Support Treant - With Boots First. (6.81b)

Introduction

So basically this guide came about for two reasons - One, I like the Hero, and I have been having a good time with it thus far.

And two, from observations of Pro Games featuring tree, I noticed that the common trend was to buy Boots first on Tree, and then go utilize the menace than is 85 base damage on something with Boots of Speed at level 1.

So basically I'm going to outline that strategy as well as some other more standard ones to try and make it as comprehensive a Tree guide as I am capable.

Who is Treant Protector?

Far to the west, in the mountains beyond the Vale of Augury, lie the remains of an ancient power, a fount of eldritch energy nestled deep in the high woods. It is said that the things that grow here, grow strangely. To the forces of nature this is a sacred place, made to stay hidden and unknown. Many are the traps and dangers of this land--all-consuming grasses and crossbred fauna and poisonous flowers--but none are so fierce as the mighty Treant Protectors. These ageless, titanic beings, charged with keeping the peace in this dangerous land, ensure that none within encroach without reason, and none without poach their secrets. For time untold they tended to their holy ground, uninterrupted, only dimly aware of the changing world beyond. Yet inevitably the wider world grew aware of this untamed land, and with each passing winter the outsiders grew bolder. Soon they arrived with tools to cut and with flames to burn, and often the Treants would ponder: who are these fragile, industrious creatures? What now had become of the wild, green world? There came and went an age of questions and of doubts, a thousand summers of long traditions set to scrutiny, while more and more the outsiders died and fed their earth. When all that bloomed had finally finished their stay, curiosity had overcome caution. It was decided: a lone Protector would be sent into the wider world, and instructed to wander until the glaciers arose once more, to observe the changing land and its creatures, and to discover what unknown dangers could threaten their sacred ground.

Skills

Nature's Guise (Q)

We will start with Tree's most interesting ability. It's gives you invisibility for 15/30/45/60 seconds when within 375 of a Tree. This allows Tree to have some interesting applications in the late game. There is the obvious application of it being an escape mechanism if ganked in the late game (And to allow more important allies like your carry to escape.) It can enable ganks if the opponent over extends towards the tree line (Though I've always found this works better on another team mate who can actually do a lot of damage relative to Tree, Tree just likes popping Leech Seed for the slow, or Overgrowth for the disable if you really need that kill.).

It also lets you act as a living ward. Which I think is kinda neat. It becomes somewhat predictable and only really lasts till they get detection. (You'll only get away with it a few times in a game at most. And by get away with it I mean burst forth from the treeline to gank someone). But that's ok, because it's only a part of the ability, and I feel like if the opposing team if devoting a lot of time and effort to kill you, you are making space for your carry to farm his next item. Which is definitely a trade I would make in the late game.

If you want an early point, I'd suggest getting it over a second point in Leech Seed. Living Armor scales so well that not getting a quick second point in it

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Leech Seed (W)

This is your primary Ganking tool. In almost every case, you will want to skill this level 1, and then you will choose a target to gank depending on what rune you get. The power of it comes from the fact that with boots you can keep pace enough to get all the pulse off, meaning that's an extra 90 damage (Before magic resistance at least), and 90 heal to you and anyone around. Combine that with the slow allowing your ganking partner to catch up (Hopefully with a follow up stun) and deal more damage, along with your 85 damage swings should be enough to get first blood.

Now thanks to the heal attached to this, you are capable and should be willing to tower dive to an extent. I'd rarely go much further than the tier 1, but thanks to boots you can catch up to whoever you go on. Even if you just force them back to the fountain to heal, it's still somewhat of a win due to you now having an in lane advantage.

It's generally worth leveling this up before Living Armor, because this is a very early game focused ability. The more uses, and thus, hopefully, kills you can get of the spell, the longer you will be relavent over the game (Or rather, the easier you'll transition from ganker/laning to initiator).

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Living Armor (E)

This is arguably Tree's mot iconic skill. It's a rather simple ability on the face of it. You get up to 60/105/150/195 heal, as well as 20/40/60/80 damage block against Heroes. And it's despelled after you take 4/5/6/7 instances of damage. And it's global, meaning it can be used anywhere anywhen.

Now, the obvious usage for this is to heal up chip damage on your buildings. And I say chip, because this only really works brilliantly against lines-ups that want to wear down your towers as opposed to taking them down in one go (Heroes like Pugna love to do this sort of thing). In the same vein, it does allow towers to be more resilient when they are being pushed, and all in all lets you, in a great game, keep your tier 1's up and healthy for a very very long time.

