With a powerful weapon (and deadly venom to match), Vyper can slither into the back of teams and assassinate high-priority targets in a storm of bullets.
With a powerful weapon (and deadly venom to match), Vyper can slither into the back of teams and assassinate high-priority targets in a storm of bullets.
Description
Hybrid Pocket takes advantage of Pockets high base values to make use of both their Spirit and Gun potential. We start with Spirit early to snowball with our high base damage, and transition from full spirit to around a 50/50 split
Currently testing this build for the 12/6 patch. We do a lot of damage through our ult and mystic burst up front, meaning our main goal is to survive and clean up.
This new build aims to be bulky enough to survive our ult engages, and strong enough to not need excessive amounts of CDR to still be useful (aka SHOOT YOUR gun).
Phantom Strike will help us position our maxed out ultimate perfectly for teamfights on key targets, and save us warpstone for an escape for follow up.
Since Affliction does so little damage, lifesteal is less valuable to us, and we're going to aim to burst targets first and heal through healbane. We'll need tankiness to cover for the lack of sustain in the meantime.
Won't have a lot of time to test but I hope this build works out in the meantime for this new version of Pocket.
Item Build
Lane
Usually go this order, can skip regen if easy lane
500
Super underrated and insane first buy, I buy this first everytime and almost never have to back.
500
Can use Monster Rounds over it. If you're constantly proccing it off the on-hero-hit cooldown, you'll get more HP over time, while also doing more damage.
500
Once you get infuser you should have all three abilities, meaning you can look for trades on the enemy laners off CD! Use these trades for extra sustain and damage.
500
Super valuable item that helps your trades and sustains even more. At this point you're usually unkillable unless you really mess up your rotation.
500
Super easy conditional damage boost for Pocket to proc. Sustain comes first but consider getting early for melee matchups!
500
Free conditional damage with all the healing / regen this build takes advantage of, while also giving a spirit shield for the harder spirit matchups.
500
Stamina first for in-fight mobility, sprint for roaming / boxhunting / ganking (if your laners allow you to roam often)
500
Extra Stam + Sprint boots might seem overkill but early greens are great and more mobility means more impact accross the map
500
Free damage on Cloak and Satchel, but not a high priority during the early lane since you kill very easily without.
Post Lane Farming and Fighting
Barrage is Maxed after these + Mobility
1250
Spirit resist / early burst to help snowball early. Great for clearing camps fast early to snowball soul advantages.
1250
Neutralizes our spirit resist with Cold Front while also improving our damage done by our abilities and ult. This is a great way to increase our damage without investing into strict spirit which doesn't scale well for us.
1250
Great early burst + stats to your gun that scales into the late game with the spirit you'll be buying. I try to buy a mobility item before this item if possible.
1250
Our cooldowns aren't short enough to justify spirit lifesteal. We don't want to take extended fights and just burst targets down to snowball. Use this to get a brief heal after a gank.
1250
This build aims to circumvent longer cooldowns with a stronger gun to use while CDs are still running. The value we get out of this item though is too good to pass up on.
Mobility + Fight Positioning
Choose 1, Enduring optional 2nd
3500
Requires knowledge of map terrain / movement tech to use effectively, but is the most flexible out of the movement options. Can be a little slower around the map though.
3000
Easiest to use to position barrages and ults, but less flexibility due to the long cooldown. Also takes up an active slot.
3500
Pocket has the 3rd lowest HP in the game now. Fortitude can help us move / heal between fights while covering for that loss of HP. It's way better earlier than later, but I feel like Leech heals us enough. Your results may vary.
1750
If you have extra green slots, you can upgrade sprint to increase your between fight mobility. I don't feel like its necessary personally.
Path to Ult T3
Mid - Late Game items
3500
Improved spirit line would do more damage consistently, but since we're not running low enough cooldown reduction, we can consistently proc burst each rotation. However, Improved spirit will be better if your team has too many Improved Burst users for you to get yours off.
3000
great mobility + stats, a core mobility option on pocket. Can use out of satchel!
6000
I don't like building Reach, and this will guarentee we hit our ult. We get more resist, HP, and can avoid having to position too closely when we're too squishy of a champion. Really nice to have for snipers and gun carries as well!
Post Ult Maxxed Out T4s
Depends on Needs, Read Anno
7250
Great sustain option since we do mixed damage, and are aiming to be more tanky with this build. You need to be doing damage since affliction won't keep us healthy like it did before due to its poor damage.
6000
Crippling is the best dps upgrade to our hybrid build. We get some dual lifesteal AND dual resist shred which works GREAT with our Barrage Amp. As much as I'd love to buy this first, generally survivability is a higher prio buy before doing more damage.
6000
Great for keeping you alive if you're having trouble staying alive after ulting to engage with new Pocket ult. CDR + shields is nice, but otherwise smart gameplay can make this item feel unnecessary. Spiritual Overflow has better stats that we would prefer over this.
7250
Great damage and Bullet resist increase. Do note that Bullet Resist has diminishing returns. Could arguably get more out of purchasing Point Blank + Superior CD and playing around Warp Stone buff for resists.
6000
More gun oriented, but the stats are amazing and the buff we get will help us for a 2nd rotation of spells in extended teamfights. Usually not considered until our 3rd or even 4th T4.
Extra Item Techs
Depends on Playstyle / Needs, Upgrades, ETC.
3000
Great if you need some fire rate to proc any gun effects or if gun use gets really high in your games.
3500
Free upgrade to Close Quarters but there are so many better buys. Maybe buy if you need the stam + resists.
1250
Spirit armor can help get our spirit resist up for cheap. After Phantom Strike, we'll have nearly 30% Spirit Resist, which is pretty near the diminishing return. Combined with Ethereal Shift, and we'll be pretty tanky in the spirit department.
4250
Free upgrade to CDR if you have extra funds. The CD decrease isn't as significant as Improved, so I tend to put it off for later.
3000
Ethereal's great if you need extra resists / stall in teamfights that seem to be too extended. You can consider engaging with this, but make sure you communicate that before hand.
3500
Not my personal choice of item, but landing ult is that much more important these days as Pocket. Use if the enemy team is playing really split.
6000
Do people still buy this post nerf? A great hybrid tank / mobility option. Doesn't really help us position as well as the other items but playing around veils can save our lives without lifesteal to sustain us.
Extra Utility
Buy these in specific game-state scenarios
1250
Buy against high CC teams or against lanes with impactfull CC (Bebop!!!, Grey Talon, Paradox, Mo & K, etc) Easy Lane!!!
1250
Buy against heavy debuff teams (Infernus, Geist, Shiv, active items, etc). Almost mandatory since we hate all the debuff characters + actives
3000
I pretty much never get but if you're against a full bullet team, might be nice (Wraith, Ivy, Haze)
6000
self exaplanatory it's curse. Use this if you really need to shut down one specific carry on the enemy team (but I think you build enough util to not need it)
4250
Reccomended against teams with high fire rate carries that can be hard to catch like Haze, Seven, and Infernus! Super easy to proc
3000
Least favorite of the actives but is great for hard to pin or burst targets (Snipers, Shiv, Abrams,)
3000
ANTI CC. KEEPS YOU SAFE! You can initiate teamfights / dives with this but you MUST communicate that or else you will just die for free.
3000
500
Ability Point Order
Barrage
Flying Cloak
Enchanter's Satchel
Affliction
1
2
1
1
2
2
5
1
2
5