Murky Talents

Last updated on Feb 19, 2026 at 22:15 by Elitesparkle 37 comments
General Information

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.

1.

Murky's Talent Build

Level Choices
1 Fish Eye ? Shell Game ? A Fishy Deal
4 Slime Time Tufferfish ? Living the Dream ✘︎
7 Black Lagoon Slippery When Wet ? Time to Krill ?
10 March of the Murlocs Octo-Grab ?
13 Rejuvenating Bubble ? Egg Shell ? Fish Tank
16 Toxic Buildup Fish Oil ? Wrath of Cod ?
20 Never-Ending Murlocs ? ... And a Shark Too! ✘︎ Making Inky Faster Fish ?
2.

Murky's Talent Build Cheatsheet

Slime Build

Recommended
Level 1 A Fishy Deal Icon Fish Eye Icon ?
Level 4 Slime Time Icon
Level 7 Black Lagoon Icon
Level 10 March of the Murlocs Icon
Level 13 Fish Tank Icon
Level 16 Toxic Buildup Icon
Level 20 Making Inky Icon

Murky's Slime Build is designed to increase his survivability during team fights, especially if he happens to hit multiple enemies with Slime Icon Slime. This allows Murky to be quite annoying when he does not get killed quickly.

In order to stack Slime Time Icon Slime Time at Level 4, try to hit enemy Heroes with Slime Icon Slime when there are no enemy Minions to clear. The range from Black Lagoon Icon Black Lagoon at Level 7 makes it easier to hit enemy Heroes with Slime Icon Slime. Toxic Buildup Icon Toxic Buildup at Level 16 and Making Inky Icon Making Inky at Level 20 increase your damage output.

Pufferfish Build

Advanced
Level 1 A Fishy Deal Icon Fish Eye Icon ?
Level 4 Tufferfish Icon
Level 7 Slippery When Wet Icon
Level 10 Octo-Grab Icon March of the Murlocs Icon ?
Level 13 Rejuvenating Bubble Icon
Level 16 Fish Oil Icon
Level 20 Faster Fish Icon

Murky'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 Icon Tufferfish at Level 4 increases your waveclear. Fish Oil Icon Fish Oil at Level 16 allows you to clear Minions by just using Pufferfish Icon Pufferfish. Faster Fish Icon Faster Fish at Level 20 makes Pufferfish Icon Pufferfish more reliable against enemy Heroes.

ARAM Build

ARAM
Level 1 Fish Eye Icon
Level 4 Slime Time Icon
Level 7 Black Lagoon Icon
Level 10 March of the Murlocs Icon
Level 13 Fish Tank Icon
Level 16 Toxic Buildup Icon
Level 20 Making Inky Icon

Murky's ARAM Build is designed to increase his survivability during team fights, especially if he happens to hit multiple enemies with Slime Icon Slime. This allows Murky to be quite annoying when he does not get killed quickly.

In order to stack Slime Time Icon Slime Time at Level 4, try to hit enemy Heroes with Slime Icon Slime when there are no enemy Minions to clear. The range from Black Lagoon Icon Black Lagoon at Level 7 makes it easier to hit enemy Heroes with Slime Icon Slime. Toxic Buildup Icon Toxic Buildup at Level 16 and Making Inky Icon Making Inky at Level 20 increase your damage output.

3.

Level 1 Talents for Murky

Murky Fish Eye ?
Fish Eye (Level 1) World of Warcraft 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 Icon Fish Eye promotes aggressively using Spawn Egg Icon 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 Shell Game ?
Shell Game (Level 1) World of Warcraft Murky

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 Icon 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 Icon 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.

Murky A Fishy Deal
A Fishy Deal (Level 1) World of Warcraft Murky

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 Icon 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 Icon 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 Icon 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 Icon 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.

4.

Level 4 Talents for Murky

Murky Slime Time
Slime Time (Level 4) World of Warcraft 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 Icon Slime Time significantly boosts the effectiveness of Slime Icon 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 Icon Black Lagoon, Toxic Buildup Icon Toxic Buildup, and Fish Oil Icon Fish Oil Talents can make this Quest much easier to complete, although the latter two come online rather late.

Murky Tufferfish ?
Tufferfish (Level 4) World of Warcraft Murky

Pufferfish gains 50 Spell Armor and deals 50% more damage to Slimed targets.

Tufferfish Icon Tufferfish makes Pufferfish Icon 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 Icon Octo-Grab combo, although Slime Time Icon Slime Time and Living the Dream Icon 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.

