Early Game Top
Like a lot of people, I adore Joule and probably play her WAY too much. Nevertheless, here's the most versatile, synergic build I've come up with in my experience:
To start off: Joule can be played as Lane, Jungle or Support with this build. The only difference in support and carry is the gold handicap, which you can easily compensate for in early-game kills.
I'm going to allow all contengencies in this guide to enable you to build your Joule appropriately for any scenario. Keep in mind this is a COOKIE-CUTTER build, which means it's very general and is meant to do 'decently' for all scenarios, but is NOT meant to be abundantly powerful in any specific area. Use this build to practice your "skill shot" aim and "juking" with Joule. Joule is very versatile and isn't mean't be a nab button mashing toon. Let's get started:
If Jungle Carry: Start with a
Weapon Blade and 2x
Halcyon Potion. This goes for lane as well. Do not get a book as it's a waste of money and not necessary. Joule's Skill 2 has enough range for you to be able to harass the enemy without getting too close and over reaching. After first jungle clear simply pick up another
Weapon Blade. Continue to follow your support to farm the second cycle of the Jungle. Once the Jungle is cleared again and you're back at the Jungle Shop. Upgrade one of the
Weapon Blade to
Six Sins for 350 gold and Purchase
Sprint Boots. If youre slightly short on gold, do not be afraid to sell a couple potions. Keep in mind your enemies are most likely near by as they've probably just finished clearing their jungle for the second time as well. Purchase your upgrades quickly and begin harassing the enemy jungle. You have incredible range with skill 2 so don't be afraid to attack the hidden tree-like areas near the shop in the Jungle. If your attack does not say MISSED then you hit someone and you need to continue harassing that spot. Most likely the person you just hit is preoccupied, looking at items in the shop. It's up to you whether or not you want to continue harassing them or move on. Sometimes you can push for an early game kill in this situation. If you decide to be aggressive and persure a kill, keep an eye on the lane in case the enemy laner is coming down to help his team. The last thing you need is for your gank to backfire on you.
If you continue to farm jungle, right around the 3rd jungle clear you can purchase an upgrade turning aeapon-blade into
Heavy Steel for 850 gold. This will dramatically improve how much damage you do to your enemies as you're only lvl 4-5 at best. Once upgraded, continue to farm jungle or opt to gank the Laner. If your aim is good enough, you should be able to coordinate a nice gank on the laner for a free kill. This usually depends heavily upon your aim using the Leap skill (Skill 1).
Continue to farm or defend the lane/Gold Mine at level 5ish. At this point you should have
Sprint Boots,
Heavy Steel,
Six Sins and 3+
Halcyon Potion. From here you need to keep an eye on the gold mine as you continue to farm. If you opted to gank the lane after recently upgrading and were successful, then you should have attacked the Gold Mine because you have a much higher chance of killing the miner with less resistance due to the recent gank. If not, then continue farming as you stay close by. Level 5-6 is just enough damage as a collective team to drop the Gold Mine quicker than you and your team can respond so be careful! If you bypass it and the enemy gets a jump on the Gold Miner, Feel free to use your ult (if you're lvl 6) to kill it as 300 gold per ally is massive at this level. Just be quick to sprint or leap away as the enemy will probably want blood if you steal the miner.
Your next item should be
Travel Boots for 700g, which comes pretty quickly. Mobility is very important for Joule. Some would argue that you need to finish your
Sorrowblade, but its not as necessary as mobility is at this stage. You'll be defending or initiating ganks far more frequently at this stage in the game, Quickly finish your
Sorrowblade next and this will conclude Chapter 1: Early Game
Mid Game Top
Going into the Mid Game you should be around lvl 6-7 with
Sorrowblade and
Travel Boots along with some
Halcyon Potion(Keep potions stocked at all times). From here no matter what the enemy or your allies are building, you'll be adding crystal items. The next item you focus on, depending on how aggressive the enemy is and how you're holding up in fights, will be
Journey Boots. They add just enough defense at this level to make a pretty big difference.
Immediately following the completion of your
Journey Boots, purchase 2x
Crystal Bit and a cooldown item
Hourglass. If you cannot afford all 3 items, purchase the crystal items first and then then Tier 1 cooldown item
Hourglass when you can afford it (it's only 250 Gold for Tier 1 so remember you can sell a cpl potions to cover the cost if needed).
