FSVG

Path of Exile Hardcore Necro Witch Build

2013-02-24T09:16:00.000-05:00

Path of Exile Hardcore Necro Witch Build by SpencerRelly

Hello everyone, my name is Spencer and I'm currently grinding maps on the hard-core ladder. I've been playing a summoner witch since closed beta and have thought long and hard about the best decisions for the build. There are already a few summoner guides on the forums however few that I have seen (if any) seem to be hard-core focused. I also feel that many of the popular summoner paths aren't as efficient as they could be. Hopefully I will be able to provide some insight into the already popular character build and explain my decisions clearly. I realize that I am only one person and do not know everything about the game/may have made inefficient decisions myself, so criticisms and questions are encouraged.

Section Overview

1. Build Basics
2. Passive Tree and Leveling Walkthrough
3. Bandit Rewards
4. Auras
5. Curses
6. Gem Links
7. Flasks
8. A Note on Uniques
9. My Current Gear

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1. Build Basics

-This build is very defensive. If you are playing soft-core or like to make risky decisions in order to feel more masculine, this build may not be for you
-This build focuses on being a pure summoner. Spectres as a source of DPS, Skeletons and Zombies as a source of damage mitigation. Late game this build does no damage from spells on the character
-Utilizes 3 auras, and 4 curses (two/three at the same time) to support minions
-HP/ES hybrid

Pros
-Scales well into late game
-Reflect in maps is not an issue
-High health pool and a combination of evasion and enfeeble make this a very safe build
-Having an army is fun

Cons
-Summons are weak until merciless
-Particle spam from Spectres can be hard on FPS
-Groups may not like you
-Potentially slower clear speeds compared to other popular builds
-Low armor can make for some sticky situations

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2. Passive Tree and Leveling Walkthrough

25 points - Acquiring HP
Skill Tree

At this point in the game all we want is HP. Grab a couple Bear Traps (level some shadows if you have to) and a Freezing Pulse to level up with. Buy a Lesser Multiple Projectiles gem off the trade chat when you hit 19 and support FP with it. Clarity will be the only aura that you need for now. Pick up Elemental Weakness as your curse. This is how we will play up until merciless Ledge. The dex node is picked up to level LMP and Bear Traps as we level, and for Grace later on.

46 points - More HP, dex, head over to templar
Skill Tree

Fairly straightforward, pick up more health. Why head over the witch tree rather than under or through the left side? This is something most summoner builds do. I don't for a couple reasons. I do not pick up the Leadership or Necromantic Aegis talents in this build, I do however pick up the mana nodes underneath Whispers of Doom (double curse) that lead to Deep thoughts (18% mana). While it's actually the same number of points once connected, going over rather than under allows for faster health nodes at the start and quicker access to Minion Instability, extra Spectre, extra mana, and Whispers of Doom.

66 points - Summons nodes
Skill Tree

I usually acquire the summons nodes in this order: Minion Instability -> Lord of the Dead -> health and extra minions on the left -> health and extra Spectre at the top -> health near LotD -> damage and extra minions on the far left -> remaining damage nodes -> life and extra minions on the right side.

You should be just using Zombies as meat shields as you pulse enemies down. While they won't be very useful at least you're getting some benefit. Summon Skeletons + Spell Totem is obviously useful as well. I wouldn't bother with Spectres until Merciless (more discussion on skills in a bit).

Merciless Ledge was where I could drop FP all together. For faceroll Ledge farming, go to Solaris Temple in Cruel and Spectre the Flame Sentinels (carpets that shoot fireballs).

82 points - Templar health, chaos resistance
Skill Tree

In preparation for maps you should pick up the health and regeneration nodes at templar, as well as the 16% Chaos Resist node near the witch.

91 points - Inner Force, Whispers of Doom, mana
Skill Tree

This is a good place to be before maps. You can also pick up one or two mana nodes at any point if you need it.

103 points - Remaining mana, remaining summons
Skill Tree

Depending on your gear you might not even need the extra mana but I think they are worth it for the quality of life change that they bring. It allows you to spam your Skeleton totem and
double curse everything in site without going OOM.

After this I haven't decided where I'm going. Probably more HP or the second Body and Soul node.

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3. Bandit Rewards

Normal: HP from Oak
Cruel: Passive point
Merciless: Passive point

These are what I took, however there are some options. I feel that HP is the safest and most useful reward and makes the most sense for normal however if you are feeling particularly manly you can take a skill point. Cruel is a no-brainer. Endurance charge in Merciless is an option (one that I probably should have took) if you plan on using Enduring Cry for hard maps.

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4. Auras

For this build I run the auras Grace, Discipline, and Clarity

Clarity is obvious, Discipline is an HP boost to you and your minions, and Grace synergizes very well with the Enfeeble curse and energy shield cool-down. The thought behind Grace is to help ease the pain of the abysmal physical reduction this build provides. It will also help keep your minions alive.

Why not go Elderitch Battery and run more auras? For hard-core I do not think it is viable. Going into maps with ~3K health and practically zero armor is absolutely insane. In my opinion, that ES buffer is a must have.

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5. Curses

I have four curses on my gear: Enfeeble, Elemental Weakness, Temporal Chains, and Vulnerability

Enfeeble (as talked about before) synergizes well with Grace and ES and helps prevent that insane spike damage that comes from maps. I usually double curse Enfeeble and Elemental Weakness on most mobs. If the Spectres I have deal physical or chaos damage I substitute Vulnerability for Elemental Weakness. Vulnerability provides a reduction in enemy armor and increased DOT damage (great for chaos). Temporal chains is useful in difficult maps and for bosses.

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6. Gem Links

These are what I personally believe would be the ideal end game links. However I haven't reached the point of six link (or even a five yet) so I'm sure the following could be up for debate.

It's also important to note that this build does not need a five link. Just choose the gear that gives you the most defense early on.

In general, support gems go from most important to least important.

Spectres (6 link): Raise Spectre + Greater(or Lesser) Multiple Projectiles + Minion Life + Minion Damage + (Faster Casting or Faster Attacks or Added Chaos Damage or quality Culling Strike) + (Faster Casting or Faster Attacks or Added Chaos Damage or quality Culling Strike

Spectres are intersting, and various other guides have gone in depth with Spectre tier guides and the like, I'm not going to do that. My favorite Spectres are Flame Sentinals (carpets from Solaris Temple that shoot fireballs), Undying Alchemists (chaos shooters from Sarn sewers), and Burned Miscreations (Righteous Fire casters from Lunaris level 2). You can choose to gem specifically for a certain type of spectre (i.e. if you are primarily going to use Flame Sentinals use faster casting), but I think personally having an all purpose set of links is more beneficial and lets you raise a variety, which is why I included quality Culling (quality adds cast speed and attack speed) and Added Chaos. If you love Burned Miscreations, Increased Area of Affect is also a decent choice.

Zombies (4 link): Raise Zombie + Minion Life + Minion Damage + Minion Speed

Skeletons (4 link): Summon Skeletons + Spell Totem + Faster Casting + (Minion Damage or Minion Life)

Do you want your skeletons to punch harder? Minion Damage. Do you want them to Explode for more damage when they die? Minion Life.

Auras (4 link): Clarity + Discipline + Grace + Reduced Mana

And then curses and whatever else you want can go in the remaining two 3 links.

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7. Flasks

The notable flask is the first one: A Perpetual of Animation. Getting one of these and spamming it will add a lot to the survivability of your minions. The rest are pretty straightforward: Seething of heats for WTF moments, perpetual QS of adrenaline for travel and perpetual granite of warding for physical reduction and curse removable. I will probably replace one of my seethings with a well rolled perpetual granite of iron skin eventually.

In my opinion, everyone should invest heavily in their flasks shortly after hitting level 53 and gaining access to hallowed flasks.

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8. A Note on Uniques

Bones of Ullr are the only summoner unique I use and the only one that I personally believe is necessary for hard-core. Losing a well rolled amulet is not worth using Sidhebreath, and losing the benefits of a shield is not worth using Queen's Decree (sword). Midnight Bargain (wand) is interesting, but losing 30% of your already non-insane life pool in a one death league? You make the decision.

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Once I find a decent +2 to minion gems helmet I will be four linking it and putting my Raise Zombie links there. My amulet is also garbage, just waiting on the right Onyx to come along. Also, the random Faster Castings in my shield I was leveling in case I wanted to use them with Spectres or curses but I probably won't. The remaining minion gems are in my off weapon.

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That's about it. Thanks for reading, and feel free to post any questions. I'll try to check back here often. Good luck!

PoE Class Builds

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Path of Exile 2H Sweep Duelist Build
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Path of Exile Marauder 2H Axe Guide
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Shadow Builds
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Templar Builds
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Path of Exile Dual Wield Elemental Templar Build
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Witch Builds
Path of Exile Hardcore Necromancer Witch Build
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Path of Exile Fire Witch Build (14k DPS)
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General PoE Guides
Path of Exile Act 3 Walkthrough
Path of Exile Easy Merveil Runs Guide
Path of Exile Mana Regeneration Guide
Path of Exile Crafting Resource Guide
Path of Exile Complete Skill Gem Quest Reward List
Path of Exile Beginner's Guide

PvP Guides
Path of Exile Cold Witch PvP Guide
Path of Exile Dealing With Freeze in PvP

Path of Exile Charge Duelist Build

2013-02-17T20:40:00.001-05:00

Path of Exile Charge Duelist Build by ImVeryKind

Hello everyone,

im ImVeryKind and today i want to present you the Charge Duelist. In my opinion the Duelist is one of the most understimated Classes. His unique position in the passive Skilltree, between Maurauder and Ranger, allows him to deal high damage, while being tanky and agile together. In this Guide we try to benefit from both neighbouring Classes to build a Character that will even survive in HC. Here is the Link to the passive Skilltree: Link.

1) Why Charges?

Spoiler

A lot of player tend use more attack skills for special situations. But we need to keep in mind, that we can only use 1 Skill at a given time. That makes multiple attack skills (talking for this kind of Guide) redundant. We need an concise Skillset with 1 Single Target and 1 Multiple Target (AoE) Skill. Charge generating Skills supports Offense/Defense without the need to constantly spam them. The only tradeoff is to make sure that the Charges doesnt expire. But measured on the benefit its worth the additional effort. In PoE there exist 3 Charge types. We will use 2 of them: Frenzy- and Endurance Charges.

Frenzy Charge:
5% Attack/Spell Speed per Charge

The base duration of this Charge is 10s. With 2 x "Frenzy charge duration" we extend its duration to 13,6s. The node "Evasion per Frenzy" will give us 4% Evasion per Charge. The base amount of charges is 3. With 2x "+1 maximum Frenzy Charge" we will extend it to 5. The total benefits are:

- 25% increased Attack speed
- +20% Evasion (with Iron Grip +20% Armour)

As you can see 25% IAS will gives us more Hits per Second and with Life Leech and Life on Hit modifiers we will regenerate more HP. As a downside it should be mentioned that the Manacosts will increase aswell, but Blood Magic (spend Life instead of Mana) should help us. Frenzy charge will generate if you hit the enemy with the Gem "Frenzy" or kill an enemy while under the effect of the "Blood Rage" gem.

Endurance Charge:
- +5% Physical Damage reduction per Charge
- +5% additional Elemental Resistances per Charge

The base duration of this Charge is 10s. With 2 x "Endrurance charge duration" we extend its duration to 13,6s. The node "Life Regeneration per Endurance Charge" will give us 0.2% Liferegeneration per Charge. The base amount of charges is 3. With 2x "+1 maximum Frenzy Charge" we will extend it to 5. The total benefits are:

- 25% Physical Damage reduction
- 25% Elemental Resistance
- 1% Liferegeneration

As you can see this Charge gives us more tenacity. Its quite easy to generate them. The gem "Warloads Mark" will curse the enemy, which will gives us a chance of 20%-29% to create a Endurance Charge. The Gem "Enduring Cry" will taunt enemys in a certain Radius and gives us Charges depent on the number of taunted enemys, but atleast 1 for a single enemy.

How to keep the Charges up?

Its easy to keep the charges up if you know how. I personally use "Frenzy" to keep up the frenzy charges. Its too risky to use "Blood Rage" because it gives 4% of your Life as chaos Damage per second is while its up. I dont think that the Life leech and IAS on low life is worth the risk. First i dont want to be on low life and second if you fight with single targets you Charge with expire, since there is no enemy to kill. But with "Frenzy" you only need to hit the enemy once to reset the duration and add +1 Charge if you not on Maximum. It should be possible in a timespan of 10-13s to hit the enemy once with frenzy. Sometimes you dont have the chance to get near to an Enemy (i.e. Brutus) because you are on low life or there is too much enemy to go near to them. Keep in mind that you can swap your weapons with X. As a second Weaponset i put Bow and Quiver with Frenzy, that helps me to keep the stack up while im on distance to the enemy. Swap to Bow/Quiver, shoot one arrow and press X again to go on melee.

For Endurance its alot of easier. I dont prefer "Warlords Mark" because its only provide us a chance to create one. Its too risky to lose all of your stacks and you waste your only Curse slot on enemys. "Enduring Cry" is easier. You need at least one enemy in your Radius to taunt them for a +1 Endurance Charge. More enemy means more Charges. Keep in mind that Enduring Cry has a 4s cooldown. On the other hand its too risky to taunt a bunch of enemys for charges you think. But i will explain to you later how to handle these situation.

2. Offence

Spoiler

Which Weapon? Dual, 1H or 2H?
The weapon of choose is the Sword, because it fits with the skill i want to use. Other weapons has nice skills too but are overall clumsier. The diffrence in Damage is not that much, but swords allows me to use 2 skills that are important: Viper Strike and Whirling Blade (see Gem section). A lot of Gems for the other Types use Elemental Damage, which is contra-productive (see Defence: Life Leech and Life on Hit) for us.

The next question one handed Sword with Shield or dual wield, or two handed Swords? This is a question of taste. Dual Wield will provide us with an implicit bonus of 15% Block Chance and 10% IAS and an explicit bonus of a second sword with offensive pre-and suffix. The skill of choose would be dual strike for higher Damage output and therefore higher Lifeleech. On the other hand a shield will gives us a higher Defensive Bonus (see Defence), better defencive pre- and suffix aswell as a higher block chance. Double Strike would be beneficial, since it hits twice with one attack and therefore proccs more (i.e. double Life Gain on Hit). Two handed Sword gives a higher Damage for a slower attack. You should choose Heavy Strike for single target damage. Whirling Strike would be replaced with Leap Slam.

- Dual Wield: 10% IAS, 15% Block Chance, high Damage, high attack speed
(Good for SC and need expierienced playstle in HC)

- Shield and Sword: Higher Block Chance, higher Defensive Bonus, more procc's.
(Good for SC/HC: Trade portion of Damage for security. Dont forget to change the "Ambidexterity" node in the Skilltree)

- Two Handed: Higher Damage, slower attack speed, Leap Slam as Escape skill.
(Higher Damage, lower mobility. Posted as an option, but its suboptimal. Dont forget to change all One-Handed Nodes to Two-Handed. Change "Ambidexterity" node)

The Swords came with 2 diffrent bonus. First with higher Accuracy (local bonus: only for attacks with this sword) or with global Critical Strike Multipler.

Source of Damage

Our Character deals pure physical damage. Every point +10 Points in Strenght increases our physical Damage for 2%. Thats really a good way to increase it, since every +10 Points Strength gives us 5 HP. So i invested more in Strength instead of %Physical Damage nodes. With %Physical Damage we need to take more little points before we reach a Node that gives us a bigger %Physical damage and we cant spread since we are narrowd down. With Strength we can dive more in the Maurauder Tree for a little damage increase + base HP and take all good Nodes, thats near our path. We obtain 68% physical increase only with Strength and 56% with explicite Nodes. That makes a total of 124% increased damage. We have 27% IAS that increases our Damage per Second and later 25% from Frenzy. Additional Damage/IAS Bonuses gained from Armour.

Critical Strike Chance

Our chance to crit is really low.

Damage over Time

Viper Strike is a good way to increase your overall damage. Chaos damage penetrates Energy Shield. You can stack the DoT up to 3 times. Like Charges you should reset its duration if its expire. Most of the time you dont need it. But on special Monster, that has increased regenerated Life, strong Energy Shield, too much damage to stand near to him, or larger HP pool, im greatful to have this. Another variant that i prefer to use is to swap to my second Weaponset (Bow/Quiver) and use Poison Arrow. With Greater Multiple Projectiles, Pierce and Fork i fill the whole Map with Poison. Its good when you cant go melee or a big chunck of enemy waits for you. GMP, Pierce and fork will greatly reduce its initial damage, that means the Damage that the Arrows deals, but the Poisoncloud is not affected (the part that deals the much greater damage). Poison Arrow is like Viper Strike a DoT and from Chaos Type that can only be reduced by Chaos resist.

Accuracy

All damage is useless when you cant hit. Unlike the Maurauder we dont depend on %Accuracy Nodes. Since we have 232 DEX nodes, we have an implicite 92% accuracy. Thats very high compared to most of the Classes. We gain addtional local 18% Accuracy increase with swords. Its easily to gain some more on armour but it should be enough.

3. Defence

Spoiler

Health and more

With Strength we gain 127HP. +60 HP from other Nodes. That is 187HP flat HP increase. We have 184% increased maximum Life. We have 5% life Regeneration per second (+1% with Endurance) and 2% Life Leech.
Due the fact that we spread we didnt need to take the 8% maxiumum Life increase. Instead we could take the higher Nodes. They are spread wide so you could easily chose one if you need life.

Life Leech and Life on Hit
Life on Hit is simple to understand. You gain instantly! Life for each hit. Life leech in Path of Exile is a little bit diffrent. You can only leech 20% of your maximum HP per second. If you exceed this limit the Life Leeach turns into a Health over Time (HoT). The amount of Life you will get is based on the physical attack you will deal to an enemy, elemental/chaos damage is obviously excluded. This is the reason why we choose a physical build in the first place. With the amount you recover with each strike your healthpool could theoretically increase 20% of your current health each second. Thats called virtual health pool.
You should know that Life Leech (Gem) can exceed the 20% limit. Also it will absorb a percantage of the damage dealth with the linked item, whether its physical or not. To know how much life you leech and how much life per hit you can get is important since you will spend all of your Manarequiment from your Health pool, thanks to Blood Magic.

Armour and Evasion
Before we start calculating lets see how much increase we have. "40% Evasion and 40% Armor" from "Leather and Steel"(L&S) nodes, 102% for Armour(Ar) and 52% Evasion(BE) from DEX. Before Iron Grip we have 102% Evasion and 142% Armour. After Iron Grip the calculation changes to:

Total Armor = Base Armor * ( 1 + L&S + Ar) + Base Evasion (1 + L&S + Ar + BE)
Link: Zoid

As you can see ( 1 + L&S + Ar) < (1 + L&S + Ar + BE), so we decide to go full Evasion Armour when we take Iron Grip. We have now a total Armor increase of 294% armour.
I should mention here, that you will get 30% critdamage reduction from enemy hits.

Elemental Resist

We have 60% Elemental Resist and Endurance Charges provides us with 5x5% ER. So fully charged we will have 85% Elemental resist. The cap in merciless is at 75% + 60% (penalty from merciless). So we need only 40-50% Elemental Resist on our Armor (if you choose 8% ER from Bandit quest). Thats easy to obtain.

Gems

Spoiler

Offensive Gems

-Dual Strike: Take this if you Dual Wield. It attacks with both swords and deals a lot of physical Damage on a single target. In comparison with Double Strike, it has more Life leech but lower life on hit because it counts as 1 attack.

- Double Strike: take this if you use Shield and Sword. It attack 2 times for 1 skill usage, so it proccs twice (LoH, Stun etc.)

-Cleave: You main AoE Skill. Attacks all enemys infront of you. Deals physical damage. Proccs will calculated for each enemy that get hit.

-Viper Strike/Poison Arrow: Deals chaos Damage. As i descibed under Offence it will help you on hard monster. Keep in mind that you have a second Weaponset.

- Frenzy: Will give you frenzy charges for each hit.

- Detonate Dead: For very special situations, where you need to get rid of bodies. Doesnt scale with your damage.

Defensive Gem

- Enduring Cry: Will provide you with Endurance charges, gives you elemental resist and physical damage reduction. Note that it doesnt give you armor. It truly reduce the amount of Damage before Armour will calculated.

- Whirling Blades: This skill is one of the reason, that we have 2 Savant (+30Int) points in our build. It whirles forward to your mouse location, hitting everything on road. After arrival it has a short delay before you can move. The animation and the delay scales with attack speed, that means we will have shorter delay and faster movement. With this you can whirl out of fights or close gaps between enemys. With life on hit and life leech you will easily heal your HP if you whirl out of big enemy groups.

- Immortal Call: Will consume all of your Endurance Charges but gives you 0,6 (0,84 at max) invulnerability. It will not prevent Chaos/Elemental Damage but as far as i know, the biggest damage are physical. Its worth a consideration.

- Decoy totem: Early game its really good to confuse the targets but later on it dies too fast.

- Rejuvenation Totem: Early game its really good but later it will destroyed too fast. You need good placement and you bond near to the totem for the benefits.

Aura

All Auras that reserve %Life are risky so i avoid them. Since we dont have any increased Elemental damage on the passive Skilltree the damage will really low. Only Grace gives some additional armor through IR. You should consider if its worth.

Curses
- Warlords Mark: Gives 4% Life/Mana leech and a chance to create an Endurance charge. Will grant more flask charges.

- Vulnerability: Curses all targets in an area, making them take increased damage from physical attacks and degeneration, and easier to stun. The target's energy shield will regenerate more slowly.

Support Gem

- Life Leech/Life gain on Hit: Your bread and butter skill if you want to survive with Blood magic.

- Melee Physical Damage: Increase your %physical Damage for 40% increased Manause.

- Stun: It seems that this Gem dont have a multiplier. With your high physical Damage and this gem you should stun the enemy really hard.

- Blind: Dont use it. Doesnt work with Unveawering Stance.

- Blood Magic: Using Life instead of Mana. It has a 2,45 multiplier on a skill.

Final Build

Spoiler

I think the biggest downsize of this build is Blood magic. It prevents that we can use most of the Auras. To get rid of them i tried several skillcombination that based on the blood magic skill. I will take the max cost that a linked item could have.

4 Slot:
Dual Strike: 9 Mana
Life on Hit: 40 Life, 1.5 Multiplier
Life Leech: 1.3 Multiplier
Blood Magic: 2.0 Multiplier

40 - 9*1.5*1.3*2= 4.9 HP per Hit

As you can see its beneficial to use Blood Magic gem instead of the passive. Life on Hit works here like the reduced Mana gem, only better

6 Slot

Cleave: 9 Mana
Life on Hit: 40 Life, 1.5 Multiplier
Life Leech: 1.3 Multiplier
Blood Magic: 2.0 Multiplier
Stun: 1.0 Multiplier
Melee physical Damage: 1.4 Multiplier

40*x - 9*1.5*1.3*2.0*1.0*1.4 = 40*x - 49,14 HP per Hit
X is the enemys which you hit. With x = 1 you would loose -9.14 life. But since Cleave is an AoE Attack you will hit at least 2 enemys which is positive. You could replace Stun with reduced Mana and would have 34,88.

3 Slot

Grace: 213 Mana
Blood Magic: 2.0 Multiplier
reduce Mana: 0.71 Multiplier

213*2*0.71 = 302,46 HP

As you can see its beneficial to get rid of blood magic. Since most of the Auras are %-based you could use these following Auras:

- Vitality: Casts an aura that grants health regeneration to you and your allies. 40% Manareservation (recommended)

- Purity: Casts an aura that grants elemental resistances to you and your allies. 40% Manareservation

- Haste: Casts an aura that increases the attack speed and cast speed of you and your allies. 40% Manareservation

- Determination: Casts an aura that grants armour to you and your allies. 40% Manareservation

Now lets see how much we can actually use. Reduced Mana will multiply with 0.71.

100/(3*40) = 0.83 (3 Auras are possible)
100/(4*40) = 0.62 (not possible)

And as a final result we would have an additional Skillpoint left

Path of Exile Beginner's Guide

2013-02-10T13:44:00.001-05:00

Path of Exile Beginner's Guide by panplan

This is just a guide for new players to attempt at making a build which is at least viable before Merciless Act 3 and will not be too far off from a viable build to clear the game so you can always re-spec to make it complete.

I. Type of damage:
First off, you need to know about existing types of damage in this game so as to know how to defend yourself.

1. Physical damage: done by most mobs, including self-detonating mobs, can be decreased by Armor or Endurance Charge. A tip: Morten Shell (Strengh based skill gem) gives a huge amount of Armor Rating. All physical attack can cause Stun (unable to do anything)

2. Elemental damage: this includes Fire, Cold and Lightning. You can tell if a type of mob is doing certain elemental damage by hover your cursor over it and see in the description. With the exception of some unique mobs, most of them does range attack. Elemental damage can be reduced by Elemental Resistance up to 75% in normal condition. You can improve that cap with Elemental Adaptation node and Resistance Flask.

Aside the main damage, these elemental damage can also caused status ailment. Fire can cause Burning (30% of base Fire damage). Cold can cause Chill (slow attack and movement speed) and Freeze (similar to Stun). Lightning can cause Shock (+40% damage for each stack, max = 3 stacks)

3. Chaos damage: This type of damage bypasses all armor, energy shield and elemental resistance. There are chaos resistance notes in the passive tree. You can also increase your chaos resistance with equipment and flask. Sometimes this type of damage is unavoidable (mobs with chaos damage over time aura) so you cannot kite it. Other than stacking resistance there are 2 ways to mitigate it: have a lot of health and health regeneration or life leech and kill the mob before you are killed OR do an energy shield based build and take Chaos Inoculation passive node. The effect of this node is making you immune to chaos damage but reducing your HP to 1. So to survive against other types of damage while using Chaos Inoculation, you need a lot of Energy Shield, hence the ES + Chas Inoculation build.

II. The basis of all build: Survival
The reason for why 'Survival' is the basis of all build is because:
- You can't do damage if you die
- Your damage output is 60% based on equipments, 30% based on sustainability and 10% based on passive notes. Please don't question these figures, just my mental approximation. I will explain later.
- You are the enemy of yourself because there are mobs with reflect damage mod out there. So unless you balance offense and defense, you are going to kill yourself.

So knowing that you are going to take all 3 types of damage mentioned above, you need to balance your build to mitigate all of them. Which defensive style to take depends substantially on your choice of skill and class. The more face to face you are going against mobs, the more points you need to invest into defense.

Melee: Aside from Witch who lacks both Strength and Dexteriy, all other classes can effectively build Melee. However each differs in their style of defense.

- Templar: This class is closest to strong shield blocking and resistance nodes and also next to Marauder and Witch areas. Therefore you have 3 choices:
+ Hybrid: Scepter/Wand + Shield + good HP + armor (AR) based equipments + block + endurance charge + Elemental Adaption. Basically you utilize nodes mostly in your own area with a significant number in Marauder area and some in Witch area.
+ Strength: Scepter/Mace + Shield or 2-handed weapon + high HP + HP regeneration + maxed endurance charge + AR based equipment Elemental Adaption + Resolute Technique. A build for melee attack Templars who utilize nodes mostly in Marauder area.
+ Intelligence: Scepter/Wand + Energy Shield (ES) based equipments + high ES + Chaos Inoculation. Any ES based build is quite unfriendly to new players because you need to stack ES, which doesn't scale really well early game and you basically have 0 armor so it's like having a small pool of HP with 0 damage reduction. But at end game it's a pretty strong build.
(It is possible to build a bow Templar but you will have a hard time getting enough Dex to support your gem)

- Witch: This class has the least amount of survival choice. It only has access to weaker Life nodes (most are +8%), no life regeneration/life leech, lack of Strength so it's always recommended to do a ES + Chaos Inoculation build. However you can easily do a life based build if you are a summoner type.

- Shadow: This class is even more recommended for ES + Chaos Inoculation build because aside from ES, it also has high Evasion Rating (ER). Because Shadow is very far from both Blood Magic and Iron Reflex, and doesn't have access to high number of Strength node, it's difficult to do a life leech build. However, don't count too much on evasion, it's like cream on top of a cake but not the whole cake. If you have low life and ES, one unlucky hit and you're down for the count.

Actually both Witch and Shadow can do ES build without Chaos Inoculation. However you need to pick up at least 2 Chaos Resistance nodes and stack ES armors + Chaos Resistance nodes. Best to balance all resistances to make this work. Since you have a bigger 'life' pool than all other classes (HP + ES), less than maxed resistance is okay. Ghost Reaver is a good node to go with this build or even the ES + CI build.

- Ranger and Duelist: The reason for why I list these two together because they are relatively equally close to significant Life nodes, Resistance nodes, Blood Magic, Iron Reflect and Vaal Pact. Basically, all builds related to these 2 classes involve taking Iron Reflex as it grants them huge amount of AR, which could be greater than that of Templar/Marauder in full AR armor + shield, though the final damage reduction might not be as much due to not having access to Endurance Charge. Aside from that, you can do either of these builds:
+ Life leech: in other words, Blood Magic + Vaal Pact + Life Leech support gem. This is doable for both melee style and bow style.
+ Non-LL: without life leech, I don't think melee can survive without endurance charge, high HP and HP regeneration. Therefore it's only viable for bow build.

- Marauder: the toughest guy in the game. He starts out with life, armor and resistance and also surrounded by endurance charge. Also he's next to Templar and Duelist which gives him access to good enough amount of Dex and Intelligence for any skill (though still need Resolute Technique for melee). Not to mention that he's very close to minion related nodes too so he can also be a summoner. You can do many kinds of build with this guy except ER/ES based:
+ High HP + HP regeneration + block + AR + Elemental Adaptation + Endurance Charge
+ High HP + life leech (Blood Magic with/without Vaal Pact, if without, take HP regeneration) + Resolute Technique + Endurance Charge (if you want)
+ High HP + HP regeneration + AR + Elemental Adaptation + Dex + Int + Projectile Attack/Spell

Any out of ordinary build will be heavily influenced by gears to make up for your shortcoming. So consider first if you are experienced and patient enough to pull it off. The reason why a HP + shield block build only needs good instead of high HP is because when you get the Templar's Shield Master group of nodes, as Templar or Marauder or Witch. You will get +30% All elemental resistance, which let you invest more into chaos resistance in equipment. Also your 'reflected' elemental damage will deal less to yourself. A life leech build involves having enough HP for your skill casting as well as absorbing all types of damage while constantly leeching life from mobs to refill the HP pool. Another thing to remind you about LL build is that you also need very high attack speed or hitting multiple targets. Doing something like Infernal Blow + Blood Magic passive + Life Leech gem is not viable.

III. Offensive style:
There are three main concepts that affect how you will improve your damage output:
Note: any skill can be improved by increase critical strike multiplier so I won't mention this anywhere below.

1. Type of skill: Attack or Spell
- Attack: any attack based skill will more or less involve physical damage with the exception of Elemental Hit. Even the elemental damage portion will involve converting the base physical damage to elemental damage. However, there are some attacks that do chaos damage which cannot be increased by any means. Way to boost attack based skill, regardless of type of damage or characteristic of skill: Use Faster Attack gem.
- Spell: most spell does elemental damage with the exception of Ethereal Knives, Detonate Death, Shockwave Totem and Bear Trap. Among those 4, only Etheral Knives's physical damage can be increased with passive nodes. You cannot boost the damage of Bear Trap by any means. Way to boost spell based skill, regardless of type of damage or characteristic of skill: Use Faster Cast gem and/or Iron Will (if you have high Strength).

2. Type of damage:
- Physical damage: if it is an attack based skill then you need good weapon with high physical damage. Usually it's not achievable with the exception of 2-handed Staff/Mace/Axe. Therefore, most builds still rely on the elemental damage part. If it is a spell based skill (the 4 mention above), then, except for Bear Trap, read section 3. Characteristic of skill.
- Elemental damage: if it is an attack based skill, you can use Weapon Elemental Damage gem or Weapon Elemental Damage passive nodes. If it is a spell based skill, you can use weapon with Increase Spell Damage mod or Increaes Spell Damage passive nodes. Increase Elemental Damage passive or mod will boost the elemental damage of both attack based and spell based skills.

3. Characteristic of skill: Melee or projectile, single target or AOE
- Melee: Melee damage can be increased with Melee Physical Damage support gem.
- Projectile: Projectile damage can be increased with Faster Projectile, Lesser Multiple Projectile (LMP), Greater Multiple Projectile (GMP), Pierce, Fork, and Chain. With the exception of Faster Projectile, the others are modification to the projectile skill itself which can make a single target skill a semi-AOE skill. These effects cannot apply at the same time so when a projectile pierce, it cannot fork or chain and when a projectile fork it cannot chain. You need to use the appropriate support gem for each different projectile skill. For example Freezing Pulse has embedded Pierce effect so you can't use Pierce, Fork or Chain gem. This may look great but each support gem (except Faster Projectile) will decrease the damage effectiveness of each projectile and increase the mana cost. Most players choose LMP so that they can do a shotgun effect (hitting one mob with multiple projectiles) to increase damage. The latter are for crowd control purpose.
- Single target: just to differentiate from AOE skill, refer to Melee and Projectile for information.
- AOE: AOE or Area of Effect skills are those that hit multiple targets with one hit/wave (not projectile). There are of course projectile skill which is inherently AOE, such as Freezing Pulse, or part AOE/part single target: cold arrow, fire ball, infernal blow, etc. So for the AOE part of these skills, you can improve their damage substantially with the Concentrated Effect gem by 1.5x at level 1, and even higher at higher level.

Some examples:
- Lightning Strike: Lightning, Melee, Attack, Projectile: Melee Physical Damage, Faster Attack, Weapon Elemental Damage, LMP, Chain, Lightning Penetration, Increase Critical Damage, Life Leech. That's more than 6 lol, but they are not every gems usable. The more gems you can link, the better your skill will be.
- Fire Storm: Fire, Spell, AOE, duration: Concentrated Effect, Iron Will, Faster Casting, Increase Area of Effect, Increase Duration, Fire Penetration, Chance to Ignite, Elemental Proliferation, Increase Critical Damage, etc.

Don't forget about Curses. You can only apply one curse at a time unless you take Whispers of Doom node at top north of the tree. Choose which curse to use according to your type of attack and damage.

One more important thing to consider is whether your build involve enough base stats (Str/Int/Dex) for the skill/support gem that you want to use. Though this might be overcome by equipment.

IV. Sustainability:
By sustainability, I mean mana cost. The more gem you link, the more each use of skill costs you, mana or HP (if blood magic). Also if you use aura, they will reserve a portion or amount of your total mana thus further decreases your mana pool. Without these energy supply, you can't use skill, which makes your uber skill meaningless. There are several method to preserve mana.

- From passive nodes: Increase maximum mana by x%, Increase mana regeneration by x%, Reduce Mana cost by x%. These 3 will help you to sustain your normal use of skills. Although increase mana cost caused by support gem linked to aura/skill will increase their mana reservation, the reduced mana cost passive node will not decrease the mana reservation. For that, you need the reduced mana reservation nodes, which only exist in the Templar and Marauder area.
- Reduced Mana support gem: This will greatly reduce the mana cost and mana reserve cost of any skill that is linked to it. If you have 4L gloves for example, you can link Determination + Hatred + Purity + Reduced Mana to reduce the mana reserve of 3 Auras at the same time.
- Use totem: you can use Spell Totem support gem for Spells or Ranged Attack Totem for projectile attack skills. Basically, instead of using your skills directly, you will summon a totem which continuously use these skills for you at 0 mana cost, however at reduced speed and weaker damage. Other modification support gem can be linked to alter the skill effect used by totem too.
- Blood Magic: This is a totally different aspect. If you get Blood Magic node, your mana pool will be 0 and all mana cost and reserve will be taken from your HP pool instead. The benefit of this is that usually you will have high HP pool to follow this build (as in 4-6k) thus making your "mana" consumption less desperate. To refill this "mana" pool you can use either life leech or HP regeneration. Also another benefit is that you only have to carry one type of flask instead of 2. However if you have a templar + shield block build and manage to get hybrid sacred flask then going without blood magic might be better.

