Zagara was, like many other creations of Kerrigan, created on Char and the first Broodmother to be created at all. Broodmothers are important pieces of the Zerg organism, providing large groups of Zerg. Her capability to create these and spread Creep were transferred to her kit in the Nexus, making her a strong solo laner or split pusher by flooding the lane with her Zerg units.

 Creep Tumor – Trait. (Stores up to 3 charges – 18 second charge cooldown) Zagara's Creep Tumor generates creep in a large radius, granting vision on the map. Additionally while on creep, Zagara gains 20% additional attack range and both Zagara and her summons move 20% faster. A creep tumor lasts 240 seconds.  Baneling Barrage – Q. (Stores up to 4 charges – 3 second charge cooldown) Baneling Barrage launches a single Baneling that deals 86 damage to enemies it hits or that are close to the Baneling when it explodes. It gives good poke potential and the ability to delay objectives that need to be channeled.  Hunter Killer – W. (14 seconds cooldown) Zagara summons a Hydralisk that attacks a single target, dealing 68 damage per second and lasting 8 seconds.  Infested Drop – E. (12 seconds cooldown) Infested Drop bombards a target area with a Zerg Drop Pod for 147 damage. The Drop spawns 2 Roaches that deal 29 damage per second and last 8 seconds.  Devouring Maw – R1. (100 seconds cooldown) Zagara's first heroic ability summons a Maw that devours enemies for 4 seconds. These enemies can't fight and take 80 damage per second. Maw is usable on Unstoppable enemies.  Nydus Network – R2. (Stores up to 2 charges – 60 seconds charge cooldown) Zagara's second Heroic ability summons a Nydus Worm on Creep anywhere that Zagara has vision. She can enter a Nydus Worm and travel to any other Nydus Worm on the map by right-clicking near it. While inside a Nydus Worm, Zagara regenerates 10% Health and Mana per second. Passively, this ability allows her Creep spread 15% farther and each Basic Attack, while on Creep, reduces all of Zagara's cooldowns by .75 seconds.

Zagara's basic abilities

- Level 1 -

 Volatile Acid – Q.
Volatile Acid adds 50% range to Zagara's Q and grants her Banelings 50% increased damage to non-Heroes. It should be considered when going for a more poke-orientated build as it empowers her poke potential and helps push lanes safer and faster. It also improves her level 7 talent choice, when going for another Q talent.    Infest - Num-key.
With Infest, nearby ranged minions deal an additional 100% damage plus an additional 1% per 1000 Siege Damage Zagara has dealt. It is important to know that it can be toggled on or off, which will come in handy when you're out of the enemy team's vision and your ranged minions are going by, so that you don't give your opponents a hint that you are in range. Infest is a really good talent for improving your split push potential and is a good choice if the enemy team set-up allows you to play a bit more aggressive.

- Level 4 -

 Medusa Blades - Passive.
With Medusa Blades, Zagara's basic attacks will also deal 33% damage to three nearby targets. This talent also empowers her pushing potential and gets decent value in clumped up fights. Other talents on this level are just not powerful enough to be considered.

- Level 7 -

 Baneling Massacre - Q.
Baneling Massacre grants 2 additional stacks of Baneling Barrage, again, increasing your poke and push potential. If picked with Volatile Acid, Zagara can be really annoying while preventing an opponent from channeling an objective if your Banelings don't get blocked. Baneling Massacre also improves her burst damage a little bit, because you can spam your Q more often during a close grouped teamfight.    Viscious Acid - Q.
With Viscious Acid, your Banelings will slow enemies by 20% for 1.5 seconds. It gives a little bit of control in fights, can secure a getaway if you are on Creep as it amplifies the difference between your and the opponent's movement speed and can synergize pretty well with heroes in your team that choose Executioner as a talent, allowing them to deal more damage.

- Level 10 -

 Devouring Maw - R1.
Devouring Maw is a great ability and was, for a long time, the only way to go with Zagara.
A good Maw is a great set-up for a lot of other ultimate abilities, allowing your team to "wombo combo" a whole teamfight. However, due to the Zagara rework last year, it is currently only a good pick on really small maps like Tomb of the Spider Queen where you won't get much value out of Nydus Network or when building a team where you want to stack up other powerful abilities on top of a Maw. Zagara is now often times picked as a global/split push character and gains more potential in this by picking Nydus Network.    Nydus Network - R2.
Nydus Network is the tool to make your opponents sweat while running from lane to lane and a great ability on bigger maps. Zagara is able to be everywhere, making her a great global hero that can be able to push every lane by herself, getting camps in the meantime and be back in a teamfight once she has her Network installed. The best thing: Your Nydus becomes your personal Healing Fountain so you don't need to back to get health and mana.

