Rift Herald is probably the most underrated and least properly utilized objective in League of Legends. Despite having great potential, many players fail to use it properly.
This article will help you understand everything you need to know about Rift Herald. It will be helpful regardless of your rank.
I will start with basic information, then give some tips on how to take it, and finally, I will give you tips for using it, that will significantly improve your win rate.
Rift Herald Basics – What You Must Know!
Rift Herald Spawn Times
Rift Herald is an objective that gives you a buff called “Eye Of The Herald” once slain. The objective spawns at the entrance of the Baron’s pit and can be picked up by the slayer’s team by standing on it. The timer for picking it up is 20 seconds.
Rift Herald spawns two times per match and despawns permanently at 19:45, if it is in combat this timer is extended by 10 seconds. It is important to know that the second Rift Herald will appear only if you killed the first one before 13:45.
Rift Herald Stats
Rift Herald is a relatively easy objective to kill. It will take 4% of your current health with each hit, which is not much and it can be easily out-healed.
This objective has a weak point which is the eye on her back. The eye can be hit with basic attacks and it will deal 12% of Heralds Max HP. When it is hit it will close for 10 seconds, but each time you hit herald, the timer will decrease by 2.5 seconds.
There are some limits to this weak spot. For example, the Herald will not open its eye more than every 3 seconds, and after it is taken below 15% Max HP.
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How to Take Rift Herald Fast
Time is everything in League and if you decide that Herald is an important objective for you it makes sense to want to do it as fast as possible.
To kill Herald fast we will be looking for champions that have the ability to dish out a lot of damage while also having lots of attack speed.
The attack speed is crucial because the more you attack Herald the more it will trigger its passive.
Here are some champions that can take Herald quickly, early in the game:
1. Master Yi is probably the fastest Herald killer in the game. Not in the early game, but once he has a few items. The amount of attack speed average Yi builds just melts down the Herald. Yi was recently updated to have a Q that can reposition him, which made him even more powerful.
2. Vi deals a great amount of base damage to Herald, she has a passive that increases her attack speed, which is another plus. Her Q allows you to quickly reposition and hit the Herald’s weak point.
3. Tryndamere has great damage output as he stacks critical damage with his basic attacks. His basic attacks reduce the cooldown on his “E,” which he can use to dash behind Herald and hit its eye.
4. Warwick has high base damage, and high attack speed, and holding his Q will allow you to reposition behind Herald and hit its eye.
5. Kha’Zix is a little different from the others I mentioned since he has a much lower attack speed. He does however have a crazy high amount of damage output on his Q if you happen to upgrade it first. This allows him to do Herald really fast.
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How to Use Rift Herald Properly
Taking Rift Herald is easy and you can get really good at it in a few games, using it is a whole other story.
Rift Herald does damage that is equivalent to two tower plates, so many players will just drop it near the random nearest tower, to collect 320 gold. This is so wrong and it pains me on many levels.
To cast it properly, you must consider many things and the right call will depend from game to game. The best I can do is give you a few examples and teach you my thought process.
Example 1:
Since I am a Kha’Zix player, my main objective in the game is to get fed myself. A good way to do this is by taking Rift Herald every game where it is possible. Up to high platinum, not many people will even try to contest it.
In higher brackets, it takes a little more thought but it can still be easily taken. Before taking it, I will usually try to set up the top lane for maximum gain. I will already have ganked the enemy top laner a few times, ruining their mental, and most importantly leaving the tower at two plates.
After I have taken the Herald, it is game on. The enemy top laner can not come near his tower anymore, if he does I drop the Herald, get the tower (which is usually the first tower with bonus gold) and kill him.
If he does not come, however, I will just take the tower without using Herald and I will use the Herald somewhere else.
As you can see in this example, the Herald will easily give us over 1000 gold, which is much different from the measly 320 from the two plates. This much gold can change the course of the game, and it will certainly help you climb.
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Example 2:
There are situations where you will not want to cast Rift Herald under specific enemy towers, as it would do more damage than good.
Let’s imagine you have a Yasuo top, God forbid, but he has not fed yet and he is doing relatively well. He is managing his waves and he keeps track of enemy JG, everything is going well. What happens if you take the tower?
Well, in most cases they will not know how to manage the lane anymore. The enemy tower will now be gone, and your laner will have to go deeper into enemy territory. This will make them more vulnerable to enemy roams and ganks and in most cases, it will end tragically.
If you are not confident you and your laner can respond to these threats, it is better to use Herald somewhere else.
These were the examples I promised, but how about the thought process?
The thought process is simple. I will always try to think of the most impactful play I can make with Herald.
After executing the play, I will try to observe the results and look for consistent patterns over time. This is one of the things that has helped me develop a better game sense and helped me climb more than anything else.
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Trivia
After having covered all the practical information concerning Rift Herald, it is only fair to relax a little bit and mention some more casual things. Knowing these things will allow you to call yourself a true Herald master.
So here we go.
- You might have noticed that Herald looks a lot like Scuttler, this is because she is actually a Scuttler who consumed too much void energy by being in the proximity of Baron’s pit.
- Yes, you heard it right, Rift Herald is she, this information was revealed in patch v7.9.
- Rift Herald will dance after destroying the enemy nexus.
- If Herald is in range of two towers, and the one she is targeting gets destroyed, she will use the same animation and attack the other tower.
- Herald had a different appearance before and she shared animations with Blue Buff.
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Conclusion
Rift Herald is one of the easiest objectives to take in League and one of the objectives that can completely change the outcome of the game early on.
Despite that, many people do not see its usefulness, and they fail to take it consistently. This is an advantage for sure because knowing how to use it yourself will quickly set you apart from average players.
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