Black Arachnia the BroodMother Guide and Strategy
A Guide by Genosis
Table of Contents
I. Introduction
II. Hero Overview
III. Pro’s and Con’s
- Pro’s
- Con’s
IV. Broods Role in the Team
V. Skills
VI. Skill Build
VII. Item Build
VIII. Other Item’s
- Good Item’s
- Item’s to avoid
IX. Walkthrough
- Early Game
- Mid Game
- Late Game
X. Hero Killing
XI. Mini-Guide to Spawn Spiderlings
XII. Mini-Guide to Web
XIII. Runes
XIV. Wards
XV. Heroes (Best and Worst)
- Best Allies
- Worst Enemies
XVI. FAQ’s
XVII. Replays
XVIII. Conclusion
XIX. Change Log
I decided to write this guide after searching for a good guide on brood. While there were two on the listing for her, neither of them seemed to cover the points I thought were important.
So that is where my guide comes in.
In this guide I will try and cover most, if not all, of the points to playing Broodmother. Pictures are a large portion of this guide, so if you like pictures then you’re reading the right guide.
Broodmother is thought to be a “solo” hero. While in her hero killing solo definitely an option, I do not think that solo is all she is capable of. With her webs and her great early/mid game she can be played in a team playing style, which is how I am going to show you.
My build for brood is most effectively used by abusing the runes. Once you hit level 6 you will be able to get a hero kill at every cool down by using the runes at every opportunity. You are going to be using your webs to make your opponents think you can be anywhere, giving your allies advantage over their lanes.
To some my skill build might seem dumb, but I have tried many different ways of playing brood, and for me this works the best.
Her stats are completely average, which means she doesn’t excel in anything. On the upside she also isn’t crappy in any of her stats. This has its ups and down (all thing’s do).
On a much lighter note, her starting speed and her attack range for a melee is absolutely great, 315 Starting speed is no laughing matter. This means that once you get your BoT no hero will be able to outrun you, not even razor with his crazy movement speed.
Ending Stats (With Item’s)
Attack: 96-102 + 102
Life: 2411
Mana: 1196
Armor: 12 + 7.1
Strength: 77 + 42
Agility: 70 + 51
Intelligence: 66 + 26
Movement Speed: 405
Movement Speed with Web: 485
Pro’s
Synergy with skills
Great slow skill
Webs are very versatile
Life steal is just great
Map control with webs
Con’s
Low Life
Average stat gain in everything
Easily countered with disables
Item dependant late game
Early game wards can be a problem
This section is to clear up the common misconception on the use of brood in team battles. Most people tend to play Brood as a complete solo character, much like Clinkz or Bounty Hunter. Of course in some games (Public games), that is exactly how you are supposed to play. But in higher level play (TDA/IH), there is usually a lot more teamwork involved, making your job much harder.
Your job is to create confusion in the battle. Although Brood is not quite as effective as Clinkz or BH, who do not require web to become invisible, brood has strengths that neither of the other two have.
When attacking or defending, the first thing to do is cast a web, if one is not already there. When defending, a single web can be enough to deter many opponents from attacking, depending on how much you killed them earlier on in the game.
In battles, you should be hiding in the web, attacking from behind or the side, on weak nuke heroes or damage dealers. That is how you will create confusion. If you can attack from behind, while your allies initiate from the front. You can usually easily get a hero kill, before your targets allies even realize that he/she needs help.
The Broodmother injects her young into a target, creating immense pain. If the target is killed by the injection, spiderlings will be born.
Level 1 - 75 damage, 1 spiderling. Mana Cost: 75
Level 2 - 150 damage, 2 spiderlings. Mana Cost: 90
Level 3 - 225 damage, 3 spiderlings. Mana Cost: 105
Level 4 - 300 damage, 4 spiderlings. Mana Cost: 120
Cool down: 10 seconds.
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Not my particular favorite skill. I do not get it at all during the course of the game. But a lot of people swear by it, as it is broods only nuke.
