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Archive for November 2013
- Take Soul Assumption at level 1 if you intend to first blood and have adequate slow/stuns in your lane to make it happen. If not, take Grave Chill instead at the beginning.
- A lot of Visage's strength comes from an early level 6 and a strong laning phase.
- You should max out Soul Assumption as soon as possible as it is a very potent nuke with very low cooldown allowing you to spam provided you or your allies are taking damage and have sufficient mana. This skill is best utilized during a team fight where a lot of damage is being exchanged between the two teams, make sure to always keep an eye out for the charges of your Soul Assumption and release them as often as possible during a fight as this skill along with your familiars is the main source of your damage output.
- Summon Familiars should be taken at level 6, as their damage is of great assistance.
- Familiars deal significant damage early game and it can be used to stun opponents or interrupt channeling spells like teleportation. Be warned, the familiars have a very small line of sight but still enough for you to scout ahead or keep track of an enemy that is attempting to juke you.
- Familiars damage reduces after each attack and will reach to a pathetic 10 damage after 7 attacks. You should start using them to stun your opponents once they run out of charges.
- Fragile support heroes make the best targets for your Familiars as you can cut down their HP very fast and give yourself charges for Soul Assumption for the finishing touch.
- Stone form takes 1 second to form, this is quite significant especially when chasing a moving hero. Stone form can also be used to stun your opponents to help you escape sticky situations.
- Stone Form can be cast in succession allowing you to 'chain-stun' your opponents. Depending on your skills in micromanagement, you can AoE stun for a lengthy 6 seconds by re-summoning familiars in the middle of the battle. If you have Aghanim's Scepter you can lock down multiple targets for up to 9 seconds with proper micromanagement.
- Take great care not to let your familiars be killed, as they grant a 100 reliable gold bounty EACH.
- Familiars in the middle of the stone form animation (before they reach the ground) can still be killed. They will still perform their stun regardless of if they are killed during this animation.
- For new players, an easy way to learn Familiar micro is to park your familiars over trees (where they can't be sniped) behind the person you want to kill and fly them out when initiating. You can even practice this to some degree against bots.
- Familiars do not expire unless killed or re-summoned.
- Do not let the bonuses gained from Gravekeeper's Cloak deceive you into thinking Visage more durable than he actually is. The layers of your cloak burn out very fast if you are being focused or are struck by a Damage Over Time skill such as Venomancer's Venomous Gale and without the cloak Visage becomes a very fragile target if he does not possess durability enhancing items such as Mekansm or Shiva's Guard considering his miserable agility gain and base armor.
- Timber Chain should be maxed out first because of its low cooldown, increased range, and guaranteed pure damage.
- When chasing, he can use it to catch up to heroes, especially against those who have quick escape abilities.
- When running away, he can also use this to escape. Make sure to use the jungle as an escape path, since it contains numerous trees for you to use.
- If you are ready to gank in a side lane and are behind trees, use your Chakram to destroy the trees in front of you, then use your Timber Chain on the other side of the lane; after this, a well placed Whirling Death can almost ensure a kill in many situations.
- For Timbersaw, tankiness and mana regeneration are a must: items like Bloodstone and Shiva's Guard really help him in many ways. Other interesting items may be Vanguard, Scythe of Vyse, Hood of Defiance, Heart of Tarrasque or Eul's Scepter of Divinity, but they don't give both tankiness and mana regeneration.
- If your team doesn't have an initiator, try initiating with Chakram, followed by Timber Chain and Whirling Death. Items like Pipe of Insight, Blade Mail and Shiva's Guard can aid you in initiating.
- One of Timbersaw's weaknesses is his lack of disrupting spells; he suffers against heroes who excel at channeling spells to harm their opponents. In this case, equip him with an item that has a quick disable, such as Eul's Scepter of Divinity.
- When a hero is escaping through only one potential exit, use Chakram to block that path; if successful, the enemy hero will be forced to run through the blade, losing health immensely and slowing down in the process. To further slow the hero down, cast Whirling Death while the hero is in the middle of the Chakram, making sure that you don't widen the enemy hero's escape path.
- When deployed, Chakram's movement is somewhat delayed; make sure to predict your target's path and cast it ahead of time.
- Chakram synergizes well with multi-target skills that disable free movement, such as
Enigma's Black Hole, 
Treant Protector's Overgrowth, or even 
Disruptor's Kinetic Field.
- Aside for tanking damage in team fights, Reactive Armor can also be used as a quick health regeneration boost. You can either visit the easy creep camps since they do small damage and come in groups, or tank lane creeps when no enemy hero is present. As long as there are multiple targets attacking you in quick succession, the skill will stack sooner, and you will be able to heal faster. Make sure you're receiving damage that is lesser than what you are able to regenerate.
- Aside for escaping, Timbersaw's skill set also makes for good chasing. Cut down trees that get in your way to widen your path and even prevent juking.
- The trees summoned by
Nature's Prophet through Sprout
are still standard trees to Timbersaw. As an enemy, you can easily cut
it down to escape, or free allies who are trapped within it. As an ally,
this can be used to your advantage when escaping (as Prophet can summon
trees in a convenient location for you to use Timber Chain) or when
fighting (Prophet can summon trees closer to you when no other tree is
present, so that you can deal pure damage when casting Whirling Death).
- Try to wait on casting Death Ward in teamfights until the enemies have already used some of their stuns, making it less likely you will be interrupted.
- Casting Death Ward from a hidden position such as the trees, or uphill in the fog, makes it much harder to disrupt.
- At rank 1, Voodoo Restoration is the most efficient form of AoE healing in the game based on mana-spent-per-hitpoints-gained. It is often a good idea to invest a single point into this skill during early laning and then max it later after your other abilities once you have the mana regen to support the higher cost.
- Paralyzing Cask is most effective when there are just two enemies close together. Under ideal conditions you can stun two enemies for up to 4 seconds each with this skill.
- Casting Maledict on opponents will often immediately force them to retreat for fear of taking crippling damage while under its effects. You can use this to make enemies flee who would otherwise easily kill you or your allies. If they do not flee, then at best they're trading themselves for you.
- Omniknight usually purchases a Mekansm and Arcane Boots to continually have heals during team fights and lane pushes.
- Other slows are able to stack on top of your Degen Aura so it is fairly common to purchase a Shiva's Guard to be able to slow your opponents down even more than what you normally could.
