MLBB Collecting all Hero Guides No.７

KiiyonPH

SABER MOST IN DEPTH GUIDE
CREATED BY
Ign: Kiiyon PH
ID: 3058578
Server: 3005
Highest rank reached: Legend 8 stars (Season 3)
Current ranking: Epic II - 3 stars





HERO PROS:
Saber has good mobility. The damage output on this hero can be very good if stacked properly. Great lane harass. Good in a 1v1 situation due to his passive. One of the easiest heroes to learn.


HERO CONS:
Saber is very squishy like all other assassins. You need to get stacks in order to deal great damage. Timing is a must have. His ultimate is very risky since it requires him to get really close to the target thus making him vulnarable to attacks and crowd controls.



HERO SKILLS ANALYSIS

Passive Skill: Enemy's Bane

Skill description: Every attack will lower the target's armor by 5 and stacking up to 10 layers. Lasts for 5 seconds.
Skill Analysis: This passive skill makes Saber very formidable in a 1v1 scenario. Because as you and your opponent battle, each attack you make (this include basic attacks and skill attacks) will proc the passive and gaining more advantage. We will be discussing how to maximize the layers dealt to enemies later on in combos.


First Skill: Flying Sword

Cooldown: 8.0 seconds
Mana cost: 85 mana points
Skill description: Shoots out 4 flysiing swords, with each sword dealing upto 160 points of physical damage. Swords will spin by the target for a time and then fly back to Saber. Using the Charge ability will call the swords back earlier.
Skill analysis: This is Saber's primary ability for harassing enemies. You can deal a good amount of damage while still be distant and a bit safe from enemies. This skill is very spammable and with blue buff you could go on and on with this in early game forcing your opponents to go home to their base to regen and make them lose lane experience and gold. Every hit of the blades proc the passive skill so each blade that hits cause the enemies to have lesser and lesser armor. So if they decide to go near you, you can make a few basic attacks and your damage can be higher than them. This works well with Saber's 2nd skill which we will discuss in combos later.


Second Skill: Charge

Cooldown: 14 seconds
Mana cost: 70 mana points
Skill description: Charges towards a specified place, dealing 80 point of physical damage to enemies along the way.
Skill analysis: Every assassin has an escape ability, and this is Saber's escape skill. The range of the charge is very decent and it makes escaping and chasing very easy for Saber. The target touched by the charge also gets a part of his stacks since it also deals damage. This skill calls back the blades from the first skill early and these blades can touch the target within the charge distance, stacking more of his passive and more damage. Remember that this skill can be used for both engaging and disengaging which we will discuss as well in the combos.


Ultimate Skill: Triple Sweep

Cooldown: 34 seconds
Mana cost: 100 mana points
Skill description: Attacks an enemy hero, knocking the target airborne and then dealing 3 blows in a row, each blow causing 220 points of physical damage to the enemy.
Skill Analysis: This skill can have one of the greatest damage outputs in the game if timed in sync with the passive stacks correctly and if the stacks are maximized. The duration of the knock up in the air is also very good making your teammates have enough time to initiate their attacks as well on the target. This ultimate also has its downside, this requires Saber to get close to enemies so if in a team fight you must consider timing in order to fully execute the skill to its fullest potential.



SKILL COMBOS AND WHEN TO USE THEM:

Combo1: This combo is usually done in the laning phase in order to maximize the stacked layers that you deal with your passive. So first thing to do is to use your first skill, the flying blades. Before you use it, make sure that the first blade would be in range with your target so you would know that as they run away you could also run to their direction for the remaining whirls of the blade to continuously touch the target. At the third blade that touches your target, use the 2nd skill Charge if and only if the target is still in the dash range to add another layer of stack. And as you charge, the blades will come back to saber and if within the charge distance they would also touch the target adding more stacks. The reason why you should NOT use the dash if the target is a bit behind of the target is because the blades from the first skill would not touch the enemy making it useless. So after the charge and the blades touching the target, immediately use the ultimate skill Triple sweep so that it could maximize the damage dealt. By this time your first skill would refresh so if the target doesnt die after your ultimate, use your blades to add more damage dealt.

