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This guide is pertinent to patch 2.0.30
Valkyrie
Range: 600
Stength: 17 + 1.85
Agility: 20 + 2.75
Intelligence: 17 + 1.65
Movement Speed: 300
Armor: 1.8
Damage: 38-49
The ancient sagas of the heathen north have long told to the tale of the battle-women known as Valkyries. For centuries, their ranks have thinned as the old ways have died out and civilization stretched its smothering hand over the frozen wilds. But some Valkyries still remain, cold and swift as the north wind, wielding their lances with expertise to rival the most veteran Legion warriors.
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Alt-Tab Mini Guide
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Use this as a quick reference if you are in game.
Table of Contents:
- Introduction
- Pros and Cons
- Skills
- Recommended Skill Build
- Recommended Items
- Strategy
- Skill Usage
- Good Allies
- Heroes to Watch Out For
- Replays
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Introduction
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Valkyrie, aka Priestess of the Moon in DotA is a very powerful and versatile hero who is in my opinion, one of the most fun and powerful heroes to play. Valkyrie has one of the most diverse skill sets in HoN, which makes her useful in just about any team makeup.
Valkyrie is as strong solo as she is strong as a lane partner. Valkyrie is also one of the few heroes that people use in their trilane strategies to go solo in a sidelane because of her strong escape mechanism and can get occasional creep kills with her long range.
Valkyrie is a safe pick who can fill just about any role and lineup in HoN depending on how you play her. Valkyrie can gank, carry, and initate for your team. In this guide, you'll learn all about playing this extremely fun hero!
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Pros and Cons
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Pros
- Call of the Valkyrie is a powerful Area of Effect nuke which makes her a great farmer and pusher.
- Javelin of Light potentially is one of the longest stuns in the game in terms of duration and has extremely long range.
- Courageous Leap provides Valkyrie with an escape mechanism.
- Valkyrie's Prism can give her allies perfect positioning and initiation in teamfights or serve as a escape mechanism from anywhere on the map.
- Valkyrie has long range which helps her stay clear from Area of Effect spells and give her lane presence.
- Valkyrie is extremely mobile.
- Valkyrie's high Agility gives her the power to carry into the late game.
Cons
- Valkyrie's Prism can be nullified completly by invisibility detection, and can actually be bad for your team if you approach the enemy team thinking that you are not visible.
- Javelin of Light can be hard to land if your enemies have good awareness.
- Valkyrie is extremely susceptible to nukers, disablers and silencers and is one of the more fragile heroes in the game if not given the chance to react.
- Valkyrie is ineffective in the later stages of the game without strong farm.
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Skills
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Call of the Valkyrie
Hotkey: Q
- Call of the Valkyrie is your Area of Effect nuke which lets you farm, push, and kill heroes.
- Call of the Valkyrie is one of the most powerful basic spells in terms of burst damage.
- Call of the Valkyrie may be used to harass your enemies in lane, however try and time it so that you can get some creep kills alongside damaging enemy heroes.
- Call of the Valkyrie does not damage any units that aren't in vision, even if they are within the Area of Effect.
- You want to be nearby your target when you cast Call of the Valkyrie so that they take the extra damage. But this is not an absolute necessity; don't put yourself in a risky position if you are unsure whether you're safe or not. It's better to keep your distance rather than be an easy target.
- A useful way to visualize the range of Call of the Valkyrie is by judging whether or not you are able to auto attack your target or not. If not, then they might just barely be out of range but if they are, then you know it will hit.
- Later in the game when heroes health pools are high and this damage is negligible, you will be using Call of the Valkyrie primarily to clear creep waves quickly.
Javelin of Light
Hotkey: W
- Javelin of Light is one of the most powerful spells in the game; this skill can be the deciding factor between winning and losing a team fight.
- Javelin of Light's stun duration is based on how far the Javelin has traveled. Try and use this at a moderate distance from your target if you are able to do so. The duration of the stun is increased by .5 seconds for every 150 units the Javelin of Light travels, up to a maximum of 5 seconds at 1500 range.
- Javelin of Light provides vision for you and your allies in an 800 Area of Effect. It will continue to provide vision where it stopped for 3.34 seconds. This is especially useful for spotting heroes hiding in the woods, or for checking Kongor.
- Javelin of Light will hit any neutral or enemy unit except for Catapults/Ballista, so be careful when you aim.
- Javelin of Light will also collide with any magic immune unit, but they will not be stunned nor damaged.
- Javelin of Light hits invisible units as well. If you see your Javelin of Light disappear early for some reason, then it has hit an invisible unit.
- Try and aim this skill so that your opponents cannot see you using it so that they have less of a chance to react to your Javelin of Light.
- Good accuracy with Javelin of Light can only be learned through lots of practice. Judge your enemies path and aim accordingly.
- If you know you are going to miss as soon as you click to aim your Javelin of Light, immediately hit your stop button (default: s) and you will cancel your cast.
- Most, if not all people refer to Javelin of Light as Arrow, due to the skill being named Elune's Arrow from DotA's Priestess of the Moon.
- The radius of Javelin of Light is 80.
- The Javelin of Light travels at 857.14 ms -___-
- Javelin of Light retains its usefulness into the late game as a 5 second stun on a high priority target can be game changing.
