Skaarf is an easy matchup due to the fact that he is immobile af and is going to have a hard time hitting his skillshots against you
1
Ardan
1
Phinn
Immobile potato. Just don't get hooked
1
Reim
Immobile af. Just don't get stunned.
2
Adagio
Immobile target that you can rain hell onto!
Does outrange you but you will still win trades
2
Celeste
Immobile target ezpz. The late game is always pretty dangerous with Celeste though
2
Ozo
Pop your B when he ults and it wont hit you. When he's flying through the air, make sure to pound him with arrows and you'll be fine.
2
Rona
You can kite her really well by using good Active Camo's
3
Grumpjaw
The ULT is nasty!
3
Lorelai
Her Fish Food stun is dangerous but other than that its fine.
3
Lyra
She is not very good in 3.0 in general, but her heals can heal up poke damage very well but isn't generally a huge threat
3
Varya
4
Baptiste
Ordained sucks but you should be able to land glimmershots easily
4
Baron
Baron can burst you down before you can shoot much at him, but his base speed is pretty slow so you can easily land A's onto him.
4
Grace
Her Benediction and shields provide good damage reduction against your Glimmershots.
4
Vox
Can dance around the glimmershots but you outrange him. Don't take too much damage from the bounces early on.
5
SAW
Saw is interesting because even though he will outdamage you, (seriously don't 1v1 him with basic attacks) you can still shoot glimmershots at him and can chunk him down before he can get to you! Its a skill-matchup
5
Catherine
Her stun really messes timing up and can leave you very vulnerable for an extended period of time. Try to use Active Camo right before she stuns you as she will not have a target to stun
5
Churnwalker
He can hit you out of stealth with chains and the his ULT is amazing. A nasty captain in general
5
Gwen
Can burst you down, as of now she has the same range as you so watch out! Generally just a mean Laner in 3.0
5
Joule
Watch out for the Jump. Has armor up-front so glimmers might not do as much damage.
5
Krul
His ULT sucks and many Krul's nowadays build shiversteel so staying at range and not even getting within his grips is best course of action.
5
Samuel
Long range when he is in his Drifting Dark. Good lifesteal
6
Flicker
Has true sight which means he can see where you go when you are invisible! Watch out for the early ganks as well
7
Glaive
Afterburn. End of story
7
Lance
His Impale does good damage early game and can make you extremely vulnerable. A good Lance will also immediately Gythian Wall right after you go invisible to reveal you so watch out for that!
7
Ringo
Similar to Saw except he is more mobile. Be careful to not duel him because he will out damage you.
7
Skye
She can dance around those glimmershots! Her forward barrage is also very good at finding you when invisible.
8
No Threat
9
Alpha
All these heroes have great gap-closing abilities, so watch out for the dives! You won't be able to land many glimmers if you can't stand still.
9
Blackfeather
Nasty gap closer that can shred you to pieces. Watch out for Blackfeather, CP or WP. Good Blackfeathers will Rose Offensive through your stun!
9
Fortress
His wolfs can and will body block a lot of glimmershots. His engage is also potent.
9
Koshka
Extremely quick and bursty once she gets her aftershock. Watch out for level 6 because if you get caught out without a reflex-block, you're going to pay.
9
Petal
Petal's munions will bodyblock a lot of damage from Glimmershot.
9
Reza
Lightning quick gap-closer with his ULT and B, so watch out for the burst.
10
Taka
Taka can easily burst you down and his A ability can dodge your B stun so watch out for this sly fox! Taka's also usually engage while invisible so you may not be able to prepare for the engage and go invisible.
10
Idris
Watch out for his WP path because even with your stealth, he WILL latch onto you with his ULT and will dodge glimmershots with his shroudstep blink.
This is my first guide ever, and wanted to give back because the guides on this website have helped me a ton throughout my earlier times while playing Vainglory. I am Tier 8 Gold, and have been playing for about a year seriously (I don't count my earliest playing time because all I played was blitz :P). My first ever true main was Kestrel around the time when she was released and she seemed really cool with the camo and stuff and saw some montages on YouTube with CP Kestrel so I decided to pour my precious 8000 glory into Kestrel. Never looked back. I'm going to make this build for WP only, because CP Kestrel while getting a buff recently, has not been viable for a long time so I need to play her more before I start recommending builds and strategies to people.
