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.
Stats
Base Stats
Scaling
Life:
700
110
Life Regen:
1.461
.2265
Energy:
500
10
Energy Regen:
3
.0976
Damage:
28
9
Attack Range:
5.5
Attack Speed
1.67
Abilities
Hover over icons to read abilities.
Primary Abilities
Heroic Abilities
Heroic Trait
Hungering Arrow Fire an arrow that deals moderate damage to the first target hit, then seeks up to 2 additional enemies dealing half the initial damage. Can hit an enemy multiple times.
Multishot Deal damage to enemies within the target area.
Vault Dash to the target area.
Strafe Rapidly attack nearby visible enemies, prioritizing heroes over minions. Valla is able to move and use Vault while strafing. Last for 4 seconds.
Rain of Vengeance Launch 2 waves of Shadow Beasts that deal damage to enemies within the area, stunning for 0.5 seconds per wave.
Hatred
Basic Attacks grant a stack of Hatred, up to 10. Each Hatred stack increases Basic Attack damage by 2% and Movement Speed by 1%.
Abilities in Depth
Hatred (Trait)
Basic Attacks grant a stack of Hatred, up to 10. Each Hatred stack increases Basic Attack damage by 2% and Movement Speed by 1%.
Valla’s trait by nature makes her an auto attacker. She needs to get in range of enemies, start attacking, and continue to attack throughout a fight in order to make full use of her trait. Stacks of Hatred ramp down one by one if Valla doesn’t attack anything for a few seconds.
Hungering Arrow (Q)
Fire an arrow that deals 81 (+15 per level) damage to the first target hit, then seeks up to 2 additional enemies dealing 40.5 (+7.5 per level) damage. Can hit an enemy multiple times. Costs 60 mana, 14 second cooldown.
This is Valla’s big single-target damage ability. Hungering Arrow seeks out additional targets at random, so casting it onto an isolated hero forces the AI to target that hero all three times and deal the maximum amount of damage. Casting it into a group of minions or heroes is not nearly as effective because the damage will spread out. For this reason, Hungering Arrow is best saved for small duels over objectives (outside of lanes and minion interference) and against isolated, retreating heroes.
Multishot (W)
Deal 75 (+15 per level) damage to enemies within the target area. Costs 60 mana, 8 second cooldown.
Multishot is Valla’s wave clear and poke tool. The cone shape of the ability makes it ideal for dealing damage to minion waves and poking multiple heroes from afar during a team fight. Typically you don’t want to waste this on a single target, but there’s never really a wrong time to use it. Use it once or twice per minion wave to clear everything. It’s also more reliable than Hungering Arrow for revealing invisible heroes.
Vault (E)
Dash to the target area. Costs 75 mana, 10 second cooldown.
Valla moves from one place to another quickly. Pretty straightforward. It has a fairly long cooldown and high mana cost, so avoid using it unless you absolutely need to. Vault can be used defensively to retreat or to reposition yourself during a battle and also offensively to chase heroes down. Beware using it offensively, though, since Valla has no other escape until Bolt of the Storm at level 20.
Strafe (R)
Rapidly attack nearby visible enemies for 21.75 (+6.75 per level) damage per hit, prioritizing heroes over minions. Valla is able to move and use Vault while strafing. Lasts for 4 seconds. Costs 80 mana, 60 second cooldown.
Strafe is a high damage AoE spell around Valla that can be interrupted by a stun or knockup. It is generally the main source of Valla’s damage in team fights, and highly reliant on hitting as many targets as possible while taking as little damage as possible. Strafe can also be excellent in a 1v1 situation too since you can kite an enemy at maximum range without sacrificing any mobility.
Rain of Vengeance (R)
Launch 2 waves of Shadow Beasts that deal 123 (+23 per level) damage to enemies within the target area, stunning for 0.5 seconds per wave. Costs 100 mana, 90 second cooldown.
