Lion
“Hand it over. Paid handsomely. Cross my palms. I’ll put the squeeze on you. I’ve got a power grip. Spiiiiiike!!! I’m not ready. It’s not time yet. Oh hell yes! I would have pawned my golden glove for this”, are just some of Lion’s in-game dialogue bits. His dialogue is a testament to the amount of thought and attention to detail Valve has poured into Dota 2 in order to make it an entertaining game to play; his skills also do the same. Consider the potential to render someone useless for almost seven seconds, get mana on-demand, and deal around a thousand damage every 20 seconds (with the right items). When a stranger gives you the finger, you get pissed off. When Lion gives you the finger, you will probably die. Yep, no doubt about it, Lion will defile you.
“I’ve been to hell and back, and back to hell, and back”
Every trip to hell, Lion turns more and more into Jon Lovitz
Every trip to hell, Lion turns more and more into Jon Lovitz
Keep in MindCourier, wards, and mobility – these are pretty much all you need as Lion in terms of items.
Let your carry farm and get all the gold. The only auto-attacks you throw at creeps should be directed at your own, when you try to deny them from the enemy.
Two points in Mana Drain early will allow you to spam your Earth Spike indefinitely. Spike the enemy hero, then Mana Drain him or a ranged enemy creep. Rinse and repeat. Advanced Tactic #1 – Spike the enemy hero when he’s about to get a last hit.
When going for a gank, try not to stack your disables. When you hit an Earth spike, attack a couple of times before you cast that Hex, and vice versa. This allows you to maximize the time when your enemy can do nothing. Communicate with your teammates if they also have their own disables. Use the in-game voice feature if you have to.
Casting your Finger of Death on an enemy with just a sliver of health seems a waste, unless he gets to escape otherwise. Be aware of its damage at every level, and try to cast it early to finish-off an enemy hero with less time and effort.
Here’s another person who says you should buy courier and wards with Lion.
Ogre Magi
The Ogre Magi provides great utility skills while adding a flavor of chance to the otherwise predictable game mechanics of Dota 2. All of his skills are ranged: a single-target stun/nuke, an (eventually) Area of Effect (AoE) slow/nuke, and a cheap attack speed and movement speed buff. His ultimate, Multi-cast, provides every skill with a chance to be applied multiple times – up to four times at maximum level. He is not item-dependent; his skills allow him to hold his own for the early until mid-game. For the gentleman who likes to roll the dice, this hero’s skill dynamics might satisfy more than his craving for good matches. There are few things more satisfying than popping your foe with a lucky Multi-Cast.
Seriously, if this guy can do it, so can you
Keep in Mind
"It's smarter to be lucky than lucky to be smart"Pippin - The Broadway Musical
You have two heads. One buys the courier, the other buys the wards. And yes, this is the exact same thing we said about Jakiro.You don’t need too many items. A pair of Arcane Boots to sustain your spells and a Force Staff for the overall utility are enough to make a significant contribution. Knowing this, you should not steal farm from your carry. Let him have all the last hits in lane. You get your farm from pulling and ganking.
Ogre Magi has an amazing six base armor at level 1. This means that physical damage he takes is reduced by a lot (26.5% for your nerdy newbs looking for your math fix). Have an enemy Sniper in your lane? Trade hits with that little dwarf and watch him cry home to mama – if his mama was a fountain.
Advanced Tactic #2 – munch on a tango before trading hits with your enemy. For goodness’ sake don’t wait until your HP is below 50% before using your regen.
Ignite deals more damage than Fireblast at every level, albeit over time. This is mostly a useless tidbit for newbs, but remembering it when you need just a little bit of extra damage might mean a dead enemy instead of a retreating one.
You can cast Bloodlust on creeps. Similar to Lich’s Ice Armor, casting Bloodlust on your outgoing creep waves will help them push, especially if Multi-cast kicks-in.
It is still possible to cast ten Fireblasts in a row and not get a single multi-cast. For these occasions, the customary course of action is to type “IceFrog!!!!” in All-chat.
Want someone to hold your hand while playing Ogre Magi? Purge’s in-game build will willingly do it for you. More on Hero Builds here.
Tidehunter
Tidehunter’s diet spans a variety of things, from small diatoms and planktons to the giant blue whale. How he eats microscopic organisms with his physiology (giant teeth with wide gaps between – not really suited for filter feeding which is the commonly evolved strategy) is a mystery. What’s clear though is his ability to eat tons of nukes and disables better than most heroes in the game. He can make his enemies hurt more and make them hurt his friends less. He’s the perfect candidate to bite the bullet for his carry. In his case, he may even make a meal out of it, then turn things around with his tentacles. Tentacles everywhere!
Press "R" to Win - Tidehunter cleans house
Keep in MindBuy the courier at the start of the game. Buy wards throughout. Pros do it and so should you.
A quickly-farmed carry is oftentimes better than a quickly-farmed support Tidehunter. Don’t hog the lane for gold and exp. Stack, pull and gank to earn your keep.
Leveling Gush over Anchor Smash is usually preferred when playing as a support. It drops your target’s armor by five at max level while slowing them down considerably, meaning your friendly Luna and Sniper get to wail on that hero harder, and for longer.
Anchor Smash is your second priority ability. Use it to farm the jungle or the lane quicker later on, but during the early game its main purpose is to emasculate the enemy carry. Everyone hit by this skill deals 40% less base damage.
