"The difference-maker is the difference between our Intelligence"
A guide to Harbringer, Post-nerfs.
Written by: Kakampe
Contents:
Foreword
Harbringer
Skills information and strategy
The Skill Build
Items
Strategies & "the moves"
Friends and Foes
Replays
Changelogs
Foreword
-This is my first attempt on making a guide so please bear with me. This would also be my first post in this site.
-Readers are expected to know the basics of orb-walking..
-For better Harbringer-playing experience, I advise the use of warkeys..
-This guide is beneficial for pubbers and even for high-level of play..
-This guide is intended for people who would surely get the mid-lane..
-I expect to see Obsidian Destroyer more often in league games.
Harbringer
Background Story
An obsidian construct brought to life through the ill conceived necromancy of the Lich King, Harbinger craves magic to make up for the emptiness brought on by the incomplete nature of its summoning. Ironically however, to devour the magic that it so desires, Harbinger must tap into his own pool of mana time and time again, expending to the point where it ends up with even less than it began with. Yet despite this, the Obsidian Destroyer is a proud servant of the Undead Scourge, and takes great pleasure in annihilating the foolish Sentinels it encounters through psionic exploitation.
Stats:
19 + 1.85
15 + 1.4
26 + 2.8Advanced statistics:
* Attack Animation: 0.46 / 0.54
* Damage: 49 - 64
* Casting Animation: 0.25 / 0.51
* Armor: 4.1
* Base Attack Time: 1.7
* Movespeed: 300
* Missile Speed: 900
* Attack Range: 450
* Sight Range: 1800 / 800
Pros
[+] Destroys those freakin illusions, which can be seen often because of the Manta Style change, and summons in seconds
[+] Rarely pushes the lane while farming early-game
[+] One of the best carries, if not the best, in the game
[+] May render opponent in lane farmless or level-gapped
[+] Arcane orb deals pure damage(the + part)
[+] Very useful aura mid-lategame that teammates will certainly enjoy
[+] You can pick him every game you play because no one else would pick him
[+] His ultimate can reach up to 2000 dmg or more which is a real nuke
[+] Not a rune-whore so teammates in top or bottom can enjoy powerups
Cons
[-] Low Hp
[-] Almost has no use during team fight until mid-lategame
[-] Crappy range won't allow him to hide in the back during clashes
[-]Very item-dependent
[-] No proper disables
[-] Enemy would focus fire on you
[-] Can't use buffplacers or orb-effects
[-] Can't jungle properly
Comment: Your late-game depends on your early-game farming so FARM FARM FARM FARM FARMtastic.. and don't dive in team-fights.
SKILLS
ARCANE ORB
-Gives the Destroyer extra power to damage his enemies based on his remaining mana pool. Damage type is pure.
-Casting range: 450
-Damage type: pure
-The damage is calculated after the mana cost is spent.
-Does not stack with orb effects and buff placers.
-Mana Cost: 100
-Cooldown: 6/4/2/0 seconds
-Deals 6/7/8/9% of your current remaining mana. Deals 100/200/300/400 bonus damage to illusions and summoned units
Notes: Not worthy getting early game as to mana:damage as your mana pool is not that great and enemy does not have a lot of armor to fully utilize the pure damage. Get this in the middle parts of the game instead because this skill is more important than the ultimate. Do Not auto-cast until late game or you have a large mana pool already.
ASTRAL IMPRISONMENT
Teleports a target allied or enemy hero into an astral prison. The hero remains separated from the real world for the duration of the spell. If cast on an enemy, Harbinger steals intelligence from the target. Intelligence is restored to the hero after 60 seconds.
-Cast Range: 550
-Targets: Heroes
-When cast on an ally, no intelligence is stolen and vision is not removed.
-Imprisoned units are hidden and invulnerable, and lose their vision of the surrounding area.
-Mana: 120/140/160/180
-Cooldown: 18/16/14/12 seconds
-Duration: 1/2/3/4 second
-2/4/6/8 Int exchange
Notes: Your early-game bread and butter skill because it increases your damage, decreases the spell-casting capacity of your opponent, disrupts his last-hitting capacity, denies experience, and powers up your ulti. Notice that it was buffed instead of 20secs CD->12secs at level 4 so it is now more effective than it was before. Abuse this starting level 3. Learning how to use this is very important. Hide enemies before a creep dies or before you deny a creep so that enemy won't receive any experience.
