Some Idiot's Guide to Abaddon

Introduction

Hello one and everyone! Safecyn here, bringing you all a guide to...

NOO.

Huh?

NO GOD, PLEASE NO. NO. NOOOOOOOOO.

Are you.... ok there?

You haven't written one of these in SO LONG. I've had such a good life without you!
Yet here you are dragging me back. Is this at least a hero you've played more than three times?

It's Abaddon.

Oh. Oh damn, it's finally time, huh?

That's right. The legacy of our dearly departed Cuttleboss will finally be carried on.

... Cuttles isn't dead.

Shush. For all we know he could just be living on... Borrowed Time

... This was a guide?

Oh, Right! Abaddon! This hero is one you almost never see in the professional meta, for some reason. For a while there pros were experimenting with him as an offlaner and building Blink and Blade Mail on him and... that hurt me deep inside. More recently, PPD pulled him out as a 5 position support during TI and that made me feel a lot better, even though I'd argue he's far more suited to being a 4. That being said, I know from experience that you can buy every single ward for your team and still have the farm of a core if you play the hero correctly.

You're never going to let anyone live that 60 minute Anti-Mage game down, are you?

I dealt more damage than our TA dang it! After queuing support! In ranked roles! Of course not!

And do remember, this guide is just suggestions based on my own experiences and understanding of the game, and shouldn't be followed to the letter. Being able to adapt to your specific game is what separates the pros from us rank amateurs. Feedback is appreciated, as long as it's constructive!

Pros / Cons

Pros Decently tanky with good strength gain. High starting damage for last hits, deny, harass Aphotic Shield can fully dispel anyone from your team, even from being stunned, every six seconds. Borrowed Time can be used to remove stuns from yourself. Mist Coil and Aphotic Shield combined let you dive like a maniac and then deny yourself so the enemy gets nothing. Curse of Avernus turns a won teamfight into an objective. Late game talents can turn him into a monstrous nuisance. Nobility with a sense of honor and duty (unlike some heroes coughcough Miranacoughcough.) Since the hero doesn't see a lot of play, your enemies might not know what he does.

Cons Mana-starved in the early to mid game (note just how much mana sustain items are bought!) Kite-able, even with built in mobility and slows. Not as farm independent as other supports. Aphotic Shield cast point is MASSIVE and its range is low. Since this hero doesn't see a lot of play, your teammates might not know what he does.

Safecyn Reflects

Oh, a guest? Please do come in, I just sent Coco out to get some crumpets for the tea. I'm sure he'll be back in a moment.

That's a... different musical choice than usual.

Well, that's because when you get the hang of Abaddon, it really will seem like he's MMR Magic for a while. Having taken a break from Dota for a while due to work and only coming back within the last patch or so, I unfortunately found myself dropping below my typical performance level. But Abaddon, my old friend, wins me match after match of ranked Dota, and I'm fast climbing back up to where I was.

Which was only ever like 3k right?

... 3.3. Shush. But there truly is a mystical quality to picking Abaddon. In my experience, picking an Abaddon, picking it immediately, and picking him as a support, seems to elevate the Intelligence Quotient of your team. There's perhaps a calming effect to playing with the hero, a reassurance that this team member, at least, won't feed if only because of his ult, and if he's playing Abaddon he must know what he's doing, since nobody plays that hero unless they know what they're doing.

Is that actually true?

Potentially. Abaddon only barely escapes the list of 'top 20 least picked heroes in Dota', and I get the sneaking suspicion that I might be the only reason he beat out Bane. The hero appears in less than 3% of all Dota matches.

That's weird, though. He's not picked a lot in professional Dota, but that doesn't usually affect pub pick rate. And the hero is GOOD.

My personal theory is that Abaddon gets the short end of the stick in a lot of ways. He's not a flashy hero that gets a lot of kills. Aesthetically, he's a little plain, with an unremarkable color scheme and a generic, if not soothing voice. There are no pubstar Abaddon mains, and he's just complicated enough that he's not quite noob-friendly either. He's a hero that does a job and does it well and helps win his team the game, but you'll never, ever see a top 10 highlight that shows how amazing an Abaddon used his skills.

So... he's a hero you play if you want to win but don't care about getting any of the credit?

