Hi people! Welcome to my first full guide for Vainglory. This guide will be about Kestrel, one of the newer heroes of this game.

Ahh, Kestrel... I remember how excited I was when I first saw her spotlight. Enough so that I bought ice to get her in the Early Access period. She was incredibly fun to play, almost like a cross between Ringo and Celeste. Not everybody liked her, but she was great.

Then Update 1.14 came and, in the eyes of the average player, ripped her to shreds. The hitbox on her A was reduced by an easily noticeable amount, and her reload time on her arrows was increased by almost 1/3. She quickly fell out of meta.

I want to say Update 1.15 fixed her, but it didn't. She's not as good as she was before, but she's still pretty good and deadly in the hands of someone who knows how to use her. What I'm here to do is (hopefully) show you how to build and use Kestrel effectively.

Kestrel is one of the 7 heroes who (in my opinion) can viably be built in either the Weapon tree or the Crystal tree. However, unlike half of the other 6 heroes, her two playstyles are much different. In this section, I'll give you a brief explanation on the pros and cons of each path.

Weapon

Pros:
- Glimmershot deals lots of on-hit damage
- Can use Active Camo in combat
- Being able to do the above allows for more stuns (and more stuns allows for more slipperiness)
- Lots of sustained damage

Cons:
- Active Camo's cloak duration isn't very long
- Sometimes it's hard to damage the intended target with Glimmershot as weapon power only increases the damage of the direct hit

Crystal

Pros:
- Glimmershot is more effective at long ranges
- Active Camo has a much longer duration
- Traps do immense damage
- One Shot One Kill does more damage

Cons:
- Active Camo can't be used in combat
- Since your basic attacks deal close to no damage, you are solely relying on your Glimmershot as your main source of damage. Also, your arrows reload slower than if you were using a common weapon build. You could solve both of these problems (somewhat) by getting an Alternating Current, but what's the point? Why not just go weapon?

If you've read any of the top Kestrel guides, you'll notice that most of them are Hybrid. I would rather not have to talk about it... But I think I have to, for the sake of people who want to play Kestrel.

Hybrid

I'd rather not make a pros and cons section for this because I just want to get this out of the way as soon as possible.

On paper, Hybrid Kestrel sounds like a great idea. The main point is to take the good parts of using Active Camo with a weapon build and using it with a crystal build and fuse them together to create total awesomeness: an infinte cloak that can be used in combat, that has a stun which deals a massive amount of damage. Sounds cool, right?

People forget that compromise involves sacrifice. No one can ever truly get everything they want. If you go Hybrid Kestrel, you have to get about 200 WP to be able to cloak in combat. To do this quickly, you have to rush Sorrowblade asap. This would be fine if you could get an attack speed item, but you still have to get 200 CP AND max Active Camo to be able to cloak infinitely. But then once you've done both of those, you'll be running out of energy constantly and will be forced to buy a Clockwork. Since you'll NEED all three of these items, (which costs a hefty 7950 gold; and I never said anything about boots) you can't buy any defense unless you want to deal about as much damage as supports did before Stormguard Banner dealt damage to heroes.

My point is, Hybrid Kestrel's build is EXPENSIVE. And it's not like you can just do without one of those three items, either. With weapon or crystal Kestrel, you get passives from items, the build isn't nearly as expensive, and you don't have to rush any particular item for immediate power, but with Hybrid Kestrel you're forced to rush straight damage and light or no defense. You may be getting both of Active Camo's secondary effects, but you're sacrificing some of the sustainability and DPS potential of weapon builds as well as some of the burst damage from crystal builds.

I don't want Hybrid Kestrel to die; it's not the worst thing in the world. But I don't want it to live, either, because it's not better than weapon or crystal Kestrel. My advice to anyone who plays or wants to play Kestrel is: build correctly. And don't build Hybrid.

Alright, So, What do I Choose?

I personally prefer WP Kestrel over CP, but that's not exactly relevant.
So let me put it in a simple way.
If you like Ringo, Vox, Adagio, Petal, or WP Skye, pick WP Kestrel.
If you like Skaarf or CP Skye, pick CP Kestrel.
If you like Celeste, try both. BUT NOT HYBRID OR I WILL SHOVE MY FOOT DOWN YOUR THROAT.
And if you like SAW...
The door is right there. Now, please leave.

