Art of MindGames in DotA

Table of Contents:


·Introduction
·What are Mindgames?
·Which heroes can play the Mindgames?
·How can you play the Mindgames?
·When can you play the Mindgames?
3Some tips that everyone should know
3Real game examples
3Endnote
·Credits




•Introduction


Hey all, this is the first guide that I’ve ever tried to write, so please bear with me. The goal of this guide is to help people of all skill levels get better in the game. Personally, I’m sick and tired of seeing people who run away too quickly from a battle that they can win, run back the instant they get hit by the opponent, or pass up the chance of getting kills off the enemy team. Hopefully, this guide can help you steer away from that direction, and make you a more aggressive, and smarter player. This guide will also contain many examples of the practical application of Mindgames in DotA.


•What are Mindgames?


So what are Mindgames? In essence, it’s tricking your opponent into doing something that you would like them to do. Make them think that they can beat you, but in reality, they can’t. Alternatively, it can also mean predicting your opponent’s actions, allowing you to get the upper hand by responding in the proper manner ahead of time. Sounds simple right? No, not really…


Before I go on, I should say that in order to benefit the most from this guide, you should know what I call the “essentials” of DotA. This includes, but is not limited to, the following:
Last hitting and denying
Hero abilities, their properties, and what they do
Spell damages, mana cost, and approximate cooldowns
Knowing what items to buy on the heroes
*Important* Keeping a watchful eye on opponent’s items, HP, mana, and the minimap
However, having this knowledge is not sufficient enough, experience will also play a big factor here as well. You also need to think fast during battles, strategize PROPER attacks, assess the given situations, and be able to do some quick calculations figuring out whether or not you will live. A lot of on the spot action is required here. Use your head! This is a team-based strategy game after all.


•Which heroes can play the Mindgames?


This guide does not focus on any specific hero because I think that every hero has their own unique way of messing with the opponent’s head. There are endless possibilities of the gosu things you can pull off. However, it is simpler and funnier with heroes who have some sort of disable or slow. My personal favorites are Shendelzare Silkwood, Rhasta, Jah'rakal, Aggron Stonebreaker and Pudge. The possibilities of Mindgames are endless, and identifying situations where Mindgames are applicable requires some degree of thinking.


•How can you play the Mindgames?


Baiting the Enemy Hero


The main form of Mindgames takes the form of baiting. Baiting is defined as provoking your opponent to chase/attack you. This is what initially sets up the Mindgames. For example, in early-game, if you are at low hp in your lane, most people would go back to base, heal up, and buy items. The experience and gold that they lose from killing creeps during the course of these 2-3 minutes is essential in early game. By the time you get back, your opponent is 2 or 3 levels ahead of you. Instead, stay around for experience and creep kills, but pay extra close attention to what your opponent is doing.


Please keep in mind that there is a fine line between staying around for experience while at low hp, and stupidity. Use your own judgment in deciding when to stay for experience and when to leave. For example, if there is a nuker (Zeus, Kel'Thuzad, Lion, etc…) in your lane, check their mana first and if they have enough to constantly nuke, its best to retreat in this case. If you are up against a hero such as Ursa Warrior or Leoric, keep your distance, watch their mana, and you will be fine. Also make sure to tell you allies to signal when players are missing.


Another example of baiting is when the opponent chases you until your tower, and retreats when the tower comes into sight. The moment your opponent gives up, turn around and start chasing him back if you think you can kill him at the tower, or lure him to come at you again. This works well with a stunner (stun when he gets within tower range). If you think you can’t kill him, let him gain a little bit of distance and make him think he can catch you, but in reality, he still can’t. If he keeps chasing, he will absorb tower and creep hits to the point where he has no choice to retreat. Once he loses enough hp and it is evident that you can now beat him after taking into account his mana, turn around and start chasing. This will usually net you or an ally a kill. People on b.net are greedy, and will usually go for the kill.


Examples of real situations in games that I’ve played will be given later on in this guide.


Ok, so why should I put my life on the line and bait the opponent?


