Heroes of the Storm Kerrigan

[Damien 1,533]

This thread is for comments about our Kerrigan build guide for Heroes of the Storm.

[Guest Phoby Trice]

This build makes little to no sense. Why, exactly, sacrifice all damage building talents in favor of tanking talents, exactly? Kerrigan is a hit-and-run character. Relying on her ability to tank damage with her shields is asinine. Gank with ability power and, if she doesn't get the killing blow, disengage and re-engage upon cooldowns.

 

Lv1: Sharpened Blades (Because Kerrigan isn't a tank.)

Lv4: Envenom (Because Kerrigan isn't a tank.)

Lv7: Battle Momentum (Because Kerrigan isn't a tank.)

Lv10: Summon Ultralisk (Because Kerrigan isn't a tank.)

Lv13: Double Strike (Because Kerrigan isn't a tank.)

Lv16: Essence for Essence (Because Kerrigan isn't a tank.)

Lv20: Bolt of the Storm (Because Kerrigan is NOT a tank.)

[Guest warsaw]

On 17.12.2015 at 8:33 PM, Guest Phoby Trice said:

This build makes little to no sense. Why, exactly, sacrifice all damage building talents in favor of tanking talents, exactly? Kerrigan is a hit-and-run character. Relying on her ability to tank damage with her shields is asinine. Gank with ability power and, if she doesn't get the killing blow, disengage and re-engage upon cooldowns.

 

Lv1: Sharpened Blades (Because Kerrigan isn't a tank.)

Lv4: Envenom (Because Kerrigan isn't a tank.)

Lv7: Battle Momentum (Because Kerrigan isn't a tank.)

Lv10: Summon Ultralisk (Because Kerrigan isn't a tank.)

Lv13: Double Strike (Because Kerrigan isn't a tank.)

Lv16: Essence for Essence (Because Kerrigan isn't a tank.)

Lv20: Bolt of the Storm (Because Kerrigan is NOT a tank.)

Sorry but this also makes no sense.. Because Kerrigans aoe is lost with this ulti, i wouldn´t recommend to use ultralisk. i agree with your opinion that kerrigan is not a tank, but she doesn´t need to be a tank to take advantage of additional heals, especially if you are jumping out of healers range and he can´t follow fast enough. So first talent should always be siphoning impact. Second talent envenom is ok for me because you will not always kill instant with clean kill (combination of ravage talents is interesting anyway), and for low-rank games i would surely prefer omegastorm as a last instead of bolt of the storm

[ghostdeini 12]

Not sure if this has been addressed but you don't have a recommended talent for level 13 right now.  You still have Lingering Essence there, and then all three of the current talent picks are placed under Not Recommended.

[Guest Castitatis]

I've had great runs in mid-tier elo using a more melee centered build paired with either a rehgar and/or a Lt. Morales.

1. siphoning impact

4. fury of the swarm

7. bladed momentum or if they have high burst then adaptation

10. maelstrom

13. double strike

16. aggressive defense

20. nexus blade or bolt of storm if they have good escape mechanics

 

This turns kerrigan into an AA monster that can shred multiple people down at once if they make the unfortunate mistake of bunshing together, which does happen quite often at the level where I play, especially assassins sticking near their supports.

Either rehgar or morales are a must for this to work well though 

[positiv2 955]

2 hours ago, Guest Castitatis said:

I've had great runs in mid-tier elo using a more melee centered build paired with either a rehgar and/or a Lt. Morales.

1. siphoning impact

4. fury of the swarm

7. bladed momentum or if they have high burst then adaptation

10. maelstrom

13. double strike

16. aggressive defense

20. nexus blade or bolt of storm if they have good escape mechanics

 

This turns kerrigan into an AA monster that can shred multiple people down at once if they make the unfortunate mistake of bunshing together, which does happen quite often at the level where I play, especially assassins sticking near their supports.

Either rehgar or morales are a must for this to work well though 

Yeah, the need to auto-attack with a melee hero is often quite dangerous (especially if the opposing team has good pokers), requiring you to have a pocket healer, which significantly reduces the usability of some talents, such as the Fury of the Swarm. How successful are you with this build?

[Guest Auroth]

I personally use this https://www.icy-veins.com/heroes/talent-calculator/kerrigan#25.0!4332313

[Guest Andrerx470]

I want to point out that fury of the swarm does a lot more damge than psionic pulse in far less time while landing W-E combo and also is a passive so its ALWAYS active and greatly contributes to Kerrigan shield when she dives in the enemy team with Malestrom.

Anothe talent that sinergizes well with fury of the swarm is assimilation mastery because one of kerrigan weak points is the high mana cost of her abilities (175 for QWE combo).  Bladed momentum is a very good talent but relying on it in long teamfights leaves you with no mana ( only 3 combo at most and even less if you pick siphoning impact at level 1) and kerrigan with no mana is utterly useless.

