The Best Captain Heroes of Vainglory

Vainglory was developed and published by Super Evil Megacorp. The captain role of Vainglory, one of the most versatile roles, while perhaps one of the most difficult, is extremely important to any team composition. In Vainglory, the captain role is usually a support role in which players are able to heal team members, increase the team's vision across the battlefield, and provide special assistance during teamfights, such as preventing specific enemy heroes' abilities and protecting allies.

While the captain role is extremely important for any team composition, new players often do not completely understand the importance of this role, and it is quite often that teams of beginners and new players do not include captain heroes, or include captain heroes that choose for an attack build. While this may seem like a good idea for a beginner, experienced players understand the importance of having a captain hero in the team, and how much difference a captain can make in a teamfight and in the overall game.

The captain hero of Vainglory is perhaps one of the most underrated roles of the game. Many players do not even know how to play or build captain heroes, often using weapon builds or crystal builds for a role that is traditionally meant for support. In Vainglory, while carry, or lane heroes, are most often concerned about disputing the lane and sieging turrets, and jungler heroes are most often concerned about protecting the allied jungle, invading the enemy jungle and ganking enemy heroes, captain heroes are concerned with a variety of aspects: protecting allied heroes, healing allied heroes, providing allied vision, disrupting enemy vision, among others. Due to the variety of tasks that a captain hero performs in this game, I often think that top tier lists of captain heroes do not reflect how well all subtler elements of these activities are performed. Instead, most top tier lists of heroes only reflect changes made by the latest patches of the game. For example, in some cases, it can be quite difficult to evaluate the compound effect that a certain item can have on the heroic perk of a specific hero. For this reason, instead of drawing a top tier list of captain heroes of Vainglory, I selected the best captain heroes of Vainglory based on their gameplay and on their possibilities in the game. Vainglory players who enjoy playing in the captain role may wonder which are best captain heroes of Vainglory in order to support their teams.

The best captain heroes of Vainglory are Fortress, Flicker, Catherine, Baptiste, Lyra, Phynn, Yates, Grace, Lance and Ardan, due to their support abilities.

10 - Fortress

Fortress is one of the easiest captain heroes to play in Vainglory. However, when compared to other captain heroes, Fortress does not have as many support abilities, a reason why sometimes this hero is used as a jungler.

Fortress has interesting abilities which can be used in a teamfight, but in my perspective, as a captain, Fortress is excellent when trying to defeat specific enemy heroes, rather than the trying to defeat all of the enemy team. For this reason, Fortress is an excellent captain for ganking strategies and invading enemy jungles, but does not do so well during prolonged teamfights with the majority of the enemy team.

9 - Flicker

Flicker is a captain hero that is able to use stealth. Due to Flicker's unique abilities, this is a great captain to invade the enemy jungle, especially early in the game, and also to gank enemy heroes. However, unlike most of the other captain heroes, Flicker does not have as much health points or natural defense, making him a vulnerable captain in the middle and in the late game.

While Flicker's abilities make him a great captain for ganking strategies, for invading the enemy jungle and for certain strategies, in general Flicker is much more vulnerable than other captain heroes, a reason why he was not placed higher in this list.

8 - Catherine

One of the earliest heroes of Vainglory, Catherine is a captain hero able to sustain very high amounts of damage. Due to Catherine's unique B ability, which allows her to reflect to the enemy hero some of the damage she takes, some builds allow Catherine to fight and defeat enemy heroes during the early and middle stages of the game.

While Catherine has useful support abilities, such as her A ability which allows her to stun enemy opponents, and her Ultimate ability which allows her to silence enemy heroes for a short time period, which inhibits these enemy heroes from using their abilities during that time, these abilities are quite situational and often require a very good positioning from the player. For this reason, while it is easy to learn how to play with Catherine, I do not view this hero as a well-rounded captain as other heroes.

7 - Baptiste

While Baptiste is originally not a captain hero, but a carry hero, this hero can effectively be used as an excellent captain, due to the unique abilities of Baptiste. Baptiste's A ability allows him to slow enemy opponents, while his B ability allows him to stun enemy opponents. Considering that Baptiste is also to sustain damage through prolonged periods of time, the combination of these characteristics make Baptiste a great choice as a captain hero.

However, considering that Baptiste is originally not a captain hero but a carry hero, using his abilities in the support role of captain could be challenging for new players. For this reason, for new players, it is recommended to choose other heroes for the role of captain.