Smart baiting will pay off. It’s as simple as that. I stress “smart” because if you know when to bait, and know that you will stay alive during the course of it, you will either be getting a lot of hero kills, or will piss the enemy off by making them return to the fountain instead of you. Also, if you have an ally hero nearby, you will also be netting them kills as well. When they die or go back to heal, they lose gold, experience, yadda yadda yadda, and you’ll be much far ahead of them.


As mentioned earlier, you should try to stay in your lane as long as possible before going back to base without getting killed in the process. That way, you will keep up with the experience and gold that you otherwise would not have had if you had returned to base.


Predicting your opponent's actions


Ok, this component of Mindgames requires some bit of experience. If you have been playing the game long enough, you can foresee some of the things that are going to occur before it even happens. For example, if a centaur walks up to you, it’s pretty likely that he’ll attempt a stomp. React accordingly by retreating a bit when he walks up. Also, you can use this to your own advantage. Let’s say you’re a melee hero up against a centaur. Whenever you start attacking him, chances are he’ll use stomp. Therefore, vary your last hits, melee dances, and occasionally walk up to him while retreating very shortly after. Chances are, he’ll waste his mana on a stomp that isn’t even close to hitting you.


Another example is as follows: Suppose you are Rhasta against Gondar. Everything is normal in your lane and suddenly Furion’s ultimate hits you down to 2/3 life. Next wave, you notice that Gondar is missing. Well jeez; I wonder where Gondar went??? (Sarcasm). He probably wind walked and is going to backstab you. Therefore, press voodoo and keep your cursor behind Rhasta and keep clicking on the ground. The moment Gondar pops up, he will get hexed. This minimizes the damage you take, allowing you to stay in the lane longer. Follow up with wards and shackles…GG’d.


You can also apply this technique when running away from a blinker. If AM is chasing you, he’ll be blinking ahead of you once every 6 or 7 seconds. After the initial blink, keep a mental note of how long it’s been, and run in another direction after approximately 6 or 7 seconds. This isn’t guaranteed to work, but it will save you more times than you think.


As you can see, I cannot go into any specific details about predicting your opponent’s actions because it’s very situational and depends upon many factors. Use your own judgment and experience here.


Baiting in big team battles


So the opposing team is pushing middle. Your allies are on the sides of the river, waiting to ambush. You are in the lane, and is the only thing standing in the way (in the opponent's point of view). What do you do to trick your enemies into coming at you?


I would suggest acting a little stupid for once. For example, just stand there and be a little slow to retreat when the creeps come. The enemies will believe they have you outnumbered, and will try to chase (in most situations). This is when your allies come from the sides and flank them, hopefully resulting in a won battle for you. The enemy will be concentrated on killing you, and will not immediately recognize your allies coming in from the sides.


This tactic has several advantages. Firstly, it's a surprise attack. Second, when the enemy sees people coming from 3 directions (you, and the 2 sides your allies are coming from), it's hard to immediatly coordinate their attacks. Mostly likely, they will all cast their spells on different heroes, distributing the damage taken among your allies. They will not get kills when they each fire at different heroes. Third, when the enemies chase you, they are probably going in a straight line. Therefore, when your allies flank the heroes at the back, the heroes in front will be a little slow to turn around and help.


The disadvantage to this attack, is that you are more prone to getting killed. If a stun lands, it's hard for you to escape, especially if they have more than one stun, or slow.


Please keep in mind that playing smart also applies in this situation. Do not go team baiting if they have a Vengeful Spirit who can swap, a Naga who can net, a centaur with blink dagger, any hero who has cyclone (cyclone you and surround for the kill), etc...


*Aside* Using the Illusion Rune


When the majority of people pick up an illusion rune, they either send it somewhere and just forget about it, or they travel with it. The latter of these two options is not as bad as the first one, but isn’t recommended. I prefer using the illusion like a normal hero and microing it in the lane, while keeping the real hero behind the trees waiting to ambush. Make sure that the illusion doesn’t attack anything so the enemy cannot tell it is fake. This example below demonstrates what I’m talking about.

•When can you play the Mindgames?

Whenever you see fit. Use your own judgment, play smart, and think outside the box.