You'll still be able to assist your team with your
Sorrowblade/Thunder spam, but now we are focusing on your ult since you'll be using it a lot more from here on out. Next you'll want to focus on building a
Broken Myth as quickly as possible, but if the frequency of clashes with the enemy are too often and you need to be able to ult more often to keep up, then go ahead and upgrade the cooldown item to tier 2
Chronograph and focus on upgrading the crystal items next. To prioritize which crystal item to build first, check the scoreboard. If any of the enemies other than the support has Shield items, then grab the
Piercing Shard first, Otherwise upgrade to a
Heavy Prism first.
This will allow you to be ready more frequently for clashes and you'll be able to do a decent amount of damage with your ult. Just to make sure you're on track..you should be around level 9-11 With
Journey Boots,
Sorrowblade,
Heavy Prism,
Piercing Shard along with a
Chronograph. Always have
Halcyon Potion as they make quite a difference.
With this basic setup, you're ready to engage the enemy at any time and you can feel confident enough to unleash your ult if necessary to either initiate the fight and allow your allies a better chance of wiping the enemy team, or use the ult to gank any heroes attempting to flee with low life. This is also right around the time the Kraken will spawn so be carfeful not to waste your ult around the 15 minute mark or you may be giving the Kraken to the enemy if your clash fails.
Meta Game Top
Ok so 15 minute mark and beyond. Right around the 15 minute mark if you were simply farming and not having much luck with ganks or kills, you should still at least have
Journey Boots,
Sorrowblade,
Piercing Shard,
Heavy Prism, and a
Chronograph with about 3-5 potions. This is really worst-case scenario. If you're doing well and the gold is flowing then typically your
Broken Myth and
Clockwork will be complete by the 15 minute mark. If not, dont sweat it...just continue to farm. If you're doing really well and want to secure the win. Don't stack more weapon power items as its NOT necessary and actually pretty risky. More crystal could be helpful but also not really necessary. I suggest either focus on another clockwork or lower-tier cooldown item and defense. You're basically a glass cannon at this point so be careful. No matter what route you decide to take from this point in the game, you should be OK. Your ult will do amazing damage with JUST a
Broken Myth even against enemies who have shield items.
Joule's
Sorrowblade will continue to prove useful to the very end as well so don't be afraid to harass or engange the enemy.
Strategies/Gameplay Top
With this build, Joule is not meant to be tanking and she isnt doing absurd amounts of crit weapon damage in order to scare enemies off. This means you need to KITE. Most enemies are button mashing nab toons that require the hero to continuously whack on their target to gain strength, life or weapon stacks. Joule can counter these types of enemies by kiting the enemy with Thunder Strike. Early game her TS does MASSIVE amounts of damage and if aimed properly, can hit numerous enemies with a single strike. Also, in my experience, around lvl 3-4 DO NOT use your leap first for little jungle fights. Your cooldown is so long as the stun duration so tiny, its not logical to blow it right off the bat. If you dance, juke, harass instead and save the leap, then you may be able to use it on a fleeing opponent for an otherwise missed kill OR use it to flee if the fight goes south. Do not be afraid to bully the enemy Jungle early-game as your damage is enough to eat them alive. If you kite well enough, you'll take minimal damage while luring the enemy in prime spots to strike more than one target.
People seem to be naturally drawn to chasing Joule, use it to your advantage in the early levels and kite them. Your allies will usually get the clean-up kills, but thats OK.
Let's talk about your Big Red Button. It's very important you familiarize yourself with all the locations on the map that the enemy CANNOT flee if you ult them. If you find yourself in an open area where the enemy will be able to move out of your ult quickly, then DO NOT BE TOO QUICK TO USE YOUR ULT! Be patient! Wait until someone is fleeing with low life or until one of your allies is able to stun an enemy. Also, it's OK to use your ult at ANY TIME to kill a hero regardless of how low life they are. A kill is a Kill is A kill and will ALWAYS be worth it.
Another thing you need to be aware of is your mindset. From lvl 1-6ish you're naturally strong and should be bullying the jungle and lane any chance you get, but at the higher levels its very dangerous to have this mindset. You're likely to over-extend or initiate a gank with leap and are much more likely to die.
This build is meant to compliment her strengths throughout the entire duration of the game. Early on, Weapon items are far more benificial than Crystal items. Late game, Joules Ult is a game changer so we focus on complimenting and strengthening it.