Kerrigan talents are ALWAYS extremely situational but i think more credit should be given to overdrive since uther and tyrael are almost fixed bans now. This talent beside having a very low CD it powers up Malestrom damage (the shield gets 250% at lv20 if you pick omegastorm) and dramatically improves your burst damage which is kerrigan main trait (especially if you have picked sharpened blades at lv1 and clean kill at lv4). The increased mana cost can be easily covered with assimilation mastery or/and malfurion trait.

[Guest Cennix]

I don't agree with these builds.

I find the biggest strength in Kerrigans staying power is when you combine Fury of the Swarm 4 with Double Strike 13 and Agressive Defence 16. The cleave, which also benefits from the extra auto hits on 13, all generate extra shields from the 16 talent.

My most successful build by far as a Kerrigan main with 65% winrate over 400+ games is similar to what Castitatis posted above, :

Cleave Build

1. Sharpened Blades/Block
2. Fury of the Swarm
3. Bladed Momentum
4. Maelstrom
5. Double Strike
6. Aggressive Defense (Occasionally Consider Essence for Essence if I find myself consistently just needing a little extra damage for a kill after a Q/AA+Proc/W-E/AA+Proc/AA combo. Can heavily depend on levels as well).
7. Psionic Shift

If I go for a ravage build I will tend to go as follows:

1. Siphoning Impact.
4. Clean KIll
7. Bladed Momentum
10. Maelstrom
13. Eviscerate/Double Strike (Depends on target choice in fights)
16. Essence for Essence (Without all the cleave value from the above build I don't feel like Aggressive Defence gets enough value, especially If you are going for a ravage build, these fights should be relatively short and snappy, and therefore Essence for Essence should generally get more value)
20. Psionic Shift

The Cleave build is  much better at taking Merc camps than a standard Ravage build. At 13, you have the flexibility of burning some extra mana and clearing it super fast (faster than any other melee (Samuro, Greymane, Wrath Sonya included), or to preserve your mana and cleave it down a little slower. The healing lost from the ravage build in this regard is made up for the fact that you gain so much extra shielding from the cleave damage. It also has other little benefits such as clearing Zag creep with the cleave if positioned correctly too.

For Infernal Shrines and Haunted Mines I usually play a ravage build, as it is fantastic at clearing the shrine/small skull camps but if I see a game I can heavily abuse sappers on Mines with the above cleave build then I will opt for that. with Sharpened Blades/Fury of the Swarm on 1 & 4 you clear these sapper camps very fast and i feel it scales much better late game due to superior synergy.

When choosing which build also take into account things like how much value block would get. If I'm against a butcher I need to heavily consider this and it can often decide the route of my build. Always look for things you can abuse for healing/shielding. For example If you are against a Nazeebo, you can abuse the Zombie Wall to heal up with ravage build. Same with Pufferfish, Beetles, and so on. The list is pretty substantial but I will always go to one of these two builds. Sometimes this makes me even consider Omegastorm at 20. Things like Samuro clones, Arthas Army, Chen Ult. and even Brocoli can give you extra value from this you should take into account.

[Guest User1]

No Ultralisk on Kerrigan Abilities and strategy

[positiv2 955]

11 hours ago, Guest User1 said:

No Ultralisk on Kerrigan Abilities and strategy

Thanks for pointing this out! It must have been removed by mistake.

[Cdavid 0]

On 9/7/2015 at 11:29 AM, Damien said:

This thread is for comments about our Kerrigan build guide for Heroes of the Storm.

Ahahahaha i suggest people who come here to avoid this build for kerrigan,6 years of playing LOL and making such a poor guide for such a great killer hero,who made this never should've touch even kerrigan.As a player of kerrigan i recommend: 

lvl1.Sharpened Blades.

lvl 4.Psionic Pulse.

lvl 7.Assimilation Mastery.

lvl10.Maelstrom.

lvl13(Here it depends on situation and enemy,if opposing team has a tank like arthas or such stuff,or a killer like butcher go for double strike,if you find yourself in a more comfortable position with opposing players without high in HP go for Queen's Rush,will help you chasing players trying to avoid maelstrom or your other skills while maelstrom activated.

Lvl16.Also same situation like previous on 13,if your team needs someone with high damage go for Overdrive.But if your team has enough damage output go for aggressive defense.Usually i prefer Overdrive(never bad having a 25% boost:D)

Lvl.20.Omegastorm focuses on your shileds amount you gain from lvl 10Maelstrom,but i recomend Nexus Blades.

 

Cheers.and GLHF.

Edited October 25, 2017 by Cdavid
typo

[Valks 2,407]

2 hours ago, Cdavid said:

Ahahahaha i suggest people who come here to avoid this build for kerrigan,6 years of playing LOL and making such a poor guide for such a great killer hero,who made this never should've touch even kerrigan.As a player of kerrigan i recommend: 

I mean, not just our guide disagrees with you, but HoTSLogs %s do as well.

