Weaver. The key to Godlike

Introduction

Alright. So you want to play Weaver eh? Well good. He's the one stop shop if you just want to hear that "HOLY S***" after YOU get the kill for once. This is how I've played Weaver since the olden days (early dota-allstars). Because of this, I'm not totally used to his beetles attack. Personally I miss the watchers, free, movable wards were the most helpful ganking tool ever. Ohwell. The new beetles are cool and definitely helpful.

You may or may not agree with this guide, that's okay. Personally, I destroy people with this guide. It might not work in the pro leagues, but with the way pubs play, I've found this to be a very viable strategy from early to late game. Lvl 1 to lvl 25 you should be getting kills.

NOTE: Weaver can be played solo or with a partner. Personally I like to lane with a support that can stun (earthshaker is a good one). This way you can still farm well but also have some easy kills.

Skills

Shukuchi

This skill is basically super awesome. It gives you max movespeed for 4 seconds (enough to move over 2,000 distance), invisibility, and splash damage to anything you move through. Also worth noting is you can dodge incoming projectiles by timing the skill right. It also has a low mana cost (60). That being said though, only use it if you NEED it. It's not a harassing skill. It is for escapes, kills, or if you're running home you might as well use up your mana to get there faster. When you have tons of mana later you can use it all you want though. I get this early because lowering the cooldown can save your life if being chased or in sticky spots.

This skill is what makes Weaver so good. This skill is why you don't need any items early game. It basically gives you FREE HITS. When the skill is cooled down, whenever your next attack hits, another, identical attack will come out of our body to hit the sorry soul you just attacked. Early game this skill is amazing. If you just barely eek out a shot on a guy, you'll get two hits. This means harassing becomes much much easier. I suggest hitting an enemy every single opportunity you get. Then you can use Shukuchi to move behind him for the kill once he's weak. (Even better if your lane partner has a stun). I max this first because your damage output will still be fairly good even with no items. Auto-attack to victory!

As I said earlier, I'm not actually too experienced with this skill. I will share what I do know though. It is great in teamfights. As soon as you see two or more enemies, go ahead and swarm them. Not only will the beetles do damage (a fair bit at later levels) but they will lower armor (making you a king) and give you VISION. Personally this is the most useful part for me, if an enemy is running from you and you beetle him, he will either have to stop and kill it, or you get free damage and vision on him. Win-win. I get this last just because the other two skills are much more useful, and you don't have very much mana early game anyways.

This is the skill that most pubs will cry "CHEAP". Basically you can take all the punishment you want, hit "R", and then magically all the damage from the past 5 seconds is gone. And your location is reset. Use this whenever you need it. It has a low cooldown (60/50/40) and costs no mana (read below). So if you think you can escape, or get a kill from it. DO IT!

Early game

Alright. So you've bought your 5 sticks and your 6 tangos. FIVE STICKS? You might ask. Yes. Five. They're basically free stats, each one costs about 1 creep kill. If you had more inventory you'd buy more than 5. Those 5 sticks give you 95 health, 65 mana, extra regen, 5 damage, 5% IAS, almost 1 armor. Very important. 6 tangos obviously will help you to stay in your lane.

By the way that's VERY important. If you are not good at last hitting or harassing maybe you shouldn't play weaver. Your goal is to literally stay out and about in your lane (maybe gank once or twice) until you have sacred relic.

Your priority is last hitting and kills. You must farm lots of creeps. The faster you get your sacred relic, the faster you can REALLY lay the hurt on enemies. Last hitting is made easy with Geminate Attack, and so is harassing. Shukuchi makes kills and escapes easy. Time lapse even more so. You shouldn't die at all unless you're just being stun locked.

Play things very safe, every hit you take from a creep could mean death later. Buy a soul ring if you need it. I almost always get the Sage's Mask just because I like to use Shukuchi a lot.

