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Diablo Build Guide “Kneel before the Lord of Terror.”
Welcome to our guide for Diablo, a Tank in Heroes of the Storm. Within these pages, you will find everything required to understand how best to play this hero, in both different map styles and team compositions.
Diablo's Overview
Diablo is an aggressive Tank. With multiple crowd control Abilities that also displace his opponents, he excels at setting up and peeling for his teammates, and punishing poor positioning. His displacement Abilities are double-edged, however, and can help opponents more than hinder them when misused.
Diablo's Strengths and Weaknesses
Strengths
Extremely reliable on-demand initiation- Very large Health pool
- Flexible Heroic Ability and defensive Talent choices
- Excellent at body blocking and peeling
- May respawn very quickly upon death through
Black Soulstone - Good self sustain
Weaknesses
Limited escapability- Very low single-target damage, leading to poor Merc'ing and sieging
- No reliable means of dealing ranged damage besides
Lightning Breath
Diablo's Talent Build Cheatsheet
Standard Build
Recommended
This standard build provides superior self-sustain and
fair single-target damage potential. As a key Talent, 
Diabolical Momentum
allows Feast on Fear to trigger often through repeated Ability casts
for significantly increased combat survivability.
Situational Build
Situational
This situational 
Shadow Charge build provides superior burst damage and
crowd control on closed Maps where one can reliably slam
opponents against terrain. Such Maps notably include Cursed Hollow, Dragon Shire,
Garden of Terror, and Infernal Shrines.
Diablo's Synergies and Counters
Diablo synergizes with
Since Diablo provides reliable means of initiating, it follows
naturally that he would work well with Heroes that have a strong and reliable
way of playing off and following up said initiating. Any Hero
that Stuns, Roots or otherwise hinders the movement of intended targets is
preferred, but Heroic Abilities that synergise with 
Apocalypse make
for particularly effective combos.
Diablo is countered by
As a Tank with a large amount of Health, Diablo is naturally vulnerable
to Heroes that deal percent-based damage. His reliance on being able to engage
to be impactful also makes him lackluster against some of the more resilient
backline Assassins who have tools to avoid or otherwise nullify
his Shadow Charge + 
Overpower combo.
Diablo's Maps
As the premiere ganker, Diablo thrives on Maps that give him
ample opportunities to catch isolated Heroes or otherwise interrupt rotations.
Generally, this includes Maps with Objectives that have changing locations.
In contrast, Maps that have static Objectives or that require you to destroy
specific Monsters are hardly desirable for Diablo, who lacks sustained damage,
though cleverly exploiting terrain with Shadow Charge can make
up for this weakness.
Diablo's Tips and Tricks
- Remember that after reviving through Black Soulstone, your Health pool will be 30% smaller.
Fire Stomp can hit any given target up to five times in melee range.- Use
Overpower right after 
Shadow Charge to unconditionally move opponents towards your teammates. - Cast Lightning Breath when you suspect you may be the target of a crowd control chain, as it makes you Unstoppable for the duration.
- Use
Apocalypse right before Shadow Charge and Overpower to unconditionally Stun your target.
Diablo's Role in the Current Meta
Diablo's main strengths lie in his notorious Shadow Charge + Overpower
combo, which can unconditionally displace and control a target of his choosing,
and very strong zoning Heroic Ability choices. Since his ability
to waveclewar, siege, and claim Mercenary Camps
is limited by his low damage output, Diablo is often picked for his ability to
reliably initiate and counter team compositions that rely on one
key damage dealer or Healer. As Diablo is widely recognised as one of the best initiators
in the game, Diablo players are expected to position aggressively and look
for ganking opportunities or Heroes who are out of position all while
interrupting key channeled Abilities.
Changelog
- 22 Nov. 2020 (talents page): Q build re-added to recommended builds.
- 30 Aug. 2020 (this page): Role in the Current Meta section updated.
- 30 Aug. 2020 (talents page): Talent builds and recommendations updated to better reflect metagame state.
- 05 Apr. 2020 (talents page): Descriptions reviewed for Soul Armor and Devastating Charge.
- 13 Dec. 2019 (this page): Added a note about current Anomaly.
- 15 Oct. 2019 (this page): Guide updated.
- 15 Oct. 2019 (talents page): Talent builds and recommendations reviewed and updated.
- 15 Oct. 2019 (abilities page): Abilities section reviewed.
- 22 May 2018 (this page): Guide updated to account for the Diablo patch rework.
- 22 May 2018 (talents page): Talents updated to account for the Diablo rework patch.
- 14 Jan. 2018 (talents page): Updated Heroic Talent assessments. Updated Shadow build.
- 26 Jun. 2017 (talents page): Updated the Shadow Charge build.
- 05 Jun. 2017 (talents page): Talents updated to better reflect metagame state.
- 22 Dec. 2016 (this page): Guide updated to account for the Ragnaros patch rework and moved to the new format.
More Tank Guides
Oxygen is a veteran of the MOBA genre, which he has been playing for nearly 15 years. He has coached some of Heroes of the Storm's most prominent North American players and teams alike, including Team Liquid. As a Master player, he enjoys playing all Heroes and roles.
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