Competitive Dragonus

Simple.

Hello all,

Welcome to my guide for Dragonus, whom I play as a early mid, ganker and carry.
My goal with all of my guides is to keep it short and sweet, and to provide my replays(listed soon) for additional perspective.

It is important to note that to be effective with any character, all items are subject to change to ensure victory for your team. The item builds I have listed are a guideline, and should never be followed to a T if you want your team to win. You must be flexible and open-minded.

Why these items?

Victory Lane - Early game in middle can easily lead to first blood if you play Dragonus right. Stats & some health regen(tangos) are your best friend. He has a good amount of starter health and his mana pool is manageable without Clarities.

The Hunt - Tranq Boots will give you survivability and speed, complimented by a Stout Shield your enemies will engage you out of position thinking you're a squishy but then you will truly surprise them. Int stat items are key also, Null Talisman is a natural choice for your mana & damage output. This will also give you options for upgrades later, like Dagon if you so wish. After you succeed mid, Town Portal Scrolls and ganking are your bread and butter so make sure to buy plenty of them(when needed) and start hitting the other lanes with your team mates.

Situational - Things can get complicated in any game, so that's why I have listed several items that can help you into mid-late game. Think survivability(people will focus you), and think Int items(mana pool/regen & damage) and/or CC. There really is no 100% perfect build to do, due to curve balls and team comps you may face. However, all of these items will benefit you greatly in the majority of situations.

Why these skills?

Arcane Bolt & Concussive Shot - These are your damage dealers until you get your ult. When laning in mid, leveling these will give you huge success and really put the hurt onto your enemy. Concussive Short is like a Tinker Heat Seeking Missile only better(slows). I tend to let the enemy push past the water line in middle so they lose vision, then unleash a Concussive Shot first, followed by 1 or 2 Arcane Bolts(low CD) with some auto attacks and they are dead. This strategy is often effective on those aggressive squishies who need farm(drow, sniper, etc).

Ancient Seal & Mystic Flare - These skills are late bloomers for me because they are designed to enhance the killing, but are not used as often as Arcane Bolt & Concussive Shot. Once you have Mystic Flare, you will find yourself getting massive kills especially if you have a Magnus or Enigma on your team pulling them all together. Ancient Seal is a built in Orchid. Pretty sweet right? You silence your enemy and make them take increased magical damage for up to 6 seconds, which is a life time in Dota 2(literally). Fighting other casters becomes a cake walk since they can't fight you back and their health just vanishes.

Overview:
Achieving 30+ kills in a game is not something challenging for Dragonus if you play him smart. I recommend you solo mid to start, buy items to give you survivability/cc & damage(int), and make sure to gank early and often as the lanes allow.

Isn't Dragonus a Support?
He is. He is also a Nuker. To clarify, Support just means that the hero is dependent on skills more than items to be effective. That is why survivability, cc, and int will scale you very well the entire game. This is also why you can achieve a large number of kills, especially early on when you gank. You can absolutely clean house if you get the right skills, without the need for key items. Last Hits are great, but your true farm lies in hero kills and supporting your team in fights either with your Ancient Seal silence/amp, Concussive Shot slow, item cc, and then huge damage output when your carries are locked down from stuns and other forms of cc. Who focuses the support? EXACTLY! well... until they realize how scary you are, that's why the survivability piece is a key factor in conjunction with Int items as killing them faster gets rid of that issue.

If you're playing Captains Mode, I would ban Lifestealer & Phantom Lancer as they will cause you problems...

Thank you for your time. Please give me a thumbs up and comment if you enjoyed my guide!