Pestilus Guide (250+ Games on him, G13/Platinum)

An in-depth guide for the character Pestilus from a top support player. Covers abilities, general gameplay, match-ups and battlerites.

General Gameplay

Role

You work as a defensive and controlling healer who is able to burst down targets that misposition. Your job is to prevent damage to your teammate and to follow up on low recovery health with your high burst and constant poke. Your aggression should be reactive to your opponents cooldowns rather than trying to force things on your opponent. The reason for this is that you have less offensive cooldowns than your opponents have defensive cooldowns, so trying to force something on them just means they can escape.

Generally, this character works better with a coordinated team that can give him some peel, either by pressuring the opponents or by cc'ing the people who are attacking him. If you want to play him Soloq, prepare to be left behind by your teammates and being forced to deal with that, which is when he is at his weakest. However, he is absolutely still able to carry even when left alone due to his high burst damage and his high sustain, but it can be extremely punishing (use your mobility incorrectly, you die.)

Positioning

You need to position so that you are able to heal your teammate and attack your enemies at the same time. Typically this means standing diagonally to your teammate. You have to be very careful not to position too aggressively, because your mobility is so weak. Always try and stay behind teammates who can soak damage more easily than you, because they can be healed with your left click and you can't.

Spells

Moth (M1): Projectile Attack that deals 10 damage on enemy hit and heals 8 health on ally hit. Inflicts Moth and heals you for 2 health. Damage and healing done by Moth heal you for 6 health over 4.5 seconds.

Moth is used to harass your opponents and is an important part of getting down the recovery health. I use moth when I don't need to use any other cooldowns, and I position close enough to my opponents to be landing moth all the time. The strongest part about moth is that you're able to move while using it, so get out your juking shoes and be ready to dip in and out of combat to land these without taking damage.

Bloodsucker (M2): Projectile attack that deals 30 damage on enemy hit, heals 30 health on ally hit and deals 15 damage to self. Cannot deal lethal damage to self. A Queen hit by Bloodsucker is instantly killed.

Bloodsucker is your bread-and-butter, and should be used as often as you can without losing permanent life. I'll talk later about how this can be used combo'd with other abilities so that you're able to use it without losing recovery HP. I use bloodsucker in the same way that I'd use my m1's, but it's best when they are on low recovery HP for damage.

I would never use this in a situation where I would take damage past my recovery health after using it, which is basically most 1v1's with melee's or a 1v1 with someone like Jumong. Pestilus requires some serious positioning prowess, so get used to only using this when you can't be followed up on. Using it on the queen when you're against melee's is a good way to get consistent damage without having the -15 health, because using it on the queen doesn't lose you that health.

You can cancel this ability to bait out counters against good players. To get the orb, you should always do two moths and a single bloodsucker. This is exactly 50 damage and not many characters can compete with the 30 damage burst.

Infest (Space): Lunge at enemies or allies to Infest them for up to 2s. Heals allies and self for 8 health. Infested enemies take 25% more damage and infested allies absorb 75% damage. Can be recasted to cancel the effect.

One of the hardest abilities in the game due to the amount of options you have with it combined with the slow cast speed and the slow projectile speed. You need to be extremely careful when using this spell. The place that I most often choose to go with infest is to my queen, because the queen is an easy to hit target. The best thing about this spell is that it gives you time to recover your cooldowns like queen, giving you some breathing room during the fight. In coordinated teamplay, you can use this rite to protect your teammate once they are defenceless. You can also be on the lookout for if your teammate is going to be ulted and use it then, but be careful that they aren't going to dodge your ability.

If you're using the double infest rite, jumping to your queen or the opponent directly in front of you and then to your teammate is a good way of landing effective infests. Infest damage reduction should be a large part of your overall damage reduction on your teammate. Using it on your opponents is typically much less effective. If you want to deal extra damage, you should just moth and bloodsucker them instead. Even with the double rite, I tend to escape after I hit my teammate and reduce damage on them so that I can keep the pressure up.

Queen (Q): Summon a Queen that heals nearby allies for 16 health and 18 additional health over 5s. The Queen explodes after the duration, dealing 24 damage to nearby enemies. This effect does not occur if the Queen is killed by an enemy.

Queen is also very difficult to land, but much easier against aggressive melee's who are desperate to stand on top of you. Remember that queen can be used to block damage as well as heal, so once you use it try to stay behind it and let it block as much damage as possible. Don't be afraid to drop it on a a teammate who needs it, and remember to pop it with your bloodsucker if you're under pressure. This should be the thing that gives the most healing for you in the game, and is your strongest cooldown for removing pressure from you. Make sure to use it whenever you or your teammates need healing in large doses. You can also use your bloodsucker while standing in the queen or directly after so that the 15 damage doesn't matter as much. An important tip is to not pop your queen early. You can often put it behind you and retreat behind it to block damage for the full five seconds, or just trade inside of its healing aura to always come out on top.

Arachnophobia (E): Throw a spider egg that breaks on impact inflicting Panic on all nearby enemies.

