Heroes of the Storm – Kerrigan Guide

Welcome to the Heroes of the Storm build guide for Kerrigan. In this guide, you will find basic information on the game and Kerrigan, as well as tips on how to play and build her.

In Heroes of the Storm, Kerrigan is a melee assassin with a kit that does not let her enemies get away.

Kerrigan is best when she lanes with a support or a tanky damage dealer. A hero that has a lot of CC can also synergize with Kerrigan’s kit, allowing her to get in close while the enemy is stunned.

This guide will break down into five categories:

• Starter Abilities – The abilities your character starts with at the beginning of the match.
• Heroic Abilities – Pick from one of these two ultimate-like abilities at team level 10
• Talents – The character improvements you can choose from to custom build your hero
• Talent Builds – Recommended builds that I have personally found success with
• Playstyle Tips – Extra information about the character to help you play your best

Starter Abilities

• Assimilation (Trait)
• 10% of attack damage and 20% of ability damage is turned into shields for 6 seconds. The shield’s maximum value increases as you level.
• Current maximum: 200.

• Ravage (Q)
• Cooldown: 8 seconds
• 75 mana
• Leaps to a target, dealing 450 (70 + 20 per level) damage.

• Impaling Blades (W)
• Cooldown: 12 seconds
• 60 mana
• Deals 1050 (290 + 40 per level) damage to enemies within the target area, stunning them for 1 second.

•  Primal Grasp (E)
• Cooldown: 8 seconds
• 50 mana
• Pulls enemies within the target area towards Kerrigan, dealing 310 (63 + 13 per level) damage.

Heroic Abilities (Choose One)

• Summon Ultralisk (R)
• Cooldown: 80 seconds
• 100 mana
• Summons an Ultralisk that deals 200 (48 + 8 per level) damage. Attacks splash to nearby enemies for 100 (24 + 4 per level) damage. Lasts for 20 seconds.

• Maelstrom (R)
• Cooldown: 120 seconds
• 100 mana
• Deals 150 (55 + 5 per level) damage per second to enemies nearby. Lasts for 12 seconds.

Talents (Choose from One Each Tier)

Tier 1

• Path of the Assassin: Your Hero gains an extra 2 attack damage for every level gained.
• Siphoning Impact (Q): Kerrigan heals for 20% of the damage dealt by Ravage.
• Sharpened Blades (W): Impaling Blades deals 15% more damage.
• Sweeping Grasp (E): Increases the range of Primal Grasp by 20%.

Tier 2

• Focused Attack: Every 5 seconds, your next Basic Attack deals 50% additional damage.
• Fury of the Swarm (Trait): Basic Attacks splash for 50% damage around Kerrigan.
• Psionic Pulse (E): Casting Primal Grasp gives Kerrigan an aura that deals 30 damage over 5 seconds in a small area around her.
• Poison Enemy: Poisons an enemy hero, dealing 180 damage over 6 seconds.

Tier 3

• Block: Periodically reduces the damage received from Hero Basic Attacks by 50%. Stores up to 2 charges.
• Battle Momentum: Basic Attacks reduce your Ability cooldowns by 0.5 seconds.
• Impaling Swarm (W): Impaling Blades also spawns 3 Zerglings at the target location.
• Clean Kill (Q): If Ravage kills the enemy, its cooldown is immediately reset and 90% of its Mana is returned.
• Searing Attacks: Activate to increase Basic Attack damage by 50% for 5 seconds. Attacks cost 20 Mana per hit.

Tier 4

• Summon Ultralisk (R): Summons an Ultralisk that deals 40 damage. Attacks splash to nearby enemies for 20 damage. Lasts for 20 seconds.
• Maelstrom (R): Deals 25 damage per second.

Tier 5

• Lingering Essence (Trait): Assimilation Shield duration increased to 12 seconds.
• Eviscerate (Q): Increases the range of Ravage by 2.
• Double Strike (P): When your Basic Abilities damage an enemy, your next Basic Attack hits an additional time for 50% of damage.
• Overdrive: Activate to raise Ability Power by 25% and Mana costs by 40% for 5 seconds.
• Sprint: Activate to increase Movement Speed by 75% for 3 seconds.

Tier 6

• Executioner: Basic Attacks deal 50% more damage against slowed, rooted, or stunned targets.
• Blade Torrent (W): Increases the size of Impaling Blades by 50%.
• Blood for Blood: Activate to steal 15% of target enemy’s max Health and slow its Movement Speed by 30% for 3 seconds.
• Rewind: Activate to reduce the cooldown of your Basic Abilities by 10 seconds.

Tier 7

• Fury of the Storm: Basic Attacks bounce twice to nearby enemies for 50% damage.
• Bolt of the Storm: Activate to teleport to the target location.
• Omegastorm (R): Maelstrom size increased by 25%. Amount of Assimilation Shields generated by Maelstrom increased by 100%.
• Torrasque (R): Ultralisk duration and health increased by 100%.

Talent Builds

Basic Attack and Splash Damage Kerrigan

• Path of the Assassin: Your basic attacks become even more deadly.
• Fury of the Swarm (Trait): Gives your basic attacks a bit of splash.
• Battle Momentum or Impaling Swarm (W): If you are doing most of your damage from basic attacks, Battle Momentum is useful; if you rely more on your W, take Impaling Swarm.
• Maelstrom: Tears up enemies near you.
• Double Strike (P): Increases damage of your basic attacks.
• Blood for Blood: Steal some health and prevent your enemy from escaping.
• Fury of the Storm: Your basic attacks not only splash from Fury of the Swarm, but bounce with Fury of the Storm. Combined with the majority of your abilities, this means you are doing a lot of extra damage to enemies near your target.

This is a damage build with little survivability that focuses on basic attacks and area damage. This is great for pushing lanes and team fights. Your low survivability means that you should exercise caution when dealing with high damage enemy heroes, however.

Survivability Kerrigan

• Siphoning Pact (Q): This gives you some sustain for laning and team fights.
• Any: This comes down to personal choice.
• Block: Reduces damage taken from basic attacks.
• Either: This comes down to personal preference.
• Lingering Essence (Trait): Improves your shield.
• Blood for Blood: Gives you some health and takes some off the enemy.
• Bolt of the Storm: Lets you get in and out of team fights.

This build sacrifices damage for more survivability. This is good when you know the enemy team has a ton of squishy but potentially high damage dealing characters. You can still do a ton of damage as is and the survivability will help you outlast your squishier opponents.

Kerrigan Playstyle Tips

Do Not Zerg Rush

• Despite being the Zerg Queen, you do not want to rush in with a kit like Kerrigan’s.
• Her kit is all about keeping the enemy close or getting close to the enemy.
• This means you can stay close to them and deal a ton of damage.
• It also means you can stay close to them and take damage.
• Carefully measure your chances for victory before using your Q or E.

Maelstrom

• Combined with her kit that gets her close to the enemy, this heroic does insane damage.
• Try to save it for team fights to reap the full benefits of this AoE heroic.

Ultralisk

• Ultralisk is the better choice of heroic if you want to focus on single target damage.
• Ultralisk lasts longer and hits pretty heavy.
• Ultralisk also does a bit of splash damage to enemies nearby.