I have played this game for a long time and one hero that has bugged me for ages has been Zera.
My problem with this hero is he has almost no counter play. When your vs one it feels like you can’t ever react to anything he’s doing and your only real hope is to randomly throw abilities where he’s going to TP to and hope you get lucky.
This hero has been such a mess for such a long time and I’m kinda sick of it. I get he has limitations but he’s the only hero in the game with 0 counter-play all you can do is hope he messes up or you get the jump on him by chance so he has to waste the blink jumping away.
Can we change his skills just a tad to open up counter play so you don’t feels completely helpless when facing him.
Zera is indeed annoying, and overperforming from time to time (not sure if he does atm), but the claim that he has no counters is untrue.
Interested in them?
I play zera even more
If your dodging their main cc and to for the backline when the tank is occupied your in for a threat.
I dont want to buff him but to change him.
He is balanced good. A bit op if you ask me
But if you fight him and stitck togetter you can beat him.
If you split your dead. Just like valeera
It’s an old post, but I still stand by it.
Tl;dr, I think Zeratul should have less mobility but more sustain and durability. He should be committing to his engagements a bit more.
Beyond the 2 hard-counters I mentioned in that post, Brightwing and Uther, Zeratul has a couple of soft-counters like Malfurion, Morales, Diablo, Medivh, Zarya, and Yrel. I’d actually add Mei as to the list of the only 3 real hard-counters to Zeratul, just because of all the disruption and CC she brings to the table, but she wasn’t in the game when I made that thread.
Aside from them, there aren’t too many that can actually do much against a good Zeratul – most heroes don’t have fast enough CC, damage mitigation, or zoning potential necessary to ward off a Zeratul.
I would add Anub’arak (have I mentioned he is busted?). Although his baseline CC isn’t point and click, he has a lot of it, especially after 20. He is also one of the more mobile tanks with the move speed at level 4 and E to reposition quickly, so if Zeratul dives his back line, he can get there quickly. Cocoon also does a number on him, especially combined with something like the Stukov Puddle of Woe or a Malfurion with the sleep talent at 1.
I’ll defer to you on this one, as there’s no way I have as much experience playing Tanks against Zeratul (let alone Masters-level Zeratuls) as you do, but I will explain my thought process and experiences on this one because I’d like to pick your mind about it.
I considered Anub for the hard-counter list, but he didn’t quite make the cut in my eyes. He’s got a lot of CC (and it’s AoE too, which compensates for it not being PnC) and mobility, but both are slightly delayed and fairly telegraphed. The delay would be negligible against just about any other hero, but good Zeratuls are so quick a half-second warning can be all it takes for them to slip away.
By comparison, Diablo’s Q is nearly instant and virtually guarantees a follow-up E, so I typically see Diablo catching Zeratul out more than most other Tanks. It’s extremely dangerous for Zeratul to engage in close quarters when an enemy Diablo is nearby, because then there’s the added risk of the wall-collision stuns and damage.
Do you find that those brief delays usually matter that much with Anub? I know that they’d be more likely to matter in higher Ranks, where the average reaction time is much faster.
Not really, mostly because making him leave without a kill is often all you need to do, since he won’t be able to re-engage very soon. If he tries to stay for a full MotN combo, he will get stunned, so generally he will blink in, get an angry beetle in his face, and blink right the hell back out. He also has to be very careful about engaging when Cocoon is available. Last but not least, Anub’arak combined with any of Zeratul’s soft counters is a guaranteed kill.
One other thing to note, if you don’t have good counters to Zeratul on your team, as often happens in QM, a good way to counter-play him is to be aggressive when you think he is going to come in. He doesn’t have CC of his own, and his HP is low, so he does have to be careful about choosing his opportunities.
To play on Zeratul, need a skill. And it’s not a shame to lose to the Master. Counters of Zeratul : Bw, Uther, Anub’arak, Kharazim, Auriel, Valeera, Varian, Medivh, Tracer, Gul’dan, Lunara, Butcher, Murky, Sylvanas, Chen, Tyrael, ETC, Stitches.
Her single-target damage mitigation is unparalleled in this game. Her Q + W can almost instantly nullify any single-target burst that doesn’t kill its target outright. Her E also provides amazing peel.
She doesn’t help you kill Zeratul, but she does a really good job making sure he doesn’t kill anyone else.
Malfurion’s better for his root. The AoE itself lasts a long time, meaning Zeratul can’t teleport onto someone standing over it or chase someone who walks into it.
It’s what made him worth listing as a Zeratul soft-counter. It’s definitely not enough to be a hard counter, but it’s better than what most other heroes have.
How has a squishy-lategame carry no counter play? This hero has only two damage abilitys, one of them is an easy dodge skillshot (W), otherwise he is completely reliant on his autoattacks and blinks. But as a Genji player maybe I am biased about it, but I don’t find him op.
His winrate around diamaster is 56% (#19), even Ilidan has higher winrate than him… While his overall winrate is 50%…
He’s fine. Just get Varian, Stukov, Uther or even BW and you’re good against him.
But isn’t that what makes him fun? A fragile carry, who can be very powerful in lategame? His early is weak for good reason.
And heroes like the ones I mentioned can screw him, because they have good anti-dive abilitys. And still you can also pick other mobile heroes like him. Genji for example.
A general good tip against any kind of divers. It works even better against Samuro, who has only his AA and Whirlwind.
Edit:
But don’t get me wrong, if he’s indeed too strong, then I am all for it to tune him down. How is he performing in pro games? 1st ban, 1st pick material?
I’d say a good early game macro can help since he comes online very late in the game so someone with early game pressure like a Valla Morales comp can swing the game’s momentum. That’s just my observation though.
