Finally, a post related to DotA. Ya know, usually when I play this game… when I own (as in dominate), it is mostly with cheap heroes like Stealth Assassin, Bloodseeker and Bounty Hunter (oh and super cheap ones like Ogre Magi too). Let me break down how I usually own with these heroes.
Stealth Assassin
This is my signature hero. If I use him, it will either be a blowout (like 15-0?) or break even (like 5-5, 7-5?) when I am on my bad days. The pattern of this hero is simple (in my play style at least)… All you need to do is farm farm farm farm (gotta do it in a solo lane, bottom for Sentinel and top for Scourge). Since SA is a invisible hero, some people use this advantage to harass when they hit level 6. I don’t, I use it to farm (so that I will be getting hit less in the process). And once I have the following items:
That is when I start hunting down heroes and start my dominating spree (walk behind a lone hero, smoke and start backstabbing him to death lol). Then after that followed by this:
This is the final core item for SA… with this, you can rack kills easily (the highest I went was 18-0). Of course, there’s a drawback when you’re using SA. If you are laned against a range hero… and the player is a PRO, he will carry a gem and start screwing you over… and when that happens, that’s the end of SA (I actually don’t believe it until I was given a reality check in a game). But still, it is my best hero.
Bloodseeker
Super cheap hero from the beginning (yeah, from the start). He sucks blood, can rupture and runs damn fast when someone’s HP is below half. The pattern is simple… Rupture >> Bloodrage (on himself) and start hitting the ruptured hero. That is 1 kill (simple?). If you have an average micro (last hitting and deny), you should be able to own with this pig look-alike.
Bounty Hunter
Another cheap hero. Runs like madman (that helps) and the pattern of killing is the same too. Wind Walking behind the enemy, and once the enemy is alone, hit him once, cast Track on him and start chasing and hitting him like mad. Once the HP is extremely low, throw the Shuriken aka Toss at him. Another simple to use hero… I got a 10-0 on my first try with him (that is beyond Godlike lol).
Ogre Magi
Lamest hero ever. Farm til you got Aghanim (stunning + fire opponent in the process) and you can start owning. When you see an enemy, just stun and pray (actually, you don’t need to pray since 30% chance is pretty high) for a multicast. If you got a multicast, that’s one kill for ya. Even a 10 year old can dominate with this ugly hero.
Actually, Faceless Void can be considered as cheap as well… but since it is damn weak early game and can be screwed easily, I decided not to list it as “cheap”.
So onto Troll. This hero isn’t cheap. The movement speed is damn slow, the ultimate skill increases the attack speed by 120% and movement speed by 11% (kinda crappy compared to Faceless’ “clock up” and SA’s “Invisibility”) and the starting damage is crap. Oh, and this hero doesn’t have any escape mechanism, so if you’re ganked, that’s the end. But I like this guy, I own most of the time with him and here’s what I do.
Early game, I will go to the mid-lane, and start farming (you need to have an above-average last hitting skill to use this hero since it is items-dependent). Keep on farming til you get this item:
Once you get these, you can start killing heroes but I suggest that you only participate in team battle or gank (don’t try finding heroes by yourself to get kills… it is pointless, you’re not strong enough to kill 2-3 heroes at once). Keep on farming til you get these items:
This is where you shine. If you are level 16 (120% addition attack speed), you should be able to kill a hero with ease (and record time too). Mjollnir gives you 70 damage and a 20% to release 200 damage chain lightning, with a high attack speed (Tread, your own high base agility, 35 agility from Mjollnir and of course, 120 from your rampage), you will be dishing tons of damage every second (base dmg + 70 + 200 again and again… it hurts). Not only that, if you cast Mjollnir to yourself before you entered the battle, enemies will think twice before hitting you since there’s a 20% chance they get an addition 200 damage on hitting you. You should start racking kills in this stage of the game (getting a triple kill is a common thing).
You should be able to get LOTS of money from this stage on, so what do you do? Get more damage items, I usually go by this order:
You won’t be able to get all of them. But getting MKB is good enough… people will run when they see you, enemies will try to gank you, so never ever enter the battlefield first, always be the last to clear up the mess. Don’t try to be a rambo and enters the battle brainlessly, you have to know that the purpose of Troll is to clear up enemy heroes ASAP behind a tanker during a team battle for the push.
Final note: Why do I prefer Troll over SA when SA is so much easier to use? The answer is in consistency. With SA, if your early game is screwed, you’re pretty much screwed. But for Troll, no matter how much you feed early game (I went as low as 0-6 before and ended up with 10-7), as long as you got all the necessary items, you will still be the one laughing at the end since all you need are items + level 3 rampage. That’s about it for my post.
The handsome #3 (behind Omni and Gondar), Troll lol
There are some factors that make this game more attractive compared to the previous games in the series such (taken from kotaku):
