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Restless Soul - A Vengeful Spirit Guide

December 6, 2011 by Reed
Comments: 12    |    Views: 66513    |   

Build 1
Build 2

Build 1: Missile Focus

DotA2 Hero: Vengeful Spirit

Offense

Damage 39-53

Defense

Armor 3.78

Other

Movement Speed 295

Attributes

Strength 73.5
Agility 97
Intelligence 58.75

Basic Stats

Health 1879
Mana 1001

Purchase Order

Roaming Build



Hero Skills

Magic Missile

1 3 5 7

Wave of Terror

2 4 8 9

Vengeance Aura

10 12 13 14

Nether Swap

6 11 16

Stats

15 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25

Introduction

Welcome all to my first guide on one of my favorite support characters: Vengeful Spirit!

Vengeful Spirit is a powerful hero which is very item independent and one of the most effective gankers in the game.

Vengeful Spirit has two builds which are fairly effective, a push oriented build and a gank oriented build. Both will be covered in this guide, and it is up to the player's discretion based upon team composition and opposing heroes. The overall outline will be as follows:

Skills and Their Usage
Item Build
Laning Phase/Roaming
Warding, warding, and more warding
Mid-game, late-game and beyond...
Conclusion

Vengeful Spirit Pros and Cons
Pros

strong stun
very strong lategame support
versatile ultimate
item and farm independent



Cons
short attack range (400!!)
short spell range
low mana pool early game
squishy

Skills and Their Usage

So 3 of Vengeful Spirit's skills are fairly straight forward while her ultimate requires a significant amount more finesse than the description might indicate.

Q: Magic Missile - Vengeful Spirit's bread and butter skill. A targeted, moderate duration stun of 1.45-1.75s. The skill does not have a very long range (a mere 500), so it's important that you do your best to catch your opponent out of position and punish their mistakes. One important thing to note is that the stun duration changes very little between different levels of the skill; only the damage and mana cost of the skill increase significantly with level. When building VS early game this is important to remember, and is the primary reason why I prefer to max this skill second to her W skill - Wave of Terror. Also note that this stun is disjointable, and skills like PotM's leap will avoid the stun if well times.

W: Wave of Terror - Vengeful Spirit's damage amplification, utility, and primary pushing skill. This spell provides an armor debuff that fires in a straight line for a LONG range (1400)the area is 300 units wide. At max level, it provides -5 armor reduction and lasts for 20 seconds it also provides vision of the aforementioned area for a brief time. This skill has an incredibly low mana cost and cool down, making it a great skill not only for pushing the lane and increasing damage on a stunned target, but also as a scouting mechanism. Occasionally throwing this out for some sight in the jungle can thwart incoming ganks. The skill also provides minimal damage which is of the type HP removal.

E: Command aura - Just as basic as it sounds. Provides the rough equivalent of having an alpha wolf damage aura running around with your team. Much more useful late game than early game, but it is a nice skill in conjunction with wave of terror for both team fights and lane pushes. One thing to note - this skill amplifies base damage.

R: Nether Swap - Ahhhhh Nether swap, sometimes abused - often misused. This is one of the most versatile skills available in the game. It instantaneously swaps position between you and the hero unit of your choice. The range of this skill scales incredibly, going 600, 900, 1200. This skill can be used very effectively both offensively and defensively. Using this skill effectively requires both good map awareness and decision making. This is a useful skill for isolating an enemy hero or saving an ally who is in trouble. Note: It can be used on magic immune targets.

Notes on Nether Swap Usage
One of the things that I often hear people say is that in order to effectively use Swap, you have to throw out some conventional feelings about avoiding death. You should be ready and willing to sacrifice yourself in order to save your carry of provide an easy kill on an important enemy hero. While it is true that you should be ready and willing to swap yourself for the good of the team, do not get yourself killed if you cant be certain that you can either get a kill or save a teammate. Having a skill with high risks is a call for careful and strategic use - not trigger happy behavior with reckless abandon. Keep this in mind when looking to best utilize your ultimate.

