The Broodmother-in-Law: Post 6.79 (MZ)

Bloodseeker can see you when you're under 25% hp and not 50%. He also has no way to defend against spiders, so he's food in lane. I wouldn't consider him a counter, at least not a hard counter.

With Vlad's and 3 points in bite she can solo Roshan, it just takes forever.
Bring friends.

Love this guide and really recommend Armlet over Vanguard on Brood. I usually rush this after Soul Ring and Before Power Treads if the lane is going in my favor then shift into Yasha or Drums for more movespeed.

I have been experimenting with a decent strategy that would allow Brood to Solo Roshan relatively early with enough spiders to tank for her while alternating them out when she ulti's. I will have to give Vlad's a try next time I do this.

I found this guide very helpful though I buy the radiance after getting vlads, pt and drums.

So long as the "X" in on your web you'll still be invisible when it pulls you.
You can keep your lings out of range when you know where he is..
But there isn't much else to do other than to not use them.
Or keep them in jungle farming while you tower push.

Linkens Sphere can block "X" if it doesn't block something else first.
Vlad aura or AC aura might be able to keep the bigger lings alive.

Have you considered Kunkka as a badguy for Brood, His splash can hurt you when invi or hidden in the tree's, he one shots all your spiders making him get big quick. and can pull you back out from running into trees with his Xmarks the spot.
If you have any advice on how to combat this, please say. I really struggled when i came up againts a kunkka :\

however that said, a lovly guide +1 :D

After a lot more playing I've grown to like picking up boots and Ring of Protection at start.
(If I'm not forced to buy courier cuz everyone else refused to.)
Then Build those into Tranquil Boots.
The higher regen lets you get back into lane faster early on.
The higher speed helps you get in and out of a skirmish faster, since you are relying on speed over invisibility to get out alive.
And the armor is fairly nice as well.
Later upgrading them to Boots of Travel if needed.

I then either build Linken's Sphere if farm and ganks are going well
or Vlad's if things aren't going well.
And typically followed by the other.

Fourth item is usually Sange and Yasha.
I don't care about Removing Dust and the additional slowdown makes them almost entirely unable to move when stacked with Incapacitate.

Fourth item is always Luxery/Gem

I'm still a newb by my standards, but this works fairly well for me.
My main concern being disabling characters before I build Linken.

The problem I have with Vanguard is that it mostly protects against right click damage. During mid game most of the damage comes from nukes, so your vanguard will not really make a difference when you're left with 200 HP after two nukes and a disable.

Let's say you put Vanguard on a lvl 10 Broodmother with no items. Your effective hit points are 1515 physical, 1530 magical. If you buy a Helm of Iron Will and a Cloak you'll have 1450/1415. If you have Str items (drums, treads) the EHP is higher with cape+helm than with Vanguard, for less money (700 gold), and you can update them into long lasting items ( Armlet of Mordiggian and Hood of Defiance, although that depends on the ennemy team).

Great guide however. As tip I would add that since Web gives a little bit of vision, it can be used to watch the rune spots. This can be very useful early game if you can spare one web (catch a web on the nearest rune spot as soon as the game begin).

Created an account on this site just for the purpose of saying, I really appreciate how thorough this guide is.
As a new player looking for ways to improve my ability play my favorite hero I found the alternative perspective very useful.

I personally don't like going for the nuke right away in many games.
Though I do if melee harass isn't an option.
As the cool-down is a bit too long for sustainable damage.
Also, I don't like feeding gold to the opponents.

I use it as a finisher nuke for when my target gets too far off my web network.
Or interrupting health/mana potions..
This means I can skip stuff like soul ring.
And not worry about the nuke until they are able to run away.

Usually start with:
Circlet/Ring of Protection/Gauntlets of Strength.
Build Bracer and RoB. (that damage helps a ton)
Buy boots.
Upgrade boots into treads gradually.
Upgrade bracer into drums.
Upgrade RoB into Vlads.(maybe, might just leave it as is until sold for space)
Build Skullbasher or MKB.
Start picking random shiny objects..

Situational picks of Poorman's Shield/Vanguard/Orchid/Headdress(upgraded)/BoT/etc etc....

I like the idea of getting Ring of Regen early and am eager to try it out.
I find that generally I worry most about Heartstopper Aura and stuns.
Early picking the RoR might be enough for me to not worry over Necro.
Since I don't use 'lings as much, I don't have to fear nukes.

Viper actually isn't as bad early on for melee focused brood.
Once he gets fed and has a manta though... can be problem.

Faceless Void opposing definitely merits a fast Orchid build methinks.

Great guide, but I would council heavily against building Radiance. The challenge as BM isn't killing creepwaves, its taking down a tower quickly. Necbook or AC are much better choices IMO.

Also, the way I play BM is to push one lane solo while the rest of my team pushes another lane. If they devote their entire team to one defense they lose a tower, if the send one member to stop me I kill that hero and they lose a tower, and if they send two heroes my way the rest of my team takes a 4v3 teamfight (which should be an easy win) and a tower. This strategy relies on being able to solo kill most any hero and Radiance just doesn't let you do that. Orchid, Necbook, or even Atos are much better for that purpose.

Also, I would add Batrider and Spectre to the hard counter list since they neutralize your unobstructed movement advantage through Firefly and Spectral Dagger. I don't find Bloodseeker to be much of a problem since he has no AOE to deal with the spiders and has very little kill potential against you. Bloodrage prevents you from going invisible but doesn't stop your unobstructed movement and if you are Ruptured you can just walk into trees. Sure Thirst lets him see you when you are below 25% but you can just sit in trees and heal up.

Cool. From what I can see, his core build is usually Poor Man's Shield, Soul Ring, Power Treads, Orchid Malevolence, Black King Bar.

If it's an easy game he gets Hand of Midas (recipe first) before Treads, and Dagon before Orchid.

p.s. Your skills are wrong (you have 5 points into Spawn Spiderlings). I personally think that WQQWQWQW is right for the first 8 levels, then R>E.

You really don't need a lot of health regen if you are careful for the first few levels, since once you have your ult you can heal up at will.

Thanks for the +1!

That's a cool idea. The only negatives I can see is that you would miss out on the regen from a Vanguard and you'd also be lacking early lane regen. But if you're careful, it seems feasible. Maybe it would work to start that way and build into an Armlet of Mordiggian, or some other item that holds value into the late game better than the Vanguard.

Sounds like a great idea for an alternate build style, I'll try it out and probably add it to the guide. I've been looking for more build options, especially after a few of the comments on here with other good ideas. Thanks!