Jakiro the Twin Head Dragon
Foreword I have been posting/ranting a lot in strategy, and i decided that its time for me to write a guide myself so others can tell me how wrong i am for a change  I couldn't really decide, so i thought "Ok, I'm gonna write a guide for a hero that doesn't have a good one yet." First I thought of Alchemist, but there are a lot of ways to play Alch and I'm too lazy to cover them all. Second thought was THD. I browsed the published guides and what do ya know? There is no single published guide for THD on PlayDota. So THD it was. Recently I discovered that there actually is ONE guide in progress for THD, but I guess it can cope with some competition. |
Basic information about Jakiro the Twin Head Dragon (THD) Jakiro currently isn't used much, neither in competitive DotA nor in public games. That doesn't mean that he's a bad hero though. He is a fun hero to use, all his 3 active skills require some sort of aiming, positioning and timing for maximum effect. He is a very potent pusher and has loads of AoE-spells up his sleeve to create havoc in clashes. Unfortunately he has trouble with teams that focus on armor reduction, which are rather common these days... His teamfight-presence is easily countered by Blademails, Pipes and Hoods. Pros:
Cons:
Jakiros Role: To define his role, lets look what he is good at. That would be: 1. Pushing 2. Laning 3. Farming 4. Teamfights 5. Turtling 6. Ganking 1 being his strongest aspect, 6 being the weakest. Farming is pretty high up there, but mind you: THD is -NOT- a good carry. Look beneath to learn why. Your role should usually be a supportish one, which means: Do try to actively participate in ganks, clashes, pushes, be ready to defend, buy and place wards. Don't just free-farm a lane if there is other stuff to do, let your carry do that. Usually you should earn enough money for basic items by collateral creep-kills, towers, assists and hero-kills. Sometimes the team desperatly needs an item (Diffusal vs. Warlock or Omni for example) - if you have no natural wielder of said item in your team, it's your duty to farm it. the only thing THD should ever do alone is pushing a tower when he has the opportunity to do so safely. THD as a carry: THD has no scaling skills and no skills that require a lot of farm to be effective (like Pulse Nova or Exorcism for example). Good farming skills alone do not define a role, you also need some form of carrying ability. However, with his great stat-gain, a farmed THD is certainly more scary than a farmed Lion or CM. I just want to make clear that he will never be anything more than a weak-sauce excuse for a semi-carry, roughly a little weaker than a farmed Warlock (who is superior mostly due to his higher range and base-damage). IF you choose or need to be a carry, you should always be in the front lines, tanking, attacking and spamming dual Breath. Thats basically what carrying with THD boils down to, getting more farm and being able to be more aggressive. This guide doesn't really propose a carrying playstyle, but that doesn't mean you cannot use what you learned here to carry with THD  Hero Stats: Strength: 24 + 2.3 Agility:10 + 1.2 Intelligence: 28 + 2.8 Damage: 42 - 54 Armor: 2.4 Movespeed: 290 Attack Range: 400 Note: When playing Jakiro you may feel like sailing. He looks like he turns around slowly, you can moonwalk and shoot out of his ass! This however does not affect gameplay, it's only the animation screwing with you. THD has the most common turn rate of 4.0, which also happens to be the lowest (=fastest) among heroes. |
Skills  Dual Breath Your AoE nuke. it deals instant damage x2, as well as damage over time and slows in a cone-shaped AoE for 4 seconds. Pretty spammable considering Jakiros high intelligence and the OK manacost. One of the best non-ultimate nukes in the game. Level 1: 35 damage per breath, 5 damage per second. 110 total. Level 2: 70 damage per breath, 10 damage per second. 180 total. Level 3: 105 damage per breath, 15 damage per second. 270 total. Level 4: 140 damage per breath, 20 damage per second. 360 total. Manacost: 135/140/155/170 Cooldown: 10 seconds Casting Range: 500 • Dual Breath has a 200 starting AoE and 250 final AoE. • Damage type: magical • The slow lasts for 4 seconds and it slows for 30% movespeed and 20% IAS. • Has a 0.4 second interval between each breath. Some - more or less - useful facts:
Usage: During laning, use it to harrass. Try to either hit 2 heroes with it or to get 1+ lasthit while harrassing. Also try to use the attached slow to get in a hit or two if you have creep advantage. Remember that the effective range is bigger than the spell's casting range, so dont put yourself in danger by getting closer to the creepwave than you must. Dual Breath annihilates creepwaves fast, be it for farming, pushing, defending. Full HP ranged creeps die from it. When ganks and teamfights are happening, use it to nuke/slow, preferably against more than 1 target. Proritize offensive usage over defensive usage, you dont wanna waste it's damage on someone you have no chance to kill. If you're in range, you should try to start with Dual Breath so you have an easier time hitting Ice Path. However, if you're not sure or your enemy has an escape mech, start with Ice Path and follow up with Dual Breath. In your "Big Combo" Dual Breath should be the second step.  Ice Path Your AoE-disable. Creates a line of ice, which explodes after 0.5 seconds. Doesn't deal any damage and is a bit tricky to land. Level 1: 1.0 seconds disable. Level 2: 1.33 seconds disable. Level 3: 1.66 seconds disable. Level 4: 2.0 seconds disable. Manacost: 75 Cooldown: 16/15/14/13 seconds Casting Range: 1100 • AoE: 175 • Frozen units by Ice Path are completly disabled, same properties as Stun. Usage: During laning, only use it when going for a kill or when the disabled hero would take damage from creeps or a tower. In ganks/teamfights, generally try to give Ice Path defensive priority. It's easier to predict the movement of a chaser than to predict the movement of a runner, besides it doesnt deal any damage. Remember the delayed cast, try to aim it where the target will be in 0.5 seconds. Ice Path is most effective (and easiest to land) in narrow passages. In your "Big Combo", Icepath should be the last step.  Liquid Fire Your passive ability. Every X seconds (depending on the skill's level), Jakiros regular attack deals damage over time and slows attack speed in a small AoE. Excellent for pushing. Lasts 5 seconds. Level 1: 10 damage per second, 20% attack speed reduction. 50 total. Level 2: 15 damage per second, 30% attack speed reduction. 75 total. Level 3: 20 damage per second, 40% attack speed reduction. 100 total. Level 4: 25 damage per second, 50% attack speed reduction. 125 total. Cooldown: 20/15/10/5 seconds • 175 AoE • Damage type: magical • This ability works on units and buildings. • If used on an enemy tower, it will slow the tower's attacks. Usage: Watch your hero. Whenever an orange orb starts to swirl around Jakiro, your next physical attack will release Liquid Fire. You can also count seconds to know when it will be ready again. Try to use it for harrassing whenever possible. dont force it though, Jakiro is very succeptible to creep aggro due to his non-existant armor. remember that it slows attackspeed, hitting a hero that is currently attacking something might save a life. Also remember that it has a small AoE, sometimes its possible to hit multiple targets with it. The most important part of Liquid Fire however, is that it works on towers. Whenever you get the opportunity to hit a tower with it, do it. not only does it damage the tower, the tower will also attack slower, hence creeps will be able to attack it longer. Once maxed, its CD is the same as its duration, meaning you can push towers very fast because they will always attack in slow-mo. Liquid Fire isn't really significant for your "Big Combo".  Macropyre Your ultimate. It's an AoE-nuke that deals significant damage over 5 seconds. Jakiro creates a line of flame-strikes in front of him. the problem with this is: it takes a while to actually happen after casting, and it's pretty hard to get the maximum damage out of it, since noone is just gonna stand in Macropyre for 5 seconds. It is however a good tool fuck up your opponents positioning, and works very well with AoE disables. Low cooldown, rather high manacost. Level 1: Creates 4 Flamestrikes, which deal 75 (*125) damage per second. 375 (*625) total. Level 2: Creates 5 Flamestrikes, which deal 125 (*175) damage per second. 625 (*875) total. Level 3: Creates 6 Flamestrikes, which deal 175 (*225) damage per second. 