Abathur (Co-op Missions)

"In creating Abathur, we wanted to provide a Commander for players who wanted to play Zerg without having to rely on a Hero unit being on the battlefield. Additionally, we wanted to ensure that we fulfilled the unique fantasy elements for which Abathur is so well-known. To do this, we’ve equipped Abathur with some very powerful abilities and upgrades that augment the strength of his units on the battlefield. In addition, we’ve added an entirely new Evolution mechanic that is available exclusively to Abathur. Through Evolution, Abathur can use the Biomass of fallen foes to spin new essences into his units to make them even more powerful. Thanks to this relentless pursuit of perfection, Abathur will give you access to the most powerful units you’ve ever used in Co-op Missions, and with them, you will wreak whatever havoc you deign necessary."

- Commander blurb

Abathur is a playable commander in the Co-op Missions mode of Legacy of the Void. As the evolution master of the zerg, Abathur has been constantly spinning new essences to chase an ever changing vision of perfection. Unlike the other zerg heroes, he is not controllable in the field as a hero unit, but through his unique biomass evolutionary mechanics, he can mutate powerful zerg breeds to overwhelm enemies.

Abathur is available for purchase at $4.95 USD.

Info

 * Recommended for players of all skill levels
 * Evolve your army by collecting Biomass from fallen enemies
 * Morph powerful Brutalisk and Leviathan units

Mastery

 * Power Set 1
 * Toxic Nest Damage and Respawn Chance: +2% – 60% damage, +2% – 60% respawn
 * Mend Healing: +1% – 30%


 * Power Set 2
 * Symbiote Ability Cooldown Reduction: +2% – 60%
 * Enemy Drops Double Biomass Chance: +0.5% – 15%


 * Power Set 3
 * Toxic Nest Maximum Charges and Cooldown: +1 – 30 charges, -1% – 30% cooldown
 * Structure Morph and Evolution Rate: -2% – 60%

Units and Structures
Abathur has access to the following units and structures:

Talent Progression
Abathur acquires the following talents as he levels up.

Strategies
Abathur is very different for commanders used to playing other Zerg commanders. Zerg grand strategy emphasis churning out insane numbers of fast, cheap, disposable units. You just keep the flood coming and win through sheer attrition. But by zerg standards, Abathur’s units tend to be big, slow-moving--and expensive--juggernauts, having more in common with those of Artanis than other zerg commanders.

This impression is further reinforced by Abathur’s core mechanic: biomass. All enemy units drop biomass when killed, and Abathur’s combat units can collect it to grow more powerful. If they consume enough biomass, they will eventually evolve into an ultimate form. Ground units become brutalisks, and air units leviathans. This further encourages Abathur to keep his units alive for as long as possible. Losing a unit costs you not only the resources you spent on creating it, but all the biomass they’ve collected.

Power Set 1: Toxic Nest Damage and Respawn Chance.
 * Recommended masteries:
 * Toxic Nest Damage and Respawn Chance (+2% to +60%)
 * Mend Healing (+1% to +30%)
 * Full points translates into 200 splash damage and better healing through Biotic Leech. Biomass is a critical resource in ensuring maximum efficiency with Toxic Nests, as well as makes his mines more effective. The respawn chance is also essential as Toxic Nests are vulnerable to attacks while initially morphing, but not while they are respawning. This allows you to use respawned Toxic Nests to clear out defending enemy units, guaranteeing that your first Brutalisk or Leviathan is evolved far sooner.

Power Set 2: Symbiote Ability Cooldown Reduction.
 * Symbiote Ability Cooldown: (-2% to -60%)
 * Double Biomass Chance (+0.5% to +15%)
 * Symbiote Ability Cooldown benefits both the Stab and Shell abilities of the Symbiotes that are attached to your Ultimate Evolutions, massively increasing their damage output (50 DPS instead of 20 DPS) and damage mitigation ability (recharges a 200 HP shield every 8s instead of 20s). Symbiotes are a crucial part in allowing your six Ultimate Evolutions to act as an entire army on their own, capable of ravaging entire bases even without support. While the DPS of their base attacks are hardly impressive, they are greatly enhanced by the Symbiote Stab ability.

