[Irrelevant]A Full Guide to Arc Warden(6.87)

R.I.P

Ok maybe he is not "repick" level of dead but he was hit A LOT harder than he deserved. You have to really love that hero to keep playing him this patch. I'm not really gonna update this guide for 6.87 because I will not play him until he is fixed. I dunno, see how Vaxa plays him now if you still wish to try.

Let's hope OSFrog will bring him back in next patches.

Hi, I'm Dimonychan and within the next fifty thousand characters I'm going to share my Arc Warden knowledge and experience with you and help you understand the gameplay aspects of this hero, as well as decision making and item choices.

This guide assumes you already know basic stuff like lasthitting, denying, pulling, stacking, pushing et cetera, and just want to understand the hero better. In other words, this is not a basic, but rather advanced guide and is not really suitable for new Dota players.

I have played about 50 matches total with this hero with a 70% winrate. My match record for a reference. My MMR is in lower-mid 4ks at the moment.

Another thing to note is that this guide only highlights safelane Arc Warden, though he can be played in other positions, of course.

Arc Warden is an agility hero with a set of very interesting abilities. They are similar in a sense that they are very strong, but only in certain situations. A stun is a stun and is always nice to have, right? A long-range slowing nuke that only works on isolated targets... well, maybe not so much. The only exception is his ultimate. Creating, even for a limited amount of time, a perfect image of your hero with refreshed cooldowns and no fear of death is the strongest thing you can do in Dota. (Well, zapping around with no cooldown is also quite impressive.)

Tempest Double is the selling point of this hero, as you probably already know. Imagine facing two six-slotted carries with 100% evasion lategame. Or two Necronomicons III 20 minutes in. Or a magic immune, Rapier wielding sieging machine that melts your towers in seconds and that can't be killed unless you have an MKB. Chances are, you don't even have to imagine - maybe you've already faced some smart*** who demolished your base while your team was standing there and couldn't do nothing but watch. Maybe that was even me.

Of course, in reality everything isn't that simple, otherwise this hero wouldn't have had an abysmal 42% winrate. Yes, this hero really requires practice and knowledge of what are you doing. I mean, there are still guys who go Power Treads into Mask of Madness on this guy and think this is a good build.

But don't worry, this guide is here to teach you how to do better than that. Let's get started.

Pros/Cons

Pros Ability to create a fully-functioning second hero(that is better than 4 of your teammates because he doesn't feed) Very versatile in terms of laning, role and itemization The safest splitpusher in the game that also has average to extreme kill potential Ability to effectively use most items twice, saving stacks if it is consumable Makes tons of gold without draining your jungle and lanes(looking at Tinker) Two extra Glyphs for you with Magnetic Field - hard to push into Almost completely self-sufficient after laning stage Long range of Flux and Spark Wraith which allows him to stay out of danger Great attack range(625)

Cons Pathetic stat gain - no hitpoints, no armor, no mana, no natural damage either Most skills are only useful in specific situations Extremely item dependent Low attack damage which can make even freefarm lanes tedious Prone to getting his rax destroyed 20 minutes against aware enemies Can feed Necronomicon gold to enemy even if you are really careful Can cause inadequate reaction from some players when picked, especially as a carry(I'm serious, this is a big deal, I've had ******s ruin me games just because they didn't like carry Zet)

Flux is a single-target slow and nuke that deals good(up to 97.5/195/292.5/390) damage, has a great movement speed slow, very long duration and amazing(with levels) cast range. However, it only works when there are no enemies nearby(in 225 radius of the target). If there are, it gets muted and stops working until the target is alone again. It deals damage and checks target status every 0.5 seconds. The first tick of damage is suffered immediately which cancels Blink Daggers. It also pierces magic immunity, but can not be cast on targets that are already magic immune. Suck it, melee come-at-me-bro carries.

Note that neutral creeps and enemy lane creeps do also count as enemies. As a rule, if your target is within close proximity of something that doesn't have a green health bar, Flux won't work. This doesn't apply to towers and other structures, wards(all wards, not just observers or sentries, but also Nether Ward, Mass Serpent Wards etc.) and hidden units. Flux fully stacks with itself, a very important thing to know fora hero with such an ultimate, which means double slow and double damage. Crippling someone and reducing his speed to base 100 units/second is fun... not for the afflicted one, of course.

So this is your primary source of damage and disable early and even midgame. It is a bit tricky to use, so you may find this list helpful:

1)Use it to pick off enemies on runespots or in other places with no enemies nearby. For example, if someone's diving your tower alone, you can easily make sure they pay dearly for that.

2)Use it to force enemies to stay where they are in lane. They either back off and suffer Flux or stay where you are and suffer you and your allies. A lose-lose situation. Especially cruel when you are paired with Witch Doctor. Two spells, each dictates completely different positioning. No escape, no salvation, no way out. Seriously, try it, this combo is absolutely sadistic.

3)Use it to initiate. Especially at night. Most heroes have 800 night vision. You have a spell with 900 cast range(which also cancels Dagger, remember that) and a spell with an even larger cast range that gives vision in an area(we'll get to that later). Sum 2 and 2 together. Even at day some enemies will be lethally(for them) unaware of the spell's reach. Make sure you use it in your favour.

4)Use it to nuke someone down in teamfights. With your Double, that's up to 780 total damage and a crippling 100% slow. At level 7 you can easily kill most heroes lone heroes without escapes.

5)Use it on a lone creep for farming. Just when you've got nothing better to do, most notably on your Double - since it has 20 second duration you don't have to be careful with mana at all and may use it on big neutrals or ranged wave creeps to finish them off quicker.


This one is more straightforward. Arc Warden creates a field of 275 radius that grants 100% evasion and bonus attack speed to allied heroes and buildings inside it. It is extremely useful in both offensive and defensive scenarios.

Note that the field only affects heroes and buildings, all other units are ignored. Illusions get half the benefit - they get 100% evasion but no bonus attack speed.

Now, how do we use it?

1)The primary purpose of this skill is to aid you and your allies when pushing. It's like Battle Trance, but worse... except that it lets your allies tank the tower a bit which can be very decisive. With enough items *cough* Divine Rapier *cough* you will literally melt towers with the help of this skill.

2)The most obvious one - cast on yourself or on your ally to protect them from physical damage and bolster their damage output. This is absolutely priceless and clutch Magnetic Field saves feel really good, both for you and your ally.

3)Dive the tower! What's it? Someone tries to escape and hide behind that big tower daddy hoping it protects them? They wish! One of the best things about Zet's laning is the fact that he can almost recklessly dive the towers to get the kill.

