Huge Valkyrie Guide

[[VAP]GrottMongo]

GrottMongo's Valkyrie Guide

Hi and welcome to my very first hero guide, there may be some misplacement of some words but please take note that this really is my first hero guide :P

And remember that if you are not satisfied or just doesn't like this guide, just remember that every hero can be played in different ways. This is how i play it!

Table of Contents

*Introduction

-->Stats
-->Pros and Cons

*Skills

-->Skill Build

*Items

-->Starting Items
-->Pre-Core & Core
-->Luxury Items
-->Situational Items
-->Items to Avoid in General

*Gameplay

-->Laning
-->Farming, Ganking & Pushing
-->Teamfights
-->Friends & Foes
-->Tips & Tricks

*Replays

-->Introduction<--

Valkyrie is a well flexible hero, as she can almost with no fear go solo against 2 other opponents, Valkyrie can lane with a support and go mid.
she can roam, gank and farm with no difficulty. With great survivability, nice damage output
and even more awesome team synergy with her leap and team invis which makes her a hero that is a real team player.

Valkyrie is a pretty item based carry, with no proper items she cannot compare to other more decent farmed carrys, spellcasters or initiators.
Her magic damage output is great if you manage to get her Call of the Valkyrie to hit twice but if your opponent has Shrunken or anti-magic items
then your damage dealing spells are pretty useless. But Valkyrie is a great hero that can go late game if she has a decent farm


-->Stats

Base Damage - 38-49
Attack Range - 600 (Ranged)
Movement Speed - 300
Armor - 1.8
Magic Armor - 5.5
Strength - 17 (1.85)
Agility - 20 (2.75) Main Attribute
Intelligence - 17 (1.65)


-->Pros and Cons

+ Can Easily Solo Mid or on Lane
+ Great Team abilities
+ Good Farming Skills
+ High Magical and Physical Damage Output
+ Fun to Play
+ Can Almost Fit About Any Role (Exclude tank and support)
- Item Dependant
- Unreliable arrow stun
- Squishy and Often Focused
- Low Base Strength and Gain

-->Skills<--

Call of the Valkyrie

This ability is one of the few skills that can deal a HUGE single target nuke while it has an effective AoE. The magic behind it is that it first

of all deals magic damage to all units in 650 radius which is a really big area + it deals a additional 150 magic damage to a random target in a 200 radius.
So it can simply burst 450 damage to one hero if done correctly.

Javelin of Light

A skill shot arrow, stunts and deals high damage on the target, the stun is based on the distance (stuns from 0.5 - 5 secons), this skill hard to hit on moving targets
but if placed well it can give you a massive stun and a major damage done. The trick is to hit an enemy hero whose farming on a lane, standing still and maybe
auto-attacking or lasthitting (if the hero is moving around try to calculate where the next movement is) and throw. The manacost is really low and the cooldown is
fairly high so don't be afraid to miss!
TIP: if you are laneing with a stunner or a disabler then the chances to hit the arrow is higher, even if the arrow only stuns 0.5 or 1 sec, the 360 magical damage
still hurts at rank 4.

Courageous Leap

This skill is vital for your survivability, to initiate a stunned hero or to chase. This leap is perfect to master when you are chased or chaseing, it gives you the
ability to jump over trees and cliffs while it boosts your attack speed and movement speed slighty. Whith this skill combined with Ghost Marchers + Frostburn it gives you 522
MS which makes Valkyrie one of the most annoying heroes to catch. Another great ability within this leap is the disjoint. If you are running low on hp and get 's or 's ulti on your head, the leap can disjoint the projectile grating your life. Other projectile spells like 's ulti, 's carp, 's hammer is just a few example. Also remeber that this leap also can avoid delay AoE skills like 's graps or 's ulti. It has a really low manacost, so dont worry about that.

Valkyrie's Prism

An ultimate which can be used to initiate as a team or to escape as a team. Works really really great if you success an initiate with a team that is totally invisible
and unnoticed can turn the tables around i can assure you, but also is a great help for those who are in trouble by ganks. Just remember that this invis has a 2.5/2/1.5 sec fade time!

-->Quick Skill insight

Here's a quick preview of her two first skills.

Call of the Valkyrie





Courageous Leap


-->Skill Build

You can read my comment on the skill build below

Prio: Javelin of Light
Level 1. Courageous Leap/Javelin of Light
Level 2. Javelin of Light/Courageous Leap
Level 3. Javelin of Light
Level 4. Call of the Valkyrie
Level 5. Javelin of Light
Level 6. Call of the Valkyrie
Level 7. Javelin of Light
Level 8. Call of the Valkyrie
Level 9. Call of the Valkyrie
Level 10. Valkyrie's Prism
Level 11. Valkyrie's Prism
Level 12. Courageous Leap
Level 13. Courageous Leap
Level 14. Courageous Leap
Level 15. Attribute Bonus
Level 16. Valkyrie's Prism
Level 17-25. Attribute Bonus

Now this is what my skill build is like, i know that if you spec "Call of the Valkyrie" highest first then you'll do better burst and rely on a lower damage
stun. Even if the difference is 30 hp more damage I'll give you an optional Skill Build for that.

