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Arena of Valor: How to compose a good and balanced team

At some point in time, you may have come across in Arena of Valor (AOV) a team that isn’t willing to play a character to fill in the missing role, perhaps leading your team to have an extra marksman and lacking a tank. Sometimes you end up with two junglers on your team, and as they both share the jungle creeps, neither gets fed, neither carry and your team loses the game. These are classic examples of bad team composition. And thus should be avoided at all costs in the game as they nearly guarantee a loss for your side.

However, even if the players pick the appropriate roles, this doesn’t necessarily mean that you have a good team composition in Arena of Valor. Even if your team has a balanced composition with support, marksman, warrior, mage, and a jungler, it does not mean that it is good for team composition. Here we discuss how to compose a good and balanced team in Arena of Valor.


Factors for a good team composition in AOV

Synergy

Balanced team composition is a prerequisite for a good team composition but is not equal to good team composition. A good team composition consists of characters who synergize well with one another in Arena of Valor. This means that their abilities can complement one another and when given good enough teamwork can pull off phenomenal plays. Examples include Natalya and Grakk, Hayate and Mina & Maloch, and Xeniel.

What types of heroes pull off synergies? Hero synergies are of two categories,

1. Distraction

Distraction synergies are by much more common than ascensions and often happen. The distraction synergy bases itself on a simple idea. When one person manages to distract the enemy team. Another can engage and deal damage without the fear of getting caught out because the enemy either can’t respond or all the enemy fire is directed to the distractor.

Arena of Valor good team

The roles in this synergy are simple, those being the distractor and the damage dealer. Thus synergies like this often appear in the bot lane or even duo lane as the lane already has a distractor- the support- and a damage dealer- the ADC. Take note that certain mages and warriors can combo with this just as well and efficiently. The distractors are often heroes who possess an area of effect hard crowd control ( stuns, taunts ), optimal picks would be Lumburr, Grakk, Mina, and Krizzix.

The area of effect crowd control that they deal with can even control entire teams if played correctly. Providing the damage dealers an opening to make huge plays and dish out damage onto the enemy team as a whole. Optimal damage dealers are ones who have areas of effect damage abilities or are champions who if they land a certain ability can change the entire team fight to their ally’s favor.

  • Marksman picks: Hayate (who could possibly team wipe the enemy team with an ult), Capheny, Fennik, Yorn
  • Mage picks: Natalya, Ignis, Dirak, Raz, Liliana, Diao Chan
  • Warrior picks: Skud, Errol, Zephys, Riktor, Maloch

There are many other great picks and champion combos the Distraction synergy. And we may not be able to list out all of them, so feel free to test out characters we haven’t mentioned but fit the description.

2. Ascension

Ascension refers to a champion exceeding their limit through the aid of another champion. This limit, of course, being their health bar or their cooldowns. This mostly done by melee champions as they are the ones who are in the front lines soaking up the damage. The common support of the synergy is Xeniel as he is able to accurately deliver the heals onto his allies as his ultimate allows him to directly land on them. Another choice could be Sephera as her ultimate allows her to rush to the front lines and dish out heals and virtual invulnerability to her allies.

You can usually pair them with warrior champions who can sustain in a fight. And with the help of their heals and even damage immunity. These sustainable warriors become a god amongst men, undying warriors that keep on charging forward. There is a wide variety of warriors to choose for this synergy, including Maloch, Kil Groth, Florentino, Lubu, Veres, and maybe even Omen. Basically any sidelaner with sustainability will do.

AOV

Example

The odd combo of ascension is that of Krizzix and Quillen. Quillen’s entrance and engagements are mostly granted by the stealth and invisibility of his ultimate. He is extremely reliant on his invisibility and cannot function without it. Also, when engaging with Quillen, it is crucial to one-shot kill the enemy fast and quick. And you must make sure you slay them, or else your ultimate won’t reset. Thereby making you lose your ticket to disengage. Many inexperienced Quillen players have difficulty in killing the enemy as they get outmaneuvered.

Thus not getting the refresh and being unable to get their ticket out. Krizzix aids Quillen by using his ultimate to give Quillen invisibility and a chance to engage. Even if Quillen fails, he has his ultimate to disengage. Essentially, Krizzix ults for Quillen so Quillen can save his own ult for another time, allowing more room for error for Quillen players. As Quillen ascends before his ultimate’s cooldown timer.


