Unlabelled Learn Dota 2 - A 1k player's guide to Lich

2/10/2017 10:56:00 am
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Learn Dota 2 - A 1k player's guide to Lich

A 1k player's guide to Lich

Posted: 09 Feb 2017 06:47 PM PST

I am a 1k player, ad I have a 63% win rate on Lich over 121 matches. Since a lot of new players will start dota at the 1k-2k level, maybe someone will find my thoughts on the hero useful to them.

The role of Lich

Lich is best played as a lane support - he plays differently as safelane support compared to offlane support, but both are fine.

Lich mid can work but is usually a last resort kind of deal when your draft has gone sideways badly.

Lich doesn't need a lot of farm to accomplish his goals. All he needs is health regen for sustain on the map, since he eats lane creeps for mana. Everything after that is gravy. That's why he works as a position 5 support rather than needing items to function.

Matchups

Lich does well vs rightclick-heavy heroes, preferably not strength-based, so the nukes hurt more.

Lich especially likes multiple melee rightclickers, because they group up.

Lich does not like being ganked, so if your opponents choose spirit breaker, weaver, bounty etc, you are probably going to have a bad game. Choose Ogre instead.

Hero characteristics and gameplay

Lich has a decent move speed, but he's quite frail. Positioning is very important on Lich, so you will learn better positioning by playing him (the hard way). Aside from his nuke which is a bit short-ranged, his abilities allow you to sit back in fights, so that's where you should aim to be.

At early levels, Lich's small mana pool can be restricting because his nuke is mana-intensive, and sometimes using his sacrifice might result in you wasting some of the mana it generates. Often you'll end up doing nuke/nuke/sacrifice just to get the most value from sacrifice.

Towards the mid game, you nuke people and slow them for your allies to kill, and use your ult to punish enemies that group up (the classic scenario is 2 melee heroes attacking you or an ally - you ult and it keeps bouncing between them, killing them both. Note that the slows of your nuke and frost armour will make it even harder for them to delta split away from the bounces)

In the late game, you're too fragile to go toe to toe, so you frost armour your team, occasionally nuke anyone who comes into range, ult when there's a definite teamfight (or keep the threat of ult to deter diving), and use items like force and glimmer to save allies.

At all times, good ward placement will win you matches. You don't have an escape, so if you're going to ward offensively, smoke up, preferably with someone else, drop wards in their jungle or behind towers you want to kill, get a pick off and teleport back to a lane to keep the pressure up.

Starting Items

I generally follow Torte Delini's guide - tango, courier, RoP, 2 wards, branch.

One ward can be given to the offlaner or mid (ctrl-click the ward onto them). Keep one ward for the safe lane - it's important to spot rotations with. Try not to leave your carry alone without a ward covering the rune or the river near their T1 - these are the two most common routes used to gank safelane. Here are some common spots to ward against those ganks.

The ring of protection is for building into Tranquils. If don't get harassed too much, then you can share any remaining tangos with your carry once you get the ring of regen.

Safelane Laning

As safelane support, Lich works well to keep the lane from pushing, and harassing the offlaner with the goal of getting kills or running them out of regen. If that's not possible (dual tanky offlaners, or an aggressive offlane), then you become defensive with frost armour on your carry. Since frost armour costs less mana than your nuke, you can be more choosy when using sacrifice, especially when the lane is pushing hard. When your T1 is busy killing creeps, it's a lot safer for their offlaners to dive and kill you and your carry, and you probably lose the tower as well. If you have to nuke their wave to push a bit before you sacrifice, then do it.

After that, you're probably ready to spend some gold on small items. Some options are:

  • wards/sentries/smokes/dust/more tangos for your carry
  • Wand (you probably already got stick in lane if you needed it, so why not upgrade it)
  • Wind Lace (very good positioning tool, and cheap)
  • Bracer (general +health when game is hard)
  • raindrops (vs nukes)

Offlane laning

In the offlane, you get to nuke a lot more. Pulling the lane back is still important, but you're unlikely to worry about it pushing past your own T1 unless it's a really competent safelane pair (which is rarely) You need to ensure you have a tp scroll for rotations, especially once you get level 6. Teleporting in and ulting a pair of enemies diving your safelane T1 is a good way to pay for the next item :)

Skill builds

To start with, follow Torte Delini's build. It's a solid skill build.

