Item Builds & Some Tips on Item Slots

Intro

Dota 2 is a scary game to newer players. They have to memorize skills, items, item builds, and almost everything. While it's true that almost all games need memorization of the mechanics, dota 2 is harder because of the 100+ heroes (400+ skills) AND items, and how to combine them. Well, with this, you just need to figure out the skill build, as almost every hero have a similar starting build, if not almost identical.

I'm not an expert in Dota 2, in fact i'm still a newbie. I feed constantly, sometimes i roflstomp in pub but those have only been 2 times. What i have, however, is theoretical knowledge i gained from reading articles and experimenting in the game. Regardless, i'll try to make this as good as possible.

Disclaimer

1. This is just theoretical analysis. In-game experience may (most likely will) vary.
2. This guide assumes a typical pub play, with its uniqueness and quirks.
3. This guide is very generalized, more so especially because this helps with using almost any hero (helpful for newbs).
4. Situational conditions need other considerations, and as such is not covered in this (generalized) guide, aside from some "typical situational", which is "general", in a sense.

Typical Starting Items

---

Cost: 349 gold The philosophy behind starting items is that it gives you 3 components: 1. Regen, which is Tango and Healing Salve. You need both, as double Tango can't give burst healing while double Salve can't give healing over time. The only exception is while Jungling, you can use 2 Tangoes if you're careful not to be ganked. 2. Stats, which can be 1 (rare), 2 (sometimes), or 3 (preferred) Iron Branch. It is the cheapest stat item in the game, and will boost your stats efficiently early game. 2 branches build into Mekansm, while 3 build into Magic Wand (standard) or Mekansm + Pipe of Insight (typically not recommended for a support to grab that much farm, but you might have to if people won't buy those). Buying 1 can upgrade to just the Pipe of Insight, while buying 4+ is usually discarded, thus not efficient. It might still be better than empty item slot on supports though. 3. Utilities, which can be anything cheap while giving needed effects early game. This will be discussed below. You need all 3 components while maximizing your item slot usage. You can't go without regen or stats, as they are the important for survivability. Utilities you'll also need, to generally makes your life easier. Balancing the 3 parts is the key.

Other items to buy

Now, you still have leftover gold (254 to be exact), so let's see at which utility items you can pick to fill in that slot:

---

Clarity: if you think you're going to spam spells with high mana cost. Grab maybe one or two, and the rest can be used to rush early builds. Don't buy too much!
Animal Courier: if you're a support, you need this. Then you can fill your one slot with 2 Clarities because you're a support anyway.
Observer Ward: if your team has a courier already, you can pick this. First warding position is usually one of the runes (just one is okay).
Gauntlets of Strength, Slippers of Agility, Mantle of Intelligence, Circlet: more early stats is good, though you could use some more expensive items. Pick this if you need fast stats, but there are alternatives to early stat build which will be described below.
Ring of Protection: Armor to make (usually) Ring of Basilius or Tranquil Boots (though Tranquil is often built on hero which rush Vladmir's Offering as a temporary boots).
Quelling Blade: if you need lasthitting power or if you're jungling. Generally don't pick it on a ranged hero.
Stout Shield: if you are getting/expecting harassed early, or are jungling, or are building Poor Man's Shield or Vanguard (if not, then sell the shield later). Same with QB, generally don't pick on a ranged hero.

---

Other items to (probably) buy

There's some more cheap items which you can buy with your remaining starting gold, but are more situational:

---

Additional Tango or Healing Salve: the default regen is often enough, so probably don't. If you do need it, buy more, but only while laning and not as a starting buy. You might need to give your mates one if he's foolish/selfish enough to buy starting boots though.
Smoke of Deceit: and why would you buy this in the beginning? You need laning, even as a ganker, at least to (usually) Level 6 before you can start ganking. Buying this early is just a waste. Okay, a level 1 gank makes sense. Still, in typical pub, it's rare to see (not just in the beginning, but all along the game). It could work, if your team is cooperative or competitive enough.
Sentry Ward: early counterward is not needed, and this is only needed to counter early invis heroes (from level 3 below).
Additional Iron Branch: if you're carry, probably use the remaining for utility item. If you're support, probably grab one more, if not Clarity.

---

Other items to (probably not) buy

Some items are good in general situation. Some are good in situational condition. And then there are some which should not be bought from the start, since they don't provide much benefit.

---

Town Portal Scroll: this is a good item, that's for sure. However, you can buy more useful item in early game. Generally buy TP scroll when you've finished your early-game build and are ready to gank/push/defend.
Dust of Appearance: as a counter to invis heroes, usually Sentries are better because they do need to lane first. Grab this when teamfights start to break.
Flying Courier: 220 gold for little advantage over "walking" courier can be used for better purposes early on. Usually the one who First Blood buys it. You better buy Wards if your team already have courier.
Magic Stick: this has no practicality as a starting, as the regen you get from Tango + Salve is enough. Very situational at best if against spell spammers like Bristleback or Batrider. Buy this as early-game item.

