Lone Druid is a very unique hero whose main strength comes from his Spirit Bear which can carry items and act independently from his hero. The Spirit Bear has quite low armor which makes it vulnerable to physical damage and this is why Assault Cuirass and Vlad’s are popular items to get for it. The Bear has very strong passives which let it tear through buildings and root enemies, preventing them from escaping.
Lone Druid’s skillset is also quite strong, as both him and his bear can fear enemies away, he can increase his movement and attack speed, and Lone Druid can transform into a tanky bear, gaining bonus armor and HP, at the cost of his ranged attack and some movement speed.
@ Valve
[/column]Lone Druid Skill Build
- Summon Spirit Bear
- Savage Roar
- Summon Spirit Bear
- Rabid
- Summon Spirit Bear
- Rabid
- Summon Spirit Bear
- Rabid
- Rabid
- Talent
- True Form
- True Form
- Savage Roar
- Savage Roar
- Talent
- Savage Roar
- –
- True Form
Lone Druid summons a Spirit Bear which he can fully control. The Spirit Bear can equip its own items and levels up every time you increase the level of this spell, gaining new spells. The bear can be killed for a 300 gold/experience bounty and will deal 10% of Lone Druid’s HP in pure damage to him, but keeps all items in its inventory upon death. This is maxed first because the Spirit Bear is where most of Lone Druid’s strength comes from. The Spirit Bear cannot attack if it’s 1100 range or more away from Lone Druid and will die when Lone Druid dies. Aghanim’s Scepter allows the Spirit Bear to attack from any range and survive when Lone Druid dies. Mastering this will allow you to quickly climb the Dota 2 leaderboard.
In general, you should have your hero stood farther back, at a safer distance, while your Spirit Bear attacks enemies, creeps and towers. If you want to farm a creep-wave quickly, kill an enemy as fast as possible or burst down a tower, then you can attack with your hero. Just avoid anything that would put your hero at risk of danger and let your Bear do all of the work. If enemy heroes try to close in on it, just use Return. This is a great way to pressure towers. The Spirit Bear is also very strong at sieging towers, as it can be used to chip them down with a few attacks at a time before you Return it to you safely. Just watch out for the enemy team initiating on it.
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When you’re running away from enemies, have your bear attack the enemy who’s the biggest threat so that they might get rooted by the Entangling Roots passive. Doing so can potentially turn the chase around and in your favor and allow you to get a kill as well as surviving. This is most easily done if you can juke around trees, often in the early game or laning phase, before enemies get many mobility items or high movement speed.
If you are nearby when the Spirit Bear is getting killed, you can try to deny it if you are in ranged form and you don’t put yourself at risk by doing so. Conversely, the bear can also be used to deny your hero if you are taking damage over time from spells like Doom or Shadow Strike.
The Spirit Bear does not benefit from attributes, which means that you should avoid items like Eye of Skadi or Manta Style and get items that provide armor, damage or attack speed instead. Spirit Bear can use runes, but illusions of it are not spawned. However, it can use every other rune in the game, including the bounty rune, which means it can be very good to send it over to the bounty spawn locations whenever they spawn. You’ll most likely find it easier to control the Spirit Bear and your hero by having 3 hotkeys set up for: select your own hero; select all other units; and select all units other than your hero. This will quickly let you switch between which units you are commanding.
The bear can be used to do a number of things including stacking camps, fetching runes, blocking enemies as well as scouting areas of the map. If the Spirit Bear is then threatened doing something, try to juke for enough time for Return to come off cooldown. You can also use Savage Roar to create space for it. If there is no way that the Bear will survive a gank, for example, then it will probably be worth using Summon Spirit Bear to deny the enemies the gold and experience bounty for killing it. Just be careful about over-extending the Bear in whatever it is you are doing, as it does give a 300 gold bounty and it has a very long cooldown.
Lone Druid increases the movement and attack speed of himself and his Spirit Bear when cast. This interrupts channeling spells when cast, and is global. The spell has a 25 seconds duration and a 25 second cooldown, which means it only has a 10 second downtime. This makes it a great spell to have toggled almost the entire time. It will help you to farm faster as you’ll deal more damage and move around the map more quickly. You will take towers faster and have an easier time escaping or chasing enemies. This spell is maxed secondly because it helps you to farm faster and move around in fights more easily which are very important for Lone Druid and his Spirit Bear.
