-i shake u right up lol

Regarding 6.64:
This version came along with yet another makeover to footwear items, and once again Alch is stuck choosing a pair. Phase Boots and Power Treads are equally viable on him, and your choice should be personal and reflect your playstyle. More info in the Items section!
Sadly no direct changes to Alch were made in this version... again. Sigh. Hope for brighter days for the chubby ogre!
Thanks to all readers for your support so far!

Contents:
1) Introduction
2) Overview
3) Skills
4) Builds
--a) Skills
--b) Items
5) Strategy
--a) Laning/Earlygame
--b) Ganking/Midgame
--c) Teambattles/Mid-to-lategame
--d) Skill-Specific
6) Mates and Hates
7) Sum-up
8) Q&A
9) Replays
10) Changelog
(layout taken from Crowley's guide to SF, thanks!)

1: Introduction

- "For the highest bidder!"
Ah, the Alchemist. Probably the worst example of Icefrog's nerfstick swinging, he has been weakened into the ground since his inception. It's no wonder many have sworn off the fat ogre/gobby duo forever.
Alch (or Chubby as I like to call him) has a hodgepodge of abilities, which point to him being any-which-way you want; carry, support, tank, etc. It is this seemingly random skillset that confuse players even more, causing them to build up a misconception that Chubby is hopelessly weak without a given direction.
I aim to shatter that paradigm. In this guide, I emphasise a tanking/supportive role for Alch, with semi-DPSing capabilities utilised as well. Capitalising upon Chubby's innate abilities to do everything decently, we make him a team player and coordinator. You will gain your allies' love, and your enemies' fear and hatred.

Play Chubby if you:
- enjoy being a cornerstone of your team
- love to get attention
- are a masochist and like taking pain
- being that one hero the enemy team will learn to deeply hate

Need more reason? I suggest you watch synapris' tribute to Chubby; that's just how beastly you can be.

Fair warning though: by choosing Alchemist, you are picking a hero who has a mediocre performance alone, but works brilliantly in teams. Therefore before even considering the foes you will face, make sure your team is of a decent standard before considering Chubby. In particular, the ability to judge one's safety within the game is important. You don't want teammates who recklessly rush in after a Shake only to get torn apart, no?

2: Overview

At a glance:
Pros:
- Incredible babysitting
- Great lane control
- Powerful team coordinator, in ganks and teambattles alike
- Versatile, can be built accordingly to fit gameflow
- Natural tank; attracts attention and can take the heat

Cons:
- Sub-par stat-growth... luckily Rage partially makes up for that.
- Low base armor/Strength make for a fragile hero... without Rage that is.
- Very reliant on Rage (if the above two points didn't make that clear)
- Increasingly item-dependant lategame
- Bad choice without decent teammates (thank goodness you play Dota with friends, eh?)

Hero Stats:

Strength: 25 + 1.8

Agility: 11 + 1.2

Intelligence: 25 + 1.8
To be honest, this is probably the worst statpool of any current dota hero. While Chubby starts with a good max hitpoint/manapool thanks to a round 25 in both Str and Int, his base Agi (and consequently his armor) leave something to be desired. This issue, however, pales in comparison to the problem left by his mediocre statgain-per-level. As the game drags on, almost every other heroes' stats will be ahead by leaps and bounds. Thankfully, this issue can be partially addressed with the right strategic and item choices; more on that later.

Hero stats aside, the rest of Alch's quirks are fairly average. He does have a great attack animation, reaching its damage point at 0.35 seconds; this makes for easier lasthits/denies, and allows him to cancel the attack animation to great effect. His base armor is very bad however, starting at 0.6 (shown as 1 in-game; don't be fooled). Harassment upon you will hurt a lot more than is fair.

For more information regarding Alchemist's statistics, visit his official website!

3: Skills
(Usage of skills covered in Strategy)

Basic:

Acid Spray
Your free Deso! And in a large area too. While it won't directly work against smart mobile opponents, entire creepwaves are yours for the taking with this ability. And with its long duration, it's usable as a powerful deterrent. Anyone stupid enough to stay in this green cloud of awesome has issues.

Notes:
- The duration stated on this site's info page is currently inaccurate; Acid Spray lasts 16 seconds (as stated by the tooltip in-game), not 12.
- The damage component is mixed. This means it will be reduced both by the damaged enemy's armor and spell resistance.
- The damage will differ according to your enemies' armor. Armor bonuses will decrease the damage taken. Similarly, armor reduction increases damage taken.
- Against heroes and units with Resistant Skin-based abilities, the damage is further reduced by spell resistance.
- The DoT will still cut through magic immunity- very useful against Golem creeps and BKB-ed heroes.

Unstable Concoction
Also known as 'shake', 'wank' and 'OMFG IMBA', this spell is pretty much the reason Chubby gets picked in the first place; a low manacost, spammable, targetable, damaging disable. The only downside is the virtual self-disable, but this is more than made up for with the sheer usefulness and power of this spell. With this, you are the conductor of your team. Learn how to point the magic baton, and all will follow your lead.

Notes:
- Vision (non-truesight) of the target is granted to Alch's controller while Shaking. However, the target is also granted sight of the Alchemist and given an 'under attack' prompt.
- The numbers above the target's model show how long the stun will be if released at that point in time. They can only be viewed by allies of the Alchemist.
- If Shake is released immediately after casting it will be viewed as a 0.5 channeling time (30 damage/0.5 second stun). The ministun helps break channeling quickly and in cases may get you a finishing blow in before your enemy.
- If the Alchemist is interrupted while channeling, he will still release a Concoction of whatever power was gathered. Very useful to note against disablers.
- Using specific abilities will prevent the effects of Concoction; the Alchemist will continue shaking until the maximum time allowed but no potion will be released. Methods include spell immunity, long-range movement (blinks/TP) and invisibility (Windwalk, Nature's Guise, Lothar's etc.).
- However if your target somehow becomes an allowed target again (eg. blinker returns into vision, truesight reveals the invisible target, spell immunity's duration expires) and the Alchemist has not released his Shake yet, the spell will wcontinue as normal.
- Mirror Image based spells (eg. Siren, CK and Manta) will not affect your Shake's targeting; as long as the Shake was started before the spellcast, your target will still be the real hero.
- Like any other Storm Bolt based spell, the projectile can still be dodged with another evasive maneuver.
- The numbers will still show above the target's location even if it is no longer valid. This can help your allies locate an invisible hero, or one in fog.

