Chemical Rage Quit

Any avid alchemist players wanna comment on anything?

You have the very basics down. There are a few problems though:

While Shadow Blade is an optional item, it is just that, optional. It's good to get away, but really you only need that on certain circumstances.

The skilling order is off too. The big thing with Alchy is he is diverse. Typically he is going to end up either maxing Concoction or Greed first. Greed if and only if you can free farm for the first bit of the game. Concoction if you need lane control or need to gank, and Alchemist is an EXCELLENT ganker.

Everything else is personal opinion, but having a Hood or Vanguard early on can help you in lane a LOT, as well as allow you to keep your Armlet on with little health worries, and when teamfights come around you will be near impossible to kill.

I don't really use shadowblade to get away. I use it to gank and initiate. I used to go with blink dagger, but I found I was lacking damage output to solo kill enemies with 2k invested in a damage-less initiation for my stun. Shadow blade is a perfect item on alchemist.


I don't need vanguard or hood, Too expensive and adds no damage. There is no point of being tanky if you can't deal damage. Armlet gives me health regen early via helmet and a huge amount of damage when completed. I average 8-11 min armlet in my alchemist games. having such an early armlet makes you unkillable and you have great sustain with chemical rage. It also lets you jungle infinitely.

Maxing your acid spray first is a must for neutral stacks, lane control and for team fight / tower pushes. I often lane him mid and it can push the opponent out of farm and exp, same goes for side lanes.

You only need one point in your Goblin greed early. Ranking it up only increases the base amount of gold you receive for killing a creep, the stacking amount is static.

The point of going hood/vanguard is to have early tankiness. I'd like to really emphasize how bad Alch is early game, and how anyone decent can really hold you by the balls if you have no way to stay in lane. You get plenty of damage off of Armlet + Rage, the added health just allows you to beat up whoever you like without worry of dying, and the armor reduction off acid spray gives you plenty of damage too.

And maxing acid spray really does nothing in terms of laning. The damage it gives is next to nothing, the only way it would hurt anybody is if they sat in it for the full duration. It can't keep them off creeps and it's not going to help you too much in the way of lane control. It is really only good for teamfights and killing neutral camps easy. And getting more levels in goblins greed is going to skyrocket your GPM. If you see any Alch rush a radiance or get his core build in under 20 minutes with only 1 level in greed, be sure to let me know. Maxing it allows you to mitigate the gap of gold you missed if you got pushed back or the creep wave goes past the tower.

Rushing radiance is old meta. It rarely works. Put a 15-20 min radiance on any hero and it works.


With 100 creep kills with level 4 greed you only have an extra 600 gold. So you are sacrificing a high level stun or acid spray for that. 600 gold is a double stacked ancients spawn. It's not needed. The gain is smaller than you think. It's about having the high level stun and acid spray at your arsenal for ganks and team fights. High levels games do not permit free farm.

Look at the hero from the perspective of being on your team, played by someone else. Do you want your alchemist to have nothing to contribute early game? If my alchemist doesn't have max spray for the - armor or max stun hes worthless to me and himself.

10 min armlet trumps vanguard and hood in being tanky.

I never said you should only max greed, both greed and concoction are viable, but spray is not. And again, high level of greed mitigates the gaps of time where gold isn't flowing in, hence, high level games where you can't free farm. Also, early radiance is damned viable, it's not old meta or new meta, because Alch isn't in the meta, it's just good on him.

And early armlet certainly doesn't trump anything if you can't sustain it. Health/regen/magic resist are far more powerful early on.

In a game where you and another carry are contemporarily farming, greed gives you the edge.

Acid spray is definitely viable, it's his best ability. A huge AoE -6 armor and 32 psionis ( mixed/true) damage a second ability with great duration is amazing. You only need greed at level one. No point in maxing it early. It's simple mathematics.

Vanguard is 2k gold, and hood is 2k gold. You're dumping 4k gold in items that won't do **** for you other than allow you to take damage, but not dish it out. Why give your hero farm if he can't do anything with it?


As for the build I'll have to try out the shadow blade medallion combo..... it sounds iffy but we'll see.

Just because competitive teams don't play alchemist doesn't mean hes not "In the meta".

Top teams play the easier heroes possible to win. Hence why some of the players in the top circles aren't actually good or pro, they just know how to win.

If I need the magic resist I'll just buy a cloak, I don't need a full hood. It's a waste of gold. I don't need vanguard either it's a waste of gold.

As for sustaining armlet, It's not like I constantly have it on. In the scenario that I my armlet complete 10-12 mins in. I don't leave it on. I only use it for ganks, or when I'm being ganked, or when I'm jungling on my way to the well. Plus rank 1 chemical rage regens 375 health over the 25 second duration. 500 health over 25 seconds if you calculate the armlet health regen on item, and 550 if you calculate my innate regeneration of the hero. The hero has more than enough sustain to handle armlet.

Hood is a waste if you're not going to finish pipe, vanguard is a waste if you don't have any way to dish out damage from taking damage (axe, centaur, bristleback).

The entire reason Alch used to be in the meta was because he could get put in a tri-lane with safe farm. You can build any hero pure damage but with no survivability he will just go down easy, the same applies to Alch but it amplifies due to his Rage.

As for your point on Vanguard... Spectre, Weaver, Antimage, PL, Viper, Slard, etc. Positioning will get you much further than damage items.

As for hood, you're seriously underestimating magic resistance.

The fact is, you get your damage output from Armlet early on. Later on, you'll need to pick up with other items, but having free reign to wail on an enemy while taking all the damage you want goes a LONG way. In a real fight, just your ulti won't keep you alive. It helps, but if they mean to you can go down with little effort.

Level 16 with armlet and power treads alone, with chemical rage up alchemist has 3k hp. He doesn't die easily lol.