Asian Girls | Dota Guide and Strategy

Table of Contents

I. Introduction
II. Pro’s and Con’s

• Pro’s
• Con’s

III. Skills
IV. Skill Build
V. Item Build
VI. Other Items

• Good Items
• Items to Avoid

VII. Walkthrough

• Early Game
• Mid Game
• Late Game

VIII. Heroes

• Best Allies
• Worst Enemies

IX. FAQ’s
X. Replays
XI. Conclusion

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I. Introduction
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At first glance Dazzle seems like a weak hero with confusing skills. The first time I ever played Dazzle that was my initial though. After playing with him a few times, I got to realize how strong he really is.

I decided to write this guide because at the time, there were no guides on Dazzle. That was probably because he was, and still is to some degree, a very confusing hero.

With the recent removal of Aegis, Dazzle has gotten an indirect buff. This only helps in adding to Dazzles usefulness. He can finally be seen for what he is, a very powerful team hero, and a very fun hero to play.

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II. Pro’s and Con’s
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Pro’s
Great base damage after a couple levels
Great Ultimate
Fast Animation
Small collision size (helps a lot more than you would think)
High intelligence gain

Con’s
Terrible starting life
Fairly item dependant

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III. Skills
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Poison Touch

A poisonous magic is placed on an enemy unit causing it to move slowly becoming paralyzed. The longer the poison takes to set in, the slower the unit will become. After the poison sets in, it takes physical damage per second for 7 seconds. Target moves slower per level.

Level 1 - 7 damage. Takes 1 second to set in. Mana Cost: 100
Level 2 - 14 damage. Takes 2 seconds to set in. Mana Cost: 115
Level 3 - 21 damage. Takes 3 seconds to set in. Mana Cost: 130
Level 4 - 28 damage. Takes 3 seconds to set in. Mana Cost: 145

Cooldown: 15/13/11/9 seconds.

My Thoughts: A very powerful disable spell. Although not Dazzle’s most know spell, it is the one that will make your opponents want to scream. The “set in” time is actually a lot more useful than it might sound, as they are slowed before they stop. It adds more time for you, or an ally, to beat them into submission.

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Weave

A powerful shadow magic used to increase or decrease a targets defenses over time. Changes armor by 1 every pulse.
Lasts 17 seconds.

Level 1 - 4 Pulses. Mana Cost: 100
Level 2 - 8 Pulses. Mana Cost: 100
Level 3 - 12 Pulses. Mana Cost: 100
Level 4 - 16 Pulses. Mana Cost: 100

Cooldown: 20 seconds.

My Thoughts: A very confusing skill at first (at least it was to be). Weave takes time to “pulse”. The more pulses it does, the more armor you get. It is crap in the earlier levels, but at later levels it can be used to assist your team tank in surviving longer. Or you can cast it on an opponent, and watch their armor fall rapidly.
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Shadow Wave

Sends forth a Shadow Wave to heal a few units. Healed units also damage a small area around them for the same amount. Dissipated damage is Physical.

Level 1 - Dissipates 80 damage. 3 targets. Mana Cost: 80
Level 2 - Dissipates 100 damage. 3 targets. Mana Cost: 90
Level 3 - Dissipates 120 damage. 3 targets. Mana Cost: 100
Level 4 - Dissipates 140 damage. 4 targets. Mana Cost: 110

Cooldown: 12/10/8/6 seconds.

My Thoughts: The skill everyone knows Dazzle for. Shadow Wave is actually weak as a single target heal, only healing 140 damage at level 4. But that is why it hits multiple targets, which takes the heal total from 140 to 560. That makes it the 2nd best Non ultimate heal in the game, next to Death Pulse.

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Shallow Grave

The next time target allied hero dies; he will revive in 20% of the time and will not lose gold. Revives with full mana. The enemy still gets gold and experience. Dying unit will deal physical damage to its killer if it was a hero. Buff lasts 300 seconds.

Level 1 - Returns 150 damage. Mana Cost: 100
Level 2 - Returns 300 damage. Mana Cost: 200
Level 3 - Returns 450 damage. Mana Cost: 300

Cooldown: 300/200/100 seconds.

My Thoughts: Back before they nerfed this, it was the most imbalanced skill at the time. Even with the nerf it is still a very powerful ability, both for yourself and your allies.

