Originally Posted by
ImmortalPig
Warlock is definitely a good hero but I'm still skeptical. According to dotabuff he's picked a lot in pubs, and according to dota-academy he isn't picked very often in pro games.
hes got alot going for him, but he definitely needs the levels and farm to be really effective.
at his core he is a support, so that means pulling, warding, not taking farm or xp, delaying his lvl 6/11/16 and mana boots.
hes also really squishy with no mobility spells, his slow is a channeling, so he cant use that to escape or anything.
so hes really easy to kite pre level 6 and even after that, its really easy to kill him befor he can cast.
and in the late game, when you have bkbs and kunkas and PAs doing 800 damage splash, his golems are just free gold.
massive cooldown on his ulti aswell, so if you dont kill the team in that initial engagement, and they decide to engage on you while your ult is down, youre dead.
really easy to couter with strategy aswell, gang a warlock with 1 or 2, force him to waste the ulti then push while its down.
good teams will never let the warlock play his own game, they would force him to play theirs.
engage him, dont let him use his ulti effectively.
that and its all about the meta, ive seen a few warlock games in the competative scene, and on the SA server, warlock is definitely part of our meta.
Originally Posted by
ImmortalPig
But compared to ES who has a stun a stun a stun that kills people and only needs blink really... 10K gold on essentially what is a support doesn't make me feel good
i find that ES is even easier to kite in the early game than warlock, and as a support, warlock is just superior.
getting an ags + refresher isnt a must do for warlock, going the support route is just as effective, mek and stuff and stuff.
his ulti is still going to be relevant, he doesnt NEED the ags + refresh, it just makes him better.
same as how ES would be better with ags + refresh.
a better comparison would be to compare how an es without blink, would compare to a warlock.
Originally Posted by
ImmortalPig
What role is Warlock usually played? 'GG' seem to run him as 3 or 4? His scaling and amount of farm he often gets make his role questionable to me. He is a good utility hero that can't really be counterpicked. And he's a powerful pusher. By himself, he's definitely a good hero.
in the laning phases, we run him as a 4/5, due to the fact that when it comes to teamfight time, he naturally makes cash money.
getting one or two kills and a few assists should get you on your way to a reliable 25 minute midgame aganims.
just dont feed.
realistically, a #4/5 warlock wont finish the refresher, as you can see from msot of my games, so heading for a mek after the aganims, if the team doesnt have one, is probably a better idea.
it is possible to run him on the mid lane, but tbh, if the other mid knows what hes doing, the game is overs.
and having a midlane who can only fight once every 3 minutes is a waste.
and his gangking is not so effective, hes a team fight hero.
when it does work though, ez 15 minute aganims, but putting you that far ahead of your team, puts you almost into a carry position. forces the team to take an early push strategy, moving the farm of your #1 into a secondary role.
as to countering him, its fairly ez.
rubick, clinks, bh, clockwork, kunkka and silencer
all heroes part of the current meta, all of which can kill warlock or prevent him from casting.
outside of those, anyone with a stun or silence that goes aggresive on him
but if those are picked, you run him in the support role, get mek, urn, medalion etc instead of ags/refresh.
tbh, i prefer a support warlock to a core warlock.
i prefer pure supports, AA, disruptor etc, but the team needs me to play an agressive core support that can create space for our #1/2
Last edited by BenDover; Jul 31, 2013 at 12:18 PM.