Kris’ Guide to Hex Bone
A Brief Introduction
Bone is one of the most unique hero’s in dota. He is the only one to lack all of the following: a disable of any kind, an aoe spell, and a nuke. In lacking all 3 he is not an incredibly useful hero without items and because of that most people have considered him as one of the worst hero’s in the game. I plan on showing you Bone through a new perspective and hopefully changing the way you think about him.
Hero Story
The fire that kindles eternally on the visage of the fallen Elven Archer proves to others that his undeath was a mere genesis. Bone seeks perfection in the arts of fletching and never hesitates in sacrificing his own allies for the cause. Still retaining his ability to move with the wind, he is ready to slay the enemy officers with his swiftness and precision in archery. The Fletcher fires arrows that scorch the target with the heat of the Underworld, bringing them closer and closer to their peril. An elvish archer in life, a nightmare in death.
Hero stats
Strength: 15 + 1.6
Agility: 22 + 3
Intelligence: 16 + 1.55
Sight Range: 1800 / 800
Attack Animation: 0.7 / 0.3
Damage: 37-43
Base Attack Time: 1.7
Missile Speed: 900
Attack Range: 600
Casting Animation: 0.5 / 0.51
Armor: 2.1
Movespeed: 300
Skills & Evaluations
Strafe
Increases the rate at which Bone attacks by adding 90% IAS
Level 1 – 4s.
Level 2 – 6s
Level 3 – 8s
Level 4 – 10s
CD 60/50/40/30
Mana Cost 90
This is a great steroid skill with a few notable applications.
1. Farming large waves
2. Ganking soft targets or adding DPS in fights
3. Taking towers/rax/rosh
Searing Arrows
Increases the damage of the Hero's attack by adding fire. If you learn this during wind walk the first time, you will lose the invisibility.
Level 1 - 20 bonus damage.
Level 2 - 30 bonus damage.
Level 3 - 40 bonus damage.
Level 4 - 50 bonus damage.
CD 2/2/0/0
Mana Cost 8
Yet another amazing steroid skill that gives bone exceptional lane control early.
Notable applications:
1. Farming creeps
2. Harassing without drawing creep agro
3. Attacking through root based spells/ghost
4. Improving dps
Wind Walk
Turn invisible for a period of time, increasing movement speed.
Level 1 - 10% increased movement speed, 20 seconds.
Level 2 - 20% increased movement speed, 25 seconds.
Level 3 - 30% increased movement speed, 30 seconds.
Level 4 - 40% increased movement speed, 35 seconds.
CD 20
Mana Cost 75
This spell gives several great benefits as follow:
1. Amazing MS bonus
2. Invis with a reasonable fade time and duration/cd
Death Pact
Kills a target unit, returning a percentage of its life.
Level 1 - 50% conversion.
Level 2 - 100% conversion.
Level 3 - 150% conversion.
CD 20
Mana Cost 100
This skill is the second part of Bone’s amazing lane control. Applications include:
1. Keeping yourself at full hp
2. Neutraling
3. Denying / power farming
General Strengths and Weaknesses
Strengths:
Amazing physical damage output very early in the game
An orb spell (allowing him to harass without attracting agro)
An Invis skill that also gives him haste like move speed
An ultimate that enables him to keep a lane from pushing while he farms it
An ultimate that allows him to be full HP all the time
A great IAS spell allowing him to do large portions of damage in short periods of time
Very good at taking towers after midgame (and landing lasthits on them)
Very good AGI gain
Weakness:
No disable/slow of any form
No Nuke
No AOE spell
Rather low HP
Quite an awkward attack animation to just pick up and play
Skill Build
1. SA
2. WW
3. SA
4. WW
5. SA
6. DP
7. SA
8. WW
9. WW
10. Strafe
11. DP
12-14. Strafe
15. Stats
16. DP
17-25. Stats
Explanation of skill build
There are very few reasons to avoid maxing Searing Arrows at level 7. I also see very few reasons not to take them at level 1 because as long as you are not doing something stupid (looking for runes) there should be no reason you need WW at that time.
Wind Walk is maxed at 9 for the incredible mobility that it gives you. It allows you to get across the map in seconds and saves you from most ganks. This spell is also useful for scouting, however don’t get too familiar with the other team or you risk randomly getting dusted or walking into a ward.
Death Pact is leveled whenever possible because it allows you to farm anything, keeps your HP full increasing the likely hood that you survive a gank, and allows you to tank a bit when stunners and heavy nukers are not around.
Strafe logically is leveled during the midgame when Bone is required to output sufficient DPS in both ganks and fights.
Item Build
Core
Hex
Magic Wand and/or Bottle
Boots of speed
TP
Extension
MKB (natural 2nd item)
Very efficient damage with a few added perks, if you can't safely go DR and just win MKB is a sound option
BKB
Some games you will need it because the other team is very diligent at focusing you. But often it will be a wasted slot if you team can keep their attention and has disables
DR (common 3rd item)
An amazing item that lets clinkz shred heroes and buildings with ease. There are few reasons not to get this with the new DR system.
