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Strategy Guide for Harbinger the Obsidian Destroyer by Taelrie (as of v6.60) Visit http://planetdota.blogspot.com / for your Dota needs! Table of Contents Table of Contents To Do List History and Introduction Character Overview

Harbinger the Obsidian Destroyer

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Strategy Guide for Harbinger the Obsidian Destroyerby Taelrie (as of v6.60)

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Page 1: Harbinger the Obsidian Destroyer

Strategy Guide for Harbinger the Obsidian Destroyerby Taelrie (as of v6.60)

Visit http://planetdota.blogspot.com / for your Dota needs!

Table of ContentsTable of ContentsTo Do ListHistory and IntroductionCharacter Overview

Stat and Strengths BreakdownSkills and Explanations

Skill Build - Nuke OrbSkill OrderExplanation of OrderAlternate Orders

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Item Build - Nuke OrbItem ListExplanation of ItemsAlternative Items

StrategyA Miniguide on Arcane Orb (and Essence Aura)A Miniguide on Astral ImprisonmentA Note on Solo Lane EtiquetteHow to play as Obsidian Destroyer

Early Game and LaningMid Game and Conservative LaningLate Game and Carrying

Complements and CountersYour Best Friends

What to Look ForSome Heroes to Buddy up to

Your Worst EnemiesWhat to Look ForA List of Troublemakers

Your Favorite TargetsWhat to Look ForPeople Dying to Die

ReplaysFAQFinal Word

To Do List

1. Get some replays to back up the new item build.2. Use a viral marketing campaign to convince people the guide is indeed back from the dead and to start posting in it again. THIS MEANS YOU

History and Introduction

In the never-ending persuit to find the best build for Obsidian Destroyer, the latest update has revamped the item build to include a bette early game and some more destructive power with Obsidian's ultimate.

Character Overview

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Character Card: http://www.dota-allstars.com/hero/1717/index.html

Stat and Strengths Breakdown

Stats

Strength: 19 + 1.85Agility: 15 + 1.4Intelligence: 26 + 2.8Attack Range: 450Movement Speed: 300

Pros

+ Good base stats for early laning+ Fairly high intelligence gain for good skill synergy+ One of the best orb effects in the game (second only to fury swipes)+ Highest carry potential out of any hero (barring, possibly, permabash)

Cons

- Only astral imprisonment for escapes- Reliant on being able to attack (disablers can be bothersome)- Doesn't shine till mid-late game- Not a good chaser (no way to slow the enemy besides imprisonment)

So what does this mean for Obsidian Destroyer? First and foremost, it means that he is not an early game hero. Furthermore, it means that he is a carry hero, which comes as a surprise to most people, being an intelligence hero. What this means to you is that you want two things -- to keep your head low early game, and to take the fullest advantage of the laning stage.

The stats for Obsidian Destroyer can only be described as "average". The stat gain for obsidian is fairly average -- he does have an above normal base intelligence and strength though, which is fairly nice for early laning. However, Obsidian's strength doesn't come from his stats -- it comes from the skills.

Skills and Explanations

Arcane OrbOfficial DescriptionGives the Destroyer extra power to damage his enemies based on his remaining mana

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pool. Damage type is pure.Unofficial DescriptionGives you an orb effect that does 9% of your current mana (note: not total) in pure damage (not mitigated by anything). This doesn't really become useful until about level 12 (about when you get a soulbooster and/or mystic staff), and doesn't really take off until about level 15 (when you break 2000 mana). However, past that point, it becomes one of the most powerful abilities in the game, being able to surpass the damage of a divine rapier easily. Just don't make the fatal mistake of believing it is an early game skill (this isn't glaives of wisdom).

Astral ImprisonmentOfficial DescriptionTeleports a target allied or enemy hero into an astral prison. The hero remains separated from the real world for the duration of the spell. If cast on an enemy, Harbinger steals intelligence from the target. Intelligence is restored to the hero after 60 seconds.Unofficial DescriptionThis spell will remove a hero from the map for 1/2/3/4 seconds -- Enemy, friend, even you. If it is an enemy, you'll leech 2 intel per second from the enemy, restored after sixty seconds. This has some less obvious uses, so for those of you who outright dismiss this spell (I know you're out there) -- you need to learn how to use it. Luckily, there's a miniguide that describes just how to do that

Essence AuraOfficial DescriptionWhenever a nearby allied hero casts a spell, it has a chance to restore a portion of its mana pool. Passively adds to the Destroyer's base mana pool.Unofficial DescriptionThis is a passive aura that has a chance to return mana whenever you or someone else casts a spell, to the respective spell user. To make good use of this, you need a lot of mana -- Arcane Orb relies on this spell, and this is why your biggest goal after intelligence is mana.

