You Hide - I Seek, It's The Way It Should Be - Intro (Quick Guide In Spoiler) Top
Spoiler: Click to view
-
Pouncy Fun and How to Use It
- Maxed SECOND for maximum pounce distance / damage.
- Great for securing kills and surprising enemies from bushes. At level 2, set up in a side bush in lane for a gank. Wait until the enemy laner gets in range for
, jump on them, basic attack for maximum damage (if you can!) and use
with another basic attack for the movement speed buff to either chase down your target for the kill or retreat to the bushes to wait for you cooldowns and repeat the combo
- Decent escape tool - can be used to jump on jungle camps over walls (with vision) or onto lane minions. You may also jump on minions closest to your target to get off your combo if the target isn't in range.
-
Twirly Death and How To Use It
- Deals AoE damage. (Area of Effect) and deals the most damage of Koshka's abilities aside from her ultimate at max rank. Maxed FIRST, especially when in the jungle as it allows for a faster and easier time clearing camps.
- Gives Koshka a movement speed buff for each enemy hit by this ability. This ability helps you escape from sticky situations, especially when being surrounded / flanked by enemies or if you're going in to assassinate someone in the back line. Pop Twirly Death after turret diving to help escape turret aggro.
-
Yummy Catnip Frenzy and How To Use It
- Koshka's ultimate ability. Stuns enemies for a couple seconds and deals a large amount of damage. Usually left at three points, but can be maxed if more damage is all you need (especially when playing Koshka as more of a Roamer / Tank)
- Can be used to lock down a fleeing target as it is a targetted ability, once in range, the ability will be triggered and Koshka will leap onto the target. This ability CAN be stopped by Silences or Stuns as well as
timing is everything!
- Use on squishier / weaker targets if initiating OR can be used to save allies from other assassins on the enemy team. With Koshka's Heroic Perk, the cooldown on this ability can be very low, allowing you to use it almost every time it may be needed.
-
Heroic Perk: Bloodrush
- Koshka's Heroic Perk. With every basic attack, the cooldowns on ALL Koshka's abilities are reduced by 2 seconds. Koshka also gains movement speed for each enemy hit with abilities, shown usually as pink cat icon above Koshka's head. This makes building items with attack speed decent on Koshka as an alternative to items with cooldown reduction such as
if you wish but I recommend only doing this if you choose to build weapon power along with it.
- This heroic perk is what allows you to be so slippery. Use the movement speed buff to get in and out of sticky situations.
is especially good for applying Koshka's perk.
- THIS is why basic attacks are an important part of Koshka's combos and damage.
If you are looking for a quick once over / explanation on Koshka's general play style, click the spoiler above! (MATCH UPS IN CHAPTER 4)
Intro
was the first hero I picked up after downloading VainGlory and I very quickly fell in love with her personality and play style. Koshka is a
mobile assassin that works best in the
Jungle though she can be played as the team's
Roamer or
Laner. This guide focuses mainly on
Crystal Koshka builds but you may choose to build her more
defensively or with more
utility. Koshka can use a
Weapon build, but I don't find this nearly as enjoyable being a squishy melee character with no crowd control (stuns, silence, slow etc) other than her ultimate makes hanging around basic attacking people really hard.
With that being said,
has all the tools to assassinate a squishy target, not unlike her counterpart,
only Koshka, unlike Taka, possesses
crowd control in the form of
to help her lock down her targets for the kill while preventing them from dealing damage to her and her team mates. This is great against other mobile enemies, such as
,
crystal
and even
himself.
Because of that
utility, Koshka is able to fill the role of roamer / peeler for her carries while still dishing out enough damage in duels and team fights to make the enemy team surrender.
They Will Never Ever EVER See Me Coming - Playstyle & Tips / Tricks Top
Playstyle
has a playstyle that actually does resemble the way that a
cat would play or hunt. I find that when I play Koshka, I'll be in and out of the lane pouncing on the enemy laner or exploring the enemy's jungle only to find the enemy jungler who, after pouncing in, chasing my tail, and running away a few times, ends up dying to me from full health just because he decided to chase me.
