The Sleeper Has Awakened

By Brownmagic

Please PM me on how to improve the guide - I'd like to try and get it as close to 10 as possible

Quick Mini Guide

Hero Analysis

Pros
[+] Has Spirit Bear, which acts like an additional hero
[+] Is inherently the consistently fastest heroes in the game after leveling rabid and synergy.
[+] Offers a unique value to pushing no other hero in the game can offer
[+] Amazing tower diving capabilities.
[+] One of the best junglers in the game and one of the few heroes in the game that can early solo-rosh
[+] Can control runes with Spirit Bear even better than Rexxar's map hawk
[+] Items with courier editions, like Armlet, will remain as courier editions on your Spirit Bear
Cons
[-] Both Lone Druid and Spirit Bear scale poorly into late game since they both require farm.
[-] Lacks crowd control (AoE) ability
[-] No team buffs to offer or reliable roots/disables to offer
[-] Is completely item and buff depended before he can reliably tank or gank
[-] Low starting HP makes him food for early-game nukers and gankers
[-] Spirit Bear naturally has no mana and can't use items like dust or wards.
[-] Items with courier editions, like Gem, will remain as courier editions on your Spirit Bear


Lone Druid offers reliable base damage, above average MS, strong starting and growth of agility (his main attribute), and average starting strength that's complimented by respectable strength gain. The hero boasts a strong start where it counts but can also be very mana dependent; your Spirit Bear and your Rabid abilities are the bread and butter toward this hero's survival and success, but they both tax LD's mana pool excessively.

Luckily, items like Ring of Basilius, Sobi Mask, or Clarity Potions can easily remedy this particular flaw and you have a free 1800-2700hp chicken (your Spirit Bear) to carry them around for you too! The Spirit Bear brings tons of benefits including making LD one of the best chasers in the game once equipped with Orb of Venom; after being fully leveled, it can reach 522ms after being equipped with only Boots of Speed! Here are more in-depth looks at the versatile Lone Druid offers:

Click on Tabs to Read Synopsys of Role. Grades are listed in tabs...

Skills

The jungle and laning tabs reflect early & mid game strategy; you certainly don't want to spend your time in the jungle when your team can use your help in fights, ganks, and pushes. And as team ganks and tower pushes get more frequent, the general safety you may first find in lanes will deteriorate, altering the direction of play.

There're rules of thumb all LD players should follow when equipping the hero or his Spirit Bear:

1. Always try to utilize as many item slots as possible
2. make sure that your spends are made on item components that can support you best throughout the current match you're playing.

When laning, concentrate defensive items on your Lone Druid while putting offensive items on Spirit Bear, and when jungling do the opposite. I've followed these two principles specifically when listing item options in each tab, you can certainly come up with your own and feel free to share your suggestion(s). Here're some building strategies with in-depth descriptions:

1) , this must always be your first skill.


Despite what anyone may tell you, your first skill must always be Summon Spirit Bear. The versatility offered from this skill compared to any of your other skills is incomparable. In lanes, it's a harassment skill, disable, and scout. And even if, for whatever reason, you don't plan on using your Spirit Bear and only want to role Syllabear instead, you can at least save your team 500g by offering them a free chicken/crow all throughout the game that can never die or drop items. The Spirit Bear can also travel upto movement speeds of 456 without items, faster than a crow with a base ms of 350.

Early Solo Roshing becomes possible only if you concentrate on leveling your Spirit Bear. The bear needs to be at least level 3 to tank damage long enough for you to kill Roshan. It's possible to solo rosh within 10 minutes of the game, but it's much easier to aim to kill Rosh within 15min allowing you to acquire desirable levels and farm.

For 15min in, you'll need to be at least level 9 and have at least a Sobi Mask equiped for mana regen so you can heal bear, spam rabid, and spam Battle Cry when available. You'll also need to equip a stout shield on your bear to give it the tanking ability it'll need to last Roshan's onslaught. Other than giving yourself 2 minutes to successfully solo rosh before he levels up at the 15 minute mark, you don't need much else.

