The Vengeance of Vengeful Spirit - Detailed Roaming guide

Welcome

I decided to make this guide for vengeful spirit because I haven't seen too many people play her too effectively in my pub games and the guides for her on dotafire aren't all that great and in-depth. Roaming is also a skill that I haven't really found a proper guide for even though it is a really powerful tool and role to learn to play. So this guide will be about Venge as well as roaming and supporting in general. I suggest reading the entire guide because it's sure to help you especially if you're somewhat new.

Introduction

Vengeful Spirit is a support hero who is often played as a roaming ganker and excels at this role. I'd say she is one of the top roamers together with the likes of Earthshaker and surpasses other supports like Crystal Maiden in this role. She can also also find a place in a push lineup if a support capable of pushing is the optimum pick, although Venomancer is a better pick if pushing is the main tactic. The reason she is great is because she can be quite versatile because of her skill set: she can be played as a hard support, initiator, ganker/roamer and although rarely seen can be played as a carry. All this makes her a very fun hero to play. So if you want to learn how to play a support who is a lot of fun, great in pubs but can still be challenging and a hero that makes you feel manly then vengeful spirit is a great hero for you.

This guide will talk about the way I play venge and what I've had success with but I will also be mentioning what I've seen other get and do with her.

WARNING: This is my first guide so please be understanding if mistakes are made. Secondly this guide will be quite detailed but for those of you who want a concise guide I will be repeating the key points at the end of the section. I will be talking about things not only directly affecting vengeful spirit but also general game concepts regarding supports and roaming. Personally I feel a guide should be in depth if you want to teach someone a game YOU HAVE TO talk about more things than just one concept. It's a game that is interlinked and to stand a chance at getting good you must understand the game more than just a hero. I have played competitive games outside of DOTA and have made money doing so, and while coaching some of my team mates and friends till they too became competitive gamers I have found that teaching is a difficult procedure and one has to attempt to teach someone the overall concept instead of just following a set guide. A guide is there to 'guide' you not to tie you to a strategy, thats why I'm not a fan of concise guides. However, if a guide can tie in the overall concept of the game the trainee starts using his own brain and will have no problem developing his own stratagem on the fly.

Sorry about that little lecture just there but I guess it outlined what I'm trying to do with this guide.

Before playing any Vengeful Spirit Game you MUST watch this video before the game ... It helps massively. No joke.
Play Video

Pros / Cons

+ Fun Hero
+ Isn't just a ward *****
+ Roaming is challenging and fun
+ Versatile and can fill many roles
+ You can end games quickly
+ Nice pub hero
+ You can be a man!

- Squishy Hero
- Roaming can be difficult
- You always think you're behind
- Somewhat situational
- Countered by a good team that communicates and has wards

Items

Items, you need them whatever hero you're playing and although Vengeful Spirit excels without even having much gold, she needs gold to make sure she can continue ganking effectively and support the team. I will now mention the thought process behind picking up these items and why others pick up certain situational items.

Starting Items:

Tango
Healing Salve
x2 Clarity
x3 Iron Branch


This is a pretty conservative start however personally I like to get an early Soul Ring on venge so I can roam forever.So I usually pick up the soul ring recipe as a starting item, trading out my tangoes or something (the rest of the soul ring can be bought after a gank in the side shop so I never actually end up having to go back to base). The soul ring helps with mana a lot especially in early to mid game and I do like spamming my spells. If you think about it this way: As a roamer you need to be everywhere and if you're ganking all the lanes constantly you're going to run out of mana. You're already low on exp because of roaming so if you have to go back to fountain for mana, that isn't going to help you. People say you can spam clarity's but I don't want to haul them around. Not that they're heavy and slow me down or anything it's just why do I want to spend money on consumables that can be cancelled anyway and give me mana over a long duration. Others say that you're squishy so you shouldn't get a soul ring but if you're the one ganking you should make sure you're in a good position and healthy enough in the first place to make a gank ... to counteract the effect of soul ring I buy Tranquil Boots. I feel that these 2 items together are greatly under used and they have great synergy together particularly for a roaming support.

