So how is Zagara played?

General Discussion
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My winrate with her is bull - simply put, I attempted to learn her after the buffs and so I managed to get a winrate of 60% because… Well, because she was OP, not because I was any good.

So now that she is no longer OP I figured I’d try her again (mainly because I like her new lvl 20) and I just can’t make her work. I have a ~20% winrate this season (in QM) because I just… can’t. So, I’m here to ask for advice. Any advice on how to play Zagara is welcome - from draft to builds to general positioning.

I think I might also have some of those games uploaded to HP but if you watch those, I’d say keep in mind I probably play worse than a B5 Zagara. :sweat_smile:

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Double soak, don’t bother doing as much camps, position your creep Tumor better to see the battlefield, watch your mini map more often, always take Envenomed Spines, consider taking Devour Maw against gankers, a Zag death isn’t worth enough for her trade off so don’t ever die, take the other lvl 13 if the enemy can kill the Hydra fast. At 16, mostly group no matter what. Her biggest assets come from being safe, giving vision and doing % dmg.

You could watch his replays.

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I basically spam stuff, control vision with creeps and try to stay with team unless I can safely double soak. And positioning is key with her.

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Why is that? I don’t play Zagara, but I see most ppl pick “Medusa blades”

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A key thing to keep in mind about zagara is that she isn’t a mage, and she isn’t a “marksman”, she’s a summoner. Her aa damage isn’t going to beat out aa-based heroes, and her ability damage isn’t going to beat out casters, so what makes her work is being able to align her attacks with her summons. If zag doesn’t attack with her summons, then they can easily be killed, and she gets chased off; if she doesn’t hide behind her summons, then she can’t really trade hits against anything, and she gets chased off.

A key trick to zag is taking the right talents for how you’re going to use her summons, In QM players may try to constantly split-push, avoid team fights, and think they’re going to win the game alone by being persistent and ‘sneak’ structures down. That might hold up for murky tactics since he trades up, but it doesn’t work well for zagara.

Nydus zag can split and be there for team fights, so choosing one over the other is undercutting her ability to pressure backline heroes with a flanking hydralisk, or screen skill shots with roaches. Maw zag, on the other hand, can cluster enemies if allies have follow-up wombo, or can stop otherwise unstoppable enemies and be used as a counter/stall. Nydus cdr is useful if players are attacking to then be able to get out more summons (for % damage late) and Maw is handy as a stall-to-escape if you’re against select gankers, so either heroic isn’t necessarily the ‘go to’ build for her.

Creep control and summon placements are the big things that set apart zagara. Creep gives vision and a ‘zone’ of control where zag gets extra attack range and speed that allows her to poke or aggressively position behind her summons. Summons aren’t just mindless spells to cast either; when and how they’re placed makes a key difference on them taking damage for lane minions (summons have limited time, so any damage they can take can help a lane push) or not getting killed early so they can continue to deal damage to enemy heroes.

When pushing, roaches should land on the ranged minions to both draw some attacks from them while also dealing damage to the easier to kill units. Hydralisk should usually come after roaches so pve/hero damage hits them and gives the hydra more time to deal damage. Hydra’s should also avoid being cast at their max range as time they spend moving is time they don’t spend attacking – which also holds true for enemy heroes; if they are compelled to run (Taking damage from zag and summons) then that’s time they usually aren’t attacking back.

One particular flaw that gets overlooked with zag is how long it takes for her to turn around. Compared to other heroes, zag actually has to rotate around which way she’s facing, so back-and-forth clicking can slow her down and take time away that could be used to reposition for attacking, avoiding enemy skills, or even running away. Practicing stuttering or ‘orb walking’ (using spells instead of basic attacks, such as with timely Q casting) can help be more particular on how you click and move with zagara to minimize time lost to turning.

Q talents have arguably been overnerfed, so roach/hydra talents are usually the go to for pushing lanes and dealing pve damage. Her aa-quest is more of trap talent (takes too many stacks for too little reward) but Medusa Blades + lvl 16 aa boost is better than I think people are willing to consider cuz… % damage. Similarly, mutalisk is underrated imo as people neglect how much damage they can end up dealing due to splashing attacks and having more than one alive during objectives/fights/etc, esp with the lvl 20 hydra talent.

The trickiest part of Zag is that she was mostly an early-game hero that had a lot of her early game cut out and repositioned for the late game. Aggressive and experienced players can force an early xp lead, but functionally, it’s usually ‘better’ to play it safe with her and try to stall for the later game where damage from her summons can eventually overwhelm most of the enemy team provided they can’t/don’t dive on her hard.

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I’m in Silver and so far my style of Zagara hasn’t failed me (crap now that I’m writing this I think I’m jinxing it)

So what I do is immediately go to the solo lane, plant down your tumors in the paths towards your lane (example, if you’re solo lane in the top of Cursed Hallow, put the first tumors in the bushes or in the path to your lane from the mid lane). This makes you almost impossible to gank if you’re watching your mini map. Your next tumors are more liberal, just sprinkle them around your lane to build an escape bridge back to your gate.

