Abaddon role in the meta

That too, and to add on to the bonus of Borrowed Time, Slark's Dark Pact no longer works on Doom.

My friend Grave just played him in a pub, totally owned - insane tower diving and the purge effect is very handy. I think he's got a bit of "Necrolyte" issue in pro games, he works very well as a support who transitions into a carry, but it's tricky to fit a hero like that into your game plan.

Thanks guys for the input on this thread! However, I still would like to direct you to my main thought, which somehow seems to have gotten lost amidst a debate on Abaddon's validity as character.

I would like to know what kind of line up would one run with Abaddon in the mix? Would you go for an early game push, or mid/late game carry? Would you put a Beastmaster or Troll Warlord in your line up and stack the atk speed buff, or just use his shield as a support buffer for a Weaver pick? <- More stuff of this if you don't mind. :)

Just to be clear... The conversation you guys are having is great, and I don't mind you continuing it. I would just like to request you section off a portion of your comment toward the main subject. Thanks!

Abaddon can and will fit in any role that you wish, but I have to agree that he is more of a carrier/semi-carrier than support, off course that a better farmed hero like Faceless Void is far more powerful than him. But if you let Abaddon get farmed, then there will be no time for the other heroes to top him, here is an example:

http://dotabuff.com/matches/241598920

In my opinion he is a great hero to be picked and he can fit in just about any match, the only hero I guess that can do that amazingly well, but hey, that's just an opinion.

Vash, it's complicated to answer that, because Abaddon may seem weak in the surface, but during the match you can do anything with him with amazing results. I just played a match with my friends and I was on the lane alongside a Ursa and we pushed so hard that neither Viper or Ogre Magi were able to hold us back, all I did was use Aphotic Shield in whoever was being harassed by the Viper and then run straight to the attack using a combination of Curse of Avernus and Earthshock, it was so much slow that the opposite heroes were forced to fall back in order they didn't get killed. The result was that they didn't farm and we were able to finish the match incredibly fast.

Here are the results if you wanna check it out!

http://dotabuff.com/matches/243334384

Despite Abaddon being pretty good, I don't like him. Alright, his W is great. His E is pretty nice too. His R isn't the best but a Ghost Ship level cooldown makes it really worthwhile, and he's a support that still does pretty good later on despite not having any real disables.

However, I believe the whole problem here is if he can really do good as a support really, really early on. He doesn't have a stun, his E isn't good when at level 1, his W can be lifesaving but there's still a huge risk after a damage block worth less than 100, and his Q is actually bad IMO, especially early on. (If only it healed/damaged a bit more then it would be a great spammable nuke)

Which brings us to the next problem, he isn't ranged, and he can't just spam W and Q to harass because he's a melee strength support. So mana problems and lack of early effective harassment methods. It can be solved by getting soul ring, but as a support that works well babysitting a carry especially in a trilane then you're not supposed to get farm.

So his laning is best in a trilane or in a solo suicide lane. The latter still has problems because again, mana problems that are pretty hard to solve and a lack of a reliable escape method (110 or so damage block can be burned really fast against a trilane with reliable stuns and nukes)

To sum up, he's best as a support yet doesn't do good in ultra early game.

I must say though, his mid game potential as a support and late game versatility is very good.

His E can be made really good with an Orb of Venom at level one.And he does really good in ultra late game.You can just run in and bait people's **** out.Remember, you can activate Borrowed Time manually!(so you don't die from instances greater than 400!)

No, I meant ultra EARLY game. Like the minutes before Abaddon gets to level 3 or 4.

Funny you should mention Orb of Venom because I was going to post up this point and get thoughts - granted it was against bots but I was messing around with Abaddon over the last couple of nights when I had 30-40 mins to kill to see what works for his early game (playing first 10-15 mins only) and i came to my own conclusions (that I intend to test in pubs tonight):

1/. I dont see why you would take Mist Coil early game - hurts yourself too much to spam - perhaps 1 lvl for healing or finish off a hero but otherwise not
2/. Aphotic Shield gives you great lane diving and survivability and should be maxed first
3/. Orb of Venom + 1 or 2 levels in Curse of Avernus = early kills, if you and your lane buddie time it right. If the opposing hero gets isolated then you can go on them and they wont be getting away. If they get close to their tower then pop an Aphotic Shield for protection but also for that explosion to bring that hero closer to death.

Looks a fun hero - i never played DOTA 1 so this is my first sight of him (though I did play WC3 way back when and remember him from that).

He works well in a trilane, from I known. He has the potential to collapse a tower fast thanks to his W skill. Keep spamming it on creeps and push down the tower.