Guide to Brood Mother

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Introduction
This hero underwent quite a few changes over course of a year. Initially a forgotten hero, she rose to popularity when his Lifesteal Ultimate was buffed immensely (20sec duration, 60/45/30secs cd per lvl. Another contributing buff was her reduced attack animation, which means easier animation cancelling while chasing). Much rage ensued in the old forum, the majority begging Icefrog to nerf this hero. And nerfed she was.
Albeit being nerfed, she still managed to show herself in the competitive scene from time to time. 

During the early days in the scene, she was built more towards a pure carry. The typical build was maxing Bite for early game ganking power. Building up Treads + BKB + Butterfly and carrying the team to victory. Brood getting banned every single game was a norm back then. It was clear that more nerfing was needed, and so her Ultimate was nerfed from 20secs to 12secs. Around that time, teams who were still using brood in their lineup converted to a Pusher playstyle, making Spiderlings to take out towers. As more and more teams gets accustomed to playing against brood (and upon developing decent counters), we see less of her nowadays. That and the ever changing metagame in the competitive scene meant she will disappear once again like our dearest Pitlord. 

Changelog Summary:
*2 of her skills remained unchanged, namely Spawn Spiderlings and Incapacitating Bite
*Web once had true sight and cost 140mana. Now it no longer has true sight, has reduced vision but grants higher movespeed bonus and cost 50mana with lower CD as well (30secs at lvl 4)
*Hunger (Ultimate) went through a series of changes. Once it had 60secs CD at all levels, then reduced to 45secs. Soon after, it was changed again to 60/45/30sec. At this point, many were crying imbalanced all over the forums. Over the nerfing process, the bonus dmg + lifesteal was reduced, the duration was reduced from 20 to 12 secs (biggest nerf) while the CD was changed back to 60/45/30.
*Improvement in her attack animation was one of the biggest buff on her.
*Improvement to BKB. No longer cancels Hunger upon activation
*Was once a very strong jungler prior to the neutral creep changes around v6.51. Her solid laning ability overshadows her viability as a jungler however.
*In v6.60, changed spiderling's armor type from medium to normal and now take damage from first towers (50->100 %)

What is this Guide about?
There are 3 kinds of Brood Playstyle. 
A pure Solo Carry, a Jungler and a Pusher. The era of a solo carry is over, you won't see Brood maxing Bite for early game ownage anymore. Jungler Brood is quite ridiculous if you ask me. That was so 2 years ago. So this guide will be about Pusher Brood. If you like to know more on how to play a Solo Carry or Jungler, feel free to ask though. 
I know alot of people like to base on Competitive Builds for viable builds. Now that is bad. You can take insights from what they build, and try to understand the reasons as to why the items are chosen. Never take them whole, as they are not always right. 



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Skill Build
1) Web
2) Bite
3) Spiderlings
4) Spiderlings
5) Spiderlings
6) Hunger
7) Spiderlings

*Upon maxing spiderlings, you can either max up Web or Bite next. I usually go for Bite, but when faced with a high stun/disable team, I'd go for Web first for a more passive play. Going head-on biting stunner heroes can be non-productive
*Level Hunger whenever available, leave stats last


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Skill Information: Black Arachnia DotA Hero - DotA Allstars Official Websites


Spiderling Tips:
*Hit the Ranged Creep once before nuking him with a Lvl 4 Spiderling
*When pushing, send 1-2 spiderlings across the map (into the forest or fogged regions) to scout for enemies. Eg. if you are pushing Btm lane, send spiderlings to cut through the forest into mid lane. Chances are, some enemy heroes are coming from that direction to defend the btm lane. 
*If your spiders are idling, send them to the forest to kill creeps
*If they are still idling, send them to towers to backdoor


Web Tips:
*Never place webs side by side, space them apart around 1500 Range from each other. Ensures better coverage
*Can destroy trees. Used for escaping, chasing (making shortcuts), Anti-Juke, destroy Treant's Eye, etc
*Can be used for Rune vision, but note the limited vision (150AoE). You must place it directly on the rune location.
*You can create web prior to ganking if you feel the invisibility buff will help in initiating the attack. Better yet is to create the web in their escape route, so you get a speed boost as you pass by your own web when chasing down the stragglers.


Bite:
*At higher levels, avoid chasing a hero with your spiderlings. They tend to block you, unless you have phase boots. 
*Have a habit to "animation cancel" as you chase the enemy. You will land more hits that way.
*If you lose chase, drop a web for a speed boost to catch up with the enemy.


Hunger
*At early levels, you can use it for extra dps when taking down towers
*Watch out for heroes with diffusal, it will purge your lifesteal.
*BKB will not dispel your Hunger, so always hunger first before BKB. 

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Gameplay Summary:
1 -- Create 2 webs at mid lane
2 -- Eat lone tree to buy your Mana Booster (nice tactic if you are playing as Scourge)
3 -- Create web here to Anti-juke your fleeing enemy solo if needed.
4 -- Lay webs here during pushes. More vision for you and your allies.
5 -- Destroy these trees with web for easier access of neutral camps. Hang around the jungle and farm if you have nothing else to do
6 -- When enemy is pushing, you sneak into their base and swarm with spiderlings.


