Contents:
1) Introduction
2) Overview
3) Skills
4) Builds
--a) Skills
--b) Items
5) Strategy
--a) Laning/Earlygame
--b) Ganking/Midgame
--c) Teambattles/Mid-to-lategame
--d) Skill-Specific
6) Mates and Hates
7) Sum-up
8) Q&A
9) Replays
10) Changelog
(basic layout taken from Crowley's guide on SF, thanks!)
1: Introduction
- "For the highest bidder!"
Ah, the Alchemist- weakened into the ground since his inception. It's no wonder many have sworn off the fat ogre/goblin duo forever.
Alch (or Chubby as I like to call him) has a hodgepodge of abilities, which point to him being any-which-way you want; carry, support, tank, etc. It is this seemingly random skillset that confuse players even more, causing them to build up a misconception that Chubby is hopelessly weak without a given direction.
I aim to shatter that paradigm. In this guide, I emphasise a tanking/supportive role for Alch, with semi-DPSing capabilities utilised as well. Capitalising upon Chubby's innate abilities to do everything decently, we make him a team player and coordinator. You will gain your allies' love and adoration, alongside your enemies' fear and hatred.
Play Chubby if you:
Need more reason? I suggest you watch synapris' tribute to Chubby; though outdated, that's just how beastly you can be. In fact, go keep it playing in the background while reading this guide, for maximum effect.
Fair warning though: by choosing Alchemist, you are picking a hero who has a mediocre performance alone, but works brilliantly in teams. Therefore before even considering the foes you will face, make sure your team is of a decent standard before considering Chubby. In particular, the ability to judge one's safety within the game is important. You don't want teammates who recklessly rush in after a Shake only to get torn apart, no?
2: Overview
At a glance:
Pros:
- Incredible babysitting and lane-control
- Great farming, only hero with a gold-gain booster
- Powerful team coordinator, in ganks and teambattles alike
- Versatile, can be built accordingly to fit gameflow
- Natural tank; has a high level of both threat and survivability
Cons:
- Sub-par stat-growth... luckily Rage partially makes up for that.
- Low base armor/Strength make for a fragile hero... without Rage that is.
- Very reliant on Rage (if the above two points didn't make that clear)
- Increasingly item-dependant lategame
- Bad choice without decent teammates (thank goodness you play Dota with friends, eh?)
Hero Stats:
Strength: 25 + 1.8
Agility: 11 + 1.2
Intelligence: 25 + 1.8
Let's not mince words; this is probably the worst statpool of any hero (save
but different story). While Chubby starts with a good max hitpoint/manapool thanks to a round 25 in both Str and Int, his base Agi (and consequently his armor) leave something to be desired. This issue, however, pales in comparison to the problem left by his mediocre statgain-per-level. As the game drags on, almost every other heroes' stats will be ahead by leaps and bounds. Thankfully, this issue can be partially addressed with the right strategic and item choices; more on that later.
Hero stats aside, the rest of Alch's quirks are fairly average. He does have a great attack animation, reaching its damage point at 0.35 seconds; this makes for easier lasthits/denies, and allows him to cancel the attack animation to great effect. His base armor is very bad however, starting at 0.6 (literally from his Agi alone). Harassment upon you will hurt a lot more than is fair.
For more information regarding Alchemist's statistics, visit his official website!
3: Skills
(Usage of skills covered in Strategy)
Basic:
Acid Spray
Your free Deso! And in a large area too. While it won't directly work against smart mobile opponents, entire creepwaves are yours for the taking with this ability. And with its long duration, it's usable as a powerful deterrent. Anyone stupid enough to stay in this green cloud of death has issues.
Notes:
- The damage component is mixed. This means it will be reduced both by the damaged enemy's armor and spell resistance.
- The damage will differ according to your enemies' armor. Armor bonuses will decrease the damage taken. Similarly, armor reduction increases damage taken (which comes packaged with the skill!)
- Against heroes and units with Resistant Skin-based abilities, the damage is further reduced by spell resistance. And in inverse, the damage can be boosted by a select few abilities which lower spell resistance.
- The DoT will still cut through magic immunity- very useful against Golem creeps and BKB-ed heroes.
Unstable Concoction
Also known as 'shake', 'wank' and 'OMFG IMBA', this spell is pretty much the reason Chubby gets picked in the first place; a low manacost, spammable, targetable, damaging disable. Version 6.65 saw this skill through with a remake, giving Alch even more flexibility with using Shake.
The new skill gives you a Hot Potato. Toss it to your foes at the latest moment possible, and they have a bombshell in their hands.
Notes:
- The damage dealt is physical, which means armor reduction will increase it. This has great potential for higher damage alongside Acid Spray, or other such abilities.
- The numbers above Alchemist's model show how long the potion has been Shaked for. These are visible to allies and enemies alike.
- As the projectile is triggered, it cannot be dodged by Blink-type abilities (much like Sven's Storm Bolt). Invisibility will avoid the projectile unless the unit is revealed in time.
- The projectile has its own small sightrange (400); useful against juke-happy foes.
- The Shake will backfire upon Alch if not thrown after both preparation and buffer time is up (about 1 extra second). He will suffer the same damage and stun as a fully-prepared Shake of whatever skill level it was at.
- The concoction can explode midair if thrown, but the buffer timer expires. In this case, the coding will attempt to target any enemy unit in near-melee range (does NOT have to be a hero) and unleash Shake upon it.
Goblin's Greed
Nerfed to oblivion since Chubby's introduction, Greed nevertheless still holds a place in his skillset. Abuse the fact that Alch is the only hero with a built-in income booster. Gold farmers dream of this very skill; a skill which allows you to get more out of last-hitting than any other hero. Not health, not mana, not stats, but cold filthy gold.
Notes:
- On top of the stated bonus per skill level, you gain 2 additional gold for each enemy unit within the past 18 seconds.
- This bonus is independent for each creep killed; the 2 bonus gold will be removed 18 seconds after the creep's death, not 18 seconds after the last unit killed.
- Images and illusions do keep Greed, but they have their own creep-kill counter.
Ultimate:
Chemical Rage
Your berserk button, and a potent one at that. Need a fountain trip? Nope, just Rage and watch your HP and mana come rushing back. Sad cause Chubby's Agility sucks? Rage and see your base attackspeed shoot down, and your little ogre friend start running like Hermes. Whenever the purple ogre comes out, it's always good news for you and the team.
Notes:
- This is one of the few skills ingame which reduce your base attack time (BAT). As such, percentage-based bonuses (and penalties) to your attack speed have a greater effect.
- Rage also increases your base movement speed; bonuses affect you to a larger extent. Use your mobility to your advantage!
- Of lesser note, Rage's health and mana regeneration are added to your base values as well. As such, percentage-based bonuses to regen are greatly multiplied. However as there are no such bonuses to health (Heart's HP-regen 'aura' is based off your max HP, not your base regen), you are limited to using this tactic for mana.
- Unlike other transformation skills, Rage will persist in images/illusions created of you even if not Shift-queued. This makes for Manta being a good luxury item for Alch (see below), and can also prove a boon when having illusion-creating allies (or otherwise if the enemy can make an image of you).
- Since the bonuses above are directly added to your base values, images will not lose the other Rage benefits when created.
-There is a 0.35 second transformation time into your Raged form. Useful when you want to stundodge using the morphing skill-bug (see later for more details)!
4: Builds
a: Skills
What to Teach For Happier Alchs:
1. Unstable Concoction (Shake)
2. Acid Spray
3. Shake
4. Acid
5. Shake
6. Chemical Rage
7. Shake
8. Acid
9. Acid
10. Goblin's Greed
11. Rage
12. Attribute Bonus (Stats) / Greed
13-15. Stats/Greed
16. Rage
17-25. Stats/Greed
- Shake should always maxed first. It's what makes Chubby good outside of Rage as a great utility skill.
- Acid is taken alongside this. During midgame, the effects (both the DoT and armor reduction) are at peak effectiveness. It also ensures you can defend a creep-push with ease.
-One level of Greed is taken after Shake/Acid are maxed at level 10. This allows a succession of lasthits or fast-track jungling to give a sizable gold boost.
-Rage is taken anytime available, for obvious reasons.
-The remainder of Greed's levels are optional, as taking stats will help shore up your greatest weakness. And at this time, pushes are so huge you can easily reach the Greed bonus gold cap. Personally, I would take 5 stat-levels before putting 1 more point in Greed (+100% effectiveness) and then return to max-out stats.
b: Items
Starting:
Alch starts off with various choices on what to take to his lane. This will mostly depend on your team's structure; if you're playing babysitter to someone else (as you should be IMO), then a Basilus should be your first purchase. Supportive Chubbies should get either a Magic Wand's components or buy a courier off the bat. If for some reason you are going solo, bits of Bracers will maximise your lifespan in-lane.
Babysitter's Basilus:
Basilus offers all Chubby needs earlygame: a slight damage boost, badly needed armor and a source of light mana regen to continually use Shake. If you're taking a dual-lane (as you should), your teammate will adore you for the auras as well!
Later on, you may consider breaking apart your Basilus so as to use the Sobi Mask for an Urn (see core item build later).
Self-Sturdiness:
To boost your already good starting stats even higher, grab the classic Bracer set-up of 2 gauntlets and a circlet. This will increase your already sizable hitpoints to very safe levels, and boost your manapool enough to sparingly use Shake until level 6. Best in a solo lane, if you really are shoehorned into one.
Stick Magicry:
A Magic Stick can also work wonders. You sacrifice some personal stats for the Energy Charge skill, which is definitely more useful earlygame; early attempts to fight back against your Shake will be mostly nukes or disables, so if you can survive them (easy thanks to your great starting HP), a buildup of charges can be very tide-turning indeed. In this kit you also take along the 3 GG branches needed to later turn it into Magic Wand, which can replace a Bracer's space and more than make up for a minor loss of Strength.
PETA will sue:
or 
Your earlygame is quite good thanks to Alch's good base stats and Shake's lane-staying power, so if your team requires a Courier it may be your first purchase as well. Here I take along a Ring of Protection to help reduce harassment and build into a Basilus later, but if you wish you may want to buy a Flying Courier straight away. In either case couriers have a slight personal risk; not doing well in-lane because you lack the benefits of other items might gimp your earlygame. However controlling a lane and farming quickly can get you those missing bonuses via Courier, thus granting you those crucial items just that bit faster.
Consumables:
or 
I've never found the need to use Clarities, ever. Your Shake is very manacost-efficient, and if used sparingly will not demolish your manapool. Likewise, you won't be spamming Acid.
Health-wise it's a tossup between Tangos and Salves, but personally I prefer Tangos just for the ability of staying close to the action. Especially important if your lanemate's in a messy situation!
Optional: SOMEONE WILL GET THE AXE:
I have bad experiences with Quelling Blade. When it first came out, I loved it so much that I bought it for every single melee hero I played, including our lovable Chubby. Then when it was pointed out all it really did was increase the last-hit error margin, I tried to wean off it.
Needless to say, this was not fun.
But if you need it, get it. Alch's attack damage will love you for it, but midgame Acid and having good last-hitting skills shake their head in disapproval.
