- Helena is a great option for a tank build with good crowd control abilities.
- Her build focuses on maximizing abilities usage and minimizing cooldowns.
- Helena also has her Toughness mechanics, which need to be managed to raise her survival chances.
- Her offensive abilities consist of a lot of slams, strikes, and AOE attacks that deal massive physical damage.
Helena Build Overview
| Character | Helena |
| Playstyle | Melee Tank |
| Spirit Ability | Doubles the effects of Veteran of War |
| Damage Type | Melee and Shield |
Best Abilities for Helena
- Measured Strike: Strike against the enemy, dealing 46% Strength physical damage and also affecting nearby enemies. Lowers the cooldown of Shield Slam and Shield Throw by 1.5 Seconds.
- Power Strike: Execute a heavy strike that does 227% Strength physical damage to the enemy. Lowers the cooldown of Shield Slam and Shield Throw by 1.5 Seconds.
- Shield Slam: Slam the shield and deal 242% Strength physical damage to the enemy and 49% physical damage to nearby enemies. It helps you gain 20% Toughness.
- Shield Throw: Throw the shield and deal 242% Strength damage; the shield then bounces to 5 separate enemies.
- Shockwave: Create an explosion by slamming sword and shield together, dealing 248% Strength damage to enemies. It also lowers the movement speed of enemies for 5 seconds. Also reduces the cooldown of Shield Up by 6 seconds.
- Charge: Charge towards the enemy, dealing 234% Strength damage and stunning them. It also lowers the cooldown of Shield Slam, Shield Throw, Shield Up, and Shockwave for 6 seconds.
- Shield Up: Raise your shield to gain 60% Toughness and also raise your block chance by 25% for 12 seconds. Blocking an attack with your shield gains 3% Toughness.
- Sweeping Strike: Deal 243% Strength damage to the enemy and nearby enemies as well.
- Iron Wall: For 12 seconds, it freezes the Toughness.
- Hold the Line: Resets the cooldown of the Shield Slam ability and makes your next Shield Slam an Empowered Shield Slam. This creates a barrier that absorbs a high amount of Strength damage for 8 seconds.
- Siegebreaker: Reduces cooldown for the next 20 seconds. Once you activate the Siegebreaker, you will take 25% less damage, and all of your shield abilities will deal 25% more damage.
Helena’s abilities will help you give cooldown reduction to all of her abilities in the rotation. Shockwave gives cooldown reduction to Shield Up, and Shield Slam/ Shield Throw/ Charge does the same to Shockwave. Power Strike provides a cooldown to Shield Slam and Shield Throw.
Best Talents for Helena
- Shield Mastery: Cooldown of Shield Throw and Shield Up are lowered; the cooldown time will reflect on the damage you sustain with your Toughness.
- Reinforced Steel: Increases your armor by 20%.
- Punishing Strikes: Power Strikes and Power Slams will now deal 15% more damage.
- Sharpened Blade: After performing Sweeping Strike against enemies, they will experience a 20% slowdown to their attack and speed, and making your Power Strike will deal 200% more damage.
- High Command: Each time you use Shield Up, it lowers the cooldown of your spirit ability, Siegebreaker.
- Magic Ward: Take 10% less magic damage.
- Gleaming Shield: Shield Up ability now allows you to gain a 20% chance to block and a chance to receive extra healing. Also, making your Shield Slam deal 40% more damage.
- Front Line Defender: 20% increase in your Toughness.
- Master of War: Your grand melee ability will have a 20% lower cooldown.
Best Gear for Helena
- Warboots of the Blackened Vanguard: Charge abilities now generate free Shockwave on impact. It also influences your Stamina, Strength, Spirit, and lastly Haste.
- Weapon: Fateful Arms: Provides 20% to your Expertise stat and helps you gain 200% cooldown reduction for 6 seconds. This weapon focuses on defense.
- Alternatives: Sahril’s Arms, if Fateful Arms focused on the defensive aspect of the weapon, Sahril’s Arms will be centered around the offensive.
- Relic: Saltwash Elixir: Heals you for 40% of your current max hp.
- Relic: Sinbinding Stone: Allows a 15% damage reduction to you and allies near your location for 15 seconds.
- Alternatives: Grimoire of Resurrection, Ancient Wardstone, Bloodrite Drums, Humming Portalstone, Ancient Poultry Fetish, Orb of Shadows.
Best Stats to prioritize for Helena
Make sure to choose a perfect item level to raise your chance of damage and defensive options for Helena. 1% in any stat will make Helena’s Toughness more effective.
- Haste: Lowers the cooldown of your Shield Up.
- Spirit: Helps you gain cooldown reduction from Veteran of War and slightly lowers the cooldown of the ultimate.
- Expertise: Influences the damage dealing and damage mitigation.
- Critical Strike: Impacts your damage dealing.
FAQ
What is the Hardest part of playing as Helena?
The goal is to have more Toughness to take less damage from enemies. Failing to manage the Toughness mechanics will lead to immediate failure.
What to do when Helena starts losing her Toughness?
You can instantly use Iron Wall to stop the Toughness bar for 12 seconds. Perfect time to use Iron Wall, when you run out of Shields Up stacks.
What ability of Helena provides group defense?
Use Grand Melee ability to provide 20% magic damage reduction to you and your allies. It also makes enemies autoattack you and creates a bunch of aggressive enemies around you.
What are the alternatives to the Helena tank in Fellowship?
The other option includes Meiko, her way of dealing with defensive and offensive vastly differs from Helena. If you are looking to mix up your tank play, then we suggest you look at the Meiko build guide.
