Arena of Valor (AoV) - Aleister Hero Guide

A guide to Arena of Valor's Aleister, the Voidweaver. Alestier uses his strong control abilities to suppress his foes and leave them helplessly open to your allies' fire.


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List of Item Builds
AoV WarriorWarrior AoV TankTank AoV AssassinAssassin
AoV MageMage AoV MarksmanMarksman AoV SupportSupport


Overview

Aleister is a mage that excels in dealing crowd control, completely disabling enemies as he damages them. His kit is especially well suited to team fights, he able to stun multiple enemies while damaging them over time. Aleister is best played with allies that need solid crowd control in order to get near the enemies or to land their abilities more easily.

Strengths

  • Excellent Crowd Control – Aleister has a lot of control abilities. Magic Barrier not only slows enemies but also stuns when it hits. Furthermore, his ultimate, Magic Prison, traps an enemy hero and continually stuns them. When using these abilities together, Aleister is very capable of keeping enemies in place and open to allied fire.
  • Great Area Denial – Matrix of Woe and Magic Barrier are both skill shots that linger on the map after they are cast, affecting any who come into their area. This allows them to be used to control where the enemy moves in fights.

Weaknesses

  • Lacks Mobility – While his abilities give him a number of ways to keep enemies at a distance, Aleister doesn’t have any way to escape the few that manage to get close. It’s important to take caution when harassing multiple enemies, as a single mistake can prove fatal.
  • Low Finishing Potential – Aleister will generally have many more assists than kills. His abilities chip away at enemy health rather than bursting it down, and so will generally be the set up for an ally to take someone down rather than the finishing blow.

Hero Basic Strategy

Laning Strategy

  • In the earlier stages of the game, you can use Matrix of Woe to zone enemies away from the minion wave. Casting it on enemies trapped in Magic Barrier will prevent them from escaping the damage.
  • After getting your ultimate, you can use it to further trap heroes within Matrix of Woe, preventing further escape with Magic Barrier afterwards. This combo ensures that the enemy takes the full duration of Matrix of Woe’s damage.

Leveling Progression

  • During the early phases of the game, you should prioritize leveling Magic Barrier as it deals instant damage and is harder to avoid than Matrix of Woe. Combo Matrix of Woe and Magic Barrier together to maximize the amount of time the enemy spends getting damaged. Start the combo with Matrix of Woe if the enemy isn’t very mobile and start with Magic Barrier if they are harder to catch.
  • Once you get your ultimate, you can start to roam around and gank the other lanes. Drop Matrix of Woe first and use your ultimate to hold them in place before finally releasing Magic Barrier to keep them disabled. Once again, if they are mobile heroes, try locking them down first with Magic Barrier before following up with Matrix of Woe and Magic Prison.
  • Late game, your role can either be that of an initiator, stunning squishy heroes so that your allies can move in to pick them off, or as a support to your team by locking down heroes in team fights.

Battle Strategy

  • Solo Battle: Aleister thrives in solo battles as his ultimate can quickly lock down a target on top of Matrix of Woe. Try not to get caught by warriors and always keep your distance from them as they can easily kill you once they get close.
  • Team Battle: In team battles, Aleister is best played as a hero that supports his allies using his disables and damage over time ability. He can also initiate using his ultimate as a strong control ability for his allies to follow up on.
  • Escaping the Battle: When escaping the battle, use your Magic Barrier to stun chasing enemies and Matrix of Woe to zone them away from you. Since you don’t have any mobility abilities, you will have to try and use your spells to create distance between yourself and your pursuer.

Abilities

Arena of Valor Wicked Plot Wicked Plot (Passive) – Aleister’s abilities will apply 1 Curse stack on the enemy. The Curse explodes at 3 stacks, dealing 55 (+18 per level) (+0.3 AP) true damage to the enemy.
  • Use this ability to its fullest potential by quickly executing combos together when the target is stunned.
  • This can allow Aleister to deal surprising amounts of damage when stacking abilities. Overlap ability areas when targeting a specific enemy to hit them with as many stacks as possible.
Arena of Valor MAGIC BARRIER Magic Barrier – Aleister summons lightning and stops enemies from advancing. Enemies touched by lightning take 315/355/395/435/475/515 (+1.2 AP) magic damage, are stunned and slowed, and receive 1 stack of Curse. Cooldown 12/11.4/10.8/10.2/9.6/9 seconds.
  • Magic Barrier slows and stuns enemies it hits. Use this to zone enemies away from certain areas of the lane.
  • Magic Barrier remains on the field for four seconds.
Arena of Valor Matrix of Woe Matrix of Woe – Aleister summons a matrix at the target area, continuously dealing 125/140/155/170/185/200 (+0.3 AP) magic damage within the area and applying 1 stack of Curse with each successful hit. Cooldown 8 seconds.
  • Matrix of Woe deals continuous damage in an area. Use your other abilities to trap enemies within for the duration.
  • Matrix of Woe remains on the field for four seconds.
Arena of Valor Magic Prison Magic Prison – Aleister traps an enemy hero in a lightning prison for 2.5 seconds, dealing 100/125/150 (+0.25 AP) magic damage and stunning the enemy on each hit. The enemy gains 1 stack of Curse with each successful hit.  This ability must be channeled and has a maximum duration of 2.5 seconds. Moving or using another ability after 0.7 seconds of channeling will interrupt this ability.
  • Magic Prison can trap single enemies for 2.5 seconds, stunning them continuously. Use this as a combo with your Matrix of Woe before finishing up with Magic Barrier.
  • Magic Prison does not work on enemy creeps and will only trigger if there is an enemy hero.
  • Breaks in duration eliminated. Magic Prison cannot be purified and the duration cannot be lowered by Resistance.