875 (*1125) total. Manacost: 220/330/440 Cooldown: 60 seconds Casting Range: 550/700/850 • AoE: 400 x 600/750/900 • Damage type: magical • Macropyre destroys all trees in the path of fire. • Macropyre has a 0.1 (0.05*) second interval between each Flame Strike. • Can be improved by Aghanim's Scepter (* shows the improved values) • Standing in 2 overlapping Flamestrikes does not increase damage taken. Usage: A tricky spell. Like all of THDs spells, most effective when your enemies are clumped up. This spells CD is rather short, however you still shouldn't use it too liberatly due to its high manacost and the fact that its plain not worth it in many situations. In ganks its rarely worth it because ppl are constantly moving, so they probably won't stand in it for long. For this spell to be effective, you need to be sneaky and read the battle. Where are your opponents gonna move? They're heading for a narrow passage and can't see you? Use it. You have an Initiator? Get in position and use it as soon as he initated the battle. This is the first step in your "Big Combo". Follow immediately with Dual Breath to make sure they wont walk out of it right away. follow with Ice Path to catch runners. Note that this is not always the way to go, in fact Macropyre followed by a well-aimed Ice Path (which multiple enemies while they are still standing in Macropyre) and Dual Breath as a last step gives potentially better results, the problem is: Ice Path has 1 sec delay before it takes effect, sadly this is enough time to run out of Macropyre. Besides its hard to hit multiple opponents with it. Again, read the battle, try to predict what will happen. |
Skillbuild Level 1: Dual Breath Level 2: Ice Path Level 3: Dual Breath Level 4: Liquid Fire Level 5: Dual Breath Level 6: Liquid Fire Level 7: Dual Breath Level 8: Liquid Fire Level 9: Liquid Fire Level 10: Macropyre Level 11: Macropyre Level 12:Ice Path Level 13: Ice Path Level 14: Ice Path Level 15: Stats Level 16: Macropyre Levels 17-25: Statsstatsstats... Justification: Dual Breath is ALWAYS maxed first. It's your best skill, its a strong AoE nuke, it slows. Nuff said. Icepath vs. Liquid Fire: Liquid Fire is a superb pushing skill and doesn't even cost mana. If your team is running a push-strat this spell along with dual breath is gonna help a lot, the fact that it damages and slows tower attacks is invaluable. The first level of Ice Path disables a full second compared to 2 seconds with Ice Path maxed, thats why i threw a level in there. I consider this skill-build fairly balanced, you can ofc screw this proposed skill-build and do whatever the fuck you want. I'm serious, both skills have their uses, the one shines in pushing/farming, the other in ganking/clashes. Macropyre has a pretty high manacost and little effect on lower levels, especially when you take into consideration that its best used in big clashes, which will not occurr at early stages of the game. After the buffs of 6.65, it isn't completely retarded to get it at 6, i still wouldn't advise it though. Adapt, if you somehow have too much mana (*cough* Maiden *cough*) or you can make good use of it for some reason (e.g. multiple enemies trying to get a tower early) feel free to level it earlier. Note: Skill- or item builds are not set in stone. Except for Dual Breath. Dual Breath is ALWAYS (!!!) maxed first. Adapt to the game. |
Itembuild I already mentioned THD isn't item-dependant. Hence it doesn't really matter what you get. Get whatever your team needs. That being said, i still want to give you a general guideline, because even if you think your team needs a Battlefury, it probably doesn't. At least not on you. Starting items:  or ,    Jakiro is most likely gonna be the designated support hero, so you will probably buy chicken or wards. the branches will be turned into wand later, and basic regen is self-explicable. In case you don't have to buy chicken or wards, just get a gauntlet for urn. Core:       optionalSeems very cheap for a core, right? Well it is. You really dont necessarily NEED more for your hero to work. which is one of the reasons why you will most likely spend a good deal of your cash on wards. The obligatory wand for some cheap stats and its awesome active and the newly introduced Urn of Shadows. This item is the shit on pretty much every support hero, Jakiro is no exception. Manaregen, HP, and its active ability make it a worthwhile investment. Bottle is optional, only get it if you're soloing mid, ganking a lot or don't have any good bottle-carriers in your team. "Bottle-crowing" (using a crow to constantly refill your botte at the fountain) is a very cost-effective way to keep spamming Dual Breath during laning. Basilius is optional as well, get it when you really have trouble with physical damage and arent aiming for mek, or when youre aiming for vlads anyway. Possible extensions:           Just because you don't NEED more doesn't mean you can't GET more. THD is a great farmer and will get some cash.
Note: ONE meka/vlads/pipe is really enough for a team, so ask your allies if they intend to buy one. Possible luxuries:      So you had to steal all that farm from your carry, didn't you? Or you just killstealed like mad? Alright, no worries, still lots of items you can get.
