Abathur strategies for each map
Here I'll give you a rundown of the strategy I typically adopt on each map as Abathur, given you have a normal team composition (Solid tank, good healer, 2 DPS and you as aba)
Cursed hollow
Okay. Cursed Hollow.
An easy Abathur map, for sure.
Here's the rundown: I almost EXCLUSIVELY go locust/backdoor build here. Always.
Find yourself a lane furthest from the tribute spawn as possible (If it spawns top, go bottom dummy!) and sit in a bush unseen.
Make sure they DO NOT HAVE VISION OF YOU GOING INTO THE BUSH!
If you have to, put a mine in the bush then tunnel. Do not walk into it and reveal yourself or 9/10 times you'll get ganked!
Now. Sit there, body soak the XP from that lane, then either
A) Hat an ally, help them try to win the tribute. Early on you will almost NEVER win.
B) Hat a minion in another empty lane and double soak. This should be your primary plan of action.
Your team should stall tribs, but not die, while you soak a level advantage.
If you do this right, you'll hit 10 before them. Chances are they have the first 2 tribs, but you SHOULD be able to deny the third and snowball with
your level 10 advantage!
Continue playing safe, use mule to keep buildings topped off from pushes!
Once you hit 16, start mining near wells by keeps, tunneling when your locust cooldown is at about 5-6 seconds.
Drop your brood, and immediately recall. Your passive locust will drop right before you poof home.
Then, hat the locust being shot by the keep! Shield, shoot keep, repeat on every locust.
2-3 pushes, you got yourself a keep!
Obviously, it's best to do this if you have vision on the enemy team and they don't have a high mobil hero who can easily stop you
(Fook you falstad)
Also be taking mercenary camps as soon as you hit 16! Go to my Strats page and watch the advanced guide to learn how!
If you do the backdooring right, you should open an easy path to the enemy core to win!
An easy Abathur map, for sure.
Here's the rundown: I almost EXCLUSIVELY go locust/backdoor build here. Always.
Find yourself a lane furthest from the tribute spawn as possible (If it spawns top, go bottom dummy!) and sit in a bush unseen.
Make sure they DO NOT HAVE VISION OF YOU GOING INTO THE BUSH!
If you have to, put a mine in the bush then tunnel. Do not walk into it and reveal yourself or 9/10 times you'll get ganked!
Now. Sit there, body soak the XP from that lane, then either
A) Hat an ally, help them try to win the tribute. Early on you will almost NEVER win.
B) Hat a minion in another empty lane and double soak. This should be your primary plan of action.
Your team should stall tribs, but not die, while you soak a level advantage.
If you do this right, you'll hit 10 before them. Chances are they have the first 2 tribs, but you SHOULD be able to deny the third and snowball with
your level 10 advantage!
Continue playing safe, use mule to keep buildings topped off from pushes!
Once you hit 16, start mining near wells by keeps, tunneling when your locust cooldown is at about 5-6 seconds.
Drop your brood, and immediately recall. Your passive locust will drop right before you poof home.
Then, hat the locust being shot by the keep! Shield, shoot keep, repeat on every locust.
2-3 pushes, you got yourself a keep!
Obviously, it's best to do this if you have vision on the enemy team and they don't have a high mobil hero who can easily stop you
(Fook you falstad)
Also be taking mercenary camps as soon as you hit 16! Go to my Strats page and watch the advanced guide to learn how!
If you do the backdooring right, you should open an easy path to the enemy core to win!
Blackheart's bay
Blackheart's Bay strategy is almost identical to Cursed Hollow's.
Locust/backdoor build.
Soak empty lanes, but play safer here than you do on CH.
What I like to do, and yes this is risky, is plant mines on your side of the maps dockside gold camps, tunnel and drop your locust and kill them!
Safe-ish 2 gold to hold onto, and you can easily rotate around the map stealing theirs when it's safe to do so.
Same thing really. Mule to slow cannon pushing, clone into team fights, lots of mines around the dock for vision, backdoor top keep ASAP when you hit 16.
Mercs are more important here since you can't easily backdoor bot lane keep!
