Zagara Talents

Level	Choices
1	? ✓ ?
4	✓ ? ?
7	? ? ✓
10	✓ ?
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16	✓ ? ?
20	? ? ? ✓

Volatile Acid is a decent Talent that empowers Baneling Barrage by increasing its range.

The extra range helps a lot when you want more safety while soaking. More importantly, it can be used to poke down enemy Structures from high distance.

Corpse Feeders is a strong Talent that makes the Roachlings from Infested Drop survive a bit longer by increasing their Health while also making the Ability usable more often thanks to the cooldown reduction.

While not particularly good on its own, this Talent empowers Bile Drop at Level 7 and Corrosive Saliva at Level 16, hence why we find it more valuable than the alternatives.

Infest is a good Talent that gives Zagara more siege power at the cost of team fight damage.

Consider picking this Talent when you are playing on a big Map, the enemy team does not have good gankers (for example Zeratul), and you want to split-push better at the cost of team fight power in the late game.

Envenomed Spines is a strong Talent as it provides Zagara with another relatively high source of on-demand damage which does not require her to be exposed for long.

When you do not expect to fight enemies Heroes for the next minute and/or when you are really close to taking down an enemy Structure but have to retreat, you can use Envenomed Spines against to enemy Structures.

Choose this Talent when you want to help killing high-mobility Heroes (such as Zeratul) or to damage enemy Heroes who can punish you when you get too close (for example Garrosh).

Medusa Blades is a good Talent that will greatly increase Zagara's waveclear and help her better manage her Mana usage when needed. Thanks to this Talent, all your Basic Attacks will cleave on 3 additional nearby targets.

Choose this Talent when you want to play more around macro, you do not need Envenomed Spines to deal with enemy Heroes, and you cannot stack Serrated Spines.

Serrated Spines is a good Talent that provides additional Attack Damage based on how many Basic Attacks on enemy Heroes have been done by Zagara during the game.

Keep in mind that the damage bonus provided by this Talent also increases the damage dealt by your Basic Attacks against non-Heroes, including Structures, however, you still have to get a good amount of stacks on enemy Heroes.

Choose this Talent when the enemy team does not have a scary Tank which can punish you while hitting enemy Heroes with Basic Attacks or when playing ARAM as you can easily get 100-120 stacks before the game ends.

Baneling Massacre is a decent Talent that allows Zagara to immediately cast 2 additional charges of Baneling Barrage, but increases its cooldown by 50%.

The cooldown increase is easier to understand if you look at the time it takes to get 2 Charges back: without this Talent, you need to wait 8 seconds; with this Talent, you need to wait 12 seconds.

That said, being able to store 2 more Charges means that you can deal more burst damage by casting Baneling Barrage 4 times in a row.

Due to the cooldown increase, you should only consider this Talent when you want to improve your burst damage, usually combined with Devouring Maw.

Viscous Acid is a good Talent which makes Baneling Barrage apply a moderate Slow to enemy Heroes hit.

The effect provided by this Talent can be used to kite enemy Heroes and occasionally catch fleeing Heroes, if they lack mobility tools.

Bile Drop is a strong Talent that, upon Quest completion, increases Zagara's damage by providing Infested Drop an additional Roachling. Combine it with Corpse Feeders to get even more value out of it.

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.

Devouring Maw is arguably one of the most impactful Heroic Abilities in the game. A well placed Devouring Maw will not only apply a moderate amount of damage to all enemies trapped within, but will effectively remove them from play for a full 4 second duration.

This unique crowd control Ability is completely uncounterable, as it is even able to take in Heroes considered to be Unstoppable at the time of its use, but it cannot be used on Deathwing despite him being permanently Unstoppable thanks to Aspect of Death.

A downside to Devouring Maw is its delayed cast time, which may leave newer Zagara players feeling as though the Ability is somewhat unresponsive, but you will eventually get used to it. Players need to be able to foreshadow their targets' movement to give themselves the higher likelihood of landing a successful Maw.

Once created, Devouring Maw is considered to be impassable terrain, similar to Structures, so keep in mind it may potentially block both allied and enemy Heroes to reach their intended location.