Goblin's Greed
Nerfed to oblivion since Chubby's introduction, Greed nevertheless still holds a place in his skillset. If you play him the way I recommend in this guide, you need this to achieve your uber-items while your team continues to benefit from your support. Likewise, ricer-Alchemists are born cause of this very skill; a skill which allows you to get more out of last-hitting than any other hero. Not health, not mana, not Strength, but cold filthy gold.

Notes:
- On top of the stated value, you gain 2 additional gold for each enemy unit within the past 18 seconds.
- This bonus is independent for each creep killed; the 2 bonus gold will be removed 18 seconds after the creep's death, not 18 seconds after the last unit killed.
- Images and illusions do keep Greed, but they have their own creep-kill counter.

Ultimate:

Chemical Rage
Your berserk button, and a potent one at that. Need a fountain trip? Nope, just Rage and watch your HP and mana come rushing back. Sad cause Chubby's Agility sucks? Rage and see your base attackspeed shoot down, and your little ogre friend start running like Hermes. Whenever the purple ogre comes out, it's always good news for you and the team.

Notes:
- This is one of the few skills ingame which reduce your base attack time (BAT). As such, percentage-based bonuses (and penalties) to your attack speed have a greater effect.
- Rage also increases your base movement speed; bonuses affect you to a larger extent. Use these to your advantage!
- Of lesser note, Rage's health and mana regeneration are added to your base values as well. As such, percentage-based bonuses to regen are greatly multiplied. However as there are no such bonuses to health (Heart's HP-regen 'aura' is based off your max HP, not your base regen), you are limited to using this tactic for mana.
- Unlike other transformation skills, Rage will persist in images/illusions created of you. This makes for Manta being a decent item choice of Alch (see below), and can also prove a boon when having illusion-creating allies (or otherwise if the enemy can make an image of you).
- Since the bonuses above are directly added to your base values, images will not lose the other Rage benefits when created.
-There is a 0.35 second transformation time into your Raged form. Useful when you want to stundodge using the morphing skill-bug (see later for more details)!

4: Builds

a: Skills

What to Teach For Happier Alchs:
1. Unstable Concoction (Shake)
2. Acid Spray
3. Shake
4. Acid
5. Shake/Acid
6. Chemical Rage
7. Shake/Acid
8. Acid/Shake
9. Acid/Shake
10. Goblin's Greed (Greed)
11. Rage
12. Attribute Bonus (Stats) / Greed
13-15. Stats / Greed
16. Rage
17-25. Stats/Greed

-Shake is usually maxed first. It's what makes Chubby good outside of Rage as a great utility skill. However if your team has plenty of disables already, leave Concoction at level 2: a 3 second disable on top of your team's is enough support, and Acid's power is greater the earlier learned.
-Acid is taken at nearly the same rate. During midgame, the effects (both DoT and -armor) are at peak effectiveness. It also ensures you can defend a creep-push with ease.
-One level of Greed is taken after Shake/Acid are maxed at level 10. This allows a succession of lasthits or fast-track jungling to give a sizable gold boost.
-Rage is taken anytime available, for obvious reasons.
-The remainder of Greed's levels are optional, as taking stats will help shore up your greatest weakness. And at this time, pushes are so huge you can easily reach the Greed bonus gold cap. Personally, I would take 5 stat-levels before putting 1 more point in Greed (+100% effectiveness) and then return to max-out stats.

b: Items

Starting:

Alch starts off with various choices on what to take to his lane. This will mostly depend on your team's structure; if you're playing babysitter to someone else (as you should be IMO), then a Basilus should be your first purchase. Supportive Chubbies should get either a Magic Wand's components or buy a courier off the bat. If for some reason you are going solo, bits of Bracers will maximise your lifespan in-lane.

Babysitter's Basilus:

Basilus offers all Chubby needs earlygame: a slight damage boost, badly needed armor and a source of mana regen to continually use Shake. If you're taking a dual-lane (as you should), your teammate will adore you for the auras as well!

or
Self-Sturdiness:

To boost your already good starting stats even higher, grab the classic Bracer set-up of 2 gauntlets and a circlet. This will increase your already sizable hitpoints to very safe levels, and boost your manapool enough to sparingly use Shake until level 6. Best in a solo lane, if you really are shoehorned into one.

Stick Magicry:

A Magic Stick can also work wonders. You sacrifice some personal stats for the Energy Charge skill, which is definitely more useful earlygame; early attempts to fight back against your Shake will be mostly nukes or disables, so if you can survive them (easy thanks to your great starting HP), a buildup of charges can be very tide-turning indeed. In this kit you also take along the 3 GG branches needed to later turn it into Magic Wand, which can replace a Bracer's space and more than make up for a minor loss of Strength.

PETA will sue:

Your earlygame is quite good thanks to Shake's lane-staying power, so if your team requires a Courier it may be your first purchase as well. Here I take along a Ring of Protection to help reduce harassment and build into Basilus later, but if you wish you may want to buy a Flying Courier straight away. In either case couriers have a slight personal risk; not doing well in-lane because you lack the benefits of other items might gimp your earlygame. However controlling a lane and farming quickly can get you those missing bonuses via Courier, thus granting you those crucial items just that bit faster.

Consumables:

I've never found the need to use Clarities, ever. Your Shake is very manacost-efficient, and even if used whenever available will only slowly eat through Alch's manapool.
Healthwise it's a tossup between tangos and salves, but personally I prefer tangos just for the ability of staying close to the action. Especially important if your lanemate's in a messy situation!

Core:

Heart of Chubby:

Big Shoes for Big Feet:

Optional Boosters:

Contrary to popular belief/misconception, Alch does not need too many items if used optimally. Armlet of Mordiggan and mid-tier footwear are easily affordable by midgame, even if you allowed your lanemate free farm over the enemy creepwaves. These aim to emphasize Chubby's sizable DPS ability midgame, thanks to Acid and Shake being at top potential and Rage a quite scary improvement to his damaging carry-capability.

For those who doubt the power, take a look at the Alch in this screenshot. Minimally equipped, and yet his DPS and tankiness is off the charts for midgame.