Spam your E on waves and Q to poke heroes (preferably aiming to hit the minions too). These are your w abilities that deal AoE and have relatively low mana so you can use then frequently.

Just stay out of range and only come closer to pick up XP globes. Hold your W. I can’t stress this enough, this is your burst damage and I mainly use it to bully off the opponent when they’re on top of me or when I wanna finish them off when my teammates gank. W is very very mana inefficient so save it so you don’t waste your mana and fountain. Always use your AAs. They’re free damage and you out range almost anyone.

Zagara is bad at trading. She can’t recover health or mana without Nydus. You don’t want to fight your opponent directly because she will most likely leaving worst off (you’re either dead or you have to back/fountain).

Take either infest or E at 1. Infest help if you’re looking for building damage but E1 is a more universal talent IMO. Increasing your roach health means they can tank tower shots better and stay alive longer in fights (as a Zagara fights will be rare but when you do join, your summons will make a difference). The CDR helps too.

At 4 take Medusa to better your damage. Envenomed is also good. I find these 2 a matter of preference. You want to clear your lane quicker? Take Medusa. You want more single target damage? Take Envenomed. Quest is trash don’t take it.

At 7 there’s only 1 talent option. Pick Bile drop. It’s fine if you don’t complete it. I’ll explain later, but basically the increased impact area helps clear lanes.

At 10 I go Nydus. This creates a win condition other than objectives or fights for my team because I can essentially be a global and push to my heart’s contend but still be able to join my team.

At 13 it’s a matter of preference. You want to recover health take W, you find yourself getting ganked or bursted down a lot, take Armor, you’re against high value spells like KTZ or KT, take Spell Shield.

At 16, Corrosive Saliva almost always. Even if you didn’t complete the E quest, 2 roach and 1 Hydra is still quite a bully especially since you’re casting them from afar to poke at people. The CDR from E1 helps with just providing you with a constant stream of giant killing meat shields. Don’t underestimate the amount of quiet disruption your CS summons can do. You won’t be killing anyone 1v5 but your team should be there to capitalize on the enemies you’ve soften. Mutalisk is another option if you want to split push more (though most of the time this is unnecessary). Mutalisk’s increased duration and Nydus’s CDR means you can have 3 to 4 out attacking everyone if you AA a lot. AA talent is trash don’t take it.

At 20, always go Pack Instincts. You’re losing nothing by taking this as this talent amplifies both your PvE and PvP. Against heroes and coupled with CS, they melt fast. Also great against structures, especially coupled with multiple Mutalisks. Broodmother is bad, don’t take it. Tyrant Maw is a win more and I don’t like Devouring Maw in the first place because it’s weird in the sense that it’s a really slow set up and you can’t use it as a follow up. Endless Creep is good but Nydus at 10 is already adequate.

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It sets their playstyle against good players. Medusa Blades is for continuous split push and hitting buildings, which isn’t allowed in high elo. Envenomed Spines is the safest talent and gets quite bursty at the right time.

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Be annoying as possible. Spam everything off cooldown just to get your stuff out there.
You’re not there to secure kills, you spew damage to bully people out of the fight or pressure them into making bad decisions. Chasing requires creep already placed, don’t sweat too much about getting it spread because it’s tedious and takes half as long for the enemy team to get rid of it as you need to place it. Just keep dropping them off cooldown to see what sticks.

Hydralisk is the real hero. You want it out as often as possible to pad your numbers, don’t worry too much about priority targets. Just drop it on the first guy in range and watch it get free hits in. Do try to be carful about putting it into a situation where it will immediately take damage, like situations where the enemy team doesn’t have much better targets to focus or making it wade directly through the enemy team’s line of fire.
The majority of teams will ignore Hydras as they lay out the damage, and much of the time the target either just takes it or runs away.

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%damage is on hunter killer and roaches, not basic attack.

are you thinking of the creep talent?

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When you say this, are you referring to a specific level 13?

Also thanks everyone for the help, I appreciate it a lot!

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Picking her usually atm on Dragon Shire.
Both point control at level 10 (Nydus).
Fast regen with nydus which we need on this map,variety of control points(if u see that 2-3 enemy coming to you just switching from bot point to top and via versa(where 0-1 enemy max).

My standart build
lvl 1 - Ranged minions bouns AA -best lvl 1 talent in my opinion,help push a lot,buffed ranged creeps finishes/damage enemy heroes pretty significally during contesting(need to clear lane this time).
lvl 4 - Envenomed Attack
lvl 7 - Q - slow
lvl 10 - Nydus
lvl 13 - Was playing mainly with 20 armor on creep,but recently switched for Hydralisk transfusion - with lvl 16/20 talents - pretty strong,spell shield also can be best options vs some setups - Imperius/Chromie,Etc/Genji and so on.
lvl 16 - Corrosive Saliva mainly.
lvl 20 - Upgraded nydus on Dragon shire - more speed on creep,big creep ranged spawn - map vision late game pretty strong.On other maps like Braxis or BoE - Pack Instinct can be better.