+Firstly the heal will mean you don't have to go to fountain.
+Tranquil boots are the 2nd fastest boots in the game so they are great for roaming
+They increase your armour so they increase your survivability.
+They are cheap.
+Can be disassembled to make a Ring of Basilius by just buying a Sage's Mask and help you get on the way to making your mekanism because all you will need to buy is a Headdress and the recipe because you will already have the Ring of Regen and the Iron Branch. This disassembling is very important because it allows you to reuse items that have gone passed their time of usefulness. As a roamer you will not have much money so recycling old items is great. After making your mek and basilius you can make power treads to increase your tankiness because you will be initiating in mid/late game.
.

- Don't increase your strength, you are basically as squishy as you were before
- Can basically become normal boots because of the passive
- You will probably want to upgrade them later


The only real reason I consider getting a basilius is because you should start pushing and basilius can help a bit and you after disassembling your tranquils you will still have a Ring of Protection left over so you may as well use it instead of selling it. You could also sell your soul ring because at this point you should already have enough mana but I often keep it even if it means a slightly slower mek for clutch situations.

= Tranquil Boots + Soul Ring = very strong Vengeful spirit early/mid game

I personally find this method of getting the best items possible for the early game while transitionning yourself nicely into mid game incredibly under used. I have never seen it done in dota 2 by someone other than me even though I remember it being used on many heroes in dota 1 ... However sometimes I choose not to buy a RoB and just get a quicker mek

Core:

Town Portal Scroll I'd say this is the most important item in the entire game, it can save you from sticky situations or can be used to defend a tower. It can be used to counter gank a tower dive or move to another lane for a quick unexpected gank. A TP scroll has so many uses you just learn with experience. But ALWAYS try to carry 1 or 2 of these with you going into mid game.

Observer Ward As a support you're expected to ward and since you're roaming you won't be losing out on exp because you will be walking passed the ward spots anyhow.

Mekansm In principle every team should have one and it's usually the support that gets it. Since you may want to disassemble your boots and soul ring when they lose their usefulness you only need to buy 2 more items, including a recipe to get the mek. The mekanism is also useful because you may sometimes initiate with your ulti (or at least thats what you're meant to do) so you may get focussed down a bit in which case you can pop the mek and give yourself that needed heal to survive.

Ring of Basilius This item gives an aura armour bonus and will help slightly in pushes and teamfights. You get it for very cheap after disassembling your Tranquil Boots so your transition into pushing is very smooth. When going through the skills you will notice that your wave of terror together with your aura can help pushes quite a lot.

Power Treads Will give you a decent strength boost so raises your HP. This allows you to be more confident swapping an enemy because you have more chance to survive. The active ability of tread swapping can also be useful if played right.

Luxury and situational items

Bracer - A very cheap item that will help your hp. This is usually taken by supports when they aren't doing too hot and will boost your attributes and raise survivability.

Aghanim's Scepter - The effect of agh's reduced the cooldown of your ultimate to a mere 10 seconds which will let you swap at the beginning of the fight as well as during the middle or at the end of the fight ... if you can survive. It also lets you swap with creeps but personally I don't find it too useful. It's a very expensive item for what it does and I'm not a fan of it but I see some people who plan to play carry venge get this item.

Ghost Scepter - As a squishy hero you will often times be very quickly picked off by the enemy carry. If you find yourself constantly being focused down in seconds by a clinkz or someone in a teamfight then a ghost scepter could be a nice pick-up. It does however amplify nuke damage so be careful when using it. By not taking auto attack damage the enemy will have to use speels to kill you and by eating these you actually are doing a good thing for your team. Every disable you eat is one less that your carry takes so don't think that being nuked down in a fight is always a bad thing because you should be able to win it after their cooldowns are up.

Medallion of Courage - Has great stats for a roamer because it helps with your mana while having a great armour boost and active that together with your wave of terror melts enemy armour causing them to die to auto attacks very quickly. Personally really like this pick-up after I find I'm doing or am going to be doing well. It can also be used on Roshan to help your team kill him quicker.

Vanguard - Not a huge fan of this but I guess it's useful. Makes you tanky and lets you eat the damage that the enemy pile on you while you use swap but overall its a bit pricey while having no effect on your actual team. You are meant to support the team so I'd rather pick up something that helps everyone

Force Staff - Really like this pick-up on vengeful spirit. Lets you catch up with straglers running away from you. Lets you initiate from a longer distance. Allows you to juke. Allows you to swap and then force staff out to safety. Lets you take shortcuts. Lets you push team mates around (saving them etc). The possibilities are endless.

