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Marimokkori
United States306 Posts
1. My positioning isn't as good, so I'm out of range to gain charges (I don't know what the range is) 2. I'm laning against heros that don't spam their abilities that much (I'm still unfamiliar with laning styles for most heroes) So in what lanes is it good to get a wand? | ||
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yeadog
United States54 Posts
2. It is definitely more useful against heroes who spam their abilities. For me, whenever I see batrider I grab a wand, to stack charges every time he uses sticky napalm. Shadow Demon is another good bet if he's spamming poison, or zues because of his spells. You don't necessarily have to KNOW all of the spells of heroes, but if you're in the lane and you see someone casting a lot of spells and you're having trouble with it, snatch up the magic stick at the side shop. You don't have to buy it in advance before you know who you're laning against. | ||
TheYango
United States47024 Posts
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JohnnyReverb
Switzerland132 Posts
i think the wand is viable at every stage of the early to mid game, especially as roamer, or someone that uses spells often. the 1200 radius should be pretty big. but most people forget about the wands most useful function: it could give you that extra 15, 30 mana you need for a kill. | ||
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ZerG~LegenD
Sweden1179 Posts
On January 18 2013 02:48 yeadog wrote: 1. The range on wand is 1200 - think about pudge's hook at full length for a comparison (technically its 1300, but close enough). It's pretty safe to say that if you're in the same screen as your enemies, you'll be picking up charges. It's especially useful in team battles because you can rack up charges quickly. The most important thing is reminding yourself to use it, and use it quickly, because it will save your life. On a related note: 1200 also happens to be the range of blink dagger as well as the experience range. Playing with a 1200 range circle (dota_range_display 1200) can be really helpful. | ||
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TheAppetizer
United States146 Posts
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DucK-
Singapore11447 Posts
Your question should be when should I get Magic Stick, and not Magic Wand. Stick does the exact same thing as Wand. That extra 5 Charges isn't that gamebreaking, since during laning/early on, you hardly save your Wand till max Charges. | ||
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Severedevil
United States4839 Posts
On January 18 2013 11:39 DucK- wrote: Sometimes, don't waste gold upgrading it to Wand. Just leave it at stick. It's sad to see so many players spend precious 150-309 gold early on upgrading to Wand. Sometimes, you should just drop the branch and get other items instead. The worst players are those that have a no Branches on them, but still spend 309 gold to upgrade to Wand. It's pointless and a waste of gold. Your question should be when should I get Magic Stick, and not Magic Wand. Stick does the exact same thing as Wand. That extra 5 Charges isn't that gamebreaking, since during laning/early on, you hardly save your Wand till max Charges. 309 for +3 all stats and no additional inventory space is a decent deal, even early on. (Obviously there's no sense upgrading until you're restricted by inventory space.) Only a little worse than Bracer/Null/Band. | ||
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sandyph
Indonesia1640 Posts
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AkalineMess
249 Posts
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Cyx.
Canada806 Posts
On January 18 2013 13:13 sandyph wrote: when you need the spaces from those 3 gg branches basically when I decide to buy wand most games. | ||
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Ydriel
Italy516 Posts
On January 18 2013 15:48 AkalineMess wrote: when Valve release Bristleback, you better buy your wand. This pretty much ^^ TheYango gave the best answer though: unless you're going to lane with spammy heroes like Zeus or Bat, the Wand isn't really a good laning item. You get it so you can get your charges during early ganks and teamfights. Some people underestimate the amount of HP a full charged wand can heal (also it helps with early mana struggles). That said though, if you're planning on sticking around your lane or you simply can't see an opportunity to get charges early on, you might as well skip it. | ||
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igotmyown
United States4291 Posts
Although some carries skip it even before getting a tier 4 item. Luminous in dotacommentaries had some video where he talked about magic stick being the best item in the game, and his argument went like this: You'll have a full magic (wand) before a big teamfight. You take one nuke, then you pop wand instantly, getting back 225 hp. Then after a full set of exchanges, it will be full again and you'll have the chance to cast it again, so 450 hp/mp total for one item in the teamfight. | ||
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DucK-
Singapore11447 Posts
In fact, the only reason that you upgrade to Magic Wand should be to condense 4 items into 1 slot. Even then, it's not exactly necessary to do so, as you can just throw branches away 1 by 1 for your other items. | ||
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Mafe
Germany5966 Posts
But I feel as a midgame-item it is simply too useful to not have it in fights. Unless you happen to play a hardcarry and yourplaystyle is mainly to avoid the enemy team and focus on farming/counterpushing while the rest of your team fights. edit: now I feel I just repeated what has been said before multiple times, but well, at least I can't be that wrong then. | ||
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klo8
Austria1960 Posts
If you have 2 or more branches left over and you have a magic stick, you might as well upgrade it. If you have no branches, just leave it. | ||
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Nub4ever
Canada1981 Posts
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meegrean
Thailand7699 Posts
edit: Not before boots though. | ||
