Alarak Abilities and Strategy

• Use Discord Strike to Silence and damage your enemies, leaving them vulnerable.
• You can self cast Telekinesis to propel yourself forward, into the direction Alarak is facing. Use this to confirm a kill, or push yourself to safety.
• Lightning Surge has low mana cost, and is a great way to recover small amounts of Health as needed. Always try to hit enemies with the center of its beam for extra damage.
• Deadly Charge can be channeled for a small duration, allowing you to use it quickly in a teamfight, but still dealing all the damage. This is recommended to be done when enemies can easily punish you after you dive in, considering you will not lunge to the middle of enemy team by using it quickly.
• Be aware that you will lose all your Sadism on death, so even though a game is looking easy, it can easily backfire if you lose your stacks. In many situations it might be better to just abandon allies in a bad situation, instead of trying to help them and risking your own life.
• Make whatever choices will help you establish dominance; even if that means sacrificing some of Sadism's bonus damage for utility options.

Alarak deals relatively low baseline damage with his Abilities when compared to other Assassins. Sadism serves to bring his damage more in line with other Assassins when using his Abilities on enemy Heroes, however, his non-Heroic damage remains mediocre. This helps to define Alarak as an anti-Hero who should focus on damaging and disabling enemy Heroes, rather than clearing lanes, pushing, or clearing Mercenary Camps.

Discord Strike is Alarak's primary tool for disabling enemy Heroes. Because it requires a brief channel time, Discord Strike is best used in combination with Telekinesis. It can also be used effectively as follow-up for crowd control provided by team members. Sometimes enemies will be predictable, and can be hit without the use of Telekinesis. This is preferable, as it leaves Telekinesis open for securing kills or as an escape.

Telekinesis should often be used to pull enemy Heroes into Discord Strike. This is accomplished by casting Telekinesis and immediately following it up with Discord Strike. Landing the combo comfortably will take some practice, but it is important to begin casting Discord Strike before the Telekinesis animation is complete. If you wait to aim Discord Strike, your target will have time to move out of the way. Telekinesis can be applied in a variety of other ways as well. It serves as Alarak's escape, his only form of peel, and can be used to displace enemy Heroes into dangerous places (such as Immortal's Stuns on Battlefield of Eternity) or towards your Tank so they can crowd control whoever has been caught that way and then you can follow up with Discord Strike without risking a miss.

Lightning Surge enables Alarak to poke most enemy Heroes from a safe distance, and will also heal him for a flat amount for each Hero hit. Sadism does modify this healing. If multiple enemy Heroes are struck by the beam, the healing can become quite significant. Use Lightning Surge to harass enemy Heroes whenever it is available. Remember that you can target enemy Minions and Structures directly behind your intended targets, allowing you to get a little more value out of Lightning Surge in many situations. You should always be looking for opportunities to hit enemy Heroes with the center of the beam. Playing a Lightning Surge Build is a good way to practice this behavior, and can help you see opportunities to hit multiple enemies with each cast.

Here we explain how this Heroic Ability works. If you are looking for more information about it, check the dedicated section in the Talent Build 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.

Deadly Charge 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.

Here we explain how this Heroic Ability works. If you are looking for more information about it, check the dedicated section in the Talent Build page.

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.