I just picked up Alarak, but I am having great fun with him.
I have mostly used a build just like your "Lightcord AOE build", but with Pure Malice at 13. It is awesome burst, when you get 140% Sadism and hit 2 or 3 people with the bonuses from Double Cross at 4 and Chaos Reigns at 7. And with the Power Conduit at 1 and Sustaining Power at 16 you never get low on health or mana.
Power Conduit and Negatively Charged don't synergy well, usually Extended Lightning is good for better aoe. But in my opinion, if you're already in the middle of teamfight, Pure Malice is super risky, don't work well when your team dies rarely (i.e. 3-15 kills in your favor for example), and you are keeping distance more often than trying to fight (saving Telekinesis and Discord Strike as disengage only against those who is trying to dive. Yes, I'm talking about Lightning Surge oriented builds.
But these hybrid builds (such as Lightcord build) are for some medium-range poke before doing allin dive, and for often hitting with W-Q combo, meaning that we're always close to enemy heroes.
In lightcord build Negatively Charged is just as another talent for allin, in heat of battle you won't cast it often.
It is very risky, and I think that Pure Malice is for those who are aware of how Alarak plays and just feel him and his playstyle. Psychokinesis is safer damage increase at that tier yet less than Pure Malice, but guaranteed.
But I agree that Negatively Charged is very good talent, it can boost your aoe damage up to 1000+, if Sadism isn't reduced.
Yeah I agree completely with you. What I meant is Power Conduit at 1 and Sustaining Power at 16. I just copied the wrong talent name. Sorry :). The 2 don't really have synergy, but keep my mana and health full, so they are ok individually. And honestly I only take Power Conduit, because I don't want the Sadism reduction of Applied Force. Negatively Charged is kind of trap talent IMO. I never try to catch people in the arc, just target them directly from as far as possible. When I try to hit something behind them, usually I get out of position myself, due to the ability range.
I only take Pure Malice, because my playstyle is very safe and usually I manage to get killed 1 or 2 times tops, so my Sadism stays at 120 - 140%. Perhaps I play too safe and miss some opportunities though, but as I said I only just started playing Alarak.
Generally I just poke with Lightning Surge and grab people with the combo, when they come too close to our team. Kind of bring them to us, instead of try to dive them.
I most often use Deadly Charge on very short distances to finish off someone after a combo. And if I dive the whole enemy team with it, I attack with my Discord Strike ASAP and often just use Telekinesis to push myself back to my team.
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I just picked up Alarak, but I am having great fun with him.
I have mostly used a build just like your "Lightcord AOE build", but with Pure Malice at 13. It is awesome burst, when you get 140% Sadism and hit 2 or 3 people with the bonuses from Double Cross at 4 and Chaos Reigns at 7. And with the Power Conduit at 1 and Sustaining Power at 16 you never get low on health or mana.
Thumbs up. :)
Power Conduit and Negatively Charged don't synergy well, usually Extended Lightning is good for better aoe. But in my opinion, if you're already in the middle of teamfight, Pure Malice is super risky, don't work well when your team dies rarely (i.e. 3-15 kills in your favor for example), and you are keeping distance more often than trying to fight (saving Telekinesis and Discord Strike as disengage only against those who is trying to dive. Yes, I'm talking about Lightning Surge oriented builds.
But these hybrid builds (such as Lightcord build) are for some medium-range poke before doing allin dive, and for often hitting with W-Q combo, meaning that we're always close to enemy heroes.
In lightcord build Negatively Charged is just as another talent for allin, in heat of battle you won't cast it often.
Pure Malice can be good only if you're playing SUPER carefully, safe and accurately and you are sure, that Deadly Charge + Double Cross + Chaos Reigns + Negatively Charged will annihilate enemy team and you won't die while executing these combos.
It is very risky, and I think that Pure Malice is for those who are aware of how Alarak plays and just feel him and his playstyle. Psychokinesis is safer damage increase at that tier yet less than Pure Malice, but guaranteed.
But I agree that Negatively Charged is very good talent, it can boost your aoe damage up to 1000+, if Sadism isn't reduced.
Negatively Charged is kind of trap talent IMO. I never try to catch people in the arc, just target them directly from as far as possible. When I try to hit something behind them, usually I get out of position myself, due to the ability range.
I only take Pure Malice, because my playstyle is very safe and usually I manage to get killed 1 or 2 times tops, so my Sadism stays at 120 - 140%. Perhaps I play too safe and miss some opportunities though, but as I said I only just started playing Alarak.
Generally I just poke with Lightning Surge and grab people with the combo, when they come too close to our team. Kind of bring them to us, instead of try to dive them.
I most often use Deadly Charge on very short distances to finish off someone after a combo. And if I dive the whole enemy team with it, I attack with my Discord Strike ASAP and often just use Telekinesis to push myself back to my team.