Scout - One shot, not quite one kill

[maz1]

The Scout - One shot, not quite one kill.



The Scout is one of the most fun agility classes to play, they have great utility as a team initiator/finisher/ganker from mid to late game, while being massively good at escaping.

Unfortunately they are quite weak in the start and subject to severe wftpownage against str/ranged classes when trying to lane farm early on.

They struggle to make an earning until they obtain their ultimate and a bit more health/damage towards the mid game.

This guide isnt particularly good, and may not even be the best way to play the scout, but personally this is how i do it, and it seems to work (when I don't get ganked repeatedly early on.)

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Skills
http://img30.imageshack.us/img30/4346/52796739.jpghttp://img30.imageshack.us/img30/5382/dexmme.jpghttp://img30.imageshack.us/img30/5691/85940541.jpghttp://img30.imageshack.us/img30/7660/72773685.jpg

The skills are pretty self explanatory, however i reccoment using Marksmanshot as your opener on low hp targets, and then Vanish rush them.
For the higher HP targets, I tend to keep Marksman Shot as a finisher/ or slow to allow for you to Vanish and chase.


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Items

Start Items

Marchers + 1x Rune

The extra speed will allow you to run in an snag a creep for that all important last hit, it will also give you a higher chance of escaping a death early in the game.

You should be aiming for having the steamboots around level 6-8.
Steamboots (Str until you have a bit more hp.)



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Midgame - you should be ganking and ambushing players who are low from creeps, so gold should be pretty ok.

Runed axe - (Cleave damage <3 get your gold farm on!)
Suggested buy order HealthTube > ManaTube > Broadsword > Bastard Sword.
Whispering Helm (get the Runed helm part first)

n.b. Once you have the Runed axe you can also 2-3 shot most waves on a lane, and even creeps.
----------------------------------

Lategame -

Wingbow
Hack And slash

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Final item list

Steamboots (agility) (switch around lvl 16)
Runed Axe
Whispering Helm (if you have gold you can upgrade it)
Wingbow
Hack And Slash
+ One item *

*As ive never had a game go on that long I've never filled this slot. I think the 30 Agility Sword from the secret shop would be a nice addition, and it could be upgraded to another Wingbow for more attack speed to burn those higher hp targets down.

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[B]Skills

1. Electrified Eye
2. Vanish
3. Improve Dexterity
4. Vanish
5. Improve Dexterity
7. Marksman Shot.
6. Vanish
8. Improve Dexterity
9. Vanish
10. Improve Dexterity
11. Marksman Shot.
12. Stats
13. Electrified Eye
14. Stats
15. Stats
16. Stats
17. Marksman Shot.
18. Electrified Eye
19. Electrified Eye
20. Electrified Eye
21. Stats
22. Stats
23. Stats
24. Stats
25. Stats

As per Antigrav's suggestion i have moved the Electric Eye to your first skill, allowing you to plant it at the rune spawn in the river and keep an eye on enemy movements near your position.

In late game you can have 4 eyes up, and its a good idea to have them at the crossings between the middle and your base, so you can identify attacks and set-up an ambush with your team or just stalk your prey.

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If you have any comments good or bad, please feel free to let em fly, I have tough skin.

[antigrav]

You said yourself that this is not the optimal way to play Scout and I respect that. I'm not going to jump all over you with what's what but I will make one suggestion to how you build your skills. At the very least get 1 level of Electric Eye early, preferably at level 1. This will allow you to ward your side of the river (rune spot) so you'll see incoming ganks, know where the Rune spawn is, and this will help your team as well because map control is key.

[maz1]

Never actually thought of that :p, I can see how that would be beneficial at the start :D

[Drasha]

Personally for items i just go straight damage getting boots first then a nulfire blade then slayer then upgrade to geomancers cube then the +200 damage item for late game. I tend to use vanish to stay alive only attacking out of it when its of cool down and i can go back in right away.

[Impeeched]

I saw one guy go Codex with scout. He'd open with marksman's shot, then hit you with his dagger until you run away and codex you. Annoying!

[antigrav]

I saw one guy go Codex with scout. He'd open with marksman's shot, then hit you with his dagger until you run away and codex you. Annoying!

I do not recommend this. It is quite a myopic style of play that will eventually fade out of usefulness. I highly recommend going for a melee scout build as opposed to a Codex build.

