Abathur Talents

Level	Choices
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20	? ✘︎ ✓ ?

Symbiote Build

Recommended

Level 1

Level 4 ?

Level 7 ? ?

Level 10 ?

Level 13

Level 16 ?

Level 20 ?

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The Symbiote Build maximises Abathur's team fight presence by taking Talents that improve Symbiote's damage dealing Abilities. This team fight presence comes at the cost of global pressure, as you will lack the huge lane pressure provided by other builds. Although this is not a build that focuses on pushing lanes, it is still important to soak as much experience as possible. Due to the short range of Symbiote's Abilities, this build is ideally paired with a melee assassin who benefits from increased attack speed.

Adrenal Overload will greatly increase the performance of certain heroes, like Illidan, or Greymane. When the Symbiote host is not reliant on Basic Attacks, you should get Needlespine instead. Even though Calldown: MULE will be useful in most games, Vile Nest is also an option in Dragon Shire and Cursed Hollow, since it will provide much control for enemy rotation and objectives. At Level 16 Adrenaline Boost is the standard Talent, but Envenomed Spikes is a great option against team compositions with limited mobility, since the slow will affect all enemies, greatly disrupting their movement. Together with a Dragonblade Genji or Maiev, you can go for Evolutionary Link at Level 20, since the shield and the extra duration will be incredibly good for those Heroes.

Toxic Nest Build

Situational

Level 1 ?

Level 4

Level 7 ?

Level 10

Level 13 ?

Level 16

Level 20 ?

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Toxic Nest build can be a good choice in situations where you do not have viable heroes to place Symbiote on. It excels in maps with constant rotation, such as Dragon Shire, Blackheart's Bay, Cursed Hollow, Garden of Terror and Towers of Doom.

Even though it sounds interesting to use all your Toxic Nest in the same point, this is not the best way to abuse this build. We recommend using the Nests between the waves, while making sure they are not very close between them. The main focus is to abuse Vile Nest's slow to delay enemy rotations or to control the way towards the objective. It is also very important to always have a Toxic Nest on enemy's Mercenary camps, since it will give that information to your team, and sometimes it will even stop their intention in capturing it.

Envenomed Nest is especially strong when your team has a good ganker or roamer, as Toxic Nests can catch enemies during rotations. Together with Vile Nest, affected Heroes are Slowed and have their Armor reduced by 15, giving your ally time to secure the kill. At level 13, Soma Transference is the default pick as long as most of your simbiote hosts are frontline Heroes. Therefore, it is better to go for Spatial Efficiency when backliners are the hosts. Evolutionary Link can be a good Talent as well, and you should use the Heroic Ability on your teammate that is having more trouble staying alive, since the 35% shield will be applied to them, giving them some much needed protection.

Locust Strain Build

Situational

Level 1

Level 4 ? ?

Level 7 ?

Level 10

Level 13

Level 16

Level 20 ?

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The Locust Strain Build is strong on large Maps, where Deep Tunnel and Locust Brood allow Abathur to create split-push pressure far from the enemy team. Locusts can sustain themselves through undefended Minion waves, making their pressure harder to answer after Bombard Strain at Level 13 and Survival Instincts at Level 16. When enemies are visible elsewhere, tunnel to an advanced position, use Locust Brood, and retreat. Ultimate Evolution can then be used to assist your team while enemies respond to the Locusts.

At Level 4, Adrenal Overload is excellent when your team has a decent Basic Attacker, such as Illidan or Greymane, who can take full advantage of its bonus Attack Speed. Without such an ally, Prolific Dispersal provides more map control and information through additional Toxic Nests, while Slapathur makes Abathur much harder to dive when facing Heroes such as Genji or Zeratul. At Level 7, Networked Carapace greatly strengthens the push of allied Minion waves, but Calldown: MULE is essential on Sky Temple and Haunted Mines, where repairing Structures helps counter objective pressure.

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Pressurized Glands (Level 1) Abathur

Increases the range of Symbiote's Spike Burst by 25% and decreases the cooldown by 1 second.

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Envenomed Nest (Level 1) Abathur

Toxic Nests deal 75% more damage over 3 seconds and reduce the Armor of enemy Heroes hit by 15 for 4 seconds.

