Comparison: Sustainability Items (Early-Mid Game)

There are three big items that help with sustainability throughout the early-mid game:

• Tranquil Boots
• Vanguard
• Mekansm

 

Overview

	Tranquil Boots	Vanguard	Mekansm
Cost	975g	2225g	2306g
Component	Ring of Protection 175g Ring of Regen 350g Boots 450g	Stout Shield 250g Ring of Health 875g Vitality Booster 1100g	Headdress 603g Buckler 803g Recipe 900g
Stats	+80 Move Speed +3 Armor +3 HP/Sec	+250 HP +6 HP / Sec	+5 STR +5 AGI +5 INT +5 Armor
Active	HEAL 170 HP over 10 Seconds Regen Stops if damaged by players or Roshan Costs 24 Mana 40 Second Cooldown		RESTORE Heals 250 HP in 750 Radius Applies +2 Armor in a 750 Radius Cannot affect units that have had Restore in last 25 seconds Costs 150 mana 45 Second Cooldown
Passive	BREAK If damage is taken (20 minimum) 4 times in 10 seconds, Boots become Boots of Speed until the last 10 seconds don't have 4 instances of damage.	DAMAGE BLOCK 70% chance to block damage (40 if you are Melee, 20 if you are Ranged)	MEKANSM AURA +4 HP / sec to all allies in 500 radius

Tranquil Boots

Overview

These boots are amongst the best items in the game right now. Cheap cost, paired with an excellent heal for a low mana cost make them a great option for a number of heroes. Being able to disassemble them later on is even more of an incentive to buy them.

You'll frequently see these picked up on off-laners who need the HP regen to live through the trilane harass. Carries also pick these boots up frequently for the burst of healing and the low cost gives them a decent set of boots that allow them to hit bigger items faster. Junglers also pick these up frequently (specifically melee junglers).

Burst Healing vs. Sustained Healing

In a lot of ways, the burst of healing is much better than a sustained healing (e.g. Vanguard). In a high level setting, you're more likely to see a coordinated attempt to quickly burst a hero down (e.g. double stun) than a spell here and there. If you live through the combo, you can retreat and be back in the fray within 10 seconds.

On the other hand, an item like Vanguard would take significantly longer to allow you to return to the action.

Downsides and Coping

There are some downsides to Tranquil Boots. You don't get any HP, they are terrible for escaping (being able to break), and they give no stats.

But like every item, the downsides aren't so bad if you realize how to play around them. You want to be the aggressive side of a conflict if you get these, static farming, or already have a good escape mechanism.

Vanguard

Overview

At the moment, Vanguard is fairly unpopular at the pro level. In many ways, it's overshadowed by Tranquil Boots. The two items fill a similar role, but Tranquil Boots are a fraction of the cost of Vanguard, making Tranquils much more appealing. Having an extra 1250g means you're able to get big items faster.

That said, Vanguard is still a very powerful early-mid game item if you can farm it fast enough, but really only if you're a melee hero. The HP and Regen are great, but the damage block is devastating early game. On average, you're blocking 28 damage per auto attack, which is roughly half of many heroes base damage. However, you must take into account that much of the damage early game is from spells, but that's where the 250 raw HP is useful.

Downsides and Coping

The real downside of Vanguard is the price, and to some extent the rate of regeneration.

To make the most use of the item, you'd want to get aggressive early on and be involved in many team fights. Early game is where the damage block will make the most difference (unless you plan on tanking creep damage).

If you plan on getting a farming item (e.g. Hand of Midas, Battlefury), then you will not want to pick up a Vanguard. It will set you back too much.

If you plan on farming heroes, this might be a good option. However, items like BKB may be more important to pick up early

If you are an Illusion hero, you're better off picking up the Vitality Booster and saving it for a Heart. As far as I know, your Illusions only benefit from flat HP, stats, and certain attack modifiers (e.g. Diffusal Blade). Damage Block animations may play for your Illusions, but the damage is not blocked.