- If you are attempting to save an ally from death, use Purification before using Repel on them, because Repel will prevent you from using Purification on them.
- You can use Purification to deal a lot of damage early on, or even causing first blood, especially at level 3 and 5.
- Repel can be used on enemies, you could use this to great effect if you want to for example single out a priority target while your teams Naga Siren has used her Song of the Siren. (Keep in mind you must use repel before song, as all heroes are invulnerable to both buffs and debuffs while affected by the song.)
- Repel can completely block the effects of some ultimates, an example being Tidehunter's Ravage.
- Guardian Angel can turn the tide of many battles! Don't be too shy when deciding when to use it.
- Attacking an enemy who is running from you can give them time to escape Degen Aura. To keep them slowed, run with them instead. Try to get ahead of them if possible. Then you can hit them or heal while blocking their path.
- Omniknight's ultimate is very effective against any ability that deals physical damage; for example, it can be used to negate Juggernaut's ultimate.
- If you have to initiate, use Repel on the carry first, then activate your Guardian Angel. This will give your team the upper hand in a teamfight.
- Wolves can be used to scout runes at the beginning of the match and during the laning phase to avoid losing gold and experience.
- Always Summon Wolves in base when going out to jungle for the first time (at about the 0-10 second mark) since the wolves are fast enough that you can get a creep camp killed without using any mana.
- When taking on Roshan, it is advised to use a Smoke of Deceit to avoid being spotted by enemy observer wards. Teams facing a Lycan will do their best to prevent early Roshan kills by planting observer wards near the pit; given that a detected Lycan is easy prey while doing battle with Roshan, slipping past those wards will do wonders for his lifespan.
- Nature's Prophet has great synergy with Lycan, for several reasons. Howl can drastically increase the combat effectiveness of Treants by boosting their damage potential. This same advantage can also aid in handling Roshan, allowing boosted Treants to tank him instead of Lycan. Nature's Prophet is (like Lycan) a jungling and laning hero, so his absence while fighting Roshan is not a great concern for his teammates. Finally, the Prophet's ability to teleport directly into Roshan's pit is also useful for avoiding enemy wards (using Nature's Call in Roshan's Pit with Sprout is advised, however, in order to remain undetected by said wards).
- At level 8, with items like Vladmir's Offering and Power Treads or Medallion of Courage, Lycan can solo Roshan. Summon your Wolves and tank them alternately with the hero, but not let them die until re-summon is ready. Keep Shapeshift just in case the enemy comes for you, so you can escape.
- Shapeshift is a very strong and versatile Ultimate to use. When activated, it gives Lycan hasted movement speed, allowing a great deal of maneuverability in battle to chase down fleeing heroes or to escape from potentially dangerous areas. While Shapeshifted, you are immune to every Slow, including Hex, Purge and Slow Ultimates like Epicenter, Freezing Field, and Primal Roar (though if directly targeted by Primal Roar, the stun is still applied).
- Doom has very poor Agility gain and one of the lowest starting armor in the game so it is essential to tank him up with armor items such as Assault Cuirass and Shiva's Guard to make his high HP go farther against physical attacks.
- Be aware of heroes that commonly build Linken's Sphere as casting Doom on them will result in it being completely wasted. Cast LVL? Death on them first to burn the Linken's Sphere cooldown before casting Doom.
- Cast Doom early in teamfights - the huge 15 second duration can render spell-dependent nukers such as Zeus or Lina virtually useless. Alternatively, if you can catch a hero carrying key support items like Mekansm and Pipe of Insight you can prevent those items from being used during the subsequent fight.
- Make use of Devour's
ability steal to give yourself and your team useful neutral creep
abilities like stuns, slows, ensnares, or different types of auras.
- Dark Troll Summoner is on the best creeps to devour for a jungling Doom in early game. It gives Raise Dead, allowing you to summon two skeleton warriors who can tank creeps for you.
- Another useful creep for jungling is Satyr Tormenter, its Unholy Aura provides great health regeneration (4 health/second), and can also be used while laning to help you and allies hold lane longer. The Shockwave nuke is rather weak (125 magical damage) and high mana cost, but has good range and moderate cooldown, which you can use to finish off fleeing enemies with low health.
- Hill Troll Priest's heal and mana regeneration aura are good for laning as well. The low mana cost healing spell can be useful against heroes who deal damage over time like Venomancer, Viper, Axe etc.
- In midgame, you may opt for more powerful spells such as War Stomp (from Centaur Conqueror), or Ensnare (Dark Troll Summoner). A Satyr Trickster gives you a Purge spell on a very low (5 seconds) cooldown, it is a very versatile skill and is another strong choice. Remeber that it has very short cast range of 200, only a little over melee range.
- In lategame, one of the best options is an Alpha Wolf with passive critical hit chance (20% for 2x damage) and 30% bonus damage aura.
- A Kobold Foreman's movement speed aura can also be useful for pushing, ganking, chasing and fleeing.
- As Morph gives +3 to both Agility and Strength with one level, it's a very strong skill to get at level 1.
- As Adaptive Strike scales with stats, it shouldn't be leveled until after Waveform is maxed and should be the last skill maxed out.
- Boots of Travel is a commonly built item on Morphling. By using Replicate, then teleporting back to base, you can then instantly return to where you were with Morph Replicate. This strategy can also be used with Town Portal Scrolls.
- Ethereal Blade is the most common and recommended item for burst damage on Morphling. By Morphing points into agility, he can cause massive damage with Ether Blast, and then use the amplified magic damage to finish an enemy off with Waveform and Adaptive Strike. This is sometimes referred to as the "Shotgun combo". However, do not build ethereal blade if Morphling lacks farm, as this item is most effective midgame, building it too late would not be useful.
- Sometimes deciding which hero to choose for Replicate can be difficult, however potential candidates for this spell include: a hero with high DPS, those with favorable passives (such as Axe's Counter Helix) or even an enemy hero who has a Radiance or some other aura, which allows you to take advantage of receiving its effects for free.
- It can be difficult to determine whether a Morphling illusion is real because it does not take any bonus damage unlike every other illusion in the game. You can use this to try and fool opponents into blowing long cooldowns.
- Morphling's early game damage is relatively high with Waveform and decent right click through Morph Agility Gain. Consider laning with an aggressive support to grab some early game kills so you can accelerate your farm and reach your late game faster.
