DotA New Items Guide

In the last few versions of DotA (Defense of the Ancients), there were quite a few new interesting items introduced, that were a cause for quite a bit of confusions, since a lot of gamers don’t understand how to use them effectively, or prefer not to use them at all, since they don’t know how they benefit from it. We at Tech2.com have decided to help all you DotA-holics out there by laying down a brief description of these items, and explaining their use. So here goes …

Item #1 –
Hood of Defiance

Ingredients –

Helm of Iron Will (950 gold)

Planewalker’s Cloak (650 gold)

Ring of Health (875 gold)

Or

2 x Ring of Regeneration (2 x 375 = 750 gold)

Benefits –

30% Spell Damage Reduction
+8 HP/Sec Regeneration

Use –

The total cost of this item is just about 2,475 gold, which is an incredible deal since you get a whooping 8 HP per second regeneration along with 30% (imbalanced!) spell damage reduction for a small price. The best part about this item is that it makes use of your Ring Of Regeneration, which usually goes to waste at high levels. If you’re up against a team with a lot of nukers/harassers, this item is an absolute must. The HP regeneration helps you stay in your lane longer (provided you play a little carefully), and almost completely dissipates the effect of early/mid game nuking/harassing. The two Ring of Regenerations help you stay in your lane longer, and if you stack this item up with HP boosting items, you’re gonna be pretty hard to kill.
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Item #2 – Assault Cuirass

Ingredients –
Chain Mail (620 gold)

Plate Mail (1400 gold)

Hyperstone (2300 gold)

Assault Cuirass Scroll (2000 gold)

Benefits –
+10 Armor
+5 Armor Aura for Allied units
-5 Armor Aura for Enemy units
+40% Attack Speed
+15% Attack Speed Aura for Allies

Use -

The Attack Cuirass costs about 6,320 gold, making it a pretty expensive item. It’s an awesome team support item in every way, since it increases the team’s DPS (damage per second) as well its armor bonus. Stacking this item up with a Mekansm and Vladmir’s Offering can pretty much make you an all out support hero that can prove useful to almost any team. But ofcourse, you can only afford this item if you’ve farmed really well. Keep in mind that you get at least basic HP boosting items before this, since the armor bonus alone won’t keep you alive against nukers. Lastly, this item is amazing for strength based heroes such as Mogul Kahn who benefits from the item’s item bonus tremendously.
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Item #3 –
Bloodstone

Ingredients –
Soul Booster (3300 gold)

Perseverance (1775 gold)

Benefits –
+450 HP Capacity
+400 Mana Capacity
+110% Mana Regeneration bonus
+5 HP Regeneration Bonus

Redemption (Passive)
-If the bearer dies, he restores 450 HP/400 Mana to nearby allies. (stack = 40 max)
-The hero gains experience points and vision of the area where he died until he revives.
-Hero will respawn 20% faster and lose 40% less gold.
-If the item has no charges, the on-death bonus will be cut in half.
-Charges are gained/lost by killing heroes/dying.

Use -

This item costs only about 5075 gold, and along with it’s bonuses, it makes for an excellent item for Spell based heroes. The item was meant to replace the Aegis of Immortals to an extent, but in my opinion it sort of replaces it in many ways. The description may sound a little confusing for some of you, so let me break it down for you - the first thing you need to understand is that you gain or lose charges by killing or dying respectively. When you’ve got a charge, you respawn 20% faster than you normally would and lose 40% less gold. If you’re the target of ganks, this might prove to be an awesome item, since it helps you recover from ganks faster than you would otherwise. Even in team battles, if you’re the first person to die your allies get healed considerably, which makes you a very useful asset to your team even if you die.
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Item#4 –
Vladmir’s Offering

Ingredients –
Mask of Death (900 gold)

Ring of Basilius (500 gold)

Vladmir’s Offering recipe (1000 gold)

Benefits –
Melee Vampiric Aura – 16% Lifesteal
Brilliance Aura – 0.8/sec Mana Regeneration
Devotion Aura - +5 Armor
Melee Damage Aura – 12 damage per hit

Use –
This item is the Holy Grail for melee heroes. While 16% lifesteal might not seem like much, in practice, it gives you that extra bit of HP per hit that helps you stay in your lane longer, and since the HP gained scales with your damage, this item will never go obsolete. So if you have a hero with an obscene amount of physical damage in the form of pure DPS or Critical strikes, this item will not disappoint you in anyway. Keep in mind however, that the lifesteal effect doesn’t work with Ulfsaar.