{insert} dazzle gif


Dazzle is imba
He supports the best of all
Touch, Weave, Wave, and Grave

Note this guide assumes that you have played DotA more than twice before and can understand basic DotA language and hero usage.

Here is his hero page, you can find all the nitpicky details. You can find all the useless stuff like story and whatnot there.

The important facts:

If I were to give him a role, it is aggressive babysitter early and mixed support later. His babysit role is defined by his animation and possession of desirable defensive skills, Shallow Grave and Shadow Wave. His offensive nature comes from his Poison Touch disable, Shadow Wave damage, and most importantly, Weave armor reduction. He is relatively item independent, which (unfortunately) makes him high on the ward candidate list. However, given farm, he can become a semi-carry with his stat gain and skillset (more explained later).

Heldarion’s Total Warding Guide comprehensively explains it all you need to know about warding. I learned just about everything that I could possibly want to learn about warding from it. When warding, protecting your team takes priority, especially the hard carry. Warding is key for a good sitter.






We have to discuss his skills, which you can find, again, on his hero page. You might as well look at it for the specific numbers, there is no point in copying them.

Skill Build

1. Shadow Wave / Shallow Grave <- Depends on lane.
2. Shallow Grave / Shadow Wave
3. Poison Touch
4. Poison Touch
5. Poison Touch
6. Shadow Wave
7. Shadow Wave
8. Shadow Wave
9. Weave
10. Poison Touch
11. Weave
12. Shallow Grave
13. Shallow Grave
14. Shallow Grave
15. Stats
16. Weave
    
    Skills are taken at a priority basis. At level 1, Shallow Grave has the strongest effect but it can be substituted for Shadow Wave if it isn't needed. We do want Poison Touch to be rank 3 by level 5 because then it obtains the full disable. Dazzle is a strong laner so we want to maximize that potential as quickly as possible. Shadow Wave is then maxed because its priority shoots up after Poison Touch reaches rank 3.
    
    Now, you might be thinking, "OMG NO WEAVE LVL 6". I've tried it, I don't like it, but if you feel that it is better then BE MY GUEST. Skill builds are fluid. It might also be beneficial to max out Shadow Wave first because you are babysitting useless Spectre who can't really kill against a half decent lane. It depends on the individual game, and what you are facing in lane.

At least 90% of your games should be the support kind of Dazzle. This means you get cheap items that give a strong benefit to Dazzle and his team. This includes Urn, Mekanism, Force Staff, Wand, Eul's, etc. In rare circumstanes, you may perform the Semi-carry build because YOU ARE NOT USELESS WITH FARM! Yay!

To Start

{Chicken / Wards, Tango, Clarity / Ironwood Branch}

Coordinate with your team over chicken, wards, etc. Your team should at least have chicken with Dazzle. 2 Tango, 2 Clarity, 2 Branches and Chicken / Wards is a solid start.

A Bunch Of Items

Icefrog did a good job of making a bunch of cheap items that you can use. But which do you use?! I DON’T CARE. IT IS PERSONAL PREFERANCE. CHOOSE MANY.

{Wards / Boots of Speed / Wand / Urn / Soul Ring / Wards / Teleport Scroll} {insert}

Which do you like? Which order? I dunno, adapt to your game. Wand and Urn combined partially solve mana and survival. You will be crying over inventory space and lack of mana, that's for sure. Ask for help with wards to free up more space if you need it.

A Bunch Of More Items {insert}

Support Role: {Wards, [Dust], Mek, Treads, Pipe, Sheep, }

This should theoretically be your inventory in the relative order. Keep helping fund wards. Get a Mekanism. Mix and match items. I prefer Treads on Dazzle as the extra health boost makes a huge difference. Again, inventory will probably be your biggest enemy.

Ok the first part of the strategy section is to pick him. He is in the Neutral Intelligence tavern, which is in the middle of the right side of the taverns. That last sentence was probably confusing so here is a picture:


At the beginning, take the lane and start laning. This means denying, harassing, and pulling the creep waves. Do not take unnecessary risks, like diving behind the enemy creep line without support. Before level 4, you are a passive hero.

Poison Touch rank 3 early does deal significant damage, so it can be used as a harassing tool followed by auto attacks. Shadow Wave can also deal heavy damage given proper setup or follow up.




Continue to ward. Try not to slack. Majority of the time, you should be around the team. At this point, all your skills are equally useful and are all pretty damn good so use them. Weave to initiate, Touch to disable, Wave for usefulness, Grave for savin’ lives. Low cooldowns means spam spam spam. I can’t really explain how to use each spell “right”, you just use it when the time is right and learn each situation accordingly.


If there is a stacked lane that is going to push into your tower, feel free to take it. Remember, YOU ARE NOT USELESS WITH FARM.

{insert} something is missing here.


Assuming it comes down to this point, I hope you have something to help you through. Hide in the back, spam more, stick with your team, disable who needs disabling, place the Weave properly, etc. If you did your job properly, then there is nobody left to blame except your teammates. They probably sucked, got caught out of place too many times, went too rambo thinking they are god with Shallow Grave, controlled your hero and dropped your items, and the list goes on.


Now, why would you ever want to Semi-Carry as Dazzle? Because you can! If you have a Vengeful Spirit, Witch Doctor, Lion, Void, and Dazzle (for example), then your team should understand that Dazzle can help Semi-Carry. You will gladly skip the Mekanism, Wards, Dust and enjoy being able to last hit more and harass a little less.

High priority items include Treads, Guinsoo, Desolator, Monkey King Bar, Orchid. Treads are naturally the carry's boots of choice. Guinsoo is still rediculously useful as it provides overflowing mana regen, the disable, and a tad bit of damage. A Desolator greatly assists your and your carries' damage outputs. Monkey King Bar is the icing on the cake to provide more damage and ministunning. Orchid proves more regen, more damage, more attack speed, and an additional disable in the silence.


{insert} I’ll tack on whatever I have and give a short explanation. Mostly from PDGG.


Lycan for his guide to guidewriting.
SirDumpling for feeding me... ideas and screenshots.

[spoiler=Changelog]
4/20/10: Started
4/25/10: Next major edit, Added Items, Strategy.
7/20/10: Restarted after an extended break, Edited/Rewrote everything, Added Semi-carry section
Author's Notes: Please do not post comments yet. Also, RAGEEEEE half of the shit I did one day disappeared. SOOOOO MAD. Will ask around to upgrade some of the usage to video.