Heroes of the Storm Deckard

[Orshova 31]

1 hour ago, Guest Is everything OK? said:

 

According to the reports I've received from my imagination, the guide writer died from a colon infection some time Monday morning. I just wish he had finished the guide before he passed.  All his ideas and opinions are now lost with him... He will be missed.  

[Valhalen 1,486]

This is the build I'm currently rolling with, as it makes Deckard absurdly annoying as he can get constant resets on Scroll Of Sealing, as well a ridiculous high amount of burst heal with Ruby once he reaches level 20 and has access to Perfect Gems.

A rundown of each talent:

• Level 1 | Field Study: this talent is absurdly strong. Even if you hit only 1 Hero, 15% spell power for 14 seconds is a lot. What I like about this talent is that it empowers Deckard in general; it makes his heals stronger, and his offensive abilities even stronger. This talent becomes particularly more powerful in the late game, as I'll discuss later.
  • In maps that has objectives that feature a lot of roaming, such as Towers of Doom, Tomb of the Spider Queen and Warhead Junction, Scroll of Identify can be quite useful to track down opponents, specially if the enemy team features stealth Heroes. The reveal effect can be really powerful. I tend to pick Field Study most of the time even if there are stealth Heroes, though, they tend to feature escape tools reliable enough to dodge Scroll Of Sealing.
• Level 4 | Ruby: altough his other talent choices for this tier are not bad (although I think that Potion of Shielding is useless), I stick with Ruby because it can provide an absurdly amount of burst heal if you manage to hit at least two enemy Heroes. The Lesser Potions are affected by the spell power bonus from Field Study, making them even more powerful. Also, this talent can save Deckard from the brink of death if he is focused by dives, as he can pop this at his close-range opponents alongside a Scroll Of Sealing to get full heal and flee (here is an example of me escaping certain death, at 5:49). This talent becomes absurdly overpowered at level 20, for reasons discussed later.
• Level 7 | Cube Mastery: this talent is very useful as it allows Deckard to use Scroll Of Sealing more often, thus maintaing the uptime on Field Study, as well keeping opponents locked more often.
  • If the enemy team has a LOT of damage (i.e. Fenix, Alarak, Kel'Thuzad), I recommend picking Kanai's Cube, as it is fantastic to shut them down.
  • If the enemy team features a lot of healing (Heroes with powerful self-sustain such as The Butcher, Alarak, Illidan) as well the likes of Alexstrasza and Rehgar, Emerald is a good pick to shutdown stuff like Abundance and Ancestral Healing. If you have a good timing you can even negate Kharazim's Divine Palm.
• Level 10 | Stay Awhile and Listen: even in a poorly coordinated team this Heroic can secure many objectives and takedowns. What most people don't know is that you can actually cancel the Heroic earlier, which is specially useful as a full channel it leaves Deckard extremelly vulnerable. So what I do I cast it to shutdown as many opponents as possible and cancel as soon as I can to get back into the fight.
• Level 13 | Potion of Revival: one of the problems Deckard face when healing is his lack of AoE, making hard to deal against teams that feature high area burst. This talent helps a lot, specially when combined with Field Study.
• Level 16 | Scroll of Stone Curse: this baby here is what makes Field Study even more powerful, or rather the opposite. At level 16 Scroll Of Sealing can hit for over 1.000 damage if Deckard has the spell power buff. Hitting 2 enemies isn't hard either.
  • However, if the enemy team features too many dives, I pick Horadric Staff instead; it is incredibly satisfying to hit a Genji in the head with this talent when he dives on you very confidently with Dragonblade. This talent even allows Deckard to be a little more sassy and fight in the frontline like a boss. FEEL THE POWER OF THE BONK!
• Level 20 | Perfect Gems: and this is what makes Ruby overpowered. Being able to use Horadric Cube it every 7 seconds or so is fantastic, as you can have it Ruby powered in every cast, thus pop all those Lesser Potions, plus all of it enhanced with 30% spell power from Field Study.

So TL;DR version: this build allows Deckard to become a powerhouse in the endgame. He can burst heal allies with his normal potions; he can summon 3 smaller potions per enemy Hero every 7 seconds or so; he can deal over 1.000 damage with Scroll of Sealing while getting tons of resets on it, and all of that while maintaining 30% increased spell power. FOR THE HORADRIM!

Here is also a fantastic video by NotParadox about the common mistakes Deckard Cain players make.

