Abaddon

Abaddon the Lord of Avernus is a melee strength Hero known as one of the most versatile characters in Dota due to his rather low mana dependence coupled with his abilities' almost inexistent cooldowns and huge item viabilities. His ability to help sustain his allies and himself and his strong tower diving capacity gives him solid lane presence. Many of his abilities offer a large sum of utility, which makes him a strong support Hero. Mist Coil serves as both a single target nuke and heal that helps shift the sustainability of both allied and enemy heroes in a lane at his will, though sacrificing a portion of his own health. Aphotic Shield holds as one of the most useful abilities in the game, able to shield a target from some damage while also able to reflect said damage to a huge area. The most important aspect, though sometimes overlooked, however is how it is able to dispel many status effects such as ranging from simple overtime damage to heavy disabling stuns and slows. His other abilities also allow him to become a mix between a semi-carry and tank, an example of which is his passive Curse of Avernus which allows his attacks to not only slow down his enemy target, but also speed up both himself and his allies who seem to be targetting the same opponent. With his ultimate, Borrowed Time, Abaddon is able to shift all non-HP removal damage he receives into remedies, healing him of the same value. When not cooling down, Borrowed Time may activate passivley when Abaddon's health falls under a certain threshold, even under the most dire situations. With good awareness, the Lord of Avernus can clearly help keep most of his team alive without ever having the worry of being focused down or dying too early.

Tips

 * Remember that Aphotic Shield can remove stuns and slows from its target, you can use this to save your allies from many sure kill situations.
 * Most veteran players will pay attention to when Borrowed Time activates and will not hit you until its duration has expired, you can however heal yourself using Mist Coil during this time, or by putting yourself among enemy creeps or Damage over time skills that have already been cast such as Jakiro's Macropyre. Pay attention however that your ultimate has a relatively short duration.
 * Sometimes it might be a good idea to burst Aphotic Shield on purpose by casting it on the same target if enough damage has not been absorbed.
 * Since Culling Blade can kill Abaddon even through Borrowed Time you might be able to bait out the skill from an enemy Axe by manually activating your ultimate just before you hit the threshold.
 * Abaddon is a very durable hero due to his unique ultimate, however do not let this fool you into diving enemies in confrontations where retreating is the better option.
 * Early game it is possible to harass enemies by casting your Aphotic Shield on creeps that are about to die causing all heroes who move in for the last hit to take damage. You will need proper mana management to keep this up though.
 * If you are playing the team's support hero it is usually wise to max Mist Coil and Aphotic Shield first before getting any points in Curse of Avernus as your first two skills provide a lot of utility early game ranging from healing, to debuff removal, protection and even denying yourself if needed.
 * If you are planning on playing the team carry early points in Curse of Avernus will give you much needed chasing power and increased damage output and will also apply the same to your allies. In this case it might be a good choice to max Aphotic Shield before Mist Coil because you are likely to be diving the enemy a lot which will assure that your shield will burst quickly, allowing you to repeatedly cast it on yourself. Though trying to be the carry for the team is not recommended as Abaddon has much more utility as one of the most durable support heroes in the game.
 * Curse of Avernus can have defensive uses as well, such as hitting an enemy that is chasing your ally to slow them down. You can also use this to save yourself as well under certain circumstances as hitting your target will reduce their movement speed by 20% while give you a 15% movement speed buff. That short boost of movement speed can sometimes save you or your allies.

Trivia

 * Abaddon's title, Lord of Avernus, is a reference to the famous crater in Italy, which was, in ancient times, believed to be the entrance to the underworld.
 * In DotA, Abaddon's third skill was originally called "Frostmourne." It was changed in transition to Dota 2 due to copyright reasons, since Frostmourne exists as a famed weapon in the Warcraft universe. Similarly, his first skill was originally named Death Coil, but was likely changed to differentiate it from the ability used by death knights in the Warcraft universe; one of Abbadon's responses when using Mist Coil references the original name.
 * In the Bible, is the name of an angel, who will rise from the Abyss and command an army of locusts.