Greetings! Top
I come from a long history of wc3 DotA, DotA2, and HotS. I got into this game not long ago (1.08 Skye-release patch) and have been having heaps of fun playing solo-queue and occasionally with friends n family! I can play all roles fairly well, but enjoy jungling because thats where all the early-game action is :D. I was Hotness Gold in 1.08 and as of 1.14 i have finally reached POA!
I've been a huge fan of Skye ever since I started playing VG (bought her with ICE after watching her demo vid). I will admit when I first used Skye I got my *** handed to me MANY MANY games (casual queue :D) but I was determined to master her. After endless "?" pings over my dead body and tiring losses, it soon became "thumbs up" emotes and "beer cheers" as we sweep the enemy teams. Skye is NOT an easy hero to start with and was designed for a higher skill ceiling but i can guarantee you its worth the practice!
About Skye Top
Pros:
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Forward Barrage scales well with crit-WP!
- VERY agile once locked-on to something
- One of the best stutter-steppers in the game
- Can always keep her distance if played correctly
- Can juke/confuse many enemies
- She's a babe ;)
Cons:
- Quite squishy
- Requires a lot of farm to get items relatively fast
- Usually is a first priority target for lock-down by enemy
- No
Frostburn
- Easily countered by enemy building early armor (build
Bonesaw)
WP Skye vs. CP Skye
The main difference with WP and CP skye is the playstyle. I will list a few:
- CP Skye will need to focus more on
Target Lock+
Forward Barrage with the occasional landing of suri strikes and WP Skye is all about the burst
Forward Barrage + auto-attacks.
- WP Skye needs to have better aim with skills due to lack of
Frostburn so can be a little less forgiving when trying to pin down enemies.
- CP Skye can be played more aggressively at the start (invades), depending on enemy composition WP Skye should wait until at least 2nd/3rd jungle clear.
- WP Skye does a little better in lane than CP Skye (last hits, can afford a more passive start)
- Both Skyes still rock jungle position best! Aggressive steals still highly rewarded.
Overall I would personally say its still easier to play CP Skye just simply because of having a slow attached to your abilities.. as a WP Skye we have a much higher burst potential from our
Forward Barrage but landing the full 2 secs can be a challenge. Also the WP item build-up is EXPENSIVE so we must secure a good amount of farm to stay competitive. Both Skyes are relatively balanced at the moment.
Patch notes for WP Skye in 1.18! Top
*There are no direct changes to Skye in 1.18. (but there's a new epic skin!)
- NO MORE DOUBLE INFUSE, DON'T WASTE THAT GOLD.
Here is the run-down of the latest changes for Skye (1.17):
Small nerf to CP Skye in 1.17.
WP SKYE & CURRENT META:
Coming back to VG after taking a small break in 1.17, in 1.18 its great to see many people still playing Skye! (new skye skin is awesome btw!) Skye still plays the same way although now relying more on her
Forward Barrage for damage (suri strike is just extra added damage at this point). For us WP players, its more important than ever that we keep the safety distance between our targets to stay alive. Kite Kite KITE!!
Skye's ability kit Top
TARGET LOCK (HEROIC):
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This is automatically applied to any target you auto-attack. This is VERY important to utilize if you wanna play well. Once its active on ANYTHING (creep or hero) it gives us a movement speed buff (strafing! so cool!). This buff lets us kite or chase enemies with ease. Use this speed to keep that space between you and your target. Also, the speed gained is larger when moving forward, less when moving backward when facing target.
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FORWARD BARRAGE:
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This will melt anything in front of Skye. It does NOT pierce targets so be careful of creeps blocking the way. It DOES go through walls so use that to your advantage! The damage can be boosted first by locking onto the target THEN using this ability. You'll also have that speed buff. Activating a 2nd time will CANCEL the ability early (VERY IMPORTANT TO MASTER). Cancelling this ability early because you missed / enemy got away is ESSENTIAL, plus you look stupid as hell when you're shooting at nothing. By cancelling, we can resume auto-attacking and stutter-stepping. CD reduced upon using
 Suri Strike for 2nd round of face-melting.
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SURI STRIKE:
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This skill fires a set of missiles that will aim for the Locked-on target. However, they will land in a line between your DESTINATION and the ENEMY. To maximize the damage ideally you will want to land on TOP of your target. As a WP Skye, this ability doesn't do much damage anyway so we aren't losing out as much as a CP Skye would. I don't recommend trying to get more damage out of this but rather focus using this ability as a positional tool. Use it to change the direction of the battlefield, keep distance or to confuse enemies. Try to be tricky about this one, don't be predictable. This skill can turn tables around if used well. Using this also reduces cd for
Forward Barrage.
