I've been focusing on PA as much as I can, where I'm struggling is when I have an early death or two then rushing battlefury just seems counter productive as I'm always behind the opponent in farm. So far when my laning turns to shit I've been turning to Vlad - BKB, is that the best way to go? If you're in a lane vs. spell casters would an early cloak be a good idea?Keep in mind, that while AR definitely is a more casual screw around mode with varied and bizarre games (a definite perk). You do miss out on one very important aspect of improving that all pick allows. You can focus on any 1 hero or heroes for multiple games at a time and make a lot of mistakes back to back to back. You'll see more focused improvement across your mechanics of the game if you really focus in on what's going wrong. By picking the same hero many times in a row it slowly removes many variables that complicate learning (such as how long it takes you to think about when how or why to use a skill to max effect) This all assumes that increasing your skill is one of the primary ways you find fun in Dota - since you can easily play the game for the hell of it and do whatever and build whatever at whatever skill level you currently are. AR is a lot more accommodating to that style of approach to the game in general.
PA is one of my favorite heroes so I can see that your item build depends HEAVILY on how the game's being played. If you see the enemy team has a strong push lineup you need to get your BKB ASAP. I'll almost always go Phase>Vlad>BKB against early lineup teams. I really can't see any time you'd honestly want a cloak, since you're a prime BKB user, just stick with that for your magic protection, when laning against spell casters you're in a tough situation. You basically need your lane mate to help you out. Usually I'll throw 1 point in to dagger if I have a competent lane mate as the slow (speed reduction) does not increase with higher levels and max out Phantom Strike. The 5 second CD on Phantom Strike is really good for lane harass, Strike in to enemy get 4 hits off, strike back to creep. If worse comes to worse, max level dagger over strike, try to CS with it in lane while pulling camps.I've been focusing on PA as much as I can, where I'm struggling is when I have an early death or two then rushing battlefury just seems counter productive as I'm always behind the opponent in farm. So far when my laning turns to shit I've been turning to Vlad - BKB, is that the best way to go? If you're in a lane vs. spell casters would an early cloak be a good idea?