The Zeratul Issue

General Discussion
21

I think the biggest issue with hyper mobility is the ability to escape rather than the ability to engage. Zeratul only ever has 1 escape without MofN and using it for tp means hes not getting the extra dmg out that he needs to justify taking MofN in the first place. As has been said before most of his orher engages require a squishy hero to be overextended and dont need a hard counter to avoid getting destroyed by them (seriously just dont stand still).

Ive put 14 levels into zeratul and still wouldn’t say that im good with him. Id rather this dev team put more effort into fixing more annoying heroes than zt. Maybe 2-3 years down the line when they find a way to make gazlowe useful, rework dva/tass/tracer, ect id be down for a zeratul rework. The skill floor for him is so high that his “hyper mobility” only exists for a select few and at that level MofN isn’t even picked up anyways( at least at the rate that vp is).

22

If I playedh eroes who had seemingly infinite teleports and the ability to nuke a team yes I’d be okay with that. ButF I don’t play anyone like that so your point is moot

Zera is a piece of garbage that either attracts every single smurf in this game or is OP
Either way fix the problem before anyone proposes changes that aren’t straight nerfs

23

Gazlowe could wreck things with mere numbers tweaks. I do think he is kept low on purpose.
Level 20 robot gob makes him into a scary melee hero with turrets.

2 Likes
24

Zera can not nuke a team. At 16 he can 100- 0 a squishy if they have zero defensive talents, get no heals or peels. It takes about 3 seconds for him to do some. He will blow every cd, most of his mana and have no real way out unless his team helps him. Sounds like a lot of other assassins. Many of which can do it faster and/ or have cc

2 Likes
25

Do any of the ranged assassins have to ?! , it’s only when a melee assassin or a bruiser flanks them then they are forced to committing , otherwise they just run at the sign of their tank death and usually they are a safe distance to do so

26

Just played a game against what i woulf assume is a smurf zeratul and my opinion has changed. Nerf him to the ground pls, take away blink as an ability, and get rid of vorpal blade …

Jk ppl need to get gud

27

You are biased AF , get good noob

1 Like
28

Yeah, because Tracer isn’t worth picking when you have Valla in place.

Actually, Tracer has literally no place in this meta and Tass rework is a slap wrist on her unless the Devs give her actual compensation because she’s that easy to counter in draft its not funny at this point when people out cry OP.

Not much the case with Zera.

I don’t want Zera to be hard nerfed, nonsense, I would love to see something similar they did with Tracer when they started changing her, a power shift.

Lower mobility, increase damage dealt to compensate.

6 Likes
29

Increase his damage output? Ha
That’s the kind of idocy the Overwatch Devs would do, hopefully this team isn’t that stupid

30

Zeratul only needs level 7 to be frustrating and strong.

31

Frustrating maybe, strong no

5 Likes
32

And they should do it more, healing and barriers are OP in OW and best way to compensate such flawed power house as these is damage.

1 Like
33

Woah, this is nothing like some of the other zera posts ive read so kudos for that.

I do think zera is a bit on the strong side compared to the other sealthies due to his decent wave clear and macro potential rather then his usefull ness in a fight.
With his AA build he can take just about any camp and can solo boss (altho its pretty tight). He can nuke towers and forts about as hard as any other specialist with his AA speed buff and is virtually ungankable with all his mobility, somewhat decent CC, and 1v1 potential on top of that.

I dont think enough people take advantage of his macro potential which is why his winrate is lower theb i think it could be.

34

Referring to Zeratul as “extremely counterable” is like referring to the Sun as “cold.”

5 Likes
35

~level 100 with zera, been maining him since beta.

I personally think that 2 charges of vorpal blade (from the warp skirmisher talent) is probably what most people find most difficult to deal with. It allows him to initiate and not commit, or dummy twice.

Combined with the increased AA damage this provide is nutty.

I think this just needs to be a 30% speed increase for 2 seconds instead of a 2nd charge. Allows for better countering, and still rewards good play.

36

I included more info in the drop-down. It wouldn’t be replacing an ult, it’d be a level 16 or 20 talent similar to Mal’ganis’ Blind as a Bat.

That’s my concern too. Zeratul being able to engage super hard and stick to targets really well isn’t my main concern, which is why I think he’s fine up through level 7, when he only has 1 unconditional teleport.
It’s at level 10 when he can pick up a second unconditional teleport that the issues come in, and then at level 20 where he gets a third and catching him becomes practically impossible without an Uther.

You don’t actually need to be overextended. He can literally teleport over a wall into your back line, hit them all with a Q, teleport away, and then come back and do it again.

Ranged Assassins don’t tend to be able to teleport over walls 3 to 6 times in a row last I checked. Their whole point is that if they’re out of position, they die easily.
And yes, Ranged Assassins like Cassia, Zul’jin, Greymane, Fenix, Orphea, Tychus, and to some extent Sylvanas do have to commit if they want to do any real damage. Even Tracer has to commit more than Zeratul, and her damage output is way lower.

Meanwhile, Zeratul is a Melee Assassin who has up to 3 easy escapes at his disposal, meaning he commits less to teamfights than even the most standoffish Mages like KT and Chromie. At least you can dive them and they can’t casually vanish into the fog of war with a single button press.

Meanwhile, almost all the other Melee Assassins have to commit if they want to have any real impact.
Butcher does. Qhira does. Illidan does. Alarak can poke but his real oomph comes when he commits. Murky kinda does. Valeera does. Kerrigan does.

The only Melee Assassins besides Zeratul who don’t really have to commit are Samuro (who is almost as evasive and annoying as Zeratul) and Gazlowe (who plays more like a mage half the time).

4 Likes
37

I don’t know. It’s one of those things that, to me, feels too good to be a talent, but not good enough to be a heroic.

38

Even with a Uther it can be a bit difficult chaining him necause his stun is short range.

1 Like
39

He has only 1 uncondtional blink. Everything else is conditional. Read the info on the ult for heaven sakes. Why do you keep insisting that he has more than 1 uncondional blink.

40

Sorry u find it hard to dodge his singularity spike and facetank every single one. Fact is that’s the only thing u needa do to counter him

Did you seriously just call yourself a zeratul main and suggest the main problem with him is warp skirmisher, his probably worst/most situational level 7 talent…

Listen there’s a reason blizzard doesn’t take this forum seriously and only posts on reddit. All you guys posting in this thread probably can’t even hit gold/plat maining zeratul, including the OP, while still complaining about zeratul being too strong lmao.

Zeratul is not even a top priority ban in diamond masters and grandmasters. The current top bans (in diamond, masters and grandmaster games) are: deathwing, alarak, garrosh, auriel, Ana, Abathur.

In fact zeratul’s ban rate is about half that of Ana and Abathur in masters+ games.

So the best advice for everyone in this thread complaining is: git gud