Zagara first made her presence known in Starcraft II: Heart of the Swarm as a brood mother who would defy the queen of blades until she realized that the Kerrigan was stronger than her. She would eventually join Kerrigan's brood and help lead the Zerg to many victories.
When I got into the alpha version of Heroes of the Storm I wanted to play Zagara right off the bat since her talents revolve around spawning minions and spreading creep. So I saved up the 7000 gold and got her. Since then I've basically mained her and have had quite a bit of success with her as well. I picked up a lot of what I do with Zagara from watching Grubby on Twitch. Back in the alpha/beta phase of the game he released a nice one stop Zagara guide on Youtube which is literally loaded with information on how to play Zagara well. She is one of the Heroes who has not really seen much in the way of change since her original release, but I think she is a character that needs to change a bit because there are only 2 real viable builds available to her and many of her talents just don't have much use.
The one build is a build focusing on damage, the other is focusing on utility via increasing creep tumor effectiveness. This allows for Zagara's team to see a large portion of the map which provides a big advantage. She's also got a bit of a gimmick with Abathur in which she uses her Nydus Network (R) to appear near a placed Toxic Nest of Abathur's behind enemy lines. She comes out and begins attacking the fort while Abathur clones her. So basically two Zagara's assault a fort and the real Zagara escapes before the enemy team can defend. Problem is this can be easily scouted by a team that is paying attention.
I mentioned that she doesn't have the greatest of talent choices and I'll touch more on that in my build, but there is a reason that several of her talents have over an 80% pick rate. Despite not being the most diverse hero, Zagara has hovered between a 50% to 53% win ratio pretty much since I've started playing the game. To say that she's pretty balanced I think is fair, but still I think a rework of some of her talents are needed while not crippling her current state. Though she's seen a couple small nerfs over the past few months Zagara remains a force and that force is spearheaded by her Heroic Ability, Devouring Maw (R). So those are a couple thoughts on Zagara. My favorite Hero in the game and a force to be reckoned with too. So lets look at my build...... and maaaaany other people's build cause as I mentioned earlier, there's really only 2.
Level 1:Reconstitution
Reconstitution increases Zagara's health restoration while standing on creep by 200%. Honestly I feel like this is the only viable level 1 talent Zagara has. Her other talents simply do not stack up. Corpse Feeders (E) increases roach health which is nice for tanking turret fire or getting mercs, but it does nothing attack wise and roaches do their job without this upgrade as well. Demolitionist is another useless ability. While it does take an additional shot away from structures each time Zagara hits it with a basic attack, there is a big problem. That problem is a basic attack is needed. So for the first couple minutes, sure it looks good, later when you're trying to defend yourself from enemies, not so much. Corpse Feeders (E) does Demolitionist's job better than it does I'd say. Centrifugal Hooks doubles the range of your Baneling Barrage (Q). Another talent with little point. Baneling Barrage (Q) already outranges buildings and if you are in a team fight, the double range of Centrifugal Hooks will never be used as you'll be out of range to use any of your other abilities and gives the opponent more time to dodge. Level 1 is a seriously weak spot for Zagara's talents that needs addressing.
Level 4: Envenomed Spines
Envenomed Spines increases Zagara's basic attack range by 20% while also dealing an additional 42 damage over 3 seconds. This ability I would not be surprised if they gave a small nerf to as it is easily the best choice unless you are going for a creep build in which case Tumor Clutch (decreases the cooldown on Creep Tumor (D) to 10 seconds and removes the mana cost) is better. Envenomed Spines outperforms Medusa Blades, which allows basic attacks to hit 3 targets for 25% damage, in every way. Envenom, while not a bad talent, puts Zagara, who has no escapes, into a very dangerous situation as it has a very short range. Envenomed Spines can do more damage at a much safer distance. Infest powers up lane minions by 400% damage against non heroic units for 30 seconds. Problem is they just get mowed down by heroes and again, Envenomed Spines is better. This is another talent tier that needs a rework on Zagara as there is only 1 real choice outside of the creep build.
Level 7: Rapid Incubation
Finally a level with a couple options. My favorite here is Rapid Incubation (#) which Zagara channels to restore 25% of both health and mana over 3 seconds. This talent is extremely useful in a couple situations. One is that it gives Zagara the potential to never have to go back to the base to restore health or mana. The other is that it can save Zagara from potentially fatal damage. The only downside to this talent is the channeling that needs to be done while it works. If doing a creep build, Endless Creep, which spreads creep 50% farther and gives tumors 100% more health, is the way to go in most cases. Another interesting choice here is Swarm Momentum. This ability reduces the cooldown of your basic abilities by 0.75 seconds for each basic attack Zagara performs. This makes Zagara very dangerous in battle, but also makes her a very heavy mana user with no way to recover it besides going back to the base. Volatile Acid increases Baneling Barrage's (Q) damage against non heroic units by 50%. This only slightly boosts Zagara's wave clearing ability which is quite strong already. So personally, this talent is basically useless in my eyes. Ventral Sacs also is another ability to ignore in almost all cases. This ability causes Infested Drop (E) to spawn 3 roaches instead of 2. The plus to this isn't the damage the roaches do, but the vision they grant and that they can dismount heroes.
