Succubus Item Build HoN

The post is Succubus Item Build for RTS Game "HoN"



Succubus Starting Items:



Runes of Blight x 1 - 90 Gold
Mana Potion x2 - 100 Gold
Crushing Claws x1 - 150 Gold
Mark of the Novice x1 - 150 Gold
Minor Totem x2 - 106 Gold
----------------------
Total Cost - 596 Gold

This item build starts you off with 587hp and 299mana. In my opinion this is the optimal way to start off with Succubus. Succubus's ability to stay in a lane is determined by wise use of Heartache. I generally use 1 Mana Potion either after Level 3 or after Level 5, depending on how well I am harassing my opponents, and then leave the second mana potion right before you hit Level 6, to ensure that you can dive straight into Hold+Heartache combo and go for a kill. Runes of Blight are in there because harassment between Heartache is inevitable from any reasonable opponent, and you don't want to be solely relying on Heartache to keep you up. Crushing Claws and Mark of the Novice are there for stats and for the inevitable Blood Chalice you will be building. And last but not least, Minor Totems are there for obvious stat gain (and a prelude to Power Supply), and to use up (and therefore make the best of) your starting gold.


Bottle



Start of the game:
This item is simply not worth it at this stage in the game. If you begin the game with bottle (which I wouldn't recommend for virtually any hero, especially with the removal of the 0:00 rune) or even with the intention of just buying a few consumables and/or a monkey with the intention of running a quick bottle down, you will be giving up very valuable stats, sacrificing your last hitting abilities, and your overall abilities to stay in the lane. Rune rushing at this point is not really in your best interests, as Succubus doesn't really have the tools for early kills by herself (unless your opponents play badly), as the combination of a long CD Nuke, and a 4sec Disable aren't really enough to get a kill on anyone. Given this; even aggressively runewhoring, none of the runes are really going to allow you to do anything particularly devastating. In the first 5 levels especially, you do not want to be playing overly aggressively, the most aggressive thing you want to be doing is harassing your opponent and trying to prevent his participation in the lane through good positioning and autoattacks. If your opponent is the type of hero trying to utilize rune control, simply use Mesmerize to prevent him from getting to the runes ahead of you, you don't need a bottle to do this. In summary; at this stage of the game, stats and just general regenerative consumables are vital, and bottle is simply not worth it this early for a hero like Succubus (also not to mention Chalice is a bigger priority at this point).

Early game:
As you get past level 6, the use of Bottle becomes a lot more relevent. Using runes will help you really abuse your role as a ganker, Invisibility and Haste are your two most devastating runes; both used to setup the perfectly positioned lethal gank, but Illusion (spawn Illusions to attack them while the real you is holding them in place) and Regeneration (helping renew your limited mana pool) are also very strong. After Marchers, Chalice and TP's I tend to get a bottle, to allow Succubus a lot of ganking freedom. Another useful trick in tight fights when you and your opponent are both low on HP, is to Mesmerize them, take a few swigs from your bottle, and by the time the sleep wears off, you have your mana and hp back, and the've lost hp from the sleep, often giving you the advantage you need to turn a possible death into a kill. Abusing Bottle to gank early on can give you huge advantages and should rarely be passed up.

How early or late you take this item depends entirely how you're farming/what stage the game is at, and the role your team needs you to play. Bottle is not a 100% must have, but I have found in a large majority of games, it is an item worth buying. As in general for a lot of Succubus items, your build is adaptable, Bottle is another one of those items. Assess what you need, and be aware of the option of playing with it.

Blood Chalice



Blood Chalice, mostly based off the item Soul Ring from DotA, is an incredibly potent item on Succubus. This is an item you should finish as soon as possible during your laning phase (not too difficult, as all you need to complete it from your starting items is a 325g Scarab). It allows you to use Heartache much more frequently, and the life you lose from the Chalice activation, is more than made up by Heartaches life gain, so it becomes much more spammable. On a hero where mana and a somewhat limited mana pool are very relevant (especially early game) this item is a godsend, and should be bought 99% of games.

Early Game Items:



Early game you want to just be generally fleshing out your original items. Start looking to turn the Minor Totems into a Power Supply because Power Supply is always an item worth having (can be picked up earlier or later based on the presence of spell spamers i.e Armadon, Chipper etc.). You turn your Novice and Crushing Claw into a Blood Chalice, because this item is spectacular on Succubus. You also want to be picking up your Striders or Ghost Marchers reasonably early, to get your gank on. You want to be grabbing Homecoming Stones because they're essential for every purpose; defending opponents tower dives, tower defenses, retreating, quick lane swapping, ganks, avoiding skills like Rupture and Arachna's Ult, you name it, Homecoming Stone can do it.





