Hero Guide - Goblin Clockwerk

Hello everyone. My name might be new around here so forgive me if any of my words are wrong or contrary to your understandings of a certain concept/ideas. I played DotA ever since 2007 although I’m just a public player. This is only my opinion and mine alone, so constructive comments are welcomed, we’re all here to improve ourselves in DotA, not to flame each other. I came in peace and so I hope I can leave in peace too.

This is my first guide so ima start off with something simple. Forgive my English as it is not my native language. I present you:

A Pubber's Guide on the Argument of Boots

Without further ado, this guide explains about the variety of boots in the game as well when or why should we get them. This is a short guide yes, meant to guide newer players to decide which boots should they implement on their heroes in a game accordingly. The ever changing metagame is what makes dota a wonderful game, with no certainty of what you should get every game.

Item build affects 70% of the game. Boots is a must get item for every hero, no matter how fast his/her starting movement speed is.
Here are the five boots along with their arguments:

The Boots Of Speed

(500g) + 55 movement speed. The most basic form of a boot. It can be upgraded into four types of advanced boots, namely Power Treads, Phase Boots, Arcane Boots and Boots of Travel. Some heroes could survive with only just this and go straight to their core before upgrading it into another boots. This is because they can survive due to their passive skills or high starting ms to patch up the disadvantages compared to what other boots offer. To get this boots and go straight to your core make sure you: High base movement speed. (Sufficient to counter other boots in terms of chasing and fleeing) Adequate survivability. (With other items this is not an issue) Want to save money for supporting purposes. (For support roles) The best heroes to use this boots are: Babysitters/Support heroes which won't be needing the benefits other boots provide for reasons such as needing the golds for warding and providing the chick. Situational: Hardcore core farmers. Well the pics here shows heroes that might need radiance (which is very costly) soon in the game. If you are doing well with your last hits it won't hurt to get this basic boots and rush that core ASAP and then upgrade to other boots later.

Power Treads

(1450g) Recipe: (500g) (500g) // (450g) +60 Movement Speed +25 Attack Speed +8 Selected Stats Switch Attributes (Active) The jack-of-all-trade boots. These boots are preferred if you want flexibility. The stats manipulation may come in handy if you know how to utilize it properly. Movement speed is comparable to Boots of Speed, with a difference of 5. And some extra attack speed is never a waste. These boots are viable on most heroes, especially carries, semi carries, gankers and tanks as they provide survivability and attack speed as well to gank/kill/tank efficiently. Get this is you are: Lacking attack speed and survivability. (+8 strength makes a different early on) Needing stat manipulation or larger manapool. (although manapool issue can be solved by Arcane boots, but this boots provides survivability too.) In need of more health. Playing for a balanced and safer start. Best roles to possess this boots are: Heroes who needs AS as well as the extra STR/AGI/INT to patch up their lacking of stats in the game. Bashers, nuff said. *Well, Power Treads is viable for nearly all heroes which can benefit from its additional stats and attack speed. Also this is also a cheap alternative when you can't farm too well due to harassment and dying.

Phase Boots

(1400g) Recipe: (500g) (900g) +60 Movement Speed. +24 Damage. Phase (Active) Damage boots. Or even considered as the alternative of Boots of Travel. Use this boots if you want to chase effectively. This boots are preferred on heroes who don’t rely on attack speed to kill or already have high attack speed. Nukers and spellcasters as well as melee chasers are best fitted as they might need to get in range with phase before they could cast their spells. The extra damage could be utilized by landing a few hits in between spells or as a bonus to kill faster while chasing an enemy hero. Phase is an active ability which makes chasing easier by a hundredfold and also as an escape mechanism (not-so-effective). Get pass those creeps. None is stopping you. Get this if you: Have good attack speed. (If you need these to be effective) Have good survivability. (These boots once provide armor, but not for long) Need to chase heroes without any creeps blocking your way. Need an escape mechanism. Need some extra damage. Heroes fitted to use these boots are: Heroes that needs some raw damage as well as chasing power. Not recommended for: Orb walkers and heroes with low skill cooldowns. Using/Spamming skills and items while you're on phase cancels it.

