Introduction Top
OK So before i begin i would like to say that i don't understand why the Reim picture is coming up lol. Tried a bunch of stuff to fix it but no luck. any help would be.... helpful lol.
So this is technically a WP Build. I do augment with a shatterglass but that in no way makes this a hybrid build. I mean i guess technically it can be but no, this is a mostly WP build. The reason i choose shatterglass for this build (instead of another WP item) is because it works very well with the WP powers while still maintaining a WP build. Crystal scales very well with ULT and allows Arrows to do much more splash damage. This makes her dangerous. But the main reason i use a single shatterglass is because it augments her B ability, which is generally absent from pure WP builds. In those builds, sure she can disappear but she doesn't stay invis for very long, and the stun doesn't hurt much. with a single shatterglass, she can stay invis for much longer, and with tier 3 boots recharging every 30 seconds, she can actually get away from being targeted in team fights. This allows her to stay on the edge of team fights even if the team is ambushed. This is incredibly valuable because even though she has low health in these instances where she's targeted for a period of time, she can get away and still do good damage from a distance. In other builds she either gets caught running (WP builds) or can't disappear at all (CP Builds) and dies on the spot.
Another point to note is that its been calculated that Kestrel needs approximately 200 WP to disappear while being attacked. our build will focus on this and making her flexible enough to counter late game defenses.
Mission Start and 1st Shop Top
Here we are looking to take advantage of kestrels heavy early game damage by fixing some of her weaknesses. In this build, her primary weakness is getting caught out of position. If you are ever caught out of position with kestrel you are dead. Period. no exceptions (for now) because there is no way for you to escape. We will fix this by getting a little WP, keeping mines and potions stocked, and rushing boots. Since her damage early game is good, she doesn't have to rush into building heavy weapons yet. She can simply focus on escaping, which is her primary weakness.
Therefore at our first shop, we will get boots and as many potions as we can carry in 1 slot, then as many mines as we can carry. You want to scout all of the bushes by the lane AT ALL TIMES. This will allow you to push without worry because she can stomp and out farm any other laner (except WP Saw) 1 on 1. Some people might say what about ringo but unfortunately ringo doesn't have an attack speed perk and he doesn't have splash damage on his shots like Kestrel does. Having mines will also allow kestrel to safely push turrets. i cannot emphasize how important it is to this build to avoid dying at all costs.
Again, her damage is good, so your focus is not on getting your damage up its on STAYING ALIVE.
Early Game and Core Top
This portion of the build is going to continue to focus on farming as well as staying alife. Most characters may have built into a heavy damage item or two but we will still focus on helping Kestrel stay alive. Her damage will still be very good even with just these items. We are focusing on getting our sorrowblade.... but before that we need to get Tier 3 boots. This is incredibly important as escaping and or chasing someone down makes the difference in 1 on 1s, and being able to join/escape teamfights quickly, juke damage (particularly AOE Damage or directional damage like Celeste's Ult), and rush to/from objectives will become paramount to winning the midgame. It is also important to note that this is ALL OF THE ARMOR/SHIELD that you will have for this build (outside of infusions). so BE Careful. You are NOT to engage multiple enemies. Even if you see someone coming and your teamates are not close to you AND you do not have vision on BOTH of the other enemies RUN AWAY if you aren't 1234234987% sure you can get the kill before they call the calvary
Once we have built Sorrowblade, we will move into Shatterglass. We have explained why this is important. Our core will focus on having just enough WP and CP to use all of her passive abilities. Sorrowblade will give us great 1 on 1 attack power as well as quick farming. CP will allow our splash from arrows to do good damage, will allow us to stay invis for longer, and will make stun do heavier damage. These go together well particularly with the scaling on attacks like Ult.
Prepare Counter Build Top
Once we have completed our core, we will move to countervuild. Luckily, our counterbuild is incredibly flexible. Building 3 Six Sins means we can go into any combination of Sorrowblades, Tension Bows, or Tyrant's Monocle s that like. The key here is to keep the enemy guessing for as long as possible. To be very honest, most games that i've played with this build had been decided at this point. Kestrel is very strong and very slippery at this point and its tough to get a bead on her. We want to keep things this way. once we reach the point where we have the 3 Six Sins, we will be constantly checking the enemy builds. Very often, you'll see 3 metal jackets or even a tank with 2 metal jackets. you might see no metal jackets and all health. you might see a mix. Depending on what they build, you will want to counter with the appropriate items.
Counterbuild Armor Top
The most obvious and predictable response i've seen towards my build is a bunch of metal jackets. Understand exactly what metal jacket is, and what armor piercing does. To keep it simple, The more armor piercing you do, the more of your damage is actually subtracted from the enemy's health. So if i have 0% piece, then 100% of my damage is affected by the enemy's armor. If i have 30% pierce, then 30% of my damage IGNORES the armor and is subtracted from the enemy's health, while the other 70% of my damage is mitigated by the armor. As you can see, with this build, we aim to make our shield pierce as high as possible. Full build (with 3 tension bows) you are looking at 50% pierce on ability A, 70% pierce on ability B, and 30% pierce on all other attacks. What does that mean? it means that their attempt to counter build your weapon power by building armor was actually counter built by you building Armor pierce. Its like Chess. Their move. So how do we counter build this armor piercig build? What is the downside of doing this?
The downside is choosing health items over armor items.
Counterbuild health Top
This is where things get really fun for Kestrel. If an enemy knows you're going for a tension bow build and instead of building Armor, builds health or even better, builds no defense, then it completely negates the Armor Pierce build. The reason is because they make you waste your money building armor piercing weapons when there is NO ARMOR TO PIERCE. The sacrifice for building armor pierce is Damage. Pure damage. Critical Damage. and if you're building Tension bows, your additional WP gained as a result of these Tension bows is only 45. At the same time, the passive doesn't stack, and the the ability to armor pierce is neutralized. Building TBs when the enemy builds health will make Kestrel fall off HARD late game. So how do we counter build this?
Well its a good thing we prepared for this. Again... having 3 six sins allows us to choose our path later in the game. unlike with other items that will force us on a specific path. So when we are here, and the enemy increases their health instead of increasing their armor, we don't build armor pierce, we simply stack Damage items!
I say this build is more fun because with 2 Sorrowblades and 2 Tyrants Monocle's you will see BIG RED NUMBERS everywhereeeeeee. Turrets get melted in seconds. Kraken gets taken with ease. heros poof and disappear. If you haven't targeted someone from across the map fighting or chasing one of your teamates and sniped them for 1300 damage from respawn, watched them both stop like WTF?? then reverse the chase then you haven't lived lol. This build does so much damage its
Still working on this build. I'm testing out a lot of other builds and i actually "like" some builds better. This is the path that i'm winning the most games with. it is also the only build that does not fall off late game.
Other builds i'm trying are some CP builds and a really nice attack speed build. I feel those kind of fall short due to not having enough CP or WP to win late game matches. CP loses to celeste and Skye, and Attack speed loses to ringo BADDDDDD. I"ll keep updating as i continue researching :)
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