So You’re Sick of Guns: A Guide to Skølldir [CONTEST]

Overview

Are you tired of using regular weapons?Do you want to kill your enemies to the hardcore sound of viking metal?Do you want to be powered by rocket farts?Look no further! Skølldir is here, prepare the lemonade!

Overview

If you’re tired of using regular weapons, and think that simple punches and throws will be enough to crush your enemies, then my friend you have come to the right place! Here, I will detail a comprehensive guide in order to play as Skølldir the Terribly Overweight Space Viking.
Skølldir is a tanky fighter/brawler, with amazing crowd control (CC) potential. A good Skølldir player will not only net lots of kills for himself, but will also set up a number of kills for his teammates. Additionally, due to the high damage of his auto attack (AA), he has some good pushing ability and can really make a dent in a turret, given even a short amount of time. But, enough of an overview, let’s move to the overall build.

Build

In order to do well as Skølldir, you need to play aggressively and will need to initially mostly work on setting up kills for your team. The absolute first thing you need to buy, non-negotiable in my opinion, is Rubber Ducky Choker. This adds a small 0.3 second stun to the end of your bash combo. You’ll frequently find that stun to be the difference between a kill and an enemy getting away with 0hp, or the difference between holding an enemy off long enough for a teammate to escape, or said teammate getting squished. After that, the build is more flexible, but I personally always go straight for Electric Hammer afterwards, giving you access to one of the most powerful combinations of attacks and abilities in the game. Firstly, find an enemy lurking not too far from a turret, preferably alone and a little bit overextended. Run up to them, and use throw. As soon as you’ve thrown them, immediately turn around and use earthquake. Now, the enemy is right next to your turret, and snared, unable to move. Now, move in with your bash combo. Timed right, just as the snare ends, you should get another stun on them. After this, just try body block them, chase them, it generally doesn’t matter. If you can do those three things, you’re almost guaranteed a kill.

Moving on to the rest of the build, after Electric Hammer, I find picking up League 7 Boots to be very valuable in keeping this combo, letting you get over to an enemy quicker in order to start the stun combo. It’s also very useful in escapes, as with his speed bonus, Skølldir is surprisingly nippy, and throw can help get rid of an enemy you don’t want to fight right now. Next up is another critical, but not always necessary item. Perfumed White Flowers. If you have a healer present on your team (A Genji who picked up healing nectar, Voltar, possibly Ix), then you can skip this item and move straight on to the extra health. If none of those are present, this upgrade gives you tremendous staying power, as you will rarely need to teleport back to spawn to heal yourself. Next, get yourself some extra health depending on how the game is going. If you’re having a tough time, a few deaths here and there, definitely pick it up to give you a bit of extra staying power. If you’re doing well, you can leave it till later, though definitely pick it up at some point, as Skølldir is just slightly too squishy without it if you ask me.

Next up comes your first throw upgrade: Oily Spray on Bronze. This is personally one of my favourite upgrades for Skølldir, as with it, you can permanently stun enemies for the 2.1 seconds of attack speed bonus you have. If you picked up Perfumed White Flowers, it also speeds up your healing too, and is overall the upgrade that will add the most damage to your throw. Next up, more throw damage to supplement it, with the Homeless Gnome. The more expensive version of the damage upgrades, but it also deals more damage, and I prefer to get the expensive upgrades first, though you could switch this with the position of the Power Briefs, and not lose too much power. Next, you go back to earthquake, and pick up the Stolen Couch. Another important upgrade, as it extends your snare range, very valuable for ensuring kills and protecting teammates. In all fairness though, you could swap Stolen Couch with the Small Volcano, if there are a lot of flying ‘nauts on the other team.

Now, for your final upgrade on bash. At this point you’ll really be feeling that bash isn’t doing enough damage, but you’ve held off buying it till now. And here’s your reward : Chunk of Salted Meat, giving you a hefty chunk of extra damage. This will very much put you back on level with the enemies, keeping you competitive and dangerous. Not much more to say really, very essential. You could pick it up a tad earlier, but overall I feel the extra power in throw is more valuable. After this, you go to complete your throw damage, picking up Power Briefs or Homeless Gnome, whichever you missed earlier. Finally, to complete your endgame damage, get yourself some Iridium Bricks, just so you can snare those kills when they get away anyway. This slot is fairly open for earthquake though, and none of the upgrades are particularly undesirable, so you could pick whatever you wish here. This is just my opinion of what’s the best fit for what you have earlier.

Finally, if you’ve not been up against any damage over time characters (DoT), then picking up Barrier Magazine is really your best choice here. If you’re against a Gnaw or possibly another Skølldir, then Med-I-Can is the best way to go. Likewise, if you’re being harassed a lot by CC (slows, silence, blind, etc), then pick up Baby Kuri Mammoth. Otherwise, Barrier Magazine. Ignoring 10% of damage isn’t quite as powerful as it sounds, and if you’re being harassed by DoT or CC earlier in the game, definitely pick up each counterpart upgrade earlier, especially in the case of a Gnaw being on the other team.

Teamwork

As much as you might want to be a lone viking badass, Skølldir is actually quite a team player, with his throw working very well with most ‘nauts abilities. Grab an enemy, hurl them towards your turret, and let teammates do the rest. However, do take care to not screw up your teammates plays! I’ve seen many a bad Skølldir throw an enemy at a bad time, letting the enemy escape, or particularly throwing an exploding Clunk into his own team! Be aware of your teammates, and be considerate. If you prove you have their back, they’ll have your back too.

I’ll finish up this guide with some suggestions for teammates, for a good composition, with ones that compliment Skølldir and cover his weaknesses.

• Voltar – Self explanitory, heals are great for tanky characters.
• Genji – If Genji cocoons an enemy, it gives a Skølldir plenty of time to get in position to lob them way way back, and pick up some heals from Healing Nectar if they bought it.
• Derpl – Throw enemies into traps, get kills. ’nuff said.
• Yuri – See above, but with mines.
• Ix – By using displace and throw effectively, an Ix and Skølldir can keep an enemy in front of a turret pretty much indefinitely. Makes for very easy kills.

And finally, a list of nauts to avoid when you’re playing against them:

• Ayla – If you’re against an Ayla who remotely knows what they’re doing and they come after you when you’re alone, only throw will save you, and due to the way Ayla’s hitbox works when she’s enraged, it can be very difficult to hit and save yourself.
• Rocco – Yes, this bird can be a pain for Skølldir. Rocco is a very ranged character, and whilst Skølldir can and will pummel him to bits in melee, a good Rocco will never let you get that close, and instead continously chip away at you, and finally snipe you at low health. Do be careful.
• Raelynn – Similar to Rocco, Raelynn is a character with a lot of range, and a frequently used tactic against melee characters is to bait them into her timerift, let them get stuck, then snipe them with ease. Again, use caution, and if you’re going to chase a Raelynn, wait till they’ve used timerift first.

With that being about all I can say on the world’s fattest viking, go out there, drink some lemonade, and crush some enemies!