Kerrigan Build Guide “Long live the real Queen.”

Kerrigan is a Melee Assassin that utilizes a devestating combo of Primal Grasp and Impaling Blades to Stun and damage groups of enemies. Kerrigan is able to deal very high burst damage to her target, although she is vulnerable to burst damage herself due to her low Health pool and lack of defensive Abilities. One of Kerrigan's greatest strengths is her Ability to roam the battlefield in search of ganks, as simply one or two successful picks will provide her team a significant Experience lead that can many times snowball into an easy victory.

Strengths

• Excellent burst damage and crowd-control
• Strong inititaition by means of Ravage
• Excels at ganking opponents right from the get-go
• Deceptively tanky due to Assimilation and Assimilation-related Talents

Weaknesses

• Incredibly vulnerable to crowd-control
• Very reliant on Ability cooldowns
• Low sustain damage
• High skill cap and learning curve
• No means of escape (without Psionic Shift)
• Waveclear dependent on the use of core Basic Abilities

Ravage Build

Recommended

Level 1 ?

Level 4

Level 7

Level 10 ?

Level 13 ?

Level 16 ?

Level 20

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Kerrigan's Ravage Build is excellent if you are able to stack Sharpened Blades. While Siphoning Impact allows Kerrigan to stack up a rather large Assimilation Shield very quicky with her additional charges of Ravage, The splash damage component of Fury of the Swarm will allow for viable waveclear when Kerrigan finds herself alone, especially during the early game.

Both Heroic Abilities are good, and should be picked based on personal preference. While Summon Ultralisk will be a good setup or follow up for your combo, Maelstrom adds more area of effect damage and self-sustain through Assimilation. Chrysalis is a good choice against burst and crowd control, while Volatile Power gives you better survivability during team fights.

Combo Build

Situational

Level 1

Level 4

Level 7

Level 10 ?

Level 13 ?

Level 16

Level 20

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The Combo Build favors Talent options that give Kerrigan the most utility possible, while also having good burst damage in teamfights.

This Build is good if your playstyle revolves around following a Tank's engages or if the enemy team has many ways to punish your dives.

Primal Grasp Build

Situational

Level 1

Level 4

Level 7

Level 10 ?

Level 13

Level 16

Level 20 ?

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Primal Grasp Build consists in constantly having stacked spell armor through Psionic Barrier and Psionic Pulse. It should be the choice when facing mages and other heroes reliant on spell damage, since it might reduce those by 75%, and give you the much necessary survivability against them.

Boundless Fury is essential for this build. Kerrigan wants to proc Primal Grasp's explosion in multiple targets, and the added mobility from the talent will be necessary. Even though Queen of Blades has good synergy with the Primal Grasp Build, we do not recommend it. It is much less reliable than Boundless Fury, considering you need to use your combo after using Ravage once or twice, while with Boundless Fury, you are able to combo at anytime without losing mobility.

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Kerrigan synergizes with

Kerrigan works best with allies who are able to prevent her from being immediately killed by the enemy after engaging onto a target with Ravage. Also, Heroes that are able to followup on her Primal Grasp/Impaling Blades combo with additional crowd-control and burst damage are always a bonus.

Kerrigan is countered by

Kerrigan is countered by Heroes who are able to prevent her target of focus from being immediately killed, which most often will leave her vulnerable and without means of escape deep within the enemy backline. She will also struggle against teams with multiple sources of strong crowd-control that will lock her up after she initiates.

Kerrigan's stronger maps

Kerrigan's average maps

Kerrigan's weaker maps

Kerrigan is best suited for smaller Battlegrounds that are oriented primarily around team fighting, as that is where she excels most. Maps that contain multiple bushes with paths that lead behind the enemy team will more easily allow Kerrigan to flank her opponents. Kerrigan should avoid larger maps where team fights are rare and the ability to split-push is a much more valuable asset to the team.

• Kerrigan should always use her Basic Abilities wisely in order to conserve Mana.
• In fights, always use Impaling Blades and Primal Grasp together. Use Primal Grasp to pull enemies into Impaling Blades' area-of-effect.
• Primal Grasp will always pull enemies the same distance. Take this into account when placing Impaling Blades.
• Ravage can be used on enemy Structures or Summons to close the gap between enemy Heroes or to retreat from a compromised position.
• Kerrigan excels with allied Heroes that can follow-up on her burst damage and crowd-control, however is weak against enemy teams with a strong frontline and lots of lockdown.
• Kerrigan is a fantastic early-game Hero. Take advantage of this by ganking early and often by maintaining extreme aggression.
• Attempt to flank enemies whenever possible to take advantage of an enemy Hero's poor positioning.
• Enemies will usually attempt to avoid Kerrigan's Primal Grasp/ Impaling Blades combo by side-stepping it preemptively. Use this to your advantage when pursuing them by holding onto Kerrigan's combo until her target puts themselves in a bad position, making her combo unavoidable.
• Only use Primal Grasp and Ravage when clearing waves, since Impaling Blades is not necessary and costs more mana.

Teams with Kerrigan are generally centered around her, similar to other Melee Assassins, such as The Butcher and Illidan. Kerrigan's allies should be made up of Heroes that can assist her in dealing burst damage, Stunning or Rooting enemies, and keeping her alive. Uther is an example of a fantastic Healer to pair with Kerrigan, while a Hero like Jaina would be a great Assassin to provide additional damage and crowd control. Team compositions that include Kerrigan fare exceptionally well against opponents with multiple squishy Heroes, however tend to do poorly against enemies with a strong frontline consisting of multiple Tanks or Bruisers.

Kerrigan, while decent on all Maps, thrives on small, early game focused Maps, such as Dragon Shire, Tomb of the Spider Queen, and Braxis Holdout. She can bully entire enemy teams merely with the her presence and the threat of her high burst damage and crowd control. This is because of how quickly and easily Kerrigan can roam to different lanes on small Maps and how significant early kills are to establishing an Experience or Objective lead. Kerrigan should always use this to her advantage and play extremely aggressively, ganking as many lanes as often whenever possible. Playing on a larger Map forces her to focus more on waveclearing and less on ganking, which is not what Kerrigan should be used for.