DotA Gyrocopter Hero Guide

Gyrocopter

Starting Attributes

Range: 375

Movement Speed: 305

Strength: 18 + 1.8

Agility: 24 + 2.4 (primary attribute)

Intelligence: 23 + 2.1

Damage: 41-51

Armor: 2

===================================================================================================

Spells

Rocket Barrage

Releases a stream of rockets at nearby enemy units.

Rocket Interval: 0.1

Damage per Rocket: 6/8/10/12

Barrage Duration: 3

AOE: 400

Cooldown: 6.5

Manacost: 90

Video to come

Randomly shoots rockets like a sperm donor doing his best at targets inside the AoE.

===================================================================================================

Seeking Missile

Fires a slow moving missle at target enemy unit. It starts off slow and then accelerates a little over time. Starts off startionary and inactive for the first three seconds then moves at 280 MS and increases by 20 each second. Can be killed by physical attacks.

The longer it takes to reach the target the more damage it does.

Delay before becoming active: 3 seconds

Initial movement speed: 280

Acceleration: 20 per second

Minimum Damage: 50

Maximum Damage: 100/200/300/400

Maximum Distance Threshold: 2000

Stun: 2.5 seconds

Missle HP: 4 hits

Cast range: 900

Cooldown: 20/18/16/14

Manacost: 120/130/140/150

Video to come

Great initiation tool while used in the forest hiding or just to finish killing those enemies that are running away without the need to chase them down.

===================================================================================================

Flak Cannon

Causes a limited number of attacks to hit enemy units within 800 AOE.

Attacks: 3/4/5/6
Duration: 12 seconds (ends once you use your limited attacks)
Cooldown: 20
Manacost: 20/30/40/50

===================================================================================================

Call Down

Fires two missles up in the air. The first missle lands at target area, dealing damage and slowing units in it. After a brief period, the second missle lands there as well.

Primary Missle Damage: 250/300/350

Primary Missle Slow: 20%

Primary Missle Slow Duration: 2

Primary Missle Impact Delay: 2 seconds

Primary Missle Impact AOE: 400

Secondary Missle Damage: 100/150/200

Secondary Missle Slow: 50%

Secondary Missle Slow Duration: 3

Secondary Missle Impact Delay: 4 seconds

Secondary Missle Impact AOE: 400

Cast Range: 1300

Cooldown: 55/50/45

Manacost: 125

Video to come

inb4 nuke spam. Works astounding well with team disabling abilities like Black Hole, Reverse Polarity etc.

===================================================================================================

Skill Build

1. Seeking Missile

2. Rocket Barrage

3. Seeking Missile

4. Rocket Barrage

5. Seeking Missile

6. Call Down

7. Seeking Missile

8/9. Rocket Barrage

10. Flak Cannon

11. Call Down

12-14. Flak Cannon

15. Attribute Bonus

16. Call Down

17-25. Attribute Bonus

===================================================================================================

Item Recommendations

As the norm with any … DPS hero, manta style is a great item to get. Gives damage, attack speed, movespeed and images.

You may question why but it increases Gyro’s farming capability a lot as well as his DPS potential.  Rocket Barrage & Flak Cannon & Radiance immolation is a huge amount of AoE damage.

Purge to help keep units in range as well as mana burn, very useful item indeed.

===================================================================================================

Early Game

From what I’ve tested and done in beta Gyro is geared more toward ganking with carry potential.  Use seeking missiles where the enemies cannot see the missile itself (in trees, uphill etc.) so they are not aware of the missile and therefore are more vulnerable to the gank.  Early in the game try to focus on last hits as hard as it may be due to range, once you hit 6 you should start looking for ganks more and more with calldown, the combination of Call Down, Rocket Barrage & Seeking Missile alone is very devastating.

Middle Game

You should keep gank-farming or if your team lacks a hard carry and is keeping down the other team’s carry well enough you can start to farm a bit.  Utilize Flak Cannons well in team fights putting yourself in an area that would allow you to hit multiple enemy heroes if possible.  Carry a TP scroll as always to find a free farm spot or just to help out your hard carry if he is being ganked.