Another trick with Blood Magic is that if you have a High HP + HP regeneration build but not getting Blood Magic node, you can link some aura with non-percentage cost (Clarity for example, unlike Determination which reserve 40% of your mana) with Blood Magic support gem so that only that aura will reserve a small bit of your HP pool. Or you can link your active skills with Blood Magic gem and leave 100% of your mana for aura reservation.

- Eldritch Battery: The big node on the right of Whispers of Doom. It converts all of your ES into mana. This can gives you a huge mana pool which can be used to accommodate multiple aura at once. I'm not very experienced in the balance, or investment needed to make use of this passive so I just mention this so you have something extra to think about.

So you see, improving your DPS involves a very small investment into +x% Damage of y type skill with/without z weapon nodes in the passive tree. It's combination of gems, sustainability and only a bit of general type damage boosting nodes such as: elemental damage, spell damage, physical melee damage, projectile damage, increase critical chance/multiplier. However I do recommend getting some specialized nodes for a specific type of damage (burning damage, huge amount of critical damage multiplier for certain weapon) if it comes at cheap cost for you, not if you have to go off the track.

Last words, to make the best out of your build, do try to get as many related significant/notable nodes as possible. Avoid those +10 stats nodes if you can afford. If you do an ES + Chaos Inoculation build, focus your stats on Intelligence. However, if you don't, try to get as few Intelligence and Dexterity as possible, only enough for your skill/support requirement and sufficient accuracy, the rest go to Strength. Thus always try to look for those +30 stats node or Life node which includes + 20 Strength. Don't try to reach too far (off the track) to those +15% all elemental resistance if you have 2 groups of +15% x element resistance in your area. Finally, try to find the shortest but most beneficial route to those nodes which you have your eyes on.

Day Z New Player's Guide

2013-02-08T18:42:00.002-05:00

Day Z New Player's Guide by Punisher62690

Hey guys I didn't really see any guides for a new player so I figured I'd write up my own. I usually survive for day on end following the steps I will outline in this guide. Keep in mind I play friendly I don't go looking for trouble.

A: Spawn
Upon spawning things are going to be disorienting and it will be even worse if you start on a server that doesn't spawn you with a map so its VERY important to watch the bottom right hand corner of your screen upon spawning, this will tell you where you are.

Most servers nowadays don't start you with a weapon, this can be troublesome but no need to worry. Throughout the game there will be various buildings in which you will find equipment in. You will eventually find a firearm and you will be able to sleep a little better at night. I will outline some steps for gathering equipment later in the guide

B: Avoiding Zombies and bandits
Avoiding zombies can be either as hard or as easy as you want to make it. I am crouched 90% of the time I play, it offers a nice medium of lower visibility than running and less sound made while walking this will keep zombies off your tail. Remember to keep your head on a swivel and ALWAYS stay alert just because your in a building doesnt mean that a zombie wont sneak up on you or maybe even a bandit. If you're being chased by zombies try leading them into a building and make your way out the other door of said building. zombies slow to a walk when entering a house. Avoid shooting at all costs, you want to save your ammo as best as you can. and remember gunfire attracts more zombies.

C: Scouting
Scouting is in my opinion one of the most important parts of the game and can very well keep you alive. Before entering any town or city I'll do some scouting. I do this by finding an area with good cover and good vantage over the town or city so i have lots of unobstructed view be it a mountain, hill or rooftop. Once you find one of these (if you have binoculars or a scoped weapon) survey the area and take the following elements into suggestion.

1: How much traffic is the area I'm about to head into getting?
2: Does the benefit outweigh the risk?
3: Is it day or night?

I prefer to do my scouting and planning during the day and my gathering at night on a server. While scouting look at all the building and plan your route so you spend as little time in the area as possible. Other players might be trying to gather in that area as well.

D: Scavenging
Once you've done your scouting and you have your route planned enter the city cautiously but not so slow that you're wasting time and risking getting yourself killed, find that happy medium in pace. If you hear gunfire TAKE COVER and don't freak out. Remember a whizz means its close a crack means they're shooting at you. Plan your escape route and avoid conflict, gunfire is going to attract zombies. Now if you can't escape safely its time to make a stand. Where ever you took cover. Fortify yourself in that position. Make sure your back isnt exposed to enemy players or zombies. equip your best weapon take aim and wait for them to come after you. If they REALLY want to kill you make them come for it. this will give you that extra half a second trigger pull on the enemy as they walk in the door, potentially saving your life. Don't come out after them playing into their trap. If they dont come after you, You have a decision to make, how long is long enough to wait? How much are you willing to risk losing your gear? This is up to you.

E: Key Items
Here I'm just going to list key items for survival and you should always gather them when possible.
1: hunting knife, this is essential for anyone planning to live extended periods. Animals you see in the wilderness can be gutted and have their meat harvested and cooked.
2: matches and wood, For making fires to cook meat.
3: binoculars, these can be ignored for a scoped weapon but I'd still take them anyways
4: a side arm, I always carry a side arm on me just incase things get out of hand and you run out of ammo for your primary
5: map,compass, and gps, to navigate

Now you can modify this list or guide even to suit your play style but this like i said is the way i survive for days on end.

F: Night
Nighttime gets its own section because its really difficult for new players to navigate and find their way around when spawning at night, or playing at night for the first time. Along with the things I've said in my guide there are a few more steps and precautions to take at night.

Remember sources of light can be seen from A LOOOOOOONNG WAYS away. I prefer to use red or green chemlights and throw them in the direction im going. Red is less visible but it also gives less light. Flares can be used for the same thing but are MUCH brighter. Never carry chemlights or flares in your hand while moving. This is more for PVP purposes this will allow an enemy to track you and like i said can be seen from ages away. I don't like to use flashlights because they give your position away to the enemy as well. Take your time. No one is rushing you to move anywhere, you have decreased visibility at night especially at times when the moon isnt out and its extremely dark. Pay attention to the sounds of your surroundings. If you use a campfire to cook meat try to do it indoors and put it out as soon as possible to draw the least amount of attention.

This has been the first part to my guide to survival. I'll probably come back and add bits here and there as i play more and discover new things and as the game changes. Good luck and stay alive!

Day Z Newbie Survival Guide

2013-02-08T18:04:00.002-05:00

Day Z Newbie Survival Guide by Saliviril

This is my opinion on what you should do, not an instruction manual.

(Note: Through this guide, you should kill first, ask questions later)

   The first thing you want to do is figure out where you just spawned. Where ever, you spawned, first head towards Cherno/Elektro. If you see a barn, however, try looting that first. Your objective is to: 1) find a gun (Lee enfield, Winchester with slugs, Makarov, hatchet, any military weapon), the best places to search for a gun are the medical tents in Cherno, Tall, orange buildings, sometimes the church, Schools, Fire stations, and barns. 2) Find medical supplies. I suggest leaving with: 2-3 bandages, 2 morphine, 4 blood bags, and an epi-pen. (If you are playing with a friend or two, try to have them get the same supplies.) 3) Food/drink. Try the supermarket, or almost any building that isn't farm/military. Try to get a Water canteen, 2 sodas, 2-4 canned foods. (You will get cooked meat later, hopefully.) Once you have all of this, your backpack and inventory are probably full, and you probably don't want to be around all these players and zeds any more. Run north, get into the woods, reload, meet your friends, eat/drink if you must, do whatever to get ready.

Once you are in the wooded area, keep heading north. If your server let you spawn with a map, I usually go to every high value barn I see until everyone in my party has ammo and a lee enfield. You should try this, and be sure not to go to any towns that are only 1,000m north, other players may go there looking for supplies. If you see a player doing this, and they don't see you, just run around them and don't bother with them. Once you are about 2-3k m north, I suggest getting ready for the long walk. What I usually do at this point, is have 1 friend go in one direction, 1 friend go another, and you and 1 other player head direct north. The 2 players that left will be looting deer stands while you and your friend cover ground going north. (If you do not have this many friends playing, or only 1, or 2, or whatever, just skip to the next paragraph.) Once the other 2 friends have looted all the deer stands that aren't super far away, (Use the DayZDB map to find these) you should all choose a town that isn't too far for anyone, regroup, heal up, drink, eat, hunt an animal maybe. By now you may want to make sure you have a hatchet, and box of matches. These are essential up here. At this point, hunt animals. Try to get 2-4 cooked steak for everyone. If you can't, just 1-2. A cow provides 8, that is a lot.

   If you don't have that many friends, or you just don't want to do that, you and your friends (if you have them with you) should head due north, killing animals and cooking them for meat. Before you are near Stary, you should try and have a decent amount of cooked meat. Now this is the dangerous part. Lots of snipers love killing players at Stary, so what I do is have 1 friend sprint in to the military area at the back of Stary, and look in all the tents hoping for a gun or two. If they don't find one, just leave Stary and come back later. Now you are up north, with or without military grade equipment. What next?

   Deer stands. Keep going to these and hoping for equipment. Keep hunting animals for food. Continue going in to a town once in awhile for drink/bandages. After you feel you (and your party) is ready, go the the airfield. Try and get weapons and maybe a vehicle, and book it out of there. From now on, follow these last two paragraphs until you are decently geared and have a vehicle or two. At this point you can either 1) set up a camp. Or 2) Kill players sniping picking on new/fresh spawns. Do this until you are loaded out on equipment, then go looking for camps. Repeat this until you eventually die. Everybody dies in DayZ.

Day Z Beginner's Guide

2013-02-08T18:02:00.003-05:00

Day Z Beginner's Guide by Shin

Hi guys, first post. Made an account to basically combine everything I've learned about Day Z, including those dreaded client errors. I think I've had them all.

Ok, so - errors first.

Error compiling pixel shader: You need to go into Steam, force remove of Arma2: OA and close Steam. Open Steam (right click and "run as administrator") - redownload/install and you should be fine. Don't forget to run the Beta too.

Wait for host: You need to delete Battleye associated with Arma2: OA and delete Day Z itself. (Don't worry you'll get it back) Go to - C:Program Files(x86) or whatever. Then Steam, SteamApps, Common, Arma2 Operation Arrowhead, then @dayZ. Delete everything in this folder. Then go to Expansion, BattlEye and uninstall BattlEye.

Ok, then open DayZ Commander and go to install/update and redownload DayZ latest patch. Start up Arma2: OA FROM YOUR DESKTOP OR ICON

This will then reinstall BattlEye.

Being kicked for server restriction #40, #44 or #45

You'll need to be able to see hidden files. Forgotten how to do this but it should be easy enough. Go to C: Users then your username for the computer. Then AppData, Local, Arma2 OA and BattlEye - delete this .dll.

You'll generate this file again upon logging on.

Ok - the guide.

Shinjetsu's Totally Awesome Newbie Guide
You'll want to find an official server (click the option to hide unofficial in DayZ Commander) and one with 1 - 5 players and a good ping.

Ok, so you spawn. Argh! WTF IS THIS HUD? Look at the bottom right. Quickly. This is where you are. Remember it. Then go to http://dayzdb.com/map#4.127.091 and decide where to go. Ready? Excellent. If you spawn really far from Cherno or Elektro, then you're likely to die unless you're a vet. If you're a veteran player, why are you reading this? I can't teach you anything. Go away.

DON'T MOVE YET

Firstly, press G. You will have a really Amiga game looking inventory. You will have Painkillers, bandages, a backpack and a flashlight. Firstly remember you may open your backpack to put things in. I didn't learn this ability for a while. Your standard backpack has 8 slots. Its useful for food, drink, medical supplies and ammo. Anything else, don't bother. Certain things if you right click will have an option. Never use the flashlight, ever. I'm not even going to tell you the hotkey because its not going to be needed. Ok, so your next job is to move. Sounds simple right? Most of your time out in the open will be spent sprinting. W is run forward, but double tap it and you'll sprint. Useful for outrunning zombies. A,S and D are generic movement keys from there. Numpad Enter is to go 3rd person. Useful to give yourself a panoramic view. Alt toggles mouselook, meaning you can run and look over your shoulder. Give it a try. Get used to this, because when Zeds are after you, its vital. Then we have Z (prone) X (crouch) and c (stand) - the shift key allows you to walk while crouching, so give that a try. V is for "vaulting" basically jumping over stuff. Don't bother vaulting unless you think you need to. Its a bit unpredictable sometimes if you'll break a leg (I did)

Right, well you can move, you can use the inventory and you know where you are.

You'll notice on the right there are some indicators. One is thirst. One is Hunger, One is Blood and the other is temperature. If you can't decipher from the icons then please find the nearest sharp knife and stab it into your eyes, because they clearly aren't being used for purpose. You'll notice that the hunger and thirst bars deplete while you run. Don't worry - these are like petrol gauges. You can survive when they're blinking. Just. You'll want to find some beans/sardines/pasta and coca cola/pepsi/mountain dew. Don't make this your immediate concern however. You've got a good hour or so to find that stuff. You'll find them mostly in residential areas on your way to a large city. The blood one however is important. See below. The others that are the eye icon and the ear icon are the levels of visibility and noise. Don't make much noise. 2 is.....acceptable around Zombies. Anything above 2 and you're asking for trouble. Same with vision. Although some Zombies are superpowered and have seen me from 200m away when i had 2 visibility. Anyway;

ATTENTION

You are likely to see Zombies. Right mouse button zooms slightly. Walk around the edge of built up areas in a crouch. Pay attention to the surroundings and their pattern/path. You can make it! If not....well.....see below.

If you are bleeding, get yourself to safety. You've encountered a Zed. You'll notice a + sign is in the blood icon. Don't stop. Run. Zigzag. Find trees. Hills. Anything. Don't run in straight lines. Press Alt and look around as you run. Only when you stop hearing them is it a good idea to apply bandages. Now, hopefully you did this quick enough to avoid dropping below 9000 (roughly 3/4 of the bar) If not, you'd best press ESC and try again. You're too far from a town and if you're playing in a group, you're likely to hinder your team mates. Its ok, you'll find them again (if you were lucky enough to meet them before a big city)

Loot

Middle mouse button or Enter. You're likely to find allsorts. Best loot is tools and guns. Common stuff is food/drink. You'll want a hatchet. If you get one, and no primary weapon then right click it in inventory. Remove from toolbelt and you will have a zombie one shot kill weapon. Reload it first with "R". (weird I know)

Do not engage zombies. I repeat.

DO NOT ENGAGE

There. That was simple. You're best running away and hiding. The hatchet can get you out of a squeeze with left mouse button as attack, but you should be stealthing with shift, x and going prone around zombie areas.

Shinjetsu's Big City Guide

Ok, so you're moderately armed. You have food and drink (hopefully) - now its time to do a speed raid of a big city. This is a one shot deal, so get it right. You'll want to spend time scouting the area to find the least zombie infested path. Remember, right mouse button. And do NOT engage if you can help it. Don't use any gun you find in a city for gods sake. AK47's and 5 mags at a time do NOT spawn so even if you do get super lucky, the mag will be gone quicker than painkillers in Michael Jacksons medicine cabinet. What you get here will be your "expedition" gear. Because you'll need stuff to move with. Don't forget, if you're low on space, you need to select your backpack and "open bag" in the inventory screen. Save this for food and ammo.

CHECKLIST - rated /10 for importance

HUNTING KNIFE - this will be your food source - 9
WATER BOTTLE - this will be your....drink...source - 6 (if you find drink then its less important)
MATCHES - 6
HATCHET - 6
WEAPON - 10
AMMO - 10

You cannot leave without a weapon of some description. If you're holding your hatchet, you may pick it up again after picking up a primary - it goes into your toolbelt again. You will want enough sidearm (pistol) ammo to hold off an average zombie attack (3/4 zombies) so we're talking 2/3 mags. You shouldn't have shot anything yet. I hope you haven't. Your primary is for killing other players if you cross them. Lets get that out of the way now.

TRUST NOBODY

They want your stuff. They'll say "Friendly" in side chat or by pressing "/" to type it. Do not believe them. If there are no zombies around, shoot the hell out of them. It avoids them potentially doing it to you. If there are Zombies around. Run. This person wants your stuff. Make it to a safe distance and consider logging off for a while. I have a story about a particularly patient sniper, but I'll save it.

Once you have the above items, its time to leave. Optional extras can include - map, watch, toolbox and crowbar (crowbar is crap)

Thats all for now folks. I'm aware I've probably missed some vital stuff, but I'm sure you'll fill it in for me below.

Shin

Path of Exile Solo Summoner Witch Build

2013-02-08T17:02:00.003-05:00

Path of Exile Solo Summoner Witch Build by BlackSheepNZ

Proof

Note before we start know that people dislike the use of summoners, and will likely be kick from most groups at high level, unless playing with friends of course. Until they fix particle spamming. This is important to know that you will have to solo this game.

Uniques which made this build possible, Very gear dependent

Amulets
Sidhebreath

Verified

Boots
Bones of Ullr

Verified

Wand
Midnight Bargain

Verified

Or if that is too expensive, you can use the sword.

Swords (Two Handed)
Queen's Decree

Raise Spectre
Getting the right spectres is EXTREMELY important. i use the minions at Solaris Temple Level 3 they are called Flame Sentinel. I am also a big fan of getting the range mobs in Lunaris level 2-3 i forget what they are called but they fire 1 projectile from each hand. So they fire 8 projectile every .3 sec(INSANE). alot harder to get thou.
-Tip press A when summoning a spectre to select the right one. (sometimes mob corpse can on stacks each other.

Raise Spectre Gems - Numbered in ordered of what to get first.
(1)Raise Spectres
(2)Minion Damage
(3)Greater Multiple Projectiles
(4)Added Chaos Damage
(5)-(6) Once you find a 5L-6L chest of course!
Chain(good but less damage)
Faster Casting(good for casting mobs)
Faster Attacks(good for projectile mobs)
Lesser Multiple Projectiles(good but less damage)
Elemental Proliferation(increased Damage)
Item Rarity(stacks with your own upon kill)

Verified

Raise Zombie
Next you want personal guards to tank Bosses/Mobs that want to get to you, best scaling hp in the game. Currently mine have 12k hp each (x10 of them), which is insane when you have minion instability which deals 30% of total life when it dies(big damages).

Raise Zombie Gems - Numbered in ordered of what to get first.
(1)Raise Zombie
(3)Minion Life
(2)Minion Damage
(4)Minion Speed

Verified

Raise Skeleton
I also have raise Skeleton which are attached to a totem and the Skeletons swarmed the boss so he cant move, while your spectres kill them. Really good trick while dealing with boss such as Brutes etc.

Raise Skeleton Gems - Numbered in ordered of what to get first.
(1)Raise Skeleton
(3)Minion Life
(2)Minion Damage
(4)Spell Totem

Verified

Killing boss by suicide
If i'm going up a boss i know i cant win by face tanking them (ie. OAK) what you can do is force the boss to commit suicide. How this is achieved is by placing totems on each side of the boss and going to hide somewhere, and when he kills your minions they explode doing damage if you have specked into the minion instability on the skill tree, and if the boss ever gets near you just run behind another building

Auras and Curses
Secondly you should be running auras and curses to assist your undead. Purity, Discipline, Warlords Mark, Flammability, Elemental Weakness. (All have their strengths and weakness, this is something you have to decide for yourself)

At Current i use Clarity and Purity both attached to reduce mana or else the mana burden is to high.

And run Elemental Weakness(enemy's lose 44% to all elements resists) and Flammability(enemy's lose 45% to fire resistance) so i'm doing almost true damage with fire to most mobs.

Flasks
A side note i should is that for your health flasks you should try to get "Grants 57% of life recovery to minions" keep rolling for it until you do, though the highest flask is 960 so you need to spam the flask to keep them up in boss fights.(adding quality to a flask increases recovery amount, 960 is the base)

Verified

57% of 960 = 547.2
9600 / 547.2 = 17.5 Times to heal a zombie to max hp.

Overview
Use spectres as your main source of dps.
use zombie/Skeleton to be a meat shield and tank boss.
Also soloed Piety on cruel. Brutes took me less than 1 min on Merciless solo. End game is really easy if you take your time and don't rush into things.

Currently level 70 and have:
10 Zombies
4 Spectres
16 Skeletons
With a grand total of 30(can be increased by 4 with another wand, but the would mean i'm reserving 60% of my life)

973 Life
690 energy Shield
80+ Resistance to all Elements on merceless.
Need to work on incorporating Armour + Chaos resist into my build.

Skill Tree(Still have somethings to refine)

Current

Goal

If you have any questions, go ahead id be glad to answer them.

Path of Exile Unarmed Marauder Build

2013-02-08T16:52:00.001-05:00

Path of Exile Unarmed Marauder Build by Zaimoxis

Are you tired of using weapons against the scum in wraeclast? Do you feel that death by arrow, wand, sword or any kind of weapon is too merciful towards the hoards of enemies?

Then the unarmed path is for you!

This is a devastating extremely high dps, all out hp/regen build. You ask how that is possible? Well, you never, ever put any points in any damage node in the tree. NEVER. All your points will go in hp, regen and armor nodes only.

*new theorycraft build at the bottom ( not tested, unlike the one explained below)

Small step by step guide

Spoiler

1. Pick the manliest, most badass motherf.. name you can think of for your character.
2. Dominate with ease early on.
3. After you get bm, use 2 flasks of hp, 1 amethyst flask( can be replaced with a hp flask that reduces recovered amount by 25%, but instantly heals when at low HP), 1 granite flask, and 1 elemental resistence flask ( preferably with increased movement speed, so you won't need quicksilver flask) for the most common element used by mobs ( for example, ruby flask in act 3)
4. In cruel, at around level 40+ ( or when you feel you are having a hard time), you will need to up your gear, and stack hp and resistence gear.
5. Upon meeting a rather large, heavy damage dealing crowd, use Warlord's Mark, activate Molten Shell, if the mob is dangerous use Enduring cry, then go use Infernal Blow up close. After Molten Shell explodes, if you are still in danger, run back a bit and repeat the process, or just use a flask if you believe you are capable of killing them before they kill you.

*Small note: Unlike most other builds/curses, upgrade Warlord's Mark like any other gem. The increased hp cost isn't even noticeable to a very high hp/regen bm marauder, but getting a curse on the entire screen one try is worth while, especially when combined with Molten Shell.

Otional steps:

Spoiler

1. Hit level 16 and get to act 2.
2. Try out PvP.
2-b. Contain your laughter.
3. One shot every non-marauder below level 24-25.
4. Kill anything in under 3 blows at level 28/has good gear.
5. Cry when you meet a very experienced PvP shadow with bear traps and whirling blades.
6. Gain confidence back when you one shot witches at level 28.
7. DOMINATE.
8. Make sure they know you don't use weapons and that they are cowards for doing so.

Pros and cons

Spoiler

+it is quite easy to pull off
+insane dps
+insane dps without ever focusing on getting better weapons, right gems, right sockets
+very good survivability
+necromancer mobs are no threat because you blow up everything and don't leave corpses
+INSANELY fun
+you punch shit and it explodes
+you can make fun of anybody using weapons for being cowards
+you can focus on upgrading much fewer gear
+scales very well
+you can link item quantity + item rarity to infernal blow without gimping your damage
+you do not need any elemental resistance until cruel act 3, because you take out your targets so fast they can't do proper damage

-the gear that you will need is expensive and very specific
-you lack proper aoe damage, since molten shell will be your main aoe damage dealer
-you are melee
-cannot farm for items/orbs as efficiently as other classes
-entirely gear dependent
-extremely limited number of usable skills
-pure melee, no ranged skills whatsoever
-no disables, knockback, stuns, etc

Requirements:

You can only do this IF you have the following items, ready to be used by the time you hit level 16:

Facebreaker Strapped Mits with 950% bonus unarmed
Meginord's Girdle
Broadstroke Heavy Quiver
2 iron rings ( or if you have better physical damage rings, then those)
The manliest, most badass mother... name you could have provided for your character

Ezomyte Peak - ONLY AS OPTIONAL GEAR - to be used ONLY if you think you can handle without the armor and resists that a good helmet would give you

Daresso's Courage - OPTIONAL GEAR - to be used in Merciless if you really need extra survivability

Passive build and explanation:
(build and initial paths provided by missuse)

Skill Tree

Your first priority is to get Resolute Technique as fast as possible. After that, your main concern is to get the Blood Magic node, after the 2 12% hp nodes near life leech. Take the shortest routes to both if necessary.
After BM, continue down the bottom nodes to the 2nd Golem Blood node, and finish up that cluster. Then continue up to the templar tree and finish up all the clusters there. At the end, go for the HP clusters at the middle.

And yes, no points in any resist nodes. If necessary, at higher levels, just use a spec point and put one it, but only if you can't handle the mobs.

Infernal blow - after bm, replace normal attack with this because this is your main damage
Inferna blow MUST be used with melee physical and added fire since you get blood magic. Faster attacks and anything else is just a mere bonus.

Molten shell - extremely good defense and offense combined

Warlord's mark - use with molten shell for extremely high survivability

Endurance cry - same as above

Blood rage - only use at very high level, since your hp regen cannot sustain it early

Frenzy - can be a viable replacement to blood rage, and from early on

Dominating blow - this is just for lols. you will see why after you use it.

anger + wrath aura - don't expect a massive dps boost, they will provide a very minor boost
and that's it, because you have close to default intel which won't allow you to equip other auras, plus you don't need them

Infernal blow
melee physical damage + added fire damage + faster attacks + whatever

I haven't tested out gems for Molten shell yet, but you don't really need that.

Bandit rewards:
On all difficulties, help Oak.

Flask tips
Both HP flask MUST have the increased recovery by 50-100% without the "reduced HP amount".
One HP flask must have increased armor and the other either remove curse or increased resistances.
Instant HP recovery and any reduced recovery amount is very bad for this build due to having extremely high HP.

Don't be shy of using your flasks. Meginord's belt will allow for an extremely easy refill at all times.

Necessary gear/recommended gear examples

Spoiler

The helm and boots aren't necessarily the best, but they are decent enough to be used.

What to look for in your gear ( from most needed to optional/for the perfect item)
Rings: iron rings with + physical damage, +resists, +hp, +attack speed, +life leech, +hp regen, +increased fire damage, +any other added damage, +strength

Amulet: onyx amulet with +resists, +hp, +life leech, + attack speed, +hp regen, +increased fire damage, +any other added damage, +strength

Helmet: armor only helmets with +2 resists, +hp, +increased armor, with at least 3 red sockets linked

Chest: armor only chests with +2 resists, +hp, +increased armor, with at least 3 red sockets linked

Boots: armor only boots with +2 resists, +hp, +increased armor, +increased attack speed, +movement speed, with at least 3 red sockets linked

Note: you must have 3 red sockets linked on your gear at any time. After that, you don't need gear with that specification unless you plan to upgrade.

I hope you enjoyed my guide to unarmed marauder. If you have any questions, or suggestions, feel free to post. I do not think my guide is perfect yet, but you can help me improve it :)

Good luck and have fun blowing shit up!

*THE NEW THEORYCRAFT BUILD ( need opinions from experienced Merciless players)
Thought of this potential build:

Skill Tree

Increased damage, less pure defensive nodes but you will rely on a shield more. You would need Ezomyte peak instead of Broadstroke, but it might actually make you even tankier and have a higher DPS at the same time. Might actually rely less on Ezomyte or Daresso's too, which allows for easier gear upgrades.

Heroes of Newerth Complete Maliken Guide

2013-02-05T22:54:00.003-05:00

Heroes of Newerth Complete Maliken Guide by Roxas

MALIKEN THE KING RETURNS

Table of Contents

Introduction
Basic Information
Skills
Items
General Strategy
Allies and Enemies

Introduction

Hi! Well for starters, Maliken is my favourite hero in Heroes of Newerth. He reminds me of Dragon Knight from Defense of the Ancients; although they are quite different these two strength carries both commonly get a lifesteal and magic immunity item as well as the ultimate to transform into a badass monster.
Enough of DotA. The reasons i decided to create a guide on Maliken is because most of the guides for this hero in strategy are outdated. Apparently his passive had a critical strike or something.

The other reason is because i would like to share my knowledge and help you (basic/average/newbie players) in learning how to play this hero. Keep in mind, this guide is not aimed at playing Maliken competitively. I for one, am still trying to master this hero and experiment new stuff. With that being said, lets continue!
Maliken is a hybrid of carry and initiator. For those of you that dont know, a hybrid is the ability to perform two roles at once. In this instance, he is a semi carry/initiator, not really able to excel at both. An example of a true hybrid may be Pestilence, Aluna and Valk, from the top of my head.
PROS [+]

+ An excellent carry and initiator
+ Has one of the best non-ultimate nuke in game
+ Ultimate transforms you into a ranged hero
+ Decent laning phase
+ High base strength and decent stat gains
+ Very destructive and can turn the tides of battle due to his 'feared' going through magic immunity

CONS [-]

+ A situational pick and depends on line-up
+ Low mana pool
+ Cannot beat late game hardcore carries
+ Requires good farm and control during early game
+ A semi initiator. He cant initiate a whole team without another initiator
Therefore
Basically you need to build this badboy appropriately to maintain balance between damage dealer and tank, so you can survive. I mean... If there was no initiator in your team, you will have to do the job. For starters, your going to sword throw in, ult, and activate shrunken (if you have it) after 'Feared' is worn off, your going to find yourself in the focus of the clash. Lastly, i would like to add that his skill set in my opinion is oh so very unique.
Congratulations If you have survived reading till now, your in a treat for half a dozen more sections! But fear no more, as i will post a lot of picture and ingame screenshots so this guide is not a wall of text.

Basic Information

Maliken

Once a greatest defender of mankind and lord over the entire Legion. Maliken walked too close to the darkness and was damned by it. Now he is nothing more than a slave among the damned -- but his incredible might has only grown in his downfall. Wielding a damned sword fed by his own damned soul, Maliken is the bane of the very heroes he once led into battle.

Basic Attributes

• Strength 24 + 2.6
• Agility 20 + 2.0
• Intelligence 17 + 1.7
Advanced Attributes

• Affiliation: Hellbourne
• Attacks/Sec: 0.71
• Damage: 46 - 52
• Armor: 1.9
• Dmg. Reduction: 10%
• Magic Armor: 5.5
• Magic Dmg. Reduction: 25%
• Movespeed: 300
• Attack Range: 128 (melee)

Skills

[Q] Sword Throw

Description: Maliken throws his sword, damaging enemies it hits. Maliken may teleport to his sword while it is in flight.

Effect: Deals 80 / 140 / 200 / 260 magical damage with a range of 700 / 850 / 1000 / 1200. Applies Maimed to targets; 20/30/40/50% Movement speed slow, gradually wears off over 6 seconds.
Radius: 225
Mana cost: 110 / 120 / 130 / 140
Cooldown 13 Seconds

Image

Notes
Sword Throw is just so flexible! It can be used for harassing, farming, ganking, initiating, healing and escaping. This is one of the most powerful non-ultimate nuke in the game. Although its not spam-able in early game, any mana regenerating item may be useful so you can use it more. This skill alone makes you versatile; allowing you to harass/farm simultaneously and gank extremely effectively. The image above shows the range of level 1 to 4. Each snot monster is positioned to show the maximun range of each level; excluding the bonus range from your radius.

[W,E] Sword of the Damned

Description: Maliken’s legendary weapon, the Sword of the Damned, is capable of two different attack modes. Enchanted Flames grants him increased damage at the cost of his own life, while Life Essence grants him very high life steal at the cost of reduced damage.

Effect: Enchanted Flames gives 10 / 20 / 30 / 40 and deals 6 / 9 / 12 / 15 magic damage to self per hit. Health will not go below 15%.
Life Essence gives 10 / 20 / 30 / 40 health but loses 10 / 20 / 30 / 40 damage per hit.

Enchanted Flames boosts Sword Throw damage by 40 / 50 / 60 / 70 damage but hurts self for 25 / 30 / 35 / 40 when used.
Life Essence lowers Sword Throw damage by 40% but will heal self for 10 / 20 / 30 / 40 health per target it hit. It’ll also increase sword throw damage.

Image

Notes
Maximum is 330 damage when both first and second skills are maxed. This is so good in early laning because it helps in last-hitting and denying, by a lot! Since you can instantly turn either one on or off, using the life steal to deny your creeps and extra damage boost to last hit an enemy creep is a good strategy.

Life Essence heals you on each attack at the cost of your damage output. Sword throw will decrease in damage, moving down to 156 but healing for 40 each target it hits with a maximum of 300 health healed. Most of the time you will be using the damage dealing one. But using Life Essence in dire situations or hitting creeps (allied or enemy or neutral) will boost your health in no time.

Hellbourne Zeal

Description: Maliken allows his wounds to fuel his rage, increasing his attack speed based on how much health he is missing.

Effect: Attack Speed increased by 0.5 / 0.8 / 1.2 / 1.4 per 1% health missing. Maximun bonus is 100 attack speed.

Image

Notes
This is the skill that makes Maliken an omnipotent carry. When in low health, you will get an enormous boost in attacking speed also with shrunken and a symbol of rage synergizes well. This skill is not worth leveling up at early game; although i have seen people level it once at level 4. Maliken must be at 29% of his maximum health to receive +100 attack speed when this skill is maxed. This synergizes well with sword of the damned because when your low health, you can toggle Life Essence to maybe stay alive in conjunction with this passive.

[R] Possession

Description: Maliken allows himself to become possessed, transforming him into a full daemon temporarily. While in this form, Maliken’s attack becomes ranged and he attacks splash.

Effect: Posessed lasts 30 seconds. 100 / 80 / 60 second cooldown. Applies 'Feared' to enemies in 400 radius for 0.75 / 1.25 / 2 seconds.

If you are not within that red circle, you will not get affected. This just gives you a picture.

'Feared'
• 40% Movement Speed
• Silenced
• Perplexed
• Disarmed
• Unitwalking
• Lose character control, running around in fear

Grants 20 / 40 / 60 armor for the first 2 seconds, decreasing to + 0 armor over the next 5 seconds.

Attack Type changes to Ranged, with a range of 600.

Attacks splash to nearby units.

50 / 75 / 100 % Splash in a 75 AOE
35 / 50 / 65 % Splash in a 200 AOE
20 / 25 / 30 % Splash in a 350 AOE

Image

Notes
This is an awesome skill! Simply used as an interupt/initiate skill when combined with sword throw. 'Feared' units cannot attack, and they cannot control their heroes at all. This also goes through magic immunity. Its good to interrupt heroes who are channeling (such as, interrupt Soul Stealer even if he has activated shrunken head) since your Possession works instantly upon cast. The cooldown is pretty short and it decreases as you are in this form. Can be used in almost all team fights and a very powerful skill. Try using Possession and farm stacked Camps, preferably Ancients. Furthermore, dont underestimate the sudden armor boost upon activation!

Skill Build
1. Sword throw
2. Sword of the Damned
3. Sword throw
4. Sword of the Damned
5. Sword throw
6. Possession
7. Sword throw
8. Sword of the Damned
9. Sword of the Damned
10. Hellbourne Zeal
11. Possession
12-14. Hellbourne Zeal
15. Stats
16. Possession
17+ Stats
Justification

Level 1 Sword throw is a lot more useful than a Level 1 Sword of the Damned. Here are a few reasons why:
• Sword throw has a 20% slow and a blink
• Excellent for a Blood Lust attempt
• Escape a level 1 enemy gank
• The range increases by a decent difference so it increases mobility
So now we know why we level Sword throw first.

Why Hellbourne Zeal at Level 10?
By level 10, you would have already have maxed Sword throw and Sword of the Damned. Leveling it early on is a waste of a skill point, as these two skills are much more valuble at early levels. This is because your damage is not that high in early game too fully make use of it.

