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argggh101

Dominating Posts: 151 Joined: 13 Jun 2008 5816 gold

How to improve your gameplay - part 2.5 What's awesome

Posted: Fri Jul 18, 2008 2:33 am

YAP. Express delivery choo choo. I might not update much anymore as I will be busy very soon so I wanted to complete as much possible even though no one reads it. I have nothing better to do anyway. Last two articles covered how to lane and the concept of individual skill and improving it via introducing extra perspective into the game some less experienced players may not have thought about. So without further ado, here is the next article.

Links to previous articles
How to lane
Awareness and game insights
Some mad potm replays inside if coco wants to use lol.

This article is gonna be about item strategies and things to know about the current game. I'm doing this because people always ask what's a good this, how to counter that. Also many people have problems with starting builds in 5v5 games. I will touch on the current problem heroes and common item build errors or incorrect thinking. This is also because Icefrog is clever and nudges his changes in such minor proportions very few people will ever notice the game changes unless it slapped them in the face (see blink dagger nerf).

*Coming Soon - UNDERRATED HEROES AND HOW TO USE THEM*

Superheroes
The premiere of 6.53 heroes that will give you problems. They have almost unlimited versatility and have powerhouse abilities that can be gamebreaking.

Beastmaster

Boasts a skillset that is currently very high tier. All his skills bypass black king bar and has a legal maphack. Stuns and slows in his arsenal, he has an added ranged aoe nuke and minor dps skill. Often seen jungling from level 1, soloing mid, or double laning with a slow which is a crazy good lane. He is also the only hero to perform the ledge exploit on scourge which allows him to creep ancients from level 1 without creep pulls or tangoes. Can be played as a solo ganger.

Powerhouse counters: wards and powerful lane controller. Cripple his jungling by warding his neuts. Alternatively ward the rune spots to prevent him from abusing them. Place a more powerful hero in his lane to prevent him from farming up his core item(necro 3 or heart). Gang him if he tries jungling to avoid the lane if you can; his maphawk might be looking elsewhere otherwise it is wasted time and you shouldn't bother.

Zeus

Good solo, babysitter. Known rune abuser to keep his lightning spam up. Can solo some hard lanes. Owns people across the map which immensely increases the success of gangs and antigangs. Static field scales up ok lategame. Breaks blink teams and gives sight so easily. The ultimate hard nuker that brings most heroes to their knees, even the fat tree with tangoes and regen spell.

Powerhouse counters: Many stuns, he is fat, short and slow, you will kill him really easy unless you're low on hp. Take his runes so he has no mana. Also his power wears off very fast if he didn't bother to farm and you put a super hard lane at the start. Just don't turn it into the Merlini zeus triple kill scene.

Warlock

A hero that is problematic because no one cares about him. He is not worth focusing; as long as he put a shadow word up, used fatal bonds and dropped a rock his work is done. He can heal weak agi heroes like mad. He solos well and is fat in the lane because he has 2.5 strength gain, good base hp and people go stats. Shadow word really spammable. Rock is a great initiate and fatal bonds really synergizes with aoe teams. The infernal generates a lot of threat and is very good well into earlylate game.

Powerhouse counters: diffusal blades. If he buys refresher, he'll just feed you money.

Omniknight

The current superman. So versatile, he can solo, gang, support and carry. Item builds so varying from radiance to arcane to shiva to refresher. Pure aoe nuke with heal that is equal to a level 1 laguna blade. Passive aoe slow means it's hard to run from him and repel is one nasty support spell. Without the old blink dagger, he can force fights at a complete disadvantage with guardian angel.

Powerhouse counters : Doombringer with diffusal. Purge the carry so he is no longer magic immune and silence superman so he doesn't pop guardian or you're in big trouble. AOE mavens work well too as guardian gets owned by mass magic.

High tiers
Some good heroes some people find problems with.

AOE disable

Endless 5x5 capabilities. Can solo in exception of earthshaker. Not much to say about their power in teamfights or smaller skirmishes. Note well, most of these heroes listed are high-mid like tidehunter and magnataur and tree. Same principle though.

Powerhouse counters: Strong lanes,necro 3, pugna, silencer. Note neither of these heroes make the omgbbq lane. Apart from earthshaker they don't have guaranteed killing power in lane. Necrobook 3 is like the gayest thing if you're playing one of these. Tree's invis is useless, mana burn is 225 and feedback is 75 mana lost per hit. Pugna's netherward has passive mana degen and mana flare that will make them pay a bit. Silencer is the ultimate initiate counter. Puck doesn't get owned by necro 3 but his solo is not as strong as some others because he has low hp.

