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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.
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.
Valla's Strengths and Weaknesses
Strengths
Weaknesses
Dependent on good positioning- Low base Health
- Vulnerable to crowd control
Valla's Talent Build Cheatsheet
Standard Build
Recommended
This standard build provides superior area of effect damage and ease of use at
the cost of single-target damage. As key Talents, 
Fire At Will and
Arsenal allow you to quickly achieve max 
Hatred,
while also damaging multiple enemies at once with Multishot.
This build has 2 variations based on your Heroic Ability. With 
Strafe
it is better to get Death Siphon at Level 20, along with
Punishment at Level 16. However,
since 
Rain of Vengeance does not have access to Death Siphon,
it is better to get Talents to enhance your Basic Attacks at 16 and 20, such as
Manticore and Farflight Quiver with it.
Attack Build
Situational
This specialised attack build provides superior sustained single-target damage at the cost of personal safety. Key Basic Attack-related Talents allow you to become a very threatening damage source, provided your teammates can protect you well.
Burst Build
Situational
This burst build provides superior single-target burst damage at the cost
of sustained damage and being weaker against mobile Heroes.
Key 
Hungering Arrow-related Talents allow you
to frontload your damage to threaten isolated enemies.
This Build is excellent if you have a burst composition,
as it does not require any Hatred to start dealing damage,
being the most consistent build for following up quick engages.
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.
Valla's Maps
As a well-rounded ranged Assassin, Valla is not particularly
weak on any 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. Since she is good in long teamfights, she is
excellent in maps that feature those, like Infernal Shrines, or Volskaya Foundry.
A special mention should be made for Battlefield of Eternity,
where her Hungering Arrow build really shines.
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.- With Fire At Will, in teamfights
Gloom can be always used before using Multishot, as it will instantly restack most of the consumed Hatred.
Valla's 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 Healer-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.
Changelog
- 25 Jun. 2021 (talents page): Updated Recommended Talents for Level 16 and Level 20.
- 25 Jun. 2021 (this page): Updated Talent recommendations for Standard Build.
- 04 Jun. 2021 (talents page): Talents and builds updated to better reflect current meta.
- 04 Jun. 2021 (this page): Guide updated to better reflect current meta.
- 18 May 2021 (talents page): Talents and builds updated after recent rework.
- 18 May 2021 (this page): Guide updated after recent rework.
- 27 Oct. 2020 (talents page): Talents and builds reviewed and updated.
- 30 Aug. 2020 (this page): Role in Current Meta section updated.
- 05 Apr. 2020 (talents page): Description for Strafe and Rain of Vengeance updated.
- 13 Dec. 2019 (this page): Added a note about current Anomaly.
- 11 Oct. 2019 (talents page): Talent section updated.
- 11 Oct. 2019 (abilities page): Abilities section reviewed.
- 11 Oct. 2019 (this page): Guide updated.
- 30 Apr. 2017 (this page): Guide updated and moved to new format.
More Ranged Assassin Guides
Derenash has been playing Heroes of the Storm since 2015 and has achieved Grandmaster in multiple seasons, peaking at Top 1 in Season 3 and 4 of 2018. He participated in the HGC Copa America in 2018 where his team had a strong victory. He is passionate about teaching others about the game, and streams often on Twitch in Portuguese, and you can find him in Wind Striders' Discord as well where he is happy to answer any questions in English or Portuguese.
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