•Some tips that everyone should know

When you escape from a huge battle with low life and your teammates are still fighting, go back and cast a spell if you have the mana or use cyclone/sheep/purge. It could mean the difference between a winning battle and a losing battle. It could also mean baiting the opponent to run after you while your teammates pound on them and hopefully kill them.

Please, do not retreat halfway back to base the instant you are hit and at the same time as when your allies are fighting them. Help them out!

Tanks are supposed to go in first and take damage. Don’t be scared, that’s your role. When they concentrate fire on you, take some damage, retreat until they stop, and go back in again if you still have a sufficient amount of HP.

Use fog of war and cliffs to your advantage. While being chased, run a path that lets the enemy have the fog obscure their vision (around trees and up the cliffs). Make it as difficult for them as you possibly can.

Don’t get screwed by fog of war when chasing up cliffs or around trees. Right click when you approach top of the cliff or trees.

Use your items. Countless times I’ve seen people die when they have a lothars that they can use, or when they could have cycloned.

Carry a TP with you. It can help you escape from heroes like naix and spider, or mass ganks with no disables on the enemy team. It also allows for fast transportation from one side of the map to the other, or back to base.

When being chased by the enemy and there is no hope for you to win the battle, run to a place where the fog of war will obscure the opponent's vision (i.e., up a hill, around or into trees), and use your TP. Usually, the opponent will not be quick enough to deliver the finishing blow, or to stun. Also, know which spells have mini stuns (spirit lance, void, shrukin toss, lucent beam, mana void, etc...) and try to run to the fog areas shortly after they cast it. That way, they will not be able to interrupt your TP.

A good place for running through trees is at the first bottom sentinel tower. There is a path below the tower in the trees that you can go through (shown below). You can run through here to prevent your opponent from attacking you, or just to stall time for mana or spell cooldowns, and turn around to finish him while your tower is still attacking him.

Here is another good place for running through trees. It is located at the 1st sentinel middle lane tower.

If a lone hero is chasing you, run to an ally if possible, and turn it into a 2v1 if you know you aren’t going to die. Don’t just keep running back to base if you are at half-life. Help your ally kill the chaser.

Pay attention to your opponent's playing style. If they do something out of the ordinary (i.e. a passive player suddenly getting very aggressive or an aggressive player staying back all of a sudden), chances are he has an ally coming or is already nearby waiting to gank or something like that. Be more cautious in this case.

• Real game examples, courtesy of yours truly…

Ok, I’m sure you are all bored from reading all this text, so therefore, I’ve compiled some situations and screenshots to give you a better understanding of Mindgames and hopefully make it more entertaining for you.

Example 1 – Luring the opponent to chase you behind your tower

Example 2 – Luring the opponent to your ally and turning it into a 2v1

Another important lesson comes up in this example. Follow your ally in the chase. You never know what will happen. In this case, he got mana burned and couldn’t continue. If I weren’t there, Ursa would have gotten away. Also, following your ally doesn’t mean to ks him. Let him have the kill and just stay for the experience.

Example 3 – Luring the opponent to chase you and turning around to fight with creeps (or tower)

Example 4 – Predicting your opponent’s moves

Unfortunately, I do not have any screenshots of this because the host got pissed off and left and everyone disconnected, not letting me save the replay. You’ll just have to bear with me on this one.

I was on the Scrouge side playing Pugna. I was pushing bottom until the point between the Sentinel’s first and second tower. Since I was about 300hp and didn’t want to risk getting ganked, I proceeded to take the path that leads down to the river. On my way there, the enemy Juggernaut intercepted me started chasing me with blade fury. I had boots and he had a boots of travel, so I couldn’t escape.

I tried to get take as less damage as possible from blade fury so I have a chance of living. After the fury, he decided not to omni me because he could just kill me just by chasing and hitting. Knowing that I couldn’t escape, I started the life drain. Jug kept trying to kill me by attacking, but my HP was hovering around 150 during the course of this, while his HP was going down. It reached the point to where he realized that hacking away wouldn’t work anymore.