Arcane Boots

(1500g) Recipe: (500g) (1000g) + 65 movement speed +250 mana Replenish Mana (Active) Replacing the arcane ring, these boots are now even more viable for spellcasters, supports and cheap nukers alike. It gives adequate movement speed, as well as an extra 250 points in your manapool. But remember, if one of your teammates have this boots already you might want to consider some other boots. These boots don’t give you any survivability at all. To persevere in the battlefield is the utmost important thing. Get this if you: Need those extra inches of mana to secure a just-in-case kill. Have low manapool. Have adequate survivability. Do not rely on dps as much. Want to contribute to the team. (Support role) Best heroes to use this boots: Strength casters and combo heroes who might need the extra inch of mana to unleash everything. Support heroes. The reason I put them here is simple - to support. Them having arcane boots greatly saves a boots slot for their carries and casters so that they can buy other boots while having their mana taken care at the same time. *Stacking these boots (2-3 heroes) in a team sometimes can be a good idea. But beware, having all 5 heroes in the battlefield possessing these boots might not be a good idea. Well you get my point of having a carry carrying these.

Boots of Travel

(2700g) Recipe: (500g) (2200g) +95 movement speed. Teleport (Active) The good-ol’-classic. This boots is the best for pushing and for map control.For some heroes this boots is even considered as a luxury. The major movement speed and teleport will never disappoint you as these could save your life. Very plain if you’d ask me but it’s worth the price. Get these if you: Have low movement speed. Need an escape mechanism (Better than Phase IMO) Need map control for pushfest. Have high AS (If you want to implement these boots to a chaser/carry) Have high survivability. Who to buy these boots: This dude. Having BoT with him makes him very unpredictable. He roams. He pushes. He goes missing. He ganks. He escapes. He's fed. He owns. The trick? Rearm. And these dudes. Make these boots for them is you're very confident of your skills. With these boots a meepo's potential is amplified since he can chase, farm and push more efficiently as well as able to do some advanced juking and poof techniques. But it needs high micromanagement as well as some experience of handling meepo efficiently. I ever saw one clip of meepo using this (or he used TP) in one of the WoDotA top 10 weekly videos. See the videos section. But in most situations, I recommend power treads for them as it gives advantages in a more common aspect. Here's THREE guide's that states the benefit of BoTs on meepo (Although the most common core out there is treads and BoTs are rather situational or alternative but there's nothing wrong with them and BoTs): Heavy pushers/gankers. They need to roam the map for maximum efficiency to push/gank. Although this boots can be a situational or luxury to them, get these boots if you farmed too well or when the game turns to a pushfest or just for an upgrade for the late game. Question yourself before you buy this. Whether you'll be good without the +8 stats or +24 damage from the other boots or not. And other stuffs. In the late game phase, where you get most of your core and extensions already, you might change to BoT if your hero is the type of hero that is tp dependant (pushers and supports, not carries as they should be at their best in this moment) to push/defend/counterpush/escape so that one slot is saved for other purposes (like sheepstick if you haven't got already).

So, when to buy boots?

So, I must say that boots is an important item or actually a no-brainer to all heroes. But that doesn't mean that we should buy boots at minute zero. It gives no survivability! You will start a game with about 400-800 golds depending on your game mode as well as repicks. These items are far more important in the laning phase, where extra HP, mana, HP/mana regens, stats are better for survivability and also last hits.Buy these first!. Getting boots early will cut your budget short. Plus in early game everyone focuses on laning, having boots might get you an edge in speed, but while all the towers still steady, most of the time you will have to tower dive = die. But nevertheless, if you think you can benefit on having boots as your first item then do so, at your own risk. Normally I will get boots soon after I have my magic wand and a couple of bracers/bands/talisman done. Or in short, once the laning phase ends and you're in the transition of the early-mid game. In some of the exceptional cases you might delay boots for supporting purposes but if you do, have a TP with you, ALWAYS!

Final Words.

Overall, what boots you choose depends on your hero type as well as the condition of the game. For example, if the game turns out to be a push fest then you might want to consider Boots of Travel into your shopping list. Or you are playing a gank strat then you might want to have an Arcane boots (supports) or a Power Treads. In the end, it’s all up to you. And I would very much appreciate if you guys help me improve my guide. Thank you.

Replays:

Aeon.SG vs LGD.SgTy
Some actions of LGD.ZSMJ.sGty_ (Spectre) had his phase boots and become super efficient in farming that he farmed Radiance very fast.

Nirvana.int vs Annie]Gartner
Some actions by NV.KuroKy (Shadow Fiend) showing that changing treads stats can make the difference in a fight.