by JR Cook - 8 years ago     show comments

Diablo is a hero that can be played a few different ways depending on your preference. I personally like to get in there and mix it up with Diablo while putting out some good damage. The early game is generally an exercise of patience but in the mid game Diablo can take control and help your team win some major fights at key points. If you want to see the basics on Diablo head on over to his BlizzPro hero page located here.

Basic Abilities

Black Soulstone – This trait allows Diablo to make sacrifice plays to secure big team fight wins. Remember after Black Soulstone activates Diablo will return with significantly less health and you may need to re-adjust your play style until you are able to gather more souls.

Shadow Charge – (Q) Diablo’s bread and butter initiation and isolation tool. I’ll typically us this to dive on a priority target during the team fight to be able to use Overpower to bring that target to my team. Another great use is if your safe target choice is too close use Overpower first and really push the enemy away from their allies with Shadow Charge.

Fire Stomp – The main damage and wave clear tool for Diablo. Once you get the talent Fire Devil it’s important to use Diablo’s body to apply the damage aura to nearby units while still staying safe. The damage is surprisingly good especially for clearing minion waves so be sure to abuse it.

Overpower – The choke slam we all know and love. It’s a great tool that displaces any enemy unfortunate enough to get hit by it. In the early game it can be used to punish people who get too close to your towers or wall.

Heroic Abilities

Apocalypse – I like this heroic ability on certain maps more than others. It seems to really shine on maps like Cursed Hollow, Black Hearts Bay, Battlefield of Eternity and Towers of Doom because of the objectives. This is not to say it’s bad on others but its effectiveness is dependent on the enemy team and if your team has root and stun traps to combo with Apocalypse. If the enemy doesn’t have a very mobile team, they are heavy on melee, or they are just bad at positioning then this heroic can really punish them. Apocalypse can also be used to cripple a team attempting to down a boss if used at the right time.

Lightning Breath – The damage on this heroic is sick and can change the landscape of a team fight very quickly. It can also be used to secure a kill on a target that flees later than they should have. This is the default pick for a heroic because it’s never bad.

The Build

Level 1

Devils Due – This helps you manage your soul count because if you get up to 100 and die than you get to come back with 40 and only need to collect 20 more to trigger another soul stone revive. I don’t take this ability because I want to be reckless and die a lot. I take Devil’s Due because I plan on being an aggressive big body ready to make a sacrificial death if I know it will help my team get 2 or 3 kills out of the deal. Late game this really shines because the health hit of triggering a Soul Stone revive isn’t as severe. If they enemy team has 2 or more auto attackers I may take Block especially if those enemy heroes have access to Giant Killer.

Level 4

Fire Devil – No other choice here because the damage is needed to be a true brawler. The wave clear is also insanely good.

Level 7

Soul Steal – The health increase is big enough to really help Diablo stay in fights. The main thing about taking this ability is to remember the health decrease after triggering a Black Soulstone revive is even more severe. Battle Momentum is always an option if you’re sure you won’t need the extra health but I find those situations to be rare.

Level 10

Lightning Breath – see heroic abilities section

Level 13

Fire Storm – The extra AOE damage and even faster wave clear this provides is really something. It also makes it much easier for Diablo to clear mercenary camps in the late game. I bounce back and forth between this and Life Leech depending on how team fights have looked up until this point. Life Leach is generally better if the enemy team is playing really well when it comes to positioning and you need the extra damage for the targets that you can get to. Spell Shield is also an option if you’re the constant focus of abilities from an ability heavy team.

Level 16

Imposing Presence – This is generally a good pickup even if the enemy only has one or two heroes who focus on auto attacks especially if they took Giant Killer. A 40% attack speed decrease is really good and cuts their damage down drastically. If the enemy has no real auto attack threats then Rampage is a great pickup here.

Level 20

Lord of Terror – Lord of Terror often edges out the buff to Lightning Breath because of it’s ability to shape late game fights in your teams favor and its fairly low cooldown of 60 seconds. This is an activate ability that rivals the effectiveness of some heroic abilities which means when you use Lord of Terror properly it’s like having two heroics. It’s best to use this during the middle of a team fight after the action has started a bit. Always try to hit at least two but, three is preferable and very possible since it’s likely Diablo will be in the middle of the action.  The healing of 20% or 30% of the enemies health while each individual enemy losing 10% of their maximum is huge when utilized at the right time. Get used to the radius and slight delay of this ability and keep in mind that since it’s damage is based on the maximum amount of the enemies health it can kill as well.

The Strategy

Early game is pretty simple. Just play safe in lane and collect souls. Some players will try to get aggressive or bait Diablo into traps. Remember your job is to collect experience and souls so pushing out the lane or overextending is often pointless especially if you’re solo in the lane. If the opponent gets greedy and tries to push the lane out too much hit them with a Overpower and a Shadow Charge and make them take some tower damage. If they get really close Overpower them over the gate and laugh because you get to watch them question their decisions as your fort melts them plus Diablo will get 10 free souls.

Diablo’s power spike is heavy in the mid game and he really gets to flex his muscles once he has 100 souls and is able to take some hits. The goal of the team fights is to be as disruptive as possible with AOE damage, stuns/displacement, auto attacks, and of course a well placed heroic. If the enemy team has a support that needs to go down, like Lt. Morales, I tend to target them as much as possible and let my team put damage on the target. Don’t over commit to chasing people down during these fights but make sure the enemies know that Diablo will have none of there formation/positioning shenanigans. This is the true strength of Diablo especially if you have another tank who is dedicated to soaking damage and providing CC, like Muradin or Johanna, because it allows Diablo to be aggressive in disrupting the enemies teamwork capabilities. Diablo’s damage will also shine around this phase of the game and its not uncommon to be close or leading on the hero damage meters between levels 10-14.

Overall this is a different way to play Diablo and doesn’t always work if you’re the lone tank but I do feel it is his most effective build/role. Having decent damage, moderate survive-ability, great cc, and superb mobility for a big body is what makes Diablo one of the best brawlers in the game. Try it out and let me know what you think in the comment section below!