Now, we all know what he’s planning right? Omnislash no duh…I proceeded to decripify myself the moment I saw him stop attacking. He used Omnislash, and it did no damage to me whatsoever (omni is physical damage, not magical). After couple of slashes, I casted nether blast right on the spot (timing it so it would hit him when omni was over), and finished him with Dagon.

If I had played this any other way, I would have died for sure and wouldn’t have gotten a kill. I realized that I had to save decripify for saving me from omni. After I saw him try to chase me in the beginning without using omni, I could basically predict what he was going to do after I start life draining (he’s going to keep on trying to kill me without using his ultimate). When he was drained down to half life or so, I knew I had the battle won at that moment. A player who doesn’t think ahead won’t see the Omnislash coming, and won’t be able to react in time to save himself.

• Endnote

A lot of you will probably say that luck is a huge factor in playing the Mindgames. I would have to argue the opposite. Just take at look at the amount of luck in those kills above. I survived not because I was lucky, but rather because I calculated that I was going to survive. The plans were carefully thought out, planned, and carried out. In some situations, quick reflexes and thinking played a critical role in determining whether you live or die. I fought those battles for a good reason you know...

If you die while attempting to play the Mindgames, it is because you didn’t carefully consider the situation, or something hits you by surprise (like a person coming from behind you). Otherwise, if you continue to fail, it’s probably due to lack of experience, not bad luck. A good and experienced player knows when they are defeated, and knows when they can defeat someone.

Oh, and one last note, make sure you can count on your allies. Don’t play the Mindgames assuming that your godly ally (lets say an SA who went lothars) will cast cloud to help you out during the battle. Play with friends, practice your coordination and timing, and make sure you can count on each other in team battles.

In summary,

The most important thing in this guide?

Keep an eye on your opponent. Items, HP, mana, and everything. Make sure you know what they are capable of and react accordingly. I cannot stress how crucial this is.

How do I play the Mindgames?

Bait, lure, bait, lure, bait, and lure.

How can I get better at Mindgames?

Play more and get experience. It’ll come naturally.

Well that’s about it for this guide. I hope that I have brought to your attention some of the overlooked aspects of this game, and have made you a smarter, aggressive, and a more team-oriented player. The feeling you get from getting kills while you’re at low life and the enemy is at full is pretty damn good. You will surely draw some LOL’s and WTF??!?!?’s from the players in the game. Hope you enjoyed reading my first guide. Now go play some Mindgames…

Comments and/or questions from all people are welcomed.

• Credits

·Totallnewbie: Author of this Guide

·Totalchaos2: for introducing me to dota and teaching me how to play

·Chilln_1ce: for his input on TP's and the area below the sentinel bottom tower

·Letalkid: for his team baiting suggestion

·TWiStEdArrOw: for his input on area below sentinel middle tower and paying attention to your opponent's playing style

Map distance differences

Many players have a general understanding of the game, what heroes are countering who, what heroes are best at solo laning, and who can jungle; or in more simple words, what you can do to change the outcome of the game. This article goes one step further, and describes the abnormalities that are coded into the map; very small abnormalities that can have a huge impact on the game if you know how to take advantage of them, thus this article is directed towards the mid-skilled players.

Everyone has an understanding of the basics of the map, we have a sentinel base, a scourge base, a Roshan Area, two jungles (the big ones) and two forests (the small ones). Everyone know that we have three kinds of creeps: player allied (Treants, Ghouls etcetera), neutral creeps as well as ancients creeps (including Roshan too). What this section is about is how the overall map is different, many knows that Roshan is an abnormality which gives an advantage to the scourge side, but not many people know that the mid creeps are favouring the sentinel side or that you can triple pull in the sentinel jungle.





Map:


Mid lane, and its relations to the rune spots and ganks.