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Lone Druid roars, causing fear upon all nearby enemies. This sends any affected enemy to run back towards their fountain for the duration of the debuff. The Spirit Bear learns this spell as soon as you do. It is usually the case that you max this spell lastly while getting one point in the spell in the early game as it’s a very strong defensive spell and is even useful in certain offensive situations. Savage Roar learns shares its cooldown between the Spirit Bear and Lone Druid. Enemies cannot act while feared, which makes it a strong spell to control enemies who would otherwise be slippery and hard to catch.
You can use Savage Roar when the enemy is rooted through Entangling roots to prevent them from casting spells. Savage Roar can be used on your Spirit Bear to achieve a number of things. Firstly, and most importantly, it can be used to save your Bear when enemies try to kill it. It can also be used to fear ranged enemies that are trying to kill your hero, and on enemies that are killing your allies, as it’s a lot safer for your Bear to use Savage Roar on enemies than it is for you to do so.
Lone Druid turns into Bear, gaining increased HP, armor and attack speed at the cost of his ranged attack and 45 movement speed. While in True Form, this spell is replaced with Druid Form, which reverts the changes from True Form. This is usually only skilled after maxing your Spirit Bear and Rabid, while getting one level in Savage Roar because you strongly rely on your Spirit Bear to deal damage in the early and mid game. As such, it’s usually better to have more attack speed and movement speed through Rabid, and a stronger Spirit Bear than it is to have 300 more HP and 4 extra armor. If you really need to tank up against strong early game nukers, you can get True Form a bit sooner.
You should usually be in Druid Form while farming because you move faster and this will allow you move between camps and lanes quicker. However, if you think that you might get ganked while farming, it may be better to just stay in Druid Form. You should use True Form before a fight starts if you expect to take a lot of damage, as it will tank you up a lot and keep you alive for longer. However, if you think that you can be in Druid Form safely from a distance, you can stay so. This will also make it easier for you to chase down or escape from enemies. You will regen more HP while in Druid Form from heals such as Mekansm, as your HP percentage stays the same when transforming.
Lone Druid roars, increasing the damage and armor of Lone Druid and all nearby units under his control. This spell is only available whilst in True Form. Battle Cry only lasts for 5 seconds, but it adds a lot of armor and damage. This makes it a great spell for bursting down towers or for when a fight breaks out and you’re trying to quickly kill an enemy. It’s also great when you’re going 1 v 1 against the enemy carry, as it will tank your Spirit Bear up and give it more damage. It will also give you lots of damage for a few seconds, so if possible try to take advantage of this and get a few right-clicks off.
@ Dota 2 Wiki
The health is preferred here in almost every situation. The extra attack range can be good if you’re playing a build which focuses on your own attack damage in Druid Form. Otherwise, the attack range is not worth much, because almost all of your damage comes from your Spirit Bear anyway, and it’s more important that you tank up.
The Spirit Bear has 6 armor normally, which is very little. It does not benefit from stats, which makes it entirely reliant on items and auras/spells to increase its armor. An extra 10 armor at level 15 is very significant and will go a long way in tanking it up against physical damage. It should almost always be taken over the reduced cooldown. However, the cooldown reduction can be good if you are against a lineup which is very mobile and which can kill you very easily after closing the gap on you.
The cooldown reduction can be good if you need to burst down enemy heroes or towers more quickly. It can also be good if you benefit from the extra armor it gives you and the Spirit Bear. It helps a lot when you are trying to 1 v 1 an enemy hero, for example. On the other hand, the increased Rabid attack speed would allow you to farm faster and deal more damage more consistently during long fights. This is a great option if you find that most of the fights you are taking last a long time. It can also be good if you have proc items such as MKB, basher or Maelstrom.
