Strategy Guide for Harbinger the Obsidian

Destroyer
by Taelrie (as of v6.60)

Visit http://planetdota.blogspot.com/ for your Dota needs!

Table of Contents
Table of Contents
To Do List
History and Introduction
Character Overview
Stat and Strengths Breakdown
Skills and Explanations
Skill Build - Nuke Orb
 Skill Order
Explanation of Order
Alternate Orders
Item Build - Nuke Orb
Item List
Explanation of Items
Alternative Items
Strategy
A Miniguide on Arcane Orb (and Essence Aura)
A Miniguide on Astral Imprisonment
A Note on Solo Lane Etiquette
How to play as Obsidian Destroyer
Early Game and Laning
Mid Game and Conservative Laning
Late Game and Carrying
Complements and Counters
Your Best Friends
What to Look For
Some Heroes to Buddy up to
Your Worst Enemies
What to Look For
A List of Troublemakers
Your Favorite Targets
What to Look For
People Dying to Die
Replays
FAQ
Final Word
To Do List
1. Get some replays to back up the new item build.
2. Use a viral marketing campaign to convince people the guide is indeed back from the
dead and to start posting in it again. THIS MEANS YOU

History and Introduction

In the never-ending persuit to find the best build for Obsidian Destroyer, the latest
update has revamped the item build to include a bette early game and some more
destructive power with Obsidian's ultimate.
 Character Overview
Character Card: http://www.dota-allstars.com/hero/1717/index.html

Stat and Strengths Breakdown

Stats

Strength: 19 + 1.85
Agility: 15 + 1.4
Intelligence: 26 + 2.8
Attack Range: 450
Movement Speed: 300

Pros

+ Good base stats for early laning

+ Fairly high intelligence gain for good skill synergy
+ One of the best orb effects in the game (second only to fury swipes)
+ Highest carry potential out of any hero (barring, possibly, permabash)

Cons

- Only astral imprisonment for escapes

- Reliant on being able to attack (disablers can be bothersome)
- Doesn't shine till mid-late game
- Not a good chaser (no way to slow the enemy besides imprisonment)

So what does this mean for Obsidian Destroyer? First and foremost, it means that he is
not an early game hero. Furthermore, it means that he is a carry hero, which comes as
a surprise to most people, being an intelligence hero. What this means to you is that
you want two things -- to keep your head low early game, and to take the fullest
advantage of the laning stage.

The stats for Obsidian Destroyer can only be described as "average". The stat gain for
obsidian is fairly average -- he does have an above normal base intelligence and
strength though, which is fairly nice for early laning. However, Obsidian's strength
doesn't come from his stats -- it comes from the skills.

Skills and Explanations

Arcane Orb
Official Description
Gives the Destroyer extra power to damage his enemies based on his remaining mana
pool. Damage type is pure.
Unofficial Description
Gives you an orb effect that does 9% of your current mana (note: not total) in pure
damage (not mitigated by anything). This doesn't really become useful until about level
12 (about when you get a soulbooster and/or mystic staff), and doesn't really take off
until about level 15 (when you break 2000 mana). However, past that point, it becomes
one of the most powerful abilities in the game, being able to surpass the damage of a
divine rapier easily. Just don't make the fatal mistake of believing it is an early game
skill (this isn't glaives of wisdom).

Astral Imprisonment
Official Description
Teleports a target allied or enemy hero into an astral prison. The hero remains
separated from the real world for the duration of the spell. If cast on an enemy,
Harbinger steals intelligence from the target. Intelligence is restored to the hero after 60
seconds.
Unofficial Description
This spell will remove a hero from the map for 1/2/3/4 seconds -- Enemy, friend, even
you. If it is an enemy, you'll leech 2 intel per second from the enemy, restored after sixty
seconds. This has some less obvious uses, so for those of you who outright dismiss this
spell (I know you're out there) -- you need to learn how to use it. Luckily, there's a
miniguide that describes just how to do that

Essence Aura
Official Description
Whenever a nearby allied hero casts a spell, it has a chance to restore a portion of its
mana pool. Passively adds to the Destroyer's base mana pool.
Unofficial Description
This is a passive aura that has a chance to return mana whenever you or someone else
casts a spell, to the respective spell user. To make good use of this, you need a lot of
mana -- Arcane Orb relies on this spell, and this is why your biggest goal after
intelligence is mana.

