Building to Power Treads

Your new friend.

Power treads are one of the more versatile items in Dota 2. You'll see them used in almost every game. With techniques like tread switching they can help increase your mana pool, better your chances of surviving a fight and extend the power of regen items.

A lot of newcomers don't think about the order of building towards items. If you buy items outright then it's not an issue, but during early game it can be smart to take quick advantages over you opponent by piecing items together.

All components of Power Treads can be purchased in the side lane shop. Building towards power treads require Boots of Speed, Gloves of Haste and either Belt of Strength Band of Elvenskin or Robe of the Magi.

The order is important unless you have the 1450 gold to buy it all at once. Ideally you'll buy the boots, then the stat item, and finally the Gloves of Haste. There isn't a laning hero that benefits from more attack speed over survivability in early game. Buying Boots of Speed before the +6 Stat item or vice a versa is situational, Gloves of Haste should be kept as the final component.

Let's look at the components.

Boots of Speed grant you +55 movement speed, this increased mobility allows you to better position for abilities and ganks while also letting you chase and escape enemies more easily. All of these advantages make the boots of speed a necessity for any hero.

Gloves of Haste increase your attack speed by +15. In early game it is far more important to have survivability than more attacks per second.

Now the +6 stat items. The Belt of Strength, Band of Elvenskin and the Robe of Magi are all capable of building towards power treads but there are advantages to each of them. Advantages that can help you survive, farm or even give you more mana for spells.

The Belt of Strength grants you +6 strength. This translates to an additional 116 HP and .18 HP regen. Having 116 extra HP is huge early game. A number of heroes don't have much more than 500 HP and getting an extra fifth of HP is invaluable. Though the regen is slight, it adds up and can help you to stay in lane longer.

The Band of Elvenskin's +6 agility gives you .85 armor and +6 attack speed. The armor is negligible and the attack speed doesn't do enough for you in lane.

 

Robe of Magi boosts your mana pool up by 78 and increases the regen by .24. This is only a small boost to mana and the regen isn't significant enough for early game viability. Unless you're really confident as a solo mid intelligence hero with inexpensive nukes you should avoid this.

The Belt of Strength is the smartest stat item choice for any hero building towards Power Treads. It gives you a chance to recover from harass quicker and might save you from death due to a larger amount of HP. Remember, early deaths will set you back and delay your power treads and possibly all future items.

Once you finish your treads they'll start off with the stat component's attribute. Assuming you built with a belt of strength your brand new Power Treads will start on strength. This will boost your 116 HP bonus to 152 HP, regen will go from .18 to .24. Your attack speed bonus will go from +15 to +25. Movement speed will increase from +55 to +60.

One of the most valuable parts of Power Treads is it's ability to switch attribute. You can cycle between Strength, Agility and Intelligence. Tread switching is a very big deal and can optimize your gameplay. It's a great technique that will have to be saved for later.

 

Note: These are not laws or rules and everyone's play style is different. My intention is to show the advantages to building Power Treads with boots or stat item first and guide newer players away from building gloves first. While I think Gloves of Haste are best saved for last there are exceptions like with Enchantress.