This spell should be a part of your rotation during the fight. This spell if used consistently on the target you aren't trying to kill can essentially make fights 1v2. I recommend using it on people who you think are going to counter, slow moving characters like Oldur, Lucie, or Pearl or just anyone who is trying to get on top of you like Rook or Croak. Once you've landed this panic you can moth and bloodsucker combo for free damage.

Swarm (R): Shield a target ally. Swarm absorbs up to 24 damage and spreads Moth to nearby enemies if destroyed by damage.

This is good during m1 trades, to relieve pressure if my queen isn't up, or if my ally needs help out of range. Works well for that extra bit of protection that you need before your other cooldowns come up. You can use it in combination with your bloodsucker (right click) so that the 15 damage isn't as meaningful. If the target is far away enough, you can also bloodsucker and then instantly cast the shield on yourself to stop the damage.

Vomit (EX-M2/2): Cone attack that deals 8 damage, inflicts Moth and Root.

This spell is good at stopping melee's from M1'ing you, and also goes through counters. Use it as often as you can when you're being pressured by melee's. Not that great for damage. It also knockbacks and has a lower cooldown than your bloodsucker, so you can use it liberally when being focused by melee heros if you have the energy. One interesting combo is to vomit them into an about-to-explode queen.

Brain Bug (EX-E): Throw a Brain Bug that infests the enemy allowing you to control it's movement. Recasting this ability forces the target to run to the target location at 60% increased speed.

Can be countered unlike your Arachnophobia (E) and has a slow cast time, so use it if your opponent doesn't have counter up and can dodge your Arachnophobia then it's worth using. Also, at the current time of writing, making someone walk somewhere with Mind Control actually reduces the amount of time they are CC'd, so if you do use this spell it's currently better to let them stand there rather than recasting.

Scarab Pack (F): Summon and command 3 Scarabs to attack enemies or aid allies. A Scarab deals 26 damage on enemy hit and heals 26 health on ally hit. Scarabs stick to their target for a short duration. Damage an healing done by Scarabs heal self for 24 health.

This ultimate deals a lot of damage, so use it wisely. I recommend using it and then cancel casting a few scarabs to blow cooldowns. Because of its long duration you can afford to bait some cooldowns, space aggressively, and then use it. Do not use this spell when under pressure, because you can be very easily killed through it. Best used to snipe people but difficult to land. You have to position yourself so that you can hit your enemy and not hit your teammate, which can be quite difficult. Being able to use abilities during this ultimate is what makes it powerful.

Battlerites

Round 1

Colony: Landing
Bloodsucker on a
Queen or a target affected by
Moth causes it to spread to nearby enemies.

This rite is good against ranged as it lets you get more consistent damage output and match their dps. If you take this rite you should also take the bloodsucker rite in tier 3, as they have great synergy. However, it's worth bearing in mind that the moth's are sent as projectiles from the target hit, so they can be countered and dodged.

Scourge: Allows you to
Infest an additional target.

This rite is good against ranged burst characters like taya, where you want to avoid their damage for a long time. It's also good for landing more consistent infests, as it gives you the ability to jump to a queen and then to a teammate, making it less likely that you miss completely. Because of the cast time of infest, this is actually a large advantage. However if you're looking for a way to stop melee's from pressuring, I recommend the queen panic rite instead. Generally, I don't tend to choose this rite very often due to infest being very hard to hit (even with the added buffer of an extra infest) and the need to save your infest for key times even when you can hit two targets (so you aren't instantly focused when you come out of it.)

Broodmother: Queen inflicts Panic on all nearby enemies when it explodes.

This is the rite you take if you're being pressured by melee. Once they are on top of you, you use bloodsucker to pop the queen and they take 24 damage and are panic'ed away from you. This rite can be comboed with your other panic (E) to land a chain CC of 3 seconds. Also gives your teammates more chance to combo as well as your own ability to land an auto-bloodsucker combo.

Round 2

Spores: Infest reduces damage and healing output of an enemy by 50% and increases the damage and healing output of an ally by 25%.

This battlerite is okay if you take the double infest. The other rites are usually too strong to give up, and because infest is so difficult to land taking this rite and relying on it can be incredibly risky compared to the healing queen. Generally I'd say that unless you're confident you and your teammate are coordinated and can use this ability to its maximum effectiveness, avoid it.

Egg Carrier: Arachnophobia bounces forward, causing another impact.

This battlerite is good but is also inconsistent compared to the healing queen. If you land this at the right distance and direction you can actually chain the first landing into the bounce for more CC, but landing that is a lot harder than it sounds. Another extremely hard combo is to land the queen panic into a double bounce panic, but that is almost impossible to get consistently.

Hardened Carapace: The
Queen is invulnerable for 1s and heals nearby allies for 12 health the first time it blocks damage with invulnerability.

This battlerite makes your queen invulnerable and gives it some extra burst healing, which is very good and will almost always happen. This also means your queen is alive longer, giving you more chances to land the panic and also giving you more healing over time. This is the strongest battlerite of this round, and I take it in almost all my games.