- Morphling functions better as a carry in teams with a strong front line. This allows him to remain in the fight with a high amount of agility and hence right click or Adaptive Strike damage, without feeling the pressure of being focused. Although he is good at soaking damage through Morph Strength and items such as Linken's Sphere and Eye of Skadi, he is much more useful as your team's primary source of consistent damage.
- Blink Dagger is a commonly built item on Tidehunter, used in conjunction with Ravage to initiate.
- Anchor Smash is a great way to clear creeps and farm for Tidehunter. Due to its low Mana cost, it can be used to harass enemies, especially melee heroes.
- Do not underestimate the 40% damage reduction from Anchor Smash. If you use it on a hero with a powerful auto-attack, such as Ursa, their damage output will be severely reduced. With 100% uptime from level 2 onwards, you can keep one or more enemies' attack damage crippled indefinitely provided you keep using this skill.
- Resist the urge to take early levels of Kraken Shell for the block during the laning phase. Tidehunter's two other abilities both scale very well with additional ranks, and if you need damage block you can simply buy a Stout Shield and sell it later for minimal (125) gold loss.
- Remember that while Ravage travels quickly, it does take a brief time to extend to its maximum range. Very alert opponents might be able to blink away or activate magic immunity before they are stunned, so be sure to blink in closer to those heroes to reduce their window of escape.
- Extremely quick fingered opponents may also avoid Ravage by blinking very close to Tidehunter, a small area around Tidehunter exists in which Ravage will not affect very close opponents.
- Should the enemy team have a Rubick, it is critically important to cast another one of your spells (generally anchor smash) after casting ravage, as a skill so devastating could easily be the deciding factor in a teamfight should Rubick steal it.
- One of the best skills to use early game is Decay: it's quite spammable, and will make ganking easier. You can easily get first blood if you're laning with a good partner.
- Decay is very useful even if left at level 1. Max it when team battles begin to start: you can spam it even more and make enemies squishier.
- Undying can be played in many ways: if you're going for a more supportive role, use your Tombstone and your Flesh Golem to slow the enemies while spamming Decay, then let your lane partner get the kill. Otherwise, use Soul Rip to finish a Hero while there are many creeps nearby: this way it will deal more damage.
- Don't use Soul Rip
to harass, but use it to heal a friendly hero or to finish off enemies.
This is more effective if there are many units nearby, such as creeps
if you're laning, or heroes if you're initiating.
- Remember that Soul Rip can be used to heal your tombstone.
- While initiating, use Tombstone and Flesh Golem, then Decay/Soul Rip: this way these skills will deal more damage.
- Though his spells are individually quite cheap, you will almost always have mana problems since both Soul Rip and especially Decay are very spammable. Consider getting Arcane Boots during the laning phase, then disassembling it once you have enough to buy the remaining pieces of a Bloodstone. You can then convert your standard boots to Phase Boots allowing you the mobility and chase power to keep Flesh Golem's powerful aura on the right targets during a teamfight.
- Another good item for Undying in the early game is Soul Ring. After using Soul Ring, you can cast decay for free. If you hit 2 or more Heros with this spell, you make up for the HP cost for Soul Ring.
- If you don't have enough money to buy a Bloodstone in time or you'd prefer cheaper items, try to make yourself as tanky as possible: if you're initiating, enemies will target you first. That's why you need an early Vanguard and/or a Hood of Defiance if the opposing team has a lot of nukers. Other useful items that increase your HP are Rod of Atos, which will probably solve most of your mana problems too, and Heart of Tarrasque.
- Should the enemy team have an Earthshaker, it is unwise to place a tombstone at the beginning of a teamfight. Each zombie will cause the echo to deal extra damage, likely obliterating your entire team (or at the very least severely injuring them).
- Zombies are magic immune, but will take full damage from AoE physical abilities. Be aware of heroes with these abilities that can easily deal with your Tombstone zombies, such as Gyrocopter's flak cannon, Axe's counter helix or Bristleback's quill spray.
- If Naga Siren is on your team, be aware that Tombstone will summon zombies even when the enemy targets are sleeping and untargetable. This can be used to your advantage
- Mask of Madness will allow Faceless Void better to utilize Chronosphere throughout game, as does almost any item that gives attack speed or damage. A BKB is usually a good choice after getting a MoM as nukers outside the chronosphere can be ignored, while they otherwise burst the fragile Void very easily.
- When using Chronosphere it's important that you prioritize the targets to deal maximum damage. Important targets include carries and spellcasters.
- If you want to play your lane aggressively rank up Time Lock first, conversely if you need to play defensively rank up Backtrack after getting at least one rank of Time Walk as it is still your primary escape mechanism, while also having some offensive potential.
- Chronosphere will pause friendly units (exception : units under control of Faceless Void) and heroes as well as foes. Try to position it so enemies are within the sphere and allies are outside and can reach enemies inside without having to enter Chronosphere itself.
- Using later ranks of Time Walk and Chronosphere in tandem can easily catch entire enemy teams off guard.
- Although Faceless Void is a hard carry hero, he is extremely supportive when using his Chronosphere as it has the potential to trap the entire enemy team in place for many seconds, allowing easy use of several ranged ultimates altogether for massive damage. Example: Lich, Jakiro, Witch Doctor and Gyrocopter ultimates.
- If you are trying to decide on what item build is best for Faceless Void remember that his main goal is to do the most damage and hopefully kill at least one key enemy hero inside his Chronosphere where he has a 5 second free reign to attack a target without any chance of retaliation.
- While Aghanim's Scepter may diminish your carry potential sometimes it might come in handy as it increases your Chronosphere duration to 6 seconds and reduces its cooldown to only 60 seconds, allowing your ultimate to be ready in almost any team fight and while it may not contribute to your damage output very much it does increase your survivability by granting you stats and HP.
- Between levels 6-12 Bane is comparatively a very powerful hero, and assuming you maxed his Brain Sap (as you should under all circumstances) you will be able to solo most heroes by means of Fiend's Grip followed by Brain Sap. It is necessary to get kills during this phase of the game; as if Bane is not well-geared and leveled up later in the game, he will be relegated to a support unit.
