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Wretched Hag - Put on Hold again
Table of Contents:
- Stats and Hero introduction
- Skill builds
- Item Presentation
- Item Builds
- Strategy Section
- Worst Enemies
- Best Friends
- FAQ
Pros
Huge AOE spell damage.
Cons
Hard to play.
Starting stats and Final stats
A Short Hero Analysis
So, this is our starting and final stats. At the first glance it may seem as we have a decent manapool to play around with. Well, thats true, except for the fact that our main spell, Sonar Scream costs a huge amount of Mana (140 MP non scaling). So, basicly our starting MP allows us to use our main nuke twice and leaving us 28 mana short for a blink. Conclusion? Yes, that sucks. Our HP starts off at 454 HP, the same as all other squishies as Glacius, Torturer and so on. But actually our starting HP isnt that shabby since we have a blink from level one allowing us to escape all the heat early on. If you are cautios and playing defensive that 454 starting HP isnt going to be a problem. If you think you are going to dominate from level one, then you certainly will be the first frag of the game. As the game progress our heros lousy stats gain leaves its marks. Our final strength is again comparable to the squishies in the game and our int gain isnt high enough to support our low cooldown nukes + our 500 MP ultimate cost. That means we need to farm. Luckely enoug we have excellent farming tools to our disposal combined with the best escape skill in the game,. So we are going to compensate for these short comings. That means that we arent going to die in late game unless they have the proper tools to take us down. Yes, let me say it again. We are a ranged blinker, probably the most debated hero concept of Dota and if you learn to wield this correctly... Well lets say that you will laugh at all the buff Wretched Hag threads.
Enough of the endless stream of balhablabla and lets move on to Wretched Hags role in a team. We are our teams mid game power house and if we succeed in our farm Hag can be perfectly used as a secondary carry. Note, mid game power house. That means that we are 100% dependant on a solo lane so we can aquire a decent level before mid game starts. During our golden age this hero roams, pushes, farms, ganks and team fights like a true Queen (of pain?). Since we have blink as a movement tool we can go from lane to lane in a very fast pace. Because of that blink and our short cool down Sonar Scream we are excellent chasers and we have a single target slow to boost with for fail proof ganks. All this without even mentioning her ultimate. Yes, our Bat Blast is our AOE nuke, that slows, deals a good amount of damage and is one of the best creep clearing skill in the game, which means that we have nice burst damage aswell combined with excellent chasing capabilities. Also as if this wasnt enough Hag is often able to solo push/farm a lane then use her blink to escape incoming ganks faster than any other hero except Magebane. This hero has everything that a Mid game hero needs except for a stun/disable. (Guess what item we often farm as our first). Lets move on to the Wretched Hags skillset.
Skill set and Skill Build
Haunt
This is our slow. Check out the really low cooldown at level 4 which means that you can perma slow a target at level slvl 4. This skills big drawback is the very short cast range which means it has limited use in team fights since it puts you in danger. Its best use is to slow down escaping heroes after a won team fight, as a slow during a gank and to boost our ultimates damage in mid game.Note the huge backswing animation when used. Be sure to cancel it by moving your hero immediatly after you used this skill.
Buffs from Dota:
Sonar Scream
Our AOE nuke which is great for herass, farming, AOE damage output in team fights. The skill has a low cooldown of 7 seconds which matches the one on our blink skill for perfect comfort in team fights and chasing! Yes, this skill also has a long backswing that should be canceled!
Buffs from Dota:
Flash of Darkness
Our blink! This is arguably the best skill in the game. Low cooldown, long range and reliable blink on a ranged hero. Jesus this skill is powerful. Used for fast movement from lane to lane, for great offensive positioning and escaping. Can be used to dodge projectiles and playing perceptive to dodge big uncoming ultimates. Flash also renders slows useless on you. Check out this notable list of spells that can be avoided.
Hook, (and dismember i think, gonna test in SP).
Comet (Possibly her ult too, gonna test in SP, however its easy to blink out after she ultited you anyways)
Ultimate
Acid Cocktail.
Ultimate, Flash into the fog.
Flick and Cannonball can be dodged.
Chain reaction and agonizing bonds can be dodged.
:chro: Ultimate can be dodged with fast fingers.
Arc lightning
Ultimate
Ultimate can be dodged with fast fingers.
Sword throw.
Typhoon.
:fors: Arrow volley.
Ward trap.
Ultimate, and if played perceptive his stun.
The Keg, and ultimate (you will still be silenced and slowed).
Ultimate, just blink away (i think it chases you for a single hit but your out of danger anyways).
Graveyard if played perceptive.
Ultimate has 1 second cast time.
Spider chases you but its no problems.
His anyoing trap and mini stuns are more or less nullified.
