Valkyrie - Item build

[coyye]

http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/heroes/103/icon_128.jpg
Introduction - Valkyrie
Spending some time reading through this part of the forum I see that there is no proper guide for Valkyrie. Just a massive wall of text about the hero, not about a proper item build or gamestyle. Hence I though that I would do a shorter version with more focus on gamestyle and item build. I will not go through all hero spells since I figure you all have tried it out at least once. For full hero info please see; http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/heroview.php?hid=103 (http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/heroview.php?hid=103)


Short History
As probably most of you know, Valkyrie is a more or less an entire copy of the DotA hero Miranda (PotM). Playing her is not a walk in the park, her skills is not the easiest handeled but if done correctly it can be the best roaming hero in the game. I would define Valkyrie as a semi-carry/support-carry with that said I don't mean that she's not able to carry. I simply mean that there's many other heroes more fit to act proper carry.


Hero Stats
Str: 17 + (1,85/lvl)
Agi: 20 + (2,75/lvl)
Int: 17 + (1,65/lvl)

strenght point
+19 Max Health
+0.03 Health Regeneration

Agility point
+1 Damage
+1 Attack Speed
+0.14 Armor

Intelligence point
+13 Max Mana
+0.04 Mana Regeneration

Gamestyle - Start
In the start many recommend to buy a bottle and go mid. I say otherwise.
First items should be 2x duck boots + 1 health potion + 2 mana potions and start on a lane with a hero that can be able to handle it by him self. Hence gamestyle should be very agressive. When reached level 3-4 the Roaming should begin, by this time you should have farmed your bottle + boots.


Gamestyle - Roaming
As stated above I would say that if played correctly this is the best roaming hero out there. But what do I actually mean by 'Roaming Hero' ?
Per definition I would say a hero that focus more on ganks than laning. The most difficult part about Valkyrie roaming part is to calculate proper arrows in heat of the action. A well marked arrow can stun an enemy up to 5 seconds. That's a long time. And with her leap ability she can instantly be there.

Another imporant thing playing Valkyrie is to be able to use the map terrain in the best way possible. A level 4 leap can shorten the way to a gank/kill and also be vital in the escape of a gank/lost fight.


Gamestyle - Late game
Valkyrie is not a very good late game hero. She has her glory moment in early/early-midgame/midgame. Now people will think/say "You're wrong! she's awesome!", well No, she isn't. With a really imba farm, of course she's awesome late, which hero isnt?!. But there's other heroes that are much better late without an huge farm. Of course she can still be a vital part in the team with her arrows she can initilize an attack from distance taking out one enemy from the team fights. All over she's a very nice team hero.


http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/heroes/103/ability2_128.jpg
Arrowing
As I mentioned - the most difficult part about a well played Valkyrie is the arrowing. If you've played pudge/devourer before you got hint about it.
The trick is to aim the arrow where they should be in compare to where they started. A bit dull, I know. But that's the art of arrowing. My best recommendation is not to stay in the lane visable for the enemy, always stay in the shade so that he don't know that you are near. Also wait for the right moment..
A good example is that if the enemy push a lane, wait until the last of your creep is dead and he starts to go back. Aim the arrow to where he should be based on the position that he started. It's not the easiest task in the start but don't be afraid to try.


Skilling



Before placing the skills take a overlook over the team. Since I recommend that you play agressive with Valkyire my recommendations is the following;
Javelin
Valkyries Call
Valkyries Call
Leap
Valkyries Call
Javelin
Valkyries Call
Javelin
Leap
Javelin
Leap
Leap
Stats
Prism
Stats
Stats
Stats
Stats
Stats
Stats
Stats
Stats
Stats
Prism
Prism
Thought
Well, as I said. Damage is the key. The Valkyries Call is damn imba at start dealing 300 dmg to all surrounding units lvl 7 is ~half HP for basically all Support heroes. And since the Javelin stun is not lvl based you don't have to level it full directly. Some might say that you want to skill stats earlier in order to get some points up, but with the proper item build that's not the prio.

Items
Many like to get bottle as first item but I don't recommend that at all. Only for a solo mid hero I would consider it. You only have 50% chance of it spawning near your lane and then you have 4-6 different heroes to compete with = not too good odds and leaving your lane for ~1-2min early is not recommended XP wise also if you fail to get the first 2-3 runes you most likely run out of charges before you will be able to take on = return to base = lose XP = bad = sadface





Starting items:

2x duck boots
2x mana potions
1x health potions
1x runes of...
With this setup you will not run out of regeneration in the start making it easy to farm your boots and bottle before lvl 5. Get em and start roaming!






Next step (2):

Upgrade the duck boots to Soulscream rings
Upgrade boots to enhanced marchers
Keep the roaming up! Get them runes and kill kill kill!

