- Tittle: Redefinder's guide to Anub'seran
- Author: Redefinder
"The Nerubian Weaver counters his own weakness of being extremely fragile with constant bursts of maximum speed and invisibility, along with the ability to deal double damage periodically on an attack. He is the master of in, out, and back in. Can send out swarms of beetles that latches onto his foes to create chaos among large armies or to reduce his prey's armor and damage them. Finally, the Weaver can Time Lapse into the recent past, returning his location, hps and mana to where they were 5 seconds prior. Extremely quick and agile, but if caught off guard can quickly fall himself."
Pros
- High mobility
- Easy escape mechanism with low cooldown
- High chasing capabilities
- High harassing capabilities in lane, early game
- Hard to kill without gem or dust
- Ultimate can heal him to full hp
- Good agi gain
Cons
- Truesight counter him
- Silence counters him
- Item dependent
- Below average ms
- Sucky attack animation
- Squishy
Skills
The Swarm
A swarm of 12 beetles will move towards the target point, each latching onto an enemy unit that it comes into contact with. Each unit will only get latched onto by one creature maximum.
- 1. Mana 100 / Cooldown 36 / Duration 8 seconds / Deals 15 damage per attack
- 2. Mana 100 / Cooldown 33 / Duration 12 seconds / Deals 20 damage per attack
- 3. Mana 100 / Cooldown 30 / Duration 16 seconds / Deals 25 damage per attack
- 4. Mana 100 / Cooldown 27 / Duration 20 seconds / Deals 30 damage per attack
- When a beetle latches on a a target, it will remain there until it is killed or the duration expires.
- Beetles are magic immune, but can be killed in 4 attacks from a hero, or 8 from other units.
- Every 1.35 seconds, the beetle will attack its target, dealing damage and reducing the target's armor by 1 until the beetle is killed or the duration expires.
- Beetles provide 321/321 sight, but will drop off their target if it becomes invisible.
This skill has many uses which makes it such a great skill. One use is to kill fleeing heroes. While they are running away from you they have two choices, to either stop and attack the parasites or keep running while this skill does damage to them. Another use is stopping creep pushes, "casting" this skill on creeps will cause them to stop for a few seconds to destroy the parasites. You should max this skill early because it reduces hero armor and hero armors are low early game as well as their attack speeds are low so they will have trouble destroying them by themselves.
Shukuchi
Causes the Nerubian Weaver to move so fast as to become invisible. Any units passed through will take damage. Lasts 4 seconds
- 1. Mana 60 / Cooldown 12 / Duration 4 seconds / Nerubian weaver becomes invisible. 90 damage to units passed through
- 2. Mana 60 / Cooldown 10 / Duration 4 seconds / Nerubian weaver becomes invisible. 110 damage to units passed through
- 3. Mana 60 / Cooldown 8 / Duration 4 seconds / Nerubian weaver becomes invisible. 130 damage to units passed through
- 4. Mana 60 / Cooldown 6 / Duration 4 seconds / Nerubian weaver becomes invisible. 150 damage to units passed through
- Damage type: magical
- Can only damage a unit once per cast.
- Fade time: 0.25 seconds
Your main escape, chase, damage, juke skill. Probably the shortest invisibility skill in dota. However the cooldown is short too! You can spam this skill, combine it with dps to kill an enemy and most importantly escape. While invisible you are at max ms no matter how many slow debuffs you had on you before. Also take into consideration that the invisibility isn't instant, it takes 0.25 seconds to activate.
Geminate Attack
Occasionally the Nerubian Weaver will send out two swarms, attacking an opponent twice. You must do an ordered attack to activate this.
- 1. Cooldown 6 / Nerubian Weaver sends out two attacks
- 2. Cooldown 5 / Nerubian Weaver sends out two attacks
- 3. Cooldown 4 / Nerubian Weaver sends out two attacks
- 4. Cooldown 2.5 / Nerubian Weaver sends out two attacks
- Geminate Attack is an Orb Effect.
- The extra attack will never trigger attack effects (orb effects, bash and critical strike).
- Nerubian Weaver needs an attack order for this ability to activate.
- The attack in which this skill procs is considered an Orb Effect Buff Placer, while the bonus attack is considered only an Orb Effect.
- Can affect towers.
The skill that gives you great dps. Basically, its a 2x crit. The only thing you have to keep in mind about this is that you have to do an ordered attack on the enemy for it to work. If you did and this skill isn't on cooldown another projectile will hit the enemy.
Time Lapse
Warps the Weaver 5 seconds back in time, resetting the HP, Mana and position. Does not affect cooldown, gold or experience.
