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List of Item Builds | ||
Warrior | Tank | Assassin |
Mage | Marksman | Support |
Valhein Overview
Valhein is a pure marksman who deals out high speed attacks to his enemies. He is a versatile hero who can take one of several roles for his team. He is also one of the few heroes who can be built as either an attack damage or ability power hero without great compromise to his effectiveness.
Strengths
- High Mobility and Attack Speed – Pocket Glaive and Bullet Storm give movement speed and attack speed boosts that can make Valhein rather dangerous to most heroes, especially in one-on-one situations.
- Moderate Control Ability – Pocket Glaive gives every third attack one of three possible added effects. When used with his guaranteed stun, Curse of Death, he can lock down opponents in order to quickly tear away their health.
- Excellent Duelist – Compared to other marksmen, Valhein is excellent in one on one encounters. His guaranteed stun allows him a window of free damage. This can make fighting against him rather difficult without back up.
Weakness
- Low Range – Compared to other marksmen, Valhein can struggle when trying to safely engage opponents. He relies heavily on his skills to stay ahead of enemies and at times will be completely reliant on his allies to start fights.
- Weak Late Game Damage – Despite his role of a marksman, Valhein’s abilities scale with ability power. As a result, Valhein can lack the damage that other marksmen boast in later stages of the game. While definitely able to contribute to his team, he will need to finish the game early to avoid getting outpaced by the enemy.
- The Worst Reputation in the Game – Valhein is the first hero that anyone gets in Arena of Valor and a favorite to newer players. As such, he is regularly picked by people learning the game who naturally have a lower skill level than more practiced players. This has led to Valhein getting a very bad image for many players. Those who like using the marksman will find themselves facing an uphill battle when it comes to making friends.
Hero Basic Strategy
Laning Strategy
- Valhein can play either as a mid-lane mage or as a side lane marksman. Be sure to inform your team of which position you are taking so that they can properly fill out the rest of the team.
- Focus on last hitting enemy minions and getting the increased bounty from them. Valhein is very dependant on items, so needs the extra gold and experience.
- Use Marked for Death when engaged to escape, especially early game. You can get a few damaging hits in after stepping away from the enemy, but ensure your safety first.
- Hide in the bushes and wait for the opponent to approach when wanting to attack. Stun them from your hiding space before letting out a stream of attacks to chip away at their health.
- To break down opposing towers quickly, use Bullet Storm on enemy minions to benefit from an increased attack speed.
Leveling Progression:
- Start with Curse of Death and use it to either trap enemies and harass them or to escape from enemy attacks.
- After a single level of Curse of Death, start maxing out Bloody Hunt.
- Take levels in his ultimate, Bullet Storm, whenever it is available.
Make Curse of Death your lowest priority in leveling, as it does not scale well with ranks.
Battle Strategy
Solo Fights:
Start with Curse of Death and immediately use Bloody Hunt afterward. Continue with your ultimate if the hero is still alive before finishing them off with basic attacks. Hit enemy minions with your ultimate as well, if you can. This will increase the amount of bonus movement and attack speed you receive and help in catching escaping enemies. Use his second and first abilities again as they become available.
Team Fights:
Hang back in team fights to avoid getting caught in the front lines. Let tank, warrior, or assassin teammates lead the clash. Wait for the enemy to use any status effect abilities they might have before joining yourself. Once the opposing team is disabled, hit as many as you can with your Bullet Storm. Afterward, finish them off with your other abilities and basic attacks. If an enemy retreats, take advantage of your Hunter Buff and Bullet Storm’s passive effects to catch up with them. Hit them with your Curse of Death to allow your teammates to catch up and finish them off.
Escaping the Battle
- Stunning enemies with Curse of Death will provide Valhein with a window for easy escape.
- Making use of Hunter buff by using abilities on monsters can help him maintain a high movement speed. Be careful, though, as he we stop running to attack.
- Casting Bullet Storm on minions or monsters is also a great way to boost his movement speed. The more shots that hit a target, the bigger the movement speed bonus.
Abilities
Pocket Glaive – Passive – Every 3rd normal attack becomes a glaive with an additional random effect and grants 1 stack of the Hunter buff, which increases 8% movement speed for 2 seconds and stacks up to 5 times. |
- This passive gives Valhein an advantage over other heroes early game. Having a full stack of Hunter buff lets him move very quickly across the map.
- Pocket Glaive makes him hard to catch, hard to escape, and able to easily poke his enemies.
- A symbol above Valhein’s head will show what the coming glaive’s effect will be. A yellow glave will mimic Curse of Death’s effect and thereby can be used with Curse of Death to stunlock the enemy.
Bloody Hunt – Valhein throws a red glaive, dealing 300/330/360/390/420/450 (+0.8 AD) (+0.8 AP) magic damage to the target and enemies nearby. Grants 1 stack of the Hunter buff. |
- This helps Valhein to clear enemy minion waves quickly as well as help him push his lane.