Note: Even though THD is a great support hero by nature, he also happens to be a beastly farmer. This makes it perfectly viable to rush one of those luxury items on him. A fast guinsoo for example is always welcome. Just dont steal farm from heroes that need it more than you do. |
Gameplay: Laning: Usually you shouldn't solo THD. he can do it np, but he doesn't really need the money and experience. He will, however, most likely be able to push the tower in no time. Jakiro shines in offensive lanes. He can make for some nasty dual-lane with Clockwerk, Juggernaut, Sand King, Sven, stuff like that. Especially clockwerk works great, creeps die so battery is more effective, enemies get slowed so he can reach them. You should usually be the one intiating due to Dual Breaths huge range, then wait for your ally to make his move and follow with Ice Path. Jakiro is a very strong laner, i advise you to take advantage of that and not leave your lanepartner alone to solo-gank when there is no need for it, let alone roam. Use Dual Breath rather liberately for harrass, but save mana to go for a kill with your ally if a good situation arises. Try to get at least one creep when harrassing a hero, or even better harrass both heroes with one breath. don't walk up to them like an idiot though, stay rather close to the creepwave and breath them when theyre moving in for a lasthit. That's pretty easy considering its huge range. Use the slow of dual breath to get some extra attacks in for harrass. Be careful with creep aggro, you only have 400 range and mediocre animation. Due to your low armor you might end up taking more damage from creeps than you dealt to your enemy with your attack. In case you're trying to push towers fast there are other good lanepartners, like Pugna or Pit for example. Liquid Fire combined with creep advantage will get towers down in no time. Ganking: THD is a fairly decent ganker if you know how to aim your stuff. Dont forget that your spells are AoE, you can easily hit 2 targets with Dual Breath, same goes for a well aimed Ice Path. Usually you'd want an ally to start the gank with a stun so you can chain Ice Path, if thats not possible try to start with Dual Breath so its easier to land Ice Path. Both Ice Path and Dual Breath have decent range, keep that in mind. You dont have to put yourself in too much danger to use them effectively. Use Macropyre when you're sure the target is gonna be disabled for some time and actually takes some damage, if the enemy hero isn't very tanky it's usually a waste against a single target. Pushing: Quite simple. Use Dual Breath to clear creeps, and always try to get Liquid Fire off on the tower, ideally on both the tower and the creepwave. Pushing is one of the few things THD can do completely on his own, a bit like Brood - just be more careful, you can't spin a web! If the tower is going to die and your opponents are getting ready to deny, you can use Ice Path to keep them from doing so and gtfo. Alternatively you can blow out Macropyre and Dual Breath afterwards and go for a kill or two, depending on the situation. Teamfights: Don't initiate with Macropyre, at least not like your regular initiator (Tide/ES/SK/etc.). Try to read the battle. Do you have an allied AoE disabler? Drop Macropyre where he catched some, dual breath them and extend the disable with Ice Path. You do not have an allied AoE disabler? Well that blows. Jakiro really likes those. No worries though, you're still far from useless. Battles usually aren't stationary, try to foresee in which direction 2+ enemy heroes that are close to each other will move (works great if they are focusing one of your allies), and drop Macropyre there, dual breath before or after, dependant on the situation. Ice Path generally should be used after macropyre, if you cast Ice Path and Macropyre afterwards they will barely stand one second in it. Since 6.65 that isn't such a big deal anymore though. Another good trick is to cast macropyre from fog and/or on narrow passages. Fights at roshan for example are great, there's little space and people have to stand in it. Same goes for fights at the base entries. Try to get off Liquid Fire on carries to slow their attackspeed if possible, although that isn't as important as timing/aiming your spells correctly. Warding: This is an essential part of playing support in an organized game. However, its basically the same for every hero, you will not need to do it when playing public games and theres a very good guide that covers all the basics about warding on PD. Hence, im just gonna give you a link to this guide: Click HERE to visit Eumellein's Wardposition guide. |