Courageous Leap
Hotkey: E
- Courageous Leap is your escape mechanism or follow up spell to engage your opponent.
- Courageous Leap will make you leap in the direction you are facing! Be careful that while you are trying to escape to not accidentally turn the wrong way.
- Courageous Leap will allow you to disjoint certain spells. You disjoint immediately after casting the skill.
- If you are trying to escape your opponents, try to use Courageous Leap to leap across obstacles so that their travel distance is that much greater if they want to keep pursuit.
- Another technique of escaping by using Courageous Leap to leap into thick woods or on top of hills and teleporting out.
- You may want to use Courageous Leap to leap onto your opponents after you land your Javelin of Light so that you get the attack speed buff and so that your Call of the Valkyrie can do its extra damage. Only do this if you think you can secure the kill by doing this without dying.
- If your team is retreating, use your Courageous Leap to help your teammates escape as well. The movement speed buff granted from this skill is very underrated.
- The buff provided from Courageous Leap lasts 10 seconds long.
- The buff provided from Courageous Leap can be dispelled.
- The range of Courageous Leap is 630 / 720 / 780 / 870.
- Courageous Leap retains its usefulness throughout the game as it is a powerful escape mechanism.
Valkyrie's Prism
Hotkey: R
- Valkyrie's Prism provides a buff to all allied heroes and yourself anywhere on the map. Anyone with this buff goes invisible after a fade time of 2.5/2/1.5 seconds. If they reveal themselves by casting a spell or attacking, they will still retain the buff and go invisible again if they wait for the fade time again.
- Valkyrie's Prism serves a variety of purposes, most commonly for providing either you or your allies with an escape mechanism.
- Valkyrie's Prism is useful as an initiation tool especially if your initators don't have their Portal Key's yet. This requires a lot of coordination however!
- Valkyrie's Prism's buff is unremovable, so don't be afraid of popping your Shrunken Head's or Geometer's Bane's when you have this buff!
- Valkyrie's Prism is especially useful when your teammates have any channeling spells as they will not be able to be targeted after the fade time.
- Valkyrie's Prism is useful throughout the game as long as your enemies don't carry detection with them. I suggest using it during any major team encounter as it will help any of your allies who are trying to flee or who are trying to chase someone as they can't be targeted.
- When using Valkyrie's Prism, be careful if your opponents have detection. Things can get very ugly if you and your team waltz in without knowing that you are being detected.
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Recommended Skill Build
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1. Courageous Leap/Javelin of Light
2. Javelin of Light/Courageous Leap
3. Call of the Valkyrie
4. Call of the Valkyrie
5. Call of the Valkyrie
6. Javelin of Light/Valkyrie's Prism
7. Call of the Valkyrie
8. Javelin of Light/Valkyrie's Prism
9. Javelin of Light/Valkyrie's Prism
10. Valkyrie's Prism/Javelin of Light
11. Valkyrie's Prism
12. Courageous Leap
13. Courageous Leap
14. Courageous Leap
15. Stats
16. Valkyrie's Prism
17-25. Stats
Don't level up anything at the start of the game. Before the laning phase begins, If you see an enemy hero and you have back up, it's a good idea to level Javelin of Light in an attempt to get a good stun off, usually resulting in Bloodlust for your team. If you don't see anybody attempting to ward or set up a gank then leveling Courageous Leap is the better choice in case you are caught out of position at level 1.
We max out Call of the Valkyrie first because its damage is much more reliable than Javelin of Light, and Javelin of Light only scales in damage as you level it up.
I strongly prefer leveling Javelin of Light at level 6, because you don't get much invisible time from Valkyrie's Prism when it is only level 1 and costs a large portion of your mana. The extra damage from Javelin of Light is also extremely helpful for ganks early on. However, it's really up to you and it can be leveled anytime between levels 6 and 10.
I max out Javelin of Light before Courageous Leap because it provides you with stronger burst which is essential for getting kills in the early-mid game.
Last edited by ugapa; 05-21-2011 at 04:50 PM.
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Recommended Items
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Starting Items
These provide you with sufficient regeneration items to stay in your lane and a very good amount of last hitting power.
Duck Boots 150
These provide good last hitting power in one inventory slot for their cost. Can be used later to assemble Iron Shield or Soulscream Ring's.
Health Potion 100
This provides you with excellent health regeneration when you are at low health or you can save yourself by popping one of these in between attacks.
Mana Potion 50
This provides you with valuable mana to harass your enemy with either your Call of the Valkyrie or Javelin of Light. I only suggest getting these only if you can combo with a lane partner because Javelin of Light's are fairly easy to dodge without any assistance. Using these will also mean that you have to play far from the creep wave otherwise you risk having the effects wear off early.
Minor Totem 53
These provide the most stats for your money. Recommended on all heroes, and Valkyrie is no different. All three attributes are useful to Valkyrie. Can be used later to assemble Power Supply.
Monkey Courier 200
Every team needs one of these; your courier will be used by you and your teammates to ferry items so that running to the base is not required to pick an item up.
Ward of Sight 100
Every team needs these; give these to a hero going in the short lane so they can block the creep pull and ward the rune.
