Ice TB's Favor Item

By cwsault on July 5, 2009 4:16:37 PM from

Any ideas on what the best favor item for an all-ice Torch Bearer is?

I've been mainly using Swift Anklet to help ensure the speed advantage from Permafrost isn't counteracted by Boots, Anklet, or enemy slows. It's also obviously a good choice because it frees up a slot and gold that Boots of Speed would've taken while giving more speed.

I've seen success with Blood of the Fallen, too -- but then I buy Boots of Speed, which comes with several disadvantages. For one I have to give up an item, usually an HP one because of TB's mana costs. Normally this would be okay since BotF gives more HP than most of the HP items anyway. And since it's definitely better than Banded I can skip that at the start and just buy Boots of Speed, so it's only 5% less speed and lots more health.

But it lacks some of the things that the three HP items I tend to have by midgame have. I go for Unbreakable Boots, Nimoth armor, and Narmoth's Ring. BotF only gives 200 more HP than Unbreakables with same regen, and 300 more than Nimoth which lacks HP regen. But it lacks the armor increase Nimoth provides (which is the only armor-increasing item I tend to get in a normal-length game), and the mana supply increase of Unbreakables. So I feel like I'm missing out on helpful bonuses just to get a couple hundred extra HP for a kiting-heavy playstyle.

I can definitely see the bonus of the extra HP at the very start but it doesn't seem to matter much for Ice TB later on. I suppose I could skip speed items altogether, but then I fear my Permafrost slow will be gimped by the other team's items.

I've also been looking at the other items as potentials:

Brilliant Bauble -- Ice TB is great at earning XP faster than others. This would make that sealed -- so it might be great if I can subsititute skill and awareness for health and speed, and use this to help outlevel the other team.

Blade of the Serpents -- the obvious third choice here because I spend so much time using Rain of Ice on the creeps, making it a one-shot-refill, just I don't find myself going back to the crystal for mana much anyway. And that's with just Plenor + Vlemish and no combat potions -- and I usually have enough gold that I could get potions if I wanted.

Essence of Magic -- all-ice can definitely get the Rain + Nova + Shatter combo off within three seconds. I usually hit with Rain from afar though so it might not be useful until we're clearly winning anyway. Extra mana + regen is nice though.

Heaven's Wrath -- yeah....never used it. But since Ice TB already excels at farming creeps it's fun to think of having something capable of doubling that.

Thoughts...?

+5 Karma | 12 Replies

I dont understand you say its so good to have swift anklets because it saves an item slot you would spend on speed boots. or even blood of the fallen for that reason.

then you totally ignore the fact that having blade of the serpents would stop you from using up 2 slots for mana on plenor and vlemish. thats also ignoring the fact that it gives +25auto attack damage and lets you spam spells from the start of the game.

Quoting will516,

reply 1

I dont understand you say its so good to have swift anklets because it saves an item slot you would spend on speed boots. or even blood of the fallen for that reason.

then you totally ignore the fact that having blade of the serpents would stop you from using up 2 slots for mana on plenor and vlemish. thats also ignoring the fact that it gives +25auto attack damage and lets you spam spells from the start of the game.

If you need two mana helms you're probably playing ice TB very wrong and wasting a lot of mana on unneeded casts of skills.

Swift Anklet is best for any map unless you want to be hugging towers or a teammate because you can't escape engagements.

i was quoting him about using 2 item slots on mana items.

swift anklets depends on what map you are playing on and imo most situations that a wand of speed cant get you out of, swift anklets would probably fail too. for those times tele scrolls are needed.

Actually as TB I almost always have 2 mana helms just for the amount of damage I can continue to dish out from range. And most of the time I hardly hp stack if I'm doing ranged hit and run tactics. Really you don't need much speed either if you're careful and don't over extend yourself.

I've seen Blood of the Fallen work great, early and late game (thats a lot of extra hp you could have compared to others).

Sometimes I'll use Staff of Renewal so that I can keep blanketing areas with damage and stuns. (Very many intensive)

If you're really in need of many and for late game mana, you can get Cape of Plentiful Mana. It's nearly useless early game but late game it can replace all of your mana helms.

Staff of Renewal, Blood of the Fallen, and Swift anklet are the most useful ones for ice TB imo.

I prefer the anklet currently, so many people forget to run early enough and find out its too late against a frost aura plus anklets TB, not many demis can outrun it.

Swift Anklet and Staff of Renewal are the best, imo. Ice has some long cooldowns (compared to Fire), and the Staff really helps. Swift Anklet lets you chase some DGs down early when you don't have a high Permafrost yet.

I personally don't like Blade of the Serpent, as I usually end up needing helms anyways just to increase my mana pool, but some people swear by it, so it's up to you.

I once saw a TB use poisoned dagger and permafrost together. This might be another combo to look at. It worked really well.

As for two mana helms -- it's playable with just the Vlemish, but Rain of Ice is one of the best kiting tools ever made. It's better and quicker than just autoattacking -- so using it more often is an excellent strategy, but generally you'd want to have items with both flat rate and percentage increases on mana regen.

Good point on Blade of the Serpents effectively letting you do more than what 2 mana items allow...makes it seem an even better choice.

I hadn't thought of Poisoned Dagger but given how often you end up in a situation where you're throwing snowballs at a running enemy, it could be very helpful. Keeps 'em there longer and kills them faster. Might help defensively too since I find I can usually autoattack a couple times even when I absolutely must run. I'll give it a few test runs next time I play...

Quoting cwsault,

reply 9

but Rain of Ice is one of the best kiting tools ever made. It's better and quicker than just autoattacking

What.

A spell with a FOURTEEN SECOND cooldown is better for kiting than a ranged auto attack on a Demigod with a slow aura?

I generally use "Staff of renewal" when playing Ice TB. As for hunting down DGs i use "Wyrmskin handguards" (15% chance to slow movement by 15%) in combo with permafrost makes most DGs easy to keep up with.

Usually when the enemy DG is realising the fight is going badly and starts retreting you fire of a "frost nova" to slow them down (10-20% slower movement). Depending on their amount of health you can either keep chasing with AA or cast a "rain of ice" followed by a "Deep freeze" if they are still in range. This gives you a nice 2-3x shatter that should be enough to finish most DGs.

Another favoritem I like is the "Heavens wrath" assasin favor item for my Ice TB. It helps you a lot early on to keep up or even outlevel your opponents as you can farm creeps in other lanes or help finish of a DG held up in a fight.

One important thing to remember is not to "killsteal" creaps when there are no other friendly DGs in range of the creeps as your are then the only one to get XP for them. It's better to kill the creeps close to your teammates as they will also get XP for the killed creeps.

About mana for Ice TB. On maps with + mana/sec flags I generally need no manaitems. On maps without I go for "Scaled helm" first and later on upgrade it to "Vlemish Faceguard". This is generally enough combined with the bonus added from permafrost. A few items that add to your manapool aswell as your HPpool also helps like "Unbreakable boots".

Quoting ItchyDustbin,

reply 10

Quoting cwsault, reply 9 but Rain of Ice is one of the best kiting tools ever made. It's better and quicker than just autoattacking
What.

A spell with a FOURTEEN SECOND cooldown is better for kiting than a ranged auto attack on a Demigod with a slow aura?

The same DG who also has fireball, which does more damage, faster, and for less mana. I think anyone 'kiting' with rain of ice is likely going to run out of mana before they finish you off.

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Ice TB's Favor Item