brood

What do you think, are pro players ready to listen to pubbers' advice? Perhaps, your answer would be "no". What they can learn from those who didn't even participated in a single tournament? But there is evidence that such answer can be wrong.
The community is already aware of players who made themself a name by playing one or two heroes extremely well. Most of the heroes in Dota 2 are unique, each of them has a unique playstyle, and mastering a certain hero is always a difficult task. In order to do that you have to play thousands of games, as there is no other way to learn about laning and actions on the map. Obviously, professionals' schedules are too tight for that.
However, such players can learn something from pubbers. If the knowledge has already been systematized and a player is ready to share it, then picking up a new hero wouldn't take that long.
Let's get straight to the topic. Had you ever seen DkPhobos playing excellent up until the match vs EG at The International 5? Most likely you hadn't. It turned that the Alexander himself hadn't prepared this hero until he was contacted by Pavel "L.Kain" Bugay, your typical pub player. The only thing that made him special was the amount of times he picked Broodmother — he played more than 1000 Brood games.
He had never played in a professional team. The guy was playing Dota for fun, and he eventually found a hero that he wanted to master. He looked at the way professional players played Broodmother and found their performance mediocre. However, he immediately noticed that zai was playing it correctly.
The L. Kain himself has been mastering Brood ever since he met Torri Tentori — another Brood player, who was playing it for ages. The guy destroyed Pavel's team, and since then he has been eager to play Brood as good as possible.
Pavel didn't pick up Torri's playstyle. Instead, he decided that Brood is capable not only of splitpushing with Necronomicon, Radiance etc., but of dominating the lane as well. The assumption turned out to be correct, as his winrate is equal to Torri's, and Pavel's KDA is even higher.
Pavel was the first to contact DKPhobos, offering him an opportunity to pick up a hero that would diversify VP's strategy. Asked about how he convinced DKPhobos to accept his help, Pavel replied that it hadn't been a huger risk whatsoever, and the offer has been presented in a proper way.
The guy was just cheering for CIS Dota and willing to help it. The next day the offlaner of VP agreed to take his advice.
The training was divided in two stages. First, DKPhobos played a lot of pubs as Brood while L. Kain was spectating as a coach. This way Pavel could explain some of the unique details of gameplay, itembuilds, map movements and warding that applied only to Broodmother. Pavel also walked DKPhobos through effective control of the spiderlings and other specific aspects. Then, the guys played some 1x1 matches, where DkPhobos learnt how to deal with what considered to be counter picks: Axe, Legion Commande etc. Pavel said that Alexander was learning very fast given his previous experience of playing Brood
After the TI5 performance Mag came up to DkPhobos and asked him how has he managed to learn the hero. Alexander gave Pavel's contact to him. Those who watched recent Vega Squadron's games saw how efficient such training can be.
In order to understand some aspects of Broodmother gameplay, we sitted down with Pavel and broke down 2 VP's games from TI5.
1. Virtus. pro vs Evil Geniuses, Group Stage, game 2.
In this game Brood was the last pick. It is easy to predict this pick when there are Lycan and Dazzle in the draft: Lycan adds 20 damage to all spiderlings and Dazzle deals tons of damage with his Shadow Wave when there are enough spiderlings. However, this pick caught EG off guard. The thing is, VP had never used Broodmothre before, so the opponent didn't really expect them to pick it. Moreover, EG had Earthshaker and Ember Spirit in their draft, who are not direct counters to Brood, but are capable of creating problems for her all game long.
He bought Soul Ring recipe with his starting gold, which would make typical pub teammates rage. However, our expert explains it very simply: the thing is, all starting items that Brood might need are available in the side shop. Moreover, buying recipe at the fountain makes courier available for other teammates, which can be gamechanging. It is also simply to explain why DkPhobos didn't go for regen or boots. If Brood is against a strong trilane, she will die the moment she reaches creeps anyways. However, if you get passive gold for Soul Ring and buy it, then Broodmother can farm with her spiderlings and stay out of trouble. Stout Shield and other buys are used for 1x1.
