Jack Rodriguez
Most people lost their games because of losing the trilane. Trilane is very cruicial. Losing a trilane results 3 heroes have level and gold disadvantage which would lead to losing the game if the opponents continue their plan of non-stop harassment. I've mentioned in my older post, Dominating a trilane, how to dominate a trilane. What are the needed items and skills in trilane to be able to win it. I expect you to analyze carefully the examples I'm going to give you. These are DotA Trilane heroes having winning combo and chemistry to ensure wins in your games.
I. Sven(Rogue Knight), Shendelzare Silwood(Vengeful Spirit), Visage(Necrolic)
In 6.69c, Visage is one of the best hero at trilane because of its powerful nuke, slow and its average hp making him not an easy prey. His instant damage spell called soul assumption increases its damage as heroes inflict damage on opponent heroes within 1378 AOE of Visage. It has only 4 seconds cool down and its maximum charge capacity becomes larger as the skill level increases. So, why sven and venge? You need someone to disable your opponents to be able for visage to have its full potential because soul assumption needs time to reach its maximum charge. Sven has 3 roles-disabling, inflicting damage and tanking. Opponents are not AI's. They want to dominate the trilane too, so when you start the fight, they would fight back. Sven should disable one enemy to disallow him to cast any spell on you and venge is there to back sven up. With their perfect disables. Visage can now have his soul assumption fully charge to finish the target. Sven having high HP, have the choice whether to attack other opponents who are already outnumbered and have skills in cool down, or to retreat if he his HP is not negotiable. Wise opponents would target venge because of his low hp but most of the time 2 heroes is not enough to kill venge. Other intelligent opponents would target visage to stop him from casting his killer blow. If this happens let sven chase the target. Surely, the target would have very low hp and would be running back through his tower. Sven should chase that target not only to kill him, but to refrain him from doing damage to visage which was disabled be his allied heroes. Visage after getting disabled should cast his soul assumption to the target if it is still close but if not, he should cast it on other opponents, preferably with low hp, since the soul assumption's charge has 6 seconds expiration time. He can run back a bit for sven and venge to have their skills ready and to earn another maximum soul assumption charge, which has only 4 secs cool down.
Once visage reaches level 6, he is now a lot stronger and I recommend opponents to ask for help from other lanes. Visage players that can control several units perfectly would win the trilane in every encounters. He have 2 summons do have great attack damage and has 2 seconds stun each, making it a total of 4 seconds stun. Being with sven and venge, there is no way you can escape a stun of around 8 seconds. Opponents of visage would need AOE stunners to give some help reducing damages taken by their allies. All you have to do is play passively against this trilane combo for engaging in fights means making visage happy.
Counters: This hero combo is quite unstoppable at trilane, but can be countered by having a solo hero against them. It is because a solo hero reduces visage's potential. Visage needs action! But, here you are farming and playing safe. Priestess of the Moon, Windrunner, and Puck are some of the heroes that can face them alone. Before visage can have maximum soul assumption damage, the opponent is already gone.
II. Razzil Darkbrew(Alchemist), Rylai(Crystal Maiden), Lina Inverse(Slayer)
Alchemist is one deadly hero in trilane. He has a stun with a potential of 4 seconds duration dealing 300 damage. This is possible if he was able to maximize his charging time and fires up the stun to his target successfully. This skill is called 'Unstable Concotion'. Apparently, best skills are not easy to execute. There are requirements. Skills like shadow raze, soul assumption, elune's arrow are not not so easy to use because of it's strong potential by nature. Unstable concotion is one of these best skills i've mentioned. You need to run and chase your opponents to maximize the stun duration and damage of this skill. Thus, a perfect lane mate would be Rylai. She has slowing and disabling ability to make it easier for Alchemist to land his Unstable Concotion on his target. Lina is there for additional disable and spam. Since the stun duration of Alchemist's disable is quite long, lina can land her stun and spam to aid Alchemist for the kill. Alchemist is quite a tank, perfect for the difficult nature of being in a trilane. Acid spray is one pain in the butt skill too in trilane. It has a wide AOE and would make everyone bleeding if they stayed longer within it's range. This is another skill that would make opponents play passively.
Once alchemist reaches level 6, it's more difficult to lane against him. Alchemist can cast chemical rage and ignore most of your cheap shots. He would rush like a bull into opponents charging his stun. Opponent can only play so passively because there would be one sure dead hero among them if they would try to fight back because of acid spray and rylai and lina's disabling ability.
