Abathur Talents
Welcome to our Talents page for Abathur. Here, we give you an overview of how strong each of Abathur's talents is. Then, we present several viable builds, before analyzing each talent row separately, so that you can make informed decisions.
1. Abathur's Talent Build
Level | Choices |
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1 |
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4 |
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7 |
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10 |
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13 |
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16 |
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20 |
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2. Abathur's Talent Build Cheatsheet
Carapace Build
Talent calculator »The Carapace Build focuses on talenting Carapace into a powerful and
versatile Ability. This build can provide great map pressure and out-of-combat
healing to additional allies, but lacks on-demand team-fight damage.
Reinforced Carapace significantly increases the shield value.
Networked Carapace allows Carapace's heal to affect more
than one Hero at a time. Networked Carapace is aslo very strong when
pushing Minion waves remotely, because you can shield all
of the Minions in a wave. While
Evolve Monstrosity deals
massive team fight damage in ideal situations, it must be stacked ahead of time
in order to be effective. It is best if you do not spend much time controlling
the Monstrosity until you get
Adrenaline Boost at Level 16.
Allow it to pressure in an empty lane, while you soak
experience with your body and Symbiote. It is possible to gather experience
from three lanes at once when using this method, especially while teams rotate
to map objectives. This build path is recommended in team compositions that can
effectively draw out fights and objectives while you create an experience lead
and threaten Structures. It is not recommended for use in dive
compositions that require your allies to fully commit
to team fights.
Locust Strain Build
Talent calculator »The Locust Strain Build focuses on talents that produce and enhance Locusts.
It excels at creating debilitating static pressure in lanes of your choosing.
You can have a significant impact on mid-game team fights via
Ultimate Evolution. This build path is highly recommended
against enemy team compositions that lack strong waveclear,
as they will have to spend more time and resources responding to your push.
While an enemy is clearing your Locusts, your team can engage a favourable team
fight.
Symbiote Build
Talent calculator »The Symbiote Build maximises Abathur's team fight presence by taking Talents that improve Symbiote's damage dealing Abilities. This team fight presence comes at the cost of global pressure, as you will lack the huge lane pressure provided by other builds. Although this is not a build that focuses on pushing lanes, it is still important to soak as much experience as possible. Due to the short range of Symbiote's Abilities, this build is ideally paired with a melee assassin who benefits from increased attack speed.
3. Level 1 Talents for Abathur


Increases the range of Symbiote's Spike Burst by 25% and decreases the cooldown by 1 second.


Toxic Nests deal 75% more damage over 3 seconds.


Increase the Shield amount of Carapace by 40%.


Increases Locust's Health by 40% and damage by 40%.
3.1. Discussion
Pressurized Glands provides
Spike Burst with a reasonable power increase during the
early game, and has good synergy with
Soma Transference
and
Envenomed Spikes at Levels 13 and 16 respectively.
Pressurized Glands also helps improve your waveclear.
Envenomed Nest dramatically increases the damage of
Toxic Nest, but deals this extra damage over time.
Consider taking this if you really need to punish enemy rotations, and are
planning on taking the other Toxic nest talents at levels 4 and 7. This Talent
can also be useful in Quick Match games when the enemy team lacks a healer or
self-sustain options.
Reinforced Carapace increases Carapace's shield amount.
Carapace's healing effect ends if the shield is destroyed. This Talent will
make it slightly more difficult for enemies to remove the shield and its
healing effect.
Survival Instincts will pressure the enemy team by increasing
the amount of damage your Locusts can deliver. This talent provides very little
benefit unless other Locust talents are also selected. If you want to get the
most out of Survival Instincts, take
Bombard Strain at 13,
Locust Brood at 16, and
Locust Nest at 20.
4. Level 4 Talents for Abathur


Heroic Symbiote hosts gain 25% increased Attack Speed.


Increases the damage and range of Symbiote's Stab by 20%.


Reduces the cooldown of Toxic Nest by 2 seconds and adds 2 additional charges.
4.1. Discussion
Adrenal Overload significantly increases the damage
potential of Heroes who depend on Basic Attacks for damage, self-sustain, or
to trigger other effects. Heroes that do not rely on Basic Attacks benefit much
less from this Talent; its usefulness depends on team composition.
Needlespine allows Abathur to deal more damage with
Symbiote by increasing
Stab's range and damage. This
talent can be especially helpful if the enemy team is made up of multiple
ranged Heroes.
Prolific Dispersal dramatically increases the amount
of times you can use
Toxic Nest during a match.
Prolific Dispersal has strong synergy with
Vile Nest at
level 7, even in the absence of
Envenomed Nest from level 1.
5. Level 7 Talents for Abathur


Toxic Nests Slow enemy Movement Speed by 40% for 2.5 seconds.


