Kriknak: Death from Above

Build and Guide Kriknak: Death from Above

Cheat Sheet
Talent: Heal

Items: Omni Arms, Flashy Boots, Frost Cape, The Aegis, Spear of Longinus, Muramasa

Arcana: Blitz, Reave, Focus

Introduction
A monstrous scarab beetle, Kriknak is a melee-focused Assassin/Warrior. He’s highly mobile and excels at ambushing heroes with Drone Drop and bursting them down with his low-cooldown abilities and powerful melee attacks. Kriknak is a true assassin who doesn’t stand for a fair fight, preferring instead to rely on his superior mobility and flight to roam the map and hunt down unsuspecting victims.

Skill Build
Terrifying Plague (Kriknak summons a plague larvae that deals physical damage and inflicts the target with Mark of Horror. When Kriknak attacks marked enemies, they take additional magic damage percentage of maximum HP, the cooldown of this ability is reduced by 3 seconds, and restores Kriknak's mana). Leveling increases base damage, Max % damage, and reduces cooldown.

Terrifying Plague should always be your opening move in any fight, provided you’ve already closed the distance with Drone Drop.

It shouldn’t be difficult to immediately follow up with a regular attack, which will trigger both the Mark of Horror and your own Bite passive, dealing a frightening amount of burst damage in a very short amount of time.

Make sure you attack the hero you cast the Plague on, which may prove tricky during a chaotic team fight.

Terrifying Plague makes Kriknak especially effective against enemy warriors and tanks, bypassing their armor to do a full scaling % of their total HP.

Horn Rush (Kriknak lunges forward with his enormous horns, dealing physical damage to enemies in his path. Every enemy hero hit restores HP for Kriknak). Leveling increases base damage and increases HP regen.

Horn Rush’s short 6-second cooldown lets you fire it off quickly. Since Bite triggers after every ability, you should be spamming it, along with your other abilities, as much as possible.

Horn Rush charges Kriknak in a targetable line. It’s a short distance but more importantly if you’re already in melee range it will travel through opponents, placing Kriknak on the other side.

Confound melee opponents by using Horn Rush to avoid their own attack and abilities, but don’t put yourself in a bad situation.

Horn Rush’s HP regen is a nice bonus, but don’t expect it to keep you alive in the long run. You should rely on your speed and damage to win fights quickly - you will not outlast most opponents in a protracted battle.

Horn Rush can be used as an initiator or an escape, but its very short range makes it inferior at both compared to Drone Drop.

Drone Drop (Kriknak takes to the skies, significantly increasing his movement speed for a brief period. When casting this ability white airborne, Kriknak attacks the target area and deals physical damage). Leveling increases damage.

Kriknak’s signature ability pops him up in the air for about eight seconds, or until you cast it again. While in the air Kriknak’s speed is dramatically increased. Casting Drop Drone while airborne sends him crashing down in a targetable radius at about the same distance as Terrifying Plague, and dealing damage to anyone caught in the blast.

Drone Drop is an amazingly versatile ability, and one of the best ambush initiators in the game. It goes hand-in-hand with how you should play Kriknak - as a murderous free-roaming bug out for blood.

Find a target who’s all alone in a lane, preferably pushed a bit too far ahead, or anyone who’s already engaged in a fight with one of your team. Fire up Drone Drop as you approach from the side, hold down the ability again to select your crash radius as you approach, and plummet on top of your poor victim the second you can target them.

Thanks to its relatively low 12-second cooldown you should be able to follow-up with a second Drone Drop in order to catch up to a fleeing opponent and finish them off - or use it as an emergency escape if things go bad.

As an escape, you can use Drone Drop to fly like hell away from a troublesome fight or an outnumbered situation. You can even activate its air attack in the opposite direction for an additional burst of speed.

Unfortunately Drone Drop is highly vulnerable to enemy crowd control, canceling the flight and probably putting you in serious trouble. This is why it’s critical to ambush enemies instead of flying into battle head-on.

PASSIVE: Bite (When Krinak's ability hits an enemy, the next normal attack is enhanced and deals an additional physical damage).

This is the reason we went to stack cooldown reduction Arcana and Items. The more Kriknak can fire off his abilities, the more his Bite attack amplifies his already impressive damage output.

Items
With Kriknak’s Bite passive enhancing his attacks after each ability, we’re going to stack cooldown-reducing equipment so he can fire off his abilities as much as possible. We also want to balance his already impressive damage with some survivability, and gain some unique passives that trigger off his rapid-fire abilities.

Omni Arms (Attack Damage: +70 Attack Speed: 15% Life Steal: 10% Cooldown Speed: 10% Max HP: +500 UNIQUE PASSIVE Pentapower - After using an ability, the next normal attack within 5 seconds deals 100% more physical damage. 2-second cooldown.)

Omni Arms does a little of everything we want for a melee assassin. Its unique Pentapower passive is like having a second Bite thanks to Kriknak’s short cooldowns and other cooldown-reducing items.

Flashy Boots (Cooldown Speed: 10% Movement Speed +60)

Everyone needs boots and Kriknak loves reducing his cooldowns for more Biting goodness. Don’t ask me how these boots fit a giant beetle-monster.

Frost Cape (Cooldown Speed: 10% Armor: +300 Max HP: +800 UNIQUE PASSIVE Frost Power - After using an ability, the next normal attack reduces movement speed by 30% and deals physical damage to an area. 3-second cooldown.)

