EPTDeckard Cain
First Thoughts
and Analysis
“As an avid scholar, Deckard Cain has dedicated his life to the pursuit of knowledge. He has been an advisor, storyteller, and friend to Sanctuary's greatest heroes, guiding them through peril time and again. When Deckard speaks, it's wise to stay awhile and listen.”
Table of Contents
Deckard Cain was raised on tales of the Horadrim by his mother. For a time, young Deckard styled himself “the Last Horadrim,” but as he grew older he turned his back on his family and upbringing. Obsessed with studies he deemed more relevant, Deckard alienated his friends and loved ones until he was alone.
When darkness fell on his hometown of Tristram, Deckard knew he had been in the wrong. The evil in Tristram was a nightmarish reality, but answers lay within the Horadric lore. Armed with new purpose, Deckard became the Last Horadrim once more. After his change of heart, Deckard would become a treasured advisor, guide, and ally to heroes throughout the world of Sanctuary. Deckard stood alongside mortals, the Nephalem, and angels alike, and the Prime Evils were defeated with his aid. In his dying breaths, Deckard protected the secrets of a mysterious mortal Stranger, using his arts to repair the Stranger’s shattered sword. Deckard identified the blade as El’Druin, returning the amnesiac Stranger’s power and memories as Tyrael, the Archangel of Justice. Restored by Deckard’s sacrifice, Tyrael himself stood by his funeral pyre outside of Tristram and honored the Last Horadrim.
After years of staving off evil, Deckard Cain has a second chance in the Nexus. With his uncanny knack for identifying objects, he’s ready to uncover the Nexus’s secrets and support a new world of heroes with his knowledge!
Strengths and Weaknesses
Strengths
Weaknesses
- High sustain healing numbers
- Area denial
- Crowd control
- Very adaptable talents
Weaknesses
- Little mobility
- No burst healing
- No Cleanse
- Low waveclear
Abilities
Trait
- Fortitude of the Faithful (D)
- When at least 1 other allied Hero is nearby, Deckard gains 10 Armor and his Basic Abilities recharge 50% faster.
Basic Abilities
- Healing Potion (Q)
- Throw a Healing Potion on the ground that heals the first allied Hero that comes in contact with it for 230. Limit 5 active Potions.
- Throw a Healing Potion on the ground that heals the first allied Hero that comes in contact with it for 230. Limit 5 active Potions.
- Horadric Cube (W)
- Release the Horadric Cube. After 0.5 seconds it explodes, dealing 80 damage to all enemies in the area and Slowing them by 35% for 1.75 seconds.
- Release the Horadric Cube. After 0.5 seconds it explodes, dealing 80 damage to all enemies in the area and Slowing them by 35% for 1.75 seconds.
- Scroll of Sealing (E)
- Unfurl an enchanted scroll over 2.25 seconds, forming a triangle that deals 150 damage to enemies inside and Roots them for 1.5 seconds.
Heroic Abilities
- Stay Awhile And Listen (R)
- After 1 second, Channel for 3 seconds, putting enemy Heroes in front of Deckard to Sleep while Channeling, and for 2 seconds after. Enemies can only be put to Sleep once per cast, and Sleep's effects end instantly if they take damage.
- After 1 second, Channel for 3 seconds, putting enemy Heroes in front of Deckard to Sleep while Channeling, and for 2 seconds after. Enemies can only be put to Sleep once per cast, and Sleep's effects end instantly if they take damage.
- Lorenado (R)
- Vector Targeting After 1 second, create a twirling tome tornado that travels towards the targeted direction, continually knocking away enemies that come into contact with it.
- Vector Targeting After 1 second, create a twirling tome tornado that travels towards the targeted direction, continually knocking away enemies that come into contact with it.
Deckard’s trait is Fortitude of the Faithful. If at least one allied hero is nearby, Deckard gains 10 Armor and his basic abilities recharge 50% faster. This can be especially helpful with his Scroll of Sealing (E) and Horadric Cube (W) abilities, which come baseline with 16 and 14 second cooldowns respectively.