To the solo mid hero, rune-control is very important and it is not difficult to see that the two sides are unsymmetrical.
We can see that the distance from the towers offers scourge a lot of advantage, and although they have a bit longer to the top rune, the sentinel hero has to go through a curve, meaning that the distance will be almost the same; meaning that the scourge has a distance advantage in a possible rune-race.
Furthermore, the mid lane is usually ganked a lot, as it is in the middle of the map (hence the name), this is where the sentinel lane has its powers. While as the scourge side can be easily ganked from both sides, a gank on the sentinel mid is usually a lot more difficult. The way to the mid lane from bot is usually heavily warded and can be seen as impenetrable, while as the way from the top lane is guarded by a curve that gives the sentinel mid a huge sight advantage at day. This sight advantage is even more enhanced by the fact that while scourge only has one pile of trees to juke in, the sentinel has two.





Roshan Zone:


Probably the difference which has the most impact on the game, the Roshan zone is positioned on the scourge side of the map, and you can activate the scourge secret shop from the area. Being placed on the scourge side of the map, near the bot lane, means that scourge has access to the Roshan Zone through three towers (mid tier one, bot tier one and bot tier two), while sentinel only have from one (mid tier one tower). This means, that scourge is only in need of one ward, while as sentinel is in need of two wards to be able to see any gank attempt (granting that neither teams has lost any of the important towers).
This difference gives the scourge team a huge advantage, as even after a won team-fight, the sentinel team has to be careful, as a (buyback-) teleporting scourge team can easily backstab them.






Tower positions, and their immediate surroundings:

There is two factors that plays a role here: The environment near the towers and the distance between the towers. Some specific details surrounding the mid towers has already been covered, so will be skipping those. There is one more main factor though, which is the scourge level one top tower and the sentinel bot level one tower.


These are known as the safest places early game (outside of your base) but there are some obvious reasons. At the scourge tower, we have a intricate network above the tower, that allows you to run around in a circle with a couple of hiding spots connected; one of the best places to escape from a single hero. Besides this, the scourge side got a couple of hiding spots throughout the patch of trees below the tower, allowing a greater flexibility when choosing the hide-out.








In comparison, the sentinel tower does not offer the top patch of trees to juke to, but do offer a more extensive network of paths below the tower, allowing you to escape a ganking squad, or at least delay them until help arrives.


In addition to the environment, the two teams has a difference in distance between the towers which is due to the enlargement of the scourge base (referring to the picture relating to the section "Mid lane, and its relations to the rune spots and ganks"). This puts a greater pressure on the sentinel team as possible teleport support is now farther away, as well as the decreased distance between the towers allows for a greater chance for the scourge creeps to be below the towers attack range, making pushing a bit harder.


In particular, the tier two mid towers has an intricate difference too, as the positioning of the scourge tower is off, resulting in the ability to gank toward the scourge tower from both the forest and jungle, while you can only gank toward the sentinel from the jungle.





Creeps

This section is including all the creep-relating differences in the map, including neutrals, the behaviour of creeps on lane, and the specific differences between the Ghouls and Treants.
Ghouls and Treants

Although these two units are alike in almost every case, there is one small difference; Treants have a greater base than the ghouls, due to the greater unit size they have. This in combination with the Treants coming from the lower left corner results in Ghouls being able to 'hide' behind the Treants, making them a lot harder to hit.
Pulling creeps

The majority of the DotA community know that both teams can pull one main camp. The scourge are then able to pull a second camp diagonally (is usable by the sentinel horizontally too) while as the sentinel are able to double, and even triple, pull with the use of tangoes or quelling blade. This does put the sentinel jungler in a dangerous position however, as the second creep camp is located fairly near the scourge tier one bot tower.
Jungling

Although the jungling aspect is close to extinct at the moment, it is still worth mentioning, as the two jungles differentiate greatly.




The creep-camps in the scourge jungle are positioned with a lot of distance among them, but in such a way that you are able to circle among them all, so not to waste valuable time; and in the later stage of the game, this allows you to end up at your own base, making it a safe jungle if pressured.




In comparison, the sentinel jungle are 'divided' in two, meaning that you can easily circle among the three main camps without actually moving, but as the game progresses, your jungle farm will decrease due to increased walking time.
What is probably the most known feature of the sentinel jungle however, is the 'magic bush' which are able to block two camps and thus nullifying any jungling hero.