However, if you need to be defensive, you must deviate and pick up a level of frost armour after level 1. Just bear in mind that autocast will interrupt what you're doing, so don't leave it on unless you like to do things like not getting nukes or ults off, or dying because you stopped to frost yourself while running away. Sacrifice keeps your mana up as well as providing a constant stream of XP. Use it on ranged creeps at the start of the game to deny the most XP to the offlaners. After a while your mana needs become greater, so you may need to eat the occasional melee creep.

Siege creeps are great to eat, since they're a lot of gold denied and lots of mana regained. I usually eat the 7 minute catapult. After that, it depends whether you're pushing or not.

Talents

L10: move speed vs +125hp. Go for health if you have wind lace, or move speed if you built want/bracer. Personally, I take health a lot because I'm usually fast enough with tranquils + wind lace.

L15: -3s frost blast cooldown vs +125 range. (Cooldown is relatively new) Good if you have someone to tank for you or you have a big mana pool (arcanes or lens or something). Go range if you don't have that, for safety.

L20: +120 gold/min vs +150 damage. I rarely take the gold because I usually have everything I need. I tend to take the damage so I can chip away at buildings or get in the occasional hit in fights (i don't go seeking to rightclick, but opportunities happen)

L25: Skadi effect vs +35 frost armour on buildings. Classic offensive vs defensive pick. The frost armour bonus is really legit if you need it.

itemisation

After you pick up some early items, you need to decide what to build next. Some common options are:

  • Urn. A cheap item with a bit of health and mana regen. Good sustain when your team is doing a lot of fighting relatively early (before mek would come online)
  • Drums of Endurance. A cheap item, usually bought because you already have wind lace + bracer. Good for when game is hard. Active is good in teamfights, and good when running away.
  • Helm of the Dominator. An unusual but surprisingly useful item on Lich because he can eat the dominated creep. Aura gives good regen, and buildup via Headdress is good. The creep can be used as a disable, or used for its aura. Good for pushing and teamfights (don't get it if someone else is building it, but you'd be surprised how rarely people buy it in 1k)
  • Aether lens. Good if you went Arcanes, gives you range + mana pool. If you have a CM in your team, this is a really good pick up with L15 talent.
  • Mekansm. I kinda don't like this on Lich, mostly because he doesn't go Arcanes very often. The mana cost is fairly big, it often gets built too late to make an impact on Lich, and it encourages the hero to be in the thick of a teamfight which is really not where he wants to be. Probably gets better as you improve as a player.
  • Force staff for shoving enemies out of position, or getting stunned teammates out of area effects.
  • Glimmer cape for escapes, initiation and anti-nuke protection. Great to put on channelling allies (CM, WD etc) (note: Glimmer cape can be hard on your mana at low levels)
  • Ghost Scepter, against rightclick carries. Doesn't work well on Slark, use glimmer for him.
  • Euls, for mana regen, builds from Wind Lace, good disable when chasing, occasionally good defensively. Good if you're winning.

After one or two items like that, I usually get aghs or scythe of vyse, assuming I get that far.

Conclusion

TLDR; Lich is squishy and is great to teach you to be justifiably scared of being out of position. He wrecks face with nukes, and his fire-and-forget ultimate breaks up teamfights into bite-sized pieces for your team to eat. Try him out.

submitted by /u/SerpentineLogic
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Lycan agility gain from 1.9 to 1.5 and from 1.5 to 1 in 2 patches

Posted: 09 Feb 2017 05:42 AM PST

Anyone could explain the effect this has on the hero? Seems like a pretty big nerf taking away 50% of the agi gain. Should we dismiss all together treads and hotd (also nerfed) for dmg items and forget about attack speed? Just curious how this affects him. Seems pretty big nerf

submitted by /u/Flamingflameman
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Is Templar Assassin trash-tier in 7.0, or is there a fundamental change I haven't appreciated?

Posted: 09 Feb 2017 06:41 PM PST

I used to be very happy with my TA games. Even in the worst of them, I could identify mistakes I or other made. I would usually win mid comfortably, have 1-3 kills from ganks by 12 mins, and have a number of ancients to farm.

Now, I often do OK for farm but not a steamroll like before. By ganks all fail as the enemy just stroll away. I cant work out how to farm ancients since they decided to stack auras. And I generally just feel like a glorified creep in the early game, and maybe a mega creep thereafter.

submitted by /u/Z0MGbies
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When to do what as a support

Posted: 09 Feb 2017 01:52 PM PST

I mostly play core heroes and I've gotten to the middle of the 3k bracket from calibrating in the 1k bracket a year or two ago. I think I have a decent grasp for when to farm and when to fight as a core, but as a support I don't really know when to zone an offlaner, when to pull or if I should stack first, when to go gank, when to farm (or even how to farm without taking core farm). Thanks in advance.

submitted by /u/Zacharifffic
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Bot game problem

Posted: 09 Feb 2017 07:39 AM PST

My gold never decrease. Whenever i buy an item in bot game the gold level stay the same and the item immediately go to my bag. How can i change everything to normal?

submitted by /u/KhangEngio
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How could I have won this match?