Prio: Call of the Valkyrie
Level 1. Courageous Leap/Call of the Valkyrie
Level 2. Call of the Valkyrie/Courageous Leap
Level 3. Call of the Valkyrie
Level 4. Javelin of Light
Level 5. Call of the Valkyrie
Level 6. Javelin of Light
Level 7. Call of the Valkyrie
Level 8. Javelin of Light
Level 9. Javelin of Light
Level 10. Valkyrie's Prism
Level 11. Valkyrie's Prism
Level 12. Courageous Leap
Level 13. Courageous Leap
Level 14. Courageous Leap
Level 15. Attribute Bonus
Level 16. Valkyrie's Prism
Level 17-25. Attribute Bonus

Call of the Valkyrie: Is your most powerful spell damage wise at all levels if you achive both hits on the same target
Javelin of Light: Is the highest single stun in the whole game if hitted by far distance, deals great damage on the target
Courageous Leap: A must have at the beginning to prevent getting killed or to finish an escaping hero, you can finish leveling this at lvl.12
Valkyrie's Prism: Not needed until mid-game, your first prio is the burst damage of Valkyrie, so max up your first and second ability before picking the ultimate

-->Items<--

-->Starting Items

This is a well mixed startup, gives you enough damage to last-hit and enough blights to stay awhile in lane if you are getting harassed.
This starting items works also in trilanes but if you'd like you can switch the Runes of blight to more Minor Totems or save the cash for other items,
While you have a Minor Totem get one more and build a Power Supply for the mana and hp boost when you got plenty of charges,
the low manacosts on the leap and the javelin can really come in handy when you are running low.

-->Pre-Core & Core








When you are soloing or laneing, then build is pretty much the same. Depend on how your last-hitting goes, if bad, then finish your Soulcreme Ring for the extra damage
then buy a Punchdagger, if it's going well then buy a pair of Marchers then later finish the Ghost Marchers. If miding then get a Bottle for better harass and getting runes for ganking.


Is a must for dealing great physical damage + the unitwalking effect, the movement boost is also important for getting the max MS

As said above, if miding then this item will help you a lot! More harass and with the runes charges, your leap will come handy

I personally build this directly after my Ghost Marchers and bottle, first of is Firebrand because it gives you better movement, damage output
and attackspeed! But if you have a hard time to survive then get Icebrand first so you will get a good amount of HP, when you got Fostburn then the combined
slow and MS boost will make you strong!

When you have built your Frostburn then it may appear a problem. Then next item is very important depending on the opposite team, because of it's
expensiveness it may be a hard time to farm it.

This is one of the best items (imo) to all range dps heroes, the slow is insanely good against any melee but the price is painful to farm if it's
going not to good. After you got your Frostburn then Blessed Orb is next, giving you a good amount of hp, damage and mana then you will be harder to kill, after
Blessed Orb it should be easy to farm the last components to Frostwolf as you are getting more hp by glowstone.

OSB: After getting Frostwolf i do recommend to start on a Savage Mace to deal more damage and that you feel like you manage to
survive most of the team fights, cause your damage wont be as high as hope'd.

After getting one of your mainly core items, this one gives you that little extra you've always wanted, then again, another Blessed Orb to farm to
but don't try to think about it too much! You got one great core item which is enough to be a pain in the ass, but when you got Geomenter's Bane in your hans then you
should atleast have 2,500 health points, now you are hard to kill, does ~216-227 damage (level 25) and can survive most ultis and abilities (keepers) with your Geo.

At this point, no melee heroes shouldn't be able to even touch you, with the slow and mirror images you should be able to kite predator like if he was a blind dog with a broken leg.
As long you stay at range distance in team battles and not getting too focused you should be able to score one kill or two (or assists^^ as long as they die it's great!)

Steamboots is an optional item if you feel that you need the extra attack speed and hp/damage/int stats.

-->Luxury Items

After getting your core items then this baby is the next one, it gives you a HUGE more dps and with the extra physical damage
and the mini stun, you can't get more annoying

This item can also be bought before Savage Mace, it gives you the attack speed you've always dreamed of, and the 200 extra damage lightning is never wrong

Gives you some extra damage to you and your illusions, also the mana drain can be a pain when you attack them, this item can be extra useful against heroes like Amun-Ra

-->Items to Avoid in General<--

As a carry, there aren't really any bad items if you rule out supportive and some protective items. Protective items should not be bought
because your survivability is high enough, specially when you got Geomenter's Bane. But if you find Null Stone to be a good use
then go for it, but then you will have more survivability then the DPS that this hero is needed. Wingbow is never really wrong but i
find Frostwolf and Geometers more useful not only for you, but for the whole team.