Nydus Network is a situational Heroic Ability which allows Zagara to split-push effectively, quickly join the rest of her team when needed, and restore Health.

Not only does this Talent provide a sizable increase in Creep Tumor coverage, but the cooldown reduction built in to her Basic Attacks is invaluable when having to constantly spam Basic Abilities to tear down the enemy defenses.

The cooldown reduction will not only greatly impact Zagara's sustain damage output through Baneling Barrage, but will also dramatically increase the up time of Roachlings and Hydralisks spawned from Infested Drop and Hunter Killer.

The ability to immediately travel anywhere on the battlefield where Creep Tumor has previously been laid is invaluable, and will constantly force enemies to have to leave other important Objectives to alleviate the pressure it will create.

Always remember to place an entrace to Nydus Network directly near the allied Hall of Storms to ensure quick return to the field should Zagara be slain at any point. The sustain provided when entering a Nydus Worm will also prevent Zagara from ever having to pull back her pressure due to a lack of Health or Mana.

Hydralisk Transfusion is a strong Talent because it gives Zagara self-sustain when Hydralisk is attacking.

Protective Coating is a situational Talent, as a “permanent” 20% damage reduction to all sources is incredibly strong. It is recommended having Creep near Zagara's current location at all times to keep up this additional source of protection.

Spell Shield is a situational Talent that gives Zagara more survivability by increasing her Spell Armor for a brief moment. Enable it when you expect burst damage and/or crowd control within 2 seconds, else keep it disabled to avoid wasting it for poke damage.

Corrosive Saliva deals damage based off of the maximum Health of a Hero, therefore the higher Health a target has, the more effective the Talent will be. This Talent is great at tearing down intimidating frontlines, especially since those are the Heroes that will most often be in range of Zagara's Abilities assuming she is positioned correctly.

Mutalisk is a good Talent when split-pushing is the name of the game, but at Level 16 you will not find many opportunities for that, therefore you will usually go for Corrosive Saliva anyways.

Although the additional bounce attacks are nice, especially when the Mutalisk is attacking an enemy Minion wave, the main strength of Mutalisk lies in the spawn's greatly increased duration. Long after their initial summoning, Mutalisks will continue down the lane, dealing multi-target damage to any Minions or defenses that happen across its path.

Jagged Barbs is a decent Talent that further enhances Zagara's Basic Attacks by increasing her Attack Range by 1.1—from 6.6 to 7.7—and Attack Damage by 50%.

We find Jagged Barbs better when playing on Maps where team fights happen in a relatively fixed area which you can cover with Creep Tumor pre-emptively.

Tyrant Maw is a good Talent increases the damage of Devouring Maw by a low amount and it gives some cooldown reduction each time an enemy Hero within 20 range dies from units allied to Zagara.

Starting a team fight when some Heroic Abilities are not ready yet is risky, so the cooldown reduction is helpful because you will end a team fight having less cooldown on Devouring Maw for the next one.

Endless Creep is a good Talent for Zagara at Level 20 when she has chosen Nydus Network as it includes a slew of performance upgrades to her kit. The first upgrade that comes with Endless Creep is the massive increase in Creep Tumor's cast range.

Creep Tumor with its upgraded cast range can be used liberally as it will be effectively providing free vision all throughout the entire battlefield. The resulting additional vision helps prevent enemy ambushes and also reveals their rotations more easily. Sometimes you may even be able to backdoor with it.

Broodmother is a decent Talent which increases Zagara's Attack Speed by 20% and automatically shoots a Baneling towards the target of your every third Basic Attack.

Pack Instinct is a strong Talent which boosts the damage done by Zagara and her Summons against enemies that have been recently attacked by Hunter Killer.

If you have picked Mutalisk at Level 16, it will be easier for you to get value from this Talent because Mutalisks are harder to kill than Hydralisks.

Unless your really need the utility offered by other Talents in this Tier, we recommend this Talent regardless of your strategy being more or less oriented to team fights because it boosts your damage against both enemy Heroes and Structures.