~Beyond the Border~ > Genji's Battle Arena
[WC3 - DotS] Strategic guides on Girls. [Added Himepaidou]
Dular:
Alice Margarine Margatroid, the rainbow-colored puppeteer
INTRODUCTION!
This is an Alice guide, one of me personal favorite heroes that I cannot stand yet love to play. Most people don't really want Alice for the same reason people don't main Alice in the fighting games. It's a lot more effort compared to the other girls, distance is involved, she herself is vulnerable, and doesn't have much in the way of melee, but with her are some unique strengths which will be shown in this guide. Let's start with
STATS!
Strength: 21 (+1.8 )
Agility: 15 (+1.6)
Intelligence: 24 (+2.6)
Ranged: 450
Movement Speed: 275
Armor: 0
So you can see her stats are overall mediocre. They all aren't stellar, but her strength is that her stats aren't bad. Her strength is good for an agility type and her agility is a little down there, but still good for her role. She can use every stat effectively, much moreso than other characters. Unfortunately her armor is 0 so she is pretty weak against attacks. Caution is advised! With that said, we'll go straight onto...
SKILLS!
Alice has three skills that have four sub-skills each that level up with their respective skills. Quite staggering, but I'll give my opinion and experience with each one. The first skill?
Shanghai Doll, Melee Type
Hotkey F
Summons Shanghai doll to assist Alice in combat. Each point of Intelligence increases 5HP, every 2 points of Agility increases 1 Attack. Shanghai will disappear if it leaves too far away from Alice.
Cast Range: 600
Spirit Cost: 80/80/100/120MP
Cooldown: 6/4/2/0s
Level 1: Maximum number of Shanghai Dolls is 3.
Level 2: Maximum number of Shanghai Dolls is 4.
Level 3: Maximum number of Shanghai Dolls is 5.
Level 4: Maximum number of Shanghai Dolls is 6.
Shanghai is the tanker type of the dolls. She has high defense with heavy armor(takes reduced from piercing) compared to the other dolls, higher base hp, blah blah blah. Most people prefer to level Shanghai second or last , depending on their own style.
SHANGHAI DOLL SKILLS!
Doll Defense (D) (toggle)
Level 1 skill. Puts Shanghai in defensive mode, -20% atk speed, -40% movement speed, Receive 33% less magic damage, 50% chance to block 30 damage. Gains 4 armor.
Shanghai's level 1 skill is quite evil early game. She gets a bra with a higher chance that also blocks magic damage, but makes her slow as molasses. This skill really shines when Shanghai tanks creeps(and enemy girls) quite well, and towers. Seriously, a squad of three or four shanghai will make the tower fall in a single push minutes into early game against a single target hero(Yukari) and give a tough time against an AoE hero(Letty, Utsuho) because of that reduced magic damage. That's how good Shanghai dolls are at pushing with this.
Sword Sign "Lancer Storm" (F)
Level 2 skill. Deals damage to opponents all around Shanghai. Deals 135 damage per second. Lasts 5 seconds.
Area of Effect: 135
Spirit Cost: 100MP
Cooldown: 12 seconds.
Shanghai's damage skill. The AoE on this is tiny, but check out that damage! One shanghai can kill an entire creep wave by herself, even late into the game with this skill, and appropriately only one Shanghai's spin will count. If you spin them all on a trapped target, you're wasted precious attack damage. It'll look a lot more intimidating though. One Shanghai can also take out creep camps, provided you hit them all with that tiny AoE, and they'll probably never stop due to their giant mana regen.
Doll Assault (R)
Level 3 skill. Movement Speed +100%, Attack Speed +50%. Shanghai receives 66% more damage. Lasts 12 seconds.
Disables Doll Defense when activated
Spirit Cost: 150MP
Shanghai's support skill. This skill makes Shanghai into a little rocket, easily catching up to people and surrounding them(which takes a lot more finesse than you'd imagine) It's underplayed due to the fact you receive a lot more damage as a result of course, but you can just defend after you trap someone to mitigate it. Best used on towers with no enemy girls nearby, but sometimes it's funny to do that anyways.
War Command "Sonic Rush" (W)
Level 4 skill. Lines up Shanghai dolls in a train to charge at high speed. Lead Shanghai can command other Shanghais to follow the army?s direction of charge. The target receives 40 damage and 0.9 second stun for every Shanghai Doll that collided with it. Only one Sonic Rush can be used at a time.
Spirit Cost (Alice): 600MP
Cooldown: 54 seconds. Requires minimum 6 Shanghai dolls
Choo-choo! This is what people see when they see Shanghai, a giant train that is clearly bigger than the dolls for some reason. A very strong skill with a huge cost, best used for defending against a crowd. At level 16, this can potentially do 480 damage and stun for about three seconds on each target it hits, and it lasts a long time to boot. You can probably hit someone three times if you know what you're doing. The problem is that most people don't know how to control it! This is shown how in the Tips & Tricks section.
With Shanghai out of the way, we move onto the second skill...
New England Doll, ranged type
Hotkey F
Summons a flying New England Doll to assist in battle. Each point of Intelligence increases 4HP, every 2 points of Agility increases 1 Attack. New England will disappear if it leaves too far away from Alice.
Spirit Cost: 80/90/100/100MP
Cooldown: 6/4/2/0s
Level 1: Maximum number of New England Dolls is 3.
Level 2: Maximum number of New England Dolls is 4.
Level 3: Maximum number of New England Dolls is 5.
Level 4: Maximum number of New England Dolls is 6.
This is what most people get first. New England is the damage dealing doll, with beefy damage and skills that support said beefy damage. They are fragile and since they clump up together, have a harder time against AoEs compared to the beefy Shanghai, but the killing ability they do is a good tradeoff.
NEW ENGLAND DOLL SKILLS!
Magic Sign "Artful Sacrifice" (E)
Level 1 skill. Immediately detonates itself, dealing 85/110/135/160 flame damage to all nearby enemies.
Area of Effect: 135
This skill is a joke. It's only use is if you get some New England Dolls right away and you get ganked, and even then it's dubious to use this skill since New England will probably do more damage attacking then exploding and wasting the mana to re-summon them.
Doll Ground Battalion (F) (toggle)
Level 2 skill. New England Doll switches to battalion mode using a rifle. Armor +2 Range: 520, Attack Speed: 80%. Use the skill again to revert to aerial mode.
This turns New England into an adorable little squadron, with guns going pew pew all over the place. Unfortunately they gain collision when they trot around, so they'll get mixed up with Shanghai dolls and yourself REAL fast with AI pathing and make a big mess if you don't know what you're doing. Additionally, when they land they get a bonus 50 health! Huzzah! This skill works in conjunction with...
Head Shot (passive in Battalion mode)
Level 2 skill. Has a 15% chance to deal 2.5/3/3.5/4 times the damage on enemies when attacking.
This skill is New England's bread. Even with a mere 2.5 critical, it makes a lot of hurting happen. This makes the squadron of 12 do some massive damage once they lock on someone. Really powerful stuff.
Anti-Fortress Gunpowder (passive in Aerial mode)
Level 2 skill. Deals 1.5x more damage to structures.
This is New England's butter. When no girls are around, it's better to use this to mess up towers really fast. It practically nullifies the armor of the tower!
Magic Sign "Straw Doll Kamikaze" (W)
New England Doll turns itself into a rocket and detonates on an enemy target. While flying, as long as the target enemy is within 60 degrees of New England Doll?s Sight Range, impact is guaranteed! When New England Doll detonates, it deals 30 damage to all nearby enemies and the target enemy receives 60 more damage. 800 Lock-On Range, 3 seconds maximum Flying Time and 750 Average Projectile Speed.
This is a more.. Situational skill really. Best used against weaker targets that refuse to heal for a bit of extra exp and gold, because you are way over there and you don't really have a method to get to them.. Except you have this skill. This skill really only does about 70 damage because of a girl's magic resist, but en masse at level 7 or so should do about 500 damage, which is enough if the enemy is weakened. Very situational, but handy.
And lastly, we have...
Hourai Doll, assist type
Hotkey R
Summons a Hourai Doll to assist Alice. Hourai cannot move or attack. Each point of Intelligence increases 4HP. Hourai will disappear if it leaves too far away from Alice.
Spirit Cost: 80/80/120/150MP
Cooldown: 6/4/2/0s
Level 1: Maximum number of Hourai Dolls is 3.
Level 2: Maximum number of Hourai Dolls is 4.
Level 3: Maximum number of Hourai Dolls is 5.
Level 4: Maximum number of Hourai Dolls is 6.
Hourai helps other dolls and people out, hence the term assist. As one can imagine, Hourai doll doesn't look so good immediately, but her support skills are very handy dandy to have and shine when used right.
HOURAI DOLL SKILLS!
Spy Sign "Seeker Dolls" (T)
Level 1 skill. Cuts connection with Alice, becomes a invisible scout. Disappears after 180 seconds.
