Justicar.Akasha - Anti-melee Role [Fixed]

[DzoSero]

**Revised - Outdated: Comment for alternate builds

 

Greetings AoS community,

 

This is not a complete guide and will not instruct you how to play this hero. I will look to make this short and give reasons for the items that will be listed. To begin, here are his abilities:

 

Weapon range: 1.25

Weapon speed: 1.8

Passive: 10 (+100% Armor) added as spell damage to attack

Ability 1: 3-unit radius AoE 'bounce' dealing 60/100/140/180 spell damage (+50% Intelligence). Next attack within 8 seconds has a 6-unit radius dealing additional Physical Damage (40/80/120/160) and stuns target for 1.25 seconds

Ability 2: Forced Agro on target and halves their attack speed (Lasts 1/1.5/2.0/2.5 seconds)

Ability 3: AoE Heal of 8/12/16/20 (+15% Intelligence) / D.O.T. of 16/24/32/40 (+20% Intelligence) field

Ultimate: Gain massive armor boost for 8 seconds +30/60/90 Armor (+100% Armor). During duration attackers take spell damage based on armor rating

 

**Revised

 

Agility and Armor

 

After reviewing Justicar's abilities, Armor is his cup of tea, clearly my items are not armor oriented, but lets not forget Agility does add armor based on a scale. This is important because there's a decision to make, agility or armor based items? Let's compare 2 items of equal or lesser value to see

 

Chilling Artifact = 9 armor ignoring other attributes valued at 2925 minerals === Phantom's Menace +50 Agility ignoring other attributes valued at 3300 minerals

 

Agility adds (0.5 Weapon Damage)(+0.14 Armor) (+0.3% Weapon speed) per point, while having Armor grants +3% Physical Damage resist per point. If we solely choose items that are only based on armor and not on agility (i.e, barbed plating, dark steel titan, superheated mantle) we lose out on gaining a weapon speed buff percentage shown. Clearly what I'm stating is, get agility items with this hero.

 

Every 7 points of agility, Justicar gains roughly 1 armor (0.98), so when we compare the two items, Phantom's Menace of +50 agility gives us 7.14 armor. However, since we've chosen agility we also receive a weapon speed bonus of 15% and an increased weapon damage of 25. At the cost of 2 less armor, we can gain a significant weapon speed bonus and weapon damage, much worth the investment!

 

This is just to add to my post, the majority of my items are intelligence based :D

 

Talent Build

 

Fitness (180 health), Cunning (5% Spell damage), Fury (15% Weapon Speed), Integrity (+8 Armor), Zeal (>70%/13% MS), Fortify (50% Physical and Spell Resist for short duration)

 

Items

 

There is no real particular order other than the first few items, that's just the way I roll as every game is different. Since upload failed me, here is a link to all the items!!!

 

OLD[ http://i.imgur.com/lX2PlJp.jpg ] === NEW [ http://i.imgur.com/sew3FsW.jpg ]

 

Other than Argus Crystal and Gravity Edge, which needs no explanation, I'd like to give a short reason for my choices.

 

Chilling Artifact - After playing with Justicar, CD reduction seems important because his CD's are quite lengthy. Main reason I chose this item is because nearby enemies lose 35% weapon speed. Coupled with ability 2, the combined loss is an outstanding 85% weapon speed!

 

Star's Fury - After using an ability, next attack does additional 100% intelligence, which mine is 376+156 (Weapon Damage) for a total of 532 damage. It is important to acquire this item after Nitrogen because its when intelligence is greater than weapon damage and keeping Revolver will only hinder your performance is kept any longer.

 

Nitrogen Retrofit - This is a great item for Akasha's field aura, but serves an even greater purpose with this intelligence build. 25% less movement speed will make your enemy take more damage and become vulnerable to attack from your team.

 

Sliptide Scythe - 50 Agi, 18% Spell resist. The Scythe grants the most spell resist for one single item in the game, 18% passive and a total of 33% when attacking enemies. It comes with an excellent source of agility to add armor and weapon speed, and when attacking enemies, the user is also granted 10% movement speed to get out of dicey situations.

