Red Aspect Guide

When to Choose Red

1. King: Gain an additional 3 gold for minion kills if an ally is within 2,200 units of you. Gain 25% more gold from Kills and Assists.
2. Ace: Gain 10% attack range. Gain 30% Critical Damage.
3. Hunter: Heal for 8 HP when you kill an enemy minion. Landing 3 Basic Attacks on the same Hero within 3 seconds grants a 20% attack speed buff for 4 seconds.
   
   

With the Red aspects laid out, it is now important to clarify the roles that are interested in them. The carry role is the ranged tower taker of the team, in addition to being able to deal high, consistent damage. Carries do not need to level up as badly as tanks or mages, but they still require gold in order to build powerful items. Carries generally have weak early game kits also, so to compensate for such a weakness, they go into lane with a Support, who has little need for gold because they have powerful tools to keep the Carry safe. This allows the Carry only to benefit from the King aspect, because no other position will have a constant ally to benefit from the extra gold, unless they are fortunate enough to get a kill/assist. If you are the Carry and believe you can farm minions safely, King is a good choice.

Researching for this guide led me to believe Ace was also for carries only, but this isn’t true. The basic attack range boost helps Carries more, but if you will build critical damage, 30% extra crit damage is no joke, enabling very high burst damage from any Hero who will build critical items. Ace is therefore very flexible, providing safety and extra damage with the right items.

Hunter is also an aspect that both Carries and attack-speed based Heroes are very interested in. This is more valuable for Carries or especially Off laners who like attack speed and the sustain for laning. Hunter is good for staying safe and healthy, while having opportunities to push some real damage when the fighting really goes down, thanks to the extra attack speed buff. Now to talk about the synergy between just the Red aspects.

For the most part however, the greatest Heroes to benefit from Red only are highly likely to be Carries, as the other positions will likely want 1 Red with 1 Green or other color which will be discussed later. For the time being, as a Carry help, here are some combos that help change your playstyle in the game.

    King + Ace is a very standard combination. King allows you to get your items faster and Ace combines with it to keep you at a safer distance. This combo is more for those who want to accelerate into the late game Carry at the cost of having a useless aspect when all items have been built. Another point to make is to be conscious that you will build critical damage items with this combo, due to Ace being wasted otherwise. 

    King + Hunter is a unique synergy, giving you extra gold for farming while allowing your item build to be accelerated and to be as flexible as possible. You gain sustain in lane and bonus gold from minions and kills, and is the likeliest build to snowball early due to extra gold + the heal and the attack speed boost when you have an advantage. The trade-off is you are less safe, and crit items become less potent. This build is very good if you’re up against a heavy tank composition or even find yourself in the need to duel, allowing you to benefit from an extra item advantage + the attack speed buff.

    Lastly, Ace + Hunter is the ultimate scaling build. You gain as many stats as possible from this Aspect combination, thanks to the extra range, crit damage, sustain in lane, and attack speed bonus. The downside is you get your item power spikes later than the other builds. This can actually put you at a significant disadvantage because it’s possible you may be behind almost the entire game behind the enemy Carry who may have the King aspect and is able to get their items faster than you. As said earlier however, if the game goes to where gold means nothing, after 6 items, this is the de-facto best build of the three combos mentioned here. With the Aspect combos established, it’s time for Items!

As it goes with these item guides, what is presented here is currently suggested. There is logic behind the order of each choice, but due to lack of game knowledge, it is simply unknown what is proper to build first for the most part. Disclaimers aside, beginning with Academy Pistol (+11 Physical Power = 11 PP. 400G) and either Health or Omni potion depending on what you’d like to accomplish in lane, whether you use abilities to push an advantage or simply have more HP to work with is viable either way. The aim for your first back is to upgrade to a B.F. Gun (+38 PP. 1.4k gold) and upgrading Boots (of the Hunt or Inertia Treads. 1.1k Gold) as high as you can. 

    When these are obtained, Tungsten Rounds (65 PP, 10 Physical Penetration. Basic Attacks stack 4 + 0.25 per favor Physical Penetration for 3 seconds. Stacks 3 times. 2.8k Gold) is the cheapest possible upgrade that benefits from PP, and against squishier targets, you can naturally remove what PA (Physical Armor) they gained through lvl ups. The debuff also affects minions too, allowing you to push and CS slightly easier if the debuff is still up as you CS them (CS is Creep Score, and you are given 1 CS when you successfully land the killing blow on a minion, this gives you EXP and gold).