Pretty much. I'm fairly certain the only reason I get commends when I play Abaddon is because of the wards. "Respect your supports" and all that. Despite the fact that I'm blocking 200 damage and returning it in an AOE every 6 seconds. You realize that's potentially a 1200 team health differential right?

Oh yeah. Totally. I knew that.

Mhm. Anyways, since we might be here a while waiting for those crumpets, I'll do something I usually don't do and post my match history on this hero, so you can see my various successes and failures and learn from them.

That's oddly mature of you. You're getting old on us.

... Sh... no... yeah, you're right.

Skills

Valve doesn't quite seem to be able to make up its mind on this one. Is it a coil of mist? Because the description seems to suggest it's a coil of death. Does that mean that the mist is death? Then why does it give life, Valve? I want answers about the Font Avernus, damn it!

Forced joke to start the segment, check. Mechanics is next, right?

That's the script, yeah. This ability has some interesting properties to it, so here we go.

1) The self-damage is pure, and will deny Abaddon if he's below the threshold. That means that if you're at 75 health or less in the early laning stage, you can off yourself instead of giving the enemy team gold and experience by clicking literally any other unit.

2) Just to hammer that point in, literally any other unit. If you're running away from an enemy, don't turn around to try and use it on them to get the deny off. See if there's an allied creep or a neutral in your line of sight. The damage is applied as soon as you cast the spell, not when the projectile hits, so getting through the animation without having to commit to turning is important.

3) At a flat 50 mana per pop, this thing is spammable as heck, and at 100 damage at level 1, this should be your go-to ability to securing ranged CS and experience. If you're playing support and you've got a core in your lane trying to farm, try and only do this if there's a question of whether the creep will get denied or not.

4) The level 15 talent (which I recommend getting on lower position Abaddons) not only increases the damage and heal of the coil by 75 to allies and enemies, but also increases the SELF damage you take by 75. This means your self-deny threshold becomes 225, and casting mist coil during Borrowed Time will heal you 225 rather than 150. Neat!

5) The cooldown of this ability is 4.5 seconds. It's low. Really low. Coupled with the previously mentioned 50 mana cost, there's no excuse not to use it as often as possible in team fights. Remember that it's a heal as well as a nuke, so be sure to use it on low health allies to keep them fighting!


Erick Wright/Edje probably put the relationship between Abaddon and Aphotic Shield into words the best, so I'll start this section by quoting him here:

Abaddon IS Aphotic Shield. That's why he's good. That's why he's played. Abaddon without Aphotic Shield is like Pudge without Hook or an Astronaut without a drumstick it's... just not natural.

The video is linked above: it's pre-6.87, so some of the advice is a bit dated, but there's still plenty of good tips and tricks packed in there, some of which this guide will shamelessly repeat with only minor alterations.

Almost like you've built your entire career off the backs of other people, huh?

Shush. Anyways, DEETS. HERE THEY ARE.

1) This ability blocks 200 damage and then bursts when that threshold is met. This may make it seem like if it expires without absorbing anything it won't deal damage, but that's not true: it always pops for max value.

2) At all levels, the cooldown of the ability is less than its duration, meaning you can prematurely pop Aphotic Shield by casting it on the same target, dealing the damage. This also means that if you're diving a tower with this on and cast it again, you'll effectively get two pops for the price of one, dealing up to 400 damage in short succession. Not the most mana efficient damage, but keep in mind it's blocking you from taking damage as well, so the health differential can be up to 800, more if you hit multiple enemies with the spell.

3) Going against all logic, since it's an AOE burst spell, this spell does NOT hit enemies that are invisible or in fog of war. It... this is seriously the only buff I'll ever ask for on this hero. So many tower dives can be completely RUINED by the enemy happening to get out of vision in the last second before shield bursts. It is the most unfair thing in the game and I will scream OSFRONG at my screen until it's fixed.

4) This ability is a strong dispel that can be cast on your teammates. Strong dispels, for those who don't know mechanics to the same detail I do, are like normal dispels that remove slows, silences, etc, but with one major difference: they remove stuns. Fiend's Grip, Sacred Arrow, Dismember, , you name it, Aphotic Shield removes it.

Duel?

N... not Duel. Duel is weird. But you should still probably use Aphotic Shield on people that get dueled anyways. Damage block and all.