This gets rid of the Hourai doll, and leaves it invisible where 95% of the girls can't see it. It's still quite hittable with ground-targeted AoE spells though, so beware. This skills usefulness is setting up for ganks. An invisible doll can tell you when you are about to be ganked or when a character is going for a rune, all sorts of stuff for the early laning phase. Alice is weak to being ganked early on, so this is nice to have.. Just in case.
Anti-Invisibility Detector (F)
Level 2 skill. Reveals any invisible enemy units within 500 Radius, lasts 24 seconds.
Spirit Cost: 200MP
Cooldown: 30s
This can be best described as an anti-wriggle skill. This skill lasts a long time, shows a large area, and the doll itself can take a bit of a beating before disappearing, not to mention that Wriggle's bugs hit random things and doesn't heal until after the skill is done, a competent Alice will easily destroy a competent wriggle in the early phase with this badboy. This skill is also best used in case of subdollers in front of your defending area. Crazy useful situational skill that isn't done often.
Doll Medic (R)
Heals all nearby allies within range by 50HP. Every ally unit healed requires 20MP, can heal at a maximum of 6 units at a time. Can be toggled to auto-cast.
This is what people see Hourai dolls as, for good reason. It's a heal that heals many units for a small cost, and a bunch of these will make almost no harm happen in the early phase. The AoE on the heal is small though, and they are the least durable of all the dolls, and cannot move. Very weak to AoEs as a result since they are typically clumped together.
Focus Power "Tripwire" (W)
Fires at the selected target. Does 48 damage.
Cast Range: 850 (maximum)
Spirit Cost: 100MP
Cooldown: 0s
Hourai's only damaging skill and probably the least used skill, for good reason. It takes focus away from Alice(who is probably getting hurt) and takes away the precious healing. But in a defensive position, behind a tower, gate or whatever? This skill becomes very evil. At level 11, this skill will do 480 damage a shot. This spell moves quite fast and pierces as well, so whatever it behind it takes a lot of damage as well. If you cast this six times quickly, that's 2600 damage right there! At level 11, not a lot of girls, even some str girls don't have 2,000 hp. This can be a sudden surprise for a lot of pushers and they'll wonder what they died to. I stopped a farmed Remilia with just this skill and she was at full hp. It really does quite a lot of damage, but almost needs to be done behind a tower. Also good if you aren't worried about Alice and all the other dolls are doing their thing, follow it up with some of this danmaku.
ULTIMATE!
War Command "Dolls of War" (passive)
Greatly increases the combat capabilities of Alice?s Dolls.
Level 1: All Dolls? population limit is increased by 2, certain skills from some dolls is upgraded to Level 2.
Level 2: All Dolls? population limit is increased by 4, certain skills from some dolls is upgraded to Level 3.
Level 3: All Dolls? population limit is increased by 6, certain skills from some dolls is upgraded to Level 4.
What it means by 'certain skills' is not the general skills you get from leveling up. It means skills like the bonus damage in headshot and... Well, that's it really. Just makes headshot stronger and increases amount of dolls, which is quite crucial later on.
And the skill you always have
Returning Doll (C)
Unsummons the target doll. Recovers MP equal to half of the summoning cost.
This skill is far more useful than you'd think. Use this on a doll near dead and summon it up again for half price! Really cuts down on mp cost, but isn't useful for burst damage skills.
With all the skills out of the way, we start with items!... Or I would, if Alice weren't so versatile. You can go with any skill set up, item set up, and if you are fairly competent you'll do well, regardless of what you do. I'll merely list two(maybe three) of the more common builds for her. We'll be starting with...
BEEFY ALICE!
Now that I'm done making you go 'wwwhhhyyy!' This Alice build is designed against Alice not dying, which is a pretty good idea. If you are the weakest part, then beefing yourself up will make you a far more difficult customer to deal with. But what's more interesting is that this Alice depends on gold a lot more than she cares about experience, so Beefy Alice works best as a pure jungler. This'll also help your allies as they get more solo experience, so they can at least defend against a possible dual-lane. In this I'll be listing a set of steps for the crucial early game, and then a much more laid back mid and late-game.
First things first, summon up a Shanghai doll and buy your items. What are you buying?
Yep, just a ticket, s'all you really need really. Buy your ticket, summon up the two other Shanghai's and we'll begin the jungling!
This is the map you'll use as Hakurei. Where you go is dictated by the numbers, but it isn't quite that simple! There is quite a bit of strategy to it.
1=This is where you start off! Set all your Shanghai to defend(it's only a -20% decrease) when they are just about next to the enemy creep and let them attack. NEVER LET ALICE ATTACK FIRST! She'll get attacked otherwise and you got no healing items! It'll be a little slow, but you should take down the first camp with one mid to badly damaged Shanghai. Undefend them all, switch out the weak one and..!
2=We head off to 2! Once again defend all the Shanghai and do a part 2 of what you did earlier, but midway through this fight you'll reach level 2! Hooray! Get a New England squad up as your Shanghais tear apart the enemy. At the end of the fight you'll have another weakened Shanghai, so switch her out for a fresh one again. After this fight, you'll have 3 Shanghai, 2 New England Dolls. That's when..
3= We head to 3! On the way you can summon your 3rd New England Doll, and you shouldn't have a lot of mana at this point, but it's okay. Set your Shangais up to defense once again, and if Alice and the New England dolls are in 600 range, they'll attack automatically so you can be a little lazier. At this point you'll reach level 3, level up Shanghai once again. If Shanghai has less than 33% hp, switch her out, otherwise keep her in and don't summon another yet, for we go to...
4=The ancient creep camp! Yes, we're tackling these at level 3. Set up but one defending Shanghai who goes in first, and get the other two next to the creeps and get them spinning. If it's a swarm of monsters the two spinning will take care of most of them, if it's the one warlock-y dude? Well he'll probably zap the first one into oblivion, so set up another defender and constantly spin with different dolls. Never stop spinning! At this point you're pretty much out of mana or at least almost out of mana, so teleport back to base and buy...
The ticket is for when you go home again much later on, and Zun's hat is for your first item and even gives a bonus to hp. Summon up as many New England dolls as you can in the meantime and summon up only two Shanghai dolls. By the time you leave the base, camps 1 and 2 will be open again for killing. If you were fast, camp 3 may be open too. This time though, we're going to be a little lazier. Shanghais defend, new england lay on some hurt. This continues through to camp 5 and 6 as well. When we reach...
7=Here, make sure you have 3 Shanghai dolls once again and you should be level 5 by now, if not level 6. Do the same thing you did in 4, have dolls spinning and the New England Dolls support. After this you should be level 6! Hooray! Un-summon the Shanghai and max summon your New England. By the time you are done camp 7, camps 1-5 should be open for business again, so keep going back and forth. When you move, set your dolls to flying so they are faster, fly over everything, and not hamper your movement. Next to a creep camp, set 'em down and let them start blasting. One doll becomes weak, switch 'em out, but most creeps will die before they are seriously hurt. If a lane near you is getting pushed hard at this point, help out a bit, give him enough time to go back to base and come back refreshed, or shoo away the creeps. By the time you've done a round and a half, you can go back to base and get...
This item is awesome on Alice. It gives her dolls and everyone around her(including herself) +4 armor and +18 damage. Later on when you have 12 dollies going pew pew, that's +216 damage! Woah! It's an overall great item for Alice. After that, continue jungling and helping allies when necessary. Be very strict with jungling though and jungle as often as possible, and buy...
That's right, TWO of them. These items are cheap and give a large boost to both hp AND mana, very needed for Alice. One round of creep waves will give one part of these items each run, so after about 14 minutes, you should have both of them. I will remind you that by the time you have these, it should be nearing the 25 minute mark, and you'll have about 2,500hp. You ain't dying to much and your dolls will tear apart anyone that wants to fight you. Even Yuugi. Keep with the jungling as often as you can, support allies, and you'll get...
Sometimes, things just get too hairy, you might get ambushed, Yuugi decides to Omae you, all sorts of things. This is an 'oh dear!' button.. Just in case. By this point you are either winning or losing. If you are losing, jungling is now more of a side thing. Your role now is to start pushing back. With your giant hp, you ain't dying anything soon, your dolls will tear apart most things faster than they can kill you. If you're winning, pushing is more of a side thing, but you should still do it. At this point only your own competence will help you, but a rough item layout should be...
And either or
In order of importance...
1. Parasol
2. HJ Bug
3. Adamantine
4. Sukima Generator
5. Zun Glasses(magic heavy team)/Myon Balloon(physical heavy team)
6. Frozen Frog
This is the Moriya map. Same general rule applies, but when you finish your first run, skip #2 and 3.
Of course there are some other characters that can jungle. They are your...
Enemies!
