Why icy veins dont have a Hero Guide for Vikings?

[Paulo 0]

Why icy veins dont have a Hero Guide for Vikings?

[Stan 5,018]

Hi Paulo and welcome to the community!

 

Lost Vikings remain one of the least popular and most complex Heroes to write about, this is why the guide is taking longer than expected. Our Guide Writer is on it, you'll likely see a news announcement once the guide is up on the frontpage.

[Paulo 0]

Hi Paulo and welcome to the community!

 

Lost Vikings remain one of the least popular and most complex Heroes to write about, this is why the guide is taking longer than expected. Our Guide Writer is on it, you'll likely see a news announcement once the guide is up on the frontpage.

 

thnks, great guides, by the way.

[Damien 1,514]

Hi Paulo and welcome to the community!

 

Lost Vikings remain one of the least popular and most complex Heroes to write about, this is why the guide is taking longer than expected. Our Guide Writer is on it, you'll likely see a news announcement once the guide is up on the frontpage.

 

thnks, great guides, by the way.

Thank you

[OlafTheStout 1]

Yo, I made a huge effort post in a forum I go to that follows this game about my main dudes, the Vikings. I'm only average mmr, but I maintain a higher than average with them, and I have about 650 games with them. This post contains language and vulgarity very suited to the forum I frequent, but anyone interested in Vikings may be interested in what I have to say.

I feel like making a big effort post about Vikings. My credentials are that the original two games were some of my favorite games as a kid, the co op was so fun, you really felt like you were kicking ass together. The Lost Vikings were one of the earliest heroes I purchased, and I immediately felt like I had wasted my money, they were so complicated. I learned them by brute force, a seasonal job cycle with a winter of downtime, and a huge bag of weed. I also loved them so much I bought the Starcraft 2 Terran campaign to learn micro and multi-front battles better, and I learned I am really not so good at Starcraft.

My mmr is 2400 platinum in QM last I looked. I don't upload replays and it has about half my games, and I've had lvl 20 with them since before they got nerfed last year, and currently have about 650 games played with them. Also the first 1000 games I played my living situation meant I used my phone as a hotspot or I did not play so I lost a lot in the lag storm.

That being said its been a long time since I have personally seen a better Vikings player in the wild than me, and I love fucking them up in QM mirror match situations.

I have one true build that will produce in teamfights and at the tactical map level. In my opinion there is virtually no flex, but to each their own. I'll explain my talent choices, and then show how they work in actual play.

Lvl1: block on Olaf. Your enemies will always underestimate the fat little mini-tank that could, so get his tank on. The Vikings can be monsters in post-20 teamfights and this will give you some sticking power.

Lvl4: heals on Baelog. Hell yes. Gives your pve workhorse some independence.

Lvl7 Baelog potential unlocked. He can now solo siege giants, or defend catapults off of your core solo.

Lvl10 respawn ult, even though you have to give up the fact that the boat Is Way Cooler And Has The Vikings Sing A Song From Their Pirate World From Their First Game. A brutal psychological hurdle any Viking player has to make, especially when the boat was clutch pre-nerf and you would pop it in front of an exploding enemy core to let them know how hard they had been Vikinged. As far as the 10 ult itself, in any pvp encounter hide Eric safely in a bush about a screen away and go hard microing and peeling with Olaf and Baelog. When/if they expire Eric is your respawn anchor, and he can be sent to push a wave or contribute to fight after he's popped the ult.

Lvl 13: gotta take hot burning Olaf. Last I looked it did 1.5X the dps of burning rage, which I know from playing Jo that that is a surprising amount of damage over a game, and Olaf can now waveclear if needed.

Lvl16: Olaf Stun No Question. 8 second cool down, and Olafs dash now has the cutest little stun ever. Z and tink! Also no one counts on it or sees it coming.