Pavel also pointed out the importance of Dazzle on the lane. It helped Brood get early experience, as it is hard to do even with Soul Ring. Besides, supports of EG couldn't leave the lane and let DkPhobos 1x1 Ember. It made Suma1l suffer mid, and he eventually gave first blood. At the same time, Lycan was having a good time in the easy lane. He farmed, destroyed T1 tower and had no problems, while Ember had already died twice by that time.
In Pavel's opinion, building Midas on Broodmother while having decent early game is a common mistake of pro players. The thing is, Brood has its own timings, and you have to hit them to make the most of it. For examlple, it is better to have Orchid by minute 11. Midas costs a half of Orchid, and the purchase of it delays your key items for a few minutes. Silence makes it possible for Brood to 1x1 any hero who walked in her lane. It makes her extremely dangerous in the early game, and there are few heroes that will have easy time pushing Brood's lane back. DkPhobos built Orchid by minute 15, which is subpar, given that he also had no boots.
Pavel is sure that Phase Boots are better than Power Treads on Broodmother. There was no alternative ever since Broodmother hasn't been able to walk through jungle and textures after taking damage. Every single spider on the professional scene buys PT! Even if you look at DotaBuff statistics, PT were bought times with 43.61% winrate, while Phase Boots were bought just 37363 times with 46.11% winrate. Buying PT is just wrong. With Phase Boots you don't get stuck in your spiderlings, you can attack more aggressive and run away faster. There is no real alternative.
Then you need BKB. The Brood is incapable of fighting late game without it. You don't have to care about the charges: for Broodmother low cooldown of BKB is more important than duration. Lower cooldown of BKB lets it make aggressive plays more often and push, which creates space for other heroes. It doesn't matter what you buy on Brood, because its spiderlings make it possible to destroy towers regardless of its damage. If the fight breaks out, Brood's task is not go in immediately, but catch escaping heroes or attack enemies' back line.
Pavel said that DkPhobos has made a lot of mistakes this game, that's why his key items have been delayed. However, EG were paying him too much attention, which created space for Lycan. Besides, VP's offlaner stayed in the lane instead of going for jungle creeps. It probably slowed down his item progression, but other heroes had more space. In spite of relatively weak Brood, the bottom lane was a pain in the ass for EG all game long. By the minute 50, when the game finished, American team had destroyed all the outer towers but hadn't managed to destroy a single tower in the bottom lane.
2. Virtus.pro vs CompLexity Gaming, Main Event, game 3
In this game Brood pick was riskier. Even though VP were clearly a tier higher than cL, CompLexity had often used this hero themselves, so they knew how to deal with it. However, Brood was the last pick as well, and cL had considered Earthshaker as offlane hero until the very end of the draft phase.
Alex had much easier time this game, because VP managed to put him 1x1 against Ember Spirit. Once again, it is worth to point out good early buy from DkPhobos: Soul Ring, Orb of Venom, two Sage's Masks into Orchid. The fact that you see such buy over and over again is not a coincidence — it is the most optimal one for Brood, if she is not facing a counter pick
DkPhobos played smart throughout the laning stage. The easiest to get a kill is bait out Ember's shield and all-in a support. And that's what he did on minute 10 and did again on minute 13, using Orchid to get the second kill.
During that time CoL forgot about Phantom Lancer, who was freefarming his jungle. That being said, all cores of VP had good amount of gold, and American's didn't know how to deal with strong Brood. It became pretty clear on minute 26. DkPhobos made a pretty aggressive play under T3 tower, but even whole enemy team couldn't kill him. Later on he was pushing the bottom by himself, while other players from VP were pushing two other lanes. All VP had to do is make no crucial mistakes and close out the game.
A small talk with Pavel
Once we were done with the VODs, we talked about more general things that our readers could find interesting.