Counters: Trilaning against this line up is also a very difficult job. If they have a lane advantage like sentinel's bottom lane and scourge's top lane, Alchemist has a long runway to chase you. I suggest face them in their weak lane. If you have the lane advantage, Alchemist can't charge towards you most of the time because of you're tower is nearby. Though he may be a tank, he can't tank towers at early levels. He would wait for level 6 to be brave enough to challenge a lane fight. However, it is still difficult to play aggressive against this line up. Choose a safe lane to farm more because you will need armor reduction item for Alchemist's late game potential. If this line up lanes at the safe lane, I suggest placing a solo puck against them. First reason is puck's escape mechanism. Though slowed, puck can use orb to escape. 2nd reason is phase shift. Puck can dodge this sick skill by simply pressing f. You just wasted alchemist's effort on charging his skill. Again, puck here is meant for gaining levels and farm. One of the cons of laning a solo lane here is that Alchemist can use his gold hacking skill to farm his core items quickly giving much problem for his enemies. Though at late game, I recommend heroes like necrolyte, harbringer, slardar and ursa warrior to kill this imbalanced tank, at lane it is hard to win against this line hero line up.
III. Shendelzare Silkwood(Vengeful Spirit), Kunkka(Admiral), Raigor Stonehoof(Earthshaker)
I recommend this trilane hero line up because of its versatility. It is offensive yet defensive. Kunkka's bread and butter at early game is his torrent and splash. These are both aoe nukes that are painful for the opponents. Splash is quite easier than torrent. Torrent is easy to evade but once it lands on the opponents, they are in big trouble. Torrent offers damage, disable and slow. That is why venge is here to assure a perfect torrent. Earthshaker is there for additional disable as well as hindering the opponents to act at once, making it easier for kunkka to finish the victim quicker. Another function of earthshaker is to fissure a close pair of heroes to maximize the AOE of the torrent. Venge would have the final stun in this case to assure kills. Playing defensive is easy because of earthshaker. Once the opponents try to use their combo on a farming Kunkka, Earthshaker would disrupt that combo and disable 2 or 3 heroes. If this happens, venge can act and choose a prey to be stunned. Kunkka can move now and can cast torrent to kill his killers.
Once Kunkka reaches level 6, it's titanic time. Venge can initiate anytime because of safety provided by Earthshaker. With Earthshaker's AOE stun, there's a high possibility that Kunkka's Ghost ship will hit all of them. Kunkka will now hit them with splash and I don't think the supports can survive this combo. The tank would be the only one they need to add extra effort. This is one sick trilane combo but if not executed properly like ES wasting mana for harassing, this is not that easy to execute.
Counters: First of all you need wards. If an earthshaker is successful at blocking your escape route because of being blinded by fog, your team will have no choice but to fight back. Running back means giving venge and kunkka good chance to finish one of you. 2nd, I suggest a range carry like potm, kardel, windrunner to be the carry farming against this lane. Supports may be range or melee but they shouldn't be reached by venge's magic missile. The strategy here is not to be too aggressive because an earthshaker will disable all of you. If Kunkka and friends grew impatient and try killing your range carry, back him up to make the combo fail. Now it's time for you to attack. Target venge because she has the fastest skill cool down and he has the lowest HP. Another good counter against this line up is silencer's curse of the silent. Make kunkka or es waste his mana by cursing him. In this case, you wont fear their deadly combo anymore.
IV. Morphling(Morphling), Rylai(Crystal Maiden), Vol'jin (Witch Doctor)
Morphling's waveform makes him a good hero for trilane. He can damage opponents with his waveform and hit them from behind for extra damage. Crystal Maiden and Vol'jin makes it safe for morphling to wave through the opponents. They can harass the opponents because of their range normal attacks. Crystal maiden's slow can make morphling and vol'jin do more normal attacks on the target. Once morphling wave in, bite and vol'jin's chain stun can stop opponents from focus firing on morphling. Their range normal attacks also make morphling not alone to hit the target. This makes it easier to kill the opponent. Morphling can retreat back safely because of its 3rd skill(morph). He can activate strength morph to add hp if needed. Rylai's one great contribution for the team is his mana which is much needed by morph and vol'jin. Vol'jin can heal morph after entering the fight to kill an opponent. Having a 3-range-hero line up on a lane also allows the team to gain more level and creep kill advantages. They can deny a lot of creeps to make their opponents have slow farm.
Counters: Most of the combo I stated before this one are good counters for this. This is not a very strong lane though it has advantages. Morph is not a melee but with his range, he is still risking his life farming in trilane. He has a poor mana making him cast only 1 wave form in early levels. Make him use this and go for the kill. Pefect execution of stunner line up can stop this combo. Morphling has no disabling ability so if you focus fire on his team mate he has nothing to do but to inflict damage. Generally, this trilane cannot stop your disabling combo. Use Kunkka's X mark for morphling's escape mechanisms.
to be continued...
