In-Game Standard Hero Builds Project - Page 77

Abaddon:
Drums isn't great if you're playing support, better to go for the mek faster or get a force or something to help your team.

PLEASE take out the point of frostmourne at level 4, its extremely situational and the extra heal/nuke is almost always better. The only time i get it is if I get a haste or a DD rune at level 1 and can get a first blood. Frostmourne is good but you won't be chasing heroes early-mid game, you'll be standing back and healing people.

I personally advocate tranquil boots soul ring since it lets you use 2 death coils every soul ring cd and heal it all up with tranqs, but arcanes are fine.

Alchemist:
Take out the point of greed at level 2. People usually don't play him as a hard carry anymore. When he's mid, he maxes the nukes and ganks with them. It makes your mid game a lot weaker, just like the point of frostmourne with abaddon.

Ancient Apparition:
Cold feet stats is a really outdated build. You want at least a point of chilling touch to help last hit and ice vortex is really strong. Aghanims should probably be on core instead of rod of atos because it changes the hero dramatically. You see most AAs rushing aghs even when support since its so important, and atos is a pretty awful item. I guess its nice if you're tryna solo kill people but you can probably do the same thing with aghs.

On support AA, people usually don't max cold feet first because chilling touch +vortex offers more damage and you already need him to stand in place for 4 seconds for it to work. Again, atos is pretty bad.

Antimage:
If you're going for battle fury, you really want stats early. You won't be fighting so the extra points in mana break won't help you at all. Stats will stop u from dying to ganks. The burning build is the standard build, which is 1 point of each skill at level 3 then get points in stats. When you finish bfury you want maxed blink and when you finish manta or bkb you want maxed mana break. Maxed spell shield isnt really useful unless they have enormous amounts of magic damage because it scales horribly. (A good example of all this is the DK Newbee game 2 im watching of the cdec grand finals)

Axe:
Max battle hunger on lane axe is terrible because outside of lane you're useless. Your counter helix does little damage and you cant cc anyone with call until way after your blink dagger timing. If you're doing some kind of carry axe, get max 2 points of battle hunger since thats enough to force their offlaner out of lane (although dual lane vs dual lane i imagine they would just kill a creep and make it useless). Most people only get 1 point now days for the extra MS.

Bane:
Necrobook is good if you're pushing really hard or if you're trying to solo kill people constantly, but if you're a support itll take a really long time to farm it. Leveling up nightmare isnt too useful since supports can take it off the important heroes and you probably wont need more than 4 seconds to cc someone before your allies catch up. Lots of stats are good.

Beastmaster:
Call of the wild is only good at levels 3 and 4 since the lesser hawk is pathetic. I guess if you can sap exp in offlane and stack the ancients with the boar itll work, but generally you want level 3 call of the wild at level 5 for the maphack. boots soul ring blink is pretty standard so you can initiate with your ulti, similar to many offlaners. BM Doesnt need drums, hes not a carry.
BM doenst need arcane boots since you get soul ring in offlane and bottle in mid.

Bounty Hunter:
You want a second point of windwalk before jinada so you have leeway when ur running around invis and ganking. Bottle is pretty useful since you run around so much and have mana problems.

Brewmaster:
I see a lot of pros keeping haze at level 1 and maxing drunken brawler. Hes also generally played mid so the standard build is boots-->bottle-->blink-->aghs.

Clinkz:
Max windwalk before strafe. You're not gonna be hitting people for more than four seconds before they get out of your attack range anyway.

I would put soul ring and maybe midas in situational items since soul ring solves all your ulti mana problems, and midas is good for when theyre playing more defensive and you can't pick off solo heroes.

Clockwerk:
You dont need arcane boots. If you have mana problems get a bottle and/or a force staff. Force is great so you can trap melee heroes in the cogs.

Dark Seer:
You want 2 points of surge early so 2 second stuns dont ruin your day. Arcane boots are kind of greedy. They delay your mek by a lot instead of just going brown boots soul ring. Blink is really popular on DS now days.