Scroll of Sealing, pictured above, unfurls an enchanted scroll over roughly 2.25 seconds, forming a triangle that deals 150 damage to all enemies inside and roots them for 1.5 seconds. It’s a lengthy casting animation, but the area of effect is large as well. Scroll of Sealing becomes easier to land when combined with Horadric Cube. Once Deckard throws said cube, it travels to its destination before bursting, dealing 80 damage to all enemies in the area and slowing them by 40% for 1.75 seconds. The animation of Horadric Cube needs roughly 1.5 seconds from cast till the effect takes place. Both abilities offer Deckard a nice amount of crowd control which, when combined with either of his heroics, make him a formidable threat.
His bread and butter spell is Healing Potion (Q), which throws a potion the ground that heals the first allied hero to come in contact with it for 230. There is a limit of five active Healing Potions on the map. Healing Potion only gets picked up if an ally hero is not full health.
This ability offers some interesting possibilities for healing your team. In the early stages of the game, Deckard could place some Healing Potions near the solo lane to enable a stronger lane. He can also set up areas near objectives such as tributes on Cursed Hollow to allow allies to quickly heal up after taking damage. It’s also possible to aim potions like a skillshot, throwing them right on top of allies to heal them instantly.
Stay Awhile and Listen offers Deckard additional crowd control by putting all enemy heroes in front of him to sleep for the duration of the channel and two seconds after the channel has ended. Enemies can only fall asleep once per cast. While the idea sounds great, it will take a decent amount of coordination for teams to avoid waking up all the enemies at once and negating the heroic. Deckard also has to be in a dangerous position to get full value out of the short range.
Lorenado creates a swirling tornado of books that travels in the targeted direction and continually knocks away enemies that come in contact with it. This offers the possibility for powerful area denial and can isolate enemy heroes from the rest of their team.
Talents
Level 1:
 (!)Scroll of IdentifyQuest: Hitting an enemy Hero with Scroll of Sealing reveals them for 8 seconds. Reward: After hitting 20 heroes, Scroll of Sealing also reduces Armor by 20 for 4 seconds and the reveal duration is doubled. |  Field StudyEach enemy Hero hit by Scroll of Sealing grants 15% Spell Power for 14 seconds, up to 30%. |  SapphireActivate to increase the Slow of the next Horadric Cube by 30%. Only 1 Gem may be active at a time. |
Hover over icons to read descriptions.
Deckard’s Level 1 talents are designed to empower his crowd control abilities, and includes his first Gem talent. Gems are active talents that change the effect the Horadric Cube can have in fights. Deckard can accumulate up to three Gem talents from his first three tiers, but only one Gem can be active at a time, with a 30 second cooldown for each Gem. This is a super interesting design that offers more real-time decision making and allows support players to adjust their playstyle on the fly. The cooldown reduction from Deckard’s trait makes it possible to rotate through all 3 gems.
Scroll of Identify and Sapphire look like the stronger choices on Level 1. Sapphire offers you an increased amount of slow to stop enemies from retreating or chasing you down, and enables Deckard’s W=>E combo.
Scroll of Identify stands out among quest talents by offering an immediate advantage. The large area covered by Scroll of Sealing makes the reveal alone very impactful. Once the quest is completed, Scroll’s lockdown becomes exceptionally more lethal. Sapphire gives Deckard set-up potential, but Scroll of Identify is a superior follow up to a team’s engage, giving that talent the edge.
Level 4:
 Potion of ShieldingWhenever an ally is healed by a Healing Potion, they gain a 135 Shield for 6 seconds. |  Rejuvenation PotionHealing Potions restore 10 Mana and heal for an additional 108 over 4 seconds. |  RubyActivate to make the next Horadric Cube spawn 3 Lesser Healing Potions from each enemy Hero hit, healing allied heroes for 190 when picked up. Lesser Healing Potions last for 10 seconds. Only 1 Gem may be active at a time. |
Deckard’s Level 4 abilities increase his healing output in different ways. Ruby seems to be the outstanding talent in this tier, but also most demanding talent on this tier. Since the Lesser Potions spawn around the hit enemies, this mainly helps the front line and diving heroes. Deckard must hit his skillshots accurately and efficiently to get the most out of the Gem., but it is an incredible boost in healing and can turn a teamfight around in a single moment.
Potion of Shielding increases burst healing potential with a temporary shield, a 59% increase in overall damage reduction per potion.
