Most characters in Heroes of the Storm have a very clear role, and a very clear path to succeeding in that role. Li-Ming is an assassin who fires long-range arcane bolts, Stitches is a tank that excels in separating members of the other team from the crowd, and Lucio is a healer who provides low-level benefit to all allies at once. Other characters are more specialized or have specific use cases—such as Murky the murlock—but some, like Xul the necromancer, don’t see a lot of use because players don’t understand how they work.

Xul is a bruiser, a category for those who do sustained damage rather than spike damage like assassins, but his talents and abilities seem to be all over the place; he can create zombies by killing enemy minions, summon ranged scythes, and trap unlucky opponents in cages of bone. There’s a lot to be said for his versatility, but the old adage about being a jack of all trades certainly applies for most people who try playing him—they can’t find any one area in which he excels.

Today I’m going to be focusing on a single Xul build that frustrates enemy teams to no end, particularly those filled with melee attackers like Diablo, Kharazim, Butcher, or Qira. It’s a build that has served me well and one that I feel catches midrange players off-guard; they don’t see Xul as a credible threat, until I’m on top of them chopping off large parts of their health bar.

Attack Speed

When it comes to playing melee heroes, perhaps the single most important aspect to consider when choosing whether to engage a fight is how many strikes you will be able to land on an opponent. It’s probably not worth Muradin’s time to chase a Lunara halfway across the map, the latter being a very springy ranged attacker, but it may be great to go after Diablo the lumbering tank. Diablo may have a lot of hit points, but also isn’t known for his disengage or escape abilities, meaning an attacker can probably strike many times before the fight breaks off.

The faster your attacks, and the slower your opponent moves, the better return on investment each fight becomes. This is why powers like Morales’ Stim Drone become so useful for melee attackers; the attack speed boost doubles or triples the amount of damage you can dish out. Add in an enemy who can’t easily escape and you have a very good chance of killing them.

I’m going to go over the traits and abilities relevant to this build very quickly, before I present how they work together to create a wave of devastation. In short, you want your W ability, Cursed Strikes, to be active as often as possible when engaged in combat.

When empowered Cursed Strikes, Xul’s basic attack sweeps a large area in front of him and also reduces enemy attack speed. This is important because he doesn’t have the kind of survivability a tank does, and so can’t stand toe-to-toe against assassins for long. I find the level one talent Shackler to be a perfect match—slowing enemies makes sure they are in your line of fire for as long as possible. That Shackler reduces the cooldown of Bone Armor is a huge bonus.

With the level four talent Grim Scythe, each enemy you strike reduces the cooldown of your W ability, meaning you can use it more often. This will become much more important when combined with later talents and strategies, but for now it allows you to effectively shut down enemy melee attackers by reducing their ability to deal damage.

Level seven is where the build starts to come together with Harvest Vitality. Now Xul’s Cursed Strikes heals for a whopping 70% of the damage done to enemy heroes. So far you’re hitting a wide area, slowing all enemies within, protecting yourself with armour, and healing with each hit. So far, so good.

Level thirteen makes this build almost comically unfair, and completes the traits necessary to see success with it. Rapid Harvest increases your attack speed every time you successfully hit an enemy (including minions) while under the effects of Cursed Strikes. With the cooldown reduction from level four, ideally each fight will see this ability used time and time again.

Target Selection

I’ll present the same Xul build and compare its damage (and sustainability) against two different sets of opponents to show off the utility of this build. Xul excels when he can strike multiple heroes at once, and so a careful eye toward the enemy team’s makeup is important when choosing what build to use; agile, ranged-based foes won’t let this build shine.

One Opponent

Assuming the above traits and a level 20 Xul, the amount of damage he can deal and health he can recover compiles as such, against one Hero and three minions:

  • Begin combat, use Bone Armor, gain 25% shields for 3 seconds
  • Activate Cursed Strikes, lasting for 4 seconds
  • Begin attacking. Normal Basic Attacks deal 119 damage to a single target, and strike 1.2 times per second.
  • Cursed Strikes makes Basic Attacks cleave, dealing 119 to all four targets for a total of 476. Rapid Harvest means the four effective hits increase his attack speed by 20%
  • Bone Armor‘s cooldown is reduced by 2 seconds for each strike against a Hero due to Shackler, and each hit reduces the cooldown of Cursed Strikes by 1 second.
  • Xul heals 83 damage from Cursed Strikes
  • This process repeats, with increasing attack speed each hit, up to 75%

I’ve run the numbers and, assuming the enemy Hero and minions are immortal, Xul is able to make 19 Basic Attacks over 10 seconds, accounting for the cooldown on all relevant abilities and traits. Dealing a total of 9,044 damage, Xul heals 1,583. Even ignoring the power of his other abilities and the support of his team, that’s not a shabby fight result.

However, let’s compare that to a fight more suited to his talents…

Three Opponents

Assuming the same traits and a level 20 Xul, let’s look at what happens when he faces 3 minions and 3 heroes at the same time:

  • Begin combat, use Bone Armor, gain 25% shields for 3 seconds
  • Activate Cursed Strikes, lasting for 4 seconds
  • Begin attacking. Normal Basic Attacks deal 119 damage to a single target, and strike 1.2 times per second.
  • Cursed Strikes makes Basic Attacks cleave, dealing 119 to all six targets for a total of 714. Rapid Harvest means the six effective hits increase his attack speed by 30%
  • Bone Armor‘s cooldown is reduced by 6 seconds (2 seconds for each strike against a Hero from Shackler), and each hit reduces the cooldown of Cursed Strikes by 1 second
  • Xul heals 250 damage from Cursed Strikes
  • This process repeats, with increasing attack speed each hit, up to 75%

With the increased number of targets, Xul is able to swing for a very impressive 31 Basic Attacks over 10 seconds, accounting for the cooldown on all relevant abilities and traits. Dealing a total of 22,134 damage (244% of the earlier example), he heals 7,747 life (489%). What’s more, he’s able to activate his Bone Armor three full times, gaining the equivalent of 75% of his total health in shields.

Does this build work for one-on-one, in-lane combat? Absolutely not. During team fights however, particularly in the one-lane nature of Brawl matches, it excels. Without any reference to his heroic ability or storm talent, or even two of his basic abilities, he’s able to utterly destroy waves of enemies, keeping himself nice and healthy the whole time.

Most people see Xul as a threat due to his Bone Prison ability which can effectively lock down mobile characters, but few consider his lowly Basic Attack as the real source of his power. When it comes to Brawl matches, particularly against other melee bruisers or assassins, I absolutely love playing this necromancer from Diablo II.