Posted: 09 Feb 2017 07:31 PM PST

I was Tiny, how much of the loss was my fault?

submitted by /u/XDropShotNinJaX
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Did 7.02 just revive Pugna ?

Posted: 09 Feb 2017 07:09 PM PST

Maybe I do not understand this one correctly, but for a character with Pugna's mana pool and his tendency to keep it full (suck suck), this is spooky:

  • Level 20 Talent from +10 All Stats to +0.5 Netherward Damage Per Mana.

Any thoughts on how much this will affect things ? I think the all ward Pugna build is gonna become monstrous.

submitted by /u/friendlyboat
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Faceless Void tips

Posted: 09 Feb 2017 06:14 PM PST

I'm looking to improve with this hero. I mostly play him in offlane, which I would say I'm fairly good at, but I struggle after the laning stage. I typically build treads, vlads, manta, diffusal and then BKB, but I often get locked down in fights and killed before I can have a good impact. Any advice would be great! ~2k mmr

submitted by /u/Panzidoodle
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Item build for zeus this patch

Posted: 09 Feb 2017 06:13 PM PST

so got the winter battlepass and it seems to me msot of the quests can be done by zeus, ive already played him a couple of times but his item build seems like a mystery to me

one of the most important things ive noticed is that most of the items that people get now lacks mana regen, be it aether/veil/octa/aghs/blink/force, the only item that i feel like would really help zeus is bloodstone, how legit is it on zeus now ? feel like you can fight much better and safely with aether and initiation/escape item instead but at the cost of the sustain that bs provides

submitted by /u/reapr56
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Helm of the Dominator or Vlad's on Lycan?

Posted: 09 Feb 2017 05:46 PM PST

I've recently started playing Lycan, and the lifesteal aura seems really strong for sustaining your wolves and necrobook minions, however HOTD offers stats, attack speed and another member to your army. Which is better?

submitted by /u/Matsellme
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Queen of pain lost blademail lifesteal amd lvl 25 talent from 35 int to -3s shadow strike cd

Posted: 09 Feb 2017 06:47 AM PST

So, queen of pain blademail nerf seems like a big deal for games where that item build was viable. And loosing 35 int doesnt help her for when she has to go for a right click build. Any thoughts and opinions on how this will affect the hero? -3s shadow strike cd seems pretty garbage in comparison to the 35 int. Only useful for canceling blinks and the short range will get you killed of you try to apply it

submitted by /u/Flamingflameman
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Dota 7.02

Posted: 08 Feb 2017 08:15 PM PST

why do people get dragon lance on meepo?

Posted: 09 Feb 2017 01:47 PM PST

i have looked on dota buff and seen a lot of builds with dragon lance. is it just because of the value or is there something else.

submitted by /u/smashingmike
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Quickcast & tps

Posted: 09 Feb 2017 12:23 PM PST

Noob here, can you help?
How not to tp on closest unit or building when you doubletap with quick cast?

submitted by /u/Extre
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What is considered D to S tier DPS for practice dummy?

Posted: 09 Feb 2017 10:38 AM PST

I have a hard time comparing rightclicker or caster heroes against each other.

submitted by /u/kfijatass
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How to play bone fletcher?

Posted: 09 Feb 2017 10:31 AM PST

I had a game where I couldn't do anything. Enemy had sentries, gems, dusts, euls. I couldn't kill sniper because he was literally staying under his tower most of the time, not even going to farm jungle, probably because enemy saw me leaving and pinged to him. They also started running together pretty early.

If this happens on such low skill dota, I'm terrified how terribly you get countered at 2-3-4k doto.

What items should I buy to counter euls/force staffs? Enemy can just simply run away from me using force staff. When should I get solar crest? Does desolator stack with 2nd skill? How do I run around map when there's sentries/gems? How do I play at the endgame?

