A Close Examination of Supports: Disruptor

Disruptor: A Thunderous Applause


(image from PCGamer.com)

“The weather is nature's disruptor of human plans and busybodies. Of all the things on earth, nature's disruption is what we know we can depend on, as it is essentially uncontrolled by men.” -Criss Jami


This is the first in a series of close examinations of Support Heroes, how they can be played, and why you should pick them up.


Why would I pick Disruptor, when I can play someone with proper Nuke Damage?

Disruptor, unlike many of the other support heroes, does not have an instagib(nuke) ability in which he can easily kill an enemy in a short period of time like Earthshaker or Lina, nor does he have a hard disables like Tidehunter or Leshrack. On top of that, Disruptor does not seem to scale well into late game(at least at first glance), even with a god-like amount of farm (looking at you Veil of Discord, Ult Scepter, etc.), and he can easily be countered by a Force Staff on a support rather early on.

      So why pick him, when you have so many choices to choose from?

      You would pick him to control how a team fight goes, and you can control when(and where) your team fight goes down. You pick him when you have a grasp of how your team operates, or you are comfortable in communicating what your plan of attack(or defense) will be to the rest of the team. The massive AoE silence is a useful tool to control the fight, and notably one of the few disables that is not washed off from Tidehunter's Kraken Shell.



Gaahhhhh, this hero is awkward, how do I play/level him?

Disruptor will generally be played in the background. A good player will be able to catch people out of position with Glimpse, and help the team initiate, while silencing key players. He wont normally find himself in a position in which he is the focus of the attacks, unless it's some poor sap trying to reach for him through a Kinetic Field.

     Disruptor will have a different skill build depending on the situation he is presented. That being said, there are three basic ways to level him.


Thunder Strike:

3-1-1-1
This method focuses on increasing the damage in lane. This build is primarily for lanes in which you need extra damage to either harras, or help your carry achieve a kill. The only issue is that Thunder Strike takes a very long time to use all 4 blasts. This means you need to find the sweet spot in which you use Thunder Strike. Too early, and your target will have run away; too late, and your target will die miles away from you, denying you that much needed EXP.

This build is found in almost all Pub Games.

Kinetic Field:

1-1-3-1
This method focuses on trapping people and watching them squirm inside the terrifying field. The ridiculously long fence is especially great if you are supporting ranged heroes vs melee heroes. Think how sad Clockwork or Lifestealer is when you trap him in the fence (after his rage has subsided) for 2+ seconds as Drow comfortably shoots him from afar, as they run helplessly into your wall.


Déjà vu:

2-2-1-1 (or 1-2-2-1 if your feeling especially ornery)
This method is great for lanes in which you have the single target nuke advantage, you are at a disadvantage in a full lane brawl, or you are dealing with a solo offlaner with a great escape mechanism. A quick pull in your lane may be enough to bait your victim to wander deep enough into your lane. When they retreat, you will be able to separate a duo/trilane by Glimpsing back one poor sod right into the awaiting arms of your carry. This method is a great way to put people into a compromising situation without putting yourself in that same position. Think Vengeful Spirit's Ultimate, but instead of you saying hello to the entire enemy team, you just silent sit in the background and cast a Kinetic Field on the spot where that glowy blue orb is going to land.



I am getting a lot of kills with Thunder Strike and Static Storm now, what items do I get?

You're doing something wrong, or your carries might need to work on last hitting. Your Static Storm is amazing, but it doesn't take much for your carries to out last-hit your ultimate. Also, Try Thunder Striking a little earlier as well, or on different heroes that need to be softened up.

      That being said, your items are very situational, except for Wards, Town Portal Scrolls, Smokes, Courier, and Arcane Boots.

      Seeing that at level 1, Kinetic Field lasts for 2.5 seconds (that's a long time), you are a great smoke ganker with a sudo-competent team. Disruptor can easily help secure the win in mid with 1 or 2 well placed spells.

      If there is a lot of magic damage on your team, definitely think about getting a Veil of Discord. A level 3 Static Storm does about 787.75 damage on one hero, with a Veil, it does about 984.69, and you should be able to get 3 people on average. With a Thunder Strike hitting all three of them as well, doing an impressive 4454.07 total damage on 3 heroes(before Magic Resist), and separating/silencing them from the rest of the team.

      Otherwise, all the supporting items are applicable here, Mekanism, Force Staff, Ghost Scepter, Pipe of Insight, etc. It relies entirely on your teams composition and your competitors.


Some Usefull Tips

1. Glimpse is great. When you see someone teleporting into a fight, sending them back to the pond is a great laugh. "HAHA, he wasted 135 gold", you will say. Next time a situation like that presents itself, ask yourself, "would a Kinetic Field around his teleportation sigil, followed by a Static Storm be enough for my team to quickly tower dive him without consequences?"

     There is nothing worse when you are pushing a tower and some one on the opposing team decides to solo teleport into that tower to prove how much a man he is, only to escape with 50 health because you decided it would be funny to Glimpse him back to the pond.

2. Glimpse is not immediate. An orb travels from the target hero to his previous location. If for example the target is Teleporting back to base, where he has not really moved for 3 seconds, the glimpse will occur much faster then if he was sprinting away from you, so plan accordingly.

3. Static Storm is a great soft disable, but you don't need a maxed level of Kinetic Field to hold someone in it. Casting Static Storm first, and following it up with a well placed Glimpse can hold someone in the storm long enough for a level 1 Kinetic Field to go up, trapping them in the storm for the full effect.

4. When running away, place the Kinetic Field in front of you and in bottleneck locations. This prevents you from having to turn around to cast it, and will ensure that the wall is up by the time the opposing team reaches it.

5. There is a lot of Claustrophobic people in Dota 2. When people see the field going up, they move out of it, generally speaking. If the field is placed outside of them they generally don't worry about it. Try placing the Kinetic Field around your carries, especially ranged ones having difficulties with melee heroes. The carry can then just back up a tad, and auto attack heroes for up to 4 seconds.

6. Having difficulty landing that Glimpse properly? Did you know Thunder Strike's 3rd blast is about 4 seconds after casting? This means if you cast Glimpse in and around when third strike occurs, your glimpse will send him straight back to where you originally cast it on him.

     This works especially well on heroes with fast movement and hard to gauge positioning, like Phoenix's harras with his Icarus Dive. Casting Thunder Strike when his dive is in the middle of everyone, and then casting Glimpse on him when he is safely positioned with his allies on the third strike will drag him straight into your team.

7. Great pick versus an Wisp(IO). Glimpsing Wisp when he teleports himself and one of his allies means that suddenly the poor sap Wisp had chose to teleport is now by himself with no means of return.


Thanks for reading, I may include a few .GIF files in to help explain some situations and rework some of the segments for clarity purposes :)

Any comments and suggestions are welcomed.