legod's crazy(fun) way to abbadon (PROS ONLY)

BTW: The comments for this guide are very entertaining and interesting to read. i realise a lot of people on this forum take dota very seriously and base their self-esteem on their dota playing skills. watch how this guide gets on their nerves! also, i don't understand how this guide is difficult to read and needs reformatting.


introductory ramble
this guide is for pros only, honestly, only pro people like me can pull it off. if you're not very good at dota, you should stick to the "competitive" guide to abbadon. if you're noob, eg you dont know how to use armlet with dragon knight, then you won't be able to properly use the playstyle outlined by this guide. the kind of playstyle i will be introducing requires very good decision making which at least 90% of all dota players lack. whether you're 10% or 90%, you can still read the guide though any comments the noobs make will be ignored.

okay actually even if you're not pro, you can become pro. i was crap with clockwork when i first started playing him but now i rapeface with him. anyway, guides are meant to teach, so hopefully this guide will teach you to become pro. if you can pull off this playstyle regularly against decent players...YOU ARE PRO!!!!11!! but until you become pro, you need to keep playing and not blame this guide for failing.

there isn't anything revolutionary about this guide. its just a way to play abbadon as a physical damage dealer with mask of madness but since there isn't a guide teaching you how to play abbadon with mask of madness, i decided to write this guide, primarily for fun. mask of madness abbadon is not an easy way to play abbadon.

but its a viable and extremely fun way to play. i dont play competitive, doesn't mean im not good. you need to watch the replay to judge the standard of play i base this guide on. the replay isn't "competitive" standard but there are many decent players in the replays.




okay. on to why MOM abbadon is a very good way to play abbadon

1. mask of madness is only viable on heroes which can circumvent the 30% extra damage taken. if you can do that, it is a very powerful item. heroes such as void (due to chrono), slark (during invis), treant (overgrowth+highhp) are examples where the extra 30% damage taken is circumvented due to the hero's skills. with borrowed time, abbadon can not only ignore 30% damage taken for 3 seconds, the extra damage taken also heals him much faster. also, since you ARE going to rely on borrowed time to heal you, you don't mind taking the extra damage because it doesn't matter since you're going to heal up anyway. TO DO THIS HOWEVER, YOU NEED TO LEARN WHEN TO ACTIVATE BORROWED TIME and not wait for your ult to passively trigger. see thats why i told you only pros can do this build

2. 20% increased ms, + frostmourne 105 increased ms, + opponent -20% ms. no one can run out of your range. your only weakness is disables...however...

3. you have aphotic shield to debuff. aphotic shield doesn't work against stunners since you cant shield yourself when you're stunned. but against slows, ensnare, movement disables, aphotic shield will take away that crap and let you pound that motherfather to the ground. again, you need to be pro and composed enough to cast aphotic shield as soon as the opponent slows/ensnares you. See what i mean by, you need to be pro to pull this build off?


4. frostmourne + mask of madness = steroid attackspeed. YOU ATTACK FASTER THAN CLINKZ!

5. if you play support abbadon, lategame you will suck like hell. playing abbadon as a full support, you will shine in midgame and then completely suck after that plus no one is going to bother to hit you and your borrowed time. with mask of madness abbadon, you're going to be able to deal some damage, have a greater impact lategame, and make better use of borrowed time.

6. you don't need to go support build to use your spells effectively. you can play your role as a healer/debuffer fairly well even when going mask of madness abbadon has a very good intgain, his main spell will be deathcoil which is only 75 mana, because aphotic shield has a really shitty casting range. you'll be using a lot of deathcoils but not a lot of aphotic shield. with a magic wand, you're pretty much set for most of the game. this is through personal experience x lots of times.

7. it is far more fun to play mask-of-madness abbadon than any other shitty way of playing him. this is damn important.

i don't expect anyone to be convinced by the first 6 reasons, but if you're not a retard you'll fully agree with the last reason. so read on!!





So here's the
Skillbuild

its going to be controversial, you need to read the fuck on.

level 1:aphotic shield
level 2:deathcoil/frostmourne
level 3:deathcoil
level 4:frostmourne
level 5:deathcoil
level 6:borrowed time
level 7:deathcoil
level 8:frostmourne
level 9:frostmourne
level 10:frostmourne
level 11:borrowedtime
level 12:aphoticshield
level 13:aphoticshield
level 14:aphotic shield
level 15:stats
level 16:borrowed time
level 17 and beyond: stats

okay why do i leave aphotic shield late.

