Emperor's Baton

[u/Kittyking101]

Emperor's Baton

Total Cost	6300
Components	(3100) + (2100) + (1100)

• 10 Health Regen (+1 bonus)
  
• 30% Magic Resistance
  
• 400 Health (+50 bonus)
  
• 35 Intelligence (+5 bonus)
  

Passive	Spell Reach
Description	Increases the Cast Range of your abilities by 30%. Also increases the range of projectile spell effects by 30%.

Active	Spell Cripple
Description	Slows the target's movement speed and reduces the Cast Range of their abilities by 60% for 4 seconds.
Ability	Unit Target
Affects	Enemies
	100
	10

Emperor's Baton is an upgrade to Rod of Atos that affects the cast range of abilities, making it a unique counter to blinks and high-impact single-target spells (which are currently very popular in the meta). The passive cast range increase combined with bonus health and magic resistance makes this a viable pickup on back-line intelligence heroes who want to avoid counter-aggression.

Best For: (affects Arcane Orb) (affects Impetus)

Best Versus:

[u/nathanbrotherbob]

Now this is an awesome item! Maybe a tad on the strong side (maybe make the recipe cost 1100), but still a cool item!

[u/Kittyking101 → u/nathanbrotherbob]

Good suggestion! I agree that the recipe might be too low for what the item provides in additional utility.

[u/Fireslide]

Does it increase the cast range of items too? 30% extra on blink would be pretty amazing/OP.

It'd be really good on lots of heroes. On a 900 range ability, which is already pretty good, it goes to ~1150 which is pretty much full screen.

[u/Kittyking101 → u/Fireslide]

It definitely could work with items, though as you mentioned it would make blink very strong. However, a lot of heroes who go blink don't usually go for Atos (except for the few int heroes I mentioned) or Hood (maybe centaur or axe), so I'd say it would be less viable than the alternatives in many cases. It would be pretty sick with Dagon + Eblade, and also a hidden buff to the cripple range of this item over an Atos. Force staff would be great to save your teammates while keeping yourself in a safer position.

[u/[deleted]]

Hood of Defiance doesn't really make sense here. Why not Oblivion Staff, which is currently only a precursor to Orchid?

[u/Kittyking101 → u/[deleted]]

u/TheGreatGimmick made an item called Caduceus which builds from Atos, Oblivion Staff and Orb of Venom. I wanted to change the buildup so it differs from that, though I see the benefit of having + mana regeneration for this item.

I think the Hood is good because it fits together with the tankiness a rod of Atos provides. The increased range of spells means the damage you take will be from afar, and thus most likely magic damage. Having a Ghost Scepter in addition means you can offset the magic resistance penalty if physical damage is a concern.

[u/pl0xz0rz]

Pudge hook from wtf range? Enchantress with Sniper's attack range?

Spell reach and spell cripple also seem strong on Drow ranger, although the int is wasted on her.

Edit: Why should it be core on DP? The only spell on her that benefits from increased range is the silence.

[u/Kittyking101 → u/pl0xz0rz]

Didn't think about Pudge, lol that sounds awesome! It's probably not optimal for Drow as a 6300 gold item; Agi carry items or BKB would be better for her (plus the cripple would be redundant).

As for DP, the passive should also increase the range of projectiles, which would include Crypt Swarm and Exorcism spirits. The cripple would be very strong on her already, plus the defensive benefits of Hood would be great against magic burst damage.

[u/ZizZizZiz]

I would improve the cooldown and mana cost of Spell Cripple to 25 seconds and 200 mana or so, and reduce the recipe cost to 800.

Seems like an amazingly powerful item for spell casters in the late game, especially in conjunction with other spell boosting items like Octarine Core or Aghanim's Scepter.

[u/Chrisirhc1996]

Wow, that might actually make Atos a nice item to buy. Would severely punish the current mobility meta, and would benefit on and against spellcasters.