My build is pretty much a cooperative build, which, simply put, requires teamwork and attention to the current situation.
This build is pretty much a fusion of a few other crystal builds in Koshka Guides, and I personally found this build quite optimal when fighting as a team, not solo.
Okay guys I finally got time to do some editing...
PS: I'm PoA right now in NA, so this build should work much better after this re-vamp.
Ability Breakdown Top
Heroic Perk: Add 16 armor and shield, as well as 0.5 move speed when hit an opponent with your ability.
NOTE: This includes hitting EVERYTHING, even though it says enemy heroes in the description. Also, you gain multiple stacks if you hit more than one enemies(Or neutrals)
A-Pouncy Fun
The unquestionable best Gap-closer in the game. Deals quite a bit massive damage to the enemies as well as catch them up. The 0.5 move speed from your perk certainly helps. The overdrive deals more damage but also require lot more energy to cast, which lost its meaning of spamming it for gap closing.
B-Twirly Death
Grants you a basic attack damage boost (CP Based) according to the amount of enemies you hurt with this skill. The only skill that can grant multiple Blood Rush stacks at once.
C-Yummy Catnip Frenzy
Stuns an enemy for 2.2 seconds, dealing massive damage. However, you are also vulnerable during this time, and enemies can easily block it because of its significant Precog. Since the damage is insignificant, it is not good to max this skill out. However, as I stated above, maxing A out might not be an optimal idea as well, that is why I left the lv 12 skill tree blank--It is your own decision.
Starting- A good start is half way success Top
Since most of the time Koshka is a jungler, an ironguard contract serves its purpose in this case. It provides you an additional income when farming, which profits after 6 times of activation. However, the most important character of this item is its health regen +5, which grants Koshka a much higher sustainability in early farming.
IMPORTANT: Get a battery/crystal bit and two potions if the other jungler is a tank(Aka Joule, Catherine, Glaive)
Try get a void battery, or at least energy battery while jungling ASAP, while working on blazing salvo and heavy prism for Alternating Current, or Chronograph and Eclipse Prism for Aftershock.
Check the scoreboard for enemy build's information, so you can prepare which item to take after checking out the enemy's build. (P.S. :In my experience, people who do not get Halcyon Potion at beginning are usually newbies, but still chances are an experienced player just happened to forget buying it.)
Current Meta: For Fun? Or For Win? Top
The current meta in SEA and NA (Not sure about EU, but probably the same) is to go straight down to the area around jungle shop and, in most cases, engage a 3v3. By doing so, you can get few enemy minions if you won it, while losing a few of yours if you lost it. But it is not a big deal unless the enemies pushed you and your teammates hard, which means they can seize control of your jungle.
If your team do not have a stunner, get PF instead of TD might be a better idea, so you can have a gap closer to execute enemy players during this early team fight. (The skill route still goes the same except lv 1 and lv 2 choices are exchanged.)
The current Meta also suggests you never take minion mines of your side, since this will cause the enemy laner farm significantly more gold (+20 gold per cluster) and EXP. However, take enemy mine for money when possible.
Mid Game- Caring is Sharing Top
Pay attention to the minimap! When you see an ally of yours got an encounter with an enemy, don't just ignore it. You can hover your visual to their position to see if they are fine, or just meet up with him if he is running like mad.
Usually, it is a good idea to share jungle creeps together, so in such way you and your teammate can farm at the equal speed of the creeps' spawn, and can help each other out in team fights. Try first hit the minions if your teammate is weak in tanking jungle creeps (Aka Taka, Petal, Skaarf)
Also, if hordes of enemy minions are in lane and your laner is not ready, feel free to get there and use TD for some easy gold and reduce lane pressure.
Aftershock or Alternating Current?
While aftershock grants you a life steal and energy regen, in addition to CD Acc, alternating current allows you to execute basic attacks more rapidly--which also grants you a CD boost. I personally suggest Alternating Current, but get aftershock instead if you find a hard time actually hitting enemies.
When ambushing enemies with your team, try ping(or voice chat) your teammates to their MVP and lock him down with your ultimate. Then catch on another enemy (presume their MVP is already dead. If not, target him.) with PF. Then if you possess Aftershock, auto attack until the AS cool down is finished, then use TD. If not, cast TD immediately.
Late Game- Patience is the key Top
Do not pursue the enemy if he got more than half of his HP, or is really close to the lane, or worst case scenario, you found him en routing to his allies (Generally the minion mines, or you found him going to the gold mine instead of exiting to the lane)
If you do not have a tank in your team, you should initiate the fight first, and draw as many fire as possible, so your teammates can actually do something.