Buffs from Dota:
Nerfs from Dota:
Bat Blast
Buffs from Dota
Skillbuild
1 - Flash
2 - Sonar Scream
3 - Sonar Scream
4 - Haunt
5 - Sonar Scream
6 - Bat Blast
7 - Sonar Scream (Maxed)
8 - Flash
9 - Flash
10 - Flash (Maxed)
11 - Bat Blast
12 - Haunt
13 - Haunt
14 - Haunt
15 - Stats
16 - Bat Blast (Maxed)
17-25 - Stats
This is the one and only skillbuild and there is a good reason for this. By skilling flash at level one the likehood of us getting first blooded or easily fragged in the lane is reduced to almost zero early on. We countinue by leveling two sets of Sonar Scream and maxing it first. This is our main nuke and since its AOE, it allows us to harass and taking creeps with us simultaniously. At lvl 4 we proceed with a level 1 of haunt. We are actually not planning on using this skill, but we need it to boost our ultimate. Since Bat Blast applies Haunt on the targets hit this is excellent to have. When the enemy is struck by our ultimate at early levels he will have flasks disabled, bottle disabled and also has a 20% slow applied for free. Imho this much better than one level of flash. We countinue by maxing out Flash over Haunt since leveling up Flash allows us to move faster from lane to lane, increasing our survivability and speed through entire mid game. Make no mistake, you want Flash maxed over Haunt. Another reason for taking the last levels of Haunt for 12-14 is because of the skills increasing mana cost. Its way off better to use that mana for a Flash + Sonar Scream than a slight damage over time increase and a stronger slow. And the better Bat Blast isnt enough to compensate for weakend Flash. After all you use flash non-stop, Bat Blast once every 135 seconds at the most. Haunt is maxed at lvl 14 for obvious reasons.
As always you can change the details like taking Haunt at lvl 1 (or 10 for that matter) then Flash at lvl 2, or the other way around and Sonar Scream at 3-4-5, but i usually don't. These minor changes are personal preference. However don't dare to go for some hippie open minded build like maxing Haunt first or only keeping Flash at lvl 1 and maxing Sonar Scream + Haunt first. Or God forbid, going for the ultra useless build of maxing your ultimate at lvl 10-11 that even doesn't cut it when playing against first timers.
Last edited by SyyRaaaN; 02-01-2010 at 09:10 AM.
Starting Gear
This is our starting gear we consider. The first one presented offer us +8 damage for last hitting purposes and a nice MP boost of 104. This helps our weak mana pool and the two Marks builds up to Talismans of Exiles which are needed to further increase our MP. We get some runes so we can stay in the lane. Ofcourse you can swap out a set of runes for a health potion. Its very important that your team gets a Monkey for you so that you can ship in that bottle asap if you are laning in mid.
The second one presented is my special public build. With this i get my personal courier to ship that Bottle, Marchers and the ingredients for my Talismans of Exiles, excellent. We sacrifice some intelligence and runes but we are compensating for that since we are going to ship in that additional gear and the bottle. Id take this any day over laning mid without the courier forcing you to go back to the fountain to acquire that mandatory Bottle. This build is superior to the naked bottle. Period. And btw, dont share the courier with the mindless free riders in your team. They didnt get courier for you allthough your going mid vs a tough Thunderbringer or a disgusting Succubus. In those games, allthough you need every + stats to survive that lane your team didnt support you... So, feel free to show off your great e-manners in this case. In other words: Dont share it and dont reply to anything except when you try to make a bargain; "Get me wards, then you get shared. Debate closed.". Be a man, dont get bullied.
The third one is a HP stacker. This build gives us 114 extra HP and 78 MP. We sacrifise some mana and +2 damage to boost our fragile early game HP. This is very nice when laning versus a tough soloer like Thunderbringer so he cant bully us out of the lane. Also, with that 114 extra HP we can be a bit more aggressive in our early game since we can handle incoming damage better. Im actually quite fond of this build in easier games since it allows me to be alot more aggressive and potentially scoring me a first blood.
As always the last one is whatever makes you happy. Keep in mind, naked bottle doesnt make you happy. In fact it makes you very sad when you se every rune get denied, your creep stats 0-0 after 5 minutes and your mana totally dry after a nuke thus forcing you to the fountain only to return to that level 6 Succubus while your sorry ass still is lvl 4.