 

Conclusion

 

So far intelligence builds are proving their worth and this build is no exception to that fact. I only rough estimated his field DOT damage, a test obelisk took 1600 damage throughout the 10 seconds but I did not record the healing portion. Let's just say it's fast. Justicar has a tough role in games at times since he becomes entirely useless to ranged/intelligence hero's. However, if played right this hero can change the tide of battle. It will take practice to gain confidence and quick decision making to be sure you're engaging correctly, one false move and its over. I recommend staying close to your party and lead the pact.

 

 

So that's my build, I hope you guys like it, recommend or comment on what you've encountered. I'd be interested in ideas for new builds and possible strats as well as others. Feel free to share!

 

 

For those who like unorthodox builds here's a great one, LARGE burst damage! Extremely fun to play!

 

 

edit:

#1 - Removed 15 weapon damage talent for Fortify; best for engagements throughout the game, especially for spell resist

 

#2 - Removed Time Splitter for Sliptide Scythe; Further spell resist granted, and further more when attacking with added spell damage and movement speed

 

#3 - Impact Dial is proving its worth for mid to semi late game, therefore I do factor it in to my build (sometimes), deciding whether second or third item. However, I feel the joined harmony of my item build is too important to ignore and sell the item once our party has grouped and/or gain map control.

 

#4 - Removed Shrink Ray for Nitrogen Retrofit; Greatly affects aura for added damage to enemy

[Midknight]

For attack speed, not counting your natural agility (only agility gained from items and stat pot):

1.39(agility) * 1.30(Fury) * 1.20(Shrink) * 1.25(Timesplit) * 1.15(talent) = 3.12x attacks/sec. Your net bonus is +212% attack rate.

 

Personally, I like to throw a Sliptide on him because, while he can get over 90% physical reduction, spell damage can still eat him up if he has insufficient spell resist. I also prefer to get Fortify for him, again to help with the spell resist and also to help early on when his armor is still climbing.

[zeeeend]

I think full tank + shadowmourne is also great on him.

Emantle, shm, barbed, dial(needs this badly to initate), axe and shadowmourne. (this order)

The only thing this build lacks is tankyness vs spells. All shortranged(tested vs zera/shadow/grunty/boros) carries will just melt away. Once you dial in and W the carry you just aa him till w ends press q and continue aaing. If they have < 2,5k they will have killed themselves.

I think the chillingartifact/dst/shrinkray just slow down their killing themselves.

 

I'd lose the 15 weapondmg and get fortify since the 50% extra resist makes you close to immortal and barbed plating works before migation.

[Wrath]

The INT scaling is way too low to really justify putting so many INT items on him. 50% from his Q and 20% from his E just don't make him an INT hero.

 

I prefer to get items that give him more utility and synergize better with him anyways. They would include Barbed Plating, Electric Mantle, and Small Hadron Collider at the least.

 

I also have to concur with zeeeend that the Chilling Artifact and Shrink Ray just serve to decrease your damage output - because the more the enemies are attacking you, the more damage you will do to them.

[Midknight]

So, what are people finding to be the best initiation item for him, Dial or SHC?

[zeeeend]

Haven't tried shc, it gives a nice hp increase and is more mobile. But the dial has a charm with the usage on enemies, it's a lot cheaper and it gives armor.

So dial until full build then maybe shc

[Midknight]

Haven't tried shc, it gives a nice hp increase and is more mobile. But the dial has a charm with the usage on enemies, it's a lot cheaper and it gives armor.

So dial until full build then maybe shc

 

Good thought. Dial early because it'll give some benefit to sustain through your heal field and by end-game, you should have enough natural Int growth that replacing it isn't a big loss.

[DzoSero]

For attack speed, not counting your natural agility (only agility gained from items and stat pot):

1.39(agility) * 1.30(Fury) * 1.20(Shrink) * 1.25(Timesplit) * 1.15(talent) = 3.12x attacks/sec. Your net bonus is +212% attack rate.

 

Personally, I like to throw a Sliptide on him because, while he can get over 90% physical reduction, spell damage can still eat him up if he has insufficient spell resist. I also prefer to get Fortify for him, again to help with the spell resist and also to help early on when his armor is still climbing.

 

Absolutely agree, spell resistance is a factor and Fortify and Sliptide would definitely solve the problem. Thanks for responding!

