1. Introduction 1.1 Who am I? 1.1 Who's Diablo? 2. Pros & Cons 3. Abilities 4. Ability Usage 5. Talent Breakdown 6. Standard Build 7. Shadow Charge Build 8. What Synergizes 5. What Counters 5. TL;DR 5. Final Notes

1.1 Who am I?

Welcome to my Diablo guide!

First of all, I am Blitz! I played over 4000 games and found it time to showcase my knowledge about Diablo based on my experience. Diablo is my most played hero at the moment with over 280 games played. He is at a 62% win rate after 138 games in Hero League, so i feel pretty confident on him. He's the reason i started to believe i can carry games. I am going to be as clear and informative as possible in this guide. Hopefully i will help you out to become the real Lord of Terror.


Happy reading!

1.2 Who's Diablo?

An agressive, high health melee warrior that punishes bad positioning by charging or slamming enemies behind him. Has decent AoE damage output and collects souls from minion and hero takedowns, which can be used for a free resurrection. Due to his great initiation and possibly spell armor, i would like to categorize him as an anti-mage tank.

Pros

+ Great for ganking
+ Very tanky (when fully stacked)
+ Resurrects immediately when fully stacked
+ Can build for self sustain
+ Greatly punishes bad positioning
+ Good at bodyblocking
+ Decent damage when maximizing ability usage
+ A lot of interrupts

Cons

- Big hitbox
- No real escape
- Needs stacks to enhance himself
- Losing souls at resurrection
- Has a harder time against CC due to his bad mobility
- Very dependent on his environment to get real value

(Q) - Charge an enemy dealing damage and knocking them back, armor temporarily increases. If the target collides with terrain, they are stunned and take additional damage.

(W) - Unleash fire flames in different directions. After reaching max range they return.

(E) - Grab an enemy and slam them behind you, stunning them briefly and dealing damage.

(Trait) - Gather souls from enemies to gain a Health bonus and to resurrect for free whenever 100 stacks are available.

(R) - Create a rune under enemy heroes that explodes after a delay, dealing damage and stunning them.

(R) - Become unstoppable while channeling high damage lightning on your enemies.

(Q) - A lot of the time you use your Q to engage someone who is badly positioned. I often try to look for opportunities to knock them into walls. This will do 150 additional damage and also stun them for 1 second. Never use your E immediately, although it depends on the situation. If you smash them into walls, you should wait until the stun is over, then you bodyblock them as long as possible. When they walk past you, then you will use your E to repeat the bodyblocking. If you did not knock them into walls, then it is mostly better to immediately cast E after. It all depends on the environment. Remember that your Q is a knockback that can cancel stationary channeled abilities, like Nazeebo's Ravenous Spirit or Chen's Fortifying Brew . Something else to mention is that you can escape horrible positions or fights by using Q on walls or minions. I do this a lot. I just move to a strange direction and then suddenly charge onto enemy minions. If they did follow me, the gap would be huge and i should escape safely.

(W) - The flames move in fixed directions. You can use this to your advantage if you want to poke, for example, at a tribute. One flame goes exactly the way you are facing. Remember, the flames return as well, so by walking to a different spot, you can guide them a little.

(E) - The E is perfect for bodyblocks. A lot of the time at my skill level, players are just standing. I then use my E+Q to really punish them. You push them into your team and they should be dead. Or you E them over your gate and let the towers kill him. Also remember that E is a mini stun and can be used to stop channeled abilities.

(Trait) - It is pretty annoying to lose 100 stacks, but sometimes it pays off. I had some games where i sacrificed myself to help my team whipe the enemy, so they could go core. Just use all your powers and let you be focused,while also buying time. If you can get a couple of kills with you, then it is totally worth it late game. You will be back so fast that you can even join the core rush.

(R) - Try to use this heroic when people are clumped up or running after each other. Or simply walking through small areas. I sometimes smash a target into a wall, to follow it up with an Apocalypse. Simple bodyblocking can also be used but requires some more attention. You can also try to draft Zeratul or Jaina for easy setups. This heroic can also be used to stop channeled abilities.

(R) - I honestly never take this heroic. It has high damage and should always be used with a setup like Jaina's Ring of Frost or ETC's Mosh Pit or in a small area where people cannot walk away easily. If timing is your thing, you could use it to dodge a stun like Varian's charge + taunt combo, because it grants unstoppable.

green = my preferred talent choice
orange = situational/viable

My go-to choice here is Devil's Due. It gives you nice sustain in lane, which helps a lot early game since you are not fully stacked yet. Pick this talent whenever you are playing on a map like Tomb of the Spider Queen, where fighting in lanes is a common thing. With this picked you can also play the solo lane decently.

