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Friday 30 March 2012

[Soul Reaper]



Skill Build
1 - Judgement
2 - Withering Presence
3 - Judgement
4 - Withering Presence
5 - Judgement
6 - Demonic Execution
7 - Judgement
8 - Withering Presence
9 - Withering Presence
10 - Stats
11 - Demonic Execution
12 - Stats
13 - Stats
14 - Stats
15 - Stats
16 - Demonic Execution
17 - Stats+
22 - Inhuman Nature+

Justification / Modifications:
This may look counter-intuitive but when you think about it, this is the best Skill Build in most cases. Inhuman Nature does help you lane early on, but it provides far little use beyond that (and thus we either take it very early or not at all). To use it properly you have to constantly push the lane, or simply not take advantage of the mana you get back. The aura harasses a bit in the lane, especially against people who completely rely on bottle or tangos, since they have absolutely nothing to counter-act the degen the aura provides. While it isn't game breaking, it does make a difference if they decide to tower dive or chase you. Stats can be taken just about any time over aura, as they provide a hitpoint boost and mana boost, in addition to regen.
Another Point is, that if you are babysitting someone you should let your carry get the last hits and thus Inhuman Nature is completely useless.

Starting Items:
Runes of the Blight, Health Potion, Mana Potion, 2x Minor Totem, Mana Battery

Core:
Power Supply >> Steam Boots >> Fortified Bracelet

Survivability and Mana Regen is what you need to be effective in Team fights. When laning leave the boots on int, later switch em to str for fights.

After Core:
Sacrificial Stone >> Frostfield Plate >> Kuldra's Sheepstick >> Post Haste >> Behemoth's Heart

I am listing that many items because Soul Reaper can actually be played very carry-heavy and he is a decent farmer. If you get some gear you will be a real threat to the opposing team and way more than just a good supporter. After the buff to Sac Stone it is easily the best first item if you choose the carry route.

Alternative Items:
- Nullstone: While being very good now it will stay situational. Get it to counter kill ultimates or targetet silence. (Swift, Pyro, BH, etc)
- Astrolabe: Can be gotten instead of Sac Stone if you go the full support or early push route.
- Nome's Wisdom: Subotimal choice. Consider it only if no one else is getting oneand get it right after core. Nice for early tanky-ness.

Information:
Roles: Semi-Carry, (Supporter)
Properties: Pusher, Nuker, Tank
Prefered Lane: Any
Difficulty: 3 - Medium
Farming capabilities: 4 - Good
Item dependancy: 4 - Heavy
Power:
- Early Game / Lane Control: 5 - Very Strong (Aura + Judgement is very dominant)
- Mid Game / Ganks: 3 - Medium
- Late Game / Team Fights: 3 - Medium (Can semi-carry if very well farmed)

30-Seconds-Guide:
- Soul Reaper moves very slow, having a base movespeed of 290(10 under average), as such most of his ganks will be done via counter ganks by utilizing the TP scrolls
- Either offensive or defensive, you should be at every team fight. You're far too useful at this stage in the game (~7-11) to not be in team fights, as you can literally be a 2k swing in damage with a single spell.
- In mid game, with strength treads on you should be tilting around 1.1-1.2k hitpoints, making you one of the highest health heroes (especially int heroes) in the game.

Counters:
- Magic Armor is solid against him.
- Don't try to counter him too much, better focus on you / your team getting stronger than him.

Sunday 25 March 2012

[Gauntlet]



Skill Build
1 - Infernal Instability
2 - Grapple
3 - Infernal Instability
4 - Cripple
5 - Infernal Instability
6 - Gauntlet Blast
7 - Infernal Instability
8 - Cripple
9 - Cripple
10 - Cripple
11 - Gauntlet Blast
12 - Stats
13 - Stats
14 - Stats
15 - Stats
16 - Gauntlet Blast
17 - Stats+
23 - Grapple+

Justification / Modifications:
Infernal Instability is what makes or breaks Gauntlet in his current state. Grapple and Cripple are both very lackluster. While Cripple serves as an Anti-Carry tool Grappe is just inferior to stats except the first level. Grapple is very situational already and 1.5 sec silence is not enough to compensate for 6 stats.