[DzoSero]

The INT scaling is way too low to really justify putting so many INT items on him. 50% from his Q and 20% from his E just don't make him an INT hero.

 

I prefer to get items that give him more utility and synergize better with him anyways. They would include Barbed Plating, Electric Mantle, and Small Hadron Collider at the least.

 

I also have to concur with zeeeend that the Chilling Artifact and Shrink Ray just serve to decrease your damage output - because the more the enemies are attacking you, the more damage you will do to them.

 

While Justicar is not an intelligence heavy hero, I still like to incorporate builds that would however be unsuitable on all hero's. For example, I have a build for Roulette that actually makes him a tank (can take a well built shadow solo) with loose intelligence buffs.

 

The point for the build to me was to be an anti melee hero and it works well. The intelligence oriented build actually makes his field aura a factor in major confrontations. With hardly any intelligence, one might as well not even use it because the effects would be too minimal. I've been thinking of other builds as well and dial or shc is definitely a must.

[Eliwan]

I'd get Dial EVERY time as it gives Armor as well; adding 5? Spell Damage per AA.

 

Also, I don't think Argus is a very good item on Justicar; but maybe I should try it out before I bash it. d=

 

Would anybody like to try making a Jungling Justicar build? It worked OK for me when I tried it, but I kept needing to shop after beating 3 camps. =[

[Midknight]

I've been experimenting with an Int-heavy build at someone's recommendation and I'm finding he's actually quite strong when his field is dealing heavy damage and slowing them with Nitrogen. The base of the build is SHM, Dial, Nitrogen and then I try adding in as much Int as I can manage. If I need specific items like Barbed for AA-counter or Gravity for spell resist counter, or Sliptide if I need spell resist I'll get those, but barring those I try for Parallax, Yamato, and Argus, in that order of priority and then replace the Dial with SHC eventually. Lay down a field, Bounce them, tag the Carry, then Aggro him as I turn on Fortify and Ult. He tends to go down quick and then it's just clean up from there. The biggest problem are stuns and silences since Justicar is very "setup-heavy" and a well-placed disability can make me burn my Ult and Fortify while my Aggro didn't go off or I'll miss the initial field placement and I'm fighting without the regen. Last several games I played were stun-heavy on the opposition, but I'm refining the tactics.

 

If you're going to make a Jungler build, grab a Kinetic Battery or some other form of energy regen. Justicar is an energy whore.

[residente]

It's also quite funny go fast FoE and Chilling and watch your mid-game AA enemies attack you in slow motion

[DryMind]

What about Lockbox?

Lockbox, e, q, r, w?

 

With Tallents on +7% speed and Zeal i tryed initiate with W... at lvl 3-4 (lvl of W skill) it is like some sort of Pull... W enemy and run in to your team... and it is really easy to use impact deal on that enemy, that follows you...

 

i tryed several items... and

SHM, Barbed, Nitrogen works nice

Combining SHM with his E is nice while farming... and in combat...

Barbed with R is really nice=)

Nitrogen allows you to AoE Slow...

Axe is sutable for almost every game=)

Other items depends on game situation... usually i need spell resist and El Mantle...Tasser... etc. against Vilgil... He is new Nova... and he is represented in Every Game=)

 

Interesting hero... i like it=)

[akanna]

I feel like barbed is a must have on a char that has taunt and scales damage based on armor

[zeeeend]

Hmm i've started to notice that late-lategame the emantle is worthless. If the stun occurs you just wasted the stuntime in seconds that the aa carry is forced to kill himself on you.

I once emantle starts to fall off a nitrofit is better for the slow/int/hp

[Jaysi]

Yes, Int Justicar is pretty good... Played against one with Ihan stacks, Argus, Gravitys Edge, Parralax, Nitrogen Retrofit, and some other tanky stuff. His Consecrate would take out half of my 2700 hp Queen and like 3/4th of our Shadows hp if they walked in it, and probably dead if he were in it using Q and W.

[cell]

http://i.imgur.com/lX2PlJp.jpg

 

glascanon

 

2200 health and 3297energy something is wrong here,this would be better :3297Health and 2200 energy :)

 

 

and no spellresist in that build witch makes u pretty useless late game or maybe feed....