- It is important for the player to judge when to change roles; as mentioned above, Bane should gank constantly in the middle of the game to gain a gold advantage and avoid getting shut down or subjugated to a conservative support role. A well-managed Bane can change the outcome of a team fight in the late game with effective use of items such as Necronomicon, Scythe of Vyse, and Aghanim's Scepter.
- New or unseasoned players have a tendency to attack targets under Nightmare. Before the game starts, make sure to warn them about it.
- Bane is not an initiator; despite having two disables, he is far too delicate to withstand the initial retaliation. Instead, he should hide until such time as his abilities become crucial when the team fight has ensued(preventing escapes, finishing off enemy heroes with Brain Sap, etc.).
- Avoid heroes with stuns, as they can interrupt Fiend's Grip. If you must deal with them, incapacitate them via Nightmare, a Scythe of Vyse, or Fiend's Grip itself. Picking Bane in a match against several heroes with disables is unwise. Black King Bar is typically an effective first major item to build on Bane if you need to help your team disable someone before they retaliate.
- If the enemy team lack area-of-effect stuns or interrupts, a Shadow Blade can make your ultimate harder to stop, since your opponents must first reveal you and then interrupt you. As with all similar abilities, you can activate invisibility without breaking your channel. While Shadow Blade is also effective for ganking solo heroes and escaping, you should still get Black King Bar instead if the enemy team have ranged AoE interrupts such as those possessed by Lina, Drow, Dark Seer, Death Prophet etcetera.
- Luna and Night Stalker complement each other well; as Eclipse causes day to become night and Darkness gives both of them a very long vision range.
- Early points in Lunar Blessing will make last-hitting creeps easier. At any rate, make sure you have a single point in it before the first night as only one point is needed for the full amount of vision it bestows.
- Early points in Moon Glaives will push the lane. Moon Glaives is commonly not skilled at all until the laning phase has concluded.
- Extremely unusually for a hard carry, Luna gains significant killing power with a level advantage, owing to Lucent Beam and by extension Eclipse.
- Lucent Beam's cast range is gigantic. Use it to pick off fleeing heroes.
- Bear in mind Eclipse's range is much smaller than Lucent Beam's.
- Under almost all circumstances Luna should be paired with a
disabler for her laning phase; as aside from her high movement speed she
has absolutely nothing to help her avoid ganks or kill attempts.
- It takes significant skill and knowledge of the game to solo a lane with Luna. Her very small attack range and purely damage-oriented skillset mean she is extremely easy to kill. Even then, it is recommended to have ward vision and easy access to team backup for her to be successful in a solo lane. The advantage of running a solo Luna is that it is essentially high-risk high-reward. A Luna with level advantage doing well can easily set the momentum of the game in her team's favor.
- Crystal Nova is a large area of effect nuke that also slows your enemies. You can hit enemies from 1100 units away with it (700 casting range + 400 radius).
- Frostbite is a great disable which prevents the target from moving or attacking. It also interrupts channelling spells and teleports. Unfortunately, it does not prevent enemy heroes from casting spells.
- Arcane Aura
used to be prioritized as it benefits the whole team greatly,
especially one with a strong caster/ganker line-up. But the introduction
of Arcane Boots has made this skill somewhat less useful.
- Since 6.76 this bonus is doubled on Rylai herself, granting a whopping +5 bonus mana/s.
- Freezing Field is an incredibly strong spell. However, it can be unpredictable and usually gets interrupted by your enemies very quickly. Freezing Field consumes a lot of mana, so use it sparingly.
- Many players choose not to skill Freezing Field until quite late in the game, as it is a situational spell that is most effective in large clashes; and its use consumes a huge amount of mana. However, its slow and gigantic (if unpredictable) damage can be very useful in early game, especially against enemies that lack the means to interrupt it. Let your decision be informed by enemy lineup as well as laning composition.
- Items like Black King Bar and Shadow Blade are viable options to prevent your opponents from cancelling your ultimate, but Crystal Maiden usually won't have that much gold to spend.
- Crystal Maiden can either babysit her team's carry on dual/triple lanes, or roam between the lanes to gank enemies.
- Always ward the woods. Wards should be bought over and over again to provide map control through the whole game.
- There is a temptation to use Crystal Nova to push lanes, but owing to its mana cost and long cooldown this isn't a good idea.
- If you have a few coins to spare - always buy items that boost your survivability, or get yourself an escape/positioning mechanism like Blink Dagger or Force Staff.
- Freezing Field must be used at the right time to avoid
interruption and being focused. Generally speaking, in an encounter it
is best used after the initial nuking phase; when the enemy's stuns are
on cooldown (building a Black King Bar
will provide immunity to stuns; but Crystal Maiden does not typically
get much gold and this can be very difficult to build in a game where
your team is not getting a lot of kills). If your team has an initiator
with the capability to disable a group of enemies, such as Tidehunter or Enigma,
Freezing Field should be used in synchronisation with their mass
disable. Using Freezing Field very often results in Rylai's death, and
she rarely is able to channel it for its full duration, but if she can
maintain it even for a few seconds it will be useful for her team.
- Although Freezing Field's damage can be upgraded with Aghanim's Scepter, its primary use is its slow rather than its damage and considering Rylai's low gold income, building Scepter is typically not a good idea; her ult would be more useful if instead she built Black King Bar and/or Blink Dagger and typically of a support hero she normally must choose only a couple of luxury items.
- When being pursued by numerous heroes, you can cast Ice Shards toward them to hinder their movement, as the barrier forces them to break up and even come to a slight halt. It is ideal to cast Ice Shards when your pursuers are in a small choke-point, as the barrier will most likely block their way, or at least make it even more difficult for them to move forward.
- Ice Shards' missile cast is delayed; keep this in mind when you are targeting distant, fleeing heroes.
- When pushing, defending, or farming, Ice Shards is an effective area-of-effect skill you can use to damage multiple creeps in a straight path; unlike target heroes, Ice Shards doesn't create a barrier when it contacts creeps.
- Aid your team's initiator by pairing up with him/her and casting Snowball on the group of enemies; the movement makes both Tusk and his teammate invulnerable, and any target that is hit by it gets stunned for a brief second, giving the initiator some time to act.
- Be careful when using Frozen Sigil, as it gives a large bounty when destroyed. Only direct it toward enemy heroes when they are too busy to pay attention to it (i.e. when being pursued by your allies). It has a relatively fast speed and can catch up to most enemies.
