Kel'Thuzad Talents

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

Kel'Thuzad's playstyle revolves around what we call "The Combo". The combo, to which we will often refer to throughout this guide, is best described as an Ability chain performed by pulling Heroes into Frost Nova's area of effect with Chains of Kel'Thuzad. This is typically followed up with Shadow Fissure, if it was selected as a Heroic Ability, and Death and Decay to deal a large amount of area of effect damage to Heroes frozen by Frost Nova.

This Tier focuses on improving the damage output of Kel'Thuzad's Basic Abilities.

The Plaguelands increases Death and Decay's damage potential by approximately 35%, assuming the target remains within the Ability's area of effect for its full duration. The area of effect increase provided by the Talent helps with keeping Heroes within said area of effect somewhat, although it remains unlikely for Death and Decay to ever deal its full damage. As such, we judge The Plaguelands to be primarily PvE- and siege-oriented; it helps with taking down Mercenaries and razing Structures, on top of improving Kel'Thuzad's waveclear by allowing Death and Decay to hit an entire Minion wave, which is difficult to do without the radius increase provided by the Talent. The Plaguelands also has obvious synergy with The Damned Return, as it also benefits the summoned Shade's own Death and Decay. Compared to Blighted Frost and Barbed Chains, Plaguelands is rather lackluster due to the aforementioned reason that no enemy Hero will ever be likely to stay in a full duration of Death and Decay.

Blighted Frost's power lies in its increase to the duration of Frost Nova's Root effect, which is important to Kel'Thuzad's ability to further inflict damage, as well as potential follow up from allies. Blighted Frost synergises particularly well with Hungering Cold, as the increased Root duration increases the potential number of damage instances that can be inflicted by Death and Decay. The burst damage provided by this Talent is also notable when Master of the Cold Dark has been completed. Blighted Frost also shines if you have an allied team consisting of crowd control Heroes. The 0.5-second duration can likely entice your allies into further CCing the enemy Hero.

Barbed Chains provides a notable damage increase to Chains of Kel'Thuzad; its power, however, lies in improving the damage of any follow up through its Armor reducing effect. As such, with high-level or otherwise reliable teammates, Barbed Chains-based Builds are likely to yield more damage than other builds.

This Tier focuses on improving Kel'Thuzad's survivability.

The Shielding effect provided by Strip Shields is equal to approximately 15% of Kel'Thuzad's total Health pool, which is reasonably powerful, especially considering it can be reapplied with relative ease mid-combat. Strip Shields gains real value, however, when used to counter team compositions that make heavy usage of Shields. As such, we recommend Strip Shields against heroes like Zarya, and against team compositions that feature at least two of the following Heroes: Abathur, Anub'arak, Artanis, Chen, Johanna, Kerrigan, Lúcio, Tyrael, and Xul. Strip Shields has notable synergy with Chain-Link. It should be noted that Strip Shields' bonus damage against Shields does scale with the Spell Power provided by Master of the Cold Dark.

Phylactery of Kel'Thuzad provides Kel'Thuzad with two powerful effects, granted you hurry and gather the 12 required Regeneration Globes as quickly as possible. The self-healing aspect is Kel'Thuzad's sole form of sustain, whereas the respawn element is extremely powerful in the late-game. Phylactery of Kel'Thuzad effectively lets you play more aggressively and potentially "trade" your life for that of an enemy Hero to then revive instantly for an advantage, or, less ideally, make a mistake less punishing for your team. Be sure to revive when relevant; reviving when your entire time has died, for instance, would have no value.

Armor of the Archlich provides Kel'Thuzad with instant, on-demand protection against Basic Attacks. Armor of the Archlich is particularly useful against sticky melee Assassins which rely on Basic Attacks to deal damage, as Kel'Thuzad tends to be a priority target due to his lack of reliable escape means. The Slowing effect is also useful for easily following up with Frost Nova. This Talent is particularly useful against Illidan, Samuro, The Butcher, and Tracer.

This Tier focuses on improving Kel'Thuzad's damage output and utility.

Accelerated Decay has the potential of greatly improving Death and Decay's damage against Heroes. It does, however, require opponents to stand within the Ability's area of effect. Works well with The Damned Return, as both effects can rapidly increase one another to Death and Decay's damage cap. However, considering the raw power of Chilling Touch, we do not recommended picking Accelerated Decay.