The "Core" Items
:Puzzlebox: - Puzzlebox - 4450 gold - 24 Int (312 MP) , 14 Str (226 HP) - Ability to summon 2x minions (Minion 1; True sight, Mana burn nuke. Minion 2: Manaburn on attack, True sight at lvl 3, 600 True damage return if killed)
This item is the king for public and competative games. One could write an entire guide about the Puzzlebox but im going to keep it short. Wretched Hag is a great Puzzler since she has a slow, blink and is a great farmer which makes it possible for you to farm it very fast (minute 15-22 with ease). This item gives you everything you need stat-wise and the two minions are priceless. They have deal a great deal of damage, drain mana and busts invisible units and most importantly; they spot wards. This item gives you 100% map control, great pushing abilities and can deny the enemy heroes their mana. Consider this item when you want to do early pushes, or even countering early pushes, facing heroes with invisibilty like
or heroes that are likely to use Assassins Shroud :AssassinShroud:. This item is always rushed. Boots, Bottle (can be skipped actually) -> Puzzlebox. In HoN 1.65 every team must have one Puzzlebox carry. This item is simply to cheap and way off to good for the price.
:KuldrasSheepstick: Kuldras Sheepstick - 5675 gold - 35 Int (455 MP) - 10 Agi - 10 strength - 200% MP regen - Active ability to disable a target for 3,5 seconds.
A fantastic item. Period. Ill add more here later.
:Hellflower: - Hellflower - 5025 gold - 20 Int (360 MP) - 40 damage - 30 IAS - 225% MP regen - Active ability to silence a target for 5 seconds + increasing their damage taken by 20% for that duration.
This item is overlapped by the more powerful Kuldras Sheepstick for most intelligence heroes. However BabaYaga isnt your typical int hero. This item opens up a great semi carry build for Wretched Hag. The Hellflower solves all our MP problems and gives us a nice DPS boost along with a lengthy silence and a damage amplifier. By chosing this item we are going for a more carry oriented build which is presented later on. Also note that the item is much cheaper, 625 gold, the silence has the lower cooldown of 20 seconds compared to Kuldras 40 and lasts 1,5 seconds longer. This makes the Hellflower more profitable when dealing with heroes with a weakness to silence like
:Bottle: - Bottle - 600 gold - 3 charges that heals 135 HP and 70 MP each. Can store runes for 2 mintues (and is replenished by them)
This item allows you to dominate the mid lane by having a sustainable HP/MP regenartion, picking up runes for ganks, gives burst regen in team fights. Since you have a blink you are very likely to get those runes too and not wasting to much time walking there. This item is simply great for BabaYaga. There is no need to insert a wall of text on this one.
:Sustainer: - Sustainer - 1775 gold - 5 HP regen / sec (300 per minute) - 125% MP regen.
This item is a badboy, fear it. Ehum, ok maybe not. But it is actually very underrated and of great use for Wretched Hag. Some games you dont want to lane in Mid and thus your access to the runes will be limited. In that case pick this one up for the great early game regen it offers as a replacement for the bottle. I allowes you to use your Sonar Scream freely for great herass in the lane and to keep that mana up while farming with the Scream. It can also be used in mid lane (skipping bottle) if you know you are facing a cheesy team who puts two heroes at the rune spots at x:55 so they can deny you every rune. Also, consider it if you have 3-4 other Bottle users, like a roamer or two. The great thing with this item is that you can disassemble it at a later stage of the game thus using the :Manatube: to finish your Kuldras Sheepstick and using your :Lifetube: for a Null Stone, Sacrifical Stone or even selling it if you have no use at all for it.
:Steamboots::PostHaste: Marchers 500 gold - Steam Boots - 1450 gold - Post Haste - 2700 gold
Most often we will pick up the Steam Boots since they offer cheap stats and some attack speed which is needed if we chose to go for the semi carry builds. Those 10 strength/10 intelligence depending on what stat you chose makes a great difference. That extra 130 MP or 190 strength is not to be underestimated and if we take a closer look on the other boots the obvious conclusion is that they don't benefit us much. The Post Haste however can ofcourse be got. We dont really need the MS boost since we got blink but the offensive teleport is great for late game pushes and it saves you an item slot. Consider the Post Haste only if you are going for a supporter build since you really are going to be needing the +IAS and +HP from Steam Boots if you are going for a carry build.
:TalismanOfExile::FortifiedBracelet::Glowstone: - Talisman of exile 485 gold - 6 int 3 agi/str - Fortified Bracelet 510 gold - 6 str 3 agi/int - Glowstone 1200 gold - 200 HP/150 MP.
Baba Yaga needs + stats items to be able to survive and use her expensive skills in early game and mid game. So which ones to chose? Most often i prefer getting 2-3 Talismans of Exile since they are cheap and raise our MP to an acceptable amount. However, you can actually skip the exiles, or replacing one with a glowstone instead since they offer roughly the same + MP HP and it builds to three usable luxury items for you: :StaffOfTheMaster: :FrostwolfsSkull: :SacrificialStone:. The reason why i usually prefer Talismans is because they can be got so fast, you dont have to wait until you have that 1200 gold to get that early game boost. It can be done in steps with little gold. Its a matter of taste. The fortified bracelet is a different story though they give you strength instead of mana. I do not recommend these. Allthough they are clearly usable if you are facing a heavy burst damage team or an annoying codex team they leave you with too little MP. More exactly; 650 MP at lvl 9 which exactly allows you to use 2xFlash + 2xSonar Screams + Ult but no haunt. As you can see these small numbers in stats makes a real difference on Hags early game. By chosing a strength stack, Bracelets + Steam Boots (S) you neglect your MP to much. Its better if you farm that point booster instead (with or without talismans). And keep in mind Bracelets + Intelligence Steam Boots (12 str, 16 int) are not cost efficent since Talismans + Strength Steam Boots (16 str, 12 int) offer more strength at a cheaper price. And if you don't need the strength your better of with going for Talismans + Steam Boots (I) which can be changed after needs.
