Vagabond.DARPA [1.64] Killing Everything... and then some.

[Nuparu]

DARPA, the assassin who jumps around.

He's not too hard to learn, but to master is a bit different. Jumping is a pain if you do it wrong, I'll tell you that, until you hit 16, then you jump your heart out.

 

A brief overview of his skills, to get this boat rollin':

 

 

Heroic Passive - Vendetta

The heroic passive will apply 1 stack of Vendetta to the target, marking it with a red dot and reducing target's damage output by 10%. Stacks up to 3 times.

 

This is key- you need 3 stacks to be most effective with your active, anti-hero spells (Spider Mine & Sonic Grenade)

 

Ability 1 - Spider Mine

DARPA deals damage based on how many stacks of Vendetta he has on the target. Consumes Vendetta stacks. Mines do 2 ticks + 1 per vendetta stack.

 

Range = ~6. Mana: 70/90/110/130

 

Level 1: Deals 30 (+40% INT) damage per tick.

Level 2: Deals 50 (+40% INT) damage per tick.

Level 3: Deals 70 (+40% INT) damage per tick.

Level 4: Deals 90 (+40% INT) damage per tick.

 

This is your spell nuke- you can build intellect around this or build up your attack speed and cooldown reduction to lash as many of these out as you want- but regardless, if you have 3 Vendetta stacks, you do 450 (+200% INT) damage using this one mine. Not bad, eh? Debuff immunity makes these worthless, though- so don't throw these on a SSing boros or someone who has parallax, unless you know you can kill them.

*Note: This spell was recently nerfed. It lost 10% INT damage on tick.

Ability 2 - Cyanide Clip

DARPA deals damage when this is ready on attack. Slows the target's MS by 35% and AS by 35% for 3 seconds. Applies an extra vendetta stack as well.

 

Range = Weapon Range, Mana = N/A

 

Level 1: Deals 45% weapon damage

Level 2: Deals 60% weapon damage

Level 3: Deals 75% weapon damage

Level 4: Deals 90% weapon damage

 

This is a great initiation tool- all you have to do is autoattack them and you slow down their MS and AS drastically, allowing you to get off as many shots as you can in 3 seconds, and probably put a spider mine on them as well with full stacks. It does deal physical damage- meaning you CAN leech from this, if you really need to. Getting this and Black Hole Magnum allows you, if you initiate with jump, to do an extra 230% weapon damage on your first hit- somewhere about 1000 if you have 400 damage base.

 

*Note: This spell was recently nerfed. It lost 10% Attack Damage. Not too significant.

 

 

Ability 3 - Sonic Grenade

DARPA silences the target and amplifies physical damage. The effect lasts for 2 seconds base, plus one per vendetta stack. Consumes all vendetta stacks.

 

Cooldown: ~8 seconds, Mana = 80

Level 1: 15% damage amplification.

Level 2: 20% damage amplification.

Level 3: 25% damage amplification.

Level 4: 30% damage amplification.

 

This is more of a use for it's silence rather then the damage amp- but the damage amp doesn't hurt now that the grenade was actually fixed to amplify damage. The silence is useful for shutting down a critical caster (i.e. a rancor, or a Jackson, or a Drake about to ulti and teamwipe you) and it can also be used in solo engagements very well (Especially noted in DARPA vs DARPA fights- whoever can silence the other first usually kills the other one. And also can be used versus heroes which would normally kill you 400 times over- Cyprus comes to mind).

 

Ultimate - Desperado Jump

DARPA jumps up to 10 units in any direction. When he lands, he gains +15% movement speed.

 

Level 1: 15 second cooldown

Level 2: 10 second cooldown

Level 3: 5 second cooldown

 

This is great for the initiation- you can jump on someone and kill them unsuspectingly. You could also use it to escape- jump away from a raynor who's barely in range to kill shot you, or jump a Zeratul ulti (which, in that case, the Zera is probably going to end up getting killed.). This spell triggers Revolver/Fury/Black Hole!

