Heroes of the Storm, despite being such a young game compared to giants like League of Legends or Dota 2, has added some really interesting and unique features, including “outside the box” kinds of heroes like The Lost Vikings. Consisting of three different weaker heroes, The Lost Vikings are difficult to learn and challenging to play, but in the hands of a master can have an immense impact on the game. Don’t be intimidated by the unconventional playstyle or the need to keep track of three different health bars — you don’t need to be a 200 APM Starcraft master to do well as The Lost Vikings, just follow our guide and you’ll be owning retro-style in no time.
Recommended Builds:
(See “Talents and Skills” section below for more detailed explanations)
Quickmatch DPS/Autoattack Build
- Tier One: Explosive Attacks
- Tier Two: Pain Don’t Hurt
- Tier Three: Baelog the Fierce
- Tier Four: Longboat Raid
- Tier Five: Nordic Attack Squad
- Tier Six: Impatience Is a Virtue
- Tier Seven: Viking Fury of the Storm
Competitive Map Pressure/Split Push Build
- Tier One: Spy Games
- Tier Two: Pain Don’t Hurt/It’s a Sabotage
- Tier Three: Norse Force
- Tier Four: Play Again!
- Tier Five: Jump!
- Tier Six: 64 KB Marathon
- Tier Seven: Checkpoint Reached
The Lost Vikings
Even though all of the Viking’s abilities, once learned, are the same across all three heroes, each of the vikings plays differently and has different strengths and weakness. Here’s a quick rundown of each viking:
Olaf the Stout
Stats (Level 1):
- Health: 650
- Regen: 1.35
- ATK Speed: 1.00/s
- ATK Damage: 20
The beefiest of The Lost Vikings, Olaf is great for getting in enemies’ faces, bodyblocking, and soaking up damage. When you right click an enemy hero with Olaf, he will charge and slam them with his shield, slowing momentarily. He regens quickly and can be upgraded to stun, do area damage, and be even beefier.
Baelog the Fierce
Stats (Level 1):
- Health: 500
- Regen: 1.04
- ATK Speed: 1.1/s
- ATK Damage: 26
With a short range splash attack and good health, damage, and speed, Baelog is by far the best solo laner among The Lost Vikings, and has several upgrades to make him better at split pushing or taking mercenary camps. His basic attack does 50% AoE damage, and can be upgraded, so make sure to take advantage of his teamfight and pushing power.
Erik the Swift
Stats (Level 1):
- Health: 350
- Regen: .73
- ATK Speed: 1.43
- ATK Damage: 18
The fastest of The Lost Vikings, Eric also has the highest sustained damage and the longest range, making him great for scouting, chasing down weak heroes, and safely leeching lanes. A stiff breeze will knock him over, so make sure to keep and eye on him in fights or pick up one of the talents that will help him survive.
Skills and Talents
The Lost Vikings only have one base ability, Viking Hoard — the rest are gained through talents.
Viking Hoard – Gathering a Regeneration Globe with a Viking permanently increases all of their Health Regeneration by .5 per second.
Their mount ability is a little different as well:
Go Go Go! (Z) – The Vikings gain 30% increased move speed for 4 seconds. (30 second cooldown)
Tier 1
Olaf the Stout – Every 8 seconds Olaf can block a basic attack, reducing its damage by 75%. Can store up to 2 charges.
What is usually a safe choice on warriors is pretty much a waste of a talent on The Lost Vikings. This doesn’t do anything to protect your other vikings and there are much better choices.
Spy Games – After standing still for 3 seconds, Erik gains stealth and his sight radius is increased by 75%. The stealth persists for 3 seconds after moving.
This talent is a great choice for organized teams and on maps with important objectives like Dragon Shire or Sky Temple. It’s also a great choice if you’re planning to split your vikings and leech as many lanes as possible, since it saves you from having to pay too much attention to Erik.
Explosive Attacks – Increases Baelog’s splash damage against non-heroic enemies to 100%.
A better choice than the others if you feel like you’re going to need to carry your team or worry about their pushing potential. Explosive Attacks allows your Baelog to do some serious damage, and is especially good on large maps where he can push without as much opposition.
