Heroes of the Storm

Alarak Hero Week

Ravinix

"How shall you serve me?"

- Alarak, Highlord of the Tal'darim

The path to Highlord of the Tal’darim was anything but easy for Alarak. In order to exact his revenge against the betrayer of his people, Amon, Alarak challenged his superiors to Rak’shir, an ancient form of ritual combat. With the psionic aid of the Hierarch Artanis' forces, Alarak toppled the previous Highlord of the Tal'darim, claiming the title and their death fleet as his own. However, such insatiable ambition and purity of focus is not easily quelled - even in the face of victory - as now Alarak turns his attention and fury upon the Heroes of the Nexus!

Alarak is the newest melee Assassin to enter the Nexus, and introduces a number of new mechanics and concepts to the game. Read on for a breakdown of a few of his talents, a spotlight video, and some tips and tricks around drafting Alarak, Highlord of the Tal’darim.

Talent Highlights:

Double Cross – The utility and power of Alarak’s Discord Strike is incredible, but can be difficult to fully utilize due to the ability's shape, size, and cast time. Learning Double Cross eases these difficulties by not only increasing Discord Strike’s size, but also adding two additional points of damage and Silence effects.

Pure Malice - Granting Alarak some extra damage through his trait whenever nearby Allies die, Pure Malice has the potential to turn the tides of battle by making Alarak into a Hero killing beast when backed into a corner. Choose this talent to exact deadly revenge in the heat of the bloodiest skirmishes.

Counter-Strike/Deadly Charge – You might notice that these talents share a name with both of Alarak’s Heroic Abilities. That is because at level 20, Alarak players have the choice to pick up their second Heroic Ability without sacrificing their choice at level 10! Taking over the Trait key (default: D), clever use of the extra Heroic Ability can take an enemy by surprise and make the Highlord an absolute terror on the battlefield.

Friends and Foes:

Works well with:

		Alarak works well with Heroes who help set up kills with crowd control effects. Alarak’s follow-up combo with Telekinesis and Discord Strike is particularly strong when combined with Heroes like E.T.C. who can quickly force enemy Heroes out of position. What’s also great about this combo is that both Alarak and E.T.C. can be the start of a crowd control chain on an enemy hero as long as they are coordinated enough to space their abilities properly. This makes it doubly scary for an enemy team to be near them, as either one can isolate and kill someone in seconds.
		Hard-engage Assassins like Kerrigan also work well with Alarak, as they both have strong initiation tools that can both move and crowd control enemy Heroes caught out of position. Also, if a Kerrigan combo goes awry, Alarak’s Telekinesis is great for shoving enemy Heroes away to help her retreat back to the safety of her team.
		Alarak often puts himself at risk, particularly if he takes the Deadly Charge Heroic. The temptation to fly into a dangerous position alone to make a big play is strong, and you can bet that Alarak will get himself into these sticky situations from time to time. Uther is great at enabling Alarak to make those big plays, as he can use Divine Shield in combination with his other single-target mitigation abilities and talents to keep Alarak alive when he would otherwise meet a quick end.

Works Well Against:

		Similar to Diablo, Alarak is one of the few Heroes in the game with multiple channel-interrupting abilities. Both Discord Strike and Telekinesis are strong interrupts for Chen’s Fortifying Brew that can cancel his Shield gains and secure an easy kill for his team.
		Like Chen, Gul’dan really doesn’t like Heroes who can interrupt his Drain Life. Not only can Alarak almost guarantee that Gul’dan won’t get value out of his key healing ability, but he can also easily put Gul’dan out of position in the laning phase and during teamfights.
		Alarak is our first Hero in the Nexus to have a Silence attached to a Basic Ability. While this counter is not as strong as the others listed, Alarak is a scary opponent for Heroes like Valla that rely heavily on using an ability to escape bad situations and kite their enemies. If Alarak can land a Telekinesis > Discord Strike Combo, he can set up unique kill windows on Heroes like Valla by removing their ability to use their key survivability tools.

We hope you’ve enjoyed this detailed look at Alarak, heroes. We’ll see you in the Nexus!