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Hello, my nickname is Bulle. I have been playing DotA on and off for ~6 years. I used to have all the time in the world to spend on dota, these days though my time is limited, except for vacations (Did not get any work this summer). So with nothing else to do I will continue to banter about underrated heroes. Warlock![[image loading]](http://media.steampowered.com/apps/dota2/images/heroes/warlock_full.png) IntroductionThis evening will be about Warlock. Written with my opinions and team vs team in focus. Warlocks playstyle does not differ much compared to pubgames though. If you wanna read up on Warlock I recommend going to dota2.gamepedia.com, they have close to all of the gushy details about all heroes. Warlocks role is hard support, he does not need any general items to be effective through the whole game. If he do get any gold they should go into Mekanism, Pipe or some other support item. So what's his pros and cons as a hard support?
Pros- Great initiation.
- Great counter initiation.
- Great follow up.
- High strength gain for a support.
- No real need for items.
- Long range and fast attack animation.
- Fatal bounds damage scales into lategame.
- Makes taking a tower after a won teamfight easy.
- Got a heal.
Cons- Low armor.
- Lack of stun for laning phase.
- Long cooldown on ultimate.
- Easily ganked midgame. (as any hard support)
How does he fit the meta?
Warlock both fits in some ways. He can basically fill the same position as a Magnus, he can delay a enemy team from pushing in while you have one/two heroes splitpushing. If the enemy team is forcing a push, his ultimate plus fatal bonds is close to the perfect beginning of a teamfight. On the other hand if the enemy is split pushing Warlock will have a hard time being effective during multiple sequential "plays".
Where should he be played?
He's a good babysitter vs a harass based offlaner. with his range and early DoT he should easily with the help from another support suppress the one single enemy. When Warlock gets his ultimate up the team can force teamfights by pushing, if won also includes a free tower. Warlock is also a great way to stop the enemy team from doing the same.
Why is it that he isn't played then?
Warlock played as a hard support need level 6 as soon as possible, he lack that important early stun and his ultimate cooldown is long. If you Compare it to the current most played supports you will see that they have short cd stuns, good scaling to lategame and often a way to "disrupt" the enemy carry. His role in teamfights are heavy reliant on wombo-combos which are hard to consistently execute in a higher level of game and warlock is hence usually a big gamble.
What conclusions can we draw?
He's a strong midgame-lategame support, if you succeed to not rumble a lot during the whole game and it's not more than a few teamfights that decides it you win more times than not with Warlock. He is awesome in most setups late game, he either opens or counters most teamfights, hard. He can easily place himself away from the engagement with his huge cast range and with that in mind is a "safe engager".
Can he be drafted?
When both teams are going for slow, farm based game with as few teamfights as possible (Chinese vs Chinese teams) he should be seriously considered, since the earlygame hard supports such as lina and rylai does not scale well into lategame. He is one of the few heroes that are really strong as a lategame hard support.
What can make him viable?
If the metagame makes for a slower pace warlock should be a hero most team should consider. A decrease in his cd and a re-balance on his other spells as a subsequent cause could also make him fit more into the meta.
Some more shameless advertising
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TL;DR
Warlock is a strong teamfight hero that fits the role as a hard support. He mainly fit games were both teams enjoy farming as much as possible and taking the fights as late as possible. His cast range makes him the perfect counterinitiator.
PS
Please pm any recent pro games you have seen warlock work efficiently 
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When Warlock is picked he is pretty much always played as a solo. He is a dominant laner and benefits enormously from levels and items.
Warlock support used to be a thing back in the day. I feel that if he lacks impact in a support role compared to todays common picks. What makes him borderline viable is his ultimate which is extremely powerful but really come into its own with an Aghanims (and optimally a Refresher).
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He's never played now, but when he was (EG and Dignitas in particular experimented with him quite a bit) it was almost always as a solo mid. You may not need items, but Warlock desperately needs experience and is pretty underwhelming as a support, especially weak before he gets 6.
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i agree to my foreposters, as a support he lacks impact on the lane. He works against very defensive lineups and isnt bad against e.g. darkseer, but he really needs levels. Fatal bonds are really nice in a one vs one mid-scenario, unless your opponent has a really aggressive pick like qop or puck. The problem is that warlock lacks their ganking capabilities and late-game-impact aside from his long cd ultimate (which is super strong, dont get me wrong).
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The main weaknesses of warlock are split push and buy back, otherwise he is an unstoppable beast for teamfights
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but but but what about the 420noscopequadruplegolems?
also i remember a few teams running warlock as a support for spectre...
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I would like to see more last pick warlocks. So many times teams draft a really wombo combo lineup, and it would be cool to out wombo combo them
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On July 21 2013 08:11 synapse wrote:
but but but what about the 420noscopequadruplegolems?
also i remember a few teams running warlock as a support for spectre...
I remember dignitas picking warlock and spectre together, but they still ran him mid 
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fatal bonds and dispersion is one of the funniest things in dota more people should pick those two heroes together
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warlock is op and his ulti should be nerfed....seriously clicking on r and owning the complete team with it is just stupid
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On July 21 2013 08:11 synapse wrote:
but but but what about the 420noscopequadruplegolems?
also i remember a few teams running warlock as a support for spectre...
