Items and Heroes

Most of the time in game I just follow a guide(yea im that kind of player). I just want to know about item decisions and skill decisions. Instead of following a guide, item for item and skill for skill I want to be able to make up a new item and skill build on the fly for each specific situation. To do this I need to know about hero and item synergy. I buy an item in the guide but I don't know y it is good on that hero. If I improve on this knowledge of hero and item synergy I think i could do a lot better in making up my own builds to address the specific guide but I need some help so I came to you guys. Thank you

PS: I've noticed that most ursa guides don't have Heart on them. Is there a reason for this because I think a Heart synergizes greatly with his ult and improves on his strength of being pretty tanky.

Can't answer the Ursa query. However, some basic knowledge of building on the fly is that it's very situational. Most of the time you want to stack up their primary attribute but beyond that it's entirely dependent on the scenario. If you're a squishy hero going up against high damage one, you want to boost your health and armor. If you're a squishy against other squishies build up that damage and so on...

I always start with a build in mind but change as the situation requires. Like I went Vlads on my Earthshaker in two games just so my team and minions could get right click heals.

Also, most of the guides here are out of date. They do not reflect the change to Ursa where one of his abilities no longer give an orb effect. Since most of them still have him with Vlads. Also the problem with Ursa is that there is so many good things people want to put on him. Basher/AC/Satanic/Phase/Blink/BKB. It's not like Heart isn't good on him; its just that so many items are good on him that sacrifices must be made.

Zerosaviour already gave a good explanation about the Ursa argument, but you also have to remember he usually doesn't need that much survivability because he already has high STR for an AGI Hero and needs to snowball to be effective. Since snowballing already gives you extra levels (which mean extra stats), survivability shouldn't be a problem unless you go 1v5. I'd take Vyse over Heart any day, though the Abyssal Blade already grants some lockdown.

As for the situational items, it depends on your role: if you're playing carry, the core is always the same (e.g. HotD into BKB for Luna, Mek into Aghanim for Viper, Linken's into Desolator for Weaver etc.); the late game items are the ones making a difference. For instance, going BKB into Desolator (or any other damage item) on a Shadow Fiend is fine, but if you're facing a Bane you'll need something like a Linken's Sphere or Eye of Skadi to get more survivability. Another example, you're playing Templar Assassin versus a Bounty Hunter and a Viper: the Track would reveal you every time you would Meld, and you don't want to waste a BKB (which doesn't block Viper's ulti anyways) every time you get Tracked. The solution is Manta Style, a rather uncommon item for a TA which removes both Viper's slow and BH's Track.

If you're playing support, on the other side, you have more time to choose since the gold will come in slower: if you're facing a Clockwerk or Nature's Prophet get a Force Staff; if there are a lot of physical damage dealers like Ursa and Troll Warlord buy a Ghost Scepter; if you're swimming in gold and want to gain map control buy a Gem of True Sight and deward the whole map. Auras are also good supportive items, so make sure you always have a Vladmir's Offering if there are 4 melees in your team.

You and most of the player base tbh. 90% of DOTA players don't have the knowhow to addapt their Skill nad Item Builds for each game. You're one of the few that will learn and get better. 8{)

First of all, try figuring out the "flow" of the match. Are you going to be Teamfighting or Split-Pushing? Are you going to fight early, or does your Team need a lot of Farm before you can think about getting aggressive? What do you need in order to be effective? Try to predict how your Team can possibly win the match and which route you'll most likely end up taking (if you have multiple options, e.g. Fast Push or long drawn out Rat DOTO).

For example, say you're a Carry, these are the things you should be thinking about:-

With Starting Items, consider your Lane. If you're up against a Passive Laner, you can usually take less Regen, but since a Stout Shield is still a little useful past the Laning stage, you should never skip that if you're a Melee Hero.

Is your Lane easy? Are Ganks unlikely, or can you turn them around? You can probably build a Hand of Midas or some other Farming Item.

What Crowd Control does the other Team have? Are you Lifestealer or Juggernaut? or do you need a Black King Bar straight away to avoid getting locked down? Do you have enough HP to survive long enough in fights? Does the other Team have anything that ignores Magic Immunity? Can you Purge it with Manta Style/ Diffusal Blade/a Skill? (most Purges that remove Debuffs can't go through Magic Immunity btw) Do you need a Linkens's Sphere to protect against it?

