Role of the Warlock??

i'm a new n00b here.. about 15 matches in. i get flack for not killing heroes as a warlock. is this a fair judgement? i usually spend my time clearing lanes with fatal bonds and shadow ward. i also throw out heals to teammates early on. i farm so i can get my scepter for 2 golems and throw nukes late game.. or i just use them to clear lanes which allows more team creeps to pile up on the enemy.

what am i doing wrong? the enemy doesn't get through me too easily. and i support the push very well. i've managed to decrease my deaths big time.. maybe 5 per game. i'm not too fast and and i don't have much hp. it happens.

thoughts?

-0

As Warlock, it really depends. If you're going for a support role, often a Mekansm is much more needed than a Scepter. If you're not the hard support, Aghs is fine but just be conscientious of your team's needs. Place wards, buy courier and upgrade it if needed. Buy sentries and dust if an enemy is invis, etc. etc. You also shouldn't really be clearing lanes with Fatal Bonds, it can be used for harass in lane, or save it for teamfights. It's not easy to get kills as Warlock, since you don't have much burst damage and your Golems, while doing a lot of damage, are very slow. You make a difference in a teamfight though, it can force enemies to back off and run from your golems and then your fatal bonds amplifies a lot of damage, especially AOE damage.

In the actual competitive scene Warlock is often ran mid with the Aghanim's Scepter plus Refresher Orb combo (which I don't like), sometimes taking a Hand of Midas if farming really well. In pubs I used to run him as a lane support: he's very good at harassing enemies and healing teammates and doesn't need items to perform well-placed ultimates; most of the time a Mekansm or a survivability item ( Ghost Scepter, Force Staff, Drum of Endurance...) is more than enough for the first 25 minutes, considering you get a pair of boots and a lot of Observer Wards before them.

Also, a pair of quick tips for the golems:

• Don't let them die if there are no teammates nearby: they give a decent amount of gold and can be used to do something else.
• Don't cast your ultimate just for pushing/farming with the golem, you might need the big stun for teamfights.
• After you're done with the teamfight, don't forget to use your golem! You can control it and destroy towers, farm jungle camps or push lanes.

thanks guys. i think i'm close to doing what you mentioned.. i figured those who give me flack do not understand the role of the warlock. i'm still learning though.

-o

Hey there, I played warlock for a while, but my buddy has played well over 100 games. We run his warlock as a lane support exclusivly. The whole warlock carry thing is just ridiculous and only for the pub scene, even then its a prety sure fire way of loseing. Carry warlock rellies on his golems which can be purged away by a diffusal carrier! Sure 4 golems dropping on a team has great results sometimes but it only takes a little bit of smarts to just wait for the golems to timeout. How anyone can look at his skill set and see carry i just don't know!
I've also had people suggest him as an offlaner.... yeah... no stun, no escape, and piss poor move speed...ok with his heal he may survive, but thats about it.
In lane he is your classic lane support baby sitting carries. His ulti I really rate because of the aoe stun it offers. Sure golems are good, but that stun wins team fights and anyone dumb enough not to run has to deal with your team AND a golem! This is why, in theory i prefer refresher before scepter. Only issue is as a support saving for a refresher recipe is difficult, and scepter is a much easier item to farm up. But either is always after mana boots and mek or pipe.
If you want to be a badass, then blink dagger with his MASSIVE aoe slow is just insane. There are several spots around the map where you can hide in tree's and still slow an entire team to a crawl! But obviously this is for nutters who want to live on the edge, as you may as well paint a bullseye on your ***!
All in all though warlock is a boss, and our go to support for when you just need a win! I would be interested in peoples thoughts as to why you don't see him more in pro games? I am guessing its because the golems are purged so easily, but as I said before, that stun is imo the best part of the ult!

I'm a big Warlock fan, but understand why he's not seen much in pro games:

- He's not a tri-lane support, no instant nuke, stun or nuke/slow, needs levels to be effective
- Not a good solo offlaner due to no escape, stun etc

This means you'd have to play him mid, which he can do, but he's not much of a rune ***** or ganker.

Those are very good points Sando which make a lot of sense!
Do you or the pro scene not rate his E then as part of a tri lane? His heal doesnt need maxing imediatly, till your buddies health pools require larger heals. And his bonds allthough they get loads better with levels, its hard to argue that lvl3/4 bonds are essential in the early lane phase. Safe lane, the aoe of the slow is so huge you can get it off behind your enemy mostly out of sight, covering the entire lane! Even one point is enough if you get your opponent near the middle. I almost always see warlocks miss his E completly, even going for stats first in some rarer instances. Which too deny such a game changing spell is something i cant get my head around! I think the suprise of actually seeing that big red mist of slow come down is enough to confuse most pubs!
For instance on the tri-lane thing, try Warlock, Shadow Shamen/lion, with something like a sven or slardar carry. Obv any tactic is dependant on what the enemy picks, but I have had a lot of good matchs with a tri-lane along these lines!
I mean i guess it works cause most things work in pubs if executed properly, but I just wish we could see some warlock pro play love that hero!

I'm actually very fond of Upheaval - sometimes level it at 4 + 5 if it will be effective. The big issue for tri-lanes is that's a long time to wait until you can use it, and most good offlaners have some method of escaping it - Surge, Blink etc. Also, because you're channelling you can't right click, and at that point in the game, it matters. Compared to say Gush, Venomous Gale or Ignite it's pretty meh as a lane ganking ability.

In pro games the offlane is often barely contested so you won't get much of a chance to catch them with it anyway.

Course, it can work in pubs - did a tri-lane yesterday where I was Warlock and we had an Axe against us - easy meat (link). And yes, I think it's very under-rated as a team fight power, especially against melee heavy teams ( Fatal Bonds, Chaotic Offering, Upheaval combo works wonders).

If you look back a bit at older pro games, there are some that run Warlock as a mid/semi-carry, with a partial early stats build.

When it comes down to it, the only thing that's good about him is his teamfight power. Upheaval is great in teamfights but he can NOT gank with it. Shadow Word is a good spell overall, but it's not instant so no nukes for this guy. Fatal Bonds is absolutely great in teamfights, doubling the damage to 5 heroes if an AOE nukes hits them, but it's not useful otherwise (unless harassing in lane, which won't happen in the mid game that much) Some people say you can push with it, but simply using an AOE spell is far more effective and can counterpush as well.

So... teamfight support, which needs a lot of levels.

Glad to hear there are other Upheaval fans out there! yeah I see what you mean, thank you for the learning! I'm still getting the hang of team picking, personally I've found that to be the steepest learning curve to the game, but also the most fun part!
I am still one day going to run a warlock with blink, force staff and a bkb just for the giggles of it! If it doesn't end in a horrible mess I'll share a replay! My team is going to hate me...