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Vox is a very mobile sniper and has a great kit that helps to compensate for his 'squishy' stats. He actually has two good Crowd Control abilities, one as a slow from Ability B (
Pulse) and a silence from Ability C (
Wait for It). Along with his A ability (
Sonic Zoom) he can chase any opponents that tries to escape his wrath or he can also use this ability to get away from unfavorable fights. This helps him in his positioning (VERY VERY IMPORTANT) in order to dish out massive damage while staying alive to do so. However
Vox has a short range compared to his other sniper buddies so positioning is really the key.
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Julia's Song
Slot: Heroic Perk
Vox's abilities mark enemies with Resonance. When basic attacking enemies with Resonance, bolts will bounce outwards to two nearby enemies dealing 20/60/80/100/140 (+90% crystal ratio) crystal damage and refreshing and spreading Resonance. (Resonance bounces deal 50% damage to minions.)
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Pointers:
Julia's Song is one of the Heroic Perks that allows multiple targets to get hit with one basic attack, something like
Lance with his
Partisan's Technique. This allows
Vox to farm much more efficiently and deal some poke damage during laning phases, jungle clearing and more importantly during team fights. CP builds heavily relies on this in order to have the most output damage. But do not take this lightly even when going with or against a WP
Vox as those little damage overtime can accumulate to massive damage that can either just clear minion waves or turn the tides of team fights.
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Sonic Zoom
Slot: A
Vox dashes in the targeted direction, throwing two basic attacks to the nearest enemy marked by Resonance (prioritizing heroes).
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Pointers:
Sonic Zoom has so much versatility, from both offense to defense, as mentioned earlier it is great for both pursuit and escape. As it counts as basic attacks, it can scale well with
Breaking Point and
Bonesaw. Didn't I mention you can use this to get through walls? Fantastic huh. You broke your stutter step momentum and about to miss that last hit? No Problemo. Just don't use it to last hit every time, only when you think you are going to miss that precious cs gold. With that in mind, try not to use this ability unnecessarily as
Vox can get 'mana' hungry when you still do not have a
Halcyon Chargers for example. Use this only when you have to as you do not want this to be on cooldown when you really need it or worse, you are just out of energy because you used it far too many times. However you can still use this skill to travel faster to get objectives. Basically use this skill to re-position yourself to kite your opponents to death SAFELY.
Do take note structures, the Kraken, Ghostwing or Blackclaw is unaffected by your
Sonic Zoom's active.
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Pulse
Slot: B
Vox emits a sonic pulse that echoes off nearby enemies and applies Resonance. The pulse applies a slow that is significantly stronger near its center. Each upgrade to Pulse increases the damage of
Vox's bouncing attacks to enemy heroes.
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Pointers:
Pulse to me, is what makes
Vox incredibly fantastic as it applies resonance in which you can practically clear a whole wave of minions in an instant. It also has a decent slow on your opponents depending where they are in the radius. You can also use this ability for offensive and defensive purposes. Offense, its pretty clear cut, slow that kid down and hit him as many times as you want while the other guy furiously taps his screen thinking that he will get any faster doing so. Using this defensively is possible too and not only you can save yourself but your team mates as well in the brink of death. If anyone (probably except
Blackfeather with an overdrive
Feint of Heart) is trying to chase you or your team mate, they will be slowed and you can watch them being unable to catch up and you can use your
Sonic Zoom too to get further away and poke them at the same time (Talk about efficiency here). Just like
Sonic Zoom, use it only when necessary, besides it refreshes on hit so I see no point over using this. Also if your opponent managed to escape you somehow but has an ally minion or hero just nearby try hitting them instead in order to bounce the damage for the kill. I can say 20% of my kills are due to this, so try it out as a last ditch effort if you have no other choice, its worth a shot after all.
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Wait For It
Slot: C
Vox fires an ultrasonic wave that applies Resonance to enemies in its path and refreshes all Resonance. Shortly after, a wide shockwave explodes along the same path, dealing crystal damage and silencing enemies. Striking enemy heroes with the shockwave will also cause Resonance to bounce.
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Pointers:
I believe this ability is great overall. It has a CC and some damage. However its not about the damage we are talking about here, It's the silence that it brings and the resonance. With these two combined it is a great way to start a teamfight. With this ability you not only denied your opponents their skill and item active sets but you also get to technically hit them all at once at the same time. This is generally enough to win a team fight if well executed.
