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Okay, so this is my first guide here, I was planning to make a Witch Doctor guide for a long time, but then I played Wyvern and the whole scene of my semi-support and support playing changed. Its been a while since Wyvern was released and (I play on the SEA server, so I can't really say about the others) I have not seen more than 2 picks in all my pub games in which I didn't play as her. Winter Wyvern or Auroth is the latest addition to Dota 2. She is an extremely fun and interesting hero to play, even if you play as a hard support version of her or a semi-support. It is advisable for beginners to get a good hang of the game before trying to play her, even though her skills are pretty straight forward, it requires the skills and knowledge to use them at the correct moment.
Early Disclaimer:- This in NOT a hard support guide, and best for pub matches.
Auroth has a very nice and smooth skillset, it's very flexible in my opinion. All of her skills are activatable and, undeniably, cool.
1.
Winter Wyvern soars upon an arctic wind, granting her unobstructed movement and allowing her to exhale a blistering chill into each attack. While soaring, her attacks travel further and faster, and slow enemies with a burning freeze that strips them of 8% of their current health each second. Her sight is also hardened against night's chill, granting her 400 additional vision range at night while soaring.
Cast Time: Instant
Attack Range Bonus: 275/375/475/575
Attack Projectile Speed Bonus: 500
Night Vision Bonus: 400
Current Health as Damage per Second: 8%
Move Speed Slow: 25%/30%/35%/40%
Debuff Duration: 5 seconds
Arctic Burn Duration: 6 seconds
Cooldown:- 50/40/30/20 seconds Mana 120/110/100/90
Partially dispellable. The slow/damage debuff is purgeable, the buff is not.
2.
Launches a ball of brittle ice towards an enemy. The ice shatters on impact, leaving the primary target completely unaffected, while hurling damaging splinters into nearby enemies in a 500 radius. Enemies struck by these splinters are slowed by 25%.
Cast Time: 0.3+1.17
Cast Range: 1200
Splinter Search Radius: 500
Damage: 100/180/260/340
Move Speed Slow: 25%
Slow Duration: 4
Cooldown:- 7 seconds Mana 120/130/140/150
Partially blocked by Spell Immunity. Can't be cast on spell immune units. If target turns spell immune, splinters still spawn. Splinters also spawn for spell immune secondary targets, but do not affect them.
Partially blocked by Linken's Sphere. Blocked fully only when primary target. Blocked upon projectile impact.
3.
Encases an ally in an icy cocoon, freezing them solid while healing a base amount as well as a percentage of their maximum health each second. The cocoon blocks all physical damage.
Cast Time: 0.3+0.63
Cast Range: 1000
Base Heal per Second: 20
Max Health as Heal per Second: 3%/4%/5%/6%
Duration: 4 seconds
Cooldown:- 17/16/15/14 seconds Mana 75
Cannot be dispelled. Can not be dispelled by anything.
4.
Winter Wyvern freezes an enemy in place while striking those nearby with a maddening curse which causes them to attack their frozen ally. Units cursed to attack their ally take 70% reduced damage from all sources.
Cast Time: 0.3+1.37
Cast Range: 800
Radius: 400
Incoming Damage Reduction: 70%
Duration: 2.5/3/3.5 seconds
Cooldown:- 110/100/90 seconds Mana 250
Blocked by Linken's Sphere. Blocked fully only when primary target.
Cannot be dispelled. Can not be dispelled by anything.
[/list]
Okay, after that basic skill intorduction, time to go into the details.
1. Arctic Burn
This is a very interesting skill. Think Firefly but without the trail of destruction and the deforestation. The cast time is instant and you take to the air and also get this really cool coat of ice around you. Nothing means business like a cool coat of glowing ice around you. Just like Firefly, you phase through terrain and buildings, making it a perfect skill for initiating or in some cases, or escape the sticky situation. Be careful of the intiating part, because this skill massively increases your range at cast, slowing the opponents by a decent 40% at level 4, and it lasts for 6 seconds, not giving a lot of time for your allies to jump in unless they have blink. Your extended range will make you hit first, hence initiating, but if your team is behind that range, it and lead to the opponent running away.
