Kietharr
06-20-2009, 10:01 AM
A lot of new players tend to avoid clicky items due to them making the game even more complex, but clicky items are VERY powerful on the right heroes if used correctly, Here's a guide to all of the clickies:
Supplies
Mana potion - self explanatory, restores mana. Good to get on heroes like Zeus at the start of the game for more harassment or ganks without returning to fountain. Frankly, its true that these are never a bad idea on a hero that will be using abilities in the lane. Not an item for every hero by any means though.
Health potion - same as mana potion except for HP, its almost exactly the same as runes of blight cost effectiveness wise (375 heal for 90 vs 400 for 100) but it restores health much faster, making this a better option later in the game than runes of blight
Runes of Blight - The treeeaters, the most common recovery item because you don't need to back off and stop last hitting when using them as they do not dispell when you are hit. These are good on all heroes from the start but due to the low heal ammount their usefulness tends to taper off later in the game.
Bottle - The best recovery item, it can be recharged on tablets and at the fountain so this is best for a hero that is soloing mid often, like Zeus or Nevermore. Get someone to ward these spots for you and you will have essentially infinite mana.
Dust of Revelation - The best one shot method of dealing with invis heroes who can work around sentry wards. Just click on it when the hero is near you and it will reveal them for a time even if they go into stealth. If you are trying to gank a stealth hero be sure to have some of this.
Homecoming Stone - VERY good item that I see a lot of players neglect. It costs 135 and teleports you to a friendly building. This is good for teleporting out to your lane early in the game if you get forced home. It saves travel time, during which you lose out on XP. The faster you return to the lane the more xp you get, it is ALWAYS worth the gold cost to TP back. Also allows you to tp to dieing towers to deny or defend. Try to have one of these on you at all times, especially early game for defending outer towers.
Relics:
Portal Key - Essential item on some heroes, especially behemoth and legionaire. It lets you blink a short distance every so often. Not as many heroes have stomps as in dota so not as many use this, but still an absolutely lethal item when used correctly on the right heroes.
Initiation:
Whispering Helm - Grants lifesteal, armor and damage as well as a clicky effect that lets you dominate an enemy or neutral creep. Generally, you can use this creep for two purposes, assisting in ganks (use a stun or netting creep for this) or pulling the big creep camp.
Pulling creeps is an advanced technique, keep in mind that neutral creeps respawn on every even minute. So leave your creep near the big creep camp on your side of the map, and keep an eye on the clock. At 7-5 seconds before you hit a new even minute, charge your creep into the big camp enough to draw aggro then quickly pull him away. The big creeps are out of the camp so the camp will respawn more big creeps, leading to a double camp. You can do this as many times as you want so once you hit lategame and have an item like battlefury or an ability like Moon Queen's multi hit you can kill them all for massive gold and experience.
Alchemist's Bones - Gives +atkspd and the clicky effect instantly kills a creep (does not work on big creep camps) and gives you x3 its gold value. If you farm gold VERY quickly early on this is a good item to get to continue your farming streak. It will pay for itself after around 18 creeps provided you go into the forest to kill the bigger neutral creeps with it. Not many heroes really use this well though, the only one that comes to mind is Hellbringer, because he has no good AoEs or big damage to farm with lategame.
Enhanced Marchers - The cheapest of the three boots and a personal favorite of mine. Gives damage and armor and the clicky effect lets you ignore the collision of units, letting you run through creeps and other heroes, as well as giving you a movement speed bonus. This is a good alternative to steam boots for caster heroes and tanks like Accursed. Also lets you run through Behemoth's fissures so if you find yourself getting trapped by him a lot these are handy.
Steam Boots - Second cheapest boots, very good option for most heroes. Its clicky effect lets you change the stats it adds from STR to AGI to INT. Usually, you will want to keep them STR because the extra HP for survivability early-midgame is essential, but you might switch them to INT for extra mana if you find yourself running low and not getting killed often.
Post Haste - The least common boots in normal games but by far the most powerful. They work as a homecoming stone that can also teleport to creeps. They let you be anywhere on the map that your forces are for 2,700. Not used nearly enough IMO, most heroes should be breaking down or selling their other boots late in the game and getting these.
Supportive:
Ring of the Teacher - Clicky effect switches the aura to hero only, which is what you always want to do early in the game. Leaving this on means your creeps will push your lane verses enemy creeps.
Ring of Sorcery - One of the most powerful clicky effects in the game. Restores 135 mana to all nearby heroes when used. This makes it an ideal item for mana dependent heroes like Jeraziah, Pebbles, and Behemoth. Thunderbringer may also use this, but most Int heroes will avoid this in favor of more direct mana items.