Lane Starting Items:
Logger's Hatchet, Runes of the Blight, Healing Potion, 2x Minor Totem, Mana Potion

Core:
Bottle >> Marchers >> Power Supply >> Ghost Marchers >> Storm Spirit

Bottle and Power Supply for his mana hungry spells and low Mana pool. Ghost Marchers to close up once you activate Infernal Instability and finally Storm Spirit for more mana and as the ultimative ganking tool.
Throw a hero into the air, run up and hit him with everything you've got.

After Core:
Shrunken Head >> Daemonic Breastplate

Gauntlet loses efficiency as the game goes on and he is not able to truly carry. These items help him to stay alive in team fights to hopefully allow him more than one big punch.

Alternative Items:

Portal Key: You can get this in place of Storm Spirit. It serves the same purpose just without the Manareg attached to it. Its a matter of taste but I find that Storm Spirit gets the job done good enough.


Information:
Roles: Ganker
Properties: Nuker
, Anti-Carry
Prefered Lane: Long/Short
Difficulty: 3 - Medium
Farming capabilities: 4 - Good (Instability)
Item dependancy: 3 - Medium
Power:
- Early Game / Lane Control: 4 - Stong (Smack 'em)
- Mid Game / Ganks: 5 - Very Strong (Smack 'em some more)
- Late Game / Team Fights: 2 - Weak (Tickle 'em. No Teamfight presence.)

30-Seconds-Guide:
- Activating Instability when you use your Ultimate is a very strong combo for 400 Magic + 400 True damage!
- After using storm spirit run up to your target and smack him with instability. Then pound him and finish off with your Ulti (can be caculated precisely since its true damage). Save Grapple to cancel chanelling spells.
- Unfortunately you can't do anything else but this.
- Btw, i don't recommend using instability with grapple, as it is very easy to miss with that, wasting 2 spells.
- You can also use Instability defensively. When you have 3 Charges and activate it, it will ignore all slow effects, allowing you to escape.

Counters:
- Any form of CC is good.
- Except for his initial burst, gauntlet won't do much. No need to worry much about him. He also loses power drasticly as the game goes to lategame.
- Try to keep him off your Carry.

Sunday 18 March 2012

[Chronos]


Skill Build
1 - Time Leap
2 - Rewind
3 - Time Leap
4 - Curse of Ages
5 - Time Leap
6 - Chronofield
7 - Time Leap
8 - Curse of Ages
9 - Curse of Ages
10 - Curse of Ages
11 - Chronofield
12 - Rewind
13 - Rewind
14 - Rewind
15 - Stats
16 - Chronofield
17 - Stats+

Justification / Modifications:
Escape, Nuke and Chase in one ability. Time Leap is superb and has to be maxed first. The first level of rewind gives you +10% chance to backtrack while each following level only gives 5%. Therefore we get that first level asap. Its much better than stats.
After that Curse of Ages is maxxed to increase your Lane presence.

Starting Items:
Runes of Blight, Healing Potion, Logger's Hatchet, 3x Minor Totem

Core:
(Iron Shield >>) Lifetube >> Steamboots >> Runed Axe >> Elder Parasite

Runed Axe is a very good staple item for Chronos. To get the most out of it build it asap. Get an Iron Shield if the lane is hard and you most likely also want an early Lifetube. Then build Steamboots and finish Runed Axe. If you have 3 or more hard carries on your team I strongly suggest you skip runed axe and go straight for Elder Parasite (because you will not have enough lanes/forest to farm with so many carries thus making Runed Axe a lot less effective).
Also core (altough arguably) is Elder Parasite, giving you the very effective attack speed to steal agility and bash under Chronofield. Some prefer to get Elder Parasite before Runed Axe; I usually don't.