Sometimes Momiji likes to jungle or send her wolves out to jungle. If this appears, it's pretty likely it'll start attacking you. What'll you do?!... Well actually, you'll just get your shanghai doll to spin next to them. Level 1 and 2 wolves will die instantly, and level 3 and 4 wolves will die to a spin+dolls firing away. You'll take some damage and give away your location, so I suggest you get outta dodge to another creep camp or back to base. Time they spend looking for you is time they spend not getting exp.
Flan jungles. She does that better than most characters, and you are likely to find her. But this is early game, and Flan has no hp. Set your Shanghai dolls around you and make them spin. The clones should vanish almost immediately and Flan will wonder why she's so dang hurt all of a sudden. Later on she'll probably try to Kyuu you and stuff, but hopefully you'll have adamantine at that point. Try to have at least two Shanghai for Flan though, one spin won't kill her, and your mission in case of Flan is kill her before she kills you.
I'd say run, but Rumia doesn't jungle and start trolling until level 6 and she'll get you anyways. If you are facing a Rumia, forget level 3 and 4 of New England and get Hourai and set up some dolls around the creep locations. If she bumbles upon you, turn on the invisible detector and lay it into her. You'll probably kill her before she kills you. Alternatively, you could trap her with your dolls. She isn't invisible to collisions with darkness you know.
Another girl you forego level 3 and 4 New England. Her beetles will be doing her farming and a quick spin will solve that problem, and once again set up hourai dolls at every creep camp. Unlike Rumia who is quite obvious, Wriggle is always invisible, so turn on the invisible detector when you start killing creeps. You can never know when she's following you.. And you'll get those pesky burrowed beetles too.
GO AWAY CHEN YOU BOTHER ME!
GENERAL NOTES ON BEEFY ALICE!
-After you get an HJ, get Hourai level 2 and set her up in random forest places, but not next to creep camps. By now the enemy has noticed your jungling and will probably try to gank you.
-Even if you have ginormous hp, try to stay in the back. Your mana is enormous enough to summon two full armies before you need to start being careful with mana, and Hourai won't heal your wounds so fast(and what if there are AoEs for said Hourai?!)
-Spinning dolls cannot defend, and leave spinning in not-defend mode. Additionally, spinning is affected by armor, so don't wonder why it won't kill certain creeps.
Now for the other, more deadly Alice..
ATTACK ALICE
This Alice is.. Well, deadly! She will demolish anything in her path in a flash, unless they have incredible hp and defense. She needs gold too, but not as badly as her beefy counterpart. She'll also be a lot squishier than her counterpart as well, but way way more damage as well.
Well first things first. What do you get?! Well that's simple.
You are going to get some pies later, the lover card is just in case, and ticket is obvious. Now let's start with the early lane!
You'll want to level up New England Doll right away, and summon up 3 of her in base while you are buying items. After that, try to head either bottom or top... Preferrably top. After that, you'll want to play conservatively, but at the same time you'll never want 100% mana, and you'll always want creeps to stay in the general area, so don't attack wildly. Level 2 you get Hourai. If you are top Moriya, start putting them either right behind or right in front of the tower, if you are at bottom Moriya, try to keep the Hourai a bit before where the creeps FIRST met and started brawling. Also, make sure the creeps are never too pushed so that Hourai is out of range as a result. Last hit and deny is what you'll be doing mostly. Once again, creeps must be in the same area. At level 5 if all went well, you should still have a fair amount of mp, 4 gun girls toting it up, and just gotten level 3 hourai. What that means is that it is time to hunker down and set up shop. You ain't moving from there for anything unless a 4 man gank occurs. If you are Hakurei, just reverse the Moriya areas.
This is where the fun begins. Even if you have no creeps, tank the creeps with New England Dolls or otherwise(the enemy girl will take this as a 'Ah-ha! He wants to die!' thing, pump her full of lead for her trouble), and retreat to only in FRONT of the hourai dolls to heal up. Those hourai dolls will heal you up almost instantly, the wave they had is dead, and yours is coming now! If you are bot Moriya, that means the enemy tower is constantly being hit, and if you are top Moriya, your tower will never get hit. You are bunkering down and all you care about is getting that sweet creep kill exp and gold.. Even if you do get a bit beat up for your trouble. After a while, or against certain enemies, you'll probably be forced to retreat or die. It WILL eventually happen, it's cool, no worries. However, by the time you get back to base or revive, you should have enough for these.
Yeah, you can imagine where this is going. If you can't afford these items? You did something wrong or you got to face Reimu. If you do face someone like Reimu, go to another lane IMMEDIATELY. Tell that other person to get over there because Alice is 100% useless against characters like that. Even if you have to waste mana to re-summon the initial New England dolls. Better than getting your early game gimped.
Well it's back to the spot you were at and bunker down again. You won't be teleporting because new england dolls are expensive! Just summon them while you are buying and mosey back on to your area. If you were top Moriya(bot Hakurei) push to near the enemy tower and bunker there so that the enemy tower starts taking a beating, and set up an Hourai doll behind or near you.. Just in case. If you are bot Moriya/top Hakurei, you get back to in front of their place and keep doing whatever it was you were doing. During this time, your skill order should be...
ENGLAND
HOURAI
ENGLAND
HOURAI
HOURAI
DOLLS WAR
ENGLAND
ENGLAND
HOURAI(probably here if you dual-laned)
SHANGHAI
DOLLS WAR(probably here if solo)
As you can see, Shanghai doesn't really have a place right now, and you'll be given a choice. Own the tower probably decrease gold consumption, or not smash the tower and increase overall gold production. The choice is yours, but as soon as you make 1950, you might want to consider heading back so you can get your bread and butter item.
If you can, get one of these as well, whichever you can.
Summon up your New Englands in base again and now? Now you can probably start wandering a bit. Visit another lane and kill them there or start jungling a little. Although if you CAN, you can just go back to your area and wreck that tower now. Your New Englands should already be causing some SERIOUS hurt already. It probably has +40 attack, which means crits of almost 200. At mid-game, this is seriously deadly, but 10 of these firing at you? Chances are at least one doll will hit you with 200, the rest will hit you with 70 damage. That's enough to turn just about anything into dead in four shots. An update on your skills, you only need one level of Shanghai really. You ain't gonna find a use for her in a while, and you have more important things to level up at 12+. Like your stat gains.
As a result, each level each doll will recieve +16hp and +2 attack. You might not think the attack doesn't matter, but at level 18 or so they'll gain an extra +15 attack from the levels and stat ups alone. The little things really matter.
By level 20 you should have an item build a little something like this...
This is a worser case scenario by the way, in case you couldn't farm as much. You'll have more cash otherwise.
You'll also notice your inventory is almost full. When you get your next item, it should look something like this.
Yeah, it's a frozen frog. You got enough agi+ items, time to stack on the all stat+ items for more survivability, doll survivability, and damage increase. Should it get to that point, eat your pies rather selling them. You get more use out of eating it. This is a general final item build.
Well.. Not really. Always room for smoking dude. A general item list is...
1. Blood-Soaked Parasol
2. Kitsune Exalt
3. Green Llama Doll
4. Brother Sharp
5. Hakurei Shrine Amulet
6. Frozen Frog.
7, Sell Llama Doll, get Gap Generator
Now once again, with Damage Alice comes natural enemies, such as...
HER ULT WILL WRECK YOU! In case of Suika, ditch your dolls, turn on Kitsune, and get outta dodge. With kitsune and Llama, you should be about as fast as her, even if she is level 16. She'll either spend her time chasing you, wrecking your dolls, or go punch someone else. If your dolls aren't wrecked by the time she's done, sure go nuts.
As mentioned above, Reimu will end your early game bunkering fast and instantly, not to mention she has that physical shield. You'll either have to gank her, or just stay away from her.
In a battle of attrition early game, she's going to win. You won't kill her, but she'll always get away with only a bit of hp to spare.. Then she'll come back and do it again. Later game though? Not too bad.
If she has a PAD, you aren't doing a lot of damage to her unless it's late game. At that time though, you'll at least cause some damage before all your dolls explode from ice.
Those are the two builds I'd most recommend for Alice. They are both very strong in their respective areas, but there are a lot more builds out there that have new strengths and enemies. Of course, there are some enemies you'll always do crap against, such as...
If she gets next to you, all your dolls are gone and she will be back to full health faster than you can imagine.
Her Abyss Nova early game will wreck any dolls you have out.
Her ult says that if your dolls are dead. Only way to counter this is to spread them out(Very hard to do) or pump them full of hp
She's just going to troll you and teleport you somewhere outside of doll range, automatically making them vanish.
+8 armor, +500 hp, AND a radiance? Makes killing this user way harder than it should be.
Finally, there is the
TIPS & TRICKS
-To control dolls and Alice with hotkeys, click or make a group of the unit you want to hotkey, then click ctrl+a number. For example, click on Alice, ctrl+1 Alice. Now whenever I press 1, I'll automatically take control of Alice. Group up 5 Shanghai, ctrl+2, whenever I press 2, I'll get those 5 Shanghai. This has to be redone every time you summon new dolls, which is a pain.
