A (not so) small guide to For The King: Beacon Fire

Disclaimer: I know this should belong to /r/dota2customgames, but that subreddit is barely read, so even if this post gets voted into oblivion, it'll still get more visibility and maybe get more people to try out this Custom Game.

Hey everyone and welcome to a not so small guide to one of the greatest Custom Games we have in Dota2 right now. This isn't a pledge for people to try this game out, as it's already played by quite a bunch of players, but rather some help for newbies to find their way around in this game which is already played by a good amount of pretty skillful players - which leads to onesided matches. Hopefully i can do something about that with this guide.

First of all, if you're not familiar with the game - best to try it out, because it's not that easy to describe. What i can say though is that it's easily one of the best custom maps out there - fairly balanced, many different viable strategies, overall bug free, easy to learn but hard to master. I've played quite a bunch of all kind of custom maps and they generally lack depth in gameplay, but this one is different. So, without further introduction, let's get started.

Please not that i'll use the Dota2 hero names so it's easier to recognize units ingame.

**BASICS**

- ALWAYS start out with a frontliner! Read the descriptions: frontliners are (most of the time) melee units and generally characterized by high HP, very often Heavy Armor and/or skills to help them tank. Starting with ranged units will almost lead to pretty quick losses because the enemy will break through. There are notable exceptions like Necrophos with his summons, Mirana (Luna upgrade), Shadowfiend (who upgrades to a fairly tanky melee vs. some units), Winter Wyvern or Jakiro who're both pretty tanky. Still: always try to have melees in front, especially as some powerful buffs only work on melee units.
Overall the best first-wave-frontliners are: Lycan, Sven, Void, Ursa, Tuskar, Broodmother (upgrade from Nyx), Brewmaster, Geomancer, Naix or Slark.

- DO NOT spam non-upgraded units ESPECIALLY at the start, rather upgrade one unit fully. Non-upgraded units generally are pretty weak and it's very easy to counter mass unit spams. I'll get to that later. Not spamming too many units before you know your enemy's strategy and units also has other benefits, i'll get to that later aswell. Pick a good frontliner and upgrade it, then chose your next unit based on what your enemy brings to the field.

- UPGRADE CRYSTALS/RECRUIT CRYSTAL COLLECTORS! This is one of the most common mistake even seasoned players make. It's not mandatory to spam crystals on cooldown, but you have to upgrade your crystals and you have to do it in time. There are tons of benefits that come with having lots of crystals, the most obvious one being: upgrading your King and his troops so he can kill off some troops that broke through, getting more income by upgrading king and buying mercanaries, and of course the mercenaries themselves. Even if you break through on the first 10 or 15 waves constantly, you'll LOSE eventually when you do not use that advantage to upgrade crystals while your enemy does.

- MIND ATTACK DAMAGE AND ARMOR TYPES! It's so often that i see people spamming units with Magic or Piercing damage against my frontliners with fortified armor - naturally, he'll get overrun even when i field 500 or 800 less troops than him. Try to build armor and damage types according to what your enemy brings to the field. It's generally a very bad idea to keep spamming one damage/armor type as it'll be very easy for your enemy to react accordingly.

**ADVANCED**

- ARMAMENTS: There's a huge variety of armements, and you should buy some pretty early because their advantages can be gamechanging. A few examples would be Stout Shield vs. mass unit spammers or summoners, Gloves of Haste to buff up single units early in the game that have proc effects or profit from high attack speed (Earth Spirit, Zeus, Lich, Puck, Medusa, Brewmaster for example), Drums to ensure you break through, Urn to kill powerful backliners or to heal your units ... and so on. Sometimes all you need is to win the initial wave so you build up momentum which is when active items might be very powerful, or you have the perfect armor type against your enemy (but maybe not the best attack type) which is when you might consider buffing your unit's armor with chainmail. Use items, they're very powerful and can turn the tide in battle. Note that you can use active items on other lanes aswell! So you can help out your friends who're under pressure.