3.3% taking Queen's Rush in last 7 days vs. 73.1% taking Double Strike at 13.

Even less for Overdrive, 2.8% take it on 16. 

If they were at least at 10%+, there might be an argument here, but those are incredibly low %s.

You say you are a player of Kerrigan, but what exactly do you mean? What rank are you currently at? Do you play her against AI, in Quick Play, in Ranked? These are all important pieces of information.

[Cdavid 0]

Kerrigan i play in ranked mode and quick matches...the build with Queen's Rush for me it's useful. I've mentioned already some players are like frozen when you activate Maelstrom and will try to get out of it's range,that talent helps me keep me close enough to him.Like i was saying Double Strike i prefer it in fights with other dps such as The Butcher,who's dealing a crazy amount of dmg in team fights especially after gathering 200 meat.Now i should ask you back,what you do with 2 talents on Eviscerate?? for healing and 40% distance?

This build i suggest it for normal players,i've already read your thoughts far away they are at championships even dough neither you don't reach there as neither i.

[Valks 2,407]

12 minutes ago, Cdavid said:

Kerrigan i play in ranked mode and quick matches...the build with Queen's Rush for me it's useful. I've mentioned already some players are like frozen when you activate Maelstrom and will try to get out of it's range,that talent helps me keep me close enough to him.Like i was saying Double Strike i prefer it in fights with other dps such as The Butcher,who's dealing a crazy amount of dmg in team fights especially after gathering 200 meat.Now i should ask you back,what you do with 2 talents on Eviscerate?? for healing and 40% distance?

You are criticising two different builds in the same comparison? I don't understand how that's possible. They are intended to do two different things. The first build is there specifically to output as much damage as possible, sacrificing all survivability for it. This is very clearly noted below it. You take talents to deal as much damage as possible to a single priority target. That's when you take things like Double Strike, specifically to counter things like Butcher. You aim to kill them in one stun by ensuring your team focuses them alongside you. This is exactly what the guide says, what you say and then you say the guide is completely wrong. 

The second build, with the range and healing talent are never meant to be taken against things like the Butcher. That's the whole point of the build. We never recommended it to be taken so, yet you are saying that the Butcher counters that build. I really don't understand.

The second build is to be used to stick to ranged targets that can kite you and slowly kill you, with roots or jumps. Definitely not a hero like the Butcher. 

Calling the guide "such a poor guide" and then attacking a specific build for its ability to counter a hero it was never meant to counter is just downright ridiculous, especially when another talent build is listed next to it already that is for said hero.

18 minutes ago, Cdavid said:

This build i suggest it for normal players,i've already read your thoughts far away they are at championships even dough neither you don't reach there as neither i.

Just because someone is a normal player, doesn't mean they need to use a sub-par talent. If anything, taking Overdrive is even worse for the normal player, because you lose any survivability from the other two choices. So actually, your choice of Overdrive would belong with the pro players that have pro supports to save them.

[Farbas 5]

This is not really a build-related question, but why would you ever pick Kerrigan over Alarak?

[Trensicourt 5]

Kerrigan can guarantee kills far better than Alarak and doesn't lose power when she dies.

[Guest Kerrigan]

This guide needs to die both these builds are garbage tier.

[positiv2 955]

13 hours ago, Guest Kerrigan said:

This guide needs to die both these builds are garbage tier.

Oh, why's that?

[Leadblast 28]

Here's a pretty good build I just stole from someone posting it in Blizzard's official HotS forums.

https://www.icy-veins.com/heroes/talent-calculator/kerrigan#29.7!332221.

I gave it a try myself, it's a lot better than the old Ravage build (which has been literally "ravaged" after the last nerfs). It's pretty good - though she's still a kind of niche hero. This worked well for me in Tomb.

Justifications (as the guy who posted, argued the reasoning behind these talent choices):

1 - Damage Block. This helps a lot in making you tanky. It may seem that 2 instances of 75% physical armor against enemy Hero attacks is not much, but it helps you in building up your shield from your trait. You can see it as a form of sustain - the typical "lifesteal sustain" restores some of your health as long as you keep attacking something. That kind of negates some of the damage you're taking, which is exactly the same thing this talent does. The advantage is that you don't have to actually attack anything to negate a portion of their attack damage, but in exchange for that, it doesn't work against spells. But given that you're a melee hero with the ability to dive into the enemy you're bound to get attacked anyway and this will serve its purpose.

