I’m not a Deathwing main, but I do play Deathwing enough to notice how these recent changes feel, and honestly I’m not a fan.
I don’t like the new quest mechanic, and losing the ability to freely swap between Destroyer and World Breaker feels clunky. Having to fly just to change forms slows down his gameplay and removes a lot of his flexibility and real-time decision-making.
From what I’ve played, Destroyer still feels like the most practical and consistent form, especially with the Incinerate sustain build—even though Deathwing can be heavily countered depending on the draft. World Breaker still feels underwhelming by comparison, and Q build was already viable before, so I’m not sure these changes actually improved build diversity.
I think a better solution would be bringing back form swapping, but balancing it instead of removing it. For example, let Deathwing swap forms on demand again, but grant him Protected during the transformation cast so he can adapt between forms without being punished for using one of his core mechanics.
Overall, these changes feel like they added restrictions rather than making Deathwing more fun or opening up more meaningful choices.
I’m happy with the changes overall. Melee form being the stronger form with range feeling more niche feels right. Shorter fly cooldown lets you play Melee mode more often and I’m happy to trade a good amount of Q power fot it all.
Ive thoroughly enjoyed the fast cooldown on Z. It introduces some fun aggressive playstyles that didn’t exist before.
In saying that, I don’t believe low CD Z should be a baseline thing but instead be a talent (like it was before). World Breaker is a more conservative playstyle and being able to fly up all the time is almost unnecessary.
Sadly, the issue with Destroyer is that its playstyle has a low skill floor. Low skill floor means the only way to balance it is to gut the numbers.
Incinerate becomes the main source of both damage and survivability wrapped up in a big, easy to land aoe. Q? What Q? Remove that skill from your action bar.
Imo, Incinerate should be a survivability spell only with DW’s main source of damage coming from Q. In Destroyer form, Q is changed to be a bit more of a melee friendly ability. For example, wider arc (think stitches slam), faster cast time, but shorter range. His aoe aura at level 4 is now applied based on landing Q instead of W.
A change like that would increase his skill floor a bit.
I preferred Deathwing pre patch, he had 4 viable builds/playstyles (5 builds if you include AA, but I feel that was his weakest), W build was already strong against certain comps and now it’s fully capable to 1v5 a bad enemy draft.
Ranged build was good before if your team had CC, now it just feels weaker.. the only redeeming thing imo is the extra slow on Lava Burst which slows more than Cataclysm at 20 (45% vs 40%, granted cataclysm is a huge area).
You can combo Earth Shatter, Lava Burst into Q easier, but the increased energy costs means you wont be getting the maximum bonus damage from Infernus.
I feel like these changes just reduced diversity and flexibility.
DMight is at a 47% WR from 57% in Diamond/Master SL.
Problem with this is that Infernus is also level 4, so now there are 2 Q talents competing, and being able to use Q easier in melee will be a very substantial buff to Infernus.