Xul
By David Connell
Updated 6/2/2016
1 Introduction:
As a specialist, Xul is a unique hybrid who is exceptional at controlling teamfights and pushing lanes. He plays similarly to a melee assassin, however can be considerably harder to kill because of his ability Bone Armor, which gives him a temporary shield equal to 25% of his maximum health. Bone Armor can be further increased, in potency, through Xul's level 1 talent.
Xul's passive: Raise Skeleton helps push any lane he is nearby by creating Skeleton Warriors out of fallen enemy minions. This is incredibly powerful, because the Skeletal Warriors will keep pushing until they expire or die, even if Xul walks far away. Because of this, Xul's remarkable power is often underestimated.
In teamfights, Xul is no slacker either. His ultimate can be extremely influential if positioned well. Through Bone Prision, which roots an enemy, and Cursed Strikes, which slow enemy attack speeds, he is able to easily manipulate a fight into his teams favor,
Xul's passive: Raise Skeleton helps push any lane he is nearby by creating Skeleton Warriors out of fallen enemy minions. This is incredibly powerful, because the Skeletal Warriors will keep pushing until they expire or die, even if Xul walks far away. Because of this, Xul's remarkable power is often underestimated.
In teamfights, Xul is no slacker either. His ultimate can be extremely influential if positioned well. Through Bone Prision, which roots an enemy, and Cursed Strikes, which slow enemy attack speeds, he is able to easily manipulate a fight into his teams favor,
2 Build:
Level 1: Backlash
When Bone Armor expires, nearby enemy Heroes take damage equal to 15% of their maximum Health.
Tier 1 on Xul is all about empowering his Bone Armor in different ways, Our preference here is backlash because it synergizes with Bone Prison and Xul's level 4 talent, Jailors, for a surprising amount of burst damage. The more popular talent choice in this tier is Shade, which causes Xul to avoid basic attacks for the duration of his shield. However, it comes at the cost of increasing Bone Armor's cooldown from 30 seconds to 40 seconds. Picking Shade is appropriate in some situations and the choice should be carefully considered at the start of each game. Some situations in which you may want Shade instead of Backlash, are: if you have a weak front line (such as only Xul and Sonya) or if the enemy team has many auto-attack assassins.
Level 4: Jailors
Bone Prison spawns 2 Skeletal Warriors that fixate on the enemy for 15 seconds. These do not count towards your Raise Skeleton maximum.
There are a few major benefits to this talent. First off, the damage from these two Skeletal Warriors is fairly impressive, they do about 50% of Xul's auto-attack damage per second. Also they will focus the target that bone Prison is cast on until they die or time out, increasing the reliability of Xul's burst damage. Xul's level 7 talent also causes Jailors to heal Xul, further increasing this talent's power.
Level 7: Rathma's Blessing
Raising a Skeletal Warrior heals you for 66 (+4% per level).
Xul becomes the strongest laner in the game with this talent. There are 7 minions per standard wave, which translates to 462 (+4% per level) healing per wave or approximately 25% of his health per wave. This talent also pairs well with Jailors, giving Xul a fairly powerful heal every time he uses Bone Prison.
Level 10: Skeletal Mages
Cooldown: 70 seconds
Summons 4 Frost Mages in a line that attack nearby enemies for 46.875 (+4% per level) damage a second and slow them by 30% for 2 seconds. Last up to 15 seconds.
We prefer Skeletal Mages over Poison Nova for Xul's ultimate. Skeletal mages has a significantly higher winrate and provides advanced utility in addition to damage. Each frost mage summon will block movement in a small area in addition to slowing. One main criticism of Skeletal Mages is that they can be killed. However, each mage has enough health to live through multiple area of effect attacks, and if they are focused then allied heroes are not. Overall this heroic can output a stunning amount of damage, 277 damage per second at level 10, for up to 15 seconds: in other words, over 4000 total damage at level 10. Even if Skeletal Mages don't live for their full duration the movement restriction more than compensates for any lost damage.
Level 13: Corpse Explosion
When Skeletal Warriors die they explode for 55 (+4% per level) damage in a small area. Deals 100% increased damage to non-Heroic enemies.
Skeleton Warriors exploding for damage is useful for many reasons. First of all this has synergy with our previous talent choices, especially Jailors and will give us a slight damage boost in teamfights. Second this also increases Xul's passive pushing power as even walking past an enemy minion as it dies will quickly delete the entire wave.
Level 16: Skeleton Mastery
Increases the maximum Skeletal Warriors you can have to 6 and increases their damage by 50%.
Again this increases our passive pushing power significantly and our burst damage in teamfights.
Level 20: Bone Spear
Cooldown: 10 seconds
Deal 260 (+4% per level) damage to enemies in a line.
The other talents in this tier tend to under-preform in comparison to Bone Spear. You must get a late game kill to get any benefit from the talent Raised Mage. Bone spear also tends to fare better than Mortal Wound because its guaranteed damage and requires fewer conditions to be met to be effective (hit skillshot vs hit skillshot and enemy gets healed).
When Bone Armor expires, nearby enemy Heroes take damage equal to 15% of their maximum Health.
Tier 1 on Xul is all about empowering his Bone Armor in different ways, Our preference here is backlash because it synergizes with Bone Prison and Xul's level 4 talent, Jailors, for a surprising amount of burst damage. The more popular talent choice in this tier is Shade, which causes Xul to avoid basic attacks for the duration of his shield. However, it comes at the cost of increasing Bone Armor's cooldown from 30 seconds to 40 seconds. Picking Shade is appropriate in some situations and the choice should be carefully considered at the start of each game. Some situations in which you may want Shade instead of Backlash, are: if you have a weak front line (such as only Xul and Sonya) or if the enemy team has many auto-attack assassins.
