Valkyrie calls forth several Battle Maidens to damage nearby enemies.
Radius: 650
Cast Time: 0.6 Seconds
Mana Cost: 100 / 120 / 140 / 160
Cooldown: 12.0 Seconds
Activation
Deals 75 / 150 / 225 / 300 Magic damage to targets in radius around self.
Deals an additional 37.5 / 75 / 112.5 / 150 Magic damage to one random target in a 200 radius.
Strategy: This is a definite early game skill for ganking and farming. Before you have great items, Call of the Valkyrie will be your main source of damage because it can hit an infinite amount of creeps or heroes in the radius and a chance to do extra damage if placed right. Later on in the game it can be used for quickly pushing a lane or killing stacks of creep spawns.
Tips with Call of the Valkyrie
Valkyrie hurls a Javelin of Light toward a target location. The first enemy hit will be damaged and stunned.
Range: 3000
Radius: 80
Cast Time: 1.3 Seconds
Mana Cost: 100
Cooldown: 25.0 Seconds
Activation
Deals 90 / 180 / 270 / 360 Magic damage to the first target to pass within a 140 radius of projectile. The target is also stunned.
Stun duration increases by 0.5 seconds for every 150 units the projectile has traveled. Stuns for a minimum of 0.5 seconds and a maximum of 5 seconds.
Strategy: The most loved and most hated of Valkyrie’s ability is Javelin. Use the ability by clicking it somewhere on the ground, a Javelin will be thrown in a straight line. It can easily set up a bloodlust kill with team support because of the long duration of the stun. If your team can stun or immobilize the enemy you can easily land a 3+ second Javelin. This ability is great for setting up ganks, saving far off allies, scouting out areas from a distance (such as Kongor), and even sniping invisible units.
Valkyrie leaps forward, charging to battle. Her courage inspires nearby allied heroes when she lands, granting increased movement and attack speed.
Range: 630 / 690 / 780 / 840
Cast Time: 1 Second
Mana Cost: 40 / 35 / 30 / 20
Cooldown: 40 / 35 / 30 / 20 Seconds
Activation
Transports self 630 / 690 / 780 / 840 units forward. Upon landing, applies Courageous Leap to heroes in radius around self.
Courageous Leap Effects
4 / 8 / 12 / 16% Attack Speed
4 / 8 / 12 / 16% Movement Speed
Strategy: Leap is a useful tool to escape or chase, giving a good boost in attack speed and movement speed upon landing. This ability is especially useful for jumping over cliffs or into the forest for a quick getaway. Watch where you are facing before you use the spell, because that is where you are going to leap.
Valkyrie bends light itself, shrouding all allied heroes on the map in stealth.
Cast Time: 1.3 Seconds
Mana Cost: 100 / 150 / 200
Cooldown: 120 Seconds
Activation
Applies Prism to all allied heroes for 7 / 9 / 11 seconds.
Prism Effects: Does not expire from attacking or using abilities
Strategy: Gank, escape, initiate, Prism can do it all. Prism doesn’t work like other invisibility spells, it has a fade time which depends on the skill level, but once you attack, use a spell, or activate an item, you will break the invisibility, which you can then go back into if you wait for the fade time again. Valkyrie's Prism is one of the few spells which affects all allied heroes on the map, allowing Valkyrie help others escape while she is across the map. Because of this ability, it is handy to have good map awareness to help allies in a tight spot.
Tips with Valkyrie's Prism
Where Valkyrie LanesValkyrie is usually found in solo lanes, but can dual-lane as well. She is also one of the few heroes who can successfully solo the long lanes (top lane for Legion, bottom lane for Hellbourne) because she can escape with her leap ability. She is often played in middle as well because she can easily control runes and gank using her Javelin. Valkyrie is still a strong hero in a dual-lane, especially with other stunners which enable her to land Javelins with accuracy, resulting in long stun durations and easy hero kills.
Preferred Laning Partners
Playing to Win with Valkyrie
Laning PhaseValkyrie should be killing and denying as many creeps as possible and setting up low level ganks by utilizing her Javelin spell while the enemy still has low base health. If your team positions themselves correctly at the first rune spawn they can easily set up an early kill.
Mid-gameBy this time you should have Ghost Marchers, which will allow Valkyrie to escape ganks and set up a few on her own. By using well placed Javelins Valkyrie can successfully set up ganks by herself. Keep an eye on your allies and help them with your Prism ability. Make sure support players buy wards so you can safely amass money and set up kills. Do not focus on only ganking because Valkyrie is an item dependent hero. Find the balance between ganking and farming.
