Murky Talents
Welcome to our Talents page for Murky. Here, we give you an overview of how strong each of Murky's talents is. Then, we present several viable builds, before analyzing each talent row separately, so that you can make informed decisions.
Murky's Talent Build
| Level | Choices |
|---|---|
| 1 |
|
| 4 |
|
| 7 |
|
| 10 |
|
| 13 |
|
| 16 |
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| 20 |
|
Murky's Talent Build Cheatsheet
Slime Build
RecommendedMurky's Slime Build is designed to increase his survivability during team fights,
especially if he happens to hit multiple enemies with
Slime.
This allows Murky to be quite annoying when he does not get killed quickly.
In order to stack
Slime Time at Level 4, try to hit enemy Heroes
with
Slime when there are no enemy Minions to clear. The range
from
Black Lagoon at Level 7 makes it easier to hit enemy Heroes
with
Slime.
Toxic Buildup at Level 16
and
Making Inky at Level 20 increase your damage output.
Pufferfish Build
AdvancedMurky's Pufferfish Build is designed to empower your waveclear and, more in general, your macro impact on the game. This allows Murky to put a lot of pressure on the enemy team outside of team fights.
Tufferfish at Level 4 increases your waveclear.
Fish Oil at Level 16 allows you to clear Minions by just using
Pufferfish.
Faster Fish at Level 20
makes
Pufferfish more reliable against enemy Heroes.
ARAM Build
ARAMMurky's ARAM Build is designed to increase his survivability during team fights,
especially if he happens to hit multiple enemies with
Slime.
This allows Murky to be quite annoying when he does not get killed quickly.
In order to stack
Slime Time at Level 4, try to hit enemy Heroes
with
Slime when there are no enemy Minions to clear. The range
from
Black Lagoon at Level 7 makes it easier to hit enemy Heroes
with
Slime.
Toxic Buildup at Level 16
and
Making Inky at Level 20 increase your damage output.
Level 1 Talents for Murky
Spawning from his Egg increases Murky's mount speed to 45% for 5 seconds.
Passive: Increase the Egg's Health by 100%, its sight radius by 300%, and it reveals all enemies in its sight radius.
Fish Eye promotes aggressively using
Spawn Egg by significantly increasing its
Health pool and sight range. This Health increase is generally enough to re-cast
Spawn Egg should a Hero find and attack your Egg, granted you react quickly
enough. The real power of this Talent, however, lies in its ability to detect
Stealthed Heroes and generally give vision in a wide area,
drastically reducing the space usable by enemy Heroes to approach you unnoticed.
Using your Egg anywhere where a team fight might erupt can absolutely frustrate opposing flanking attempts, particularly by Heroes with Stealth (such as Nova, Samuro, Valeera, or Zeratul). The Movement Speed provided by the Talent is also useful for quickly returning to any ongoing fight.
Murky can now place 2 Eggs and will randomly revive from them, however, the cooldown of placing an Egg is increased by 15 seconds.
Shell Game allows Murky to place a total of 2 Eggs on the battlefield
and randomly revive from one of them. As a drawback,
Spawn Egg
has its cooldown increased to 30 seconds (including when an Egg is destroyed).
If you place each Egg in a different lane, you will be subject to the random factor because sometimes you will spawn nearby and sometimes you will spawn far away. This strategy is not good when you want to make sure that you will respawn in a specific lane, regardless of it being nearby or far away.
If you place both Eggs around to the same lane, you can mitigate the random factor because you will always spawn in that area. This strategy is not good on Maps where you need to relocate your Egg often because, after placing an Egg with this Talent selected, you need to wait 30 seconds before being able to place another one.
Killing a Minion with Pufferfish grants a stack of Bribe. Use 8 stacks to bribe a Mercenary, instantly defeating them. Does not work on Elite Mercenaries.
Maximum of 32 stacks of Bribe.
A Fishy Deal turns Murky into one of the most effective Mercenary Camp
claimer. With proper preparation and setup, as little as two Minion waves can
set you up for capturing basic Mercenary Camps. This is, however, reliant on how
effective your opponents are at killing
Pufferfish. Furthermore,
the Talent is less than effective on Maps where Mercenary Camps are not plentiful. The
task can also be made even more difficult by allied Heroes preventing you from
killing Minions. As such, you should let them know of your intention.
The key to using A Fishy Deal is learning just how much you need to weaken
Minions for Pufferfish to be able to kill them. For your typical Minion wave,
Melee Minions are generally at the right level of Health due to the fighting.
Ranged Minions, however, must be set up with
Slime and at least two
Basic Attacks each. As you grow stronger, fewer Basic Attacks will be necessary.
Try Mode is particularly helpful for learning how to gauge just how much damage
you need to deal at any particular Level. The
Tufferfish
Talent helps significantly with this process.
A Fishy Deal is particularly recommended on the following Maps: Blackheart's Bay, Cursed Hollow, Dragon Shire, Garden of Terror, and Sky Temple.
Level 4 Talents for Murky
Quest: Slime enemy Heroes that are already Slimed.