Chilling Touch provides Kel'Thuzad with something he sorely lacks: an unavoidable source of damage and Slowing effect. Chilling Touch is particularly useful when used to Slow a target before initiating the combo, as Slowed targets are less likely to be able to avoid your Abilities. The unavoidable nature of the damage provided by this Talent is also especially useful against mobile Heroes who may be difficult to hit with Abilities, such as Genji, Illidan, or Tracer. It is worth noting that Chilling Touch's damage scales with the Spell Power provided by Master of the Cold Dark and Power of Icecrown. Chilling Touch is also useful for waveclearing when used with Frost Nova against the centermost Minion.

Ice Cold provides Glacial Spike with a reasonably strong cooldown reduction. The alternatives are likely to provide more long-term value, however, particularly as one becomes better at hitting Heroes without relying on Glacial Spike.

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.

Frost Blast is Kel'Thuzad's crowd control-oriented Heroic Ability choice. It can be used to great effect as the initiating Ability of burst compositions that seek to isolate a specific target. One side effect of Frost Blast's extremely telegraphed effect is how it forces opponents to spread out and away from your target. Frost Blast can also be used as a counter-initiation move as a means of making following up more difficult.

Shadow Fissure works well in conjunction with any crowd control, including Kel'Thuzad's own. This is Kel'Thuzad's most versatile Heroic Ability and it provides you with a lot of burst damage which is needed to make sure you are able to finish off an enemy Hero should you hit them with a full combo.

This Tier focuses on improving Kel'Thuzad's crowd control potential.

Icy Grasp provides a situationally powerful reduction to Frost Nova's Cooldown. We do feel, however, that both alternatives are more pertinent to Kel'Thuzad's burst-oriented playstyle.

Chains of Ice provides a powerful Slow effect when it is most needed. Its sheer intensity makes it much easier to follow up for you and your allies after successful Chains of Kel'Thuzad hits, even without Frost Nova.

Chain-Link reduces the cooldown of what is arguably Kel'Thuzad's most important Ability by 50%. Chain-Link requires good accuracy however, as the Cooldown reduction may only trigger on double hits. This makes it a poor choice for novice players. Otherwise, Chain-Link has particularly strong synergy with Strip Shields and Barbed Chains; pick if you went for either Talent.

This Tier focuses on improving Kel'Thuzad's damage output.

Arcane Echoes can be rather difficult to benefit from; although the cooldown reduction is reasonable, and may work with Accelerated Decay to maintain the damage increase effect, situations where you are able to chain several Death and Decay casts are rare. The cooldown reduction provided by Arcane Echoes does not trigger through The Damned Return's Death and Decay casts.

Hungering Cold provides a massive damage increase to the combo. Successfully casting Death and Decay against a Hero Rooted by Frost Nova and Frost Blast increases Kel'Thuzad's short term damage output immensely, on top of making subsequent Basic Attacks extremely powerful. Further, Root effects provided by allied Heroes can also trigger Hungering Cold, making it powerful with Arthas, Deckard, and Malfurion, among others.

Power of Icecrown is a simple and powerful damage increase that affects all of Kel'Thuzad's most relevant damage sources. A single Chains of Kel'Thuzad hit against two Heroes grants four stacks immediately.

This Tier focuses on improving Kel'Thuzad's damage output and utility.

Deathchill is a winmore Talent that serves mostly to punish poor play or as a counter to The Lost Vikings. Hitting more than one Hero with Frost Blast is rare, and successfully triggering Deathchill hits is about as rare.

Might of the Scourge's potential depends on just how much crowd control your team composition has to offer. With two or more Stuns or Roots besides your own, and some Map awareness, Might of the Scourge may constitute a proper win condition. Otherwise, look into The Damned Return instead.

Shifting Malice is essentially a defensive Talent for Kel'Thuzad, and is reminiscent of a Bolt of the Storm which can be used to deal a fair amount of damage, but cannot pass through impassable terrain. Shifting Malice is especially useful when being heavily pressured by melee Assassins or otherwise dived repeatedly.

The Damned Return turns Kel'Thuzad into an extremely powerful sustained damage dealer by essentially doubling the effects of Death and Decay. This lets Kel'Thuzad waveclear, claim Mercenary Camps, and siege better than most Heroes, on top of improving his poke. The summoned Shade also acts as an indestructible unit to provide vision over a small area, and may be used as a means of increasing the range of Death and Decay by casting the Ability by proxy. Be creative with this one.