Astrolabe - A great support item that is quite underused, restores HP and grants bonus armor to nearby allies. Great option on heroes that have a mana pool too large for them to realistically use, such as Hellbringer, Puppet Master, or Glacius.
Puzzlebox - A very powerful item for heroes who need both HP and Mana. It spawns two minions, one a melee minion with a mana consumption attack (similar to magebane's), a last will (deals damage to any creep or hero that kills this unit) and at lv3 puzzle box he gains truesight, the ability to see invisible units. The other minion has a ranged attack, a mana burn spell, and a movement speed haste aura. Puzzlebox can be upgraded twice after assembling lv1 by purchasing the recipe again. Don't buy this without the intention of getting it to lv3. This item is best used when enemies that it counters are on the field, such as any invisible hero and strangely enough, Electrician. The mana burn and mana consumption will drain the mana of Electrician directly as well as indirectly through damage against mana shield, essentially turning him into a big funny looking creep. Good heroes for this item include Defiler, Jereziah, Puppet Master, and Hellbringer.
Stormspirit - Provides a 2.5sec cyclone that removes the enemy from combat (he is not damagable while under this effect). Good for making sure someone stays still for AoE effects but honestly this is generally inferior to Totem of Kundra on most heroes. Defiler may be one exception because she benefits from the movement speed boost (that does stack with boots) that this item grants. But even then, ToK is generally the better choice of the two.
Restoration Stone - Resets all cooldowns, obviously very powerful on heroes with powerful long cooldown abilities. The downside is that this item is fairly expensive so it will likely be the primary item you farm for. The only hero that this is an A+ must get item on is Keeper of the Forest, double root is just unbelievably powerful at all stages of the game provided you have enough mana to pull it off. This is also a good option on Pollywog, double wards are very nice.
Totem of Kundra - Provides a 3.5 second transfigure, during which the enemy is turned into a critter and is unable to control their hero, being silenced and addled. Very powerful and in DotA almost every INT hero wants this item at some point. It's just that good. Lategame this is especially effective against carries that would decimate your team if able to move properly.
Protective:
Barbed Armor - Ok, so not all clicky items are amazing. Barbed Armor is quite mediocre considering its effect only lasts 5 seconds and is heavily mitigated. It is supposed to reflect 100% of all damage dealt to your hero to the damager for 5 seconds, but in reality it deals damage that has been reduced by your innate armor/magic resistance in the form of magic damage to the person who damaged you, and said magic damage is even further reduced by their magic resistance. Can be a usable item on lategame heroes with a lot of HP but lowish armor like Devourer or Legionaire but generally avoid getting this.
Assassin's Shroud - Basically turns you into a stealth hero, it's used very much like Portal key, to position ultimate abilities, but it also allows the wielder to use stealth to escape sticky situations. Great on Soulstealer and Slither but no longer good for heroes like Glacius, as activating it while channeling breaks your channel in HoN, unlike DotA where it was possible to use a channeled ability then go invisible using this item.
Shrunken Head - Essential fare for any lategame carry against a disable heavy team. It grants you temporary magic immunity which gives you free reign over any team that would want to disable you. Especially important if the enemy has a lot of Totems of Kundra, otherwise you just get hexed and disabled into oblivion as you try to kill them lategame. Essential item on heroes with channeling ultimate abilities like Glacius and Tempest.
Frostfield Plate - Gives you a 200dmg aoe with a 40% slow and the INT that it grants gives you enough mana to keep cover the extra mana cost of the nuke, what's not to love here? A personal favorite of mine, I find it very good on STR heroes that need more mana and INT heroes that need armor. Examples include Devourer, Jereziah, Behemoth, Blacksmith, and Defiler.
Symbol of Rage - Grants bonus damage and increases the percentage of damage returned as HP for 20 seconds. VERY strong on Hammerstorm and Moon Queen. Generally good on any hero that gets Whispering Helm as a primary build item.
Combative:
Elder Parasite - Gives you a berzerk ability that gives 75% extra attack speed and 15% more movement speed with a 20% damage taken effect. After Berzerk wears off you take 20% of the damage dealt to you while under the effect of Berzerk again, this damage can not take you below 1hp but naturally it makes you pretty easy to kill, so you should be clear of enemies by the time your Berzerk is over. Very good on heroes that can keep an enemy in one place long enough to whack them some, such as Hammerstorm, Pestilence, Chronos, and Keeper of the Forest.
