2 | 12 | 13 | 14 |
1 | 4 | 5 | 7 |
3 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
6 | 11 | 16 |
15 | 17 | 18 |
1. | Introduction |
2. | Items |
3. | Skills |
4. | Skill Build / Tips |
5. | Friends & Foes |
6. | Time to Fight |
7. | Video Guide |
8. | Pros / Cons |
9. | Changelog |
10. | Conclusion |
Hi to everyone, my name is Luiz, I am from Brazil and this is my first guide in Dota Fire (I couldn't start this guide in a more cliche way) so excuse my english, it's good, but far from perfect.
Abaddon was one of the heroes with who I fell in love at first sight, he is a melee strength Hero and is probably the most versatile character in Dota 2. Many people tend to play him as a Support, but truth be told he can be almost anything that you want to, a tank, an initiator to some extent or a semi-carry. But I believe that if well played then 'The Lord of Avernus' can be used as a Carrier and that is what I am going to try to explain in this guide, feel free to add any comment and I will try to be always coming back to add sugestions and answer doubts.
Found this really cool fan art made by Stretchanselmo who posted it in Devianart and felt like inserting here.
MIST COIL
Ability: Target Unit
Affects: Units
Damage: Magical
Range: 800
Heal/Damage to target: 100/150/200/250
Damage to Abaddon: 50/75/100/125
Cooldown: 5
Mana Cost: 75
Abaddon releases a coil of death that can damage an enemy unit or heal a friendly unit at the cost of some of Abaddon's health.
As you guys saw before I tend to put a single point at all skills until level 3, normally other guides would recommend to leave Curse of Avernus for last, but I usually upgrade it by 1 level because it is a very good way to harass your adversaries in the early game, if somebody comes close while you are denying a creep or getting a last hit then attack them just once and let it be, as soon as the adversary notices the slow he will instinctively retreat.
Moving on, Mist Coil is a great skill, because it works as a nuke and a heal, depending on the target, the dowside is that is costs not only mana, but also a part of your HP to cast it. This, by the way, is a great moment to tell you that Abaddon can deny himself with this skill, so if you know you are gonna die and that you have no other choice, cast it and watch your adversary shout in anger for not getting any gold or experience from it.
Aphotic Shield is the greatest defensive skill in the whole game (in my useless opinion XD) because it renders who ever has it invincible for 15 seconds, or until he/she receives enough damage to burst it. But that's not all, if the wearer gets attacked enough the damage contained by the shield will be unleashed upon everyone around it in a 675 AoE, a must have in any starter.
Abaddon's only passive skill is Curse of Avernus which has been discussed before in this guide, but it never hurts to go back and study it again. Basically this is the one skill that makes me believe so much in Abaddon capacity to become a strong Carrier. At level 4, when you hit an enemy hero the poor thing will receive a 20% slow in Movement Speed during 2.5 seconds (believe me, when you get hit by this it looks like an eternity) but that's not all, on top of that Abaddon gets a bonus of 40 points in Attack Speed and a bonus of 15% in Movement Speed. Oh, and any other allied Hero who hits the same enemy focused by Abaddon will also get a bonus in Speed Attack and Movement, so... well... bye bye enemy hero. All that, when combined with your build really shows how Abaddon really works during the matches.
Last, but not least, comes Borrowed Time. THE. MOST. HATED. SKILL. EVAH! Really, one thing that everybody loved in Dota 2 was the fact that Valve took a lot of time to add Abaddon to the Heroes Roster. And it's understandable because killing Abaddon is a tough mission, think it like this, everytime Abaddon's HP drops until 400 points his ultimate is activated and any damage he receives is converted into healing, and I mean it, ANY TYPE OF DAMAGE at all. And if that's not enough you can manually activate it as well, so let's say your HP is at 700/2000 and you see a huge hit coming on, all you gotta do is press R and there you go, your HP is almost fully healed and you are invincible during 3 or even 7 seconds (!) which means you can terminate anyone that stands against you or run away during this time, it's THAT GOOD.
