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Wuffle's Guide to Against the Darkness
[Hunters' Deathmatch Mode]
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Guide Contents:
1. Introduction
2. Hero Database
a. Frozen Archer
b. Nature Mage
c. Battle Mage
d. Scientist
e. Architect
f. Medicine Doctor
g. Hunter
3. Individual Hero Strategy
a. Frozen Archer
b. Nature Mage
c. Battle Mage
d. Scientist
e. Architect
f. Medicine Doctor
g. Hunter (1)
h. Hunter (2)
4. Battle Arena Individual Strategy
a. Frozen Archer
b. Nature mage
c. Battle Mage
d. Scientist
e. Architect
f. Medicine Doctor
g. Hunter
5. Tips
6. Credits
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1. Introduction
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Hello everybody. I have been playing AtD for quite awhile. In my opinion, this is a great map. I have been playing all the modes, but I find DM mode most fun to play.
In the original AtD, its a game of many hunters versus one death knight. The hunters have to work together to kill the death knight before the death knight kills them all.
In DM mode, the hunters battle each other in the FFA style, you get to pick a hero and then creep/kill enemy heroes, etc.
A Battle arena will occur after roughly 27 minutes of the game.
Everyone spawns on diffrent locations depending on their color.
Following from here, I will be talking about diffrent heroes in DM, about their weaknesses, strengths, creeping patterns.
For creeping patterns, its almost the same for every hero, so just look through them even though you're not playing as red.
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2. Hero Database
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2a:
Frozen Archer (FA). Frozen archer is a very good hero killer. All of her skills are focused mainly on hero killing, and thats why shes a very strong hero in DM. She can also creep relatively fast.
Base stats:
Str: 18
Agi: 21
Int: 15
Base dmg: 31 to 41
Armor: 4
Frozen Archer's AGI is very high, making her a very good DPS hero. As FA, you will be dealing a lot of Damage, and by combining with your spells, you make an exellent killer.
SPELLS:
[Iced arrow]
Deals AOE damage. Primary target recievies more damage, also the units in the AOE get slowed.
Level 1:100 target damage,50 nova damage.
Level 2:130 target damage,80 nova damage.
Level 3:160 target damage,110 nova damage.
Level 4:190 target damage,140 nova damage.
This is one of the best nukes in the game, it deals a lot of damage to primary target, as well as slow which makes this spell both creeping tool and killing tool. This can also be used as escaping skill.
With this spell you will be getting a lot of hero kills early game,because casters HP is very low and if you catch them off guard you can easily score a kill
. Also early game you can creep relativly quick due to the power of this spell, as the spell level rises you will be getting more hero kills and get some gold for mercs and items.
[Swift Shot]
Gives a chance to deal damage proportional to FA's AGI and slows target for five seconds.
Level 1: 10%
Level 2: 15%
Level 3: 20%
Level 4: 25%
This is also your killing mechanism, slow helps you land some hits on enemy heroes and helps little while creeping. AGI's damage is little at first, but then it becomes a strong bonus both to help you creeping and killing enemy heroes.
[Vanish]
Makes Archer invisible for some time, increasing her speed. Attacking will reveal the archer, but deal bonus damage on first attack.
Level 1:11% move,30 bonus damage,15 seconds.
Level 2:19% move, 60 bonus damage,25 seconds.
Level 3:31% move,90 bonus damage,40 seconds.
Level 4:51% move,120 bonus damage, 50 seconds.
This is your escape skill,as well as skill which could make you catch enemies up and sneak behind them to backstab or creepjack heroes. Bonuses from each level is not sigsificant so its not recommended to max it early
Ultimate:
[Frozen Blast]
Releashes ten waves of Frost spikes near the Frozen archer,each wave deals 100 damage and slows targets it hits.
This is basically AOE slow and damage skill, and its efficent against mutliple strong creeps or mutliple heroes.
SKILL BUILD:
lvl 1: Iced arrow
lvl 2: Swift shot
lvl 3: Iced arrow
lvl 4: Vanish
lvl 5: Iced arrow
lvl 6: Frozen blast
lvl 7: Iced arrow
lvl 8-10: Swift shot
lvl 11-13: Vanish
Reason behind maxing iced arrow because its a great nuke, and you will be getting a lot of kills from it. Since your damage is not high at first levels, its wise to level it up ASAP. You get one lvl of swift shot because you will be needing vanish as an escape mechanism. You can skip vanish if your confident with your escape skills, otherwise get vanish at level 4. Reason behind maxing swift shot before vanish is because it gives more percent to inflict more damage and slow. I reccomend maxing swift shot because bonus from vanish isnt really that impressive.
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2b.
Nature Mage (NM).
Base stats:
Str:17
Agi:15
Int:21
Base dmg: 31 to 37
Armor: 5
As you can see, Nature Mage's Base damage is pathetic, compared to other heroes, he has second lowest base damage! So your early game won't be that great. Nature mage has a good INT growth. You will be killing heroes with your Nature fury spell, because its a very powerfull nuke/disable.
SPELLS:
[Nature's Protection]
Binds the Nature Mage to a nearby tree, protecting it from damage and restoring his ht points by three-quarters of his Intelligence once every second. Also permits sight of invisible units.
Level 1: 10 seconds
Level 2: 15 seconds
Level 3: 20 seconds
Level 4: 25 seconds
One of the most unique spells in the AtD. This spell is your main escape tool. Just remember that this spell has casting time, so you can't just cast this spell when you have 1 hit point. Also be aware that you will be sent back to the original place where you casted this spell once the timer ends. At first, healed hitpoints are barely noticable, but as the game procceds I find this one of the most powerfull heal abilities in AtD.
[Nature's Fury]
Causes a Treant to burst from the ground, grabbing it's roots around a target unit. The Treant then attacks target unit twice with Slow Poison damage. Roots last 4 seconds.
Level 1: 36 damage per attack, 5 slow poison damage per second.
Level 2 :54 damage per attack, 10 slow poison damage per second.
Level 3: 72 damage per attack, 15 slow poison damage per second.
Level 4: 90 damage per attack, 20 slow poison damage per second.
This is your disable and nuke. With this spell you will be able to actually kill enemy heroes. Posion damage is nice,but it doesn't really do much,best thing about this that it makes target not move. You can use it as escape spell, and with your mana pool you will be able to spam it. Only problem is the long cooldown. This isn't exactly the best creeping spell,but it helps Nature Mage to take down bosses.
[Storm Ward]
Summons an immobile Storm Ward that decreases nearby enemy units' movement speed, attack rate, and mana regeneration. The ward also generates a storm of lightning that periodically strikes enemy units. Lasts 25 seconds.
Level determines how good the ward is.
Useless spell in my opinion. Some say that this is a creeping skill, but with Nature Mage's low damage and low hp, he MUST hit-and-run creeps so he gets minimal dmg. This means wards die easily. Any player who knows what this ward does will easily destroy it. Damage from storm is pathetic, its like nothing. I do not suggest getting this spell in hunter DM matches.
Ultimate:
[Lunar Owls]
Summons 10 Lunar Owls to attack by enemy units. The owls will follow the Nature Mage around revealing invisible units and dealing 1.5 times the mage's Intelligence in damage
One of the best ultimates in this game. This spell makes you deadly in battle arenas,you can also use it to fight hard bosses. This spell improves over time because your intelligence is improved as you gain items/level up. Combined with ur Nature's Fury spell,you will probably kill a hero.
SKILL BUILD:
lvl 1: Nature's Fury
lvl 2: Nature's Protection
lvl 3: Nature's Fury
lvl 4: Nature's Protection
lvl 5: Nature's Fury
lvl 6: Lunar Owls
lvl 7: Nature's Fury
lvl 8: Nature's Protection
lvl 9: Nature's Protection
lvl 10-13: Storm ward
Max the Fury first because this is your nuke and without it you're nothing. You can get Storm ward at lvl 4 and lvl it up at level 8 but it's just not worth it. Either you max ward,or you leave it till lvl 10.
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2c.
Battle Mage(BM). Battle Mage is a versitale hero in Hunter DM, able to deal a lot of damage in short amount of time.
Base stats:
Str: 18
Agi: 22
Int: 16
Base damage: 46-58
Armor: 5
Battle Mage's base damage is very high, so his early game is great, he is able to kill deers in early game in two hits(not three). With his spells,he's one of the best creepers in this game as well as a very good hero killer.
SPELLS:
[Great Cleave]
Gives a 20% chance that the Battle Mage will strike with such force than he deals extra damage and causes the armor of the enemy to faulter for a short amount of time.
Level 1: 15 extra damage, 3 armor reduction.
Level 2: 25 extra damage, 5 armor reduction.
Level 3: 35 extra damage, 7 armor reduction.
Level 4: 45 extra damage, 9 armor reduction.
Battle Mage is an agility hero, so this spell is great on him, it helps vs creeps as well as vs heroes. Armor reduction is crucial and your Arcane Thunder Clash (see below) deals more damage to heroes. Extra damage is nice too, since armor reduction doesnt' stack, but extra damage is there.
[Lightning Fury]
The Battle Mage consumes the electrical energy from the atmosphere around him, converting it into energy and allowing him to attack faster for a short period of time.
Level 1: 50% faster attack rate.
Level 2: 60% faster attack rate.
Level 3: 70% faster attack rate.
Level 4: 80% faster attack rate.
Personally, I never used this spell as a Battle Mage. You should never lvl it up at low levels, and level 1 Fury comes from lvl 8 Battle Mage. The reason you're not leveling this skill up is not because it's bad, but because other spells are too good to give up. But overall this is a good spell and combined with your slow spell, you can deal some serious damage to heroes.
[Arcane Thunder Clash]
The Battle Mage manipulates his mana, converting it into a powerfull arcane force that crushes a target area, dealing damage based on his Agility to enemies within the area.
Level 1: 2 times Agility, 15% move speed reduction
Level 2: 4 times Agility, 25% move speed reduction
Level 3: 6 times Agility, 35% move speed reduction
Level 4: 8 times Agility, 45% move speed reduction
This is your creeping spell, escape spell and a nuke/slow. This spell improves as your agility grows, so it doesn't really loses out lategame. Combined with your cleave and fury, you will kill a boss/probably a low hp hero when creepjacking. The only con in this spell is that its cooldown is pretty long so you should use it wisely when you're chasing a low hp hero.
Ultimate:
[Thirst of the Highborne]
The Battle Mage,a descendant of Highborne elves, takes on a instatiable urge to learn arcane magics. When learned, this ability adds a permanent bonus of 6 to the Intelligence of the mage and gives a 10% chance to gain a permanent bonus to the Strength, agility, and Intelligence from every kill made thereafter.
Not the best ultimate in the world, I would say. It gives 6 to intelligence which is a slight bonus, because you only have Arcane thunder Clash anyways, so you won't have problems with mana. The % to get stats is nice, escpecially when you're creeping, but its very slight. This spell doesn't do anything if you don't creep, so after having learnt this spell,you have to creep hard (preferably green camps) to gain stats!
SKILL BUILD:
lvl 1: Arcane Thunder Clash
lvl 2: Great Cleave
lvl 3: Arcane Thunder Clash
lvl 4: Great Cleave
lvl 5: Arcane Thunder Clash
lvl 6: Thirst of the Highborne
lvl 7: Arcane Thunder Clash
lvl 8: Great cleave
lvl:9-13: Lightning Fury
Arcane Thunder clash is your main spell which you will be using often. You will be using this spell to kill enemy heroes, to creep and rarely to escape from enemies. Agility bonus from levels is nice also, at lvl 7 thunder clash deals insane amount of damage, and if you get lots of AGI from thirst of the highborne, you can pretty much have the most powerful nuke in the game. Lightning Fury is got at lvl 9-13 because bonus from great cleave is nice, both armor reduction and damage bonuses are nice and better than attack speed bonus.
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2d.
Scientist. Scientist has got most hit points in the game, he also has got the most powerful disables in the game, supercharge and his ultimate, Halt Time.
Base stats:
Str: 21
Agi: 15
Int: 19
Base damage: 35-41
Armor: 5
Scientist's strength gain is huge, his intelligence is somewhat decent and agility is very poor, but potions and disables make up for his bad agility.