1. aphotic shield scales poorly. 1point in aphotic shield is 110hp + debuff. 4 pts in aphotic shield only adds 90hp and improves your cooldown somewhat. furthermore aphotic shield has a shitty 300 casting range so you just won't get to use it that much. you try to save your teamate with aphotic shield, you risk dying since you need to go so close to cast it. death coil is far, far, far more useful/practical and putting 3 more pts in aphotic shield simply doesn't make much of a difference.

2. for maskofmadness abbadon to work, you need frostmourne, and you need to get both early-mid. w/o early max frostmourne, your mom abbadon just isn't effective.


given alll the bloody explanations a lot of retards will still disagree so look at the replay and see how many times the additional 3 pts in aphotic shield would have been better than 3 pts in frostmourne and then come back and tell me.





the essence of mask-of-madness abbadon
1. dun activate mask of madness with wild abandon. you need to read the situation carefully. when in doubt, activate mask of madness later than earlier or even never. this cannot really be explained, you need to be pro enough, a good enough decision maker, to know when activating mask of madness is the correct move. most people suck at decision making so...this really isn't for them. watch the replays and maybe it can teach you why i don't activate mom a certain time and why i do. maybe it might help, maybe not.

2. usually, you can safely activate mom when you're clearing up your opponents, when you're sure that you have the upperhand. this is evidenced very clearly in the replays.

3. when there's a big fight, and you expect to get lots of damage, as you activate mom prepare to activate borrowed time as well. the two go along with each other and are very important.

4. here's a common scenario. you're sure that you have the upperhand, you run in, use mask of madness and pound the crap out of that asshole. if he tries anything funny, like ensnare or poison touch, use aphotic shield asap and continue pounding him. watch his life, once it goes below 150+ finish him off with your deathcoil.

5. its still your responsibility to deathcoil/heal your teamates. an abbadon with mask of madness dealing physical damage is weak. an abbadon with mom dealing physical damage, saving teamates with aphotic shields and deathcoils, is a fucking pain in the ass.

6. ADAPT. if your earlygame sucked, the opponents have too many powerful earlygame heroes, don't be an idiot and still buy mom. get a vanguard first, then mask of madness. I did this in the replay abbadon1 and i still managed to do decently with mom abbadon, but only b/c i got a vanguard first. however, most people are incapable of this, so...as i said, only pros should try this way of playing.

7. although i said activating mom later than earlier is better, you need to have some balls and brains to really play mask of madness abbadon effectively. there are many situations where you can go in and kill those stragglers with red hp when you don't have your team supporting you and do so successfully due to borrowed time. you need to be aware of stuff like do they have disables, are their spells on cd, can i kill them before their spell is on cd etcetra. it is not uncommon that after a big fight( or a small skirmish), you dive into 3 enemy heroes with red hp, kill two of them and escape with a sliver of your life due to borrowed time.



item build
1. starting items: my favourite is magic stick + 2 tangoes + 1 healing salve, but depending on the lineup and who i face in lane, i may opt to go for a quelling blade, stout shield, ring of health. actually this is a useless section b/c if you're pro, you don't need it and if you're not pro, you will suck with this guide.

2. if things don't go too outofhand/awry, get a BOOTS and Mask of Madness ASAP. this should be around level 8/9 if you're not doin very well. if things SUCK and you know you need more survivability, PLEASE GET THE VANGUARD.

3. after MOM, you really need to see what the game requires you to do. possible items include armlet, radiance, phase boots, boots of travel, mkb, heart of tarrasque, vanguard, sny. personally i think radiance is very powerful if you can get it, but armlet is the more practical option.

4. discussion on boots upgrade: treads is such a great item, but thing is, abbadon has retarded attackspeed with mom and frostmourne so its not really ncessary. phase boots is pretty cool because abbadon is freaking fat and will get blocked by creeps whilst chasing sometimes so the phase and extra damage might be helpful/ I HAVE NEVER TRIED PHASE BOOTS ON ABBADON BEFORE. boots of travel is a beautiful thing when you need it. imo, its okay to just leave abbadon with a naked boots

5. wards. get them. get them on every hero. get them whether you're pa or sa or centaur. get them if your teamates dont get them and get them if your teamates get them get them if you play pubs, get them if you play competitive. get them if you're owning, get them if you're losing. get them if you have lanaya/na/treant, get them if you dont. if you don't get them, the competitive players who make up 90% of the forum will tell you that you are nothing but a pubber who sucks at dota. im a pubber who rocks at dota so i nvr get them. its up to you b/c whether you ward or not has little strategic value with specific regard to mask of madness abbadon. (yes ofcourse it helps in ganking/mapcontrol, it helps for every hero)




