Scythe of Vyse

Every Dota player knows what this item does. You click a hero, they turn into a pig, they cannot move properly, cannot attack, cannot use spells, cannot use items, and they stand there completely helpless for almost three seconds while your team deletes them. The community called it Sheepstick in DotA because it used to turn heroes into sheep. In Dota 2 it is a pig. The name changed. The terror did not.

What makes Hex different from every other disable in the game is the combination of what it removes simultaneously. A stun stops movement and abilities, but the target can still be saved by a teammate's dispel. A silence stops spells, but the target can still attack, move, and use items. Hex does all of it at once—silence, mute, and disarm—and it cannot be dispelled. There is no Guardian Greaves, no Lotus Orb, and no Eul's self-cast that removes it. Once you hex someone, those almost three seconds are happening whether they like it or not.

The movement speed mechanic is also worth understanding. Hex does not apply a slow—it sets the target's base movement speed to a crawl. This means movement speed bonuses from items and abilities still apply on top of that base. A Phase Boots carry who gets hexed is a little faster than a Tranquil Boots carry who gets hexed, but both are completely unable to act. The distinction matters when you are chasing—they will cover a little more ground than you expect, so start your follow-up spells immediately.

The stats backing the active are excellent for intelligence heroes—a large intelligence bonus and massive mana regen that lets you cast your full combo without running dry. On supports and spellcasters who are already building toward a mana-heavy build, this item feeds directly into everything else they want to do.

When you need to guarantee that one specific hero cannot participate in a fight for the most critical window of it—and when you need that guarantee to be undispellable.

The heroes that force you to build it: mobile cores who cannot be caught by slower disables. Storm Spirit, Anti-Mage, Puck, Void Spirit, and Ember Spirit—heroes that blink or dash out of every other CC attempt the moment it lands. Hex has enough cast range that you can land it before they react, and once it lands, there is no escape mechanic that removes it. You cannot Ball Lightning out of Hex. You cannot phase shift out of hex. You cannot Manta Style it off. It just runs its duration, and those heroes stand there.

It is also the cleanest answer to illusion-based heroes. Hex instantly destroys illusions—one cast on a Phantom Lancer or Naga Siren in their illusion army removes whichever one you clicked, which is valuable when you are trying to identify and kill the real hero under pressure.

Support or core, it does not matter. Any hero with the gold and the mana sustain to use it benefits. The question is never "Should I build Sheepstick?"—it is always "Can I afford it, and is it the right time?"

Skip it only when you are already drowning in gold-inefficient situations and the game is too fast for a late-stage expensive item. If the game is ending in the next ten minutes and you are behind, there are cheaper disables. But if the game is going long and the enemy has one hero who is making your life miserable every fight—you know exactly what to build.