Core:
Heart of Chubby:
Ogre-Slave Shoes:
OR 
Can of Whoopass:
Optional Boosters:
Contrary to popular belief/misconception, Alch does not need too many items if used optimally. Armlet of Mordiggan and mid-tier footwear are easily affordable by midgame, even if you allowed your lanemate free farm over the enemy creepwaves. These aim to emphasize Chubby's sizable DPS ability midgame, thanks to Acid and Shake being at top potential and Rage a quite scary improvement to his damaging carry-capability.
For those who doubt the power, take a look at the Alch in this screenshot. Minimally equipped, and yet his DPS and tankiness is off the charts for midgame.
Chubby is a natural Armlet user. He greatly benefits from its basic bonuses (especially the 5 armor) and Rage helps negate the degen caused by Unholy Strength. This item is what will make you a great midgame DPSer, and mark you as a threat; very important for later if/when carries start coming to play. It is essential you complete your Armlet as the first primary item, as your still acceptable stat-levels at midgame will allow you a tremendous advantage over others in both survivability and DPS. Late-game Armlet will of course be outclassed by your higher tier items, but will still be a great steroid to use.
For those control freaks who know Alch's limits well, Phase Boots are for you. Since the 6.63 era, all players have had to deal with reduced survivability for every hero. Seeing as Chubby's lifespan is better than most, the Phase ability should nearly always taken to shore up his mobility, allowing Alch to chase and flee at great ease. The high bonus to attack damage is also helpful and helps compensate for Treads' (still) better DPS.
Alternatively, Power Treads suit those players who prefer a straight-out boost for Alch. The attribute bonus on such a Strength-deficient and dependant hero is invaluable, and can even be switched to Agilty or Intelligence for whatever situation needed! The attack speed is also desirable, as my builds get little such bonuses until lategame.
Introduced in 6.65, the Urn of Shadows provides solid bonuses that every Alch should take advantage of. The Strength bonus allows you to substitute this for a Bracer, and the mana regen more than covers Shake usage. The active ability is the main deal; as a strong disabler/ganker, Chubby will always be there for a kill, thus gaining charges. In turn, this can be used towards a painfully effective DoT, or a quick pick-me-up while waiting for Rage to CD.
If you're playing against gank-happy heroes who love to shut you all down, cheap boosts like Bracers are a good way to keep up. As the Alchemist you can easily farm the sum back later, so it's worth keeping these in mind as fallback items.
Post-Core
What you get now is highly dependant upon what your team lacks; Chubby is one of the few heroes who benefits from virtually any item. In this guide, I prioritize remaining a threat to the enemy by buying items that focuses attention on you.
Here are some suggestions of item builds to fit the role you need to play:
DPS/Carry
Start with:
OR 
OR 
Followed by:
OR 
Optional Supplement:
In order to play Chubby as an effective carry/tank hybrid, you must maintain the high threat level required to keep the enemy team focusing upon you in Rage. Therefore our major DPS booster will be one with a powerful and obvious secondary effect; Radiance for the DoT around yourself, Mjolnir for the Chain Lightning of rape and Deso for the physical damage amplification. Since your EHP remains naturally high until lategame, I would recommend aiming for Rad; if there is a better carrier in your team, go for Mjol or Deso.
The common tank-type item, nothing draws attention like an ogre giving off sparklies. Not only does Radiance boost your own damage by a sizable amount, but your threat level remains high thanks to the strong DPS dealt over time to your foes. Its cost is also easier for you to farm than most anyone else (thanks to Acid+Greed), and once you do farming becomes ridiculously easy with both Acid and the shinies!
With 6.63's turning of Mjolnir's +Agi into +attackspeed, Thor's hammer just got a whole lot better for Alch. The insane DPS boosts, combined with Rage's reduction of BAT make for the Chain Lightning orb proccing way too often than fair. And as icing on the cake, Static Charge means you can draw off attention on yourself or your teammates at will.
Purple power! Desolator increases personal DPS tenfold, making your attacks count for something in battles. On top of your Acid, you can greatly boost your Shake's damage as well. In addition, the Corruption ability is invaluable for further conducting the team into aiming for a single target; all aim target pl0x.
We next aim for an item which will help extend your lifespan in combat, but also raises your DPS even further. Here I consider the choice between Skadi and Assault Cuirass. Skadi is by far the superior choice in my opinion; the stat bonuses are invaluable on Chubby with his piss-poor gain, and the cost is not much higher than Assault. If however your team lacks a good Cuirass carrier, its powerful auras will help your team as a whole within group clashes. Get whichever one fits the situation better.
Nearly the most expensive item available to buy in Dota, and for good reason; its bonuses are phenomenal. This covers just about all of Chubby's weaknesses, granting him the stats he lacks, a thick HP value in or out of Rage, and a Frost attack that leaves most opponents running in vain. If you manage to farm this, there is no need for you to play passive tanker any longer; if you're ignored, you can rape anyone's face into the ground.
While Assault Cuirass falls into the category of 'pure-tank' items (see below), it still has the desired effect of drawing attention to you, and at the same time making you much more fearsome. The incredible boost to attackspeed, combined with your low BAT from Rage helps your attacks' DPS surpass all but the hardest and most fed carries. At the same time your armor auras (aka Circle of Power aura) will have your opponents panicking and your allies loving.
Optional:
Alchemist is the only hero whose transformation persists through Mirror Image, at least without shift-queuing. As such Manta fits quite well in his build, giving a sizable boost to all stats while allowing 3 fat ogres to wreak havoc at once. The extra bonus to movement speed is invaluable, thanks to it being percentage-based and thus having an even better effect when in Rage. The confusion element is also a great boon in winning battles!
However to fully utilise its power, your images must be strengthened with stats bonuses and orb effects. Thus this is left as a finishing touch to your carry build; getting this too early has little effect, but later on proves a deathblow to your enemies!
Utility/Support
Start with:
Followed by:
Crowning Touch:
Optional:
This build makes use of Chubby's ability to use spells more freely than others, thanks to Rage's massive regeneration. While giving up your battle skills, a good supportive Alch can prove a great damper to the enemy just as well, provided with a coordinated team!
Bear in mind while Khadgar's Pipe is optional, the item itself is most useful during midgame where a stray AoE spell can prove devastating to the unprepared team! So if you wish to get a Pipe, you should do so sometime around your acquiring a Necronomicon before its benefits are less effective.
Cheap and effective, Mekanism is a cost-efficiently-awesome item for Chubby. A well placed heal can turn the tides of a skirmish, allowing those nearly dead to take those last fleeting blows and finish off your foes. The personal boosts to stats and armor are also appreciated, though fairly minor.
For the micro-skilled, Necrominions are a great addition to Alchie's arsenal. He benefits nicely from +Str/Int, and the minions themselves help make up for Shake's self-disability. Though you will lack the survivability to stay alive that a more bruiser-type build would have, your summons ensure you can still provide a hefty beating even while dead!
Quickly purchase the upgraded versions of the Necronomicon; its boost to summon power are huge, especially at level 3 granting a free Sentry in battles!
Once you can afford it, getting a Guinsoo's ensures absolute hatred for you from the enemy. A Hex-on-demand is gamebreaking, allowing your teammates to beat down upon the poor sucker while you Shake the poor victim to seal their fate (covered later in tactics). With this combo, the other team should remain 1 player down at all times.
A mass-Barrier is great for softening the first wave of enemy nukes, and thanks to Rage the manacost is a non-issue. The bonuses given to Chubby are also worthwhile, granting him great survivability against spells and HP regen to continue on longer pushes.
Others/Situational
Since you can now prepare a Shake prior to engaging, Dagger has become a powerful option for Alchs wanting insane initiation power. Bear in mind, however, that as he only packs 1 single-target stun, that its usage will mostly be regulated to ganks. Still, a highly useful item and deadly when gotten early.
While an almost-purely tanking item, I normally don't get Blademail in-game. However if you're facing a team of people who hit and fall hard (eg. carries and nukers), then Blademail must just be the ticket to victory. At later stages it's also useful to force the enemy to make an impossible choice: try to take down the ogre and get hurt, or to try and get his team and get hurt anyway.
BTW Rupture is not 'an impossible choice' at all. Just sayin'.
If you got Basilus at the start, Vladmir's is the logical upgrade. The largest benefit of getting this is a non-orb lifesteal, very important when considering how much better others are on Chubby. The other bonuses are fairly average at midgame; mana-regen is quite useless post-level 6 as you have Rage, armor is not too important yet and the bonus to attack damage is not noticable yet.
As such, getting this is fairly situational. If you have the extra cash feel free. Otherwise save it for later after other items.
Not a horrible choice, but SnY's just not worth its cost. Even though it comes in smallish, easy to farm bits, the combined effects are mediocre and usually done better by other items. You'll get greater damage from Armlet, survivability and attackspeed from Assault, slowing attack from Skadi... The only redeeming quality is the movespeed, but in Rage you'll be faster than most other heroes anyway.
Still, the overall cheapness of this item makes it a potential "comeback" item after a series of trumps by the enemy team. The advantages may be enough for your team to regain the advantage, and turn a loss into a win! In any case, judge the game first before starting this build.
and in turn 
HotD and Satanic might work, though I haven't personally given them a go yet. A Dominated creep makes ganking ridiculously easy with decent micro, and opens up the tactic of stacking creepcamps for massive income bursts. Unholy Rage is also very powerful, making Chubby nigh-unkillable in critical periods of time.
However, I find the passive bonuses given to be lacking, especially for their cost. Lifesteal is not something that will get you focused; in fact it may discourage the enemy team from targeting you in battle! The orb not stacking with a Deso is a major loss as well. Armlet's Unholy Strength does nearly everything Satanic gives passively (losing 14 damage in exchange for +15% attack speed and 3 HP regen), and for about a third of the price!
Again, getting this line of items depends on your playstyle; you will need other sources of damage (such as Rad) to pull this off well.
On one hand, Chubby makes astounding use of Battle Fury's splash damage; this and Acid tear down entire waves in seconds. However it comes at the heavy price of having to buy Perseverance, entirely useless to Alch (see my argument below). The +damage may be cost-efficient, but other items will draw more attention to you, the tanker, than this. In particular, Radiance will do the same job for farming, but is much more useful in team battles. If at some point you have enough gold to buy the entire item in one sweep, feel free to try it out. Otherwise stay away from B-Fury; there are items with much better buildups for Chubby.
Unrecommended
Might seem alright, but I find MoM to be too much of a risk on Alch's part. While the Berserk acts as a very powerful DPS-booster, you won't be able to take the extra damage too well thanks to low armor and being reliant on Rage/Armlet. And again, lifesteal as an orb pales in comparison to a Skadi or Deso effect.
I don't care if it's thematic, Midas sucks badly of now. If you wanna be held to popping by the jungle every 1.5 minutes just to payback its cost, be my guest. Frankly a huge waste of an item slot.
and in turn 
Please please please never try this line of items. For one, Chubby doesn't need Perseverance's regen at all, thanks to Rage. The items it can be combined into also hold little value for the Alchemist. You're not going to get lasthits on heroes, and cooldown management will mean your skills will always be available when needed. And while the spellblock is very useful, the mediocre bonuses gotten from Linken's do not justify its cost. The only exception to this is Battle Fury (see above) and even then it's not exactly a top-tier item for Alch.
To be honest, 'tanking' in Dota is not fully understood by most players. Most important thing to remember is that people can choose who they want to hit (unless you're Axe, but different story). As such, being too hard to kill actually detracts from your role in the team as the lovable punchbag. Therefore I do not recommend getting these items, as the enemy might just give up and start beating down upon your friends instead. There are several suggestions above that will grant you that oh-so-wanted extra EHP, but will help rather than hinder your job.
