Serious question About Mek on carries

Recently, I have seen a variety of carries building an early Mek even though they have hard supports on their team. Most notably, I saw XBOCT build it on Razor and XV Rogue build it on Phantom Assassin.

I'm looking for some hard justification of this purchase. Normally, a carry would spend all of that money ona damage or stat item. Why does a Mek of all things seem to result in so much success?

Well, i have seen mekansm being bought on Viper, Outworld Devourer, Phantom Assassin, and Razor as you mentioned, and these 4 heroes all are fairly squishy. Getting an early mek on them makes it way harder to kill them, from my logic, i think mek is an item they would get if they are doing extremely well with farm and want to keep that up.

I think the reason why you see mek even on carry i because the team realize they need to fight early and they can't afford to wait for support to build mek, btw it gives nice armor and stat, so it's not a completely waste slot. i still think it's quite situational.

If you were to go Mekansm on a carry, it is highly likely that you will not play that carry exactly like a carry - instead, you would have it be somewhat of a bulky damage dealer.

The prime example for this is Viper - He is quite item independent relative to others who share his role, and thus people decide that getting utility items and minimal damage items on him would be beneficial.

Outworld Devourer takes (used to take) Mekansm for an entirely different reason though, it was because Buckler was one of his core items alongside Tranquil Boots in the laning phase.

I would NEVER do this in pubs. In pro games players play team fights differently. They know when to commit and when not to. In pubs players commit 100% and they either kill or are killed. Becouse of this mek is MUCH more important in pro games.

The only hero that i might consider buying it on in pubs is OD. Becouse he does need some early survivability and has infinate mana.

Agreed, usually this Carry will not "Out-Carry" the other Team's Carry in the Late Game and will instead focus on winning the Early and Mid-Game going for a fast win (which Mekansm is perfect for).


This ^ , since even if you have the stronger Late Game, why not strengthen your Early-Mid Game? (I miss the old Tranquil Boots). Mek is still viable on OD in any game, since he can Farm it so fast, strengthening his entire Team in 8 minutes (possibly less).

As for heroes like Razor and Viper, there are no good alternatives to Mekansm. Vanguard is very much an Early Game Item only, and doesn't provide your Team with anything, Battlefury is only good for Melee Heroes who are going to Farm until at least 20:00, Veil of Discord is better for Nukers, Linken's Sphere is not worth the cost on them and neither are Bloodstone and Refresher Orb. Heart of Tarrasque takes too long to Farm. Lifesteal is completely ineffective due to their lack of any Right-Click Damage (a competent opponent isn't just going to let you get 8 seconds of Static Link all the time.

Armlet of Mordiggian is a good choice for them if someone else is going to get the Mek, but aside from that, Mek is their best First Core Item.

As for Phantom Assassin....you're going to have to tell me which match this was before I can even guess why this would be done