How do I know which items to choose?

[Creep Crusher]

Hello.
I currently have 285 hours in dota and I always rely on builds and guides for each hero I am playing in the first time.
I see a lot of players that know to choose their items without searching for guides and I want to know how can I do it myself.
I am pretty familiar with all the items but I still don't sure what to choose for example:
when should I take pure damage items and when should I take stats items?
when should I take hp and armor and when should I take evasion?
when Should I take armor and when should I take just pure hp?
is there any guides for that kind of things? or someone could explain it a bit to me?

[💀BlaqZ💀]

instinct

[Markomed]

that needs experience...
if you are playing as a, let's say lion which usually tries to rush blink, things change if you play vs clock. blink will be useless if he hooks you and does the combo, the force staff on the other hand is a big counter to clock. not only you can save yourself but you can force your allies out of coggs. so that's basicly where you make the decisions on item build...
sometimes bkb is useless too if you play vs 2 or 3 enemy heroes who have skills that go through it like enigma black hole, batrider laso, bane grip...for batrider and bane is very nice to have a linken instead of bkb, but if they have some spamable ally with single target spells like skywrath then it rly is a difficult choice...since he can easily trigger the linken and allow his ally (batrider bane etc) to do his part
watch some streams dotalounge or twitch and you will see what decisions pro players make...and if its a good caster yo wil get an explanation why they did what they did on the item choice matter...

[Single Draft Dodger]

A lot of what Markomed said. It does take experience but it's a good sign that you're thinking about this.

[ceL]

Watching replays from professional games really helps a lot.

[Taweret]

my situational items list:

blademail - always pick when opponents have only one carry and its ranged hero like drow, sniper, windrunner, because, squishy, and deals tons of damage if used correctly.

medallion of courage, awesome early item on gankers like, gondar, clinkz, nature prophet.

eul, forcestaff, ghost scepter, cant go wrong on any support, fits every game.

agha - this item is pure situational for some heroes is vital, for other are better choices.
for example i would always buy agha on np in defending scenario.

stacking - null talismans, bracers - works in some games.

heavens halberd - not good iteam imo, since dont work on bkb... there are better items.

dagon - sometimes can work for gankers in defending scenarios.

pipe - good item against zeus, shaker etc.

shadowblade/dagger - initiator item, dont like it on squishy supp. depends on hero comp.

smoke - extremely useful in late game.

wards- these items are must, if you are support you should always be sure to make stock empty.
there is no such thing on pubs like "greedy supp", because greedy supp < feeded carry, if you have 2 supps make sure to only one buy wards all the time. other can rush mek.

midas - only viable if you have safe lane and are good protected. especially trilanes.otherwise this item can make your game slowdown.

linken - too expensive to be situational item, for what it gives. more like core item, on some heroes.

bkb - is must every game for carrys, best item. also boost health which is important for full damage carrys.

[Markomed]

Originally posted by HATRED 06.01.2015:

my situational items list:

blademail - always pick when opponents have only one carry and its ranged hero like drow, sniper, windrunner, because, squishy, and deals tons of damage if used correctly.

----------very useful vs heroes with DOT (damage over time) spells (disruptor, skywrath)or a delayed cast animation for better timing and maximum usage(shadow fiend ulti, sand king utli, kotl illuminate)
a good drow, sniper, windruner will just stop attacking you. mortred is a different story because one crit can ♥♥♥♥ her up...so its kinda...if im going down you go down too :)

medallion of courage, awesome early item on gankers like, gondar, clinkz, nature prophet.

eul, forcestaff, ghost scepter, cant go wrong on any support, fits every game.

agha - this item is pure situational for some heroes is vital, for other are better choices.
for example i would always buy agha on np in defending scenario.

stacking - null talismans, bracers - works in some games.

heavens halberd - not good iteam imo, since dont work on bkb... there are better items.

--------you still have the miss chance

dagon - sometimes can work for gankers in defending scenarios.

--------dagon is used for a swift and fast finish and not for late game (tinker exception)

pipe - good item against zeus, shaker etc.

shadowblade/dagger - initiator item, dont like it on squishy supp. depends on hero comp.

--------crystal maiden, lion, rubick? all squishy but somehow a core item

smoke - extremely useful in late game.

---------extremely useful the ENTIRE game

wards- these items are must, if you are support you should always be sure to make stock empty.