- MERCENARIES: As i already said, you need to upgrade crystals so you can hire mercs. Some of them are insanely powerful and can really give you an edge. It's important to note that you can send Mercs to lanes other than your own aswell - they'll help your friend and you'll get the gold for lasthits they might score.
Personally i haven't found much use in the lesser Mercs, the first Merc which in my eyes is really useful is Ogre Magi, who's especially useful when you have beefy frontliners in the earlygame who'll stand longer with the healing aura buffing them up.
Alpha Wolf is not only a pretty cheap tank (fortified armor!), but also ramps up your damage quite a bit. Often enough this Merc is the first one i'll buy with my excess crystals. He does very little damage by himself, but tanks decently thanks to his armor type.
Satyr Trickster is great if you already have momentum and want to ensure you do break through and don't get caught up in basefights, generally a good Merc to buy if you're already winning so you make sure your enemy has less time to prepare a comeback of any sort.
Wildekin is one of my most commonly bought Mercs, as he's not only pretty tanky by itself, but also buffs up your whole army with his awesome Armor aura. He'll give as much armor as a level1 chainmail, while providing some extra damage and tankiness. I'll try to mix this Merc in very often when i have enough crystals.
Mud Golems are a great ranged damage unit, apart from that there's not much to them.
Satyrs offer insane damage. Note the base attack time! That paired with -armor and crit and you've a very powerful damage unit. He suffers from being UN-ARMORED, though, so don't field him when your frontliners die very quickly as he'll get ripped apart in no-time.
Hellbears are insanely tanky and deal a fair amount of damage, note the damage type and base attack time! He can shread large amounts of small units very quick, especially when further buffed with Venge, Witchdoctor, Gloves of Haste etc.
Doom and Roshan are both luxury units. Yes, they are very powerful and offer a lot, but they're only really affordable in the deep lategame when you've 8/8 crystals

- COMMANDER ABILITIES: Charge and hold are most important here. You should use both frequently, Charge to keep your momentum, Hold to try to fight in your base (you get a damage and armor buff when fighting in base! This helps to build up more ranged units to gain momentum). Those are important skills to control your lane, and especially fighting in your base (or avoiding to fight in the enemy's base!) is VERY important.
Rain of Arrows is your safety spell, make sure to not waste it - but do NOT hold back on it if you see that your first frontliner is completely countered, as you unlock a 100% refund skill on a single statue after you used Rain of Arrows. So, if you realize that you're 100% countered after the first wave and you have a decent alternative in your arsenal, by all means: use your rain of arrows early! The 100% refund is very potent in the early game, but loses it's power later in the game.
Replace Build List is pretty self-explanatory. Just be careful when replacing your build list when you have very powerful buffing units like Ezalor, Lich, Venge, Witchdoc or Maiden in your current build list. I'd almost always advise to build at least one of those units before you replace your build list, as they offer a lot to pretty much everything you might want to build later.
Firmly defense is a very, very powerful skill that isn't used much, unfortunately. Basically you'll get gold everytime the enemy breaks through on your side, but you won't get gold from breaking through yourself and your units that might manage to break through will only have 5% of their max HP. In other words, you should use it when you're losing hard and have no chance to come back at all on your lane, which is seldom once you know the game, but it does happen. You'll have to rely on your teammates to win the game, but you can concentrate on building crystals, using Mercs on your friend's lanes, buying very expensive lategame Armaments and upgrading your King. By all means: USE IT if your teammate is winning his lane hard and all that is holding him back is your enemy breaking through on your lane all the time. You'll get tons of gold and will be able to contribute to your team's victory.

- YOUR KING: Keep in mind that you can control your king, and you'll have to do that in order for him to use his skills - he will NOT use them by himself. In order to fight off attackers more efficiently, use him to attack every buffing unit first (Mercs, Armor buffs, units like Witchdoc, Maiden, Ezalor) followed by units that do the most damage against his fortified armor.

**EXPERT**

- DUTY GENERALS: Glow is one of the most powerful Duty Generals if you're playing against an enemy who's not focusing on Crystals. Focus on crystals yourself, upgrade your King's HP, and once your enemy breaks through with a huge wave, wait for the king's troops to spawn, release Glow and watch your gold count rise. This ain't viable in the later stages of the game as she's faily squishy, but it'll punish players who do not focus on crystals enough very hard.

- TEAMPLAY: There are many powerful active items in the game. It's pretty common when you play against strong players that games tend to be fairly close, so you should try to coordinate your actions with your teammates (if they're able to, this game is flooded with tons and tons of Russians). For example, focus all your Mercs on one lane so it breaks through and forces the enemies to upgrade their king, time your active items so one lane gains momentum by stacking ranged units, stack up crystals and release all duty generals at once. Also, you can analyse your and the enemy's troops on all lanes and decide who should focus on upgrading crystals and who should try to breaks through as much as possible.


That's it for now, apologies for my poor wording and bad English. Feel free to ask questions and to add anything i might have forgotten. This "guide" was created on a whim and i'm not claiming for it to be complete or comprehensive, i'm just trying for people to get into one of the best Custom Games there are right now.

Thanks for reading