The cockroach you just can't stamp out - a complete manual to Weaver (updated)

Do you want to update this guide for 6.87?
Particularly, what do you think about Aghs and Dragon Lance? Do they make sense on Weaver?

Yes, I even addressed it myself in the comment. Thanks for the input. :p

@Hamstertamer Thanks for the idea of diffu-build and other insight. Gotta give it a try sometime soon.

@ KDK.Swollen

The guide was written about 2 years ago. It's still perfectly relevant for the majority of its content, but don't forget that the hero went through some significant changes since then.

Rushing Linken's Sphere on Weaver is a good build now. It was utter garbage 2 years ago, that's why the guide is criticizing it, but it changed since then. The buffs to The Swarm reduced the cooldown to 20 seconds and massively increased the damage and armor reduction of the skill. So now Weaver has a way to deal significant damage without a damage item by maxing bugs. So Linkens first Weaver still has some sizeable damage output (also with the linkens buff of course), since he can turn mana regen into damage. If you look at the top Weaver games on dotabuff, you'll see that most of them go linkens first. Linkens first Weaver was horrible 2 years ago because he had no damage output, but that's no longer true.
And of course Ring of Health is extremely good for the laning stage.

There are some alternative builds than linkens if you don't need the linkens active, the most notable being the Diffusal Blade rush if you're facing silence, Desolator first is also pretty good...but linkens is still the most common build these days.

Another important point : don't forget that you can skill stats. Both Weaver's Q and E are value points. So 1/4/1/1 + mass stats is a perfectly viable skill build, especially against burst.

weaver hasn't changed in playstyle much, his items also remain the same as always. I wanted to make a weaver guide sometime last year, but realized that this guide had everything i wanted to say, except maybe some outdated stuff like radiance.

You do realise that this guide is from 2014?

Hello,

Just registered in only to comment on this guide (although it's been some time since this has been updated or the author commented on this).

I was looking for a more in-depth guides on the hero and as the most popular on the net, I gave this a try and read most of the discussion, too. Weaver is by far my favourite & most played hero, but I do recognise that I'm very stale in how I play him, so I came in here for looking new ideas, as well as thinking if I should actually write a guide of my own. I hadn't actually realised the tp-shukuchi -trick before (thanks for that!) but I was actually surprised to not find more insight when it comes to deeper gameplay, harassing and positioning. I'm a slightly below 5k player, but I my skill level with Weaver is far higher than with my other heroes and I most of the time I play it on a game-changing level in (low-tier) competitive games, so that's my point of view when commenting on this.

Some input and random thoughts from my self on the subject:

- About Linken's sphere. I, too, consider building Linken's sphere practically every game, my guilty pleasure, as someone else worded it too. I know it's not optimal in all games, but I think this really is a question of playstyle and strategy, too. Although it does not give the damage to boost your farm via damage, in my opinion it's more about the bigger picture. Most of the time, I play aggressive, space-making offlane weaver (either solo, dual or aggro depending on the lineups and gameplan) for which I consider Linkens perfect choice for sustainability, pressuring enemy safe lane and thus keeping down their hard carry, as well as farming their jungle. This causes a lot of troubles for the enemy team and with good map awareness you end up creating a lot of space for your mid / safe lane / rest of the team to do their thing. If the enemy won't react enough to your doings but pressure other cores, you get two towers, invade their jungle and shut down their carry really easily. If you're farming in the easy lane with a more guaranteed farm, then I see linkens as less viable, though I tend to use a lot of games miserably when I just still don't build it.

- The radi-build is just straight up outdated in my opinion. If this guide was ever to be updated, I'd expect it to get removed. I do think, though, that there are a lot of games where maxing swarm is more viable than geminate. Scaling for big teamfights is very good, but I'd max it before geminate even for heavy (split)pushing.

- Mixed feelings on the medallion; on paper it's an awesome item for the hero. In practice, I end up feeding with it more than I should, but probably I'm just too conservative in here and adapt my playstyle too little in different builds.

Heroes with high physical damage should not be right-clicking you much because of shukuchi.

Medallion does not sacrifice any armour at all, it merely reverts your armour to what it was before you bought medallion.

Medallion is a fantastic pick-up for weaver, and unless they completely change the way weaver works, or nerfs medallion to the ground, it will always be a good pick up. Now more than ever since the addition of solar crest,

I like this guide, all of the information is really interesting but i don't think the medallion pick up is very good anymore as weavers armor is far to low to sacrifice anymore than you have to, it ends up working against you and you can get 1 shot by heroes with high damage physical spells. Also you did really well on explaining how weaver should b played so grats to you.

I like this guide, all of the information is really interesting but i don't think the medallion pick up is very good anymore as weavers armor is far to low to sacrifice anymore than you have to, it ends up working against you and you can get 1 shot by heroes with high damage physical spells. Also you did really well on explaining how weaver should b played so grats to you.

i think that weaver should have a soul ring in as the first item( even before boots) because it gives him that little 150 mana but its more than the half of his manapool and could be used before using Shukuchi and then he can use 2 Shukuchi for the same mana cost
and when he has low hp and mana he can use it for the swarm to defend tower from afar without risking his life (of course this doesnt work in the lane vs necro or bloodseeker but i find that soul ring is rather powerful item item specially for low pools heroes
50% mana regane is like two sage mask and and 1.5 ring of health
i i think he can use the fairyfire item ...2 damage is ok and the 75 instant heal is like a minor timelapse for him before lvl 6
and i think diffusal blades can prove useful since u can purge heroes the their location and take out their buffs (this is specially good vs sven s armor buff and magnus bonus damage buff blood seeker s bloodrage( just wait till hes low hp and going to kill someone and purge it, he really depends on it) enigma s malefice and in rare occasions it can purge alchemist stun from allies.
and its really ez to complete since its really cheap components and the bonus int. is always welcomed to weaver.
and how to you make the icons for the heros and thier abilities (it will be much easier for readers)

Get a Satanic.

+1 one from me.

Although I'd say the medallion isn't core on the Deso build.