But while the jungles are important, we must not neglect the forests, containing some of the most powerful units in the game. Here we can yet again see a difference between the sentinel and the scourge side, as while the sentinel ancient camp are facing toward the middle of the map, and are located in a rather non-travelled part; the scourge ancient camp is facing the scourge secret shop, with easy access to this as well as the Roshan Zone; making it a lot more difficult for sentinel to farm on scourge ancients than scourge on sentinel ancients if the game are even, but easier for sentinel to farm on sentinel ancients than scourge on scourge ancients if they are losing map-advantage.

Note: Other camps are pull-able with accurate timing and specific creeps, but as this is never done, this will not be mentioned here.

Mid lane in particular:

Mid lane, as opposed to top and bot, has a slight difference in creep arrival, as a result of pre-discussed enlargement of scourge base. This means that the sentinel ranged creep is standing up-hill, and a ranged hero will be able to actively use the Fog of War, thus having a huge advantage in the first minute of the lane as the enemy do not have the ability to predict when the attacks are landing.

The picture to the right is an extreme situation, which almost never occurs with the first creep-spawn; usually the ranged creep are standing just on top of the ramp, allowing only heroes with approximately 600 range to attack from the actual Fog of War. Usually this is countered by creep-blocking, but while the sentinel towers are placed rather well for a creep-block, the scourge tier two mid tower is awkwardly placed, so that a perfect creep-block actually will allow a creep to avoid the block all together, by taking a different route.

Creeps vs Buildings:

What buildings the creeps are going to attack when entering the base, is yet another small difference that can have a huge impact on the game. The following information is gotten by watching the creeps entering the base unobstructed and with no heroes on the map, and might differ in a game due to small differences.

	Sentinel Creeps	Scourge Creeps
Top	All creeps are attacking melee rax	All creeps are attacking melee rax.
Mid	Melee creeps are attacking melee rax; ranged creeps are attacking ranged rax. There is a possibility of melee creeps attacking right Ziggurat; ranged creeps attacking left Ziggurat.	Melee creeps are attacking the ranged rax; ranged creeps are attacking Moon Well.
Bottom	Melee creeps are attacking the ranged rax; all ranged creeps are attacking the Ziggurat. There is a possibility of melee creeps attacking Ziggurat.	All creeps are attacking the ranged rax.

This is only counting for creeps who does not meet any obstacles such as towers are or other creeps too close to the base.

Melee creeps is referring to Ghouls and Treants. Ranged Creeps are referring to Druids, Necromancers, Meat Wagon and Glaive Throwers. All creeps are referring to all the creeps referred to above.

Looking at the table above, one can easily see some differences, as the sentinel creeps has a tendency to attack ziggurats rather than the rax. This means that scourge can be more comfortable leaving their base open for creeps to enter, as it would take a greater amount of time for them to destroy the important melee rax.

This is somewhat countered though, as the scourge creeps has a disadvantage in mid, almost neglecting the melee rax.

For the 'lolz'

This last section is about those informations that really do not have any game-play impact on the game, but is nevertheless just fun to know.

- The World Tree (compared to The Frozen Throne) are closer to fountain, which makes it easier for you to pull enemy creeps to fountain and a relatively quicker heal path.

- Sent is more prone to being Glaive-raped by Moonrider since the building placements are closer to each other in the base.

- You are able to access the scourge base through the tree-line at the utter most right and top, while the sentinel base are closed with a cliff here.

- Mid scourge can access secret shop with a tango, giving you an opportunity for an OP Ring of Health / Void Stone purchase early game while saving a lot of time! How often does mid heroes go Ring of Health / Void Stone you ask? Doesn’t matter…

A huge shoutout to Luminous who has helped me with writing this amazing piece of work.