Reward: After Sliming 10 Heroes, increase Slime's bonus damage by 125.
Reward: After Sliming 20 Heroes, increase Slime's slow amount to 30%.
Slime Time significantly boosts
the effectiveness of
Slime. However,
the Quest can be quite difficult to complete, especially against ranged Heroes.
As such, it is only recommendable against team compositions that feature at
least two melee Heroes.
To get this Quest done at
an opportune time, you will have to be very aggressive with using Slime
against opponents that have already been Slimed. It should be noted that the
Black Lagoon,
Toxic Buildup,
and
Fish Oil Talents can make this Quest
much easier to complete, although the latter two come online rather late.
Pufferfish gains 50 Spell Armor and deals 50% more damage to Slimed targets.
Tufferfish makes
Pufferfish
a bit more difficult to destroy, although
not by much, and especially not versus Heroes with quick Basic Attacks. The
damage increase is also rather negligible when compared to the two other
Talents available at this Tier, and even more so should the Pufferfish be
destroyed.
This Talent's saving grace is its ability to improve your
Octo-Grab combo, although
Slime Time
and
Living the Dream will both
provide more overall sustain damage. Tufferfish also works well against solo
Laners who rely on Abilities to destroy Pufferfish, such as Azmodan.
Quest: Every 15 seconds Murky is alive, he gains 5% Spell Power, up to 25%. This bonus is reset upon his death.
Living the Dream generally competes with
Slime Time in terms of raw added damage
output. Its main upside is that you get to benefit from the Talent almost as
soon as you pick it up, unlike Slime Time. Living the Dream also increases the
damage output of all your Abilities (including
March of the Murlocs) and some Talents
(
Time to Krill), making it generally more versatile. Slime Time, however, is
not lost on death, on top of providing additional Slow,
meaning that Living the Dream makes dying twice as punishing, although this risk
can be mitigated by later Talents. When playing against Heroes with limited
burst damage, making it easier for you to survive, Living the Dream surpasses
Slime Time so slightly that the risk is simply not worth it.
Level 7 Talents for Murky
Increase Slime's radius by 30%.
Black Lagoon is a good Talent that nearly doubles the
area of effect of
Slime. On top of simply allowing Murky to more reliably
hit multiple Heroes, this increased area of effect also provides him with a
pseudo-ranged Ability that allows to kite melee Heroes and easily
keep up with ranged Heroes trying to escape, granted they have already been
affected by Slime.
Gain 50% Movement Speed and move through units while in Safety Bubble. Additionally, Safety Bubble's cooldown is reduced by 2 seconds.
Slippery When Wet is a strong Talent that provides Murky with some combat mobility.
The main advantage of this Talent is that it allows you to unconditionally waltz
right up to your intended
Octo-Grab target. The Movement Speed increased by
Slippery When Wet allows Murky to effectively escape all but the most mobile of
Heroes while using
Safety Bubble, which may help maintaining
Living the Dream Stacks.
Basic Attacks against Heroes deal an additional 7 (+4% per level) damage a second and slow the target by 7% for 4 seconds. This effect can stack up to 5 times.
Time to Krill is a decent Talent that increases your damage
when you can use Basic Attacks a lot, however, it needs a few seconds to ramp up.
Do not pick this Talent when playing against burst damage or you will end up having a dead Talent.
Level 10 Talents for Murky
In this section we discuss when and why to pick a given Heroic Ability. If you want to read how they work in detail and/or you are looking for some tips on how to use them, check them out on the Abilities and Strategy page.
- Cooldown: 100 seconds
After 0.75 seconds, Murky commands a legion of Murlocs to march in a target direction, each one leaping onto the first enemy Hero or Structure they find. Each Murloc deals 130 (+4% per level) damage and slows its target by 15% for 5 seconds. Murlocs deal 50% damage to Structures.
March of the Murlocs has the potential
of dealing an immense amount of damage. This is, however,
reliant on using the Ability in conjunction with some form of area of effect
crowd control, or during a fight from which your opponents can not (or
should not) avoid.
- Cooldown: 50 seconds
Murky becomes Unstoppable and Stuns target enemy Hero for 3 seconds while he hits them for 1 damage a second.
Octo-Grab is one of the longest targeted Stuns
in the game. It is almost always used
in conjunction with
Pufferfish to guarantee a large amount
of damage. Besides killing Murky, the only reliable way of preventing Octo-Grab
from being used as a way of locking down kill targets is to use cleanse effects
(for example
Intercession by Whitemane),
as well as a few other select Heroic Abilities and Talents. If the opposing team
has a particularly important target to focus down, this is the choice for you.
Level 13 Talents for Murky
Safety Bubble restores 40% of Murky's maximum Health.
Rejuvenating Bubble greatly increases Murky's survivability by essentially allowing
him to near-fully heal during
Safety Bubble when combined with his very high
baseline Health Regeneration. Rejuvenating Bubble becomes particularly effective
if you manage to unlock the Mythic Reward from your
Baseline Quest, which increases
your maximum Health by a considerable amount. Just make sure to use Safety Bubble
when you have actually taken damage.