Lvl 20: Huge Power Spike, get respawned again no question. Now your teamfighting strategy changes entirely. Keep Olaf and Baelog with group and micro Eric behind enemy lines. Let the engagement happen, then have Eric safely pop his ult near their backline and go HAM as fuck and go for whatever their soft underbelly is at the moment. Most probably the Vikings will be ignored two seconds, then eat every active ability the enemy has. Ping during this, and your team can mop up right when you respawn again. Obviously that's the ideal outcome, but is what a fucking clutch Viking play looks like at the end game. Vikings also have the highest sustained AA dps in the game when all are focused on same target, which will surprise the fuck out of people.

So that's the build. Now let's meet the individual Vikings and talk about their strengths, weaknesses, differences, and utility. Then, I'll talk about their general handling and map awareness, and then I'll talk about the phases of a game.

Olaf: my boy, the fat tank-mini that could. Olaf is slow as fuck, has a charge ability that activates by right click that closes gaps, slows, and later stuns, and has great regenerating health after not being attacked for a couple seconds. I talent him for block at 1, damage at 13 and stun at 16. Early game he should always show up at objectives to be fat and peel and put a body between your fragiles and the enemy. At 13 if the coast is clear and he can split and push lanes like a badass, and If paired with Eric they can take seige giants. The lvl16 stun owns in teamfights but that's easy to see. He gets more micro in teamfights, that burning rage needs to be close to people and that stun owns bones. Save your sprint for Olaf to slow/ stun runners, and remember burning rage pops stealth and zag tumors.

Baelog: has splash damage that affects everyone behind his primary target. In teamfights it's better to forget about that rather than do anything fancy and get yourself killed, but the pve benefits are huge. He gets his defining talents early with his healing at 4 and attack speed at 7. Starting at 7, Baelog can solo siege camps if he starts attacking where splash will hit both, and then Shift-attack into between both Giants and he'll move there and take camp on his own when they are both dead. I'll dispatch him on little mini-missions like this while the enemy is preoccupied with the objective, with proper shift-action queues you can get him to start a camp and then you can ignore it till it pops on your map as captured. He also does decentish sustain in a teamfight, I generally position him nearer the front and micro him less than Olaf.

Eric: Fast, Teeny-Tiny, decentish sustain, and a tiny tiny health pool. Also smallest character in game so if you ever have chicks on voice chat they will definitely notice how small and ugly he is. In general he pairs well with Olaf, early games pushing lanes together and mid-late game they can do seige giants together. During the early objectives I park him bush near an xp wave. This lets him collect for that lane, takes no micro, and he'll probably survive better if you're not showing in lanes if they have any roaming ganker asshole types on their team. During teamfights he is your respawn ulter, and should stay way away from damage until he gets that off. Otherwise he shines when pve sustain is required, like during late-game immortal battles. He is also great at pursing near- dead runners, and early game harass and poke. He is also awesome for scouting due to his speed, boss checks in particular.

They also have a few unique mechanics from being Many instead of One. They can't mount, but have a sprint on a 30 second cool down. Also, all their activateable abilities affect all of them at once and keep the same cooldown. Lastly, tapping with one heals everyone, but one can only tap if he is hurt. This can be rad to get Eric hurt and run him to a fountain, then have him tap midfight to heal everyone then come rejoin. More implications of their unique utility of their incredible splitting abilities later.

So that's them. So how do you go from a clumsy pack of left-footed cats to a fine-tuned horde? Dexteritious control and some advanced methodology. Oh and you have to be so comfortable with screen lock (L) turned off I totally forgot that was a feature. So 1, 2, 3, and 4 correspond to Olaf, Baelog, Eric, and all three of them respectively. Hitting their button will select them and all your inputs will control them exclusively. Hitting space bar snaps your camera to your currently selected Viking. When you are split pushing, you need to be aware of where the enemy is, and watch your health. The instant a Viking takes damage, hit his number, space, and spam clickmove opposite of their base, and then hit Z if required.

