Hero Discussion #1: Abaddon, The Lord of Avernus

Abaddon is a melee strength hero whose proper position as either hard 5 support or situational 1 position varies depending on who you ask. Though not picked very often in competitive, the hero enjoys a significant win rate across all skill brackets, 57% at its highest in the sub 2K range, but only dropping to 55% in 5k+: indeed, sometimes it seems like the primary strength of the hero is increasing MMR, regardless of the fact that he seems too weak to play in any professional capacity.

Abaddon's primary strengths are early game skirmishing and objective taking: his abilities turn nearly every 2v2 or 3v3 scenario into one where your team comes out on top. The primary reason for this is Aphotic Shield, which is a stun-removing ball of damage absorption you can place on your teammates to let them charge fearlessly into battle, or on yourself to make sure that the enemy hurts themselves before taking you down. Once the fight is won, your teammates can then easily transition into taking a tower with the help of Curse of Avernus, where Abby uses Frostmourne to make everyone attack his target faster: a 40 attack speed bonus at its max level, shared with all allied heroes and creeps. Since this buff lasts for 4.5 seconds, Abaddon can even perform hit and runs on towers by slapping them once, then running away, defending himself from rotations while making sure the creep wave does significantly more damage than it normally would.

Abaddon's primary weaknesses are his lack of crowd control, lack of damage, and his diminishing late game potential: while Borrowed Time is an incredible ultimate that can make you feel and seem literally unkillable in the early game, the later the game goes the easier it is to just ignore you, or to even straight up crit through your ultimate so you can't get it off: Phantom Assassin in particular is great at doing this with her massive crits. An Aghanim's Scepter can still give you some relevance as it will give your entire team 50% damage reduction for seven seconds, but even this isn't enough to secure a game that stretches into the hour mark.

There are a few questions about the hero that I'd like this discussion to at least start focusing on, as I'm sure there are varying opinions.

1) What is the proper pair of boots for Abaddon? As I typically play a lower position Abaddon, even from the offlane, I tend to build Arcane Boots for my own and my team's mana sustain, but even other lower position Abaddon players would argue that Soul Ring + Tranquil Boots is the way to go. Some players will even tell you that Phase Boots are the correct choice since they give you noticeable damage in the early game and let you chase people down, and they certainly aren't wrong either.

2) Taking it as a given that Aphotic Shield is the first ability to max on this hero, what is the second? Curse of Avernus to maximize your team's pushing potential and deathball capabilities, or Mist Coil to maximize your healing/nuking power?

3) Though I'm sure broader build discussions will be had, I'd like to laser-focus on one item to start things off: Mekansm. I personally, never build the item on this hero, but can certainly see its strengths and uses.

* Thank you Sofa for requesting I start these discussions off: Abaddon is in fact my most-played hero, yet despite this I have never written a guide on him! So this is a solid way of sharing my insight and hearing the insight of others in lieu of that.

I look forward to your comments.

judging from my few games with abba and how I usually see it in game: tranquils all the way for the 4pos abba and I think support abba is the correct way to play this hero.

I would prefer maxing curse of avenus in games where some1 gets early vlads or there's some more synergy with other heroes. Otherwise coil coil coil coil.

I have only like 3 or 4 games with this hero, and I didn't feel I was all that useful, so I have to pass on this one. I've also not seen too much of it on competitive, exactly as you said. Why do you think that is, I mean, not being picked in high level but being spammed and succefful in low levels? Look forward to your guys inputs.

Btw: does every hero discussion has to look this well to start with? Damn boy, not sure I can do that :D

Alriiiight! Props to Safecyn for starting this one.

About Abbadon witth what I know:

1. You pick him for Aphotic Shield. Maybe you want to purge stuns, maybe you just need a shield, but you pick abba for this reason.

2. Abba is a good aura carrier - whether that be radiance, vlads or ac.

3. Abba is useless if he's not annoying. By that I mean - if the enemy can simply ignore you, adjust your item build so they can't. Build abyssal, build auras, make it so that they can't ignore you.

1) I normally go with Tranquil Boots because it goes well with Mist Coil. I also stick a Soul Ring in there. Although I could see how Arcanes + Urn could work, I dislike it because abba want to focus on auras.

2) Personally I like Mist Coil because I don't appreciate what Frost of Avernus does, because I don't understand it.

3) I don't favour Mek on Abba because it is very mana intensive. I tend to focus more on other auras, like vlads, drums, etc etc.

Questions for dotafire:

i) What exactly does Frost even do?

ii) Do you ever build damage on abba?

iii) Is abba viable as a core?

A point to note is that CoA procs before your attack lands. otherwise he is one of the heroes i love playing and not suck at.
As for building damage, he can work against heroes who can't crit/burst him above his ultimate self activation threshold imho.

Nonsense! Abaddon is plenty feasible as a right click hero; you just have to combine right click capabilities with tankiness! Here's how I build it: Orb of Venom> Phase Boots> Sange and Yasha> Eye of Skadi> Vladmir's Offering

Curse of Avernus gives you a good aatack speed boost plus slow, so you're actually really at zoning enemies out in lane (You tried fighting and OoV Abaddon under shield?)

