Getting Lost (The viking way) Top
Hello. Some of these points in the chapters will lend to repeating what is said here. But they are for the best. The ideal reason for this is to make a player guide based on the jungling aspects of the lost vikings. The ideal behind this group is of three types.
1.) Get lost.
Getting lost is not as easy as the Lost Vikings make it out to be. To get lost, you have to know the places where the enemy is, and where the enemy isn't. What many players think of is 'go where the enemy is'. What you have to do with the vikings is 'Go where the enemy is NOT'. Doing this, you lessen the amount of influence you have actively while taking on a passive role. The passive role turns into a more active role later at level 4, and then at level 13. Doing this, you make the enemies think less about you and more about the map instead. If you do this right, you can easily get lost everywhere while doing what you do best.
2.) Stick together.
The concept of 'splitting up the vikings' is very hard to micromanage. If you can't handle them separately at first, then it's suggested you stick together to get the best benefit from their pushing abilities. Olaf is meant to take hits from the towers while Erik pummels them and Baleog lessens the amount of resistance from enemy minions. Following this, you also have to keep them relatively together when getting lost in the jungle. Together, they can take down a mercenary camp with relatively fast speed. If you do this right, you can easily attain multiple camps under the enemies noses.
3.) Pillage and plunder.
When you manage to get a camp, go to lane with it. Send erik with the first camp you obtain before Baleog follows the second and Olaf with the third. This lets you get better management of each camp while also gathering XP from the lanes with the mercenaries being your pushing power. These let you fill in your role as a specialist. Not only taking camps with ease, but doing what other specialists can't do - Push three lanes at the same time. This will also make your enemies WASTE their time trying to stop the siege camps. But you have to learn one thing when making them waste their time.
4.) Continue?
The vikings play lesser than Murky. BUT murky does teach you that heroes like himself should not care if they die off. Much as Murky can do it better, The vikings can also do the same thing at a more normal degree. With 'The sequel' and 'Play again', these abilities let you worry less about dying and think more about wasting the enemy team's time. In doing so, your job as the multi lane pusher is just that. 'Waste their time and press continue'.
5.) Trust in the vikings.
One last thing is knowing when to forego their Q and W choices and go with their traits of 'Baleog the fierce' and 'hunka burning olaf'. These abilities are abilities that will let you clear camps even faster and let you worry less about jungle clear time. Doing this, you can also manage them easier by learning that you are more busy being active with switching between the vikings on the field of combat and keeping map awareness. These elements make you feel more active in the game, rather than relying on pressing Q or W and calling it a day.
But after I have finally gotten these points across, this is the strategy I came up with for myself. You're welcome to try it (or ignore it) at your own will. But just know that these are simply how I have grown comfortable with the lost vikings.
Early game phase. (Level 1 - 10) Top
The early game phase is rather simple. How you play from here defines how you play through the rest of the game.
The early phase from how I play is playing the vikings together in one lane all at once. However, this only works if you take a solo lane doing so. The hardest thing to manage is how to handle the game when playing them. My advice would most likely be 'Don't split them up' if you can help it. It's better to have them together in one place than in multiple places straining your focus.
1st level requires you take explosive attacks, so your attacks can fully damage all enemies in an area each time.
This will help you push the lanes up while back and forth with the enemy. Soak up XP proper, then find a good time to split off from the lane.
This opportunity presents itself at level 4. Here, you take the second trait 'mercenary lord'. This allows you the ability to solo camps around that time. Whereas other heroes can most likely do it better at level 1, you can do something they can't. You can capture multiple camps faster and follow them in lane. Doing this, you use Olaf as the damage soak, and baelog hits all enemies from afar. Erik should provide a faster clear for hitting whichever mercenary olaf is beating on.
Afterwards, you do something I think you'll find me crazy for. While the camp is about to head out, send Erik to follow it before sending Olaf and Baelog to go at another camp. If you're capturing enough camps (and gaining enough health orbs for higher health regen) you should be able to handle going from one camp to the next with ease. It will take longer, but they can capture a camp by themselves and accompany it themselves down another lane separate from Erik's own.
