Dota 2 Introduction part 6: Early-game Items
Long time no see! In our previous lesson, we went over all of the consumables which you can buy in Dota 2. Most of the time, these are accompanied by a selection from a plethora of other items which do everything from granting you more attributes, giving you more armour to make you more tanky to raising the attack speed of your character. What items can these be? Keep reading to find out!
Stout Shield: When worn, this item gives the hero a 60% chance to block some damage from an attack. Since melee heroes block twice the damage ranged heroes do (20 compared to 10), this item is most often seen on a melee hero who expects to have some harassment in his lane. Therefore, a safe-lane carry in a trilane would normally not buy this item unless he expects an aggressive trilane from the opposing team. Also interesting is that the block chance is pseudo-random, so the actual chance is closer to 53% than 60%.
Iron Branch: At first glance, this looks like a typical twig. However, there is much more to this item than meets the eye. For the low price of fifty-three pieces of gold, this item increases every attribute by one, which means your Strength, Agility and Intelligence all go up. A fun fact is that this item is the most cost-effective one in the entire game, so if item-slots were unlimited, this would basically be the only item players would buy outside of consumables. Luckily, you can only carry 6 items on a hero, so more items than only Iron Branches are useful, the following ones are some of them.
Magic Stick: This item costs 200 gold and gives no extra attributes. However, what it does is gain a charge when an enemy which you can see who is in a radius of 1200 from you uses an ability. The Stick can later be activated to grant mana and health based on the amount of charges it has. With 15 health and mana gained per charge and a maximum of 10 charges, this item can give you a burst of 150 of both resources, which can be invaluable in a pinch, either giving you enough health to survive or enough mana to throw out one final stun to end the fight. This is a must-buy item against certain heroes who spam their abilities relentlessly in the lane, such as Bristleback.
Magic Wand: Two paragraphs above here, it is mentioned that item slots are quite limited in Dota 2. Next, the cost-efficiency of Iron Branches and the value of a Magic Stick are explained. Why not combine the two into one single item? With three Branches, one Stick and a recipe resulting in a total cost of 509 gold, you get +3 to all attributes as well as the active of the stick in one single item slow. Naturally, the efficiency of this item makes it a very worthwhile buy and is useful on nearly every hero who fights a lot throughout the game.
Gauntlets of Strength: These gauntlets grant the wearer more durability in form of three extra points of Strength. These are normally bought on heroes whose main attribute is Strength, as it raises their damage by three as well, but they also work well on heroes looking to buy one of the items they can be upgraded to. This item costs 150 gold and can be combined to create either a Bracer of an Urn of Shadows, but you’ll have to earn more gold if you wish to buy the latter one.
Mantle of Intelligence: This mantle is the Intelligence-based version of the Gauntlets, providing the exact same amount of attributes for the same price as them, but in Intelligence instead. Just like with the Gauntlets, this item is normally bought on Intelligence heroes, especially supports who need some additional mana in the early-game until they can buy items like Arcane Boots. Worth mentioning is that this item can be upgraded to a Null Talisman, which can further be upgraded to a Dagon, an item which does a nuke of magic damage which can be upgraded to do even more damage which can be very entertaining to make use of.
Slippers of Agility: These, the last item which grants three of a main attribute, are different from the other two in that they can be bought from the Side Lane Shop. Since two of these can also be combined with a Stout Shield, mentioned earlier in this part of the introduction, to create a Poor Man’s Shield, they are fairly common on melee agility carries such as Anti-Mage and Juggernaut, if these wish to be active early on. Additionally, they are also incredibly comfortable.
Circlet: This item is basically the rich man’s Iron Branch, giving two extra of each attribute compared to one for a Branch, but for more than three times the price. However, contrary to the Branch, the Circlet can be combined with all of the items which add three to an attribute alongside a recipe to create an item which gives +3 damage and +3 to every attribute save the one which the item that was used to create it gave, for which it instead gives +6. For instance, if we combine a Circlet with Slippers of Agility and a recipe, we get a Wraith Band, which gives +3 Strength, +3 Intelligence and +6 Agility as well as +3 damage. Therefore, this is a good buy for anyone who wishes to make more out of their Gauntlets, Mantles or Slippers.
Ring of Protection: This item gives two extra points of armour. While it does not sound like much, it is actually quite useful early on, as the additional armour will make enemy attacks deal less damage. The ring can also be combined with other items to form things such as rings or boots which help you out even more in the lane.
Sage’s Mask: This mask grants you 50% additional mana regeneration, which is great for a support early on who uses their abilities often. Furthermore, the mask can be combined with a plethora of other items, such as the aforementioned Ring of Protection which alongside the Sage’s Mask creates a Ring of Basilius, granting an aura that can be turned on or off giving your creeps two additional points of armour, making it easier to push a lane, while also giving you +6 to your damage.
Quelling Blade: This blade is mostly bought on melee junglers or carries who suspect no contention in the safe lane, as it allows them to deal 32% extra damage to neutral or enemy creeps. Ranged heroes rarely go for this, as the 12% bonus for them is negligible. Nevertheless, with this item, the jungle is much easier to clear and creeps are much easier to last-hit in lane thanks to the extra damage. Before patch 6.78, their single active ability was to destroy trees. After the patch, they are now also able to destroy wards and can be used within a range of 300. This is great if you are trying to de-ward as a melee hero, although most of the time heroes with quelling blades do not really join their team in de-warding the map as they focus more on farming.
Robotics Facility units are highly specific combat units that can be extremely powerful if used in the right way. Immortals are hulking crab-like mechanized striders, equipped with hard hitting cannons and a hardened shield allowing them to soak up high powered attacks. Commonly found in the early to mid game, Immortals deal massive damage to Roaches, Stalkers and Tanks but are susceptible to melee units such as a Zergling or Zealot. Observers are tiny invisible scouting units, capable of revealing stealth enemies on the battlefield and provide vision by hovering over crucial areas on the map. Warp Prisms are the most versatile Robotics Facility unit and can transport units through the air safely. Their utility and versatility comes from their ability to switch to “Phasing Mode” to create a power field to warp in gateway units before flying off to another location requiring reinforcement.
Oscar Svensson