I am Ferry (Equit) van der Schoor, 29 years old, an original cheese-head from The Netherlands.
Currently I am the Divisionleader of the EU HOTS Division in the ZealotGaming Community.
I've been playing Hots since Alpha and I thought it was time to write down my experience with Valla down here on HeroesFire.

You can find more info about me and the ZealotGaming Community at:





I know I am not the only one playing Valla. Truth be said, Valla might be the "easiest" and most played Hero and is never an bad pick.

Tho I concur that Valla is easy to learn, I also think that she is hard to master. In my opinion Valla is the best balanced Hero in the game and the most versatile. Every talent picked from every level can be used to make an very good and sustainable build.

This guide is meant to explain the difference between "Easy to learn" and "Hard to master".
It is also meant to bring you out-of-box thinking, considering all talents and what, in my opinion, the best combination of talents are in different groups and personal playstyle.

Valla is a Hero originated from Diablo 3, where they call her the Demon Hunter.
In HOTS as well as in Diablo3, Valla stands for high DPS, assassinating everything from the dark shadows with razor-sharp precision.

Valla is one the best translations from the original game to HOTS. Fast, accurate, loads of DPS, kite like no-one can and an asset in every single game.

That being said, let's talk about mastering this Hero.
Since Valla is an "easy-pick" because of her long range, high DPS output and escapes, that doesn't mean you put her to her fullest extend capable of.

Being an assassin you are meant to have lower HP, high Mana cost and an easy target. So the first thing you need learn, is to make use of your long range.
Keep your distance!
Enemy heroes like Illidan, Stitches, Zeratul and Jaina will try to down you asap, because you are an more potential threat than any other Hero in the game.

So before we pick an talent, what do you want to do?
Solo lane? Lane with an tank? Lane with an supporter? Heavy CC comp? Ranged comp?
Do I have an CC party or low dps party? Ranged party? Is Zeratul, Nova, Illidan, Stitches in the comp? Do we have an support hero in our team? etc. etc. etc...

I know it's a lot of questions... But!(No not butt....)
These questions SHOULD be asked to decide your first and last talent pick and be the best asset for your team!

Depending on the answers to those questions, you will be able to really outshine your entire team and demolish the competition.

I am not going to answer each question I stated, but I will answer them sideways by explaining the build's I've put in this guide.

Sidenote: All of these builds can be used on every single map. The only difference depends on your team and your enemy's team.

This build is meant to be used when the comp does not have heavy CC and have a few low HP heroes.
It also relies on the tank and CC in your team, tho this build is very good for solo laning as well.

As you can see, this build is all around Multishot and Strafe. The Multishot gives you the AoE needed clearing lanes and to damage all heroes in your line of sight. With the Frost Shot talent your Multishot really starts to shine since it now slows every target hit for 40% for 2 seconds!
This will really help to lock down any target you are chasing. The trick here is to stay behind your team with every teamfight.
With the Executioner Talent you will do a lot more damage to Heroes that received your Multishot, so strike your basic attacks and your Hungering Arrow at the enemy. After that, just use your E to Vault back behind your team.
Then you can shoot another Multishot to keep the enemy under control and because of Hot Pursuit you can keep up chasing them, or they don't keep up chasing you.

This is the moment to press that R button. With Strafe having a big radius, you down any hero in your circle now.
The moment Strafe ends, fall back behind your team again. Your Mana should be very low or depleted by now.
Because of your range you can still put your Basic Attack to work, but if you have any Mana left, don't waste it for Multishot or Hungering Arrow, keep it save to use your Vault for escape.

It doesn't benefit your team if you die along the way :-)

When you see that your team does not have an Support Hero or the enemy team has a lot of CC, or you are just Solo-queuing, i really recommend this build.

Your survive-ability will go skyrocket and since you are Valla, you will still be able to put a lot of DPS into the game.

This build is also meant if you cannot rely to much on your team and you play solo a lot throughout the game.
Siphoning Arrow gives 50% ! of the damage dealt by Hungering Arrow back as HP.
Since Hungering Arrow strikes 3 times, with the 2nd and 3rd time 50% damage compared to the first time, that's a lot of health returning to you. 66(+15 per level) dmg the first, and 33(+7,5 per level) for the other 2 shots, at level 20 that is 366 HP, just from that Hungering Arrow.

Vampiric Assault is just another bonus which adds good to the Hungering Arrow. You will have an sh*tload of HP returning to you in every single combat.

Since you are an Demon Hunter, Caltrops are so nice if you are being chased. They do some damage(minor tho), but every caltrop slows the enemy chasing you for 20% for 2 seconds! If they run over all 3 of them, that's 6 seconds of slow. No way you are still near that guy!
This slow can also be used in your advantage. How? Well the enemy should be right behind you, yes? Look back and press that R, Rain of Vengeance will unleash hell upon his head. because he is slowed like hell, he cannot run from it :-) On level 10, it will be around 300 damage, meanwhile you can shoot Basic Attacks on him regaining HP from it, use your Hungering Arrow and/or Multishot. No way any hero can survive that!

To make it even more viable just look at those other talents, gaining up to 30% of your damage to HP with Tempered by Discipline and another 15% from Blood for Blood, I cannot imagine you even dying once.
No Mana left? Just keep shooting those guys, your HP will come back to you. If the situation keeps getting more deary just use Vault and if you don't have any Mana left, well, then there's always that good ol' Bolt of the Storm(AKA Blink).

Many enemy's will be hating you now for not being able to down you.

Those words are not meant for good laughter, well at least they are for you having this build, but the enemy will be crying like baby's.
You shall not pass! Again these words are very true for this build. Offensive as well as defensive, this build will scare them all away from you.

In any game and any comp as of current Beta Version 35360, this build provides the best consistent DPS-output.
You can down any enemy Hero in no-time, due to the high stack of single target AA-build.
With Battle Momentum removed from Valla, the Multishot-build is becoming less viable than the AA-Build.

This build is to boost your Auto Attack instead of your abilities. So to get more DPS, we need more Attackspeed with Rancor at Level 1.
After that at Level 4 we take Manticore which gives you 50% extra damage on every third hit(So the third hit does 150% damage), stacks very well with the increased Attackspeed.
At Level 7 we get our most important Talent called Searing Attacks. This will allow your Basic Attacks to do 50% more damage for 5 seconds. Together with Rancor and Manticore the amount of burst damage you do is already insane.

Numbers
Level 1
Damage per AA hit: 28
Attackspeed: 1.67
Trait = Hatred: Max 10 (2% more damage per hit per Hatred Stack)
Talent Rancor: +1,5% APS per Hatred Stack

So at Level 1 when you have 10 stacks of Hatred your Damage per Hit will be 33.6 and your Attacks Per Second will be 1.9205. Which makes an total of 64.5288 Damage per Second. With most Heroes having not more than 750 HP, it will take you around 11 seconds Basic Attacks to kill them.

For Valla being a bit squissy with this build, I recommend Blood for Blood, so you will gain 15% of the enemy's max HP and Slow them for 30% for 3 seconds. This is an very usefull skill on targets like Illidan, or high HP Tanks like Muradin/Stitches/E.T.C.

I want to thank you all and hope it was a good read.

Please up vote if you think this guide was useful.
All constructive feedback is very much welcome.