Artropos Guide

-

Skillbuid:

1: Nightmare

2: Brain Sap

3: Brain Sap

4: Stats

5: Brain Sap

6: Fiend's Grip

7: Brain Sap

8-10: Nightmare

11: Fiend's Grip

12-15: Enfeeble

16: Fiend's Grip

17+: Stats

Item build:


Starting: x2 

Core

Extension/Luxury:

      

Gameplay tips:
Manage your mana carefully in early game
Go ganking from level 6
Use all your abilities and items before casting your ult in teamfights
Do not killsteal
Place wards and keep a TP Scroll

~Table Of Contents

1. Introduction

2. Story

3. Info and Stats

4. Skills

5. Skill Build

6. Item Build

7. Strategy

8. Hero Synergy

9. Screens and Additional Strategy

10. Conclusion

11. Replays

12. Credits

1. Hero's Introduction



This is my first guide  I decided to write it because Atropos is one of my favourite heroes in DotA and the only guide about him on this website is badly outdated. I hope you have fun reading it and that it will help you improve your skills. Please feel free to comment, rate, criticize and what not on this guide
Atropos the Bane Elemental is a disabler, whose role in team is centralized on ganking and supporting. Although being a powerful hero, he is unfortunately not very popular in neither public, nor competitive games. I'm not a competitive player myself, but I think there are three main reasons why Bane is seldom picked on tournaments: Firstly, bane sucks terrebly at pushing. No AOE skill, no physical damage output - nothing that will help clear a creepwave. Secondly, Radiance, a very popular item in competitive play, doesn't combine well with Nightmare. Finally, Atropos isn't very usefull in teamfights as all of his spells are single-target and ult tends to get interrupted fast when there are a lot of enemies around...
Anyway, Bane is really a very poferfull hero and in the right hands can do a lot of damage and contribute greatly to the team's success.


2. Hero's Story

Atropos is an elemental force personifying the nightmares and fear of this world. He manifests where there is promise of inflicting horror and feeding off dread. Sapping his foes' psyche heals him. Manifesting his enemies' fears, he greatly enfeebles their

ability to fight. He revels in disabling foes by sending them into dread slumber. When need be he can rip his soul and force it into his foes,

effectively immobilizing them with despair and pain. Atropos is, in one word, Fear.

3. Hero's Info & Stats








Pros:
[+] A great support hero that all the teammates love
[+] A great disabler hero that all the opponents hate
[+] Strong early and mid game, (especially early-mid game)
[+] A strong ganker from level 6 on (and probably the best ganking partner in game)
[+] Not item-dependable
[+] Good Strength grow and starting Strength (for an Intelligence hero)
[+] Has a pure-damage nuke, which is a heal at the same time
[+] Ranged
[+] Cool backstory


Cons:
[-] Like most intelligence heroes, not that powerful in late game
[-] No AOE spells, thus sucks at pushing and at clearing creepwaves
[-] Relatively weak in large teamfights
[-] Mana problems early game
[-] Silencers are a pain in the ass
[-] Team-dependent

4. Hero's Skills

 Enfeeble
Description: This is a rather powerful skill. It has a long range of 1000, which is very nice, and it's duration (20) is longer than it's cooldown (12), so two enemies can Enfeebled at a time. If cast at a right time, it renders one of the enemy heroes absolutely useless. However, it doesn't scale too well into lategame, so don't overestimate it: a lvl 25 Drow Ranger with MKB, Buriza, Butterfly and some other nice items will still rape your team, even if Enfeebled.
 Good targets of this spell are:         and other damage-dealing carrys/DPSer's, I'm not gonna name them all.
Be careful when casting Enfeeble on heroes like        
as they can debuff themselves.


 Brain Sap
Description: I dare to say, this is one of the best (if not the best) non-ultimate spells in the game.. but only at early levels. It simply works wonders: it heals you, it damages enemies. This spell often turns 'you die, enemy survives' situation into 'you survive, enemy dies' situation. You know Sunder? Terrorblade's ultimate? This is our mini-Sunder. It's simply priceless.
The damage type is pure, so no matter how much magic resistance the enemy has, 300 hp (at lvl 4) will be removed from him.
There are two problems with this spell though: first, it's high mana cost which is, coupled with Atropos' low INT gain, the main cause of our mana problems in early game. Second, it doesn't scale into late game, coz when both you and your opponent have 2500 hp, you will hardly notice a difference after casting Brain Sap.
Use this spell to lasthit an enemy hero, to heal yourself (feel free to cast it on a creep if your hp are low and no enemy heroes are in range) or just as a nuke. I wouldn't advice to use it during early game to harass, because it will eat your mana very fast.
The cooldown is relatively long (14), so keep an eye out on it!