4)Speed up your farming. This is pretty ineffective on its own(actually, all of Zet's spells are horribly ineffective when farming, he is one of the worst natural farmers in the game), but when you've got nothing else to do... why not? Really good when you are on your way home and have that bit of spare mana or when your Double is about to expire.. make sure you always cast Field with your Double unless you have spawned it to defend yourself/attack someone.

5)Use it as a free Glyph. Yes, with Zet your team can effectively have up to 15 seconds of tower immunity which is huge. IT also boosts tower's attack speed so it may be very useful when you're dived. A little thing to keep in mind - since towers don't regenerate, you want to cast field on them if there is a creepwave with a catapult attacking your tower. Catapults are special because they can't be neither quickly killed(except with Midas) nor re-aggroed. And they deal a lot of damage. Protect the tower and destroy the catapult to prevent the wave from damaging the tower at all.


Now this is the most tricky one, I think. This spell enchants an area, placing a wraith that homes in on the first target in it's range, dealing magical damage. If there are more than one valid target, the wraith will attack the closest one. There is an activation delay of 3 seconds, wraith won't attack anybody until they pass. The wraiths last 50 seconds until they expire.

The wraith itself as well as it's "guarded" area are fully visible to both you and your enemies(they still can't see it in fog of war, of course) which, paired with the delay won't let you just casually nuke someone down like most spells do. I'll be straight with you - as a pure nuke, Spark Wraith is garbage because you'll never land it. But it has some other stuff to it that make it a pretty good spell, though, in my opinion, still the worst one in his arsenal.

Firstly, wraith gives unobstructed vision in 300 range around it and has an absolutely enormous cast range of 2000. This can be used for initiation, as mentioned earlier, for chasing(to give your allies vision so they can cast their abilities, also prevents tree and uphill juking) and, finally, defensive vision. Do you know that ominous feeling when you're splitpushing and getting too deep into enemy territory and have no vision of enemy, when you think they are behind every tree, every corner, when you expect an ambush at any second?.. Arc Warden doesn't. He has Spark Wraith. And he uses it to get vision over common gank routes and lane entrances. Good boy.

It is also a great area denial spell. This is especially useful when you're chasing somebody to their tower or near the bottleneck - the huge cast range lets you take advantage of your enemy's route and block it with Spark Wraith. This is also very useful to deny enemy safe spots to defend their tower, such as tree chunks near the towers(players just love to TP there when defending) or just spots behind the tower(make sure that the creep wave has already passed so your wraith won't go to waste. With a marginal 4 second cooldown you will turn the area surrounding the enemy tower into your little personal field of death.

Lastly, it's still a nuke, and when the target is all alone and crippled with Flux this spell loses all of it's weaknesses and starts to truly shine. Especially if you have you Double nearby. 2x Flux + 2x Spark Wraith make anyone regret queuing for a game of Dota. Oh, you can also use it to farm, though it's ineffective, similarly to Zet's other skills. It kills the ranged creep much better and faster than Flux.

Few more things: wraith chases after invisible units, can't be disjointed and doesn't interact with spell immune units(doesn't count them for valid targets). Just so you know.


And now, ladies and gentlemen, the reason why we are all here, Zet's glorious ultimate - Tempest Double! For a low-low price of your flesh, blood and mana you can create an almost perfect duplicate of yourself that will beat the **** out of your enemies! The Double can use all of the abilities and items and they all start off cooldown(except for Refresher Orb and Tempest Double, which means you can effectively use most items twice. The Double starts with the same levels of health and mana your hero had at the moment of summoning(after paying the health and mana cost) and copies your hero's inventory(except for Aegis of the Immortal, Cheese, Smoke of Deceit, Observer and Sentry Wards and Animal Courier). It is treated just as a hero in regard to spells, items and other game mechanics, except for some stuff: it doesn't grant bounty or kills to anyone when killed(and no Duel damage, but Track gold is still gained on the double), it transfers all kill/assist reward and count to the main hero, it does not gain or leech experience( Hand of Midas experience is transfered to the main hero), all gold earned goes to the main hero, the Double can't use bottled runes, drop or pick up items, heal allies with Bloodstone and it doesn't drop Gem of True Sight or Divine Rapier. It is also visibly distinguishable from your main hero, so don't expect to bait your enemies with it.

Not that's some discrimination right there. Nevertheless, having two heroes instead of one is amazing, even if just for 20 seconds. The best things about it are, of course, refreshed cooldowns and no death penalty which lets you do crazy stuff that casual heroes would never get away with. Sieging a tower 1 vs 5 with Rapier or diving 3+ heroes under the the tower 7 minutes in, to name a few.

So, main uses:

1)Farming. Hand of Midas here, Necronomicon there and you've almost doubled your GPM. If your ultimate is off cooldown and you won't be needing it in the closest time for anything else, just pop it, use your items and skills and enjoy the extra dosh.

2)Pushing. Since your Double has no death penalty the only things you should be afraid of feeding are Necronomicon units, therefore you can send your Double into the most dangerous lanes to push with no risk. If you're lucky, you can even grab a kill or two on the defending enemies. Make sure you use your Double's items and abilities effectively though(which means, spam everything you can since it's essentially free).

3)Fighting, ganking or defending. My favourite part. You can easily rek people without even being there. Since your Double has almost no item and spell restrictions it is a fully capable battle unit that can and will wreck havoc in the hands of an experienced player and it can be in the avant-garde of your team because of no death penalty.

Ideally you should combine those - if you used the Double to farm, you can as well push a lane out. If you used it to defend yourself, find a creep to use Midas on before the Double expires.

The Double uses are very much dependent on the items you go for so there's only as much general advice as this.

Arc Warden deals with some degree of micro control and for heroes like him, binding your keys right is a big part of your success. It's about personal preference mostly, but you still want to set it up to play Arc Warden effectively. I'll use my key bindings as an example.

Main hero - "1". Most players use "F1" for this, but this is not convenient for me. It is important that you select your hero as, well, hero, not as a control group, because otherwise it will get messed up and your main control group will include you AND your Double. I've played like for quite a while before I figured out how to get rid of it, and it is really annoying. Don't select your hero via a control group, use "Select Hero" key!

Double - "2". Pretty obvious, This one(as well as all the subsequent keys) is a control group. Bind it so you can reach it quickly at any moment, you want to control your Double just as well as you control your main hero.

Both - "3". Sometimes it is better to just select both main hero and Double and Tab between them. Most of the time you want to control them separately, though.

Necronimicon units - "4". Pretty straightforward, however, there is one thing I really don't like - you can't bind Necro units from you main hero and your Double to different keys. Often you will have them pushing/farming separate places of the map and selecting them(most often to prevent them from being fed to the enemy) will select both groups and you will have to fix the mess manually. There's no need to control Warrior and Archer separately, just tab between them when you want to cast a manaburn arrow(don't forget to use it, btw, on ranged creeps or on fleeing enemies, this will get you kills you otherwise would have missed).

It is also advised to get Flux and Magnetic Field on quickcast - it will help you land them faster and landing your abilities in time makes a difference.

Bond the keys as you please, but make sure you're comfortable with them. And while we're at it - Tempest Double does not stop your queued actions so if you order Zet to move somewhere and cast ulti in-between, he will keep moving. This can cause you to displace your main hero into a very unpleasant and dangerous position, so watch out. Practice with bots a few times before you go into a real match.

Gameplay: Pre-Game

Since Arc of Warden is a bit of a jack-of-all-trades(quite the master of some too!), you can pick him in almost any situation. However, if we're talking about safelane Arc Warden, there are two really important things to consider:

1)You're going to get Hand of Midas in every game and you want it as early as possible. For Arc Warden, everything under 10 minutes is salvageable, but if you feel like you won't get it in that time(dangerous offlane, bad supports, inner conflicts aka gameruin), you should seriously consider picking some other hero(unless the enemy lineup is too easy for Arc Warden to crush).

2)To really get the rape train going, you need from 15 to 20 minutes on average - that's the time frame in which you should usually get your Necronomicon III. If things look like by that time your base will already be burning in flames and teammates crying and asking to report the carry, you'd better pick something else. Even the strongest Arc Warden player will collapse under the pressure of jungle and lane ganks, sounds of your towers falling and relentless flaming.

Watch out for counterpush-heavy teams too, they can seriously hinder your 1 vs 5 abilities hat you may need in some games.

Other lineups are mostly fine and can be dealt with relatively simply with the right build and execution. Note that Arc Warden is sually strong enough to only need the help of one support, trilanes are overkill most of time.



The one listed in the very beginning of the guide is pretty universal and is good for most situations. If you absolutely need more regen(though you generally won't be taking a lot of damage), get another set of Tangoes, but that's about it. Wraith Band will give you much needed attack damage and some other nice stats on top, while Faerie Fire is yet another damage booster and a life saver in some situations. Get Slippers of Agility in the side shop as soon as you get enough money.

Gameplay: Laning Stage

Make no mistake - your one and only goal is getting Hand of Midas as quickly as possible. Everything else is really secondary. If your tower falls, supports feed 0/100, mid says that your mother is a blyad and your house is on fire, but you get a 6 min Hand of Midas, you're fine. Remember that and don't set false goals like getting enemy T1 tower or killing the enemy offlaner N times for yourself.

First thing you should do when you come into a lane finishing a Wraith Band. You may have the money to do that from the very start if you get a Bounty Rune or drew first blood. Then you hit creeps, trying to stay away from danger.

Your lane behaviour almost entirely depends on who your partner is(if there are any) and who do you face as your lane opponent(s). Against most solo offlaners(especially melee) you can just alter between getting lasthits and harassing them. Thanks to your attack range and animation you will take almost no damage from creep aggro and can eat away at your opponent's health despite your poor attack damage. However, this will push the lane and may make you miss some lasthits, so be careful with that. Soon your offlaner won't be able to withstand such a humiliation and will back off... that's when you canst Flux and, with your support's help, kill them. Easy. Arc Warden genrally has a high kill potential when paired with a good support so you can really punish your enemy for overextending. Usually most offlaners just end up either feeding a lot of kills or being starved on exp and gold since they can't even roam the lane because of Flux. Both are great for you.

Things get more tricky when your enemy has a partner. If they are not completely dumb, they will save each other from Flux and may contest your farm or even force you away from the creepwave(though your range + threat of Flux allows you to win most trades) - depending on what heroes you face. Then you may really need the help of your support. Be careful around duo-offlanes and don't expose yourself - you are pretty easy to punish for poor positioning and bad decisions.

Sometimes you can easily stay solo against an offlaner(such as Clockwerk, for example), and sometimes even the best support won't help you and you will be able to do is try to snatch some lasthits while not getting yourself killed. Adapt your behaviour to what you face, but don't miss an opportunity to punish foolish enemies with Flux.

When you get your ultimate(or, better yet, level 7), you can kill most heroes solo. Just cast Double, rightclick your enemy, wait for him to back off, cast 2x( Flux + Spark Wraith), dead. If not, dive the tower with your Double and Magnetic Field. Even if you don't get a kill, you force your enemy out of the lane and expose their tower. Think about who you are toying with, obviously. I'm sure QE Invoker or Lifestealer, for instance, won't get the joke and will rip you apart(and proceed to write "?" in all chat). Most enemies can't do anything due to Flux's range though. Make sure you don't run your main hero into the enemy, this is a common mistake amongst inexperienced Arc Wardens(including me at some point).



Arc Warden's laning item progression is pretty straightforward. The only thing that may vary is amount of regen you ferry yourself with couriers - you may occasionally need to get yourself a Healing Salve or even two. Other than that, it's always Wraith Band into Hand of Midas into Boots of Speed into Healing Salve and Enchanted Mango.

Wraith Band is pretty self-explanatory - just the extra damage and stats you need to be able to lasthit normally and harass your opposition. If you have not yet noticed, you don't get any attack damage at all up until post- Boots of Travel items. Not a single point. And you have abysmal stat growth, so this Wraith Band will serve you well in early game.

Hand of Midas is absolute core in 100% games. You must get it in every game ever. This comes from a Midas hater, by the way. It is just that good. You get one Midas at 100 second cooldown, and another one at 65/60/55 second cooldown. That's actually better than 2 Hand of Midas! Combine it with the fact that Arc Warden has no natural way to farm and his item dependency, and this item becomes a no-brainer. Just try to use Midas every time you summon a Double - you can always find a split second even in the middle of a fight to press one button and get a lot of gold and exp. There's one interesting trick with this and Flux, by the way. Often enemies will try to get close to a creep to mute Flux. You can say them a big "**** you" by eating the creep with Hand of Midas. This also works well when there's some smart*** standing behind the creepwave near the ranged creep and thinks they are safe from your initiation. Show them otherwise.

Boots of Speed. Those are boots. And they give you speed. Yeah. Just remember to get them after Midas - 400 gold is hard to get before Midas, especially in a contested environment, but after Midas it's literally two clicks - so why waste so much time?

Healing Salve + Enchanted Mango - behold Arc Warden, the walking fountain. Since your Double copies consumables too, you get a free 400 HP and 150 mana every time you use a Double - just make sure you remember to feed them to your main hero. Alternatively, use Salve or Mango to make plays by saving your teammates or just patching them up. Nothing like a shared Enchanted Mango on your mid Lina to keep up that positive mental attitude, nawmsayin?

And a Town Portal Scroll. Never forget the TP. Especially since that you can help your team with your Double while peacefully farming on the other side of the map.



The skillbuild for Arc Warden is pretty much set in stone. There can be no argument about what to max first - Flux it is, the other skills' scaling is just marginal. This is one of the reasons why support Zet works, btw - all of his skills are really good with just one point into them. Next, you follow up with Spark Wraith, as this is your nuke, and, lastly, Magnetic Field. You can change your priorities to Field over Wraith but that's really passive play and I wouldn't advise that. You get ultimate whenever you can, obviously. If you REALLY feel that you won't be using Spark Wraith as a nuke, you may even skill stats and only take one point in it.

You should almost always skill Flux first, unless your Magnetic Field can save a life. Then you take Spark Wraith for the kill potential, and you take Magnetic Field at level 4 just in case.

The main build:


The Magnetic Field passive build:


The stat build:


Those builds are mostly about preference, though if you're having a hard time and are forced to play defensively, the second and the third builds are better.

Gameplay: Early Game

Once you got your Midas and consumables, you should aim for getting Necronomicon III - the sooner, the better. For a hero with Boots. Wraith Band and Hand of Midas, Arc Warden is surprisingly useful because of his Double. Not only you have high kill potential on most heroes, you can also be very valuable to your team using your Double's abilities. See a fight near the tower? Cast ulti, TP there with your Double and starting turining the tides with your spells. Make sure you use Hand of Midas and feed consumables to your allies. You can also commit your main hero to fights, but you should only do it to take or protect an important objective(Roshan or Tier 2 tower). Contributing to the fights while farming and staying alive is one the main strengths of Arc Warden - don't just discard it mindlessly.

Watch out for ganks - early on you are really pathetic against 2+ heroes who are coming for your ***. Magnetic Field won't help you if your enemies are half-decent. Remember about Spark Wraith vision! If you feel like you can be ganked in the nearest future, put a wraith in the anticipated location.



Necronimicon - if Hand of Midas is your bread, Necronomicon is the butter. The sheer possibility of having two sets of Necronomicon summons( Arc Warden is the only hero in the game who can do that on his own) is amazing, but the fact that one of those has a cooldown of 65-55 seconds pushes it to absolute core. Necronomicon is so good and has so many uses that you may as well consider it your fifth skill - sort of a bastard son.

On your way from Necronomicon I to Necronomicon III it is better to use it almost exclusively for farming since summons are pretty weak(they can't even reliably contest lane creeps for lasthits) until you get Necro III. Sure, if you've got 2 packs of Necro summons with you and that tasty Tier 1 towers stands there, all lonely and exposed, go for it, but other than that, farming jungle camps with them is a more profitable strategy.

Once you get Necro III, the real fun begins. You may use it to farm jungle like you did earlier, though this is ill-advised. You're much better off either pushing a wave with summons(just send them down the lane with an A-click), or better yet, helping your team. A set of Necro III summons 20 minutes in is scary. Two sets are extra scary(with icing!). And one of them has a cooldown of one minute! If your team has decent early-mid game presence, towers will fall and tears will shed. Just be careful and don't feed them unnecessarily. And use the ******* mana burning arrow, you've got two of them!

Necro summons are also great scouts, you can effectively use that to your advantage.

If you are pushing and want prolonged presence in lane(which results to more overall pushing) over burst pushing power, use Necronomicon just when your Double is about to expire. This will let you pressure the lane for up to 60 seconds(which is about the time your ultimate comes off cooldown), provided nobody comes to defend it, of course. This is especially useful when the lane you are pushing is far from enemy towers so you will push it further and there is a high chance enemies will not defend it.

Don't forget about True sight that Necronomicon Warrior 3 does have. A walking Gem of True Sight on a 60 second cooldown is really good, be it for dewarding or helping your teammates/yourself with little invisible ***** nuisances. And Archerhas a very handy MS boots aura that can help you with chasing, escaping or just moving around the map. Sometimes I found myself using Necronomicon just for the speed boost.


Boots of Travel - since Arc Warden gets gold extremely quickly, there's no reason to go for mid-tier boots, save Arcane Boots when you're playing support Arc Warden. Plus, with an ultimate like that, global mobility is a huge deal as it will let you be almost everywhere at once.

Aside from teleporting to push or fight with your Double or your main hero, you can also use it to teleport to your own Necronomicon units. Say your Double summoned them, but the lane is being heavily defended so you will only feed your summons. In that case it would be wise to use your summons to scout for gank targets(or just wards, enemy will hate you) and TP to your Warrior(he has more HP and is less desirable to kill) when you see one. Being visited by two scary creatures with a teleportation circle swirling around one of them is truly ominous. They can even be scared enough to forget that you have no way of disrupting teleportation :) If you see your victim TP'ing out though, cancel yours immediately - not only you will not get the kill but you also can get yourself killed instead - for nothing.

That's all for out core items, the rest depends on what build you will go for, though there are items that can be good in any build.



Despite Arc Warden being viewed as a "ratty" hero(akin to Naga Siren or Morphling), it is not at all hard to contribute to an early win with him. The main source of your early teamfight presence is, of course, Necronomicon. Aside from pushing towers well, they also deal a great amount of damage(provided their target is greatly slowed or locked in place) and are walking death sentences to those unfortunate enough to kill the Warrior. Your spells contribute a lot, too, if you use them cleverly, they can prove just as devastating as Necronomicon menaces.

Arc Warden is, as I said, unique in the way that he is able to destroy the opposition while staying away from danger. Thus, a number one Arc Warden rule is as follows: "Never deliberately expose yourself to danger!" You have your clone, Necro summons and teammates to take the punishment and all of your spells have a great cast range. Always try to position your Double as aggressively, and your main hero as far from danger as possible. When approaching a tower or other dangerous place, just cast your Double and back off, hide in the nearby trees, like a mouse. When a fight erupts into a bloody rampage, it is very easy to lose yourself and die like an idiot. Trust me - in the middle of a teamfight is is extremely easy to panic when you have to control multiple uinits, make things happen with both and get your own squishy *** covered. You will just feed, especially if you are not experienced. So wait until you see an opening(i.e some support stays aside and casts his spells), and then, and only then, go in and show them who's the boss. Remember that staying away doesn't prevent you from casting Spark Wraith/ Necronomicon and, sometimes, Flux and Magnetic Field.

