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23 Votes

Mightycookie's guide to windrunner

August 19, 2013 by mightycookie
Comments: 23    |    Views: 86275    |   


Build 1
Build 2
Build 3
Build 4
Build 5

support build

DotA2 Hero: Windranger




Hero Skills

Shackleshot

4 6 8 9

Powershot

2 3 5 7

Windrun

1 12 13 14

Focus Fire

10 11 16

Talents

15 17 18

Introduction



Hello guys, i'm Mightycookie and I'm a Dota player. today i bring to you a guide to one of my favourite heroes: Windrunner. Windrunner is a great versatile hero that can fill multiple roles. she is a great support, ganker, semi-carry. she is constantly picked in the pro scene because of her ability to go on the suicide lane thanks to Windrun, being able to snipe heroes with Powershot and being able to stun 2 heroes for a long time thanks to Shackleshot. Enjoy and i hope this guide helps.

p.s. I receive positive criticism, please leave your suggestions in the comments section.

pros/cons

windrunner is a hero with a lot of pros and little cons.
Pros
-excellent on the suicide lane with her escape ability Windrun
-high damage nuke
-fun to play
-can stun 2 heroes at once
-melts towers
cons
-squishy
- Shackleshot is hard to land, but extremely rewarding
-falls of to real carries

counters

windrunner is a counter to all carries, Windrun allows her to be safe from harm, that farmed phantomassassin jumps on you? don't worry, just pop Windrun and laugh at her. she is also a counter to slow heroes, heroes like Sniper that have a bad movement speed, windrunner has an easy time landing shackles against them.
Special mention to goblinshredder, for him to be effective, he has to be around trees so he can deal pure damage, he is as much of a counter to you as you are a counter to him. he can destroy trees and make it harder for you to land your Shackleshot. On the other hand, if you catch him in a small skirmish, he will try to make a fight happen near trees, use that to your advantage.
be carefull with high burst-damage heroes like Lina and Tiny you are quite squishy and they can probably kill you with their combo. if they are kicking your *** build a Bracer it will give you some stats to help out.

when to pick/not to pick windrunner

windrunner can fit into most lineups but there are some that favour her and others that don't.

when to pick windrunner
-the enemy has a lot of carries, Windrun just makes you immune to them.
-you are the opposing team have a teamfight team. Usually in team fights heroes are close to each other, this allows you to land a Shackleshot on 2 heroes. 3.75 seconds on 2 carries can really turn the fight.
-your team has a reliable stun, [[shackleshot is a great follow-up stun, once your team stuns a hero you position yourself for a shackle, if you land it, it's 3.75 seconds of reckles pounding on that enemy. remember to throw a powershot at him after a shackle, it deals some nice damage early game. If you gank an enemy and you land a shackle, he is pretty much dead.

when to not pick windrunner
-the enemy has a lot of nukers, windrunner is immune for 5 seconds to physical damage thanks to Windrun but nothing stops that Lina from going all lagunablade on you and destroying you because you have little health.
-the enemy has a lot of slows, Windrun might seem like the perfect escape mechanism, but if you get slowed, you are ****ed.
-silences, you need your skills. 'nuff said

Windrunner herself

windrunner fantastic hero that can disable 2 heroes for a long time. Almost always take 1 point into Windrun at lvl 1 to escape early ganks. then you usually max Powershot first as it is a great nuke. Late game you use it to snipe fleeing heroes and to scout areas. When going on a suicide lane with her, you should cut down the trees so that your vision becomes bigger and you have more time to see an enemy coming to gank you. Windrunner is a hero that can fit in almost any line-up, she can push with focusfire, defend with Powershot
gank with Powershot and Shackleshot she has a cool voice, and no soul..... jk, she can also carry thanks to focusfire.

skill build

Pretty standard, i put that 1 point in Windrun but usually what i go for is to not level anything until i get to my lane,maybe i get banked, there i take my escape mechanism. If my team is ganking that lane but needs a stun Shackleshot if we ganked successfully but the enemy is getting away with low health, snipe him with Powershot.
when on the suicide lane solo, you max Powershot to be able to farm and harass and then max Windrun to be able to escape from potential ganks.
The crazy build takes turns after maxing Powershot one in Shackleshot another in Windrun the reason is that for this build you must not die, you need a lot of cash to carry your team.

