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16 Votes

[Divine] How to play Dark Willow!

August 25, 2021 by Hades4u
Comments: 4    |    Views: 202008    |   


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Discord12 | January 31, 2020 7:50am
Thank you for the guide!
What do you think about the "new" items like nullifier or Aeon Disk? They seem to get used an aweful lot with her too.
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Hades4u (296) | February 1, 2020 7:24am
Hello, thank you for the comment!

I have to update the guide a little bit and include Aeon Disk as I find it great. If you're playing as a support, having Aeon Disk is very strong as it keeps you alive long enough to cast all of your disables, especially Cursed Crown and Terrorize which don't deal damage anyway, so the damage negation of Aeon Disk doesn't affect you at all.

As for Nullifier, I haven't ever tried it on Dark Willow, but I imagine it works only if you're going for a more core build with Aghanim's Scepter into the late game.
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Jordanious77 (1) | November 7, 2017 12:06am
I actually disagree with the recommended build. You'll notice Dark Willow gets more than enough mana purely from leveling up. By level 25 you have about 1k without any extra int. I have been doing a pure DPS agility/damage build, going for strength later on an then going for the +200 attack speed at level 25 (which absolutely destroys if you also have around 200-300 damage + have 50 odd agility. She is surprisingly good as a mid core too because Bramble maze is really good at keeping heroes at a distance in the laning phase.
It can be tough at times because she is super flakey when being hit by towers or burst damage but if you're careful she is able to beat most other cores 1v1 because of her decent DPS and stuns.
BUT when you get level 25 the fun REALLY begins. Just to give you an idea of the DPS I bought a heart of Tarra in one of the games and solod the T3 tower in under 10 seconds. the +200 attack speed is ridiculous. If you get a stun off the other hero is dead. The only way to stop you is via stunning, but even that doesn't really work because you still get off the burst damage from her ult.

As you can guess, I love DPS cores. However, Dark Willow not only has crazy damage potential but has the burst damage and 2 different stuns on top of it. She is an absolute machine if you give her any amount of farm. People might not instantly realize that damage potential because she seems to be a burst/mana orientated hero.. But trust me when I say she definitely has potential as a main core.

Edit: yeah, first post. I usually just read all the comments but never feel inclined to post myself. I made an exception today. She might be my fav hero behind Troll Warlord now.
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Hades4u (296) | November 7, 2017 7:41am
Hey, welcome and thanks for taking the time for checking my guide and posting a reply!

Interesting play style you're suggesting. I can imagine that she can have a really strong damage output by following your build, but the build featured in the guide is focused on supporting the team and the item choices make Dark Willow stronger while also helping the team. For instance, even though Dark Willow's mana pool might be enough, building Arcane Boots doesn't only enable her to cast her spells more, but also her teammates since they benefit from the extra mana given by Arcane Boots.

I saw that you've also created a guide, that's awesome! It's great to have diverse guides with different play styles that people can follow. I'll check out your build in game to see how it goes, it looks very creative and unpredictable and I actually haven't seen it before.

Keep it up and let me know if you have any other suggestions!
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