Dehaka P1 skills

Just curious what you guys take.
I build mine to be full support so I take: Regen Aura, Roar, Devour, Armor, AA-Attack, and Detection.
I’ve been wondering lately if I should swap roar for leap instead since without the leap Roar can’t reach a whole lot of the enemy army.

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It really depends on the enemy comp/map for me.

Leap is really good obviously, but past a level or two it’s not that good against air comps (naturally). On the other hand, anti-air swipe isn’t important unless it’s an air heavy comp.

I’d only take one level of hp regen myself, if that, cause devouring one also pushes the healing to nearby units. So it’s not super needed.

At least, that’s my justification for my setup. Devour, armour, roar, and at least one level in leap is all I make sure to have, with the rest adapting.

Yeah I think P1 disadvantages are actually designed with the army healing you get from Devour in mind so you skip healing aura entirely.

By devouring weak biological or psionic biological units as P1 you should have no problem keeping your and your allies armies healed.

Didn’t know that P1 Devour also gives heals to your army. And I usually don’t devour bio units, eating a psionic unit isn’t as useful as well unless you’re in the middle of the enemy army. My go to devour target is always mechanical and/or air so my army gets aspd and range buffs so I tend to max on regen aura for additional sustain.

Even if you don’t hit anything with the pufft out of psionic units, they’re still worth eating cause they also give the 50% cooldown reduction.

Mechanical units still provide some healing, though half the rate of bio units. So you’re still giving healing there, more than a different prestige Dehaka would give with the aura at least.

But hey, if you’re style benefits from the extra healing, more power to you.

I don’t think the standard skill path is different in P1, or even should deviate at all. Regen though should be the lowest priority of all skills.

I’d say at best you can/should swap the Level 2 Intimidating Roar vs Keen Sense when not necessarily needing it. As there are several cases to be made for the benefit of level 2 roar. Outside of that you reach ~10 past, which doesn’t really affect his overall power (or ally/army support).

I usually favor no stress builds with minimum micro so regen aura gives extra wiggle room, I usually just devour, roar, and A-Move with a pack leader summon here and there. Though I will try swapping out AA-Attack and maybe armor for a couple of leap levels so I can maximize my Roar like you guys suggested.

I’d caution against not taking armour myself, he’s already lost the base armour so that’s making him pretty vulnerable without it.

He does cap out at 11 instead of 15, so there’s some sacrifice that needs making somewhere. The jist of it is pretty much the same, though.

Main point: I don’t pick up Roar. This + Scorching Breath being unavailable take care of the 4 missing points.
I definitely get Devour 1st, and Leap most of the time, though in some case I may pick Regen instead so I can go eat in more dangerous locations before even getting the 1st Primal Warden.
I get Leap for the 3rd point if it wasn’t unlocked yet.
Regarding Detection VS Armor, it depend on the map and the game. If Dehaka took a beating somehow until now, I may pick armor first.
Trying to complete Devour usually have priority, though I can be flexible if it’s needed for some reason.

Best healing is preventative healing (not taking the damage in the first place).

Roar is absolutely needed as P1 to reduce damage to Dehaka and his army. Can’t heal a unit if it’s dead.

Skip regen aura.

Roar level 2 stops the enemy from using energy abilities. This can be really helpful since it counters BCs, Hybrid Dominators, and a bunch of other annoying or painful spellcasters.

Yeah, that’s why all the more reason not to deviate from the standard. Those 4 points can entirely skip regen, or if one wishes can spare 1 point (cuz honestly 1 vs 3 make no impact). Roar 3 can be skipped as level 2 is most important (as mentioned already). That alone gets the player to 3-4 missing points.

So really the small difference here is if you wanted +1 point into healing then you’d lose maybe Leap 3? Honestly not worth the trade. Regen is pretty much the least useful. I cringe when I see Dehakas get them early (especially first 2 points lol) or when they get them slaps on.

I learnt something new here not realising that Roar 2 prevents ability usage, will definitely reflect this in ability choices!

Likewise. Why anyone want to purely slap early enemies with his puny arms rather than leap and devour is beyond me!

Yeah, literally 2 primal zerglings are better (if I recall).

The slap-concept is cringely real though. I’ve seen Raynor making 2 bunkers to break rocks… I’m like :open_mouth: ‘you know you can do more dmg with 4 marines for the same cost right?’… not that it was the right way to open but yeah… (I mean this wasn’t like he had a tight build order going for BCs, hence not needing bio lol).

This list just goes on and on…

I’ve seem some allies take healing early on. It is nice for allies who can use it. For those suggesting preventative measures and not taking so much damage in the first place, not all of us are that good (otherwise, we wouldn’t need the healing now would we?). Healing is a sort of QoL improvement.

While Devour does heal units, you constantly need to follow Dehaka around like a puppy, else you miss out.

How many allies need or can use weak passive healing between 1:00 and 2:00 minutes in-game? Dehaka’s first two choices are there to maximize his ability to gather early essence.

In any case, how can any ally benefit from even the level 3 heal of 3hp/s without following Dehaka around rather than just clearing the map or objectives? Can you give any examples to prove your point?

Same applies to the passive heal.

I’m not that good that I don’t take damage either, but consider this, which is better?
A. Flame breath half of the enemy wave and then kill the rest. No passive heal.
B. Kill a whole wave. Level 3 passive heal. (I’ve given two extra levels for free)

Preventing damage is not just about splitting or dodging, in fact it’s mainly about wiping out enemies before they even get to attack. Remember, Amon has unlimited waves that will really hit hard if you give them a chance.

Don’t get it wrong. Picking up a level of healing aura as Dehaka P0 or P2 a little bit early is fine if the circumstances make it worthwhile (a protoss ally is a great example). Even better, getting 1-3 levels on Zweihaka as P3 Broodbrother makes a lot of sense (as you can skip detection and 1 level of Roar).

However, for P1 that misses out on 4 levels you definitely don’t want any healing aura either at all or - as has been suggested - take 1 point after everything else is maxed instead of Roar 3.

I think the context of this particular discussion is “what is more optimal that will benefit you best” to pick, as far as Dehaka’s points go. And definitely not “you pick this or else”.

I think I’ve shared my fair share of optimal things over the years, and it is never to force anyone to do anything they don’t want (cuz it just ain’t going to happen regardless). So you are welcome to get Healing Aura. That said, objectively speaking, they benefit you (and your ally) the least… in every single circumstance imaginable.

I suppose unless your goal was to follow your ally’s army with Duohakas and use army-only as a meme… then there’s maybe a case where 6 total levels of Healing Aura as ‘set it and forget it’ make far more sense :stuck_out_tongue: