most lower league players also try to 1v1 Nazeebo (i.e. Artanis vs Naz) only to realize he’s too tanky and Naz deals way too much damage back to them. Players always underestimate his damage thinking “how can a cute little voodoo man hurt me” without realizing he has the damage to 1v1 even a Stitches.

Higher league players can dodge, can save their escapes, ice blocks, ETC knockbacks, or save their allies. Higher league players can take advantage of his slow damage, lack of hard CC, and overly telegraphed ability. Oh he wasted his wall? Time to jump on him. Oh I have spiders on me? I’ll just dash away. Oh he’s throwing out his toads? I’ll just move away or to the side.

He got a buff last patch but I personally think it did nothing to address his feast-or-famine playstyle. If you hit his abilities he’s better, but a smart opponent can juke you easily. In many ways Nazeebo is very similar to Kel Thuzad - high damage, but skillshot based, only difference is his damage is more DoT based.

Zeebo needs too lose ice block. Je has enoigh surviabilty with out.

Nazeebo’s problem is mostly due to the fact that he was mostly designed as a split pusher.

You forget that he was a specialist back in the day, his specialty is clearing waves and getting stacks. Not to 1v1 or team fight. Though this lvl 1 buff made it so that he could do some damage before he has to hit lvl 20 to be useful. I think this was a very good change.
And idk what you are trying to say, every hero has counters and people they are good against…like wow, heroes who are mobile stink against heroes that have lock down cc.
You dont even have to be mobile to not be trapped by nazeebo, if you get caught in a nazeebo zombie ring that takes a second to pop up or hit by a bunch of frogs that are slowly hopping to you, that is your own fault. I believe he is fine.

While you are right about talented spiders and roads doing more damage than a ktz combo (I think) you have to remember that neither are bursty. It takes a while to deal all that damage, while ktz deletes people in the blink of an eye. And if you somehow get hit by all 5 toads you deserve it.

Nazeebo was not designed for teamfights, he was designed for waveclearing and seiging. That said, he can still contribute in team fights. I’d say he’s balanced. Yes he has strengths, yes he has weaknesses. Everyone should.

there are little to none heroes that are viable in every scenario and in every rank, just accept that as a fact

His spider buff is nothing, still not a viable build. Toads is still much more better.

Naz is not a burst dps but dot. He really can be annoying at best.

Well yeah, so is Jaina, KT, Kel T, Ming etc…

Getting trapped in a wall is rare, alot of people can dodge spiders as well as the wall as it’s a 1 second summon. If you get trapped, that’s Naz’s kit, you will get spammed with all his abilities.

Well, lower leagues people need to keep moving and be environmentally aware. There are so many games I had with me playing Naz, being annoyed I didn’t land my spiders or walls. I am in Gold, I believe i am not bad nor great just in the middle.

I am not disagreeing what you’re saying cause I main naz, but you have truth though he’s not really OP as you may think he is.

Dunno what you’re talking about, nazeebo is barely viable in low leagues as well. Most player don’t underatand how to utilise his kit. On top of that, nazeebo is pretty useless early game. He forces your team to stretch out the game. This is where lower leagues allow him to be viable; they dont know how to finish a game. Because of this, nazeebo can be viable in lower leagues because he can easily retrieve 175 stacks by lvl 20. Being viable and is viable is 2 different things. He still a horrid choice. Most of the time your better off with a murky. He can do the same thing but better and spikes earlier; he’s just more difficult to play, especially early.

In casual play nazeebos big problem are the kind of players using him.
In semi/pro he dies in a dive and he is a lesser pick unless he stacked.

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