Maybe it’s because I play QM mostly and I don’t have a high rank (and prob not a high MMR), but I honestly don’t find Alarak as difficult as some people claim. Does anyone else feel this way?
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FRESH SADISM
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Murky*
Lost Vikings* 
Alarak requires not dying. Most players have a hard time with that.
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- Melee assassin
- w/ Skillshots
Same reason you rarely see a good Kerrigan.
You might not need triple digit IQ to spam lightning on people but if you don’t his effectiveness really plummets.
Outside of his ult and using a talent for W range he really doesn’t have a gap closer. Alarak is pretty unique for a melee in that he’s built more for denial than chase.
Knowing how to use his W really makes a difference because the slight nudge means almost nothing if you don’t hit the right hero at the right time or follow it up with silence.
And this.
Baseline Alarak doesn’t pull enough damage when compared to other utility-loaded DPS. While silence can be a killer he’s not actually highly dangerous on his own until he builds up his trait.
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If someone will feed enemy Alarak, that’s my team, not my TLV.
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I think you need to wait a little bit more to make such a conclusion. Alarak is very tricky to play with. He may seem like the typical lone wolf carry players gravitate to but he relies very much on his team to give him opportunities with less risk. With Alarak, the less risk the better. He gets exponentially harder the more you play, so goes with melee assassin heroes.
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tlv is reasonably countered by alarak just because of the fact he can sadism off of them reasonably easily, however, I’ve wiped the floor with respectable alaraks exclusively because my team made very competent and well thought out decisions regarding positioning and lane pressure, alarak might be able to 1v1 vikings, but he can’t be everywhere at once.
I respect good alarak mains, alarak is inherently not that hard to learn, however he has such a moldable ability set that his skill ceiling is very high, same with vikings, you can go all 3 in a lane reasonably easily, or going 2/0/1 for the entire game reasonably easily however the skill ceiling is very high if you know what your doing.
He is a high skill high reward hero so yea you should respect him if you see one who solo handed carry his team.
Well, you pick him when potatoes made first potatoepicks like Abathur / Nova / Butcher. Just spam pings and don’t die. Is that “difficult”?
Alarak is pretty hard and despite his abilities being very powerful, he can be deceptively tricky to play. He relies on powerful timings and combos, to the point that you can even knock enemy Heroes out of your own combo yourself by accident. Alarak’s power-spikes come from his traits and building them up until you can insta-delete squishy heroes, or knock a tank out of commission.
Alarak can give the impression that he’s beefy, but he can be shut down. He’s squishier than most Heroes. However, he CAN be beefy if you keep your distance, maintain good positioning and not die in any important part of the match. He’s also got nice sustain that can keep him alive if used consistently and correctly. His silence next to Stukov, is one of the best basic abilities you can get. Alarak is a pro-techy hero type, and is really balanced that ties in with the player’s skill, awareness, timing and positioning. His clutches can be quite addicting just like a few select heroes like KTZ and Stukovs.
So over-all, yes he is a difficult hero, but he’s worth investing as a main Hero. Players fear a good Prolorak player. Remember to silence the right Heroes at the right times! 
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Alarak’s W is pretty unique. The standard W/Q/E combo is rewarding, but occasionally using that little displacement nudge can be more useful to setup allies, often tanks like Garrosh or Diablo.
So, I would say part of Alarak’s difficulty is choosing the most rewarding ability combo, not just being able to hit his combo.
He’s only a melee hero by definition. He behaves and plays more like a ranged assassin.
Melee mage is the most accurate term.
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As a Highlord main myself, there are a couple of things you should consider when playing with or against him.
First off, his hero description is surprisingly accurate: “A combo assassin that can move enemies around and punish mistakes.”
The primary part is that Alarak Punishes Mistakes.
He can take a simple positioning mistake, and essentially blow it WAY out of proportion in his team’s favor and get you killed.
This is the bread … and … BUTTER of his kit.
The second, BIG part, especially when playing AGAINST an Alarak is he is a combo assassin.
While with practice, it is damn-near impossible for him to MISS his combos … what does this mean?
Before Alarak hits lvl 16, HIS ABILITIES ARE ON COOLDOWN FOR AT LEAST 8-ISH SECONDS BEFORE HE CAN USE THEM, 12-14 If you get him below 80% because of his lvl 1 talent.
So … what’s my TL;DR?
1: do NOT let him catch you out of position, he WILL magnify mistakes nearly 10-fold.
2: If he uses his abilities on an out-of-position hero, or against the whole team, rush him. Odds are, he actually doesn’t have that great of a tank/peeler.
3: Final Verdict:
If he has his snow-ball up. As in 140-ish or more sadism, treat him the same way as xenomorphs.
Gotta … kill 'em … FAST
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I had VoltaireAro on my team,
they fed so hard on Alarak.
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Ala is difficult to play. His TK is not the greatest considering his e literally requires two targets to hit in a straight line. His e is virtually worthless besides minimal heals and his q has a weird hit box compared to most other skill shots. Additionally if you get caught out of position its easy to get killed. Ala relies on not dying like butch and kt and valla and raynor. Most people struggle with this. The hardest game you’ll have with ala is against a team that plays safe
Not a particularly complicated or complex hero, only that landing combos becomes exponentially easy if you have proper support to either slow or stun targets for you, which is pretty much the same experience you get with nearly every other assassin. I haven’t played him in a while and since that time he heavily shifted into melee.
How to deal with him? Simply avoid him like plague, wave clear around him. With today’s power creep it feels like playing Kerrigan without any wave clear or merc potential. Even her drag-in works better because unlike with telekinesis, players in motion cannot use instant defensive abilities with no animation.
I had HanaSong on my team,
they fed so hard on D.va.
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