The EarlyGame Dota 2 Item Guide series continues and today, we’re taking a look at one of the newest items in the game – Witch Blade. Here’s everything you need to know about it.
We've already covered Blade Mail, Eul's Scepter of Divinity, Abyssal Blade, Manta Style, Spirit Vessel, and Hand of Midas. In today's edition, we'll take a look at Witch Blade. How situational is it?
Witch Blade – Another Int Hero Item?
First, let’s start with a short overview of the item:
- Patch created: Patch 7.28
- Total cost: 2600 gold
- Grants: +12 Intelligence, +6 Armor, +35 Attack Speed, +300 Projectile Speed
- Passive: Witch Blade – Causes your next attack to apply a poison for 3 seconds, slowing by 25% and dealing your Intelligence as damage every second. (9 seconds cooldown)
Witch Blade was added with patch 7.28 making it one of the newest items in Dota 2. The total gold cost is on the low side, sitting at 2600 and the most expensive component is 1000. Not too bad. In terms of stats, it’s clearly an item made for intelligence heroes that can also use the attack speed. Ranged ones will also benefit from the extra projectile speed. The passive will go on cooldown when you miss an attack, and it doesn't pierce spell immunity. Bummer.
The passive is further proof of that as it deals damage based on the hero’s intelligence. That's right, it's a big brain item. It also slows for 25% for the 3-second duration but if you really want to hold someone in place you might want to consider Rod of Atos. The latter is also a better alternative when it comes to stats.
Heroes That it’s Good On
There are only a handful of heroes that can utilize Witch Blade to its full potential. Ranged ones with high intelligence include:
- Silencer
- Invoker
- Queen of Pain
- Skywrath Mage
- Pugna
- OD
- Lina
All of these heroes have high intelligence and tend to build into more int items. Some like Silencer will scale really well into the late game with Witch Blade as he steals more and more. Others like Pugna and Sky don’t rely that much on right clicks but can still amplify the damage with their spells. For Skywrath Mage it’s one more ability that scales with his intelligence in addition to Arcane Bolt.
In conclusion, Witch Blade is a very straightforward item. It doesn’t hold any secrets and you’ll only be able to fully use it on a few heroes. Supports will usually get something that can save a teammate while ranged agility carries are better off building other DPS items. If the item’s passive gets changed to damage based on the main attribute it’ll probably be a bit too good (think Morphling).
- READ MORE: Dota 2: Top 10 Aghanim’s Shard Upgrades
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