Hello Ladies and Gents, we preset Demon Hunter Valla: Vengeance Incarnate
“Valla witnessed the ferocity of hellspawn firsthand as the demons ravaged her village and left her for dead. Now, with no people to call her own, her only allegiance is to her cause: to rid Sanctuary of the demonic filth corrupting its lands.”
In today’s ongoing look at the champions featured in Blizzard’s Heroes of the Storm alpha we’ll be taking a look at Demon Hunter Valla, the fan-favorite Diablo 3 hunter of all things demonic and hellish.
Valla’s family was brutally murdered by demons that left her for dead, discovered in the rubble by a group of Demon Hunters tracking the demonic destroyers of her village. Valla channeled her hatred and anger to turn herself into a feared Demon Hunter, spoken only in whispers and feared as much as the demons they hunt.
Valla is a ranged assassin class hero who specializes in dealing out massive amounts of damage, while staying as far away from harm as possible - usually with pushbacks or dashing abilities. Valla herself is able to inflict quite a bit of burst damage, and with the right talents she can gain stuns and slowing abilities which compliment her high damage output. An experienced player will find that Valla is quite capable of burning through her entire mana pool rather quickly, and you should pay attention to her mana when first experimenting with her.
Like all assassins, Valla attacks fast, making her very dangerous to enemies not paying attention to their health levels. Added on top of her already high attack speed, Valla also has her passive ability of Hatred, which grants her additional attack speed with every stack. Stacks of Hatred are applied with every basic attack, and with further talent specialization Valla can gain Hatred from special abilities as well.
Valla also has a wide range of base abilities at her disposal. The first of these is Hungering Arrow, which deals a high damage first hit, with the ability to bounce off of the target to others. Hungering Arrow is the focal point of Valla’s burst damage, and on lone targets can bounce off of them several times to devastating effects. Hungering Arrow is one of Valla’s most versatile talents; with the right specialization it has the ability to bounce more, as well as heal her for a percentage of the damage dealt.
Should an enemy attempt to flee from Valla, she can use her Vault ability to dash towards a targeted area - passing through enemies and allies. Vault also helps Valla escape in a pinch, adding mobility and survivability to her playstyle. We would recommend that you limit your offensive Vaults to a minimum, as you could be dashing into a heap of trouble. Out of the frying pan and into the fire, and all that.
To help with lane pushing, Valla has Multishot: a wide conal attack that’s perfect for cutting through enemy creeps. When combined with Hungering Arrow, Multishot gives Valla a reasonable amount of AOE damage for an assassin class hero. Multishot can also be talented into having a slowing effect, and can be combined with her Hatred move speed for added power.
Valla’s two heroic abilities are Strafe and Rain of Vengeance. Both make her more dangerous than she already is. Strafe grants Valla the ability to rapidly shoot out homing arrows while being able to move and Vault at the same time; it lasts for three seconds, with the option to increase the time. However, we would recommend Rain of Vengeance. Not only does it do high amounts of damage in quick succession, but it also stuns enemies momentarily in place. With the right talents applied, Rain of Vengeance can hit up to four times - adding extra stuns and damage to a wide area. Many assassins don’t have much in the ways of enemy movement control, so choosing to take Rain of Vengeance is a good way to make your Demon Hunter much more valuable to your team during team fights.
Finally, like all assassins Valla is a bit on the squishy side - she can be killed quite quickly with properly-focused attacks from the enemy team. A good team will focus on a Demon Hunter over any other assassins and tank classes; but with her high damage potential, we’d recommend going for the “glass cannon” approach to playing a Demon Hunter. Let your team engage the enemy team before you advance in, and use your range and limited slows and stuns to your advantage. Should the enemy turn to focus on you, use Vault to escape and live to fight another day. The old rule of a high damage class is “if you’re dead, you aren’t doing damage,” - so practice your stutter step and rain some vengeance down.
Valla stands ready - and we stand with her.
Brian Kale
@brianwkale
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