My name is FlashX. I am the ROAM player for Team SoloMid who are the current reigning World and North American champions. I have been playing Vainglory since September 2014. I am currently Vainglorious Silver in the Spring 2016 Season. You can check out my previous guide on Unstoppable Phinn here:
http://www.vaingloryfire.com/vainglory/guide/flashxs-unstoppable-phinn-14048
This guide will focus on playing
Catherine as a ROAM hero. While she may have fallen out of fashion in recent competitive play, we still have a lot of time left in the Spring 2016 Season for Catherine to make a comeback. The only change to Catherine in 1.17 was that her
Stormguard is now treated as buff damage. The only thing to really note is that it will no longer steal last hits from jungle camps and will not cancel an enemies stealth ability such as Kestrel's Active Camo or Taka's Kaku. While these changes are considered nerfs, they are so minimal that I feel they will have absolutely no effect on Catherine's effectiveness as a roam hero.
I believe Catherine is effective as a ROAM hero because of her ability to both initiate and disengage from teamfights. She's an incredibly tanky frontline from the combination of her heroic perk
Captain of the Guard as well as her
Stormguard. She can use
Merciless Pursuit to lock enemies in place, stunning them, while Catherine's allies either focus down this target or run away when necessary. Her ultimate,
Blast Tremor, is perhaps the single most devastating ability in the entire Halcyon Fold.
Difficulty: LOW
Position: ROAM
Role: PROTECTOR
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Captain of the Guard
Slot: Heroic Perk
Catherine gains 1 armor & shield every time she stuns or silences or silences an enemy hero with her abilities. |
Catherine brings the most reliable stun and disruption skills to teamfights and ganks. Hard to kill and great at chasing, she can secure kills and turn around fights that would otherwise be lost. Catherine can soak up damage and strike fear on sight. She is best roaming between jungle and lane.
Catherine is weak in the early game relative to other ROAM heroes but if played correctly she is a menace for the late game. Prioritizing gaining stacks to increase effectiveness of
Captain of the Guard is very important. Even if Catherine knows that nothing may come out of it, using
Merciless Pursuit frequently on enemies so that she becomes very tanky into the late game is very important. Once she reaches level 6, landing a 3 person
Blast Tremor followed up by a
Merciless Pursuit allows Catherine to gain +4 armor and +4 shield in less than a second. These stats will have nearly added up to the equivalent of a tier 3 defensive item later on in the game.
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Merciless Pursuit
Slot: A
Catherine gains a burst of move speed. Her next basic attack is replaced by a powerful stun attack.
- Resets basic-attack cooldown on activation.
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Using
Merciless Pursuit: This ability can be used both
offensively and
defensively.
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Offensively:
Catherine can lead the charge into battle using
Merciless Pursuit to stun an enemy that her allows should then immediately focus with all of their damage. This will often result in a combination of abilities such as
Glaive's
Afterburn or
Skye's
Forward Barrage depending on which allies
Catherine has on her team.
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Defensively:
Catherine can simply use this as a tool to disengage from a teamfight. If an agile hero such as
Blackfeather is trying to chase down
Catherine's allies, she can quickly stun
Blackfeather while her allies escape. If Catherine and her allies get caught out of position by
Adagio's
Verse of Judgement she can use
Merciless Pursuit to stun him and cancel this ability while it is still channeling.
What to AVOID: Be patient when using
Merciless Pursuit. Just because the option is there to use it, doesn't mean it should be used immediately. In high level play, a talented
Adagio or
Skaarf player will wait until they see
Catherine use her
Merciless Pursuit before they begin channeling
Verse of Judgement and
Dragon Breath respectively.
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Stormguard
Slot: B
Activates a protective bubble that reflects damage back to nearby enemies - especially when it comes in large bursts.
- Reflects any damage above 7.5% of base maximum health.
- Reflect damage is spread out to up 3 nearby enemies.
- Each reflection reduces the shield duration by 0.2s.
- Also damages enemies around Catherine while Stormguard is on.
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Using
Stormguard:
Stormguard should be used as Catherine enters the fray. This will allow her to be an effectively frontline for her allies and is a very strong tool for having to facecheck a bush if she does not have any flares available. Any damage over the threshold will simply be absorbed and a small portion will be administered back into the enemies. This ability is very effective at absorbing high burst damage such as
Kestrel's
Glimmershot but very ineffective at absorbing small, rapid damage such as
Skye's
Forward Barrage.
