Self-Introduction Top
Hi, I'm new to this community. Ever since I joined Vainglory last year (2015), I have kinda realised that not a lot of people enjoy the Roam position. While I wouldn't say that I love it tons, I actually don't mind playing Roam and supporting my teammates for a victory. I'll gradually push out more guides for low-medium Elo players on how to be really good roamers. I'm in Hotness(Tier VI) Bronze right now, and I generally love to play heroes like Phinn, Ardan and Fortress, whom are the most popular roamers in the game as of now. This time, I'll push out a guide for Jungle Fortress, which despite some really annoying nerfs, can still be pretty strong in my opinion. PS: i'm a tech dummy so excuse me for having pretty next to no pictures xD
Edit note: I demoted, damn all the glass cannons I keep encountering on my team.
General Information Top
As of 1.18, they nerfed Fortress's Law Of The Claw pretty badly, but gave interesting mechanics to him.
1) His claw damage has been reduced :(
2) His Truth Of The Tooth (A) can now target turrets :)
Generally, CP jungle Fortress is a very bursty damage dealer, with good chasing mechanics. His Truth Of The Tooth is an amazing gap closer, with crystal scaling. His Law Of The Claw has less damage now, with less bleed damage too, although it does give a mortal wound (Bleeding, but also causes victim to have reduced healing). Also, when you max it out, the bleed not only turns into a mortal wound at 6 stacks (stacks obtained by Fortress's auto attacks and allies' auto attacks), it also slows the target when that happens. Finally, His Attack Of The Pack is easily one of the most annoying abilities in the game. The wolves that he calls out not only applies bleeding with their attacks. The most interesting side effect of Fortress's wolves and his Law Of The Claw is that when the bleeding reaches 6 stacks, the target is dealt a burst of damage that is increased by less remaining hp on the target. I'm not sure if this is intended, but the lunge attack from his Truth Of The Tooth seems to be treated as a basic attack and can cause the bleeding to turn into a mortal wound as well. (Correct me if I'm wrong xD)
Also, Infusions are very important on this hero! The Crystal Infusion
is extremely vital to allowing him to constantly use his abilities. Also, as Fortress is a very squishy hero, Eve Of Harvest
is quite useful in giving him sustainability as he heals back for crystal damage dealt. Broken Myth is a staple item in most Crystal Powered oriented builts so I won't discuss too much about it. Shatterglass is an optional item that should only be bought if you are very sure you do not need extra defensive items to keep you alive. It's generally better to stay alive than deal tons of damage and die in 1 second without killing anyone xD
Ok... we know about his abilities, so how exactly should we use them? Top
Ok... Now that we know this much about Fortress, let's talk about practical usage.
His Ultimate is an important ability that should only be used when you are going to fight, and also can decide whether you win a fight or not :)
His Truth Of The Tooth is helps you chase and escape from enemies.
His Law Of The Claw is his main damage source.
Alright, now in a team fight, what you would like to do is:
1) confirm if the enemies are in a bush
2) If they are, and they are clustered together, call out your wolves (use your ultimate) and use your Truth of the Tooth on the squishiest enemy hero.
3) Use your Law Of the Claw on that hero, now importantly, you need to stay focused on taking down that one hero. It wouldn't do any good if you jump from attacking the jungler to the roamer and then the laner, instead you will want to murder that one hero you catch as fast as you can, preferably do it when your wolves are still alive as this kills the target faster.
One thing you need to note: Fortress is an extremely squishy hero, of all the roamers, he has the lowest base HP at 658 (even Adagio is higher at 718). This means that he's very easy to kill as well, your roamer needs to be very supportive of you, use his items and abilities to try and keep you alive. Although with due respect, he does gain fortified health when he uses his Ultimate and extra attack speed (Gets stacks faster)
What to do in a team fight: Top
In a team fight, you are essentially one of the squishiest heroes in your team, so you should not be tanking the enemy hits. Since you die quickly when ganged upon, you need to choose one target and try to eliminate it quickly, while not running too far away from another team mate. Slow heroes tend to be bad partners with Fortress, although they can benefit slightly from his speed boost from Truth Of The Tooth (A). Good partners with Fortress include:
His Archilles Shot is deadly with Fortress, since it does a decent amount of damage and his Twirling Silver is deadly with the inherent speed boost from Truth Of The Tooth. Focus on one target, and get Ringo to activate his gun spinning steroid and just let him shoot his way to victory.
His Feint Of Heart grants a passive movement speed bonus with the rose trail, also with the very IMPORTANT effect of being unslowable as long as you are on the trail. His Heartthrob
stacks can build up quickly and allows him to use the Feint Of Heart again with devastating effects, especially since the damage can be massively increased after the burst of damage is dealt from his Law Of The Claw. Same holds true for Fortress since the burst of damage from his Law Of The Claw is increased the lower the victim's health is. Blackfeather can also come to Fortress's rescue quite easily as he has his Rose Offensive to reposition himself.
His Afterburn can save Fortress in a pinch by knocking away enemies who decide to gang on him. Also, when Glaive spends his Afterburn, he has a hard time chasing fleeing enemies (since he's a melee hero). This is where Fortress helps him, with the speed boost on his Truth Of The Tooth, as well as the slow on his Law Of Claw, which can be easily obtained since Glaive probably uses his auto attacks on the target as well.
What if you are in danger and you need to run? Top
Think Fortress has no escape routes? That's not actually true, cause his Truth Of The Tooth is actually a chasing mechanism as well as an escape mechanism. Don't understand me? Well, it's a simple explanation, this is due to his Truth Of The Tooth being able to turn his next auto attack into a lunge. To escape, simply use Truth Of The Tooth on a minion or a jungle creep and lunge out of your enemies reach.
Interestingly, Fortress's Attack Of The Pack can be quite useful when you want to run, assuming your wolves are still alive when you decide to back out. The wolves constantly hound the enemies, which allows for the bleeding stacks to accumulate until the burst of damage and the SLOW occurs. This helps keep your enemies out of the chase. Another thing to note is the fortified health you gain from the ability, this allows you to survive a few hits before you manage to make it out of the fight.
Conclusion Top
This is all I have to say on playing Fortress as a CP jungler. I won't say he is the best jungler in the game, but I have to say that he is one of the most annoying heroes to fight in the game. Hope you enjoy my guide and if you have any comments, leave a comment below! Next, I'll come out with a guide on Roam Ardan, so look forward to it! (If you even liked this guide xD)
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