Introduction Top
The Lost Vikings are 3 individual characters, played as 1 hero, by 1 player. Requiring micro management of all 3 of them to be effective, they prove to be considered the highest skill cap character in HotS by many, and can be extremely powerful when played to their maximum potential.
I hope this guide will greatly assist any players getting into the Vikings, or at least provide some informative tips.
I currently have level 20 Vikings and over 375 games played as them.
Individual Vikings Top
Erik the Swift
Strengths +
• Great Poke
• Increased base movement speed
• Increased base basic attack range
• Can talent into self healing
• Good single target damage
• (My favorite Viking!)
Weaknesses -
• Comparable health to
Murky
Baleog the Fierce
Strengths +
• Splash damage in a cone behind his main target
• Can talent into self healing
• Mid range auto attacks ~
Weaknesses -
• About half the health pool of a typical assassin
Olaf the Stout
Strengths +
• Health near that of an assassin
• Passive increased health regeneration outside of combat
• Charge & minor slow initiation
• Can talent into a 1 second stun
• Hitbox suited for bodyblocks
• Mini off-tank
Weaknesses -
• Reduced movement speed due to his love for lasagna
• Extremely low damage
All Heroes of the Storm chibis can be found here. All credit goes to 渣尔杜姆
Playstyle Top
Your goal as a Vikings player is to maintain soak of all 3 lanes, while your team travels as a group of 4, shoving lanes, performing ganks, taking mercenaries, and delaying/trading objectives. Granting a large amount of additional experience that your opponent is not soaking to your team, typically leading into level advantages and talent advantages.
While the objectives are up, you want to Bribe Siege Giant Camps, and put pressure onto the enemy team's structures.
This creates 1 of 2 scenarios for you.
Scenario 1: Your team stalls and forfeits the objective while you get massive soak, and take towers (and possibly forts) with your Siege Giants that you have Bribed.
Scenario 2: The enemy team sends a player down to deal with your pushing, making the teamfight into a 4v4. If you can send a Viking to help your team without losing any lane experience, do so, and it will then become a 4v4 + a Viking in your team's favor. Potentially winning the teamfight, and still getting full experience in all 3 lanes.
When there's no action going on, it's usually a good idea to go back to split soaking, as to snowball the game in your team's favor, or prevent the same effect from your opponent's side.
PLEASE READ---> Please don't let this come over you as "This is the only way this hero should be played". Experiment with them and come up with your own playstyles and modifications.
Alternative Playstyle Top
If you're new to the Vikings, particularly micro management, you may want to try a 2 lane split with your Vikings in order to help you learn a bit easier. Starting 3 lanes right from the get go without any experience with micro management can be extremely tough. Slowly adjust to a 3 lane split as you feel more and more comfortable with your micro management.
You won't get quite as much value out of this hero with only a 2 lane split, but you have to start somewhere if you're going to learn, and it's for sure better than constantly losing Vikings and getting frustrated biting off more than you can chew.
(I recommend you to watch some Lost Vikings videos, to get a feel of how the micro management is like.)
Talent Breakdown Top
Level 1
Viking Bribery
Strong
Amazing for creating map pressure. As long as you are tri-laning, you'll gain more stacks faster than the normal
Bribe talent, and it only takes 1 Viking to claim the camp.
Explosive Attacks
Situational
Provides
Baleog with more reliable waveclear and mercing potential. Pick this on
Towers of Doom, since
Viking Bribery gets little to no value there.
Great synergy with
Pain Don't Hurt and
Baleog the Fierce.
Olaf the Stout
Poor
This talent doesn't do much.
Olaf can sustain himself through any poke damage with his passive health regeneration. It's situational and unnecessary that a few block charges will save him. You'd be giving up
Viking Bribery as well.
Spy Games
Poor
Don't take this. If you don't want
Erik to be spotted, there are bushes all over the map that are more effective and reliable than this talent.
Level 4
Mercenary Lord
Strong
This is great talent to grab on the Vikings. It combos with
Viking Bribery, as you can Bribe a Siege Giant Camp, and put pressure on the lane by having a Viking standing next to the Giants while they push, granting them 50% increased damage. As you obviously have 3 Vikings, you can have up to 3 instances of
Mercenary Lord on the map at one time, 1 in each lane, for some absolutely devastating map pressure.