After using this item consistently in pubs, I'd also STRONGLY recommend Medallion of Valor equipped onto Lone Druid before roshing. What Fury Swipes is for Ursa Valor is for Lone Druid. With your bear doing all the tanking and taking the stuns, you can take full advantage of the valor effect on your own and wreck Rosh before the enemy team even realizes it.

Rune Control is another talent Lone Druid is surprisingly good at once you've learned to master scouting and hero blocking with your Spirit Bear. Generally, heroes that rune control need to have either spike damage capabilities or reliable disables to make the most of the buffs rune provide, but hero blocking is like a disable in itself when used properly and can give you the time you need to dish out enough damage to land yourself a kill.

The best thing about rune control with Lone Druid is that you practically don't even need a bottle. Bottles are used to store runes for later use till you can surprise your opponent with it, but your Spirit Bear is like a second hero and can make the best of the runes on its own if you know how to. Plus, when equiped with Orb of Venom it has a natural slow on top of it's entangle ability that allows it to bring the disables necessary to make the gank with runes more reliable. Check out the spoiler below to view how to use each rune either on you or your bear:



Lux Item Build after Post Core: A lot of people started asking me "what to get after radiance", and as mentioned before, it always depends on your play style and the situation of the game. For example, if a Troll warlord is getting fed pretty well and your team is counting on your DPS as well as your tanking, you need to rush MKBs asap. I would generally go with the following build in an average-paced game after securing my radiance:

1) Vlads for both Spirit Bear and Lone Druid: The guide doesn't include the item generally and focuses more on radiance because of the value radiance can ultimately offer a team before vlads. But by far, I've come to prefer this item for the hero in multiple situations for its mana regen, life steal aura, a welcomed +damage buff, and +armor aura that provides amazing defensive value early game and on while True form is at lower levels and Lone Druid hasn't attained the max amount of armor it can from stat bonuses/levels. Though AC is precious, you really don't miss it on this hero when you have vlads, plus it'll allow another true carry or support to build the item and gain from its defensive benefits while offering the offensive benefits to your team. Most importantly, it builds well and allows you to take advantage of your bag space as you're moving forward in the game. I generally carry it on my Spirit Bear, but would certainly put it on Lone Druid instead if you have room.

2) Armlet of Mordiggian for Spirit Bear: Again, I thank Hobbes from DotA Commentaries for bringing this items awesome value to public! Activated armlet can offer tremendous offensive (+40dmg and +25 AS) and defensive (+5 armor and +3hp regen/sec.) benefits for your Spirit Bear WITHOUT the downsides associated with the item(-37hp/sec.). This is because the item, whether activated or not, is considered to be in courier edition when equipped to Spirit Bear, which is the same way Spirit Bear lost gem T_T. Why I think this item is something you should build before others is because it'll use your available bag space most effectively while you're building toward it: give the Helmet of Iron Will to Lone Druid and give Claws and Gloves to Spirit Bear, and when you need more bag space you can buy the recipe.

3) Talisman of evasion for Lone Druid: a very powerful defensive items against carries and physical damage heroes like nevermore, traxex, etc. For only 1800g (instead of 6000g) you're getting all the defensive benefits of butterfly and reserving additional gold for other items that'll keep you in team fights and make you a larger threat. Be sure not to give this to your Spirit Bear even though it'll need defensive items later in the game - it gains much more from raw armor increases than it would evasion.

4) Malestrom for either Lone Druid or Spirit Bear: who you end up equipping this item on is up to you, but the damage output it has to offer is phenomenal! Yes, it's an orb, and orb effects can't take effect along with entangle on Spirit Bear; but the +AS isn't an orb and can do wonders for your Spirit Bear that has a natural BAT of 1.45 (Lone Druid in True Form also has a reduced BAT of 1.6 instead of 1.7)! Also, you can always place this item on the upper left bag slot to activate Malestrom's orb for when you need more damage output than disables or when you're working to push/clear creep waves. There's so much versatility offered from this item despite who you put it on and compliments Lone Druid/Spirit Bear in so many ways, it makes this item a strong preference, imo.

