General Discussion - Page 1033

Venomancer

Pros
Venomous Gale is the strongest slow in the game, and can hit multiple heroes, and has a range of 800, which is higher than most slows and stuns.
Combined with Gale, Poison Sting further slows heroes for no mana cost.
Both Venomous Gale and Poison Sting are incredibly effective at level 1, so there is no need to skill them up in many games.
Plague Wards is one of the best pushing and defending spells in the game.
Zero cast animation for all spells. (He does have a .51 second backswing after cast)
Has a great attack animation (.3 seconds front end is tied for lowest among the support heroes in Dota 2. Wisp is the only support hero with an even better animation, at .15). Poison Sting makes his attacks actually worthwhile, unlike most support heroes whose right clicks are negligible.
Relatively low mana requirements outside of Poison Nova.
Can farm up some support items quickly thanks to the added dps of plague wards.
Can contribute to early Roshan kills with maxed plague wards.

Cons
Venomous gale is very easy to miss for beginners.
Doesn’t have a disable or a way to stop tp’s.
Has problems using all his spells during the midgame, where 200 mana for poison nova is quite hefty.
Starts losing effectiveness if the opponents start finishing pipes, meks, and BKBs.
Requires a high APM in higher level play, for alternating between attack-walking and placing plague wards during and aiming spells during fights and chasing.

Comparison with Similar Heroes
Venomancer is generally considered the best overall support hero in the current meta-game. His two key spells are venomous gale, which is the best slow in the game, and plague wards, which both help push lanes and defend towers. He has a very high skillcap, due to the difficulty of landing good gales and the possibility of using plague wards to block juking paths.
When to Pick
Venomancer is almost always picked in competitive games because he fits in with almost any line-up. He is incredibly strong at level one, and is even better once he maxes out plague wards and can help push towers down very quickly. Venomous gale is one of the best ganking spells in the game, because it lasts longer than any other slow, and has a maximum range of 800. He can lane safely in any situation thanks to his plague wards, which help spot opponent heroes who may be hiding.
When to not Pick
There are two main weaknesses of Venomancer: lack of a disable, and weakness against Pipe and BKB. Because Venomancer doesn’t have a stun, the team usually wants to pick up a disable with some of their other heroes. The problem comes when a team doesn’t complement Venomancer with any other stuns, and the opposing team has hard to pin down heroes like Storm or Huskar, who can quickly snowball out of control. Venomancer is usually picked in the front three picks of –cm matches, so I wouldn’t say to ever not pick him, but there can be better choices if you need some solid disables. Venomancer basically is the standard that the other support heroes are compared to.