Jump in and jump out. Patiently stalk enemies from the side brush, farm a few jungle camps and go back in for the kill. Mind your cooldowns and
remember that you can greatly reduce the cooldown of your abilities by farming jungle camps with only your basic attacks.
Try to only focus targets that you can burst down in a single
combo. This will usually be the enemy laner but you can always check the scoreboard to see who is building damage, what kind of damage, and how much of it. Otherwise, aim to use your ultimate to disable the biggest threat to your team if your Roamer hasn't locked them down already. If you plan on initiating with Koshka's
make sure that you have all active items available if things go south. This includes your
,
, and any boots you may have built.
Tips And Tricks
Spoiler: Click to view
-When playing as
, you want to be
aggressive but
cautious as you are no tank (unless you just happen to be building this way) Koshka's base defensive stats and health are low and early game she can get stomped easily if caught out by someone with damage and crowd control
,
,
, are all examples of enemies that can take out Koshka if they catch you off guard.
-Start in the
jungle with a point in
. You will want to start on the camp with two minions by the jungle shop if at all possible as these are usually taken by the enemy jungler / roamer early on if they are not farmed. Work your way back around and clear your jungle until you hit level 2 and take a point in
. This where the fun can really begin.
-Look for opportunities to gank now that you have your gap closer. If your laner or roamer has any
crowd control (slow, stun, silence etc.) have them use it to help lock down your target so that you may kill them easily.
REMEMBER: Basic attack in between using abilities
somehow magically escapes your gank with a sliver of health left and tries to hide behind his turret, wrap around into the bush closest to the turret and pounce right back onto him for the kill. Pop your
for good measure once it's up after your combo (if you even need it) for the immediate movement speed buff and retreat back into the jungle.
Koshka can take AT MOST 2 turret shots. Otherwise you're at risk of giving the enemy kill creds or getting caught out. Don't hang out after taking that much damage either, just back. No sense in giving them free gold for you own greed.
-Human Nature vs. Cat Nature - The best time to gank is when people get greedy. They either get greedy for farm or greedy for a kill if your ally has a quarter of health left and is popping potions for dear life. You can easily snag a kill on the enemy laner if not other members of the enemy team if you are able to
bait them into using escape abilities, crowd control, and other things that would otherwise get in the way of you killing them before you go in to do it.
Be patient! but also know when to take what you want.
FARM FARM FARM AND TAKE THINGS -
Farm the jungle and farm lane minions
WHENEVER you can.
Gold[/color] makes the world go 'round and also helps you buy those delicious damage items quicker and quicker the more minions you farm. After completing a successful gank, clear the jungle again. Farm some lane minions. Take a turret. All of these accumulate into a massive gold income. Don't forget to secure minion mines when you have gotten an ACE or better yet, the
Gold Mine or
Kraken when the time comes. Keep your eye on the prize. Kills don't win games, destroying turrets and getting objectives does.
You Have Been Killed
Spoiler: Click to view
I Goofed and Now I'm Dead - We're Aced - The Enemy Team is Fed - See above. If you just failed a gank miserably and got taken out by the enemy laner instead of the other way around during that turret dive,
FARM. Farm until you KNOW you are strong enough to fight the enemy once again. Check the scoreboard to see what the enemy team is building and build to counter them
FIRST before building your own items, as you will get more and more behind if you do not have the ability to counter their strengths.
unlike heroes such as
,
,
DOES NOT have anything other than damage to offer her team when her ultimate is unavailable. That means that you are
**** when you are behind if you just keep jumping in and getting rekt. Acknowledge what you did wrong and move on.
Any high tier MOBA will tell you that, across the board, you have to change your build to accommodate the game. If you build like a
glass cannon your positioning must be on point as you have no added defensive stats or tools to help you survive during a fight. This also holds true to your playstyle. If you keep jumping into fights and immediately dying, then you have to
change what you are doing.
Oooo Shiny! - Item Build Explanation Top
Damage ItemsAre all great crystal damage items on
But each item serves a specific purpose aside from
and
, which are considered
core items in Koshka's standard build path.