Try to stay in a bush silently and jump onto unaware enemies together with your teammates, when you are sure they are going to pass through your bush. In contrary, do not enter a bush that is under high suspicion of enemy present, instead flare them up if you have one, or just go with the alternate route. It might take an extra 20 seconds, but it is not worth it for the 30% chance you got jumped at and get yourself killed.
Upgrade your boots to T3 if you have additional money after you finish the build.
Offensive- Countering enemy defense Top
If you find your ability barely scratch your enemies, check the status board to see if they had Aegis on. If only one of them have it, don't worry, just avoid him and you can still be a threat to the other two. If more than one enemies are having Aegis, get Broken Myth/Breaking Point.
The reason why you should get Broken Myth is obvious... Shield Pierce is always awesome. However, Breaking Point, in some cases, are even better--especially if you built tanky. The additional 40% AS also helps you accelerate your Skill CD further, which is awesome. Breaking Point is not recommended if you have a tank.
Additionally, if your team just happened to unleash the Kraken, consider buy a crystal infusion if you still have spare slots (Or enough money to sell an item, buy infusion, and buy the item back), as it basically equals to 2/3 of a SHATTERGLASS + 2/3 of a CLOCKWORK, not to mention the additional armor and shield.
Defensive- Squishy? Not so much! Top
Fountain is the ultimate solution to almost all cases, but get a Pauldron to slow AS-Oriented enemies(Aka Krul, Skaarf, SAW, Petal, Adagio), or Crucible to counter Adagio, Skaarf, and/or Joule's ult.
Your heroic perk grants you 64 armor and shield almost all the time during team fights, which is a great deal of fortitude.
When to use a fountain?
Obviously, the perfect moment for "fountaining" is when all of you are low on health (Namely 40% and below), but saving for your carry (In some cases yourself) when your carry is low (20% and below) can be game changing as well. Try not to overlap the usage of fountain with your other teammates, communicate with them if possible. However, it is more of a tacit agreement thing that which situation who should use their fountain.
When to use a Pauldron?
The answer is simple: Whenever you are near their carry. This efficiently prevent them from orb walking (Commonly known as Stutterstepping as well), and reduce their ability to actually deal damage to nothing for 5 seconds.
When to use a Crucible?
Under two situations: When a fountain is in duration, a crucible can effectively protect your team until they are restored by the fountain. So Fountain and Crucible together can really turn the tide of the war.
An alternate option is to save it for a hero's skill, most of the time their ultimate. For example: Prevent an Adagio from stunning everyone and killing your teammates left and right, Decrease the damage from Joule's beam, Save your teammate's life from a fireball from Ringo, and many others.
As a Tank Alternative- WHO SAID SHE IS SQUISHY? Top
A build sequence if you are the TANK/SUPPORT
Start with IC, Potion, Mines.
ALWAYS keep IC in reserve until 15 min and beyond.
Get a boot whenever you have chance.
Build toward a Fountain of Renewal, get Lifespring first in general, but you can also purchase Kinetic Shield if enemies are CP oriented. During the building sequence, grab lot of mines. The usage of them would be explained in the next chapter.
***IMPORTANT*** Get Flares if there is an enemy Taka. If you are teaming up with a jungling Petal (Best if you are in a pre made), grab some minion candies if possible (You don't always need to do that, but keeping your carry concentrated in getting their items should help in team fights. But do not drain all your money in consumables, because unlike Catherine, she need items to help ensure her dominancy.)
The above should take all 6 slots: Potions, Mines, Boots, IC, Shield/Lifespring, Flares/Candies/Batteries.
When you finished building fountain, go ahead and sell your potions, replace them with a Heavy Prism (Or void battery if you do not have any batteries yet), and work on getting Frostburn.
After you finished building Frostburn, you can go on and build one more defensive item--Crucible/Pauldron.
If it is late game already (Pass 15 min), empty your mines and candies and replace them with flares. Now you should have one free spot to work on the next item. Otherwise you can sell IC--Since you can get that many gold, you are probably in a huge advantage, meaning IC is not urgently needed.
When you finished the next defensive item, sell IC and work on the next item, which should be an offensive item--Either BP (Since you are tanky), or AC/AS. Choose the latter one if no shield present, and prior one otherwise.
After all that, you should now have two defensive items and two offensive items. The extra two slots should always reserved for consumables/infusions and boots.
Cooperation- Chapter Removed Top
I feel like the cooperation with other heroes should not be part of my guide, as many heroes have many builds that I cannot throughly explain. If I do, this chapter will simply become way too messy and not easily understandable.