4- Cleave. This not only helps in waveclearing, for no manacost whatsoever - this also HELPS BUILDING UP YOUR SHIELDS VERY FAST. Do you remember how Assimilation works? yeah, that's right. You have to hurt enemies with your attacks and spells. The more enemies you manage to hurt at once, the more shields you get. Since Cleave causes your attacks to damage several minions at once (or if you're really really lucky you might be able to attack and damage more than 1 enemy Hero with the Cleave if they're really clumped together). If you're in lane, you're just hitting minions with cleave, you're clearing waves but also building up your shields in the process. This is obviously handy in preparation for diving at an enemy where you might get hurt.

7 - Assimilation Mastery. This combined with the fact that you're damaging several minions at once with each Cleave attack improves the duration of your Assimilation Shields and your health and mana regen along with it. You may still go for Bladed Momentum if you like, but keep in mind that Kerrigan is more about getting only 1 spell combo on a squishy enemy right (while surviving the ordeal), most of the time you won't really have much room for a second attempt if you failed the first one.

10 - Ultralisk. Since you've been tanking yourself up to this point, you have to get some means of damage (other than your stun + pull  + dive combo) and this gives it. Most people won't pay attention to the ultralisk running and hitting, they will just try to stop you and so your pet goes unchecked. It works better than Maelstrom in that for that one you have to be really close to a bunch of enemies for that to work, and they can get away with an escape mech or whatever. If your pet does not reach an enemy in time, you could at least order it to clear a lane or attack an enemy tower or other structure meaning it doesn't completely go to waste. In addition keep in mind that Ultralisk helps you much more in things such as body-blocking or dismounting enemies trying to either chase you or flee from you.

13 - Double Strike - This is Kerrigan's version of Follow Through or Nova's One in the Chamber. Buffs some of your attack damage now that you have buffed your survivability to a decent amount.

16 - Aggressive Defense - By this point you're as tanky as an Artanis, or probably more.

20 - You can go with any talent really but the guy recommended Nexus Blades. Any of the talent choices at this tier seems fine.

Edited January 12, 2018 by Leadblast

[Morcalivan 86]

On 06/12/2017 at 12:07 PM, Farbas said:

This is not really a build-related question, but why would you ever pick Kerrigan over Alarak?

Mobility. Armour. For the Swarm.

[ShadowerDerek 69]

This guide really needs an update so badly.

There's pretty much only 1 viable build for Kerrigan right now, with some optional talent choices:

Lv 1: Either Sharpened Blade or Block. Block is good against hard-hittig AA like Butcher, Stukov, Greymane, etc; while being useless against fast AA like Tracer, Tychus, Genji.

Lv 4: Fury of the Swarm is the only choice. It significantly improves your waveclear and merc clear, while helping you building up your shield if a team fight is going to happen nearby. The other choices are either extremely underwhelming, or making zero sense at all.

Lv 7: Bladed Momentum should be the go-to choice. It vastly improves your merc clear to the point that you're one of the best mercenary camp claimer in the game. It also helps you team fight by allowing for more combo AND Ravage usage, whichc results in more damage, more shield and more mobility. Some people opted for Assimilation Mastery for mana sustain, but you don't really need it if you have better MANAgement. (LUL)

Lv 10: Maelstorm is the choice here. The damage is not something spectacular, but it forces the enemy backliners to move away from it, making you easier to predict their movement and hit your combo. Ultralisk is better for split-pushing, but it really doesn't do much until you get the upgrade at lv 20. 

Lv 13: Double Strike is too powerful to give up. It significantly increases your burst damage, to the point that you can almost one-shot a squishy. It also allows you to clear camp much faster.

Lv 16: You can choise between Aggressive Defense and Essence for Essence. Aggressive Defense makes you much tankier, while Essence for Essence provides a respectable amiunt of on-demand burst damage. Take what you need based on your situation.

Lv 20: I've seen a lot of different opinions for this tier, but I usually prefer Psionic Shift. It makes you much more unpredictable, so they'll have a harder time to dodge your combo. I sometimes go for Maelstorm upgrade if I need to be a tanky frontliner, or the enemy team has a melee heavy comp.

This guide's builds are really horrible, especially the Ravage build. 2 of its talents are based around a kill-reset mechanic on you main engaging tool. This makes zero sense on Kerrigan, whose kit is based around landing a high-damage combo after engaging. You ain't gonna kill anyone after you use Ravage on them in 1.5s. This kind of talents would be insane on someone like Genji, but not Kerrigan.

[Guest my build]

i have around 200k siege dam and 85k heroes dam :

1- Block:  good early game 

4- fury of the swarm: a lot of xp

7- assimilation mastery: mana and health

10- does'nt matter choose what's best.. uselly ultralisk because of lvl 20 torrasque

13- eviscerate: more dam

16- aggressive defense: more def

20- well i often use ultralisk so i pick torrasque but it is up to u

[Guest rrrrrrrr]

update pls

[Guest pls]

It's been almost a day since the frontpage said that all of Kerrigan's pages have been updated for the rework but it's still the same list from a year ago.