One of the biggest takeaways I have every Murky free week is that players like having their eggs killed by Zerathul and Nova. So many eggs were placed carelessly, nowhere near a Fort or Watchtower, that the enemy could just casually stroll over and scramble it after a few spells. This is primarily because the player didn't understand that the egg's strength isn't in reviving early - it's reviving wherever you want to. Egg placement can allow a Murky to tirelessly contest an objective or freely pressure other lanes, so finding safe locations to stow your egg can be the difference between bad and good Murky play.

Egg Fundamentals

Learning where you can safely deploy Murky's Egg is one of Murky's most important fundamentals. The first thing to note about the egg is that it is not incredibly resilient. A few stray looks from an enemy Support will crack it, let alone an Assassin. So placing the Egg out in the middle of the lane is obviously out, but so is throwing it down in the middle of a fight. It takes five seconds for you to revive from your death, so unless the enemy is completely preoccupied with your teammates, you'll be scrambled. If you want to quickly return to a fight, place your egg off to the side before engaging - the enemy will have to either chance upon it or retrace your steps after you come back in.

Placing your egg inside your base, near a fort or watchtower is an ideal safe place for Murky's egg. Place the egg either on the opposite side of the Jungle ingress if you're in a side lane, or just towards your base if you're in the center lane. While characters like Nova, Zeratul, and Illidan can still kill your Egg relatively quickly, the slowing shots from the Fort should at least deter most dive attempts from them. Against characters with long range damaging abilities, like Azmodan, move your Egg a bit farther back so they can't kill it from range. If they hit it once, move your egg so it doesn't get hit once the cooldown comes up again.

Another easy way to keep your egg safe is to keep your enemy guessing where it is. If the situation isn't urgent, come back to lane from a variety of different angles after dying. Every time you come back to lane from the same place, your enemies can get a feeling where you're spawning from. Much like players follow the Locusts to Abathur, people will follow Murky to his egg. By coming into lane from different locations, you encourage players who are hunting for your egg to waste time clearing the entire jungle for you.

You can also keep enemies guessing by moving your egg. If an opponent gets a glance of where your egg is, he not only gains the ability to kill it at his leisure, but he also gets the advantage of knowing where you're going to respawn. If he communicates that to his team, they'll know if it's worth it to kill you at the beginning of a teamfight across the map. By moving your egg once the opponent spots it, it starts the hunt again and allows you to roam across the map without enemies knowing whether it's worth the trouble to melt you.

Placing Your Egg Down in Fights

Being able to respawn almost immediately after dying means that you can have an incredible impact on teamfights. Making a fight a 6 or even 7v5 can erode even the strongest defenses, so putting your egg in a location where you can quickly get back into the fight is very important. Where exactly you're going to set your egg is highly dependent on the map and the objective you're fighting over, but a two general rules hold.

1) Put your egg in a brush or a cranny. Not only does this protect your egg from assault, but the area revealed by the egg can be valuable if an enemy tries to juke your team through where you set it. Don't place it immediately into the fight, but about two or three seconds away from the contested objective.

2) Don't worry about switching your pathing to hide the egg. While in lane it was valuable to vary your entrances, you don't have the time to meander before rejoining the fight. Your continued appearances in the fight might draw the fight towards your egg's location, but every blow they land on you or your egg is a blow that doesn't land on your Valla or Jaina. That doesn't mean you shouldn't think about how you get back into the fight though - the advantage you have is you get to pick where you re-enter the fight. This is a reason to not place your egg down a corridor from the fight, but instead near an intersection - you want to be able to choose whether to jump back into the Warrior's face or if you need to harass the person attempting to capture the Tribute.

Map Specific Egg Placements

Below are maps of each battleground in the nexus. Green eggs signify ideal places to place your egg in lane, while gray eggs signify areas to place eggs against teams that are attempting to scramble it. Blue eggs show you where to place your eggs when contesting the nearest objective and red eggs are to indicate where you should absolutely not place your egg. Click on the maps to enlarge them.

Haunted Mines

Haunted Mines isn't an ideal map for Murky, who excels at using large maps to his advantage, but the map's unique two level nature means that there are a few tricks you can pull. Consider putting your Egg in a central location in the mines. People running through the mines when they're not active is a rarity and this will allow you to throw yourself into either lane freely. Otherwise, look to place your egg near forts when laning, and in the central region when fighting over bruisers. During a prolonged mines fight over golem, place your egg in a nook near the mines entrance rather than in the mines - enemies will be rejoining the fight too and you don't want them chancing across it.

Cursed Hollow

Cursed Hollow is a map that Murky can do a lot of damage on - it's a large map that encourages players to split push and the objective is a channel that is interrupted at the slightest touch. The map also gives you all sorts of nooks and crannies to stow your egg as you rush towards teamfights. The side lanes are very wide and deep near the forts, making it incredibly safe to place your egg near the fort, and if you want to place a forward egg in the Jungle, a number of loops will allow you to go towards wherever you want. Avoid placing your egg in the middle brushes in the Jungle - everyone facechecks those when going towards the Tributes.

Dragon Shire

Dragon Shire has a very open Jungle, so enemies can walk straight into your Fort. This makes placing your egg near your Forts a bit harder, although it certainly is not impossible. Murky is best being bot or middle, where he has the options to place his eggs relatively near the objectives. If you decide to place your egg in any of the top middle hedgerows, move your egg quickly as there aren't many places that the enemy has to clear before zeroing in on its location.

Blackheart's Bay

Blackheart's Bay is a big map for one that centers around a single point, with a lot of real estate around to place your eggs. Much like Cursed Hollow, the objective is channeled, meaning Murky can constantly interrupt the enemy's attempts to turn in coins with Slime/Pufferfish harassment. Placing your egg in the Warrens below Blackheart is dangerous, but the vision it grants you is valuable enough to take the risk. Similarly, placing your egg in the steam right above Blackheart is incredibly risky but allows you to instantly get back into the fight.

Garden of Terror

Garden of Terror has a lot in common with Cursed Hollow. It's a large map that encourages split pushing, it's lanes are deep, meaning your eggs are safe near your Forts. The map is large, but there aren't a lot of great hiding spots, but the areas You need to be vigilant once the enemy gets a Terror, as you don't want him to crush your egg when he's shoving your structures. Your egg loses the safety of the deep lane when the Terror uses Overgrowth. Encourage your team to give you the terror since you can keep fighting until it dies, as you're not afraid of getting caught out and dying.

Sky Temple

Sky Temple has the open Jungle of Dragon Shire, but has a number of good hiding locations in and around the lanes so you're not nearly as limited as you would be in that Map. The small alcoves bot provide good positions to challenge both bottom Temple and boss, while there are multiple areas to place your egg if you want to challenge middle. Top is a bit more difficult, as you seldom want to lay your egg near a Watchtower, and it's risky to place it in the brush right below the temple. Placing your egg in the middle of your side's bottom jungle means you can easily rotate between the two lower lanes.

Tomb of the Spider Queen

Tomb of the Spider queen is a good map for Murky despite his difficulty hiding his egg. There aren't many good hiding spots for it that aren't also areas where enemies might travel through. Areas near the Boss and Siege camp are not high traffic areas, but you need to be sure to vary how you leave them or the enemy will quickly find and kill your egg without letting you retaliate. Each lane is incredibly dangerous, as there are ingresses above and below the Fort, so if you fear they're hunting your egg, place it near your keep instead.

Murky has the potential to be one of the game's most powerful characters due to his egg and knowing where and when to place eggs means that you can tap into that potential. Of course, these aren't the only locations you can place your egg, but I've found them to be the most convenient and effective ones.