After Core:
Geometer's Bane >> Savage Mace >> Riftshards (>> Shrunken Head)

Geometer's adds much needed survivability to this build.. If you see yourself dying too early in fights get a Shrunken Head earlier or go for a Behemoth's Heart. Shrunken is very situational (more so than on other heroes). Usually you can eliminate the main threat in your chrono field. Should you still get CCd/Nuked to fast after Chrono field you can consider Shrunken.

Alternative Items:
Charged Hammer: Attackspeed and damage. A popular choice, especially in pubs.

Information
Roles: Hard-Carry
Properties: None
Prefered Lane: Short
Difficulty: 3 - Medium (There is a huge difference between Chronofield and well placed and timed Chronofield)
Farming capabilities: 2 - Weak (Good Base Damage)
Item dependancy: 5 - Very Heavy
Power:
- Early Game / Lane Control: 2 - Weak (Time Leap is pretty darn awesome)
- Mid Game / Ganks: 1 - Very Weak (Needs a lot of farm)
- Late Game / Team Fights: 5 - Very Strong (One of the most potent Carries)

30-Seconds-Guide
- This hero needs a lot of farm, and he is not very good at it. After the laning phase go to the lane pushed the least and ask your teammates to leave so you can "static farm" (farming while counter-pushing the lane to stay safe).
- Try to place the Chronofield to trap your enemies right at the edge of the sphere. This way your melee allies can still attack them.
- Always carry a Homecoming Stone when farming so you can Time Leap into the forest and TP out when you get ganked.

Counters:
- One Word: Barbed Armor. Chronos will instagib himself when he attacks you into Barbed Armor when he has Elder Parasite on.
- Don't let him free-farm. It's not easy to gank him due to time leap but try to not let him solo farm a lane. Scaring him away is enough. A few coordinated ganks during the mid game will significantly hurt him. __

Saturday 10 March 2012

[Accursed]



Skill Build
1 - Fire Shield
2 - Cauterize
3 - Fire Shield
4 - Cauterize
5 - Fire Shield
6 - Flame Consumption
7 - Fire Shield
8 - Cauterize
9 - Cauterize
10 - Sear
11 - Flame Consumption
12 - Sear
13 - Sear
14 - Sear
15 - Stats
16 - Flame Consumption
17 - Stats+

Justification / Modifications:
Standard build for all situations. I don't think it is ever worth to delay your ultimate or to get an early level of sear.

Lane Starting Items:
2x Healing Potion, 2x Mana Potion, Guardian Ring, 2x Minor Totem

Core:
Ring of the Teacher >> (Power Supply >>) Marchers >> Nome's Wisdom OR Ring of Sorcery

Ring of the Teacher can be completed at the outpost. Then get either Nome's or Ring of Sorcery depending on your team. I prefer Nome's if no one else plans to get it. Power Supply is situational and can be skipped.
If you don't get Power Supply i recommend you get a Fortified Bracelet instead.

After Core:

Ghost Marchers OR Plated Greaves >> Astrolabe >> Barrier Idol >> Behemoth's Heart


The full support route.

Alternative Items:
- Abyssal Skull: Great item if you have other heroes on your team to profit from it. Get it after Astrolabe or Barrier Idol.

Information:
Roles: Babysitter, Supporter, Tank
Prefered Lane: Short/Long
Difficulty: 4 - Hard (Easy to learn, hard to master)
Farming capabilities: 3 - Decent
Item dependancy: 3 - Medium
Power:
- Early Game / Lane Control: 4 - Strong
- Mid Game / Ganks: 3 - Medium
- Late Game / Team Fights: 4 - Strong (Carry-Support, Tanking)

30-Seconds-Guide:
- Your Bread and Butter in the early game is to apply Fire Shield to yourself and then cast Cauterize on your enemies. This will blow up your Fire Shield and deal very high burst damage to your opponent.
- As long as you have enough mana, keep your lane partner's health topped.
- But try to always have mana for at least one Fire Shield.
- Remember that Fire Shield removes a range of debuffs, most importantly slow effects.
- Accursed is a pretty effective tower diver. Diving into tower range with a Fire Shield while right clicking your enemy will make sure the shield blows up and your enemy takes the damage. Using this can easily net you some early game kills.
- In team fights use your skills DEFENSIVELY!! Don't nuke spam cauterize, use it to keep your most fragile carry up!! You have the best burst heal in the game.