On a necessary side note I have to make clear that there are a few ways of getting through Abaddon's ultimate and those are Lina's Laguna Blade, Lion's Finger of Death and almost all Goblin Techies skills because they can deal damage above the 400 points of HP mark that Borrowed Time takes to activate on it's on, BUT if you are able to notice early on when those skills are coming at you and you are able to press R fast enough you will have some very angry adversaries that just healed you so beautifully. There is no better sensation than being able to pull this off, once you guys do it you will understand! ;) The only true way to destroy Abaddon during these few seconds, which makes him really desperate on the battlefield is an Axe and it's Culling Blade. It doesn't matter if it's activated or not, this is the only skill that will kill Abaddon no matter what you try, and let's be fair, it's better this way, otherwise playing 'The Lord of Avernus' wouldn't have any thrill.
Wanna know who is Abaddon's best friend? Came to this guide to find out how to counter this tough Dark Knight? Then this is the place for you my dear reader! =D
Best Friends Forever S2
Business and pleasure
Basically, any hero that has a good disable is the best friend of Abaddon because they can give him that extra time to hit fast and hard the poor stuned or slowed enemy hero. But I would have to say that Ogre Magi is by far one of the best since he can stun with his Fireblast and give you extra Attack Speed (even more????) with his Bloodlust. Another great partner is Slardar who can stun with his strong Slithereen Crush and drain armor with the amazing amplify damage.
But after so many matches testing Abaddon in Dota 2 I have to say that I think I found out who is the best friend of the Lord of Avernus, and that is Spirit Breaker because both heroes' skill trees work in an unbelievable synchrony. Think about this, you can give Aphotic Shield to him and then watch him use Charge of Darkness in an enemy that is nearby, then as soon as your shield explodes, you can give him another shield, which can give Spirit Breaker a lot more durability. Curse of Avernus you will help him have more attack speed, which means that his Greater Bash will likely be activated with ease. But that's not all, with Barathrum by your side, there is no way somebody will ever be able to escape from you because Empowering Haste gives you an amazing boost in movement speed, well, I could go on and on talking about this amazing partnership that is Abaddon and Spirit Breaker, but images are more effective. Take a look at this match:
http://dotabuff.com/matches/281515629
By the way, I would like to take this chance to thank my friend Mavt for playing and showing how amazing this combo is. Thanks man, this wouldn't have been possible without your help! =D
The hated ones
Family... so complicated
Let's get one thing straight, a skilled player can kill Abaddon with pretty much any hero, just as a noob player can let his Abaddon get killed by anyone. But there are those guys who clearly have some advantage over 'The Lord of Avernus'. Axe is a no brainer, the guy takes a lot of hits to go down and his Culling Blade is the only skill in the entire game that can get through Borrowed Time. Lifestealer is also another tough son of a good mother that can make you have a run for your shield because he may not have an ultimate like Abaddon's but his lifesteal is powerful enough to make him heal himself almost as quickly as you can. And besides, he is not called an 'Anti-Tank' for no reason. X)
Sven and Phantom Assassin are here because their criticals can be devastating to you, sometimes you might even not have the time to activate it manually and they may cause you damage above the 1000 points, which will count as instant death to you. So be aware if there is one of them against you and always keep a finger on the R in your keyboard and you should be just fine.
Ohhh my sweet Ancient Apparition... you have no idea of how much I hate you. Why? Well, because of that awful Ice Blast that won't allow you to heal if you are affected by it. Just be sure to stay far from it's range and remember to use Aphotic Shield if one of your teammates isn't fast enough to avoid it and you will live to tell the tale.
Doom is now in this list because since the update 6.79 he will eat you will with his Doom since Borrowed Time no longer activates once your HP drops below 400. If you are lucky enough he will not try to use his ultimate on you because he will probably prefer to use it on someone with more spammable skills, but if he does, just run, run as fast as you can and wait for it's effect to end without killing you in the process. If everything goes right you can even go back into the fight immediatly and activate your ult and still help your team to win.
1. The Battle Begins
As soon as the battle begins choose any side lane, Abaddon can play just fine in either top or bot, but he should never be in the Mid Lane because he is not the type of Hero that needs to level up fast or can handle a 1X1 situation in the very early game, the same thing goes for soling a lane, Abaddon shouldn't try it, I mean, you could, if and only if:
A- You feel really confident in your skills
B- The 2 heroes you will face aren't really the type to harass
C- Plus, they seem to be very noob
If one of these conditions doesn't apply to your lane, then GET THE HELL OUT OF THERE and change with someone else.