(Ultimate) Sanity's EclipseOfficial DescriptionThe Obsidian Destroyer unleashes his full potential; his mind unleashes a psionic storm able to penetrate lesser minds with terminal force, dealing massive damage to them. More crafty minds are able to resist most of the damage, but they expend most of their

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energies to do so, losing 75% of their mana. Heroes with more intelligence than the Destroyer are unaffected.Unofficial DescriptionBefore the nerf, this was easily the best ultimate in the game. After the nerf, it's still extremely powerful -- however, it doesn't become that way until later in the game. This spell completely relies on your respective intelligence (with a bit of help from astral imprisonment). If you are following my item build and soloing, a good rule of thumb is about 75 damage for every level you get against strength and agility, about half that against intelligence. That means, at level 20, you should be averaging about 1500 damage against most characters. Not bad! Not as good as the 2500-3000 damage you used to be able to get, but this isn't a spell to dismiss outright.

Skill Build - Nuke Orb

Skill Order

Level 1: Arcane OrbLevel 2: Astral ImprisonmentLevel 3: Astral ImprisonmentLevel 4: Arcane OrbLevel 5: Astral ImprisonmentLevel 6: Arcane OrbLevel 7: Astral ImprisonmentLevel 8: Arcane OrbLevel 9: Essence AuraLevel 10: Sanity's EclipseLevel 11: Sanity's EclipseLevel 12: Essence AuraLevel 13: Essence AuraLevel 14: Essence AuraLevel 15: StatsLevel 16: Sanity's EclipseLevel 17-25: Stats

Explanation of Order

Note, I would wait for a bit before spending your first level. It's not going to be useful regardless, most likely, and you might need to change your skill build slightly depending on your lane (see the alternatives below).

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Astral imprisonment is definitely your first goal. It gives you a great escape mechanism, an anti-harassing mechanism, a chasing mechanism, and a prep for your ultimate. There is no reason why you shouldn't get it first. After this, you want to get arcane orb. Note that you shouldn't actually use arcane orb until at least level 9 -- it's fairly useless at lower levels, despite being necessary to level to have it early at other levels. The only reason orb is gotten at level 1 is because a 1 second astral does nothing (asides from canceling any orders the enemy might have). By the time you've done casting level 1 astral, it's already worn off. It should be designed to level a bit more effectively, but oh well.

Sanity's Eclipse is gotten at levels 9, 10, and 16. Since you are stacking intel from the start, your ultimate starts becoming useful around level 11, when it's doing about 400-500 damage to non-intel heroes. It will only grow from here, breaking a thousand damage at 16 against agility heroes. A very nice ability to have, even if it doesn't become powerful until mid-game.

Arcane orb is leveled to be fully leveled in time to coincide with your item build, and to get a bit of ganking in. It won't completely useful until later, but it still has it's uses as early as level 8.

Alternative Orders

Getting Essence Aura instead of orb at levels 1 and 4You might want to do this in three situations -- first, when you have a low mana high regen nuker (pudge for example). the 20% to regain mana back lets you astral just a bit more while laning, which lets you spam astral that more often, which makes them that less effective at nuking you. The other time will be if you have a person who can spam low mana spells, such as bristleback or zeus in lane. The benefit they get from essence aura helps them immensely in harassing. Finally, if you're up against a nasty combo, and know you will have a hard time farming. This makes it so when your items catch up to your levels, you should still have level 4 orb -- however, you got the benefit of essence aura earlier, and thus could lane better.

Getting Stats instead of Orb at levels 1 and 4This is good if you're up solo against an extremely easy or low health combo (such as clinks or drow). These people have little escapes and will wither under a hard attack. Between stats, astral, sanity's against a naturally low int hero, and naturally high stats, you usually can get some easy kills. At the very least, you can keep them at the fountain. Don't let them get control of the lane, harass them!