In a fight, you want to mainly focus on controlling your Double and Necros, blowing up lone targets with Flux and summons, protecting allies with Magnetic Field and giving vision/nuking with Spark Wraith. However, keep an eye on your main hero - he may be taking quite the beating if some smart*** manages to sneak past the teamfight and ambush you. In that case, immediately cast Magnetic Field and Flux and either kill the attacker or TP away(if you can, of course). If you can't, try to walk out of their range, chances are, they are alone and will no be able to catch up when slowed by Flux, buying you some time to retreat.

I want yet again to stress that staying alive is your priority number one. Not feeding Necros also helps, btw. It's not only about the fact that you are a carry and must stay alive, but also the fact, that you can basically keep pressuring your enemy indefinitely - low cooldown ulti and Necros, paired with global presence and most of your spells having no cost for your main hero, make you a real pushing and fighting machine. But you can't do that if you are dead. You also can't do that if your allies are dead, so try to keep them from dying too, if you can - you can take the pummeliong for them with your Double, for example. The rape train can only go on if there is someone to drvie it.

Don't forget the stuff like using Magnetic Field for pushing and Spark Wraith for vision/area denial, it proves extremely helpful when you are sieging enemy towers and base.

Gameplay: Midgame

If your early game rape train crusade didn't succeed(if it was there in the first place, maybe your team coordination level is deep down in the Mariana Trench(heh, I said trench)), then it;s time to rethink your priorities before you begin simply feeding your Necros and your allies, achieving nothing. With Boots of Travel in your inventory you are a great rat, capable of dragging the game long enough to have another shot at victory.

At this point it's all really individual depending on how the game goes. Your team may be doing fine, allowing you to push the hell out of your opposition, get Roshan(it's really easy with 2 packs of Necros and 2 Magnetic Fields) and go in for the kill... or your team may be getting absolutely destroyed, forcing you to play your own annoying game of " Arc Warden vs The World". I will get into more detail when I explain the builds, but the choice of what to go for and what playstyle to stick to is yours. And remember the Number One Rule.



If your game goes long enough, you will definitely do some serious splitpuishing as it is the main thing Arc Warden does between fighting and being in fountain(for whatever reason). As was already mentioned. Arc Warden is the safest splitpusher in the game and mostly should only be wary to not feed Necros. That's if you only use your Double. But sometimes one isn't enough and you have to commit your main hero tothis task and this may not always be safe. So you better preserve yourself, and I will tell how.

First, some basic stuff about how this is even done. You TP to a lane with the nearest creepwave using Boots of Travel, then immediately use Hand of Midas on the nearest creep and either use Necronomicon instantly or wait until Double expires(or, if that's your main hero, until you leave the lane). Order all controlled units to move down the lane via A-click(if you're gonna take a corner, Shift-queue your your A-clicks so your units reach the corner first, and then turn 90 degrees). Use spells and items to kill creeps as fast as possible or save them if you expect a confrontation in the near future.

Now, if you are pushing with your main hero you want to do two things(you can also do it when you send your Double, but that's not really necessary): first, try to guess where your enemies(most notably enemy carries) might be. Try to think from their perspective: if you're a carry and it;s 30-50 minutes into the game, what would you generally do? Farming lanes or pushing with their team(in which case you would see their location), jungle, doing Roshan, or... preparing a gank on you. So if you don';t see your enemy, theyare most likely doing the latter three. You've got to decide for yourself just how much risk you want to take, but remember - eventually they will come after you. Better be safe than sorry.

The second thing is what was already mentioned and what I'm going to repeat again - spam Spark Wraiths for vision. Every time you pass a possible lane entrance or gank route, place a wraith here. This will prevent most engagements on you, especially if you have a Blink Dagger. Be wary of enemy Blink Daggers too - they can blink from any location and you can't prevent that completely. You should act more carefully the more time remains for your Boots of Travel to come off cooldown. Nothing hurts more than managing to briefly evade a pursuit only to realize there are 20 seconds remaining till you can use teleportation.

Even if you're playing really safe, you're doing a lot of useful job - you keep the lanes pushed out(which means that if a fight occurs, there is a serious threat of you TP'ing in to take the tower and rax down) and create space, allowing your team to breathe more freely. The question is - are they gonna use this space?



This is gonna be a big chunk of info. There are several builds you can go on Arc Warden, which have their own strengths and weaknesses. There are also some situational items that can be good regardless of your build.

Since Double doesn't drop Divine Rapier on death, it is very tempting to go for some Rapira shenanigans. I used to be really sceptical about this build because I though that being a hero just 1/3 of the time and having no waveclear is not effective. I was proven wrong very soon, and right now this is the best build, I think, especially for them 1v9 games we all have sometimes. Mask of Madness should be replaced with Moon Shard later in the game. Blink Dagger is there for better positioning - it saves you a lot of time, and time is precious when your life lasts only 20 seconds. Black King Bar is there so you can't be disabled and nuked down - you will always start with the same duration as your main hero, so if you have never used it on your main, your Double will always get 10 second duration which is huge. Be careful not to send your main hero instead of your Double and remember that you can TP to Necronomicon summons and player-controlled creeps(not necessarily yours, you get me? ;)) or heroes if you have Upgraded Boots of Travel. Fun fact: a fully equipped(with an eaten Moon Shard) Arc Warden destroys a T3 tower with backdoor protection activated in ~10 seconds.

Rapier Arc Warden played by Miracle-.

Strengths:

1)Insane damage output, especially on towers since they can't run away. If your enemies let you get close to any of their towers, make no mistake - they are going to regret it. There is no way to stop Arc Warden with a 10 seconds Black King Bar and 2 Divine Rapiers, unless they have some single-target god like Ursa or Troll Warlord with an MKB. You can just lock enemies in their base forever with this build, forcing them to watch their base decay every time they let you through. You thought Naga Siren is sadistic? Think again.

2)Safety. This build is almost completely foolproof. The only way your enemies are going to win is either killing your main hero(which is nigh impossible with Magnetic Field and Black King Bar), or getting a Divine on their own and going for an all-in push. Sometimes they succeed, by the way. If they go for an all-in push, you should either stand your ground and fight them(you are excellent fighter with this build, not even that kiteable thanks to Flux or picka moment to TP to their base with your main hero and go straight for their Ancient - it is better if your teammates help you, since they will likely lose a fight without you anyway and if a base race happens, you'll win because you deal the most tower damage in the game with Rapier build.

Weaknesses:

1)Mediocre waveclear at best. The closest you can get to a good waveclear is Mask of Madness + Magnetic Field which lets you one shot creeps with 2 Rapiers. Sure, you deal tremendous amounts of tower damage, but what's the point if you can't even get close to a tower in the first place? If your enemies' lineup is really heavy on counterpush, I'd suggest going for another build - there are still ways around counterpush, but the point of the build is that all of their heroes stay in base and defend - if there are 1-2 heroes taking care of it while the rest is free to do their stuff, mass Rapiers is not the best choice.