The burn stays for 6 seconds, eating away a nice percent of the opponent's HP per second, depending on the target's current health.
Arctic Burn gives you no bonus vision during the day, but a 400 range vision boost during night.
If there are trees around you in a 250 range radius when the skill ends, those are completely deforested.
Using this as an escape mechanism is no crime, I use it all the time! Just activate and run up the nearest unpassable terrain, lo behold! You are free! (Unless the opponents have blink or similar skills. Then run.)
2. Splinter Blast
Splinter Blast starts off with a decent 100 damage which escalates to a massive 340 damage AOE nuke. The mechanics of this skill is simple. You see a low HP target, with a creep wave around him, or even one creep or his ally beside him, aim at that creep or ally, and boom, he takes a smack to the face damage. Simply put, again, it does an AOE damage around a target, with the initial target remaining unaffected completely.
Great skill to harass in lane, just shoot it off a a creep and get a few monies and a chunk of HP off the opponent. Harmonizes completely with your ultimate, it also affects invisible units, how about that! Always keep in mind who to target, that is the key of using this skill. Use an opponent hero as a beacon to take out the squishy supports around him, or trap the hard-hitter in your ultimate and let loose the ice blast and watch the confusion while your opponents take out the rest of them. Great skill for pushing lanes as well. With Auroth's impressive intelligance gain, mana is normally not a problem if you get your Urn or Mango early on.
3. Cold Embrace
Cold Embrace accoring to me, requires a good deal of skill to use. Normally, if there is no immediate danger, it can be used normally to heal. Be extremely caareful when there are opponents nearby, wrong use and timing can kill your ally off in a few seconds. The heal is a nice, strong steady heal for 4 seconds, blocking off all physical damage for that duration. Magical spells, however, affects fully. You see and ally running away at low HP, followed by the horde out for his blood, go into the flow, estimate if he can survive without the heal or not. If he can escape, then good, do not initiate. If you see, however, that chances of him surviving are less, like way less than 20%, go in, heal him, while opponents are hacking away at the ice, use your ultimate to create more confusion, unload your nuke and take to the high skies and fly away. In a situation like that,( in the case that you do not have your ultimate, be the sacrifice) chances of your survival matters not, do everything you can to save your allies. Trapping your team mate in the middle of hack and chop of a gank might save his skin, and make him comeback and turn the gank in your favour.
Use this skill with extreme precautions while surrounded by certain death.
Make sure that your team understands this skill, keep in communication with them to use it properly. If not, feel free to use it selfishly.
4. Winter's Curse
Ah, Winter's Curse. one of my favorite ultimates in the game. What it does is fairly easy to understand, to you and your allies at least. For the oppnonet's however, its pandemonium. Imagine that the carry in your team is farmed, he is on the nice road to being fat. Then you see yourself encased in ice, not being able to move and your own, farmed allies turn towards you in a hungry bloodlust and beats the shiznit out of you. That, people, is what this ultimate does. It makes the squishy heroes cower in fear from being too close to their own allies.
With a 400 range radius of affect, the ultimate can be game changing if the opponents are completely close to each other. The ultimate syncs nicely with her Splinter Blast, just curse the opponent, use that target as a beacon to do a hefty damage around him.
Take note, however, After 6.84, the targets affected by the curse will take 70% reduced damage from ALL sources, kinda a bummer. But a disable for 3.5 second and turning your own allies on you, makes it completely worthwhile. Using this ensures confusion for the next 3.5 seconds, enough time for some ***-kicking action from your own team.
The Curse affects everyone, even invisible units, but not buildings.
Take another note, some passives are automatically turned off during the curse so Mortred cannot crit (one example) on her own ally.