-To control your Shanghai train, you have to take control of the head Shanghai doll and click where you want her to go. It's better to do it a bit behind the enemy or predict where she will go since it'll take Shanghai train a moment to get there. This is easier if you make a control group of the Shanghais and take control of them as you start the train.
-It seems that at some point, head shot got simplified with Alice's ultimate to 2/3/4x crit, and her anti-fortress gunpowder goes 1/2/3x damage. Think about that with the Damage Alice build.
-Shanghai dolls are troll against Kaguya, she can't run away and her nuke can't kill them. You'd be surprised at how many heroes are weak to a Shanghai surrounding.
-Try to avoid sub-doll on Alice. Her dolls give away her location and the stats on it aren't very good for Alice. If you need sub-doll on Alice, you ain't playing her right.
-Alice is one of the few people that benefits from +all stat items just as much as +str, +agi, or +int items.
-It only takes 5 Shanghai to trap someone from moving. That means at level 5, you can potentially kill someone.. Who can't blink anyways.
CLOSING WORD!
I really like Alice, as I've always had a penchant for versatility, but she takes so much work to play, but it gives off a very satisfying feeling when you win as Alice. I hope this guide gives people who read this that Alice can be one of the more overpowered girls while oddly being held back by the weaker ones. Curious!
I honestly have a LOT of ideas floating around in my head as Alice, since she can basically work around whoever she is laning against, even the most OP heroes have a hard time with a competent Alice around, as I made a few references to Wriggle up there. She reminds me of the lethal joke character in RPGs and fighters, hard to master and doesn't seem like much, but once you really delve into it, she is crazy. Oh well, hope you enjoyed reading!
Amraphenson:
Amra's guide to his waifu Yamame Kurodane
Yamame is a strength hero that brings a lot to the table. She has a very high pushing ability, very useful on ganks, controls lanes like no one else's business, and can even serve as a soft carry with how spiders work. However, she has a few quirks that need to be learned before she works well, and no matter what your item load out you'll always be pretty squishy. Not that they'll be alive to exploit that
Pros:
* Great pushing ability with her unkillable spiders
* Lane control is easy thanks to the same spiders; melee heroes will have a very tough time of it
* Very resistant to solo ganks
* Poison effectively gives her a free extra 30% DPS
* Great attack animation, once you're used to it; plenty better than her old animation
* High base move speed.
* Absurdly powerful ult that pretty much ensures the death of at least one person, or at the absolute least a fountain trip.Cons
* Squishy for a strength hero
* Spiders take some time getting used to, along with her attack animation. Their placement is also fairly crucial to her push down strategy
* Not a whole lot of base DPS
* Her mana pool needs items to sustain herMechanics
First off, let's have Yamame's stats. Her primary stat, strength, starts off at 21 and grows by 2.1 per level. Agility starts off at 23 and gains 2.2 per level, while intelligence begins at 16 and grows by 1.6. This leaves Yamame with low hp for a strength hero, low mana levels (based on her skills), but conversely a good armor level and attack speed. Item options thus spread into 1) taking advantage of this attack speed, 2) compensating for her low strength, or 3) covering up for her mana so she can spam without restraint. Each of these ideas have their own benefits and detriments
Animation wise, Yamame turns fairly fast and has a very fast cast animation. Her attack animation is also fast, being a fast swipe. However, the attack animation tends to loop itself without effect if you just auto attack one thing, so animation canceling is vital. Her net and spider web come out nearly instantly, while her Ult has no cast animation at all, only a very minor cast delay.
Skills
Yamame's innate skill, which causes every hit she lands and every hit her spiders land to leave a poison that deals 5% of her damage or 5% of the spiders' damage per 2 seconds for twelve seconds, in effect adding 30% damage to any attack they do. This poison stacks with itself, leading to very high poison damage if you get hit a lot or hard. Thanks to this innate, Yamame can now actually kill things. Item choices to support this are recommended.
Trap Sign "Capture Web"
(Cast Range: 550/600/650/700)
(AoE: 175/200/225/250)
(Spirit Cost: 70/80/90/100)
(Cooldown: 15/14/13/12s)
Yamame's disable of choice, and a pretty good one at that. Web locks down anything within the AoE at the time of impact, which is about a second after cast, cutting out channeling, preventing attacking and moving, but not preventing skill casts. Capture Web is crucial if you want your spiders to catch up to enemy heroes, during chases, or if you need a disable in general. Aim around 100 distance in front of a moving enemy to catch them, so long as they're not weaving and otherwise not running in a straight line. Things caught in net also have a slightly higher chance to have spiders attack them when they spawn, but this is only in my experience. Don't rely on net as a targeting mechanism for them.
Poison Sign "Japanese Foliage Spider"
(Cast Range: 400)
(AoE: 1000)
(Spirit Cost: 60/80/100/120)
(Cooldown: 22s)
Ah, the crux of Yamame's gameplay. Spiders. Those flying, squishy eating spiders. Yamame's spiders, as far as I can tell, have the same AI as Koishi. They'll attack the closest thing to them when they spawn, kill that, then move to the next closest thing and kill that. For 10 seconds, at least. They're invulnerable, can't be controlled, have 13 attack, melee range, and a move speed of 270. They also have no collision and have flying pathing, so you may get stacks of spiders chasing you over the forest wall and arachnids descending from the cliffs to eat you. They also scale with the amount of bonus strength you have damage wise and the amount of bonus agi you have attack speed wise. This leads to some...interesting build options, and even more interesting push ability. Because of spider's invulnerability, all you can really do is tank or run away. Because poison stacks, tanking is generally a bad idea; this leads to great lane control, especially versus melee heroes. It's also a good zoning tool against slower heroes, since they won't be able to walk past spiders without getting molested. Spiders can also push down any tower with one wave, or at least effectively so, but only if all the spiders from a lvl4 skill use hate on the tower. This can lead to as early as five minute tower downs, or all the laning towers down within 12 minutes (personal record). Further synergies will be discussed later for items
Miasma Sign "Filled Miasma"
(AoE for Bounce: 400)
(DPS: 50/75/100/125)
Another passive, and actually a fairly useful one compared to the love-it-or-hate-it-old R-passive. Filled Miasma gives you a twenty percent change to send a chain lightning poison on hit, which deals the above DPS + poison from your innate; the innate poison applied this way is amplified with the DPS from R passive. (I think. Not sure on this) This improves Yamame's DPS and would theoretically lead to good lane harassing, but it generally pales in comparison to Spider harass. A useful skill, especially considering Yamame's mana early on.
Web Sign "Fine Spun Thread"
(Spirit Cost: 150)
(CD: 60/45/30)
(Range: 600/750/900)
(Damage: 20/35/50 damage for each of the following types: Physical, magical, pure, crushing, absolute. Total 100/175/250 damage per use. 3/4/5 consecutive uses or 15s without use causes cooldown to kick in.)
(Spiderman, spiderman~)
Now editted for 0.967f. Yamame's new ult is now the cause for her ban from general MotK play. Dealing an absurd amount of damage while ensuring you are right up close and personal with who you're targetting, be it a hero or tower, Fine Spun Thread now has no weaknesses. You can either spam it on the same person for a quick 1250 damage, a good portion of that being pure, or stagger it and add spiders and net into the equation. Either way, it rips apart anyone you target. Get it whenever you can. The cooldown mechanics on Fine Spun Thread work as such: Once you use it for the first time, a timer starts. Using Fine Spun Thread resets this counter. You can use Fine Spun Thread any number of times, up to 3/4/5 depending on level. Once you either 1) reach 15 seconds on the timer, or 2)Use up all your Fine Spun Thread uses, the cooldown kicks in.
Skill Builds
I'll say it right now: Max spiders ASAP. This is an opinion, of course, but Spiders is by far her best skill. For her secondary skill, you can generally take either chain poison or net without really changing things too much. If you want to farm faster, take third skill. If you want to gank early (which you probably will, considering Yamame's roaming potential), take first skill. Take Fine Spun Thread whenever possible, as well.
Items
A good progression for Yamame is 5 skewers to start out with (Right off the bat, the easiest way to start this is four mushrooms and a nice girl card or good girl card) This is fairly easy on the farm and generally available within the first 7 minutes. After that, work on a Sukima for global spider trollage and generally faster farming, plus to take advantage of that high MS. After the skewers, it really depends. Tacticus has an obvious advantage for spiders. Camera also works well. Striking a balance between attack damage and attack speed on spiders is generally a good idea. For that, items like Poison Dress, Frozen Frog, and Moderators have obvious applications. My end game build is Tacticus/Camera/Sukima/Anchor/Frog/Adamantine, but that's me.