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Clarty
Australia162 Posts
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sandyph
Indonesia1640 Posts
On January 19 2013 12:17 meegrean wrote: Buy it whenever you start engaging in team fights. By that time, you should be able to afford it too. edit: Not before boots though. depends on your lane composition, if you laning against a spammy hero then its better to get wand before boot. | ||
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StayPhrosty
Canada406 Posts
a) many heroes start with a branch or two to help early laning, in this case a wand is a good way to get back that inventory space once you grab some boots or your first semi-big item (drum, aquila, blink, etc). b) general survivability. Every other game I play I end up running away and either escaping with 50hp or nearly escaping but then dying to 1 attack. even having already used it those 2 or 3 stacks can be a game changer when the enemy team can't just snowball a million kills every time they gank. c) picking up kills. same case as above, but when you're winning. having just that extra 50 mana right when you're 1 on 1ing a hero and you're both 1 hit away can make a huge difference, and even if you're not about to die that extra kill here or there can start to add up. d) extra stats on a support. assuming you grabbed a wand and then got your boots, it's generally a good idea to spend most of your money on wards/counter wards/smokes/courier/salves/etc and you may not have that extra 1 or 2k gold for a decent stats item, but wand is much more affordable and a couple extra stat points are better than nothing. e) quickbuying before you die. sure, grabbing a tp scroll is great, but you really don;t need more than 1 or 2 max, so slapping the sticks and recipe on quickbuy before a fight (and actually remembering to use the purchase quickbuy hotkey) can mean you get to don't waste that last 200 gold you have right before you die. | ||
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Angra
United States2652 Posts
On January 18 2013 02:49 TheYango wrote: Wand isn't a laning item except against a few heroes (Batrider, Zeus, Shadow Demon, etc.). It's effectiveness is largest when you expect to participate in early teamfights, where you'll pick up charges, and when the burst 225/225 heal is extremely high-value. Exactly this. I think way too many people think of it as a laning item, when it really isn't except in certain circumstances, such as against certain heroes and in lanes where there is a lot of battling, like tri-lane vs. tri-lane (or dual vs dual if there's a ton of fighting happening between you) Otherwise, its effectiveness increases by a ton when you start participating in teamfights or ganks. So pick it up a bit later on if your hero needs some extra mana/health during a teamfight to get an extra skill off or keep yourself alive a bit longer (which is generally a lot of heroes that can use that help). | ||
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emythrel
United Kingdom2599 Posts
On January 18 2013 13:13 sandyph wrote: when you need the spaces from those 3 gg branches this is pretty much the answer to the question "when do i upgrade my magic stick?" if you didn't already have some gg branches at start you are either 1) bad 2) went qb, shield & tango (or some other "high level" starting build, btw qb OR shield with tango & 3x gg branch is way better and you have gold left over) cost for cost gg branches are the best item in game. for 53g you get +1 to all stats, the same ratio of gold to stats doesn't exist. ultimate orb is 2100g for +10 to all stats, 4 times more expensive than the equivalent stats in branches. if you had unlimited inventory you wouldn't ever buy anything but gg branches. But inventory slots are a resource and early game there is no item that is better for cost than a branch. in general in the early game if you have an empty slot, you are wasting one of your resources. | ||
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-Celestial-
United Kingdom3867 Posts
I'll tend to have a couple of branches anyway and magic stick is good. My philosophy is: - If I'm carry then a couple hundred gold isn't going to slow me down much and it provides a nice little +3 to all stats plus a potentially clutch heal ability. Really quite inventory efficient for a low gold output. - If I'm support then that gold is more significant but I REALLY need those inventory slots if I'm support and its a cheap and cheerful +3 to all stats. Any form of cheap, slot-efficient stat gain for a support is going to be helpful. | ||
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RuskiPanda
United States2906 Posts
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ahswtini
Northern Ireland22208 Posts
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Narw
Poland884 Posts
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emythrel
United Kingdom2599 Posts
On January 22 2013 21:56 Narw wrote: Twice in row game ruined by fucking dc's, first 3-0 sniper which i was supporting then boom dc, next match 6-1 NS after first night, boom DC. think this is thw rong thread, seems you were aiming for the Dota QQ thread! | ||
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Narw
Poland884 Posts
On January 22 2013 22:18 emythrel wrote: think this is thw rong thread, seems you were aiming for the Dota QQ thread! Ahaha, yeah, my bad! About stick, most been told already, it's excelent item and definitly get it on heroes that participate in ganks early and have definite mana problems (Slark is perfect example), upgrade it if you started with 3 branches and your laning went well, other way don't really bother too much about that and feel free to drop one branch to get slot for stick. | ||
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TheLeafmuncher
Finland13 Posts
1. Squishy supports for the burst heal, especially when roaming. 2. Mana starved carries / midgame roamers [sven, gyro etc.] 3. Against spell spam heavy heroes [Batrider, Zeus etc.] And like people above have said, upgrade it when you need more space for additional items. But honestly, if you are unsure if you should buy a wand or not, buy it. It's worth the 200 gold 95% of the time. | ||
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