The 0 second Entangle cooldown could be good against heroes that are very hard to lockdown. It could also be quite good against heroes that you would need to kite, for example Ursa or Lifestealer. It’s definitely stronger if you have several attack speed items on the Spirit Bear, although it’s generally a bit weaker when compared to its counterpart. The spell immunity from Battle Cry is very strong if you chose the reduced cooldown at level 20. Even if you didn’t, it can still be very strong. It will give you and your Spirit bear magic immunity for the full 5 second duration. This is very strong against lineups with lots of magical damage, slows or stuns, as it will allow your Spirit Bear to fight much more easily and effectively.
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Lone Druid is very flexible when it comes to starting items. Most of your last-hitting damage comes from your Spirit Bear because Lone Druid’s base damage is very low. Therefore, you should try to last hit by attacking with both your hero and your Bear at the same time if possible. If you need a bit more damage to out last-hit your opponent a Quelling Blade can be good. It will also help you farm the jungle a bit faster after the laning phase. A Stout Shield is very strong if you’re against a ranged hero, or a melee hero who will harass your Spirit Bear a lot with right-clicks.
An Enchanted Mango is also a great item on Lone Druid because it can be consumed to allow him to use Summon Spitit Bear or Savage Roar if you’re low on mana and can also be built into a Magic Wand. Basic regen such as a Healing Salve, Tangos or a Faerie Fire will help to sustain you in your lane.
An Orb of Venom is a great item and should generally be purchased a long side either a Quelling Blade if you can get away with it, or a Stout Shield. The Orb of Venom should go on your Spirit Bear and allows you to harass enemies much more efficiently as well as to chase them down more easily when you get your Entangling Roots ability on the Spirit Bear. The ability to slow enemies and have your bear attack them will give it many more chances to proc the roots.
A Magic Wand gives you enough sustainability to help keep you alive in dire situations. The burst heal may give you enough mana to cast Savage Roar if you’re about to die or cast another Summon Spirit Bear if you’re low on mana in a team-fight. If your match looks like it will be quite passive and that you’ll mostly farm in the early game, then you can skip the Magic Wand.
Boots of Speed are needed on both your hero as well as your Spirit Bear. Generally, it’s quite expensive and inefficient to upgrade them on both you and your bear, if at all. The extra movement speed from Rabid allows gives you enough movement speed when paired with brown boots, and you shouldn’t really need any boots upgrades for your hero in the early and mid game. You can get Boots of Travel on your hero in the late game and upgrade to Phase Boots on your Spirit Bear after getting Radiance or Hand of Midas if you really need them.
@ Valve ( Steam )
A Hand of Midas is a great item on Lone Druid because you greatly rely on items to scale into the late game. The extra XPM also helps you to get your levels faster which is great for LD because he has some very strong talents. The extra attack speed also helps your Spirit Bear deal a bit more damage and get more procs of Entangling Roots off. Your Spirit Bear can also use the Hand of Midas for you while you get full XP.
Phase Boots are the best boots for your Spirit Bear as they give it more movement speed to chase down enemies with and a bit of extra damage which increases its DPS. There isn’t really any other boots that are ideal for the bear either but the brown boots should be upgraded to phase boots in most games, unless your Spirit Bear doesn’t really need the extra movement speed.
A Radiance is a great item for your Spirit Bear because Lone Druid lacks any means to quickly farm jungle camps or creep waves. The extra damage is great on the bear, and the burn aura the item provides still grants the full damage, because the bear is considered a creep-hero. With the radiance burn on the bear, you can use it to chase down enemies very easily, because you aren’t putting yourself at the same risk you would otherwise as you can always use Savage Roar and Return if it takes too much damage. The Radiance burn will also allow it to split-push other lanes out very effectively. The blind chance is also very strong against physical damage, which the bear is vulnerable to.
If you’re farming very slowly and there is little chance that you’ll be able to farm a Radiance with a decent timing, you should consider other items such as Maelstrom.
Assault Cuirass is a very strong item for the Spirit Bear for several reasons and is considered a core item in every game in Dota 2 esports . It grants the bear more attack speed, giving it more chances for Entangling Roots procs as well as increasing its DPS overall and increases the armor of the bear and all nearby allied units. This is very strong because the Spirit Bear’s armor is very low and needs to be buffed through items that grant armor. Armor is especially important because the Spirit Bear doesn’t benefit from stat items, which means its HP won’t increase through anything other than raw HP items, which aren’t very effective on the bear. The only other alternatives to tank it up is either magic immunity or armor.
