Hello,
I'm CullTheMeek, a previous VIPL/North American Vainglory champion jungler, and one of the current players for Phoenix Reborn. This is a guide for how I play/succeed with Alpha. I hope you enjoy! Let me know if you have any questions.
-CullTheMeek
Easily the signature part of Alpha’s kit,
Infinite Reboot essential gives
Alpha two lives. Once normal health of depleted, instead of dying,
Alpha begins to reboot and is stuck in place for a period of time while she reboots. When rebooting,
Alpha has reserve health and enemies can damage her during this time to attempt to deplete this reserve health. If not depleted before rebooting is finished,
Alpha will reboot to about 3-4 health in the same location and will be able to keep fighting.
The reserve health is extremely weak in the early game, but scales with level (325-1800). To make it harder for enemies to kill you during the rebooting process, build more armor and shield items.
When is the best time/where are the best places to try to reboot?
The best times to reboot are when it is either hard for the enemy to get to you (near a turret, behind teammates), when they don’t have vision on you (in a bush, behind a wall), or when you know the enemy does not have enough damage/energy to take down your reserve health. Try and mentally calculate the enemy’s damage potential when going into fight to see if you will likely be able to reboot or not.
Once activated,
Alpha scans for enemies in the target direction. If she successful scans an enemy, she will instantly dash behind them and deal Area of Effect (AOE) damage. This ability is not best used to initiate unless chasing down an enemy, since it deals increased damage and has more benefit with more
Core Charge stacks. Try to build 3
Core Charge stacks before using
Prime Directive, but still only use it when needed to gap close onto the enemy or the enemy team is clumped up. Using
Prime Directive removes the negative effects of Core Overload, so using it after you have 3 stacks is super important for maximum health benefit. Otherwise, it is best to keep auto attacking and using
Core Charge.
While farming, use
Prime Directive to move between camps and on double minion camps to maximize the AOE damage.
Prime Directive is also an extremely good ability for ganks in the lane since the slow is so powerful and lets you gap close extremely efficiently.
Upgrade Priority
Prime Directive is extremely important for WP
Alpha builds, so upgrade it and take the overdrive as soon as possible after taking the overdrive of
Core Charge. Each upgrade point gives increased damage and slow, and taking the overdrive gives increased range.
When activated,
Alpha dashes to the enemy, landing a basic attack and dealing additional damage in a small area. Each time she uses the ability, she loses small percentage of her health but gains a stack of Core Overload. Core Overload makes Alpha’s basic attacks heal her and causes additional activations of
Core Charge to deal more damage, stacking up to 3 times. To remove the negative effects, use
Prime Directive successfully on an enemy.
Try to use this ability to initiate fights and get into auto-attack range. Use it whenever available to gain additional stacks of Core Overload, and continue basic attacking to reduce the cooldown. For maximum damage output, use
Core Charge as an auto-attack reset. Use the combo: Auto-
Core Charge- Auto.
Upgrade Priority:
This is the most important part of WP Alpha’s kit, so take the Overdrive first. Each upgrade of Core charge gives increased damage, and the overdrive gives increased heal and cooldown reduction per auto attack.
While
Alpha does not do a ton of damage with
Termination Protocol in her WP path, she can still use it offensively and defensively. To maximize damage output, only use []Termination Protocol]] when you are about to run out of your normal health, since you will reboot to ample health after and can continue dealing damage. When activated,
Alpha gains a large barrier and can continue dealing damage for 3 seconds or until the barrier is breached. However, while
Alpha gains a burst of movement speed upon activation, she also rapidly loses it and eventually becomes almost completely immobile before exploding.
On Offense:
Since
Alpha has 2 gap closing abilities, try and combo the explosion of
Termination Protocol with her other abilities. For example, use
Prime Directive right before you are about explode for a potential AOE explosion and to get the AOE damage of
Prime Directive. The timing is difficult to master, so I’d suggest practicing it solo practice mode to get a better feel for it.
