The build is a guideline. Nothing more. Often getting different talents might be better in a game. Pick talents according to the situation not a guide.

The only talents that I consider to be core to the guide are: Hemorrhage and Slice and Dice. I also consider Expose Armor too good to pass by, compared to other talents in the tier, and core to all builds.

Valeera is still new to the Nexus, so I will be improving this guide as more testing is done.

This guide focuses on playing Valeera as a jack of all trades hero.

All feedback is appreciated.

NOTE some links give descriptions to an improper abilities, as some of the names already exist. Trying to solve it currently. Namely Ambush Eviscerate Cheap Shot.

Valeera is close range melee assassin, focused on setting up kills. She can be a brawler, going in and out of the fight, but she lacks poke. What she gains in burst and health, she lacks in heroics. Both are self preservation. Also she is easy target in a team fight, and can not contribute outside of hard engage. She has no permanent stealth.


She is a cool blend between Zeratul, and Illidan. She has the Zeratul burst, and the Illidan melee stile, when out of stealth, as well as a self cleansing heroics. She doesn't do ether's job as effectively, (squish killer, or dive brawler and chaser), but can do both competently, and is not hard countered as easily by vision or blind.

Valeera loves to engage from stealth. Using Vanish, then hitting a target with a debilitating ability, and they following up with a devastating combos. She can also start a fight out of stealth, get on top of a target, and use Vanish to deliver a debilitating blow in the middle of the fight, making her unpredictable and deadly both when ambushing and trading blow.

Stealth abilities.
Garrote is the main engage when ambushing 1v1. It gives lots of damage, as well as provides silence, which is devastating against many heroes. In case you want to set up a kill for your team in a gank situation, Cheap Shot will stun for long enough to secure most kills. Also if you are in troble you can use Vanish and then Cheap Shot, to stun the enemy for a clean escape. Lastly Ambush is going to deliver a good chunk of damage, but it needs to be talented to be actually competitive with the other 2 abilities. But if you do talent into Ambush it becomes a nice range engage tool, as well as a superb finisher move, for chasing.


Brawler abilities.
Sinister Strike is your bread and butter. It allows for chasing targets, a nice gap closer, or if needed a disengage. Blade Flurry is mainly a wave clear tool. Lastly Eviscerate. All your abilities provide 1 combo point. Eviscerate uses all stored combo points and delivers a devastating blow, for a huge damage hit. You want to use Eviscerate after storing 3 points for maximum power.

The Combos.

What I call combos are most effective ways to engage. But once you get to know the hero well, you will get into her play flow, and start merging and changing ability orders, alternating between stealth and and out of stealth, brawling combo moves.

Stealth combos.

Standard combo.
Vanish -> Garrote -> Sinister Strike -> Eviscerate -> Sinister Strike
This is the basic combo. At this point you are low on energy. So you want to disengage, or chase with Sinister Strike. Also remember to use auto attacks. A lot of Valeera's damage comes from AAs and she has very high attack speed. If you are ganking use Cheap Shot instead of Garrote.

Long combo.
If you take Subtlety at level 1 you will have 50 more energy, so your combo can become much longer and devastating.
Vanish -> Garrote -> Sinister Strike -> Eviscerate -> Blade Flurry -> Sinister Strike -> Sinister Strike -> Eviscerate. With proper talents and AAs you will deal a lot of damage, to the point that at level 20, this will be able to hit a tank for over 50% health in about 4-5 seconds. (4000+ damage). And since you are targeting the enemy damage dealers, it is usually an instant kill.

Preloading combo.
The idea is to use this in a fight. You star outside of stealth. You hit an enemy with Sinister Strike -> Blade Flurry and then go to Vanish. This generate 2 combo points, that are pre loade, so you can Eviscerate immediately after the reengage. The time it takes for Subtlety to activate is just right to get the bonus and still keep the 2 combo points, while replenishing all your energy. Alternatively you can preload with 2 Sinister Strikes.