Bottle - Many people pick this up over a soul ring and although I think the bottle itself is an awesome item I'm not a fan of it on venge. Yes it can be amazing because it lets you use runes when you want them after you bottle them but I don't like taking runes from the mid hero. Venge can gank without runes, mid heroes benefit more from a rune for ganking than venge imo. However if your mid hero doesn't need a bottle ... say an invoker who didn't get a bottle then I would certainly consider getting a bottle. But taking away runes from a mid hero is often not the best option because it effects their lane control so much.

Eul's Scepter of Divinity - Huh ... another scepter? Ah well I guess this is a nice pick-up it's just rare to see people get one now-a-days. I love the item and its active can help you after you swap in or it can help your team make a 5vs5 fight into a 5vs4. Its great for chasing and it gets rid of any mana problems you may have

Animal Courier AND OTHER SUPPORT ITEMS: Buy them when you can and if the situation calls for them. Enemy wards screwing your roaming? Use sentries. Enemy invis hero killing everyone? Get sentries and dust. Want to get a nice gank off without being spotted? Buy a smoke.

Some people decide to try and carry with venge which personally I don't enjoy too much and I never buy carry items like a Desolator and Manta Style on her unless I've completely stomped the game, which happens on occasion.

Skills

There are a few different skill builds that people use on vengeful spirit. The first is the way I prefer to play her but don't always choose to because of the situation. The second is for spamming and the third is pushing. I have put the different skill builds above but don't worry about experimenting and trying new things. The items builds for all 3 should be pretty similar but they are situational - your goal at the end is to still get a Mekansm to support the team however if you are going to push a lot you could grab a very early Ring of Basilius or upgrade it to a Ring of Aquila to help the push going

1) MAX OUT STUN FIRST - This results in the highest damage output per gank but also raises the mana cost of your Magic Missile and since mana is so important for venge this build is sometimes not taken. However, I prefer it because it gives you more chance of a successful gank and my item build complements the need for early-mid game mana. Note that the duration of your stun does not change, its only the damage that is raised. Your stun however can be disjointed so if the enemy team is made up of heroes who can dodge projectiles like Mirana and Sand King sometimes its best to use the 2nd build to minimise wasted mana.

- Magic Missile - Q

This is your bread and butter skill as said by some. It is what makes you great at ganking. The stun duration is pretty good and the damage scales with levels. This is your strongest nuke and is strongest during the early game. It has great synergy with your Nether Swap because you will be able to swap and then stun the enemy while they are in the middle of your team - this almost certainly guarantees a kill. You could also stun then swap but whatever. It is important to note that vengeful spirits stun can be disjointed. This means it can be dodged by certain skills of other heroes. For example Mirana's Leap at the right time will dodge your stun. Other examples are Sand King's sandstorm and all different blinks. Another thing to note is that the range of your stun isn't all that great so this means that you need to make sure you get your ganks right, and for this reason backstab ganks from the enemies back are more effective.

2) MAX Wave of Terror AFTER 1 Magic Missile SKILL LEVEL

Some people like this build because it uses a lot less mana so you don't have to necessarily buy mana regen items. The 1 stun level will allow you to gank and will give you more stun's for your mana pool. Your Wave of Terror maxed is great because it reduces the armour of heroes a lot ... and since at the start of the game heroes don't have much armour anyway this causes the enemy armour to be reduced to below 0 which makes them even squishier and prone to dying to auto attacks. I would recommend trying all 3 builds to see what you like best. Maxing your wave first could also help you push because it will reduce the armour of the creeps. It fits in well when played together with an armour debuff team, like Dazzle, Templar Assassin or Shadow Fiend. Furthermore, it will help taake down Roshan quicker to net your team an advantage

- Wave of Terror - W

Really great skill for supporting, ganking, pushing and teamfighting. It has a huge range at 1400. Its seriously long, only thing you need to do is make sure you position yourself correctly so you hit everyone before a teamfight. Its also great for counter pushing or pushing by lowering the armour of creeps. It can work greatly in conjunction with an early Medallion of Courage which should solve some of your mana problems. It just melts away armour so is great for ganks. Because of the range you should use it to scout because it gives sight for the entire range. Use it straight after a stun while ganking from the side or before the stun if you're behind the enemy (backstab gank). If you use the wave before the stun it will maximise the amount of times you get to hit the enemy because you're guaranteed to not miss any of the duration of the de-buff.

