Fall 2016 — Battle Pass: Path of The Twin Forks
For those who want to do this path before it expires!
Just in time for Halloween, Valve has released a new path with a simple prize in mind: Fraudy Jack, a Mythical Courier made up of a pumpkin dressed as a vampire.
It currently sits on the Steam Community Market below USD $1, but the point here is not the price, but the points. Completing all tasks can grant you from 1400 points to 2800 points, but only if you do them all before it expires this November 14th.
The path is very easy to understand, as Valve says: complete the six quests of each side and you will have the opportunity to unlock the new courier. What it doesn’t says, is that you will need to hone your skills with the most spooky heroes in Dota 2.
Mist Opportunities
Use Mist Coil to damage enemies or heal allies for a total of 3000 / 5000 / 7000 health, and purge 4 / 8 / 10 debuffs from allies heroes with Aphotic Shield.
Required Hero: Abaddon
The first quest on the right seems easy. Be ready to spam your Mist Coil, because the number are quite high. At Level 1 it does 100 damage/heal, and maxed out does 250. Its cooldown is very short (4.5), so the recommendation here is to go the tanky way as Mist Coil does self-damage — and yes, you can use it to deny yourself.
Purging debuffs with Aphotic Shield is rather easy. If you see yourself or an ally with a debuff (slow, silence, etc), just cast Aphotic Shield on top of them and it will go away. It doesn’t work with aura debuffs, though, and it’s very costly (100) for a hero who starts with 300~ Mana as base. Arcane Boots is recommended in the early game., and depending on the game you can dispose it or upgrade them to Guardian Greaves.
Recommended Items: Mana regeneration and Tanky items. Then adjust to what the game needs.
Pact and Ready
Kill 4 / 6 / 8 enemies while under effect of Death Pact, and debuff enemy heroes for a total of 45 / 65 / 85 seconds.
Required Hero: Clinkz
Death Pact as a very low cooldown, and a Clinkz with Orchid Malevolence in any point of the game means that he can maintain Death Pact “always on” with his Searing Arrows. More good news: Death Pact at Level 2 has a 35 seconds cooldown, which is the same buff duration (and later decreases to 25).
Yes, this quests screams Orchid of Malevolence. As pointed out earlier in past Paths, Orchid Malevolence debuffs for 5 seconds straight, but I would recommend to get Blight Stone early to add up the counter from the beginning with its 8 second debuff. From there you should build an standard Orchid Malevolence, and see if Desolator or Medallion of Courage to Solar Crest can be good items to pick afterwards.
If you need more debuff power against Heroes too fast for you, you can always build a Diffusal Blade. Its has 8 charges last for 4 seconds, so doing the math it comes with 32 seconds, and 32 seconds more with its upgrade.
Recommended Items: Blight Stone. Orchid Malevolence, Desolator.
Other Options: Orb of Venom, Medallion of Courage, Solar Crest, Diffusal Blade.
Siphon Demand
Use Spirit Siphon on enemies for a total of 30 / 60 / 90 seconds, and hit two or more enemy heroes at once with Silence 2 / 4 / 6 times.
Required Hero: Death Prophet
Spirit Siphon as a pesky but good spell. You start with 1 charge and it replenishes every 45 seconds, making it very escarce spell early game. BUT, while it lasts 6 seconds, it has no cooldown as long you have a charge available, it is very mana-cheap, and it breaks only if your target gets more than 750 of distance or dies. Yeah, nothing breaks the link, but damage can be prevented, for example, with Eul’s Scepter of Divinity.
Leveling up Spirit Siphon adds 1 to its charge pool and adds to its damage debuff, so you should level it up as-you-go because reaching 90 seconds means to use it effectively 15 times. With 45 seconds charges, we are talking about from 12 minutes or less depending on the allotted charges you may have available.
Silence, on the other hand, it’s very easy to pull off with two or more enemies once you take into account the cast point. It takes awhile to get the timing, but it’s not rocket science.
Items that will aid you greatly is Eul’s Scepter of Divinity and Aether Lens. The setup mechanism and greater cast distance by both items will make your life easier. Rod of Atos is also a good pick for more offensive situations.
Recommended Items: Eul’s Scepter of Divinity Aether Lens.
Other Options: Rod of Atos.
A Lich in Your Plans
Sacrifice or kill 20 / 40 / 60 allied units, and slow enemies for 100 / 150 / 200 seconds.
