heroes A List of All Deathwing's Talents

[Stan 5,243]

Here's a list of Deathwing's talents taken from Kendric's stream. Huge thanks goes out to redditor 38dedo for adding the missing talents from the reveal highlights panel. Deathwing will be available to all Virtual Ticket holders for free in the coming weeks.

You can learn more about Deathwing and what's next in our BlizzCon 2019 Content Hub!

Before we go through Deathwing's talents, we must first look at his abilities.

Blizzard

[D] TRAIT: Aspect of Death

Deathwing is fitted with 4 Armor Plates which grant 10 Armor each. Every 25% Health lost causes Deathwing to lose a plate. Plates are only restored when Dragonflight is used, based on the amount of health Deathwing has when landing.

Deathwing is also a mighty Dragon Aspect who is permanently Unstoppable and deals 100% additional damage to Heroes but views his allies with contempt and is immune to any of their friendly effects.

[Z] Dragonflight

After 3 seconds, fly into the sky, become immune to all effects and gaining 2.5% Health per second. When Deathwing deals or takes damage, Dragonflight is put on a 4 second cooldown.

[Q] Destroyer

While airborne: Slam down to the ground, dealing damage to enemies in the area and gaining access to Destroyer abilities: Incinerate and Onslaught.

[W] World Breaker

While airborne: Slam down to the ground, dealing damage to enemies in the area gaining access to the World Breaker abilities: Lava Burst and Earth Shatter.

[Q] Molten Flame (Both Forms)

Breather a stream of flame, dealing damage every second. Drains energy each second.

[W] Incinerate (Destroyer)

Deathwing flaps his wings, dealing damage to nearby enemies.

[W] Lava Burst (World Breaker)

After a short delay, deal damage to all enemies in the area and create a pool of magma that persists for a short time, dealing and slowing enemies.

[E] Onslaught (Destroyer)

Lunge in a direction dealing damage to enemies and slowing them. Deathwing bites enemies at the end of the lunge, dealing additional damage.

[E] Earth Shatter (World Breaker)

Create a fissure that deals damage to enemies and stuns them.

[R] HEROIC ABILITY: Cataclysm

Deathwing flies across the target path, dealing damage on impact and leaving scorched ground that persists for a short time, damaging enemies.

Level 1 Talents

Dragon Soul [Z]

• Increases Molten Flame healing by an additional 25%.

Molten Blood [Trait]

• Armor Plates increase Regen.

Draconic Might [Trait]

• Upon landing on Armor Plate, Deathwing becomes Protected for 0.75 seconds.

Level 4 Talents

Infernus [Q]

• When Molten Flame is cast at full Energy, its damage is increased by 100% against Heroes.

Heat Wave [W]

• Destroyer: After hitting an enemy Hero with Incinerate, Deathwing deals 19 damage per second to all nearby enemies foes the next 8 seconds. Stacks up to 4 times.
• World Breaker: Increases the explosion damage of Lava Burst by 50%.

Dragon's Ire [Trait]

• While Deathwing has 3 or fewer Armor Plates, his damage is increased by 30%.

Level 7 Talents

Firestorm [Z]

• When Deathwing lands, he drops 7 meteors near the landing area, dealing 70 damage to enemies hit. Heroes hit by the meteors reduce Dragonflight's cooldown by 5 seconds.
• Meteors prioritize landing on Heroes, otherwise they fall randomly in the area.

Death Drop [Z]

• Destroyer and World Breaker's landing damage is increased by 50% and hitting a Hero allows Deathwing to cast Molten Flame immediately.

Skyfall [E] (Charge Cooldown: 8 seconds)

• After using Dragonflight, Deathwing can drop meteors anywhere within vision dealing 157 damage to enemies in the area. Has 3 charges.
• If a Hero is hit, Deathwing heals for 5% of his maximum Health and reduces his landing cooldowns by 3 seconds.

Level 10 Talents

Burn Beneath My Shadow [R]

• When an enemy Fort or Keep is destroyed the cooldown of Cataclysm is reset. Cataclysm's periodic damage increased by 100%.

