Alarak Talents

Level	Choices
1	? ✓ ?
4	✘︎ ? ✓
7	? ? ✓
10	? ✓
13	? ✓ ?
16	✓ ? ?
20	? ? ? ✓

Overwhelming Power will greatly increase Alarak's damage output and self-sustain as long as he keeps delivering Basic Attacks. This Talent enables Alarak to easily offlane against most Heroes, and is a great option if you are facing a very resistant team composition. This Talent has great Synergy with Lethal Onslaught and Mocking Strikes at Level 16.

Ruthless Momentum can greatly reduce the cooldown of Telekinesis, as long as you remain near full Health. This Talent will be at its best when laning with allies during the early game, because your Healer can help to make sure you stay near full Health. Since it reduces the cooldown of your main tool, Ruthless Momentum is the standard Talent for Level 1.

Extended Lightning is made up of 3 Quests which enhance Lightning Surge. The first Quest increases the range of Lightning Surge, allowing you to poke from much safer positions. It will give you more opportunities to find targets behind enemy Heroes, which will allow you to stack other Lightning Surge-related Quests more easily. The additional range will also allow you to heal with Lightning Surge more safely. This Quest can usually be completed in the opening team fight, if there is one. The second Quest adds a Slow to enemies hit by the center of Lightning Surge. This can be very powerful in team fights and as a follow-up to Telekinesis and Discord Strike. The aforementioned Slow can also be used to set up your combo, as the Slowed enemies will be much easier to hit. The third Quest gives a 10% Sadism bonus; this essentially refunds Extended Lightning's initial Sadism penalty.

Chaos Reigns is an underwhelming Talent that increases Discord Strike's damage when various quests are completed. If you do not complete all the 3 parts of the quest early in the game, it will be a bad Talent. Show of Force will overshadow it in most scenarios, since it is guaranteed damage, and will always be better in the late game.

Negatively Charged can greatly increase your damage in team fights when using a Lightning Surge poke focused playstyle. Make sure to hit enemies between you and your target in order to get value. The bonus damage only applies to Lightning Surge's center area, so it is best to pair this Talent with Extended Lightning. This quest's stacks are not lost if Alarak dies.

Show of Force Greatly increases Alarak's burst damage and sadism. It will be good in all situations, so we recommend going for it when you have Ruthless Momentum, because you will be able to proc it more often.

Dissonance increases the Silence duration of Discord Strike. This can be useful for locking down Heroes who have escapes, as they will be unable to cast them for an additional amount of time. This is especially useful against Warriors, who usually need to cast Abilities to enhance their survivability.

Hindered Motion adds a slow to Telekinesis, which allows Alarak to keep delivering Basic Attacks on a Silenced target, having good synergy with Overwhelming Power.

Applied Force greatly increases the impact of Telekinesis, and makes landing the Telekinesis into Discord Strike combo much easier. At the same time it increases the effects of the other uses of Telekinesis, including peel and escape. This Talent generally has the greatest impact of the Talents in this tier; it allows Alarak to displace enemies out of position from a safer distance.

In this section we discuss when and why to pick a given Heroic Ability. If you want to read how they work in detail and/or you are looking for some tips on how to use them, check them out on the Abilities and Strategy page.

Deadly Charge can deal massive damage to several enemy Heroes, or deal fatal damage to a low Health enemy who is fleeing a team fight. You will be fully committed after your charge, so make sure your team is ready before you charge in. If your team does not want to commit to a fight, you may cancel the channel at any time. Attempting to channel Deadly Charge while inside or behind an enemy Minion wave will not work, as the Minions will attack you and cancel your channel. Deadly Charge is more risky than Counter Strike, because its defensive uses are limited. It can also be used by charging for only 0.3 seconds, being a good follow up for your own combo without putting Alarak into a dangerous situation, since the dash will be really short.

