Starting Up Top
Hey guys! Welcome to my guide on Skye! in this guide I'm going to go through all the details so this can be a guide for beginning players to skye or something that's going to improve your skye play if you're an experienced pinnacle of awesomeness player.
Skye has been my favorite character since I started playing the game on her update, been in love with her long before Baron came along and I know her far better than that wannabe upstart. While I am not actually a Vainglorious player, when my Vainglorious and Pinnacle of Awesomeness team brings me into ranked matches with them they always try to put me on the Skye because they know I'll carry them to the win with her.
With this guide I'm going to discuss builds, plays, mind sets, decisions you want to be making, and one thing I think you guys will really enjoy: angling her forward barrage
Note this guide is not yet complete, it's a work in progress, don't worry I'll have it finished soon :)
First let's look at her abilities:
Heroic Perk
Skye locks onto and reveals the target she most recently basic attacked. Basic attacks and
Forward Barrage on that locked target grant her up to 2 move speed for 1.2 seconds. This speed bonus is dramatically reduced while moving backward.
Target Lock is lost if the target moves more than 8.5 meters away from Skye or if she doesn't attack her target for 3 seconds.
Abilities
Forward Barrage
Slot: A
Skye fires a continuous stream of bullets while strafing in a selected direction. Reactivate this ability to stop firing.
The duration increases with Skye's crystal power up to a max of 3 seconds. Weapon damage can critically strike with bonus critical damage. Deals bonus damage to locked targets. Deals 60% damage to structures & bosses.
Suri Strike
Slot: B
Active: Skye dashes to a chosen location near her locked target while a volley of missiles along a line between her and her target. Multiple missiles can hit the same target, but sequent hits deal 20% damage. This ability can only be activated when Skye has a locked target. Activating this ability resets a portion of the cooldown on Forward Barrage.
Passive: Each ability point in Suri Strike increases the duration of target-lock.
Death From Above
Slot: C
Active: Skye fires a salvo of missiles at a chosen location near her locked target. After a 1.3 second delay, the missiles rain down on that location, stunning enemies for 0.5 seconds. Enemies still in the area afterward are slowed and take crystal damage. Aiming directly on your locked target rains down the missiles in a cluster. Aiming away from your locked target rains them down in a line across the target's path. This ability can only be activated when Skye has a locked target. Deals 40% damage to structures & bosses.
Passives: Each ability point in Death from Above increases Skye's
Target Lock range.
Analysis
Skye is a hero that wants to keep her enemies at a distance. In short: her
Forward Barrage is damage and discouragement to approach, her
Suri Strike is repositioning and gap closing, and her
Death From Above is zoning. You're going to be jumping to a location then immediately unleashing the
Forward Barrage for damage and to make sure the enemies don't jump on you, you're going to be using her
Death From Above to separate enemies from their teams, cut off escapes and block out pathways.
All this sums up to one thing: keeps your enemies at a distance and pump 'em fulla lead!
The Build
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This item is going to be the most important item in your kit (yes even more than your
 Eve of Harvest and
 Broken Myth) This is because if you're locked down, you're dead, and if you're dead, you're even more useless than if you were alive and not dealing damage. Always be watching for incoming enemy crowd control and be ready to block it. A
 Skye that is reflex blocking crowd control will separate the got swagger
Skye from the hotness
Skye. If you're wondering why I don't just have
 Aegis here, it's because you're going to build it into an
Aegis eventually (and most likely as a last or second to last item), but the
Reflex Block you need to have as soon as possible.
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Eve of harvest is going to bring in your sustain. As much as Skye loves to keep enemies at a distance, you're going to be getting in your enemies faces. The life steal will simply get you through a fight-you WILL take damage no matter how amazing you are! You will either stay topped off or get back just enough health to pull off that 3v1 ace (trust me).
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Broken Myth will be your scaling item. Once you get this item, your damage comes online and you becomes a true threat in the halcyon fold. Team fights as a Skye will be long due to the nature of her forward barrage being an dps ability rather than burst, so
Broken Myth is going to be fantastic (this is why Skye didn't feel it at all with the nerf on
Broken Myth a few updates ago).
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Or
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Ok, any player in Vainglory is going to have their opinion on which one to take, and both sides have very legitimate arguments. I am going to make the final say here.
90% of the time, the answer is
Frostburn. Many will say that
Frostburn is basically training wheels for new
Skye's this couldn't be less true. The slow from
Frostburn isn't only used to keep forward barrage on your enemies, it also makes it harder for enemies to get to you. A
Shatterglass does in fact deal more damage (and yes it is a significant difference), but it doesn't slow that
 Krul running at you and potentially saving your life. A
Shatterglass won't slow the enemies that just tried to gank you after you used your
Suri Strike to jump away. In short, the increased damage just isn't enough to replace the usefulness of the slow, no matter how good you are at keeping the
Forward Barrage on your enemies.