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DEATH FROM ABOVE:
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Our ultimate ability! It has a VERY short cooldown so use it often! Don't be afraid to miss or save an ally. Casting it on TOP of your Locked-on target will create a circle of death in a small area. Using it anywhere AWAY from the locked-on target will create a wall of gunfire. It will mini-stun upon impact (First round of gunfire only) then apply a strong slow during the rest of the ability. The damage is negligable for WP Skye so we are mainly using this to set up ganks (by cutting off exits), stun/slow or for zoning enemies. I personally use the wall form more because I normally find myself either needing to cut off an enemy from escaping or as a deterrent for the enemy trying to chase me.
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HOW TO ENGAGE:
Pre-6 Skye combo:
auto-attack (target lock) ->
Forward Barrage -> auto-attack /
Suri Strike if they run away ->
Forward Barrage
Post-6 Skye:
auto-attack
Target Lock ->
Forward Barrage +
Death From Above -> auto-attack /
Suri Strike if they run away or to create space ->
Forward Barrage
Note: You CAN cast
Death From Above during
Forward Barrage without interrupting the ability!!
As WP Skye, stutter-stepping is vital in making up our total DPS. With all the mobility this should be easy to execute. Staying mobile is how we stay alive so hit hard, hit fast and get ready to bail when we have to! Also as a bonus, the strafing animations is unique to Skye!
Always keep a safe distance between your enemy: far enough that they don't hit you.. close enough so that they don't get away. Once your Breaking Point reaches ~10+ stacks, auto-attacks will wreck their whole team. At this point, enemies will be trying to flee so use
Suri Strike to close the distance and destroy them.
Starting phase Top
Skye can be played in either LANE / JUNGLE so pick whichever one your teammate is NOT. It is not worth fighting over who gets to LANE, just have the bigger heart this time and let him/her take it. I find she is more suited for JUNGLE playing aggressively and putting pressure on enemy farm.
LANER START:
You may start with
Book of Eulogies if you think you're gonna get harassed while farming (SAW/Ringo/Scarf), Otherwise start with a
Weapon Blade. Lane will get more gold than the jungle if left unchecked. Focus on last hitting, don't bother harassing enemy laner unless they ask for it. When you get around 1.5k gold, clear the wave with your abilities before going shopping. Just a reminder, we should be buying items when we can get a chance since "unused gold doesn't help win fights". Don't wait too long without shopping.. you might get wrecked by the enemy with his early T2 items. Also always keep an eye on your junglers to see if they need help during an engage or not.
JUNGLER START:
Jungle is a bit more complicated since it requires teamwork. In higher ranks, aggressive jungle play has become more important by shutting down enemy team's economy. Most teams won't expect it coming and you can bring a HUGE advantage just by disrupting their farm. (Beware their laner coming to help! Don't try to 2v3)
Anyways, follow your roamer starting from your 2x big creep camp. Clear camps fast with
Forward Barrage, do not waste your mana on
Suri Strike! First round of the jungle camps should give you around ~570 gold to buy
Weapon Blade & wait (IF SAFE TO DO SO) in bushes for enough gold to get
Sprint Boots before continuing to 2nd round of jungle). If you ever meet the enemy junglers don't be afraid to poke at them if you know they can't hit you back,
Forward Barrage is reasonably strong with just 2 weapon blades. If you choose to invade (skye is very good at this), remember the main objective is to force the enemy back to base (either via low hp or death) and steal their jungle minions. Do not tunnel vision and die when diving for a hero kill. Remember your goal is just to starve the enemy from farm. Keep an eye on the enemy laner in case he comes to help! Drop by the jungle shop to get upgrades whenever you can and always keep a healthy stock of 2x
Halcyon Potion to sustain the assault.
ADVANCED JUNGLE PLAY:
This part is for those who are in the upper ranks and probably playing with a friend/guildmate roamer in the jungle since it requires communication / extensive knowledge of the game mechanics.
-> exp is distributed equally @ range 5.6
-> IGC gold and heal is distributed @ range 12-20
If both jungler+roamer share exp for all 4 camps, both will remain lv1 when arriving in the jungle shop. Ideally we want the jungle carry (in this case: Skye) to reach lv2 BEFORE reaching jungle shops. To get this we will do in two parts:
ROAMER: hit 2x big creep camp (just weaken to low hp)
JUNGLER: solo kill 1x top heal camp (try bring it away from roamer before you kill it) -> proceed to finish off 2x big creeps
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ROAMER: hit middle heal camp (1 or 2 hits is fine) then run away to 2x small shop creeps (weaken them). This will let the middle heal camp chase the jungler which is fine.
JUNGLER: follow to middle heal camp and draw it away from roamer (try bring it away from him before you kill it) -> proceed to follow to 2x small shop creeps and finish them.
When done correctly this will give jungler 100% exp from both heal camps allowing him to level faster than usual at the cost of roamer losing some exp and tiny bit of gold. At higher ranks, a lv2 advantage when engaging enemies at the shops makes a world of difference so be sure to master this! This method can be continued to keep boosting the jungler's lvl but doing this too much can leave the roamer under-leveled and useless..
Mid Game phase Top
By now you should have all core items. Once you get them, our next item to aim for is
Breaking Point. Once we got our
Breaking Point our damage output skyrockets over time!
