Summary of the Build Top
You need to understand that your primary role is the protect your carry(s) by peeling for them and supporting them with your party-wide items (ie.
Fountain of Renewal). You must give your jungle partner ALL the gold and should receive the majority of your income from
Ironguard Contract because you're not going to be a damage dealer. Your carry(s) will be doing the bulk of your damage so you need to keep them alive so they can do so.
For starting items, pick up an
Oakheart and two
Halcyon Potion. Then your first purchase should be
Ironguard Contract and
Sprint Boots. You should then finish your first
Fountain of Renewal then work on your
Contraption. Afterwards, you get your second
Fountain of Renewal and then another defensive item based on the enemy team composition: A third
Fountain of Renewal if they're lacking damage, heavy CP damage or is too mixed in damage; an
Atlas Pauldron if they have someone that needs an attack speed reduction; or in heavy crowd control team compositions, a
Crucible would be a good pick. Afterwards, you polish off the build with a third or fourth
Fountain of Renewal or
Breaking Point if you need damage on the team.
The game play for this build is quite simple. You stick to your carry pretty much throughout the whole game and focus on keeping your carry alive. You use your A skill on whoever your carry is focusing, even if it's that
Taka that just jumped on his face. Your B skill should also be on whoever your carry(s) is targeting because it grants 10% lifesteal on top on allowing them to stack up the debuff way quicker. Your C skill should be used as more utility for vision, HP for you if needed and the important bleeding debuff that provides mortal wound.
Use of active items is key to truly supporting in Vainglory. You need to start using
Fountain of Renewal when you or your carry(s) is around 50% HP (not when near death) and basically attack anyone that is focusing your carry(s) and chain them in 3 second intervals. It's important to note that you should be dropping
Scout Trap constantly from your
Contraption. If you have 3 charges at any time, you are not doing it right. Also,
Fountain of Renewal is a bad item and should be buffed.
Role of a True Support Top
The idea of a true support character is that your #1 priority is to protect your teammates. With this in mind, you must get out of the blood thirsty mind set that chases for kills, leaving your carry(s) for dead to the enemy
Taka. Additionally, you should be funneling as much of the available gold to your carry(s) so they become stronger. In order to do this, you will need to be the one carrying the
Ironguard Contract so that you can still gain gold while giving your jungle partner the minion kills. For more coordinated play, being the support, you should try to allow your carry(s) to get the hero kills as well but knowing when this is possible takes much more experience.
Jungle Synergy Top
I personally think
Fortress best remains in the jungle because his skills and perk requires a teammate around to function well. For this reason, he needs to be partnered with someone else in the jungle. The heroes I've found very effective with
Fortress are
Koshka,
Skaarf, and
Krul.
Koshka is my preferred jungle partner because she provides excellent early game damage, as well as jungle clear speed to where
Fortress is weaker. His A skill helps
Koshka stick to targets even more so allowing her to chase down her targets. One problem that allies have with
Koshka as teammates is when she gets her passive movement speed from landing skill; they cannot keep up. Because of
Fortress's perk, he can keep up with her and even out run her in many cases.
Skaarf is a great partner as well. Once
Skaarf lands a fireball on his target, he tends to try to chase that target down to apply as many stacks as he can.
Fortress's A ability can assist in this by marking the same target so
Skaarf can keep up and
Fortress's B ability can apply a slow as well.
One of
Krul's big weakness is if the enemy can kite or get away from him.
Fortress can assist
Krul by allowing him more sticking power, as well as helping
Krul live longer with all the support active items in the build.
Early Game Play Top
Starting out, I would recommend getting an
Oakheart and two
Halcyon Potion. Many supports like getting
Ironguard Contract to start, but in higher Elo and coordinated play, level 1 invades are very common and the
Oakheart provides some combat stats whereas the
Ironguard Contract does not. However, it's a must to get an
Ironguard Contract as your first purchase because it will be your main source of gold throughout the game. For this reason, I recommend making your
Ironguard Contract your first purchase as well as
Sprint Boots. Your next main focus should be getting our first
Fountain of Renewal as soon as possible, as well as buying a few
Scout Trap for early game vision.
