Start off with a Book of Eulogies and 2 Halcyon potions. You'll want to keep the Book of Eulogies for as long as possible; a support joule will end up taking a lot of hits, but lacks healing. A book of Eulogies will allow a joule to heal while clearing jungle camps (or lane creeps), allowing her to heal between skirmishes without having to run back to base, making it a necessity in the early-game. From then on, by your next three items in this order: Ironguard Contract, Sprint Boots, Energy Battery. This will serve as joule's bread and butter. Not much, but joule's natural bulk will carry her in the early game, as well as thunderstrike serving as one of the best early-game pokes (it falls of HARD in the late-game, but more on that later). From there, you'll want to try and rush a clockwork, and then build another chronograph, giving you a nice 75% cooldown reduction. From here, you want to focus on maxing out your Rocket Leap as quickly as possible. The earliest level you can max it out at is level 8. Don't hog jungle camps (you are the support, not the carry, after all. You can wait), but make sure to keep yourself constantly heading to level 8. Level 8 is when joule really hits her peak. When rocket leap is maxed, its cooldown is almost halved, and its stun is increased to 1.7. With your 75% cooldown reduction, this allows you to get off a rocket leap every 5.7ish seconds. This may not seem like much, but in practice you'll find that you can generally get off 2-5 stuns in every teamfight, allowing you to become a hell of a lot less approachable. Once you do this (or complete your clockwork before level 8), pick up some Travel Boots and then proceed to counterbuild an item. Take the one enemy that's been screwing with you most, and build around him, such as building an Aegis for Skaarf or Koshka, or an Atlas for heroes like Glaive or WP taka. From there, get an Aftershock. This will boost your cooldown reduction to 80%, give you further energy regen, and gives your Thunderstrike some late-game utility; it isn't gonna be hitting very hard in the endgame, but with a 1 second cooldown you'll be constantly triggering AS. From here, you should have a build somewhat resembling Travel Boots, Clockwork, Aftershock, defensive item, Ironguard Contract, Book of Eulogies. Best call from here would be to sell your ironguard, and buy a fountain. This will give you some much needed health recovery and team utility for late-game fights, and also let you finally sell that Book of Eulogies. Finish off with another defensive item (or a Frostburn, if you really feel like you want to hit harder), and you should be good to go!
This build entirely revolves around team co-ordination, most notably setting up your carry/offensive jungler. This joule revolves around rocket leap, a 1.7 second stun with a 5.7-5.5 second cooldown that can also knock enemies backwards. Its short cooldown means that you will pretty much be able to use it constantly throughout the fight. Use rocket leap to heavily punish overextending players, knocking them back into the rest of your team, or to protect your carry, as the stun and burst damage from 450 damage and aftershock will pretty much stop any charging assassin or tank in their tracks. Joule is best paired either a dps hero or another crippler. For example, ringo and saw are both ideal teammates: Once an enemy is stunned or knocked into killrange, ringo and saw can tear them apart in seconds, and in turn you can prevent enemy koskha, krul, and taka heroes from rushing them for an early kill. Joule also synergises great with Catherine, Glaive, and Celeste. Once of you stuns, the other can follow up with your own stun move, allowing you to keep heroes in stun for surprisingly long periods of time, pretty much sealing the fate of a squishy or a wounded tank. Your ultimate acts as the coup-de-grace. It'll be reduced to a cooldown of just over a minute, allowing you to get it off once in any major teamfight, and a well-placed joule beam can rip a team to shreds, especially once following a stun.
However, remember that you aren't invincible. A defensively built joule is bulky, but it's no ardan. If you miss or misuse a rocket leap, you'll be dismantled very, very quickly, especially since joule has very little actualy escape options. Also remember that although you carry a lot of natural damage, you aren't a carry either. You dominate with a partner, but are frankly quite **** on your own. You can venture off by yourself, but try to keep your teammates in some radius around you, since you'll need them if things get rough. This doesn't mean you can't be aggressive, though. In fact, thunderstrike is one of the best tools for both clearing and stealing jungle camps in the early game. Just remember not to overextend, as you'll have problems shaking a cath, ardan, or koshka if you go too deep. Also, your build peaks at level 8, so try not to fall too far behind in the grinding game, though Joule's natural power still allows you to pull your weight around before this level. Make sure to balance assisting teammates with farming. Doing just one or the other will simply make you a liability.
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