(Ultimate) Sanity's Eclipse

Official Description
The Obsidian Destroyer unleashes his full potential; his mind unleashes a psionic storm
able to penetrate lesser minds with terminal force, dealing massive damage to them.
More crafty minds are able to resist most of the damage, but they expend most of their
energies to do so, losing 75% of their mana. Heroes with more intelligence than the
Destroyer are unaffected.
Unofficial Description
Before the nerf, this was easily the best ultimate in the game. After the nerf, it's still
extremely powerful -- however, it doesn't become that way until later in the game. This
spell completely relies on your respective intelligence (with a bit of help from astral
imprisonment). If you are following my item build and soloing, a good rule of thumb is
about 75 damage for every level you get against strength and agility, about half that
against intelligence. That means, at level 20, you should be averaging about 1500
damage against most characters. Not bad! Not as good as the 2500-3000 damage you
used to be able to get, but this isn't a spell to dismiss outright.

Skill Build - Nuke Orb

Skill Order

Level 1: Arcane Orb

Level 2: Astral Imprisonment
Level 3: Astral Imprisonment
Level 4: Arcane Orb
Level 5: Astral Imprisonment
Level 6: Arcane Orb
Level 7: Astral Imprisonment
Level 8: Arcane Orb
Level 9: Essence Aura
Level 10: Sanity's Eclipse
Level 11: Sanity's Eclipse
Level 12: Essence Aura
Level 13: Essence Aura
Level 14: Essence Aura
Level 15: Stats
Level 16: Sanity's Eclipse
Level 17-25: Stats

Explanation of Order

Note, I would wait for a bit before spending your first level. It's not going to be useful
regardless, most likely, and you might need to change your skill build slightly depending
on your lane (see the alternatives below).
Astral imprisonment is definitely your first goal. It gives you a great escape mechanism,
an anti-harassing mechanism, a chasing mechanism, and a prep for your ultimate.
There is no reason why you shouldn't get it first. After this, you want to get arcane orb.
Note that you shouldn't actually use arcane orb until at least level 9 -- it's fairly useless
at lower levels, despite being necessary to level to have it early at other levels. The only
reason orb is gotten at level 1 is because a 1 second astral does nothing (asides from
canceling any orders the enemy might have). By the time you've done casting level 1
astral, it's already worn off. It should be designed to level a bit more effectively, but oh
well.

Sanity's Eclipse is gotten at levels 9, 10, and 16. Since you are stacking intel from the
start, your ultimate starts becoming useful around level 11, when it's doing about 400-
500 damage to non-intel heroes. It will only grow from here, breaking a thousand
damage at 16 against agility heroes. A very nice ability to have, even if it doesn't
become powerful until mid-game.

Arcane orb is leveled to be fully leveled in time to coincide with your item build, and to
get a bit of ganking in. It won't completely useful until later, but it still has it's uses as
early as level 8.

Alternative Orders

Getting Essence Aura instead of orb at levels 1 and 4

You might want to do this in three situations -- first, when you have a low mana high
regen nuker (pudge for example). the 20% to regain mana back lets you astral just a bit
more while laning, which lets you spam astral that more often, which makes them that
less effective at nuking you. The other time will be if you have a person who can spam
low mana spells, such as bristleback or zeus in lane. The benefit they get from essence
aura helps them immensely in harassing. Finally, if you're up against a nasty combo,
and know you will have a hard time farming. This makes it so when your items catch up
to your levels, you should still have level 4 orb -- however, you got the benefit of
essence aura earlier, and thus could lane better.

Getting Stats instead of Orb at levels 1 and 4

This is good if you're up solo against an extremely easy or low health combo (such as
clinks or drow). These people have little escapes and will wither under a hard attack.
Between stats, astral, sanity's against a naturally low int hero, and naturally high stats,
you usually can get some easy kills. At the very least, you can keep them at the
fountain. Don't let them get control of the lane, harass them!

Other then those two examples, the main build should work fine in almost all situations.
In both these situations, push the build back to make room for arcane orb -- it just
means you get orb at level 12 instead of level 9, which is really when it starts becoming
useful anyway.
 Item Build - Nuke Orb

Item List

Note #1: This is assuming RD Gold

Note #2: I list everything at the titles in order of acquisition. So if I say, energy booster,
point booster, vitality booster --> soul booster, then I expect you to get an energy
booster first.

