hey, i’m not a malene pro, i just played a lot back when she was released, but i liked playing her when she first released too!
anyways, in my opinion, malene’s best ability, her bread and butter, is her shadow tendrils. although her empowered basic attacks with ult are strong, i don’t find them off cooldown enough to elicit an on hit basic attack cp build.
but if you do like her consistent damage with her basic attacks more than the burst from her shadow tendrils, then good items would definitely be alternating current, and maybe aftershock for more burst on ult basic attack
if you like using her abilities to dish out burst damage more than her basic attacks, then a good offensive core would be shatterglass, clockwork, frostburn/spellfire, broken myth, defensive item, halcyon heels. you could change out the shatterglass or 3rd item for dragons eye if needed for longer team fights. if you want a good balance between consistent damage with auto attacks and burst damage with spells, then you could start alternating current and drop frostburn/spellfire.
ideally your burst combo for engaging onto an enemy would be starting in shadow form, switch to light form, B for speed up, auto onto enemy for slow, A for root, switch to shadow form, auto attack, A for big burst, and use B shadow for peel if needed. if you’re getting engaged, ideally you want to be in shadow form, shadow B, followed with shadow A, then switch to light form and auto attack, then use your light A and B to peel and kite.
i’m not a vainglory expert or anything, just played a lot back in middle school, so some of my tips might be off, but i hope this helps! have fun on the fold
Ok so, don’t know if you’ll see this, buts it been a minute and I’ve tried out a bunch of stuff. I have come to grow quite a liking to the build suggested by Mr LiewPlays, which you can see if you just scroll down these comments a bit. From my very lacking knowledge, I have deduced spellfire to be a super good first. Gives me more poke in those weird skirmishes you have but don’t ever get kills or get killed in around early game, and it gives me antiheal instantly for the plethora of bullshit heals random champs have that everyone plays (mainly junglers like krul, alpha, etc). After that, I always go shatter glass because 1: I’m lazy Lmao and 2: it gives fuck tons of instant burst as soon as you get it and you can just smite somebody with the force of god when you get it. After, I go aftershock or broken myth, if I go broken myth I go aftershock or *sometimes* clockwork but not often. I never really try anything else anymore, so I was gonna try and see if we could chat more abt items on her and what’s good or not and **why**, cuz for example I don’t really feel like clockwork is good on her. I never feel like I notice any difference off of it, when are you going to be out of base long enough to need more energy? You either die or you clear jungle, maybe gank or do an objective, then back and refresh it anyways. Sorry for nitpicking tiny trivial shit about a dead game, my ADHD brain must perfect the art of itemization on Malene Lmao
hey man! don’t worry, i saw this lol, and i get what you mean about itemization, i loved thinking about build paths for each of my mains back when i played a lot, and i love seeing that you have that passion too!
now let’s talk about items. i think my item choices are definitely outdated now lol, which is why mr liewplays’ build is probably better. I hark and glaze clockwork a lot because back in my day (waves cane around) clockwork was a pretty standard item for lane mages. back then there was no cdr cap as well, so ideally mages would build lots of cdr with clockwork, halcyon boots, and what not and pair it with burst items with lots of CP like shatterglass. ever since they added the cdr cap though, clockwork is probably a less ideal pick.
additionally, i didn’t really realize until i reread your post and other replies but i on god did not know malene jungle is a thing now. back when she was first released, she was marketed as a mage laner for 3v3. but times change and now she’s a jungler apparently! so the spellfire first item most people recommend is pretty true for malene jungle. lots of junglers are self healing bruisers like krul and alpha, so a spellfire first pick to reduce their healing and make them easier to assassinate makes sense. following that, shatterglass 2nd item like you said is always a good choice since it will just amp your current damage and combos well with spellfire’s burn passive. after that, mainly up to how the game goes and your preferences. i personally don’t like the low base cp aftershock provides, but it’s actual passive is quite useful. i would go broken myth usually 3rd or 4th item.
of course, however, i say all this with not a grain of salt, but a tub of salt. i haven’t played against actual players in vain in ages, so i’m basically talking out of 5+ years old experience and pure speculation out my ass. also, do you play malene 5v5 or 3v3? my only experience playing her is in 3v3, so that might be another thing that skews my view compared to the current opinion.
but feel free to reach out to talk and geek out about vainglory! i played this game back in middle school and now i’m in college but it still holds a dear place in my heart and i’m glad it still has an impact on other people to this day. have fun on the fold!
