Autistic Weaver (Updated)

Introduction

Welcome mortals, to the improved guide on how this autist now plays Weaver. Before we begin let me clarify that this may or may not appear as a pro build, but i am hoping to receive feedback from you guys. Also as you will read this guide please be advised that i have written this build from my own idea and interpretation of playing Weaver, so once you are done you might nod your head in agreement or rip out your eyes of frustration, either way, lets begin with my own introduction to Weaver.

Champion Info: Weaver

´´The loom weaves and a new pattern appears.,,

Okay once again welcome to my guide on Weaver, lets first look at the champion himself.

Weaver is a ranged carry champion with skills that allow him to farm a great deal and also become a pain to kill. He got four skills that are listed below but first, some pros and cons!

Pros

• Good pusher
• Good chance of surviving most things giving you got some quick reflexes
• Amazing farmer!!!
• Easily avoids ganks
• Won Autist's Choice Award for being so simple to play

Cons

• Squishy, very squishy
• (Almost) Have to be played by somebody with quick reflexes to use ult right
• Is often focused because of high damage dealing potential
• Silenced = Dead (In most cases)
  

The Swarm

Weaver launches a swarm of 12 beetles that latch on any enemy unit in their path, attacking and reducing armor until it is killed.

The swarm summons beetles on up to 12 targets that is hit by the ability, it is important to know that the ability solely depends on the beetles attached to the enemy. Your enemies will be able to attack them and once they are gone the debuff on the enemies' armor will go away. This ability is a good opener for team fights as it will either take your enemies focus from the other champs (for a second or two) allowing your friends (and yourself) to deal a little more damage doing the fight. Should you be so lucky that the enemies simply wants to fight, then be happy because you just ensured the enemies will take a lot of damage from both you and your friends. I tend not to take max this skill until late game as it isn't until that point team fights actually can take long enough time to make this ability useful.

Shukuchi

Weaver shifts out of visibility, gaining the ability to move at maximum speed through physical units--doing harm to any enemies it passes through.

This here is your farm ability, with a good few seconds with enhanced movement speed and damage dealt to all enemies you pass through. This is your multipurpose ability that will both increase your gold amount, annoy your enemies, and will make you able to get away from ganks and quickly get to your allies (or any other points on the map you wish to go to). I max this as my first skill so that i can harass, farm, and get away early on in the game.

Geminate Attack

Allows Weaver to dispatch two swarms, attacking an enemy twice.
The extra attack will not trigger other attack effects (such as critical strike) and overrides Unique Attack Modifiers.

A simple ability with a simple purpose, double damage. Previously i started out with this ability and buying gloves of haste, however quickly learned this was very inefficient, however do not underestimate this ability. When it comes to last hitting and simple harassment of the opponent(s) in your lane, in the laning face of course, this ability can help you pack a punch.

Time Lapse

Weaver warps backward to whatever position it was in five seconds earlier--regaining the HP and mana from that time. No effect on cooldowns, gold or experience.

This here ability wins Autist's Choice Award for being one of the greatest life savers in Dota 2. Time Lapse have a simple purpose, to save your sorry ***. See those enemies coming your way? Jump back 5 seconds and face roll them all when they just get denied a tasty Weaver. Words cannot describe how important this ability will be for you, as one of the most squishies carries in the game, this ability is a must at lv6. Trust me it will save your *** more than once, granted you use it at the right time. Also good for getting back into a fight if you were pushed out or had to make a quick jump back to the time where your health wasn't about 0.

Ability usage:

This should be pretty easy to figure out yourself but i'd like to have it for you guys just to get the idea of when i think these abilities are useful.

Shukuchi is your "main" ability, you will use this a lot as it is both cheap in mana (though your manapool might say otherwise in the early levels), and its a good extra speed boost when both in and out of combat. Use this when you need to get somewhere fast just not in the early levels (about six is a good time to start but don't overdo it), or just need to get somewhere and got the mana to spare but don't use it too much, you will need it for escaping and for harass as well as farming, once you get Radiance you'll see for yourself just how fast those creeps drop.

The Swarm is a bit tricky in my opinion, while the ability in itself is good it's one true weakness is actually itself. When using this ability, you should make sure your target enemy hero/heroes is busy in a team fight. When using the ability, the insects that latch onto your opponents become actual "minions" WHICH CAN BE ATTACKED. What this mean is that if you are alone this ability is pretty much useless as the enemies can simply knock off the nasty buggers trying to take their armor down. However the ability also gives slight visibility and can be a good choice if you want to scout on ahead or in the jungle.

