Overview

Khaimera is a favorite Hero of mine in Paragon and is quickly becoming my most played. Although he's classed as a fighter, he's assassin-like in the way that he approaches a fight and despite his kit suggesting he's all about sustain he actually plays quite the opposite: get in, get kills, get out. There's no questioning that thanks to his regeneration from his passive skill, Spirit Regeneration, he's an excellent jungler. However, it's his potential to gank enemies in lane that make him so powerful. While the likes of Grux and Feng Mao are more than capable of killing quickly, Khaimera takes this to another level. His leap combined with his Ultimate ability can shred a huge portion of an enemy Heroes health instantly, making him a terrifying opponent to fight against. 

Possessed by the Spirit of a wild beast, Khaimera excels at ganking enemies and isolating prey. His feral insticts and thirst for battle makes him an absolute savage in skirmishes.

Sadly for Khaimera, all this burst potential does come at a price. Unlike Grux, Feng Mao or Kallari, he has no means of escaping a fight and his sustain from his health regeneration isn't enough to keep him alive if focused. Effectively, he has to kill only when he can ensure he can escape and if he's taking part in a team fight, he has to wait until the right moment before leaping in. If he attacks too early, he'll leave himself exposed and be killed quickly. 

Updated: 19 April 2017

Lore

• Dwelled in the jungle, alone, since the age of thirteen.
• Has been worshipped as a vengeful nature god.
• Does not speak. Unless he must.
• It is said that Khaimera slayed a beast and then wore its skin. This made the beast's spirit consume him. Now Khaimera has become the beast and can never remove his mask.

Abilities

Hack (LMB) - Your primary means of attack, Hack does exactly what it says and nothing more: it deals moderate physical damage. By default it's more than enough to clear through jungle camps but it's not the bread and butter skill you might envisage. Due to Khaimera's burst potential from Ambush and Unleash, the primary use of Hack is when you're in a particularly protracted team fight or when clearing lane or jungle camps. I'm not suggesting you won't use it often, but it's not the bed-rock of his playstyle unlike an ADC such as Twinblast (who relies almost entirely on his LMB).   

Tip - Use Hack to clear jungle camps, not Unleash. It'll ensure you have mana for when you need it: ganking lane.

Ambush (RMB) - Ambush is a targetted leap that when cast on an enemy Hero will automatically guide Khaimera to them. You have no control over where exactly you land, it will simply cause Khaimera to jump into the air and land directly next to the target. Due to Ambush not being a ground targetted leap, it cannot be used against minions and it cannot be used to provide Khaimera with some much needed mobility. Instead, it's an invaluable follow-up tool that causes a very brief stun, ensuring you can arrive at the enemy and quickly trigger Unleash.  

Tip - Try not to open an attack on a player with Ambush. Run up to them instead. If you open with Ambush, when they use their defensive skills to knock you back or gain distance, you'll be left with no means of following them. 

Unleash (Q) - Outside of your Ultimate, Unleash is your primary form of burst damage against a target. When you trigger Unleash, Khaimera will attack widly - at full attack speed - for 5 seconds or for the next five attacks. Due to the speed at which you attack during Unleash, your Damage card scaling is reduced. By default it's reduced to 20% but as you level it up, at level 5 it's 50%. Although this might sound like you'll deal less damage using Unleash than just your normal Hack, it's the speed at which you attack which gives it so much power. Were Khaimera to maximize his attack speed he'd need a huge amount of Kinetic cards - this does the job for him. It should also be noted that due to the speed at which you attack with Unleash, it's invaluable for rapidly raising your health regeneration when jungling during lower levels of play. 

Tip - You should always use Unleash after Ambush and Cull. It then gives you rapid attacks to finish off any remaining health a Hero might have. 

Spirit Regeneration (E) - As a Passive skill, you don't have to do anything with Spirit Regeneration besides level it up. It will automatically provided Khaimera with health regeneration every time he lands an attack. Leveling up this skill provides a greater amount of health regeneration with level 5 providing 1.6 regeneration per Hack. The maximum cap on Khaimera's Spirit Regeneration is 100 stacks (or 160 health per second). You'll rarely, if ever achieve this though in a long team fight you should settle in for around 30-50 health per second by level 15. 

Tip - It's worth taking Spirit Regeneration as your first skill so that you can jungle easily against minion camps. It provides early game sustain allowing you to jungle longer without needing to go back to base. 

Cull (Ultimate) - Undoubtedly one of the strongest Ultimate abilities in the game, Cull provides an enormous amount of near instant burst damage against a single target. By level 15 or when fully upgraded it can deal well over 600 damage instantly and when combined with Ambushed, followed up with Unleash there are few Heroes who can survive it. Just be aware that there's a fraction fo a delay upon use of Cull so you need to ensure you're directly next to the Hero you want to damage. If you're above or below the player, it won't damage them. Finally, Cull causes a very short duration slow that's invaluable for giving you enough time to follow up with Unleash or to make an attempt at running away. 

