_Content Archived from the Original Vainglory forums - originally posted by “slashingwinds” on the “14th of March 2017” Archived by @idmonfish _
How Heroes Provide Impact.
This should be obvious to most players. Every character can provide different sorts of abilities to swing the momentum of fights and gain advantages over their opponents. Damage, Body Blocking, CC, Mobility and much, much more. There are a plethora of characters in this game, and they all provide impact in different ways. For example, look at Ringo and Gwen. Although their As have a similar impact, they are used in different ways. Both abilities slow, but one is a target shot which can easily be used between autos and one is a cone, which although has a much longer animation, also reveals enemies and towards late game, allows her to charge her passive. Impact can also be different between characters, such as Lyra and Catherine, who both fill into the position of Captain, but in very different ways. One is a mid-back line healer, who stops enemy initiations with her snare. The other is a front line, disrupting and body blocking tank. This is what keeps the game interesting, as having the same impact some out in the same way would be boring.
Why is it important to understand this?
The Value of your impact at any point in the game determines if your team has the advantage, or theirs. For example, Koshka, Fortress and Ringo are going to have much higher impact through damage and mobility than Baron, Phinn and Grumpjaw. Knowing where the value of your impact is higher allows you to know where to position, whether it be passively or aggressively, predict enemy plays and rotations, and much more. This value in impact starts off small, but grows larger as the game goes on. Obviously some characters start off higher, or don’t scale nearly as hard later on, but again, that makes the game interesting. Finishing items, taking overdrives or taking superior positioning and vision can give you the biggest spikes in impact possible.
How do we measure the value of impact?
For most players, impact is going to come down to three different categories.
Damage - To kill the enemy team
Defence - To keep your team alive
Mobility - To allow you to use your damage or defence effectively
However, team utility spans all three of these categories, dependant on how you use it. A CP Glaive, for example, is going to have very high team utility (since his afterburn has a very low cooldown), but whether he uses it to engage and catch out or peel is up to him. Most types of utility are useable in both ways, as they generally prevent the opposing team from dealing as much damage (Stuns, Silences, Being Eaten, Atlased, Heals, Pulls/Push, Snares) or allow your team to do more damage or easier damage (Slows, Stuns, Roots, Mortal Wounds, Being Eaten, Pulls/Push, Snares).
Lets use Glaive as an example. As Weapon Glaive, you have great damage, good defence (Lifesteal, yay) and pretty low mobility, especially after your Afterburn. As Crystal Glaive, you have pretty weak damage, good defence and good mobility, but you also have the Afterburn up three times every fight, which allows you to change what sort of impact value you’re looking for on the go. If you want more damage, punt an enemy squishy into your ally laner and watch them cry. If you want defence, punt the enemy diver away from your ally laner, and again, watch them cry. Your Captain is there to essentially increase the value of your items, abilities and stats, while reducing the value carries on the enemy team. Team Utility is often undervalued as it doesn’t have a very ‘visual’ impact, but often, it’s there winning you teamfights and games. It’s why Captains are often the first to be blamed for a loss, or why people tend to gravitate to the Carry role. They feel like they get much more work out of it, when in reality, they might be better at Captain or Jungle.
What in the world do I build to have more impact?
To increase your damage value, simply build damage, penetration, attackspeed or cooldown reduction.
To increase your defence value, simply build defence or lifesteal. (Particularly Health for characters like Adagio or Lyra.)
To increase your mobility, get boots. Some characters, like Idris or Baron, also scale their mobility off damage, so remember that.
To increase your team utility, aim for activated items, cooldown reduction and skill points from level ups.
Pretty simple really. Hope you enjoyed this little textdump!
Part 2. I got bored, but this isn’t really big enough for another thread, so I’m adding it here. (Sorry for the bump if you didn’t want it.)
Synergy and Impact
Everyone knows how synergy can largely affect teamcomps. From out early game comps of Ringo, Kosh and Fort, to our burst comps of Gwen, Taka and Cath, to our juggernaught comps like Phinn, Baron and Reim (Try this one out, it’s tons of fun), synergy between characters is incredibly important. However, the question is. Why.
Well, lets take CP Baron as our first example. His damage impact is massive… but only in potential. If you’ve played a game against CP Baron, you sometimes realise as soon as you build tier two boots, you can just run circles around his mortars. This massively reduces his actual impact in fights. He can still do massive damage, but he has to predict like a god, and chances are, you aren’t getting the value you need out of him.
So. You wanna play CP Baron without that pesky godlike skill?
Pick a Phinn Roam, and a Lance Weapon Jungle!
Their CC will easily allow you to hit Mortars, and pop enemy health bars like they were nothing.
This is what I call Team-Wide synergy. If you want this to work, I wouldn’t suggest SoloQ, since you don’t have any guarantees they will play like you do.
The second type of Synergy is what I call Focus Synergy. It’s the synergy you most commonly seen in SoloQ (if a good team comp is ever made), and all of the examples I listed above stem from this. By focusing on one feature, you can all get impact on one particular style of play. Early game comps go for the jugular at level one, and try to snowball. Burst comps try to take someone out of the fight straight away, with good stuns and quick damage. Juggernaut comps sacrifice speed to become an unkillable ball of death, that attempts to initiate with their snail speed and fail. (Hey. I said it was fun, not good.)
So. What if I’m not getting the impact I want?
So. You want to play Glass cannon, CP Idris, but aren’t getting the impact you want? Well, there can be numerous reasons for this, so I’ve listed a bunch below.
- Low APM. You simply lack the tap speed to play the character to their maximum effect.
- Not playing to your strengths. If you’re Koshka, INVADE. If you’re Vox, FARM. It’s really that simple. Don’t try to be a hero, and 1v3 the enemy team at level one with Rona. Just… don’t.
- Bad team comps. As characters are balanced off their MAXIMUM IMPACT VALUE, some are only going to be situational. You heard me, SAW instalockers. SITUATIONAL. You need the right allies and opponents to make the character work sometimes, and giving up and not being stubborn about it can be the first step to improving.
- “Lag”
- Incorrect Buildpaths. Like building AS on WP Joule (SEMC Why)