Locust/backdoor build.
Soak empty lanes, but play safer here than you do on CH.
What I like to do, and yes this is risky, is plant mines on your side of the maps dockside gold camps, tunnel and drop your locust and kill them!
Safe-ish 2 gold to hold onto, and you can easily rotate around the map stealing theirs when it's safe to do so.
Same thing really. Mule to slow cannon pushing, clone into team fights, lots of mines around the dock for vision, backdoor top keep ASAP when you hit 16.
Mercs are more important here since you can't easily backdoor bot lane keep!
Towers of doom
Alright, this is where things get tricky.
On Towers of Doom I almost always go mine build with prolific.
Sit mid lane, spam mines ALL over the enemies side of the map in the jungle area.
They'll hit them CONSTANTLY trying to rotate top and bottom.
If you do this well, you can control the flow of ganks/shrine captures.
What you should be doing is securing your side of the maps shrine while your team
goes and harasses the enemy altar. Then you safely tunnel back mid, then mine/hat them to kill them and take the enemy altar.
You can't soak too much on this map except for maybe top's bush if the enemy rotates for a bot shrine.
So primarily focus on mining the map and helping gank.
At 13/16 I go locusts with mine build to solo the suicide camps as well as hard push lanes to steal forts.
Also because you can tunnel onto an enemy taking an altar, drop locusts onto him
and body him in with them, hat and murder them if they're squishy enough!
On Towers of Doom I almost always go mine build with prolific.
Sit mid lane, spam mines ALL over the enemies side of the map in the jungle area.
They'll hit them CONSTANTLY trying to rotate top and bottom.
If you do this well, you can control the flow of ganks/shrine captures.
What you should be doing is securing your side of the maps shrine while your team
goes and harasses the enemy altar. Then you safely tunnel back mid, then mine/hat them to kill them and take the enemy altar.
You can't soak too much on this map except for maybe top's bush if the enemy rotates for a bot shrine.
So primarily focus on mining the map and helping gank.
At 13/16 I go locusts with mine build to solo the suicide camps as well as hard push lanes to steal forts.
Also because you can tunnel onto an enemy taking an altar, drop locusts onto him
and body him in with them, hat and murder them if they're squishy enough!
Dragon knight
While we're on about mine build, here's the other map I take mine build on.
Except, here, I take ballistospores.
The reason for that is quick mobility.
See, when you go abathur on this map, there's a solid chance you'll completely lose control of one shrine,
but hold onto the other one fairly well.
The trick is, lots of slow mines between the shrines to know when rotations happen.
So, say you lose top, right? You typically do.
And USUALLY if your team is good, you hold bot.
See, what tends to happen is, mid will rotate bot to try and take it from you. So your mid goes bot too.
Then, the enemy top lane usually decides to try to go down too, because hey, we got top, and they're all bot, right?
WRONG.
You keep a mine planted on dk. Waddle your wormy self top, cap it, then immediately tunnel mid and click the shit out of that DK!
Assuming they're all bot and you have vision on them.
9/10 times it works out this way, I promise!
Takes lots of practice and balls, but aggressively controlling the shrines and stealing them back and forth is
key to winning this map as abathur!
And as a bonus, with locusts at 13/16 you can easily merc (even without survival instincts)
AND backdoor, since you have ballisto! (There's a spot to the side of the top keep on either side of the map you can get to!)
So, lots of maps between lanes to slow rotations, constantly steal shrines, backdoor, repeat!
Grab dk if its safe to do so!
Except, here, I take ballistospores.
The reason for that is quick mobility.
See, when you go abathur on this map, there's a solid chance you'll completely lose control of one shrine,
but hold onto the other one fairly well.
The trick is, lots of slow mines between the shrines to know when rotations happen.
So, say you lose top, right? You typically do.
And USUALLY if your team is good, you hold bot.
See, what tends to happen is, mid will rotate bot to try and take it from you. So your mid goes bot too.
Then, the enemy top lane usually decides to try to go down too, because hey, we got top, and they're all bot, right?
WRONG.
