Counters of the Storm: Deathwing 🐲

General Discussion
1

Welcome!

Disclaimer!
Counters of the Storm (a guide-series I started with Qhira) is never about that the Hero itself is op or not. It’s just a post to help ppl deal with them, a little boost for the learning process.

What's in Deathwing's kit?

    He has:

    • no mana but energy (Q drains it heavily, but otherwise infinite “mana”)

    • two modes (switch on key1):
      - Destroyer: for melee brawling with an aoe bursted from DW and a mobility tool which slows
      - Worldbreaker: for ranged poke with a slowing zoning aoe and a ranged stun (a weaker version of Sunderring)

    • a shared Q in both modes which is a nerfed Lightning Breath (no slow, can’t be redirected, bigger delay on cast)

    • his Heroic from lvl 1 (but with on cd like Alex and Rag’s trait) which can be used for escape/engage and is a smaller, nerfed version Lava Wave

    • a trait which makes him permanently unstoppable, which means no Slows, Roots, Silences, Stuns, Knockbacks, but he’s still affected by Blinds, Stasis/TimeStop and dmg plus armor reductions
      he also has Armor based on how many health (25/50/75/100%) he had before landing
      plus he cannot be helped by allied abilities

    • Z, which is his HS technically (since he doesn’t heal in the Base/at the Altar of Storms) which gives you kinda a global pressence but he can land only where he has vision

    • and a Fear effect if picked at lvl 10 which also has delay, small ranged and DW is always the centre of it

How to counter him?

    Let’s start with the most obvious things:

  1. He cannot be healed, buffed or tbh interacted by his allies. No extra Armor, no heals, no Protected, no Invulnerable, his team can protect him only via peels and teamwork.
    So poking him down before a teamfight/obj can be crucial and he can’t stand long teamfights.
  2. He has Armor and big HP pool, so %-based dmg melts him more than any other dmg source (Tychus, Leoric, Malthael and others with giant killer abilities/talents are extremely good against him).
  3. Since all of his abilities are delayed, dodging them is extremely easy especially in 1v1s. so with proper execution, you can 1v1 him with most the roster.
  4. He has no mounts, so he rotates slowly. His only other option is his DragonFlight (Z) ability which is his “HS” as well and almost the only option to regain his Armor and he can land only where he has vision, only after a delay, and it puts his abilities on cd as well, so he’s a kinda a sitting duck after landing for a short period of time.
    So if you want to deny the possibility of DW’s landing, clear the minions (or whatever is his possible vision source) quickly, or get out of there.
    If you can force him to use his Z around when the obj starts, he won’t be able to join for 10+ secs.
    His Z is also interruptable by dmg, so keep in mind that he can escape only with his dE (Onslaught, E in Destroyer Mode) or Cataclysm (his Heroic).
    DW can’t react well to quick rotations.

And now the less obvious things:

  1. He’s slow and unstoppable, but his team is not unstoppable, so Gusting or knocking away (like Flailing Swipe or Lorenado) the enemy leaves DW vulnerable and exposed for a quick “gank”.
  2. He’s unstoppable but can’t go through terrain (unless Cataclysm, but that’s delayed and tho he cannot be targeted during it, he’s not immune to dmg from aoes), so Entomb, Zombie Wall, Force Wall can trap him easily for wombos.
  3. Kelthuzad has a “perma Glacial Spike” on the map.

TLDR: Kite him, poke him, put macro pressure on his team and throw everything on him which could be defed by the enemy in if cast on normal Heroes.

Notable counters sorted by counter-types:
    • % based dmg or armor ignore: Tychus, Malthael, Leoric, Greymane, Kharazim, Valla, Zagara, Imperius, Falstad, Malganis, Fenix, Mephisto, Tassadar, Maiev, Artanis, Gall, Varian, Ragnaros, Thrall, Sylvanas, Cassia, Zuljin
    • Kite/poke: Valla, Lunara, Zagara, Cassia, Chromie, Hanzo, Sylvanas
    • Macro pressure: Zagara, Dehaka, Falstad, Brightwing, Ragnaros, Sylvanas
    • Terrain lock: Leoric, Tassadar, Nazeebo, Thrall
    • Dmg reduction: Blaze, Tassadar
    • Armor reduction: Tyrande, Varian, Hanzo, Imperius
    • Stasis: Medivh, Zeratul, Chromie, Maiev
    • Isolation from team: Falstad, Stukov, Deckard
    • Easy stacks/hits: Medivh, Orphea, Kelthuzad, Artanis, Chromie, Zuljin, Sylvanas
Who you shouldn't play against DW?
    • Hammer: you don’t want to be a sitting duck against DW
    • Qhira: your E can hit him but do nothing agaist him
    • Samuro: your clones can be on DW’s aim (Dragon Soul, FireForm/Skyfall and Conflagration)
    • Butcher: Charge is predictable, negating his delyed ability problem
      (tbh most Melee Assassins are a bad pick against DW, since he wants melee heavy enemies)
    • Whitemane: your W helps DW aim
    • Alexstrasza: he can zone ppl out of your W easily
    • Uther: your CC means a lot less against the enemy and your heals and dmg were never that high
    • Abathur: he can pressure you out of lane, and 4.5v5 is not enough when we talk about DW
Things you should pay attention to regarding him:

    He can have surprisingly good selfsustain and his dmg is no joke. NEVER(!) stay in the fire…

    He can delay objectives for almost eternity with World Breaker abilities or Skyfall (for the latter he needs vision).