5) Since you can cast this ability on creeps, it can be used to push creep waves safely, ala Ion Shell. If you want to push the creep wave faster, put it on the creep that's out front and will get attacked first. If you want to try and get more of the farm, put it on a creep towards the back and hope it times out when more creeps are within the kill threshold.

6) If you're in the offlane, which you really should be, even as a support, you can mess with the enemy carry HARD by using Aphotic Shield on creeps that they're trying to last hit, especially if they're melee. Make them miss CS, take damage, and then push the wave so they have to last hit under tower. That's how you make a man rage. Or woman. There are women that play Dota, don't act like there aren't.


I could joke about how lazy the writing is for this ability, but I'd be pretty much plagiarizing the video that's linked up there sooo....

.... So?

NOTES!

1) The debuff from this ability is placed upon a successful attack from Abaddon, which is why move speed is such an important thing to build on the hero: you have to catch up to someone before you can slow them down.

2) The debuff works on structures! That means that all your allies, including the creeps, will attack a building faster as long as you've hit it. This makes Abaddon able to put immense pressure on structures, even with very little farm. The attack speed slow also works on structures, so towers will fire at a slower rate.

3) The debuff of this ability only lasts for 2.5 seconds, but the buff lasts for 4.5. This means that you've got a two second window between when the slow on an enemy expires to catch up to them.

4) This also means that after just one attack on an enemy, you have 4.5 seconds of bonus speed. If you ever need to run from a gank, you'll actually have a better chance of escaping if you attack something at least once, whether it's a creep or one of the heroes attacking you.

5) The level 25 talent for this ability is garbage and you should never get it.

That doesn't seem like a fact.

No. No it is.


Any quips about this one, smartypants?

Only that if the ability actually defied mortal understanding, it wouldn't be able to be summarized in one sentence.

... True.

1) As many of you likely know, while this ability will passive activate whenever Abaddon drops below 400 health, a damage instance of greater than 400 that will reduce Abaddon to 0 will not activate this ability and instead kill our Lord and Savior. Watch out for Laguna Blades and Dagons, as well as crits once you get into late game.

2) This ability can be manually activated by pressing R, and can be used even when slept or stunned. The only things that disable the manual activation in the game are Silences, Hexes, and Banishes like Astral Imprisonment.

3) The passive activation of this ability is disabled by break, so take care if the enemy team builds Silver Edge or has Doom or a well-farmed Shadow Demon.

4) Borrowed Time negates damage before any other ability negates damage. That means that your Aphotic Shield won't pop from taking damage while this is active, and False Promise will treat all damage you heal from the ability as heals when it decides whether you should live. This means that yes, an Abaddon with both False Promise AND Borrowed Time active should, theoretically, never be able to die.

5) The Agh's that upgrades this ability is pretty damned good, and is worth looking to build as a luxury support item if your game goes late enough. 50% damage reduction aura is GOOD, especially since you can manually activate this in nearly any circumstance.

6) The manual cast of this ability cancels channeling. So like. Don't press R when you're trying to TP out, ok? It'll activate itself if you get damaged, I swear.

It's been a while since I've done one of these. What comes next?

Item builds. It's always been item builds. How did you forget that it's...

Talents! Right. Let's do that.

I hate you.

Talents

It used to be that in the vast majority of my games, I'd get the move speed talent, as Abaddon's kit is mainly countered by enemies being able to kite and out-run him. You also get much better synergy with your skills this way, since Curse of Avernus is a percentage based move speed buff.

The XP talent is something that I used to ignore on the hero, but in recent games I've been taking it more often, so much so that it might actually tip over to become my favored talent. I'm not sure yet. As a lower position hero, it can be difficult to get to the higher levels and get those precious increased stats and your great level 15, 20, and 25 talents, so XP gain can help mitigate this. Especially since Abaddon is much more survivable than most other supports!



The plus armor talent is generally pretty good in all games, and situationally extremely good if you're dealing with a lot of right-click focused enemy heroes. If you're going core Aba as a 2 or a 1 position, this is almost certainly the talent you should get. Consider it if you're a 3 as well if you need to be in the middle of fights against powerful enemy heroes.

Oterwise, as an offlane Aba and most definitely as a support Aba, the +75 Heal and Damage talent is the way to go. As mentioned above, this not only makes Mist Coil as 325 damage nuke that you can spam every 4.5 seconds, but also increases your self-deny capabilities, meaning you can successfully kill yourself as long as you're at 225 health.