Your skill order should be: Q -> W -> Q -> E -> Q -> R -> Q -> W -> W -> W -> R -> E -> E -> E -> Y (stat) -> R -> Y -> Y -> Y

 

Max tracking spider then cyanide clip, especially if you skimrish a lot versus enemy AAs. Then max grenade then stats. If you get contam, you do a lot of damage.

 

Talents.

 

 

Nothing really detailed here.

 

The way I usually go to get quick kills is pure offense minus Demigod, or go Defense for HP, HP Regen, Armor, Zeal, and Protect with the Lifesteal talent in offense.

 

To jungle, you want offense minus demigod and spell damage, and then pick up Integrity from defense.

 

 

 

 

The Build *drumroll*

 

 

You can start many ways with this guy, for he's not too heavily reliant on items until the midgame.

 

I usually start with either:

 

Leeching Saber (no image)

or

Duran's Machete

 

 

The goal by midgame is to have at least 2 key items.

 

For Attack Speed, you can either go:

 

Pyre for it's natural attack speed and damage, or

 

Hand of Mengsk for the leech early game (also saves you a glutton's bite until later) and the 60% attack speed passive.

 

Then, you can grab one component/secondary item:

For the ability to stun a player in their tracks. Good with HoM due to the AS.

Pulse Hammer to slow them down and grab some survival items if they have a heavy burst like Cyprus.

Flare Gun to deal massive damage, quickly. This is good if you want to flank them, kill a Raynor or a Queen, and then get the hell out of there.

Glutton's Bite to leech quick, and then keep yourself in there.

 

 

 

Late Game, you must have:

Pyre for the attack speed*, Black Hole Magnum for the ridiculous burst damage associated with DARPA's "Kill the support or nuker and get out of there" playstyle, and the timesplitter for the raw stats and your slow lasts a slight bit longer. In a in-house, I presume you definitely need Darwins to survive the long teamfights.

 

*Pyre sucks now. Just get a timesplitter and if you still need attack speed, get...well, another.

 

Other items that are probably useful:

Great survivability stats and it also comes with a 35% movement slow, to help your clip. Pursuit with this item is a cakewalk. So is fighting enemy AA heroes.

To keep THEIR agi burster off you. Great if there's an enemy Nova always trying to flank.

 

(NO IMAGE) Galactic Defender definitely will help keep you alive if you're having problems dealing with enemy burst damage. And it comes with 80 damage!

 

(NO IMAGE) Masamune would be nice if you could stay alive. Use this if you're in a pub situation or a very lucky inhouse where they scatter a lot.

Masamune is not a very viable item; it's much better to get contamination shard or reactor if you really, really need the timescale.

 

(NO IMAGE) Shadowmourne is just... the one item versus agility carries with lots of on-hit effect items. I.E. Pyre.

NOTE: It is the item-to-get versus the following heroes:

 

 

Ironhide.Cain

Lord.Zyrkhan

Geminus.Boros

(Any AGI hero with Masamune)

AA Jakk.Summers

Balrog.Brutalizer

 

 

You may just want to keep the Baton. More power to you. Great when you're fighting constantly and a wild unix appears...

Contam shard. Useful if you really, really are going super-heavy-caliber-rape-physical: This should be a last item unless you want to teamwipe. This item syncs great with Sonic Grenade!

 

 

 

If you read this and lived, congratulations, you learned something about DARPA. If you know about INT DARPA, you can tell the story here, problem is I don't so I didn't post the guide to something I barely know how to do.

[Doom]

Hybrid/Disabler build:

 

in any order:

 

Timesplitter, Pyre, FoE/Nitrogen Retrofit, Sunflare Gun, Shrink Ray, Shrapnel Cloak.

[GhostEU]

I see a lot of darpas go for phantom menace which makes them pretty much impossible to catch combined with jump

[RaKuRa]

My sexi core build (for the Darpas ready to go to the next level):

 

Items: Machette > Revolver > Phantom > Pyre > Shinobbi > leech > Explosive Retrofit !!! > Darwin/Masamune (depending) > w/e

Note: you need to know what you are doing as you are goind to be very squishy at first, but as soon as you reach the Explosive and then potentially the Masuame you can team wipe. Try to get potions when possible/needed.

