Introduction Top
A few introductions.
Over the course of my Vainglory playing I have switched mains quite often but recently I have been experimenting and perfecting a Tank Glaive build. I find it fun to annoy the enemy by being basically unkillable and I find satisfaction in setting up my teammates with assists.
As a pre-cursor I usually solo-queu. I have one or two friends who are sometimes available to party with, but I actually enjoy solo-queuing for the most part. I have found a lot of people who are great teammates and in a weird way enjoy communicating only via pings. My experience with solo-queuing has improved dramatically as I have climbed skill tiers. If you are frustrated keep playing through it and it will get better, I promise!
This guide will focus on my general strategy playing with this build, as well as tips for you if you are playing alongside a build similar to this.
The general premise of this build is to be as annoying as possible. In fact, any good tank will initiate and annoy the opponent, so much so that they will be inclined to focus you, so as to finally kill that annoying piece of s***. Except the beauty of this build is that you will be very hard to kill and while they are focusing you, your teammates can swoop in and burst them down while you escape with a sliver of health. I love playing this build and it is fun to assist and feed your teammates.
I am more than open for suggestions, I have a lot of experience with this game but it is my first MOBA and love learning tips, tricks, and hints from other more experienced players!
Let's go.
Starting Out Top
There are a few basic strategies I employ will starting out.
First of all unless you have a
,
,
, or
on your team, you should avoid the 3 vs 3 jungle invade on your enemies jungle. Likewise, if you are facing any of those heroes, ping like crazy to avoid it. They are simply to strong early game and your team will most likely suffer an early ace or crippling damage. There will be teammates who insist on invading and if that's the case, stay close and peel of enemies if they are doing to much damage. At this point though your starting damage output is very low and you will be of little use as a tank. Hopefully your laner will head straight to lane and your jungler will follow you to the bushes near the jungle shop on your side. Wait until you are sure the enemy isn't invading and then head down to start farming.
Starting items should include an
and 2
. Now the trick here is to hope you have a jungle teammate who understands how to function with a tank teammate. Ideally you will initiate all the jungle minions and then take damage while your teammate delivers the last hit. Remember, it is your job to feed your teammates with as much gold as possible. You want them to be all damage while you are a snow leopard sized shooting target.
Mine all the jungle minions and then head up to the lane to sit in the bushes. With the new updates to the
you will get bonus gold even if you are sitting in the bushes letting your laner take all the last hits. Only initiate up into the lane if the enemy laner is overextending. If that's the case, swing up with
and knock them towards your turret. This should allow your teammate to finish them off.
Once you have enough gold you should visit the shop either in the jungle or at your base, depending on your health.
First Shop Visit and Early Game Top
At the shop you should have enough gold to purchase the rest of the tier 1 items on the Utilities page. This includes an
,
, and
. This should allow you to take a few more hits and get to teammates faster if they need assistance. One alternative to this is if you are the sole jungler. Sometimes people will insist on double lane-ing and if this is the case, rush building a
as it's increase damage to non-heroe enemies will help you clear the jungle much faster. If you go that route, I would also go with
if you have the gold to spare.
From here it's business as usual. Keep farming and feeding. ALWAYS LET YOUR TEAMMATE GET LAST HIT. I cannot stress this enough. If you can convey that you want them to get beefy with damage they can focus on only that and leave the defense to you.
As always pay close attention to your teammates, constantly check lane and see if you can gank an overextended enemy if possible.
At this point if team fights are initiated it is your job to go close to the action and absorb damage. You need to allow your teammates to stay at the fringe and snipe damage from afar. Only use
when you are sure there is not an ult to stymie. Keep that ability available as it can drastically turn around a team fight.
Second Shop Trip and Abilities Top
At this point you have probably visited the shop more than twice, although in a perfect world you keep happily farming, your laner is playing opportunistically in the lane without overextending and your jungler is taking last hits and building pure damage. If this is you, congratulations!
The second shop visit should include building up into a
and a
. This will help with damage if you end up having to farm alone as well as health boosts.
Again keep farming and ganking. If you are going to face check a set of bushes at least
into them so you can start out a fight by messing up an enemies flow.
You should be striving to overdrive
but not forgetting about
. When you hit Level 6 get
but then focus back on overdriving
. You also want to overdrive
when possible leaving
to only have 4 points. This ability requires a lot of energy and is not as useful late game in a team fight.
Early Game Top
I almost always rush build a
. This item helps with health regen, can help clear minions faster, and will give your team the ability to chase or flee depending on the situation. It can also help your teammate from afar. If you are being a bad teammate and not keeping an eye on your teammates you can help them escape if necessary even from down in the jungle or up in the lane. At this point you should also have a
and
which will help with your health regen as well as making you even tougher against abilities. By this point you should not have to return to your base to heal as you will be regening health fast enough.
It should not be stressed enough that you have to initiate team fights. For this build to be effective you need your teammates to be dealing immense damage. You cannot allow them to be focused by the opposing team. If this means taking a death will your teammates finish off the enemies so be it, but you being the last alive will most likely lead to the opponent winning as you simply do not have the damage output to do much in terms of killing.
