Hi folks, I found that the way I like to build Valla is rather different than a lot of others so I thought I'd throw this together. Rather than the bursty menace most people play her has, this build focuses on Valla as a guerrilla combatant, focusing more on survivability, hit and run tactics, and the ability to engage and re-engage when is safe and effective.
Pros:
Very sustainable, especially once you hit level 13 (
Tempered by Discipline ).
Often able to secure kills with
Rain of Vengeance (10).
Highly mobile, able to get in or out of a fight almost at will, especially after hitting
Tumble (16).
Little issue clearing Merc camps solo.
Capable of surviving a lot of damage late game, able to stand under turret fire (not recommended though).
Cons:
Highly weak to stuns.
Needs a little babysitting early game, up to a minimum of level 4, usually until 7 or 10. Bring Support.
Abilities don't do all that much damage, mainly being used to secure the last amount of damage on a fleeing opponent.
Still squishy, so should avoid going all in in a teamfight.
Without abilities like Caltrops and
Frost Shot, Valla brings little in the way of CC (except for
Rain of Vengeance)
Level 1 -
Rancor.
Rancor increases your ability to deal damage early game, which is important as Valla. It also increases the speed at which you gain stacks of
Hatred (and Discipline later on). It's also good for gaining mobility to catch fleeing opponents, or get out safely, in case
Vault isn't enough in either scenario.
This build doesn't focus so much on Valla's abilities, so the mana reduction from
Cost-Effective Materials isn't all that useful, similarly,
Composite Arrows is less than ideal, however this is made moreso by the lack of
Frost Shot or
Arsenal later on.
Punishment is superfluous, since you gather hatred fast enough, and once you hit level 13 should have max stacks almost all the time (more on why at level 13 talent choices). Siphoning Arrow Might seem like an attractive option for a life-steal build, but we already have more than enough heal by late game, and the early game survivability doesn't make up for the loss of a regular 15% bonus attack speed later on down the line. Also, it incentivises regular use of
Hungering Arrow, which may necessitate going to the fountain to get Mana, which reduces your time out in lane making life difficult for the enemy team. I would honestly say there is no alternative for this particular build to
Rancor, however you could try
Composite Arrows for extra kill secure, or
Punishment if you
really worry about managing your hatred stacks.
Level 4 -
Vampiric Assault.
While it may seem like a weak choice early game, and to be honest, it is, I like taking Vampiric assault. The early heal isn't much, but it synergizes well with other talent choices later on, as well as
Rancor at this point. This talent tier is more of an investment in the game's progression than anything else. Tier 2, as a result is probably the time
you need to be most careful. A lot of other Heroes have probably taken something that immediately gives them a more notable benefit than you get from this talent, so you may need to play a bit more passively at this point, only engaging when seeking objectives or as part of a teamfight.
For the same reasons mentioned before (lack of regular ability use),
Puncturing Arrow and
Arsenal are both not as effective as they may be in other playstyles. [[manticore is fine if you would rather bring your damage up, or if you want a notable and immediate benefit, however I would greatly recommend taking Vampiric Assault and just being careful.
Level 7 -
Searing Attacks
This is where Valla starts to see a significant power spike.
Searing Attacks will increase your damage output significantly in just about any Valla build, however, in this build, thanks to both
Rancor and
Nexus Frenzy at level 20, there's a great deal of benefit to be had, since you are often attacking faster than you would without either. that means you're getting more attacks in those 5 seconds, and while that costs you more mana, the damage is worth it. This ability is one of 2 main reasons you should be conservative with basic abilities in this build (the other being that you want them off cooldown when a low health enemy tries to flee).
If you want to give up damage for a little extra safety or kill securing, you could maybe try Caltrops. I don't really see much point though, I feel other talents do its job better.
Repeating Arrow might actually work with this build, because unlike a lot of Valla builds, you can (and sometimes should)
Vault offensively, so the extra burst can be useful, especially when you have
Tumble at level 16. It does feel like it's another talent that you just don't need however. The main other option I would recommend at this tier is
Hot Pursuit. 20% movement speed means you should be moving faster than just about any unmounted hero, and if you've been in combat with them, they should be unmounted. This makes it easier to both catch and escape them, especially because of the presence of
Vault in Valla's kit.
Level 10 -
Rain of Vengeance.
This Talent is where this build of Valla begins to shine. The attack speed, meaning you regularly have high stacks of hatred, meaning more damage and attack speed, also means you can get more damage in on anyone you stunned with this ability. this makes
Rain of Vengeance a great tool to secure kills either for you or for your team with. Because it can secure kills for your team (one of Valla's few ways to do so), it can be used if you know you are going to die to give your team a window to make your death worth at least one of the enemy team to them. It can also be used to get you and your team out of a poorly timed or well fought team fight, or an ambush set up by the enemy team.
Strafe is a fine ability, however I always felt when I used this ability (i used to use it before I tried
Rain of Vengeance ), that it didn't really increase my damage by that much. It also felt very prone to the enemy just running away, or stunning you, etc. When
Rain of Vengeance is out, it's out no matter what, and it usually provides a benefit, if only from the stun. They could remove the damage portion from it, and I would probably still choose it over
Strafe for the particular build.