Conclusion:
:Glowstone: 1200 gold - 200 HP - 150 MP - 6 gold per HP, 8 gold per MP --->
:TalismanOfExile::TalismanOfExile: 970 gold - 114 HP - 156 MP - 8,5 gold per HP, 6,21 gold per MP --->
:FortifiedBracelet::FortifiedBracelet: 1020 gold - 228 HP - 78 MP - 4,5 gold per HP, 13 gold per MP --->
The Usable Items
:StaffOfTheMaster: - Staff of the Master - 4300 gold - 390 HP, 330 MP, 10 AGI - Boosts our ultimate, lower CD more damage.
Staff of the Master is usable on Baba Yaga. In good games it has mainly three uses.
- You have farmed Puzzlebox or Kuldra and want to go for a caster/supportive route i e if your facing squishes.
- You have farmed Puzzlebox or Kuldra and want to be able to perfectly clear creeps from a distance to help these heroes
to land a perfect ultimate.
- You are facing a dangerous pusher team that are trying to end the game fast and you have another Puzzlebox carry. Then its perfectly valid to make it as your first item because of the CD reduce.
:Nullstone: - Null Stone - 5175 gold - 285 HP, 195 MP, 15 AGI - Blocks one spell every 20 seconds.
You who read my scrapped Big Item Guide know what i think of this item. Yes, i think it sucks on every single hero except on Wretched Hag. The reason for this is because the spellblock is actually useful on her for defensive purposes. Since a Wretched Hag always watches her positioning and has a blink for escapes she is often very hard to target. And when she is targeted its often mostly by a single hero since the other units are out of range (if played correctly, comes up in the strategy section). Thus this can negate their first stun, a long cast range disable like hex or an anoying silence from Blood Hunter. It is actually quite difficult to cast a phoney spell on a Hag since she very often will blink away right after it since the block works as a great warning that you are being targeted. Consider it as a defensive move if you are playing versus
and so on. On this hero, Null Stone can save your life. Also it offers the stats Baba Yaga actually needs and the buildup is nice with the sustainer as its first which is can be used (explained earlier). Imho Null Stone is a much better choise than Shrunken Head for Hag since it has a lower cooldown and suits her timing-based playstyle alot better.
:FrostwolfsSkull: Frostwolf Skull - 5900 gold - 675 HP, 475 MP, 25 AGI - Slows on attack, Slows on casting a targeted spell (Haunt in this case)
Great late game luxury item for Wretched Hag. Offers a great HP boost, MP Boost, and some IAS. Perfectly used as a combination of offensive/defensive item. The slow is very good for landing aditional hits if you go for the semi carry route. Haunt + Frostwolf skulls slow = Non moving target. Also the MP boost can be used to prepare for a use of Harkons Blade.
:FrostfieldPlate: Frostfield Plate 4700 gold - 30 int (390 MP) , 15 armor - -25 IAS for enemies - Active; AOE slow + 200 damage
A luxury supportive tool that adds an AOE slow + damage and a -25 IAS punishment for the enemy team. Great versus low attackspeed carries like
and so on. As mentioned, great if you go for a supportive role after Puzzlebox or Totem of Kuldra. Chose between this one and Staff of the Master or get it after that SotM.
The Carry Stuff
:Riftshards:- Riftshards 5,5k gold (75 damage 20% chance for 2,4x critical)
:SavageMace: - Savage Mace 5,4k gold (80 damage, 35% chance for 100 damage ministun)
:Shieldbreaker: - Shieldbreaker 4,4k gold (60 damage and -6 armor applied)
aemonicBreastplate - Demonic Breastplate 5,5k gold (55% ias for you, 15% ias aura for the team, -5 armor applied to the enemy buildings and heroes, +15 armor for you and +5 armor for your team)
:HarkonsBlade: - Harkons Blade 4,750 gold (+35 int + 10 IAS +25 damage - 150% mana regen, active ability that makes your attacks deal magic damage and removing 5 magic armor on the target. While active each attack costs 50 mana).