At Fountain: Circlet x 2, Tango x 2 (4 charges)

ASAP Void Stone, Ring of Health --> Perseverence

When Available: mantle of intelligence x 2 --> null x 2, boots, gloves of haste, robe of
the magi --> intel power treads

When Available: ultimate orb --> linkins

When Available: oblivion staff x 3 --> Orchid Malevolence

This is your main build, you should finish it about the 40-50 min mark. You have plenty
of survivability with linkins, and you are doing tons of damage with your intel/ias items.
Your eclipse also packs a major punch, and you have a silence for those pesky disabler
heroes. Beyond here, it is just solidifying your position

When Available: Ultimate Orb, Void Stone, Mystic Staff --> Guinsoo

If the game isn't over yet (2 hours?): Plate Mail, Mystic Staff --> Shiva's, Scepter
 Explanation of Items

This is a big departure from the previous build, focusing on a strong laning position, with
a decent mid-game and a completely overpowered end-game. I do have you get void
stone first, because it allows you the very important ability to spam astral. Being able to
spam astral basically gives you a vastly superior disable and mana burn. Even tough,
nuker heroes cannot lane against you early game past level 5, making you the perfect
solo hero. The two tangos should cover your regen until you can pick up a ring of health
later (if you are getting heavily harrased, you can get mthe RoH first).

As mid game starts, you should have your treads, nulls and perseverence. Now you are
going to probably be ganked every now and then (especially if you are soloing). Right
now you should have about a thousand mana, and you can easily hit 70-90 damage
with your arcane orb. You have plenty of mid-game potential with this build, as you have
a superior attack, your ultimate is starting to come into play and you have plenty of
survivability.

You get linkins now because the spell reflect is your main line of defense against
disablers. This is about the time ganks start, and also the time where you are at your
weakest (before you start getting big, and after your laning has ended). You have to
watch out for ganks, and linkins is an amazing anti-gank tool. Furthermore, the health
and regen are very necessary for your survival, and the stats help both your attack and
ultimate. Linkins is one of the best items for OD.

Beyond here, it's just build up yourself with orchid and guinsoo. Both items help your
attack immensly, while giving you both a disable and escape mechanism. By the time
you get orchid, you should be doing the most damage out of anyone on your team. After
this, it is simply holding your position with damage items that also help your survivability
(which is true of every item in your build except orchid).

Why is Guinsoo so late in the build? (mathcraft updated for last patch)
Orchid is a clear winner over guinsoo as your first big item (behind linkins for the very
necessary survivability) because of the attack speed. Remember, you do most of your
damage through your orb effect. Furthermore, disablers are a far bigger problem for you
then carry heroes at this stage, and silence is more effective then hex (5 secs vs 2
secs) when dealing with disablers. However, scepter (for OD) is also a great alternative
to guinsoo, and in fact if it weren't for hex, would be the clearly superior item. Here is
how guinsoo shapes up to Scepter.

Scepter: 6200 gold, 30 intel, 500 mana, 500 life

Guinsoo: 5675 gold, 35 intel, 10 strength, 10 agility, 150% mana regen, sheep

Now for some fun with math. 1 intel = 13 mana, mind you.

Scepter Damage: ((30 * 13 + 500) * .09) + 30 = 110.1 (orb damage, + intel damage)
Guinsoo Damage: (35 * 13) * .09 + 35 = 75.95 (orb damage + intel damage)
Scepter GPD (lower is better): 6200 / 110 = 56.36 GPD
Guinsoo GPD (lower is better): 5675 / 75.95 = 74.72 GPD

Conclusion about Guinsoo

Basically, the big thing behind all this math is that you are paying 2019 gold and 310
health for hex. Assuming you are choosing between scepter and guinsoo at least. In my
previous builds, I considered this too big of a cost for hex because scepter was the main
survivability in my build. However, since this new item build uses linkins for its
survivability, the 310 health you lose isn't as important. Furthermore, the point you get
guinsoo (about the 60 minute mark) is when the other carry heroes are getting really
big, and guinsoo is the best counter against carry heroes, hence why it is so late in the
build.

Alternative Items

Different Starting Items

Honestly, starting items are usually up in the air. The main build includes what it does to
help with early game survivability, but everybody has their own way to start the game.
Choose whatever the heck you're used to, if you think it synergises well with the main
items. Observer wards can help spot out incoming ganks, so I would suggest that if you
want to forego the original build.