Rejuvenation Potion offers an increase in sustain healing by 47% if the hot gets full duration and returns some mana when picking up the Potion.
It has to be noted that the bonus effects of Rejuvenation Potion and Potion of Shielding don’t stack when picking up multiple Potions.
Level 7:
 Cube MasteryEach enemy Hero hit by Horadric Cube reduces the cooldown of Scroll of Sealing by 3 seconds. |  Kanai’s CubeHoradric Cube reduces damage dealt by 30% for 4 seconds. |  EmeraldActivate to make the next Horadric Cube reduce healing received by 75% for 4 seconds. Only 1 Gem may be active at a time. |
The Level 7 talents focus completely around Horadric Cube.
Kanai’s Cube is a lot stronger than it looks on first glance. 30% damage reduction, timed and aimed properly, takes the threat out of an enemy engage. It also stacks with each Gem. In particular, this allows for Ruby to spawn lesser Healing Potions and still reduce the enemy team damage, negating even more burst.
Cube Mastery is very strong when combined with Level 1’s Scroll of Identify and Level 16’s Scroll of Stone Curse talents. The cooldown reduction helps finish the Scroll of Identify Quest more quickly, and provides frequent access to Stone Curse’s potential burst.
Emerald helps to blow up a target, negating powerful enemy abilities like Ancestral Healing. This can easily result in a kill every 30 seconds, even before factoring in any of Deckard’s potential cooldown reduction.
Level 10:
 Stay Awhile and ListenAfter 1 second, Channel for 3 seconds, putting enemy heroes in front of Deckard to Sleep while Channeling, and for 2 seconds after. Enemies can only be put to Sleep once per cast, and Sleep's effects end instantly if they take damage. |  LorenadoCreate a swirling Lorenado that travels in the targeted direction, continually knocking away enemies that come into contact with it. |
Lorenado seems to be the stronger talent. It allows Deckard to stay safe and control an area, to secure an objective or zone out enemies. Since the direction of Lorenado can be chosen, it is also possible to pull enemies into your team and stop them from retreating.
Stay Awhile offers great AoE crowd control at great risk. The one second windup is also a huge weakness, especially in higher level play where quick displacements and interrupts can ruin his day.
Level 13
 Ancient BlessingsActivate Fortitude of the Faithful to empower nearby allied Hero Basic Attacks for 8 seconds, causing them to deal an additional 80 damage in an area and heal for 120 for each Hero hit. |  Super Healing PotionIf a Healing Potion isn't picked up for at least 2 seconds, it heals for 75% more. |  Potion of RevivalWhen a Healing Potion is picked up, it also heals all nearby allied heroes for 40% of the healing amount. |
Ancient Blessing could be the strongest talent on this tier. In addition to the increased damage, six auto attacks with the buff give more healing than three Potions. Once applied, Ancient Blessing stays on all allied heroes even if they move out of Deckard’s trait range, allowing Deckard to stay safe while still enabling dive heroes.
Super Healing Potion sounds especially good when you are able to prepare a fighting area with potions ahead of time. But in most cases you will need the healing immediately, not two seconds later.
Potion of Revival is the alternative for AoE healing, but suffers from an incredibly small range.
Level 16:
 Horadric Staff:Passive: Every 5 seconds, Deckard's next Basic Attack Stuns heroes for 0.75 seconds. |  Safety in NumbersIf at least 3 allied heroes are nearby, Fortitude of the Faithful grants an additional 10 Armor and causes Deckard's Basic Abilities to recharge an additional 50% faster. | Scroll of Stone Curse Scroll of Sealing deals 200% more damage when hitting at least 2 heroes. |
The most interesting options here are Scroll of Stone Curse and Safety in Numbers. Scroll of Stone Curse triples the damage of Scroll of Sealing, and synergizes with the armor reduction from completing Scroll of Identify.
Safety in Numbers effectively halves Deckard’s cooldowns, especially useful during full team fights. The Lost Vikings and Rexxar count as multiple heroes.
Horadric Staff sounds like a gimmick, but might help to reposition after an enemy dives.