This is the carry stuff we can use if we go for the semi carry build. The builds will be presented in a item chart with an explanation below. The reason why Hag can carry is basicly this:
- We are a ranged blinker for the perfect positioning and chasing capabilities.
- We farm great, almost as good as Soulstealer which means that we can get huge amounts of gold.
- We have a good slows to help us killing units.
- We have an acceptable agility gain.
- The ranged blinker concept scales very good with items.
All the above things combined creates a decent semi-carry. Why cant we be a real carry then?
- No skills that scales into late game like a critical, or IAS booster and so on
- We are a mid game power house that shouldnt spend our mid game farming like most other carries. We should be using our hero to its full extent at that time.
- Measured by gold, we need more gold to carry than other carries.
The Builds
Maybe rework the picture.
The Hellflower build is a more carry oriented one. It provides a nice attack speed boost along with a lengthy silence and damage amplifier. Thus when i chose the Hellflower build i almost always go after the DPS luxuries. The reason for this is because Hellflower boosts that area allthough its perfectly valid to go for a support route or a defensive item allthough i prefer not to. As you can see we are chosing Talismans of Exiles to provide that early game mana so you can use your spells more freely. If you are doing really well in the lane one exile can always be swaped with a Great Arcana :GreatArcana:. The chosen boot is Steam Boots for their nice stats boost + IAS so we can deal damage with our attack later. I prefer to use the intelligence attribute on the boot early on to further increase my MP and some extra damage for easy last hits and then swaping them for strength when my mana pool is big enough. Remember, this is a slightly more farm orientated build so be sure to fast farm with Sonar Scream to clear those creeps fast and gain that gold in mid game. You generally want your Hellflower around 25 minute mark and your first damage item by 35-39 minutes. This doesnt mean that you should have the Chronos playstyle of farming non-stop. But you should be thinking about when the right time to farm is. And as a general rule - Never canibalize your carrys farm with your nukes. Dont farm his lane, farm another one.
When to use this build? This build is best used when you have loads of disablers on your team but are lacking late game power.
The Kuldra builds are the standard ones. Kuldras Sheepstick provides your team with an extra disable and solves all your mana pool needs. This build is excellent if you are facing some dangerous carries and your team is lacking in the disable-area. Again, we chose Talismans of Exile/Steam Boots to provide us with a needed statboost. Its perfectly valid to add a Glowstone :Glowstone: to your stack of Exiles since the item builds up to a Staff of the Master or a Frostwolf skull. Two great luxury items for the Kuldra Hag. Our goal is to have that Kuldra finished by 25-30 minutes in the game. After that you are pretty much set. Don't spend time to time farming. Instead you should be initiating ganks, hunting their heroes and showing off your mid game power and basicly carrying your team through mid game until your carry starts getting fat so he can take over the role. As luxuries with the Kuldra builds we have the 3 different routes open. Go for the DPS builds if you got really fed and your carry is doing really bad. Or go for the defensive/supportive items if your carry is doing well and you don't want to snatch farm from him. If you know that you are going for a supportive-kuldra build, feel free to go for Post Haste instead of Steam Boots if you are surviving well. Note that if you went for the Sustainer-Sidelane build, you can go after a Null Stone as a protective item.
When to use this build? This is basicly the standard builds that always works. Great if your team is lacking in the disable department, you have strong carries or the enemies have a strong carry you want to disable.
The Puzzlebox build is imho the best one. This items utility for the price of 4450 gold is unbeaten. It boosts your mid game strength unbelievably much. It allows you to push and gank in mid game like a monster. You are aming to finish the Puzzlebox before 18-22 minutes so you can fully take advantage of the minions in mid game. The reason you want these early is because they scale pretty bad into late game but are true monsters in mid. Never go for a late puzzlebox. As with the Kuldra build you now should be using your Puzzlebox and Baba Yagas mid game potential to its full extent. Roam, look for ganks, push/farm and carry your team. With the Puzzlebox build we skip Talismans/Glowstone so we can finish it fast. It provides INT/STR in the buildup and when upgraded. Afterwards we progress to a support oriented or defensive build allthough the DPS semi carry is probably valid (i have actually never gone for Puzzle + DPS luxury in my XXX Hag/Akasha games). The picture is actually missing Kuldras sheepstick but is indeed a good choise after Puzzlebox.
When to use this build? Use this if you want to push fast or if the enemy team has some invisibility units. Or if you want a more supportive role as Hag. Better for clan gaming than publics (allthough its very good in pubs too) since its a more support oriented build without the great pub-basher semi carry route.
The luxuries are what you get after your core is done. The main note here is to chose which DPS path you want. The Savage Mace - Frostwolf - Savage Mace route offers you a good magic damage output. Its great used if you are facing a tough Wingbow user or a team who has stacked armor. The Frostwolf can be skipped or taking it after the Harkons. The other build is a physical oriented one. This will provied your team with a -11 armor aura which is great for supporting your own carry so he deals even more damage. The -11 armor penalty for the enemy team is alot.