Defensive items on an assassin?  Absolutely! You have to get in close to do damage and your opponents aren’t exactly going to stand there and take it. We’ve got more cooldown reduction here but also another nice passive that triggers after an ability that deals even more damage and slows your targets.

The Aegis (Cooldown Speed: 20% Max Mana: +400 Armor: +360 UNIQUE PASSIVE Spirit Bond - Reduces the attacker's attack speed by 30% and movement speed by 15% for 3 seconds when taking damage.)

Cooldown reduction plus some nice survivability with armor and Spirit Bond. The Aegis will also help alleviate some mana problems due to constantly using Drone Drop. You are constantly using Drone Drop, right?

Spear of Longinus (Attack Damage: +80 Cooldown Speed: 15% Armor: +150 UNIQUE PASSIVE Shatter - Decreases target’s armor by 50 on hit for 5 seconds. Stacks up to 5 times.)

The Spear of Longinus provides both offensive and defensive boosts as well as, of course, the cooldown reduction we so sorely desire. Shatter will help you shred tanks and negate some of the defensive items your opponents have been purchasing.

Muramasa (Attack Damage: +80 Cooldown Speed: 10% Armor Pierce +45%)

Cooldown speed is our jam, and the Muramasa provides more tank-shredding power with a hefty armor piercing bonus.



Recommended Talents
Heal (120-second cooldown: You and nearby teammates instantly recover 15% HP and gain 15% movement speed for 2 seconds).

Heal is the standard go-to talent for any melee hero in Arena of Valor. You could deal more damage with Execute or escape from nasty CC and stuns with Purify, but Heal will always be useful in any fight.

Arcana
Red: Attack Speed first, though you could also easily stack attack damage or even ability power with how quickly your abilities recharge. Gale (I), Gale (II), Batter (II), Blitz (III), Indomitable (III)

Purple: Attack speed and life steal are great bets for any melee assassin. Leech (I), Vamp (II), Reave (III), Guerrilla (III)

Green: Cooldown speed all the way: Stab (I), Assault (II), Focus (III)

Early Game
You’re a very squishy bug early on. You’re designed to murder heroes, not push lanes, but your murdering potential is weak, and your mobility is pretty much nonexistent without Drone Drop.

Pair up with a melee hero in a side line and focus on enemies heroes, but be careful not to chase and overextend. You’re exceedingly vulnerable without Drone Drop.

It’s a good idea to spend much of the early game in the jungle (hopefully you’re the only assassin on your team) in order to grab XP and gold quickly. Your primary goal in the Early Game is to get level 4 as quickly as possible.

Mid Game
Now we’re talking. As Drone Drop comes online and you gain powerful cooldown-reducing items you become a stealth bomber, roaming around the battlefield looking for easy targets to obliterate.

Map awareness is absolutely critical. You should never, ever stay in a single lane unless both teams are together. Roam around the side jungles and between lanes. Pick solo enemy targets who lack stunning and crowd control capabilities. Even better - fly to a fight between an ally and an enemy and be the deciding factor as you swoop in with Drone Drop to secure the kill.

Continue to farm the jungle whenever there’s a break in the action. You’re not laning and you don’t want to fall behind on gold and XP.

Late Game
The late game can prove an interesting challenge depending on how the enemy team has responded to your trail of murder. If they’re balling up together and pushing a single lane, that’s bad for you, as your team will most likely want to respond in kind.

Although you have a fantastic initiator in Drone Drop you should never be the first one to fly into a teamfight. Wait for your team to fully engage before dropping in and unleashing hell. Try to pick off a squishy side or rear target so you won’t be immediately hit with all of the AOE that’s being flung at the rest of your teammates. As always, never approach from the front if you can help it.

If the enemy team continues to split the lanes, punish them mercilessly by continuing your rampage. You can annihilate many heroes one-on-one if you get the jump on them with Drone Drop. But be aware of the map and enemy positions at all times, and don’t overextend too far behind enemy lines.

FAQ/Tips
Get Drone Drop at level 4 as soon as possible, without it you’re just a weak, squishy warrior.

Once you’ve mastered how Drone Drop works Kriknak is relatively easy to play, but the assassin role is not. It requires constant map knowledge and the ability to quickly engage the best targets at the best times.

Don’t fight fair. Don’t stick around in a lane and waltz up to the enemy. Roam the map. Farm the jungle. Use bushes, scout ahead. Pay attention to the map at all times.

You can use Drone Drop as a form of Sprint to quickly get from point A to point B, such as after dying or recalling. The low cooldown ensures you’ll have it up when you need it, but you’ll burn through mana if you rely on it too much for traveling.

Matchups
Most teams only need one assassin, and Kriknak is no exception. Since his job is to pick off weak targets and roam the map, you want to group up with a balanced team of tanks, warriors, and ranged attackers who can push lanes and soak XP. Kriknak should never be the only melee warrior on a team.

Kriknak is horribly weak against enemy stuns and crowd control. A ranged stun attack, such as Valhein’s Curse of Death, can knock him right out of his Drone Drop, which can prove absolutely disastrous when going for the initial engage - it’s not a bad idea to simply back off if that happens. Many tanks also have stuns, like Thane and Omega, but that’s mainly concerning during late game team fights. Ideally wait to engage a late game team fight until after the initial volley of blows has exchanged before moving in.

Beefy heroes with high health and self-sustaining heals such as Taara might be able to outlast your burst damage. If you’re unable to seal the deal within a few rounds of your abilities firing off don’t be afraid to zip away with Drone Drop. Assassin’s don’t play fair and certainly don’t die nobility. They live to fight and kill elsewhere