Tip - Cull causes a brief root, slow and displacement. It's heavy on crowd control but short on duration. Be sure to always use it against squishy targets (such as Sparrow or The Fey). 

Skill Order

There are a couple of variables when it comes to upgrading Khaimera's skills. It's best - as far as I'm concerned - to maximize his damage as much as possible before taking Spirit Regeneration. 

1. Spirit Regeneration

2. Unleash

3. Ambush

4. Unleash

5. Cull

6. Unleash

7. Ambush

8. Unleash

9. Cull

10. Ambush 

11. Ambush

12. Spirit Regeneration

13. Spirit Regeneration

14. Spirit Regeneration

15. Spirit Regeneration

Recommended Cards

Full build (including active link)

Please note for early game, purchase Guardian's Scythe, Madstone Gem and Sage's Ward. You can then, during mid game, sell the Scythe and Ward (or keep the Ward and sell the Madstone Gem).

Tactics

Early Game (Level 1-9)

This is all about farming jungle camps and early ganking while carries are weak. Ideally you need to be clearing the first three white camps (right side) before taking Green buff and heading for the River buff on 3 minutes. At this stage, you can look at to gank mid lane or their offlane. Alternatively, you can run straight to the left lane to clear those camps while your Green buff is still active. Using your Green buff to secure an early kill is a good thing and allows you to tower dive. Once you've completed your jungle rotation, head to the left River buff on 5 minutes and repeat the process once you've returned to base.

I will add that as Khaimera, you can invade the enemy jungle comfortably but I recommend you do it once you've warded it and once you've got the green buff.  

Mid Game (Level 10-12)

Ideally and at level 10 onwards you've secured several kills, Tier 1 towers are down and you can begin to roam that little bit more. Ensuring you regularly fight over Raptors is also key at this stage of the game as it allows you to deny the enemy team card experience, and bolster yourself or your team. Just be conscious of the fact Khaimera is very squishy if caught out of position so you should be aiming to flank the enemy team and pick off players that are at the back of a fight or already low health. 

Late Game (Level 13-15)

Late game is risky for Khaimera. Teams tend to ball up and reduce the chances of any opening for you. This poses a real challenge for Khaimera because without a clear "in" you'll die easily or be unable to kill. The best thing you can do at this phase of the game is push lanes, secure Orb Prime (Khaimera can solo it) and look for easy ganks. During any team fight, just hang back and only attack when your team do. 

Matchups

These god threat levels (1 being lowest threat and 10 being highest threat) are to help you determine which enemy gods can give you a headache. For the gods listed here, take extra care as they're particularly dangerous for Khaimera. 

Tips

This list of tips and tricks are just a handful of things we think will help your Khaimera play. We'll continue to add to the list as required and if you have any tips you'd like to share, let us know in the comments below and we'll place them here. 

1. I can't stress this enough - never engage with Ambush. Good players will always use their "out" skills when you do. They'll then have created distance you can't do anything about. 

2. There's a fraction of a delay between your basic attack and your next attack when triggering Unleash. Factor this in. It's often best to prime Unleash a little before you need it, just be aware it only lasts for 5 seconds. 

3. Your Ultimate displaces enemies, meaning it knocks them slightly to the sides. In a pinch it's your best hope of escaping. 

4. Khaimera is practically an assassin rather than a brawler. Once you're committed to a fight, you best hope you win it as there's no escaping once you're in the thick of things.

5. Khaimera might be capable of regeneration health through his passive, but you'll rarely have it to the point where it'll mitigate damage. At most it'll keep your health topped up while Jungling and that's about it. Build armor or health if you want to survive. 

6. Khaimera being Growth and Fury can build some cards (note above) that give armor and damage. This is a luxury Grux and Feng Mao aren't afforded. 

7. Your highest burst combo is Ambush > Cull > Unleash. Only tanks can survive it. 

8. Khaimera is amazing at leaching enemy Amber Links because of the speed of his Unleash attacks. Ensure you constantly invade and drain your opponents'

9. Your job is to gank and gank often. Use your early game strength (Ambush and Cull) to bully any solo laner as often as possible. 

10. If you can, try to solo the Orb Prime once you've got both armors fully upgraded. It'll stretch the enemy team and allow your Mages to push a lane while you distract. 

11. Khaimera is amazing at tanking Raptors for the teams' carry. Be sure to do this as often as possible after 10 minutes.

12. Always hang back during a team fight. You cannot afford to be stunned but you can snowball once the enemy team are half health.