 

Talents:

previously: 4xOffensive (wpn dmg/leech/wpn speed/vet) + Health + Mana;

now: 5x offensive (including Demi God!!!) + Health; or offensive if you feel cocky

 

 

Notes: I have been very happy with using the under-used Demi-god talent ... if helps enormously with guaranteeing last hits at the end of the wave....and syncs tremendously well with Explosive Retrofit... in its turn Explosive Retrofit is now core part of my Darpa build as it annihilates creep, gives you a good amount of dmg and HP which is very good (both those skills help you get a lot of minerals throughout the game... and expand the role of Darpa to become semi-pusher mid game ... and the BEST !!! creep pusher late game).

 

In general, I have been avoiding cheeseee items (like Shadowmourne and Masamune) but lately I have included Masamune and once you get to the point the game pretty much ends and you start doing insanity dmg (esp with BHM)... because of the speed you gain. (On several occasions (Pubs) a pre-made team would be destroying our team mostly made of noobs... but once i get the Masamune to the core build .... game pretty much ends for the other team. I have had games that they almost estroy our base bringing it ot like 4000-5000 shields while still having most of their lane towers ... but then I would completely turn the game and destroy their base in 10min after I get the Masamune.

 

Just my 2 cents

[residente]

But the point of Masamune IMO is that you have to reach the attack speed cap before, so the masamune effect will be completely insane.

[Psyght]

DARPA, the assassin who jumps around.

He's not too hard to learn, but to master is a bit different. Jumping is a pain if you do it wrong, I'll tell you that, until you hit 16, then you jump your heart out.

 

A brief overview of his skills, to get this boat rollin':

 

 

Heroic Passive - Vendetta

The heroic passive will apply 1 stack of Vendetta to the target, marking it with a red dot and reducing target's damage output by 10%. Stacks up to 3 times.

 

This is key- you need 3 stacks to be most effective with your active, anti-hero spells (Spider Mine & Sonic Grenade)

 

Ability 1 - Spider Mine

DARPA deals damage based on how many stacks of Vendetta he has on the target. Consumes Vendetta stacks. Mines do 2 ticks + 1 per vendetta stack.

 

Range = ~6. Mana: 70/90/110/130

 

Level 1: Deals 30 (+50% INT) damage per tick.

Level 2: Deals 50 (+50% INT) damage per tick.

Level 3: Deals 70 (+50% INT) damage per tick.

Level 4: Deals 90 (+50% INT) damage per tick.

 

This is your spell nuke- you can build intellect around this or build up your attack speed and cooldown reduction to lash as many of these out as you want- but regardless, if you have 3 Vendetta stacks, you do 450 (+250% INT) damage using this one mine. Not bad, eh? Debuff immunity makes these worthless, though- so don't throw these on a SSing boros or someone who has parallax, unless you know you can kill them.

 

Ability 2 - Cyanide Clip

DARPA deals damage when this is ready on attack. Slows the target's MS by 35% and AS by 35% for 3 seconds. Applies an extra vendetta stack as well.

 

Range = Weapon Range, Mana = N/A

 

Level 1: Deals 45% weapon damage

Level 2: Deals 60% weapon damage

Level 3: Deals 75% weapon damage

Level 4: Deals 90% weapon damage

 

This is a great initiation tool- all you have to do is autoattack them and you slow down their MS and AS drastically, allowing you to get off as many shots as you can in 3 seconds, and probably put a spider mine on them as well with full stacks. It does deal physical damage- meaning you CAN leech from this, if you really need to. Getting this and Black Hole Magnum allows you, if you initiate with jump, to do an extra 240% weapon damage on your first hit- somewhere about 1000 if you have 400 damage base.