General Items

Starting items
Tango
Iron Branch
Iron Branch
Iron Branch
Gauntlets of Strength
Animal Courier/ Observer Ward

or
Tango
Iron Branch
Iron Branch
Ring of Protection
Observer Ward/ Animal Courier/ Flying Courier

These starting items allow you to quickly get a Bracer or a Ring of Basilius and a Magic Wand. What you buy depends on how much you quickly you think you might push and how deadly the opposing lane may be. You should always buy wards, an animal courier, or a courier upgrade early on. Depending on if you intend to gank often or roam a lot, it may be beneficial to pick up mana potions or a Bottle early on. Coordinate with your team if you want to use a bottle. The 2nd starting item set is more geared towards the push strat where you will be looking to maximize your push potential early on; the armor aura from Ring of Basilius with the command aura leads to an eventual Vladmir's Offering and a very effective passive push mechanism.

As some people have commented, it is also safe to opt for 2 Clarity Potion and 1 Healing Salve over the Gauntlet of Strength and 1 of the Iron Woood Branch if you suspect you will receive a lot of harass or will be looking for kills often in lane. Decide based on your team's composition which is needed.

Boots
In terms of boots, I prefer to get Power Treads over Phase Boots because of the increased utility of attribute switching. Phase boots provide slightly increased mobility, but VS is very squishy. Boots of Travel are useful for mobility and ganking, but unless you are getting AMAZING farm - which you frankly shouldn't be, then don't get these. If you have that kind of farm get aghanim's scepter.

Medallion of Courage - The reasons for picking up this item are pretty straight forward. Providing additional minus armor on a target during ganks with the addition of wave of terror] will make short work of most heroes throughout the mid game. I usually prefer force staff, but [[medallion of courage is a solid item on VS when you are getting successful ganks off or opponents decide to start stacking armor.

another strong item when you are getting successful ganks off is:

Urn of Shadows - Simply put, if you are getting kills then this item is amazing. It takes a tremendous load of pressure off if you decide to tower dive, and allows you some additional lane presence as a support. Another versatile item that is strong throughout the early and middle portions of the game, and facilitates your roaming and ganking. A good alternative to bottle if you're middle player is a strong ganker and needs the runes.

Force Staff - This is a really useful skill for both increased survivability as well as utility in ganks and for positioning. In addition to swap, this skill gives you some nice control. It's cheap and effective, and if you have excess money from buying wards and survivability - then this is a great item to get.

Aghanim's Scepter - This item deserves special mention because of what it does for your ultimate. This item will drive your ultimate cool down from 45s down to 10s at all levels. It provides great statistics, but honestly the price is probably too high for the farm you will get throughout the game. If you decide to pick it up, try to always buy the point booster first as it provides much needed HP and mana. This will be covered more in the next section.

Items not to pick up
Soul Ring - While this item does help with VS's mana problems early on, I find that her squishiness is a big concern with this item. Early on in particular, this item can often times get you killed. Use at your own risk.

Desolator/ Butterfly/ Monkey King Bar/ Sange and Yasha/[insert carry item here]
You're not a carry. I mean sure, you can...but it's really not what your hero is good at. VS's attack animation and MASSIVE back swing make her a very poor carry hero. While two of her skills do scale well in to late game, you have no escape mechanism other than your swap...which would come at the expense of one of your allies. You can run a build that uses these sorts of items for kicks, but it's not an efficient use of the hero.

Blink Dagger - Unlike in a certain other MOBA, blink dagger doesn't work on VS. Don't buy it. You can't use it. End of story.

Laning/Roaming as VS

When laning during early game, you should partner with an aggressive lane partner with a stun or slow. Even though Vengeful Spirit is not item dependent, she does not make a great support hero because of her incredibly small attack range. Upon hitting in the range of level 3-6, you might look to roam to other lanes in order to help score kills on enemy heroes. If you find yourself in a defensive lane, a strong combo to use is to bait your opponent into tower range, swap them into tower, stun them, and then auto attack them to death with the help of wave of terror. In general, your job is to roam, ward, and dominate the opponent through map control and effective ganking.

Pushing as VS

NOTE: This style of playing VS is seldom used these days, and should be used only in a push oriented strategy. VS is NOT a very strong pusher on her own, but can supplement an existing push strategy!

While not a direct role of Vengeful Spirit, she is very capable of assisting in pushing lanes quickly with both her Command Aura and Wave of Terror. The basic concept behind this build is to get a quick level of your stun, and then proceed to maximize Command Aura and Wave of Terror. This allows your creeps to passively push the lane via Command Aura damage and the lowered armor of enemy creeps via Wave of Terror.

