Lone Druid/Guide

Spirit Bear Carry/Pusher
This build focuses on getting items on Spirit Bear. Spirit Bear will have tankiness and damage to sustain itself in the middle of fights, while Lone Druid mostly supports from behind with buffs. Simply equipped your bear with a boot and a mask of madness, best before level 7, you will more likely to dominate the early game. can be uniquely strong for this build since it allows Spirit Bear to attack without Lone Druid being nearby or alive.

Ranged Carry
Range Carry for Lone Druid is completely obsolete for 7.30d and onward unless there is adjustment in the talent tree in the future.

General

 * Writing as of 7.30d, it is highly recommended not to build Lone Druid as range carry. There are too many heroes that has skills, or using dagger, able to jump into a team fight and target non-druid form to kill you off instantly. Non-druid form is extremely squishy at any point during the game.
 * Lone Druid is dominant when you have a good laning phase and able to get your core item (mask of madness) before level 7.
 * Lone Druid is highly advisable not to play as carry hero. It is better to play either as Offlane or Midlane. The damage per second of Lone Druid as he moves into mid or late game diminishes. Lone Druid becomes a less reliable DPS as he approaches late game. Facing off carry like Phantom Assassin or Juggernaut etc. in late game will most likely lose out. Hence, leave the DPS role to other better carry heroes.
 * A lot of players have the misunderstanding that Lone Druid is an item dependent hero. However, this is not true. All you need is a boot and a Mask of Madness plus some decent micro management skill, at level 6, you will be able to dominate most of early game phase which will scale you well into the mid-game.
 * Focus on building items on either Lone Druid or the Spirit Bear. Trying to itemize both equally will only make each one weaker overall compared to other heroes.
 * Lone Druid can use his bear to pick up runes, you can send Spirit Bear to easily collect bounty runes while you stay in lane.
 * The Spirit Bear can buy and deliver items and act as personal courier if you either cannot get to the shop yourself or it is too much of a risk to send a courier, though you cannot transfer between Lone Druid and Spirit Bear.
 * It is advisable not to resummon your bear just because your bear Hp is low. Do send him back to base for healing. In many unlucky occasions, your hero may get killed right after you have just resummoned your bear. This mistake is very fatal, because the cooldown for the bear is 2min long, and without your bear, your hero is very vulnerable and will greatly affect your farming efficiency. You have basically surrendered your game early.
 * Before the match starts, you have to analyze opponents heroes combinations. Think about the possible skills combination that may happen during a skirmish. It takes a lot of experience to decide whether you want to win the game by 'tower pushing' or 'teamfights'.
 * If you have decided to go by 'tower pushing', you need to get, , Shadow Blade exclusively in this order. It is advisable to get a as well to improve your bear durability and tower pushing. With this setup, you will become an extreme nuisance by forcing enemy to TP back to save their towers and you can run away from them easily with Shadow Blade. Eventually with all these kiting of enemies around the map, you will be disrupting their tempo in game. If you have been having a good early and mid game, it is recommended to adopt this method. It guarantees higher winning chance.
 * In any case that you have been in a bad early game and playing catch-up for most part of the game, DO NOT buy . Because your Spirit Bear will have not much impact on game anymore. Stick with your Druid and stick with the team.


 * An early on the Spirit Bear makes it adept at harassing lane opponents.
 * When killed, the Spirit Bear gives 300 gold and experience to the enemy, similar to losing a hero. It also deals backlash damage to Lone Druid himself, taking 10% of his max health. Therefore, do not let the bear die.
 * If you die, the Spirit Bear also dies. So always be aware of the bear summon cooldown. If you respawn and the bear summon is on a long cooldown, the lane can get very rough.
 * If you suspect an upcoming engagement, you can use Spirit Bear to scout and use Return to keep it from dying.
 * The Spirit Bear can deny Lone Druid, and vice versa, dealing no backlash damage in latter case. Your teammates can also help with denying Spirit Bear.
 * When ganking, try to control the Spirit Bear instead of Lone Druid as it has long attack backswing which you can cancel.
 * Doing so will keep the Spirit Bear close to target, providing more opportunities to proc Entangling Claws.
 * When retreating, use the Spirit Bear to root chasing enemies with Entangling Claws.
 * Send the Spirit Bear out to push and attack buildings, especially up the high ground to hit tier 3 towers.
 * Unlike heroes, the Spirit Bear does not gain attributes. Thus, it cannot scale as well to stand toe to toe against enemy hard carries in the late game. So, you should finish the game as quickly as possible.
 * Consider building to let the bear attack without Lone Druid, potentially succeed in split pushing as Lone Druid and teammates engage and distract the enemies elsewhere.
 * If the Spirit Bear is about to die in a teamfight, you can try to transfer its items to Lone Druid so he can continue the fight.
 * Control the Spirit Bear to collect bounty runes while you farm. It can also draw enemy creeps away or scout for heroes so your team can push towers faster and safer. With, it can burn and wipe creep waves without attacking, good to push the lanes to gain map control.
 * The Spirit Bear's attack damage type is basic, meaning that its attack damage is reduced by 25% when attacking heroes and creep-heroes.
 * The Spirit Bear can use to teleport to the fountain to heal and retrieve items, then use Return to get back to Lone Druid.
 * The Spirit Bear can use Town Portal Scroll to get to and collect bounty runes then Return back.
 * Leveling up Summon Spirit Bear refreshes cooldowns of Spirit Bear's abilities, so the bear can use Entangling Claws and Savage Roar again.


