Blink Dagger on heroes without mobility skills

After my recent games playing Wraith King where I started picking up a Blink Dagger on him, I've started wondering how I've even played him without the blink all these days. It totally changes the complexion of the game, in terms of what you can do.

This got me thinking, and I've started building a Blink Dagger on heroes like Drow Ranger or Sniper that are squishy, and lack mobility, and I have to say, I really like the build. Being able to reposition in fights and split push safely is well worth the 2150 gold in my opinion.

In pro games though, I've seen quite a few Drow Ranger picks recently, and only C9's EternalEnvy seems to prefer the blink on his Drow. There have been several games where a Drow pick was unsuccessful mainly because she was a sitting duck in teamfights.

What do you guys think about this? Is Blink Dagger a core on pretty much any hero that is squishy and doesn't have a mobility skill, or am I just being overenthusiastic because of my love for the item?

Blink Dagger] is a core on Heroes who can either initate/counter initiate. (So your traditonal [[Tidehunter, Centaur Warrunner , Wraith King, Sven) and arguably heroes that need great positioning in order to work/survive (So Drow Ranger, Lion is also something like this). You generally need something that takes advantage of the instant blink in, as opposed to say a Force Staff. Oh and on Split pushers, it is fantastic with them if they lack mobility.

Being squishy and not having a mobility skill isn't necessarily a reason to buy Blink Dagger, since you the sorts of squishy heroes that want that are ones like Drow who need wonderful positioning so as to not die. Take say, Leshrac, who is kinda squishy, and lacks mobility. You still won't really buy Blink on him, because of the cast times involved. For those sorts of Heroes, Force Staff is probably better, because you can use it to help your team as well.

Thus it's situational to the Hero in question. Blink Dagger is an amazing item, but it's not enough so to be core on every land-locked squishy guy. Most of them, yeah I'd say. But definately not all

Blink Dagger on Drow Ranger is also becoming the norm in competitive play it seems. More players than just Envy are doing it, given the recent number of Drow Ranger/ Visage games.

Yeah, Blink Dagger is a great item...but I do sometimes have concerns about buying it on particular heroes. I don't want:

- Rubick or Shadow Shaman not to ward because they want a Blink Dagger

- Wraith King or Sven to lack damage because he wants to be mobile or initiate if he's the carry

- Squishy heroes to rely on it as an escape, especially if the opposition can sneak up on them effectively.

Mobility is super useful, but always be aware of the situation and consider the alternatives. A Blink Dagger can be neutralised quite effectively by DoT - Battle Hunger, Radiance, Wind Walk and a whole other bunch of stuff. Sometimes you need to be able to stand and fight, especially as a carry, but stats-free supports also worry me, especially if they aren't at a high enough skill level to get away with mobility alone.

The only heroes this item is core on is initiators who need to get close - Magnus, Earthshaker, Tidehunter, Centaur Warrunner , Sand King, Axe etc. Even they can sometimes get by with a friendly Toss.

Bottom line - blink WK is fine if you're a support/semi-carry and/or the team needs an initiator. Sven doesn't need a blink if he has a Magnus or Tidehunter on the team, I'd much rather he got an Armlet or something.

Don't know about Sven, but Blink Dagger really makes wonders on WK. I was preferring Phase-Armlet build but when I tried PT-BLink I found it so much better, as TS did. Not for a first item, but if you go, say, PT into Maelstrom into Blink into Mjollnir into BKB/AC/whatever ya want, it works when you blink in, stun a key hero and begin to rek his face while your team does the job. It is also much more profittable as a solo-ganking tool - you see a guy pushing the lane, you can't just walk in fron of him, so you blink in and he is dead, period. Blink almost disables kiting, gives an escape and makes you a ferasonme ganking opponents, as well as adding to your ability to initiate and make enemies pay attention.

I guess, BLink works the same for Sven, as they have many traits in common.

I was thinking along the same lines before my Blink WK games, but it always ends up that I get kited a lot, and lack chasing power without a Blink Dagger.

Before Blink WK, my build was Phase Boots --> Armlet of Mordiggian --> Desolator

With the Blink build, I go Power Treads --> Blink Dagger --> Optional Blademail depending on situation --> Maelstrom --> Mjollnir --> Assault Cuirass.

I prefer the second built a lot more compared to the first. It feels like I can put out constant sustained damage with the Blink, rather than giving up on chasing with Phase. Also, having Treads let me switch before I cast the Wraithfire Blast so I'm not cutting corners for Reincarnation.



This kinda sums up my thoughts too. I haven't played Sven much but if I did, I'd definitely pick up a Blink Dagger on him, I think. Makes getting that Storm Hammer easy, and makes kiting more manageable when God's Strength is up.

Actually you'd build it as the first or second major item. By allowing you to jump in with Wraithfire Blast or Storm Hammer, you put the opposing team into a bad situation, especially when both have forms of mid game damage inbuilt (Not saying like carry level damage, but still some). With Wraith King in particular, you jump in, stun, start beating down on someone - The opposing team has two choices; Either they back off, you get yourself a free kill on the stunned target when your team follows up, or they choose to go on you, pop Reincarnation, and your team follows up as you die and take advantage of the disadvantage given to them by the slow.

It's basically a mobility and teamfight item combined, that doesn't impeed hugely with you item transition, because it reduces kiting, increases chasing, increases the odds of surviving, and vastly improves the ability to fight early, and thus gain gold from fights. Oh, and makes you really good at ganking as well.

For Wraith King core, it's better to reduce kiting early, because you take a decent amount of farm to come online as it is. Blink Dagger lets you be relevent earlier, which is always great. Since, I'd say there are better cores if you want to just farm into damage asap. Wraith King can fight early with a Blink Dagger

This is kinda my problems with these types of builds - the word "definitely". Blink Dagger on these heroes is situational, it's not something you should be picking up every game. Yes, Storm Hammer (and Wraithfire Blast to a lesser extent) are useful team fight and ganking powers, but you don't necessarily need blink to make them work.

For example, in a recent game I was playing Magnus offlane, early on things went fairly well and we were accumulating a reasonable advantage. Obviously I bought a Blink Dagger...so did our WK, and he was our only proper DPS carry. Now, midgame the fights came thick and fast - I'd blink in, Reverse Polarity and bring most of their team into range with Skewer. Even with Empower on him, our WK hard really poor damage output as he had Blink/PT/Maelstrom - we lost the fights because we didn't have enough damage to actually put their heroes down.

If he'd have gone a PT/Armlet/BKB build, I think we would have won pretty easily after our early advantage, but he spent too much time and gold on that blink and trying to gank heroes instead of just farming. Blink is great if your team needs you to initiate the fights and/or are looking to snowball, but you have to consider the game situation - sometimes it's better just to do the obvious thing - farm and get some damage equipment. Most teams should be setup to already have an initiator, and your supports should be giving you non-kiting targets wherever possible.

There is no such thing as being overenthusiastic about Blink Dagger. Its just that good!!!

Seriously though, it solves mobility problems greatly and gives less time for the enemy to react to you.

Sven lack Damage because he bought a Blink Dagger...? D{8

LMFAO! X{D

Sven has plenty of Damage and with the rework of his Ult, you won't need to care about Attack Speed for much longer <}3

Same with WK, plus that guy is more of an Initiator anyway, his Right-Click isn't as important as his ability to land Wraithfire Blast and make good use of Reincarnation

I'll agree with this part though, but if you're looking for Right-Click, you should simply pick a more suitable Hero, i.e. one who only needs a Black King Bar at most to be able to stand and fight in Teamfights, like Phantom Assassin, Outworld Devourer, Slark, etc.