Codex - Provides you with a 400-800dmg spell (depending on level). Very strong for obvious reasons, but often derided as a noob item for the huge killsteal potential. This is a good item later in the game for spell focused heroes with big mana pools like Zeus or Defiler or heroes that simply cry to be loaded with useful clicky effects like Puppet Master and Hellbringer. Codex can be upgraded up to four times and Codex V is the single most expensive item in the game at 8,250g.
Insanatarius - One of the single most powerful items in the game and I have never seen anyone other than myself use it in HoN! On activation it increases your damage, attack speed, and strength with the tradeoff of a 35 true damage self damage per second effect. The extra HP you gain from the STR balances out the degeneration effect while activated, especially if you combine this with some form of lifesteal like Elder Parasite or Symbol of Rage. This item is good on any STR ganker such as Hammerstorm, Pestilance, Warbeast, or Keeper of the Forest.
Hellflower - Applies a silence to the enemy that lasts 5 seconds and puts an effect on them that is similar to that of the Elder Parasite, they take 20% of all damage dealt during those 5 seconds at the end of the duration. Unfortunately Totem of Kundra outclasses this item on the great majority of INT heroes as a clicky disable. It is quite usable on Puppet Master though, as the items stats favor physical damage over increased casting effectiveness.
Morph Attack:
Nullfire Blade - Casts a spell very similar to Electrician's Cleansing Shock on the enemy, initially putting a ministun on the enemy then slowing them for a few seconds. Can also be used on allies/self to remove negative buffs such as Slither's poisons. It only gets ten charges though. Very good item on nighthound, provides him with a good means of slowing enemies so he can chase them down and upgrades into the ever useful Geometer's Bane
Geometer's Bane - Creates 3 illusions of yourself upon activation, said illusions are effected by all of your passives at the moment, though many argue that this may be a bug as it doesn't work like that in DotA. When you split into 3 illusions all negative debuffs are removed from you, which is obviously VERY useful. An amazing item on Moon Queen and Nighthound, with Nighthound's invisibility and Moon Queen's bouncing glaives.
Charged Hammer - When cast on someone, this effect essentially acts as the inverse of the effect of attacking with the hammer, when something hits a unit with this buff there is a 20% chance that they will be hit with a 200 magic damage chain lightning. Kinda sorta useful but you buy this item for the stats and attack modification, not the clicky.
Bolded and colored headings for ease of reading.
Supplies
Mana potion - self explanatory, restores mana. Good to get on heroes like Zeus at the start of the game for more harassment or ganks without returning to fountain. Frankly, its true that these are never a bad idea on a hero that will be using abilities in the lane. Not an item for every hero by any means though.
Health potion - same as mana potion except for HP, its almost exactly the same as runes of blight cost effectiveness wise (375 heal for 90 vs 400 for 100) but it restores health much faster, making this a better option later in the game than runes of blight
Runes of Blight - The treeeaters, the most common recovery item because you don't need to back off and stop last hitting when using them as they do not dispell when you are hit. These are good on all heroes from the start but due to the low heal ammount their usefulness tends to taper off later in the game.
Bottle - The best recovery item, it can be recharged on tablets and at the fountain so this is best for a hero that is soloing mid often, like Zeus or Nevermore. Get someone to ward these spots for you and you will have essentially infinite mana.
Dust of Revelation - The best one shot method of dealing with invis heroes who can work around sentry wards. Just click on it when the hero is near you and it will reveal them for a time even if they go into stealth. If you are trying to gank a stealth hero be sure to have some of this.
Homecoming Stone - VERY good item that I see a lot of players neglect. It costs 135 and teleports you to a friendly building. This is good for teleporting out to your lane early in the game if you get forced home. It saves travel time, during which you lose out on XP. The faster you return to the lane the more xp you get, it is ALWAYS worth the gold cost to TP back. Also allows you to tp to dieing towers to deny or defend. Try to have one of these on you at all times, especially early game for defending outer towers.
Relics:
Portal Key - Essential item on some heroes, especially behemoth and legionaire. It lets you blink a short distance every so often. Not as many heroes have stomps as in dota so not as many use this, but still an absolutely lethal item when used correctly on the right heroes.
Initiation:
Whispering Helm - Grants lifesteal, armor and damage as well as a clicky effect that lets you dominate an enemy or neutral creep. Generally, you can use this creep for two purposes, assisting in ganks (use a stun or netting creep for this) or pulling the big creep camp.
