So I just played my first game as the Alchemist, and maybe I'm wrong, but he was super fun to play with. I ended the game with one of the best k/d/a ratios I've ever had! I was wondering what players use as a standard build for the two trolls?

I went with UC,Acid, Gold, Gold, UC, Ult, UC, UC, Gold, Acid, Ult, Acid, Gold, Acid, and so on.

Ending items- Helm of Dominator, Sange & Yasha, radiance, power boots and a monkey king bar.

I'm thinking the helm was a bad choice since his ult gets an insane regen boost and there's such a low cool down. My team used him as the main carry since I was able to farm like crazy and get a few early ganks with the UC.

So question is, is this a semi normal build/usage? He seems pretty powerful, I just haven't seen him used that much.

Hi!
I am by no means a great alchemist player, i love playing him though.

I do my build for a solo lane. I get gold first, acid second, gold, acid, stun, gold. I max gold, then max acid.

I get a hand of midas, phase boots, vanguard, radience, ac and if the game is still going on i get a heart.

This is totally reliant on you actually getting the farm, but if you get every last hit you will hit quota silly fast with that midas.

I guess I played him a little oddly. I waited until I saw who'd be against me center laning, and when I saw Juggaurant I went for UC to keep him from farming at all. I could see where Alch would be a good forester, especially early on with a Ring of Regen.

He seems pretty versatile considering his ult allows to be an awesome push/carry with almost no cool down.

I love threads like these because I've never played Alchemist (and actually probably only versed him two or three times), so I get to go play him for the first time with two different perspectives. He is the guy with the numbers above his head right? Lol I'm such a noob.

yep the numbers above his head i love having a bkb then activating my stun before it so they try to stun me when i pop my bkb also the regen with you ult is retarded its pretty much like sitting in you fountain which is great cause it means you can go charlie sheen mode and GIVE NO FUCKS

Yeah, I've played with him a few more times now and he's really a great hero (at least to me). I played a hard carry with him a couple of games ago and got his normal attack speed up to something ridiculous. Stunned and popped my ult, destroyed whomever i stunned pretty quickly. I think I had ganked/farmed up to a butterfly and an assault cuirass pretty quickly.

I just got my first chance playing Alchemist this last week. Had so much fun with him, I played him again and again. He can carry pretty damned hard, and I've been successful with him both in lane and in jungle.

Regarding skill build - max goblins greed first as this will help with your ingame farming. I've then been maxing Acid second, though I don't know if this is the preferred way to go.

As for the unitiated that don't know what the numbers above his head do: This is a result of his W, Unstable Concoction. The numbers above his head are a timer from when he must land this skill or be stunned himself.

I still haven't gotten around to playing this guy, but my buddy just got a Dota2 key so I want to introduce him to the game this weekend, and he goes "Well you just find me a big drunk Gragas to play" so I'm thinking Alchemist might be fun for him.

I'll have to play him a shitload tonight and get the hang of it haha.

The models for Pandaren Brewmaster are almost done. He's practically a Gragas clone. Only.... furry.

That's awesome I can't wait to try him out. Heroes come out so fast and I'm so unfamiliar with them, I have yet to really try Lycan or Druid lol.

I randomed Druid the other day and had no idea how to play him. I need to work on him.

Feel free to hit me up in the Dota Noobs channel if you want tips. I'm not bad with him at all. Here are a couple tips with Lone Druid:

1. Starting gear - Equip your bear: With a shield. GG branches for LD.

2. Work towards phase boots on the bear. Early venom orb is also not a bad idea. After you have t2 boots on the bear you can work towards treads on LD. After that nearly all of your items go on the bear where items that increase his damage are desirable: Radiance, AC, Desolator, Butterfly

You don't really need to gear LD too much (boots and want are about it). However items that work on him are those that increase his Strength. Aside from BKB and Heart - I can't think of anything.

3. You will want to put levels in both your Q and E, maxing your W last. Rabid - while good, isn't as important as getting your bear more powerful.

4. LD works as a strong jungler or pusher. The way I play him is to jungle then by mid game I push towers all over the place. If you've done your job well - you should have radiance on your bear and doing omgwtfbbq in damage. 1v1 will be your game.

