What is your opinion on playing heroes that make other players sick to their stomachs; like Broodmother in Dota 2? A hero that players glance at and wish they were playing against something else instead. This character you must study with great detail, as her complexity is moderate to high. With a prowess in sieging towers, and overwhelming the backline, she plays a unique zoo style. Crawling up cliffs and through trees, Broodmother is a powerful and hungry hero.
Broodmother is a melee agility hero in Dota 2 that specializes in amassing an army of spiders. Her reputation as a steamroll-y, smurf pick pits her towards a negative opinion. However, she is recognized as such because she can win games in public matchmaking. Without any proper counters and tactics, a game can snowball in her team’s favor. How then can we harness the cheesy power of Broodmother?
Practicing Your Micro
If decide one day to start playing Broodmother, you need to do some hotkey binding. Broodmother is a minion hero, and high-skill expression is good minion control at all points of the game. Unlike other minion heroes, Broodmother can provide wider scouting by sending her spiders everywhere. Keybinds are the key to having fluid control over Arachnia and her brood at the same time. This part is up to the player, in any setting they’re comfortable.
If you aren’t ready for that, you are well off controlling all the spiders as one “unit.” It won’t be as beneficial as individual micro, but it is a good place to start. You can begin experimenting with your key binds to accommodate her control needs. Never be content until you feel comfortable with the position of your keys. Suppose you have the down already, it’s time to enter the game and start playing. Your next issue would be your minions or spider babies.
Protecting Your Children
Once you get to level 6, you transition from a single unit to a group of units. A good chunk of your overall damage comes from your spiders. Thus, you must keep them alive despite their low HP pool. Brood’s kit has a web that provides health regen to her controlled units. Though this is helpful, it does little to prevent all manner of burst damage to them. Having your spider bulk clear the jungle or push safe waves is good practice.
There are times though when you can throw away spiders at the enemy. This is part of Broodmother’s split-push gameplay, where spiders can siege towers in seconds. Sending fodder spiders to cut waves are also a trademark tactic, much like an Anti-Mage. In the later stages of the game, this is the main job of your spiders—split, and farm. If you wish to help them further look no further than your item choices.
Items for Broodmother in Dota 2
You won’t need a lot of damage-dealing items to make Broodmother more dangerous. Your goal as a Broodmother is simple—staying alive and keep making spiders. The current meta in the offlane revolves around aura item bearers and snowballs. She also excels in both these things, and her ability to flash farm makes it unfair. If you manage to get your ultimate, you’ll find yourself out of item slots fast.
Brood and her spiders thrive in uncontested lanes. As you win your lane, rotate between enemy jungle camps and starve your opponents. It becomes trivial if you can manage your mana for making spiders. Your items reflect what you lack as a Broodmother in the team. Do you need a lockdown? Survivability? A means to withstand physical damage? She can get plenty of items because of her versatility.
Playing as Broodmother in Dota 2 is a daunting task for any player. The skill required and the added stigma of playing her poses a steep learning curve. But if you manage to get her right, she will fit right into your Insta-win hero picks.