Possession is taken whenever possible because its crucial for your initiation with Sword throw. Its a powerful skill and scales nicely throughout the game.

Items

Starting Items

Option 1

This is a popular build that gives you health regen, hatchet for last hitting and other uses and crushing claws can be used to make a bracer or Chalice. Ofcourse crushing claws gives 45 hp and 3 damage. Thus overall, this option gives a boost in survivability early on, as well as some aid in last hitting.
Option 2
OR

This option, you get one health regen item, which is the good old health pot, use it if your very low life due to heavy harassments. Two minor totems for some survivability and last hitting power. Mana pot is for an extra throw i guess. This build is very solid and the totems can be used to complete a power supply.
Option 3

Pretty self-explanatory. A very very common starting build for carries. However you dont need to follow these builds every game. If your confident with last hitting, you may not pick up the hatchet and get the buckler only, plus some regen and totems.
THERE IS NO PERFECT BUILD
The reason i am not making a full build for each option is because its pretty much YOUR choice. You should make items thats good for you in that situation. I mean. There are not many combinations of items that are appropriate to start with, taking into fact you only have 603 gold in your pocket at the start usually. Unless you buy boots first, Or something completely retarded. Anyway, these are possible items you may pick up.

Possible Core

Stats

+10 Strength/Agility/Intelligence
+25 Attack Speed
+60 Movement SpeedExplanation
Best boots for Maliken. This is the only boot that scales. You benefit from the attack speed and can switch the attributes of the boots. You never know you might need the bonus mana. Please dont buy ghost marchers. You dont need the extra raw damage since you have Enchanted Flames skill. Sure the active skill grants mobility but for a strength carry, i think steamboots is better. Also Maliken needs the attack speed! You cannot rely on your passive for attack speed because it requires for you to be in low or medium health.

Stats

+3 Strength
+3 Agility
+3 IntelligenceExplanation
Power Supply is just so good! I get this on every hero. Again, very effective if enemy team has alot of spammers such as Thunder Bringer, Armadon etc. People may underestimate the burst heal it may provide. To be exact, it restores 10 health and 15 mana per charge with a maximum of 15 charges. In a full on team fight, this can provide 150 hp and 225 mana at max! Very useful for clutch plays and mind games. This item has a 17 second cooldown.

Stats

+3 Strength
+3 IntelligenceExplanation
It's a feasible item for those that enjoy spamming, in other words, solves your mana problems. The regen is nice and it should be on your mind as an option. Your Life Essence in conjunction with this item has synergy. Attack creeps to restore health and then activate this for mana. Just incase you didnt know, on use, it removes 150 health and grants 100 mana. If an enemy hero within 700 AOE is killed before 15 seconds after use, you are healed back the initial 150 health you traded. This item has a 35 second cooldown so try using it everytime its avaliable unless your mana is full.

Explanation
Always carry this! You can use it to escape ganks, immediately go to defend a tower so you can deny it or prepare for a team fight, respond to teammate when enemy towerdive and so on. A must have regardless. Its good practice to carry this when you play.

Stats

+20 Damage
+5 Armor
+15% Life StealExplanation
The most common attack modifier on this hero. It stacks with your Life Essence so why not! Plus it can get upgraded to Symbol of Rage which is a very powerful item. Whispering Helm plus your passive synergises well. You can also control a creep with its active ability. Try getting a minotaur or ice orge for their ability. You can also get a minotaur or catman champion to stack ancients for the fact they are not so squishy. Oh, also buy the Helm of the Victim first as opposed to Hungry Spirit. The armor and hp regen is better than a 10% lifesteal. Plus this is early stage and i doubt your damage is high enough to benefit from 10%.

Dominating a creep cost 75 mana and the cooldown is 300 seconds. Funny thing is, there is no cap to how many you enslave.

Stats

+10 Strength
+24 DamageExplanation
A very good item, if not the best item in the game. I know i said items are situational but you should just get it so you dont get permanently disabled. Maliken is famous for raping teams with just this item. Besides, there will always be a stuner or high burst nuker fag who cant wait to kill you. Cooldown is 80 seconds and thats probably enough time to use it in the next big clash.

Want to know more? The magic immunity lasts 10 seconds and dispels debuffs from self also which cannot be dispelled. Secondly, each time Shrunken Head is used, the duration of magic immunity is reduced by a second and its cooldown is reduced by 5 seconds. The duration of Magic Immunity will not go below 5 seconds, nor will the cooldown go below 55 seconds.

Stats

+12 Damage
+25 Attack Speed
+5 Armor
+3 Health RegenerationExplanation
Get this early and it will be of use. Dont forget to turn it off just when it starts to quickly kill you and turn it back on for a sudden burst of hp. Insanitarious and lifesteal are a good combination. If your planning to buy this, get lifesteal first, and get this as soon as possible. Only reason its worth considering is because its cheap for the effects it provides when toggled.

When you activate it, you instantly replenish 475 Health and get the following: +25 strength, +31 damage and +10 Attack Speed. By the way, you actually get more health since it gives 25 strength. Yum! However, you lose 35 true damage per second. I see alot of noobs buying this item, turning it on and keeping it toggled for longer than they should. The cooldown is only applied when activating (not when toggling off), which means that one can (after the cooldown has worn off) toggle this item off and activate it right after healing yourself up to 475 health.

Possible Luxuries

Stats

+25 Strength
+20 Damage
+5 Armor
+25% Life StealExplanation
Symbol of Rage is so godly. Gives you passive 25% LifeSteal helps you last longer during battles and gives 45 damage. The real magic is its active ability which is just imba 150% life steal for 3.5 seconds upon activation! Sad thing is this items is quite expensive. Its nice to buy this if you bought whispering helm earlier on.

Stats

+10 Armor
+40 Attack SpeedExplanation
Contributes to team and team fights well. The two auras are really beneficial. Grants +10 armor and 40 attack speed. Works well with your Sword of the Damned and Possession skill. Also makes you tankier. I believe that this item makes a lot more impact in a team fight than a Heart on a single hero. Its more team orientated and because of that generally better to buy late game.

Stats

+35 Strength
+300 Hit PointsExplanation
Makes you tank. A very solid item on carries. Nothing more to say, just gives **** loads of hp and bonus 40 damage. Heart is great for tanking heavy damage. Massive + 0.75% of max health regeneration per second allows you to quickly recover between teamfights, pushes etc.

Stats

+45 / 55 / 65 / 75 DamageExplanation
I guess with your extreme attack speed as your health diminishes and the splash from Possession this is a wonderful item for raw damage. This item is quite cheap for its effect since its recipe-upgradeable. I'd rather this, than save up for the entire item such as Savage Mace for its effect. After trying this out, i found i easily inflicted 500-700 critical hits at late game. I was amazed by the damage output with your skills. This is the item for pure damage.

Stats

+60 DamageExplanation
Get this item before 20 minute mark at latest. If you are planning to build this, just buy boots and attempt to rush it. Once you get this, your farming potential will sky rocket. Its a great item espicially in mid game for harassing heroes in team fights, taking into account you are a semi-initiator. Also, if you have bad team mates and had poor farm early, Just make Shrunken or Insanitarious. Although Mock provides the auto aoe burn and helps in farming, its also great for chasing.

Stats

+10 Strength
+26 Agility
+10 Intelligence
+15 Attack Speed
+10% Movement SpeedExplanation
Most people find this as a bad item for Maliken. I have tried this out as an experiment. This is more for fast pushing and playing mind games on your enemy. I guess the invulnerability upon activation may come in handy for disjointing spells. When you activate this item while in your ult form, the illusions will be ranged. However if your ultimate duration ends, they switch to melee form. Obviously the illusions will not have the Sword of the Damned properties (it would be awesome if it did). The stats it provides isnt as that good.

According to Hon Wiki, the illusions take 3.5 times normal damage and deal 33% of your attack damage, and inherit properties from you, in this case not the Sword of the Damned skills! The Illusions have a 20 second life time. When you activate this, it dispels all Buffs and Debuffs on you.

Stats

+88 Damage
+15 Attack SpeedExplanation
True Strike and Mini bash is useful i guess. Improves dps. Im not sure about this, but i think the lifesteal works from Savage Mace procs in ultimate form. Not sure though.

Notes
When Maliken ults, he becomes a ranged hero and have the effects from items the same as any ranged hero. This is why Brutalizer, HotbL and Runed Cleaver are not picked up on him.

General Strategy

Laning

This hero is usually played in side-lanes (bot for Legion and top for Hellbourne). This is so the tower can provide shelter since tower diving is not common in early stages. If you or your partner does not push the lanes and maintain lane control; aggroing creeps, creep pulling and such. You will find yourself less pressured. Although, he can solo mid, he is countered by many other mid solo heroes.

What to do when your opposing lane is squishy?

This is a loaded question. If you have confidence in yourself and your laning partner, you may attempt to kill one of them or even a double tap. Situations might be if they have no regen items, their individual HP is 550 or lower, they have no disables, they have no strong nuking ability and so on. If they have some of these things, it's best to play abit passively, and counterattack if they screw up.

Heroes with some sort of Escape

Valk, Sill, Hag, Gemini etc... These heroes will be hard to kill since they can just pop out of battle, but there is a way to kill them with a well timed Sword Throw! Usually when these heroes activate their escape skill, there is a remnant at their destination. Such as when Hag blinks, there is a quick animation of bats at her destination spot from point A to Point B. A being the origin, and B being his/her new location.

Even if some heroes dont have this, as long as you know your opponents hero, im sure you will know what to do. Valk for example, her leap can only travel linear/straight. So as long as you can predict the range of her leap, you can take her down. Or if she is infront of you completely horizontally, and leaped towards her home base, just Sword Throw to the direction she was, problem might be timing. Reminders, your Sword Throw range is greater than her leap. I would like to add that its all prediction, reading your opponents and knowledge of their heroes, and yours.

Ganking Principals

1. You can initiate well with Sword Throw from the fog. Make sure you have Enchanted Flames turned on.

2. Attack, then activate your ult and auto attack to death. One or more team mates will probably have a stun or disable to lock them down longer.

3. Save Sword Throw for a finisher or a kill-steal. The cooldown is too long to be used twice for most ganks. Plus you need the gold more, unless a real hard carry was there.

4. Mid game, you won't have the DPS to solo gank, but you only require 1 partner with a stun to kill most heroes. Dont be afraid to use your ultimate because the cool down is pretty short.

Sword Throw Uses

Sword Throw can be used in many ways, ill show you some simple techniques.

Escaping

Countless times your going to be fleeing from enemy heroes. The solution? Use Sword Throw in a area that enemies cant pass or reach, then use a homecoming stone. Areas may be cliffs, unpassable terrain etc. This is a great way to escape and works most of the time, unless an enemy has a blink. You can also activate shrunken head to prevent getting killed by a long range nuke.

Blinking behind your Enemy

This technique is used commonly for ganking and It is very easy to use. Simply Sword Throw to an enemy and press it again so you blink behind him/her. By doing this, you will get an extra attack or two while the enemy is turning around. If the enemy is attempting to run, press 'S' and try your best to creep-block him while getting another few hits. This ensures he/she does not get to his/her tower or allies as fast. During this time, your allies can do whatever to kill.

Disjointing Spells

There is not much to say about this. When you Sword Throw, and blink in to the swords' current location, you can disjoint any projectile that was coming to you. This just requires good reaction. In this screenshot from an actual game i played, enemy voodoo throws that green stun thing at me. I used Sword Throw to disjoint it.

Killing Low Hp Runners

Like this! This is just instincts and reading the map. In the screenshot i just knew Night Hound would be there because its such a narrow passage-way. Dont ask me why the sword is green...

If that doesnt kill them and your already in iultimate form; try and hit an enemy creep or hero. The splash may be just enough to kill them! The screenshot below isnt the exact situation, but the Night Hound thinks he will leech off exp with his permanent invisibility. However little does he know that my attack does an extreme 50% splash when he is within 75 aoe.

Team Fights

Your job is to initiate a team fight by blinking in ult. You should not initiate first but, if there is other initiator or tank, its your job. Focus on disablers and carries. Remember you have your whole team behind you, as soon initiate and activate ultimate, this gives your team such a good advantage. I advise you to activate your ultimate. Dont try and save it to interrupt an enemy channel, because your disabler can do that.

If You had a Very Bad Start

In a scenario where the score is 13-28 and you can't farm very well due to ganks... Get a Gravelocket after your basic Whispering Helm and Boots. You should try to get Shrunken as soon as possible. With Whispering Helm, go jungle if most of them are miss and lane if they all go back in vision. If your team overall is under leveled and not very farmed, tell them to just play defensively and try not to separate that much unless they carry a home coming stone. Farm tank items such as Behemoth Heart or Daemonic Breastplate. If your team are complete douchebags and there is no possible way of victory like 2 heroes can annihilate all five of you, just concede. There is always that one fag who does not pass the vote. To prevent getting reported, go jungle. Hiding behind your base or selling all your items for wards is clear indication your super mad. Thats not healthy, even for a daemon king.

Your Role throughout Game

Early Game

Maliken requires safe play and precise farming. Creep-block at the start to so enemy creeps will end up near your tower for last hitting, (creep-blocking is achieved by walking in front of the units and spamming S or H) it should be pretty easy to last hit with his decent starting damage in addition with the hatchet. It gets much easier after you level Sword of the Damned. Due to your versatile nuke and decent damage, try and get a kill with your partner, but only if you feel its right to do so.

If your opponent is ranged make sure use attack enemy by pressing A near them to draw in creeps to stay away from harassment. Last-hitting and denying is primary thing you should be doing. Also, your partner should be a babysitter and helping you as much as he/she can. Whether that is healing you, harassing enemies etc.

Again, focus on last hitting/denying every thing and stick with your lane to have as much gold and experience as possible. Call miss to let your team know if someone is missing in your lane. If the enemy in your lane are missing, you can either keep farming or attempt to gank another lane and get a kill. This is because you Sword Throw has high damage, good slow and the ability to blink. However this requires atleast level 2 Sword Throw and level 2 Sword of the Damned.

The thing I am concerned is, I know you have a decent early ganking potential but Maliken is a carry, although he will reach his limit faster than any other hard carry. So farm! Make sure you don't feed, and above all else finish your base items by the time you hit level 7 to 9. Call for ganks in your lane and get the kills if possible. No, just kill steal all of them. The point is don't waste a large amount of time ganking, you need to get farmed. Shrunken Head is a must.

Mid Game

A lot of team fight are going to happen. Thats why having your shrunken and basic core items are imperative. Your role is to play initiate and hit those fools hard, how dare they mess with the boss of S2.

Before you initiate, make sure all of your teammates are in the position to back you up, because you dont want to suicide by charging into 5 people. Activate Shrunken Head after the 'Feared' ends. Attack the first disabler you see, if you don't see the disabler then attack the squishiest enemy hero. If an enemy is dying and is running away don't blindly chase him too far, you might want to check if your team can do okay if you leave them, if you chase the target too far away and even if you manage to kill him, there's a chance that your team might be wiped out due to your absence. This is a common mistake noobs do.

When there are no team fights, participate in ganks or push with your team once you finish Shrunken Head. Your going to shine most at this point of the game, make use of that. Dont forget, one attack on each creep and nuking them will wipe out a whole creep wave! Superb farming. Also you should dominate a creep if you bought whospering helm and control it to stack Ancients. Dont be afraid to use your ultimate to take down these boss monsters quickly.

Late Game

If you did really good in mid game, you will not struggle in this stage. If you have a potent initiator and tank, get luxury items to improve your damage. If not, get luxury items to increase your tankability.

I would imagine your either going to be turtling or pushing hard. In this case, you will probably be done a few towers, quite high level with one or two or more luxury items. At this stage, the next clash of the titans will most likely decide the fate of your game.

To increase the chances of winning, read the following. Dont get cocky and spend all your gold at once. Alot of people finish off a huge item thinking it will gurantee a victory. The answer is no. You must play safe therefore save about 2000 gold for a buy back just incase. Dont ever farm a lane by yourself! People with invisibility or blink will gank you. So stay with team! A team gank is common in this late stage. Kill Kongor for Token after a mild team fight or if they are turtling. If there are no heroes that are more potent carries than you, you get the aegis.

Furthermore, I would like to add that stacking ancients and wiping them out is a good source of gold. Oh, and dont be scared to die. You are not the true carry, but a semi regardless, you are very powerful.

As a summary, do NOT go 1 v 5. Play safe and seize any opportunity for victory you find. Look at the enemies respawn time and dont bite more than you can chew. Im sure you have experienced a team where they are still raxxing with low hp and the enemy team are gradually coming back. Suddenly your whole team gets annihilated. They proceed to push mid and win the game.

Allies and Enemies

Allies

Support/Disablers

These guys are a carrys' best friend. They help you throughout the game and even sacrifice themselves for you. Quite touching...

Initiators

This group of heroes are the one that excel in this role. You are a secondary initiator compared to these guys. Coupled with you, you make a fearsome duo.

Carries

The real trump card. Dont be jealous when they shine brighter than you at late game. They are meant to farm farm and farm and carry your ass to victory.

Enemies

Predator
This growling son of a dog is a pain to you. Avoid 1 v 1 with this guy, and focus someone else. This hero is an anti-tank. When you face him one on one, he will life steal harder than you.

Magebane
You have a poor mana pool. a few hits with this guy and your rendered useless. Magebane is also a stronger carry than you. Hes also got a solid escape skill.

Vindicator
His Sages's Lore is a godamn annoying spell. His Gylph of Silence passive makes you unable to blink in if you were within 800 aoe. His ult is game breaking. Well i guess if he used it after you have already activated ultimate and exhausted Sword throw, its another story.

Pandamonium
Panda is known to be an anti-tank, his disables are as deadly as His Facesmash goes through magic immunity too which can screw you big time.

Heroes of Newerth Monkey King Guide

2013-02-05T22:43:00.000-05:00

Heroes of Newerth Monkey King Guide by gamer7778

Borne of bestial nobility and blessed with the gift of immortality from the fruit of the Sefir Tree, the Monkey King once wrought a burning trail of havoc that stretched from the mortal plane to the heavens before he was imprisoned for his actions. In an act of repentance, he earned his freedom by accepting the tutelage of Ophelia, who seared onto his forehead a golden seal to control his primal urges. Bound to his new mistress, the Monkey King begins his great journey with renewed strength and zeal.

Hello everyone,this is my monkey king guide.

1 - What is monkey king?
Monkey king is the king of the monkeys(who would have though).Anyways,he is a great early game mid and only a few can survive his deadly combo.

2.Cons and pros
Pros:
Really good mid hero,can kill almost anyone at lvl 4
Great survivability and mobility thanks to his spells
Good ganker
Cons:
Easily countered by armor and silence
Item and level dependent
Squishy hero,if stunlocked pretty much dead 100%

3 - Abilities

ILLUSIVE DASH - The Monkey King dashes forward, damaging enemies caught in his path. As long as he impacts an enemy, he may perform a second dash within a 2 second window.

Really nice ability throughout the game,does good damage and also serves as an escape ability.Try to add a auto attack or two between the dashes.You really dont need more than one point into it early as it only increases the damage by 10 for each dash and reduces cooldown by 2.
90 mana cost.15/13/11/9 cooldown.Range - 300

HEAVENLY VAULT - Vault over a unit, jumping 300 distance in front of it (600 if building). Enemies at your landing point take 100 / 150 / 200 / 250 Physical Damage and 2 seconds of 20 / 40 / 60 / 80% slow. If the target is an enemy, it will be pushed back 200 distance and take the same damage and slow.

Vault may be cast a second time for half damage.

This is the ability you should max out.It does 225 damage and a slow for 2 seconds.REMEMBER THAT YOU CAN USE IT ON PRETTY MUCH EVERYTHING! EVEN WARDS! for example if an enemy is hiding behind the tower with below 25% hp jump vault on the tower and kill him(doubles the distance when building) (Wan jin slam counts as a building,so if you want to close the gap use it and vault over it to travel 600 distance infront of it)
Mana cost - 120.Cooldown - 12. Range - 200

WAN JIN SLAM - The Monkey King slams the ground in front of him, raising a mound of earth that disrupts enemies on both creation and destruction.

Max it after heavenly vault.1 second stun(if you do it right) and 120/180/240/300 damage.Pretty nice,not really much to say.
Mana cost - 80.Cooldown - 14/12/10/8.Range - 200

FLYING NIMBUS - The Monkey King summons his trusty Nimbus Cloud when out of combat, gaining a large movement speed boost. He also passively reduces ability cooldowns by using abilities.

Not the greatest ult,you should get it at lvl 10. Increases movement speed by 10%,15% and 20% at each rank and removes it if you take damage.Returns after 5 seconds.It also reduces cooldown of abilities by 0,5/0,75/1 when you use a ability.

The way you should do your combo is - Q - E - W - Q - W. It wont work always. If the enemy runs to the rock,leave him to be stunned. If he runs away, Vault him back to the rock.
At lvl 4,its almost a sure kill. If the enemy gets overconfident and he is <80% health do your combo and he will probably die.
You can also kill at lvl 3,if the enemy gets close to the tower,Q-W-Q-W, this way he will take alot of tower shots as you will take him near the tower twice.

4 - Hero attributes

Main attribute: Agility

Strength 19 (+2)

Agility 20 (+3)

Intelligence 18 (+2)

Damage 47-53 [/TD]

Health 511

Mana 234

Armor 4.90

Move speed 305

He has got pretty nice attributes,but he gets ou by these heroes and possibly more.

5 - 1 vs 1

Heroes you want to face mid -

Heroes that you will do ok against -

Heroes that you dont want to go mid agnaist - - These heroes will either harass you out of the lane,or they are nearly unkillable

6 - Skill Build - W - Q - W - E - W - E - W - E - E - R - R - Q - Q - Q - AB - R - AB

7 - Items
- I always go for these.You can swap out buckler for minor totems,quick bottle

Thanks for checking out my guide!

Heroes of Newerth Complete Gemini Guide

2013-02-05T22:39:00.004-05:00

Heroes of Newerth Complete Gemini Guide by zstarkey42

The Ultimate Gemini guide

While fire and ice are typically conflicting elements which negate each other, they are harnessed as one in Gemini. A powerful elemental creature bathed in frost and ember, Gemini confuses foes as contradiction incarnate. Few know - and yet fewer understand - Gemini's origins, but it has been rumored that he is actually a fusion of two separate entities.

Index:

Intro – what is Gemini?
Hero Attributes
Skills overview and details
Hero playstyles and progression during the game
Skill build
Items
Advanced tips – micro management
Video demonstration

1. Intro – What is Gemini?

Dunno. I always thought it was a wolf but I’ve seen people calling it a dog, a cat, a fox, a tiger or any other animal. Perhaps the fact a wolf’s tail is generally pointing straight-down would help defend it, though. Let’s call it a wolf for now.

Zoology aside, Gemini is a versatile melee agility carry that comes with very unique traits. He boasts high mobility and burst damage for a carry hero, making him a very effective ganker with superior map presence that can also lead your team to victory later on.
Played by few, underrated by many, Gemini is still an incredibly strong and fun hero when played right, as well as an empty spot on the team when not. However, playing him to full potential can be very difficult as he both relies in constant micro-management, unreliable skillshots and long skill combos that require fast decision making and expose him to risk in many situations.

Strengths:

Strong roaming/ganking potential
High burst damage and farming ability
High survivability by exploiting his ultimate
Respectable lategame carry potential
Highly team independent

Weaknesses:

Relatively weak lane control
Highly level and item dependent
Does not provide significant team utility
Vulnerable to certain team counterpicks

2. Hero Attributes

Starting damage: 46-51
Move speed: 300
Armor: 4.08
Magic Armor: 5.50
Strength: 19 + 2.1/lvl
Agility: 22 + 3.0/lvl
Intelligence: 17 + 1.9/lvl

As you can see, outside starting damage this hero has relatively high stat score in most regards. It is important to note that Gemini benefits much more from stat gains than any other hero in game, mainly because he is able to replicate them to 2 separate entities with his ultimate.

3. Skill overview and details

Q:

A cone-shaped area nuke that deals 300 magic damage to targets in front of you. The aiming is identical to Witch Slayer’s Graveyard: you can either use on the ground or target directly on an enemy to center the skill on him at the expense of slightly lower cast range. Note that the burning effect prevents use for up to 3 seconds and also enables denying (which I’ve personally never seen it happen). It covers a large area so it can also be used to finish off fleeing heroes outside your attack range. It’s also useful for farming creep waves later on or provide an extra slow or burst during combat.

W:

This is your main mobility skill. It is essentially a non-targeted blink with fixed range that stuns around the point of impact and destroys trees around it. The good news is that it grants an invulnerability disjoint while traveling and it can obviously be used to scale trees and cliffs, as well as dealing twice the damage to the targets you land (both wolves hit). The bad news is that it has a small cast time and the travel time is rather slow, meaning it’s not very difficult for enemy heroes to dodge it in most situations. As you can see, the stun duration and damage scale very poorly with ranks while the traveled distance remains the same, making this skill a one-point-wonder for escaping and initiating purposes. Note that the stun landing area is pretty small and will generally not hit more than 2 enemies unless they are all clumped up. Can easily be fake-casted with S to keep enemy heroes on their toes. The best way to use it to catch up an enemy is to target it slightly ahead of them – this often means you will have to back up a little in order to hit. It acts best as an escape or as a follow-up initiation. Landing this skill consistently does takes some practice, though.

E:

Largely useless during early-mid game, this passive is what keeps Gemini relevant during lategame once he obtains the right items. It is basically a reliable 25% chance standard critical boost that also comes with the benefit of doubling the effectiveness of any kind of on-hit effects or proc-effect items (since each hit counts as 2). Contrary to popular belief this skill will not make it any easier to last hit early in the game. It is not a raw attack damage boost (like ’s W or ’s E) but instead acts as a delayed hit shortly after your main attack. I do not recommend to rank it up at all before you even have the right items for it because it is not significant to Gemini’s mid-game damage in any way. Note that it also effects Lifesteal (meaning that you do get the 25% extra lifesteal with your bonus damage as well).

So which items benefit from this passive the most?
(burns 72 mana per hit instead of 36)
(slows for 10% on the first hit instead of 5%)
(44% chance of a stun instead of 25%)
(58% chance of a ministun proc and 100 dmg instead of 35%)
This passive becomes particularly useful when you have both a and a equipped, making him able to stun-lock most heroes indefinitely with enough attack speed.

R:

Fire and Ice is his most defining ability. Probably the most controversial skill in HoN, this has been deemed as ridiculously overpowered, antisynergetic, underpowered, nonsensical, unpractical, exploitable, ridiculous, useless, redundant, poorly designed, or in my opinion, simply amazing. This ultimate itself has more depth than many other heros in the game combined and is a crucial element to Gemini’s playstyle.

Let’s take a look at what it does. By using this skill Gemini splits into 2 separate versions of himself, which share the same attributes as the main, as well as movement speed and auras. This means it will only gain HP/regen from STR, armor/damage/attack speed from AGI and mana/regen from INT, with 80%, 90% and 100% sharing according to rank. If you happen to carry any auras such as Abyssal Skull or Ring of the Teacher they will also emit from Fire with full effect. When splitting, a disjoint is called, and any kind of states, buffs, and debuffs are dissipated, causing Fire and Ice to emerge at the same health and mana percentages as Gemini. Any of the forms is free to travel at any distance, sharing any kind of individual gold and experience gains with no penalty. Their magic armor is fixed at 5.5, 7.5 and 9.5 and thus not increased even if you buy items such as or . Fire and Ice’s damage are entirely put into base damage. This means any kind of base damage enhancers (like ) have a full effect in damage output.

Fire and Ice have 4 individual skills as well that scale solely with your current Fire and Ice rank:
- Their first skill becomes a cone shaped breath (similar to your Twin Breath) but smaller in area. They deal 125, 175, 225 damage each while Fire burns for 10, 20, 30 per second for 3 seconds and Ice slows for 15, 25, 35% for 3 seconds.
- Their second skill is a 500 range targeted blink that stuns for half second on impact and deals 80, 120, 160 damage and immediately autoattacks the target. Fire and Ice also become temporarily ‘invulnerable’ during the leap, being able to disjoint certain skills if timed right. This skill can not be disjointed. This means if your target uses Portal Key, or any disjoint blink such as Valkyrie’s leap, the wolf will be transported as well. With proper twitch timing you can effectively still chase blinkers with it.
- Their third skill becomes a channel that teleports one to the other after 3 seconds. It’s almost like a free every 30 seconds, meaning stuns and silence (but not perplex) effects will interrupt it, as well as issuing any other commands while channeling. This is what gives Gemini great map control if you use it opportunely.
- Their final skill is Rebirth. Causes both wolves to channel for 1.0 seconds, recreating your main form with the health and mana percentages of the highest of Fire and Ice. This means if you have Fire with 10% remaining HP and 100% mana and Ice with 100% HP and 20% mana, merging back recreates Gemini with full HP and MP. Fire and Ice must be within 300 range of each other to merge back. This is where your survivability comes from. Note that both wolves need to be stun/silence free during 1 second to combine. In case one of them gets disabled you can tap R repeatedly to attempt to merge back (there is no cooldown for this skill).

A few notes regarding this ultimate:

The cooldown for Fire and Ice is not shared with Rebirth. It also has unlimited duration. This means you can often merge and instantly split again if your ultimate is not on cooldown and was last used more than a minute ago (and it should never be, because you should almost always be walking around with it).
The cooldowns for your Fire and Ice skills will reset everytime you cast the ultimate again. This means, by combining the above tip with this, you not only become able to use your recombine twice a fight, but you can also instantly land all your skills again, producing massive burst.
Merging back also disjoints, removes any kind of buffs, debuffs and states previously applied to Fire and Ice, as well as any targeted gadgets such as ’s Spiderling.
The combined burst damage of all your 4 Fire and Ice skills casted in succession is of around 590, 850 and 1180 damage. The effective cooldown for each skill is of 14 seconds unless you merge back and cast Fire and Ice again.
Fire and Ice (split form) travel at the same movement speed as your main form. This means items such as , and will increase your mobility in both forms.
You can not activate items while on Fire and Ice. Other heroes can also not see which items you have either.
The can deliver items to Fire. However, stat changes will not be updated until you cast your ultimate again. Newly acquired auras will be instantly applied, though.
You can buy items in your fountain with Fire. Simply send him over to the well, switch to the main form (ghosted) and purchase what you need from there. He can also instantly teleport to Ice to ‘deliver’ items so you almost never need to use a courier in most cases.

4. Playstyles and lane setup

There are 2 ways of playing this hero in terms of laning. You either go solo mid, or take a solo (NOT 1v2) lane. In any case you will want a lane for yourself because this hero becomes exponentially stronger with levels rather than with farm. It is, however, still viable to sometimes take a duo lane with a good support that will help you farm and take kills and that can leave you alone later on allowing you to get your much needed EXP. This guide, however, assumes you took the mid lane because that is my favourite way of playing as it fully takes advantage of his mobility and ganking potential.

i. Early game
Is Gemini a really strong mid? No, not really, but he can take care of himself in most situations – furthermore, he should not be spending much time farming after he hits 6 so ideally you only need to survive until levels 6~7 before you move on to other lanes to gank. This is what you should expect when taking the mid lane:

Easy matchups (what you want to face mid):
Basically, any kind of melee hero that isn’t likely to harass you much or doesn’t hit hard enough to disrupt your farm, or is generally more interested in his own farm instead.

Average matchups (what you can generally do ok against):
Most of these will either focus on farming or wasting their mana trying to kill you when you have a really easy time avoiding it. They also shouldn’t disrupt your farm all that much if you keep the lane in your favour. Many of these will also leave mid often to gank other lanes, giving you opportunity to catch up.

Hard matchups (if you face any of these, you’re going to have a bad time) :
These heroes can either harass you out of the lane or even possess a threat of killing you, especially if you let them have rune control. You need to play super defensively and always try to take runes because you will typically not get much farm when against one of these opponents in normal circumstances. Asking your team for a mid gank also helps a lot. Many of these become rather trivial for a kill after you reach 6 though, as long as they’re not too overleveled compared to you.

ii. Mid game
This is where Gemini shines the most. Right after you obtained your ultimate it’s time to start roaming around trying to setup kills for your team. This often means you will leave 1 wolf in the mid lane while the other proceeds to gank the sidelanes. Always be careful when moving down enemy territory (or any kind of dangerous territory like the river) with only 1 form. You could easily die if you’re caught by an unexpected pubtrain. This means you can generally take the safe paths, coming from your own tower, or from your own jungle and simply park one of your wolves there for when your teammates decide to engage. The usual procedure is to engage with Ice first to slow people down, then quickly change to Fire and teleport him over, meaning both of your wolves will be right on top of fleeing enemies after the teleport is over. Use your burst combo and if needed, merge back to either restore HP or so you can use Twin Strikes as the final gap closer. Was the gank successful? Great, now it’s time to split again and send 1 wolf to base to regen while the other makes his way to farm on the mid lane, or if you’re dangerously low, into an easy/medium neutral camp.

Another thing you should be aware of is that Gemini has very respectable pushing power. He can easily clear creep waves and take towers down quickly if nobody comes to react. After a successful gank it’s very often for him to be able to clear a tower simply by tanking the tower damage with 1 wolf while your teammates get some hits in, and then merge back with the other to full just in time for the next creep wave arrives. It’s a similar procedure to what you would do with ’s creeps. The damage you’re able to output to towers early on is also very much comparable to her creep army. Don’t hesitate in scoring some neat gold for your team by backdooring some towers while the other team is busy pubtraining. In case you see someone teleporting to defend the tower, simply merge back and use Twin Fangs to escape. If you were surprised by enemies showing up from all directions, it’s a good idea to use Twin Fangs into the fog/trees and quickly use a to escape.

As the game progresses, you should be finishing your core items and gaining levels faster than most heroes, especially If you’re grabbing some early kills and towers as you should. Remember, there is no reason why you need to waste time in the fountain, and you also generally don’t need to buy as many as most heroes either, which give you an advantage in farming and mobility.

So now that teamfights are becoming common, what should you be doing? You focus on taking down high priority targets, while also absorbing some serious damage for your team. Remember that any kind of single target damage and debuffs can be fully mitigated if you know what you’re doing and merge back in time. For this reason you are almost always going to wait for the big aoe’s to fly around before engaging, or if you’re good enough, keeping both Fire and Ice far enough to avoid them toguether (advanced). NEVER engage with Twin Fangs or in any other way with your main form – any damage you take with it cannot be undone. You should only use Twin Fangs to follow-up on initiations, finishing off escaping enemies or to escape yourself. You can usually cause a big mess during teamfights as your split forms emerge to full, allowing you to unleash your full arsenal of spells again, and most importantly, your high attack damage of both wolves. If for some reason you get massively focused (as you should), hope that your team takes advantage of having 4-5 ultimates getting used on you with little to no effect as you hopefully escape. This actually happens a lot more often than you think.

As the game progresses you become stronger than most heroes at a much faster pace. Once you obtain all your core items (or at least an ) it’s time for you to solo Kong in less than a minute and start some serious aggressive play with your team.

iii. Late game
As you approach lategame your period of dominance slowly starts to fade out, and you gradually become a more traditional rightclicker with your normal form. However you should still be ahead or equal in terms of farm to most hard carries, and together with your Twin Strike passive you are still able to carry your team to victory. Always target the priority threats (especially carries) because you will be able to lock them down easily with your stun procs. Remember that your Twin Fangs has a relatively long cooldown so using it to engage often means you are left with no escapes afterwards. It’s extremely important to land it on top of as many enemies as possible because this is the time where any kind of AOE stuns becomes game changing. Your ultimate should not be used very often lategame, if it all, though it’s still good against some debuffs – think of it as an inbuilt at this point. A grand majority of games should not get to late, though, especially if you’re having a good start because Gemini is able to end games sooner due to his stronger mid-game presence.