Other then those two examples, the main build should work fine in almost all situations. In both these situations, push the build back to make room for arcane orb -- it just means you get orb at level 12 instead of level 9, which is really when it starts becoming useful anyway.

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Item Build - Nuke Orb

Item List

Note #1: This is assuming RD Gold

Note #2: I list everything at the titles in order of acquisition. So if I say, energy booster, point booster, vitality booster --> soul booster, then I expect you to get an energy booster first.

At Fountain: Circlet x 2, Tango x 2 (4 charges)

ASAP Void Stone, Ring of Health --> Perseverence

When Available: mantle of intelligence x 2 --> null x 2, boots, gloves of haste, robe of the magi --> intel power treads

When Available: ultimate orb --> linkins

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When Available: oblivion staff x 3 --> Orchid Malevolence

This is your main build, you should finish it about the 40-50 min mark. You have plenty of survivability with linkins, and you are doing tons of damage with your intel/ias items. Your eclipse also packs a major punch, and you have a silence for those pesky disabler heroes. Beyond here, it is just solidifying your position

When Available: Ultimate Orb, Void Stone, Mystic Staff --> Guinsoo

If the game isn't over yet (2 hours?): Plate Mail, Mystic Staff --> Shiva's, Scepter

Explanation of Items

This is a big departure from the previous build, focusing on a strong laning position, with a decent mid-game and a completely overpowered end-game. I do have you get void

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stone first, because it allows you the very important ability to spam astral. Being able to spam astral basically gives you a vastly superior disable and mana burn. Even tough, nuker heroes cannot lane against you early game past level 5, making you the perfect solo hero. The two tangos should cover your regen until you can pick up a ring of health later (if you are getting heavily harrased, you can get mthe RoH first).

As mid game starts, you should have your treads, nulls and perseverence. Now you are going to probably be ganked every now and then (especially if you are soloing). Right now you should have about a thousand mana, and you can easily hit 70-90 damage with your arcane orb. You have plenty of mid-game potential with this build, as you have a superior attack, your ultimate is starting to come into play and you have plenty of survivability.

You get linkins now because the spell reflect is your main line of defense against disablers. This is about the time ganks start, and also the time where you are at your weakest (before you start getting big, and after your laning has ended). You have to watch out for ganks, and linkins is an amazing anti-gank tool. Furthermore, the health and regen are very necessary for your survival, and the stats help both your attack and ultimate. Linkins is one of the best items for OD.

Beyond here, it's just build up yourself with orchid and guinsoo. Both items help your attack immensly, while giving you both a disable and escape mechanism. By the time you get orchid, you should be doing the most damage out of anyone on your team. After this, it is simply holding your position with damage items that also help your survivability (which is true of every item in your build except orchid).

Why is Guinsoo so late in the build? (mathcraft updated for last patch)Orchid is a clear winner over guinsoo as your first big item (behind linkins for the very necessary survivability) because of the attack speed. Remember, you do most of your damage through your orb effect. Furthermore, disablers are a far bigger problem for you then carry heroes at this stage, and silence is more effective then hex (5 secs vs 2 secs) when dealing with disablers. However, scepter (for OD) is also a great alternative to guinsoo, and in fact if it weren't for hex, would be the clearly superior item. Here is how guinsoo shapes up to Scepter.

Scepter: 6200 gold, 30 intel, 500 mana, 500 lifeGuinsoo: 5675 gold, 35 intel, 10 strength, 10 agility, 150% mana regen, sheep

Now for some fun with math. 1 intel = 13 mana, mind you.

Scepter Damage: ((30 * 13 + 500) * .09) + 30 = 110.1 (orb damage, + intel damage)Guinsoo Damage: (35 * 13) * .09 + 35 = 75.95 (orb damage + intel damage)Scepter GPD (lower is better): 6200 / 110 = 56.36 GPDGuinsoo GPD (lower is better): 5675 / 75.95 = 74.72 GPD

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Conclusion about GuinsooBasically, the big thing behind all this math is that you are paying 2019 gold and 310 health for hex. Assuming you are choosing between scepter and guinsoo at least. In my previous builds, I considered this too big of a cost for hex because scepter was the main survivability in my build. However, since this new item build uses linkins for its survivability, the 310 health you lose isn't as important. Furthermore, the point you get guinsoo (about the 60 minute mark) is when the other carry heroes are getting really big, and guinsoo is the best counter against carry heroes, hence why it is so late in the build.

