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ClarityClarity
Boots of Speed
Healing Salve
Wind Lace
Tranquil Boots
Maelstrom
Blink Dagger
Boots of Travel
Skull Basher
Butterfly
Abyssal Blade
Moon Shard
Mjollnir
Shadow Blade
Silver Edge
Bloodthorn
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1 | 3 | 5 | 7 |  |
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8 | 9 | 11 | 13 |  |
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2 | 4 | 14 | 16 |  |
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6 | 12 | 18 |  |
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10 | 15 |
NOTE: November 05 2017 update REMOVED Swashbuckle not triggering Tranq Boot cool-down. Now it acts as a normal attack, and triggers the 13 second CD.
ALSO: Shield Crash forces you to move forward by 225 units. This is rather helpful for chasing, and you CAN traverse cliffs with this.
ALSO: Rolling Thunder damage slightly increased, and is now a 1.2 second 'Cast Time' instead of a channel. YOU CAN STILL SHADOWBLADE after casting your Ulti, though Glimmers will probably have to be activated before.
When playing Pango, emphasis should be put on building a very mobile character, able to dart in and out of combat, and to act as a secondary initiator capable of interrupting channeling abilities.
Against a stun-lock-heavy team, as well as one with heavy right-clicks, Pangolier suffers. Yes, his Ulti makes him immune to MAGIC, but not regular attacks.
The best match-ups seem to be against squishier supports, or less-mobile carries.
As the character is still brand new, there are plenty of tricks to figure out, still, but hopefully this guide will help to add a few new maneuvers.
Swashbuckle can be a little finicky, especially if you're trying the character out for the first few times.
Basically; Press 'Q', left-click and HOLD on the spot you want to mini-blink TO, then drag the cursor in the direction you WANT TO ATTACK IN and RELEASE.
It takes just a few minutes demo-ing the hero to be able to do this proficiently, and just a few bot-games to understand the sheer LENGTH of this ability.
TWO THOUSAND RANGE. A thousand for the dart into position, then a length of attack for another thousand. Couple that with a Blink Dagger and you've got a VERY dangerous skill.
You'll be able to easily hit a back-row ranged creep from 400 range in front of their melee counterparts, and if you're an experienced Tempy Assassin player, then you'll easily be able to line up an attack on your opposing Hero at the same time, WITHOUT actually having to run over to the position.
And as a bonus, you get FOUR attacks on them. Yes, for very reduced damage, BUT, it will trigger procs on items, as well as your Heartpiercer skill.
After Getting a Mjollnir, creep waves will MELT with a single Swashbuckle, with an essentially guaranteed proc on at least ONE creep.
This item alone will pay itself back in dividends, just for the sheer pushing and farming capabilities.
BETTER YET -> SWASHBUCKLE does NOT trigger the cool-down on TRANQ BOOTS, making it a safely-spammable skill while still allowing for heaps of health regen. Thirteen seconds of standing on the outskirts of the fight really just means allowing for a Swashbuckle and Shield Crash reset.
For the Shield Crash... well, when used during your Ulti, it's utterly fearsome. HOWEVER, without the level 10 talent of +2 Mana Regen, you probably won't want to use it much outside of the Rolling Thunder, simply because you'll be left sucking mana-fumes.
With the 2-Second Cool Down During Rolling Thunder talent at level 15, you'll realistically be able to use it twice, if not tree times during your Ulti. That's a Hell of a lot of damage, but also a lot of Mana being used.
Another benefit is the DAMAGE REDUCTION, because, REMEMBER, during your Ulti you're MAGIC-immune. NOT damage-immune. Heroes with heavy right-clicks will utterly DESTROY you if you miss with a roll... luckily, the Crash skill has a fairly wide radius, meaning that the reduction will allow you to roll a fair distance away before becoming vulnerable to stuns again.
Heartpiercer is a quirky little skill. At only 15% proc-rate, you can't really rely on it's effects like other Heroes with similar abilities. Really, it's nice when it procs, but it won't be utterly essential.
The description also doesn't clue you in to the fact that it only de-buffs NATURAL armour, and armour gained from AGILITY. Item or Skill-applied armour is still active even under the effect of Heartpiercer, so, really, look forward to the decent slowing effect.
When chasing a Hero, a lucky Swashbuckle can trigger the effect, and then you get a decent chance to finish them off. OR, you can hope for a proc when helping a team-mate to escape. Swashbuckle from a safe distance away, then pray to the RNG Gods.
Rolling Thunder is like driving a bumper-car... so drive it like you stole it. Hitting a CLIFF instantly turns you around 180-degrees, making you UTTERLY DEVASTATING in a Rosh pit, in the river, or in a Jungle. ALWAYS plot your advance towards a cliff, if not for a re-bound 2nd strike, then for the ability to Shield Crash PAST the barrier, where the enemy team can't quickly follow.