While DPS items synergise well with Alch's Rage decreasing his BAT, it is important to consider his position in the game. IMO, the ideal way to play Chubby is to draw attention by being a general jerkass and protecting your team like a vicious mother hen/bear. Other heroes are much better suited to the pure DPS role, including classic carries like Troll and Spectre. Know your place, and stick to it. Again, the suggestions above are items that better compliment your DPS and your tanking abilities.
5: Strategy
a: Laning/Earlygame
Initial Choices
Face it, you're not a hero that needs quick leveling to succeed, and you can barely hold a lane by yourself. However, Alchemist's Shake is a godsend in laning, allowing you to disable and babysit with ease. It's your choice whether to go with another disabler and wreak absolute havoc, or a carry-type and be their guardian godmother. (examples of lane combos later!)
With you as a buddy, you're not limited to the 'safe' lane (Sent bot/Scourge top) and quite capable of taking on the 'long' one. As with any hero, make sure to watch out for any missing enemies that could be coming in to tear you and your mate a new one.
In-lane
In these first stages, you'll be aggressively trying to gain lane control. Thanks to a small manacost you're capable of using Shake whenever you want/need, so feel free to open up festivities and greet your rivals with a stun to the face. Unless your lanemate has his own disable, forewarn them that you aren't going for the kill- yet.
After this, remain aggressive in your lane; make your opponents fear the angry red ogre. As Shake now packs a huge punch early on, use its power constantly and liberally.
Greeting your new test dummies with a Shake in the face.
Smarter opponents (aka. those who learn from being blasted in the face more than once) will avoid Alch like the plague during laning. However, you can actually use this to your advantage! Think Axe-crazy; sit right behind their creeps and push them away from your own, denying them EXP and gold. Should anyone be foolhardy enough to advance, start the Shake and chase them away (see the section on Shake usage later for more details).
Charging right past the creepline should do the trick.
And a simple follow-up stun from teammates does wonders. Of course, take your own safety into account!
Be forewarned that Shake is now a double-edged sword (albeit sharper on the enemy's side). If you're disabled/silenced prior to release, you could have a literal bombshell on your hands that will explode in your face. Against such foes, begin Shaking out of sight and only come in range when the charge is nearly finished (again, see later strategies).
Well that was dumb.
Until level 6 continually spam your Shake upon the most fragile hero possible, allowing your lanemate free reign of the creeps while denying as many as you can. Take carenot to be in range for a devastating counterattack; positioning is key. If there comes the guarantee of a kill, put down the Acid and punch 'em out. Otherwise refrain from using Acid Spray; its manacost is too restrictive to use without the regen gained from Rage.
Pay close attention to how your opponents have responded to your harassment; if their normal approach is to run backwards, a forward advance is a pretty good tip-off that a nasty gank awaits you. If there's nothing you can do, do as much damage possible before dying, and take heart in the fact that you've already sown the seeds of hatred that will keep your team in high spirits and the enemy's in disarray.
Off ma creepline!
In summary, for the laning stage:
- be the jackass that screws over the earlygame for your enemies
- secure a safe farming lane for your lanemate
- attempt to claim several kills from their underestimation of your power
- jerk off. a lot.
b: Ganking/Midgame
Letting the kid go... or not
If your lane wasn't too hard to control, you now have a fed friend and underleveled opponents. Thus when you reach level 7, it's time to say goodbye to your spiritual child and begin roaming the map in search of food (examples below). From this point onwards always carry around a TP scroll; it's invaluable for punishing lone farming enemies, defending a tower or turning a gank around.
The effectiveness of this strategy will mostly depend upon your opponent's ability; chances are if they notice you to be gone, that they will call missing and ruin your plans. In that case, feel free to return to lane and continue the babysitting. Do take some farm, at least enough to secure Boots and an Armlet around 15 to 20 minutes in-game.
However, be careful not to rice too much at this stage. Doing so wastes your great ganking potential, and failing to shutdown the more dangerous foes may be a decision to regret later. Farming too much may also cause the enemy gankers to hunt you down, and Chubby lacks the escape abilities required to survive such coordinated attacks. Whenever their guard is down, be obliged to step aside, let those who need the cash get farm-time and hunt for heads.
Assassination, Chubby-style
Assuming your opponents aren't quite so selfless as to warn each other, you should be able to participate in at least a couple of ganks throughout the course of the game. However, the Alchemist has trouble killing alone. As such, make sure your ally/ies in the target lane are ready and prepared to assist/claim the kill.
Thanks to Shake, it's quite easy to seal their fate from out-of-sight. However, map-aware or ward-guarded opponents may start to flee once noticed. To prevent this, make sure to utilise good positions to start Shaking. Begin the gank so that the pathway back to enemy base (aka. the most likely direction for them to run) can be intercepted by you and your allies, making for an easy kill as they get blasted in the face with a potion.
You have a wall of trees to hide you when ganking the sidelanes, use them!
The goblin-shop area is perfect for ambushes.
If you will hit your target and his location is safe, call your allies in and proceed to rape face. Put down an Acid Spray, turn on Rage and Armlet if available, and proceed to wail away at the helpless victim. At this stage, almost no hero can withstand a vicious 300 damage/4 second stun, which may be further amplified by Acid. The Alchemist has great potential in ganking simply because nearly all of his ambushes prove fatal; utilise this advantage whenever possible.
Whether or not your gank succeeds or fails, post-gank techniques remain the same. Your Rage, besides being a powerful attack booster is also a great regeneration skill; sitting through the 25 seconds of Rage at level 1 restores 375 hitpoints and 75 mana, comparable to free basic consumables. As such it serves as a good quicker-picker-upper. If on CD, your Urn also proves handy.
Reversals
You're in luck if a solitary hero with DD/invis/whatever thinks he can kill you easily. Provided the refraining from using Rage too much while creep-farming/jungling (see below), you're capable of turning the tides. Begin the Shake, and juke like mad until ready to fire. The seconds gained from juking guarantees you a good disable, enough to either run or fight back. In either case, Rage's bonuses to movement and regeneration give you a powerful edge.
This technique is also very useful for saving your allies from a gank. TP to the closest tower and begin Shaking the most dangerous character; if they're about to kill your ally, release the Shake and escort your friend home. If nothing, die for your ally as long as you are sure he can survive that way. Deaths for you will not set you back too far, and that's what the best babysitters do- die one day so that the baby can grow up and get back at them another.
As said above, try not to farm too much and draw the attention of enemy assassins (mentioned below). There's not much you can do if ambushed by more than 1 hero at a time, seeing as your only escape mechanism is Shake+Rage+run. Attempt to stun the enemy with the most dangerous disable(s) before trying to escape, turn on the Armlet and run like hell. You did keep that TP scroll, right?
In summary, for the ganking stage:
- obtain your core items
- keep your opponents down with multiple ganks
- protect yourself and your allies
c: Teambattles/Mid-to-lategame
A crossing of paths
Many a time, clashes between teams are spontaneous and deadly. As such be prepared to start running to the site of a large battle at any time. For these unplanned battles, panic is a powerful driver. Thus you will be aiming to cause as much havoc as possible.
Before entering the opponent's sight range, assess the situation. Generally speaking, the earlier in the game-time the clash occurs, the more you will contribute by directly adding your sizable bulk to the battle. Your DPS is very scary midgame with Armlet, Acid and Rage combined, and the enemy team cannot fail to ignore the giant purple monstrosity beating them into a pulp.
A good Shake to the face can prove a fatal show-stopper as well. Choose your target accordingly (more on that below); chances are your enemies will be too busy in battle to notice you shaking away. While shaking, be sure to also inform your allies of what you are doing and get them ready for a beatdown upon your hapless target.
Being the pushers
If your team feels ready, Chubby can greatly assist a push. Your Acid Spray will help kill off creepwaves very fast, invaluable when buying time to demolish a tower/rax. It also helps deter enemy heroes from getting too close (further down the guide for more). If you're sure that the teams will not engage, feel free to Rage, turn on Armlet and wail away at those buildings. Never get pulled into a teamfight without Rage; chances are you'll be the first to die.
My Acid and some attacking makes short work of the incoming wave, allowing the push to succeed.
Being the pushed
The Alchemist is fairly decent at stopping pushes in their tracks. Using a tower as cover, put down some Acid to kill off the enemy creeps. To deter enemy Heroes from getting closer, frighten them by Shaking, though remain aware of your position and safety distances (more on that later). By yourself however, there is little you can do to save your buildings; you're better off calling for help, then using the tactics above to stall for time.
In summary, for teambattles:
1) Commence the Shaking
2) Self-buffs (in following order
---a) Rage
---b) Armlet
---c) Manta
3) Acid the central regions of the clash
4) Run in and wail away!
5) When ready, release your Shake
d: Skill-Specific
Acid Spray
Farm-Spray
Simply place an Acid Spray over a large amount of creeps and whack away. A level 4 Acid will kill a full-health ranged creep in 7-8 seconds by DoT (even shorter if you have Assault) so concentrate more on killing the melee. Turn on Armlet (if you want to and feel safe) to secure your lasthits.
For optimum efficiency, use this tactic when your own friendly creeps are some distance away. If they are around, chances are they will manage to steal quite a few of your potential CS.
If you cannot tank the wave's damage, try Raging in combination: your fast attacks combined with Acid take down creeps very quickly, and it helps regen back the damage taken.
The Do-Not-Cross Cloud
The logical action for enemies to take when they see your Acid Spray is to back away, but this is in itself a powerful tool. Its long duration and relatively short downtime (6 seconds difference between duration and CD) means that you can buy your team 16 seconds of time, plenty enough to do something significant. Thanks to its large AoE, it will cover enough ground to remain effective on at least one poor sap.
If facing a push, protective Acid Sprays can be very useful in stalling time for teammates to arrive. Try placing it at a critical chokepoint, such as the entrance into base or around the tower itself. However as Acid's effects scale down lategame, you may find this alone to not deter anyone. As such call in your teammates for a strategic attack, whether an ambush or rushing assault.
Alternatively while pushing down a tower or barracks, place an Acid Spray around you and your team. The enemy will not want to enter as your teammates are present (you do push with your team right?) and so it grants you free reign to siege. If they do decide to engage, your Acid is a powerful debuff and gives your team an edge in combat.
Here I've used Acid to cut off Huskar from the creepline and push simultaneously.
Kill-Seal Spray
If you manage to immobilise an enemy (through Shake or other disables) and have enough firepower to physically takedown it, go ahead and pop an Acid Spray over your victim. Even if you are unsure go ahead and try if you have the mana to spare; the armor reduction and DoT are very strong over time and can turn simple harassment into a kill.
Unstable Concoction
Rule #1 of Business: Location x3
Always always always keep in mind your location in relation to everyone else while Shaking! Cycle through this list of priorities:
a) What are the enemy heroes doing?
- Have they noticed I'm getting redder?
- Are they retreating or advancing?
- Does any one of them have a disable?
- Are all 5 enemies accounted for? Anyone missing on the minimap?
b) What are my allied heroes doing?
- Are they all present and close to my location?
- Have I told them who is my target?
- Does any one of them have a potential combo to pull off with my Shake? (see below for examples)
c) How's my cover?