Murky Living the Dream
Living the Dream (Level 4) World of Warcraft Murky

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 Icon Living the Dream generally competes with Slime Time Icon 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 Icon March of the Murlocs) and some Talents (Time to Krill Icon 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.

5.

Level 7 Talents for Murky

Murky Black Lagoon
Black Lagoon (Level 7) World of Warcraft Murky

Increase Slime's radius by 30%.

Black Lagoon Icon Black Lagoon is a good Talent that nearly doubles the area of effect of Slime Icon 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.

Murky Slippery When Wet ?
Slippery When Wet (Level 7) World of Warcraft Murky

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 Icon 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 Icon 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 Icon Safety Bubble, which may help maintaining Living the Dream Icon Living the Dream Stacks.

Murky Time to Krill ?
Time to Krill (Level 7) World of Warcraft Murky

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 Icon 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.

6.

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.

Murky March of the Murlocs
March of the Murlocs (Level 10) World of Warcraft Murky
  • 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 Icon 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.

Murky Octo-Grab ?
Octo-Grab (Level 10) World of Warcraft Murky
  • 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 Icon Octo-Grab is one of the longest targeted Stuns in the game. It is almost always used in conjunction with Pufferfish Icon 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 Icon 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.

7.

Level 13 Talents for Murky

Murky Rejuvenating Bubble ?
Rejuvenating Bubble (Level 13) World of Warcraft Murky

Safety Bubble restores 40% of Murky's maximum Health.

Rejuvenating Bubble Icon Rejuvenating Bubble greatly increases Murky's survivability by essentially allowing him to near-fully heal during Safety Bubble Icon 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.

Murky Egg Shell ?
Egg Shell (Level 13) World of Warcraft Murky

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 Icon 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 Icon 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 Fish Tank
Fish Tank (Level 13) World of Warcraft Murky

Murky is healed for 20% of the damage he deals with Basic Attacks and Basic Abilities.

Fish Tank Icon 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 Icon 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.

8.

Level 16 Talents for Murky

Murky Toxic Buildup
Toxic Buildup (Level 16) World of Warcraft Murky

Every 3rd consecutive Basic Attack against an enemy Hero causes a free Slime to be cast upon them.

Toxic Buildup Icon 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.

Murky Fish Oil ?
Fish Oil (Level 16) World of Warcraft Murky

The Pufferfish casts Slime at its location upon landing.

Fish Oil Icon Fish Oil is a good Talent that hits all enemies near the Pufferfish Icon Pufferfish's landing spot with a free Slime Icon Slime, damaging and Slowing them.

The fact that it applies Slime Icon Slime on enemies makes this Talent work well in combination with Tufferfish Icon Tufferfish at Level 4, which makes Pufferfish Icon Pufferfish deal more damage to Slimed targets.

Murky Wrath of Cod ?
Wrath of Cod (Level 16) World of Warcraft Murky

Heroes hit by Pufferfish take additional damage equal to 16% of their maximum Health over 4 seconds.

Wrath of Cod Icon Wrath of Cod is a good Talent that increases the damage done by Pufferfish Icon 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.

9.

Level 20 Talents for Murky

Murky Never-Ending Murlocs ?
Never-Ending Murlocs (Level 20) World of Warcraft 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 Icon Never-Ending Murlocs turns March of the Murlocs Icon 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.

Murky ... And a Shark Too!
... And a Shark Too! (Level 20) World of Warcraft Murky

Increase the damage of Octo-Grab by 13700%.

... And a Shark Too! Icon ... 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.

Murky Making Inky
Making Inky (Level 20) World of Warcraft Murky

Reduces the cooldown of Slime by 1.5 seconds.

Making Inky Icon Making Inky increases your damage output by reducing the cooldown of Slime Icon 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 Icon Slime more often, this Talent has synergy with the following Talents: Slime Time Icon Slime Time at Level 4 increases its damage done, Slow, Black Lagoon Icon Black Lagoon at Level 7 makes it easier to hit enemy Heroes with it, and Fish Tank Icon Fish Tank at Level 13 increases your self-healing.

Murky Faster Fish ?
Faster Fish (Level 20) World of Warcraft Murky

Pufferfish explodes 1.5 seconds faster.

Faster Fish Icon Faster Fish makes Pufferfish Icon Pufferfish detonate 80% faster. Thanks to this effect, enemy Heroes will have a harder time destroying a Pufferfish Icon Pufferfish before it explodes or getting out of its area before it is too late.

10.

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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