[Kietharr]

Eh, you do admit that this is a suboptimal scout build, might as well share mine:

Electric Eye
Vanish
Vanish
Dexterity
Vanish
Sharpshoot
Vanish
Dexterity
Dexterity
Dexterity
Sharpshoot
Electric Eye
Electric Eye
Electric Eye
Stats
Sharpshoot
Stats to 25

The key to putting out burst damage earlygame with scout is doublestabbing, which is where you vanish, wait for vanish to refresh, then use your first vanish's backstab, vanish again and backstab again, then finish with a few melee hits if necessary.

The item build I use is somewhat similar to yours, though I always get two masks of the pretender and upgrade them into soulscream rings for early damage, then go marchers > steamboots before farming my runed axe.

Runed axe is 100% critical to playing Scout, any hero with a decent critical hit passive should be looking towards getting one at some point. Cleaved crits let you plow through creepwaves quickly and the axe gives you a lot of raw damage, which further amplifies your critical hit's damage. It also effectively triples your farming potential.

After runed axe I generally get a whispering helm then go for wingbow, if the game isn't over by that point finish whispering helm into symbol of rage.

[GuardianG]

Wingbow is kinda redundant seeing as Scout already has 20% evasion. No reason to spend all that money for 10% more. A better item would be Savage Mace.

[Feriluce]

Wingbow is kinda redundant seeing as Scout already has 20% evasion. No reason to spend all that money for 10% more. A better item would be Savage Mace.

Are you certain than evasion does not stack?

[araziel]

Are you certain than evasion does not stack?

http://img30.imageshack.us/img30/5382/dexmme.jpg


"Evasion properties do not stack"

[Feriluce]

"Evasion properties do not stack"

Well then wingbow probably might not be the best choice.

It still does have +10% evasion +60 dmg (including agi) and +30 aspd though.

[Spinewire]

Yes, and if it does it will be fixed.

It uses what ever evasion is higher.

[st3vo]

scout is a pretty decent early game hero too, which is why he is so powerful. all you need to do is get the aura ring with mana regen and armor. vanish wait for your cooldown hit once, rinse and repeat. you will send your opponent back to the well in no time flat allowing you to last hit mobs freely without having to worry about an opponent.

[Jake]

Level 5 codex build for the win.

[Moose1]

I Suggest buying the manatube before the lifetube. Without the manatube early game you will find yourself without enough mana to escape or do your ult when you want.
Also with a manatube early on you can hit and run on your lane enemy until he goes back to the well.
Also, I like getting hack and slash instead of winged bow.

[RPZip]

Out of curiosity, what item build order would you use for a Codex Scout? I've been wanting to try it out but I'm not really sure on the best way to accomplish it.

[Liquidsword]

Bottle
Codex
Boots
Codex
Codex
Codex
Codex

Game is usually over by then. It's a hilariously useless build that is sure to get you a great KD:R in any pub game and enrage your teammates via uselessness in team fights.

[Euphoria]

Scout is actually one of the bottom heroes in terms of usefulness. Tree can ward just as well and his ultimate and camouflage are much more useful. As far as going a useful build on scout, crit/evasion is highly useless early game, don't know why scouts focus this so much, but your main role is map control. Between vanish MS + eyes, you should be controlling the 2 rivers, and enemy jungle while keeping their important heroes on their toes with arrow harassment. I don't see the point of getting crit early since it doesn't help you much at all. You may hit ONCE with a critical in an entire fight between early and mid game, better to go utility than pub build.

[FiNGERS]

I recommend a lot more "Electric Eye" early on, and a lot less "Improved Dexterity". Map control is what it's all about. At the very minimum, ward both runes so you know what's going on. I didn't read the rest but props on making a guide to help others =)

edit:
all you need to do is get the aura ring with mana regen and armor.
Get a bottle and whore the runes, you'll be a lot more effective.

[Omaster]

Could someone explain what a rune is? and whats a bottle for that matter?

[RPZip]

Could someone explain what a rune is? and whats a bottle for that matter?

A rune is an item that spawns on every even-numbered minute at some point in the river, near the ramps that are placed at the Secret Shops. If a rune is already active, another one won't spawn. Runes have a variety of effects - off the top of my head, there's Regeneration (restores a good deal of HP/Mana, lasts for a decent while or until you take damage), Damage (double damage) and Illusion (spawns 2 copies of yourself that deal less damage and take more damage, but appear as you to the other team).

A bottle is an item, appropriately enough called "Bottle". it gives you some HP and mana when you use it, and has 3 charges. You can refill it by going back to the fountain. If a bottle is empty, you can also click on it and click on a rune to 'capture' that rune, allowing you to use it at some point later and also refilling the bottle to the full three charges after you consume the rune.