 * Spirit Link's lifesteal and Spirit Bear's Defender sustain Lone Druid in fights, so he sometimes can turn the tide against enemy gankers in the early to mid game.
 * In very bad laning pair-up, where surviving from enemies skill spams has become very crucial, sometime it is better to max out this skill before the bear.


 * Have a value point in Savage Roar to drive enemies away when they are ganking Lone Druid in the early game.
 * Both Lone Druid and Spirit Bear can use Savage Roar, though they still share the same cooldown.
 * To save an outnumbered ally, send out the Spirit Bear and use Savage Roar to scatter the enemies.
 * Send the Spirit Bear into the Roshan Pit, and use Savage Roar to interrupt enemies attacking Roshan.
 * Savage Roar can be used to disrupt other taunt spells if it is used after them.
 * Use Savage Roar to cancel channeling abilities and.
 * Use Savage Roar after rooting with Entangling Claws. The affected targets cannot move, or use items and abilities to help themselves, effectively acting like a stun.
 * More tips needed.


 * True Form has a cast time, during which Lone Druid cannot move. Be careful when using it while retreating, as the transform time could allow enemies to catch up with Lone Druid.
 * Transform into bear form before a fight to make Lone Druid more durable.
 * Transform into bear form without any hesitation when you know you are getting into a gank or joining a war.

Items
Starting items:
 * keeps Lone Druid in lane with health sustain.
 * gives Lone Druid cheap attributes.
 * can heal both Lone Druid and Spirit Bear.

Starting items (Bear):
 * helps Spirit Bear score last hits with bonus damage against creeps.
 * applies slow on attacks to harass and chase enemies.

Early game:
 * for movement speed boost. No two games are the same. If you face a lane that is able to run you down fast, put the boot in your hero. If you are confident to killing off enemy hero, put the boot on your bear.
 * can save Lone Druid with burst health and mana.
 * applies slow on attacks to harass and chase enemies.

Core items (Bear):
 * increases Spirit Bear's movement speed to run down enemies and catch them with Entangling Claws.
 * increases Spirit Bear's movement speed to run down enemies. Best to get this item before level 7.

Situational items:
 * allows Spirit Bear to attack without having Lone Druid nearby or alive, making it a more autonomous farmer and pusher.
 * grants spell immunity so Lone Druid can continue to attack without fear of disables.
 * greatly increases damage output and applies armor reduction debuff on attack targets, including buildings.

Situational items (Bear):
 * makes Lone Druid and the Spirit Bear regenerate health and attack much faster, while allowing them to control a neutral creep that bring useful abilities and auras. Furthermore, the dominated creep also benefits from Battle Cry's buff, increasing overall damage output.
 * lets the Spirit Bear attack faster for faster Entangling Claws procs and more building damage.
 * grants aura of lifesteal and attack damage for both Lone Druid and Spirit Bear.
 * lets Spirit Bear push extremely fast with the armor reduction on buildings combined with Demolish.
 * increases attack speed and damage, aiding in pushes.
 * 's attack speed increases potency of Demolish on buildings and chance to proc Entangling Claws, as well as synergizes with Spirit Link and True Form's base attack time reduction.
 * gives Spirit Bear high attack speed to proc Entangling Claws. Spirit Bear can consume the Moon Shard.
 * keeps enemies immobilized with stun and bashes in addition to Entangling Claws.

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