What not to play in 5v5 Ranked

This is basically a list of heroes or a specific build path for a hero that are so bad that picking them just handicapes your team into a 4v5.

Alpha: Poor hero design, only possible play style is to full engage. Was strong when aftershock was broken but Alpha is useless now.

Baron: Was always easy to exploit due to very weak early game but had scary late game. Now Baron’s late game is just as weak as early game making laughing stock.

Fortress: Overloaded kit so Semc had to resort to nerfing stats down to the ground making him garbage.

Cp Joule: Was strong due to overpowered ultimate, ultimate got nerfed to the ground making cp Joule straigh garbage.

Kensei: Broken kit so he got the fortress treatment.

Cp Kestrel: No damage.

Koshka: Hero itself is alright but terrible meta for her.

Krul: Same issue as Koshka.

Ozo: Poor hero design, useless ultimate, gets ■■■■ by any form of cc, spellfire and shiv are basically built in every game.

Rona: Ozo 2.0

Petal: Wp build too weak, Cp path terrible by design for 5v5.

Cp Silvernail: No damage.

Cp Skye: Bad by design for 5v5, hero was cleary designed to win 1v1s in the 3v3 jungle. She also needs like 3 items to start dealing damage on top of that.

Taka: Hero is in general too weak and the current meta makes the matter even worse for him.

3 Likes

Add Kestrel and Lance to the list.

Some of these heroes suffer from kits that do not work well in 5v5 (Ozo, Skye, and Petal). Others have kits that are inherently too strong even when they receive a slight buff (Koshka, Rona, and Fortress are three infamous examples).

The amount of CC in 5s really isn’t helping dive heroes much either (unless they’re Anka, and even then she’s hit or miss).

Sort of on topic: I feel like Koshka would be viable in 5s if the speed boost from her perk were stronger and if it had a longer duration. Right now her mobility only works in 3s due to the smaller size of the 3s map compared to the 5s map. In 5v5 she is dirt slow, easily kited, and easily stopped by CC. 3s Koshka would be op if this were to happen but if they were to nerf SC and SF (which they should), she should be normal.

1 Like

I put cp Kestrel in that list, i think Wp is playable. And people tend to feed on Lance cause he’s one of the hardest heroes in the game but the hero is fine.

Edit: Koshka would work in 5v5 if junglers would actually play like junglers instead of camping bot lane. Same for krul.

ZOZO ONE TRICC
He actually plays zozo really well, zozo is really strong early game but too bad he falls off hard and is absolute trash in the late game.

Lance is still strong as a roamer, especially to counter yeet (if phinn isnt available or you want better CC chains). Hes not as good as a damage jungler after the nerfs and bug fixes tho.

2 Likes

Ozo isn’t actually that bad. I have had him work quite a bit, although his ult isn’t great his ability to gap-close and chase fleeing enemies make him really good.

also the way to play Kestrel is hybrid Kestrel

1 Like

They fixed his acrobounce bug and now he gets cucked by the softest forms of ccs + there is at least 1 to 2 spellfires every game and 1 poison shiv on the botlaner Ozo just falls off a clif after his early game spike. Wouldnt recommend

1 Like

Lance has reliably been a popular pick in high tier 5v5, while 3.9 is not his best update he works perfectly fine.

2 Likes

Yep, played quite a few games and as a support he is good. Would not recommend him as a top/jungler tho.

I’m wondering if CP Skye got a nerf last patch. She seems oddly weaker nowadays. She used to only need one dmg item to at least start doing something. Now she seems like she needs at least 2-3 to come online, agreed. And her Suri Strike seems weaker too. Only her ult has damage that reminds me of last patch, or maybe it’s other heroes that got a buff. She was pretty strong last patch to me, at least it didn’t seem to take a whole spray of bullets to even weaken an enemy.

1 Like

She wasn’t changed, or if it was she was buffed. It’s been a long time since her last nerf.

That’s weird. I guess it’s other hero’s buffs or something but it takes so much to kill someone out of a forward barrage now.

Like in a hour ago I watch a vod of l3on playing wp baron, he need 6 dmg items to do any respectable dmg (something that 3vs3 baron did with 4). Yep, 6 items, he sold his boots for sorrowblade and didn’t buy anything defensive all game. Also he had lance covering his back all the game and was literally carried by anka and enemy team ardan support going afk for two major fights and few objectives, otherwise l3on’s team was losing.

My point is, wp baron is weak as hell. Dmg as the other carries while shooting slower (so he has lower dps overall) + all of his weaknesses. Even someone like l3on can’t make him work really good.

1 Like

That’s the problem with balance: some heroes simply need to be OP at a certain stage, be it late, mid, or early, and people have to play around that and shift strategies mid-game to counter it, instead of playing a specific role or strat. Otherwise we run into situations like this where a baron should wreck but because people complain he doesn’t. Now I will say that I called for a nerf to cp baron last patch because he was monstrous with good aim and timing, but not THAT much of a nerf.

What it comes down to is the balancing team needs to find a better middle ground. Not way back when they were making small changes that did barely anything, not now where they’re making huge number changes that drastically affect hero viability. I think they need to let people test more earlier or at minimum, develop a philosophy for each hero and have better explanations of how best to build heroes coming from the devs themselves. The new road for balance is something that it seemed like most people were ok with at the start but the number changes on some heroes have been rough.

And people also have to learn how to play differently to a degree, because some things were broken for a long time. I don’t join the camp that says you should be able to block while stunned because so many ults were completely defeated by competent players because of that alone, as well as team synced moves. I do think all CC needs A LITTLE more cooldown or reduced dmg, both hard and soft, to match the cooldowns on capt items and team synergizing, but I also think that affects CC that’s meant to be powerful, like abilities with slows.

I really think they just need to make vainglory 2 already instead of fixing it piece by piece because each change counteracts another the way a lot is set up now way more than it should, but I don’t see that happening any time soon.

1 Like

It is frustrating playing CP Kestrel because building CD doesn’t affect her arrow reload time (as it’s scaled with Attack Speed instead). Kestrel along with SAW are the most unreliable heroes in the Fold.

1 Like

If they changed her Forward Barrage to pierce through minions, she would instantly jump from being bad to op. Kek

1 Like

CP kestrel is yet another hero designed for 3vs3 and it’s map (choke points for her B). Not only that, but they nerfed her to the ground.

1 Like

Remove CP Kestrel from the list. She is the best hero to siege turrets currently (even better than skaarf). I have 70+% winrate with and I’m tier 10. This meta is built for CP kestrel although I agree she’s a weak hero but you can make her work. Pair her up with kinetic and rush objectives (probably the best way to play her)

1 player proves nothing. She is shit, she was already weak and was hard nerfed, no one in Silver-gold plays her ever. I had a 100% win rate with Voxport in t10, he must be good, isn’t he?

She is weak but the current playstyle is basically what makes her good. She’s the best jungler to rush turrets. I could see why SEMC nerfed her this patch because otherwise she would have been a must pick in the vpl. Although I agree she’s a bit overnerfed but saying not to play her in a turret rushing meta is wrong
EDIT - I’m assuming Voxport was in 3v3 and in a party which doenst really say much.

Lol you reminded me of when I used to play support Vox with buff Adagio lane. Later on I was so tanky yet outdamaging everyone.