Jonathan Liandi's Natalia Strategy
What's up, guys! Today, we're diving deep into the meta-changing strategies of one of the most iconic MLBB pros out there, Jonathan Liandi. You've probably seen him absolutely dominate the battlefield, and lately, a lot of that dominance has been thanks to his mastery of the assassin, Natalia. This ain't just about picking Natalia; it's about how Jonathan Liandi uses Natalia that really sets him apart. We're talking about game-changing plays, insane map control, and that signature ability to snowball games like nobody's business. So, buckle up, because we're about to break down the genius behind Jonathan Liandi's Natalia picks and how you can maybe, just maybe, steal some of his thunder.
The Rise of Natalia in the Meta
Before we get into Jonathan Liandi's specific tactics, it's crucial to understand why Natalia has been making such a massive comeback in the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang meta. For a while, Natalia was seen as a niche pick, strong in certain situations but easily countered if played poorly. However, with recent item adjustments and hero buffs, coupled with a shift in team compositions, Natalia has ascended to become a top-tier pick for players who know what they're doing. Her ability to enter stealth, her high burst damage, and her global presence through her ultimate make her a constant threat. Think about it: a hero who can disappear from the map, pick off squishy targets in the backline, and then reappear for a team fight? That's the kind of disruptive power that wins games. The meta has leaned more towards assassins that can create picks and split-push effectively, and Natalia fits this bill perfectly. Her kit allows for aggressive jungling, swift rotations, and the crucial ability to deny enemy vision with her passive. This makes her not just an offensive threat, but a strategic asset that can control the flow of the game. Players are realizing that a well-timed ultimate from Natalia can dictate the pace of objectives and turn the tide of crucial skirmishes. It's this versatility, combined with her inherent lethality, that has brought her back into the spotlight, and Jonathan Liandi has been one of the sharpest minds exploiting this resurgence.
Why Natalia? Jonathan Liandi's Perspective
So, why does Jonathan Liandi, a player known for his adaptability and skill across multiple heroes, gravitate towards Natalia so often? It boils down to a few key factors that align perfectly with his playstyle and the current MLBB landscape. Natalia's assassin role is incredibly potent in the right hands. She excels at flanking, assassinating high-priority targets like enemy marksmen and mages, and creating significant pressure on the map. Jonathan Liandi is renowned for his incredible map awareness and decision-making, and Natalia thrives in an environment where a player can constantly track enemy movements and exploit openings. Her stealth mechanic is the cornerstone of her kit. This invisibility allows her to reposition, scout enemy jungle, set up ganks, or even escape dangerous situations. For a player like Liandi, who can read the game like a book, this stealth isn't just about hiding; it's about strategic positioning and information gathering. He can use it to deny the enemy vision, forcing them to play reactively and giving his team a significant advantage. Furthermore, Natalia's burst damage is insane. Once she gets her core items, she can eliminate even tanky heroes if they're caught out of position. This ability to quickly delete a threat is invaluable in Mobile Legends, where every second and every kill counts. Jonathan Liandi understands this, and he leverages Natalia's damage output to create immense pressure, often forcing enemies to group up defensively, which in turn opens up opportunities for his team elsewhere on the map. It's a domino effect driven by his aggressive yet calculated approach. He doesn't just pick Natalia because she's strong; he picks her because she synergizes perfectly with his ability to dictate the tempo of the game and exploit the smallest of enemy mistakes. Her global presence with her ultimate, which allows her to silence and deal damage, further amplifies his impact, enabling him to join fights or secure objectives from across the map. This makes her a perfect tool for a player who aims to be everywhere at once.