Level 10: Devouring Maw
Devouring Maw (R) is one of the most game changing and dangerous Heroic Abilities in the game. Devouring Maw (R) devours enemy heroes for 4 seconds. Initially the ability does 307 damage (+0.03 per level), prevents your team from attacking the trapped heroes, prevents the trapped heroes from attacking, and adds an additional 43 damage (+0.03 per level) over the 4 seconds. This is one of the few abilities that can be used on unstoppable enemies as well. Devouring Maw has the ability to completely turn a game around. Even more scary is it's ability to combo with several other heroes's heroic abilities including E.T.C., Jaina,Chromie, and others. This talent also can act as an escape weapon for Zagara. Of course you'd rather use this offensively, but if needed the maw is a great escape tool. Her other heroic, Nydus Network (R) I touched on earlier. It has it's gimmick uses such as teaming up with Abathur and it can also be used to split push which can be helpful. It also gives Zagara somewhat of a global presence. It's nowhere near as effective as say Brightwing's or Dehaka's or even Falstad's but it does offer the threat of global presence. Devouring Maw (R) is clearly the better of the two in nearly all situations.
Level 13: Mutalisk
Back in alpha and beta Mutalisk played second banana to the grooved spines ability. Nowadays it is really the far and above best talent of yet another tier that needs some help. Mutalisk changes Zagara's Hunter Killer (W) into a flying Zerg called a Mutalisk (W). The Mutalisk hits the target twice. First for 60% damage, then 30% damage. The Mutalisk also lasts 50% longer than the Hunter Killer, flys over walls, and will not stop hunting the target until it dies or times out. Also in this tier is Grooved Spines and Bile Drop. The first increases the damage of Hunter Killer (W) and the second increases Infested Drop's (E) impact damage by 100%. In both cases Mutalisk ends up doing far more damage. Giant Killer is another option here, but it often puts Zagara in risky situations as once again, she has no escape and Giant Killer is solely reliant on the user's ability to auto-attack. In the end, Mutalisk is the safer option and again, the stronger talent when looking at pure damage. Spell shield is also an option in this tier, but chances are if your opponent sees you with the talent, they will be using their weakest ability to activate it. Again, this talent tier needs looking at.
Level 16: Brood Expansion
Level 16 is yet another no real option talent pick for Zagara with the exception of one. Brood Expansion adds an additional charge to Hunter Killer (W) or Mutalisk (W) depending on the build path you take. This means that you can have 2 Hunter Killers or Mutalisks on the battlefield focusing one target or going after 2 different ones, either way, it's double the damage. Also in this tier is Baneling Massacre which causes Baneling Barrage (Q) to spawn 8 Banelings This can double the damage of the barrage if all the Banelings hit. That in itself is difficult to do as they can be dodged and the talent also causes Zagara to be immobile for 2 seconds. Stoneskin (#) in general is not a bad ability as it adds 30% of your health as a shield. The problem here is that Zagara does not have much health so the shield is not that much. This talent is far better on higher health heroes. Unless you are 100% dedicated to creep, Metabollic Boost is just not viable as you will not always be on creep. The talent allows Zagara to move 40% faster on creep, which is nice for escaping, but again Zagara is often forced to be off creep. There's a reason that Brood Expansion currently has a 90% pick ratio. This talent tier needs help. Badly.
Level 20: Bolt of the Storm
Bolt of the Storm (#) is Zagara's get out of jail free card. The ability allows Zagara to teleport to a nearby location. This means Zagara can teleport out of danger or chase an enemy down easier. Bolt of the storm has a ton of uses and is one of the best talents in the game. Zagara's other level 20 talents are pretty lackluster. Fury of the Storm adds wave clearing ability, but by level 20 Zagara literally rips through waves anyway. Broodling Nest causes the Nydus Network (R) to spawn 6 Broodlings when Zagara exits the network. The Broodlings attack the nearest lane, but the ability can only activate every 20 seconds. This gives more pushing power to Zagara, but again by the time level 20 hits, pushing down keeps and forts should be close to over. Tyrant Maw upgrades Devouring Maw's (R) damage by 50% and if it kills a hero it reduces the cooldown by 25 seconds. That can stack so, 2 kills would be 50 seconds. Chances are though if you land a good maw, you'll not need a second and would probably be very close to winning. Also notable is that the death times are so long by the time level 20 hits that if you die, Devouring Maw (R) will be nearly off cooldown or at least half way through the cooldown. Tyrant Maw is not a bad talent by any means, but the sheer utility Bolt of the Storm (#) offers is way too much to ignore.
That's what I will normally do with Zagara. As I've mentioned, there are several talent tiers that need a real looking at. I don't want Blizzard to damage Zagara's current popular build much at all, but I would love to see some use in the Roach and Baneling talents to be specific. So in closing, Zagara, my favorite hero is a real monster when left unchecked on the battlefield. However, she has no escape, is squishy, and her minions can be blown away as well which I think really balances out her power quite nicely.
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