At best, Vanguard is currently a luxury item similar to Bloodstone. It's nice to have, but no one absolutely needs it. The price is too high for what you get. If you get it, that should only be if you've been fed several kills very early on and plan to keep playing aggressively.

Mekansm

Overview

Mek is generally considered a "support" item, but in reality any hero can pick it up (e.g. Carries like Necrolyte frequently pick Mek up). A burst heal is good at any point in the game. The item gives a lot of good stats and the HP regen is very good, for being an aura. The components are small (other than the recipe), so it's quite easy to build up to.

Some pros have argued that Mekansm is more efficient than Vanguard and that if you're considering Vanguard, to get a Mek instead. A burst heal for the entire team can turn a fight around moreso than a single hero with Vanguard.

Downsides and Coping

The main issues with Mek are that it is expensive (though made up of inexpensive items), it requires activation (which can be hard to remember in the midst of a fight, especially if you've taken the least damage), and the mana cost is high (150). The heal and armor do become less helpful late game, but 250 burst heal is still decent.

To cope, you can build the item over time. It's generally more beneficial to get Buckler early because it has the active armor bonus that can essentially be activated all the time (cooldown and duration are the same). It's great for pushing towers as well.

During a fight, you just need to make sure you don't get initiated on so that you can activate Mekansm.

Lastly, it helps to be a hero with a high mana pool so that you can afford to use Mekansm often and when needed.

Final Thoughts

All three items are great for early game sustainability.

Over the years, Vanguard has fallen a lot in popularity. Changes that nerfed it ranged heroes started the downfall. With the introduction of Tranquil Boots and their rise in popularity, Vanguard has been overshadowed.

Another big factor seems to be a pacing change in the game. Vanguard was picked up considerably more when popular strategies did not involve as much early game pressure. Carries don't have the time to farm up a Vanguard just to be safe.

I would not go so far as to say Vanguard is a "bad item", but there are too many other items that are higher priority, and a number of heroes that can mitigate the downside of not having a Vanguard. For instance, Magnus is a powerful initiator with a long duration stun. Having several seconds to attack your opponents care free means you can prioritize damage items over something that is more for survivability.

As for the other items - Mekansm has always been popular. Given that Vanguard only blocks 20 damage on Ranged heroes, Mek is a pretty good substitute if you really want that extra survivability. It's an item that doesn't always have to be pawned off to the supports. In some cases, it can be hugely beneficial for a carry to get it. For example, Necrolyte is frequently in the middle of the fight so that his Pulses hit everyone. Having him carry a Mek is convenient for healing your entire team with ease (as opposed to a hero like Sniper who is off to the side). Razor is another good candidate, though lacking in mana.

Tranquil Boots are border line broken at the moment. They provide so many benefits like burst healing, cost effective, cheap, disassemble-able, and a lot of speed. If you're on the offensive, they aren't very likely to break, which makes them great for aggressive carries that want the heal and speed, but don't want to put a lot of money into boots early game.

In my opinion, Tranquil Boots have completely obsoleted Vanguard, and Vanguard is in need of buffs or is only going to be seen as a niche/luxury pick up going forward.

Item Guide: Invisibility Detection

Detection items are rarely seen in pub games. Even when you do see it, most people have no idea what item to get for their situation.

Here's the breakdown.

• Sentry Wards
• Dust
• Gem
• Spells
• Long Term
• Bounty Hunter's Track
• Slardar's Amplify Damage
• Short Term / Conditional
• Zeus' Lightning Bolt & Ult
• Bloodseeker's Thirst

Countering Detection:

•  Diffusal Blade
• Manta Style
• BKB

Lastly, we'll work through some scenarios to see how/when you might use these items.