Alternative Items

Different Starting ItemsHonestly, starting items are usually up in the air. The main build includes what it does to help with early game survivability, but everybody has their own way to start the game. Choose whatever the heck you're used to, if you think it synergises well with the main items. Observer wards can help spot out incoming ganks, so I would suggest that if you want to forego the original build.

Assault CuirassIf you don't want to get a slow, assault cuirass might be a better option for you. However, at this point it doesn't really matter what you go -- it's going to be about an hour and a half into the game. The only time I'd get an assault cuirass over shiva's is if I was up against a whole bunch of intel heroes -- otherwise, the ultimate is way too powerful at this point to avoid the intel gain from shivas.

Strategy

A Miniguide on Arcane Orb (and Essence Aura)

Arcane Orb can be one of the most amazing spells there is. However, it's also one of

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the most misunderstood. The answer to most of these misconceptions is this:

Arcane Orb is not like Glaives of Wisdom

You have to get that idea out of your head now. If you wish to compare Arcane Orb to something, compare it to a nuke like Storm Bolt on an intel hero. Do you spam Storm Bolt at the enemy to harass? Do you try to fire off Storm Bolt every time the enemy gets close? I hope not! This brings me to my first point.

Arcane Orb is not a harassing ability. You notice that I have said that Arcane Orb doesn't become useful until about level 12. Arcane Orb is best used in conjunction with something else for the first half of the game. This something else will be a friend's disable, a friend's heavy nuke, your own hex or ultimate. It is, first and foremost, burst damage. Arcane orb is a burst damage ability. Remember that. Turn it on auto-cast only when you are about to engage an enemy hero for the kill, and not before.

Arcane Orb starts becoming useful at level 12 (about 1500 mana), because manually casting arcane orb gives you the 40% chance to regain mana, as opposed to the 20% chance of autocasting at level 4. The obvious application of this is orb walking -- from level 12-15, you can orbwalk with arcane orb and retain most of your mana. This is great for last hitting, and for harassing heroes. use it to your advantage, as you're doing 120 or so unmitigated damage at full mana with orb right now.

Arcane Orb just becomes ridiculous at level 15-16, and only becomes more powerful from here on out. Now, you should have a scepter, and over 2000 mana. Furthermore, you have level 4 essence aura. This means that not only can you maintain your mana (in theory) with arcane orb on autocast, you can now *gain* mana by manually casting arcane orb. You'll never run out of mana again. Need mana? Orbwalk a wave or two. You're now fine. Oh, let's not forget the fact you're doing 180 unmitigated damage per orb (not including your regular damage, which is also hitting for about 100). Want a divine rapier? you got one now. Feel free to keep your arcane orb on autocast at this point -- you can use it indiscriminately. Your goal at this point is just to boost arcane orb.

A Miniguide on Astral Imprisonment

Obsidian Destroyer is a lucky hero, as he has both one of the most misunderstood spells and one of the most underrated spells in his repertoire. It doesn't matter what game I'm in, someone inevitably throws scorn on me maxing out Astral Imprisonment first. Luckily having 30,000 views on the first guide has gotten rid of the majority of this ignorance -- however, some people still don't understand the significance of Astral

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Imprisonment. Let me explain.

Astral Imprisonment is not just a gimped hex. It's a defensive spell. It's an offensive spell. It's a utility spell. Let's look at what it can do.

The first is that casting imprisonment on someone causes them to have their hero detargeted. The retargeting and consequent moving of that hero out of imprisonment can disorient many people -- enough time to take advantage of. That time taking to retarget and move might just be enough time for the tower to bring them into the red while chasing you, for a friend to cast a ground-based spell on them, or for you to kill them before they can stun you. Furthermore, they lose map sight if there are no friends around -- if you astral, then run behind them, they might very will waste some spells on where you once were -- to their loss. This can let you run, it can net you a kill, and it can let you chase; and this is just one part of the spell.

Furthermore, the intel gain is both offensively and defensively useful, especially while laning. 6-8 intel lost against the enemy is 78-104 mana they can't use for 1 minute. Every time you cast this spell on an enemy level 5 onwards, they lose a nuke. That's enough to lane effectively even against heavy nukers. It also makes heroes such as pudge or tiny completely useless, as two astrals takes *all* of their mana. It might even be enough to get leoric past the reincarnation mana point. This mana loss can help you chase, can save you against a gank, and can prep up sanity's eclipse. You can get three casts off before they get it back, which is a 48 intel difference between you and them if given enough time to properly prep; even 16 intel difference from one cast makes a big difference.

