Thursday Teaching Thread - Beginners encouraged to ask questions here! | April 07 - April 13

Skeleton build takes until level 7 to really excel, since this is when you're healing as skeletons are raised (and you don't have to hit, you only have to be close or even mounted). A good Zag/Sylv will just poke you to death in the early levels, so you can even swap lanes or have someone committed to ganks until you get better at dodging their abilities (side-stepping is a must). After 7, there's no single character that can clear waves and create lane push like Xul, and the subsequent talents only reinforce this gap.

Use minions to create a buffer between yourself and skill shots (Jaina Q/Kael E). Extend just a bit to get your Q on the back of the minion wave, then drag it back through while you walk away to hit all. Hit and run all damn day. Your goal is simply to beat the other guy at clearing the wave, and the faster and safer you can spawn a few skeletons without committing to the entire minion wave, the better. Your opposite will have to expend a ton of mana to consistently clear 7-8 minions every wave, while your W can wipe through the wave's front line and globe holder damn fast. You can simply walk away when a ranged character is looking to close the gap on you. If they stay, use your E and turn and combo them. You still have to play a bit timid, but you're largely waiting for them to use their abilities and then you go in and quickly take the wave out.

If you're 1v1 with a squishy character, you can use your E to be aggressive if they're on your side of the lane. E-->Q-->W-->Shield Explode will take most of a hero's life, and then they have no choice but to drink or hearth.

If you're 1v1 with a stronger melee character (such as Thrall), you can use your E to get him to retreat and give you time to clear the wave. Tanks will walk into you all the time, but you can just back off and hit and run the wave as none of them can wave clear like you.

Xul is an exceptional roamer when paired with a healer. He can clear waves, he can gank, he can help disengage, wipe an enemy bruiser camp in seconds, and his root is ludicrously good. In a team fight, he's a bit limited, but the root is still the key. He can cut off a diver effectively or isolate someone out of position and set them up for a combo. I personally use Skeletal Mages (shorter cooldown, Nova can be stunned/avoided by good players, and you can get your wave up to a fort, drop them, walk away, and it's going down) to separate lines and apply soft CC. Poison Nova is better if you have a pre-built combo with 1-2 other Heroics. He won't apply as much damage as a Sylv or Zag in a team fight, but he's there to set up kills and hit and run with W and Heroics. Lvl 20 offers you a free poke or the opportunity to negate almost all healing on your Q.

Early game; solo lane you're looking to hold your own and slowly move forward and drain tower shots. Roaming is all about using your E to freeze the enemy and W the minion wave. If you get a kill, try to get the gate down as fast as possible so you can have better vision (super important vs strong combo ranged assassins). Mid game is map dependent; stay and clear and extra wave and have your team delay engage at an objective, and if you can quickly figure out if they've won or lost an objective, break off and split push. Always push away from DK or Terror or Punisher if you have vision on enough enemy heroes to avoid a gank. Late game you push waves back out if you're behind or group and gank if you're ahead.

Understand that people are starting to catch up on playing against Xul. They rotate down on him, always look to gank if you spend too much time in a solo lane, or straight up focus him in team fights. But I have a 75% win rate in HL with him, and in those games I'm focused on creating an EXP advantage for my teammates. Most games you can end up with 6-8k more experience than anyone else.

/r/heroesofthestorm Thread Parent