Early Items
Bottle 600
Usually my first item pick up. This item provides you with valuable regeneration throughout the course of the game without having to go back to base. A trick with this item is to spam it to regenerate faster when you are in your fountain. Definitely pick this up if you are going middle since you have excellent rune control via Courageous Leap.
Homecoming Stone 135
Always carry at least one of these once towers are being pushed and throughout the course of the game. You need to be able to teleport and assist allies who are getting ganked, set up ganks, or defend towers. You can escape from most situations by using Courageous Leap to go into the woods and then teleporting away.
Iron Shield 150+150+250=550
This item can be made instead of Soulscream Rings if you need to free up an inventory slot at the outpost or if you are being harassed a lot. Note that Iron Shield will block damage from certain other sources of hero damage such as Slither's Toxin Ward's or minions which increases the value of this item greatly.
Marchers 500
Basic boots. Every hero needs these sometime early on in the game.
Mystic Vestments 400
Get these only if you are up against a magic damage heavy team. These provide a lot of survivability for the cost. If you feel you need more resistance to magic damage, then just build a Shrunken Head, as getting the Shaman's Headdress costs too much for what it offers and will delay you from getting your core items. Once you get your Shrunken Head, go ahead and sell these unless you have free inventory space.
Power Supply 200+53+53+240=546
I don't get both this and Bottle very often, but it isn't bad if you get both. It is useful if you aren't doing a lot of farming and are ganking a lot. Definitely get one of these if you are going up against spell spammers such as Armadon or Slither. Getting the Mana Battery and not upgrading to Power Supply is fine as well.
Ring of the Teacher 325+175=500
This is a good item to get if no one else on your team is going to get this item. The aura provides a good amount of Armor and Mana regeneration which is amazing for the price and will help your allies greatly. This also provides a good amount of damage which will help you last hit. Don't bother making this into a Nome's Wisdom or Abyssal Skull because they aren't very useful for Valkyrie and will delay you from getting your more important items. Before assembling this item, you should ask your allies whether or not they will be building this item or Nome's Wisdom or Abyssal Skull because their auras do not stack.
Soulscream Ring 185+150+125=460
You can create these with your Duck Boots if you didn't make an Iron Shield. These provide cheap stats which Valkyrie can make good use of. I don't buy these unless I am having trouble farming because this delays getting the important items even further.
Upgraded Boots
After my early items, I usually get my upgraded boots as my next item. It can be tough to decide which boots to get in certain lineups/situations. All these boots are very effective on Valkyrie.
Ghost Marchers 500+500+500=1500
These boots can make you incredibly fast and assist with last hitting. Combine the speed bonus of these boots with your Courageous Leap speed buff and Frostburn/Firebrand/Geometer's Bane and you move ridiculously fast. Make sure to use these whenever they are off cooldown if you are traveling a lot to save some time. I typically get these when I know that there is a hero on my team who can carry into the late game.
Post Haste 500+2200=2700
This is an option if you are farming incredibly well in the early game or if its extremely late into the game and you really need your item spots. Likewise with Ghost Marchers, you move extremely fast with all your movement speed buffs. These are great for increasing your farm as you can teleport from lane to lane. Depending on the situation, if I see that the enemy team is making a big push towards a tower, I will teleport to another lane and start pushing their towers. This can sometimes draw their attention to you or end up being a tower exchange. Take advantage of the bonus Movement speed you gain by teleporting with these boots. If you see an enemy trying to escape and there are some friendly creeps (friendly heroes pets work too!) teleport to it so you can catch up or get ahead of your opponent. These help for escaping ganks because you can use Courageous Leap to get into a safe location in the woods or over a ledge and then teleporting to another location. If you get these relatively early, you can teleport in on ganks happening just about anywhere which turns you into an amazing ganker. Get these if you're ganking or pushing a lot or if you are very late into the game and your inventory slots are filled with your important combat items.
Steamboots 500+500+450=1450
These are the boots of choice if you are expected to carry your team to victory. The attack speed and extra health these boots provide are invaluable to being able to carry. A trick you can use if you have decent micro is to switch your attributes on your Steamboots depending on your situation. If you have a Bottle or Power Supply, make sure you switch your boots to Agility mode so that you make the most out of your regen. Also switch your boots to Agility if you are farming neutrals. Switch to Intelligence if you are going to use your Call of the Valkyrie or Javelin of Light to farm. If you need that bit of mana to get a crucial spell off, then also switch the attributes to intelligence. Keep it on Strength in all other scenarios for the extra health. Get these if you are expected to carry or if you think you are really going to need the extra health gained from these.
Here is a table which may help you with your decision on which boots to get:
Courageous Leap is considered to be level four and its movement speed buff active on Valkyrie.
no modifiers Firebrand/Geo's Frostburn Leap Firebrand/Geo's + Leap Frostburn + Leap Steamboots 360 396 410 418 454 468 Ghost Marchers 370 407 422 429 466 481 Ghost Marchers activated 414 451 466 474 511 522 Post Haste 405 446 462 470 510 522
Important things to notice here is that you have maximum move speed with either Ghost Marcher's active or Post Haste when you have a Frostburn and have your Courageous Leap buff on you. You are still very close to maximum move speed if you are using Geometer's Bane or Firebrand.