Level 20:
| Respect the Elderly Stay Awhile and Listen Silences and Blinds enemies for 2 seconds upon waking up from Sleep. | Morenados! Lorenado's cooldown is reduced by 5 seconds every time an enemy Hero is knocked back. |  Perfect GemsReduce the cooldown of all Gems by 25 seconds and the cooldown of Horadric Cube by 5 seconds. | Bottomless Flask After use, Healing Potions recharge after 5 seconds. |
With Level 20, the Gem build finally gets to its true strength. Perfect Gems reduces the cooldown of each Gem from 30 seconds to 5, and the cooldown of Horadric Cube itself to 9 seconds. This makes it possible to use a Gem on every Horadric Cube, even with only one Gem talent. Ruby alone gives an incredible boost to his healing throughput.
Respect the Elderly offers a nice buff to Stay Awhile and Listen, but it’s still risky to use.
Morenadoes! offers a cooldown reduction whenever Lorenado hits, with an internal 0.5 seconds cooldown. Since Lorenado lasts for roughly eight seconds, it could be possible to get a full reset, but that would require to get nine hits on enemy heroes without them walking out of it.
Bottomless Flask shines on stationary fights like Infernal Shrines or when sieging a keep. The talent begins to lose value in situations where the enemy team can kite Deckard’s allies away from the Potions
Builds
Hover over icons to read descriptions.
Stay Awhile
| (!)Scroll of Identify Quest: Hitting an enemy Hero with Scroll of Sealing reveals them for 8 seconds. Reward: After hitting 20 heroes, Scroll of Sealing also reduces Armor by 20 for 4 seconds and the reveal duration is doubled. | Ruby Activate to make the next Horadric Cube spawn 3 Lesser Healing Potions from each enemy Hero hit, healing allied heroes for 190 when picked up. Lesser Healing Potions last for 10 seconds. Only 1 Gem may be active at a time. | Cube Mastery Each enemy Hero hit by Horadric Cube reduces the cooldown of Scroll of Sealing by 3 seconds. | Stay Awhile and Listen After 1 second, Channel for 3 seconds, putting enemy heroes in front of Deckard to Sleep while Channeling, and for 2 seconds after. Enemies can only be put to Sleep once per cast, and Sleep's effects end instantly if they take damage. | Ancient Blessings Activate Fortitude of the Faithful to empower nearby allied Hero Basic Attacks for 8 seconds, causing them to deal an additional 80 damage in an area and heal for 120 for each Hero hit. | Scroll of Stone Curse Scroll of Sealing deals 200% more damage when hitting at least 2 heroes. | Perfect Gems Reduce the cooldown of all Gems by 25 seconds and the cooldown of Horadric Cube by 5 seconds. |
Lore Dive
| (!)Scroll of Identify Quest: Hitting an enemy Hero with Scroll of Sealing reveals them for 8 seconds. Reward: After hitting 20 heroes, Scroll of Sealing also reduces Armor by 20 for 4 seconds and the reveal duration is doubled. | Ruby Activate to make the next Horadric Cube spawn 3 Lesser Healing Potions from each enemy Hero hit, healing allied heroes for 190 when picked up. Lesser Healing Potions last for 10 seconds. Only 1 Gem may be active at a time. | Kanai’s Cube Horadric Cube reduces damage dealt by 30% for 4 seconds. | Lorenado Create a swirling Lorenado that travels in the targeted direction, continually knocking away enemies that come into contact with it. | Ancient Blessings Activate Fortitude of the Faithful to empower nearby allied Hero Basic Attacks for 8 seconds, causing them to deal an additional 80 damage in an area and heal for 120 for each Hero hit. | Safety in Numbers If at least 3 allied heroes are nearby, Fortitude of the Faithful grants an additional 10 Armor and causes Deckard's Basic Abilities to recharge an additional 50% faster. | Perfect Gems Reduce the cooldown of all Gems by 25 seconds and the cooldown of Horadric Cube by 5 seconds. |
Metagame Analysis
The delay on Deckard’s abilities gives him a unique rhythm, slower than other supports. To get the most out of that rhythm, Deckard’s player needs a bit of foresight and planning, and the ability to predict the movements of everyone else on the field. Potions can be placed strategically along rotation paths or at future objectives, but even with all the prep-time in the world, Deckard still needs his teammates to actually pick up those potions. In a teamfight, Deckard feels more skillshot-based, especially since allies stacked on each other can make an otherwise well-aimed potion whiff.