Game Walkthrough

don't start out with stupid starting items. quellin blade +12 tangoes is not bad but there may be better choices. if your opponents don't suck, from levels 1 to 7, your main source of kills will be when they try to kill you and your teamates. THEY WILL BE SHOCKED because deathcoil+aphotic shield slams a nice 300~+ hp bonus. the delicious 6 second cooldown may surprise your opponents since you can, given sufficient mana, cast THREE DEATHCOILS within 12 seconds which may allow you to take them by surprise although you probably need a disabler lanepartner to achieve that.mostly you wont be able to get any kills and your job is to ensure you and your lanemate don't die. at this point see whether goin for MOM or survivability items like vanguard is the better choice.

your priority is to farm boots+maskofmadness so keep at it. once you get it, see which enemy heroes you can go and try to kill. then kill them. there isn't much to say, go for kills/ganks when the opportunity arises, if they don't, farm. never, ever, try to force a kill though most retards will do it anyway. i do it occasionally when i'm in retard mode but most of the time im cooler than that. since you're playing physicaldmg-build, you CANNOT afford to die too many times. you can if you're casterbuild cause you're going to be useless lategame anyway so no one cares, but if you're physical dmg, you need to minimize deaths to get those deadly items.

after the midgame phase, decide which items you need to buy and just play the damn game however you want to play.





Lern2use your skills properly

lets move on to the specifics and subtleties of each skill abbadon possesses.


Death Coil

* Ability Type: Active
* Targeting Type: Unit
* Ability Hotkey: D

Abaddon releases a coil of death that can damage an enemy unit or heal a friendly unit at the cost of some of Abaddon's health.


* Level
* Mana Cost
* Cooldown
* Casting range
* Area of Effect
* Duration
* Allowed Targets
* Effects

* 1
* 75
* 6 seconds
* 800
* N/A
* N/A
* Allied or Enemy Unit
* Heals or Damages for 100 HP. Deals 50 HP to himself.

* 2
* 75
* 6 seconds
* 800
* N/A
* N/A
* Allied or Enemy Unit
* Heals or Damages for 150 HP. Deals 75 HP to himself.

* 3
* 75
* 6 seconds
* 800
* N/A
* N/A
* Allied or Enemy Unit
* Heals or Damages for 200 HP. Deals 100 HP to himself

* 4
* 75
* 6 seconds
* 800
* N/A
* N/A
* Allied or Enemy Unit
* Heals or Damages for 250 HP. Deals 125 HP to himself

Notes

• Damage type: magic (on the target) / pure (on Abaddon)
• Abaddon will not receive Death Coil's damage if he has magic immunity when he casts it.
• Self-damage from Death Coil can burst Aphotic Shield just as any other kind of damage.
• Abaddon can deny himself with this skill.


sigh, im so lousy with this html shit. let me do it manuall then. see the effort i put into this guide?

wait, let me just jip off the other abbadon guide. I am soooooooo sorry vindicate, but i dontbelieve in copyright but thank you all the same. i'm a cunt for ripping off your work but you're a bigger cunt if you rage over me for it. i apologize again.



Death Coil

Abaddon releases a coil of death that can damage an enemy unit or heal a friendly unit at the cost of some of Abaddon's health.

Mechanics:

* Mana Cost: 75
* Allowable Targets: Allies and Enemy (No Mechanical Units)
* Damage: 100/150/200/250 (Enemy), 50/75/100/125 (Self)
* Damage Type: Magical (Enemy), Pure (Self)
* Casting Range: 800
* Cooldown: 6

Note!

1. Cooldown is 6 seconds means you can often cast it twice, or even thrice, i shit you not. the casting range is beautiful, allowing you to save/help teamates far away or finish off those noobs who got pwned by your mom abbadon with a green aplomb!

2. you can deny yourself but most of the time im not pro enough to do it, when im dying i just panic and die.

3. mana cost is very cheap, which is why i say you don't need too many mana items to spam your spells. a wand is enough.




Aphotic Shield

Mechanics:

* Mana Cost: 85/95/105/115
* Allowable Targets: Allies, Self, Mechanical Units
* Damage: 110/140/170/200 (Enemy)
* Damage Type: Magical (Enemy)
* Casting Range: 300
* Duration: 15 (Non-stackable)
* Area of Effect: 700
* Cooldown: 18/15/12/9
* Blocks every type of damage, include pure
* Blocks up to 200HP, any excess damage is reduced by your HP.

Note!

1. casting range is shit, 300 is like, almost melee but not quite. take this into account when playing.

