How to Play as Broodmother in Dota 2

Credit: Dota 2

Role

Broodmother is an enormous spider with appetite for enemy heroes. With venomous fangs at the ready, Broodmother and her spiderlings are ready to feast on any opponent in their path. Broodmother takes the role of a Pusher, Carry, and Escape and is a melee agility hero. She can easily push through lanes solo by hatching spiderlings out of enemy creeps and tearing through enemy towers. During the end game as a Carry, Broodmother can swoop in and finish off enemy heroes that make the mistake of walking through her webs which give her the ability become invisible and will boost her movement speed allowing her to escape swiftly in any direction the web touches, including up ravines and through trees.

Skills

• Spawn Spiderlings – Baby spiders are injected into the targeted enemy dealing instant damage. If the enemy is killed while under the effects of being bitten, up to 4 spiders will burst out of the opponent with max skill points put in.
• Spin Web – Broodmother launches a web that covers a reasonable portion of the lane or trees. It can be targeted anywhere and increases her health regeneration up to 8 seconds at max skill points, and increases her movement speed to 35%. The webs allow Broodmother to travel anywhere webs touch allowing her to traverse the map easily. The only downside of the web is that there is a 30 second cool down, meaning any ganking done with Broodmother must be carefully premeditated. The webs also make Broodmother invisible until she attacks!
• Incapacitating Bite – A passive skill that allows Broodmother to give enemies a 60% chance to miss and a 40% slow moment debuff.
• Insatiable Hunger – Gives the Broodmother a 80% lifesteal effect on her attacks and an additional 100 damage when maxed out. This move is deadly and allows her to take down practically any foe because often times she is generating more health back from the lifesteal effect than any damage the enemy can do.

Credit: Dota 2

How to Play as Broodmother

• Playing as Broodmother the player has to understand that they will often times be controlling Broodmother and her spiderlings. Those familiar with Real Time Strategy (RTS) games will be used to controlling multiple units at once, but it may take some time to get used to in the Dota 2 environment.
• When using Broodmother, players need to always spin webs as soon as it comes off of cool down. Spiderlings benefit from the web as well, and the movement bonus combined with the movement bonus of boots makes her one of the fastest heroes in the game.
• Broodmother can easily solo a lane by hatching spiderlings repeatedly until the enemy is overrun and has to retreat. 

Recommended Leveling Build

You may notice that the ultimate ability is held off a bit, this is because leveling Spin Web and Spawn Spiderlings is critical to pushing through. Players will not benefit from Insatiable Hunger until a little bit later in the game.

1. Spin Web
2. Spawn Spiderlings
3. Spawn Spiderlings
4. Spin Web
5. Spawn Spiderlings
6. Spin Web
7. Spawn Spiderlings
8. Spin Web
9. Insatiable Hunger
10. Incapacitating Bite
11. Insatiable Hunger
12. Incapacitating Bite
13. Incapacitating Bite
14. Incapacitating Bite
15. Attribute Bonus
16. Insatiable Hunger

Equipment Optimization for Broodmother

Broodmother’s item optimization comes from regeneration. Items that regenerate health, combined with the health regeneration gained from spinning webs, ensures that Broodmother is constantly regenerating. Power Treads can be useful for being situation for what the player needs. The luxury items at during end game will raise Broodmother’s damage making her a true terror when combined with Insatiable Hunger.

The equipment that I do recommend is:

• Starting:

1. 2x Iron Branches
2. Ring of Regen
3. Healing Salve

• Core Optimization:

1. Power Treads
2. Orchid Malevolence
3. Soul Ring
4. Black King Bar

• Luxury:

1. Daedalus
2. Manta Style
3. The Butterfly

Tips

• Spin Web will allow you to climb up the walls in the river and across the jungle.
• Regenerating health combined with the use of Soul Ring will provide Broodmother with a never ending source of mana.
• Do not let enemy heroes kill your spiderlings, they give generous amounts of gold and experience when killed.

Final Thoughts

As of writing, Broodmother is my preferred hero and I recommend everyone give her a try. A giant spider is intimidating no matter what, but it is funny to watch heroes try to escape when they see Broodmother appear from being invisible.  By managing your spiderlings and keeping your mana under control, Broodmother is an unstoppable force,