General DiscussionTips and trick on playing lone druid

First pick him for 10 games in unranked and see what you learn.

Can you give me the build and item timing at least, good sir?

Look at my games for builds.

my standard timings are:
5-6 min midas
at around 10 min you want 1200-1700 gold
rad can range from 14:00-17:00
those are really the timings you need to care about.

Thanks.

What do you think about the range build? Is it still relevant?

I haven't built ranged since the damage talents removed so I can't say.
The thing is that the damage talents were at lvl 15, so logically between lvl 1 and lvl 15 the build should be just as strong as it was before the removal.
Bear build is just objectively better now mainly because of the rabid changes and the earlier armor talents.

I would still play it if I can/need to though and I can probably be just as effective with it as before.

Oh also it doesn't help that with heroes like Lycan, Naga, Ench, Pl, Qop and Storm dominating the meta, it is a lot harder to survive as ranged since they all are more than capable of locking you down and killing you quickly since you are the most vulnerable in this build.

If you are learning ld I always say do NOT play ranged. It encourages sloppy micro and just a lot of laziness with the way you move and take fights.

Sounds pretty logical, thanks man. Any recommended players that i should watch? (Other than you of course) preferably players in my bracket

preferably players in my bracket

I know the pro ones thats why i ask players in my bracket, just for comparison

^there is 0 point watching someone in ur bracket play lone druid

Don't offlane with him. I know it's tempting but unless you know how to play him already going offlane currently is not a good idea. He's really strong mid and safelane though.

After that it just depends on what you wanna do in the game. If you wanna be a carry and do lots of damage and get kills, then go ranged druid. Get all the attack range and druid talents. Build a maelstrom and hurricane pike at least, from there you can pick and choose items, but make sure they all go on your hero until he is 6 slotted.

If you wanna take racks in literally like 15 seconds then go melee druid. Get radiance and AC, maybe a MoM or aghs depending how comfortable you are with micro. Make sure most of your items go on your bear until it is 6 slotted.

Also another pro tip, don't forget that you gotta buy 2 pairs of boots. I personally prefer phase boots on my bear. I get tranquil's on melee druid for my hero, since the bonus movement speed from the tranquil's helps you keep up with the bear while also providing HP regen. If you are going ranged then get phase boots on both just for the extra damage.

https://www.dotabuff.com/matches/3655686982
Here is a pretty decent ranged game I had that happened to go late.
And I know that I literally said not to offlane with him and I did in that game, but that's another complicated story that had to do with morons in matchmaking.

ranged ld is way worse imo than melee
just abuse demolish and MoM and ratting