A level of Kraken Shell early game pays off. You don’t get it for the damage block. You get it for removing debuffs after taking 600 damage. As long as you don’t die immediately from all the disables thrown at you, this guarantees your ability to cast Ravage.
In a team fight, dying after Gushing a high-priority target, Anchor Smashing the hardest hitting enemy carry, eating all the stuns and disables and then casting Ravage is considered a job well done.
Did these tips fail to tide you over? Maybe this will help.
Vengeful Spirit
[color=gold]Shout-out to The_End. Click the Image.
[/color]Here are a couple of things we know about Vengeful Spirit: She holds a grudge against another girl (her sister) and vows to get revenge.
She ignores a childhood friend who loves her : she never mentions nor alludes to Draconus the Skywrath Mage.If she also fell exclusively for Skywrath jerks and then proceeded to call all Skywrath males assholes, she’d be your stereotypical popular human high school cheerleader. Her three spells are pretty straightforward, but her ultimate is a bit trickier to use effectively. For newbs looking for a bit more challenge (i.e. risk of being flamed) in their play, Vengeful Spirit is one to consider.
Keep in MindVenge excels at playing aggressively during the early stages of the game. Setting up ganks and such could usually net you kills when the enemy heroes are not yet tanky. You need ward vision to make this happen, so buy them. You probably need the courier to deliver your wards to you, so buy it as well.
Stacking and pulling the jungle while babysitting your carry is probably not the best way to play Venge (ZOMG that’s blasphemy!). Try your best to farm heroes instead of creeps during the early stages.
Magic Missile provides a rather long 1.45s stun at level 1, making it arguably the most reliable stun for a support when the bell rings. This make it a great level 1 pick-up. Just note that its stun duration peaks at 1.75s, making it not as effective as other support disables later in the game.
Can you imagine Tidehunter’s Gush with almost negligible damage and no slow, but doesn’t cost an arm and a leg to cast, travels longer by a mile and affects everyone it hits? If not, then just cast Wave of Terror. At level 1, it reduces armor by two points, making ganks at level 2 exponentially more effective.
Casting all your spells then dying in a team fight is generally not the best way to play Venge (ZOMG that’s blasphemy again!). This is because the longer you are alive, the longer your team can enjoy your Vengeance Aura, which improves the base damage of your entire team by 36%. Morphling says “yes please”.
"WTF kind of an ult is Nether Swap? We switch places, so what?" This ult is what makes Venge a tricky hero to use. Don’t skip it for some other skill! For our clueless newb, just remember to use it to save your carry who is being ganked. A dead Venge is still ultimately better than a dead carry. As the flavor text says, “Martyrdom is a small price to pay for vengeance.”
For a better time feeding – err – winning with Venge, consider reading this.
Venomancer
If a Predator from Yautja Prime mated with a cobra from Earth, then they may very well give rise to Lesale Deathbringer, the Venomancer. The gods of Dota (i.e. IceFrog and Volvo) took pity on this hideous creature of forbidden love and gave him considerable buffs just recently. What does this mean for Venomancer? He became quite relevant in the professional scene again as of 6.79. What does this mean for our newb friends? Absolutely nothing.
Dad, Mom, and Lesale
Keep in MindJust because you can cast venom wards does not mean you can skip buying regular wards.
Your Venomous Gale does a negligible 25 damage before taxes at level 1. However, it is still the preferred first skill to take. Why? Because it can slow multiple enemy heroes by 50% for 15 seconds. It’s a bit tricky to land, but good luck to them getting away if it does. At max level, it does a whopping 550 damage over 15 seconds to anyone it hits.
Plague Wards bring the “mancer” to Venomancer. You can cast them from long range, making them great scouting tools. Cast a plague ward up a ramp/hill before approaching it, just to make sure there are no baddies waiting there. Don’t feed your wards to your enemies. They give gold and exp. Advanced Tactic #3 – If you hold down the ctrl key, you can command all your Wards and your hero simultaneously.
Your Poison Sting provides more of the DOTs (damage over time) and slow that Venomancer is famous for. His Plague Wards also carry a weaker version of Poison Sting. If you’re having trouble landing your gale, try hitting the enemy once to slow him down first.
If you are focusing on ganking and chasing, level your Sting over your Wards. If you are focusing on pushing or defending, prioritize your Wards over your Sting. Advanced Tactic #4 – prepare a wall of wards around your towers when you are anticipating an enemy push. Do not wait to cast your first ward when the enemy creeps are already at your doorstep.
Your ultimate, Poison Nova, deals an incredible amount of damage over time very quickly to all enemy units in the affected area. However, it alone cannot kill. It will not drop an enemy’s health below 1, so you need some other form of damage, be it Poison Sting, Gale, or auto-attacks to bring them down. Like Dazzle’s Weave, casting it early on makes long, drawn-out fights more favorable to your team.
Torte de Lini can coach you on Venomancer in-game with this build.
TL; DR… Consider picking Crystal Maiden, Dazzle, Jakiro, KOTL, Lich, Lion, Ogre Magi, Tidehunter, Vengeful Spirit, or Venomancer if you’re last picking into a team of four carries. Buy the courier, buy the wards, and let your carry farm in peace. Remember to have fun. Dota 2 is just a game.
As always, your comments, suggestions, and reflections are most welcome. Are you an aspiring player? If so, what would you like to know? Let us know your thoughts. For now, class is dismissed at [NoobSchool]. Happy holidays!
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