- Purchase mana boosting items to supplement all of your four active spells, since Tusk is incredibly skill-dependent.
- Walrus Punch deals 4x critical damage when enemies are 50% below their maximum health. Similar to
Bounty Hunter's
Jinada, it also maims the target to a crawl, so use this to knock out
an enemy before they can retaliate. However, this move can accidentally
steal the kill due to its potential critical damage, but nevertheless it
is acceptable, since Tusk benefits from additional items.
- If you managed to get quite some gold from ganks early on, you could consider going for armor-reducing items like Medallion of Courage or Desolator: they give amplified damage for a reasonable price. Just be sure to use your Medallion on the enemy before utilizing your ultimate on him.
- If you find yourself without mana too often, you could consider going for Arcane Boots or Intelligence-boosting items like Drum of Endurance or Force Staff, which also come with nice abilities. Alternatively, you could buy items that increase your mana regeneration such as Medallion of Courage and Perseverance (which can also be turned into a Battle Fury, should you get other damage-increasing items before finishing the whole item).
- Rocket Barrage is incredibly powerful against a single enemy, but its damage falls off dramatically if there are multiple targets. Position yourself to make the best use of it.
- Homing Missile is a great harassment tool. Place it behind your allies to prevent the enemy from destroying it before it starts moving.
- Flak Cannon allows you to harass enemy heroes from a great distance, or force them away from the creeps. An early point should be considered if you are taking the solo mid-lane. However, it does push the lane and may open yourself to ganks.
- Using Flak Cannon early (before you use the attacks) will lessen the cooldown on your next cast.
- For maximum effect, cast Call Down in conjunction with your Homing Missile's impact or an allied disable.
- Aghanim's Scepter will allow you to snipe fleeing enemy heroes with Call Down. It can also be used to assist or deter pushing.
- Consider going solo lane if your team wants to try an early push strategy. Warlock's attack range, projectile speed, and damage allows him to farm nicely against other solo heroes.
- Shadow Word can also be used as a harassing tool. Cast it on your opponent and keep hitting him whenever it's possible. Make sure you don't get hit by creeps too much while doing so.
- Fatal Bonds is an immensely useful spell which amplifies your team's damage output. Bond 5 enemies together, and if they are all hit by a single area of effect spell or attack, the total damage will be almost doubled, since everyone of them will suffer 4x20% extra damage echoed from others.
- You can use Upheaval to prevent wounded enemies from escaping. This is especially useful if used right after an area-of-effect spell, such as your Chaotic Offering. Let your golem or your teammates finish the job.
- During teamfights later in the game channeling Upheaval aids your team more than attacking; after casting Fatal Bonds and Chaotic Offering begin channeling Upheaval immediately to maximize its slowing effect and the amount of damage done by your team and golems.
- If an ally is being chased, use your Upheaval to slow his chasers. Since the slow will last for some seconds after you stop channeling, you will also have time to fall back.
- When initiating, make sure to cast Fatal Bonds first, then Chaotic Offering; this way, you can output more damage against all your targets.
- Your golem is tanky; when possible, use it to tank creeps or towers, so that you can dispose of them sooner.
- You can heal the golem with your Shadow Word to increase its tankiness.
- When chasing fleeing heroes with your golem, don't stop to auto-attack them, since it will slow the golem down. Instead, keep it moving with the heroes, so that the Permanent Immolation can do its damage.
- Although both Refresher Orb and Aghanim's Scepter allow you to summon two golems, Refresher Orb allows you to summon two full strength golems and utilize two seconds of AoE stun, but will cost a lot of mana to pull off, while Aghanim's Scepter is easier and cheaper to build and gives nice stats. having both items will let you summon 4 golems at the same time.
- Do not let the golem die needlessly to your enemy heroes, since its gold bounty is quite high. If it's the last remaining unit for your team in a fight, have it flee unless you can ensure a kill. Having it die against creeps or towers is better than allowing an enemy hero to claim the gold bounty of your golem. Having two golems from Aghanim's Scepter will cut the bounty of each golem in half.
- Fatal Bonds and Venomancer's Poison Nova make for a deadly combination, as although Poison Nova cannot kill on its own, Fatal Bonds will cause anyone bound and affected by the poison to die from the damage ticking off.
- Remember your role: as a support Hero, you should be leaving as much experience and gold as possible to the carry. While items like Aghanim's Scepter and Refresher Orb may seem so powerful, it's advised not to buy them too early, or not to buy them at all: concentrate on buying Wards, Dust and utility items like Mekansm, Force Staff, Necronomicon, Drum of Endurance or Eul's Scepter of Divinity first. Even Wards and Mekansm alone will certainly be more useful than a Warlock who stole kills from the carry, leaving him underfarmed and underleveled. Only acquire kills if the carry is unable to do so.
- Early on Sven has very low mana, so building mana boosting items may be a good idea.
- Drum of Endurance is a great item as it meshes well with Sven's role and play style.
- Take Stats over the two other skills instead if you want more Mana, Attack Speed and Strength to increase the bonus of God's Strength early on and to help sustain your mana for using skills. However, this is only useful very early on, as Warcry is amazing for teamfights and Great Cleave helps Sven's farming speed.
- If you prefer to initiate, get a Blink Dagger. Blink to your target and stun them with your Storm Hammer, make sure you activate God's Strength immediately or beforehand, which is more preferable as you can save more time on the casting animation and transformation time.
- Avoid leveling Great Cleave early on, as it will greatly push the lane towards the enemy tower making farming more difficult.
- As a melee carry without a blink, Sven is especially susceptible to being kited and having crowd control effects placed on him, negating his damage output. Don't skip Black King Bar to buy more damaging items, as it may result in doing no damage at all.
- Sven's unique position of being a Support and Carry at the same time, can make him a decent babysitter for a ranged carry like Weaver, Luna, or Sniper. Build arcane boots to give you and your lane partner more mana, so you can pop your Storm Hammer and Warcry more often, and focus on massing gold once your carry has had his fill, this can put you in a situation of having 4 fed carries on your team, giving your team a bigger edge on long extended games, altough it can be difficult to pull off, so use this tactic carefully.
- Don't forget that Shadow Wave deals damage around your healed allies as well, roughly a Melee hero swing and a tiny bit more; a bit similar to Omniknight's Purification but with considerably less raw healing.
