EPT![[image loading]](https://i.ibb.co/smNT8nX/9690-BA64-3897-47-F0-94-B8-DD4321-C9-EC9-C.jpg)
old/traditional arc
So the build that became the de-facto over the last year or so was the necro1-Midas-mjol-bots-etc build leveraging the CDR talent / hp talent. Essentially you would greed out your books and farm jungle/lane, and become a serious problem once your mjol comes up. Post-patch, when wraiths were the thing, this build just added a few wraiths and kept on as normal. AW got a few nerfs to his clone bounty, (and a Midas nerf, and tower gold nerf, and book nerf...) and the hero’s been more or less neutered for months.
The virgin warden vs chad arc build
Virgin AW: wraith-necro1-Midas-mjol-bots + CDr + hp this guy is built to lose pub Dota games but win high level / pro games
Virgin AW needed plenty of space. In higher level or coordinated games its more manageable, but AW becomes a massive liability if he doesn’t get the space he needs. Necro1/Midas minimum.
Virgin AW can’t fight early. Even in a good lane / mu, aw can’t really commit to defending towers or pushing because he’s slow and has no escape. And on top of that, the enemy knows that slowing him down is important for winning. So it’s dangerous. At minimum, you’d want to have your book up with a few wraith bands.
Virgin AW can’t play from behind. Problem is he starts feeding gold and xp like crazy — if caught out, an AW clone can easily feed 400+ gold if his books get caught. And then their cores get exponentially further ahead. Virgin AW has XP trouble in games where he isn’t ahead.
Chad AW: wraith-wraith-treads-(Midas)-mael-blink + AS talent + q range this guy is built to kill people and snowball
Chad AW makes his own space. By leveraging your strong laning (good range, animation, dmg, and sparks), you build early stat items and win lanes. Supports gank you and then die because you are a strong man full of power and hatred. They know how to play vs virgin AW, but they cannot handle the chad.
Chad AW spends the early game looking for fights and actively controlling the game because his spells are very strong early and his ult makes two chads instead of one. Chad AW is ready to go at lv 10 with treads, wraith bands, and a wand. Chad AW buys a Midas at 12 minutes because he wiped the enemy team and wants to celebrate with a golden hand. Or maybe he doesn’t buy one at all and just gets more killing items.
Chad AW can play without a huge lead because he adds a lot of damage to team fights at all stages of the game. Treads + AS talent provides 60(!) attack speed and 10 dmg that AW players don’t usually have. And 60 attack speed times 2 stat based arc wardens is a lot of damage.
why is now the time of the chad warden?
If you cannot depend on your team to make space, this opening build is going to get you in to a favourable mid game position.
People underestimate AW early / mid game because they don’t play against stat-based AW builds often. They hurt a lot. Icefrog recently buffed the attack speed talent to +30 at lv 10, while buffing arc’s agility gain.
New tempest double at 18 gives you an extra 6 seconds of time. This extra time makes bots less important, in my opinion, because the mobility from blink will let you siege and push waves out.
fixing passive mindset
Generally i think this hero is played pretty passively and it makes it really hard for your team to play around. By opting for early aggressive items you can play with your team more and threaten objectives while still keeping your farm speed up and transitioning. Ur arc warden, so going late is rarely a problem anyway.