Moving on, choose a lane partner who is preferably ranged and has a stun or a slow because this, along with your 3 first skills can give you a quick First Blood, Crystal Maiden, Lion, and Skywrath Mage are excellent examples.
As soon as you are in the lane be sure to get a few last hits, at least if you are not fighting alongside a Hard Carrier for your team, if that's the case then leave it to him and focus a bit in denying. Preserve your mana for now, unless you are suffering a lot of harass, if that's the case then turn your Aphotic Shield up and have no fear when approaching the creeps, the same applies to the case of having the Hard Carrier with you, if it goes like that then give him the shield whenever it's necessary and occasionally use your Mist Coil to either heal your lane partner or harass the poor enemy hero who only has 600 of HP.
This is how a deadly Coil is done!
2. Here comes the mid game
So, you already have your Phase Boots and Skull Basher, oh wait! You don't? Your early game was a huge load of s***? Don't worry then, time to go farm. That's right, whenever you feel like the game is controlled and without any action going on go farm near your lane. The biggest mistake, which I see everyday, is that whenever there are enemy heroes near a tower everybody stops farming and starts walking around the tower, don't do it, so that Abaddon can get strong it needs to farm, pop your shield up and face those neutrals like a real man! (No pain, no gain)
If it really looks likes that the tower you are near is about to be attacked then go for it and defend it as well as possible without killing yourself in the process. And always keep a Town Portal Scroll in your inventory if the tower about to be taken down is too far away.
TEAMFIGHTING!
If a teamfight is about to break down then you will need to study well how you are going to do it, and that requires a lot of comunnication with your teammates, remember that your Curse of Avernus gives a steroid of Attack Speed to anyone who focus the same enemy that you are hitting, so it's extremely important to know who will go down first. The second important thing is to define who will start the mess, whoever it is must be granted Aphotic Shield as it will absorb the initial damage and explode into everybody face at the same time. Don't be afraid to turn your ultimate manually if it's necessary, and if anyone tries to run away remember to activate those Phase Boots and attack/slow the runner so that the rest of the team can help you finish it off.
This is almost as how you will have to play during the whole match, there isn't a lot of secrecy, it's simple, but must be done right to get good results. If you see that an important hero of your team is going down then use Mist Coil to heal him and give him Aphotic Shield next, as this might improve greatly the chances of the teamfight turning to your side.
And what if there is no starter?
Now, this is something that was quite explored during the early days of Abaddon and up to this day can still work quite well, but needs to be planned during the Hero Selection. Let's say that there is no starter for your team, well, Abaddon can fix this by playing as a bait thanks to his survivability skills. What can be done is have Abaddon run into the whole enemy team and starts to attack and get his a** kicked, since his ultimate ins't in cooldown the whole opposite team will activate it and give time to the rest of your allies to jump in and win the fight, even if that ends up costing Abaddon's life in the process, this is a very useful tactic if your team has a Faceless Void with his Chronosphere, or Lich and his Chain Frost, if you have more than one of these then even better, but beware, you can only use this if YOU ARE COMPLETELY SURE THAT YOUR TEAM WILL BE ABLE TO PULL IT OFF, otherwise it's better to avoid it.
Says everyone who knows him
3. Time to settle our business
If by the 30~35 minutes mark you still don't have at least your core items, then I am sorry to tell you that the flux of the match is out of your hands my friend =/ You could try to farm really hard, but by now things must be looking pretty grim to you, even more because Mist Coil and Aphotic Shield are not as useful as they used to be, although Curse of Avernus and Borrowed Time are incredibly powerful now. What you can do now is serving as a bait and trying to help your partners by starting and attacking the main threat in the opposite team.
Now, if you farmed well, got lots of kills and the money keeps coming then you are a threat to be dealt. I am serious, if your team is kicking a** and you are building all those Abyssal Blade, Eye of Skadi and Echo Sabre as well, then it will be really hard for the enemy team to stop you because you are practically a God. Anything that you hit will possibly be stuned for a while (don't forget to abuse your Mask of Madness + Curse of Avernus + Skull Basher + Crystalys combo) and that, combined with the rest of your team, will pratically kill anything that is not a tank really fast.