Assault Cuirass
If you don't want to get a slow, assault cuirass might be a better option for you.
However, at this point it doesn't really matter what you go -- it's going to be about an
hour and a half into the game. The only time I'd get an assault cuirass over shiva's is if I
was up against a whole bunch of intel heroes -- otherwise, the ultimate is way too
powerful at this point to avoid the intel gain from shivas.

Strategy

A Miniguide on Arcane Orb (and Essence Aura)

Arcane Orb can be one of the most amazing spells there is. However, it's also one of
the most misunderstood. The answer to most of these misconceptions is this:

Arcane Orb is not like Glaives of Wisdom

You have to get that idea out of your head now. If you wish to compare Arcane Orb to
something, compare it to a nuke like Storm Bolt on an intel hero. Do you spam Storm
Bolt at the enemy to harass? Do you try to fire off Storm Bolt every time the enemy gets
close? I hope not! This brings me to my first point.

Arcane Orb is not a harassing ability. You notice that I have said that Arcane Orb doesn't
become useful until about level 12. Arcane Orb is best used in conjunction with
something else for the first half of the game. This something else will be a friend's
disable, a friend's heavy nuke, your own hex or ultimate. It is, first and foremost, burst
damage. Arcane orb is a burst damage ability. Remember that. Turn it on auto-cast
only when you are about to engage an enemy hero for the kill, and not before.

Arcane Orb starts becoming useful at level 12 (about 1500 mana), because manually
casting arcane orb gives you the 40% chance to regain mana, as opposed to the 20%
chance of autocasting at level 4. The obvious application of this is orb walking -- from
level 12-15, you can orbwalk with arcane orb and retain most of your mana. This is
great for last hitting, and for harassing heroes. use it to your advantage, as you're doing
120 or so unmitigated damage at full mana with orb right now.

Arcane Orb just becomes ridiculous at level 15-16, and only becomes more powerful
from here on out. Now, you should have a scepter, and over 2000 mana. Furthermore,
you have level 4 essence aura. This means that not only can you maintain your mana
(in theory) with arcane orb on autocast, you can now *gain* mana by manually casting
arcane orb. You'll never run out of mana again. Need mana? Orbwalk a wave or two.
You're now fine. Oh, let's not forget the fact you're doing 180 unmitigated damage per
orb (not including your regular damage, which is also hitting for about 100). Want a
divine rapier? you got one now. Feel free to keep your arcane orb on autocast at this
point -- you can use it indiscriminately. Your goal at this point is just to boost arcane orb.

A Miniguide on Astral Imprisonment

Obsidian Destroyer is a lucky hero, as he has both one of the most misunderstood
spells and one of the most underrated spells in his repertoire. It doesn't matter what
game I'm in, someone inevitably throws scorn on me maxing out Astral Imprisonment
first. Luckily having 30,000 views on the first guide has gotten rid of the majority of this
ignorance -- however, some people still don't understand the significance of Astral
Imprisonment. Let me explain.

Astral Imprisonment is not just a gimped hex. It's a defensive spell. It's an offensive
spell. It's a utility spell. Let's look at what it can do.

The first is that casting imprisonment on someone causes them to have their hero
detargeted. The retargeting and consequent moving of that hero out of imprisonment
can disorient many people -- enough time to take advantage of. That time taking to
retarget and move might just be enough time for the tower to bring them into the red
while chasing you, for a friend to cast a ground-based spell on them, or for you to kill
them before they can stun you. Furthermore, they lose map sight if there are no friends
around -- if you astral, then run behind them, they might very will waste some spells on
where you once were -- to their loss. This can let you run, it can net you a kill, and it can
let you chase; and this is just one part of the spell.

Furthermore, the intel gain is both offensively and defensively useful, especially while
laning. 6-8 intel lost against the enemy is 78-104 mana they can't use for 1 minute.
Every time you cast this spell on an enemy level 5 onwards, they lose a nuke. That's
enough to lane effectively even against heavy nukers. It also makes heroes such as
pudge or tiny completely useless, as two astrals takes *all* of their mana. It might even
be enough to get leoric past the reincarnation mana point. This mana loss can help you
chase, can save you against a gank, and can prep up sanity's eclipse. You can get
three casts off before they get it back, which is a 48 intel difference between you and
them if given enough time to properly prep; even 16 intel difference from one cast
makes a big difference.