Rain of Vengeance is a multiple straight-line stun which can completely zone off a portion of the battle or incapacitate an entire team. The best use of Rain of Vengeance is in chokes where multiple enemies have to clump up, but in cases where this isn’t possible, it works just as well on high priority targets like Illidan or Zeratul or to split up the front line and back line. Rain of Vengance works well in 1v1 situations as well, especially against pesky Novas.
Talents
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.
Hover over icons to read chosen talents.
Hungering Arrow (Q) Build
1
4
7
10
13
16
20
Siphoning Arrow 50% of the damage dealt by Hungering Arrow is returned as Health to Valla.
Puncturing Arrow
Hungering Arrow range increased by 25% and the number of times it can bounce to 3.
Repeating Arrow The cooldown for Hungering Arrow is reset when Vault is used.
Strafe Cooldown: 90 seconds
Rapidly attack nearby visible enemies for 15 (+6.75 per level) damage per hit, prioritizing heroes over minions. Valla is able to move and use Vault while strafing. Lasts for 4 seconds.
Frost Shot Multishot also slows by 40% for 2 seconds.
Blood for Blood Cooldown: 60 seconds Activate to deal 10% of target enemy's Max Health and heal for 200% of the damage dealt.
Bolt of the Storm Cooldown: 70 seconds Activate to teleport to a nearby location.
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.
Multishot (W) Build
1
4
7
10
13
16
20
Composite Arrows Increases the range of Multishot by 20%.
Arsenal Multishot also fires 3 grenades, which deal 35 (+7.5 per level) damage.
Searing Attacks Cooldown: 25 seconds Activate to increase Basic Attack damage by 50% for 5 seconds. Each attack costs 15 Mana.
Strafe Cooldown: 90 seconds Rapidly attack nearby visible enemies for 15 (+6.75 per level) damage per hit, prioritizing heroes over minions. Valla is able to move and use Vault while strafing. Lasts for 4 seconds.
Frost Shot Multishot also slows by 40% for 2 seconds.
Blood for Blood Cooldown: 60 seconds Activate to deal 10% of target enemy's Max Health and heal for 200% of the damage dealt.
Nexus Frenzy Increases Attack Speed by 20% and Attack Range by 20%.
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.
Auto Attack Build
1
4
7
10
13
16
20
Rancor Hatred stack increases Attack Speed by 1.5%
Manticore
Every 3rd Basic Attack against the same target deals 50% additional damage.
Searing Attacks Cooldown: 25 seconds Activate to increase Basic Attack damage by 50% for 5 seconds. Each attack costs 15 Mana.
Rain of Vengeance Cooldown: 90 seconds Launch 2 waves of Shadow Beasts that deal 100 (+23 per level) damage to enemies within the target area, stunning for 0.5 seconds per wave.
Giant Killer Basic Attacks against enemy Heroes deal bonus damage equal to 1.5% of the Hero's max Health.
Blood for Blood Cooldown: 60 seconds Activate to deal 10% of target enemy's Max Health and heal for 200% of the damage dealt.
Nexus Frenzy Increases Attack Speed by 20% and Attack Range by 20%.
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.
Level 1
Cost-Effective Materials Reduces the cost of Hungering Arrow by 30 Mana.
Skill Upgrade
Siphoning Arrow 50% of the damage dealt by Hungering Arrow is returned as Health to Valla.
Skill Upgrade
Composite Arrows Increases the range of Multishot by 20%.
Skill Upgrade
Rancor Hatred stack increases Attack Speed by 1.5%
Trait Upgrade
Punishment Using an Ability grants 3 Hatred stacks.
Trait Upgrade
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.
Level 4
Vampiric Assault Basic Attacks heal for 15% of the damage dealt.
Passive
Manticore Every 3rd Basic Attack against the same target deals 50% additonal damage.
Trait Upgrade
Puncturing Arrow Hungering Arrow range increased by 25% and the number of times it can bounce to 3.
Skill Upgrade
Arsenal Multishot also fires 3 grenades, which deal 35 (+7.5 per level) damage.
