Starting
A consumable for sustained HP regen in the laning stage. Helps you trade your HP with enemy heroes and heal back up without having to go to fountain. Provides double HP regen when eating a tree planted using an Iron Branch.
A consumable to do damage and slow enemy heroes for a small cost of your HP. Especially useful to chase and finish off enemy heroes.
Start with it if you expect a high frequency of spells from enemy heroes on the lane.
A consumable for a burst of HP. Especially useful to surprise enemies when you are at low health to survive an engagement. Also provides some useful damage in the laning stage.
The most cost efficient stats item in Dota 2. Useful in the laning stage to have an HP, mana, and damage advantage against enemy heroes. Can be used together with a Tango for double HP regen.
An item that lets you see enemy wards and invisible heroes in its AoE. In the laning stage, it helps you block and unblock pull camps.
Early Game
A core item to increase your movement speed to get near enemy heroes and set up kills with your control and damage spells. Builds into Arcane Boots later in the game.
An aura item that provides mana regen for yourself and your team. Builds into Arcane Boots or Vladmir`s Offering later in the game.
A core Boots of Speed upgrade that helps with mana sustain to spam your spells for fighting and farming. Gets upgraded to Guardian Greaves later in the game.
Start with Magic Stick if you expect high frequency of spells from enemy heroes on the lane.
An early to mid game item to defend against bursts of magical damage. Also provides some useful mana regeneration.
Mid Game
A defensive item that lets you or a teammate become invisible and get out of trouble. Also helps defend against magical damage with the barrier.
A core aura item that provides armor and HP sustain to your entire team to group up early and take fights or push for objectives like towers and Roshan. Builds into Guardian Greaves later in the game.
An aura item that improves your impact in teamfights by buffing your whole team with HP and mana sustain. Also lets you dispel yourself on cast.
A core mobility item to close the gap on enemy heroes and lock them down with Firesnap Cookie to set up kills. Also lets you push yourself or one of your allies away from trouble.
A core upgrade that adds more burst damage to your Firesnap Cookie. Also heals you or the ally on whom you use the Firesnap Cookie.
Late Game
A mobility item to quickly close the gap on enemy heroes and set up kills with your lockdown and control spells. Also lets you find better positioning to channel Mortimer Kisses in teamfights. Has great synergy with Aghanim`s Scepter to save allies in trouble with Gobble Up.
A mid to late game pick up that gives another initiation for one of your allies by throwing them into enemy heroes with Gobble Up. Also lets you clear creep waves safely and reliably by tossing creeps on top of them. Particularly useful at breaching high ground by targeting an enemy backline hero.
A late game pick up that gives you a second round of Mortimer Kisses to do massive AoE damage from long range.
A late game pick up that maintains your teamfight prowess on the map more often by reducing the cooldown of all your spells and items.
Situational
A powerful early to mid game item against heavy healing lineups to reduce their HP regen and tankiness. Also makes you significantly more tanky and improves the HP sustain of your team after fights.
An early to mid game item to buff one of your cores against physical damage while boosting their attack speed and mobility. Can also be cast on yourself to gain a physical damage barrier.
A situational item to gain a long range disable against an enemy hero to close the gap and follow up with your control and damage spells. Builds into Gleipnir later in the game.
An aura item that improves your impact in teamfights by buffing your whole team with magic resistance.
An upgrade for Tranquil Boots to improve your impact in teamfights with movement speed and attack speed auras. The Endurance active makes your team unslowable for a while to chase or run away from enemy heroes.
A powerful defensive tool to reflect single target spells. Also provides a dispel on cast and makes you tanky with armor.
An upgrade for Vanguard that acts as a powerful disable against enemy right click cores with disarm. Lasts longer on ranged heroes. Also provides decent stats for more tankiness and damage.
An upgrade for Rod of Atos to have more AoE lockdown and catch enemy heroes to follow up with your control and damage spells. Also increases the AoE of all your spells except for Lil` Shredder.
A late game upgrade for Eul`s Scepter of Divinity that allows you to dispel yourself as well as move to a safer spot through Cyclone. Can also be used to save an ally caught by enemy heroes. Also provides mana regen to spam spells.
