The Lost Vikings Talents

Level	Choices
1	✓ ✘︎ ? ?
4	✘︎ ✓ ? ?
7	✘︎ ✓ ?
10	✘︎ ✓
13	✘︎ ✓ ?
16	✓ ? ✘︎ ✘︎
20	✘︎ ? ✘︎ ✓

Olaf the Stout greatly increases Olaf's maximum Health; with it, he has as much life as Thrall does. The block part of this Talent is a nice addition, and will help Olaf when he is facing Basic Attack centric Heroes, like Greymane or Raynor.

Spy Games greatly increase Erik's damage output, while also giving him some extra utility with invisibility and vision. This Talent can be used to constantly increase Erik's damage, by standing still for 3 seconds while attacking, to then move and repeat. However, it is only useful in very specific scenarios. For this reason, we recommend going for the other Talents instead.

Explosive Attacks may be another great choice in terms of split-pushing utility. Although not commonly seen as stronger than Viking Bribery in terms of versatility, Explosive Attacks is the go-to Talent choice on Maps where Mercenary Camps are not ideal for split-pushing, like mentioned in Viking Bribery's description.

Viking Bribery permits a single Viking to defeat a Mercenary Camp within seconds of leaving lane, allowing them to quickly return in order to soak Experience and collect available Regeneration Globes. Once the Mercenary Camps are taken, players who have talented into Mercenary Lord may choose to travel with their allied Mercenaries, greatly increasing their damage output and overall sustain. It is not good to go for Viking Bribery on Maps where you cannot get much value from bribe effects as you will not be able to easily split-push with Mercenaries, like Battlefield of Eternity, Tomb of the Spider Queen, Braxis Holdout, or Alterac Pass.

Pain Don't Hurt greatly increases the survivability of Baleog through a life steal element being applied to his Basic Attacks. Unfortunately, the other options in this tier will be more impactful than Pain Don't Hurt. For this Reason, we do not recommend this Talent.

Erik the Swift Is the standard pick for experienced Vikings players, since it enables Erik to be constantly harassing enemies or getting vision. This Talent not only increases Erik's survivability and sustainability, it also gives him an added bonus to his already incredibly useful swiftness.

It's a Sabotage! is a nice addition to Erik's Siege damage. However, it competes with Erik the Swift, which is a game-changing Talent for Erik.

Mercenary Lord is a decent option for this tier if you are not used to playing Vikings. Not only does this Talent increase the pushing speed of your Mercenaries by increasing their damage output, it also ups their survivability. However, Erik the Swift adds way too much for Erik to be changed into Mercenary Lord if you are good at controlling him.

Baleog the Fierce greatly increases Baleog's range, while also increasing his damage when all 3 vikings are together. Even though this Talent seems very good, it has low value when one viking die or is far from a fight. We recommend Spin to Win instead, since it adds too much and should be the option every time.

Spin To Win! is essential for Vikings. It increases waveclear and teamfight damage, if you ever need to be part of one. It deals incredibly high damage to Heroes, and should be used trying to hit the most you can, or to finish one. However, you should be aware of your enemy's Cooldowns. If you go in with the 3 vikings in order to Spin a target, you become an easy target for area of effect Abilities, like Powerslide.

Norse Force! is not an inherently bad Talent, it is just unfortunately way outclassed in this specific tier. The Shield provided to the Vikings is actually very strong, and will greatly increase the survivability of the little scoundrels. When talenting into this defensive Ability however, The Lost Vikings players will lose out on one of the most powerful overall Talents in their kit: Spin To Win!. Besides, at Level 13 the Vikings will have Jump! available. Jump! tends to be just as, if not more, effective as Norse Force! in providing the Vikings with some defensive utility.

In this section we discuss when and why to pick a given Heroic Ability. If you want to read how they work in detail and/or you are looking for some tips on how to use them, check them out on the Abilities and Strategy page.

More often than not, it is a bad decision to put Vikings in a compromising position simply for the purpose of forcing Longboat Raid!. Even when Longboat Raid! is active, the Longboat itself has a relatively low Health pool and is incredibly susceptible to burst and sustain damage. In extreme situations, Longboat Raid! can even be used defensively. Mostly, as Vikings, the recommended playstyle is to keep the 3 splitting until a lategame fight, if necessary. Longboat Raid demands all Vikings to be together, encouraging a bad playstyle.