Skill Upgrade
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.
Level 7
Caltrops Drop 3 Caltrops while Vaulting. Caltrops do 25 damage and slow enemies by 20% for 2 seconds.
Skill Upgrade
Hot Pursuit When at 10 stacks of Hatred, the Movement Speed bonus increases to 20% total.
Trait Upgrade
Repeating Arrow The cooldown for Hungering Arrow is reset when Vault is used.
Skill Upgrade
Searing Attacks Cooldown: 25 seconds Activate to increase Basic Attack damage by 50% for 5 seconds. Each attack costs 15 Mana.
Active
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.
Level 10
Strafe Cooldown: 90 seconds Rapidly attack nearby visible enemies for 15 (+6.75 per level) damage per hit, prioritizing heroes over minions. Valla is able to move and use Vault while strafing. Lasts for 4 seconds.
Heroic
Rain of Vengeance Cooldown: 90 seconds Launch 2 waves of Shadow Beasts that deal 100 (+23 per level) damage to enemies within the target area, stunning for 0.5 seconds per wave.
Heroic
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.
Level 13
Giant Killer Basic Attacks against enemy Heroes deal bonus damage equal to 1.5% of the Hero's maximum Health.
Passive
Frost Shot Multishot also slows by 40% for 2 seconds.
Skill Upgrade
Tempered by Discipline Gain up to 10 stacks of Discipline after Hatred stacks are maxed. Basic Attacks heal for 3% of damage dealt to the primary target per Discipline stack.
Trait Upgrade
Spell Shield Upon taking Ability Damage, reduce that damage and further Ability Damage by 50% for 3 seconds. Can only trigger once every 30 seconds.
Passive
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.
Level 16
Executioner Basic Attacks deal 40% more damage against slowed, rooted, or stunned targets.
Passive
Tumble Vault gains an additional charge, allowing it to be cast twice in quick succession.
Skill upgrade
Blood for Blood Activate to deal 10% of target enemy's Max Health and heal for 200% of the damage dealt. 60 second cooldown.
Active
Stoneskin Cooldown: 60 seconds Activate to gain 30% of your maximum Health as Shields for 5 seconds.
Active
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.
Level 20
Vengeance Strafe also fires penetrating bolts in a line for 7.5 (+3.38 per level) damage every 0.25 seconds.
Heroic Upgrade
Storm of Vengeance Increases the number of Shadow Beast waves to 4.
Heroic Upgrade
Nexus Frenzy Increases Attack Speed by 20% and Attack Range by 20%.
Passive
Bolt of the Storm Activate to teleport to a nearby location. 40 second cooldown.
Active
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.
Gameplay
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.
Tactics
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.
Kiting/Stutter Stepping
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.
When to Use Hungering Arrow (Q)
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.
When to Use Multishot (W)
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.
VP Black’s Sake uses a beautiful Multishot over the wall to slow and damage the enemy team
When to Vault (E)
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.
This video demonstrates how to kite properly and when to use Valla’s abilities
Using Strafe
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.
Using Rain of Vengeance
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 hits multiple targets in a choke point using Rain of Vengeance
When to Pick Valla
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.
Conclusion
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.
"*Ring ring* Hello? Who is this? I don’t know any “Darkness”. Look, I think you’ve got the wrong Demon Hunter."
Played her yesterday together with Raynor against dual tank composition, it was so funny seeing Muradin jumping in us with Avatar just to die 4 seconds later. Haven't played her in a while before that, almost forgot how damn fun she is to play.
When it comes to design, Valla is probably the best designed hero in the whole game in my opinion. As you have said, easy to learn and play but has a high skill ceiling, there are multiple choices at all talent tiers, there is no a must-have talent, very fun and well balanced character. Hopefully we will see more heroes like her in the near future and less Kael'Thas like heroes(regarding talents and choices to be precise).
Really great guide, and a really good alternative to Raynor as a tank buster. Raynor is way more popular in drafts so it's good to be able to pick Valla instead for a similar role.