5. Skill build

A normal skill build will generally look like this. It takes advantage of every single one of his strengths.

If you’re thinking about “LOL STATS BUILD” you should probably stop reading here (in fact you why did you open this guide in the first place?)

Note: As most heroes, always wait before you rank up your first skill. If you feel there is a gank attempt incomming early on, you should obviously level up W instead of stats first.

Here’s the reasoning behind this very unorthodox build (all credits go to demonwing’s guide):

- Gemini simply has the luxury of having most of his important skills attached to his ultimate already, and the fact that his normal form is very very lackluster early on in terms of damage, mobility and survival, and only outshines his ultimate when massive gold is attained. Furthermore, his normal form skills are mostly one-point wonders for their primary effects and scale very poorly in damage past early game (with the exception of Twin Strike).

- Stats are of high importance early on, though you should not ignore his other skills either. Twin Strike is a one point wonder that scales horribly with levels (1.25 second stun at rank 1, 2.0 second stun at rank 4) and has the full range, the same cooldown and invulnerability effects from rank 1.
Twin Strike is irrelevant before lategame when you have the right items. A 25% crit boost is laughable early to mid-game especially on a melee hero with low base attack and that needs to focus in survivability items first if he wishes to stay alive. Furthermore, most items that take advantage of this effect are only really useful lategame and beyond (, , ) and offer almost zero survivability, which you NEED first.

Also, any kind of build that focuses on his normal form will not get even close to the same damage and chasing ability you could get from his ultimate. This is true until very lategame stages. Not even that, the added utility, burst, mobility and survivability you can get with his ultimate form early on greatly outweighs a point allocated in any other skill for this hero. Think of it this way: any kind of you damage you get in your main form can be nearly doubled if you invest it in your ultimate via stats (and stat items ARE very cost-effective early-mid game). Plus, it has much higher and more reliable burst damage which can be cast twice and the ability to negate all sorts of single target damage. Why would you NOT take advantage of that?

6. Items

As for items, this is my usual take. They are very much static for the most part and I rarely change them from game to game, since taking advantage of his ultimate does not give him very much flexibility in term of item choices. Some items are simply too good to pass by with this hero and you will use them every game.

Starting:

A is always needed for a low damage farm dependant melee hero, so not much to explain here. The and the are there to give you much needed regen against harassment. The is there so you can upgrade it into your laning items gradually.

Laning:

Upgrade the into a . When you get 510 more gold you purchase a and then you buy . Ideally you should have these 3 items by level 6 or 7 in worst case and this is when you usually leave mid to roam and gank other lanes. It makes for effective ganking early on, especially against under leveled opponents, but you still need to be careful since you usually DO need to chase things to kill them.
As you continue to roam or farm, get a and upgrade your ring into . This gives him extra move speed (for ultimate and main form), and useful cost-effective stats and armor. After that, complete your . At this point you should be around level 9-10 if you were active in ganking or pushing.

Core:

As the laning phase slowly begins to end, you should be farming for your first big item: . This gives Gemini all he needs early on: health, a very good damage boost (since agility pickups have essentially twice the damage with your ultimate) as well as much needed move speed. Your farming ability is really good, you can easily flashfarm creep waves and your pushing potential is also very good so gold comes easy. Ideally you should have both and by level 15 if your game is going on normally. If you have a particularly good game you should even have your ready by this point. If your game is going well (i.e successful ganks, your gpm is around 350+) consider upgrading your into before you get – this will speed up your farm considerably.

Once your core items are obtained, you should have around these stats at level 17 with Fire and Ice:
180 damage, 1.3 attack/second, 24 armor, 9.5 magic armor, 420 move speed, 2511 HP.
Considering you have 2 wolves with these numbers it’s easy to see you have a ton of damage (360 attack combined!) along with your 1100+ burst on-demand. This amount of armor combined with your large health pool (and multiple merges restoring HP) gives you unparalleled survival compared to 90%+ of the hero pool, while also retaining very good mobility with your blinks and slows. Also note that you should almost always be leading both teams in levels (and most of time farm as well), further increasing your mid-game dominance. This is when Gemini is at its peak, and you should take all your chances to play aggressively, push and force games to an end (especially if you have – remember, you can solo Kong extremely fast with no risk).

Luxury:

As lategame approaches, it is time to unleash a new monster. You ultimate suddenly becomes less dominant as the game prolongs because your Twin Strike starts shining the moment you pickup some of these items. Sadly enough, most games with a good Gemini tend to end before you get to this point.

is almost always mandatory, especially if you are (and should be) the target of choice during teamfights. If there is no important magic burst or disables around that you can’t avoid, you can skip it and grab to aid with initiating and escaping instead. If you have particularly good GPM and think you don’t need any of those, is the go-to item for Gemini. It has amazing synergy with his Twin Strikes and combined with gives him the ability to passively stun-lock almost any hero, while quickly destroying anything you hit. is situational and used mostly for the purge than the manaburn effect – no really, the damage is nice but you still get more bang for your buck with a . is also a viable pickup, if you want to go that way. The added attack speed ensures the ability to keep enemies under stun procs and the lightning damage triggers a lot as well, but I only get this item when I’m surely in the lead of the game. is also an amazing item for any agi-primary carry later in the game for the sheer amount of utility it provides, and I tend to prefer it over .

At this point of the game you should be highly mobile with your leap and move speed, and also incredibly difficult to escape from due to your slows (Twin Breath, ) and endless stun-locking. This effectively marks your transition from a mid-game powerhorse to a relevant lategame carry. While not being able to carry as hard as traditional hard carries, Gemini can easily hold his own in most confrontations and should generally come out on top of almost any 1v1 scenarios with some big right click plays.

7. Advanced tips – micro management

Controlling 2 units at once is obviously a big part of using this hero. It’s not very difficult in most cases, but you need to have a few things in mind so your wolves don't get squashed:
First, you should assign control groups to Fire + Ice and to Fire and Ice individually. Most of the time you will want to utilize Fire and Ice in the same group so that they are always together in case you need to merge. Also, you must keep an eye on both of your health bars to see who is taking the most damage – I like using the Next unit (centered) key for keeping track of Fire and Ice in remote places of the map. This obviously comes with practice, though. There are also times you can and should use Fire and Ice individually when chasing enemies. For example, sending each form to different fog exits can usually prevent an enemy from escaping. If they end up too far from each other you can simply teleport one to another.

A usual combat sequence is to initiate with Fire and Ice, leap with both THEN spray with both and continue autoattacking. If the enemy has a potential stun he can use to escape, you should keep Fire and Ice in a safe distance, send Fire in front so that the enemy is forced to use his stun/slow on him, then immediately use Ice to leap at him and slow him so that Fire may catch up after his stun/slow is over, allowing you to hit with both wolves afterwards. You can easily separate Fire and Ice from each other even if they’re in the same control group (just click on one and move one of it individually then call the full group again – they will maintain their distance until you stop running). You should also, in all circumstances, keep Fire and Ice away from expected AOE spells. Getting hit on both wolves dampers your survivability, and although it’s not always avoidable you should do your best to prevent it.

When fighting enemies, especially in a 1v1 scenario, if you’re certain you can quickly burst someone to death with no retaliation or escapes (unlikely), you should not blow all your skills at once – this will make it harder to follow up in case they retreat. You should also learn to expect and prevent any kind of stuns or silences and avoid getting any of your wolves too low before they’re casted – don’t be afraid to merge back sooner if a fatal stun is about to hit you. In the same way, you should always try to bait any kind of single target damage or most importantly, spells and ultimates, so that you can completely negate them by merging. The trick to playing this hero right is to know exactly what you can expect from who, and using it to your advantage (by not taking any damage whatsoever). Remember that you have over 2500 hp and over 20 armor by midgame stage, so you can really tank up a LOT of damage for your team if you know what you’re doing. Also, all kinds of curses and dots are harmless against you if you merge/split in time.

8. Videos

Mini tutorial guide, essentially a TL;DR version of this guide (full screen HD available): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_FnH...ature=youtu.be

Game replays (place under my documents/heroes of newerth/game/replays to add to your replays list)

http://www.2shared.com/file/QBgvXd47/M105609354.html - Final score: 15/0/6 - Kind of got owned mid but it's not a big obstacle to being relevant in the mid-game.

http://www.2shared.com/file/Vs2bVpt7/M105022046.html - Final score: 12/2/6 - Shows you can lane the hero (with a different skillbuilt) and be sucessful with it. Both him and Valk ended up dominating the game from there.

http://www.2shared.com/file/GzfSHZ93/M105361179.html - Final score: 19/1/9 - Shows how you can salvage a nearly lost game by playing safe and taking advantage of opportunities.

War Thunder Beginner's Guide

2013-02-05T22:27:00.001-05:00

War Thunder Beginner's Guide by Vernum

Hello everyone,

I have been lucky enough to find out about this game recently and it took me a bit of time to familiarize myself with some of the features.

In this guide I would like to share what I have learnt with and from the other virtual pilots from War Thunder and I hope this will make the starting experience easier for the new players.

Table of Content (to jump directly to a part of this guide you can search for the number on the right side of this table.)

1) Game interface [01.00.00]

a. The launcher [01.01.00]
b. The main hangar [01.02.00]
c. About repairs [01.03.00]
d. The main menu [01.04.00]

2) The crew [02.00.00]

a. Pilot [02.01.00]
b. Gunners [02.02.00]
c. Ground services [02.03.00]
d. Qualification [02.04.00]
e. Switching planes [02.05.00]

3) The game [03.00.00]

a. In game head up display [03.01.00]
b. Some advices for simple flight model mode [03.02.00]

i. Landing [03.02.01]

ii. Dropping bombs [03.02.02]

iii. Using torpedoes [03.02.03]

iv. Weapon choice for ground targets [03.02.04]

v. Weapon choice for air targets [03.02.05]

vi. Use of turret advice [03.02.06]

vii. Manage your weapons' heat [03.02.07]

c. The different types of planes [03.03.00]
d. Map strategy in arcade [03.04.00]

e. The damage system [03.05.00]

i. The damage indicator [03.05.01]

ii. Effect of damage [03.05.02]

iii. Conditions for a plane to be shot down [03.05.03]

iv. fuel leak [03.05.04]

f. The ranking and experience system [03.06.00]

g. The reward system [03.07.00]

1) Game interface [01.00.00]

a. The launcher [01.01.00]

After downloading the launcher you will be greeted with this option screen.

You can select the language here as well as setup various sound and graphic settings by clicking on the advanced settings line. Currently, it is advised to select stereo sound if you cannot hear anything with the default or any other settings.

Clicking on run the game will stop the seeding process if you were seeding then take you to the log in screen where you can enter your yuplay login information.

note: if you want to help new players by seeding the game for them to download faster while you are away from your computer or doing things that don't require your bandwidth, you can click on check files, this will launch this will check your game files and at the end of the process will start seeding the game for everyone trying to download it from the launcher.

b. The main hangar [01.02.00]

After entering your login, the game will take you to the main hangar screen and menu screen.
This picture quickly describes most of the functions from that screen

lower quality version for slower connections but harder to read

Here is a more detailed description of the buttons found on that main screen.

Profile:

The profile screen allows you to see your current level and experience with different nations as well as your general level, you can also see your stats (flying time, victories etc..), various unlocks conditions to receive new achievements, decals or paint for your planes.

Convert xp:

While playing different modes in this game, you will gain experience that goes toward your general and nation rank according to the nation being played, as well as free experience that can be used on this screen in exchange of eagles currency ( at the moment this currency can only be bought from the store.

Store:

On this screen you can buy eagles currency and historical campaignswith real money or you can trade your eagles for premium membership which grants faster xp (200%) and lions (150%) earning rate during battles as well as allowing you to make squad with friends(not implemented yet) or to add 4 different decals on your planes.

Research:

On the research screen, you can see the tech tree of your currently selected country as well as see their stats by hovering your mouse pointers over the lanes and you can make available any plane on this list, for your crew to use, as long as you have a high enough national rank (not required for premium planes) and if you have researched the previous plane from the same tree.
You can also test flight any planes that you own as well as any premium planes not owned (on the right side of the screen) by clicking on the hangar icon then selecting test flight.

note: Do not forget to scroll down in the tech tree to see higher tier planes, if the country has a many planes like in the British tech tree.

Crew slots:

Here you can see the various stats of the plane assigned to your crew by hovering your mouse over the plane's icon.

In this picture, you can see a short description for each of the stats.

lower quality version for slower connections but harder to read

We can also add 6 more crew slots to our 3 starting slots, cost for additional slot is 10k lions for the 4th, then 50k lions, 200 eagles, 500 eagles, 1200 eagles and finally 1800 eagles for the 9th slots.
When clicking on a crew slot with a plane assigned to that crew, you can see 5 icons, over the plane’s picture in that slot.
Here is a list of those icons as well as their use.

The hangar:

It takes you to the plane’s hangar screen, you can see the plane’s description and history there by clicking on information as well as paint it.

Test flight:
This button launches a test flight of that plane.

Change aircraft:
It is used to assign a different aircraft to that crew slot.

View crew:
It takes you to the crew skill level up and qualification screen.

Weapons:

This opens up the weapons and modifications screen, you can buy and select different weapons and modifications, if available there.

note: bombs are shown in lb for the US and Uk, other countries use kg. (1kg=2.2 lb)

Repair:

At the start when your plane still has free repairs left, this appears when your plane is only damaged slightly to allow you to save on your free repair, later when you have ran out of free repairs it will appear every time your plane is damaged, paying some lions will repair your plane instantly.

c. About repairs [01.03.00]

- Every plane starts with a predetermined amount of free repair that can be seen by hovering the mouse over the plane’s icon.

One free repair will be used up each time the plane is heavily damaged (this wont activate if your plane is only lightly damaged to not waste on the free repairs count) and once all the free repairs are used up, the free repair line will disappear from the plane’s description.

- If a damaged plane isn’t assigned to a crew, it will repair at a rate of 5x slower than if it was assigned to a crew with 0 level in repair.

- Even if multiples crews are trained to use a plane, only the crew assigned to it can have an effect on repair speed.

- time seems to pass around 2x(for premium planes)-5x(for regular planes) faster in game, so a repair time of 5 hour minutes can actually take about 1 hour.

- When your plane is destroyed by an opponent, it will usually be damaged at 50%, the average cost to repair indicated in the plane's description is the cost of repair when the plane is exactly damaged at 50% as well but the time to repair will only be half of what is indicated in that window.

- The game currently doesn’t refresh the repair status of the plane very often while in hangar, so even though your plane might show as 80% damaged it might actually have been repaired already, to fix this simply go into the crew level up screen and click on apply even without modifying any skill, this will force the game to refresh the repair timer of all the planes.

It is usually a good idea to do this before entering a new battle.

d. The main menu [01.04.00]

Here is a description of the different selections from the main menu tab

Arcade battles :

This selection launches a quick up to 16vs16 battle, after selecting your server ( selecting ANY instead of a specific place recommended to make the wait shorter) and your nation.
The flight model is simplified in this mode and you will earn xp and lions for each ground or air target destroyed as well as additional rewards for winning a battle.
In this mode, planes from any country can be on either side (your team will be shown by blue markers and the opposite team by red markers) and you can use up to 9 planes if you have 9 crew slots in the hangar of your selected country.
This is probably the most suitable mode for trying to rank up and collect lions since the queues are very short.

Historic battles:

Same as arcade except that the flight model is set to realistic and you can only fly one plane in this mode. It is a battle between two countries and players can only select planes from the country they have decided to join with.

Sandbox:

After reaching rank 1, you can create a session in sandbox. This mode allows you to play on any multiplayer maps with your friends or with bots but you will not gain any reward. You can set various conditions like weather, time of the day etc…

Note: If you want to be able to play with any possible nation, select random in the country selection when creating a new sandbox session.

Historical Campaign:

This selection only appears if you have bought a historical campaign from the store.This is a solo campaign featuring a series of narrated scenario, supplemented by historical movies. In this mode you can only gain the completed scenario reward (a small amount of lions and xp ), the number of kills, assist etc.. will not grant any additional reward.

Missions:

This selection allows you to either play in a dynamic campaign or a single mission mode.

The dynamic campaign is a short sequence of scenario where your goal is to either capture all sectors or to win a predetermined number of scenarios.The victory conditions can be set when you start a campaign. You will also gain a small amount of xp and lions for completing each scenario but no additional rewards for kills, assist etc… Unlike the historical campaigns, there is no narration or historical movies in this mode.

The single missions mode is actually a campaign as well, but you have to reach the required nation ranks to unlock the scenarios for the theatres ( campaign). A historical movie can be seen by clicking on the yellow links in the theatre’s scenario list.

Extras:

This menu has 8 sub selections:

Leaderboards: This shows the top 1000 players in various categories like number of games won/ played etc…

Controls: This allows you to select your preferred control method as well as customize the keys.

There are 4 type of control method.

Mouse and keyboard: In this mode you can use both the mouse and keyboard but the joystick is disabled and the pilot assistant (called virtual instructor) is enabled. I would recommend this mode if you aren’t used to flight simulations

Virtual instructor: In this mode you can set anything as a controller but the more advanced controls like flaps, trims, airbrake etc.. are not customizable and taken over by the pilot assistant. I would recommend this mode if you want a bit more immersion than the mouse and keyboard controls mode and have a joystick but still don’t want to get a headaches over more advanced controls.

Simplified controls: In this mode you can set anything as a controller and unlike the virtual instructor mode you also can control the airbrake but some more advanced controls are not available in this mode, the pilot assistant is disabled in this mode.

Full aircraft controls: In this mode you have access to every controls and the pilot assistant is disabled.

Game options: On this screen you can set various options like, gun targeting distance in meters, the distance at which your bullets cross path, if your guns are not set at the center of your plane. It is recommended to set this at the distance you usually prefer to attack a target. In my case I have set it at 300m.

On this screen you can also set various setting like subtitles, use of the metric or us system etc…

Replays:

On this screen you can view the replays that you have saved. Replays can be saved at the end of the battle, by clicking on the button at the lower left corner of the team score screen.

Encyclopedia:

Various data about the game mechanics, different tactics, maneuvers and history.

Credits: Displays the credit list.

Benchmark: Launches a benchmark displaying your fps and benchmark score at the end.

2) The crew [02.00.00]

There are 4 tabs on that screen, pilot, gunners, ground service and qualification. It would take 35562 skill points for a crew to maximize all of the available skills.
I’ll list the skills, required number of skill points to maximize them, as well their description and any additional information if necessary.

a. Pilot (11472 crew skill points are required to max every skill in that tab) [02.01.00]

- Keen vision. Required number of crew points to maximize it is 1626. This skill affects the pilot’s visual range in the direction he is looking; i.e The maximum distance at which he can detect the enemy.

- Visibility. (1626 to max) This skill affects the visibility range around the aircraft.

Note: I am not sure what this actually does so if anyone can add information about this skill that would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

- G-tolerance (5620 to max) Tolerance of negative and positive g-forces.

Note: This allows the pilot to make sharper / faster maneuvers without having his vision covered by a black or red veil due to g-forces.

- Stamina (1300 to max) This skill allows the crew to resist fatigue for a longer period of time; their accuracy and g-tolerance gradually decrease, depending on the time spent in the session and the number of g-forces sustained.

- Vitality (1300 to max) The health of the crew members as well as the speed of their recovery if they are wounded.

Note: I am not sure if this actually works as my plane goes down at the same time, my pilot gets wounded.

b. Gunners (13022 to max)[02.02.00]

None of the skills in that tab affects the player, they are all used for the ai gunners only so adding precision for example won’t make you shoot more accurately with your main guns or cannons.
They also won’t make you shoot more accurately when taking over the post of gunner yourself.

- Number of experienced gunners (6120 to max) The number of experienced gunners in the crew, if the crew has more gunners than experienced gunners then the crew doesn’t run at maximum performance.

Note: In game it seems to translate into removing a percentage to all the gunners skills for each turret missing an experienced gunners.

So if your plane has 5 turrets, each gunner represents 20% of the skill and If you only have the 1 default experienced gunner then you will lose 80% to any skill in the gunner's tree.

If your plane has 4 turrets, each gunners would represent 25%, if plane as 3 turrets then 33% etc..

Any crew slot start with 1 experienced gunner so if you have only 1 turret in addition to your main guns, you don’t need to add an additional experienced gunner.

- Fire accuracy (1626 to max) The accuracy of the aircraft gunners’ fire.

- Fire Precision (1626 to max) This skill reduce how scattered the gunners’ fire is.

- G-tolerance (1050 to max) Tolerance of negative and positive g-forces.

- Vitality (1300 to max) The health of the crew members as well as the speed of their recovery if they are wounded.

c. Ground services (11068 to max)[02.03.00]

- Repair speed (2138 to max) The mechanic’s skill. The rate at which the aircraft is repaired in the hang and at the airfield.

note: This skill can save a lot of money on repair fee on planes that have short repair time and high cost but to make this skill useful, make sure to disable autorepair (on the lower left of the main hangar screen) or it will repair your plane as soon as the battle end without taking advantage of the skill.

50 levels in repair speed skill with halve the time required to repair a plane, further qualification training will reduce it even more.

- Repair rank (2189 to max) The mechanic’s skill. The maximum rank of aircraft that the mechanic can repair.

Note: The plane will repair anyway in the hangar or at an airfield if your repair rank isn't as high as your plane but the repair speed skill won’t make the repair any faster until your repair rank is at least as high as your plane's rank.

- Reload speed (5441 to max) The armorer’s skill, the speed at which the weapons are reloaded in the air and at the airfield.

Note: This is one of the most important skill in arcade mode. This works on bombs as well as guns.
I’ll list the reload time of the German bomber he-111 h-6 (same reload time as the h-16 version)as an example.
With 0 level in reload speed skill the bombs reload time is 1:19 seconds
With 5 levels in reload speed skill the bombs reload time is 1:16 seconds
With 50 levels in reload speed skill the bombs reload time is 53 seconds
With 50 levels and expert qualification in reload speed skill the bombs reload time is 44 seconds.
With 50 levels and ace qualification in reload speed skill the bombs reload time is 39 seconds.

- Healing speed (1300 to max) The medic’s skill, the speed at which pilots and gunners who are wounded are healed.

Note: I’m not sure what the difference is between this skill and the vitality skills from the other tabs.

d. Qualification [02.04.00]

On this tab you can choose to upgrade your crew qualification for the currently assigned plane from basic to expert then to ace.
The Expert qualification rank adds 30 levels to keen vision, visibility, fire accuracy, fire precision, repair speed and reload speed. The ace rank adds an additional 20 levels to the same skills.
To upgrade from your crew’s basic qualification to expert qualification your crew needs 100 skill levels + 10x the plane’s rank. It only cost lions currency to upgrade to expert qualifications.
To upgrade from your crew’s expert qualification to ace qualification your crew needs 400 skill levels + 10x the plane’s rank. It will cost eagles to upgrade to ace qualifications on planes that are of tier 2 and higher.

e. Switching planes [02.05.00]

Each qualification is unique to the plane it was trained for, so if a crew was trained at expert level on the P-26A-33, they will only have the basic qualification level if a p-26A-34 M2 is affected to this same crew.
When switching planes the crew keeps all of their skills and qualifications, even though the qualification from the previous plane won’t have any effect on the new plane and switching back to a previously used aircraft the qualification for that aircraft will take effect again.
The skills on the other hand are common to every plane so a crew doesn’t have to train again after switching plane.
So if anyone wanted to, they could have 1 crew able to pilot every plane from the same country at ace level and switch back and forth between different planes with the same crew, every battle without having to respend anything.

3) The game [03.00.00]

a. In game head up display [03.01.00]

The in game HUD looks like this for a bomber. I’ve added some descriptions to all the icons.

lower quality version for slower connections but harder to read

And here is the HUD when using a fighter.

lower quality version for slower connections but harder to read

On the top left of the screen we can also see the fps counter and at the bottom left the latency meter.

Note 1: The crosshair is only present if your plane has machineguns or canons mounted in front. If you are piloting a plane only equipped with turrets, you won’t see any crosshair in the main view.

note 2: red quarter circles can appear around your crosshair, they represent your guns's heat, the chances of gun jamming are highly increased when they form a full red circle around your cross hair.

The effect of jamming each time it triggers, is removing a bit less than 1/5 of your total ammo at the moment you started heating your guns.

note 3: The target lead indicator shows where you need to shoot at, for your fastest guns to hit the targeted plane if it is flying straight.

If you have different types of guns equipped on your plane a few 13 mm machine guns and a few 30mm canons for example, then this lead indicator only shows where your 13 mm guns will hit, you will need to shot ahead of this lead indicator to have a chance at hitting your target with the slower 30 mm canons which will deal more damage than the 13mm guns (in War Thunder, higher caliber usually means slower and more damaging projectiles).

Note 4: The damage indicator only appears after we have taken some damage.

Note 5: The icons on the lower left of the screens can change according to the objectives of the battle, if your primary objective is to destroy ground target then it will show a red ground target icon with some number. If your primary objective is to defend allied plane then it will show a blue plane icon with some number etc…

Note 6: The position indicator shows your position on the map ( default key M) you can also use that map to see your allies as well as detected enemies’ position.

Note 7: When you have a plane targeted you will only see the general type of the plane until you get to around 500 meters from the target, then you will see what type of plane it is precisely.

Note 8: The mission navigation point will only appear in campaign and single scenarios.

b. Some advices for simple flight model mode [03.02.00]

i. Landing [03.02.01]

You will often find yourself in need to capture a base or if the map allows it, to repair. This can be done by landing but it can be dangerous if done carelessly. Also capturing a base will earn you a high amount of xp and lions reward.
Here is my current landing method.

Try to get close to the airfield as fast as possible then start lowering your altitude and put the throttle at about 40-50 % then move your plane randomly in lateral directions and roll to bleed more speed and keep lowering the throttle gradually

When reaching the start of the airfield you want to be very close to the ground at a speed inferior to 250km/h (if the airfield is long), ideally less than 200 km/h.

Set your throttle at 0% then lower your altitude until you see your plane’s shadow.
Once you see your shadow on the ground raise your throttle back to 50% and quickly point the nose of your plane slightly toward the sky (to avoid your plane's nose from hitting the ground and killing the engine in the process) and drop your throttle back to 0%.

Your plane should make contact with the ground without breaking anything and without rebounding hopefully, once that is done start hitting and releasing the brakes repeatedly until all the wheels of the plane made contact to the ground then keep brakes pushed until the plane is at full stop.

Note: To repair a seaplane you will need to land next to a friendly carrier instead of an airfield.

ii. Dropping bombs [03.02.02]

At low altitude by pointing the nose of your plane toward the ground you will see a big circle with the cross in the middle indicating your projected bomb impact on the ground.
But doing this will make you lose even more altitude.

To bomb at high altitude, you can use the bomber’s view ( this can be setup in the controls screen from the extra menu)
This view is only available if your plane is equipped with this function, most of the heavy bombers can use this.

iii. Using torpedoes [03.02.03]

To use torpedoes you have to select a target first then move to an altitude of less than 400 meters, make sure that your plane is as horizontal as possible and a green arrow should appear.

Direct that arrow toward your target and release the torpedo at about 1 km from it.

iv. Weapon choice for ground targets [03.02.04]

To sink destroyer you can use torpedoes or bombs, if you are going to use bombs since it is a more polyvalent weapon and easier to carry in number, it is preferable to use bombs of at least 453 kg (1000 lb). A single bomb of 453kg can sink a destroyer if it hits the destroyer directly around the center.

v. Weapon choice for air targets [03.02.05]

My favorite calibers to take down air target are the 20mm canons.
Any calibers of less than 20 mm will usually take too much time to take down a target and alert it, allowing the target to try some evasive maneuvers to defend itself.
With 20mm usually a single well placed burst is enough to shoot down any fighter plane. Planes equipped with 4 x 20mm canons like the spitfire VC or N1K2-j can destroy a fighter plane with their first hit if the 4x canons hit the target simultaneously, even if you miss with your first salvo of 20mm you can still try do some short burst and the result will also often end with a downed target plane.
I find 30 mm and + canons lacking compared to the 20mm they might have a little bit more punch but planes with a high amount of 30mm + canons are rare and in low number they aren’t as devastating as a plane with a few 20mm canons, their slow rate of fire is also a weakness as it is harder to keep a plane targeted a longer period of time for multiple 30mm shells to hit. The 30mm + shells also often have a very limited ammo supply.

vi. Use of turret advice [03.02.06]

When you are in a bomber and have just unloaded your bombs if a plane is chasing you, it is usually a good idea to take the seat of the gunner yourself as you will be much more precise than the ai gunner.
This will surprise many fighter pilots who often just sit behind you emptying their guns without doing any evasive maneuvering.

vii. Manage your weapons' heat [03.02.07]

4 red quarter circles will appear around your crosshair when you are using your guns, they represent your weapons heat.

When all 4 of the quarter circles appears, the chance for your weapons to jam are highly increased, the effect of jamming every time it triggers, is removing a bit less than 1/5 of your total ammo from the moment you started heating your guns and you will quickly run out of ammo when it happens, so to avoid spending more time reloading than actually shooting, you should try to avoiid having a full red heat circle as much possible by shooting small burst.

As an example, the I.153 M-62 has a total of 2600 ammo supply but it can shoot a bit more than than 300 ammo in about 2.5 seconds before the heat circle is fully red and its guns start getting jammed. Once the circle is fully red it takes only about 2 seconds to completely deplete the remaining 2300 bullets because the jamming triggers 4 times. So in total it has shot about 550 bullets and wasted 2050 bullets due to jamming in a 4.5 seconds full burst.

This is a picture of the heat circle and the gun jamming indicator on the lower right of the screen.

c. The different types of planes [03.03.00]

I think we can categorize planes used in War Thunder in 4 different types.

The fighter plane:

They are very good in dogfight and against bombers if they can catch up with them before the bombers have destroyed their target.
They are also very fragile so being aware of your surrounding is a must if you don’t want to get shot down yourself.
Most of them don’t have a very high firepower so it can take some time to take down some of the more resistant bombers.

The jet plane:

While also a fighter, it is just as fragile as most fighters but it is also very different from the propeller fighter in that it usually have very slow acceleration and trying to do continuous turning dogfight with them will usually end up with a shot down jet.
On the other hand they usually are very well armed and have a very high maximum speed as well as good climb rate. So they are very good at chasing down bombers all around the maps and at taking down fighter planes unaware of their presence in a single pass, taking care not to lose too much speed then quickly leave the place to find another target.

The attack planes:

They usually have very heavy front gun armament and are well armored, they can usually make short work of any plane in their crosshair, bombers included.
They are the best at head on engagement but do not have the agility of the fighters and unfortunately in a turning dogfight, they don’t stand a chance against more nimble fighters.
So to be successful with them it is a good idea to try to shoot down the most dangerous fighters (any fighter aware of your presence, if none are target the most maneuverable ones) first on the first pass then take care of the other still busy fighting some of your allies or going for ground targets.
Their high ammo supply makes them very good at destroying light and medium ground targets. Some of them also come with bombs or torpedo for heavier ground target.

The bomber planes:

They are the most heavily armored planes and can usually a high payload of bombs.
Bombers with heavy bombs can often destroy a tight cluster of ground target with a single bomb. They are the best against ground targets.
Unfortunately they are a target for anything else that can fly.

d. Map strategy in arcade [03.04.00]

Arcade mode currently has 2 types of map. The goal in all of them is to either bring the total ticket supply of the opponent to 0 or to destroy all of their planes.

In the airfield domination type, each ground and air target destroyed will remove some tickets from the ticket supply of your opponent, having more airfield under your control than the opponent will also continuously removes some tickets from their supply.

In the ground strike type, only ground target removes tickets from the opponent’s supply, so the only choice to beat your opponent is to either destroy all enemy ground targets or to destroy all of their planes.

Here is a list of the maps and a general strategy for them.

Island airfield domination:

As a fighter at the start of this map you should try to capture the airfield closest to your position as fast as possible. Also equip your plane with bombs or rockets if you can as it can be useful to destroy a resistant plane like a bomber trying to land there.
And defend it against any opposite plane trying to capture it. If you see that many of your allies are fighting close to that airfield you can try and see if the opposite camp is well defended, if you think you can make it past their defense then try to go and take their airfield, if your team manage to keep more airfield under your control long enough, it should usually end with your side winning the battle.
As a bomber, before selecting one, first make sure that there aren’t already too many bombers as that would leave your own base easy to capture by the opposite team if too few fighters are on your side. After that try to take some altitude and try to sink as many destroyer as you can from high altitude, that will force fighters to waste much their time if they want to catch you, leaving your more time to sink destroyers. Killing all ground target on this map isn’t sufficient to finish the battle so you will usually have to try and steal their base once all of destroyers are sunk or switch to a fighter or attack plane to take down their fighters/bombers.

Airfield domination:

As a bomber you need to destroy the ground target before they reach the central capture point to reduce the ticket supply from the opposite team and to prevent the ground units from capturing the central point when they reach it.

You can also attempt to capture the point as your plane is much more resistant to guns than a fighter and has a higher chance to survive long enough to capture.

As a fighter as your priority, you should make sure that no plane can capture the central point, you should also try to stop opposite bombers from destroying your allied ground units, when you see an occasion where the opposite planes are occupied in dogfighting someone else or far away from the capture point, you can also try to capture the central point.

Port ground strike:

As a bomber it is usually a good idea to try and sink the destroyers first then try to finish the ground target later. Since you can do that later part with any plane.

As a fighter you should probably try to detect and destroy planes able to deal the most damage to your destroyers first. It can be bombers / attacker planes but also some fighters (if no bombers/attack planes are attacking) like the German ones that can carry 500 kg bombs, sinking a destroyer with a single drop.

The heavy us bombers and the russian yer2 are particularly dangerous as they have the potential to sink in 1 pass, 6 destroyers for the yer2, 4 for the pby5 and 8 for the b17 and heavier us bomber.

Once the threats to your destroyers are gone, you can start destroying ground target or try to defend your team’s ground attackers.

Africa canyon ground strike:

As a bomber your goal should be to try and sneak past defenses and sends a few heavy bombs in the bigger ground troops clusters. You can fly low in the canyons as a cover if there are no enemy planes around.

As a fighter your priority is to take down the planes able to carry the heavy bomb payload like the Lancaster/wellington/b17/b24/yer2 etc..

e. The damage system [03.05.00]

At the moment, most of the planes' damage models aren't in their final version but I'll try to explain how it works in their current version.

i. The damage indicator [03.05.01]

The picture below has descriptions for most of the damages on all of the plane's parts and we can see the corresponding part, on the actual plane being damaged as well.

lower quality version for slower connections but harder to read

The damage indicator will appear as soon as any of your plane's part is at least slightly damaged.
Your plane damage model is separated into 9 parts + the number of engines, 1 for most fighters and more for most bombers that have multiples engines.

The 10 parts shown on the damage indicator of a mono engine fighter are: engine, Left/Right wings, L/R ailerons (lower parts of inside the wing), main fuselage, tail and rudder.
(the vertical fin on the tail), L/R elevators (horizontal fins on the tail)
How much damage parts have sustained, is indicated by colors, going progressively from white to red and finally black.
- White, means that a part is undamaged or very slightly damaged.
- light red, the part is lightly damaged
- red, the part is damaged
- deep red, the part is heavily damaged
- black, indicates that the part doesn't work anymore or is very heavily damaged and is about to be destroyed or is destroyed.

ii. Effect of damage [03.05.02]

The damage on any parts of a plane can have various effect.
- Engine, lower speed
- wings, lower maneuverability
- ailerons, lower maneuverability
- rudder, lower maneuverability
- elevator, lower maneuverability
- fuselage, seems to lower speed to a lesser degree than the engine damage.
- tail, seems to lower maneuverability and speed to a lesser degree than the engine damage.

iii. Conditions for a plane to be shot down [03.05.03]

A plane will be considered shot down once any of the part of the plane is destroyed, or if the pilot in the cockpit is knocked out ( in the upper part of the fuselage).
The pilot getting knocked out can happen with a single bullet from any caliber and will often happen during head on attacks or when a plane is showing it's top side during a turn or dive.

iv. Fuel leak [03.05.04]

Another thing to consider is fuel leak, this is indicated by a red and blinking "Fuel leak" text under your altitude indicator.
Sometime, a shot to your plane will start a fuel leak, if you are lucky the fuel leak will stop after a while but most of the time, it will continue until you run out of fuel effectively disabling the engine of your plane and your plane will only be able to glide until it crashes or until your team has won or lost the battle.

f. The ranking and experience system [03.06.00]

There are two types of ranks:

- The general rank which is used mostly to show, how much total experience you have earned with all the countries.