Power Set 3: 10/20 split
 * Toxic Nest Maximum Charges and Cooldown (+1 to +30; -1% to -30%)
 * Structure Morph and Evolution Rate: (-2% to -60%)
 * Both masteries are viable. A 10/20 split in favor of the Structure Morph and Evolution Rate mastery is suitable in most scenarios. (60% is not that necessary since resource cannot match up for such rapid upgrades.) The main purpose of the Toxic Nest Maximum Charges and Cooldown mastery is at the start of the game, where you need to place 15 Toxic Nests in distant locations.
 * Structure Morph and Evolution Rate mastery provides a significant boost in economy and ramp-up time, due to the faster morph times of your initial Spine Crawlers and Hatchery. Importantly, it also lowers the morph time of Toxic Nests, which leads to more effective Toxic Nest bombing when it comes to clearing out defending enemy units.

Readying the Brutalisk
Abathur has a slow startup initially; as soon as he gets the first brutalisk, he is set for the rest of the mission. Abathur's main selling point is that he can ramp-up into the undisputed best potential army, in terms of sheer strength and durability, in the game. How good he is on any given mutators-map entirely depends on how fast he gets there. Unfortunately, there are many mutators that inhibit Abathur early on by preventing toxic nests from achieving their full potential.

In the early game, relying on toxic nests for defense is a crucial step towards getting a strong start in production. From level 3, Virulent Nests doubles the biomass from units killed by toxic nests, so Abathur wants to lure enemies into his nests whenever possible. Once the foe is dead, a single roach or mutalisk should be sent to collect all the biomass, with the goal of getting the first brutalisk or leviathan quickly. One brutalisk is better than several slightly-buffed roaches.

Evolved to Handle Anything
If there's an enemy unit, Abathur has the counter-unit for it. Abathur has incredible utility and can snowball into an extremely powerful late-game commander with proper army-management. His unique unit loadout equips him with a variety of anti-air options including ravagers, swarm queens, mutalisks, devourers, and vipers which can all become more powerful as they accrue biomass, or even morph into terrifying units like the leviathan or brutalisk.

Besides the early-game weakness, Abathur suffers a large mobility weakness. He is the only commander without an immediate calldown, so he'll have trouble dealing with attacks on the other side of the map. Good map presence, with deep tunneling brutalisks and swarm hosts, is essential. This enables his army to respond instantly to threats; but often times it's not enough.

Adaptability of the Zerg Onslaught
Abathur can build any army composition you want and win no matter what wave you're facing. Double larva production makes tech switching easy. Though mutalisk-based compositions are clearly the best in terms of sheer firepower, it's not always the best choice. In truth, all of Abathur's units are viable.

Abathur’s endless pursuit of perfection causes his units to become stronger as they acquire the essence of fallen foes. When playing as Abathur, any time his forces or those of an ally slay a unit, that unit will drop its biomass onto the battlefield. This biomass can be collected by Abathur's units, and as they accrue more biomass they will change in both physical appearance and strength.

Commanding the Evolution Master
No queen injections and creep anywhere at the press of a button means the only real problem is deciding which units get biomass. Treat Toxic Nests like burrowed Banelings, so try to use a unit to kite enemy attack waves into the Toxic Nests, as they give additional biomass.

Abathur's army requires micro only for the Vipers, Ravagers, and collecting biomass; otherwise, you can A-click your way through. If you are aiming for a ground-based army, try to collect all the biomass on one roach at the beginning to fast-track a brutalisk. Set up a line of Toxic Nests at the ramp of your base, and use the Roach to lure the first enemy attack wave into the Toxic Nests. This is not enough to get a Brutalisk, but the Roach usually evolves soon after the first wave. It may be frustrating for to get this at first. Abathur has lots of different options and potential strategies, so use this to your advantage. Adapt your build to the enemy composition.

