hello,
is deathwing op. what are tactics against deathwing?
i play auriel, tyrael and malthael. what are tactics from these 3 heroes against deathwing?
No he isn’t OP, otherwise the stats would reflect that, and they don’t. If the DW is really good, there is basically nothing you can do about it, but luckily for you 99% of all DW players have no idea what they are doing. Most just home into a mode and stick in it. Destroyer mode has it’s niche vs low dmg comps, but otherwise is just sub par. All of his moves in Destroyer form are super telegraphed because of their “delayed” nature, which you can abuse to avoid them. As a team, NEVER clump up against DW, because you know Fire Breath. but also, that enables his Destroyer form to be effective, which usually isn’t, sub par in most cases. In general avoid clumping up against him just like with a Lightning Surge build Alarak(if you ever faced it, you would know why).
If the DW is really good, most of your counter moves as Malthael just won’t work, because most people do the exact same thing, thinking yeh i counter DW so i can’t lose… and then they lose because they home in with 0 thought, with a even more predictable play than DW’s own abilities.
If your team doesn’t clump up and watches what DW is doing with a Q Breath build, you can basically ignore him, he won’t do much.
If you are facing with a fully charged Heatwave talent, fire aura around him and he is high on health, do NOT fight him. You can only win with Malthael if you poke him in that state, without the talent you win. Now if you are facing WB DW, you will also win, unless he uses the mode properly, e.g. Lava pool to run circles around you, or beat you in DPS, you don’t have more survivability than he does.
IDK what Auriel could do vs him, she is a healer, she can’t knock him back and stun him, just evade his abilities.
As Tyreal you can body block him + zone him with the zoning talent at lvl 13 or 16, i can’t remember. Your Invunerability ult(Sanctification) can counter his Q Fire Breath, but everyone should get out ASAP anyways, as it may last FAR longer, and with a Q Fire Breath Build, you will all die if you don’t move sooner or later. Swift Retribution to get even more speed on your E would get you out of his abilities faster.
I could go on for ages here, and you could learn more from me, but the best solution to your problems is to watch replays of you losing against him and analyzing what you did wrong and learning from it.
Even better would be to play against a good DW. If you are on EU, you can contact me and i will show you what NOT to do against him. Currently i am locked into 64.4%(will probably improve, not worsen) winrate in QM, which used to be 68.9 or 68.7% not moving at all for hundreds of games, which as of writing are 956 games. I mostly heavily played him on release, the winrate drop is due to player count dropping so hard that you get into match ups with only high damage opponents with probable high range and poke, like Hanzo and Nova(anti armour talents), and his worst opponent of Greymane’s Cursed Bullet.
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Mostly any hero who moves faster than him can easy play around him. Mages that can poke his hp down is also not fun for him to face since he cant be healed.
He is asking for 3 specific heroes. You missed the point.
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His abilities take the same amount of time to wind up as my average trip to Taco Bell takes so no.
Pick stasis to save wombo’d allies, not much to do besides that and the obvious (stay out of his damage)
Bodyblocking and his level 13 Holy Ground block him off. One of the best (and only) ways of truly peeling him.
Wraith Strike build absolutely shreds through Deathwing, other than that don’t play too stupid as while you do soft counter him it’s not enough to truly beat him consistently 100% of the time (and it takes long enough to bully him that people can and will rotate to his aid to gank you.)
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Deathwing is designed to be very strong in a team fight, so often the best way to counter him is to …. not team fight. His waveclear is just OK, and his camp clear and siege are abysmal. Go to the lane where he isn’t, and take all his stuff. His rotations are pathetically slow, unless he burns flight to get there.
Malthael doesn’t have the greatest siege, but he is one of the best double-soakers in the game, and can send all the camps down the lanes to keep Deathwing’s team busy cleaning up your messes!
As someone who plays Deathwing often, he is a big clumsy doggo with very easily telegraphed attacks and a big hit box. He is actually quite weak to poke and mobile characters.
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This might help:
It’s from his release, when he was stronger than now.
For that exact reason → his melee focused form of Destroyer, is FAR less viable now than it used to be. Like i said in the above post, it’s a niche mode now, not a pick your form anymore.
He is designed to be very strong in a team fight, and yet he can solo lane better than most heroes if played right and the opponents aren’t playing their heroes to the fullest. You can win against Malthael, who is an easier match than Zagara, Gazlowe, Nazeebo, etc, because they often make mistakes that a good DW can use to beat them.
DW vs Malth laning:
Malthael can dual lane better than anyone, yes, in such situations DW will lose, but those situations are very rare, unless you specifically force them by telling your team before hand. A lot of players, especially in QM won’t let you do that.