Do note that even though this is used to initiate a fight do not be at the front lines of a battle. Either wait for them to engage or you make sure your team mates will follow up and you get to go behind them. Avoid using this for 1 v 1 situations, you are better off auto attacking. With that thought, try to catch as many opponents with your your Ultimate to get the most out of it.
Before I further elaborate on this build, I would like to point out that these builds are not carved in stone, please itemize according to your opponents build, counter accordingly, the sequence on which item should be built also depends on the situation and the team's needs. These builds can be used for both 3v3 or 5v5. as the mechanics for
Vox would be roughly the same.
Early Game - Weapon Build
The match starts, level up your
Pulse - FOR FARMING PURPOSES,
Sonic Zoom does not help you farm if you don't have resonance and you shouldn't use it to farm anyways. Choose between the 4 possible starts.
*Early Game 1 is if you want to sustain against an opposing laner, e.g.
SAW.
*Early Game 2 is if you want to quickly push the wave towards their side in order to help contesting the Middle Elder Treant/Medic in the Jungle(second jungle rotation).
*Early game 3 is when you want to harass the opposing laner to put pressure.
*Early game 4 is if you want to secure as much CS and stay at lane as long as possible during the laning phase.
Mid Game - Weapon Build
As you can see, I have separated Mid Game into two sets, one for offense and one for defense. I did this as I feel it is important that you have a good balance of both especially at mid game. I have seen many players going all out offensive but can't just stay alive to deal those damage because they die to a burst of damage or a CC. I strongly recommend planning your build paths, this gets you more advantage as you have a fair share of offense and defense.
Offense:
Try getting a
Heavy Steel as your 'main' weapon item during mid game as it builds to a
Sorrowblade,
Serpent Mask and a
Breaking Point. You may need all of it maybe just two, but it makes your life much simpler because you can branch out to any of it. Besides, +55 weapon power is pretty decent during these stage. Next item that you must have by now is a
Blazing Salvo. This helps you a lot in stutter stepping which improves last hitting and dealing damage per second. Be it WP or CP, I see no reason not having this item during this stage.
Possible options for offense:
1.
Heavy Steel +
Six Sins +
Swift Shooter/
Blazing Salvo - if opponents have no sort of defense(unusual at high tier gameplay), you can just build pure damage and attack speed, no need of pierce or life steal, however it does not mean you do not buy defensive items as well.
2.
Heavy Steel +
Book of Eulogies +
Swift Shooter - if opponent laner has a stronger poke than you, you need to sustain in your lane in order to farm up in order to make a difference later on. (Do not disregard rotation with your team when necessary, doesn't mean you have stay at the lane the whole game because you have to farm up.)
3.
Heavy Steel +
Piercing Spear +
Minion's Foot +
Swift Shooter - if opponents have
Light Armors, the armor pierce from
Piercing Spear ensures you are dealing damage to your opponents despite of your opponents trying to mitigate them. I choose a
Minion's Foot as when you're opponents do take your CRIT hits, they may wonder why you are still dealing a lot of damage, this will make them invest more on defense instead of offense, which is good for you as you won't be taking too much damage. And as you have a
Piercing Spear, their efforts in increasing their defense will not be as effective as you not having one. That's why I suggest Pierce and Crit together.
As you can observe,
Heavy Steel and
Swift Shooter are always there. This brings consistency to your damage no matter which path you choose to go at any given situation.
Defense and Utility:
Yes this is very important, SEMC designed these defensive items to be cost efficient so much so they decided to nerf the the Tier 1
Light Shield and
Light Armor some updates ago. However it still reduces a lot of incoming damage taken which will help you to stay alive. I personally will only get a
Reflex Block over a
Light Shield/
Light Armor if there is a hard CC on the opposing team, other than that, prioritize the latter. Lastly, I CANNOT emphasize the importance of the boots, try to get a
Sprint Boots at the very least if you have to put in more money on offense or defense but I recommend a
Travel Boots as it gives you an additional +100 Max Health and that movement speed can help out a lot.
Possible options for defense:
1.
Sprint Boots/
Travel Boots +
Light Armor - if opposing laner is WP damage, you will want to reduce the damage that you are getting with the
Light Armor. The boots give you more mobility for escaping,
Travel Boots does give a small HP boost that can make a difference.
2.
Sprint Boots/
Travel Boots + light ashield - if opposing laner is CP damage, you will want to reduce the damage that you are getting with the
Light Shield. For the boots, same reason.
3.