- 1. Mana 150 / Cooldown 60 / Warps Nerubian Weaver 5 seconds in the past
- 2. Mana 75 / Cooldown 50 / Warps Nerubian Weaver 5 seconds in the past
- 3. Mana 0 / Cooldown 40 / Warps Nerubian Weaver 5 seconds in the past
- Removes negative buffs from Nerubian.
At last, your ultimate. It has many uses because it resets hp, mana, position and erases buffs/debuffs. It can save your life, restore your mana, remove truesight (dust, debuff), get to a different position, escape some AoE spells otherwise unescapable. Detailed uses are explained in a further part of this guide.
Item Build:
Starting Items
575 gold
OR
499 gold- Justification: Slippers of agility and Circle of nobility will make your stats higher. You can use these later to upgrade to 2x Wraith Bands. Ancient tango of essifation is needed to restore your hp due to creep hits, hero harassment, ect (you're squishy remember?). The second build is the more hp/mana restoring type of build in cases you will need to shukuchi more times, stay in lane longer. You can upgrade Magic Stick to a Wand later.
Core Items
2420 gold
OR
2000 gold
OR
3534 gold- Justification: These are your core items. You should do only one of the three recommended choices above. The second one is cheaper and is crucial for survival early game since it always blocks 10 damage. I would usually go for it but some people think that Vanguard (discussed later) is a better option. Don't make the second option if you're planning on doing Vanguard later. The mana regneration from the items of the third build is quite nice so from here you probably won't have much mana problems until the end of the game. Medallion of Courage increases your armor which is also extremely important and counter illusion heroes (explained below).
Situational/Luxury Items
4900 gold: Manta is one of the best luxury items for weaver. The illusions are very useful since they damage and confuse opponents both at the same time. The stats, attack speed and damage from illusions come nicely as you are a carry. Also, I don't think I need to mention it but Manta can also be used to dodge some non-instant spells.
2225 gold: Probably the item that weaver mostly needs. This should be done right after you've done your core items because 20 damage block is not much for a squishy hero as yourself and it loses its effectiveness late game, still better than nothing. So you better do it quick.
2150 gold / 
5750 gold: Simply an epic item for weaver. Gives him dps. Imagine this as another geminate attack skill with a percent chance and no cooldown! And you can upgrade it to buriza for even more damage! The critical strike activates at the second hit (from geminate attack) though.
4300 gold: Not a very usual build for weaver but useful nonetheless. The slow comes in handy when chasing enemies, HP, attack speed, movement speed too (although you are spamming shukuchi this comes useful when you're out of mana and forced to walk).
5850 gold: This item was practically made for weaver and the gold it costs is totally worth it. I mean, it gives str, HP (survivability), agi (attack speed, armor = survivability), int, MP (mana = spam shukuchi more), slowing your enemies (second hit). What more do you need?
5150 gold: Another item you should definitely make. The main reason why you should spend 5150 gold on Radiance is the epic synergy with sukuchi. Think of it this way. Go shukuchi, pass through an enemy, wait 3 seconds or what's left of it. Attack the enemy. Repeat. Now what's the damage of just the sukuchi? Well 120 + 4 * 40 = 280. w00t! Is that just from sukuchi and radi? Yes it is.
6000 gold: You're in late game and you have damage/luxury items and lacking decent attack speed? Then butterfly is a good choice. Not to mention evasion = survivability.
3900 gold: Just what you need to stay out of stuns and spells while you unleash your deadly dps. Gives strength and damage too and it won't take too long to make as it isn't much expensive. 1075 gold: Medallion of Courage suggested by No0b.1337 can also be very useful when dealing with illusion fags like Azwraith, Nevermore, ect. Don't worry about losing 6 armor because that armor is given to you by the item itself and works when Valor isn't active. So armor boost for your hero + knowing which hero is the right hero to attack. Awesome. 
5400 gold: Another boost for dps. You should make this item not for the fact that it has True Strike (True Strike won't work with geminate attack though so better turn it off before using) but because of the fact that you can get two minibashes in a row. That's 200 bonus damage. Whoa. The minibash is also viable for stopping teleporting heroes since Weaver doesn't have anything to stop them with. So MKB solves that problem too.
5175 gold: Linken is a viable item for Weaver. Besides the spell block. It gives extra mana/hp regeneration and stats so you can spam shukuchi more than you normally would.
2700 gold / 
1400 gold: Boots of travel Good choice. Late game it gives Weaver some sort of "Global Presence" allowing him to do multiple things such as pushes, defs, ect. It also increases your ms when you're out of shukuchi.Phase boots: If you're making this make it early game. The damage from it is quite nice early game (2 * 24 = 48) and it won't hurt if you have another skill that lets you pass through creeps.