Late Game

You should keep ganking or farm a bit if you are not that hugely farmed.  Gyro late game is a HUGE DPS tank, so if you are having trouble surviving grab a BKB for those pesky casters as well as a heart or even Satanic if you lack an orb effect.  Eventually even if you haven’t geared Gyro in a carry aspect you will be doing enough damage with Flak Cannon/Rocket Barrage alone to potentially be a carry hero.

DotA Thrall Hero Guide

Thrall

Starting Attributes

Range: 600

Movement Speed: 305

Strength: 19 + 1.9

Agility: 15 + 1.4

Intelligence: 22 + 2.5 (primary attribute)

Damage: 49-53

Armor: 1

===================================================================================================

Spells

Kinetic Field

Targets an aoe, an energy field spawn around it. Enemy units cannot walk in or out of it. Allies are unaffected.

AOE: 300

Cast Delay – 1.0 seconds

Duration: 2.5/3/3.5/4 seconds

Cooldown: 15

Cast Range: 900

Manacost: 110

Video to come

Such a good spell really, you can isolate heroes from their teammates etc. it really is such. a. good. spell.

===================================================================================================

Glimpse

Sends a unit backwards in time to a position it was at before.

Sendback: 4 seconds ago

Cast Range: 600/1000/1400/1800

Cooldown: 60/50/40/30

Manacost: 160/130/100/70

Video to come

Think X marks the spot without the wait duration.  Basically sends a hero back to the area they were 4 seconds ago once the visual projection gets there.  Useful on people teleporting however it will take quite some time for the visual projection to return to their fountain.

===================================================================================================

Thunder Strike

Strikes a target 3 times with 2 second intervals. Units near the striked target get hurt as well.

Interval Delay: 2 seconds

Damage per strike: 50/75/100/125

AOE of secondary units: 200

Cooldown: 14

Manacost: 130/140/150/160

Cast Range: 800

Video to come

A great harassment tool in combination with Kinetic Field

===================================================================================================

Static Storm

Targets an area. Electricity intensifies in that area over time. Deals increasing dps and silences any units that are standing on it.

AOE: 375
Maximum DPS: 170/210/250
Duration: 5

Cast Range: 800
Cooldown: 60
Manacost: 125/225/325

Video to come

In combination with Glimpse & Kinetic field and any other AoE disable is such a great spell.

===================================================================================================

Skill Build

1. Kinetic Field

2. Thunder Strike

3-5. Glimpse

6. Static Storm

7. Glimpse

8-10. Thunder Strike

11. Static Storm

12-14. Kinetic Field

15. Attribute Bonus

16. Static Storm

17-25. Attribute Bonus

===================================================================================================

Item Recommendations

Linken’s Sphere is a great item for Thrall since he needs survivability with mana regeneration and he may not be able to get the farm for Guinsoo

Force Staff is a hit or miss but nonetheless fun, you can push heroes into Kinetic Field or push them closer to you and farther into Static Storm but takes a bit of practice for timing.

Shiva’s Armor is great, Thrall has terrible armor as is and adds a slow to Thrall’s arsenal.

===================================================================================================

Early Game

Early Game look for kills with Kinetic Field/Thunder Strike and be aggressive in lane.  If an enemy hero comes into range of tower place a Kinetic Field down and glimpse them into the range causing them to take more damage.  Once level 6 rolls around keep farming but carry a TP scroll look for opportunities to help gank/counter gank.

Middle Game

Middle game you should start roaming more looking for kills, wards are you friends since vision is a key to ensure victory.  Try to focus on a carry hero and remember if someone TP’s to gank you can send them away with Glimpse which may take awhile due to the Glimpse visual projection.  If you are having surviving issues grab a few bracers or even shoot for a bloodstone but work towards that Linken’s Sphere.