 

ok i undestand what u are trying to say here but everyenemy hero has a bigbrother behind him,and if his name is cyprus,brawler,cow,unix,toxi,erekul,drake...the list is soooo long.

witch hero u like to kill with this? nova,shadow? if they come alone ok,maybe mid game but lategame mmmhh

 

a good way for me is to build an ihan cristal first(same abilitytree like u use before edit 2/3/1)for energy ,health at the beginning.You need your e to farm(or it takes years) and your q,w and r everytime ready to use so energy int health is a good way i think.

Then olympic torch(10%spellres. and health) and warp shard(later shc).other way is to build shm after ihan and then maybe chillin

 

Your r gives you a lot of amor earlymid so what u need is health and spellresist and agi later...

 

btw u get more amor from agi items + ws for more money then from amor items but less usefull uniques

[Midknight]

http://i.imgur.com/lX2PlJp.jpg

 

glascanon...

 

Replace the Shrink Ray with Sliptide Scythe and it might be viable.

[Wrath]

http://i.imgur.com/lX2PlJp.jpg

 

Never, ever, ever get Ocelot's Revolver first... I don't know why people do it... For some reason it is so common in pubs, but it is like the worst build ever. Especially on Akasha! All you need as early game Akasha is health and energy. Why go for an item that has none of that and scales off of your weapon damage, <of which you have none>?

 

Also, you need more armor/tank items in there... Small Hadron Collider and Barbed Plating at the least.

[Midknight]

Considering th

Never, ever, ever get Ocelot's Revolver first... I don't know why people do it... For some reason it is so common in pubs, but it is like the worst build ever. Especially on Akasha! All you need as early game Akasha is health and energy. Why go for an item that has none of that and scales off of your weapon damage, <of which you have none>?

 

Also, you need more armor/tank items in there... Small Hadron Collider and Barbed Plating at the least.

 

Considering that it will let you double your attack damage on a single hit, it's understandable. What other item will come close to flat out doubling your damage? Sure, it's only 1 attack, but it's a sure bet for a Q->AA combo. Then, every point of weapon damage you get effectively counts double for those charged hits. It also gives Int (that powers up his E which is his primary farming and sustain ability) and Agi (which gives Armor which powers up his Heroic Passive and Ult). It probably isn't as optimized as an Int-based tank build, but if you already have enough tankiness on your team, then he can make a pretty decent carry.

[Eliwan]

I -just- did a test game a few moments ago-- Akasha can clear the jungle pretty easily as a solo--

 

Talents: Vigor [+2.3 Health Regeneration], Integrity [+8 Armor], Zeal [+13% MS if >70% Health], Brilliance [+1.2 Energy Regen], Swiftness [+7% Movement Speed], Youth [+230 Energy].

 

Buy a Duran's Buckler, jungle starting with Firebats next to your short lane (use Consecrate as soon as you don't have full health), then the Siege Tanks (Consecrate AGAIN; learn Justicar Strike), then the next Firebats (using both Justicar Strike and Consecrate-- you will have to use Recover[F] at this camp), then the Thors next to your base. Now you will have to shop, so recall. If your team actually let you get all the kills, you should be able to start building a Miner's Goggles or Lost Treasure.

 

Haven't tested it in an actual player-versus-player (I was just testing jungle route itself), but it will probably work.

 

Playing wise I like to avoid getting any levels in Q until even after my Stat Bonuses... because I can't afford the mana cost increase =[ I like to build SHM, Spell Buffer, and Nitrogen Retrofit before grabbing situational items like Chilling Artifact and Barbed Plating-- if we're up against Spell-Damage enemies instead of AGI carries I think foregoing Armor for tanky-INT items like Nitrogen would work best. Not sure though.

[cell]

@Eliwan

 

 

e,q,e,,q,q,stats,q,w,stats,stats......and yes items: buckler,400energy,googlers and tresure works very good at begining.i try to stay long as possible with both moneyitems.then shm and spellbuffer ,475health and 400 energyreg,then ihan......then maybe e mantel for extrastun and spellresist or chilling.E- mantel works better for me.

[DzoSero]

Never, ever, ever get Ocelot's Revolver first... I don't know why people do it... For some reason it is so common in pubs, but it is like the worst build ever. Especially on Akasha! All you need as early game Akasha is health and energy. Why go for an item that has none of that and scales off of your weapon damage, <of which you have none>?