The following items are situational (Rare cases)


As Rift Shards gives you a huge amount of damage, it gives not that necessary life and mana you'll need to stay in teamfights, cause then maybe you will get
focused and eventually die, as Shield Breaker also gives you a lot of physical damage it's the same output for Rift Shards.
Demonic Breastplate is really rare on Valkyrie but I've seen some odd Valks, try to avoid this item, there are better for dps and survival.
As you may have seen online in HoN that Doombringer is a luxury item, that is true. It's expensive and deal a lot of damage, but Doombringers
can blow the whole game over, if its lost then it will extremely hard to get it back.
Life steal is a great attack modifier but i don't like it on this hero even though it would work, but this is one guild of many and this one does not
involve life steal.

[[VAP]GrottMongo]

-->Gameplay<--

-->Laning

Valkyrie is best placed solo, mid or one of the lanes if one of your teammates is going to farm the forest (top if Hellbourne, bot if Legion)
If not then you should have a babysitter on your lane for them to harass as you pick the last-hits. To get the best of Valkyrie in lanes, then she needs
a stunner or a disabler (slow works great) to assure that the javelin hits and that the enemy gets a double hit of your Call of the Valkyrie.

When playing middle you want to be aggressive last hit and deny everything, if things goes well then buy a pair of boots and a bottle
and you should be even more aggressive when you get the runes and be sure to gank a lot if you notice that your enemies
doesn't have any wards up. If you face against a pretty squishy hero or an melee then if you harass them good enough to 65% hp early in game then
you should try to make a move, Valkyrie has a very high damage output so try to trick the enemy to lasthit or deny a creep
then you throw your javelin as a surprise, they should be caught unguarded, get hitted and become stunned for atleast 2.5 sec
if your lucky the will get a 4 second stun and then you can party on! As they get stunned leap in, get as close of the
hero as you can and do Call of Valkyrie so you can guaranty a 2-hit. After that they should be on 15% or dead, either way they'll die or have to
retreat. When rune spawns try to finish the lane creeps so you don't loose any gold or xp, and leap towards the rune, if the enemy hero is also going to the rune
then try to calculate where they going and smash then with a javelin and grab the rune, if your lucky it can assure you a kill with the right rune.

Try to gank a lot, Valkyrie is very effective and roams easily specially when she gets her items as Ghost Marchers and Frostburn.

-->Farming, Ganking & Pushing

"This goes for almost all the time when you solo middle - don't blindly gank side lanes because they are asking for it/need it. Nothing is worse than wasting a full
minute to walk to a side lane so the enemies can just run away because of a ward or otherwise escape while your middle opponent freefarms. Ganks should come when they
have a high chance of success (AKA, you just got a haste rune or it's really a countergank)." -Jezu

This is fact! It's hard/impossible to gank someone by passing a ward at the river, well not if your opponents are blind or just didn't notice you but it's not worth the risk
by loosing the farm and the experience at the middle lane!

If you get a bad start try to avoid going solo if thats the reason of your deaths, either way you need to farm a solo lane for as long as possible or in the worst scenario
"the forest". Pushing also gives you a great deal of money so if you and some mates are pushing so do Call of the Valkyrie to score some creep kills while pushing,
and if you are ganking so try to do a sneaky ultimate (assure that they don't see you or your teammates or else it's a waste) and you should score some points as they
get surprised by the invis.

-->Teamfights

In every teamfight try to stay in a range position so you wont get focused, if the fight goes your way then jump in and do your job with your skills, cause remember that
Call of Valkyrie may do 300 damage to all enemy heroes, when you do have farm and carry potential try not to get too focused, kite as good as you can with your slow from
Frostwolf and Geometer's Bane, and the physical dps should handle the rest.

-->Friends & Foes

Your best friends are almost all types of stunners or immobilizers, Behemoth is a great hero to block an enemy and that will assure your
stun and AoE spells.

Early enemies that you need to watch over are the ones who can silence you and burst you down. Remember that early in the game you are very
weak and the leap has a pretty large cooldown so you need to use it wisely, later almost any hero wont be such a hard problem.
A couple of early enemies heros you should keep an eye on: Pebbles, Predetor, Bloodhunter, Swiftbalde, Deadwood, Emerald Warden, Thunder Bringer.