- Do I have allied creeps/towers protecting me?
- Are enemy creeps/towers hitting me?
Be sure to continually move around to match these!
Get your Priorities Right
When you've got multiple Shake targets to choose from, you have to make sure the right one gets the potion in the face. This list might help you when picking your poison:
Is the hero I'm gonna Shake:
1) Going to hinder/kill me or my teammate(s) if not disabled (eg. farmed carries, heroes with momentum-stopping abilities)?
2) Weak enough to kill (without me our my teammates dying for it)?
3) Have a powerful channeling spell (eg. Sand King, Enigma, TC etc.)?
4) Have a disable?
These will greatly differ in the flow of battle; you'll develop better judgement skills as you play DotA and Chubby more.
Premature Ejaculation:
Remember that while Shake is best fully charged, you always possess the ability to stop and release how much you've charged. Against foes who just love playing ninja and blinking/windwalking just as you fire, trick them by suddenly releasing your Shake early. If they screw-up, go ahead and punish them (if safe). This is also useful when chasing; it's usually better to sacrifice disable time for team-whacking-pinata time, especially if you feel enemies are incoming and you need to clear someone, fast.
Stealth-Shake
With the spell's remake in 6.65, this ganking tactic just got a lot better.
Simply start your Shake from cover so your target will not notice. Trees and uphill locations are good, but simply staying out of sight will do in a pinch.
Be sure to cut off your target's escape; move in through one point while allies cover the others. Be sure to keep up with your target so you can release the deadly potion; not a problem with Rage/Phase/Manta's bonuses.
Judo-Reverse Shake
Getting chased by a persistant ganker? Juke 'em up a bit and start Shaking, preferably while in allied cover. Either they stay and get stunned (while you run/fight back) or they run off to save their ass. This is most effective early-game when a 300 damage nuke still hurts loads, but can still work later if Chubby's sufficiently equipped.
Here I'm being chased by a SP/Lich combo. Both slows have been thrown out and I'm still alive, but Nova's CD is running down fast...
But with a bomb to Lich's face and reinforcements from ES, I live.
Caught with the Pin out
Smart opponents will disable/silence you just as you're about to release your Shake.Do not let them do this. Chances are your Shake'll backfire on you, which at the very least puts you out of the fight for 4 seconds. At worst, you and your team may get reversed and epically fail the gank/wipe the teamfight.
If you're aiming for anyone with a disable, attempt to stay out of sight until you are ready to release. If the worst comes, chuck your potion regardless of charge-time; anything is better than blowing yourself up.
Kamikaze Blah
It may happen that you were foolish enough to get caught between 2 or more enemies whom you can't outrun. In which case, it may be better to go out with a bang, and suicide using your Shake's backfire. This is difficult since you have to wait about 6 seconds for the explosion to go off. However if you can juke well enough and you wouldn't be better served stunning one of your chasers using said Shake, worth a good attempt.
Goblin's Greed
With this build, you're not going to have a high starting bonus to your gold as you'll prioritise stats. As such, look here for a couple tips when farming post-Greed:
-Be quick about it. 18 seconds is not much time and you gotta be fast in farming! Use the Farm-Spray tactic for best results.
-Let the money come to you. Assuming enemy heroes won't be coming to help a large battalion of their creeps push on, it's always better to wait for more waves to stack. The goldgain becomes far greater and you'll reach the cap in no time!
-I Heart Kobolds+Trolls. As Kobolds jungle-spawns have 5 units from the get-go, you will absolutely love the 30 total bonus gold from them... and that's assuming no extras from other sources, and that's at the first level of Greed! Similarly you can leave the Dark Troll Warlords alive when tackling their camps to maximise goldgain, killing a small Troll first and afterwards killing the skeletons summoned. Again, the more cash the merrier!
Well hello extra gold.
-Creep on creep on creep etc. While not a tactic I've personally tried, it's very viable to use a Dominated/ally-controlled creep to mass-stack a creepcamp several times before actually taking it out. Chubby can handle this thanks to the sheer power Acid+Rage+Armlet provides; with those abilities alone, he can take down about 4 stacks' worth before calling it a day. Just be careful an ally, or even worse an enemy comes by to steal the fruits of your hard work!
Chemical Rage
Control your Anger
While Rage has a relatively short cooldown compared to its duration, you neverwant to be caught without it when facing enemy heroes. Similarly, always keep 50/100/150 mana for Rage. Without Rage, Chubby is of limited usefulness at best, and a piece of yummy meat for your enemies at worst. In general, don't cross the river without Rage ready, and refrain from using it from any other purpose than fighting or the ones below.
Healing, Wolverine-style
Who needs a Bottle or the fountain when you got Rage? You're granted a 15/30/60bonus to your HP regen per second, more than stuff like Ring of Health or even Hood of Defiance for free. This amount of regen, including the bonus HP already given by Rage, allows you to take abnormally strong blows, only to recover the lost health back in seconds. Use and abuse this fact; you're granted 375/750/1500 HP over the 25 seconds of Rage.
Raging Roadrunner
As Rage increases your movement speed, it's a great mobility booster. Use Rage to chase down those last pesky heroes, or run home free. If you have Phase Boots, be sure to use them after Raging; the boost to movement speed gets bigger thanks to it being percentage-based.
Evasive Anger
With all transformation skills, the WC3 engine bugs up and nullifies disables applied during the morphing time. For Alch, simply Rage at the right time; this is easier than most other heroes thanks to having a longer-than-average morphing time of 0.35 seconds. This requires a lot of practice, but if you can pull this off you can dodge any disable save Hex!
Absolutely hilarious example; Shackle bugs and the link stretches out with Chubby. But alas, the fat ogre was not caught.
6: Mates and Hates
(AKA Friends and Foes)
Awesome Allies
Seriously, who doesn't synergise with Chubby? Carries love him for his babysitter mastery and gay disable, nukers love him since he makes their job simpler, disablers love him as he can use that borrowed time to wail away... the list goes on.
Here's a list of specifically deadlier combos:
Slardar and Alch make a strong duo post level 6. Amplify Damage turns your already painful Shake into a grenade, dealing big damage while fatally disabling your victim. In teamfights, your Acid helps boost Crush's power in return. And for mobility, it's hard to run away from both a sprinting snake and a ogre on 'roids.
Ish'Kafel is also one of your best playmates, due to his supporting prowess. Ion Shell is absolutely brilliant on you, basically giving you 60 more DPS in melee range. While this draws a lot of aggro, Chubby can handle the punishment. This can also work in reverse; a good Shake and a Surged/Shelled Dark Seer works wonders. Vacuum and Surge also serve to chase down enemies; few can escape from a hasted ogre with temper issues.
Absolute rape guaranteed with Nevermore as your pal. A properly placed Shake will prove fatal to anyone early-to-midgame, as SF follows it up by shoving triple Shadowrazes down the enemy's throat. Your Acid loves the Dark Lord for reducing more armor, and Voldemort loves Acid for making his painful Necromastery-enhanced attacks hurt even more. Plus, a good Shake means you simply cannot fail to pull off an insta-gib Requiem. Ho yeah.
This duo is shit-scary when played well. A good Shake means any decent PotM could land a far-off arrow, meaning a potential total of 10 seconds of stun-lock rampage! It also ensures a perfect placement for Starfall; 450 damage to the face is imba midgame. And in chases, Leap's roar-buff will greatly speed you up when combined with Rage. Choosing PotM opens up loads of fantastic combos that require only a bit of skill to pull off.
-Here's a example of Alch/PotM teamwork; thanks to Lion being despo for tower monies, he didn't notice Chubby shaking from the sidelines. After release, PotM comes in with a Leap and Starfalls...
-...Alch runs in with an Acid+Armlet, and puts Lion out of his misery. Unstoppable!!
With his myriad of physical-damage dealing spells and supportive abilities, Dazzle and Chubby make a hell of a team. Enemies will be scrambling to run away from the fatal snaring combo of Shake and Poison Touch. Placing an Acid over the victim increases the poison damage, and to a lesser extent damage caused by Shadow Wave. Chubby can truly be unkillable for 5 seconds with Shallow Grave, prolonging his presence in battle. But it's the Shadow Priest's Weave which takes the cake, raising Chubby's naturally low armor values sky-high while making enemies take greater damage from his relentless assault.
With the changes made to Bristleback in 6.63, the duo of ogre and piggy come together as a furious blend of DPS and tanking. Both can take huge amounts of damage, and Bristle in particular can dish out the pain with Chubby's support. A dual-Spray of Quills and Acid is deadly, and Shake provides plenty of time to build up a healthy deposit of Nasal Goo on your victims.
etc...
Anyone dependant on landing hard-to-aim spells will love your Shake for setting up their own combos. With these heroes, ask them to wait until after your stun to use their skills.
Evil Enemies
I'm not gonna state the obvious ones like disablers and gankers; any fool knows just how well
,
and crew can screw over your game. Here are some heroes specifically anti-Chubby:
To this ghoul, you're just a walking dinner. He can block your Shakes with Rage and out-DPSes you at any game stage, even in Acid. Your high HP means nothing in the face of Feast, and if you somehow manage to catch the bastard he might just Infest a friendly and hitch a ride home. Don't consider Chubby if N'aix gets picked; he'll ruin your day.
At first, Rotund'jere will be nothing more than food to you; your basic combo should be more than enough to take him down. However if you don't keep this advantage, he could come back to wreak havoc. Heartstopper Aura negates your ulti's bonus HP regen at best, a large loss seeing as you need it to tank. Death Pulse is powerful when spammed, and helps to save him from assassination-type Shakes. And if you get caught below half your hitpoint total (as will happen a lot in team clashes), kiss your ass goodbye as you get Reaped.
Your friendly neighbourhood Ent-wannabe is also a potent Alchemist counter. Spammage of Living Armor makes Acid just a bunch of pretty green bubbles and helps his allies heal back your Shake's harassment. Nature's Guise and Overgrowth are easily usable to save the victims (and himself) if necessary. What really throws a wrench in the works, however, is that Roofie's Sentries will make your ganking hellish to pull off; running into his own forest gets you attacked by ROLFOWLZ.
The most irritating little bastard ever, you don't wanna play against Puck. He counters Shakes hard with Phase Shift and Waning Rift. You can't chase him either, thanks to Illusory Orb. Your incapability to shut him down will come back to haunt you later, when that bugger comes out and shoves his Imagination, a Guinsoo and Shiva's down your team's throat.
He stands for the Light, but also does part-time magnificent bastard-ery against Alch. Picking up even a single level of Repel means you kiss your lane control and ganking through Shake goodbye, as even a lagger could shield the target as the projectile strolls along its way. And as you're packing (almost) purely physical damage, Guardian Angel is basically the entire enemy team giving you the finger for 5+ seconds. Bastard.
etc...
Watch out for heroes with long silences or disables when Shaking (this includes anyone with
or 
!) as they can force a backfire upon yourself. Exercise caution, and if possible wait for their arsenal to be spent before attempting a Shake.
7: Sum-up
The Alchemist is an incredibly misunderstood hero, so it's quite a common sight to see -repicks whenever he gets out. But hopefully you understand Chubby's place in the game better now. He is quite underloved, but badly underestimated- use this to your advantage!
I hope you enjoyed reading this guide! Feel free to give feedback; positive, negative and otherwise!
