Yeah, I’ve only ever seen on on Infernal shrines and Tomb.
I’m a bit of a lore buff so I have to mention that this was actually how they were first designed. Kerrigan used to have Maw. AZ Jackson has provided the info in an ama.
Blizz_AZJackson:
Early in development Kerrigan originally had Devouring Maw and Summon Ultralisk was on Zagara. Kerrigan was also a ranged spellcaster.
These types of calls can often be difficult because many of our favorite characters change drastically over the years, and at some point we have to decide which version of that character we want in our game
It’s just an arbitrary design decision they swapped the ults around.
Sorry, I meant to quote Sponge.
8 Likes
The downside to Alarak’s combo is how you can cast spells while being pulled and in motion, which isn’t the case with Kerrigan. In hands of a competent player the hero is no joke.
I wouldn’t touch her damage output because she gains shields through it, I’d rather add a healing reduction effect to her abilities (moderate %, very short duration and frequently reappliable) to make her overall more appealing, and to encourage you to constantly attack the enemy rather than wait for one perfect opportunity to jump in.
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I only pick her in Infernal Shrines. Then before fights pop up, I farm a big assimilation shield. She gets even more from the 40 little shrine minions.
In a way she is lower skill cap than Alarak (and her combo damage doesn’t get as high as his does with high Sadism), but I’ve kinda grown accustomed to her because she is one of the first heroes I ever bought, ever since she had Envenom, Sprint and other funny talents.
Then again, Butcher also has a positive win rate when filtered without leagues in last patches, but I wouldn’t say he is very viable in general (except as last pick). These are complicated issues. I certainly wouldn’t instalock Kerrigan on any map, any more than I would Butcher.
(This not from the viewpoint of gm, but platinum and ~400 lifetime Kerrigan games)
Her kit is maybe outdated compared to Alarak but good mains of Kerrigan can still win with her a lot, at least in high MMR. (Average players probably should not pick her, which includes me)
I played her a bit some time ago, but in qm. I did pretty well and actually landed nice combos, but after some games she feels pretty boring.
The whole point of the e ability is just to combo it with the w and its range is low or medium and then do some q spam. Thats it, repeat that thing all the game.
That’s true, but in my opinion to get full value out of her you should also be constantly attacking stuff like minions and monsters with autos + q’s to keep up the 6 second shield at a large value.
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No. And no.
Her kit is oriented around her kerrigan combo which is, jump, pull, stun.
With stun tanks that hit groups of heroes like blaze or ETC, this is basically a free teamfight win if they both hit multiple people. At that point the kerrigan has so many shields to start trading into you with that it’s pointless to do anything but leave.
Chasing is what chasers do, not kerrigan.
5 Likes
The issue of Kerrigan is that she’s a ‘hybrid’ role of sorts, and as much as people keep wanting to claim they want hybrids or multi-class, they effectively denounce just about every instance of it in favor of fixating on one-trick picks.
Of the melee assassins (which can be a hard sell as is) she has better pve than most, and better in-combat sustain, and she has as much as, if not more than, any of their hard cc. (qualified statement compared to samuro who has good pve, but lacking on cc and doesn’t really have in-battle sustain, just damage evasion; quira has cc, but not stable pve, etc etc)
Slot-wise, she’s almost more a bruiser with the biggest issue being, unlike most melee assassins, she doesn’t really ‘surprise’ anyone. When she engages, she pretty much demands focus, and she’ll often get it asap. However, (save the butcher) Kerrigan has about the worst disengage, so if people take her, they overcommit and resign themselves to death. (well, i can’t say I don’t do that: when I play kerrigan I expect to die a lot, I just expect to take others with me 
)
If you want to pick Kerrigan, you do so to get a specific reaction from the other team, and then take advantage of that because kerrigan perceptions and reactions are fairly inflexible. A lot of people fixate on and swear by the combo, but ironically, may find themselves doing better with kerrigan if they don’t use it. For point of reference, I don’t consider myself a “kerrigan main” (never have, likely still won’t in the future) but she is my most played hero and highest level at lvl 64.
Because players expect the combo – and try to prime their reaction to the pull/stun, they’ll often juke themselves into a bad skirmish when the impale doesn’t come, so they lose damage opportunities and dont’ trade as well against her at they like to think.
She’s more in the arthas/tyrael boat where common conception just sees her at the worst of their basic label, rather than a deviation from the norm. She’s almost the closest thing to being a ‘tank’ that isn’t actually a tank with all the cc and focus she draws compared to other heroes.
Just about anyone thinks she’d be better off with any other variation of stat/role than she currently has (outright be a tank, be ranged dps, and so on) so the odd thing is the mix of her is part of what makes her work well imo, but ‘getting’ that to click is a different matter entirely.
So, people pick her when they ‘get’ that with her, and prep their team to react accordingly. If you want a few more incentives to that, than I guess you might want to hit up some longue/khaldor replays were some of the top players will pick/ban her.
2 Likes
Sure thing, i find her gameplay a bit repetitive after some games, but thats just my preference. In the hands of a competent player shes really strong.
Would it be OP if Ravage could be cast on allies to escape (like Friend or Foe on Illidan)?
Slot-wise, she’s almost more a bruiser with the biggest issue being, unlike most melee assassins, she doesn’t really ‘surprise’ anyone.
Also, I agree that while her combo is a bit expected and boring now, as a hero she seems okayish, at least in high matches.
#BuffTheQueenofBlades
#HerLifeMatters
1 Like
you say every hero’s great 
You’re right, after looking at better MMR statistics, she is a classic niche hero with lower pick rate but good win rate at the moment. Maybe I should have only said her combo is oudated, not her.
And in last Heroeslounge mythic cup (season 12) she has been picked by competitive teams, on Infernal Shrines, by at least 1 team.
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oh man. ranged spellcaster kerrigan sounds a lot more fun
Kerrigan is a hard to play character but powerful. It also takes some time to adjust to her playstyle.
I play her on a very high winrate and try to give you some tips.
https://www.heroesfire.com/hots/talent-calculator/kerrigan#gppG
- This is my default build. Sometimes Chrystalis on 13 e.g. vs. Timeloop chromie
- You are not the one who engages in teamfights
- You need to count CDs. Especially stun CDs. e.g. you don’t jump in when ETC has Q up and would be the next enemy you face
- Try to combo sideways
- Q on walls or a different enemy hero before you jump on the target (lvl 7 talent)
- Once the teamfight has started, the ground is full of animations. Kerrigan combo is not that visible anymore
- In lategame teamfights use everything you have (R, Combo, Blink). One oneshoot is enough in most cases
Don’t give up it needs practice and mechanical good skills. Once you mastered it there is not much satisfying since your skill gets rewarded by immediately dead enemies.
2 Likes
Anything is possible. When first rumors of Tassadar becoming a burst mage surfaced, people just laughed it off as impossible.
I still hope Artanis will be a contested first pick one day. People can laugh now, but I hope his day will come one day. After big reworks.
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Im a 120+ lvl kerrigan
- She works in burst comps
- In diamond/masters people know the combo (so yeah I get why she sucks at other leagues)
- She oneshots squichys
- One of the best camp invaders of the game
- she has lockdown potential something illidan genji and such on doesnt have
- High kill potential
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Kerrigan is a flex pick to kill squishies and make enemies tilted
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I don’t play Kerrigan but whenever I have her on my team I always make sure to follow up on her combos
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Incredibly vulnerable to crowd-control to me she similar to illidan and butcher i would just rather have bruiser in my team .