Being An Annoying Pusher: Vol. 4 (Updated 6.82 Patch)

Broodmother Pregame

First things first, go to your settings menu and create macros for controlling Hero, Hero & Groups, and Group (I use Spacebar, F, G respectively). Play some Co-op bot with randoms and get a feel for micros. Broodmother gameplay has a decent amount of microing involved to become effective so practice up.

Greetings, Updates, and Patch Discussion

Welcome to my first guide in it's upteenth revision for patch 6.82. I have changed a good amount of things around such as playstyles and have done some formatting so please feel free to comment and critique as you see fit.

Holy patch notes! Broodmother has been getting much love recently and this patch improves several things about her. Lets look into this briefly:

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Patch 6.82 Changes

• Spin Web now has 1/2/3/4 charges with a 40 second replenish time, instead of a 30 second cooldown
• Spin Web time to enter hidden mode after taking damage increased from 3 to 6 seconds
• Spin Web movement speed bonus is doubled whenever Broodmother is in hidden mode (having not taken damage recently)
• Spin Web phasing and speed bonuses now work on Spiderlings
• Spin Webs are now selectable and have an ability to destroy themselves
• Spin Web can now be cast from anywhere as long as the new web touches another
• Whenever Broodmother is taken out of Spin Web's free pathing, she destroys nearby trees
  

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  In a Nutshell: Majority of these changes are good!
• You have incredible movement/chase options now as long as you don't take damage
• With the addition of your spiderlings now receiving free pathing just like Brood, they now have a behavior of grouping up extremely close. This is a double edge sword now, because with enough spiders you can effective harass your enemies quicker and in a more "bursty" manner while you sit back and soak up XP in the lane, but this also leaves your spiders grouped extremely close for AOE harass and possible feeding to your enemies.
• Global cast range on touching webs, ability to highlight and destory webs, and a charge system for your webs all provide a way to transition to other lanes if playing from behind,split pushing, and most importantly transitioning to another lane.
• Additionally, the new web charge system allows you to have incredible diving and chasing capabilities even when the enemy retreats into tree jukes.

Pros and Cons

Pros Unobstructed movement and speed makes you hard to juke/catch when on your webs Can snowball extremely fast if left uncontested Safe and effective harass with spiders Can jungle, lane, gank, scout, block camps at the same time w/ Spawn Spiderlings Can recover farm quickly if at a disadvantage Incapacitating Bite is effective against right clickers and fleeing enemies One of the best split pushers next to Natures Prophet and Tinker Ultimate is a 14 second Satanic with a nice damage boost

Cons You are easily countered by good sentry wards Incredibly vulnerable until Soul Ring is obtained Spawn Spiderlings can feed the enemies A LOT of gold Cannot take on more than 1-2 enemies unless at an advantage in levels & items

You Just Spawned...Which Lane?

Offlane(Radiant/Top or Dire/Bottom).

Why?

• Your ability to farm their jungle can stagger afk farmer early-midgame.
• You are applying pressure into their safe lane where supports are pulling/stacking camps and carries are trying to farm safely.
• You can creep skip w/ your spiderlings and have them kite the wave to your tower for easy farming.
• You can harass from a distance with spiderlings.
• You have invisibility an quick movement without boots when on your webs.
  
  All these characteristics make for an ideal offlaner. Mid lane is doable, but not advisable due to the open space and being more dependent on your invisibility rather than trees (not very reliable if dusted/sentried).
  
  Safelane is not very ideal, because you can be so much more effective for your team in the offlane ruining the enemies jungle and also farming for yourself. Only reason you would switch to safelane is if you were shut down during laning and playing from behind. If this does happen to you then TP out, destroy webs, and start to jungle/farm lane to get your core up and running.

Create Your Silken Path

Below I have added a map that shows the general flow of where to throw your webs down as you progress through your lane. I have color coded the general path or "spine" of your web road in RED. I also have optional placements for webs as you progress in GREEN. To see a closer view of this image right-click and open in a new tab to zoom in and stuff.

A few things to note when putting down webs:

-Make sure they are touching when you place them in thick foilage otherwise you will get your spiderlings stuck.

-Take advantage of your unobstructed movement and lay each web so there are trees or high/low ground you can run into and escape. Always have some type of treeline or uneven terrain in EACH of your webs radius.

-Create paths to camps so your spiders can quickly move in and out between lane pushes. The regen helps them tank a little bit too.