This build is focused on being annoying to the enemy and forcing them into wanting to kill you based on their annoyance level. This is achieved by initiating and knocking them around with
. While the enemy is focusing you your teammates can snipe from afar, kill the enemy and you can escape with a little health left. But due to your items at this point you will regen back to full health and the cycle can continue. Vicious right?
Mid Game Top
By this point you should have enough gold to finish off your
and build into an
. Once you have both of these items you should find that are at this point almost unkillable. If you are annoying the enemy correctly they will continue to focus you which is great because you can withstand the hits. Although you are slow, you might be traveling with your teammates at this point and you have the
if you need to sprint to safety or to chase.
You should also remember to utilize your ability to swing through walls to escape if you need to, although fleeing as the tank is one of the number one worst things to do. You can take damage, so stay in and fight! Unless you are the last alive, you should always initiate and keep peeling enemies amidst a team fight.
One of my biggest pet peeves is when objectives are taken unnecessarily. Be very opportunistic with taking the gold mine and DO NOT take minion mines unless you are making a push. The more minion mines you own the more gold the opponent gets while killing minions and this just allows them to beef up faster than you. If the opponent owns the gold mine, look to take it early in it's cycle rather than near the end when they will be expecting you to take it. Begin aced is not worth the 300 gold the gold mine will give you if you successfully take it. I cannot stress this enough, as a tank it is never a good idea for a lone sniper or laner to start on the gold mine near the end of it's cycle. This makes it seem like they are begging to be ganked and when they are, it leaves a 2 vs 3 which never turns out well. Be opportunistic, not greedy with objectives.
Late Game Top
By late game, literally the only way you can be killed is if everyone on the other team focuses you with ults and abilities and even then, with correctly timed
and a last minute
you can stay alive and your teammates can finish off the opponents. If you have made it this far you are going to know it is important for you to control the most deadly hero from the other team. This is usually someone like
,
or
based on their ability to deal damage to multiple teammates at once. It is your job to absorb damage from
's ult or silence
's ult. With this in mind be sure not to waste abilities so that you are always ready to go.
You should have near enough gold to now upgrade your boots into
, gain a teamwide reflex block with your
and depending on enemy builds either slow down attack speed with the
or just go straight armor with a
. Whichever you decide to do will add even more beef to the already impenetrable wall that you are.
The hard part about Late Game however, is dependent on what your enemy is building. Perhaps they have countered your build with an
or
. This is good strategy and it makes things difficult. The key to this build is that your teammates go almost all heavy damage. You are not going to be doing much damage with the Core Build of this guide. Your
when fully stacked does help, but your other abilities are more for crowd control. This is why it is especially important to catch your enemies off guard and fight them while they are on their heels, rather than waiting for them to attack you.
If you find that your teammates are simply not doing enough damage, you can choose to build into a few other items instead of the
. These include
and
. These items will up your damage increase and I myself prefer the
due to it's increase in attack speed, which will help re-build your stacks for
more quickly.
Once again it should be stated that Late Game is all about teamwork. Even in solo-queue I have been a part of amazing coordination based on pings alone. It should often be your job as the tank to initiate and decide where to go. This is all a judgement call but again you will fare much better often initiating team fights Late Game than being a bunch of sitting ducks. That being said Late Game Kraken's are dangerous. Do not start unless you are sure you are able to finish or that you are aware of the location of the other team. A great strategy that I enjoy is heading up to the lane while my two damage dealing teammates take Kraken. The other team will often believe the rest of your team is hiding in the bushes while you draw out the opponent and they will often stay up in the lane with you, unaware your teammates are taking Kraken.
The last thing to remember is that if you get Kraken it is your job to peel enemies from the Kraken towards your teammates. Keep up the annoyance level, you are supposed to irritate the other team! However, don't overextend and end up getting yourself killed as the possibility of an ace skyrockets and you may doom the entire game that late.
Final Notes Top
Once again, this build is based on you being as irritating as possible. I have found that even while playing as other tanks,
has an advantage due to
. If you can annoy the opponent enough they will most likely focus you overtime which is what you want to happen.
You need your teammates to focus on heavy damage. Obviously a defensive Tier 3 item is great, but much more than 1 and this build will not work. You need your lack of damage output to be compensated by your teammate's much as your defense should compensate for their lack-there-of.
Work together as much as possible and only take objectives when the opportunity arises and do not overextend.
If your teammates both die and you find yourself alone the combo of
, activating
, and then activating
will literally get you away from any enemy, they simply cannot catch you, unless there is a
who happens to use the same combination.
If a teammate is behind you
in place and knock the opponent who is chasing further back to allow your teammate to escape. Remember, your job is to feed teammates and keep them alive long enough for them to kill the opponent.
Finally, remember your escape routes through some of the walls as well as a sneaky way to finish off a Vain.
Have fun with the build, I find almost more satisfaction in getting 15+ assists than I do getting 15+ kills. Of course with this build it would be rare for you to get 15+ kills, but my highest assist total playing with this build is 23!
Please comment with suggestions below, I am somewhat new to MOBA's and this is my first guide. Hopefully I'll see you in the Fold!
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