It has a fairly cheap mana cost, but because brood has a low mana pool (with my build it will always be low) spamming it is not an option. The slow from the spiderlings stacks with your own slow, but that is not a good enough reason for me to get it.
For you to get the spiders you must deliver the final blow to kill something, or kill that unit within a 1 second timeframe after this spell is cast.
A lot of people like to use the spiders as tanks, but I prefer to just use broods ultimate, if I really need to farm that badly.
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Spin Web ( B )
Spins a web which grants the Broodmother invisibility in an area, regeneration, truesight, as well as a passive speed increase. Regeneration improves per level.
Level 1 - 2 allowed webs. Mana Cost: 140
Level 2 - 4 allowed webs. Mana Cost: 140
Level 3 - 6 allowed webs. Mana Cost: 140
Level 4 - 8 allowed webs. Mana Cost: 140
Cool down: 90/75/60/45 seconds.
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Broods signature skill, it is simple to use, effective, and very versatile in all things. This skill is very powerful at anytime during the game. Early game you will mostly be using it for the invisibility, regeneration, and to some extent the movement speed.
As the game progresses the regenerations usefulness does go down, but the other skills just go up in usefulness. The invisibility is invaluable at anytime during the game, and the truesight the webs give will be used a lot in my strategy. The movement speed is the only skill that actually gets better with time. Because it gives a percentage, meaning the more base movement speed you get the more of a bonus you will get from your webs.
Bloodseekers Strygwyr’s Thirst reveals you if you are below 40% life points, even if you are invisible. So if you are being chased by him do not think you can live by going invisible.
You get the regeneration, truesight, and movement speed as soon as you are in the range of the web. But the invisibility has a 2 second fade time, and a 3 second reappear time.
Skills such as Bloodseekers Bloodrage that prevent you from casting spells, do not prevent you from going invisible, as long as the web is already in place before the spell was cast on you. Web is a outside unit, because it cannot be targeted, it cannot be silenced. Meaning you are always able to go invisible.
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Incapacitating Bite ( P )( Passive )
Gives the Broodmother venoms which will greatly reduce the target’s ability to function, and deals extra damage.
Level 1 - Gives a 10% chance to miss, slows movement speed by 10%, and adds 2 damage.
Level 2 - Gives a 15% chance to miss, slows movement speed by 20%, and adds 4 damage.
Level 3 - Gives a 20% chance to miss, slows movement speed by 30%, and adds 6 damage.
Level 4 - Gives a 25% chance to miss, slows movement speed by 40%, and adds 8 damage.
Orb effect.
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A great orb effect. Although it is an active spell, you must attack an opponent at least once (just like desolater) for it to be placed upon an opponent.
At level 3 you can chase down any hero as long as you have at least boots of speed, and at level 4 a hero is nearly walking. My strategy relies heavily on this skill.
Every attack you make with bite, is considered you casting a spell on an enemy hero. Meaning that attacking a hero with Linken’s Sphere, will use up that Linken’s Spell Block. It also works on Roshan’s spell Block. This is very useful in team battles. When a strong hero has gotten a Linkens, and you need to target him with a spell but cannot.
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Insatiable Hunger ( T )
The Broodmother develops a violent thirst for vital fluids. This lust greatly increases her attack damage and gives her a vampiric attack.
Lasts 20 seconds.
Level 1 - 60 bonus damage, 40% life steal. Mana Cost: 100
Level 2 - 75 bonus damage, 50% life steal. Mana Cost: 100
Level 3 - 90 bonus damage, 60% life steal. Mana Cost: 100
Cool down: 60 seconds.
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After web, insatiable hunger is what brood is known for the most. 60% life steal is no laughing matter, and that is only half the skill. Not only does it give you life steal, it gives you extra damage with which to use the life steal, what more could you ask for.
This skill is removed by purge, both from Medusa and from Diffusal Blade.
Insatiable Hunger is not an orb. It does stack with all lifesteal items and skills. Including Vlad, Satanic, HotD, MoM. (but most of them override your orb).