Late Game

By now you should be staying with your team, even if you are underfarmed and underlevelled the best way to get gold is assist in hero kills/tower pushing.  Try to get at least 3 heroes in Kinetic Field so you can isolate them for Thunder Strike & Static Storm and you can combo it with great ultimates such as Overgrowth, Black Hole, Reverse Polarity etc.  You should unleash all your spells if you are dropping fast and not able to use them strategically.

DotA Eredar Hero Guide

Eredar

Starting Attributes

Range: 500

Movement Speed: 300

Strength: 17 + 1.9

Agility: 18 + 2.2

Intelligence: 26 + 2.7 (primary attribute)

Damage: 53-57

Armor: 3

===================================================================================================

Spells

Shadow Poison

Fires a fast moving projectile in a small aoe. It will impact enemy units along its way. Deals minor damage and the buff remains on the target for a duration. If a unit is hit by the projectile again while still having the buff, it increments the shadow poison count and resets the duration. When the buff runs out, it deals damage based on how many shadow counters. You have vision over the unit with the buff.

Initial Damage: 50

Level 1: Per stack: 5/10/20/40/80

Level 2: Per stack: 10/20/40/80/160

Level 3: Per stack: 15/30/60/120/240

Level 4: Per stack: 20/40/80/160/320

Duration: 10

Cooldown: 3

Manacost: 50

Projectile travel distance: 1500

Projectile AoE: 160

Video to come

Really annoying and great harassing spell and still gives you vision.  Very useful on heroes who rely on a blink dagger to disable it

===================================================================================================

Disruption

Causes the target hero to become displaced for 2 seconds. When the hero returns, you will have 2 images of it under your control.

Can be used on an ally or enemy hero.

Displacement duration: 2.5 seconds

Illusion Outgoing Damage: 30/40/50/60%

Illusion Incoming Damage: 150%

Illusion Duration: 6 seconds

Cast Range: 700

Manacost: 75

Cooldown: 16

Video to come

Really good late game when heroes are pumped up but honestly this skill is so fun, you can easily lay deceptive traps for counter ganking if you image allies and leave them in vulnerable spots. As well as removing heroes in team fights.

===================================================================================================

Soul Catcher

You target an AOE and it picks a random unit in that area. The selected unit receives a debuff that amplifies all damage dealt to it.

AOE: 450

Cast Range: 600

Duration: 12

Amplification: 20/30/40/50%

Manacost: 50

Cooldown: 13

Video/Image to come

Good for picking off heroes on ganks but not that useful if you catch an unnecessary hero in it like a support over carry but overall still very useful

===================================================================================================

Demonic Purge

Purges the target enemy unit and deals damage.

Purge Slow Factor: 2

Purge Pause Duration: 2

Purge Duration: 4

Damage: 200/300/400

Cooldown: 50

Manacost: 200

Video to come

Annoying purge with damage on top of it, yeah, that’s right.

===================================================================================================

Skill Build

1. Shadow Poison

2. Disruption

3. Shadow Poison

4. Disruption

5. Shadow Poison

6. Demonic Purge

7. Shadow Poison

8/9. Disruption

10. Soul Catcher

11. Demonic Purge

12-14. Soul Catcher

15. Attribute Bonus

16. Demonic Purge

17-25. Attribute Bonus

===================================================================================================

Item Recommendations

Guinsoo’s Scythe of Vyse is always a solid choice for any intelligence hero for damage, mana regeneration and the disable.  It’s also great because Eradar lacks a disable, disruption doesn’t allow you to damage the enemy, and thus Hex is a great item.

Eye of Skadi adds everything a hero needs to be honest, Eradar like stated before, lacks a diasble and stun outside of his ultimate so this is a great addition.

Necronomicon is a very good item in combination with your ultimate which slows and stuns allowing for your minions to get a lot of attacks of, also in combination with disruption you can micro the units to block the oppositions pathing.