Detection Items

 Sentry Wards

Uses:

• Counter-Intelligence (i.e. destroying Observer Wards)
• Blinding an enemy makes then very vulnerable to ganks
• Gives you more map control
• Observer Wards are on a cooldown, Sentries are not
• Pushing
•  If they have an invisible hero and you're trying to push a tower, plop down a Sentry to make it safe for the next 2 minutes
• Defending
• If you are defending a tower or your base, put one down to gain additional invisibility detection
• If you're afraid of being back doored, put one down at a vulnerable entrance to your base
• Roshan
• If the other team has a hero like Ursa (who regularly Smokes into Rosh), it's good to have a Sentry up  on Rosh around the time Ursa hits level 7 (typical time Ursa will rosh)
• If the other team has a hero like Riki and you're all Roshing, put one down so there is no chance he will steal the Aegis

Precautions:

• They only last 2 minutes (versus Observer Wards which last 6)

 Dust

Uses:

• Ganking an Invis hero
• You need to know where they are so you can Dust
• Prevents them from using Invis to escape
• Team Fights
• Use it during a teamfight so the enemy invisible hero is revealed the entire time
• Counter-Ganking / Baiting
• In some cases, Dust can be used once an invis hero has initiated, then your team will ideally come to your aid and get an easy kill (NOTE: This is risky because some heroes can be 1-3 shot by a fed invis hero)

Precautions:

•  Can be Purged
• Diffusal Blade (while offensively it slows and removes buffs), can be used defensively to get rid of debuffs on yourself/allies (i.e. things like Dust)
• Manta Style removes debuffs when used
• BKB gets rid of most debuffs
• Many heroes have spells that get rid of debuffs like Dust too 
• Long Cooldown
• Does not Stack

 Gem

Uses:

• Preventing a gank from happening
• Gem is great for stopping a gank from happening
• A lot of invis heroes will sit on top of you until allies come to assist them
• Counter-Intelligence
• Works the same way as a Sentry Ward, but it's mobile
• Get rid of all their vision
• Turning a Slight Advantage into a Huge One
• You've made one hero's spell useless (maybe more if they have multiple invis heroes or Shadow Blade users)
• True Sight works on illusions
• Gem is similar to an aura, and auras work on Illusions
• You and your illusions reveal (great for scouting out areas, split pushing, etc) 

Precautions:

• Dropped on Death
• If you have invis heroes, this can now be used against you
• Costs 700g
• Long cooldown on the item in the shop

Spells

Long Term

Track and Amplify Damage work similarly to Dust. They DO NOT counter invisible heroes. You have to have vision of them before these spells work. They are great once you get the spell on them (though they can be purged).

If picking up Slardar or BH will ruin your lineup, DO NOT get them. There are items that replace their ults' functionality.

Short Term / Conditional

A lot of people forget heroes like Zeus and Bloodseeker can reveal invisible heroes. It's not necessarily a reason to pick either hero up, but it is something to keep in mind.

Zeus' Lightning Bolt reveals for 3 seconds after it has struck. Same goes for his Ult.

Countering Detection

The big three are:

• Diffusal Blade
• You can activate it on yourself or allies for a positive effect of removing debuffs with no other side effects
• Manta Style
• Splitting into illusions will remove most negative debuffs like Dust
• BKB 
• Should remove most negative debuffs

Examples

Scenario 1

Problem:

 Enemy team has Riki who has been initiating every team fight with a Smoke. The vision he grants his team allows for other heroes like Enigma to get very clean initiations.

Solution:

Get a Gem. You will see Riki sneaking in and getting in position to use Smoke. Now you'll be able to kill him before he gets the chance

Scenario 2

Problem:

You're defending your Barracks (Rax) but your tower is down. Enemy team has a Bounty Hunter that is very fed. Your team is pretty much broke.

Solution:

Buy Sentry Wards and place them around where your tower once stood. Sentry Wards don't give a lot of sight radius, but they give a huge amount of Invis Detection radius.