What to AVOID: Because
Catherine may not be building a lot of energy regeneration as a ROAM hero, effective energy management is very important. Many of her abilities cost a lot of energy so it is important that
Stormguard only be activated during teamfights.
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Blast Tremor
Slot: C
Catherine slams the ground, damaging & silencing enemies in a large cone in front of her. |
Using Blast Tremor: Similarly to
Merciless Pursuit,
Blast Tremor can be used both
offensively and
defensively. However, using it offensively is more common and likely how many
Catherine players will use it.
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Offensively: Using
Blast Tremor offensively is the preferred method as it has a relatively long cooldown and when activated has only a small window for
Catherine and her allies to take advantage of the silenced enemies. If Catherine is able to hold her position in a bush where enemies do not have vision, she can activate
Blast Tremor right as enemies draw within range. However, if enemies do have vision, Catherine will want to position closer to the enemies by engaging first with
Merciless Pursuit and then immediately following up with
Blast Tremor. While the enemies are unable to use any items or abilities, it is important for Catherine and her allies to focus the enemy carry's very quickly.
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Defensively: Using
Blast Tremor defensively can be very useful under certain circumstances but because of the long cooldown, using it defensively is not ideal. If Catherine and her allies are caught out of position or start to lose a teamfight,
Blast Tremor can be used to silence the enemies in order to allow Catherine and her allies to escape defeat.
What to AVOID: At the professional level,
Catherine has fallen out of the meta because the top roam players have become very adept at using
Crucible to block
Blast Tremor. Avoid using this ability too quickly and too predictably. Enemies should suspect it to be coming, and be ready to click their reflex blocks. However, with patience they may use these too soon or lose focus of
Catherine during the midst of a teamfight. Being aware of both allied and enemy positioning is also very important.
Blast Tremor should only be used when the enemy carries are within range and
Catherine's allies are ready to immediately engage after the ability is cast.
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Fountain of Renewal
Fountain of Renewal is best utilized when allies are low on health during a team fight. Active: heals you and nearby allies for 2 health for each % missing health per second for 3 seconds. For awhile, Fountain of Renewal has been an essential part of every ROAM players build, and in addition some jungle carries. While severely nerfed in 1.16,
Fountain of Renewal will surely become much more popular in 1.17 as the projectile speed has been sped up to be faster. This is still a very important item for teamfights throughout the entire game. |
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Warhorn
warhorn pairs extremely well with Catherine. Active: Grant +2.75 move speed to all nearby teammates. Lasts 1.0s for each hero affected. This enables Catherine to quickly navigate the map with his allies and engage upon unsuspecting enemies. This can provide Catherine with a extra speed boost in order to get in range to land another mericless pursuit or
Blast Tremor! |
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Crucible
Crucible is best utilized against teams with area of effect (AOE) abilities. Active: Trigger Reflex Block for you and nearby teammates. This item can also be activated to provide a simple health barrier if an ally is close to dying. Crucible will also give Catherine an additional 600 bonus health to make her an even tankier front line. Examples: Blast Tremor (Catherine), Verse of Judgement (Adagio), Dragon Breath (Skaarf). |
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Atlas Pauldron
Atlas Pauldron is best utilized against teams with high attack speeds. Active: Reduces attack speed of nearby enemy heroes by 65% for 5 seconds in a 4-meter range. Catherine can activate either her
Merciless Pursuit or her warhorn in order to get close to these enemies so that she always uses
Atlas Pauldron effectively. Examples: Ringo, SAW, Adagio. |
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Clockwork
Clockwork is a strong item choice for Catherine later on in the game because the cooldown reduction will allow Catherine to use her abilities multiple times during a single fight. However, it is still more important for Catherine to prioritize the core defensive and utility items in his kit as well as infusions. Building
Clockwork will almost ensure that
Catherine has her
Blast Tremor available for nearly every team fight later on in the game. |
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Journey Boots
Journey Boots are not necessarily an essential part of
Catherine's kit. However, having the additional health, armor, shield, as well as the reduced speed activation cooldown makes it a viable option for
Catherine because her allies are reliant upon her withstanding massive damage as the frontline as well as making sure she can land her
Merciless Pursuit whenever necessary! |
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Contraption
Contraption had a very brief moment of glory when
Catherine was briefly played as a carry quite some time ago. However, with the recent changes to the scoreboard that prevents teams from seeing what items have been purchased until vision has been gained, I believe that
Contraption may become a very useful tool. Charges should be focused on deploying
 Scout Traps while
Catherine and her allies still continue to purchase
 Flare Guns. Used in this manner,
Catherine and her allies will get the most out of having a contraption and the additional cooldown reduction will help
Catherine to use her abilities more quickly! |
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Crystal Infusion / Weapon Infusion
Both
Crystal Infusion and
Weapon Infusion are very important for Catherine in the late game. When Catherine reaches level 12, Catherine will receive an additional 30 armor and 30 shield for EACH infusion. This will make Catherine massively tankier and thus directly increase the effects of her abilities through the additional cooldown reduction, attack speed, and damage output. If you only have enough gold for 1 infusion,
Crystal Infusion should be prioritized.
