A Death Knights Guide to Snowballin' (with replays)

Introduction

Hello and welcome to my guide for Adaddon. In this guide I will give my take on how to semi-carry/ carry with Abaddon. Believe it or not, Abaddon can play a lot of roles, including support. But in my opinion he can even go toe to toe with the hardest of carries. To do this though requires that he snowball. Meaning early kills in great number. But unlike someone like Huskar who, even with a lot of early kills, falls off late game, He can genuinely carry at the end.

Pros / Cons

+ Great Survivability
+ Can Jungle
+ Can Initiate
+ Good Ganker
+ Saves Lives

- Early game is so-so
- Lane Presence is hit or miss
- No Stun
- Low agi gain

Skills

Mist Coil - One point in this early game is all thats needed for a spot heal or to last hit a fleeing enemy. I get 1 point at level one just to make sure I don't spam shield too much. Very useful at level 2 to obtain a kill since the game it does can break your shield.

Aphotic Shield - The best skill he has. Cast it on creep waves to clear them. On yourself to initiate, or on other teammates to save the day. Feels good to save people from a sniper shot that would of otherwise killed them. Also, the damage on this shield has a nice radius, a great way to secure early kills, is to shield, tower dive, mist coil. Which means the mst coil hits about the same time as shield breaks for the extra damage.

Curse of Avernus - The passive that allows you to carry and ride down foes like the headless horseman. Second skill to max. Learn to attack move for maximum effectiveness

Borrowed Time - An amazing ulti. Best way to use is to shield right with 1 second left due to casting animation and depending on the health gained, stay and fight, or run. This skill makes it really hard to 1 on 1 you. Some heroes like Lina or Lion can kill you before shield activates so be ready to manually activate it against them.

Items

Starting out I like to rush Vladmir's Offering because it fits my death knight playstyle. Plus it gives the ability to jungle if ganking isn't going well. I start out with a set of Tango and a complete Ring of Basilius. After that I save up the 900 gold required and purchase Morbid Mask which is conveniently located in the side shop which is also where all my early items are. Next item up for grabs after that is Boots of Speed to gank and survive ganks. Then the aim is to complete Vladmir's Offering.

Once complete I finish my boots by turning them into Phase Boots. Phase Boots are amazing simply because the extra movement speed coupled with the movement speed bonus of Curse of Avernus has you riding down foes at nearly max speed once they run. Some will argue a true late game carry requires Power Treads but in my experience I feel they are simply not fast enough to secure kills.

The next core item to add is Drum of Endurance. Being as we need to snowball we need to max mid game effectiveness, drums allow you to move(aka ride down)) more effectively, gives extra tankiness and mana pool, as well as gives your team yet another leg up in teamfights. My next item I take and added to core is Skull Basher. Pretty much because its cheap enough for mid game, and all the stats benefit you, and the stun is nice to help against fleeing enemies.

Late Game Core

Crystalys - I can't say enough about this item, synergizes well with Vladmir's Offering for extra survivability and gives you great damage to boot. Plus its cheap. Depending on the game I will either finish this by building into Daedalus or go with one of these instead.

Situational

Assault Cuirass - Might as well become a god right? AC address all of your weaknesses all at once, amazing armor, and attack speed. And gives you armor reduction for truly insane damage output. Once you've gotten AC after Crystalys or even after Daedalus you will truly be nigh unkillable and a teamfight aura beast.

Black King Bar - I would only get if they have a lot of stuns, or Outworld Devourer or Batrider.

Heart of Tarrasque - Get before AC if they are really good at focusing you down to ulti level then stopping. Shield yourself, and watch the heart pump and your health start coming back.

Sange and Yasha - Good item, gives extra movement speed, decent stats, and not expensive. Would get if behind or not ahead by a lot and needed extra everything.

Abyssal Blade - Might as well finish that Skull Basher you built right? I'd get versus a nice right click hard carry like Faceless Void or Anti-Mage.

Replays

Below are a couple recent videos of me playing the death knight, enjoy.

This one shows how you can still contribute without snowballin'

Replay 1

These are snowballin' examples

Replay 2

Replay 3

Replay 4


Also just added a link to all my games played as Abaddon - 70% winrate

Click Me

Wrap-Up

Hope you enjoyed my guide, please vote and comment on what should be added. I'll be upgrading the format as well. Thanks!

-07/22/13 - Added more replays and alternate carry build