Combo2: This combo is usually done when ganking or making an ambush to a target while you are hidden in a bush. You could start this combo off using the 2nd skill to get near to your target. Once in range you could use your first skill Flying blades and since you're basically in point blank range with the target the first swirl of your blades would most likely touch your target thus still adding to your stack count. After that throw in a few basic attacks maybe 1 or 2 at most because the stacks last for 5 seconds so you must execute within that time frame. After the basic attacks immediately use the ultimate skill Triple sweep for the kill.

Combo3: This combo is usually done if you are chasing a low health target that is a but far away from you. First thing to do is to close the gap by using 2nd skill Charge and then once in range of the Ultimate skill, use the Triple sweep as soon as you reach the target. This would secure the kill for you.

Combo4: This combo is usually done if you want to execute a target near a group of enemies or if the target is inside the enemy tower range. So you first use the first skill Flying blades and get in range for the ultimate skill, once the range is okay immediately use the Triple sweep and once the duration of the sweep is finished go to a safer position by using your 2nd skill Charge.




ITEM BUILD:


I would suggest building Saber with the first build here in order to start out the game with nice cooldown reduction items and since Saber's skills are a bit risky and mages are very good at the moment I added up items with magic resistance in order to lessen the damage taken from those mages. The last items are focused on pure damage to optimize the role of saber which is to execute the important targets of the enemy back line.




ITEMS ANALYSIS:

First item: Hunter's Strike

This item is very good with assassins like Saber because it gives that nice cooldown reduction stat in order to get the skills refreshed much faster and that 100 points of physical damage is a necessity for assassins to increase the damage output.

Second item: Magic boots
This item is to improve mobility and roam the map more to help a nearby lane and to further improve the cooldown of skills.
Third item: Magic blade

This item is to counter the great burst damage from mages like Eudora and Gord. The magic resistance and the physical damage is a great contribution to Saber's offense and defense. Also the passive is great in 1v1 and escaping from a sticky situation in team clashes.

Fourth item: Immortality

This item is all for its defensive stats. The health points provided together with the magic resistance creates a good opportunity for Saber to survive while he dives deep in the enemies backlines where the important targets stay. And if ever he dies while killing the important targets he can be revived with the items passive. Just remember that this has a cooldown. So not all the time Saber can be revived.

Fifth item: Blade of destruction

This item is to greatly increase the damage that Saber can deal. The added crit strike chance means that his attacks will have better chances of getting added damage. And with the item's passive, these crit strikes have bonus damage as well meaning, the damage is greatly improved for every critical hit he deals.

Final item: Blade of Despair

This last item is to further maximize the damage that Saber deals. This item has the most physical damage added and the passive helps to improve the damage of those disabled targets making it useful in assassinating. The attack speed bonus is good as well and the crit chance will also be increased which works very well with Blade of destruction.



EMBLEM:


I currently use Physical Assassin Emblem level 34 for Saber. This is very good for Saber because of the amount of added physical damage stats, the physical penetration stat, and the crit strike chance stats. This greatly improves Saber's early game dominance which is a must have in order to dominate enemy lanes.


ABILITIES:


You can use either Execute or Purify with Saber. If you happen to like the first build or the one I've discussed here, the best would be Execute to increase the damage that you deal since that build is already very safe to begin with. If you would like to use the middle build, if you can see it has a huge amount of attack damage items, so Purify would be great for it to increase the survivability of the build.



SETTINGS:


Make sure to turn on the "Hero lock mode" to ensure that you target the important enemy for your ultimate skill Triple sweep. What you would need to do is to get in range to your target and if there are two or more available enemy heroes nearby, hero icons would pop up below near your auto attack button and just click your desired target's icon to lock on it. Just make sure to stay within range so that the lock would not be released.



OVERALL:

Saber is one of the easiest heroes to learn but you still need to master the timing of his skills and when to initiate or when to disengage. Much like other assassins, Saber is also squishy so remember to not dive in without considering other factors like how many other enemy heroes are near and who has disabling skills to stop you in your tracks. Early game dominance is a must have for Saber because once you get fed enough, its really hard to counter you. So with all these being said, is Saber worth it to buy? A DEFINITE YES.



So here's the end of my in depth guide for our assassin, Saber. I hope you learned quite a good amount of tips and I sincerely hope that this helped you out! Good luck and battle on!

KiiyonPH

I cant seem to delete the pics on the last part. The boots ans the charge skill hmm. I dont see it when i do to edit post but its showing here in thread

superlaser97

KiiyonPH replied at 2017-4-25 16:14
I cant seem to delete the pics on the last part. The boots ans the charge skill hmm. I dont see it w ...