Nextly, very importantly, is shift queuing actions. What this means if you have an action underway, and hold shift and input another action, your queued action begins as soon as the current one ends. Two common uses of this action for a regular character with a mount like,for instance, Diablo would be his quick pursuit mount he does by hitting z, then holding shift and right clicking towards his destination. In action, as soon as he mounts he will instantly move toward his target without delay or chance of interrupting mount. Another common useage is when you tap, move to fountain, and shift-click towards your destination for after you tap. In action, you'll tap and be underway with zero downtime, and that shit adds up.

Importantly for Vikings, you should strive to enact as many queue combos as you can. Moving Eric across the map safely to (H) hold inside a bush or attack-move a lane a safely considered distance forward. Another combo is baelogs seige camp solo-capture micro mentioned several times. Another good one is getting the Vikings where they need to be after hearthing/respawning, or getting them to defend core in a patrol if you have core push issues, or having someone push a forgotten lane across the map lategame. All kinds of shit, a significant portion of your skill and appreciation of these dudes rests here.

And then we return to the Vikings unique ability to be in different places at the same time. This means a helluva lot, starting with their xp soaking abilitiies in different lanes. Having any friendly hero close to enemy minion death= XP, which is entirely different than killing a wave and pushing it. Don't expect your teammates to know the difference, but a Viking parked in a bush is doing more than any chase that doesn't get a kill, which is most. The XP Hoover gets all the attention for their flashy splitting abilities, but having more bodies has many subtle effects, from being able to cover friendlies lanes for their hearths during laning, to Baelog stoically hiking all over the map taking camps and pushing like a badass while Olaf and Eric roll with your main group. Very noticeably, on shrines Eric can grab shrine while six other bodies zone, or two Vikings can harass two shrines while 5 bodies battle for one, or any marauder combo therein your attention and skill can support. Also they, eric preferably, should always grab grabbable objective and pilot dragon/ terror.

Minor note: wounded Vikings are huge retard-dive magnets. An Eric with 30% health sprinting zig-zag through your group to safety is dumb-dive-illidan crack, and many others will take the bait way harder than even a murky, cause Vikings have full death timers.

Lastly, Vikings attract unwanted/unwarranted/very wrong advice in chat all the time, basically every game. At lower mmrs I'd explain what I was doing for lane coverage, but after playing with real life friends over voice for so long my mmr has risen so I don't need to. Now if anyone bugs me (which they will occasionally) I block them, or scream once at them and then block them on a bad day. What I know for sure is you don't have time to respond until you are very good. Keep chat minimal and productive, say sorry, oops, use smilies, whatever psychological tools you need to use. The tychus who keeps running into battle without shoelaces or a belt and making an assclown of himself every fight will be sure to tell you that you need all three Vikings in all lanes at all times fighting in perfect synchronization to stack your orbs I guess(?) but he can go fuck himself. Just wait to tell him till the game is over one way or another.

Game phases

Now let's talk play pre and post 10.

Most maps support the same general split-focus playstyle for Vikings except for dragonshire, booty bay, shrines somewhat a little bit and the god-fucking-damn shitass spider map, as you may come to know it as a Viking player. Each map also has its own intricacies that change the strategies at smaller level but this a good general idea for their generic play. In the laning phase I generally split Olaf and Eric together in a central lane and Baelog top or bot. Have Olaf autoattack through a minion wave to hold the front and harass/snipe/ be a total cunt with Eric, and back Olaf off behind your gate to regen as needed. At the same time be snapping back to Baelog for his waveclear/ survival needs, and watch your map always for all five of the enemy. Baelog is slightly more needy before he gets his heal, so if one group needs to solo it should be Olaf and Eric.

When objective warning pops Eric rotates to furthest lane away and lives in a bush next to minion wave, and Baelog clears the closer lane. Olaf goes to objective to Olaf, where he peels and/or grabs grabbable objective. If it looks really safe I'll park Baelog right out of enemy tower range and have him hold ground, and have Eric push his lane. Maintain XP discipline through adversity and your teams ideas of what you should be doing if they fuck everything up. Tell them to go into objective in proper team fight formation, because they will trickle in, get completely caught out and owned 1v5 instantly, and say "lol Vikings gimmick hero we would win if you were Diablo and had peeled me", and then your team will agree and you will be sad.

