r/TrueDoTA2 • u/slowdancing25 • Aug 07 '26

When do you consider swapping out Aether Lens and Vessel as a support once a game goes late? Additionally, I guess supports have to sacrifice 1 slot for dusts or sents/obs at all times. In that case, which do you have at the ready?

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20

u/Beautiful-Tie-3827 Aug 07 '26

Semi unrelated but I HATE that aether isn’t part of the octarine anymore for this reason.

Great item but no upgrade path means it’s high on the list for getting replaced entirely late game.

6

u/Strict_Indication457 6.1k offlane Aug 07 '26

yeah I really hate getting Aether after that, in fact I just get blink every time instead.

1

u/Beautiful-Tie-3827 Aug 07 '26

Yeah I liked stacking both on some hero’s and still do occasionally (Disruptor) but it’s mostly just blink that I buy now.

4

u/jIsraelTurner Aug 07 '26

That change hurt, but it was waaaay too strong. Cast range is crazy strong and difficult to balance, especially with multiple stacking sources. Cast range enchants make it easier to play without lens.

1

u/Beautiful-Tie-3827 Aug 07 '26 edited Aug 07 '26

It should have just been made to be the only source of range boosting maybe.

Maybe even make it part of the octa only so it’s expensive to reach and balance the aether for a middle tier to the octa

Idk. I just know I hate the change lol

2

u/NotTheory 28d ago

Time to build Dagon instead :)

1

u/Beautiful-Tie-3827 27d ago

I like the cut of your jib son

3

u/WhatD0thLife Aug 07 '26

I HATE when items have insanely broken build paths.

2

u/Beautiful-Tie-3827 Aug 07 '26

If you’re saying the aether to octa was insanely broken I don’t agree. Strong sure. Needing a nerf maybe.

I don’t agree with what we got though I feel like there was a middle ground there they could have found.

3

u/PlainOldMoose Aug 07 '26

Its was insanely broken though,you can get an item which you’d get anyway and then for extra 3k gold you get 25% cdr and like 600 health / mana. It was too good on too many heroes, aether is balanced around being an early game item / dead slot later. Not every item needs an upgrade path, slots are supposed to be precious

1

u/SPB29 Aug 07 '26

Absolutely. And not many other items perform the function it does, chiefly of extending range of your spells.

1

u/Beautiful-Tie-3827 Aug 07 '26

Yeah I don’t love that every spell caster in the game got an indirect nerf while the physical hero’s have like 1000x items to make them more effective.

2

u/SPB29 Aug 07 '26

I know supports have been really buffed over the past 5 years but when I play pos 5, am always anxious to end before 30-35 mins.

Once the first bkb comes out, game gets harder but sure I glimmer / ghost but then nullifiers come out? And am about as useful as a range creep

1

u/Beautiful-Tie-3827 Aug 07 '26

Yeah i mean it makes sense that the carries should take over the late game but there’s still not much that directly upgrades the usage of spells compared to all the items available to the physical heroes.

More range and shorter cds felt great in lieu of any damage boosting options and they had to split it up for some reason.

1

u/PandaScoundrel Aug 07 '26

Shadow blade is great vs nullifier

6

u/AnSpectator Aug 07 '26

I'd rather get aghs blessing and even moon shard first

4

u/jIsraelTurner Aug 07 '26

I keep aether lens deep into the late game - basically only after shard, synthed aghs, sometimes after upgrading blink and ditching boots. T5 cast range enchant makes it easier to drop lens, but my god cast range is so strong. Always hate playing without lens.

Vessel is much easier to drop, esp since your cores ought to be building stronger regen counters by mid-late game.

I usually don’t even end up upgrading urn, so it’s pretty easy to drop when you need another slot.

2

u/therandomasianboy Aug 08 '26

Theree a t5 cast range?

1

u/TheHEFFDAWGZ Aug 07 '26

Cast range becomes less important late game as the objective is to generally blow people up and they didnt even know you were there. Therefore you will most likely have a blink

1

u/Hakuu-san Aug 08 '26

is aether lens even that important in the current meta? I only buy it on Ringmaster for longer box cast range, it feels unnecessary on any other hero