Vamanama! The Titan

Vamana is a melee tank, his survivability is fairly high, and his damage output is reasonable for a tank. This guide focuses on using abilities early game to deal most damage while transitioning to an auto-attack hero(Do still use all of your abilities duh).

Start with reinforced boots and start tanking
1.Reinforced Boots
Early game Tankyness and no one will suspect more then a tank out of you.

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2. The Executioner
By this point with +3 Reinforced boots, the Executioner will give you enough DPS to scare away squishy heroes.

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3. Jotunn's Wrath
Jotunns wrath has some definite Bonuses that are necessary around this time in the game. The Bonus to Physical damage will both increase ability damage and auto attack damage. Your mana pool will increase pretty drastically while your cooldowns will be slightly faster.

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4. Hide of Leviathan
(Before this point, you will run out of mana constantly. I suggest staying in lane as long as possible before returning to base for mana regen as your job is to protect your laning partner)

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5. Hide of the Nemean Lion

Great Items with huge benefit to Physical Defense, while also at Level 3 it returns 25% of your enemies attack right back at them.

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6. Ankh of the Golem

(By the time your here, your auto-attack will be a big threat to any player who isn't building strong tank)
The Ankh will gives you nearly 45 Physical power giving you a huge boost to damage. From this point on Auto-attack. You will hit 200's - 300's very fast (Most Hero's Health around this time, with the exception of tanks, will be around 2000; It will only take about 6-10 hits to kill them, and they will deal minuscule damage to you)

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7. Heavenly Agility

(The speed boost is crucial for multi-laning and fast tower pushing. Plus the Reduction of CC that comes with it is an amazing bonus)

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8. Absolutely up to you, I prefer Beads or Aegis

Finally On Consumables: I personally don't use HP or MP potions early game, but late game I found the best possible thing to do is to use Healing Potions and Potion of Physical Might

Lets discuss the skills in the order I use most.
UmbrellarangUmbrellarang is your main creep clearing tool. Well placed throws can kill nearly the entire creep waves(With the exception of the Large troll melee creeps). The Umbrellarang is also your tool to harass enemy gods early and meta-game. Late game after transitioning into auto-attack, it is used for bonus damage or to finish fleeing heros(There will be a lot of fleeing heros, mages mostly)

Armored UmbrellaThis is definitely a creep clearing ability, use on remaining creep groups after Umbrellarang. I try to use this whenever two or more heroes are guaranteed hits. Late game it serves the same purpose as the above.

Clear The PathClear the path is a phenomenal escape. It is best used when the enemy team attempts to gank you if you over extend yourself. It also serves the purpose of an initiator and chasing tool. Use it wisely, I've fallen into traps attempting to catch enemy gods quite a few times (I'm very aggressive). Finally, use for quickly traversing between lanes. (Final Note: remember you can stop charging anytime by right clicking)

Colossal Fury UltimateI know what your all thinking, Vamana's ultimate makes him an unstoppable force and pillages all those who oppose. This is a common misconception; although it greatly increases his survivability, vamana in his ulti can still easily over extend himself, and without any abilities(the ulti disables your abilities during), you may not be able to escape. And remember, Everyone will probably just run away from you when you flip this big baby on, Your very intimidating 1 on 1. Personally I use his ultimate the most in teamfights or when I do not wish to return to base to heal(Attack creeps and your health will explode +). Now If you see a perfect moment to fight maybe 1 - 3 weak players, flip this ulti on and smash them to bits.

Skill Order:

1. Umbrellarang
2. Armored Umbrella
3. Clear the Path
4. Umbrellarang
5. Colossal Fury
From this point on Max out Umbrellarang while putting points into Colossal Fury whenever possible. Then Max out Armored Umbrella, then finally Clear the Path


Note: Vamana's Passive Sleeping Giant reduces his Ultimate cool down whenever he's attacked by enemy heroes. Remember that this can be beneficial, as long as you don't allow yourself to die trying to reduce the cooldown.

Early Game is simple, stick to a side lane preferably with a ranged hero. Harass as often as possible and use Umbrellarang to push creeps back to the enemy towers. Remember at this point your team mate will require you to tank and keep him alive while he dishes out most of the damage.
Note: During the early phase, your mana will constantly be low. Just remember to harass with Umbrellarang and Armored Umbrella whenever possible. If mid comes to gank you and the carry you are protecting, make sure to keep him safe until he escapes and then use Clear the Way to escape yourself.

Meta game is completely situational.

Situation 1: Your team is Rocking everywhere
Keep doing what your doing duh haha. Continue to push each lane, grab Health Buffs, Mana Buffs, and Defense Buffs from Creep camps. Push towers with creeps and don't worry about enemy heroes, focus towers down and then leave.