It also reduces the damage your Vikings take from minions and mercenaries, allowing you to not only be able to solo the boss, but your Vikings won't get crushed by a minion wave or Siege Giants if you happen to leave one alone for a second or two.
Erik the Swift
Strong
I really love this talent. It makes
Erik extremely fast and difficult to kill. He can kite most heroes, and it counteracts his weakness of having such little health. You're able to be much more aggressive with him, and his poke becomes very strong.
Pain Don't Hurt
Viable
Is a reliable source of self sustain for
Baleog. Unfortunately, it's on the same tier as
Erik the Swift and
Mercenary Lord, which outclass this talent by a significant amount. It gains value on
Sky Temple, since
Baleog can't tank an entire shrine alone without it. Great synergy with
Explosive Attacks and
Baleog the Fierce.
It's a Sabotage!
Poor
Essentially a
Demolitionist for
Erik. Sure, you're able drain ammo out of structures, but the increased damage
Erik provides is minimal. It takes 10 seconds for the effect to fully activate, and it doesn't stack, so you'll have to wait it out.
If you're looking to buff
Erik, take
Erik the Swift instead.
Level 7
Spin To Win!
Strong
This active ability is a must have! Your Vikings have very little in options of burst damage, It also grants
Erik and
Olaf the waveclear that they lack, increasing the split push pressure that you provide during objectives. The damage from each Viking
does stack, so make use of this when possible.
Baleog the Fierce
Viable
While it does provide a nice boost for
Baleog's damage against PvE enemies and structures, you lose waveclear on
Erik and
Olaf, since you lose
Spin To Win!. It's difficult to call this talent 'bad', but
Spin To Win! is an important part in the Vikings' kit.
Great synergy with
Explosive Attacks and
Pain Don't Hurt.
Norse Force!
Poor
This talent is very lackluster. The cooldown is too long, the shield is too small, it doesn't last long enough, and the shield is weaker the less Vikings alive.
Jump! is a better escape, and
Spin To Win! is too good to pass up. You shouldn't pick this talent under any circumstances.
Level 10
Play Again!
Strong
Press 'R' to restart the level!
This ultimate can be used to maintain your triple lane soak, and quickly teleport in when a teamfight breaks out. It can be used to turn on an overzealous enemy attempting to gank one of your Vikings. Because it has a full self heal and revive built into it, it makes your Vikings very sustainable and hard to eliminate for long periods of time. Keep in mind though, that if a Viking dies or gets interrupted while channeling,
Play Again! will then be set on a 10 second cooldown.
Longboat Raid!
Poor
While this ultimate did have it's prime, it has many disadvantages and not enough upsides. The Boat moves respectably slower, making chasing with it unrealistic, and positioning difficult.
While the Boat does have a 3 second Mortar ability with damage equivalent to a 2 Viking spin, the Boat's normal auto attack damage is actually
LESS than all 3 of your Vikings auto attacking a single target, and the Boat only auto attacks the closest enemy (prioritizing heroes). Coupling that with it's slow movement speed, more than half the time you'll simply be hitting the tank for the majority of its duration.
Due to it's low health pool, it's hard to avoid the self inflicted 1.5 second stun that occurs when the Boat is destroyed, and this health pool only gets lower with less Vikings alive.
Another downside to the Boat is that it forces your Vikings to group up just to activate it, (denying a portion of the split soaking strength that the Vikings are known for.)
Play Again! can be activated without limitation.
Level 13
Jump!
Strong
Full invulnerability and the ability to ignore unit collision for 1.5 seconds is a no brainer. The Vikings have low health pools, and without
Jump!, they're very vulnerable to aoe burst damage such as
Chain Bomb or
Blizzard.
This combined with
Go Go Go! will get the Vikings out of most situations.
It's also worth noting that you can break your Vikings out of
stuns. You need to select another Viking not currently stunned, use
Jump!, and it will free any other Vikings affected by a stun.
Nordic Attack Squad
Poor
Not only do you give up
Jump! by taking this, but it only lasts 5 seconds for a slight boost in damage (2/3
Giant Killer per Viking.)
This may be considered when facing against multiple warrior compositions, or against a
Cho'gall, but the chances that you won't need
Jump! are very miniscule.
Hunka' Burning Olaf
Poor
The
Burning Rage equivalent for
Olaf (with slightly more damage). You've likely already got
Spin To Win!, and would be forfeiting
Jump! if you take this. Not recommended.