Doing this, you have the pushing power of camps whose powers are increased by 50%. With how the lost vikings are designed, you can split push two or three lanes at once with one camp at each lane pushing with you.
Taking Baleog the fierce at level 7 will help you clear the camps faster. The reason I say this is because I work off of playing them without taking their abilities. Here, you can still take spin to win and jump if you want, but I recommend going for wave clear over abilities. This also means being more thoughtful of focusing on where to place your vikings rather than what their abilities do.
However, the one thing I will agree on (besides their resurrection ultimate) is the longboat. This lets you help in team fights exponentially, and it can keep you alive long enough to help. But this is all i have for the early game of level 1 to level 10.
The Play again ultimate (if one wishes to go for more map presence than team fight) is best suited for getting your vikings up faster and makes room for a level 20 choice I have been corrected on.
Mid Game Phase. (level 11-20) Top
Level 11 to 20 is going to be another doozy.
Again. My prefered playstyle is worrying more about using keys 1 2 3 and 4 instead of Q W E. I save R for when I have to be in a team fight or if I have to resurrect my vikings in a spur of the moment.
Level 13 is when you take the trait 'hunka burning olaf'. This allows your olaf to clear out the waves for you faster with Baleog. Either that, or he can take a camp by himself without worry. I would recommend doing this only after getting your second camp with Baleog's help. Then there's 'Large and in charge', a very good trait, with the ability to stun a target in a team fight or in the mercenary camps. But this is definitely a must get for overall performances.
Now the reason I say 'don't get jump' is because you're NOT suppose to be afraid of dying as the vikings. In fact, treat them like MURKY! Even if they die, they'll just get back on the wagon. And to make this all the more prominent, you take 'The sequel' at level 20 to assure that. 'The Sequel' allows your death timers for each viking to be cut entirely in half. This means less waiting time on the vikings being back in action. If that isn't fast enough for you, take their resurrection ultimate over their longboat instead. Your team fighting power will take a hard hit, but you can make up for that with its level 20 upgrade to get back in the fight after 2 seconds and then some. This means you can throw the vikings at your opponents without worry for up to 10 seconds.
this is also a good thing when pushing down the enemy nexus. When it's about to go under, throw up your 'play again' ultimate, and let it be your return point for 10 seconds instantly while pushing the enemy nexus down. This means you can ultimately shake off death without fear long as you have that lovely 'play again' statue up and running.
The other option, if one wishes to forego the play again second upgrade, is viking force of the storm. Not only does this make jungling with the vikings faster, but also more efficient. This can also allow you to handle the boss camp all the more faster from level 20 to beyond. But fighting a boss camp is really its own chapter.
So in any retrospect, the idea with these vikings is quite simple yet complex at the same time.
But I worry it might only be simple for me.
Boss camps, Split pushes, and More. Top
Now you're asking yourselves. How can the vikings solo a boss camp by themselves? two words. Mercenary Lord.
This underrated talent treats the boss camp as a mercenary camp in terms of 1/2 damage from camps of such. Thus, you treat the vikings as 3 normal champions with their own specialties in that regard. But how to take the camp is another thing entirely.
1.) start off with Olaf. Olaf can take a good chunk of the boss camps damages at any given time. Just make sure to weave him in and out of high damaging area of effect attacks that may come by. This goes for Baelog, as he'll be the second requirement for handling the boss monster.
2.) Switch Olaf with Baelog intravenously. When Olaf is about to go under, back him out, and make room for Baelog to handle the damages from the boss monster. When he's low enough, Olaf can be able to get back into the fight soon after with 3/4ths of his health back. Make sure to keep the vikings back and forth doing this.
3.) Level 16 is the target. Make sure to ingrain this into your memory. Keep up the split push for a good while until level 16 or so. If you're having trouble split pushing, then handle the boss camps when you feel you're ahead. This can only work if your team is able to push the enemy back to give you breathing room.
4.) Teams are a MUST. The real strength of the vikings worth is how the other members of your team 'work together the viking way'. If your team can help give you breathing room to give you jungle camps then you can always expect a pushed up lane. Their job is to give you the xp advantage and push advantage in multiple lanes at once. The team's job is to give the breathing room for handling it. So that means team compositions are very dependant.
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