6 - Lyra

Lyra is an excellent captain hero of Vainglory, especially due to her A ability, which allows her to heal teammates, and her B ability, which allows her to block certain enemy heroes abilities, and is famously effective at blocking Taka's Ultimate ability, a reason why Lyra is often considered one of the best counter-heroes (or simply counters) for Taka.

While Lyra is able to provide excellent support for the team heroes, Lyra does not have as much natural defense as other captain heroes of this list, a reason why I do not consider it easy to learn how to play with Lyra, especially for new players. While Lyra is an excellent captain hero that can be used in all ranks, I did not place her higher in this list due to the more challenging gameplay of this hero.

5 - Phinn

Phinn is an excellent captain hero of Vainglory regarding his ability to close the distance between his team and the enemy team. Phinn is great at teamfights and great at ganking enemy heroes, and is quite useful for invading the enemy jungle in the early game.

Phinn's unique abilities allow this hero to effectively control the battlefield during teamfights, stunning enemy heroes, pulling enemy heroes and helping his allies to reach for specific targets. The only downside of this hero, in my perspective, is his overall lack of mobility and slow movement speed.

4 - Yates

Yates is a captain hero with unique abilities that allow him to pull enemy heroes, stun enemy heroes and also slow enemy heroes, a reason why Yates is considered one of the most well-rounded captain heroes of Vainglory.

While Yates' abilities are quite versatile and very useful for teamfights and for many different strategies, I do not consider Yates to be an easy hero to learn how to play, which is the main reason why I did not place him higher in this list. However, Yates is a very effective captain hero.

3 - Grace

Grace is one of the few captain heroes that has the ability to heal teammates without the need of specific items or builds. However, while Lyra is able to hear with her A ability, Grace heals with her Ultimate ability. Due to this technical difference, Grace is not able to heal her teammates as frequently as Lyra. However, due to being an Ultimate ability, Grace's heal is considerable.

Grace's abilities are quite useful during teamfights, as they are able to destabilize enemy targets while also grant bonus to her teammates. Grace is also able to sustain high amounts of damage, a reason why this captain hero can also be used to fight enemy heroes in the early and middle game.

2 - Lance

While Lance is not easy to learn as other captain heroes, he is also not as difficult to learn as some captain heroes. Even though playing as Lance takes some practice, this captain hero is very effective at controlling the battlefield, due to his A ability that is able to root enemy heroes and his B ability that is able to create some distance from enemy heroes.

Indeed, Lance's B ability is useful for either isolating certain enemy heroes, especially heroes that require close-range such as Krul, and is also useful for stopping certain enemy abilities, for example Ringo's Ultimate which takes some time charging.

Lance also has a high mobility, due to his A ability enabling him to close distances, as well as his Ultimate ability which increases his mobility. While playing as Lance takes some practice, this is a very effective captain hero.

1 - Ardan

One of my personal favorite heroes of Vainglory, and the captain hero I consider the best, Ardan is a captain hero that has quite versatile abilities. Such as some other captain heroes, Ardan's abilities are benefitted by builds that increase Ardan's health points.

Ardan's A ability temporarily grants a health barrier to a teammate or to himself, depending on the chosen target, and is perhaps one of the most useful abilities of Ardan, because this ability effectively enables teammates to sustain higher amounts of damage. This A ability also grants a temporary movement speed bonus to the teammate that received it, which is useful either for chasing enemy heroes or for getting out of fights.

Ardan's B ability is mostly a combat ability, but it can be used to deal some damage to enemy carries, especially in the early and middle game, which is useful for distracting these enemy heroes while Ardan's team's carry or jungler prepare to gank or are reaching the battlefield.

Ardan's Ultimate ability is able to create a barrier in the battlefield that stops certain abilities, such as Taka's Ultimate, and also stuns enemy heroes trying to either enter the barrier or leave the barrier. This ability can be effectively used to trap fleeing enemy heroes, such as the enemy team's carry, and also to protect Ardan's teammates when they are trying to get out of a fight. This ability can also be used to isolate specific enemy heroes during teamfights for strategic fights. For example, it could be used to isolate the enemy carry with Ardan's team's Krul. On the other hand, experienced players are able to use the Crucible support item in the game to bypass Ardan's Ultimate ability. However, in complex teamfights, such as in Vainglory's 5v5 mode in which there are many heroes fighting at the same time, Ardan's Ultimate ability can be used very strategically to turn the tide of battle.