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Reinforced Carapace (Level 1) Abathur

Increase the Shield amount of Carapace by 40%.

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Locust Brood (Level 1) Abathur

• Cooldown: 75 seconds

Activate to spawn 3 Locusts at a nearby location.

Pressurized Glands provides Spike Burst with a reasonable power increase during the early game, and has good synergy with Soma Transference and Envenomed Spikes at Levels 13 and 16 respectively. Pressurized Glands also helps improve your waveclear. It is the best option for a Symbiote build.

Envenomed Nest dramatically increases the damage of Toxic Nest, but deals this extra damage over time. Consider taking this if you are planning on taking the other Toxic nest talents at levels 4 and 7. This Talent can also be useful in Quick Match games when the enemy team lacks a healer or self-sustain options.

Reinforced Carapace increases Carapace's shield amount. Carapace's healing effect ends if the shield is destroyed. This Talent adds a very small boost to shield strength; for this reason we recommend Pressurized Glands instead.

Locust Brood is an excellent Talent for creating pressure across the map. However, Locusts remain fragile until Survival Instincts is unlocked, so Locust Brood should only be activated when the enemy team's position is known and far from the targeted lane. Spawn the Locusts from an advanced position to give the enemy team less time to react.

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Adrenal Overload (Level 4) Abathur

Heroic Symbiote hosts gain 25% increased Attack Speed.

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Needlespine (Level 4) Abathur

Increases the damage and range of Symbiote's Stab by 20%.

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Prolific Dispersal (Level 4) Abathur

Increase the duration of Toxic Nests by 45 seconds, reduce its cooldown by 2 seconds, and add 2 additional charges.

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Slapathur (Level 4) Abathur

• Cooldown: 6 seconds

Abathur’s Basic Attacks deal 500% additional damage and Stun non-Elite enemies and disable Structures for 1.5 seconds.

The same Hero or Structure can only be Stunned or disabled once every 6 seconds.

Adrenal Overload significantly increases the damage potential of Heroes who depend on Basic Attacks for damage, self-sustain, or to trigger other effects. Heroes that do not rely on Basic Attacks benefit much less from this Talent; its usefulness depends on team composition.

Needlespine allows Abathur to deal more damage with Symbiote by increasing Stab's range and damage. This talent is very impactful, but if you have a good Hero reliant on Basic Attacks, Adrenal Overload will be a better option. Otherwise, Needlespine will have great value.

Prolific Dispersal dramatically increases the number of Toxic Nests Abathur can deploy simultaneously. Prolific Dispersal has strong synergy with Vile Nest at level 7, even in the absence of Envenomed Nest from level 1. Consider this talent in maps where you can easily disrupt enemy rotations, such as Towers of Doom, Dragon Shire or Infernal Shrines.

Slapathur is a strong defensive option against melee Heroes that dive Abathur under allied Structures. It also allows you to capture Mercenary Camps alone or defend against enemy Mercenaries when your team is absent. However, it competes with Adrenal Overload, which is a powerful choice when your team has a good Hero who benefits greatly from the bonus Attack Speed.

When the rest of the enemy team is visible elsewhere, coordinate with an ally and use Deep Tunnel to surprise an isolated Offlaner, Stunning and heavily damaging them so your ally can immediately follow up and secure the kill. This risky play works well against Heroes with low burst damage, such as Malthael, or Heroes whose Abilities can be interrupted by Stuns, such as Yrel. Against Xul or Imperius, use Deep Tunnel after their main crowd control Abilities are on cooldown, as they will not be able to turn on Abathur while your ally finishes them.

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Vile Nest (Level 7) Abathur

Toxic Nests Slow enemy Movement Speed by 40% for 2.5 seconds.

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Networked Carapace (Level 7) Abathur

Using Symbiote's Carapace also applies an untalented Carapace Shield to all nearby allied Heroes, Minions, and Mercenaries.

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Calldown: MULE (Level 7) Abathur

• Cooldown: 60 seconds

Activate to calldown a Mule that repairs Structures, one at a time, near target point for 40 seconds, healing for 90 Health every 1 second.

