Dark Willow/Guide

Support

 * Put value points into Cursed Crown and Bramble Maze early to protect your team and lock down enemies.
 * Shadow Realm deals heavy damage to zone out the enemy in lane, as well as helping Dark Willow escape.

Ganker

 * Focus on leveling Shadow Realm, Bramble Maze, and Bedlam to deal magical damage in ganks.
 * More tips needed.

General

 * Dark Willow excels as a support due to her many disables and nukes.
 * Dark Willow's magical burst damage requires her to get close to her targets, exposing her to retaliation.
 * Thus, enemies with short ranged AoE abilities can counterattack and harm Dark Willow if she tries to gank them.
 * Examples include, , , , , and.
 * More tips needed.


 * Use Bramble Maze to block off narrow points, such as stairs or the Roshan Pit.
 * Use Bramble Maze sparingly in the early game as it has a long cooldown.
 * Use Bramble Maze as an initiation tool, centering the inner circle of brambles around the target.
 * Bramble Maze's formation is always the same.
 * Cast Bramble Maze slightly off-center to put a single bramble in the enemy's way, or block off a narrow path.
 * Use Bramble Maze as a protective zone for Dark Willow and her allies.
 * Use Bramble Maze pre-emptively before a teamfight since it has long duration.
 * Zone out last-hitters or set up early kills by placing Bramble Maze directly on the enemy hero.
 * More tips needed.


 * Shadow Realm's damage scales well in the early game, so max it out first.
 * Use Shadow Realm to harass enemies in lane.
 * Use Shadow Realm's long attack range to finish off enemies escaping.
 * Shadow Realm disjoints and makes Dark Willow untargetable by anyone, including herself and her allies.
 * Shadow Realm does not protect from AoE abilities, meaning that area nukes and disables like and  can still hurt Dark Willow.
 * When ganking, use Shadow Realm with Bedlam to deal high burst damage, and to avoid being disabled by the target.
 * Use Shadow Realm before channeling to increase Dark Willow's chance of escape because the ability protects her from unit-target disables, such as.
 * However, disables that do not target unit, like, can still ruin the combo.
 * You can use items like, or work with abilities like that hold the enemies in place, buying time for Shadow Realm to charge up damage.
 * More tips needed.


 * Use Cursed Crown followed by abilities and items like to pin target in place, eliminating much of the stun delay.
 * Use Cursed Crown in the middle of teamfights, or after placing Bramble Maze to stun multiple enemies.
 * Use Cursed Crown on aggressor to dissuade them from chasing Dark Willow or allies.
 * In the later stage of the game, enemy heroes will have plenty of time to use before Cursed Crown's stun goes off. So, try to save it for heroes without spell immunity.
 * As Cursed Crown is counting down, it shows the stun area with faint visual effect.
 * More tips needed.


 * Bedlam deals more damage against a single target.
 * Stay on the edges of enemy clusters to have Jex focus fire on the outermost enemy.
 * Stay on top of the enemy for as long as possible to deal more damage.
 * Moving in circles around the target will keep Jex firing on the enemy for almost the entirety of the duration; easier to do against stunned or rooted enemies.
 * Dark Willow can choose to use Bedlam to clear creep waves as it has short cooldown.
 * Use Bedlam with Shadow Realm, allowing Dark Willow to stay close to enemies without them retaliating.
 * Use Bedlam with to deal damage while avoiding incoming damage.
 * Use abilities and items like to remove one enemy so Bedlam has one less target to attack.
 * During Bedlam, the visual effect around Jex indicates its attack range.
 * More tips needed.