I've looked around a lot of places, guides and sites with stats and I cannot actually work out how much damage Strafe does. How often does it fire? How many people does it hit? How much damage does it do in total?
Great guide. Valla's talent diversity is really impressive, and should be Blizzard's target for balancing other heroes' talent viability (cough cough Kael).
I don't find myself picking her very often though, just because if there is a specific hole in your team's comp, there's usually someone who will fill it better. Basically, Valla's strongest niche seems to be: if the enemy has gone for double or triple tank, and Raynor is already picked.
Also, you left out one of the most important considerations when choosing an ult: Rain of Vengeance is a lot easier to whiff, and then you get embarrassed or even flamed
As fun as she is to play, I just had two very frustrating games with her, both times against a team with Nova, Abathur and Rexxar. Both times they had Rexxar as the only tank, Abathur, Nova and the rest squishies so I went for the Q build to help burst down Nova and their other squishes since I doubted I would live very long for an AA build. For the same reason I went for Rain of Vengeance over Strafe. (especially with Misha being able to stun it out)
Now, the first game we had a DC on our only tank straight from the start so we had a bot tank the entire game but what I noticed with the Q build is that if Nova plays it well, you can't really use your Q on her because of her decoys and then she turns around and unloads her damage. With a level advantage she just becomes downright scary so I played more defensive and fell back as soon as my health gets low enough to be one-shotted but then the team starts raging on me for it even when they're getting demolished by her.
Rexxar with Abathur was also extremely annoying. At one point he was trying to do a boss with Raynor and Abathur, so me and Zagara were trying to intervene. Raynor was already low so he died quickly, but even at half health, with Abathur he dominated me and Zagara and the Misha stun made it hard to keep a distance and get the Q on him.
Against Nova (as well as Jaina/KT) I currently go for Spell Shield to help deal with the damage. I was expecting to be able to deal with Nova by forcing her out of cloak with W (not that hard to see) and then unloading the Q on her whilst AA-ing and having Spell Shield to lower the Snipe damage, with Rain of Vengeance as a means to cancel Triple Tap. (and provide a generic stun as my team lacked stuns)
Instead, a teamfight or other hero usually came up first and Nova comes in later and whacks me with Snipe when Spell Shield is already gone due to her teammates. Since Nova is pretty much in every QM game, any advice on how to deal with her?
On October 16 2015 21:17 Volandum wrote: I've looked around a lot of places, guides and sites with stats and I cannot actually work out how much damage Strafe does. How often does it fire? How many people does it hit? How much damage does it do in total?
According to them, it hits for 21.75 (+6.75 per level), and I would assume it refreshes somewhere around twice a second (probably faster). You could probably devise an experiment in Try Mode and look at the replay to figure out exactly how much damage it does in total.
On October 17 2015 02:07 jubil wrote: Great guide. Valla's talent diversity is really impressive, and should be Blizzard's target for balancing other heroes' talent viability (cough cough Kael).
I don't find myself picking her very often though, just because if there is a specific hole in your team's comp, there's usually someone who will fill it better. Basically, Valla's strongest niche seems to be: if the enemy has gone for double or triple tank, and Raynor is already picked.
Also, you left out one of the most important considerations when choosing an ult: Rain of Vengeance is a lot easier to whiff, and then you get embarrassed or even flamed
That seems to be the main issue these days. Valla's still really solid, but a lot of other heroes kind of outshine her at her own game the moment. But she's never off the table completely, still worth knowing how to play. Kaeyoh and Sake come to mind as players who still play Valla a good chunk of the time in professional games.
On October 17 2015 02:49 Larkin wrote: You didn't answer one of my burning questions that I've always had as a level 10+ Valla.
HOW THE F**K DOES SHE RELOAD BOTH CROSSBOWS?!
I couldn't tell you for sure, but it's not as perplexing as akimbo shotguns in MW2. (After some close examination, my friends concluded that he stows away one of the shotguns up his ass while reloading the other one).