Edited May 24, 2018 by Valhalen

[ShadowerDerek 69]

On 2018年4月30日 at 5:58 AM, Oxygen said:

Aye, I'm working on it as I type this. Well, not quite, because I had to stop to type this, but you get my meaning.

Will be published tomorrow.

Talent choices will also be updated now that we have a bit of data.

Hmmmm, it's Friday already. 

I haven't played Deckard yet because I don't have enough gold to buy him (FeelsBadMan), but I find it really strange that everyone is saying Potion of Revival can heal minions and mercenaries when its description says 'it also heal nearby allied HEROES......'.

[Erathis 53]

5 hours ago, ShadowerDerek said:

I haven't played Deckard yet because I don't have enough gold to buy him (FeelsBadMan), but I find it really strange that everyone is saying Potion of Revival can heal minions and mercenaries when its description says 'it also heal nearby allied HEROES......'.

I can confirm it does (currently) work on minions (just double checked it right now).

At level 20 it heals for about 150 to (very close) minions...  Nothing amazing.

Seems likely to get patched out though as it doesn't seem intended (much like Rejuv giving Fury).

Edited May 4, 2018 by KSDT

[Orshova 31]

On 5/4/2018 at 8:18 AM, KSDT said:

Just throwing it out there.  I wasn't  trying to be a jerk about the guide not being finished.  It's hard to get the vibe through text but I was being silly.  I hope I didn't offend the writer off.

[Guest Tenjen]

The build a poster mentioned above certainly works wonders for certain team setups and enemy builds

Though i do also find situational  builds focused on replenishing flasks to be useful too. Hots/mana or aoe healing with replishing potions which upgrade themselves are vwry useful on certain maps and builds.

[Valhalen 1,486]

10 hours ago, Guest Tenjen said:

The build a poster mentioned above certainly works wonders for certain team setups and enemy builds

Though i do also find situational  builds focused on replenishing flasks to be useful too. Hots/mana or aoe healing with replishing potions which upgrade themselves are vwry useful on certain maps and builds.

At first I used for a 3 Melee comp we were testing, but I soon found myself using it one pretty much every comp. I have lost count how many times the Lesser Potions from Ruby saved my team and myself (example here, it is me at 5:49).

[Erathis 53]

Uh, I don't know why Orshova put their reply into a quote box with my name on it...  Seems like an odd mistake to make.

In any case, Sapphire and Ruby just got buffed, I can hardly believe it.  Both are amazingly good talents (both IMO the strongest in their tiers) that just got better.  Sadly Ancient Blessing took a little hit but honestly it was very good so I can see why (it was amazing for burning down objectives and structures).  Flasks frankly didn't matter to me so...  Deckard is riding high at the moment.

Anyhow, I've finished my Deckard leveling spree for the moment which means I'm not going to be spamming him anymore (now he has to wait his turn in the queue just like everyone else).  Here are my final thoughts on his talents after a large sampling of games:

Level 1 - Sapphire is my only pick here.  I've tried to make his scroll talents work, believe me.  After all the praise they get on this forum and their rating in the guide I tried.  I did.  But they simply have been zero impact for me.  Putting aside the absurdity of getting these to land regularly and in a position where you can actually benefit from the talents, I just don't care that much about the effects.  Sapphire has been great on the other hand.  Super consistent, easy to use, and powerful.

Level 4 - Honestly I mostly pick Rejuv but that's just because it's the easiest to benefit from.  Every talent here seems worth it to some degree and I would say Ruby is probably the strongest overall while Shielding is the hardest to use well.  In any case, a good talent tier.

Level 7 - Kanai's Cube has been my default here and I almost never find myself picking the other two.  I like the idea of Emerald but I rarely think to pick it (though there are times I think I should have) and I don't find myself needing the cooldown reduction on scroll.  It tends to be up whenever I really need it to be anyway.

Level 10 - Stay A While has been my pick pick in nearly 100% of games.  Sure it gets broken but even a short sleep gives enough time to win fights/set up more cc/catch runners.  Lorenado has its place no doubt but Stay is just so much more universally applicable.

Level 13 - I find myself picking Ancient Blessing more then I had initially intended.  I had expected it to be just on AA focus teams but more and more I had been using it even on teams with a lot of casters, supports, or tanks.  It just turns any random attack into a meaningful hit and makes taking down objectives so much easier.  In comparison I find getting a lot of value from Super/Revival potions to be harder.  I do still pick them (Super far more often than Revival) but I can always see so many instances when they don't get the chance to add anything of value.