This is the first and only toss-up in the talent list, and it depends entirely on what kind of game you're playing. If your team is lacking damage, you get damage to actually pose a threat if you're up close and personal. If your team has damage and just needs to make sure they stay alive, you get cooldown reduction to cast more shields to counter more spells to win more games. Very very simple!

Alright, Earl. Easy there.

If you reach level 25 on Abaddon and you get the Avernus Slow instead of the Shield Health, you flat out deserve to lose. Not going to mince words here. The right side of the talent tree is awful.

On the plus side, you get a 425 damage block that turns into a 425 AOE nuke. So you know. Get that. Considering that this is Aphotic Shield we're talking about, which is, as previously discussed, the entire reason we're playing Abaddon, any talent that upgrades it is a no-brainer.

Core Item Progression

The build we'll be diving in-depth on here is the Support Abaddon build. As of this writing, I've gone up a full rank in just over a week of spamming one or two games a day using this build, and it's how I feel the hero is best leveraged in a lower farm priority role.

Total Gold Spent: 595

We're just shy of spending all our starting gold here, but it's close enough.

There's a... lot of consumables in there huh?

I'm debating about whether it's too many but this is currently what I do. One of the nice things about Abaddon is that since Aphotic Shield outright blocks damage, using it on yourself will protect you from having a Clarity popped early by a single right click from a pesky support. You know exactly what I'm talking about.

Alternatively, you might have a game where your other support is a dedicated hard 5 and you don't have to buy either the courier or the wards. In that case, here's an alternate starting item build:



Total Gold Spent: 595

Getting an early Ring of Protection that will build into Ring of Basilius and eventually Vladmir's Offering (maybe), is a great alternative that gives you additional protection from right clicks. Plus, getting a Basi Ring ASAP is pretty important on Abaddon, as one of the limiting factors that needs to be overcome on the hero is his limited mana supply.



Total Gold Spent (minus wards): 4040

You may note that this is a decent amount of gold for a support, which is why I don't have a set time-frame for getting all of these items. From personal experience, I can tell you that if you've got the drum by twenty minutes... it probably means the other support got the Urn and there's no point in having two on one team.

Tranquil Boots are our boots of choice in a lot of games because they'll allow us to spam Mist Coil cosntantly on our allies and enemies without getting so low that we prematurely trigger Borrowed Time: the self-damage won't break the Tranquil Regen. A caveat to this is that Arcane Boots is also a perfectly acceptable boot of choice: particularly if it looks like a game where you might need to pick up an Aether Lens or a Lotus Orb. More on that in a bit.

Other than Tranquils, you can see that the items we pick-up have a few common themes that run through them: mana regen, for one: Abaddon wants to be able to cast as many spells as possible, and amassing so many items that provide him with flat bonuses helps with that. There's also helpful auras and effects with each item: Drum makes your allies faster, Basi gives them armor and mana regen, Urn heals them up You'll also notice that two of these items give Abaddon more armor, something he lacks quite a bit of, and one of them provides him with a healthy chunk of stats. All good things to turn the Lord of Avernus into a tankier front-liner on a support budget.

One thing to note about Drum of Endurance in particular is how much of a threat it makes Abaddon to enemy structures. With just a Drum, your Curse of Avernus, and a healthy creepwave that you can Shield and heal with Mist Coil, you can force rotations by the enemy team completely on your own. As a five position support! You're not as fast at taking towers as a Clinkz or a Lycan, but you're still a force to be reckoned with, and you don't need nearly as much farm as either of those heroes.

The Case for Vlad's

If anyone comments on this guide, I can already tell they're going to say one thing. "Vlad's is a bad item. Don't built Vlad's. Rush your Spirit Vessel before wasting your money on this thing."

And I get it. A lot of influential people are bashing Vlad's at the moment, and the parrots will parrot what they parrot. I get it. But let me tell you why I build this item.

As a 4 position, and usually 5 position Abaddon, since even people who queue for support in Ranked Roles don't seem to grasp the importance of buying wards, there is one number I look at when the game is over to see how I did. I don't care about kills or deaths or assists, I don't care about my GPM and XPM, I don't care that Dota constantly tells me I'm underperforming even as I'm closing out games by 25 minutes.