Deckard can really shine if he’s able to follow up on an engage CC from someone else on the team. Comboing Horadric Cube into an immediate Scroll of Sealing is a great follow up, but can be avoided by enemy reactions or movement abilities. Having two different abilities to add to a team CC chain makes Deckard excellent in blow-up comps. Securely hitting this combo without allied assistance requires the Sapphire Gem at Level 1, but in an organized blow-up comp the armor reduction from Scroll of Identify’s quest will be super effective.
Pro/Streamer Opinions
Nabby, Coach - Team Dignitas
Based on pure design, outside of the numbers and balance, I think they did very well to really flesh out Deckard’s character while making his presence applicable in the Nexus. I was initially worried that this would become a “meme” hero, or a hero at the level of Murky or Gazlowe, heroes that rarely get play in HGC without major commitments from the teams.
[I am] actually very interested in his healing mechanic and how preplacement and team coordination heavily impact how strong or weak his healing output could be. There’s a sense of learning curve and power ceiling there, which is exciting.
Based on my limited experience with him, early game can feel very limiting in most games, but once you pick up key talents like Ancient Blessing at 13 or Scroll of Stone Curse or Horadric Staff at 16 he feels a lot more impactful in teamfights. His talent tree feels very thought out as well; the Gem talents, while not innovative per se, do provide a very interesting adaptation option.
He definitely has tools to become meta. Early game he is able to influence 1v1 matchups heavily. Being able to drop potions for the solo lane and then be active in another part of the map can be a huge boon. I also see Stay Awhile and Listen heroic to be similar to Moshpit, where you may not necessarily always get huge value but one impactful cast late game can very much win you the match.
Niklas “Cursen” Skogheim, , Support - Method
Deckard is a setup support that I think will heavily rely on hitting his toot and general synergy with your teammates.
Although I don’t think he will lack long term sustain, the main thing that will make or break the hero is how strong the level 4 Ruby talent (lesser healing potions) will be. His general anti-burst and quick sustain is limited, and will make killing your allies potentially too easy in team fights. He will also most likely thrive from being ahead in rotations for objectives, so you can set up Potions. I think Deckard will rely on comps where he has another hero like Tassadar, Medivh, or Zarya to lean on for doing the supporting, mainly in terms of saving from burst. Maybe ETC or Tyrael. In addition, aoe stuns will be good for the hero, as I currently think the “hit two with root” talents can really force him to be a level 16 powerhouse when any 2 heroes hug. Zera Void Prison, Medivh’s Leyline Seal, Zarya’s Graviton Surge or something similar can really force some good wombos with his root damage alone. This is mainly assuming landing sleep into root proves difficult to land on your own.
I think the main supports Deckard will be compared to are Stukov and Malfurion, both of which are extremely strong. Compared to them I think Deckard is way more comp dependent, and (at least in Malf’s case) overall weaker: no cleanse, worse sustain and anti-burst, harder to combo with.
Jerome “KzN” Tanguay, Support - Team Freedom
From what I've seen so far, Cain is really strong and will be able to solo support. He feels like a Stukov with worse healing but better setup potential. In my opinion, he is definitely going to be viable and meta for HGC.
I like Horadric Staff just to have more peel for myself. If an enemy dives you, you can just stun him and reposition yourself. Safety in Numbers is super good as well. Looks like it will depend on how the game is going and what both team composition.
My Build:
![[image loading]](/staff/Phantom/decakrdbuild.png)
Lvl 4 potion of shielding if your team is more backline heavy. Lvl 16 Safety in Numbers if you do not need the extra peel from Horadric Staff.
Daniel “Shad” González, Support - Team Zealots
I think Deckard has great CC and healing but can run out of mana fast if you spam his abilities.
He lacks burst healing, but his healing is especially great on objectives where you may be able to setup potions beforehand. This can allow heroes like Tracer to shine because they don't need to wait or run back to you for healing.
His two CC abilities can be used together for a insane slow into root combo with a lot of range and both his ultimates look interesting enough. Lorenado especially has potential to be used after his root, adding more CC since the target(s) will be pushed towards your team after the root.