A little known fact about astral is that all stun spells last the same amount after they get
out of it. If you astral someone who just got storm bolted, they'll still have to wait the full
duration of the stun when it runs out.

Finally, you can cast astrals on allies and even yourself. This can solve two purposes.
Say you see three friends coming your way, and you got someone chasing you waiting
for a cooldown. See the storm bolt about to hit you? Astral yourself -- you just avoided a
stormbolt, and gave time for your friends to come. This is most useful however when it
comes to channeled or short duration spells -- especially BKB coupled with CM or SK,
or avatar with naix. You can't astral or orb attack an enemy who has avatar on them. So
what do you do? Astral yourself! that's 4 seconds taken from their BKB, from their
epicenter, from their chronosphere, or whatever they tried to cast on your or their ally
that is an area of effect.

A good example of self-astralling

There's not too many opportunities where astralling yourself can be useful, but when
there is, it can save your life. For example:

Replay 04
Here, I'm surrounded by a 3 person gank, with one more on the way. I'm mana leaked,
cursed, sprouted, being beat on by two people, and about to be hit with illuminate. I'm
screwed right?

Replay 04
Of course though, I still have astral up. So what do I do? I astral myself -- killing my
mana (but curse at the same time), and buying myself time to both dodge illuminate and
let sprout run out.

Replay 04
Thanks to a couple teammates coming to my aid, I manage to get away with a sliver of
health, out of what should have been a massascre. can't complain about that!

A Note on Solo Lane Etiquette

Obsidian Destroyer works best when solo, since he is, after all, a carry hero. His high
base stats, fast attack animation, regen/health items and astral let him stay in a lane
almost indefinitely. Because of this, you want a solo lane. However, you have to know
how to ask someone correctly. Be sure to ask solo as early as possible. If RD, and you
see OD as a choice, ask then. If you don't get OD, just say nevermind. It's better then
having to get a person to get out of your lane. Also, be sure to ask for a certain lane. I
prefer mid, because it gives easy access for bottle ferrying, and is ganked less. The
downside is that people have the strange urge to always want to go mid when their lane
is pushed. Which brings me to the final point, getting someone out of your lane. Don't
get mad, whatever's going on. You don't want to belittle them for not seeing your call,
you want them to GTFO your lane. Ask twice nicely. If they still don't leave, then get a bit
angry. If they *still* don't leave, change lanes. You won't be solo, but at least you're not
laning with an asshole like him for a partner. It happens sometimes, it's a downside for
having random partners. However, make sure to handle the situation correctly

There is one big reason for this, and that is if you get a matchup you can't handle. If you
nicely asked for a solo, then hopefully you can get some help. However, be firm. Don't
ask in general, ask for a specific person to come up. If they don't, ask someone else
specifically. If you just say "can I get help mid", you won't get *any* help. Trust me on
that. You have to ask by name to get help. Find out the lane that's doing fine, ask
someone specifically in that lane for help. If none of them come help, you have to force
their hand, which will catch you some flak. Go into a 2 person lane until you get
someone to go mid. You *will* get bitched at for this, but they're a terrible team who
won't help someone with a tough lane. Why do you care what they think?

How to play as Obsidian Destroyer

Early Game and Laning

The name of the early game is "stay low". You are fairly useless early game, the best
you can do is farm. Especially at the very start. Assuming a call for solo lane went well,
you have only a bit of regen. The tango acts does two things at the start. A good enemy
(especially if you're up against two people) will always check your items, to see if you're
a good candidate for harrassment. If they see no regen, they will be *much* more
aggressive. You don't want this -- you might get more kills, but you want to hold a good
farming lane as long as you can. Kills aren't early game. Anyway, play defensively, until
at least level 5.

This is more or less done by just playing as if you were melee. Only come into attack
range (450 for you) just to attack or deny a creep. This is helped a bit by the fast
projectile animation, but it might take some getting used to being as your a ranged hero.
Yes, it is possible for you to be offensive with your good stats, but you don't want to
draw attention to yourself. The more kills you get, the more likely you are going to get
ganked. The sooner you lose your lane, the harder it will be to carry late game. So stay
back, attack when you can. Remember that the Ring of Health is now available in the
side shop, so you don't have to leave your lane to pick it up. Careful to avoid ganks in
this area though. You can walk over prisoned enemies, so if someone tries to trap you
at the goblin shop, just astral them and walk out.

