Arena of Valor (AoV) - Arum Hero Guide

A guide to Arena of Valor's Arum, the Conjurer. Arum utilizes her spirit beasts to both deal damage and sustain through team fights. Her ultimate, Snare, is a terrifying tool that can lock down an opponent and kill them with their own damage sources.


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AoV WarriorWarrior AoV TankTank AoV AssassinAssassin
AoV MageMage AoV MarksmanMarksman AoV SupportSupport


Overview

Arum is a tank-class hero who also has the traits of a mage and warrior. Early on, she does significant damage – and receives great healing – through the Ravenous Beasts passive, allowing her to take on multiple heroes right off the bat. Later, her damage drops off but she becomes more durable, allowing her fill the role of off-tank.

Strengths

  • Versatile – Arum can fill multiple roles depending on her build, and can even shift roles during the course of a game. Early on, Arum can be played in the Abyssal or Dark Slayer lanes, and can even jungle fairly adequately. Later, the roles of off-tank or main tank suit her best, with her ability to dive towers for kills making her very assassin-like.
  • Heavy Sustain – The healing that Arum receives from Ravenous Beasts is tremendous, particularly when in the midst of multiple heroes. Much like Maloch, Arum often stays alive much longer than the enemy team suspects, allowing both her and her team to dish out damage while she lingers on.
  • Ridiculously Good Brawler At Level 1 (or if ahead) – At level 1, Arum will win any 1v2 as long as the opponent can’t continuously kite her. Even if she runs out of mana, simply staying attached to the opposing heroes will allow her to win the fight while staying nearly topped off. Similarly, if you’re ahead in experience and gold, then Arum can easily take on multiple members of the opposing team by herself.
  • Long-ranged abilities/attacks – Tanks often work in small confines, utilizing melee attacks and short-ranged abilities. Arum, however, not only has a ranged attack, but can damage foes from extremely long distances with Uncaged
  • Great at diving towers – While assassins are usually too flimsy to dive towers, and tanks don’t have enough damage to make it worth their while, Arum can easily punish a player hiding under their tower, even in a 1v1 situation. Using Snare will typically cause the tower to focus Arum, forcing the hapless hero caught to take damage as well.

Weaknesses

  • Immobile – Another way Arum is similar to Maloch is that neither have any dashes or charges in their kits. Typically, once Arum’s in a fight, there’s no getting out other than simply walking away (or sustaining through until they’re all dead – the preferred strategy). Though Uncaged gives her a bit of movement speed, the cast animation and the fact it uses up all her beasts make it not worth her while when trying to escape. If not jungling, using Flicker on Arum will help her get out of sticky situations, or allow her to jump an unsuspecting squishy.
  • Unreliable CC – Snare is great for locking down heroes, but it’s unusable if Arum is low on HP; further, using it on a tank who’s overextended will punish you both as the team fight begins. Uncaged is good from long range, but at short range it’s unwieldy: one pixel off and it’ll head the wrong direction – plus there’s a significant animation before the damage lands. Arum will often find herself in situations where she wants to lock someone down, but simply can’t.

Hero Basic Strategy

Laning Strategy

  • Arum can fill any role in the early game except for the mid lane. Ravenous Beasts is great for dueling, fighting two on two, or clearing monsters quickly.
  • Arum essentially has two abilities at level 1, making her one of the most devastating brawlers at the start of the game. If possible, rally your team towards the enemy jungle and steal their monsters, fighting anyone who dares challenge you.
    • If no one follows – but the enemy team hasn’t noticed you either – Arum can kill a Sage or Might Golem quickly enough to return to the lane and collect XP/gold from the minions
  • Other than marksmen, who can simply kite you, Arum can sustain through fights against any hero or set of heroes early on, as long as it’s a fair fight numbers-wise. Get in there and rough ’em up.

Level Progression

  • Lion Tamer at level 1. Uncaged is not even cast-able without Lion Tamer, which makes us feel like it shouldn’t even be an option.
  • Level 3 and on, it’s up to team composition and personal preference on which ability to take between Lion Tamer and Uncaged, as neither benefit from cooldown reduction and the damage benefits are similar if you consider the 50% CDR you get from damaging an enemy with Lion Tamer. If you think you’ll be poking the enemy from afar often, choose Uncaged. If you’re likely to be brawling often, choose Lion Tamer.
  • Snare is an extremely powerful ultimate, and as such, even a five-second CDR is worth leveling it up whenever available.