Balance of Control and Damage in AOV

When considering which champion to pick during the draft. One must consider two important components of a character- their kit’s crowd control and damage. Many characters’ kits choose one of the two to be good at, thus characters with a lot of damage tend to have less crowd control. Examples include Quillen, Capheny, Kriknak, and Tulen.

The other option is characters with high control but little damage, characters with such features are often supported. Examples include Grakk, Sephera, Lumburr, and Omega. So to make up for the weaknesses of one of the first types of champions. We need a team that consists of both as a team with mainly one of the two features is deemed weak.

Arena of Valor good team

To illustrate the importance of this balance, we would like to describe two extremes.

Selecting the Team

If a team only has damage but no crowd control, they will fail to make openings if the enemy’s defense and awareness are on point. Thus not giving them a chance to use their damage. A team with a lot of crowd control but little damage. On the other hand, will manage to annoy the enemy and harass them frequently. But without damage, the openings, your crowd control create will be meaningless. As you may not be able to kill the enemies or do any large impact plays. Hence we can see that both damage and crowd control are crucial for a good team as they both play a key role in impacting the game.

However, there are some exceptions that have both Control and Damage. These characters tend to stay on top of the meta until either one of their two features is weakened. These top tier characters include Raz, Dirak, Enzo, and Yena.

arena of valor, aov

Finally, there is a type of hero that is neutral to this pattern. And instead of bringing immense damage or annoying crowd control to the game, they bring unique features to the game that changes everything. These include Xeniel, characters like these are quite rare.

After we have set out the Four types of champions;

  • Damage types ( high damage low crowd control)
  • CC types ( high crowd control no damage )
  • Dual types ( high damage, high crowd control )
  • Neutral types ( low damage, low crowd control, unique abilities )

We can get to the character picking. When choosing what character to pick, do look at your team. And deduce whether your team lacks crowd control or damage. Then according to what your team lacks, pick a champion whose typing helps make up for what your team currently lacks. Thus helping to balance out the Control and Damage of your team.

Example

Arena of Valor good team
2020 APL Quarterfinals SGP vs BRU Game 4

BRU has a well-balanced and good team composition in Arena of Valor. By having champions who can deal with mass damage those being Yena, Kriknak, and Hayate. And having champions who can deal heavy crowd control- Aleister and Yena. They already have a well-balanced team composition. They top it off with a neutral champion who brings an impactful area of effect heal to the game to have an extra edge other than control and damage.

From the side of SGP, we can see that they have put more emphasis on damage rather than crowd control. As they pick up characters like Fennik, Riktor, and Florentino for high damage and Preyta for diversified damage. However, notice how they haven’t forgotten about crowd control as they pick up Alice. One of the heroes with the most crowd control in the game with her area of effect silence ultimate. And whilst choosing heroes with high damage, they remembered to have those heroes have some sort of crowd control.

For example, Preyta’s S2, Florentino’s S1, and 2nd empowered S2, Riktor’s double knock up from his S1 and Fennik’s S1. The crowd control coming from these heroes is little but they are hard to control ( stuns, taunt, etc ) not soft control ( slows, silences ), by having bits of hard control scattered through their team they manage to garner enough crowd control for their team. And thus have a balanced team composition in terms of control and damage.


Team composition style

We reviewed the interviews with Garena Challenger Series ( GCS ) players and coaches. There are a few good team composition styles in Arena of Valor.

The 4,1 Split Push

The 4,1 split push is a commonly used style throughout all the pro tournaments. It usually consists of 4 characters who fare decently at team fights. And 1 solo laner who is proficient in 1v1 sand taking towers, the champions picked for this spot is usually. The strategy of this style is to use the 4 team fighters to engage and distract the enemy team by engaging a team fight. Thus allowing the 1 solo laner time split push and slowly sneak up to the enemy base, backdooring the enemies and winning the game.