Situation 2: Your team is losing lanes(Preferably not yours, but it happens)
Your going to want to push creeps are hard as possible while avoiding enemy gods. Although partake in every team fight that occurs as it is crucial that you are there to tank damage. Attempt to keep your team out of teamfights, because it may result in slaughter fests. Keep your team passive aggressive. Using towers to support and hold while quickly maneuvering to random lanes and pushing creeps and towers. Keep this up and you will easily catch back up

Situation 3: Your middle sucks and fed the enemy carry. Also Known as THE COMEBACK
This can be a scary situation because this carry will attempt to gank, A lot. The more you die, the worse this situation becomes, this is where you must become "that guy" on the team. You will probably piss your team off because they think its better for you to defend towers, but you will be crushing creeps and traversing as many lanes as possible. Avoid every hero, use the jungle to lose chasing gods. Return to base teleport whenever you need to regen your health and mana. (This is where I discovered on accident the carry potential of Vamana). Unlike situation 2, you do not want your team doing this as much with you. This requires stealthy sneakiness that can not be achieved when the entire team is doing it. Plus a benefit is no slaughterfests when your caught. Losing you by yourself is far better then your entire team getting murdered. Keep this up until you can destroy their carry(It will happen and you will probably laugh)

Late Game
By this time you will be unstoppable(unless its really 1 on 5, in which case you deserve to die because... Well no god can handle that). Use your escape whenever necessary, and auto-attack through each tower. The enemy team will be at your mercy (Flip on Ulti whenever you and your team engage in a teamfight)

Pros:
*All around Powerful Mid-Late Game
*High DPS late game
*Considerably Tanky ALL game
*Has an excellent Escape that allows traversing lanes and Chasing
*Very useful in Teamfights
*Can Mid/Solo lane vs Squishies(Mages like: HeBo,Zeus,Ao Kuang, Anubis, and Ra)


Cons:
*Until Late Game, you will have slim to no mana
*If you don't tank early game, your laning partner may be useless
*Has a hard time dealing with other tanks(More of a Stalemate)

For you Lazy ***es Or those who just want the Item/Ability Guide

Skill Order:

1. Umbrellarang
2. Armored Umbrella
3. Clear the Path
4. Umbrellarang
5. Colossal Fury

Max Umbrellarang
Then Max Armored Umbrella
Then Max Clear The Path
Then Finish Colossal Fury -> Add Points whenever possible

Item Build:
1. Reinforced Boots
2. The Executioner
3. Fatalis or Jotunn's Wrath
4. Hide of Leviathan
5. Hide of the Nemean Lion
6. Ankh of the Golem

Buyable Abilities:
1. Heavenly Agility
2. Purification Beads

Consumables:
1. Healing Potion
2. Potion of Physical Might

Lets Talk a Bit about the Fatalis
Many other People dislike the Fatalis because of the factor known as Diminishing Returns, What this basically Means that the Faster Attack speed has diminishing returns[Basically Less Bang for your buck]. There are also no Stats bonuses to Physical Power, which mean in the end, your auto-attack will do less then it could. My Solution: Use on of the Following Items instead.

* Jotunn's Wrath -> This is my Personal Favorite Tradeoff
Jotunn's gives you 40 Physical Power Pretty early, Which means you can dish out a lot more damage earlier. It also Gives a 300 mana Boost, so you can harass much more often. And finally the 20% Reduced cool down makes it a perfect counterpart to Fatalis

* Brawler's Beat Stick
Brawlers Beat Stick is one of the best dps Items hands down. "25% reduced healing and regeneration for 3 seconds" makes any hero a thousand times more likely to back up or have to return to base to heal(more time for you to farm off creeps and push towers). The 15% Lifesteal is an excellent bonus that will keep you in lane a lot longer. 150 Health buff. and finally 15% Critical Strike Chance will help you a lot late game with finishing heroes.

* Heartseeker
All around great item, assuming your enemies aren't killing you a lot {Stacks Physical Power on kills, but they disappear if you die). So up to +85 Physical Power, and you know that means your going to hit a lot harder. Also Faster Movement speed.

* Soul Eater
Probably best item next to Brawlers. +15% Lifesteal helps with survivability. 10% Attack Speed buff will increase damage output. And +300 Health will tank you up. Also Remember the bonuses aura to your teamates.

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*Soloing As A Mid Carry

In my experience, This build allows vamana to solo against squishy gods[Mainy Mages]. Personally I believe Tanks in Mid will catch on soon, as they are somewhat difficult for carry's early game to fight. I do not discourage trying to solo mid with this build, but don't want to hear **** about how "Tanks can't Mid!".

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You may Look these up:

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12/9/2012 9:53 PM Central Time
20 Kills : 4 Deaths : 7 Assists : 23418 Gold
I went solo Middle lane Vs an Ao Kuang

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This is definitley a work in progress, As I came across this build by accident (Our team was getting rolled, and I started multilaning and pushing towers, and we ended up winning). Post all Suggestions and changes. I will add a "Suggestion from Others" Section to this guide.