 Maw has great combo potential with other Ultimates like Jaina's Ring of Frost

- Level 13 -

 Hydralisk Transfusion - W.
Hydralisk Transfusion is usually the way to go as the other talents at 13 are more situational picks. With this talent, Zagara is healed for 75% of the damage dealt by Hunter Killers' basic attacks to Heroes. It is a talent that is just the most reliable at this talent tier and gets good use, especially if you are safe in the backline of your team.    Protective Coating - Trait.
Protective Coating means that Zagara takes 20% less damage while on Creep. It is a quite situational pick and might only come in handy if the enemy team can't clear your Creep effectively or on small maps when there is always a lot of Creep around you.    Spell Shield - Num-key.
Zagara's Spell Shield is not the best in game as it has a cooldown of 30 seconds, but it gives you 50 Spell Armor against the next enemy ability and subsequent abilities for 3 seconds.
It can be toggled on or off to allow or prevent this talent from triggering automatically.
When facing high spell damage opponents, it's not a bad talent to consider.

- Level 16 -

 Mutalisk - W.
With Mutalisk, as the name already says, your Hunter Killer becomes a Mutalisk.
What this means is: The attacks of the Mutalisk bounce to close targets and the Mutalisk itself lasts for 45 seconds, if not killed before. Especially with Hydralisk Transfusion on 13 you can get more healing out of your W and through good timing and combination of Nydus Network, if picked, you can have several Mutalisks pushing at different lanes at the same time.

- Level 20 -

 Endless Creep - R/Passive.
Endless Creep is the way to go if you went for Nydus Network in the first place. It doesn't improve her ultimate ability but it does improve the cast range for Creep Tumor by 2000%, Creep Tumors will now last 600 seconds and while on Creep, Zagara gains an additional 10% movement speed. With this talent, Zagara becomes a master of vision in the late game that can spread Creep over a huge distance, saving your team from a lot of ganks and backdoor attempts.    Fury of the Storm - Passive.
When choosing Maw at level 10, there are not many options at level 20 as there aren't other talents as good as Endless Creep. Fury of the Storm is just not as bad as Tyrant Maw, giving Zagara's basic attacks additional damage of 91 (+4% per level) to a target and 228 (+4% per level) to all nearby minions, mercenaries and monsters, every 5 seconds. This, however, doesn't synergize with Medusa Blades at level 4, as it just empowers the basic attack for your primary target. Why is Tyrant Maw not a good choice? Well on paper, 25 seconds cooldown reduction per kill secured with your ultimate doesn't sound that bad, but Maw is, like previously said, more of a set-up ultimate and not a finishing one, so it's more unlikely to get kills with it.

Playing Zagara is a lot about putting Creep all over the map, in bushes, at choke points, at objectives and ways the enemies might flank your team. It provides a lot of vision and also escape potential for Zagara.

Big maps with multiple objective locations, like Warhead Junction or Cursed Hollow, favour Zagara's split pushing potential when choosing Nydus Network. It can distract enemies from objectives or give you an advantage for the next one, gaining experience for your team in the meantime. Nydus can be placed anywhere, as long it is on Creep. You should not place it straight on each lane, where it can be seen easily or even be cleared by minions, but in bushes, behind walls or on the edge of the lane. Be sure to also have a Nydus up at the Hall of Storm in case you die or have to go back, so you don't have to waste time traveling to a lane. Strategically placed Nydus Worms at Mercenary Camps can help empower a push by grabbing the camp in the mid-push. Placing it near the objective area gets you there before it spawns and you can start to put Creep around to see your enemies coming, denying enemy flank attempts.

Zagara can also be a good solo laner on maps like Dragon Shire and Braxis Holdout, providing vision around the objective that has to be captured and being able to poke enemies away from it.

A good Devouring Maw is a great set-up tool to win teamfights. Combine it with other heavy ultimate abilities that are normally harder to hit, like Jaina's Ring of Frost, Malfurion's Twilight Dream, and Diablo's Apocalypse. It will need a bit of practice and you should make sure your team's Ultimates are ready, as it's a very long cooldown when using it for the set-up potential. Randomly casted Maws won't help anyone. Of course, if you can't escape without using it, Maw can be used but ideally you want to save it. There is nothing more aggravating then a "panic Maw" to try to save yourself but not locking anyone in or something like that.

Very mobile or even global Heroes like Falstad, Illidan, Genji, and Dehaka can be good picks against Zagara, quickly rotating to her if she goes for a split push and punishing her for overextending. Since Zagara has no real escape mechanism other than running faster on Creep, she most likely won't get away due to the fact that you can't channel to go in a Nydus Worm while taking damage. In general, heroes with great waveclear like Guldan or Xul are a good pick against Zagara, being able to clear her Creep and denying the ability for her Nydus Network to spread.

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