no vlads only is better if you dont need more hp or have a UAM (brood & am)
heroes like PA need more hp so satanic is better
imo depends on hero / position, eg. I'm Troll with HotD while someone else buying Vlads "for me"
AM ? hm I don't think so, u need that 6 slots
Brood, yes, because.. zero team fight
I agree ideally someone should buy vlads for you but that often doesn't happen and I like to grab a RoB on Troll and not always turn it into aquila's.
Brood vlad's is an obvious choice cus of your spiderlings, just like lycan or anyone else with summons.
I see your point on PA but that's assuming you're going to go satanic eventually which it takes a while to get there. On PA I'd probably do phase boots -> battlefury -> bkb/dominator. Satanic after that I guess is good, but on Troll I'm probably going boots -> dominator -> medallion -> bkb then a mkb or deadulus. I generally wouldn't get it on AM, I usually do heart over satanic there and he doesn't need lifesteal to farm at all.
If your team needs the aura/benefits from the aura you get the Vlads. No matter what hero you are generally.
If you are gonna do some solo jungle farming and stacking, you get HotD.
Then you buy it for farming. Also I said "generally". And you still sell it later in the game.
Vlads is the better choice unless its a range hero/Satanic core (Luna, Gyro, etc.)
The team aura is extremely helpful. That said both are a solid choice
Vlads for any melee carry, especially if you have mana burn which does not work with regular lifesteal. You can replace it with Satanic if the game goes super late. Although, mana burn still might be a better choice even then.
HotD into satanic late game for range non-diffusal carries. I like to get vlads on troll, because I play as core support or solo mid with another carry doing main dps...I get vlads, drums, AC and make team dps super high.
Keep in mind anytime you are getting HotD, its dps is very low and early game your heal from lifesteal is tiny. You should get 1 main dmg item and a bkb before getting any lifesteal. Supports can stack camps...so can you, without a dominated creep. If you are getting it just to stack camps and nothing else...then forget that and get dmg or bkb instead. If you don't have high dps the lifesteal does nothing. If you are stunned the lifesteal does nothing. You must have those first or there is no reason to get it. If you are taking lots of dmg farming jungle creeps...then you are doing it wrong. Learn to farm them correctly so they do insignificant dmg to you.
HotD has one tremendous benefit not discussed yet in detail (It was only hinted at by "can control creeps"): It can be used to stack the ancients. This is really powerful for heroes capable of ripping through ancient stacks, though most of these heroes are ranged anyway, meaning you'd never get vlads on them anyway. Examples: Medusa, Drow, Luna, DK, SVEN (this is one where you COULD get vlads, but don't for this very reason), troll warlord (again, often better to avoid vlads so you can stack if you want lifesteal), PA (same as troll + early 20 damage really helps her ult)
Stack the ancients means you are not fighting for 10 solid minutes to make up the gold you spent on HotD and the weakness it caused. This is because the item does very little for you early or mid game. Getting HotD to stack (as a first item) is greedy and only works in games where you were already going to win no matter what you did because you team is just better. It is not quite as greedy as getting Hand of Midas but the impact on the game is similar...it delays and item that could help you fight.
Don't get lifesteal until you already have dps. If you have 100 dps (early to mid) and fight for 10 seconds HotD heals you for at MOST 150 extra hp and only if you are constantly attacking...barely anything...just the Ogre Club part of a bkb is 190 hp and it puts you 3k gold closer to finishing bkb if you buy that instead of HotD.
Mid to late game maybe you have 500 dps, HotD heals you for 750 hp during a 10 second fight....now its really good.
Super late, say 60 min + lifesteal is very very good. But early its just crap.
Of course once you do get HotD, by all means get a creep asap and stack. Stacking the ancients is very good from 20-30 min and from 30-40, and from 40-50 and from 50-60 etc...its a good tactic. Its just not worth making your hero too weak to fight early and losing the game to squeeze out slightly higher gpm by 20 min.
Good comments, but I don't get lifesteal early for fighting the other team, I do it to give me sustain in lane/jungle. I like to push the lane out, then go clear out the whole jungle, go back into lane. To be able to keep doing this with no other regen or returns to base is pretty valuable. I'm thinking on guys like faceless, luna, troll (whirling axes don't work on ancients), sven, slardar. Guys who don't have innate regen or ways to mitigate creep dmg. Guys I wouldn't worry about it so much on would be dragon knight (innate hp regen and armor), drow (can kite jungle creeps well enough), alch (innate regen), bounty (jinada 1 or 2 shots creeps so not needed), heroes like that.
But I do think I'll be going vlad's a lot more often now over dom.
Well vlads is more of an support item! get it for pushes or if u hve melle heroes around u .Helm is more suitable for str carries or agi carries because u can make it in to a satanic which is quite powerful and op den vlads!
Truth-Well good for u, the fact that none of ur opponents were farmed makes vlads + helm + pt really threatening
Vlads = early pushing ( aura benefits both heroes and creeps, good for split-pushing as well).
HotD = " I will farm more" - simple as that.
Per favore Accedi per inviare commenti.
When do you choose one over the other?
Dom pros:
200g cheaper
more dmg earlier (since vlad's only effects base/attribute dmg)
can control creeps
upgrades into satanic
Vlad's pros:
more dmg later when 15% is > 20
aura for whole team (lifestealer only works on melee)
mana regen
hp regen
not a UA modifier so you can stack with other items
On a lot of heroes for which I like lifesteal dom is recommended on the in game build order (Sven and Troll come to mind) but vlad's seems like a decent option for them as well. I rarely use the dominate ability on the helm and feel it's extremely under used in general, so if you're not going to micro creeps is vlad's a better choice usually?