    Don’t forget, that you cannot CC him! He can block CC skillshots for his allies (like Hook, but not Garrosh’s throw, that ignores him).
    And if your ability or talent has an “after/if CC” description, that won’t work on him (that’s why you can’t lower his dmg as Imperius picking Pathetic Mortals).
    Only Blinds, Stasis/Timestops, Armor, dmg and heal reduction works against him.
    (I didn’t mention the healing reduction as counter against him despite me saying he has nice selfhealing, because it requires him taking W build and you having a bunch of melees and even than, it’s not the best way to negate him).

    Don’t let him lend on you, watch out for the warning (3 sec till landing) and remember that he’s all yours for 3 second, he can’t cast.

    Also rememeber that once he flew up into the skies, he can’t land for 8 sec (and if he was low, he needs a lot of extra time because hp regen is slow there). get as much value during this time as possible.

    He has no escape in World Breaker form (excluding R, which also has a 3 sec windup time) and switching form (you guessed it: 3 sec windup) with 20 sec cd.

    Avoid clutched/narrow places, don’t fight there.

    Don’t forget that he can get Heroic resets whenever one of your Keeps/Forts die.

    And remember in draft, that he can follow up on wombo CC combos hard.

Hope this guide can and will help ppl in their matches, and feel free to give feedback about the series itself.
What do you miss? What do you disagree with? What’s unnecessary? Thanks for any kind of feedback in advance, good luck and see you… in the Nexus!

20 Likes
2

My question is “What should I do as a tank when he engage my back-line?” I cannot peel he off my back-line with my CC.

p.s. I only had 2 games against him so far.

1 Like
3

Imo, keep the others away and you guys all should turn on him.

3 Likes
4

Alex and WM (?) too.

5

I didn’t list them since DW can counter them as well.

6

Kharazim with 7 (11) sided strike is really nice vs him too.

Tass Force Wall is amazing at cutting off his path or blocking him from retreating in tight corridors.

1 Like
7

Just have your back line run circles around him and laugh at his insanely telegraphed abilities

3 Likes
8

Pretty much exactly everything I assumed he’d be weak against. Without a doubt Deathwing’s biggest counter is going to be really good poke. Mobility will also be strong due to all his cast times. By this logic Tracer should be a hard counter, but we’ll see.

1 Like
9

I would add Lucio to the Kite/Poke section, as he makes it such that even his slow allies can dodge DW’s abilities.

This is the main reason I was playing Blaze, I can keep the rest of his team away, and once I hit level 13, I can dramatically reduce the damage he is doing to my back line. Fun fact playing Blaze into DW, if you hit him with Jet Propulsion, it won’t stun him, but the chain reaction stun still hits any of his team within range.

Another option is Tyrael, so you can speed up and shield your allies when he goes in, or Mal’ganis to just shred him to pieces.

2 Likes
10

i like to use Tassadar and just wall the big doggo

1 Like
11

Thx. Although it is a good answer, it doesn’t answer my question. My question is “What should I do as a tank when he engage my back-line?”. It isn’t “What should my teammates do as back-line?”

12

Hit him with your stick until his armour plates fall off.

13

I guess… keep tanking against the rest of his team as your backline tears DW to shreds?

2 Likes
14

He can still have his damage reduced, so if you pick a tank that can do that just slap him with it.

Otherwise, peel Deathwing’s team off of him so he’s isolated.

1 Like
15

one possibly overlooked source of vision is walls. Making sure to not leave walls up after you down a fort will help to greatly limit his freedom in regards to where he lands. Walls don’t have much health either so it’s a quick thing to do.

16

DW is a strange case in that the tank shouldn’t be peeling him away but your DPS should be: If he’s charging through your team to get to your backline he’s having to slog through to get to them and that means your % damage characters should tear him a new one by the time he gets to them.
If you don’t have a Tychus/Leo/Ect. then your going to have a bad time, but he’s hard countered by those characters so hard that a DW going YOLO to the backline should be a dead deathwing (or at least a retreating one). Handle the CC’able characters so that your assassins are free to put their focus on DW.

2 Likes
17

Deathwing is hardcountered by EU servers.

18

I am still loving Blaze as a Deathwing enabler/enemy Deathwing counter. The last match featured an enemy team with Deathwing, Mal’ganis, and Ragnaros, so with Meltdown at 4 and Suppressive Fire at 13, they had a hard time killing anyone on my team. Toss in a Bunker, and yeah, barbecued lizard.

19

Here’s a summary:
Use % based damage
Chunk the fatty
Use ranged stuff
Be mobile and jumpy
Never stand in fire.

1 Like
20

Tracer & Lunara UwU xD.