2)You are extremely dependent on your ultimate. I mean, Arc Warden is naturally all about his ultimate, but this build takes it to the limit. You sit in base with your main hero and only play with your Double most of the time. You only take some short trips to a nearest jungle camp to get some exp and extra gold. The only exception is when your base is being attacked and you have to fight with your main hero like plain mortals. The point is, sometimes being a hero for just 20 seconds doesn't cut it.


This is my second favourite build since it's such a good all-rounder: you push rather well, and are useful in teamfights. While Arc Warden's natural stat growth is horrible, his farming speed coupled with unique mechanics of his ulti make him a good illusion carry. Not quire Terrorblade material, but then Terrorblade can't permaslow people with Diffusal Blade active(you should abuse the hell out of the fact that Diffusal charges are free or your Double), dive so deep into enemy territory, be it for pushing or kills, or have a 10 second BKB in every fight(though honestly, it will be rare for you to not use BKB once on your main character - sooner or later you will have to pop a charge to survive). Diffusal Blade gives great amount of AGI and a broken active you can use to your heart's content on your Double, Manta Style gives even more AGI and triples the fun, plus allows you to pressure the lane for an extra 25 seconds after your Double expires. Butterfly is there for speed boost and even more AGI, Eye of Skadi will give even more stats and a great active. Finally, Black King Bar give you immunity to most disables, though it's not that essential and you may substitute it with an item of your choice - for example, Scythe of Vyse, Blink Dagger or another Butterfly/ Eye of Skadi.

Strengths:

There's really nothing Arc Warden is bad at with this build. Good waveclear with Manta Style illusions, decent tower damage output and great teamfight presence. You want it - he's got it. You can use it as your cookie-cutter build if you can't decide which one to go for.

Weaknesses:

1)While being good at everything, there's nothing you excel at with this build. This is fine in most games - being a stable and versatile carry is better than having one extreme strength and a set of weaknesses(as proven by Gyrocopter dominating the meta not long ago just because he was good at everything). But sometimes you just need to abuse the flaws in enemy's lineup in order to win, especially when you're playing from behind.

2)As most illusion carries, Arc Warden hates AOE damage, especially when pushing. Some heroes will just erase your illusions without notice, and against them, it's better to go for another build.


This build, too, is quite versatile, but relies on raw damage and attack speed rather than stats. Mask of Madness provides you with bonus attack speed without much drawback(since you have Magnetic Field and your Double almost does not care about dying). Mjollnir adds even more attack speed, provides you with waveclear as well as some magical DPS, and grants you a great active that can be used to punish aggression on you or your teammates or to push even more effectively - just cast the shield on your Double, your Necro Warrior or a frontline creep - and watch enemy creeps kill themselves on the lightning shield(this is best used when your Double is about to expire to prolong the time you pressure the wave). Daedalus is your second-best damage item after Divine Rapier, but is much safer, Eye of Skadi adds some survivability you lack and prevents kiting, and Black King Bar is pretty self-explanatory. You can replace Mask of Madness with Moon Shard or utility like Blink Dagger or Scythe of Vyse. Daedalus and Monkey King Bar are interchangeable as well. Lastly, Mjollnir can be replaced if you feel you lack direct damage. You can not even get it at all, instead staying with Necronomicon.

Strengths:

Similarly to illusion build, it's quite versatile, but it also provides more burst damage instead of sustained illusion damage. Your single target damage output is very high up until lategame, so you can outdamage most carries - especially since you get 6-slotted faster and there are two of you on the battlefield.

Weaknesses:

This build is quite a hodgepodge, it lacks a general idea and rather patches up your weaknesses. It is also weak to Ghost Scepters and forces you to go for Diffusal Blade(which is not really bad, it is a very good item even for such a build). THis is not a very good lategame build either - Mask of Madnes and Mjollnir don't scale well at all so you better finish the game fast or opt for other items.


You've probably seen highlights of MidOne destroying scrubs with Dagon and Ethereal Blade. This is a modification of that build. Diffusal Blade gives a lot of AGI which translates into EBlade damage, but most importantly, it gives you a slow and a purge - first, to have some kind of a disable other than Flux which will help with chasing, second - to purge ghost form since neither you nor your Necros can damage ethereal units. Blink Dagger is there for mobility and to get up close and personal with your target so they don't get too far for you to use all of your item actives. The rest of slots are situational, see for yourself what you will need. I recommend sticking to Necronomicon for as long as possible since in this build it is your only pushing instrument and they provide good damage output outside of your burst combo. The combo should be as follows: Blink Dagger-( Diffusal Blade)- Flux- Ethereal Blade-Dagon-Diffsual Blade-finish the target off. Don't forget that you can use Diffusal Blade as much as you want on your Double.

Strengths:

This is an extreme burst build, probably having the most kill potential which makes your push really scary to defend from. In fights it;s even worse, since there are two of you, which means two Dagons and two Ethereal Blades - such a combo will annihilate all but the most resilient foes, especially other squishy AGI carries. This is mostly a battle build, allowing you to take out a hero out of a fight almost immediately and continue wrecking havoc with your spells and Necronomicon units. Also this build is arguably most fun to play.

Weaknesses:

1)Very one-dimensional. You can burst heroes down, alright, but outside of this there's really not much you can do. Your pushing capabilities are limited to Necronomicon units which turn from scary machines of death to just tasty creeps lategame. Oh, also Dagoning a ranged creep. Now that's some serious waveclear. Kappa. YOu also lack sustained damage that is very important for carries. This build really feels like a watered down Tinker and, if anything, that's viable on a mid Arc Warden maybe, but not on safelane Zet. Still, the build is here because it's really fun to play, and we primarily play for fun, don't we?

2)Easily countered. Compared to his other build, I mean. Glimmer Cape, Black King Bar, Hood of Defiance/ Pipe of Insight, Heart of Tarrasque, Eye of Skadi - all those items make bursting people down a lot harder, and this really hinders your ability to make in impact. This build has no lategame scaling whatsoever, so if you go for it, better go mid and finish the game fast.