Core Items
Frostburn 2200+2200=4400
This is a great first item to pick up on Valkyrie. Every stat is beneficial to you and is easy to build up. One of Valkyrie's strong points is her mobility. If you get this item first, you should split this item in your stash and create a Geometer's Bane and then a Frostwulf's Skull with the components once you have enough money to do so. I build the Frostbrand component first because the extra health is invaluable in the early/mid game.Note that the movement speed gained from this item will not stack with Geometer's Bane or Firebrand.
Geometer's Bane 2200+2100+800=5100
This item does it all: farming, pushing, survivability, mind games. Geometer's Bane is an excellent item in general for all ranged carries. It is both an offensive and defensive item, and Valkyrie makes good use of everything it provides. Use Geometer's Bane if you have something you need to dispel, some spell you want to disjoint, to push towers, and during teamfights. Note that the movement speed gained from this item will not stack with Frostburn or Firebrand.
Nullfire Blade 1000+1000+450+850=3300,4150
Nullfire Blade is part of your core items only if there is something important to be purged such as Hellbringer's Malphas, Madman's Berserk, or Jeraziah's Protective Charm and Sol's Blessing. It is a good item to get regardless of whether or not you need to dispel certain minions or buffs however and if you are ganking a lot. It also provides a ton of Agility and manaburn which helps you dish out a lot of damage. Remember that you can purge yourself! Make sure you use your purges a lot. Remember to purge defensively as well. Try and think you have become the hero Electrician once you get this item. If you picked up Nullfire Blade first, then you should still pick up Frostburn or Geometer's Bane as your next item.
Luxury Items
After your Geometer's Bane, you should be working on any of these items. Valkyrie can make use out of so many items, so if theres something on this list you don't see, chances are she can make use of it anyway, so try it out!
Charged Hammer 3000+2100+400=5500
Getting your Thunderclaw or Charged Hammer can really speed up your farm. Make sure to cast your Charged Hammer buff onto yourself while you are farming or on the hero who will get focused down most likely in a team engagement before the fight happens. I don't like this item because I don't like to depend on it to proc, but this isn't a bad item by any means. I strongly recommend not getting this item if their team has high Magic Armor or Magic Immunity because the Chain Lightning deals Magic Damage. Only pick this up if survivability isn't an issue.Daemonic Breastplate 2100+2000+550+900=5550
If no one else on your team is building at least a Sol's Bulwark, then you should build this if you aren't going to be bursted down too quickly with magic damage. Sol's Bulwark is too good to not have one on your team. Make it into a Daemonic Breastplate later as your third or fourth item, when you get more damage on your auto attacks to take advantage of the attack speed.
Frostwulf's Skull 2200+2100+1200+700=6200
Definitely get this item after Geometer's Bane if you went for Frostburn first. All components of this item will increase your health pool which is great as you assemble this expensive item. This item provides amazing stats and a extremely potent slow. Your superior mobility will ensure that most targets will not be able to escape you.
Nullstone 2100+1750+1000=4850
This is a good item to pick up if you are facing a lot of single target disablers or if you are sick and tired from certain heroes single targeted ultimates. All the stats it provides can be put to good use by Valkyrie and will allow her to spam her Call of the Valkyrie for faster farming without running out of mana. This is a good item for preventing ganks because as soon as you see yourself blocking a spell and you are by yourself, just use Courageous Leap and you will usually be safe. This may be picked up as a first item if you really need survivability.
Rift Shards 1200+500+950=2650,3600,4550,5500
This item is great as a fourth or fifth item to pick up. It provides the most scaling then any other item in the game when it comes to pure damage output, and its very easy to build up. Get this if survivability isn't an issue.
Savage Mace 2200+1600+1600=5400
As of patch 1.0.13, this is no longer core after Geometer's Bane. However it still remains a very potent item as it provides a lot of damage, a mini-stun, and true strike. Definitely get this item if you are facing heroes who have evasive properties or who pick up a Snake Bracelet or Wingbow so you can bypass their evasion.
Shieldbreaker 1600+900=2500,3400,4300
This is a good item to get if your enemies have at least 6 armor(almost always). It provides a lot of damage as well for its cost, which makes it a good item to get right after your Geometer's Bane. Your teammates will also benefit from attacking targets affected by this item. Get this only if survivability isn't an issue.
Shrunken Head 1600+1000+1300=3900
Get this item only if you are facing a team that has a lot of magic damage and disablers. If their team only has one or two nukers and disablers, Courageous Leap and the strength provided from Frostburn/Frostbrand/Geometer's Bane/Steamboots should be enough to keep you alive and you shouldn't be needing this item.
Whispering Helm 950+900=1850
This is an excellent item for its cost. Get this item if you don't plan on using any other attack modifiers. Upgrade to Symbol of Rage if you feel like you really need the health or if you are running out of item slots. Make sure you dominate creeps to pull creep camps or even just to function as a mobile ward.
Wingbow 3000+1800+800=5600
This item is another great item to get as either a third or fourth item. In the later stages of the game, it comes down mostly to the carries damage output, and being able to evade 30% of your opponents attacks makes this item extremely helpful in survivability. The stats it provides also make this an excellent item for increasing your damage output. I suggest getting this item depending on how much the evasion will help you survive. If they have at least two heroes that are heavily reliant upon auto-attacks to deal damage, then this item will be amazing for you. Do not get this if you see that your opponents are carrying a Savage Mace however, as it contains the True Strike property which makes all attacks hit their target regardless of evasion.