Early Game Dominance: The Liandi Way
When Jonathan Liandi picks Natalia, you can bet your bottom dollar that the early game is going to be intense. His strategy revolves around maximizing Natalia's strengths from the very first minute. Natalia's passive, which allows her to enter stealth after not taking or dealing damage for a short period, is the key here. Liandi uses this to constantly invade the enemy jungle. He's not afraid to go deep into enemy territory, stealing buffs, disrupting their jungler's farm, and generally making their early game a living hell. This early pressure is crucial because it slows down the enemy's progression, making it harder for them to contest objectives like the turtle. Vision control is another massive part of his early game plan. By using Natalia's stealth, he can safely scout the enemy jungle and river, providing invaluable information to his team. This allows his allies to make safer rotations and avoid dangerous ganks. Liandi often coordinates with his mid-laner or support to dive the enemy jungler, securing kills and further snowballing their lead. He understands that Natalia's early burst potential, combined with her mobility, makes her a fantastic ganking hero even before level 4. He'll often look for opportunities to gank side lanes, forcing enemy laners to play passively or risk getting picked off. The goal is to create an insurmountable lead by the mid-game, where Natalia truly shines. This isn't just about aggression for the sake of it; it's calculated aggression. Liandi is always aware of his own positioning and the enemy's likely responses. He knows when to push his advantage and when to fall back, ensuring he doesn't overextend and get caught. His jungle pathing with Natalia is meticulously planned to maximize farm efficiency while simultaneously creating opportunities for aggression. This early game dominance sets the stage for the rest of the match, often putting his team in a position where the enemy is already struggling to keep up.
Mid-Game Power Spike and Rotations
As the game transitions into the mid-game, Jonathan Liandi's Natalia becomes an even more terrifying force. This is where her power spike truly kicks in, fueled by her core items like Blade of the Heptaseas and Blade of Despair. With these items, Natalia's burst damage becomes astronomical, capable of one-shotting even moderately tanky heroes if caught alone. Liandi leverages this immense damage to control objectives like the Turtle and the Lord. He'll often use Natalia's stealth to scout the enemy team's positioning around these crucial objectives. If he sees an opening, he won't hesitate to dive in, assassinate a key enemy carry or mage, and then use his team to secure the objective. His rotations are incredibly swift and decisive during this phase. He's constantly moving across the map, applying pressure to different lanes, and looking for pick-off opportunities. The threat of Natalia disappearing and reappearing behind you forces enemy players to play cautiously, which can often lead to them making mistakes or being isolated. Liandi is a master at exploiting these isolated targets. He understands that Natalia's ultimate, Smash, Silence, and Strike, provides not only damage but also crucial crowd control that can disrupt enemy formations and prevent them from escaping. This makes her invaluable in skirmishes and team fights. He'll often initiate fights by flanking, silencing the enemy's primary damage dealer, and then retreating to let his team clean up, or he'll dive the backline himself to secure the kill. The map awareness required for this is phenomenal, and Liandi consistently demonstrates it. He's not just farming; he's actively hunting for kills and creating advantages for his team through calculated aggression. This mid-game dominance is what often allows teams playing with Liandi's Natalia to secure a significant lead and push towards victory. The sheer pressure she exerts forces enemies to constantly be on edge, making it difficult for them to coordinate their own strategies.
Late Game Impact and Assassination
Even as the game enters its late game phase, where teams are grouped up and every mistake is amplified, Jonathan Liandi's Natalia remains a potent threat. While some assassins might fall off, Natalia, in Liandi's hands, continues to be a game-changer. His late game strategy focuses on precision and split-pushing when opportunities arise. He understands that Natalia's ability to split-push is incredibly effective due to her high damage and escape potential. She can quickly take down turrets while the enemy team is preoccupied with his allies elsewhere on the map. However, the real late-game magic happens during team fights. Liandi utilizes Natalia's stealth to reposition himself perfectly before a fight breaks out. He'll wait for the enemy team to commit their key crowd control abilities or ultimates before diving in. His primary targets are always the enemy's squishy carries and mages. With his late-game items, including items like Malefic Roar for armor penetration, he can still quickly eliminate these threats. The silence from his ultimate is arguably even more critical in the late game, as it can completely shut down a crucial enemy ultimate or spell, turning the tide of a fight instantly. Liandi is also adept at picking off stragglers. In the late game, one death can mean losing an entire base. He uses Natalia's mobility and invisibility to catch out enemy heroes who are rotating alone or trying to sneak back into the base. This constant pressure and threat of assassination force the enemy team to play extremely cautiously, often hindering their ability to contest objectives like the Lord or push for their own victory. His decision-making in these high-stakes moments is what truly sets him apart. He knows when to go for the risky play and when to play it safe, always prioritizing the team's overall win condition. It’s this consistent impact, from the early invasion to the late-game assassination, that makes Jonathan Liandi’s Natalia picks so feared and respected in the Mobile Legends pro scene.