The Wretched Items
:Astrolabe:
:NomesWisdom:
:ArcaneRing:
:ChargedHammer:
:SacrificialStone:
:Stormspirit:
:Codex:
Last edited by SyyRaaaN; 02-01-2010 at 02:51 AM.
Strategy Section
When to pick Wretched Hag
- Your team has a free solo lane.
- Your team needs mid game presence or you want to excel in mid game.
- Your team needs AOE damage out put or a reliable creep clearer.
- Wretched Hag fits in most line ups.
When to not pick Wretched Hag
- The enemy team has loads of lengthy snares and silencers.
- You need early game power/roamer.
- You dont have a free solo lane.
Early Game - Area will be reworked, not really satisfied with it.
What lane to chose?
Early game (lvls 1-7 (8-10), Laning Phase, All towers intact) - First of all we decide which lane we will be going for. You can do fine in any lane as long as it is a solo one. Mid lane is a great choise since you can control the runes fairly good with your blink skill. However you shouldnt always be going solo mid. Soloing a side lane can be much better under the right circumstances. If they have a too hard soloer in mid or a carry you want to be perceptive and place your Hag on another lane. Since you have a blink from level one you are very hard to kill when facing a tough dual lane. For instance if the enemy team has drafted
. He is another good example who you will have trouble with 1) herassing out of the lane 2) Has great base damage so he will probably outfarm you 3) Can disable you and frag you as long as he watches his HP bar (so you cant take him out at lvl 6/7 with Sonar Scream and Bat Blast). Ever seen
How do one lane with hag? - Attack animation.
First of all, your early game presence is crap compared to alot of heroes, period. By acknowledging this we can move on how to adress our weak starting mana, low base damage, our very expensive nuke and our 550 range penalty. The first issue im going to adress is a trick with your attack animation. Wretched Hag has a decent attack projectile but has a fairly long foreswing in her attack animation which can be used to trick your enemy to deny the creep to early thus making the last hit possible. She also has a long backswing after the projectile is fired which always should be canceled. Ill let this picture ilustrate:
That is an in depth picture of Baba Yagas attack animation. In the first picture we have the so called foreswing which is long. At any time at that stage we can cancel our attack before the projectile is fired and thus creating an annoyance/confusion for an enemy with a higher base damage. This can ofcourse be used to fake deny creeps to forcing a too early attack from your opponent. On picture two the projectile is fired. Pic number three illustrates the backswing which always should be cancelled since its only an graphical effect with no ingame use. When chasing a hero its imperative that you cancel that backswing so you can get more hits on your enemy.
How do one lane with hag? - Doing well in the lane
Well, no lane is won by only last hitting. We want to enlarge our e-penis by dominating him and thus we need to know our enemy. When playing Hag i cant stress this issue enough and it will be recurring through my entire guide; Know the cast range, cooldown and probabilty of that spell being cast on you on every single hero you are facing. Since we have a blink we can use that skill in two ways in the lane. The first, is blinking out of trouble, the other one is positioning ourself to punish our enemy if he makes a mistake. When going on offensive in the lane you have to make a fast decision - Will i be able to kill him or just take out a chunk of HP without losing to much ourselves? I will illustrate this with an example taken from a game. No fancy stuff, just what you can acomplish at lvl 3 if you think a bit. In this game im starting to get frustrated since i lane versus Defiler for several reasons. Whatever i do, i simply cant dodge those nukes. Its rigged and cursed. Everybody has a couple of heroes they truly hate to face and Defiler has always been my worst nemesis. I do nothing in the lane but watch that disgusting Defiler so i can dodge the nukes but yet i fail every single time. Grrr... Ehum, yeah, you care alot about that i suppose, here comes the picture:
Here the Defiler makes a mistake. We are both level 3. I have one level in blink and two in Sonar Scream. I see that he is standing to close and that it will take a while for him to get his creep support. I blink next to him, use Sonar Scream, net the creep frag and follow him so i can herass him while animation cancelling. I back away when he reaches the cliff since i do not want to get punished by a another nuke of his and follow up herass. The result? At lvl three i took out a chunk of HP by exploiting a single mistake while losing less myself. He couldnt do much since i had the cliff advantage + two creeps at my side if he would have decided to duel me he would been blood lusted. Thats basicly what we do in the lane, we exploit our opponents mistakes and position ourselvs with our blink to punish him for them. Dont ever jump in like a mindless zombie thinking you are all that. Take it easy, wait for the right timing like when the enemy wasted a spell. Another way to wear your enemy down in the lane is by using your Sonar Scream for last hits while hitting him in the progress. Wear down the ranged creep by giving it two hits, and as soon as a melee creep is low, use Sonar Scream and while trying to catch the hero. Flash away if he ties to punsih you afterwards (or enter the duel if you think you can win it). Remember that your nuke costs 140 MP at all levels. Use it very sparingly at lvl 1-2 so you dont depelete your manapool to early.