Striders; These give Succubus the freedom to move between lanes to gank, to runes for your bottle, and general overall map mobility. They cost very little which lets you focus on your other core items, and provide nothing that Succubus doesn't need (which a lot of other boots do). Overall they are in my opinion the second best boots available for Succubus (they were the best pre-nerf, but since then, Ghost Marchers have crept back to the number 1 spot)

Ghost Marchers; the damage aspect isn't overly relevant to her (although depending on how long your laning period lasts, and how well you farm early, getting the Punch Dagger's can help out a lot with last hitting). Ghost Marchers certainly are a great option on Succubus due to how well the speed boost synergises with the playstyle of Succubus. Early on in the game she is a ganker, her role is to get into a perfect position, get off Succubus' Hold, and allow her team to score some quick kills. Ghost Marchers allow for setting up said positioning, whether it be via catching up to an opponent to get off a Mesmerize to hold them in place, getting that extra bit of range to pull off that last Heartache to seal the deal, or quickly getting the jump on someone to pull off a good Succubus' Hold. This item adds to the element of 'surprise' of a Succubus gank, you can get into position from the trees or TP gank very effectively with this item.

Plated Greaves; are ~okay~. The movespeed is on par with Ghost Marchers (without the speed boost for positioning), you get slight stats, and you get some reasonable armor, but overall this item doesn't do a whole lot for you. On the whole it's too defensive for an offensive ganker like Succubus, and doesn't really offer you that much, not really recommended at all.

Steamboots; with the change to line HoN Steamboots up with the DotA ones, this item has become a lot less useful Succubus. The movespeed is down, meaning it's harder to get your positioning right, the stats are down, meaning the survivability option suddenly isn't so survivable anymore, and the addition of attack speed, which was the least attractive aspect of old Ghost Marchers for Succubus. Overall it's not as strong as it used to be, they are still good, but the alternatives are better.

Boots of Travel; are ~generally~ speaking too slow to farm, and while they certainly give Succubus a lot of ganking freedom, and the sudden movespeed boost and ability to teleport to the middle of nowhere is fantastic. I find that Succubus a) Isn't that farm dependant, so jumping around to farmable lanes isn't particularly useful, and b) Has no fast farming mechanism, so being able to jump from farm to farm isn't that easy. You'll generally find that the gold is more productive to spend in other areas, and this item is more often than not, not the best choice unless you are getting a really amazing farm and/or a lot of hero kills.


Mid-Late Game Items:

Most of the time, going into midgame, this is how you want your inventory to be looking, recommended to go with either Puzzlebox or Portal Key as your first major item, depending on your game situation:


or


Now here is where Succubus really shines. She has many options here for how to build her for midgame onwards, all tailored to your opponents team and playstyle. Main items for Succubus:

Portal Key

2,150 Gold.

Going back to the point made during the boots discussion, positioning is absolutely essential on a hero like Succubus. Portal Key does several things for you;

1. Gives you a strong initiating tool, allowing you to get into a safe position from which to control fights to the best of your ability.
2. Allows you to catch escaping heroes and get off that Mesmerize/Heartache needed to finish them off.
3. Coupled with Mesmerize, gives you a really strong escape mechanism, being able to sleep and blink away gets you out of many potentially difficult situations.

Portal Key is certainly a very potent tool, and is very well suited for gank-heavy strategies (which Succubus is very viable for). This item is relatively cheap, effective, and really gives you the mobility and the ability to jump on enemies unexpectedly, high priority item.

Puzzlebox



This item is extremely strong on this hero and synergises extremely well with Succubus's playstyle, and can provide a lot of strong plays, especially those very familiar with micromanagement. At level 3 Puzzlebox provides:

Passive:

  • +14 Strength
  • +24 Intelligence
Activeateable:
Minions with 

  • Mana Burning attack
  • Explosion on Death
  • True Sight (1,000 Range Invisibility Detection [Only at level 3])
  • Mana Burn activatable ability
  • Haste Aura (Movement and IAS increase)
As you can see, this is not an item to be trifled with. The combo of Mesmerize + Bust Out Minions + Succubus' Hold + Mana Burn + Attacks while target is held, is enough to bring down virtually any foe. While the use of this item is more prominent in ganks and solo work early game, as it gets later on, the haste aura and true sight help your team immensely, also making it a fantastic counter to stealth heroes. At level 3 you can use this item to Counter-Ward also, making it incredibly versatile.

This item has has undergone a lot of changes since it was first introduced, as it stands now, it is an incredibly powerful item, and fantastic to help your team push with, the cost is quite low compared to most major items, putting it quite within your reach for a low farm character.

Tablet of Command



This item (as with many intellect support/gankers) is a fantastic tool to have on you. The uses of this single item are too many to mention, but one of the best situations to pick this up is against heroes that can silence you or can make themselves immune to your CC (Blood Hunter, Predator, Jeraziah to name a few) that will all jump onto you and give you no real option to get away, being able to push yourself over ledges and other terrain is insanely helpful, not to mention the ability to do it to your allies as well. It also provides you with great early stats and a nice intelligence boost to fix your smallish mana pool, definately a tool to be aware of.