Chubby is a natural Armlet user. He greatly benefits from its basic bonuses (especially the 5 armor) and Rage helps negate the degen caused by Unholy Strength. This item is what will make you a great midgame DPSer, and mark you as a threat; very important for later if/when carries start coming to play. It is essential you complete your Armlet as the first primary item, as your still acceptable stat-levels at midgame will allow you a tremendous advantage over others in both survivability and DPS. Late-game, Armlet will be used more as a 'panic button' to survive ganks, but will still be a decent booster in any case.

For those control freaks who know Alch's limits well, Phase Boots are for you. Since the 6.63 era, all players have had to deal with reduced survivability for every hero. Seeing as Chubby's lifespan is better than most, the Phase ability is nearly always taken to shore up his mobility, allowing Alch to chase and flee at great ease. The high bonus to attack damage is also helpful and helps compensate for Treads' better DPS.

Alternatively, Power Treads suit those players who prefer a straight-out boost for Alch. The attribute bonus on such a Strength-deficient and dependant hero is invaluable, and can even be switched to Agilty or Intelligence for whatever situation needed! The attack speed is also desirable, as my builds get little such bonuses until lategame.

If you're playing against gank-happy heroes who love to shut you all down, cheap boosts like Bracers are a good way to keep up. As the Alchemist you can easily farm the sum back later, so it's worth keeping these in mind as fallback items.

Post-Core

What you get now is highly dependant upon what your team lacks; Chubby is one of the few heroes who benefits from virtually any item. In this guide, I prioritize remaining a threat to the enemy by buying items that focuses attention on you.
Here are some suggestions for builds to fit the role you need to play:

DPS/Carry

Start with:

Followed by:

Optional Supplement:

In order to play Chubby as an effective carry/tank hybrid, you must maintain the high threat level required to keep the enemy team focusing upon you in Rage. Therefore our major DPS booster will be one with a powerful secondary and obvious secondary effect; Radiance for the DoT around yourself, Mjolnir for the Chain Lightning of rape and Deso for the physical damage amplification. Since you have the health required to stay alive, I would recommend aiming for Rad; if there is a better carrier in your team, go for Mjol or Deso.

The common tank-type item, nothing draws attention like an ogre giving off sparklies. Not only does Radiance boost your own damage by a sizable amount, but your threat level remains high thanks to the strong DPS dealt over time to your foes. Its cost is also easier for you to farm than most anyone else (thanks to Acid+Greed), and once you do farming becomes ridiculously easy with both Acid and the shinies!

With 6.63's turning of Mjolnir's +Agi into +attackspeed, Thor's hammer just got a whole lot better for Alch. The insane DPS boosts, combined with Rage's reduction of BAT make for the Chain Lightning orb proccing way too often than fair. And as icing on the cake, Static Charge means you can draw off attention on yourself or your teammates at will.
Bear in mind choosing to get Mjol will affect your next item choice; since Skadi won't stack, you might as well aim straight for a Manta. It'll grant Alch some of the stats you miss out on, and those images get very scary even without inheriting your orb.

Desolator increases personal DPS tenfold, making your attacks count for something in battles. In addition, the Corruption ability is invaluable for further conducting the team into aiming for a single target. It's also very hard to ignore a fat purple ogre with a purple orb circling his fist/sword thing.

We next aim for an item which will help extend your lifespan in combat, but also raises your DPS even further. Here I consider the choice between Skadi and Assault Cuirass. Skadi is by far the superior choice in my opinion; the stat bonuses are invaluable on Chubby with his piss-poor gain, and the cost is not much higher than Assault. If however your team lacks a good Cuirass carrier, its powerful auras will help your team as a whole within group clashes. Get whichever one fits the situation better.

Nearly the most expensive item available to buy in Dota, and for good reason; its bonuses are phenomenal. This covers just about all of Chubby's weaknesses, granting him the stats he lacks, a thick HP value in or out of Rage, and a Frost attack that leaves most opponents running in vain. If you manage to farm this, there is no need for you to play passive tanker any longer; if you're ignored, you can rape anyone's face into the ground.

While Assault Cuirass falls into the category of 'pure-tank' items (see below), it does have the desired effect of drawing attention to you, and at the same time making you much more fearsome. The incredible boost to attackspeed, combined with your low BAT from Rage makes your natural attacks on par with carries, perhaps better with Armlet and Rad/Deso. At the same time your armor auras (aka Circle of Power aura) will have your opponents panicking and your allies loving (not that way). Expensive perhaps, but you are quite the holder of an Assault and should consider the option after picking up a good DPS item.

Optional:

As far as I am aware, Alchemist is the only hero whose transformation persists through Mirror Image. As such Manta fits quite well in his build, giving a sizable boost to all stats while allowing 3 fat ogres to wreak havoc at once. The extra bonus to movement speed is invaluable, thanks to it being percentage-based and thus having an even better effect when in Rage. The confusion element is also a great boon in winning battles! However to fully utilise its power, your images must be strengthened with stats bonuses and orb effects. Thus this is left as a finishing touch to your carry build; getting this too early has little effect, but later on proves a deathblow to your enemies!

Utility/Support

Start with:

Followed by:

Crowning Touch:

Optional:

This build makes use of Chubby's ability to use spells more freely than others, thanks to Rage's massive regeneration. While giving up your battle skills, a good supportive Alch can prove a great damper to the enemy just as well, provided with a coordinated team!
Bear in mind while Khadgar's Pipe is optional, the item itself is most useful during midgame where a stray nuke can prove devastating to the unprepared team! So if you wish to get a pipe, you should do so sometime around your acquiring a Necronomicon before its benefits are less effective.

Cheap and effective, Mekanism is a cost-efficiently-awesome item for Chubby. A well placed heal can turn the tides of a skirmish, allowing those nearly dead to take those last fleeting blows and finish off your foes. The personal boosts to stats and armor are also appreciated, though fairly minor.

For the micro-skilled, Necrominions are a great addition to Alchie's arsenal. He benefits nicely from +Str/Int, and the minions themselves help make up for Shake's self-disability. Though you will lack the survivability to stay alive that a more bruiser-type build would have, your summons ensure you can still provide a hefty beating even while dead!
Quickly purchase the upgraded versions of the Necronomicon; its boost to summon power are huge, especially at level 3 granting a free Sentry in battles!

Once you can afford it, getting a Guinsoo's ensures absolute hatred for you from the enemy. A Hex-on-demand is gamebreaking, allowing your teammates to beat down upon the poor sucker while you Shake the poor victim to seal their fate (covered later in tactics). With this combo, the other team should remain 1 player down at all times.