Coming soon!

Weapon

Tension Bow

I always build Tension Bow first because of WP Kestrel's massive burst damage granted by her first ability. Not much else to say here.

Breaking Point

Next, I build Breaking Point because of one reason: BP gains stacks from ANY weapon damage dealt. This includes Tension Bow's damage, Glimmershot's damage, and One Shot One Kill's damage, in addition to basic attacking. A basic attack powered up with Tension Bow and a well-placed Glimmershot will immediately give you 3-4 stacks of BP, and One Shot One Kill alone will give you about 5-6. This will be your main source of damage after the 15 minute mark; Tension Bow will simply be to get the stack collecting started.
Also, BP gives you enough damage to be able to use your Active Camo in combat.

Serpent Mask

I then would build Serpent Mask because of the amazing synergy it has with Breaking Point. If you keep kiting while you have this item, you will be extremely tanky and hard to kill, even if you have no defense at all.

Bonesaw/ Tornado Trigger

Both of these items provide some much-needed attack speed. Most of the time you will need Bonesaw rather than Tornado Trigger because the enemy will build defense. If none of them are building any defense, (other than health) you should get a Tornado Trigger. If you're getting one of these two instead of defense as your 6th item, you should finish this before your defense. I would get Blazing Salvo first.

Crystal

Aftershock

I build Aftershock first because of the frequency of using abilities with Kestrel. Every time you use an ability with Aftershock, your next basic attack deals crystal damage based on the opponent's health. This is great for bursting down squishy enemies as well as doing damage to tanky enemies, and the cooldown reduction is great. When you initiate a fight, use Glimmershot, then basic attack to deal Aftershock damage. Keep repeating this and you will do lots of damage, but be aware that Aftershock's special effect has a 1.5-second cooldown.

Alternating Current

I then would buy Alternating Current first because the extra attack speed really helps, and the more crystal items you get, the more power the basic attacks receive. This makes a great pair with Aftershock.

Broken Myth

After that, get a Broken Myth. The extra damage given by this item is insane and it is the only crystal item that has shield pierce, so you will need it no matter what.

Frostburn/ Shatterglass/ Eve of Harvest/... Sorrowblade??

Frostburn is for enemies like Koshka, Taka, or Krul that will stick to you no matter what you do.
Shatterglass is for if you are always at the edge of the fight like a Celeste player and your main damage comes from your Glimmershot arrows.
If teamfights are lasting a long time, (20 seconds or more) you should get an Eve of Harvest. This will help you last even longer.
Lastly, no, that's not a typo. The last option for your 6th item is a Sorrowblade. Kestrel's weapon damage at level 12 is over 50, so 150 damage from one Sorrowblade will enable you to use your Active Camo in combat, and increases both the damage of your Glimmershot and your One Shot One Kill. Also, it has good synergy with Alternating Current because of its attack speed.

Defense/Utility

Metal Jacket and/or Aegis

Standard defense items. Nothing much to say here except to get the defense you need; if the most dangerous enemy is getting weapon, get Metal Jacket. If they're getting crystal, get Aegis.
Or, if you feel like you really need it, get a second defense item as your 6th item.

Boots

I felt like making a section for boots because I need to explain why you should build boots early on Kestrel.
Kestrel's mobility sucks, and not only can she not run away from enemies, she can't catch up to them either. Obviously, boots solve that, as well as providing some defense.

Coming Soon!

Coming Soon!

Coming soon!

Well, that's it. Obviously there's still a lot more to be done, and thank you for taking the time to read what's here.
If you ever do particularly well in a match with one of my builds, take a screenshot and send it to me! I'll be more than happy to take you on. >:)
I'll be making more guides for some of my other favorite heroes, including Ozo, Reim, Joule, and Taka. These aren't all heroes I play very often, but they're not heroes anyone else play very often, either, so I think it might be more helpful to post guides for THEM rather than a guide for someone everybody generally knows how to play, like Ringo.
Again, thanks for reading this guide! If you have any questions, suggestions, or incredibly unhelpful comments that have no value to them whatsoever but are very funny and/or rude, feel free to leave a comment or PM me.
Bye for now.