Because you're stationary (sitting there defending instead of moving around the map), this functions like a Gem. You can see Bounty Hunter sneaking up to pick off a support and jump him before he knows what happened.

Scenario 3

Problem:

You're trying to gank a free farming Clinkz. Your Mirana ults to give you all temporary invisibility to sneak up on Clinkz as he split pushes. Your team has only a bit of money.

 Solution:

Buy Dust. You know where he is and will be able to use the Dust so you can keep on him. If your team had more money, a Gem would work too, but it might not be worth the risk of losing it. Sentry Wards would not work here because Clinkz has a high move speed and would easily be able to move out of its detection range before you could do much.

Item Guide: Boots

There are many different options for boots. Each has its own set of scenarios where they are most applicable. Here, I'm going to walk through my understanding of when to get each.

 

Power Treads:

 

 

Advantages:

• Versatility: you can switch the main stat depending on the situation (e.g. switch to Int so you can cast 1 more spell, switch to Str to tank that last hit)
• Generally good if you need survivability, or you don't need move speed
• Also can be good on illusion heroes because stats transfer to them
• Gives raw attack speed as well
• Only breaks invis if you switch stats

 

Example Heroes That Might Get These:

• Fast & Squishy: Anti-Mage, Luna
• Illusion Heroes: Phantom Lancer, Chaos Knight
• Heroes That Need to Extra Str: Batrider, Enigma
• Invisible heroes: you can't use other boots while invis, plus this gives you stats (most invis heroes are squishy), examples are Riki, Broodmother, Clinkz
• Nature's Prophet - when you're not playing some sort of support, this gives him what he needs. He can TP around with his skills, so the MS isn't a problem, he can lock people in trees, so no chasing. Basically, he just needs attack speed and some stats
• Morphling - this gives him more stats to morph between
• Faceless Void - when you have people Chrono'd, the stats & attack speed work wonders (Phase could also be decent though)

 

Tranquil Boots:

 

 

Advantages:

• High Movespeed (unless you get hit by enemies) - decent for ganking
• Able to heal yourself - sometimes good for taking harass or jungle
• Diassemble-able - has many of the components needed for Vlads or Mek
• Very cheap - easy to make for broke ass supports, especially if you have crap for HP regen

 

Example Heroes That Might Get These:

• Pudge - rotting can be used to harass/farm, gives him movespeed to gank, easy recovery from ganking w/ rot
• Wisp - good for abusing tether
• Some Junglers - Ursa (can be used until you want to finish Vlads), Axe (heal between clearing camps)
• Solo Hard Laners - some players get it on solo hard laners to keep up with harass in lane
• Supports that are broke/have no regen - Crystal Maiden (who also like the MS), Lich
• Roamers - helps to get between lanes and heal between ganks

 

Phase Boots

 

 

Advantages:

• No Collision - great for chasing through crowds of creeps or juking through them
• Speed burst - again, good for chasing or escaping, also for getting between creep camps quickly in the jungle
• Helps with positioning - use for a quick speed burst to help position that shackle shot
• Raw Damage - gives +24 damage, which is the highest any boot can give you. Some heroes don't need anything more than just raw damage
• Better able to stay on a target - if you have a DoT that is centered on your hero, this can help
• Roaming - like Tranquil boots, Phase boots help with roaming as well. Both gives good move speed, but Phase are more dependable in a fight

 

Example Heroes That Might Get These:

• Heroes that need positioning: Wind Runner, Invoker, Pudge, Leshrac (non-support version), Witch Doctor (if not hard support), Kunkka, Templar Assassin
• Heroes that need to stay on their target: Pudge, Leshrac, Clockwerk, Juggernaut, Razor, Ursa
• Heroes that benefit from the raw damage: Bounty Hunter, Kunkka, Phantom Assassin
• Roamers: Pudge, Tiny, Vengeful Spirit (I like it on her at least)

Special Note: Juggernaut can start spinning and then use Phase Boots to get the Phase Bonus while spinning (the other way around cancels Phase Boots)