To make matters easier, I will include a list of things that affect and do not affect allies who are affected by Winter's Curse.
Doesn't affect:-
Mortred'scriticals
Most attack Modfiers, like criticals, cleave etc.
Blade Mail,
Spiked Carapace,
Counter Helix,
Corrosive Skin,
Bristleback,
Dispersion.
Affects:-
Return,
All forms of stuns and mini stuns, from Beserker's Rage, Monkey King Bar, Skull Basher, Time Lock excluding Greater Bash and Slardar's Bash,
Some Attack modifiers, like Desolator, Sange and Yasha, Skadi,
All damage blocks and all sources of Damage reduction and negation
Reactive Armour,
Essence shift,
Backstab,
Headshot,
Enchant Totem,
Shadow Blade, Silver Edge, Shadow walk,
Tidebringer,(not the cleave)
Pro's:-
- Good hero to lane with.
- Amazing intelligence gain.
- Not much problems with Mana.
- Good damage dealing nuke.
- All skills have good casting range.
- Brilliant heal.
- Great skill to initiate or escape.
- Strong presence in all stages of the game.
- Can turn the strength of opponent's carries on his own team.
- Discourages sticking together and ganking.
Cons:-
- Slow, very slow.
- Squishy to begin with.
- Not strong on One on One situations.
- Low attack damage and range without Arctic Burn.
- Needs full communication with team to be fully effective.
Heads up! No fancy pictures provided because I am still new at this and just figured out how to change the colours.
Okay!
Items are important for every DoTA hero, sometimes being completely dependant on them. Auroth is not one of them. Well, not completely. She can be played without being completely 6 slotted.
Starting Items
Needless to say, you will be playing the role of a support. So wards and Courier goes without saying. But DO NOT START WITH BOTH. Get either wards or a courier. Let someone else buy the wards, that's what I do normally. Take up a Tango and a Salve, a Clarity and most importantly a Mango. God, thank you for the Mango.
Ward after you get your basic items.
Early Game
Even though with a Mango and Clarity, you need mana regeneration. Get your Bracers and Sobi Mask and complete your Urn of Shadows. This item is a life saving treat when I play her. Getting Urn early, gives that much needed HP and mana regen. Plus having the charges is an added bonus. After that, get your Boot to increase that slow movement of yours. (Start buying Wards at this point)
Core Items
With the Urn and Boot, you should survive the laning phase and get enough gold to turn your Boot into Power Treads. Now, most people go for Arcane Boots on her for the mana, personally I prefer the HP and much needed attack speed boost from Treads. It just adds more survivability and less squishyness.
Then comes the fundamentally important item (again, according to me) Eul's Scepter or as I call it, Carnival Ride. Eul's gives a massive mana regen boost, and a great item on Auroth altogether. It not, only adds a layer of survivability but also helps initiate with Arctic Burn. It syncs nicely with Cold Embrace while you are jumped upon by the opponents, just throw yourself into the air, mash your heal so that the instant you are down, you get encased, and then Curse a poor soul and ice-fly the hell out of there. Saved my *** in many such situations.
Buying Wards are still required. Now you have a Treads and Eul's. Techinically, no more items are needed. But I usually go for the situational items.
Octarine Coreis one such item, with a nice dame geat\ling AOE nuke and DoT from Arectic Burn and the Cursed units, a lot of life can be gained by this item. Not to mention the regen is a positive and adds more damage to her otherwise weak attacks. Not to mention that it reduces cool down on your skills and your items!
If you want, a Blink Dagger can be added to your arsenal, making you more effective at initiating and landing your Ultimate.
Luxury/Situational Items
If the game goes on properly and you get a nice farm, your items now can be made according to the situation.
Orchid is a nice item, with the silence and damage bonus and regeneration and attack speed boost. No introduction needed on why it is such a good item on Auroth.
Shiva's guard is also a good item on her, making her a bit more tanky and the AoE damage syncs nicely with her skills.