Another viable option is Bulwark. This gives you more survivability after charging in. Pick this if fighting in lanes is less common, like on Towers of Doom. However, i do think that Devil's Due is never a bad choice, the value is just less on some maps.

Life Leech seems not good to me, Devil's Due is way more useful if you want some extra healing. Also the extra 1% max health damage does not seem like much. You are not a Valla.


This tier has a lot of good options. I mostly pick Demonic Strength and then also take the Debilitating Flames talent at 16 for a lot of slows.

If you pick up From the Shadows, you probably should pick it together with Domination at 16. This way you can disposition enemies even further. I tend to favor the slows against a lot of melees. The extra range on From the Shadows might be better against hard to reach backliners.

Whenever the enemy has lots of roots or stuns, i go for Speed Demon. It is my personal favorite because it gives you the possibility to easily catch people with your E and it also improves your survivability. I am always happy to see Johanna on the enemy side as she gives me the buff 50% of the time during fights with Condemn.

This talent tier has some flexibility as well, but Soul Shield is the go-to against ability damage driven teams, which is not unusual with mages being picked a lot.

When i'm playing against more auto attack oriented teams, i like to pick Soul Feast. The reason behind this is that those teams are not very bursty so you get better value from the regen. However, i do recommend picking anti AA tanks like Johanna or Muradin against such teams. Especially since the recent armor changes.

Diabolical Momentum is also a decent option if you want to get more Q+E combo's out. You should pick it when you don't need more survivability and want more interrupts.

Apocalypse is basically the only option for me. I took Lightning Breath only once and it was obvious that it's value is way better with a setup, this counts less for Apocalypse. Why do i like Apocalypse so much? I love to play aggressive and with Apocalypse you can engage very hard. You can do your R+Q+E combo and follow it up with Fire Stomp damage.

Fire Devil is in my opinion the best talent here. It increases your damage output and gives you some extra waveclear.

Hellfire is too random, even if the enemy has lots of melees you would still want Fire Devil for its damage aura.

Devestating Charge seems as a good option against double warrior compositions, but its drawback is that you need to smash them into walls so it isn't very reliable extra damage compared to Fire Devil. For those reasons, i always pick Fire Devil. However, on certain maps with lots of walls to smash into, it is definitely worth taking.

In this tier i prefer to pick Debilitating Flames when the enemy has several melee heroes.

Otherwise Domination would be a good option. It is really devastating to Q+E+Q someone in your team. It feels like an Artanis swap without you staying behind. You got to be quick with using it and try to take as less risk as possible.

I would only consider Fearful Presence when they got 3 auto attackers. In general it's not really good, a lot of warriors got a slow + attack speed reduction talent so why not pick them instead.

This tier has several options depending on the heroic chosen, situation of the game and the (enemy) team's composition. If you are dying a lot then it might be useful to pick Dying Breath, although for me it is linked with losing so i don't like it that much. I did win some games with it though.

My personal favorite is Lord of Terror. I pick it almost every time. It does so much AoE damage and heals you for the same amount.The value is huge in this double warrior meta.

Another option is Hellstorm, which i'm not experienced with. You might take this if you have chosen Lightning Breath at 10 and got a setup.

One of the popular options is Hellgate. I never picked this, but it seems like a good choice if you need the escape or another way to engage, but you already got this in your kit. An interesting thing about it is that you can teleport onto someone, use Q and E them into the rune.

Diablo has one heroic with a significant delay and the other heroic locks him in place. For those reasons, his value greatly enhances with heroes that can setup for him. For example, Malfurion's Entangling Roots or Jaina's Ring of Frost. It is also the other way around, some heroes can follow up on Diablo's charge + flip, like Tyrande and again Malfurion.

Diablo has low mobility and a huge life pool. For this reason, heroes that deal % of life damage or apply slows are hard counters. For example, Leoric and Tychus, who are generally known as tank melters. Also heroes like Lunara or Valla that can kite Diablo effectively due to their fast movement speed make life a lot tougher.

- A great way to play early game is trying to rotate with your team between two lanes to get as much stacks as possible, while also using your gank potential.

- The basic combo is to charge in with Q, then use your E after and start body blocking. If possible, try to position yourself on such a way that you can smash enemies in walls. Then wait for the stun to run out and E them behind you.

- Your fire stomp flames move in fixed directions. Want to aim it on someone for poking or getting that kill? One of the flames goes straight in the direction you are facing.

- You can use Q to get out of bad situations by charging on minions or walls.

- You can use Lightning Breath to dodge a CC chain.

- Moments to use Apocalypse are when the enemy is clumped up, as a counter-engage or to follow up on a setup.

Thanks for going through my guide. I hope i was clear and informative enough. It's the first time i write a guide. Please feel free to criticize it.

~Blitz