Just make sure to keep planing the teamfights and not playing carelessly. Remember, a good teamfight is the one where your team gets the most kills, but a great teamfight is the one where you get all the kills.
This is how a farmed Carrier Abaddon looks like
You guys asked and after that I started looking for a good video that showed Abaddon's potential as a carrier. I happened to find this great video made by DannyGaminGnC in which he plays as a killer Abaddon.
His items are different than the ones presented in my guide, but this is a great way to show how the player should act during the whole match when it concerns getting last hits and taking part in the teamfights.
I hope you enjoy it and give a 'like' to the guy as he is also helping me a lot to make this guide more complete.
+PROS
+Has a great nuke that is also an amazing heal for early and mid game
+A shield that is great to start, farm, damage, remove debuffs and look cool \o/
+Can swap roles if the game doesn't goes as well
+One of the greatest passive skills to slow down and hit fast
+An ultimate that is hard to get trough and greatly boosts survivability
+Good chaser, if well built
+Curse of Avernus and Borrowed Time become even better in the late game
+A great hero to carry a Gem if it is necessary
-CONS
-Highly dependent on items to play well
-Ult can be countered by Axe's Culling Blade and Doom's Doom
-Aphotic Shield and Mist Coil don't work as great during the end of the match
-Weak early game
- November 07th 2016: Reviewed the whole guide
- July 26th 2016: Reviewed the whole guide
- May 13rd 2016: Reviewed the whole guide
- April 29th 2016: Corrected a few typing errors and added Boots of Travel do the build
- April 26th 2016: Made lots of change after the arrival of 8.76
- March 14th 2016: Reviewed the whole guide
- February 15th 2016: Reviewed the whole guide
- September 08th 2015: Reviewed the whole guide
- June 30th 2015: Added a new item to the build
- June 22th 2015: Reviewed the whole guide
- May 27th 2015: Reviewed the whole guide
- May 06th 2015: Added Solar Crest to the build and made new images
- March 12th 2015: Reviewed the whole guide
- September 13th 2014: Reviewed the whole guide
- July 27th 2014: Reviewed the whole guide
- March 14th 2014: Made a few changes to the 'Friends & Foes' tab
- February 10th 2014: Reviewed the whole guide
- January 13th 2014: Reviewed the whole guide
- November 09th 2013: Fixed a few images that had disappeared
- October 27th 2013: Made a few changes to the 'Friends & Foes' tab because of 6.79
- October 16th 2013: Made a few changes to the 'Friends & Foes' tab
- September 18th 2013: Reviewed the whole guide
- August 28th 2013: After playing 43 matches with Abaddon and winning more than 30 I decided that I needed to make a few adjustments in this guide and so I changed the order of the skills, the items, partners and a few other details so that this guide can become even more fresh and precise. I hope you will all enjoy it
- August 05th 2013: Added Divine and Gem as items, also added details to the Pros/Cons tab
- July 20th 2013: Corrected an information in the Items tab
- July 17th 2013: Added new items to the build
- July 14th 2013: Updated all the skill names and icons
- July 13rd 2013: Ran a few tests with this build in Dota 2, worked amazingly well =D
- July 12nd 2013: Changed the passive skill details after it was altered in the game
- July 10th 2013: The hero is released on the 'Test Client' have fun
- July 02nd 2013: Reviewed the whole guide
- June 17th 2013: Added the 'Video Guide' section
- June 06th 2013: Explained the 'Situational Items' in more detail.
- June 04th 2013: Abaddon only received more Movement Speed in the 6.78 update, so this guide is still relevant
- May 27th 2013: Added Force Staff as an optional item and fixed a few typing errors
- May 20th 2013: Added Crystalys as an optional item and Dota 1 icons for the skills
- May 16th 2013: Added the 'Friends & Foes' tab
- May 15th 2013: Added a few side notes to Abaddon's ult in the "Skill Build / Tips" tab
- May 14th 2013: Guide was created
I hope you guys enjoyed my guide, please feel free to comment about it and add any suggestion you guys have about it or if you have found some kind of error on it. And if you liked upvote it please! =)
GLHF to everybody!
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