My Build

Ok Its been awhile since i made a decent build...

Dark elf (Hero)
skills- Death strike, Windwalk, Mana flare, avatar

seems like a decent build... however there was an opponent that stacked mana shield... I believe his build was


Brill aura, mana shield, summon goblins, and not sure what his ult was... also hero was sea witch... pwnt me like none other... mana staff, hood of cunning bla bla... seriously cheap xD


now my question is... how do I counter a Mana shield user? was my build like the worst or what haha?

Often on these forums, any build suggestion will get torn to shreds; so dont take offense, it is just the way we usually use constructive criticism.

First of all, if your build wouldnt work without fast creep spawns or bonus stats, then it isnt really a `reliable` build.

Also, windwalk and mana flare come from the same house.

Death Strike as a late game offensive isnt bad, it is a good damage source. Keep in mind though that the dark elf has the worst base attack speed, therefore the worst max attack speed. She cant attack as fast, so in a given 60 second window, will not crit as much. Also, ranged unit crits and bashes are counted as spells, and an opponent with avatar will render them useless.

Windwalk is really for ganking. It is very good at ganking early and mid game. Late game the damage is useless though; and without trying to WW the duration of an important CD off (like rejuv) the invis has no potency.

Mana Flare is a much better choice than windwalk as a defensive. It will counter all spell casters, which as a ranged AGI, is most likely your biggest weakness until late game. Very good skill choice.

As you didnt provide a misc skill, I would suggest something to help you farm. Unholy frenzy wouldnt be bad at all; since with ranged you can sit far from creeps and take minor damage. the attack speed increase is insane, and great for early and mid PvP.

avatar is always a solid ult. When in doubt, go avatar. Just make sure to have an ice orb to ensure your opponent doesnt run the duration off you.

Ah If you need information on how to counter mana shield builds please read my post on my mana tank build that should provide more than enough info im not then My use with caution Terra build is also good reading.Lots of info on both how to use mana shield and how to counter it.That and mana shield was his ult and with a bit of knowledge they are easy to kill.

ah I see I dont mind the criticism I understand Im abit of a noob to builds, Im willing to get all the help I can get so I dont get pwnt as bad.

well I had windwalk... and mana flare... mana something... it delt mp and hp dmg -shrugs- Im abit illiterate to the game soo yar... meh bad for actin like a nub x3 but I was doing alright and I didnt know that the death strike was bad for the dark elf o.o; it was doing pretty good for awhile when i got the speed demon ring and chaos tali's... just the mana shield dude was the only problem with almost 12k mana and 9k hp, but then again red... was kept the game on normal settings so creeps were really slow... so yeah bad game in reality... he kept coming on our side killing us =3 but all in all could have been better


Wrathtoruin I'll take a look at that =3 might try the build myself.



thanks guys for the quick answers ^-^

Just because she has the worse attack speed doest mean the ability completely sucks. She also has high base damage and high agility gain both of which are extremely good for a crit skill. Oh in case your looking for a counter to flare and are a mage its magic resistance. Most builds that do well have a sort of theme to them. In your case you probabally should of got purge to burn that shield and since you had two sources of crit it should of been the Axe weapons orbs have a tendency not to work properly on range when they have too many crits.

I believe you had mana burn then, not mana flare. It is in the 3rd house, burns mana and life. In this case, you are still under farmed. To beat a mana shield build; you simply have to keep up in levels with him; and then get a lightsabre, or its equivolent counterpart. It will burn mana disgustingly fast. Until then, you should get a stone staff. with a stone staff and mana burn, and wind walk, you can burn 6000 mana before they get a chance to hit you.

Also, in reply to didnot. the dark elf is a really good early and mid game hero. Once players start hitting the attack speed cap (400%) is when the dark elf is noticably worse. Just for the worst case: A slithery with max attack speed deals 32% more damage than a dark elf with maxed attack speed, based completely on their attack speed and nothing else. 32% is a LOT. It is like having death-strike, for free.... Seriously.... Thats not a joke! Same as the agility game being useless end game. By lvl 40, she only has 20-40 more damage from base stats than any other hero. And agility heroes are the worst end gamers; because agility doesnt do much once you have over 400, and their BAT is worse.

An average set up for a build is: 1 farming skill (good level 1-20, like shockwave or pulverize) 1 all game skill, that doesnt need to be heavily leveled. (Like spiked armor, corrupt flesh, unholy aura) and 1 late game skill (lvl 20-40, like hex, vempiric soul, darkness). your ult is whatever you feel like doing. If you wanna level faster, grab a farming one. If you are afraid of a spell caster, get ava. you are running a high hp/armor build, get reinc. Wanna gank a little and prevent ganks? get roots.

Obviously there are exceptions to that set up.. a lot of them. But when you are new to creating builds, sticking to those guidelines will give you decent reults. From there you can trade skills in and out until you get something you like.

I was just saying its not all that bad is all Ive randomed it once or twice with heros who have high bats. If you had ds and maybe a one skill point until late game defensive and some skill to farm in misc ds could play the role of a nuke that costs no mana on a hero like dark elf.