A few common mistakes I see when people make Item choices are:-

• Prioritising Damage over surviving in Teamfights long enough to do any Damage
• Building purely Situational Items like Linken's Sphere or Hand of Midas when there are better Items to get
• Getting Auras/ Blade Mail/ Mekansm on Heroes that aren't Tanky enough to stay in fights and use these Items

If you can't survive in a Teamfight, or you aren't elusive enough during a Split-Push you need to fix that asap or stay back until it's safe to go in. No amount of Damage and Lifesteal will save you from getting Perma-Stunned and Killed. In 90% of games, you need a Black King Bar on your Position 1 and 2 (Your Offlaner should have some sort of Escape Mechanism to make them hard enough to lockdown in Teamfights/Split-Pushes already...but sometimes, they need BKB too). If your Cores aren't Tanky enough, they need to get more HP so they can survive in Teamfights or last long enough when being Ganked so that they can escape ( Heart of Tarrasque on Weaver is sometimes needed)

A Linken's Sphere may be listed as "Core" on Heroes like Weaver and Morphling, but it's not going to stop the 2nd Skill. A Black King Bar can stop any number of Spells for up to 10 seconds, Linken's Sphere is for the ones that BKB doesn't help against, e.g. Doom, Fiend's Grip, etc. You also have to be careful of the ones that go through them both, e.g. Berserker's Call, Black Hole, etc. You have to either be elusive enough to avoid these skills or you need enough HP to survive getting Initiated on.

Speaking of HP, don't buy Items you're not going to be able to use. In low-skill Pubs, it's considered the Supports' job to buy the Mekansm, but how hard is it to pick off a Crystal Maiden/ Keeper of the Light/ Venomancer, etc. before they can pop the Mek?...it's easy! How about a Tidehunter/ Viper/Outworld Devourer?...a lot harder! This applies to a lot of Items, especially Aura Items and Blade Mail.

Pretty much this ^ Heart is great, but there's almost always a more important Item to build first on Ursa, especially since he's already pretty Tanky as is.

He has pretty poor mobility, having nice Base Movement Speed is good, but it's not enough to get into fights. So you need Phase Boots + Blink Dagger. It's no good getting into hte fights if you're going to get Stunned and wrecked, so he needs a Black King Bar. It's no good bing able to dish out Daamge if your target can escape, so he could usually do with a Skull Basher -> Abyssal Blade. Uh-oh, did their big scary Carry just get Evasion?...*sigh*...gonna need a Monkey King Bar...etc. etc. etc.

Thx for all the replies, i will think about them in my next game

To add to the excellent information above, I would recommend just learning one or two heroes like this really well. You mentioned Ursa in your original post, so why not him? Just play him a lot, read up on what the recommended items actually do, and try to understand why he gets them. During a game, just think about what the item will do for you; who will you be more likely to kill/survive against? Etc, etc.

Once you understand how it works for one hero, you can start transitioning some of the underlying principles to other, similar heroes. For example, Ursa likes buying a Stout Shield; what other kinds of heroes like to buy stout shields? Mostly melee heroes.

Hope this helps.

You know; I usually go boots first on melee heroes. But I usually play tanky offlaners anyways.

Also as a support. Never rush a luxury item. No matter how good it may be. Had a game yesterday where a Shadow Shaman rushed Refresher right after he finished arcanes. I was stuck holding mid for a bit due to our Luna dcing for two minutes. So I couldn't do my usual roaming ganking/harassing. By the time I managed to get the funds to finish Mek; they had already pushed us to our base and had a huge kill lead.

That Shadow shaman ended up not being able to get another item due to the other team pretty much blowing us up in every team fight cause we didn't have Mek or Pipe to mitigate their Zeus' burst damage.

In general; its always a good idea to put the team first.

Yeah, there's a lot to take in with items, especially about how they work with specific hero skills.

These guys have already given you some good detailed breakdowns - so I won't add too much more to the mix. There's really two ways of getting better at this:

1) Learn about game mechanics. Once you understand the ins and out of this, you'll be able to work out more often whens and whys. For example, why are you more likely to see an Assault Cuirass on a strength carry? (answer, agility heroes already have lots of armour and attack speed, strengthies don't)

2) Learn about specific items. Over time you'll try out more heroes and items. You'll figure why particular ones suit particular play styles e.g. why it's usually better to have a Satanic on Ursa than a Heart of Tarrasque. (answer, HoT doesnt heal you in the middle of a fight)

The only thing I'd say is really important to try and get down now is "counter items". For example, knowing when you'll need a Black King Bar (vs stuns/slows), Ghost Scepter (vs physical damage), Monkey King Bar (vs evasion), considering Necronomicon against lots of stealth heroes, etc.

Actually find getting a gem and or dust to be more cost effective. You need to farm to necro 3 for invis detection.

Best gem carriers are tankier heroes. Usually offlaners cause their usually strength heroes.