===================================================================================================

Early Game

You should be playing extremely aggressively whether you are solo or in a lane with someone else, shadow poison is an extremely annoying laning spell to be against so utilize it well.  Once you hit level 6 you should start ganking more and more due to its versatility of a stun and slow.  You should be somewhat more focused earlier on last hitting as once you start roaming unless you gank-farm or harassing the enemies back.

Middle Game

By now you should be gank-farming a lot, wards are your best friends both sentry and observer, if the enemy can’t see you coming and you can see them it’s all the better.  Remember that if you don’t have Boots of Travel to carry around a teleport scroll so you can counter gank as well as support your carries should they get ganked themselves.  Should you have trouble surviving grab a few bracers to increase your survivability.

Late Game

By now it should be purely team fights and ganking.  Use disruption on enemy heroes that are heavily stat orientated so that the illusions do more damage since illusions do not benefit from +dmg items etc.  Try to place Soul Catcher on the enemy carry so they take more damage or place it on another hero who is vital to team fights such as Earthshaker, Enigma etc.  You should be unleashing the fury every team fight focusing the enemy carry hero with Shadow Purge and trying to hit them as much as you can with Shadow Poison.

DotA Guardian Wisp (Lo) Hero Guide

Lo

Starting Attributes

Range: 525

Movement Speed: 295

Strength: 17+ 1.9 (primary attribute)

Agility: 18 + 1.6

Intelligence: 23 + 1.7

Damage: 43-52

Armor: 2

===================================================================================================

Spells

Spirits

Slowly spawns 5 spirits (over 6 seconds) that circle around you. Whenever an enemy hero comes in very close proximity to a spirit (70aoe), it releases its energy, dealing damage and slowing enemies in a 125 area around that spirit. Deals minor damage as it passes through non-hero units.

The spirits start off at a distance of 250 units away from you. You can use two sub abilities to make them move out/in. If you click the out ability, it moves to max range, if you click it again anytime, it stops. If you click the in ability, it moves inwards and again if you click it a second time it stops the motion.

Spirit Rotation Speed: Once per 2.25 seconds

Damage per spirit: 25/50/75/100
Slow: 30% Movement and Attack Speed reduction for 3 seconds

For non-hero units, it deals 5/10/15/20 per wisp per rotation

Duration: 14
Cooldown: 14
Manacost: 125

Video to come

Great in combination with Relocation, it has a sub-ability in which you can push the spirits outward so it catches heroes that you may not be able to attack overall a great ability.

===================================================================================================

Overcharge
=========

Toggle ability. Puts you in an overcharged state, providing you with increased attack speed but draining health and mana.

Bonus Attack Speed: 60/80/100/120
Drains 2% Current HP and MP per second.

Video to come

Awesome when tethered with a carry hero who can do massive damage and may or may not have the attack speed nonetheless it’s a great addition to any hero who is meant to put out some DPS.

===================================================================================================

Tether

Connects you and a target allied unit, providing bonus movement speed and stuns any units that come in contact with the link.

Max tether range: 900
Tether duration: 12
Movement bonus: 20/25/30/35%
Disable: 1.25/1.5/1.75/2.0 seconds

Cooldown: 12
Manacost: 40

If you cast Tether outside of 650 aoe from the target, it pulls you in that close to the ally.

You have a sub ability to forcefully end the tether at any time (Hotkey: T, same as ability)

Video/Image to come

Great for chasing as well as putting overcharge to good use, if you your ally dies then the tether breaks

===================================================================================================

Relocate:
————-
Temporarily teleports to any location on the map for a brief duration. If a unit is linked with you it will also teleport.

Returns after 12 seconds.
Has a 2.25/1.75/1.25  second casting delay when relocating.

There are visual effects and indicators in the world and the minimap that are visible to all players for this spell.

