Zeratul Talents

Level	Choices
1	? ? ✓
4	? ✓ ✘︎
7	? ✓ ✘︎
10	✓ ?
13	? ✓ ?
16	? ? ✓
20	✓ ✘︎ ? ?

Greater Cleave allows Cleave to hit opponents who are running directly away from Zeratul after a Basic Attack (which creates a gap between the two, putting the target out of range). Many kills can be secured this way, considering that Zeratul's basic rotation leaves many Heroes with a sliver of Health remaining. Further, Greater Cleave synergises well with Psionic Strength, Rending Cleave, and Void Slash by making it easier to Cleave several enemies at once.

Shadow Hunter has the drawback of being ineffective until completed. However, once completed it will greatly increase the amount of possible plays to be done by him. Since you need to deliver several basic attacks to get value out of Shadow Hunter, we only recommend this Talent against compositions without good crowd control to stop you.

Move Unseen speeds up Zeratul's rotations considerably. This Talent allows you to freely use your blink after issuing a gank to reposition for another one in any lane. The main reason it is decent for this roamer playstyle is that it takes out the 1.5 seconds necessary to Mount up. Be aware that mounting up will always be a disadvantage after getting Move Unseen.

Rending Cleave provides more upfront damage than its Psionic Strength counterpart. This makes it better in situations where you would not be able to deliver many Basic Attacks, such as against crowd control-heavy team compositions. Further, if you need to claim Mercenary Camps or find yourself cleaning up Minions on 3-lane Maps, Rending Cleave is a good choice, as it functions in PvE unlike its counterpart.

Psionic Strength provides an easy to use and reliable damage increase. Its main downside compared to the alternative Talents, however, is that it does not function in PvE. The sustain PvP damage increase it provides is very powerful to make up for this fact however.

Darkness Descends requires sustain Basic Attacks to generate value. In general however, Psionic Strength will yield more overall damage.

Wormhole competes with Seeker in the Dark as two of Zeratul's most important Talents. Individually, they each in essence serve to greatly improve Zeratul's combat mobility, though they do so slightly differently. Wormhole's 1.25-second delay becomes a great liability against crowd control-heavy team compositions. However, in other scenarios, it is generally more reliable than its counterpart, as it does not require you to hit with Singularity Spike. It has great synergy with Shadow Hunter.

Seeker in the Dark's main attraction point over Wormhole are the Movement Speed increase it provides and the added flexibility of being able to conserve Blink's cooldown, as Seeker in the Dark acts as a second gap closer. However, Singularity Spike's skillshot nature makes it blockable by undesirable targets, or, at worst, missable. Still, Seeker in the Dark is generally considered the superior choice at higher levels of play due to the aforenoted flexibility it provides.

Warp Skirmisher is a highly aggressive Talent choice that makes Zeratul more or less inescapable for most if not all Heroes, on top of providing a notable Basic Attack damage increase. On the other hand, it does not add any form of engage to Zeratul, but only increases his already good chasing capabilities. Since Warp Skirmisher does not add the same flexibility to engage or disengage provided by the other options, we do not recommend it in any build.

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.

Might Of The Nerazim is Zeratul's more selfish and offense-oriented Heroic Ability choice. It is generally chosen when you are unable to determine whether your teammates will be willing (or able) to cooperate with you for strong Void Prison plays. Might Of The Nerazim is also an excellent choice for bursting down a key target if the opposing team features at least one squishy Hero and the rest of their team cannot provide enough protection.

Void Prison is a powerful Heroic Ability with a variety of uses. It can be used to catch fleeing enemies, setup combos, and even delay the capturing of Mercenary Camps, giving your team time contest the Objective.

Shroud of Adun's automatic Shielding effect meshes well with Zeratul's in-and-out playstyle. It is a good option with Move Unseen, but should only be the choice if you cannot deliver Basic Attacks in a fight.

Mending Strikes provides a massive amount of self sustain, allowing Zeratul to deal with Mercenary Camps with ease, and recuperate from most damage very quickly, granted there is something to beat up nearby. It also makes Zeratul unkillable in 1v1 situations by most Healers and certain Tanks as well. Mending Strikes works particularly well with Might Of The Nerazim and Master Warp-Blade.

Spell Shield is a very situational Talent. You will mostly mitigate more damage with Mending Strikes or Shroud of Adun, as these two will be always useful, since they do not depend on being used against specific Abilities. However, Spell Shield is excellent in a Twin Cleave Build, because it does not land many Basic Attacks, reducing the effectiveness of Mending Strikes.

We only recommend picking Spell Shield against team composition with good crowd control or with premeditated Abilities, like a Kael'thas with Pyroblast, or a Tyrael with Judgment. By activating the Spell Shield when those high damage combos or Abilities are coming, you may mitigate enough damage to survive against them.

Master Warp-Blade offers a reliable mean of increasing your damage output. Although Master Warp Blade offers less burst damage than its Sentenced to Death alternative, it does allow Zeratul to very efficiently duel an enemy, granting great sustain from Mending Strikes. This Talent is worth considering in games where enemies cannot punish you during your dive, as it will deal much more sustain damage than the other options.

Void Slash has the potential of dealing a large amount of area of effect damage during teamfights. It is picked along with Greater Cleave to ease the 2 targets condition. This Talent is necessary with Void Prison, as it allows Zeratul to use Cleave, entrap enemies with Void Prison to have Cleave ready again when they are released.

Sentenced to Death has the potential of dealing more burst damage than Master Warp-Blade, at the cost of much sustain damage, and of having much less PvE flexibility. This Talent is excellent if your team relies on taking down a very specific targets to rip team fights away from opponents. When picked, it is generally done so along Seeker in the Dark, as the Singularity Spike duration increase allows you to get more damage out of the Talent. When paired with Twilight Falls, this Talent grants Zeratul enough damage to kill a priority target in a second.

Twilight Falls is a fantastic Talent for Zeratul. Ideally, you want to use Twilight Falls immediately after you use all of your Basic Abilities to maximise its benefit. However, if you just need damage, you can simply use Might Of The Nerazim to reset Cleave and Singularity Spike. You can also use the Talent just to get a third use of Blink when trying to escape pursuers or chase particularly slippery Heroes. Note that the Abilities that you reset still have their full Mana cost; see to have enough to go through a second round.

Unwavering Pressure is an odd and ultimately very weak Talent. Zeratul's playstyle revolves around burst damage, particularly with the powerful Twilight Falls. Unwavering Pressure's sustain style puts Zeratul at risk on top of providing an underwhelming reward for succesfully delivering enough Basic Attacks to trigger a cooldown reset.

When going for builds that greatly empower some of your Basic Abilities, Shadow Stride cannot compete with Twilight Falls because using all your Abilities twice will be more effective than having a Shield from this Talent. However, this Talent is great for a Basic Attacks Build because it greatly increase his survivability while also guaranteeing constant hits.

Shadow Mending grants outstanding self-sustain to Zeratul. As long as you keep hitting multiple enemies with Cleave, you will be very resilient. It is a great choice with Void Prison, since you don't have access to Twilight Falls.