Main tricky thing - u need to pick Zag last pick or at least 4-5,so enemy not counter you with Rexxar or Chen,vs them Zag will be pretty useless.

Imperius/Artanis/Yrel and others - not a big deal if play smart.

Also need to play pretty carefully before lvl 10 Nydus,because no other sustain except fountain and globes.

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the aa boosting talent (when on creep) competes against the %dmg talent, so I’m saying some people aren’t willing to consider picking anything else, so they won’t really know how well (or not) a talent works

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Nydus + Mutalisk is also a valid choice at your level of play. My advice is to be conservative about your mana and patient when it comes to using Hydralisks 1v1. Simply trading damage won’t achieve anything. If you can bully a weaker hero out of the lane, then spam away, but remember to recall at the same time they do it, because you don’t need to overstay your welcome in an uncontested area and most damage will be achieved in these constant small windows when no one is bothering you.

As much as I love reducing cooldowns of my summons, the damage is incredibly random and unfocused so in the end you just end up padding damage meters with no real effect.

Devouring Maw is such a game deciding ability that it mostly always turns out to be a better practical choice. I would always gladly trade a little bit of damage for a spell which helps contest capture points and removes players out of the game / enables easy follow-up from your team.

Basically utility over brute force. The creep tumors alone are an insane advantage over lower-end players.

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Ah, GriM you reminded me of a question I meant to ask!

Mana management - I usually attempt to only use my Q and E to push and save my W for teamfights (or else if the enemy is pushing into my gate, I might use my W as an attempt to push the enemy away). Anybody got any other advice regarding that?

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Yea, W to push the enemy away from your gate or to make them reconsider collecting a globe. If you can stay hidden at the start of the game, wait for 2nd minion wave. If no enemy is around, instantly clear the minions and achieve stronger gate push. You’re looking for an opening, not trying to win through brute force because you always end up overextending. If you aren’t an extreme nuisance, the enemy player might rotate to a different lane, that’s when you attack.

One other thing about the lvl 1 tier. All talents are valid choice.

You can bombard the doors from an angle with extended baneling range while stalling minions in the middle of lane with your summons. Other approach is to eat up tower shots with your enhanced roaches, which basically turns you into a Sylvanas with perma building disable with Nydus CDR.

The last thing is Infest - it’s insane in 1v1 situations later in the game if you happen to bait a low wave clear hero into a fight around minions, especially on maps where catapults fire projectiles (ballista?) so the attacks are nigh-impossible to dodge. At minute 20+ the siege weapons deal almost a third of your average hero health, imagine what they will do to them once empowered.

And Spell Shield, learn to use it. A little bit of sustain won’t help you much in most scenarios because you are dead either way if Genji jumps on top of you or if you get charged at by Diablo. The % damage buff from Saliva doesn’t translate into bonus healing so it’s not that much of a loss. When you’re going for Maw over Nydus, it loses additional potential value.

Zagara is good only in situations when the enemy team is immobile and has trouble breaking through your front line, but has such an useful kit that it makes up for all of her flaws and shortcomings (vision control and free bush check).

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Q and E are perfectly spammable. They’re your 2 lowest mana abilities and have quite a long range. Feel free to use them, especially Q, liberally. You can use Q to poke from afar, but of course you don’t have to use it at max range. Another trick is to cast it right in the middle of a wave (on top of the mage minion) so it hits all the minions. Clears much faster and you can get a few shots at structures with this if you do it fast enough and the enemy doesn’t respond. If you’re alone in a lane, feel free to use W to burn down structures. Yes their mana cost is high but if it gets you a building faster, don’t be afraid to use it. Just always keep in mind your mini map and ganks especially when you’re pushing deep without Nydus. This is why a network of creep surrounding your lane is so important.

I just find it a very awkward ability. It’s a 75 second CD set up with a relatively small AoE and trigger time and unlike other combo abilities, you have to use it at the “start” of a fight because it’s a stasis and you can’t use it to follow up since you’ll most likely ruin your team’s damage. Nydus is just a great ability that gives Zagara a win condition.

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Always take envenomed spines is terrible advice. Take medusa blades if you are sieging. Serrated spines if they have a beefy frontline.

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how is Zagara played?

spamming buttons untill enemies dies

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You and most players take Hydralisk Transfusion, but it can be worth to take the other ones.

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Either play her for max siege in the solo lane, or as a tank killer at lvl 16 vs high HP tanks, or simply as a ranged assassin doing general damage.

Infest or Roaches are her strongest builds.