---------dont know why you mentioned this as a items choice since its always a must :)

midas - only viable if you have safe lane and are good protected. especially trilanes.otherwise this item can make your game slowdown.

linken - too expensive to be situational item, for what it gives. more like core item, on some heroes.

bkb - is must every game for carrys, best item. also boost health which is important for full damage carrys.

---------Enigma, batrider, bane, lina, magnus, doom, winter wyvern...and so on and so on...good item but its definetely not a must.

[Creep Crusher]

Originally posted by Markomed:

that needs experience...
if you are playing as a, let's say lion which usually tries to rush blink, things change if you play vs clock. blink will be useless if he hooks you and does the combo, the force staff on the other hand is a big counter to clock. not only you can save yourself but you can force your allies out of coggs. so that's basicly where you make the decisions on item build...
sometimes bkb is useless too if you play vs 2 or 3 enemy heroes who have skills that go through it like enigma black hole, batrider laso, bane grip...for batrider and bane is very nice to have a linken instead of bkb, but if they have some spamable ally with single target spells like skywrath then it rly is a difficult choice...since he can easily trigger the linken and allow his ally (batrider bane etc) to do his part
watch some streams dotalounge or twitch and you will see what decisions pro players make...and if its a good caster yo wil get an explanation why they did what they did on the item choice matter...

Originally posted by Funkadelic Jive Turkey:

A lot of what Markomed said. It does take experience but it's a good sign that you're thinking about this.

thanks a lot! I will try to find some twitch and see how it goes.

[Taweret]

heavens halberd - not good iteam imo, since dont work on bkb... there are better items.

"--------you still have the miss chance"
^if you want to build halberd on carry, then s&y is way better choice then.

dagon - sometimes can work for gankers in defending scenarios.

"--------dagon is used for a swift and fast finish and not for late game (tinker exception)"
^i use dagon only on defending scenarios in early game when opponents rush the base (except cores like tinker, nyx), because is best item you can get for the price, when opponents are already feed, other items wont make such impact. dagon delays pushes when you can pick up enemy heroes, but only works on few, like np for example.

shadowblade/dagger - initiator item, dont like it on squishy supp. depends on hero comp.

"--------crystal maiden, lion, rubick? all squishy but somehow a core item"
^wards>dagger, i said i dont like it, because rushing dagger means you cant buy wards. not core tho, for tide shaker yes, cm, lion rubick arent frontlines, they join fight lately. if you play lion mid then its okay item, otherwise waste.

smoke - extremely useful in late game.

"---------extremely useful the ENTIRE game"
^actually not, in early game opponents have quick respawn timers,carrys are farming, it cant make much a difference than in late game, it can also go wrong. in late game wards are mostly out of stock so smoke is only solution, and most of carrys are well farmed, both teams play carefully, respawns are long. so smoke is good solution to pick someone. early game can be big waste for the price,time.

wards- these items are must, if you are support you should always be sure to make stock empty.

"---------this item is always a must and not a situational on support"
^thats what i said, but situational, when you have 2 supps one can go full wards.

bkb - is must every game for carrys, best item. also boost health which is important for full damage carrys.

"---------Enigma, batrider, bane, lina, magnus, doom, winter wyvern...and so on and so on...good item but its definetely not a must."
^it wont block some of ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ dissables, but it block aoe damage, and plenty of basic abilites. and aoe deals most of times half of hp. also spell block is an extra, bkb gives hp+dmg.

i would also like to add MoM was great farming item, for like gyro medusa, now pretty much useless after the nerfs.

[76561198201058875]

Originally posted by Godsmurf:

Watching replays from professional games really helps a lot.

How's that helping? The better you know the mechanics of the game, the better items you get to build when you play. For example : You see players building pipe to counter the enemy team and it's because their carry has magical damage. But you wouldn't build pipe to counter Zeus or Jakrio when they are playing support while there is BS or CK doing physical damage.