Pulling creeps is an advanced technique, keep in mind that neutral creeps respawn on every even minute. So leave your creep near the big creep camp on your side of the map, and keep an eye on the clock. At 7-5 seconds before you hit a new even minute, charge your creep into the big camp enough to draw aggro then quickly pull him away. The big creeps are out of the camp so the camp will respawn more big creeps, leading to a double camp. You can do this as many times as you want so once you hit lategame and have an item like battlefury or an ability like Moon Queen's multi hit you can kill them all for massive gold and experience.
Alchemist's Bones - Gives +atkspd and the clicky effect instantly kills a creep (does not work on big creep camps) and gives you x3 its gold value. If you farm gold VERY quickly early on this is a good item to get to continue your farming streak. It will pay for itself after around 18 creeps provided you go into the forest to kill the bigger neutral creeps with it. Not many heroes really use this well though, the only one that comes to mind is Hellbringer, because he has no good AoEs or big damage to farm with lategame.
Enhanced Marchers - The cheapest of the three boots and a personal favorite of mine. Gives damage and armor and the clicky effect lets you ignore the collision of units, letting you run through creeps and other heroes, as well as giving you a movement speed bonus. This is a good alternative to steam boots for caster heroes and tanks like Accursed. Also lets you run through Behemoth's fissures so if you find yourself getting trapped by him a lot these are handy.
Steam Boots - Second cheapest boots, very good option for most heroes. Its clicky effect lets you change the stats it adds from STR to AGI to INT. Usually, you will want to keep them STR because the extra HP for survivability early-midgame is essential, but you might switch them to INT for extra mana if you find yourself running low and not getting killed often.
Post Haste - The least common boots in normal games but by far the most powerful. They work as a homecoming stone that can also teleport to creeps. They let you be anywhere on the map that your forces are for 2,700. Not used nearly enough IMO, most heroes should be breaking down or selling their other boots late in the game and getting these.
Supportive:
Ring of the Teacher - Clicky effect switches the aura to hero only, which is what you always want to do early in the game. Leaving this on means your creeps will push your lane verses enemy creeps.
Ring of Sorcery - One of the most powerful clicky effects in the game. Restores 135 mana to all nearby heroes when used. This makes it an ideal item for mana dependent heroes like Jeraziah, Pebbles, and Behemoth. Thunderbringer may also use this, but most Int heroes will avoid this in favor of more direct mana items.
Astrolabe - A great support item that is quite underused, restores HP and grants bonus armor to nearby allies. Great option on heroes that have a mana pool too large for them to realistically use, such as Hellbringer, Puppet Master, or Glacius.
Puzzlebox - A very powerful item for heroes who need both HP and Mana. It spawns two minions, one a melee minion with a mana consumption attack (similar to magebane's), a last will (deals damage to any creep or hero that kills this unit) and at lv3 puzzle box he gains truesight, the ability to see invisible units. The other minion has a ranged attack, a mana burn spell, and a movement speed haste aura. Puzzlebox can be upgraded twice after assembling lv1 by purchasing the recipe again. Don't buy this without the intention of getting it to lv3. This item is best used when enemies that it counters are on the field, such as any invisible hero and strangely enough, Electrician. The mana burn and mana consumption will drain the mana of Electrician directly as well as indirectly through damage against mana shield, essentially turning him into a big funny looking creep. Good heroes for this item include Defiler, Jereziah, Puppet Master, and Hellbringer.
Stormspirit - Provides a 2.5sec cyclone that removes the enemy from combat (he is not damagable while under this effect). Good for making sure someone stays still for AoE effects but honestly this is generally inferior to Totem of Kundra on most heroes. Defiler may be one exception because she benefits from the movement speed boost (that does stack with boots) that this item grants. But even then, ToK is generally the better choice of the two.
Restoration Stone - Resets all cooldowns, obviously very powerful on heroes with powerful long cooldown abilities. The downside is that this item is fairly expensive so it will likely be the primary item you farm for. The only hero that this is an A+ must get item on is Keeper of the Forest, double root is just unbelievably powerful at all stages of the game provided you have enough mana to pull it off. This is also a good option on Pollywog, double wards are very nice.
Totem of Kundra - Provides a 3.5 second transfigure, during which the enemy is turned into a critter and is unable to control their hero, being silenced and addled. Very powerful and in DotA almost every INT hero wants this item at some point. It's just that good. Lategame this is especially effective against carries that would decimate your team if able to move properly.