Last edited by ugapa; 10-18-2011 at 04:33 AM.
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Strategy
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Early Game
You are very potent in the early game with your Javelin of Light. If you have an ally assisting and you land a 5 second stun on someone early in the game, then you are almost guaranteed a kill.
Use your Courageous Leap to secure a kill if your enemy is running away and is close to death. Be careful to not carelessly dive however.
A good combo to use once you are past level 4 is to use your Javelin of Light on somebody and then if it hits, use Courageous Leap onto them and use your Call of the Valkyrie to get the bonus damage off for being close to your enemy and auto attack them to death.
Your main priority is to farm at this point of the game, so don't try and do anything extremely risky unless you see an opportunity to get an easy kill. Your projectile speed is only average, so make sure you practice getting those last hits. Your long range of 600 and great attack point allows you to be an excellent harasser, so make sure to do that in between last hits if you can! General laning priority for Valkyrie is last hitting > harassing > denying.
If you are laning middle, I suggest getting your bottle as soon as possible so that you can continually trade hits with your opponent and pick up runes. Valkyrie has an advantage over most heroes when it comes to rune control due to her Courageous Leap. Consider ganking the lane on the side that the rune spawned at. If the rune is something that you can take advantage of and gain a kill with, then try and do so if you know your opponents aren't expecting it. If the rune is warded, you will probably have to just go back middle because they will know that you are coming and you will end up losing your lane for nothing. Usually the top rune will be warded for the Legion side, and the bottom rune warded for the Hellbourne side.
If you are going to lane in the sidelanes, then preferably do so with a partner that isn't farm dependent and who can stun, slow or somehow make it so you can land your Javelin of Light much more likely. If your lane partner can't do anything to make your Javelin of Light easy to land, you will have to do so from the fog, where they can't see your Javelin of Light coming.
If you are laning against two or more opponents, your priority is to play safe. Unless your opponents have really bad heroes or are playing incorrectly and not harassing you away from the creeps, your only chance to get some farm will be at your tower. Pull neutral creeps into your lane if they aren't warded. Try and stay within range to gain experience from the creeps that die. If you are forced to use Courageous Leap because you get caught out of position, make sure you are 100% safe while it is on cooldown so to make sure you will not die. Theres a good chance your opponents will over extend in their efforts to keep you out of range from creeps so ganks shouldn't be too difficult for your team to execute.
Mid Game
You should probably be doing pushes and ganks with your team after you hit level 7 or so unless you are the only carry, in which case farming may be the better option. Your Call of the Valkyrie is one of the best nukes in the game for farming and pushing. Try and weaken lots of creeps so that Call of the Valkyrie will kill most of the creep wave.
You are an excellent ganker with your Javelin of Light and Call of the Valkyrie. Both these spells do more damage then most nukes individually. Combined, Javelin of Light and Call of the Valkyrie can deal 810 magic damage! If you are ganking, let your allies disable first if they can. It will make landing your Javelin of Light a whole lot easier. You also want to consider just engaging from behind your enemies and using Call of the Valkyrie as they retreat, preferably when they are within range to be struck twice. Remember to use Valkyrie's Prism as a ganking tool as well. Bottle works very well with Valkyrie as you can pick runes up and refresh yourself as you gank. If you pick up an Invisibility rune, you should consider walking next to your opponent and initiating with Call of the Valkyrie so that the bonus damage portion of the spell will be guaranteed to land.
How much you gank is dependent on how badly you must do it. You will need to gank a lot if your teammates are losing in both lanes to catch up. Only gank if you know your teammates can help you in some way. Rarely will you be able to kill a enemy hero all by yourself unless they are overextending or have low health. A general rule of thumb is to gank the hero which is farm dependent such as Sand Wraith.
You will be usually engaging a team fight is by having one of your teammates initiate first, hopefully catching at least two heroes and then you jump in by using Courageous Leap and cast Call of the Valkyrie and/or throw a Javelin of Light before using Courageous Leap in order to nuke a hero down before they have a chance to react. Save your Courageous Leap if you know the enemies team is close by so you can use it to escape death.
If you are farming, use your Courageous Leap to cross cliffs and trees and cut down on time wasted going from camp to camp. Stack creep camps by pulling in between the x:50- x:55 mark if it won't make you waste too much time. Pull multiple creep camps and use your Call of the Valkyrie to make farming faster. Avoid using Call of the Valkyrie for farming though unless you are going to head back to base soon or are clearing stacked camps because at this point of the game, your mana pool is very important for any team engagements. Make sure to use the trick with Steamboots to switch them to Intelligence if you are going to use a spell, as you will end up with more mana than if you had casted them when they are in either Strength or Agility. Set your boots to Agility if you are going to use any type of regeneration or when you are auto attacking creeps. Put your Steamboots on Strength in most other cases as the health is crucial for Valkyrie.Late Game
If your farm has been going well, you should be very strong at this point of the game. You should have good enough of a mana pool to more freely use Call of the Valkyrie to increase the speed at which you farm and push creep waves. Use your Valkyrie's Prism in every team fight, even in the middle of it. Someone on your team is bound to make use of the invisibility. You aren't a "hard carry" so don't try to take it to an extremely late game if the other team has a "hard carry". If you catch an enemy out of position a full duration stun via Javelin of Light, it can sometimes mean winning the game at this stage if you capitalize on the situation.