Level 16
Impatience Is a Virtue
Strong
Ties into the rest of the build really well; you'll have more Spins, more Jumps, and your ultimate will be ready to go for every teamfight. It can be considered a 50% stronger
Battle Momentum.
(Keep in mind that your Vikings will be helping out each other from across the map, for example; You have Olaf and Baleog teamfighting in the middle of the map. If Erik is auto attacking minions top lane, he's still reducing cooldowns for the other Vikings.)
Large and In Charge
Situational
I really like this talent. It gives
Olaf good utility with the ability to help the team lock down a target for a kill, or to interrupt a channeled ability such as
Valla's
Strafe, or
Nazeebo's
Ravenous Spirit.
(Interesting note; taking this talent does not get rid of Olaf's base slow on his charge ability. Oddly enough, it activates at the same time as the stun, so the slow's 3 second duration is reduced to a 2 second duration.)
Unfortunately it competes with
Impatience Is a Virtue, but the stun may prove valuable if your team composition lacks very much hard crowd control.
Executioner
Situational
Gives your Vikings a very noticeable boost in damage, especially if you have someone who applies constant slows, such as
Jaina. Consider taking this if your team has consistent crowd control.
64 KB Marathon
Poor
With
Jump!, you are already able to break your Vikings out of crowd control, and not very many heroes can chase down your Vikings with the base
Go Go Go!. It's really a waste to take this talent, especially at level 16. Realistically, it doesn't do anything that you couldn't do already.
Level 20
Viking Fury of the Storm
With Play Again
Think of this as a really cranked up
Spin To Win!. Your Vikings get stronger waveclear, and the burst damage that this talent provides is unreal. You're able to deal nearly 1000 points of damage instantaneously every 5 seconds.
Ragnarok 'n' Roll!
With Longboat Raid
The
Longboat Raid! gets a massive power spike when you hit level 20 and pick this bad boy up. The Boat now hits 2 targets at once, for effectively double the damage. Your
Mortar gains double the range, so you're able to snipe people out in the Fog of War.
Checkpoint Reached
Poor
Has the same problem as
The Sequel!. You'll lack damage without
Viking Fury of the Storm. You shouldn't particularly need a second revive anyways.
The Sequel!
Poor
You shouldn't use a level 20 talent entirely devoted to decreasing your Vikings' death timers. You give up
Ragnarok 'n' Roll! or
Viking Fury of the Storm for this. Which are some of your best sources of damage, and lacking either of them really cripple your dps outputs.
Tips and Tricks Top
Over the many games I have played of the Vikings, I have learned many tactics that you're able to use to improve your Lost Vikings play.
1. By attack moving, (default hotkey = A) you can make sure your Vikings continue to attack lane minions without needed your constant attention, freeing you up to micro your other Vikings. Just be sure that they don't suicide a tower using this method.
2. If you hold shift, it will queue up actions, this is extremely useful, especially since you'll be controlling 3 different characters at once. For example: instead of clicking the moonwell, waiting for your Viking to walk up and use it, and then clicking back to lane, you can hold shift, and quickly click the moonwell and back, your Viking will use the moonwell and walk back to lane without needing any more than a second of your attention, saving time and allowing you to micro your other Vikings.
This can be used to keep your Vikings moving back and forth in lane, making them less prone to skillshots. People will typically leave your Viking alone if he appears to be under your control. Exploit this tendency to fool players and reduce the chances of your Vikings being picked off.
3. Remind your team to let you take control of every single Garden Terror and Dragon Knight if possible, as your team gets the most value out of a Viking operating it instead of a full hero.
Erik is best suited for Garden Terror, as his speed allows him to quickly escape, outrunning most chasers, and dismounting people with his long range. If
Erik can't be assigned to operate the Terror,
Olaf is your next best bet.
Baleog would be chosen last as he's the Viking most likely to die after the Terror expires.
Olaf is most suited for the Dragon Knight, as this allows for
Erik and
Baleog to shove the other 2 lanes more effectively, increasing your exp lead, and keeping the enemy pressured. However, don't worry if you can't get
Olaf to grab the Dragon Knight. It isn't a huge difference, and you don't want to run the risk of a Shrine being taken from your control, or wasting precious time of your enemies' death timers.
