Hey there!
I'm CrimsonFlood and have followed HOTS since maybe summer 2014, and started playing other MOBAs at that time just to prepare for this awesome game :D This will also be my first guide, so plz let me know what you think of it (= (and please excuse any typing or grammar errors, I'm no native speaker)
I mainly play support or cc-heavy warriors, but there are a few damage dealers I also like. Valla is one of them, and I have tried the following build about 40 times now and found it useful most of the time. The goal of it is to deal very high sustained damage. You wont be able to burst ppl down in 2 seconds, but if you stay in a teamfight for about 10-20 seconds you should be able to wipe their whole team - just by positioning carefully picking your target and - finally - right-clicking on it :) So let's get going.
Level 1
-I always pick
Rancor here, as we are going for a right click build. This builds up your attack speed quite a bit. If you don't like this talent, you shouldn't try to make it a right click build.
Level 4
-Most of the time, I go for
Vampiric Assault here, because it gives you more flexibility. You need the lifesteal to do camps on your own, you can heal up by laning and you have higher sustain in 1v1 duels.
-Another option here would be
Manticore, as it gives you a nice damage boost, but this makes you dependant on heals/shields from your team. Also, jungling alone is not an option with this one.
So, in Solo Quickmatches, I definitely prefer the lifesteal, with a well coordinated team you can also pick the extra damage.
(Again, the other 2 options aren't bad, they just don't fit to a right click build)
Level 7
Again, there are 2 viable choices here.
-I prefer
Battle Momentum. In combination with your trait and its upgrade, you can spam your Multishot in teamfights and have your ult roughly every 30-40 seconds.
-You could also argue for
Searing Arrows to give you some heavy burst, BUT Valla is already very mana-hungry, so by choosing this you would get a lot less multishots in when they're needed. Again, this build doesn't focus on the highest burst, but on high sustained damage, and I find that battle momentum just gives too much utility to skip it.
Level 10
Rain of Vengeance is definitely the better option here. Reasons for that are:
+ you get some desperately needed Crowd Control (use it to interrupt Nazeebos Ultimate, or to slow/ lock some enemies in place. You can also use it as an espace; thanks to battle momentum, clearing a wave of minions with your auto attacks should refresh its cooldown)
+ you can still use your deadly auto attacks after using Rain of Vengeance.
+ you can soften up your opponents with it
+ it doesn't draw as much attention on you as the other ult, which is good. You are squishy, you don't want to get attention.
+ you get out MORE of it when you hit multiple enemies with it, whereas the other ult becomes less effective with every enemy in its radius
So, I basically already said why you shouldn't pick
Strafe, but concluded:
- it prevents you from auto attacking
- it draws a lot of attention
- it's practically useless when your enemies are clumped up, as the damage is randomized on all opponents in range (including minions)
(the only thing useful on it is its range. But we will have all the range we need at lvl 20)
Level 13
This is a tough one.
-I usually go for
Giant Killer because it's the death of enemy tanks and it compensates for the fact that we have often chosen utility before damage so far.
-
Frost Shot gives you a very good slow, making it easier to escape and / or reposition. As the rest of your team also profits from that slow, you should generally prefer this one over
Hot Pursuit, which can give you more movability, but 1. only for you and 2. only at full stacks.
-
Tempered by Discipline is propably the worst. The extra lifesteal increases your dueling ability, making it possible for you to 1on1 nearly everybody (even Thrall!), but you should be fine without it, too. Also, you need even more hatred-like stacks to get going with it, as it only kicks in after you hit something 10 times. I would only consider this one if you didn't go for
Vampiric Assault at Level 4.
-
Spell Shield can be useful when you get focused by an enemy Nova all the time, but that's really the only situation I can think of where it is useful. It really isn't otherwise. A lot of damaging abilities also slow you, so you should try to shoot from a safe spot -> not suck up several enemy abilities in the first place.
Level 16
-
Blood for Blood is unquestionably the best option here. It gives you an instant health boost if you desperately need it, it does a % amount of damage (useful for engaging tanks) and it SLOWS! (you remember that you lack CC? Well, not anymore =P )
-
Executioner can be picked if the rest of your team offers all the CC you need and you are expected to deal the damage for them.
