Hello, welcome to my Lane CP
Skye guide. I'm Oldskool, the current lane player for Team Phoenix Reign. Skye is one of my favorite heroes to play both in ranked matches and competitively because she fits my playstyle of farming up in the early game, and carrying in the late game. Skye is strongest once she gets her core build of Broken Myth, Eve of Harvest and Frostburn, so I tend to avoid fights until I can get those items.
Skye is a mobile sniper that excels at dodging skillshots, kiting enemies and dashing around team fights. Positioning is extremely important, as her main weakness is getting bursted down quickly before being able to kite and put out damage.
I hope you enjoy the guide!
Target Lock (Perk)
Easily one of the best heroic perks in the game,
Skye’s perk gives her insane mobility, extra damage when combined with abilities, and helps her stay safe while dealing damage throughout the game. In the laning phase, especially in the early game it is best for quickly moving around the lane. Try to always keep
Target Lock active by basic attacking an enemy hero or minion in order to keep the increase in mobility. The speed boost is much better when strafing around a target or when pursing than when moving away, so it is much better used for dodging damage entirely than escaping and is incredibly useful when chasing down an enemy.
To increase the duration of Target Lock, put upgrade points in [[Suri Strike]], and to increase the range that the Target Lock stays active at, put points in
Death From Above. Increasing the range of
Target Lock is especially effective when disengaging to dodge damage or to wait for cool downs, and then quickly re-engaging.
Forward Barrage (A Ability)
While active,
Skye fires a continuous stream of bullets, dealing damage in the chosen direction. Since you can only strafe and cannot change the direction of fire, it is best used in places where the enemy has limited mobility to ensure you can land a maximum amount of damage onto them.
Here, the taka is in a tight corridor and cannot escape the forward barrage damage.
In the early game, only pressure enemy heroes that have limited wave clear like any melee laner (
Blackfeather,
Glaive, etc) or those with skill shots that are easily dodged like
Skaarf. It is okay to and you should use
Forward Barrage to clear wave, but since it is single target, it is possible to not get a last hit so make sure enemy minions are not attacking your target minions when clearing. Since you will be starting with a weapon blade, it is best to basic attack minions for last hits in the early game.
Since most of CP
Skye’s damage comes from her
Forward Barrage, it is best to max her A. Even if you’re behind and trying not to engage, you can still do damage to them while kiting backwards with
Forward Barrage. Always try to maximize the damage output you get with the ability by strafing around to keep the damage on the target, but make sure to not get into a bad position. Since she is relatively squishy,
Skye’s positioning is extremely important in team fights. She excels at kiting backwards and chasing people down, not engaging head-on into the middle of a team fight.
Suri Strike (B Ability)
Suri Strike is a unique ability in that its activate radius is not around your own hero, but around an enemy hero. As such, this ability can only be activated when Target Lock is active around an enemy, and the radius where it can be activated appears around the Target Locked enemy. Once activated,
Skye dashes to the chosen location, leaving a trail of missiles between her and the location targeted.
When farming, use this ability as the primary wave clearing method over
Forward Barrage since it has an AOE effect. Using this ability resets a portion of the cooldown on
Forward Barrage in the early game, and fully resets it once overdriven. Each upgrade point in
Suri Strike increases its damage, the duration of Target Lock and the amount of cooldown reset on
Forward Barrage. Since it is hard to gain the maximum benefits of upgrading this ability in the early game, it is best to upgrade it to max level after getting the Overdrive on
Forward Barrage.
Death from Above (Ultimate)
Similar to
Suri Strike,
Death From Above can only be activated with a Target Lock on an enemy hero. Depending on where you choose the location of the ultimate to fall, the ultimate will either come down in a cluster or in a line. To use the cluster (circle) shaped option of the ultimate, aim directly on top of the target locked enemy. To use the line shape, aim away from the locked target. Once activated,
Skye fires missiles that stun after a 1.3-second delay for 0.5 seconds, and slow enemies trying to cross through it afterwards for 55%+.
Skye’s ultimate has different uses, depending whether you use the circle or the line.
Directly on top of enemy (circle shaped)
Use the circle shaped option when your support initiates and locks down an enemy, like a Phinn hook or Quibble, a Catherine stun or even a Lance root. This option is extremely good for stunning, bursting down and diving an enemy.
Away from enemy (Line shaped)
Use the line option when either backing away from a fight to keep enemies away, or as a zoning tool. If you’re chasing someone, put it far behind them so you can then target them with abilities and they then get trapped. As such, it is best used in tight corridors like
Skye’s other abilities, but can also be used in open spaces where
Skye would normally struggle so that she can remain outputting damage.
Upgrade Priority
Upgrading
Death From Above gives extra damage , increases the duration of the missile volley, and lowers the cooldown. Since the cooldown is already insanely low, it is best to prioritize the overdrives of
Forward Barrage and
Suri Strike to maximize damage output.
Since all of
Skye’s damage output relies on skill-shots, and a lane
Skye will be outputting the majority of the damage,
Skye is best paired with roams who provide her a maximum amount of offensive utility and junglers who can peel for her and are independent in the early game.
