Vainglory Mechanics and Fundamentals by CWGAssasxyn

Well, this is my first Vainglory guide on VGF, so I thought I'd make it a big one.

This is pretty much the same guide I originally wrote on the Vainglory forums (you can see that here: http://forums.vainglorygame.com/index.php?threads/so-what-is-vainglory-mechanics-guide.31231/#post-339227) however since I was unable to copy and paste it I figured I would rewrite it, using the features VGF provides which the forums don't.

Anyways, this guide is for players of all skill levels. If you are new to Vainglory, be sure to read this.

Sometimes all the different terms and words can be confusing, especially when they aren't all in the same place. Here I will explain the basic terms you need to understand before joining a game.

- HP: Health Points; This is how much life you have. Once this goes down to zero, you will die and respawn after a set amount of time.
- MP: Mana Points; This is how much energy you have. You need mana to use abilities. If you have insufficient mana, you cannot use an ability. (Some heroes have alternative sources of energy. Be sure to check how your hero gains energy for abilities.)
- WP: Weapon Power; Increases how much damage your basic attacks do.
- CP: Crystal Power; Increases how much damage your abilities do.
- Armor: Reduces the damage you take from basic attacks.
- Shield: Reduces the damage you take from abilities.
- HPR: Health Points Regeneration; Your health regenerates X% HP per second.
- Lifesteal: Your basic attacks will return X% of your damage back to you as HP.
- Crystal Lifesteal: Your abilities will return X% of your damage back to you as HP.
- Critical Strike Chance: You have X% chance to land a critical hit, which deals bonus damage.
- Critical Strike Damage: Your critical attacks deal this much bonus damage.
- CDR: Cooldown Reduction; The reduces the amount of time it takes for your abilities to become available again after using them.
- Movement Speed: This is how fast your hero moves.
- Attack Speed: This is how fast you can perform a basic attack.
- Ironguard Contract: When you are near an ally who last-hits a minion or miner, you will earn a small percent of that gold. If you first-hit a minion that an ally last-hits, you both get a bonus to the gold gain. This is the most important item and ALL roam/support players should take this.
- Vision: Placing a scout trap will provide vision in any bush it is placed in, and also anything within the circle that represents its range. Green scout traps are your team's and red are your enemies'. Vision is important so you and your team know where the enemies are and gives you a chance to strategize before the enemy attacks you, giving you the advantage and at best the element of surprise. Flares are useful in providing a small amount of vision briefly, and can be placed anywhere that you can see without moving the map.

When in the heat of battle, it is sometimes hard to decide which skills to use. To make this process easier, I am going to break down 3 different types of damage and 2 different types of attacks.
DAMAGE
a) TRUE damage. This is the damage you deal with your basic attacks, minus any bonuses from items or abilities. To determine your CRYSTAL damage, add all bonuses from CP items/abilities. To determine your WEAPON damage, add all bonuses from WP items.
b) AOE damage. This is damage that effects all targets within a chosen location.
c) SPLASH damage. This damage will originate on a chosen target, then splash extra damage onto any enemies nearby the origin target.
ATTACKS
a) TARGET attacks. Any basic attack, or skill that requires targeting an enemy by tapping is a TARGET attack.
b) SKILLSHOT attacks. Any ability that you have to manually aim, or select a target location for is a SKILLSHOT. These take more skill, as you can imagine.

Knowing these terms will help you build your hero with the proper items, and understand what role they play in battle. Each player on a team is in charge of one of these roles.
REMEMBER: You can look at your enemies' item builds by looking at the scoreboard. This helps you choose better items for fighting the enemy.

A. The lane carry.

The lane carry, or "laner" pushes the lane forward and gains gold for the team and themselves by getting last-hits on the lane minions. Eliminating the enemy laner's gold supply, or the laner entirely is their secondary goal.

B. The jungle carry.

The jungle carry, or "jungler" fights jungle minions for gold. Gaining control of your enemies' side of the jungle, and maintaining that control is the junglers' secondary goal.

