Counter build - Customization by VG Community

Note: This guide was originally created by player Kishin in the official Vainglory forums. The author displays as VG COMMUNITY as part of a bulk migration of guides to VaingloryFire. Enjoy!

Pro players have posted at least 2 guides for each of available heroes. Therefore there's not much for me to add towards the build that they presented. However, I'd like to contribute a theoretical counter building approach to everyone who have more losing games than winning ones.

- Giving your hero a spec that you think would perform well.
- Better yet, giving your hero a spec that would help your team perform well!
- Worse case, giving your hero a spec that will survive the opponent's pro team.
- Worst case, proving yourself capable when your team mates are not experienced.

So counter building is not only about countering your opponent's strategy, it's about countering your team mates too.

I have experienced games that didn't start as well as I thought it would be from the moment I start queuing for matches. For example:
- Your favorite hero is taken
- Ringo and SAW are locked by team mates
- Team mates don't play the supposed role of the hero (e.g. Glaive stay in lane)
>> Improvisation is needed

If you're a team player, you'd check what the other two are building. For example:
- If you're an ADC but neither of your team mates gets Ironguard Contract (IC), be a bit alerted. Duo lane without IC will lower the overall gold/experience income of your team.
- A no-IC team at start up will do well if 2 of the 3 members do the jungle invasion strategy: Ganking the other team jungler, taking their camps.
- For any hero, both a crystal build and a weapon build work. But if the whole team plan to go all weapon or all crystal, there is a fair chance the other team will counter build with armor/shield. You might want to take a diverged road by take a different build than your team mates, do a hybrid build, or prepare to buy armor/shield piercing item.

Simple implicit signs of WP/CP build:
- WP: Sprint Boots, Book of Eulogies
- CP: Hourglass

If games are going fairly well, finishing tier 3 items early is ok. However, if things go south, building basic items could be of great help. For example:
- CP SAW running out of energy too quick: a 300g Energy Battery can do wonder.
- The other team has 2 ranged heroes in the lane and is giving you a hard time: one light armor can really help.
- Too low weapon power, no money? Swift Shooter > Lucky Strike will make a difference.

Stuffs that must be finished or don't bother at all: Tier 2 boots, Tension Bow.

Against Offensive Weapon Build:

vs Tension Bow (TB):
- Travel Boots: For running away from your death
- Life draining items: To recover the difference, Serpent Mask for WP, Eve of Harvest for CP
- Oakheart: +1 of this to stay alive early game is recommended
- Halcyon Potion: so you don't have to back to base too often
- Don't bother building Armor early, TB's bonus damage is true damage that ignores all defence

vs High Weapon Power (WP), high crit, average attack speed (AS), less life draining (LD), less piercing:
- Atlas Pauldron
- Life draining items like vsTB

vs High WP, high LD, less AS, less piercing, less crit:
- Armor/Shield piercing items
- Attack Speed item for WP build
- Crystal Power for CP build
- Atlas Pauldron

vs Average WP, high AS, high piercing, average crit, less LD:
- HP items: Crucible/ Shiversteel
- Atlas Pauldron

vs Average WP, high AS, high crit, less LD, less piercing:
- Metal Jacket
- Crucible/ Shiversteel

Against Offensive Crystal Build:

Without Alternating Current: Burst types:
- Reflex Block > Crucible is highly important against Spontaneous Combustion and Verse of Judgement, also against CP Glaive
- Kinetic Shield > Aegis
- Against CP Ringo, CP/WP Adagio, Frostburn, Shiversteel: Travel Boots

With Alternating Current (early game): Sustain types:
- Travel Boots
- Kinetic Shield > Aegis
- Less HP focus than vs. Burst type CP build
- Tension Bow/ Shatterglass

Against a terrific opponent such as CP SAW: Alternating Current, 2x Shatterglass, Broken Myth/ Eve of Harvest/ Aftershock, Crucible, Crucible/ Atlas Pauldron or CP Adagio with a similar build, your best bet would be using your boots to bait > dodge the Suppressing Fire/Verge of Judgement and proceed to counter attack. In 1vs1, unless you have Shiversteel or are an equally strong WP Ringo, it'd be very hard to kill such a fully built SAW and not getting yourself killed.

In general, you don't counter build tank, so armor/shield piercing items are reserved for cases when opponents' carries are building defensive or when their tank is getting too fed.

* Breaking Point (BP) vs Bonesaw (BS): I see BS as a vastly superior item to Breaking point. Its armor shredding passive lasts 6 seconds whereas BP loses stack every second. The +12 weapon power for each stack of BP is big but you don't see yourself make more than 4 hits non-stop on hero targets. Not to mention BS's armor shredding property actually decreases the target's armor and not your armor's piercing thus increases the damage of everyone and everything on that target.

* Tornado Trigger (TT) vs Tyrant's Monocle (TM): IMO, TT is for Glaive since he already has naturally high crit chance thanks to his 2nd skill. +75% AS also means more cleave. TT is also good for tank/support roles that builds Shiversteel (e.g. Koshka, Petal,... Catherine, maybe). TM, on the other hand, is awesome on carries that play hit and run (Ringo, Adagio... SAW, maybe). It's even better to have TM if you have already built Tension Bow. The 500+ true damage always looks beautiful.

* Energy Battery vs Hourglass (early game): Energy Battery wins the competition in any instance. The 300g can really save you from 2-3 recalls.

* Clockwork vs Aftershock: The slice damage of Aftershock doesn't seem to have much of an impact although it's always nice to have that extra damage among your base damage + Alternating Current's passive + Adagio's buff. For me, I'd rather build a Tension Bow. On the other hand, Clockwork can really make a difference on your abilities' cooldown. More Afterburn for Glaive, Verse of Judgement for Adagio, Roadie Run for SAW are just some examples. However, if you want to squeeze cooldown reduction and bonus damage into one item slot then Aftershock is the one.

* Crucible vs Shiversteel: Defense vs Offense? Your choice. You can even have both.

* Dragonheart vs Reflex Block: In an even fight, Reflex Block can really trick an enemy into staying instead of running to trade damage with you and end up dying while you live thanks to the Shield. It can also helps surviving against heavy damage ultimate. Dragon Heart, on the other hand, saves you from being surprised by a critical Tension Bow hit or other kinds of burst damage.

That's about it. There are various builds that I have never had the chance to test out but theoretically they will work. Have fun reading :D