Hi, my name's clickrush and I'm an average DL player. This is my first guide. I'm writing this guide because Vengeful Spirit is the hero I enjoy most and have the most success with (68% win rate on DL), and also because there's currently no guide for her on playdota. Please keep in mind that I'm just a normal player that is writing this guide for fun only. If you have any feedback on the guide, please let me know.
This guide is written for beginners. It includes builds, strategies and tactics. In the strategy section I give an overview of how to play Venge, while in the tactics section I give some specific tips about how to use her skills. The most important section is the last one: the replay section. There, I've uploaded some good replays that illustrate how Vengeful Spirit should be played. The comments in the replay section will help you know what to look for in the game.
Requests:
-Feel free to correct my english.
-If you have good VS replays then please send me a PM or write a comment.
Notes:
-I will redo the items section because its too messy/unclear atm. If you read the guide pls fokus on the core build.
Table of contents
Hero Analysis and Explanation
-stats
-skills
-role
Starting and Preparation
-picks
-lane
-items
Strategy and Builds
-early
-mid
-late
Tactics and Moves
-initiating
-escaping
-saving
-chasing
-scouting
Replay Section
+++++++++++Hero Analysis and Explanation
First, read the basic information you find on the hero page:
http://www.playdota.com/heroes/vengeful-spirit
-stats-
Weaknesses:
Venge has very low starting strength and intelligence. Her agility growth is low for an agility hero. Her range and movementspeed are also below average.
Strengths:
Her strength gain is high for a ranged hero and she has the highest starting agility.
-skills-
Magic Missile:
The range, duration and cooldown are average in comparison to other ranged stuns. The damage is high. Use it to disable and damage enemies. Normaly you can use it two times during a gang. Also, use it to interrupt channeling spells and TPs.
Wave of Terror:
An underestimated and very useful skill with strong debuffs. Wave gives vision in a large area. Use it to cripple enemies, cancel clarities and potions, disable daggers and scout.
Command Aura:
Lategame support skill. Only base damage and damage from stats is increased (ie - raw damage is not increased). If you want to increase Venge's damage with this skill, then buy agility and IAS items.
Nether Swap:
This skill needs the most experience and fastest reflexes. Use it carefully until you come to understand the uses of swapping as well as its risks. Use it to interrupt channeling spells and TPs. Since this is an ult, you can also interrupt heroes that are magic immune (bkb), but note that the swap itself will not occur.
Skill Build:
01:MM
02:Stats/Wave
03:MM
04:Stats/Wave
05:MM
06:Swap
07:MM
08:Wave
09:Wave
10:Wave/Aura
11:Swap
12:Wave/Aura
13:Aura
14:Aura
15:Aura/Stats
16:Swap
17:Aura/Stats
18-25: Stats
Note: The stats I include in between are not vital, but will help make up for her low starting int and str. You can skip them if you want and directly max wave after MM.
-role-
Her disables, debuff and aura make her a typical supporter. She can be played as a babysitter (lanesupport) or a roamer (ganksupport). You can also play her as a semicarry to some extent, but remember that, unlike Mirana (the prototypical semicarry), she has neither heavy burst damage or a reliable escape mechanism. Furthermore,swap often puts Venge in a precarious position - it is done for the "greater good" and not to get kills for herself. Compared to other supporters, she does not have a key aura like rilay, she cannot heal/protect like abba or omni, and she doesnt harrass like warlock or lich. If you want to pick her, then it should be for her very aggressive (if somewhat suicidal) skillset, that is used to initiate brutal combos. Playing Venge is all about positioning, timing and good teamplay.
+++++++++++Starting and Preparation
-picks-
Start with picking her at the Neutral Agility building.
If you have a mate with you playing or even a team, then I recommend your ally picks one of the following heroes if you want to go on a lane...
Group 1: Melee heroes with (mostly short ranged) stuns/slows: Slardar, Centaur, Dragon Knight, Brewmaster, Beastmaster, Earthshaker, Axe, Kunkka, Leoric, Tiny, Sandking, Levi, TC, Pudge, NA, Sven, Naix, CK, Ursa
Group 2: Melee/short Range Heroes that deal a shitload of damage early: Juggernaut, Lanaya, Razor (static link), Huskar
Group 3: Ranged/Disablers/Nukers: Zeus, Rhasta, Lina, Tinker...
Group 4: Carry that needs a huge amount of farm to provide anything.
As you see I divided possible lanepartners into 4 groups. This has to do with your role as a supporter. Since you do not want to farm alot of gold, its recommended to get partners from group 1 or 2. Many of these heroes need a large amount of gold to buy core items like dagger, armlet or other expensive items. Group 1 gives the most predictable results while group 2 can be risky since most of these heroes are fragile and do not have a disable of their own. Group 3 is for when you'd like an early game advantage, while group 4 is used to gain a late-game advantage.
-lane-
You have 4 laning possibilities...
...Long lane solo with a jungler nearby such as axe or cent (semicarry)
...Any duallane (babysitter)
...Roaming from start (roamer)
...Short lane tripple at start & roaming (roamer)
I recommend you choose the duallane since it's results are the most reliable. The other possibilities are more advanced and risky.
-items-
Start with 3xbranches, 2 sets of tangos and a clarity. Use the rest of your 200g to buy a chick/circlet/stick/Ring of Protection. Get boots of Speed as fast as possible and then fill your inventory up with a magic wand and 1-2 bracers or 2-3 wraiths. Concerning the boots upgrade everything is viable. The most stable selection would be powertreads(str), especialy if you chose to make wraiths instead of bracers. BoT is ofc the best option, but do not cripple yourself early game by not upgrading boots fast enough. A boots upgrade is very important.
The extensions include typical supporter items like pipe, crow etc. They also include defensive items like forcestaff or blademail. Those are very cheap and have a good buildup. If you manage to farm one of them, then you have something to activate after doing a risky swap. Their active abilities can also be useful in lots of other situations. Bottle is also a good option, especially if you are roaming and ganking constantly. Bottle, combined with good juking, can also be used to turn the tide of a skirmish. Aghhanim's Scepter, while powerful, is not a core item. It's very expensive, but the buildup is fairly easy.
The last group of items I recommend are quite expensive, so you will not get one of those unless you have a lot of farm (rarely). If you are playing Venge as a ganker, you may get one or two of them. On the first line, there are expensive defensive items that also improve your offensive capabilities (and ms in a couple of cases). The second line consists of items to improve your ganking abilities. I don't personally get Dagon on Venge, but, since the buff, it can be a good choice if your team is based around burst damage. Generally, Necronomicon isa better choice for damage, movespeed and, of course, truesight. Diffusal is mostly gotten to counter particular ultimates (Warlock, Omni, Sven, Brood). Mael is a decent item to couter illusion heroes. The last line consists of extremely expensive items that could be useful on Venge if the game drags on.
Starting Build:
/
/
/
Core Build:
/
/
/
///
Optional Items and Extensions:
Mainganker/Semicarry Items and Luxuries:
(
)
Inventory I mostly get:
(according to dotaleague dz stats)
+++++++++++Strategy and Builds
-earlygame laneing/roaming-
In the early stage of the game you have two different goals. Most importantly, you'd like to cripple and kill your enemies. You're also trying to allow your ally to farm freely.
Babysitting:
Position yourself aggressively but always keep nearby defensive spots in mind (your tower, your ally and juking spots).
To gain lane position, pull creepwaves if possible.
Attack your opponent(s) with your physical attack whenever possible.
Use your stun immediately if an opponent attacks you, so your lanepartner has the possiblity to deal damage and prolong the disable with his own.
If the opponent walks back, then move with them unless there are many enemy creeps nearby. If there aren't any, then stun him and attack.
If the opponent is being attacked by creeps then stun him and attack.
If you have full mana then stun the opponent with less HP.
Do not farm creeps. Only deny and harrass. Sometimes if your partner can't get a creep then you can get it yourself, but don't concentrate on this.
Sololaning:
Position yourself defensively and call the jungler to pull waves to improve lane position.
The jungler should repeatedly visit your lane and harrass or gank one of your opponents. This should be easy to do because you will have a level advantage.
Concentrate on lasthitting and denying.
Use your stun immediately if an opponent attacks you and hit him a few times if possible.
Avoid getting harassed by your enemies or creeps.
If you notice an enemy missing, then check your jungle to help your jungler if possible.
If the opponent walks back, then move with them unless there are many enemy creeps nearby. If there aren't any, then stun him and attack.
If the opponent is being attacked by creeps then stun him and attack.
If you have full mana then stun the opponent with less HP.
Do not harrass too much because your attack range is pretty short. Concentrate on farming and play passively/reactively.
Roaming:
Roaming from the start is an advanced playstyle and I don't recommend this for beginners. I do not play Venge often as a roamer and I'm only successful about 50% of the time with this strategy.
The easiest and most common way to play a roaming venge is to start with a triple lane, and pop out on the midlane occasionally. In general a roaming venge is played like a babysitter venge with some exceptions.
You have to net assists/kills with this playstyle because you will be heavily underleveled if you don't.
Do not stay visible on a lane for longer than a few seconds.
Constantly check all lanes. Check the mana of all laners, check where the next creepwaves will clash.
Check and use runes to provide advantages.
Constantly communicate with your team. A common call to make reads as follows: "omw(on my way) [location](jungle/top/mid/bot)".
If you are near a lane that should/can be ganked, then find a nearby spot where you can hide or immediatly initiate with your stun.
If there's an empty lane then freefarm 1-2 waves and continue roaming.
Use TPs to travel faster and one observer ward to provide runesight. Runes spawn every 2 minutes.
Get your extensions
As I stated in the preparation section, you should beef up with some stats and movementspeed. The next item you want to include in your corebuild is highly dependant on the playstyle you chose.
Babysitting:
Observer Wards, crow, point booster, any supporting item such as RoB, Pipe etc. OR a cheap defensive item such as forcestaff or blademail, upgrade boots to phase or pt(str) if possible.
Sololaning:
Upgrade boots to pt(str) asap and get a yasha OR get quarterstaff+claymore.
Roaming:
Oberver Wards, bottle, crow, point booster, cheap defensive item (forcestaff/blademail)
-midgame ganking/farming/pushing-
This stage of the game is highly influenced on the early style you chose. If you played as a babysitter or roamer, then you will gank/roam and support during towerpushes constantly. If you chose to semicarry then you will be 70% ganking and 30% farming.
Ganking: Venge is not a good sologanker but a very good ganksupport, since she can initiate with stun and/or swap and scout with wave. Your main ganker will do most of the damage and should also get the kills. If you managed a sololane however, you will be overleveled and overfarmed; thus, you'll be able to semicarry/maingank but that's genearally not the case. To support ganks you want to constantly have Observer Wards with you, and basicly ward the runespots + some routes in the enemy jungle.
Pushing: Use wave to scout behind the enemy tower, if you push a tower. Never push alone since you cannot do it fast enough.
Farming: Use freefarm opportunites, but do not concetrate heavily on farming. If you need Purge/Wards/Dust/Pipe then farm it. Everything else can wait. Mostly you want to gang and ward. Ofc, there are times when ganking is too risky, use this time to farm.
-lategame ganking/pushing-
Ganking:
During lategame it is very important to kill the enemy carry (the one with the best dmg items). So you will start to do suicide swaps to achieve this. Even if you have farmed some good items, you won't out-dps any real carry (PA, TB) or, even worse, an anticarry (Troll, Void). Wave now has an important role in crippling the carry in addition to Magic Missile.
Farming:
The main difference from lategame and midgame farming is the fact, that you have to save rebuy money. I also highly recommend getting Aghanim's at this stage, if you have not gotten it so far, because disables and positioning play such a huge role in the game..
+++++++++++Tactics and Moves
Here is some advice, that will come in handy sometimes. The advice doesn't apply in all situations and is fairly simmple, but it should help you keep important apects of gameplay in mind.
In general you will stun, hit and run to get as many stuns and waves out as possible until you have an advantage and can stick to hitting with your physical attack. It is important to constantly position yourself to "play" with your opponents and to make better stuns and swaps possible.
-initiating-
Order of Styles:
A) The enemy is aware of a clash/gang
1. Start with wave to disable daggers and to have superior vision.
2. Swap
3. Use your defensive item (blademail/force/lothar/manta/bkb)
4. Stun
B) The enemy is not aware of a clash/gang
1. If you have the time, get close and start with stun
2. Swap
3. Use your defensive item
4. Stun if you didn't do it already.
5. Use wave.
Order of Enemies:
1. Never initiate on a AoE stunners (Tide, ES...) if possible.
2. Never initiate on a Tank (Cent, BB...) if possible.
3. Initiate on one of the nearby enemies.
4. Nukers (Tinker,Zeus...) and single disablers (Rhasta, Bane...) are first priority since they die fast.
5. Carries (Troll, Spec...) have second priority since they have to die more often.
-escaping-
Escaping Techniques:
1. Stun a slower/disabler
2. Swap a nearby enemy, that is near an escape route.
3. Swap a nearby ally stunner/tank with high hp and mp.
4. Use wave to cripple enemy damage.
5. Use your defensive item.
6. Try to hide in fog (juke) and use your TP.
-saving-
Saving Techniques:
1. Swap chased teammates if you have good hp or their survival is more important than yours.
2. Stun a slower/disabler.
3. Use wave to cripple enemy damage.
4. If you swapped then use a defensive item.
5. If you have purchased force staff then use it to push your mate.
-chasing-
source