With the Scout, you can plant Electric Eyes to reveal both rune locations and swing by to collect it whenever it spawns, or at the very least plant one so you can determine where the Rune spawned (if you know the Rune was consumed, and at 4:02 you don't see a Rune at the top spawn location, it must have spawned at the bottom location). Other players can do this by purchasing Wards at the shop to reveal Rune locations, but as the Scout gets unlimited duration Wards for free via Electric Eyes they're actually genuinely good at doing this themselves.

[Rengan]

>"The Scout is one of the most fun agility classes to play, they have great utility as a team initiator-"

No.

[GaIactic]

Scout can be a very annoying class to play against, especially given the fact that you have 4 free wards with truesight. He can be a great help to the team if there's an invis or two on the other team. I normally leave 2 eyes in the river for the wards and save the other 2 for ganks or teamfights.

^_-;

[Notvitamin]

Nice guide.

[VoodooDog]

A rune is an item that spawns on every even-numbered minute at some point in the river, near the ramps that are placed at the Secret Shops. If a rune is already active, another one won't spawn. Runes have a variety of effects - off the top of my head, there's Regeneration (restores a good deal of HP/Mana, lasts for a decent while or until you take damage), Damage (double damage) and Illusion (spawns 2 copies of yourself that deal less damage and take more damage, but appear as you to the other team).

A bottle is an item, appropriately enough called "Bottle". it gives you some HP and mana when you use it, and has 3 charges. You can refill it by going back to the fountain. If a bottle is empty, you can also click on it and click on a rune to 'capture' that rune, allowing you to use it at some point later and also refilling the bottle to the full three charges after you consume the rune.

With the Scout, you can plant Electric Eyes to reveal both rune locations and swing by to collect it whenever it spawns, or at the very least plant one so you can determine where the Rune spawned (if you know the Rune was consumed, and at 4:02 you don't see a Rune at the top spawn location, it must have spawned at the bottom location). Other players can do this by purchasing Wards at the shop to reveal Rune locations, but as the Scout gets unlimited duration Wards for free via Electric Eyes they're actually genuinely good at doing this themselves.
and this rune's i should get at first ?_?
wtf why ?

sorry for my big noobness but i dont understand this part:

"Midgame - you should be ganking and ambushing players who are low from creeps, so gold should be pretty ok.

Runed axe - (Cleave damage <3 get your gold farm on!)
Suggested buy order HealthTube > ManaTube > Broadsword > Bastard Sword.
Whispering Helm (get the Runed helm part first)

n.b. Once you have the Runed axe you can also 2-3 shot most waves on a lane, and even creeps."

what u mean with gold ?
what u mean with "get the runed helm part first" ?
i thought runes are stuff like " double damage"

[VoodooDog]

and why i should use this runes ? its only haste or something for few seconds what me never help in early game.
where is my fault ? i dont understand :(

[Necrophorus]

Runed axe is an item in the shop. Runed helm is also an item in the shop. You need to buy runed helm to get a whispering helm.

With the gold farm he means that you can get more gold easier and faster from killing creeps.

Runes are stuff that give some bonus to stats or other things.

[Bludgar]

I'm still pretty new, but I've fought a good 30 team games and practice private games with every hero. Scout is one of my favorite simply for the reason of stealth when few people bother trying to see the invisible. I've gotten more kills with the scout than with any other hero I've played. However, I've had quite a few people get away from me because I wasn't doing enough damage mid-late game.

Here's my argument for the mock of brilliance - Sometimes it is really damn imperative that I stay invisible, even when the enemy knows I'm there, especially if I need to pull off a backstab/invis/backstab combo. Now, if I'm hanging around for a good 15 seconds with nothing to do, I could be doing 525 damage to a single individual. So what if they run? I can keep up with them and then strike when the time is necessary. This also helps with passively killing creep waves, or if you're being chased and can't invis, but they don't quite have the mana to finish you. One particular instance where I wish I would have saved up for the MoB was against Legionnaire. His armor, damage, and level were higher than anyone elses, so it didn't matter if I 2x backstabbed him, marksmans, or whatever, and he'd spent his money beefing up hp and str. I couldn't get near enough to him because of his whirlwind skill, but if I had the MoB, I would have been able to finish him off.

I think the whole point of the scout is to pick people off and harass the hell out of them, which is why in the future, MoB will be my main weapon of choice.

I also didn't hear anyone suggest the frostfield plate, which would be great for backstab/backstab/frostfield/marksman/chase/backstab. Or, the null stone, since people like to zap him as soon as he comes out of hiding.