The fact that it’s an aura also will tank up your hero as well when it’s nearby. In addition to these points, the minus armor aura of the item also increases the damage it deals to towers and lets it shred through buildings even faster, while also increasing its DPS in fights as well.
An Aghanim’s Scepter is a great item on Lone Druid because it makes the Spirit Bear much stronger overall. It allows it to survive even when Lone Druid himself dies and also allows it to attack no matter how far it is from the hero. This makes the Spirit Bear an incredibly powerful and very significant split-pusher, capable of taking towers in seconds if farmed up and left ignored. The extra stats will also tank up your hero a lot more, and allow you to stand safely far back in team-fights while your Spirit Bear attacks enemies wherever the fight goes. Remember to stay in experience range of kills however, as it is easy to forget. While your Spirit Bear is off farming a lane or a camp on one side of the map, have your hero farm a safer area meanwhile to maximize your GPM.
A Mjollnir is a great item on the Spirit Bear in the late game. It can use the active on itself very effectively because it’s often at the front lines of the fight and bound to take some right-clicks. The attack speed will help it get some Entangling Roots procs, and the lightning procs increase its DPS. This will also help you to farm a bit faster. If you need a DPS boost as well as more roots to catch slippery heroes, then a Mjollnir could be a good idea.
An Abyssal Blade is a very strong late game item. It can be a good idea to just start with the Skull Basher before building into a full Abyssal Blade if you just need the bash chance against heroes you need to kite or 1 v 1 more easily. The Abyssal Blade will tank up your Spirit Bear a little bit through the damage block and extra raw HP, and give it a very strong active and passive bash chance. The active can be very strong against heroes with items such as BKB or Satanic that make them very hard to bring down. The bash chance is very strong when combined with Entangling Claws, as you have quite a high chance to in some way disable the enemy.
A Scythe of Vyse is a very strong item for Lone Druid. It’s better on your hero, because you can usually cast it from a safe distance. In addition to this, your Spirit Bear probably won’t have the slots for it, nor will it benefit from the stats it provides. The item gives you a very strong late game disable, during which time your Spirit Bear can deal a large amount of damage to the enemy hero. This is a great item against heroes that are hard to lockdown as well as farmed carries.
Boots of Travel are a great upgrade to Lone Druid in the late game. This is because you will be able to teleport to a lane and Return your Spirit Bear to you, quickly pushing a lane out or leaving the Spirit Bear behind to keep pushing and pressuring a tower. The extra movement speed also stacks well with Rabid and makes up for the movement speed you lose from True Form. You may often want to teleport back to base as well to heal your Spirit Bear, and Boots of Travel make doing so much easier.
A BKB is a very strong item for your Spirit Bear. If you are facing lots of stuns, slows or other forms of disables, then the magic immunity from BKB may be needed. Usually it’s purchased as an item for your Spirit Bear, because Lone Druid can just stand on the back lines of a fight in relative safety. Savage Roar is also usually enough of a defensive spell to keep you alive. However, in some games that last into the late game, it may be needed on your hero as well.
A Butterfly is a very strong late game item, that is usually a better pickup for Lone Druid than for your Spirit Bear. This is because it doesn’t benefit from any of the attributes, only the evasion and active movement speed it provides. However, it will massively increase Lone Druid’s DPS in the late game if your Spirit Bear already has 6 items. It will even tank you up a bit from the evasion, and the movement speed will help you to chase and escape enemies a bit more easily.
A Moon Shard is a great late game item for your Spirit Bear. It can be left in its inventory to increase its attack speed drastically and it can also be consumed when it hasn’t got anymore item slots left. The permanent attack speed buff will make it take towers much faster, increase its DPS and get more Entangling Roots procs off. This is especially strong if you have the level 25 ‘0 second Entangling Roots cooldown’, as it can potentially keep the target rooted for a longer timer.
