Dehaka Abilities and Strategy

• Use Dark Swarm to walk through enemies or teammates who are in your way; however, be mindful that you cannot body-block enemies while it is active.
• Drag enemies out of position, under your turrets, or into the Abilities of your allies.
• Do not use Drag instantly when enemy gets in range for it, or they will probably dodge. We recommend walking towards the hero while weaving Basic Attacks to only use Drag when you are almost sure you are going to hit.
• Maximize your map presence by evaluating options for Brushstalker before it is off cooldown.
• Try to have Essence Collection full and available for team fights. For healing outside of team fights you can fountain or hearthstone; use Brushstalker to get back into action quickly.
• Use Isolation on important targets that are very dependent on their Abilities to survive.

Drag (Q) Dehaka

• Mana: 75
• Cooldown: 15 seconds

Dehaka lashes out his tongue, dealing 160 (+4% per level) damage to the first enemy hit, Stunning and dragging them with him for 1.75 seconds.

If Dehaka is Stunned or Silenced while using Drag, the effect ends.

As the name implies, Drag is a Basic Ability that can be channeled to drag an enemy in a desired direction. The affected unit will be Stunned for the duration, unless Dehaka is interrupted. Use it to pull enemy Heroes into danger, either under Structures or towards your team. Whenever someone in your team is ready to hit them, stop moving! This way skillshots will not miss the target. While Drag is being channeled, Dehaka can use Basic Attacks, Dark Swarm, and Essence Collection but cannot use Heroic Abilities, Burrow, and Brushstalker.

Dehaka ignores collision with any unit actively Stunned by Drag, which means it can be used to reposition behind the enemy to body block them right after the Stun effect wear off. Similarly, if you happen to get body blocked while Dark Swarm is on cooldown, you can use it to break the body block and escape.

Although it is ideal to use Drag on Heroes, there are times when you may effectively use it in other ways. If an enemy Siege Giant is damaging allied Structures, you can Drag one of them into the Structure's range, to help you clear them faster. When not fighting, you can also use it for dealing damage to Structures, Mercenaries, and Monsters (such as Immortals on Battlefield of Eternity). Of course, Drag can be used to kill an enemy, if they are out of range of your Basic Attacks, and on the verge of death.

Dark Swarm (W) Dehaka

• Mana: 50
• Cooldown: 10 seconds

Deal 48 (+4% per level) damage every 0.5 seconds to nearby enemies for 3.5 seconds. While active, you are able to move through units. Can be cast during Drag and Burrow.

Dark Swarm is a Basic Ability which deals damage to all enemies near Dehaka over its duration and makes Dehaka able to pass through other units. While laning, it is your only waveclear tool. While fighting, it allows you to position freely and can deal a considerable amount of damage. Remember it can be cast during Drag and Burrow.

Dark Swarm makes Dehaka unable to block, so it should not be used when trying to body block an enemy Hero, and immune to it, so it should be used when an enemy Hero is trying to body block you. Compared to Drag, Dark Swarm is superior in this function, as it will allow you to pass through all enemies, rather than only one. In addition, Dark Swarm can be used more liberally than Drag, as it has a much lower cooldown and costs less Mana.

Burrow (E) Dehaka

• Mana: 65
• Cooldown: 20 seconds

Burrow into the ground, entering Stasis and becoming Invulnerable for 2 seconds. While Burrowed, Dehaka can move at 50% movement speed.

Burrow is a Basic Ability which puts Dehaka in Stasis, making him temporarily Invulnerable at the cost of Movement Speed. Essence Collection can be used while Burrowed, allowing the healing over time to take effect before you resurface. Dark Swarm can also be cast while Burrowed, so that you continue to deal damage while Invulnerable. Remember that Burrow cannot be used while channeling Drag, something which makes you more vulnerable when trying to punish enemy Heroes with it.

A good way to use Burrow is to bait out powerful Abilities from the enemy team, and then nullify them. Ideally, the Ability you choose to nullify will be something with a higher cooldown than Burrow (for example Pyroblast by Kael'thas) but avoiding any crowd control can also be good, especially if key enemy Abilities are put on cooldown and/or it allows you to survive.

Burrow can also be manually cancelled earlier, so enemies cannot predict the time you exit from Stasis and become vulnerable again. This way they will not be able to time their Abilities on you (like a Li-Ming's combo) as you resurface.

When playing against Heroes who have access to healing reduction effects, remember that you can use Burrow to remove them when trying to heal yourself with Essence Collection or right before Adaptation's healing goes off.

In this section we discuss how this Heroic Ability works and give some tips on how to use it. If you are looking for a detailed explanation on when and why you should pick it, check out the dedicated section in the Talent Build page.

Isolation (R) Dehaka

• Heroic
• Mana: 70
• Cooldown: 60 seconds

Launch biomass that hits the first enemy Hero dealing 200 (+4% per level) damage, revealing, Silencing, and Slowing them 30% for 3 seconds. Additionally, their vision radius is greatly reduced for 6 seconds.

Isolation is a Heroic Ability that adds a second powerful crowd control to Dehaka's kit, which really helps to increase his threat level in team fights. Whoever gets hit by it will be Silenced and Slowed for 3 seconds, and will have their vision range reduced for 6 seconds. For this reason, if you are using voice communication while playing against Dehaka, whoever is not affected by Isolation should guide the victim towards a safe location, away from enemy Heroes.