A mass-Barrier is great for rendering enemy nukes useless, and thanks to Rage it can be used whenever needed. The bonuses given to Chubby are also worthwhile, granting him great survivability against spells and HP regen to continue on longer pushes.

Others/Situational

If you got Basilus at the start, Vladmir's is the logical upgrade. The largest benefit of getting this is a non-orb lifesteal, very important when considering how much better others are on Chubby. The other bonuses are fairly average at midgame; mana-regen is quite useless post-level 6 as you have Rage, armor is not too important yet and the bonus to attack damage is not noticable yet.
As such, getting this is fairly situational. If you have the extra cash feel free. Otherwise save it for later after other items.

Not a horrible choice, but SnY's just not worth its cost. Even though it comes in smallish, easy to farm bits, the combined effects are mediocre and usually done better by other items. You'll get greater damage from Armlet, survivability and attackspeed from Assault, slowing attack from Skadi... The only redeeming quality is the movespeed, but in Rage and with Phase you'll be faster than most other heroes anyway.
Still, the overall cheapness of this item makes it a potential "comeback" item after a series of trumps by the enemy team. The advantages may be enough for your team to regain the advantage, and turn a loss into a win! In any case, judge the game first before starting this build.

and in turn

HotD and Satanic might work, though I haven't personally given them a go yet. A Dominated creep makes ganking ridiculously easy with decent micro, and opens up the tactic of stacking creepcamps for massive income bursts. Unholy Rage is also very powerful, making Chubby nigh-unkillable in critical periods of time.
However, I find the passive bonuses given to be lacking, especially for their cost. Lifesteal is not something that will get you focused; in fact it may discourage the enemy team from targeting you in battle! The orb not stacking with a Deso is a major loss as well. Armlet's Unholy Strength does nearly everything Satanic gives passively (losing 14 damage in exchange for +15% attack speed and 3 HP regen), and for about a third of the price!
Again, getting this line of items depends on your playstyle; you will need other sources of damage (such as Rad) to pull this off well.

On one hand, Chubby makes astounding use of Battle Fury's splash damage; this and Acid tear down entire waves in seconds. However it comes at the heavy price of having to buy Perseverance, entirely useless to Alch (see my argument below). The +damage may be cost-efficient, but other items will draw more attention to you, the tanker, than this. In particular, Radiance will do the same job for farming, but is much more useful in team battles. If at some point you have enough gold to buy the entire item in one sweep, feel free to try it out. Otherwise stay away from B-Fury; there are items with much better buildups for Chubby.

Unrecommended

Might seem alright, but I find MoM to be too much of a risk on Alch's part. While the Berserk acts as a very powerful DPS-booster, you won't be able to take the extra damage too well thanks to low armor and being reliant on Rage/Armlet. And again, lifesteal as an orb pales in comparison to a Skadi or Deso effect.

I don't care if it's thematic, Midas sucks badly of now. If you wanna be held to popping by the jungle every 1.5 minutes just to payback its cost, be my guest. Frankly a huge waste of an item slot.

and in turn

Please please please never try this line of items. For one, Chubby doesn't need Perseverance's regen at all, thanks to Rage. The items it can be combined into also hold little value for the Alchemist. You're not going to get lasthits on heroes, and cooldown management will mean your skills will always be available when needed. And while the spellblock is very useful, the mediocre bonuses gotten from Linken's do not justify its cost. The only exception to this is Battle Fury (see above) and even then it's not a top picked item for Alch.

To be honest, 'tanking' in Dota is not fully understood by most players. Most important thing to remember is that people can choose who they want to hit (unless you're Axe, but different story). As such, being too hard to kill actually detracts from your role in the team as the lovable punchbag. Therefore I do not recommend getting these items, as the enemy might just give up and start beating down upon your friends instead. There are several suggestions above that will grant you that oh-so-wanted extra EHP, but will help rather than hinder your job.

While DPS items synergise well with Alch's Rage decreasing his BAT, it is important to consider his position in the game. IMO, the ideal way to play Chubby is to draw attention by being a general jerkass and protecting your team like a vicious mother hen/bear. Other heroes are much better suited to the DPS role, including classic carries like Troll and Spectre. Know your place, and stick to it. Again, the suggestions above are items that better compliment your DPS and your tanking abilities.

5: Strategy

a: Laning/Earlygame

Initial Choices
Face it, you're not a hero that needs quick leveling to succeed, and you can barely hold a lane by yourself. However, Alchemist's Shake is a godsend in laning, allowing you to disable and babysit with ease. It's your choice whether to go with another disabler and wreak absolute havoc, or a carry-type and be their guardian godmother. (examples of lane combos later!)
With you as a buddy, you're not limited to the 'safe' lane (Sent bot/Scourge top) and quite capable of taking on the 'long' one. As with any hero, make sure to watch out for any missing enemies that could be coming in to tear you and your mate a new one.

In-lane
In these first stages, you'll be aggressively trying to gain lane control. Thanks to Basilus' aura, you're capable of using Shake whenever you want/need, so feel free to open up festivities and greet your rivals with a 120 damage, 2 second stun to the face. Unless your lanemate has his own disable, forewarn them that you aren't going for the kill- yet.
After this try to wait and regain mana back for level 3. Now with Shake's 3 second stun, you're more than capable of drawing FB if noone has done so yet. Try to allow your teammate the kill; that's the entire idea of babysitting after all! Most crucial at this stage is to establish the power of Shake in your lane rivals; make them fear the funky goblin-ogre duo jacking off.

-Here's a very common earlygame scenario; Medu gets cocky and approaches Jakiro, and tries to kill him with a Mystic Snake and some more attacks. Luckily, Alch notices and prepares the Shake...

-...resulting in saving Jakiro's life and snagging a kill in the process.

Until level 6 continually spam your Shake upon the most fragile hero possible, allowing your lanemate free reign of the creeps while denying as many as you can. Take care not to start shaking but still stay in range for a devastating counterattack; positioning is key. If there comes the guarantee of a kill, put down the Acid and punch 'em out. Otherwise refrain from using Acid Spray; its manacost is too restrictive to use without the regen gained from Rage.
Pay close attention to how your opponents have responded to your harassment; if their normal approach is to run backwards, a forward advance is a pretty good tip-off that a nasty gank awaits you. If there's nothing you can do, do as much damage possible before dying, and take heart in the fact that you've already sown the seeds of hatred that will keep your team in high spirits and the enemy's in disarray.

In summary, for the laning stage:
- be the jackass that screws over the earlygame for your enemies
- secure a safe farming lane for your lanemate
- attempt to claim several kills from their underestimation of your power
- wank. a lot.

b: Ganking/Midgame

Letting the kid go... or not
If your lane wasn't too hard to control, you now have a fed friend and underleveled opponents. Thus when you reach level 7, it's time to say goodbye to your spiritual child and begin roaming the map in search of food (examples below). From this point onwards always carry around a TP scroll; it's invaluable for punishing lone farming enemies, defending a tower or turning a gank around.
The effectiveness of this strategy will mostly depend upon your opponent's ability; chances are if they notice the 'asshole' Alch to be gone, that they will call missing and ruin your plans. In that case, feel free to return to lane and continue the babysitting. However, do ask for some farm, at least enough to secure Boots and an Armlet around 15 to 20 minutes in-game.
However, be careful not to rice too much at this stage. Doing so wastes your great ganking potential, and failing to shutdown the more dangerous foes may be a decision to regret later. Farming too much may also cause the enemy gankers to hunt you down, and Chubby lacks the escapability required to survive such coordinated attacks. Whenever their guard is down, be obliged to step aside, let those who need the cash get farmtime and hunt for heads.

Assassination, Chubby-style
Assuming your opponents aren't quite so selfless as to warn each other, you should be able to participate in at least a couple of ganks throughout the course of the game. However, the Alchemist has trouble killing alone. As such, make sure your ally/ies in the target lane are ready and prepared to assist/claim the kill.
Thanks to Shake's castrange increasing per level (to a very safe 950 at level 4), it's quite easy to start your motions from out-of-sight. However due to Shake giving sight of Chubby to the target (see above), alert opponents will start to flee or otherwise escape. To prevent this, make sure to utilise good positions to start Shaking. Look for alcoves in the trees, as these make especially good cover. Another wise choice is to shake so that the pathway back to enemy base (aka. the most likely direction for them to run) can be intercepted by you and your allies.
If you will hit your target and his location is safe, call your allies in and proceed to rape face. Put down an Acid Spray, turn on Rage and Armlet if available, and proceed to wail away at the helpless victim. At this stage, almost no hero can withstand a vicious double whammy of 300 damage on top of a 5 second disable. The Alchemist has great potential in ganking simply because nearly all of his ambushes prove fatal; utilise this advantage whenever possible.
Whether or not your gank succeeds or fails, post-gank techniques remain the same. Your Rage, besides being a powerful attack booster is also a great regeneration skill; sitting through the 25 seconds of Rage at level 1 restores 375 hitpoints and 75 mana, comparable to free basic consumables. As such it serves as a good quicker-picker-upper.

Reversals
You're in luck if a solitary hero with DD/invis/whatever thinks he can kill you easily. Provided the refraining from using Rage too much while creep-farming/jungling (see below), you're capable of turning the tides. Attempt to juke, then begin Shaking your foe. The 1-2 seconds gained from juking guarantees you a good disable, enough to either run or fight back. In either case, Rage's bonuses to movement and regeneration give you a powerful edge.
This technique is also very useful for saving your allies from a gank. TP to the closest tower and begin Shaking the most dangerous character; if they're about to kill your ally, release the Shake and escort your friend home. If nothing, die for your ally as long as you are sure he can survive that way. Deaths for you will not set you back too far, and that's what the best babysitters do- die one day so that the baby can grow up and get back at them another.
As said above, try not to farm too much and draw the attention of enemy assassins (mentioned below). There's not much you can do if ambushed by more than 1 hero at a time, seeing as your only escape mechanism is Shake+Rage+run. Attempt to stun the enemy with the most dangerous disable(s) before trying to escape, turn on the Armlet and run like hell. You did keep that TP scroll, right?

In summary, for the ganking stage:
- obtain your core items
- keep your opponents down with multiple ganks
- protect yourself and your allies

c: Teambattles/Mid-to-lategame

A crossing of paths
Many a time, clashes between teams are spontaneous and deadly. As such be prepared to start running to the site of a large battle at any time. For these unplanned battles, panic is a powerful driver. Thus you will be aiming to cause as much havoc as possible.
Before entering the opponent's sight range, assess the situation. Would it be better to Acid, Rage and rush in, or Shake a key target from the side? Generally speaking, the earlier in the game-time the clash occurs, the more you will contribute by directly adding your sizable bulk to the battle. Your DPS is very scary midgame with Armlet, Acid and Rage combined, and the enemy team cannot fail to ignore the giant purple monstrosity beating them into a pulp.
Alternatively, a good Shake to the face can prove a fatal show-stopper as well. Choose your target accordingly (more on that below) and try to remain out of sight as much as possible; doing so, chances are your enemies will be too busy in battle to notice you shaking away. While shaking, be sure to also inform your allies of what you are doing and get them ready for a beatdown upon your hapless target.

Being the pushers
If your team feels ready, Chubby can greatly assist a push. Your Acid Spray will help kill off creepwaves very fast, invaluable when buying time to demolish a tower/rax. It also helps deter enemy heroes from getting too close (further down the guide for more). If you're sure that the teams will not engage, feel free to Rage, turn on Armlet and wail away at those buildings. Never get pulled into a teamfight without Rage; chances are you'll be the first to die.

Being the pushees
The Alchemist is fairly decent at stopping pushes in their tracks. Using a tower as cover, put down some Acid to kill off the enemy creeps. To deter enemy Heroes from getting closer, frighten them by Shaking, though remain aware of your position and safety distances (more on that later). By yourself however, there is little you can do to save your buildings; you're better off calling for help, then using the tactics above to stall for time.

In summary, for teambattles:
1) Either:
---a) Stay out of the fray and Shake the most critical hero
---b) Proceed directly to step 2
2) Self-buffs (in following order
---a) Rage
---b) Armlet
---c) Manta
3) Acid the central regions of the clash
4) Run in and whack-whack-whack!

d: Skill-Specific

Acid Spray

Farm-Spray
Simply place an Acid Spray over a large amount of creeps and whack away. A level 4 Acid will kill a full-health ranged creep in 7-8 seconds by DoT (even shorter if you have Assault) so concentrate more on killing the melee. Turn on Armlet (if you want to and feel safe) to secure your lasthits.
For optimum efficiency, use this tactic when your friendly creepwaves are some distance away. If they are around, chances are they will manage to steal quite a few bounties.
If you cannot tank the wave's damage, try Raging in combination: your fast attacks in Acid take down creeps very quickly, and it helps regen back the damage taken.

The Do-Not-Cross Cloud
The logical action for enemies to take when they see your Acid Spray is to back away, but this is in itself a powerful tool. Its long duration and relatively short downtime (6 seconds difference between duration and CD) means that you can buy your team 16 seconds of time, plenty enough to do something significant. Thanks to its large AoE
If facing a push, protective Acid Sprays can be very useful in stalling time for teammates to arrive. Try placing it at a critical chokepoint, such as the entrance into base or around the tower itself. However as Acid's effects scale down lategame, you may find this alone to not deter anyone. As such call in your teammates for a strategic attack, whether an ambush or rushing assault.
Alternatively while pushing down a tower or barracks, place an Acid Spray around you and your team. The enemy will not want to enter as your teammates are present (you do push with your team right?) and so it grants you free reign to siege. Even if they do decide to engage, your Acid is a powerful debuff and gives your team an edge in combat.

Kill-Seal Spray
If you manage to immobilise an enemy (through Shake or other disables) and have enough firepower to physically takedown it, go ahead and pop an Acid Spray over your victim. Even if you are unsure go ahead and try if you have the mana to spare; the armor reduction and DoT are very strong over time and can turn simple harassment into a kill.

Unstable Concoction

Rule #1 of Business: Location x3
Always always always keep in mind your location in relation to everyone else while Shaking! Cycle through this list of priorities:
a) What are the enemy heroes doing?
- Have they noticed I'm Shaking someone?
- Are they retreating or advancing?
- Does any one of them have a disable?
- Are all 5 enemies accounted for? Anyone missing on the minimap?
b) What are my allied heroes doing?
- Are they all present and close to my location?
- Have I told them who is my target?
- Does any one of them have a potential combo to pull off with my Shake? (see below for examples)
c) How's my cover?
- Do I have allied creeps/towers protecting me?
- Are enemy creeps/towers hitting me?

Get your Priorities Right
When you've got multiple Shake targets to choose from, you have to make sure the right one gets the potion in the face. This list might help you when picking your poison:
Is the hero I'm gonna Shake:
1) Going to hinder/kill me or my teammate(s) if not disabled (eg. farmed carries, heroes with momentum-stopping abilities)?
2) Weak enough to kill (without me our my teammates dying for it)?
3) Have a powerful channeling spell (eg. Sand King, Enigma, TC etc.)?
4) Have a disable?
These will greatly differ in the flow of battle; you'll develop better judgement skills as you play Dota and Chubby more.

The 'Kick-Me' Sign
You have a powerful tool with Shake; chatless, voiceless and beautiful. Just by commencing the Shake you're telling your team 'Rape that one guy with numbers over his head' - who wouldn't wanna capitalise on a poor victim stunned for ages?

Legato!
Since you can't do much while Shaking anyway(unless you got summons to control), keep a sharp eye on the flow of battle and advice your team. Tell teammates to 'back up', 'focus on that one bastard', 'stop that fag who's channeling over there' and so on. Communication is key with all heroes, but luckily Chubby has time to spare to chat.

Premature Ejaculation:
Remember that while Shake is best fully charged, you always possess the ability to stop and release how much you've charged. Against foes who just love playing ninja and blinking/windwalking just as you fire, trick them by suddenly releasing your Shake early. If they screw-up, go ahead and punish them (if safe). This is also useful when chasing; it's usually better to sacrifice disable time for team-whacking-pinata time, especially if you feel enemies are incoming.

Headshot Shake
See that guy escaping with just 200 health to spare? Don't let him; just Shake 'em (assuming you're safe). Shake has one advantage over conventional nukes; it has infinite range after casting. The disable time might also give you that last blow you need. It's almost always worth a shot.

-After a scuffle with Alch and Jakiro, Terrorblade turns tail and starts running. Alch starts Shaking; guess what happens next.

Stealth-Shake
Though this strategy got nerfed with the shared vision of Alchie, it's still quite viable in pubs and of minor usefulness in organised games.
Simply start your Shake from cover so your target will not notice. As it has a fairly good castrange (950 at level 4) this should be no problem. Trees and uphill locations are good, but simply staying out of sight will do in a pinch.

-A fairly lategame gank, but nevertheless; Alch starts shaking Enchant from behind cover at top lane. Notice his position is still outside her line of sight; this is essential to buy those few extra seconds to make Shake worth it.

-One Acid Spray, Poison Touch and Macropyre later, Enchant goes down easy.

Judo-Reverse Shake
Getting chased by a persistant ganker? Juke 'em up a bit and start Shaking them, preferably while in allied cover. Either they stay and get stunned (while you run/fight back) or they run off to save their ass. This is most effective early-game when a 300 damage nuke still hurts loads, but can still work later if Chubby's sufficiently equipped.

-The aftermath of a 3-man gank on bot; thanks to a Do-Not-Cross Acid; NS gives up and starts heading home. However, Chubby's got his sight on his next victim... poor Medu.

Shackle-Free Shake

You really have to pity these heroes; while they have very strong disables, it won't work against you. In case one of these buggers tries to shackle/eat/mindflay you, start Shaking them as they approach. If they still proceed, the Shake will be canceled and hit them, wasting their own disable. In most cases (especially Pudge), the loss of this skill means they can't kill (mmm, catchy).
To a certain extent, this will also work upon any enemy hero with a disable; the minute they disable/silence you, you'll still release your load. This can work in your favour to escape or fight back.

Goblin's Greed

With this build, you're not going to have a high starting bonus to your gold as you'll prioritise stats. As such, look here for a couple tips when farming post-Greed:
-Be quick about it. 18 seconds is not much time and you gotta be fast in farming! Use the Farm-Spray tactic for best results.
-Let the money come to you. Assuming enemy heroes won't be coming to help a large battalion of their creeps push on, it's always better to wait for more waves to stack. The goldgain becomes far greater and you'll reach the cap in no time!
-I Heart Kobolds+Trolls. As Kobolds jungle-spawns have 5 units from the get-go, you will absolutely love the 30 total bonus gold from them... and that's assuming no extras from other sources, and that's at the first level of Greed! Similarly you can leave the Dark Troll Warlords alive when tackling their camps to maximise goldgain, killing a small Troll first and afterwards killing the skeletons summoned. Again, the more cash the merrier!
-Creep on creep on creep etc. While not a tactic I've personally tried, it's very viable to use a Dominated/ally-controlled creep to mass-stack a creepcamp several times before actually taking it out. Chubby can handle this thanks to the sheer power Acid+Rage+Armlet provides; with those abilities alone, he can take down about 4 stacks' worth before calling it a day. Just be careful an ally, or even worse an enemy comes by to steal the fruits of your hard work!

Chemical Rage

Control your Anger
While Rage has a relatively short cooldown compared to its duration, you never want to be caught without it when facing enemy heroes. Similarly, always keep 50/100/150 mana for Rage. Without Rage, Chubby is of limited usefulness at best, and a piece of yummy meat for your enemies at worst. In general, don't cross the river without Rage ready, and refrain from using it from any other purpose than fighting or the ones below.

Healing, Wolverine-style
Who needs a Bottle or the fountain when you got Rage? You're granted a 15/30/60 bonus to your HP regen per second, more than stuff like Ring of Health or even Hood of Defiance for free. This amount of regen, including the bonus HP already given by Rage, allows you to take abnormally strong blows, only to recover the lost health back in seconds. Use and abuse this fact; you're granted 375/750/1500 HP over the 25 seconds of Rage.

Raging Roadrunner
As Rage increases your movement speed, it's a great mobility booster. Use Rage to chase down those last pesky heroes, or run home free. If you have Phase Boots, be sure to use them after Raging; the boost to movement speed gets bigger thanks to it being percentage-based.

Evasive Anger
With all transformation skills, the WC3 engine bugs up and nullifies disables applied during the morphing time. For Alch, simply Rage at the right time; this is easier than most other heroes thanks to having a longer-than-average morphing time of 0.35 seconds. This requires a lot of practice, but if you can pull this off you can dodge any disable save Hex!

Absolutely hilarious example; Shackle bugs and the link stretches out with Chubby. But alas, the fat ogre was not caught.

6: Mates and Hates
(AKA Friends and Foes)

Awesome Allies

Seriously, who doesn't synergise with Chubby? Carries love him for his babysitter mastery and gay disable, nukers love him since he makes their job simpler, disablers love him as he can use that borrowed time to wail away... the list goes on.
Here's a list of specifically deadlier combos:

The pubber's best friend and ninja-wannabe, the Anti-Mage can repel an entire team with your aid. A long disabling Shake gives him plenty of time to burn away the victim's mana, making spell-dependant heroes useless. If allowed to farm up his DPS items Magina becomes fricking scary; something you can ensure with your prodigal assistance and babysitting.

Ish'Kafel is also one of your best playmates, due to his supporting prowess. Ion Shell is absolutely brilliant on you, basically giving you 60 more DPS in melee range. While this draws a lot of aggro, Chubby can handle the punishment. This can also work in reverse; a good Shake and a double-Ion Shelled Dark Seer works wonders. Vacuum and Surge also serve to chase down enemies; few can escape from a hasted ogre with temper issues.

Absolute rape guaranteed with Nevermore as your pal. A properly placed Shake will prove fatal to anyone early-to-midgame, as SF follows it up by shoving triple Shadowrazes down the enemy's throat. Your Acid loves the Dark Lord for reducing more armor, and the Dark Lord loves Acid for making his +60 damage hurt even more. Plus, a good Shake means you simply cannot fail to pull off an insta-gib Requiem. Ho yeah.

This duo is shit-scary when played well. A good Shake means any decent PotM could land a far-off arrow, meaning a potential total of 10 seconds of stun-lock rampage! It also ensures a perfect placement for Starfall; 450 damage to the face is imba midgame. And in chases, Leap's roar-buff will greatly speed you up when combined with Rage. Choosing PotM opens up loads of fantastic combos that require only a bit of skill to pull off.

-Here's a example of Alch/PotM teamwork; thanks to Lion being despo for tower monies, he didn't notice Chubby shaking from the sidelines. After release, PotM comes in with a Leap and Starfalls...

-...Alch runs in with an Acid+Armlet, and puts Lion out of his misery. Unstoppable!!

With his myriad of physical-damage dealing spells and supportive abilities, Dazzle and Chubby make a hell of a team. Enemies will be scrambling to run away from the fatal snaring combo of Shake and Poison Touch. Placing an Acid over the victim increases the poison damage, and to a lesser extent damage caused by Shadow Wave. Chubby can truly be unkillable for 5 seconds with Shallow Grave, prolonging his presence in battle. But it's the Shadow Priest's Weave which takes the cake, raising Chubby's naturally low armor values sky-high while making enemies take greater damage from his relentless assault.

With the changes made to Bristleback in 6.63, the duo of ogre and piggy have come to my attention as a furious blend of DPS and tanking. Both can take large amounts of damage, and Bristle in particular can dish out the pain with Chubby's support. A dual-Spray of Quills and Acid is deadly, and Shake provides plenty of time to build up a deposit of Nasal Goo on your victims.

etc...
Anyone dependant on landing hard-to-aim spells will love your Shake for setting up their own combos. With these heroes, ask them to wait until after your stun to use their skills.

Evil Enemies

I'm not gonna state the obvious ones like disablers and gankers; any fool can realise Shadow Shaman rapes anyone's face in skills alone. Here are some specifically anti-Chubby:

To this ghoul, you're just a walking dinner. He can block your Shakes with Rage and out-DPSes you at any game stage, even in Acid. Your high HP is absolutely nothing in the face of Feast, and if you somehow manage to catch the bastard he might just Infest a friendly and hitch a ride home. Don't consider Chubby if N'aix gets picked; he'll ruin your day.

At first, Rotund'jere will be nothing more than food to you; one Shake+Acid+Rage combo should be more than enough to take 'em down. However if you don't keep this advantage, he could come back to wreak havoc. Heartstopper Aura negates your ulti's bonus HP regen at best, a large loss seeing as you need it to tank. Death Pulse is powerful when spammed, and helps to save him from assassination-type Shakes. And if you get caught below half your hitpoint total (as will happen a lot in team clashes), kiss your ass goodbye as you get Reaped.