Kuldra's Sheepstick



This item is also very strong, however slow to farm, if you don't have the gold available to you, or you're the main support hero (read: main warder) for your team, this item is often a bit too expensive to shoot for. Kuldra's Sheepstick does several things for you:

  • Large Intelligence Boost, solving the low Mana Pool problem
  • Has a nice Strength Boost, giving you some extra survivability in team fights.
  • Gives your the Mana Regeneration to use your abilities more aggressively, and really let you take control of fights, without having to manage your mana pool quite so much.
  • And most importantly; gives you yet another (very powerful) disable to aid your team.
This is still an incredibly potent item and will really let Succubus come into her own. The items involved in the recipe are also very beneficial, Manatube > Blessed Orb > Acolyte's Staff, give you the things, in order, to cover a lot of Succubus's flaws, and give you a nice steady progression over the course of the game. If you are having a very good farm, or are in desperate need of another disable, this item is worth going for.

Shrunken Head



Shrunken Head is for those matches where you realize you're just not going to be getting any casts off. You're the first target every fight, you're hit with an array of stuns, you just generally can't find the time to contribute anything useful before you're gunned down. Succubus relies on her ability to control the flow of a team fight, who gets to fight, who can use their abilities at what times, and who is taken out of the fight entirely. Without the ability to do this, Succubus loses a lot of her potency. Shrunken Head provides you with a window after the initiation of a team fight to:

  1. Get off your initial casts; Smitten and Mesmerize
  2. Channel Succubus's Hold without interruption
  3. Take the attention away from yourself, and hopefully onto a hero that can take more hits than you can (how 'hopeful' this is, depends entirely upon how well you set up your disables on the opposing team).
This is a very useful item for Succubus, and generally a goal in most games with a balanced opposing team (whether it comes before or after your Puzzlebox is a choice you make based on how vulnerable you feel to the opposing lineup).





Luxury Items:

Generally you won't have the excess gold to really worry about luxury items on this hero, however if you're having a really successful game and are looking for options to further flesh out your inventory, these are some options for you:

Hellflower



This is a particularly devastating item, and can be a powerful addition to your arsenal. Best picked up in conjunction with Portal Key, it gives you the ability to dive onto your enemy carry (particularly effective if they have a shrunken head or other type of activatable magic immunity) and lock them down utterly before they can even react. One of the biggest things about Hellflower is it simply does not matter how farmed a hero gets, getting the jump on him with a quick Hellflower activation will make them fall extremely quickly. Not to mention it will do wonders for your mana regeneration, giving you the ability to spam your spells much more freely, it will also make your autoattacks something to be addressed by your opponents. Definitely be aware of this tool later on in the game.


Frostfield Plate




This item is recommended when your opponents have a lot of autoattacking power on their team, the -25 attack speed aura is more effective in team fights than most people give it credit for, and can cut down your opponents damage potential quite substantially. Also, it gives adds something to your repertoire that you can't previously contribute; an AoE presence, allowing you to damage and snare groups of your opponents. This is a very handy item in the right situation, but should only be gotten later on in the game.

Sacrificial Stone



I chose to include this here, because although it is certainly a useful item for Succubus, I would advise to avoid it in a core build. The stats on it are certainly very relevant to Succubus, in that the mana regeneration and additional hp and mana help cover up her flaws, but overall, the expense and lack of utility of this item, leave better choices to be taken. However in the clinching moments of a match, extra charges on this make for quick recoveries, and the on-death bonus helps a lot during team fights. Certainly not an item to be overlooked, but not worth rushing for.

Null Stone



Yet another item to help with general survivability. This is for those matches where getting Shrunken Head wasn't a worthwhile investment, but there are still some targeted stuns/ministun nukes that can interrupt your channeling, and make your life difficult. Nullstone's spell block helps protect you during your ultimate, and gives you the additional stats to make it hard to focus fire you.

As with all heroes, this is not the be-all end-all of lists, but generally the items you will use/aim for in 90% of games. It all comes down to the situation and who you are up against. I specifically left out an order in which to obtain these items, as it varies a lot from situation to situation. As mentioned previously, Succubus' strength is in her versatility and adaptability, you are only limited by your ability to assess what is needed.

Wards:

 

As mentioned earlier, Succubus is a hero that is defined largely by her abilities and spells, not by her items. Her scalability with items is not nearly as large as other heroes, and as with other heroes of this type (Myrmidon, Andromeda, etc.) this makes you the perfect hero for...you guessed it; Wards!
Warding and Counter-Warding is essential in any game of HoN you will ever play, information is everything, and your team will love you for it. There are many warding guides out there, so I won't go into specifics, but be aware that Succubus is great for this role, and don't shy away from getting eyes out there.

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