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Valla Build Guide “Be vewy, vewy quiet...”
Welcome to our guide for Valla, a Ranged Assassin in Heroes of the Storm. Within these pages, you will find everything required to understand how best to play this hero, in both different map styles and team compositions.
1. Valla's Overview
Valla is a highly versatile and flexible ranged damage dealer. Her strong points are her exceptional single-target damage and on-demand area of effect burst damage. However, her relative fragility makes her a high priority target for the enemy.
2. Valla's Strengths and Weaknesses
Strengths
Weaknesses
Dependent on good positioning- Low base Health
- Vulnerable to crowd control
3. Valla's Talent Build Cheatsheet
Multishot Build
Talent calculator »
The 
Multishot build focuses on improving the aforementioned Ability.
It provides a remarkable amount of area of effect damage at the expense of some
single-target damage potential. Furthermore, one of the key Talents for the
build, Punishment, must be built up through 
Hatred to see any real
payoff, making it twice as important to maintain Hatred Stacks. Other key
Talents include Arsenal, which modestly increases Multishot's damage
all while reducing its Cooldown, and Frost Shot, which greatly improves the
Ability's range on top of providing you with a strong movement speed reduction
effect. This build works under most circumstances, though is generally more
useful when your team lacks proper waveclear.
Hungering Arrow Build
Talent calculator »
The 
Hungering Arrow build focuses on improving the aforementioned Ability.
This build provides a remarkable amount of single-target burst damage and
self-sustain, and does exceptionally well against Mercenary Camps and
Bosses, thanks to the Monster Hunter Talent. This build is particularly popular
on the Battlefield of Eternity Map, where Hungering Arrow can be used to make
very short work of the Immortal that must be destroyed. The build also sees use
against some of Valla's counters, most notably against Stealthed
Assassins, as it provides the most burst survivability through the
Siphoning Arrow and 
Repeating Arrow Talent combo.
Rancor Build
Talent calculator »
Important notice: Although we list this popular build for the sake of thoroughness, it must be noted that it does not fare very well in competitive play. Platinum-level and above players are typically expected to play Hungering Arrow- or Multishot-centric builds.
The Rancor build seeks to maximise the potential of
Valla's Basic Attacks. Out of all potential Valla builds, this one has the
highest sustained damage dealing potential against Heroes. This strength comes
at the expense of some survivability, and burst damage potential as Valla must
attack for an extended period of time to build Hatred
stacks to ramp her damage up. As such, this build is generally unsuitable
against Stealthed Heroes, who usually try to burst Valla
down, though it generally does enough damage to seriously threaten even the
toughest of tanks.
4. Valla's Synergies and Counters
Valla synergizes with
Valla is at her best when something stands between her and her enemies. Large, Healthy Tanks are particularly desirable as they draw attention away from Valla, and often provide their own form of crowd control for potential follow-ups. Otherwise, anything that can protect Valla is also desirable. Shielding effects are particularly impactful due to her limited Health pool.
Valla is countered by
As a frail ranged Assassin, Valla tends to naturally struggle against other
high damage Assassins who have the ability to effectively gap close past her
Vault's range or otherwise sneak up on her. With little in the way of
self-peeling, make sure to stay near your healer when possible
against such Heroes, and make no bold attempts at outplaying your opponents.
5. Valla's Maps
As a well-rounded ranged Assassin, Valla is not particularly strong nor
weak on many Maps. In general, it is better for her to remain accompanied
while laning due to her relative frailty, something that
should not be an issue for most Maps. A special mention should be made for
Battlefield of Eternity, however, where her Hungering Arrow build
really shines.
6. Valla's Tips and Tricks
Hatred empowers Valla's Basic Attacks and increases her movement speed; try and attack something at least once every 5 seconds so that your stacks do not fall off.
Hungering Arrow has a high Mana cost and will home unto undesirable targets, such as Minions and Summons; avoid using the Ability unless it is going to deal useful damage.
Multishot is your main waveclearing tool. Its wide area of effect also makes it excellent for checking hidden areas, revealing Stealthed Heroes, and dismounting opponents.
Vault can be used offensively, as a gap-closer, and defensively, to create space between yourself and opponents and dodge Abilities. Limit your offensive use of the Ability, as it leaves you vulnerable.
Strafe's reliability goes up as opponents use up their crowd control Abilities; keep track of their Cooldowns, and remain on the move so as to minimise the chance you will be interrupted.
Rain of Vengeance is better used as a follow-up or as a self-peeling tool than merely for dealing damage.
7. Role in the Current Meta
Valla's outstanding single-target sustained damage allows her to put an
extreme amount of pressure on anything within her Basic Attack range.
Her on-demand area of effect damage and poke allow her to reliably deal damage
in all situations. A high base movement speed, Vault, and Frost Shot
grant her respectable options for self-peeling, though they do not
help her against crowd control.
Valla is extremely strong against Support-heavy metas, as such Heroes do not typically have the tools to force her to play defensively to reduce her effectiveness. Picking her early during drafts may incite opposing players to choose dive-oriented Heroes, which must rely on playing aggressively and on very good coordination to succeed against her. Picking her later in a draft may leave her completely uncountered and able to freely deal her damage.
8. Changelog
- 30 Apr. 2017 (this page): Guide updated and moved to new format.
More RangedAssassin Guides
Oxygen is a veteran of the MOBA genre, which he has been playing for nearly 15 years. He has coached some of Heroes of the Storm's most prominent North American players and teams alike, including Team Liquid. As a Master player, he enjoys playing all Heroes and roles.
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