I play a lot of Horde Mode, mostly 4p normal where i random and 5p hard where i pick strong heroes I've found while randoming.

When two people go on top lane, what most people are doing even if no one ask, they are usually level 4/5 while bot & mid solo lane have twice the amount with way more gold. And due to that lack of xp they won't be able to farm efficiently while the other will snowball to victory.

I find that a good lane setup, with not imba character (sf/legion) is to do a 1/1/1 with a roaming nuker with bottle to help other lane, this way xp is a bit more shared.

And heroes without early wave clear will struggle really hard without someone with wave clear.

As for balance, I think that lot of items are sub par. I have three kind of item path corresponding to the different type of hero i get.

If i'm a caster i'll start with Mana boots/Soul Ring into Octarine & Death Stone, Shiva, Heart, Dragon Lance/Battle Fury/ TP Boots / Rapier as a replacement to Death Stone / MoonShard

Else i'll go Dragon Lance/BF/ Heart / AC / Travel / 2xRapiers / Upgrade rapiers / MoonShard


Heart is a must have item, since it provide a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ of strength and infnite regen since it's never put on cooldown. An armor item is required so Shiva/AC is a good item for the utility they provide. With Heart & one big armor item you can tank for a while most tower. You need splash/cleave attack so of course you need either Battle Fury or Dragon Lance. I think that buying two rapier is better since it seams to be more cost/damage effective.

I beleive that items like DeathStone are good early, as the build-up is easy while providing good AoE damage and mana regen but as time pass right clicking seems better due to the cooldowns.



As for other items, Daedlus & Crystallis are inferior to Rapier, while you may deals more damage to creep, it's unreliable and isn't efficient against building, which is still the goal of the game.

The treads upgrade seems good on the paper, but they are usefull when you build crit which I beleive isn't usefull in the current state of the game. If you want more Strength, a heart is better and is a must buy on most heroes to tank tower/boss. If you want Agi, Butterfly at least give you more tankiness with evasion, and the intelligence benefits are way less powerfull than str/agi.

A pair of Lithe booth may give better performance for melee heroes, but I almost never see them. And anyway melee heroes are inferior to range heroes for tower damage since Dragon Lance works on tower.



TL DR : I believe that to have a bit more balance in the itemization choice, there should be different itemization for base attack and base defense. Atm rapier is the best damage item, since it is the highest source of damage and is reliable working both on creep and building. I think it should be removed or updated.