Dignitas was doing it, but Warlock was still a solo mid. Their winrate with the strat was really bad from what I remember, and Warlock's winrate overall was something like 39% in the few months he saw his popularity rise.
On July 21 2013 08:12 LSB wrote:
I would like to see more last pick warlocks. So many times teams draft a really wombo combo lineup, and it would be cool to out wombo combo them
Teamfight teams are easier countered by split pushing.
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i played warlock quite often.
during this time i found another weakness:
shadow demon ult / diffusal blades kill his golem instantly, so against some lineups he is basicly useless. his ulti will be crippled to a AOE-stun. the cooldown is horrible than.
he also lacks aoe-spells that deal dmg fast. if yuo have to stop 2x or 3x waves bonds wont do the magic. wasting the ulti might be overkill. same when there is a brood on the map.
still i like him (if the matchup is right), and on my lvl noone ever purged my golem.
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On July 21 2013 09:17 TheSubtleArt wrote:
Teamfight teams are easier countered by split pushing.
Except if they push you and you have to fight or will lose...
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That's why you get turtle heroes like kotl to make pushing really really hard. If your split pushing is good enough, they aren't going to be able to base race you, and if they send someone back to defend the split push you can likely win a 5v4 (the splitpusher(s) can tp back).
Of course, this is an ultra-simplified theorycraft session. Real situations are more complex.
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The highest ranked warlock players on dotabuff play him as a carry. They rely on a support providing regen including a Ring of Basilius. Warlock starts with branches and maybe one Circlet. Skill. Order is Ult - Fatal Bonds - Shadow Word.
Item build is Midas - brown boots - Aghs - Refresher - Travel.
Best lane mate is Treant, but Omniknight works too.
Here is dotabuff's highest ranked player playing Warlock:
http://dotabuff.com/players/91852132/matches?hero=warlock&game_mode=&match_type=real
Looks like Boots of Travel is actually pretty rare, but Midas+Brown->Aghs->Refresher is common and he almost always lanes with his buddy playing as Treant.
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I've seen Warlock played as a support, but personally I can never resist going Aghanim's + Refresher. Especially if your not on very high mmr the Chaos Offering can just win fights by itself with a Fatal Bonds.
What I'm wondering is if you guys skill Upheavel; do you put 1 point in, all 4 or just straight stats? I usually put in 1 point, but after that I go stats to survive a stun -> burst situation so I can drop my ulti before I die.
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On July 22 2013 06:23 Gotuso wrote:
I've seen Warlock played as a support, but personally I can never resist going Aghanim's + Refresher. Especially if your not on very high mmr the Chaos Offering can just win fights by itself with a Fatal Bonds.
What I'm wondering is if you guys skill Upheavel; do you put 1 point in, all 4 or just straight stats? I usually put in 1 point, but after that I go stats to survive a stun -> burst situation so I can drop my ulti before I die.
I've never had a situation where I wanted to cast it honestly because it just makes you a sitting duck if you're losing the teamfight and if you're winning it will likely catch 1-2 heroes at most (and not for long espc with just 1 point).
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@upheaval: Warlock is pretty much the perfect character to take/defend rosh with (every single one of his spells is good around there)
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On July 22 2013 09:47 RuskiPanda wrote:Show nested quote +On July 22 2013 06:23 Gotuso wrote:
I've seen Warlock played as a support, but personally I can never resist going Aghanim's + Refresher. Especially if your not on very high mmr the Chaos Offering can just win fights by itself with a Fatal Bonds.
What I'm wondering is if you guys skill Upheavel; do you put 1 point in, all 4 or just straight stats? I usually put in 1 point, but after that I go stats to survive a stun -> burst situation so I can drop my ulti before I die. I've never had a situation where I wanted to cast it honestly because it just makes you a sitting duck if you're losing the teamfight and if you're winning it will likely catch 1-2 heroes at most (and not for long espc with just 1 point).
Upheaval is terrifying...
It creates situations where your enemies are forced to do things they really don't want to do. Unfortunately, yes, that thing is "beat the crap out of the warlock", but... honestly... so what?
At the time when you cast it, your enemies don't even want to attack you, because you've already dropped your combo. If you force them to throw a spell or a carry at the burned-out support, then that's dps and stuns that didn't hit your teammates. If they don't, their ability to move into and out of the initiation zone is vastly reduced, and if they have kitable carries they're in serious trouble.
Also, at the point you cast it, the teamfight is nowhere near over. I don't know where that idea comes from. Even if you're counterinitating, bonds>rock>upheaval can be done before anyone on either team has even died.
In my opinion, it's way too powerful a skill to skip. You don't take it first, of course, but - provided I can live long enough to get my combo off in the first place - I'd take it over stats as often as possible.
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Golems! You have to include this in the guide.
Personally, his biggest weakness to me is that he's damn boring except for his shiny ulti. Also if i remember correctly when I saw him in pro games the ennemy team tends to have 2 diffusal and insta wipe the golem.
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EPT