REMEMBER: You can't deal any damage if you're dead. Build any necessary defensive items FIRST before you focus on completing damage items or you will get destroyed in team fights and end up being useless to your team.When / Why To Take:
Spoiler: Click to view
I prefer to purchase
on Koshka in place of something like
due to the fact that they both somewhat serve the same person. When playing Koshka, my goal is to pounce in, burst down my target, and get the hell out of there. Sometimes, there may be few (if any) opportunities to auto attack, especially against someone like
or
due to their stealth abilities and general mobility, so that really doesn't let me make much use of the attack speed / auto attack enhancement of
which synergizes with Koshka's
in lowering Koshka's cooldowns. With
, I'm able to jump in and perform my combo several times (if necessary) before backing off due to low health or energy.
If you do want to build
start with
or
for the extra energy regen and early cdr. Upgrade to
AFTER completing any
defensive / utility items you may need to counter the enemy team.
When / Why To Take:
Spoiler: Click to view
is a somewhat situational item. It provides a chunk of
crystal damage with a passive that causes enemies hit by your abilities to be slowed for a short duration.
Once slowed, enemies cannot be affected by this passive for a few seconds. You can take this if you do not plan on upgrading your boots or are having trouble sticking to enemies that you have used
to engage upon. Take this item in place of
if building utility or
.
When / Why To Take:
Spoiler: Click to view
offers attack speed and a small amount of
crystal power with a passive that enhances your basic attacks after using abilities. This item works extremely well with
as your
lowers your cooldowns by 2 seconds every time you use a basic attack on a hero or monster and in a standard combo, you'll take full advantage of the passive if you are using basic attacks in between abilities.
However, the real benefit from this item is in sustained fights where you'll take full advantage of the cooldown reduction on your passive. If you find that you're against someone with high base health / defensive stats that is building tanky (someone like
,
, or
etc.) you should take this item instead of
because you will usually not be able to burst heroes like this down in a single combo. Combine this with
or
size=30] if the enemy has built any
shield/armor for the most benefit.
When / Why To Take:
Spoiler: Click to view
amplifies
crystal damage and is the only item with
shield piercing benefits that deals
crystal damage. If the enemy has built shield against you, start building this item as soon as you can to negate some of their resistances. Unfortunately, this won't make your ultimate work through
or
but it will allow you to take down the enemy
or
with ease. This also helps against heroes with shield abilities, like
and Catherine as mentioned above. You want to get this in place of
if the enemy has built shield, otherwise finish with Shatterglass or utility / defensive items.
What about
and
?
Spoiler: Click to view
These items are situational, but more so than the items mentioned above. Despite the situation that you would build something like
in, you will more often than not have to build this item to keep your damage up against the enemy team if they have anyone with any utility or defensive capability. It's rare that you will face a team like
in lane,
roam and
in the jungle but if that is the case, go ahead and pick up
because it is not likely that they will build
shield and do not have any
shield abilities.
The passive alone on
is worth more than the flat damage increase
gives you but the choice is yours if you find yourself against such a fortunate match up.
As far as
, chances are you won't ever need this item. It will give a but of oomph to your combo (as long as you remember to basic attack) and synergizes well with
so I recommend if you go this route to get both items together. This item will help your
weapon damage dealers shred the enemy team to bits if they've tried building any armor items against you.
Only grab this in the late game, as
weapon damage carries peek toward the late game and Koshka begins to have more of a difficult time, and only if your enemies have built armor items.
Situational Items
Before building any damage beyond your first
, you absolutely need to build items that will counter your enemies so you can stay alive long enough to kill them. Items like
are great in almost any situation and your team will be grateful for the clutch health boost in team fights where items like
only shine when you are against enemies with several devastating crowd control abilities or a single game changing crowd control ability. I recommend buying these items all your games unless you're lucky and face a completely squishy, CC-less team.
