Arachna, or Drow Lite

[Travakh]

Arachna is Drow without the aoe silence. The other abilities don't quite make up for this, but she retains carrying potential and will successfully carry a game to a win if given a bit of time.

Stat growths go here

Abilities
Webshot: Slows movement and attackspeed by 10/20/30/40, 12 mana cost, 0 cooldown. More or less identical to Frost Arrows. Main use in early game is a harass tool, as manually casting the webshot does not trigger creep aggro, allowing you to poke the enemy hero as much as you want. Eventually it turns into your core tool to put down fleeing heroes and shutting down enemy agility heroes.

Dark Carapace(n?): On activation removes debuffs and grants (3/8/15/35?) additional magic armor for (3/4/5/6) seconds. This is worth taking one point in to strip off nasty debuffs like hellbringer's dot or slither's poisons, but don't rely on this to save you. It won't remove stuns.

Precision: +7/14/21/28% boost to range base damage. Identical to trueshot aura. Good damage boost.

Spiderling: On cast throws a spider at an enemy. Said spider will chase the enemy down and attack it up to 5 times, with each attack applying a slowing poison. Spider has truesight and unitwalking(fairly sure), and the sting is worth a (30/60/90)% slow. Unfortunately the spider is killable and has low health. This ability is something you use for solo ganking and is particularly useful for killing stealth heroes. Unfortunately it has little role in team fights and does somewhat mediocre damage, and is severely hampered by its relatively short cast range.

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Skill build
1- Webshot
Carapace
Webshot
Stats
Webshot
6 - Stats
Webshot
Stats
Stats
Spiderling
11 - Spiderling
Precision
Precision
Precision
Precision
16 - Spiderling
Stats
Stats
Stats
Stats
Stats
21 - Spiderling
Stats
Carapace
Carapace
25 - Carapace

Early stats is vital for Arachna as she is easily ganked and has no early game escape mechanism. She needs high health more than precision.

Item build
Start
Crown of the Pretender x2 - 185x2=370g
Minor Totem x2 - 53x2=106g
Runes of the Blight x1 - 90g
= 566g

+6 overall stats puts base hp over 500 and +6 damage is fairly good.

Build Mid
Duckboots x2 -> Soulscream Ring x2 - 275x2=550g
Boots -> Strength Steamboots - 500+500+450+400=1850g
Steamstaff - 900g
Warhammer - 1610g
-> Assassin's Shroud - 1100g
= 6010g

Because you went stats, you don't need bracers to keep yourself alive. Soulscream rings provide additional damage and are 50g cheaper. Steamboots are the standard for damage heroes like Arachna, and Assassins Shroud is your escape mechanism. 6010g is easily achievable within 20-25 minutes as long as you're careful about your positioning.

Build Late
Steamstaff + Dancing Dagger -> Wingbow - 900+3300+1800=6000g
Javelinx2 + Slayer -> Savage Mace - 1500+1500+2400=5400g
Punchdagger + Broadsword -> Riftshards - 2200g
Slayer -> Flayer - 2400+1200=3600g
= 17200g

Wingbow + Savage Mace + Flayer is a standard damage trifecta, and after you have these 3 items more or less everything should die. Be sure to shift your steamboots to their agility version for another +10 damage and attack speed.

Build Options
Shrunken Head: Magic Immunity is always a good thing, consider building this after assassin's shroud if you're facing control heroes like Pollywog.

Whispering Helm/Symbol of Rage: Lifesteal is rarely worth the cost, but consider this if you find yourself in continual 1 vs 1 fights against other agi heroes. Possibly worth building after Wingbow, make sure to manual cast your webshot every other 2 shots.

Playstyle
Last hit and deny. Harass with your webshot. Maintain vigiliance regarding the map, do not attempt to gank early game. You don't have the damage for it. Participate in team fights by webbing fleeing heroes and throwing the spider on them, but under no circumstances should you initiate fights.

After you have assassin's shroud, your playstyle should shift into gank mode. Again, do not initiate large team fights, but lurk in stealth, find soft enemy heroes, and pick them off. Solo heroes farming in the lane or jungle are easy targets as you can orbwalk them to death. Consider firing once from stealth, then throwing the spider (firing once triggers aggro from creeps onto you, giving your spider time to land a few crippling hits).

This doesn't change into late game. Your hits just get stronger.


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Comments/additions?

[Apathy1]

As of 0.1.28, Manually casting webbed shot will still aggro creeps. Hopefully this is a bug, and not an intended "fix".

[Travakh]

I'll test that later today, I had no issues in 3 games and was able to chase enemy heroes away from the creepline.

[Lethe]

no apathy is right, I played arachna today and it was bullshit. It's like playing a drow who will draw aggro regardless of orb-walking. Aka useless.

[Travakh]

Yes, just tested this for myself, ew.

The only real change is that you can't force them out of experience range, but you can still keep them from last hitting effectively.

This being said Arachna is now pretty much a Diet Drow with No Caffeine.

[Impeeched]

Did you report it (bugtracker at beta.heroesofnewerth.com)? I'm sure it's a bug; remember, this is beta.

[Travakh]

Unlike technical errors like missing textures or collision issues it's vague whether this is an intentional gameplay change or not. I figure the bugtracker is for technical issues, and besides they have hordes of them to go through.

[Feriluce]

Unlike technical errors like missing textures or collision issues it's vague whether this is an intentional gameplay change or not. I figure the bugtracker is for technical issues, and besides they have hordes of them to go through.

Theres no bugs thats less important than others imo. Its always better to report something you think is a bug than not to.

[HIM]

Sorry to say but i disslike this strat, sure she is a lowhp hero but also she's a damn good dps. And i think Precision is important for a few early kills.

