Dota 2: Attribute Bonus, the old mechanic is revived again

One of the interesting developments of Dota 2 in the last 5 years is that the Attribute Bonus (plus stats) has been revived. After much effort to make the primary attribute (main stat) become important and tie other game mechanics with Strength, Agility, Intelligence, it’s time for Dota 2 to return to the basics of the game.

Using a skill point (level point) on the Attribute Bonus seems wasteful and ineffective, because it only adds 40HP, 2 damage, attack speed, 24 mana. In addition, the hero has a bit more armor, health/mana regeneration but they are almost negligible.

So why did the hero choose the Attribut Bonus, instead of the skill? There is only one answer, and that is efficiency.

BURNING ANTI-MAGE

Some new gamers may not know who BurNIng is. Xu ‘BurNIng’ Zhilei used to be the first carry player Dota. Like the current Arteezy, BurNIng was once considered a carry player with the best mechanical skills in the world and the ultimate game sense. It is also he who created the very interesting Anti-Mage build, which has been applied by default for many years in a row.

1-1-1-1 and the many levels into the Attribute Bonus in the early levels is something you won’t see recently, but before that, it allows BurNIng Anti-Mage to gain a significant advantage. Mana burning and magic resistance don’t do much for Anti-Mage in the early stages. This hero just wants to push the lane and farm for the first 25+ minutes of the game. Attribute Bonus not only increases farming speed but also adds a new layer of protection to help AM.

The article discourages you from choosing the current 1-1-1-1 for one simple reason: Blink cooldown. Back in the 7.xx era, the Blink cooldown was very long. 15 seconds at level 1 greatly limits the ability of AM. Looking at the hero’s manual page on Dotabuff, we can see many advanced gamers choose to build 2-4-1-1 and then take a level or two for the Attribute Bonus, before maxing out the remaining skills. .

This is pretty cool because you don’t always need to burn more mana, especially when dealing with objects with limited mana pools. You don’t always need a low Counterspell cooldown. But adding 40-120 HP can make a marked difference to AM, which improves EHP (Effective HP). Anti-Mage has a lot of armor and magic resistance, but the Strength growth is quite low despite being buffed, so the actual amount of HP converted into EHP is not much.

Notice the next time you play Anti-Mage, avoid dying even once, because even a small amount of health can make a difference in the game. Anti-Mage must always be on the map and one step ahead of the opponent.

PUB JUGGERNAUT

There are stark differences in the way Juggernaut is played in pubs and in the pro arena. It seems pro focuses on Healing Ward and sometimes on Spell Immunity to avoid or counter attacks like Mars Arena, Supernova. For that reason, we often see pro players max Bladefury first, then Healing Ward, then one point for Blade Dance.

In pubs, efficient farming, survival, and strong growth are often prioritized over putting pressure on the opponent. As a result, the opposite build to pro is more common: a single Healing Ward, heavily focused on Blade Dance as the second max skill.

For now, the article wants to tell you one more build that is applied by many high-rank pub gamers. It was 4-1-1-1, and then focused heavily on the Attribute bonus. This is not a professional build: because raising Healing Ward max and -20 second cooldown Healing Ward talent level 15 is considered standard in pro. If they want more damage and strength later on, they often choose other carries than Juggernaut (at least in the pro arena). 4-1-1-1 is a pretty efficient build for many reasons.

One point of value for Blade Dance is unquestionable: on average, it increases Juggernaut’s damage by 16%. Each point then increases by 4%, which is 16/20/24/28% bonus damage. While 28% is a very impressive number, the percentage increase per point is not too large, if we consider many other factors.

Juggernaut deals more damage with Bladefury than with hand attacks. Adding health, armor, and most importantly, Mana is the issue that needs attention for Juggernaut compared to other carries.

The hero’s second highest damage usually comes from Omnislash, which is stronger with increased damage and attack speed. Adding two Agility points from the Attribute Bonus will increase attack speed, making Juggernaut more effective, compared to other carries, because of its lower BAT and Juggernaut gains an exponentially increased attack speed from Omnislash.

In fact, at level 12, Omnislash deals almost as much damage from the three Attribute Bonus as the three for Blade Dance.

Evidence from Jugg level 12 to Phase Boots, Magic Wand, Maelstrom, Yasha – the most popular build in Juggernaut pub when reaching level 12.

However, 4-1-1-1 also gives Juggernaut an extra 120 HP, 72 Mana and 1 armor. By the way, many of you will wonder why not go to Power Treads for Juggernaut. In the professional arena, Phase Boots are more dominant, but in pubs, where late game DPS is often more important than tempo, Power Treads dominate Phase Boots a lot. First, Jugg is better at the exponential attack speed mentioned above. Second, Juggernaut often builds distance-shortening items like the green stick or Swift Blink, making movement speed not a big deal.

FACELESS VOID

According to the article, Time Dilation is among the interesting new skills of Dota 2. It is so strong that some teams even tried to play Faceless Void as a support, but it was not really stable nor successful. However, in the current meta, the author thinks Void should only leave one value point for Time Dilation in most games, and then focus on the Attribute Bonus.

Maximizing Time Walk and Time Lock is obvious. They are the source of life as well as damage of the Void. Meanwhile, Time Dilation is strong in the other direction. While a high level spell reduces the cooldown considerably, it can’t spam continuously and is hard to use twice in a teamfight.

The duration of Time Dilation’s increase with each level is also not worth the investment of many points. It increases by one second per level, but the difference between 8 and 11 seconds is negligible, when talking about a teamfight. Similar to damage: gain one damage per level per cooldown only makes a big difference in one scenario: Invoker spam spell. In all other circumstances, it is very petty.

Meanwhile, the increase in Mana Cost is not small. 10 Mana per level doesn’t sound like much, but we’re talking about Faceless Void, the hero only gains 1.5 Intelligence per level. According to the post, losing 10 extra mana per cast doesn’t provide a tangible benefit. It was weaker than the 24 mana gained from the Attribute Bonus, not to mention the other benefits.

In general, Dota is a very diverse game, so the above theories may not always be correct. There are still games where you want to maximize Time Dilation, but they will probably be extremely rare. Faceless Void needs a little more power to not be overwhelmed early, mid game and that’s why players mostly ignore the level 10 talent, sometimes even the ultimate level 2 to choose the Attribute Bonus.

According to dotabuff

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