A little known fact about astral is that all stun spells last the same amount after they get out of it. If you astral someone who just got storm bolted, they'll still have to wait the full duration of the stun when it runs out.

Finally, you can cast astrals on allies and even yourself. This can solve two purposes. Say you see three friends coming your way, and you got someone chasing you waiting for a cooldown. See the storm bolt about to hit you? Astral yourself -- you just avoided a stormbolt, and gave time for your friends to come. This is most useful however when it comes to channeled or short duration spells -- especially BKB coupled with CM or SK, or avatar with naix. You can't astral or orb attack an enemy who has avatar on them. So what do you do? Astral yourself! that's 4 seconds taken from their BKB, from their epicenter, from their chronosphere, or whatever they tried to cast on your or their ally that is an area of effect.

A good example of self-astrallingThere's not too many opportunities where astralling yourself can be useful, but when there is, it can save your life. For example:

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Replay 04Here, I'm surrounded by a 3 person gank, with one more on the way. I'm mana leaked, cursed, sprouted, being beat on by two people, and about to be hit with illuminate. I'm screwed right?

Replay 04Of course though, I still have astral up. So what do I do? I astral myself -- killing my mana (but curse at the same time), and buying myself time to both dodge illuminate and let sprout run out.

Replay 04Thanks to a couple teammates coming to my aid, I manage to get away with a sliver of health, out of what should have been a massascre. can't complain about that!

A Note on Solo Lane Etiquette

Obsidian Destroyer works best when solo, since he is, after all, a carry hero. His high base stats, fast attack animation, regen/health items and astral let him stay in a lane almost indefinitely. Because of this, you want a solo lane. However, you have to know how to ask someone correctly. Be sure to ask solo as early as possible. If RD, and you see OD as a choice, ask then. If you don't get OD, just say nevermind. It's better then having to get a person to get out of your lane. Also, be sure to ask for a certain lane. I prefer mid, because it gives easy access for bottle ferrying, and is ganked less. The downside is that people have the strange urge to always want to go mid when their lane is pushed. Which brings me to the final point, getting someone out of your lane. Don't get mad, whatever's going on. You don't want to belittle them for not seeing your call, you want them to GTFO your lane. Ask twice nicely. If they still don't leave, then get a bit angry. If they *still* don't leave, change lanes. You won't be solo, but at least you're not laning with an asshole like him for a partner. It happens sometimes, it's a downside for having random partners. However, make sure to handle the situation correctly

There is one big reason for this, and that is if you get a matchup you can't handle. If you nicely asked for a solo, then hopefully you can get some help. However, be firm. Don't ask in general, ask for a specific person to come up. If they don't, ask someone else

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specifically. If you just say "can I get help mid", you won't get *any* help. Trust me on that. You have to ask by name to get help. Find out the lane that's doing fine, ask someone specifically in that lane for help. If none of them come help, you have to force their hand, which will catch you some flak. Go into a 2 person lane until you get someone to go mid. You *will* get bitched at for this, but they're a terrible team who won't help someone with a tough lane. Why do you care what they think?

How to play as Obsidian Destroyer

Early Game and LaningThe name of the early game is "stay low". You are fairly useless early game, the best you can do is farm. Especially at the very start. Assuming a call for solo lane went well, you have only a bit of regen. The tango acts does two things at the start. A good enemy (especially if you're up against two people) will always check your items, to see if you're a good candidate for harrassment. If they see no regen, they will be *much* more aggressive. You don't want this -- you might get more kills, but you want to hold a good farming lane as long as you can. Kills aren't early game. Anyway, play defensively, until at least level 5.

This is more or less done by just playing as if you were melee. Only come into attack range (450 for you) just to attack or deny a creep. This is helped a bit by the fast projectile animation, but it might take some getting used to being as your a ranged hero. Yes, it is possible for you to be offensive with your good stats, but you don't want to draw attention to yourself. The more kills you get, the more likely you are going to get ganked. The sooner you lose your lane, the harder it will be to carry late game. So stay back, attack when you can. Remember that the Ring of Health is now available in the side shop, so you don't have to leave your lane to pick it up. Careful to avoid ganks in this area though. You can walk over prisoned enemies, so if someone tries to trap you at the goblin shop, just astral them and walk out.