It should be noted that this will gimp your main source of direct damage in Magic Missile, but will maximize your ability to assist in lane pushes.

As far as items go, Ring of Basilius is an important pick up to provide your creeps with additional armor, and should be followed up with a Drum of Endurance. This will maximize how quickly you can mobilize a creep wave, and can be put together nicely with other pushers in a push oriented strat.

Since you will also be maxing Wave of Terror first, it can often be beneficial to pick up a Medallion of Courage as it will allow you to significantly lower an opponents armor.

Finally, if for whatever reason you manage to generate enough gold, Vladmir's Offering is not a bad pickup in offering your creeps that extra survivability when pushing. Necronomicon is also a solid choice if your team is committing fully to a push strategy.

Warding, warding and more warding

Observer Ward/ Sentry Ward - This is your job. All game, your job is to provide map control and awareness through effective warding and counter-warding with sentry wards.

You don't really need more than a magic wand, boots and a bracer or two, and the rest of your cash should be devoted towards the little things like wards and the courier upgrade that your team needs. Remember, your role on the team is one of utility, and you should focus your play as such. It is imperative that you maintain wards, especially going into late game.

Gso posted an AMAZING guide to warding on the Team Dignitas website which covers a lot of ward spots and the different times and purposes to use them for. His guide covers these in way more detail than I could ever hope to: http://www.team-dignitas.net/articles/blogs/DotA/1092/Dota-2-Ultimate-Guide-to-Warding/

Midgame, Lategame, and beyond...

Your role will not change much throughout the game, but you should be sure to maximize your team's damage through the use of your aura and wave of terror. Your single target stun should be used strategically to CC your opponents, and your swap will become used more defensively over time. You essentially will become the safety net to keep the important heroes on your team alive. You can also use your swap to break channeling on heroes from a long distance away. Map awareness is largely your responsibility late game, and you need to keep sight up at areas like Roshan, the jungle, and other team fight and gank areas.

Again, warding is key. You need to keep vision up at key areas as often as possible, and while all of the items I have mentioned are lovely to get...you will ultimately not carry the game. Keep wards up, counter when you can and look to help supplement your teams other heroes.

Farewell

Have fun playing VS and stay classy :)

Guide Discussion
1 2 >>
Quote | PM | +Rep by dirrwen » December 6, 2011 10:35am | Report
no Urn or Medallion :(? Those are some of my favorite items for Venge. Also I think PMS deserves a mention if you're diving a particularly high amount of towers with your ult, or just taking a lot of creep aggro early. Other than that (which I think is just personal preference anyways), solid guide!

EDIT: Did I just see "power supply? Someone's been playing HoN >.>

dirrwen


Unremarkable (9)
Posts: 123
Quote | PM | +Rep by Reed » December 6, 2011 10:56am | Report
lol thanks for the catch on HoN terms :S

added in urn and medallion and mentioned some items not to buy.

Reed


Unremarkable (3)
Posts: 21
Quote | PM | +Rep by DirtySince90 » December 7, 2011 1:52pm | Report
Nice guide, I made a guide for a more aggressive VS with desolator to add more armor reduction, but I'm gonna start trying to build more support. Its just preference but I really don't like the magic wand, I've not found it to be super useful for me.

DirtySince90


Posts: 13
Quote | PM | +Rep by HamSandwich » December 7, 2011 2:39pm | Report

I really don't like the magic wand, I've not found it to be super useful for me.


And this is why your VS guide suggests to start with a wraith band and features a desolator.

HamSandwich


Notable (30)
Posts: 392
Steam: HamSandwich
Quote | PM | +Rep by PotM_Plz » December 7, 2011 3:06pm | Report
Magic Wand is great for roamers especially, who aren't gonna be able to farm up alot of items, and wand gives that nice buff, along with a mana, and health heal... its the best item in the game. (considering its price.)

PotM_Plz


Unremarkable (16)
Posts: 298
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Quote | PM | +Rep by Reed » December 7, 2011 5:13pm | Report

Nice guide, I made a guide for a more aggressive VS with desolator to add more armor reduction, but I'm gonna start trying to build more support. Its just preference but I really don't like the magic wand, I've not found it to be super useful for me.