3) MAX COMMAND AURA together with Wave of Terror and only leave 1 level in Magic Missile

This shouldn't really be done in my opinion however I have seen people do it in certain situations and have done it myself when the game calls for it. Once again I'd recommend NOT doing this but it's a possibility. The only reason you would ever do this is for a pushing strat. By maxing out both aura and Wave of Terror you will be able to push relatively quickly because you are giving the enemy heroes and creeps a hefty armour debuff while giving your team and creeps a damage % increase.

I have also seen people completely stop levelling your stun after just 1 level and pile the rest of your points into stats after you max out your wave and aura. This could work because your nuke damage at higher levels isn't all that great so increasing your survivability is a nice idea.

command aura - COMMAND AURA - E (PASSIVE)

This is a pretty nice aura and increases all the damage that everyone in close proximity to you can do to the enemy. This is really noticeable in late game teamfights and means that vengeful spirit plays a pretty important role on the battlefield. There is one problem though, you need to make sure you survive the fight and dont die first because then your aura is no longer in affect. This is ultimately a trade off: you either get a great Nether Swap off and kill their carry while dying yourself (losing the aura) or you save your ultimate and try to survive because of good positioning to make sure the damage of your team is amplified. This aura is one amazing reason why Vengeful spirit MUST TRY to survive in fights so taking items like Force Staff or Eul's Scepter of Divinity or a situational Ghost Scepter (VERY risky but against the right composition it could work) can help greatly in your chance of firstly creating an uneven fight and then helping with your aura.

SO PLEASE DO NOT SUICIDE ... THIS AURA IS VERY POWERFUL

- Nether Swap - R

Your ultimate is what really makes or breaks a good Venge player. You either suicide with it or you win teamfights with it. It has an insane range and some of the stuff you can do with it. It's one of the higest risk but highest reward skills in the game I feel ... if you get it right and escape you feel great because you basically single handedly won a teamfight - as a squishy support hero. What makes the ultimate EVEN BETTER is that it goes through Black King Bar. I was suprised to notice NO GUIDE on Dotafire mentionned this, yet this is so important.It's one of the reasons Vengeful Spirit has begun to be picked in competitive games again particularly against a hero like Enigma. The problem is Enigma can single-handedly win teamfights with his blackhole and since most players buy a Black King Bar on him there is nothing you can do while he gets a 4-man blackhole off and causes you to lose the game after a crucial teamfight ... however as vengeful spirit you can turn this completely on its head and swap enigma out of channelling his black hole with Nether Swap and the only thing you have to do is make sure you're not the one who gets caught so positioning is extremely important. Just because your ultimate can bypass BKB you can negate one of the most powerful ultimates in the game. You can also use the swap to save teammates who have been stunned or are getting focused.

There are other qwerky things you can do with Nether Swap. For example as I already mentionned it has great synergy with Force Staff. Before a fight you can force staff up onto a cliff and then quickly swap an enemy up there ... guess what they cant get down. You can do a similar thing against intiators like Sand King. After he uses epicentre and blinks into your team you can force staff yourself to the side and then swap him out. If you're quick this means your team only eats a few pulses of the ulti and the SK is suddenly out of position while you're back in the fight. I have done this once against an SK. I force staffed onto a cliff and swapped while he was using epicentre. He had already used Burrowstrike so once he was on the hill he was caught there for a few seconds waiting for another burrowstrike to come off cool down. I'll try to dig up the replay of me doing it and embed it into the guide to show some of the awesome stuff you can do with venge. Also remember that your swap bypasses terrain so you can swap people across over cliffs.