Now, the question is what if they're going to be belligerent regardless. This can happen a lot when you're facing a stacked team, against two people who know eachother. They'll come past the creep wave and stay there to prevent you farming. If you're mid, you can attack above the ramp (they'll have a 50% miss chance), which is why mid is a good solo lane. If you just can't cope, which does happen sometimes, ask for help. Hopefully you read the note for lane etiquette. If you need more health, you can get a Belt of Giant Strength to use in power treads later, and click it over to the intel treads.

At level 5, you can start spamming astral imprisonment with your void stone. This will be especially helpful against someone who is trying for early game missile spam, such as

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vengeful and tiny are likely to do. If you can take out three nuke's worth of mana, then that's 3 nukes less they can hit you with. Furthermore, with voidstone (and a good base intel), you can do this indefinitely. More room for you! Just keep up this strategy as long as you can, which will probably be when they start pushing at about level 10.

Mid Game and Conservative LaningNow, at level 10-12, you should have a perseverence, your nulls and working on your treads. You're well on your way into your build, and you should have over 1k mana to harass with orb. However, you don't really shine until about level 16, so if you can, keep farming. You won't be able to keep to one lane, because most likely the towers are pushed. If there is no lane you can farm in (because it's pushed or because they're playing gank squad), just go help with ganks. Your orb effect is useful enough at this point to help out on ganking, and astral is always useful for saving your friends. Your ultimate is also doing a nice amount of damage, especially if you are prepping with astral first.

However, remember your main goal is to finish your treads, and preferably your linkins too. Just lane conservatively at this point, and pay special attention to map awareness. It's this part of the game when most teams play gank squad, and that can easily put you into the hole (excuse the pun) in no time.

Late Game and CarryingNow, you should be level 15-16, and hopefully have a linkins and half an orchid to back up that claim. Now it's good times. Mana should never be an issue at this point, since you can indefinitely keep up your mana with orb walking. This helps your farming capabilities tremendously. Furthermore, your sanity's eclipse is doing over 1k damage. Between the two of these, you can easily become the carry of the game. There aren't many (if any) heroes that can 1v1 you at this point. Furthermore, you can waltz behind your team in engagements, drop an eclipse and mop up. That's a triple kill right there. Remember not to initiate team battles though -- even with your large amount of health, you will probably be first priority to be killed. Which will happen if you run in first. You aren't rambo, you're a cannon.

At this point, you'll just be getting stronger. I wasn't kidding when I said Obsidian Destroyer can become the best carry in the game. Mostly this is because all of his items are high level items -- he doesn't really run out of something that he can use (assuming it isn't a 3 hour game at least). Towards the end of longer games, you can easily be hitting for 400-500 a hit -- with 70% increased attack speed and a 4 second silence. Most people will die before they can even make it to you.

Just remember, you can't 1v5 their team, which is the real difference between the pre-

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nerf and post-nerf. You can, however, 1v1 or 1v2 any of them fairly easily. The only thing you have to remember at the end game is that you're not rambo, you're a sniper. don't try to take on their entire team, they'll disable and kill you in no time, even with all your health. In the meantime, giggle maniacally as you kill that SA in the two hits it takes for him to go invisible. MwahahahaHAHAHAAAAA.

Complements and Counters

Your Best Friends

What to Look ForYour friends are, first and foremost, people who can initiate team battles, followed by people who can disable. These are the people that get either your entire team or their entire team involved in the fight. These heroes give you the meat shield that you desperately need to unleash your incredible damage, and allows you to cause mayhem in a team battle without being targeted first.

Failing that, your next best friends are people who can disable. With your orb effect, especially in late game, you can easily destroy any hero that can stay still long enough for you to attack it. Because of this, disables give you enough time to destroy even the toughest heroes.

Some Heroes to Buddy up to

AxeAxe is, by and large, your best friend. His main purpose is to start team battles. He is there to blink in and gather them up, which is perfect for your ultimate, and then mopup.

PudgePudge is two of your favorite heroes in one. With his hook, high health and rot, he is amazing for starting team battles. With disember, he's also a disabler. That's exactly what you want in a friend.