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Skill Usage
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Using Call of the Valkyrie
Using Javelin of Light
The most important thing to keep in mind when using your Javelin of Light is to predict your opponents movement. Sometimes your opponents will have good awareness and they will dodge a lot of Javelin of Light's if they see it coming, and sometimes your opponents don't pay much attention and just sit in one spot. Good accuracy with Javelin of Light comes with much practice.
Use your Javelin of Light to see if your opponents are doing Kongor! This is essential to do if you don't see any enemy heroes on the map and don't have vision to see if enemies are attempting to kill Kongor.
Try to avoid having to use Javelin of Light at point-blank range unless the damage will kill your opponent or if you have to interrupt something. I find these to be hard to hit because the enemy can always juke by running to the side, and even if you hit, you aren't getting a good amount of stun time.
Using Courageous Leap
There are many locations on the map where you can use Courageous Leap to jump over a patch of trees or impassable terrain. This is very important to do especially if your opponents are chasing you and have incredibly high movement speed.
Also make use of your Courageous Leap by beating your enemies to the rune spawns.
If you fire and hit your Javelin of Light from a long distance and use Courageous Leap and aren't quite close enough to them to get the extra damage from your Call of the Valkyrie off, then you should attack and then move, attack and then move, until you get close enough for your Call of the Valkyrie to land twice on your target.
Using Valkyrie's Prism
Be very careful for invisible detection. Your team could very well be walking into their deaths if you try and set up a gank using this spell. If you are going to initiate with this spell, make sure everyone on your team cannot be seen fading into invisibility otherwise your chance for initiation will be ruined as any smart player would back off until the buff wears off.______________________________________________
Good Allies
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Behemoth
You have very good synergy with Behemoth. Have Behemoth use his Fissure to create a wall so that your opponent has very little space to dodge your Javelin of Light. Also, if Behemoth does not yet have his Portal Key, then with assistance from Valkyrie's Prism, he is able to get a good Shockwave or Fissure wall on his enemies.
Glacius
Glacius is a good lane partner for almost every hero in the game. His Tundra Blast and Ice Imprisonment makes landing Javelin of Light a breeze. Not to mention his Chilling Presence is put to good use by Valkyrie. Valkyrie's Prism is really useful for Glacius when he is channeling his Glacial Downpour. After the fade time, Glacius will go invisible while still channeling, which is extremely dangerous for the enemy.
Pharaoh
Pharaoh is an excellent hero when paired with Valkyrie. If Pharaoh traps a enemy within his Wall of Mummies, you can very easily follow up with Javelin of Light. Valkyrie's Prism can help Pharaoh initiate without having to use his Wrath of the Pharaoh.
Pollywog Priest
A good combo between Pollywog Priest and Valkyrie is to have Pollywog Priest Tongue Tie his target and then have Valkyrie follow up with her Javelin of Light. While the hero is stunned, Pollywog Priest can cancel Tongue Tie and then cast his Voodoo Wards directly on top of the enemy hero so that they can't escape. Valkyrie's Prism helps Pollywog Priest maintain his channel as well.
Succubus
With Succubus, you are able to land Javelin of Light with tremendous ease. Just have Succubus use her Mesmerize on a hero and then fire away. If your opponents are smart, their allies will attack each other to take off the sleep. Succubus' Hold makes landing Javelin of Light very easy as well. Valkyrie's Prism can help Succubus maintain her channel without the worry of being targeted by stuns.
Any Hero with a Good Disable
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Heroes to Watch Out For
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Blood Hunter
Blood Hunter despite not being a commonly picked hero is a great counter to Valkyrie. You are a primary target for Blood Hunter's Hemorrhage, which turns your great mobility into a liability. His Blood Crazy will prevent you from using Courageous Leap or Valkyrie's Prism to escape. To top it off, Valkyrie's Prism won't save your allies due to Blood Hunter's Blood Sense unless they have over 40% health.
Doctor Repulsor
Doctor Repulsor is an extremely difficult hero to deal with once he hits level 6 and is able to use Ludicrous Speed. If you try to escape by using Courageous Leap, Doctor Repulsor can just use Ludicrous Speed in your direction and slow and disable you with Opposite Charges and Electric Frenzy until you die.
Puppet Master
Puppet Master is a good counter to Valkyrie. Puppet Master's Puppet Show will cause you to lose control of your hero and Puppeteer's Hold will prevent you from using Courageous Leap, but you may still use Valkyrie's Prism. If you do get away from Puppet Master, you still could be dead because of his Voodoo Puppet if he casts it before you use Courageous Leap.
Scout
Scout's Electric Eye not only helps for preventing incoming ganks, but can also silence you preventing you from using Courageous Leap or Valkyrie's Prism which can result in your death if you are ganked. Scout's Marksman's Shot will kill you even if you manage to escape with low health.