- The extra stack of Hunter buff is necessary when trying to reach full stacks.
Curse of Death – Valhein throws a golden glaive, dealing 150/170/190/210/230/250 (+0.58 AD) (+0.6 AP) magic damage magic damage and stunning the target. Grants 1 stack of Hunter. |
- This should be used first when initiating a fight. The stun allows him to follow-up with his other abilities and attack before the enemy can react.
- Using this ability also grants him an additional Hunter buff, allowing him three instant stacks when his third normal attack, first ability, and second ability all land successfully.
Bullet Storm – Valhein fires six silver bullets at once. Each bullet deals 200/250/300 (+1.0 AD) (+1.0 AP) magic damage to an enemy. Each hit increases movement speed by 10% (up to 60%) and attack speed by 8% (up to 48%) for 3 seconds. |
- Valhein’s ultimate, when used effectively, can deal damage to a wide area of minions and heroes.
- Bullet Storm is an effective way of pushing lanes and knocking down towers. The initial damage helps clear the wave while the following attack speed increase can be used to do damage to the tower or finish off any remaining minions.
- The movement speed makes this a great way to escape or chase enemies. Valhein can move exceptionally quickly when stacking Bullet Storm and Hunter Buff.
How to Counter Valhein
- Valhein is very squishy and thereby easy to burst down. Assassins and burst mages should make him a priority, as he won’t be able to defend himself well from their damage.
- If alone, wait until Curse of Death is on cooldown before engaging. The stun can slant the fight into his favor, even if engaged upon. This is doubly true if he gets another stun with Pocket Glaive.
Hero Item Build
SG Recommended Build | ||
---|---|---|
War Boots |
Blitz Blade |
Frost Cape |
Hyoga’s Edge |
Fafnir’s Talon |
Blade of Eternity |
Hero Arcana
- As a marksman, Valhein can opt to go full attack damage arcana and still be strong in team fights. Getting Obliterate, Assassinate, and Skewer ensures that you have a ton of damage at the start of a game since he is weak in the early game.
- If you think you’ll have a hard time because of the enemy’s composition, getting defensive arcana is the way to go. Indomitable, Benevolence, and Mythril are great defensive arcana if you want safety and survivability in the early game.
Hero Counters
Tank
Tanks can be difficult to handle, even without their physical and magical armor at the start of the battle. Valhein will have a terrible time trying to deal with a duo of tank heroes early game. Move around and poke at them with your abilities. Avoid their abilities as well as you can. Items like Muramasa will be vital to defeating tanks.
Warrior
Warriors also pose a large threat to Valhein. Many are on par with him early game in terms of mobility. They also often have control effects like stuns or slows, so Valhein has to be careful when moving around and pushing his lane. Make sure to avoid their abilities while harassing from a distance.
Assassin
Assassins usually prioritize marksmen when attacking due to marksmen’s low health pools. Furthermore, eliminating a marksman’s damage potential in a fight would be a big help to the assassin’s team. Most of these heroes are very mobile, so Valhein has to create opportunities where he can poke them while staying near his tower. This helps in preventing ganks, as assassins lack the health to dive under towers.
Mage
The bonus movement speed will prove to be advantageous for Valhein when dealing with mages. Unfortunately, he lacks the burst damage needed to kill his enemies quickly and therefore has to harass and stun-lock them early game. For crowd control mages, avoid engaging them while in a static position. When it comes to harassing mages, let them throw their abilities by mistake or take advantage of the bush to avoid their attacks.
Marksman
When it comes to facing other marksmen in battle, Valhein will generally do well in terms of mobility and attack speed. However, avoid being in their range, especially when it comes to their abilities. Marksmen will be easy to outrun if Valhein has been keeping his Hunter buff stacked. His Marked for Death is a great way to put a hole in their DPS, allowing you to outpace their damage in fights.
Support
Support heroes are a pain for Valhein early game due to their recovery and debuff abilities. It is also difficult to handle them in close range battles since they often have wide area of effects abilities. It will do a lot for Valhein if he continuously harasses them with his yellow glaives to stun them. Next, finish them off with his ultimate or first abilities. Attack with caution and focus on bringing them down first at the right time especially when they are paired up with another hero.
▼ Hero Class Guides | ||
---|---|---|
List of Item Builds | ||
Warrior | Tank | Assassin |
Mage | Marksman | Support |
Arena of Valor (AoV) Recommended Article List
▼ Popular Articles | |
---|---|
Beginner's Guide | Hero Tier List |
Hero Class Guide | Armory (Item List) |
▼ Popular Articles | |||
---|---|---|---|
Beginner's Guide | Hero Tier List | Hero Class Guide | Armory (Item List) |
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