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IV. Skill Build
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(1) Shadow Wave
(2) Poison Touch
(3) Shadow Wave
(4) Poison Touch
(5) Shadow Wave
(6) Shallow Grave
(7) Shadow Wave
(8-9) Poison Touch
(10) Stats
(11) Shallow Grave
(12-15) Weave
(16) Shallow Grave
(17-25) Stats

Shadow Wave at level 1 is far superior to Poison Touch. The damage and slow from Poison Touch is nearly non existent. A heal, although not necessarily used at level 1, is still more useful than poison touch, if needed.

Poison Touch is your 3rd most useful skill, next to Shadow Wave and Shallow Grave, and should be maxed out right after Shadow Wave. Although it does not become really useful until level 3, once it does hit level 3 you can cast it a lot in battles, and to harass opponents.

Shadow Wave is your farming, healing, damaging spell all rolled into one. Naturally you want to max it as quickly as possible.

Shallow Grave is gotten at all opportunities because it is your most valuable skill. Reducing death time and not losing gold is a very good thing to have when trying to farm a lane, and Shallow Grave does both of these things.

Weave is gotten around when you need to be pushing, and for team battles. It costs to much early game for it to be spammed, making it useless for you while you’re in your lane.

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V. Item Build
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1.) Sobi Mask (325) + Tango’s (160)
(If it’s AR Complete Ring of Basilius and buy a Circlet of Nobility instead of 1 Tango)

2.) Ring of Protection (175) + Circlet of Nobility (370) + Boots of Speed (500)
(If you bought a Circlet earlier, only buy 1)

3.) Gauntlets of Strength (300) + Complete Bracers (350)

4.) Boots of Travel Recipe (2200)

Sobi –> RoB is to help you to cast your spells. Because of Dazzles high INT, Basilius is enough to keep his mana up, at least until later on in the game.

The circlets and gauntlets —> Bracers are to increase Dazzles survivability early game. Dazzle has very low life and he can, and most likely will, be targeted a lot. Bracers add a great boots in life for cheap cost.

Boots of Travel is far more useful than any other item this early in the game for Dazzle. Because of your great pushing, farming, defending ability you should go wherever you can farm, or help. BoT will help you very much in doing this. Because of your ultimate you will want to cast it on an ally hero always, teleporting between lanes gives you a great opportunity to do this.

This build is very cheap, only coming to 4380. Leaving it cheap gives you a lot more opportunities to counter your enemies, or help your team if they lack something.

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VI. Other Items
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Good Items

Guinsoo’s Scythe of Vyse
If your team is lacking in disables or you are up against a lot of channeling heroes, Guinsoos is a great way to counter that. Not only that, the extra boost to your mana means you can spam your spells far more often.

Kelans Dagger of Escape
Because Dazzle has no natural escape mechanism, he is a prime target for Focus Firing, Ganking, and just overall targeting. You can avoid this by getting DoE. Blink is the best escape ability in the game, and it will make your life a lot easier when trying to escape from opponents.

Eye of Skadi
Skadi is probably one of the best items for Dazzle. The slow helps not only you, but your teammates also. The extra stat bonus is great, as it increases your life and mana also. I usually get this item right after the core build, as long as I am not being targeted to much, or my team does not need a disable.

Mekansm
Mekansm is the premier support item. When you think support build, Mekansm is probably the first item that comes to your mind. If no one on your team gets this item, I highly suggest you get this right after the core build, as it will help you and your allies by a lot.

Necronomicon
If no one on your team is getting Necronomicon, I highly suggest you buy it. With Dazzle playing a support role means dealing no damage in battles, but healing instead. Getting Necronomicon allows you to actually do something more in battles, other than just heal and Weave heroes.

Hood of Defiance
You are going to be targeted sooner or later. If you are versus a lot of casters, HoD will help you survive more than any other item. If you do get this, I would get it right after BoT. You have everything you need in your skills; all you need is survivability to use those skills in battles.

Vanguard
This is basically the opposite of HoD. If your opponents are not casters, then this is the best option to increase your survivability. Just like HoD, you should get this right after BoT.

Items to Avoid

Assault Cuirass
Although it might seem like it would be great for Dazzle, it is not. The armor reduction and bonus is very helpful, but everything else is wasted. The attack speed really isn’t needed, as you’re not a damage dealer, you are support. Even though it gives the attack speed to your allies also, the most attack speed is still with the carrier of the item. If you’re the one carrying it, it is wasted.

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VII. Walkthrough
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Early Game (1-10)

As soon as the game starts, buy your items and decide on a lane. Any lane for Dazzle is fine, although if you have a choice, I suggest you go any lane other than mid. Mid lane is usually were the heavy nuke range heroes go, and both of those, nuke/range, will completely mess you up.