WP Kestrel in this update primarily plays around her Glimmershots, so building crit and high damage with little attack speed is warranted. Her items should always start with a sorrowblade, followed by double tyrants monocles. These 3 items make Kestrels pack a huge punch and devastate an enemy. Your final item however, should always be an attack speed item, as in the late game, teamfighting takes longer and your glimmershots may not be up in time to do enough damage throughout. Building is usually the normal course of action. This item shreds armor, so your glimmershots shred right through enemies who have most likely built armor to counter-build against you. This item also provides a lot of attackspeed so you can more effectively use basic attacks to kite around and kill enemies.
However, in the unlikely event that the enemies don't build armor, you can go full crit and finish your build off with a . This item will guarantee a critical strike on all basic attacks and glimmershots. This makes your attacks completely obliterate any enemy without armor.
Finally, the kite or chase build, swapping the second with a tornado trigger/breaking point and finishing the build off with the other, makes Kestrel more basic attack heavy and allows her to weave her way around the fight, building up breaking point stacks. This build allows Kestrel to move around and still deal damage effectively, but sacrifices some of the movement for damage. However, the breaking point in the build will allow her to ramp up to the damage potential of the other builds, the catch being it takes time to ramp up. If fights do last a long time though, finishing any build off with a is a good idea.
All these builds have and . This is because the dive hero on the enemy team is usually CP and mitigating that damage is more useful than having armor. Additionally, having a reflex block is crucial in a lot of situations for blocking devastating crowd control. However, sometimes the enemy dive hero will be WP, or maybe the enemy ranged hero (most likely WP) is more of a threat than the CP hero. Maybe having a block is not necessary, and is combined with the other scenarios. If this is the case, then buying a is probably a better choice. This allows to mitigate the damage from WP allowing you to last longer in fights. The reason for is mainly for the ability to more effectively chase or kite away from enemies. Journey boots allow you to sprint every 12 seconds after attacking an enemy hero if the timer is above 12 seconds of course. This makes Kestrel even more slippery than usual, and allows her to chase fleeing heroes more effectively. However, consider if you feel yourself getting bursted down too quickly. War treads provide an ample amount of extra health and can be the difference between lasting long enough to make a difference, and dying immediately from the first dive.
GLIMMERSHOT
Kestrel shoots a single arrow in the targeted location. The first impact of the ability will deal WP damage but there is a small splash CP damage after it. The WP damage of this ability scales with 100% of WP (;-;) but it has armor piercing and outranges all basic attack abilities on heroes. You have 4 arrows total and reloads every 2.4 seconds when you do not use your bow at all. This ability is your main damage dealer as you can deal damage from far away and safely out of range of pretty much all basic attacks. Use this ability to poke, but also during combat, make sure to chain basic attacks in between to maximize damage output. You can use this ability right after basic attacks,so you can secure CS. Use it to also CS a minion when you are low and are reluctant to port home because the enemy is threatening to take turret. You can spam this ability to apply pressure in lane. ACTIVE CAMO
This ability makes Kestrel special. Kestrel instantly vanishes from sight and gains bonus move speed. Additionally, she leaves an invisible phosphor mist at her location, revealing enemies as they walk through it. If Kestrel deals damage to an enemy hero within the mist, the mist will detonate, damaging and stunning all enemies within its area for 0.8 seconds. Building 200 WP allows Kestrel to activate this ability instantly even while taking damage. This allows Kestrel to make flee for a short amount of time invisible. You can use this ability to simply escape, but you can also use it to set up a trap. Make sure to wait a moment as the stun will not activate unless you wait about a second(ish), and fire a glimmershot or basic attack into any enemy inside the mist to stun them. If you please, you can repeat this process. This tactic makes Kestrel extremely slippery, however it requires precise timing and skillshots. This stun often times deters enemies so much that they will stop a chase even though you might die to them if they pushed harder. Another tactic that is useful is to go invisible right before a fight starts to set the enemy up for a trap. If an enemy decides to dive in, they will get popped with a stun and a glimmershot, allowing your team to counter-dive the aggressor and delete said aggressor off the map. Make sure to use this ability sparingly, or at least with full Adrenaline stacks because it is very energy hungry.(NOTE: The reason why this ability is overdriven is because the cooldown is reduced when you overdrive the ability, making Kestrel even more slippery. Also, the final rank on her ultimate is not very useful because the added damage and armor pierce doesn't matter when the enemy is fleeing with a sliver of health.) ONE SHOT ONE KILL
This ability fires a single arrow into the map and damages the first major object or hero in its path. The ability is a global ability, meaning it has no range and can hit anything in the map if you get a good enough angle. Make sure to use this ability when you are relatively safe, as you are revealed when you do so. This ability is mainly used to finish off fleeing enemies or pick off enemies across the map to get a cheeky kill. Make sure to have good map awareness and pay attention to fights that are happening across the map. More often then not, you can get a good snipe off an unsuspecting enemy and finish them off, or damage them enough to turn the tides of a teamfight. This ability also is equivalent to getting a headshot in a FPS as teammates will congratulate you if you get a nice snipe off, and the satisfaction of killing an enemy with this ability is immense. This ability has a short delay, so make sure to aim ahead of an enemy if they are running.
