Vainglory Forums

I am very new to the MOBA genre and I must say I am beyond frustrated. I have read alot I've practiced. But what I don't understand the most is the "builds" and how to compete against other players. It seems like NO MATTER what I do I get slaughtered against other players even at the beginning of the game. I could spend all night explaining why I'm frustrated as a new player but I will rather just ask, if you could give 3 tips for a beginning of the game strategy to combat other players what would they be?

1.Don't take the minion mines until you you're about to take the gold mine.

2.When you have control over the minion mine and the enemy team are trying to take it, pop a minion candy and it will effect the gold miner and his defense and damage Wil significantly go up.

3.Build reflex blocks and healing fountains if you're behind. Learn how to time them perfectly.

4.Use scout traps and place them around the map where the enemy team most likely Won't trigger them. This way you have vision around the map and can follow the enemy team and anticipate ganks or steals.

5. Don't give them the ace. This will most likely lead them to taking your first and maybe second turret down. Also if you get the ace you should focus the turrets and then the gold mine.

6. Late game buy weapon and crystal fusions and it will give you the upper hand in team fights

When I first started playing I was looking for answers like these. Sadly I couldn't find any and had to learn from playing against high tier players. now I hope you can use them to step up your game :)
Best of luck

Thanks for the tips, much appreciated!

I'm not exactly new, or a veteran. However I have found this to work for me:

- Know your limit. If you are just starting out and you can't manage going head on with a stronger opponent...play it smart. It'll make the difference between building your frustration with deaths, as well as becoming one reason your team may not succeed.

- Hang out in the jungle depending on your play style. Not only does is help in leveling a bit, but it also helps with collecting gold.

- Study! Co-Op practice against bots. This will give you the opportunity to fine tune your build, as well as help you get down things like Leashing, Kiting, and overall strategy. Of course the bots won't have access to items, but that's ok. Once you feel like you have a general idea of what you may encounter, all it will take is a few changes in your items to adapt to the situation.

- HAVE FUN! We are all striving to be amazing at this game. Just take your time and you too will be giving tips to others in time. :)


To You, Come The Glory

1. Teamwork: The best games I've had were when all 3 players we're supporting each other from start to finish. Learn to do this. When you are new and there are players issuing instructions, try following their lead and supporting them. I have learned loads from doing this, in terms of strategy.

2. Focus: Stick to 1 character first to get a feel for builds, items and overall strategy. It helps to focus your learning a bit.

3. Pick your fights: In the beginning try to learn how to mine safely (without getting killed), and only go for the other team once you're more experienced. This keeps frustration away long enough for you to learn the ropes and from other players.

im not exactly pro at this game, but here are my tips.

1) Practice last hitiing (creeps). You need gold to win games.

2) Always buy flares. They are cheaper than scout mines and are easier and safer to use.

3) Do not take the minion mines until mid to late game as doing so will put your laner in danger. Minion mines strengthen minions, and will cause your laner to overextend, which is something you want to avoid as it makes the laner prone to ganks (which is basically the enemy jungler(s) coming to the lane to attack you. Speaking from experience, unstrengthened minions pay less gold than strengthened ones
.
4) Farming> Kills. You would have earned more gold from last hitting that potentially low health minion than attacking that full health enemy hero, which probably traded a hit too.

You should go check out the VG build guides. These could help you create builds or you could use other peoples builds while learning to understand the game.

1. Remember that it's a team game - You are not the only person playing for the victory. If a teammate needs help, and it won't definitely result in you dying as well, go help them. This is especially important to remember if you're a laner, and there's a battle in the jungle. If the enemy laner leaves, it's safe to assume that they're going down to help their teammates. That's a great time for you to do the same.

2. Do not overextend - If you're laning, this means not pushing right up to the enemy's turret. Clear the wave of minions, and stay behind that divider in the middle of the lane. Crossing that leaves you open to ganks by the enemy junglers, giving them easy kills, and preventing you from farming for the gold and XP.
If you're jungling, this means avoid invading the enemy's jungle when it is too dangerous; I.E. when you're on your own, or the enemy team are all alive, and would be able to respond quickly to your presence, and potentially kill you, when they notice you're there.
However, invades can be very beneficial. These allow you to earn gold and XP, whilst keeping your own jungle monsters alive for more farm, whilst taking farm away from the enemy team. Often times, at mid-to-higher skill tiers (Pretty Good and up), you will see 3-man jungle invades/ defends. All the teammates will go the monsters by the shop, in an attempt to stop the enemy team from stealing them, for the reasons above. 3-man jungle invades/defends are important to consider, but your team composition will usually decide the outcome of these fights. More on this next.

