Abathur

Abathur, the Evolution Master, is a melee Support Hero from the StarCraft universe. Abathur, the Evolution Master of Kerrigan's Swarm, works ceaselessly to improve the Zerg from the genetic level up.

Abathur is a unique Hero who can manipulate the battle from anywhere on the map. In doing so, he can help his team secure big advantages and shape the flow of battle.

Background
From their conception, the Zerg have been driven to pursue the perfection of their race through merciless, predatory evolution. If the has been the force behind this directive, the being known as  was born as the instrument of its will. As much as a hive creature can, Abathur sees itself as personally responsible for the continuation of the Zerg. It undertakes each experiment as though the survival of the species depended on it alone, and tolerates no evolutionary backstep. Abathur will push the Swarm forward... and change it utterly in the attempt.

Abathur is an old organism, long serving as an “evolution master” – a guiding hand spinning the strands of Zerg DNA into mutations of existing Zerg and entirely new strains. Left to its own devices, Abathur’s approach to evolving the is unorthodox: consuming living tissue, and dissolving it into genetic components able to be quickly reassembled. It was Abathur who designed the Queen of Blades, Sarah Kerrigan, as a deadly psionic agent of the Swarm.

Abathur’s methods are far from the only means of evolving the Swarm, but the creature has refined them over the years following the death of the original Zerg Overmind. During its time on, the detached, meticulous Abathur modified any Zerg it stumbled across, and grew fixated on diversifying the Swarm in the service of the new Queen of the Zerg, Kerrigan.

During the, Abathur once again aided Kerrigan after her deinfestation by a , perfecting her Swarm as she rebuilt it for a final confrontation with her nemesis, the emperor Arcturus Mengsk, and continuing to serve her for the following years.

After Kerrigan's ascension to, Broodmother Zagara was given control of the Swarm, and had Abathur use Xel'Naga essence gifted by Kerrigan to help regrow life in the sector as a means to negotiate peace in the war's aftermath. This however enraged Abathur, who saw the creatures they were creating as non-Zerg, and saw peace as contradictory to the Swarm's purpose. Creating his own breed of Zerg imbued with Xel'Naga essence, Abathur staged an silent uprising against Zagara during a peace talk with the Dominion and with the hope of igniting hostilities between the three races and destroying the, the Xel'Naga creatures Abathur saw as an abomination. However, a survey team sent to the surface uncovered Abathur's plot and stopped his coup, and Zagara mutilated Abathur, keeping him alive as she still had use for him, but imprisoning him.

Gameplay
Abathur plays differently from every other Hero in the game. With extremely low health and negligible Basic Attack damage, he needs to avoid direct confrontations with enemy Heroes. He instead applies pressure to the map through use of his global Abilities, and participates in team fights by empowering his allies with Symbiote. Abathur requires your team to play differently than normal, and you will have the most success when your teammates understand this.

Abathur's biggest strength is being able to contest map objectives while soaking experience. This is done by moving Abathur within range of Minions and then using Symbiote to assist your team. This creates an experience advantage over the enemy team. According to the former World Champion Fan Yang: "Most Abathur players will not utilize their body very well and just sit somewhere safe, but they're not actually soaking any experience. Always be aware of where the body is and make sure it's in a useful place where you can soak." Additionally, Locusts will passively push the lane you are closest to. They have a constant influence on a lane's balance. It is ideal to place yourself near an empty lane when possible, in order to create static lane pressure that will force an enemy to rotate to you. If the enemy team has one of their Heroes soak a lane to try to catch up, then your team is at a significant advantage in any team fight that occurs during that time. Abathur's win condition is to be more places at once than his enemy, and overwhelm the other team with a constant stream of subtle pressure. Abathur is very strong on large maps that feature frequent objective spawns, which allow him to be somewhat ignored for some of the match. These maps allow him to either soak an advantage, or force the enemy team to split. His strength, however, is also his weakness. Abathur may get comparatively less value on small maps that feature fewer lanes, team fights near lanes, or objectives that do not require immediate rotations.

Symbiote defines Abathur as a Hero. By creating a direct link between him and any allied Hero, Minion, or Structure, Symbiote allows Abathur to soak or assist allied targets in a global manner. Symbiote is often refered to as "Aba hat" or simply "hat" due to its appearance. While Symbiote is active, you will have access to three additional Abilities that will originate from or benefit the hosted target: Stab, Spike Burst, and Carapace. While Symbiote is active, you soak all nearby XP. It can be used on Heroes, Mercenaries, Minions or Summons, but not Elite Mercenaries (like Bosses), Vehicles or Monsters like Dragon Knight or Punishers. During team fights, Symbiote should almost exclusively be placed on your frontline melee Heroes. Stab and Spike Burst have relatively short ranges, and Melee Heroes will naturally position so that you can use them effectively.

Strengths

 * Can soak multiple lanes at once, creating an XP lead.
 * Excellent synergy with specific Heroes like Illidan, Tracer or the Butcher.
 * One of the best split-pushing Heroes in the game.
 * Can teleport anywhere on the map (provided there is vision) using Deep Tunnel.
 * Toxic Nest is excellent at spotting and dismounting enemies attempting to gank allies or sneak objectives.

Weaknesses

 * Weak early game.
 * Body is extremely vulnerable if found.
 * Requires very good multitasking and map awareness.
 * Team must adapt to Abathur's unique gameplay style in order to succeed.
 * Viability is very dependent on the map and team compositions.

Abilities

 * See Data page for a table of scaled values at key levels.

Trivia

 * Abathur first appeared in StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm (March 2013).
 * Abathur is voiced by Steve Blum.
 * Abathur was one of the 18 heroes revealed at BlizzCon 2013.
 * Abathur has the lowest base health pool in the game, with 713 health at level 1, and 1501 health at level 20.
 * Heart of the Swarm implied that Abathur was a huge worm-like creature players only ever saw the top of, which wasn't really viable in Heroes. The art team shortened him down so he could scoot around the battlefield.
 * Players end up not actually looking at Abathur much while playing him (and the enemy sees him even less), so Blizzard made sure his skins modified his symbiotes and locusts as well as his model.
 * The original inspiration behind Abathur was the Overmind with global powers and immobility. The kit evolved to be more mobile to add a dimension both to his strategic location and to give him more personality (he is rarely present on the map instead of never there), and Blizzard mapped/adjusted powers to Abathur instead.
 * Every hero in the game has a separate set of lines for when they're cloned by Abathur's Ultimate Evolution heroic, save for Abathur himself.
 * Abathurs Toxic Next and Symbiote abilities were created for Heroes of the Storm, but were later brought to StarCraft II as part of his commander in the Co-op Missions mode.
 * are temporary zerg creatures that were introduced in Heart of the Swarm, and spawned from.
 * Abathur's Z ability, Deep Tunnel, was first usable by players with the strain of swarm hosts from Heart of the Swarm. Deep Tunnel first appeared as an ability of Kerrigan in Wings of Liberty, which she uses to escape fatal damage. Many of Abathur's units gain Deep Tunnel in Co-op Missions mode.
 * Abathur's Level 4 talent Adrenal Overload is a reference to an upgrade Abathur can give to in the Heart of the Swarm campaign.
 * Abathur is the last hero in the game with the Calldown MULE ability at Level 7. are a terran temporary mining and repair robot in StarCraft II.
 * Abathur's Level 20 talent Evolution Complete is a reference to the voice line that plays with a zerg player completes an upgrade.