SPELLS:
[Alchemy]
Gives the Scientist the ability to create potions. Two more potions will be avalaible as you level up this skill.
lvl 1: Potion of haste and potion of speed
lvl 2: Potion of restoration and potion of vampiric potion
lvl 3: Elixir of mountian giant, potion of invisibility
lvl 4: Potion of bloodlust, anti-magic potion
A great spell to have. This skill is very versatile. Potions of speed make you run faster thus making catching heroes much easier as well as escaping. Potions of haste make you creep faster, other potions serve their purpose lvl 4 potions are just imbalanced, I almost feel guilty for using anti magic potions on the arena vs nukers.
[Supercharge]
The scientist Supercharges the area around him, shocking and damaging nearby enemy land units.
lvl 1: 40 damage, 3 second stun.
lvl 2: 80 damage, 4 second stun.
lvl 3: 120 damage, 5 second stun.
lvl 4: 160 damage, 6 second stun.
Best AOE disable in the game, the damage is barely noticable, but the stun cannot be understimated. This will be your killing spell as well as creeping tool, combined with potions of haste you can kill many int heroes early on. Also can be used as an escape skill combined with your potion of speed.
[Hologram]
Confuses the enemy by creating holograms of the scientist and dispelling all the magic from the scientist.
lvl 1: Creates 1 hologram
lvl 2: Creates 2 holograms
lvl 3: Creates 3 holograms
lvl 4: Creates 4 holograms
This spell is rarely got in the early-middle stages in the game,because other spells are just better than this one, nevertheless this is a good creeping spell, and acts as an escaping spell to confuse your enemy. Also this spell is very good at battle arenas as you want to decrease your opponents DPS as much as possible.
Ultimate:
[Halt Time]
The Scientist lifts off from the ground and gradually gathers energy from the air around him. He then slams the ground, unleashing all of the collected energy with such force that it stops time around him in a circular radius. Last 20 seconds on units, less on heroes.
One of the best spells in the game, this is the longest stun in the game. In battle arena this spell must be feared by others. You can kill one hero no problem with this spell. Note that the cooldown is very long, so you don't want to waste it.
SKILL BUILD:
lvl 1: Supercharge or alchemy
lvl 2: Alchemy or supercharge
lvl 3: Alchemy
lvl 4: supercharge
lvl 5: Alchemy
lvl 6: Halt time
lvl 7: Supercharge
lvl 8: Alchemy
lvl 9-13: Holograms
You can go with supercharge or alchemy first. It's up to you to decide. Supercharge gives you time to deal damage, while alchemy lvl 1 give you a escape mechanism and creeping tool. Holograms are only got after level 9 because the supercharge and alchemy are too good to give up. Alchemy gives you more potions which have their uses, and supercharge gives you more time to deal more damage.
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2e.
Architect(Arch). Unlike other heroes, Architect has the ability to build structures. That's right, basing. He also has got relatively high hit points,making him second best tank in the game.
Base stats:
Str: 24
Agi: 13
Int: 17
Base dmg: 35-45
Armor: 4
Architect is a special hero. You can play him builder style, or simply don't build anything and creep like any other hero. If you choose creeping, note that he is a strength hero. Architect, in my opinion, is more suited for Vs.Death Knight modes and his basing isn't very useful in DM mode. If you choose to build structures, you can hire units from recruitment tent and can be used in battle arena.
Note that buildings which you built in DM mode won't transfer to Arena, but you will be given extra str, agi, int and exp for each building. Architect has got lots of hitpoints so your early game creeping isn't bad
SPELLS:
[Greed Smite]
Throws a heavy golden coin at an enemy unit, causing damage and disorienting the target, causing them to miss on attacks.
Level 1: 150 damage, 3 seconds disorientation
Level 2: 200 damage, 4 seconds disorientation
Level 3: 250 damage, 5 seconds disorientation
Level 4: 300 damage, 6 seconds disorientation
Your main nuke, with this spell you will be able to fight heroes and creep stuff. This is a very helpful spell vs bosses(e.g. pissed giant because of the miss) The damage is very high and mana cost is not that high, only 90 mana. This is a good spell against DPS'ers. The only drawback is a longer than average cooldown unlike other nukes.
[Golden strike]
Gives a chance that when the Architect kills an enemy unit, he will receive half of his STR in gold.
Level 1: 35%
Level 2: 45%
Level 3: 55%
Level 4: 65%
Very great spell for architect to have. This spell improves over time because it's based on your STR. Also with this spell you can hire deceiver first,making your mid game even better. With deceiver, you can kill heroes in no time, Hex is a great disable vs enemy heroes and combined with your nuke, you can net some hero kills.
[Bravery Aura]
Increases the attack rate and movement speed of nearby friendly units.
Level 1: 5%
Level 2: 10%
Level 3: 15%
Level 4: 20%
Good aura,this spell is very helpful if you hired bunch of mercs from middle merc shop, or hired some units from recruitment tent. Attack speed bonus is great thing to have as it increases DPS. Bonus movespeed makes you move faster, thus you can outrun most of the heroes in AtD.
Ultimate:
[Archichaos]
Creates 4 invulnerable Archichaos Magic Towers around the Architect that attack 2 times a second for 21 chaos damage each. Each tower has a 6% chance to stun a enemy unit for 2 seconds. The Architect does not turn invulnerable. Lasts 25 seconds.
Good ultimate, but not the best. This is a good creeping tool and a good spell in battle arena, although stuns and disables cancel it as its a channeling spell. You can cast it when fightning bosses and fightning heroes. (Heroes may flee though)
SKILL BUILD(1):
Solo
lvl 1: Greed Smite
lvl 2: Golden Strike
lvl 3: Greed Smite
lvl 4: Bravery Aura
lvl 5: Greed Smite
lvl 6: Bravery aura or Archichaos
lvl 7: Greed Smite
lvl 8: Bravery aura
lvl 9: Golden strike
lvl 10: Bravery Aura
lvl 11: Golden Strike
lvl 12: Golden Strike
lvl 13: Archichaos or Bravery aura
Max nuke first because it's a great skill. It allows you to creep faster. Bravery aura should be got at level 4 instead of 2 because its crucial to have Golden strike bonus early. Its up to you to decide whether to get archichaos or not. I personally don't get it because I find other spells more important. But Archichaos can be a good creeping tool. You can play solo architect so as not to waste so much time on buildings.
SKILL BUILD(2):
Builder
lvl 1: Greed Smite
lvl 2: Golden Strike
lvl 3: Greed Smite
lvl 4: Golden Strike
lvl 5: Greed Smite
lvl 6: Bravery aura or Golden Strike
lvl 7: Greed Smite
lvl 8-13: Bravery aura(for army)/Golden Strike(if you want more gold) OR archichaos if you feel the need at anytime
Like the solo build, you need to gain money asap to build bases. You can start building anytime you like, usually I do it at 10 min mark. You can concentrate on your buildings and after all one of your buildings (House of Knowledge) gives you exp per every few seconds and its really helpful for builders. The advantage of building over solo that the more arrow towers you have, the more stat gains you receive at the beginning of the battle arena. Beware though, that your base might get wrecked by a very strong hero. Refer to individual strategy section for more information.
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2f.
Medicine Doctor. One of the hardest heroes to play in hunter DM, because of his pathetic nuke and no disables, however his healing spells are awesome.
Base stats:
Str: 15
Agi: 18
Int: 20
Base dmg: 30-36
Armor: 3
Medicine doctor has the lowest base damage, making his early game very poor. He also has good intelligence and somewhat medium agility. However, early game you won't be leveling up so easily.
SPELLS:
[Wave of Restoration]
Calls forth a wave of energy that heals a target and bounces to nearby friendlies. Each bounce heals less damage.
Level 1: Heals 125 damage, jumps 2 times
Level 2: Heals 225 damage, jumps 3 times
Level 3: Heals 325 damage, jumps 4 times
Level 4: Heals 425 damage, jumps 5 times
Nice ability to have, this spell will make your survival much better. With this spell you can destroy bigger camps, allthough you will be killing them slowly, you will not die like other mages. It also provides nice healing to your mercs, which will be your main firepower in the arena/creeping.
[Leech]
The Medicine Doctor leeches life from enemy units in a target area, damaging them based on his Intelligence and healing himself for the total amount of damage leeched.
Level 1: 2 times Intelligence, up to 2 enemy units.
Level 2: 2.5 times intelligence, up to 3 enemy units.
Level 3: 3 times Intelligence, up to 4 enemy units.
Level 4: 3.5 times Intelligence, up to 5 enemy units.
This spell makes you creep camps faster. Also this spell won't damage creeps so much as you would think, but healed hit points are noticable. Against enemy heroes, this spell is weak, because it won't damage them but you can use this spell to heal yourself for some hit points. This spell has a long cooldown, so don't waste it on one hero or one creep, make sure multiple units are leeched so you get healed for maximum hit points.
[Aura of Regeneration]
Increases the life regeneration rate of nearby friendly units.
Level 1: Minor regeneration bonus.
Level 2: Moderate regeneration bonus.
Level 3: Greater regeneration bonus.
Level 4: Greatest regeneration bonus.
You won't be leveling this spell at first, because the regeneration bonus is minor, which won't help you anywhere. You need to be using as much mana as possible every single moment and leech costs little mana and has a long cooldown. I find this spell pretty useless as you can cast wave of restoration for healing instead.
Ultimate:
[Sun totem]
Summons an immovable totem that heals 3% of a nearby friendly non-mechanical unit's hit points per second and burns nearby enemy units for 40 damage per second. Lasts 25 seconds.
Also your healing spell, but there's a catch! You can use this spell to clear piggy area! (The last boss which allows you to get uber items) It's not even funny how fast those creeps will die. Cast this spell beside you so enemies will have hard time killing it. Totem heals you and your mercs very fast. However, against enemy players the damage per second is barely noticable because heroes will just run out of the AOE of the totem.
SKILL BUILD:
lvl 1: Leech
lvl 2: Wave of restoration
lvl 3: Leech
lvl 4: Wave of restoration
lvl 5: Leech
lvl 6: Sun Totem
lvl 7: Wave of restoration
lvl 8: Leech
lvl 9: Wave of restoration
lvl 10-14: Aura of regeneration
You get leech first because it's your main creeping nuke and a healing spell at the same time. Wave comes at level two because aura won't do much in early stage of the game. Both of your spell have huge cooldowns so use them wisely. Obviously, sun totem is got at level 6 because it helps you creep so much faster and heal you at emergency situations. Aura is gotten last because I find it useless even in mid-game. Regeneration is worthless when you have control of fountain of hp and mana.
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2g.
Hunter. Very good hero to choose in AtD hunter DM, because of his high str, damage and range. This hero creeps very well, and one of his main strong points is that he can creepjack well, and almost never get creepjacked if you play him right.
Base stats:
Str: 21
Agi: 15
Int: 18
Base dmg: 44-50
Armor: 3
Hunter got decent Str growth, as well as moderate intelligence and agility. His main attribute is strength and he is ranged, making him tough hero to kill, yet a hero who deals a lot of damage
SPELLS:
[Hunting wolf]
Summons 1 Wolf to fight the hunter's enemies. With each new level, a new breed of wolf is summoned.Last 60 seconds.
Level 1: Frost wolf
Level 2: Forest wolf
Level 3: Silvermane wolf
Level 4: Dark wolf
This spell makes hunter one of the best creepers in the game. At level 4, Wolf gets permanent invisibility! Wolf should NOT tank the creeps, wolf has some decent damage, but low hit points. Get your hero to tank, and wolf to deal damage, use taunt when your hero has low HP. Later on, you can kill enemy heroes with your hunter and dog. You can also use dog as scout. At level 4 you can last hit damaged creeps by heroes while theyre attacking while scouting around the map (creepjacking). You can also leave dog creeping small camps while you hunt for other heroes, and when you need wolf's help, you just summon him again.
[Ballistic Bullets]
Increases the damage of the hunter's attack by using miniature rocket propelled bullets.
Level 1: 10 bonus damage
Level 2: 15 bonus damage
Level 3: 20 bonus damage
Level 4: 25 bonus damage
This spell is very useful creeping tool. It doesn't cost that much and you will regenerate mana at shop anyways so I suggest you keep this spell autocasted, unless you're short on mana and you want to cast other spells. The damage bonus is pretty good so only consider turning autocast off if you need the mana.
[Tracking]
The Hunter relies on his senses to track a nearby enemy hero. If a Hero is found, their general position will be shown on the minimap and the Hunter will be given shared vision of them.
Level 1: 1500 range, 10 seconds shared vision.
Level 2: 3000 range, 15 seconds shared vision.
Level 3: 4500 range, 20 seconds shared vision.
Level 4: 6000 range, 25 seconds shared vision
This spell makes Hunter best creepjacker in the game, and the best creeper. At level 4, range is simply too good to pass up, and thanks to 1)ark_Nite this spell has shared vision now! Use this spell when you're creeping, or when you're hunting for other heroes, or at mana regen shop. At level 4 range is quite huge and you can easily kill enemy heroes.
Ultimate:
[Beast Trap]
The Hunter creates an immovable trap that binds 6 nearby units in an ethereal unbreakable rope, dragging them towards the center of the trap where their life will be drained by a crippling heroes. Lasts 15 seconds on units. (10 on Heroes).
This is a very good spell as it has synergy with your every spell. Use this spell to eliminate heroes, but you have to be confident that you will kill the hero or heroes that are trapped and not waste this spell. This spell basically disables everyone for 10(15 on creeps) seconds in an Area of Effect. If its Half-spawn mode, you can easily eliminate every hero one by one. The downside is the huge cooldown. Posion is minor, because it does little damage. You shouldn't be casting this spell on creeps, and the only expection is probably piggy camp, since: 1. Its big so a lot of creeps will be sucked, 2. its important that you use every skill to kill this camp since award is huge, 3. People prolly realized you're killing this camp so you need to destroy the camp ASAP.
SKILL BUILD(1):
The Creeper
lvl 1: Summon wolf
lvl 2: Ballistic Bullets
lvl 3: Summon wolf
lvl 4: Ballistic Bullets
lvl 5: Summon wolf
lvl 6: Beast trap
lvl 7: Summon wolf
lvl 8: Ballistic Bullets
lvl 9: Ballistic Bullets
lvl 10-13: Tracking
This build is purely for creeping. Bullets and wolfs make your creeping one of the best, be carefu though, as you won't be safe from creepjacking and probably won't kill many heroes untill level 6. When you reach level 6, however, you can kill enemy heroes with ease.
SKILL BUILD(2):
The Killer
lvl 1: Ballistic Bullets
lvl 2: Tracking
lvl 3: Tracking
lvl 4: Ballistic Bullets
lvl 5: Tracking
lvl 6: Beast Trap
lvl 7: Ballistic Bullets
lvl 8: Tracking
lvl 9: Ballistic Bullets
lvl 10-13: Summon wolf
This build is mainly for hunting enemy heroes. Tracking is a good skill as you won't be creepjacked. and mainly get kills by creepjacking enemy heroes while they're weak. When you reach level 7,y ou can either learn tracking to maximize creepjacking effect, or get Bullets to increase your DPS. With this build, you will probably be always intercepting enemy heroes so they don't get fed. When you get dog, I suggest you scout with it, since creeping with it will be worthless.
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3. Individual Hero Strategy
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3a. Frozen Archer
-Creep first two green camps near you,you will probably get level 2.
-Firstly, move right, killing two deers and move on to a nearby ogre camp to the right with two ogres and a priest.
-Always focus priest first because it heals, cast iced arrow on it once and focus it, then procced owning two ogres. Cast iced arrow again. Don't worry about your mana, your going to get to the shop with a source of mana regeneration soon.
-As soon as you kill that camp, move to the right, regen some mana at the shop, and go back left. Destroy that camp with three troll rangers and one troll priest. Same thing, focus priest first and cast iced arrow to the priest, then proceed killing rangers.
-Now your killing streak begins. You should be Lvl 2 by now, and your second skill should be swift shot. Now look for heroes in the green camps around middle merc camp/fountain. You will find a hero if your lucky.
-Cast iced arrow on that hero(you should have mana to cast at least one, because you regenerated mana from shop) and start hitting him, you should be able to get him to half hp or even kill him!
-Now that you have gold, hire a Dark mage at the merc camp in the center of the map. Reason being: Good nuke and curse helps you fight bosses. Continue hunting for heroes, and destroy green camps near the middle merc camp. (Merc camp is a spot for regeneration)
-You should be level 3 by now, if you haven't, (you got killed once or twice,no heroes found) kill some more creeps and critters and buy a Staff of Nature Mage if you can afford it.
-Now you can either hunt for more heroes so they're totaly underleveled, or creep red camps. Decision is yours. I must warn you though, that creeping red camps can be extremely difficult without staff of nature mage.
-If you have chosen to kill red creeps, go for top right red camp with dogs(lvl 11 being the strongest dog with crit). Start by casting Curse (from dark mage hired eariler) on the lvl 11 dog and carrion on the whole group. Cast iced arrow on the big dog and start killing/damaging the low ones first. Reason being: You can get creepjacked.
-If you get creepjacked, dont worry. Go to the shop, regen mana, buy potion and procced fighting/creepjack back the hero who creepjacked you.
-If he retreats, procced killing camp and get the item which dropped from the lvl 11 dog(or tome).
-Now I highly suggest you killing other heroes because some of them(hunter) could be higher lvl than you and more powerful so you cant kill them. When you have gold, hire a Deciver. Always,and I mean always, buy Deciver first. It is the most crucial unit in the game, with a very high HP. Deciver aids you in creeping red creeps, frozen shield, rejuv hp, disable other heroes via hex.
-Right now, if you have hired a deciver you probably won the game. Never miss an oppornunity to kill enemy heroes.
-Creep red camps if you want powerful items. When your level 9 you can easily kill enemy decivers and get area-specific dropped items.
-Make sure you cripple enemy heroes gold so they have almost no good items, and are underleveled. This can be done by creepjacking.
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3b. Nature Mage
-Creep near green camps,nature fury will help you creep,
-Cast Nature's Fury to the troll and start hitting him,while doing hit-and-run strategy to minimize damage. Once troll is killed ,Nature Fury the ogre and start hitting him,and just kill the 2nd ogre with your base attack.
-Go to the shop and regenerate some mana, kill deers/critters and procced to killing a camp with three troll rangers and a priest, nature's fury the priest and kill him, kill other rangers with your base attack. This is pretty much the strategy you will be using for most creep camps.
-You should be level 2 now,pick Nature's protection as your second skill and regenerate some mana. Now you can start hunting other heroes or creep. I suggest creeping to lvl 3. Slaughter some green camps nearby the healing fountian/merc shop and hire a dark mage.
-Now go kill orange camp where a big bandit spawns. Cast curse on him(Dark mage) and Nature's Fury him, carrion swarm him as well, and start hitting him. Make your Dark mage tank until his hp goes in red, then let Nature Mage tank.
-Once you reached level 3, you can start killing some heroes. Root them, carrion swarm and chase, you probably will kill most of offense heroes because of your curse. Get the wand of the magi from the shop, its very usefull to you.
-Once you got gold, hire a deciver and you can start killing bigger camps. If you're creepjacked or on Low HP cast nature protection, but be carefull, you have casting time around 1.5 seconds, so dont rely on it too much. Smarter players will camp the tree till the duratation of your spell is over, but hopefully your heal will make up for it.
-Nature Mage is one of the heroes which can kill the Pig camp (bottom left of map). With lunar owls, its highly possible to kill any creeps and with your Nature fury its not hard to slaughter Boss.
-Nature's Mage early game is bad because of his base damage and no creeping spell. His mid game is ok, doesn't shine too much and his late game is great if you know how to use him.
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3c. Battle Mage
-Creep green camps which are nearby,cast your nuke on them,you should be able to creep fast.
-Regen some mana at the fountian/shop and kill some deers nearby.
-Proceed killing the troll camp and go middle to hire a dark mage. Now you HAVE to go hero killing because creeping wont get you far. Arcane Thunder Clash+curse+carrion swarm=dead creepjacked hero.
-You can't really fight face to face with tankers(Arch,scientist) so you have to rely on creepjacks. When you're level 4,you can start creeping. Get a staff of nature mage, it's one of the most awesome items on Battle Mage.
-Get enchanted armor afterwards. Slaughter that red camp with dogs,it should be easy with your thunder clash and cleave. Continue destroying red camps and at level 5 kill some heroes.
-You can kill int based heroes easily, but you will find it tough to kill str heroes,avoid them till the arena where you will have hope to kill them. At level 6 you should creep like mad until the arena, getting the stats creep after creep.
-One of the best items on Battle Mage is spell blocker items,because of how fragile he is vs casters. So if you're lucky to get the spell blocker,do not sell it.
-Your items should be focused on enchanting your defence, because your DPS is high enough and you need as much time as you can get to inflict massive damage to enemy heroes.
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3d. Scientist
-Destroy green camps,your AOE stun will make creeping much much easier!
-Go to mana regening shop and if you got alchemy immediately summon two potions. Do this because you will regen your mana anyways and getting potions never hurt.
-Kill the troll camp with priest and you should be lvl 2 now. At this point, you can kill heroes with ease. If you see a hero, cast potion of speed and haste,and start hitting him, cast supercharge and you have a high chance of killing him.
-I like to get dark mage and enchanted armor first, because that will make you a very durable tank.
-When you're level 3 you will not lose hit points to creeps,because you will get alchemy lvl 2 and create potions of restorations and vampire potions. These will always keep you on high hp, so don't worry.
-Important rule to scientist though,is that you always have to know what you can't kill and can. You can't just start hitting a frozen archer who got Iced arrow and wind walk/vanish, because probably she will run away and even kill you if you're not careful.
-I like scientist very much because of potion of speed. These great potions makes creepjacking much less damaging to you, and it makes chasing a lot easier.
-When you hit level 5, you might want to hire a deciver. Now you have 2 disables, as well as a chasing spell. Potion of invisibility is great spell to both escape and surprise enemies. Elixir of mountian giant boost your stats so it's pretty good.
-You should be higher level than any other hero in the game, unless you're getting killed a lot by DPS'ers and nukers.
-When you reach level 6, if its half-time respawn, then you can eliminate the heroes one by one, 20 or less seconds is more than enough to kill a hero. Consume potion of haste and start attacking the hero, you probably will kill him/her or leave him at low hit points. Then you can cast supercharge and potion of speed to chase.
-Your items should be enchanted armor and staff of nature might. Staff of nature might is great on boosting your bad attack speed and enchanted armor makes you a better tank, of course by creeping you gain more items but you might want to try somemore different items.
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3e. Architect
(Solo)
-Kill some deers. Destroy green camps for level 2.
-Cast another nuke on troll and smash him. After having destroyed that camp, go to mana regen shop and regen some mana. Kill more deers. Go to left and kill troll camp. Pick golden strike as your second spell.
-Now unlike other heroes, you cannot kill enemy heroes. You have to creep on green camps. Once you got gold, hire a deceiver, if you also can purcase an enchanted armor to make you even more of a tank.
-Once you're level 3, kill some red camps. If you spotted a hero creeping, dont hesistate to creepjack him. Cast your nuke and start smashing him. If he was low hp while creeping,you got the kill! When you got gold, hire a deceiver. Now finally you can kill some heroes! Cast hex on a hero, nuke him after he got unhexed and start hitting him, he probably will run. If he doesn't, he will miss on attacks, so don't worry about fighting the hero.
-Purcase a staff of nature might. Reason being: you get more DPS which you need to kill heroes. Hire more mercs and make sure no one else gets them. I'm always annoyed when architect buys all the mercs and I can't really buy them until cooldown is finished.
-When you got solid army,you can even kill pig camp (bottom left)!With your nuke and ultimate, you can easily kill pig camp, be careful though, that if creepjacked, you will lose lots of mercs, so make sure other heroes are underleveled.
-Because you get so much gold,you can purcase a lot of elite items at the legendary shop. I suggest you to take Flame Sword and storm guard. Vipers shirt of mastery is less powerful than the two items, so dont take it unless you've bought blade and shield.
(Builder)
-Read the solo guide above.
-The difference in strategy between solo and builder is that somewhere midgame you can choose to start basing.
-Make sure you have at least 400 and above gold before basing.
-Suitable base spots are: The area left of mana regen shop, the red creep camp with a teleportation way gate behind it and lowlands at right side of map.
-When you start building technology center, hire 4 gatherers, as it is enough for your lumber income. Hire 5 if you wish to have a boosted income.
-Get house of knowledge ASAP as it makes up for the time you spent building.
-Try to block out all entrances using barricades, leaving only one hole to get in and out of your base.
-Research poison arrows first and never leave your architect not building something. Spend your time massing bow defense systems.
-Massing bow defense is better than upgrading them as in battle arena, 1 bow tower would net you some stats and exp while an upgraded tower makes no difference.
-Once you get recruitment tent you can start training militia and rifleman, offensive units that are pretty useful in numbers. Get the upgrades for them too if you are planning on massing them.
-Occasionally you can come out and hire mercs from the center of the map so no one else gets them, creeping along the way to earn gold/exp.
-The strategy here is when a hero enters to the core of your base, send your units or hero to block out the single hole entrance of your base so the trapped hero can't come out, netting you a hero kill if the hero isn't strong.
-Here's a priority list to summarize everything:
1. House of Knowlegde
2. Barricades+Arrow towers
3. Poison arrows+Recruitment tent
4. Hire mercs/Recruit units
5. Focus on bulking up your army
6. Gattling towers/White magic towers
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3f. Medicine Doctor
-Medicine doctor creeps very slowly at the early stages of the game, but his HP will always be relatively high because of his healing.
-Creep green camps at first and most importanly kill animals. Critters will be the main source of your leveling.
-If you're creepjacked, dont worry you have two healing spells and possibly a hp potion so you won't die from heroes like hunter and frozen archer.
-Don't fight heroes when you know you won't kill them. Example would be you being lvl 2 and a half fightning a level 2 scientist with movespeed pot. You KNOW you won't be killing him so dont even bother, just run killing animals and if he's chasing you no problem, he is just wasting his time. Buy wand of wind if you want.
-At Lvl 3 hire a dark mage(yes dark mage not deceiver because you got no gold and architect probably got that already) and start creeping big camps.
-Let medicine doctor tank because his Leech will be able to keep him alive. Cast carrion swarm on mobs if you feel like you aren't killing them very fast.
-Now you can kill some heroes with carrion swarm and possibly leech. Try to creepjack enemy heroes as those are opportunities you can kill them (low hp).
-You won't be killing so many heroes as frozen archer, but you can creep red camps better than most of the heroes. Your strategy is to creep camps, kill some heroes you come across.(Note: Don't run around map looking for heroes, as it wastes your time)
-Buy enchanted armor, its always useful for doctor because his leech recovers a lot of hitpoints if used correctly.
-With medicine doctor, you can try killing Piggy camp(warning if its half game spawn,dont bother because if you die you won't respawn). Cast a sun totem behind ur army of mercs and medicine doctor and watch how fast those creeps going to die.
-Proceed killing the chief with your mercs and hero and buy some elite items! I would suggest getting Vipers shirt of mastery first because it is good and mercs will live longer with your healing, then you can buy other elite items you like.
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3g. Hunter (Creeper)
-At the start of the game, kill the closet green camp, and summon wolf if you're going creeper build.
-Regen some mana at the mana regeneration spot, and proceed to killing other green camps.
-Hire a dark mage and kill the orange camp with pissed bandit, you should be able to do that with your hero/wolf/dark mage. Just cast curse and swarm to pissing bandit.
-Get enchanted armor and staff of nature mage. Armor increases your hit points, and you're tank anyway and staff of nature mage increases your already high DPS.
-After orange camps, either kill enemy heroes or red camps so you get high level items. The easiest red camp to creep is the one with wolfs. Get your hunter to tank, cast curse on the big wolf. Beware of his critical strike, as it can cause a lot of damage. This camp also drops experience tome if you're lucky.
-After this camp, creep other red camps like spider and bandit. Beware of creepjacks! You wont be able to creep safely because you got no tracking.
-You should be higher level than other heroes, because of your insane creeping power. Do not go to Piggy camp, you WILL die, no matter what level, how many mercs, how bad enemies are you should not go to piggy camp, it's too dangerous, especially if it is half spawn.
-Use wands of wind, you do not have any escape skill but your ultimate.
-Do not creep small camps when you can creep orange and reds, time is crucial. If you will keep killing green camps, red camps will be crept and you won't be high level and you won't get high level items.
-I suggest you complete only one quest, the one who gives a swordman. Other ones are a waste of your precious time, ase you can creep very fast.
-When all red creeps are crept, hunt for heroes. Your hunter/wolf/mercs are too tough for one enemy hero, but do not engage in 2v1 or 3v1 fights. You might be strong, but if they cooperate you will die.
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3h. Hunter (Killer)
-Creep the closest green camp as usual and as usual again, kill some critters.
-Recharge your mana, you will spend less time recharging your mana because you got balistic bullets which don't require much mana.
-Destroy another green camp, pick Tracking as second skill.
-Now I suggest you creepjack enemy heroes. Wwith the new feature 'shared vision' it should be very easy to kill enemy heroes.
-Do not engage heroes you cannot kill, you have no escape skill and you probably didnt purcase any wands of wind right now.
-Recharge mana when its low. Hire a dark mage, as it helps in creepjacks and dark mage's nuke makes it hard to escape hunter.
-When you got gold, purcase Staff of nature mage/wand of wind. Do not get enchanted armor unless there are lots of tanks. That is because when you creepjack, enemy heroes probably won't engage in a fight. But if it's a tank or a medicine doctor, he will probably attack you, so enchanted armor helps there.
-You wont be creeping much since you're killing heroes, but killing a green camp here and there helps.
-Keep ballistic bullets on almost always, since you won't be spending so much mana. If you cannot kill enemy heroes, creep red camps! Your tracking skill will prevent creepjacking.
-At level 6 you get the ultimate beast trap. If its half-time spawn, you might be winning right there. Rarely use it as escape tool, and do not use it at creeps, otherwise it's a waste of mana.
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4. Battle Arena Individual Strategy
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4a. Frozen Archer
-Always be ready to get ganked by heroes. Wind walk/vanish out of the fight if you need to. You can kill a hero very quick, just spam your spells.
-Hex the hero and you are almost guaranteed a kill. Dont worry if you didn't get the kill, vanish out and try again. Your ultimate is very good versus ganks. It helps you to escape as well as making it a very powerful nuke. If you feel confident, dont even vanish, just kill hero after herol in high level games however, people are expirienced and know to gank specific hero, often times it will be the Frozen Archer.
-FA is a very competive hero in DM, her skills are all usefull in hero kill process, making her an excelent choice for beginners.
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4b. Nature Mage
-Nature mage is very deadly in Battle arena,you can either hide in a tree till heroes kill themselves and then kill the last one, or you can pick off heroes one by one. With your deadly Root+Owl spell, you will most certainly kill a hero.
-Ward of course, wont really do much because of his cooldown and hitpoints...Heroes will easily kill the ward and your mana goes to waste,s o dont bother even casting it.
-With Deciever you have another disable!
-Of course one weakness of Nature mage is his relatively low hit points, but his nature protection makes up for it, not entirely but it covers some weak points of Nature Mage.
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4c. Battle Mage
-Kill int based heroes fast, before they swarm you with spells. Once disabled, you won't be able to do much. Do not face STR heroes right away unless you're 100% sure you will be able to kill them.
-In arena, it's all about how fast you kill int heroes and avoid str heroes as much as possible untill you can fight them. Battle Mage is a very good choice in hunter DM because of his DPS and his creeping skills.
-At high level of play Battle Mage loses his effeciency because of how easily he can be killed by diffrent nukers.
-If you ever got to get to the legendary shop and you got the gold for Viper's shirt of mastery, you won. The spell reduction is ridicilous and chances that you're going to win the game will be very high.
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4d. Scientist.
-In the battle arena, scientist is one of the deadliest. His ability halt time will either make enemy heroes die, or leave them at low hit points.
-Do not waste halt time, if you waste it, your chances of winning will vastly decrease.
-Try killing heroes one by one, do not fight 4 heroes at once, or you will fail. Disablers and nukers are a threat, especially frozen archer with her iced arrow and high DPS. Try killing them early with supercharge and halt time.
-Always make some use of your potions, anti-magic potion is a great spell to decrease damage dealt to you, potion of invisibility helps catch certain heroes and potion of bloodlust is great both for killing and chasing as well as escaping heroes. Holograms are also nice to have in the battle arena.
-Just don't reveal your self when you get damaged like once or cast a spell while holograms are around. I also like the dispell part of holograms, this spell saves your ass from diffrent spells and disables (e.g.Nature's Fury).
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4e. Architect.
-Because you hired so much mercs, you should have the most powerful army in the arena. Abuse it! Cast multiple hex'es on enemy heroes and hit them.
-Your main problem is Dps'ers like frozen archer and hunter, so make sure you either scare them away, or kill them.
-Cast archichaos when you're absolutly sure no one or nothing is going to disable you. Example first: Nature mage has just casted nature's fury on another enemy hero/your merc. Cast archichaos if there are no other stunners! Nature's fury cooldown is long so you wouldn't need to worry about him casting fury again.
-Always spend your gold untill the arena starts, I've always had this problem when I have 1600 gold and I enter the arena w/o enough mercs/not powerfull items.
-Do not show up in the middle of the arena. Sure you have a powerful army, but this army can easily be dominated if enemy heroes combine forces vs you.
-Cast rejuvination from your deceiver to any injuried merc/your hero whenever possible. Rejuv is very crucial in healing in arenas.
-Abuse every skill your mercenary has. Curse, frost armor etc. are very powerful spells vs DPS'ers like battle mage.
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4f. Medicine Doctor
-Do not save your healing for the moment when ur hero is low, cooldown of healing is long and your mana pool is high, whenever you lost 500 or so hit points, use healing!
-Keep your mercs alive, micro them. Abuse every spell you got, they are all good, especially frost armor vs melee heroes and curse vs DPS'ers.
-Use ultimate(sun totem) to heal, do not expect it to be a nuke because smart people will just back off.
-Do not show up in the middle of the fight, multiple nukes will probably kill you before you even have chance to heal. DPS'ers are very good versus medicine doctors. Frozen Archer can kill you very fast, so either focus them ASAP, or avoid them till the very end.
-Focus heroes, do not spread fire on your mercs. Spreading fire is bad because most heroes probably have potion of restoration and will heal themselves.
-Hex one hero and focus it down, micro your mercs away if they're being focused.
-Sometimes, you don't have enough firepower to kill strong heroes, so gank them with other heroes! Arrange ganking like that "Hey that hero is strong, lets kill him so he won't just dominate us". That way you will have a bigger chance to win!
-Make sure that multiple targets are aimed at your leech spell. If only you only got one target with your leech spell, you won't be healed for a lot of hit points.
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4g. Hunter
-Battle arena will be a little rough, because you got no escape skill, and your tracking skill is nearly useless. Nevertheless, Hunter is very strong in Arenas because of his stats.
-Once arena starts, do autocast on on ballistic bullets, and summon dog if your build is the creeper. Hit and run heroes if you're having problems with them.
-Engage only one hero, or else you will fall.
-Use your beast trap wisely, do not waste it, as you probably won't have another chance of using it.
-Buy wands of wind; they are very useful if you want to kill a hero and other heroes are hitting you.
-Do not forget potions, they're very useful in battle arenas, especially for hunter.
-Do not lose your dog, it costs mana to revive it. If your dog is level 4(perma invis) abuse it! When your dog is getting hit, just go invisible.
-Cast beast trap on strong heroes, like frozen archer, or scientist. Do not waste it on int heroes like nature mage, because you're going to kill them by attacking them anyway. Unless the nature mage is fed or is very good, in that case trap away.
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5. Tips
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Creepjacking - When you spot an enemy hero creeping, depends on your hp or status, you can try to kill steal and gain the exp and bounty OR try to nuke/disable and kill the enemy hero.
Regeneration spots - These are very important key points in the map.
Mana regen - A shop around the top part of the map regens nearby units' mana.
Hp regen - The merc camp in the center of the map regens nearby units' health.
Gold - Always spend all of your gold before the battle arena.
Never shine too much at battle arena,or you might get ganked and die,try to be a shy guy.
Hire mercs when possible - They're helpful at battle arenas/creeping with their useful spells and decent hitpoints to tank.
Kill critters when you see them - They give a small boost of exp and not that lot of hit points.
Quests - Some quests give very good amount of gold/exp and farmer one nets you a mercenary.
Don't chase a hero when you know you won't kill him! You will waste your time while you could be/could have done something more useful.
Do not understimate weak heroes, they might come back and kill you!
It is always useful to get some potions and wand of winds. Cyclone is usefull for escaping and pots are crucial.
Kill red camps if you can! Don't kill orange camps when you know you can destroy bigger camps.
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6. Credits
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Wuffle - For writing the guide, done almost everything.
Prody - For editing the guide, and writing architect, helping wuffle to make guide on architect.
Zacharyiky- For playing AtD with me.
[Hunters' Deathmatch Mode]
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Guide Contents:
1. Introduction
2. Hero Database
a. Frozen Archer
b. Nature Mage
c. Battle Mage
d. Scientist
e. Architect
f. Medicine Doctor
g. Hunter
3. Individual Hero Strategy
a. Frozen Archer
b. Nature Mage
c. Battle Mage
d. Scientist
e. Architect
f. Medicine Doctor
g. Hunter (1)
h. Hunter (2)
4. Battle Arena Individual Strategy
a. Frozen Archer
b. Nature mage
c. Battle Mage
d. Scientist
e. Architect
f. Medicine Doctor
g. Hunter
5. Tips
6. Credits
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1. Introduction
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Hello everybody. I have been playing AtD for quite awhile. In my opinion, this is a great map. I have been playing all the modes, but I find DM mode most fun to play.
In the original AtD, its a game of many hunters versus one death knight. The hunters have to work together to kill the death knight before the death knight kills them all.
In DM mode, the hunters battle each other in the FFA style, you get to pick a hero and then creep/kill enemy heroes, etc.
A Battle arena will occur after roughly 27 minutes of the game.
Everyone spawns on diffrent locations depending on their color.
Following from here, I will be talking about diffrent heroes in DM, about their weaknesses, strengths, creeping patterns.
For creeping patterns, its almost the same for every hero, so just look through them even though you're not playing as red.
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2. Hero Database
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2a:
Frozen Archer (FA). Frozen archer is a very good hero killer. All of her skills are focused mainly on hero killing, and thats why shes a very strong hero in DM. She can also creep relatively fast.
Base stats:
Str: 18
Agi: 21
Int: 15
Base dmg: 31 to 41
Armor: 4
Frozen Archer's AGI is very high, making her a very good DPS hero. As FA, you will be dealing a lot of Damage, and by combining with your spells, you make an exellent killer.
SPELLS:
[Iced arrow]
Deals AOE damage. Primary target recievies more damage, also the units in the AOE get slowed.
Level 1:100 target damage,50 nova damage.
Level 2:130 target damage,80 nova damage.
Level 3:160 target damage,110 nova damage.
Level 4:190 target damage,140 nova damage.
This is one of the best nukes in the game, it deals a lot of damage to primary target, as well as slow which makes this spell both creeping tool and killing tool. This can also be used as escaping skill.
With this spell you will be getting a lot of hero kills early game,because casters HP is very low and if you catch them off guard you can easily score a kill
. Also early game you can creep relativly quick due to the power of this spell, as the spell level rises you will be getting more hero kills and get some gold for mercs and items.
[Swift Shot]
Gives a chance to deal damage proportional to FA's AGI and slows target for five seconds.
Level 1: 10%
Level 2: 15%
Level 3: 20%
Level 4: 25%
This is also your killing mechanism, slow helps you land some hits on enemy heroes and helps little while creeping. AGI's damage is little at first, but then it becomes a strong bonus both to help you creeping and killing enemy heroes.
[Vanish]
Makes Archer invisible for some time, increasing her speed. Attacking will reveal the archer, but deal bonus damage on first attack.
Level 1:11% move,30 bonus damage,15 seconds.
Level 2:19% move, 60 bonus damage,25 seconds.
Level 3:31% move,90 bonus damage,40 seconds.
Level 4:51% move,120 bonus damage, 50 seconds.
This is your escape skill,as well as skill which could make you catch enemies up and sneak behind them to backstab or creepjack heroes. Bonuses from each level is not sigsificant so its not recommended to max it early
Ultimate:
[Frozen Blast]
Releashes ten waves of Frost spikes near the Frozen archer,each wave deals 100 damage and slows targets it hits.
This is basically AOE slow and damage skill, and its efficent against mutliple strong creeps or mutliple heroes.
SKILL BUILD:
lvl 1: Iced arrow
lvl 2: Swift shot
lvl 3: Iced arrow
lvl 4: Vanish
lvl 5: Iced arrow
lvl 6: Frozen blast
lvl 7: Iced arrow
lvl 8-10: Swift shot
lvl 11-13: Vanish
Reason behind maxing iced arrow because its a great nuke, and you will be getting a lot of kills from it. Since your damage is not high at first levels, its wise to level it up ASAP. You get one lvl of swift shot because you will be needing vanish as an escape mechanism. You can skip vanish if your confident with your escape skills, otherwise get vanish at level 4. Reason behind maxing swift shot before vanish is because it gives more percent to inflict more damage and slow. I reccomend maxing swift shot because bonus from vanish isnt really that impressive.
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2b.
Nature Mage (NM).
Base stats:
Str:17
Agi:15
Int:21
Base dmg: 31 to 37
Armor: 5
As you can see, Nature Mage's Base damage is pathetic, compared to other heroes, he has second lowest base damage! So your early game won't be that great. Nature mage has a good INT growth. You will be killing heroes with your Nature fury spell, because its a very powerfull nuke/disable.
SPELLS:
[Nature's Protection]
Binds the Nature Mage to a nearby tree, protecting it from damage and restoring his ht points by three-quarters of his Intelligence once every second. Also permits sight of invisible units.
Level 1: 10 seconds
Level 2: 15 seconds
Level 3: 20 seconds
Level 4: 25 seconds
One of the most unique spells in the AtD. This spell is your main escape tool. Just remember that this spell has casting time, so you can't just cast this spell when you have 1 hit point. Also be aware that you will be sent back to the original place where you casted this spell once the timer ends. At first, healed hitpoints are barely noticable, but as the game procceds I find this one of the most powerfull heal abilities in AtD.
[Nature's Fury]
Causes a Treant to burst from the ground, grabbing it's roots around a target unit. The Treant then attacks target unit twice with Slow Poison damage. Roots last 4 seconds.
Level 1: 36 damage per attack, 5 slow poison damage per second.
Level 2 :54 damage per attack, 10 slow poison damage per second.
Level 3: 72 damage per attack, 15 slow poison damage per second.
Level 4: 90 damage per attack, 20 slow poison damage per second.
This is your disable and nuke. With this spell you will be able to actually kill enemy heroes. Posion damage is nice,but it doesn't really do much,best thing about this that it makes target not move. You can use it as escape spell, and with your mana pool you will be able to spam it. Only problem is the long cooldown. This isn't exactly the best creeping spell,but it helps Nature Mage to take down bosses.
[Storm Ward]
Summons an immobile Storm Ward that decreases nearby enemy units' movement speed, attack rate, and mana regeneration. The ward also generates a storm of lightning that periodically strikes enemy units. Lasts 25 seconds.
Level determines how good the ward is.
Useless spell in my opinion. Some say that this is a creeping skill, but with Nature Mage's low damage and low hp, he MUST hit-and-run creeps so he gets minimal dmg. This means wards die easily. Any player who knows what this ward does will easily destroy it. Damage from storm is pathetic, its like nothing. I do not suggest getting this spell in hunter DM matches.
Ultimate:
[Lunar Owls]
Summons 10 Lunar Owls to attack by enemy units. The owls will follow the Nature Mage around revealing invisible units and dealing 1.5 times the mage's Intelligence in damage
One of the best ultimates in this game. This spell makes you deadly in battle arenas,you can also use it to fight hard bosses. This spell improves over time because your intelligence is improved as you gain items/level up. Combined with ur Nature's Fury spell,you will probably kill a hero.
SKILL BUILD:
lvl 1: Nature's Fury
lvl 2: Nature's Protection
lvl 3: Nature's Fury
lvl 4: Nature's Protection
lvl 5: Nature's Fury
lvl 6: Lunar Owls
lvl 7: Nature's Fury
lvl 8: Nature's Protection
lvl 9: Nature's Protection
lvl 10-13: Storm ward
Max the Fury first because this is your nuke and without it you're nothing. You can get Storm ward at lvl 4 and lvl it up at level 8 but it's just not worth it. Either you max ward,or you leave it till lvl 10.
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2c.
Battle Mage(BM). Battle Mage is a versitale hero in Hunter DM, able to deal a lot of damage in short amount of time.
Base stats:
Str: 18
Agi: 22
Int: 16
Base damage: 46-58
Armor: 5
Battle Mage's base damage is very high, so his early game is great, he is able to kill deers in early game in two hits(not three). With his spells,he's one of the best creepers in this game as well as a very good hero killer.
SPELLS:
[Great Cleave]
Gives a 20% chance that the Battle Mage will strike with such force than he deals extra damage and causes the armor of the enemy to faulter for a short amount of time.
Level 1: 15 extra damage, 3 armor reduction.
Level 2: 25 extra damage, 5 armor reduction.
Level 3: 35 extra damage, 7 armor reduction.
Level 4: 45 extra damage, 9 armor reduction.
Battle Mage is an agility hero, so this spell is great on him, it helps vs creeps as well as vs heroes. Armor reduction is crucial and your Arcane Thunder Clash (see below) deals more damage to heroes. Extra damage is nice too, since armor reduction doesnt' stack, but extra damage is there.
[Lightning Fury]
The Battle Mage consumes the electrical energy from the atmosphere around him, converting it into energy and allowing him to attack faster for a short period of time.
Level 1: 50% faster attack rate.
Level 2: 60% faster attack rate.
Level 3: 70% faster attack rate.
Level 4: 80% faster attack rate.
Personally, I never used this spell as a Battle Mage. You should never lvl it up at low levels, and level 1 Fury comes from lvl 8 Battle Mage. The reason you're not leveling this skill up is not because it's bad, but because other spells are too good to give up. But overall this is a good spell and combined with your slow spell, you can deal some serious damage to heroes.
[Arcane Thunder Clash]
The Battle Mage manipulates his mana, converting it into a powerfull arcane force that crushes a target area, dealing damage based on his Agility to enemies within the area.
Level 1: 2 times Agility, 15% move speed reduction
Level 2: 4 times Agility, 25% move speed reduction
Level 3: 6 times Agility, 35% move speed reduction
Level 4: 8 times Agility, 45% move speed reduction
This is your creeping spell, escape spell and a nuke/slow. This spell improves as your agility grows, so it doesn't really loses out lategame. Combined with your cleave and fury, you will kill a boss/probably a low hp hero when creepjacking. The only con in this spell is that its cooldown is pretty long so you should use it wisely when you're chasing a low hp hero.
Ultimate:
[Thirst of the Highborne]
The Battle Mage,a descendant of Highborne elves, takes on a instatiable urge to learn arcane magics. When learned, this ability adds a permanent bonus of 6 to the Intelligence of the mage and gives a 10% chance to gain a permanent bonus to the Strength, agility, and Intelligence from every kill made thereafter.
Not the best ultimate in the world, I would say. It gives 6 to intelligence which is a slight bonus, because you only have Arcane thunder Clash anyways, so you won't have problems with mana. The % to get stats is nice, escpecially when you're creeping, but its very slight. This spell doesn't do anything if you don't creep, so after having learnt this spell,you have to creep hard (preferably green camps) to gain stats!
SKILL BUILD:
lvl 1: Arcane Thunder Clash
lvl 2: Great Cleave
lvl 3: Arcane Thunder Clash
lvl 4: Great Cleave
lvl 5: Arcane Thunder Clash
lvl 6: Thirst of the Highborne
lvl 7: Arcane Thunder Clash
lvl 8: Great cleave
lvl:9-13: Lightning Fury
Arcane Thunder clash is your main spell which you will be using often. You will be using this spell to kill enemy heroes, to creep and rarely to escape from enemies. Agility bonus from levels is nice also, at lvl 7 thunder clash deals insane amount of damage, and if you get lots of AGI from thirst of the highborne, you can pretty much have the most powerful nuke in the game. Lightning Fury is got at lvl 9-13 because bonus from great cleave is nice, both armor reduction and damage bonuses are nice and better than attack speed bonus.
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2d.
Scientist. Scientist has got most hit points in the game, he also has got the most powerful disables in the game, supercharge and his ultimate, Halt Time.
Base stats:
Str: 21
Agi: 15
Int: 19
Base damage: 35-41
Armor: 5
Scientist's strength gain is huge, his intelligence is somewhat decent and agility is very poor, but potions and disables make up for his bad agility.
SPELLS:
[Alchemy]
Gives the Scientist the ability to create potions. Two more potions will be avalaible as you level up this skill.
lvl 1: Potion of haste and potion of speed
lvl 2: Potion of restoration and potion of vampiric potion
lvl 3: Elixir of mountian giant, potion of invisibility
lvl 4: Potion of bloodlust, anti-magic potion
A great spell to have. This skill is very versatile. Potions of speed make you run faster thus making catching heroes much easier as well as escaping. Potions of haste make you creep faster, other potions serve their purpose lvl 4 potions are just imbalanced, I almost feel guilty for using anti magic potions on the arena vs nukers.
[Supercharge]
The scientist Supercharges the area around him, shocking and damaging nearby enemy land units.
lvl 1: 40 damage, 3 second stun.
lvl 2: 80 damage, 4 second stun.
lvl 3: 120 damage, 5 second stun.
lvl 4: 160 damage, 6 second stun.
Best AOE disable in the game, the damage is barely noticable, but the stun cannot be understimated. This will be your killing spell as well as creeping tool, combined with potions of haste you can kill many int heroes early on. Also can be used as an escape skill combined with your potion of speed.
[Hologram]
Confuses the enemy by creating holograms of the scientist and dispelling all the magic from the scientist.
lvl 1: Creates 1 hologram
lvl 2: Creates 2 holograms
lvl 3: Creates 3 holograms
lvl 4: Creates 4 holograms
This spell is rarely got in the early-middle stages in the game,because other spells are just better than this one, nevertheless this is a good creeping spell, and acts as an escaping spell to confuse your enemy. Also this spell is very good at battle arenas as you want to decrease your opponents DPS as much as possible.
Ultimate:
[Halt Time]
The Scientist lifts off from the ground and gradually gathers energy from the air around him. He then slams the ground, unleashing all of the collected energy with such force that it stops time around him in a circular radius. Last 20 seconds on units, less on heroes.
One of the best spells in the game, this is the longest stun in the game. In battle arena this spell must be feared by others. You can kill one hero no problem with this spell. Note that the cooldown is very long, so you don't want to waste it.
SKILL BUILD:
lvl 1: Supercharge or alchemy
lvl 2: Alchemy or supercharge
lvl 3: Alchemy
lvl 4: supercharge
lvl 5: Alchemy
lvl 6: Halt time
lvl 7: Supercharge
lvl 8: Alchemy
lvl 9-13: Holograms
You can go with supercharge or alchemy first. It's up to you to decide. Supercharge gives you time to deal damage, while alchemy lvl 1 give you a escape mechanism and creeping tool. Holograms are only got after level 9 because the supercharge and alchemy are too good to give up. Alchemy gives you more potions which have their uses, and supercharge gives you more time to deal more damage.
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2e.
Architect(Arch). Unlike other heroes, Architect has the ability to build structures. That's right, basing. He also has got relatively high hit points,making him second best tank in the game.
Base stats:
Str: 24
Agi: 13
Int: 17
Base dmg: 35-45
Armor: 4
Architect is a special hero. You can play him builder style, or simply don't build anything and creep like any other hero. If you choose creeping, note that he is a strength hero. Architect, in my opinion, is more suited for Vs.Death Knight modes and his basing isn't very useful in DM mode. If you choose to build structures, you can hire units from recruitment tent and can be used in battle arena.
Note that buildings which you built in DM mode won't transfer to Arena, but you will be given extra str, agi, int and exp for each building. Architect has got lots of hitpoints so your early game creeping isn't bad
SPELLS:
[Greed Smite]
Throws a heavy golden coin at an enemy unit, causing damage and disorienting the target, causing them to miss on attacks.
Level 1: 150 damage, 3 seconds disorientation
Level 2: 200 damage, 4 seconds disorientation
Level 3: 250 damage, 5 seconds disorientation
Level 4: 300 damage, 6 seconds disorientation
Your main nuke, with this spell you will be able to fight heroes and creep stuff. This is a very helpful spell vs bosses(e.g. pissed giant because of the miss) The damage is very high and mana cost is not that high, only 90 mana. This is a good spell against DPS'ers. The only drawback is a longer than average cooldown unlike other nukes.
[Golden strike]
Gives a chance that when the Architect kills an enemy unit, he will receive half of his STR in gold.
Level 1: 35%
Level 2: 45%
Level 3: 55%
Level 4: 65%
Very great spell for architect to have. This spell improves over time because it's based on your STR. Also with this spell you can hire deceiver first,making your mid game even better. With deceiver, you can kill heroes in no time, Hex is a great disable vs enemy heroes and combined with your nuke, you can net some hero kills.
[Bravery Aura]
Increases the attack rate and movement speed of nearby friendly units.
Level 1: 5%
Level 2: 10%
Level 3: 15%
Level 4: 20%
Good aura,this spell is very helpful if you hired bunch of mercs from middle merc shop, or hired some units from recruitment tent. Attack speed bonus is great thing to have as it increases DPS. Bonus movespeed makes you move faster, thus you can outrun most of the heroes in AtD.
Ultimate:
[Archichaos]
Creates 4 invulnerable Archichaos Magic Towers around the Architect that attack 2 times a second for 21 chaos damage each. Each tower has a 6% chance to stun a enemy unit for 2 seconds. The Architect does not turn invulnerable. Lasts 25 seconds.
Good ultimate, but not the best. This is a good creeping tool and a good spell in battle arena, although stuns and disables cancel it as its a channeling spell. You can cast it when fightning bosses and fightning heroes. (Heroes may flee though)
SKILL BUILD(1):
Solo
lvl 1: Greed Smite
lvl 2: Golden Strike
lvl 3: Greed Smite
lvl 4: Bravery Aura
lvl 5: Greed Smite
lvl 6: Bravery aura or Archichaos
lvl 7: Greed Smite
lvl 8: Bravery aura
lvl 9: Golden strike
lvl 10: Bravery Aura
lvl 11: Golden Strike
lvl 12: Golden Strike
lvl 13: Archichaos or Bravery aura
Max nuke first because it's a great skill. It allows you to creep faster. Bravery aura should be got at level 4 instead of 2 because its crucial to have Golden strike bonus early. Its up to you to decide whether to get archichaos or not. I personally don't get it because I find other spells more important. But Archichaos can be a good creeping tool. You can play solo architect so as not to waste so much time on buildings.
SKILL BUILD(2):
Builder
lvl 1: Greed Smite
lvl 2: Golden Strike
lvl 3: Greed Smite
lvl 4: Golden Strike
lvl 5: Greed Smite
lvl 6: Bravery aura or Golden Strike
lvl 7: Greed Smite
lvl 8-13: Bravery aura(for army)/Golden Strike(if you want more gold) OR archichaos if you feel the need at anytime
Like the solo build, you need to gain money asap to build bases. You can start building anytime you like, usually I do it at 10 min mark. You can concentrate on your buildings and after all one of your buildings (House of Knowledge) gives you exp per every few seconds and its really helpful for builders. The advantage of building over solo that the more arrow towers you have, the more stat gains you receive at the beginning of the battle arena. Beware though, that your base might get wrecked by a very strong hero. Refer to individual strategy section for more information.
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2f.
Medicine Doctor. One of the hardest heroes to play in hunter DM, because of his pathetic nuke and no disables, however his healing spells are awesome.
Base stats:
Str: 15
Agi: 18
Int: 20
Base dmg: 30-36
Armor: 3
Medicine doctor has the lowest base damage, making his early game very poor. He also has good intelligence and somewhat medium agility. However, early game you won't be leveling up so easily.
SPELLS:
[Wave of Restoration]
Calls forth a wave of energy that heals a target and bounces to nearby friendlies. Each bounce heals less damage.
Level 1: Heals 125 damage, jumps 2 times
Level 2: Heals 225 damage, jumps 3 times
Level 3: Heals 325 damage, jumps 4 times
Level 4: Heals 425 damage, jumps 5 times
Nice ability to have, this spell will make your survival much better. With this spell you can destroy bigger camps, allthough you will be killing them slowly, you will not die like other mages. It also provides nice healing to your mercs, which will be your main firepower in the arena/creeping.
[Leech]
The Medicine Doctor leeches life from enemy units in a target area, damaging them based on his Intelligence and healing himself for the total amount of damage leeched.
Level 1: 2 times Intelligence, up to 2 enemy units.
Level 2: 2.5 times intelligence, up to 3 enemy units.
Level 3: 3 times Intelligence, up to 4 enemy units.
Level 4: 3.5 times Intelligence, up to 5 enemy units.
This spell makes you creep camps faster. Also this spell won't damage creeps so much as you would think, but healed hit points are noticable. Against enemy heroes, this spell is weak, because it won't damage them but you can use this spell to heal yourself for some hit points. This spell has a long cooldown, so don't waste it on one hero or one creep, make sure multiple units are leeched so you get healed for maximum hit points.
[Aura of Regeneration]
Increases the life regeneration rate of nearby friendly units.
Level 1: Minor regeneration bonus.
Level 2: Moderate regeneration bonus.
Level 3: Greater regeneration bonus.
Level 4: Greatest regeneration bonus.
You won't be leveling this spell at first, because the regeneration bonus is minor, which won't help you anywhere. You need to be using as much mana as possible every single moment and leech costs little mana and has a long cooldown. I find this spell pretty useless as you can cast wave of restoration for healing instead.
Ultimate:
[Sun totem]
Summons an immovable totem that heals 3% of a nearby friendly non-mechanical unit's hit points per second and burns nearby enemy units for 40 damage per second. Lasts 25 seconds.
Also your healing spell, but there's a catch! You can use this spell to clear piggy area! (The last boss which allows you to get uber items) It's not even funny how fast those creeps will die. Cast this spell beside you so enemies will have hard time killing it. Totem heals you and your mercs very fast. However, against enemy players the damage per second is barely noticable because heroes will just run out of the AOE of the totem.
SKILL BUILD:
lvl 1: Leech
lvl 2: Wave of restoration
lvl 3: Leech
lvl 4: Wave of restoration
lvl 5: Leech
lvl 6: Sun Totem
lvl 7: Wave of restoration
lvl 8: Leech
lvl 9: Wave of restoration
lvl 10-14: Aura of regeneration
You get leech first because it's your main creeping nuke and a healing spell at the same time. Wave comes at level two because aura won't do much in early stage of the game. Both of your spell have huge cooldowns so use them wisely. Obviously, sun totem is got at level 6 because it helps you creep so much faster and heal you at emergency situations. Aura is gotten last because I find it useless even in mid-game. Regeneration is worthless when you have control of fountain of hp and mana.
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2g.
Hunter. Very good hero to choose in AtD hunter DM, because of his high str, damage and range. This hero creeps very well, and one of his main strong points is that he can creepjack well, and almost never get creepjacked if you play him right.
Base stats:
Str: 21
Agi: 15
Int: 18
Base dmg: 44-50
Armor: 3
Hunter got decent Str growth, as well as moderate intelligence and agility. His main attribute is strength and he is ranged, making him tough hero to kill, yet a hero who deals a lot of damage
SPELLS:
[Hunting wolf]
Summons 1 Wolf to fight the hunter's enemies. With each new level, a new breed of wolf is summoned.Last 60 seconds.
Level 1: Frost wolf
Level 2: Forest wolf
Level 3: Silvermane wolf
Level 4: Dark wolf
This spell makes hunter one of the best creepers in the game. At level 4, Wolf gets permanent invisibility! Wolf should NOT tank the creeps, wolf has some decent damage, but low hit points. Get your hero to tank, and wolf to deal damage, use taunt when your hero has low HP. Later on, you can kill enemy heroes with your hunter and dog. You can also use dog as scout. At level 4 you can last hit damaged creeps by heroes while theyre attacking while scouting around the map (creepjacking). You can also leave dog creeping small camps while you hunt for other heroes, and when you need wolf's help, you just summon him again.
[Ballistic Bullets]
Increases the damage of the hunter's attack by using miniature rocket propelled bullets.
Level 1: 10 bonus damage
Level 2: 15 bonus damage
Level 3: 20 bonus damage
Level 4: 25 bonus damage
This spell is very useful creeping tool. It doesn't cost that much and you will regenerate mana at shop anyways so I suggest you keep this spell autocasted, unless you're short on mana and you want to cast other spells. The damage bonus is pretty good so only consider turning autocast off if you need the mana.
[Tracking]
The Hunter relies on his senses to track a nearby enemy hero. If a Hero is found, their general position will be shown on the minimap and the Hunter will be given shared vision of them.
Level 1: 1500 range, 10 seconds shared vision.
Level 2: 3000 range, 15 seconds shared vision.
Level 3: 4500 range, 20 seconds shared vision.