-Broodmother gets unobstructed movement on her webs and with 6.82 her spiderlings now do as well. It can be easy to move them off the webs and blow your cover/surprise.

Please remember you can branch out accordingly as I am merely giving a general idea. I have found these roads to be very effective from my personal experience. Note the amount of treelines for juking.

Laning Phase Into Midgame

I wrote this part in a time stamp manner to give you a rough idea where you should be at your laning phase until you get that Soul Ring up and running.

00:60 Buy your Ring of Regen and Sentries and Skill your webs. Every. Single. Game.

00:30 Move to offlane quickly and throw that first web down to get the cooldown timer going. Make sure the edge of the web gives you access to side shop so you can slip in and out undetected. You may also opt for running back and creep blocking at this point as well.

MATCH START

00:30 Throw your second web out towards their small camp. If you get harassed hard, you can always destroy it and throw another one back towards your tower and play defensively. This is also handy for leaching exp if creeps get under their tower.

01:00 Get your Spawn Spiderlings skilled. At lvl 1-2 do not harass with this as the damage is negligible compared to the small band of spiderlings you are going to build up shortly. Wait until a creep is low and last hit it to spawn a spiderling. Immediately move said spider out of danger and start heading towards their smallcamp.

1:30 Go for the weakest creep and tank up shots from the camp for your spiderling. If you didn't miss your first spawn spider in lane you should eventually have enough mana to fire another one out on the camp. Once the first creep drops, you can let your spiders tank. Once the camp drops you should have roughly 4-5 spiders.

After this small camp has been taken, transition back to lane and Scout out and Sentry Wards that the enemy may have placed on you.

From here you have options:

If you have been struggling for farm (No Soul Ring yet)
A) **This only applies to Radiant Offlane** Move your spiders into med. camp. If they are anything but Hellbears and Centuars farm it if not disregard this option. Move Brrod near lane and soak up xp in from a safe distance.

B) Transition back to lane until small camp spawns. If you see a last hit opportunity, send your spiders in and try to nab it. Harass if you see an opportunity.

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Transition to Midgame

By now your you must ask yourself these important questions:

1. Has my opponent laid sentries down and if so, where?

2. How far is the lane pushed up? Use the side shop as the middle line as a rule of thumb.

3. How many spiders are with you? You need at least 4 to make a go on somebody otherwise get your 8 legged *** back to their small camp and get some more.

4. Who is out of position? By this I mean what squishy support can you harass back or get first blood on? Always ping(Alt+Right-Click) who you are going for if you have a lane buddy or somebody moving in.

5. Has my opponent laid sentries down and if so, where? It is that important.

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The Good, The Bad, The Ugly, and How to Adapt in Early/Midgame

Scenarios

The Good: You spotted and destroyed their sentry wards before they could get yours and you stole their small camp before Lion could pull it.

Adaptation: Good job! You now have them on eggshells, their lane will push, and you have forced them to either spend another 150 gold on more detection or wonder where the hell you are at. Keep checking their inventories, expect more wards to come, and watch for a courier snipe or a kill opportunity.

The Bad: You missed that first spiderling last hit needed to go jungle their small camp and you were beat to the punch dewarding their sentry.

Adaptation: Stay positive! We obviously know where one of their wards is and this is good, but it is only 900 range while exp range is 1300 range. You can continue to soak up exp in the trees or fog of war safely until you get that spiderling hatched on your next go around. Since we threw that second web towards their small camp, feel free to hang out around their and look for their support if they attempt to go that way to pull.

The Ugly: You were sentried and ganked.

Adaptation: It's going to happen and it is not the end of the world to be first blooded on especially with the new comeback mechanics from the latest patch for gold and exp. If they are at your tower now pushing, Throw a web towards it from your side shop web (Dat global cast range) and play defensively. Your goal now is to slip past them and just keep farming their jungle for a bit until you get a nice group of spiders. Work towards your core items:

Soul Ring, Power Treads, Vladmir's Offering

Vlads Every Game?

Yes!

"It's situational"

On most heroes I would say this is true, but remember Brood is not like most other heroes.

Explain yourself noob...

With pleasure! The reason I suggest Vlad's every game as core on Brood is for that sweet and juicy 15% damage increase. This applies the buff to your spiderlings as well. This damage output seems negligible with only 1-4 spiderlings, but when you begin to accumulate those massive armies of upwards to 15-20 spiders, That 15% damage increase pays huge dividends towards your overall potential DPS when you gank and push. This is why I recommend it as your third core item since you really need lvl 3-4 on your Q to make it effective. We also can't forget that nice +5 army that gets applied to them as well. If that still leaves a sour taste in your mouth remember, you're a mother now and your party life is over so take care of your children!