Level 16 - Horadric Staff.  Every time.  I love this talent, it's true, which surely tints my perceptions of it but honestly even if I didn't I just can't get the other two to be worth anything.  Stone Curse is a big fat no for me.  I already have enough issues getting the scroll to be worth it against one Hero, now I need to hit two or more to get anything from the talent?  No.  Safety on the other hand would be good if I played with a team.  Sadly I'm a solo which means the coordination necessary to have 3+ allies near me to trigger this never happens.  I have a hard enough time keeping in range of one ally some games.

Level 20 - Respect the Elderly has been my go to selection but if I ever go Sapphire+Ruby I'll go Perfect Gems.  Morenado seems even less necessary with Lore's recent cooldown buff and Flask still doesn't do much for me.

Edited May 10, 2018 by KSDT

[Guest Everything is not ok]

On 4/29/2018 at 5:58 PM, Oxygen said:

Aye, I'm working on it as I type this. Well, not quite, because I had to stop to type this, but you get my meaning.

Will be published tomorrow.

Talent choices will also be updated now that we have a bit of data.

Please I am begging you it's been almost two weeks

[ShadowerDerek 69]

On 2018年4月30日 at 5:58 AM, Oxygen said:

Aye, I'm working on it as I type this. Well, not quite, because I had to stop to type this, but you get my meaning.

Will be published tomorrow.

Talent choices will also be updated now that we have a bit of data.

AYEEEE

It's 2 weeks already, and Deckard even went through a balance patch. We really need abilities and talents descriptions. 

BabyRage REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE BabyRage

[ArtVandelay 24]

Have not used him yet, but Perfect Gems confuses me.  It says it reduces the CD of gems by 25 seconds, but every gem talent shows a 0 sec CD.  What am I missing?

[Valhalen 1,486]

9 hours ago, ArtVandelay said:

Have not used him yet, but Perfect Gems confuses me.  It says it reduces the CD of gems by 25 seconds, but every gem talent shows a 0 sec CD.  What am I missing?

I think it's a tooltip error. All Gems (Sapphire, Ruby, Emerald) have 30 second CD, therefore the Perfect Gems will reduce them to only 5 seconds (plus Horadric Cube to 9 seconds).

[ArtVandelay 24]

5 hours ago, Valhalen said:

I think it's a tooltip error. All Gems (Sapphire, Ruby, Emerald) have 30 second CD, therefore the Perfect Gems will reduce them to only 5 seconds (plus Horadric Cube to 9 seconds).

You are correct.  I noticed it as soon as I started playing him.  I tried your build and it worked pretty good.  I do like the shielding talent though as well (instead of Ruby) as it seemed like most of the healing that was dropped never got picked up (depends on the map).  I also tried the super potions talent later, but it felt like most people picked them up too fast to get much benefit out of that.

I am a noob with him, and even then I was getting spell power from the level 1 talent a lot.  It wasn't hard to land it.  But, what all does the spell power effect?  Does it make the potions have more heal?

 

[Guest Joey Gladstone]

5 hours ago, ArtVandelay said:

You are correct.  I noticed it as soon as I started playing him.  I tried your build and it worked pretty good.  I do like the shielding talent though as well (instead of Ruby) as it seemed like most of the healing that was dropped never got picked up (depends on the map).  I also tried the super potions talent later, but it felt like most people picked them up too fast to get much benefit out of that.

I am a noob with him, and even then I was getting spell power from the level 1 talent a lot.  It wasn't hard to land it.  But, what all does the spell power effect?  Does it make the potions have more heal?

 

it makes his heals and ability damage stronger

[Valhalen 1,486]

17 hours ago, ArtVandelay said:

You are correct.  I noticed it as soon as I started playing him.  I tried your build and it worked pretty good.  I do like the shielding talent though as well (instead of Ruby) as it seemed like most of the healing that was dropped never got picked up (depends on the map).

I don't really like Potion of Shielding because I feel the shield is too weak to make any difference, specially since it doesn't stack when you pick multiple potions. To me a puny shield is nothing compared to the ability to summon additional potions.

But yeah, people not picking the Lesser Potions is often the only major problem. The talent itself has a low win-rate because it is deemed situational, as your team will often be a little too far to enjoy to pick up the potions, and in teams with few frontline Heroes this is even harder. Not to mention that the potions despawn after roughly 10 seconds.