Battle Strategy

  • Laning: As mentioned earlier, Arum is best when she’s brawling, so try to invade the opponent and see if you can pull off any shenanigans. If in a traditional lane setup, bully the melee heroes while watching out for those who can kite you. Standing in the minion wave and healing using Ravenous Beasts is a good way to stay topped off.
  • One on One: Your Ravenous Beasts are the key to brawling one-on-one, so have them up whenever engaging the enemy. Only use Uncaged if 1) the enemy attempts to run away, 2) you’re low on health and need to burst minions from under your tower, or 3) You have enough time to get all three beasts up before the next battle
  • Team Fights: If possible, find a squishy target and use Snare on them (remember to aim!). Otherwise, there are two ways to go about a team fight. The first is to go in with all three beasts up and try to get in the middle of as many enemy heroes as possible to both deal damage and sustain for as long as possible. If you are low on health (perhaps after using Snare), let your main tank engage, then use Uncaged from afar whenever you have 1-2 beasts ready.
  • Escaping Fights: You’re usually better off staying in fights until they’re finished, as running limits the amount of sustain you’ll receive through Ravenous Beasts. If you’re hopelessly outnumbered and think you will certainly die, then use Snare on a squishy target and pray that the enemy kills their own teammate. Afterward, simply run to your teammates or behind a tower, looking for potential opportunities to turn if there are multiple enemies clumped and you can gain significant health through Ravenous Beasts. While Uncaged gives a temporary speed boost, you stop while casting it and lose all your beasts, so make sure you’ll hit the chasing enemies if you use it.

Abilities

Arum Passive Ravenous BeastsPassive – Arum’s spirit beasts deal  60 (+0.5 AP) (3% of target’s max HP) as magic damage  and heal Arum for 60 (+0.4 AP) (3% of own max HP) whenever they hit an enemy. If the beats hit a minion, then Arum is only healed 1% of her maximum HP. When Arum is in the brush and not in the enemy’s vision, the ravenous beasts summoned by Arum cannot be seen by the enemy.
  • Ravenous Beasts is what essentially gives Arum two abilities at level one – the rotating beasts and the pulse from Lion Tamer. The more heroes that are around, the more she is able to sustain, so try to fight melee heroes as much as possible in the early stages of the game
  • Enemies inside 200 units will not be damaged by the beasts, so make sure you’re standing a bit off the enemy you’re trying to damage – the pulse from Lion Tamer is the same length, and you have a ranged attack, so giving a little distance won’t decrease your damage
  • Because of the massive life steal the beasts provide, you’re often better off fighting multiple heroes rather than running away if you get caught
Lion Tamer – Arum unleashes a roar that deals 250/300/350/400/500 (+0.4 AP) magic damage and summons a spirit beast. While beasts are active, using the skill again and damaging an enemy will reduce the cooldown by 50%. Arum can summon up to 3 beasts, and the number of beasts determines the power of Uncaged.
  • Immediately charge up your beasts once the game begins so you have 3 ready. Similarly, always charge immediately back up to three once you use Uncaged
    • If near minions or monsters, use Lion Tamer on them to lower the cooldown
  • Even at three beasts, using Lion Tamer will still deal damage
Arum Ability 2 Uncaged – Arum consumes all her spirit beats to spawn a lion that charges at the target area, dealing 500/600/700/800/900/1000 (+0.6 AP) magic damage. Arum gains a short speed boost after casting.

The Lion charges ahead the same number of times as the number of beasts consumed. The effects are as follows:
1st charge: reduces enemy movement speed by 50% for 1 second.
2nd charge: reduces enemy movement speed by 90% for 1 second.
3rd charge: stuns the enemy for 1 second.
  • Uncaged is best as either an initiating tool before using Snare, or as a way to catch heroes running away.
  • On the second and third charges, the beasts jump in the direction from which Arum casts Uncaged, so maneuver her in position beforehand
  • Using it from short range is not advised (unless you simply want to use Snare), as you’re better off keeping your beasts
  • If low on health and unable to rejoin the fight, using Uncaged from a distance can deal a fair amount of AoE damage
  • The speed boost doesn’t make up for the time spent casting, so don’t use it when trying to get back to a lane or otherwise traversing the map
Snare – Arum summons her 3 spirit beasts immediately and binds herself to the target hero for 2.5 seconds. While active, both Arum and the enemy hero are immobilized, and damage taken by either one will be replicated on the other. This spell cannot be interrupted, and Arum cannot attack or use abilities  while it is active.
  • Always use Uncaged before using Snare, as the beasts will replenish themselves immediately
  • Though Snare auto-aims when tapped, make sure to aim the ability when in a crowd so that you can target a squishy hero
  • Snare is a great way to catch heroes under towers, using their own tower damage to kill them
  • Snare doesn’t do any damage itself (the caught hero will take some damage from your beasts, but not enough to kill them if at full health), so don’t waste it if you don’t have the damage to follow up on it.
  • CC-cleansing effects, including TeeMee’s Being a Bro (which can be used even when stunned), do not work against Snare. Don’t worry about heroes like Superman or Kil’groth immediately escaping, and prioritize TeeMee whenever possible, since he can resurrect allies under the effect but not himself.