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Using these different items depending on the situation will surely give you an advantage in team fights. A good
Catherine will focus on counter-building the enemy team thus allowing her to offer the most utility and defense to his own team.
Fountain of Renewal and warhorn are ESSENTIAL parts of
Catherine's kit. In all situations they are considered effective because there is not a significant amount of counter play to them. Utilize
Fountain of Renewal when Catherine or her allies become low in health, and use Warhorn to either engage or disengage from a team fight.
Playing the EARLY GAME: (t = 0:00 - 8:00)
1.
Starting ITEMS:
Ironguard Contract, HALCYCON POTION,
Flare Gun - Buying 2 potions is unnecessary because Catherine will receive health back from the passive ability of the
Ironguard Contract (
If a minion has attacked you, you heal for 120 health and your ally also earns 30% bonus gold). It is especially important when clearing the jungle that Catherine takes the first hit damage from jungle minions for optimal clear mechanics. This will maximize the amount of gold Catherine and her allies are able to earn.
2.
Clearing the jungle: When the game begins, Catherine should position herself to stand on top of where the large double minions will spawn in the jungle. Immediately activate
Stormguard at t =0:25 to start to basic attack them while Catherine's ally kills the large heal minion. Before Catherine's jungle carry kills any of the jungle minions, Catherine should begin moving towards the inner healer minion. This is so that the jungle carry will reach level 2 after the first rotation through the jungle. Be careful to not leave the jungle carry too soon or else they may take too much damage. However, most damage can be mitigated through the health they receive from killing the healer minions.
3.
The first engagement: In most situations, both jungles will have finished this mirrored rotation at relatively the same time. (Note: On some occasions, the enemy team may revert to a backwards rotation in which they start from the small double camp and rotate back towards their respective base). At this point, an engagement is likely to occur. Use the flare purchased at the begging of the game in a manner such that it reveals both the enemy shop bush as well as their tri bush. Catherine is unique in the sense that her early level engagements are very weak. She doesn't have a very high damage output and does not offer much utility compared to other ROAM heroes. Catherine and her allies should avoid any engagements until Catherine is at least level 2 so that she has both her
Merciless Pursuit and her
Stormguard.
4.
To Invade, or not to Invade? Because of her weakness at the first engagement, the enemy team may understand their advantage and may pressure Catherine's jungle. If this occurs, you should still avoid conflict and attempt sneak into the enemy jungle and steal it.
Playing the MID GAME: (t = 8:00 - 15:00)
Catherine begins to ramp up in the mid game. She hits her first major power spike once she completes her
Fountain of Renewal and her Warhorn, a second major power spike when she reaches level 6 to unlock her
Blast Tremor, and a final power spike when she reaches level 8 in order to overdrive
Stormguard so that it now has a mere 4 second cooldown and reflects 25% of all damage. All of this will happen during the mid game. Catherine's decisions here should be reflective of her allies versus the enemies. If her allies are strong in the mid game, Catherine will want to be aggressive, stunning enemy carries using
Merciless Pursuit whenever the opportunity rises and then initiating a teamfight using
Blast Tremor. If Catherine and her allies are at a disadvantage in the mid game, passive play using
Stormguard to absorb damage and
Merciless Pursuit to disengage from teamfights should be the priority. Continue to farm and develop items until the enemy overextends or your team gains an advantage.
Playing the LATE GAME: (t = 15:00 - End of Game)
While
Catherine should have built an immense amount of both defensive and utility items at this point, the enemy team has also scaled significantly in their damage. Choosing fights selectively is very important at this stage in the game. Ideal
Blast Tremor's will catch the enemy team off guard so that Catherine and her allies can immediately jump on top of the enemy team. Because of the long cooldown, being patient with
Blast Tremor is very important so that enemies do not expect it. Focus should be put onto silencing the enemy carries rather than the roam heroes.
