They broke spirit bear!

Ok, so the armlet Nerf was probably needed on spirit bear (sb now takes damage from armlet)
My question is, what will players do now? Will people still rush armlet but only turn it on when needed? Or will people start replacing it with something else? I agree with ice frogs decision to do this before anyone says he was op (level 8 soloing towers in 15 seconds was a tad op)

My thoughts are either early maelstrom or rush a desolator. I mainly use ld for fast/split push. Even in team fights, he is going to hit hard (entangle+stripping armour = dead)

Any other ld players thought about this?

Cheers

Armlet on the Spirit Bear was already OP, so the 6.78 nerf was necessary to restore Lone Druid's balance. So with this nerf, you have 2 options: You either rush different items like Maelstrom or Desolator, or you still buy Armlet of Mordiggian and only turn it on when necessary but that would require extensive micro. One important thing that you have to remember is that Armlet of Mordiggian has also been nerfed in this patch, making it a less viable item on other heroes, meaning heroes that rush Armlet of Mordiggian like Lone Druid have also been indirectly nerfed. So Armlet of Mordiggian is no longer that good, making Lone Druid players buy other items instead.

I believe Lone Druid players will go back to the Maelstrom + Skull Basher build, because getting an Armlet of Mordiggian is not worth it and also it requires even more microing now.

True. The lack of STR gain used to be neglected when the lifedraining system was non existent on bear, but now that it's gone the old builds are coming back. (Yay!)

Armlet itself wasn't nerfed that hard though. 1 less HP regen is nothing when you already have 7 excluding that point, your other methods of regen and then lifesteal.

I think the "added micro will be really extensive" thing is a bit of an overstatement too, because if you can already micro Druid perfectly 2 extra pushes won't be that much.

Yeah well, you want to keep the bear alive as much as possible, and the drain won't help at all.

I miss the Radiance rush on the bear honestly, was pretty funny.

Agreed but a big problem with radiance is you need to melt their towers quickly after that. Also, it is an expensive item and an early death seriously slows it down. (Where as the most expensive piece of armlet was 950.

I just watched a competitive match, I believe Team Empire vs Kaipi, don't remember at all, where the Radiance bear was played. And it was very effective, glad to see it back!

After that annoying Armlet of Mordiggian bear I belive that Radiance is the next best choice as a damage item.

I still hope for the Maelstrom + Skull Basher build to come back, but the Radiance could be very useful for shutting down those very popular Blink Dagger carriers if gotten at a reasonable time (which could sometimes mean delaying Phase Boots, which I really like on the bear).

I also tried the new Armlet on the bear (well, I actually forgot about the Dota 2 update D:), but it worked out pretty well with a Vladmir's Offering; since Vlad's now stacks with the Assault Cuirass I picked up both and, with a little more micro, I still managed to make the Armlet work even though we lost that match.



That's so true: every good Lone Druid player should costantly be activating Phase Boots on the bear, if you can do that the Armlet won't be a problem.

Had a go at Radiance bear last night. I forgot how much fun it is. Chasing down anti mage and qop was great. Even our puck player couldn't catch him.
Just made me much slower to start.