Roam heroes to pair
Skye with:
Skye can excel with any typical roam hero, but some are more beneficial.
(From Best to Worst)
Phinn- Has tons of crowd control and great engagement potential with Forced Accord combined with Skye’s Death from Above. Combined with the defensive support he provides with Polite Company, Phinn is a great pairing for Skye.
Lance- Lance has great offensive utility with his root, and can peel enemies off
Skye easily with his knock back on Gythian Wall.
Catherine- Provides immense offensive utility in addition to defensive with her stun, and has great engagement potential with Blast Tremor.
Ardan- Provides little offensive utility, but is great at engaging and giving her a additional movement speed and survivability with Vanguard.
Fortress- Has great engagement potential as well as providing utility with slows, but Skye cannot fully benefit from his support since his abilities rely on basic attacking, which
Skye does not do much later into the game.
Lyra- Provide little offensive utility except for slows, but can still keep her safe with Bright Bulwark and healthy with healing. However, Skye is very mobile and will often outrun Lyra’s heals and otherwise does not need the sustain because of Eve of Harvest.
Adagio- All of the offensive utility Adagio provides comes in the form of basic attacking, and cannot tank for Skye at all.
[/list]
Junglers to pair Skye with:
Skye can excel with any jungler, but it is often best to pair her with a weapon carry to force enemies to split their defensive focus. In addition, junglers who are independent and can peel are extremely important and beneficial for Skye, since her main goal is to stay safe in the back line and get to late game. As such,
Alpha,
Glaive, and
Krul all work really well. They are all extremely independent in jungle and are decently strong in the early game, allowing Skye to stay in lane and remain farming. In team fights, they can peel for her in some way while
Skye does the majority of the damage.
Heroes that do NOT work well with
Skye:
Skye does not work well with jungle heroes that are independent damage sources.Heroes like
Kestrel,
Petal and all assassins do not have good synergy with
Skye. All are best at kiting back or dealing damage from the back line, which is what
Skye should be doing.
Skye needs her jungle to peel for her and take damage, not try and avoid it. The jungler does not need to do much damage, since a late game
Skye is more than capable of dealing enough on her own.
For lane
Skye, the early game is the weakest stage. Try to remain extremely passive and focus on farming unless you are paired with jungler who is extremely strong in the early game like a
Taka. Farming should be your main goal, and if you are ahead or even in lane with against your enemy, you can sacrifice a lot of jungle farm since
Skye can easily carry in the late game. If behind, the jungle should build a lot of defense/defensive utility items like Atlas Pauldron to help support Skye.
Skye begins to spike in the mid-game. Once you have
Broken Myth completed, you can begin to start fighting, but try and avoid fighting until
Eve of Harvest is completed as well. In this stage, you are looking for any source of gold possible. If the jungler will give you some of his farm, take it. If you can safely push objectives, definitely do so once you have
Broken Myth but be careful not to get caught out in the process or you will risk falling behind. Make sure you keep up your lane farming in this stage, as you must be well farmed to carry in the late game.
Once you have 2-3 offensive items and a tier 3 defense item, start really trying to look for fights. In team fights, kite around and try to get
Broken Myth stacks before using
Suri Strike.
Skye excels at poking enemies and kiting, so use
Forward Barrage to poke enemies and
Suri Strike to create distance away from the enemy.
Skye’s main threat in the late game is getting bursted down quickly before getting any stacks. As long as you are landing your abilities and the jungler and support are peeling adequately well, Eve of Harvest will be enough to sustain you through the fight and allow for team fight victories.
Skye tends to have a really easy laning phase, and often the wave gets pushed up to turret. If that happens, poke/deal damage to enemy and move backwards. The minions will follow you and move more towards your side of the lane.
Mobility is one of
Skye’s strongest advantages. Always have target lock on an enemy and use the added mobility to kite around fights and the lane while farming.
In the early game as Skye, no matter where you’re playing her, always buy a
Weapon Blade as a first item. Her
Forward Barrage scales with weapon too so it does not hurt your early damage/clear, and will help immensely when farming the lane, poking the enemy and in early team fights.
The
Suri Strike can be used offensively to deal AOE damage to enemies or defensively to get out of a rough situation. If you’re behind always try and make sure you can survive longer by using the
Suri Strike backwards or to the side defensively and continue forward barraging enemy while moving backwards.
Using
Suri Strike resets partial or all of the cooldown of
Forward Barrage once overdriven. To maximize damage output, use the full duration of
Forward Barrage,
Suri Strike and then begin Forward Barraging again immediately after.
If possible, try auto attacking and moving around to gain Broken Myth stacks. Once you have 5 stacks, begin using abilities to deal an insane amount of damage while
Eve of Harvest keeps you sustained throughout the fight.
Thank you for reading! I hope you found it useful, send any questions you may have to
@VG_Oldskool on Twitter or comment below.
Visit the
Phoenix website for updates on our competitve teams and for more player spotlights and guides!
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headset I use for Vainglory and watch my highlights
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-Oldskool
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