2. don't cast it straight away if you know you can debuff a spell. for instance, if you lane against naga and sven and sven throws stormbolt, dont shield straightaway. wait for naga to ensnare, then aphotic shield.

3. deathcoil does damage to yourself, so it will break shield. this may or may not be a good thing. when you're killing people, its good. when people are killing you, its not good.

4. you can use it for farming/harassing purposes. like, cast it on a creep which is getting damaged and watch the shield explode green shards of slime onto the creeps and enemy heroes. or, just cast it so you don't take an abysmal amount of damage when you're going in for the last hit due to noob ranged heroes like huskar and clinkz


Frostmourne

Mechanics:

* Passive, Buff Placer
* +10% MS, +10/20/30/40 AS (Self, Allies*)
* -5/10/15/20% MS, -?/?/?/? AS
* Duration: 4.5 seconds (Self) 2 seconds (Enemy)
* Buff is placed before the actual attack
* *Allies who are attacking the same unit as Avernus

Note!

1. the duration on the enemy is only 2 seconds. deathcoil, aphotic shield, and borrowed time upon casting will make you "pause" for like 0.5 seconds and this window can easily let your opponent slip through your sword. just take note of that and do what you must.

2. i suppose that rather than choosing whoever you want to hit, you can follow who your allies are hitting in order to give them the frostmourne buff as well. i haven't have had the need to have to choose between hitting who i want and who my allies are hitting but i thought it may give your team the edge in a very tight game.

Borrowed time

Mechanics:

* Activates when you suffer damage while being under 400 HP
* Can be casted Manually
* Duration: 3(5)/4(6)/5(7)
* Cooldown: 60 seconds
* Can be upgraded with Aghanim Scepter, improved value shown in brackets.
* If Avernus receives 100 dmg after reduction, he first heals 200 HP, then receives 100 dmg
* Amount heals base on the damage taken after reduction
* Removes most negative buff, and dodges projectiles upon activation.

Note!

1. Don't let this skill passively activate. always activate it yourself. activate it when the enemies are smashing you hard, or when you just feel like it. basically, try to surprise them when you activate it so you heal more. my recommendation is activate it when you have around 50~70% hp.

2. It removes negative buffs so thats very sexy. i've never taken note of this part of the skill so you have to...try it out yourself. probably if your aphotic shield is on cd and you need to getting rid of that irritating frosbite is essential, cast it and run away

3. try to take as much damage as possible when this skill is on. if your opponents refuse to hurt you, hurt yourself. activate armlet (-35hp/sec!, throw out deathcoil (125 damage to yourself!), run into towers, fountain, ask tiny to toss you (okay not very practical)








ok crap how do i add replays...???ok i think i got it


replays
abbadon1- this replay shows that im pro and am not retarded. earlygame i know the other team is whipping us so i get a vanguard first, and then mask of madness. even though MOM is delayed horribly late, like 35 minutes, its still not bad. note the shittiness of aphotic shield's cast range, and how i still spam abbadon's spells w/o nothing more than a magic....wand/stick whatever cant remember.

we lost this game cause my teamates let me down but its okay shit happens. this shows mom-abbadon isnt entirely useless when shit happens (i get mom at like 35 minutes), how to choose when to go in and kill those stragglers with red hp, knowing that your borrowed time will ensure your survival

abbadon2 - this is a very serious competitive replay between pub1. and pub2. abbadon is a monster here!! this replay proves that even against a strhero/ full of stuns lineup, MOM abbadon can still work. things are about even for the first 30 minutes because ursa has been sleeping/jungling but once he comes out regularly, the game becomes retarded cause we're owning the shit out of them so after 30 minutes maybe you don't want to watch the replay or you want to fastforward it. what is remarkable here is how i don't die. and if i don't die, it means i got lots of gold stacking up slowly.

see how i actively trigger borrowed time multiple times, how i hesitate triggering it when no one is hitting me, and how i survived a 4v1 with mom on precisely b/c i used borrowed time at the right...time. how i hesitate to engage until im sure (or until we're owning so much its boring). i liberally spam my spells to help my teamates, so i fulfill both my physdmg/chaser/supporter function w/o seriously compromising of either.

I apologize for the lack of replays showing aphotic shield-debuff. the first replay, only naix's slow could be debuffed and I...it slipped my mind to do it (maybe thats why we lost!). the second replay the team has no slows/movement disables, they are mostly stunners so aphotic shield-debuff cannot really come into play. we all hope for a replay that shows both sides fighting evenly with decent/good players, a nice mix of slows/stuns and stuff like that but games like that are an occasional occurence and i don't feel like playing abbadon 3 times in a row for a game like that.