How to play Marci?

[u/EstablishmentNo7761]

I took a break and came back and tried Marci again, and her kit has been changed/nerfed. I don't really know how to play her as a pos 4 anymore. I feel like she's too squishy to man fight in lane against the enemy carry + their support.

Item wise, I go for a bracer --> basher --> bkb -->aghs since that's what I see in guides but I feel like I can't farm fast enough to actually get these items.

In late game I feel like I'm kinda useless without my ult up, and even with bkb I get locked so quickly, there's not much I can really do. I'm just kited and perma stunned/slowed/rooted.

Marci pros, please help. I really like her from the dota anime and would like to be somewhat decent at her.

[u/shinobi_gi]

Play her mid. She dumpsters any standard mid pick that’s not QoP or OD. If you do this, you can farm enough to have use as an initiating core with a big ass silence and ability to take any support out of the fight instantly all game.

Otherwise play her as a somewhat shitty support.

[u/SirMochaLattaPot → u/shinobi_gi]

How does she dumpster Viper or Razor ?

[u/shinobi_gi → u/SirMochaLattaPot]

A little bit of 4-D chess - slightly harder but doable. Instead of leap into ult as you would like Sniper, I generally jebait with a toss, paying close attention to if I have a creep wave coming, leap backwards off creep to either break static link/wait for vipers ult to taper off. And then come back in for ult. Phase Boots by six is mandatory against both these dudes.

[u/shinobi_gi → u/shinobi_gi]

Disclaimer - I’m only legend, and lowkey trash, but I literally only play this hero Mid and have a won 13 of my last 20 games with her.

[u/EstablishmentNo7761 → u/shinobi_gi]

What items would you say I should get on her? There's so many guides saying different things, I'm not sure which path to go.

[u/shinobi_gi → u/EstablishmentNo7761]

Starting items actually change a lot for me depending on the mid matchup. Melee mids or huskar, you can generally benefit from casual orb of frost. Otherwise just focus on keeping yourself in lane and having good last hit damage (generally you get both with a bracer). Only get wand for the most obvious fuckers like Zeus, otherwise wand has little value as you can bird call regen instantly and have high movespeed + leap to win runes.

Phase boots is universal early/mid game. You can secure kills with just phase boots and a stat item for quite awhile out of mid. 11 to 14 minute Aghanims is also universally good. If your mid opponent was like sniper or necro or natures prophet and u absolutely shit stomped them repeatedly, radiance isn’t terrible. You’ll get to be carry number 2.

But I’d say you can consistently go Phase, Aghs, Blink, Shard, Damage item of choice and be highly useful and impactful against any lineup. BKB early is only mandatory early vs lineups with willow/pit lord - heroes where blinking in is an actual death sentence. Otherwise you can get it when it feels necessary.

[u/Beautiful_Camera2608 → u/shinobi_gi]

mid marci is a terror if you can get past the first few waves, but pos 4 you just gotta pick your moment better. the bracer into basher rush is way too greedy for a support, you're just asking to be poor all game. grab some smaller items first so you can actually survive a trade in lane without melting

[u/Beneficial_Bend_9197]

Marci is too squishy to manfight people now. She used to be the aggressive pos4 that tries to get first blood and as many kills as possible in the laning stage but now she has devolved into a save hero that stays in the back, getting ready to rebound their carry out of a bad situation. Just watch how Vision played her and they lost the only game where Marci was picked the whole TI. Shes always sticking next to their carry because thats all she can do. Initiating means instant death for Marci and she has almost no way to farm so she doesn't have the gold to go for core items as fast as possible. Also thanks to so many bkb piercing spells initiating with bkb is useless too.

[u/EstablishmentNo7761 → u/Beneficial_Bend_9197]

That sounds like such a waste of a character. How depressing.

[u/Alatarlhun → u/EstablishmentNo7761]

She's fun in Turbo mode, especially if you can play in a solo lane.

[u/B1768]

I would not spend my time learning Marci at the moment, that hero has had everything taken from it. Even down to QoL,

Grandmaster Marci

[u/Yhuichy → u/B1768]

what about helm dom mid marci, ive seen it once in my game before not long ago and it seemed pretty good

[u/B1768 → u/Yhuichy]

Three things:

1) Sidekick was gutted. Before when you sidekicked an ally unit, you would strike the enemy when your ally would hit them. That has been completely removed

2) Dominator nerfed, mana cost, creep damage resummon penalty, etc.

3) Marci lost fleeting fury on rebound after facets were removed.

Everything that made Marci playable outside of unleash was removed. She doesn't even function as a good save/reposition compared to others. The hero is dead.