---

Early-game items:

After you buy your starting items, you farm a little and buy these early-game items:
Magic Wand and Boots of Speed: to free up space, it is advised to buy Wand first. But if you use up your regen, you might want to get Boots first.
Wraith Band, Null Talisman, Bracer: if you buy Circlet or one of the three stats item, you might want to buy this. I generally don't unless i plan on upgrading them: Wraith Band into Ring of Aquila, Null Talisman into Dagon, and Bracer into Drum of Endurance.
Poor Man's Shield: the early-game extension of Stout Shield. Help lasthitting for agi carry, almost a point of armor, and a guaranteed damage block against harassment.
Ring of Aquila: almost the ranged carry counterpart of Poor Man's Shield. This is the early-game extension of Ring of Protection. Turn the aura off to not push creep line. This is almost double the shield's cost though.
Tranquil Boots: if you start with Ring of Protection, but want to extend into Vladmir's Offering (usually Ursa or Lycanthrope). Disassemble the boots to make Vlad, then you can make new boots.

---

Core and extension

Afterwards, proceed into mid-game and end-game. Make your core, sell your early-game to make core and extension, and win. Or lose, if you do.

There's not much to detail here, as the core items to every hero are different. Consult their respective guide to check the core items and extensions. This guide will only specify starting and early build, which is quite similar across heroes.

What if you random a hero?

If you randomed, then you'll get 250 gold more. With our typical build, that means you can fill in the empty slot with an item costing up to 504 gold. That's a very good advantage you have.

Important note: if you random, and no one else buys courier, then please get one! It's practically free, regardless of your role, and still fastens your core! (you still get 100 extra gold as a courier-buying carry)

Still assuming typical build, these are the items you can now buy:
Flying Courier: yes, you can buy this right off the bat if you random!
Boots of Speed: starting boots for First Blood if you can do it!
Gloves of Haste: if you want to rush Hand of Midas even faster. If you extend to Power Treads, better buy boots first.
Wraith Band, Null Talisman, Bracer: extra massive stats for early game, which can be extended too! (Bracer needs one lasthit before you can buy it though)
Ring of Basilius: armor and mana regen, better than Poor Man's Shield on ranged hero (if extended into Ring of Aquila).

---

Starting items you can buy if you random a hero, but shouldn't:

Belt of Strength, Band of Elvenskin, Robe of the Magi: as stats item, better buy Wraith Band or Null Talisman. Or Bracer, if you can lasthit once and immediately buy it. As extension into Power Treads, get Boots first.
Blades of Attack: as an extension into Phase Boots, get boots first.
Sage's Mask: If you want, you should buy the entire Ring of Basilius at once, since the 50% mana regen is worse than the .65 one Basilius gives.
Ring of Regen: why? You can hold off buying this because you have enough regen already. But if you want to rush Soul Ring, for example, feel free to.

---

Starting Item Set

Random or not, here are some reliable typical builds that are easy to use and is flexible with any heroes' core.

Carry 1: Melee Aggressive

---

Cost: 574 gold Recommended for str carries (since PMS won't give damage), hard carries (who extensively farm), or new carries (who can't lasthit properly yet). Works better with a support.

Carry 2: Melee Defensive

---

Cost: 599 gold Recommended for agi carries (who are more squishy early on and can gain damage from PMS), solo mid carries (works better against harassment), or junglers (switch the Salve for Tango to give place to rush Quelling Blade).

Carry 3: Ranged

---

Cost: 524 gold Stout Shield damage block and Quelling Blade % damage are almost worthless compared to just armor on ranged. Ring of Aquila is better on ranged carries because of the stats (more than PMS), armor (more than PMS damage block), and mana regen.

Alternate Build 1: Urn Rush

---

Cost: 596 gold If you want to make an Urn of Shadows, you can start with this. Recommended to str ganker.

Alternate Build 2: PMS Rush

---

Cost: 596 gold An alternate build into Poor Man's Shield, trading off defense for lasthitting power (with almost 1 Armor too). Recommended to agi carry or ganker. Unfortunately, there are no builds using 2 Mantle of Intelligence without upgrading those into Null Talisman or selling it.

Support 1: Courier

---

Cost: 599 gold For supports who won't (or can't) ward, most likely position 4.

Support 2: Wards

---

Cost: 599 gold For supports who wards, most likely position 5. Leave one Iron Branch on stash for after warding.

[random] Laning Build

---

Cost: 799 gold Stats, regen, and early Boots is very strong. If you play carefully, you can even skip some early-game items and rush your core (other than Magic Wand, which is still useful to build).

[random] Jungling Build

---

Cost: 814 gold Double Tango only because you can't fit Salve there, and because you jungle. The main concern with the QB + Stout start is that it removes one regen and three stats from your starting, which is discouraged. But if you random, you can buy them all.

