Xul Abilities and Strategy

• 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.
• 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 is on a tank just after they spent their defensive skills, a Johanna without Iron Skin or an Anub'arak without 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 has a tiny range, it is recommended to always stay mounted so you can easily find a way to engage your desired target.

Raise Skeleton (D) Xul

When a nearby enemy Minion dies, it becomes a Skeletal Warrior with 240 (+4% per level) Health that attacks for 21 (+4% per level) damage and lasts up to 12 seconds. Upon death, Skeletal Warriors deal 40 (+4% per level) damage to nearby enemies. Up to 3 Skeletal Warriors can be active at once when spawned in this way.

Xul's trait will not only increase his pushing capabilities greatly, but will also greatly increase his damage in fights.

Up to 3 Skeletal Warriors can be active at once, and every extra Summon evoked will make the first spawned to explode dealing 40 damage to enemies, allowing you to deal decent damage into the opposing laner by just hitting the wave. If the enemy is far from your warriors, you can use Bone Prison to make skeletons move towards them to guarantee the explosion damage while clearing the other Minions.

Bone Armor (1) Xul

Activate to gain a Shield equal to 25% of Xul's maximum Health for 3 seconds.

Bone Armor can help Xul a lot when facing opposing laner, since he can use it to ignore the damage received while clearing the wave. This is a recommended tactic when you are having trouble rotating faster, but be aware that the Shield is your main way to survive ganks. Only use it in the wave if you are sure that you will not get ganked soon.

After getting Harvest Vitality, Xul will have a lot of self-healing in fights. It is better to only use Bone Armor when you are below 70% Health to not lose value from healing. If the opposing team features a lot of crowd control or burst damage, the Shield should be used early on to prevent you from dying during a Stun or Silence.

Bone Armor will be a whole different skill depending of Xul's Level 1 Talent. The differences and how it should be used will be mentioned in the Talent Build page.

Spectral Scythe (Q) Xul

• Mana: 55
• Cooldown: 8 seconds

Summon a scythe that travels to Xul after 1 second, dealing 190 (+4% per level) damage to enemies and spawning a Skeletal Warrior when hitting enemy Heroes. These do not count towards Xul's Raise Skeleton maximum.

Spectral Scythe causes Xul to summon a scythe to the target location that travels back to him after 1 second, dealing a large amount of damage to all enemies in its path.

Xul's waveclear becomes even more powerful if he uses Spectral Scythe effectively, which usually requires him to place the scythse behind enemy Archer Minions.

Aiming and landing Spectral Scythe can sometimes be tricky, especially against moving enemy targets. Consequently, it is often recommended to wait until you have successfully Rooted someone by using Bone Prison and then following up with Spectral Scythe on the imprisoned target.

After getting Mortal Wound at 20, it is recommended to only use against someone with low life or affected by some crowd control, considering the healing reduction will be much more useful than the damage.

Cursed Strikes (W) Xul

• Passive

Xul's Basic Attacks deal damage in a wide area and reduce the Attack Speed of Heroes and Summons by 40% for 2 seconds. Lasts 4 seconds once triggered.

Cursed Strikes will make all your attacks for the next 4 seconds cleave. 5 attacks can be landed in the duration, so it is crucial to hit all of them. If your enemy starts running from you after you activate it, keep walking towards them while stopping to attack the closest Minion or Hero every time you can, so your cleave will hit them even when they are outside of your Attack range.

During team fights, Cursed Strikes should be used against Attack Speed dependent Heroes, such as Illidan, Thrall, or Kharazim, in order to cripple their combat efficiency. When getting ganked, Xul can deny a considerable part of the damage by landing some Cursed Strikes attacks while walking backwards, reducing their Attack Speed.

Bone Prison (E) Xul

• Mana: 70
• Cooldown: 10 seconds

After a 2 second delay, deal 80 (+4% per level) damage and Root the target enemy Hero for 1.75 seconds. All nearby Skeletal Warriors will fixate on the target for their duration.

Bone Prison is an incredibly powerful crowd control Ability for two major reasons. Firstly, its 2-second Root effect provides enough time for Xul and the rest of his team to approach the affected enemy target and damage it. Secondly, Bone Prison comes with flashy visual effect that marks the chosen enemy, which clearly signalises your allies which target to focus while it also causes all of your active Skeletons to fixate on the Rooted target for additional damage.

A good way to use Bone Prison is on a Tank just after they spent their defensive skills. Johanna without Iron Skin or an Anub'arak without Burrow Charge often turn out to be an easy kill, given they will be Rooted in the same place for 2 seconds.

In this section we discuss how this Heroic Ability works and give some tips on how to use it. If you are looking for a detailed explanation on when and why you should pick it, check out the dedicated section in the Talent Build page.

Poison Nova (R) Xul

• Heroic
• Mana: 100
• Cooldown: 90 seconds

After 0.5 seconds, release poisonous missiles that deal 630 (+4% per level) damage to all enemies hit over 10 seconds.

Poison Nova is an incredibly strong Heroic Ability that deals almost half the life of a Hanzo or a Valla. However, that damage will be dealt over 10 seconds, thus allowing Healers to easily save the dying target. It is also easy to avoid when you are not close to Xul. Therefore, Poison Nova is a really good option when either facing a composition with many melee Heroes, or against Healers incapable of supporting all their team, as they only have single-target healing (such as Lt. Morales).

Using Poison Nova right at the start of a fight might not be a good idea, since it will be easily dodged by the ranged opposing Heroes. It is recommended to wait a couple seconds after fight starts to use it, complicating for enemy Heroes without mobility tools (for example Kael'thas) to dodge it, as they might be focused on other things in the combat.

In this section we discuss how this Heroic Ability works and give some tips on how to use it. If you are looking for a detailed explanation on when and why you should pick it, check out the dedicated section in the Talent Build page.

Skeletal Mages (R) Xul

• Heroic
• Mana: 80
• Cooldown: 90 seconds

Summon 4 Frost Mages in a line that attack nearby enemies for 47 (+4% per level) damage a second and Slow them by 30% for 2 seconds. Last up to 15 seconds.

Skeletal Mages is a great tool to zone enemy Heroes and Slow them down. The efficiency of Skeletal Mages can be increased even further if your team has decent crowd control Abilities, which enable you to follow up extremely well on targets already Slowed by Skeletal Mages.

Skeletal Mages is a crucial Heroic Ability when you are having trouble getting close to ranged Heroes, as the Slow will enable you to reach them.

Due to the relatively long cooldown on Skeletal Mages, it should be cast with caution. Use narrow choke points and impassable terrain to your advantage in order to successfully trap enemy high-priority targets.