First Naga Siren, then Alchemist... why not Arc Warden, with his incredible ability to be at multiple places at once? With Octarine Core your ulti has a 41 second cooldown, allowing you to have your Double active half of the time. But you can actually push the lane for even longer than 20 seconds. As your Double is about to expire, pop Manta Style to spread Radiance burn damage for another 20 seconds for up to total of 40 seconds... and then your ulti comes off cooldown again! And the best thing about this build is that you can't be punished for this - they can kill your Double and illusions as much as they like, they won't get anything out of this. You can teleport right in front of their heroes to spread your burning ebola like you don't care while your main hero farms or pushes another lane. This will lock almost any team in their base, defending your illusions for eternity to prolong their miserable life. Butterfly and Eye of Skadi are not really core parts of the build - they are here to let your illusions be able stand their own ground and tank the creepwave. You can replace them with whatever utility or damage items you may need(or leave Necronomicon in your inventory to help you further with pushing.

Strengths:

Maximum ebola. No Zet build excels at pushing to this degree. You can apply pressure 100% of the time, and you are extremely hard to punish if you are careful enough. Whatever your enemies do, you will still chip bits off their buildings - slowly and painfully... Madness.

Weaknesses:

1)Really underwhelming in battle compared to other builds. I mean, of course, Manta Style, Butterfly and Skadi give some damage, but that's not enough. For the most part it's fine since it's hard for your enemies to put up a proper fight when your illusions push all the waves into their base. But sometimes your enemies will go for an all-in push - and this is where this build is most likely to fail. It helps keeping more battle-oriented items in your stash to replace Radiance and Octarine Core with, i.e Divine Rapier+ Black King Bar.

2)This build needs three extra items on top of your core pickups to really come online, and sometimes you don't have that much time. Make sure your base makes it to your 6-slot in one piece, preferably with all rax intact, if you want to go for this build.


Blink Dagger - useful on almost any hero, Arc Warden can make good use of it to chase enemies, position himself better in teamfights or advance lanes further to push more effectively. If your main hero is getting focused down, consider purchasing BLink and staying far away, then jump into combat when it;s safe. It is also useful if you push with your main hero - vision from Spark Wraith and Blink will easily void most gank attempts.

Divine Rapier - aside from already explained Rapier build, this can be used similarly to how other carries use it - as a last resort. I've mentioned that when you go for Build Five, it is a good idea to keep one in stash in case you are forced to fight. Similarly, when your base is in peril and you need something impactful, Divine Rapier is the answer.

Linken's Sphere - I don't really recommend this item, even though you can have 2 actives on you or on your ally. Usually you want to pick it up to avoid powerful BKB-piercing ultimates, but nobody will under normal circumstances waste it on your Double, and for your main hero it would be better to just not be present in the fight if it's that dangerous for you. The only real use for this item is, IMO, when you go for a Rapier build and face low cd BKB-piercing disables like Walrus Kick or Nether Swap that severely limit or even outright prevent you from damaging the tower.

Monkey King Bar - pretty self-explanatory. Use it to counter evasion items and abilities if you intend to fight and not push(since neither towers nor creeps have evasion).

Scythe of Vyse - your ultimate disabling asset. Since you can have two of those in a fight, it becomes a very valuable utility pickup, especially useful against slippery foes you can't catch. It is also useful to get solo kills on heroes who try to defend from your push - just make sure you have enough damage to complement the disable.

Silver Edge - another way to boost your solo kill potential - pop it, get close and destroy your victim. Also can be used in Rapier build to sneak past enemies and backdoor towers - though Blink Dagger is usually better for this. Finally, it provides you with Break which is invaluable when fighting heroes who rely on their passives like Phantom Assassin or Spectre. It also gives some beef to boost your survivability and a nice main effect, though that is really secondary.

Upgraded Boots of Travel - a natural pickup as a game goes late, it gives you even more global presence and an ability to support your allies in any point of the map with your Double. Really good when your team is active on the map and can be gamebreaking when you are playing Rapier Arc if you manage to convince an ally to help you sneak up to the enemy base(with the help of Smoke of Deceit, for example).

Refresher Orb - your seventh slot. Take it from stash, use it and forget about it for the next three minutes. This will let you have three heroes instead of two - all with fully functioning items and abilities. With such an advantage you can win all but the most hopeless fights and push like crazy. Again, Rapier Arc makes an even greater use of this item - if you see an opening to send your Double, send two of them and watch them literally erase enemy buildings from this world. Also helps against all-in pushed - three spell immune Divine Rapier-wielding heroes is too much for most teams to deal with.


Finally, one important thing - experiment! Those builds are just suggestions and guidelines, not an exhaustive list of all viable builds there are. Many players have been having success with many different builds and items that are not even mentioned there. Maybe you can find your favourite build that will bring you more success than any of the above mentioned(though it will be kinda hard to beat a Rapier build ;).

Arc Warden's Friends

All you need from a lane is the fastest Hand of Midas possible, and those supports will help you with that more than anyone else. In a party with your friend who knows how to support, winning games is breeze, believe me.

Examples: Dazzle, Winter Wyvern, Witch Doctor etc.

One of your biggest banes is enemy team sieging your T3 20 minutes in. Those heroes will make it much harder for that to happen and will let you drag the game late enough for you to shine again.

Examples: Keeper of the Light, Kunkka, Nature's Prophet etc.

The more the merrier! Two timely Necronomicons make your little tower-munching crusade almost too easy. They can also very well serve as free TP spots later in the game.

Examples: Beastmaster, Lycan, Nature's Prophet etc.

With your ability to be in multiple places at once, your global presence with Boots of Travel and your excellent kill potential on lone targets, having global heroes on your team is borderline cheating.

Examples: Nature's Prophet, Zeus, Io etc.

Not only they melt towers even faster under your Magnetic Field, they can also become your rat companion. Have, for example, Clinkz dominate a creep, move it to enemy towers and let both of you TP to it - if you have Rapiers, no tower will withstand such amounts of physical punishment even with backdoor protection(as I said, a fully equipped Arc Warden melts a Tier 3 with BD protection in 10 seconds).

Examples: Clinkz, Tiny, Lone Druid etc.

Arc Warden's Enemies

The majority of Arc Warden games you lose - you lose because of those guys. There is really no answer to a good team that aims to finish the game ASAP. They will gank you. They will kill your friends. They will destroy your towers. What a bunch of douches. Play ultra-defensively or hope they will throw if your team can't withstand the onslaught.

Examples: Pugna, Night Stalker, Brewmaster

Your enemies as much as your friends. Work the same - hinder your pushing and splitpushing ability, create space for their allies to act more freely and not just sit in base and defend, and generally are big douches. You should aim to kill them if you can so they won't be there by the time your send your next Double.

Examples: Keeper of the Light, Kunkka, Nature's Prophet

Not really a problem for Rapier Arc Warden who sits in his base all day anyway, but can become quite problematic for other builds where your main hero enters the fray too. Similarly to the way you can get your enemies anywhere with the help of global heroes, they can perform a gank on you no matter how careful you are.