Level 4: 6000 range, 25 seconds shared vision
This spell makes Hunter best creepjacker in the game, and the best creeper. At level 4, range is simply too good to pass up, and thanks to 1)ark_Nite this spell has shared vision now! Use this spell when you're creeping, or when you're hunting for other heroes, or at mana regen shop. At level 4 range is quite huge and you can easily kill enemy heroes.
Ultimate:
[Beast Trap]
The Hunter creates an immovable trap that binds 6 nearby units in an ethereal unbreakable rope, dragging them towards the center of the trap where their life will be drained by a crippling heroes. Lasts 15 seconds on units. (10 on Heroes).
This is a very good spell as it has synergy with your every spell. Use this spell to eliminate heroes, but you have to be confident that you will kill the hero or heroes that are trapped and not waste this spell. This spell basically disables everyone for 10(15 on creeps) seconds in an Area of Effect. If its Half-spawn mode, you can easily eliminate every hero one by one. The downside is the huge cooldown. Posion is minor, because it does little damage. You shouldn't be casting this spell on creeps, and the only expection is probably piggy camp, since: 1. Its big so a lot of creeps will be sucked, 2. its important that you use every skill to kill this camp since award is huge, 3. People prolly realized you're killing this camp so you need to destroy the camp ASAP.
SKILL BUILD(1):
The Creeper
lvl 1: Summon wolf
lvl 2: Ballistic Bullets
lvl 3: Summon wolf
lvl 4: Ballistic Bullets
lvl 5: Summon wolf
lvl 6: Beast trap
lvl 7: Summon wolf
lvl 8: Ballistic Bullets
lvl 9: Ballistic Bullets
lvl 10-13: Tracking
This build is purely for creeping. Bullets and wolfs make your creeping one of the best, be carefu though, as you won't be safe from creepjacking and probably won't kill many heroes untill level 6. When you reach level 6, however, you can kill enemy heroes with ease.
SKILL BUILD(2):
The Killer
lvl 1: Ballistic Bullets
lvl 2: Tracking
lvl 3: Tracking
lvl 4: Ballistic Bullets
lvl 5: Tracking
lvl 6: Beast Trap
lvl 7: Ballistic Bullets
lvl 8: Tracking
lvl 9: Ballistic Bullets
lvl 10-13: Summon wolf
This build is mainly for hunting enemy heroes. Tracking is a good skill as you won't be creepjacked. and mainly get kills by creepjacking enemy heroes while they're weak. When you reach level 7,y ou can either learn tracking to maximize creepjacking effect, or get Bullets to increase your DPS. With this build, you will probably be always intercepting enemy heroes so they don't get fed. When you get dog, I suggest you scout with it, since creeping with it will be worthless.
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3. Individual Hero Strategy
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3a. Frozen Archer
-Creep first two green camps near you,you will probably get level 2.
-Firstly, move right, killing two deers and move on to a nearby ogre camp to the right with two ogres and a priest.
-Always focus priest first because it heals, cast iced arrow on it once and focus it, then procced owning two ogres. Cast iced arrow again. Don't worry about your mana, your going to get to the shop with a source of mana regeneration soon.
-As soon as you kill that camp, move to the right, regen some mana at the shop, and go back left. Destroy that camp with three troll rangers and one troll priest. Same thing, focus priest first and cast iced arrow to the priest, then proceed killing rangers.
-Now your killing streak begins. You should be Lvl 2 by now, and your second skill should be swift shot. Now look for heroes in the green camps around middle merc camp/fountain. You will find a hero if your lucky.
-Cast iced arrow on that hero(you should have mana to cast at least one, because you regenerated mana from shop) and start hitting him, you should be able to get him to half hp or even kill him!
-Now that you have gold, hire a Dark mage at the merc camp in the center of the map. Reason being: Good nuke and curse helps you fight bosses. Continue hunting for heroes, and destroy green camps near the middle merc camp. (Merc camp is a spot for regeneration)
-You should be level 3 by now, if you haven't, (you got killed once or twice,no heroes found) kill some more creeps and critters and buy a Staff of Nature Mage if you can afford it.
-Now you can either hunt for more heroes so they're totaly underleveled, or creep red camps. Decision is yours. I must warn you though, that creeping red camps can be extremely difficult without staff of nature mage.
-If you have chosen to kill red creeps, go for top right red camp with dogs(lvl 11 being the strongest dog with crit). Start by casting Curse (from dark mage hired eariler) on the lvl 11 dog and carrion on the whole group. Cast iced arrow on the big dog and start killing/damaging the low ones first. Reason being: You can get creepjacked.
-If you get creepjacked, dont worry. Go to the shop, regen mana, buy potion and procced fighting/creepjack back the hero who creepjacked you.
-If he retreats, procced killing camp and get the item which dropped from the lvl 11 dog(or tome).
-Now I highly suggest you killing other heroes because some of them(hunter) could be higher lvl than you and more powerful so you cant kill them. When you have gold, hire a Deciver. Always,and I mean always, buy Deciver first. It is the most crucial unit in the game, with a very high HP. Deciver aids you in creeping red creeps, frozen shield, rejuv hp, disable other heroes via hex.
-Right now, if you have hired a deciver you probably won the game. Never miss an oppornunity to kill enemy heroes.
-Creep red camps if you want powerful items. When your level 9 you can easily kill enemy decivers and get area-specific dropped items.
-Make sure you cripple enemy heroes gold so they have almost no good items, and are underleveled. This can be done by creepjacking.
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3b. Nature Mage
-Creep near green camps,nature fury will help you creep,
-Cast Nature's Fury to the troll and start hitting him,while doing hit-and-run strategy to minimize damage. Once troll is killed ,Nature Fury the ogre and start hitting him,and just kill the 2nd ogre with your base attack.
-Go to the shop and regenerate some mana, kill deers/critters and procced to killing a camp with three troll rangers and a priest, nature's fury the priest and kill him, kill other rangers with your base attack. This is pretty much the strategy you will be using for most creep camps.
-You should be level 2 now,pick Nature's protection as your second skill and regenerate some mana. Now you can start hunting other heroes or creep. I suggest creeping to lvl 3. Slaughter some green camps nearby the healing fountian/merc shop and hire a dark mage.
-Now go kill orange camp where a big bandit spawns. Cast curse on him(Dark mage) and Nature's Fury him, carrion swarm him as well, and start hitting him. Make your Dark mage tank until his hp goes in red, then let Nature Mage tank.
-Once you reached level 3, you can start killing some heroes. Root them, carrion swarm and chase, you probably will kill most of offense heroes because of your curse. Get the wand of the magi from the shop, its very usefull to you.
-Once you got gold, hire a deciver and you can start killing bigger camps. If you're creepjacked or on Low HP cast nature protection, but be carefull, you have casting time around 1.5 seconds, so dont rely on it too much. Smarter players will camp the tree till the duratation of your spell is over, but hopefully your heal will make up for it.
-Nature Mage is one of the heroes which can kill the Pig camp (bottom left of map). With lunar owls, its highly possible to kill any creeps and with your Nature fury its not hard to slaughter Boss.
-Nature's Mage early game is bad because of his base damage and no creeping spell. His mid game is ok, doesn't shine too much and his late game is great if you know how to use him.
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3c. Battle Mage
-Creep green camps which are nearby,cast your nuke on them,you should be able to creep fast.
-Regen some mana at the fountian/shop and kill some deers nearby.
-Proceed killing the troll camp and go middle to hire a dark mage. Now you HAVE to go hero killing because creeping wont get you far. Arcane Thunder Clash+curse+carrion swarm=dead creepjacked hero.
-You can't really fight face to face with tankers(Arch,scientist) so you have to rely on creepjacks. When you're level 4,you can start creeping. Get a staff of nature mage, it's one of the most awesome items on Battle Mage.
-Get enchanted armor afterwards. Slaughter that red camp with dogs,it should be easy with your thunder clash and cleave. Continue destroying red camps and at level 5 kill some heroes.
-You can kill int based heroes easily, but you will find it tough to kill str heroes,avoid them till the arena where you will have hope to kill them. At level 6 you should creep like mad until the arena, getting the stats creep after creep.
-One of the best items on Battle Mage is spell blocker items,because of how fragile he is vs casters. So if you're lucky to get the spell blocker,do not sell it.
-Your items should be focused on enchanting your defence, because your DPS is high enough and you need as much time as you can get to inflict massive damage to enemy heroes.
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3d. Scientist
-Destroy green camps,your AOE stun will make creeping much much easier!
-Go to mana regening shop and if you got alchemy immediately summon two potions. Do this because you will regen your mana anyways and getting potions never hurt.
-Kill the troll camp with priest and you should be lvl 2 now. At this point, you can kill heroes with ease. If you see a hero, cast potion of speed and haste,and start hitting him, cast supercharge and you have a high chance of killing him.
-I like to get dark mage and enchanted armor first, because that will make you a very durable tank.
-When you're level 3 you will not lose hit points to creeps,because you will get alchemy lvl 2 and create potions of restorations and vampire potions. These will always keep you on high hp, so don't worry.
-Important rule to scientist though,is that you always have to know what you can't kill and can. You can't just start hitting a frozen archer who got Iced arrow and wind walk/vanish, because probably she will run away and even kill you if you're not careful.
-I like scientist very much because of potion of speed. These great potions makes creepjacking much less damaging to you, and it makes chasing a lot easier.
-When you hit level 5, you might want to hire a deciver. Now you have 2 disables, as well as a chasing spell. Potion of invisibility is great spell to both escape and surprise enemies. Elixir of mountian giant boost your stats so it's pretty good.
-You should be higher level than any other hero in the game, unless you're getting killed a lot by DPS'ers and nukers.
-When you reach level 6, if its half-time respawn, then you can eliminate the heroes one by one, 20 or less seconds is more than enough to kill a hero. Consume potion of haste and start attacking the hero, you probably will kill him/her or leave him at low hit points. Then you can cast supercharge and potion of speed to chase.
-Your items should be enchanted armor and staff of nature might. Staff of nature might is great on boosting your bad attack speed and enchanted armor makes you a better tank, of course by creeping you gain more items but you might want to try somemore different items.
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3e. Architect
(Solo)
-Kill some deers. Destroy green camps for level 2.
-Cast another nuke on troll and smash him. After having destroyed that camp, go to mana regen shop and regen some mana. Kill more deers. Go to left and kill troll camp. Pick golden strike as your second spell.
-Now unlike other heroes, you cannot kill enemy heroes. You have to creep on green camps. Once you got gold, hire a deceiver, if you also can purcase an enchanted armor to make you even more of a tank.
-Once you're level 3, kill some red camps. If you spotted a hero creeping, dont hesistate to creepjack him. Cast your nuke and start smashing him. If he was low hp while creeping,you got the kill! When you got gold, hire a deceiver. Now finally you can kill some heroes! Cast hex on a hero, nuke him after he got unhexed and start hitting him, he probably will run. If he doesn't, he will miss on attacks, so don't worry about fighting the hero.
-Purcase a staff of nature might. Reason being: you get more DPS which you need to kill heroes. Hire more mercs and make sure no one else gets them. I'm always annoyed when architect buys all the mercs and I can't really buy them until cooldown is finished.
-When you got solid army,you can even kill pig camp (bottom left)!With your nuke and ultimate, you can easily kill pig camp, be careful though, that if creepjacked, you will lose lots of mercs, so make sure other heroes are underleveled.
-Because you get so much gold,you can purcase a lot of elite items at the legendary shop. I suggest you to take Flame Sword and storm guard. Vipers shirt of mastery is less powerful than the two items, so dont take it unless you've bought blade and shield.
(Builder)
-Read the solo guide above.
-The difference in strategy between solo and builder is that somewhere midgame you can choose to start basing.
-Make sure you have at least 400 and above gold before basing.
-Suitable base spots are: The area left of mana regen shop, the red creep camp with a teleportation way gate behind it and lowlands at right side of map.
-When you start building technology center, hire 4 gatherers, as it is enough for your lumber income. Hire 5 if you wish to have a boosted income.
-Get house of knowledge ASAP as it makes up for the time you spent building.
-Try to block out all entrances using barricades, leaving only one hole to get in and out of your base.
-Research poison arrows first and never leave your architect not building something. Spend your time massing bow defense systems.
-Massing bow defense is better than upgrading them as in battle arena, 1 bow tower would net you some stats and exp while an upgraded tower makes no difference.
