A quick guide on offlane Weaver

Hey guys, I'm back with another Dota 2 guide. This time we'll be talking about Weaver as an offlaner. In the near future I'm going to do a series about the pretty most uncommon heroes to play in the hard lane called [Uncommon Offlane Heroes]. And this post today will kick start it.

As you all have known, Weaver has been notorious for its ability as one of the most versatile Semi-carry in the game, while as the same time , unknown for its better aspect of dominating the ''Offlane'' , the lane which will have most impact in the midder-late game scenario.

Valves has given this hero a tons of buffs recently , most notable would be patch 7.21b, which allows absolute freedom on choosing a playstyle for this hero.

The post will include as the usual:

1. Why/when to play weaver offlane ?
2. The varieties of playstyles and item builds

With this short-but-effective guide , i hope that you'll all find it useful in your MMR journey, and more importantly, to expand your hero pools, you will need it as you rank up further. That's enough saying, lets' get into the guide .

First of all, Why Weaver?

As i have mentioned above, Weaver has been the golden egg of Valve for a couple of separate patches now. The most notable buffs given is the appearance of talent tree (''Skukuchi dmg and movement speed'') that brings this already-mobile hero into a whole new level of escapability. Another great buff is within this most recent patch 7.21 which gives Geminate Attack an addition physical damage on the 2nd hit. With 3.6 agi gain/ level, Weaver is one of the most stat-gained hero in the game.

Well that's about the statistic of the hero, but why in the offlane ?

Offlane has long been known as the hardest lane , and it only becomes much much harder as you progress further with your rank, sometime having to lane alone vs 3 heroes on the enemy lane. With limited regeneration and farming space, heroes chosen for the offlane should be capable of surving AND be able to last-hit to have items and create the impact needed mid game. Therefore, Weaver has just the thing! He has a fast-cooldown escape Shukuchi, long range with high damage so he would do fine on both harrasing the enemy carry and/or supports, while as the same time farm effectively. In addition, enemy support would usually need to buy a sentry for you, which in turns cost them alot of gold overtime. That's more than enough for you to pick this hero!

So then, WHEN to pick it ?

Weaver can escape well, but that's only if he's able to press the button. So look out for hard disables on the enemy team when considering picking this hero. ( such as Lion, shaman, Earth spirit), weaver would be effective against most melee carry, and not against disable or bursting carry such as tiny, storm, viper, riki or PL, naga with illusions.

Now we move on to the different playstyles and items build accordingly.

There basically 2 types of weaver offlane imo. Im going to talk about it from top to bottom is based on popularity. The talent picks for all types would be shukuchi dmg , shukuchi movement speed, swarm hit attacks , the level 10 talents is different on playstyles. Skills to max first is alwasy Shukuchi -> geminate attack -> ultimate -> swarm

1st: Offensive offlaner / Ganker-type offlaner

This type is when you play Weaver to progress him into a killing machine Mid-game, this playstyle creates alot of space for carry to farm, and also assist our supports in most combats pre-midgame.

The item builds start of with 6 tangos, 2 slippers, salve and mango. There's nothing much to say about early game , just focus on last-hitting if the lane's hard ( 1v3), and try to harrass enemy carry to look for kill potential if its easy lane (1v2/2v2).

Mid game items are urn, bottle, maelstrom, and lance. You should hit urn and bottle at roughly ~12min-ish, with these you can start helping your team by rotating into enemy jungle and ganking other lanes..

The late game of all 3 types are pretty similar to each other, with this type you should have pike, urn2, daedelus, mjollnir, , heart and EOS or bloodthorn.

The 2nd type is Support Weaver/ Solo Passive offlaner

Start game item is also the same, but this time replace mango or salve with a ward. This ward would go into the enemy medium camp nearest to the lane. It would block the camps in case their supports pull the wave which would give you a hard time , especially when laning 1v3.

This type is when you cant play as agressive as the 1st one. Try to have a sentry down hidden near the lane to deward enemy sentry, with it you can timingly pull a shukuchi over the creep wave to earn some last hits. This type would also include pulling the enemy creep wave towards our lane, you should check this method out since its pretty complex to just explain in words.

The different for this style is only changing the lance/pike and maelstrom, into a midas and an agahnim rush. With this style you wont have that much space to farm, so its better to get a midas and also a 14sec cooldown time lapse would be extremely vital in mid game to help your teamate out of trouble.

Well that concludes my guide for today. Hopefully you'd find this useful, give me some response and i will come back in the future on another hero in [Uncommon Offlane Heroes] . Peace!