Bellowing Roar [Active] (Cooldown: 75 seconds)

• After 1 second, Deathwing unleashes a mighty roar, dealing 33 damage to nearby HEroes and causing them to run in Fear for 2 seconds. The cooldown recharges 50% faster for each missing Armor Plate.

Level 13 Talents

Wicked Inferno [Q]

• Molten Flame's Energy cost per second is reduced by 15.

Ruination [E]

• Destroyer: The bite from Onslaught now Slows by 60% for 1.5 seconds.
• World Breaker: Reduce Earth Shatter's cooldown by 6 seconds and its Energy cost by 15.

Fire and Fury [Passive]

• Basic Attacks against Rooted, Slowed, or Stunned enemy Heroes deal 50% additional damage and restore 10 Energy.

Level 16 Talents

Conflagration [Passive]

• Dealing 656 Basic Ability damage to enemy Heroes within 10 seconds causes them to burn for an additional 187 damage over 4 seconds. While burning, they explode every 1 second, dealing 216 damage to all nearby enemies.
• Conflagration cannot activate itself.

Gaze Onto Destruction [Z]

• Hitting Heroes with Destroyer or World Breaker's landing causes their damage to be reduced by 76% and Slows them by 40% for 4 seconds.

Elementium Plating [Active] (Cooldown: 90 seconds)

• While in Worldbreaker form, activate to gain a Shield equal to 50% of Deathwing's missing Health for 8 seconds. While the Shield holds, Deathwing regenerates 2% of his maximum Health per second.
• When the Shield expires or is destroyed, Deathwing regains Armor Plates appropriate for his new Health.
• The Shield and effect end immediately if Deathwing uses Dragonflight or switches to Destroyer form.

Level 20 Talents

Stood in the Fire [R]

• Reduces Cataclysm's cooldown by 45 seconds.

Arrival of a God [Z]

• Hitting Heroes with Destroyer or Worldbreaker's landing Stuns for 1 second.
• Deathwing also gains the benefits of all of his level 7 talents.

Destroyer's Rampage [Trait]

• For the next 6 seconds after landing in Destroyer form, Deathwing's damage is increased by 25% and his Basic Ability cooldowns recharge 50% faster.
• Damaging Heroes refreshes this effect and switching to World Breaker form removes the effect.

[Twych 24]

So...

1 hour ago, Stan said:

Dragon Soul [Z]

• Increases Molten Flame healing by an additional 25%.

how long have we known molten flame heals? how much does it heal? or is this just 25% of damage done?

1 hour ago, Stan said:

Infernus [Q]

• When Molten Flame is cast at full Energy, its damage is increased by 100% against Heroes.

does this mean he does triple or quadruple damage? I'm thinking it's quadruple from how sadism seems to calc damage.

 

Here's my quick talent tree rundown that my sleep deprived brain came up with at 4:45 am

Level 1 - Dragon Soul if the heal on Molten Flame is high enough to justify picking the talent. also if it's 25% of damage done (since the heal on Molten Flame was never mentioned before so it might just be a typo), this is a likely pickup. Molten Blood is the same case; If the numbers are good enough. Draconic Might if all else fails since we know it does something pretty good, especially when you want to be much closer with your build path.

Level 4 - Infernus causes quadruple damage. What more do I need to say. Heat Wave is nice but the damage isn't all that great when you're the main target of fire since you're a giant immolating player and it doesn't help for laning wave clear that much since you're still going to be pressured by the other person in lane who likely has more reliable damage than you (Thrall, Alarak, Rangnaros, and so on) but would probably do some work if you build to be a close range fighter. Dragon's Ire just seems lackluster since most of your damage comes from Molten Flame and Infernus is right there. Also, you have to be at 75% or lower to even benefit from the measly 30% bonus to your not Molten Flame damage sources. 

Level 7 - Skyfall if you need more self-sustain (which you will since your allies can't help you) or Death Drop since a fast unreactable Molten Flame with Infernus' massive damage is something to fear, especially since apparently Molten Flame heals. Firestorm also could get some early damage or it could miss everyone you were aiming for an now you're a giant, unhealable target in the middle of the enemy team. Even when Firestorm does something you don't want to be in the middle of everyone since again, big, unhealable target that will drive attention from anyone who has eyes and something to hurt you with.

