Guide for Crackling Please?

[Moo]

I am fairly sure this hero is OP, but I am a scrub and suck with him pls help. :)

[Skydie]

Max E and Q first, E is your main source of damage early game. Your build is 2X machete into Revolver (part of BHM), Galactic defender into BHM then Khali into whatever you see fit - I stack weapon damage so items like Shinobi/Foe (for hp)/Phantom menace (speed and spell resist). Mid/Late game weapon damage burst is what does the majority of damage.

 

 

Play style is easy, you're a burst assassin. So generally I tend to farm off squishies on the other team, so I can get far ahead and pick off others. Heroes like Raynor/Rancor/Jakk are like meat to Crackling, if you use your ultimate in conjunction with galactic defender active you can tower dive them.

 

 

PS: Some people get cerebro, however post the internal 4 secs CD I feel it's less useful than some other items and that nerf alone warrants not picking it up, you ain't going to be sticking around long enough in the fight for many cerebro procs to occur. Other people have gone energy saber too, again building around the idea that this hero will be spamming out his skills and the item compliments the hero.

[Moo]

I was pretty sure you were supposed to max e first, but some pubber told me w. Does crit work well on ling, or is khali mainly for the huge attack damage boost?

[Skydie]

The attack damage, as you're a damage burster. Crits are just a nice bonus.

[Moo]

That is what I figured Ty for the guide btw. :)

[ginosaji]

Here's a guide I wrote awhile ago for another site... Just been too lazy to format it for AOS.com

 

 

Ling is an AGI hero with exceptionally high burst damage output. By mid-late game around 2/3 of his damage will be spell damage. He should be played as an assasin/dps hybrid char. Maybe the best squishy sniper in the game, he excels at flanking the enemy team and taking out key targets, then bailing. Strong against enemy AGI and INT heros, will be able to solo almost any non-tank by mid game foreward. Weak against CC, slows, tanks, and AOE spell damage. For this reason care needs to be employed when drafting a ling for your team. If they have strong CC, don't pick him.

 

 

Here's a link to the Wiki for detailed info on his abilities

 

http://aeonofstorms....Alpha.Crackling

 

 

 

Talents:

2-2-2 or 1-3-2. 2-2-2: Might, Fury, Health, Armor or spell resist, Cooldown, Swiftness. 1-3-2: armor and spell resist instead of fury.

 

Fury helps with farm especially for jungle, but you don't need it for damage output as you are not a dps, but a burst caster. Cooldown reduction is a must with Ling, as all his damage comes from his abilities. Swiftness is essential on every hero, especially an assasin like ling.

 

 

Abilities:

E,Q,W,E,E,R... I get E first because it does the most damage early and the slow is awesome early game. Q second to gap close. After that I max E first because best damage, then W because it gives you great sustain. W gives health based on how much damage you do with it. By mid game this can amount to 15-25% of ling's full health, which is an awesome sustain mechanic. It also works on towers, which can be helpful in certain scenarios.

 

 

Build:

There are four core items to ling that I believe to be absolutely essential in almost every situation imaginable. The only time you wouldn't go burst caster is if the other team is super tanky and you need to go sustain dps. That shouldn't happen IH very often since your team shouldn't draft a burster against tank heavy/CC centered comp and Ling is too situational to pick higher than 3rd-5th pick (Usually 4th or 5th).

 

 

Core Items:

Black Hole Magnum (BHM), Galactic Defender, Electric Mantle, Yamato Reactor. These are all amazing items on Ling for a number of reasons. First, they all have very good components that fulfill the same role as end item. Second, they all tie into his burst caster role. And third, E Mantle, Galactic, and BHM all got buffs in the item patch. BHM is cheaper, Galactic gives timescale for HP below maximum, and Emantle is an active and gives you move speed now. The active on Emantle means you get to chose when it will proc. It's also awesome for chasing and covering distance on the map. At level 3 R with E mantle active, you're about 8 movespeed. Not to mention E Mantle gives spell resist. AOE spell is a pain with ling, so SR is huge. On top of that it gives you cooldown reduction, which again, translates to pure DPS on ling. BHM is Ling's main damage amplifier, it's so cheap now too. It also gives a really nice damage increase as well (65 I believe). Galactic Defender helps with surviving so much. Run in, combo, shield, Ulti to escape. Timescale from Galactic will help you with damage amp, as it will make you C/D faster. Yamato is amazing late game with ling. Aside from the stats, which are good in themselves, the active amplifies ling damage output by around 50%. 25% timescale gives you way faster cooldowns, which means more abilities. Since most of your damage comes from abilities (and procing BHM), this is awesome. It also amplifies spell damage by 25%, which is awesome as well, considering BHM and your abilities are both spell damage based.