You keep a mine planted on dk. Waddle your wormy self top, cap it, then immediately tunnel mid and click the shit out of that DK!
Assuming they're all bot and you have vision on them.
9/10 times it works out this way, I promise!
Takes lots of practice and balls, but aggressively controlling the shrines and stealing them back and forth is
key to winning this map as abathur!
And as a bonus, with locusts at 13/16 you can easily merc (even without survival instincts)
AND backdoor, since you have ballisto! (There's a spot to the side of the top keep on either side of the map you can get to!)
So, lots of maps between lanes to slow rotations, constantly steal shrines, backdoor, repeat!
Grab dk if its safe to do so!
Garden of terror
This map plays a lot like Cursed Hollow.
Find a bush in an uncontested lane, and dual soak while your team handles objectives.
Mule helps slow terror pushes a bit, locusts help backdoor/merc.
Try to get terror as often as you can to keep bodies on the field! Just be careful when it expires!
Easy spots to backdoor keeps on this map, and lots of brush to hide in for sneaky pushes! This map is ALL about mobility!
Find a bush in an uncontested lane, and dual soak while your team handles objectives.
Mule helps slow terror pushes a bit, locusts help backdoor/merc.
Try to get terror as often as you can to keep bodies on the field! Just be careful when it expires!
Easy spots to backdoor keeps on this map, and lots of brush to hide in for sneaky pushes! This map is ALL about mobility!
Infernal shrines
AND HIS NAME WAS JOHN CEN-
No? Okay.
This map I usually run locust build, OR heal build. Up to you.
Locust build plays identical to Cursed Hollow's play style.
Vent, soak, push. Be safe, be mobile, clone for fights.
With heal build, just spam heal AOE on all the lanes to push even harder early.
This one can be tough as Abathur if your team plays poorly, or you aren't too skilled with Abathur.
It really helps if an ally takes a good AoE hero, like jaina, xul/sylv etc, on top of your Abathur pick, so you can clone them for mega shrine clear!
No? Okay.
This map I usually run locust build, OR heal build. Up to you.
Locust build plays identical to Cursed Hollow's play style.
Vent, soak, push. Be safe, be mobile, clone for fights.
With heal build, just spam heal AOE on all the lanes to push even harder early.
This one can be tough as Abathur if your team plays poorly, or you aren't too skilled with Abathur.
It really helps if an ally takes a good AoE hero, like jaina, xul/sylv etc, on top of your Abathur pick, so you can clone them for mega shrine clear!
Battlefield of eternity
This ones not so bad.
On BoE, I still run locust build (Noticing a trend are you?) and dual soak the lanes.
While everyone wails on each other with their pool noodles, you sit in a vent top or bot, then hat the opposite lane and rake in that
delicious essence. Mm. Minty.
If your team doesn't feed and you're doing well, your team should gain levels quickly.
Also, big helpful tip.
STOP.
DEFENDING.
EARLY.
Horeee sheeeet.
You will NOT win defending early, you merely let them wittle the immortal down, thus giving them a full shield immo in the end.
What you do is go full offense, or at the LEAST put your highest DPS on offense and the rest defend.
You want the early immos as low shield as possible to minimize the damage they do.
Losing both towers and the gate early snowballs the enemy minions into your fort, making more pressure for you.
Just focus on soaking and helping your team dps the immo, then at 13/16 you can take merc camps EASILY to make tons of pressure.
Also both top AND bot have easy behind-the-well backdoor spots! Play this map like a two lane cursed hollow!
On BoE, I still run locust build (Noticing a trend are you?) and dual soak the lanes.
While everyone wails on each other with their pool noodles, you sit in a vent top or bot, then hat the opposite lane and rake in that
delicious essence. Mm. Minty.
If your team doesn't feed and you're doing well, your team should gain levels quickly.
Also, big helpful tip.
STOP.
DEFENDING.
EARLY.
Horeee sheeeet.
You will NOT win defending early, you merely let them wittle the immortal down, thus giving them a full shield immo in the end.
What you do is go full offense, or at the LEAST put your highest DPS on offense and the rest defend.
