General DiscussionHow to play Storm ?

im not amazing at storm either, judging by my winrate, although from what i've seen from better players, generally you want to go orchid first unless you're playing against really bad players. if you go bloodstone first, you can get punished by good players because you lack the extra damage that orchid (+treads) provides compared to bloodstone, and you won't snowball.

even though soul/ring got buffed, you don't always have to upgrade your soul ring on storm. even prior to the bloodstone recipe change, soul ring was still really good on storm.

if you're doing well after your orchid then you can get bloodstone if it's in a timely manner, but generally you'll be wanting a bkb, or a sheepstick could be more useful instead. even if you don't get as much mana regen, it can let you continue snowballing by extending the period where you can keep solo killing people, because now you have more disables than you did earlier (instead of only pull + orchid)

think about that in the last few games. did you lose fights because you lacked the damage and extra disable that sheep would have provided? or did you lose fights because you didn't have a bkb? which would have allowed you to play really aggressive, or not get bursted down.

quickcast doesn't really matter. i use it but i use quickcast on most heroes anyway. i don't think it really makes a difference on storm.

Bloodstone is a very good second item because it makes you harder to kill and by the time you buy it you will probably already be snowballing so getting charges on it will be pretty easy.

Ziiiiip then Zap then Zip then Zaaaaaaaaaaap and make a kill

dude my storm so legit fyi

http://www.dotabuff.com/matches/925118563

Just keep playing ^^ if you know dota you know storm. The biggest enemy you have is playing cocky or reckless(it WILL happen) because of your mobility(overestimating). mana management advice - walk as much as possible when initiating(meaning as long as u can secure the kill), be patient and dont be lazy by zipping using 50% mana. My personal preference with first core item - 1.orchid 2.bkb 3. bloodstone

If playing against silence/stuns zip before your in danger- getting stunlocked is the main reason a storm dies - that or he has no mana
ORCHID TIMING its ok to farm on storm and he moves well to lategame- getting an early orchid is more important than shutting down any hero, if lanes aren't safe farm the jungle
a manaless storm is a dead storm

The thing about storm spirit is that his skill and item builds differ in a few ways from game to game.

Laning:

Firstly, contrary to my original belief, storm spirit should almost always only be played mid. Early farm and being able to deny is very important because he depends completely on snowballing, for that reason he also needs to be able to stay in lane at all times. Since the 6.82 double rune patch, bottle is almost always an item to rush first. If you're mid against a hero with low damage that you can out-lasthit comfortably, simply go for tangoes and three branches to later turn into a magic wand. (Heroes like zeus, lina, sniper, pudge, nyx, mirana). If you're mid against a hero that has equivalent damage try to start with a null talisman and ask for 2 tangoes (due to the cooldown, you'll have your bottle before you could even use a third shared tango), this will give you much more damage to work with against heroes such as puck, tinker, QOP, OD, TA, invoker(most are running exort right now).
Note: In addition, if you're against a spell spamming hero such as OD or Zeus, get a magic stick instead of completing your null or on top of your 3 branches and tangoes. Also, an exception is made to shadow fiend simply because having an early damage advantage is PARAMOUNT.
Level 1 you should ALWAYS get static remnant and use it before level 2 only in three conditions:
Condition 1- You can remnant for 2 or more last hits that you would otherwise not have all gotten.
Condition 2- You can remnant for 1 or more last hits which allows you to right click for a deny at the same time.
Condition 3- You can remnant while one of your own creeps is low on health if against a melee hero that is approaching to grab the last hit, so they'll take a massive Level 1 nuke to get any last hit. If the enemy creeps are not able to be last hitted, take the opportunity to also right-click the opponent.
Once you're level 2 get overcharge with your second skill point and start using remnants to consistently get all the last hits preventing any denied gold or XP. With your overcharge attack either hit the enemy hero or guarantee yourself another creep. An important note if for some reason you're chasing an opponent, if you use remnant WHILE an auto attack is in midair, it will become overcharged applying the slow for you to catch up. If you're BEING chased, spam remnant to either zone them away or harm them enough to go for a turn around (basically everytime I go against pudge haha). You should get your bottle around the 2 minute mark and push out the wave to grab a rune by placing a remnant in the enemy wave between the ranged and melee creeps.
Note: If this is too unsafe, draw creep aggro by right-clicking the enemy hero, then walk back making all the enemy creeps group together closer to your side of the hill to make a remnant spam much safer (usually isn't needed if enemy supports are on the map though).

Skill Builds:

At Level 3 the skill build can be built into three different branches- (Note: Get Ultimate ASAP)
Farmer- Maxing out Q makes wave clearing really easy as well as jungling, this build will usually prioritize pure neutral damage maxing Q and E followed THEN by vortex. I have only used this a handful of times when other lanes are getting obliterated and you cannot gank (which is rare as storm). This will also help push down the mid tower faster or if you're completely zoned out of lane. Again this should RARELY be used.
Laner- The laning Storm maxes out the E making harassing the opponent out of lane extremely easy. This should usually only be used against tanky mid heroes such as pudge, magnus, or dragon knight. Do not use this if your supports are ganking. This build will guarantee you win your lane. After maxing E, max vortex, and finally remnant.
Killing/Ganking- This is the way I usually play storm getting 3 points into vortex (just enough to reliably pull someone into a remnant) then maxing E, then capping off vortex before finally leveling remnant. The reason to get the last point in vortex is the addition +0.5 second lockdown which equates to approximately two additional auto attacks. Extra lockdown is great for counterganks too.

Combos:

Your combo from here if the opponent has no stuns (assuming Killing build):
Ball Behind Them>Hit>Remnant(to zone them from retreat)>Hit>Vortex>Hit>Remnant>Hit for a total of 300 magic damage post 25% reduction excluding the underrated Ultimate damage.
Your combo from here if the opponent has stuns (assuming Killing build):
Ball Behind>Hit>Ball In front (to dodge projectile stun)>Hit>Vortex>Hit>Remnant>Hit for a total of 195 magic damage post 25% reduction excluding the underrated Ultimate damage.

Item Builds:

SO after getting your bottle and magic wand if you went for the triple branch build, get brown boots and a TP scroll. As soon as you're level 6 you should ALWAYS have a TP!! The only times you should not have a tp, is if you're in fountain buying one, if you have boots of travel, or if you're going for an all in play. For that reason, I tend to just carry 2 scrolls at all times. You are the MASTER counter-ganker. If any enemy dives your supports, YOU are the one that can TP, save them, and turn the situation. Never initiate a gank by walking to another lane unless you've gotten the appropriate rune (a regen, or invis, MAYBE a haste). Stay mid until you're Level 6 unless you have a guaranteed kill in another lane that would require your help and will take little time or result in a tower push.
From here, there are two first items to rush: Bloodstone, or orchid.

1st Item:
Orchid Build- When going for an orchid, first upgrade your boots to power treads. You should go for orchid if enemy has an stunning heroes or heroes that would prevent you from snowballing (aka blinks, stuns, silences, teleports, leaps)

Bloodstone Build- Since the patch, Bloodstone isn't as viable due to a lack of damage output that was already a concern on Storm Spirit, but if you think you an get away with it and you're ahead, then it's a good item to snowball for INSANE mana regen. Only if they don't have reliable lockdown or escape though. If you go for bloodstone, upgrade your boots to arcane first, then disassemble them to finish your bloodstone later.

You should be going orchid first 80% of all games.

2nd Item
If you've gone Orchid, your next item should be defensive (BKB or Linkens)
If you've gone Bloodstone, your next item should be lockdown (Sheepstick or Orchid)

Most games BKB is better than Linkens, but if their team is light on single target abilities, linkens is nice for the regen and to block spells such as orchid, sheep, laguna blade, ethereal blade, lazer, last word, the occasional doom, dismember, viper strike, ect... Basically, BKB is usually the better option, but if you're ahead, a Linkens can help snowball further.

If you're snowballing well with bloodstone and the enemy lacks any ONE right-click carries, like PA or Void or Antimage, orchid is the better bet due to the damage amplification and the provided attack speed as well as the lower cost and most importantly, mana regen.

If they DO have that one target you NEED to lockdown in fights, GET A SHEEPSTICK.

3rd Item
-BKB/Linkens (If not already gotten)
-Shivas (If their team has a lot of right-click heroes the attack speed debuff is MASSIVE)
-MKB (If you're carrying the team against an agility carry to counter butterfly)
At this point, it's too late to go back for a bloodstone if you intend to make good use of charges.

Last notes about Storm Spirit:
-Remember remnant gives flying vision!!!! USE THIS! It can give high ground vision to deward, it can give vision of Roshan from on top of the pit, it can make the enemy tree juking IMPOSSIBLE!! Too many storm players forget how useful this is. Also they detonate on invisible targets, so you can occasionaly drop some in the midgame if you feel like there is a nerby bounty hunter or riki or something of the sorts.
-People will counter pick you! You're going to have to learn to deal with it, because if you want to mid, you're going to have to pick relatively early, and as soon as you pick storm expect the whole doom silencer combo. WORK AROUND IT!

That's all I can think of on the spot...
Oh and, unless it's first blood or you're killing the enemy carry late game, dying is NOT worth a kill on the enemy supports. Make sure you have mana to escape. A storm without mana DIES, which is why regen is so badass on him.

helpful thrash players are actually cancer :X

if u are against a skywrath get bkb as first item most likely, or against mass stun

if u are having a good time, generally game is passive and so on get orchid, should have by 15-18 minutes

most storm players i see forget that the hero needs farm to be effective too. dont just start running around the map when you're level 6, you should only really help sidelanes if theres a fight that you can tp to or if you get a rune. farm the jungle, storm can farm jungle extremely fast to help with orchid timing.

the guy who made a wall of text is wrong on one of the first and only things i read, storm is an amazing jungler. you actually keep up very well with ur mid/offlane, and in current patch with 2 runes you can get bottle and never run out of mana. so storm is actually an amazing jungler and stuff.

no clue why bloodstone isnt viable rofl bloodstone is a top item on storm because of how many charges he racks up, the amazing regen/hp pool/int pool (damage was a concern on storm? what the fuck? three keys to storm are manapool, hp, utility, u want to have enough of the first two while maximizing the third (thats the priority list). stone gives u insane manapool, hp meaning you can initiate from crazy range, never run out of amna (Which is how he does damage, not getting daedalus or some stupid shit) and allows you to basically not fear getting blown to shreds when u jump in

also stone is REALLY good on the new storm because of how good soul ring was to begin with on storm. now its basically core on storm

okay i just looked at the wall of text guy and he goes daedalus on storm so its probably a good idea to just ignore anything he says regarding items as hes clueless

Feel free to completely disregard my wall of text if you think the advice is bad, this is just coming from my personal experience. I agree that storm is effective at jungling, but I don't think that's where he should primarily be. I think he should be played mid and jungle when the creeps are pushed forward or when you're going back to base. Spending the whole early game in the jungle is a waste of his time.
Trust me I ADORE bloodstone, and wish it were the right option every game. It just honestly isn't though. Preventing yourself from being locked down is so important and making sure they cant escape helps you snowball. I do really think that the -10 damage per auto attack really hurts and isn't worth the little gold cost reduction. That isn't to say it's a bad item now, just not as good as it used to be.

Check the times at which I got the daedalus. It isn't to impact the game, it's just a little thing I do for fun to skew the stats. Hence the 100% winrate with daedalus.

Again though feel free to ignore me, I'm not a 5k player, I'm not a professional. However I do absolutely adore the hero, and perform quite well as him.

For those curious, I'm only 4k and even though I know there are many ways in which I can improve, I think I play a decent storm

you play a decent storm yes

there are games where playing mid is not an option (two mid heros) and if the enemy team counterpicks heavily (doom, sky, etc) taking a role where you are less make-or-break is a good way to deal with that. not to mention he farms ridiculously fast in the jungle, really underrated

who cares about 10 damage the soul ring replacement is actually just as good for him, soul ring is such a cost effective item on him. storm is not a typical right click 20 times carry, his damage comes from being able to spam overloads and 10 damage isnt helping with that

http://www.dotabuff.com/matches/868287285

whats up with u building daedalus but whatever

storm is a trashy laner to begin with so spending the early game in the jungle is not necessarily a bad thing

That was a very disappointing game :) indeed

If you jungle as storm, getting vortex isn't as good for jungle clearing, so either you sacrifice efficiency, or valuable skill points. Then again picking an example where I've more or less carried my team with earthshaker to the 50 minute mark isn't the best... Then again that's 50% of my losses as the guy.

i believe jungle build is 3 3 1 into vortex max but u can replace points if its needed at a reasonably low cost

i mean ur not expected to be as impactful as mid but ur still very impactful and scale is there