Hello again fellow demigods, here follows a guide about the hot side of the Torch Bearer.
Skills:
Not much to explain here, all out fire damage. Keep in mind that skillwise your damage output lategame against other demigods will be mediocre at best, always try to combine it with your team or use it to push back creep waves which TB is good at the entire game.
Fireball is taken first because it's an essential skill when your up against the opposing team in the initial rush (think exp flag rush on Cataract, Prison or Crucible) Some people may argue that circle of fire is superiour because it does more damage, but this is not true at all, people that know what they are doing will simply move out of the circle and you end up doing hardly any damage and waste a lot of mana. Also between lvl 1 and 2 it's impossible to run out of mana so the Blade of the Serpent + Circle of fire combo is useless.
Items:
Seeing this you will probably think "What about the mana, you fool" but in the Favor item section this will be explained. I usually build my TB for survivability, extra HP and movement speed which also helps with killing. Spending this much gold on items will also open up a lot of excess gold for upgrading the citadel which is in my opinion a lot more deadly in most cases.
Increasing your mana pool is also recommended, but dont go crazy on this. If you find yourself running out of mana when fighting other demigods increase your mana pool. If you run out of mana during creep waves something is wrong with the timing of your favor item. Try to go with items that increase both HP and Mana, since mana regen is not needed.
Favor item:
This item looks to be made with the Torch Bearer in mind. Besides the +400 mana and +25 weapon damage, which is very powerfull in early game on it's own, the beauty lies in the ability to gain back 75% of all damage done in mana for 10 seconds. This might sound overcomplicated at first, as it did for me. But once you find out that combining this with Circle of fire will solve all your mana problems, there is no reason to look back.
The danger lies in going below the required mana needed to cast circle of fire, but this is solved by carrying a Combat mana potion on you at all times. Also switching between ice and fire mode gives you a 50% mana regen bonus for a short while, this also helps when you are low on mana.
Conclusion:
In conclusion i would like to thank you for reading this guide and hope that some constructive criticism will follow so i can improve this build. My native tongue is not English so I'm sorry for any spelling mistakes. I play this build a lot in pre-arranged games against people that know what they are doing and i find it to work flawlessly. This is because the favor item Blade of the Serpent is a bit unbalanced when you use it on TB.
Good one, the items especially, i never noticed that.
I'll give this a try, beenp laying Frosty a bit lately, this sounds interesting. The favour item is going to be a problem given... our circumstances.
I play my TB pretty much the same but I start with Scaled helm + 500hp 5hps armor. But in later games you can notice that your mana regen is pretty fast, thus rendering blade of serpent pretty much useless so I go for cooldown reducing favor item instead which also inreases you mana/hp pool. And depending on game i go for fire cloak artifact or bulwark, in later stages (with both circle of fire and fire cloak it's some intense dps for enemies just standing near you).
You should give this favor item a try, i think this will get nerfed hard in the future, it will give your TB unlimited mana from lvl 1, which will simply destroy any other TB you are laning against. Also being able to stack HP items for endgame + the stat points you will spend the last few levels will make you a tough nugget to crack.
Lower cooldowns make you deadlier and you really don't need that mana refen at lvl 20.
Games are won at levels 1-10 most times. Maybe not finished til 18 or 20, but the winner is already decided by level 10 most games.
True that, also i won't say the favor item is useless at lvl 20, casting a Circle of fire + Fire nova in a big group will fill your 6k mana pool instantly almost. And 1-2 seconds off your skills is not that great (fireball your bread and butter skill is only 7 sec cooldown, later fire nova 1375 mana cost can take it's toll on builds based on mana regen items) compared to unlimited mana from lvl 1 without having to spend gold on mana items, thus leaving gold for citadel upgrades and +HP items.
I'm seriously thinking about changing my starter items to a shitload of heal pots and scrolls because the mana from this favor item is just THAT good.
Im sorry this is a horrible guide regarding late item choices, this build is ok early and mid game, but late.... Your totally $&#@ed. I have played TB in more than 30 games and I've only lost one. You need to increase your passive dmg more with artifact items like "Mage Blade" and "Ashkindor", those will carry you through. First item you should get at start is boots for travel and circlet of speed, putting you at 25% speed. Your frost or fire aura will also really boost that mobility advantage. I always manage 1 or 2 early kills in the first 5 minutes of the game, between that and using your AOE's to farm exp and money, you should buy the "Heart of Life" ASAP and that will be more than enough to carry your mana though the game. If you want more get the 1700 helm (it more than suffices with HoL), but I dont. Next, get the orb that makes you invulnerable for 5 seconds right after HoL. Use it in the middle of a fight for a great advantage. It has saved me many times! Once you have that your rdy for mage blade and ASH, the 3300 gold gauntlets that add 10 hp per second/dmg/chance to crit for 2x is also a great early item. I get it after HoL and the other Orb (cant remember the name).
I do however agree that "Serpent Blade" is an amazing (understatement) favour item, however I prefer the mobility of circlets (it gets me the kills and keeps them from killing me). I also get the wand of speed like you said for that burst when you need to chase or run, and it costs nothing mid game cause i can farm 1.2k no prob by then.
So you badically get HoL, Ashkandor, mage blade and then 3300gold gloves in early game... oh wait.
You, sir, are a re.... no I can't say it. Forget it.
There are no late game item choices in my guide, i just underlined that i personally like to stack HP items so i can get into people faces and nuke them. Your suggesting Heart of Life as an alternative for mana, but i find this statement not very well tought out since it costs 4500g and can not be used in combat and only regenerates 3k mana which covers only 2x Fire Nova, what are you going to do in the early game with boots of speed and having to wait till 4500g untill you start getting a mana flow going.