 

Arcane Boots

 

 

Advantages:

• Benefits the whole team (or at least whoever is around you)
• Improved Mana Pool
• Disassemble-able
• Gives enough mana to cast most spells

 

Example Heroes That Might Get These:

• Mana Dependent Heroes: Sand King, Bane, Tiny, Zeus, Omniknight
• Support Heroes: Rubick (when not mid), Jakiro, Dazzle
• Wisp: can be abused the same way as Tranquil boots using tether (they get 2x the mana), however, Soul Ring can also provide the same benefit

 

Boots of Travel

 

 

Advantages:

• Don't have to carry a TP Scroll
• Best base movespeed bonus
• Can TP to creeps (instead of just buildings)

 

Example Heroes That Might Get These:

• Tinker - his ult resets the cooldown on these boots
• KotL - his ult allows him to teleport a friend to his location (effectively getting a free BoT for the other player)
• Pushers - easily port to a lane creep to help push, e.g. Pugna, Leshrac, Tinker, KotL
• Beastmaster - he can port to his minions (i.e. Hawk/Boar)
• Anyone during late game - if you're all maxed out and want to free up your TP scroll slot, get these. You probably have the stats to make any other boot negligible

 

Build Boots for the Situation:

• Get Arcane in a Support/Utility Role (e.g. don't get them on Carry Tiny)
• If you're dying a lot, you might consider Power Treads or Tranquil Boots. Both are affordable and help you deal with harass (though, don't get Tranquil if you're chased down a lot)
• Don't get Boots of Travel early if you're not going to use them (i.e. pushing/ganking super hard)
• Don't get Boots of Travel just because you can 
• a) afford them
• b) they're recommended (e.g. if you're Pugna and dying a lot, get something like Treads instead of wasting time saving your Boots of Travel)

Basically, make sure you're getting your boots for the circumstances, not because it's a recommended item. Situation is based on a lot of things:

• What is your role in this game? (many heroes can be played in multiple ways. You're not always going to be Carry Nature's Prophet or Solo Mid Pugna)
• How is your farm?
• Are you dying a lot?
• Are you able to use the active to max potential? (e.g. you're not ganking/chasing enough for Phase to be useful, but you could use the Stats & Attack Speed in team fights from Power Treads)

Item Guide: Farming Items

Last Updated: February, 2013

There are a number of items that help with farming:

• Hand of Midas
• Battlefury
• Radiance
• Maelstrom/Mjollnir

In this post, I'm going to analyze and compare each of these options.

Comparison

Item	Cost	Build Up	Passive	Active
Quelling Blade	225	N/A	(Melee) +32% Damage to Non-Hero Units (Ranged) +12% Damage to Non-Hero Units	Destroy Tree: Destroys Target Tree 100 Range 5 Seconds Cooldown
Hand of Midas	1900	Gloves of Haste (500) Recipe (1400)	+30 Attack Speed	Transmute: Kill Non-Hero/Ancient Target 190 Reliable Gold (instead of normal) 2.5x XP 100 sec Cooldown
Battlefury	4350	Ring of Health (875) Void Stone (875) Claymore (1400) Broadsword (1200)	+6 HP/sec 150% Mana Regen +65 Damage 35% Cleave in 225 Radius	N/A
Radiance	5150	Sacred Relic (3800) Recipe (1350)	+60 Damage 45 Magic Damage per Second (650 Radius)	Toggle Burn Effect on/off
Maelstrom	2700	Gloves of Haste (500) Mithril Hammer (1600) Recipe (600)	+24 Damage +25 Attack Speed 25% Chance to proc Chain Lightning	N/A
Mjollnir	5400	Maelstrom (2700) Hyperstone (2100) Recipe (600)	+24 Damage +80 Attack Speed 25% Chance to proc Chain Lightning	Static Charge: Place Shield on Target Unit Lasts 20 sec 20% chance to proc Chain Lightning when attacked

 

Quelling Blade

A very cheap item that helps with getting last hits. It also brings infinite tree chopping to the table, which can be helpful when up against a hero like Nature's Prophet, or just juking through the trees in general.