3. Understand team comps. - A team composition, or team comp., is the make-up of your team. Usually, there will be a laner (the carry - getting the most kills/assists, and dealing the most Damage Per second (DPS)); and 2 junglers, an assassin/warrior, and a tank/support.
Assassins focus on dealing a lot of burst damage, and quickly positioning themselves in order to pick off fleeing enemies. Warriors focus on sticking around in team fights, due to their natural tankiness, and dealing sustained amounts of damage (DPS). Tanks and supports often go underrated, but can be the deciding factor in team fights, especially in the late game. Good supports will build items that help the team, not themselves, building such items at Atlas Pauldron over Metal Jacket (due to it helping the team survive longer with the enemies' decreased attack speed, as opposed to basic attacks dealing less damage to just you), Fountain of Renewal (giving tour teammates health when they are dangerously low), Crucible (for a team-wide Reflex Block (especially useful for completely negating Ringo's Ultimate), Warhorn, for giving your team a large increase in movement speed; especially useful for catching fleeing enemies, or escaping from dangerous situations), and Contraption (useful for having vision throughout the entire game, as it gives you the ability to place Scout traps and use Flare Guns, at any point in the game).
Another important aspect f playing the support is properly utilising the Ironguard Contract. This item helps your team to double-jungle efficiently, giving your teammate the farm they need to make a difference in fights, whilst giving you Gold at the same time. You will always see the Ironguard Contract strategy used in higher skill tier games, and for goos reason; it works. And it works well.
In regards to the triple invades at the start of games, it is important to know if your team is good in the early game, or during the mid-to-late game. Koshka and Skaarf are prime examples of heroes that flourish in the early game. Having one of these on your team makes a triple invade a lot easier to pull off. However, when facing one of these heroes, it is advised that you take your own jungle shop camps, try to defend them if the enemy tries to invade, and rotate back towards your back camps, as trying to engage on these heroes with a weaker early-game team could result in your own team dying, and the enemy taking your jungle farm.

4. Know when to push (and when to take the Minion Mines and Kraken) - A push is when you, or your team, attempts to take down or deal damage to the enemy turrets or Vain Crystal. Knowing when, and, more importantly, when not to push the lane, can be the deciding factor in you dying or surviving, and your team's chances at winning the game. Pushing the lane can lead to what I discussed in the 2nd point occurring. However, there are opportune times to push, which you need to be aware of. For example, if you have Aced the enemy team, often times prioritising the turrets will be your best option. Having buffed minions will allow you to stay at the tires for longer, deal more damage, and be able to flee, leaving the minions to distract your opponent from chasing you. Taking down a turret leads to your minions taking turret aggression (aggro), and, especially after the turret explodes upon being destroyed, this can lead to a dangerous situation if you continue to push the lane. If your minions are weak, it's then often best tidiest let them walk to their untimely demise, whilst you sneak away, potentially invading the enemy jungle in your retreat.
Taking the Minion Mines seems like a smart ideate first; they increase the health and damage of your minions. What's not to love, right? Well, they also increase the gold and XP that they're worth when your enemy kills them, so not taking a Minion Mine immediacy upon them spawning, will lead to your opponents being starved of that extra gold and XP that they would otherwise receive. Farming gives your team the ability to level up and earn gold, and not having this extra farm really impacts the other team, leaving them unable to build item as quickly as your own team, giving you the advantage in fights, and when you do decide to push. Minion Mines are usually taken sometime around 10-15 minutes into the game, when pushing the lane has usually already occurred, or will occur soon.
The Kraken is also an excellent tool for pushing the lane, but you must remember that it is just that; a tool. When you're able to, simply taking down a turret or two, without the help of the Kraken, is much more advised. Taking the Kraken gives the enemy time to respawn, potentially resulting in it being harder to take down a turret. The Kraken also gives 500 Gold to each player on the team who kills it, meaning that it can be a big Gold boost to your enemy, especially if you don't take 2 turrets, which would give your team a total of 600 Gold, each. The Kraken is especially useful in the late game, where a Kraken push will often times result in a win for your team. Also, avoid taking the Kraken if the enemy team has a chance to easily steal it, such as if they have a Taka alive. He can turn invisible, and wait for the opportune moment to strike, and steal the Kraken away from your team. It's much easier to defend against a tank trying to steal the Kraken, than it is a carry or a warrior, so knowing what enemies are alive, and their remaining health and burst damage they have should always influence your decision to attempt to take the Kraken.