 

Ability 3 - Sonic Grenade

DARPA silences the target and amplifies physical damage. The effect lasts for 2 seconds base, plus one per vendetta stack. Consumes all vendetta stacks.

 

Cooldown: ~8 seconds, Mana = 80

Level 1: 15% damage amplification.

Level 2: 20% damage amplification.

Level 3: 25% damage amplification.

Level 4: 30% damage amplification.

 

This is more of a use for it's silence rather then the damage amp- but the damage amp doesn't hurt now that the grenade was actually fixed to amplify damage. The silence is useful for shutting down a critical caster (i.e. a rancor, or a Jackson, or a Drake about to ulti and teamwipe you) and it can also be used in solo engagements very well (Especially noted in DARPA vs DARPA fights- whoever can silence the other first usually kills the other one. And also can be used versus heroes which would normally kill you 400 times over- Cyprus comes to mind).

 

Ultimate - Desperado Jump

DARPA jumps up to 10 units in any direction. When he lands, he gains +15% movement speed.

 

Level 1: 15 second cooldown

Level 2: 10 second cooldown

Level 3: 5 second cooldown

 

This is great for the initiation- you can jump on someone and kill them unsuspectingly. You could also use it to escape- jump away from a raynor who's barely in range to kill shot you, or jump a Zeratul ulti (which, in that case, the Zera is probably going to end up getting killed.). This spell triggers Revolver/Fury/Black Hole!

 

Talents.

 

 

Nothing really detailed here.

 

The way I usually go to get quick kills is pure offense minus Demigod, or go Defense for HP, HP Regen, Armor, Zeal, and Protect with the Lifesteal talent in offense.

 

 

 

 

The Build *drumroll*

 

 

You can start many ways with this guy, for he's not too heavily reliant on items until the midgame.

 

I usually start with either:

 

Leeching Saber (no image)

or

Duran's Machete

 

 

The goal by midgame is to have at least 2 key items.

 

For Attack Speed, you can either go:

Pyre for it's natural attack speed and damage, or

Hand of Mengsk for the leech early game (also saves you a glutton's bite until later) and the 60% attack speed passive.

 

Then, you can grab one component/secondary item:

For the ability to stun a player in their tracks. Good with HoM due to the AS.

Pulse Hammer to slow them down and grab some survival items if they have a heavy burst like Cyprus.

Flare Gun to deal massive damage, quickly. This is good if you want to flank them, kill a Raynor or a Queen, and then get the hell out of there.

Glutton's Bite to leech quick, and then keep yourself in there.

 

 

 

Late Game, you must have:

Pyre for the attack speed, Black Hole Magnum for the ridiculous burst damage associated with DARPA's "Kill the support or nuker and get out of there" playstyle, and the timesplitter for the raw stats and your slow lasts a slight bit longer. In a in-house, I presume you definitely need Darwins to survive the long teamfights.

 

Other items that are probably useful:

Great survivability stats and it also comes with a 35% movement slow, to help your clip.

To keep THEIR agi burster off you. Great if there's an enemy Nova always trying to flank.

 

(NO IMAGE) Galactic Defender definitely will help keep you alive if you're having problems bursting. And it comes with 80 damage.

 

(NO IMAGE) Masamune would be nice if you could stay alive. Use this if you're in a pub situation or a very lucky inhouse where they scatter a lot.

 

(NO IMAGE) Shadowmourne is just... the one item versus agility carries with lots of on-hit effect items. I.E. Pyre.

You may just want to keep the Baton. More power to you.

 

 

 

If you read this and lived, congratulations, you learned something about DARPA. If you know about INT DARPA, you can tell the story here, problem is I don't so I didn't post the guide to something I barely know how to do.

great guide, I like this.

[residente]

You should add Cont Shard and Shadowmourne as possible items.

