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it (read more Kel'Thuzad Build Guide “The darkness guides me.”
Table of Contents
General Information
Welcome to our Kel'Thuzad guide for Heroes of the Storm. Here you will learn everything you need to know in order to play Kel'Thuzad in a competitive environment, whether you play on your own or with a team.
About the Author
Oxygen is a veteran of the MOBA genre, which he has been playing for nearly 15 years. He has coached some of Heroes of the Storm's most prominent North American players and teams alike, including Team Liquid. As a Master player, he enjoys playing all Heroes and roles.
1. Quick Reference for Kel'Thuzad
Blighted Frost Build (talent calculator link)
The 
Blighted Frost build focuses on improving
Kel'Thuzad's burst damage potential. It works particularly well when your team
composition features several sources of crowd
control to follow up on
Frost Nova or to enable you to easily follow up with
your own crowd control chain. Key Talents include Blighted Frost, which
increases the duration of Frost Nova's Rooting effect,
Shadow Fissure, which deals a large amount of area
of effect damage, and Hungering Cold, which greatly
improves Kel'Thuzad's burst damage through
Death and Decay.
Plaguelands Build (talent calculator link)
The Plaguelands build focuses on improving Kel'Thuzad's utility.
It is at its best when your team composition may lack waveclear,
sieging, or Mercenary Camp claiming power, and a proper way of reliably
initiating combat with opponents. Key Talents include The Plaguelands,
which improve Kel'Thuzad's sustained area of effect damage, 
Frost Blast,
which unconditionally Roots a targeted Hero, Hungering Cold, which greatly
increases Kel'Thuzad's damage through Death and Decay, and
The Damned Return, which more or less doubles Kel'Thuzad's sustained
damage output.
Chains Build (talent calculator link)
Barbed Chains build focuses on improving Kel'Thuzad's niches against
Armor and Shields, and generally improving the damage potential of
your teammates. Key Talents include Barbed Chains, Strip Shields,
and 
Chain-Link. This build works well with reliable follow up,
as the value of Armor-reduction and Shields hate effects increases as more
Heroes target the affected targets.
Synergies and Counters
Since Kel'Thuzad depends highly on skillshots to deal damage, he naturally works well with any Hero that can provide reliable crowd control against a kill target for him to follow up. His frailty also makes him dependent on other Heroes to peel for him; tanks tend to fulfill these two needs, though other Hero types can too.
Since Kel'Thuzad relies chiefly on skillshots to deal damage, he does particularly poorly against Heroes that have ways of quickly dodging his Abilities. Furthermore, his frailty and lack of self-peel makes him vulnerable to Stealthed or otherwise high-damage nimble Heroes that can quickly reach him.
Maps
Maps that promote early skirmishes are generally beneficial for the purpose
of quickly completing 
Master of the Cold Dark. Furthermore, Maps with channeled Objectives are good for
him since the objectives can reliably be interrupted by Shadow Fissure. Otherwise, Kel'Thuzad's
versatility makes him a fine pick all-around.
TL;DR Tips
- Generating
Master of the Cold Dark stacks is of the utmost importance early on; the faster you complete this Quest, the more likely you are to snowball. 
Death and Decay should nearly always be used on-Cooldown due to its insignificant Mana cost and short Cooldown.- When targeting two Heroes,
Chains of Kel'Thuzad pulls them towards the middle point between the two Heroes. - When targeting a Hero and a Structure, Chains of Kel'Thuzad pulls the Hero to the Structure.
Frost Nova should be used as a follow up to Chains of Kel'Thuzad or allied crowd control.
Frost Blast can be negated through effects that render your target Invulnerable, such as 
Ice Block; pick your target accordingly.
Shadow Fissure combos particularly well with a center Frost Nova hit due to the Rooting effect.
2. Introduction
Kel'Thuzad is a combo-oriented ranged damage dealer with outstanding area of effect crowd control and burst damage potential. His reliance on skillshots and relative fragility, however, make him one of the hardest Heroes to play, let alone master.
3. Strengths
- Extremely potent crowd control chain
- Powerful situational burst damage
- Potent sieger
4. Weaknesses
- Very fragile, especially to melee Assassins
- Difficult to play due to ALL Abilities being skillshots
- Limited defensive Talent options
5. Role in the Current Meta
Kel'Thuzad's reliable crowd control and high area of effect burst damage make him a good fit for most team compositions, whether there is lack of means of initiating or plenty of Rooting or Stunning effects for Kel'Thuzad himself to follow up on.
Kel'Thuzad's high threat level and fragility make him a high-priority pick in most drafting situations, and generally match-dictating as a Hero, in the sense that team compositions do well to support him — and counter him, when possible. His particular vulnerability to highly mobile Heroes makes drafting a tank with reliable peel essential to ensuring the success of Kel'Thuzad-based compositions. His inability to reliably solo lane also makes it important to draft at least one independent Hero for this task.
6. Reading Further
To take things further, we have 2 more pages that you can read:
- Abilities and Strategy: an overview of your hero's abilities and how to use them;
- Talent Build: a detailed rundown of your talents and how to choose them.
7. ChangeLog
- 05 Sep. 2017 (this page): Guide published.
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