- The nation rank which is used to determine when you can start researching a plane from that nation (premium planes can be bought with eagles and used regardless of rank).

ie : A non premium tier 12 plane, requires a nation rank of at least 12.

There are also two types of experiences

- The regular experience which is mostly earned from battles in arcade or historical mode. At the end of a battle you will earn some experience, the total experience will fill both your nation rank and your general rank xp.

ie : if you earn 10000 xp during a battle, you will get 10000 xp for your general rank as well as 10000 xp for the nation rank that you just used to earn that xp.

- The free experience which can be used to convert into nation rank, using eagle currency by clicking on the convert xp button at the upper right of the main hangar screen, the rate is 3000 xp for 1 eagle.

Whenever you earn regular experience, you will also get double of that experience value in free experience.

Here is a table showing nation ranks up to 18 and the experience required to reach next ranks, I'll add the other ranks later.

g.The reward system [03.07.00]

In arcade mode the xp rewarded for all the events that triggers a reward is dependent on the tier of your plane as well as type of target for ground target (more xp the bigger the heavier the target is) and tier of the target for planes.

Note 1: The xp value is at 5x the normal amount as long as the plane being used hasn’t filled its experience bar. After that they will only gain xp at a normal rate.

Note 2: rewards are only credited as long as both teams still have more than 0 tickets.

If you destroy a unit right after the ticket count of any team reached 0 before the game ends, you wont be rewarded anything.

Note 3: With a premium account the xp rewards are boosted by 200 % and the lions rewards by 150%.

Examples of xp variation due to the tier of plane used when sinking the same type of destroyer with the 5x xp rate and a premium account:

The heavy bomber SB2-m100 (tier 4) gets 3000 lions + 3410 xp for the same type of destroyer sunk.

The heavy bomber h111-6 (tier 8) gets 3000 lions + 5000 xp for the same type of destroyer sunk.

The heavy bomber h111-16 (tier 10) gets 3000 lions + 5700 xp for the same type of destroyer sunk.

Here is the list of events that will grant you reward during an arcade game with a premium account:

- Each air kill rewards you 1500 lions as well as some xp

There doesn’t seem to be a differentiation for the reward of fighter or bomber so you won’t get any more bonus for killing an air target with a bomber instead of using a fighter.

- Each time you capture a base you will be rewarded with 7500 lions + some xp.

Note: This lions reward is divided equally amongst every ally planes that were in the process of capturing the same point when the base capture is finished.

A plane is considered as capturing a base when its wheels are in contact with the road of the airfield capture point, it doesn’t need stop to capture a point, so you can actually just fly to the capture point make your wheels contact with the road long enough to capture the point while keeping some speed and then take off as soon as the capture process is finished.

- Each complete landing grants 350 xp

- Each air kill assist rewards you 225 lions as well as some xp.

- Each time you start hitting an air target, you will get 75 lions and some xp. If there is a pause long enough between your last hit and your next hit then you will be granted the reward again.

- Each critical hit will reward you with 150 lions + some xp.

- Each ground target destroyed will reward lions and xp according to the type of plane you are fighting with, if you are attacking with a heavy bomber then you get 4x the rewards that a fighter of the same tier would get, with an attack plane or a light bomber you will get 3x the reward instead.

As an example the fighter n1k2 (tier 9) gets 750 lions + 1340xp for a destroyer kill

The light bomber bb-1 (tier 3) gets 2250 lions + 2210 xp for the same type of destroyer kill.

The heavy bomber SB2-m100 (tier 4) gets 3000 lions + 3410 xp for the same type of destroyer kill.

- each ground kill assist rewards lions and xp based on type of plane used (fighter< light bomber<heavy bomber) and type of ground target destroyed

- Each time you start hitting a ground target as a bomber, you will get 150 lions and some xp. If there is a pause long enough between your last hit and your next hit then you will be granted the reward again. Using a fighter plane you will get less reward.

- At the end of the game you will earn for each plane used between 1000 and 1200 lions and xp based on your time spent in battle (against air or ground target) with that plane.

- At the end of the game, if your team wins, you will be also gain an additional victory reward, you will usually get bit less than 50% of your total lions reward excluding this one and about 70% of your total xp reward excluding this one.

Even though it shows the activity time of each plane in the detailed list, it doesn’t seem like this reward calculation is based on it, if anyone has more info on this please let me know.

This guide is currently up to date with version 1.9.8.0 of War Thunder.

Good luck to everyone and have fun with this great game!
If you have any advice, info to add, to make this guide better, have any additional questions or find any error please let me know, I’ll modify this guide accordingly.

Thank you.

War Thunder Guide Levels 1 - 6

2013-02-05T22:26:00.000-05:00

War Thunder Guide Levels 1 - 6 by Wapang_2008

Hello, this will be my first guide and I am definitely not skilled, this is just what I did to get out of those stupid Italian planes.

First of all:
German's strength and weakness

Pros:
Generally high speed and fast at climbing
Good for diving
Good to Extremely good firepower (Me410 have the biggest cannon, 50mm gun)

Cons or Just minor disadvantages:
Moderate - Poor turn rates (NO TURN FIGHTING WITH HURRICANES/ SPITFIRES)
Leaky fuel tanks (Dunno why every time I am hit, I leak. Maybe just luck. Once again, this is my personal opinion)
Lack of rockets across all planes
Lack of Torpedo across all planes
Lack of heavy bombs (1000 Lbs +, or maybe I just read the armaments wrong )

However, the worst con is the first 5 levels- The Italian grind.

First of all, when you are at 0, you have three German bi planes, three models of the He-51.

He-51's pros and cons

Pros-
Good mobility
Decent Armament for its level ( 2 Machine guns, just like most nation EXCEPT THE GLADIATORS, they got 4)
One of the model can hold 2 (Or 6, sry cant remember that well) of 50 kg bombs, use them to help ground attack.

Cons-
You will be targeted as priority by other people (Easy kill)
Your speed is low
Lack of weapons to do damage to anything stronger than a light tank (FORGET THE DESTROYERS, CARRIERS, ETC. You will do nothing to them)

Your role on the battlefield
Ground attack against armored cars/ artillery/ AA guns.
Dogfight against other bi-planes (Except gladiators, they out gun you. Also avoid the I-15 Chaika, they are insanely strong for a He-51)
AVOID SPITFIRES, HURRICANES, YAKS, LAGGS

What you should NEVER do
DONT dogfight with any non bi-plane planes (Other then Italian ones - the M.C 200 series are fine, just be extra careful)
DONT attack bombers (I know fighters are supposed to beat bombers, but the bombers you face will probably out gun you)
DONT attack PBYs, H6Ks (THEY ARE INVINCIBLE AGAINST MACHINE GUNS, or nearly invincible)

Repeat the same step for the Falco level 1 Italian Bi-Planes.

Level 2-4
Next 4 planes are your first ever mono-planes (Planes with 1 set of wings)

They all share the same tactics and it is going to be plain torture due to their weak armament and below average speed and maneuverability.

Their pros: (Forgot their names, Sry)
Faster then the Bi-Planes
Slightly more maneuverable
One of the variants can load 2 bombs to help with ground attack

Cons:
Poor maneuverability compared to its peer
Poor Armament compared to its peer
Despite decent maneuverability, it BLEEDS speed on turns, so no turn fights

Role on the battlefields
Ground attack
Attacking bi-planes

Alternate way for grinding 3-4
Get the Ju-87 stuka and its second deriative ASAP
Get the BF-110 heavy fighter ASAP

BF-110 usage
Focus on attacking bombers such as Wellingtons and PBYs and H6ks (Due to cannons, you can hurt them)
Ground attack is also a good idea
Charging in to a massive dogfight and try to strafe a enemy fighter to death in one pass the RUN (Always fun, though your chance to survive if a fighter chase you is slim)

BF-110 Pros and Cons
Pros:
Heavy armament that allows you to kill most enemies head on
Higher speed then those Italian rubbish planes
More durable the those Italian rubbish planes

Cons:
Poor maneuverability (NEVER GET INTO A TURN FIGHT)

Ju-87 Stuka roles on the battlefield
-To bomb and strafe the enemies' ground units into a pile of burning metal
Pros-
4 50kg bomb + 1 100kg (Not too sure) bomb gives it a good punch
German machine guns that sounds much better then the Italian ones
Decent maneuverability for a ground attack aircraft

Cons-
Vulnerable to fighters due to the inferior turn rate and speed

Did I mention the first 2 have a working stuka siren?? It is awesome just to hear it, LOL .

When you reach level 4, you should have
2-Stuka
1-Bf-110
1- M.C 220 Fologore (Get it ASAP when you reach level 4)
and one plane of your choice

M.C fologore is a level 4 plane that is decent for its level (It is still weak)

Pros-
First Italian fighter to have 4 machine guns
Good speed
Good maneuverability compared to the last few Italian planes
Good All rounder

Cons-
Still inferior weapons compared to the British counterpart
Still inferior turn rate compared to the British counterpart

MC 202 "Fologore"'s role on the battlefield

To dogfight enemy's low level ground attack planes
To dogfight other bi-planes
To ground attack when ever you have the chance

What not to do
Same as always, AVOID BRITISH PLANES.
Beware of LAGGs and Yaks (You can beat them, but it will be hard)

Level 5
Get the GERMAN bombers (The ones that goes to the Arado Blitz) if you wish so you wont get too bored, AVOID THE ITALIAN S-79s (They are nearly useless) and unfortunately, GRIND till level 6.

Also, if you have the lions to spare, get the next 2 stukas, preferably the one with the cannons Ju 87 D-5, they are the most useful.
Also, with those cannons, you can occasionally find slower ground attack aircrafts to kill (Cannons are quite strong). The stuka's tactics are the same as above and you should always avoid British fighters. If you are being tailed, press F6 and manually aim the rear gun because you will most likely kill the attacker if he is lower level an severly damage a higher level fighter if given the chance.

LEVEL 6
YOU MADE IT, GET THAT BF109 IMMEDIATELY and FINALLY START BEING A FORCE TO BE RECKONED WITH.
BF-109's Pros and Con

Pros-
High speed
Good Maneuverability
Extremely Good armaments
Good at climbing
Good at diving

Cons-
Low ammo for the cannons
It still bleed speed on turn, but your engine compensates for that

Its role on the battlefield:
With all this new firepower, you can freely attack ALL bombers other then the B-17s and the B-24. You are a high altitude fighter and should always attempt to flt to 3000+ feet at the start of the match to harass and kill enemy bombers. You can also attack the British planes and get your revenge on them for making you suffer from their OP level 2 hurricanes with your cannons. Always avoid spamming shots as your cannons have extremely limited ammunition. Your manverbility is good enough that you can dogfight with hurricanes and spitfires but it should always be your last resort as your plane is better at diving from a great height, shoot at the enemy and use the speed you gain from the dive to return to 1500+ feet as quickly as possible.

Congratulation when you reach level 6 because you are out of those useless Italian planes. You may continue down the tech tree as you wish because now you can be a true competitor to the opposing team.

My in game name is Wapang_2008 (Might change soon to Blitzkrieg5 if name is still there) and you will always see me ranting about OP British planes :P

Please, if you have any other ideas, post and share with the other pilots and hopefully we will get a thriving community always sharing on this post.

My record with BF-109, the level 6 one is 7 kills before getting shot down. Post those and share with us too :).

Ragnarok Online 2 Ranger PvP Guide

2013-02-05T15:53:00.003-05:00

Ragnarok Online 2 Ranger PvP Guide by BK2013

My build
Notice I maxed WW, Falcon, and Poison Arrow and leave True Sight, Vulcan and Fear Breeze at 1 each.

Why? The extra 10% damage from mastering Falcon Assault (level 5) will outweigh the benefits from Vulcan Arrow and other skills (10%x 15 attacks x 2 falcons = 300% attack in 30 seconds). In comparison a level 5 Vulcan will give 93% attack which is only 29% more attack than a level 1 Vulcan. Falcon will out DPS the Vulcan most of the time (except the occasion where you luckily trigger Main Ranger consecutively, allowing more than usual Vulcans). Also, Vulcans will almost never be used on PvP as the target will either die (which should happen most of the time) or you die (lag or other reasons).

This build is definitely not a build dedicated solely for PvP as its main purpose is to do the most DPS possible. If you are going for a full PvP build, skills that are normally not so useful to level up in Dungeons/Raids such as Arrow Impact (movement speed slow doesn't affect bosses), Ankle Snare (doesn't affect bosses, leveling up only reduce cooldown), and Acrobatic (leveling up only reduce cooldown) can prove to be useful when fighting melee classes.

PvP vs Range: Countdown: Windwalk, Camouflage- Charge Arrow x2 -- Poison Arrow --Falcon -- True -- Falcon -- DS -- and spam Poison/F.Arrow Strike to get Main Ranger and go for the kill.
If he have a higher DPS than you do the same except you kite with arrow impact and acrobatic after your 2 Falcons. Also you might want to move to the opposite direction your opponent is facing (while hiding) before starting your onslaught.
Note: This strategy might might not work vs Sorcerers which will burst damage you to death (especially when they land a critical hit which often result in an instant kill) using the Foresight (instant cast for next 3 spells) --> Frost Diver (6s immobilize, next lightning attack do x2 damage) --> Jupitel Thunder (64% Lightning Damage x 2 (from Frost Diver)= 128% MATK) --> Varetyr Spear (80% Lightning Damage x 2 (from Frost Diver) = 160% MATK, 3 seconds stun). You don't need to be a math genius to realize these attacks are absolutely devastating and if they critical (x2 damage)... your dead. However, my strategy when fighting Sorcerers (or some Wizards with high DPS) is to Camouflage, get a good spot and then get your Double Falcon and Wind Walk out of his sight. When his hp is low come back shoot a Poison arrow a few Charge Arrows and he will be dead. Don't use arrow attacks right after hiding (yes if your first attack is a Charge Arrow critical you might be able to kill him before his deadly combo but it won't happen most of the time simply because his skills will have a much higher damage multiplier and he will kill you first) because it will reveal your location (he will turn around to the direction of your projectile and click you). Notice that the Tab button auto-targeting function does not function in PvP. Whether or not this is intentional or a bug, this strategy works well as of the time I'm posting this.

PvP vs Melee (non hiders): Countdown: Camouflage and set traps -- move 2 steps away for you traps and start shooting 2x Charge + Poison -- Falcon -- True -- Falcon -- Trap again -- spam Poison/F.Arrow Strike to get Main Ranger and go for the kill. This strategy is pretty useful against knights/warriors/bm/monk. You should always stand near your traps before breaking your invisibility (yes, setting traps does not put you out of invisibility). You should preferably be at around 18-19m range when setting traps and move 1-2 step back and start shooting. So far, I win all the time against warriors/knights with this strategy. Of course, if he has a much higher level and way superior equips, this strategy might not be enough to guarantee a win.

PvP vs Melee (hiders): Countdown: Camouflage and get your fingers ready on either Multi Shot or Arrow Shower on his general location (it will break his invisibility) -- set traps - Falcon -- True -- Falcon -- Trap Again-- Charge x2 -- spam Poison/F.Arrow Strike to get Main Ranger and go for the kill. Make sure you put Arrow Shower and Multi Shot on a comfortable hot key especially when fighting Rogues who can go invisible again in the middle of a PvP battle.

General Tips:
You can always use Arrow Impact and Acrobatic in PvP vs melee if your not confident that your traps are enough. Be flexible, sometimes it's better to finish off the opponent right away with your combos instead of setting more traps to guarantee a win. Remember you can always use Wind Walk, Acrobatic, and Arrow Impact to get to a comfortable distance. Also, remember that you can shoot Poison Arrow, Arrow Impact, Focused Arrow Strike, and Double Strafe while running around as long as you have your opponent as the target and you are facing your opponent. Dragging your mouse while you're holding the right mouse button to adjust the direction you're facing is also something that can make a difference between a win and a lost.

Feel free to discuss more PvP strategies here.

DOTA 2 Tinker Guide

2013-02-05T15:26:00.000-05:00

DOTA 2 Tinker Guide by V4rzil

Early Game #1
With the skill build #1 you can nuke the sh*t out of everybody, especially in the first 15minutes. you can harass great, and go gank with your high burst damage.With this build you rely on getting good ganks off, so you can afford your Boots of travel as early as possible.

Early Game #2
With the skillbuild #2 you aim for good lane control, and early pushing & farming. If you get ganked sometimes, you can still farm the jungle very good, or either the ancients. With this build it is better to go for early rearm, and soul ring, so you can stack March of the Machines for jungle/ancient farming, Maybe ask a support or a jungler to stack the ancients. For example ask a prophet if he can give you shared control, and you can pull one truant away to stack ancients and farm them later. Or just go up on the highground and do it yourself (:

Mid Game
In the Mid Game you start to be a push-a-lot. with your boots of travel and rearm you can easily switch around lanes, farm them with march of the machines or farm the jungle if your teammate want to frame the lane. It is always awesome to have heroes like Prophet, Lone Druid or Lycan in your team, because you can easily teleport to their summons and get good ganks off/ push towers. What item you aim after BoTs and soulring next for is you choice. If your team has no or very little disables, a first item hex can work wonders for the team. If your team has enough disables, you can easily go positional items like Blink into Force Staff, so you can push easily, without having the fear getting ganked, and you can initiate ganks very well. You could even go full-on push and get a Shivas Guard, or you go fully aggressive and buy a Dagon. It always depends on the game situation, and it is up to you!

Late Game
A full inventory with a Tinker at minute 40 or 45 is nothing special. You can farm very well, and Tinker can perfectly use even "little" items like force staff to full extend because of rearm. When i play tinker my inventory looks most the time something like Boots of travel, Blink, Force Staff, Euls, Sheepstick and Shivas. You can go defensive and buy a linken's sphere, because the passive gets resetted through rearm. Or you can go full aggressive and after buying a blink, you get a dagon , and just blink in and burst everyone down.

The targeting of your items and spells can be pretty hard though. In a teamfight it is always kinda hard to focus the right one. So lets make a fictional experiment, and say the enemy team consists out of a farmed Faceless Void, an Omni Knight, an Enigma. All three targets very very important to focus during a teamfight, but how to knock them all out? Here is the answer: Laser on the hardcarry, in this case Void. The Three second blind can make someone like Void, Ursa or Antimage complete useless. Now send the one utility hero up in the air with Euls, and the other one you and your team wanna focus you sheep. So for example, you say, we can live with a black hole, or we split up, but we hate omni knight, because he can make void magic immune, you should send up enigma, and then sheep Omni Knight before he can get off any spells. If you say, hey, we have something that goes through magic immunity, and we have enough magic damage, so we don't give a f*ck about Omniknight, Euls him, and Sheep enigma. If you gank 2 people at once, try always to permasheep one of them, and Euls the other, so they can do nothing at all.

Table of Contents

1) General Stuff
2) Skills
3) Skillbuild
4) Itembuild
5) Different phases of the Game
6) Friends and Foes

1) General Stuff
Hero Introduction
Tinker is a ranged intelligence Carry, who has high burst damage through his Laser and Heat-seeking Missiles. He can quickly disintegrate Creepwaves and control Teamfights through his March of the Machines and thanks to his ultimate, Rearm he can Reset the cooldown of nearly every item or every spell. This all makes up to a hero with high burst damage, great pushing power, and good teamfight capability.

Lore
Boush the Tinker's diminutive race is known for its intelligence, its cunning, and its prickly relationship with magic. As a matter of pride, they survive by their wits, and use only those powers of nature that may be unlocked through rational methodologies. Even this forbearance has led to a great deal of trouble, as Boush can attest. Once a key investigator of natural law, Boush the Tinker led a vast intellectual investigation into the workings of nature, founding a subterranean laboratory in the rumored, mist-wreathed wastes of the Violet Plateau. While scorning mages for the dangers they visit upon the world, Boush and his Tinker associates haughtily wrenched open a portal to some realm beyond comprehension and ushered in some nightmares of their own. A black mist rose from the cavernous interior of the Violet Plateau, shrouding it in permanent darkness from which sounds of horror perpetually emanate. Boush escaped with only his wits and the contraptions he carried, the sole Tinker to survive the Violet Plateau Incident.

Affiliation: The Radiant
Attack Duration: 0.35+0.65
Damage: 49-55
Attack Range: 550
Base Attack Time: 1,7
Missile Speed: 900
Casting Animation: 0,53+0,5
Armor: 3,82
Movespeed: 305
Sight Range: 1800/800
17+2
13+1,2
27+2,2

Pros
+Good nuking power
+strong pusher/ anti pusher
+scales well into late-game
+One of the best split pushers in DotA2
+strong utility hero, if he gets the farm and the items
+decent base Movespeed

Cons
-no escape mechanism -> easy to gank
-very mana-dependent
-Very dependent on getting BoTs
-Very dependent on getting utility items like sheep, blink, Euls to make really something happen in teamfights and carry
-very squishy, not only in the early game, but even in teamfights easy to kill

Here an alternate hero introduction from DotaCinema:

2) Skills
Laser
Fires an intense energy beam, dealing damage and blinding the target for 3 seconds, causing it to miss all physical attacks.

Range: 550
Damage: 80/160/240/320
Blind Duration: 3(6 on creeps)
Cooldown: 14
Manacost: 95/120/145/170
Damage Type: Pure
Notes:
Tinkers hardest nuke. Because it deals pure damage, it goes through magic resistance, say, it does the 320 Damage always, no matter how much magic resistance the enemy has. This spell can give you good lane control, because 3 second miss can cause your enemy to miss some lasthits/denies, and it does, as I said pure damage, so it is a good nuke. In the Late Game The Nuke damage isn't anymore the main part of the Laser, but the blind. Against heroes like Faceless Void, Ursa or Anti Mage the blind is very very good, because these heroes rely highly on attacking heroes.

Heat-Seeking Missile
Launches a pair of rockets at the nearest visible enemy heroes within 2500 range.

Range: 2500
Damage: 100/175/250/325
Number of targets: 2
Cooldown: 25
Manacost: 120/140/160/180
Damage Type: Magical
Notes:
Tinkers long-range nuke. Very good harass spell, if the enemy team wants to push, and you just spam rockets to get them low. Very good for sniping kills, that you won't reach with other nukes, cause the enemy is too far away. REMEMBER: You need vision for the rockets.
Rockets can be dodged by blink(Queen of pain, Anti-Mage, Blink Dagger) and Invisibility(Sand King, Bounty Hunter, Weaver, etc)

March of the Machines
Enlists an army of robotic minions to destroy enemy units in an area around Tinker

Cast Range: 300
Robot Spawn Radius: 900
Robot Collision Radius: 50
Robot explosion Radius: 150
Duration: 6
Robot Explosion Damage: 16/24/32/40
Cooldown: 35
Manacost: 145/150/165/190
Damage Type: Universal
Notes:
Tinkers main farm tool. It is also very good for protecting towers and giving cover fire during a push as the machines heart really hard.
The Damage Type is universal, that means, that it acts like Magic damage(gets reduced by magic resistance, interacts with Ethereal Blade) but doesn't get blocked by a BKB!
The Cast range is really short which can be very confusing as you sometimes click too far away and then run to it, etc.

Rearm
CHANNELED - Resets the cooldown on most of Tinker's items and abilities.

Channeling Time: 3/2/1
Cooldown: 0
Manacost: 150/250/350
Notes:
Tinker can refresh all items apart from: Black King Bar, Linken's Sphere, Hand of Midas, Arcane Boots, Necronomicon, Helm of the Dominator, Refresher Orb
If you use the spell but stop channeling it still uses the mana cost, but your abilities don't get refreshed.

3) Skillbuild

Nr.1
The Laser - Rocket build
1.Laser
2.Heat-Seeking Missile
3.Laser
4.Heat-Seeking Missile
5.Laser
6.Heat-Seeking Missile/ Rearm
7.Laser
8.Heat-Seeking Missile
9.Heat-Seeking Missile/ Rearm
10.March of the Machines
11.Rearm
12.March of the Machines
13.March of the Machines
14.March of the Machines
15.Stats
16.Rearm
17-25: Stats

This skillbuild is Tinker's Burst-damage nuke build. You build up his 2 main nukes, and you can do massive damage just with the both of them. The reason you skill laser on level 1, is that it gives you great lane control through the miss, and 80pure damage. Tinker has a pretty high mana pool, so harassing with spells is not that big problem. With this build you rely heavily on getting good ganks & kills off, because you don't have the massive farming spell March of the machines. It is your choice if you skill Rearm on level 6, or later, because sometimes you don't need it at level 6, because 1 combo is enough to get the gank done.

Nr.2
The Rocket- March build
1.Laser
2.March of the Machines
3.March of the Machines/ Heat-Seeking Missile
4.Heat-Seeking Missile/ March of the Machines
5.March of the Machines
6.Rearm
7.March of the Machines
8.Heat-Seeking Missile
9.Heat-Seeking Missile
10.Heat-Seeking Missile
11.Rearm
12.Laser
13.Laser
14.Laser
15.Stats
16.Rearm
17-25.Stats

This build is for farming, pushing and defending against pushes. Through March of the Machines you can destroy Creepwaves very quickly, and you can stop enemy heroes from going on your tower, because it is kinda impossible to fight in a march, because of the high damage. If you don't get your farm early with this build, you still can go jungle, or stack the ancients. As soon as you get a soulring you can stack March of the Machines 3 or 4 times, and easily farm an ancient stack of 3/4/5 in the matter of a second. Again you skill laser at Level 1, because it helps you very much in the laning phase, and in teamfights it is very powerful against enemy carries, which hit their stride in the early game, like Lycanthrope or Ursa. With this build you can push very well early when you have your BoTs up, because March of the Machines is already maxed out.

NOTE: Especially at the later levels you should think about your mana pool and if you really have the mana pool to provide a lvl 2 or lvl 3 Rearm. If you go for mobility items like Blink Dagger and Force Staff first you probably won't have the manapool to provide a level 2 Rearm at Level 11 or a lvl 3 Rearm at level 16. Think about just skipping Rearm just 1 or 2 levels until you maybe get another item or some more stats, etc.

4) Itembuild
There are various ways how to build up items on a tinker. I am going to present you the ones I think are the best.

Start Items

Solo Mid

Bottle-rush

If you want to go for a bottle-rush this is the most common build. It gives you some stats to lasthit, and Hp-regen to survive on the lane. You can go with a clarity as well, but I don't think you'll need it, because Tinker has a high mana pool, so you won't really need the mana until your bottle arrives.

normal
40px-Mantle_of_Intelligence.png

This is a very good build for lasthitting and staying on the lane. You don't go for the early bottle rush, and because of that you get some more Int for lasthit-damage, and mana-pool. The Healing Salve lets you obviously stay longer on the lane than just tangos do. I personally prefer the bottle-rush, because a early bottle can really make a difference, but it is up to you what Start items to get.

Sidelane/ Sololane
x2

When you go sidelane, you don't need necessarily a bottle, and you can go for a soul-ring first. It lets you spam out your abilities, and you can buy the components at the sideshop. A soulring also is good for later in the game, because you basically get a mana-free Rearm Level 1, and it lets you save mana even at the later stages in the game. You can even go a solo-lane with tinker, because you can farm kind of safe from rage due to your March of the Machines.

Core Items

I think the Core Items are kind of obvious. The Soul Ring for, as pointed out earlier, saving mana, and get a mana-free Rearm Level 1. The Boots of travel are THE CORE ITEM on Tinker. Whenever I see a Tinker without Boots of Travel and for example Mana-Boots, i want to face palm.. With Rearm you can just be anywhere on the map, because you can teleport to every friendly unit, what doesn't only include Creeps, but for example Prophets Treants, Beastmasters Hawk/Boar, Broodmothers Spiderlings, or Lone Druids Bear as well. Because of this, Tinker is often played together with one of these heroes, because it makes him even more mobile, and lets him be fast at teamfights, without running from the lanes to wherever the fight is. And remember: the teleport is invisible when the creep ported to is invisible as well. This can make up for some very good initiation. The Magic Wand is on Tinker not necessary, but it is always a good item to have.

Luxury/Situational Items

So there is now a huge amount of items Tinker can use to its full extend. I will try and point out the most important, and most used items.

Blink Dagger

The Blink Dagger is very useful for positioning. The March of the Machines requires good positioning, and Tinker is a squishy hero, so a blink dagger can help him. It is often used directly after teleporting to a creep via shift-action to immediately blink into trees, where you are more safe from the lane and thus helping you escaping ganks, etc.

Force Staff

The Force Staff has nearly the same aspects as the blink does. It provides good positioning, even though it is not as accurate as a blink. It does destroy trees as well, so hiding in the trees with just a force staff won't help. It can get you out of position from a stun i.e., so you can Rearm and teleport/blink/force away. Blink Dagger and Force Staff together gets you huge mobility, and makes you very hard to catch.

Scythe of Vyse(Sheepstick)

"Permasheep Tinker". Very useful item to have, because you can literally Permasheep people with Rearm level 2 /3. You can even sheep multiple people at one time if you manage to micro this correctly. It also provides a very good extension to your Mana pool, and gives you some mana Regeneration. Always try and Sheep crucial heroes, who can really get you into some trouble. If you gank with the team, or try to get a pickoff before the fight starts, try and sheep the hero who makes the team the most problems. This can be the enemy carry if he is there, but a very good target as well is someone like an Enigma.

Eul's Scepter of Divinity

Very useful item do get on hero out of play. Because of your rearm you can take one hero literally out of play. It is very useful against annoying heroes like Ursa, Omniknight or Lone Druids bear. Some of you might remember on game when Na'Vi.Dendi played Tinker against a Lone Druid, and his bear couldn't do anything, because he just send him in the air the whole teamfight. The reason i pointed out Omniknight here, is that he can really ruin a teamfight. His Repel, and Guardian Angel can be a pain in the ass, if he gets it good off, and on the right heroes. His Repel can make you useless against one hero, because no one of your spells goes through magic immunity, and as long as you don't get a Abyssal Blade, you won't get any items that go through Magic immunity. I have chosen ursa here as well, because he often gets very tanky early, due to buying a Vanguard or an early heart, so you can not burst him down easily in Teamfights and he does to much damage -> Halfway point: Euls him up! I once played against an Omniknight + Ursa combo, and it was really tough to play against. But as soon as i got Euls and sheep, i always Euls one of them up, and sheeped the other one, to burst him quick down. This worked really well, and the combo kind of failed at that time.

Dagon

So this is the burst item. With rearm you can pump out so freaking much burst damage in a few seconds, it is not even funny. A dagon is not a bad item as many people say sometimes. It is a good item against squishy heroes, and supports, and it is a very good item to buy if your team has a lead, and you want to expend that lead.

Ghost Scepter

Ghost Scepter can be a very potent item against tinker. The thing with the ghost scepter is, that it normally dispels when you teleport, but it does not dispel if you teleport with Boots of Travels. So if you get ganked by an auto attacker you can just hit ghost scepter and tp out. Just imaging heroes who don't have any stuns, but extreme burst through auto attack and/ or bashes(or basher). Examples would be: Ursa, Lifestealer, Anti-Mage, Void, Spiritbreaker(bash!), Huskar, Lycan, Drow, Riki, Lanaya(TA), etc.

Shivas Guard

One of the best pushing items for Tinker. You can destroy creepwaves even faster. It also is a good fighting item, because just the aura works wonders against enemy carries, let alone the burst and the slow coming with the burst.

Black King Bar(BKB)

Even though the cooldown of BKB is not reset by rearm, it is still a good item, because to get stunned while rearming can be really annoying, because Rearm does cost very high mana, and if used but stopped, the mana is still wasted, but the abilities aren't rearmed. To Rearm and use your items & abilities without getting interrupted can decide a teamfight. But BKB should not be a vey early choice, better buy it later in the game, when you have enough utility items to do enough with a BKB.

Linken's Sphere

Linken's Sphere is a nice item for tinker, as it is kind of easy to initiate on tinker and he is quite squishy.
NOTE The Linken's Spheres cooldown won't reset with rearm even though it shows it!!

Manta Style
A decent pushing item on Tinker. It is not that good, but still a nice item to get if you want to go full push. Not my favorite item on tinker, but it can be very useful(i.e. for pushing towers) REMIND: When you activate it again, the old illusions get destroyed.

5. Different phases of the game
Early Game
If you are mid you should focus on getting your early bottle boots and if you desire so Soul Ring. After that get your boots of travels as fast as possible as they are your most important core item. Even items like Soul Ring can delay them quite hard as it costs around 800 gold. If you are going sidelane and get supported remember to start with an early Soul Ring recipe. You won't need a bottle going sidelane anyways, so soul ring should be the item of your choice. If you get good farm and maybe on or the other kill/ some stacked ancients you should have your Boots of travel around the 10 minute mark. A good time is still if you get them until the 15min mark.
Always adjust your skillbuild to your enemy on the lane. For example there is no big sense in skilling laser/ rocket when you are mid against TA as she will block most the damage through her refraction. Even the laser won't be all that helpful as you expend at least 95 Mana(Laser lvl 1) just to make Templar Assassin miss for 3 seconds(unless she has no refraction up). So it would be smart to go for a march build against the TA in mid, as the march of the machines can easily chew threw the refraction charges of Templar Assassin.
On the other hand if you have a squishy hero like sf(who is also very lasthit dependent in the early game)or i.e. Zeus it would probably be better to go for the burst damage build, as you can easily dominate at least the early parts of the lane by blinding him with laser, etc. You should try to adjust your play style to the skillbuild you choose, as with march of the machines you are not an efficient ganker, but with rocket/ laser you can easily gank the sidelines and with the support of 1 / 2 heroes easily burst down most the enemy heroes. v

Mid Game
Lets just assume Mid Game starts when you got your boots of travels. The moment you got your boots of travels you should at least have 1 point in Rearm as they are useless otherwise, so remember to adjust your skillbuild to the the time you will probably get your BoTs. After you got them you should start teleporting around the map. Again here plays the skillbuild you go for a very dependent role.
If you go for the march build you rely on farming, pushing lanes and defending towers. Try not to steal the farm from you carry/carries, so if the lanes are getting farmed you should go to the jungle or farm ancients.
If you go for the burst build, you rely heavily on getting ganks and bursting down enemy heroes in clashes. You should always try to adjust the creep you are teleporting to to the station the lane is in, and try not to give away that you are porting there( Surprise! ) i.e. better teleport to your tower and go around so you can gank the enemy from the shadows.

Late Game
Depending on what your item choices have been, in the lategame a Tinker can be a very potent carry. Be it through the burst damage you get with a dagon, be it through initiation with blink and sheep or through amazing splitpush power which is making the one of Natures prophet. You can also just provide a really powerful cover fire through march of the machines as your enemy team probably doesn't want to go in there without a pipe(March goes through BKB!)It is not very had for a tinker to get farmed as you can farm all lanes in a short period of time. Adjust your item build always to the situation the game is in, and to the enemy heroes that you are facing.