Viking Bribery – Kill enemy minions to gain stacks of Viking Bribery. USe 40 stacks to bribe target mercenary, instantly defeating them. Does not work on Bosses. Maximum stacks: 100.
Not terribly exciting, but a good choice on The Lost Vikings because of how easy it is to get stacks and because they’re so good at taking down mercenary camps already. Make sure you know how to best take advantage of mercenary support before picking this talent.
Tier 2
Pain Don’t Hurt – Baleog’s Basic Attacks and splash damage heal for 20% of the damage dealt. Healing is doubled against Heroes.
This is a really strong overall pick, especially if you’re going to be putting Baelog in a solo lane and split pushing. Even if you’re not, this can make taking mercenary camps a breeze, and it increases Baelog’s survivability significantly, so it’s a strong pick no matter what.
Erik The Swift – Permanently increases Erik’s base Movement Speed by 10% , and as long as Erik is moving he heals 15 (+3 per level) Health per second.
There’s nothing particularly exciting about this talent, but if you like using Erik as a scout or to harass enemy heroes aggressively, this is a good talent to pick.
It’s a Sabotage! – Erik’s Basic Attacks against Structures destroy 5 ammo and deal 100 (+10 per levell) damage over 10 seconds.
This can be a very strong pick if you’re pushing a lot and can make knocking down structures a breeze, but Erik is very fragile, so if you’re facing a lot of resistance you may not get much use out of this. A stronger pick on big maps.
Hardheaded Redhead – Erik gains a melee Basic Attack that knocks the enemy away. This effect has a 6 second cooldown.
Not a great pick. Just keep Erik out of melee in the first place.
Tier 3
Baelog the Fierce – Baleog’s Basic Attacks increase his Attack Speed by 8% , stacking up to 5 times. After 3 seconds of not attacking, these stacks will rapidly decay.
A deceptively good talent that only gets better if you’ve taken Explosive Attacks and/or Pain Don’t Hurt. If you’re building Baelog for split pushing or just need the extra damage, you can’t go wrong with this talent.
Norse Force – All Vikings gain a 40 (+10 per level) to 80 (+20 per level) point Shield, increasing in strength for each Viking alive. Lasts 4 seconds.
Even though this talent received a hefty nerf in the last patch, it’s still a very viable pick. If you’re struggling with survivability, this is a a great choice — the shield increase is flat, so it has a bigger effect on Erik and Baelog, so if you keep losing those two keep this in mind.
Spin to Win! – Activate to have each Viking deal 42 (+9 per level) damage to nearby enemies.
Another ability that saw a nerf, Spin to Win is still very useful, providing burst damage that is very effective in teamfights and when clearing mercenary camps or neutral creeps like on The Haunted Mines and Garden of Terror. Bear in mind that your vikings need to be in melee range to make use of this and that it cancels all other abilities when used.
Tier 4
Play Again! – Summon, fully heal, and revive all Lost Vikings at target location after a Viking channels for 2seconds. Only one Viking may attempt to summon at a time.
This is, in the right hands, a really strong talent — it allows the vikings to essentially be everywhere at once, letting them push all over the map and still be present for important teamfights. Obviously, it’s more useful on big maps, and before picking it you should make sure that your team has enough damage, but this talent provides excellent mobility, utility, and survivability to The Lost Vikings.
Longboat Raid! – Hop into an Unstoppable Longboat that fires at nearby enemies for 25 (+11 per level) damage per second and can fire a mortar that deals 50 (+20 per level) damage in an area. The boat has increased Health for each Viking inside. If the boat is destroyed by enemies, all Vikings are stunned for 1.5 seconds. Lasts 15 seconds. Requires all surviving Vikings to be nearby.
A great all-around ability for The Lost Vikings, Longboat Raid can win teamfights, push objectives, and provide map control if used correctly, but it can just as easily be ignored if you’re not smart about positioning. You can’t control the longboat’s basic attacks, allowing the enemy team to choose who you hurt, and the longboat is slow, so if you use it too early the enemy team can just walk away. Still, the Longboat is a powerful tool that provides a second healthbar to the vikings, giving them staying power and offensive punch in crucial teamfights and pushes.
Tier 5
Hunka’ Burning Olaf – Olaf deals 15 (+3 per level) damage every second to nearby enemies.