Next step:
Based on the setup of the heroes in your team and especially the opposite team I most recommend you to think twice and not have a standard item build. I will make recommendations of a two different builds that both are good after step 2.






Suggestion 1:

Get two quickblades
Get Apprentice robe
Upgrade to nullfire blade
Playing some public I notice nearly nobody get this awesome item. The nullfire blade attack drains 20 / 36 Mana from target. When activated dispels a target, removing buffs and applying Dispelled if it is an enemy or simply removing debuffs if it's an ally. This item can be upgraded once.





For example it removes Jeraziah's repel - Hence a most have item when playing vs Jeraziah. Also it slows down the enemy make it easy to hunt down. Also insta kill magical units.

Get Slash
Buy a Blessed Orb
Upgrade to Geometer's Bane
After Geometer's bane you can get Wingbow, Riftshards (upgrade to Flayer) or Savage Mace. Basically any good damage item. A full item build could like something like this; (Note this requires crazy farm! ;-))

Enhanced Marchers
Nullfire Blade
Geometer's bane
Wingbow
Flayer
Savage Mace
Suggestion 2:

Get a War Hammer
Get Gloves of the swift
Upgrade to Thunder Claw
This is a really good and quite cheap farming item. Really good if you face heroes with skills to create minions or just need damage.

Get a Warpcleft
Upgrade to Charged Hammer
An upgraded version of the Thunder Claw with more damage and a massive attack speed boost. From this point you can get the same build as the end of Suggestion1.
Wingbow, Riftshards (upgrade to Flayer) or Savage Mace.





Basically any good damage item. A full item build of this suggestion;

Enhanced Marchers
Charged Hammer
Wingbow
Flayer
Savage Mace
x (free of choice..)
I left the last one out since this requires even more farm than the first suggestion and you got crazy attack speed and damage. A good suggestion here would be to get a Heart for HP reg or just go crazy and get another Wingbow.




Personal build - with good farm
If I have a good start farm. (~farming 2k gold in less than 13-14min) I would get Post haste insta. With Post haste boots you can farm anywhere at anytime and be 'there' to gank all over the map. Having a Valkyrie with post haste early game is a pain in the ass for the opposite team, I can promise you that.

My all over personal build would look like something like this;





early game:

Post Haste
2x Soulscream rings
1x Bottle
From here I usually go Nullfire blade since it's always a good item, ALWAYS!

2x quickblades
1x Robe
Upgrade to Nullfire
The beauty of upgrading to Geometer's Bane is that if you are an good Micro person (a player that can handle many units simultaneously) is that you can do alot of funny tricks. For e.g. if you use the shades if you are followed by enemy units you can create the images and just run another way with one and fool 'em to use spells and waste mana etc. = easy targets for the team. Also you drain mana with the images as well.





Favourite full build:

Post Haste
Nullfire Blade
Geometer's Bane
Wingbow
Flayer
Savage Mace
Final words
I choose not to add the Post Haste in any of my suggestions since you do not normaly farm that good early game and because of that it's better for your ganking possibilties to get Enhanced Marchers.

Hope that this inspired someone out there to try it out and that you've found something usefull in this wall of text..

Remember to think twice before building and not to mix up orb effects. Take a moment and read about the skills before buying and don't be afraid to mixure it up a bit. After all we're all doing this for the fun of it - right ? : -)

Take care!

[ForumTroll]

Personally I prefer a shield breaker more than savage mace, the armour reduction greatly makes up for the lower damage, especially if you have a team that isn't purely magic damage.


And definitely where you say "I left the last one out since this requires even more farm than the first suggestion and you got crazy attack speed and damage. A good suggestion here would be to get a Heart for HP reg or just go crazy and get another Wingbow."
A shield breaker would be a much better option than a second wingbow (you don't get the 2nd lot of evasion) or some HP regen (which you don't need when you can just leap away).

[fdf_gekido]

i prefer to max out arrow and call(maxing out arrow before call) sometimes even before betting leap once to get massive burst.
as far as item, i like S&Y for the xtra hp move speed and slow and then depending on who ur up against either lifeleech or nullfire

[coyye]

i prefer to max out arrow and call(maxing out arrow before call) sometimes even before betting leap once to get massive burst.
as far as item, i like S&Y for the xtra hp move speed and slow and then depending on who ur up against either lifeleech or nullfire

S/Y Is not a very good item for Valkyire imo. Too much for too little.

[coyye]

Personally I prefer a shield breaker more than savage mace, the armour reduction greatly makes up for the lower damage, especially if you have a team that isn't purely magic damage.


And definitely where you say "I left the last one out since this requires even more farm than the first suggestion and you got crazy attack speed and damage. A good suggestion here would be to get a Heart for HP reg or just go crazy and get another Wingbow."
A shield breaker would be a much better option than a second wingbow (you don't get the 2nd lot of evasion) or some HP regen (which you don't need when you can just leap away).