Useful Items:
* Tea: Obvious uses here, lets you spam your skills a bit more. I'd only really advise tea to start the game with, and only if you're taking Net instead of chain poison.
* Bento: Depending on who you lane with, this can provide you with the early mana you need. But if you're smart with your webs and nets, you may not need this.
* Skewer: Effectively what Yamame depends upon early game, since Yamame benefits a lot from all of the three stats. Gives her mana for her spells, attack speed for spider attack speed and her own attack speed, and strength for HP, damage on spiders, and damage on herself. All around good item, especially if you eat them as you buy your other items.
* Magician's Hat: Fixes Yamame's mana problems with a fairly cheap solution, then gives you a way to keep people in place while you slam down spiders or aim a net. However, otherwise Hat doesn't give you any benefit. Plenty of team benefits though.
* Sukima Generator: Oh gods, the benefits this thing gives. So good. Improves Yamame's base MS, which is already good, to faster than most other heroes. Lets Yamame instantly move to creeps and lock down a lane, or quickly get away, or close distance and support allies with spiders. Llamas in comparison may provide attack speed as well, but considering Yamame's already decent attack speed and farm speed, Sukima isn't too much more and provides more benefit. Your choice, though.
* Moderators: Kind of a gimmick, but if you're going for the death cage build I generally go for, very useful for adding to the DPS that does. Mods don't affect spiders with their MS aura, however, but their stomp does help spiders close the distance.
* Subdoll: Hey, invisibility. Plenty of ways to use this. Slam down spiders, give it a second, hit them with net, etc. Play mind games by using Ult then subdoll. Clone also has Yamame's innate on it, and despite doing no damage the poison is of equal strength to the real Yamame's. Also solves mana problems, obviously, and gives a nice damage and attack speed bonus too.
* Go Home and Get Married: Besides helping your team with the disable and solving mana problems forever, Hex also lets you land nets easy and gives spiders time to catch up. Also has a nice damage bonus.
* Phoenix Wings: Fixes Yamame's squishiness issues, along with giving her radiance. Radiance has this weird effect in that it triggers her poison as well on whatever it damages; this might be useful for just trolling, but I haven't tested it much myself to really make a conclusion.
* Tacitus: One, solves squishy issues forever. Two, gives you a pretty stupid amount of damage. Three, gives your spiders a stupid amount of damage. The only thing that stops me from getting this more is the amount of cash you need for it, but otherwise work for it if you have time to get luxury items.
* Watermelon Blade: Still an item I like on Yamame, but nowadays it's a little gimmick. Working on stats to improve spiders all around is generally better.
* Poison Dress: Mostly a gimmick item, but it does provide Yamame with both strength and agi while also giving a mediocre benefit. Consider it as a luxury item.
* Frozen Frog: Consider getting this after your first tacticus. It works very well for both improving spiders and improving your own attack; with both Fine Spun Thread, Capture Web, and your Frozen Frog, whatever you focus on probably isn't getting away
* Anchor: Once you most likely become the focus of everyone's attention (because you're killing everything), consider an Anchor for punishing their harassment attempts while also making it a lot, lot harder for them to kill you without killing themselves.
To be edited later if I really feel like it. Enjoy the spiders, and remember: all of this is only a suggestion. 'cept for the mechanics part. :>
Helepolis:
Note! Read else die by keystones.
This guide on Chiko is also based on personal experience. So let us see how it becomes. I am sure there will be plenty of disagreements like "Go full kebabs only" etc. But yea, opinions. Based on DotS version 0.967f
Girl of the Highest Heaven - Hinanawi Tenshi
"Rise, Sword of Hisou and bring forward their weakness! Strike, Sword of Hisou and make them suffer!"
Introduction
Chiko is an interesting strength unit which is pretty newbie friendly with her usage and skills. I would definitely advise newcomers to try her out if you are new to DotS. Her only downside is the dynamic item built ability. There isn't a real solid build for her because anything basically goes. Let us first check her statistics.
STRAGIINT25 + 2.517 + 1.918 + 1.6ArmorMSPDRange2300127665 hp270 mana57~60 dmg
Ok so Chiko is obviously a STR hero. With a base of 25 and +2.5 growth, she is pretty low ranked in terms of tank class. She is ranked with Mokou, Minamitsu, Utsuho but stronger than Medicine, Rin or Minoriko. She is way below true STR girls like Meiling, Yugi or Suika. Then again, this forms no problem for our peachy girl as she has skills which make up for her loss. Furthermore her melee range is pretty decent, allowing her to hit from relative nice distance. Her speed is bit average but fast enough to move around. The starting 2 armour gives you 12% damage reduction from start.
Skills
As we said, Chiko's low STR and stats are covered by her amazing skills. She has useful skills which can annoy the hell out of enemies. I just want to note that she is also excellent team player in terms of defending and pushing. The skill comments will give you an idea why and the reasons can be read at the skill and behaviour section. Before we continue, a few things you should keep in mind about her:
* Chiko cannot fully tank without proper item builds. This slightly limits her potential.
* Chiko is an excellent team player.
* Chiko is low HP punisher. Girls will always fear you.
Earth Sign "Sword of the Unyielding Soil" (D) Naming: Fissure / Quake
Tenshi strikes the ground, launches straight travelling quake doing damage and stunning in it's path. Magic damage.
Cast Range: 1200 (Maximum)
Spirit Cost: 115/130/145/160MP
Cooldown: 16/15/14/13s
Level 1: Does 125 damage, 1.1 second stun.
Level 2: Does 175 damage, 1.25 second stun.
Level 3: Does 225 damage, 1.4 second stun.
Level 4: Does 275 damage, 1.55 second stun.Celestial commentThis skill is exactly a copy from Earth Shaker in DotA. It hits fast, does a lot of damage and stuns for a brief moment. The ground which has been quaked cannot be passed for several seconds. This allows Tenshi to trap enemy girls for massive brawls or block enemy girls to save your allies. As you can already guess, it is a pretty useful skill. Just be careful you don't accidentally trap yourself or allies when you are trying to kill an enemy girl. Bad usage can quickly lead to bad results. The biggest downside is the MP usage. For a STR hero, it is not advised to spam.
Heaven Sign "Sword of the Divine Justice" (passive) Naming: Stun / Keystone
Every 360/STR seconds, Tenshi deals a shockwave strike with her regular attack. Magic damage.
Level 1: 300 Area of Effect, deals 40 damage, 0.3 second stun.
Level 2: 340 Area of Effect, deals 55 damage, 0.4 second stun.
Level 3: 380 Area of Effect, deals 70 damage, 0.5 second stun.
Level 4: 420 Area of Effect, deals 95 damage, 0.6 second stun.Celestial commentChiko is often bored. I can understand her worries. Being celestial is tough job. Sitting around, being worshipped 24/7 with all the food and things you desire. So? What do you do? Exactly! Crash down on enemy girls with your key stone. Basically, Chiko gains passive stun every 360 / her STR. The more STR, the faster the key stone activates. The more STR you gain, the faster your keystone reloads. Stun on this skill isn't long, but if you strike it like every 2 seconds, it becomes extremely strong skill. This is where Chiko is stronger than other units with similar or weaker HP. Your enemy simply won't have any chance to hit back or react because of the constant stuns.
Earthquake "Sword of Worry and Joy" (passive) Naming: M-Ko
Each time Tenshi gets hit, she recovers MP.
Level 1: Recovers 2 MP.
Level 2: Recovers 4 MP.
Level 3: Recovers 6 MP.
Level 4: Recovers 8 MP.Celestial commentPersonally I hate Chiko being portrait as girl who likes to receive pain. But in DotS, pain is a good thing for her. It helps her recover MP fast. Just be careful you don't become too cocky thinking pain is good. You might want to raise her defence first with things like metallic bra. We will elaborate on this skill specifically in the strategy section as this is not a useless skill. In fact, it is quite handy to learn.
"Scarlet Weather Rhapsody of All Humankind" (W) Naming: Ult / Zap / SWR
Launches red lightning bolts all over the map, striking all enemy girls with 100% chance and randomly enemy units or enemy yukkuris. The map will be revealed for a brief moment with red mist, indicating an incoming attack. Does pure damage.
Spirit Cost: 250/375/500MP
Cooldown: 120s
Level 1: Does 200 damage to all enemy girls, does 100 damage to all enemy units.
Level 2: Does 300 damage to all enemy girls, does 150 damage to all enemy units.
Level 3: Does 400 damage to all enemy girls, does 200 damage to all enemy units.Celestial commentIf Chiko is your enemy, and you are on low life: I would quickly go heal or pray for mercy. Either way she is going to come down on you hard. The skill is global, meaning it hits everywhere on the map. Since 0.957 or so, the skill became pure damage. Meaning it cannot be blocked or reduced any more unless you have invulnerability skills or items. When you spot a girl below certain HP and your skill has enough damage, launch it and watch them die.