-
Stoneskin on Valla is just bad. It's like a worse version of
Blood for Blood, just without the damage and the slow on enemies. Also, Valla's health pool is always very small, so a shield that scales with your maxHP is useless.
-
Tumble is also not as useful as one might think. It doesn't allow for instant recast of Vault, you still got 1 second cooldown after the first one or so (which really is the worst), so it is NO safe escape. Also, if you picked
Battle Momentum before, your cooldown on vault should not be that high anyway. There are really not many situations where this talent helps you to escape certain death.
Level 20
Valla has gotten a lot of tempting options here, and you should definitely adapt to the situation with this one. But the goal of this build is to be able to go for
-
Nexus Frenzy. This one gives you 20% more attack speed, which scales incredibly well with
Hatred,
Rancor and
Giant Killer, AND it gives you 20% more range, allowing you to stay out of enemy fire most of the time. When they focus you, just vault back and reengage the closest target afterwards - it won't live for long. When the rest of your team is able to stay alive for a bit, you can pick the enemy off piece by piece.
-
Bolt of the Storm is also a good option. It doesn't make you as deadly, BUT you get a certain escape. When you have faith in your skills, you can also just use it to reposition as soon as you take damage and snipe the enemy down from another angle. It is more difficult to use and leaves you a little weaker in teamfights, but it can save your *** over and over, and staying alive also increases your overall damage output (especially when you're the main damage dealer in your team).
-
Storm of Vengeance is the worst option here, and it really doesn't hurt to leave this one out. The shadow beast waves fire in intervals that have small breaks between them. Most of the time, the enemy gets out of the area after one wave, sometimes after the second wave (which is okay - you can get in free hits on them with your auto attack as they move). But when they're not rooted or new to the game, the 3rd and 4th wave will never hit an enemy hero, and for a zoning tool the area of effect isn't really big enough, so you propably should not pick this one.
There's not much left to say which I didn't cover in the other sections, so I will just throw in a few hints on how I think this build should be played
+ you are squishy and your burst isn't the best, so you should try to avoid 1on1s early on.
+ when in lane, attack a few minions before you go nuts on the enemy heroes to build up your damage, movement and attack speed.
+ you are mana-hungry as hell, so save your abilities for teamfights over objectives, especially early game. Also, go back to base when you're completely out of mana, if possible. (with this build, you don't really need mana to deal damage, but you need it to stay alive.)
+ you can use
Multishot to clear waves faster and a combination of
Multishot and
Hungering Arrow to increase your damage in teamfights, but try to always save some mana for
Vault - you never know when you need an escape.
+ only use
Vault to chase a kill when you are absolutely sure that you're not running into an ambush. Your damage is dealt over time, and you won't have time when you get focused by 2-3 members of the enemy team and you already burned your escape skill.
+ this build gets a lot of momentum at level 13/16. Play very careful until then.
+ your lifesteal allows you to tolerate hits from one enemy, but as soon as you get focused hide behind your tank/move out of their range before reengaging. DON'T play the tank for your team only because you have lifesteal. Don't rely on your lifesteal to keep you alive; better see it as a possibility to heal up in lane after a fight, or as a nice little gimmick to help you jungle.
+ don't hesitate to use your ultimate for escaping. Sometimes you can reengage after a successful escape, and your main source of damage is your auto attack. Also, thanks to your improved trait and
Battle Momentum you should have a lot of cooldown reduction. Basically, it's like this: When you use your ult and get away, everything is fine. When you use your ult and don't get away, you have at least dealt some final damage, and when you revive your ult should nearly be ready to use again - there's no purpose in saving it for "later".
+ guess this one is true for every assassin: focus on enemies that are out of position, and in teamfights, go for their squishy damage dealers first, then the healers. The tanks can wait. Also, you should be as far away from the enemy you are attacking as possible, because the longer YOU stay alive, the longer you can dish out damage to your opponents >:'D
+ don't chase kills while doing an objective with your team! They propably need the damage you offer, and an enemy that flees with low health is also a victory as long as you're able to claim an important objective.
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