Chen

Strong early gamer, superganging qualities and pushes tower really fast. Heal is also very powerful in a push as it makes people hard to take down at level 10-11. Usually packs meka and support items. Some push oriented players actually buy flasks of sapphire water to heal comrades so they can take multiple towers in one go. You absolutely cannot jungle if he is on the other team. He'll just walk in dominate the high level creep you are killing and mob you with it.

Powerhouse counters: Enchantress, midas(really situational), wards, tp scrolls, AOE and ff. If he gets high level creeps you can try to midas. I think they give less bounty but lessens the numbers in a fight. Enchantress can charm his creeps and kill his low hp with impetus. She is another jungler to counter his. Ward his neuts but he may actually go your jungle and kill your lane there instead. he usually dives with high level creep support so if another lane is getting owned tp in and antigang him. AOE his creeps and take him out first if they are using him as a key hero. No global heal = gg.

Lich King

Triple kill ult paired with ultimate lane control skills and endless mana. Good solo and double laner.1000 range frost nova. Harass is top notch and pushes very easily with frost armour and meka.

Powerhouse counters : Mageslayers, he has low hp so enough burst damage and he will die. Silences can help. Not much you can do about him if his ult goes off so you need some bkb OR you learn good team positioning. When the team is pushing or defending key points learn to fan out and run if the nova is coming. Have many creeps nearby and minimize bounces on your heroes. Really bad if he has an earthshaker with him. If he doesn't farm he still is potentially dangerous. Take him in key fights and not isolated 2v1, 3v1 or you'll eat chain nova and all die. It's really embarassing if that happens.

Skeleton King

Moved up a tier because of said item. High hp, high damage, heavy lifesteal. He is one of the strongest and most reliable str based dpsers in the game at the moment. Good ganger because he can just come back if he dies to tower.

Powerhouse counters: Necro 3, manaburners, corruption. Manaburn obviously makes it really easy because he dies for good. Cut off his farm because unlike sven who has a free dd, he really needs to last hit in lane and he has no innate farming ability. He has low armour so you can try to use slardar or deso to make it easier to bring him down.

Why won't his hp go down??

High physical damage resistance. With ring of health he is almost impossible to dislodge from his lane. Splash frost late game is no joke and allows him to farm up a storm. If you see a rapier/buriza call it gg. Can solo, jungle or double lane. Can roam also but it's horrible because his stun has crap range.

Powerhouse counter: Mana burners. No fire = no farm. No stun = useless. Bring bkb if you need it, I don't think it's too important. Other than that, burst magic dmg like lina is really powerful because he has low hp compared to most other str heroes. Pure damage like obsidian, silencer and enchant cuts through his high armour. Slardar works too, I doubt deso or cuirass will hurt him enough but it's worth a shot.

Nerubian assassin

Takes out low hp heroes instantly. Shuts down any lane with manaburn and is one of the best 1v1 and ganger heroes in the game. Probably the highest instant burst damage assassin in earlymid with dagon.

Powerhouse counters: Sentries are often used but you don't pack that many and sometimes he can just pop into view and instantly kill you anyway. No. 1 tip vs NA, TURN UP YOUR SOUND. Lower music volume and turn on your sound. You will hear a whooshing sound when he goes invis. If he doesn't farm, he loses out midgame. Without a dagon at level 11, his killing ability drops like a rock. Naturally necro 3 owns, and force a lot of teamfights. NA is only good in small encounters. In big fights he disables one guy and dies. Rune raid a lot because most NA buy bottle.

Mid tier monsters

Broodmama

Moderately high hp, nigh on unkillable with ultimate turned on. Slows heroes and dpses like crazy. Good solo and can go pusher build with arcane. This usually takes teams offguard by pushing the sidelane when people are unaware which kills towers like NP.

Powerhouse counters : Very few. Sentries are okay in lane. You will need gangs early to delay the black king bar. Pack aoe to kill the spiderlings. Earthshaker works really well for obvious reasons. Get heroes that can disable through bkb if she goes that route. Diffusal if it wears off or diffusal her if she doesn't buy bkb anyway. Permabashers work well too. See spirit breaker if she tries spawning spiderlings through neutrals.

BBQ killers

Endgame, these guys are really powerful. Simply put, the way the game is, you cannot guarantee they will be itemless anymore because the game is currently geared towards lategamers. And i assure you a well played carry will start seeing effect around level 11, itemless or not.

Powerhouse counters: hex, buy many hexes. Stun wont cut it sometimes because hex removes some passives like evasion. Bring a lot of damage into the fight and bkb if you're vsing spectre because her dispersion is magic damage. Naturally early ganging is good.