So please try out different builds but I'd recommend going for the first build by maxing your stun first unless the enemy have plenty of ways of disjointing your stun in which case max wave first. Aura maxed is interesting but really risky imo and shouldnt really be done

How to Play a Roaming Support - Early Game

First of all I'd like to say that roaming is difficult and you WILL have bad games however if you play it right you can cause your team to stomp the enemy in a pub. Roaming is a risk ... it causes you to have a solo lane but hey ho, that's not exactly a bad thing now is it. The only problem will be you getting a decent amount of exp and some gold. Even if the roaming doesn't pay off you always have the possibility of joining your safe lane and tri-laning. By stacking and pulling you will be able to gain money and experience while making the enemy push and still resulting in you being able to gank or deny exp and gold ... so at the end of the day all can still be good. More on stacking annd pulling later on for those who don't know what it is.

The start of the game:

This is when roaming HAS to pay off and it all starts from the rune spawn. What you want to do is make sure you try and get that first rune because it can be the difference between first blood or having a bad or slow start. Now I'm not telling you to go, run out to the rune and do whatever you can to get it even dying if you have to ... You have no reason to the rune can have a large effect but then again it could just be a regen rune that will do NOTHING for your gank. I know after following my instruction of watching that disney song videa you will feel unkillable but this is DOTA not Disney. Heroes actually die here (Actually **** they respawn, ah well screw my analogy) but just don't risk too much.

So your first objective is to try and get the rune. You can go to either spot in all honesty it doesn't make much of a difference. I usually just go to the side where the heroes have the most synergy (can chain stun etc) so if the rune spawns there I can get a very quick and effective gank off. But where do you stand waiting for the rune to spawn (Runes spawn every 2 minutes starting from 0:00). I have seen this far too many times and althought this seems rather obvious I don't see people doing it: STAY ON THE HIGH GROUND. I see far too many people just standing at the rune spot from the get go. Remember, the rune is not going to spawn before 0:00 so just stay out of sight by being on the high ground. This will give you an advantage if any engagement takes place. If you spot someone just PING them to let your teammates know someone is there. Even asking if they want to gank him could work. What you do from here is situational and it is your call. Your lvl 1 stun is of a pretty decent duration so the possibility of stunning the enemy before the rune spawns then stealing the rune if you feel lucky about the rune or if you have backup coming in which case you could go for first blood. And why do you get this first blood opportunity? Because the enemy did not use the high ground. Alternitively, if the enemy is standing a slight distance away from the rune spawn wait until 0:00 to see if the rune is there and if it is there then get your stun off and steal the rune and then pouring damage out on him to force him to use regen. This may be difficult to do because the magic missile moves quite slowly so the enemy might have enough time to react and grab the rune but he may have been sleeping. Ideally the enemy don't even bother scouting out the rune in which case you have free roam over how you use the rune and the enemy won't know you have it unless they bothered warding. I'd like to point out that people in pubs in dota 2 ward a lot more than people did in the original dota and even though this is great for the quality of the game it can be detrimental for supports. However, wards should not be a major problem at the begining if your teammates and you are covering the rune and ward spots so you should at least be warned about wards. Now pray that you get lucky with the rune spot. If you do get the rune well now you need to make sure you use it wisely. If you dont get the rune you can either gank without it or take the trek to the other spot and pick it up there however you will have to cross mid if you choose the second option so you may as well gank there first. On the otherhand check the lane closest to you and think whether you could still get a good gank off there. If you have good synergy with the heroes in lane, go for it.

Where and who to gank?

Option 1: If you got the top rune gank top lane or mid.