Core items
Core Built 1: + any STR raising item.
Not getting Scythe on Chiko means you won't be dealing any damage to other girls. You won't have Yugi / Suika tier HP, but neither you don't want to be getting killed around for being weak. Scythe is pretty much standard on any melee STR hero. Because she is dynamic, you can built Tenshi the way you like. If the enemy has singular disable skills (Keine/Sunny/Yuyuko) get a Hakurei amulet etc.
Core extensions
PAD (2225) - Need more protection or tanking? Get PAD. +230HP, regen and blocking is a simple and effective form of becoming more tank. Tacticus aka Jichael Mackson (6000) - Who's bad! Hiii hiiiii! Beat it, beat it, be--- yeah well this item turns you into Jichael Mackson and then Chiko becomes extremely excited adding +40 STR and 30% HP regen. The passive skill on this item, makes your HP regen faster. The +40 STR is mainly useful for lowering the CD on your keystone. Definitely advised to get if you can. Frozen Frog (5100) - Want to stun your enemies but cannot catch them? No problem, give Chiko a frozen frog. Your enemies will be slowed and with the walk speed of Llama or Sukima, you will keep keystone stunning them late game.Phoenix Wings (4200) - This item is more like a HP and armour combination, while dealing passive damage. I would pick Tacticus above Phoenix though, because most likely someone else in your team gets Phoenix.Red Llama (1700) - Again as explained with my Remilia guide, Red Llama here would benefit Chiko a lot. It both benefits her passive stun as well as giving her attack speed and movement speed to stay in action. Definitely advised to get this until you got other STR raising items.
Optional
Yatagarasu (1625) - If you want to secure your ultimate, then get this. It also helps you spam fissures more often in lane. Logically skip this item if you have a minoriko with you or a Sanae.Titanic Oar (2200) - Chiko isn't primarily a dps girl. Getting critical chance on her is nice but not a must. If you combine this with frozen you will get more benefit out of your attacks. It depends on the situation and enemy girls.Moderators (5200) - The moderators have noticed Chiko's peachy stun and thought it would be nice to give her more stun. Combine this with basher and hope the enemy does not rage quits. Just keep in mind aoe girls most likely destroy mods so know what you are doing.Myon (2250) - Only buy this if you think your team doesn't have any other tank and you are focussing on 100% tanking abilities. Combine this with pad and ZUN (if required). You will gain like 65-68% damage reduction in total. Nice huh?Tentacle (4200) - Interesting play item for Chiko. Create a ring of tentacles to capture girls and beat the hell out of them while they are being stunned. Adds +30 STR which is not so bad. But personally I would skip this item unless you intend to be funny.Sukima Generator (2300) Instant jerk Chiko anywhere on the map! When your allies are in pinch and require lots of stunning and earthquakes. Jiao's showmask (2400) - This item used to lower % damage on enemies, however it slows. For getting free high STR and a 4 second slow disable, it is perhaps considerable to buy. But very low priority! Inaba's medicinal sceptre (2700) - There is never enough stun on Chiko. With this item and an attack speed raiser, you will get nice attack speed and stun for ever.
Skills and usage
Ok so there are various forms you can learn Chiko's skills. For the most basic, you can go M-Ko which is safest built for any newbie.
M-ko > Basics is to keep your mana pool as high as possible so you can spam fissure a lot around. You will only get 1 level of fissure and maximize F and R as fast as possible. Fissure will be only used for blocking, disabling or trapping. It won't be used for damaging, neither for farming (perhaps last hitting is possible). Your passive stun (F) will be your primary attack. Therefore, you need to be cautious on noticing the key stone reload. If it is present, try to last hit or disable enemy girls with it.
Your keystone is your friend. Know when it will be up and use it to last hit on enemy creeps. Don't harass the enemy with this skill unless it is level 3+. Keystone is a free sure-last-hist skill. "So when do I use it to hit enemy?" you would say. Against squishies. When you have a creep wave and less enemy creeps -> fissure and block the enemy's path. Now rush into her and keystone slam her in the face. At low levels, this is almost a sure kill (if the enemy doesn't heal/blink/run away). This method works also best for ganks.
Your ultimate skill is pure damage. You should get it as soon as it becomes available. The enemy will always be cautious once you reach level 6, because they know jerk lightning might appear if they are on low life.
So basically, this is what you should aim for level 6:
Level 7 to 11
Level 12 to 16
Level 16+ , what ever makes you happy.
Laning, awareness and behaviour
First things first. Tenshi always and always solo lanes up to level 6. The only and ONLY moment she doesn't is when all four enemies are ranged/extreme disables/strong. I don't care if you have to lane swap, but lane for god's sake SOLO up to level 6. After level 6, it doesn't matter any more. Why? Because you want zap very very very fast. Because the faster you get zap, the sooner you can get early kills.
Also take either LEFT or RIGHT lane, never ever EVER center. Because the sides have shops for fast teleportation in case you need to lane swap, gank , help, defend. Also it helps you purchase cakes/yukkuri faster. Because you don't start out with yukkuris anymore.
If Chiko is the only tank in the team without proper carry / support, consider yourself screwed. She is not the main tank and neither can she tank everything solo. Purely because she lacks the ability, speed and HP to be one. Unlike Yugi who can achieve high HP at level 8 already or Suika who can rely on her mist skill. Building a peach tank requires time and high farming. Try to last hit like a celestial and farm those points fast.
Second most important: Keep your lane close to tower. There is no reason for being aggressive with Tenshi. Because, if you want to go for a kill, you can easily lane block with fissure. Being closer to your tower means being closer to your allies. So a gank is even easier. Being closer to your tower means you are free-farming easier. Tenshi has the downside of pushing unintentionally too fast. Mainly due to her keystone. SO DON'T AUTO ATTACK STUFF. The keystone is a free last hit, so make good use of it. Even newbies who cannot last hit in this game can last hit with keystone. It is like stealing candy from a baby.
As explained in the skill section, your fissure (D) is a very handy skill. No matter at which level, the duration of the fissure effect is the same. Try to trap enemy girls during group pushes by sneaking around trees and firing the fissure behind the enemy. This way, she cannot run any more and will most likely be ganked. If your keystone is cooled, attack her to disable her for a little longer or to kill her effectively.
Want to keep your lane close? Fissure the hell out of your own creeps. Block their pathing so they take longer to go forward. Even better is to start out with (D) skill at level 1 and lane block when creeps spawn. Fissure also acts as a defensive skill. Fissure horizontally along the width of the lane to block enemy girls or creeps. Effective in messing up lanes and annoying enemies. This also works if your ally girl is running away and the enemy is highspeed chasing. Simply block the lane and your ally girl is happy. (Unless the enemy has blink or dash, this becomes useless).
Her passive R is useful. Many people would disagree thinking it wont regenerate enough MP. Mind them, as a tank you often get hit. And why would you ignore free MP on top of your low regen? If you combine this skill with double bra, you become M-ko. This way you can freely spam fissure level 1.
Her ultimate skill (or zap) is the killing skill. Only use it if you KNOW a girl will die. This is a common mistake newbies make with Tenshi. They use zap to damage enemy girls. You don't do this except on very rare conditions. See below which ones. Either way, her ult requires a lot of map awareness as well as telling your teammates to call for it. When I reach level 6 and learn the skill: I type: "call for ult when needed". This notifies your allies your ult is ready to be used. Also always keep them updated about your MP. Tell them you are OOM when you are OOM and tell them again if you got enough MP. Get a Yatagarasu if you fail at MP management. It would be really sucky and bad luck if 2 enemy girls are on low life and you don't have the MP to fire it.
Rare conditions when you do use SWR to damage girls
- Komachi being on your team and has death sentenced a girl. Because giving Komachi the kill is 10000x better than being greedy. Komachi is a far better tanker and farming her would be higher priority. Because you can always rely on your fissure.
- Utsuho using her ult, girls are trapped -> fire zap to get Utsuho a kill or fire after to get yourself perhaps a kill.
- Hina using her ult -> Similar to utsuho, helping her get a kill. First STUN the enemies so Hina can get close then use zap. If Hina doesn't mess up, she can get 1-4 kills from this.
- Burst damage required. This is extremely rare and rarely happens. Basically, it is when brawling and your entire team has high damaging nukes. This way taking out girls becomes faster.
How to not get bored as a celestial (Tips and tricks)
I kind of explained most of the things above. Keep in mind your stunning abilities. If the keystone swirls around your body, it means you got a stun on your next attack. Passive stun area of effect is pretty wide. Don't be afraid to think it didn't it. Most of the time it simply hits. Press ESC to see the effective CD for it.