On the other hand, much like you said, it depends on the map; this talent truly shines in Braxis Holdout and Volkswagen Volskaya Foundry. And if the enemy team has any Hero that can summon clones (i.e. Samuro and Nova), you can exploit them to summon even more potions (this also works pretty good on Rexxar & Misha and The Lost Vikings).

17 hours ago, ArtVandelay said:

I also tried the super potions talent later, but it felt like most people picked them up too fast to get much benefit out of that.

Yes, that is exactly the reason I don't pick Super Healing Potion. Altough it can work well with a proper setup. But in teamfights it's mostly useless you have a really good communication with your team.

17 hours ago, ArtVandelay said:

I am a noob with him, and even then I was getting spell power from the level 1 talent a lot.  It wasn't hard to land it.  But, what all does the spell power effect?  Does it make the potions have more heal?

The bonus spell power increases the effects of all Abilities, therefore the healing from Healing Potion and the Lesser Potions spawned by Ruby, as well damage from Horadric Cube and Scroll Of Sealing (which scales with the bonus damage from Scroll of Stone Curse).

 

NOTE: I updated my main post with some interesting notes. I hope @Oxygen don't get mad that I'm making a guide within his guide. :D

Edited May 24, 2018 by Valhalen

[ArtVandelay 24]

Good point about the lack of stacking from shielding.  The shield also may just not be used (the hero you are healing is not in combat), so mana/additional healing would be much better there as well.  I doubt they buff Cain as he seems to be in a good spot, but it would be cool if the Ruby potions lasted longer than 10 seconds. 

Yeah, the annoying thing about super potions is if I want to heal someone instantly, I throw it right at them.  When I want them to wait 2 seconds, I throw it to a spot instead.  But they still walk over to it and pick it up, even though they are in no danger of dying.  I guess that works better in a party where people understand better, or if all are on comms.  

 

[Valhalen 1,486]

40 minutes ago, ArtVandelay said:

Good point about the lack of stacking from shielding.  The shield also may just not be used (the hero you are healing is not in combat), so mana/additional healing would be much better there as well. I doubt they buff Cain as he seems to be in a good spot, but it would be cool if the Ruby potions lasted longer than 10 seconds.

I don't like Rejuvenation Potion that much because the mana it gives doesn't scale with level. It IS a great talent, though, but I don't think it can compete with Ruby.

Blizzard already gave Deckard some minor buffs, including one that increased the healing of the Lesser Potions from Ruby. I don't think they will buff it again so soon. But would be great if they did.

40 minutes ago, ArtVandelay said:

Yeah, the annoying thing about super potions is if I want to heal someone instantly, I throw it right at them.  When I want them to wait 2 seconds, I throw it to a spot instead.  But they still walk over to it and pick it up, even though they are in no danger of dying.  I guess that works better in a party where people understand better, or if all are on comms.

Super Healing Potion has a strategical value as you can setup potions for later use, which is great to defend objectives. But it's pretty much like you said, they end up picking it up before it turns into Super. A good way is to warn your team that you picked that talent so they know they have to wait.

If you're good with potion management, you should always have at least 2 potions on field, which can be good in this case for Super Healing Potion. But I find Potion of Revival's AoE more appealing as it is one of Cain's flaws; lack of AoE Heals. The splash healing might seem weak, but it is quite impactful, specially if you're under the effects of Field Study.

Edited May 24, 2018 by Valhalen

[ArtVandelay 24]

6 hours ago, Valhalen said:

Super Healing Potion has a strategical value as you can setup potions for later use, which is great to defend objectives. But it's pretty much like you said, they end up picking it up before it turns into Super. A good way is to warn your team that you picked that talent so they know they have to wait.

If you're good with potion management, you should always have at least 2 potions on field, which can be good in this case for Super Healing Potion. But I find Potion of Revival's AoE more appealing as it is one of Cain's flaws; lack of AoE Heals. The splash healing might seem weak, but it is quite impactful, specially if you're under the effects of Field Study.

How big is the radius from Revival?  Can you give me another skill with a similar size?  Lun bloom?  Arcane Flare inner circle?  Auriel healing circle?

[Valhalen 1,486]

13 hours ago, ArtVandelay said:

How big is the radius from Revival?  Can you give me another skill with a similar size?  Lun bloom?  Arcane Flare inner circle?  Auriel healing circle?