Witch Slayer
Witch Slayer is a nightmare to any fragile carry due to his ability to render you useless for 5.5 seconds with his Graveyard and Miniaturization along with his burst potential. Witch Slayer's Silver Bullet will be a problem for you throughout the entire game as it does a tremendous amount of damage.
Nukers and Disablers
All these heroes are very strong against you due to your low health pool. Consider buying items such as Shrunken Head, Mystic's Vestments, or other items which increase your survivability if you are facing against many of these heroes.
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Replays
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Match 36251849 - This replay showcases some good Javelin of Light's which allow us to kill critical heroes like Nomad and Chronos. I use Courageous Leap and escape Chronos' Chronosphere two times in this game. I use Valkyrie's Prism a lot throughout this game, and it worked wonders. This is probably the best replay I have so I have included an analysis of the game for your convenience.
Match 13624415 - This is a game I played where I land some very good Javelin of Light's on my opponents. Also note how I use Geometer's Bane near the end of the game to dispel Hellbringer's Death Boil and reset tower aggression and barely survive.
Match 15550092 - In this replay, Valkyrie is played by Chu (who doesn't love Chu). He dominates throughout the entire game without getting killed once. His item build uses the one where you get Frostburn as your first item and then he splits it up once he has the components to create his next big item, Frostwulf's Skull and then a Geometer's Bane.
Match 10331055 - This replay is another one where I played Valkyrie. I did a lot more farming in this game because I was the only hero on our team who was expected to carry (Soul Reaper also kind of). Geometer's Bane proves to be extremely useful in this game.
A guide was recently made by S2games for Valkyrie, most definitely inspired by my guide.
S2 Guide on Valkyrie
Last edited by ugapa; 05-16-2011 at 12:53 AM.
Very nice guide. Good job. Looks preumium to me. =D
Ugapa is correct about the armor. Really nice guide.
3.34 seconds.3.33 seconds
Valkyrie's Javelin of Light has touch radius 80 and travels at 837 speed (WHAT I COULD HAVE SWORN IT WAS 857.14 BEFORE - S2 STEALTHNERFED VALKYRIE)
Valkyrie's Courageous Leap disjoints her the instant you finish casting the skill.
Stop-canceling Prism/Arrow is fun and makes everything bright and shiny.
Take that, mass typo reporter >:O
S2 Games: Dedicated employees serving dedicated gamers. Continuous development. Never-ending improvement.
-----------------------------
Tech Support and Customer Support: https://www.heroesofnewerth.com/support/
Look for my highlighted text (important information) and grey text (interesting but not required information).
Ninja nerf on valk? That really hurts my feelings for my favourite hero!!!Originally Posted by ElementUser
And for the stop-canceling, i see sometimes people do it, but can't manage to do it myself. What's the trick exactly?
Thanks for the feedback guys
I put up the Soulscream Ring and Iron Shield up there as merely a decision you could make as to what your Duck Boots turn into. Not to get both items
I don't really understand the Armor Mechanics but:
So I think that as long as your opponents don't go under 0 armor, the effectiveness of the - 6 armor from the Shieldbreaker remains constant regardless of how much armor your opponents have. Any lower than 0 armor and its effectiveness decreases.
SIGH FINE I EDITED IN YOUR USELESS INFORMATION
You can stop cancel by pressing s before completing the cast time of any spell you cast. It's great to piss off your teammates in the well
Last edited by ugapa; 04-19-2011 at 06:05 PM.
It's as useless as your typo reports
=D
S2 Games: Dedicated employees serving dedicated gamers. Continuous development. Never-ending improvement.
-----------------------------
Tech Support and Customer Support: https://www.heroesofnewerth.com/support/
Look for my highlighted text (important information) and grey text (interesting but not required information).
Good job you have made me mad. I can barly bash on this guide it's pissing me off. I got something though. :ChargedHammer:? It is never worth getting. You missed :SymbolOfRage:. Also, :NullfireBlade: is situational and the only reason you were getting Frost Burn is to sptlit it. :GeometersBane: is just too good not to. :Steamboots:/:EnhancedMarchers: :GeometersBane: are her core. Everything else is situational.
Other then that: +1 for premium. =D GJ.
He mentions SoR if you read the in detail on the Whispering Helm choice for orbs.
Not true.
It's a AWESOME farming + dps item, and if you got allies likeit also boosts the teamfight experience!
You press the 'stop' button before you finish casting the spell.
Default is S
I dissagre on the shieldbreaker statement: "This is a good item to get if your enemies have a lot of armor" This is wrong because shieldbreaker does the most damage when the enemy got around 0-10 armor. If they get alot of armor 15-20, the shieldbreaker -armor is not as good anymore, so getting another savage mace(lol),wingbow or something would be much better. However, if your enemy have low armor (under 15) shieldbreaker does alot of damage.
Shieldbreaker has the exact same effect whether if the opponent has 6 armor or 36 armor. fact.
Excellent guide.
Officially retired from HoN!
No, it's not. see this, your enemy got 6 armor(about 27% damage reduction) with a shieldbreaker, your damage will increase by 27% damage(or 27% more damage than when he had 6 armor) because he got 0 armor with the sb debuff. However, if the enemy have 36 armor(73% reduction?) removing 6 armor from 36 armor will only decrease the redcution by about 5%. If someone who have the "damage" comparison between different armor values, pls bring it up.
numbers are somewhat inacurate, but you get what i mean. It is because it's -6 armor, and not -27% damage reduction.