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(2) Spawn Spiderlings
(3) Spawn Spiderling
(4) Web
(5) Spawn Spiderlings
(6) Insatiable Hunger
(7) Spawn Spiderlings
(8) Incapacitating Bite
(9) Incapacitating Bite
(10) Incapacitating Bite
(11) Insatiable Hunger
(12) Incapacitating Bite
(13-14) Web
(15) Stats
(16) Insatiable Hunger
(17-25) Stats
Web is by far the best choice for level 1. Because you’re other spells will do next to nothing at level 1, the movement speed, regeneration, and invisibility that your webs provide is what is going to allow you to farm, and heal for most of your early/mid game.
Spawn Spiderlings is your only nuke, naturally you want to max it as fast as possible to help you get kills. The spiderlings that spawn can be helpful in farming and in neutral creeping, and the slow from your spiderlings stacks with your own bite.
Incapacitating Bite is gotten to allow you and your spiders to keep up with an enemy hero. Your spiderlings have a natural movement speed of around 370 (Yeah that’s a lot) but that still doesn’t mean they can keep up with all heroes once they get boots of speed. One point in Bite means that it combined with your spiderlings bite, decreases your opponents movement speed by 25%, which is a lot for only level 3.
Insatiable Hunger is gotten at all levels it is available. It is still your killing skill, and it will be used as such. Life steal combined with your slow means no hero will be able to escape you very easily.
Short List
Gloves of Haste 610
Shop: Cache of the Quel’thelan
Description:
+15% Increased Attack Speed
Requires:
Nothing
Bracer 510
Shop: Level 1 (Human) Shop
Description:
+3 All Attributes
+3 Strength
Requires:
Circlet of Nobility
Gauntlets of Strength
Bracer Recipe
Boots of Travel 2700
Shop: Level 1 (Human) Shop
Description:
Increase movement speed by 90
Teleport
Requires:
Boots of Speed
Boots of travel Recipe
Black King Bar 3800
Shop: Level 3 (Night Elf) Shop
Description:
+10 Strength
+18 Damge
Activatable Avatar (Last 10 Seconds)
Requires:
Ogre Axe
BroadSword
Black King Bar Recipe
The ButterFly 5950
Shop: Level 4 (Undead) Shop
Description:
+25 Agility
+25 Damage
+25% Attack Speed
+25% Evasion
Requires:
QuarterStaff
EagleHorn
The ButterFly Recipe
Long List
1. 2 Tango’s (160) + Circlet of nobility (185)
(If its -Ar buy 2 circlets)2. Boots of Speed (500) + Circlet of Nobility (185) + 2 Gauntlets of Strength (300)
3. Gloves of Haste (610) (Midas recipe (1400) = Optional)
4. Boots of travel Recipe (2200) + Complete your 2 bracers (350)
5. Black King Bar (3800) (Ogre Axe first)
6. Butterfly (5950) (QuarterStaff First)
This build is on the expensive side, it comes to 14240. But I do not expect you to get everything, this is just to show you what is needed. Most games you probably won’t complete butterfly before the game ends, that is to be expected.
Tangos are got over any other regeneration item because they are cheap, effective, and they heal you faster than a RoR. Because you have your webs, you will not need to heal too much, and later on in the game you will not be relying on regeneration at all. So it would be a waste to buy RoH, or RoR.
This build focuses on increasing your survivability early game (Bracers) and your attack and movement speed. Basically that is all you need, life, attack speed, and movement speed. The damage and life steal from your ultimate is enough to get you kills. A little later on in the game Black King Bar is gotten to increase your survivability. You get 10 seconds of time to attack with your life steal uninterrupted. That is enough to kill most Intelligence heroes and damage dealers.
Butterfly is to increase your damage, attack speed, and the evasion is great. Although it doesn’t stack with your orb because one affects yourself and the other your opponent, but how it works is that it does the numbers for your orb. If they are able to hit, then it does the numbers for your butterfly, it does not stack but you do get both.
Here are the numbers in math craft:
I don’t know which one comes first, but generally, when the target attacks, he has a 25% chance to miss because of Incapacitating Bite. The other 75% of the time, he gets through, but he still has another 25% chance to miss because of Butterfly’s evasion. Or vice-versa.