EnigmaWhat else could you ask for then an ultimate that can gather everybody up for you? An eclipse on top of a blackhole guarantees the death of their team, or at least very close to the death of their team.

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Vengeful SpiritNether swap, like hook, is a great way to initiate team battles -- which is exactly what you want. Furthermore, magic missle doubles as a nice disable to chase down those nasty heroes.

MagnataurLike enigma, Magnataur's ultimate is a perfect complement for your ultimate -- gathering everybody up for your ultimate. Furthermore, he has the health to start team battles without being instantly slaughtered.

RhastaTwo consecutive disables is very nice for killing enemy heroes.

Your Worst Enemies

What to Look ForYour worst enemies are going to be people who stack int, disable you and can single you out. Heroes that stack int obviously can counter your ultimate. Since you don't have any escapes, disables are going to be your worst enemy -- if you can't get your ultimate off, you're kinda screwed. And heroes that can single you out, well they're bad news for when you get ganked because of your priority on their kill list.

You'll probably notice that almost all your best friends are also your worst enemies on the other team. People who can initiate the battle can usually single you out.

A List of Troublemakers

SilencerUgh. Just ugh... with a side of ugh. This hero sucks to fight against. Last word makes (manually) casting your orb effect a pain in the ass, and almost all of his builds involve stacking int. He's a disabler and an int stacker all in one. Not a fun hero to play against.

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PudgeEven if you are hanging back, pudge is a pain in the ass. Good pudges that is, there's plenty of bad ones out there. Being hooked out of the crowd pretty much means you're dead. However, the good news is that he will die fast to sanity's eclipse if he's alone. If you're being hooked into a gank, goodbye!

Vengeful SpiritLike pudge, being swapped into a gank is pretty much a death sentence for you. However, also like pudge, she dies fast. If she's alone, you got a good chance of a free kill.

NaixMagic immunity can be a pain, but if you can avoid that then you're golden. Use astral effectively.

RhastaIf you can't attack, you can't kill. Fighting a rhasta kind of sucks, especially since his playstyle is designed for ganks. Same goes for Lion.

Keeper of the LightHonestly, KOTL is a counter to OD just as much as OD is a counter to KOTL. Obsidian Destroyer's orb effect allows him to one-hit the ignus at any point in the game. If the OD sees an ignus, it's dead, and you get a free 100 gold. However, KoTL's mana leak is just... painful. It's painful. It's a pain in the ass. Autocast orb? That sets it off. Astral? That sets it off. Essence aura? that sets it off. even bottle sets it off. If something affects your mana, it kills it, which is a pain in the ass. It won't kill you, but it'll make using your orb effect really hard, which is why KOTL is a counter.

Your Favorite Targets

What to Look For

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Your favorite targets are, in short, carry heroes. You are the anti-carry hero carry hero. Carry heroes are your toy to play with, your pride and joy to beat into the dirt. While you don't have an escape maneuver as almost all carry heroes do, you make up for that in burst damage. Most carry heroes don't expect you to turn around and shove 400 damage orb up their ass, and they'll fall for it every time.

I think I love this hero so much partly because it is just so much fun sticking it to those "OMG I'M 11-1 CARRY HERO EVEN THOUGH WE'RE TWO RAXES DOWN" types. And let's not forget -- 99% of carry heroes are agility, your favoritist target ever.

There is also one other kind of hero you're looking for, and that is the heavy summon people. There aren't many, but these heroes cry in shame when you go OD.

People Dying to Die

AntimageI just *love* fighting an anti-mage, because just by playing OD it screws them up and frustrates them. For harrasment early, the main tactic is blinkbreak. Not only can you prevent this by astralling them after the blink, but it prevents them from blinking later due to the mana loss. It also prevents them from using their ultimate on you, so what can you do? You can just hit them right back. You'll win the fight every time. Mid game, they'll count on their shield to prevent your orb damage. Guess what? It doesn't prevent it, and they'll die because of it at least once. Later game, when they rely more on their ultimate, you would expect that you would be an easy target thanks to your high mana pool. Except by this time, you can indefinitely keep up your mana. Furthermore, they'll still have low health -- you can easily autocast your orb and beat them down to the red before you break the green. It's almost sad fighting them.