Counters:
- There are heroes that can kill accursed without triggering his ultimate. This is achieved by dealing more damage than his remaining HP with one single spell while his ultimate is not yet activated. The following heroes can do this relatively easy: Legionnaire (Decapitate is instant kill even while his ulti is ON), Witchslayer, Pyromancer, Deadwood.
- The vast majority of Accursed you will meet will go this or a similar support route. You can't really counter that. He has no obvious weakness. Simply ignore him and kill his team mates first. He is a P.I.T.A. to kill as you need to do it twice.

Tuesday 6 March 2012

[Pandamonium]



Skill Build
1 - Flick
2 - Cannonball
3 - Cannonball
4 - Flurry
5 -Cannonball
6 - Face Smash
7 -Cannonball
8 -Flurry
9 - Flurry
10 - Flurry
11 - Flick
12 - Flick
13 - Flick
14 - Face Smash
15 - Stats
16 - Face Smash
17 - Stats+

Justification / Modifications:
The reason you don't get Face Smash level 2 on level 11 is, that the duration doesn't increase, while the mana cost does. Face Smash is a disable not a nuke, so same duration for less Mana is to be prefered especially since you are pretty starved on mana anyways.

Starting Items:
Runes of the Blight, Healing Potion, Logger's Hatchet, 3x Minor Totem

Core:
(Bottle >>) Ghost Marchers >> Power Supply >> Shrunken Head

I usually get a bottle but it is not always needed. Make sure you get Ghost Marchers asap, the earlier the better. Once you have them it will be very hard for your enemies to dodge your flicks and kills start happening. Power Supply is core. In most of the games you will then work for a Shrunken Head. If you don't need one get Insanitatious.
Insanitarious allows you to kill any creep wave with 3 flurries and it makes your ulti so much stronger.

After Core:
(Insanitarious >>) Behemoth's Heart >> Portal Key >> Riftshards

If your farm doesn't go well get Insanitarious. The buildup is superb! If your farm is going decent you can skip Insanitarious and go for Heart directly. Behemoth's Heart will give you a big damage boost for your skills as it greatly increases your base damage. Portal Key for initiation or for blink-ult on their carry. Riftshard crits do happen during Face Smash. If you lack initiation get Key before Heart.

Alternative Items:
- Barbed Armor: Depending on your role this is the first item after your core.

NEVER GET RUNED AXE ON PANDAMONIUM!
I see so many pub players do this but please don't! Runed axe gives you a cleave but with insanitarious you will instagib creep waves with your flurry, you do absolutely not need Cleave! The flat damage bonus on Runed Axe does not further increase the damage of your skills eihter because it does not increase base damage (again, insanitarious does increase base damage) and if you only want it for the manareg simply get a Bottle and Power Supply.
Always get Insanitarious over Runed Axe for damage and farming!

Information:
Roles: Ganker, Semi-Carry
Properties: Pusher
Prefered Lane: Short
Difficulty: 4 - Hard
Farming capabilities: 4 - Good (Flurry)
Item dependancy: 4 - Heavy (Abilities scale with items)
Power:
- Early Game / Lane Control: 3 - Medium
- Mid Game / Ganks: 4 - Strong (Very strong midgame ganker)
- Late Game / Team Fights: 3 - Medium

30-Seconds-Guide:
- With the slow of level one flick you are not guaranteed to land your cannonball. Try to anticipate where the enemy is running or wait a second for him to start running before you cannonball.
- With level 3+ flick you are pretty much guaranteed to land cannonball if queued after flick.
- When ganking a lane use flick/cannonball on one hero then switch to the other hero and face smash him while your team mates finish off both heroes.
- Cannonball can be used as an escape skill. But don't use it to just "blink" away as you will be stunned after you land. Use it to jump up/down cliffs or into the forest where the enemy can't reach you.