This is all great advice.

I'm going to need to play him a few more times to get the hang of him. Last time I put on shield on the bear and went straight for a radiance to help farm. After that I was kind of lost and we got wrecked.

I was doing some MM last night and for our last game we ended up with some horrible Single Draft picks. Three of us had nothing but carries. I had Alchemist, Outworld Destroyer, and Void. Looking back, the opposing team had only one intelligence hero... if I were a better player I would have gone OD and destroyed them. Instead, I went support Alchemist. I don't recommend it but it's not absolutely horrible. Things I learned:

tl;dr - Alchemist needs farm. He's not an ideal support at all but he's not the worst. He is quite tanky so at least you can roam and place wards without too much worry about getting isnta-ganked. He has kind of a lot of utility. His ultimate makes him pretty self-sufficient, allowing you to avoid being low health or OOM and running back to base. He has a good (but risky) stun and acid spray is excellent for counter pushing and good for pushing.

long version

With your Ult and a Stout Shield, you can jungle pretty effectively and safely. Acid spray has good utility here too.

Unstable Concoction is probably a better followup stun than initiation move. The timer over Alch's head is really obvious and opponents will just wait for it to run out before they initiate. You can move, attack, teleport, whatever while the ability is channeling and you're probably going to have to since people will run or focus you when they see the timer. The damage is significant early game but becomes pretty trivial later on. Once you start the ability up, you are committed - stuns and disables will not interrupt the channeling effect. If you get chain stunned or can't find a target, you're going to eat your own stun. If it's clear you are going to stun yourself, run to a tower where at least you'll be safer. You CANNOT use the ability on allies, enemy creeps, neutrals, Roshan, etc. You CAN throw it at a BKB/magic immune enemy hero just to avoid the self-stun. The stun won't go through magic immunity, though.

Acid Spray a good counter-pushing ability. Throw it just in front of your tower and the other team will be reluctant to stand/teamfight in it. It does a good job on lane creeps too. It works similarly for pushing. Throw it where defenders want to stand or where lane creeps spawn if you are 'raxing. It does physical damage but for teamfights its probably more valuable for it's armor reduction than for the DoT. The cooldown is only about 20 seconds so in a teamfight you can possibly use it twice.

If you are playing Alch as support (why?), think twice about getting goblin's greed since you won't benefit that much from it if you aren't getting many last hits. Early stats may be a better choice as Alch's stat growth is really bad. It may make sense to pick up Greed later on when you're getting reasonable gold from pushing or counter-pushing. If you have a lane or are neutral farming, this skill makes a lot of sense.

Your Ult is up almost all the time (lasts 25 seconds, 45 second cooldown) and it will regenerate more than enough mana to pay for itself so you can use it like a Clarity Potion/Healing Salve or for the speed boost (to escape, etc). There's no reason to be running around low health if your Ult is available. The mana cost skyrockets as you level it up (50/100/150) so watch out for that - bank enough mana to use your ult.

Hmm, I've never played him as support. I think it would be really tough to do so.

Alchemist is a weird mix of heroes. He's useful in a team fight since his ulti gives him insane health regen (not sure if it stacks with a heart?) and his acid spray lowers defense pretty nicely (-6). The few times I've played him, I've generally used him to nullify one of the other team's heavy hitters. Unstable to initiate (even a small stun works), acid spray, ulti, attack, unstable again (this time full amount, 4 seconds) and you'll have a kill.

Alternatively, I've used him in conjunction with someone like leshrac or jakiro. A tanky, melee hero will initiate, you can acid spray/stun, then ulti while your support/pusher ulti's. You might die, but they'll definitely get the kill.

Edit: Purge just played a good hard carry Alchemist game.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAoyzfgdbu8&feature=g-all-u&context=G2678268FAAAAAAAAEAA

The only question I have is why go Radiance at 35 min mark? Wouldn't it have been better to go for an MKB or Mjolnir? Only 300 gold more but seems a lot more useful. Radiance would help with farm early on, but he didn't really need it at that point. The speed and attack boost seem better. Anyone have any thoughts?