When a new player decides to play Heroes of the Storm, the tutorial loads up and Uther guides Raynor through the motions of how to control a hero properly, indicating that you can move, attack, and use abilities. After that, the Nexus is opened up to the player as they struggle to find a good hero to learn that is strong, fun to play, and will teach them the basics. For that purpose, I highly recommend Valla. At an ultra low price of 2,000 gold, buying Valla is easy for newer players, and her easy learning curve allows you to jump into the game instantly and feel at ease. In addition, it allows that newer player to learn the basics of kiting, timing their abilities, and positioning. But don’t let that fool you; Valla is not an “easy” hero, and in fact has an incredible amount of room for individual skill even at the professional level.

Pros:

• Solid all around hero
• Easy to learn, but has a high skill ceiling
• Multiple build paths and team roles
• Good wave clear
• Has a dash to escape bad situations

Cons:

• Easy to kill when out of position
• Susceptible to high burst damage
• No form of CC

Valla is incredibly versatile, and has had a decent place in the meta leading all the way back to her inception in the Heroes of the Storm Alpha. Her high damage output coupled with a decent escape and survivability talents means that she meshes well with most compositions and can function well on nearly every map, making her a solid choice in both coordinated teams and soloQ.

Valla is one of the most versatile heroes in the game in terms of build paths, with multiple talents being viable at each tier and several diverse builds and playstyles. There are a lot of situational talent picks and deviations in each build which allow Valla to react to the enemy composition and situation and remain flexible.

The Hungering Arrow Build is based around making Valla a strong 1v1 dueling champion. The high single-target damage of Hungering Arrow compounded by Repeating Arrow and added to the damage of Strafe and Blood for Blood make Valla capable of 100-0ing any squishy target within seconds. This build is very good for soloQ, especially on maps like Dragon Shire or Sky Temple where 1v1 duels and small skirmishes are common. Spell Shield is sometimes necessary instead of Frost Shot due to the close-range combat of the Q build. Beware, though, this build is very mana hungry and can be difficult to execute if you spend your mana too freely.

The Multishot build is centered around making Valla a poking machine. With team compositions that lack a lot of long range spell damage (ala Kael’Thas or Jaina), having a Valla that can throw out a bunch of damage via Multishot can be a decent substitute. Repeating Arrow can be swapped out for Searing Attacks at level 7 if more burst damage is necessary. Nexus Frenzy gives Valla a bit more reliable damage during fights, but can be interchanged with Vengeance and Bolt of the Storm depending on the situation. Frost Shot is pivotal in the Multishot build, so against compositions that require Spell Shield to be taken at level 13, the Q build or an Auto Attack Build is better.

The Auto Attack Build is designed to take the most advantage of Valla’s trait, starting with Rancor, which ramps up her attack speed and raises her overall damage output. Rain of Vengeance is the heroic of choice with this build since it allows Valla to continue auto-attacking and avoid losing any Hatred stacks. In soloQ and less coordinated teams, Vampiric Assault is a viable substitute for Manticore in order to sustain better in fights. Tempered by Discipline can also be picked up over Giant Killer to give Valla more sustain, but since it requires so long to build up full stacks, it’s not as reliable.

Most talents in this tier are viable depending on the build. The only ones that tend to fall short are Punishment and Cost-Effective Materials. Punishment is underwhelming compared to Rancor and otherwise unnecessary, and Cost-Effective Materials tends to be a band-aid fix to mana-hungry Hungering Arrow Builds. Siphoning Arrow gives you the best dueling potential with a Q build, Multishot gives you the most poke potential with a W build, and Rancor greatly increases the damage of Auto Attack Builds.

All talents in this tier are viable depending on your build. Puncturing Arrow typically fits best with Q builds while Arsenal works best with a W build. Manticore gives Auto Attack Valla a huge boost in DPS, but sacrifices a lot of survivability. In coordinated teams, Manticore is typically the preferred option, but in soloQ, Vampiric Assault will make Valla much more self-sufficient.

With the removal of Battle Momentum at this Level 7, this tier has been in flux for a while. The two most-picked talents are Repeating Arrow and Searing Attacks, which provide huge boosts in DPS. Repeating Arrow is typically taken with the Q build while Searing Attacks is the go-to choice for an Auto Attack build. W builds can pick up either comfortably depending on the team composition and situation. Caltrops has lackluster damage and seems more useful as a band-aid fix to Valla being out of position, though it may be viable in a few circumstances. Hot Pursuit is not a reliable talent since it only works if Valla is on max stacks, which is not always the case.

Both heroics are strong and viable. Strafe is generally the top pick because of the large AoE damage it provides in team fights and duels, especially against compositions with squishier targets. Rain of Vengeance is geared more toward catching opponents in a choke point and setting up large combos but can also be a solid two second stun in 1v1 scenarios. It is also particularly strong against compositions with a lot of melee heroes that tend to clump up. Choose based on the team compositions, your build, and your intended role on the team.