1) Introduction
2) Overview
3) Skills
4) Builds
--a) Skills
--b) Items
5) Strategy
--a) Laning/Earlygame
--b) Ganking/Midgame
--c) Teambattles/Mid-to-lategame
--d) Skill-Specific
6) Mates and Hates
7) Sum-up
8) Q&A
9) Replays
10) Changelog
(basic layout taken from Crowley's guide on SF, thanks!)
1: Introduction
- "For the highest bidder!"Ah, the Alchemist- weakened into the ground since his inception. It's no wonder many have sworn off the fat ogre/goblin duo forever.
Alch (or Chubby as I like to call him) has a hodgepodge of abilities, which point to him being any-which-way you want; carry, support, tank, etc. It is this seemingly random skillset that confuse players even more, causing them to build up a misconception that Chubby is hopelessly weak without a given direction.
I aim to shatter that paradigm. In this guide, I emphasise a tanking/supportive role for Alch, with semi-DPSing capabilities utilised as well. Capitalising upon Chubby's innate abilities to do everything decently, we make him a team player and coordinator. You will gain your allies' love and adoration, alongside your enemies' fear and hatred.
Play Chubby if you:
- enjoy being a cornerstone of your team
- love to get attention
- are a masochist and like taking pain
- being that one hero the enemy team will learn to deeply hate
Need more reason? I suggest you watch synapris' tribute to Chubby; though outdated, that's just how beastly you can be. In fact, go keep it playing in the background while reading this guide, for maximum effect.
Fair warning though: by choosing Alchemist, you are picking a hero who has a mediocre performance alone, but works brilliantly in teams. Therefore before even considering the foes you will face, make sure your team is of a decent standard before considering Chubby. In particular, the ability to judge one's safety within the game is important. You don't want teammates who recklessly rush in after a Shake only to get torn apart, no?
2: Overview
At a glance:
Pros:
- Incredible babysitting and lane-control
- Great farming, only hero with a gold-gain booster
- Powerful team coordinator, in ganks and teambattles alike
- Versatile, can be built accordingly to fit gameflow
- Natural tank; has a high level of both threat and survivability
Cons:
- Sub-par stat-growth... luckily Rage partially makes up for that.
- Low base armor/Strength make for a fragile hero... without Rage that is.
- Very reliant on Rage (if the above two points didn't make that clear)
- Increasingly item-dependant lategame
- Bad choice without decent teammates (thank goodness you play Dota with friends, eh?)
Hero Stats:
Strength: 25 + 1.8Agility: 11 + 1.2Intelligence: 25 + 1.8Let's not mince words; this is probably the worst statpool of any hero (save
but different story). While Chubby starts with a good max hitpoint/manapool thanks to a round 25 in both Str and Int, his base Agi (and consequently his armor) leave something to be desired. This issue, however, pales in comparison to the problem left by his mediocre statgain-per-level. As the game drags on, almost every other heroes' stats will be ahead by leaps and bounds. Thankfully, this issue can be partially addressed with the right strategic and item choices; more on that later.Hero stats aside, the rest of Alch's quirks are fairly average. He does have a great attack animation, reaching its damage point at 0.35 seconds; this makes for easier lasthits/denies, and allows him to cancel the attack animation to great effect. His base armor is very bad however, starting at 0.6 (literally from his Agi alone). Harassment upon you will hurt a lot more than is fair.
For more information regarding Alchemist's statistics, visit his official website!
3: Skills
(Usage of skills covered in Strategy)
Basic:
Acid Spray
Your free Deso! And in a large area too. While it won't directly work against smart mobile opponents, entire creepwaves are yours for the taking with this ability. And with its long duration, it's usable as a powerful deterrent. Anyone stupid enough to stay in this green cloud of death has issues.
Notes:
- The damage component is mixed. This means it will be reduced both by the damaged enemy's armor and spell resistance.
- The damage will differ according to your enemies' armor. Armor bonuses will decrease the damage taken. Similarly, armor reduction increases damage taken (which comes packaged with the skill!)
- Against heroes and units with Resistant Skin-based abilities, the damage is further reduced by spell resistance. And in inverse, the damage can be boosted by a select few abilities which lower spell resistance.
- The DoT will still cut through magic immunity- very useful against Golem creeps and BKB-ed heroes.
Unstable Concoction
Also known as 'shake', 'wank' and 'OMFG IMBA', this spell is pretty much the reason Chubby gets picked in the first place; a low manacost, spammable, targetable, damaging disable. Version 6.65 saw this skill through with a remake, giving Alch even more flexibility with using Shake.
The new skill gives you a Hot Potato. Toss it to your foes at the latest moment possible, and they have a bombshell in their hands.
Notes:
- The damage dealt is physical, which means armor reduction will increase it. This has great potential for higher damage alongside Acid Spray, or other such abilities.
- The numbers above Alchemist's model show how long the potion has been Shaked for. These are visible to allies and enemies alike.
- As the projectile is triggered, it cannot be dodged by Blink-type abilities (much like Sven's Storm Bolt). Invisibility will avoid the projectile unless the unit is revealed in time.
- The projectile has its own small sightrange (400); useful against juke-happy foes.
- The Shake will backfire upon Alch if not thrown after both preparation and buffer time is up (about 1 extra second). He will suffer the same damage and stun as a fully-prepared Shake of whatever skill level it was at.
- The concoction can explode midair if thrown, but the buffer timer expires. In this case, the coding will attempt to target any enemy unit in near-melee range (does NOT have to be a hero) and unleash Shake upon it.
Goblin's Greed
Nerfed to oblivion since Chubby's introduction, Greed nevertheless still holds a place in his skillset. Abuse the fact that Alch is the only hero with a built-in income booster. Gold farmers dream of this very skill; a skill which allows you to get more out of last-hitting than any other hero. Not health, not mana, not stats, but cold filthy gold.
Notes:
- On top of the stated bonus per skill level, you gain 2 additional gold for each enemy unit within the past 18 seconds.
- This bonus is independent for each creep killed; the 2 bonus gold will be removed 18 seconds after the creep's death, not 18 seconds after the last unit killed.
- Images and illusions do keep Greed, but they have their own creep-kill counter.
Ultimate:
Chemical Rage
Your berserk button, and a potent one at that. Need a fountain trip? Nope, just Rage and watch your HP and mana come rushing back. Sad cause Chubby's Agility sucks? Rage and see your base attackspeed shoot down, and your little ogre friend start running like Hermes. Whenever the purple ogre comes out, it's always good news for you and the team.
Notes:
- This is one of the few skills ingame which reduce your base attack time (BAT). As such, percentage-based bonuses (and penalties) to your attack speed have a greater effect.
- Rage also increases your base movement speed; bonuses affect you to a larger extent. Use your mobility to your advantage!
- Of lesser note, Rage's health and mana regeneration are added to your base values as well. As such, percentage-based bonuses to regen are greatly multiplied. However as there are no such bonuses to health (Heart's HP-regen 'aura' is based off your max HP, not your base regen), you are limited to using this tactic for mana.
- Unlike other transformation skills, Rage will persist in images/illusions created of you even if not Shift-queued. This makes for Manta being a good luxury item for Alch (see below), and can also prove a boon when having illusion-creating allies (or otherwise if the enemy can make an image of you).
- Since the bonuses above are directly added to your base values, images will not lose the other Rage benefits when created.
-There is a 0.35 second transformation time into your Raged form. Useful when you want to stundodge using the morphing skill-bug (see later for more details)!
4: Builds
a: Skills
What to Teach For Happier Alchs:
1. Unstable Concoction (Shake)
2. Acid Spray
3. Shake
4. Acid
5. Shake
6. Chemical Rage
7. Shake
8. Acid
9. Acid
10. Goblin's Greed
11. Rage
12. Attribute Bonus (Stats) / Greed
13-15. Stats/Greed
16. Rage
17-25. Stats/Greed
- Shake should always maxed first. It's what makes Chubby good outside of Rage as a great utility skill.
- Acid is taken alongside this. During midgame, the effects (both the DoT and armor reduction) are at peak effectiveness. It also ensures you can defend a creep-push with ease.
-One level of Greed is taken after Shake/Acid are maxed at level 10. This allows a succession of lasthits or fast-track jungling to give a sizable gold boost.
-Rage is taken anytime available, for obvious reasons.
-The remainder of Greed's levels are optional, as taking stats will help shore up your greatest weakness. And at this time, pushes are so huge you can easily reach the Greed bonus gold cap. Personally, I would take 5 stat-levels before putting 1 more point in Greed (+100% effectiveness) and then return to max-out stats.
b: Items
Starting:
Alch starts off with various choices on what to take to his lane. This will mostly depend on your team's structure; if you're playing babysitter to someone else (as you should be IMO), then a Basilus should be your first purchase. Supportive Chubbies should get either a Magic Wand's components or buy a courier off the bat. If for some reason you are going solo, bits of Bracers will maximise your lifespan in-lane.
Babysitter's Basilus:
Basilus offers all Chubby needs earlygame: a slight damage boost, badly needed armor and a source of light mana regen to continually use Shake. If you're taking a dual-lane (as you should), your teammate will adore you for the auras as well!
Later on, you may consider breaking apart your Basilus so as to use the Sobi Mask for an Urn (see core item build later).
Self-Sturdiness:
To boost your already good starting stats even higher, grab the classic Bracer set-up of 2 gauntlets and a circlet. This will increase your already sizable hitpoints to very safe levels, and boost your manapool enough to sparingly use Shake until level 6. Best in a solo lane, if you really are shoehorned into one.
Stick Magicry:
A Magic Stick can also work wonders. You sacrifice some personal stats for the Energy Charge skill, which is definitely more useful earlygame; early attempts to fight back against your Shake will be mostly nukes or disables, so if you can survive them (easy thanks to your great starting HP), a buildup of charges can be very tide-turning indeed. In this kit you also take along the 3 GG branches needed to later turn it into Magic Wand, which can replace a Bracer's space and more than make up for a minor loss of Strength.
PETA will sue:
or Your earlygame is quite good thanks to Alch's good base stats and Shake's lane-staying power, so if your team requires a Courier it may be your first purchase as well. Here I take along a Ring of Protection to help reduce harassment and build into a Basilus later, but if you wish you may want to buy a Flying Courier straight away. In either case couriers have a slight personal risk; not doing well in-lane because you lack the benefits of other items might gimp your earlygame. However controlling a lane and farming quickly can get you those missing bonuses via Courier, thus granting you those crucial items just that bit faster.
Consumables:
or I've never found the need to use Clarities, ever. Your Shake is very manacost-efficient, and if used sparingly will not demolish your manapool. Likewise, you won't be spamming Acid.
Health-wise it's a tossup between Tangos and Salves, but personally I prefer Tangos just for the ability of staying close to the action. Especially important if your lanemate's in a messy situation!
Optional: SOMEONE WILL GET THE AXE:
I have bad experiences with Quelling Blade. When it first came out, I loved it so much that I bought it for every single melee hero I played, including our lovable Chubby. Then when it was pointed out all it really did was increase the last-hit error margin, I tried to wean off it.
Needless to say, this was not fun.
But if you need it, get it. Alch's attack damage will love you for it, but midgame Acid and having good last-hitting skills shake their head in disapproval.
