Introduction - Why you never need HP on Krul Top
Unless you need to build an Aegis, buying HP on Krul is huge, huge waste. It's a waste because his abilities grant him a lot of it already, and when you have so much HP, what's the best way to make use of it? Build a ton of armour and shield on top it. Although when I say "a ton" all I really mean is get yourself and
Aegis and a
Metal Jacket
Let's take a quick look at where Krul gets his extra HP from.
At level 8, Krul gains a considerable spike in power from maxing this skill. A maxed Dead Man's Rush grants a 600hp barrier for 2.5 seconds, and by level 8 you should at least have a
Clockwork and
Chronograph to let you spam this every 4.6 seconds. Why buy a crucible which also grants 600HP when you get one for free so easily?
136% lifesteal against a target with all 8 stacks at level 5. You won't get too much use out of this until lategame when you build a
Breaking Point and become a truly unstoppable force, but it's a very neat perk nonetheless.
211-540 HP on detonation. At level 5 it will instantly heal you 211 HP with only one stack. If you have 200 armour and shield (and you will), that's over 600 EHP minimum.
Early game this is very strong, but becomes a bit less useful as your opponents start to build shield. Nevertheless, you can expect this to grant you about an extra 100 HP with every activiation of Dead Man's Rush or Spectral Smite.
Summary
All of these things have very short cooldowns, made even shorter by your 75% cooldown acceleration. The best thing about Krul is that all this extra HP that he can summon in an instant makes him deceptively strong, because his HP bar never truly reflects how much longer he can stay alive. To your opponents it may look like you are almost dead, but when your Dead Man's Rush is 1 second off cooldown you know you're just 1 second away from gaining a 600 HP barrier, 100 lifesteal from aftershock, and another 400 or so HP from spectral smite and yet another aftershock proc.
Skills Top
Let's quickly go through Krul's skills before explaining the build strategy.
After hiding in a bush for 1.5 seconds without moving, Krul gains a significant speed boost for 2 seconds, and his next basic attack will slow the enem by 40% for 3 seconds.
This is the perk that you use to initiate a gank. Note that once you have this buff, you can run around freely within the bush without losing it. For this reason I stop the moment I reach our lane bush, then use the speed boost to travel through the rest of the bush faster. Once it's ready (and the enemy laner is in a good position) rush out of the bush and use
Dead Man's Rush to close the rest of the gap.
This is the ability that makes Krul so tanky. Every time you activate this, Krul rushes towards his target, dealing crystal damage and gaining a health barrier that lasts 2.5 seconds. It also applies basic-attack effects, which means that you'll also proc aftershock instantly, apply a stack of spectral smite and slow your opponent if you've been hiding in the bushes long enough to gain the
Shadows Empower Me buff.
When you're in combat, you should be using this ability every single time it is off cooldown. Once maxed this ability grants a 600 HP barrier and deals 530 crystal damage. If you have enough armour and shield, the enemy probably won't get through that 600 HP before it naturally disappears, and in that time you will have actually regained some HP from your spectral smite ability.
This ability makes Krul the king of 1vs1 fights. This ability does not discriminate against CP or WP, reducing both crystal power and attack speed by 10% for every stack. Be careful of opponents with high base damage on their abilities, this only reduces the extra CP, so Joule will still destroy you with her laser if you get cocky.
The key to using this ability properly is knowing when to detonate the stacks and when to keep them. If you're against a SAW for example, detonating those stacks without killing him is going to unleash his full power on you. Usually you can get away with alternating between dead man's rush and spectral smite though for regular aftershock procs.
Having a stun on a character like Krul seems a little OP, but as it is his ultimate it's not one that you can spam so use it sparingly. At level 2 it has a cooldown of 37.1 seconds with the standard build. Sometimes I use this from the bush to initiate a gank, but usually it's best saved for interrupting particularly troublesome ultimates like Joule's
Big Red Button or really obvious ones with long animations such as Ringo's
Hellfire Brew.
You can also use it to catch someone, but only if they're just barely out of range of dead man's rush. I'd only recommend doing this if that one kill is the one kill you need for the ace, otherwise chasing kills is really not worth it, and leaves you without your stun if the rest of their team shows up.
The Strategy Top
Krul is generally known for being pretty weak early game and a real powerhouse lategame. Most Kruls' downfall is not being able to get past the early game and therefore not being able to tap into that lategame power. So here is a strategy that works for me when jungling with a support who understands how to use an
Ironguard Contract (it's rarely a problem for me at hotness/SA).
