[Dustin.Brawler v 1.144] Spell DPS

[ginosaji]

Talents:

Might (+15 Weapon Damage)

Fitness (+180 Health)

Prodigy (12% cooldown reduction)

Swiftness (+6% movespeed)

Youth (+230 Energy)

Wealth (+200 Minerals)

 

Core Items: In no particular order...

 

 

Brawler is one the only true INT hard carry in AOS. He's a long range spell dps monster by late game, but squishy and somewhat negligable until level 16 or if he gets fed. There are many INT dps/semi-carries, like Null, Jakk, and Maar, but none that are so completely geared to dishing out pain. Because his one goal is damage and he has such good range, his build is mostly the same from game to game. He's squishier than some other INT heroes and has a moderate skill cap. He has some pretty strong counters that need to be taken into account. He doesn't do the best against tanky teams, but can be successful in overall damage dealt. He's weak against burst gankers like Ling, Zera, Boros, and Darpa because of his silence. All those heroes will try to flank and kill you while your team isn't looking or you are out of position. He also doesn't really get going until level 16 and about 30 minutes into the game, which is pretty late for an INT hero, so take that into account when drafting as well.

 

Talents: 1-1-4: Might, Health, Energy, Energy Regen, Swiftness, Wealth. His AA does decent damage, might will allow you to last hit well. With mana regen and regen from lost treasure, you'll be able to drop a drone every wave and Q at least evey other wave.

 

Ablities: EQQWQRQEWE...

Your Drone will help you clear waves at an incredible rate. Your Q is great for Farming and does more damage than your W, so max your Q first. Make sure to try to line up your Q along the creep wave and try to hit the enemy hero as well.

 

Build: Core Items: Ihan, Symphonic Seed, Nitrogen Retrofit, Yamato Reactor, Gravity Edge in roughly that order.

 

Everyone thinks of Gravity, fewer people think of Symphonic. It's the most important item on Dustin.

 

Treasure first then Goggles because you'll be building symphonic seed and the earlier the better for GP10s. After that it's really a decision here between survivability and damage. If you need survivability, go Ihan first. Dial is also a decent choice for a semi-escape mechanism on Brawler, but I usually avoid it, as there are better options in the HP/INT items like Seeds/Ihan/Nitrogen. Ihan, Seeds, and Nitrogen are usually my first 3 items. For health/INT/and C/D. Next, Yamato and Gravity Edge. Yamato and Gravity edge won't help buff spell damage on his Q, as it's True damage. Get Yamato first, as the timescale is great for C/D and also gives passive cooldown. After those items, consider getting the energy component of Sunflare gun. One of the best ways to deal with Brawler is for a ganker to run in, do his combo, then get out quick. So a good way to counter some of Brawler's counters is having the threat of the huge burst that sunflare gun gives should they get too close. Brawler has energy problems, so if you're going to go sunflare late game anyway, getting the energy component will help with that in mid game/ early late game.

 

The last item spot is a needs based slot. You can also sell Ihan whenever you feel that slot can be better used elsewhere, usually that's after all your core items are up and running. Decent option for that last spot is a tazer if you are having problems with gankers like Ling/Zera/Boros/Darpa if they don't have parallax yet. Tazer for zera/ling should be obvious why it would be helpful. For boros, you can block his SS and burst him down. Darpa relies on his stun knife and silence to make sure you don't burst him down first. Darpa will also usually go Galactic defender against a spell damage heavy team so a tazer will block that as well. Once any of those heroes gets a Parallax, you will most likely need to sell your Tazer, as you generally won't be near the enemy to use it on other people.

 

He can be played INT/AA with cerebro/Star's or both, but I think one of the strongest parts about Dustin is his extreme range, I like to abuse it rather than get up and personal with cerebro/Star's.

 

Playstyle:

Early game: Farm away, you won't really be able to get kills unless you get cerebro, which sets you back on your path to your main items (Symphonic, Nitrogen, Yamato). He should be laned mid or easy lane, as he's one of the best mid heroes in the game and needs to be farmed. You should be able to have some of the highest creep score in the game. Make sure you watch gank lanes, as you're pretty squishy. I would recommend warding the ramp in mid leading to your own tower, so you don't get ganked there. It's also nice to put a ward up on their side to get vision, but isn't totally needed.

 

Gank: Be careful wandering through the jungle, ward it up, so you can wander around better. Make sure you keep tabs on the enemy cloaked units for your team. De-ward with his passive/TS wards.

 

Teamfight: By level 11 you'll start to do decent damage and have a better c/d on your Ult. You should be able to spam all your moves twice in a team fught by then. Position your drone with E to get maximum effectiveness on the angle for your Q or to extend your range. W is the easiest move in the game, just hit W and you'll auto target heroes. The only advice I have for your W is wait until squishies are around to use it so you can maximize your effectiveness. Make sure you follow your tank and watch gank allies with your drone's passive to watch for the flank attack, as you'll be a prime target late game.

[Mus]

Getting both Yamato and Seed is overkill for the CD. Furthermore, the Yamato is largely useless on Dustin. Replace with a better item pls.

[ScrubHaven]

Actually the timescale from Yamato is great for engaging and escaping as well as the cd when you don't manage to get a kill to proc seed unique. My Dustin pub build is basically this plus sunflare gun simply cus it's op and pub players go for squishy ass heroes like nova or zera. Late game flare does like half their hp.

[ginosaji]

Getting both Yamato and Seed is overkill for the CD. Furthermore, the Yamato is largely useless on Dustin. Replace with a better item pls.

 

With his C/D already low from seeds, the time scale on Yamato allows for another full iteration of his skills during a teamfight. It's incredibly viable on him. Plus, your W will hit hard by the time you get Yamato.

[Midknight]

Suggested change for ability order; don't bother with the first rank of your Ult until lvl 10 then go right into rank 2 at lvl 11. At lvl 6, you won't have enough energy after burning everything plus your ult for it to be worth it. Better to just straight up do more damage with those abilities. My personal order is as follows:

 

E>W>Q>Q>Q>W>Q>W>W>R>R>E... You have all 3 of your abilities at lvl 3 (you'll need them) and you focus on laser because it's the stronger ability. If you're not good with the skill-shot, invert Q and W after lvl 3 so that you have W4 and Q2 at lvl 7.

[Moo]

Getting both Yamato and Seed is overkill for the CD. Furthermore, the Yamato is largely useless on Dustin. Replace with a better item pls.

The more cooldown reduction the better on Dustin, as it turns into so much damage, and the active on yamato helps with chasing, running, more cdr, w damage. Yamato also gives some extra energy regen and str for a little tankiness. I think it is great on Dustin.

[barwick]

I like to rush cerebro on him actually just to be able to farm the crap out of creeps as needed, and it gives him that extra oomph. It's int, plenty of damage, and often 500+ damage on a hero if you aa, cast, aa, and if your cast is aa, E, AA, Q, W, any squishy is going to be in for a world of pain before he can even get to you, and any tank is going to think twice about keeping up the fight.

[Moo]

I like to rush cerebro on him actually just to be able to farm the crap out of creeps as needed, and it gives him that extra oomph. It's int, plenty of damage, and often 500+ damage on a hero if you aa, cast, aa, and if your cast is aa, E, AA, Q, W, any squishy is going to be in for a world of pain before he can even get to you, and any tank is going to think twice about keeping up the fight.

Dustin does not need a farming item, as his aa animation is so good and his e and q are amazing farming skills. Cerebro is a bad endgame item on him, as you do not want to be in range to aa them, and when you are forced into that situation, you want to get away as quickly as possible. It also does not add as much damage for his skills as other int items, so I would not get it.