Hi guys, PrimeWeapon here. We are going to go over my favourite hero of all time, The Lost Vikings. I've reached rank 1 playing mostly this hero. Now why did I main this particular hero you might ask? Well if you like RTS games that involve microing of multiple units such as Starcraft 2, then you'll love playing The Lost Vikings! I used to play Starcraft 2 for many hours everyday and have reached diamond for the first two seasons.

Here's proof of a win streak that I had as The Lost Vikings and rank 1 status :





The Lost Vikings is a high skill/reward hero that, in the right hands, can win games easily. A couple of important things need to be considered however. Namely:

1. Communication : Be patient with your team and communicate with them. If possible, discuss your strategy with them during hero select (eg: Sky Temple/ Every must fight for ONE of the shrines when they're up. I'll send Olaf to fight with you guys while the other vikings soak two of the lanes.)

2. The Map : The Lost Vikings can be played on any map, but the maps that should be avoided are Blackheart's Bay, Tomb of the Spider Queen, and Haunted Mines, only because you will have trouble holding onto the gems or doubloons on your vikings with low healthpool, and it would also be very difficult to manage going into the mines (eg: right-clicking into the mines, when your viking is standing at the entrance.) You want to pick big maps that will make your enemy team waste time running to their lanes and try to kill your vikings. From then on you are given a couple of choices, you could either use your Z mount Go Go Go! along with Jump! to try and escape from any ganks, or use your ult Play Again! and spawn all three vikings into a team fight and outnumber the enemy, while the enemy player that ran to the lane isn't in the team fight. On smaller maps like Battlefield Of Eternity, you would want to run Longboat Raid! since it is easier to get your vikings together.

3. Team Compositions : Try to get your team to pick heroes like Kael'thas or Jaina with AoE spells. If the enemy team gets them, then avoid playing The Lost Vikings (unless you're experienced with The Lost Vikings and know how to spread them out and use Jump!, then you can play them depending on your own judgment)

Baleog

Best lane pusher out of the three vikings as he can deal splash damage in a cone to enemy minions.

Olaf

This guy will be the tank and the fighter of the three vikings. He has the highest health pool,he is melee attack range, and is the only viking that has CC. At level 16, you can pick up Large and In Charge to upgrade your slow into a stun! You will also be sending this guy into team fights with your team while Erik and Baleog are soaking the other lanes. That way, your team will always have 5 members in a team fight and come out ahead in experience and fort numbers. Olaf's job in a team fight is to mainly peel for your carries.

Erik

The fastest out of the three vikings and has the longest attack range. Erik can quickly grab camps with Viking Bribery, and with a max of two stacks, you can instantaneously finish off a siege camp with Erik.

Skill Order

Level 1
Viking Bribery
This is a must! Take this skill at level 1. If your vikings are constantly pushing their lanes all game, you will gain stacks within seconds! Once you have two stacks of Viking Bribery, you can quickly finish off a siege camp with Erik alone, or you could send Baeleog to a bruiser camp with two stacks of Viking Bribery and finish off the remaining two bruisers. If you're soloing bruiser camps, make sure you use Viking Bribery on two of the tank bruisers and leave the mage and the last tank bruiser for Baleog to finish off with his AA.




Level 4
Mercenary Lord
Take this at level 4. It will make all your vikings tanky agaisnst minions and it will combo really well with the Viking Bribery talent you took at the start.

Optional:
Erik the Swift
I usually take Mercenary Lord, but Erik the Swift can be a good choice too. You can send Erik to the Siege camps faster with this, and enemy heroes will have an even harder time trying to kill this little dude. He will also have health regen as he's running.





Level 7
Spin to Win!
You should always take this skill at level 7! Can clear waves easily, and is very beneficial in team fights. If all three vikings focus on... let's say Kael'thas, and you use Spin To Win!, all three spins will stack their damage!





Level 10
When you are getting your ult, the first thing you must consider is, what map you are playing on. If you are playing on a large map ( Sky Temple, Dragon Shire, Cursed Hollow, Garden of Terror, Infernal Shrines) then take:
Play Again!
With this ult, you are just EVERYWHERE on the map. You can teleport all your vikings onto another living viking and make endless amounts of plays. You can use this to teleport into a team fight and turn the tide of battle around, or you can teleport all your vikings onto another one that is already pushing a lane, which forces the enemy to draw back and deal with the backdoor! Don't think of this ult as a skill used to revive back your vikings, but think of it more as a skill for you to teleport to places and make plays that will force your enemies to draw back. The versatility of this ult is just ridiculous, and the fact that a lot of people overlook this ult and think Longboat Raid! is better, don't know what they're in for!

Longboat Raid
However, the only map I would ever consider using this ult is on Battlefield Of Eternity, only because it is a smaller map than usual, and it is easier for your vikings to group together since Longboat Raid! requires for them to be together.





Level 13
Jump!
Always take this skill at Level 13! For 1.5 seconds, your vikings become invulnerable to everything! The only setback is the long cooldown of 30 seconds, so only use it when you're in a teamfight or when you're trying to dodge an AoE spell or stun.





Level 16
If you're taking Play Again!, take:
Impatience is a Virtue
Since you are taking Play Again!, you are going a split push build where you are constantly applying lane pressure throughout the game. This in turn forces your enemies to try and kill off any of your backdoor vikings. If this happens, you can use Play Again! to teleport them to another lane and push that lane hard with all three of your vikings, and with Impatience Is a Virtue, cooldowns on ALL of your skills will be reduced by 0.25 seconds each time your vikings basic attack.