[StealthFire]

hahaha, low from creeps.

[VoodooDog]

okay. but i found all stuff by my own out and change something.
here u can see.
is this good ? it works extremly well^^
http://img31.imageshack.us/img31/5881/herosofnewearth.jpg

this brings 550dmg and 2hits per second. also life and mana will allways be full.
attack from vanish makes 1100dmg. before i do the shot and gg every hero dead.
that was fine ^^

[StealthFire]

you're going through a phase, at the beginning of every dota career, people get addicted to battlefury.

[VoodooDog]

i dont exactly know what u mean with battle fury.
but i want to know: is this good way to play this hero or i just get this stets cuz of good parterns/week enemies.

[VoodooDog]

okay i see now. that realy works well. but it seems every other player hates guys who play scout (even my teammates).
:\

[Bludgar]

Giving you 2 35% cleaving attacks?! If it does, that seems a bit broken.

That build above would make any hero really mean, not just scout. For single-item farming, I really liked the mock of brilliance. I had a chance to use it last night. Even though we lost (because two of our team quit out), it was nice taking care of waves of creeps without coming out of hiding (which would have been a death knell against 15 creeps at once). In addition to that, heroes that didn't have any means to see me (no dust, no wards), I was able to whittle down effectively. If they could see me, I could get in a marksman shot, in which they'd usually run, and I would follow them until I could double backstab, all the while sapping their hp.

The result was my BEST game ever, 14 k, 5 d (and I have a 0.3/1 k/d ratio)

[Lionguild]

Terrible guide, Boots first? Cleaver? Getting a butterfly even though you already have evasion? Getting points in passive before maxing wards? And even after wards if you are agaisnt a lot of nukers I would even get some points in stats before your passive.

Scout is a ganking hero pure and simple, you should not build him like a carry because you need to build him up for a strong early / mid game and gank. You should get bottle first (Or stat items first and bottle very soon after) and rune whore while you gank. Using wards to spot runes and enemies in the forest.

[VoodooDog]

dont tell us what is terrible (every brainless hump do like this). tell us your meaning, what is more wise to play.

[Electrician]

im pretty sure they dislike runed axe because it pushes lanes really fast, wich means you have to stop farming in that lane fast, and as a scout who can escape really easely, this isnt what you want.

not sure if this is their reasoning though

I usually get a screamring, steamboots, hack and slash (movement speed and a slow, hell yes), then brutaliser for the insane damage, then usually a shieldbasher, depending on what i face

[Giraffe]

[B]Skills

1. Electrified Eye
2. Vanish
3. Improve Dexterity
4. Vanish
5. Improve Dexterity
7. Marksman Shot.
6. Vanish
8. Improve Dexterity
9. Vanish
10. Improve Dexterity
11. Marksman Shot.
12. Stats
13. Electrified Eye
14. Stats
15. Stats
16. Stats
17. Marksman Shot.
18. Electrified Eye
19. Electrified Eye
20. Electrified Eye
21. Stats
22. Stats
23. Stats
24. Stats
25. Stats

You have 5 eletric eyes and your marksmen shot is 17 instead of 16

[Pentt]

Boots first is a terrible choice, Bottle is superior in every way.

Rune whoring Scouts can be very effective if you play it right.

[ReconGoose]

just curious when do you use the marksman shot after vanish combo or before. and do you cast it from vanish to get extra dmg? because if you marks shot and then try to double vanish the CDs not up in time...

and one more thing how do you exactly kno where the runes are? someone said ramps near secret shop on the river but the secret shops arent on the river. (i apologize for my inexperience only played a couple games.)

[cretine]

scout is a pretty decent early game hero too, which is why he is so powerful. all you need to do is get the aura ring with mana regen and armor. vanish wait for your cooldown hit once, rinse and repeat. you will send your opponent back to the well in no time flat allowing you to last hit mobs freely without having to worry about an opponent.

This is the worst scout strategy, and it is easy to destroy. If you spend all your time sitting stealthed not doing anything, your opponents are going to deny every creep you see. You'll be 2 levels behind when they're getting their ultimates.

[Dizy]

Codex+Manta=ff

[Paperzone]

I played a few fast [30mins] games with scout today. I used my typical build with gondar in dota, imo best build.

1. Eyes [put a ward at a rune before creeps go]
2. Vanish
3. Vanish
4. Eyes [other rune when cd is up, ward farther rune first if bot/top]
5. Vanish
6. Shot
7. Vanish
8. Dexterity
9. Dexterity
10. Dexterity
11. Shot
12. Dexterity
13. Eyes
14. Eyes

One game I got 3 eyes before getting dexterity to put a 3rd ward at their secret shop, got a kill from som1 low shopping there a few times.

