Tinker Dagon - Ethereal Blade vs. Scythe of Vyse - Shiva: When and Why?

Dagon and Ethereal Blade


DagonDagon and Ethereal BladeEthereal Blade are good on heroes who like burst damage and have magic damage to benefit from the Ethereal BladeEthereal Blade pickup. That said, an Ethereal BladeEthereal Blade by it self is good enough in most cases. DagonDagon is a very hero specific pickup despite it looking like a generic item.

 Nyx Assassin and Pugna are two of the best DagonDagon carriers, but even then those heroes usually don't build a straight up DagonDagon because the gold expense is hard for them to find, and they like other basic items before it as well. Ethereal BladeEthereal Blade is an extreme luxury on these heroes, it's not 100% necessary.

Morphling is an example of an Ethereal BladeEthereal Blade carrier who never buys DagonDagon. The item is just a waste of an inventory slot for him, Morphling has better items to get than DagonDagon.

Tinker is your usual Dagon + Ethereal Blade holder


Tinker is your usual DagonDagon + Ethereal BladeEthereal Blade holder. He gets a lot of farm easily, has a magic nuke to also benefit, and Rearm to do it over and over as long as he has mana for it. Sometimes he doesn't even buy the Ethereal BladeEthereal Blade and just uses Rearm to DagonDagon burst repeatedly.

Scythe of Vyse and Shiva's Guard


Scythe of Vyse Scythe of Vyse and Shiva's GuardShiva's Guard are very good items with numerous more generic benefits than DagonDagon + Ethereal BladeEthereal Blade. Scythe of Vyse Scythe of Vyse can shut down any hero in the game, and Shiva's GuardShiva's Guard gives you an inherent team fight advantage thanks to the passive aura and active it provides. In general you can get these items on mana hungry heroes and do fine. On Tinker Scythe of Vyse Scythe of Vyse lets you shut down an enemy permanently (Scythe of Vyse Scythe of Vyse + Rearm ) and gives you much needed mana regen. Shiva's GuardShiva's Guard is just a really good item in general, if your team doesn't have one then get one.

Shiva's Guard on Tinker is a fairly questionable item.


A faster AoE than March, but provides very little that synergizes with Tinker skillset. Being an aura carrier isn't very good for Tinker since he's in and out of teamfights, isn't very tanky and doesn't want to get close enough to do much with Shiva's GuardShiva's Guard AoE. It is situationally good when you need fast AoE like vs Phantom Lancer or Broodmother, and when you know that -IAS aura is going to do work. Having that extra armor is kinda nice, but Tinker can build Ghost Scepter Ghost Scepter/Ethereal BladeEthereal Blade in most cases, and the +INT is lower on Shiva's GuardShiva's Guard than Scythe of Vyse Scythe of Vyse, which is much easier for Tinker to put to good use.

Also Dagon is almost core on Tinker, similar to Blink Dagger 


The question becomes when to go eth and when Scythe of Vyse Scythe of Vyse, and the short answer is that eth is more defensive vs right clickers, while Scythe of Vyse Scythe of Vyse is offensive when you lack lockdown on your team or when you really want to fight. Ethereal BladeEthereal Blade does more damage, but leaves you vulnerable if you can't 1 shot the enemy and they have magical lockdown.

Post a Comment

Powered by Blogger.