Easy Item Breakdown Top
Here's a more comprehensive item guide you can follow, no matter if you're Lane, Jungle, or Support:
(If support, grab an
Ironguard Contract then follow the steps below as normal)
Start:
Weapon Blade and 2x
Halcyon Potion.
First Jungle Clear: Another
Weapon Blade and
Halcyon Potion as needed
Second Jungle Clear:
Sprint Boots, Upgrade A
Weapon Blade for 350 Gold to
Six Sins. NOTE: Sell
Halcyon Potion if needed to get BOTH
Six Sins and
Sprint Boots on this purchase cycle; it's worth it around this point in the game.
Third Jungle Clear OR Post-Lane Gank: Upgrade the other
Weapon Blade to
Heavy Steel. Replenish
Halcyon Potion if needed.
Fourth Jungle Clear: Upgrade to
Travel Boots
Level 5-6: Finish
Sorrowblade AND
Journey Boots if needed.
Level 7-8: Purchase 2x
Crystal Bit and 1x
Hourglass.
Moving into Early/Mid Game Before Kraken Spawns: Focus on getting
Heavy Prism and
Piercing Shard. NOTE: If the enemy doesnt have any Shield items then feel free to build the
Heavy Prism prior to
Piercing Shard. Keep in mind you're building
Broken Myth before/instead of
Shatterglass as well because your ult will do just as much damage and this way you're prepared if the enemy starts building Shields. Lastly, Purchase upgrade for
Hourglass to
Chronograph.
Mid Game/Defending Kraken: If you werent able to upgrade your
Hourglass to
Chronograph, then do so next. After it's upgraded move right into completing
Broken Myth then focus on finishing your
Clockwork.
BASELINE COMPLETE! Fork in the Road: Ok. This is the point in the game where you need to figure out whether or not you need more defense or not. Or if your team needs a little help staying alive. Your baseline of items at this point is good enough to sustain your team so you can focus on defense if needed.
If your team is doing well, dont worry about defense..just go for
Shatterglass or another
Clockwork for more frequent ults.
If YOU have been having issues staying alive, Focus on a
Fountain of Renewal. Sell your
Halcyon Potion to free another slot so you can purchase 2 defensive components (ie:
Oakheart, and
Kinetic Shield) if needed as they'll be more useful than a potion will be.
From this point on it's basically up to you to counter the enemy when/if needed. Please do not focus heavily on reflex items such as
Reflex Block,
Crucible, or
Aegis if you are forgetful or not quick enough to time the reflex blocks well enough. It'll be a waste of gold and you'll be mentally reliant upon an item you can't control.
PROS AND CONS Top
Okay so you may ask, "Why Hybrid? Why not full WP or CP?" The answer is the fact that neither WP or CP is consitently powerful throughout the entire game.
If you opt CP then your Joule will be very very weak until well beyond lvl 6. I dont say until level 6 because that's not good enough. Level 6 she has ONE ult before a massive cooldown. She needs to be well fed and very reliant upon her allies to be able to contribute properly. If she misses the one Ult at lvl 6, then she cant really jump in and do much damage with her other attacks. Its too risky a build early on.
Regarding WP. WP will flourish early game and possibly somewhat through mid-game. It begins to fail late game though as Joule's frailty comes more apparent once the enemy team has farmed enough for a decent baseline of items. She will still be able to do massive chunks of damage as full WP, but she is never really able to take a hit. Also, her most versatile skill that is often used offensively to initiate (leap) is also her only skill she can use to escape. If she wastes the leap to initiate a fight and the fight backfires, she'll likely die (late game especially).
My Hybrid build compliments the best of both worlds when theyre needed the most. It's also flexible enough that you can build onto and expand once you've obtained your baseline. I've essentially left you 2 open item slots that you can use to compliment your build, or compensate for your teams weaknesses.
The downfall to this build is the fact it is NOT OP to the extent of the one-hit-wonder ults you see or the Joule TSing for massive damage. It's appealing to be able to melt an entire team with her ult very very quickly, but its not consitent and it's very unforgiving if you do miss.
Feedback Top
For all of you fellow Joule enthusiasts out there, I'd greatly appreciate any feedback. Please comment or vote :)
Thank you,
Lidless
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