[Electrician]

dont get carapace so late

35 magic armor is more important then an early 90 health

35 magic armor means you can tank moon queens ulti and some more nukes and then run away when needed

[Newface]

Really depends what you are playing against as far as leveling Carapace... I kinda like the 35 magic resist but often, people engage with a stun so you can't carapace until you're 3/4 dead already and just have to run... If you have assassin shroud... no use to go for high magic armor MOST of the time...
There are always exceptions like in any game... As for the orb walk thingy... this better be an error... Arachna is just like Travex... a cool hero I doubt we will ever see much in competitive play. Make the orb walk impossible and you just made her virtually useless even in pub games...

[Electrician]

just had a retardly long game, got everything in this guide, making the scout ragequit as he couldnt flee from my spiderling was fun, but what to get after all those items? frostwolf skull? since its a big stat boost and more slow?

[Travakh]

just had a retardly long game, got everything in this guide, making the scout ragequit as he couldnt flee from my spiderling was fun, but what to get after all those items? frostwolf skull? since its a big stat boost and more slow?

Geometer's Bane would be the item of choice, images, like crit, drastically increase damage output after your heavy hitting items are fielded. And the mana burn will stack with webshot.

[Tryptophan]

just had a retardly long game, got everything in this guide, making the scout ragequit as he couldnt flee from my spiderling was fun, but what to get after all those items? frostwolf skull? since its a big stat boost and more slow?

Multiple slows don't stack


dont get carapace so late

35 magic armor is more important then an early 90 health

35 magic armor means you can tank moon queens ulti and some more nukes and then run away when needed

You only need one level of carapace for the debuff. Magic armor stacks diminishingly like normal armor so it's a waste to get more of the carapace early game when you could be investing in a higher level slow and more damage/stats.

[Targuil]

You only need one level of carapace for the debuff. Magic armor stacks diminishingly like normal armor so it's a waste to get more of the carapace early game when you could be investing in a higher level slow and more damage/stats.
But you also receive much more magical armor per level though. But I agree with debuff part.

[Frog100]

Multiple slows don't stack

Test it, Frostwolfs skull stacks with her Orb. Her spider stacks with her snare anyway so multiple slows obviously do stack

[FiNGERS]

Test it, Frostwolfs skull stacks with her Orb. Her spider stacks with her snare anyway so multiple slows obviously do stack

What this man says is true. Frostwulf skull DOES INDEED stack with her webbed shot. Also, webbed shot stacks with ITSELF, unlike Drow's frost arrows.

[Shadowcamsy]

Assassin's shroud: 3610g
counter: Dust 90g per charge, oh look I just countered your item.

Assassin's shroud is a pub item, always will be, you'll never get away with that item build in a game with decent players.

Whispering Helm: 1850g - dominate Wolf Commander for more extra damage than Assassin's Shroud, not to mention helps your team as well.
Counter: Alch Bones 1900g, or a whispering helm on the opposing team, or their team has to spend time killing the wolf while your team gets free attacks.

... and mine's prettier >_>

[Frog100]

Just get Frostwolf's skull, for the pro snare action and all the health you'll need

[Crosis]

Multiple slows don't stack


Yep frostwolf skull stacks with her webbed shot and so does the pets snare. Pretty funny actually.

[ClownFoot]

id like to see the movement speed of someone after spiderling, webbed shot, and frostwolf. it must be approaching negative digits at that point.

[Frog100]

id like to see the movement speed of someone after spiderling, webbed shot, and frostwolf. it must be approaching negative digits at that point.

There must be a cap, otherwise it would just immobilise people

[Evilite]

Yeah so I am pretty sure that Arachna is the port of Viper.

Skill 1: Slowing Orb Effect

Skill 2: Magic Armor

Skill 3: (Whatever doesn't really match)

Ult: Slows target and deals damage over time


The only thing she has in common with Drow is the slow orb.

[RPZip]

There must be a cap, otherwise it would just immobilise people

It's almost certainly multiplicative. A 60% movement speed decrease and a 30% movement speed decrease add up to a 72% movement speed decrease, not a 90% movement speed decrease. I guess I could be wrong, though.

[Frog100]

Yeah so I am pretty sure that Arachna is the port of Viper.

Skill 1: Slowing Orb Effect

Skill 2: Magic Armor

Skill 3: (Whatever doesn't really match)

Ult: Slows target and deals damage over time


The only thing she has in common with Drow is the slow orb.

Aracha is more like drow than any other, Vipers orb did DoT, Drows didn't.
That and she gets drows trueshot aura.

[Stalker]

LOL, SPIDY OWNZ, used this guide in a match, got over like 500 att aat over 2 att's a second, 20 kills, 1 death, 2 assists(lol) and critical was over 1.2k, + life steal = invunerable. good guide XD

[Fracture2]

Yeah so I am pretty sure that Arachna is the port of Viper.

Skill 1: Slowing Orb Effect

Skill 2: Magic Armor

Skill 3: (Whatever doesn't really match)

Ult: Slows target and deals damage over time


The only thing she has in common with Drow is the slow orb.

Pretty sure it does match.

[LibrteORDeth]

Just played the longest game so far, lasted almost an hour and a half. We lost someone beginning game (after he fed a lot) plus we had a feeder that came out at 1-12, so the remaining three on the team just wrecked the other team (that had pyromancer, magmus, and behemoth so a lot of fire and stun) and by the end of the game my damage was over 600 and would almost immobilisers them.

[NjaaL]

I always start my arach with a slash to get some ms/as to get finishing blows etc, then after go for steamboots/agi, then the lifesteal/armor/manareg item, after that i pick up a nice crit item and finish the game off with behemoth's heart and the good ol' stone that charges up after each hero kill and voila, im undefeatable 8)