C. The roamer.

Also known as the support, the roamer will help the laner by providing vision and helps prevent them from getting ganked. The roamer also provides vision in key locations which give the team an advantage. The roamer will lead the team and ensure they are properly positioned before a team fight.

The team fight... Occurs when all 3 players of both teams are engaged in a fight. The laner deals the most damage, delivering fast basic attacks that deal lots of damage. The jungler fights in front of the laner, dealing damage to several enemies at once and also positioning the enemy team away from the laner. The roamer acts as a shield for the team, absorbing the enemy's damage and crippling them to turn the tide of battle in your favor.

Why teamfight? The purpose of a teamfight is to destroy turrets or take objectives without the threat of an enemy nearby. As the game progresses, it takes longer for you to respawn which means the team who wins fights will have more time to steal your resources and destroy your turrets so it is crucial you do not lose teamfights in the late game.

As you begin climbing the ranks in Vainglory, you will notice that your opponents become increasingly more skilled and difficult to beat. Here I will explain some of the core mechanics you should begin learning so that you can compete against players who are also at your rank.

- Stutterstepping: The act of moving in between basic attacks is called stutterstepping, or kiting. This allows you to attack an enemy without receiving damage.
- Countering: When a player on one team buys an item which makes the item of a player on the other team ineffective, that is called a counter.
- Aggro/Leashing: If you have 'aggro' of a minion/miner or Kraken you are its current target. Once you move away it will begin following you; this is called leashing. If you move out of the minion's range it will choose a new target or return to its spawn point, regenerating HP as it returns. TIP: Miners/Kraken can be used to attack the enemy team if properly leashed.
- CC: Crowd Control; Crippling one or more enemy is referred to as a CC. This can come in the form of slows, stuns, or decrease in attack speed etc.
- Peel: When you force an enemy to stop attacking a specific ally, you 'peel' the enemy from your ally.
- Proc: When you cause any effect that lasts for a set amount of time, such as a slow or bleed damage this is known as a 'proc' (short for process).
- Item Build: The items you have and how they interact with your hero is known as your item build.
- Item Countering: When you buy an item that causes an enemy's item to become ineffective, this is called countering. For example, an Aegis will reduce the extra CP from Shatterglass.

As your rank goes up, these strategies are going to become natural actions for you. Having a quick reaction time and aggressive playstyle will mean the difference between winning and losing.

First off, what is ELO? ELO is a resource earned by winning ranked matches, and lost by losing them. You need to earn a certain amount of ELO before your rank will advance.

Around tier 8, known as "Simply Amazing", the game will begin to change. Players are more aggressive and you seem to lose all your gold to that pesky Taka then before you know it you are begging to surrender 6 minutes into the game. In order to keep up you will need to practice. A LOT. I will try to give you some tips on improving your gameplay.

1. Try new things in casual. Don't be afraid to try builds or strategies you come up with in a casual match.

2. Bots are for big kids, too. Never feel ashamed to play against bots. These simple AIs can help you perfect your aim with skillshots and learn vision placements and spawn times for jungle minions.

3. Practice with friends who are better. Sometimes the winner is the loser. If you lose, most likely you learned a lot of mistakes that you won't make again. I have learned almost all of my knowledge by getting crushed in Vainglorious casual queue. Practice makes perfect, and what better people to practice with than the pros themselves.

I hope this guide has been helpful. My motivation for writing this was seeing many players, such as myself, struggle to find adequate teammates. I figured that if I wrote an extensive guide that prepares players of all skill levels for competitive play then maybe my allies will be more knowledgeable in the future.

As a content creator with Team Vertigo, I do my best to provide as much support for the Vainglory community as possible. If you have ANY questions about the game or strategies please feel free to shoot me a message in-game (IGN: XynOnVertigo) and I'll do my best to follow up as quickly as possible.

I would like to thank Team Vertigo for taking me in and supporting my adventures in the Halcyon Fold, no matter how many times I play Support Petal and Lane Catherine.

And of course, Super Evil Mega Corp for providing such a great game that we can all enjoy together.

See you in the Fold, fellow Heroes.