Then you mix orb effects...

[fdf_gekido]

S/Y Is not a very good item for Valkyire imo. Too much for too little.
i dont agree, move speed, att speed, hp and a slow effect+a bit of dmg
it give you the hp you need early game not to get killed within 2 secs by stun+spells and the ability to pursue when it procs

[dreamex]

i dont agree, move speed, att speed, hp and a slow effect+a bit of dmg
it give you the hp you need early game not to get killed within 2 secs by stun+spells and the ability to pursue when it procs

304 HP and 12 damage for 2250 gold is a bit of a stretch tbh.

The Slow is near useless with valkyrie, a hero who sets up ganks with her stun and has massive move speed with her leap. She's a strong ganker and she should have teammates that can assist the gank beyond her initial stun and she should be building items to improve her end game dps rather then an item that provides minor chasing benefits in order to solo certain heroes.

Slash is alright on its own and builds into Geometer's Bane now so that's all gravy. That said, Nullfire is much more valuable in most games as your first item. It affords a much more reliable slow and allows you to purge valuable buffs from the enemy.

Hack&Slash like its dota equivalent is the mark of a pubby item. People justify it as an "all around item" because they get used to having to solo people in pubs due to lack of team work.

Valkyrie is a ganker and in a good team she won't need the slow and there are other items she could be getting for more HP and damage for the gold.

[coyye]

304 HP and 12 damage for 2250 gold is a bit of a stretch tbh.

The Slow is near useless with valkyrie, a hero who sets up ganks with her stun and has massive move speed with her leap. She's a strong ganker and she should have teammates that can assist the gank beyond her initial stun and she should be building items to improve her end game dps rather then an item that provides minor chasing benefits in order to solo certain heroes.

Slash is alright on its own and builds into Geometer's Bane now so that's all gravy. That said, Nullfire is much more valuable in most games as your first item. It affords a much more reliable slow and allows you to purge valuable buffs from the enemy.

Hack&Slash like its dota equivalent is the mark of a pubby item. People justify it as an "all around item" because they get used to having to solo people in pubs due to lack of team work.

Valkyrie is a ganker and in a good team she won't need the slow and there are other items she could be getting for more HP and damage for the gold.

Indeed.

However I see fdf_gekido's way of thinking. From a public playing perspective the S/Y is tempting but it's not an optimal item for Valkyire in any way. The HP you claim to get can more or less be achived by 2 bracers.

[ForumTroll]

Then if you think about it, most people reading these guides almost only play pub, as the experienced players don't need a guide.... So what is wrong with recommending a pub-item for pub-players? :)




Then you mix orb effects...

And I'm not sure what you meant by this.

[TerranEarth]

I would suggest getting prism earlier for invis. It has really good utlity if use right. I think maxing out call or jav first depends on situations. If I'm laning I go jav first, but if I'm soloing I go Call first. This is because jav can be spammed in lane early, and if I'm soloing I have bottle for mana issues + runes. I would probably only max out call first in lane if there is glacius on my team w/ aura. I basically agree w/ item choices, but I'd work in a point booster since treads got gimped, just for the extra hp.

[dune]

Good guide, I like it a lot, though I would definitely put a good word in for levelling up Prism at some point earlier, the decrease in fade time is a Godsend.

[CronoDroid]

I believe orbs stack in this game, I could be wrong but I'm sure someone will enlighten us.

[dune]

I believe orbs stack in this game, I could be wrong but I'm sure someone will enlighten us.

All orbs stack from items except for Frostwolf and Shieldbreaker IIRC.

The only other ones that don't stack are with hero abilities.

[coyye]

Then if you think about it, most people reading these guides almost only play pub, as the experienced players don't need a guide.... So what is wrong with recommending a pub-item for pub-players? :)





And I'm not sure what you meant by this.


In DotA you can't mix orb effects, e.g. Shieldbreaker is an orbeffect. And if you already have Charged hammer as one they will fail to work together.

[fdf_gekido]

personally i dont take prism till late game i find it cost too much mana that u could use to shoot ppl

[Meebs]

In DotA you can't mix orb effects, e.g. Shieldbreaker is an orbeffect. And if you already have Charged hammer as one they will fail to work together.

In HoN orbs are split up differently, there is no 'general' orb effect, just specific ones like a lifesteal orb effect.

[k1desu]

In DotA you can't mix orb effects, e.g. Shieldbreaker is an orbeffect. And if you already have Charged hammer as one they will fail to work together.

you can use skadi since the orb effect of charged hammer isn't active all the time, so skadi orb is ignored for that single orb effect of charged hammer when it triggers