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Manic:
I ususally play conservative with mana so I can go for High Damage items sooner, but I am interested in what you would do.
Well I usually get [*] Sage's Mask as an early item. If things don't go quite as well as I would like i sometimes upgrade it to [*] Oblivion staff for a reasonably cheap all purpose weapon. Speed, damage and mana regen. If things are going well then I don't tend to bother upgrading as I'll shoot for higher dammage weapons earlier.
Finally consider branches and blades of attack over a wraith band. Phase boots give you more damage and is the best boots mid game if you don't go for a shadow blade.
I ususally play conservative with mana so I can go for High Damage items sooner, but I am interested in what you would do.
Tenshin:
Wraith Band is not necessary. I've changed it to optional. It's just for someone who thinks they will have trouble last hitting, which may depend not only on your skill but who you're laning against. If they have a higher attack than you then there is a certain window of health(their attack minus your attack) at which the creeps can be denied with nothing you can do about it except harass. You can close this window of opportunity for them by equalling or superseeding their Damage early game.
The whole point is to rush maelstrom after Shadow Blade, as it helps to get you gold way faster. But I've updated to include Yasha as a possible item after Maelstrom.
Please tell me if I am wrong in any way but it seems if you just add up the benefits of Daedalus and Desolator, then Daedalus just wins without question.
Daedalus effect: [On Average]
(Base Damage +83)*(Average effect of Critical=1.675)
Ignoring the Damage addition, Daedalus gives you 1.675 times your damage
Desolator effect:
(Base Damage + 60) * (Extra Damage Caused by lack of armor=6% of your teams Damage)
Ignoring the Damage addition, Desolator gives you is 1.06 times your teams damage
So Desolator would be better if you were only doing something like 10% of your teams damage to a particular target over a 6 second period. Otherwise Daedalus is better(unless you don't like what I did with the averaging of critical hits).
But what would you do for survivability since he is 'so squishy', if you don't buy Shadow Blade and don't like lifesteal?
I don't know about skull basher and headshot, I would be interested to know, but the active is still valuable.
As for shadow, the same thing could be said about any cloak. Clinks, Riki etc. But their cloaking ability doesn't become useless unless the enemy has a big lead and is not dying. Just like when you have Riki on your team, try to kill the player with Gem. If you are continuously making kills then they won't be able to afford buying Gem. As for dust, harassing is helpful, get them to use it often, hit and run, they will use up all they have. Even when you are revealed the extra movement speed is helpful to escape.
But at 12minutes Shadow is especially valuable, because everybody is weak and nobody is likely to spend 700 on Gem at that stage.
Still you could be right... maybe the 3k would be spent better on other things. I just usually play a defensive style. What do you do with someone 'so squishy' if you don't buy either shadow blade or lifesteal? I don't usually see people put Vanguard or Heart on him.
I've never got Satanic for Sniper before, but alot of people seem to do it, so I included it.
Maelstrom is great.
I was also under the impression skull basher doesn't stack with headshot? So it doesn't increase the stun chance.
Shadow blade is also only worth it against bad players imo, anyone good will get dust and then it's 3k spent on 30 damage and 30 attack speed, not great.
Lifesteal is debatable also - only worth it if you plan on farming jungle from an early level. If there is a melee hero in your face you need to get out of there, not stand like a man.
I'm a big fan of maelstrom on sniper though, underrated item.