I care about Hero Healing. Mist Coil is one of, if not the most spammable heal in the game and it goes a long way to helping your allies, sure. But when you decide to NOT pick up a Vlad's, even if you go ahead and get a Spirit Vessel with the money instead, your HH values drop DRASTICALLY.

And it makes sense. Spirit Vessel only has offensive uses in combat. There is no feasible way to make your carry heal from it during a teamfight, it will be dispelled immediately. But Vlad's? Vlads will sit there and give your core a minimum of 10% lifesteal that stacks additively with any other lifesteal talents or items they buy. And the only thing you have to do to make sure that healing happens is to stay alive. And you're Abaddon. If you can't stay alive longer than most anyone else on your team, you need to learn to position yourself better.

That's not even going into the other benefits. It gives 4 armor to all of your allies. 1.0 flat mana regen. 2.5 flat health regen. AND a 15% base damage increase. If you're playing with a Morphling or a Drow or... Sven is still a hero, right? These heroes that concentrate on stat items to deal their damage will hit MASSIVELY harder with the help of this item that builds from Basi ANYWAYS, and barely costs more than 2k gold. Oh also Terrorblade. You may or may not be seeing that guy around lately. All of Metamorphosis' damage, and all the damage from his Eye of Skadi or Butterfly or both... yeah that all gets amped by Vlad's.

In short, do not skip Vlad's on Abaddon. I've tried it. It's not great. The difference is extremely noticeable. Don't be cute and buy a Ring of Aquila with your Basi instead like you see pros doing on everyone. BUY. VLAD'S. Alright? Ok.

I wanted to say something but you actually are kind of scaring me right now.

... Oh you think that was scary?

Um... wait. The section is done. Move on to luxury items, you clearly wrapped up there.

You think that was scary?

Please no... NO! NOOOOO.





You were getting too lazy for this! You haven't done this in so long! NO GOD PLEASE NO.

It's happening. I'd like to discuss something that a lot of people say when justifying not building Vlad's as an item: namely, that the damage bonus you get from it isn't worth the cost. I'd like to really look at that and see if it holds up under scrutiny.

First off: a baseline. Blades of Attack are the cheapest item in the game that give raw damage, and are the most efficient damage item per gold spent. At a cost of 430 gold, they provide 9 damage, giving us a cost to damage ration of 47.7. We'll round this up to 48.

Vladmir's offering costs 2250. For this item to provide damage at the same cost efficacy of a Blades of Attack, the 15% base damage boost it provides must give a total of 46.8 damage. We'll round this up to 47, which should hopefully quiet any complaints about rounding up in step one.

From here, we get a simple equation: what base damage value is 47 15% of? To solve this, we do 47/x = 15/100 and arrive at a value of...

313 base damage.

I feel like you've proved everybody else's point. That's an absurd base damage level to reach.

True. Very. Very true. But let's look at a less efficient damage item, like Daedalus. The damage to cost ratio of this item is 66.6, which we'll round up to 67 because of my Catholic-bred Satanophobia. In order for Vlad's to provide damage at THIS efficiency, the base damage boost it provides merely needs to be 33. 33/x = 15/100 which gives us...

220 base damage.

This is not as ridiculous a value as it seems at first, believe it or not. A Terrorblade will reach this with just Metamorphosis, Eye of Skadi, Butterfly, and level 25. A Morphling can reach this by going full AGI at level 25 with nothing but a Skadi in his inventory.

Those are very specific cases, though.

However, in those specific cases, I've shown that picking up a Vladmir's Offering is a completely valid decision ***suming that it was only a damage item. It's much more than that. The damage is icing on the cake, the primary purpose of this is to sustain your team through fights and pushes, which is exactly what the lifesteal, mana regen, health regen, and let's not forget FOUR ARMOR (only one less than Assault Cuirass, I'll mention) will do. That's an armor aura that fully stacks with the Ring of Aquila that everyone loves to buy, too, and that mana regen! It's 1.0 mana regen for your whole team! There's no other item in the game that does that, folks, unless we're objectifying Crystal Maiden even more than usual.

Can we please move on to the other items now? Please? I've suffered enough. I don't know how much more of this I can take.

Well... I guess I'll skip the differentials this time, just for you. But don't think this means I hate you any less.