Long story short, a Bite-d unit attacking Broodmother with a Butterfly has a 43.75% chance to miss (1 - (0.75 * 0.75)).
This item was in the original build. But because the average player cannot farm this item fast enough to make it useful, I decided to take it out. But if you think you can farm it fast enough, within the first 10-15 minutes of the game, do not hesitate to get this item. The attack speed is extremely helpful. And the instant gold, helps you throughout the game in farming. Just make sure you remember to use it on every single cool down, to maximize its potential. Do not wait for that one special creep.
A great item for brood, at least late game when you need that extra boost in damage to help get you kills, and the critical hits count as physical damage, so they do give you life steal. You can normally get this item after you have gotten the core item build.
Yes, it actually is a good combo even for brood (who knew). The damage and survivability is completely useful. Although it is quite hard to farm, so unless you think the game is going to go on forever. I would just suggest you to get aegis and leave it at that.
It’s just a great item in my opinion. But with brood it’s extremely entertaining to watch a Crystal maiden or enigma cast their ultimate, only to have you pop out from behind him/her and stun. The damage is great and the attack speed is also useful.
This is one of my favorite items. Honestly I have yet to find a hero who this item is bad on. What’s more is that it goes perfectly with you and your skills. This item is good because as soon as you come out of your avatar state from BKB, the next stun is almost always directed at you. This item lets you life steal for just a bit longer, plus the bonuses are great.
I know I say to stay away from orb effects, but this is a special case. With SnY, as long as you do not keep it in your first slot, it does not override your natural orb effect. While it is extremely expensive, and I would not recommend it unless you are in an –Em game, it does give you everything you need, attack speed, damage, life boost, movement speed, making it a great choice for any player.
Although it is no were near as important as the core items, it is still a great choice for after. A great thing about SnY, is that combined with BoT and your webs, your movement speed is maxed at 522 (max movement speed you can have). That pretty much guarantees no hero will ever escape you.
I see many people getting orb effects and it makes me want to scream. Do not get any orb effect items. Your incapacitating bite is an orb effect, getting another one cancels it out. And incapacitating bite is an extremely powerful orb effect.
In every single way this sentence is completely wrong. One thing brood does not need is damage, at least not until later on in the game. Bracers are superior for you in every way to bands. Even nulls are better than bands. But since you do not need much mana, nulls are also a bad idea. Brood needs life to keep her alive while is dealing out her damage. Because a lot of heroes can dish out quick damage, nuke heroes such as slayer are the big problem. You need a way to survive the initial nukes and then you can start dealing damage.
It is not a bad item, I just prefer to get items that are useful at all times of the game. Of course if you do get this early enough it can be effective. But as soon as it hit mid/late game you’re going to be in a world of hurt. Items such as Midas and BKB are what brood needs. They are useful at all times of the game, so I use my gold on those instead.
Radiance is a great item in my opinion. In most cases you would think it would be great for brood also. But with my strategy, I prefer to not get it.
For one, the twinkles completely give away your position, both when ganking and when leaving a lane.
For two, the absolute best time to farm Radiance is early game. The early game for this strategy consists of biding your time until level 6-7. And then you spend your time ganking heroes all over the map. Because of that you really do not have much time to farm Radiance.
Ya um well, I only play with brood and ya, i kick but
I start with Web and i solo.
some say its GAY, I say it’s the best, and Vlads adds damage so u dont need Vlads and Hunger to stack.
Then its Bite, lvl 1 spawn spiderlings then go for ulti bite, super slow
I go for Power Treads 1st.
Then Vlads and once im lvl 6 and have my ulti, im unkillable, i can go on beyond godlike kills with 27 kills and 0 deaths.
After Vlads its Butterfly, then Divine Rapier and then Sange and Yasha and Descolater, if im fed enough. well ya, only after iv got lvl 4 spawn spiderlings and bite, lvl 2 instable hunger, then i go for webs, i can get to such an annoying state that people leave the game :)!
Later: KryLiX