ESSENCE AURA
Whenever a nearby allied hero casts a spell, it has a chance to restore 25% of its mana pool. Passively adds to the Destroyer's base mana pool.
-AoE: 1000
-When autocasting Arcane Orb, the chance to restore mana is reduced to 5%/10%/15%/20%.
-10/20/30/40% chance to restore. Increases base mana by 75/150/225/300.
Notes: This skill supports your mana-whore skills because it increases your base mana to restore lost ones.
SANITY ECLIPSE
The Obsidian Destroyer unleashes his full potential; his mind unleashes a psionic storm able to penetrate lesser minds with terminal force, dealing massive damage to them. More crafty minds are able to resist most of the damage, but they expend most of their energies to do so, losing 75% of their mana. Heroes with more intelligence than the Destroyer are unaffected.
-Targeting Type: Area
-Damage type: magical
-Does not affect units under the effect of Astral Imprisonment.
-If an enemy hero takes less than 80/270/500 damage (at levels 1/2/3), he will lose 75% of his current mana.
-Manacost: 175/250/325
-Cooldown: 160 seconds
-Casting Range: 600/650/700
-AoE: 400/500/600
-Deals damage equal to 8/9/10x the difference between heroes intelligence and Destroyer's intelligence.
Notes: Very powerful skill but very long cooldown so use this only if you will get a sure kill or you're in a clash. In high-levels of play, before using against only one opponent with a teammate with you, use this to last hit an enemy because you're the carry "who cares about KSing".
THE SKILL BUILD
1 Astral Imprisonment/Arcane Orb
2 Essence Aura
3 Astral Imprisonment
4 Essence Aura
5 Astral Imprisonment
6 Sanity Eclipse
7 Astral Imprisonment
8 Essence Aura/Arcane Orb/Astral Imprisonment
9 Essence Aura
10 Arcane Orb/Essence Aura
11-13 Arcane Orb
14 Stats/Sanity Eclipse
15 Sanity Eclipse/Stats
16 Sanity Eclipse
17-25 Stats
Explanation:
- Astral Imprisonment is acquired first to dodge one of those stuns in a triple-stun first blood attempts and because it is your laning skill.
- Arcane Orb is not very useful early game as you do not have a large mana pool and you don't have lots of mana readily available to harass your opponent with 100 mana 100-damage nukes but you can still get it if you want more harassing/killing power to add to your lots of int stolen from the enemy. You can also get this if the enemy uses illusions or summons. Always make it sure that your mana doesn't run out with the help of your chicken and clarities because you still need it to use your other skill which is more important. But don't get this at early game if you're sure that your lane opponent will surely get a Magic Bottle coz you'll just be wasting your mana on nothing.
- Essence aura early-game is important to support the mana-hog skill astral imprisonment.
- You should get Sanity Eclipse as soon as you reach level 6 to kill your very confident non-damaged enemy after a few Astrals.
- Get Arcane Orb usually level 10-14 because by then, you already have a lot of mana to spend and mana to restore. Use this to last-hit creeps and creeps.
- Max your ulti later to increase its AoE and have added effect against high-int-but-lower-than-yours enemies then stats all the way!
ITEMS
CORE
This are the CORE items you will need and you need to have it each game. In pubs you may not need the BKB sometimes but it is better to have one.
Explanation:
Why no Null Talismans?
It delays your other more important items and the stats they give are not that useful for the time you need it because you will get Power Treads first. And later in the game, you would surely sell them to replace with better items.
Buy Bottle because you'll go mid:
Bottle is a BIG waste of money and upgrading chicken is another one. You will not need mana from bottle and oftentimes your lane enemy will stroll around the map because he won't have any mana while laning with you.. Buy healing salves instead and let your courier deliver it to you if you think that you need healing items.
Why so Expensive?
You will need them so much and trust me "You will have your time farming for these items"!
Power Treads - This is pretty obvious because of the recent change and it is sort of a buff for Obsidian destroyer.
Usage: Always use the Str Version for extra HP if your team does not have wards but switch to Int right before you use your ult or Arcane Orb and switch back to Str again. It is easier done with the help of warkeys and very much convenient for your skill damage and mana. During Mid-Lategame it is ok and better to perma use the Int version of treads.