Level 10 - Burn Beneath My Shadow is a large straight upgrade for Cataclysm that will never not be at least good. Then there's Bellowing Roar. It's interesting as it gives you artificial durability and a 2 second CC as well as rewarding you for being in the middle of a team, where a lot of other talents have good use. The problems begin to arise though since you need to be in Destroyer to even use it and you need to put yourself at risk for it to do anything (unless you're using Cataclysm first, but that will likely have a massive cooldown). It also wants you lower on health for the cooldown reduction even though that's pretty risky to do as any character, including the characters built for being low like Garrosh since you're 1 Last Rites or Consume Souls recast from losing the game. Bad for the mindset of keeping Deathwing low on HP, good for it's effect. Will do wonders on a Dive heavy comp since you won't be the only big target standing in front of the enemy.

Level 13 - Wicked Inferno would be my safe pick for basing your build around Molten Flame. Fire and Fury is based on your team's characters but could be good if you're mainly in World Breaker since both of your stance abilities have CC bound to them. Ruination is good when the other two talents won't help much, which could be always or never. Mainly when you want to be close for Destroyer.

Level 16 - Elementium Plating provides a life saving shield if you need it or a 16% max hp recovery, but can only be used in World Breaker. It's also one of the few sources of healing Deathwing has in his talents and he likes healing where he can get it. It also is the only way to regain Plates without Dragonflight. Gaze Onto Destruction is definitely good if you're building more to be in Destroyer since it reduces damage so you don't need the heal from Elementium Plating. Conflagration might hard to use since the damage threshold seems really high, but it definitely could be good since the effect is a massive amount of disconnected damage equivalent to a constant living bomb (the AOE not spread) along with massive tick damage anyway. Conflagration is also the only aggressive choice at this tier so you might just want to skip it on the principal of "it doesn't stop you from dying" which will be a problem when your team can't help you with health or survivability. Also it says 76% and that's a weird number for this game.

Level 20 - Stood in the Fire is just nice to have since 45 seconds is a big cooldown reduction, regardless of cooldown. Arrival of a God is nice but if you pick up Draconic Might at level 1 you're safe for the 1 second anyway and despite gaining Skyfall or Death Drop, neither stack up to Destroyer's Rampage which provides massive cooldown reduction and damage during the same time period of when Deathwing would be landing.

 

Now for two easy builds for both play styles...

Destroyer Build

1-Draconic Might

4-Heat Wave

7-Firestorm

10-Bellowing Roar

13-Ruination

16-Gaze Onto Destruction

20-Destroyer's Rampage

World Breaker/Molten Flame Build

1-Dragon Soul

4-Infernus

7-Death Drop

10-Burn Beneath My Shadow

13-Wicked Inferno

16-Elementium Plating

20-Stood in the Fire

 

I spent way too much time on this...

[lChronosl 182]

5 hours ago, Stan said:

Dragon Soul [Z]

• Increases Molten Flame healing by an additional 25%.

2 hours ago, Twych said:

how long have we known molten flame heals? how much does it heal? or is this just 25% of damage done?

Based on the description on Kedric's stream, it heals baseline for 25% of the damage it does to heroes. I think with this talent it should increase to 50%.

5 hours ago, Stan said:

Draconic Might [Trait]

• Upon landing on Armor Plate, Deathwing becomes Protected for 0.75 seconds.

I think this is a typo. Based on the gameplay it seems Deathwing becomes protected when he loses an armor plate, not lands.

Overall very interesting talent tree, though nothing jumps out at me changing his playstyle dramatically as he levels up, with the exception of the roar of fear on 10 and maybe the lvl 7 landing talents.

Edited November 2, 2019 by lChronosl

[Kurosu 58]

2 hours ago, lChronosl said:

Based on the description on Kedric's stream, it heals baseline for 25% of the damage it does to heroes. I think with this talent it should increase to 50%.