Core:
Heart of Chubby:
Ogre-Slave Shoes:
OR Can of Whoopass:
Optional Boosters:
Contrary to popular belief/misconception, Alch does not need too many items if used optimally. Armlet of Mordiggan and mid-tier footwear are easily affordable by midgame, even if you allowed your lanemate free farm over the enemy creepwaves. These aim to emphasize Chubby's sizable DPS ability midgame, thanks to Acid and Shake being at top potential and Rage a quite scary improvement to his damaging carry-capability.
For those who doubt the power, take a look at the Alch in this screenshot. Minimally equipped, and yet his DPS and tankiness is off the charts for midgame.
Chubby is a natural Armlet user. He greatly benefits from its basic bonuses (especially the 5 armor) and Rage helps negate the degen caused by Unholy Strength. This item is what will make you a great midgame DPSer, and mark you as a threat; very important for later if/when carries start coming to play. It is essential you complete your Armlet as the first primary item, as your still acceptable stat-levels at midgame will allow you a tremendous advantage over others in both survivability and DPS. Late-game Armlet will of course be outclassed by your higher tier items, but will still be a great steroid to use.
For those control freaks who know Alch's limits well, Phase Boots are for you. Since the 6.63 era, all players have had to deal with reduced survivability for every hero. Seeing as Chubby's lifespan is better than most, the Phase ability should nearly always taken to shore up his mobility, allowing Alch to chase and flee at great ease. The high bonus to attack damage is also helpful and helps compensate for Treads' (still) better DPS.
Alternatively, Power Treads suit those players who prefer a straight-out boost for Alch. The attribute bonus on such a Strength-deficient and dependant hero is invaluable, and can even be switched to Agilty or Intelligence for whatever situation needed! The attack speed is also desirable, as my builds get little such bonuses until lategame.
Introduced in 6.65, the Urn of Shadows provides solid bonuses that every Alch should take advantage of. The Strength bonus allows you to substitute this for a Bracer, and the mana regen more than covers Shake usage. The active ability is the main deal; as a strong disabler/ganker, Chubby will always be there for a kill, thus gaining charges. In turn, this can be used towards a painfully effective DoT, or a quick pick-me-up while waiting for Rage to CD.
If you're playing against gank-happy heroes who love to shut you all down, cheap boosts like Bracers are a good way to keep up. As the Alchemist you can easily farm the sum back later, so it's worth keeping these in mind as fallback items.
Post-Core
What you get now is highly dependant upon what your team lacks; Chubby is one of the few heroes who benefits from virtually any item. In this guide, I prioritize remaining a threat to the enemy by buying items that focuses attention on you.
Here are some suggestions of item builds to fit the role you need to play:
DPS/Carry
Start with:
OR OR Followed by:
OR Optional Supplement:
In order to play Chubby as an effective carry/tank hybrid, you must maintain the high threat level required to keep the enemy team focusing upon you in Rage. Therefore our major DPS booster will be one with a powerful and obvious secondary effect; Radiance for the DoT around yourself, Mjolnir for the Chain Lightning of rape and Deso for the physical damage amplification. Since your EHP remains naturally high until lategame, I would recommend aiming for Rad; if there is a better carrier in your team, go for Mjol or Deso.
The common tank-type item, nothing draws attention like an ogre giving off sparklies. Not only does Radiance boost your own damage by a sizable amount, but your threat level remains high thanks to the strong DPS dealt over time to your foes. Its cost is also easier for you to farm than most anyone else (thanks to Acid+Greed), and once you do farming becomes ridiculously easy with both Acid and the shinies!
With 6.63's turning of Mjolnir's +Agi into +attackspeed, Thor's hammer just got a whole lot better for Alch. The insane DPS boosts, combined with Rage's reduction of BAT make for the Chain Lightning orb proccing way too often than fair. And as icing on the cake, Static Charge means you can draw off attention on yourself or your teammates at will.
Purple power! Desolator increases personal DPS tenfold, making your attacks count for something in battles. On top of your Acid, you can greatly boost your Shake's damage as well. In addition, the Corruption ability is invaluable for further conducting the team into aiming for a single target; all aim target pl0x.
We next aim for an item which will help extend your lifespan in combat, but also raises your DPS even further. Here I consider the choice between Skadi and Assault Cuirass. Skadi is by far the superior choice in my opinion; the stat bonuses are invaluable on Chubby with his piss-poor gain, and the cost is not much higher than Assault. If however your team lacks a good Cuirass carrier, its powerful auras will help your team as a whole within group clashes. Get whichever one fits the situation better.
Nearly the most expensive item available to buy in Dota, and for good reason; its bonuses are phenomenal. This covers just about all of Chubby's weaknesses, granting him the stats he lacks, a thick HP value in or out of Rage, and a Frost attack that leaves most opponents running in vain. If you manage to farm this, there is no need for you to play passive tanker any longer; if you're ignored, you can rape anyone's face into the ground.
While Assault Cuirass falls into the category of 'pure-tank' items (see below), it still has the desired effect of drawing attention to you, and at the same time making you much more fearsome. The incredible boost to attackspeed, combined with your low BAT from Rage helps your attacks' DPS surpass all but the hardest and most fed carries. At the same time your armor auras (aka Circle of Power aura) will have your opponents panicking and your allies loving.
Optional:
Alchemist is the only hero whose transformation persists through Mirror Image, at least without shift-queuing. As such Manta fits quite well in his build, giving a sizable boost to all stats while allowing 3 fat ogres to wreak havoc at once. The extra bonus to movement speed is invaluable, thanks to it being percentage-based and thus having an even better effect when in Rage. The confusion element is also a great boon in winning battles!
However to fully utilise its power, your images must be strengthened with stats bonuses and orb effects. Thus this is left as a finishing touch to your carry build; getting this too early has little effect, but later on proves a deathblow to your enemies!
Utility/Support
Start with:
Followed by:
Crowning Touch:
Optional:
This build makes use of Chubby's ability to use spells more freely than others, thanks to Rage's massive regeneration. While giving up your battle skills, a good supportive Alch can prove a great damper to the enemy just as well, provided with a coordinated team!
Bear in mind while Khadgar's Pipe is optional, the item itself is most useful during midgame where a stray AoE spell can prove devastating to the unprepared team! So if you wish to get a Pipe, you should do so sometime around your acquiring a Necronomicon before its benefits are less effective.
Cheap and effective, Mekanism is a cost-efficiently-awesome item for Chubby. A well placed heal can turn the tides of a skirmish, allowing those nearly dead to take those last fleeting blows and finish off your foes. The personal boosts to stats and armor are also appreciated, though fairly minor.
For the micro-skilled, Necrominions are a great addition to Alchie's arsenal. He benefits nicely from +Str/Int, and the minions themselves help make up for Shake's self-disability. Though you will lack the survivability to stay alive that a more bruiser-type build would have, your summons ensure you can still provide a hefty beating even while dead!
Quickly purchase the upgraded versions of the Necronomicon; its boost to summon power are huge, especially at level 3 granting a free Sentry in battles!
Once you can afford it, getting a Guinsoo's ensures absolute hatred for you from the enemy. A Hex-on-demand is gamebreaking, allowing your teammates to beat down upon the poor sucker while you Shake the poor victim to seal their fate (covered later in tactics). With this combo, the other team should remain 1 player down at all times.
A mass-Barrier is great for softening the first wave of enemy nukes, and thanks to Rage the manacost is a non-issue. The bonuses given to Chubby are also worthwhile, granting him great survivability against spells and HP regen to continue on longer pushes.
Others/Situational
Since you can now prepare a Shake prior to engaging, Dagger has become a powerful option for Alchs wanting insane initiation power. Bear in mind, however, that as he only packs 1 single-target stun, that its usage will mostly be regulated to ganks. Still, a highly useful item and deadly when gotten early.
While an almost-purely tanking item, I normally don't get Blademail in-game. However if you're facing a team of people who hit and fall hard (eg. carries and nukers), then Blademail must just be the ticket to victory. At later stages it's also useful to force the enemy to make an impossible choice: try to take down the ogre and get hurt, or to try and get his team and get hurt anyway.
BTW Rupture is not 'an impossible choice' at all. Just sayin'.
If you got Basilus at the start, Vladmir's is the logical upgrade. The largest benefit of getting this is a non-orb lifesteal, very important when considering how much better others are on Chubby. The other bonuses are fairly average at midgame; mana-regen is quite useless post-level 6 as you have Rage, armor is not too important yet and the bonus to attack damage is not noticable yet.
As such, getting this is fairly situational. If you have the extra cash feel free. Otherwise save it for later after other items.
Not a horrible choice, but SnY's just not worth its cost. Even though it comes in smallish, easy to farm bits, the combined effects are mediocre and usually done better by other items. You'll get greater damage from Armlet, survivability and attackspeed from Assault, slowing attack from Skadi... The only redeeming quality is the movespeed, but in Rage you'll be faster than most other heroes anyway.
Still, the overall cheapness of this item makes it a potential "comeback" item after a series of trumps by the enemy team. The advantages may be enough for your team to regain the advantage, and turn a loss into a win! In any case, judge the game first before starting this build.
and in turn HotD and Satanic might work, though I haven't personally given them a go yet. A Dominated creep makes ganking ridiculously easy with decent micro, and opens up the tactic of stacking creepcamps for massive income bursts. Unholy Rage is also very powerful, making Chubby nigh-unkillable in critical periods of time.
However, I find the passive bonuses given to be lacking, especially for their cost. Lifesteal is not something that will get you focused; in fact it may discourage the enemy team from targeting you in battle! The orb not stacking with a Deso is a major loss as well. Armlet's Unholy Strength does nearly everything Satanic gives passively (losing 14 damage in exchange for +15% attack speed and 3 HP regen), and for about a third of the price!
Again, getting this line of items depends on your playstyle; you will need other sources of damage (such as Rad) to pull this off well.
On one hand, Chubby makes astounding use of Battle Fury's splash damage; this and Acid tear down entire waves in seconds. However it comes at the heavy price of having to buy Perseverance, entirely useless to Alch (see my argument below). The +damage may be cost-efficient, but other items will draw more attention to you, the tanker, than this. In particular, Radiance will do the same job for farming, but is much more useful in team battles. If at some point you have enough gold to buy the entire item in one sweep, feel free to try it out. Otherwise stay away from B-Fury; there are items with much better buildups for Chubby.
Unrecommended
Might seem alright, but I find MoM to be too much of a risk on Alch's part. While the Berserk acts as a very powerful DPS-booster, you won't be able to take the extra damage too well thanks to low armor and being reliant on Rage/Armlet. And again, lifesteal as an orb pales in comparison to a Skadi or Deso effect.
I don't care if it's thematic, Midas sucks badly of now. If you wanna be held to popping by the jungle every 1.5 minutes just to payback its cost, be my guest. Frankly a huge waste of an item slot.
and in turn Please please please never try this line of items. For one, Chubby doesn't need Perseverance's regen at all, thanks to Rage. The items it can be combined into also hold little value for the Alchemist. You're not going to get lasthits on heroes, and cooldown management will mean your skills will always be available when needed. And while the spellblock is very useful, the mediocre bonuses gotten from Linken's do not justify its cost. The only exception to this is Battle Fury (see above) and even then it's not exactly a top-tier item for Alch.
To be honest, 'tanking' in Dota is not fully understood by most players. Most important thing to remember is that people can choose who they want to hit (unless you're Axe, but different story). As such, being too hard to kill actually detracts from your role in the team as the lovable punchbag. Therefore I do not recommend getting these items, as the enemy might just give up and start beating down upon your friends instead. There are several suggestions above that will grant you that oh-so-wanted extra EHP, but will help rather than hinder your job.
While DPS items synergise well with Alch's Rage decreasing his BAT, it is important to consider his position in the game. IMO, the ideal way to play Chubby is to draw attention by being a general jerkass and protecting your team like a vicious mother hen/bear. Other heroes are much better suited to the pure DPS role, including classic carries like Troll and Spectre. Know your place, and stick to it. Again, the suggestions above are items that better compliment your DPS and your tanking abilities.
5: Strategy
a: Laning/Earlygame
Initial Choices
Face it, you're not a hero that needs quick leveling to succeed, and you can barely hold a lane by yourself. However, Alchemist's Shake is a godsend in laning, allowing you to disable and babysit with ease. It's your choice whether to go with another disabler and wreak absolute havoc, or a carry-type and be their guardian godmother. (examples of lane combos later!)
With you as a buddy, you're not limited to the 'safe' lane (Sent bot/Scourge top) and quite capable of taking on the 'long' one. As with any hero, make sure to watch out for any missing enemies that could be coming in to tear you and your mate a new one.
In-lane
In these first stages, you'll be aggressively trying to gain lane control. Thanks to a small manacost you're capable of using Shake whenever you want/need, so feel free to open up festivities and greet your rivals with a stun to the face. Unless your lanemate has his own disable, forewarn them that you aren't going for the kill- yet.
After this, remain aggressive in your lane; make your opponents fear the angry red ogre. As Shake now packs a huge punch early on, use its power constantly and liberally.
Greeting your new test dummies with a Shake in the face.
Smarter opponents (aka. those who learn from being blasted in the face more than once) will avoid Alch like the plague during laning. However, you can actually use this to your advantage! Think Axe-crazy; sit right behind their creeps and push them away from your own, denying them EXP and gold. Should anyone be foolhardy enough to advance, start the Shake and chase them away (see the section on Shake usage later for more details).
Charging right past the creepline should do the trick.
And a simple follow-up stun from teammates does wonders. Of course, take your own safety into account!
Be forewarned that Shake is now a double-edged sword (albeit sharper on the enemy's side). If you're disabled/silenced prior to release, you could have a literal bombshell on your hands that will explode in your face. Against such foes, begin Shaking out of sight and only come in range when the charge is nearly finished (again, see later strategies).
Well that was dumb.
Until level 6 continually spam your Shake upon the most fragile hero possible, allowing your lanemate free reign of the creeps while denying as many as you can. Take carenot to be in range for a devastating counterattack; positioning is key. If there comes the guarantee of a kill, put down the Acid and punch 'em out. Otherwise refrain from using Acid Spray; its manacost is too restrictive to use without the regen gained from Rage.
Pay close attention to how your opponents have responded to your harassment; if their normal approach is to run backwards, a forward advance is a pretty good tip-off that a nasty gank awaits you. If there's nothing you can do, do as much damage possible before dying, and take heart in the fact that you've already sown the seeds of hatred that will keep your team in high spirits and the enemy's in disarray.
Off ma creepline!
In summary, for the laning stage:
- be the jackass that screws over the earlygame for your enemies
- secure a safe farming lane for your lanemate
- attempt to claim several kills from their underestimation of your power
- jerk off. a lot.
b: Ganking/Midgame
Letting the kid go... or not
If your lane wasn't too hard to control, you now have a fed friend and underleveled opponents. Thus when you reach level 7, it's time to say goodbye to your spiritual child and begin roaming the map in search of food (examples below). From this point onwards always carry around a TP scroll; it's invaluable for punishing lone farming enemies, defending a tower or turning a gank around.
The effectiveness of this strategy will mostly depend upon your opponent's ability; chances are if they notice you to be gone, that they will call missing and ruin your plans. In that case, feel free to return to lane and continue the babysitting. Do take some farm, at least enough to secure Boots and an Armlet around 15 to 20 minutes in-game.
However, be careful not to rice too much at this stage. Doing so wastes your great ganking potential, and failing to shutdown the more dangerous foes may be a decision to regret later. Farming too much may also cause the enemy gankers to hunt you down, and Chubby lacks the escape abilities required to survive such coordinated attacks. Whenever their guard is down, be obliged to step aside, let those who need the cash get farm-time and hunt for heads.
Assassination, Chubby-style
Assuming your opponents aren't quite so selfless as to warn each other, you should be able to participate in at least a couple of ganks throughout the course of the game. However, the Alchemist has trouble killing alone. As such, make sure your ally/ies in the target lane are ready and prepared to assist/claim the kill.
Thanks to Shake, it's quite easy to seal their fate from out-of-sight. However, map-aware or ward-guarded opponents may start to flee once noticed. To prevent this, make sure to utilise good positions to start Shaking. Begin the gank so that the pathway back to enemy base (aka. the most likely direction for them to run) can be intercepted by you and your allies, making for an easy kill as they get blasted in the face with a potion.
You have a wall of trees to hide you when ganking the sidelanes, use them!
The goblin-shop area is perfect for ambushes.
If you will hit your target and his location is safe, call your allies in and proceed to rape face. Put down an Acid Spray, turn on Rage and Armlet if available, and proceed to wail away at the helpless victim. At this stage, almost no hero can withstand a vicious 300 damage/4 second stun, which may be further amplified by Acid. The Alchemist has great potential in ganking simply because nearly all of his ambushes prove fatal; utilise this advantage whenever possible.
Whether or not your gank succeeds or fails, post-gank techniques remain the same. Your Rage, besides being a powerful attack booster is also a great regeneration skill; sitting through the 25 seconds of Rage at level 1 restores 375 hitpoints and 75 mana, comparable to free basic consumables. As such it serves as a good quicker-picker-upper. If on CD, your Urn also proves handy.
Reversals
You're in luck if a solitary hero with DD/invis/whatever thinks he can kill you easily. Provided the refraining from using Rage too much while creep-farming/jungling (see below), you're capable of turning the tides. Begin the Shake, and juke like mad until ready to fire. The seconds gained from juking guarantees you a good disable, enough to either run or fight back. In either case, Rage's bonuses to movement and regeneration give you a powerful edge.
This technique is also very useful for saving your allies from a gank. TP to the closest tower and begin Shaking the most dangerous character; if they're about to kill your ally, release the Shake and escort your friend home. If nothing, die for your ally as long as you are sure he can survive that way. Deaths for you will not set you back too far, and that's what the best babysitters do- die one day so that the baby can grow up and get back at them another.
As said above, try not to farm too much and draw the attention of enemy assassins (mentioned below). There's not much you can do if ambushed by more than 1 hero at a time, seeing as your only escape mechanism is Shake+Rage+run. Attempt to stun the enemy with the most dangerous disable(s) before trying to escape, turn on the Armlet and run like hell. You did keep that TP scroll, right?
In summary, for the ganking stage:
- obtain your core items
- keep your opponents down with multiple ganks
- protect yourself and your allies
c: Teambattles/Mid-to-lategame
A crossing of paths
Many a time, clashes between teams are spontaneous and deadly. As such be prepared to start running to the site of a large battle at any time. For these unplanned battles, panic is a powerful driver. Thus you will be aiming to cause as much havoc as possible.
Before entering the opponent's sight range, assess the situation. Generally speaking, the earlier in the game-time the clash occurs, the more you will contribute by directly adding your sizable bulk to the battle. Your DPS is very scary midgame with Armlet, Acid and Rage combined, and the enemy team cannot fail to ignore the giant purple monstrosity beating them into a pulp.
A good Shake to the face can prove a fatal show-stopper as well. Choose your target accordingly (more on that below); chances are your enemies will be too busy in battle to notice you shaking away. While shaking, be sure to also inform your allies of what you are doing and get them ready for a beatdown upon your hapless target.
Being the pushers
If your team feels ready, Chubby can greatly assist a push. Your Acid Spray will help kill off creepwaves very fast, invaluable when buying time to demolish a tower/rax. It also helps deter enemy heroes from getting too close (further down the guide for more). If you're sure that the teams will not engage, feel free to Rage, turn on Armlet and wail away at those buildings. Never get pulled into a teamfight without Rage; chances are you'll be the first to die.
My Acid and some attacking makes short work of the incoming wave, allowing the push to succeed.
Being the pushed
The Alchemist is fairly decent at stopping pushes in their tracks. Using a tower as cover, put down some Acid to kill off the enemy creeps. To deter enemy Heroes from getting closer, frighten them by Shaking, though remain aware of your position and safety distances (more on that later). By yourself however, there is little you can do to save your buildings; you're better off calling for help, then using the tactics above to stall for time.
In summary, for teambattles:
1) Commence the Shaking
2) Self-buffs (in following order
---a) Rage
---b) Armlet
---c) Manta
3) Acid the central regions of the clash
4) Run in and wail away!
5) When ready, release your Shake
d: Skill-Specific
Acid Spray
Farm-Spray
Simply place an Acid Spray over a large amount of creeps and whack away. A level 4 Acid will kill a full-health ranged creep in 7-8 seconds by DoT (even shorter if you have Assault) so concentrate more on killing the melee. Turn on Armlet (if you want to and feel safe) to secure your lasthits.
For optimum efficiency, use this tactic when your own friendly creeps are some distance away. If they are around, chances are they will manage to steal quite a few of your potential CS.
If you cannot tank the wave's damage, try Raging in combination: your fast attacks combined with Acid take down creeps very quickly, and it helps regen back the damage taken.
The Do-Not-Cross Cloud
The logical action for enemies to take when they see your Acid Spray is to back away, but this is in itself a powerful tool. Its long duration and relatively short downtime (6 seconds difference between duration and CD) means that you can buy your team 16 seconds of time, plenty enough to do something significant. Thanks to its large AoE, it will cover enough ground to remain effective on at least one poor sap.
If facing a push, protective Acid Sprays can be very useful in stalling time for teammates to arrive. Try placing it at a critical chokepoint, such as the entrance into base or around the tower itself. However as Acid's effects scale down lategame, you may find this alone to not deter anyone. As such call in your teammates for a strategic attack, whether an ambush or rushing assault.
Alternatively while pushing down a tower or barracks, place an Acid Spray around you and your team. The enemy will not want to enter as your teammates are present (you do push with your team right?) and so it grants you free reign to siege. If they do decide to engage, your Acid is a powerful debuff and gives your team an edge in combat.
Here I've used Acid to cut off Huskar from the creepline and push simultaneously.
Kill-Seal Spray
If you manage to immobilise an enemy (through Shake or other disables) and have enough firepower to physically takedown it, go ahead and pop an Acid Spray over your victim. Even if you are unsure go ahead and try if you have the mana to spare; the armor reduction and DoT are very strong over time and can turn simple harassment into a kill.
Unstable Concoction
Rule #1 of Business: Location x3
Always always always keep in mind your location in relation to everyone else while Shaking! Cycle through this list of priorities:
a) What are the enemy heroes doing?
- Have they noticed I'm getting redder?
- Are they retreating or advancing?
- Does any one of them have a disable?
- Are all 5 enemies accounted for? Anyone missing on the minimap?
b) What are my allied heroes doing?
- Are they all present and close to my location?
- Have I told them who is my target?
- Does any one of them have a potential combo to pull off with my Shake? (see below for examples)
c) How's my cover?
- Do I have allied creeps/towers protecting me?
- Are enemy creeps/towers hitting me?
Be sure to continually move around to match these!
Get your Priorities Right
When you've got multiple Shake targets to choose from, you have to make sure the right one gets the potion in the face. This list might help you when picking your poison:
Is the hero I'm gonna Shake:
1) Going to hinder/kill me or my teammate(s) if not disabled (eg. farmed carries, heroes with momentum-stopping abilities)?
2) Weak enough to kill (without me our my teammates dying for it)?
3) Have a powerful channeling spell (eg. Sand King, Enigma, TC etc.)?
4) Have a disable?
These will greatly differ in the flow of battle; you'll develop better judgement skills as you play DotA and Chubby more.
Premature Ejaculation:
Remember that while Shake is best fully charged, you always possess the ability to stop and release how much you've charged. Against foes who just love playing ninja and blinking/windwalking just as you fire, trick them by suddenly releasing your Shake early. If they screw-up, go ahead and punish them (if safe). This is also useful when chasing; it's usually better to sacrifice disable time for team-whacking-pinata time, especially if you feel enemies are incoming and you need to clear someone, fast.
Stealth-Shake
With the spell's remake in 6.65, this ganking tactic just got a lot better.
Simply start your Shake from cover so your target will not notice. Trees and uphill locations are good, but simply staying out of sight will do in a pinch.
Be sure to cut off your target's escape; move in through one point while allies cover the others. Be sure to keep up with your target so you can release the deadly potion; not a problem with Rage/Phase/Manta's bonuses.
Judo-Reverse Shake
Getting chased by a persistant ganker? Juke 'em up a bit and start Shaking, preferably while in allied cover. Either they stay and get stunned (while you run/fight back) or they run off to save their ass. This is most effective early-game when a 300 damage nuke still hurts loads, but can still work later if Chubby's sufficiently equipped.
Here I'm being chased by a SP/Lich combo. Both slows have been thrown out and I'm still alive, but Nova's CD is running down fast...
But with a bomb to Lich's face and reinforcements from ES, I live.
Caught with the Pin out
Smart opponents will disable/silence you just as you're about to release your Shake.Do not let them do this. Chances are your Shake'll backfire on you, which at the very least puts you out of the fight for 4 seconds. At worst, you and your team may get reversed and epically fail the gank/wipe the teamfight.
If you're aiming for anyone with a disable, attempt to stay out of sight until you are ready to release. If the worst comes, chuck your potion regardless of charge-time; anything is better than blowing yourself up.
Kamikaze Blah
It may happen that you were foolish enough to get caught between 2 or more enemies whom you can't outrun. In which case, it may be better to go out with a bang, and suicide using your Shake's backfire. This is difficult since you have to wait about 6 seconds for the explosion to go off. However if you can juke well enough and you wouldn't be better served stunning one of your chasers using said Shake, worth a good attempt.
Goblin's Greed
With this build, you're not going to have a high starting bonus to your gold as you'll prioritise stats. As such, look here for a couple tips when farming post-Greed:
-Be quick about it. 18 seconds is not much time and you gotta be fast in farming! Use the Farm-Spray tactic for best results.
-Let the money come to you. Assuming enemy heroes won't be coming to help a large battalion of their creeps push on, it's always better to wait for more waves to stack. The goldgain becomes far greater and you'll reach the cap in no time!
-I Heart Kobolds+Trolls. As Kobolds jungle-spawns have 5 units from the get-go, you will absolutely love the 30 total bonus gold from them... and that's assuming no extras from other sources, and that's at the first level of Greed! Similarly you can leave the Dark Troll Warlords alive when tackling their camps to maximise goldgain, killing a small Troll first and afterwards killing the skeletons summoned. Again, the more cash the merrier!
Well hello extra gold.
-Creep on creep on creep etc. While not a tactic I've personally tried, it's very viable to use a Dominated/ally-controlled creep to mass-stack a creepcamp several times before actually taking it out. Chubby can handle this thanks to the sheer power Acid+Rage+Armlet provides; with those abilities alone, he can take down about 4 stacks' worth before calling it a day. Just be careful an ally, or even worse an enemy comes by to steal the fruits of your hard work!
Chemical Rage
Control your Anger
While Rage has a relatively short cooldown compared to its duration, you neverwant to be caught without it when facing enemy heroes. Similarly, always keep 50/100/150 mana for Rage. Without Rage, Chubby is of limited usefulness at best, and a piece of yummy meat for your enemies at worst. In general, don't cross the river without Rage ready, and refrain from using it from any other purpose than fighting or the ones below.
Healing, Wolverine-style
Who needs a Bottle or the fountain when you got Rage? You're granted a 15/30/60bonus to your HP regen per second, more than stuff like Ring of Health or even Hood of Defiance for free. This amount of regen, including the bonus HP already given by Rage, allows you to take abnormally strong blows, only to recover the lost health back in seconds. Use and abuse this fact; you're granted 375/750/1500 HP over the 25 seconds of Rage.
Raging Roadrunner
As Rage increases your movement speed, it's a great mobility booster. Use Rage to chase down those last pesky heroes, or run home free. If you have Phase Boots, be sure to use them after Raging; the boost to movement speed gets bigger thanks to it being percentage-based.
Evasive Anger
With all transformation skills, the WC3 engine bugs up and nullifies disables applied during the morphing time. For Alch, simply Rage at the right time; this is easier than most other heroes thanks to having a longer-than-average morphing time of 0.35 seconds. This requires a lot of practice, but if you can pull this off you can dodge any disable save Hex!
Absolutely hilarious example; Shackle bugs and the link stretches out with Chubby. But alas, the fat ogre was not caught.
6: Mates and Hates
(AKA Friends and Foes)
Awesome Allies
Seriously, who doesn't synergise with Chubby? Carries love him for his babysitter mastery and gay disable, nukers love him since he makes their job simpler, disablers love him as he can use that borrowed time to wail away... the list goes on.
Here's a list of specifically deadlier combos:
Slardar and Alch make a strong duo post level 6. Amplify Damage turns your already painful Shake into a grenade, dealing big damage while fatally disabling your victim. In teamfights, your Acid helps boost Crush's power in return. And for mobility, it's hard to run away from both a sprinting snake and a ogre on 'roids.
Ish'Kafel is also one of your best playmates, due to his supporting prowess. Ion Shell is absolutely brilliant on you, basically giving you 60 more DPS in melee range. While this draws a lot of aggro, Chubby can handle the punishment. This can also work in reverse; a good Shake and a Surged/Shelled Dark Seer works wonders. Vacuum and Surge also serve to chase down enemies; few can escape from a hasted ogre with temper issues.
Absolute rape guaranteed with Nevermore as your pal. A properly placed Shake will prove fatal to anyone early-to-midgame, as SF follows it up by shoving triple Shadowrazes down the enemy's throat. Your Acid loves the Dark Lord for reducing more armor, and Voldemort loves Acid for making his painful Necromastery-enhanced attacks hurt even more. Plus, a good Shake means you simply cannot fail to pull off an insta-gib Requiem. Ho yeah.
This duo is shit-scary when played well. A good Shake means any decent PotM could land a far-off arrow, meaning a potential total of 10 seconds of stun-lock rampage! It also ensures a perfect placement for Starfall; 450 damage to the face is imba midgame. And in chases, Leap's roar-buff will greatly speed you up when combined with Rage. Choosing PotM opens up loads of fantastic combos that require only a bit of skill to pull off.
-Here's a example of Alch/PotM teamwork; thanks to Lion being despo for tower monies, he didn't notice Chubby shaking from the sidelines. After release, PotM comes in with a Leap and Starfalls...
-...Alch runs in with an Acid+Armlet, and puts Lion out of his misery. Unstoppable!!
With his myriad of physical-damage dealing spells and supportive abilities, Dazzle and Chubby make a hell of a team. Enemies will be scrambling to run away from the fatal snaring combo of Shake and Poison Touch. Placing an Acid over the victim increases the poison damage, and to a lesser extent damage caused by Shadow Wave. Chubby can truly be unkillable for 5 seconds with Shallow Grave, prolonging his presence in battle. But it's the Shadow Priest's Weave which takes the cake, raising Chubby's naturally low armor values sky-high while making enemies take greater damage from his relentless assault.
With the changes made to Bristleback in 6.63, the duo of ogre and piggy come together as a furious blend of DPS and tanking. Both can take huge amounts of damage, and Bristle in particular can dish out the pain with Chubby's support. A dual-Spray of Quills and Acid is deadly, and Shake provides plenty of time to build up a healthy deposit of Nasal Goo on your victims.
etc...Anyone dependant on landing hard-to-aim spells will love your Shake for setting up their own combos. With these heroes, ask them to wait until after your stun to use their skills.
Evil Enemies
I'm not gonna state the obvious ones like disablers and gankers; any fool knows just how well
, and crew can screw over your game. Here are some heroes specifically anti-Chubby:To this ghoul, you're just a walking dinner. He can block your Shakes with Rage and out-DPSes you at any game stage, even in Acid. Your high HP means nothing in the face of Feast, and if you somehow manage to catch the bastard he might just Infest a friendly and hitch a ride home. Don't consider Chubby if N'aix gets picked; he'll ruin your day.
At first, Rotund'jere will be nothing more than food to you; your basic combo should be more than enough to take him down. However if you don't keep this advantage, he could come back to wreak havoc. Heartstopper Aura negates your ulti's bonus HP regen at best, a large loss seeing as you need it to tank. Death Pulse is powerful when spammed, and helps to save him from assassination-type Shakes. And if you get caught below half your hitpoint total (as will happen a lot in team clashes), kiss your ass goodbye as you get Reaped.
Your friendly neighbourhood Ent-wannabe is also a potent Alchemist counter. Spammage of Living Armor makes Acid just a bunch of pretty green bubbles and helps his allies heal back your Shake's harassment. Nature's Guise and Overgrowth are easily usable to save the victims (and himself) if necessary. What really throws a wrench in the works, however, is that Roofie's Sentries will make your ganking hellish to pull off; running into his own forest gets you attacked by ROLFOWLZ.
The most irritating little bastard ever, you don't wanna play against Puck. He counters Shakes hard with Phase Shift and Waning Rift. You can't chase him either, thanks to Illusory Orb. Your incapability to shut him down will come back to haunt you later, when that bugger comes out and shoves his Imagination, a Guinsoo and Shiva's down your team's throat.
He stands for the Light, but also does part-time magnificent bastard-ery against Alch. Picking up even a single level of Repel means you kiss your lane control and ganking through Shake goodbye, as even a lagger could shield the target as the projectile strolls along its way. And as you're packing (almost) purely physical damage, Guardian Angel is basically the entire enemy team giving you the finger for 5+ seconds. Bastard.
etc...Watch out for heroes with long silences or disables when Shaking (this includes anyone with
or !) as they can force a backfire upon yourself. Exercise caution, and if possible wait for their arsenal to be spent before attempting a Shake.7: Sum-up
The Alchemist is an incredibly misunderstood hero, so it's quite a common sight to see -repicks whenever he gets out. But hopefully you understand Chubby's place in the game better now. He is quite underloved, but badly underestimated- use this to your advantage!
I hope you enjoyed reading this guide! Feel free to give feedback; positive, negative and otherwise!
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