So your statement is "same effect whether if the opponent has 6 armor or 36 armor, is wrong if you look at the damage reduction which is what matters.
Last edited by fenrixx; 10-29-2010 at 06:45 PM.
looking at damage reduction is kind of dumb, shouldn't you be focussing on the reduced EHP? cause THAT'S what matters. it doesn't matter if they reduce less damage, you take away the SAME amount of EHP, regardless of their armor values (except when its negative, i guess.)
http://forums.heroesofnewerth.com/sh...formula&page=3
Read this pls. -armor is LESS effective as the enemy gains more armor which is what is said in my first post. This means a shieldbreaker is _MORE_ effective agaisnt a 4 armor targer, but one of the "worst"damage item against a 40 armor target. BUT to quote Iruul:
This is a very common confusion that many people have about armor. While EHP does increase linearly, depending on how you look at it, -armor is both just as effective no matter how much armor is stacked and it is also diminishing. I will use these exact number for an example. To make this slightly more lucid I will skip the grunt work of typing out the math, just trust me on it.
Our imaginary defender will have 1000 hp and the attacker will do exactly 100 dmg a hit.
For the scenario of 50 armor, the defender will have 75% damage reduction and will die in exactly 40 hits from the attacker.
If the attacker has shieldbreaker, the defender will have 44 armor with 72.5% damage reduction and will die in exaclty 36.4 hits from the attacker.
For the scenario of 6 armor, the defender will have 26.5% damage reduction and will die in exactly 13.6 hits.
If the attacker has shieldbreaker, the defender will have 0 armor with 0% damage reduction and will die in exactly 10 hits from the attacker.
Now lets look what has happened. In the first scenario, the shieldbreaker had only decreased the damage reduction by a mere 2.5% while in the second scenario the shieldbreaker has reduced the damage reduction by a whopping 26.5%, over 10 times more than at 50 armor. However, it is still as "effective" because in both scenarios, the shieldbreaker allows you to kill your opponent 3.6 hits earlier than if you didn't have it. This stays true no matter how much armor the defender has; no matter how much he stacks armor, he will still die 3.6 hits earlier if the attacker has shieldbreaker.
In a sense, however, it also isn't linear. In the scenario where the defender has 50 armor, killing him with 36.4 hits as compared to 40 hits is 9% less hits, or a 9% dps increase whereas in the second scenario killing the defender in 10 hits as compared to 13.6 hits is a 26.5% dps increase. Keep in mind that 50 armor is fairly extreme though.
In other words, a shieldbreaker can be considered just as affective regardless of the amount of armor that is stacked because it allows you to kill a hero faster by a static amount of attacks. However, the effective dps increase that shield breaker gives you does diminish as the defender stacks armor.
So my argument still stands: IF your opponents are stacking armor lets say 50(unlikely though) it's much better to get another riftshards than a shieldbreaker. But if your enemy has 4 armor, shieldbreaker is more effective.
BUT armor is linear, so it is as "effetive" all game long even if the enemy have 30 or 10 armor, but i am comparing shieldbreaker to another dps item which is better when facing high armor opponents contra low armor.( extra 5 armor means an extra attack)
Last edited by fenrixx; 10-29-2010 at 07:32 PM.
This is right as far as it goes, but there's another side to the equation. Armor provides an effective HP increase which is percentage based off of the maximum HP of the target (each point of armor grants 6% of max real HP in EHP). So, what exactly does shieldbreaker do? Upon first hit, it removes six points of armor. That's a flat 36% of their current real HP (the hard number you see) taken away from their EHP. EHP is not just based off armor, however, it also depends on the targets starting HP. The more actual HP they have, the more your shieldbreaker does, even if your opponent stacks physical armor.
Say someone has HP of 1000 and armor of 10. What does that mean? They have a real HP of 1000 and they have an EHP of 1600. Your shieldbreaker will remove a total of 360 EHP on the first hit. After that first hit though, the armor reduction has essentially no more benifit. That person needs to be hit for 1240 physical damage in order to die instead of hit for 1600 physical damage.
If they have 30 armor and an HP of 1000, they have real HP of 1000 and an EHP of 2800. Your shieldbreaker still removes 360 EHP on the first hit, but they have more HP so your shieldbreaker seems less effective (now instead of nuking them for 22% of their total EHP, the shieldbreaker is only removing about 12% of their total EHP.
The thing people miss when calculating out the effectiveness of shieldbreaker is that it also scales in relation to your opponent's max real HP. If your 1000hp target with 30 armor goes to 2000hp, your shieldbreaker just doubled in effectiveness (now the EHP hit is for 640).
What does this mean? Shieldbreaker's mechanic is essentially a nuke that deals 36% of the target's hit points at the moment of application as EHP removal. It's way more effective to use on people with more HP rather than less. If people are buffing their survivability without increasing their actual raw HP, shieldbreaker becomes less effective. But it's still going to be effective regardless against opponents with lots of real HP. No matter how much armor devourer buys, your shieldbreaker is probably still going to be an effective choice, because it's effect scales off of devourer's health.
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