Level 4: Jailors
Bone Prison spawns 2 Skeletal Warriors that fixate on the enemy for 15 seconds. These do not count towards your Raise Skeleton maximum.
There are a few major benefits to this talent. First off, the damage from these two Skeletal Warriors is fairly impressive, they do about 50% of Xul's auto-attack damage per second. Also they will focus the target that bone Prison is cast on until they die or time out, increasing the reliability of Xul's burst damage. Xul's level 7 talent also causes Jailors to heal Xul, further increasing this talent's power.
Level 7: Rathma's Blessing
Raising a Skeletal Warrior heals you for 66 (+4% per level).
Xul becomes the strongest laner in the game with this talent. There are 7 minions per standard wave, which translates to 462 (+4% per level) healing per wave or approximately 25% of his health per wave. This talent also pairs well with Jailors, giving Xul a fairly powerful heal every time he uses Bone Prison.
Level 10: Skeletal Mages
Cooldown: 70 seconds
Summons 4 Frost Mages in a line that attack nearby enemies for 46.875 (+4% per level) damage a second and slow them by 30% for 2 seconds. Last up to 15 seconds.
We prefer Skeletal Mages over Poison Nova for Xul's ultimate. Skeletal mages has a significantly higher winrate and provides advanced utility in addition to damage. Each frost mage summon will block movement in a small area in addition to slowing. One main criticism of Skeletal Mages is that they can be killed. However, each mage has enough health to live through multiple area of effect attacks, and if they are focused then allied heroes are not. Overall this heroic can output a stunning amount of damage, 277 damage per second at level 10, for up to 15 seconds: in other words, over 4000 total damage at level 10. Even if Skeletal Mages don't live for their full duration the movement restriction more than compensates for any lost damage.
Level 13: Corpse Explosion
When Skeletal Warriors die they explode for 55 (+4% per level) damage in a small area. Deals 100% increased damage to non-Heroic enemies.
Skeleton Warriors exploding for damage is useful for many reasons. First of all this has synergy with our previous talent choices, especially Jailors and will give us a slight damage boost in teamfights. Second this also increases Xul's passive pushing power as even walking past an enemy minion as it dies will quickly delete the entire wave.
Level 16: Skeleton Mastery
Increases the maximum Skeletal Warriors you can have to 6 and increases their damage by 50%.
Again this increases our passive pushing power significantly and our burst damage in teamfights.
Level 20: Bone Spear
Cooldown: 10 seconds
Deal 260 (+4% per level) damage to enemies in a line.
The other talents in this tier tend to under-preform in comparison to Bone Spear. You must get a late game kill to get any benefit from the talent Raised Mage. Bone spear also tends to fare better than Mortal Wound because its guaranteed damage and requires fewer conditions to be met to be effective (hit skillshot vs hit skillshot and enemy gets healed).
3 Playstyle:
In the early game Xul is a powerful laner. To force a weaker enemy out of lane look to close the distance between Xul and them by using your mount or sneaking up from a bush. Then engage by using Bone Prision, before the enemy is rooted activate your Bone Armor to guarantee damage from Backlash (level 1 talent). Follow up the root with your Spectral Scythe skillshot and cursed strikes if needed. Back off after this burst if you fail to kill your enemy, as you wont have any method to chase them further, repeat as necessary.
In teamfights use your Skeletal Mages as early as possible, it is important to place them between your enemies. This will make it awkward for the enemies to fully commit to a fight and also make it awkward for them to walk away.. Skeletal Mages can also be used to guarantee a kill on an out of position enemy.. Xul is extremely effective against melee assassins and bruisers, use your abilities to save teammates with lower health and deny enemies aggression.
In teamfights use your Skeletal Mages as early as possible, it is important to place them between your enemies. This will make it awkward for the enemies to fully commit to a fight and also make it awkward for them to walk away.. Skeletal Mages can also be used to guarantee a kill on an out of position enemy.. Xul is extremely effective against melee assassins and bruisers, use your abilities to save teammates with lower health and deny enemies aggression.
4 Tips and Tricks:
Place your Skeletal Mages between the enemies front line and back line. This will create a big opportunity to win a teamfight.
If any enemies runs past you in a team fight you will normally want to back off to deal with the aggressive enemy instead of forging deeper in. This is because Xul is not particularly mobile and his base kit is geared towards defense.
On many maps Xul can benefit from soaking and pushing more than one lane at once. This is because he can quickly clear waves extremely quickly and create more Skeletal Warrior pressure.
If you find yourself running out of mana too quickly in the early game, time your Cursed Strikes more carefully and look for only valuable Bone Prision roots. All of Xul's abilities are mana intensive so consider optimal use. Auto-attacks are also effective (but slower) at creating Skeletal Warriors to push lanes.
Stay behind your tank!
If any enemies runs past you in a team fight you will normally want to back off to deal with the aggressive enemy instead of forging deeper in. This is because Xul is not particularly mobile and his base kit is geared towards defense.
On many maps Xul can benefit from soaking and pushing more than one lane at once. This is because he can quickly clear waves extremely quickly and create more Skeletal Warrior pressure.
If you find yourself running out of mana too quickly in the early game, time your Cursed Strikes more carefully and look for only valuable Bone Prision roots. All of Xul's abilities are mana intensive so consider optimal use. Auto-attacks are also effective (but slower) at creating Skeletal Warriors to push lanes.
Stay behind your tank!