While I mention it as a definite pick-up in this guide, it can be very situational in terms of how early you pick it up. You really have to consider your lane and how aggressive your opponents are going to be. There's no point in picking up magic wand or magic stick first if your enemy lane is a passive carry+support lane that won't cast many spells; in that case, pick up another item - like urn for example. As you become more active, magic stick/wand becomes more effective because your aggressiveness forces your opponent to respond.

Early game comments aside, by mid-game you will be a part of ganks and team fights when spells will be flying left and right. This is where magic stick/wand starts to truly shine, and it stays consistently effective throughout the game from then on out.

Reed


Unremarkable (3)
Posts: 21
Quote | PM | +Rep by rchaos1 » January 27, 2012 2:59pm | Report
This is a pretty sweet build. Here is my observations.

It is very important to have map awareness, VS is a killer support if done right.

Based on this build, I get 3 branch, 1 strength, 1 tango, courier.

First 200 gold, I will upgrade courier.

At this point in a 5v5 I ask someone else to buy wards so I can get my basic boots.

After basic boots, I will buy the 2nd round of wards and ward up runes.

I will then decide whether to switch up lanes or help gank early. At this point I should be level 4-6.

I will max Wave first (unless we need aura to depending on the hero compositions).

I will attempt to swap enemies into towers if they get to close.

Typically I will grab a bottle before bracer and wand. After bottom I will get the wand. The bottle allows me to spam minus armor and setup stuns. If the enemy attempts to auto attack me the creep will scratch at him. In these opportunities, I will stun them as the creep run at the enemy. With the bottle, I will pay attention to runes. I will ask carry if I can have the rune to refill my bottle (so I don't have to port back or use the courier). This will allow me to roam the lanes a lot and provide support in fights. Wand + Bottle is just pure win as a support.

When you start upgrading Aura, team battles and pushing down towers start to get really fun!

I have started playing around with mid to late game... I will ward enemies jungle, runes, (and if theres an invis hero I will have sentry wards.) I will ward like a mad man. Sometimes I will get Phase Boots, or if I have the extra cash get the Boots of Travel. My mid to late game. I think it's really conditional on how many teleports I use.

In all honesty, most of the games I play as VS, I stick with the basics: Wand, Bottle, Upgraded Boots and Bracer. These are essentials for VS. At this point I will decided whether I should chill out with wards or if I should get a Force Staff and/or Sceptor. I've tried a couple times getting Sceptor before FS, but honestly I don't use swap that often unless we are in their base being *******s.

Sorry my text ain't really organized to well. I'm a derp.

rchaos1


Posts: 5
Quote | PM | +Rep by kratrz » March 15, 2012 10:27am | Report
Quoted:
Welcome all to my first guide on one of my favorite support characters: Vengeful Spirit!

Vengeful Spirit is a powerful hero which is very item independent and one of the most effective gankers in the game.

you make a guide for a support VS,
and you're saying VS is very item dependent...(then contradict yourself later)

support VS needs boots, wards, everything else is bonus.
getting an agha on support VS, 4200 gold, would be better spent on your carry
situational mid/late game items: standard support items such as meka/pipe.

Quoted:
a push oriented build and a gank oriented build. Both will be covered in this guide

you mention two builds, a pushing build and a ganking build. there's no distinction between the two different builds in your guide.

Quoted:
you intend to gank ..., ... mana potions or a Bottle early on. ... geared towards the push ...; the armor aura from Ring of Basilius

unless you're suggesting the difference between the two builds is a ring of basilius and bottle


in my opinion, there's two VS builds, a support and a carry.
carry should be getting agha, deso/offensive ****
support should be support stuff, let carries get the gold.

kratrz


Posts: 7
Quote | PM | +Rep by Cipio » April 17, 2012 11:52am | Report
Just went 7/3/19 with this guide while on the phone the entire game, And it was my first time vs.. feeding the **** out of our ursa. +1 to yous sir great guide.

Cipio


Posts: 6
Quote | PM | +Rep by Phatty#214935 » April 18, 2012 9:05am | Report
Great guide, I sometimes like to start with some mana pots if I know I'm going to be playing with an aggresive lane partner.

Phatty#214935


Posts: 1
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