However, in the less fortunate event of the enemy team is aware of the map and or are able to send an ally back to defend. The solo laner must be able to fend for themselves. And perhaps win a 1v1 with the defending enemy in order to complete the backdoor. Therefore it is necessary for the split pushing to have bulk and strong 1v1 one capabilities. Whilst also having fast tower clearing capabilities. Meta champions that fit this description include Omen and Kil Groth. Although Skud could work, he is too off-meta and is considered a risky pick.

Example

2020 APL Group Stage MAD vs SGP Game 2

Through this example, we can see that both teams have chosen to use the 4,1 Split push composition as they both have 4 characters who can team fight and 1 split pusher. The split pushers being Kil Groth and Omen of course. From the figure above, we can see that MAD has successfully pulled off the 4,1 Split push tactic as Neil, Fanta, KuKu and 0322 engage in a team fight on their blue side to distract SGP from BV’s split push that we can see on the upper right corner of the mini-map.

But just as we notice it, SGP has noticed it as well, as we can see in the top left corner. SGP Red is attempting to recall and defend his nexus, which is a good defensive attempt. But to the left of SGP Red comes MAD KuKu with his Krizzix who will attack Red with the intent of disrupting his recall, not killing him. Thus MAD KuKu perfectly demonstrates what the 4 team fighters should do- distract the enemies. And don’t let them defend their base. The team fighters can lose the team fight but they cannot fail in buying time, otherwise, it is a loss for them.

And with the distraction of MAD, the game ends with BV taking the tower with no one to stop him. Thus perfectly demonstrating the effect of a 4,1 Splitpush strategy.


Dual Marksman Strategy

The dual marksman strategy is a high-risk high reward playstyle. This usually consists of having a standard marksman pick in the abyssal dragon lane and another marksman in the jungle.

The benefits of this strategy are the diversified risk of your Attack Damage Carry ( ADC ). Thus if your marksman in the sidelaner is focused down by the enemy team. You still have another ADC in the jungle to fall back onto. Another benefit is the insanely high burst damage your team will deal with during the late game. As ADCs are extremely strong in the current meta, having another one will drastically increase your damage output, especially during the late game.

Though you will have a harder time in the early game as your ADCs aren’t fed yet. If you manage to get them to the late game, the payoff is huge.

However, as mentioned above, this is a high-risk strategy. Obviously, having two marksmen on your team will decrease the overall tankiness of your team. Thus weakening your team’s defense against assassins. With high burst assassins such as Kriknak, Paine, and Keera in the meta, they pose a huge threat to the marksman. And adding more than one marksman could highly increase your vulnerability to assassins.

Example

2020 APL Quarter Finals FW vs TLN Game 2

On the side of FW, we can see the dual marksman strategy being used as FW Kato picks up Fennik in the jungle. And FW GadDuo picks Joker in the abyssal lane. The likely reason for this pick is to diversify the risk of their ADC role. This can be inferred as TLN Happy picks up Zill, a hard counter for Joker. This counter pick of Joker probably means that Joker will be focused down. And thus unable to properly get fed, hence disabling an ADC on the side of FW. In order to diversify that risk, FW Kato picks up another marksman in the jungle. So even if FW GaDuo is focused down and unable to get fed, FW still has another marksman to use.

And as TLN has chosen a single target burst assassin- such as Zill- instead of an area of effect burst assassins such as Kriknak and Paine. They are reassured that even if one of the marksmen are burst down. The other will likely survive as it is difficult for Zill to take out two marksmen at the same time. Thus lowering the risk of a dual marksmen team composition from FW. By realizing the requirement to diversify risk. And the reduced risk of both marksmen being taken out at the same time. FW made the correct decision in utilizing a dual marksman composition and ended up winning the game.


Conclusion

Good team compositions are the very essence of a game and can spell a loss or a victory without regard to your skill in Arena of Valor. Many people know what a balanced team composition is but fail to further develop their composition to their favor by failing to apply strategies and synergies.

A final note is that we strongly recommend that you apply team composition strategies during duo, trio queue, or a 5 man stacks while communicating through voice chat applications such as discord to gain the maximum effect. Draft discussions can allow players to get a clearer understanding of the characters. And thus learning good team composition can help you deepen your knowledge of the game in Arena of Valor.


Did you find our tips to compose a good team in Arena of Valor helpful? Let us know in the comment section below! If you want to read our other Arena of Valor articles, click here.

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