Keep your focus on the Dragon Knight and Garden Terror. They're obviously worth more than the other Vikings. Only micro your other 2 Vikings if you have a chance, and click your minimap to save time. Use the attack move method as described above to maintain your split push with minimal attention devoted to your 2 Vikings, and more given to the objective.
4. You can single handedly take both Shrines, and the Dragon Knight on the
Dragon Shire map, or both Temples on the
Sky Temple map. This allows your teammates to do other more important things, such as keeping extreme pressure on enemy structures.
5. Using your
Longboat Raid! ultimate will remove any nasty
Kael'thas Living Bombs off your Vikings, if you don't have the room or time to split.
6. Gather as many Regeneration Globes as you can, to maximize the Vikings' trait,
Viking Hoard. It will make them significantly more survivable throughout the course of a game.
7. On most maps, send Erik to the lane closest to the Siege Giants, as he's the fastest of the trio, and can quickly Bribe them.
8. Typically keep
Olaf in the middle lane or an obvious solo lane. In middle,
Olaf will be able to get around more effectively. In a solo lane against a specialist, he can outsustain any poke.
9. In cases of channeling a map objective such as a Tribute on
Cursed Hollow, you want a Viking be the one doing so, rather than a full hero.
10. Olaf can tank a camp while one of your squishy damage dealers quickly clears it.
11. The Vikings share the moonwell cooldown. Using the moonwell with one Viking will heal the others from anywhere on the map. However, you can't activate the moonwell with a Viking at 100% health, even if another is injured.
(All of this testing was preformed in Try Mode, with 0 stacks of
Viking Hoard, no abilities used, and
Mercenary Lord.)
Unfortunately, the
Infernal Shrines,
Battlefield Of Eternity, and
Towers of Doom map specific Camps are not available in Try Mode, and I would have to test them in a game environment without any interferences to get accurate information, but I will update the guide with those as soon as I find out specific information.
Erik can solo Bruisers at level 15 with 2 stacks of
Viking Bribery; as long as you
Bribe two of the Knights, and focus down the mage first.
Erik or
Baleog can solo Siege Giants at level 4 with only 1 stack of
Viking Bribery.
Baleog can solo Siege Giants at level 16.
Baleog can solo Bruisers at level 4 with 2 stacks of
Viking Bribery, as long as you Bribe two of the Knights, and focus down the mage first. Be sure to position
Baleog properly so most of his splash attacks hit, or he will not be able to solo the Camp.
Olaf paired with either Viking can take a Bruiser Camp at level 4, just be certain to bounce the Camp's aggro between the two Vikings at such an early level, as to let
Olaf regenerate a large portion of his health. You won't really have to worry about this later on, as at around level 13,
Olaf can tank nearly the entire camp on his own.
At level 16, you can solo the Boss with all 3 Vikings. Be sure to avoid the roots and stuns, and activate
Jump! if things go wrong. Try to bounce the boss' aggro off
Olaf when he's low health, and send him back in to tank more after his passive health regeneration kicks in for a few seconds.
Fun Facts Top
1. Olaf has a higher maximum health stat than
Li-Ming.
2. Baleog has a higher maximum health stat than
Li-Ming if she talents for
Glass Cannon.
3.
Azmodan's
All Shall Burn creates a graphical glitch, in which the laser will not properly follow
Olaf when channeled against him.
(Displayed below)
4. Erik has the exact same auto attack damage and scaling as
Jaina.
5. The song that
Longboat Raid! plays when active is a remastered version of
Smugglers Cove, a soundtrack from
The Lost Vikings 2.
6.
The Lost Vikings have a total of 6 sound files for their ultimate abilities (2 for each Viking), however, they are never actually heard in game. These quotes are posted below, and can be found
here.
Erik "I'm king of the world!" (
Longboat Raid!)
"By the power of Odin!" (
Play Again!)
Baleog "I'm on a boat!" (
Longboat Raid!)
"Hey, guys! Get over here." (
Play Again!)
Olaf "Oh! I'm going to need a bigger boat." (
Longboat Raid!)
"Valhalla rises!" (
Play Again!)
More to come!
Conclusion Top
I hope this guide was of use to you. If you have any questions, feel free to ask them. I'll respond as soon as I see them.
I welcome any constructive criticism, and I will continue to update this guide as time passes. I may make more guides for different heroes in the future.
I appreciate any time you took out of your day to read this guide and learn a bit about the Vikings. I spent many hours creating and updating it.
Don't forget to bring donuts for
Olaf!
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