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Co-op Commander Guide: Dehaka

Primal Pack Leader

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Commander Summary

Dehaka uses Essence gained from fallen enemies to grow and get stronger, while being backed up with a powerful force of Primal units.

Level Unlocks

Level/Icon	Name	Description
	Essence Gatherer	Dehaka can collect essence, grow stronger, and choose mutations. Dehaka spawns in faster than other hero units and can devour Primal Drones to reduce his respawn time.
	New Units: Ravasaur & Primal Igniter	Units can be commanded to engage in primal combat to force evolutions. Unlocks the following new evolutions: Primal Zerglings can evolve into Ravasaurs. Primal Roaches can evolve into Primal Igniters.
	Ravasaur Upgrade Cache	Unlocks the following upgrades at Glevig's Den: Ravasaurs gain increased movement speed and attack range. Ravasaurs gain +15 attack damage against armored enemies.
	Deep Tunnel	Dehaka, Primal Wurms, and Greater Primal Wurms gain the ability to Deep Tunnel.
	Primal Insight	Dehaka’s maximum level increases from 10 to 12 and unlocks the following mutation choices for Dehaka: Gain the ability to detect cloaked and burrowed units. Gain increased armor.
	New Units: Primal Mutalisk & Primal Guardian	Units can be commanded to engage in primal combat to force evolutions. Unlocks the following new evolutions: Primal Hydralisks can evolve into Primal Mutalisks. Primal Roaches can evolve into Primal Guardians.
	Primal Mutalisk & Primal Guardian Upgrade Cache	Unlocks the following upgrades at Murvar’s Den: Primal Mutalisks revive on death after a short time. Primal Guardians can fire area damaging spores at enemy ground units.
	New Units: Creeper Host & Primal Impaler	Units can be commanded to engage in primal combat to force evolutions. Unlocks the following new evolutions: Primal Hydralisks can evolve into Impalers. Primal Hosts can evolve into Creeper Hosts.
	Primal Igniter & Primal Impaler Upgrade Cache	Unlocks the following upgrades at Glevig's Den: Primal Igniters deal bonus damage to light units. Impaler attacks tenderize enemies, causing them to take damage over time. Devouring tenderized enemies with Dehaka invokes 25% of the normal cooldown time.
	Evolved Pack Leaders	The Pack Leaders and Primal Wurms gain new abilities: Glevig gains a flame breath that deals area damage. Murvar also spawns explosive creepers. Dakrun reflects damage (20 per hit) to enemy attackers. Primal Wurms and Greater Primal Wurms gain the ability to project a powerful stream of acid.
	New Unit: Tyrannozor	Units can be commanded to engage in primal combat to force evolutions. Unlocks the following new evolution: Primal Ultralisks can evolve into Tyrannozors. Tyrannozors gain an ability that deals area damage.
	Survival Instinct	Dehaka’s maximum level increases from 12 to 14 and unlocks the following mutation choices for Dehaka: Passively heal nearby friendly units. Can attack air units.
	Elite Primal Zerg Upgrade Cache	Unlocks the following upgrades at Murvar and Dakrun’s Dens: Primal Ultralisk and Tyrannozor attacks have a chance to stun enemies. Tyrannozor grants nearby friendly units extra armor. Creeper Host Creepers gain increased movement speed and can target air units.
	Zerus Cunning	Dehaka’s maximum level increases from 14 to 15 and Dehaka starts with an additional mutation point.
	Gene Mutation	Primal combat evolutions have a chance to mutate, providing permanent passive bonuses that can increase life, attack speed, grant life leech, and more.

Highlighted rows denote large power spikes for the commander.

Achievements

The commander-specific achievements for Dehaka are:

Achievement	Name	Description
	Essence Buffet	Devour 2,000 supply with Dehaka in Co-op Missions.
	Power Leveling	Reach level 6 with Dehaka within the first 6 minutes on Hard difficulty.
	Primal Rage	Deal 400,000 damage with Glevig, Murvar, and Dakrun in Co-op Missions.
	Smashy Smashy	Deal 800,000 damage with Dehaka in Co-op Missions.

