Alarak Questions

General Discussion
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So I decided I wanted to learn Alarak, the Tal’darim Highlord of snarkery and combo burst damage. So far he’s pretty fun, and I think I’m doing alright - not the best and not the worst - with a few QM games under my belt - I’m not hitting all my combos, but I know I’ll only get better with practice.
Anyways, this is just a thread to ask questions regarding the character from some Alarak players of the forums.

So regarding the early game, what can I do to help contribute to experience gain? I don’t want to be alone in a lane, since I want to participate in early game kills and start stacking Sadism, which is easier with the team’s support. Is it worth trying to waveclear with Q/E or is Alarak’s waveclear a bit too slow to make it worthwhile?

Generally, I try not to trade super heavily with Alarak - I’ll hit someone with my combo, and if that kills, great, if not, well I’ve still put a dent in their health pool, which puts pressure on them, so I’ll back off to stay safe and keep my Sadism up. The general idea is just to not lose Sadism - reasonable line of action?

Generally, I take Counter-Strike at 10. If I take Deadly Charge at 20, how on earth do I use it and when?

Usually in teamfights I’ll play kinda passive at firsr so as to not walk in and just die, but if I see someone step up too far, I’ll bring them to my team and combo them. Is that reasonable? Alarak feels more “punish mistakes and bring the enemy to you” rather than “you yourself go in and engage”.

Is there a time and place for E build? I just personally prefer the standard build, since it strengthens your already-pretty-nice combo burst. Depending on the comp, I usually go;
Overwhelming Power > Show of Force > Hindered Motion > Counter-Strike > Blade of the Highlord > Lethal Onslaught > Deadly Charge
against targets I think I’ll be able to reliably hit with autos, such as close-range comps. I especially like the synergy between Lethal Onslaught and Overwhelming Power - you can get so much healing from your autos!
or
Ruthless Momentum > Show of Force > Applied Force > Counter-Strike > Blade of the Highlord > Mocking Strikes > Deadly Charge
against more range-heavy comps where I think I’ll need the higher range W and will hit less autos.
If you have other builds you like, feel free to tell me.

Any big hard counter names of “don’t engage this Hero unless you wanna lose all your Sadism”? Haven’t played Alarak long enough to find them out the hard way, so I’d like to learn the easy way, if possible.

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I love Deadly Charge at 10 if the enemy doesn’t have something like Pryoblast or the like.
It’s on a fairly short cooldown (45 seconds) and it is a great finisher to your combo. Remember only the distance is increased by charging it.
It can be used to jump walls as well, which can either get you out of tricky situations or put you in a place the enemy didn’t expect.

Perfectly reasonable, however you seem to be building a lot into the auto attack talents and with the general game plan of hitting your combo and walking away you don’t get much value out of them.

Might be worth trying a slightly different build: Ruthless Momentum > Show of Force > Hindered Motion (or Applied Force to extent the range of your combo) > Deadly Charge/Counter-Strike > Rite of Rak’Shir > 16 whichever though I am a fan of Mocking Strikes > either the other ultimate or Last Laugh is my usual go to.

Why Rite of Rak’Shir instead of Blade of the Highlord at 13? well with your current build you can get a maximum of 190% sadism (100% baseline, +30% from trait takedowns, +20% from Show of Force, and +40% from Blade of the Highlord)

With Rite of Rak’Shir you can technically get 700% sadism, still the same baseline 100%, +30% from trait takedowns and +20% from Show of Force.
However you can get a massive +550% from Rak’Shir.
Market Discord Strike hits grant 3% and caps after 100 hits for a total of +300%
Market takedowns grant 5% and caps after 50 takedowns for a total of +250%

Now while it is very unlikely that you’ll ever hit that cap, it isn’t unusual to hit 210-230% sadism.

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