At level 6 always look for the oppurtunity to net a frag on your enemy. You will deal 386 damage at lvl 6, and 442 damage on lvl 7 and with a followup auto attack you can deal up too 600-700 damage if he is positioned stupidly. Remember that if you skilled one level of Haunt, you will be disabeling bottle, and health potions and slowing him 20% (the damage is very minor). The frag is very often possible. Note the mana expense, 140 + 250 + 60 = 450 mana. You have 507 mana at lvl 7 with no items. Thats why we want to ship in those Talismans and Steam Boots (I) fast. So we can use another blink + one more Sonar Scream.
Another thing i want to bring up is important things to know about your enemies and what to keep an open eye for in the lane. The enemy cast range is very important. By knowing these you will never get caught and die. You could ofcourse still be denied the farm, but thats minor in comparison to a 0-3 start. In this example we are facing the ultra hard lane of Pyromancer + Electrician. What we need to know here is the cast range of Electrician so he never catches us.
To survive this lane we must never enter the circle pictured. If we do, Electrician will grip you and shortly afterwards the double nuke from Pyromancer comes. You have no choise but to play this one very defensivly and asking your team mates to support your lane with ganks. If the stunner (in this case electrican) moves closer to you, you need to back away to avoid entering his circle. Remember that many ranged projectiles, like Hammerstorms stun and Andromedas comet can be dodged by blink if you time it good. Ill add a full cast range guide later on in the FAQ section.
Ganking - Use your brain for christs sake.
Enough of the boring laning tips. If we are laning in mid we should support our lanes with ganks. Be sure to have your ultimate ready and if possible catching a rune in the progress. The good runes for ganks are ofcourse Haste and Double Damage. As a general rule, dont gank before you hit lvl 7. And take it a bit easy until you reach lvl 9-10. Dont roam yet, you need your levels and some farm in early game. So do ganks when your ultimate is up and immediatly return to your solo lane. When doing a gank you should always alert your team mates and catch their attention. Dont be one of those morons thinking that all the game centers around you and thus the team always notices your moves. Flashing in like a baboon getting stunned and fragged and afterwards doing a classy whine like: "Omg team? ffs! You blind? Rolforz noobs" and then ranting in all-chat doesnt look very pro. Always have your beafy hero go in first in the gank, and afterwards you blink in, use Sonar Scream and/or your ultimate trying to catch both. Afterwards use a Haunt on their most important hero. When ganking, do a fast analysis, is it best to start off with the ultimate so i catch them both and slow? Or do i Sonar Scream first then finish them off with Bat Blast as they try to run? Its situational, do an analysis and learn by your failures to the next time. Another thing. Take a smart path when you are going to gank. Dont be mindless, please. Here is a map showing you good paths and bad ones:
Thats our beloved map, and the possible routes if you want to gank. Its a bit butch but it will suffice. The yellow paths show us the fastest way to reach the sidelanes. However this path can be busted by wards which means that the enemy team will be alerted if you walk that way. In that case we have to be smarter and walk along the green paths so we can gank allthough they have wards up. Very often in early game these paths wont be warded. The red ones are the newbie gank. They will see you with or without wards and your gank will be spoiled, never take that path unless they are very pushed and mindless. As we can see if we chose the green path we will end up behind the tower in our long lane. At night time this wont be much of a problem since we have a blink to position ourselves. But during day time they will see you so only consider those long lane ganks during night time. Remember, this is only a problem if they have wards up. If you are on a side lane, ask the team to gank your lane.
Mid GameLate Game
Mid game lvls 11-16 (Towers start to fall, Pushing, Team fights and big ganks starts): Ok, mid game has begun. Your main concern now is to finish off your first big item either the Puzzlebox :Puzzlebox: by minute 18-23, Kuldras Sheepstick :KuldrasSheepstick:by 25-30 and finally the Hellflower :Hellflower: by minute 24-28. After that you are set and wont be needing much farm. Your strategy will be a bit different depending on what item you chose. If you are going for the Puzzlebox route it will be your top priority to farm it fast. More important than ganking, pushing, supporting and any other task you can come up with. The difference between having that box ready by minute 18 or 30 is gamebreaking as the item loses strength quite fast. If you have it early the opponent teams map control will be destroyed, their probability of stopping your pushes nullified and you will probably be controling the game. Getting it too late will greaty reduce the above mentioned powers of the item. After its acquired its time to use your hero to its full extent. You roam, you push and you gank. You basicly carry your team through mid-game with that puzzlebox and your massive AOE damage. The Puzzlebox build requires some team work since you are ready to finish the game or atleast dealing a great strike on the enemys towers/base which demands some cohersion.
