I’ve dedicated an account to only playing Valeera because I think she is incredibly fun. The more I play her, though, the more I feel like her talent tree gives the illusion of multiple builds while heavily punishing you for choosing anything besides Q.
Her Q build is fantastic. It works extremely well. The problem is that I feel hard locked into choosing Relentless Strikes at level 4. If I don’t, my hero damage and Energy economy plummet.
For anyone who doesn’t play Valeera, a quick explanation of how her kit works. Valeera uses Energy instead of Mana and has normal abilities and Stealth abilities.
Outside of Stealth, Q is Sinister Strike, a dash and stab with a 5 second cooldown that costs 25 Energy. If you hit a HERO, the cooldown is reduced to 1 second, making this Valeera’s main damage ability. W is Blade Flurry, an AoE around Valeera with a 4 second cooldown that costs 40 Energy. Every enemy Hero hit gives Valeera 1 Combo Point. E is Eviscerate, a single-target finisher with a 1 second cooldown that costs 25 Energy. It consumes your Combo Points, up to 3, to deal increased damage.
Valeera can also Vanish, which has an 8 second cooldown. Vanish puts her into Stealth and increases her movement speed. After being Stealthed for 3 seconds, her Stealth abilities gain greatly increased range and teleport her to the target. While Stealthed, Q becomes Ambush, a stronger attack that reduces the target’s Armor by 10 for 5 seconds. W becomes Cheap Shot, which stuns for 0.75 seconds and then Blinds the target for 2 seconds after the stun expires. E becomes Garrote, which Silences for 2.5 seconds, deals some initial damage, and applies a small DoT over 7 seconds.
On paper, this sounds like a kit with several possible directions. Q assassin, Garrote/auto attack, utility, maybe even Blade Flurry AoE. In practice, I feel hard locked into Q.
Level 4 is where the problem starts. Relentless Strikes reduces Sinister Strike’s Energy cost from 25 to 15. Since Sinister Strike gets reduced from a 5 second cooldown to 1 second whenever it hits a Hero, this talent is incredibly important. Without it, repeated Qs absolutely chew through Valeera’s Energy. If I don’t take Relentless Strikes, I immediately feel the difference in my damage and how long I can actually stay in a fight.
The problem is that the alternatives are interesting talents attached to builds that don’t fully exist.
Hemorrhage increases Valeera’s Basic Attack damage by 40% against targets affected by Garrote. I actually think Hemorrhage is a fantastic Immortal-racing talent. I had a Battlefield of Eternity game where I ended up doing 47% of our team’s Immortal damage. If I had known that was going to be my job, I absolutely would have considered Hemorrhage.
But when am I supposed to know that? With random teams, I’m already level 5 by the time the first Immortal really shows me how the team is going to play. Everyone decides to defend and I’m suddenly the only person hitting the Immortal? Tough luck. Should have seen the future at level 4 and picked Hemorrhage.
This gets even stranger at level 7 because Slice and Dice looks like the obvious follow-up talent for an auto attack build. After using Eviscerate with 3 Combo Points, Valeera gets a large Attack Speed increase. The problem is that Valeera only generates Combo Points from enemy Heroes. You cannot generate them from the Immortal, Bosses, or Mercenaries.
So if I picked Hemorrhage because I needed sustained PvE damage, my supposed follow-up talent does not even work for the reason I picked Hemorrhage in the first place. I can Garrote the Immortal and get the 40% Basic Attack bonus, but I cannot activate Slice and Dice unless I leave the Immortal, go hit enemy Heroes, build 3 Combo Points, Eviscerate one of them, and then come back. That is not a functional PvE build.
Hemorrhage also has a problem in normal teamfights. Valeera is squishy. Sitting next to somebody and continuously auto attacking them is far more dangerous than using Sinister Strike for mobility and burst. You don’t really use Hemorrhage as your normal damage build because Q is simply better at doing what Valeera normally wants to do.
Wound Poison reduces healing received by 50%. That sounds useful, but if I pick it, I’m obviously going to want to make use of it. Meanwhile I just gave up Relentless Strikes, so Sinister Strike costs 25 Energy again. I keep Wound Poison active, start using my normal abilities, and suddenly my Energy bar is gone. Other Heroes get anti-healing tools without having to give up the talent that makes their basic damage rotation function.
Initiative gives Valeera early Combo Points. It isn’t useless, but then at level 16 you get Seal Fate, which is a much better Combo Point generator. Initiative feels like an early solution to something the talent tree solves more effectively later anyway.
This makes level 4 feel less like, “Which direction do I want to take Valeera?” and more like, “Do I want my normal damage rotation to function properly?” If yes, pick Relentless Strikes.
Level 7 is actually a much better place to decide what kind of Valeera you want to play, but the alternatives still struggle. Mutilate massively increases Sinister Strike’s damage in exchange for reducing its range. It’s great, it synergizes perfectly with Relentless Strikes, and Q build is basically online.
Fatal Finesse improves Blade Flurry. The concept is interesting, but it encourages Valeera to put herself in the middle of multiple enemy Heroes. Valeera is squishy and normally benefits much more from single-target damage than AoE. If Blade Flurry is supposed to support a playstyle where Valeera hangs around several enemies waiting for another 4 second W cooldown, I think the build needs some kind of survivability attached to it. Maybe Block could be gained from earning Combo Points rather than spending them, or something similar. Give Valeera a reason she can actually survive long enough to use repeated Blade Flurries.
