UD/FW Bleed/Vamps; Using UD utility to make up for Vamps shortcomings

I have tried a few times to make this work but due to the high cost of vamps, ranged dominance and a vulnerability to cc i could never really consider it to be viable. The removal of boon and some of the other recent changes have really affected that though.

So vamps have very few ranged units and what ranged units they do have are quite underwhelming when it comes to dealing damage. This leaves the bg very open to highly mobile ranged units especially when backed up by cc, however this can be countered in two ways;

• Exploiting UD's access to Arrow Eater and spells like Breath of Ash
• Exploiting UD's OP Bane Shift.

Not only can the UD runes offset the damage incurred from ranged champions but the added damage makes for some great powerturns and incredible scaling opportunities.

The Champions

• Archfiend - An absolute monster in this split, with Ally: UD this guy comes out of the gates with 16 damage and 55hp, when you throw a Mandate on him he gets scary very quickly.
• Blood Abhorrent - This guy is essentially here to kill scary things with Blood Convergence. Though his low cost and 1-3 range make him a pretty effective beater regardless.
• Blood Phoenix - Generally here for the cost efficiency, very nice damage output with Bloodlust but Hex is too useful to pass up.
• Bloodbinder Count - Like Archfiiend this guy is a cheap statball, however his Bloodbind ability is extremely useful for locking down targets and dealing with pesky NKD champions. Combo with Soul Reaver to really put them in a tight spot.
• Bloodgoyle - All around pretty efficient champion that fits the theme well but primarily here to combo with Abhorrent by spawning extra blood balls.
• Demonologist - Brings some range and a counter to summons.
• Elder Bloodbinder - Another utility champion brings some range but is mainly here for Greater Vampirism and the Detect from Raven Form.
• Elsari Tomb Raider - This guy actually surprised me with how useful he can be, good stats and some ranged harass but i was really impressed by how he can just hang around in stealth dealing with any equips or relics and gradually scaling up from Korona kills.
• Hekatian Bloodguard - Surprisingly the synergy between vamps and Bloodguard isn't all that great, they really don't need her healing and if it wasn't for the cost efficiency that Bloody Imp brings she might not be here at all, though she is definitely useful for healing up the units without Life Siphon.
• Korona - More often than not she is the centre piece of the bg, power turns are focused around her picking up kills and causing the cheaper champions to scale up in their damage.
• Pincushion - This guy is literally here to throw at ranged units and create openings for power turns against them.

Spells

• Breath of Ash - Fairly straight forward and due to the large amounts of healing in the bg it often negates damage from ranged units entirely.
• Maddening Echoes - It does lots of damage.
• Mandate from Sheoul - Creates insane surprise damage and snowballs some of the cheaper units very quickly. I often put this on either Korona or the Archfiends as they seem to get the most out of it.
• Mobilization - For me this gives the bg a huge advantage over the FF bleed bg.
• Rain of Blood - Kind of like Peak Tactics on crack, the 4 dmg from charred and +3 to every unit affected really hits hard and at a low 30 nora you can easily throw it on top of a Mobi.

Relics

• Blood Crest - Can be very effective in the right situation but this can be countered very easily.
• Banner - I'm honestly kind of stuck for which banner to use, so far the FW one seems to be more effective.
• Grim Well - Can be useful for locking down targets.
• Orb of Protection - Another range counter, sadly the lack of fire damage means it will inevitably die.

Equips

• Reaver's Blade - As i wrote this post i decided to remove this for a second Soul Reaver but that might not be a permanent decision as it is a very powerful item.
• Soul Reaver - Counters CC with nice cheap spot cleanse and the defile/curse/brand adds a nice bonus.

Stuff i almost used/am still considering

• Sheoul Magus - I ended up going with the Pincushions for the range counter but this guy would fit very nicely into the bg.
• Demonvein Vampyre/Vampyre - The guys both have incredible scaling potential but are very vulnerable early on to being one rounded so i decided the cheaper options such as the Count and Archfiend would be better.
• Hekatian Arbiter - Insane damage in the theme and a good ranged counter but a little too expensive and frankly i think they are extremely weak when opposing even average melee champions.
• Seeker of Blood - These guys do seem pretty efficient but their low damage put me off. Count/Abhorrent seem to do this role better.
• Bloodtracker - Another unit which lost out to Pincushion though definitely still an option.
• Demon Shield - Would be really nice to throw on Korona but apart from that there aren't many targets for it.
• Execution Order - You can get some insane powerturns out of this spell but sadly the change from Exertion to Shrine Exertion kinda ruined it.

If people are interested i'll continue to update this with my progress and any changes though so far the bg is undefeated but i havn't played it since adding the pincushions, though if anything i think they are a pretty strong improvement.

I'm a little sad that i don't have more FW champs in there but that can be changed, this is still very much a WIP so any suggestions are appreciated.

 

I just found a shame that Bleed/Vamps are becoming a single theme together btw awesome BG. I have a FF FW vamp BG but it seems lacking something, I just don't want to split lol

 

It's probably lacking anti range

If you were to make use of the split runes you could probably make a pretty FW dominant split.

 

Vamps have never been a ff theme.
UD/ bleed appeared with demonvein/elder release around heritage, it was also the time vamps got healing from bloodballs.
Then somewhere around second creep version creep-oriented vamps became viable for ST/ and UD/.
For a short period when seeker had fasciante there were cool SL/ and ST/ fascinate-oriented vamps, but after revamp and some further changes those are completely dead.
There're also statbuff-oriented vamps for FS/ and SL/, but those are weakest of all variations.

 

I think UD definitely claimed ownership of bleed a while back, however the recent addition of Bloodgoyle, Abhorrent and the Bloodguard change seem to be what made it so popular.

Maybe vamps could go in their own direction, more traditional stuff like hypnotism and turning into bats. It Would certainly add depth to the theme. I've also wondered about some kind of a DOT based swarm mechanic, 'once bitten' kind of a deal.

 

something like Dogpiled? I tought something like hybernate stealth and paralyzed for 1 turn, at start of the next turn, this unit became a vamp bat, with life shiphon sonic flight and swarm etc...

 

I'm not sure what you mean about dogpiled.

Hypnotism could be represented with stuff like Mindwipe or Fascinate.

I really hadn't thought about the whole turning into bats thing but i was thinking it could just give them flying/evasive/detect or some other utility abilities.

I had a pretty crazy idea for vamps swarming to make it seem flavorful, something like adding a condition that works like; If a champions hp falls below 10/8/6 (or whatever seems balanced) then this champion gains life siphon and becomes possessed.