Eye of Skadi is usually what I aim for, if I manage to get the gold. Coupled with Arctic Burn, the slow will drive any opponent crazy.
Now you can add your own items, see which ones go with your play style. If you want more tank, make a Shiva's or even Heart if you want. Dagon isn't all that bad, but unnecessary.
Refresher's Orb can yield nice results, it can be a nice item on her too. I have never tried that out but it sounds exciting!
Allies
Auroth can be an effectice initiator, but keep in mind that she need to time to pick out opponents carefull, who to Curse and who to use as a beacon for Splinter Blast. So it's advised that use her as a follow up to other initiators. As she is more effective with enemies that are close by, who are more better to be her allies, than those who can bring enemies closer or have a massive AoE damage output.
- Dark Seer
- Sand King
- Magnus
- Earthshaker
- Slardar
- Sven
- Centaur
Remember that Arctic Burn deals damage based on enemies's current HP so heroes like
- BloodSeeker
- Necrophos
- Viper
can be particularly helpful with her.
Enemies
Auorth is a very squishy hero, and can die in two seconds if not faster.
Heroes with long range skills like Hookshot or Hook or Elune's Arrow can be effective in taking her down. Heavy damage dealers are also a quick counter to her.
Be careful of
-Clockwerk
-Pudge
-Mirana
-Skywrath Mage
-Lion
-Lina
Also solo gankers can wipe the floor with Auroth because she is particularly ineffective in one on one situations.
- Bloodseeker
- Sven
- Barathrum
- Balanar
- Slark
- Bounty Hunter
Wyvern destroys melee heroes, punishes them hard with her nuke. Heroes whose strength is based on their health are particularly susceptible to die to her because of the mice damage boost gained from Arctic Burn.
Most right click heroes tend to have a large damage output, so that can be useful a lot, specially under the effect of Winter's Curse. Heroes with micro units are food for Wyvern because, even though normal heroes can spread to disperse damage from Winters's Curse or Splinter Blast, these micro managing Heroes cannot deviate from their units, earning an easy hit by her nuke.
Hopefully I managed to cover the basics and how to play this hero effectively. Sorry for being absolutely blunt at times, this is the first guide I have ever written so feed back would be appreciated.
Before signing off, I guess the general structure of gameplay should be mentioned.
Early game, just stay in lane, get those early levels of your nuke and Arctic Burn. Throw in a level of Cold Embrace for safety. If the opponents are melee, destroy them with your nuke, a proper lane buddy can help you secure some early kills. Don't worry about the mana, complete the Urnand you have Claritiesand Mangoesto sustain you. Even if your opponents are ranged, there is no stopping you from destroying them too, just use the opponent range creep as a beacon, that ensures almost everyone gets hit by the blast. If the opponents have a way of healing themselves, try not to spam too much.
After you get your Ultimate and max out your nuke, you can go participate in ganks, procedure is very simple. Choose the person you want to cure, preferably the squishy, support kind so that his own carries can hammer the **** out of him, poor soul. While that happens, let loose the nuke and your allies onto the confused bunch of opponents and effectively destroy them. Go push nicely with your Splinter Blastand start taking over the map with your team. After a few ganks, the opponents will become wary of you, so be careful not be go out completely alone on the map. Keep the map well warded. In team fights, they will try to either take you or the main carry out, in most cases you will be the target. So be extremly careful, you will have your Eul's to help you out but still.
Most supports don't have a late game presence, but not Auroth. She is still in the game, kicking *** and destroying the Lannisters. Uh..I mean the opponents. You should have enough items to manage solo survivability but stick with the team, you are a team player. Never try to solo with Auroth.
In most cases, where your carries are failing, it will come to you to hold the game together until the carry is farmed and ready to kick ***. Be selfless at times, throw yourself in to save your carries. You are not a carry, nor a semi-carry.
Be one with the ice, and the ice shall guide you.
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