HOWEVER, Keep in mind that everyone should move together as one beyond the neutral zone (Pass enemy side of the bush), and two junglers should stay together in your own jungle. (Yes your other junglers might just keep pinging avoid on the creeps they want to attack, so you can just separately farm unless you got a fully coordinated team.
Run or Fight- A Decision have to be made Top
Even though this Koshka build is not for encounters, you will still find yourself forced into an encounter, for example, all your teammates and two enemies are dead, while you and the last enemy is still alive. In this situation, especially late game, you will need to decide whether the risk-reward ratio is positive enough to turn over and keep fighting/pursuing, or it would be simply better to run away and have a lesser chance of being killed. Since this situation is quite dependent, it is generally better to attempt kill the enemy if he is weaker than you (lower status, being suppressed, less item), or is already crippled enough, OR you can already see the enemy is able to catch you and finish you off if you run away, since he will Ace if you are killed, so it would be better to at least try. On the other side, if the enemy is slow (SAW and Joule, for instance) or it is basically a standoff and you can make a safe escape, then it is your own decision to either run and prevent enemy from Acing, or try kill him while risk an opportunity to win an Ace for your team.
In another situation, where you may find some really non-cooperative teammates who cannot care less about the minimap, you may find yourself rapidly catching in an encounter without possible support, especially in lower tier battles (Pretty Good, Decentish, Not Bad). In this case, you should either try avoid it and stick with your teammates(A teammate don't look for minimap does not always mean he is a bad gamer, though he surely is not proficient) to ensure your own safety, as well as your teammates'.
Consumable Usage- A Good Player always keep consumables Top
1. Halcyon Potion
Always have some until 15 minute mark or you have a fountain already. The usage of them are quite obvious--use it when you have high energy but low health.
2. Mines
Mine them at two kinds of places-- People never go to and people always go to. First one for vision, and second one for damage and a more efficient vigilance on strategic locations.
Try tag neutral spawns with your mines, so you can have some vision over it.
Try tag Gold mine/Kraken, but enemies can just check there often, waste of money.
Try tag big bushes-- The one beside minion mine, the two beside Gold mine, shop bushes, the one on top of gold mine, the center lane bush.
Try tag escape route-- Those mines can be potentially life saving.
3. Flares
Pop a flare whenever you like to know enemy locations, especially under three circumstances:
1. Your laner is attacking enemy turret, flare him up so he can know if enemies are going to Gank him.
2. When you are in enemy jungle, so you can know if you still have time to take another spawn, as well as ensure enemies are not backdooring your own jungle.
3. When close to summon Kraken (30% bar remaining).
4. Minion Candies
The main usage of them are basically for Petal. You can also use them on miners and lane minions if you feel like to. But it is not suggested.
5. Infusions
Get them on occasion-- Before you start building the next item, late game, or a strategically important moment. Provided you have enough money to do so.
Strategy & Tips Top
1. Big jungle mob do provide both HP AND MP regen, but provides LESS gold and EXP than the medium jungle mob.
2. Even though the longer the jungle mob last, the higher the reward, the base value of them is already appealing, there is no need of waiting them to grow more juicy--And their EXP reward grows even slower. Invade enemy jungle to get their money whenever possible. (Example(Probably not true): A mob survived 3 min worth around 100 Gold, or even less, while they spawn once per a minute for a 40 Gold base value.) However, those mobs grow pretty tough after 35 min, it may be a good idea to leave them be for a fairly long time.
3. As the match progress, rewards for killing heroes will grow correspondingly to their respawn time.
4. When running away from an enemy, ESPECIALLY you are already in the protection of your turrets, run into a bush, so they must approach the bush to kill you, and that gives you a chance to kill him instead with the help of the turret--Or at least keep you safe.
5. Conserve your halcyon potion. Replenish your HP & MP with jungle mob when applicable, but use them when you have low health--but high energy. PS: Zekent lied about the potion regenerating energy, it never regenerates additional energy for me regardless of my health value.
6. Try enter bushes when you are traveling, as this may deceive the enemy and provide a cue to engage/escape in an encounter, as well as recon-ing hidden enemies to avoid ambush. But ALWAYS flare when you feel like enemies are nearby, since you are most likely to get killed within instant if you find yourself bumping into three waiting enemy heroes.
7. Use PF on jungle mobs when you are escaping (Obviously NOT when you are at critical health), as this could increase your traveling speed (This leap actually means something, and one stack of your perk will also boost your speed by 0.5), or even engage the Kraken in order to attract the enemy attention, and the enemy can even being killed by the Kraken since it attacks indifferently.
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