Unless you're going total tank
, try to narrow it down to 2 or 3 defensive / utility items as your damage will fall off entirely if you go full tank. AS A RULE OF THUMB: NEVER BUILD MELEE HEROES FULL GLASS CANNON. Anybody that has to get in an enemy hero's face to do damage is totally vulnerable to whatever they have to throw at you. Think about that before you build glass cannon and ping your team to oblivion because you died the instant the team fight started. It's not their fault, it's yours.
When / Why To Take:
Spoiler: Click to view
allows you to slow enemies with your basic attacks when activated and gives you 500 health to play around with in team fights and when securing objectives. In pretty much all cases, I prefer taking
over this item as crystal Koshka benefits more from the crystal damage and passive it provides than the flat health and active that
gives which is on a longer cooldown than the latter. ONLY BUILD ONE OR THE OTHER. Grab
later on in the game if you find that you're being focused by enemies with low mobility like
or
otherwise it's not really worth giving up an item slot for.
When / Why To Take:
Spoiler: Click to view
can be upgraded from
if you've chosen to build it against enemies with crowd control. It still has the same active as reflex block but the upgraded version provides the block for
nearby allies as well. Often times, you won't need to go beyond buying
alone but if the enemy team has A TON of crowd control and your team is fairly squishy / your roamer hasn't already built it, go ahead and upgrade to
later on in the game. AIM FOR GETTING
AS EARLY AS POSSIBLE when facing a
,
or
as they all have non-ultimate stuns and other cc that can melt you in a heartbeat. A well timed
could very well mean you win or lose a team fight.
When / Why To Take:
Spoiler: Click to view
is a good item to take when the enemy team is mostly building
crystal damage or is generally ability focused (someone like
even if he does build
weapon damage). It will increase your survivability dramatically in team fights if you find that you're being bursted down quickly and focused. You DON'T want to build this item against only ONE crystal damage dealer on the enemy team as
is cheaper, easier to build early and should give you enough sustain to survive a burst combo or two throughout the game.
When / Why To Take:
Spoiler: Click to view
You almost always WON'T need or want to build
as most competent roamers will build this item early anyways and Koshka's passive with early boots should give her enough mobility to chase down an enemy til the end of time. However, if your roamer decided to go full damage or you just find yourself against elusive enemies, grabbing a
couldn't hurt, it just doensn't provide as much benefit as upgrading boots and picking up something like
.
When / Why To Take:
Spoiler: Click to view
This item is the most effective against
weapon heavy teams. If the enemy is not building weapon damage, then don't bother building
or if you are only facing one weapon damage building enemy. This is very effective against massive attack speed builders or utilizers (looking at you,
but you usually won't need to build it with correct positioning, timing, and utilization of standard defensive items like
. Also, you want to build health WITH this item as all the enemy has to do is build armor pierce, such as
to negate some of its benefits.
,
, And
Spoiler: Click to view
You may find that you rarely need to upgrade your boots beyond
as Koshka has a lot of inherent mobility with her
and her
, but I personally like to upgrade them to at least
before entering the late game as it helps you get to objectives much faster, especially after taking turrets. Upgrade to
if you have extra gold / haven't purchased something like
whenever possible for even more movement speed and a more available active.
is usually only built on roamer / support heroes but if you find yourself playing this role or are against some with a stealth ability (
and
) that you're always having to buy
and
for just to get a successful gank off, then picking up a
is the way to go as it is cost efficient, saves space, and provides you with both flares and traps depending on how you use it. Only pick it up if your roamer hasn't already gotten this item, but make sure to have vision on objectives and to keep an eye out for these enemies if you find yourself against them, especially during the late game when everyone is roaming the jungle.
is the cherry on the cake of any crystal build. At level 12, you will get the full benefit of this consumable as it scales per hero level, adding to your crystal damage, cooldown reduction, and shield / armor. Buying these in the mid and late game can turn a game around, not to mention a single teamfight. If you have the gold and are close to or have already completed your core items, top it off with some of these babies to make your burst combo that more devastating for a temporary period.
Match Ups Top
Laners
None of these guys really pose any threat to
as none of them have any innate escape abilities except for
and
- one will stealth and run away, making your gank ineffective unless you've come with
and the other will pull out his knife and either run at you or run away with his increased movement speed. You can use
to get on top of them in lane and unload your full combo on them until the pop as they are all squishy no matter what they decide to build.