Death Prophet:
You dont need arcane boots since you have bottle and you rush euls You also have "disassemble for bloodstone" on the item note but no bloodstone in the build. People usually go phase boots to give her extra chasing power and tower damage. After the various drums nerfs I dont think thats a good item on her either. Its really expensive for what it gives. The strength is useful but she doesnt need the extra ms, as, int, or agility. I dont get silence till level 10 but its useful early if you get ganked so thats fine.

Disruptor:
Thunder strike is generally better at level 1 since it gives vision and its the strongest level 1 nuke in the game. You have to be in attack range to glimpse someone at level 1 and normally you'd just want to attack them.

Doom:
You want to max scorched earth before lvl? death since its the spell that helps you stay in fights early game due to the regen it provides. I dont get level death till later because it scales really well into lategame when it does % damage and I have more mana to use it, but 1 point is nice for a kill at level 6. People are getting tranquil boots a lot to help with his armor problems but thats situational.

Dragon Knight:
Maelstrom is super situational on DK (good if you're vs an illusion hero). If you want to hard carry you can just get a dominator and stack ancients then take then when your level 2 ulti is up. You want to build tanky. SnY is a good damage item that makes you a bit more tanky and lothars is good if you want to play the initiator. You probably want level 2 breathe fire at level 3 to help you get a kill in lane instead of a point in dragons blood.

Earthshaker:
Get level 2 fissure at level 3 please. Enchant totem is not gonna be useful that early. You probably want a lot more clarities as starting items too.

Elder Titan:
Dont get echo stomp early. it really screws up your mid game when you can reduce all their armor just by existing. The ulti doesnt scale very well. You should keep that at level 1 and max out the other 3 spells by level 13. Soul ring is great for spamming your spirit in lane.

Ember Spirit:
I wouldnt ever get abyssal on ember since bash has a cooldown. Maelstrom is really strong though. His ulti scales awfully, so I would probably max the other 3 spells by level 13. In the game im watching Mu is level 17 with one point in ulti

Enigma:
I wouldn't start with sobi mask because the 50% regen is a lot less than clarities gives you You can farm a soul ring with 2-3 clarities depending on how lucky you get. Might wanna put mek in core since it makes your early teamfight and push really strong.

Faceless void:
I would max bash instead of taking the awkward second point of back track at level 7. Aghs is really popular on him now days since it lets him take out solo heroes and not have to worry about the CD.

Gyrocoptor:
I'd max rocket barrage before flak cannon, and probably put a RoP in the starting build so you can get a basi to help your early mana and damage problems.

Huskar:
Dont get a point of inner vitality at level 4, and max spears before blood. Blademail is a pretty awkward situational item since you're gonna take 0 magical damage anyway, and i imagine their carries will have bkb by the time you have blademail. I like phase more than treads since you can orb with it, you dont need the attack speed or the int from treads, and it helps your chasing a lot.

Invoker:
There are many invoker builds. The one in the mid guide isnt optimal. If you want to get double forge spirits you should get them asap, so dont get a point of wex till level 10. I get invoke at level 2 in case i can help with a kill bot. 1 point of quas isnt going to help you without invoke, so theres no need to take it at level 2. I would max wex instead of quas lategame because quas doesnt scale very well past level 3 or 4 unless you're trying to get maxed forge spirits. Midas is popular now days on him. Phase boots arent great since you dont have the attack speed from wex to really do the damage.

Io:
Soul ring should probably be core because most of the standard heroes paired with wisp have tiny mana pools.

Juggernaut:
IF you're going pure carry you should go manta instead of deso or SnY. Deso makes you way too squishy and with the crit mantas gonna give you a lot more damage than SnY. Might want to max crit after 1 point in healing ward but depends how hard you're pushing.

Kunkka:
Standard build now days is to get 2 points of x marks the spot by level 6 so you can x torrent boat a hero at level 6 and try to kill them. Otherwise its hard to kill heroes. Its usually tidebringer at 1 and 3, torrent at 2, and x at 4-5, then max tidebringer. 2 points of x guarentees the torrent and 3 guarentees the boat (if you get stunned and cant recall it).

