DOTA 2 – Hero Guide: Venomancer [Guide]

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• Overview
• Skills
• Strategy
• Items
• Video

Most people want to play the carries and the hard hitters in DotA 2, taking the main roles in every game. Then, there are those who take the supportive roles. At least with tanks, they look badass, but supports don’t get enough appreciation for what they do. One exception though is Venomancer, because he is that good.

Overview

As a hero, Venomancer is quite versatile and is able to fit into most teams. He does have below average strength and vitality, as well as low agility, so he’s not much of a frontal assault type. But for what he lacks in physicality, he makes up for with firepower courtesy of skills like Venomous Gale that leaves affected enemies poisoned and slowed.

Perhaps what Venomancer is best at, its in both laning and pushing. You get free wards, lots of slow and crowd control abilities at your disposal, and great farming capabilities that bring in the gold. Also, once you get into clashes, your ultimate is absolutely heaven-sent. On the other hand, Venomancer does have low defense and HP, and it doesn’t help that opponents will have Venomancer at the top of their to-kill list. He also does not have much burst damage, slow movement speed, and not much mana until you reach the mid game. Therefore, Venomancer is weak during the early game. But if you are able to survive and keep up, then you’ll be left with one of the most awesome heroes in DotA 2.

Venomancer requires skill to handle, and yet looks simple and cheap when played right. He’s one of those characters whose offensive capabilities are balanced with their lack of durability, which is significant enough for some players to not pick him up. But if someone does master him, the results can be quite devastating.

Skills

Venomancer’s skills all deliver poison damage, which makes him one of the best laners and pushers in the game. The effect duration of Venomous Gale poisons enemy units it comes in contact with. They take take initial damage, get damaged over time, and get slowed for a short duration. It lasts for 15 seconds, which is great in clashes where you’re preventing someone from getting away.

Poison Sting adds poison damage to Venomancer’s normal attacks, which also slows the enemies’ movement speed and lasts 7 seconds. By itself, this is already quite a powerful ability and is the reason why Venomancer is useful in any team.

The Plague Ward summons an immobile serpentine ward that is immune to magic and lasts 40 seconds. This can be used to scout for the team or even deploy them in the heat of battle to damage and weaken enemies, as well as for farming and pushing lanes.

His ultimate skill, Poison Nova, is a game changer in major clashes, dealing a lot of damage over time to enemies in a significantly large radius. It isn’t fatal but is strong enough to weaken the other team significantly for your team to take the kills.

Strategy

There are two basic builds possible with Venomancer, both viable for high level play, depending on the situation and the team. For the more daring players, there’s the DPS build that depends more on items. Then there’s the standard support Venomancer that can help most teams gain the upper hand. Either of these are good, but first timers should be set with a standard build in order to prepare for most situations that Venomancer might get into.

Venomancer can do both straightforward pushing and ganking, as well as supporting lane partners in delivering extra damage and slowing opponents down. All good Venomancer users play aggressive and take advantage of Venomancer’s strong selection of skills that are able to stack up damage over time while still staying alive. You make up for your low defense and HP with some careful aggression, attacking the enemies when they’re open and backing off quickly as soon as you’re about to get hurt.

In choosing your first skill, it is important to get one which suits the situation. If you will be getting early kills, then Poisonous Gale is a good choice. It’s even better if you have capable laners with you like Juggernaut. If you’re with a less aggressive teammate, then take Poison Sting instead. Plague Ward is quite useful as an early warning system that makes you aware of incoming ganks and it also can be used for pushing and getting an early tower kill. Take note that a single level of Plague Ward is quite enough since you’ll need to max out Poisonous Gale and Poison Sting for the early game.

Items

Here are some suggestions.

Wraith Bands/Bracers
Venomancer needs HP the most in the early game, as well as damage and mana to thrive and get the gold for more items.

Magic Wand
It’s great on most support heroes, and Venomancer is no exception. It might grant you that extra mana needed to land that extra Gale or provide

you with that little extra bit of health to escape death.

Dagger of Escape
Being able to move into or out of a clash easily is such an invaluable ability for Venomancer. When your team needs it, you can go in quickly and Poison Nova everything, which will make you a hero.

Aghanim’s Scepter
This is THE best item for Venomancer, bar none. Not only do you have gigantic boosts to stats, but it also makes your already awesome ultimate into something that must be feared by everyone by reducing the cooldown to just 60 seconds. Being able to use Poison Nova potentially in every minute is mind-boggling and will surely make your opponents think twice before engaging in clashes.

Boots of Travel
You need movement speed to do what must be done, so don’t hesitate to sell your first boots to get this one. The teleportation ability is very handy, especially you have to move to and fro in your lane efficiently. Also lets you escape or engage teamfights.

Guinsoo’s Scythe of Vyse
This isn’t exactly essential, but you can put an exclamation point to your killer Venomancer with this item.

Video