Protective:
Barbed Armor - Ok, so not all clicky items are amazing. Barbed Armor is quite mediocre considering its effect only lasts 5 seconds and is heavily mitigated. It is supposed to reflect 100% of all damage dealt to your hero to the damager for 5 seconds, but in reality it deals damage that has been reduced by your innate armor/magic resistance in the form of magic damage to the person who damaged you, and said magic damage is even further reduced by their magic resistance. Can be a usable item on lategame heroes with a lot of HP but lowish armor like Devourer or Legionaire but generally avoid getting this.
Assassin's Shroud - Basically turns you into a stealth hero, it's used very much like Portal key, to position ultimate abilities, but it also allows the wielder to use stealth to escape sticky situations. Great on Soulstealer and Slither but no longer good for heroes like Glacius, as activating it while channeling breaks your channel in HoN, unlike DotA where it was possible to use a channeled ability then go invisible using this item.
Shrunken Head - Essential fare for any lategame carry against a disable heavy team. It grants you temporary magic immunity which gives you free reign over any team that would want to disable you. Especially important if the enemy has a lot of Totems of Kundra, otherwise you just get hexed and disabled into oblivion as you try to kill them lategame. Essential item on heroes with channeling ultimate abilities like Glacius and Tempest.
Frostfield Plate - Gives you a 200dmg aoe with a 40% slow and the INT that it grants gives you enough mana to keep cover the extra mana cost of the nuke, what's not to love here? A personal favorite of mine, I find it very good on STR heroes that need more mana and INT heroes that need armor. Examples include Devourer, Jereziah, Behemoth, Blacksmith, and Defiler.
Symbol of Rage - Grants bonus damage and increases the percentage of damage returned as HP for 20 seconds. VERY strong on Hammerstorm and Moon Queen. Generally good on any hero that gets Whispering Helm as a primary build item.
Combative:
Elder Parasite - Gives you a berzerk ability that gives 75% extra attack speed and 15% more movement speed with a 20% damage taken effect. After Berzerk wears off you take 20% of the damage dealt to you while under the effect of Berzerk again, this damage can not take you below 1hp but naturally it makes you pretty easy to kill, so you should be clear of enemies by the time your Berzerk is over. Very good on heroes that can keep an enemy in one place long enough to whack them some, such as Hammerstorm, Pestilence, Chronos, and Keeper of the Forest.
Codex - Provides you with a 400-800dmg spell (depending on level). Very strong for obvious reasons, but often derided as a noob item for the huge killsteal potential. This is a good item later in the game for spell focused heroes with big mana pools like Zeus or Defiler or heroes that simply cry to be loaded with useful clicky effects like Puppet Master and Hellbringer. Codex can be upgraded up to four times and Codex V is the single most expensive item in the game at 8,250g.
Insanatarius - One of the single most powerful items in the game and I have never seen anyone other than myself use it in HoN! On activation it increases your damage, attack speed, and strength with the tradeoff of a 35 true damage self damage per second effect. The extra HP you gain from the STR balances out the degeneration effect while activated, especially if you combine this with some form of lifesteal like Elder Parasite or Symbol of Rage. This item is good on any STR ganker such as Hammerstorm, Pestilance, Warbeast, or Keeper of the Forest.
Hellflower - Applies a silence to the enemy that lasts 5 seconds and puts an effect on them that is similar to that of the Elder Parasite, they take 20% of all damage dealt during those 5 seconds at the end of the duration. Unfortunately Totem of Kundra outclasses this item on the great majority of INT heroes as a clicky disable. It is quite usable on Puppet Master though, as the items stats favor physical damage over increased casting effectiveness.
Morph Attack:
Nullfire Blade - Casts a spell very similar to Electrician's Cleansing Shock on the enemy, initially putting a ministun on the enemy then slowing them for a few seconds. Can also be used on allies/self to remove negative buffs such as Slither's poisons. It only gets ten charges though. Very good item on nighthound, provides him with a good means of slowing enemies so he can chase them down and upgrades into the ever useful Geometer's Bane
Geometer's Bane - Creates 3 illusions of yourself upon activation, said illusions are effected by all of your passives at the moment, though many argue that this may be a bug as it doesn't work like that in DotA. When you split into 3 illusions all negative debuffs are removed from you, which is obviously VERY useful. An amazing item on Moon Queen and Nighthound, with Nighthound's invisibility and Moon Queen's bouncing glaives.
Charged Hammer - When cast on someone, this effect essentially acts as the inverse of the effect of attacking with the hammer, when something hits a unit with this buff there is a 20% chance that they will be hit with a 200 magic damage chain lightning. Kinda sorta useful but you buy this item for the stats and attack modification, not the clicky.
Bolded and colored headings for ease of reading.