The second major usage for it is as an anti gank tool. Because of both the heal and the damage block, you can keep someone being ganked early on healthy. To phrase it better; At level 2, Living Armor will block up to 200 damage. This is not a minor amount of damage to block in the early game, and can make the different between a gank being succesful, and the friendly hero getting away, or even better support comes in and turns the engagement on its head.

Really, once you've gotten your Arcane Boots up, and thus sorted out your mana issues, it's an ability you should always be looking to use to your best advantage, since a lot of it's utility dies away past the early game. The 7 instances of damage become easy to burn through once attack speed items start coming out, and the damage block is not as impactful (Even if it is 560 at level 4). It's always good for the building heal when the fighting lulls, but the rest of the utility does drop off.

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Overgrowth (R)

Your ultimate, and probably the major reason Treant Protector just doesn't falter completely in the late game. It is a 3/3.75/4.5 second disable that goes through Magic Immunity.(Note if you become magic immune after it is cast, you are no longer affected by it). So it is a few seconds of time where affected opponents can't attack, blink (Both through Blink Dagger and abilities such as Blink, move or turn invisible. Which means it's a few seconds where you can beat them senseless.

Short cool-down means that you can use it in ganks late game, as an escape mechanism if you and the team get initiated on in a bad manner, or as an initiation tool yourself.

Your positioning and timing with this matters hugely, when initiating you want to get as many key enemy Heroes as possible, or if you get the right Heroes, but before they pop Black King Bar. It doesn't matter if you get 4 Heroes with this if you miss the Hero that's going to sweep the rest of you. Thus why a Blink Dagger feels critical on Treant Protector; it lets you rapidly initiate and get a massive advantage in Team fights even late in the game.

Items

This is probably the part of the guide that is most different to other Tree Guides, so lets jump straight in:

Starting Items: -

Boots of Speed first is entirely done to to take advantage of Leech Seeds slow and your high base damage. With Boots, you are fast enough to chase down most Heroes. And being able to chase with 85 base damage at low levels, is as I keep mentioning very good.



With Boots, you'll want to be getting wards instead of a Courier because you have the movement speed to set up two good wards (One over a rune, and then one either in the enemy jungle if going offlane, or your jungle if going safe lane I find.), and still get into position at the 0:00 minute mark.

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Early game: -



Tree suffers from early game mana issues; He needs Leech Seed to be as threatening in early game ganks, and to allow tower diving because of the Heal and slow, yet his initial mana pool is too small to even cast two Leech Seeds. Arcane boots help mitigate this issue by basically paying for a use of Leech Seed with each use, and the +250 mana pool is always nice.




Smoke helps you get early game ganks with a willing team-mate (Preferably someone who has a stun). And given Tree's power in the early game, smoke ganks are a very good way to make the most out of Tree early game.

And as ever with a support, you should be buying and setting up wards, as well as upgrading the courier.

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Core Items: -



This is (In my opinion) the only item Tree desperately needs. Much like Tidehunter, you have a very good AOE disable for your ultimate, and Blink Dagger with this allows for very good initiation.

And since late game, you become an initiator primarily, this is obviously an important item. A useful thing to note is that for the purposes of disengaging, due to overgrowth lasting a minimum of 3 Seconds which is the same duration of Blink's reset upon taking damage, you can with very fast reactions use Overgrowth, begin to run and then Blink further away the very moment that Overgrowth runs out. (Obvious to some yes, but I feel it is worth mentioning)

And again keep buying (And using) Observer Ward, Sentry Ward and Smoke of Deceit if you feel like going for a smoke gank with your team.

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Utility Items:



Mekansm

This is one of the items that every team needs. A 250 HP increase to all your team in the middle of a team fight can be exactly what you need to turn a team fight around into a victory, or give you enough HP to then make a push for base.

In addition to the Restore ability, it also gives the holder decent stats and armour, as well as a + 4HP/S regen aura. It's just a very solid item, and if your team doesn't have a dedicated Mek carrier (Viper or Razor), it's always worth picking it up on Tree, especially if you can get it early. (This can mean getting it before your blink dagger if the Restore is seeming more vital than your Blink. Again as a support, you are there to support the team, which can mean compromising what you had in mind for an item build.)