You want your opponent(s) to be melee. Melee units are more easily hit by your Shadow Wave because they must be right next to the creeps to attack. This will make your job a lot easier in harassing. And it will disrupt your opponents farming, because they must choose between gold, or taking damage from you.

Wait until the first creep wave spawns, and do the usual Creep Blocking tactics to stall them. You can refer to my Guide on Lane Control HERE for information on how to do that. Dazzle is a very fragile hero at least until you get a bracer or two, and even then he is no were near able to take heavy damage. You should always be trying to stay in a safe location. Being near a tower is about as safe as it gets in terms of lanes, which is why you creep block.

You should be doing the usual deny/last hit on creeps to farm. Later on you can use Shadow Wave to farm, but it doesn’t do enough damage yet for it to be a good farming tool.

In the early levels of the game, you should only be casting Shadow Wave when your mana is full, to harass opponents, or in case of emergencies (such as you or an ally is near death). Other than that, you don’t want to spam it to much.

Poison Touch should not be cast at all, because it is nearly useless at level 1-2. Although it does slow for a short period of time, the mana spent can be put to better use in Shadow Wave.

Once you hit level 6, you have a choice to make. Depending on how much you or your ally was harassed should be the one who gets Shallow Grave cast on them. There is really no point in casting it on yourself if you are not in any danger of dying.

On the other hand remember that casting Shallow Grave on your ally, or yourself, can make your opponents start to target you, or your opponent. A lot of people will ignore the player that has Shallow Grave on them because they know they will be back in 5 seconds anyways.

You can use Shallow Grave to help you “Shift the Attacks” of your opponents. Although it does not always work, Shallow Grave can be used to discourage your opponents from attacking a certain hero (at least as long as you are in your lane). Later on in team battles not many people actually pay attention to what buffs heroes have on them, so it doesn’t work as well then.

Once you get level 3-4 Shadow Wave, you can start using it to farm with. Although with my build you won’t have huge mana regeneration, or mana for that matter, Dazzles base INT and INT gain is very high. You will have plenty of mana for spamming Shadow Wave as long as you don’t go crazy.

When farming with Shadow Wave, you always want to get at least 1 creep per cast. Wait until the first creep your creeps are targeting is at red health, and cast Shadow Wave on the closest creep to it. This guarantees you at least 1 creep kill every wave.

It shouldn’t take you to long to farm up BoT. I usually get it around level 8-10 depending on how well I am farming. Once you get it check and see if any lane needs defending, or if someone is having trouble in their lane or needs a gank.

Your priority should look like this. Defending > Ally Trouble with Lane > Farming Ally > Gank.

You are a support hero of course, but defending a lane takes precedence over anything else early game. Just teleport to a lane, cast Shadow Wave a couple times, and wait for your ally to get back or gain control again. Once he does teleport to another lane or back to your own.

If an ally is in trouble, it is much the same as defending; only you should cast Shallow Grave on him also. If they are having that much trouble, then they are probably near death a lot of the time. Shallow Grave ensures that if a death does occur, it won’t be a huge thing for your ally.

If you have an ally who is rushing a late game item, such as Clinkz, Razor, Sylabear, or Troll Warlord, you should try and keep Shallow Grave on them as much as possible. If they can farm their items quickly it only makes you and your team’s job easier. The reduced death time, and them not losing gold upon death, makes their job easier and faster than it normally would be.

Ganking comes last, but is still important. You have a heal, and a very good slow. You should use both when ganking a hero. As soon as you get to the lane run out and attack your target a couple times. When he starts to run, if your ally doesn’t have a stun, then cast Poison Touch on them. While they are being slowed, take the opportunity to run directly in front of them, in their escape path, so that they are in range of your Shadow Wave. Cast Shadow Wave on yourself which will damage your opponents because you are in range now. But because you are in their path, they must fumble around you to get back. This gives you and your ally a very good chance to get a kill.

Mid Game (11-18)

Mid game is usually when Team Battles start to occur. You role in a team battle is to cast Shallow Grave on the tank of the team, and to spam your other spells. Yes I mean spam them. It doesn’t matter if you don’t think it is needed; just use them on every cool down.

The first Weave that you cast should be on your tank hero a little before the battle. You want the armor bonus to “set in” so that it is strong before the battle starts. I have seen people die so fast that the armor did not even have time to set in. Casting it beforehand makes sure that it will be ready during the battle.

After that, you can start casting it on enemy heroes. Heroes who have a lot of health, and armor are good targets. Heroes such as Centaur and Panda are good examples of this.