 

Also, you need more armor/tank items in there... Small Hadron Collider and Barbed Plating at the least.

Considering th

 

Considering that it will let you double your attack damage on a single hit, it's understandable. What other item will come close to flat out doubling your damage? Sure, it's only 1 attack, but it's a sure bet for a Q->AA combo. Then, every point of weapon damage you get effectively counts double for those charged hits. It also gives Int (that powers up his E which is his primary farming and sustain ability) and Agi (which gives Armor which powers up his Heroic Passive and Ult). It probably isn't as optimized as an Int-based tank build, but if you already have enough tankiness on your team, then he can make a pretty decent carry.

 

I couldn't have said it better myself, Ocelot's Revolver is a great first item. Especially if you plan on an early gank once acquired (Leo!). Considering Star's Fury is part of my build, Revolver gets me there one step closer and is a great motive to constantly engage the enemy. Enemies hardly suspect what they are getting into and once the battle initiates, they retreat tails tucked.

[cell]

but a flairgun is cheaper and makes more damage earlygame,and sunflare gun later can be good too,,gun,q,aa,w,aa,looks great,i try this out now

 

btw when u stun with q close and then use an activ(flairgun for example) is the second damagestun with range from q gone? answer: no he is still there,with revolver he is gone

 

so

 

flairgun: 1850

35 weapondamage

15% lifesteal

400 aktivdamage

 

revolver:2045

28 agi

16 int

100% from int how much sec cd?

 

later

Sunflaregun:4895

60int

40 weapondamage

20%lifesteal

400+25%from current health

 

stars fury:4295

30agi

30int

250energy

15%cd

30% weaponspeed

 

in a fight u can use starsfury 2 times maybe but the damage from sfg is very nice i really don´t know

 

later maybe both but thats alot of money....

[akanna]

I tried out various builds and playstyles last night, and I gotta say SFG seems like a must have on him, It gives him a much needed ranged attack (outside of just dropping the aura), as well as INT, and helps stack exchanges in your favor. I also found barbed to be essential in dealing with AA heavy teams, since they stop attacking whenever you ULT (outside of W), and wait for it to be down. Nitrogen retro is also extremely useful, since he does spell damage on every attack and has an AOE aura that lasts for 8 seconds.

 

I personally found it pretty handy to build SHM->IHAN->Nitrogen/barbed/SFG (in whatever order is needed) on him so far based on who I am against. SHM helps a lot with farming and melts creep waves when combined with E, it also helps you do some extra damage when chasing or closing gaps. He is able to hold heros in one place for around 2-5 seconds, so it helps out early on, and you can sell it late game for something more valuable as needed (Like phantom menace) I chose IHAN second because it gives health and INT and solves his energy whore issues, normally on casters IHAN is better as a later item, but health is pretty important on justicar too

 

I didnt try out using Ocelots/stars but I can understand the appeal, since you have to do as much damage as possible in that 2.5 second window with W as well as the 1-2 seconds you buy with Q, before people try to run and you cant really hold them and may not be able to keep up with them (obviously your aura can slow and damage them as they run thanks to nitro)

 

Id say the biggest weakness I found with INT and Armor heavy builds is that he has almost no AA damage or attack speed since he scales off strength. (Timesplitter is a nice item to get to solve attack speed but def should not be in the first few items you get for him in most games) His bonus damage from armor is the only thing that really keeps AA viable. It makes it a little hard sometimes to get the kill in without backup if they have decent health and spell resist. His low attack range also makes it tricky to counter leech (which seems to be the default answer to barbed + ULT on him for ranged AAs if spell damage isnt available) and its hard to get around that without help or movement/utility items

 

I havent tried it yet but doing a hybrid AA build could be pretty good on him. Items like stun baton, lightning rod, and prye jump to mind, since you have approx 2-5 seconds to "lay on the pain" where they cant really go anywhere (stun baton esp could be useful since it helps hold people longer). His super short range is a bit of a handicap to AA focus unless you pack lots of movement or items like impact dial / SHC to close gaps. I haven't seen anyone post carry builds, it seems the general consensus of this guide is more focused on INT play.

 

Would love to see more builds / playstyles covered in here if people have made them work