By landing Isolation on one target and Drag on another, you can drastically tilt a fight in your team's favour. The ability to crowd control two enemies out while dealing damage with Dark Swarm, is what makes Dehaka such a disruptive presence for the enemy team. The threat of this close range combo can sometimes zone mutliple enemies away from you, especially when you have team mates with you who can punish controlled targets.

Since it has a considerable delay, Isolation should ideally be used as a follow-up to other crowd control effects or on enemy Heroes who are locked in place channeling an Ability (for example Mosh Pit by E.T.C.). This way you will not risk wasting it. A moderate Slow is often enough to make it impossible for enemy Heroes to dodge it, unless they have mobility tools off cooldown.

In this section we discuss how this Heroic Ability works and give some tips on how to use it. If you are looking for a detailed explanation on when and why you should pick it, check out the dedicated section in the Talent Build page.

Adaptation (R) Dehaka

• Heroic
• Mana: 70
• Cooldown: 60 seconds

After 4 seconds, heal for 100% of the damage Dehaka took over this period.

Adaptation is a Heroic Ability that makes you extremely hard to kill during team fights or when ganked. When timed well, this Ability can effectively double your Health pool. Adaptation can give the appearance that you are about to die before it heals you, which can bait out enemies as they try to land a killing blow.

The most important weakness of Adaptation is the fact that it does nothing for you during the first 4 seconds. In this time, you are encouraged to sustain a lot of damage, to ensure that you get good value out of your Heroic Ability. If you are ignored during the 4 seconds, it does nothing. If you are killed while it is active, it does nothing, with the added inconvenience of your death.

Fortunately, Dehaka has other survivability tools. If you are worried that incoming damage will be fatal, you may activate Burrow to buy the time you need for Adaptation to heal you. Burrow will also remove any healing reduction effect from you.

Essence Collection (D) Dehaka

• Cooldown: 1 seconds

Heal Dehaka for 29 (+4% per level) Health per stored Essence over 5 seconds. Can be cast during Drag and Burrow.

Passive: Gain 10 Essence from Takedowns and 2 Essence from nearby Minions dying. Maximum of 50 Essence.

Essence Collection is a Trait that can be activated to heal over time based on the amount of Essence stored. Essence are gained from nearby enemy Minions dying or from Takedowns. Takedowns happen when killing enemy Heroes, including enemy Heroes who die nearby (within 20 range) or within 5 seconds of damaging them.

At 50 stacks, Essence Collection will heal you for 60% of your maximum Health over 5 seconds. This effect is Dehaka's main source of sustain, offering a huge heal over time when at full stacks. While at full stacks, Dehaka can still collect Essence for related Talent Quests but the stored amount for healing purposes will not increase.

The self-healing provided by Essence Collection is a huge boost to Dehaka's survivability while fighting against enemy Heroes. Due to the amount of time it takes to go from zero to full Essence, it is advisable to keep a large store of Essence available for team fights. If really needed, you can use Hearthstone and then walk back to lane.

Activating Essence Collection as soon as you have taken (or will immediately take) significant damage in a team fight will let the healing over time begin working right away. Using your full stacks right before an enemy Hero dies is better than using them right after that happens because it allows you to store the Essence from their Takedown too, however, this optimization should not come at the cost of self-healing due to being almost full Health and taking no damage.

Brushstalker (Z) Dehaka

• Cooldown: 75 seconds

Activate to burrow to a bush on the Battleground.

Passive: Gain 20% movement speed while in a bush and for 2 seconds after leaving.

Brushstalker is a Trait which allows Dehaka to quickly travel from any location to a bush. Dehaka needs about 2 seconds of channeling to dig into the ground, during which he can be interrupted, and about 2 more seconds to emerge at the target location.

This is the most defining Ability in Dehaka's kit because it makes him a global Hero. Thanks to it, Dehaka is able to soak a considerable amount of Experience by staying in lane longer than other Offlaners can and still arrive in time to important events via Brushstalker, defending a Mercenary Camp while your team is trying to capture it, invading a Mercenary Camp with your team, or ganking an enemy Hero. The constant threat Brushstalker inflicts on the enemy team can be a benefit in and of itself. If enemies play too carefully for you to get value from Brushstalker, your team can gain more momentum over the battlefield.

When Brushstalker is activated, a noise will be made which will alert enemies near your destination. If Brushstalker's channel is interrupted by crowd control effects or the target location becomes completely blocked, the digging animation is cancelled and Brushstalker's cooldown is set to 10 seconds. If the target location becomes partially blocked, Dehaka will emerge adjacent to it.

When playing Dehaka, map awareness is arguably more important than on many other Heroes. You will get the most value out of Brushstalker when you are keenly aware of what is happening around the battlefield. Do not be afraid to click on the Minimap and observe events directly with the camera. You can gather details this way that cannot be seen on the Minimap. While this is rather general gameplay advice that can be applied to any Hero, Dehaka is one of few who can quickly travel vast distances and therefore benefits more from knowing what is happening elsewhere.