Heroes of the Storm Dehaka

[Vlad 414]

This thread is for comments about our Dehaka build guide for Heroes of the Storm.

[Anomiaz 0]

Excellent guide! Long time Icy Veins user, but this one made me create an account! Thank you!

[Straften 24]

I am glad the guide was helpful! 

You can look forward to more details on Dehaka soon.

Edited April 8, 2016 by Straften

[europeanguy 0]

I am glad the guide was helpful! 

You can look forward to more details on Dehaka soon.

so you are the one who made the guide? quick request, i notice on all guides it says their strong maps, average maps and weak maps. it also says characters they do well with and characters they are countered by. except one fatal flaw, they dont say WHY these are strong maps or weak maps WHY these characters counter them WHY these characters benifit them. it would be great if you could include why?

[Straften 24]

 

I am glad the guide was helpful! 

You can look forward to more details on Dehaka soon.

so you are the one who made the guide? quick request, i notice on all guides it says their strong maps, average maps and weak maps. it also says characters they do well with and characters they are countered by. except one fatal flaw, they dont say WHY these are strong maps or weak maps WHY these characters counter them WHY these characters benifit them. it would be great if you could include why?

 

Absolutely. 

 

For Dehaka, these additions are on the way. I am working on them right now. For all complete guides, you can click on the Map or Hero icon and it will take you directly to the detailed information you wish to know. The front page is for quick reference, but there are several other sections that elaborate much more on each topic.  These can be accessed by clicking on icons, or you may navigate manually with the tabs at the bottom of the page.

 

I hope this helps 

[Abelcain 1]

How is this guy a warrior? And how does he kill other heroes? The damage isn't too good and even with the heals groups of minions get you down so quick. 

I never played him before this, was he nerfed recently or something?

[Straften 24]

On 11/7/2016 at 7:53 PM, Abelcain said:

How is this guy a warrior? And how does he kill other heroes? The damage isn't too good and even with the heals groups of minions get you down so quick. 

I never played him before this, was he nerfed recently or something?

 

With most melee Heroes (Warriors included) you should wait for Minions to engage your own Minions before walking into them to deal damage. If you are still having trouble with Minions, try taking Primal Aggression at Level 1. It gives Dehaka Specialist amounts of waveclear; however, his structure damage will remain very low. As with many other Warriors, you should not be focused on killing enemy Heroes on your own. You instead want to set up opportunities for your team to get kills.

Use Drag and Isolation to disable enemies and pull them out of position into your team's damage. Dehaka has high Basic Attack damage. Remember to use Basic Attacks whenever possible, ideally while in a position to body block an enemy Hero into your team's damage.

[Niteshadow 20]

Just a quick question: Why is Lurker Strain now viable? I remember before it was not recommended, as enemies could just use AoE abilities to poke you out of it as it couldn't be canceled early, and I know that it has been buffed, but it seems like it still would suffer from similar problems. Even if you cancel early, enemies will save some AoE to poke you out of Stealth. As for the slow, it really doesn't seem too impactful; unless you are using Burrow to avoid high damage abilities in the middle of a teamfight, it really seems suboptimal to be burrowed in the first place pre level 16 when you pick up Tunneling Claws (Which needs to be added to the Insert Heroes Link button, and Valla's Tumble needs to be removed), while Hero Stalker will benefit you throughout the match, as well as making you much more durable on the front lines. Overall, I think it might be situational, but I really wouldn't recommend it over Hero Stalker, which will help you throughout the match and provides more reliable buffs as well; the longer you stay alive, the more Essence Collection you get, snowballing into a won teamfight. While I do recognize Hero Stalker requires takedowns, Dehaka's Drag will allow you to safely get picks and start to snowball a team fight in your team's favor.

[Voltorocks 40]

I don't think the stealth is what anyone cares about for this talent (though ofc it has its niche uses). The on-demand knockback and slow are quite powerful; it adds another interrupt to his kit and isdehaka's only aoe CC option at all. add in that dark swarm makes positioning for the perfect knockback pretty doable and you have quite a versatile talent.

 

not sure that it's a must pick against hero stalker by any means, but definitely has a place now that it can be instantly triggered - whereas before enemies would simply step away during the full-duration burrow, making all of its aforementioned qualities completely moot.

 

 

[Niteshadow 20]

12 minutes ago, Voltorocks said:

I don't think the stealth is what anyone cares about for this talent (though ofc it has its niche uses). The on-demand knockback and slow are quite powerful; it adds another interrupt to his kit and isdehaka's only aoe CC option at all. add in that dark swarm makes positioning for the perfect knockback pretty doable and you have quite a versatile talent.

 

not sure that it's a must pick against hero stalker by any means, but definitely has a place now that it can be instantly triggered - whereas before enemies would simply step away during the full-duration burrow, making all of its aforementioned qualities completely moot.

 

 

I can see your point, and agree that most of the time this can be triggered reliably, but if you are either trying to impair the movement of enemy heroes, you're better off trying to body block them, rather than casting burrow and and then knocking enemies farther forward and slowing them for a good amount. While it is worth noting that the cc in a team fight is very good, to be sure, it just feels rather bad for chasing scenarios. It is also worth noting your only burst damage protection is used when trying to utilize this talent aggressively, so make sure you can handle any damage coming your way for the next 20 seconds if Adaptation is on cooldown, and for the next 4 seconds if it is not.