Minoriko is a nice girl and her potatoes are sweet. Lane with her for jerk dual stunning and almost infinite MP. With her, you could go M-ko with higher level fissure! I only advice this past level 6 or if someone else needs solo lane (Komachi / Remilia etc)
Sanae is a cocky goddess, Chiko is a cocky celestial. Good! Let us become friends. Sanae's thunder has wide aoe effect. Once it hits, strike fissure and walk into range to deal the passive stone. Result -> Most likely a dead girl. Who said a goddess and celestial can't get along?
I could go on and one with the tips and tricks, but these are pretty much the most basic forms of being a celestial jerk. Be creative with your built and always keep track of your allies. Mostly your team will decide how you are going to play.
While some people say you should spent all your points on buying kebabs and raising STR, I disagree. Yes, this does stack HP fast and allows you your passive stun to trigger faster, but you will lack the ability to do anything else. I would either get four kebabs then built additional items and sell kebabs, or stick with 2 kebabs and built items. Eating kebabs is not needed, selling them is more beneficial.
Item starting
This is highly subjective and from my own experience:
M-ko. (Cost: 812, Protect those peaches. 12 seconds wait.)
If you want to play it safe. Best combined with 1 level or R, 1 level of D and max F.
Don't be afraid! Two bras means twice the protection! Now how about squeezing those lovely peaches, hmmm?
Picknick with Iku (Cost: 806, Yeah she does this. Got a problem? 6 seconds wait.)
This works if you the enemy team has lots of skill spammers. Helps you keep your MP up, make sure you upgrade it to luxurious bento
"Ifu, thif benfou if fealy good!" "Eldest daughter, please don't talk with your mouth full"
Spoiled girl 2 (Cost: 809, Be a bitch celestial and have 2 cakes. More cake! 9 seconds wait.)
For fast HP regeneration and fastest route to Scythe.
Iku! I want more! I want more! I want more!
Celestial Peach - To become a tough jerk fast. (Costs: 803, Gives large peaches. 3 seconds wait.)
Grants Tenshi around 950 HP, which is at level one awesome.
Chiko heard rumours these gave large breasts, not that she needs them, but somehow they seem to enlarge her peaches on her hat. Strange...
Helepolis:
Monday morning boring trial and error
Yea so definitely two different builds which will have extremely different opinions on the usage and benefits and what so ever. Basically I kind of prefer these two builds depending on the game, enemy players, enemy girls and my team mates. Based on version 0.957i+ but max to 0.960
Corrupted Patchouli
"The Library is a silent place, so should you be... 2 meters underground"
Corrupted like the Librarian girl she is. Oriented for durability and team assistance.
Pros
* Over +200 additional damage on top of your base when Phil stones are active
* Green dam is not going to save the enemy as it punctures through thanks to her metal element and main shot.
* Crits like a Mukyu (500 crits registered)
* Durable thanks to HJbugs and Myon
* When in doubt, sub doll out. Also good for SURPRISE MUKYU
Cons
* MP issues.
* Compared to DMT you lack the godly AS bonus on activate.
* DMT has +2 more attack compared to Melon.
* You lack 10% AS with llama and 5% with rainbow.Milking Patchouli
"What are you saying? Milk is good for you!"
There is a reason why Koakuma likes being near this Patchouli-sama. Orientated for maximum Mukyu (speed and mobility)
Pros
* Over +200 additional damage on top of your base when Phil stones are active
* You become a siege machine when DMT is toggled. Tower is dead within seconds.
* Sukima means you Mukyu everywhere and can farm like a Librarian goddess. (Or gank everywhere)
* Durable thanks to HJbugs and Myon
* When in doubt, sub doll out. Also good for SURPRISE MUKYU
Cons
* MP issues. If you toggle DMT your MP goes down faster.
* Expensive compared to just regular llama but becomes less if you compare to rainbow.
* You lack the armour corruption which can be good in terms of team play.
Differences:
With regular llama the AS difference is only 10%. With rainbow llama 5% (I am not counting in the toggle and activate effects of DMT/Rainbow as logically DMT will be better but at the risk of receiving 130% more dmg. With both builds you will have MP issues unless you intend to sacrifice armour/oar for more MP regen. The problem is that the number of MP % recover items are lollow as Hakkero has no longer the godly 300% regen but +40 INT. Even then the old hakkero had the godly toggle of secure MP for 12 seconds for those pinch fights.
So yea, spare the me the discussion about Hakkero. I did it 100x on IRC already. We have to dwi.
Don't hesitate to get Shouting Orc (ademinwtfthehellthenameis) if you got enough money. Godmode Mukyu == always good.
Charisma opinion
No Sukima Hele? Well, buy it then later on sell it before you get rainbow llama and your final item slot. Though Sukima is very good I agree for any situation. Pretty much a must I guess. Oh well. Personally, depending on the situation, I would Corrupted Patchouli with Sukima AND llama. Crazy as it may sound, it would work for me anyway. But that is just me. I am just more of a team player and support guy.
Helepolis:
Note: Based on DotS version 0.967f
The Sanzu ferryman - Onozuka Komachi
"My scythe reaps the impure souls, and cleanse them from corruption."
Introduction
Allow me to introduce you, our beloved Sanzu ferry girl, Komachi. Yes, she has large breasts but that isn't the point here. Komachi is a girl breaker, any girl around her fears her life because nobody wants to visit hell. She is also a huge brawler and formation breaker. She sounds awesome, but requires effort to play. Item building, understanding her skills is important to be a good tank on your team. Let us check our big breasted Shinigami's stats.
STRAGIINT26 + 2.918 + 1.716 + 1.4ArmorMSPDRange3.5300150668 hp224 mana57~62 dmg
Ok so what do we got here. A base STR of 26 with almost 3.0 growth. That is quite a lot, ranking her close to Yuugi/Suika but not yet. So do not get cocky by running into everything. Her AGI helps her achieve some decent attack speed and the INT is just ignorable because a Komachi rarely runs out of MP. A movespeed of 300 means she is relative ok, but her 150 melee range is a god's gift! It means you can stay out of melee range while reaping creeps. Isn't it awesome? 668 HP isn't a bad start for a tank with deadly late game abilities. All right, time for skills.
Skills
Komachi has decent STR and gain, though you should still be careful using her. Farming means everything for Komachi. Unlike most other girls, she cannot 100% rely on her skills, except her ultimate. But even then you want to be a good Shinigami right? And not be scolded by your boss, the Yama. Few facts:
* Komachi requires quite some effort to play. Especially when you are using (D) and (R) skill.
* With the right team mates, a huge game controller.
* Enemies below 50% are insta kill for you if you get your ult on them.
Soul Sign "Soul Games" (D) Naming: Swap
Komachi links the target?s soul to herself, if the target is still within 3600 Range after 2 seconds, both of them will switch their positions.
Spirit Cost: 70MP
Cooldown: 20/18/16/14s
Level 1: 200 Cast Range.
Level 2: 300 Cast Range.
Level 3: 400 Cast Range.
Level 4: 500 Cast Range.Slacking commentaryA very useful skill when you are close to your own towers. Swap the enemy in surprise behind your tower and watch them suffer. Swap also breaks formations when skirmishing. This skill becomes more awesome if you have a medicine or fellow disabler on your team. Just swap the girl into your teammates and watch them pummel her to death. Just keep in mind that swapping means YOU take the position of the girl's old location. If she is running into their own team, it means YOU are screwed. (Or towers screw you). So don't randomly go swap people.
Death Sign "Scythe of Final Judgment" (passive) Naming: Scythe
Komachi has a 17% chance to swing her scythe, dealing damage to all enemies within 230 radius.
Level 1: Swing deals 130 damage.
Level 2: Swing deals 180 damage.
Level 3: Swing deals 230 damage.
Level 4: Swing deals 280 damage.Slacking commentaryReap through those bastards trying to cross the Sanzu river without a payment. The skill is not something to rely on, until you get enough attack speed to increase proc chances. Though don't be afraid to slash your enemy a few times, because if the skill procs it will do quite a lot of damage. This is also your only burst damage, so max it out ASAP.
Soul Sign "Scythe of Exiled Souls" (passive) Naming: Spirits/Souls
Summons spirits from dead creeps lasting 120 seconds, can be controlled and detonated. Also gives Agility and Strength stat boost. Explosion does 80 + 4% of target max HP. Does magic damage in 320 radius. Souls are invulnerable to anything. Souls lose 1 hp/second and lose HP faster if they are further away from her. If Komachi is in range they grant her some regeneration.
Level 1: Maximum number of Souls is 3, 250 Movement Speed. +2 Strength, +1 Agility.
Level 2: Maximum number of Souls is 5, 270 Movement Speed. +4 Strength, +2 Agility.
Level 3: Maximum number of Souls is 7, 290 Movement Speed. +5 Strength, +3 Agility.
Level 4: Maximum number of Souls is 8, 310 Movement Speed. +8 Strength, +4 Agility.Slacking commentaryAh, the micro-management skill. First, this skill is useful to max out quickly, because it gives free STR and AGI. Further more you can detonate souls to damage creeps, neutrals or enemy girls. This works even better if the enemy is under death mark. BOOM -> Teleport reap -> win. Souls are also perfect for scouting, otherwise they serve as blocking/HP regen.