You want the early immos as low shield as possible to minimize the damage they do.
Losing both towers and the gate early snowballs the enemy minions into your fort, making more pressure for you.
Just focus on soaking and helping your team dps the immo, then at 13/16 you can take merc camps EASILY to make tons of pressure.
Also both top AND bot have easy behind-the-well backdoor spots! Play this map like a two lane cursed hollow!
Braxis holdout
I'm gonna be honest with you here.
As of the time of writing, I haven't played too many games on this map, so It's a hard call on builds here.
I did locust build a couple times and heal build a couple times.
I'm personally leaning towards heal build here.
See, the way most of my aba games here go, is one team takes top, other team takes bot.
Then the clashing happens.
One team dog piles on the other shrine and everyones fighting.. And leave the other shrine completely open.
So, typically, since they KNOW you're aba, they'll push the fight.
Thing is, this map is SMALL. The gates of safety are like, five feet from the objective. So what do you do?
Oh baby, you know it. Litter mines on the pathway between the objectives to dismount anyone who tries to come stop you,
and you waddle that strong independent worm ass RIGHT onto that cap point and you sit there.
Boldly.
Hell, /dance. Do it. you won't.
They'll scurry SO fast to stop you, but your mines will dismount them and you be back into your gates
before the enemy li-ming can scream about how bad her tank is.
Seriously. That fast.
You keep doing that and the fury/salt levels of the enemy team will rise just as fast as your charge rate will.
And that's hella fast!
The way heal build plays into this is the fact that while theyre bouncing back and forth ENDLESSLY between caps,
you're sitting there, shielding every wave you get, and pushing. Harder and harder.
They'll literally never notice as you chip through their outer turrets and then before they know it, you've
helped take the shrines, AND destroyed their defenses, then suddenly
KEKEKE ZERG RUSH
and there's no towers or gates to stop them.
It's glorious.
As of the time of writing, I haven't played too many games on this map, so It's a hard call on builds here.
I did locust build a couple times and heal build a couple times.
I'm personally leaning towards heal build here.
See, the way most of my aba games here go, is one team takes top, other team takes bot.
Then the clashing happens.
One team dog piles on the other shrine and everyones fighting.. And leave the other shrine completely open.
So, typically, since they KNOW you're aba, they'll push the fight.
Thing is, this map is SMALL. The gates of safety are like, five feet from the objective. So what do you do?
Oh baby, you know it. Litter mines on the pathway between the objectives to dismount anyone who tries to come stop you,
and you waddle that strong independent worm ass RIGHT onto that cap point and you sit there.
Boldly.
Hell, /dance. Do it. you won't.
They'll scurry SO fast to stop you, but your mines will dismount them and you be back into your gates
before the enemy li-ming can scream about how bad her tank is.
Seriously. That fast.
You keep doing that and the fury/salt levels of the enemy team will rise just as fast as your charge rate will.
And that's hella fast!
The way heal build plays into this is the fact that while theyre bouncing back and forth ENDLESSLY between caps,
you're sitting there, shielding every wave you get, and pushing. Harder and harder.
They'll literally never notice as you chip through their outer turrets and then before they know it, you've
helped take the shrines, AND destroyed their defenses, then suddenly
KEKEKE ZERG RUSH
and there's no towers or gates to stop them.
It's glorious.
Tomb of the spiderqueen
No.
...
Okay but seriously, no.
I never pick Abathur here.
He just can't safely soak lanes enough to be viable, most games are decided/snowballed before 16, your only real option is mine build
which doesnt get as much slow value because of the small map size,
or go hat build which.. Well.. You know my feelings on that.
Just don't pick Abathur here if you can help it.
...
Okay but seriously, no.
I never pick Abathur here.
He just can't safely soak lanes enough to be viable, most games are decided/snowballed before 16, your only real option is mine build
which doesnt get as much slow value because of the small map size,
or go hat build which.. Well.. You know my feelings on that.
Just don't pick Abathur here if you can help it.
Any feedback on my map guides? got advice of your own? Post it above!