Hmm... I'd say it's about the size of Lunara's Noxious Blossom. Quite small, in my opinion, but once you get the hang of it, should be easy.

[Valhalen 1,486]

Quote

Scroll Of Sealing should naturally follow successful Horadric Cube hits.

Actually it is more reliable to cast Scroll Of Sealing first Horadric Cube right after. The slow from the Cube syncronizes perfectly with the startup from the Scroll, making much easier to land the root.

NotParadox made a fantastic video about it, among other common mistakes people might do:

 

[ShadowerDerek 69]

༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ SUMMON ABILITIES AND TALENT DESCRIPTION ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ

Edited June 1, 2018 by ShadowerDerek

[ShadowerDerek 69]

Finally get Deckard to lv 5 thanks to the free rotation. Here's what I notice about him:

- Most of the time, your E and W are casted together. The only time when they're casted separately are when you pick either Cube Mastery or/and Perfect Gem, since their cooldown are quite similar without those talents, and they're much more effective when casted together.

- He's much less effective in lower level, because either they don't bother to take potions, or they steal potions when other is in dire need. 

- He's very, VERY mana hungry, which makes him a bad choice in Braxis Holdout. 

And my thoughts on his talents:

Lv 1: While Scroll of Identify has strong pick potential, Field Study allows you to heal more. Both are pretty good. Usually, I pick SoI if my team can capatalise the armor reduction (aka high burst damage), and pick FS if otherwise. Sapphire ... ehh, the original slow is enough.

Lv 4: Ruby is probably the best yet hardest choice here. It has very high potential if either/both team is melee heavy. If not, or if you're not comfitable with it, Rejuvenation Potion is pretty good too, especially when your team is mana hungry. Potion of Shielding ... it's shield is larger than the HoT of RP, but it doesn't synergise with Field Study, or Super Potion (I'm not sure about whether Super Potion increase the HoT as well). 

Lv 7: Usually Kanai's Cube is the choice, but Cube Mastery is quite good with Field Study. Emerald is very situational, and don't pick more than 1 gem. 

Lv 10: Both are pretty good. Lorenado is very powerful in tight space. 

Lv 13: All are good in different situation. Potion of Revival is good when your team is melee heavy, so that you can heal all of your frontliners. Ancient Blessing is really good with auto attackers, ESPECIALLY fast attackers like Tracer or Genji, because it makes each basic attack does a fixed AoE damage, and heals for fixed amount. Man, another good healer with Tracer. Super Potion is usually picked when neither of the aformentioned talents have great value. 

Lv 16: Pick Hotadric Staffig you can basic attack a hero safety (usually against divers) and Scroll of Stone Curse if you can't. Safety in Numbers is a trap talent. Since the range of his trait is really, really small, having 4 heroes (including you) standing in such a small circle is suicidal against AoE spells. In reality, if you're solo queue, you'll never have it proc. The 3-hero condition is too hard. 

Lv 20: If you've picked a gem, Perfect Gem is highly recommended, because it essentially sews your gem into your Horadric Cube. If you don't have a gem, than take Respect the Elderly, or Bottomless Flask if you picked Lorenado.

I mainly use these 2 builds: (with the first one being the default pick)

Offensive build: 

Scroll of Identify

Ruby/Potion of Shielding

Kanai's Cube/Emerald

Lorenado/Stay Awhile and Listen

Ancient Blessing/Potion of Revival

Scroll of Stone Curse

Perfect Gem/Respect the Elderly/Bottomless Flask

Defensive build: 

Refer to @Valhalen's build.

Overall, he's a healer with exceptional zoning potential. But he really really needs time to set up before team fight occurs. So he's good on maps where the timing of team fights is appearent, which usually means objective fights. 

Edited June 4, 2018 by ShadowerDerek

[Valhalen 1,486]

Glad you're enjoying him! He has become my favorite character in the game, specially since I've been waiting for his release for 3 years. Mine is currently on level 44. ?

50 minutes ago, ShadowerDerek said:

He's very, VERY mana hungry, which makes him a bad choice in Braxis Holdout. 

I wouldn't say "VERY". He indeed burns his mana really fast if you spam Scroll Of Sealing + Horadric Cube in every single situation, otherwise his mana management isn't bad. At least he is not Uther/Rehgar levels of famine.

