Equinox's Valla Guide by Equinox

Equinox's Valla Guide

By: Equinox
Last Updated: Dec 21, 2015
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Valla

Build: Competitive Build

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Threats to Valla with this build

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Threat Hero Notes
1
 Abathur Abathur himself isn't much of a worry to you, if he's in your lane you can pressure him with multi-shot when your laner is either roaming or backed off. You can also reliably kill him under forts once you hit 10.
1
 Gazlowe All easily avoidable CC grav bomb included, save vault for his ult and you'll be fine, in lane pressure him with autos and abilities when he goes for lasers or moves up for turret placement, he has no HP regen or sustain so just stay with minions and pressure when you can.
1
 The Lost Vikings 0 threat to you, you counter them in lane and in teamfights just by your splash AoE. If you're laning against vikings just focus on zoning them.
2
 Li Li Not much of a trouble, can be a strong laner if the lili is good but just watch for envenom and make sure you're using your abilities while blinded and you'll be ok.
2
 Malfurion Easily avoidable CC (root and silence) not to hard to deal with in lane he doesn't do a lot of damage when he doesn't land a root so just avoid it and you'll be fine.
2
 Muradin Same with malf, easily avoidable CC watch out for haymaker/avatar and don't get to close to him or he'll constantly cancel your strafe.
2
 Rehgar Easily kitable, low damage pre 13 and no hard CC pre 16. In teamfights watch our for bloodlust on his teammates and ancestral healing aswell, don't chase a low target with a rehgar on the team or you'll get turned on very quickly.
2
 Tyrande Very skill shot reliant champion, save vault for E and avoid trading with her when she has mark on you tyrande does a lot of suprising damage so keep that in mind.
2
 Azmodan Rather low damage output, vault out of his laser range and you out trade him with just autos if you do that. No mobility and no lock down makes laning against him really easy and not very threatening. Post 10 you melt him with giant killer and his poke doesn't do much against you until late game which even then your team can avoid by picking good engages.
2
 Kharazim
3
 Arthas Very easy champion to lane against and to go against in teamfights, save vault for root and just kite him around. Once you get BFB you can just melt arthas and make him null in teamfights if he tries to be a frontliner.
3
 Falstad This is primarily a skill matchup, however in lane with W focused build you just out poke and out trade him regularly, keep dodging his Q and you'll deny him exp in no time. In team fights be mindful of his shock n' awe (save vault for it) and spell shield is a good pick up aswell.
4
 E.T.C. Not to much of a worry, you can reliably always stay away from him via vault and avoid his mosh pre 20 and even post 20 with good reaction time. Don't be near him when you're strafing or he'll just W you out of it and you'll be sad.
5
 Nazeebo Not to much of a problem if you avoid his W as and E as much as possible but don't get to over confident as he can turn on you rather easily. Post 10 you shit on his day 1v1, in teamfights focus on killing his teammates unless nazeebo is over extended, diving as valla is never a good idea unless the enemy is pressured or really low.
5
 Jaina You outrange her and you can out trade her most of the time if you save vault for blizzard. In teamfights just worry about the water ele and dodging her poke
5
 Thrall Rather easy to deal with 1v1 unless you get caught by his root, in teamfights spread out for his sundering and kite him/drop rain on him he can be scary if he catches you though.
5
 Sylvanas Easy to deal with in lane until lvl 7, don't trade with her post 4 if you're below 40%. Teamfights she's annoying due to the silence which is actually kind of hard to see, just pay attention and you'll be fine.
5
 Johanna
6
 Sonya Sonya, like tyreal has a lot of initiation on you but it is outplayable which is why she's not that high of a threat. Like with tyrael watch your positioning and always be ready to vault her leap, it's easily avoidable even if you don't have the best reaction time. Laning against her is much easier aswell, you can use minions to your advantage to block her chain and just simply outrange her. Don't be to afraid of this champion but be very mindful of your positioning and use vault wisely.
6
 Nova Very easily outplayable with decent reaction time, only time you should be worried is if you're low HP and you have no cds.
6
 Murky Very annoying champion, can poke you out of lane if you're not running with a support or sustain build. Also a 3 second guranteed stun on you will really fuck you over if you're caught out of position, be mindful against this hero and don't play over aggressive.
6