Examples: Spectre, Nature's Prophet, Io

No matter how much you are babysat, there are those heroes(or, usually, combos of heroes) that will ruin your day and make your hopes for a decent Midas timing fly straight out of the window. Brace yourself for a really hard lane.

Examples: Broodmother, Lich, Necrophos

Hall of Fame: Friends and Foes

A good lane support, his Cold Feet provides good synergy with Flux against lone targets - if your enemy stays near creepwave, he will be frozen, otherwise slowed and damaged... and probably frozen too. Add in Chilling Touch, that synergzies with your Magnetic Field and attack range to make an enemy offlaner suffer. And don't forget amazing Ice Blast - a potent global spell which will help you hunt down lone targets, especially with some more global presence thrown into the mix.

A Necronomicon carrier, a great pusher with his aura and a single owner of Hawk Airlines Deluxe which lets you literally be anywhere on the map - provided Beastmaster player is willing to communicate. Always a great ally to have.

Deals tremendous amounts of damage to towers and bolsters yours with her Precision Aura. Also help with lasthitting in lane. She is not the strongest mid out there, however(though you may go mid and let her safelane farm) and is really underwhelming when played from behind, but if your lineup has strong high-impact early game heroes, you will melt towers and enemy heroes and finish the game in no time.

Another hero with great tower damage output, a potential Necronomicon carrier and a hero with global presence thanks to Sun Strike. Also counterpushes quite well. What more do you need?

The best non-core counterpusher that can also teleport other heroes to the fight, which results(provided you have Upgraded Boots of Travel in three heroes gathered in any place of the map. Very good support for coordinated teams and parties.

Deals extreme amount of damage to towers, especially lategame, while also being rather scary in fights. Guess who is like this too? ;) There is a good strat, that, however, requires a lot of farm on both you and Lone Druid: let LD get Aghs, then send his bear to enemy tower, TP to the bear and start ripping the tower apart. Provided both you and bear are stuffed with some right click items(especially Rapiers on you), there is no way that is countered - you do not care about backdoor protection at all. Well, you still have to survive until lategame to do that.

Yet another Necronomicon carrier, second best in the game after you because of his crits for summons. One of the best mids to have when you're gong for the push strat, but if not, he's also a good splitpusher with high very tower damage output and can boots your and your summons' damage output with Howl, which is especially good early-mid game. And if so happens that you find yourselves in one lane with a tower nearby... guess how quickly will it fall?

Probably the most global hero of them all, he synergies with you extremely well in other aspects - can get Necronomicon, can counterpush, can deal tower damage... can even go for a tower killer build with stuff like Deso, AC and BKB, teleport straight to enemies' T3, summon treants, let you TP to them(or to NP himself if you have upgraded boots) and melt enemy towers without giving a **** about backdoor.

Another global hero with a lot of counterpush and nuking firepower, it may be worth to go for Upgraded Boots of Travel early to turn you two into a global ganking machine of death... and push.

A great support to have at your side, without doubt, but the main reason he is here is the evil lane combo of Flux+ Paralyzing Cask - one forces your enemies to group up, the other greatly punishes it. Add in Maledict and Spark Wraith and you get a dead hero or even two. Malediction!



The only hero in the game that can benefit from your Double's death as long as it dies with Track on it. Oh, his team gets some nice moneyz too. Probably will get fixed soon, maybe in May... 2017 NoKappa.

If you look for a hero to make Arc Warden's life miserable, look no further - I give you Broodmother. Doesn't care about neither Flux nor Spark Wraith because of her spider army and can eat you alive. At least you can escape with Magnetic Field and TP, but that doesn't make your lane any better. Say goodbye to a decent Midas timing.

Here we go. Very mobile and almost impossible for you to kill on your own, can dodge everything you throw at him and is one of the best counterpushers in the game. Also doesn't care about your Warrior's death damage because of Flame Guard and Sleight of Fist invulnerability. One of your hardest counters for sure.

Another hero with great tower damage output, also counterpushes quite well. What more do you need? Oh wait. He's on the enemy team now. Well, the point still stands - he can push into your base early enough, very hard to kill because of Forge Spirits negating Flux and overall mobility + long range casts. A real ******* and a pain to play against if he knows what he's doing.

Really hard to pin down in a fight and really doesn't give a **** about your Double and it's skillset. Can also kill Necro Warrior with relative safety because of rapid regeneration thanks to Shadow Dance. At the same time he can ruin you big time with Monkey King Bar. Some help(preferably global) from your teammates will be needed to deal with this slippery fish, otherwise he becomes a real problem.

Same as Slark. Mostly indifferent to your skillset( Flux can really screw her up, though), has the ability to quickly take you and your Double with Monkey King Bar and easily kills Necro Warrior with no harm for herself. Same as previous case, some help from your allies is required to beat her.

Not only a powerful counterpushers, but he also has the ability to shamelessly chain-disable your Double or just nuke it down, You can't counteract a Tinker with Vyse with anything but Linken's+BKB paired with fast enough fingers on your side or Shift-queuing BKB activation right after you teleport to a lane.

HE. HEALS. TOWERS. Is that even legal? I strongle reccomend Rapier backdoor-piecing build against this ****er otherwise you will try to break into his base for eternity.

Can dodge everything you throw at him and save his teammates too. Likes to get up close and personal with your main hero, pierces Magnetic Field with his ultimate. Also pierces BKB and Linken's with Walrus Kick, wasting precious second of attacking the tower with your Double. Can also gank the **** out of you before you even get Necronomicon. Be careful around this guy.

Want to feel useless and unappreciated in a fight? Undying will help! Good luck getting Flux off when there are zombies all over the place. Also good luck getting your Midas early against a dual offlane combo with this guy. Luckily, he is **** lategame and has no counterpush whatsoever(except for Tombstone that isn't even nearly enough).

Conclusion

Well, that's it. Hope this stuff was helpful and you learned something. Let's hope Arc Warden doesn't get nerfed into oblivion in the next patch - it would be a shame to make my work irrelevant after just 2 or so weeks after being released.

Also this guide was made in such a hurry(releasing a 6.86 guide in 6.87 is totally not cool) that it surely contains even more typos that usual(those who've read my other guides know what I'm talking about). So feel free to nitpick on those(preferably copying the typo itself so I can find it with Ctrl+F)!

Artwork sources(in order of first appearance):
Arc Warden by AcculluZ
The Sundered Moon Comic by Valve
Official Arc Warden Artwork by Valve
Arc Warden by phsueh

Well, yeah, I know all those banners consist of a fishbowl on one or the other side, but there hasn't been anything other than that, sorry.