Goddamn broski, ya didn’t have to write an essay! I see what you mean about that clockwork, sounds like it was all the rage back in the day… mages spamming abilities as fast as a saw autos, yikes. I can imagine it was disgustingly awful to fight especially on already low base cd mages or cp champs, but as you said times have very much indeed changed. I only play 3v3s on my phone sadly, 5v5 doesn’t exist outside of a couple discord that organize a few games here and there, and I can’t join since I’m only on my phone… my buggy ass way I got Vainglory to work on pc stopped working so I’m stuck on my phone but it’s still a lot of fun! I usually play Malene jungle whenever somebody doesn’t take it, I like playing captain Malene a lot as well as the pressure isn’t on me to carry, but I can still be a massive oppressive force and annoy the hell out of people and be able to escape with ease. I’ll sometimes build a defensive item after one tier 2 item component like the large crystal thing (forgot what it’s called, one of the things shatterglass builds with not the prism) so that way i have a good bit of damage for my role as the captain, and I can get a lifespring for hp and team clutch heals. I find she works way better in the jungle for 3v3 cuz while she struggles a liiiittle bit with clear speed, her team utility as a captain or jungler is absurd… you’ve got insane movespeed, a stun, decent burst damage as well as consistent damage off of auto attack resets from ult, and 2 slows! Level one she can just outright win most fights because of the sheer power of her having 2 abilities already, both of which deal good damage (her 2 A’s) and her auto attacks slow or deal extra damage during that fight. She feels so well fitted in there, In lane they just hide behind wave and you can’t ever hit a light A without getting in their face or if they’re under your turret. Alright alright adhd rant over, voila: Malene! God she’s so fun lol
Burst damage is king
Malene is able to run in with shield and movement speed, slow and root enemies then doing huge damage before running away in shadow B. This is basically what you’ll be doing 90% of the time
You can easily pick and choose fights since your B is insanely good utility.
Build wise is basically spellfire shatter broken myth as your core items and you can add other items like aftershock if there’s lots of tanks around. Just try not to dance around and waste your A since that’s where your damage is
Watching some videos of malene players even if they’re old will give you a pretty good idea on hit and run tactics and her insane burst potential
Ohhh wait spellfire first? I usually go shatter into spellfire just for the raw damage, idk if it’s worse or not. Also, is broken myth really worth building if they aren’t Tanky or building shield? I feel like more damage items would be better but I’m not very experienced
Spellfire reduces healing from all sources, by the time you get your first item is when supports usually get fountain and stuff so spellfire is basically a must buy
Nothing wrong with shatter first but it’s personal preference
Broken myth is always worth building, all heroes in the game have base armour and shield which increases as you level up
Ohhh Yknow that makes sense actually, cuz even if you don’t need the armor pen cuz they’re tanky, it only amplifies your damage more on low armor targets. Also yeah I never thought about spellfire being able to reduce ITEM healing that’s really smart, imma try it out thanks :)
Wow it's like this post is meant for me. I was rank 10 silver and Malene was one of my mains so I'd say I'm a Malene expert. Before I introduce my playstyle I must add that it is pretty unorthodox and hard to play, requiring high skill. It's an assassin playstyle taken too the extreme, with no alternating current, focusing purely on burst. I'd combo light A root -> shadow-> auto->A instantly, for maximun burst and use shadow B to get out. Light B is used to run quickly into range for the combo. Build is spell fire, clockwork, eve, myth, HC, shatterglass in that order, but you can mix it up, or build tank depending on the situation. This playstyle really works for me cuz if you mastered it, the damage potential in the early game is straight up oppressive. Late game you can still easily snuff out the carry, keep distance and recycle. I must stress that this playstyle is very difficult, u'd have to aim A accurately most of the time and press like 5 times in 1 second. Plus I dou with an amazing support so I can afford riskier plays and still live. A tip is that her range is small so aim when you are in a range a bit smaller than the max range, honestly once you got energy items, spam light B to engage/scare them and mess their farm. Dark B almost always better to escape, not worth to try use it for dmg. Spam C for auto effect. Find the malene playstyle that works for you. God I miss VG.
