I love Gazlowe. He is my favorite hero. I like him so much, I wrote a pretty extensive guide on how to best utilize him in competitive environments. The talents have changed, but the overall lesson is still very relevant to playing a mean tinker game: don't be useless.
I didn't write stick with the team, or always land your grav-o-bomb combo, I said don't be useless. That sentiment reveals the truth of Gazlowes competitive prowess: there isn't much. Sure, he has his niche uses but these are extremely rare. Here is some perspective: Murky has seen more tournament play then Gazlowe ever has.
You can boil this down to three fundamental problems Gazlowe suffers from:
He can't react to the enemy
Gazlowe needs time to set up a defensive matrix of turrets. This means he has to predict where the fight is going to happen or be defending a specific objective. An organized team can simply avoid Gazlowe or force a team fight on their own terms.
He can't chase the enemy
If your team gets a kill and wants to chase the remaining heroes, Gazlowe has a very hard time becoming useful. Deth Lazor is a horrible tool for picking off fleeing heroes, and yet it is Gazlowe's best option. Ever tried laying a turret in the path of a low hp enemy hero trying to escape? Two turret attacks later, they are out of range.
He can't poke the enemy.
Gazlowes poke is clunky and requires considerable set up. He has to charge for 3 seconds, unleash Deth Lazor, drop a turret, turn turret to scrap, pick up scrap. Deth Lazor cool down is now reduced. Charge for 3 more seconds and repeat. All of that in the middle of a team fight hoping your opponents have sat still or not killed you.
These are the core problems. So how does Blizzard plan on keeping their promise to create a more streamlined, competitive Gazlowe?
Ideas that are so crazy they just might work. These are the goals Blizzard revealed during BlizzCon 2015:
- Improve eSports viability.
- Enhance his zone control.
- More presence in a team fight.
Turrets are the core to solving a lot of these problems and some of the ideas Blizzard tossed around have typical goblin madness attached ot them. We were warned that these ideas are not set in stone, but they already have Gazlowe eSports enthusiasts excited.
One potential talent might allow turrets to charge their own separate Deth Lazor while Gazlowe is charging the primary lazor. The possibilities are endless with this talent, including multiple sources of damages coming from multiple directions. This would help Gazlowe's chasing and poking capabilities.
Another talent that was discussed was an ability that causes Gazlowe to start dropping multiple pieces of scrap frantically. Sounds like something funny Gazlowe would do, but this talent alone would solve such a huge problem Gazlowe has- his inability to react to groups of enemy.
The most common Gazlowe turret scenario; too little and too late.
As it stands now, Gazlowe can drop 2-3 turrets at a location and hope the enemy walks through them. Once the battle becomes mobile, he is stuck in the background trying to pick up scrap. However, he if could create scrap on command like this talent hints at, Gazlowe would be able to keep up with the fight, dropping loads turrets throughout the battlefield. This influx of cool down reduction on command would also allow Gazlowe to enjoy true zone control, as dropping 5-6 turrets compared to 1-2 turrets is a night and day zone control difference
These talents would be game changing and their inclusion would unmistakably make Gazlowe a better hero. Zone control and safe poke damage are Gazlowes paths to eSports redemption and it's good to see that Blizzard knows this.
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