Many players, even at the professional level, miss last hits and if a cheap item can boost your ability to last hit, it can be well worth the money. However, note that it does not bring much else. It's purely for farming/escaping.

Benefits:

• Increased ability to last hit in lane (or jungle)
• Pseudo-escape mechanism
• Can be bought entirely in lane
• Very cheap in comparison to other items that help with farming
• Helps with stacking the jungle

Disadvantages:

• No application to fighting heroes (other than the pseudo-escape)
• Little to no application past early game
• Potential to screw up last hitting under the tower (there are patterns of last hitting)
• Does not build into anything

Uses:

• Farming / last hitting
• Juking through the trees (certain trees can be cut down to enable juke routes)
• Cut down certain trees to stack multiple jungle camps, or reduce time between camps
• Some trees can be cut down to give extra vision (e.g. in the safe lane to get rid of the tree that blocks vision)
• On Radiant side, it can be helpful when pulling to cut down the tree between the lane and primary pull camp

Notes:

• Kunkka's Tidebringer - only impacts main target (no cleave element)
• Illusions can benefit from the damage 

Hand of Midas

This is a decent early game item that has no impact in late game (most sell it in late game). It's kind of a "selfish" item as well.

The item pays for itself through Transmute, it's Active Ability. The item costs 1900, and you get 190 gold per use. You can use it every 100 seconds. In a perfect world, that means it takes 1000 seconds, or about 16 minutes and 40 seconds to pay itself off. Note: in theory, if you use it 5 times and sell it for half price, you make up the cost of the item.

If we factor in that the average game is probably between 35 and 45 minutes, that means you need to get this very early for it to be anything more than a waste of money. Most people would say you want to target between 6-10 minute mark if you're going to get this at all.

Benefits:

• Gold is reliable (i.e. you won't lose it upon death)
• Guaranteed farm/XP, even if you're having a rough time
• Can use it for farming gold or XP (small creeps vs. big creeps)
• Fairly cheap

Disadvantages:

• You don't get much other than farming ability
• No real use late game

Uses:

• Use on a big creep if you want to focus on gaining XP (gives you 2.5x)
• Use on a small creep if you want to focus on gaining gold (gives you 190 gold instead of the normal bounty)
• Good for Junglers who are always near creeps
• Good if you can get it early
• Can be good if you're struggling for farm

 

Battlefury

This is a great item for melee carries. The build up is very nice and provides a lot. Perseverance is excellent for survivability and mid-game jungling. You also get one of the best gold-to-damage ratios for an item.

The cleave helps you farm and push incredibly fast. You also can cleave on-attack modifiers like Crits (Note: On-Attack Modifier is no the same thing as a Unique Attack Modifier).

While it is an excellent item, it is much more effective early-mid game. General consensus is that optimally, get this before 20 minutes. I would also say that you can still get it before 25 minutes, but after that, it's usually better to give up and go a different route. This is because you get the item mostly for farming. At a certain point, you just won't have enough time to farm, so it's better to focus on Survival and Team Fight items.

Benefits:

• Excellent Regen
• Excellent Damage Output
• Able to Cleave
• Stacks with other sources of Cleave
• Increases Farming Ability
• Increases Pushing Ability (or counter-pushing)

Disadvantages:

• Cleave only works on melee heroes
• Somewhat costly

Uses:

• Early-mid game farming
• Pushing/Counter-Pushing
• Mid-Game Jungling (i.e. more farming)
• Doing lots of damage in team fights with good positioning (e.g. after a Dark Seer Vacuum)

Notes

• Cleaved Damage will affect primary target normally, but secondary targets will only have the damage reduced by their armor type (i.e. by some standard percent, rather than based on armor value).