Speaking of Time Lapse! Lets talk a little about your lifesaver ability. Time Lapse is as i said your best bet of surviving hordes of enemies coming to squeeze every penny they can out of you. The instant you see a group of enemies coming at you, press R, turn around and W your way back, you do not want to be a feeder which is easy if you play Weaver bad. Time lapse can also be used if you just been somewhere and you see something is about to happen there, say you are about to leave Rho's den when you see your friends gets into a lil' fight with the other team, if you can fight decently as Weaver that would be a good time to use Time Lapse, if not just leave them, you'll need your farm anyway, though you might want to send a swarm their way just to soften them up for your friends. If your friends scream at you for not helping then you either made the wrong call, or you just happen to be on team with a pair of whiners (sucks!)

Finally we got your passive, Geminate Attack, there isn't really much to say on how to use it since it pretty much uses itself. Still it doesn't hurt to think a little when you see your ability is ready, see a creep with too high hp left for a single normal hit but might die on two? Well you get the idea, the same goes for champions, use them to get that extra tick of hp out of them, it might not seem that big a difference at the start, but i find it quite useful from the start.

Coming up: The autist explains his taste of items for Weaver and how he plays in the different phases of the game.

Items and playstyle

So from the game starts i buy one Ironwood branchx2, a pair of Slippers of Agility and a Healing Salve and a bundle of Tango. Healing Salve is pretty self explanatory, we don't want to die early on because we are squishy, same as tango. I choose to trade the mana pot away for an extra branch to make magic wand a bit cheaper as well as giving you 1+ in each of your stats, but if you really feel you need the useless mana potion be my guest.

I start out putting my one point in Shukuchi mainly because it's good for farm and harassment but also because it can get you out of some nasty situations should any arise, but of course you know that as a squishy hero, maybe even the squishiest, you need to play safe and don't charge into Tiny or Ursa in fury (Pro tip: If you do, pop Shukuchi first then head back to your mate afterwards, okay?). As stated in ability usage, Shukuchi is your number one farming ability because it quickly deals damage to a whole wave of creeps and heroes, combined with Radiance you can almost farm with closed eyes! (I will not be held responsible for whatever happens if you try that).

Okay so the game is about 7-10 minutes in and you have probably gotten a good plenty of gold, maybe you got a kill or two in which case, gratz you'll get all your early game items right now! However if you didn't i suggest you think about getting two Wraith Bands after Power Treads. But as soon you got threads, and magic wand + Wraith go for Sacred Relic or Radiance as fast as you can, those two ups your attack and your farm and is essential to your money harvesting aside from all the many heroes you take down. Speaking of defeating heroes, with Shukuchi it is easy to catch up to fleeing heroes who believe they can make it out of a team fight, and should they turn and fight you with a friend (granted you didn't kill them), remember Time Lapse which you of course always make sure is ready to save your insectopedic ***.

Midgame/lategame is upon us and this is where the team fights usually start going on when it comes to pushing. By now you should be able to do a decent farm job by using Shukuchi and earn your kills with normal hits. Once you have acquired enough gold buy yourself the rest of your build, i know i put a purchase order at top but whatever suits you best in the situation you and your friends are in, but i usually go with Daedalus and then Butterfly for a huge load of extra damage. In this phase you still need to farm, but be sure to back up your teammates in team fights as well, but be sure to play it safe, even in this phase, or to be more precise: Especially in this phase, you are still squishy but your damage should be good enough to get the enemies health down + The Swarm will help out greatly when your opponents are busy with your team. If you join a team fight i suggest "sneak attacks" Run in with Shukuchi[/b] and quickly out to avoid being focused, as stated many times before you are squishy and therefore and obvious choice to get rid of first, on top of the fact you should deal a lot of damage so they'll want you gone. Do not stray in the middle of the fight, maybe try and get around your opponents or hide behind your friends and pop auto-attacks and charge Shukuchi to run into the enemy heroes whenever you are able (often) and be sure to pick up the ones who run off with little HP, those are Weaver's favorite treats.

Endgame, if all goes well your team should be winning (we'll hope), and i tend to use this phase to make sure them minions get to the enemies base as well as helping in pushes. Still be careful, it the enemies aren't on the map they are either doing Rho or they are coming for you. Keep on supporting team fights but remember play it safe, as the carry you'll want to have a lot of damage and be able to bug your opponents, hopefully get some kills, but nothing is guaranteed.

Conclusion

Hopefully you'll find this guide somewhat decent, i have to admit now that i may not be the best MOBA player, went a whole year MOBA-less between quitting LoL (Wasn't particular good at that either). My score isn't something to brag about but hopefully that will change with a little more playing. As i said in the introduction, this guide may or may not help you, it might increase your experience, or maybe you'll just cry for it sucking. Either way i'd love some feedback, help me help you help us all or something like that.

Thanks for reading the guide.

|Umnusman|

Changelog

04/22/2012

Added:

-Pros and cons
-Icons for items, abilities, and heroes
-New build and skill setup

Edited
-Skill Usage and explanation of h2p (how to play) based on comments/feedback
-Removed the different colored text as it became obsolete
-Removed the stupid old build and added a new and better one.

Todo:

Name anything you find out of place