Dota 2 Broodmother is one of the most difficult heroes to play against. This offlaner will easily destroy the enemy safe lane if she’s allowed to do what she wants. In the lower MMR brackets, this happens all the time. But the higher you climb, the trickier it is to be a successful Broodmother player.
If you want to learn more about the hero, this Broodmother Dota 2 guide will offer an overview and an idea of how you need to play to gain MMR with her.
Broodmother’s Pros and Cons
These are the pros and cons of playing as Broodmother in Dota 2.
Pros:
- She becomes strong in the laning phase
- Provides excellent split-pushing for the team
- Very strong in 1v1 situations
- Can easily occupy and farm the enemy jungle
Cons:
- She’s weak for the first three levels
- She’s completely dependent on her webs
- Has a naturally slow movement speed
- Requires excellent team coordination during the mid game
- Requires micro-management for spiderlings
- Weak against AoE damage
Lore
Broodmother, also known as Black Arachnia, comes from the dark lava tubes beneath Mount Pyrotheos. There, she raised millions of spiderlings and sent them into the world.
But constant threats from invaders and the death of some of her spiderlings have forced her to come to the surface and attempt to rid the world of all that pose a challenge. Even Ptholopthales, the Vizier of Greed hiding in the area, ended up being eaten by Broodmother. Now she’s determined to kill every remaining hero on Earth.
Attributes and Stats
These are Broodmother’s general stats:
| Win Rate | 48.3% |
| Level | 1 – 30 |
| Health | 524 (at level 1) |
| Health regeneration | 0.25 |
| Mana | 291 (at level 1) |
| Mana regeneration | 0 |
| DMG | 48 – 54 |
| Armor | 3.8 |
| DMG Block | none |
| Magic Resistance | 25% |
| Status Resistance | 0% |
| Attack Rate | 1.7 |
| Movement Speed | 285 |
| Attack Speed | 125 |
| Attack Animation | 0.4 + 0.5 |
| Projectile Speed | instant |
| Attack Range | 150 |
| Turn Rate | 0.5 |
| Collision Size | 24 |
| Vision Range | 1800 / 800 |
| Gib Type | Goo |
Ability Upgrades:
Broodmother’s abilities can be upgraded by her talents.
- Level 10 talents: +3 Spin Web / +80 Spawn Spiderlings damage
- Level 15 talents: +130 spiders health / -10s Spin Web recharge time
- Level 20 talents: +25 agility / +400 AoE Silken Bola
- Level 25 talents: +35% Silken Bola Slow/Miss Chance / -0.3s Base Attack Time during Insatiable Hunger
Roles Broodmother Can Take On
Broodmother is a natural split-pusher and excellent for the Offlane position. She can also be played Mid, but it’s not easy to succeed in this position because a lot of other Mid heroes counter her. In most scenarios, you will want to play Brood as position 3 and aim to create as much space for your carry as possible.
Broodmother Item Builds
These are the most important items that you should consider buying when playing Broodmother. From time to time, the build will need to be adjusted based on the specifics of the situation. But it’s safe to assume that you’ll be using many of the items listed here in almost all of your games.
Early Game
For the early game, consider buying these items:
- Magic Wand
- Mangoes
- Power Treads
- Wind Lace
- Wraith Band
- Soul Ring
- Orb of Corrosion
Mid Game
During the mid game, you will usually purchase several of these items:
- Orchid Malevolence
- Diffusal Blade
- Black KingBar
- Pipe of Insight
Late Game
In the late game, this hero thrives if you have one of these items:
- Satanic
- Bloodthorn
Abilities
Broodmother has 4 abilities that can be further upgraded by her 8 talents and the items you buy. These abilities are explained below:
Insatiable Hunger
This ability turns Broodmother into a deadly damage dealer. It lasts 8 – 14 seconds and enhances her attack speed (by 0.3s BaT) and attack damage (35 – 65). It also gives her lifesteal: 40% – 100%. All of these bonuses are very powerful and usually translate into kills.
In the past, this used to be the hero’s ultimate, but IceFrog decided to change the design of the hero. So you can easily skill Insatiable Hunger just a few levels into the game and keep yourself alive in lane even if you get heavily harassed. There’s no need to attack enemy heroes. Enemy creeps or jungle creeps are sufficient.
Mana cost: 50 – 80
Cooldown: 40s – 25s
Spin Web
This is an AoE ability that allows Broodmother to gain an enormous amount of movement speed in a small area. The radius of each web is 900, and you can have up to 4 – 10 webs in total. That’s enough to cover a large portion of a lane or the enemy jungle.
