Crimson Guard

Hey guys, it's been a while. 6.82 brought me out of the woodwork, so to speak.

Anyway, not many people that I've seen are talking about the Crimson Guard, and IMHO it is a fantastic item. I've had two Spectre games I played where I did a fast Vanguard into a Yasha before finishing the Guard, and it was pretty nuts. The amount of tank I had really helped against aggressive lineups and the Yasha was pretty good for farming/damage in the early game (before I upgraded to Manta later). The Guard active is really good for 0 mana, even though the cooldown is pretty hefty. You just have to make sure you use it at the right time.

I'm wondering if Crimson Guard will see any play or affect the meta at all, in your opinions. Personally, I think it makes Vanguard Spectre / Axe viable again.

I've not personally tested this item yet. However, it seems very useful because it functions as a midgame Omniknight ult for your team, and finally allows the worst scaling item in the game to have some utility. On top of a Mek and/or Pipe, its a powerful teamfight ability, especially against physical attack based lineups.

I think a good amount of heroes can make use of it, including:
Axe and Spectre as you said.
Doom (the hero), Slardar, Bristleback, Ursa, Anti-Mage (can easily be farmed after you get Battle Fury), Elder Titan, Centaur Warrunner , Night Stalker, Sand King, Pudge, Clockwerk, and Abyssal Underlord (when released)

That's a good point, I forgot that Anti-Mage Vanguard is sort of a thing. Doom could definitely use it, and Slardar and Bristleback would make sense to me as well. In theory, at least. I'd like to see some experimenting done. :p

http://www.dotabuff.com/matches/922081690


crimson guard is goood

I can't say this item is great on any vanguard builder, but I can say that on Axe it's phenomenal for your team.

Crimson Guard(someone add icon to database ffs) I think is a very powerful item.

It's like a physical dmg version of Pipe of Insight, also related to the nearness of the price.

But people buy it much because its new item. Soon, trench tier will be out of Crimson Guard just like Pipe of Insight.

Pretty much the physical damage version of Pipe of Insight.

A bit too defensive/support-y for carries such as Spectre/ Anti-Mage who have extremely good damage options with Manta Style.

More of an item for offlane/utility heroes who need to be tanky like Bristleback or Axe.

It's not really a buff to Vanguard by itself, It just makes Vanguard Dark Seer, Clockwerk, Axe, Undying etc non-trash again. Especially since Mek Clockwerk or Axe probably sucks now with the mana cost increase, not that it was that good in the first place.

Crimson is EPICCCCC!

They died trying to kill me, timbersaw, tank of the year.

It's extremely powerful against Skills with many physical damage instances like Exorcism, Tombstone, Focus Fire, Luna rightclicks, Broodmother spiderlings and Phantom Lancer Illusions.

I find if you can finish Crimson Guard before 25 mins or so it's huge as against right click lineups it basically a halves their damage every fight. On the other hand when the game goes late it seems very underwhelming.