Cooldown: 50/40/30
Manacost: 140

Video to come

Did someone say ninja ganking? Seriously. This could potentially be one of THE funnest skills ever made, push towers with an ally, help out at a gank, return to fountain for 6 seconds the possibilities are ENDLESS (not literally)

===================================================================================================

Skill Build

1. Spirits

2. Tether

3. Spirits

4. Tether

5. Spirits

6. Relocate

7. Spirits

8/9. Tether

10. Overcharge

11. Relocate

12-14. Overcharge

15. Attribute Bonus

16. Relocate

17-25. Attribute Bonus

===================================================================================================

Item Recommendations

Linken’s sphere gives Lo what he needs, survivability with a bit of mana regeneration.  To be honest this is probably one of the best pickups for Lo which of course is dependent on the other team’s lineup,

Tether onto the mana burning unit is great, in combination with overcharge and spirits slowing the enemy and giving Lo and the Book minion bonus attack speed.

Before you laugh think of the ninja-ganking with tether/relocate.  It’s the same concept as Furion with Dagon except that you will return to your old place as well as the opportunity to bring along an ally with you on the gank, nevertheless the burst damage coming from Dagon will help when ganking.

===================================================================================================

Early Game

With Spirits and Tether and the right lane partner you can play aggressively or rather you should be.    You should be looking to get a few bracers or even a vanguard early to increase your survivability when chasing with spirits and tether.  Once you get relocate grab a partner with tether and gank another lane, preferably a carry hero.  You can also use relocate to save a hero who is about to die.

Middle Game

You should be ganking all the time by now, the key to Lo is vision vision so get some wards up.  Focus on trying to gank the enemy carry hero.  Carry around teleport scrolls again for effective counter ganking and ganking.  Everytime relocate is cooldown you should be using it.  An alternative to ganking with it is pushing a tower quickly and porting back which can be used very effectively.

Late Game

By now you should just be purely ganking etc.  Focus on tethering a DPS hero on your team for the MS buff as well as the IAS increase that goes through tether.  Relocate can be used at this point to return to the fountain to heal yourself and an ally if needed if the other team is forced to turtle in their base.

iFlee/Rice’s General Item Guide for HoN & DotA

Since I’ve received many messages about my item builds which I do not really put in the necessary core items that should require no thought to obtain I decided to make this guide in order to help some people look at situations and judge for themselves what to get.  Please note that items are not solely dedicated to a certain group, for instance Shrunken Head/BKB while good on a carry hero is universally good, just more beneficial to a hero that needs to not be stunned/slowed to output DPS.

===================================================================================================

Carry Hero

This item section is meant for the heroes that have carry potential whether it be hard-semi or gank-carry categorized such as Swiftblade/Juggernaut, Soulstealer/Nevermore, Arachna/Drow Ranger etc.  These items should be looked at seriously for any of the heroes categorized as carries however please consider in which order you purchase your items.

Shrunken Head (HoN) | Black King Bar (DotA)

This is probably a core item for any carry hero due to the fact that this item when activated, negates all spells that would otherwise be aimed at the hero with the exception of some ultimate spells.  A Shrunken Head/BKB used at the proper time can turn the tides of a battle.  The point of SH/BKB is to allow the carry hero to stand in the fray and dish out a huge amount of damage since they cannot be stunned/slowed by means of most spells so after obtaining this item most  carry heroes gear for huge DPS items.

Geometer’s Bane (HoN) | Manta Style (DotA)

Pretty much a staple item since most carry heroes tend to be Agility based due to the + IAS/MS/All Stats & gives illusions which wreak havoc late game.  The great thing about this item is that it has a split millisecond of invulnerability which can be used to dodge single target spells and turn around a fight.  This item at the metagame phase while still an effective item isn’t the best DPS item available however due to the illusions the longer the game goes the higher the DPS capability of this item goes up.  Remember that illusions do not benefit from +dmg items only from +stats.

Savage Mace (HoN) | Monkey King Bar (DotA)

A great counter to evasion heroes and also Wingbow/Eaglehorn with the True Strike ability which makes it impossible for your hero to miss.  Also adds a % chance to deal 100 extra damage as well as adds a % chance to ministun.  As you can see this item has a lot of sub-abilities to it and as such makes it an extremely good item for heroes who have a decent chunk of attack speed but really lack a huge amount of damage.

