Lothar’s Edge or Blink Dagger?

Lothar’s Edge or Blink Dagger?

Many people who play DotA 2 have a bad habit of always choosing Lothar’s Edge, or they always go Blink Dagger without thinking about why the item is a good or bad choice. Sometimes they find out later on in a game why their decision was a bad choice, but they still never learn to correct their mistake when having to decide what item to get in a game later on. I’m going to give you some foundational advice on when to pick up a Blink Dagger and when to go Lothar’s Edge.

A lot of people have a hard time knowing when to choose Lothar’s Edge and when to pick up a Blink Dagger for escape and/or initiation. A good rule of thumb that I like to go by is, make sure to pay attention to if the enemy has any DoT (Damage Over Time) spells or do they have a lot of AoE (Area of Effect) spells.

If they don’t have many DoT spells or AoE spells then you almost always want to get Blink Dagger (make sure you or your teammates buy sentry wards and/or dust if the enemy goes Lothar’s Edge and you will have them looking like a noob every time they try to gank you, otherwise Lothar’s Edge can counter your blink if you get caught off-guard). Blink Dagger will always be the superior item if they can’t disable the cooldown on your dagger. A couple of other things to look out for is if the enemy has heroes that have long range stuns, like Earth Shaker’s Fissure and Monkey King’s Boundless Strike (another thing with Blink Dagger that you have to be careful with is if the enemy is going to have any natural Radiance carriers, as the AoE from Radiance can take your cooldown off if you’re not careful). The AoE and DoT spells can also be devastating to you if you go Blink Dagger, but sometimes you can counter them first as long as you have a hero with good initiation and can wipe them out before they get a chance to initiate on you.

The best time to get Lothar’s Edge is when you can pick off any squishy supports and/or find the enemy carry in the jungle trying to get safe farm. Pay attention to where the enemy is placing sentry wards, because in the higher MMR games, the supports (if they’re good) will provide protection for their carry by placing sentry wards in the jungle and they will also be putting them there to deward their jungle so your team won’t be able to have any valuable vision in their territory. Once you have Lothar’s Edge, you can try to pick off the enemy supports (better if you can pickoff a carry). Try to see how the game is being played out (is the enemy being aggressive or passive) and if the enemy is leaving themselves vulnerable or not to get picked off. The earlier you can pick up the Lothar’s Edge the better. This can cause the enemy support’s to start spending a lot of gold on sentry wards and dust and delay any item they want to get to save their carry later on in the game.

I hope this gives you a better idea of when to get Lothar’s Edge and when to get Blink Dagger. Remember every game is situational. Sometimes Blink Dagger is a better choice (usually it is), but sometimes there might be an enemy hero that you need the Silver Edge upgrade and it will be better to farm Lothar’s Edge and just keep focusing on farming instead of going around ganking a bunch. Always try to pay attention to if the enemy is being passive or aggressive with their play style and adjust how you play accordingly.

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