As a side not, Mekansm is usually the utility item I build.



Vladmir's Offering:

Vlad's gives you (And everyone within 900) an awful lot from it's aura; 16% lifesteal, +15% damage, 5 bonus armour, and 0.8 mana regen. It's a nice item, but more often than not I find games where it's really wanted as an item are ones where another Hero (Who is tailor made for it e.g. Ursa or Lycanthrope) picks it up themselves. And because the Aura does not stack, you should never have two on your team.

But it is still a valid utility item for Treant all the same.




Drum of Endurance

Drums gives you very reasonable stat boost, as well as a minor attack Speed and decent Movement Speed bonus with an active that provides a greater benefit for that. It's a good early game item if you are in a line-up that wants to fight early, and it increases your ability to chase people down. Again a thing that Treant Protector wants to do early-mid game.

It's worth getting if you can pick it up early, and unlike Vladmir's Offering or Mekansm having multiples on a team is not a truly bad thing.




Force Staff

Force Staff is a second mobility Item that with a myriad range of uses. I shan't go into all of the details, as you could probably write another guide on how to get the best from it.

It's worth getting on Treant Protector when the opposing team has nukes that depend on your positioning such as Mystic Flare, or lockdowns like Power Cogs, allowing you to save your allies from certain death.

Likewise it can also be built when your team needs extra initiation (You can push an ally forwards allowing them to initiate), or you feel a Blink Dagger isn't enough mobility for you to initiate.

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Luxury Items -



Scythe of Vyse

Scythe of Vyse is one of the most powerful late game support items. Whilst expensive, a 3.5 second disable on the enemy carry can be game-winning. If your team needs more disables, it's definitely worth having this as your final aim. It's also yet another way you can initiate in late game saving you having to use Overgrowth every time you Blink in.




Eul's Scepter of Divinity

A Eul's Scepter is a cheaper disable than a Scythe of Vyse, but it is a more versatile item. The Cyclone ability can be used to dodge projectiles, and directly save Team-mates (Or rather buy them some time). It also gives you a Movement Speed bonus, which can assist you in chasing down fleeing enemies (Or escaping), and basically solves your mana issues, so there's a little bit more to it than just the disable.




Pipe of Insight

Pipe is an item that you will only buy when you are facing a heavy magic damage focused line-up. Being able to give each Hero on your team a 400 magic damage block is a great thing to have in team-fights when facing this kind of line-ups. It's not the be all and end all against Magic however, if the opposing team has mostly disables instead of just damage, it's probably worth avoiding this item, and instead allow relevent cores to farm for a Black King Bar which will stand them in greater stead.

Pros / Cons

Nothing like a good old bullet point table to condense down a lot of the earlier information:

Pros

• Great base Strength and growth (+3.3 per level)- At Leaves you feeling somewhat Tanky as the game goes on.
• High base damage - Allows for you to have a heavy early game presence due to the fact you hit like a truck
• Initial Ganking potential - thanks to Leech Seed having a 28% slow at level 1, you can easily aim for first blood with a decent partner. With a DD or Haste you, you can even solo it.
• Living Armor - Makes your early game much more stable due to the damage prevention, and being able to mitigate tower damage.
• A disable ( Overgrowth) that goes through Black King Bar, allowing him to act as an initiator in the late game.

Of course, for every positive there has to be a negative

• Low starting mana pool - Means you have to be somewhat frugal with your usage of mana at the start of a game.
• Low Armour - Whilst he has such great Strength growth, his low armour does leave him vunerable to begin with, and very vunerable to - Armour Strats.
• Falls off - Tree falls off after the early game, as damage/attack speed items cut down on his spells utility, and his base damage advantage gets mitigated by damage items on others.

Summary: First Rune Spawn

So as I have mention before, Treant Protector is a Hero whose skills do fall off slightly as the game develops, thus Tree is at his best when he has a great early game.

Ideally with the Boots of Speed and the Observer Wards you will head to your lane, setting up either an offensive ward (So in the opponents jungle) if going in the offlane, or a defensive one if in the safe lane. The second ward can be placed at the users discretion, though normally I play it to watch over the closest run spot to help out mid.

You then wait till the 0 minute rune and go from there:

If you have no rune spawn at your location, then proceed to your lane and continue from there. If you do get a rune then:



It's not useful at this time since hopefully you won't have taken any damage. Either deny the rune, or leave it. I generally do this at the discretion of the mid player, since it may be possible he wants to try and grab the rune when he gets a Bottle.