I think this is a typo. Based on the gameplay it seems Deathwing becomes protected when he loses an armor plate, not lands.

Overall very interesting talent tree, though nothing jumps out at me changing his playstyle dramatically as he levels up, with the exception of the roar of fear on 10 and maybe the lvl 7 landing talents.

It is indeed a typo.

[lChronosl 182]

Commentary on all the talents by Nubkeks.

https://youtu.be/qvZLfRqIqJ0

Edited November 2, 2019 by lChronosl

[Morcalivan 86]

Talents increase his survival, increase his damage or increase his zoning capabilities.

Those seem to be the three talent paths to me.

One question I have after seeing Kendric play is that it seems the 3 charges from Skyfall are unlimited.

Can we stay in the air and just shoot 150 damage global meteors down on enemies all game long?

Seem to work as a better version of Abby mines to me.

Edit: By unlimited I mean they recharge as Abathur mines. And talent description says yes. Any limits on up time for Dragonflight? Doesn't seem to be.

Edited November 3, 2019 by Morcalivan

[lChronosl 182]

17 hours ago, Morcalivan said:

One question I have after seeing Kendric play is that it seems the 3 charges from Skyfall are unlimited.

That's how it looked to me. It will probably be my main pick, since I can stay the 30s+ I will need to fully heal in the air while still interfering in the fights below.

17 hours ago, Morcalivan said:

Talents increase his survival, increase his damage or increase his zoning capabilities.

Those seem to be the three talent paths to me.

I can see kinda 3 builds also: Q build, Destroyer "melee" build and "survival" build. Q build looks amazing, specially on Volskaya and Shrines when the enemy tends to want to sit on the point for a while.

[Morcalivan 86]

2 hours ago, lChronosl said:

That's how it looked to me. It will probably be my main pick, since I can stay the 30s+ I will need to fully heal in the air while still interfering in the fights below.

I can see kinda 3 builds also: Q build, Destroyer "melee" build and "survival" build. Q build looks amazing, specially on Volskaya and Shrines when the enemy tends to want to sit on the point for a while.

I'm not sure being surrounded by bushes will be very favourable to Deathwing. I see him getting poked from the bushes or ambushed by Tychus, Leoric and Malth too easily from those spots. Maybe once he gets his Fear ability? Braxis Holdout looks a bit safer. Volskaya should work well with his ultimate and unstoppable. The addition of Fear going even further. Or perhaps not need to so it can be used with the Mech advance. Those belts would give him some mobility also. Garden of Terror and Tomb of the Spider Queen should do well with his Global and Ultimate working to support monster pushes well with that ultimate reset. He should be able to collect gems more easily with his body size and unstoppable as well.

Does the healing camp on Volskaya work on Deathwing?

Any healers outside Alex that should be chosen? Going to Ban Deathwing or let people play him and just take/ban Alex?

Anyone have a list of % based damage heroes? :p

[Xanthanarium 2]

Is there anywhere we can see precise numbers on his basic and heroic abilities? Damage, healing, stun duration, etc.? I'd like to see them for purposes of thinking about talent builds.

19 hours ago, Morcalivan said:

I'm not sure being surrounded by bushes will be very favourable to Deathwing. I see him getting poked from the bushes or ambushed by Tychus, Leoric and Malth too easily from those spots. Maybe once he gets his Fear ability? Braxis Holdout looks a bit safer. Volskaya should work well with his ultimate and unstoppable. The addition of Fear going even further. Or perhaps not need to so it can be used with the Mech advance. Those belts would give him some mobility also. Garden of Terror and Tomb of the Spider Queen should do well with his Global and Ultimate working to support monster pushes well with that ultimate reset. He should be able to collect gems more easily with his body size and unstoppable as well.

Does the healing camp on Volskaya work on Deathwing?

Any healers outside Alex that should be chosen? Going to Ban Deathwing or let people play him and just take/ban Alex?

Anyone have a list of % based damage heroes? ?