Gameplay
To play a pusher brood is simple. Push them before they push you. To do so, you must push earlier than them and keep the pressure going. Early game, you will buy these few items:

-- 2x tangoes
-- 4x clarities
-- 4x branches

After that:


-- Bracers if necessary, usually you won't need since you will hiding under webs most of the time.
-- Flasks mainly for self-healing and for allies. You have lifesteal but that requires creeps to suck, and is usually a slow process. You need to push fast.
-- TP scrolls, to jump to another lane once you are done with the towers in the current one.


You can be flexible with the type of boots to buy, 
Treads -- The +30% ias is helpful early game when used with Hunger. Usually, I will set treads to strength for the extra +HP.
Phase boots -- You get better chasing power with phase since you will no longer be blocked (by own spiderlings or creeps). Useful during late game when teamfights get messy
Travels -- Travels is nice if you want to abuse the Pushing Brood playstyle. It allows you to respond to opportunities immediately. Like for example, the whole enemy team is pushing mid, you can immediately jump to the bottom lane and ninja their raxxes.

Why an Arcane Ring?
For sustainable pushing. 
To spam spiderlings like no tomorrow and overwhelm your opponents. Push early while their AoE nukes are still weak to counter your spiderlings. Why not Vlads? It is an unneeded item. Pubbers always get this because they see competitive players get them too! Your spiderlings don't need the extra armor, they are expendables. You can always spawn a new one. Brood doesn't need the extra lifesteal lol. The mana regeneration (0.80) is pathetic. Arcane gives 3.33/sec, along with a 300mana boost. 

The Alternative Item: Orchid is commonly made in competitive games (for the mana regen) when playing the pusher playstyle. It works well throughout the game, unlike Arcane Ring. However, Orchid lacks the mana pool bonus and the build-up is pretty slow. For 1700 gold, Arcane provides an immediate boost to your pushing power. In lower-level games, a sudden push and dominance during early game can severely cripple the enemy team for the entire game. And that,.. is what we want to achieve with an Arcane Brood.


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Game starts
Head to mid lane to solo. Create your first web near your tower. The second web will be near the enemy tower. See the picture above. Your first task is to get enough money for a mana booster (1000gold). Last hit for gold, and harass at every opportunity. Once you have that amount, head to the lone tree, eat it, move in a few steps and wait for the fog to clear. You will see Secret Shop merchant, buy the Mana Booster from him. This strategy allows you not having to leave your lane for too long.



There will be two types Solos you will face. An AoE and non-AoE hero. Non-Aoe Heroes are easy to handle. Typical examples are Tinker, Sniper, Zeus, Lich (AoE but low dmg). You can spawn spiderlings to swarm them. They will most likely retreat to they second tower, if they dont, your spiders will most likely harass them to red health. Finish off with your nuke.
For AoE type heroes (eg. KotL, SF, Necrolyte, Pitlord, DP, Leshrac) you can try to clean them off with the same method. Swarm them with spiders. I can't exactly explain to you how to handle them, try watching the replays. If he is too strong, abandon the lane and push the side lanes. Call for an ally to take your place in Mid.

The next strategy that follows is to push the Btm and Mid lane, while leaving top for your carry. Do this only once all the outer towers have been destroyed. Hang around in their jungle and farm. 

The best way to push is to push when the enemy are busy doing something. Eg, pushing your towers as a team or engaging in a teamfight. Use this opportunity to strike their base. If the game allows backdooring, you may choose to backdoor, if it doesn't, you can push the lane which is about to enter the enemy base. 


Other items:


*Aim for BKB if you are facing a nuker/stunner/disabler team
*Go straight for Butterfly if you feel you can handle the stuns/nukes w/o magic immunity
*Still having cash? Go for anything else you like survivability or DPS items, except items with orb effects.

If they keep stalling your pushes, keep farming for your DPS items and win the game as a carry.


Notable Allies:
1) CM -- You can forgo Arcane Ring if you have her in your team. 
2) Lycan -- His howl will increase your spiderlings' dmg potential by a mile. Nice to have, but by no means necessary to have him in your team.

Broodmother Counters:
1) Diffusal -- Purge destroys your lifesteal
2) Axe -- considered to be one of the strongest counters to spiderlings. An Axe with vanguard cannot be kill by spiderlings. Avoid him and push other lanes.
3) Strong AoE nukers -- Shadow friend, Tormented Soul, Pitlord etc will screw up your pushes. If there are too many of them in the enemy lineup, don't pick Broodmother!


Conclusion
Again, the entire strategy of an Arcane Pusher Brood is to get the Ring fast and push. Take out the outer towers. If everything goes well, all towers can be down by the 15th min. Keep up the pressure, while your other carries farm up. Look at the replays if you are still unsure. If you have decent allies, you will not lose. 


And thanks for reading