It's workable. I generally don't like it as a ganking rune for Tree, and instead use it to stack multiple camps (If possible and if you are good) for someone to far later. (Either stacking ancients if offlane, or any jungle camp if safe lane)



Great rune if you have a decent laning partner (So someone with a stun). Grab it, get in the targets line of retreat, let your partner stun, start hitting the target, pop Leech Seed, and that should be enough for the kill, even if you have to pursue a bit more. It doesn't take many hits for a Tree to kill at level 1, so with a stun and the body blocking you can do, you should be able to get the kill.






I put these two together because they essentially mean the same thing - You should be able to get a solo kill on anyone you want. With a Rune of Haste, the target won't be able to outrun you, and I don't think there's a Hero who can compete damage for damage at level one with a Treant with Leech Seed. And with a Rune of Double Damage, you are swinging for nearly 200 damage with each hit; which means with [Boots of Speed] you can catch-up for the 3-4 hits (Or more likely less) it will take for that kill.

In all these cases, even if you don't get the kill, giving your lane partner a level advantage is definitely worth the rune so long as you don't don't over commit. Tree is strong at level 1, but he still needs to be weary about diving towers too much. Leech Seed heals up a bit, but not enough.

Summary: Laning Stage

You want to build a level advantage over the opponent, or at least over the opponents supports.

Tree scales better with levels than items when used in a support role, because your abilities keep the same mana cost, but are much more powerful. (You only really need two items over the course of the game to be effective, Arcane Boots to solve your early mana issues, and Blink Dagger to let you initiate)

Higher levels in Leech Seed increase amount of life you are stealing, thus practically doubling your ability to dive for ganks (At level 2 alone), and doubling the power you have in early Team Fights (Given it gives the life to all friendly Hero's in the radius).

And higher levels in Living Armor not only increase the heal, but also means it will stay on a target for more hits, making it better to protect Team-mates in early ganks.

Now, if you got lucky with the rune, and got your first kill you should have high experience and a fast level 2. Now, use your massive damage to harass your opponent in lane (Especially good against Melee lanes, since you will out damage them at first), get easy denies, and build up a level advantage. And do this till you have enough mana for your next Leech Seed. And once you have it, go gank again. Go for the enemy carry if you think you can get the kill (Very good in tri-lanes, you can leave the carry to farm, and go with your support with his disable), and if not go for a kill that will help you get an advantage in another lane.

And if you didn't get that first rune, the same advice is still true; you should look to try and get a kill with your laning partner since it is still very possible with Treant Protector having high base damage. It simply means you have to work harder to set it up. A rotation to mid under Smoke of Deceit is definitely a strong possibility, arguable better since you can give gold to your carry as you are doing this, and give your supports EXP.

You should look to make yourself a presence across the map. Your high base damage will lose it's threat after a while, and thus you should be looking to making the most of it. Get some kills with him, deny kills to the opponent by using Living Armor to protect against ganks, and keep your Tier 1's healthy for as long as possible. The more you can get done early, and the faster you can get your Blink Dagger means the greater impact you will have over the course of a game. (That does not mean you should take farm priority over your carry, or neglect warding, but it is the primary core item you should save for).

Summary: Mid Game

This is when your playstyle changes subtly. Your base damage is no longer so vastly greater than the opponents, and you not going to be able to phase people away with just your presence alone. But that doesn't mean you are suddenly not effective.

You have to be effective in other ways; instead of just relying on Leech Seed to get pick-offs you now have Overgrowth to help with that. You can still be globally effective; keep your towers alive for as long as you can with Living Armor. (I mean there is no need to deny a tower when there's a tree on your team; he can just heal it to maximum and undo all the opposing teams hard work). Make yourself present in team fights, Leech Seed can give your entire team HP in a team fight, and Overgrowth can swing an entire team fight your way. Or even just escape from one you have no hope of winning.

All the while keep warding and de-warding, as well as slowly getting to your blink dagger. And once your Blink Dagger is online, start being your teams initator with your ultimate (Unless you have a better initiator like Batrider; in which case save it for optimum usage in a team fight). Don't be afraid to die for the greater good of the team in a team fight - If using Overgrowth will let your carry escape even if you get caught out, it was still worth it. In the end you are just a support, and the carry is more important in the long term.

