When and Why to Midas ?

Hand of Midas is most useful on heroes who needs levels as much as farm - while it does pay back gold and eventually give you a profit, the major benefit is the extra experience it provides.

The thing is, there can be a lot more benefit to simply getting that extra XP/farm by simply killing enemies rather than passively farming, but this does rely on being able to do so effectively, and without too much risk to yourself. It's a case of judging when the game will be relatively passive early on, in which case it benefits you a lot.

The other major factor is how much your hero needs other farming equipment to be able to get more gold/levels quickly - so for example on a Battle Fury Anti-Mage build, it's bad, as it just delays your other item. It's more suitable on heroes who don't need that extra farming equipment, just a simple boost in the right situation.

I am not a carry player, but I will try to give you my point of view.

Hand of Midas is bad on heroes, who should be active early, who should snowball. Thus, I wouldn't get Hand of Midas on heroes like Sven, Legion Commander, Dragon Knight, Templar Assassin, Tusk, Huskar.
I wouldn't also recommend buying Hand of Midas on heroes, who need a lot of time to show their full potential, like Medusa and Spectre. If you would buy Hand of Midas on them, of course you would increase their GPM and XPM in a long run, but you would delay their items, just because you invested that into Midas. Hand of Midas is worth 1/3 of Eye of Skadi, or it has the same cost as Yasha and basically Ultimate Orb. With these items you can do SOMETHING in fights, other than dying to 3 abilities and losing gold and time you could spend on farming.

I noticed a trend, that many players are buying Hand of Midas on Phoenix. Probably because he doesn't need items that much early.


You should also know, when your line-up has the advantage over the enemy. If your team will pick heroes with early aggression and no great lategame potential, I would skip that item and pick something, that will be useful ASAP. That team could be:

• Undying
• Rubick
• Sven
• Clockwerk
• Brewmaster

Instead of buying Hand of Midas on Sven, get Blink Dagger and kill that damn Sniper.

Same story with Legion Commander. If she will not get early Duel wins, she will be underwhelming later. This is just how it hero works. Early Blink Dagger and help of 1-2 supports should get you a win on almost any enemy hero.

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You probably noticed why I didn't write on which heroes I would get Hand of Midas on. Well, I just don't like this item in general. Hope I helped you.