Hello, friends. My name is Kith and I like videogames.
Today’s offering is about the Lost Vikings. Once upon a 2017, I did a Review + Rework of them in a huge Google Doc because the HOTS Forums at the time didn’t support images. Now they do, and I am here to produce the updated version.
I’m going to skip the in-depth Review this time and just provide the bullet points - The Lost Vikings’ issues are pretty well-known, and the majority of what I said in the original Review + Rework is still valid for that purpose (although I have updated the Rework significantly, hence the new thread).
Let’s get started.
Hero Features
- Unique Playstyle - Having to manage three different units is definitely a departure from the standard.
- The Viking Soak - Because The Lost Vikings are three Hero Units instead of one, they can be present in up to three places at once - and absorb XP from each location at the same time.
Design Issues
- The Viking Soak is Practically Everything - Between the advantages that the Viking Soak grants the team and the typical weakness of a grouped TLV, the Viking Soak is usually the only thing worth caring about.
- Viking Hoard actively punishes you for not doing the Viking Soak - The more time you spend not soaking and gathering Regeneration Globes, the lower your overall durability will be in the late-game - and you will need to be durable in the late-game.
- The Viking Soak isn’t interesting - Standard characters have a back-and-forth where sometimes risks are taken and kills are secured. The Vikings stand in lane and retreat when they’re threatened. Granted, having to do that for three lanes at once can get very intensive if the enemy is playing aggressively, but “intense” does not mean “mentally engaging”.
- Empty Kit without Talents - The only activatable abilities that a Talentless TLV has are Go, Go, Go! and Olaf’s charge (which doesn’t even have a button). Outside of that, TLV are basically upgraded Lane Minions that can earn XP.
- Nearly Mandatory Talents - Viking Bribery, Spin to Win! and Jump! are taken 99% of the time because they both play to TLV’s strengths extremely well and give TLV an actual kit.
- Extremely uneven Heroic Viability - Play Again! is far beyond Longboat Raid! in power and utility because it enables the Viking Soak and Longboat Raid! does not. It also allows TLV to come back from a bad teamfight in the late game, something else that is extremely important.
All concepts discussed in this Rework are free to use by Blizzard without credit.
- Viking Soak is no longer Practically Everything - While the Viking Soak maneuver is still possible and still very strong, it’s not the entire summation of The Lost Vikings experience. If the player wants to group up in the early game, TLV may not be as effective as a complete Hero, but they won’t be nearly as weak as they currently are.
- Baseline Abilities - Spin to Win! and Jump! are now packaged by default, meaning you don’t have to spend Talents to get a full Ability suite.
- New Trait - Each Viking comes with their own Aura that provides benefits to themselves and the other Vikings, a minor buff to their individual strength and a significant buff to their grouped strength.
Rework Detail
Teamwork! is Viking Hoard’s replacement, focusing on giving each Viking a bit of extra gameplay flavor and rewarding grouping them together.
With all of the Nice Things™ that I’ve given to the Vikings in this Rework to balance out their performance when grouped, the charge was just too too strong, so it’s getting replaced.
I know that claiming a part of TLV’s base kit is too strong may sound weird for someone who’s basing all of this effort off of the idea that TLV is often extremely weak in group play, but they can also be insanely overpowering - and a major contributing factor to when they are is the ability to consistently apply a point-and-click slow or stun.
Fierceness is an aura-based Battle Momentum, allowing Baelog (and Vikings near Baelog) to mill the cooldowns of Spin to Win! and Jump!. The impact isn’t much when it’s just Baelog, but all three Vikings combined can easily provide significant benefit.
Erik has had his passive Movement Speed bonus replaced by Swiftness. For him there’s no difference, but now he can share it with his fellow Vikings.
Spin to Win! has become baseline, but its power has been adjusted to compensate - it deals slightly less damage and has a longer cooldown (although Fierceness can reduce it considerably).
Jump! is also baseline and has also had its power adjusted accordingly, featuring an increased cooldown and -33% duration.
- Level 1 Talents: E is for Expansion
- Level 4 Talents: Viking Tactics
- Level 7 Talents: Teamwork! Boosters
- Level 10 Talents: Heroics
- Level 13 Talents: Escape Plans
- Level 16 Talents: Power Ups
- Level 20 Talents: Storm Tier
The Rework’s Talents are pretty straightforward, but of special note is that Level 1 fills in the empty E slot in the Viking’s ability bar - hence the name.
Runic Shield allows Olaf to pick up some extra durability and adjust it on the fly, adapting to his lane opponent or the enemy team in general.
Raid and Plunder! combines the effects of Explosive Attacks and Pain Don’t Hurt, allowing players to push more effectively with Baelog or invest into his survivability.
Spy Games increases Erik’s ability to soak safely by either hiding him better or by warning him of incoming threats more easily, but also has potential for making him into a better scout by allowing him to check Bushes without actually entering them.
Guess what’s unchanged? If you guessed Viking Bribery, you’re correct!
Hunka’ Burning Olaf is the same, it’s just had its damage adjusted to make up for being available so much earlier.
If Baelog’s splash coverage wasn’t enough for you, good news: you can double it. Broad Swords vastly increases Baelog’s waveclearing strength and makes him much more effective at fighting Objective Monsters (such as Zerg or Shrine Guardians), but also significantly increases his strength in Teamfights. And hey, this wouldn’t even require any new assets - just do like Jaina’s Ice Floes does and staple two of the existing graphics together.