A Lot of Pepper to Bring It Down
Abathur's units just stop dying once they get enough biomass, unless targeted by extreme amounts of enemy fire. Swarm Queens and Toxic Nests provide solid base defence without need for many, or any, automated defensive structures. Toxic nests can be used to augment defences around the map or provide vision for allies. Excellent sustainment and damage mitigation with comes with Swarm Queens, Mend and Blinding Cloud. Siege capabilities come with swarm hosts and guardians.

As the game continues, the total amount of biomass in Abathur's army can grow exponentially, but only if his troops stay alive. In the early game, Abathur's Mend ability is his main source of healing. Later, Swarm Queens take over as the "medics" of his army. Brutalisks and Leviathans have so many hit points they barely notice Mend.

The Mightiest Breeds of the Swarm
There are three main army compositions when playing Abathur: ground, air, or both.

A murder of Mutalisks, Devourers/Guardians, and Leviathans is quite strong. Mutalisks have high DPS and partial splash damage. Devourers or Guardians can be produced to counter enemy compositions. Leviathans are flying tanks and are just all around fun to play with.

Roaches, Ravangers, Swarm Queens, and Brutalisks are also very good. Once prepared They provide an extremely durable army that can endure hybrid assaults.

If any unit manages to acquire 100 biomass, it will be transformed into an ultimate evolution of its former self. In this instance, ground units will evolve into brutalisks with substantial health pools and a ground-based cleave attack, while air units will transform into leviathans to wreak havoc on everything they touch. As Abathur's commander level increases, these units can become more powerful, even gaining a symbiote to help attack enemies while protecting their host with a damage absorbing carapace.

Protoss Commanders
Artanis is an excellent teammate for Abathur. Shield Overcharge and Guardian Shell will make Abathur units live little longer, decreasing the chances of a unit losing its biomass, especially in the early game. Artanis can also make up for Abathur's early lack of anti-air with Dragoons. Abathur's Mend can also benefit damaged Protoss units saved by Guardian Shell, by healing their regular health.

Karax has some ability synergies with Abathur, as his Chrono Wave can boost his research and production which is essential to Abathur's army strength. Toxic nests work well with Karax's static defenses, and the Spear of Adun's orbital bombardment abilities can help cover Abathur from air units in the early game.

Vorazun has very little synergy with Abathur. Having said that, Vorazun's black hole ability can trap enemies for the area of effect damage done by many of Abathur's mid to late game units. Emergency Recall also works on burrowed units, so a well timed burrow can save some of the more expensive ground units Abathur uses. Abathur's Mend can also heal recalled Dark Templars, returning them to a healthy state.

Alarak is a debatable teammate for Abathur. Abathur tends to have a small durable army of short-ranged units, while Alarak favors large expandable armies for Empower Me and likewise must rely on short-ranged supplicants. Further empowerment is possible with large groups of locusts. Swarm queens can empower Alarak while also using Rapid Transfusion to heal Alarak and his Ascendants instead of sacrificing Supplicants. Alarak is anti-ground army oriented, so Abathur must compensate with an effective anti-air army. However, because of Alarak's insane damage output, it should be relatively easy for Abathur to harvest biomass.

Fenix and Abathur have mediocre synergy. Both take a long while to mass up their armies to a critical point and dominate the late game. Fenix's power in the early game can aid Abathur should his toxic mines be unable to clear initial enemy waves. Mend is useful for Fenix, and allows his army to take tougher engagements without as many casualties. This also allows for Fenix's suits to be healed without switching out the one that is deployed. Conservators are also invaluable for Abathur, shielding his more fragile units.

Terran Commanders
Jim Raynor has some synergy with Abathur. Abathur's Mend ability can aid in large engagements when used alongside Raynor's medics. Raynor's marines can also cover Abathur's lack of early game anti-air. In mid-late game, Abathur's high-health units and high area of effect damage goes well with heavy infantry support from Raynor.