Pictures that are not used in-house will be shown as attachments. Remove unused pictures from the same place where you upload your picture

alandmike

everyone already receiving the previous guide award? mine not yet

superlaser97

alandmike replied at 2017-4-25 18:11
everyone already receiving the previous guide award? mine not yet

Are you listed to receive the award?

KiiyonPH

I already received mine from last week's event hihi.

KiiyonPH

Oh by the way thank you. I deleted the extra pics from below. Thanks for the instructions on how to take em out

alandmike

superlaser97 replied at 2017-4-25 19:55
Are you listed to receive the award?

yes in the first page in this thread by Exzeon name
and the id they mentioning is wrong
2206 2995948 Exzeon
the correct one is
2206 29959948 Exzeon

superlaser97

alandmike replied at 2017-4-26 09:31
yes in the first page in this thread by Exzeon name
and the id they mentioning is wrong
2206 29959 ...

I have informed the mods on this, stay tuned

Hallion

IGN: |DF|-Hallion

ID: 2242667

Server: 3001

Current Rank: Grand Master 1

Akai Starter Guide

Background

Skills

Brute Force        (Passive)

All attacks will deal extra 2% of maximum hp as damage.

Note:

• Akai's DPS will increase as you equip more gears with +HP.
• Make sure most of your gears have + hp, you'll be able to function better as a tank and increase your damage too :)
  

Thousand Pounder

Cooldown:        14 seconds

Mana Cost:        70

Jump into the area, dealing 170 physical damage to enemies when landing and a 60% slow down effect.

For the next 3s, the following attacks will deal an extra 50% physical damage.

Note:

• This is Akai's most useful skill! Max this ASAP
• Range increases every level, makes it easy to attack, chase and escape from enemies
• Try and jump in on enemies without much defense like marksman and mages, combo it with guardian and normal attacks
• Be careful as jumping in the middle of enemies is quite dangerous, have a plan in mind make sure you have allies that'll back you up
  

  Guardian

Cooldown:        8.5

Mana Cost:        70

Deals 100 plus 15% of own missing hp as physical damage to enemies in the area.

Also equips self with a shield that can block up to 360 damage and lasts 4s.

Note:

• This is Akai's main damaging skill.
• Keep in mind that, that the lower your remaining hp is the stronger the damage!
• The shield is quite useful too, it can absorb damage early game with ease
• With proper timing it can even save your Panda life from Tower dives
  

  Meat Tank

Cooldown:        40

Mana Cost:        120

Becomes a ball in 4s and starts to dash.

Each hit will knock back the target and deal 50pts of magic damage

Note:

• This is what Akai users love about him <3
• The best crowd control skill in the game IMO.
• With proper timing, You can:
  

        Push multiple enemies toward your tower or your allies or pin them to the wall
        continuously for a maximum of four seconds
        Messup enemy formations
        Protect you allies

• Target enemies without escape skills / spells early game as they will be easiest to push around.
• If enemies have flicker or skills that help them escape, be observant as to when they use it, when they are in cooldown, that is the best time to use meat tank :)
  

Strategies and Combos

As much as possible aim for the enemy's damage dealers when going for a combo, distracting and disabling them or sending them home will be a huge advantage in a clash

Harass:

• jump in using 'thousand pounder', cast 'guardian', normal attacks
• jump in using 'thousand pounder', cast 'guardian' quickly then cast meat tank and push enemy towards wall / allies / tower
  

Bumping:

Enemies wont stay still as you push them with meat tank, they'll try to run, after bumping them once, there will be a short gap between you and the opponent, anticipate where they will go to bump them again towards desired direction

Wall Pinning:  

Bump enemies beside the wall and hold your position, the enemy wont be able to move

With a bit of practice you can master the distance needed between you the the enemy and the wall

Ganking:

Make use of the bushes and aim your combo from behind your enemies when they are about to charge your towers or infront of them when they are running away to send them back to your allies

Protecting Allies:

        

Protect your allies when you can (when your hp is high enough),  Run towards your ally who is being chased, use <quick response> retreat when you can, so your ally will have an idea of what you are planning, launch 'meat tank' and push the chasing enemy back a bit, then move away too following your ally, cast 'guardian' and then run and escape using 'thousand pounder' if required.