Vanish -> Garrote -> Eviscerate -> Sinister Strike -> Blade Flurry -> Sinister Strike -> Eviscerate.
This combo is more effective for 2 reasons. First it deals damage a bit faster. And 2 it provides bridging between stealth combos and out of stealth combos, as usually in a long fight after you use Vanish, you already have some combo points preloaded. In other words practicing it in Try mode just helps you get used to the flow of the hero, and keeping count of your combo points as well as always hitting 3 combo points Eviscerates.


Brawler Combo.
The idea here is to engage out of stealth, then slip into stealth for a second, to debilitate an enemy, and then ether chase them to death or disengage.

Sinister Strike -> Blade Flurry -> Vanish -> Garrote -> Eviscerate -> Sinister Strike
At this point ether you disengage, or you keep chasing with Sinister Strikes into AAs. make sure to use Vanish -> Garrote in melee range and as fast as you can, so the stealth is not broken, or you will lose the chance to cast Garrote, as you will be out of stealth.

You will notice that the sequence is already familiar. As I said, the preloading combo and the brawler combo are actually the fighting flow of the hero, and link with one another.

Note that builds are a guideline. Take talents according to the game you are in.


Subtlety - I can't even express how strong this talent is. It basically gives you 50 energy every time you attack from stealth. This allows to perform a huge, long combo with no worry about running out of juice. Vigor seams to be very popular, but to get 50 energy from it you have to wait 25 seconds, so it might not even be a thing. Even after you get the 20 globes (And I mean globe hinting on Valeera really?!), the bonus is still 20 energy. So to get to 50 that is still 15 seconds.

Hemorrhage - Garrote is the most effective way to open on an enemy. Now you deal 25% more AA damage to them for 7 seconds. In HoTS that is a lifetime. For your victim that is. Also the synergy with the level 7 talent is huge, and generally gives you the best result in the combat flow. Initiative is another popular talent. However what it does is preserve energy, which we don't really need at this point, for the cost of a huge damage boost. So overall, it is not wort it in this case.

Slice and Dice - Here is where things come together. What this talent should say is: get 3 auto attacks instantly. With the damage bonus from Hemorrhage, this is where a huge ***** of your damage comes from. Also in a fight, where you can preload combo points, or manage to get 2 Eviscerates, you will just delete people. All level 7 abilities are viable and strong, but the decision made here, will decide the path you take. IMO Assassinate is asking too much of a condition to activate, and loosing Garrote as opening makes it not viable. Fatal Finesse gives nice energy control, and a bit of damage, but the CD of the ability makes it rare to use more than 1 time. And teh damage lost form other talents is too big. If a W build could exist, this might be preferable, but as is, it is just not wort it. Lastly Mutilate is awesome damage ability, but giving up your chasing, engage, as well as disengage, and generally making it hard to land is too much to ask in return.

Cloak of Shadows - Short cooldown, great protection from abilities, and unlike Smoke Bomb, is not rendered useless by detection. Still if you need to use more of a hit and run stile, instead of longer combat, Smoke Bomb is excellent to get you out of trouble. Both heroics are very viable.


Elusiveness - More move speed makes it easier to escape, maneuver in a team fight ,or generally ambush people. Bit this tier is about extra utility so all talents again are good. Most notable Death From Above is excellent for long range engaging, but more importantly to get out by teleporting to a minion, or to finish a kill on a target, that is barely out of reach for Sinister Strike.

Expose Armor - 25% more damage. And here is where the 3 instant AAs come too. And it also affects damage done by your team.

Nightslayer - More often CC. Now the combos can be bridged completely, and you can reposition, disengage, reengage, and just prock Hemorrhage more often. This gives safety as well as damage and utility. Another talent to be noted is Cold Blood. This is another very popular talent, yet the long CD, as well as the fact it affects only 1 Eviscerate makes it great for bursting 1 target, but in a prolonged fights Nightslayer, just offers more consistent results.


I hope you liked my guide. I will improve when I can. Please rate and comment.

Good luck and see you in the Nexsus. :)