Required Hero: Lich
Sacrifice has an initial 60 second cooldown, down to 30. To reach that high number of allied units sacrificed could take you easily between 20 to 35 minutes. The recommendation should be to max it up unless you are not having mana problems — usually happening when you waste your spells with no backup or follow-up to make a kill.
Slowing enemies on the other is also demanding. Frost Blast last 4 seconds, has a 8 second cooldown, but it has a tiny AoE over the target that also slows. While the counter should go up with every additional enemy hit by the debuff, let’s go the worst case scenario: slowing enemies should take you between 25-50 Frost Blasts, around 4~7 minutes of spamming this.
If you are having rare mana problems because you are spamming this like crazy, consider Arcane Boots and Aether Lens, and an occasional Mango for those situations where you have low mana to cast anything and Sacrifice on cooldown or no creep to sacrifice near.
Note, here is two quirks about this quest:
- It says “sacrifice or kill”. That should include denying creeps (and heroes).
- It says “slow” but it doesn’t say with what. You can start with Orb of Venom and spam your right click on the enemy heroes.
You can also play around with Ice Armor as Ravi Ahuja says. Enemies attacking a tower or ally with Ice Armor and the counter should be going up. The slow effect last only 2 seconds, but its debuff last for 40 seconds and has a 5 seconds cooldown. Depending on the game, you may spend 1 point on this early game.
Recommended Items: Orb of Venom, Arcane Boots and Aether Lens.
Reality Check
Deal 2000 / 4000 / 6000 damage with Dispersion, and kill 3 / 6 / 9 enemies after using Reality.
Required Hero: Spectre
Dispersion is very a variable damage return, mainly because it’s affected by the incoming damage and how much the damage dealer is away from you. Either way, an early Vanguard, with probability for a Crimson Guard, and a late Heart of Tarrasque, are recommended items if you want to take damage and stay alive.
For Reality, Spectre’s spell to exchange himself with a chosen illusion casted by Haunt, you should kill your enemy not after 2–3 seconds of being exchanged — is reported that it doesn’t count if you take too much time. Haunt as a very long cooldown of 120 seconds at its best, so burst damage is recommended to make it count.
Consider a Dagon if you are not lucky enough to kill escaping heroes with very low HP as last resort, as you should probably get other items of importance — like Diffusal Blade. I know that most of you think Dagon on Spectre is batshit crazy, but is that or keep the counter on absolute zero. Tend to happen when your team likes to kill-secure your victims.
Recommended Items: Vanguard, Crimson Guard, Heart of Tarrasque. Dagon for Burst Damage.
Comeback Mechanic
Kill 3 / 6 / 9 enemies after Reincarnation, and steal 2000 / 4000 / 6000 HP from enemy Heroes using sources of Lifesteal.
Required Hero: Wraith King
After seeing this video, it seems that the window to kill after Reincarnation is triggered is around 3~4 seconds, and it doesn’t matter who kills as long the hero dies during this window. So don’t sweat it.
Refresher Orb should be your ultimate item for Reincarnation. Early game you may have mana problems, so consider Arcane Boots if you are having slight problems.
For the Lifesteal, Vampiric Aura only provides 15%~30%, so to reach that kind of numbers you should get Vladmir’s Offering and Armlet of Mordiggian to keep you tanky in the front lines while you hit plebs.
Recommended Items: Vladmir’s Offering, Armlet of Mordiggian. Arcane Boots for mana problems, Refresher Orb to keep the Reincarnation up.
Cheesy Peasy
Across multiple victories: Consume the Cheese 1 / 2 / 3 times.
I would recommend Ursa for this mainly because he can solo Roshan early and kill him a third time before the 30~40 min mark.
The Cheese only drops after Roshan is slayed for a third time. Add insult to injury: you have to consume it, so after the third death you should have two slot items empty to consume the Cheese and get the Aegis of Immortal.
The good part is that you can try across multiple victories. If the games is becoming very extense, try to push a fourth and fifth Roshan slay to get 3 stars on this on one match. The rest is very much repeat what the Path of the Dominator says:
Classic recommendations for the brainless Ursa: have vision near the Rosh Pit (so buy an Observer Ward when possible), always get in with Smoke of Deceit, remember to have at least Level 3 of Fury Swipes and HP Regen before going in solo, and have detection for invisible heroes.
Good Luck getting that courier. You are gonna need it. But in any case, you can always go to the market and buy it which is no fun.