Tower Dive:

A dangerous move, but if done effectively it can make the game turn in your favor

• Time your tower dives with pushing minions and allies as much as possible,
• Do not tower dive when you have no allies nearby, or if you are not certain you can kill the enemy defending it with your combo.
  

• Use <quick response> need assistance / gather / prepare tower dive to give your allies a heads up, Cast 'Guardian', Jump inside tower using 'Thousand Pounder', as soon you are about to land, use 'purify' then 'meat tank' immediately to push enemy/ies out to your allies / push them away so allies can focus on destroying the tower
  

• If you have immortal, be braver use 'thousand pounder' first, you'll could get hurt bad, hurt them back with 'guardian', cast purify then meat tank and roll to your allies
  

Emblem

Tank

I usually go for Tank/Setter style of play

But this is up to you, You can opt for a different emblem specially if u have a higher level emblem with high + on hp and armor.

Abilities

Purify

I usually go with purify as this helps with tower dives, Enemies usually have a stunner or disabler that could hold you in place as soon as you dive or counter your meat tank as soon as you cast it; with purify you will be immune from it for a second which is enough as you push out enemies from the tower

Others to consider:         Assault, Flicker or Stun

Asssault

- speed will make you get in position, make them think you will use your meat tank, run quickly and get behind enemies, they will usually flicker to safety, thats when you start your thousand pounder combo.

- if you can move fast enough, you can also cast meat tank and push/pin them before they could even cast flicker.

Flicker         

- good backup for repositioning, escaping and attacking

Stun         

- stun can also save Akai, as soon as you tower dive use stun then push out enemies using meat tank

Akai's best partners :handshake:D

Turrets               

- yep, specially early game, protect your turrets to maximize Akai's effectiveness

Damage dealers

- any big damage dealers that'll kill the enemies that you pinned quickly

Hayabusa         

- can maximize his ultimate's damage when you separate enemies with meat tank

Chou/Zhao        

- Can bring enemies closer to tower that may combo with meat tank

Enemies to watch out for::funk::L

Nana        - Transform and Ult Skill cancels Meat Tank

Saber       - Ult cancels Meat Tank

Chou        - 1st and Ult cancels Meat Tank

Tigreal     - 2nd skill cancels Meat Tank

Hayabusa - When his shadows are up, you cant pin him, he'll be able to escape easily

Kagura     - Can escape being pinned on the wall using her 2nd skill

Moscov    - Can push you away while you are using meat tank

Akai        

-  An enemy Akai will be able to counter your meat tank by using the same skill;

you'll both get bumped, this is dangerous when you try to tower dive or try to gank near enemy tower

Gears::D

Rapid Boots

        the + in movement speed is very useful in ganking and helping out different lanes

        the speed also helps meat tank push quicker

Cursed Helmet

Since we are building Akai with a lot of HP, this will go well with everything and     will sting enemies quite a bit, You'll keep damaging your enemies every second, awesome for chasing and harassment

Bloodthirsty King

        More HP <3 more damage, +the hp regen we get from the kills/assists will also keep Akai rolling

Dominance Ice/Thunder Belt

        +MP for our mana pool

        +Armor to make Akai tanky

        15% Cooldown for our skill combos

        Slow down enemies while we jump on em

        Thunder belt could be worth considering as a replacement to this, it also has an effect that'll slow enemies has additional true damage and it has +HP and +MP and +armor.

Immortality

        This will save Akai on a clash / tower dive, when you are forced to activate Immortality, hit the enemies with 'guardian' as soon as you get back up this wil hurt them a lot, use regen while the shield is on and continue your with 'meat tank' and push them to your allies or run and jump to safety depending on the situation.

Blade Armor/Demon's Advent/Heart of Steel/Thunder Belt or Saints Refuge

        +90 armor from Blade armor will make Akai be able to widthstand clashes better. Depending on the enemies and situation you are facing opt to change Blade Amor to   what you think you need more.

Rock Potion

If you already have full gear and need something to do with your extra $$

Consider purchasing a rock potion, before your next clash ;)

Feel free to experiment with the gears and order of acquisition, you should change it depending on your enemies and your play style.

Conclusion:

Akai is the hero that I have the most fun playing with.. ^_^

(Its so fun when the enemies starts to get angry for messing with em around so much) ;P:P

Despite the previous nerf on him he still is awesome to play~

Hope you learned from my guide and try out Akai soon~