Hello,
I'm CullTheMeek, a longtime competitve Vainglory player now part of Team Phoenix on Phoenix Reborn. This is a guide for how I play
Kestrel successfully in both ranked and competitive matches.
Kestrel is a a sniper that excels at kiting at the beginning of fights, and then hard engaging onto enemies once she has built up stacks. Kesrel can be successful in both the lane and the jungle, but I think she does best in the lane where she can get gold quickly to hit her power spikes and carry the game.
I hope you enjoy!
-CullTheMeek
Adrenaline
Kestrel’s Heroic Perk,
Adrenaline, stacks with basic attacks and reduces the energy cost of her abilities by 10% in addition to giving her 10% additional attack speed. This can stack up to 5 times and wears off after 4 seconds unless a basic attack or direct hit of a
Glimmershot is landed.
Kestrel’s
Adrenaline stacks are extremely important for both effective energy management and extra dps throughout the game.
Kestrel’s abilities cost a lot of energy, so the energy reduction from stacks is essential to using a maximum amount of abilities in the fight.
Before any fight, try to make sure you have 5 stacks built. This can be done by landing a
One Shot One Kill which instantly gives 5
Adrenaline stacks or by basic attacking minions or enemy heroes.
Kestrel’s
Glimmershot is kind of like an extension of her auto attacks that does more damage to the first target directly hit with some armor piercing and splash damage to targets behind it.
Glimmershot can easily be blocked or dodged if fired from a distance, so only use it if there is a clear shot at the target or at close range. Otherwise, it is better to keep auto attacking to keep
Adrenaline stacks and deal consistent damage.
Kestrel has 4 arrows at all ranks, and once they are all used up, she must reload with the reload time decreasing with attack speed (bought or naturally from
Adrenaline stacks).
Glimmershot is great for clearing minions and dealing devastating damage at close-mid range as well as dealing annoying poke damage.
- Don’t use
Glimmershot when you don’t want to be stuck in place. Using
Glimmershot roots you in place while the arrow is firing, so be careful not to use it you might need to dodge abilities like against a
Celeste or
Skye.
- Don’t use it at max range unless the enemy is locked in place by some form of CC. Otherwise, it will likely be blocked or dodged.
When activated,
Kestrel becomes becomes invisible, gaining bonus move speed and leaving behind a mist cloud. After a duration, the mist cloud can be detonated by
Kestrel dealing damage to an enemy hero that is inside of the mist. Heroes inside the mist are stunned and take damage.
Kestrel cannot activate
Active Camo if she is taking damage, as it puts it on a 2.5 second cooldown. That cooldown is reduced by WP, and goes to zero at 200 weapon power.
With a WP build,
Active Camo is mostly important for the stun and speed boost, as it is
Kestrel’s only form of crowd control and gap closing/creating. Basic attacking reduces the cooldown of
Active Camo by 1 second, so builds that center around attack speed are extremely effective on
Kestrel as she can spam
Active Camo. Be careful, however about the energy cost of
Active Camo. If possible, make sure to have max Adrenaline stacks before activating active camo to use as little energy as possible.
Use
Active Camo to create distance from your enemy and to set up stuns. In the late game once she reaches 200 WP, she can use
Active Camo whenever it is available, making it impossible for melee heroes to dive onto her if used correctly.
One Shot One Kill
When activated,
Kestrel fires an arrow across the map, hitting the first enemy or major objective it contacts. If it hits an enemy hero, it reveals the hero and gives
Kestrel full
Adrenaline stacks.
One Shot One Kill can be used to snipe enemy heroes or objectives from a distance for clutch kills/steals. Don’t be afraid to use it to just put pressure around the map though. Damaging an enemy hero with
good way of putting pressure around the map, as they might not be able to contest objectives or look for team fights. Basically, with One Shot. One Kill.,
Kestrel can have a presence in the entire map, no matter where she is.
In the early game, you usually want to clear the first waves as fast as possible so you are able to rotate. If your jungle needs any help whatsoever, you can dissuade them easily with a few
Glimmershots.
Kestrel is extremely squishy if caught out of position due to the cooldown reset when taking damage on
Active Camo, so be sure to keep a safe distance and buy boots early on. Additionally,
Kestrel can be extremely energy hungry in the early game. Try to maintain
Adrenaline stacks, and only use
Active Camo when necessary or when at full
Adrenaline stacks.
When
Kestrel reaches the weapon threshold for activating
Active Camo at 200 WP, she becomes an endlessly kiting monster. It makes it extremely hard to follow her and dive her at all if
Active Camo is used correctly. Try to anticipate enemy dives and use
Active Camo to set up traps beforehand, especially if you are not at 200WP yet.
Kestrel is strongest at her two item powerspike when she gets her
Sorrowblade and
Breaking Point. Once you get these items, push the advantage and try to go for objectives. You can most likely force goldmines with the incredible objective clear speed, and team fights will be easy if you are not behind by much.
Kestrel is extremely strong in the late game. In team fights, your goal is to kite back using
Active Camo and get
Breaking Point and
Bonesaw stacks. Set up mist clouds and stay safe in the beginning of the fight. Initially, you should be auto attacking anyone who comes into range. Building stacks off of supports is extremely effective, as they will often be out of position in front of their carries. Once people dive onto you, use
Active Camo to back up and stun them. Once you have a decent amount of stacks and have a clear shot, begin using
Glimmershot arrows to deal devastating damage. When
Kestrel has stacks, she can kill people extremely fast.
Basic attacking throughout the fight is extremely important. Not only does it help build
Bonesaw and
Breaking Point stacks, it also reduces the cooldown on
Active Camo, making it available more often for mobility and CC.
Thank you for reading! I hope you found it useful, send any questions you may have to
@TPHXCullTheMeek on Twitter or comment below.
Visit the
Phoenix website for updates on our competitive teams and for more player spotlights and guides!
Pick up the
headset I use for Vainglory and watch my highlights on
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YouTube.
-CullTheMeek
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Vanguard
Catherine
Impale
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