Item Builds and Emblem Choices
When you talk about Jonathan Liandi's Natalia, you have to talk about his item builds and emblem choices. These are not just random selections; they are meticulously crafted to maximize Natalia's lethality and survivability. For his core items, Liandi typically prioritizes Blade of the Heptaseas first. This item provides physical attack, physical penetration, and the crucial passive that deals bonus damage when Natalia hasn't taken or dealt damage for a short time – perfect for her stealth playstyle. This synergizes incredibly well with her assassin role, allowing for devastating surprise attacks. Next up, he often goes for Blade of Despair. The massive boost in physical attack from this item significantly increases Natalia's burst damage, making her capable of eliminating squishy targets in seconds. Hunter Strike is another common pick for its movement speed and cooldown reduction, helping Natalia chase down targets or reposition quickly. For survivability, Immortality is a late-game staple, giving him a second chance in critical team fights. Depending on the enemy composition, he might also build items like Brute Force Breastplate for defense or Malefic Roar for armor penetration against heavily armored targets. Now, let's talk Emblems. Jonathan Liandi often favors the Assassin Emblem set. The key talents he usually picks are Agility for increased movement speed (crucial for rotations and chases), Master Assassin for bonus damage against single targets (perfect for his assassination focus), and the Killing Spree ultimate. Killing Spree is an absolute game-changer; it heals Liandi and grants him movement speed after he gets a kill, allowing him to snowball through team fights or escape dangerous situations. Sometimes, he might opt for High and Dry if he's confident in his ability to isolate and eliminate targets, further amplifying his single-target burst. The combination of these items and emblems creates a Natalia that is not only incredibly fragile but also an unstoppable force of destruction, capable of deleting enemy heroes before they even have a chance to react. It's this precise tuning of his build that allows him to consistently perform at the highest level.
Countering Liandi's Natalia
Even with Jonathan Liandi's incredible skill, countering his Natalia is possible, though it certainly requires coordination and a solid understanding of the game. The most direct way to counter Natalia is through vision control. Items like Clock of Destiny for mages, Glow in the Dark for support, and especially Oracle for tanks (which reveals stealthed enemies) can significantly diminish Natalia's ability to surprise. Placing Traces or Scout Drones in common ambush spots, especially around objectives like Lord and Turtle, can give your team the heads-up needed to avoid devastating ambushes. Another crucial counter is hero selection. Heroes with strong area-of-effect (AoE) abilities can punish Natalia when she tries to dive the backline. Mages like Aurora or Eudora can burst her down if she's not careful, and heroes with sustained damage or crowd control like Tigreal or Franco can lock her down and prevent her escape. Purify is a must-have battle spell for any core hero facing a Natalia, as it can cleanse her silence and allow them to react or escape. CC immunity through items like Winter Truncheon can also save a key target. Furthermore, team coordination is paramount. If Natalia goes in, and the rest of her team isn't there to follow up, she's vulnerable. A coordinated team can focus fire on her immediately after she initiates, especially if she fails to secure an immediate kill. Playing defensively when Natalia is known to be lurking around is also key. Enemies should avoid being isolated, especially in the mid and late game. Sticking together, even if it means sacrificing some farm, can prevent Liandi from executing his pick-off strategy. Finally, anticipating his movements based on his known jungle pathing or typical gank timings can give you a crucial advantage. If you know Liandi is likely to gank your lane, prepare your defenses, and have your allies ready to counter-gank. It’s a chess match, and understanding Natalia’s strengths and weaknesses, combined with solid teamwork, is the best way to shut down even the most skilled Natalia player.