What to avoid:
1. Avoid taking last hits. Catherine's allies should always be the ones who get the last hit. Catherine will get 75% of all gold that his allies earn from the passive of
Ironguard Contract (as long as she is within range).
2. Avoid overextending. While it is important for Catherine to be the frontline for her team, she needs to make sure her allies are in a position to help Catherine should she be engaged upon. If caught out of position, Catherine can activate her
Merciless Pursuit as a means of running away from the enemy. Catherine's allies will have to make a decision as to whether they should stay and help fight or use the time to retreat.
4. Be patient with
Blast Tremor. Because it has a relatively long cooldown, it is important to use this ability effectively. Sometimes waiting until the middle of the teamfight to prevent the enemy team from escaping is also viable when Catherine knows she can silence all 3 enemies.
1. Skill Skipping - In all of my guides, the suggested path for choosing abilities ALL involves skill skipping. What is skill skipping? A unique opportunity presents itself when all heroes reach level 5. The average player will simply choose an ability which most commonly is level 2 of their less important ability (Petal's Trampoline 'jump' is a good example). This ability does NOT provide a large benefit to the hero. In this guide I utilize skill skipping to achieve a level 4
Stormguard and a level 1
Merciless Pursuit when I reach level 6. How does skill skipping work? When you reach level 5,
DO NOT SELECT AN ABILITY TO LEVEL UP. This is NEVER a disadvantage. Some players may find it unsettling that they have the option to improve one of their abilities but are choosing not to do so. However, once you reach level 6, you will be able to upgrade an ability to level 4 as well as getting your C Ability (
Blast Tremor) to level 1. This differs from normally having a Level 3, Level 2, and Level 1 ability when you reach level 6. However, if you do engage in an important team fight at level 5, it is okay to upgrade an ability at this point. Obviously it will help slightly. For Catherine, this is her
Stormguard. At level 6, Catherine should have a level 1
Merciless Pursuit, Level 1
Blast Tremor, and Level 4
Stormguard. The additional damage per second as well as the reduced cooldown are very helpful during teamfights.
2. Voice communication. While Vainglory does have userfriendly ping options which can to a degree communicate what to do between allies, voice communication is standard for any team based eSport. Being able to decide what actions to take in the upcoming 5 seconds before a teamfight such as who to focus as previously mentioned, is incredibly important. When using
Blast Tremor to initiate the fight, Catherine should communicate who the priority focus is and how her allies should follow up after the enemies have been silenced. My team prefers to use an iOS/PC app called Discord. Teamspeak or Skype are also good alternatives.
3. Be Patient. - Most Catherine players may panic in a teamfight and try and use all of her abilities immediately. However, this may not be ideal. If the abilities are not used correctly, and in unison, this could be detrimental to both Catherine and her allies. Wait for the perfect scenario to use
Blast Tremor. If enemies are too far, Catherine may need to position closer, keeping in mind that her allies also need to be positioned correctly to follow up the engagement. Landing a successful
Blast Tremor can often have massive positive effects on a teamfight. Catherine should be patient enough and wait for an opening that will almost ensure she will land it successfully. Using
Merciless Pursuit on one of the enemy carries can often ensure they will be silenced as well as enable Catherine's allies to gain a better position to follow up the engagement.
4. Positioning. Positioning in team fights is very important. Similarly to how all ROAM heroes should be played (with the exception of Roam CP Adagio), Catherine will want to be the frontline meat shield for her allies. Her goal is to absorb as much enemy damage as possible while Catherine's allies are attacking the enemies. From the
Captain of the Guard perk, Catherine will have much higher base armor and shield compared to other roam heroes. Key items to her kit are
Fountain of Renewal, Warhorn, and
Crucible. All of these items will greatly increase the effectiveness of her ability to stay in the front and absorb damage while her allies are dishing it out.
THANK YOU to everyone who took the time to read and study my 1.16 ROAM Phinn guide. Every situation is different and depending on what situation you are in will dictate exactly how to utlize this guide to your best benefit. This is by no means a definitive guide on how to play Phinn but purely my interpretation of him as a hero. I hope everyone is able to learn a thing or two in order to improve your own gameplay. Please feel free to comment with questions, criticism, or any feedback whatsoever so that I can continue writing guides that will best benefit the Vainglory community in the future.
If you're not already, follow me on Twitter
@TSMFlashX and be sure to catch my streams on Twitch
@FlashX92.
Best,
FlashX
Spitfire
Goop
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