Shieldbreaker (HoN) | Stygian Desolater (DotA)

This item has an orb effect that lowers the enemy’s armor that you attack by 6 and does not stack with other orb effects.  This orb effect has the hugest DPS output due to the negative armor it gets as well as the damage it has period.  Usually gotten on carry heroes that can farm it early and then take out enemy heroes extremely fast with just a few auto-attacks.  Usually this item is gotten in conjunction with Daemonic Breastplate/Assault Cuirass due to that items huge increment in attack speed and its -armor aura.

Whispering Helm (HoN) | Helm of the Dominator (DotA)

Probably the most bought orb effect which is lifeleech, this item adds so much more since it allows your hero to dominate a creep which for the most part is used to stack neutral creep camp as well as the ancient spawns.  It’s fairly easy to get this early due to the fairly cheap components (900 Hungry Spirit/Mask of Death, 950 Helm of the Victim/Helm of Iron Will) allowing for heroes +gold/exp farm to increase a lot when the higher level neutral creep camps are stacked.  Also can be upgraded into Symbol of Rage/Satanic which is the best leech in the game.

Charged Hammer (HoN) | Mjollnir (DotA)

While this item is geared more for the HoN carry since Charged Hammer is not considered an orb effect in HoN, it’s still an effective orb for DotA.  The rest of this section will assume you are playing HoN since there’s not much more to say for DotA.  The chain lightning proc is a huge plus for farming as well as teamfights and with the +attack speed that the item and its predecessor (Thunderclaw/Maelstorm) give allows you to utilize the +dmg and chain lightning proc.

===================================================================================================

Support Hero

This item section is meant for support heroes such as Glacius/Crystal Maiden, Plague Rider/Lich, Slither/Venomancer, Accursed/Abaddon.  This item section for a reason does not have a huge list of high costing items because support heroes should not be farming a lot to begin with.

&

Courier & Flying Courier

One of the 3 necessary components to supporting your team, a courier can make or break the middle lane more than others due to lack of a sideshop to grab boots or any regeneration etc.  Flying courier makes it that much better due to the fact that it is faster and can ship back and forth bottles that need to be refilled etc.  If there isn’t a courier bought at the beginning (and shared) then you will most likely be hearing about it so just suck it up and buy the 200 gold courier.

&

Wards

Wards are EASILY the most important item that can be bought early to mid game and still have a huge effectiveness late game.  Early/Meta game is all about map control which incidentally usually involves rune control and being able to see said runes is an exponential advantage to your middle lane to grab those runes/bottle it and make effective use of it by killing another hero possibly with the appropriate rune (Double Damage, Haste, Invisibility).  However people are often counter warded with the use of the true-sight wards (Blue ones) which just shows you how much an emphasis on more vision of the map teams really jockey for.

Teleport

The last of 3 “must-haves” for support heroes that pay off huge dividends a teleport scroll is an item that while costing 135 gold has a huge payback if used properly.  You can chase down enemies who may hide behind a tower a lot easier, run to where the tower cannot see you and teleport home, you can teleport to another lane and gank or set up defense etc. etc.  You should ALWAYS be carrying a teleport around if you do not have Post-Haste/Boots of Travel which in most games will be all the time.

Astrolabe (HoN) | Mekansm (DotA)

This item is good in literally any situation, who doesn’t want to be healed?  Not only does it increase your own heroes survivability it increases the survivability of your allies be creeps or heroes due to not only the heal but the fact it adds 2 armor to all units in the AoE, 2 armor may not seem like a lot but damage reduction is damage reduction and even a little bit helps at all times.