Calldowns

The calldowns for Dehaka, at level 15, with no mastery points added are:

Calldown	Name	Description	Recommended Usage	Numbers
	Summon Greater Primal Wurm	Requirements: Glevig's Den Summons a powerful temporary defensive Wurm that can detect cloaked and burrowed units.	Useful for early-game detection. Excellent last-minute detection and damage (e.g. Nukes in base). Can be spawned in any explored location, regardless of vision.	Coolup: 120 seconds Cooldown: 120 seconds Max Charges: 3
	Summon Glevig	Requirements: Glevig's Den Summons the Primal Pack Leader Glevig and a small pack of Primal Zerg. Glevig is a powerful stationary ranged attacker that deals area damage and can relocate his position with Deep Tunnel. Glevig will fight for 60 seconds before returning to his den.	Great for dealing with attack waves. Excellent mobility with Deep Tunnel (although vision is required). Useful for dealing structure damage.	Coolup: 120 seconds Cooldown: 360 seconds
	Summon Murvar	Requirements: Murvar's Den Summons the Primal Pack Leader Murvar. Murvar spawns locusts and can create a cloud that slows enemy movement speed and prevents enemy units and structures from attacking or using energy-based abilities. Murvar will fight for 60 seconds before returning to her den.	Useful when pushing into enemy bases to prevent units from attacking. Deals reasonably good amount of damage. Getting the Aerial Burst Sacs upgrade will allow creepers to target air units as well.	Coolup: 60 seconds Cooldown: 360 seconds
	Summon Dakrun	Requirements: Dakrun's Den Summons the Primal Pack Leader Dakrun. Darkrun is a heavily armored juggernaut that can charge at a target location to deal heavy damage and knock back enemy units in the area. Dakrun will fight for 60 seconds before returning to his den.	Damage reflect makes him really effective at dealing with low-HP waves. Good at tanking damage.	Coolup: 60 seconds Cooldown: 360 seconds

Each of the calldowns above bring a new unit onto the battlefield. These units have abilities themselves, shown below.

Sub-Ascension Leveling

Difficulty: Moderate

The biggest challenge with Dehaka is during the early game, where Dehaka only has one point to allocate. This point should go towards Devour. In early levels (before you have Primal Combat units), build Hydralisks and Ultralisks as your main army composition. The Ultralisks can tank while the Hydralisks deal damage from the back.

Masteries

Below are the three Power Sets for Dehaka with the recommended point allocations for each. Note that these are meant to serve a general, all-purpose build that is effective across all maps with no Prestiges selected. You are highly encourged to change these masteries to suit your playstyle and particular challenges you face (e.g. Weekly Mutations).

Power Set 1:

Power	Value	Recommended Points to Add	Further Considerations
Devour Healing Increase	1% per point 30% maximum	30	The Buff Duration mastery can help lengthen the time Dehaka has buffs, helping him move from one base to another while maintaining the buffs. A full stack of buffs can also strengthen Dehaka's survivability, however, the challenge comes in obtaining those buffs without the bonus to healing.
Devour Buff Duration	3% per point 90% maximum	0

With efficient play, Devour will have a short cooldown, allowing you to replenish the buff as needed, making the Buff Duration mastery redundant.

Power Set 2:

Power	Value	Recommended Points to Add	Further Considerations
Greater Primal Wurm Cooldown	-2% per point -60% maximum	0	The Primal Wurm Cooldown can benefit players that prefer to spam the Wurms for vision, and for support. Note that the support they can provide Dehaka is minimal. Usually, it is better to not use them as much, rather than spending mastery points to reduce their cooldown.
Pack Leaders Active Duration	1% per point 30% maximum	30

The Pack Leaders are the most important calldowns for Dehaka, so increasing the time they stay on the field is the better pick.

Power Set 3:

Power	Value	Recommended Points to Add	Further Considerations
Gene Mutation Chance	1% per point 30% maximum	?	Players that prefer to use Dehaka's combat units instead of Dehaka himself would probably prefer to use the Gene Mutation chance which can improve Dehaka's units significantly.
Dehaka Attack Speed	1% per point 30% maximum	?

Both mastery choices are competitive choices, and the player will have to determine what mastery allocation to use to help their playstyle. The Gene Mutation Chance is slightly better as it is very rare for Dehaka to not utilize any army units.

Prestiges

Below are the prestiges for Dehaka. Note that "Effective Level" is the level at which the prestige achieves it full effect.

Level	Name	Description	Effective Level	Notes
1	Devouring One	Advantages: Devour applies its benefits to all nearby friendly units. Disadvantages: Dehaka has 0 base armor, loses the Scorching Breath ability, and has his max level reduced by 4.	1	All friendly units within 10 range of Dehaka gets the Devour buffs When Devouring air units, buff applied is +2 range for ranged weapons When Devouring Psionic units, buff applied is only cooldown reduction
This prestige allows Dehaka to buff his own and allied units as he devours enemies in battle. It is especially powerful when playing with commanders that have Hero units. However, if your ally is not able to take advantage of Dehaka's buff's, the impact of the prestige is greatly diminished and the player is better off not using a Prestige Talent.