[Blondi]

this is what you get when you use the guides and dont think of the properties of eery item yourself...

the thing is using builds makes you passive and stops you from on the fly decisions...

im at almost 5k hours... i never used builds other than to see what result other people expect from a certain hero.....

once you have too mnay hours like me, no life, and no friends to speak of, you can finally do a hero without preparing, or change the intended build on the fly to accommodate a counter to somethign they will "build" unexpectedly midgame

you just have to think in item properties, have little rankings in your head of different kind of item actives and the relaiton to what stats they give, and together with that you need to know the properties in relation to the statgain and regen you need in the moment when you have a "bad farm game/good farm game"

thats why using builds is bad becuase it doesnt make you see the logic between low cost items and high cost items and when its doable to build them, or when its tooalte and skip them to get another active you might need or more stats..

that just needs time man..... even if you have 5k hours, put in the octarine/magic orb/glimmer cape and such, only 7 items and the whole meta is so ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ i can do it all over again :D

gotta love dota.

[Taweret]

watching pro games, can inspire you, but teach anything? i dont think so, practice and own experience is only way. is better to start learning game with noob and self builds aka vanguard on every hero, than copy pros, because these pro builds wont work in noob games.

[Single Draft Dodger]

You're wrong Hatred. Watching intelligent casting that can explain *why* people do what they do and the items they get + their expected timings can teach you a lot. Also, while some things will work in your noob pubs that won't work in pro games, everything that works at the top level will still work in lower brackets.

Don't blindly copy pros or 'meta', think for yourself, but still yeah you can learn a lot.

[Creep Crusher]

Originally posted by Nationalist.:

this is what you get when you use the guides and dont think of the properties of eery item yourself...

the thing is using builds makes you passive and stops you from on the fly decisions...

im at almost 5k hours... i never used builds other than to see what result other people expect from a certain hero.....

once you have too mnay hours like me, no life, and no friends to speak of, you can finally do a hero without preparing, or change the intended build on the fly to accommodate a counter to somethign they will "build" unexpectedly midgame

you just have to think in item properties, have little rankings in your head of different kind of item actives and the relaiton to what stats they give, and together with that you need to know the properties in relation to the statgain and regen you need in the moment when you have a "bad farm game/good farm game"

thats why using builds is bad becuase it doesnt make you see the logic between low cost items and high cost items and when its doable to build them, or when its tooalte and skip them to get another active you might need or more stats..

that just needs time man..... even if you have 5k hours, put in the octarine/magic orb/glimmer cape and such, only 7 items and the whole meta is so ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ i can do it all over again :D

gotta love dota.

I understand what you are saying, in this regard I want to point that in the case of situational items I don't have much of a problem. I mean like building mkb against evasion, blade mail against high damage enemies, bkb against magic damage/disablers and so on.

my main problem is for example I start playing with a carry and I need to know what kind of core and late game items I should buy like I pointed in the first post.
or playing with supports, with supports I just buy active items like medalion/meck to help the team. (of curse I buy cour and wards)

Originally posted by HATRED 06.01.2015:

watching pro games, can inspire you, but teach anything? i dont think so, practice and own experience is only way. is better to start learning game with noob and self builds aka vanguard on every hero, than copy pros, because these pro builds wont work in noob games.

but if I practice I won't ruin the game for others? I will just get reported and called "noob" and "building abyssal blade on crystal maiden REPORT!!" kind of things lol.
I just use to see a guide and jump right into normal match with the knowledge I got.
I heard about pub games where you can practice. pub games are bot match or it something else?
sorry for noob question :D

[Chloe Johnson]

Watching Pro games is interesting in that you can see how things can work but for newbies trying to copy some of those moves is asking a lot and asking for trouble sometimes.

The amount of teams who think they never need wards or should use TP's though....

[Taweret]

ruin game for others means, not even trying, or feed. crystal maiden have low attack speed, and abyssal blade provides only damage and stun, so is obviously bad choice, also sacred relic costs tons of gold, so means -1 for them whole game, same goes for radiance on any supp, never do it. even s&y would be better in this case, because, easy to gather mats, hp+mobility.
another thing, i said vanguard as noob item choice because:
ring of health is good item for noobs, it probides regen sustain on lane,
vitality booster another health boost
+ damage block from neutral creeps, and melees. is basically good starting item for noobs along with drums and mekas, easy to build, provides survivability.

ive said it wont teach your anything because its the theory knowledge, casted games are on whole other level than you are playing, you should adopt to your level and find your own way to play. casters explain why people build smth, in PRO game. you may never find same conditions in noob games.
people like to stick to one build type because it fits their gameplay style. if you play alot you will learn how to adpot to the every situation. for now, just find your favourite build and enjoy it. the more important thing in dota 2 than builds, is movement, smart movement, positioning win games, its what you should learn first.