Q: Do you think that you have managed to give Alexander all the information during the coaching session?
A: I actually asked him if I could help him with something else. He said that his brain was overload with theoretical aspects which he had yet to understand. Right now he has to make a unique style of playing Brood based on the knowledge I shared with him. He will surely make it, because it is pretty clear that DkPhobos can analyse the information and make the most of it. However, we agreed that if he needs any help, I am always at his service. For example, he pick up a jungle Brood. However, team basically have to play 4x5 for 13 minutes, until Brood is ready to leave jungle.
Q: What item builds would you recommend?
A:
 1) Orchid, BKB, Phase Boots, Eye of Skadi, Sange & Yasha — good, reliable Brood with a lot of stats and debuffs. It works in 75-80% of games, and is my favourite choice. I build Skadi pretty much every game. An incredibly good item for Brood, even though it was build less than 10000 times last month, which is very weird. Maybe, I don't understand heroes like Broodmother. Even Divine Rapier was built 1000 times more than Skadi!

 2) Orchid, BKB, Phase Boots, Vladimir's Offering, Assault Cuirass, situational item — Brood with good push potential (no Necronomicon, mind you), which is also good at team fights. Using this item build is a great way to make your carry stronger, because Brood is a hero that can carry these items around and build them pretty fast.

 3) Midas, Radiance, situational items — when you are up against likes of Tidehunter, Axe, Dark Seer and Meepo. It is a sort of semi-late game item build.

 4) Solar Crest, Phase Boots, Vladmir's Offering, Assault Cuirass, Desolator, BKB — an item build against Dragon Knights, Bristleback and other tanks.
Q: How do you deal with direct counters like Axe, Dark Seer and Legion Commander?
A: Well, there are two options: you either try to outmaneuver these heroes with farming under his turret and jungle creeps and avoid direct confrontation, because it will lead to you feeding spiderlings or yourself, or you try to outplay it. You can try to catch a hero, but you need to feel when it is the time to go for a kill. It is also worth mentioning that no direct counter but Legion Commander can match Brood in late game, so playing correct will make every other counter irrelevant by minute 20-30. No matter how they beat you, you can always disappear from the map for 7-8 minutes and come back capable of fighting. The idea behind coounterpicking against Broodmother is that you have to follow her all game long. If you give her some space, then the counter pick will lose its value.
Q: If any other Dota 2 fan or a professional player contacts you, will you take time to help them?
A: Depends on my mood. Lots of people added me on Steam once they checked my DotaBuff stats. I created a group on Steam, and sometimes I watch members' play and try to correct it. I helped DkPhobos and Mag personally, because for them it's more than a game. It is their lifestyle, their job, and they have to get as good as it possible. I am still in touch with Mag and I watch his Brood games. We watch them again together, and I point out him his mistakes and other interesting moments.
Q: What other heroes would you pick out for their interesting gameplay or learning curve?
A: I can't pick out any other hero based on a learning curve. I actually play all heroes, it's just I play some better than others. My personal favourites are Broodmother and Bounty Hunter. Io used to be here as well.
Q: If you were offered to play in some stack, would you agree? Are there any demands that need to be fulfilled to make you interested?
A: It's just that you don't know how is it gonna turn out for you. The idea itself is great. I mean, why not? I like it. However, the pressure and the factor that I've mentioned above make me nervous.
Q: I would like to thank you for coaching the players that our community is cheering for. Have you got some final words for our readers?
A: I would like to say that I am grateful for the attention I am getting, I am grateful to DkPhobos personally, to VP, to Andrew Chipenko and Vega Squadron. I wish them further achievements on the professional scene. I wish fng picked Brood for DkPhobos more often, but he knows better. I recommend pro players, especially offlaners, picking up Brood. It as a strong hero that can win in every meta. Shoutout to simple pubbers like I am! Play Dota, don't get mad at your teammates and have fun! If you have a way to help the professional scene, do it! Why not? I did that. Best of luck to everyone!