General DiscussionAnybody still playing Lone Druid? and is successful?

radiance, aghs, deso, rat, ez dotka.

yeah.. but how do you get to radiance? that's the initial challenge..

with spectre, once i get radiance, everything becomes easy
but with LD, even when you have radiance, the game play still has to be thought about

^ and have never tried building agh's on him.. i think it is very situational and costly

it isn't, because you play LD wrong.

You have to rat like a fucking ratlord, don't go in teamfight with bear.

Try to ask your supports to pick ogre for bloodlust. It's really strong with the bear.

Was seeing this match last night.. and i felt bear is pretty strong. Bloodlust + press the attack and tower goes down in like 4-5 secs. Problem is he still needs support after getting his core and spec can just go on a rampage.

http://www.dotabuff.com/matches/1827709336

i played him once this patch and i barely played him before and i won vs 2 6ks and a brood, ez rat
also radiance is core

He is my 2nd most played (73.68% WR, 38 matches) Hero, but haven't played him in 6.85 (only in 6.84). I'm still in high skill (but rising and decent win rate) and kinda learning the game, also I don't play ranked yet until I'm more comfortable. So I don't know if any of the information is helpful for you. But this is how I play him:

I always go mid, I tried jungle but I failed hard a couple of times and I think he is better when he goes mid. I start with stout and quelling on my bear for better last hitting and survivability + tango and GG branch on LD himself (this is the regular start, but it should depend on the enemy line-up). You should get a decent creep block off and win the lane early by outfarming the opponent, you generally last hit with LD and harass with bear. Every time the opponent leaves his/her lane for ganking or rune you should just hit tower instead of counter ganking/contesting, similar how you play DK. I build orb of venom (bear) > both brown boots on LD + bear > finish tranquil on LD if you get ganked/harassed a lot or phase boots on bear if you can get a kill at lvl7 with double entangle. After you finished both boots you just gonna farm lane, push tower whenever you can/opponent left the lane and farm jungle whenever your creeps are under the enemy tower. Like I said, you win your lane by outfarming. Also don't forget to stack camps with your bear when you don't need him in lane, it will help you a lot when you want to get your Radiance. Now comes the most difficult part of the game: getting Radiance on your bear. You want good vision and be aware of enemy rotations and safely farm up that Radiance in your jungle but also keep pressuring mid. If you do it correctly without dying, you should be able to get Radiance at around 18 min. or if it's going not too well in the early 20 min. with a bit of luck. After you get Radiance you tell your team that you are now online and you should force objectives like T2 towers and/or Roshan. At this moment you peak and most of the time you heavily outfarmed and outleveled your opponents. You prefer to end the game before the 40 min. mark since your bear will fall off eventually againtst their carries. Some items you should consider after you finished Radiance:

Bear:
- Skull Basher: More lock-down.
- Moonshard: Cheap AS item which is very good on your bear (do not consume).
- AC: On Bear if he gets focussed, on LD if he gets focussed.
- MKB: To counter evasion.
- Mealstrom: I only get this when I go Aghs, to rat even faster.

LD:
- Vlads: I usually get this after radiance, you can smoke-up and safely solo Roshan without a re-summon.
- Pipe: If they have alot of magic damage, a really strong item on LD.
- Skullbasher: Good item if it goes into late-late game when your bear starts to fall-off.
- Aghs: When you want to rat.

Sorry, it turned out to be a long post. I don't even know if I'm in a position to lecture you about LD, but these are my thoughts about him.

I'm normal level but have played more than 120 games with LD. Just build two things and you won't go too far wrong. Assault for bear And shadow blade for yourself.
It's all about surviving when the team know how to lock you down. Good luck.
Regards
Gecko

SB for LD doesnt sound like an optimal investment of your money to me

If you don't buy SB what do you offer as a means of escape?

Regards
Gecko

Orb of venom + entanglement should be sufficient to kite most heroes around and you are pretty tanky with your true form. In team fights you will always position yourself safely while you let your bear do the 'dirty work'. The 2.8k gold for something which you will only use to escape is just not worth it, it will just delay items which will benefit LD more.

shadow blade is more a pickoff item than escape item, since people will just dust you (which actually also slows you down). Lone druid is really tanky without items though (~2k hp at level 11 and 20-ish armour with only tranquil boots). If you get ganked you could often just tp out while your bear hits them for a root (don't play this hero if you're bad at rooting, it takes a lot of skill for a 1st hit root). A casual cloak on him and even magic won't kill you fast enough.

If you really need an escape just get force staff, since you can also use it on your bear to push it forward.

TP is too unreliable to offer a consistent escape. Especially if they have stun. If you force the opposing team to buy dust it's a recognition that your SB is already worth it in the first place. Your true form is not strong enough to sustain enemy focus fire on you. And any enemy team worth their salt will know to focus fire you as they know they can get rid of 12 slots. Positioning wise you can't be too far away from the bear and you will invariably be in the thick of the battle when you get your bear to do the 'dirty' job.

Regards
Gecko

Getting a casual Cloak as well as tranquils on a melee range druid makes you tank enough imo.

Watch some old Bulldog videos on youtube it will proberly tell you all you need to know, not that i dont hate alliance but you got to recognize the fact that he was amazing at it.
(Fucking Venga carry troll finale!)

Jungle get your own wards
2 midas
rad
boots
2necro

Rat like a ratlord

Gecko your win rate is like 40% with a 2.6 KDA on the hero - maybe you need to reflect on this build? but then again maybe its just the hero being pretty trash.

1828351085 watch this match i played as LD my safe lane carry was so shit and forced all the pressure on me to carry the game, unexpected comeback with lesser team kills coming from us. My advice for playing him as long as your team is backing you, dont turn back just stay and fight with your battle roar in bear form. That's all i can give you, peace :D