The Heroes in Dota 2 - An Introductory Guide for Alchemist

Introduction

Dota 2 is a game that's full of interesting heroes to choose from. Some of them are easy to pick-up and don't require that much practice to get good with them. On the other hand, there are others that definitely a little bit harder to play and even harder to master.

When you decide that you're finally ready to check out a hero from this caliber, one the best ones that you can go for is Alchemist. This is a unique hero in Dota 2 that can become a one-man-army, depending on how the game turns out to be. 

With that said, let's take a look at everything we need to know about this hero.

Basic information about Alchemist

As we mentioned above, this is one of the most unique heroes in the game. Alchemist is known for his incredible farming capabilities, which allows him to farm at the speed of sound. It is very common to see his hero with all six slots within just 20 minutes of play. He is a melee, strength hero that is played nearly exclusively as a mid laner. Although there have been times where people tried to support him, this wasn't really all that successful and soon it faded away.

Apart from having the best farming tools in the game, Alchemist is also very hardy, which makes him an ideal front liner. He is fast, has a decent amount of armor and HP, which is exactly what every single hero needs.

Let's take a look at the abilities of this awesome hero:

• Acid Spray is an AoE ability that allows Alchemist to use a green substance on the ground that deals damage and removes armor from your enemies. This is an excellent tool to deal with the enemy heroes, especially against melee units. Apart from the lane, this spell can do wonders in the jungle because it allows you to quickly farm stacks.
• Unstable Concoction is a very interesting stun that's unique to Alchemist. Unlike any other abilities that stun, this one has to be charged beforehand if you want to make the most out of it. However, it takes a total of five seconds to get a full charge, which means that it can't be used in every single scenario.
  That said if you do end up channeling it to the fullest, you will be able to stun the enemy hero for four seconds and do around 800 damage with the talent, which is a pretty decent amount of damage. The only thing that you need to be careful of is not to stun yourself. Although it might seem easy, every single Alchemist player has done it at least a couple of times.
• Greevil's Greed is the ability that defines this hero. This skill alone is the reason why Alchemist is the fastest farmer in Dota 2.  It allows the hero to receive bonus gold on every single unit that he kills, including creeps. In addition to that, Alchemist also receives bonus gold when his team gets the Bounty Runes.
  Once he kills a couple of units and has this ability on level four, Alchemist will receive a 32 bonus gold for every unit that dies. 
• Chemical Rage is the ultimate of this awesome hero that turns Alchemist into a killing machine. When used, the hero receives tons of HP and HP regen, as well as movement speed. In other words, he becomes incredibly hard to deal with and most enemies will run when they see him with his ult.
  Unfortunately, once the ult is done, Alchemist becomes a lot easier to kill, which means that you need to be very careful when playing with this hero. 

Items and Counters

Since Alchemist is always played as a core, most common items for every single hero in this position will do the job. However, there are a couple of items that definitely stand out and need to be purchased at all cost:

• Radiance is an absolute must because it changes the way the game is played. Not only does it provide damage, as well as damage over time, but this item drastically increases the farming speed of Alchemist. In other words, he will be able to farm nearly one item per two minutes after he gets this. In addition, Radiance is an awesome team-fight item because it provides burn damage and miss chance.
• Octarine Core is a very popular item that not every single player likes to build but nevertheless, it is a good choice. This reduces the cooldown of all spells and allows Alch to have a lifesteal from his damage. 
• Blink Dagger is a trendy item for the so-called "Fighting Alchemist" because you can pre-cast your stun and blink into your enemies.
• Manta Style is a good item whenever you decide to either split push or enhance your farm even further.
• Assault Cuirass is great because it provides armor and attack speed, which are two very important stats for Alchemist. After all, he will be the frontline in most cases which means that he needs a lot of armor in order to survive.

When it comes down to the heroes that  can dominate against Alchemist, there are a couple of very notable names that you need to be aware of:

• Slark is a nightmare to play against unless you are really far ahead in the game. He can easily kite you and steal all of your stats with his third skill.
• Timbersaw is the biggest counter to Alchemist because this hero can kill him very easy.
• Ursa is in a very similar state to Timber when it comes down to being a counter. She is one of the strongest single-target heroes in Dota 2, which means that she can quickly burst down even the "fattest" Alchemist.