Become a Prime Zerg - 7 Tips To Master Zagara

Hello lads! Today we will talk about Zagara, giving you seven tips to master this incredible hero. According to our HotS tier list, she is the best specialist in the game: she has a powerful laning phase, great utility, provides a lot of vision and her heroic can be game changing. Playing Zagara isn’t easy, but with your help you will be able to play this hero at its full potential.

Creep Tumor does not provide only vision

Creep Tumor is Zagara’s most iconic ability. It’s common to spam this ability just to get vision control: you can use the tumors to prevent ganks, watch over objectives and spot the enemy rotations, but don’t forget that there is more!

According to our HotS boost team, it’s crucial to take advantage of the passive portion of this ability: when Zagara walks on a Tumor, she gets a burst of movement speed and a buff to health regen. This means that placing a few tumors in her lane is a great way to improve your survivability and even get an edge in a close duel. Placing a few tumors close to an escape route can also increase your chances to get away from messy situations - don’t underestimate the speed boost!

Use Devouring Maw optimally, don’t be impatient

Devouring Maw can be devastating when used at the best moment - this heroic ability can win a teamfight if it hits three or more people, but it can be tricky to land. During our duo queue boost sessions we saw many Zagara players using this heroic “reactively”, or almost as a panic button, and it rarely works. Judging from my experience, to land a perfect Devouring Maw you should be very patient.

Don’t move too close to the enemy front line to catch the whole team, but play it safe. Locking two priority target can be enough to turn the tides of a fight, and hitting only two guys is better than hitting zero, or dying for it.

Use your heroic to create space

Elaborating on the last tip, Zagara’s heroic Devouring Maw is so strong because it has multiple uses, and it’s flexibility allows Zagara to dominate our HotS tier list. The most common use is to crowd control a few enemies trying to set up a “wombo combo”, but sometimes you can use it to create more space on the field.

This ability can be used to block an escape route, especially in choke points, to protect your allies or to catch a fleeing enemy. You can get very creative, using it to force your target to walk into another spell or just to slow down his retreat.

Keep in mind that its cooldown is pretty long - 100 seconds - so try to be as patient as possible and don’t waste it. You will require skill and luck to exploit its full potential, so start a game and practice it.

Maximize Baneling Barrage’s effectiveness

Baneling Barrage is another tricky ability, because of its slow cast time and the radius of the splash damage. You will need a lot of practice to predict the enemy movements and cast it at the best angle. Just a little mistake of only 7 or 8 degrees can make a huge difference, reducing your pushing power. According to our Heroes of the Storm boost team, a good rule of thumb is to aim for the middle minion from a side, hitting the whole wave.

In team fights it’s even more difficult, as you will need to consider the cast time, to predict the movements of your enemies and find the perfect positioning to cast your barrage. As a final note, keep in mind that this ability should not be spammed, because its cast time will reduce your auto attack damage. So instead of casting a “bad” barrage, use more autos and save the cooldown for a better opportunity.

Don’t be lazy when placing creeps!

Very underestimated tip here: place creeps as often as possible. It’s literally the ABC of Zagara: Always Be Creeping. This hero is the best specialist on our Heroes of the Storm tier list mainly because of the extra vision provided by creeps and the health regen and movement speed buff, so spam this ability as often as possible, even if the creeps are cleared fastly by the enemies.

Use Infested Drop to tank, but choose Hunter Killer if you want damage

Zagara has two summoned abilities: Hunter Killer and Infested drops, and they have different purposes. The latter ability will spawn two units with low damage but high health, while Hunter Killer focuses more on damage. Use them accordingly: when pushing for a building, cast your Infested Drop first to soak damage and take tower aggro, and then use Hunter Killer to deal as much damage as possible.

Apply the same logic to team fights: you can use Infested Drops to create a front line and soak damage and skillshots, and cast Hunter Killer for the clean up when the enemies have already burnt their cooldowns. Using Hunter Killer first will be useless, since your Hydralisk will be blown up instantly.

Set up huge wombo combos with Devouring Maw

We can’t emphasize enough how Devouring Maw can be devastating in team fights: there is a reason if Zagara is so dominant on our Heroes of the Storm tier list. If you can coordinate with your team, telling them to save their high damage ability for your heroic, you can set up some amazing combos.

Actually there are two choices here: you can use your Devouring Maw to help your allies landing their own abilities, or wait for the friendly lockdown to place the perfect heroic. It mostly depends on the team composition: if you are playing with E.T.C., you will have no troubles casting the perfect Maw, but even heroes like Rexxar, Malfurion, Tyrande and Nazeebo get the job done. It’s just more dirty.

Mastering Zagara can be very rewarding, so follow our tips to become a great player and improve your win rate with Zagara. If you like our content, check our site in the next days for more guides and content about the upcoming hero Dehaka.