The EarlyGame Dota 2 Item Guide series continues and today, we’re taking a look at Orchid Malevolence. Here’s everything you need to know about this item.
We've already covered Blade Mail, Eul's Scepter of Divinity, Abyssal Blade, Manta Style, Spirit Vessel, and Hand of Midas. Today's topic of discussion is Orchid Malevolence. The item received some changes in the last few updates that made it cheaper but is it still worth it? Get ready for some silence!
Orchid Malevolence – Good Only on Int Heroes?
First, let’s start with a short overview of the item:
- Patch created: Patch 6.49
- Total cost: 3475 gold
- Grants: +20 Intelligence, +30 Attack Damage, +25 Attack Speed, +4 Mana Regeneration
- Active: Soul Burn – Silences the target unit for 5 seconds. At the end of the silence, 30% of the damage received while silenced is inflicted as bonus magical damage. (18 seconds cooldown)
Unlike many of the other items we’ve looked into, Orchid Malevolence is quite cheap, costing only 3475 gold. That’s two Oblivion Staffs (2x1500 gold) and a 475 gold recipe. The most expensive component is Quarterstaff, sitting at 875 gold. Now that’s cheap!
Considering the only bonus stat it gives is intelligence you’d think the type of heroes it’s suited for is also intelligence-based ones. That’s not always the case. Getting Orchid on any hero is a great way to ensure a constant flow of mana. Plus the extra attack damage and attack speed will also increase your overall physical DPS.
How To Use Orchid Malevolence
What we're most interested in is the active – Soul Burn. It applies bonus magic damage after the duration is over. If the debuff gets removed, the target won’t take the damage. If the target becomes spell immune, the damage won’t be applied.
This makes Orchid’s active quite situational and while it greatly increases your solo kill potential, it’s fairly easy to get rid of with teammates around. Here are a couple of countering spells and items that come to mind:
- Black King Bar – removes the debuff
- Glimmer Cape - can reduce the damage by quite a lot
- Lotus Orb – removes the debuff
- Manta Style – removes the debuff
- Eul’s Scepter of Divinity – removes the debuff
- Abaddon’s Aphotic Shield – removes the debuff
- Legion Commander’s Press the Attack – removes the debuff
- Omniknight’s Heavenly Grace – removes the debuff
- Oracle’s Fortune’s End – removes the debuff
- Oracle’s Fate’s Edict – applies 100% magic resistance
- Oracle’s False Promise – removes the debuff
As you can see, Oracle is pretty much a nightmare for any Orchid user. Still, he can’t cast the spells if he’s silenced and doesn’t have an item to dispel it. This makes Orchid useful in teamfights where you don’t want a certain hero to cast spells for 5 seconds. You can completely ignore a Tidehunter or Earthshaker and just silence them. Things change the later the game goes on, though.
As soon as an enemy gets Lotus Orb, they’ll probably save it to dispel Soul Burn from one of their teammates. If there’s a plethora of dispels on the enemy team, going for Orchid might be a bad idea but in the end, it’s still a good tempo item.
Which Heroes Is It Good For?
Getting it early on will allow your Int hero to snowball out of control but you’ll also see the item on other heroes:
- Queen of Pain
- Void Spirit
- Storm Spirit
- Invoker
- Clinkz
- Arc Warden
- Nature’s Prophet
- Slark
- Winter Wyvern
In conclusion, Orchid Malevolence has a rather limited timeframe where it's deadly. The earlier you buy it, the better. Ramp up some kills before your enemies get some sort of dispel if they don’t have it already. Don’t let the dispel discourage you, though, as you can always upgrade it to Bloodthorn for a big DPS increase and true strike on the debuff. But beware – much like Orchid, Bloodthorn's debuff is just as easily dispelled.
- READ MORE: The Best Safe-Lane Duos in Dota 2
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