Xul Build Guide “All who oppose me: Beware!”

Last updated on Apr 16, 2021 at 02:30 by Derenash 28 comments
General Information

Welcome to our guide for Xul, a Bruiser in Heroes of the Storm. Within these pages, you will find everything required to understand how best to play this hero, in both different map styles and team compositions.

1.

Xul's Overview

Xul is a high damage Bruiser that abuses his strong AoE damage from his abilities to quickly clear any minion wave, which then allows him to create many Skeletal Warriors thanks to Raise Skeleton Icon Raise Skeleton, letting him become a major threat to towers and, by extension, making the wave much harder to clear. Xul also excels against melee compositions, given he can easily land Cursed Strikes Icon Cursed Strikes into many targets, reducing their attack speed and making him really hard to deal without crowd control.

2.

Xul's Strengths and Weaknesses

V Strengths
X Weaknesses
  • -Very susceptible to crowd control
  • -Weak against compositions featuring many ranged or poke-centric heroes
  • -Really hard to play when facing counters
  • -Susceptible to gank attempts
  • -Requires good positioning
3.

Xul's Talent Build Cheatsheet

Scythe Build

Recommended
Level 1 Backlash Icon Shade Icon ?
Level 4 Jailors Icon
Level 7 Wall Of Bones Icon Trag'Oul's Essence Icon ? Harvest Vitality Icon ?
Level 10 Skeletal Mages Icon Poison Nova Icon ?
Level 13 Echoes of Death Icon
Level 16 Decrepify Icon
Level 20 Mortal Wound Icon Andariel's Visage Icon ?

The Scythe Build offers plenty of AoE damage thanks to the additional Scythes offered by Echoes of Death Icon Echoes of Death at Level 13. Due to Mortal Wound Icon Mortal Wound at Level 20, this build becomes particularly powerful against double Healer composition who rely on a lot of healing. Unfortunately The Scythe Build is very dependent on Decrepify Icon Decrepify, which comes a bit too late and might not be a good choice if your team is looking for early-game fights.

Cursed Strikes Build

Situational
Level 1 Backlash Icon Shade Icon ?
Level 4 Grim Scythe Icon
Level 7 Harvest Vitality Icon
Level 10 Poison Nova Icon Skeletal Mages Icon ?
Level 13 Rapid Harvest Icon
Level 16 Weaken Icon
Level 20 Andariel's Visage Icon Mortal Wound Icon ?

Xul's Cursed Strikes Build gives Xul much survivability thanks to Harvest Vitality Icon Harvest Vitality's sustain, while Weaken Icon Weaken provides considerable resistance by reducing enemy damage dealt. Since this build requires you to be constantly hitting many enemies with Cursed Strikes Icon Cursed Strikes, it excels against melee-heavy compositions with little crowd control. This build is the most effective at capturing or clearing Mercenaries, considering Xul will have Cursed Strikes up nearly all the time, with very high Attack Speed.

Backlash Icon Backlash can be replaced with Shade Icon Shade when facing many Basic Attacks-reliant Heroes, like Raynor or Illidan. Both Poison Nova Icon Poison Nova and Skeletal Mages Icon Skeletal Mages are useful, though it is recommended to go with Poison Nova when facing many melee Heroes. Skeletal Mages will perform well when you need some kind of crowd control to reach the targets you are looking for.

Bone Prison Build

Situational
Level 1 Backlash Icon Shade Icon ?
Level 4 Jailors Icon Grim Scythe Icon ?
Level 7 Wall Of Bones Icon Harvest Vitality Icon ?
Level 10 Skeletal Mages Icon
Level 13 Amplify Damage Icon
Level 16 Bone Spear Icon
Level 20 Mortal Wound Icon

Xul's Bone Prison Build has much more burst than the other options. It is a great choice if the opposing team has lots of crowd control, ranged Heroes, or burst damage, since you will not be able to get much value out of Cursed Strikes Icon Cursed Strikes.

Backlash Icon Backlash can be replaced with Shade Icon Shade when facing many Basic Attack-reliant Heroes, like Raynor, Illidan, or Greymane.

If you are having trouble facing the opposing laner, we recommend changing both the Level 4 and 7 Talents into Grim Scythe Icon Grim Scythe and Harvest Vitality Icon Harvest Vitality respectively, since they will give you much more self-sustain while clearing waves, without crippling your burst capabilities.

4.

Xul's Synergies and Counters

V Xul synergizes with

Xul sinergizes very well with Heroes that are able to protect him while he receives burst damage or crowd control like Medivh. He also excels with good follow up for Bone Prison Icon Bone Prison, like Tyrande with Lunar Flare Icon Lunar Flare, Falstad with Hinterland Blast Icon Hinterland Blast or Li-Ming with all her Abilities.