Now, the question is what if they're going to be belligerent regardless. This can happen
a lot when you're facing a stacked team, against two people who know eachother.
They'll come past the creep wave and stay there to prevent you farming. If you're mid,
you can attack above the ramp (they'll have a 50% miss chance), which is why mid is a
good solo lane. If you just can't cope, which does happen sometimes, ask for help.
Hopefully you read the note for lane etiquette. If you need more health, you can get a
Belt of Giant Strength to use in power treads later, and click it over to the intel treads.

At level 5, you can start spamming astral imprisonment with your void stone. This will be
especially helpful against someone who is trying for early game missile spam, such as
vengeful and tiny are likely to do. If you can take out three nuke's worth of mana, then
that's 3 nukes less they can hit you with. Furthermore, with voidstone (and a good base
intel), you can do this indefinitely. More room for you! Just keep up this strategy as long
as you can, which will probably be when they start pushing at about level 10.

Mid Game and Conservative Laning

Now, at level 10-12, you should have a perseverence, your nulls and working on your
treads. You're well on your way into your build, and you should have over 1k mana to
harass with orb. However, you don't really shine until about level 16, so if you can, keep
farming. You won't be able to keep to one lane, because most likely the towers are
pushed. If there is no lane you can farm in (because it's pushed or because they're
playing gank squad), just go help with ganks. Your orb effect is useful enough at this
point to help out on ganking, and astral is always useful for saving your friends. Your
ultimate is also doing a nice amount of damage, especially if you are prepping with
astral first.

However, remember your main goal is to finish your treads, and preferably your linkins
too. Just lane conservatively at this point, and pay special attention to map awareness.
It's this part of the game when most teams play gank squad, and that can easily put you
into the hole (excuse the pun) in no time.

Late Game and Carrying

Now, you should be level 15-16, and hopefully have a linkins and half an orchid to back
up that claim. Now it's good times. Mana should never be an issue at this point, since
you can indefinitely keep up your mana with orb walking. This helps your farming
capabilities tremendously. Furthermore, your sanity's eclipse is doing over 1k damage.
Between the two of these, you can easily become the carry of the game. There aren't
many (if any) heroes that can 1v1 you at this point. Furthermore, you can waltz behind
your team in engagements, drop an eclipse and mop up. That's a triple kill right there.
Remember not to initiate team battles though -- even with your large amount of health,
you will probably be first priority to be killed. Which will happen if you run in first. You
aren't rambo, you're a cannon.

At this point, you'll just be getting stronger. I wasn't kidding when I said Obsidian
Destroyer can become the best carry in the game. Mostly this is because all of his items
are high level items -- he doesn't really run out of something that he can use (assuming
it isn't a 3 hour game at least). Towards the end of longer games, you can easily be
hitting for 400-500 a hit -- with 70% increased attack speed and a 4 second silence.
Most people will die before they can even make it to you.

Just remember, you can't 1v5 their team, which is the real difference between the pre-
nerf and post-nerf. You can, however, 1v1 or 1v2 any of them fairly easily. The only thing
you have to remember at the end game is that you're not rambo, you're a sniper. don't
try to take on their entire team, they'll disable and kill you in no time, even with all your
health. In the meantime, giggle maniacally as you kill that SA in the two hits it takes for
him to go invisible. MwahahahaHAHAHAAAAA.

Complements and Counters

Your Best Friends

What to Look For

Your friends are, first and foremost, people who can initiate team battles, followed by
people who can disable. These are the people that get either your entire team or their
entire team involved in the fight. These heroes give you the meat shield that you
desperately need to unleash your incredible damage, and allows you to cause mayhem
in a team battle without being targeted first.

Failing that, your next best friends are people who can disable. With your orb effect,
especially in late game, you can easily destroy any hero that can stay still long enough
for you to attack it. Because of this, disables give you enough time to destroy even the
toughest heroes.

Some Heroes to Buddy up to

Axe
Axe is, by and large, your best friend. His main purpose is to start team battles. He is
there to blink in and gather them up, which is perfect for your ultimate, and then mopup.
 Pudge
Pudge is two of your favorite heroes in one. With his hook, high health and rot, he is
amazing for starting team battles. With disember, he's also a disabler. That's exactly
what you want in a friend.

Enigma
What else could you ask for then an ultimate that can gather everybody up for you? An
eclipse on top of a blackhole guarantees the death of their team, or at least very close
to the death of their team.

