Valeera by ElectricMeow

1 Votes
Rating Pending

Valeera

By: ElectricMeow
Last Updated: Nov 1, 2018
Quick Share

Valeera

Rework Concept

Rework concept for Valeera. The goal is to increase the strength of some under-performing talents, increase talent diversity, increase her overall usability, and give her a stronger late game at the cost of a slightly weaker early game.

This is balanced around the idea that the current stealth visual will not be changed.

Combat Trait

1
Vanish
Cooldown: 8 seconds.
Movement speed: +20%

Activating Vanish cloaks Valeera and grants her 20% additional movement speed. Valeera is Unrevealable for 1 second after activating Vanish. While Unrevealable, Valeera gains an additional 20% movement speed and can pass through units.

While Vanish is active, Valeera gains access to new abilities. Taking damage removes this effect.
After remaining in stealth for 3 seconds, Valeera enters Deep Shadows, increasing the range of her stealth abilities by 2.5.

After remaining stationary for 1 second, Valeera becomes fully invisible.

Reactivating Vanish or casting one of her stealth abilities instantly ends Vanish, ending stealth and granting access to her normal basic abilities immediately.

Primary Abilities

1
(Q1) Sinister Strike
Cooldown: 5 seconds.
Energy cost: 30
Damage: 110

Valeera dashes forward, dealing 110 damage to all enemies in her path. If Sinister Strike hits a hero, one third of Sinister Strike's energy cost is refunded, Valeera stops moving instantly, and Sinister Strike's cooldown is reduced to 1 second.

This ability cannot be used while Vanish is active.
2
(W1) Blade Flurry
Cooldown: 4 seconds
Energy Cost: 40
Damage: 130

Valeera twirls her blades, dealing 130 damage to all enemies around her.

This ability cannot be used while Vanish is active.
3
(E1) Eviscerate
Energy Cost: 25
Damage: 50, 150, 300, depending on combo points
Combo Point Duration: 10 seconds
Range: 2.5

High damage finishing move.
Valeera gains Combo Points from damaging heroes with basic abilities. She can store up to 3 Combo Points, and Combo Points last for 10 seconds after taking or dealing damage.
Using Eviscerate spends all current Combo Points.

This ability cannot be used if Valeera has no Combo Points.
This ability cannot be used while Vanish is active.
4
(Q2) Ambush
Energy Cost: 10
Damage: 100
Range: 2.5

Valeera strikes an enemy from stealth, dealing 100 damage and breaking the enemy's armor by 10 for 5 seconds.
This ability can only be used while Vanish is active.
Using this ability ends Vanish.
5
(W2) Cheap Shot
Energy Cost: 30
Damage: 40
Range: 2.5
Stun Duration: 1 second

Valeera deals 40 damage to a target and stuns them for 1 second. The target is blinded for 2 seconds after the stun effect ends.

This ability can only be used while Vanish is active.
Using this ability ends Vanish.
6
(E2) Garrote
Energy Cost: 30
Damage: 20
Damage over time: 30 per second over 5 seconds.
Range: 2.5
Silence Duration: 2 seconds

Valeera deals 20 damage to a target and silences them for 2 seconds and poisons them.

This ability can only be used while Vanish is active.
Using this ability ends Vanish.

Heroic Abilities

1
(R1) Smoke Bomb
Cooldown: 60 seconds
Duration: 5 seconds
Radius: 4
Creates a cloud of smoke at Valeera's location for 5 seconds. While inside the cloud, Valeera is Unrevealable and gains 25 armor.

Using this ability does not end Vanish.
2
(R2) Cloak of Shadows
Cooldown: 16 seconds

Valeera becomes Unstoppable and gains 75 spell armor for 1.5 seconds. While Cloak of Shadows is active, DoT effects are instantly removed from Valeera and addition DoT effects cannot be applied.

Using this ability does not end Vanish.

Talents

Level 1

[Trait] Vigor
Valeera regenerates an additional .5 energy per second.
Quest: Gathering regeneration globes increases Valeera's energy regeneration by .3, up to an additional 4.5 energy regeneration.
Reward: After gathering 15 Regeneration Globes, Valeera gains 20 maximum energy.

