General Discussionwhen would "fun skill builds" fail to work?

I always put points on stats when i'm playing a hero with a skill that doesnt scale, like NP's sprout or VS's stun (when played as a carry). I just put a value point and then stats all the way.

yeah
like, i figured the tradeoff for cent's stun not worth it

more mana for relatively abysmal dmg gain and .5 sec longer which isnt much to bargain for

though dbl edge i do like sometimes, its a free aoe dagon early game

i just love pumpin out some more than average farm by having these stat builds lol

If a build gives you fun, then it works. Because usually you dont have fun when you get crushed and die 100 times.

which skill wouldn't you max on OD or Phoenix? 2000 games…

well i wouldnt do this for all heroes

but im guessin ur askin if we had to choose between those two heroes, which skills would we not max?

phoenix.... would be absolutely retarded imo if u skipped maxing any skills... but if i had to choose one i'd pick dive, simply cause the cd is quite long for a normal skill

and OD, i've considered skipping his ult/leaving it at lvl 1, and instead, go huge mana pool items
i.e. mana boots, MoM (auto orb to replace lifesteal), disassemble boots and make phase/bloodstone/bkb/sny/situational***

gives you relatively large mana pool in comparison to just buying pure int items for your ulti multiplier, and hey, if u find yourself against heroes with higher int or a nyx, wouldn't it be better to build up pure mana pool rather than int? could still make use out of arc orb doing % dmg based on current pool instead of int.

MoM/phase/bkb/sny for near max MS with the actives on, and durability, and BKB so u don't melt under bursty spells
bloodstone is just there for the +++ mana, and that leaves u with any situational item of your choice
maybe even another bloodstone, so two = 1000 health, 800 mana, 18 hp regen, 400% mana regen, 20dmg

according to a dota 2 hero calculator, a lvl 16 OD with the above build will have 2160+ mana, which means a possible maximum of 192 pure bonus dmg, but with 400% regen and massive atk speed, i'd assume you would have more than a fair chance to restore your mana quite often

at lvl 25 you will have 2727 mana, which will grant u 245 pure dmg max
and with MoM active you will supposedly get 1.91 atks/sec which is relatively fast

he'll also have 3220+ health which is quite tanky

I was referencing Smaug. Look at his profile.

ßΣτᕆĦ©•Dαßßiπgφ5 hours ago

Why wouldn't you max frost arrow on Drow? LVL4 slow is the most annoying shit you can come by. Any melee hero without can you kite if he's alone. Attack him, he moves towards you, go back, attack, repeat.

What's the reasoning by maxing the aura? It's an agility scaling damage boost, that scales in terms of damage the later the game goes. Having lvl 4 aura early in the game doesn't make much difference?

If you look at players like Arteezy, he'd just put 1 skill into aura and then level stats until later in the game. You're doing the opposite, removing frost arrow and start leveling aura in the early game? (1 point is enough, rather max silence first. The duration can be extremely gamechanging.

Also hoof stomp, VS magic shit gets some longer duration. This short durationboost can give you a kill that you wouldn't if you had the lowest duration stun. These small differences can change a game. Change who wins.

You remember me of the guy who I watched in my irl friends game. Didn't level hook on Pudge cause the damage output of hook doesn't scale well into lategame. SO he went 0-4-4

^

i forgot to go on about drow

drow's a slightly different story from cent

the 60% slow is quite good, so i find myself tossing and turning whenever i have to choose between these two :c

though if you're going against a lineup that isn't effected much by ur slow, or prevents you from even being able to be alive during teamfights, then why not? (:

i know that it scales better as the game progresses, but given a higher sooner level than average (lvl 3 aura), with let's say treads/wraith/wraith, that is already a LOT of damage, and as soon as she hits 6, you really don't want to CS against her nor leave her in lane to destroy your tower

it's much more farm oriented rather than gank oriented

i would be more inclined to add more points into silence if the CD decreased and the range knockback was increased per level
the 1 sec duration longer is kinda wimpy

bonus: this also does wonders for right-clickers that are ranged, like having luna/venge/mirana in a tri, with your added bonus = right click powaaaaa

yes, i'm just trying to find different and fun ways of playing while still being viable at the same time

i recognize that you can get in an extra attack or two by the 4th lvl of stomp, but to me, that is quite useless when i'm facing a tri-lane that'll try and zone me with their range while their carry farms

this is where i might go 1-1-4, (most ppl just assume return is a low level), and their harass takes surprisingly more damage from hitting me than i am from receiving it

i don't really see a point in trying to go full on aggressive in most situations for cent in the offlane, doing this build gives new advantages and disadvantages

let's say im against a clock, which is fairly common, maybe he realizes that he shouldn't attack me - so he just focuses on CS instead.
but that's a huge deal for clock, being able to harass his enemy while still being a melee hero
now i have more str dmg, better last hit capability, and more durability. aggroing creeps to hit you, and last hitting it + return dmg = fairly easy money, no?

i still generally get stomp/edge so i dont look a complete buffoon or sitting duck, and blink (even though I really just wanna go all tank items), cause i know in the end im the initiator ):

some other bonuses: going this build also works well against ppl with bad atk animation (lina, clinkz, drow) etc, as return triggers as soon as they finish their frontswing? idk which term is used
also confuses the fuck out of rubicks for obvious reasons

not that rubick has the HP to spam dbl edge anyways lmao

hook scales way better than hoof stomp man
400 PURE dmg, a 1400 range interrupt spell that can reposition enemy or ally heroes

also flesh heap is a lot less useful early game than mass levels of aura/return
pudge would have abysmal EHP gains by maxing flesh heap first
and it's retroactive so that'd be beyond retarded

"Also hoof stomp, VS magic shit gets some longer duration. This short durationboost can give you a kill that you wouldn't if you had the lowest duration stun. These small differences can change a game. Change who wins. "
VS's magic missile duration at lvl4 is only 0.3s higher than lvl1. Maxing it out is fine when you play support (most of the time) because you need the nuke + the "longer" stun, but if your team needs to dish out more damage/lacks a semi carry you better put one point and then go for stats (after maxing out wave and passive).

6 rapiers is fun and always works

I always max frost arrows everything else is situational. Increasing your farm slightly is not worth giving up the option to fight if required (and with lv 1 frost arrows you dont have that option at all)