CC Baby!

Summary (TLDR)

Hi! Welcome to my guide on Dekker. 

Dekker is a support hero that excels in locking people down or peeling her teammates. She can fulfill a solo lane role or can be a second jungler to help with making ganks easier and keeping the jungler's mana up (Hello, Sevarog). 

She can stun enemies with her Q, slow enemies with her E, lock her enemies in with her ultimate and can speed up her allies with her RMB. All of her abilities help her team or lock down their team (which combos in a very good way).

People believe that Dekker is currently weak at the moment, when that is just simply not the case. Although Muriel outshines her since she is the only hero in the game that has heals (through Muriel's passive) and can consistently throw out shields on her allies with a global presence, Dekker outshines Muriel in her own way. Dekker is one of the very few heroes in the game that are ranged and have some serious hard crowd control abilities (CC/Stuns). This means that if used correctly and well with her gank partner, she can almost guarantee a kill. 

Her power isn't in having the ability to keep her allies healthy, it's the ability to let her allies run away by slowing down opponents, or by letting her allies catch opponents by slowing them down. 

Abilities Overview

You always want to lead in with your Q and then follow with your E. Use your E for waveclear only. Use your RMB as if it's crucial to survival: only be aggressive with it when you are certain you can take the risk. Your ultimate is tricky. Usually, it's best used when you lock in your enemies in a teamfight or when running away. You can escape your own ultimate in many scenarios by Jumping then using RMB backwards towards the edge of the circle. BE CAREFUL, your ultimate's shield value is pretty great, but it is very risky to lock your teammates in it. Try using it in teamfights to lock players out of the fight rather than locking your teammates in with a scary enemy. Proper ultimate and RMB usage is what makes a good Dekker player successful.

Abilities upgrade priority

R > RMB > E > Q > LMB

Max your ultimate for obvious reasons first, then follow up with RMB (because having such a powerful escape/attack tool is so useful to have on such a short cd, then follow with your E (because it helps with waveclear), and finish it off with Q. You don't want to be wasting points on your auto attacks because they won't deal enough damage for it to be worth it (because you'll be focused on controlling the team fight with your massive amounts of crowd control!)

Early Game

Buy your items, and head to your lane or the jungle.

IF JUNGLING:

Go with your jungle partner and start at the RED buff (unless the enemy invades, then you will want to just not waste time and go to the BLUE buff). Make sure to guard all entrances to the buff in case of an invade. Select your Q ability if you think you will run into a fight before clearing a second camp, or select your E ability if you think you will be able to clear two camps without fighting.

Take your first buff, then go to your side lane's small camp. After taking that, you should be level 2 and have your Q > E combo. Go with your jungle partner and gank the side lane closest to you and hit them with your Q then E. If you get proper follow up, it should be a kill if played correctly.

Afterwards, push out the lane with E and then continue by taking the other small camp on the side of the jungle you started on and place the harvester if you have a key. If you are still healthy after all of this, try a gank middle lane, push the lane, then recall. If not, recall to base.

Laning: You will most likely be in a side lane. If you are on the side of the map that your junglers are starting, go help them with the first buff and be prepared to help them with an early gank on your lane. Return to your lane after the buff is killed (DO NOT TAKE THE BUFF),  and don't push the lane while focusing on just last hitting. Your junglers should come after taking a small camp and it should be an easy kill. Push the lane out with your junglers and deal as much damage to the turret as possible. Ward the jungle entrance in your lane so you do not get caught out, and then continue to last hit and recall if you hit below 30% health with no potions.

Mid Game

Jungling: You should be clearing sides of the jungle at times and be controlling a minimum of 3 harvesters. Do not waste your time attacking the harvesters in their jungle until very late into the game. Pretty much roam the jungle with your partner, clear all of the small camps on cooldown, look to setup ganks, look to attack side lane harvesters and look to counter jungle. After getting a successful gank off, push the lane and try to deal as much damage to the turret as possible. 

Laning: If you win your lane by taking the turret, start to roam around and help set up kills while making sure your lane stays pushed. If you see that your junglers get a successful gank off middle, help push that wave. If you see that your lane opponent left and all enemies are on the map, push your lane hard then back out and help defend. 

Late Game

Both: Start grouping up with the majority of your team and become a gank squad. Clearing jungles and setting up kills while trying to clear out all of the outer turrets and making it into the inner turrets. If you kill a key enemy past 20 minutes, take OP Buff. If the enemy is turtling in base no matter what, take OP Buff. OP Buff isn't just strong because of the amazing buff it gives to your allies, it's really strong because it forces the enemy to defend you from getting it. DO NOT dive in to get the orb in the capture spot, only do it if you can get there without suiciding. 

During all of this time, your team should have a split pusher. Said split pusher should be pressuring all the lanes that the enemy is not in. Eventually, either your team or their team will lose an inhibitor.

Defend/Keep the inhibitor lane pushed. A single inhibitor if left unattended can end a game. If you are down the inhibitor, just clear waves and contest OP. Nobody other than your split pusher should be past the halfway point of the map. If you lose a second inhibitor, your team is near toast. Make sure to keep the inhibitor lanes from pushing towards your core.

If you are the team that took the enemy's inhibitor, push out the wave and try to get a second inhibitor. If the OP buff is up, take it with 4 members and have your split pusher constantly pressure a lane. Eventually, the enemy will cave in, and you either get an OP buff or an extra inhibitor/turret. Try to use those to your advantage to win the game.

IN TEAMFIGHTS AS DEKKER:

Try to peel your carries from getting 1 shotted by enemy bruisers and assassins. Lock the bruisers in your ultimate WITHOUT YOUR ALLIES INSIDE, or Q > E combo them with RMB'ing backwards so your teammates can get a movespeed buff. 

Card Build

Since Dekker relies on her abilities and is not recommended to be used as a mage, building into CDR with Mana and Tankiness (Health, Physical Armour and Energy Armour) is the go-to. 

Start with a Harvester's Key if you are jungling and your jungle partner didn't. If they did or if you are laning, start with a Scout's Ward. With your first item buy, try to get Pendulum of Lords and fill the upgrade slots with cooldown reduction. ALWAYS MAKE SURE TO FILL OUT THE UPGRADE SLOTS BEFORE STARTING A NEW ITEM. (Get an Honor the Pure if you are jungling instead, fill out the slots with Health, then get a Pendulum of Lords after).

After you fully upgrade your Pendulum of Lords, go for a Lord's Key (if your team doesn't have an upgraded key yet), a Lord's Ward (if your team needs better warding), a Lantern of Spring (if you are ahead), a Circlet of Health (if your team is taking a lot of unnecessary damage from either poke or jungle monsters), a Tempered Plate (if you are getting destroyed by physical damage) or a Tuned Barrier (if you are getting destroyed by energy damage). If you are later into the game and need more CDR,  build a Fully upgrade the card with the following max order: CDR > Armour > Health > Mana. Keep rotating through this "flow chart" until you are full build.