*When to pick Valkyrie?*
- Melee heroes
- Short range heroes
- Squishy heroes
- When allies have good setup (like stunners)

*When not to pick Valkyrie?
- Strong burst heroes
- When your team has carrys/solo heroes
- Enemy tanks can be annoying early and mid-game

-->Tips & Tricks

Keep an eye if there are missing people on other lanes excluded from your own, if you see an enemy in your forest or someone is ready who is to gank your allies,
be sure to ping and alert your mates

When initiating or escaping as a team try to buff your allies with your Courageous Leap

When initiating or escaping as a team try to use your ultimate unnoticed (i know I've said this atleast a couple of times but it's important (also the unnoticed part is only for initiation))

When killing Kongor you can use your javelin to stun Kongor for 5 seconds or to stun an enemy if they are attacking.

Remember that Frostburn, Ghost Marchers and Courageous Leap grants you 522 movement speed for 6 sec

Practice your skills with the javelin, it's hard the first times cause it's a skillshot after all.

Fog is your friend!

Remember that Courageous Leap goes over cliffs and trees so you can juke them easily

-->Replays<--

Can't find to download and upload it on Mediafire so you'll get the MatchID

MatchID: 54113387

I was playing Valkyrie solo mid had a rough start but ended great, i finally got the farm i needed to control the match even though i died a couple of times^^


Finally I'm done with this guide! This was my first one ever made but i hope that it gave you an insight on what kind of hero Valkyrie is, we'll see if i make another one :P

Thanks for reading!

/GrottMongo

[Jezu]

You should definitely mention power supply and ring of the teacher, as well as Steamboots as an option to Ghost Marchers (there are many cases when they are better)

There are also games in which Valkyrie is the "hardcarry" and Alchemist Bones should be built.

I also dislike the starting items. The ideal build IMO would be


Minor totem (s) can be replaced with 1-2 mana pots, and if you want, you can buy a hp pot, but will leave you with 1 less minor totem (only 1 set of runes of blight if you buy HP pot)
Ring of the Teacher is too strong item to skip on a hero like valk.

Power Supply is also better than a soulscream ring.

You should also make your pictures smaller, so that side-scrolling isn't required.

I'll most likely come back with more feedback as soon as changes according to these are done

[[VAP]GrottMongo]

You should definitely mention power supply and ring of the teacher, as well as Steamboots as an option to Ghost Marchers (there are many cases when they are better)

There are also games in which Valkyrie is the "hardcarry" and Alchemist Bones should be built.

I also dislike the starting items. The ideal build IMO would be


Minor totem (s) can be replaced with 1-2 mana pots, and if you want, you can buy a hp pot, but will leave you with 1 less minor totem (only 1 set of runes of blight if you buy HP pot)
Ring of the Teacher is too strong item to skip on a hero like valk.

Power Supply is also better than a soulscream ring.

You should also make your pictures smaller, so that side-scrolling isn't required.

I'll most likely come back with more feedback as soon as changes according to these are done

You have a point at the Power Supply and the Steamboots and they I've made some changes, but the ring of the teacher feels like a really pointless item when there is nothing worthy to upgrade it to, it makes more sense that your laning mate should get it then to spend 500 gold on something you only going to have use for max 30 min or if even that (Ring of the Teacher is placed in the Support section for a reason). Your option as starting items (with the Guardian Ring) then makes your damage output slightly lower which can cause trouble when last-hitting against maybe stronger opponents, so better safe than sorry.

Thank you for your feedback!

[Jezu]

^ Ring of the Teacher not only gives +6 damage, but as a carry (like Valkyrie is), the ability to grant an armor aura to the creeps and push whenever you want is quite huge. Even if you don't want to push, it does provide you some EHP with the armor. The mana regen is also very great on Valkyrie, as she is really mana dependant.

Valkyrie is also mostly played as the trilane-carry, and a RotT is bought on him every time, because the carry of the trilane buys it for the most benefit (after all, its the carry who wants +6 dmg, and who will be solopushing on opportunity)

Also, if going mid, buying 1 set of runes of blight or a hp pot and 4/5 minor totems for a fast bottle might be a good option.

By the way, Hellflower and Shrunken Head should receive a mention as situational items (you can't say that a Hellflower isn't good against a hero such as Doctor Repulsor or Wretched Hag, nor a Shrunken Head on any carry)

Then, there is this another big thing

Formatting

I'm not sure if I like these --> arrows, but that is kinda up to preferance.

As I mentioned earlier, the skill-range pictures should be smaller so that there is no need to side-scroll. When uploading them, there should be an option to resize them, and I'd suggest 800x600 (or is it 600x800, not sure)

The item pictures, at least the less important ones (such as situational items) should be 64x64 to save space and bandwidth. If you wish to change them, 64x64 pictures can be found here

Indenting your body text would also help.

While formatting may not seem like a big thing, it still is. Bad formatting catches eye, and makes the guide look sloppy. And as you know, sloppy is bad, and bad is not good.

[[VAP]GrottMongo]

Updated, made some changes on the items