During team battles, Dazzle can sometimes be an easy target for your opponents. You have no escape mechanism and very low life. When using Shadow Wave to heal yourself, such as during team battles, always make sure to cast it on yourself and not on other people first. Shadow Wave will not heal Dazzle, unless it is initially cast upon him. Even if the animation comes back to Dazzle, he will not get healed.

When choosing a hero to cast Shallow Grave on, your first priority should be Tank heroes. There job is to run into a battle and to take as much damage as possible and, if need be, die for the team. Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a spell that allowed them to come back 80% faster, and lose no gold? The reason most people hate to die, is that they lose a % of their current gold. Shallow Grave gets rid of that, allowing your Tank to go Kamikaze into a battle.

The next best targets are heroes who require a lot of items to be effective, AKA people who need a lot of gold. They can be heavily targeted for that very reason, so making sure they don’t lose gold upon death lets them get their items that much faster.

Late Game (19-25)

Late game, your skills become more and more useful. The higher level people become, the longer they must stay dead once they die. 80% reduction in death time is no laughing matter, and can help you in pushing, as well as defending.

Say 2 heroes kill each other, but one has Shallow Grave on them. On takes 100 seconds to come back, the other takes 20. You got rid of an opponent for 80 seconds, that is a very useful thing.

Late game you should still be casting Shallow Grave on your tank, but once you hit level 16. The cool down allows you to cast it on 2-3 heroes at once, depending on how fast you cast each one. The 2nd Shallow Grave should be placed upon your Damage Dealer. Late game they are your most useful allies and will keep you in the game with their GG items. Heroes such as Razor, Clinkz, Sylabear, and Troll Warlord are good heroes to choose. Just make sure they actually have the gg items, before you cast shallow Grave on them.

The 3rd Shallow Grave, should be cast on the hero who is helping your tank and damage dealer the most. Just watch the game, you can tell who is dealing a lot of damage, helping out a lot, or just tanking damage. You want to choose someone who is useful don’t use Shallow Grave on someone who does not help in battles, or who dies in 2 seconds. Even if it might seem like that is what Shallow Grave is for, it is not.

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VIII. Heroes
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Best Allies

Disablers

Your disable is good, but combined with an ally disable you have a very high chance of getting kills early game. Without an ally stun, the chances of you getting kills is very low, unless your opponent has ADD (it happens).

Razor

Any hero who requires items to be effective, is now your best friend. Shallow Grave lets them get their items much quicker, and the reduced death time lets them get back to farming faster if they die.

Worst Enemies

Anti-Mage

Anti-Mage is basically the opposing hero of you. Blink allows him to get up close and personal with you. And having no natural escape mechanism, he can chase you down easily with Blink. On top of that, his Mana Void is nearly guaranteed a kill on you. Your high INT means you have a large mana pool. Void will do massive damage to you very fast.

Vengeful Spirit

VS is much like AM, with one key difference. Instead of getting right next to you, Vs puts you right next to your opponents. That is all before she stuns you. If you ever get caught in Swap + Stun, you can kiss your butt goodbye. Best way to avoid this is to stay back away from her in battles, and always run if you see her coming for you.

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IX. FAQ’s
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Weave can be very confusing at first. When I first used it I was wondering the same things you probably are.

Weave is a powerful skill, but it needs time to get going.

Level 1 it will pulse once every 4 seconds.
Level 2 it will pulse 2 times every 4 seconds.
Level 3 it will pulse 3 times every 4 seconds.
Level 4 it will pulse once every second.

The pulse equals 1 armor boost. As you can tell from my crazy mathcraft, it gets much stronger every level. The only problem is that it only really gets useful at level 3-4. Until then, it is not nearly as useful as any of Dazzles other skills.

With Shadow Wave you can. While you cannot actually click on them to heal, if Shadow Wave bounces to them it will heal them.

As long as Shadow Wave is able to bounce to the hero, you will heal that unit. But because they are immune, you cannot click on them. Basically its just a lucky bounce if your trying to heal them for a reason.

I realize there are no pictures in my guide. I am one who loves pictures for a guide. But thinking up pictures for Dazzle is quite difficult, as there is really no premier things you should know how to cast. Everything is a 1 click basic, and cannot really be “taught”.

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X. Replays
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Coming soon to a store near you.

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XI. Conclusion
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Thank you for reading my guide. I will, as with all my guides, continue to edit this guide further.

This is the newest revision of my old Dazzle guide. If you liked the first, I ask you read this one also. IT should be a much better read.

I hope this guide has helped you to better understand a very powerful hero. I think Dazzle is a very misunderstood hero. I see him repicked much too often. I hope my guide changes that, if just a little.