Mid game

By now you should be close to your relic. Once you get your relic, your damage basically doubles. Which means TERRIBLE TERRIBLE DAMAGE with your Geminate Attack. After that, treads are obviously necessary. I usually go for strength because Weaver's health pool isn't great. This will give you movespeed to move around the map and some good extra attack speed to dish out the pain. Get radiance next, this will make you a farming God. You can pop shukuchi, run through a wave of creeps, and they'll almost be dead.

At this point you should be roaming the map. Look for solitary heroes or big waves of creeps. Don't over-extend yourself but make sure to keep farming a lot. You need lots of gold to get godlike. Radiance and shukuchi makes neutrals a breeze to farm.

Late Game

Well hopefully you have a lot of kills and a ton of creep kills under your belt. The next item after radiance is very situational. You are a killing king no matter what, so buy what you need the most. Are you dying sometimes? Get a SnY or Butterfly. Are people escaping? Get Skadi or Abyssal. Need raw damage? Get a Butterfly, MKB, or Daedalus. Butterfly is the "safe" option. It's a good 60 damage, 30% IAS, 5 armor, and about 30% more "life" because of the evasion. I would suggest getting at least one "damage" item (Butterfly, MKB, Daedalus, Abyssal) and one "utility/life" item (SnY, Satanic, Skadi). When late game is rolling around, chances are you'll need some extra health to stay alive, even WITH time lapse.

Laning

How you lane can be very important. I usually like to go with the "safe" lane (bot for radiant, top for dire). It's next to a shop so you can buy the soul ring ingredients, and you're close to a tower so you won't die as much. Try not to push, just last hit. If you die a lot you'll never get the farm and levels you need to stay in the game.

In a partner, what you REALLY want is either stun or slow. You can dish out a lot of pain and as long as someone else can keep them close, you can do the killing. I suggest against laning with another carry as you need every piece of gold possible, and fighting over every last hit is never fun.

Only leave your lane if ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY. Most games I play, I don't leave my lane till I have 3800 gold. Sometimes I check for runes, sometimes I go home, but usually I stick it out, hug the tower if I have to.

Team Work

Now. You are the carry. This does not mean you play solo. You are part of a team, and if you're that douchebag who farms while the team is getting raped on the other side of the map... Well. Don't do that. Stick with your ally. You will be scary to the other team because of your damage. But if you're alone, you WILL get targeted.

In teamfights, always stay back. Don't be the first one to go in. Wait for the stuns to fly and the the AOE to soak in for about 2 seconds. Then Shukuchi, run through their team to the other side, Swarm them, and wail away on their weakest member. A nice part about weaver is low responsibility, your ONLY goal is to kill people. You have no stuns, no disables. The only thing you can do (but you do it OH SO WELL) is kill things. Granted if you buy a support item like abyssal, you can stun, or slow with Skadi/SNY. But for the most part you're just there to make the enemy go WTF HOW DID I DIE SO FAST?

Solo Work

Going toe to toe with other heroes can be scary with Weaver. You have no stuns, so all you can do is auto attack. If he has stuns, be VERY careful. Use time lapse as soon as you think he would be able to "one-shot" you with a skill. Use shukuchi whenever it's cooled down if you have the mana. RUN AWAY if you don't think you'll win. If you haven't used time lapse, run one direction, wait for the chase, time lapse, and then run a whole new direction. Use The Swarm at the start of the fight if you have the mana for it.

Against melee heroes like naix, just keep using shukuchi, attacking from max range.

Summary

So hopefully, you too, can be Godlike. Weaver is really an awesome hero. I personally feel he's a little overpowered. But that's what makes it fun to play as him! If there's ONE thing you take from this guide, it's SAFETY. Do NOT over extend, watch your mini-map, be AWARE. You cannot kill if you are dying. Do NOT tower dive. Don't even let creeps hit you. Every hit point is sacred.

Right after staying alive comes farming. Preferably this is from hero kills, as that gives you loads of exp and helps your team/hurts their team. But creep kills are good too. Last hit every chance you get. Once you get Sacred Relic, the game gets so much easier!