Storm SpiritJust like antimage, your attack style completely messes him up. He'll almost certainly think that his mana shield will prevent your orb. Orb isn't mitigated by that either, and that'll net you a kill at least once. Furthermore, he expects he will have a superior attack, and for you to run when he attacks you. Of course he's wrong, and you'll just wack him down. And better yet, he doesn't have an escape. He's food for you.

AGI Carry HeroesIs there nothing more fun then to kill these kinds of heroes? Anyway, carry heroes are to easy to kill because they, like you, are a glass cannon. When they pops up behind you,

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you can usually easily one-shot him with sanity's eclipse. Or failing eclipse, you can usually easily dps him down with your orb effect. Oh, let's not forget. Early game, Astral imprisonment > wind walk, shuriken, and anything they come up with. All of these heroes are mana-dependent for early kills, and your imprisonment effectively counters that. OD is the ultimate counter against these heroes.

TechiesWith his rediculously low health, you can quite easily one-two shot him before he has a chance to suicide. He is free food for you.

Replays

Replay 1The game starts off in our favor, with two easy kills. As the game hits midgame, their heroes become more powerful and things get hairy (with SK and enigma butt-buddies two-teaming me every chance they get). However, around the 45 min mark, our carries (Me, the PL and morphling) kick in and blow the game away at the end.

This is probably one of the best examples of this guide. it shows just how much damage he does, although all of his items are survival until later in the game. The OD, past the 40 minute mark, was easily doing the most damage on the team, and second only to the strength heroes in health.

Replay 2A fairly good example of how OD is played, especially for the early laning against tough opponents. As we approached later game, we more or less stomped them, but early and mid game was extremely close. Good example of being against a tough lane (enchantress and Rexxar), and how astral spam can secure you a place to farm for mid game. Oh, and check out how BKB does nothing to counter me on their wolf.

FAQ

#1: Why don't you say BKB is a threat? - BKB is a horrible item to get as a counter. BKB lasts a really, really short time (9 seconds). It has an 85 second cooldown. It's only real purpose is to wreck mayhem in team battles with channeling spells, or at very, very end game (1 hour+) to avoid getting disabled. Against anybody but a pure disabler, bkb is worthless. It does nullify orb, which is equivalent to being a gimped enfeeble for you for a whole 9 seconds. If you get caught in the dark against someone with bkb, astral yourself, and hey look he has 3 seconds of orb immunity against you. Whoopee.

#2: But orb is the ownzorness early game! - Early game, without astral, you can expect to have about a thousand mana at level 7. That means your orb effect will be adding about an average of 35 damage a hit, across 5 hits. You just did a level 2 nuke

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that costed you 500 mana, took you 5 hits and was in no way burst damage.Just looking at that I shouldn't have to explain why I don't get orb, but I will take it a step further. Some people say orb allows you to whittle the enemy down enough to kill him off. But what they don't realize is that any hero can be taken into the yellow with no hassle. You don't need a nuke, you don't even need a strong attack. You can do it with techies. It's a mind game, people won't care about their health until it's in the orange. You can get them down that far with your regular attack just as easily as you could with your semi-useless orb effect.

#3: I tried this build in a league game and it failed miserably! I spit on your grave!This guide is built on the assumption that's your playing TDA calibur games, which is about right smack dab in the middle of skill levels (pubbie-->TDA-->inhouses-->league). In this guide I'm assuming your teammates are atleast halfway competent and call missing, and that you're most likely going to feel some heat from ganks within the later half of the laning stage. If you don't play TDA's, feel free to adjust the build to match your appropriate skill level.Also as a side note, I wouldn't use *any* guides out there on league level games. League level games require builds that are pure insanity without the precise knowledge of how your teammates will support you. You can see some pretty ridiculous builds out of some of the league teams that would normally fail completely.

#4: Your Color Scheme is stupid!Although this 'question' is idiotic, someone actually made a reply including this (Not going to name names, but it's still in here). Yes. He complained about my tastes in color for the guide. This is a good example of just stupid criticism. Remember, complaining about a subject purely based in opinion isn't good criticism, and I'd prefer not to see it. It's also not helpful in furthering the guide at all.

Final Word

Cue end of 3.0. There weren't as many changes to make this time luckily, mostly with the placement of sanity's eclipse and the item build. The strategy mostly hasn't changed, but the item build supports the strategy better. Anyway, I always look forward to comments, so let me know how this goes!

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