52 minutes ago, ShadowerDerek said:

Lv 4: Ruby is probably the best yet hardest choice here. It has very high potential if either/both team is melee heavy. If not, or if you're not comfitable with it, Rejuvenation Potion is pretty good too, especially when your team is mana hungry. Potion of Shielding ... it's shield is larger than the HoT of RP, but it doesn't synergise with Field Study, or Super Potion (I'm not sure about whether Super Potion increase the HoT as well). 

My issue with Rejuvenation Potion is that the mana restore doesn't scale with level, which is pretty sad, otherwise it would a Top Tier Talent. Meanwhile the shields from Potion of Shielding are too weak, in my opinion, to have any impact; they do help, but not as much as they could (which is balance, I guess, otherwise it would be a broken OP talent).

I stick with Ruby because even if neither the teams feature lots of melee characters, it can still save your team while retreating or contesting an objective. And as I mentioned in my previous post, it has so much power once you get Perfect Gems.

[ShadowerDerek 69]

2 hours ago, Valhalen said:

Glad you're enjoying him! He has become my favorite character in the game, specially since I've been waiting for his release for 3 years. Mine is currently on level 44. ?

Tbh, he's not my cup of tea: I generally don't like playing heroes who cannot split to deal with map pressure because my team always have 0 map awareness. He's a fun support to play though.

2 hours ago, Valhalen said:

I wouldn't say "VERY". He indeed burns his mana really fast if you spam Scroll Of Sealing + Horadric Cube in every single situation, otherwise his mana management isn't bad. At least he is not Uther/Rehgar levels of famine.

That's what I did. (facepalm)

But still, it's an issue during longer team fight/skirmish. 

2 hours ago, Valhalen said:

My issue with Rejuvenation Potion is that the mana restore doesn't scale with level, which is pretty sad, otherwise it would a Top Tier Talent. Meanwhile the shields from Potion of Shielding are too weak, in my opinion, to have any impact; they do help, but not as much as they could (which is balance, I guess, otherwise it would be a broken OP talent).

Honestly, mana becomes less relevant as the game progress. The mana restoration is generally used in laning phase, where mana-dependent laners can highly benefit from this. In mid-late game though, the mana restoration doesn't really matter much. 

One interesting thing is that if you have the 30% spell power from Field Study, the heal from Rejuvenation Potion is more than the shield from Potion of Shielding.

2 hours ago, Valhalen said:

I stick with Ruby because even if neither the teams feature lots of melee characters, it can still save your team while retreating or contesting an objective. And as I mentioned in my previous post, it has so much power once you get Perfect Gems.

Ruby indeed has playmaking potential in the form of clutch saves. But it's much harder to use, and that's why Ruby isn't a popular pick.

Another thing is that the other 2 talents improve every potion you throw, but Ruby has a 30s cooldown. And you have to give up another Lv 20 talents like Respect the Elderly. But if you're able to make Ruby work, it's definitely worth it.

Edited June 4, 2018 by ShadowerDerek

[Valhalen 1,486]

15 minutes ago, ShadowerDerek said:

Tbh, he's not my cup of tea: I generally don't like playing heroes who cannot split to deal with map pressure. He's a fun support to play though.

Well, he is a Support after all. After the great nerf wave, I don't think we'll ever have a Support that can split. Rehgar is probably the only one closest to that.

15 minutes ago, ShadowerDerek said:

But still, it's an issue during longer team fight/skirmish.

Yeah, that is why I recommend always hearthing back before an objective to start it at full mana.

My tip is to pay attention to your tanks and prepare it as a follow up. That way you can save both your mana and precious cooldowns to secure kills.

You can also use it to save an ally (or yourself). The simple fact of throwing Scroll Of Sealing at an ally being chased will split the enemy team and prevent their chase.

15 minutes ago, ShadowerDerek said:

Ruby indeed has playmaking potential in the form of clutch saves. But it's much harder to use, and that's why Ruby isn't a popular pick.

Another thing is that the other 2 talents improve every potion you throw, but Ruby has a 30s cooldown. And you have to give up another Lv 20 talents like Respect the Elderly. But if you're able to make Ruby work, it's definitely worth it.

Yeah, giving up on Respect the Elderly is really tough. But when you consider the CDR of the gems, it is usually better, in my opinion, specially since in the endgame you won't have many chances to use Heroic Abilities. But I think this is all debatable. Depends on the comp, the map, etc. If your team can capitalize on Stay Awhile and Listen and kill the entire enemy team, you won't even need Respect the Elderly.

Edited June 4, 2018 by Valhalen