Vile Nest can be extremely annoying for the enemy team. This talent can help your team secure objectives and kills by reducing the effectiveness of enemy rotations and ganks. Vile Nest has great synergy with Prolific Dispersal.

Networked Carapace is predominantly a PvE Talent focused on pushing empty lanes by keeping large numbers of Minions and Mercenaries healthy. It applies untalented shields to allied Heroes who are nearby the Symbiote host. Carapace's heal effect is not applied to Minions or Mercenaries, but it is applied to all Heroes that are shielded by Networked Carapace. This Talent is good against teams with low waveclear, as it makes it much harder for them to deal with waves or Evolve Monstrosity.

Calldown: MULE should almost always be taken on Sky Temple, because it gets insane value due to the way the main objective plays out there. It is a situational pick on other maps. Calldown: Mule is usually a very strong choice. It allows you to apply pressure and push lanes during all stages of the game while repairing your own Structures.

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Ultimate Evolution (Level 10) Abathur

• Cooldown: 70 seconds

Clone target allied Hero and control it for 20 seconds. Abathur has perfected the clone, granting it 20% Spell Power, 20% bonus Attack Damage, and 10% bonus Movement Speed. Cannot use their Heroic Ability.

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Evolve Monstrosity (Level 10) Abathur

• Cooldown: 90 seconds

Turn an allied Minion or Locust into a Monstrosity. When enemy Minions near the Monstrosity die, it gains 2% Health and 2% Basic Attack damage, stacking up to 40 times. The Monstrosity can be healed by Carapace and has the ability to Burrow to a visible location every 80 seconds.

Using Symbiote on the Monstrosity allows Abathur to control it, in addition to Symbiote's normal benefits. This Ability can be reactivated to automatically cast Symbiote on his Monstrosity.

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.

Ultimate Evolution is a fantastic and versatile Heroic ability. It should usually be used on high damage Heroes, as these clones will benefit the most from the extra Ability Power and Basic Attack damage. Ideally, the cloned Hero will also have a gap closer to ensure that you are able to close in on enemies and deal meaningful damage during the 20 second window. Cloning Tanks will yield less damage, but can be useful if your team requires more crowd control.

Evolve Monstrosity is a strong pushing and sieging tool, but you must sacrifice a lot of team fight presence in order to take it. It is unrealistic to assume that you will be able to get the monstrosity into an ideal position. Sometimes having Symbiote on a hero will be better than using Ultimate Evolution in a fight. At those games, we recommend picking Evolve Monstrosity instead, as it will push the offlane while you are supporting your team in the best possible way.

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Spatial Efficiency (Level 13) Abathur

Symbiote's Stab gains 1 additional charge and its cooldown is reduced by .5 seconds.

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Soma Transference (Level 13) Abathur

Symbiote's Spike Burst heals the host for 64 (+4% per level) Health per enemy Hero hit.

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Bombard Strain (Level 13) Abathur

Locust's Basic Attacks become a long-range siege attack and they now lose health 50% more slowly.

Spatial Efficiency can put out a lot of damage when paired with Needlespine. This can be useful when you find yourself primarily using Symbiote to imbue a ranged Basic Attacker with Adrenal Overload, or would otherwise get decreased value out of Spike Burst Talents.

Soma Transference can heal the host for a significant amount of Health, especially if Symbiote is on a melee Hero who will be within range of multiple enemy Heroes. Pressurized Glands synergises very well with this Talent. Soma Transference is less effective on ranged allies.

Bombard Strain is essential for a dedicated Locust Build, as it greatly improves the Locusts' unattended split-push pressure. By attacking quickly from the backline, Locusts are less likely to die early while clearing enemy Minion waves or Mercenary Camps, or when facing enemy Catapults. This makes defending against them much harder, even when the enemy team is ahead. If an ally uses crowd control on an enemy Hero trying to clear them, the Locusts' fast ranged Basic Attacks can quickly shred the target.

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Envenomed Spikes (Level 16) Abathur

Abathur's Symbiote's Spike Burst also Slows enemy Movement Speed by 40% for 2 seconds.

