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Hoodwink is a ranged agility hero in Defense of The Ancients 2 (Dota 2), wielding a lot of utility in her arsenal.
Hoodwink was first introduced to Dota 2 in patch 7.28 after teasing her character in Diretide 2020, where her appearance was shown briefly with an unknown bird character in a newspaper that Snapfire was reading. Since then, she has undergone countless changes as further patches dropped in Dota 2.
Currently, Hoodwink is played as a position 4 support hero, mostly assisting the off-laner in sabotaging the opposition core player. Given the number of utility spells she has under her hood, the recent patch 7.29c has amplified her usefulness tenfold.
Hoodwink’s abilities in Dota 2
Hoodwink was originally released with a set of four abilities. But since the shard upgrade was introduced in Dota 2, another new ability can now be added to her arsenal. Her primary abilities are:
Acorn Shot:
This ability allows Hoodwink to throw a ricocheting acorn that deals damage and slows the target upon impact. This ability can be used as both unit target and ground target. Using the ability on the ground allows Hoodwink to plant a temporary tree on the ground, from where the acorn bounces off.
Bushwack:
This is the secondary ability of Hoodwink, which allows the player to throw a slingshot within a 265 unit radius around the target. If a player is near a tree within this range, the ability latches the player onto the tree for a short duration, dealing damage upon impact.
This ability synergizes very well with her Acorn Shot ability, as a player can always use Acorn Short to create a tree and use that tree to latch the enemy using Bushwack.
Scurry:
This ability allows Hoodwink to have phased movement through trees. With additional passive evasion, this skill, upon being cast, allows for the player to have a momentary active movement boost. Hoodwink gets a total of two charges for this ability.
Sharpshooter
This is the Hoodwink's ultimate ability, and it enables her to channel a nuke damage arrow which takes time to charge. The amount of damage it deals proportionally depends on the amount of time the player holds on to the channeling. This ability deals a lot of damage, applying break on the affected target, slowing them for a period.
Other than these four abilities, depending on the situation, a Dota 2 player can get two additional abilities using the Aghnim’s sScepter and Aghnim’s Shard upgrade.
Itemization and playstyle of Hoodwink
Hoodwink, in the current patch, is quite literally a broken hero. With her impressive amount of crowd control, combined with the massive damage-dealing nukes and escape mechanisms, Hoodwink has become the bane of any position player.
One should start off the game of Dota 2 with the usual Tango and Clarity as starting items, from where they can purchase boots as fast as possible. With Runes being such an important part of the early game, Hoodwink can always go to mid and secure the rune, or, if possible, the first blood for their mid-player.
As the game of Dota 2 goes past the laning stage, Hoodwink usually purchases Falcon Blade, and for mid-game, the usual choice for Hoodwink is a Maelstrom, which can be upgraded into a Mjollnir or Gleipnir. The basic late-game items for Hoodwink are Black King Bar (BKB), Monkey King Bar, Daedulus, etc.
Having high movement speed at the start of the Dota 2 game, players can easily trade against the opponent position 5 players to clear off avenues for potential harassment on the carry player, or even secure kills.
As the game of Dota 2 goes on and her abilities level up, the amount of raw damage she deals through every single ability usage poses a serious threat for the enemy. And if the enemy is reluctant to buy BKB, the scenario is all the merrier for Hoodwink, as she can continue her crowd control without deterrents.