If someone is interested, link to dotabuff in comments so bot dont shadowban me again.

submitted by /u/jstq
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Weaver vs Kunkka midlane

Posted: 09 Feb 2017 06:12 AM PST

I had a good game where I snowballed as Weaver. However I kind of got crushed in mid lane vs kunkka, tidebringer took away 1/3 of my hp every time he used it (I kept trying to get out of range but the range it has is just ridiculous), does anyone have any tips about laning vs kunkka? How are you supposed to go for last hits vs tidebringer?

I tried to harass a bit to get him to be more cautious but he just turned around and whacked me once which did more damage. I went for Aquila for the armor which helped a bit I guess.

https://www.dotabuff.com/matches/2986993773

submitted by /u/Zumioo
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bloodseeker jungle?

Posted: 09 Feb 2017 05:11 AM PST

Im here again (last post was like a month ago LUL) and I have more questions.

I've saw people playing bloodseeker jungle and it looks strong. But when i tried it out on a bot match it's hard to farm early cause some of the camps have high damage and high HP. Is there any specific paths of jungling?

submitted by /u/Andrew_Low
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How to Brood mid?

Posted: 09 Feb 2017 08:42 AM PST

Yes, I just watched the Cloud 9 Game. I like to play Brood and haven't lost a lane since ages with her, but when do I pick her mid? Against Invoker it seems awesome, PA too. Or let's say, against whom not? (Legion, Jungle Axe, Silencer, Jakiro?) I think I can play around Zeus with good Spider placement. Shadow Friend seems.. hmn... difficult.

EDIT: I think I win most of my 3-3,5k MMR games by just outplaying the enemies because they never played against someone who doesn't feed Spoders. Last game was against a Ember + Lich and I still won the lane. But Lich died dewarding about 5 times in a row haha. I don't wanna spam her in Mid, but sometimes I have to play mid and I would like to add her there.

submitted by /u/Shek7
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How Do I Stop Being Toxic?

Posted: 08 Feb 2017 11:42 PM PST

Hey guys, longtime dota player here. I get low priority every single day for the last 2 years of playing. I get out, and within only 1 game I'm back in.

I was hoping you could help me. I play solely unranked all pick and random draft. Sometimes I will do single draft. I get really frustrated losing because it often seems like valve is matching me with 4 twelve year olds from the mental hospital on my team and 5 teenage korean boys who have been playing all night on the enemy team.

Here are the main situations that cause me to be toxic: 1. People on my team telling me I'm awful or getting mad because they have to buy wards, etc.

  1. Enemy team has a carry (like Viper) killing me 10 times in a row and having to wait 3 min to spawn again. Quite often I am just tempted to go jungle after this and then my team gets mad and reports me.

  2. Often in all pick, the enemy team consists of 5 flavor of the month heroes like pudge, necro, abaddon, spectre, wraith king, luna, underlord, and my team is me + io, enchantress, earth spirit, jungle nature's prophet and broodmother. This gets me so frustrated and I quite often will tell the enemy team that they are OP and have a free win.

I am really sick of being like this...HOW do I stop flaming and getting sent to low priority?

Thanks very much in advance.

submitted by /u/FemaleFartInhaler
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Stacking Ancients - Prowler Problem

Posted: 09 Feb 2017 05:53 AM PST

I was playing Sven last night and the timing was just right. I could stack the ancient camp (it would be 3 full camps on top of each other) and then kill it with my ult. I tried to aggro the creeps out of the box, but I got rooted by a prowler! Needless to say, the prowler rooting me caused me to miss the respawn timing so I didn't get to stack the camp.

Is there some way to avoid getting rooted while stacking an ancient camp with a prowler in it?

submitted by /u/CptnSAUS
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Trying to do the antimage quest. Don't know how to play antimage. Help!

Posted: 09 Feb 2017 05:07 AM PST

Hi everyone. I'm looking for some advice on how to play AM in 7.02, as I'm trying to finish the quest to get the set. My last couple of games with him have been less than spectacular.

I've tried to go an early fighting build with him but it didn't feel very effective. I also tried the traditional farming build but it felt that I could not help my team because I was so squishy.

I do not play the carry role very much so general tips would be appreciated as well.

Here is a link to my dotabuff.

https://www.dotabuff.com/players/33000192

Thank you.

submitted by /u/songers
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Deso and satanic?

Posted: 09 Feb 2017 03:27 AM PST

I THOUGHT actives > passives so if I have deso and satanic I can activate satanic to receive the lifesteal and if I don't it does -armor.

But it doesn't appear to do that. Has it always been like this? It seems like whichever I pick up first (I can drop an item on floor to change it) takes effect

submitted by /u/CanYouDigItHombre
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