Here:

Ana, level 7 - 10% w/ sleep

Artanis, level 16 - 0.5%, auto attacks & 1.5%, twin blades

Azmo, level 16 - 4% w/ globe

Brightwing, level 4 - 2% w/ poly, AoE

Butcher, level 13 - 10% w/ charge

Cassia, level 16 - 3% w/ auto attacks vs stun/root/slow

Cho, level 4 - 7% w/ surging fist

Gall, level 13 - 2% w/ Shadowflame

Diablo, level 20 - 10%, activatable lifesteal

Falstad, level 13 - 1.5% w/ auto attacks

Fenix, level 16 - 6% w/ 3 repeater attacks

Greymane, levels 10 & 16 - 40% current health w/ cursed bullet, 3% w/ worgen attacks

Hanzo, level 16 - 2% w/ auto attacks & scatter arrows

Illidan, level 16 - 8% w/ 4 auto attacks

Imperius, level 1 - 2.5% w/ valorous brand

Kharazim, level 10 - 7%, striking 7 times maximum, increasing to 11 times w/ level 20 upgrade

Leoric, basic ability & levels 13 & 16 - maximum 20% w/ drain hope, alternatively max 35% at 16 & 2.5% w/ auto attacks at 13

TLV, level 13 - 1.25% w/ auto attacks when activated for 5 seconds

Lunara, level 16 - 1.5% w/ auto attacks vs targets w/ full stacked toxin

Maiev, levels 4 & 16 - 6% in aoe on blink, & 1.5% on a fan of knives for each hero hit by previous spirit

Mal'Ganis, levels 7 & 10 - 3% w/ third slash of claws, & 0-100% w/ dark conversion

Malthael, trait & levels 10 & 16 - up to 33% w/ last rites, 8% w/ mortality at 16 on teleport, & 1.75%/second, alternatively increased to 3.15%/second with memento mori at 16

Mephisto, level 16 - 10% w/ lightning nova

Murky, level 16 - 15% w/ pufferfish

Orphea, level 16 - 3% w/ shadow waltz

Ragnaros, level 16 - 9% w/ sulfuras smash

Raynor, level 16 - 3% on trait-boosted auto attacks

Rehgar, level 16 - 5% on wolf attacks

Sgt. Hammer, level 16 - 1.5% on auto attacks

Sonya, level 16 - 1.25% on auto attacks and seismic slams

Stitches, level 4 - 5% on hooks

Sylvanas, level 1 - 1% on auto attacks vs slowed heroes

Tassadar, level 16 - 1.5% on auto attacks (8%/second) while oracle is active

Thrall, levels 7 & 16 - 15% w/ an activatable, 3% w/ auto attacks vs heroes rooted by his wolf

Tracer, level 10 - 7% on pulse bomb

Tychus, trait & levels 16 & 20 - 2.5% on auto attacks, 5% on grenade, further 1% bonus to auto attacks

Tyrande, level 16 - 7% w/ owl

Valla, level 16 - 5% w/ 3 auto attacks

Varian, level 13 - 4% w/ charge

Xul, level 1 - 12% w/ bone armor

Yrel, level 16 - 6% w/ hammer

Zagara, level 16 - 3.5% w/ hunter killer

That should be all of them.

Edited November 4, 2019 by Xanthanarium

[Morcalivan 86]

4 hours ago, Xanthanarium said:

Ana, level 7 - 10% w/ sleep 

Brightwing, level 4 - 2% w/ poly, AoE

Cassia, level 16 - 3% w/ auto attacks vs stun/root/slow

Stitches, level 4 - 5% on hooks (maybe?)

Sylvanas, level 1 - 1% on auto attacks vs slowed heroes

Thrall, levels 7 & 16 - 15% w/ an activatable, 3% w/ auto attacks vs heroes rooted by his wolf

Don't think these will do anything to Deathwing.

But thanks man, good list.

Leoric I think gets an additional 15% at later levels doesn't he? Or is that just 15% of the damage he deals with it?

Is it 35% total on a full drain or 20% then some small bonus damage?

Edit: 35% total at lvl 16, just doesn't heal that additional 15%, only from the 20% max health.

That's a pretty big chunk. Combined with March you can become unstoppable, drain 35%, heal for 20%.

