After a while, Valve has released another new hero for Dota 2. In the 7.28, Valve adds so much crazy stuff. One of them is the new hero Hoodwink. Hoodwink is a weasel equipped with an arbalest.
Hoodwink is a ranged agility hero. She fits the role of mid or maybe carry as her skillset is perfect for ganking. She is a nuker that has an escape mechanism and a disabling skill. Think of her as a souped-up Windranger. Her skillset is not entirely unique for a new hero, though.
Her first skill is just like Witch Doctor’s Paralyzing Cask, but it has better damages and applies slow instead of stun. Her second and third are basically Windranger Shackleshot with AoE and Windrun with passive evasion and invis near trees if you picked up the level 15 talent for it. Her ult is a buffed Powershot.
Hoodwink Builds
For the builds, yeah, you guessed it. It’s not far from a standard core Windranger build. Let’s get on to it.
Starting Items
- Iron Branch: provides you early attributes and use it with tango for extra heal.
- Tango and Healing Salve: to sustain you on the lane.
- Slippers of Agility and Circlet: boost your agility and for wraith band later.
Note: You might want to buy Clarity or maybe Bottle if you go mid, Hoodwink needs a bunch of mana.
Early Game
- Wraith Band: provides you some agility, armor, and attack speed.
- Boots of Speed: you know, movement speed.
- Magic Wand: to keep you safe in case of duels or ganks.
Mid Game
- Power Treads: increases Hoodwink’s attack speed and provides good attributes.
- Falcon Blade: for some HP, mana regen, and damage.
- Dragon Lance: increasing your attack range for a safer engagement (also works for Acorn Shot).
- Maelstrom: for even easier farming.
Core Items
- Hurricane Pike: provides not only give you bonus attack range and nice attributes growth, but also an active ability which you can use to position yourself or an enemy against trees to make the most of your skills.
- Gleipnir: an upgrade for maelstrom, retains the passive and adds an active AoE disabler for ganks and war setups.
- Black King Bar: to prevent yourself from getting disabled during fights and escapes.
- Daedalus: as the cherry on top, get this to deal massive damage with your Acorn Shot.
You can also swap the core items with some of these situational items:
Situational Items
- Yasha and Kaya: for attributes, spell lifesteals, and mana regen.
- Linken’s Sphere: an alternative to BKB which includes regen and attributes.
- Blink Dagger: for fast ganks and escapes.
- Bloodthorn: to silence and prevent enemy heroes from escaping, and to boost your damage
- Monkey King Bar: allowing Acorn Shot to deals bonus damage, and it’s good against enemies with evasion passives.
- Desolator: to go against thick tanks or carries like Dragon Knight or Timbersaw.
You might also need these neutral items to further enhance Hoodwink’s capability:
- Arcane Ring: providing mana on early game.
- Grove Bow: some extra damage and range
- Imp Claw: for extra damage
- Orb of Destruction: to reduce enemy armors and slows them, if you got this, you don’t have to buy Desolator anymore.
- Spider Legs: for extra mobility.
- Titan Silver: good for damage and status resistance.
- Prince’s Knife: a free Scythe of Vyse
- Ballista: if you ever got your hand on this, it’s GGEZ.
Hoodwink Skill Sequence
As for the skill upgrades, focus on maximizing your first skill or Acorn Shot. Hoodwink’s main damage source is the Acorn Shot as it also scales with your attack damage. Next, get Bushwack to max level for a nice setups/disabler and some extra damage. Save Scurry for the last upgrade. In early game, Scurry is only useful for escape and repositioning.
Now, we get to the hero’s talents. For level 10, I’d pick the +175 HP for a little bit more durability. Then, in level 15, get Scurry camo. This is the turning point of the third skill. With Scurry Camo, you’re basically a ranged Riki. For level 20, I’d say this is a hard one, but I’ll pick the ult charge time. But, if you get a lot of tanky enemies, go for the armor corruption. Last, for level 25, I go with pure damage ult. It’s 1400 worth of pure damage, yummy.
Hoodwink Matchup and Counters
I admit it, Hoodwink is pretty broken. But if you ever meet one as enemies, how to go against her? Or if she is available (I doubt this, lol), when do you pick her? Or if your teammate picks her, what should you pick to complement her playstyle/skills? We got you covered.
Bad Against…
- Timbersaw: he’s mobile, he’s tanky, and most importantly, he cuts Hoodwink’s best ally, trees.
- Vengeful Spirit: she can swap you during your ult.
- Warlock: his ult can destroy trees and have AoE stuns. His third skill also prevents you from escaping with Scurry.
- Treant Protector: He can use Nature Grasps and Overgrowth to root you.
- Techies: he always put bombs near the trees, and his Blast Off! can deny your tactical advantage and prevents you from Scurry-ing away.
- Windranger; she can roots you for 4 seconds and she can destroy your trees.
- Clinkz: His builds are mostly for countering Hoodwink, Orchid Malevolence, BKB, Heaven’s Halberd, MKB, Scythe of Vyse, etc.
To effectively counters Hoodwink, you need a team that has a good amount of disabler to negate his mobility and passive evasion.
Good Against…
- Huskar: he is vulnerable to your nuke
- Phantom Assassin: Your ult breaks PA’s Coup de Grace passive and your skillset will get you enough time to escape from PA.
- Phantom Lancer: Bushwack is very effective against PL and Sharpshooter could also break PL’s Juxtapose.
- Monkey King: You can easily ambush MK because MK often lurks in the trees.
- Spectre: Hoodwink can own her easily on early game.
Hoodwink can kill everything that doesn’t have enough escape mechanism and defensive skills/items.
Works Well With…
- Elder Titan and Magnus: You can work with their ult for some nice setups.
- Nature Prophet and Monkey King: These two also worked well on trees.
- Windranger and Mirana: You can make a stupidly long chain stun with them.
Hoodwink works well with heroes that can group or reposition enemies into her vicinity.