5) Butterfly for Lone Druid: By this time you're stacked, so you want to concentrate on upgrading items taking up slots THEN replacing items like wand, PMS, Medallion, etc.

6) Boots of Travel: give your treads to Spirit Bear and get yourself some map control!

7+8) Double Bashers: if you got the space and the gold, go nuts with double bashers! Keep in mind if and when you'll ever need mkb though - that can be more valuable against the right heroes like Troll Warlord. But MKB is of course more a situational item and you should get it based on what you expect to encounter in the game.

9+) At this point (according to my guide), you've filled up EVERY slot for Lone Druid and still have 4 slots that are still using ALL the tier 1 items you purchased before including Magic Wand, Orb of Venom, PMS, and Medallion of Courage. Feel free to get any item you like, and certainly equip AC first if your teammates haven't already. I usually give it medallion's slot. You also still have the option to upgrade to Miljolnir, which I have mixed feelings about it (upgrading before replacing the other items that is). Yes, you want to make the most out of all your space, but the value AC certainly outweighs Miljolnir, and you could always benefit more from a defensive item for Lone Druid (like eye of Skadi) than you could from an upgraded Miljolnir for your Spirit Bear. Again, it depends on the situation and how you use it. Also, if you're roshing often and properly, replace the bag space made available for your PMS with Aegis, and Magic Stick with Cheese. There's no reason NOT to hog both if you're this stacked and unstoppable.

Hero Synergy

Try to pair up with heroes that can bring something different to the table like Lo with his ability to link with the bear and improve its MS and AS, or Nevermore with his nukes to support your pushes and act as your carry later in the game, or Keeper of the Light who can port Lone Druid into any lane for a quick tower rax. Consider all the options you have available to you when building your team and be creative about strategies that'll incorporate what the Lone Druid truly has to offer.

As creative as you need to be when picking heroes, you need to be just as creative with how to deal with heroes. Try to avoid heroes that take advantage of groups like Witch Doctor with Paralyzing Cask or Lich with Chain Frost, or even Tiny can use your Spirit Bear against you when/if you're trying to run by tossing the bear at you.

Melee heroes with cleave can also take advantage of your Spirit Bear's presence as well: although you have a ton of armor in bear form, splash damage caused by cleave effects can bypass that easily and take you down quickly. So in 1v1 situations where you think you have the upper hand, heroes like Kunkka with Tidebringer, Magnataur with Empower, or even a melee hero stacked with multiple Battlefurries can punish you mercilessly if you're not careful. Other heroes to watch out for are carries that can work around the presence of your bear like Naix with Feast or Troll Warlord with Blind.

Without proper farm or a contingency plan like double basher or equipping a Talisman of Evasion, these are not battles you want to approach alone. But as many heroes as there are to look out for, there're that many heroes you can be the worst nightmare of. Pudge, for example, will have a very hard time hooking you if you've always got your Spirit Bear is his line of sight (the last thing he wants to get close to him). And even if he does manage to hook you and cast dismember, one lucky entangle will turn the tides just as quickly.

And heroes, like Yurenmaro, with abilities that count on finding heroes all on their own, like Omni Stike, will find it just as frustrating when their attacks continue to bounce onto your Spirit Bear instead of you. You can also keep heroes that need to get up close and personal, like Axe, as far as you'd like with your Spirit Bear slowing him down and entangling. But my favorite is when your Spirit Bear can completely shut down heroes like techies by having it scout around and setting off planted mines all around the map!


To summarize the Guide:
1) Coordinate with your team to consider what supportive items (like vlads, radiance, assault cuirass, etc.) you'll be responsible for. You've got a lot of additional bag space to offer your team, but gold is certainly a concern you can't forget. Your hand should always be up when it's time to carry a gem.

2) Be mindful that you're very vulnerable to spike damage in Human Form and that True Form IS NOT an escape tool. Rabid and utilizing your Spirit Bear to block are probably your best means of escaping a gank.

3) When you're playing Lone Druid, you're playing to finish the game within 30-40 minutes. Don't go too far beyond that time when facing a team with strong carries.