X Xul is countered by

Due to not having mobility, Xul suffers a lot from displacement effects or crowd control in general, making Heroes such as E.T.C. huge threats, while Johanna is able to Blind him during Cursed Strikes Icon Cursed Strikes, reducing his effectiveness. Xul also struggles against Heroes with long range or with high burst damage that allows them to follow up the crowd control, like Jaina and Sgt. Hammer.

5.

Xul's Maps

Xul's stronger maps
Blackheart's Bay Cursed Hollow Garden of Terror Infernal Shrines Sky Temple Tomb of the Spider Queen
Xul's average maps
Alterac Pass Dragon Shire Towers of Doom Warhead Junction Volskaya Foundry
Xul's weaker maps
Battlefield of Eternity Braxis Holdout Hanamura Temple

Xul shines in maps with nearby lanes, as he will be able to easily abuse his waveclear and Skeletal Warriors, making him excellent on Blackheart's Bay, Tomb of the Spider Queen, and Infernal Shrines. He will also be decent on big maps where the Objective will be very time consuming, allowing him to get a great experience lead through split-pushing, like in Sky Temple, Garden of Terror, or Cursed Hollow. However, Xul does not perform as well in 2-lane maps, given he cannot abuse his fast waveclear to spawn skeletons and go to another lane, which he normally would in a bigger map.

6.

Xul's Tips and Tricks

  • Cursed Strikes Icon Cursed Strikes is one of the best waveclear Abilities in the game, so you should always be attempting to clear a wave and instantly Mount up and rotate to another lane, getting maximum value out of Raise Skeleton Icon Raise Skeleton.
  • Since Xul does not have a strong early game, sometimes it is better to (in some maps) avoid fighting for the first Objective (Infernal Shrines and Cursed Hollow can be good examples), and instead proceed to the opposite lane in order to split-push between the other 2 lanes. A good practice is to warn your team before doing this, given they will be having a numerical disadvantage in the fight, and will have to play it safe.
  • Keep in mind Xul has limited mobility, so during fights it is a good idea to wait for your tank to engage, or for enemy heroes to spend their crowd control before going in, given you will struggle to enter and escape fights.
  • A good way to use Bone Prison Icon Bone Prison is on a tank just after they spent their defensive skills, a Johanna without Iron Skin Icon Iron Skin or an Anub'arak without Burrow Charge Icon Burrow Charge often turn out to be an easy kill, given they will be rooted in the same place for 2 seconds.
  • Since Bone Prison Icon Bone Prison has a tiny range, it is recommended to always stay mounted so you can easily find a way to engage your desired target.
7.

Xul's Role in the Current Meta

Each minion wave spawns every 30 seconds (starting from 00:00); this has the same cooldown as Bone Armor Icon Bone Armor, which allows you to ignore the enemy Bruiser every time you step up to clear the wave. Thanks to this, Xul will always be ahead of his enemies, enabling him to move towards the closest lane to either gank or clear it.

Since Xul is slightly dependent on talents to be really impactful in fights, it is better to focus on clearing waves between two lanes during the early game. After you get your main talent for the build (Harvest Vitality Icon Harvest Vitality for Cursed Strikes Build, Amplify Damage Icon Amplify Damage for Bone Prison Build, and Decrepify Icon Decrepify for Spectral Scythe Build) start looking for fights—Xul will be extremely good in them.

8.

Changelog

  • 16 Apr. 2021 (talents page): Updated Talent recommendations.
  • 16 Apr. 2021 (this page): Updated Builds.
  • 26 Mar. 2021 (talents page): Updated Talent recommendations.
  • 17 Feb. 2021 (talents page): Updated Trag'Oul's Essence's discussion.
  • 17 Feb. 2021 (this page): Updated Scythe Build.
  • 17 Jul. 2020 (talents page): Talent section reviewed; no changes are necessary.
  • 17 Jul. 2020 (abilities page): Abilities section updated following the 2.51.1 patch.
  • 16 Jul. 2020 (this page): Guide reviewed after recent balance patch and no changes are necessary.
  • 18 Mar. 2020 (talents page): Updated Xul's talents accordingly to his rework.
  • 18 Mar. 2020 (this page): Updated guide for Xul's rework.
  • 20 Nov. 2019 (talents page): Updated Xul's talents and removed the Skeleton Build, as we no longer consider it viable enough.
  • 16 Jul. 2017 (talents page): Updated Xul's talent descriptions.
  • 14 Jul. 2017 (talents page): Corpse Explosion changed from Not Recommended to Recommended.
  • 11 Jul. 2017 (this page): Updated guide for Stukov's patch and moved to new guide format.
Show more
Show less