5. Map awareness - A point related to number 1, map awareness is one of the key aspects of winning a game. Knowing what your teammates are doing, where they are, and in the need help is extremely crucial to your team's survival and victory. Remember, you're able to move your finger across the mini-map, in order to pan around the Halcyon Fold, so you are able to see, in more detail, what your teammates are doing. For example, if you're jungling, you would be wise to check on of the enemy laner is overextending, so as to go up to the lane bushes, and gank your opponent. Punishing an enemy for overextending is very advantageous. It allows your own laner to farm, whilst the enemy laner will hopefully either have to return to their base, due to being low on heath, or have died. The enemy junglers may rotate up to the one in order to defend their turret from being pushed, which would give your and your other jungler a prime opportunity to invade the enemy jungle. Just be sure to not overstay your welcome, especially in the early game when respawn times are very short; you could easily be picked off by a fully healed enemy.

I hope this helped. If you have any questions, feel free to ask.

I wrote this for another thread and it somewhat explains the game.


1. You level up in game by getting the last hit on a minion. You also gain gold for killing heroes. Early game it's not worth killing heroes because it's not worth much gold but once an opponent has killed your teammates several times and hasn't been killed his gold bounty goes higher. Meaning the more kills someone has the more gold you get for killing them. Last hits are important because If you take out 90% of the minions health and your ally hits it and kills it he gets the gold and you get nothing (unless you have an irongaurd contract. You can earn gold by being near your allies who are killing minions but you won't level up unless you kill minions yourself. At every level you get to power up one of three of your abilities. Depending on your hero and build these abilities may be your primary attack which become more and more powerful as you buy crystal power. If you basic attack (when you click a minion and it attacks by itself) then it's better to buy weapon power. Some characters are built more tanky than others so you may need to buy a lot of defense. For example celeste can be killed very fast with no defense but ardan will last forever. The key to becoming a better player if knowing your heroes strengths and weaknesses and having a good build. The goal is to each level six (when your level 1 ultimate is unlocked) by roughly the sixth minute to be in really good shape during the match.

2. You communicate with players using the pings on the upper right hand corner of the screen above the map. Green target says to go to that location. The white with the three arrows pointed inward mean to get together for a gank, the yellow triangle exclamation mark is to avoid the area and the question mark is supposed to be used to indicate if the opponent was missing (if the laner isn't in the lane he may be in the jungle trying to sneak up on your jingling allies) but it's mostly used to point out bad players on your team haha. There are also happy, sad, and a bear emoticons on the left of the screen when you tap the little button to thank your teammates be happy or sad.

3. Rewards are low and the heroes cost so much because otherwise everyone would have all the heroes unlocked immediately. This gives some variety in the heroes we see as well as giving the game more replay ability. It's to make you keep playing the game to get the hero you want. After the next update it's going to be used to force noobs (everyone once was) to play a lot so they can buy three heroes before going into a ranked match.

4. No way to determine your exact stats without looking at your base stats your level and adding all of it with your build items. If your getting killed a lot see if they are building CP or WP. For crystal power buy agesis and for weapon power buy armor. If they're kiting you (rapid fire burst damage like ringo) buy atlas (to use atlast hit the button on the bottom left of your screen. This is where certain items you buy have active abilities you can use. So if you have sprint boots you can tap on the little icon to run fast for a second or two but then it's has like a 90second cool down.


If you have any other questions let us know. I strongly encourage you to re download it after update 1.6when it becomes more polished even though I think it's already a fantastic game. It's definitely overwhelming at first but once you get the hang of it you'll never put it down. The community and support for this game is ridiculously good and the best part is it's free so I love super evil mega corp and vaiglory(: