In lane, use this to trade and harass your opponents. Look to secure the ranged creep by stunning the enemy heroes. Preemptively cast this and Blink Dagger stun the enemy hero near its full channel in order to maximize the stun and damage. Use it combination with Acid Spray on enemy heroes as it does physical damage that gets amplified by the minus armor.
You can take this spell on level 1 against a tough lane when you want to quickly secure last hits on the first creep wave. You can spam it on creep waves with Soul Ring to contest it easily. Your main farming tool before Radiance. Use it combination with Unstable Concoction on enemy heroes as it does physical damage that gets amplified by the minus armor.
Use this to dispel debuffs like Spirit Vessel off yourself or disjoint a projectile upon casting. Provides you amazing HP sustain and damage - so you`d generally want to fight only when it`s available. When showing on creep waves, make sure you have it off cooldown as a save.
The movement speed slow on attacks allows you to stick onto enemy heroes and prevent them from kiting you, while the damage reduction gives you the upper hand if they decide to stand their ground and fight you back.
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.
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.
Early Game
Start with it if you expect a high frequency of spells from enemy heroes on the lane.
A core Boots of Speed upgrade as it provides you much some needed damage and armor, as well as extra mobility to kite and chase down enemy heroes. When farming, use it to move between camps quickly and efficiently.
A core item that allows you to spam Acid Spray and flash farm the map. The HP loss upon using the item is easily recovered with the high HP regen during Chemical Rage. Also makes you tanky with armor and a bigger HP pool.
Start with Magic Stick if you expect high frequency of spells from enemy heroes on the lane.
Mid Game
A core damage item to improve your farming speed and make efficient use of Greevil`s Greed. Let`s you flash farm towards a 6-slotted inventory in the mid game, as well as provide Aghanim`s Scepter to all your teammates.
A core item to gift to your teammates and receive a stacking buff on yourself for more damage, as well as accelerate your farm through your innate. Depending on their usefulness, you can start gifting Aghanim`s Scepters to teammates as soon as you have Radiance. However, you want to gift a maximum of two Aghanim`s Scepters in the mid game and prioritize your own items afterwards.
A core item that allows you to channel Unstable Concoction, Blink on the target enemy hero, and release the fully channeled stun. Also lets you farm much more efficiently and split push lanes aggressively.
A core item to avoid most disables and silences on the enemy team to throw your Unstable Concoction and hit freely in fights. Also improves your right click damage and tankiness through HP pool and magic resistance.
A situational item to gain another form of dispel versus roots, slows, and high impact debuffs. Also improves damage output and sustain through movement speed, attack speed, and HP regen.
Late Game
An aura item that boosts your physical damage against enemy heroes and buildings while tanking up with armor to reduce the enemy physical damage. Improves the potential of running at towers as well as Roshan with minus armor.
An upgrade for Skull Basher to have a reliable lockdown against elusive enemy heroes and follow up with Unstable Concoction and right clicks to chain stun and kill them.
A core upgrade for Blink Dagger for extra burst and chase potential with movement and attack speed. A great option to replace Boots when running out of item slots.
A unique item to dispel enemy heroes and take off most buffs from spells and items that prevent you from right-clicking them freely.
Situational
A situational item to tank up with armor against heavy physical damage lineups and use your high HP pool and HP regen during Chemical Rage to return damage back to enemy heroes.
An aura item that improves your impact in teamfights by buffing your whole team and buildings against physical damage. Particularly useful against high attack speed heroes and summons.
An aura item that improves your impact in teamfights by buffing your whole team with magic resistance.
A powerful defensive tool to reflect single target spells. Also provides a dispel on cast and makes you tanky with armor.
An early to mid game pick up to instantly silence an elusive enemy hero and target them with Unstable Concoction without letting them dodge it or get away. Also provides some much needed mana regen. Gets upgraded to Bloodthorn later in the game.
A situational item in the mid game when the dispel has great value in the game, such as playing against roots, silences, or a Spirit Vessel on the enemy team. Also improves your mobility and has great synergy with Radiance to split push lanes with illusions.
An alternative to Manta Style when the dispel doesn`t have that much value against the enemy lineup. Provides mobility and increases your DPS through stats and attack speed. Also makes you much more tanky with a bigger HP pool, and reduces the duration of stuns and other debuffs on you with the status resistance, letting you tank spells that pierce Black King Bar.
An upgrade for Shadow Blade primarily for the break effect against passive spells on enemy heroes. Also improves your damage output and mobility through invisibility to get in and out of fights.
A powerful defensive tool to block single target disables and debuffs like Duel, Lasso, Hex, or Doom.
An upgrade to Orchid Malevolence to have massive burst down on the silenced enemy hero and kill them in the Unstable Concoction stun duration. Particularly useful against evasion or high armor on enemy heroes.
A right click damage item to pierce evasion and miss chance on enemy heroes.
Provides healing, sustain and lifesteal reduction to your attacks, while providing a massive boost to your HP pool and overall stats. Effective against ranged heroes or heavy healing lineups.
A late game pick up to massively boost your right click DPS with attack speed. You can also use your extra gold to give Moon Shards to your teammates once you have all your items and gifted Aghanim`s Scepter to all of them.
A late game upgrade for Blink Dagger to have more AoE damage and control in teamfights while increasing your tankiness with a bigger HP pool.