4) Practice, Practice, Practice! Learn to hero block (http://www.playdota.com/forums/34803...min-into-game/), scout, and use your bear as a chicken. I've pointed out all the pros/cons in the guide, so it's your job to get use to them.

5) Keep in mind who you're pairing Lone Druid up with when hero picking. You're a physical damaging hero, so don't pair him up with heroes like pugna that use banish and be weary of ghost scepter.

6) Be creative about how to deal with heroes, what to avoid, and which heroes to sync your abilities with. Learning when it's the best time to head into battle in Human Form and in True Form is paramount.

1. Hobbs at Dota Commentaries for telling us about armlet on Spirit Bear
2. Jajekzco for his awsome forum post that helped prevent my guide from becoming another wall of text: http://www.playdota.com/forums/29424...late-complete/
3. To the creators of this video, it made me an excellent jungler/puller: YouTube - DOTA: PERCEPTIVE JUNGLING 2
4. Other guide makers to give me a level of quality to shoot for
5. Syllabear fans for reading this guide and helping me improve it!
6. Ice, Pendragon, and Guinsoo for making an amazing DOTA game.
7. To Ikanza for bringing up how Lone Druid can shutdown Techies - http://www.playdota.com/forums/33184...t/#post1966139
8. To Grubi for helping me elaborate even if I didn't include the stuff in my guide - http://www.playdota.com/forums/33184...t/#post2198906
9. To Kenshiro for helping me fix the cleave mistake - http://www.playdota.com/forums/33184...t/#post2234793
10. To you ALL!!

I'll answer any questions, address any particular comments that are made, about the guide, and mention any updates made in this section. Please note that I will try to answer all questions and comments on changes to the build are completely subjective. This is a strategy that's worked for me, and if you come up with something that produces greater results, I'll certainly mention it in edits. I doubt I'll change it in the guide, but that isn't to say I wouldn't. Please include any replays or images you'd like me to post and thank you for reading this.

1) Rushing Radiance: Actually, it's neither a pro nor a con to rush radiance when considering how gold could be distributed to other items like Orb of Venom, treads, Gloves of Hastes, etc. Yes, an early radiance is VERY powerful and I'd certainly option for one, but 3800g isn't easy to farm up; the time wasted and gold you reserved from farming could be spent much earlier within a game helping your team. Plus, the gold you earn from that early team support (from hero kills and tower raxes) can help you farm up a radiance just as quickly without ever missing a beat. Bottom line, yes rush a Radiance when you can, but don't make it your strategy with Lone Druid.

2) Why bother leveling up True Form?: As mentioned in the guide, it helps off-set the flaw in having to manage two bags (for your Lone Druid and your Spirit Bear). You can certainly be a welcomed addition to team fights in human form, but I've found such situations more successful when in True Form. I strongly recommend leveling that skill by level 11 and maxing it out when possible.

3) Skadi on Sylla?: It's a lux item and certainly shouldn't be considered before other, more useful items, like radiance or even armlet or malestrom. It's mainly popular for its hp boost, but you really don't need that much stay power if you can stack up on the damage.

4) I Don't use Spirit Bear When I Play. Why Should I?: Well, not using Spirit Bear for Lone Druid is like not using Shadow Meld for Lanaya - you can still have a great game, but to make the most out of the hero, you need to master the hard-to-use skills. There's a huge world of playstyle to be offered when you level Summon Spirit Bear and not using it takes away the core values that Lone Druid can bring to a team. Honestly, you might as well play as Traxex if you're not leveling Spirit Bear since she at least has a reliable slow, silence, and damage aura to offer her team. Or play as Centaur if you prefer tanking and going melee - he's just as fast, has even more hp, and can offer his team amazing abilities like return and stomp.

5) Curtisy of Grubi, here's a list of items that you may be interested in procuring after your core/post-core: http://www.playdota.com/forums/33184...t/#post2198906

6) paulo_2_5 asks what to get if you don't want to procure a radiance? The short answer is VLADS, and the long answer is here (same as above link): http://www.playdota.com/forums/33184...t/#post2198906