You may have difficulty against:
Spoiler: Click to view
This guy isn't really a big deal until he hits level 6 and can use his ultimate to lock your whole team in a huge area of effect stun and damage crunch. You can negate the channel of his ultimate with your own, but only if you save it for that moment! Otherwise, if you have trouble you can always build
into
and even
if necessary.
deals damage over time, like
so be careful lingering too long in lane or in the vision as the damage will add up and eventually kill you after a few seconds.
Spoiler: Click to view
isn't a threat (like Adagio) until she hits level 6, at which point she too possesses an AoE stun that can devastate you and your entire team. If you are having trouble against her, keep an eye on what she is building and choose
as a core item to protect against her ultimate. She is also highly mobile for a sniper, so you may want to upgrade your boots and purchase
to keep her within reach.
Spoiler: Click to view
She needs time to hit you with her sniper arrows, so don't spend too much time hanging around the lane if she has eyes on you. The real danger with
is if she chooses to build crystal damage and maxes her stealth ability that not only reveals all who pass through it but will stun you if you remain in the mist when she uncloaks herself for the ambush. The best counter to this is using
to give you vision of her wherever she may roam and if you can't get around her stun, that's what
is for.
Spoiler: Click to view
has a lot of utility for a laner with a low cooldown slow and a damage dealing AoE silence as an ultimate ability. He can be very elusive with his constant slows and dashes. If he really becomes a problem, build an
and consider upgrading your boots early on. Otherwise, if you can lock him down with your ultimate you can probably kill him. He's just as squishy as all the others.
Roamers and Junglers That Are the Biggest Threat To Koshka
These are the real threats to
throughout the game as these heroes typically possess the most crowd control and disruptive abilities. They will be ganking your laners, invading your jungle and contesting objectives. Koshka does somewhat better against some versus others but you will still need to build accordingly to win matches against ANY hero. Koshka doesn't fare well against enemies with large amounts of crowd control / lockdown and heavy defenses, which pretty much ALL these junglers have, which is why they are on this list. In order to win match ups against them, build acccordingly with situational / defensive items and play around their most devastating skills.
Prologue - General Tips - For New Players and Experienced Players Top
Just wanted to throw this in there to help people out and show my perspective of the game and MOBAs in general. I'm not "Master" player, nor a pro, but I've been playing different MOBA / PvP games for several years now and have learned a lot that has made it easier for me to adapt and play VainGlory when I did download the game. These things may not be anything new to some of you, but to others they can be game changing and may even raise your ranking when applied in ranked games.
On Team Work
Spoiler: Click to view
Some people dislike the fact that VainGlory is very limited to how you can communicate with other players in game. You can only really use pings, after all, and a lot of times people don't use them the "right" or intended way. You made a bad decision ganking the enemy laner and got 3 man counterganked? Your laner spam-pings question marks on your corpse. I much prefer this over someone typing "GG Jungler is a ****lord" in team or all chat because I can always ignore their pings.
Your team mates aren't perfect AND NEITHER ARE YOU. You WILL make mistakes. You will probably make A LOT of mistakes when you play VainGlory. The more you play a hero, the more you understand the hero's abilities, how to play them, and most , their limitations.
is a squishy melee character that specializes in catching her target off guard and bursting them down before they can counter attack. If you are not successful in killing your target after using all your cool downs, I KNOW to back off, wait in the bush for all my abilities to come back up, and go in one more time (if I have the health.) Maybe pop a few potions or whatever. If the enemy laner keeps hugging the turret and I even think for a second his
is roaming around outside the bush somewhere, I'll go farm some jungle camps instead.
But a player that hasn't played Koshka or any "Assassin" type heroes may not understand this. They may hang out in lane, kill some creeps, auto attack the enemy which is like poking them with a wet noodle until the whole enemy team shows up and slaughters them.
When this happens, said player might spam ping and rage. It's not your team's fault. It was YOUR fault. Recognize what you did wrong and FIX IT. Respawn timers are like time outs. You sit and think about what you did during them. What you could have done better.