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Entering the Game Top
First 5 Minutes
When you enter the game, the only real build difference between a lane Skye and a jungle Skye is going to be your opening Buy. On a lane you're going to want a
Crystal Bit and a
Weapon Blade while a jungle is going to be a
Crystal Bit and
Energy Battery. The reasoning behind it is something I'm sure most of you realize: the
Weapon Blade is going to help you last hit in lane and the
Energy Battery is going to keep you up and running while you farm the jungle (and most likely fight).
In lane your first shop probably isn't going to happen several minutes into the game, and if you're good at last hitting, you'll be shopping with 2000-3000 gold. This is enough to get at absolute minimum the first buy I have listed in the build. (one thing I suggest always doing until you shift into mid-late game is restocking on 3
Halcyon Potions every time you shop until you get into mid-late game).
Skye's early game is good, but not great, she'll hold her own against most characters but is outclassed by some early game characters like
Koshka and
Glaive. In this stage, be aggressive, but make sure you're not putting yourself in do or die situations, you're not likely to come out of them because your
Suri Strike and
Forward Barrage aren't on short enough cooldowns. You have to make each one force your enemies to either back off or die from just one use-MAYBE two, and you don't have enough damage to make that happen reliably. your primary focus should be farming.
Jungle Farming
The rotations you are going to follow are going to vary from match to match and the team you're playing with, but as a general rule, always finish the first jungle rotation so you can get to level two. I don't suggest trying to contest the shop treant because
Skye's
Forward Barrage is dps based so any enemy with an instant damage type of ability will easily steal it from under you. But take it if the enemy doesn't contest it. After getting to level two, rotate up to the lane with your roam and try to pick up a kill on the enemy laner. Do this by basic attacking a minion, then use a
Suri Strike to dash behind the enemy laner. People usually try to retreat towards their turret so they'll walk right into the missiles from
Suri Strike. Let the enemy get in front of you then start pumping them with your forward barrage. Make sure you choose an angle that isn't letting their minions body block for you though!
Note
Do this if your roam is a support style roam such as
Ardan or
Adagio. Their support will get you out if the enemy team was waiting for you to make the first move, if you have a more utility roam like
Lance or
Catherine have them go first with their CC and use the speed boost from your target lock basics to get to the enemy quickly so you have your
Suri Strike to escape if the enemy was waiting for you to make the first move.
After this first rotation go back to farming, check up lane regularly and help out when needed, your job is mostly to scale up for late game.
But still be aggressive!!
Lane Farming
I've actually never been a huge fan of laning a crystal
Skye, the minions will
always be in the way of your forward barrage and a smart enemy will use that to their advantage, actively standing behind minions so you can't hit them.
however you will have to learn to work around that, it's hard and takes practice, but is possible. First thing to get is having the top half of the lane, away from the moustache bushes. This makes it harder for you to be ganked and easier for your team to gank the enemy. As luck would have it, being in the top half will actually give you a lot of good angles on the enemy laner so bullying them into the bottom half is 100% manageable.
When trying to last hit, always be moving and using the speed boost from
Skye's basic attacks, it makes it harder for you to lock down and for skill shots to hit. If any of you are martial artists, it also serves the same purpose as bouncing on your toes, staying mobile will keep your reflexes and response time up, it's much easier to continue a flow you've developed than to start one up instantly. So it will be harder for the enemy to gank you.
Frequently take pot shots on your lane counterpart, again, the speed boosts you get from her perk make it easy to jump in, throw a basic attack, and jump out,
Skye has a lot of advantages in the lane, so use them!
Moving on to Mid Game Top
Skye follows a pretty steady climb to the top as the game progresses, so as you slip into mid game and get that frostburn, you're going to feel the shift, so use it and turn up the aggression, start attacking the enemy laner even more, etc mid game doesn't have massive changes from early game you should still be farming, but team fights are going to be getting more frequent now, you're dealing enough damage to be taking part in them and fighting them out, but still don't be going all-in quite yet.
What To Be Aware Of
Think about the comp you're dealing with.
Skye is a late game scaling character, and has among the best scaling in the game (In my opinion). So depending on the enemy comp you will either be needing to start paying attention to an enemy and/or start discounting enemies. If the enemy has a
Koshka, this is the point where she isn't a problem anymore, just be watching for her stun to block (it will spell out your doom, no matter what stage of the game). If the enemy has a
Gwen, she's going to be starting to come online with you. make sure you're keeping track of things like these as you shift into this phase of the game
Late Game Top
Time To Be A Monster
By this point, you have your
Frostburn and
Eve of Harvest you're building into your
Broken Myth and you have probably topped of your
Travel Boots to
Halcyon Chargers. Your
Suri Strike is now up right after you've finished unloading your
Forward Barrage (assuming you're level 12) so you're hitting them with the damage and pressure of your
Forward Barrage moving to a new (and hopefully better) position, rinse and repeat. You're uncatchable, ridiculously mobile, and dishing out an oppressive amount of damage.