Luxury Item Options

Helm of the Dominator isn't a bad follow-up item on a support Abaddon once you've gotten your core items. The health regen and AS aura is amazing and makes your 'solo tower threat' potential that much more insane. It also gives you creeps, so you can get like... a stun! Or a root! Actual Crowd Control on an Abaddon! Crazy, I know.

Spirit Vessel is just an item that makes sense on Abaddon, provided you're the one building the Urn on your team, of course. More health, more movespeed, a better active with the urn charges: it's all good! If you've picked up the urn, this is probably your third core item after Drum and Vlad's, assuming you're playing my support Abaddon.

Lotus Orb is an amazing item on Abaddon, but it's also an item you're going to want to plan on getting in advance. Deciding whether or not it's a Lotus Orb game will affect your boot choice: you'll be getting Arcane Boots instead of Tranquils. It's great, though: the dispel is amazing if you're being silenced to prevent you from casting spells, and the health, mana regen, and armor are all things an Abaddon cherishes.

Pipe of Insight is an item you should get against those pesky Zeus pickers with their 55% win rates, and just against magica damage line ups in general. The active is not only good in teamfights, but also for protecting your creepwaves from Dragon Slaves and Illuminates so that you can push down those towers.

Aether Lens is an item that you also want to know you're building when the game starts, and another item that you'd build into with Arcane Boots first. This item is necessary if you need to be able to Aphotic Shield to remove a specific disable in a fight, and you need to be sure you can cast the spell from as far back as possible. Examples of this would include Pudge and Dismember, Windranger and Shackle Shot, or even something like Chronosphere, just to make sure you don't get caught in it while trying to shield a trapped ally.

Aghanim's Scepter is friggin' great. It's expensive, especially if you're play support, but it's hard to find a game where it isn't useful. Not only does it give you an extra second on your ult, but it gives your entire team 50% damage reduction. Not only that, but the damage they would have taken is redirected at you, solving the age old problem of the enemy team being smart enough to not hit you once you trigger your ultimate. Pair this with a Refresher Shard or even a Refresher Orb for ez teamfights.

Speaking of Refresher Orb, it's a better pick-up on Abaddon than you might think. It's incredibly luxury: think AFTER you've got your Boots of Travel and four other items, but it can do wonders. Double Agh's Ult should be a won team fight unless your team is insanely behind.

Also Boots of Travel. At some point, if the game goes late enough, you should buy these and replace your boots with them. They'll let you split push lanes and make sure you always have a TP no matter what. Also Abaddon likes move speed. I almost forgot to put these on the list because it seemed like such a no-brainer.

Shiva's Guard is one of my favorite items in Dota, just because of how much it does. It's a nuke, it gives you flying vision, it slows people, it has an attack slow aura, AND it gives you a nice chunk of armor and some INT to cast more spells. What's not to love? This is always worth consideration on any hero whose primary goal is to build auras.

Radiance is for when the game requires that you deal damage. Sure, the 17% miss chance aura is nice and can swing team fights at all stages of the game, but that's not what we're getting this for, no. We're getting this for the fact that Abaddon is nigh on impossible to kill already, and dealing 60 damage per second around him will melt the enemy team in a protracted siege or teamfight.

Scythe of Vyse is the ultimate luxury support item, though it's definitely worth a look even if you're playing core. A 4 second disable on an enemy hero will always be good, hell it was good even when you could dispel it. Now that even Aphotic Shield can't get rid of hex, it's amazing.

Heaven's Halberd is an item that I'm sure a lot of you, including me, forget even exists sometimes. But an undispellable disarm that gives you additional tankiness can absolutely swing fights in your team's favor. Just remember to use it before they activate BKB. It doesn't work if they've already popped it.

Assault Cuirass is an armor aura that will stack with the armor aura you're getting from Vladmir's Offering AND the armor aura you're getting from the 5 billion Ring of Aquilas on your team. And it makes you tankier and attack faster, plus helps siege down buildings. Pretty dang good on core Abaddon. Also pretty dang good on support Abaddon if you can manage to afford it. Definitely worth consideration if you're up against a lot of physical damage, or if your team seems to be unable to high ground.