Level 13 actually makes sense to me. This is the tier where I can look at the game I’m currently playing and make a decision. Do I need more Blind? Do I need Spell Power reduction? Do I want to Ambush more often? Pick the Vanish talent that fits the match. That feels like what a talent tier should be.
I do question Strangle a little. Garrote already Silences for 2.5 seconds, while Strangle reduces Spell Power for 6 seconds. That means a decent portion of the Spell Power reduction overlaps with a Silence where the enemy usually cannot cast anyway. But overall, I like the design of this tier.
Level 16 is where a lot of Heroes get their “I’m ready to rumble” talents. Valeera’s feel much more like mild upgrades.
Assassinate increases Ambush damage by 50% when no other enemy Heroes are nearby. That sounds powerful, but by level 16, players have generally learned not to wander around alone against Valeera. Even when someone is isolated, Garrote or Cheap Shot are usually better openers because a 2.5 second Silence or a Stun followed by a Blind can be much more useful than Ambush. An extra 50% sounds large, but Ambush itself does not feel strong enough for that to feel like some huge level 16 power spike.
Seal Fate is good. It accelerates Combo Point generation, lets you Eviscerate sooner, and synergizes naturally with Q.
Then there is Thistle Tea. Thistle Tea instantly restores Valeera’s Energy. Why is this at level 16?
If I did NOT pick Relentless Strikes at level 4, I have already spent twelve levels being Energy starved before finally getting the talent that fixes my Energy. If I DID pick Relentless Strikes, my Energy economy is already substantially better and Thistle Tea fixes a problem I don’t really have.
This feels like a level 4 talent placed at level 16. It does not increase my damage directly. It does not reduce my cooldowns. It doesn’t change how one of my abilities works. It gives me Energy. If Thistle Tea is going to stay at level 16, at least make it instantly reset my basic ability cooldowns too. Make it feel like a level 16 talent.
Level 20 gets weird again. Adrenaline Rush makes Smoke Bomb generate so much Energy that your Energy bar is basically limitless while it is active. But once again, if I picked Relentless Strikes at level 4, Energy usually isn’t my primary restriction anymore. My cooldowns are.
Enveloping Shadows is fantastic. Free Cloak of Shadows when you Vanish, free defensive ult use, removes slows and DoTs that would otherwise knock you back out of Stealth. It’s one of the best talents on the tier by far.
Then there is Rupture. Rupture doubles Garrote’s damage over time and lets Basic Attacks refresh its duration. This is the talent that finally makes the Garrote auto attack idea feel complete.
At level 20.
If I picked Hemorrhage at level 4, I’ve been waiting sixteen levels for this. If I picked Slice and Dice at level 7, it still doesn’t work against camps, Bosses, or Immortals because I need Hero Combo Points. If I didn’t take Relentless Strikes at level 4, I’ve also spent most of the match dealing with worse Energy economy.
Then finally at level 20, Garrote becomes a serious sustained damage option.
That feels WAY too late.
Rupture feels much more like a level 16 talent if Valeera is actually supposed to have a functional Garrote/auto attack build.
This is ultimately my problem with Valeera’s talent tree. I don’t think Q build is too strong. I love Q build. I do not want it nerfed. I want the other parts of her kit to form complete builds before the game is almost over.
Right now Garrote spends nearly the entire game primarily being a Silence and doesn’t become a serious DoT option until level 20. Her auto attack talents encourage a very squishy melee assassin to remain attached to enemies for extended periods. Her supposed sustained PvE talents stop working together because Combo Points only come from Heroes. Her Energy alternatives either arrive far too late or compete directly against Relentless Strikes, which is the talent that makes her normal Q rotation sustainable in the first place.
Most importantly, Valeera is forced to predict what job her random team will need her to perform at level 4. Sometimes I draft Valeera expecting to assassinate people, then discover nobody on my team is soaking. Sometimes I’m suddenly our camp clearer. Sometimes I’m apparently our Immortal damage. Sometimes I realize sustained damage actually would have been useful.
I want to be able to look at what my team is actually doing and adapt a little later than level 4. Level 7 is a great point for that decision.
Maybe Hemorrhage could move later. Maybe Slice and Dice could somehow function against non-Heroes. Maybe Thistle Tea belongs earlier as an alternative way to solve Valeera’s Energy economy. Maybe Rupture belongs at level 16 so the Garrote build actually exists before level 20.
I don’t necessarily want Valeera to do more damage. I want her other talent paths to actually become complete builds.
I know this problem happens less in coordinated Master-level games, but it still happens there too. Players still miss soak, draft oddly, or force someone into a role they did not expect. The difference is that lower and mid ranks experience this much more often, and that is where most of the ranked population actually plays.
As she stands now, it feels like you full send into Q build, or you deliberately spend most of the game playing a weaker version of Valeera while waiting for talents that arrive far too late.
Take this all with a grain of salt. In the end, I play this character to have fun, and Heros of the Storm is a video game, meant to be fun. Im not here trying to be top player and make money, I just want to give my feedback.