Skadi
More practical HP that HOT
Buriza
Strong damage item for the lategame
AC
Greatly increases your damage against towers but has little application outside of that realm
Explanation of Item Build
While at first glance it doesn’t appear that Bone uses a lot of mana in reality he consumes a massive amount of it. Wind Walk eats 75 per cast, Death Pact eats 100 every 20 seconds or so, and strafe eats a large amount of mana once it is at the point where you can use it for farming and have it CD for a gank.
The best item that you can have on Bone is a HEX (see arguments against orchid in its own section)
Now I know this is the point that most of you are thinking WTF. You think that the hero is used for massive DPS and then think: why would he be getting an item that is most prominently used by int hero’s and supporters?
Guinsoo gives Bone everything he needs but does not have. Bone gains a spell to greatly assist in ganks, He gains a disable in teamfights, and he gains the mana to support all of his spells. In addition to that hex reduces the targets MS to 100 allowing Bone to attack without wasting time moving between attacks. As if that wasn’t enough hex adds 10str (190 HP) and 10 agi (every point of damage/IAS counts).
TP should be core on every hero no questions asked.
Playing the game
Bone is a very different hero to play when compared to most other heroes in the game because he lacks the things that make almost all other heroes good. He has no nuke, disable, or aoe and he needs to make up for that with his raw damage and smart item choices. When playing bone he needs to be played differently from many other heroes if you want to be very effective on any level.
Early Game
Farm while avoiding ganks, it is a fairly simple game for you levels 1-7/9. Harass your lane with Searing Arrows, take last hits when possible, hide when people are coming to gank you, help your allies who gank for you; fairly basic stuff. Most kills in the early game are made by a combination of stuns/slows however the reason people die is physical damage. Bone excels at dealing large sums of damage early and can secure many kills with good allies.
Mid Game
Once you are level 7/9 you need to start helping your team take towers and gain a gold advantage on the other team. At this point you are doing over 100 damage a hit without items and should have no trouble downing towers or killing heroes that are stunned. You should be farming open lanes when able, woods when lanes are pushed too far, and taking towers when it is safe to do so. Your number one priority in this phase of the game is to have your hex around 20 (+/- 5) min so that you can become a HUGE asset to your team.
Late Game
In the later stages of the game you need to drop towers with your team and take down heroes in fights. You are a great DPS hero and you need to pick apart the other teams supporting line before you are free to fight their carries (hopefully 3 vs 4/5). Of course if there is a carry getting stun locked be sure to kill it once you have breathing room.
Fights Themselves
Fights are by far the hardest things to get used to when playing Bone. You should come into the fight after the initial AOE has been thrown and pick off 1-2 support heroes while all their stuns are down. You can’t take too long to do this or your team will lose and you can’t start doing this to too soon or you will be focused out and die or be forced to run and heal off a creep. When the other team shifts their attention to you Wind Walk out of the fight and wait for a bit to pick off the other supports (just long enough for them to use their stuns). Hex should be cast on the carry if you plan on focusing him down with your team or on the most valuable support hero that they have (like an ES).
The Hex vs. Orchid Logic
Guinsoo
Hex
Disables attacks for 3.5s
Disables casting spells for 3.5s
Disables items for 3.5s
Reduces MS to 100 for 3.5s
Adds 10 str
Adds 10 agi
Adds 35 int
Adds 200% mana regeneration
Orchid
Soul Burn
Disables casting spells for 5s (dispelled by Manta, BKB)
20% magic damage amp
+45 damage
+ 30% IAS
+225% mana regeneration
+20 int
The delta:
Guinsoo
10str
10agi
15int
Orchid
35damage
20% ias
25% mana regen
650g
Pros and Cons of Hex vs. Soul burn
Hex will slow the target unless they have haste and will fully disable them
Orchid will silence the target but allow them to use any items, juke you easily, and run forcing you to lose dps chasing. This factor alone makes hex more effective than Orchid is for ganking and in team fights. Given that you have 3 farmer skills on Bone it should not be difficult to farm up a hex since a lot of things have to go wrong for you to die.
On top of its superior active hex also adds HP that Bone needs and a small amount of dps in the form of agility which closes the gap in damage between hex and orchid. Orchid has 35 more damage than hex as well as 20% more attack speed and if it’s any consolation it has 25% more mana regeneration which is almost totally irrelevant due to the regeneration on guinsoo acting on 15 more intelligence.
I have played Bone with a number of item builds and have found none of the other builds anywhere near as effective as a rushed Hex (I switched from an orchid build after getting many disappointing results). After your first item there are far fewer differences between Bone’s so it is up to your first item to determine how valuable you are in any given game. Hex never becomes a bad item throughout the entire game whereas orchid feels like a wasted slot and 5k of gold after 35 min(often earlier) when you realize that it is giving a very small increase to your dps and its active is not doing much at all.
FAQ
Bone CW Urna - a recent CW at 4:30am (some amusing moves made due to fatigue)
Hex bone
PDGG bone - A PDGG game, am drops rather early though
Clinkz the Bone FletcherAuthor: Kris
Map Vers.: 6.66
Hex Bone
Finaly a use for him again
Last Comment:16/01/2012
Total Votes: 61
Current Rating: 6.55
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