Also if you think DW can’t deal with mercs, or wave clear wave, you have no idea. If DW goes Heat Wave, he can Lava Pool + Fire Breath to easily wave clear. Which at lvl 13 with either Ruination or Wicked Inferno goes up significantly. His wave clear is in the top 10 of all heroes against minion waves. Against mercs he does struggle a bit, mostly against the Knight camps, but he can also use Cataclysm with Lava Pool(or Incinerate with Heat Wave on full stacks, with a low enough dmging opponents) and Fire Breath to deal with them. Siege giants are easy as his AA damage is quite good and he can prevent them from getting in range with Lava Pool and his stun?(forgot the name lol).
He is if you play him like that. His telegraphed attacks are really a blessing, because players who have not played against me or similar DWs will get caught almost every time. Move towards the opponent, turn back, and most of the time they will start moving towards you, and then you can Lunge(hitting with the bite area) into AA into Incinerate them, which is a combo of significant damage, and people fall for it all the time. Hit hit box is FAR smaller than it looks, it actually makes players miss more skill shots against DW than against Azmodan, just because half of his model is NOT actually his hit box.
People can also get tricked if you play 1x form, get a fountain heal, or go to a bush for a second and switch, and catch them completely off guard.
His Lava Pool cannot be foreseen, which with my go to talents of Dragon Soul and Heat Wave will deal good enough damage, slow and self heal, which you can them abuse to get your powerful AAs in, keep other bruisers at a distance etc.
Again, DW’s attacks are very telegraphed, and yet can very easily work in your favor. With that said, the best time to attack DW is when he is Fire Breathing. So to answer OP’s question with more info, use Tyreal’s speed ability E to get yourself and allies out of it, and as Malthael hit DW at that time with either an AA, shade/fog whatever it’s called to do damage, or get out of the fire very easily with your Wraith Strike.
TL DR and some quick key weaknesses of DW to abuse or be wary of: Malthael vs DW
DW is a powerful solo laner, not so much a dual laner, Malthael is:
Malthael wins in dual laning/soaking, about equal in solo lane.
DW’s telegraphed attacks can and will be your death by a good DW player:
DW has very telegraphed attacks, but be wary of a good player who will absolutely use your thinking against you. Don’t stand in the Lava Pool, it will be your death. Learn the Prometheus’s school of running away from things(sideways or perpendicular). If you see a DW player use the telegraphed attacks to his advantage, REMEMBER that → e.g. turn away into lunge attack + AA + incinerate.
Armour Plates: Destroy them!
Break his armour plates ! Losing the first armour plate is so damn easy… and it lowers his survivability quite a bit. At only 2 armour plates a gank will work very well. At 4 armour plates, do NOT gank him, it’s almost impossible to gank DW. Malthael is probably the only hero in the game to get the least amount of an edge against DW when he loses armour plates, this gets negates if you use the Die Alone talent, which you should pretty much always take if you are a solo laner in one of those dual lane maps, it will absolutely shred DW.
Elementium Plating:
Make sure he doesn’t have Elementium Plating available from lvl 16 onwards when you ult him. I have killed so many players by the simple press of this button, because the opponent didn’t know i have it. Be aware of it.
Pay attention to his ult or ults → Belowing Roar and Cataclysm:
If you want to kill DW, make sure you don’t overcommit if he has those, as those are his only ways of escaping and can be absolutely devastating if comboed right in a team fight.
Lunge is not a movement ability, people thought that from day 1 that it’s a dash, it’s NOT, it moves you exactly the same as just walking would, it’s purpose is to damage and slow your opponents, and gives some unpredictability if used right, like Lunara’s odd accelerating movement. Lunge can be used to escape ONLY if it jumps over you or gets away with you WHILE hitting you to slow you, e.g. when both are aligned and he hits you with the side.
Lava pool is the way DW can escape and AA you, get out of it!
You are not Nazeebo, but if DW is landing with no allies, that is your queue to kill him: Wall him in with allies if possible
Death drop talent is by far the best lvl 7 DW talent after Skyfall got nerfed to oblivion. It changes his 3 sec delay on usage of all of his abilities from 3 seconds to 1, and reduces spell armour by 10/15(can’t remember). If you see DW landing on your often, make sure you know which lvl 7 he is using, and abuse it, bad DWs will try to land on opponents often, when it doesn’t help them at all. Be wary at lvl 16 and 20, if DW takes Gaze onto Destruction talent, and hits you or most of your team, RUN, and ESPECIALLY if he takes Arrival of a God.
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