12/13 playtest hero guides part 1 :: Vela

Burdock

Vela, Elegant Assassin

For hero info see alt-tab guide here :: https://guardiansofatlas.xyz/forums/discussion/34/the-atlas-alt-tab-guide#latest

Hydros Guide : https://guardiansofatlas.xyz/forums/discussion/318/12-13-playtest-hero-guides-part-2-hydros#latest

Overview

Early Game :: 4/5
Mid Game :: 3/5
Late Game :: 5/5

Gold Priority :: Medium / Very high (depending on build)

Strengths :: Has great potential early game to pick off units and get an XP advantage. Best single target burst in the game. Best mobile range in the game.

Weaknesses :: Units are not remotely cost effective without micro. Extremely hard to play from behind. If you get flanked you are totally ****ed.

Counters :: Bad positioning, Celesta siege builds, Ryme initiation wombo combo builds, any melee in a 1v1

Countered by :: Good positioning, all slows, early/mid game Eris, early/mid game Alder Vine initiation.

Best paired with :: Any hero with a slow, most notable being Alder and Ryme.

Units and Abilities

hero unit (Vela) :

Lowest HP in the game, so be careful. Counterintuitively, you should keep her in the front of your army in the early game because of her HP being proportionally less worse then her Raptors when compared to their counterparts.

Fair Warning :

One of the strongest abilities in the game. It offers some of the best vision of any ability!. Early game the +6 magic damage is a full 30% damage buff to your tier 1 units! Going +Magic resist is often sub-optimal early game so you can be sure it will add the full 6 bonus.

Once you get tier 2 units and level 6 it becomes even more important, turning Take Aim and Peaceful Resolution into some of the most scary abilities in the game!

Peaceful Resolution:

This ability is the best way to pick off heros in the game. It will often take a full 20%+ HP of any hero, and can oneshot if they are marked. Due to it not traveling through other units, stronger players will use their tier 1 units to zone if they see it coming.

Due to it's low cooldown, don't worry about always landing Fair Warning before using Peaceful Resolution, more often then not this just gives away your intent and you will miss the shot.

Raptor :

Never take head on fights. Focus on picking units with your raptors, if you can get a level advantage going into the mid game you are well on your way to winning the game.

Eagle Eye :

There are 2 ways to use Eagle Eye. #1 :: Pick at the enemy while out of range of their attacks. #2 counter concave micro by picking off the retreating weak units. Overall, 10/10 awesome ability.

More info here under Squad design :: https://guardiansofatlas.xyz/forums/discussion/275/burdock-personal-feedback#latest

Deadeye :

A sniper through and through. Optimal for picking off high value targets. I strongly favor getting Deadeyes quickly vs initiators like Ryme due to their massive picking and zoning potential.

Mid game, don't get too greedy with your Deadeyes or they will end up being dead half the game. Focus more on their ability to force decisions from your opponent. For example, if you see someone trying to set up an engagement lock on a few Take Aim s, This will force them to either engage before they are ready, or give up some map control.

Take Aim :

Best for attacking high value targets from out of their range. Especially the immobile Purifier.

Again, its not always worth it trying to land Fair Warning before using Take Aim due to it giving away your intent. I have had much more success with using Take Aim first then immediately placing a Fair Warning in their retreat path so that they walk into it.

Windray :

The biggest game-changer unit for Vela, +8% stacking move speed gives a huge positional advantage and amazing disengage. If that's not enough, you can switch it out for stacking +2 range! Once you get 2 wind rays you can form a 2nd concave behind most ranged forces.

General Strategy

If you take anything away from this guide, it should be that taking a head on fight as Vela will get you killed. Velas job is to pick, poke and prod at the opponent. Before any major fight you should have picked off at-least a few high value targets.

If you want to become a baller Vela, you got to think positioning. As a general rule, you should keep your army in a place where if the opponent you are picking at tries to engage you head on they would put them selves in danger or out of position.

Indecision is your greatest weapon, if you can have your opponent not commit to an attack or retreat while you pick at them you can easily gain XP from a kill. A few kills and you have a lvl advantage, and probably an opportunity to snowball.

In the mid and late game, make sure to run with a partner. Vela's range lends it's self to some of the most favorable army stacking in the game.

Build

Above all else, favor attack damage. The more burst damage you can do, the easier it is to pick off units before combat, or out of combat, leading to an XP advantage. I often like to get my first attack DMG upgrade right after the 8th Raptor for optimized damage output.

As for squad upgrades, Marked Damage and Enhanced Optics are really the only worth while ones. Though I usually still favor attack dmg because of how amazing the late-game +10%+25%+50% DMG Vela really is.

Pursuit

Awesome guide! Agree with almost all of your points here. A well played Vela isn't going to be winning any straight up engagements, but it really doesn't need to. With the longest range (Vex comes close in early game but Vela does much higher 'burst' damage) you can run in, take a shot, pull back, rinse and repeat. The long cooldown between attacks lets you do this without wasting much, if any, dps when controlled correctly.

Counterplay is to keep your distance before engagements, and then when you commit to an attack you have to actually commit. Having units that can slow / stun or rapidly close the gap and get you into a straight up fight puts Vela in a dangerous situation. Targeting Deadeyes and Windrays is especially important vs Vela as well because they have barely any more HP than Raptors.

Burdock

@Pursuit Thanks I'm glad you liked it! These have been a collaborative so I totally encourage you or anyone to chime in!

If you have any hero's you feel you know quite well, and want to help write the next guide please shoot me a pm on discord