SoIMBA.Com's Treant Protector Guide v. 0.5

Intro to the Author and Shameless Self Promotion

Hey guys, Airwave here. I've been playing games of the MOBA/DotA genre for the majority of the past four years, first in HoN and most recently in DotA2. In Heroes of Newerth I was an 1850-1900 MMR hard support player with 57-60 percent win in public matchmaking. More recently I've been a member of the teams CoN2 and Team Jacob as their offlane solo player while maintaining a 55+ percent win rate in the "very high" matchmaking bracket while also (as of 2/10) being rated 4352 in TMM, good for 50something in the world. This guide will be part of a longer series as I attempt to write a guide for every hero in the DotA2 hero pool. In this guide I will explain my Treant build, both when I play him as a support hero and as a solo off-laner

Also, I just wanted to take a second to plug some of the things that I'm a part of at SoIMBA:

Our youtube where I post podcasts, video guides: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-l3gLbZwUvyfAoh5ktRGGA
Our facebook, which you can like to stay updated: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Soimbacom/573222866035374

Blah blah blah, on to the guide.

Introduction to Treant Protector

Treant Protector is one of my personal favorite heroes who is beginning to see some traction in pro play after Quantic (formerly DD) began picking him right before the TI3 West qualifiers. Treant is a very tanky support hero with a global presence who can also function as a very capable solo offlaner. Treant sees most of his power in his Living Armor which can easily turn the tide of any engagement during the early-mid game phase while also boosting decent teamfight power thanks to Overgrowth. For all of Treant’s strengths he does fall victim to heroes like Venomancer, Viper, Jakiro and Slark who can easily remove Living Armor

Pros and Cons

Pros:

+Very tanky due to base str and str gain, especially for a support
+Relatively item independent, but scales very well with 1 or 2 core items
+Global healing/damage blocking presence
+Strong teamfight ulti

-Very little damage from skills
-Can have mana problems early on
-Living armor becomes less and less useful as the game progresses
-Nature’s Guise is a very weak invis
-Overgrowth has a very long cast time.

Item Build Explanation

The starting items are my typical support starting items, with you picking up a courier first and foremost or wards if the courier is already purchased (note: you can skip the branches and get both wards/chick – this is what you’d be expected to do in more organized games). Unless you’re against a spam heavy lane or a hero like Batrider/Bristle I tend to rush Arcane Boots before finishing my wand, the reason being that Treant is extremely mana-intensive once he hits level six and early mana boots allow him to spam his skills without worry.

The next item that you pick up on Treant should be based on both your level of farm and what role your team expects you to play. If you’re playing as the teams primary initiator or have a set-up hero like Dark Seer, you should rush a Blink Dagger in order to get off better ultimates. Furthermore, if your team has a hero like Chen or Dark Seer who will build a Mek quicker than you, you should build directly into blink. On the other hand if you have decent farm and you can build a Mekansm before going into your blink. The key takeaway is that a blink is more of a necessity than Mek while Mek is the perfect item to go if your team has no other Mek builder who can get it significantly earlier.

Luxury items on Treant are based far more on matchups and Treant’s level of farm. Ghost Scepter and Pipe of Insight are two valuable support items regardless of the hero and should be picked up accordingly against lineups that either focus on physical or magic damage. Force Staff is another very typical support item that has a variety of uses, although Treant doesn’t benefit from the stats as much as other support heroes do. Vladmir's Offering is a great item when you have a melee carry or two who can benefit from the lifesteal aura, but is a very situational pickup on Tree. Scythe of Vyse and Refresher Orb are by far the most expensive items on the list, but also the most rewarding. I find refresher to be the better option if you’re worried about one single target threat, especially if they have BKB/Manta and can get out of your ultimate, while Refresher is better against multi-carry teams and heroes like Lifestealer who typically won’t build a Black King Bar/ Manta Style.

Skill Build Explanation

[Q] Nature’s Guise
Treant’s invis. It provides a delayed invis that only shrouds an ally if they stay near trees. They also receive a 20% movement speed buff while affected by this buff.

[W] Leech Seed
Treant’s one damage ability. Leech Seed deals pulses of damage that slow the enemy while healing allies for the amount of damage done per pulse. A very useful skill that can heal creeps/allies during a push or be used to damage an enemy.

[E] Living Armor
Treant’s best skill. This ability has global range and “blocks” seven instances of damage while also providing a hefty amount of health regen. Incredibly useful, incredibly powerful and also usable on towers. Coupled with its very low cooldown and insanely low mana cost it’s one of the best support abilities currently in the game.

[R] Overgrowth
Treant’s immobilizing and disarming ultimate. It’s an extremely useful mechanism for controlling teamfights while also shutting down enemy carries. Keep in mind that enemies can still cast spells while ulted and can also activate items such as Manta Style and Black King Bar which dispel the ultimate.

I consider this skill build to be pretty straightforward and the only variation is at level four where I’ll pick up a level of invis as a solo long laner. I prefer to go stats over maxing Guise because I just don’t think there’s very much use for the skill and it doesn’t really increase in effectiveness with extra levels. Occasionally I’ll pick up a second level if I find that I’m using it often, especially to help initiate, but never more than that. Living armor is Treant’s core skill and should be maxed immediately while Leech Seed is also a decent laning skill and should be maxed second.

Tips and Tricks

• Remember that Nature’s Guise has a two second fade time so the invisibility isn’t instantaneous.
  
• While heroes can magic immune (Rage/BKB) out of your Overgrowth, Overgrowth does affect units that are currently magic immune, try to wait until they’re actively magic immune before popping Overgrowth
  
• Living Armor does have a damage threshold, so abilities like Ion Shell will not immediately dispel armor.
  
• Tree has absolutely insane base damage, use it to insure denies or to punch enemies out of lane.
  

Addendum and Updates

6/15/13 - First draft written
6/16/13 - Guide Published