Lich:
You dont need max sacrifice. 3 points if you really like it but 2 points are usually alright. frost armor is so strong since it effects ranged units and towers now its good to get it earlier.

Naix:
1 point of rage until level 8 is really greedy. Its hard to kill people since they can just kite you and your dps is really low with 1 point of rage and feast. In your intro for naix you say "Use Open Wounds more to regain health rather as a form of initiation." But open wounds initiation is the only thing you can do with this build.

Lion:
The standard build is keeping hex at 1 and maxing mana drain, since you can empty heroes mana pools pretty easily at level 10 with maxed drain. Tranquil boots then are better than arcanes because you never need to go back to base again. Mek is pretty bad on him since hes a support hero. A force staff or blink will help him do his job a lot better. Heroes like razor and doom get mek now days.

Lone Druid:
If you're jungling, you dont need ulti at level 6. Youll jungle faster with the extra points in synergy and rabid. If a team is letting you jungle bear in the first place, then you might as well farm up a radiance instead of a maelstrom since you'll be a much bigger threat.

Lycan:
I'd switch medallion and necrobook. Necro is core on lycan while medallion is situational. Due to the new wolves its easy to roshan wihout the medallion. Its nice, but its not necessary. A point of howl early (usually level 1) is standard to help the rest of your team last hit.

Medusa:
Ive starting taking 2 points of mana shield instead of 4 early and maxing split shot at 11. 11s a shitty level but the ulti isnt too useful for teamfighting till lategame anyway, and dusa needs the farm so badly that getting split shot 3 levels earlier is really helpful.

The early Frostmourne rank is actually useful IF you're playing with people who know 2 important things about the skill:
1) You can charge the buff on a creep, and allies can target the creep to get the MS/AS buff
2) Allies don't need to complete their attack to get the MS/AS buff, they only need to start it (similar to how Axe's Counter Helix and Centaur's Return trigger on the start of an attack)

Because of this, the first rank IS useful because it becomes far easier to give your team the benefit of the constant movespeed when these two facts are taken advantage of together. It's just that this is sort of an unrealistic expectation in a pub game.


CF+Stats is still better on solo mid, because both other skills simply don't do enough without other heroes there.

You don't use Chilling Touch to "help lasthit" rofl.

Support AA skill order is really game dependent. Chilling Touch max is only heavily favorable in trilanes with an additional support--in pub dual lanes skill order gets really dicey depending on who the other person in the lane is.


Stats build is really situational, and I actually hate people blindly going Stats in pub games. The thing with Stats on AM is that while it's true that Break/Shield don't help you farm in the strictest sense, they are far better for LANING than Stats are--something that AM players can be greedy about in a competitive setting where Burning played the build, but in pub games, where you don't have free trilanes, and often get contested 2v2s, the other skills actually are useful early game.


Agree that 4-1-4 is more common now, but Hunger Axe is actually not useless outside of lane.

The logic of 1-4-1 Axe is that he's a far stronger timing BEFORE Blink. Urn+Hunger on level 3-4 supports who may not be able to find a creep to kill in a fight after they blow their nukes almost kills them from full health. The precise reasoning of 1-4-1 Axe is that 4-1-4 is far more dependent on your Blink timing to have an impact. For games that have a lot more scrappy fighting during early levels, Hunger max can be appropriate, because even though your Blink timing is weaker, you can snowball an advantage before then.


People haven't played 1-3-1 Beastmaster in years dude.

I feel like I have enough posts out there explaining the reasoning behind Arc Boots on Beastmaster, and I don't really feel like repeating it again.


6.81 changed the duration of Wind Walk, so you don't need the 2nd rank to have that extra leeway.


Mael/Mjoll have better usefulness as farming items than HoD does for Dragon Knight. Generally the thing that hits that hero's farming power hard isn't that you necessarily want that big ancient stack to clear, it's that you don't push out lanes fast enough. He doesn't need the lifesteal for sustaining himself while farming jungle, and the armor is superfluous as well (DK's early defensive stats are very armor-skewed because of Dragon Blood).