6. Friends and Foes

Friends
Heroes who have the ability to summon creeps you can teleport to are very nice to couple with Tinker. Bestmaster's Hawk or the lycan wolves are very nice for that as you can teleport on them while they are invisible. With Lone Druid on your team you have basically a guaranteed teleport to your team. With Nature's Prophet on your team you have an incredible splitpush power and he can just place a treant to the side so you can safely teleport to it. The Combination of Warlock and Tinker can be very potent, with the Fatal Bonds, Upheaval and Chaotic Offering combined with Tinkers March of the Machines. Visage's Soul Assumption couples very nice with the burst damage Tinker can provide and with the familiars these two can be a very potent ganking team in the mid-game.

Foes
Everyone who can silence is basically a foe of Tinker. Not being able to Rearm limits his capability to have a impact in the fight. Doom is even worse as it doesn't only silence your Spells but also your items. Heroes with stuns or mini-stuns can be very annoying if you are rearming and get stunned in the middle of the rearm. It can be very crucial if you not only loose the 350mana(rearm lvl 3) but also the time you spend on rearming and the time you are stunned. This can easily interrupt a try to perma-hex a hero in a fight/ gank. Especially a Sniper can be very annoying in this regard as his headshot has a 40% chance to mini-bash. Also Gankers who have a high initiation range/ global range like wisp, Spirit Breaker or Storm can threaten a Tinker while split pushing.

So that is my guide. Hope you like it, criticism is not only allowed but desired (;

Special thanks to:
Icefrog for doing this awesome map
Valve for porting DotA into Dota2
Tobi Wan for getting me interested and involved in competitive Dota
The Joindota & Dota2pickup community for providing an awesome community and being so nice.
My friends Feardrop, SK4R, DrachenTakt and Penetr[ATOR] for helping me developing this guide
Griffin for helping me with the joinDOTA forums
You, the reader for taking the time to read my guide

DOTA 2 Support Guide

2013-02-05T15:08:00.002-05:00

DOTA 2 Support Guide by Sheldon

Understanding and executing your role: Support
Table of content
1. Introduction
2. Thoughts on the role of the support
2.1 Definition of a support
2.2 List of possible support heroes
2.3 Justification of the list
2.4 Conclusion
3. Playing the support
3.1 Drafting the support
3.2 Earlygame as the support
3.2.1 How to creeppull
3.3 Midgame as the support
3.4 Lategame as the support
3.5 Fighting as the support
3.6 Items for the support
3.7 Conclusion
4. Replay
5. Final words

1. Introduction
The role of the support seems to be a very bad and unthankful role to many new players because supports never get the shiny items, good scores or the fame at the end of the game.
But think about it for a while, not all of your wins were with you having a great score and good items, right?

Kills and items don’t mean anything, they are just means to an end. And if you now hopefully found out that you can also win if you don’t have the biggest score and the best items out of your team, you might find it interesting to see how to play this style as a hero role.

This hero role is of course the role of the support, who technically doesn’t need anything but Boots to win the game with his team. It requires a bit of skill to play with only Boots and your hero’s abilities, but if your team is not completely retarded you will be able to win the lane, make big plays and win the game in your own way.

In this guide I am going to explain the thought process behind what your job is, how you do your job and what benefits your team has from having good supports.

2. Thoughts on the role of the support
The name says everything, you support your team. This means your job is to make sure they can do their job.
How do I make sure my team does their job if I can’t contribute in fights because I don’t have any items? Remember, you’re job is to make sure your team can do their job, not do take a part of their job and do it yourself! You are not there to deal the damage or to push towers, but to make sure your team can do so.

A noticeable difference between the supports and other hero roles is obviously the hero’s inventory. A support will always have fewer items than anyone else.

If you reflect this observation onto a game, you will find that supports are most effective in the early stages of the game.

Why is this you might ask? Well, almost every hero, be it a carry, ganker or pusher, needs some items to really be able to do his job. This is why a hard carry can’t carry from minute zero, but needs to farm, or why a pusher can’t select a lane and just push it down right in the beginning.
You as the support don’t need any items, but can start supporting your team from the start of the game.

The enemy won’t have any items on their carries, gankers and pushers in the early stages of the game, so you are pretty even compared to them in this phase. This is why you are most effective earlygame, but fall off later.

This strength in the earlygame is what makes your play a deciding factor of the entire game. The later stages of the game depend on the earlier stages of the game, and if your team finishes earlygame with an advantage your play brought them, they will start into midgame with this advantage!
If your team however has no supports and starts midgame with a disadvantage, you will probably lose as the enemy will increase the lead further and further, all based on the disadvantage from earlygame, where your team didn’t have a support.

2.1 Definition of a support
As worked out in the previous section, the support is a hero who focuses not on fulfilling a special task, like pushing or ganking, but makes sure his teammates can fulfill their tasks, which would also include pushing and ganking.

Your work will mostly not be recognized, because you work in a passive way to make your team win!
Through all the stages of the game, your team comes first, you come second. Many players pick support heroes in pubs, but try to farm for example a Bloodstone on a Shadow Shaman, and hurt their team more than they are helping.

As the support hero is not getting a lot of items, he has to have a skillset which allows him to still contribute to a game even without items. Disables for example are great supportive skills, because you can have one from minute zero, whereas for example a Nature’s Prophet has to farm at least 20 minutes to finish a Scythe of Vise and get a disable himself (not to mention how useful disables are to get a kill or save a teammate).

Damage spells are also great, because you can contribute a lot to an earlygame kill with for example 250 instant damage, where your carry only has his autoattack damage.
Any healing spells are awesome, because your team will directly profit from them, same goes for auras.

Ideally, a supporter doesn’t become completely useless in the mid- and lategame as far as fights are concerned, so good teamfight ultimates or pushing abilities are an aspect of a support’s skillset as well.

Conclusion: Any hero who does not require farm, but can still help his team with his skills will be a good support hero. This hero will always have the team as the first priority, and put his own hero into the background.
2.2 List of possible support heroes
2.3 Justification of the list

I’ll shortly explain why these heroes can play focus less on items and support their team with their skillset. Note that I left out the junglers Chen, Enchantress and Enigma, because they normally focus on farming and not on supporting a hero in the sense this word is commonly used.
Earthshaker: Fissure saves lives in lane, and his teamfight capability is based on his Echo Slam, not on items.
Sven: can be played as a support, although very popular carry today. Storm Hammer and Warcry are great supportive skills.

Omniknight: a heal, a magic immunity, a physical immunity, and a slow aura? Come on, what more would a hard carry want to just jump into a fight and not give a fuck about damage and stuns?
Treant Protector: weird hero with a weird skillset, is best played as a support after his rework. Has got two good heals, a decent teamfight ultimate, and an invisibility for one of his teammates.
Wisp: requires a teammate to make Tether, Overcharge and Relocate really worth using, all of these are great supportive skills.

Sandking: a good stun, and a really good teamfight ultimate for mid- and lategame.
Tidehunter: tanky by nature, has got a slow, a damage reduce for opponents, and a big teamfight ultimate. This guy needs nothing but level 6 to rule a teamfight.

Undying: although very level-dependant, he is one of the strongest and most popular supporters in Patch 6.76. Can steal strength to make himself more tanky, has a heal or nuke depending on his needs, and two beastly teamfight abilities to make him almost overpowered.

Magnus: can be played as a support, although it’s not commonly done. Has a nuke, can Skewer himself in or enemies out of position from level one, and only requires level 6 for his ultimate. The damage increase for the carry also works wonders.

Venomancer: his 50% slow makes him one of the most powerful heroes on level 1, fits very well into lategame with pushing power and a big teamfight damage ultimate.

Vengeful Spirit: a stun, an armor reduction and a percentage based (!) attack damage aura make her a born support. The swap is a great addition and can save lives or create big openings for your team.

Nyx Assassin: commonly played as a ganker in pubs, utilized as a support by professional teams. Has a stun and mana burn early on, can still gank quite well at level 6 even without farm.

Crystal Maiden: one of the best heroes on Level 2, has got a nuke with a slow, an Ensnare and a Mana Regeneration aura to support her team. The big teamfight ultimate supplements a great supportive skillset.

Windrunner: although very level-dependant, she can be played as a support, where a possible two-man disable and a long range nuke as well as general survivability prove useful.
Lina: a stun and two big damage spells make her a great support, who brings a bit less to earlygame than other supports, but is still pretty useful lategame.

Shadow Shaman: a nuke, two disables and a big pushing ultimate work wonders if he fits into your team composition.

Jakiro: four great spells to nuke, disable, attack-slow and damage over time (possibly) multiple people make him one of the most played supports in Patch 6.76.

Ogre Magi: a stun, a slow, an attack- and movespeed-bonus for the carry makes him a good supporter, although he is a bit tricky in lane because he is melee.

Rubick: has got a disable, a nuke, a magic resistance aura (!) to support the carry, can steal awesome spells from the enemy team.

Disruptor: big harassment potential, can Glimpse fleeing enemies close to your carry to secure a kill. He has also got insane teamfight capabilities, which make him a fearsome supporter in the hands of a skilled player.

Keeper of the Light: a big nuke for damage and pushing, free mana for anyone on your team, a mana drain and possible stun on the enemy, a miss-spell on enemies and a recall for one of your teammates? Nuff said.

Bane: two single target disables, an attack damage reduce and a nuke and heal in one spell make him a good support, although he is quite useless in big teamfights.

Lich: Sacrifice is the most overpowered spell in the entire game, period. One quarter of your laning-opponent’s income in gold and experience is gone! Add a nuke, free armor for everyone and a big teamfight ultimate to create a great support hero.

Lion: two stuns, technically infinite Mana through Mana Drain, and a big damage nuke as his ultimate make him a good support hero who can help bringing down even the tankiest heroes.
Witch Doctor: a multiple-target stun, one of the best damage-amplification spells in the game and a heal make him a good support, his ultimate is a nice bonus on top of that.
Warlock: a heal and a big (!) slow for the laning phase and insane teamfight spells for the later stages of the game make him a truly underrated supporter.

Pugna: has an AoE-nuke that also damages towers, Decrepifiy saves lives or secures kills, Nether Ward works wonders in teamfight and Life Drain gives some additional damage and health re-gain.
Dazzle: a slow with a possible stun, a multi-target heal and a temporary invincibility are all great spells, but Weave is completely underrated as it creates a gap of up to 48 (!!!) armor between your team’s and the enemy team’s heroes.

Leshrac: a stun and a nuke for good fighting capabilities, Diabolic Edict adds a lot to towerpushing and 1v1-fights, Pulse Nova for insane damage output in teamfights.
Ancient Apparition: a possible stun combined with a damage-over-time effect, an attack- and movespeed-slow in an area, bonus damage for your entire team, and a global ultimate with deadly force make him a great support if coupled with the right heroes.

Shadow Demon: uses Disruption to set up kills or save allies, Soul Catcher to amplify damage, Shadow Poison for a bit of damage and vision, and Demonic Purge as the ultimate who makes him a fearsome offensive support.

Visage: a slow, a big nuke and general tankiness make him a good support, but if he uses the Familiars to maximum potential he becomes an unbelievably good teamfight controller.
Please keep in mind that a lot of these heroes can be build and played to fit other roles as well. This list does not mean they are ultimately and only support heroes.

2.4 Conclusion
Support heroes are heroes who always work for the team, and only focus on themselves if they did everything they could for the team and still have resources to spend.

Their job is to create an environment where the rest of the team can do their job, this is achieved for example by warding, denying and harassing the enemy laner and disabling important targets in fights.
Supports are most effective in the earlygame because they don’t need any items to do their job, which is why they are so important. If a team without supports plays against a team with supports (assuming they have the same player skill), the team with supports will always win because they get a better earlygame and can take this advantage to the later stages of the game.

Support heroes define themselves through their skillset, which allows them to work effectively from the beginning on, and usually includes nukes, disables, slows, heals or utility based spells.

3. Playing the support
This part will focus on how to play a support. I will stick to the philosophy that your job is make sure your team can do its job, and explain every decision to make and action to take according to this.
This section is split into every phase of the game, from draft to lategame, and also includes a section on how to creeppull and some more advanced tips on fighting and items you can build.

3.1 Drafting the support
Every team should consist of three farming heroes, and two heroes who don’t farm, but support the farming heroes. One of these supports can be a jungler, but you always end up with one guy to be purely supporting the team.

There is no clear rule when to pick your supports. Professional teams have no favorite pick order for this, they mostly pick the heroes both teams are fighting to get, and fill up their team with what is missing.

In pub games however, picking your supports first is a good idea, because many players will not recognize them as a big threat but wait for the carries to come up, all with the aim of counterpicking your team. If the game version you are currently playing in has a couple of really strong supports, like Jakiro and Undying in Patch 6.76, you should consider picking for example these two heroes before anything else.

There is a little trick you can apply: If you are not sure what to pick first, get a hero who can play a farming role as well as a supporting role! This will reveal almost nothing and the enemy can’t cross your plans so easily.

Don’t be afraid to pick a support! Nobody can always play hard carry!
Conclusion: You always want to have three farming and two supporting heroes, of which one can be a jungler. There is no clear rule when to pick your supports, but don’t be afraid to go ahead and pick one right in the beginning.

3.2 Earlygame as the support
This is the phase where you shine and where your team needs you the most!
Your team will be farming, and your job is to make sure they can do so (I mentioned this earlier, did I?).

Your priorities are the following, to be executed in the exact same order:
1. Support your team to the best and make sure they can farm! 2. Don’t die! 3. Assist in ganks on your lane or set up kills yourself if you see an opportunity and don’t disrupt your carry’s farm or steal kills. 4. Do creeppulling to deny the enemy experience and gold and to get some on your own.
Let’s assume you are supporting a hard carry on the easy lane.

His three priorities are: 1. Don’t die and don’t get forced out of lane! 2. Get every lasthit possible! 3. Steal the kill if your allies gank your lane.

How do you make sure your carry doesn’t die?
Your carry can die from three things: 1. Bad play 2. Your laning opponents 3. Ganks
You can’t help it if your carry is stupid and dies of bad play, for example if he just runs into your laning opponents or tanks up the creepwave. It’s his own fault, and in my opinions people deserve to die if they get into such a situation by bad play.

When coming into your lane you should do some calculation:
1. How long can my enemy disable my carry? 2. How much nuke damage has he got? 3. How many autoattacks can he get in while my carry is disabled? 4. Could he towerdive my carry?
Calculate these things and try to estimate if your enemy could kill your carry if they turned onto him. Take into account the increase of these things when your enemy levels up to not die at minute 5 because you didn’t calculate properly!

Adjust your play according to your calculation: If the enemy can kill your carry, always stay with him and disable, attack and/or nuke the enemy heroes if they try to get a kill.

If the result of your calculation shows no direct threat by your laning opponents, you can technically leave the lane and do creeppulling, go ganking or do something else.

How do I prevent my carry from being forced out of lane?
Your carry has to leave the lane if he is harassed into an amount of health points where the enemy could kill him, and doesn’t have any regeneration anymore to heal back up.

If your enemy is harassing your carry, you should stay in lane and harass your enemy back! You have to communicate with your carry, and both give back the hits you took from the enemy, as he doesn’t want to trade one hit on your carry for two hits on him. If he trades a lot of hits with you, you can consider killing him if he dares too much and gets out of position.

This technique can also be used if your enemy is denying a lot of creeps from your carry. Whenever he is going in for a deny, hit him once and back off to not get hit by the creeps. This will result in a lot of health lost for your enemy who eventually has to stop denying because he can’t afford to take damage anymore. If your carry however loses lasthits because he can’t hit them, you can’t do anything but hope the rest of your team will be enough to win the game 4v5.
If your carry runs out of regeneration, give him your tangos and/or salve!

Your carry has to stay in lane at all costs, but you can afford to run back to base if you took too much damage and need to heal. This doesn’t mean you have to buy extra regeneration for you AND your carry in the beginning, though. Just give him a salve and/or tangos if he needs one badly and he will be fine and love you for the rest of the game.

How do I avoid my carry dies to ganks?
Simply put, know when your enemy is ganking, and play defensive during this time. The solution is of course Observer Wards! You can see any enemy moving towards your lane, and back off in time or intercept and kill them.

These wards are useful to your entire team, and should be part of your starting items! If you see your enemy counterwarding, place new wards and counterward the enemy wards yourself!
You need vision, and can’t afford having enemy vision. Check the minimap about every three seconds and check the enemy hero’s inventory every minute for new items and Wards. If you see an enemy hero moving for example through the rune location, check his inventory and memorize the position he could have placed an Observer Ward to counter him with one of your own Sentry Wards.
In high level games it is not uncommon to see Observer Wards as well as Sentry Wards bought from minute one! Step up your game by doing so as well!

If you see an enemy support warding or counterwarding, it is pretty easy to kill him. You can see if he has any backup, and intercept him with two or three heroes if he has none. This gives you a free kill, and an immediate counterward on the enemy, who got 75 gold and six minutes of vision wasted.
I will not explain good warding here because the topic is too big to cover in a subcategory. Check one of the many good warding guides on the internet.

As you now made sure your carry doesn’t die, you can make sure you don’t die yourself and feed gold to the enemy team. If you need to stay in lane, calculate if your enemy can kill you and if your carry could prevent this from happening. Adjust your play according to this.

If you are not in lane but doing creeppulls, ganking or warding, check for missing heroes and play carefully. A ganking enemy will always run into you first if you are not in lane, so be prepared and always check the minimap!

Keep an eye on your lane as well! It is not uncommon for an enemy to leave the lane to intercept your creeppull or kill you when you are placing wards in an area where they have vision.
In most cases, cautious play and good mapawareness will keep you alive.
How can I kill my laning opponents without wasting my carry’s time?

If you go in on a kill, you need to be successful on the first try, because you will waste your carry’s time if you aren’t! Calculate the duration of your disables, your nuke damage, and the autoattack damage you can deal while he is disabled, but take into account a possible turn-around by the enemy. If you come to the conclusion you can kill the enemy, communicate with your carry and initiate if you find a good opening. If your allies gank your lane, assist with your disables and nukes. In both cases there is one simple rule:

Don’t steal the kill if you can avoid it!
An avoidable killsteal would be an enemy which is disabled for one more second with 200hp, with your carry attacking him. Let your carry attack him 3-4 times, and don’t waste your nuke to steal the kill.

An unavoidable killsteal would be if the enemy hero is running away from your melee carry, and you haven’t got any disables left, but only a ranged nuke. Get the kill with it, because a kill on the support is better than an enemy escaping with 50 health points.

Every team needs a courier!

I didn’t put this on the list of priorities because everyone should know this. A courier is absolutely mandatory to any earlygame victory! It is a huge difference between having to leave a lane and get the items in your base or having them delivered by a courier!

As there are ideally two supports in a team, one of you should buy the courier and one of you the wards in the beginning. Communicate with your support and tell him to buy either of one (just as a side note, I often report people who pick supports but don’t buy either courier or wards and steal their carry’s lasthits, because this is equally bad as intentional feeding).

The upgraded courier is the first thing a support should buy from the gold he gets. Usually the support who reaches the 220 gold first upgrades the courier, and the other support buys the next set of wards.
Always have a courier from the beginning on, and upgrade it as soon as possible!

3.2.1 How to creeppull
Creeppulling is your fourth priority, and should be done if your carry is safe on lane, doesn’t get harassed, isn’t denied too many creeps and your wards are up and not counterwarded.
All the things listed above serve mainly your team, and creeppulling serves you and your team equally. This is why it is your lowest priority and shouldn’t be done when your carry could die while you are occupied.

Creeppulling basically means pulling the neutral pullcamp into your lane when your creeps are passing, and thus draw your creeps off their regular path and into the jungle, where they fight with the neutrals.

The timing for this is every time the clock hits 16 or 46 seconds!

Attack the creeps once and run towards your lane. Your creeps will now follow the neutrals into the jungle and fight. They will do the dirty work for you, serving you free lasthits on the neutrals.
What effect does this have on the lane, provided your entire creepwave dies?
1. Your enemy misses out an entire creepwave of experience and gold, putting them in a big disadvantage if done repeatedly.
2. As your creepwave is fighting the neutrals and not the enemy creepwave, the enemy creeps will push forward until your next creepwave arrives. This results in the creepline being closer to your tower. Usually, one single creeppull is enough to pull the creepline from under the enemy tower right in front of your own tower.
2.1 Your carry will be less gankable in this position compared to being really far out.
3. You get free lasthits on the neutrals and thus a bit of farm as the support
How do I get my entire creepwave to die?

The easiest way to make this happen is by doing nothing to the fight between creeps and neutrals. I see a lot of people pulling the neutrals, but attacking them afterwards and thus helping their creeps to win. This results in about half the creepwave surviving and returning to lane with a delay. You will now have one and a half creepwaves fighting one enemy creepwave.
The result: You push!

Don’t attack the neutrals, but rather start denying your own creeps from 50% health points on. Only get the lasthits on the neutrals!

This is still not enough to make the neutrals win the fight, and the magic thing you need to do is stack the creepcamp!

This technique essentially doubles the creepcamp. If you pull a stacked creepcamp into your lane, you will have one creepwave fighting two neutralcamps, which makes the neutrals win for sure, provided you don’t deal additional damage to them.

To understand stacking you need to understand how creepcamps work:
There are five creepcamps per jungle, one small-camp, two middle-camps and one large-camp (also referred to as easy, medium and hard camps). Each creepcamp spawns every minute on the minute, meaning whenever the clock hits the zero-second-mark.

The creepcamp won’t spawn if there are any units in the area of the creepcamp!
Every neutralcamp has got a defined area, referred to as the spawn area. This area is different for every creepcamp, and you have to learn them by trying out. If there is any unit in the spawn area of a certain camp at the zero-second-mark, the creepcamp won’t spawn. This includes heroes, creeps, wards (who are often used to block a certain camp) and last but not least the neutral creeps themselves.

If you want to spawn a second creepcamp and thus stack it, you need to remove the neutrals from their spawn area at X:00!

This is done by attacking the neutrals at around X:54 and running away from the creepcamp. When leaving their camp, neutral creeps follow you for six seconds until they turn around and return to their camp. If you attack at X:54 and run away, the creeps will follow you until X:00 and thus have the biggest distance to their creepcamp at this point.

If you did this correctly, you will find a stacked creepcamp you can pull into your lane and get an entire creepwave killed.

Conclusion: Always stack before you pull, never attack the neutrals apart from getting the lasthits on them. Only do creeppulling if there is nothing more you can do for your carry and your wards are up.

3.3 Midgame as the support
If you did everything correctly in the earlygame, your team will be in a good position for the midgame. Your hard carry will be farming the jungle, and your team will group up to gank, push or teamfight, depending on what the lineup is built for.

Your priorities for midgame are the following:
1. Allow your carry free farming! 2. Help your team accomplish the goals for midgame, be it ganking, pushing or teamfighting! 3. Don’t die if you can avoid it!
How can I make sure my carry is freefarming?
First of all, your carry must desire to farm, if he decides to join you and fight without items there is nothing more you can do but scream at him to go to the jungle and farm (only if he needs more items of course).

If he is farming the jungle and the adjacent lanes, there are two things which can disrupt his farm:

1. The enemy team 2. Your team
Your enemy team will try to disrupt your carries farm, and in process gank your jungle repeatedly. Always have wards up to be warned of this, and countergank them. If a teamfight in inevitable, gather your team and defend your territory.

Always have wards up to provide freefarm to your carry, and intercept the enemy team if they try to gank your carry!

The second thing that can disrupt a carry’s farm is his team! There is nothing more annoying for a hard carry to find empty creepcamps on his route through the jungle, which have been cleaned out by his own team! If you desperately need some farm on all your heroes and can’t find it anywhere else, communicate with your carry if he is willing to split his farm. If he is a nice guy and thinking logically he will do so, and you should clean out one entire jungle as 5 and let your carry farm alone again the next minute.

Always be with your team and help them ganking, pushing, fighting, whatever!
Your team needs your contribution to win the game, so always be with them and actively search for whatever helps you win. Usually a team is built for a certain purpose, and your team will play this style to win the game.

How do I play in a ganking lineup?
To play gank, you need to find targets to gank. Offensive wards are the best tools for this, especially if placed for example in the enemy jungle. Counterward the enemy so they can’t see your ganks coming, and buy Smoke of Deceit for your team if you are not able to counterward the enemy and your ganks don’t result in kills.

In fights, use your spells in the most effective way to get kills for your team and to save your teammates from death. Chain-disable the gank target, use a nuke if you feel the damage is required, but never steal the kill.

If your ganking target will die for sure, and you see enemy backup coming in, use your disable(s) to stop their movement before they can attack you or turn around to flee from you. This will most likely net your team more kills, which they wouldn’t have gotten if you didn’t pay attention and used your disable efficiently.

Continue ganking with your team until your carry joins you. Ideally you should have taken a further advantage from every kill you got during the midgame, so you can now start to end the game. This will be further explained in part 3.5.

How do I play in a pushing lineup?
Your team will mainly be pushing towers during midgame, and the enemy will be forced to react to this at some point. This will result in teamfights around towers, but your team doesn’t want to take the teamfight, as they are not built for it.

You want to kill the tower and get out, so use your spells to scare away the enemy team! Use any good pushing ability you have on the tower, and scare away anyone coming to defend with your other spells. If you see an enemy moving way out of position, use a disable and signal your team to kill him. These will most likely result in an uncontested tower, as the enemy team will be even more scared now, and will most likely not want to fight 4v5.

Repeat this process with all outer towers and wait for your carry to farm up. If you don’t have a hard carry but only a semicarry, you need to apply this strategy to a base tower, but be careful as you will be in a chokepoint and can easily be killed!

How do I play in a teamfight lineup?
Your lineup is built for big teamfights, but if you can’t find these fights, you are in a pretty bad spot. To force a teamfight you act similar to a pushing lineup, and start to push a tower in order to force a reaction.

No matter if there is any reaction, you are in a good spot, because you can just take a free tower if there is none. If there is a reaction however, you have got your teamfight. If the enemy assembles their heroes behind the tower to defend it, you dive the tower and initiate the teamfight. Use your disables and nukes on appropriate targets, and help your team win the fight. Take the tower as a bonus, and repeat these steps somewhere else.

You still need to keep wards up to let your carry freefarm, and to see enemy movement. Another good strategy is to stay in the enemy jungle and farm it, forcing a reaction. Assist your team in these big fights, which is often done by just throwing in one or two spells.

Ideally you want to have an advantage in all aspects at the end of midgame: a farmed carry, all enemy outer towers killed, more gold and experience than the opponent. This is when your hard carry joins you and you proceed to end the game.

3.4 Lategame as the support
At this stage your hard carry will join you, and you should proceed to end the game. Your activities don’t change much from midgame and you can still apply the same strategies as in midgame, but you need to be very cautious when you push the base towers and barracks.
Always have wards up and adjust them according to the game situation!

If you are not able to take barracks because the enemy is defending too well, just place wards around their base watching all the paths they could take to leave the base (this requires 4 wards at a time!). Use these wards to punish them if they want to leave their base.

The rest of the time you farm every source of income on the map with your team, which basically puts the nail in the coffin, as you will have an entire map to farm, whereas the enemy has to split three lanes and gets ways less income than you do.

Whenever you killed two or more heroes in lategame, you should attempt a push. The enemy will most likely not be able to defend and can’t hold the barracks.

Remember: Never try to force a push on the ancient after you have only taken one set of barracks! If you fail and the enemy team kills you, they can push down a lane and take a set of barracks on their own, and you won’t have done enough permanent damage.

Never try to go anywhere alone, because you are an easy target at this stage of the game, and your weakness is what the enemy can feast on to get back into the game if they kill you repeatedly.

3.5 Fighting as the support
This is where the most mistakes happen, and why many supports end up feeding. As the supporter, you really need to think about what you do, because everything you do can make or break the fight for your team.

Your job in fights is to get your spells off on important targets. Take a look at the enemy’s inventories and try to estimate who will deal the most damage or have the biggest impact in the fight.
When your team initiates, you should follow the carries choice of targets and disable this hero. Try to hit as many people as possible with AoE-abilities, and constantly check your positioning to make sure you don’t die. I won’t explain good positioning here as it is really difficult to explain, but I might create a guide on it in the future.

If you are the one to be initiated on while your team is around, you need to make a decision:
If you think you can escape, use a disable on the hero(es) (if necessary) and RUN! Bait the enemies into your team, where you turn around and initiate the fight. Disable and nuke the targets your team is focusing, and do your best to win the fight.

If you are sure you will die anyways, use all the spells you can get off. Disable a target your team can focus down quickly, throw out your nukes and maybe even use a big teamfight ultimate if you are quick enough. If your team comes in at the right time they can turn the fight around and get a lot of kills on their own, while only trading for a support hero who got all his spells of anyways.
Try to always have a teammate with you while you are moving around the map, and never go into unsafe area on your own! Even if you are sure you will die, stay calm and use as many spells as you can and help winning the fight.

You always want to take a further advantage from any fight you win!

If you killed two enemies in a gank or won a big teamfight, you want to beat them when they’re down by taking a tower or maybe killing Roshan! You can also use this time to counterward with the goal of increasing your mapcontrol, push out any lanes to occupy the enemy when they respawn or just farm their jungle to annoy them and get more gold.

If you win a fight, always try to take a further advantage from the time the enemy is dead!

3.6 Items for the support
The support is naturally getting way less gold than farming heroes, and he has to make sure he spends the gold in the most efficient way. Your team still goes first in this aspect, and I will list and explain all items you can safely buy on a support hero without hurting your team more than helping it.

The core items for any support hero are the following:
These items are the least you want to have. Boots of Speed give you a mandatory movespeed bonus, Magic Stick can help you survive more fights than you can think of, and Town Portal Scroll is needed to move around the map and assist in fights.

Apart from this, you need to constantly be able to afford these items whenever they are required:
Wards are obviously important, and it is your job to buy and place them. Smoke of Deceit may be required if your enemy is warding really well and you need to force a fight. Dust of Appearance is important to detect invisible heroes and should be bought by you, as your carry needs to spend the money on damage. It is his job to deal the damage, and your job to allow him to deal the damage.
If you get any additional gold, you can spend it on items serving two different purposes!

1. Helping your team! 2. Making you more survivable!
Some of the items I am going to list now are working for both purposes and should thus be the preferred choice for you. This does not mean you should buy these items before anything else though. If you see the desperate need for an item which only helps your team but doesn’t make you more survivable, buy it!

Items you can buy to help your team are the following:
Arcane Boots are the most common support boots. They provide you with a bigger manapool as well as the ability to restore your allies mana. As everybody loves free mana, everybody will love you if you provide them with it.

Ring of Basilius is a very good pushing item, as it provides a +2 armor aura to surrounding creeps and heroes if toggled on. If you want to buy an item to help your team, chose this if you desperately need something to push, and can use the mana regeneration.

Eul’s Scepter of Divinity provides you with really good intelligence, mana regeneration and movespeed. The active tornado-ability can be very helpful in fights, but you should only consider this item if you are really rich and don’t need physical survivability.

Orb of Venom can be bought in some cases to assist your team with an additional slow. Only buy this on melee heroes and if you will actually be able to apply the slow, for example in ganks, but not if you are playing a teamfight lineup and would have to run into five opponents to apply the slow.
Items you can buy to make yourself more survivable are the following:

Power Treads are the second choice of Boots I recommend for supports. They provide you with good health points as the ability to tread-switch. Buy these if you are not reliant on a lot of mana and your team isn’t either.

Bracers are cheap and cost-efficient items you can buy to make yourself more survivable if you need to. You will often see a support stack more than one Bracer to maximize his health for really low costs.

Cloak is a good choice if you need to resist spell damage. This item is great even if you don’t upgrade it, and is commonly seen in professional games. This does still not mean you can tank a Sandking-Epicentre, but will definitely pay off on the long run.

Ghost Scepter is the supports choice in lategame. If the enemy carry chooses you as the target, you will be guaranteed to live four seconds longer, which can be enough for your team to disable and kill the enemy carry with you surviving.

Magic Wand is the extension of the Magic Stick, which belongs to your core build. As you probably started with some Ironwood Branches, it makes sense to upgrade the Magic Stick and get yourself a bit more survivability in fights during early- and midgame.

These items serve only the purpose they are listed for. There are many more items a support can buy, and these all serve the purpose to help your team, all while making you more survivable!
Mekansm is the ultimate support item! It makes you very survivable and allows you to heal your team every 45 seconds. People love this, because all your fights and pushes will get a lot more punch just by having a 250hp heal and a +2 armor effect.

Although not including a heal, a Buckler alone will make you pretty tanky with +5 armor. In a pushing lineup this is preferably bought over Bracers or even Power Treads, because you can also give +2 armor to surrounding creeps.

Drum of Endurance is built from a Bracer, and can be considered in almost any situation. Especially teamfight lineups profit from this, as you can give up to 15% bonus attackspeed and movespeed to your team with this item.

Force Staff doesn’t make you more survivable in the sense of more stats, but in the sense of mobility. With this item you can get yourself into a good position and out of a bad position. This works for teammates as well, making it a really good support item.

Medallion of Courage is seen very rarely, but a really good item. It provides you with a lot of armor and the ability to make any enemy very squishy for a short duration with an equally short cooldown. Buy this if you are staying with a semicarry or ganker all the time.

Urn of Shadows is a good item for any lineup, but really damn good when playing a ganking style. Every kill you get is converted into a heal for your team, and the boost in strength and a bit of mana regeneration make this item perfect for supports.

Veil of Discord provides good armor, regeneration and intelligence. The ability to amplify magical damage in an area makes this item really worth the gold in teamfight lineups. Don’t be afraid to use it in small engagements as well, the short cooldown of 30 seconds make the Veil a really powerful item.
Necronomicon is a really powerful pushing item that provides a good mix of stats as well as the ability to summon two necro-warriors. These two guys are really good for pushing as well as for teamfights, where their manaburn works wonders. Although it is really underused, don’t be afraid to pick one up!

Rod of Atos is the least used item in the entire game, despite its really good stats. The active is the point, where other items score, but for a support hero the stats are worth the bad active effect of the item itself. Build this if you need the stats and can make use of a good slow.

Pipe of Insight can work wonders in teamfights and pushes, but it is really expensive. Only buy this if you are really rich, and communicate with your team so nobody else builds one. It doesn’t give you any direct health increase, but the 30% (!) magic resistance should give you an edge in fights.
Vladimir’s Offering is a VERY situational item for a support, as he has to stand close to the carry if he wants to profit from the auras. This will not always be possible, so chose wisely if you can always stay in the big fights or should go for a different item which makes you safer. If you however decide for Vlad’s and can survive in big fights, your carry will profit from a lot of percentage based auras.
Always decide for an item the situation requires, and never trust builds blindly! All other items than these are rejected in a normal game, only build more expensive items if you are really rich and can afford to not have one of the items listed here!

3.7 Conclusion
The role of the support requires disciplined and humble play to be successful. If you manage to play a good support, the game will in most cases be a win for you, and your team will be thankful to you.
Always stay with a teammate if possible, and try to not die too much despite your lack in gold and experience. Your contribution to fights will be little, but sometimes game breaking, as one little disable can turn the tides of battle.

All your actions you take and items you buy should primarily have a use for your team, and if possible never work for you only. Provide your team with all good effects of your items to maximize their potential.

If you played a good support and managed to give your team and especially laning partner a good start, you can carry this advantage through until you end the game (believe me, fighting when you are ahead is so much more relaxed).

4. Replay
I decided to include a replay in this guide to give an example of how to play a support. I played this game together with “Eureka!” who is on the Tiny, while I am playing the Jakiro. Just be warned, you will see me miss a lot of Ice Paths, but eventually my good warding and overall teamwork pays off.
And yes, this Riki was really damn bad …

5. Final words
I hope I could explain every aspect of good support play sufficiently and encourage you to play this role more often. As you now might play support a bit better, I also hope you have a bit more fun with playing DotA.

If you liked this guide or have got any questions, feel free to leave me some feedback or positive criticism so I can improve my further guides!

