Hi, i used to play them quite good before the rework but im a bit lost now with the talents and hotslogs is a bit odd so i felt about asking about your preferred build.
Lvl 1: Explosive attacks and Viking bribery seem good.
Lvl 4: Mercenary lord. Is Its a sabotage good?
Lvl 7: Spin to win. Baelog the fierce seems like a trap since instead of upgrading each viking you only depend on him.
Lvl 10: Play again.
Lvl 13: I feel jump is better than Hunka burning Olaf.
Lvl 16: Used to get Large and in charge, it helped in teamfights.
Their lvl 1 is the most versatile one. It depends on so many factors.
Mercenary Lord, Nordic Attack Squad and/or Checkpoint Reached only if I can get a huge value out of them.
Ask yourself how will you play TLV? More micro or more macro? Do you need to split up them mostly or you will keep them together (all 3) 75% of the time?
For example, you don’t take 7 level Baelog or % dmg at 13 if you don’t group TLV to make those talents work. Better to choose Spin to Win at this case.
1 level is flexiable. Mostly every choice is ok, but of course sometimes one talent is better than other.
4 level - mostly I go Erik the Swift because sustain and rotation. If you have a lot of camps, you can take Mercs Lord (with Bribe at 1). Baelog sustain at 4 is good for Baelog build.
You pick StW for macro or when Baelog talent is a bad idea and you need burst.
Shield if you take % dmg at 13
Baelog AA + Range if… Baelog build lol
Play Again. Always.
Burning Olaf if you don’t need Jump, you can’t group TLV and you really need the third TLV to waveclear.
Jump when you go StW and enemy can kill your TLV easily (in 90% cases)
% dmg if you can group them and took Shield at 7
At 16 you mostly take Stun for Olaf. Of course, sometimes Z can work too to make your Z fast as heck bois.
CDR with shields at 7 may work too, I didn’t try it tbh
Fury of the Storm is must pick mostly, sometimes you need PA upgrade if you die a lot during fights but you really need the second HP bar.
I really can’t say when you need Sequel!. You just think it may work sometimes. That’s it.
It is about synergy with later talents. It increases his attack speed and as such increases the value of some level 13 and 16 choices. Spin to win can be very powerful, but it also is risky as it means exposing both Baelog and Eric to melee range when dealing that damage and they are among the lowest durability heroes in HotS.
The boat is useful if your vikings just cannot contribute to a team fight, either due to too many hard counters or due to too much splash damage. It is long range damage and can zone and contribute from a great distance away.
It is the defensive option that helps against burst damage.
The percentage damage of Nordic Attack Squad is very powerful, bringing TLV on par if not better than Tychus at killing tanky heroes. This is where Baelog the fierce can be very good as more attacks per second means more percentage damage per second and both require all vikings be grouped anyway.
Impatience Is a Virtue can be good here. Especially if you go Spin to Win and Jump it gives you a lot more value from those talents. Even without them it helps reduce the cooldown of the ultimate assuring that it is ready for most team fights. Also benefits from Baleog the Fierce as more attacks per second means more cooldown reduction.
If going pure DPS then Executioner can be very strong. Especially if your team is CC heavy with slows and the like. TLV already has one of the highest auto attack damages in the game, and combined with percentage damage and 30% extra damage even the most tanky heroes melt quite fast.
This is good for an all out burst build as it further raises their auto attack damage with some opening burst and effectively nullifies all enemy minions.
If you go boat ultimate then Ragnarok ‘n’ Roll! is a good upgrade since it gives the mortar more range (better zoning) and doubles the long range DPS. Since you go boat ultimate because you are pretty much forced to, this can be a good way to gain some power back.
Checkpoint Reached is useful if you want to play offensively without boat in risky teamfights since it gives you 10 seconds of time that can be used to effectively suicide. Sure you will feed the enemy some kills but at this stage winning the fight should win the game anyway so keeping exp advantage is less of a concern. Main risk with it is that the second revive can be predicted so skill shots can be prepared in advance such as Kael’s Flame Strike to nullify the advantage it brings.
For most part these are the talents I would recommend:
level 1:
Olaf the Stout if facing AA based hero with medium to slow AS. Helps tad with jungling, holding a point and just soaking. Generally the best talent here.
Spy Games when when playing to win solo lane(stout works too). Helps with sniping wells also.
Explosive Attacks not generally recommended. Only pick if you feel you will get pushed way too hard and you have to handle multiple lanes. Realistically you should not need this. You got reasonable waveclear and your 4 man should be either pushing so hard that enemy has to respond or ganking to help you out.
Level 4:
Erik The Swift Generally best. This is your main viking. Allows harrassing, unmounting and sustain just in general.
Mercenary Lord If enemy lacks wave clear or to boost OW map items.
Level 7:
Spin To Win. Only talent of this tier. No matter if you play for TF or global this is the talent.
Level 10:
Both ults are fine. Play again is better for macro, for TF it needs extremely good micro but works for that too. Boat is best picked if you look to avoid specific abilities, ults or to avoid giving stacks from deaths(butch blood for example).
Level 13:
Jump! default choice. Similar to boat you can use it to avoid major abilities and ults.
Nordic Attack Squad if you got nothing major to avoid with jump. It’s a lot of damage on tank or bruiser.
Level 16:
Large and In Charge. Stun your target, surround, spin to win and most targets are dead or close to it. Only talent of the tier.
Level 20:
Fury of the Storm. Works on both ults and builds. Extra damage to burst down your targets and clear faster.
Checkpoint Reached is reasonable option too when you need more survivability or you feel you can trade effectively.
Rest of the talents I simply would not recommend at all. Bribe is way too expensive in reality, old times it simply had horrible alternatives. You’re better off just clearing camps manually be it with stealth erik on siege or with Olaf + another vike depending on camp.
In before some one inevitably turns it back on you by asking how you play or what youre looking to do without giving any real tips in order to look smart.