How to Counter Aleister

  • Aleister’s ultimate only targets one hero. If you’re a squishy hero, make sure to stay back from Aleister and wait for him to cast his ultimate. Once you know that his ultimate is on cooldown, run him down. His other abilities can be hard to land.
  • Aleister lacks mobility and relies solely on his disables to keep distance from his enemies. Use movement abilities to get close, otherwise waiting for his spells to go on cooldown before striking.

Item Builds

SG Recommended Build
Arena of Valor Orb of the MagiOrb of the Magi Arena of Valor Flashy BootsFlashy Boots Arena of Valor Frosty's RevengeFrosty’s Revenge
Arena of Valor Hecate's DiademHecate’s Diadem Arena of Valor BERITH’S AGONYBerith’s Agony Arena of Valor Holy of HoliesHoly of Holies
SG Recommended Build
Arena of Valor Orb of the MagiOrb of the Magi Arena of Valor Flashy BootsFlashy Boots Arena of Valor Frosty's RevengeFrosty’s Revenge Arena of Valor Hecate's DiademHecate’s Diadem Arena of Valor Berith's AgonyBerith’s Agony Arena of Valor Holy of HoliesHoly of Holies

More Aleister Item Builds

Hero Arcana

  • Aleister works best with mostly offense magic arcana such as Violate, Devour, and Hex. These Arcana grant him bonus ability power, magic pierce, magic lifesteal and cooldown reduction which allow him to cast empowered abilities consistently.
  • You can also get a very aggressive support build with a big focus on ability power and magic piercing. Enlightened, Devour, and Hex will give you decent firepower if you want to be very aggressive.

Hero Counters

Arena of Valor Tank Tank

Aleister can struggle with tanks, since they are able to deal with his damage and contributing to their team by absorbing his control abilities. Avoid targeting when possible, focusing instead on squishier foes.

Arena of Valor Warrior Warrior

Warriors are also a problem for Aleister as they are tanky enough to make their way through his abilities. Aleister lacks mobility, so it’s always best for him to keep his distance from warriors to avoid getting pinned down.

Arena of Valor Assassin Assassin

Most assassins have gap closers which can make them very dangerous. Aleister, however, can handle assassins very well by pinning them down with his control abilities.

Arena of Valor Mage Mage

Like assassins, mages are very squishy and thereby easy to burst down. Be careful, though, as they are able to deal their damage from a range and thereby can more easily get a drop on Aleister than other heroes.

Arena of Valor Marksman Marksman

Marksmen are dangerous foes to fight, but can easily be run from by trapping them with your control abilities. That said, marksmen should always be your first targets in team fights.

Arena of Valor Support Support

Be careful with supports, as they will usually have a way of locking Aleister down, leaving him open to enemy attacks.

▼ Hero Class Guides
List of Item Builds
AoV WarriorWarrior AoV TankTank AoV AssassinAssassin
AoV MageMage AoV MarksmanMarksman AoV SupportSupport

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2 Comments

  1. Imho Aleister’s tiering is a bit low. His Crowd Control is exceptional and Magic Prison is able to table turn a gank from an enemy assassin and/or disable a dangerous foe in Clashes. Also i’ve noticed that Aleister is an awesome ganker, able to completely destroy unaware low mdef targets with a 3 ability combo with no possibility of retaliate

    • Thanks for the feedback. We love Aleister too! And our recently acquired team just used him in one of their scrims: https://www.facebook.com/DominitusAstra/videos/1991314204476091/.
      It’s not that Aleister isn’t strong, it’s that other heroes have more utility and versatility in a number of different team compositions. For example, you could say nearly the same thing you said about Veera, and she’s solidly in Tier 4 (unfortunately for a former Veera main like myself).