Out today with a massive patch
Heroes of the Storm has added the Zerg Warrior Dehaka today, and even though he’s enjoyable, I doubt he’ll shake up the meta much.
Dehaka’s kit is enticing. His Q can pull enemies like a more effective Stitches hook; his E burrows to avoid ultimates like Pyroblast and Triple Tap; his W is a fun area-of-effect whirlwind that can walk through enemies to avoid bodyblocking; and every 45 seconds, he can warp to any bush or vent on the map at the cost of not being able to mount. But his talents leave much to be desired.
There will always be cookie-cutter builds, but Dehaka’s doesn’t feel all that diverse, mostly focusing on raw defense. By that token, Diablo, who has a lot of similar traits (peel ability, a large health pool) is more enticing right off the bat in nearly every category, and is probably the most direct comparison. Johanna also is more effective on paper, with the ability to mount and take a more proactive (rather than Dehaka’s reactive) stance on bursty teams.
I want to see where he ends up winrate-wise, but my prediction is somewhere in the middle of the pack.
Dehaka isn’t the lone update today, though. Heroes of the Storm‘s Hero League has been overhauled with a ban system, there are death recaps visible after every kill now, and some characters have been severely tuned (Kael’thas, Illidan, Sylvanas, and Tychus). I’ve been experimenting with them on PTR for a few days and I have to say, everything seems justified, and all of those forgotten heroes (some of which fell off after the scaling changes) feel fantastic and relevant again.
It’s a good week for Heroes players.