DOTA 2 Laning Strategies

2013-02-05T14:59:00.002-05:00

DOTA 2 Laning Strategies by Sheldon

DotA 2 Guide by sheldon_
Understanding and executing lanes and laning strategies
Table of content
1. Introduction
2. General information on lanes and team composition
2.1 Easy lane
2.2 Middle lane
2.3 Hard lane
2.4 Jungle
2.5 How to fill your lanes according to map design
3. How to play different lane combinations
3.1 The 3-1-1 strategy
3.2 The 2-1-2 strategy
3.3 The 2-2-1 strategy
3.4 The 1-1-3 strategy
4. Conclusion and final words

1. Introduction
Welcome to my guide on laning and the strategical aspect of lanes and laning strategies. In this guide I am going to explain the different lanes, what type of hero should go to which lane and how you pick good lanes to get an advantage

Every team consists of five heroes, who have got different roles. Many people pick their heroes just according to their mood and personal favor, but in games of higher skill level, people are picking heroes to create synergies between the team’s heroes, to counter enemy heroes and to fill their lanes in the best way.

What advantage do you get from picking your heroes according to a plan with the aim and to have good lanes?

Good lanes are the backbone of every victory, because the lane is where you start into the game. You get the first levels and lasthits of the game, and if you picked your lane so that you get more of this than the enemy, you will most likely get an advantage you can take into mid- and lategame to win the match.

If you see a good player with way fewer gold and levels than he should have in any stage of the game, this can usually be tracked back to the lane he was in, where he got dominated by the enemy who had a better lane and could outplay him.

Good lanes as such are a very difficult topic to explain in one guide, because every hero is different and thus has got different strengths in lane compared to the enemy hero(es).
In this guide I am going to explain what type of heroes should go to which lane, which will prevent you from making the worst mistakes. Although it is a difficult topic to explain and usually requires quite a bit of experience to understand, I am trying to explain everything in the most basic way I could.

2. General information on lanes
There are three lanes in the DotA map, top, mid and bot. What defines a lane?
A lane is a path that connects the Radiant and Dire base. It is also the way the creeps take, and where you farm said creeps during the earlygame or also called laning phase.

The jungle is seen as a lane itself by some people, because you can farm it like a lane and get an advantage from this if your opponent isn’t doing the same. For myself, I don’t think of the jungle as a lane, because both are really quite different.

Why do I mention this?
The jungle can be a big part of your earlygame farm, and if you get a jungler to rush an important item really quickly, your midgame will be a lot more effective. This requires your team to have a jungler, which is simply a hero who is farming the jungle, and not the lane. This is the part where we get to team composition and laning strategies.

If you pick a jungler to get some extra farm for your team as a whole, you need to make sure you don’t lose your other lanes!

This would for example be the case if you take a jungler instead of a support, and your hard carry dies two times because he has to play a solo lane against two enemy heroes.
What the thought process between safe lanes and good team composition is, and how you can make the split between running a jungler and still having safe and stable lanes will be explained in the further parts of this guide.

2.1 Easy lane
The easy lane is bot for Radiant and top for Dire.
Why is this you might ask? First of all, the creepline (the spot where the creeps meet and fight) is naturally closer to your tower than on other lanes. This makes you hard to gank when you are lasthitting, because you have a short distance to your tower, which can be considered a safe area.
You can pull the neutral creepcamp into your lane to draw your creeps off their path and fight the neutral creeps, causing your support to get easy lasthits, denying the enemy team experience and gold, and drawing the creepline closer to your tower (if done correctly!).
There are a few more aspects which make this lane safe for you, I won’t list them all. The image shows both easy lanes (red lines) and both pullcamps (yellow X’s).

Who should farm the easy lane?
The hero who needs the most farm to fulfill his role should take the easy lane. In many cases, this will be the hard carry, who ideally farms the entire early- and midgame to carry the team lategame with the items he farmed. If your team hasn’t got a hard carry, you want to put a semicarry in this lane, to get him to his respective items as quickly as possible.

You always want to couple your easy lane farmer with a support!

The support has to make sure the farming hero has a good time and can achieve his goals. The support is also the one to pull the neutral camp, because leaving this possibility open would a) be a waste of farm and thus a gift to the enemy team and b) leave your support with nearly no gold at all, which makes him it hard for him to even afford the wards your team desperately needs.

Why would your support be left without hardly any gold if not pulling? You could let him get some lasthits on lane …

You want and need your hard or semicarry as big as possible, and for this, you want him to get the entire gold a lane gives you. If you let your support have some lasthits he will have an easy time affording wards and getting maybe Arcane Boots and a Bracer, but your carry will be weaker to a carry who gets all the lasthits in lane.

The support has to get his gold by pulling and maybe ganking, and the true art of good support play is to keep your carry alive and farming, constantly afford wards and still get upgraded boots at around 15 minutes into the game.

Something new players tend to not get is the fact that the jungler is not counted as the support for the easy lane farmer. If you have a jungler and an easy lane farmer they don’t form a dual lane, but a jungler and a solo!

2.2 Middle lane
The middle lane is the path in the middle of the map, connecting both bases in a straight line. The river marks the spot of the creepline, which is located the same distance to both towers. From middle lane, you can access both runes very easily, as their spawn locations are in the river north and south of the middle lane.

All this makes the middle lane a lane where the heroes fight on even preconditions!
Usually, you will have a hero soloing the middle lane. In some cases teams put a dual lane mid to achieve a guaranteed shutdown on the enemy mid-laner, but you will rarely see this done in pubs.
As the solo mid hero doesn’t have to share the experience from the creepwave, he gets to level 6 quicker than anyone else on his team. If your solo mid hero has got an ultimate which has a lot of impact, it can mean a big advantage if this hero gets his ultimate early and can use this to get an advantage for his team, be it in killing the enemy mid hero or ganking the sidelanes.

The solo mid has also got easy access to both rune spots at the same time, whereas the sidelanes can only access one of them quickly. This makes the mid hero an ideal candidate for the bottle, an item which lets you regenerate health and mana, and can pick up runes to activate them at a later point, the bottle also gets completely refilled when picking up a rune.

If your solo mid hero has got an ultimate with a big impact, and can use the technically infinite regeneration of the bottle as well as the runes to a big impact, you are in a great position.
Conclusion: You want to pick a solo mid hero who has an ultimate of great impact, and who can use the runes to get an advantage for himself or his entire team.

I’ll make a guide on playing the middle lane in the future, where I will go over everything with a lot more detail.

2.3 Hard lane
The hard lane is top for Radiant and bot for Dire, and the name of the lane is self-explanatory. The creepline is really far away from your tower, and people will have an easy time ganking you, because they have a lot of space to cut your retreat path.

If you are lucky, people will be content with forcing you out of experience range, and you have to be creative to get your levels (against good players of course). If you are unlucky however, people will try to kill you at every chance they get, and if you are not playing cautious you will feed the enemy carry a lot of gold, which he will be thankful for and destroy your teams ancient before the 30 minute mark.

You ideally don’t want to send a dual lane top, but only one solo hero. This is because you are at such a disadvantage just by the map design, that you won’t be able to do a lot even when you are two heroes on the hard lane. Also, if you manage to get some experience, you will have to share it between your two heroes. This causes you to have two heroes who are underleveled and undergeared, and this is not what you want!

The best hardlane solos are the ones who can get their gold and experience back after they reached a certain point, or even better give some of this gold and experience to the team as well.

The hard lane hero needs to be a hero who can get his experience even if the enemy is trying his best to avoid this, and can escape death while doing this. He should also be able to get his experience and gold back after a certain point, or give his team some form of advantage that pays off on the long run.

2.4 The jungle
The jungle is the area between the easy lane and the mid lane of each side. It is a large area of forest run through by paths and filled with five neutral creepcamps. Certain heroes can farm these neutral creeps very effectively, and can create an advantage for their team, because the team is farming not three, but four sources of income and get items for four heroes instead of just three.

What effects does a jungler have on the team?
Easily listed, you will get gold and experience on an additional hero, who can rush a core item like a Mekansm to help your team fight and/or push. You will not be forced to play a dual lane top and possibly get very low experience and farm for two heroes, and can instead run a good hardlane solo who can get everything he lost back, and is still useful for the team.

You might think running a jungler is always a positive thing, but you will have a problem if you pick a jungler and for example nobody on your team picks a hero for the hard lane.
Communicate with your team and make up your mind what lanes you want to run. If you have got a good dual lane on your hard lane, you might be able to get a kill on the enemy hard carry or his support and fight the enemy lane for gold and experience.

You can also run a an aggressive trilane, which is a trilane on the hard lane, to seriously challenge the enemy’s carry for farm, all while having your usual solo mid but also farming a solo hero on the easy lane. This hero might not have been good on the hard lane, but because you are running an aggressive trilane you can give him relatively safe farm on your easy lane.

As you see, there are many viable options how to set up your lanes, and I will talk about all the different combinations later on.

2.5 How to fill your lanes according to map design
When talking about map design, I always mean the fact that by nature there is an easy lane, a middle lane and a hard lane for each side.

If you want to fill your lanes according to this, you need three heroes farming the lanes, one jungler and one support.

The three farming heroes should always be able to work under the circumstances the lane proposes. The safe lane farmer doesn’t need to fill a lot of criteria, he is ideally enjoying freefarm. This lane should be taken by a hard- or semicarry who needs the gold.

The middle lane farmer should profit from quick levels to give himself or the team an advantage. He also should be using a bottle to get (technically infinite) regeneration and runes to use in ganks. If your mid laner profits from a level advantage, but doesn’t need the runes, you should probably put another hero mid, just to deny the enemy the runes. If you let your enemy mid laner get free rune control, he might get some early kills when ganking with the runes which you would have fought for if you sent a different hero middle.

Your hard lane solo needs to be able to get his experience in some unconventional way, because he will be at least forced out of experience range against good players, if not even killed. This requires a special skillset, usually involving invisibility or an escape spell. The hard lane solo should also be able to get his gold and experience back after he reached a certain point, all while still being useful to the team through ganks or something else.

Your support will assist your easy lane farmer by harassing, denying, pulling and whatever the situation requires. He has to do his best to be useful to his team, but is generally the easiest hero role to play during laning phase. Personal experience has shown the support needs to focus on the game way less than for example the solo mid.

Your jungler is farming the jungle, as the name says. There are different heroes who can farm the jungle, all with different kinds of impacts on the rest of the game. There are junglers who gank, junglers who push, or junglers who just farm some items to fight. The jungler should always fit the general playstyle of a team, but that is most often served.

If you fill your lanes like this, and avoid complete anti-synergies in your team, you are set up well. You will be able to farm your lanes effectively and are in a good spot for midgame, where your personal decisions and play will decide about the outcome of the game.

3. How to play different lane combinations
As I hinted earlier, there are different lane combinations you can play. The previous part covered how to fill your lanes the most classic way including a jungler. This part will more focus on what different lane combinations are viable, and what goal they serve.
The lane setup worked out in part 2.5 of this guide can be described in a numeric system with the code 2-1-1-1.

The code describes how many players are playing on each lane, going from easy lane to middle lane to hard lane and adding the jungle last.

As you have a carry and a support playing on the easy lane, this lane is represented by the number 2. One hero in the mid and hard lane each add two times the number 1, and the jungler makes the last number 1 in the code.

I will be using this system to describe the different lane setups explained now.

3.1 The 3-1-1 strategy
Let’s start with a slight variation of the 2-1-1-1 strategy. This laning setup leaves out the jungler, but includes a second support for your safelane farmer.

What does a second support give you that you would leave out a jungler for him?
First of all, your carry will farm in maximum safety, which can only be broken if the enemy decides to run an aggressive trilane to disrupt his farm. In this case, you are in a fairly good situation with a second support, but would probably be in a lot of problems if you ran a jungler who wanted to farm and couldn’t protect your carry.

You will also have a much easier time for your first support, because he hasn’t got to do all the tasks alone by himself anymore. You can now let one support stack and pull, and let the other one focus on denying and harassing the enemy hard lane solo.
You will still get a certain level of farm on the support who is pulling, but not as nearly as much as on certain junglers.

Choose this strategy when your enemy is running an aggressive trilane, or when you desperately need to shut down an enemy hard lane solo.

3.2 The 2-1-2 strategy
Everyone will know this setup, because it is the most played laning strategy in pubs. You run two heroes on your easy lane, one hero solo mid, and two heroes on your hard lane.

This strategy works because most pub players are not able to punish enemy mistakes with the precision and dedication of more experienced players. In said pubs it is not uncommon to see two farming carries share one lane, something I want to desperately advise to not do! Most often this laning setup is chosen in games where a lot depends on how many of the mistakes are actually punished and on pretty random stuff, rather than on thought process and strategy.

There is a way to run this setup in the context of a strategy, and often times with great success.
You have your carry farming the easy lane, guarded by a support, and your solo mid farming the middle lane. You are still running a hero that would normally be the hard lane solo on the hard lane, but you give him a defensive support to assist him. This has been the usual laning combination in professional games before trilanes became popular and has worked to great success, with Windrunner and Earthshaker being one example of a successful dual hard lane.
What effect does this have?

Your hard lane hero can actually get close to the creepwave and get experience without getting harassed out of lane. The enemy support won’t be able to harass two people out of lane by himself, because you could easily turn on him and deal severe damage.
If you extend this thought and play, your HARD LANE HERO becomes a HARD LANE FARMER, as he can’t get harassed out of lane that easily and is able to get a some lasthits which he wouldn’t have gotten if he was alone.

If the enemy team is running a jungler and you have got balls you can leave the lane to hunt the enemy jungler and kill him. This is risky because you will not always be successful, and can easily find yourself cornered in by the jungler, the dual lane you were laning against and the enemy’s solo mid hero, who came in to get easy kills.

If the enemy is running a defensive trilane, you should probably not play this strategy, because their lane will almost always be stronger than yours and leave you underleveled and undergeared on two heroes.

All this concludes in a lot more experience on your hard lane hero, who can help his team way quicker than he would be able to if he was alone. This comes at the cost of not running a jungler.

3.3 The 2-2-1 strategy
This laning composition is build out of a dual easy lane, a hard lane solo and a dual lane in your mid lane. This dual lane mid usually has got a semicarry with a nuke or stun, and a support who owns the counterpart.
The goal of this laning setup is most often to shut down the enemy mid-laner.
This lineup was run a lot around the time of TI2, where Morphling, Chaos Knight and Antimage where the most common farming heroes in the dual middle lane. This laning setup allows you to lasthit and deny almost every creep, harass the enemy mid-laner and control the runes with the support hero without leaving out lasthits.
This comes at the cost of splitting the experience between your two heroes, but the three heroes I mentioned don’t need the experience so badly. You also will also not be able to control the enemy hard lane solo that easily anymore, and you will have one hero with no income at all, this being your mid support.

As you are 2v1 in middle lane, you will probably get some kills going your way, and this is how your support gets a bit of gold himself. Also you might have a hard carry farming the middle lane with this setup, you want to play aggressive and shut down the enemy, even more so if your second support leaves the easy lane to gank the middle lane.

Run this lineup when you need to shut down the enemy mid-laner and can afford to play a more aggressive style because you don’t depend on a lategame carry that much.
Don’t run this lineup when your enemy is playing an aggressive trilane to shut down your carry, because you will be at a disadvantage in this lane, which you can’t afford to happen!
Having become more unconventional at the time I am writing this guide (Patch 6.76), this laning strategy is still pretty good if you need to shut down the enemy mid-laner and can afford to have your easy lane a bit weakened.

3.4 The 1-1-3 strategy
This strategy works around the so called aggressive or offensive trilane. You are running one hero on the easy lane, one hero in middle, and three heroes on your hard lane.

This setup is based upon aggression and kills, and you need at least 3 stuns and/or nukes added in your aggressive trilane to be successful.

When running an aggressive trilane, there is no way around getting good wards. Ideally you want vision behind the enemy tower and in the jungle next to your hard lane. You can also leave out the ward behind the enemy tower and block the enemy’s pullcamp with it, but don’t be surprised if your enemy counterwards it very quickly.

If you can’t get kills even on the enemy supports, don’t get lasthits for your carry and maybe even get killed a few times yourselves, you should abandon your plan and switch your trilane into your easy lane, because you will lose too much if you stay and get killed over and over again.

The aggressive trilane comes at the cost of a farming hard lane solo for the enemy team. Your safe lane farmer, who would normally have played the hard lane, is not able to shut down the enemy hard lane solo. On the other hand, your easy lane solo is way safer compared to a hard lane solo.

You can also pick a hero for your easy lane which you would not be able to run on a hard lane solo, because you will almost always get farm on this hero. You could pick for example a Brewmaster for the easy lane, and get him to a quick Blink Dagger. However, if you fail your aggressive trilane and need to switch it to the easy lane, your Brewmaster will have no chance on the hard lane and will be useless for the rest of this game.

You need to make the balancing act between having a good offensive trilane and being able to switch to a safer strategy if you are not successful. When picking this strategy you are gambling, but if you play well you can be very successful with it!

4. Conclusion and Final Words
There is no completely right laning setup for a team composition, and there are no completely wrong laning setups, as ridiculous as this might seem. Laning strategies are not only determined by numbers, but also by heroes, playstyles and decisions, of which I can only cover the first.
If you play a lot and watch a lot of games and/or replays you will be able to work hero combinations and playstyles into your laning strategies, but the decision-making is always gonna be unpredictable, for you as well as for your opponent.

I hope I could teach you a bit more with this guide, and encourage you to play more experimental laning strategies to (hopefully) win your games. I know I didn’t answer a lot of questions in this guide, but I will be creating more guides in the future and also explain how to play each lane precisely.

If you liked this guide please leave me some feedback to help me improve my future guides.

DOTA 2 Doom Bringer Guide

2013-02-05T14:47:00.000-05:00

DOTA 2 Doom Bringer Guide by Cara

Doom Bringer in DOTA2 is more handsome than that in DOTA. To sum up, he’s very powerful, especially in early and mid game. And he is also very powerful in late game. But he’s highly dependent on skills and he will become the normal creeps during skill cooldowns.

Now let’s see pros and cons of Doom Bringer together.

Pros:
1. Skill advantage. 3 of his 4 skills are very forceful, especially the overpowered ult.
2. 3.2 strength growth is very high. As a strength hero, high strength stats means high attack damage.

Cons:
1. The biggest weakness: low armor. Actually armor is a stats which can be easily ignored in Dota, and the low armor makes him very vulnerable when facing champions with ranged skills.
2. Low intelligence stats. Extremely short of mana. But Doom Bringer can equip Arcane Boots to solve the problem.
3. Low agility stats. Doom Bringer’s agility growth is the lowest among all champions and the attack interval time will be increased if he casts ult. His slow movement speed is also a problem.
4. Slow movement speed. 290 movement speed is not enough for a melee.
5. Units who are hit by Doom Bringer’s ult will be denied.

Mid Solo Gameplay

Doom Bringer’s gank is of high efficiency because his ult is very imbalanced. 15 seconds’ silence and no one can use items, even include Town Portal Scroll, Magic Stick and Healing Salve. And part of passives will be silenced since Doom Bringer will be enhanced in Dota2.

Key word for mid solo ganker: LVL Death
What’s LVL Death? That is Doom Bringer can deal great damage through the skill based on your level. Long before, Doom Bringer can deal double damage to enemies of corresponding level when using LVL Death and now it changes to 20% of the target's maximum health.
For a unit with 80% or 50% HP, Doom Bringer can cast LVL Death, Scorched Earth, LVL Death (after the cooldown) and then his ult.

Another key word for mid solo ganker: save skill points
A good Doom Bringer must learn how to save skill points for LVL Death because 5 enemies’ levels won’t be the same. Opponent mid solo will be 1 or 2 level(s) higher than others and junglers of two sides will be of the same level. For both parts, their mid solo will be 1 or 2 level (s) higher than champions on other lanes.

So you need to count opponents’ levels and use the high burst of LVL Death to kill opponents at the right time. Unlike Strygwyr which can gank by casting ult, Doom Bringer doesn’t rely on his ult. The cooldown for his ult is quite long.
Mid solo Doom Bringer needs to rely on LVL Death of corresponding level so that he can also gank during the cooldown of his ult.

Skill points recommendation. Mid solo Doom Bringer can choose to give up the skill – Devour. If enemy unit has fast movement speed, you can choose level 1 Devour to kill field monster with dog face (aura of 12% movement speed) or field monster with net skill (able to summon little skeleton) to make a smooth gank because he has no control.

Maximize the skill - Scorched Earth first since it can damage enemies and Doom gains bonus HP regen and increased movement speed when laning. Because of his low armor, he relies on Scorched Earth besides Healing Salve and Bottle.

LVL Death: add points according to enemy levels or save points.
Doom: If you have the skill, you can maximize it. You need to be careful because units hit by ult can be easily denied or you can equip the Urn of Shadows.
Basic tactic: first you need to know that you’re powerful at level 6 and you can kill opponent mid solo at that time. The opponent mid solo is also at level 6, and you must have level 1 ult, LVL Death of corresponding level, level 3 Scorched Earth. That is, level 1 LVL Death and you save 1 skill point or add level 1 Devour.

And then you need to seize the chance, cast ult, Scorched Earth and LVL Death twice. Once you solo successfully, you will be at level 7. And this time, you will have an additional skill point. As I mentioned before, mid solo champion would be 1 level higher than champions on other lanes. Namely, when you’re level 6, champions on top or bottom lanes are level 5 and then you kill an enemy and upgrade to level 7. Now start to gank and observe top and bottom lanes. Prepare to kill opponent level 5 champions with level 2 LVL Death. The efficiency of gank in mid and late game depends on yourself now.

Items: Bottle must be the starting item because Doom Bringer is short of mana and Bottle is a good supplement. Even the opponent control your rune, you can also use couriers to carry Bottle.
Then we go to the choice of boots. If you control the rune, you can choose Phase Boots. I don’t suggest Power Threads because Doom Bringer doesn’t rely on the speed of basic attack. And Arcane Boots is also a very god choice but you don’t need to equip this if your teammates have already equipped the item.

Then we go to choice of items when in favorable and unfavorable circumstances. If you’re in favorable circumstance, just choose Sange & Yasha and Blade Mail. They are good choices. You can also equip Radiance but you need to spend much time on farming and it’s not good for gank. If you die during ganking, you will lose the money. Choose it according to the circumstance.

Path of Exile Pure Summoner Witch Build

2013-02-05T13:01:00.001-05:00

Path of Exile Pure Summoner Witch Build by Brixtan

Hey everyone,

I've been having so much fun with my summoner witch that I thought I would share her build with the community. She's a pure summoner (and by that, I mean I don't cast ANY offensive spells myself) that debuffs mobs via curses and let's the minions clean house.

Disclaimer: This is softcore tested only, but I'm sure it would prove viable on Hardcore as well. Currently progressing through Act 3 Cruel, so can't speak to Merciless/end-game viability yet. I don't anticipate any problems based on how easy it's been so far though.

Here is my current build as of LV47:

Skill Tree

Keystone musts:
1. Minion Instability (get this as soon as humanly possible, foundation of this build)
2. Necromantis Aegis (by late Act 3 normal or Act 1 cruel you should go for this)

(note: I've read a lot of negatives about this, but it's worked out fine with my build. Since I don't ever a) cast dmg spells or b) take dmg (rarely) it's a boon to give the benefits of my shield stats to my minions. They survive longer. Still in need of a decent shield, but I'm more of a fan of NA then opting against it. YMMV.)

3. Hex Master (personal choice, but I have recasting curses - will plan for whispers of doom eventually to run dual curses).

Make sure you also grab the +1 to Spectres (near the minion instability keystone) as soon as you can. Don't underestimate how powerful 2 spectres can be.

With every passive minion node taken, I've currently got 8 zombies, 12 skeletons, and 2 spectres.

I run 3 auras currently (Discipline, Wrath, and Clarity) and am toying with taking Eldritch battery so I can run 2 or 3 more.

My curse is Enfeeble, a solid debuff that reduces mobs dmg/accuracy/speed/crit chance which helps keep my minions alive longer.

My summon gem layouts are:

1.Raise Zombie linked to the following gems: minion life/minion dmg/added lightning dmg

Verified

2.Raise Spectre linked to: minion dmg/chance to flee/added lightning dmg

Verified

(Note: I particularly enjoy 'chance to flee' on spectres simply because I tend to raise spell casters and ranged mobs solely. It's really noticeable with chaos constructs/snakes in A2 or the miscreation tentacle shooters in Lunaris temple A3 (my current favorite spectre)

3.Raise Skeleton linked to: culling strike (for lols)/faster casting/spell totem

Verified

Note: this gem layout is fairly standard, but I'll be honest...I was perfectly happy with manually casting my skeletons until I got spell totem (you get as a reward in A1 Cruel) and don't feel that it's a must have set-up. Some people prefer manually dropping their skeletons. The only benefit of running it through spell totem is the mana cost is far less when linked to spell totem (a single cast and the totem becomes a skelly factory). Culling strike, in my opinion, should be a mandatory support gem for skeletons. Their sole purpose for bosses is to swarm them, attack, and blow up like good little meat shields. But with culling strike attached, they can insta-gib bosses as soon as they hit 10%. Truly funny.

I'm running Enfeeble with enhanced area effect:

Verified

-----

I never ran into any trouble until I hit Act 3 normal. I had stretched myself to thin trying to lay the path for my build without picking up enough passive minion life nodes. Once I respecced and dumped points into the passive life nodes, I was fine. By end of Act 2 cruel, you should have grabbed every passive minion node (+minion/life/dmg) on the board.

My strategy is simple - drop a totem down (or summon skeletons manually) to create your meat shield of disposable skeletons. They'll do surpisingly decent damage (or blow up and wreck even more havoc) and allow your zombies and spectres time to really dish out the pain. Your zombies shouldn't be dying, at least not all at once (note: early game, expect them to die quickly. They don't have a lot of hp. By the time your Raise Zombie gem levels to 7 or 8, the hp starts ramping up significantly though). If they are, you probably need more passive minion life nodes, or are pushing faster than your current gear/gems/level will allow.

Best part about this build is that the areas that are normally super annoying based on the monsters (A2 pyramid chaos shooters/snakes, A3 Lunaris temple tentacle breast shooters, etc) end up being extremely easy areas once you're rolling with 2 of those spectres. Turn those mobs to your side and laugh as they mop the floor.

This build is not a super fast, clear the entire map in 5-minutes set-up. If you're looking for an extremely fast and efficient farming build, this is probably going to be far slower than you're going to want. You'll spend the majority of your time summoning your skeleton army and cursing mobs, then standing around waiting for your minions to clear everything out.
It's extremely rewarding if you truly enjoy a pure summoner-heavy build though.

-----

Thoughts on end-game build:

I'm going to likely take Eldritch Battery so I can roll 5 - 6 auras. I initially was thinking CI, but honestly you shouldn't be taking much damage (if any) if you play the build right. It makes gearing extremely simple in that you don't need to worry about resist gear, spell dmg gear, or crit gear. I'm mostly focusing on +mana/+mana regen/+ES.

I'll also eventually take Whispers of Doom keystone so I can run 2 curses at once.

Runescape Complete Queen Black Dragon Guide

2013-02-04T23:44:00.003-05:00

Runescape Complete Queen Black Dragon Guide by Op Rapier

Hello everybody, my name is Op Rapier and welcome to my QBD (Queen Black Dragon) Guide!
I am a level 178 PvM player and I see players up to 20 levels higher than me struggling with the QBD, and I also see alot of people needing help with taking her down,
which is why I am making this guide.

------Table of Contents------
Post 1A - General Info
Post 1B - Recommended/Requirements
Post 2 - Setups
Post 3 - Setups continued
Post 4A - Action bar
Post 5A - Action bar continued
Post 5B - Inventory setups
Post 6 - Killing/moves
Post 7- Killing/moves continued
Post 8 - Killing/moves continued
Post 9 - Wrap up

------ Post 1A ------ General info ------
The Queen Black Dragon is a level 220 solo boss monster and is one of the toughest monsters in gelinor!
She utilises many attacks and is a very complex boss with consistent attacks and very dangerous KO moves!

The main reason players fight here is for her sought-after loot. Her drops are very valuable as she very
commonly drops items such as torstols, rune ores, etc. As well as a pile of dragon bones and royal d'hide
every kill. These drops stack up fast and can make very profitable cash very quickly. However, there is a
chance that after every kill, you might get what PvM is all about - a rare drop. Luckily, her valuable drops
aren't too rare!

Her most valuable drops include the royal crossbow pieces, which fetch 1 - 2m a piece, the Dragon Kiteshield,
the Draconic Visage, and the Dragonbone upgrade kit.

------ Post 1B ------ Recommended/Requirements ------
There are not many requirements, in fact all you really need is 60 summoning. Without 60 summoning, you cannot
fight her.

Stats (Recommended) -
80+ Ranged if using ranged
85+ Attack and Strength if using melee
80+ Defence
85+ Hp
Port sarim lodestone + 50 Agility
This should NOT be your first boss
Super antifires are highly advised
Song From the Depths quest - HIGHLY ADVISED

Now killing the QBD is ALOT easier than it seems! Even at 80 ranged, knowing what you're doing can get you sub 6 minute kills!

Recommended setup

This guide is for beginners, so the setups are not too high level

RANGED SETUP NO SUP ANTIFIRE
WEAPON - Chaotic Crossbow > Karil's Pistol Crossbow > Dragon Crossbow
SHIELD - Dragonfire shield (Ranged) > Anti-dragon shield
HELMET - Armadyl helmet > Morrigan's coif > Karil's Coif > Royal d'hide coif
BODY - Armadyl Chestplate > Morrigan's leather body > Karil's body > Royal d'hide body
LEGS - Armadyl Platelegs > Morrigan's leather chaps > Karil's Legs > Royal d'hide chaps
BOOTS - Armadyl boots > Spined boots > Ranger boots > Snakeskin boots
AMMUNITION - Royal bolts > Onyx bolts (e) > Rune bolts > Broad tipped bolts
CAPE - Ava's Device > Skillcape > Soul wars cape
GLOVES - Armadyl gloves > Royal d'hide vambraces > Barrows gloves
RING - Archer's Ring (i) > Onyx ring (i) > Archer's ring
AURA - Penance > Vampyrism
NECKLACE - Sardomin's Murmur > Amulet of Ranging > Amulet of fury > Amulet of glory
POCKET - Scrimshaw of ranging > Scrimshaw of vampyrism > Scrimshaw of Cruelty

RANGED SETUP SUPER ANTIFIRE
WEAPON - Royal Crossbow > Chaotic Crossbow > Crystal Bow > Karil's Crossbow > Dragon 2h Crossbow
SHIELD - Offhand Chaotic Crossbow (If using 1H MH Weapon)
EVERYTHING ELSE SAME AS ABOVE

VOID RANGED SETUP SUP ANTIFIRE
HELMET - Void Ranger
BODY - Void
Legs - Void
Gloves - Void
EVERYTHING ELSE SAME AS ABOVE...

I only recommend using void if you have super antifires.
------ Post 3 - Setups continued ------

MELEE SETUPS NO SUPER ANTIFIRES

WEAPON - Chaotic Rapier > Chaotic longsword > Abyssal whip
SHIELD - Dragonfire shield > Anti-dragon shield
HELMET - Bandos helmet > Barrows helm > Dragon helm > Helm of nietzinot
BODY - Bandos chestplate > Barrows platebody > Dragon platebody
LEGS - Bandos Tassets > Barrows platelegs > Dragon platelegs
BOOTS - Bandos Boots > Dragon boots
AMMUNITION - N/A
CAPE - Skillcape > Tokhaar-kal > Fire cape
GLOVES - Bandos gloves > Barrows gloves
RING - Berserker ring (i) > Warrior ring (i) > Onyx ring (i) > Berserker ring > Warrior ring
AURA - Penance > Vampyrism
NECKLACE - Saradomin's Whisper > Amulet of fury > Amulet of glory
POCKET - Scrimshaw of melee > Scrimshaw of Vampyrism > Scrimshaw of Cruelty

MELEE SETUPS SUPER ANTIFIRES
WEAPON - Chaotic maul > Zamorakian spear > Godsword > Chaotic Rapier/Longsword
SHIELD - Offhand - Chaotic Rapier/Longsword
EVERYTHING ELSE SAME AS ABOVE

------ Post 4 ------ Action Bar ------

The abilities you use are vital in sucess of killing the queen black dragon. On this post I will explain recommended setups for melee and ranged, and
how to build adrenaline as fast as possible as well as inventory setups

Until I can get pictures, I will use words.

Setup your action bar to what comforts you. I use 1,2,3,4,5,Q,W,E,A,S,D,F

For now, I will simply use 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12

MELEE NO SUP ANTIFIRE SETUP
1 - Slice
2 - Sever
3 - Punish
4 - Fury
5 - Backhand/kick
6 - Assault < Use whenever possible
7 - Slaughter
8 - Barricade < Use if tanking of powerful attacks are needed (Explained later)
9 - Rejuvanate < Use once per kill, when abit low on health
10 - Overpower < Use if going well
11 - Anything you want
12 - Anything you want
MELEE 2H WEAPON SETUP
1 - Slice
2 - Sever
3 - Cleave
4 - Punish
5 - Backhand/kick
6 - Assault < Use whenever possible
7 - Slaughter
8 - Hurricane < Use to kill souls/deal general damage
9 - Berserk < Use to deal MASSIVE damage
10 - Overpower/Meteor Strike
11 - Anything you want
12 - Anything you want
MELEE DUAL WIELD WEAPON SETUP
1 - Slice
2 - Sever
3 - Havoc
4 - Fury
5 - Backhand/Kick
6 - Assault
7 - Flurry
8 - Slaughter
9 - Berserk
10 - Frenzy
11 - Anything you want
12 - Anything you want

OPTIMAL ADRENALINE GAIN
_______________________

By using a method I have taught myself, I believe I use the method to gain
the fastest adrenaline possible. This is how to do it -

Start by using your "Slice" or in the case of ranged, "Piercing shot" Ability
Follow it by using your next basic ability in line. In this example, its sever.
Then, go back to slice, then your next basic ability (For example, havoc)
Then back to slice, then next in line, then slice over and over again.
04-Feb-2013 22:37:26 Last edited on 04-Feb-2013 23:10:33 by Op Rapier
------ Post 5A ------ Action bar continued ------

RANGED ACTION BAR SETUP

1 - Piercing shot
2 - Binding shot
3 - Fragmentation shot
4 - Ricochet
5 - Snipe
6 - Bombardment < Use to kill souls
7 - Rapid fire < Extremly OP, like my rapier ^^
8 - Snap Shot
9 - Deadshot
10 - Incendiary Shot
11 - Anything you want
12 - Anything you want

If using a shield you can customise this to your personal liking, beginners should test and
try out barricade, especially on the final phase where she can easily kill you in seconds.

------ Post 5B ------ Inventory setups ------

Melee
__________

Bring 1 Super attack and Super strength, 2 prayer potions if not using penance, optionally a super defence
and a super/normal antifire. Fill the rest up with your best food, remember it depends on your cooking level.

You should also fill up a BoB (Tortoise + Recommended) With your best food.

Tip - If you own adrenaline pots, which you should if you own super antifires, bring 1.

Ranged
__________

Pretty straight - forward, same thing just substitute the attack and strength pot for a
ranging pot and you don't really need a defence pot unless you really want to bring it.

------ Post 6 ------ Killing/moves ------

First I am going to go over all of her moves quickly, then to the killing part.

MOVES
______________

Basic attacks

---Ranged attack---
She can always attack you with ranged, no matter where you are standing.
It is an accurate - hard hitting straight up nothing special ranged attack.

---Melee attack---
Her melee attack is not too accurate but can hit VERY hard (upwards to 2000)
Her melee range is about just behind the artefact 1, so rangers are advised
to stand behind there and pray ranged to avoid as much damage as possible.