Also buying boots of speed as the first item is an epic mistake, it underlines running away from your lane which is not how this game is played.
Also circlet of speed is a terrible favor item choice on this character, simply because with wand of speed and boots of speed you can get away from most things.
I do agree that items that add to your autoattack could be really nice, i will try this, but up untill now i find that my skills do the job very well.
MasterChef85 is a failure indoubtedly, but saying 15% speed is useless is BS too and yes it is useful for TB, since you prefer no to get hit at all. And 'till they nurf HoL, you would be really and idiot if you don't buy that.
Taking the speed circlet on TB is utter fail, if your up against this build with a TB who uses the speed circlet, you will be using that circlet a lot to run back to the shrine, resulting in you having less gold and exp, unlimited Fireball spam ftw
Also it's close to retarded to buy HoL on this build, you dont need it, why buy a 4500g item that you dont need and is near useless late game, maby for the HP but if you have 1 item to cover your mana needs, there are a lot of ways to spend your gold better.
Let's say you get the speed circlet and go HoL when the gold is availible. The speed circlet will not help you lane or stand your ground better and I'm wondering what you are doing to get mana untill you have 4500g.
VS.
An item that covers all your mana needs from lvl 1 and gives you extra mana and +dmg, now leaving open 4500g to stack HP items, buy priest upgrade or maby gold upgrade.
On paper;
Speed circlet (favor)Starting items (1000g)HoL (4500g)Total: 5500g
BotS (favor)Starting items (1000g)Wand of speed (1250g)Priest upgrade or Hauberk of Life (1800g)Banded armor (550g)3x Combat healing potion (825g)Total: 5425g
I'm not totally sure where you are going to be, but not in my lane, that's for damn sure. If your going to say that HoL is for mid/late game and you will go for mana items in between you fail your own argument because by the time you have gold for HoL your mana regen will be good enough to neglect it.
As it stands now, not taking BotS as favor item on TB is gimping yourself to the point where it's not even funny anymore.
edit: also HoL is useless when fighting in pre-arranged games with teams that are on voicecom (TS/Vent) because you have no HP pool you well get insta BBQ's by a good sync.
I've been actually very successful with my strategy, were you? And from your point of view, it seems like mindless usage of abilities instead of conserving mana. And you should actually choose favor items according to your opposing teams setup.
I just gave this concept a spin. The combo of the wand / favor item was really intriguing. I was able to soak up lane traffic for 'endless' amounts of time and still had pleanty left to fend off unwanted foes. The wand a bit later helped the retreat when things got dicey. I ran with the boots / wand and reccomend that. It seems everyone is up on speed and having a tad extra kept me alive when DG's wondering why I'm soaking endless cash came calling.
Thumbs up on this concept. It's a fun build.
-AceQ
Can you give an example of this? When would it be better to take one item instead of antoher based off of an opposing demigod choice?
If find it a bit dissapointing when i write a page full of arguments why some things are bad and good and you make posts like this. Try harder.
And by saying "conserving mana" you make yourself look stupid, i don't need to conserve mana, im constantly fireballing and circle of fire without running out of mana from level 1.
Serpent blade does not have cooldown, right? "I don't need to conserve mana" you made now yourself look stupid
And for AceQ, you can find 15% very useful against Oaks.
Question. Does serpent blade work with Rain of Ice? I usually go ice build and thought it might be interesting to try.
Seriously, have you even tried this build? Like AceQ said, you will have plenty of mana to clear lanes and have plenty left to fend off unwanted visitors.
Let me put it in simple terms for you. If there was a favor item that fills your mana pool every 45 seconds and gives you +25 dmg and 400 mana, why take something else? And i dont mean fills your small mana pool early/mid game, its % based so the more damage you do, the more mana you get.
I would get some stats about the frequency of creep waves and the mana spend to kill creep waves in conjunction with the cooldown of BotS but since you don't even try to counter argue anything i'm saying, why bother?
Most certainly, it will work on any damage you deal (skills and autoattack, and there is no range for it as far as i can tell). I'm already trying to put this favor item in other mana heavy demigod builds that do a lot of AOE damage.
Because it's pointless to argue, since you're failing to admit, that there are other options then blade of serpent, it's like IWIN button for you. And ever heared of rod of magus?
LittleOz it works with every ability, even with AoE ones.
Your making it too easy for me now, im starting to think your just trolling me or something?
Magus Rod (3250 gold)
Ok so you can cast 2/3 spells for half mana cost every 15sec and it gives +50% mana regen so it needs other +mana regen items to be very usefull, also this is by no means a starting item and ABSOLUTELY does not solve your mana problems in 1 go, thus having to buy other items to improve mana. But hey, you can run away 15% faster right?
Please realize this post is about a certain build, which happens to be based around BotS. If you wish go write your own build and i will be happy to give it a try and give constructive criticism.
rather based on playing with bots, then ok, which apparently you are
I'm affraid i lost you there, i will try to explain it one last time before i got to bed;
You are arguing that the tradeoff between Circlet of speed in conjunction with a lot of gold spend on mana items is worth it when you can take 1 item to solve all your mana problems for the entire duration of the game and have an excess of gold left to do whatever you want depending on the progress of the game.
If you play demigod with a team i feel sorry for them, or maby you only play pubs against noobs and think your build is good based on that? Either way, if you play with a team i really want to set up a pre-arranged match and prove it to you that way since words don't seem to work for you. Please accept or for ever shut your pie hole.
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