Play Again! is a relatively straightforward ability to understand, and is even easier to use. The real challenge to utilizing Play Again! to its full potential is understanding when is the most appropriate time to activate it. It can be used to reposition Vikings, to revive them, to push a fort, or even for healing. This is an Heroic Ability that adds massive amount of utility for the Vikings, and should be the choice in every game.

Hunka' Burning Olaf is not a bad Talent. The idea of this Talent actually integrates very smoothly into the emphasis of The Lost Vikings's main objective: to apply lane pressure by pushing down waves of enemy defenses. However, Jump is essential for Vikings. Without it, they will have a terrible time against burst damage or crowd control.

Jump! is hands down the strongest choice for The Lost Vikings at this Level 13. Although sitting at a cooldown of 30 seconds, having the ability to become Invulnerable for 1.5 seconds is phenomenal. Jump! provides the inherently vulnerable Vikings with an incredibly precious defense/escape mechanic. This Talent is particularly ideal for The Lost Vikings's standard playstyle that will sometimes leave the Vikings in compromising positions deep within enemy terrain. Not only should Jump! be used to prevent large amounts of damage that would otherwise be unavoidable, the Ability can be used to in unison with Go Go Go! to make for some flashy escapes.

Nordic Attack Squad's main downside is that it requires all vikings to be together, and without Jump!, it may be hard to keep them alive. However, if you do not need the extra protection provided by its counterpart, Nordic Attack Squad will be a good choice. It will greatly enhance The Lost Vikings's damage in teamfights.

Large and In Charge is a great little addition of utility to the Vikings. At first a 1-second Stun might not seem like much, but its usefulness should not be underestimated. For the most part, Olaf should already be sticking with the allied team as a source of support for the carries. This 1-second Stun could provide your team with just enough added utility to turn team fights by any number of means, such as interrupting enemy channeled Abilities like Kael'thas' Pyroblast or peeling enemy Heroes away from your carries. Large and In Charge can also be used as follow up crowd-control on your team's target of focus.

Impatience Is a Virtue is a wonderful Talent that, simply put, makes The Lost Vikings better at everything they do. Even if no activateable Talents were previously selected, this Talent at worst will reduce the cooldown time of Go Go Go!. Assuming the Vikings are all constantly attacking a target, this Talent will cut the cooldown time of all Basic Abilites by about 50%. This is particularly important for Abilities with very long cooldowns such as Jump!, which unaltered has a cooldown of 30 seconds. Still, in most games Large and in Charge will be default pick, since it is cruel for the enemy to have a 1 second point and click Stun.

64 KB Marathon is a neat concept that has its benefits but is simply not as useful as Large and In Charge. Although 64KB Marathon adds another beneficial dimension to the already strong Go Go Go! by allowing Vikings to be able to break free from particular crowd control effects, it cannot compete with the 1-second Stun provided by Large and in Charge.

Executioner is a team-fight oriented Talent that requires The Vikings to attack a Slowed, Rooted, or Stunned enemy Hero to proc the Attack Damage buff. Although this can be done alone with Olaf's Charge, it is only available once every 8 seconds. Therefore The Vikings will need to rely heavily on their allies crowd-control to maintain the increased Attack Damage. On larger Maps that focus heavily on PvE, The Vikings will sometimes go long durations without even facing off against an enemy Hero. Although this Talent may have very situational benefits, it remains severely outclassed by the overall strength of Large and In Charge.

Ragnarok 'n' Roll! is a good addition to Longboat, but unfortunately, Play Again will be the choice in almost all games. Still, if you ever picked Longboat, it is good to get Ragnarok 'n' Roll, since it will greatly increase the damage capabilities from the Heroic Ability.

Checkpoint Reached alone may be a game winning choice, potentially avoiding otherwise devastating misplays. It would be wiser to select a Talent that gives a higher chance of outright success, such as Fury of the Storm, rather than choose something that might be beneficial if something were to go wrong. There are situations where this Talent would be a great pick, but mostly, we recommend going for Fury of the Storm instead.

The Sequel! is not recommended at all, since Death timers are very long at Level 20 when this Talent becomes available. Reducing the time spent dead by 50% will not allow The Lost Vikings to prevent the enemy team from taking an Objective or even finishing the game. This Talent should just be avoided as all other options provide more overall value.

Fury of the Storm should be the uncontested choice in most matches. This Talent not only intensifies the Vikings' ability to individually apply pressure to multiple lanes but also allows the Vikings to group up and completely melt waves and ultimately enemy Structures because of each Viking's independent cooldown for the bonus damage. It also increases Vikings' burst damage in fights considerably.