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Adrenaline Boost (Level 16) Abathur

Symbiote's Carapace increases the Movement Speed of the target by 40% for 3.5 seconds.

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Volatile Mutation (Level 16) Abathur

Ultimate Evolution clones and Monstrosities deal 137 (+4% per level) damage to nearby enemies every 3 seconds and when they die. Enemy Heroes hit heal the clone or Monstrosity for 100% of the damage dealt.

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Survival Instincts (Level 16) Abathur

Increases Locust's Health by 100% and damage by 60%.

Envenomed Spikes provides a significant Slow over a large area, especially when combined with Pressurized Glands at Level 1. It allows melee Heroes to stick to targets much more easily than they would otherwise be able to. One advantage this has over Adrenaline Boost is that its effect cannot be removed by damaging your Symbiote host. The other important difference is that Envenomed Spikes can affect multiple enemies.

Adrenaline Boost is essentially the opposite of Envenomed Spikes, speeding up a single ally, rather than slowing down multiple enemies. Slowing enemies allows your entire team to reposition, as opposed to giving a single ally increased Movement Speed. However, Adrenaline Boost can help your team run down kills that would otherwise escape. The main drawback to Adrenaline Boost is that its effect is removed when Carapace shield is destroyed. Despite those flaws, this Talent is very impactful when Symbiote is on a hypercarry, or on a very mobile hero, such as Zeratul, Tracer, Genji or Greymane.

Volatile Mutation deals damage to enemies very near Abathur's Heroic entities. This talent may have some conflicts with Ultimate Evolution, where you will often clone a ranged Hero and may only be within range for Volatile Mutation very briefly. Volatile Mutation is overshadowed by Envenomed Spikes and Adrenaline Boost, since those will be much more effective and reliable in fights than Volatile Mutation.

Like other Locust Talents, Survival Instincts is essential for a dedicated Locust Build. Once selected, it greatly increases Abathur's split-push pressure, forcing the enemy team to respond to Locusts in side lanes even while Locust Brood is on cooldown. The additional Health and damage guarantee that they will survive against undefended Minion waves, allowing them to accumulate in greater numbers and threaten enemy Forts and Keeps.

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Evolutionary Link (Level 20) Abathur

Increase the duration of Ultimate Evolution by 50%. As long as the Ultimate Evolution is alive, the original target of the clone gains a Shield equal to 35% of their maximum Health. Refreshes every 5 seconds.

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Evolution Complete (Level 20) Abathur

Increase Monstrosity's Basic Attack damage by 100%.

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Hivemind (Level 20) Abathur

Symbiote creates an additional Symbiote on a nearby allied Hero. This Symbiote mimics the commands of the first, but does half damage and Shielding.

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Locust Nest (Level 20) Abathur

• Cooldown: 45 seconds

Activate to create a nest that periodically spawns Locusts. Only one Locust Nest can be active at a time.

Evolutionary Link makes it harder for the enemy team to kill Ultimate Evolution's target. Because the shield is based on the target's maximum Health, this can be situationally useful if your composition's preferred clone is a melee assassin. We recommend going for this Talent when you are not going for a Symbiote build, but still picked Ultimate Evolution. However, it can still be picked with Symbiote build, as long as you have Genji, Maiev, or Qhira to clone.

Evolution Complete is a great Level 20 talent to take in games where Evolve Monstrosity has been selected. However, Evolve Monstrosity is really underwhelming when compared to Ultimate Evolution.

Hivemind increases Symbiote's effectiveness by 50% when considering Symbiote Abilities directly. However, Hivemind doubles Symbiote's effectiveness when considering Talents like Soma Transference and Envenomed Spikes, as these Talents work per Hero hit, rather than per Ability cast. This provides you with greatly increased team fight presence. Regardless of what other Talents you take, you will almost always get good value out of Hivemind in team fights.

Locust Nest pushes a full Locust build to the limit, helping to generate as many Locusts as possible. It will double the number of passively generated Locusts, and allows you to simultaneously spawn Locusts in different lanes. This Talent is only recommended when you have several Talents already invested into Locusts, as other options at this tier will get more value otherwise.