- Each level of upgrade for Shallow Grave makes it cost less mana; if you're having mana problems (and you likely will), consider upgrading it sooner rather than later.
- Your first skill can be any of the three depending on the situation; Poison Touch if you're hunting for first blood (with teammates, by yourself or with a single lane partner is probably not enough and can be risky in the event of a reversal), Shallow Grave if the enemy has not been spotted in their lanes and you suspect a possible gank incoming, and Shadow Wave if you're fighting an aggressive melee gank with an ally.
- Don't forget that the range of Shallow Grave increases with each level; it starts out less than your normal attack, but at level 4 goes to twice that length. You don't want to have an ally die just because you had to run in closer.
- Using Shallow Grave is the most important role Dazzle has, and one of the chief reasons why Dazzle is complicated; in using it you grant an ally or yourself five seconds where they cannot die. For newer players, it is often better to use it earlier than never; 2 seconds of life for an ally is better than none. More experienced players can gauge the situation of battles better, and can determine if burst damage has already been applied, amount and length of incoming stuns, and at whom they're directed, et cetera. In the early game laning phase, you can aggressively attempt a kill and then use Grave on yourself once you're near death; however, this can easily backfire due to burst damage and stun, preventing you from using the spell. In the mid game, your priority to grave are heroes with powerful abilities that haven't been used yet in an encounter, such as a Sand King Epicenter, a Tidehunter's Ravage, or an Enigma's Black Hole. Typically, the use of such ultimates would change the tide of battle in your favour, although this would only apply if those types of heroes are caught out of position, or are about to die before they can use it. Preventing a hard carry from dying and losing their gold is also important, but not if it means losing the teamfight and being able to push. In late game, keeping your hard carry alive becomes your top priority. There may be instances wherein you must choose between the life and death of allies, and it is very important to know who to prioritise (knowledge of priority will become second-nature with experience). For example, choosing between keeping Tidehunter alive after his Ravage has been used is a poor decision versus keeping your team's Lycan from dying, but if Tidehunter's death seems to be sure and Lycan's does not, you must make a decision very quickly. This is the difficulty of Dazzle.
- While Weave is a spell with a fairly simple effect it can massively increase both the deadliness and the durability of your team, especially if it is heavy in physical damage dealers who need to close with the enemy like Ursa and Sven.
- Learn to use Weave pre-emptively to maximise the armor buff/debuff for the team fight. In addition, it can be used to discourage your enemies from sieging a tower or attempting Roshan: as their armor deteriorates while they make an attempt, their chances of following up with a team fight in their favour becomes much lower.
- If you must solo a lane, take Windrun first. This will give you a reliable escape if you are being ganked early.
- Power Shot should always be maxed first, as it is a very
powerful nuke early. One point in both Shackle Shot and Windrun is
usually sufficient. Remember that Power Shot damages invisible heroes,
so if you know where they are do not hesitate to use it. Late-game,
Power Shot can be used as an exploratory long-range spell.
- Power Shot claims to do reduced damage if released early, but releasing it at 60% or more inflicts full damage.
- Despite it being unlisted in her recommended items, Mekansm is very strong on Windranger. Consider getting it on her after your upgraded boots, provided no one else can get it at a similar time. Remember, Mekansm is better the earlier it's gotten.
- Shackle Shot's ministun is extremely useful for interrupting channeled spells, such as Bane's and Pudge's ultimates.
- Early-game, unless circumstances are unusual, always save enough mana to Windrun when you are in dangerous territory.
- Due to the rework of Focus Fire, it might be useful to level it early, as it is now more useful in teamfights, allowing you to focus down the enemy carry, be wary of the mana cost though, as using it might leave your mana too low to cast your other spells, which are more useful in most cases.
- Despite being an escape mechanism, Windrun is potentially a very powerful defensive spell, as it allows complete immunity against damage from physical attacks.
- Building an Aghanim's Scepter with a powerful attack modifier can shift Windranger's role from supportive chaser/nuker to that of a semi-carry, as it will allow her to scale. However, building a scepter without an attack modifier is not very useful, and Windranger can function very well with attack modifiers even without building a scepter. Build an attack modifier first, then choose whether or not to build scepter.
- Axe is especially dangerous early game with high starting statistics and the speed from Battle Hunger contributing to his ability to push up to the enemy tower relatively safely, even for a semi-carry.
- Berserker's Call provides the full armor bonus at level one. It is the primary factor in his ability to survive physical damage without good statistics.
- Resist using Culling Blade when not roaming. While Axe is powerful early game, he levels stat-wise fairly badly, and it is best to drop kills to a carry past the point when a team acquires their ultimate.
- Items such as the Vanguard, Hood of Defiance and the Shiva's Guard are essential as they help reduce the damage being dealt to Axe while he tanks and initiates a battle without a Blink Dagger. With a Blink Dagger, this aspect can be ignored when initiating to an extent.
- During the early phase of the game, a Stout Shield is all Axe needs to survive the lane. If possible, instead of fighting along with allied creeps, Axe can try to go and clash with the enemy creeps by himself with Counter Helix allowing him to take down unstacked creeps by himself.
- A more advanced technique used by players is to max out Battle Hunger by Level 7. This enables Axe to constantly deal dots (damage over time) in the lane, dealing crippling damage and blocking any potential to push or counterpush. This meshes well with Axe's capability to tank and keep the enemy at bay while stopping them from last hitting or denying creeps, allowing Battle Hunger deal its full damage.
- If Axe is going against two weak melee heroes in a lane without sufficient burst damage (such as Phantom Assassin or Spirit Breaker, etc.), do not hesitate to stand between them and their creeps. It allows for complete lane dominance as they cannot last hit and it denies them of experience and gold as Counter Helix hurts a lot early game.
- You can put "dota_health_per_vertical_marker 300" in the console without quotes to easily find the instakill hp thresholds for Axe's ultimate. Change the number according to Axe's ultimate. This sets each bar of health to the value you set, which means when they are under 1 bar of health, you can ultimate. This can also be applied to Dagon, but Magic Resist should be factored in.
- Axe is an excellent counter-pick to heroes with abilities that can greatly increase their attack speed (i.e. Ursa, Troll Warlord), as a combination of Berserker's Call and Blade Mail can be devastating to such heroes, especially if Counter Helix procs numerous times.