 * Terrorize applies fear to make enemies run toward their fountain.
 * Position Dark Willow behind the enemy team to catch terrorized enemies with Bramble Maze and Bedlam.
 * Try not to use Terrorize and make enemies run away from allied abilities like or.
 * Use Terrorize to protect allies and disengage from a losing fight.
 * Use Terrorize to counter-initiate as enemies have committed powerful and expensive disables like, , , or , ruining their combo and saving caught allies.
 * Use Terrorize to waste powerful enemy abilities like, , , , , and.
 * Use Terrorize to stop enemy channelers like, , or , even if they gain invisibility with.
 * Since terrorized enemies cannot spread out, use Cursed Crown's area stun to disable multiple targets as Terrorize ends.
 * Try to aim Terrorize to make some heroes run away, so your team can slaughter the remaining ones.
 * If the enemy team is attacking your tower, the separation between the attacking ranged and melee heroes gives an opportunity to remove either from the fight.
 * Supports tend to stay at the back of a fight; Terrorize them to put enemy carries at a disadvantage. Alternatively, use Terrorize on carries will allow you to focus on the supports.
 * Since Terrorize does not last forever, opt for these tactics only if your team can kill the unaffected heroes within time; otherwise, just Terrorize all heroes and escape from the fight.
 * More tips needed.

Items
Starting items:
 * helps Dark Willow play more aggressively in the early game with supply of mana.
 * supplements Dark Willow's low natural health with regeneration.
 * restores health to keep Dark Willow alive.
 * combines with Tango to heal more, or builds into Magic Wand.
 * restores mana for Dark Willow to use abilities in the early game.
 * provides vision on the enemies so Dark Willow and allies can gank.
 * ferries items to teammates.

Early game:
 * increase movement speed to chase or escape.
 * helps Dark Willow keep up with enemies during ganks, and builds into Eul's Scepter of Divinity.
 * can save Dark Willow in an emergency by restoring health and mana.

Mid game:
 * gives Dark Willow a quick mana and health restoration.
 * help Dark Willow use her magical nukes more often, as she has five active abilities with high mana costs.
 * works well with any of Dark Willow's abilities: setting up Bramble Maze's root and Terrorize's fear, buying time for Cursed Crown to stun and Shadow Realm to peak in damage, removing an enemy for Bedlam to concentrate on others, and combining with Shadow Realm for longer period of untargetability. It also provides intelligence and mana regeneration for her to use said abilities.
 * helps Dark Willow get close to enemies to land as many Bedlam hits as possible, and allows her to get behind enemies for Terrorize. If trying to escape from enemies, Shadow Realm may help Dark Willow survive the 3 second cooldown and blink to safety.
 * grants Dark Willow a layer of protection with invisibility and magic resistance, so she can stay on top of the enemies when using Bedlam.

Late game:
 * provides a large damage boost and a strong undispellable single-target hex to complement her natural AoE disables.
 * protects Dark Willow with dispel and heal when she is ganking with Bedlam.
 * increases lots of damage output and works well with the attack speed talent. If you choose the lifesteal talent, this item can also let you die less.

Situational items
 * allow Dark Willow to keep up with enemies while using Bedlam.
 * facilitates runes control, offsetting the high mana cost of Dark Willow's abilities.
 * gives a core Dark Willow high damage and kill potential with her own nukes. It also provides bonuses to defensive armor and attributes.
 * increases Dark Willow's burst damage, and reduces some of her high mana costs.
 * helps Dark Willow escape, stay next to enemies during Bedlam, or push a fleeing enemy with Cursed Crown into their team.
 * sustains Dark Willow and teammates with heal, and it can also help in ganks by countering enemy healing and dealing some damage.
 * applies root to keep the target within range of Bedlam.
 * protects Dark Willow from single target disables, which can kill her in the late game.
 * protects Dark Willow from high damage nukes and initiations with strong dispel and damge reduction, giving her 2.5 seconds to use all of her abilities to help in teamfights or to disengage.
 * 's Chain Lightning triggers often when Dark Willow picks the attack speed talent, and its active ability dissuades the enemies from counterattacking.
 * can only be considered if you already owned the Aghanim's, and your teammates only did little damage at the same time.
 * , along with Shadow Realm, help Dark Willow teleport and split push.

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