On October 17 2015 04:01 Thezzy wrote: As fun as she is to play, I just had two very frustrating games with her, both times against a team with Nova, Abathur and Rexxar. Both times they had Rexxar as the only tank, Abathur, Nova and the rest squishies so I went for the Q build to help burst down Nova and their other squishes since I doubted I would live very long for an AA build. For the same reason I went for Rain of Vengeance over Strafe. (especially with Misha being able to stun it out)
Now, the first game we had a DC on our only tank straight from the start so we had a bot tank the entire game but what I noticed with the Q build is that if Nova plays it well, you can't really use your Q on her because of her decoys and then she turns around and unloads her damage. With a level advantage she just becomes downright scary so I played more defensive and fell back as soon as my health gets low enough to be one-shotted but then the team starts raging on me for it even when they're getting demolished by her.
Rexxar with Abathur was also extremely annoying. At one point he was trying to do a boss with Raynor and Abathur, so me and Zagara were trying to intervene. Raynor was already low so he died quickly, but even at half health, with Abathur he dominated me and Zagara and the Misha stun made it hard to keep a distance and get the Q on him.
Against Nova (as well as Jaina/KT) I currently go for Spell Shield to help deal with the damage. I was expecting to be able to deal with Nova by forcing her out of cloak with W (not that hard to see) and then unloading the Q on her whilst AA-ing and having Spell Shield to lower the Snipe damage, with Rain of Vengeance as a means to cancel Triple Tap. (and provide a generic stun as my team lacked stuns)
Instead, a teamfight or other hero usually came up first and Nova comes in later and whacks me with Snipe when Spell Shield is already gone due to her teammates. Since Nova is pretty much in every QM game, any advice on how to deal with her?
Nova is a pain in the ass to deal with, especially good Novas. To be honest, there's not a lot you can do except travel with your teammates and try to hide in minions/behind other people. Typically Nova will use her decoys first, W, then Q, so if you react instantly, sometimes you can Vault out of the Snipe and she'll have a lot harder time killing you. Going for an auto attack build helps some because you can get added sustain through Vamp Assault or Tempered by Hatred to heal back up after almost being bursted to death.
I also play Illidan, and in my experience, there's not much you can do about Nova players other than grouping hard starting at level 10, playing better, and preventing the enemy team from gaining an experience lead (especially if Nova takes Gathering Power). Sorry I can't give any better advice!
Okay, I've done some testing. Against a single target, Strafe hits 11 times over 4 seconds for 440 dps at level 20 and a total of 1650 damage, which is basically the same as her autoattack dps with no talents. Vengeance boosts this to 2175 and 511 dps (a bit under Rancor + Manticore autoattacks). Behaviour in the presence of multiple targets seems a bit harder to work out, but I think it targets the closest 4 targets, prioritising heroes.
Rain of Vengeance, if it hits, does 1120 aoe in 1.5 seconds, The upgrade does twice as much, but is extremely unlikely to land. It actually seems preferable for an aoe wombo combo, since you can still attack and use abilities.
I don't really consider Strafe to a be an AoE ult. It's like an offensive version of Lili's ult except it cycles through Heroes regardless of the enemy's health.
Vengeance makes it AoE, but even then you need to line 'em up.
Nova would be Multishot + Strafe material, really hinders her roaming ability. Recently I went for the Multishot more often and had more success again with it over the Arrow or Attack build. All work really well though. Slows and the damage Multishot does in a team fight really makes it hard for the current popular supports.
On October 17 2015 10:50 Volandum wrote: Okay, I've done some testing. Against a single target, Strafe hits 11 times over 4 seconds for 440 dps at level 20 and a total of 1650 damage, which is basically the same as her autoattack dps with no talents. Vengeance boosts this to 2175 and 511 dps (a bit under Rancor + Manticore autoattacks). Behaviour in the presence of multiple targets seems a bit harder to work out, but I think it targets the closest 4 targets, prioritising heroes.