Level 13 -
Tempered by Discipline
So this is where Valla really starts to shine in this build. All the talents so far have to an extent been an investment in this talent. build discipline stacks when at full hatred, which each gain 30% life steal. there are several reasons why I like this so much. Firstly, this stacks with
Vampiric Assault for you to be regaining 45% of your damage (which is increased by 20% anyway thanks to
Hatred, and occurring 15% more often thanks to
Rancor ), which totals up quite notably. Secondly, It allows you to leave a teamfight, clear a mercenary camp / minion wave / enemy wall from a destroyed tower gate and come in with much higher HP than you left, making killing you hard unless you get caught out (Yes, unlike many other MOBAs, you gain life from damage dealt to structures). Lastly, just as the Discipline stacks build when you have maximum hatred, they drop off before your hatred does. This extends the amount of time you have 10 Hatred stacks massively, which gives you increased uptime on: 20% attack damage, 15% Attack Speed (thanks,
Rancor!) and 10% Movement Speed (20% if you took hot pursuit). Tempered by Discipline's survivability increase, as large as it is (at this point you can stand under towers, your health gains negating most tower damage, and the towers will usually run out ammo before you die), is not the main reason to pick it at this level. The main reason to pick it is because it allows Valla to be at maximum power
MUCH more frequently.
Valla is far too squishy to really make use of
Spell Shield, especially as it would be taken over the potential 30% lifesteal from
Tempered by Discipline.
Frost Shot is a fine talent if you want CC utility, and
Giant Killer for extra teamfight potential or to take out squishy threats, but to be honest, I feel like this build gets so much out of
Tempered by Discipline that you would really need a fantastic reason not to pick it.
Level 16 -
Tumble
I love
Tumble. Up until this point, you have probably been using
Vault to escape, to get out of an ambush, or from being overextended. Up until now,
Vault has likely been your "get out of trouble" skill.
Tumble changes that. Now, you can Vault in, secure a kill, and Vault out before the enemy has much chance to punish you for it. You can Vault in, get a kill, Vault in further, get another kill, and possibly walk away, especially since your hatred gives you Move Speed (this is pretty risky, especially in full team fights / near enemy towers/forts/keeps). You can double Vault to ensure escape from even the stickiest enemies (I'm looking at YOU,
Illidan!), and that's just for starters.
Tumble helps you secure kills, prevent death, and keep even more uptime on your hatred/discipline stacks through repositioning. I'd almost go as far as to call it having little
Bolt of the Storms at your disposal. Almost.
The competition at this talent tier is fierce, and I imagine some of you are cringing at my choice, so let's justify it.
Stoneskin suffers from a similar issue to
Spell Shield at 13, Valla's health is simply too low. 30% of a low health Hero is a low health Shield.
Executioner, due to the lack of CC in this build, relies either on your team being around, or you having
Rain of Vengeance active. You aren't always able to guarantee this, especially if you get caught out, making it rather situational.
Tumble will always help you if you don't squander it.
Blood for Blood is the main other talent I would consider at this tier for this build. 10% of an enemy's max health is nothing to dismiss. It does have a fairly short range, however, making it risky, and meaning you may well need to Vault away, and that may not be enough to make the risk worthwhile, especially because sometimes 1 Vault simply isn't enough. Also, the healing you gain from
Blood for Blood is entirely unnecessary at this tier, because of the talent choices so far, and because
Nexus Frenzy is available at level 20. Speaking of
Nexus Frenzy the range increase means we should never be so close as to be able to use
Blood for Blood anyway.
Level 20 -
Nexus Frenzy
This is a great talent for this build. It gives you faster attacks, which builds hatred and discipline, and more range, which means you can be a more persistent threat from a safer distance. If you have followed my recommended talents, at this point you have: 20% improved range, 10% move speed, 45% life steal, 20% attack damage, and 35% attack speed. While, yes, those stats are rather situational, you will almost always have the benefits of 7-10 hatred stacks due to the combination of
Rancor,
Nexus Frenzy, and
Tempered by Discipline. It also means that you can almost always generate stacks off an enemy champion before they get chance to do anything to you.
Vengeance feels utterly pointless to me, though I imagine it represents a high amount of damage (i haven't really tried this talent out but it feels unneeded). It also requires choosing
Strafe, which means giving up your only form of CC.
Storm of Vengeance looks good, but it's hard enough to keep the enemy in place long enough for 2 waves, let alone 4, and besides, you don't generally need more than 1 to either kill an enemy, or send them running scared.
Bolt of the Storm is a fantastic talent, however we already have 2 charges on
Vault, stuns via
Rain of Vengeance, and 10% move speed from hatred (20% if using
Hot Pursuit). We have enough escape, initiate, kill secure and repositioning that we can simply focus on the extra damage output at this level.
At low levels, play safe. Keep back, only go towards an enemy if you're confident you can safely kill them. You can push if you like, but carefully, never alone, and always behind minions. If you have a support or tank, particularly one with heavy CC or healing/shielding (Tyrande, Uther, Stitches, Diablo, and Brightwing comes to mind), then go with them, stick to them like glue, let them dictate where you go if you must. This is especially true levels 4-7, where other champions are likely to have had a larger power spike than you.
Once you hit 7, and especially once you hit your Heroic, you can generally start being a little less safe, since you have the means to get out and secure kills. At this point, carefulness is still key, however.
Once you hit 13, you can start to venture out alone a lot more confidently, being out in lane, in jungle, or generally making yourself a nuisance to the enemy team. This is compounded at 16 by the addition of
Tumble, at which point you should be able and willing to dash in and out of combat as much as possible in fights, causing as much distraction and chaos as possible. If people focus you, be prepared to vault in anticipation of stuns, roots, etc.
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