Soul engine , suggest item for Grunty and Shade.

[Tumtook]

I have seen a certain player use this item and I try it myself on Shadow and Grunty. I feel that I can jungle or stay in lane dramaticly longer and espessially, to spam using skill on creeps without energy issue as well. So that make me to gain mineral and level very quickly.

 

Soul engine (catalog : utility>movement)

Cost 275.-

4% cooldown reduction

+0.04 movement

Unique Gains a charge every time you kill a unit, up to 10 charges.

 

Active Consume all charges to restore 20 Health and 10 Energy per charge. 30 second cooldown

 

 

So my starter build for both shade and grunty is

 

3xfusion blade > dont buy mana potion if you are not going to gank anywhere > You take camps and farm until you need to get heal.

 

1xDuran machette>at this time if you did a good farm you can effort to buy 2xsoul engines

 

For shadow ,I buy only 2 soul engines becuz my build is to get

1xStun knife

1xphase cloak

1xpyre

Which pyre need item slots to complete it. However if I do gank a lot , I would buy the 3rd one because when you kill 1 creep you get 60hp and 30 sp back. And also , when you gank with 10 stack on each soul engine, you have 600hp and 300sp in stock which heal you instantly when use.

 

For grunty,

1xDuran machette

3xsoul engine

1xstunknife

 

I get 3 because I can spam using his Q shawtgun into the group of creep and have fun by spam using E rocket to the group of enermy where your team are ganking which , by chance, you hit them at the critical time.

 

However, to use soul engine effectively, you need to pay attention to your hit. You must last hit on the creeps ( I think every players intend to do that anyway). So that boost your mineral and stacks in your soul engines too.

 

Caution! I'm not sure it is a bug or intend.

1. You can't sell a soul engine when they have no stack (stack = 0)

2. When you drop your soul engine because you want to build an item. If that dropped soul engine has a stack or stacks and in your item slot has another soul engine. It will combine and you lost 1 soul engine (on the floor has 3 stacks , your hand has 1 stack , when you pick it. You willhave only 1 soul engine with 4 stacks)

So, before drop your soul engine ,make sure you make its stack to zero.

 

I dont know there is another tread about this already or not . But I hope this will make your play more enjoyable with spaming using item slots ;)

 

Any mistake pls tell me

 

 

 

[Doom]

Its a great starting item for many heroes. Anyone that can last-hit well in fact. Tosh, Cow, Maar, Unix, Balrog, etc, etc.

[Hogwarts]

just buy lost treasure. scrap the soul engine

[MrGrim]

I like to get it on agi heros where I don't get any utility talents, replacing it either with more offense or extra armor or spell resist. It works really well in terms of mana needs early game but I don't think multiple soul engines are worth it. 1 soul and 2 fusion blades into whichever build would seem good because multiple soul engines are worse than lost treasure outright.

[Grantypoo]

I like to get it on agi heros where I don't get any utility talents, replacing it either with more offense or extra armor or spell resist. It works really well in terms of mana needs early game but I don't think multiple soul engines are worth it. 1 soul and 2 fusion blades into whichever build would seem good because multiple soul engines are worse than lost treasure outright.

Entirely situational. I just played a game last night where I had two soul engines, baited a shadow by being low health and him thinking he could kill me, then I popped my soul engines and all the sudden had more health than him. He tried to run but he had already committed himself to the fight and didnt make it.

 

In that type of situation where you're purposefully exploiting your low health to draw in the enemy, a soul engine or two is extremely useful and much more so than regen provided by lost treasure. Maybe in an IH where the other team is watching your items and knowing what is coming it wouldnt be, but in a pub environment it's great, I plan on doing pulling that trick more often. It only works low level, but it's helpful in getting first blood for sure.

[MrGrim]

I agree with you granty, I'm just thinking that at some point it's diminishing returns since at level 9-10 it's not really needed anymore so does the extra 285 early game hurt your mid game because the item progression is late? Or if you get a kill/first kill solely because of 2 soul engines and then it makes it worth it? I'm not really sure since I'm wondering the same thing with stacking duran's machete's and whether or not the money would be better spent on getting pyre/crit/bhm what have you.

[Grantypoo]

I agree with you granty, I'm just thinking that at some point it's diminishing returns since at level 9-10 it's not really needed anymore so does the extra 285 early game hurt your mid game because the item progression is late? Or if you get a kill/first kill solely because of 2 soul engines and then it makes it worth it? I'm not really sure since I'm wondering the same thing with stacking duran's machete's and whether or not the money would be better spent on getting pyre/crit/bhm what have you.

The way I see it, with an AA character I'm almost always picking the lifesteal talent and I'm almost continally attacking, so I'm always getting health back. Granted, it isnt a nonstop +5 regen PLUS 8g every 6 seconds or whatever the whimsical devs have changed Lost Treasure to this time. But regardless, I do pretty well keeping my health up. It's obviously trickier if I'm a 0 range AA laning vs a 6.5 range AA... but that's situational and you cant plan for that before creep waves and initial purchases.

 

I've had the soul engine, sometimes dual soul engine start work out very well for me. I typically clear three neutral camps, go back to base and buy a duran's and a soul engine, sometimes I clear all 4 and depending on how many last hits on the neutral creeps I got, I can buy two soul engines. That early in the game, it has paid off very well for me. By the time you've fought through a couple creep waves, your engines are charged and you're ready to bait in an unsuspecting pubber.

 

If the other guy is paying attention and realizes you've got two soul engines, he probably wont fall for it. Anyone who is "good" enough at the game to be consistently checking the items of the opposing hero is probably good enough to know what you're planning and just wont fall for it.

 

The other thing is you have to figure out what a death costs you... With one or two soul engines, you're pretty much unkillable early game. There is no real CC items in play, no one has stun knife yet, no Nova ulti... so you're not going to get stuck far away from your tower for long. The sustain from popping a soul engine and possibly two is enough to keep you alive unless you've just gotten yourself horribly positioned and surrounded. That alone is worth the 570 minerals for two soul engines, if you ask me. Even 15 seconds of death plus walking all the way back to the creep wave skirmish, PLUS having fed your enemy 2-300 gold and free time to farm is easily easily easily worth the cost of the soul engines.

 

Again, it's all situational. I've done good with it, and I've also gone up against very non aggressive players who dont even try to kill me when I'm at 30% health, and if I cant bait them over to a weak point, then my soul engine gambit falls flat. It's still nice for creeping and not dying before level 8 or 9, but at that point I just sell them and move on. In the end, you're out 140 minerals per soul engine and about 50 minerals per minute from not having lost treasure. You've also probably not died the entire time and been very successful at harassing the enemy and surviving burst heros who thought they had you. To me, that's worth it.

 

I dont open with soul engines every time, by any means, but it's been fun to experiment with for sure.