Rejected Items
- Justification: Weaver is a non lifesteal carry hero. Make any lifesteal item on him, your geminate attack won't work and you're fucked. I don't even need to add hover text and mention the price since it's that bad. Same goes for other orb effects.
Gameplay:
First Blood
What are the basic steps to getting first blood with Weaver? Easy. Harass your opponent in game to at least lower half hp (this is easier with melee heroes). Activate shukuchi. Pass though him. Do an ordered attack on that enemy. If he's still alive shukuchi once again. Chase him to the enemy tower ONLY if you're 100% sure he doesn't have an escape mechanism (is on cooldown, has no mana), stun you.
Early Game 1-8
Before the game starts grab your starting items and pick a lane. Mid isn't the best lane for weaver as it does not have any side shops and you need to build your items from time to time as you farm. So I suggest picking either top or bottom. But if you are forced to play mid then do it. Once you are in lane try to last hit every creep and farm. You need your items to be effective. Note that as said in the "pros & cons" section weaver has a "sucky attack animation" so you may find last hitting with him to be a little harder than other carry heroes. But don't worry, with playing more and more weaver games you'll get used to this and farm better. Besides last hitting creeps another important thing is to not forget harassing heroes. Weaver is a born to be harasser in lane and you should abuse that. If the enemy heroes laning with you are ranged try not to get focused by them and harass them when they are trying to last hit. The geminate attack will lower their hp much and in most cases they won't hit back. If the heroes are melee then you should absolutely hit them as much as you can without worrying of them trying to strike back. Remember, Weaver is a "highly mobile" hero so any attempt of them reaching you will result in them getting damaged by shukuchi.
Mid Game 5-15
By the time you reach this phase you should have done at least one cheaper luxury item. Vanguard is a good choice but I won't re-explain that again. You should start ganking with your teammates and participate in teamfights. Before a teamfight always remember to use "The Swarm" on a larger group of heroes as possible. They will not attack them while fighting use thus getting damaged. Also destroy some towers, last hit them if you can to get a +500 gold so you can afford your items.
Late Game 15-25
In this phase you will probably have at least three of the luxury items I mentioned in the "Item Build" section. This is where you have two choices - either to farm more, get another luxury item and get even stronger or if you're doing well just finish the damn game! Yes. If you did well before than make mega creeps on one or two lanes. After that, it's just a piece of cake.
Roshan
So is this hero good for killing roshan (by himself)? No, sorry. Like I said in an earlier part of my guide, Weaver is a non lifesteal carry. Life steal doesn't work on him. His skills are also weak against roshan too. Shukuchi does nearly no damage to him and Time Lapse is useless. You need to Time Lapse 50 times to survive. But what you can do is ask a tank or lifesteal carry to start hitting and then you help them.
Strategy Section
Situation #1: Dispelling Dust
Getting dusted and remaining with the "dusted" debuff for 12 seconds can be fatal for Weaver. However your ulty dispells it and it's not much as a threat for you as gem is. I don't think I need to mention how to know when you got dusted because most people know that but here I go:
- A purple circle with a sound effects came out in a large area
- You got a little debuff in your status bar
You don't have to use your ultimate every time you were dusted but in most cases you will have to. Depends on the situation.
Situation #2: Ulty-ing to a previous position
Well this has more than one use. The first use would be to catch up on an enemy distanced from us in a position we were 5 seconds ago and kill him. Example: Imagine Mirana leaped in a position I was 5 seconds ago. Instead of taking additional time to chase her I can instantly Time Lapse back to that position and then use shukuchi. Why is this better than just shukuchi? It's better because those extra seconds matter.
Situation #3: Juking some spells, usually targeted ones with Shukuchi
Your invi isn't just for going invisible, duh. Use it to juke spells too! When the projectile of the spell comes flying in your direction simply activate Shukuchi and you've dodged it. Note that for some spells you may need to run into the projectile in order to properly juke it. Example: Gyrocopter's Homing Missile. It's slow and if you don't run into it, i.e activate shukuchi and stand in place like a dumbass waiting you for it to hit it will damage you and stun will trigger.
You may also dodge AoE spells. How does this work? Simple. Example: Imagine you are extremely near Tauren Chieftain and he starts channeling Echo Stomp. The rest of this example should be pretty obvious. Activate shukuchi and get away from the AoE of the spell. Don't get me wrong. By "juking AoE spells" I mean to quickly run at max ms from the AoE of the spell.
Another spells to mention are those who are targeted on a hero with a circle but AoE too. Once casted and the projectile hits they will both stun and damage you.
Edited by basicdotaguide.blogspot.com