Counter-Strike is a great Heroic option that can be used to save Alarak from high damage Abilities, hard crowd control, or simply to deal burst damage during a fight. When using Counter-Strike primarily as a damage source, enemy damage over time effects will proc the strike very reliably. You will need to think ahead and counter an enemy attack, which is much different than the hard engage you get from Deadly Charge. It is generally recommended over Deadly Charge due to the control and versatility it provides.

Blade of the Highlord increases Sadism each time Alarak applies Basic Attacks to enemy Heroes. This bonus is lost on death. The bonus Sadism has a limit of 40%. This Talent forces Alarak into risking himself more, since he has to land Basic Attacks. It can be a good choice if you want a fast sadism boost for an upcoming important fight.

Pure Malice is the most reliable Talent available at Level 13, requiring no special playstyle from Alarak. When he dies, he loses all bonuses from every Talent on this tier. As soon as a game starts going downhill, Alarak becomes a lot weaker: he is very strong when ahead, but weak when behind. Pure Malice shores up his major weakness, letting him gain sadism back to quickly regain control of the game.

Rite of Rak'Shir has the potential to scale Sadism's bonus to absurd amounts. This bonus is lost on death, but can otherwise be stacked without limit. You can gain 5% Sadism easily, just by casting this on an enemy Hero who is about to die. Some enemies will be zoned out of fights, simply by casting Rite of Rak'Shir on them. However, this Talent is harder to get value from than the other options. Sometimes it will be a wasted Talent, since the marked target can just avoid fighting Alarak until it is extremely necessary.

Lethal Onslaught is similar to Mocking Strikes in that they both grant a bonus to Basic Attacks against enemy Heroes who have been hit by Discord Strike. Lethal Onslaught can only be triggered by Discord Strike. However, Mocking Strikes can be triggered by any Silence, Slow, Stun, or Root effects. In addition to this important difference, the effect of Mocking Strikes is much more powerful than that of Lethal Onslaught. Lethal Onslaught does increase the amount of damage Alarak can deliver in a single combo, which can help secure kills in some situations.

Lightning Barrage is a great Talent for playstyles focused on Lightning Surge use. This enables you to deal more damage, heal more often, and stack Negatively Charged higher. However, it will also be good in other playstyles as well, since it will give you more damage and self-sustain without risking yourself with Basic attacks.

Mocking Strikes reduces Basic Ability cooldowns each time Alarak Basic Attacks an enemy Hero. Stunned, Silenced, Slowed, or Rooted enemies will double this bonus. Be aware that in some situations it might not be safe to Basic Attack the target if you have no Abilities ready in case enemies engage you. However, if you are able to use your basic attacks often, this Talent will add much damage into your kit by reducing your cooldowns. It also has a great synergy with Overwhelming Power and Hindered Motion.

Counter-Strike is covered in detail above. Alarak is able to take both of his Level 10 Heroics in the same game. It is recommended to do so if Deadly Charge was taken at Level 10, because Counter-Strike is incredibly valuable after Deadly Charge is used to commit to a fight.

Deadly Charge is covered in detail above. This can be a good choice if you are against a very squishy composition or if you are having a hard time following-up your tank's engages.

Last Laugh is a risky Talent that is almost exclusively useful as an escape. Attempting to use this Talent offensively will often result in death, unless you are very confident in your ability to reliably land Alarak's skillshots. As a last resort escape it can be worth taking, as Telekinesis is a rather poor tool for a full retreat. If you need something to preserve your extra Sadism stacks, this Talent can often work. Last Laugh will also cleanse all debuffs and damage over time affecting Alarak, being a decent pick against Poison-reliant Heroes, such as Lunara or Xul with Poison Nova.

Hasty Bargain gives up some of Sadism's bonus damage with each use; however, it allows Alarak to kill most Heroes in the game by himself. If you are confident and comfortable on Alarak, this Talent can allow you to close out a late game team fight in order to secure victory. For maximum value, throw out your full Ability rotation, then activate Hasty Bargain and repeat. Do not worry about the damage you give up doing this, as kills in the late game are much more valuable.