Most of the talents at this tier are also viable. The go-to pick is typically Frost Shot, which provides additional utility to Valla’s pokes. She can slow the entire enemy team during engagements or chase down low health targets, and it can also serve as a reliable retreat combo with Vault. Giant Killer is an offensive talent which allows Valla to better deal with tankier teams, especially with Auto Attack builds. Against high burst damage like Nova or Jaina, Spell Shield is a must-have in order to survive during fights. Tempered by Discipline, like most of the other Hatred talents, is less reliable because it assumes you’’ll be stacking up to 20 stacks consistently. However, it can be an additional way to self-sustain with auto attack builds that skip Vampiric Assault for Manticore.

As with most tiers with Blood for Blood...Blood for Blood is the most obvious pick. However, if survival isn’t much of an issue and dives are still dangerous, Executioner can provide a nice damage boost and works well in conjunction with Frost Shot. There is some argument for Q builds taking Tumble here, but generally Blood for Blood will do more damage and heal faster, and Bolt of the Storm at level 20 provides the extra escape that a second Vault would. Stoneskin is pretty much completely unnecessary since Valla usually sits in the back of fights.

Typically, the extra safety and utility of Nexus Frenzy and Bolt of the Storm outweighs the power of Valla’s upgraded heroics, so they are chosen more frequently. Nexus Frenzy allows Valla to stay a little further back in fights while also dealing more sustained damage, and Bolt gives Valla a second escape tool to get away from back line bruisers. Vengeance is a huge boost in Strafe’s DPS, so it is a solid choice when ahead or if the enemy team lacks a way to interrupt her heroic, but very poor against long range targeted CC like Tyreal’s Judgment or Illidan’s Hunt. Storm of Vengeance is the least taken of Valla’s level 20 abilities because it is difficult to take advantage of all four Shadow Beast waves, especially at level 20 when many heroes gain access to Bolt of the Storm, but can still be useful for zoning.

Valla has a pretty decent tool kit for both wave clear and dueling, making her excellent in the laning phase and allowing her to dance in and out of fights. During the laning phase, Valla should focus on poking enemies with Multishot and basic attacks and pushing the lane with caution. She can either solo a lane, competing with other lane bullies like Zagara, Sylvanas, or Leoric, or she can push a lane hard with several allies. Even at level 1, Valla has the potential to bully a lane and win 1v1s, but her low health pool can get her killed quickly when overextending for a kill or pushing too hard during a rotation.

Valla’s first power spike hits at level 4 with all builds (Manitcore/Vampiric Assault, Arsenal, and Puncturing Arrow). This power spike happens during the middle of most map objectives, giving her a huge boost in damage early in the game relative to other heroes. For this reason, Valla provides a lot of early game control over objectives and gets picked often on maps like Dragon Shire and Garden of Terror where early power spikes allow teams to take substantial leads.

Once Valla gets her heroic ability at level 10, she becomes a powerful team fighting force. Strafe does massive AoE damage to the entire enemy team, and Rain of Vengeance can potentially stun an entire team in a choke, both dynamically changing the outcome of a team fight. Especially once heroics are up, Valla’s low health pool becomes an extreme liability, and she can get bursted down quite easily, so it’s very important to make sure that Valla is safe in the back line behind the tank and has some peel against pesky back line divers like Zeratul or Illidan.

In general, Valla isn’t great at taking mercenary camps by herself, and will almost always need assistance in order to avoid taking heavy damage. On the other hand, she has solid wave clear and does high single target damage, making her ideal for cleaning up waves or defending objectives like the golem on Haunted mines or boss mercenaries. This versatility gives Valla some autonomy to rotate around the map in order to find the place where she’s most needed rather than being pigeon-holed to a specific role.

Valla is an easy hero to pick up and play well, but she has a uniquely high skill ceiling. Knowing how to properly use her abilities and stutter step correctly is very important and will push a decent Valla player into a player who can carry the entire team.

The most basic concept with all ranged heroes is stutter stepping, and it is especially important on Valla who relies on her basic attacks for a large portion of her damage. Stutter stepping means taking advantage of the cooldown of basic attacks and moving in between them, allowing you to dodge abilities and kite enemy heroes in order to deal the most damage possible. Kiting means that you keep your opponent on the very edge of your range and move accordingly in between each attack to maintain this space, whether that is offensively or defensively. Kiting can also allow you to reposition during a fight so that you have a better angle on squishier targets or more safety behind your team. It’s a very simple tactic, but getting into a rhythm and mastering it will immensely improve all gameplay on Valla.

Hungering Arrow, especially with the Q build, does massive amount of single target damage if it targets the same hero with every successive hit. Make sure to cast it when a hero is isolated away from minions, towers, and walls so that it does maximum damage to that single target. This may not always be possible in team fights, but in those cases, you can reposition yourself to create space or get a better angle. Hungering Arrow tends to be substantially weaker against heroes that have a lot of summons like Anub’Arak (beetles) or Nazeebo (zombie walls) because the summons will bug out the AI and prevent Hungering Arrow from dealing full damage to high priority targets.