 

Idk why you would need Stun Baton on Darpa, he doesnt need it to chase, but he needs weapon damage to make his W scale and make a bette use of the grenade amplification

[Psyght]

Hybrid/Disabler build:

 

in any order:

 

Timesplitter, Pyre, FoE/Nitrogen Retrofit, Sunflare Gun, Shrink Ray, Shrapnel Cloak.

lol tried this last night, but got a bit more INT than this, i just didnt get timesplitter, it was tits lol, squishies would get 1 shot by my Q flare combo

[Nuparu]

I got stun baton because sometimes, people just hold onto it for stupid reasons. I know i'll hold onto it f there's an enemy unix and I'll pray it works if I didn't already silence him.

[Hitechgunner]

Personally, I like doing a mix, like many heroes. Mainly aimed at massive burst with W, but some little grabs like Sunflare Gun and another INT + Weapon damage items to make spider mine do decent damage too.

[Nuparu]

Updated!

 

Fixed some tooltips and also added extra to the items and talents.

[Revolution]

Masamune is good all stages of the game. It is better late game cuz you can break the AS cap with it, but even when you aren't capped it still increases your attack speed a bit.

[Nuparu]

Aren't you the one who pointed out that other AA carries will end up raping you if you get it?

 

:P

[ginosaji]

Masamune is good all stages of the game. It is better late game cuz you can break the AS cap with it, but even when you aren't capped it still increases your attack speed a bit.

 

I really dislike Masamune until attack speed cap unless you're going a specific build. With his heroic passive I can almost always 1v1 other AA by mid game except maybe Zera and sometime boros dpending and Masamune without meeting attack speed gap I've found that I've had issues surviving. My build varies alot depending on what the other team has.

 

Final DPS build might look like this though Arcbound, Timesplitter or Stun Baton (stun baton for caster-centric team or splitter for AA), Glactic Defender, Darwins, Masamune. That leaves one slot for utility or hp, I go FOE often.

 

I've also really liked this speed/survivability/burst build:

Machete>Leech Saber>Valor>Phantom Menace>Serrated cleaver>Contaminated Shard... I've toyed around with going straight to building glutton since change as leech saber much worse by mid game than it was. You can go wherever from there but Phantom gives insane survivability mid game to make full use of valor. This build I usually go BHM and Masamune early compared to straight dps build. The Menace and Masamune, combined with speed talent enable you to kite all day long. BHM feeds into time scale and dive/dodge playstyle very well too. I like this build for IH more than the straight dps build. I would be much more cautious going valor however. Sometimes I just skip it and build Arcbound and Contam Shard. I haven't completely settled this build but....

 

build ends up something like: Phantom Menace, Arcbound, Contaminated Shard, Darwin, BHM

 

For Talents I go full damage minus demi-god and speed talelnt in utility. Demi-god is uneeded imho, by level 6 or lvl 4 with leech saber I have very little problem with farming. Darpa does enough damage not to have to really worry about it. That speed really helps against other AA and dps like vespus early game and can stack really nicely with Arcbound and/or phantom menace.

[ginosaji]

I also really don't like HOM for IH or even with decent pub team. By late game it forces you into decisions about attack speed that you don't want to be making. Do I buy more attack speed and make HOM proc useless or skip it and have slower attack? Also, by late game leech is insufficient and 3,500 or whatever is alot to spend on an item you'll have to sell late game. Although, with leech nerf maybe stacking it with Darwin might not be so bad. I have to say though my favorite pub troll build: Valor>HOM>Phantom>Stun Baton. Haste changed to timescale makes HOM viable longer into the game and stacks nicely.

[Psyght]

I also really don't like HOM for IH or even with decent pub team. By late game it forces you into decisions about attack speed that you don't want to be making. Do I buy more attack speed and make HOM proc useless or skip it and have slower attack? Also, by late game leech is insufficient and 3,500 or whatever is alot to spend on an item you'll have to sell late game. Although, with leech nerf maybe stacking it with Darwin might not be so bad. I have to say though my favorite pub troll build: Valor>HOM>Phantom>Stun Baton. Haste changed to timescale makes HOM viable longer into the game and stacks nicely.

dont listen to this guy, he got stomped by a shap pub team. worst darpa build ive seen.