How to actually play Kestrel effectively, and some tips Top
Kestrel is a difficult hero to play effectively due to the fact that her main source of damage is a skillshot. If you can't land those then you won't do enough damage do be effective. If you want to have good results with Kestrel, LAND THE GLIMMERSHOTS! You need to land the glimmershots and understand how to lead shots to hit a moving hero and predict the direction they might juke towards to avoid the glimmershots. Practice makes perfect with Kestrel, and you will get a feel for how fast the arrows move. Another nuance to learn is when the glimmershots reload. After you shoot your glimmershots, they will reload in about 2.4 seconds. Getting a feel for this reload can be the difference between life or death. Even though the bar above Kestrel's health now shows when this ability will reload, keeping your eyes on enemy movements and possible CC to block is more important and can increase your level of play. Kestrel's is the ability that makes Kestrel very unique. If you want to excel at Kestrel, you must know how to use this ability effectively. This ability takes up a lot of energy, so you must use this ability sparingly and make the most use out of it before running out of energy. When an enemy dives onto you, make sure to try and a pop this ability to confuse them, and pop them with a stun followed by as many gilimmershots as you can. Then right as they get to their senses, try and go invis again. This time however, they are likely to not follow and be popped again and may try to go a different route or retreat themselves. This is your moment to fire at them with your mist in between you and them to provide a buffer and threat the enemy has to cross to attack you. Heros such as Blackfeather may not find this threatening as they have that can block right through the trap. In this scenario, create distance with the speed boost active camo provides and get the hell out of there. Try and find a teammate to assist you or lay another trap to surprise the Blackfeather. Ozo is interesting as well because when he activates , going invis makes it so his ability drops right short of you and you can stun the monkey for making a rash decision. Also, Ozo's are completely vulnerable in the air and are free to rain hell upon. Combo the active camo and glimmershots to constantly pop in and out of invis to confuse the hell out of enemies, and do as much damage as possible. Always make good use out of sprint boots because the combined speed of an invis Kestrel and boots often covers copious distances and can surprise an enemy because they did not see you activate boots. This can create large distances to allow you to fire glimmershots, best case being the enemy walking back into the trap to attack you and getting stunned. Another clever tip is to use flask when invisible to trick enemies from thinking they can one shot an unhealthy Kestrel and finding out that the Kestrel is healing and is ready to fight. This allows you to draw enemies into an awkward position. TL;DR, Make sure to use often, but in efficient ways to stun enemies, do damage and juke enemies out to allow you to do damage.
Lots of you are very visual so no matter how much I ramble on about timing, aiming and activating abilities at the right time, you won't get much out of it. Therefore, I'm adding a brilliant relatively new Kestrel montage that shows you the God-like plays and abilities Kestrel has. All credit to RaiKynn who has some nasty plays in this. While RaiKynn opts for a more attack speed heavy type of play,
the tips and tricks are generally still shown in the video.
LANCE=9
Lance has some really good synergy with Kestrel as he has incredible peel for Kestrel, his roots can lock an enemy into place while you rain down damage onto them. Gythian walls can also provide the same effect Ardan=8
Ardan has good synergy with everyone and it goes the same for Kestrel. Ardan's vanguards help Kestrel to reposition extremely easily and escape situations, especially if you use your .
His stuns enemies in place to make it easy to land glimmershots, and also the barrier allows you to more likely hit your active camo stun. SAMUEL=9
Samuel pokes and kites extremely well, much like Kestrel. However, what is killer is their combined turret taking potential/poke potential. With a good roam allowing them to reposition, they can rain down damage without risking themselves and take down turrets with ease. ALPHA=5
Alpha does not have good synergy with Kestrel due to the fact that she is not primarily an engage hero; she pokes from range while staying still. Alpha dives in and while you might be in range to rain down onto the enemy, it is very likely that the fight will drift away or even shift onto you. Alpha doesn't have much peel, so if the enemy decides to dive you, good luck Fortress=3
Fortress provides 0 peel for Kestrel. When Fortress dives in, you might be hardpressed to find a good angle to fire glimmershots in as the enemy tries to kite backwards or a fight progresses.
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