Summary: Late Game

By now you should definitely have you Blink Dagger (Even if you had a terrible game up till now) and hopefully another item or two (Utility or Luxury, whichever suits the needs of your team best for the game in question).

Your job here is to keep your remaining buildings up for as long as humanly possible, as well as continuing to make the most from your ultimate. But you by now have the added skill of maxed Nature's Guise. And because of that this Gem of True Sight becomes a very nice option.

Because of Nature's Guise, you can safely scout ahead for your team due to the ability to be invisible, as well as dewarding thanks to the Gem of True Sight as you go. It's not an entirely bad idea to spend large portions of this period wandering around the enemy jungle looking for them. Knowledge is power, and Vision definitely gives Knowledge, and being able to get this vision, and the possibility of free and easy jumps on the opponent is valuable.

Now admittedly once you see that the opponents team also has a Gem of True Sight, this tactic falls off a bit, but until then it is definitely worth taking advantage of it. Every little advantage has the potential to snowball into a game winning one.

And above all else; remember you are a support. You are somewhat expendable. Just don't feed, play smart, and you should be dominating games in short order.

Allies of the Woods:

I could probably list another half a dozen or so Heroes, but the trend here happens to be these are all Hero's with hard disables. Wraithfire Blast, Magic Missile Storm Hammer even Hex are all good disables allowing Treant Protector to get close enough to them to attack and chase them down and body block them.

Special mention should go to a tri-lane of Mirana and Bane/ Shadow Demon. Nightmare or Disruption into a 5 second Sacred Arrow is a guaranteed kill with Treant Protector's high early damage output. Mirana also makes a good rotating partner if they can hit arrows well enough.



Keeper of the Light is another worthy mention as a friendly support; He's item idependant meaning Treant Protector has slightly more room to farm his core items. His ability to clear out creep waves with Illuminate combined with Chakra Magic to restore mana means you can gank more often as well as well as force dedicated 5 man pushes in order to kill towers. However, this duo does mean you will lack for individual disables from your supports.



Meele Carries can be prone to be being kited around. Overgrowth's disable can prevent this from happening allowing your carries a few seconds of time in which to go to work without having to chase.

Outworld Devourer

Likewise Hero's with high burst damage abilities that require precise positioning e.g. Mystic Flare and Sanity's Eclipse can benefit from the lockdown provided by Overgrowth. Especially against more evasive, but squishy opponents such as Anti-Mage.



All three of Hookshot, Meat Hook and Sacred Arrow are powerful abilities that require precise aiming. What better way to get the perfect shot than using Nature's Guise to get the details of the exact position of the opponents.

Whilst it does require an early point into Nature's Guise, it is one of the situations where it is worth it. This is a perfect example of adapting your skill build to the specific game.

Lumberjacks and Eco-Terrorists

These three Heroes are extremely powerful tower pushers between Nether Blast, Liquid Fire, Diabolic Edict and Mass Serpent Ward they can rapidly destroy towers. And whilst Treant is good at preventing chip damage with Living Armor, he can't really deal with powerful offense like this. Especially since they deal multiple instances of damage, removing Living Armor quickly.



These Heroes each have abilities that give them massive attack speed bonuses ( Strafe, Focus Fire and Overpower) allowing them to attack rapidly and remove Living Armor before it can really make a vast difference in an early game ganks. The same is true when using it on buildings, which can lead to there early destruction. And ever building destroyed reduces Treant Protector's utility in a game.



Both of these Hero's have abilities that remove tree's around the map. When taking an early point in Nature's Guise this can be critical. Firefly in particular, as it allows Batrider to run you down and kill you with relative ease. Timber Chain also allows Timbersaw to do this, and his combination of Chakram and Whirling Death can prove to kill you fast than Batrider, however it's harder to chase you down with Timbersaw than Batrider

They also deal damage in mutliple instances, again burning through Living Armor in rapid order.

Things still to do:

• Finish Item list
• Add in some video's of successful Boots first Treant
• Finish the summary guide
• Learn the difference between the save and the publish button for he future ¬_¬

Changelog

Do note, I use the British calendar system for this stuff. So don't be confused if the date doesn't appear to make sense

14/07/2014 - Added Mek and Vlads to the Items section, as well as fix some basic formatting errors.
26/07/2014 - Added Icons and finished the utility Items Section. Added in the allies and Enemy section.