Late Game
Hopefully you have a mix of items that work well against their team (for example, Savage Mace counters Wingbow). In team fights you will be throwing a Javelin, activating Prism when needed, and autoattacking heroes. Activate Geometer's in battle and use the illusions (they do a lot of damage). You can also use them to push lanes and towers as you make your exit.
Valkyrie's KryptoniteA hero this great always has a drawback, luckily this one be can easily countered. Valkyrie starts off with low health and has poor strength gain per level, resulting in naturally low health, yet there is no need to start stacking Behemoth's Hearts because this deficiency can be countered in many ways. The first is through level advantage, which is easy when soloing. If Valkyrie dual-lanes she has to set up early ganks and eventually solo farm lanes. Another way to overcome low health is by playing very aggressive - at max range. Valkyrie should never charge into the battle, but rather use her 600 range to the fullest and activating Leap or Prism when she is the target of choice. Eventually, Null Stone should be picked up against single target spell teams or Shrunken Head against heavy magic damage teams.
Skill build
Mid-game items
Always carry 1 or 2
Great early game pickups - Only 1 of each at max, if any
Some luck required - Turns into Charged Hammer
Firebrand is a solid pick up and makes Geometer's. If you farm slow grab Frostburn and later split into Geometer's/Frostwolf's.
Late game Items
Every game
Tips and Tricks with Valkyrie
Call of the Valkyrie
This skill is often overlooked because at first glance it appears to do less damage then Javelin, but that is not the case. Even on single targets Call will do more if you can get the target hit with the bonus damage. On multiple targets Call will do much more damage and it can't miss.
On the right you see a 5 second stun on Magebane, but can Valkyrie follow up? By attacking and moving quickly, Valkyrie gets within 200 range of Magebane and unleashes her Call of the Valkyrie. The result is a burst of 450 magic damage, easily dropping Magebane. Even though Valkyrie was a low level she can bring down heroes by herself by leveling Call of the Valkyrie early.
Mana control can be an issue with Valkyrie early, level 4 Call of the Valkyrie costs 160 mana. Do not use this ability to clear creep waves until you have a decent mana pool or mana regeneration. When laning you want enough to combo your Javelin and Call for maximum damage.
Another useful way to use Call is to attack every creep in the wave so that they each have under 300 health, and then cast Call of the Valkyrie. This results in picking up every creep in the wave guaranteed.
Javelin of Light
When laning with Valkyrie it is a good idea to always be ready to throw your Javelin, especially in a dual-lane. If you stand off to the side you will have a much better angle to stun heroes if the situation would arise. The reason you want to always be prepared is because either you or your laning partner can see an opening, and if its the latter you better have an angle.
Using Javelin for Vision
Players often only use Javelin for vision when checking Kongor, but the vision granted is still useful in other situations. In the image below Valkyrie sees Voodoo Jester run into the forest and possibly trying to juke, Valkyrie quickly throws a Javelin to see where he is going. In this case it hits him, but Voodoo was dead either way.
Javelin from Fog
The easiest Javelin to dodge is the one you can see. Always try to have your Javelins come from unexpected areas, through trees, or over cliffs. By doing this the enemy will not see your Javelin until it is too late.
On the left a Javelin comes through trees aimed at Slither, who is busy killing a tower. The Javelin pops out of the trees, leaving Slither no time to react, which makes for an easy 5 second stun.
Predicting Enemy Movements
Predicting where the enemy will be is a hard thing to do, but through the use of vision, careful timing, and precision, you can hit Javelins on moving enemies. Some call it luck, others guessing, but really it is just great calculation.
On the right Valkyrie saw Devourer setting up for a hook and predicted he would move into the forest and grab someone. We can see Devourer landing his Hook but he also has a Javelin in his face, stunning for 5 seconds and saving Pyromancer.
Courageous Leap
Leap is a pretty straight forward spell, but still has two simple tricks to help her Leap accurately. The first is watch where you click. Depending on where you click the pathing will change, forcing you to face a different direction. The other is understanding how far your leap goes, at level 1 it goes a good distance and doesn't increase drastically on level ups, capping out at 840.
On the left, 1 second before the screenshot Valkyrie was on the other side next to Devourer and Armadon - definitely not somewhere you want to be. Valkyrie turned to face the river and leaped. Valkyrie easily leaped over the river, using the great 840 range of Leap.
Valkyrie's Prism
The great thing about Valkyrie's ultimate is that it affects all allied heroes and then they can decide if they want to make use of it or not.
Below, Valkyrie used her ultimate early in a fight allowing her allies to choose when they want to fade. By using it this way it is easy to avoid damage from a Defiler's ultimate (who is shrouded in screenshot) and they will disappear after being held by channel abilities, such as Devourer's ultimate.
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