Yooooo that sounds really interesting I’ll give it a go, Ty man. I already play her like an assasin (sorta) but just gotta work around new items and perfecting the assasin play style lol
She is a JG, Build: aftershock, spellfire, shaterglass and broken myth, one defense, and magic boots. STORMCROWN❌ You can buy the banner to farm the jg faster, but don't buy the stormcronw, it's not for her
ALTERNATING???❌ Eye of dragon?❌ She is a Burts Damage hero, so she doesn't need stacks or attack speed. I will put Malene in a A or S tier, she is a top hero for sure :)
No expert , but I will say this . Between Her And BF sometimes , man it's tough , I've always had Blackfeather at #1 But like you said bro , with all the dps she has and even her nasty assassin capabilities , I can make the case she's a debatable #1 or 2 spot anyday 👌
hey, i’m not a malene pro, i just played a lot back when she was released, but i liked playing her when she first released too! anyways, in my opinion, malene’s best ability, her bread and butter, is her shadow tendrils. although her empowered basic attacks with ult are strong, i don’t find them off cooldown enough to elicit an on hit basic attack cp build. but if you do like her consistent damage with her basic attacks more than the burst from her shadow tendrils, then good items would definitely be alternating current, and maybe aftershock for more burst on ult basic attack if you like using her abilities to dish out burst damage more than her basic attacks, then a good offensive core would be shatterglass, clockwork, frostburn/spellfire, broken myth, defensive item, halcyon heels. you could change out the shatterglass or 3rd item for dragons eye if needed for longer team fights. if you want a good balance between consistent damage with auto attacks and burst damage with spells, then you could start alternating current and drop frostburn/spellfire. ideally your burst combo for engaging onto an enemy would be starting in shadow form, switch to light form, B for speed up, auto onto enemy for slow, A for root, switch to shadow form, auto attack, A for big burst, and use B shadow for peel if needed. if you’re getting engaged, ideally you want to be in shadow form, shadow B, followed with shadow A, then switch to light form and auto attack, then use your light A and B to peel and kite. i’m not a vainglory expert or anything, just played a lot back in middle school, so some of my tips might be off, but i hope this helps! have fun on the fold
Ayyyy ty homie i appreciate it. Good tips all around, ima try out some of that item stuff you said I feel like I struggle there the most :)
Ok so, don’t know if you’ll see this, buts it been a minute and I’ve tried out a bunch of stuff. I have come to grow quite a liking to the build suggested by Mr LiewPlays, which you can see if you just scroll down these comments a bit. From my very lacking knowledge, I have deduced spellfire to be a super good first. Gives me more poke in those weird skirmishes you have but don’t ever get kills or get killed in around early game, and it gives me antiheal instantly for the plethora of bullshit heals random champs have that everyone plays (mainly junglers like krul, alpha, etc). After that, I always go shatter glass because 1: I’m lazy Lmao and 2: it gives fuck tons of instant burst as soon as you get it and you can just smite somebody with the force of god when you get it. After, I go aftershock or broken myth, if I go broken myth I go aftershock or *sometimes* clockwork but not often. I never really try anything else anymore, so I was gonna try and see if we could chat more abt items on her and what’s good or not and **why**, cuz for example I don’t really feel like clockwork is good on her. I never feel like I notice any difference off of it, when are you going to be out of base long enough to need more energy? You either die or you clear jungle, maybe gank or do an objective, then back and refresh it anyways. Sorry for nitpicking tiny trivial shit about a dead game, my ADHD brain must perfect the art of itemization on Malene Lmao
hey man! don’t worry, i saw this lol, and i get what you mean about itemization, i loved thinking about build paths for each of my mains back when i played a lot, and i love seeing that you have that passion too! now let’s talk about items. i think my item choices are definitely outdated now lol, which is why mr liewplays’ build is probably better. I hark and glaze clockwork a lot because back in my day (waves cane around) clockwork was a pretty standard item for lane mages. back then there was no cdr cap as well, so ideally mages would build lots of cdr with clockwork, halcyon boots, and what not and pair it with burst items with lots of CP like shatterglass. ever since they added the cdr cap though, clockwork is probably a less ideal pick. additionally, i didn’t really realize until i reread your post and other replies but i on god did not know malene jungle is a thing now. back when she was first released, she was marketed as a mage laner for 3v3. but times change and now she’s a jungler apparently! so the spellfire first item most people recommend is pretty true for malene jungle. lots of junglers are self healing bruisers like krul and alpha, so a spellfire first pick to reduce their healing and make them easier to assassinate makes sense. following that, shatterglass 2nd item like you said is always a good choice since it will just amp your current damage and combos well with spellfire’s burn passive. after that, mainly up to how the game goes and your preferences. i personally don’t like the low base cp aftershock provides, but it’s actual passive is quite useful. i would go broken myth usually 3rd or 4th item. of course, however, i say all this with not a grain of salt, but a tub of salt. i haven’t played against actual players in vain in ages, so i’m basically talking out of 5+ years old experience and pure speculation out my ass. also, do you play malene 5v5 or 3v3? my only experience playing her is in 3v3, so that might be another thing that skews my view compared to the current opinion. but feel free to reach out to talk and geek out about vainglory! i played this game back in middle school and now i’m in college but it still holds a dear place in my heart and i’m glad it still has an impact on other people to this day. have fun on the fold!