Vengeful Spirit
Nether swap, like hook, is a great way to initiate team battles -- which is exactly what
you want. Furthermore, magic missle doubles as a nice disable to chase down those
nasty heroes.

Magnataur
Like enigma, Magnataur's ultimate is a perfect complement for your ultimate -- gathering
everybody up for your ultimate. Furthermore, he has the health to start team battles
without being instantly slaughtered.

Rhasta
Two consecutive disables is very nice for killing enemy heroes.

Your Worst Enemies

What to Look For

Your worst enemies are going to be people who stack int, disable you and can single
you out. Heroes that stack int obviously can counter your ultimate. Since you don't have
any escapes, disables are going to be your worst enemy -- if you can't get your ultimate
off, you're kinda screwed. And heroes that can single you out, well they're bad news for
when you get ganked because of your priority on their kill list.

You'll probably notice that almost all your best friends are also your worst enemies on
the other team. People who can initiate the battle can usually single you out.

A List of Troublemakers

Silencer
Ugh. Just ugh... with a side of ugh. This hero sucks to fight against. Last word makes
(manually) casting your orb effect a pain in the ass, and almost all of his builds involve
stacking int. He's a disabler and an int stacker all in one. Not a fun hero to play against.

Pudge
Even if you are hanging back, pudge is a pain in the ass. Good pudges that is, there's
plenty of bad ones out there. Being hooked out of the crowd pretty much means you're
dead. However, the good news is that he will die fast to sanity's eclipse if he's alone. If
you're being hooked into a gank, goodbye!

Vengeful Spirit
Like pudge, being swapped into a gank is pretty much a death sentence for you.
However, also like pudge, she dies fast. If she's alone, you got a good chance of a free
kill.

Naix
Magic immunity can be a pain, but if you can avoid that then you're golden. Use astral
effectively.

Rhasta
If you can't attack, you can't kill. Fighting a rhasta kind of sucks, especially since his
playstyle is designed for ganks. Same goes for Lion.

Keeper of the Light

Honestly, KOTL is a counter to OD just as much as OD is a counter to KOTL. Obsidian
Destroyer's orb effect allows him to one-hit the ignus at any point in the game. If the OD
sees an ignus, it's dead, and you get a free 100 gold. However, KoTL's mana leak is
just... painful. It's painful. It's a pain in the ass. Autocast orb? That sets it off. Astral?
That sets it off. Essence aura? that sets it off. even bottle sets it off. If something affects
your mana, it kills it, which is a pain in the ass. It won't kill you, but it'll make using your
orb effect really hard, which is why KOTL is a counter.

Your Favorite Targets

What to Look For

Your favorite targets are, in short, carry heroes. You are the anti-carry hero carry hero.
Carry heroes are your toy to play with, your pride and joy to beat into the dirt. While you
don't have an escape maneuver as almost all carry heroes do, you make up for that in
burst damage. Most carry heroes don't expect you to turn around and shove 400
damage orb up their ass, and they'll fall for it every time.

I think I love this hero so much partly because it is just so much fun sticking it to those
"OMG I'M 11-1 CARRY HERO EVEN THOUGH WE'RE TWO RAXES DOWN" types.
And let's not forget -- 99% of carry heroes are agility, your favoritist target ever.

There is also one other kind of hero you're looking for, and that is the heavy summon
people. There aren't many, but these heroes cry in shame when you go OD.

People Dying to Die

Antimage
I just *love* fighting an anti-mage, because just by playing OD it screws them up and
frustrates them. For harrasment early, the main tactic is blinkbreak. Not only can you
prevent this by astralling them after the blink, but it prevents them from blinking later
due to the mana loss. It also prevents them from using their ultimate on you, so what
can you do? You can just hit them right back. You'll win the fight every time. Mid game,
they'll count on their shield to prevent your orb damage. Guess what? It doesn't prevent
it, and they'll die because of it at least once. Later game, when they rely more on their
ultimate, you would expect that you would be an easy target thanks to your high mana
pool. Except by this time, you can indefinitely keep up your mana. Furthermore, they'll
still have low health -- you can easily autocast your orb and beat them down to the red
before you break the green. It's almost sad fighting them.