Barrier Idol (HoN) | Khadgar’s Pipe of Insight (DotA)

More situational if the other team has a huge amount of burst magic damage (Pyromancer/Lina, Witch Slayer/Lion, Thunderbringer/Zeus etc.) but really a good pickup overall since there will always be magic damage in a game regardless of the hero picks unless you manage to do (in DotA) ARSH and get Troll Warlord.  Again used at the right moment can nullify a lot of burst magic damage and again, applies the magic shield in an AoE making it effective for the whole team.

Tablet of Command (HoN) | Force Staff (DotA)

An underrated item in both games to be honest, it can be used to push an enemy closer to your team when they aren’t expecting it, to juke out enemies by pushing you up cliffs, help chase by pushing you or a teammate, the possibilities are endless.  The only minor issue with this item is that it does take a bit of intelligence of when to use it, for instance if you are chasing through the woods and get your pathing changed, you may regret using this item but overall this item is very, very hilarious to see/use and a decent underrated item overall.

Nomes Wisdom (HoN)

This item is exclusive to Heroes of Newerth but it is such a good item.  When allies cast a spell they get healed based on the % of the manacost of the spell which really, who doesn’t want that? As well as it adds a minor mana regeneration of 1, which may not seem like a lot but then again it is like level 2 aura of Glacius/Crystal Maiden. Overall an extremely good item to pick up usually as Demented Shaman, Soul Reaper, Jereziah etc. basically any healer.

===================================================================================================

Gank/Roamer Hero

This item section is dedicated to those roamers who focus or may focus on roaming/ganking as their main point of xp/gold early/meta game such as Andromeda/Vengeful Spirit, Witch Slayer/Lion, Pyromancer/Lina, Magmus/Sand King.

Teleport

Since these kinds of heroes depend on kills more than last hitting creeps a teleport scroll is key to moving around the map with wards, teleporting to a lane and taking the long detour route to another lane may seem tedious but it may pay off due to lack of vision to that particular gank spot/better positioning overall but overall turning a 2v2/1v1 into a 3v2/2v1 should come out with favorable odds for your side (assuming you have the 3 or 2), key word being SHOULD.  Always make sure your teammates are aware of your presence before progressing with your gank.

Bottle

This item will probably be bought by at least 8/10 of the heroes in the game because is it such a good versatile item, heals for 135 hp/75 mana over a short duration with 3 charges and allows you to bottle up runes to use at a later date, the reason why this is bought so much that with all the refills you will be doing over the game by fountain or runes this item will pay for itself tenfold as opposed to buying regen like Health Potions/Mana Pots.

Portal Key (HoN) | Kelen’s  Dagger (DotA)

An item good in any heroes inventory, some more than others however no one can refute the logic that blink dagger is a great item.  It can be used to help initiate for those heroes who have spells that are an AoE around themselves (Magmus/Sand King, Behemoth/Earthshaker, Kraken/Tidehunter etc.) or it can be used to blink away from incoming ganks or to juke out heroes.  I have to say that this is probably THE best item in the game, but that’s just my personal opinion.

Codex (HoN) | Dagon (DotA)

While this item is rarely gotten, that’s more to the fact by the time it is gotten 400 damage isn’t the biggest source of DPS one could have gotten, however if bought early enough a level 1 Codex/Dagon can easily combo off heroes, thinking particularly of Pyromancer/Lina and Witch Slayer/Lion who already have burst nukes.  However it is rarely upgraded past level 1 for a good reason, you should be looking to different items and leaving codex at level 1, the 100 dmg/minor mana cost/cd reduction isn’t worth the 1350 upgrade IMO at least.

===================================================================================================

From here on out it really depends on the hero’s main attribute and there’s a handful of items that I did or did not include, feel free to leave a comment with your opinion on item choices that you may have or on my item choices with some reasoning, remember that these items are not a MUST-buy for the most part (the only 2 real items I would classify as must-buy outside of TP/Wards/Courier would be Shrunken Head/BKB & Portal Key/Kelen’s Dagger) and are just my opinion of typical core items you would see watching a high tier HoN/DotA game.