The way to Zet: "Stats Quo" (Build updated for 7.02, Guide backdated)

Introduction

Welcome to The Stats Quo guide for Arc Warden. This is a precise guide to play Arc Warden post 6.87 patch, to allow the hero to be viable and scale up without needing Divine Rapier. So, let's get Zet go!

Yes, you got it right... I like puns and word-plays. You will just have to accept this, and move on.

On a different note, if something feels wonky, or you can't figure why it's suggested the way it is suggested (and breaks your convention) be sure to ask in comments. In order to keep the guide precise, I will not go into extensive details for each choices - but will sure explain in comments.

Pros / Cons

Pros:

• Good Lane control
• Pretty good str & int gain
• Can pick off kills early game
• Low cooldown crowd-control
• Deals physical and magical damage
• One of the best pushers in the game
• Can be played very safely, or aggressively

Cons:

• Quite a high-skill hero
• No reliable escape ability
• Below average primary-stat gain
• Needs team-coordination to be effective
• Abilities are somewhat unreliable in nature
• Somewhat countered by spread/AoE damage-over-time
• Situational pick - does poorly against mobile/global heroes

If played well, he's very hard to score a solo kill on or focus down on a team-fight. At any later part of the game, he's not a squishy hero, and he doesn't have mana issues.

He's strong with illusions, but not useless without illusions - anti-illusions won't help.

When & how to Zet?

You have a team with some good reliable stuns, tanky frontliner and a massive DPS carry? Have a 5th pick Arc Warden to ensure a win.

Here's how the team looks like:

• Your team has decent teamfight & not get ran-over
• Your team prefers win-condition based objective-gaming
• Your team can defend (specially high-ground) pushes for days
• Your team has one good disabler ( Bane, Lion, Shadow Shaman)
• Your team has a utility sustainer ( Dazzle, Oracle, Omniknight, Phoenix)
• Your team has solid frontliner ( Bristleback, Axe, Slardar, Dragon Knight)
• Your team has a stand-back-and-click guy ( Sniper, Enchantress, Drow Ranger)

Here's how your gameplay should be like:

• You play reactively, not proactively
• You're not scared to go into late game
• You prey on your opponents making bad moves
• You're situation aware & fast to predict loss/gain
• You're not afraid of fights, but you're not regular fighter
• You're playing 6v5, be aware of that at all time (more on this next)
• First 5-10min you very carefully farm your Hand of Midas and Boots of Travel
• If you're doing your job correctly, you'll be the prime target on your opponents' blacklist

You have an innate advantage:

As Arc Warden, you're playing a 6v5 game. Never let anyone tell you otherwise. In all possible circumstances, you are given an upperhand - be very mindful of that advantage you have and exploit it.

Do not play Arc Warden just as Broodmother, Tinker, Nature's Prophet or Drow Ranger, Silencer, Terrorblade, Viper. Why'd you do that when actually you can play BOTH.

Yes, you are both of those kinds of heroes, simultaneously.

You can participate in team fights, use crowd controlling spells, right click a bunch from behind your durable front liners, WHILE AT THE SAME TIME, their base is being run over by your tempest, tempest's manta illusions, necro warriors along with a legion of creeps. Best thing is, the tempest can be pretty much on AFK auto-pilot mode after BoT in and activate illusions and necro, without needing much of micromanagement.

How effective you are at being both, depends on your practice, skill level. But you're better than just-one-hero... right?

So, here's the checklist:

• You don't solo split-push/rat. You stay with the team.
• Once you have your core items, you look for team-fights to happen.
• If you see enemies committing to a fight, you get prepared to do your job.
• Create your tempest, send to the most pushed lane, activate items to push objective
• Your self positions behind the durables and starts with using spells on opponents
• Keep spamming spark wraiths in the fights, if for nothing else the purge is incredibly helpful
• Flux aggressive opponents to reduce attack speed, or on fleeing targets to reduce movement speed
• Use your best judgment for magnetic field. On the surface it seems useless, but it's not.
  • It's rare to have all-ranged opponents
  • If opponents have melee core, bait out BKB with it
  • 6.5 sec Evasion every 20 second is not at all bad (at least for buildings)
  • Just the attack speed bonus (145% of Hyperstone) is ungodly on your cores
• Whenever you don't have a spell to cast(!), right click a couple of times while being positioned well

Conclusion

This guide is not meant to force-feed or spoon-feed "how to ez mmr with le Dawg". This guide is meant to encourage healthy gameplay with a hero who is commonly misplayed and misunderstood - but is potentially ton of fun and has abilities to showcase big-plays.

So, to summarize:

• You have truck load of Str and Int gain: get some Agi items*
• Never keep your Tempest on long vacation: use Tempest to push lanes constantly
• Don't play passive during team-fights: you have some great spells + right clicks to contribute
• Don't go cookie-cutter build: Choose your 5th & 6th slot items thoughtfully
  • Offensive: Scyth of Vyse, Orchid Malevolence, Bloodthorn, MKB
  • Defensive: Linken's Sphere, BKB, Lotus Orb, Blademail
  • Buff: Assault Cuirass, Vladimir's Offering, Necronomicon, Dragon Lance
  • Debuff: Ethereal Blade, Diffusal Blade, Silver Edge, Desolator

* You can wreck havoc with Clones & Illusions - if you build Agility items, instead of bonus damage items. For the new players: illusions don't get bonus damage from items, they can only use the primary attribute as base damage value. So a Butterfly on your Hero/Tempest will have way more DPS (with the illusions) than having a MKB (with the illusions) - as an example.

Hope this guide will help you play Arc Warden better. I'll suggest trying this out against hard bots once or twice to understand the hero's scaling and capabilities.

Have fun!