The Urn of Shadows is an interesting and eclectic “support” item in Dota 2, but don’t be fooled by the categorization. Providing healthy mana regeneration, six points of strength, and the ability to “bottle” kills that occur around your hero for future use make the Urn of Shadows a downright steal for the price of goods and recipe.
Earning the Urn
The price of the Urn of Shadows is far from prohibitive, but one needs to be careful about rolling to a lane without any regeneration items. If you’re fairly confident,you can bounce to your opening sidelane with two Gauntlets of Strength and the recipe for the item and be able to purchase the Sobi Mask on one of the sideshops without counting on courier assistance.
It’s best to complete the Urn as early as possible, as you’ll want to be able to start storing charges right away as carnage occurs on the battlefield - but don’t complete it at the cost of essentials that may keep you alive. If you’re dead, you’re not going to be able to collect charges and glean the benefits anyway, so finish it fast but without sacrificing key replenishment tools.
Urning Your Keep
The Urn’s stats are respectable for the cost, but the real value comes from the charges contained within. These charges can be cast via hotkey and have huge range, and place a significant heal on yourself or an allied hero or a damage over time effect on an opponent. The heal is actually quite significant, and remains ticking as long as the target isn’t touched by an opposing hero or tower (creeps are okay, so you can even use it to game a few jungle spawns between ganks!).
You’ll find the DOT damage to be pretty underwhelming - until you realize that the reach on the Urn of Shadows is really long for a damage item. Those escaping opponents you always just can’t seem to land the last hit on as they run out of range, ready to head past towers or into the juke woods? One flick of the Urn and those last few ticks of health are gone, allowing you to capitalize on hero kills that would often be close escapes.
Urn Value
Urn of Shadows can be especially useful after a big team fight or skirmish to bring yourself and your allies back to full health, making tower caps or base pushes a reality out of encounters that would normally force your team back to base to heal and regroup. Have multiple players with urns? Pop off a few rounds of green glowing goodness after a battle on each other and watch the efficiency and value roll in, as single tower soirees turn into barracks burning.
Urn of Shadows provides useful stats and potentially serious boons to your entire team with a good deal of usage flexibility. Got charges? Store em, shoot em, give em to your friends! Reward your carries for a job well done by giving them some shadowy snacks after a battle, and shake things up with a clutch across-the-screen kill on that blinking Anti-Mage that almost got away.
Get the best news and spiciest editorials on online games - Subscribe to get updates and follow the action on Twitter! You can also follow updates on Facebook!
Comments