Disagree if you must, but seriously try a game with this on Broodmother and you will notice how much quicker that Crystal Maiden melts when your swarm moves in on her.

I am open to comments on this because I feel it seriously is a very underrated, yet essential item on Broodmother.

Strategy and Tactics

-When calling your courier, make sure to run back and meet up with it to keep it safe. If you have to, manually take control of it and navigate it AROUND your lane enemies to ensure it doesn't get killed. Your courier cannot die at all before your soul ring or you are screwed hard for a few minutes.

-Broodmother is excellent at picking off 1-2 man groups by herself once she gets her Ultimate. If you see a lone enemy wandering on your webs, its easy lunch for you and your spiders.

-After the 6.82 patch, you can easily offlane during your Laning Phase. Throw your web over a patch of trees and wait IN the trees. Positoning your body to attack from within them can allow you to get a free auto attack on the enemy and then run away before they can do anything to you! This is escpecially true with melee heroes. Keep pecking away at there health and get back and heal if they land a nuke or two on you.

-Always have a group of spiderlings (4+) sitting in the shadows near you waiting. Keeping them constantly following you is bad micro. Learn to position them so when engaging an enemy you come from one angle and your spiders attack from another angle. This can disorient the enemy more. Usually I will move my spiders behind the enemy THEN order them to attack. Since patch 6.82 The spiders now group up unobstructed on the webs, allowing for a more condensed, but bursty damage output. What most people forget is an AOE spell only makes this more annoying since they will unclump and begin to surround the target like pre-patch and body block.

-A Gem of True Sight can be risky but worth picking up if you feel you are being sentry warded heavily. If you are lacking gold, grab a stack of sentry wards and counter ward. A decent way to scope out their general location is to aggro some lane creeps then pay attention if they are still attacking you or your spiders while stealthed on a web.

-While you push a lane, send your spiders to farm the jungle camps. You will get so much gold by doing this and wen you spawn more spiders they will autoattack the closest creep upon birth. Easy micro.

-I cannot stress this one enough: the faster you push your lane up, the more opportunities you will have open for you. Take over their jungle, Keep their lane pushed, and keep tapping on their door until their Rax are exposed. Make your lane an itchy pimple on their *** that they must constantly address which in turn allows them less time to organize and offensive of their own. Map control my friend.

Soloing Roshan

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NOTE:With Patch 6.82 out, Solo rosh is too strong for Broods wet noodle slap of an autoattack now and his AOE ground pound will wreck your spiders in no time, but her and her spiderlings can do a great job of softening him up for reinforcements to come in and clean up...

Yes it is A very niche tactic and yes it should NOT be executed every game. When executed correctly, it will catch your opponents with there pants down. If executed incorrectly, congrats! you just got reported by everyone on your team.

What you need:

-Lvl 4 Spawn Spiderlings
-12+ Spiderlings (the more the better)
-Ultimate
-Lvl of Incapacitating Bite for the damage miss.
-Lvl 4 Webs
- Smoke of Deceit if on Radiant side

Step-By-Step

1. Do a lap through the jungle and hit 2-3 camps. Maximize your Spawn Spiderlings cooldown and let spiders tank hits. you can score two spawns off one camp if you do it right.

2. Group spiders by you and smoke up. James Bond your way to the Roshan pit. If you get caught out your cover is blown and the element of surprise you wanted to use is blown for the rest of the match. Remember this.

3. Throw a web in the pit. PLACE IT ON THE CLIFF TO THE SECRET SHOP AND MAKE SURE THAT WEB IS NOT POKING OUT INTO THE SECRET SHOP AREA! If you do it right, your web will simply push you out of the tree line into the secret shop area where you can make your escape!

4. Activate Ulti. Start attacking first to draw aggro and then let your spiders surround and attack. Once your ulti wears off, back off and let spiders tank and draw aggro. Alternating between ulti tanking and your spiders tanking is key to doing it effectively.

5. Kill Roshan. Grab Aegis. Wait for enemies to poop pants.

TL;DR

-New patch gives Brood more buffs
-Vlad's is actually ok
-be an itchy pimple on your teams butt.

Thanks for reading. Tap the rock.