Good allies  Vacuum is the perfect setup for every single spell of yours. He's also a good pusher. Reverse Polarity is the perfect setup for every single spell of yours, and lasts long enough for Macropyre to deal some damage. starting to see a pattern here? Again, blackhole is awesome for Macropyre. Nigma also happens to be a strong pusher. ...Again, his ultimate + your ultimate = ouch. AND he can provide you with armor. He can also turn you both invisible for sneaky buttsecks This hero greatly aids you in landing your ultimate because..? Right! He permabashes them so they cant move out of it! Ravage doesn't last very long, but it will ALWAYS go off no matter what, unlike the other ones, and gives you an easy time setting up Ice Path. Also decent lanepartner for THD. Amazing lane synergy. If he manages to cog a key hero in clashes, you can burn it, freeze it, etc.! Well placed cogs can also block in a way that makes it hard for your opponent to avoid macropyre. good lane-synergy. In clashes, you get rid of the creeps and he gets rid of the heroes! healing ward also helps keeping pushes up. Towerkiller-duo. All your spells get amped by Decrepify. Another amazing pusher. Wards AND Macropyre really dont give your opponent much room. Amazing lane-synergy. AoE disable, AoE slow. Pusher. and he is gonna love you for your RoB  will push one lane while you and your other allies will push another one! brood also means that there is gonna be a vlads in the team, which means some armor! Good lane-synergy, and he really profits from your slow/disable. Warcry gives armor! He grips, you burn. its just one target, but its long. Plus Macropyre also lets your opponents think twice before they aid their ally. THD also happens to cover Bane's weakness, which would be 0 (zero) AoE spells. Similar to Bane. he catches someone, you burn him. sticky napalm makes hitting your stuff a lot easier as well. You like the new guy, Dual Breath makes sure Cold Feet kicks in, and once it kicked in you can burn burn burn. Ice Vortex amps all your spells and the slow helps as well. Add his ultimate and your enemies will shatter one by one.Long story short: heroes with (AoE) disables and pushers are THDs best friends. Armor buffs are very welcome too. |
Bad enemies  -Armor. Do not like. Physical damage nuke. Don't let him get to Blink/BKB, you will regret it. -Armor. Do not like. Especially that early in the game. Swap can screw you positioning badly. Good DPS, -armor, has no problem at fending of pushes, will get his BKB eventually no matter how often he dies. Silence + good dps = sad THD Fucks up every combo. Heals the towers you are trying to burn down. What a jerk. Silence + decent DPS = sad THD. silence + decent dps = sad THD. He just doesn't care about your nukes once he got some defensive item. hes fast so hitting him with Ice Path is hard, Quills deal physical damage. Also hits pretty hard. Can deal with creeps easily, slow but steady physical DPS. Steals your mana! Like BB she won't really care when standing in Macropyre. Wards hurt you a lot, and you can't harm them with spells. Strong DPS, physical DoT, AoE nuke to fend of pushes, fast, probably tanking up, possibly even getting a Blademail. he just doesn't like you. Magic immunity, invulnerability while dealing massive physical damage - in short, keep away from him unless his stuff is on CD. His name says it all. Although he does actually have a weakness against disabling casters, you're not much of a problem for him. He's fast and has Blink, so Ice Path becomes very unreliable. Manabreak deals physical damage, and his Ult is really effective against heroes with such a huge manapool.To sum it up: mobile heroes, heroes that deal physical damage and heroes that keep THD from casting spells are his worst enemies. They also have to survive the early-mid-game though, if you stand in front of their base within 20 minutes they wont be a big problem. |
Replays -more coming soon (if you got a good replay feel free to PM me!)- Note: To watch the replay, simply click on it (e.g. "Dendi on THD -Pushing to the max") Dendi on THD - Pushing to the max Date: 09/02/2010 05:15 Patch version: 1.24 Map: DotA Allstars 6.65 Game mode: -cm Game length: 29:57 Sentinel:  [B]Fear!SGATE, level 11 (Bot), items:       , APM: 90 Abby, level 10 (Top), items:     , APM: 108 [_]not_DJRASTA, level 8 (Top), items:    , APM: 69 EG.Azen, level 12 (Bot), items:    , APM: 93 Tribal.Mitch, level 12 (Mid), items:     , APM: 80Scourge:  DTS|Dendi^, level 14 (Mid), items:   , APM: 96 Tribal.Lacoste_, level 14 (Top), items:  , APM: 126 DTS|ArtStyle-, level 13 (Jungle), items:    , APM: 100 [_]LinKy, level 14 (Bot), items:  , APM: 88 Srdl, level 13 (Bot), items:   , APM: 98THD in the hands of a professional. Really shows how well this hero fits into a pushing line-up with early Liquid Fire. Short game, nicely executed push-strat. Unfortunately rather one-sided. Also: do not watch this to improve your Ice Path usage, game ends after he uses it like 2-3 times  . |
Credits Thanks to The Other Guy for providing that awesome dragon-picture and the Dendi-replay, frenzyman for explaining Dual Breath's Mechanics and providing a picture of its AoE, Eumellein for writing his great wardpositioning guide (thus saving me some work ) and all others who helped me improve this guide with constructive criticism. |
Jakiro the Twin Head DragonAuthor: kawumm
Map Vers.: 6.67c
The Twin Head Dragon
Freeze and burn at the same time!
Last Comment:25/01/2012
Total Votes: 136
Current Rating: 8.71
Views: 312971