Now as for the build, SnY+Skadi gives you 1000+ and Skaid gives you an Eaglesong's worth of Agility and don't forget about Yasha quickening your attacks too. Phase is chasing down enemies slowed by orb and curse and Vlad's allows you to be relevant in teamfights and pushing,

Abaddon, the only hero I can pick when my team has no stuns, and I still win.

But yes, this guy is my go to dude for ranked (though if enemies pick Slark or AM, I have some trouble).

And Sofa, to answer you:
Frost slows your target through magic immunity, gives everyone punching them move+attack speed, and works on buildings. It works well in lane if you can bully the opponents, but mostly, it is for taking easy towers after winning teamfights.

Damage? Radiance and AC are generally the extent of it. In low level games, things like SnY and Mjollnir can be quite good, but usually not. Back when abyssal was a damage item it would have counted, but now its not.

Core? Well, sure. Radiance on Abaddon is pretty nice, since it lets you actually farm. For the most part however, he's in the thin line between 3 and 4. I often run him offlane as a semi-support, since it often involves a jungle pick, but sometimes if I see something like mid Pudge or I do really well in my offlane, getting Radiance to bully the enemies is an option

I had a recent Abaddon game with Dotafire people Maasaki, Yzreel, Smuggles, and Tera. Basically, I used my most common build of Soul Ring Tranquil Vlads Aghs and using my Aghs, and even with our lack of stuns, we were able to tank through Tide and Elder Titan ults, which doesn't happen often. http://www.dotabuff.com/matches/2506303322

ABBA core is same thing as Venge core. Viable but inferior to support build up because other cores offer more.

For boots I used to go Tranquil Boots and Soul Ring but know I actually think Arcane Boots are the best. I think that arcanes are so good because you are likely to build a Mekansm and upgrading in Guardian Greaves is incredibly strong. Also Aether Lens is a decent abba item.

For damage i once build a Necronomicon and my conclusion is that the item works for abadon but it is like a beastmaster but a bit worse. Also Radiance is a good option when you are ahead.

Auras are the way to go, Crimson Guard, Pipe of Insight, vladimir's offering, Mekansm and many more are the absolute aba items. Aghanim's Scepter is good when the game is going to last longer than 40 minutes but I think hex is way better than.

My few games as Abaddon have always been as a 5 position support. My itemization consists of Magic Wand, Tranquil Boots or Arcane Boots, depending on the match, and then mostly wards and other support stuff. If I amass the gold for a medium or big item I just adapt: Force Staff, Glimmer Cape, Heaven's Halberd, whatever fits the general situation. My build is always 2-4-0-1, then max Mist Coil, then Curse of Avernus.

Mist Coil always looked lackluster on paper to me, however I got surprised by its amount of healing in practice. It was then when I realized every maxed Mist Coil equals a Mekansm activation with a 4.5 second cooldown, so my opinion about it shifted 180º. Now I think Abaddon, as a healer, is on par with Omniknight. This would explain why I'm more comfortable with him as a defensive support.

Now, my duty is to protect my carry rather than zone out the offlaner(s), mainly because I don't have the tools to harass properly and I'm melee, so even an early value point in Curse of Avernus is worthless to me. However, when the early game ends and towers start getting pushed, this skill becomes invaluable. In my 2.5k bracket at least, splitpushing a tower while the enemy team is distracted with my teammates may not be optimal, but it's definitely feasible.

I don't like Abaddon as a carry, btw. Curse of Avernus is his only right-click steroid, and I don't find its values to be that stellar; it's a pseudo- Eye of Skadi, but without damage or tankability. He has some survivability with Borrowed Time, but it can be played around. Mist Coil falls off hard as a nuke and can't heal Abaddon himself, and Aphotic Shield can't get him out of stuns. All his right-click gets from his skills is a slow to avoid getting kited. Everything else he may need must be bought.

Now, I'm sure there are people out there who play him successfully as a core, and I don't think it's impossible; it's just that he must face the right line-up. If I have to define "right line-up", I guess it'd imply a mixture of squishy heroes, with low mobility, or with low pushing power. And Abaddon himself might need a deathball or pushing strat to make the most of Curse of Avernus.

EDIT: Just finished a game that defies everything I've written above. I 1st pick him expecting a carry to babysit, but instead I get supports. Crystal Maiden safelane with me, against Windranger. Since I can't heal myself I skip Mist Coil and level Curse of Avernus. We don't kill her, but harass her well enough. I freefarm until I get Vladmir's Offering and join the others at mid. I build Sange and Yasha to complement my boots and slow and to ensure my aura affects my team all the time. Then I go Aghanim's Scepter to protect them during teamfights. After that I go Skull Basher into Abyssal Blade to shut down Lifestealer and Legion Commander. Moon Shard comes when we already have megacreeps, so it doesn't really count. Strange game overall, as K/D/A ratios show. Everyone was getting early kills, so I thought I didn't need to be the main damage dealer.