While being on the web, Broodmother has 18% – 48% more movement speed and 5 – 11 bonus HP regeneration. This makes her very hard to kill in the laning phase because heroes tend to harass her without doing sufficient damage. And in 30 seconds, she’s back to full HP.
One of the great things about the web is that they don’t expire. They simply start to disappear when the maximum limit has been reached. The one that you create always replaces the first or the oldest one.
Mana cost: 40
Charge replenish time: 30s
Silken Bola
This ability causes a target to take 100 – 160 damage, miss 40% – 55% of its attacks, move 25% – 55% slower, and take increased damage from everyone else for 6 seconds. This is an amazing tool that Broodmother can use in the laning phase and later into the game to get kills.
Mana cost: 70 – 85
Cooldown: 24s – 12s
Spawn Spiderlings
This is Broodmother’s ultimate ability and can be powerful if used well. Each spiderling deals around 20 damage, but the ability itself deals a lot more: 260 – 420. And if you use its associated talent, it will deal 500 damage at level 3.
Spawn Spiderlings creates 4 – 6 spiderlings that last for 40s – 50s. During this time, you can cast the ability around 7 more times and end up having a huge army that can farm and kill enemy heroes for you.
Mana cost: 120
Cooldown: 9s – 7s
Ability Build Guide
When you play Broodmother in Dota 2, you should try to follow this ability build order:
- Insatiable Hunger: levels 3, 5, 7, 8
- Spin Web: levels 1, 11, 13, 14
- Silken Bola: levels 2, 4, 9, 10
- Spawn Spiderlings: levels 6, 12, 18
If you want to more mobility in the early game, you should prioritize Spin Web instead of Insatiable Hunger or Silken Bola. These three abilities should be maximized in the order that’s most appropriate for each match.
Combo
When playing Broodmother, your combo focuses primarily on farming and not killing heroes. Your goal is to constantly use your ultimate and make sure that you get more spiderlings as frequently as possible.
Use your webs to cover the enemy jungle, then go to each camp with your spiderlings and farm. As you farm, if you have enough mana and, ideally a Soul Ring, make use of all of your spells to maximize your farming speed.
When fighting enemy heroes, the combo is simple: press Q, use your Bola, send your spiderlings to attack, and make sure that you don’t overextend. This hero is extremely good at recovering, so don’t hesitate to leave the fight if you feel like you’re falling too much in HP.
Once you get a Black King Bar, you’ll be far more capable of correctly timing your ins and outs.
Game Plan
This is what good Broodmother players do during their games.
Early Game
In the early game, you should try to get as much as you can out of the lane but without being too aggressive. This is a hero that can get kills or die very easily during the first 10 minutes. And it’s up to you to find the right balance. Wait for your power spikes and then strike.
As soon as you’ve become powerful enough to get kills, put a lot of pressure on the enemy and move closer to his tower, always staying near the trees. Use your webs efficiently, and you will quickly surround the enemy with your spiderlings.
Mid Game
During the mid portion of the game, your job will be to deal as much damage as possible to the enemy team. You may also need to play a supporting role and buy a Pipe for your side. It all depends on what the rest of your team chooses to do.
You will often take part in fights, but you’re still a split-pusher. You must never forget that. Ideally, you want to take down enemy towers and force reactions. Buy you carry the time he needs to grow and win you the game.
For the first 30 minutes, you’re the start of the show. After that, you’re expected to play your part but everyone understands that it’s the carry’s role to be the main damage dealer.
Late Game
After the 35 – 40 minute mark, Broodmother becomes a lot weaker. The hero was not designed to deal with late game scenarios and will often lose if your networth isn’t significantly higher than your opponent’s.
So, ideally, you should try to win before the 40-minute mark. But if the match is still on, buy some powerful damage-dealing items and try to help your team with everything you can.
Counters
Broodmother is naturally countered by heroes that can run her tactics. One example includes Spirit Breaker. Heroes like Zeus are also quote strong against her. Illusion-based heroes are also strong against Brood.
Advantageous Matchups
For Broodmother, an advantageous matchup is that against Doom, Invoker, or Arc Warden. If a hero has problems when trying to deal with all the spiderlings, that hero is likely an easy matchup for Brood.
Most Used Skins
There are lots of Dota 2 skins that you can use when playing Broodmother. Three of the best ones are presented below:
Amber Queen
This Broodmother set turns the spider into a more beautiful and terrifying one.
Widow of the Undermount Gloom
This is another excellent Dota 2 skin that turns Broodmother into a Black Widow with terrifying legs.
Automaton Antiquity
This set will make your Broodmother look extremely mechanical if you love automaton spiders.