A decent talent that adds passive damage to Olaf, but it competes with some of The Lost Viking’s best talents and is rarely the best choice. Can be useful if your team is having trouble revealing a sneaky Nova or Zeratul.
Jump! – Makes all Vikings Invulnerable and able to pass over enemies for 1.5 seconds.
A really exceptional ability and the best survivability tool that The Lost Vikings have. You can use it to escape ganks or lost teamfights, dodge ults, or just mitigate damage. You can also use it to break CC if you use it on a viking that is not currently CCed. Extremely useful and a very strong pick overall.
Nordic Attack Squad – Activate to have all Viking Basic Attacks deal bonus damage equal to 1% of a Hero’s maximum Health for 5 seconds.
A nice burst of bonus damage, especially if all your vikings are in range and if you’ve taken some autoattack talents. If you don’t need the survivability from Jump!, this is a strong choice, and synergizes well with Viking Fury of the Storm and Baelog the Fierce.
Speedrun – While under 50% life, Vikings gain 20% increased Movement Speed.
Can be useful, but Jump! is better in every way for survivability.
Tier 6
64 KB Marathon – Gain an additional 40% Movement Speed when activating Go Go Go! that decays over 4 seconds. Additionally, the Vikings will break out of Roots and Slows.
An excellent upgrade to The Lost Vikings’ Go Go Go!, with the added benefit of breaking them out of roots and slows. Definitely a strong pick if the enemy team has lots of crowd control.
Impatience Is a Virtue – Enemies damaged by a Viking’s Basic Attack reduce the cooldown of all Viking Abilities by 0.25 seconds.
Nothing fancy here, but this can be very strong in the right situation. The value of this ability depends largely on how many active abilities you’ve chosen for your vikings.
Large and In Charge – When Olaf charges enemies, they are stunned for 1 second.
Changes Olaf’s charge from a nuisance to a serious threat. A great choice if you need sticking power and interrupts. The charge still has a 6 second cooldown that’s not visible to the player, so make sure you’ve got a handle on the timing before you pick this talent.
Tier 7
Checkpoint Reached – 10 seconds after using Play Again!, any dead Vikings are revived and summoned again, and all are healed to full.
An excellent upgrade to Play Again!, this talent can make you a real nuisance to the enemy team and give your vikings unparalleled sticking power.
Viking Fury of the Storm – Every 5 seconds, your next basic attack will deal an additional 10 (+4 per level) damage to the target, and 10 (+11 per level) damage to all nearby Minions and Mercenaries.
If you’ve picked up a lot of autoattack talents and don’t need survivability, this is a really strong choice. Synergizes extremely well with many of Baelog’s talents and with Nordic Attack Squad.
Ragnarok ‘n Roll! – The Longboat can attack two targets at once and the range of its Mortar is increased by100%.
Doubles the effectiveness of the Longboat, so if you’re having success with it already this is a great talent. The mortar range boost is notable too and can make a big difference if you’re having trouble pushing down those final forts.
The Sequel! – Reduces the Lost Vikings’ death timer by 50%
Can be handy if you’re doing a lot of split pushing and roaming, but Play Again! is a much better choice if you’re trying for that sort of thing.
Tips and Tricks
- Controlling Your Vikings – You can select your individual vikings with the 1-3 keys (1 = Olaf, 2 = Baelog, 3 = Erik) and select all of the vikings with the 4 key. Get used to cycling through them so you can respond to changes on the map quickly.
- Split Pushing/Soaking Lanes – The biggest advantage of The Lost Vikings is that they can ‘soak’ experience from all three lanes at once. All they need to do is be near the enemy creeps when they die. If you do choose to go this route, let your team know so that the remaining heroes can roam or focus on objectives.
- Building a Level Advantage – On maps where players have to leave the lane to pick up objectives — like Sky Temple, Haunted Mines, and Garden of Terror — leaving a couple vikings in lane to soak experience can give you a serious level advantage, and The Lost Vikings are especially strong in these situations.
- To Split or Not to Split? You don’t necessarily have to split your vikings, and it may not always be advantageous to do so. You can keep all three in the same lane, or divide them 2-1 instead of 1-1-1. Experiment and find out what works the best for you!