I start off the game with a
Swift Shooter and one
Halcyon Potion just in case. I do one rotation of our jungle to get the gold for boots and one hourglass. After the second rotation I get a second hourglass and then head to lane for an attempt at a gank. So by around the 2:00 mark I have:
Sprint Boots
Swift Shooter
Hourglass
Hourglass
Sometimes the gank works, and sometime it doesn't. Sometimes it's even a case of just realising that the enemy laner isn't stretching far enough and heading back to jungle because it's pointless. Remember that Krul is weak early game. The golden rule at this point is
don't chase kills! It's how most Kruls will fail and fall behind. I'll admit, I sometimes forget myself and make this mistake, forgetting that I don't have a maxed
Dead Man's Rush, aftershock, or even any defence yet.
Besides, kills are overrated. In Vainglory, the higher your kill streak is, the *less* gold you get per kill. For this reason it's best to focus on objectives, and it's the reason I don't bother with shiversteel or frostburn for sticking power in this build. If the enemy gets away, let them, then go take some jungle camps/towers etc.
So you have two hourglasses. Notice how that's 30% cooldown acceleration for only 500 gold, when a chronograph would cost you 800 gold and grant only 25%. Tier 1 items are the secret to a strong early game, make the most of them before your 6 slots get full. The next thing that you want to do is upgrade both hourglasses into two
Chronograph to give you the following build:
Sprint Boots
Swift Shooter
Chronograph
Chronograph
For another 500 gold I usually follow up with:
Sprint Boots
Swift Shooter
Chronograph
Chronograph
Light Shield
Light Armor
Then from here, the rough build order for your tier 3 items is:
Clockwork >
Aftershock >
Aegis >
Metal Jacket >
Breaking Point
The order of the last 3 is situational, and you'll want to stick a
Travel Boots upgrade and
Blazing Salvo somewhere in there too. Usually, after finishing
Clockwork I go straight for
Kinetic Shield or
Coat of Plates depending on what the enemy team is building. You can upgrade them both to tier 3 later.
So once you have a tier 2 defensive item and finish aftershock, you now have your core build. Some games will be over by this point, so you really don't even need breaking point to play a good krul. It's very easy to forget that
the game is not about your final build, but how you get there, because what's the point in having an awesome end game build that is going to destroy everyone when you can't get that far?
Breaking point is fantastic once you have sustain power, but not much use if you can't stay alive long enough to build stacks. That's why it's always my 5th or 6th item on Krul.
Situational tweaks and stuff Top
Up to a certain point you can get by doing the exact same thing in every game, but by about Pretty Good I'd say you should know how to counter build. So here's a few pointers for how you might adapt this build to suit different needs.
If you see the enemy is going all WP or all CP, punish them by getting two Aegises or two metal jackets. You'll be so tanky, they'll barely scratch the surface of your 600 HP barrier. A fountain is not a good pick on Krul because he already has enough health regen s I'd always go double Aegis against CP, but you might want to consider
Atlas Pauldron as your second armour item if the enemy is all WP. I'd definitely recommend this against SAW, as a good SAW will kill you before you get more than 2 or 3 stacks on him, so DMR in and activate that slow asap!
Is the rest of your team going CP so the enemy is building shield? Aftershock damage is reduced by shield, so it's not going to be as good in this game. Your best bet is probably to get a second clockwork. With 100% cooldown acceleration you can now use Dead Man's Rush every 4 seconds, making you even tankier, and even more annoying.
Sometimes you might find that you don't really need the second defensive item. If you find yourself in such a situation, punish the enemy by ramping up your damage even more. These two items are good because they give you attack speed for building stacks.
Selling your boots!
Only if you finish your build, and usually only if you're up against another Krul is it worth doing this. A Krul vs Krul fight is probably going to be the hardest thing you come up against, and ditching your boots for a
Bonesaw is going to give you that edge that you need in a prolonged fight. Remember, it doesn't matter if your enemies get away from you, all you care about if you get this far is pushing those towers.
Summary Top
Abuse Krul's natural abundance of HP by getting high armour and shield to boost its value, most often through
Aegis and
Metal Jacket unless the situation dictates otherwise. Start off the game with a cooldown focused build to sustain yourself with regular use of
Dead Man's Rush and
Spectral Smite, and once you've built a tanky Krul, finish off with a
Breaking Point.
Top tips:
Don't chase after kills, focus on objectives.
Make up for Krul's weak early game by being smart and making full use of tier 1 items.
Stop when you reach a bush, then rush through the rest of the bush once you have your buff. It doesn't tick down until you actually leave the bush.
Krul's greatest power spike comes at level 8 when you max DMR. You can start to a get a little more confident from here, especially if you already have a clockwork and aftershock.
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