Diablo Talents

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

Feast on Fear is a good Talent that provides direct combat self sustain. It should be noted that Feast on Fear does not stack, meaning that multiple applications will merely refresh the effect's duration. As such, it may be worth trying to use Shadow Charge and Overpower with a few seconds of spacing, although never at the expense of setting up kills.

You can get more value from this Talent by combining it with Diabolical Momentum at Level 7 and/or Domination at Level 16.

Devil's Due is a strong Talent that increases your survivability and self sustain through two secondary sources of healing, Regeneration Globes and Healing Fountains.

Assuming 100 Souls and Devil's Due, a Regeneration Globe will provide Diablo with 36% of his maximum Health, whereas Healing Fountains will provide him with 120%. This healing can and should be used as a way of trading, as there are only few Heroes who can burn through such healing.

Soul Shield is a strong Talent that reduces the damage you take from enemy Abilities by increasing your Spell Armor, which is a threat in many games. It is worth noting that both Fire Stomp and Lightning Breath can significantly reduce or outright recharge Soul Shield's cooldown if multiple enemy Heroes are hit, making it wise to use Soul Shield early on during engagements.

Sacrificial Soul provides a significant amount of Armor if there are enough opportunities to trigger Shadow Charge's collision-based Stun. As such, this Talent is recommended on wall-heavy Maps such as Battlefield of Eternity, Cursed Hollow, Dragon Shire, Garden of Terror, Infernal Shrines, Towers of Doom, and Volskaya Foundry. It works particularly well with Domination.

Souls to the Flame is a reliable way of improving your self sustain. It works particularly well with Eternal Flames. Further, it is the most effective choice for generating Black Soulstone stacks.

Life Leech has the highest potential for self-healing, provided you are able to deliver Basic Attacks. Not recommended against Tychus, who may punish you easily. Very powerful otherwise, particularly when combined with Cruelty.

Eternal Flames is a strong Talent that resets the cooldown of Fire Stomp when Stunning enemy Heroes with Basic Abilities. The cooldown reset provided has great synergy with all Fire Stomp-related Talents: Soul Shield at Level 1, Souls to the Flame at Level 4, Hellfire at Level 13, and Debilitating Flames at Level 16.

Malevolence is a good Talent that increases your burst damage when using Basic Abilities. The damage provided by this Talent can be easily amplified thanks to the Armor reduction provided by Devastating Charge at Level 13 and triggered more often with Domination or even Overpowering Nightmare at Level 16.

Diabolical Momentum is a good Talent which reduces the cooldown of your Basic Abilities when hitting enemy Heroes with Basic Attacks. The cooldown reduction provided has synergy with Feast on Fear at Level 1 and Cruelty at Level 13 as they can give you more self-sustain and more crowd control respectively.

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.

Apocalypse is a good Heroic Ability that can be used to Stun one or more enemy Heroes. Since it has a delay, you should use it in combination with other crowd control effects (for example Dragon's Arrow by Hanzo).

The single-target combo (explained in the Abilities page) is unreliable when playing against Heroes who can stop the animation of Shadow Charge and/or Overpower (for example Raynor with Penetrating Round) because you will not be able to lock the desired enemy Hero in place while Apocalypse goes off. Cleanse effects are also good against it.

The multiple target combo (explained in the Abilities page) can be countered with Abilities that can remove the Apocalypse's Stun or the crowd control that is being used as a setup from multiple Heroes at the same time (for example Soothing Mist by Brightwing).

Be aware that Apocalypse's runes do not spawn below Heroes removed from the battlefield by Stasis effects that affect enemy Heroes (for example Devouring Maw by Zagara).

Lightning Breath is a strong Heroic Ability as it deals a huge amount of damage to enemy Heroes hit. When combined with Hellfire at Level 13, it deals even more damage thanks to the Spell Power provided.

If your team has Heroes who deal more damage to Slowed enemy Heroes, you can use Lightning Breath in combination with them (for example Fenix with Purification Salvo).

If the enemy team has Heroes who can Time Stop you (notably Containment Disc by Maiev), you should avoid picking Lightning Breath because they can freeze you while you are channeling it and move away from its area, taking little to no damage from it.

Devastating Charge can provide a powerful Armor-reduction effect when it matters most: right after a successful initiation with Shadow Charge. As such, this Talent is specifically recommended on wall-heavy Maps such as Battlefield of Eternity, Cursed Hollow, Dragon Shire, Garden of Terror, Infernal Shrines, Towers of Doom, and Volskaya Foundry, although it remains powerful on other Maps. It works particularly well with Domination.

Hellfire has the highest damage output potential at this Tier when combined with Eternal Flames at Level 7 and Lightning Breath.

Cruelty, on its own, is underwhelming. Its true power comes online, however, when combined with other Talents that benefit from Basic Attacks, notably Diabolical Momentum; the Attack Speed increase translates into additional Abilities for significantly increased damage output and crowd control.

Domination is a game-changing Talent for Diablo. The ability to completely reset the cooldown of Shadow Charge allows you to follow any Overpower cast with another Shadow Charge. This is particularly potent when used to drag opponents right back to your teammates or to drive them into a wall for a Stun after using Shadow Charge to close the distance. It works particularly well with Sacrificial Soul and Devastating Charge.

Debilitating Flames provides Diablo with some team-wide defensive utility by allowing you to significantly cripple the damage output and mobility of Heroes who lack ways of reliably avoiding Fire Stomp. Debilitating Flames is recommended against team compositions that feature three or more melee Heroes, as they tend to be much easier to hit with Fire Stomp.

Overpowering Nightmare provides Diablo with a disruptive and reliable way to peel and stick to any given target. Outstanding synergy with Malevolence and Feast on Fear for more self sustain than Domination, but less engagement potential.

Dying Breath provides a respectable cooldown reduction to Apocalypse, as well as a nasty surprise upon dying. The Talent is, however, overshadowed by other options. You may need this Talent when your team features a combo of Heroic Abilities among which Apocalypse has the highest cooldown.

Hellstorm allows Diablo to output an extreme amount of damage over a large area. One added benefit of this Talent is the duration increase—equal to an impressive 8 seconds—it provides is also applied to Lightning Breath's crowd control immunity clause, making it excellent against team compositions that feature a good amount of it. Hellstorm allows you to punish team compositions that lack mobility. For this reason, Hellstorm is an outstanding tool for contesting Bosses.

Lord of Terror is a good defensive Talent against team compositions that feature at least two Tanks or otherwise high-Health Heroes, given the nature of percentage-based damage and healing. Lord of Terror is also useful for finishing off opponents that are on the brink of death in a pinch, as it is often unexpected.

Hellgate turns Diablo's ability to initiate and peel up to eleven, but it can also be used to escape from danger. Hellgate can be used in conjunction with Shadow Charge to drag an opponent into your team, with Overpower for a lengthy Stun, or to setup for your own Apocalypse or Lightning Breath. Since Hellgate's effect has a short delay, it is recommended that you practice its use in Try Mode so as to get a good feel for it, and especially along with Diablo's other Abilities.