Quick Puzzlebox Guide:
- In a gank summon your minions right after you blinked next to your target and slowed him with Haunt, mark them and right click on your target. Use the mana burn whenever you get the time.
- In team fights summon your minions when your anticipiate the fight to begin. Bind them to a group and send them after a profitable hero as the fight begins. Usually burn a hero who has costly skills and a bit low mana pool like :jera:
- Another way to use the minions in the beginning of mid game in team fights is to initiate with them and let them. In that case send them after some annoying Portal Key user
to disable their dagger + draining their mana. In late game this doesnt work to well since the enemy will just kill the minions and not care to much about it. But in the beginning of mid game this can buy you the time to initiate on them instead of them on you.
- They are great for busting invisibility units like
- Summon them in areas you suspect are warded and clear the wards.
- Practice makes perfect. Dont hesitate to learn. In the beginning don't use the mana burn and just master using your minions for auto attack (on heroes) in team fights. Move on to practicing micro control of them and burning a random target. Afterwards, proceed to use them as you see fit.
If you decide to go after the Kuldras Sheepstick/Hellflower build your playstyle should be a little bit different from the one above. Since both these items scale very good into late game you dont have to worry that much about getting them so fast as the Puzzlebox. Kuldras Sheepstick is just as good minute 25 as it is minute 65. You dont have the same presure to finish the item as fast as the Puzzlebox level 3. Thus you should be farming towards your Kuldra while you are supporting your team with ganks, helping out at pushes and defending which brings me to my next point.
How to play in Mid Game:
Farming
First of all as your mana pool as got bigger you can use your Sonar Scream freely to farm. Hit the ranged creep once, and start working the melee creeps until they reach yellow HP and blast them. In Mid Game you should score 5/5 creep kills every wave when farming alone, period. Nothing else is acceptable. Since we have a very good escape mechanism, Flash, we can push the lanes pretty aggressivly and escaping with it. Either you back away by flashing or you flash into the woods and teleport from there. As always watch the minimap for missing heroes and notably heroes that can disable or silence you since that is what most likely will get you raped. Remember to not steal farm from carrys. Since Baba Yaga has a blink we can farm those pushed lanes with little risk leaving the good unpushed lanes to our carries that lack the escape skill we have.
Team fights
Ah, yes, the team fights in mid game. This is where Baba Yaga truly shines and about this topic one could write an entire book. As Wretched Hag you have 4 things to think about when entering a team fight in mid game. First of all you want to execute the perfect Bat Blast for the optimal AOE damage output. Secondly you want to survive the fight so you can proceed to your next task which is to chase down the enemy survivors for a complete genocide. And lastly after you Bat Blasted the enemies you want to position yourself correctly to use the sonar scream and kill the squishies of the enemy team. So lets move on to how to execute all this without getting raped.
1) Bat Blast
Your powerful AOE ultimate that requires a great deal of timing and positioning to execute well. For Wretched Hag this isnt a problem since we got Flash. And keep in mind, doing a good Bat Blast is what makes or breaks the team fight. The perfectly executed Blast should hit all five heroes but that can be impossible to pull off in a real fight. So we are aiming for a minimum of three profitable heroes. What the hell does that mean? Well, that means that you are going to hit their carry and atleast two squishies/casters. The enemy tank is only considered a bonus if you did hit him and its fully acceptable to miss out on a chicken positioned supporter that has played it smart. Now that we know who we should aim for the question is, when should we cast it? Bat Blast is to be used early in a team fight but isnt by any means the first thing you should do. You are not a Behemoth or Magmus. Let your real initiators move in first and as soon as the real clash begins, blink into position and Blast the fukkers. The reason we want the clash to begin is because you are going to be fairly close to the enemy team when using Bat Blast. If you don't let your tanks/initiators move into position first you put yourself in a great risk which can result in you getting stunned/silenced and fragged. Or they may notice you and scatter a bit which results in a failed ultimate. Unlike Behemoth and Magmus your ultimate isnt positioned in the center of the enemy team but rather from an angle outside of the center. Magmus and Behemoth are like a self playing piano after they have used their ultimates. Unlike them, you dont have any followup stuns, good strength gain to tank and so on. So again, let your team move into position first, then Blast. If they have loads of stunners and disablers, closely follow their movements as you dont want to get caught by them. However sometimes, to steal a Babylon 5 quote; "The truth points to itself" and you will se that opportunity clearer than anything. I will present you 2 pictures from different games and a pedagogic picure to explain some fundamentals of how to position yourself.
Turd game strategies.
Last edited by SyyRaaaN; 02-01-2010 at 08:24 AM.
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Last edited by SyyRaaaN; 01-17-2010 at 07:22 PM.
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