- Instead of using Berserker's Call to draw creep aggro in lane, it's usually better to right click enemy hero (which automatically pulls the creep aggro). It applies to any enemy heroes visible on map, thus you can pull aggro by standing in the middle of wave and right clicking visible enemy on the other side of the map.
- When trying to land Hoof Stomp on fleeing enemies, get in front of their path if possible. Most opponents will outrun the stun during the cast-time if they are already on the edge of the AoE.
- Return is an extremely powerful ability and not to be underestimated. Although its most notable effect is greatly increasing damage against enemies that try to gank Warrunner in the late game, even at lower levels it can completely shut down heroes with high damage and low health.
- To force a tower to attack you and utilize Return, issue an
attack command upon an enemy hero when in range (even one in another
lane).
- This trick also works to aggravate lane creeps.
- You can use Stampede's movement speed boost to help allies escape or chase in a pinch, although the long cooldown makes this usage situational.
- Stampede gives all allies the power to become initiators, allowing the entire team the chance to break into battle with destructive force; unfortunately, Stampede only affects enemies once for a relatively short duration, so in larger fights the skill may go totally awry. This means the initiation must be careful and planned, with a chosen initiator, as with other fights (more than not, possibly Warrunner himself).
- Mekansm and Drum of Endurance are very strong alternatives to Vanguard due to its poor viability on ranged characters. Mekansm is the stronger choice, but if someone else on the team is going to get it quickly (meaning at roughly the same time Razor could farm it, not 10 minutes later) Drums help Razor keep on his target and also tanks him up.
- Consider Phase Boots instead of Power Treads, as they allow you to keep in tether range of Unstable Current.
- Yasha is a strong item to get after the core as it works well with Unstable Current and further increases the movement speed of Razor plus it grants you the opportunity to upgrade it into either the Manta Style or the Sange and Yasha based on different situations.
- Plasma Field can be manipulated by moving Razor around, since it centers around him. This can help you position yourself so that Plasma Field can hit right at its maximum range.
- Razor has very few escape mechanisms, but can be deceptively durable with Unstable Current if focused.
- Use Static Link defensively in larger team fights to ensure you can gain the maximum drain amount without putting yourself in a bad position.
- Eye of the Storm damages the lowest health enemy close to him, making this ability very weak near creep waves. Try to save the ultimate for isolated team fights, or use Plasma Field to clear the creep wave quickly to focus the damage on heroes.
- In team fights, it is Razor's job to Static Link for the enemy carry and steal their farmed up power for himself. Once a link has been established and the fight has begun, Razor may choose whether to use the stolen damage to smite the enemy supports, or kill the carry himself.
- Static Link will not be purged if Razor's target becomes magic immune during the drain.
- Shadow Blade is an excellent item on Razor because the invisibility will conceal the particles for Static Link and Eye of the Storm, concealing Razor's position.
- Refresher Orb allows two instances of Eye of the Storm to be active at the same time, allowing for extreme DPS and armor reduction, though it is an expensive and niche item.
- Combined with Aghanim's Scepter, this can deal twice the damage to buildings.
- Generally in the early game, its best to pick up Static Link as it can boost your survivability by lowering enemy damage as well as allow you to create a noticable difference in you and your opponents last hitting power. This allows you to dominate the last hitting stage of the lane and keep your enemies in check
- Static Link is not broken by spells that pause the target such as Outworld Devourer's Astral Imprisonment or Shadow Demon's Disruption..
- Always use Lightning Bolt before Arc Lightning so you may not lose your opponent in the fog.
- Always watch your positioning as Lightning Bolt and Arc Lightning have relatively long ranges, and Thundergod's Wrath has global range. Often, there is no reason to be up close in battle unless you are chasing down heroes; and Zeus' fragility compounds this.
- When trying to kill low hp heroes (low, but not low enough for Ultimate only) in hard to navigate areas use Thundergod's Wrath to gain vision of your enemy so you can Lightning Bolt them to death.
- During team fights, use all of Zeus's spells (including his ultimate) as soon as possible to make the best use of his passive. Static Field is based on the percentage of current health, not maximum health, so it will do more damage to heroes at full HP. If you wait for the enemy team's health to go down before using Thundergod's Wrath, then Static Field will not do as much damage as it could have.
- Remember that Lightning Bolt and Thundergod's Wrath provide truesight. Don't be afraid to use your ultimate or cast Lightning Bolt on a nearby creep if you believe an invisible enemy may be sneaking up on you or attempting to escape; if an enemy is invisible in a teamfight make sure to cast Lightning Bolt on another target before casting Thundergod's Wrath so that the granted truesight allows your ultimate to damage the invisible target.
- While skipping most of your core items to get Aghanim's Scepter and Refresher Orb earlier is a good idea to deal a lot of damage in a short time, it has many downsides. First of all, it will use most (if not all) of your mana, making you really weak and not very useful for a good amount of time. Second, if you don't have items which can increase your mana pool enough to cast your combo (Shiva's Guard, Rod of Atos, Bloodstone, Scythe of Vyse...) you may find yourself without mana even after using your Refresher Orb. Third, you will lack a very needed HP boost or an escape mechanism; this means that you'll be rather squishy and a lot of Heroes could kill you with just a stun and some damage. Fourth, you will probably kill a lot of Heroes, but your carry should do that. Zeus scales well into the late game thanks to his passive ability, but carries are far more useful than Zeus at dealing a reliable amount of damage in the late game. You shouldn't be killing anymore.
- Thundergod's Wrath should only be used to acquire a kill if your carry is unable to attain it themself. In most encounters, it should be used early in the fight to make things easier for one's team.
- In late game, Refresher Orb is a better item than scepter as it will allow Zeus to use his spells more often, which owing to his scaling passive is more important than stronger ultimate damage. Using your three spells with a scepter in late game will deal less damage than using your three spells, then refreshing them and using them again. However, Refresher Orb provides you with no survivability, so if you need to be more tanky and durable Aghanim's Scepter is the best choice, since it gives both HP and Strength, as well as other useful stats. Furthermore, using a Refresher Orb will drain a lot of mana, making you unable to cast your abilities if used carelessly.
- Illuminate clears fog of war while channeling and as such should be used liberally when in dangerous territory to prevent a sneak attack by the enemy. Remember that charging it to fulmination increases its sight range; charging it and releasing it immediately will not be good for gaining sight.