Powerful disablers

Ogre isn't a disabler per se because his stun is not as long, but he has an AOE slow which seems to be very powerful this version and bloodlust which scales very well lategame. Lion boasts hex and impale. With buffed manadrain, he has an alternate skill route so he can spam impale nonstop in lane. With their disables and bloodlust, they interact well with lategamers which seems to take precedence these versions.

Powerhouse counters: They don't have too much mana to spam without farm and levels so they need a moderate amount to remain viable in late. Strong lanes and watch for their gangs to prevent them from killing you while taking out the weakass lion. I prefer ogre overall although they suit slightly different purposes. Lion is easy to kill. He doesn't take stats a lot and isn't the best farmer so focus fire him and he should drop easily. Ogre takes a bit longer and you might want to do it later because bloodlusted carries are more threatening. Naturally mass bkb should own them.

Underrated heroes and how to use them

Lina and leshrac

After blink bottle got hit by a mass nerf, no one knew what to do with these heroes. They certainly moved down a notch and lina definitely got the short end of the stick. I think leshrac is still a powerhouse and lina is still playable.

How to play: Itemization and more caution needs to be exercised. Leshrac is fairly easy, get the basic items and fatten up with hp. No more blinking, just heart and bkb after your scepter. Lina is really debatable. Euls is sometimes > guinsoo because you might want movespeed and guinsoo may not be farmable. Don't initiate where you can't, you can't afford to feed from a failed skirmish and not have a free blink out. Euls -> stun is nice. Bottle is viable, don't get it if there are 2 bottles already on the team, get pers in that instance.

Tinker

Return of the powerhouse gangers. His burst damage and ability to turn fights with boots of travels are so immensely powerful. He is more viable than before 6.50. With the buff to int item options, he is never short of item routes.

How to play: Solo mid with early bottle travels. Spam runes to kill your lane and start your tp spam. Go guinsoo first. No linkens, guinsoo gives you fatness and shivas is so much better. Get skadi as well. Skadi with manta on ranged works but skadi is overrided. You have slows eitherway so feedback is fine. So that would be the ideal build I would use. When you hit 16, keep hexing and nuking, then shiva spam and refresh. Repeat.

Sand King

Currently thought be long gone but far from it. More difficult to play now but the AOE is still good.

How to play: Basilius to cover your armour. Blink bottle like the old days or bkb. Cuirass/guinsoo after if it is farmable. Radiance is okay too. Gang lightly and farm a bit. Sandstorm while your epicenter is going. The fadeback time should cover your escape slightly or mask your impale.

Keeper of the suck

Okay hero, often thought to be useless but is good at pushing side lanes without being there, as well as being host to a new set of strategies like the tp anywhere naix and possibly the backdoor pitlord ultimate(never tried this one)

How to play: Illuminate harass at the start, jungle with summons if you can and push the lanes when your team is ready. Basic build includes meka, basilius, guinsoo and heart. Leak the casters and primary disablers. Sometimes, the initiator like tidehunter casts his ultimate first anyway and there's nothing you can do about it so pick your target well. Lion is a prime example. After he impales with leak on, he has nothing.

*To be finished*
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Overrated items
These items I consider really overrated by many players. Nonetheless they are very useful in correct situations

Vlads

Overrated 100%. Get it if you're pushing, get it when you can actually use it. I know it's 2k gold but so many people give it too much credit for what it's worth and buy it right off the bat. Wrong. It delays so many good items and you can't even use the lifesteal or damage aura well at the start. Natural upgrade to basilius so upgrade when it's necessary.

Vanguard stacking

Get one only. It costs 2.075k btw. So if you stack it, you get minimal block benefits increase and you pay 4.15k gold for 2 vanguards when for 5.5k you get a heart which gives you DOUBLE hp and strength to boot. Do not get it on ranged heroes please. You get minimal use out of it because it's a primary creep tanking item. So here's a rough list of heroes who can use it : centaur, antimage, bristleback.

Overpowered items QQQ
These items give too much for what it's worth or have too much usefulness.

The Arm of Mordor

For those who don't know the activated stats of this item, it is 25 strength, 40 damage, 5 armour, 3hp regen/sec, 35 hp degen, 25% attack speed. Now pack that into a 2.8k item. It costs slightly more than a vanguard but gives more hp when activated. Many people complain it's bad because it degens, well guess what, activating it HEALS you by 475 hp so you can turn it on in bursts. This is good in mindgames as well because if you are on 10 hp and lina tries to dragon slave you, walk back and turn this on. Works on any str dps hero and agility heroes to a minor extent : see brood or PA.

Sheepstick, Guinsoo

This just barely made it in because it's parts are horribly expensive. But the buildup is not as bad as some people think it is. If you need regen, get void first, need stats, get ultimate orb first. It costs less now so it's like 5.6k. It gives allround stats while also giving crazy mana regen. The hex is REALLY REALLY STUPID. It has 1000 range. Yes, 1000 range.

