Stukov Talents

Level	Choices
1	? ? ?
4	✓ ✓ ?
7	? ? ?
10	? ✓
13	✓ ✓ ?
16	? ✘︎ ✓
20	? ? ? ✘︎

Fetid Touch can greatly reduce the cooldown of Weighted Pustule, and completely remove the Mana cost. It also has the added functionality of adding a Slow to your Basic Attacks and turning it into a ranged attack which will increase the number of times you are able to apply Basic Attacks during a match. Although it reduces damage on paper, it will open up many more opportunities to deal damage safely. Follow-up Basic Attacks will be easier to deliver thanks to the Slow that this Talent provides.

Reactive Ballistospores's primary benefit is that it resets Bio-Kill Switch. Because Bio-Kill Switch is your main tool for healing allies, this Talent can be very strong. This Talent can be a slight deterrent for enemy melee Heroes who may wish to dive Stukov.

Low Blow is a good option to take at Level 1 if you plan to build around Lurking Arm. Its effect is pretty straightforward, but very helpful during team fights in tight corridors.

One Good Spread... is a great way to increase your healing output during the early game, but requires you to have more than one teammate nearby. With Healing Pathogen on your allies more often, you will have more windows of opportunity for Bio-Kill Switch. This is exceedingly useful, as Bio-Kill Switch has a relatively long cooldown.

Biotic Armor is a great Talent that allows you to provide Physical Armor to all allies affected by Healing Pathogen. The Physical Armor value is greatly increased for a short time whenever Bio-Kill Switch is activated. This can help your frontline mitigate damage while engaging, or help you save allies who are being focused with Basic Attacks. Universal Carrier is very good with Biotic Armor, because it helps you keep Physical Armor on any nearby allies almost constantly.

Vigorous Reuptake increases Bio-Kill Switch healing when conditions are met, which can be useful if you need more burst healing during team fights. In order to ensure that you trigger the bonus healing, it can be helpful to take Universal Carrier to keep Healing Pathogen on several allies at all times.

The Long Pitch drastically increases the range of Weighted Pustule, and pairs very well with Fetid Touch. This combination is especially useful when one or more of your allies will benefit from attacking Slowed enemies. This Talent makes it much safer to apply Weighted Pustule to enemies. The cooldown reduction will increase opportunities for Bio-Kill Switch detonations, which will help increase your healing and damage.

Growing Infestation increases the area of Lurking Arm as it is being channeled, but limits the amount of time it can be channeled. This Talent will allow you to Silence more enemy Heroes than normal and has great use with the Lurking Arm Build.

Targeted Excision will allow you to cast Basic Abilities more often, which can (in theory) increase your healing output. There are a few challenges in executing this strategy, however. You must detonate a single Weighted Pustule in order to proc the cooldown reduction of your Basic Abilities. Furthermore, you must have already applied Healing Pathogen to the allies who need healing. It is not difficult to meet these requirements, but it can make it hard to get maximum effect out of each Bio-Kill Switch detonation.

At this Level, you gain access to Heroic Abilities. If you want to read more about them, check the dedicated section in the Abilities and Strategy page.

Flailing Swipe is a great way to break up tightly grouped enemies, making it easier for your team to get a pick during team fights. It is also a powerful disengage tool when a fight is not looking favourable for your team.

Massive Shove is an amazing Heroic Ability that can remove an enemy from a team fight completely, in ideal situations. Even in closed in areas, it can be used to knock enemies out of threatening positions and Stun them. While Massive Shove's channel time varies depending on the distance before collision, it will usually take the same amount of time to complete as Flailing Swipe. The primary difference to consider here is that Massive Shove grants 50 Armor while being channeled. Combined with the very short cooldown, these features make it the Heroic to take in most games.

It Hungers removes some of the counterplay for Lurking Arm. Normally when Stukov is channeling a well placed Lurking Arm near an Objective, the enemy team is forced to make a choice. They need to either force the Stukov to stop channeling, or concede the Objective. Without this Talent, cancelling Stukov's channel will place Lurking Arm on a full cooldown. With this Talent, Stukov will be able to reposition and quickly recast Lurking Arm.

Virulent Reaction provides additional crowd control utility to your kit. It may seem difficult to proc at first, but it is very easy to do. Simply cast Weighted Pustule onto an enemy, then channel Lurking Arm directly under them, and immediately detonate Bio-Kill Switch. They will be Rooted, Silenced, and suffering damage over time. This Talent is the reason to pick Stukov and you can single handedly carry a game by triggering this Talent on enemy Heroes.

Poppin' Pustules allows you to detonate Weighted Pustule in an area. You can land Weighted Pustule on several enemy Heroes, and the area damage from the detonation will stack. The successful execution of this technique is a great way to start a team fight. Healing Pathogen is a more important use of Bio-Kill Switch if you are the only Healer on your team. Try to cast and spread Healing Pathogen before Weighted Pustule, so that detonations will accomplish both healing and damage. However in most situations you will want to go with Virulent Reaction as the CC from that Talent can be the difference of killing an enemy Hero or them escaping.

Superstrain is a good Talent to take against team compositions that have copious amounts of Roots and Stuns. You should always pick this Talent if that is the case.

Universal Carrier only reduces the healing over time component of Healing Pathogen. Bio-Kill Switch healing remains the same. What makes this Talent so good is that you can keep your team primed to receive Bio-Kill Switch healing as necessary. The 25% heal reduce does hurt Stukov a lot, and because your team will not always be stacked, this Talent sees little use.

Pox Populi refreshes Healing Pathogen duration upon Bio-Kill Switch activation, instead of consuming it. This greatly increases the healing over time component of Healing Pathogen, and allows more freedom in timing Bio-Kill Switch detonations. Pox Populi has amazing synergy with One Good Spread.... By increasing the duration of Healing Pathogen, you increase the likelihood of procing One Good Spread.

The cooldown and Mana cost reduction of Controlled Chaos has its benefits, however the strength of this Talent comes from being able to control all 3 charges. Most of the time, using a single charge can be enough to disengage from the enemy team.

Push Comes To Shove is usually the best choice to take if you choose Massive Shove at Level 10. You can almost completely reset Massive Shove with well placed casts, which enables you to remove or Stun a second enemy during end game team fights. The strong Slow effect will prevent affected enemies from returning to the fight immediately. This will often result in favourable end game team fights, and greatly increases the likelyhood of victory. Do note that this Talent should only be picked on Maps where you can reliably trigger it. Maps that are big and open like Hanamura Temple are a great place where this Talent can shine.

Top Off increases the healing-over-time component of Healing Pathogen, and greatly synergizes with Pox Populi. This Talent should be taken if Push Comes To Shove does not have value in your game.

Bio-Explosion Switch does not work well with your Fetid Touch plus Lurking Arm combo. Since you want Virulent Reaction to go off, the Silence and damage of Lurking Arm can easily occur for more than 2.5 seconds and 230 damage. Given that your team has CC on top of yours, it will probably last even longer, making this Talent useless.