Rory Swann is another good choice for Abathur. Vespene harvesters allow Abathur to gain much needed gas for later game units and high tier research. Many of Swann's units have high range, which allows Abathur's shorter ranged, high health ground army to create a buffer between the enemy and high priority targets like siege tanks.

Nova has decent synergy with Abathur, with his Mend and Swarm Queens providing excellent healing for her army. Abathur's very tanky units can absorb damage for Nova's forces, allowing her to make use of longer-ranged units like ghosts and siege tanks. Nova also compensates for Abathur's lack of destructive abilities via her nukes and sabotage drones.

Han and Horner and Abathur have some synergy. Mend is beneficial to make Han’s fragile yet expendable mercenary army more durable in a fight. Abathur has a power spike in the late game similar to Han and Horner with powerful air units, but Abathur’s queens can heal the damage on the stronger Han and Horner units like assault galleons.

Zerg Commanders
Kerrigan and Zagara may spawn a queen capable of injecting Abathur's base for him, which will give him early-game resources to help Abathur expand.

Sarah Kerrigan works well with Abathur. Kerrigan herself can cover the early game with little assistance from Abathur. Kerrigan can also be used to lure units into Abathur's Toxic Nests for extra biomass. This allows Abathur to spend resources on teching up rather than focusing on early game defense. Kerrigan's Assimilation Aura allows Abathur to gain a large resource boost. Malignant Creep can benefit the overall speed and performance of Abathur's army, and allow him to respond to threats faster. In late game, Abathur can provide a frontline army while Kerrigan and her army supports from behind. Omega worms make up for Abathur's lack of mobility and allow him to transport his army across the map in seconds.

Zagara works fairly well with Abathur. Zagara's fast start can shield Abathur's early weakness, and her cheaper units can work as expendable shields for Abathur's army when it is collecting biomass. In addition to this, Mass Frenzy can increase the speed of Abathur's slow units, allowing him to use his Brutalisks much more effectively. In return, Abathur will need to produce air units to shield Zagara's forces, and his upgraded heavy units will serve as shields for Zagara's quick but fragile army when fighting the hybrid.

One the greatest advantages of this pairing in the late game is size: most of Zagara's units are small and speedy enough to dart around Abathur's massive units, allowing her to maintain a steady DPS output to aid him in battle.

Stukov gives Abathur infinite creep, allowing for a passive speed boost for Abathur's forces. However, both struggle in the early game, as both need time to get a powerful army mobilized. Swarm Queens and Infested Terrans may be needed to deal with early anti-air. Once their armies do get mobilized however, they are a force to be reckoned with. Stukov's disposable forces can screen for Abathur's more valuable forces, and Stukov can take costly trades while leaving behind biomass for Abathur to augment his forces with.

Dehaka and Abathur are a powerful combination if coordinated correctly. While both have similar weak points in their game, Abathur’s mend ability in the early game can allow a well-controlled Dehaka to clear out the initial enemies around his base, also allowing Dehaka to level up earlier. In the late game, Abathur’s queens can be a massive boon to Dehaka, and in the case both players go air units Dehaka can make a flight of highly durable mutalisks that shred through masses of air units to cover for Abathur’s guardians. Abathur’s mines also help provide a consistent defense while Dehaka can call down the primal pack leaders to provide cover for Abathur’s mid game.

Development
During development, the team considered numerous different ways to make Abathur an evolution-focused commander. At one time he could have unit upgrades that went up to 10, allowing for roaches with 14 attack range and mutalisks with 500 HP. At another point biomass was a third resource exclusive to him that players would earn and spend. His Symbiote was originally a support unit that could be moved to different units to support them as it can in Heroes of the Storm where Abathur has a similar ability, but this was deemed too confusing to keep track of in large armies. There was also the option for him to have both vile and corpser-strain roaches at once.

Data in the map editor suggests that Abathur would have had the evolution pit as a unique structure, similar to Karax and the solar forge. The evolution pit would have researched upgrades to Abathur's toxic nests, locusts, and the symbiote mechanic.