Hero Guide: Broodmother

Broodmother is a beastly pusher and carry with her swarms of minions. She's a lot of fun and pretty relevant in the current meta-game.

Items

Starting:

• 1 x Tangos
• 1 x Salve
• 1 (or 2) x Mana Potion
• 2 (or 3) x Iron Branch
• 1 x Ring of Protection / Courier / Observer Wards (the latter two more so for solo MM)

Alt Starting:

• Quelling Blade: This is a very situational pick up if you're solo mid against a hero like Tiny that can deny the shit out of you with his high base damage.

Core:

• Power Treads: You benefit from the extra HP, the attack speed, and you can switch to different stats when needed.
• Ring of Basilius: Gives you mana regen and is a nice asset while pushing. Some people choose to later upgrade this into Vlads (but that is generally a luxury item)
• Soul Ring: The bread and butter of pushing. Your webs increase your regen, so losing HP to gain mana isn't really an issue.
• Magic Wand: Always a nice addition to any hero build. Having charges on your wand can really get you out of trouble in a pinch.
• Black King Bar: You are incredibly frail. But, you have an ult that gives you massive life leech. However, you cannot use that if you get stunned. Therefore, you need BKB.

Situational:

• Assault Curiass: Great for the attack speed and additional pushing power. It helps the entire team as well, while also synergizing with your ult by giving you attack speed that further enhances your survival.
• Vladamir's Offering: If you're going more for a Pusher role, Vlad's isn't an awful pick up later in the game. It benefits the team and your creeps/minions a bit. Also, unlike Satanic, the lifesteal will work with your passive because it's not a Unique Attack Modifier.
• Boots of Travel: Late game, getting these will help you be a complete douchebag by being able to port to a late and push the shit out of it, then flee.
• Radiance: A generally good pushing item. If you're hidden in your webs and the enemy doesn't have any reveals, it can help make them back off. You do already have a good amount of push from your Spiderlings, but more doesn't hurt, especially if you're up against a hero like Earthshaker that will pushish you for having a swarm.
• Butterfly: Your passive's miss chance stacks with the evasion, making you a pain in the ass to go 1v1 with. You also benefit from the AGI, that being your main attribute. It will make you closer to a glass cannon, but a cannon that can dodge shit.
• Monkey King Bar: For that sweet mini bash and increased damage output, plus you get True Strike.
• Heart of Tarrasque: Mega boost to your survivability
• Orchid Malevolence: Orchid can be a great pickup to stop players from escaping you with blinks or smiting you with their spells. It gives bonus damage, bonus attack speed, and delicious mana regen.
• Drum of Endurance: This is not exactly an optimal item on Brood, however, if you're not doing super great it gives you some things that benefit you and your minions. You also gain some nice stats like STR/HP and INT/Mana.

There are plenty of other options. It depends on what the game calls for. I mean, you could pick up an Orchid if they have an Anti-Mage to stop them from blinking away (plus, the attack speed and mana regen are nice), or a Manta Style for more suvivability, pushing power, and team fight presence.

What you want to avoid is items that have Unique Attack Modifiers, since you already have one as a normal skill.

Skill Builds

My preferred build is as such:

• Spin Web / Incapacitating Bite / Spin Web / Spawn Spiderlings / Spawn Spiderlings / Ult

Then, depending on what is needed, I'll either max out Spin Web or Spawn Spiderlings first, usually going with Spawn Spiderlings for the nuking and pushing power.

My justification is that I like the harass power of my passive, plus I can constantly harass my opponent by regening in the web. Also, having some slow and chance to miss is better than none.

Another popular build is:

1. Spin Web
2. Spawn Spiderlings
3. Spawn Spiderlings (sometimes Spin Web here)
4. Incapacitating Bite / Spin Web
5. Spawn Spiderlings

This build focuses on either: Nuking power, early push, or sending your Spiderlings to farm out of lane.

General Strategy

Spiderlings:

Spiderling micro is pretty critical on Broodmother. There are many uses to them:

• Farming the jungle while you lane
• Pushing towers
• Trapping/surrounding heroes
• Harassing heroes
• Scouting / The poor Brood Ward -- put these at chokes so you won't get ganked, use them to see what the rune is (sometimes destroying it if you/an ally cannot get there in time), seeing if the enemy is Roshing, etc...
• Catching enemies. Your Spiderlings run at 350 and have a 15% move slow on attack.

But you always have to be careful. Do not feed your spiderlings to the enemy.

Webs:

• If you're solo mid, you will usually need less webs than in a side lane
• Watch out for dust on enemies or Sentry wards
• Your ult grants bonus damage in addition to life leech
• Webs grant a small sight radius (150). They can sometimes be useful for watching wards, ramps, etc..
• Webs give you a movespeed increase. Sometimes, throwing one down while fleeing can give you the extra boost you need
• Webs destroy trees, they are awesome for anti-juking
• When you get into a web, there's a 2 second fade time. Do not expect to be instantly safe.

Other stuff:

• Much of your farm comes from bulldozing towers, remember you're an awesome pusher in addition to a carry.
• Remember, Incapacitating Bite is a Unique Attack Modifier (previously known as an Orb Effect). It will not work with other UAMs (e.g. Satanic, Desolator, etc...)