The only difference the Rework’s It’s a Sabotage! has is a differently colored icon because it’s the only Erik-specific talent on this tier.
Yes, I did in fact dig up Resurgence of the Storm’s icon to use here.
There’s a lot to talk about where Spirit Stones is concerned. Its primary goal is to make grouped play a little stronger by making deaths easier to bounce back from, but it also allows someone performing the Viking Soak to shift a Viking into the empty lane to try and get the dead Viking back on the field faster.
It also comes with the added benefit of showing off the Viking Gravestone assets more - I’ve always thought it was a real shame that they just sat in the Hall of Storms.
Norse Force has traded global reach for a permanent duration and more Shields.
Baelog the Fierce (the talent), but adapted to the Rework’s mechanics. While stacks can be generated by all Vikings and benefit all Vikings with Fierceness, the amount of attacks required to get to the total bonus has gone from 6 to 30.
A replacement for Erik the Swift (the talent) that provides benefit to the entire team instead of just Erik.
Mercenary Lord with a fresh coat of paint and tied into the Rework’s mechanics.
It is important to note that Damage and Attack Speed are multiplicative increases in DPS when combined instead of additive - a 25% increase to Damage and Attack Speed factors out to a 56% increase to DPS instead of being added together to make 50%. While one Viking alone cannot achieve the same level of effectiveness that the original Mercenary Lord can, two or more can surpass it easily.
Play Again! has had its Cooldown increased by 10 seconds to cut back a little on how strong it is and how effective it is at enabling the Viking Soak.
Longboat Raid! has received pretty significant changes:
- Summons all living Vikings to Longboat location on cast. This will give the Longboat more tactical opportunities for use, such as summoning all of the Vikings into a single lane for pushing purposes or to turn around a gank attempt.
- No longer has a Mortar Ability. While I liked the Mortar, it muddies the waters in terms of what the Longboat is actually doing.
- Each Viking in the Longboat provides a unique upgrade. Instead of scaling up the Longboat’s health for each Viking present, each Viking upgrades the Longboat in a unique (and thematic) way.
- DPS increased substantially (from 112 to 180). This is mostly to make up for the loss of the Mortar, but also to give the Longboat some usability upgrades in general.
Ideally, all of this will be enough to make it competitive with Play Again! so TLV can have two Heroics instead of just one.
Gives TLV some defense against Melee Assassins who like to dive Vikings and delete them.
Brings Jump! back up to its original duration.
64 KB Marathon is one of those rare unchanged Talents in the Rework, although it comes a Tier earlier now.
Nordic Attack Squad lives on in a new form, converted into a passive to avoid trying to work in an extra button on TLV’s already crowded bars.
To clarify, each Viking can contribute stacks for activation of the bonus damage.
Gives Spin to Win! some really big, nasty teeth and encourages the player to land all three Spins.
Paying homage to platformers everywhere, TLV can now jump on enemies’ heads.
In a twist of fate, neither of TLV’s Heroics has a unique Storm talent, with The Sequel! serving as an upgrade to both. I did this for three reasons:
- I’m kinda scared of the Rework’s Longboat. On paper it sounds reasonably balanced, but I know exactly how strong being able to summon all three Vikings to one location is, and adding that functionality alone has some pretty scary potential.
- Checkpoint Reached doesn’t really feel that useful. Every experienced TLV player I interviewed felt this way, always preferring to pick up Fury of the Storm instead.
- The original form of The Sequel! was basically a poorer version of Play Again! Also Spirit Stones exists now as a method to reduce Death Timers.
Stoutness of the Storm makes the Vikings significantly more durable against targeted attacks when grouped, helping them stay alive in the event of getting focused. However, they’re still as vulnerable as ever to AOE attacks.
The rune on Olaf’s shield is Inguz, for good health.
It’s important to note that the Missing Health of each Viking is calculated individually, but the damage bonus is shared. So for example, if all Vikings were missing 40% of their Maximum Health, Fierceness of the Storm would be providing a 30% damage bonus.
The rune on Baelog’s sword is Isa, for challenge.
If you like Going Fast™, then Swiftness of the Storm should scratch that itch by practically guaranteeing that you’ll have Go, Go, Go! active at any given time - and by being able to extend it when it is.
The rune on Erik’s slingshot is Raido, for travel.
I genuinely love the concept behind The Lost Vikings, but I feel like their potential has been squandered. Between being incredibly focused on defensive play and their lack of a full kit without Talents, the Lost Vikings feel unpolished - even unfinished. Even though players like MutedWarrior can turn them into absolute monsters, that’s extremely uncommon and they’re almost always merely soak machines.
The goal of the Rework isn’t to buff The Lost Vikings into supremacy, but to give them the the reason to do something other than the Viking Soak without requiring excessive levels of skill. And of course, keep in mind that there’s nothing wrong with the Viking Soak itself - but when that’s all there is to do for the vast majority of the playerbase, the concept loses a lot of its luster.
Anyways, that’s all I have for now. I hope you liked it and if you didn’t, I hope you’ll tell me why.
Thank you for reading. 
i just wanna work on HOTS for real, man
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