Round 3

Disperse: Releasing an
Infested enemy pushes it back in the opposite direction.

You can knock an enemy back into your queen and also help peel for your teammate with this CC. However, I end up going for one of the other two almost every game due to the others being quite a lot stronger (especially insectivore, which is great numerical value).

Hive Mind: Recasting the
Queen commands it to fly towards target location.

A very strong rite if you take the panic queen battlerite. With this rite, you want to always move your queen just before the explosion time happens. That way you can guarantee that it will hit. One trick you can do with this rite is to infest your queen and then move it towards them, as it takes less damage meaning that your queen cant be destroyed on the way there. This trick is what turns this rite from an okay one to a great one, because otherwise your queen can be quite easily killed before it pops. Don't be afraid to pop your queen mid-flight with your bloodsucker (right click). However, if your opponents are wary of your queen and begin knowing that it will move towards them, they can quite easily walk out of its path. Generally, this rite is fun but can be countered quite easily unless you are great at outplaying with it.

Insectivore: Bloodsucker consumes
Moth dealing 6 bonus damage to enemy, healing 6 bonus health to ally and healing self for 6 health.

You should always take this rite if you took the moth spread rite round one. Even if you didn't, this rite improves your ability to trade with ranged characters and also gives you extra burst damage to combo with, as well as increased healing and in turn more potential uses of bloodsucker without using recovery HP. However, be careful taking this rite into matchups that you won't be able to use it on without losing recovery HP, like Shifu.



Round 4

Blight: The
Queen slows nearby enemies movement speed down by 30%.

This rite isn't bad if you've taken all the other ones for queen. Can use it against melee's combined with the panic to make landing the queen more consistent.

Overlord: You move 5% faster for each nearby enemy or ally affected by
Moth.

This rite is good if you've taken the bloodsucker moth spread rite, and is another tool in your kit for dealing with m1 trades from DPS characters. It gives you the ability to go in and out of the fight more easily as well as dodge their attacks and ultimates. I take this if I have the bloodsucker moth rite.

Defiler: Infest duration is increased by 0.75s.

This rite is good if you need to hide in your teammate, but suffers from the same inconsistency issues as any infest rite does, and that is infest is pretty hard to hit on your teammate. I recommend taking this rite if you already have the double infest rite, just because then you can be sure you can get the maximum usage out of it on your teammate. Not bad against characters looking to combo/stun you like taya or croak.

Round 5

Lord of the Flies: Each active Scarab absorbs 15% of damage taken during
Scarab Pack.

This rite isn't that great because you can use your other cooldowns during your ultimate to protect yourself regardless.

Blind Beetle: Scarab inflicts a Fading Blind that reduces enemy sight range by 90%. The effect wears off over the duration of the Scarab.

This rite is ridiculously strong and lets you land all of your other scarabs much more easily. It has great CC potential as well as combo potential, and is what makes your ultimate one of the strongest tools in the game in round 5.

Match-Ups

This character is weak against:

• Consistent ranged DPS with mobility like Ashka or Jumong. He can be punished very easily once his cooldowns are down because of his large hit box, low mobility and inability to deal consistent damage output in return.
  
• Strong ultimates like Pearl and Ashka. His jump is his only iframe, and because of his large hitbox he has trouble walking out of ultimates.
  
• Burst damage like Croak and Taya. He has no counter or directional shield for these characters, so he is very susceptible to being chain CC'd and bursted down very quickly.

This character is strong against:

• Melee's who have to enter his queen to fight him like Rook or Shifu. Once they try and enter this range, he can detonate the panic on his queen to reset the fight.
  
• Low mobility characters who can be hit by his crowd control easily like Lucie or Pearl. He can use his long range CC to disrupt their game without an answer other than blowing the few mobility spells they have.
  
• Characters who rely on their counters to avoid damage like Pearl or Varesh. Similar to the previous point, he can use his Arachnophobia CC to remove the counter and CC the opponent, as well as easily bait the counters using his right click.

This character is strong with:

• Characters who can put out pressure and draw attention to themselves. Pestilus excels at keeping his teammates alive and disrupting the fight. Some examples are Ruh Kaan, Freya or Rook.
  
• Characters who can fight using M1's with him at range. Pestilus has a great M1 fight with his bloodsuckers, healing and movement. Characters who can sit back and M1 with him can win by the neutral game alone. Some examples are Jumong and Varesh.
  
• Characters who can burst an opponent. Pestilus's burst followup with bloodsuckers is quite high, which gives him potential for big damage combos with characters like Ezmo, Croak and Taya.

[TerranWolf]

A plat, with 250 game.....is a TOP SUPPORT PLAYER ahahahhahah wooow..

[NeoMaddy]

Out of date now, rite system is totally different.

[tom]

Of course, you may do whatever you want with it.

[shatfel]

May I translate it. Ofc, I'll put info about original post here. I think it will be cool guide for everybody if other populate it on there languages.

[tom]

I wrote the reddit guide.

[Approximo]

Good guide. Just missing a combos/tips/tricks section.