item build

pretty standard, forcestaff is such a great item on windrunner this allows her to position herself for Shackleshot and once you get good, you can position your enemy, forcing him into trees or in front of a creep, you can even force a creep in the way and that way land a stun. truly glorious once you get to that level. I haven't quite got there yet. I was able to pull it off a couple of times but mostly luck. The good part is that if you can pull it off people consider you pro. diffusalblade and orchidmalevolence are great items on her because they greatly increase her damage output. with the high attack-speed from your ulti, diffusal allows you to make an enemy caster useless in seconds. the purge effect and slow can be quite useful for landing a good Shackleshot. Orchid is more for a ganking windrunner your ulti and Powershot will decimate any hero. Also, the silence is great too.

THE MEGA CRAZY BUILD

ok. this is very weird. The stars must align for this build to even be viable.
basically this build is for a hard-carry windrunner. For those games where you know you are going to lose and you have no other hero that can take the carry position. also, the other team must not have a lot of single target disables. otherwise you must get bkb defore rapier. So, you may ask why rapier? the thing is that windrunner can stand up to most carries because of Windrun. what do carries do? they deal physical damage. And what does Windrun do? protects you from all physical damage for 5 seconds. So with a blackkingbar and wind run, you can destroy a carry in 5 seconds thanks to Divine Rapier. This build is mostly for pubs where carries often skip a bkb but still, it can turn a losing match around. with this build you have a lot of ways to escape. you have Windrun and forcestaff if you dont feel safe you can even get the shadowblade which gives you yet another way to escape and gives you some helpful damage.
DONT EVER USE THIS BUILD IF THERE IS ANOTHER CARRY ON YOUR TEAM. THIS IS ONLY FOR EXTREME SITUATIONS

how to play

windrunner is a great hero, she can absolutely destroy in teamfights and small skirmishes thanks to her ability to stun 2 enemies for 3.75 seconds, thats a **** load of time where 2 heroes are disabled. basically here ill explain a bit on how to play her.

Windrun this ability is awesome, it will save your but so many times that i cant even explain how awesome it is. When you activate it you will probably be moving at max speed so it allows to catch up to that pesky nightstalker and shackle his sorry ***. also, this skill allows you to tower-dive without taking any damage. But be careful you dont want to use your Windrun to kill an enemy only to see that there are 2 enemies waiting for you on the other side of the fog.

Powershot this is an awesome skill that has a lot of purposes. firs, its a high range high damage nuke. the more enemies it hits, the less damage it will deal. This skill is great to snipe enemies that are running away with low health. also, in lane Powershot is a great harass tool. While on the suicide lane solo this skill lets your farm from afar, try to harass while using it at the same time. also, while on the suicide lane you should use powershot to cut down trees at the shop and places were potential gankers might be hiding. Remember to block the pull spot with a ward if you are solo

Shackleshot this is one of my favorite skills in the game, at lvl 4 it can stun 2 heroes at once for 3.75 seconds. that is huge, also this skill allows you to land a perfect Powershot even if it doesnt shackle because it stuns for .75 seconds yes or yes, and Powershot charges for 1 sec. this skill is hard to land, thats why you get[[forcestaff] this allows you to position yourself, or even your enemies, to land a perfect shackleshot. If you are good you can even force a creep in the way to land a shackle. remember that you can also shackle a creep when the enemy hero is behind said creep

focusfire what is there to say, this skill is ok. at lvl 1 its bad, you should never take it cause 50% damage reduction is very bad, you are dealing very little damage with it. take it at 10 and 11 there it melts towers. unless you have a heavy pushing line-up. there you might want to take it at lvl 6 to take down towers. this skill is what allows windrunner to carry, with a diffusalblade, this will melt down that pesky Zeus.

conclusion

Im mightycookie if you want to play with me add me, my steam username is nohanmeza. hope you liked the guide and may the odds be ever in your favour. hope this guide helped you in your journey to understand Dota 2 (it's Dota now, not DOTA since it's not an acronym anymore to avoid a lawsuit) better, lets all make this a wonderful community and please, if you have something to say about my guide, do so in the comments section, depending on the success of this guide i will bring you more guides that teach you how to play all heroes in Dota. My guides will always have at least 1 crazy or uncommon build. Thank you.

THAT'S ALL FOLKS!!!

thanks for your support and if you like my guide. check out the rest here

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