Milk's guide to Fortress Centaur
"Progress for the sake of progress must be discouraged." - Dolores Umbridge, expert on Centaur anatomy
This build focuses on the incredible skill known as RETURN, which is heavily devalued by most players. RETURN is valuable because: it allows you to farm creep waves and stacks very early, leading to a significant gold advantage; heavily deters enemies from ganking you in the early game; and, most importantly, works on enemy towers. We choose to exploit this skill as much as possible and build Centaur around RETURN.
Required knowledge:
- Know how to stack jungle camps
Pros:
- Centaur mythos allows you to roleplay as a viking-like warrior
- Extremely high rate of farm with early maxed return
- Many favorable matchups in the midlane
- Very difficult to gank due to bulky build and return deterrent
- Capable of bulldozing entire bases midgame while the enemy watches, powerless to stop you
- Capable of contributing to team globally while farming due to Stampede (ganks+saves)
- Capable of solo carrying depending on matchups
Cons:
- Sacrifices significant early game kill potential due to maxed return (still possible to get kills with rotations)
- Requires a MIDLANE setup. Safe lane is suboptimal but feasible, offlane this build is heavily discouraged
- Hero cannot be picked in certain matchups
- PvE-oriented; interaction with enemy players is much less than other builds
- You have shit for cosmetics
- Guaranteed to piss off your team, the enemy team, or both
- Easier on radiant than dire due to camp proximity
Don't pick Centaur mid when you have to lane against:
Tinker, Storm Spirit, Templar Assassin, Razor
Play cautiously if laning against:
Death Prophet, Invoker, Timber, Ursa, OD, Viper, Sand King*
Matchups not listed above generally lean towards FAVORABLE for Centaur. Please ask if you have questions about specific matchups.
*Sand King is only a threat in-lane due to caustic
Skill build:
[1] Stomp/Return
[2] Return/Stomp
[3] Return
[4] Double Edge
[5] Return
[6] Ulti
[7] Return
[8-10] Double Edge
Item build and general game plan:
Sub-0: Stout, quelling blade, tango, branch x2
Why: this is your most vulnerable state -- get the quelling blade to secure enough early farm for the vanguard
0-8m: Ring of health->[Hood || Vanguard], boots
Why: if you're laning against a hero or enemy roamers with heavy magic damage, consider going a hood before vanguard first. you'll be able to catchup in farm relatively quickly as hood reduces damage you do to yourself with double edge, so you can double edge camps. if magic damage isn't too high, preference leans towards vanguard
10-20m: Vanguard (iff not already purchased), Radiance
Why and how: you should be level 7 with maxed return by now. do your best to stack a jungle camp every minute if possible. with vguard, aggro enemy waves by attack-targeting enemies and push the wave out as much as possible so you can farm your stacks. If the enemy leaves the lane, tank and kill the tower. Use double to farm if you purchased hood first.
If you're having a hard time early game, consider leaving your lane completely. Have a teammate take the lane while you farm the jungle full-time. Always watch the map to see if you can help ganks or save teammates with your Stampede.
Radiance increases your farm threshold dramatically and makes you even more of a deterrent to attack. You can safely farm enemy jungles and take their creepwaves+towers if they don't outnumber you severely.
20m+: Heart
Why: once heart is obtained, you have achieved fortress-status. Bulldoze enemy towers with your team. You're so bulky that initiating on you leads to a free counter-initiation, but not dealing with you leads to dead towers. You push so fast that if two or more of the enemy team is wiped at their own rax, they are at extreme danger of also losing their T4s to return.
Luxury: Heart#2, Manta, Octarine, Crimson Guard, Mjolner, Butterfly
Choose as needed
~
Spread the Centaur DNA. Become a better thorns boss mob than Spectre. And have fun!!
I will try this tonight.