 

Radiance

A great early-mid game farming, harassing, and pushing item. This is very common on Illusion heroes like Naga Siren, Spectre, and Phantom Lancer because Illusions alone can farm/push effectively with the Burn Aura.

You also see it picked up frequently on beefy heroes like Alchemist and Doombringer because they are difficult to kill, have trouble farming (not real great candidates for Battlefury, but also need the farm). Being tanky and carrying Radiance makes you very deadly in team fights. The longer the fight lasts, the more damage Radiance will deal out. If they can't kill you, then they have to deal with the aura for the duration.

Weaver is a unique case. Because of Germinate attack, Weaver usually just wants raw damage. Getting attack speed won't give you more Germinates because it's on a cooldown. It does benefit from Raw Damage though (unlike some other modifiers that only take your Main Attribute into account). In addition to the damage output, it gives Weaver a way to farm. She is also difficult to kill, not because she's tanky, but because she has temporary invisibility and her ult gives her another health bar (essentially).

Lastly, you'll see this picked up quite frequently on Lone Druid's Spirit Bear. Using the aura, he can send his bear to push a lane while he farms (and he gets the gold from each kill Radiance gets). Normally, if the bear is out of range, it cannot attack. However, it can grant auras. This is a huge benefit for Lone Druid so he can use his bear in more than one way.

Like Hand of Midas and Battlefury, Radiance also loses potency over time. Common opinion is that you want to get Radiance before 25-30 minutes. After that, the burn damage just doesn't do so much to heroes, or the creeps.

This is what makes it a difficult item to decide to go for. Sometimes, you'll have to abandon going for it. It's hard to save up for because you need 3800 gold, then 1350 for the recipe. That's no easy task and you need a lot of uninterrupted farm.

Benefits

• Easy harass due to the burn damage
• Works on Illusions (and spirit bears)
• Great farming ability
• Great early-mid game pushing ability
• Excellent in early-mid game team fights

Disadvantages

• Very difficult to save for
• Loses potency in late game
• Aura can give you away while ganking (but you can turn the aura off)

Uses

• Tons of damage in team fights
• Farming
• Split pushing/farming (send illusions to different camps or to the lane to push while you farm safely)
• Raw Damage output
• Killing invisible units (not a reason to pick it up, but fun nonetheless)

 

Maelstrom/Mjollnir

When people think farming items, this is one that doesn't always come to mind. However, it can be loosely labeled "the ranged Battlefury". This is because the passive (Chain Lightning) rips through creeps, especially given the attack speed increase the item grants.

The two items are fairly similar (granted Mjollnir builds off of Maelstrom). They do have some differences though.

Differences

• Chain Lightning
• Maelstrom: Deals 120 Magic Damage, hits 4 targets, 25% chance
• Mjollnir: Deals 160 Magic Damage, hits 8 targets, 25% chance
• Attack Speed
• Maelstrom: +25
• Mjollnir: +80
• Active
• Maelstrom: N/A
• Mjollnir: Static Charge
• Lasts 20 seconds a target unit
• 20% chance to cast Lightning when attacked
• Lightning deals 200 Magic Damage to attacker and 2 nearby units
• Costs 50 Mana, 35 sec Cooldown

As far as I know there's no standard time to get either by.

It's a great item for farming/pushing as a ranged hero. The Lightning Jumps do a good deal of damage in a team fight too (e.g. 480 Magic Damage per proc for Maelstrom, 1280 per proc from Mjollnir).

The active ability on Mjollnir is also pretty veratile. It can be cast on allies, along with yourself. So say you cast it on Axe, he uses Berserker's Call. Least you can say is that the enemy team will be hurting.