Devouring a Psionic unit will provide an ability cooldown buff to all units within Dehaka's vicinity. This makes Psionic units even more valuable. The interactions with various commanders' Heroic units are listed below:

Abathur: Brutalisk Deep Tunnel and both Symbiote abilities get cooldown reduction

Alarak: None of his abilities get cooldown reduction. Mothership Thermal Lance and Teleport get cooldown reduction, however Shadow of Death Destroyer Warp In does not

Dehaka: All pack leaders get cooldown reduction

Fenix: Praetor Armor and Solarite Dragoon abilities do not get cooldown reduction. All A.I Champions get cooldown reduction for their abilities except for Clolarion's Interceptors and Interdictors

Kerrigan: Immobilization Wave and Assimilion Aura do not get cooldown reduction

Nova: Only Sabotage Drone gets cooldown reduction

Raynor: All Hyperions abilities get cooldown reduction

Stetmann: Only Garyzone is affected

Stukov: Only Apocalisk Burrow Charge gets cooldown reduction

Tychus: Only non-charge-based abilities get cooldown reduction

Vorazun: All Shadow Guard abilities are affected

Zagara: Apex Predator Deep Tunnel gets cooldown reduction only

Zeratul: Cleave, Void Seeker get cooldown reduction only. Both Avatars and all Legions get cooldown reduction

Level	Name	Description	Effective Level	Notes
2	Primal Contender	Advantages: Pack Leaders and their entourage deal 50% more damage and have 100% increased life. Pack Leader cooldowns reduced by 33%. Pack Leaders can consume Essence for Dehaka. Disadvantages: Dehaka exits the map while a Pack Leader is active. Only one Pack Leader may be active at a time.	1	Dehaka respawns from where he left the map Pack Leaders do not have abilities until they get unlocked with the Level 10 talent Pack Leader Coolup times are not affected Combined with the Pack Leader Duration mastery, you can have Pack Leaders on the map nearly 100% of the game length
This prestige can vastly increase the amount of damage that can be dealt by Pack Leaders by increasing their life and allowing the player to spawn them more often. However, it can be challenging for players that are unaware on how to select Pack Leaders to deal with a situation they are facing. However, this presige does alleviate the pressure on players to micro several things at the same time, allowing them to focus on a single Pack Leader at a time.

Level	Name	Description	Effective Level	Notes
3	Broodbrother	Advantages: Dehaka spawns a clone. Disadvantages: If either Dehaka or the clone dies, the other dies as well.	1	Essence is not shared between Dehaka and Zweihaka
Because Essence is not shared between the two hero units, the amount of Essence required to reach maximum level is essentially doubled. Combined with the fact that micro-ing Dehaka (while also macro-ing behind) is already very difficult, adding a second Hero unit that also increases your liability makes this prestige fairly ineffective.

The choice of prestige will come down to both, player and ally skill. A player with a highly-skilled ally might be able to get a lot of value out of Devouring One. On the other hand, a highly-skilled player that understands how to use Pack Leaders effectively may get a lot of mileage out of Primal Contender. For safer play, playing without a Prestige Talent is fine too.

Hero Unit

Spawn time: 1:00

Respawn time: 1:30

The abilities for Dehaka are (at max level 3):

Ability	Name	Description	Cooldown
	Leap	Dehaka leaps to the target location, dealing 145 damage to nearby enemy ground units. Each enemy hit grants Dehaka 1 armour for 2 seconds.	10 seconds
	Intimidating Roar	Dehaka terrifies nearby enemies, reducing their movement speed by 75% and attack speed by 25% for 15 seconds. Enemies affected by Intimidating Roar have their armor reduced by 2 and cannot use abilities that cost energy.	30 seconds
	Devour	Instantly kill the target enemy unit to heal 5% Life and gain passive abilities based on the enemy type for 25 seconds. The cooldown is based on the amount of life the enemy has when killed.	~ seconds
	Scorching Breath	Dehaka's fiery breath scorches the earth, dealing weapon damage to all enemy units in its path. 3 charges max.	30 seconds
	Deep Tunnel	Quickly burrow to any visible location.	60 seconds

As Dehaka gathers esssence, he also gains increased attack and HP stats as follows:

• Attack: This is equal to (level +1)x10. For example, at level 11, he will have 120 attack.
• HP: For every Essence he gathers, he will gain +0.75 max life and regenerate 2 HP.

Recommended Army Composition

The recommended army composition for Dehaka is below. Note that this assumes no Prestige talent selected and recommended Mastery Allocations. This is a basic recommendation for your army framework. It is recommended to gain an understanding for each of the units in the Units section and further add tech units so that you are able to better handle the situations you face.

Primal Mutalisks provide an all-round solution to dealing with enemies. Remember that you will need to first engage attack wave with Dehaka (preferably devouring a Psionic unit to deal splash damage wiping out most of the dangerous units) and then cleaning up with the Mutalisks.

Combat Units

For more information on Dehaka's unit stats, comparison between units and upgrade calculations, visit the Data Tables page.

