EsperBot
You know what’s a great piece of game design? The Divine Rapier.
EsperBot
The Divine Rapier is an item in DOTA. It’s an item you will very rarely see.
EsperBot
It costs a cool 6000 gold. That’s not QUITE the most expensive item in the game but it’s in the top ten.
EsperBot
However, it is nonetheless probably the item in the game with the most difficult buildup.
EsperBot
See, the other super-expensive items are upgraded versions of a pretty decent mid-tier item.
EsperBot
Like, take the Wind Walker, the most expensive single item in the game. To get a Wind Waker, you first get a Eul’s Scepter of Divinity, a fairly cheap item that many casters buy in the midgame. Then you combine it with another expensive item that gives a ton of Intelligence to make the Wind Waker.
EsperBot
So even though the Wind Waker costs over 7000 gold, building up to it is easy, because you can just...have a Eul’s for most of the game, get a ton of value of of it, and then upgrade it in the late game.
EsperBot
And, like, have a Eul’s is great! It gives a lot of mana regex, and it has a strong active ability that you can use to set up your difficult-to-hit spells reliably and even sometimes dodge enemy abilities.
EsperBot
So even though the item is expensive, you get little checkpoints of value along the way.
EsperBot
That is not the case for the Divine Rapier. Instead, you make it by combining one item that gives you a decent amount of attack damage, with another item that gives you a worse amount of attack damage.
EsperBot
These component items are...not great. Attack damage isn’t nothing, of course, but for the gil, the amounts these component items provide is pretty bad value.
EsperBot
You would never buy one of these items for their own sake; only as an ingredient for a more expensive item that provides a greater benefit.
EsperBot
So you’re never going to just have these components lying around and upgrade them to a Divine Rapier. If you make a Divine Rapier, it’s because you were going for a Divine Rapier.
EsperBot
And what does a Divine Rapier do? Well, much like it’s components, all it does it give bonus damage. But it gives a fuckton of it.
EsperBot
(It also gives you truestrike, making enemy evasion/dodge abilities worthless, but that’s pretty marginal)
EsperBot
It gives, in total, 300 bonus damage. That is SO MUCH DAMAGE.
EsperBot
The second-best item for flat damage boost in the game, the Daedalus, gives 88.
EsperBot
Here’s some context. Say we take Drow Ranger, a character who does damage almost exclusively through her basic attacks.
EsperBot
Her basic attacks are super beefy.
EsperBot
Now let’s say we max out her levels fill her inventory with the strongest end-game gear.
EsperBot
Her basic attack damage will be about 400.
EsperBot
Even in this case, the Rapier almost doubled her damage output.
EsperBot
A Drow Ranger with one of these will just absolutely melt any enemy she’s pointed at. So, why don’t we see more Divine Rapiers in the endgame? Well, it also has a downside.
EsperBot
If you die with a Divine Rapier in your possession, it drops on the ground.
EsperBot
And then anybody can just walk up and grab it. including the other team.
MundersOWundus
EsperBot
So, you basically only see Divine Rapiers in two scenarios: first, one team is way out ahead, and has a huge asshole on it, and they grab a rapier just to style on the enemy.
EsperBot
Sometimes this can end with the guys who were way ahead fucking up and dropping the rapier and the other team making a comeback off of that. But usually the other team is too behind for that and they just start popping like meat pinatas.
EsperBot
The other scenario is when a team is on the ropes and buys the rapier as a desperation move.
EsperBot
It gives them pretty strong comeback potential if they can get it on their main damage-dealer!
EsperBot
But it means they have to more or less play perfect from there on out. If they botch it and drop the rapier, they’re now twice as screwed as they were before.
EsperBot
And that’s what I like about it. It’s a strong comeback mechanic, but it nonetheless requires precision play or it leaves you even worse off than before.
EsperBot
(There are a few heroes where it’s not crazy to pick one up just as a matter of course; heroes who are really hard to kill like Wraith King, can hit the entire enemy team at once like Kunkka, or both, like Medusa)
EsperBot
(But even then, it’s still a substantial risk)
Obsi
Several years ago I played in a match with a Kunkka armed with Divine Rapier, Shadow Blade (item that gives stealth), and everything else was just Crit build shit
Obsi
He would materialise out of nowhere to instantly delete our entire team and I have never felt so much fear in a MOBA game before or since
EsperBot
Yeah it’s totally buck wild to play against a kunkka with that much stuff
EsperBot
Ember Spirit can do similar stuff
EsperBot
But with kunkka especially because of the way cleave attacks work in DOTA (they ignore armor) you basically have to catch him and burn him down before he gets a single swing off or he can just delete your team
Obsi
YEP