 Nightmare
Description: Another very useful spell. Simply put, it completely disables an enemy hero for 4-7 seconds. Don't be deceived by it's damage - it's symbolic (unless the hero level is very low).
The Nightmared hero generally shouldn't be attacked, because if he takes damage, he wakes up. This actually can be a problem, coz if you teammates are morons, they will often wake up a Nightmared enemy hero. Here I just wish you luck with your teammates.
About denying with Nightmare. It's very hard (as it requires perfect timing) and you have to be very lucky. Still it's worth a try, especially at early levels. Try to cast Nightmare on yourself(ally) when you(he) has below 20 hp. Otherwise it gives opponents time to react and to finish you(ally) off (and they will no doubt do so, unless they are complete idiots). Lasthitting with Nightmare is similar, but a bit easier. If there are no better options, cast Nightmare on a dying enemy hero. If possible, reposition so that if he wakes up alive you can finish him off with your basic attack (obvious things are obvious, lol).
Be careful when using Nightmare with guys like these on your team:        as their AOE skills are likely to wake up the Nightmared hero. Radiance is especially annoying *sigh*. Please note that I put Necrolyte on this list because of his Death Pulse. Heartstopper Aura does NOT remove Nightmare.

 Fiend's Grip
Description: Ah, the lovley Fiend's Grip, Bane Elemental's signature skill. This it what makes him such a wonderful disabler. Nobody likes to be standing still for 5 (6 with Aghanim's Scepter) seconds, being raped by the spell itself and Atropos' teammates. And as if that is not enough - it also drains mana! Wonderful spell.
But then again, it has two drawbacks: first, the manacost is rather high, but that is compensated to some extent thanks to the mana drain. And the biggest, the most annoying drawback: Fiend's Grip is a chanelling spell. That means that you can do nothing while Fiend's Gripping, but the worst part is actually the fact that it can be interrupted via stuns and ministuns (and other stuff that interrupts channeling spells like Vengeful Spirit's Nether Swap).
Before casting Fiend's Grip, if possible, try to make sure no one's gonna interrupt it. Because if you don't - well, have fun seeing how you held someone in Fiends Grip for one or two seconds. That means Fiend's Grip isn't as useful in teamfights as in ganks and other situations where you don't have to deal with an entire enemy team.
The cooldown is, I would say, not too long and not too short: 100 seconds. Don't be afraid to use the spell, but keep an eye out on the cooldown!






5. Hero's Skill Build





Level 1: Nightmare
Level 2: Brain Sap
Level 3: Brain Sap
Level 4: Stats
Level 5: Brain Sap
Level 6: Fiend's Grip
Level 7: Brain Sap
Level 8: Nightmare
Level 9: Nightmare
Level 10: Nightmare
Level 11: Fiend's Grip
Level 12: Enfeeble
Level 13: Enfeeble
Level 14: Enfeeble
Level 15: Enfeeble
Level 16: Fiend's Grip
Level 17+: Stats
Skill Build Justification:
As you can see, there is no fixed skill build for Bane.
We always take Nightmare at level 1, because aside from the obvious first blood prevention, it is a nice skill to have. It doesn't benefit very much from leveling, but extra duration is quite useful in teamfights. Stats can be taken insted of Nightmare at levels 8-10 if no teamfight occur.
Brain Sap is maximized as fast as possible (at lvl 2,3,5,7) because it works wonders early and mid game.
Enfeeble can be taken as early as level 8 if there are a lot of DPS'ers in enemy team, but generally enemy dps starts to get dangerous around level 12. In an unlikely situation, it is possible not to skill Enfeeble until level 22 if there are no dps'ers at all in the enemy team (unlucky '-ar' for them, for example).
Fiend's Grip is taken whenever possible for obvious reasons.