Heroes of the Storm hero spotlight: Zagara the broodmother

I’m slowly turning Thursdays into Heroes of the Storm day with a hero preview and accompanying gameplay each week. Last time I did a spotlight for Brightwing the faerie dragon, an adorable, homicidal creature with awesome support abilities.

This week we turn our attention to Starcraft and Zagara, a broodmother with fantastic siege and AOE abilities.Here’s her intro trailer.

Skills

Zagara’s entre skillset consists of different Zerg units (via Gamepedia).

The banelings are great for scattering the opponents, because if it hits, it does a fair amount of AOE damage. The Hydralisk is perfect for harassing, being a nuisance to a single enemy for a few seconds. The Infested drop is great for zoning, as the roaches will attack whatever they deem a threat. All of the above can be used on buildings, which is what makes Zagara so great at pushing and sieging.

For some reason there is no image showing her trait ability, creep tumour. Similarly to Starcraft, Zagara can place creep wherever she deems fit, providing bonus movement speed and regeneration.

Ultimate Abilities

These two abilities have completely different uses. Nydus Network is great if you plan on being a nuisance. It makes split pushing each lane and claiming towers a dream.

Devouring Maw on the other hand is great if you plan on being with your team. It not only disables enemies (allowing you to focus on the others) but it also does a fair amount of damage.

Gameplay

Each of the above skills have some awesome accompanying talents. I focused entirely on banelings for this video. I skilled them to have longer range, do more AOE damage, and spawn more with each cast.

I find that Zagara is actually quite a good all rounder. You don’t necessarily have to be a team player or pusher, you can do them together. All of her abilities work as well as heroes as they do on buildings, there is a lot of damage potential either way. It’s also worth keeping in mind that the creep is ideal for providing vision, meaning you can keep an eye on key spots or just have a better awareness of any impending surprise ganks.

The map on show is Blackheart’s Bay, one of my favourites so far. The premise is simple; collect coins and pay Blackheart. Paying him enough will lead him to turning his cannons onto the enemy team for a short period of time. I’ve had many a game where we were far behind, but clever coin management and surprise snipes led to us keeping Blackheart well paid, resulting in unexpected victories.

Keep in mind that the game is still in Technical Alpha, meaning that stuff can change as it develops. If you have any recommendations, questions, suggestions, or hero spotlight requests, please do leave them below. If I can afford them with my in-game gold, I will happily do a video for them.

Last Updated: August 7, 2014