    After buying Tungsten Rounds, If you’re into Crit, now is the time to build it. With a proper PP item to hit hard and a passive to stack quickly, Adrenaline Boost (+35% Attack Speed, +25% Crit chance. Active: Gain 50% movement speed and 12% Attack Speed for 4 seconds. 60 second CD. 2.6k Gold) synergizes greatly with the Ace aspect and with the Tungsten Rounds. If you aren’t interested in Crit however, Plasma Blade (40 PP, 40% Attack Speed, 5% Lifesteal. Basic Attacks deal 6% of your target’s current HP as Energy Damage. 3k gold) is very good as well, as you get many stats, deal Physical + penetration damage with Energy Damage if they have built HP.

    For the next item for Crit, AI Ammunition (60 PP, 25% Crit chance. Gain +30% Crit damage. 3.2k Gold) is a must have. Combined with Ace you are looking at a 50% chance to deal 260% more damage with your auto attacks. If your AA (Auto Attack) were to deal 200 normally, this item would cause a crit for 520. Finishing this item completes the “core” of the Crit damage build. If non-crit, I would suggest Voracious Steel (60 PP, 10% Life Steal. Excess stolen life becomes a shield, up to 20x your lvl. Active: Consume the shield to gain 1 PP per 5 HP consumed for 5 seconds. 60 sec CD. 3.2k gold). From hereon, the builds become pretty responsive to what your opponents are doing. Though non-crit Carry is likely to seek other colors for items. 

    For the Crit users, if you notice your opponents building additional armor, Full Metal Jacket (50 PP + 30% Physical Penetration. 3k gold) combined with Plasma Blade will absolutely shred tanks attempting to counter you. If you need to duel or sustain Voracious Blade combined with King’s Castle (70 PP, 10% Lifesteal. Active: Dash forward 600 units, healing for 4% Max hp for each Hero, both friendly and enemy within 600 units. 60 Sec CD. 3.6k Gold) will prove to be very helpful with at least 20% Lifesteal + the Crit damage from your items. If your opponents are just building Physical Armor and not HP combined, Full Metal Jacket + Voracious Steel will keep you healthy while countering their build. If there’s a lot of HP but not armor, then Voracious Steel + Plasma Blade will make sure they think twice about building just HP for bulk. Onwards then, to Bruisers who want Red.

For the curious, Bruisers are designed to be simultaneously Tanky and Aggressive. They are interested in getting in close and causing havoc to anybody near them and are generally thought to be Masters of the 1v1. This doesn’t mean Bruisers can’t teamfight, but often lack powerful abilities to encourage such. While there are always exceptions to rules, Bruisers are likely to seek Green + Red aspects and items. As a Bruiser, take note of the most synergistic items with PP and Attack Speed, while paying attention to items that offer HP for Bulk. As a Bruiser, if you need Burst, keep the 2 crit items in mind. Of a particular note however is that King’s Castle is at its best on a Bruiser, due to having a gap closer and a powerful heal to boot. Particularly, if it has Offensive stats and Defensive Stats, the item is likely to be very good on a Bruiser. Examples include, even from other colors, King’s Castle, Voracious Steel, Plasma Blade, Fist of the Titans, and for Junglers, Storm Quiver. Sorry about not a very formal build guide here, but these appear to be the finest items around for Bruiser archetypes. Time for multicolor synergies through aspects.

This section, as the previous Green guide introduced, is focused upon Aspects in other colors that synergize with Red. There are a good few that synergize with Red as well. 

    Beginning with Blue synergies, Magician is excellent for Carries with good abilities. This can synergize with any Red aspect as well. With King + Magician, you can become a very potent lane bully, gaining extra gold from CS and super pressuring the 2v2 with your constant ability usage with mana sustain + more frequent Ultimates. The trade-off is a bad late game where the sustain nor bonus gold are no longer helpful.

    This next one might actually have merit or be very cheesy. Currently, there is only 1 aspect in Purple, Rogue (Pass through minions, every 20 seconds - Hero lvl without attacking forces your next AA to crit.) If you choose to take this, Ace + Rogue is the best choice for a guaranteed 230% damage crit with your first item being AI Ammunition for a guaranteed 260% damage Crit.

    Bruisers are likely to be interested in some combination of Titan + Ace/Hunter. This gives them scaling on HP, PP, through Titan and either the burst of building Crit by taking Ace, or taking some consistent damage + lane sustain with Hunter. Though Rook + Ace might not be out of the question if the enemy team is very squishy and dependent on CC.

For Crit based Core: Academy Pistol, upgrade to B.F. Gun. Boots > Tungsten Rounds > Adrenaline Boost, AI Ammunition.

    For Non-Crit Core: Academy Pistol > B.F. Gun. Boots > Tungsten Rounds > Plasma Blade. Voracious Steel may also be part of the core.

    With all that covered, we reviewed team positions again, the Red aspects, playstyle and synergies, in addition to 3 different item guides for Crit, non-crit, and Bruisers. Coming up very soon is likely to be the largest guide yet, designed to help the Supports out there through understanding the White aspects. Until then, see you on the Faultline!