Predecessor Valmont Build: Skills, Mana, and Augments

Valmont Build Priorities

A Predecessor Valmont build needs enough damage to threaten enemies and enough mana to keep fighting. Prioritize magical power, then balance your mana investment with the defenses needed to stay within Exsanguinate’s range. Keep Lilith attacking throughout each exchange to maintain pressure between ability casts.

Valmont’s damage abilities and Lilith scale with magical power, and Exsanguinate uses it for both damage and healing. Additional attack speed also makes Lilith attack faster. Build toward those interactions rather than judging your damage entirely by Crimson Sigil, his physical basic attack.

Use these priorities when choosing equipment:

• Magical power: Increase Lilith’s strike damage, spell damage, and Exsanguinate’s healing.
• Mana: Give yourself room for repeated casts and the ultimate’s increasing drain.
• Attack speed: Add pressure through Lilith when you can maintain a target.
• Defenses: Adjust to the enemies threatening you so you can keep fighting within bat range.

The ability values below describe Valmont’s v1.17 kit.

Ability	Range	Damage and defining effect
Hemophagia	Lilith attacks a nearby designated target	Each strike deals 15 (+15% Magical Power) magical damage before Bloodbound’s rank increases
Rupture	1600u	Launches five blades, each dealing 20/29/38/47/56 (+15% Magical Power) magical damage in a 300u radius
Bloodbound	Cast up to 1800u	Deals 70/90/110/130/150 (+60% Magical Power) magical damage and slows by 30% for 1.5s
Arterial Grip	1600u	Deals 80/120/160/200/240 (+60% Magical Power) magical damage over 3s; slows, grounds, and steals attack speed
Exsanguinate	1200u radius	Fires up to three bat swarms each second; damage is 40/70/100 (+22% Magical Power), with returning bats healing for 25/45/65 (+20% Magical Power)

Official page: Predecessor (predecessorgame.com)

Skill Priorities and Combat Sequence

For wave pressure, prioritize Rupture. Its damage rises with each rank, while its cooldown falls from 8 seconds to 6 seconds. Aim the blade impacts to catch enemies alongside the minion wave when their positioning allows it.

Follow with Bloodbound to strengthen both its active hit and Lilith’s repeated attacks. Its passive adds 0/8/16/24/32 damage to her strikes, making those ranks relevant beyond the initial cast.

Adjust your investment in Arterial Grip when attack-speed control matters. Its steal increases from 20% to 40% across its ranks, and its cooldown decreases with rank. Keep its rising mana cost in mind: each cast costs 80/90/100/110/120 mana.

Use this sequence to pressure an exposed enemy:

1. Open with Bloodbound. Place Lilith near your intended target and apply the slow.
2. Aim Arterial Grip through a clear path. The tether stops on the first target hit.
3. Fire Rupture while the enemy is slowed. Track their movement through the blade sequence.
4. Keep basic attacks landing. Hemophagia directs Lilith toward the last nearby enemy damaged by a basic attack or Bloodbound.
5. Activate Exsanguinate within 1200u. Maintain that distance while watching your mana.

Watch Lilith’s target after casting Bloodbound: she attacks the closest enemy after reaching the targeted location. Land a basic attack on the enemy you want to pressure when you need to redirect her.

Preserve line of sight during Arterial Grip. The tether breaks if the target moves 1800u away, moves out of sight, or you suffer an immobilizing effect. Follow around terrain carefully instead of assuming the initial hit guarantees its full duration.

Choose Your Augment Around Its Tradeoff

Sanguine Banquet: Mana Growth and Omnivamp

Sanguine Banquet grants 2% (+0.5% Bonus Mana) Omnivamp. Minion deaths near Lilith permanently add 2 maximum mana, increasing to 30 for hero deaths.

Keep Lilith near dying units to build that mana pool. Position her where the wave is being cleared, and preserve access to nearby hero deaths during fights when you can do so safely.

Pair mana investment with this augment to support its bonus-mana scaling. Continue managing Exsanguinate carefully; a larger pool still has to cover an escalating drain.

Rupturing Fangs: Missing-Health Damage

Rupturing Fangs reduces the blades’ damage by 20%, but increases their damage by up to 100% based on the target’s missing health.

With this augment equipped, aim Rupture at already wounded enemies to use its finishing potential. Let Lilith, your other abilities, and allied damage lower the target’s health before committing the blades when the fight allows it.

Vein Splitter: Branching Tethers

Vein Splitter makes Arterial Grip branch to nearby enemies within 800u of the primary target. Those branches deal 80% damage and apply 100% of the slow.

The tradeoff is substantial: Arterial Grip loses its grounding effect.

Use clustered enemies to spread the tether’s damage and slow. Retain the original grounding effect when your plan depends on restricting enemy movement abilities.

Manage Exsanguinate During Teamfights

Exsanguinate costs 15 mana per second, with another 5 mana added to its cost for each second it remains active. Activate it when enemies are within reach, and switch it off when they leave the fight.

Fight near enemy heroes when you need its healing. Exsanguinate’s healing has only 10% effectiveness against non-heroes, so avoid spending your remaining mana expecting a minion wave to provide the same recovery.

Use Hemophagia’s mana restoration to sustain your pressure. Enemy units dying within 1500u of Lilith restore 3–41 mana based on hero level. Hero deaths restore an additional 35% maximum mana. Keep track of the sword’s position as well as your own.

Stay close enough for bats to connect without chasing beyond your team’s support. Valmont’s kit has no listed dash or teleport; approach through space your allies can help control, and preserve a retreat route around terrain.

Finally, account for the 20-second cooldowns on Rallying Roar and Peal introduced in v1.17 when choosing your loadout. Time those effects around meaningful engagements rather than repeatedly toggling Exsanguinate to trigger them.