 Sgt. Hammer Annoying to deal with in teammfights, 1v1 you out damage her at low levels as long as you don't run into her mines. In teamfights pressure the rest of her teammates and only hit her when you're able to, don't get to close to her or she'll cancel strafe aswell.
6
 Stitches Can either be a nightmare or a joke to deal with depending on how good you are at avoiding hooks. In teamfights kiting him is very easy but save vault for either sprint or hook. In lane harass him with abilities/autos frequently and don't get near towers.
6
 Tassadar A lot of harass and shielding early game and a ton of damage mid-late game. In teamfights kite the archon out and focus him down depending on how the teamfights going for your team. In lane avoid Psi storm as much as possible and focus on trading when his shield is down.
6
 Uther At later levels this champion is hell to deal with, especially if they take sprint. Keep a good distance away from him and if he dies keep in mind his ghost form aswell. At 20 his Dstorm range is incredibly large so position accordingly, in lane just harass him constantly his mana pool goes away very quickly at low levels.
6
 Anub'arak Can either be a joke or extremely annoying, save vault for his E to out range him and his impale is rather easily juked, in lane he's just like most melees harass him with autos and dodge his CC. Post 10 and in teamfights he's very easy to deal with as long as you keep proper positioning.
6
 Kael'thas
7
 Zeratul Zeratul is a pretty big threat to valla, especially if he gets the jump on you. However if it's the other way around you should be able to win rather easily, be very aware of your surroundings and watch for stealthie shimmers. Try to vault his W if possible but most of the time that'll be his opening ability. Later levels your best hope is to strafe as soon as he opens on you and try to dodge one of if not both of his w's and use BFB to burst with strafe.
7
 Leoric
8
 Tychus Tychus is a rather large threat to valla, but it is a very skill dependent matchup. You should always save vault for his Q early game and avoid it completely, that's his best hope for out-trading you. Avoid as much poke as possible from his W and you should be fine. Later levels however you need to save Vault to dodge his W so he can't interrupt strafe, save BFB and any burst you have for Odin and hope you can burst him fast enough.
8
 Diablo Very annoying to deal with at level 10 and beyond because he can reliably always cancel your strafe and get a flip on you if he takes the slowing charge at lvl 16 however he's easily kitable and BFB really shits on diablos day because of his massively scaling hp pool.
8
 Brightwing Another very annoying champion because of polymorph, can always cancel your strafe unless you're patient and your team applys pressure properly allowing a polymorph to be forced. In lane poke her the best you can and watch out for envenom and you'll be fine.
8
 Raynor Does very suprising damage, focus on not trading with auto attacks when his W is up and keep him pressured with multi shot and Q.
9
 Kerrigan Kerrigan does a lot of non skill-shot damage but is beatable aslong as you arent 3+ levels down or anything like that, save vault for her combo not when she Q's. Also don't vault backwards, try to vault sideways and save your burst for after she combos.
9
 Illidan Depending on wether illidan is ahead or not he can be very easy or very hard to deal with. In lane save your abilities for when he evasions and save vault for after he q's do not run away from him at any point make sure you're putting damage on him at all times or he will always win. At post 10 watch out for the hunt in teamfights and make sure you're positioned back so illidan doesn't feel safe to ult onto you.
9
 Zagara The hardest lane matchup you'll ever deal with besides tyrael, avoid trading with her and just play safe you destroy her post 10 so just make sure you don't die until then. Post 10 safe vault for her ulti it'll be easily avoidable with good reaction time. Do not get close to her, her full combo + envenom can 100-0 you easily stay at range and harass her while avoiding skill shots.
9
 Chen Most annoying her to valla, can constantly stick on you. Less of a threat after panda pals nerf just drop rain when he tries to use it and you'll kill him.
9
 The Butcher
10
 Tyrael High Burst and long CC make tyrael a huge threat to you even with Spell Shield talented, proper positioning can help you not get intiated upon but it forces you to play very safe. Laning against him is also very difficult, until later levels he'll normally just out damage you however once you hit lvl 4-7 you can start trading back if you take Vampiric Assault to sustain up his burst. Depending on if the enemy team is ganking or not just play safe in this matchup and position yourself behind your peelers/healers in teamfights and you should be ok.