A Refresher Orb can be a strong late game item for Lone Druid. It can be very strong if you have a Scythe of Vyse as well. Most notably, it will allow you to refresh the cooldowns of Summon Spirit Bear and Battle Cry. This will let you re-summon your Bear if it dies in a fight without having to wait for it to come off cooldown if it isn’t already, and you can then use Battle Cry again. If you chose the level 25 talent that provides magic immunity from Battle Cry, then this is an added bonus from being able to refresh this spell.
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If you are playing Lone Druid as mainly a ranged hero in Druid Form, then a Hurricane Pike can be a good pickup. The extra attack range stacks well with the attack range from the talent at level 10. The defensive active will also help to keep you alive for longer against heroes that can kill you very easily if they get close to you. Lastly, you can use the active against enemies and attack them from a very far distance while re-positioning with Rabid.
A Vlad’s can be a strong item in games where you need to be aggressive in the early or mid game. The extra armor will help tank you bear up against physical damage dealers, or lineups that have lots of minus armor items/spells/auras. The extra damage is great as well, and the lifesteal and mana regen will help to sustain you while you farm and fight if you find yourself taking lots of damage.
A Monkey King Bar is a great item for the Spirit Bear. It grants it lots of attack speed which helps it to get more Entangling Roots procs, and the pure damage proc will also increase its DPS. The accuracy is also very strong against heroes with evasion, and is the best answer for LD to deal with any kind of evasion. This is because Solar Crest isn’t very great on LD, and Bloodthorn is expensive and quite ineffective.
A Desolator can be a great item if you need to deal with tanky heroes, or lineups with lots of bonus armor. The extra minus armor and raw damage it provides will also help you to take towers more quickly. It can be a good pickup if you just need more damage to burst down enemies quicker.
If you are facing a lineup with lots of magical damage, then a Pipe of Insight can be a very strong pickup for Lone Druid. It will tank you up a lot, especially in True Form, and the active barrier will help to keep you and your Spirit Bear alive for longer in team-fights. You could also leave this as a Hood of Defiance if someone else on your team has or will get a Pipe.
A Shadow Blade can be a decent item on Lone Druid, albeit sometimes gimmicky. In team-fights you can use it to keep yourself alive when enemies go on you, and you can also use it to prevent enemies from going on you in the first place. It can also be used to help you split-push by pressuring a tower, and retreating and turning invisible before they have time to catch you.
It can also be used to gank enemies somewhat effectively. By turning invisible and finding enemies that are all alone, you can use Return on your Spirit Bear to have it appear next to you and the enemy hero. You can then proceed to try and kill said hero by using Battle Cry and hopefully getting a proc of Entangling Roots. This is of course countered by Sentry Wards and Dusts, so it might not be a good item if you have other heroes on your team with invisibility.
A Ghost Scepter can be a decent item for Lone Druid against physical damage dealers that can quickly burst you down, especially ranged heroes. This is because Savage Roar is ineffective against heroes with ranged attack in most cases, and having a reliable way to survive their initial burst can be very strong.
Heroes with spells like Blink or other mobility spells can be hard to deal with, but Entangling Roots will keep them locked down and prevent them from escaping. Consider buying a Scythe of Vyse or Skull Basher to further control them. These items are also very strong against heroes which you may need to kite such as Ursa or Meepo.
Enemies that have mobility spells can also get close to Lone Druid and try to kill you very easily. Often, Savage Roar can be used to keep you alive for a bit longer. However, heroes like Faceless Void, Phantom Assassin or Storm Spirit, are all very good at chasing you down and disabling you. Consider getting defensive items like Ghost Scepter to help keep you alive against them for longer.
Tinker is very strong against Lone Druid because Laser can be used to blind the Spirit Bear. This is your main source of damage, and it cannot proc Entangling Roots while blinded. Furthermore, he can get an Aghanim’s Scepter which will make Laser bounce to you if you are near the Spirit Bear and an extra set of Rockets which may also damage you in fights. Lastly, March of the Machines is also a very strong spell that can be used to keep lanes pushed in and prevent you from split-pushing or pushing towers.
Best hard support Dota 2 heroes like Ogre Magi and Lich have strong buffs that can make the Spirit Bear even stronger at all stages in the game. Even heroes like Beastmaster and Sven have buffs that will help the Bear and you in various ways.
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