Multishot is primarily used for wave clear or area of effect damage in team fights. Multishot has no target cap, so ideally you want to hit as many targets as possible every time you use it in order to maximize your damage output. In lane, make sure to always use it on the minion wave to continue pushing while angling it to hit a hero or two as well. One of the biggest mistakes newer players make is trying to hit single targets with Multishot, and in doing so, they waste a lot of utility and mana. During team fights, Multishot should be used to hit as many enemies as possible, especially if you took Frost Shot.

Vault can be used in a variety of ways, both offensively and defensively. The most common way to use of Vault is to escape from a gank and retreat to a safer position behind a wall or teammates, while a riskier use involves Vaulting toward a target in order to secure a kill. In both instances, timing is key. Keeping track of enemy cooldowns, especially stuns or roots, when retreating is instrumental in figuring out the exact moment to use Vault. Vaulting offensively is very risky, and should only be done to clean up a fight if opposing stuns and roots are on a cooldown (for instance, diving a Kael under tower while Gravity Lapse is up is a bad idea, even if Kael is very close to dying).

Vault can also be used during a fight to reposition Valla in order to get a better angle on squishies, move to a safer place next to teammates, or even dodge skillshots. The most important skill to master with Vault is keeping track of enemy cooldowns and estimating when dashing forward or away will be most beneficial; newer players will generally use Vault immediately upon sensing danger and waste their mobility too early, but with enough practice, the best players can seemingly get out of everything.

While Valla does put out a lot of damage using her basic abilities and auto attacks, a large chunk of her damage in team fights comes from using Strafe. Ideally, you want to hit every member of the enemy team for the entire duration without getting interrupted and taking little to no damage. Of course, this is fairly unrealistic, so it’s important to focus on:

• Using Strafe after targeted stuns like Illidan’s Hunt or Tyreal’s Judgment have been used as well as staying well away from potential stun threats like Anub’Arak or Muradin so that it cannot be interrupted and deals the maximum amount of damage.
• Maximizing safety while using Strafe by positioning safely behind a tank or a wall in order to block potential threats, allowing you to segue back into the fight without becoming a liability.
• Target as many enemies as possible, but if targets are limited, try to get the damage onto squishier, back line threats to help the rest of your team burst them down. Dealing 25% damage to a single enemy warrior with your ultimate is not an efficient use of Strafe.

Following these rules, in this order, will ensure that Valla does the most amount of damage in a team fight using Strafe while keeping her safe from most enemy threats. In smaller skirmishes and 1v1 duels, Strafe still deals quite a bit of damage and can be used to finish off weak opponents attempting to run away. The cooldown is not exceptionally long, so it can be used fairly often and should be up for every team fight.

While Strafe is all about boosting Valla’s damage output, Rain of Vengeance is primarily used for positioning. Rain of Vengeance allows Valla to kite back from a bruiser or chasing group of heroes and stun them all at once to turn around a team fight. Alternatively, it can be used to clog up choke points or buy enough time for a tribute to be captured or the Dragon Knight from being taken. In 1v1s, the additional stuns can give Valla enough time to refresh cooldowns on her basic abilities and deal extra auto attack damage in the meantime in order to allow her to win the duel. The cooldown for Rain of Vengeance is much longer than Strafe, so it should be used carefully in order to ensure a successful team fight or a capture an objective.

Valla is good in almost every standard composition because of her versatile kit and powerful ranged damage. Typically, she is paired with heavy melee compositions (i.e. double warrior or double warrior/melee assassin compositions) or well-rounded compositions to add a substantial amount of ranged damage; in some cases, Valla can even be a respectable substitute for Jaina or Kael using the W build. Her decent wave clear and high damage also make her respectable alongside a Zagara or Sylvanas in a heavy lane pushing composition. The only big requirement for drafting Valla is some form of peel or protection to keep her alive during team fights, which make drafting her in a composition with multiple melee assassins or an all-in composition (i.e. Illidan/Abathur/The Lost Vikings or “Protect the Butcher” compositions) rather weak.

Just as Valla is comfortable in almost any composition, she also does well on a variety of maps without a problem. She has reasonable mana costs and decent sustain with most builds, so she works on maps that force drawn-out fights like Sky Temple or Battlefield of Eternity. As was noted earlier, she’s also quite strong even at level 1 and hits fairly early power spikes, so she’s also powerful on maps which force early fights or rely on strong, early pushes like Cursed Hollow or The Haunted Mines. There are no particularly bad maps for Valla, so she’s always a possibility.

For a cheap, versatile, and efficient hero, Valla is the go-to for players just starting out as well as experienced players looking to play more assassin roles. She fits nicely into almost team composition and plays out well on any map, so she is well worth having in your arsenal since she is excellent in both Quick Match and Hero League. Even for veteran players, there is always room to improve and play Valla more efficiently -- for those who like the challenge of constant improvement, look no further.