Kensei: Builds, Playstyle, and Discussion

Funny, because the 3v3 meta IS Skye. In that sense I love Baron, so easy to kill Skye :slight_smile:

About rona, reim and krul, even when they are strong, kensei laughs at them late game. The chances of them beating him even 1v1 are -10.

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Kensei was, as BF, designed as a duelist, so he is meant to win most 1v1 duels. Krul can beat him in early, Reim is just weak thanks to the awesome balance Sonata and Zekent did, and Rona still win agains Kensei in early (Rona is an early game hero), so most of them is just knowing your strengths, I, personally, never had problems agains Kensei, I usually harass him in early with almost every hero so…

You are asking for deleting an entire hero designe, some heroes are designed for 1v1 and others for teamfights, what’s the point on playing Kensei if he can’t 1v1?

But he isn’t a “noob stomper”, he is not the kind of hero that is specifically strong against people who don’t know how to fight him. He is just another good late game scaling bot lane like Baron. The difference being that because he is melee he tends to be more snowball oriented, where if he gets ahead in lane he has the ability to run around menacing everyone.

His closest comparison is BF in 3v3, with a very high skill cap, and if played correctly very hard to deal with as he can run away with games. Every hero can be countered, certain heroes however can be “hard countered”. Reim, Krul, and Saw are great examples of this. The thing is Kensei is not one of these cases.

You seem to be defining countering him as putting huge priority on shutting him down and stunning him up in fights… but, that will destroy anyone. If a hero requires that level of focus throughout the game, it means the hero is over powered or at least very strong, and even if you pull that off, it will take pressure away from the rest of the map. Yes you should focus all late game carries early game, but throwing your entire teams draft, early, and late game teamfighting against one hero is not at all feasible or viable.

I don’t really think kensei is op, or needs a crazy level of focus personally. He’s a solid bot lane though, and it’s nice to see a viable melee carry around the rise.

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This, Kensei is not OP, he requieres skill and can be countered by some heroes or just by everyone in early. He is BF 2.0.

Kensei is far from weak but his true weakness is CC. Anything with CC messes him up and that’s why I always buy a block although its almost never up. Kensei used to be a tank killer but unless if its CC he can dodge he’s going to struggle against a composition like Tony, Baptiste, and Reim. Skye and Kinetic are pretty good counters as well while Baron and Caine can handle him appropriately. I highkey smirk every time I’m laning against a Gwen though.

I can put a timestamp on a VOD from ilovejoseph if anyone wants to see my Kensei even though I don’t appear much on it during lane phase.

CC counters everyone, so the same can be said about literally every hero.

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That’s an over simplification. CC is useful against every hero (even Phinn), but it is more useful against certain heroes, and different kinds of CC is better against different heroes.

For example, stuns tend to be very useful against heroes with long channel times, slows are better against heroes without dashed. Slowing a Ringo really hurts him, but Baron who gets places mostly via dashes is not really a big impact. Stunning a Lorelei will be nice, but stunning Adagio while he is channeling his Ult is a big play that can win a fight.

Kensei is far harder countered by stun than Blackfeather. He has no tools to block it in his kit, and if he stops proccing his perk even for a second he is not at all tanky. Kensei is more countered by CC than most heroes. Probably about as much as Rona.

BF > Kensei

BF best man UwU Not kit wise since his massive nerfs.

BF was my main jungle hero in 3v3, but since the massive nerfs… I just had to move on, so I picked Kensei, who is BF 2.0 :slight_smile:

Sure, there are heroes not as vulnerable to cc, but I don’t think kensei is particularly vulnerable to cc, as vulnerable as a dive hero. What I meant with it applying to everyone is that cc chaining a hero is always a counter and not specific from Kensei.

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Perhaps we could use this topic and these posts as a start to the discussion regarding a Kensei guide, @HipsterSkaarf?? (I don’t think we have one yet, do we?)

@VaKTaBi - I’d enjoy reading some of your playstyle tips and builds!

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25 posts were split to a new topic: More Kensei Discussion - OP or No?

Here’s what in my opinion is the sad truth. Vainglory has had CC creep in a real bad way, from characters like Lorelai who can constantly throw AOE ranged stuns that last for over a second to Kinetic overdrive B which is a extraordinary long range skillshot stun + slow which can easily catch people out or kite. This leaves sustain DPS melee heroes in a really bad spot.

So when people say that Kensei’s kit is broken by design, I just want them to remember that Joule used to be used for her CC because we were that starved for it and at one point Krul used to be a sustained damage dealer instead of a TB abuser and/or worthless garbo. It’s just what happens when kit design can’t help but throw in CC where it really isn’t needed.

What counter’s Kensei counters everyone else because there’s so much of that counter going around. You can’t afford to be weak to much outside of it unless you have five blinks and two free reflex blocks.

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That’s the problem, how a melee hero who has to dive can survive the damage of 5 heroes and it’s CC? Range heroes doesn’t have this problem since not many heroes can dive, and few roams can support this who engage.

Most roams are protectors, so they benefit the kitting, and paired with the inherent kitting potential most range heroes has, it’s really hard to fight them, so those heroes who dive needs a lot of mobility and sustain, reason why Kensei’s kit is how it is.

Who would you say is your least favorite hero to go against as Kensei? Who would have the chance to beat him 1v1?

Definetly Skye, Reza and Melene (if you are good you can deal with Kensei, not as easy as playing with Skye, but easier than with Reza) are also really good into him, but Skye is better. She can snowball easily Kensei, and his only chance to win the match is in mid, when he can defeat Skye if he is not to far in gold, but if Skye manage to get to lategame (or just snowball him), with :vgitem_frostburn: you shound’t have any problem dealing with him (and when i say that i mean, its not even fair to Kensei).

Edit: Grumpjaw can abuse his earlygame potential and destroy Kensei from the start of the match, its really hard to recover from snowball done by GJ.

Oh! @HipsterSkaarf just added the Kensei wallpapers! Admire his default, it’s, by far, the best default skin and model in the entire game.

Be careful if you don’t agree, if you try to say any other hero i will reduce you to ashes with my mind :imp:

A post was merged into an existing topic: More Kensei Discussion - OP or No?

I have been enjoying Kensei top quite a bit. The damage rework makes him feel really good even in the early game. I’ve always been torn between either getting 4 offensive items or a second defense item. I figured that since his damage sort of becomes his defense that 4 items is better overall than a second defense item. What do you guys think is better?

Building a second defensive items depends on how the match is going, but usually is better to build offensive with only one defensive.

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