Crackling Builds/Strategies Revisited

[johnluke]

Wondering now that crackling's release has settled down a little bit, how are people are choosing to build crackling?

[Wrath]

At early levels his E is his strongest ability, with the highest base damage, so max that first.

 

At higher levels his W becomes his strongest ability. It scales with Weapon Damage so you want to get items that contain high Weapon Damage like Khali Blade and Masamune. The heal is one of the strongest in the game and W also damages towers, so it is a strong pushing ability as well.

 

You should get one rank of his Q just for the utility of being able to jump on people, but it does less damage than his other abilities and can otherwise be ignored.

 

Once you actually have high Weapon Damage (note, specifically Weapon Damage and not spell-based damage like Pyre) you can go for a Blackhole Magnum, as it will synergize perfectly with your high Weapon Damage and W to make the first attack after you activate your W deal in the thousands of damage.

[Spooky]

Consider also Contamination Shard as it increase physical damage dealt by your zerglings

[Midknight]

I like to go for a 5/1 offense/defense talent build with Sprint, Veteran, Leech, Damage, and Spell from Offense and Armor from defense. This makes him hardy enough early on and really ramps up his damage. The basic start of my build is 2 machetes and a kinetic battery. You can easily take Aeon solo once you have the 2nd machete and you'll primarily focus on jungling and roaming ganks. After that, focus on items that couple attack damage and defense. I personally avoid pyre on him since attack speed isn't really his thing. His adds are a minor aspect of his damage and are mostly used to soak up tower damage.

 

His acid spit is an excellent poke against tower huggers and for that (and to help with energy management issues) I'll throw in an Ihan at some point to sell after full charges.

 

The core of the build involves Galactic Defender, FoE, and Menace. The Defender gives him a good amount of damage and a hearty defense option. FoE helps him stay sticky and beefs him up, and the Menace helps him move about the map since he's kind slow when not burning his speed buffs. Beyond that is situational but I'm partial to Yamato since the timescale bonus will boost the static benefit from your ult (normal move-speed bonuses don't interact with it).

[johnluke]

Alrighty I'll post my own build, since this thread hasn't generated the build discussion I was looking for. I haven't seen anyone else with anything quite like it. (I appreciate the tips but am by now well aware of them.) I build ling specifically for the end game. In this build I find myself playing very defensively until level 15-16. HP is an early issue, so is MP management, as well as wep dmg, you start from nothing basically, but in an eg scenario the CD percentages and 3ish forms of speed boosts are great. percentages in general are awesome.

 

Talents:

Offensive: Sprint, leech, demi, attack speed. Defensive: Armor Utility: CD reduction

 

-been messing with different combinations of defensive and utility talents, again this is a late game build. But armor could be switch for straight HP, and CD reductions switched for mp regen or straight mp to handle early issues.

 

In no particular order: (Ihan crystal gotten and sold during the match (gotten early enough HP and MP issues are gone the rest of the match))

 

1) Hive

2) BHM

3)Massume

4)Galactic Defender

5)HoM

6)Khali

 

 

Lately I've monkeying around with retrofit, valor's, and menace as well replacing khali until very late game with one of the a fore mentioned.

 

Thoughts?

[Hogwarts]

pyre

kali

glactic or FOE

darwins

massume

bhm

 

start with 2 machete into a kentic battery then work on pyre massume or kali depending on what you need for the game

 

obv sell kentic and machete when inv slots becomes less available

 

idea behind this build if for burst dps not sustane dps

 

but pyre and the agi on BHM give you a decent amount of attack speed

 

 

 

HOM is the worst

[Nuparu]

I usually jungle, and as such I always pick up hand first, you can sell it later if you want.

 

(Machete to start)

HoM

Revolver

Khali

BHM

Khali... again.

(Shinobi if you need to sneak up on them to lash, or just get another DPS item)

 

Basically pick anything as needed for the last 2 slots. 35+140+50 = 225 added damage on top of the like 130 you're going to start off with.

 

I usually get bite capped first because the sustain is amazing, then leap, then acid because the point of the build is to leap on someone, bite their head off and attack and they're probs dead.

 

Jungle/roaming, killing casters/not-powerful carries is crack's thing imo.

[Hogwarts]

I usually jungle, and as such I always pick up hand first, you can sell it later if you want.

 

(Machete to start)

HoM

Revolver

Khali

BHM

Khali... again.

(Shinobi if you need to sneak up on them to lash, or just get another DPS item)

 

Basically pick anything as needed for the last 2 slots. 35+140+50 = 225 added damage on top of the like 130 you're going to start off with.

 

I usually get bite capped first because the sustain is amazing, then leap, then acid because the point of the build is to leap on someone, bite their head off and attack and they're probs dead.

 

Jungle/roaming, killing casters/not-powerful carries is crack's thing imo.

 

so many kids getting HOM make me lol, there is absolute no point in getting this item , Darwins might offers 10 less damage and much more life steal plus so much life period making you more tanky and thus more sustain agi heroes dont need the weapon speed

[johnluke]

'Pyre is the worst' lol my build is a very high wep dmg build when running with consumables and levi buff. leech is through Hive mainly not HoM.

 

I find pyre to be wasted with raw high wep dmg. w key is the key. w translates into all the spell dmg you need.

 

AGI alone almost get's me to attack speed cap, pyre gives 20% attack speed if i recall, there is no point it's a wasted stat.

 

HoM is there for:

1) Another speed boost * most important part of it all

2) More CD reduction *one of the keys of my build

3) When you die stacks fall off, weapon speed on command

4) More leech

 

Dawrins for HP might be worthwhile. thanks for that contribution.

[Nuparu]

so many kids getting HOM make me lol, there is absolute no point in getting this item , Darwins might offers 10 less damage and much more life steal plus so much life period making you more tanky and thus more sustain agi heroes dont need the weapon speed

 

I get it first.

 

Because the +60% AS and the +15% MS is nice.

 

Darwins can come later.

[Hogwarts]

'Pyre is the worst' lol my build is a very high wep dmg build when running with consumables and levi buff. leech is through Hive mainly not HoM.

 

I find pyre to be wasted with raw high wep dmg. w key is the key. w translates into all the spell dmg you need.

 

AGI alone almost get's me to attack speed cap, pyre gives 20% attack speed if i recall, there is no point it's a wasted stat.

 

HoM is there for:

1) Another speed boost * most important part of it all

2) More CD reduction *one of the keys of my build

3) When you die stacks fall off, weapon speed on command

4) More leech

 

Dawrins for HP might be worthwhile. thanks for that contribution.

 

if you think pyre is a worthless item then there is nothing else to discuss with you, ....

 

[johnluke]

It's not worthless I just don't think it has a place on ling. He can burn down any tank or beefy hero, without it. And this view has been expressed by more then one person in other threads.

[Spooky]

There are some AA heroes that doesn't need Pyre early game and crackling is one of them. Recently I tried rush Flare Gun on him and it made him able to one-shot almost every INT/AGI hero (W+Q+E+Flare Gun+R if still alive). After it I got Ocelot Revolver which made things even more easy. Game was almost over at that point for little bit higher cost than Pyre itself...