[Nuparu]

Final DPS build might look like this though Arcbound, Timesplitter or Stun Baton (stun baton for caster-centric team or splitter for AA), Glactic Defender, Darwins, Masamune. That leaves one slot for utility or hp, I go FOE often.

 

I've also really liked this speed/survivability/burst build:

Machete>Leech Saber>Valor>Phantom Menace>Serrated cleaver>Contaminated Shard... I've toyed around with going straight to building glutton since change as leech saber much worse by mid game than it was. You can go wherever from there but Phantom gives insane survivability mid game to make full use of valor. This build I usually go BHM and Masamune early compared to straight dps build. The Menace and Masamune, combined with speed talent enable you to kite all day long. BHM feeds into time scale and dive/dodge playstyle very well too. I like this build for IH more than the straight dps build. I would be much more cautious going valor however. Sometimes I just skip it and build Arcbound and Contam Shard. I haven't completely settled this build but....

 

build ends up something like: Phantom Menace, Arcbound, Contaminated Shard, Darwin, BHM

How the hell do you do any damage or stay alive with that build?

 

And Phantom gives NO survivability. It's additional movespeed- which DARPA doesn't really need.

 

Valor's is trash. Unless you're roflwtfstomping, it's trash

 

Arcbound... I heard there's an item called TIME SPLITTER which is better in nearly every way.

 

The Darwins and BHM are legit, I guess. But with the crap damage you get with that build, BHM sucks.

 

 

@Psyght: Stop BMing him like you BM quidditch. Innocent until proven guilty.

(see what i did there?)

[Psyght]

I was in a game with him, and he went 3-0 got valors and went 0-5. threw the game with his shap item choice, was getting run by a nova.

[ginosaji]

dont listen to this guy, he got stomped by a shap pub team. worst darpa build ive seen.

Obviously I’m new here. I don’t claim to be pro, say whatever you want about me. Yea, the build does suck. I was relying too heavily on valor, which obviously isn’t viable against a mumble team or a good number of heros.

I think there is a little confusion on how people use the term “In House.” Many people I play with (off mumble mostly) use it to refer to any pre-made team vs. team game. As I’ve recently experienced, mumble tends to have a higher talent pool than just team v. team game

Arcbound- Yea, timesplitter is way better. I had been messing around with capping speed as fast as possible and going straight to masamune (while still including leech, hp, etc), since its cheaper, I went for Arcbound. The extra 850 or whatever is easily worth it for Timesplitter, as you pointed out.

[Edge]

Obviously I’m new here. I don’t claim to be pro, say whatever you want about me. Yea, the build does suck. I was relying too heavily on valor, which obviously isn’t viable against a mumble team or a good number of heros.

I think there is a little confusion on how people use the term “In House.” Many people I play with (off mumble mostly) use it to refer to any pre-made team vs. team game. As I’ve recently experienced, mumble tends to have a higher talent pool than just team v. team game

Arcbound- Yea, timesplitter is way better. I had been messing around with capping speed as fast as possible and going straight to masamune (while still including leech, hp, etc), since its cheaper, I went for Arcbound. The extra 850 or whatever is easily worth it for Timesplitter, as you pointed out.

 

So essentially what you're saying is that everything you said in your original post is wrong?

[ginosaji]

Pretty much, yea. What do you guys think of this for Darpa; Sunflaregun, Darwin, Timesplitter, FOE, BHM, Masamune or Aggressor's. With Masa you end up right under 500 dmg, 50 armor or so, and 3200 HP. I realize damage isn't as high as it could be to take full advantage of BHM, but the real purpose is to get around armor. Midgame might look like Flaregun, Timesplitter, Pulsehammer, Ocelot, Runic gavel, Glutton. Both flaregun (400 spell dmg) and ocelot (100% wpn damage as spell) can work for you mid game as well. The extra lifesteal from flare is nice as well.

[Nuparu]

Your midgame is missing a key item.

 

You seem to have forgotten Lightning Rod.