Upon completion of your first
Fountain of Renewal, you should focus on completing your
Contraption. This item is amazing at providing vision control throughout the later portions of the game. It can allow teams that are behind slowly gain control of their jungle and watch key objectives; this can even provide enough information to create openings for game changing catches for favorable team fights. For
Contraption, it's key to understand that if you have 3 charges, you're doing it wrong. It almost doesn't matter where you drop the
Scout Trap be it in lane, in the middle of the enemy base or even directly above another trap. Dropping mines in the middle of team fights can also turn the tides of battle and to be really honest, would probably do more damage than you would from just attacking the enemy with this build.
Middle to Late Game Play Top
By the this time, you should be getting close to leaving the laning phase and going for more objectives such as gold miner [which probably had been taken] control, tower sieging, full team fights. For these, you will need a second
Fountain of Renewal because it's key to the survival of your team. One fountain is typically enough to get through the early game, but you will need a second
Fountain of Renewal for further survival. Afterwards, you will need to build a defensive item that is more focused towards countering the enemy team.
Note: The items that I am going to list is not set in stone and should only give you an idea of what to build under the current situation. After gaining more experience, you should be able to decide on your own what you need to build to counter various situations.
If the enemy team is lacking in damage (ie. has a double protector
Catherine
Ardan team composition), heavy in CP damage, or has a good mix of damage, your next item should be another
Fountain of Renewal. The best way to deal with teams that focus on out lasting you, is to out last them.
Fountain of Renewal is great at doing this for your whole team. Additionally,
Fountain of Renewal has a high shield amount and can significantly reduce the amount of CP damage you take. And finally, since
Fountain of Renewal provides a little bit of all the defensive stats you want as well as an amazing active, it's very good against mixed damage.
If the enemy team is heavily focused on WP damage or has a carry that reliant on attack speed,
Atlas Pauldron is a very good choice because of the active attack speed slow and the armor that it provides. Since
Atlas Pauldron active is on a 15 second cool down and lasts 5 seconds, it can sometimes be used a second time in extended team fights.
If the enemy team is heavy in crowd control effects (ie. Stuns, Slows, Sileneces, debuffs, etc.) then
Crucible would be a good choice item. In terms of Effective Hit Points (another big topic of discussion for different time)
Crucible provides less for your team. The main use of this item is to prevent the enemy team from completely locking down your carry(s) before they can do damage.
If you can't decide what to build, just go with
Fountain of Renewal.
Once you have decided on what to build, the game should be moving towards super late game. For your final item, it can vary depending on the situation. If your team has a good amount of damage, I would recommend another
Fountain of Renewal but if you notice that your teammates aren't doing enough, I would recommend a
Breaking Point. If you're going to be the last one standing in your team, you might as well hit like a truck.
Active Item Use Top
This build is full of active items. Knowing the proper times to use the active items is key to winning a team fight.
Using
Fountain of Renewal - Most people want to maximize the amount of healing from each
Fountain of Renewal active.
This will kill your team. Since
Fountain of Renewal does NOT have a burst heal, but instead heals over 3 seconds, you need to activate it as you're taking damage. To be safe, I usually use the first
Fountain of Renewal when a teammate is at 50% or so HP. It's key to wait 3 seconds before you use the next
Fountain of Renewal because the heals do not stack but refreshes the current heal so you can miss out on precious seconds of healing.
Using
Atlas Pauldron - This active reduces the attack speed of enemy heroes that are AROUND you when you active the item and the radius of it is somewhat small. It's important to make sure that this effect hits the enemy damage dealers, but do NOT go out of your way and leave your carry(s) alone to get this effect on the enemy. You have to remember that your #1 priority is to keep your carry(s) alive.
Using
Crucible - This item provides a
Reflex Block effect for everyone on your team. As being a support, you purchased this item not to protect you, but your carry(s). Use this item to negate an incoming crowd control and make sure you follow up with a
Fountain of Renewal activation right afterwards. Since this item is meant to stop incoming crowd control effects, the shield it generates would be relatively small so you will need to heal your team as you use it.
Closing Statement Top
Fortress is a great hero and excels in teamwork. I find him amazing in the support/protector role and hope that this guide I created will help you succeed with him as such.
Please leave some feedback and your thoughts about the guide in the comments below.
If you want to check out amazing game play, please check out my friend ShinKaigan on Twitch at
www.twitch.tv/ShinKaigan
I am Dart and I approve this guide.
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