What Your Mindset Should Be
In late game, you should always be with your team.
Skye is incredibly mobile, but you only have one
Suri Strike every three seconds and only one
Reflex Block. You can't dodge everything, and you can only block one crowd control, so always be with your team so you don't have all three enemies on you.
Skye can pull off some ridiculous 3v1's (and I'll have some videos of that) but not if you're caught out!
At this stage of the game, you need to start thinking like a chess player. Every place you go, you need to imagine where you would be if a fight were to break out now, and when you're trying to initiate a fight or you're in one of those standoffs where neither team really wants to commit until one side has made a mistake, be planning how you're going to move around the fight.
Team fights with a
Skye are going to be long and drawn out if you're not losing them, This is because
Skye's forward barrage is a dps ability, meaning it deals small amounts of damage over a long period of time (three seconds) that adds up to a lot of damage in the end. Because of this, you are going to move around a
lot. Be watching the flow of the fight to see where the safe positions are, watch for when the enemy team has used their crowd control so you don't jump into a spot that puts you in range of their crowd control. Crowd control is
Skye's biggest counter, second only to taka, which is why you'll see all the top danger characters are roam characters.
Skye's kit fits together perfectly because with the only cooldown item (your
Halcyon Chargers your
Suri Strike comes up by the time the three seconds it takes for the
Forward Barrage to finish. Use this effectively by using your
Forward Barrage to create the spaces and opportunities you need to jump to a same position. Most people will try to stun you out of a forward barrage, if you can avoid it, you now have a free jump to a new spot the enemy can't pull you out of. safe positioning + enemies abilities on cooldowns = untouched
Skye = victory
Follow?
What Heroes To Play With Her Top
Counters To Skye And How To Deal With Them Top
Tips, Tricks, and Whatnot Top
Game Play
Positioning
-When you're in lane, try to claim the top half of the lane
-The best way to get around minions is by firing your forward barrage at angles around the minions, directly up and down or side to side are most likely to get body blocked
-Positioning is something you have to train your eye to recognize, it will come with time so don't stress yourself trying to actively learn it
-You don't always have to suri stike of an enemy hero, you can use minions as well!
-The center clearing where the kraken is and the bases are [skye]]'s domination zones, the open nature of the spots allows her all the room in the world to do exactly what she wants, pick fights there whenever you can
-Don't forget that
Frostburn gives you a slow, use it!
-Don't forget that you can cancel the ability at any time, if you know you missed and a
Suri Strike to a new position isn't an option, cancel it (but don't always cancel it right away, sometimes keeping it up provides crowd control)
-Get in your targets face, its intimidating and makes them panic, it also makes it easier to keep the forward barrage on them (just don't get out of position doing it!)
-Plan ahead for where your enemy wants to go, it's better to miss the first second of forward barrage so you can hit the other two seconds than to hit the first second and miss the other two seconds
-Reposition reposition reposition!
-When the enemy stuns you, be patient, wait to come out of the stun and get a target lock on your attacker, then
Suri Strike away
-Use minions as your
Suri Strike!
-You can use [[suri strike] to jump over walls if the enemy is standing close to one
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Don't use this ability for its damage, I know its tempting, but going for the damage will put you out of position 90% of the time!
-Since the missiles are dropped in a line however, if you can take a path that goes over your enemies that does damage and repositions
-Use this ability as an enemy uses a gap closer, you'll land behind where they started and suddenly the gap between you and them is bigger than before they used their gap closer!
-Fantastic for chasing, if you're coming on an interception path, you're more likely to land the missiles, if you're chasing from behind the missiles most likely won't hit
-If you're trying to make a gap between you and a melee character, don't use this ability in the direction you're fleeing to, you won't gain anything from it, go perpendicular to where you're fleeing to, it creates a bigger gap (if possible go behind and follow up with a forward barrage)
-Use this ability to block off choke points
-Drop it on immobilized characters to really lock them down
-Combo with your
Forward Barrage for even more damage!
-Use it to separate enemies from their team and block off escapes
-The line version can still be used as a stun!
Becoming a Pro Top
Opening
Alright this is where the guide shifts to the advanced stuff. If you're new to
Skye this material will certainly help, but this is primarily for those who are experienced at
Skye and looking to advance their Simply Amazing skill into Pinnacle of Awesomeness or Vainglorious skill.
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