 

Other items:

So, you have two slots available for him. If you need more damage I suggest Kali Blade, as it gives you a bunch of weapon damage and helps cut into enemy agi leech. You could also consider Grav edge, as true damage is nice and spell amp is awesome as well... I haven't done the over under on the new grav edge vs. other damage amp means yet, so feel free to put in your 2 cents. If you need survivability, you should consider FOE, COA, Organic. You will be doing huge damage with your four core items, so don't be afraid to go full tank items with the last two.

 

Build order:

I buy a Machete to start especially if jungling. Next Ocelet, as it's your main source of damage. From here I would usually start building Vibranium shield (component of Galactic), E mantle, or another HP Item if I think I need surviveability. Sometimes you can go straight for BHM, depends on how much CC they have really, as that's the main thing that counters ling.

 

Playstyle:

Like I said before assasin/nuker, sometime dps if heavily needed. Combo with four core items should look like this: Proc E Mantle while running in, Yamato right before Q (Jump), Galactic defender proc, AA for the BHM proc, E, AA for BHM proc, W, AA for BHM proc, R, AA for BHM proc, then run. This should all take less than 3 seconds and takes practice to get everything right. If you pick the right time to engage and get everything right, it's almost 100% success rate on AGI/INT heros during mid and early late game.

 

Early game I go machete to farm and go straight to Ocelot. You should be able to get it by level 6 and start ganking. By level 6 I grab 5x energy pots, and some wards. Ward all over the map, because you will be able to solo almost anyone if you are even on feed and farm. Energy pots are a must because no abilities=no damage. Also, your W gives decent sustain to keep you topped off on HP. Those two benefits allow free jungle while still allowing good HP/Mana if a gank oportunity shows itself. I reccomend warding above aeon/levi, FB camp in jungle, and near tank camp jungle (you don't need all three, but even 1 gank will pay for wards). As well as the normal rivers. Remember, by level 6, you can 1v1 almost anyone except a few tanks. Even if it fails, just pop your ult and run, no one will catch you.

 

Teamfights:

 

Lurk around behind/to the side and take out key INT or carry targets and run out.

 

 

 

PS. Don't go 2x machete, there's no reason to be jungling when you could be sniping people with Ocelot that much faster.

[Hogwarts]

A real popular opener by myself and a few other people who play on mumble is,

 

Machete, Revolver, Kinetic Cell, Finish revolver into black hole, Finish kentic cell into Energy Saber, Varbium Shields, then turn it into Galactic Defender

 

from there build reactive. Next item can be any of these, Electric Mantle, Phantom, Paralax, Stun knife/ time splitter, pyre etc.. Build reactive for what you need to continue doing well in the game

 

Also remember to always buy the AGI potion and the STR potion there extremely cost effective for what they provide. They make ling deal more damage and make him a lot more tanky Lings biggest problem is getting CC

[Doom]

3/1/2 talent build (wd/leech + ws + demigod + mx hp + max energy/cooldown + m.s.). There is another build that I've tried to relatively good results involving fortify but I will not vouch for it just yet.

 

get as much weapon damage/tankyness as you can. BHM + Galactic + Taser + Organic Carpace + Darwin's Might + Pyre/Coat of Arms/Time Splitter is not the best burst-down build, but you can quite easily solo the enemy team with it, even if you attack them all head on (something you are probably better off not doing, but....) When people make builds for AA/ sniper heroes they only think about how much damage they can inflict in a best case scenario if no one bothers them. Personally, I think about how much damage I will live to inflict, and therefore usually end up dealing more, albeit over a longer period of time.

[ginosaji]

I'll need to try energy saber....

[Moo]

Thanks for the feedback and giving me multiple builds to try, I think that the reason I wasn't doing as well is that I got his combo wrong. The first three games I played with him i got fed early, but didn't do that well as the game went on. Ty again :)

[Moo]

It seems to me that eternity would be a pretty damn good item for more damage on ling if you need more, and it also gives more leeching capabilities and cooldown reduction. What are your opinions on it?

[ginosaji]

It's a decent last item, but the 10% leech from ability damage isn't worth rushing. BHM, Galactic, etc are far more essential on him.

 

Edit: also, really really liking the energy saber on him

[Moo]

Yeah I wasn't thinking of rushing it, more just if I need more damage after core items, and the builds are working out great Ty for the help :)