[random] Tranquil Rush

---

Cost: 821 gold Interesting in that it doesn't start with boots first, instead opting for more survivability. Though Ring of Regen is not that useful, it means only Boots is needed to complete Tranquil. Though, usually the Typical + Basilius is preferred if the Tranquil is to make Vlad.

[random] Bottle Rush

---

Cost: 849 gold I'd like to imagine the Bottle as a combination of Salve, Clarity, and utility, so even if one slot is wasted, it's still good. If you need to go mid, grab this.

Some sub-optimal starting items

Aside from the good example, there should be bad example. I'll try to give my reason why these builds are bad (or situational at best), but feel free to test them, if only to prove their suboptimality.

Boots Start

---

Cost: 540 gold No stats, not enough regen, all just for a movement speed. You can harass, but you probably won't kill. If opponent see you having only half a regen, he can harass back and you must retreat. With a good laning partner, it's possible to get First Blood, but then again if your opponent is just as smart as you, you won't.

Basilius Start

---

Cost: 590 gold First i stumbled on this when i was looking for Broodmother build. No stats, half regen, and you'll be dead faster than Boots Rush because you probably won't escape. Might work on some hero who needs mana regen fast like aforementioned Broodmother or Nature's Prophet, but those are situational.

QB Stout

---

+

Cost: 565 + 90 gold Buying half the starting regen and buying the other half later is somewhat risky if you don't jungle effectively yet. Furthermore, the lack of stats is also a problem. This is popular among junglers, but i'll recommend the usual (double Tango + 3 Branches + either QB or Stout) and buy the other later.

Too Much Regen

---

Cost: 589 gold As the name implies, too much regen. Buy a courier or Ward instead. Might work on very mana-heavy heroes, or heavy harassment, but usually it's due to bad play.

Wand Start

---

Cost: 599 gold The only reason to build Wand is to free up slots occupied by Branches. You don't even have to do it if you choose to drop your Branches instead of "tying" it into a Wand. You just wasted 509 gold into an item which makes you having same stats, half a regen, and no spare gold.

Bottle Start

---

Cost: 600 gold Please no. That's only as much regen as Salve and a couple of Clarities. Bottle crowing is also discouraged. No stats, you'll be lasthitting harder.

HEADDRESS START LOL

---

Cost: 603 gold (exactly your starting gold) *palmfaces*

Other Tips

Enough with the starting item builds, we now move into tips on using item. These are mainly from my experience, which will be different than yours, but hopefully it can also be useful regardless.

With default control:
1. Put Tango in Slot 1 (shortcut Z) and Salve in Slot 2 (shortcut X). Put all passive items from slot 6 upwards since those shortcuts are the farthest from your WASD button.
2. After you finished building Wand, put it in Slot 3 (shortcut C) as an emergency button.
3. Boots are to always be placed in slot 1 replacing Tango. Slot 2 is for your main utility items (maybe BKB or Force Staff or Soul Ring or Mekansm, any item you think is the most important). If you have 2 or more, then you can also place Wand further into slot 4 to fit the second utility into Slot 3.
4. Every time you're dead, always check opponent's items whenever possible and report potentially dangerous items/heroes to your teammates. Often times you'll forget to do this when you're struggling to play your hero so you can miss something crucial.
5. Don't buy recipes first. The 2 exceptions are when building Wand (since you'll need both stick and recipe at the same time) or when you're almost dead (to use up your unreliable gold, potentially using it all up so none is wasted when you're dead).

Which boots?

There are 5 upgrade boots in the game, and you might face difficulties choosing one. Here's a helpful short tips to make your choice.

The most common boots. This grants stats and can be switched among the 3 attributes.
The 2nd most common boots. This can make you faster for a while.
This boots can recover mana in an area. You can disassemble this later to make Bloodstone.
This boots can recover HP while not fighting, but can break. You can disassemble this later to make Vladmir's Offering.
The most expensive boots, composed of only boots and recipe. This will let you teleport without using TP Scroll. Usually late-game item.

If you're still confused, then just answer these questions in order:
1. Are you a jungler/tank or are making Vlad? Get Tranquil Boots
2. Are you a support who needs mana for yourself or your lane partner? Get Arcane Boots
3. Are you a ganker who chase off heroes? Get Phase Boots
4. Are you a carry who needs stats or don't need other boots? Get Power Treads
5. Are you Tinker, or having excess money and already finished your core? Get Boots of Travel

Conclusion

1. Good starting items need 3 components: regen, stats, and utilities.
2. Almost all heroes can use universal starting build. This will ease up newbies.
3. Almost all heroes build Boots (early game utility) and Wand (early game stats).
4. Randoming can ease up your early game farming, provided you know the randomed hero's skill build.
5. There are some suboptimal starting item builds.
6. There are tips to help item slot management, to ease up item usage.
7. There are 5 boots which can be used depending on the situation. 2 of them are common pick, though.

Credit

Thanks to Dr. D for his guide on formatting guide here.

Feedback

Some feedback have been included. I never see Ring + Stout start, and i don't know how to make one effecively (too expensive), so i excluded it. Anyone can help me?