[Trait] Combat Readiness
Each Combo Point Valeera spends grants her 75 reduced damage from the next basic attack, storing up to 3 charges, and restores 10 energy.

[Trait] Subtlety
Valeera regenerates an additional 10 health per second while in Deep Shadows. Increase the movement speed bonus of Vanish by an additional 10%. After using an opener while in Deep Shadows, Valeera regenerates an additional 2.5 energy per second for 6 seconds.

Notes: The goal with this talent tier was to create multiple compelling talents that increase her ability to be played fluidly without one talent having a clear advantage in every situation. Vigor received a slight buff, but is less useful when initially taken. Combat Readiness was given some energy restoration in small bursts at the same time that block charges are given to promote the idea of staying in combat. Subtlety received a nerf to the energy regeneration overall, but because it is conditional, the talent also received some very small self sustain for Valeera while she is in stealth to compliment the style of roaming the jungle as well as additional movement speed to make her match mount speed.

Level 4

[Active] Crippling Poison
Cooldown: 16 seconds
Activate to make Valeera's next basic ability and subsequent basic abilities within 8 seconds slow enemies by 25% for 4 seconds.

[Active] Wound Poison
Cooldown: 16 seconds
Activate to make Valeera's next basic ability and subsequent basic abilities within 8 seconds reduce the healing received by enemies by 40% for 4 seconds.

[Active] Suppressive Poison
Cooldown: 16 seconds
Activate to make Valeera's next basic ability and subsequent basic abilities within 8 seconds reduce the spell power of enemies by 30% for 4 seconds.

Note: By having three poison talents compete with each other, I was able to have a two later talents interact with these active abilities without risking it getting no value. Additionally, Wound Poison is more attractive as a pick than before in its niche because it is not directly competing with Valeera's ability to deal damage, but rather for her ability to slow targets. Suppressive Poison allows me to change Strangle to another effect while still giving Valeera the option to reduce spell power, but it had to be nerfed due to its ability to apply in an AoE.

Level 7

[W1] Fatal Finesse
Reduce the energy cost of Blade Flurry by 20.
Quest: Hitting an enemy hero with Blade Flurry increases its damage by 5, up to 100.
Reward: After hitting 20 enemy heroes with Blade Flurry, increase its damage by an additional 100.

[Q1] Mutilate
Increase Sinister Strike's damage by 75%. Increase the energy refunded when hitting an enemy hero with Sinister Strike to two thirds of Sinister Strike's energy cost.

[E1] Slice and Dice
Reduce the energy cost of Eviscerate by 15.
Valeera's basic attacks deal an additional 30% damage to targets affected by one of her poisons.
Using Eviscerate with 3 Combo Points increases her attack speed by 150% for her next 3 basic attacks.

Note: I changed this talent tier to be Valeera's clear damage spike, as it is currently, but with more variety. Fatal Finesse receives the energy cost reduction baseline to make it more reasonable to compete and use. The damage at the end is also slightly higher because it has low up time compared to the other two talents. Mutilate no longer reduces the range of Sinister Strike as this always felt bad, but its damage is slightly nerfed since it is more usable with the highest burst up time and because I buffed Eviscerate's damage slightly. Additionally, it increases the baseline energy restoration of Sinister Strike to promote using it successively on heroes, but this also makes the energy efficiency of Sinister Strike overall more conditional. Slice and Dice received Hemorrhage baseline but it was made more usable by applying to poisoned enemies, making it another compelling damage spike for Valeera, but not too strong because it doesn't have full up time like the other two talents.

Level 13

[Q2]Death from Above
Using Ambush reduces the cooldown of Vanish by 4 seconds.
If Valeera uses Eviscerate with 3 Combo Points within 3 seconds of using Ambush, the duration of the Ambush's armor break is refreshed.

[W2]Low Blow
Increase the stun duration of Cheap Shot by .5 seconds and the blind duration after the stun effect ends by 1 second.

[E2]Strangle
Increase the silence duration of Garrote by .5 seconds.