Or drain and then Wraith Walk. Pretty good counter.

Edited November 4, 2019 by Morcalivan

[lChronosl 182]

MFPallytime made some videos on drain build Leoric and Q build Orphea to prepare to Deathwing.

Malthael seems a good counter, assuming he can survive the mess of the 4-man.

Tychus can be either a real pain or harmless, depending on the player. Because as scary as minigun can be, Tychus has to stay still and in range of Deathwing's jaws. At least that is what I saw on some of the streams.

Edited November 4, 2019 by lChronosl

[Morcalivan 86]

Yeah I saw the Maltheal one. But I only really do well with Malth as a clone for Abba.

Every other time I just feed as I always overestimate the healing and teleport range.

Leoric I'm getting into just because he has so much unstoppable. So far so good!

And lots of people lose track of his drain life or see running from it a lost cause.

Tychus I tried getting into but it's like you said, the self root to attack with means your % damage is a small amount.

With other characters you have that CC to make your attacks land, but not with Deathwing.

Now I just gotta brush up on my Brightwing, Chromie and Alexandra.

[Xanthanarium 2]

Just realized I forgot Cursed Bullet. Quite possibly the most obvious %health burst in the game ?

Also fixed it for Leoric's 16

Edited November 4, 2019 by Xanthanarium

[Xanthanarium 2]

Incidentally, I think Greymane could potentially be a real pain in the *filtered* for DW. He doesn't need to go riskily deep like Malth or Leoric in order to do his initial 40%, and even without using alpha killer, he can put a fair amount of pressure on from a distance before he feels comfortable diving in.

[Morcalivan 86]

I've rarely played him since so many others did when I first starting playing. But will check it out.

One last thing to note. Leoric can CC Deathwing. Tomb + Body Block.

Deathwing's Azmodan/Stiches size body means it is easy to basically 'root' him.

So, Unstoppable as stated, but not immune to CC. :p

[CaperfinWoW 21]

[W] Lava Burst (World Breaker) seems very strong!

[Xanthanarium 2]

22 hours ago, Morcalivan said:

I've rarely played him since so many others did when I first starting playing. But will check it out.

One last thing to note. Leoric can CC Deathwing. Tomb + Body Block.

Deathwing's Azmodan/Stiches size body means it is easy to basically 'root' him.

So, Unstoppable as stated, but not immune to CC. ?

I believe he can charge through any of them in Destroyer mode (uninterruptible, of course), or he can use Cataclysm, or Bellowing Roar if he takes that. So, a fair few counters.

 

Also, you can only do that for 4 seconds once every minute, if he has none of those available.

Edited November 6, 2019 by Xanthanarium

[Morcalivan 86]

13 hours ago, Xanthanarium said:

Also, you can only do that for 4 seconds once every minute, if he has none of those available.

Eh?

[Xanthanarium 2]

6 hours ago, Morcalivan said:

Eh?

Entomb has a duration of 4 seconds, and a cooldown of 50 seconds.

[Morcalivan 86]

Plenty of time to get a kill in that time.

And while you can't slow Deathwing you can speed boost Leoric just fine.

Played a bit of Greymane, Tychus and Malthael as well recently.

Deathwing aside they each are pretty effective even vs squishies. So they look good.

Death's Shroud, the increased Q range, and the lvl 1 speed talent all combo well for poke on Malth.

While he can do more dps in closer range porting around, getting more Qs off from range is better I think.

Move and attack speed for Greymane with Silver Bullets and cocktails for a 'less suicidal' playstyle works well.

No need for diving as anything more than a finish, peel or escape. Especially if ya want to fire more Bullets.

Tychus has some range issues outside of Grenade. He might need a Mediev or similar to reall work.

His self root to shoot that short ranged minigun makes him too easy a target for damage or stuns.

 

So pretty confident in countering Deathwing. The question now is, what do you take WITH him?

 

Do you grab something that counters his counter picks? Or work with him directly with Alexstraza?

A Blaze to land stuns and slows? Leoric to setup his fire breath?

 

Pretty sure Alex will be getting banned similarly to Auriel getting banned when Cho'Gall is taken.

