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Table of Contents
General Information
Welcome to our Dehaka guide for Heroes of the Storm. Here you will learn everything you need to know in order to play Dehaka in a competitive environment, whether you play on your own or with a team.
About the Author
Straften is a Grand Master ranked player in both Hero League and Team League. He has a passion for theorycrafting, and regularly tests new features early on the PTR. He explains his strategy, reasoning, and implementation in these guides.
1. Quick Reference for Dehaka
Gank Build (talent calculator link)
These Talents focus on maximising Dehaka's ganking potential.
Enhanced Agility will help you run down your prey. Getting kills and
assists will reward you with increased sustain via 
Hero Stalker.
Feeding Frenzy greatly reduces the cooldown of Drag. It has strong
synergy with the bonus movement speed from Enhanced Agility, which enables you
to get off an extra Basic Attack or two. 
Ferocious Stalker greatly increases
your waveclear, and your damage in team fights. You will be casting Drag quite
often with this build; Paralyzing Enzymes is a strong choice that
makes each cast much more impactful. Once you acquire 
Essence Claws,
most enemy Heroes will no longer be able to escape you if they are caught
alone.
This build works best on maps with many bushes or vents, where you can benefit from Enhanced Agility most often. Play near these map features when possible, as they provide you a significant advantage in most matchs. While you are soaking experience and Essence, be on the lookout for opportunities to gank enemies who are positioned aggressively in lanes.
Team Fight Build (talent calculator link)
This build focuses on team fight damage and sustain over crowd control.
When your team is ready to fight, position yourself to apply
Dark Swarm to multiple enemy Heroes. Use Dark Swarm
constantly to deal damage. This will increase all damage affected enemies take,
once you have 
Primal Swarm.
Tunneling Claws allows you to continue applying Dark
Swarm if you become rooted or slowed, and will also allow you to escape when
needed. This is important, because it makes it much safer to position
aggressively to get the most out of Dark Swarm. Use
Adaptation and
Essence Collection to keep yourself in the fight until
the first takedown, at which point you will recieve additional Essence. If the
enemy team consists mostly of Ability damage,
Enduring Swarm is a great option at Level 1.
Synergies and Counters
Dehaka does well with Heroes who can help him get within range of enemies easily. This can be done by speeding Dehaka up, or by crowd-controlling potential targets. When Heroes can accomplish this, they can also follow-up when Drag lands on an enemy Hero. Frontline Heroes with strong crowd-control work well to supplement the threat Dehaka brings into team fights. Because Dehaka has a healthy amount of self-sustain, he also has strong synergy with Heroes who can shield him while his healing takes effect.
One of Dehaka's drawbacks is his lack of a gap-closer, which makes him susceptible to kiting from highly mobile ranged damage dealers. Heroes with very high sustained damage can push through his healing to force him to play passively.
Maps
Dehaka is great on maps that require Heroes to stand in an area to capture an objective, because these areas usually have bushes around them. This allows Dehaka to soak lanes away from an objective longer than other tanks, and still show up on time to help his team secure kills. Dehaka struggles with fast Boss clears or Immortal races; so, maps that feature these as a main objective are less than ideal for him. He also lacks map mobility on maps that do not have bushes or vents that help him get to important areas.
TL;DR Tips
- 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.- 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 key assassins or supports to get the most out of it. - Activate
Adaptation as soon as you are being focused by the enemy team; cast Burrow if you will otherwise die before Adaptation heals.
2. Dehaka's Introduction
Dehaka is an aggressive Warrior with a strong map presence.
Powerful self-sustain
from Essence Collection makes him very
hard to kill. Dark Swarm enables him to break apart enemy
formations during fights, while his brutal single target
crowd control can incapacitate key targets.
3. Dehaka's Strengths
- Powerful on demand self healing
- Can Drag enemies out of position
- Cannot be body-blocked while using
Dark Swarm
- Can avoid incoming Abilities with
Burrow - High map mobility via Brushstalker
4. Dehaka's Weaknesses
- Lacks a reliable gap-closer
- Susceptible to kiting
- Drag and
Isolation are difficult
skillshots
- Limited mobility when Brushstalker is on cooldown
5. Dehaka's Role in the Current Meta
Dehaka is a strong pick as an off-tank Warrior. Although he has high health
and amazing regenerative potential, the absence of gap-closers makes him less
than ideal as a primary tank. Dehaka's kit makes him highly
disruptive in team fights. His ability to walk through enemies with
Dark Swarm allows for positioning
options which cannot be ignored by the enemy team, because
Symbiosis deals potentially constant AoE damage to nearby
foes. 
Brushstalker
gives him unique opportunities to gank. It also allows
him to soak experience longer than other Warriors, and still arrive
to team fights and objectives on time. Dehaka is strong on teams that have
existing crowd-control Abilities that can setup
Drag and
Isolation. Reliably landing these abilities on key targets
is an important part of using him well.
6. Reading Further
To take things further, we have 2 more pages that you can read:
- Abilities and Strategy: an overview of your hero's abilities and how to use them;
- Talent Build: a detailed rundown of your talents and how to choose them.
7. ChangeLog
- 29 Jun. 2017 (talents page): Talents page updated following June 28th balance patch.
- 16 May 2017 (talents page): Talents page updated following Dehaka's rework in D.va's release patch.
- 16 May 2017 (this page): Guide updated following Dehaka rework in D.Va's release patch.
- 14 Dec. 2016 (this page): Moved Dehaka to the new format, following its rework in Ragnaros patch.
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