Goddamn broski, ya didn’t have to write an essay! I see what you mean about that clockwork, sounds like it was all the rage back in the day… mages spamming abilities as fast as a saw autos, yikes. I can imagine it was disgustingly awful to fight especially on already low base cd mages or cp champs, but as you said times have very much indeed changed. I only play 3v3s on my phone sadly, 5v5 doesn’t exist outside of a couple discord that organize a few games here and there, and I can’t join since I’m only on my phone… my buggy ass way I got Vainglory to work on pc stopped working so I’m stuck on my phone but it’s still a lot of fun! I usually play Malene jungle whenever somebody doesn’t take it, I like playing captain Malene a lot as well as the pressure isn’t on me to carry, but I can still be a massive oppressive force and annoy the hell out of people and be able to escape with ease. I’ll sometimes build a defensive item after one tier 2 item component like the large crystal thing (forgot what it’s called, one of the things shatterglass builds with not the prism) so that way i have a good bit of damage for my role as the captain, and I can get a lifespring for hp and team clutch heals. I find she works way better in the jungle for 3v3 cuz while she struggles a liiiittle bit with clear speed, her team utility as a captain or jungler is absurd… you’ve got insane movespeed, a stun, decent burst damage as well as consistent damage off of auto attack resets from ult, and 2 slows! Level one she can just outright win most fights because of the sheer power of her having 2 abilities already, both of which deal good damage (her 2 A’s) and her auto attacks slow or deal extra damage during that fight. She feels so well fitted in there, In lane they just hide behind wave and you can’t ever hit a light A without getting in their face or if they’re under your turret. Alright alright adhd rant over, voila: Malene! God she’s so fun lol
Burst damage is king Malene is able to run in with shield and movement speed, slow and root enemies then doing huge damage before running away in shadow B. This is basically what you’ll be doing 90% of the time You can easily pick and choose fights since your B is insanely good utility. Build wise is basically spellfire shatter broken myth as your core items and you can add other items like aftershock if there’s lots of tanks around. Just try not to dance around and waste your A since that’s where your damage is Watching some videos of malene players even if they’re old will give you a pretty good idea on hit and run tactics and her insane burst potential
Ohhh wait spellfire first? I usually go shatter into spellfire just for the raw damage, idk if it’s worse or not. Also, is broken myth really worth building if they aren’t Tanky or building shield? I feel like more damage items would be better but I’m not very experienced
Spellfire reduces healing from all sources, by the time you get your first item is when supports usually get fountain and stuff so spellfire is basically a must buy Nothing wrong with shatter first but it’s personal preference Broken myth is always worth building, all heroes in the game have base armour and shield which increases as you level up
Ohhh Yknow that makes sense actually, cuz even if you don’t need the armor pen cuz they’re tanky, it only amplifies your damage more on low armor targets. Also yeah I never thought about spellfire being able to reduce ITEM healing that’s really smart, imma try it out thanks :)
Wow it's like this post is meant for me. I was rank 10 silver and Malene was one of my mains so I'd say I'm a Malene expert. Before I introduce my playstyle I must add that it is pretty unorthodox and hard to play, requiring high skill. It's an assassin playstyle taken too the extreme, with no alternating current, focusing purely on burst. I'd combo light A root -> shadow-> auto->A instantly, for maximun burst and use shadow B to get out. Light B is used to run quickly into range for the combo. Build is spell fire, clockwork, eve, myth, HC, shatterglass in that order, but you can mix it up, or build tank depending on the situation. This playstyle really works for me cuz if you mastered it, the damage potential in the early game is straight up oppressive. Late game you can still easily snuff out the carry, keep distance and recycle. I must stress that this playstyle is very difficult, u'd have to aim A accurately most of the time and press like 5 times in 1 second. Plus I dou with an amazing support so I can afford riskier plays and still live. A tip is that her range is small so aim when you are in a range a bit smaller than the max range, honestly once you got energy items, spam light B to engage/scare them and mess their farm. Dark B almost always better to escape, not worth to try use it for dmg. Spam C for auto effect. Find the malene playstyle that works for you. God I miss VG.
Yooooo that sounds really interesting I’ll give it a go, Ty man. I already play her like an assasin (sorta) but just gotta work around new items and perfecting the assasin play style lol
She is a JG, Build: aftershock, spellfire, shaterglass and broken myth, one defense, and magic boots. STORMCROWN❌ You can buy the banner to farm the jg faster, but don't buy the stormcronw, it's not for her ALTERNATING???❌ Eye of dragon?❌ She is a Burts Damage hero, so she doesn't need stacks or attack speed. I will put Malene in a A or S tier, she is a top hero for sure :)
No expert , but I will say this . Between Her And BF sometimes , man it's tough , I've always had Blackfeather at #1 But like you said bro , with all the dps she has and even her nasty assassin capabilities , I can make the case she's a debatable #1 or 2 spot anyday 👌