Using Symbiote's Carapace also applies an untalented Carapace Shield to all nearby allied Heroes, Minions, and Mercenaries.


- Cooldown: 60 seconds
Activate to calldown a Mule that repairs Structures, one at a time, near target point for 40 seconds, healing for 90 Health every 1 second.
5.1. Discussion
Vile Nest can be extremely annoying for the enemy team.
This talent can help your team secure objectives and kills by reducing the
effectiveness of enemy rotations and ganks. Vile Nest has great synergy with
Prolific Dispersal.
Networked Carapace is predominantly a
PvE Talent focused on
pushing empty lanes by keeping large numbers of Minions and
Mercenaries healthy. It does apply untalented shields to allied Heroes who are
nearby the Symbiote host.
Carapace's heal
effect is not applied to Minions or Mercenaries, but it is applied to all
Heroes that are shielded by Networked Carapace. While each individual shield is
weak, the effects can add up to a meaningful advantage in long team fights.
Calldown: MULE should almost always be taken on Sky
Temple, because it gets insane value due to the way the main objective plays
out there. It is a situational pick on other maps. Calldown: Mule is usually
a very strong choice. It allows you to apply pressure and push
lanes during all stages of the game while repairing your own Structures.
6. Level 10 Talents for Abathur


- Cooldown: 70 seconds
Clone target allied Hero and control it for 20 seconds. Abathur has perfected the clone, granting it 20% Spell Power, 20% bonus Attack Damage, and 10% bonus Movement Speed. Cannot use their Heroic Ability.


- Cooldown: 90 seconds
Turn an allied Minion or Locust into a Monstrosity. When enemy Minions near the Monstrosity die, it gains 2% Health and 2% Basic Attack damage, stacking up to 40 times. The Monstrosity has the ability to Burrow to a visible location every 80 seconds.
Using Symbiote on the Monstrosity allows Abathur to control it, in addition to Symbiote's normal benefits. This Ability can be reactivated to automatically cast Symbiote on his Monstrosity.
6.1. Discussion
Ultimate Evolution is a fantastic and versatile Heroic ability. It should
usually be used on high damage Heroes, as these clones will benefit the most
from the extra Ability Power and Basic Attack damage. Ideally, the cloned Hero
will also have a gap closer to ensure that you are able to close
in on enemies and deal meaningful damage during the 20 second window. Cloning
Tanks will yield less damage, but can be useful if your team requires
more crowd control.
Evolve Monstrosity is a strong pushing and sieging
tool, but you must sacrifice a lot of team fight presence in order to take it.
Evolve Monstrosity deals massive team fight damage in ideal situations, but it
is unrealistic to assume that you will be able to get the monstrosity into an
ideal position. You need to build very specifically to properly mobilise a
monstrosity.
7. Level 13 Talents for Abathur


Symbiote's Stab gains 1 additional charge and its cooldown is reduced by .5 seconds.


Symbiote's Spike Burst heals the host for 64 (+4% per level) Health per enemy Hero hit.


Locust's Basic Attacks become a long-range siege attack and their duration is increased by 50%.
7.1. Discussion
Spatial Efficiency can put out a lot of damage when
paired with
Needlespine. This can be useful when you
find yourself primarily using Symbiote to imbue a ranged Basic Attacker with
Adrenal Overload, or would otherwise get decreased
value out of
Spike Burst Talents.
Soma Transference can heal the host for a significant
amount of Health, especially if
Symbiote is on a melee
Hero who will be within range of multiple enemy Heroes.
Pressurized Glands synergises very well with this Talent.
Soma Transference is less effective on ranged allies, and is also very weak
against enemy compositions that have access to a lot of burst damage.
Bombard Strain increases the amount that
Locust Strain passively pushes
lanes. Bombard Strain increases the number of Basic Attacks that each
Locust is capable of delivering before perishing. When this talent is paired
with
Locust Brood and
Locust Nest,
you can threaten enemy Keeps with waves of Locusts.
8. Level 16 Talents for Abathur


Abathur's Symbiote's Spike Burst also Slows enemy Movement Speed by 40% for 2 seconds.