Ganking mid and getting first blood pretty much should guarantee your team a good game so mid is the ultimate target for any ganker. Mid is often seen as the most influential lane because the mid hero is capable of ganking, disrupting the enemy side lanes and helping push those side lanes. Mid towers are also considered the most important for map control so giving your mid hero an early advantage will be a huge bonus for your entire team. Furthermore, mid is often left unganked throughout most games so players who play in mid usually will not expect a gank to come so they could be an easier target. The only problem is that mid lane is the shortest lane so ganking it is difficult so timing is of utmost importance. After taking top rune you're going to have to get into a better position or else the enemy mid hero will see you and just tower hug in which case you will be wasting valuable time. To get into a good position you have 2 routes: 1 quick (and probably safer) route and a 2nd longer route but you may be forced to take it in case you don't have enough time. I'd say the safest and quickest way is to head straight up the mid ramp and then up the next ramp into the enemy jungle and stand on the ridge of those stairs. You can get to the same position via the long way round through the enemy jungle (be careful when going up the top ramp because even though the enemy should not be there ... hopefully, but a chance of you being counterganked exists). Go up the ramp then go passed the medium camp (the camp closest to the top ward spot) up the stairs and you will be in position right above the enemy mid lane. You may have to take this route if you don't have enough time to get to mid without being seen by the mid hero. Also while wheeling round and preparing to gank mid keep your eye out on your top lane because they may need help or an opportunity to gank may show itself. So when you're in posiiton all you have to do is wait and hope that your mid player does a good job of blocking. If the block is good the chance of a sucessful mid gank has just gone up. If the block was good this automatically means that the enemy will be slightly overextended if he want to get creep kills. If he drops down the stairs you must PING and then go in for the gank. If you pull off the timing perfectly you will be out of sight so you can get a few auto attacks off before your stun. Hit him a few times and when he begins to turn around stun him and keep auto attacking. When the stun duration ends, you could try and block the enemy movement as if he were a creep. This will let your team mate get a few more hits off on him howvever you could just keep hitting him which could be more effective. Hopefully you get first blood or at least burn his regen for the cost of well 1 rune. After your gank you may want to use your clarity potion to get back your mana and head off towards bot lane to gank there. If their lane is pushed or they are tower hugging then go into the jungle and stack the medium camp and pull it into the lane. This will cause the enemy to have to move forward to gain exp and gold otherwise they will simply fall behind.

Option 2: Gank the top lane.

Although this is unlikely to result in a kill you can alleviate the pressure that your top lane is getting. If your top lane is a suicide solo (1vs2) then the lane should be slightly pushed in your favour, hopefully. This means you can come out of the trees and gank. If the enemy support hero sees the lane is pushed he will head over to the medium camp at around 42 seconds or something so he can stack the camp at 52 seconds to prepare the camp to be pulled. This opens up a slight window for you where you could have a 2vs1 gank on top lane. Once again this will be unexpected and could result in a kill for your team

Option 3: Gank Mid after getting bot rune.

Head over up the ramp passed roshan towards mid lane. Hug the cluster of trees to your right and avoid being seen by either tower or hero. Once agian if the mid enemy drops behind the stairs your chance to attack occurs and you must react quickly.

Option 4: Gank bot after getting bot rune.

This should be the most straight-forward gank because you have 3vs1 effectively if you all focus 1 hero with disables. You can head through the river however if a ward is place you will be seen so I usually go through our jungle and then head bot. Wait for an opportunity when you can come out from behind the enemy. Use the trees and fog of war to your advantage. If you end up behind them you should get an easy kill. Please be careful about the positioning of your allies. If they are too far away do not go in. You will simply be going into a 1vs2 which is very dangerous for a very squishy hero like yourself. After ganking the sidelanes use the opportunity to nip into the side shop to buy boots or finish up a soul ring if you decide to get it over a bottle.

CONCISE TIPS

RUNES ARE IMPORTANT
Always stay on the high ground
Try to communicate with your team as best as you can so PING and chat
Use your stun to try to steal the rune or engage
Ganking is all about positioning, use the fog of war to your advantage
Make sure you are backed up by teammates
Ganking from behind is usually most effective
Use the side shops as a roamer
Go into the jungle and stack some camps if you have no opportunity to gank

MID GAME/LATE GAME

Your role is to ward and help your team push. Your role is also to initiate on out of position heroes and hopefully net your team the advantage before the teamfight even starts.

Sight Range

1 important thing to remember or know if you're playing a roamer is understanding sight range and knowing that certain heroes can see further than others at night or day. Knowing this will help you know how to approach ganks without being spotted ... you must know your enemy to be able to gank him effectively. Most heroes in the game have a day vision of 1800, and a night vision of 800, however, there are some exceptions, they are listed below (Heroes not yet included in dota 2 have been included).