Valla

Build: Competitive Auto Build

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Level 4
Level 7
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Level 20

Valla

Build: Q Build

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Level 20

Valla

Build: Build for kiting/killing dive heroes

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Level 7
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Level 16
Level 20

Valla

Build: Tank killer

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Level 7
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Level 20

Valla

Build: Self Sustain/dueling build

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Level 4
Level 7
Level 10
Level 13
Level 16
Level 20

Valla

Build: Tanky valla.

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Level 4
Level 7
Level 10
Level 13
Level 16
Level 20

Valla

Build: W focused poke build

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Level 7
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Level 20

Valla

Build: Auto Attack Build w/ Bolt

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Level 7
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Level 20

Introduction of me. Top

Hello I'm Equinox and I'm the flex player and shotcaller for Murloc Geniuses, I've played quite a few games of heroes and have been in the pro/competitive scene for awhile now. I feel I'm pretty good with Valla so I decided to make a guide and share my thoughts and how to build/play her and the situational talent picks that you should think about. In heroes theres not just 1 build you always go so I tried to make enough points about other talent choices. Anyways hope the guide helps you and see you around in heroes.

Social media where you can ask me questions, checking out my stream, and my team.

https://twitter.com/EquinoxPLS
http://www.twitch.tv/jus_equinox

Power Spikes, and strengths/weaknesses. Top

Strengths:

Good Mobility
High Auto and Ability Damage
Good Poke
Slows down tanks and melee heroes
Good CC in tight areas

Weaknesses:
Requires decent positioning
No defensive Cooldowns pre 16/20
No jaina like burst

Power Spikes:

Big Spikes:
Level 10 - You get your ultimate, standard power spike for every hero.

Level 16 - Incredible survivability spike and burst spike via and/or .

Level 20 - Your highest damage/survivability power spike, makes your much more deadly, gives you another form of escape via , and makes you much safer because of allowing you to melt tanks and carries.

Medium Spikes:

Level 7 - gives you a rather big boost to your auto damage. gives you that amazing synergy with your abilities when you run W build, amazing poke and kiting potential once you get

Level 13 - Survivability/Damage power Spike via or . pairs very well with the level 1 talent and with / . is good for kiting tanks and melee heroes.

Small Power Spikes:

Level 1: : attack speed steroid. Makes your orb walking much smoother and pairs well with your later talent choices. another small power spike the core of the W build allowing for you to do safe damage

Level 4: , this tier gives you strong sustained damage. another good poke tool, just goes with composite arrows (the grenades get the range too)

Early, Mid, and Late Game focuses also an explanation on positioning. Top

Early Game:

Early Game is when you're most likely to get insta bursted in teamfights and when positioning is very important, but not AS important as late game this is also the "laning" phase of the game. As valla you're normally in a 2v2 or a 1v1 as far as laning goes and you should focus on avoiding harass and getting favorable trades in lane, valla is a champion that does extremely well when ahead on levels but can still do well while behind.

In the cases where you are behind early game because of a gank gone wrong, or just getting caught by cc you should focus on max ranging EXP and avoiding the enemy as much as possible depending on your lane matchup and level disadvantage you can play more or less safe. Always pay attention to the map and keep an eye on what lanes are MiA, on maps like Cursed Hollow avoiding lane harass is very important so you aren't low for tribs but that goes for every map you don't want to be chunked when a fight over an objective is going on.

When you're ahead early game you should try to push your advantage but do not play over aggressive or you'll lose your lead. Push trades in your favor but don't over extend for anything you aren't 100% sure about, when you're winning your lane be much more mindful of multi enemy ganks so if the lane your crushing starts playing aggressive it's a good idea to back off to make sure you don't get ganked. Overall her early game is pretty good but is very reliant on your own play and not so much your champions power.

Mid Game.
This is the point in the game where teamfights are more abundant and merc control is very important wether you're ahead, even, or behind will dictate how you play out the midgame.

When you're ahead you should stick with your team and focus on objectives, valla is very good at fighting over objectives because of her poke and high aoe damage. Like early game though, do not go into something you're not 100% sure about getting caught in the midgame can lead to objective losses.

When you're even you need to pick favorable engages and position properly, winning a teamfight can be decided on your positioning and targeting alone so it's important that you're not in a bad spot stick behind your tanks and next to your healers so that people can peel off of you and have room to kite back to you while you do the damage also be very mindful of what CC's they have and haven't used wether it be , , etc.. don't waste your ulti to early or you'll waste a lot of your potential like mentioned earlier it's very reliant on your own play and not so much your champions ability to do damage.