Underrated Items
Overlooked or thought to be "noobs only"

Noobs only item

This is a really good item in some situations. If they have dps heroes going out of control you will need this. Possible heroes are spiritbreaker, antimage and nightstalker. Even Slardar can use it with his crap A/S but with the arm of mordor he can pack cheap dps. The only reasoning why I put it on some str heroes with passive bash is because they won't proc as much as if you had void or troll. Also it gives 30 damage and 3 str.

Ladder playing fag's item

Not given enough credit by some people. Summons two pokemon that mana burn and have superpowers. It is immensely powerful. Can shut down lineups that have low mana str casters, potm lineups, invis assassins. It also gives ward sweeping potential, buffs summons like pig or infernal with endurance aura which if coupled with basilius can be powerful in a fight or pushing towers. Similarly they have high hp regen to tank towers and help neutral and kill creep waves. Possible heroes : Rexxar, lich, pugna, qop, warlock, new lycan, bane and Rhasta.

Kelen's Dagger of mass fail

Get it 100% on earthshaker, magnataur, centaur. Invaluable for positioning. It requires a lot more skill than before but you can use it for escaping and chasing. Just blink backwards before they reach you and if you are chasing, I doubt they will be hitting you back so you can blink up to them. It is ok on lina and zeus. Also very good on tiny still to blink and toss backwards.

Dual Crystalys

Not many people know about these and crystalys is often overlooked but is one of the most cost efficient items in the game. 4.6k gold for 70 damage and 19% chance to crit. Talk about dirt cheap. Possible on terrorblade, void and luna. Don't ask me about the tb thing, you make buriza and sell second one ofc. It isn't bad cos it "doesn't transfer to images". Crit still works.

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Starting Items
A good game comes from a good start. So starting items are kind of important. I know fwii made a post in the library but this is including structure and I am not gonna just list them. Of course there will be reasoning. This is on the basis of a 5v5 ap game because i think it's the most commonly played. You should take some time to think about it because it should suit your role and style.

Aggressive build

This is your basic aggressive laning build. Take note that it's 4 tangoes you're packing in there. It works on every hero, is very easy to remember and gives enough regen and mana regen to score very powerful early harasses or kills. If you want to be a prosu wannabe, this is also vigoss' build and he's the no 1 rated player in the world.

Farmer build

Contrary to popular belief this is not a pure harassing build. Why you may ask? You only have 2 tangoes in this. You max your primary stat and bring an ironwood for minor stat boost in all areas. This is a mainly last hitting build. Since you boost your primary stat by 10, you should have no problems gauging damage.

Cross

4 tangoes and circlets. You can adjust number of tangoes as well to include more stat items. This is a cross because it gives you minor mana bonus for spells to harass a bit.

Chicken buyer

Chicken buyer build. Nothing else to add

Specialist ganger

Gang warder build. Plant the ward on the rune spot at the start and in the creep pull neutral. Pack your clarity to get another spell in quick. You can do this on vengeful and venom.

First blood

Good first blood item in most cases. Get on pudge and juggernaut. There are some special mentions as well. Chen in the enemy jungle can get this because his hax ms with boots at the start kills people ez. Also an innovation with pugna solo mid. Usually used in conjunction with basilius. If you have good micro you can abuse your high ms to blast a tower and run out for a quick tower kill = 500 gold in your pocket and 200 in your allies. This can break some games as the middle lane is short and you can quickly get rax which is powerful strat if done very early.

HoiW rush

Unbuyable with starting money. Don't buy anything. Ferry it in on chicken or buy from side shop. +5 armour and +3 hp regen is actually really really good. Underestimated and allows you to get good items faster.

Ring of prot

Heroes that start with 0 armour can use this(see tiny and sand king). It is okay and I don't use it often at all. Upgrade into basilius or arcane ring.

Desperate solo

Get this for suicidal lanes only. For heroes with good base damage and solo. Like treant.

Patented spectre build

Common spectre build. 6 tangoes for super survivability and all round stats. Bad because you can't upgrade into anything useful unless you like meka spectre.

Conclusion
Know what heroes are good and how they function on the opposing team. Organize your team to counter. Know item or innate hero counters. Get a good starting build that's easy to remember or you can fail very badly. Work in progress so I will update this a bit whenever. Btw does anybody know how to align the pictures horizontally. SAM1 PLS STICKY DIS CUZ IT'S MAD AND SHOWS DA NABS DOTA SHIZ.

Last edited by argggh101 on Sun Jul 27, 2008 2:25 am; edited 10 times in total