Forward Barrage will give us plenty of stacks so can we be more aggressive with our play, use
Suri Strike to control the battle area! Keep an eye on your BP stacks (it gains a lot more faster than you imagine)!
Who to aim? Situational. Sometimes its worth just shooting safely at their tank at max distance before the fight even starts (free stacks of BP anyone?). Once you see an opening use
Suri Strike to swiftly move to their backlines and take out their squishy carries! Remember Skye is squishy as well, she won't last long in fights unless she takes out the enemy main damage dealer first. Co-ordinate with your teammates to focus down one carry to gain an upperhand later.
End Game phase Top
At this stage of the game, NEVER go out wandering alone. Respawn timers are long and dying puts your team at a huge disadvantage. Stick together as a team! Don't forget to infuse when you know you're about to clash with the enemy! Infusing can be the difference between winning and losing the game-ending clash. Sometimes infusing before completing the final build is recommended to get that edge over your opponents.
Weapon Infusion is MOST important during make or break encounters! It could mean the difference between a straight loss or an epic comeback story.
Also if you can get the chance to end the game at this stage, you must take it (Don't take that Kraken over their vain crystal....). Don't let that ego ruin the game for your teammates.. Play smart and work together as a team!
Closing out Top
Did you win? If so then congrats! You deserved it! If not, don't be mad! Just thumbs-up your teammates for being your teammates (or thumbs-down for AFKers). This is only a game at the end of the day. :D
This ends my very first guide on WP Skye! I hoped you enjoyed reading it as much as i enjoyed writing it! I'm also hoping this guide brings more people to play more Skye because she is a really really awesome hero.
See ya in the fold!
-foxshinra [SEA Server]
Breaking Point or Bonesaw? Top
vs
Breaking point (2500g):
35% attack speed and 30 weapon power.
- Gain +10 bonus weapon power/stack, max 25 stacks
- Gain a stack for every 125 weapon damage dealt to enemy heroes (+5 weapon damage needed to earn each stack thereafter).
- Decays 2 stacks per second after you’ve stopped stacking for 2 seconds.
25 stacks
Damage needed to reach: 4750
Bonus WP gained: 250
Bonesaw (2700g):
50% attack speed and 30 weapon power.
- Shreds 6% enemy armor per auto-attack, max 7 stacks (42% shredded).
- Debuff lasts 6 seconds.
So to get the most potential out of breaking point we gotta stack that WP! The more damage done, the more BP stacks! Luckily for us, our
Forward Barrage will get us 8-10 stacks (assuming you followed build order). By end game we may be gaining more than this. 4750 damage may seem like a lot, but actually it is quite easily achievable. I've hit 25 stacks within 4-5 secs of combat with Skye's insane amount of damage output just by weaving
Forward Barrage and auto-attacks. However there is a catch, the damage calculated is from "final damage dealt". This means if the enemies build
Metal Jacket then you won't be gaining breaking point stacks fast enough to make it reach its potential.
Generally if I see at least 2 enemies build for metal jackets, i would simply just counter-build with a
Bonesaw. I would prefer if there was at least 2 soft enemies to build up my stacks of breaking point to make it worthy of a slot. If you choose to get
Bonesaw, your attack patterns would change to include more auto-attacks (don't open with
Forward Barrage). I would just stay at range, 3-4 auto-attacks (~20% shredded) before starting using my skills. You would notice a HUGE difference in the amount of damage done from
Forward Barrage after the armor shredding.
'MAX DPS' build explained Top
This section is for advanced players who are VERY comfortable with Skye's capabilities. I do NOT recommend playing so dangerously if you aren't comfortable with her limitations (ie. against huge burst teams this is totally not a good idea). By forgoing the defensive item we gain more burst potential, possibly ending fights a lot sooner and getting those aces. However it makes us quite the glass cannon, if you ever get locked down it may well be over in a split second.. Also at higher ranks, this build probably won't work without good supporting teammates (you will be top priority target 100% of the time).
For this build to work, mobility and positioning are KEY (
Suri Strike!!!). Knowing when and where to engage, keeping an eye on how many stacks of breaking point is also a key factor in determining who wins the outcome. Take pot-shots when you can! Fire from safety until you get those stacks then just
Suri Strike deep and fry those carries! Don't forget about
Weapon Infusion, the added bonus help IMMENSELY.
Changelogs Top
09/10/15 - Guide created!
05/10/15 - Updated for 1.10. Added separate Jungle build for invades.
28/11/15 - Updated for 1.11. Removed separate Jungle build (ineffective).
12/01/16 - Updated for 1.13. Reworked skill + item builds to fit new meta. Edited sections.
02/02/16 - Updated for 1.14. Removed aftershock. Renamed guide :)
05/02/16 - Updated for 1.15. Minor additions.
02/04/16 - Updated for 1.16.
02/06/16 - Updated for 1.18. Made the guide more concise.
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