DON'T THINK ABOUT WHAT YOUR TEAM COULD HAVE DONE BETTER. Why? Because it's quite simply pointless unless you're in a party and can communicate strategy afterward. It's not like you can tell them to avoid fighting
in the jungle or brush. All you can do is ping them away and not go near him in that location yourself. If you want to accomplish anything in this game, ONLY WORRY ABOUT YOURSELF.
That's not to say you let your whole team die while you derp around the jungle farming camps.
YOU need to focus on the map.
YOU need to make plays.
YOU need to ping out threats and objectives. Don't ever think anyone else will do it for you, because they more than likely won't.
Also, give your allies a thumbs up or smiley face when they get a kill or secure Kraken every now in then. They may save your *** sometime. Or, you know, win the game with you.
On Strategy
Spoiler: Click to view
One of the main problems people have in MOBAs is they think the whole game revolves around simply killing the enemy team over and over and don't put enough focus on getting objectives like taking out turrets or securing gold mines / Kraken. They get greedy, turret dive and die, or chase a low health enemy all the way through their jungle right into an ambush and then ping everyone else like this was an important thing to be doing.
Know when getting a kill is in your favor. The gold is ALWAYS nice but you need to remember that killing the enemy team won't win the game and you can't take that score with you if you lose. Nobody sits there like "Yea dude, that was such a great game I went 20/0 and we totally lost. Enemy team was noob." No, you're obviously the noob if you went 20/0 and couldn't even end the damn game with a gigantic gold / item advantage. How do you fail so hard when you are so far ahead?
This happens when people starting getting greedy or start thinking they're invincible and try to 1 v 3 or start fights under turrets. Remember that your goal is to destroy the enemy's Vain, only kill them if they get in your way. Don't make the game last much longer than it needs to, either. The longer the game goes on, the more of a chance the enemy team has to catch up to you in items and gold. To learn to counter your strategy. One mistake in the late game could mean the game is over for your team no matter how far ahead you are because of respawn timers being SOOOO high.
If the enemy base is open, make a bee line to their Vain. Don't derp around killing their miner or trying to get Kraken. If they're Aced there's literally nothing stopping you from winning other than yourself.
NOTE ON MAP AWARENESS: The mini map is there for a reason. I make it a rule of thumb that every time I kill a jungle camp, enemy, or minion, I look at the mini map. Your miners, flares, turrets, minions, and scout traps all give you clues on the mini map of where the enemy team currently is and where they MAY be going. If you think they're headed to gank your laner, ping them back.
MAKE them pay attention to the map by annoying them. This is the right way to use your pings. Most throws in games happen because people aren't paying attention to the map and get caught out or ambushed then subsequently Aced in the late game when trying to do something like Kraken or take a tier 3 turret. Don't let this be you.
About Me - Why I Made This Guide Top
My name is FilthyGorgeous on the NA server. I have been playing VainGlory for over a year now and completely fell in love with the game as I am a big fan of MOBA games like League of Legends and have been toying with other tablet-based MOBA games for a while before finding VainGlory. I am currently climbing the ranks quickly, and expect to be in The Hotness soon. I welcome any questions, comments, or criticism you may have to offer! Don't be afraid to leave a comment in the comments section of this guide and PLEASE
rate! I have tried my hardest to make this guide the easiest to read and understand for both new and veteran players of VainGlory.
is one hero I never get bored of playing. No matter what kind of team composition I'm in or against, I KNOW I can dominate with her even if my team mates fall behind. Though Koshka has a pretty simple kit in terms of using her abilities and utilizing combos effectively, her playstyle can be hard to get used to for some and easy to pick up for others.
Like other
assassins, Koshka uses high burst damage to eliminate a single target from the game in seconds, effectively making the game now a 3 versus 2 if the fight goes in your favor. She is one of the only assassins in the game with hard crowd control in the form of
which is a great lockdown tool for fed carries. If you want to play
you have to think like a cat. I do and I've won over a hundred games playing this hero thus far and think you can probably win more.
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