Sprint Boots/
Travel Boots +
Light Armor/
Light Shield +
Reflex Block - if the opponents have a hard CC (e.g
Koshka's
Yummy Catnip Frenzy) ,you will also want to reduce the damage that you are getting with the
Light Armor/
Light Shield (you may have to have both IF REALLY NEEDED).
Reflex Block also gives you a neat HP boost and getting to cancel CC against you which was mentioned earlier on. Don't forget the boots too.
Summary for Mid Game Build - at this stage, you will want to focus on dealing decent damage but also keeping yourself alive by reducing damage and having mobility to escape unfavorable situations. This is the stage where your build will branch out to the core items that you choose depending on which path you take. As mentioned, you don't have to follow this entirely as there maybe different situations but these are the 'basic' to choose from.
Late Game - Weapon Build
At this stage, you should have your either one of the Tier 3 boots, You should also have an
Aegis or an
Atlas Pauldron/
Metal Jacket as most carries from the opposing team will want to get on top of you. Most people will have a
Sorrowblade first for the consistent damage output but I prefer to build
Tyrant's Monocle first due to the critical strikes that can cause chaos especially when paired with a
Breaking Point. Either way, you will be dealing a lot of damage so choose your preference of sequence followed up with a
Breaking Point. These three items are the core items that I believe is needed. You then can choose to have a
Bonesaw if the opposing team has a lot of armor and fights are long. Don't forget to get your
Weapon Infusions to turn fights into your favor.
Why these possible items?
1.
Sorrowblade- This weapon is plain straight forward, It gives you a massive boost in your basic attacks(consistent), almost a staple for every weapon carry build.
2.
Tyrant's Monocle- Gives you a decent bonus on your damage but what makes it so good is the additional CRIT chance percentage AND increase in CRIT damage as well. Couple it up with any Weapon item and you will be hitting like a truck.
3.
Breaking Point- This item is like a must for
Vox. As you are a hero that relies on your autos to win, you need do capitalize on this. It gives you more chances to hit your opponents as you will have more attack speed and every hit you make will be harder than the previous one. This is extremely good for long fights, even the tankiest heroes such as
Phinn or
Lance will fall when you have this item(pair it up with a
Bonesaw to make it more effective. Also as
Vox, you should be the last on the battle line and therefore you should have no problem stacking up those autos.
4.
Bonesaw- This item goes really well with almost any Weapon item, with that said do take note that you
should buy this as a 'supporting' item. The shred of armor per hit can only go so high so if you do not have a decent base weapon damage, you are not maximizing the potential of this item.
5.
Serpent Mask/
Poisoned Shiv- With the addition of
Poisoned Shiv to the Halcyon fold, it quickly became an item that I often use and even till now. It may not have as much damage compared to the other weapon items and
Serpent Mask out-scales it in life steal, but it applies mortal wound which can be very dangerous to your opponents when ignored. It reduces healing for the opponent and any kind of health gaining bonus such as shield or fortified health. It also gives attack speed so it ain't too shabby.
Serpent Mask on the other hand gives more life steal and damage but no attack speed.
6.
Journey Boots/
Halcyon Chargers- Choose either one, this is up to your preference, more speed or more energy regeneration. This depends on your play style. Either way gives you decent mobility.
7.
Aegis- This develops from your
Reflex Block and
Light Shield, It gives you a good massive HP boost and like mentioned earlier, enables you to negate any sort of CC against you. There is also a good boost to your shield and a tinsy bit of armor that can make a whole world of difference.
8.
Atlas Pauldron- I choose this over
Metal Jacket most of the time is because most carries from the opposing team will want to get on top of you, so having the active from this item would really benefit you. This is not entirely true, sometimes a
Metal Jacket is better.
9.
Weapon Infusions- Only buy this when a crucial team fight will happen, Have the discipline to keep this only when needed(if already bought), if not(because you have a full slot) then know when to get it: Try to rotate as a team down the shop at late game, get infused and force a fight if you see that you have an advantage (the opposing not having infusions, too split up, etc).
10.Addition of
Tension Bow and
Tornado Trigger to a new build path. The key of this build is to burst the opponents down as fast as possible.
Tornado Trigger along with a
Tyrant's Monocle will ensure a high CRIT-Chance per hit. The
Tension Bow's proc allows you to deal massive damage to start a fight.
11.
Spellsword - This item has been a favorite pick up a couple of seasons when it just first came out. It has dropped out of popularity but I believe it is still a decent pick up if paired with
Halcyon Chargers. The reduced cooldown and more energy would allow
Vox to throw out a few more
Sonic Zooms. That would scale really well with
Breaking Point.
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