Upon casting Spawn Egg, or when one of his eggs is killed, Murky gains a Shield for an amount equal to 50% of Murky's current Health.
Egg Shell makes it so that, upon placing an Egg or when one of his Eggs
is destroyed, Murky gets a Shield equal to 50% of his maximum Health that lasts indefinitely,
until destroyed. This effect stacks with the Shield provided by
Spawn Egg
upon reviving from an Egg, making it possible to have a very large amount of Shield
for a short time when you place an Egg immediately after.
Murky is healed for 20% of the damage he deals with Basic Attacks and Basic Abilities.
Fish Tank increases Murky's survivability against team compositions
with limited damage output. Double Healer compositions
may actually find it impossible to shed Murky unless they can also commit a
damage dealer's time to dealing with him, particularly with
Slime-oriented
Builds. It should be noted that the area of effect-nature of Murky's
Abilities means that Fish Tank works exceptionally well when surrounded by
Minions.
Level 16 Talents for Murky
Every 3rd consecutive Basic Attack against an enemy Hero causes a free Slime to be cast upon them.
Toxic Buildup turns Murky's Basic Attacks into something to be feared by
all Heroes. This Talent single-handedly allows Murky to take on the majority of
Heroes in a head-on fight. This high damage output, however, is dependent on
your ability to deliver said Basic Attacks. As such, Toxic Buildup is generally
recommendable against team compositions that feature at least 3 melee or low-range Heroes.
The Pufferfish casts Slime at its location upon landing.
Fish Oil is a good Talent that hits all enemies
near the
Pufferfish's landing spot with a free
Slime, damaging and Slowing them.
The fact that it applies
Slime on enemies
makes this Talent work well in combination with
Tufferfish
at Level 4, which makes
Pufferfish deal more damage to
Slimed targets.
Heroes hit by Pufferfish take additional damage equal to 16% of their maximum Health over 4 seconds.
Wrath of Cod is a good Talent that increases
the damage done by
Pufferfish by applying a debuff
which deals percent damage to enemy Heroes hit.
Due to the nature of its damage, we find this Talent useful against Heroes with high maximum Health (for example Azmodan) because they will take more damage from it or against Heroes who rely on Armor to survive (such as Garrosh) because they will not be able to mitigate its damage.
Level 20 Talents for Murky
March of the Murlocs can be channeled indefinitely, and will always last its base duration when canceled early.
In addition, it no longer deals reduced damage to Structures.
Never-Ending Murlocs turns
March of the Murlocs
into an infinite channel and makes it deal full damage to Structures.
If your opponents are unable to interrupt the Ability, they are essentially forced
off any Objective or away from Structures they may be trying to defend or
assault. Keep track of important interrupts to get the most out of
this Talent. Even if interrupted, it will always last a minimum of 7 seconds.
Increase the damage of Octo-Grab by 13700%.
... And a Shark Too! adds a measly amount of damage to an Ability that is generally used
as a combo piece for your allies to follow up upon for near-unconditional kills.
You will get more mileage out of other Talent choices.
Reduces the cooldown of Slime by 1.5 seconds.
Making Inky increases your damage output by reducing the cooldown
of
Slime. This effect allows you to constantly pressure enemy Heroes
within range with more damage, granted you can stick on them and do not get killed quickly.
Since it allows you to cast
Slime more often, this Talent has
synergy with the following Talents:
Slime Time at Level 4 increases
its damage done, Slow,
Black Lagoon at Level 7
makes it easier to hit enemy Heroes with it, and
Fish Tank at Level 13
increases your self-healing.
Pufferfish explodes 1.5 seconds faster.
Faster Fish makes
Pufferfish detonate 80% faster.
Thanks to this effect, enemy Heroes will have a harder time destroying a
Pufferfish
before it explodes or getting out of its area before it is too late.
Changelog
- 19 Feb. 2026: Guide updated for the latest Balance Update.
- 14 Feb. 2026: Guide updated for the latest Balance Update.
- 01 Aug. 2025: Guide reviewed for the latest Balance Update.
- 18 Apr. 2025: Guide reviewed.
- 13 Dec. 2024: Guide reviewed for the latest Balance Update.
- 21 Sep. 2023: ARAM Build added.
- 20 Sep. 2023: Guide reviewed.
- 11 Mar. 2021: Builds updated.
- 25 Feb. 2021: New layout.
- 24 Sep. 2020: Builds updated.
- 05 Apr. 2020: Description updated for Egg Hunt and Octo-Grab.
- 11 Oct. 2019: Talent builds and recommendations reviewed and updated.
- 28 Jul. 2018: Updated Talents and recommendations to reflect July 25 balance patch changes.
- 14 Jan. 2017: Updated Tier 1, 3, and 6 Talent assessments. Updated Balanced build.
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Elitesparkle has been hooked on Heroes of the Storm since day one in 2015. Over the years, he has consistently competed at Master level across multiple Seasons and has even climbed into Grand Master a couple of times. Known for his logical mindset and love for theorycrafting, he thrives on breaking down the game's mechanics and engaging in high-level strategy discussions with the community.
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