Items
Mid
1. Bottle Whore
2. Str Steam Boots
3. Desolator item [60dmg -armor attack modifier, this is good imo because you get to keep the armor debuff after shot wears off and also should stack with shots armor debuff]
4. Hack n Slash or Runed Axe [game usually ends before i get here]

Top/Bot
1. 6 Tangoes [forgot name, tree eating item]
2. Save for manatube
- If you died and still have 2 or 3 tangoes and have enough for marchers but a few hundred away from healthtube buy marchers first
3. Healthtube [you shouldn't have used all of your tangoes by now, if you did you should find some guide to basics of this game]
4. Str Steam Boots
5. Desolator
6. Hack n Slash or Runed Axe

I do not recommend this. It is quite a myopic style of play that will eventually fade out of usefulness. I highly recommend going for a melee scout build as opposed to a Codex build.

People once said Dagon on NA sucked too.

[ReconGoose]

can anyone answer my questions, specifically when to use marks shot and how to kno where runes will pop

thank you

[Paperzone]

can anyone answer my questions, specifically when to use marks shot and how to kno where runes will pop

thank you
You put the electric eyes at minimum 1 of the rune spawns, every 2 minutes look at your eye, if the rune isn't there it is at the other spawn.

I personally use shot as an initiation to a gank.

Example: You go to bottom lane where your teammates there have a decent amount of mana, you go behind the trees and use shot on the one you think is easiest to kill, then assuming your teammates are helping or he is low enough to 1shot with a back stab from vanish... you use vanish and kill him.

If it is nighttime I don't suggest trying to last hit someone with shot, as it is easier to run out of line of sight.

[ReconGoose]

thank you but i still dont kno where the runes spawn(i kno when just not where), ive heard near the secret shops but there are two ramps at the secret shop im sorry im not making this ez but i want to be a better scout and it sounds like rune farming is the key

[Paperzone]

They spawn in the river about halfway between the middle and side lanes.

[ReconGoose]

ahh thank you again ill keep a look out

[j00sh]

This is the worst scout strategy, and it is easy to destroy. If you spend all your time sitting stealthed not doing anything, your opponents are going to deny every creep you see. You'll be 2 levels behind when they're getting their ultimates.

denies give experience all the same I'm pretty sure, unless you deny while an enemy hero is tower hugging

getting the actual deny means very little unless the hero is out of range for experience, or if the hero is going to land the killing blow for gold

and what most people don't seem to realize is that you can deny your enemy's last hit without getting it yourself (ie, hitting it early to ensure that a creep will get the kill, it's easy to throw off peoples timing)

and of course there is the concept of hitting your creeps more than you hit the enemy's for the sake of keeping your lane from pushing

[ToxicHobo]

ahh thank you again ill keep a look out

Just find 1 rune on both sides. They always spawn at the same place

Also I like getting hack and slash early, if you can last hit you can farm as well as you can with cleave (and you don't push lane out). You get enough damage + ias + cripple + hitpoints. Only thing is your mana regen becomes a bit lacking but you can always grab that dual tube thing


denies give experience all the same I'm pretty sure, unless you deny while an enemy hero is tower hugging

Denies give less experience and as you said will stop them from getting gold. And if you're always stealth you won't be able to farm.

[_sh]

I don't really agree with this build at all. I haven't played Scout very much, but Butterfly is good only for the dmg and aspd. Evasion doesnt stack, so it's not entirely worth it.

[Fuga]

a runed axe??

[TanganBerapi]

Scout + Codex = Owns

[Jo]

This must be the worst guide I've seen but since it's the worst hero in HoN perhaps it's suitable.

If you insist on playing him I'm with tangan as far as item builds. in no decent game at all he'll be anything else than an kill stealer. Sometimes with the right partner he can somewhat initiate I guess.

[Rokman]

Always get bottle first.

Always

[EnragedCamel]

This must be the worst guide I've seen but since it's the worst hero in HoN perhaps it's suitable.

You forgot Chronos.

[Felby]

useless :(

dont follow this guide kids

[RogerDodger]

okay. but i found all stuff by my own out and change something.
here u can see.
is this good ? it works extremly well^^
this brings 550dmg and 2hits per second. also life and mana will allways be full.
attack from vanish makes 1100dmg. before i do the shot and gg every hero dead.
that was fine ^^
You got 8 assissts while your team got about 20 each.

No, you killstole all game and didnt help in team fights.