[Xanthanarium 2]

11 hours ago, Morcalivan said:

Plenty of time to get a kill in that time.

And while you can't slow Deathwing you can speed boost Leoric just fine.

Played a bit of Greymane, Tychus and Malthael as well recently.

Deathwing aside they each are pretty effective even vs squishies. So they look good.

Death's Shroud, the increased Q range, and the lvl 1 speed talent all combo well for poke on Malth.

While he can do more dps in closer range porting around, getting more Qs off from range is better I think.

Move and attack speed for Greymane with Silver Bullets and cocktails for a 'less suicidal' playstyle works well.

No need for diving as anything more than a finish, peel or escape. Especially if ya want to fire more Bullets.

Tychus has some range issues outside of Grenade. He might need a Mediev or similar to reall work.

His self root to shoot that short ranged minigun makes him too easy a target for damage or stuns.

 

So pretty confident in countering Deathwing. The question now is, what do you take WITH him?

 

Do you grab something that counters his counter picks? Or work with him directly with Alexstraza?

A Blaze to land stuns and slows? Leoric to setup his fire breath?

 

Pretty sure Alex will be getting banned similarly to Auriel getting banned when Cho'Gall is taken.

The point I was making is, if your team messes up with that lucky entomb where he has no escape options, you won't get another chance for quite a while. Which will happen quite often below, and probably sometimes in, platinum.

 

The best synergies, as I've heard and I'm inclined to agree, are gonna be people who can win fights quickly. If you have a good landing, maybe on top of somebody someone like Diablo locks down for a few seconds, then your best shot at winning that teamfight is to kill that person, and use that momentom to kill everyone you can in the vicinity, quickly. Because DW doesn't regen his energy all that fast, compared to how quickly you can use it, the longer the teamfight goes on, the more he'll struggle. For that reason, as well as the fact that she can produce regen globes, he'll work well with Alexstrasza whenever she has Dragonqueen available. Ironically, he'll also work quite well with Greymane--ever since the buffs they gave him, GM is both an incredibly effective finisher and a great source of sustained damage. Apart from that, pretty much anyone with good burst will be a good combination, and anyone with good cc will work well.

Jaina comes to mind as being one of the best combinations I can think of, seeing as her ring is one of the longest roots in the game, and she obviously excels at burst damage. Plus, her slow can help DW land abilities significantly. You could feasibly wipe an entire team extremely quickly with Ring, if you divide and conquer when they're spread apart; Jaina gets the people nearest her, and Deathwing kills everyone else she can't hit with aoe with Molten Breath.

Being a Mephisto main, I of course have to consider how well they'd work together, and while that's an obvious asynergy in the early game, once he reaches 16 and 20 Mephisto can do some insane burst damage, and of course Durance would pair extremely well with Deathwing. You also might take some kind of sustained damage assassin to make sure you're not completely boned when you don't immediately win a fight. I guess it depends on just how much DW can do over a longer period, which we'll just have to find out; is he completely useless when he doesn't get that insta-win condition, or can he help out enough to make that work? Either way, you probably shouldn't normally take Mephisto with him, though.

 

All that aside, I think that one of the most interesting things to think about in this whole deathwing discussion is how useful you can make perma-unstoppable be in certain situations. Normally, since Unstoppable is so short and hard to get, you only use it in desperate scenarios, but with him having it permanently, there are certain abilities you can completely screw up when they're used: Warden's Cage is one of the first that comes to mind; all DW has to do is walk over whatever wardens he wants to disappear, and they'll get used up. You can also block Durances from Mephisto with him--although the aoe will still go off, you could get up in his grill to make sure it gets placed far away from your team. Any kind of projectile-stun ability, he can block, like storm bolts, sleep darts, or Stitches hooks, Mind Control from Sylvanas being another similar ability, and if an Artanis swap hits him, Artanis will just get himself in the middle of the enemy team.

So he could also be a good counterpick for compositions like Stitches hook blowup, especially because I believe they said he's got the biggest hitbox in the game.

Edited November 7, 2019 by Xanthanarium