Power Treads: Str+10/Int+16... The MoveSpeed was buffed so Hooray! But IAS was taken away so you need to have an attack speed item later in the game if you do not want to Orb Walk forever.
Guinsoo - Since the Aghanims' indirect nerf on Harbringer, this item is the next best choice because it gives you the very very very important HEX and it has the highest +Int of all items now.
BKB - You'll need this to get out of ganks and in clashes where your teammates can be easily overpowered by AoE spells and you can be disabled, Stunned, Silenced, Etc.
Luxury Items
This thing Increases your damage and EHP as you now have a lot of HP with BKB for you to reach your full potential and the slow is always good for hunting down those lucky opponents.
Another cool item. This solves your AttackSpeed Problems and allows you to silence your opponents and adds up more Int. Its way too much expensive for what it does because you'll waste the mana regen, but that's why its called a luxury item.
Increased DPS=Murder. Hyperstone is a lot cheaper than Orchid Malevolence and adds more IAS and Cuirass benefits your team and you.
OTHER GOOD ITEMS BUT SITUATIONAL
Use this if you cant banish doom before he can doom you but anything else can be prevented by your BKB.
A Great item for Harbringer specially when your opponent has a dps hero because while in ghost mode obsidian can still use Arcane Orb via manual casting/Orb-Walking.. So you can still do the same amount of damage as when you're not in ghost form and with Physical Immunity for 4 secs.. This also adds needed stats. I find myself getting this a lot more often nowadays because teams now tend to turtle for their carry than gank.
Reminder: Don't mix it with Bkb.
If you feel like having a need to get an extra escape/self-disable item other than using your skill to let your other items CD then is it. It also adds Int and MS which is always good.
Solo mystic staffs can be more useful once you upgrade it to another item but having it solo after getting your Guinsoo and Shiva is ok if you don't have more important items to buy.
Arcane Orb is your most dependable arsenal but your ulti can be the deadliest so if your Int-against the Opponent's int's difference is very high, then this will be your Tide-turning-Clash-winner item.. Use of this has a very long cooldown though...
Reminder: If opponent has a lot of int, buy more int items instead of this
Adds a lot of Str for survivability and Int and its cheap.. Buy this if you get ganked a lot and can't buy expensive items on rush because if not, you'll just delay yourself from getting your core..
THE NOT SO GOOD TO REALLY NO GOOD ITEMS
Your Job is not to tank but to kill opponents.
Why get this if you already have your BKB and by the time your BKB ends, all substantial skill must have been fired and no opponents or just some with little life are left in the field most of the time.
Delays other items and would render the most important aspect of this item useless, the mana regen. Sure it does good to you maxHP and mana but other item does 2x better than this one and you should rush guinsoo.
Get Hyperstone and Ghost scepter instead of this because it is very expensive for its purpose of adding 60 IAS and 30 evasion and if you still have the money, upgrade your hyperstone to Assault Cuirass.
STRATEGIES AND MOVES
Early-Game Strats (Level 1-6):
-Block your creeps because a lot of the early-game story depends on whether you're uphill most of the time or downhill. Harbringer's crappy range doesn't make the facts any better so do this always but don't let yourself compete with the tower in a last-hitting battle because he has higher damage than you and you can't last hit every HP he leaves the creeps.
-During the early parts of the game you should not fight the opponent in a physical-physical duel because most of the time, he has a healing item(more often than not, a bottle) and you don't have any unless you want to waste 100 gold to buy a Healing Salve for you.
-Start using Astral Imprisonment starting level 3 because now it is more effective and you already have one level of essence aura which makes it less of a pain in the butt to cast. Cast before you deny or an allied creep dies to level-gap your opponent since level-gapping him is one factor to destroying him later.
-Once you have reached level 5 and used a lot of astral, use it a lot more because the killing time is almost at hand.
-Level 6 is your prime time and climax because this is the point where you should cheap-shot your opponent to the extent of him having half to 3/4 HP. If you used up a lot of Astrals then there's already a significant gap in your ints. USE YOUR ULTIMATE TO KILL OPPONENT!! Sanity Eclipse does like 300-600 damage early-game so great.
-If your opponent keeps getting out of the lane, then have a big grin as you could have the farm-time of your life.