When you're behind is very tricky, make sure you check which talents the enemy has taken and play accordingly. If they have Spell Shield and you don't then you're not gonna be able to pull off your full burst like you would before (just an example ofcourse). But, alls you can do from behind is play your best and hope your team doesn't pick unfavorable engages.

Late Game:

Late Game to me is level 20+, and this is when your positioning and personal play really shines as valla. You can win a teamfight very easily by getting a good Rain of Vengeance off. Your main focus in late game is to live and make sure you do not waste your , a lot of vallas get very over confident because she's a very high damage dealer and that can easily get to your head.

Now, I mentioned positioning a lot in this section so I'll briefly go over what I mean by positioning.

Positioning is how you place yourself in a teamfight and/or in lane, it's important that you're always behind your tank and never to far up you're a very squishy target and easily killable so you should play back until the right moments. Most of the time during a teamfight you'll be kiting their frontline back and/or bursting their frontline with BFB, however if you're running a hard engage comp you need to position yourself next to your healers and near your engagers to get a favorable off (minding the enemy cd's and cc's ofcourse). Overall positioning is just placing yourself in a good spot so you're not a favorable target to get engaged upon unless the enemy wants to just die.

Valla's state in competitive and how you should play her. Top

State in Competitive.

Right now valla is a top tier pick, tied with sylvanas as far as power is concerned but valla offers different utility. She's very good at all points in the game, shes a safe hero if played correctly and is very good at area control and disengaging/tank killing. She has amazing poke and sustained damage there's really no downside to her other than no burst.

How to play valla in competitive.

Valla's most common build right now is either the Auto build w/ frenzy(listed under competitive auto build) or the W build (listed under competitive build up at the top) you want to play rather safe with her and just focus on poking and getting a good / off and maximizing your auto attacks, when you play valla you have to mind your positioning all the time because she is extremely easy to kill against good players because of her HP pool and lack of scary burst so people aren't afraid to all in you. For laning just focus on soaking and rotating to where your team needs you, you have rather good wave clear so being in lanes against things like hammer and nwWBO who want to push is ideal (in extreme situations like stacked lanes you want to get help)

As far as teamfighting your main priority is either poking or hurting their frontline and in some cases flanking their carries. If you're going multi-shot build you can poke before fights and lower the enemies hp/waste healing CD's, depending on your team comp popping a healers healing CD (for example Uthers holy light) you can use that window of opportunity to blow someone up so communicate that with your teammates. Another aspect is looking for an optimal or , if you're against a team comp that wants to run at you rain is better and you should use it as a counter engage/follow up. If you're against a team that can't reliably stop your strafe than go strafe and try to use it after the fight has started to get the most value out of it.

Situational Talent Picks

Picking this talent against frontliners like arthas, anub, muradin, and pretty much any warrior is extremely good, it allows your team to either blow them up or run past them into the enemies backline. Also pick this talent to follow up on ults like


Take this talent when you're going against a no CC or minimal CC comp, you can also take this if you're 1-2 levels up and want to close out the game.

Take this when you're going playing a comp that wants to brawl, allows you to destroy frontliners and duel carries.

Always take this talent when you're against heroes that can get on you or if you pick rain of vengeance and aren't using the auto build.

Final points. Top

Talents:

Talents are obviously situational, so I'll go over a few talents that I feel are good in certain situations.

I pick this talent when I'm very vulnerable to being killed, wether that means I have no support on my team or the enemy team has a lot of chase potential and hard engage. This talent is also a hard counter to tyrael because if you blink mid judgement cast it cancels the stun and the travel to your blink spot.

I pick this talent when my team has a long aoe slow , , or jainas which allows for a near 100% uptime on executioner.

Good talent against multiple tanks but frost shot is normally a more helpful option and with the power of imposing presence it won't be very effective.

Really solid talent against heroes that want to run at you like and I take this a lot in competitive and it can turn fights.

I pick this talent every time I go W build it allows you to burst harder and deal with frontline heroes without going auto build, I like it over because of imposing presence you won't get a lot out of it the later the game goes.

Final Words
This is my first heroes guide, so if you feel I need to include something that I didn't or if there's improvements I could make in how I go about writing things down feel free to say them. I enjoy writing guides so I'd like to get better at it as well. Thanks for reading and I hoped it helped you become a better Valla player.

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