Core Kotl

Guysss ive been thinking this a lot.

Here we have a hero who:

-Gave excellent sustain
-Gave excellent utility


But problem is... A lot.

He is played as a support. But one thing i noted is how he always pushes the wave like crazy. I think this would instead win the favor of the opposition.

He also needs levels and farm badly as a support, making him a very greedy pick.

Now i think this... Wouldnt it be better to run him as a core? Like a mid or offlane perhaps, using the long range release illuminate to farm stuff. It would gave him a lot of farm space and he have the needed momentum to make an impact.



Thoughts?

You're not supposed to use Illuminate in lane as KOTL, you're supposed to use Chakra Magic on your carry so *he* can harass, and then stack jungle camps and clear them with Illuminate to get your early Mekansm.

I don't know what kind of farm you want on KOTL to justify playing him as a core (I'm guessing dagon/ Ethereal Blade/ Refresher Orb because he's maybe the most farm-independent hero in the game ^^), but in any way by stacking jungle and counterpushing with Illuminate he can get it extremely fast despite being in a support role.

Seriously I just rush Scythe of Vyse when I play him, he farms insanely fast.

Who would you rather have with farm? A KotL or a Razor/ Death Prophet? Both more viable as mid heroes, and both push lanes with the added bonus of being good against towers and relevant in teamfights, and survivable. There's more. But you get the idea.

I am not a KotL fan at all. I think he is good at base defense, but that is about it.

Well i know about his fast farm. I farmed a quick aghs and i thiught "this hero farms fast" onky to realized its 40 mins in.

But but but every kotol is harassing illuminate

The only item i really could think of being a nice luxury for Kotl is Aghanim's Scepter. And if you take take a little farm here and there you will still be able to get it at somewhat reasonable timings. Other than that, his spellkit is more about utility and teamsupport than damge or CC, making itemization rather unimpactfull regarding his playstyle.

^^
Well aghs is really what i consider core on him, thus core kotl.

Yeah I'd agree he's very farm independent - you could make do with just Tranquil Boots (infinite sustain). Some more HP on him is nice - e.g. Urn of Shadows. After that, everything is just utility, he's a utility hero with really minimal damage output ( Illuminate is harassment/pushing primarily).

If you get spare farm on him (which happens sometimes with some jungle stacking, if you need to anti-push etc) - Ghost Scepter, Aghanim's Scepter, Mekansm (if it's fast) and maybe a Scythe of Vyse if you really have some extra gold kicking about. Boots of Travel can be nice too late. Force Staff and possibly a Rod of Atos can also be handy.

Really there's no point putting too much farm on him though - feed mana to your allies to win the lane, push and provide utility for your team - excessive farm on him that you've taken from your team is somewhat wasted as almost every other hero can put it to better use.

Techies is better at base defense than kotl. Kotl just doesnt have a place as he is since most heroes do his jobs better.

Just maybe you can use him in a early push lineup supporting a core razor or dp
when you rush BoT to split push like crazy

While I'll agree he has a very unusual skillset, and isn't a good choice if your team is lacking reliable stuns or damage, a lot of his abilities are unique utility spells that can bring a lot of benefits.

E.g. no other hero can boost their nearby allies heroes mana the way he can (CM is a distant 2nd). This can lead to incredible lane control/harassment with the right ally. For example, a level 3 Luna with a level 3 KOTL can throw out 3 Lucent Beams every 36 seconds for 150 damage each. Who can deal with that level of harassment at that point?

Bring a recently respawned hero to a barracks siege or Roshan? Yup. Pull a juking hero out of a gank from across the map? Yup. Cause the whole enemy team to have 80% miss for 5 seconds?

I agree a lot of these things are very difficult to measure; he's a hero who makes his team a lot stronger, without being strong himself.

I would still argue that Io is a better kotl in terms of what you described.