[Straften 24]

1 hour ago, Niteshadow said:

Just a quick question: Why is Lurker Strain now viable? I remember before it was not recommended, as enemies could just use AoE abilities to poke you out of it as it couldn't be canceled early, and I know that it has been buffed, but it seems like it still would suffer from similar problems. Even if you cancel early, enemies will save some AoE to poke you out of Stealth. As for the slow, it really doesn't seem too impactful; unless you are using Burrow to avoid high damage abilities in the middle of a teamfight, it really seems suboptimal to be burrowed in the first place pre level 16 when you pick up Tunneling Claws (Which needs to be added to the Insert Heroes Link button, and Valla's Tumble needs to be removed), while Hero Stalker will benefit you throughout the match, as well as making you much more durable on the front lines. Overall, I think it might be situational, but I really wouldn't recommend it over Hero Stalker, which will help you throughout the match and provides more reliable buffs as well; the longer you stay alive, the more Essence Collection you get, snowballing into a won teamfight. While I do recognize Hero Stalker requires takedowns, Dehaka's Drag will allow you to safely get picks and start to snowball a team fight in your team's favor.

Yes, I agree with the point about Hero Stalker.

I think Lurker Strain is going to see more play now because you can move while burrowed with Tunneling Claws at 13, and you can cancel Burrow early from the start. That being said, I have already updated the build listed, because Lurker Strain should be paired with a sustain option to make up for the lack of Hero Stalker healing you could have had. When I initially tested these changes in the PTR, most team composition were 4 warriors and a Ragnaros; healing was less necessary there compared in real HL matches.

 

[FirstBlood 7]

I could use a bit of advice.  I'm pretty comfortable picking Dehaka and playing him as a solo-laner, but I'm really struggling into a Thrall match-up.  From what I understand, Dehaka SHOULD be able to just bully Thrall off of the lane, but when I face him, I'm the one getting bullied.  He just walks right up and smacks me with the Doomhammer and I burn through the essence I'm getting off minions very fast.  The result is that I'm not able to push the lane back the way I want because he's doing more damage than I can tank, so he's eating up tower shots.  And he's getting more healing out of his trait than I am because minions aren't dying as fast as I'd like.

Are there any specific strategies for laning against Thrall that I'm missing?

[Guest umbra]

Hello @Straften,

Does D.va's Mek interact with Essence Collection? If it does maybe it's worth mentioning in the Talent 4.1. Discussion.

 

Great guide BTW,

Thank you

[Niteshadow 20]

On June 1, 2017 at 3:41 AM, Guest umbra said:

Hello @Straften,

Does D.va's Mek interact with Essence Collection? If it does maybe it's worth mentioning in the Talent 4.1. Discussion.

 

Great guide BTW,

Thank you

I know that The Butcher gains meat from D.va's mech, so I would imagine Dehaka would still get Essence from it. Not sure though, but you could test it in Try Mode!

[Straften 24]

On 6/1/2017 at 1:41 AM, Guest umbra said:

Hello @Straften,

Does D.va's Mek interact with Essence Collection? If it does maybe it's worth mentioning in the Talent 4.1. Discussion.

 

Great guide BTW,

Thank you

Good question!

D.Va's mech does yield essence when it is destroyed. Although Mech Mode only gives 50% experience when the mech dies, D.Va is much harder to farm for takedowns than TLV or Murky. I do not think she is "expendable" in the same way; she has long cooldowns when she loses the mech. Additionally, the mech is much harder to kill than TLV or Murky. It has a large health pool, and Boosters! 

When she was first released, she did not provide the takedown bonus correctly. Takedowns would show up in the score screen, but Abilities like Essence Collection did not work. This bug was patched in the balance patch released on May 31, 2017.

 

 

[KingRider 1]

Gank? not is TANK? .. what mean a word Gank?

[positiv2 953]

7 hours ago, KingRider said:

Gank? not is TANK? .. what mean a word Gank?

Gank is something like an ambush, when going from a lane to another. It is usually done by one or two heroes "ganking" a lane, punishing overextended opponent, after which they usually return to their lane.
For example, Dehaka is laning bottom. An ally in the top lane requests a gank from the Dehaka player. Dehaka then uses Brushstalker, ambushes the opponent and hopes to secure a kill with the help from the toplaner. Dehaka has performed a gank, and the player returns to the bottom lane.

[darkdill 4]

This guide is going to need an update now that Ana is out. Her Biotic Grenade will be a nightmare for Dehaka's Essence Collection and especially for his Adaptation heroic.

[Guest Beldr]

Talents should be updated, the changes of last patch are not in

[positiv2 953]

16 hours ago, Guest Beldr said:

Talents should be updated, the changes of last patch are not in

Thanks for pointing this out! This should be now fixed.

[ExorionAether 11]

So, how do most of the Dehaka mains like the added functionality to Hero Stalker?
Thanks to this he quickly rose to one of my favorite Heroes. I mean yeah I liked his kit even before the buff but I found it rather annoying that you never had any real chance of gaining essence while the fight went neutral / loss for own team.

One-Who-Collects is really nifty for solo laning but you can't guarantee fights inside minion waves and also spending resources on them. And Hero Stalker pre-buff was more of a winmore talent with only giving you massive essence if you manage to down enemies.

But now I can get huge loads of essence for hitting them with Dark Swarm, which feels pretty good. It rounds up his survivability pretty well. And you also get the added benefit of freakin' 20 essence for each takedown (getting Tissue Regeneration stacked faster than ever do feels pretty good).

I wonder if this small yet welcome buff will let him rise some spots up but maybe I overrate this added bonus way too high, dunno.