Vainglory Forums

I am asking this question in reference to close games. In lopsided games the Kraken will push any team over the top and end the slaughter quickly, but that only speeds up the inevitable. In games that are close and go long (over 20 minutes), I've often seen the Kraken give a boost to the team on the defense against the Kraken.

An example is when (in late game) a team gets the Kraken and rushes toward the enemy turrets. Most teams will follow him along and try to beat down as many turrets as they can. But what I've seen happen more often then not is that the team fighting with the Kraken gets aced, since the team on defense gets aided by their turrets, and the Kraken goes down with maybe knocking down one turret. In late game, most teams can defeat the Kraken in under a minute. So when you look at the gold:

Team A unlocks the Kraken and gets one enemy turret down. No bonus for getting Kraken and getting one turret = $300g.

Team B fighting the Kraken gets ace and defeats the Kraken = $500g + couple hundred gold for acing the enemy team. Not only does the gold favor the defenders, but Team B will almost certainly race toward the now undefended Team A turrets and get one or two down before Team A can respawn (additional $300-$600g).

Even if Team B does not ace Team A while defending against the Kraken, many times they are too lethal for Team A to really engage Team B near their turrets and make much of an impact. This still gives a $200g advantage to Team B. Most of my games now I avoid the Kraken all together because with a tank/support and 2 damage dealers, the turrets go down in seconds with no risk of rewarding the other team with $500g on a painfully slow and weak Kraken. Maybe I'm pointing out the obvious that everyone else knows, but the Kraken almost seems a bad idea for any team looking to win a close, hard fought match.

The jungle camps are now scaled to become progressively tougher as the game goes on, shouldn't the Kraken also receive the same scaling to make him more of a threat late game? Or am I missing something?

The kraken is really situational...

If you can knock down 2+ turrets without him, there's no point in getting him. If you can only knock down 1 with him, there's no point in getting him. If there's a decent chance the other team can steal him, there's no point in trying to get him. If you're not sure what the turret outcome will be, but you know all of the other team will be out & ready to defend by the time the kraken reaches their turrets, it's probably not wise to get him.

With that said, I find the kraken very useful in knocking out the last 2 turrets. It's very hard to push that deep without ultimately getting aced in a close game, so the kraken becomes the necessary push to get up in there & make the win easier. Even if he only knocks out 1 of the remaining two, a win becomes much more likely.

Just ask yourself whether or not you need his extra pressure on the turrets. In a long, close game, if you ace the enemy team & your team is still intact, they'll have a 1 minute wait time, which gives you plenty of time to get the kraken & get over to their side. That's the main situation where you'd want to use him. :)