- Enchantress, 1800 (Day vision)/1800 (Night Vision)
- Sniper, 1800/1000
- Treant Protector, 1800/1200
- Bounty Hunter, 1800/1000
- Alchemist, 1800/1400
- Mirana, 1800/1200
- Puck, 1800/1200
- Leshrac, 1800/900
- Night Stalker, 1200/1800
- Meepo, 1800/1800
- Ancient Apparition 1800/1400
- Slark 1800/1800
- Drow Ranger 1800/1700
- Luna 1800/800 - However when she skills Lunar Blessing her vision will be 1800/1800

Stacking and Pulling - Trilane

Sometimes your roaming might not go very well or your enemies might be playing really safe and not opening up any oportunities to gank. In this case rather than wandering around aimlessly you could head into your jungle and help your safe lane by stacking and pulling the jungle creeps. This will cause the enemies creeps in your safe lane to push to your tower. If the enemy continue to play safe they will continually lose exp and gold. In pubs players will take the risk to keep gaining exp and gold and will over extend. This will allow you to gank. To pull effectively PLEASE STACK the camp first to make sure the lane is pushed in your favour (closer to your tower) ... to many people forget to stack and instead cause the lane to push.

In case you don't know how to stack here's a small video detailing what and how it's used.
Play Video

Friends and Foes

Any good team must have a good set of heroes drafted that COMPLIMENT eachother. This is why if you're last pick you shouldn't be picking what you want but instead what the team needs. Vengeful spirit luckily has synergy with a lot of other heroes.

FRIENDS

Support heroes that compliment VS and will help in ganks:

- Crystal Maiden - Her Frostbite and Crystal Nova will make killing someone very very easy, just make sure you chain your stuns together
- Sand King or Earthshaker - Anyone who can chain stun is great for a roamer or ganker hero because it should let you have enough time to debuff the enemy armour with Wave of Terror and get enough hits off for the kill
- Ancient Apparition - I don't see enough players pick this hero. He is a great pick but really uses the help from fellow stunners to be able to proc his Cold Feet which is an absolutely amazing disable ... It's seriously HUGE. If venge ganks with a stun it gives a higher chance of procing cold feet which will be a 100% kill unless something seriously goes wrong.

Mid heroes that will be able to follow up on your stun if you gank mid:

- Invoker - Cold Snap into Magic Missile into sunstrike should be a kill if the invoker plays it right
- Leshrac - Magic Missile into Split Earth into Diabolic Edict should once again result in a kill
- Rubick - telekenesis + throw back down the stairs into Magic Missile should let you get enough auto attacks off
- Pudge - Situational but if he gets a quick meat hook off before or after you stun you could get a kill because of Rot
- Chaos Knight - Having the chance for CK to stun for 4 seconds with Chaos Bolt followed by another stun has almost got to get the kill
- Enigma - Malefice + a Magic Missile + damage from demonic conversion eidolons could secure a kill
- Queen of Pain - if you stun and then let her unleash her combo you could get a kill
- Storm Spirit - Together with your stun, Electric Vortex should be enough of a disable to get a kill
- Kunkka - Seems somewhat unlikely but you can actualy support him kind of well. If you wave of terror a creep and he hits it ... the damage splashed out will also be increased. It works even better with Medallion of Courage. Similar to what a Shadow Demon and Kunkka can do together.

SOLO HEROES

- windrunner - Your stun could give windrunner enough time to set up a Shackleshot into a full powershot will do a hell of a lot of damage.
- Mirana - your stun could let her get a medium distance Sacred Arrow into starfall which could net your team a kill.

FOES

- Anyone like Mirana, Sand King, Clinkz who can disjoint your stun will make you cry. Clinkz can also kill you very quickly because of Strafe
- It will be difficult to gank tanky heroes like Dragon Knight who will still be able to walk away after you stun him.
- Nukers like Lina or Lion who can snipe you with their ulti

More info on roaming

A friend tipped me off on one of Purge's videos about roaming and ganking. I think it's quite long winded but from what i've seen of it, it's pretty good. So take a look if you want to improve your skill at roaming.
Play Video

...Thanks...

So thanks for getting to the end of the guide, especially to those who bothered reading all of it. It's long but I did try to explain as much as I could. Please comment below and if you have any ideas on how I could improve the guide please let me know. I am currently away on holiday but when I return home and have access to the game and photoshop I'll try to get some images or videos up to try and explain some of my points better. I'll dig up some replays of me playing Venge and hopefully this guide will help you get better at playing Venge and roaming as a whole. THANKS