Your friendly neighbourhood Ent-wannabe is also a potent Alchemist counter. Spammage of Living Armor makes Acid just a bunch of pretty green bubbles and helps his allies heal back your Shake's harassment. Nature's Guise and Overgrowth are easily usable to save the victims (and himself) if necessary. What really throws a wrench in the works, however, is that Roofie's Eyes will make your ganking entirely pointless (unless you're playing against dumb pubbers).

The most irritating little bastard ever, you don't wanna play against Puck. He counters Shakes hard with Phase Shift and Waning Rift. You can't chase him either, thanks to Illusory Orb. Your incapability to shut him down will come back to haunt you later, when that bugger comes out and shoves a Guinsoo and Shiva's down your team's throat. With this lil' jackass, get some assistance before bothering to try ganking.

7: Sum-up
The Alchemist is an incredibly misunderstood hero, so it's quite a common sight to see -repicks whenever he gets out. But hopefully you understand Chubby's place in the game better now. He is quite underloved, but badly underestimated- use this to your advantage!
I hope you enjoyed reading this guide! Feel free to give feedback; positive, negative and otherwise!

8: Q&A

I get a lot of flak for how I play Chubby, both in pubs and in-house matches. Here's some of the more common complaints, and my answers:

no greed early? no need play!
At this stage creepwaves are small, with only 4 units to kill. You get a decent 20 extra gold with level 1 greed... assuming you manage to last-hit them all. And that means no gold for your lanemate, which detracts from your role as babysitter. As such Greed is left for later, when waves get bigger and the jungle becomes an option.
For further testing into this option, check the Replay section.

dude rad rush=rape
It's really up to your role in the team whether or not to rush a Radiance ASAP. While it's true Chubby can farm better than others thanks to Acid and Greed, you won't have both available early (and please don't suggest skipping Shake to level Acid+Greed...) You also waste his ganking potential midgame when Shake and Acid are deadliest. Most importantly, you will lack the HP, armor and Strength the Armlet+Treads core grants you, which will greatly reduce your survivability and make your DPS fairly pitiful until Relic is bought.
However if your team has dedicated gankers and disablers, it can be worth the risk. Rage grants you a sizable EHP boost, so if you can play safe and farm quietly it's possible to get that Relic before 20 minutes in. Just take care not to attract the enemy assassins' attention. Also remember that Radiance adds absolutely nothing for your own EHP, so be sure to get a good powerhouse item afterwards; with the easy farming Acid+Rad provides, a Heart in another 6 minutes is within reach.

lolol unstable cock first wat a nub, acid+gg=gg
Giving up the skill in Chubby's arsenal that makes him a threat in-lane and ganking? You must be mad. As acknowledged by many, Alch needs a lot more items to be an effective carry than other heroes lategame; play those if you enjoy raping with Butterflies and MKBs.
You also really cannot support Acid spam- 160 mana early on is ginormous. And as said above, smart opponents can simply move out of it. If only you had a disable, eh?
See the above question regarding Greed early on.

wtf y u no rad/guin! alch supposed to be carry/support!
The great thing bout Alch is that he's very flexible with his items; he's not bound to a specific build like most heroes are. Buy items as you want/need, and shut these people up by winning the game. Don't screw up now, yo.

9: Replays

The Great Goblin's Greed Experiment!
- inspired by [A0D]-Morbid

While I don't have enough time/energy to organise two games with pals just to test out how much gold Goblin's Greed can earn you early, I devised this little test to try and simulate that.

Procedure:
1) Hosted LAN game, me and 4 computers on my side, 1 computer on the Scourge (No AI)
2) -ap and -test activated
3) Used enough -gold to buy 6 Divine Rapiers at start, for pathetically easy last hitting
4) At horn-sounding, started with 0 gold
5) Took GG whenever possible (levels 1/3/5/7)
6) Took Stats whenever GG wasn't available (except at level 10- apparently I could only take more Stats at 11 itself, so I took Rage)
7) Attempted to last-hit every single enemy creep. I fail at this so I missed 3 during the course of the test.
8) Denied some of my own creeps, to prevent pushing to tower.
9) At level 11, experiment stopped. At this point in time I would've gotten the first level of Greed as my strategy states.

The final result:

The number there's 1324, in case you can't read. Since I missed 3 creeps we'll be generous and add another 50 gold to that, making the grand total:
1374 extra gold from taking GG early.

Well after this little test, my opinion still stands. Maxing Acid and Shake early will net you the ganks and kills, and Greed has no real benefits early.
Bear in mind my experiment does not take into account enemy actions (denying and ganking) which can and will disrupt your farming. That extra gold total there was through getting every single lasthit; is that possible in a real game? Also by doing so, you're preventing your allies/lanemates from farming unless you solo, and I've already covered why that's not an optimal choice.

Replay: Download

10: Changelog

29/08/09
- Guide finished! Screenshots/replays coming soon!

31/08/09
- Changes to the Skill and Item Builds section

02/09/09
- Changes to the Item Builds section- a minor rewrite will be done soon to accomodate differing playstyles.
- First screenshots added, mostly of Shake usage. Check in Skill-Specifics strats and earlygame!

07/09/09
- The Great Goblin's Greed Experiment: A test to find out whether skilling GG early is worth it. Results in the Replay section!
- Added another Q&A response, about the usefulness of a Radiance rush.

16/09/09
- Rewriting of the Items section post-core; a fair bit more organised now. Sub-divided into DPS/Carry, Utility/Support, Others/Situational and Unrecommended.

19/09/09
Updated guide for 6.63!
- Cleaned up starting item suggestions
- A change to the core choice of boots; Phase ftw.
- Fixed information on Acid Spray's damage; apparently I've been misinformed for quite awhile now.

30/09/09
- Restructured Pros and Cons to something less skill-analysing
- Added BB to the list of Awesome Allies. Cause the piggy is.

04/10/09
- Added Mjolnir as an option in the DPS build
- Added SnY and MoM to the Unrecommended items list

22/10/09
Updated guide for 6.64!
- More boots changes yay! Back to choosing between Treads and Phase now.
- Made Mekanism the first item to aim for in the Supportive build
- Made Pipe an optional item in the Supportive build
- Moved SnY to Situational items, up from Unrecommended.
- Rehosted screenshots on PlayDota.com; finally figured out how to use the funky Album function.

25/10/09
- Added tip on Shake and Mirror Image spells
- Added tip on dodging disables with Rage-transformation
- Added couple more screenshots, one at Core item build and one for stundodging with Rage

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