Necronomicon is kind of awkward to fit into an Abaddon build, but if you only have to split push to win the game, it's not bad. The purge on the ranged warrior is also really good for chasing people down, the true sight will help you deward and pick out invisible heroes... and it's just generally good for taking towers. The stats are all things Abaddon loves as well. So maybe it's not as awkward as I'm thinking and it's just outside-the-box.

That's a lot of item choices.

I didn't even cover them all either. But that's part of what makes Abaddon such a good support: he can build into what his team needs, even the items I list as core in the previous section can be changed up and switched out depending on the game. His skill set is just that powerful: he needs no 'one true item' to tip a game in his team's favor.

Except Vlad's. BUY VLAD'S DANGIT.

...

Alright, not even Vlad's is one true item, I just like it a lot. And it's good! Trust me. I'm a guy on the internet.

Allies and Enemies

I'm tired. Do we have to do this section? Can't we skip it?

And deprive everyone the full Safecyn Guide Experience? I'm not a G-list Dota celebrity for no reason, now.

Doesn't being a G-list Dota celebrity make you a P-list regular celebrity?

I'm pretty sure the lists don't go that low. I think it just makes me not a celebrity.

Even better.

Shush.

Any hero that can push early and often, particularly ones that use summons or deal tower damage with right clicks, love Abaddon. Not only are you building Drum, but Curse of Avernus enables pretty much anyone to take a tower as fast as if they had one extra core item in their inventory. All summons benefit from it as well, so Prophet's Treants or Lycan's wolves or LD's bear will shred structures.



Heroes that damage themselves in order to use a great spell or nuke also love Abaddon, since Aphotic Shield will block them from taking even the self-damage they inflict on themselves. Maybe Huskar won't love you as much for it, but a Slark+ Abaddon lane effectively makes Dark Pact deal damage without hurting Slark. Have fun playing against people who read this and try it in your next pub! Blame me for the cancer if you must.



As an offlane support, Abaddon pairs well with any hero that can bully the enemy safelane carry but might want a little extra HP or healing to make sure they aren't shredded by a gank or by trading. I'm sure there's more that fit in this category, but you get the idea.



These two get special mentions. CM of course goes with Abaddon because Abaddon needs mana, Crystal Maiden provides mana regen, and so la di da everything is right with the world, howdy doody hi ho silver.

Yeah. That made sense.

Shush. Oracle I mention for a specific interaction: if you have both Borrowed Time and False Promise on you, it is literally impossible to die. All damage you take will be converted to healing by your ultimate which will then be counted as healing when False Promise ends. Neat, right? Have fun pairing that with a Radiance build and just running wild not caring about anything for six seconds.

Outworld Devourer

Banishes are the worst thing you can do to an Abaddon: the best way to make sure the Lord of Avernus can't contribute to fights is by making sure that he's not IN the fight. Time you're not spending healing and dispelling with Shield is time that your teammates are far more susceptible to death.



Silences are one of the few debuffs that an Abaddon truly fears. You can remove them with Aphotic Shield or a manual cast of Borrowed Time because, well, you can't cast spells. And then you have to watch your team die horrifically as you sit there right clicking like an ineffectual creep. If you're going to be against silences, or heroes that are likely to build one, you should aim to get a Lotus Orb within a reasonable amount of time, to ensure that you're never put in a situation where you can't act. Guardian Greaves aren't bad in games like this either. Not Eul's though: being banished from the fight is as bad as being silenced.



Heroes that are hard to pin down are difficult for Abaddon to deal with, as he doesn't have any hard crowd control available to him. You might be tempted to get Skull Basher to try and deal with this problem, but I'll do you one better: Rod of Atos. It's an unconventional Abaddon pick up, for sure, but it gives a healthy chunk of all the right stats AND that precious root for stopping these pesky guys in their tracks. Or you could build your standard aura items and hope someone else on your team can deal with these guys. Surely, at least one person in your ranked match drafted a stun, right?

... Right?

Conclusion

And with that, I've completed my first guide in quite some time. This was fun. It's good to be back. Let me know if there are any other guides you'd like me to make and I'll see what I can do.

Hey. How about you UPDATE ALL THE OLD ONES YOU LAZY PIECE OF...

SHUSH!

On a serious note, thanks all of you for reading this guide. I'm open to suggestions and constructive criticism, so feel free to call me out on what I messed up! Safecyn, signing out.