Special attacks

---Fire wall---
Every now and then, you will get a message in your chatbox saying "The queen black
dragon takes a huge breath". This signals she is about to use the fire wall attack.
Depending on her phase, she will throw out 1-3 fire walls that come at you with 1
square free of fire, reminiscent of the one used by Char during The Firemaker's Curse quest.
It is best to try and avoid these, as they deal rapid damage. There are only
3 spots where the free block can be, so memorize them all. If you cannot make one, it
is best to run through it to take minimal damage.

---Dragon Breath---
Simple dragon breath attack. Exposure without dragonfire protection will result in devastating
effects. She will use this often and NOTHING can full protect against it. Cannot be avoided.

---Super Dragon Breath---
On the 4th and final phase, you will sometimes get the message "The Queen Black Dragon gathers
her strength to breath extremely hot flames" When you get this message it is advised to run to
the sides ASAP as she will use a very powerful dragonfire attack that lasts for 3 hits. Standing
in the middle even with dragonfire protection will result in 3 hits of 1950. This can easily kill
a player at high health. Standing at the side will reduce this to 450.

------ Post 7 ------ Killing/moves continued -------

---Tortured Souls---
Perhaps one of her deadliest attacks, depending on what phase you are on, the QBD will often summon 1,2 or 4 tortured souls. The warning for this is purple in your chatbox and says " The queen black dragon summons one (Several) of her captive, tortured souls". The tortured souls will appear in different spots depending on what phase the dragon is on, and right when they spawn they will spawn a black cloud with them that will follow the player until it hits something. These cloud do around 1000 damage each and if the soul is not killed quick enough it will continue to summon these clouds. The only way to avoid these clouds are to run it back into the souls. If succesful in doing so, the cloud will damage the soul instead of the player.
The souls have about 1750 health each. Here is the spawn system - Phase 1 - The soul will always spawn 1 block west of the player. Phase 2 - 1 soul will spawn 1 block east, the other 1 block west. Phase 4 - The 4 souls will spawn quite randomly, although learning these spawns are very helpful as some spawns give the chance
to avoid 100 percent damage.

---Time Stop---
On the last phase, when she spawns tortured souls. One will teleport to the corner if not killed quick enough and start talking. If this soul is not killed within 10 seconds, the player will be completly frozen where they are for 7 seconds, unable to move, eat, teleport, anything. The QBD will remain unfrozen and continue to use her attacks.

---Heal---
After phase 3, if the souls are not killed quick enough she may start healing from them. The souls will lose 100 health every game tick while the queen gains 200. If there are no souls she cannot heal so it is advised to kill the souls as fast as possible.

------Post 8------Killing/moves continued------

---Giant Worms---
After every phase, the queen will spawn giant worms which will attack with magic until the correct artefact is active. She spawns them pretty quick so it is advised to activate the artefact as quickly as possible.

---Magical platform---
When stepping off the platform for too long, the player will recieve 1500 damage.

---Hardened Carapace---
The queen black dragon might hardern her carapace, weakening all melee and ranged damage dealt to her, while increasing all magic damage dealt to her.

---Consistent Crystals---
The queen black dragon might focus on the consistensy of her crystals, weakening all mage damage dealt to her, while
increasing all ranged and melee damage dealt to her.

I recommend reading these moves over a few times, especially the souls.

But now that you've learned her attacks, lets move onto killing her!

There are 4 phases too her, im not gonna go into them too much but for the first 2 phases, as long as you use your abilities
correctly, theres no reason to use any more than 1 food, and thats if you're using void. Just remember - Rapid fire if using ranged.

The 3rd are 4th phase however, can be DEADLY to newcomers to this boss. Multiple tortured souls, Quick KO attacks, and sometimes
not even being able to attack the QBD because of all the other stuff, you should read carefully.

My strategy with ranged, is when phase 2 is about to finish, make sure I have 100 percent adrenaline. I will deadshot and quickly activate the artefact - the artefacts go like this - 1. In the middle 2. South west 3. South east. 4. South I will then prep for 3rd phase and drink an adrenaline potion, and build up to rapid fire ASAP, then use it.

I usually try to stay around 60 percent adrenaline, for bombardment when the souls come, or rapid fire if she suddenly goes crystal,
as rapid fire + crystal = 2000 x5

When I see the souls message for final phase, I make sure im 4k+ hp, and avoid the clouds.
Post 9 - Wrap up

As for anything else, QBD is a very easy boss.

I hope you all enjoyed my guide, and good luck to everybody with the Queen Black Dragon!

- Op Rapier

Guardians of Middle-Earth Guides

2013-02-04T23:20:00.001-05:00

Guardians of Middle-Earth Guides

Guardians of Middle-Earth Beginner's Tips

2013-02-04T23:17:00.002-05:00

Guardians of Middle-Earth Beginner's Tips by Damacon45

Hello today I'm going to teach you all how to improve yourselves as players in some easy steps! All of these steps are important if you ever want to be more than a pile of trash.

Step 1- Understand your guardians before you play them, all guardians have passives and most have added things in their skills that will greatly improve how well you fight back "Knowing is half the Battle". To do this simply press R1 till you are on inventory,scroll down to guardians go in and hit square on a character read everything don't skim. Do this multiple times between playing games till you have them all memorized, looking at stat cards is not a bad idea either by pressing R2 on a guardian.

Step 2- TOWERS AND SOLDIER"S HURT for christ's sake do not stand there and let them beat on you! Towers will make a "PING!!!!!!" noise when they start attacking you, if you do not hear this turn up your sound this noise will save your life. Attacking guardians near a tower will cause the tower to attack you think very hard if you can make it out before you try killing someone near a tower. Did they use their command do they have stuns,roots,fears,blinds,taunts,knockback's, or movement increasing buffs. Take all this into consideration before even going near a tower and think how these will destroy you if you are being attacked by tower. As far as Soldiers go they will attack you if you attack a guardian while standing in the middle of them or if you do not have Soldiers fighting them. They are not as much of a threat but will destroy your health if you let them beat on you so be careful.

Step 3- Beware of being jumped by multiple enemy guardians! Minimap is your friend it will never betray you, look at it as often as possible it will tell you all you need to know. This ally of justice and truth is located in the top right hand corner of your screen. If you do not see your enemies on the map it is safe to assume they are trying to kill you or your allies. When this occurs do not face plant bushes, hell do not even go near the bushes at all till you see more than 3 enemy guardians on the minimap hug that tower like its your baby. Be careful when pushing enemy towers this is a key time to get jumped, keep a eye on minimap and plan your escape route for when stuff gets bad.Another good place to get jumped is taking shrines same with the the pushing towers plan your escape route and minimap is your friend.

Step 4- Jumping the enemies and how to best go about it! This is pretty much the reverse of step 3 with a few added things to help ensure making your enemies pay for their ignorance. Bushes is your best ally when jumping an enemy, wait for them to go right next to or past your bush before you strike. DO NOT WASTE YOUR CC "see below for what CC means" damage them first use other skills that do damage or autoattack then use your cc when they start to run to finish them off. Needless to say this is different for every character you are and who you are against. Some guardians have skills meant to finish people off and some guardians have skills to get away so yes sometimes using your CC first is the best option. Not going to go into detail cause these things are learned from step 1 or playing the guardian. Best times to jump an enemy is when they are pushing a tower or capturing a shrine you own, keep a eye on that minimap. Finally do not engage multiple enemies unless they are one hit from dieing or you greatly outlevel them.

Step 5- Levels are everything in this game, they will change the balance of the game greatly! The amount of damage you do is greatly increased for every level you are over your enemies. Your top priority is to outlevel your enemies anyway you can, killing a tower is a ton of exp and it gives it to all your allies. Killing enemy guardians or getting the assist is a great amount of exp but don't die trying to do this cause its also the reverse. don't ever plan on dieing my motto " If you die in the game you die in real life". You don't have to kill soldiers to get exp you just have to be near them when they are dieing its a pretty far range you can get exp from behind your troops. This is a great strategy when its two vs one and you are the one you will out level them! Use any means possible to get more exp,potions,kill creeps, backdooring low health towers, "see below for what creeps and backdooring means" and the above statements. Anyone who tells you this is cheap or unsportman like is dumb and sore losers "All is fair in Love and War".

Game Slang- what strange words and abbreviations some nerds came up with mean.The useful ones anyway

CC- is crowd control which is stuns,roots,fears,taunts,slows,knockback's, and blinds

Creeps- the monsters in the woods they give various buffs and decent exp but not enough to kill just them.

backdooring- it means to go behind enemy lines in a stealthy way so no one knows till its to late, in this game taking a tower or soldier barracks without troops

gank or ganking- to jump or get jumped by multiple allies or enemies very important in this game never be fair if you don't have to

overextending- it means you went to far into enemy lines and stayed to long oh wait your dead what a piece of trash, ya don't do this by the time someone says this word your probably already screwed

Premade- means a team of people who are most likely going to destroy you and make you hate life.They are working together and communicating on mics to ensure victory and your demise.

Tips and Tricks!

Play all guardians- If you know what to expect from your enemy because you have played that guardian it will greatly increase your chances of surviving or ganking that guardian. The better your are with all of them, the better you are at killing all of them.

Easy Starting Guardians- Wulfrun, Hildifons, Eowyn, Witch King, and pretty much all the warriors as long as you follow step 1 in my guide. Stay away from elves not only do they look super fruity they are easy to kill and hard to master.

Potions- All potions are pretty useful, but some are far more useful Dash Potion, Recovery Potion, and Experience Potion. These are by far the ones that will be your greatest friends, but don't waste them think before you use them. The rest of the potions are more for specific guardians.

Commands- Again all commands are useful, but here are some good tricks that can help superbly.

Awareness- is great for preventing or creating ganks you can see into bushes and at start of game if you place it you can see where all the enemies are to avoid getting jumped.

Heal- of course is great can lure people in thinking your low health then pop heal and turn the tides.

Spiked Armor- is great for when you are being focused id say late game this is a far greater command then heal because your heal might only restore a quarter to half of your health where this will prevent a ton of damage and also return a ton of damage to your enemies.

Smite- is amazing it not only does a ton of damage it lowers the resistances of that enemy to make them fall quick, it is almost completely needed to kill off those full tank characters.

Summon Archers- this is a huge one those little guys can tank a tower, great for backdooring a tower or finishing the game when you are in their base all you have to do is run in next to the tower then pull out till archers are being hit and wala free tower kill note if there are lots of enemy guardians do not waste these kill some of them first.

Relics- There is no one way to build a guardian anyone who tells you otherwise will die a horrible painful death, experiment. Some relics are way better then others and if you cant figure this out there probably isn't much hope for you. But if this is the case try looking at other peoples builds while they are destroying your face, can do this by pressing start make sure your in scoreboard then scroll down to their name hit X and scroll down to current belt. I don't recommend doing this unless your dead or you have already lost.

People on your Team- Don't trust them this guide is made for you not including your team. Assume everyone on your team sucks until they prove you otherwise. Yelling at them is not going to help, I know its tough I'm guilty of it to but that is why I made this guide to help people who suck. So instead of yelling at them, tell them to read my guide and if they still suck tell them to read it again. Communication is key to winning a game that's why premades will destroy you, I am part of one but I did not get good by being in a premade. I got good at the game and then got invited into a premade only to get better.

Martino's Final words of wisdom!

I realize the biggest problem is the game itself, its laggy, its user interface is sloppy, its matchmaking is buggy, and disconnecting is frequent and no its almost 90% not your fault. But behind all that poop is a well made super fun game that I think everyone will enjoy when its fixed "hint hint developers" that could make them lots of money and create great memories for us. But this guide is to help those who do actually get to have a game not see a "Good Game of Gome Gone Bad"!

P.S.
Do not friend me, I don't like you nor do I want to be your friend until you prove to me in a game that you got what it takes to play a "Good Game of Gome" teamate's or enemies alike! Thank you, devs please move if needed and sticky this if anyone has anything else to add to help people feel free to post below. Also sorry about grammar I know its not my strong point, but grammar doesn't win games skill does.

Guardians of Middle-Earth Basic Strategy Guide

2013-02-04T23:13:00.003-05:00

Guardians of Middle-Earth Basic Strategy Guide by Syloh

Hey all, hope the day is treating everyone fairly. I just wanted to start a strategy thread for pros and ameteurs alike to share their ideas and feedback on different strategies. Mind you, the first posts will all be theorycrafting since the game has not released yet, but at least this will give newcomers some input into strats they can try, and hopefully give pros the chance to discuss some more in depth combinations.

So for starters, does anyone think that the 1 top, 1 mid, 2 bottom, 1 jungle setup will be the status quo? Or will lane assignments be a little more loose due to the smaller maps?

If this does become the norm, here's the basic idea of how this classic setup can be applied to GOME.

The Pre-Game: Each of your teammates will have a specific area of the map assigned to them. The top lane will be guarded by a guardian that can hold their own on their own. They should be decent at pressuring both the enemy lane and any defenders guarding it. The middle lane needs to be assigned to a guardian with high survivability since it is easier for the guardians on the enemy team to collapse on your middle lane and go for a quick gank on your lonely middle lane guardian. The bottom lane should be assigned to two guardians with a lot of synergy, combos that are good at pushing or stacking stuns and CC would be some popular choices. The jungler should be played by a striker. Strikers can kill jungle creeps quickly and provide great burst damage when ambushing enemy guardians in the lanes.

The Game Plan: At the start of the game your jungler and top lane guardian should head to the top shrine while your bottom and mid lane guardians head to the bottom shrine. After capturing these shrine, both groups should head to the middle shrines and cap those too. Your top lane guardian should be the one to keep an eye on the top shrine and head back to defend it if need be while the jungler takes the top-middle shrine. The same goes for bottom shrine group, leaving one bottom lane guardian to contest the bottom shrine if you see any enemies trying to ninja it. Once all the shrines have been captured, head to your assigned lane and keep an eye out for enemy guardians headed to steal your shrines. If the enemy ends up beating you in the initial shrine battle or sending a massive amount of guardians to one shrine, simply proceed to the next shrine and cap it instead.

General Strategies: Always communicate. Chances are the enemy team will also have lane assignments. If you notice someone on the enemy team missing from their lane, call it out. The reason for this is two-fold First your teammates will know that pushing that lane will be easier, and secondly a missing enemy guardian means one of three things. Either they went back to base to upgrade, or they left to help their team kill a supercreep, or they left to help gank one of your teammates. Giving your team the heads up on missing enemy guardians tells them to be alert for incoming ganks.

Keep an eye on the supercreeps. On both the very top and very bottom of the map, past the shrines, there are supercreeps. These creeps are usually very strong and require multiple guardians to kill. The upside is that killing a supercreep nets your entire team a damage bonus. Last I heard the top creep gives your team a boost to structure damage while the bottom one gives a boost to all damage. Keep an eye on the enemy team and coordinate when your team goes for supercreep kills.

That's all I have for now, thoughts?

Guardians of Middle-Earth Complete Witch King Guide

2013-02-04T23:12:00.002-05:00

Guardians of Middle-Earth Complete Witch King Guide by MosesofWar

1.    Introduction
I’ve been playing around with different Guardians and found quite a liking to the Witch King. He’s got a very unique style of play, that’s based primarily off Aura balancing, rather than spamming abilities for pure DPS; many players can find this style confusing, or intimidating compared to an easier style of play, such as Lugbol, Mozgog or Haldir. However, if used correctly, the Witch King is a very deadly and versatile combatant in almost every situation. I’m writing this guide to help out new and experienced players, who’d like to try out the Witch King, but haven’t really had much success using him.

I’d like to begin by explaining each of the Witch King’s abilities and the various situational usages, then I’ll proceed with a couple of different builds for the Witch King for multiple scenarios; 1-Lane, 3-Lane and team composition. Obviously, this is simply a guide not a Bible, so feel free to discuss any build or customize it to your liking. Everyone’s play style is different and using a Guardian to how you enjoy playing can be more effective, than just stacking on a build that is successful for someone else.

2.    The Abilities of the Witch King and When to Use them
To begin, I’d like to discuss the two biggest strengths of the Witch King: High Health and Good Ability Damage (very high for the Defender Class). The caveat is the Witch King relies heavily on Auras, not necessarily Direct Damage powers for his abilities. The weakness of the Witch king is, like all members of the Defender Class, very low attack power. Three of the Witch King’s abilities have Crowd Controlling effects, rather than Direct Damage. The two abilities the Witch King has that do damage are based on both Ability Power and Maximum Health; in fact, the Witch King’s Abilities that deal Ability Power damage are greatly scale with higher Ability Power.

Here’s a breakdown of the

2.1 - Malice (A – Xbox, X – PS3) – “The Anti-Enchanter Aura/Anti-Tactician Aura”
Description:
Adds 30/60/90/120 Ability Damage to the Witch King’s next Basic Attack (gains a +.4 damage bonus per Ability Power) . In addition grants an Aura of Ability Damage to nearby guards equal to 1% the Witch King’s MAXIMUM HEALTH while toggled (gains a +.01 damage bonus per Ability Power). The cooldown for this ability is 12 seconds.

Use:
Malice is a great asset for wiping lanes, or a following up to using the Witch King’s “Darkness” ability. Malice is a great draining Aura; coupling the Aura of Malice can help with Ability Lifesteal Gems, where the Witch King can literally reap health fighting Guardians in a sea of Soldiers. The aura can also benefit the Witch King by adding some extra Damage over Time to couple with Basic Attacks and give the Witch King some extra kick. The fact that Malice scales with Ability Power AND Maximum health is something to keep an eye out on when creating a build. Keep in mind that the Damage scales more with Max Health than it does with Ability Power (1% vs .01%); balanced correctly between the two, you can easily have an Aura that hits for over 30 Ability Damage Per Second.

I typically like to use Malice as my Default Aura. It wades through Soldiers like butter and the damage bonus you can add on to your basic attack can sting a bit. Malice can also be used if you find yourself in a multi-Guardian fight, and you are currently not the target of the opposing Guardian onslaught.

*Against Defenders – Really depends on the Defender.. A Defender that Primarily uses Abilities, such as Galadriel (Depending on the Spec) or Wulfron are better targets for Malice.
*Against Enchanters – Low Health, Low Resistance.. The perfect Aura.
*Against Strikers – I’ll use Malice to buff up a basic attack to initiate combat, but usually toggle to Darkness after that.
*Against Tacticians - I typically keep Malice active the majority of the brawl, it ultimately depends on the Tactician. Sometimes, you’ll want to throw on Darkness.
*Against Warriors – Typically I’ll Alternate back and forth between Malice and Darkness, depending on the Warrior, my HP, their HP and Cooldowns.

2.2 - Darkness (X – Xbox, Square – PS3) – “The Anti-Warrior/Anti-Striker Aura”
Description:
Taunts an enemy for 1.4/1.6/1.8/2.0 seconds and reflects 25% Basic Damage, augmented by 1% of the Witch-king’s MAXIMUM HEALTH. The cooldown for this ability is 12 seconds.

Use:
Darkness is probably one of the most brutal and evil of the Witch King’s abilities. Taunting enemies to attack you, with basic attacks and reflecting 25% Basic Damage +1% of the Witch King’s Maximum Health is a Warrior/Striker killer. This Aura is why I typically suggest running an HP/AP Witch King build, rather than going for a pure Resistance Build, that most “Tanks” run. As the Witch King, you WANT TO GET HIT.

If you’re maxed out on Resistance, you greatly mitigate the effect of Darkness. For example, if you get Critically Hit for, let’s use 400 (because it makes math easy), your attacker will receive 100 damage back. Add in the Bonus from Max Health, we’ll use the Witch King’s Max at level 1 & 14 to make is simple; at level, Darkness will Reflect back (.25 + (401x.01)) 29.01% damage, or 116 in Damage Reflection – at Level 14, Darkness will Reflect back (.25 + (1337x.01)) 38% damage, or 152 in Damage Reflection. This is once again at 0 Basic Attack Resistance. The Witch King naturally gains 40 Basic Attack Resistance at level 14, and gaining a shrine gives an extra +4% Resistances across the board, so adding in an additional Resistances renders this ability useless… Basically, stick with Ability Resistance if you’re going to run Resistances at all.

Darkness is the Basic Attack Killer. Running it against Hard Hitting Guardians is the best use of this particular Aura… Against heavy ability users, the Aura is useless… The other use for Darkness is the “Taunt”; you can Taunt almost dead Guardians, who have pushed a little too far, into a Danger Zone (such as a group of Friendly Guardians, or your Tower), or use Taunt to make a Guardian whack themselves to death.

*Against Defenders – Not too effective against Defenders as a whole as they typically do not have high Basic Attacks.
*Against Enchanters – Pretty useless against Enchanters, except Perhaps Lugbol. You can kill his Wolf Pretty easily.
*Against Strikers – Strikers beware… Usually Squishy and hit hard with Basic Attacks, the Perfect Aura.
*Against Tacticians – Depending on the Tactician, this can be a great Aura or somewhat useless.
*Against Warriors – Typically I’ll Alternate back and forth between Malice and Darkness, depending on the Warrior, my HP, their HP and Cooldowns.

2.3 - Despair (B – Xbox, Circle – PS3) – “The Fight or Flight Aura”
Despair slows an Enemy Target, reducing their Movement Speed by 20%/30%/40%/50% for 5.0 seconds, and Slows all other Enemies within close range by 1.5% of the Witch-king’s MAXIMUM HEALTH while Despair is active. The cooldown for this ability is 12 seconds.

Use:
This ability is interesting because it’s both an asset offensively and defensively. Offensively, you can snare fleeing Guardians to deliver your final blow, and defensively, you can use Despair to snare pursuing Guardians while retreating. This aura can help eliminate pesky Tacticians who like to use guerrilla tactics, or save your *** if you bite off more than you can chew. The slow is persistent as well, so even Anti-Crowd Control Resistances or Abilities are only so effective.

This hidden bonus about this ability is it scales Amazing with Max Health. The Slow aura from Despair at level 4, is (401x.015) 6%, which is okay… At level 14, with base hp, the Aura is (1337x.015) 20%! The Mirkwood Spiders 3-Gem Relic is -30% per Basic Attack and has a 5 second Cooldown.. Despair is CONSTANT and is 20% at Base Health! Midgewater Mist is +75% Reduction, but takes up 4 Gem Slots and it has an 8 second cooldown. Despair is an excellent ability, considering hamstringing Movement Speed and adds up to more kills and less deaths!

*Against Defenders – Good to deliver the killing blow, or slow down a fleeing Defender for a kill by your allies. Also used to slow them down if you’re about to die.
*Against Enchanters – Good to deliver the killing blow, or slow down a fleeing Enchanter for a kill by your allies. Also used to slow them down if you’re about to die.
*Against Strikers – Strikers Good to deliver the killing blow, or slow down a fleeing Striker for a kill by your allies. Also used to slow them down if you’re about to die.
*Against Tacticians – Good to deliver the killing blow, or slow down a fleeing Tactician for a kill by your allies. Also used to slow them down if you’re about to die.
*Against Warriors – Good to deliver the killing blow, or slow down a fleeing Warrior for a kill by your allies. Also used to slow them down if you’re about to die.

2.4 - Death (Y – Xbox, Triangle – PS3) – “The Killing Blow/Anti-Defender Aura”
Description:
Causes damage and reduces enemy healing.
Death reduces healing on Enemy units within close range by 35% while Death is active, and deals Enemy Guardians 50/72/94/116 Ability Damage (gains a +.3 damage bonus per Ability Power)and 16/22/28/34 Ability Damage per second for 10.0 seconds (gains a +.08 damage bonus per Ability Power). If an Enemy Guardian is slain while under the effect of Death, the Witch-king summons a wraith that persists for 20.0 seconds. The cooldown for this ability is 52 seconds.

Use:
The Death Blow. After toying with the Witch King, this is how you get to leave your Mark on your foe. After making your foe kill them self by hitting you, or damage them just by standing too close, this is how you end the fight. When you see the health of your target(s) at a certain point, toggle Death and watch the magic happen. Death is another ability that scales well with Ability Power and can turn into a powerful ending hit in an AP build. Also, you have to love the fact you get little specter minions for killing blows, which only amplifies the Witch King’s power..

This is the Aura you want to use against Defenders as it negates their ability to heal, which greatly helps with killing them. Don’t expect to get the kill, but teammates will love you for knocking of 35% of Galadriel or Eowyn’s healing abilities (among healing from other sources).

Typically I hold death for a Death Blow, or activate it when I’m in a large group battle. Using Death too early puts you in a precarious situation with a 52 Second Cooldown time.. Wait too long, and your target has already healed. Timing is the key here.

*Against Defenders – As much as I can. I use this Aura to negate the healing effects of a Defender.
*Against Enchanters –Use to deliver the killing blow.
*Against Strikers – Use to deliver the killing blow.
*Against Tacticians – Use to deliver the killing blow.
*Against Warriors – Use to deliver the killing blow.

2.5 - Passive - Overwhelming Terror
Description:
The Witch-king gathers darkness before him in preparation for a decisive blow, gaining a mark for each Ability use. Once he has gained 4 marks, the next Ability used causes Fear to enemies within close range, with a small increase to the time based upon the Witch-king’s maximum Health.

Use:
As you can see here’s another ability with scaling based on Maximum Health. In any case, this passive put a bar above your “Basic Attack”, the bar fills blue a quarter with each Ability Use; when it is full, you Proc an AOE fear with your Next Ability. If you can time it probably, the best two abilities to Proc Fear with are Despair (Slowed Fear) or Death (Dotted, Healing Reduced Fear) – So PAY ATTENTION .

3.    Witch King Builds and Strategies
I’m going to go over Builds by Default build and Game type (1-Lane, 3-Lane).

3.1 - Default Build
The Revenant
My default build plays to the Witch King’s Max Health Ability Scaling and adds in some survivability for 1-Lane games. This is what I call my “First Available” Battlegrounds builds; it gives to the best of all worlds, but doesn’t overly excel. This is the build to use if you don’t have many Loadout slots available.

Belt: Shadow’s Reach – Caradhras – Ent-Bark.
Gems: Consumption– Agility – Consumption – Life – Life – Life – Life

With All Mithril Gems: +12 Ability Lifesteal, +4% Movement Speed, 1867 Max HP (est)

Concept: I like to use Shadow’s Reach because it grants +3 Area Effect damage per level; it’s like having Malice Active 100% of the time. At level 14, you deal an Area Effect Burn for 42 Damage Per Second. If you add in Malice, at level 14 you deal 62 Damage to anyone close to you. You slice through Soldiers with ease, and can use them as a quick way to Regain health with the Malice/Lifesteal Combination. You also couple the +4% Movement Speed bonus with Despair to more easily gain/lose ground.

This build has its weaknesses; thought it gains survivability through AP Life Steal, you lose out on Ability Power. It’s an interesting “Generalist” build.

3.2 – 1-Lane Build
The Lich
This is the build that I recommend for 1-Lane Battlegrounds. It’s more AP based due to the nature of 1-Lane Battles.

Belt: Mirror – Grey Company
Gems: Recovery – Recovery – Power – Power – Power – Recovery – Recovery

With all Mithril Gems: +267 Ability Power (Fully Stacked), 1532 Max HP (est) (Fully Stacked), +6.4 Health Regeneration per Second

Concept: This cuts health in favor of bonuses to AP and Health Regen (Since 1-Lane does not have a healing area at spawn). It also uses the +8% Ability Damage Reflection per Guardian in the area. Since 1-Lane Battlegrounds are so condensed, this exploits the grouped Guardians spamming abilities; if all 5 are close, that’s 45% Ability Damage Reflection. Regen lends to survivability, because you will take damage.. A lot of it! The AP bonuses help boost the Ability Damage bonus to basic attack on Malice and Death, so your ability damage output should be increased heavily.

You can swap out the Recovery Gems for Life Gems if there’s a healer on your team; this will boost damage output even more.

3.3 – 3-Lane Build
The Battlemage
This build is very similar to the initial Default Build from above, but you substitute “Black Gate” for “Shadow’s Reach”

Belt: Black Gate – Caradhras – Ent-Bark
Gems: Power – Power – Life – Life – Life – Life – Life

With all Mithril Gems: +188 Ability Power (Damage Shield Active), 1983 HP (est)

Concept: Similar to my default build, “The Revenant”, but this build capitalizes more on the Witch King’s Strengths: HP & AP. You gain one more Emerald Slot on your Belt, bringing you HP potential up an additional 116 points (which increases the effects of Malice, Darkness and Despair). You get a Damage Shield for Added Survivability and also, additional Ability Power, +188. This build is deadly and the reason why it’s a 3-Lane build is due to the lack of healing on 1-Lane Battlegrounds (3-Lane Battlegrounds have Healing at your Spawn Point).

A good Strategy would be to Ignite Malice to proc your Damage Shield prior to entering Combat. Take your first crack with your amped up Basic Attack, toggle Darkness/Keep Malice depending on who your fighting and finish off with a Death/Despair combo.

3.4 – Situational Team builds

These builds are some basic setups for Elite Battleground when running a compiled team.

The Reaver
This build is a heavy Regeneration build designed to keep you at Max HP. You lose Damage, but gain Survivability.

Belt: Bastion of the West – Houses of Healing – Gem
Gems: Perseverance – Recovery – Recovery – Recovery – Recovery – Recovery – Recovery

With all Mithril Gems: +5% Basic Attack Life Steal, +9.6 Health Regeneration Per Second

Really just a Pain in the *** to kill build and nothing more; you can tank for an extended period of time. You get no bonuses to HP, or AP which are the Witch King’s Strengths, but you turn into a crowd controlling, Regeneration Machine (Think Wolverine… Minus the Claws..). You’re basically Regenerating 37 Points of Health each second at level 14 (when being attacked), and dishing out Aura Slows, Reflects and Damage. I don’t consider this the most effective build, but I can see it helping a team out to a decent effect.

The Juggernaut
Max Health Build. Pairs well with a Healer…

Belt: Beorning’s Strength – Caradhras – Gem
Gems: Life – Life – Life – Life – Life – Life – Life

With all Mithril Gems: ??? HP

All I can say is exponential Health. Greatly effects Health Scaling abilities, but does little to offensive output outside of Malice Damage Aura…

(This is a Long Game build. On Standard Battlegrounds, Beorning’s Strength many times won’t wind up high enough)

The Death Lord
Beorning’s Strength coupled with the Maximum Amount of HP Possible.. Bring death to others, if not killed quickly.

Belt: Beorning’s Strength – Argonath
Gems: Power – Power – Agility – Recovery – Recovery – Recovery – Recovery

With all Mithril Gems: ??? HP, +328 Ability Power (Fully Stacked), +6.4 Health Regeneration per second

If you don’t die, you become a nightmare for everyone. Focus on Killing Soldiers.. Lots of them.. As fast as possible.

(This is a Long Game build. On Standard Battlegrounds, Beorning’s Strength many times won’t wind up high enough)

The Untouchable
Reflection Build, damage mitigation is the key.

Belt: Mirror – Seven Gates – Gem
Gems: Life – Life – Consumption – Life – Life – Perseverance – Recovery

With all Mithril Gems: 1551 HP, +5% Ability Life Steal, +5% Basic Attack Life Steal, +1.6 Health Regeneration per Second

With this build, you expand the Witch King’s Damage Reflection. Here’s the breakdown: Basic Attack Damage Reflection at level 14 is (25+(1551x.01))+8 = 48%, all the way to 80%! Ability Damage Reflection scales between 8% to 40% depending on how many Guardians are around. Really, just make everyone kill themselves.

The Wight
Similar to the Battlemage, but trades HP for AP

Belt: Black Gate – Grey Company
Gems: Power – Power – Life – Power – Power – Life – Life

With all Mithril Gems: +431 Ability Power (Shield Procced, Fully Stacked), 1692 Max Health

Play similar to the Battlemage, except deal more damage with Death and Malice’s Ability Damage Bonus to the next Basic Attack.

4.    Conclusion

I hope this guide helps out in any way. Of course these builds are strategies are subjective and input helps. As I mentioned earlier, you don’t need to copy these builds exactly, but use them as a segway to find a way that you like to play. Just remember that one single build isn’t gone to be strong in every situation (like every Guardian in the game). I looked forward to the community’s input and feedback!

Guardians of MIddle-Earth Bilbo Baggins Guide

2013-02-04T23:10:00.002-05:00

Guardians of MIddle-Earth Bilbo Baggins Guide by Woe

Feeling squishy with Bilbo? Yeah, I had that problem aswell.. Not anymore *

- Recommended Potions

~Hunter's Potion (I use 2 to 4 of these bad boys depending on the mood.. I try
~Recovery Potion (only if its a $300+ considering if you wait for a wait you could easily get you're entire life back using a Hunter's Potion properly)
~Xp Potion (a MUST .. this is because Bilbo needs to be leveling quicker or as much as everyone else on the enemy team, otherwise you'll remain squishy Bilbo until lvl14 - if the game lasts that long)
~Turret dive potion (Who else hates going cloak and getting hit by a turret?...lets fix that problem)
~Cleanse Potion (I sometimes use these, its hard to get you're life back when you're stunned or to rooted from a range)

- Recommended Relics & Jewels

~Vapors of Gorgoroth Relic
(You get 3% Life Steal per Level on your Basic Attacks. Green) <- This baby is what makes the difference

1x Emerald of Vitality (+40 max life) to help squishyness early however another choice could be basic attack defense, considering you're taunt gets you hit most of the time, and less dmg taken would be a plus.

4x Ruby of Damage
+6 Basic Attack Dmg, obviously to have greater life tap at lvl 8.

~Goblin Fury Relic (Each Basic Attack gives you +7% Attack Speed. Stacks up 5x-buff lost after not attacking for 5secs) Keep the life steal coming when you don't have Gaffer's Cider spell ready.

1x Ruby of Damage
+6 Basic attack Dmg, to continue life tap of course.

3x Topaz of Agility
+4% Movement Speed gems.. I mean to chase down you're foes, or to simply stay close enough to continue the life tap; You should already have enough attack speed from the relic & from using the "Gaffer's Home Cider'' spell.

- Recommended Command's

~Heal

Surprise heal is what we call it, named after how many times you can surprise you're enemy in thinking they are about to kill you, yet 'bam surprise' I have the advantage, and free kill.
however, since we already have life steal for those situations, I would be using heal to get into a fight with low life if I don't already have enough to get close enough, or to simply run away with low life.. knowing I won't be gaining any anytime soon.

~Adrenaline

This is my personal choice .. Honestly, if you are lvl1 in some situations, if you play bilbo right you can 2v1 two people that have heal commands..by far the most satisfying choice.. even late game you can cloak behind a enemy team's push and hit you're Cider spell, Adrenaline, and Life steal and you will be amazed how fast they drop & maybe even rage quit.

~ I have yet to use many of the other commands, I guess you could sub out both heal and adrenaline and play passive the early in and get the eagle thing that pushes and use it to push an enemy team while cloaked, toward/into a turret while they are pushing or many other cute ways to use Bilbo's cloaking skills to you're advantage.

-Spell Combination / Input

Until lvl5 I usually put as much as I can as soon as I can in Cider, and then put the rest into cloak .. Once completed I put some into taunt, I feel being cloaked as long as possible gives you a better advantage for running around/using jukes on you're foes. *keep in mind you will be putting everything into Sting every chance possible, obviously.

- How to outwit you're enemy *

You can't just pop the potions, commands, spells and always get the enemy.. roots, and slow down spells will prevent successful ganks/fights, you must learn to use cloak and the bushes to constantly have the first strike on you're opponent. You really wan't to save you're cider for all gaurdian fights, you won't be stealing enough life, nor attacking fast enough without it for most 1v1's etc.

Bilbo has only came out recently, so I have many more matches to play with him .. I just hear "Oh my god, how.. how .. how .." so often by so many people I felt the need to share it. I don't want another Guardian being under used because of people assuming hes squishy like Ori. I'll be sure to update this as much as possible. Please don't mind the poor grammar and format, this was done randomly.