On Defense:
Like I described in the
Infinite Reboot section, you can attempt to reboot in locations where the enemy cannot reach you. Use it when you are low, and get away from the combat to safely reboot. Once you reboot to ample health, go back to fighting or run away if necessary.
Roam Heroes with Alpha:
Alpha is relatively weak in the early game, so pair her with roam heroes that excel in the early game.
Lance-
Lance is probably the strongest early game support right now with his immense AOE damage and natural tank-like stats. Lance can help
Alpha stick to targets in the early game, or peel enemies off her if she wants to disengage.
Ardan- Relatively strong in the early game,
Ardan can help
Alpha stick to the enemies and disengage if needed.
Ardan can also
Vanguard her while rebooting, often giving her the extra shield needed to reboot safely.
Heroes like
Catherine and
Phinn are okay with
Alpha, but do not help her enough in the early game.
Phinn can help somewhat with bonus AOE damage, but
Catherine does not offer much for
Alpha.
Lane Heroes to pair
Alpha with:
With a WP
Alpha, it is best to have a CP Lane hero to deal mixed damage, or if going double weapon, a high attack speed hero to quickly stack bonesaw like
Ringo.
Alpha is extremely good at tanking a lot of damage in the front line and being a distraction for the enemy while the lane hero does a lot of damage from the back line. That makes mobile back line heroes like CP
Vox,
Skye,
Celeste and
Lyra extremely good pairings with
Alpha.
Alpha’s early game play style depends entirely on her support and jungle matchup. If you have a lance, you can be aggressive against pretty much any jungle matchup. If you do plan to fight in the early game, make sure you have 3 Core Overload stacks before engaging. This is extremely important, and you will likely lose if you do not have them. On your first buy, get a t1 defense item to counter build the enemy jungler. If you plan on remaining passive and not fighting, go back to farming and build a lot of defense. If you are not fighting in jungle, it is imperative you put pressure on lane and build tanky to allow the laner to deal more damage.
Typically in the mid-game, depending on how the game is going, you will want a
Sorrowblade, at least one tier 2 defensive item and at least a
Blazing Salvo. If you are ahead in jungle, put pressure on enemy back camps and take control of the jungle to allow you to push objectives like Gold Mine. Otherwise, keep putting pressure on the lane by ganking the enemy laner and trying to gain numbers advantages.
Your second tier 2 offensive item is dependent on your play style and team composition. If your team is going double weapon or the enemy is building a ton of armor, build bonesaw second. If you are very far ahead and like building stacks on tanks before engaging the main carries, build bonesaw. If you want/need to focus a single carry immediately, build bonesaw to shred the target’s armor for yourself and teammates. How you play fights depends on what item you get, so play accordingly.
In team fights, play like described in the
Prime Directive and
Core Charge section. Initiate with
Core Charge and continue auto attacking, and try to only use
Prime Directive when you have 3
Core Charge stacks.
Alpha wants people to run away from her, as that is when she excels with her gap closing abilities. She wants to put pressure on the back line and for people to group up, so once you are tanky enough and are dealing a good amount of damage the enemy will start to back/group up.
Alpha is mostly a mid-game hero, and starts to fall off in the late-game. When the enemy starts building a lot of defense or have a lot of slows from items like
Frostburn, it is harder for her to put pressure on the back line. To counter this, you should build
Bonesaw and a lot of defensive items. You can still play extremely aggressive, especially if you have a back-line laner that can do a lot of damage. If you’re not doing enough damage, your primary objective in the late game will be to peel for the laner and tank a lot of incoming damage. Try to gain a lot of stacks on your
Breaking Point/
Bonesaw and then chase enemies down with your abilities.
Thank you for reading! I hope you found it useful, send any questions you may have to
@@TPHXCullTheMeek on Twitter or comment below.
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Phoenix website for updates on our competitive teams and for more player spotlights and guides!
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headset I use for Vainglory and watch my highlights on
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YouTube.
-CullTheMeek
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