General Discussion

General DiscussionTrying to get better at SF

Trying to get better at SF in General Discussion
Brocakes

    I find SF to be a really cool hero but I am having trouble playing him effectively.

    I would really like to know the heroes he is effective against mid lane and not effective against:

    From my personal experience:
    effective:
    Pudge - as long as I play safe and don't get hooked or over extend, and there are wards at spots, I am almost always zoning him out.
    Storm - one of my nukes do like a billion dmg to him, and I almost always get first kill on storm as long as it is before lvl 6.

    not effective:
    Tinker: It's hard to farm even if he uses any builds. Missiles hurt me, bots hurt me. I dont think I do well against any tinker unless he is very new.
    Magnus: A spammable and well timed shockwave always puts me at a disadvantage.
    Kunkka: His tide bringer hurts.
    Viper: his skin thing and his orb makes me food.
    Lina: Spammable thing is like magnus.

    What can I do to help against these heroes?

    Items -

    Magic wand gives around 250 hp and mana, mek gives 250 hp, and passive regen and armor. Is it really worth it?
    When I buy treads and early game items, I usually have this:

    Treads, TP, Bottle, Acquila, Wand, Core/Blink/BKB. What is the first thing I should sell? Acquila?

    Going BoT allows me to save up that TP spot and still keep the acquila. It does slow down my farm and lowers my survivability for a lot of mobility. Is it worth it?

    I always try to get situational items after core but my options as sf isn't that great. I mean I have the option of damage, more survivability... what else? So after blink/bkb, I have options of daedulus, bfly, satanic, AC, deso, mkb (for evasion) what is worth it for what situations?

    Core options:
    Euls - I never get it
    Mek - I got it a couple of times and found it not to my liking.
    Blink - My main go to item. I like the initiation and mobility.
    SB - I never really like this item on SF. I mean I see enemies and teammates get it alike and it only really works if theres no dust/wards, which I'm not stupid enough to not get.

    Lux/Sit
    Daedulus (my main go to item after core)
    Manta (I really liked this item at first and it was my go to after blink/bkb, but I recently felt Daedelus to be better)
    Skadi (I like it, but I'm not really sure when I should get it)
    Bfly (I only get this if I am 1 items away from being stacked)
    Satanic (I get helm after crit, then finis daedulus and then satanic usually)
    AC (I never get it)
    Deso (Never get it)

    Gameplay -
    Is SF a ganker? I find players often call for ganks since I'm SF because my nukes do crazy dmg, but I never really liked it because I like to farm mid if I am winning. If not, then I stack and jungle. Nevertheless, I see SF ganks and some are good.

    Thanks for answering all of my questions and critiquing my opinion.

    arin

      You have advantage over storm before lvl 6.
      If the lane is hard, just raze creeps from distance and stack jungle meanwhile.
      I think that magnus shouldn't be able to do much to you unless you get caught by rp and skewer. Just try to dodge shockwaves, it's usually very easy to predict when he will use it (last hitting creeps, if he autoattacks one creep and other creeps focus another, you can be sure he's casting shockwave for two ez lh)
      Viper, Lina, Kunkka, Tinker are pretty annoying. Don't try anything, raze creeps from distance, farm jungle.

      Going BoT just to keep Aquilla is NOT worth it.
      SF can gank with haste or invis. Otherwise screw it, farm as much as you can, but carry a tp to countergank if they dive under tower.

      Mushi

        You will be surprised of how many people are actually "stupid enough to not get" dust and sentries. Especially in normal skill bracket. You can try to inform them of buying dust to go against the enemy Riki/BH and most of the time they won't.

        If you are in a good lead and survival isn't a problem to you, going Deso will make you melt your enemies in just few hits. That can put you into a greater lead if you played safely without overextending and throwing away the lead.

        Assault Cuirass is a good choice not just for its armor reduction since you get it better with Deso, but also your own Armor. If you are having a decent HP pool, going AC will give you 90% more effective HP against physical damage. This combined with Skadi and/or Satanic will make you the hardest thing to kill, even better with BKB to nullify any magic damage to you.

        Steror

          From my perspective:
          SNY is pretty good because it gives everything he needs and is also easy to build up and not that expensive. I'd say it's the go to first item if you don't want blink/sb/bkb/eul/mek which are the other options.
          Eye of Skadi isn't that difficult to understand. It's for tanking up so you don't die so easily to nukes and also helps you stay in reach of enemies with the slow.

          About ganking, I'd say it depends on the skill level of players in the game and line up. If you're certain that you'll get a kill if you gank it is almost always worth it, like if their offlane doesn't have escape mechanism, you know for sure he hasn't seen you coming or you have a stun in lane. Otherwise you can try to gank if you're farming jungle and happen to be nearby. But usually you just want to farm because that is a reliable way of getting gold and you do it so fast.

          BenaoLifedancer

            no one gives a fuck about your personal experience. Stop spamming your useless build, we don't want it and definitely didn't ask for it.

            just to put it out there and because you know shit, sf rapes lina but you're too shit to realize that

            Filthy

              Is it possible to build a af with no blink no sb or euls ?

              Brocakes

                Aww Benao's talking like he's above 50% LOLOL. How cute?! Who's the good girl?! You are Benao!

                Thank you all others for sharing your advice. I'm still wondering where you stand on the Mek argument. I find it pretty... hindering to my farm when I could use a wand instead.

                @Filthy, not sure, I always go Blink, unless I'm trolling, then I go SB.

                Pol Pot of Greed

                  raze creeps farm jungle haha cool hero

                  DON'T CLICK THE LINK

                    @Filthy It's possible to avoid blink, sb, and euls. Go for manta>bkb>butterfly/skadi>daedalus/satanic>and so forth

                    Manta is a really good item for sf. Gives him a nice movement speed, nice early damage, and nice stats overall. Plus it can remove some buffs as well. It's like the classic go to item for him if you want to avoid the mobility items.

                    Quick.as.Covid

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                      Brocakes

                        Might be a mechanics question but what buffs/debuffs can manta remove. Or easier question what can it not remove? Looking at some lists, it says manta can remove doom but that doesn't sound right.

                        DON'T CLICK THE LINK

                          @MoreTorque One of the most useful things it removes is silence. I think it removes a majority of debuffs other than doom. And if you are good enough, you can disjoint big nukes like laguna blade and etc.

                          Ke$ha

                            U JUST PUT KIDS IN THE FUCKING DUMPSTER BEST PLAYER THE WORLD HAS EVER FUCKING SEEN