When objective scramble concludes, focus on lane coverage for XP. During non-objective times, you can use Eric's speed to get across maps and cover your allies lanes if they need a hearth. Don't engage just bushsoak/ park right inside of gate. Once lvl 7 pops, baelogs time is better spent soloing seige camps than pushing lane, although it doesn't take him long.

If you hit 10 with a solid entire level lead and objective pops, don't show, push hard/take camps. All 3 Vikings can take a bruiser camp at 13 when Olaf gets his rage talent with good micro. Let Olaf tank 2, Baelog tank the other two and position him so he'll hit at least two with splash, Eric focus fire the Mage, and use both Baelogs and Olafs regen mechanics and kite. Practice that in try mode, it's the same every time so get refined enough so that when all four die your three Vikings can have full health, and it's good practice for your micro. Also during this mid-lategame phase you can take two seige camps at once with Baelog and Olaf+Eric split.

If you hit ten and are even or (gulp) behind the enemy team, always have Olaf with your group, maybe have Eric soak a bush, or maybe have Baelog push a lane, but mostly don't have died so much earlier. Easier said than done.

During teamfights, park Eric one screen back in a bush, and micro Baelog and Olaf. Olaf should focus peeling your backline, and Baelog can hang out near your tank and attack whatever is closest and focus his own survival. If/when you die ult it up and do the same thing +Eric, who's new positioning should be deep in your backline, and just passively applying dps pressure to anyone who gets too close to your frailer teammates.

When you hit 20 the game changes. If you have maintained a solid level lead and your team has been able to come out ahead with their talent teir advantage in fights, the enemy won't really be aware of your teamfight presence/ dramatic power spike at 20. Your plan now is either to put most of your effort/attention into getting Eric behind their team and ulting into their backline, or saving your ult as a counterdive for your own backline. Either way you will Fuck Shit Up. Enemies will slowly, unbelievingly stubbornly tank damage from you until they realize they are fucked completely, and can't outrun Eric or Olafs stun. Most games don't have very many post lvl 20 wipes, and this ult doesn't have the visual killtacularness of a good mosh or something so it will never be appreciated by your team but it is strong as fuck. If you've been on the ball so far you haven't been full presence to a lot of teamfights yet so your enemies will underestimate you and your allies will underestimate your ults impact and need some good pings to bring them in. Your hero damage will look like shit at the end of the game because of your roaming pve focus, and your respawn ult will make your deaths look silly and no one will ever give you props for flawlessly executing your ult, even if it wins the game. If you fuck up your ult people will tell you it's cause you didn't choose the boat, or didn't split enough during ________and get enough orbs or some silly shit. People will insult you all the time and your friends will beg you not to play them, until you get so good they complain about the easiness/ cheapness of being carried by the XP lead.

But they are fucking fun as fuck, and when you get great you will feel so constrained when you are anyone else, and unable to cap and summon dragon all by yourself while the rest of the team maintains a full court press into a keep.

More Skins For Vikings, Raise Hero Cap To 50.

Fakeedit: I guess they have a trait. Grabbing orbs stack .5 health regen per Viking. The most thought I give this is "Ooh an Orb!" when I see them. Olaf and Baelog regen and Eric might as well hearth and fuck off to somewhere useful, or go hang out by a fountain to tap when Baelog and Olaf need it.

[OgrigoHS 0]

personal hello, love the site, the heroes of tips, talents, but hey I look forward to putting the build of lost vikens .. really wanted to do even though they 'heroes little used' 'but did not stop by, I love see build all heroes even though they are much or little used

[RoadtoRindokan 2]

Nice info OlaftheStout! Thanks for taking the time to post it!