When Valeera's poison is applied to an enemy by the damage from Garrote, its effects are amplified.
Crippling Poison's slow is increased to 30%.
Wound Poison reduced the target's healing by 60%.
Suppressive Poison reduces the spell power of the target by 50%.

Note: I felt like this tier was already fair in its utility set up, but overall it felt weak for a post-10 talent tier. As I reduced the silence duration to 2 seconds baseline to reduce her early game CC potential, I had it as an option to increase it here, but also buffing her poisons to go with the disabling style of Garrote. The stun of Cheap Shot can be increased to 1.5 here as well with a small increase in blind duration to make it compelling compared to Garrote despite having less up time. Death from Above also became less reliant on waiting in stealth and slightly rewards doing a proper 3 point combo after using Ambush.

Level 16

[Q1]Seal Fate
Using Sinister Strike on an enemy that is slowed, silenced, rooted, or stunned causes Sinister Strike to deal an additional 50% damage and generate two combo points.

[Q2]Assassinate
Increase the armor break of Ambush by an additional 10.
Ambush deals 50% more damage.

[Active]Thistle Tea
Cooldown: 60 seconds
Passive: Reduce the cooldown of Valeera's poisons by 50%.
Activate to fully restore Valeera's energy and reset the cooldown of Sinister Strike and Blade Flurry.

Note: This talent tier I felt was already fairly decent, but Seal Fate I thought could apply to more CC effects, namely Slow. Additionally, I felt that the Assassinate talent's gimmick of needing a hero to be isolated made it too situational in team fights, so I removed it without changing the functionality of the talent as otherwise I felt it was fine. Thistle Tea I considered halving the cooldown, but instead I felt it was more appropriate to make it reduce the cooldown of her poison abilities so that they have full uptime as well as its use as an infrequent energy refresh, which I felt had too high of a cooldown to be compelling on its own in most circumstances. Additionally, a simple energy refresh was nice, but I thought it would make the talent feel more useful compared to more burst damage if it reset her cooldowns to ensure she could continue to deal damage without giving resetting Vanish so she can't stack too much CC in a short period of time.

Level 20

[R1]Adrenaline Rush
Passive: Reduce the cooldown of Smoke Bomb by 30 seconds. Increase the radius of Smoke Bomb by 50%.
Valeera regenerates 25 energy per second while inside Smoke Bomb.

[R2]Enveloping Shadows
Passive: Reduce the cooldown of Cloak of Shadows by 50%.
Using Vanish activates Cloak of Shadows for free.

[E1]Cold Blood
Increase the maximum amount of Combo Points that Valeera can have to 5.
Eviscerate now deals 50, 150, 300, 400, 500 damage based on combo points.

[Trait]Nightslayer
Valeera immediately enters Deep Shadows upon using Vanish. After remaining in Deep Shadows for 3 seconds, Valeera's stealth abilities deal an additional 100 damage on use to the target.

Note: This tier I wanted to help her struggling late game. With Elusiveness out of the way, I returned Nightslayer but made it so that it allows her to use Vanish and immediately teleport if necessary while also receiving the bonuses of Subtlety if she took it. I also felt it could use a small damage bonus if you stay in stealth to make Cold Blood not as much of a must pick, but didn't want it to be too high. The 100 damage would scale with level, but would be less additional damage than Cold Blood.
Cold Blood requires Valeera to stay on a target after opening longer to get value out of a 5 point Eviscerate. She already can do plenty extra damage just by sticking to a target for a longer amount of time, but Cold Blood would enable her to have slightly more bursty moments without it simply doubling her damage.
With the ultimate upgrades, I gave them passives to make them more compelling for a Valeera that is more focused on teamfights. Cloak of Shadows becomes available more often for continued fighting, while Smoke Bomb has a significantly shorter cooldown while still retaining some of the energy regeneration properties as it wasn't a very compelling choice before.

Quick Comment

You need to log in before commenting.

[-] Collapse All Comments

Sort Comments By
Loading Comments...
Load More Comments

HeroesFire is the place to find the perfect build guide to take your game to the next level. Learn how to play a new hero, or fine tune your favorite HotS hero’s build and strategy.

Copyright © 2019 HeroesFire | All Rights Reserved