The Best Vainglory Tips and Tricks for Dominating All Your Matches
Note: While we’ll be talking about Vainglory using BlueStacks 4, this game is already available on the new BlueStacks 5 with much better performance, less resource consumption, and more stability. Download the latest version of our Android emulator and give it a try!
Vainglory is an awesome MOBA game for mobile and PC that adds its own unique twist to the formula that was popularized by earlier games in the genre. This title sets itself apart not only due to these particularities, but also because it’s one of the best looking mobile MOBAs in the entire platform, bar none. While other titles in the mobile market have their own strengths, none of them can come close to Vainglory when it comes to presentation.
Regardless, most of the basic concepts of MOBAs are still present in Vainglory, which makes it an easy game to grasp, especially if you’ve played other titles in the genre before. Nevertheless, the devil’s in the details, which is why we created this handy guide with several useful tips and tricks that will help you get acquainted with the game, while also teaching you how to easily dominate your opponents in every match.
Whether you’re a pro in the genre, or are simply looking to start out, keep these useful pointers in mind if you’re looking to have a good time in Vainglory, as they will make it much easier for you to win your matches, or at the very least, to survive and contribute to your team as much as possible, regardless of the outcome.
Learn the Roles
As we mentioned in our beginner’s guide, heroes in Vainglory are divided into three categories: Laners, Junglers, and Captains. And while these categories denote the general role of the hero, the method and gameplay will vary greatly depending on the specific character you choose. Regardless, there is some truth in the way the game divides its roster. Specifically, Laners are meant to go in lanes, and Junglers are supposed to go in the jungle. However, with the proper know-how you can essentially make most heroes work across several roles.
Regardless, one of the most versatile roles in the game is the Captains which, while they can definitely occupy a specific lane, they’re not necessarily bound to one as Laners are. In fact, Captain heroes are more disrupters and initiators than the rest, which is often due to their defensive stats and varied skill set, giving them the tools to both force fights into happening, as well as to roam around ganking.
Consider Captains like a jack-of-all-trades, though not quite as good as other characters that focus on one role specifically. If you want to learn more about roles, we suggest reading our beginner’s guide for Vainglory.
Trade Hits Only When You Have the Advantage
One of the most important parts of any match is the laning phase, mostly because it’s where you’ll perform most of the early game farming by killing minions. However, there will be moments when the enemy harrasses you with auto attacks, or tries to force fights to push you out of the lane. In these cases, you need to weigh your options very carefully as a fight early on can often mean the difference between winning or losing the laning phase.
In this sense, it’s always important to keep proper distance from the enemy, and focus mostly on farming minions by getting last hits. Especially if you’re a melee hero going up against ranged enemies, maintaining your distance and avoiding pushing the lane at all costs is crucial for farming properly.
However, if you must trade blows with your foe, always do it on your own terms, and only when the situation demands it. While it’s much easier to harass your foe if you’re a ranged character, you can also plan fights with your teammate in the lane in order to push the enemy and get them to back off. This will make them think twice before harassing. However, if done incorrectly, this can put you at a disadvantage if you take more damage than what you dish out, as your enemy can start playing more aggressively to try and finish you off or push you out of the lane.
Harassing the enemy team during the laning phase requires lots of communication between you and your support. In the case of the top and mid lanes, however, where it’s usually 1v1, the individual skill of the player is more important as they can’t rely on a support in order to trade blows with the enemy. Nevertheless, in these cases, trading damage and weakening your enemy can leave them open for an easy gank by your jungler.
Remember, communication is key!
Study the Item Builds
Vainglory does a great job of streamlining the itemization process by letting users choose from different gear presets. In this sense, as soon as they have enough gold to purchase items, they can do so by clicking a single button, instead of having to open the store and browse through the items manually, wasting time in the process.
However, some of the suggested builds that the game provides may not be ideal for the circumstances, or they can outright not be optimal for the character in question at all. In these cases, it’s important to study the different items in the store and choose for yourself the gear that’s best suited for the current match.
For instance, if your preset recommends building HP, but you’re getting constantly defeated by a caster, then you might need to build more shield, instead. Alternatively, if you’re getting crushed by an enemy’s physical DPS, then building armor would be more appropriate. It’s these small nuances in your build that can often make the biggest differences in your match, turning your hero from a wet paper towel, to a veritable fortress of doom and destruction.
Adapt Your Approach to Your Team Composition
Many people might think that MOBAs are all about defeating your enemies in teamfights before being able to destroy their towers. And for the most part, they’d be right—defeating the enemy heroes is a surefire way to open up their defenses. However, this is not the only way to win a match, as there can be several other approaches when engaging the enemy.
For instance, if the typical teamfight approach isn’t working, either because one of your opponents is fed, or because the enemy team composition favors greatly engaging in fights, then you could benefit significantly from a split-push approach. This style of gameplay consists of having 3 or 4 heroes defend the lanes as much as they can, while the fifth player—often using a hero that’s really good at killing minions and pushing lanes—single-handedly jumps from lane to lane trying to take down towers.
With a split-push approach, your enemy won’t be able to focus their entire might on attacking, as they’ll need to fall back to defend the lanes that your team is pushing. Also, by splitting your enemy apart, they will lose some of their strength in team fights, allowing your team to better defend their lanes, and even to get a few kills, allowing the fifth player to push even harder. The tradeoff of this approach, however, is that if your allies are not capable of defending their lanes while the other player pushes, there will be nothing standing in the way of the enemy from destroying your base.
While split-pushing is a high-risk, high-reward maneuver, there are countless other variants that can be useful in specific situations, and that can help turn a losing match into a victory.
Map Awareness Saves the Day and Wins Matches
Most of your strategies, whether split pushing, traditional teamfight tactics, or any other variants, are made and broken by one key factor: Map Awareness. Knowing when an enemy is missing, as well as keeping an eye on the map at all times is crucial for many aspects including ganking, stealing the enemy jungle, forcing teamfights, avoiding unnecessary deaths, and even when trading damage during the laning phase.
Knowing where all your enemies are at all times can help tremendously when it comes to making decisions on-the-fly. After all, it’s much better to force a teamfight when you know one or two enemies are elsewhere, than it is to do so blind and not knowing what to expect. Similarly, ganking an enemy when you’re positive that you’re not going to get counter-ganked makes the process much cleaner and easier to perform. And all of this is achieved by maintaining proper map awareness and by keeping your eye on the minimap at all times. Also, always remember to call out when your enemy leaves your lane!
And that’s it for our Vainglory tips and tricks. You’ll definitely pick more nuggets of wisdom as you continue playing and practicing. However, by keeping these pointers in mind, you’ll have a much easier time with the game, especially if you’re a newcomer to the genre.
