Windranger's AC and Medalion - is it a good choice?

Dear all,

I've been recently on a Windranger hype, due to Bunkan's tip helping me achieve what I could never do before with the hero.

Match here: http://www.dotabuff.com/matches/1653538446

I had this game yesterday where I figured I needed an Assault Cuirass. Why? Because they had a Dazzle, a Nature's Prophet with Desolator and two very heavy right-clickers, plus Viper.

The thing is, I started with the Deso myself, in order to be able to rat, since my team was not very coordenated (they did wonderfull teamfiths which resulted in rampages for the Ember Spirit, but they didn't take objectives in an organised manner after). I was convinced we were gonna lose (specially because the said Ember didn't bother to buy Dust and get that damned Nature's, only to see him escape him again and again), so I decided I needed to be able to solo-take Nature's Prophet and kill Drow Ranger. I figured I needed armor, I bought the Platemail, planning on a Shiva's, but since I had no Aghs I was not satisfied with my regular AS. So I went AC. I had never seen an Assault Cuirass wind before - but hey, why not?

Drow Ranger purchased a surprise Butterfly so I ratted my way out of teamfights until I had the Monkey King Bar, and finally entered base. I killed Drow Ranger with ulti, then she bought back, AND I managed to kill her once more with no ulti, with the help of Ember Spirit. The thing is: I was left alive with 20 HP or so, and she was hitting like a truck - with Silver Edge, Daedalus, Satanic and Butterfly.

You think AC could have contributed? Was it a good item after all, or was I day-dreaming?

On the same topic: Is a casual Medallion of Courage a good item on Windranger? I usually struggle with mana and armor in the early game, so I was thinking trying this, based on Sofa's and Sando's idea for Phantom Assassin - thought it could be a good idea to use on someone we want to ulti.

Hi ChiChi!

The think about a Medallion on WR is that there are better items for herself. However, if the team needs, a Medallion wouldn't be so bad. However, there are better candidates for the item.

About AC... It's not great. If you think about it, WR doesn't need the attackspeed.

But the biggest thing is... Vlad's gives the same amount of armour to the team. Honestly. +5.

Hi Sofa!

Thanks! Perhaps I should have gone Vladmir's Offering then?

Usually I don't care for attack speed on Wind either, but this game I felt I needed it, since I had to wait for the ulti longer cooldown and was ratting. Also AC gives more armor to myself.

But Vlad's damage would be welcomed, since I had Deso already.

As for Medalion, I usually opt for a casual Oblivion Staff for mana, if they have ways of burning it, or just Ring of Basilius/ Bottle. Are all of these better than Medalion?

Shiva's would have been a much better alternative. You don't need the attack speed, since Focus Fire is more than enough. While the armor aura is good for the team, but reducing the enemy team's attack speed is better usually.


Also Shiva grants you damage as well.

Yeah, Shiva's has the inteligence big block. But without Aghs I'm still not convinced Focus Fire is enough for AS, there were plenty of times when I needed and it was in cooldown from a previous fight =/

Still, I will not repeat the choice and go for either Shiva's or Vlads. Being that I like regular AS on Wind when I don't have an Aghs, I have other choices for this.

How can it be on cooldown? Agh's Focus Fire has 100% uptime!

For mana, I usually build an early Ring of Basilius and a Bottle. The Basi has an added benefit of building into the aforementioned Vladmir's Offering.

Have you been listening to me, I had no Aghs, that's the problem :D

I should have built it, but I ended up with a weird build where I suddenly wanted armor and AS. I gotta go for Vlads more too, usually I sell the Basi.

Who plays WR without Aghs anyways :)

Assault Cuirass is situational on a lot of heroes for the aura. WR is just a really bad AC user...doesn't need attack speed, doesn't need armor until MKB's are out, and shivas is just better on her.

You don't build attack speed on WR. You buy aghs. Aghs not only gives 100% uptime on Focus Fire...it also increases your ult damage by 42% (attack damage reduction from 30% to 0%). So you will rat much faster with aghs than with attack speed since it increses the ult damage by a lot.

You don't build armor on WR unless the enemy team has mass MKB's. These scrubs didn't even have MKB's on their damage dealers (NS doesn't count)...so no point.

Well he mentioned he had no aghs since he went a armor reduction build to take down buildings so AC makes sense. Since the AS limit has been changed having additional AS also isn't that senseless.
Sure it makes more sense to build pure damage to abuse focus fire, but having stable dps even without focus fire can be important depensing on the game.

You're right :( noob WR is noob.

But KrDotoBestDoto got my point (I'm a "she", btw). I was very confused, to say the least xD