Short-Lived "Short Life Expectancy" (W) Naming: Ult / Reap / deathmark
Adds Death?s symbol onto the target enemy, when the enemy?s HP is less than 50%, Komachi immediately appears behind her target kills it with one slash. Ignores magic immunity, ignores ethereal, and ignores invulnerability. (Basically you are dead)
Cast Range: 150
Spirit Cost: 100/200/300MP
Cooldown: 75/60/45s
Level 1: Death?s symbol lasts for 25 seconds.
Level 2: Death?s symbol lasts for 30 seconds.
Level 3: Death?s symbol lasts for 45 seconds.Slacking commentaryOnce you get this skill, you become a Shinigami. You kill naughty girls for causing trouble to you and your allies. This skill doesn't need explanation, cast it when the enemy is fighting you and you think you can kick her ass. If she falls below 50% HP, then she can kiss her life good bye. Just be aware of it's shitty cast range. 150 range means you need to hug the girl. Get a banana to secure those runs.
Core items
Core Built:
Scythe isn't just for Komachi being a Scythe. It is simply the best STR item you can get on her as first priority. With Komachi's high HP, you can damage a lot of squishies with the proc. Subdoll is something very strange but extremely useful on her. I'll explain this briefly here and more extensively at the 'awareness and behaviour' section. Basically: Subdoll adds you +% attack speed for Scythe procs and DPS, damage, AGI. The INT is completely ignorable for you, unless you wish to have a higher mana pool in combination with MP extensive items. I rarely seen Komachi OOM, unless you keep spamming (D) or getting mana burned.
Core extensions
Xiao Yushen?s Adamantine aka Shouting Orc (5500) - This item is extremely useful on Komachi. Not only it gives you HP, but also that 2 seconds godmode, which can help you a lot in close combat. Depending on your farming speed, get this or Tacticus. Tacticus aka Jichael Mackson (6000) - This is the third or fourth item you should get after sub doll in my opinion. You are a tank, and you need STR and regen to keep you alive. Also helps with the scythe proc damage.Phoenix Wings (4200) - This item is more like a HP and armour combination for Komachi. It helps you damage randomly your enemies, hoping it would speed up the (W) kill, but I would try to farm up Tacticus instead of this.Red Llama (1700) - I wouldn't advise Lunarite on Komachi. Even though it costs 1500, farming just +200 means you get extra stats which is useful. Building milk tooth for Komachi is not necessary so a Lunarite isn't either. And we know that farming 200 isn't a problem for Komachi.
Optional
PAD (2225) - Not really required, but optional if you choose to become more tanky instead of a burst damager. +230HP, regen and blocking is a simple and effective form of becoming more tank.Moderators (5200) - This is more like for laning more quickly as a tank, which only happens in tight games. The moderators will benefit from the +%AS bonus on subdoll and hit faster.Myon (2250) - Get this is you really cannot farm Tacticus or Adamantine. Though HJbug is fairly easy to get.Tentacle (4200) - A good STR addition if you want to tank it up more. Also this item can perfectly work with (D) skill. Swap enemy, launch tentacles. Voila, you are outside it and she is inside it.Sukima Generator (2300) - A Shinigami is most feared when she is everywhere. If you got a subdoll, sell the Llama (if you have one) and get this. Internet Addiction Eliminator aka Mr Yang (4900) - HALT YOU NEED TO GO TO HELL. A good item for STR and disabling as Komachi, to keep the enemy close so you can get more scythe procs.
Skills and usage
So basically, this is what you should aim for level 6:
Level 7 to 11
Level 12 to 16
Level 16+ , what ever makes you happy.
Debate able or not, here is what I think of this order. First of all, you won't be swapping early game too much. Even if you are laning near your own tower, you won't be swapping because it messes up farming rate and getting souls. Not only this, Swap is only useful if it is at level 3+. Because the cast range on it below 3 is horrible and bad. You won't make a good effective swap with that range. Might as well smash a scythe in her face. Therefore, Souls are more effective for harassing, swap is less reliable. In a 1v2 lane, swap is even more terrible. So you should invest those skill points into Scythe and Souls. Because free STR means free HP and plenty of souls to harass. After level 7, you and your entire team will have plenty of level 4 skills which are useful. So maxing out swap after 7 is more necessary. Ganking and swapping + ulting will become your main role, otherwise just farm. The reason I don't want to max out souls is because you need some stats as well. It really adds to your attack speed.
Laning, awareness and behaviour
Again first things first. Komachi also always and always solo lanes up to level 6. You want to get that ultimate because it means girls will never ever go below 50% HP, unless they can blink/dash/rush. Komachi pretty durable therefore has less trouble staying alive (especially with cakes + souls) you can stay alive.
Take LEFT or RIGHT lane, never ever EVER center. Because the sides have shops for fast teleportation in case you need to lane swap, gank , help, defend. Also it helps you purchase cakes/yukkuri faster. Because you don't start out with yukkuris.
Komachi can play pretty aggressive in a lane or extremely defensive. I prefer myself a defensive mode because you want to be level 6 fast without dying and farming is easier. You need to farm two expensive core items which requires quite some effort. If you can get kills on girls, this becomes less a problem but not a guarantee. Unlike Tenshi or a nuker, you don't have a sure last-hit skill except your souls. Your scythe proc is your only gamble, but do not rely on it. Just focus on last-hitting regular and harass the enemy with your souls. I will explain them now.
Souls are Komachi's deadly helpers. If you are good at micro-management, then you shall have no problem using them. Use them to scout and harass enemy girls. If you last hit like a boss, you can keep collecting souls. Don't be afraid to continuously trigger the explosion on the souls, because it pushes lanes faster and last hits like a boss.
Swapping is something you need to understand. First golden rule: NEVER EVER SWAP at enemy towers. If the girl runs behind the tower, you can get trapped by creeps or towers hitting the crap out of you. You can probably do such stuff when you got 'Shouting Orc' or extremely high HP/regen. Otherwise, for newbies I would play it safe. Rule 2: Don't swap randomly an enemy when your team is not ready. Nobody wants you to swap girls when you cannot take them down.
Basically, you need to communicate and feel which girl you want to swap. If you have a medicine/suwako or any form of disable on your team, then swapping becomes godly.
Another common mistake newbie people make is, once they swap, they run away some random direction or try to pull some solo-trick. IT DOESN'T WORK. The only reason you solo-swap a girl is when she is squishy and you can sure-kill her with your ultimate. Otherwise you never ever solo-swap. Always run to your own team so they can see what is going on. Unfortunately, even if you are skilled at swapping, your team might not. I often seen in combat Medicine or Suwako not paying attention and missing the disable, thus wasting the swap. It puts you in danger, as well as your own team.
Your ultimate is something you shouldn't spam 24/7 either. Never death mark an enemy if there is no fighting. It is a waste. Your ultimate is NOT a threaten skill, it is a finisher or attempt. You death mark a girl when you are fighting it and it will (if you think) get below 50% HP. Squishy girls will easily be killed this. For tanks, you need help. Don't spam it girls who can teleport/rush/invisible. Just having the skill alone is enough for you to get a psychological advantage over your target. If you don't use it they will question 2 things: A) it is on cooldown B) you didn't use it yet. Logically, you try to keep it ready so the girl will be surprised. Trust me, there are a lot of people easily risking < 50% HP near Komachi.
Komachichi or the use of Subdoll
Komachi has pair of nice shinigamis, and in subdoll mode you have another pair. So what is the use of Subdoll? "YO SUPRISE ULTIMATE ATTACKS OFCOURSE!" , yes but not entirely. First, pound this into your brain: Komachi's Scythe also procs on her subdoll clone. Say what?! ?! ?!
KOMACHI'S SCYTHE PROCS FOR HER SUBDOLL
Yes, imagine doing a double scythe proc on creeps or enemy girls. Burst damage baby. Sending the girl faster to hell, is what you aim for. Note: it does not work on buildings. So use the subdoll as you please, and keep the awesomeness in mind.
Item starting
Busty Shinigami. (Cost: 812, Big breasts needs two bras to keep them in place. 12 seconds wait.)
Works good for early laning.
Shiki-sama, I got such a pain in my back lately, can I take a holiday?
Nutritious Girl (Cost: 809, We all know the fat goes somewhere else. 9 seconds wait.)
For fast HP regeneration and fastest route to Scythe.
Oh do not worry Shiki-sama, I won't get fat from this.
Hell's Shinigami. (Costs: 803, The true form of Komachi! 3 seconds wait.)
Gives Komachichi around 960 HP. Good for early tanking.
Drinking Sake under a cherry branch, isn't that nice Shiki-sama? You should relax more often too.