NOTES ON RT:
You CAN cancel the roll at any time by clicking on R a second time.
You CAN cancel the roll at any time with a Swashbuckle.
You CAN channel a Meteor Hammer while rolling... but, seriously, don't buy that item. It's just a fun thing you CAN do.
You CAN USE SHADOWBLADE/SILVER EDGE/GLIMMER CAPE while CHANNELLING. INVISIBALL FOR THE WIN!!! HOWEVER... you can't use Shield Crash, as that will pop you out of invis. Aside from this dirty trick, though the item is useless, as your Blink Dagger and Swashbuckle can move you around the map with better efficiency, farming the entire time, and without wasting mana.
You CAN use your Blink Dagger while rolling. Something I like to do; after an initiation of Ice Path, Rolling Boulder, or Fissure, roll straight through as many Heroes as you can, then BLINK BACK along the same path, far enough that a follow-up Shied Crash will impact on those same characters.
Remember, though, that if you take a single right-click from a ranged Hero, your Blink will enter cool-down. If that happens, look for a cliff to do a 180, or just bugger off and wait in the trees to clean up the trash with a Swashbuckle.
To start, a double clarity, brown boots, and a single salve. Initially, attempt to use your Swashbuckle to gain a clear last hit, lower the other creeps, and to put a bit of harassment on the opposing Hero.
With barely any effort, build the Tranq Boots. The best thing about these at the moment is that Swashbuckle does NOT initiate the Tranq cool-down. Thus, if you're getting low, just sit back a bit, leech some Deny experience, and spam a couple of longer-range Swashbuckles until your health is back up.
Next in line is the Maelstrom. With this, culling a creep wave takes all of 1.5 seconds, then you can dart into the jungle, clear two camps, and pop out onto the lane to destroy another wave.
Boots of Travel is another must-have as a lane-pusher. The ability to bounce back and forth on lanes is invaluable, or at the very least it will allow you to teleport in from the Jungle to help secure a gank or clean up on a big team-fight. Yes, some people might argue that the cost isn't worth the small amount of movement speed... but it's the teleportation cool-down that's most important.
A Blink Dagger on this Hero just allows him to farm faster; appear out of fog in an instant with a Swashbuckle, or to sneakily double-up his stun duration during his Ult.
Skull Basher CAN proc during Swashbuckle, so it's a highly effecting piece to lock down a hard-carry, or to help in the chase when an elusive Hero is attempting to escape.
Mjollnir will allow you to clear a normal creep-wave in .5 seconds. Also, with a 200-damage proc on up to 5 targets, it's a wonderful addition to your team's capacity for violence.
Abyssal Blade is a good upgrade for the SB.
Butterfly is just SICK as a sixth item. Now that the evasion DOES NOT GO AWAY when you activate Flutter, it's a wonderful aide for escaping. Plus, the additional attack speed, damage, and armour gained from Agility makes it a good pick-up.
Seventh-slot is a Moon Shard, consumed. Sucks to waste money, but after a 60-minute game while you're raking in close to 900GPM, you're going to be looking for things to buy.
LVL 10 -> +2 Mana Regen. Without this, you'd have to resort to purchasing a Linkin's Sphere, which, while a good item, it takes away from your massive damage-potential. However, if you're up against a team with two or three stuns, then a Linkin's is an inevitable purchase, so just enjoy the ability to spam Shield Crashes during your Ulti.
LVL 15 -> 2 Second Cool Down while in Rolling Thunder. With practice, you'll be able to roll + crash, then rebound off a cliff (or Blink Dagger backwards while keeping the same direction of travel), and do the same thing again. Basically, at maxed levels, you're getting 300 dmg for a roll, 300 damage for a Crash, x 2, or even x3, if you're good enough to cliff AND Blink. That's 1200 damage to EACH Hero hit like that, and, at mid game, it's typically enough to decimate a team on it's own.
WHEN COUPLED with an initiation from a PROPERLY SUITED character, this will just be team-wipe caliber.
LVL 20 -> +20 Strength. Just do it. You NEED the additional HP and regen. And a single Mjollnir proc will out-do the damage increase on the Swashbuckle.
Level 25 -> -3 Second Swashbuckle Cooldown. Turns it into a nicely-spammable 5 seconds. While the +12 second duration of your Ulti is nice, it simply isn't feasible, as you move like a over-stuffed moving-van with soft tires. Besides, you'll be more useful to your team darting around and smacking people with Bashes, Slows, and Mjollnir procs.
So, thanks for browsing this guide, which is my first, and probably the only one that I'll create.
All the other characters have innumerable guides already, and unless Dota 3 comes out within the next few years, there's simply nothing left to say about the well-established characters.
Ah, but a brand-new one holds so much promise. Silly, foppish accents aside.
Hopefully, though, someone reads through these musings and discovers a new tactic that they can use to utterly destroy an opposing team. I'll be waiting for that, with my fingers crossed.
;)
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