Dehaka's combat units are listed below:

Build Order

Below is the standard economic build order for Dehaka. For more information on how to read and construct your own build orders, please check the Build Order Theory page.

23 Extractor
23 Primal Warden
25 Extractor
29 Glevig's Den
29 2x Zerglings -> Rocks
Primal Warden -> Rocks
31 Primal Hive

Gameplay Guide

Playstyle Traps

Most inexperienced Dehaka players will use the Dehaka hero unit to clear rocks as soon as he spawns, known in the co-op community as "Rockslapping". This is an extremely inefficient use of Dehaka, as enemies are at their weakest at the start of the game. A much more effective use for Dehaka would be to move near enemy camps and lure some of the units away and kill them. This allows you to gather Essence and level Dehaka up, allowing for greater pushing potential, survivability, and map clearing.

Essence Calculation

Essence drops are calculated as follows:

• If the unit is a Critter or the unit's supply is less than 1, base drop is 1
• If the unit is a Hybrid, base drop is 12
• If the unit's supply is more than 4, base drop is 12
• Otherwise, base drop is 2 x Unit Supply

Dehaka Skill Point Upgrades

The table below shows all the skill point upgrades available for Dehaka and their effects:

Icon	Name	Description
	Leap	Dehaka leaps to the target location, dealing 25 + 50% weapon damage to all enemy ground units in the area. Level 2 - Leap range increased by 6, Damage increased to 25 + 75% weapon damage. Level 3 - Each enemy hit also grants Dehaka 1 armor for 2 seconds.
	Intimidating Roar	Dehaka intimidates nearby enemies, reducing their movement speed by 75% and attack speed by 25% for 15 seconds. Level 2 - Enemies affected by Intimidating Roar also cannot use abilities that cost energy. Level 3 - Enemies affected by Intimidating Roar also have armor reduced by 2.
	Devour	Dehaka instantly kills the target enemy to heal 5% Life and gain passive abilities based on the enemy type for 15 seconds. The cooldown is based on the amount of life the enemy has when killed. Level 2 - Passive bonuses last 25 seconds. Range increased by 3 Level 3 - Cooldown reduced by 20%. Range increased by 3.
	Scorching Breath	Dehaka's fiery breath scorches the earth, dealing weapon damage to all enemy ground units in its path.
	Primal Regeneration	Dehaka passively heals all allied units nearby. Level 2 - 2 life per second. Level 3 - 3 life per second.
	Keen Senses	Allows Dehaka to detect cloaked, burrowed, and hallucinated units.
	Chitinous Plating	Increases Dehaka's armor by 3.
	Deadly Reach	Allows Dehaka to attack air units.

Dehaka Stat Point Allocation Order

Below is the recommended order for allocating Dehaka's stat points. Essence drops at a rate of 2 Essence per supply of unit killed. Hybrids drop 12 Essence.

Level	Allocate to	Cumulative Essence Required
1	Leap + Devour	15
2	Intimidating Roar	45
3	Devour	90
4	-	150
5	Chitinous Plating + Keen Senses	225
6	Scorching Breath	315
7	Intimidating Roar	420
8	Devour	540
9	Leap	675
10*	Deadly Reach	825
11	Leap	990
12	Intimidating Roar	1170
13	Primal Regeneration	1365
14	Primal Regeneration	1575
15	Primal Regeneration	-

* At level 10, Dehaka can be hit by air attacks.

Gene Mutations

Every time two units undergo Primal Combat, the resultant unit has a chance of gaining certain Gene Mutation buffs. Each buff has a 20% chance of being gained. The list of units and buffs available for each are shown below:

Devour Mechanics

Whenever Dehaka devours a unit, a certain cooldown will be applied to Devour. It works as follows:

• If the unit has 600HP or more: 60 seconds cooldown will be applied.
• If the unit has less than 600 HP: A cooldown of 10% of its HP (in seconds) will be applied.

Note that if a unit is Tenderized through Dehaka's Impalers, the cooldown will be reduced by 75%. If a Psionic unit has been devoured, a buff reduces cooldowns by 50%.

Additionally, units will provide a buff to Dehaka for 25 seconds. The buffs Dehaka gets are dependent on the tags the unit has. These are as follows:

Tag	Buff
Air	Gain a ranged attack
Armored	Gain 30% bonus damage against armored units
Biological	Heal 20% life
Light	Gain 30% move speed
Massive	Gain 3 armor and reflect damage (10 per hit) at attackers
Mechanical	Gain 30% attack speed
Psionic	Explode with Psionic Energy (2x Dehaka Weapon damage) and abilities cooldowns halved.

Devouring Psionic units is a critical part of good Dehaka play. Being able to pick out High Templars and other Psionic units from the middle of attack waves to clear them entirely is a key part of this play. Below is a list of the Psionic units that can be found in Amon's army: