Starting Items

CARRY

The items depend on the possible opponent the carry may encounter in the safe lane. If a melee carry expects heavy harassment from ranged offlane heroes, then a Stout Shield (convert later into Poor Man’s Shield) should be considered. If facing a melee enemy, then a Quelling Blade can be bought to better chances of last hitting and denying the enemy gold and experience. Combine this with a set of Tangoes and a Healing Salve and you should be all set.

For range carries, grabbing components for future items like Slippers of Agility (convert into Ring of Aquila) can give a slight damage boost and will eventually be used when building other items. If a ranged carry expects a melee enemy in the lane, they can choose to go with less healing items and go for offensive ones.

MID

Since most mid heroes tend to rush a Bottle, they usually purchase upgraded Tier 1 items like Null Talisman for intelligence based mid heroes, coupled with pooled Tangoes. Since mid is a make or break matchup, getting enough damage to outlast-hit and deny will spell success.

OFFLANE

An offlane’s starting items will depend on which hero they pick and what enemies they are up against. Offlaners like Nyx can sometimes get away with sticking around the lane and leeching experience thanks to his skills and innate HP regen. Similar heroes can go with a Stout Shield and regen like Healing Salve, Tangoes, and Fairy Fire.

In some cases, offlane heroes can choose to go Boots or Wind Lace and a set of regen if the enemy lane is lacking in disables and are not very mobile. The added movement speed equates to higher survivability and gives them the ability to go within experience range and get out of enemy cast range with ease.

Offlaners as mentioned can go jungle. For that build, see JUNGLE GUIDE.

However, offlaners can always clear the large camp near the Secret Shop and go back to the lane when the creeps are within range of the tower to get the most out of the situation. The best scenario to go full jungle is when the enemy safelane controls the lane equilibrium by precise pulling. This keeps the creeps from pushing all the way to the tower and denies the enemy offlane any experience.

4 SUPPORT

If the two supports do not split the purchase of starting observer wards and the courier, the 4 support can buy situational items other than regen. These items may help make ganks successful like Smoke of Deceit, Wind Lace, or just plain Boots. Other items like Orb of Venom and Blight Stone can also be purchased by long ranged support heroes that have good attack range and animation, perfect for harassing enemy heroes.

There are few heroes which fit the 4 support role that can also jungle with ease. Chen and Enchantress can be used to farm the jungle and be flexible enough to rotate to participate in ganks whenever possible. In other cases, the 4 support can be a pure jungle hero which can transition into another damage dealer later on in the game.

Note that in some cases, the two support players take on the same amount of responsibilities. In this case, both scale better and would be equally rich or starved of gold and experience.

5 SUPPORT

The 5 position support basically buys everything. Observer Wards, Courier, Sentry Wards, even pools Tangoes with the mid hero if needed. The 5 support can also purchase smoke for an early gank. They can also purchase TP scrolls and teleport to the tower nearest the enemy jungle to ward camps without being caught.