-Once you get recruitment tent you can start training militia and rifleman, offensive units that are pretty useful in numbers. Get the upgrades for them too if you are planning on massing them.
-Occasionally you can come out and hire mercs from the center of the map so no one else gets them, creeping along the way to earn gold/exp.
-The strategy here is when a hero enters to the core of your base, send your units or hero to block out the single hole entrance of your base so the trapped hero can't come out, netting you a hero kill if the hero isn't strong.
-Here's a priority list to summarize everything:
1. House of Knowlegde
2. Barricades+Arrow towers
3. Poison arrows+Recruitment tent
4. Hire mercs/Recruit units
5. Focus on bulking up your army
6. Gattling towers/White magic towers
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3f. Medicine Doctor
-Medicine doctor creeps very slowly at the early stages of the game, but his HP will always be relatively high because of his healing.
-Creep green camps at first and most importanly kill animals. Critters will be the main source of your leveling.
-If you're creepjacked, dont worry you have two healing spells and possibly a hp potion so you won't die from heroes like hunter and frozen archer.
-Don't fight heroes when you know you won't kill them. Example would be you being lvl 2 and a half fightning a level 2 scientist with movespeed pot. You KNOW you won't be killing him so dont even bother, just run killing animals and if he's chasing you no problem, he is just wasting his time. Buy wand of wind if you want.
-At Lvl 3 hire a dark mage(yes dark mage not deceiver because you got no gold and architect probably got that already) and start creeping big camps.
-Let medicine doctor tank because his Leech will be able to keep him alive. Cast carrion swarm on mobs if you feel like you aren't killing them very fast.
-Now you can kill some heroes with carrion swarm and possibly leech. Try to creepjack enemy heroes as those are opportunities you can kill them (low hp).
-You won't be killing so many heroes as frozen archer, but you can creep red camps better than most of the heroes. Your strategy is to creep camps, kill some heroes you come across.(Note: Don't run around map looking for heroes, as it wastes your time)
-Buy enchanted armor, its always useful for doctor because his leech recovers a lot of hitpoints if used correctly.
-With medicine doctor, you can try killing Piggy camp(warning if its half game spawn,dont bother because if you die you won't respawn). Cast a sun totem behind ur army of mercs and medicine doctor and watch how fast those creeps going to die.
-Proceed killing the chief with your mercs and hero and buy some elite items! I would suggest getting Vipers shirt of mastery first because it is good and mercs will live longer with your healing, then you can buy other elite items you like.
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3g. Hunter (Creeper)
-At the start of the game, kill the closet green camp, and summon wolf if you're going creeper build.
-Regen some mana at the mana regeneration spot, and proceed to killing other green camps.
-Hire a dark mage and kill the orange camp with pissed bandit, you should be able to do that with your hero/wolf/dark mage. Just cast curse and swarm to pissing bandit.
-Get enchanted armor and staff of nature mage. Armor increases your hit points, and you're tank anyway and staff of nature mage increases your already high DPS.
-After orange camps, either kill enemy heroes or red camps so you get high level items. The easiest red camp to creep is the one with wolfs. Get your hunter to tank, cast curse on the big wolf. Beware of his critical strike, as it can cause a lot of damage. This camp also drops experience tome if you're lucky.
-After this camp, creep other red camps like spider and bandit. Beware of creepjacks! You wont be able to creep safely because you got no tracking.
-You should be higher level than other heroes, because of your insane creeping power. Do not go to Piggy camp, you WILL die, no matter what level, how many mercs, how bad enemies are you should not go to piggy camp, it's too dangerous, especially if it is half spawn.
-Use wands of wind, you do not have any escape skill but your ultimate.
-Do not creep small camps when you can creep orange and reds, time is crucial. If you will keep killing green camps, red camps will be crept and you won't be high level and you won't get high level items.
-I suggest you complete only one quest, the one who gives a swordman. Other ones are a waste of your precious time, ase you can creep very fast.
-When all red creeps are crept, hunt for heroes. Your hunter/wolf/mercs are too tough for one enemy hero, but do not engage in 2v1 or 3v1 fights. You might be strong, but if they cooperate you will die.
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3h. Hunter (Killer)
-Creep the closest green camp as usual and as usual again, kill some critters.
-Recharge your mana, you will spend less time recharging your mana because you got balistic bullets which don't require much mana.
-Destroy another green camp, pick Tracking as second skill.
-Now I suggest you creepjack enemy heroes. Wwith the new feature 'shared vision' it should be very easy to kill enemy heroes.
-Do not engage heroes you cannot kill, you have no escape skill and you probably didnt purcase any wands of wind right now.
-Recharge mana when its low. Hire a dark mage, as it helps in creepjacks and dark mage's nuke makes it hard to escape hunter.
-When you got gold, purcase Staff of nature mage/wand of wind. Do not get enchanted armor unless there are lots of tanks. That is because when you creepjack, enemy heroes probably won't engage in a fight. But if it's a tank or a medicine doctor, he will probably attack you, so enchanted armor helps there.
-You wont be creeping much since you're killing heroes, but killing a green camp here and there helps.
-Keep ballistic bullets on almost always, since you won't be spending so much mana. If you cannot kill enemy heroes, creep red camps! Your tracking skill will prevent creepjacking.
-At level 6 you get the ultimate beast trap. If its half-time spawn, you might be winning right there. Rarely use it as escape tool, and do not use it at creeps, otherwise it's a waste of mana.
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4. Battle Arena Individual Strategy
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4a. Frozen Archer
-Always be ready to get ganked by heroes. Wind walk/vanish out of the fight if you need to. You can kill a hero very quick, just spam your spells.
-Hex the hero and you are almost guaranteed a kill. Dont worry if you didn't get the kill, vanish out and try again. Your ultimate is very good versus ganks. It helps you to escape as well as making it a very powerful nuke. If you feel confident, dont even vanish, just kill hero after herol in high level games however, people are expirienced and know to gank specific hero, often times it will be the Frozen Archer.
-FA is a very competive hero in DM, her skills are all usefull in hero kill process, making her an excelent choice for beginners.
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4b. Nature Mage
-Nature mage is very deadly in Battle arena,you can either hide in a tree till heroes kill themselves and then kill the last one, or you can pick off heroes one by one. With your deadly Root+Owl spell, you will most certainly kill a hero.
-Ward of course, wont really do much because of his cooldown and hitpoints...Heroes will easily kill the ward and your mana goes to waste,s o dont bother even casting it.
-With Deciever you have another disable!
-Of course one weakness of Nature mage is his relatively low hit points, but his nature protection makes up for it, not entirely but it covers some weak points of Nature Mage.
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4c. Battle Mage
-Kill int based heroes fast, before they swarm you with spells. Once disabled, you won't be able to do much. Do not face STR heroes right away unless you're 100% sure you will be able to kill them.
-In arena, it's all about how fast you kill int heroes and avoid str heroes as much as possible untill you can fight them. Battle Mage is a very good choice in hunter DM because of his DPS and his creeping skills.
-At high level of play Battle Mage loses his effeciency because of how easily he can be killed by diffrent nukers.
-If you ever got to get to the legendary shop and you got the gold for Viper's shirt of mastery, you won. The spell reduction is ridicilous and chances that you're going to win the game will be very high.
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4d. Scientist.
-In the battle arena, scientist is one of the deadliest. His ability halt time will either make enemy heroes die, or leave them at low hit points.
-Do not waste halt time, if you waste it, your chances of winning will vastly decrease.
-Try killing heroes one by one, do not fight 4 heroes at once, or you will fail. Disablers and nukers are a threat, especially frozen archer with her iced arrow and high DPS. Try killing them early with supercharge and halt time.
-Always make some use of your potions, anti-magic potion is a great spell to decrease damage dealt to you, potion of invisibility helps catch certain heroes and potion of bloodlust is great both for killing and chasing as well as escaping heroes. Holograms are also nice to have in the battle arena.
-Just don't reveal your self when you get damaged like once or cast a spell while holograms are around. I also like the dispell part of holograms, this spell saves your ass from diffrent spells and disables (e.g.Nature's Fury).
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4e. Architect.
-Because you hired so much mercs, you should have the most powerful army in the arena. Abuse it! Cast multiple hex'es on enemy heroes and hit them.
-Your main problem is Dps'ers like frozen archer and hunter, so make sure you either scare them away, or kill them.
-Cast archichaos when you're absolutly sure no one or nothing is going to disable you. Example first: Nature mage has just casted nature's fury on another enemy hero/your merc. Cast archichaos if there are no other stunners! Nature's fury cooldown is long so you wouldn't need to worry about him casting fury again.
-Always spend your gold untill the arena starts, I've always had this problem when I have 1600 gold and I enter the arena w/o enough mercs/not powerfull items.
-Do not show up in the middle of the arena. Sure you have a powerful army, but this army can easily be dominated if enemy heroes combine forces vs you.
-Cast rejuvination from your deceiver to any injuried merc/your hero whenever possible. Rejuv is very crucial in healing in arenas.
-Abuse every skill your mercenary has. Curse, frost armor etc. are very powerful spells vs DPS'ers like battle mage.
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4f. Medicine Doctor
-Do not save your healing for the moment when ur hero is low, cooldown of healing is long and your mana pool is high, whenever you lost 500 or so hit points, use healing!
-Keep your mercs alive, micro them. Abuse every spell you got, they are all good, especially frost armor vs melee heroes and curse vs DPS'ers.
-Use ultimate(sun totem) to heal, do not expect it to be a nuke because smart people will just back off.
-Do not show up in the middle of the fight, multiple nukes will probably kill you before you even have chance to heal. DPS'ers are very good versus medicine doctors. Frozen Archer can kill you very fast, so either focus them ASAP, or avoid them till the very end.
-Focus heroes, do not spread fire on your mercs. Spreading fire is bad because most heroes probably have potion of restoration and will heal themselves.
-Hex one hero and focus it down, micro your mercs away if they're being focused.
-Sometimes, you don't have enough firepower to kill strong heroes, so gank them with other heroes! Arrange ganking like that "Hey that hero is strong, lets kill him so he won't just dominate us". That way you will have a bigger chance to win!
-Make sure that multiple targets are aimed at your leech spell. If only you only got one target with your leech spell, you won't be healed for a lot of hit points.
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4g. Hunter
-Battle arena will be a little rough, because you got no escape skill, and your tracking skill is nearly useless. Nevertheless, Hunter is very strong in Arenas because of his stats.
-Once arena starts, do autocast on on ballistic bullets, and summon dog if your build is the creeper. Hit and run heroes if you're having problems with them.
-Engage only one hero, or else you will fall.
-Use your beast trap wisely, do not waste it, as you probably won't have another chance of using it.
-Buy wands of wind; they are very useful if you want to kill a hero and other heroes are hitting you.
-Do not forget potions, they're very useful in battle arenas, especially for hunter.
-Do not lose your dog, it costs mana to revive it. If your dog is level 4(perma invis) abuse it! When your dog is getting hit, just go invisible.
-Cast beast trap on strong heroes, like frozen archer, or scientist. Do not waste it on int heroes like nature mage, because you're going to kill them by attacking them anyway. Unless the nature mage is fed or is very good, in that case trap away.
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5. Tips
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Creepjacking - When you spot an enemy hero creeping, depends on your hp or status, you can try to kill steal and gain the exp and bounty OR try to nuke/disable and kill the enemy hero.
Regeneration spots - These are very important key points in the map.
Mana regen - A shop around the top part of the map regens nearby units' mana.
Hp regen - The merc camp in the center of the map regens nearby units' health.
Gold - Always spend all of your gold before the battle arena.
Never shine too much at battle arena,or you might get ganked and die,try to be a shy guy.
Hire mercs when possible - They're helpful at battle arenas/creeping with their useful spells and decent hitpoints to tank.
Kill critters when you see them - They give a small boost of exp and not that lot of hit points.
Quests - Some quests give very good amount of gold/exp and farmer one nets you a mercenary.
Don't chase a hero when you know you won't kill him! You will waste your time while you could be/could have done something more useful.
Do not understimate weak heroes, they might come back and kill you!
It is always useful to get some potions and wand of winds. Cyclone is usefull for escaping and pots are crucial.
Kill red camps if you can! Don't kill orange camps when you know you can destroy bigger camps.
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6. Credits
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Wuffle - For writing the guide, done almost everything.
Prody - For editing the guide, and writing architect, helping wuffle to make guide on architect.
Zacharyiky- For playing AtD with me.
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