Symbiote's Carapace increases the Movement Speed of the target by 40% for 3.5 seconds.


Ultimate Evolution clones and Monstrosities deal 137 (+4% per level) damage to nearby enemies every 3 seconds and when they die. Enemy Heroes hit heal the clone or Monstrosity for 50% of the damage dealt.


- Cooldown: 45 seconds
Activate to spawn 3 Locusts at a nearby location.
8.1. Discussion
Envenomed Spikes provides a significant Slow over
a large area, especially when combined with
Pressurized Glands at
Level 1. It allows melee Heroes to stick to targets much more easily than they
would otherwise be able to. One advantage this has over
Adrenaline Boost
is that its effect cannot be removed by damaging your Symbiote host. The other
important difference is that Envenomed Spikes can affect multiple enemies.
Adrenaline Boost is essentially the opposite of
Envenomed Spikes, speeding up a single ally, rather than
slowing down multiple enemies. Slowing enemies allows your entire team to
reposition, as opposed to giving a single ally increased movement speed.
However, Adrenaline Boost can help your team run down kills that would
otherwise escape. Adrenaline Boost is very useful for Evolve Monstrosity, which
otherwise lacks mobility during combat. The main drawback to Adrenaline Boost
is that its effect is removed when Carapace shield is destroyed. This talent is
recommended within a Carapace oriented build, where it can really shine.
Volatile Mutation deals damage to enemies very near
Abathur's Heroic entities. This talent may have some conflicts with
Ultimate Evolution,
where you will often clone a ranged Hero and may only be within range for
Volatile Mutation very briefly. Volatile Mutation can help
Evolve Monstrosity waveclear
lanes more quickly, but
Adrenaline Boost is extremely important
in order to effectively mobilise Evolve Monstrosity.
Locust Brood can be used in combination with
Deep Tunnel to instantly create pressure at any location.
Locust Brood is required in any kind of Locust oriented build, as it is the
only Talent capable of producing Locusts in bursts. Locust Brood can also be
effective in situational hybrid builds, as it only needs
Bombard Strain
in order to get decent value.
9. Level 20 Talents for Abathur


Increase the duration of Ultimate Evolution by 50%. As long as the Ultimate Evolution is alive, the original target of the clone gains a Shield equal to 25% of their maximum Health. Refreshes every 5 seconds.


Increase Monstrosity's Basic Attack damage by 100%.


Symbiote creates an additional Symbiote on a nearby allied Hero. This Symbiote mimics the commands of the first, but does half damage and Shielding.


- Cooldown: 45 seconds
Activate to create a nest that periodically spawns Locusts. Only one Locust Nest can be active at a time.
9.1. Discussion
Evolutionary Link makes it harder for the enemy team
to kill
Ultimate Evolution's target. Because the shield
is based on the target's maximum Health, this can be situationally useful if
your composition's preferred clone is a Warrior. This Talent can also be strong
with melee Assassins, as it will give them more Health for late-game fights.
Evolution Complete is a great Level 20 talent to
take in games where Evolve Monstrosity has been selected. The bonus damage is
so high that it will be hard to get as much value out of the other options.
There are exceptions of course. If Evolve Monstrosity is taken with a Locust
oriented build, Locust Nest would compete with it. Similarly, Hive Mind will
get a lot of value in Spike Burst oriented builds.
Hivemind increases
Symbiote's
effectiveness by 50% when considering Symbiote Abilities directly. However,
Hivemind doubles Symbiote's effectiveness when considering Talents like
Soma Transference and
Envenomed Spikes, as these Talents work per Hero hit,
rather than per Ability cast. This provides you with greatly increased team
fight presence. Regardless of what other Talents you take, you will almost
always get good value out of Hivemind in team fights.
Locust Nest pushes a full Locust build to the limit,
helping to generate as many Locusts as possible. It will double the number of
passively generated Locusts, and allows you to simultaneously spawn Locusts in
different lanes. This Talent is only recommended when you have several Talents
already invested into Locusts, as other options at this tier will
get more value otherwise.
10. Changelog
- 12 Feb. 2019: Updated guide to reflect Hero rework in balance patch.
- 12 Dec. 2017: Edited Calldown: MULE to reflect 2018 game design changes.
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Straften is a Grand Master ranked player in both Hero League and Team League. He has a passion for theorycrafting, and regularly tests new features early on the PTR. He explains his strategy, reasoning, and implementation in these guides.

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