Some tips on Doom

 

Doom as much as item progressions matter, is important. however playing Doom is not about item builds, its actually more about knowing what can you do with the things you have and what you can kill.

• Item build vs hard Trilane you would want Stout Shield + regen, if the lane is too hard.
• Item build vs easy trilane/dual lanes, you would want to go for Boots, Tango, Clarity, and rush the Stout Shield in the side shop or rush your Tranquil Boots.
• You want Tranquil Boots, for survivability, you want Arcane Boots, if you are going to gank constantly after you have your lvl 6. you want phase, if you just completely roflstomping your lane.
• Hand of Midas is nice. just makes things farm faster, it does really delay rest of your builds by 5-7 min.
• Shiva's Guard -> Refresher Orb you will lack mana for double Doom at 11, and 16 unless you have Arcane Boots or u have other stat items or higher levels.

If you are going carry and need damage, Doom rarely gets raw damage items since he has an insane 3.2 str gain. you can get crit from alpha wolf and you will rarely build Monkey King Bar for Butterfly carries since you have Doom lol.

3 key items mid game for Doom is: Mekansm + Shiva's Guard, Mekansm + Black King Bar, Blink Dagger + Black King Bar, Blink Dagger + Shiva's Guard, Blink Dagger + Mekansm + Platemail, Mekansm + Radiance, and Mekansm + Vladmir's Offering + Drum of Endurance. its all very situational, and it all depends on matchups.

Like if i know im facing a Faceless Void, Mekansm + Blink Dagger + Platemail is a must to initiate on Faceless Void and preventing a Chronosphere having Blink Dagger is a must and Mekansm +Platemail will ensure your survival.

Don't do the Shadow Blade + Aghanim's Scepter pubstomp build because it will get you killed. A good Doom with a 18 min Mekansm wins games, a good Doom with 18 min Mekansm + 22 min Blink Dagger wins games. scorched earth is pretty much an 480 heal + 480 AOE dot, and having Mekansm will bring up a total of 750 heal and 480 aoe dot in early game team fights which is huge for you and your team.

• Full on Carry: Phase Boots, Assault Cuirass, Heart of Tarrasque, Aghanim's Scepter, Black King Bar, Butterfly /Heaven's Halberd /Abyssal Blad.
• Carry(current meta): Arcane Boots, Mekansm, Blink Dagger, Black King Bar...
• Offlane(current meta): Tranquil Boots, Mekansm, Blink Dagger, Shiva's Guard, Refresher Orb, Black King Bar/ Assault Cuirass.

Remember at lvl 16 you hit ~100 damage with no items. combined with alpha wolf 30% damage aura crit and your other items, you can easily chop 200 per hit. Most of the time you would want to avoid basher for the fact that you really lack attack speed until you get Assault Cuirass.

My perspective is that Doom's greatest strength is flexibility and ability to control the game's flow. His skills already counter everything, you just need to maximize your impact. Here's what I do:
Look at your team and the opponent's team. Are they 4 protect 1? How many cores do they have? When is your team's advantage the greatest - early or late? Who is their initiator? Awareness of these information will decide your role that game, and more often than not the Doom priority.

Generally there are a few Doom choice scenarios:

1. They have a hard ricing carry - which can be either elusive (Anti-Mage, Weaver, Tinker) or food (Spectre, Lifestealer).
   If they are the elusive type, I aim to rush a Blink Dagger - ideally at level 6 you'd have Blink Dagger + Boots of Speed, then you can start making their life hell. Doom's cooldown is actually really optimal IMO - since you'll be OOM after a gank, by the time you walk back to regen and come back out it's off CD.
   If they are the food type, Blink Dagger is less crucial early and you can maybe finish another core item first - perhaps Mekansm or Hand of Midas. However, this also depends on the next point:
2. Who makes the biggest impact midgame? Do they have a playmaker like Puck, Storm Spirit, Invoker? If yes, your priority changes - it's generally more ideal to shut down their playmaker in the early-mid game as they often rely on snowballing. A few failed ganks and they can become entirely irrelevant. This might grant more space for the enemy's carry -but- YOU'RE THE GODDAMN Doom. Even if they farm up 80k net worth, if you can get an initiate on them late game all their items do jack.
3. Read your team - do you have a Mekansm farmer on your team? If no, going for a Mekansm  + Arcane Boots build is often preferred as it greatly enhances your team impact. If yes, consider Phase Boots for chasing, Tranquil Boots for offlaning, Arcane Boots for team sustain.
4. Read the enemy's team - are they push oriented? If yes, don't go Hand of Midas, Mekansm is strongly recommended, maybe even a Shiva's Guard rush (the earlier you get it the stronger the impact of the aura). Heck, I wouldn't recommend Hand of Midas in most cases unless your team doesn't have enough core heroes and you need to take up a hard carry role.

 General item build I go for is Boots > Blink Dagger > Arcane Boots > Mekansm > Shiva's Guard > Black King Bar, then you judge whether you need Refresher Orb or Heaven's Halberd. Against hard cc lineups Black King Bar can be prioritized much earlier. Throwing in an early Ring of Basilius is also an excellent choice.

Preferred lanes are jungle (you need to learn choke point jungling and use Quelling Blade to maximum effect), offlane, safelane if carry.