The Mistwoods Update brought a lot of changes to Dota 2 and even added a brand-new hero in Hoodwink. Just how good is the armed squirrel though?
It has been over a year since we last saw a new hero in Dota 2. After the Mistwoods Update, Hoodwink is finally here to change that. The squirrel is armed with a crossbow, just like we expected, and sure loves her trees. Let’s take a look at her kit.
Hoodwink's abilities
Acorn Shot
Fires Hoodwink’s attack with an acorn at the target unit. The acorn bounces to nearby targets, slowing them and dealing bonus damage. If point targeted, a tree is created at the target position and the acorn will bounce to nearby targets.
- Bonus attack range: 125/200/275/350
- Bonus damage: 25/50/75/100
- Bounce count 3/4/5/6
- Slow Duration: 0.25
- Movement slow: 100%
- Cooldown: 16/14/12/10
- Mana cost: 75/85/95/105
Acorn Shot isn’t a skill shot and it can deal massive damage to targets, ideally two of them. It functions in the same way as Witch Doctor’s Paralyzing Cask, but instead of stun, Acorn Shot deals damage and slows. On top of that, it adds extra range to the shot. Acorn Shot will trigger on-hit effects like bash, critical, lifesteal, and others.
It works really well with the rest of her basic abilities as the tree synergizes well and Acorn Shot will still bounce to nearby targets.
Bushwack
Tosses a net trap that stuns enemy heroes if they are near a tree in the area. Affected enemies take damage and are pulled towards the tree nearest to them, and have their vision reduced to 0 for the duration of the stun.
- Radius: 325
- Stun duration: 1.3/1.6/1.9/2.2
- Damage: 90/180/270/360
- Cooldown:14
- Mana cost: 90/100/110/120
Bushwack is Hoodwink’s second basic ability and it works perfectly with Acorn Shot. Use Acorn Shot to plant a tree near an enemy, the shot will then ricochet to the target and slow them, giving you enough time to use Bushwack and land a stun. It feels like this skill is probably the strongest one, as there’s no limit to the number of heroes it can stun.
Scurry
Hoodwink passively has a chance to evade physical attacks while near trees. When activated, Hoodwink gains bonus movement speed, phased collision and tree-walking for a brief time.
- Max charges: 2
- Charge restore time: 30/25/20/15
- Evasion radius: 275
- Bonus movement speed: 25%/30%/35%/40%
- Buffe duration: 4
- Evasion: 8%/16%/24%/32%
- Mana cost: 35
Scurry is what makes Hoodwink hard to lock down in the laning stage, especially the tree walking part. The evasion makes it hard to nuke her with auto-attacks and movement speed on a hero that has 320 base is a bit of an overkill.
Sharpshooter
Hoodwink charges up and fires a deadly bolt from her crossbow, dealing heavy damage, slow, and Break to an enemy Hero. The damage and debuff duration scale up to max after 3 seconds, and the bolt is fired automaticall after 5 seconds.Hoodwink is knocked backwards for a distance of 350 from the force of the shot.
- Max wind-up time: 3
- Max damage: 600/1000/1400
- Max debuff duration: 6
- Move slow: 50%
- Cooldown: 45
- Mana cost: 150
Her ultimate is really something else. It deals heavy damage, slows and applies break. It’s also on a low 45-second cooldown and the mana cost remains the same on all levels. Considering it’s easy to land a stun with Acorn Shot and Bushwack, following up with Sharpshooter is a piece of cake. Her talents can further reduce the wind-up time to 25%, which means she’ll need around 2.25 seconds. Surprise, surprise, Bushwack’s stun is 2.2 seconds long.
At level 25 the 1400 damage coming from her ultimate becomes pure and pierces spell immunity. Uhm... Valve? That’s on a ranged, carry hero, not a magic heavy spellcaster like Lina that usually needs Aghanim’s Scepter to do less damage than that. Sure there’s wind-up time for Sharpshooter, but you already have a guaranteed stun in your kit.
Last but not least there’s the pushback, which can be used to chase down foes, escape or go from low to high ground, and vice versa.
To sum it all up, Hoodwink has area damage, area stun, area slow, evasion, movement speed buff, tree walking, single target nuke that slows and applies break and pierces spell immunity at 25. If it all seems a bit too much.... you’re not alone in thinking that. Feel free to share your thoughts on our Facebook page!
Much like any other new hero, we’ll probably see Hoodwink get tweaked in the following weeks/months. Until then: Stay out of the trees.
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