Benefits

• Increases farming ability
• Can be used on Ranged heroes
• Mjollnir's active ability has lots of uses
• Exploits teams that don't have magic resist/immunity/Pipe
• Gives Magic Damage to accompany Physical Damage
• Huge increase to attack speed
• Build up can surprise people (Mithril Hammer looks like you're going for BKB or Desolator)
• Mjollnir can be disassembled

Disadvantages

• Still a lot of discussion as to whether it's worth picking up versus more "standard items"
• Counts as a Unique Attack Modifier

Uses

• Mjollnir can be a counter to Radiance carriers (each tick of damage can proc Lightning)
• Farming/Pushing
• Teamfight Damage output
• Static Charge can be placed on allies (like initiators), or yourself
• The attack speed can be great in combination with other effects like chance based bashes
• Heroes like Dragon Knight and Lone Druid benefit from it in both their Melee and Ranged forms
• Gives mostly Physical Damage heroes some Magic Damage to ensure they hurt everyone

Comparison: Radiant vs. Dire Side Advantages

The Pro Match Stats are out there, and we can see that the win-rate is about 50-50 (some say Dire has a slight advantage). What I want to take a look at is the Advantages of each side.

Radiant

• Mid Lane can pull creeps
• Potential Psychological Benefits
• Some maintain that it's more natural to view the map from Radiant side
• Move Left to Right
• Progress from Bottom to Top
• You are the "good guys"
• Safe Lane has a ward spot that can watch the rune and prevent ganks
• Able to get to Ancients faster from the Mid lane (and/or stack them)
• Dire's Hard Lane feels more "cut off" 
• Some say the Radiant Jungle is "safer"

Dire

• Hard Lane can stack ancients more easily
• Roshan's Pit is more accessible
• "Magic Bush" ward can block 2 of Radiant's spawns 
• Easier to pull creeps in the safe lane
• Able to pull a second set of creeps in the safe lane by cutting down a tree (left-most neutral spawn)
• Radiant Jungle is more "open" and easy to ward
• Dire Jungle has a better flow to it (Radiant Jungle has 2 camps that are cut off)
• Hero colors can be more difficult to see on mini-map (due to all being darker colors)
• Less likely to misclick the mini-map and retreat in the wrong direction
• Dire might have a slight advantage due to perspective (Radiant is drawn "closer to the screen" making them easier to click on)

That's what I can come up with now, but I'll add in anything else I think of and take suggestions.

Blink Dagger vs. Force Staff

Updated: 10/15/2012 (due to 6.75 patch changing Force Staff Recipe from 300 ==> 500)

Blink Dagger and Force Staff are regarded by many as very similar. Some even go so far as to say Force Staff is the poor man's Blink Dagger.

However, each has its own uses. Heck, a lot of players pick up both on certain heroes. Anyway, here's the breakdown (note: bolded is better option):

Category	Blink Dagger	Force Staff
Usage	Self	Any Unit (800 Range)
Gold Cost	2,150	2,350
Parts	1	2 + Recipe
Stats	N/A	+10 INT, +3 HP Regen
Mana Cost	75	25
Cooldown	14 sec.	20 sec.
Distance Traveled	1,200 (4/5 max if target outside range)	600
Travel Time	Instant	0.3 sec.
Disjoint	Yes	No
Disabled	3 sec. after attacked by Player Owned Unit (or Roshan)	N/A
Magic Immunity	Can use while BKB is active	Cannot use on Magic Immune units
Tree Destruction	Yes	No
Shows Direction of Travel	No	Yes

Destroying trees is the only neutral / situational piece here. Destroying trees is good for anti-juking and destroying Nature's Prophet's Sprout. However, with Blink Dagger, you can blink into the trees and teleport to safety.

As we can see, both have pieces that are good and bad. They're situational pick ups.

One last tid bit is that Blink Dagger is not allowed on Pudge or Vengeful Spirit. This confuses a lot of players because it was thought to be an engine limitation in DotA that should be gone in DotA 2. The only real reason this exists is anti-trolling. You can easily put people in bad positions by using blink and the Hook/Swap.