- Illuminate's notorious creep-killing power makes Ezalor a remarkably good farmer considering his supportive role. As such, he will always have money for wards, and should ward extensively; as vision of the enemy allows for powerful Illuminate strikes.
- Although Illuminate is extremely powerful for early-game pushing and harassment, it will disrupt the farm of your laning partner; so if used it should be positioned only to damage the enemy heroes. Owing to his ability to replenish his mana, Illuminate can be used constantly; but mana replenishment is generally better used on his laning partner.
- Using Mana Leak and then Illuminate on a foe will force them either to take damage or lose mana; depending on whether or not they choose to move.
- Remember that you are a support. While maxing Illuminate seems a good choice for the damage and the pushing potential, it will also make you an easy prey to ganks. Unless you wish to push hard really early, consider maxing Chakra Magic first, which is very useful in the early stages of the game. If you are soloing a lane, a viable option for Ezalor; Illuminate can be maxed first and used to scare the enemy heroes into losing their lane.
- Keeper of the Light is a very effective lane support for Heroes who are very mana dependent; Chaos Knight, Morphling, Juggernaut, Skeleton King, Magnus, Tiny, Zeus, Leshrac, Ancient Apparition and many other Heroes will have their lane sustainability greatly augmented by your presence.
- Mana Leak will instantly stun Lone Druid's bear, as he has no mana by default. Use this to save yourself o
- Skywrath Mage needs to control the spacing between him and his opponents carefully. Skirt the outside of the fight and slow and silence enemies that attempt to shut you down, everything you can do has very long range and your turnspeed is very fast.
- The amplification of magic damage couples nicely with arcane bolt's bonus intelligence damage. Ancient Seal also silences your target, so use this to net kills early game.
- Arcane Bolt deals a lot of damage at level 1 to level 1 heroes. When coupled with Intelligence bonus items like Mantle of Intelligence, even more damage is dealt. The mana cost is also very low, so it's a wonderful harrassment tool. It will also make last-hitting an easy task when you have some good mana regen going.
- Skywrath Mage is a very squishy hero, so HP items are commonly built. When laning or in a teamfight, try to stay out of range of enemy auto-attacks, and use your skills from a distance, only jumping in when necessary. Force Staff solves this problem easily, allowing a quick escape if danger arises.
- Mystic Flare is much more efficient on single heroes during ganks, since they receive the full, undistributed damage amount. Try to use this with an ally's stun, however, as the AoE is very small, and very easy to escape out of when not disabled. Using Mystic Flare during a teamfight isn't a bad idea, but it only really works if all the enemies are stunned by a large AoE teamfight Ultimate, such as Magnus's Reverse Polarity. Mystic Flare can be used to kill off the remaining heroes after the stun has been successful.
- Rod of Atos can be a good early-mid game item, as it gives health and Intelligence: you will be more difficult to kill, and your Arcane Bolt will deal even more damage. Furthermore, the slow can be used to set up a perfect Mystic Flare.
- You will need to be extremely careful when facing heroes that can deal damage based on your mana pool or intelligence. Examples of this include Pugna's Nether Ward, Anti-Mage's Mana Void and Nyx's Mana Burn. If these heroes are giving you trouble, you may even wish to consider a Black King Bar of your own later in the game to keep you protected from these powerful counters during teamfights.
- It is common to begin ganking at level 6. Skywrath Mage needs all the farm he can get for his core items and all the experience for more levels, which equal more intelligence.
- Skywrath Mage's killing combo is to initate Ancient Seal, then attack with Concussive shot. Follow up with Mystic Flare and some Arcane Bolt's to finish them off. Most supports and squishy heroes like Sniper will drop right after Mystic Flare and one or two Arcane Bolts.
- It is best to lane with heroes with stuns like Vengeful Spirit, Lion or even Alchemist. Stuns guarantee that Skywrath Mage will be able to land his Mystic Flare. Similarily, Heroes with long lasting disables like Shadow Shaman can hold them in place long enough for Skywrath to hit them with some Arcane Bolt's and Mystic Flare.
- Stifling Dagger
has multiple uses. It should generally be the first skill maxed, as it
allows you to last hit creeps even if they are far from you and later on
allows you to slow enemies at a great range.
- Avoid using Stifling Dagger as a harass tool in the laning phase before level 5, as you'll be losing a good amount of CS and it won't deal enough damage to ward off your enemy. However, you should use it on enemy heroes when they back up and attempt to use non-combat items such as Clarity and Healing Salve.
- Depending on your team's strategy, Phantom Strike can be taken at level 1 as the increased DPS combined with allied disables can secure First Blood.
- Phantom Strike can target allies and enemies. Jumping to a friendly unit can be useful if Mortred needs to escape.
- Leveling Blur is usually not recommended early on. However, a single point can be very helpful if your lane opponents are primarily harassing you with basic attacks, or orb-walking.
- There is a temptation among unseasoned players to focus on the maximisation of attack damage, neglecting attack speed. However, focusing on attack speed generally produces more favourable results; her critical damage is gigantic even with low attack damage and high attack speed means she is much more likely to kill her target, as opposed to relying on huge-but-infrequent criticals. In essence, the faster her attack speed; the less likely you will fail to kill a target because of lack of luck; and three Coups de Graces with average base attack are much stronger than a single one with high base attack.
- However it is not advised to build Mask of Madness on her for increased attack speed in a similar manner that it is built on heroes with bash as Phantom Assassin has very poor health and has no means to disable her opponents from attacking her while she is more vulnerable whilst Faceless Void has Chronosphere that freezes his enemies and Spirit Breaker's Greater Bash, Charge of Darkness and Nether Strike prevent retaliation.
- Be very wary of enemies using Blade Mail, as Mortred's damage output is many times greater than her health pool, though with a Black King Bar you can alleviate the issue if the enemy does build a Blade Mail.
- In the laning Phase of the game sometimes if you are facing severe harassment and your team is incapable of giving you the space to farm your items you might want to consider building a Mekanism on your hero as her skills hardly use any mana and because of her low health pool Mortred can get up to 1/3 of her health back early on and contribute to her team earlier. This item gives you more survivability against both nukes and physical attacks. Though building a Mekanism is VERY situational on a hard carry.