Storm Spirit
Just like antimage, your attack style completely messes him up. He'll almost certainly
think that his mana shield will prevent your orb. Orb isn't mitigated by that either, and
that'll net you a kill at least once. Furthermore, he expects he will have a superior attack,
and for you to run when he attacks you. Of course he's wrong, and you'll just wack him
down. And better yet, he doesn't have an escape. He's food for you.

AGI Carry Heroes

Is there nothing more fun then to kill these kinds of heroes? Anyway, carry heroes are to
easy to kill because they, like you, are a glass cannon. When they pops up behind you,
you can usually easily one-shot him with sanity's eclipse. Or failing eclipse, you can
usually easily dps him down with your orb effect. Oh, let's not forget. Early game, Astral
imprisonment > wind walk, shuriken, and anything they come up with. All of these
heroes are mana-dependent for early kills, and your imprisonment effectively counters
that. OD is the ultimate counter against these heroes.

Techies
With his rediculously low health, you can quite easily one-two shot him before he has a
chance to suicide. He is free food for you.

Replays
Replay 1
The game starts off in our favor, with two easy kills. As the game hits midgame, their
heroes become more powerful and things get hairy (with SK and enigma butt-buddies
two-teaming me every chance they get). However, around the 45 min mark, our carries
(Me, the PL and morphling) kick in and blow the game away at the end.

This is probably one of the best examples of this guide. it shows just how much damage
he does, although all of his items are survival until later in the game. The OD, past the
40 minute mark, was easily doing the most damage on the team, and second only to the
strength heroes in health.
Replay 2
A fairly good example of how OD is played, especially for the early laning against tough
opponents. As we approached later game, we more or less stomped them, but early
and mid game was extremely close. Good example of being against a tough lane
(enchantress and Rexxar), and how astral spam can secure you a place to farm for mid
game. Oh, and check out how BKB does nothing to counter me on their wolf.

FAQ
#1: Why don't you say BKB is a threat? - BKB is a horrible item to get as a counter.
BKB lasts a really, really short time (9 seconds). It has an 85 second cooldown. It's only
real purpose is to wreck mayhem in team battles with channeling spells, or at very, very
end game (1 hour+) to avoid getting disabled. Against anybody but a pure disabler, bkb
is worthless. It does nullify orb, which is equivalent to being a gimped enfeeble for you
for a whole 9 seconds. If you get caught in the dark against someone with bkb, astral
yourself, and hey look he has 3 seconds of orb immunity against you. Whoopee.

#2: But orb is the ownzorness early game! - Early game, without astral, you can
expect to have about a thousand mana at level 7. That means your orb effect will be
adding about an average of 35 damage a hit, across 5 hits. You just did a level 2 nuke
that costed you 500 mana, took you 5 hits and was in no way burst damage.
Just looking at that I shouldn't have to explain why I don't get orb, but I will take it a step
further. Some people say orb allows you to whittle the enemy down enough to kill him
off. But what they don't realize is that any hero can be taken into the yellow with no
hassle. You don't need a nuke, you don't even need a strong attack. You can do it with
techies. It's a mind game, people won't care about their health until it's in the orange.
You can get them down that far with your regular attack just as easily as you could with
your semi-useless orb effect.

#3: I tried this build in a league game and it failed miserably! I spit on your grave!
This guide is built on the assumption that's your playing TDA calibur games, which is
about right smack dab in the middle of skill levels (pubbie-->TDA-->inhouses-->league).
In this guide I'm assuming your teammates are atleast halfway competent and call
missing, and that you're most likely going to feel some heat from ganks within the later
half of the laning stage. If you don't play TDA's, feel free to adjust the build to match
your appropriate skill level.
Also as a side note, I wouldn't use *any* guides out there on league level games.
League level games require builds that are pure insanity without the precise knowledge
of how your teammates will support you. You can see some pretty ridiculous builds out
of some of the league teams that would normally fail completely.

#4: Your Color Scheme is stupid!

Although this 'question' is idiotic, someone actually made a reply including this (Not
going to name names, but it's still in here). Yes. He complained about my tastes in color
for the guide. This is a good example of just stupid criticism. Remember, complaining
about a subject purely based in opinion isn't good criticism, and I'd prefer not to see it.
It's also not helpful in furthering the guide at all.
 Final Word

Cue end of 3.0. There weren't as many changes to make this time luckily, mostly with
the placement of sanity's eclipse and the item build. The strategy mostly hasn't
changed, but the item build supports the strategy better. Anyway, I always look forward
to comments, so let me know how this goes!

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