I. Sven(Rogue Knight), Shendelzare Silwood(Vengeful Spirit), Visage(Necrolic)
In 6.69c, Visage is one of the best hero at trilane because of its powerful nuke, slow and its average hp making him not an easy prey. His instant damage spell called soul assumption increases its damage as heroes inflict damage on opponent heroes within 1378 AOE of Visage. It has only 4 seconds cool down and its maximum charge capacity becomes larger as the skill level increases. So, why sven and venge? You need someone to disable your opponents to be able for visage to have its full potential because soul assumption needs time to reach its maximum charge. Sven has 3 roles-disabling, inflicting damage and tanking. Opponents are not AI's. They want to dominate the trilane too, so when you start the fight, they would fight back. Sven should disable one enemy to disallow him to cast any spell on you and venge is there to back sven up. With their perfect disables. Visage can now have his soul assumption fully charge to finish the target. Sven having high HP, have the choice whether to attack other opponents who are already outnumbered and have skills in cool down, or to retreat if he his HP is not negotiable. Wise opponents would target venge because of his low hp but most of the time 2 heroes is not enough to kill venge. Other intelligent opponents would target visage to stop him from casting his killer blow. If this happens let sven chase the target. Surely, the target would have very low hp and would be running back through his tower. Sven should chase that target not only to kill him, but to refrain him from doing damage to visage which was disabled be his allied heroes. Visage after getting disabled should cast his soul assumption to the target if it is still close but if not, he should cast it on other opponents, preferably with low hp, since the soul assumption's charge has 6 seconds expiration time. He can run back a bit for sven and venge to have their skills ready and to earn another maximum soul assumption charge, which has only 4 secs cool down.
Once visage reaches level 6, he is now a lot stronger and I recommend opponents to ask for help from other lanes. Visage players that can control several units perfectly would win the trilane in every encounters. He have 2 summons do have great attack damage and has 2 seconds stun each, making it a total of 4 seconds stun. Being with sven and venge, there is no way you can escape a stun of around 8 seconds. Opponents of visage would need AOE stunners to give some help reducing damages taken by their allies. All you have to do is play passively against this trilane combo for engaging in fights means making visage happy.
Counters: This hero combo is quite unstoppable at trilane, but can be countered by having a solo hero against them. It is because a solo hero reduces visage's potential. Visage needs action! But, here you are farming and playing safe. Priestess of the Moon, Windrunner, and Puck are some of the heroes that can face them alone. Before visage can have maximum soul assumption damage, the opponent is already gone.
II. Razzil Darkbrew(Alchemist), Rylai(Crystal Maiden), Lina Inverse(Slayer)
Alchemist is one deadly hero in trilane. He has a stun with a potential of 4 seconds duration dealing 300 damage. This is possible if he was able to maximize his charging time and fires up the stun to his target successfully. This skill is called 'Unstable Concotion'. Apparently, best skills are not easy to execute. There are requirements. Skills like shadow raze, soul assumption, elune's arrow are not not so easy to use because of it's strong potential by nature. Unstable concotion is one of these best skills i've mentioned. You need to run and chase your opponents to maximize the stun duration and damage of this skill. Thus, a perfect lane mate would be Rylai. She has slowing and disabling ability to make it easier for Alchemist to land his Unstable Concotion on his target. Lina is there for additional disable and spam. Since the stun duration of Alchemist's disable is quite long, lina can land her stun and spam to aid Alchemist for the kill. Alchemist is quite a tank, perfect for the difficult nature of being in a trilane. Acid spray is one pain in the butt skill too in trilane. It has a wide AOE and would make everyone bleeding if they stayed longer within it's range. This is another skill that would make opponents play passively.
Once alchemist reaches level 6, it's more difficult to lane against him. Alchemist can cast chemical rage and ignore most of your cheap shots. He would rush like a bull into opponents charging his stun. Opponent can only play so passively because there would be one sure dead hero among them if they would try to fight back because of acid spray and rylai and lina's disabling ability.
