What items physically kill you to be seen built/rushed

I for one do not like Shadow Blade DK. I find that Shadow Blade, if its worth picking up, should be grabbed after you get a few damage items (MoM, Mael, SnY, anything goes really) so you can actually kill dudes in the stun duration.

Radiance Necro was also a thing I used to run into in my days on the lower brackets, not even boots, was itemless until minute 16, then suddenly he had a sacred relic.

Then there's Dagon rushes on Riki, Bounty, and Nature's. Not too fond of that, as it almost invariably burns through the hero's usefulness as the game goes on.

Several times, I saw allies pick Magnus and Doom, get refresher.... before getting mana items.

And I heard a story of one time a Brewmaster started the game with one item. A Shiva's Guard....recipe.

yea i dont like it much either. it even gives 55 less mana then scythe. the only thing i really like about it is the faster respawn so you can keep constant map control and the deny, but then still id rather go all out with hex so i can win fights better and keep myself from dying in the first place.

Dagon on Necro. It kind of works, but it doesn't stay true to what the heroes strengths are.

After Boots > Blink > Aghs if you are snowballing Dagon is good. But really you want to build pure tank.

Vanguard isn't that bad of an item on a lot of offlaners if it can be farmed early; especially if you're facing a heavy physical line up. Vanguard will be eventually be made into Crimson Vanguard. Basically the person would need to make the decision as to if they will be able to still get their blink dagger at the right timing.

Razor can get away with Vanguard if he's going for the non-mek tank build.


Mine has to be a Heart rush. Seen it happen twice and both times the person who did it ended up hurting their team so much that by the time they got the heart the game was pretty much over.

Only hero I'd ever do it on is Chaos Knight.

Tinker is like a battery, it's not about recharge rate, it's about the total amount of mana you can carry. Bloodstone is actually less good for mana than a simple Bottle/ Soul Ring combo which'll give you 450 mana per trip from the fountain. I guess with some charges that'll about level out. Ok you get 500 extra HP, faster respawns and can suicide. Meh for several thousand gold. Maybe get it late, I dunno.

I'm definitely in the "gimme a sheepstick" camp. It's just so damned good on Tinker I can't think why you wouldn't want it. Went on and on about it during the inhouse cast :)

Agh's rush on Lion... It is just too damn greedy. Yeah, if you get it early you can deal some crazy dmg in teamfights. But the only way of getting this item early is to steal kills and farm.
Just get a Blink Dagger or Force Staff it is 100% more useful and not that greedy.

I can't agree on Centaur. Against a special line-up and you are well farmed I could go with it. You have your ult to initiate. But yes 95% of the time Blink rush is much better.


For me I can only think of Agha rush on Clockwerk. A Mek, Force Staff or maybe Blademail does have a much higher impact in this stage of the game.

Bfury PA, personally. I believe that PA is more of a early impact core rather than a late-game one.

There are much better late-game heroes than PA.