Overall he looks solid, high skill hero with good CC but with mana and some situational healing problems such as AOE healing or single target burst healing. Also at disadvantage if the enemy engages before you are able to set up any potion.
Lyubomir “Splendour” Kozlovski
, Support - Team Liquid
I like Deckard's design. He has a lot of playmaking potential on his basic kit, as well as on both heroics. His healing ability is awesome, there are so many different ways to use it. It's a great feeling to drop some potions and watch your teammates race to pick them up, reminds me of feeding birds in the park.
Deckard has strong single target healing and crowd control. Supports with CC are very popular in HGC right now, so I expect to see him played there, but not as much as Malfurion and Stukov. I feel like he is not as good as them in most situations as he runs out of mana very fast, has no AOE heal and his root has a long windup, making it hard to use in CC chains against heroes with an escape.
Adam “Zoos” Stupavsky, Coach - Team Liquid
Deckard Cain is a zone control support that benefits from setup to hit his CC easier and getting to objectives early in order to pre-place potions.
Both of Deckard Cain’s ultimates are CC abilities. Initially, I thought the Lorenado would be the stronger of the two. After playing with it, however, the slow speed of the tornado makes it fairly easy to avoid after the first knockback. It will still be useful for securing boss points, peeling, and cutting off choke points, but I do not think it will be picked every game. Expect to still see funny highlights on reddit with the tornado knocking a whole team into a wall for some nice wombos!
Deckard’s second ultimate, Stay Awhile and Listen, can sleep enemies for up to 5 seconds. I thought this ability would be pretty weak due to sleep being interrupted by damage and it having a VERY long (1 second) cast time. After playing with it, I still believe that in a competitive environment it will take very good positioning by the Deckard to use it effectively.Though it is easy to interrupt, if this ability DOES go off, it can be very powerful. The area that it covers is massive, and a coordinated team will be able to focus one or two particular people in the sleep without hitting the others. This ability also opens up some combo potential (Apocalypse, Ring of Frost, and many other area of effect abilities.
Deckard has very adaptable talent choices. I would argue that Deckard has the most interesting talent options out of any hero in the game. You can reduce enemy damage, reduce enemy healing, drop a pile of potions with Ruby, reduce enemy armor, and much more! Having all of these options will allow Deckard to adapt to any situation.
Deckard will definitely see play in competitive. Because of the nature of supports in Heroes, anytime a new support is released teams will try to find ways to play them in double support. Many remember how oppressive double support can feel to play against, and it is very easy to play. The factors that generally have the largest impact regarding whether a support will be good in double support are waveclear and CC/damage. It is actually the other aspects of the kit, not necessarily the healing, that make a support strong in double support. I am not sure that Deckard brings enough of the other aspects to be favored in true double support, but he will benefit from having additional saving characters in his team. His healing numbers are strong and he brings a really interesting “setup” playstyle to the support role! Expect to see him right away in HGC!
Jun “Jun” Jang, Support - Tempo Storm
Deckard Cain is a support who has very limited mobility and requires very good positioning, but when situation is given where he is able to do things he is capable of, he is a fun and amazing support. Deckard reminds me of Ana and Li Li: a better healing version of Li Li, and the utility / immobility of #LetJunPlayAna.
Deckard seems to do fairly well against “divey” composition with lost of melee heroes.
With good use of Horadric Cube, Scroll of Sealing, Stay Awhile and LIsten and Lorenado it can really set back the momentum of enemy team and also helps your team to re-engage.
I originally thought Deckard was very good ‘with’ dive, melee heavy team, but as I play more and more it feels his ability to play with dive comp isn’t as good as playing against it. Since his mobility is potato, he can’t follow the team after an engage and has trouble healing them and keeping his Trait active.
Deckard is also pretty good against poking comps. Healing Potion has a short cooldown and has good amount of healing. If enemy isn’t a melee heavy team, with a lot of backline poking instead, you can afford to go [Rejuvenation Potion] instead of [Ruby] or even [Potion of Revival] talent at level 13 with extra sustain.
However, with lacking ‘burst’ heal and no cleanse on his kit, Deckard struggles against heavy ‘burst’ comp. I [have] been really liking Deckard because I feel that compared to all other supports in the game, he has more diverse talents and builds that can be picked depending on many different situations.
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