Counters: Trilaning against this line up is also a very difficult job. If they have a lane advantage like sentinel's bottom lane and scourge's top lane, Alchemist has a long runway to chase you. I suggest face them in their weak lane. If you have the lane advantage, Alchemist can't charge towards you most of the time because of you're tower is nearby. Though he may be a tank, he can't tank towers at early levels. He would wait for level 6 to be brave enough to challenge a lane fight. However, it is still difficult to play aggressive against this line up. Choose a safe lane to farm more because you will need armor reduction item for Alchemist's late game potential. If this line up lanes at the safe lane, I suggest placing a solo puck against them. First reason is puck's escape mechanism. Though slowed, puck can use orb to escape. 2nd reason is phase shift. Puck can dodge this sick skill by simply pressing f. You just wasted alchemist's effort on charging his skill. Again, puck here is meant for gaining levels and farm. One of the cons of laning a solo lane here is that Alchemist can use his gold hacking skill to farm his core items quickly giving much problem for his enemies. Though at late game, I recommend heroes like necrolyte, harbringer, slardar and ursa warrior to kill this imbalanced tank, at lane it is hard to win against this line hero line up.
III. Shendelzare Silkwood(Vengeful Spirit), Kunkka(Admiral), Raigor Stonehoof(Earthshaker)
I recommend this trilane hero line up because of its versatility. It is offensive yet defensive. Kunkka's bread and butter at early game is his torrent and splash. These are both aoe nukes that are painful for the opponents. Splash is quite easier than torrent. Torrent is easy to evade but once it lands on the opponents, they are in big trouble. Torrent offers damage, disable and slow. That is why venge is here to assure a perfect torrent. Earthshaker is there for additional disable as well as hindering the opponents to act at once, making it easier for kunkka to finish the victim quicker. Another function of earthshaker is to fissure a close pair of heroes to maximize the AOE of the torrent. Venge would have the final stun in this case to assure kills. Playing defensive is easy because of earthshaker. Once the opponents try to use their combo on a farming Kunkka, Earthshaker would disrupt that combo and disable 2 or 3 heroes. If this happens, venge can act and choose a prey to be stunned. Kunkka can move now and can cast torrent to kill his killers.
Once Kunkka reaches level 6, it's titanic time. Venge can initiate anytime because of safety provided by Earthshaker. With Earthshaker's AOE stun, there's a high possibility that Kunkka's Ghost ship will hit all of them. Kunkka will now hit them with splash and I don't think the supports can survive this combo. The tank would be the only one they need to add extra effort. This is one sick trilane combo but if not executed properly like ES wasting mana for harassing, this is not that easy to execute.
Counters: First of all you need wards. If an earthshaker is successful at blocking your escape route because of being blinded by fog, your team will have no choice but to fight back. Running back means giving venge and kunkka good chance to finish one of you. 2nd, I suggest a range carry like potm, kardel, windrunner to be the carry farming against this lane. Supports may be range or melee but they shouldn't be reached by venge's magic missile. The strategy here is not to be too aggressive because an earthshaker will disable all of you. If Kunkka and friends grew impatient and try killing your range carry, back him up to make the combo fail. Now it's time for you to attack. Target venge because she has the fastest skill cool down and he has the lowest HP. Another good counter against this line up is silencer's curse of the silent. Make kunkka or es waste his mana by cursing him. In this case, you wont fear their deadly combo anymore.
IV. Morphling(Morphling), Rylai(Crystal Maiden), Vol'jin (Witch Doctor)
Morphling's waveform makes him a good hero for trilane. He can damage opponents with his waveform and hit them from behind for extra damage. Crystal Maiden and Vol'jin makes it safe for morphling to wave through the opponents. They can harass the opponents because of their range normal attacks. Crystal maiden's slow can make morphling and vol'jin do more normal attacks on the target. Once morphling wave in, bite and vol'jin's chain stun can stop opponents from focus firing on morphling. Their range normal attacks also make morphling not alone to hit the target. This makes it easier to kill the opponent. Morphling can retreat back safely because of its 3rd skill(morph). He can activate strength morph to add hp if needed. Rylai's one great contribution for the team is his mana which is much needed by morph and vol'jin. Vol'jin can heal morph after entering the fight to kill an opponent. Having a 3-range-hero line up on a lane also allows the team to gain more level and creep kill advantages. They can deny a lot of creeps to make their opponents have slow farm.
Counters: Most of the combo I stated before this one are good counters for this. This is not a very strong lane though it has advantages. Morph is not a melee but with his range, he is still risking his life farming in trilane. He has a poor mana making him cast only 1 wave form in early levels. Make him use this and go for the kill. Pefect execution of stunner line up can stop this combo. Morphling has no disabling ability so if you focus fire on his team mate he has nothing to do but to inflict damage. Generally, this trilane cannot stop your disabling combo. Use Kunkka's X mark for morphling's escape mechanisms.
to be continued...
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