Dota 2: How to play Abaddon, the most successful support/offlane hero in the 7.22h meta

Abaddon is one of the most popular offlanes and supports at the highest ranks and possibly the most successful. In the past month, the hero’s pick rate at Divine and Immortal ranks has increased from 12.5% ​​to nearly 16%, while the win rate is going up, reaching 56% this week.

Hero is growing in popularity and success in pubs. This trend will not change for 7.22h, so let’s explore the power of Abaddon in this article.

DIFFERENT PICK SHAPEING META

Abaddon is one of the most diverse picks in the pro arena. This hero can play position 3 offlane and position 5 support, but recent changes make Abaddon a more supportive offlane.

Notably, the way the hero plays doesn’t change too much, depending on his role. However, the efficiency changed significantly. As a support, Abaddon can take the lead, gather information, lure the enemy to cast spells, and save teammates.

In pubs, flexibility is not emphasized: due to the limitation of role selection in matchmaking, it will be difficult to change roles during the draft phase. However, the opponent can’t see the player’s role on the opponent’s side, so picking Abaddon early still has an advantage (making the opponent wonder).

HOW TO PLAY

Despite the flexible role, Abaddon still only has a stable build, at least until level 7. In most games, Aphotic Shield is maximized, it is both attack and defense. As a strong dispel, Aphotic Shield is a great tool against popular heroes like Mirana, and works well against soft disables.

Adding a point to Mist Coil and Curse of Avernus is almost unquestionable. Mist Coil allows the hero to deal damage in lane. It is also extremely useful for position 5 Abaddon, can deny himself, get “free village”. Curse of Avernus changes the game when it comes to trade hits in the lane: slow movement speed and stack effects are not as scary as stacking Jingu Mastery, but it still allows Abaddon and his teammates to participate in chasing opponents.

Depending on the role, the way to increase the skill after the first 7 levels will change: one is to raise the Mist Coil or the other is to raise the maximum Curose of Avernus first. The first choice is for position 5 support, because it increases the hero’s ability to support. The second choice depends on the situation for position 3 Abaddon – if you want to put maximum pressure and play proactively with the team, to push the turret faster.

Speaking of talent, almost everyone chooses +25% XP at level 10. This is more common and successful in pubs, even in well-coordinated matches, where opponents don’t play individually like pubs. and often react faster. Then +20 movement speed does not bring much benefit to being able to reach the following talents faster. This is also not an option chosen by most players from Ancient and up, unless they completely overwhelm the lane.

At level 15, increase the damage/heal of Mist Coil usually combined with Aghanim Scepter. This talent also upgrades Aghanim very strongly in teamfight, increasing the ability to withstand damage for Abaddon team. However, going to Aghanim is not always achieved, because Abaddon’s farming ability is quite slow. In games where your team really needs boosters and the enemy has a lot of physical damage, choosing +8 Armor is preferred. This is also the default choice when the lane phase is not going as expected.

Finally, at talent levels 20 and 25, things are pretty clear. As an auxiliary hero, a 20% cooldown reduction usually benefits Abaddon more: 32 seconds of ultimate cooldown can allow you to use it one more time in teamfight, while Aphotic Shield’s 5-second cooldown allows Abaddon to dispell most of the bad effects in teamfights, then more health and damage to the team. 425 armor for Aphotic Shield usually gives more potential than AoE Mist Coil.

UP SUPPLY SUPPLY

When it comes to item selection, position 5 Abaddon rarely gains anything – the role often requires a lot of sacrifice, and Abaddon lacks lane clearing moves, and lacks the GPM talent. Hopefully you can get a pair of Bracer or Vladmir’s Offering.

Core Abaddon needs to farm in lane and usually survives in teamfights, but still lacks the potential for fast farming. Therefore, first item selection is extremely important – the 2nd item can be delayed, and the 3rd and 4th items are not guaranteed, unless the game goes extremely smoothly.

There are many options for the hero’s first item. When facing a team with a lot of magic damage, Pipe of Insight is the first choice. Going to Hood of Defiance will protect Abaddon in the early teamfights, while the aura and Barrier effect will be extremely beneficial in the mid-game, before the cores on the team have reached BKB.

When facing a push squad with a lot of summons, Crimson Guard is the choice for Abaddon. It protects teammates and, more importantly, Crimsonguard protects your turrets from being destroyed quickly, allowing the team to react or at least waste the enemy’s time.

When facing a physical damage formation, Vladmir’s Offering offers a great aura. It’s pretty cheap, adds a decent starting armor, increases team damage and helps Abaddon stay in teamfights. Although Vladmir’s Offering is not an item that increases farming speed much, it is still a premise that allows you to get to the next item better.

Finally, go to Medallion and then upgrade to Solar Crest – it’s been much weaker in recent patches, but it’s still worth noting. If your team has a lot of odd captures, Solar Crest will bring a clear benefit. It’s also great if you’re on the offensive side with heroes that need extra attack speed to push towers. However, Solar Crest is not as strong as other teamfight picks, so be extremely careful – if the enemy decides to go into a 5vs5 clash, Solar Crest may not be enough.

EPILOGUE

Abaddon is quite an interesting hero. On the one hand, Abaddon fits the description of a good tanking lead offlane with his mastery. But in return, the hero has no reliable disables or captures.

That doesn’t mean Abaddon is inferior to offlane stuns and instant kills. Heroes like Abaddon need a macro-oriented Dota approach (which affects the whole team). Without the ability to effectively gank enemy heroes and lock down their legs, teams with Abaddon often force their opponents into teamfight by applying pressure and destroying targets.

In more chaotic pub games, often from Ancient and below, it’s hard to apply this idea and let Abaddon’s pressure potential go to waste. The only way is to hit the opponent directly, and hope everyone on the team will respond. If the team refuses to go together, Abaddon will gradually lag in both item and level, and look extremely weak when compared to heroes like Ax, Sand King, and Legion Commander.

According to dotabuff