How to Counter Arum

  • Don’t let Arum heal herself on multiple members of your team; stay separated and attack her from a distance so she can’t use the life steal from her beasts
  • If Arum uses Snare on a teammate, immediately stop attacking Arum or else you will kill your own teammate
  • If low on health, be wary of Arum diving you under towers. Stay outside of the 400-unit range when she approaches.
  • Arum relies heavily on life steal, so equipping Tome of the Reaper or Curse of Death can shut down her resiliency. Similarly, if she goes overboard on stacking HP, Fafnir’s Talon can cut through it

Item Builds

Brawling Beasts
Arena of Valor Orb of the MagicOrb of the Magi Arena of Valor Gilded GreavesGilded Greaves Arena of Valor The AegisThe Aegis
Arena of Valor Frosty's RevengeFrosty’s Revenge Arena of Valor Gaia's StandardGaia’s Standard Arena of Valor Amulet of LongevityAmulet of Longevity
Brawling Beasts
Arena of Valor Orb of the MagiOrb of the Magi Arena of Valor Gilded GreavesGilded Greaves Arena of Valor The AegisThe Aegis Arena of Valor Frosty's RevengeFrosty’s Revenge Arena of Valor Gaia's StandardGaia’s Standard Arena of Valor Amulet of LongevityAmulet of Longevity

This hybrid build provides her with damage, sustain, and utility all in one package. Orb of the Magi brings ability power and HP, which Arum loves. Arum needs all the mobility she can get, so Gilded Greaves reduces any CC that gets in her way, while Frosty’s Revenge gives a nice 7% boost to her movement speed. While The Aegis and Frosty’s Revenge don’t provide her any HP, the utility they offer in slowing the enemy is crucial for getting the most out of Arum’s kit. Gaia’s is there for a bit more healing, making Arum even harder to kill, while Amulet of Longevity synergizes with Ravenous Beasts in multiple ways.

More Arum Item Builds

Hero Arcana

  • Indomitable, Benevolence, and Valiance give Arum HP and movement speed to help make the most out of her passive
  • If you want to capitalize on her strong early game, Violate, Devour, and Flurry can help take out enemies quickly

Hero Counters

Arena of Valor Tank Tank

Arum loves melee heroes, as they constantly give her beasts something to chew on. In addition, Ravenous Beasts deals percent-based magic damage, so tanks will especially feel it when their life force is sucked out. Don’t hesitate to engage tanks one-on-one; if there are multiple heroes around though, try to engage the backline instead. It usually isn’t a good idea to Snare a tank, as their life pool will be similar to yours

Arena of Valor Warrior Warrior

Similar to tanks, Arum loves a good warrior to munch on. There are a few warriors who can take Arum on, so be a bit careful with who you engage, especially post level-4, when their ultimate is usually damage-focused. Warriors are a bit more palatable than tanks to Snare, as you’ll typically have half your HP remaining once your team takes them out.

Arena of Valor Assassin Assassin

Assassins are the most annoying for Arum to deal with outside of Marksmen, as they can typically get in, chunk Arum down, and get out before she can steal any life from them. If you have Snare ready and your teammates are around though, then they’re easy prey.

Arena of Valor Mage Mage

Mages are Arum’s primary Snare targets. Immobile mages can be caught with Uncaged and Snare, while the mobile ones can be shut down if they try to get cute with hit-and-run tactics. Just be careful to avoid their burst if you don’t have heroes around to heal back up on.

Arena of Valor Marksman Marksman

Marksmen are extremely annoying for Arum to deal with, as they can kite her all day. This is where items like The Aegis and/or using Flicker can help you catch them and put an end to them using Snare.

Arena of Valor Support Support

Though supports can help their teammates out, they typically deal less damage than Arum can heal using Ravenous Beasts. Get up close to them – not to kill them, but to sustain yourself while you or your teammates deal with the rest. Supports typically have less health than Arum, so using Snare on them if they’re caught out is perfectly fine.

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

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6 Comments

  1. Um, If your team mates nuke the person you snare, does that damage get applied to you? if so why would you use it in a team fight. Are her beasts just that good as sustaining her?

    • Yes, if your teammates attack the person you snare Arum takes the damage as well, but since she is a tank she usually has more blood than them and her beasts heal her as well. The beasts are better at healing in the late game.

  2. It needs to be edited, snare spawns 3 Beasts when used, so it’s useful to use un caged and follow up with snare so you can ensure multiple hits