If you're taking Longboat Raid! on Battlefield Of Eternity, take:
Large and In Charge
Since the map is smaller, you will be grouping your vikings for Longboat Raid!. After the ult ends, you are able to catch any fleeing enemies with Large and In Charge. Preferably, try to stun their squishies.





Level 20
Fury of the Storm
Always take this skill at level 20. This is your main damage output, and you will be dealing tons of damage when all three of your vikings focus on one enemy. Can also be very useful when you're split pushing, as it also deals splash damage to minions. This combined with Baleog can clear a wave of 20 minions within seconds!

Pros
- Able to soak multiple Lanes and put team ahead in experience.
- Can capture camps quickly with Viking Bribery, especially easy to get stacks if vikings are farming in each lane.
- If microed properly, can be very beneficial in teamfights, especially using Longboat Raid! to save your low health vikings or using Play Again! to bring all three of your vikings in a teamfight (as mentioned above in the Introduction) or to push another lane altogether.
- One of the highest output damage in the game if all three vikings focused on one hero with the talent Fury of the Storm
- Jump! makes it hard for enemy team to focus you down.
- You only give 25% death exp to the enemy team if they kill one of your vikings.
- Since the The Butcher patch, their death timer reduction trait has been removed. However, with Play Again! and the trait Impatience Is a Virtue, you can revive your vikings much quicker, and can even make versatile plays based on your judgment since they all revive and teleport to a location you choose next to a living viking.
- Team will love you if you win.


Cons
- Weak individually
- No hard CC( until lvl 16 when you get Olaf's stun Large and In Charge)
- Easy to get zoned out, especially by other heroes who push alot such as Zagara , Sgt. Hammer, Gazlowe, or Nazeebo. If this is a problem to you, communicate with your team and ask them to gank the lane for you.
- Vikings need to spread out in a team fight against heroes with AoE spells, otherwise they will get blown up if all clumped together.
- Skills need to be obtained through talent tree as you level up.
- Highest skill cap hero in the game
- Team will hate you if you lose.

It's important to know how you will position your vikings throughout the map, to garner as much exp as possible for your team, and more importantly, you must make sure that you help your team out with objectives such as clearing camps, pushing down forts, and securing any map objectives, all which must be done AT THE SAME TIME to maximize TLV's team effort efficiency.

Let's take a look at Sky Temple for example. A good large map for vikings.

PHASE 1
To start things off, you would want your vikings in this formation at the start of the game.

Olaf has to be in the middle so that he is able to run to other lanes and help if needed. His dash slow ability ( or stun at lvl 16) combined with his tankiness will be a great asset towards team fights and accomplishing objectives with the team. Erik will be bot and Baleog will be top at this time pushing their lanes. The reason why you are splitting your vikings in three lanes is because you want to soak as much exp as possible, push as far up to their forts, and collect ALL the regen globes (you should have at least 40 regen globes by level 20). Preferably, ask your team to push mid lane quickly while top and bot lanes are being soaked by Erik and Baleog.

PHASE 2
At this time, the first two shrines will be activated at top and mid. Ask your team to choose and fight for only ONE of the shrines, never go for both as this will separate your team into smaller numbers, and send your fighter, Olaf with the team. In our example here, we chose to go to top shrine. At this point, send Olaf to the top shrine together with the team and fight for it! Rotate Baleog to middle so he avoids the conflict and continues to push mid lane. For Erik, just leave him at bot for now. Rule of thumb when playing TLV, you should always rotate your vikings and let them push any uncontested lanes when a fight happens at any map objectives, and always let Olaf follow and fight with the team. That way, your team will always come out ahead in experience when both teams are capturing a shrine each. If you also happen to have stacks of Viking Bribery, you should use it to capture any SIEGE camps, especially if you have two stacks of Viking Bribery (eg. you could send Erik to a siege camp with two stacks of Viking Bribery and have him capture the Siege Camps instantaneously!)If you feel like you're experienced enough, you could use one of your other vikings that is nearest to the enemy contested shrine and try to harass them, and if possible try to pull them out. In other words, stall them until your team is done capturing their own shrine, then they can head to the other shrine if it's not finished shooting lasers yet.

PHASE 3

If bottom shrine is activated, rotate your other two vikings to the other free lanes and olaf down bot to fight for the shrine. If you have stacks of Viking Bribery, you can either use it on the siege camps near Erik or use it on two of the tanks at the bruiser camp near Baleog. Preferably, try to capture the camps nearest to the enemy base so that you prevent the enemy team from capturing their own camps.


This strategy can be pretty much applied to any map, but Battlefield Of Eternity. Please refer to Build #2 for this map for the talent order. Since the map is smaller than usual, Play Again! is kinda useless as it is only effective on huge maps for teleporting around. At the start, you would want to have your team lane either at top or at bottom along with Olaf, and your other two vikings on the other lane. When the immortals spawn, you should send Erik to the other lane and have him and Baleog soak lanes while Olaf is in the middle with the team trying to protect your immortal. When your immortal reaches half health and switches places, that's when you send your other vikings to fight together with Longboat Raid!! Just keep doing this strategy whenever the immortals are up.

Every time I play The Lost Vikings, I always hear comments of people telling me not to pick them, because they think The Lost Vikings are lacking in some way or another. They think The Lost Vikings can't team fight, that they have no damage, and that they have no viability. As you have read in this guide, none of that is true at all. They are overwhelming team fighters, vicious duelists, and pushers like no other that will put your team ahead all by themselves. They are highly underrated and I truly believe in my heart that with practice, The Lost Vikings are the best heroes in the game! They can truly do it all!

THANKS FOR READING