Mid-Game Strats (Level 7-11):
-Ho!Ho!Ho! You now have a PT so enemies won't be able to kill you that much thanks to added movespeed and STR. Use the Strength Treads always except when you are going to cast your ulti or let out an arcane orb or if you know where all the opponents are.
-Your lane opponent at this point will not be laning with you oftentimes because he will have mana problems and last-hitting problems. He will also have problems about your ulti and would be traumatic over his experience in eating it earlier. His options may be to 1.) Help other lanes because he can do nothing in the middle lane 2.) Call for backup in the middle lane just to find out that you're untouchable and 3.) To NC, wait for 1 minute, and go back in lane again to find himself being astralled again and go back again after 1 minute. So you should oftentimes warn your teammates that mid is missing for them and for you to not get blamed if you're playing pubs.
-At this point in time you should also already have an Ultimate Orb at least to further increase your survivability if you are not aware of your surroundings.
Late-Game Strats (Level 11 onward):
-By now you have farmed for your Guinsoo! Oh yeah! But wait! There's more!
-Upon reaching late-game the goal is to farm for your CoreBKB which you will need and use a lot.
-You now start to max Arcane Orb so you can throw away the old Quelling Blade and use Arcane Orb for every last hit but make sure that you cast Arcane Orb and not auto-attack with it for your mana to be always in tip-top shape.
-Turn your PT to int so that Necrolytes or Druids of the Talon would die with one shot of Arcane Orb.
-Other ways of gaining money is to Hero Kill but be always cautious because instead of gaining Gold you might lose them or not gain at all.
-In team battles, Astral someone before the fight or after everything has been thrown. It's always good to have an enemy spectator for 4 secs.
-Late late in the game, your job is to kill everyone in your path and because you played well, that will be an easy job.
-If you still lose, credit yourself for doing your job and for carrying the team to reach that far.
Miscellaneous Strategies*Will work on this later..
Astral Dodging
Exp denying
Astral Imprisonment Tricks
Wait move
Astral-Ulti
Treads Switching
FRIENDS AND FOES
Foes
Class 1:The worst kind
This crazy guy will kill you!!! Mana burn at level 11 will reach up to 400+ damage and imagine how much he will deal when the game reaches up to late game. His combo will be undetectable and you won't be able to cast your astral on anyone.
->Best counter:Ban Him... If the mode is not CM, Build more on Mana Items rather than the Int ones to prevent him from killing you.
Class 2:Silencers
These heros will pretty much make you almost useless because you may still use Guinsoo and other items once they silence you with the exception of doom.
Best Counter: BKB, Doom->Linken's or Guinsoo/imprison him first before he dooms you.
Class 3: Magic Resistance
Damn! Your base attack against them is not sufficient to kill them.
Counters: If your opponent depends on Repel, ask a teammate to buy a diffusal blade. Dealing with naix is another thing because his Invulnerability only lasts for 4.75sec, you can imprison yourself then whack him once his rage is gone. As for BKB, if you're in a clash just stay in the back and whack his other teammates if he can be ignored, kill him later, if you can't ignore him, hide yourself to buy some time. If the opponent has BKB and you're both not in a clash just let his BKB cooldown and never mind him if he isn't minding you.
Class 4:Shitty Boy
Can't reach him during the laning phase because of take aim... Grrr!
Food
Class 1: Lane
They will have no mana and no farm.. At some point in time, they may have no mana at all ZERO!
Class 2: Paper
Etc.Use Guinsoo and they're surely dead by the second.
Friends
Spammers
Etc.They may abuse your essence aura which is always good.
Nortrom
Global Silence+Ghost Scepter makes you invulnerable but still able to Orb-walk and use all your skills. He also lessens the Int of opponents if killed in AoE which would be good for your Ult once you killed really lots.
Disablers are always good teammates so no need to put them here.
TO BE CONTINUED LATER BUT STILL FEEL FREE TO COMMENT..
I'll add some screenies later for illustration..
THIS IS JUST THE BEGINNING...
Harbinger the Obsidian DestroyerAuthor: guildman
Map Vers.: 6.63b
Post-nerfing
Pub and pub
Last Comment:19/10/2009
Total Votes: 0
Current Rating: 0.00
Views: 3898
