We have recently seen several new heroes added to tournament mode. One of these heroes is Riftwalker, and today I'm going to be speaking on some points about this hero, such as what she can bring to the competitive table, and why she’s a hero I feel can fit into an array of lineups.

Although she has no hard stun until level 6, Riftwalker is a support who fills a different role than other top pick supports who are more viable during the laning phase, like Glacius or Aluna. I feel she is a superior choice because of the options she provides in team fights in addition to the different play style she creates in her lane.

When faced with this hero a lot of competitors think, How do we lane her? This is certainly a viable question as this is one of this hero's main weaknesses. Having no stun in the laning phase means she must be paired with another hero who possesses one, or a slow in addition to being able to do damage. Riftwalker is an excellent chasing hero because of her two skills Cascade Event and Shared Existence.

Shared Existence is similar to Prophet’s skill Persecution but it does not mini stun; instead it slows and as you hit enemies the slow increases, eventually capping out at 70% at level 4. Cascade Event is useful for setting up kills on enemies, as your team is able to see where the enemy will be pulled, so heroes like Pyromancer, Torturer, Pebbles, Voodoo Jester, or Geomancer can easily set up their combos. In addition, if you are skilled enough you can move enemies into projectiles like Devourer’s Guttling Hook and Valkyrie’s Javelin.

The main reason Riftwalker is so strong compared to other supports is her ultimate ability, Wormhole. This is one of the best skills for a support hero to have because it is a superior magic stun, meaning it will go through Jeraziah’s Protective Charm, Shrunken Head and Void Talisman. In the late game when a hero pops Shrunken Head and eventually is down to 5 seconds on it, Riftwalker’s stun and channeling time leave that hero with only two seconds of Shrunken Head use—pretty devastating if you ask me.

Wormhole is also a counter to Tempest’s Elemental Void, and can be used after Keeper of the Forest’s Root to prevent follow up. This skill’s usefulness doesn't stop there, as it makes certain heroes viable to be picked up again such as Flux. Most teams will look for Riftwalker channeling her Wormhole, and two seconds is more than enough for a group of people to separate when she is trying to initiate a team fight. With your team able to see the location that she is going to be, Flux can be sure to pull them in.

Combined with a follow-up of skills like Air Strike!, Energy Field, LRM, Piercing Arrows, Mass Control, Seismic Slam, Path of Destruction, or possibly the most obvious choice, Shockwave, you will devastate the enemy team into submission.

I have not said anything about Rift Burn yet—this skill can really do a lot of damage but I do not feel it is good to pick this up early because of the high mana cost, minimum cast range and the fact that you need the enemy to stay inside the area to get maximum damage output.

Early roaming and ganking with her first two skills is more reliable and overall better as a support playing style, but you will want to skill Rift Burn if you are trying to go with a more carry-type build, as is common in a lot of pubs. It lets her clear creep waves in combination with Cascade Event, and although your Q is much better for anti-push than Rift Burn, the damage your E can do is quite high at full duration.

Riftwalker is a hero who needs levels more than farm, as with just Marchers and some basic stat items, she is amazing and is a hero that can initiate a fight without a portal key. For this you want to get her to level 7 quickly, as this is an important level that enables you to max out Shared Existence which gives you a 70% slow at cap—by that time no one would be able to Shrunken Head to get away.

Getting her to level 7 is probably something your team will want to focus on. Once there, you can continue to get Riftwalker ahead or switch full exp gaining to someone else. Her next milestone is obviously level 11, but you should be in no rush to get there; with constant roaming and ganks with team fights you should have no problem reaching it.

Another bonus for Riftwalker over other supports is that she is not reliant on being so tanky due to how she works. You can opt out for going Bracers and instead focus on the Amulet of Exile to build a Sacrificial Stone or Ring of Sorcery. Mobility and chasing potential are what you should focus your items on—Tablet of Command is an obvious choice, because after casting Wormhole you will probably want to GTFO and Tablet would provide that, in addition to helping chase enemies.

Stormspirit, Energizer, and Assassin's Shroud are other mid-game options, and as you get into late game you’ll want to look at items like Kuldra's Sheepstick and Frostfield Plate. A more carry-focused Riftwalker who wishes to maximize her damage output would go Spellshards into Frostfield Plate, into a Hellflower following up with a late game item such as Frostwolf's Skull.

I hope to see Riftwalker played more in upcoming matches. As HoN Tour progresses we’ll be able to track hero usage, so it will be interesting to see where she ranks.

Suggested Changes

I feel that certain buffs should be given to Riftwalker to give her a bit of an easier time at some points in the game, such as more base agility to help in the laning phase.

Make damage add .5 seconds to the slow duration for shared existence up to a cap of 3 additional seconds with 6 hits; this would allow her with level 4 shared existence to keep the spell up almost all the time if she is chasing an enemy, and allow her to be more self-reliant to max out the slow with the increased time each attack would add.

It would be nice for Cascade Event to constantly pull enemies to the middle and increase the pull time a bit, so that an enemy who walks into it after the initial pull would still get pulled. This would also allow for an extra tick or two of damage from Rift Burn when combined with her other skills.

I would like to see Rift Burn get an increased cast range to 8/900 so that it can be chained with Shared Existence better to make her more of a chaser, able to slow and then place it ahead of the enemy to act as a deterrent or force them to go into it combined with a Cascade Event.

Something that is more unlikely would be for Cascade Event to add a tapering slow to enemies hit by it.

All of these are changes I feel would let her be more self-reliant while still keeping everything the same in relation to team fights and what she contributes with her team without overpowering her solo ability.

Her potential for solo fights pales in comparison to someone like Prophet, but he is limited by Shrunken Head while Riftwalker still is able to land a Wormhole to stun an enemy. Prophet just has to heal his team and auto attack the target.

Heroes such as Aluna, Glacius, and Andromeda also provide team fight support—albeit not as well as Wormhole—but they have no problems in a 1v1 situation as far as landing their skills and utilizing them all to kill someone.

A hero who is more team reliant, such as Flux, also has no problems in a 1v1 so I feel that with a little help in that department, Riftwalker will be considered a top pick. Until then she will fit into team fight and AoE blow-up strategies no problem.



For now I open discussion to the comments section for anyone to freely agree, disagree and comment on what they think of my thoughts, opinions and ideas. Big shoutout to Pellikan for talking with me about big nerd strats and Riftwalker!

- Crowslaw
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