Rain of Vengeance, if it hits, does 1120 aoe in 1.5 seconds, The upgrade does twice as much, but is extremely unlikely to land. It actually seems preferable for an aoe wombo combo, since you can still attack and use abilities.
Thanks for the info! I might add this to the OP since it's so informative!
Sidenote: Loaded up the Try Mode to double check, and the numbers look good.
On October 18 2015 06:49 RaiKageRyu wrote: I don't really consider Strafe to a be an AoE ult. It's like an offensive version of Lili's ult except it cycles through Heroes regardless of the enemy's health.
Vengeance makes it AoE, but even then you need to line 'em up.
That's interesting, I hadn't really thought of it like that. In any case, it at least feels like it does a lot more damage overall if you hit more than one person, but that might explain why it tends to do quite well in 1v1 fights as well. Will note and potentially update in the guide later.
On October 18 2015 07:55 FeyFey wrote: Nova would be Multishot + Strafe material, really hinders her roaming ability. Recently I went for the Multishot more often and had more success again with it over the Arrow or Attack build. All work really well though. Slows and the damage Multishot does in a team fight really makes it hard for the current popular supports.
Yeah, I'm starting to see Multishot builds almost exclusively in pro play now (compared to the Q builds that were very popular about 3 months ago), so that might be the way to go. It's just that you have to give up Frost Shot for Spell Shield if your team is behind, and if you're going W build, that's no beano .
As main Vala player (rank 1 solo Q), i would like to contribute with a few tips about when to choose each build:
Hungering Arrow Build - Burst Build Good: - Allows Valla to duel most assassins like Zeratul and Nova - Against teams with +3 cannon glasses - Against Gap closer with high burst (Sonya, Butcher, Illidan) Bad: - When there is a need to focus/kill the enemy Tank first in team fights - Double Support/Healer compositions
Multishot build: Safest Build Good: - Versus Specialists, Split push tactics. - Versus CC heavy - Teammates with AOE - When its dangerous to get too close Bad: - When her team have only 1 or 2 dps(Valla included) - Against Heavy AOE healers (Lili, Furion)
Auto Attack build: Highest Dps Build Good: - Whenever its safe to AA freely in teamfights - Versus tank and healers Bad: - Versus CC heavy - When its dangerous to get too close (burst damage, CC, debuffs, etc) - Your team has another AA heavy Hero (Raynor, Hammer)
On October 18 2015 07:55 FeyFey wrote: Nova would be Multishot + Strafe material, really hinders her roaming ability. Recently I went for the Multishot more often and had more success again with it over the Arrow or Attack build. All work really well though. Slows and the damage Multishot does in a team fight really makes it hard for the current popular supports.
Yeah, I'm starting to see Multishot builds almost exclusively in pro play now (compared to the Q builds that were very popular about 3 months ago), so that might be the way to go. It's just that you have to give up Frost Shot for Spell Shield if your team is behind, and if you're going W build, that's no beano .
Hmm it depends really, with a Multishot build, you can stay away from the big explosions, and slow down the enemy, so your team survives even when behind and if they do, the getting more behind stops. A Tyreal in the enemy team is of course giant exception. Just never Vault towards the enemy haha.
Hellonslaught's list is the way to go imo, atleast if you can hit your Arrow >.< .
The thing is you don't need to exclusively go for those builds, there are quite potent hybrids, for example getting Composite Arrows at level 1 and Frost Shot at level 13 but getting rest of the talents for Hungering Arrow, which gives you solid poke and slow but you still have the burst of that Q build.
Also, I've been playing with Q build with Giant Killer at level 13 if there are 2 Warriors on the enemy team, which gives you great burst against both tanks and squishy heroes. My last game with Valla was like that, Leoric and Muradin couldn't live for 3 seconds when me and Raynor started focusing them down.
You can always make hybrid builds to compensate for weaknesses that your usual build would have.