Counters:
- Stack Armor. ALL his damage is physical and thus subject to mitigation by Armor. Nome's Wisdom, Plated Greaves, etc work fine.
- If he is rushing A Shrunken Head consider building a Tablet of Command to interrupt his Face Smash. This is critical if he can disable your carry with it.

Friday 2 March 2012

[Predator]



Skill Build
1 - Venomous Leap
2 - Stone Hide
3 - Venomous Leap
4 - Carnivorous
5 - Venomous Leap
6 - Terror
7 - Venomous Leap
8 -Carnivorous
9 - Carnivorous
10 - Carnivorous
11 - Terror
12 - Stone Hide
13 - Stone Hide
14 - Stone Hide
15 - Stats
16 - Terror
17 - Stats+

Justification / Modifications:
Standard build for most situations. If you jungle, max Carnivorous first obviously.
It is possible to delay Terror to levels 10 and 11 but I prefer to get it at 6.

Starting Items:
Runes of the Blight, Healing Potion, 2x Crushing Claw, 2x Minor Totem

Core:
Logger's Hatchet >> Steam Boots >> Shield Breaker

One of the biggest advantages Predator has over other strengths carries is, that he does not need a Shrunken Head for his core. This allows him to go directly for damage items and making him become effective much earlier. If your farm is slacking a bit and you have troubles saving up for Shield Breaker you can build Insanitarious instead. It also a very solid choice but has a better buildup.

After Core:
Warpcleft >> Daemonic Breastplate >> Behemoth's Heart >> Riftshards

Daemonic Breastplate gives you all the stats you need. Riftshards is pure luxury.

Alternative Items:
- Insanitarious: As mentioned
- Elder Parasite: It is good since carnivorous scales very well with attack speed and the additional life leech with the Parasite and Carnivorous somewhat make up for the damage taken (IF you can attack). That being said either get it early (instead of sheildbreaker) or just get Warpcleft (I prefer the latter). NEVER GET IT WITH SHIELDBREAKER AS THEY WONT STACK.
- Shrunken Head: Is an option in very magic heavy matchups. It's by no means useless but very situational. The stats it provides are however sub par. You want attack speed and -Armor.

Information:
Roles: Hard-Carry
Properties: (Anti-Tank)
Prefered Lane: Short, (Jungle)
Difficulty: 2 - Easy
Farming capabilities: 4 - Good (Very high base damage, built-in life leech)
Item dependancy: 4 - Heavy
Power:
- Early Game / Lane Control: 2 - Weak (Dangerous with capable babysitter)
- Mid Game / Ganks: 2 - Weak (Needs farm)
- Late Game / Team Fights: 5 - Very Strong

30-Seconds-Guide:
- You have a very good Base damage and attack animation, last hitting should be pretty easy.
- Don't simply activate Stone hide right after you leap. Only activate it if you need it. It requires some practice and anticipation to use it correctly.
- You can block spells mid-air with Stone hide. For example even when Hammerstorm's Hammer is already flying it will not stun you and do no damage to you if you manage to activate Stone Hide before the hammer hits.

Counters:
- Predator is one of those carries that start to hit like a truck with just one big item (shieldbreaker usually). Unlike other Hardcarries he doesn't require a ton of farm to be very effective. The more important it is to deny him any early farm on his lane.
- 2 things make you get destroyed by pred: If you have a lot of HP pred will leech an insane amount of life with each hit. If you have low armor and he can reduce it to around 0 or even below he tears through you like butter.
- So don't stack HP, but armor instead. Ulti + Shieldbreaker reduces 11 armor. So you want to have a LEAST 15 Armor, better 20+. Anything below 15 Armor will make you get crushed. -> Plague Rider is actually a soild counter as pred heavily relies on armor reduction.
- Plated Greaves and Nome's Wisdom are a good against him. Nome's offers 3 Armor to the whole team.