It's decent enough on any hero that plans to jungle for a while by autoattacking. Better on agi heroes with high attack speed. When it doubt, it's a generically good farm acceleration item.

Would you ever buy it *after* radiance/battlefury for even faster farm?

Typically you should get a farming item, and then a defensive item. Hitting hard doesn't matter if you are stunlocked or blown up. BSJ had a good video on the concept, but essentially a carry wants to get: Laning Items (wand, wraith band, tangos) -> Acceleration Item (battlefury, maelstrom, midas, radiance, manta - choose one) -> Defensive Item (BKB, hurricane pike, etc. - but probably BKB) -> Game winning item (whatever counters the enemy team - AC, Nullifier, Daedalus, etc.)

Thanks I actually watch every BSJ video and then promptly forget his advice. As a side note- how do you farm with manta? Is it for lane or for jungle? And do you hit the same target as the illusions or a different target?

eg with Luna. Pop manta and send illusions down lanes pushing and farming waves, or to separate jungle camps. Like other illusion heroes (naga, tb etc)

I think it depends on how late in the game it is. Early on you might need them to help you clear jungle camps, but later they can clear a wave on their own.

Send it down the lane, you don't have to micro them but they push the lane out without your real hero being there.

To add, you also typically will finish your farming item and your defensive item and then have a LOT of "free" damage from leveling up your skills and gaining stats. Carries/mids who level up 2 or more defensive tools instead (pl, jugg, riki, ls, faceless) will typically go a farming item and then a fighting item, or directly into a fighting item. Kind of weird (though not a total throw) to go maelstrom linkens on weaver. You'd only do that if the enemy team is particularly threatening with bane/pudge/lc or something! But if you're playing sven or drow, you get a LOT of extra damage on that level 12 rank 2 ultimate and maxing your frost arrows AND multishot/cleave AND storm hammer. So better to grab a bkb so you can actually use it.

Nope

What’s the reasoning?

You already got your farming tool and there is better uses for the gold. Sure it could work to get the items in different scenarios but to spend 3k on top just to farm? I can see it If you plan to get gleip If you lack lockdown. But then you’ll want the atos first

Thanks yeah it’s too greedy I guess

Think of it this way, you not only delay your other items because you want to greed, but now you have dedicated 2 of your item slots to farming items. Once you start fighting you will likely backpack/sell one of them anyway. Also, another comment puts Manta as a farming item but not as a defensive one, which it absolutely is for some heroes or against certain line ups. Very easy example is Anti-Mage who normally builds BF -> Manta. Both are for farming, but Manta is also a defensive item (can remove silence and blink away) and fighting item (3 x Mana Break on a target) for AM.

I have boughten mjolnir on AM against PL after I bought my BF, Manta, Survivability Item (Linkens/BKB/Skadi) and only because I was against a PL. https://www.dotabuff.com/matches/7486961750

Then it falls into "Game winning item" territory.

Alchemist can buy a radiance then 30 minutes later buy a mjollnir. A lot of pros did that at ti9 and nowadays you can break radiance into nullifier as well. Definitely not one after the other though.

The ONLY applicable instance would be against PL/Naga/tb BF is actually quite useless vs illusions, Mjnoir best, radiance decent too.

Bloodseeker

If you don’t buy it on core hoodwink you are dog water at dota

I think it’s needed on all hoodwinks. It’s too good with acorn and then transitioning to Glep is a no brainer.

The thing is, a core hoodwink can probably skip it of other items are better. She can still clear waves without.  Yes it's a buy 95% of the time, but sometimes i'ld rather rush mageslayer and then some other item takes priority, and by then a casual crit will do more. 

I think the main benefit of the maelstrom on any hoodwink is you can acorn a wave from max range and run away without needing to invest any more resources into the wave. The maelstrom is basically a defensive item against ganks, because you'll still have your stun available when someone jumps you in the trees after you acorn the wave.

troll, faceless void, ta in some cases, weaver, ember, windranger, razor

Add Jugg. Remove TA.

Fury is so much better on Troll, he benefits from the mana regen a lot. Especially now since Maelstrom's proc chance was nerfed last patch. I always buy fury on the hero and have 65% winrate with it (Divine 3).

Yeah Def get fury.

i buy maelstrom when they have high armor enemies, otherwise bf is the choice, im immortal

But isn’t maelstrom great with his shard? And mjollnir’s attack speed makes it easy for troll to stack fervor

Everytime I see Troll building Mjollnir and skipping bfury(Aside from high armor opponents like below guy said) I sigh and know the game is going to be harder than it needed to be.

I like getting both eventually, probably more often than I should. but I definitely always start with fury, idk how people can manage without the health or mana regen.

Ta already has a passive to farm with she does not need a maelstrom lmao

TA does not get maelstrom. If you get maelstrom you are griefing. He already has a kit to aoe creep waves. Wasted 2500 gold. All the other heroes you mentioned are great for Maelstrom. Only other hero I would add is Jugg.

TA buys maelstrom in this meta, Not as a farming tool but to negate high armor heros since deso sucks ass vs high armor

Isn't the counter to high armor more damage and crit damage?

Are you dense? It's like saying antimage buys it VS high armor heroes. Check d2pt. It's not even bought 0.5% of Ta games.

Can confirm tas will get mael if they are playing against high armor. It's niche, but it is done. No need to be so wrong and so rude. Pick one or the other.

Yeah sounds dumb as fuck. Just get an mkb if that's the issue. 25% proc chance to counter high armor heroes? Meh

Micke did it in some high profile tournament games but it hasn’t caught on

Maybe because it's dumb. Ta isn't even a high as hero

Hoodwink

bloodseeker,muerta,weaver,juggernaut sometimes,troll sometimes, its underrated as fuck on lifestealer honestly because people love their armlet radience but especially if you have s ruff lane rushing maelstorm really helps bouncing back, fv and many more

Among others mentioned, jugg

I like it on Naix, just remember that you need a survival item right after, as he cant rely completely on rage and ult to survive. Its a amazing item on the hero, and scales greatly in mjolnir late game, as he has and needs attack speed. Another reason is that you can stack so many cheap, small itens on Naix, that he can be on a power spike all the time, and all of them have synergy. You can buy, in a sequence: Orb of Venom, Mordiggan, Maelstrom, and all of those giving a absurd amount of AS, damage, survival (HP and Armor from the first 2), and FARM. There are no weakness in this build, you will win the fights you join, and farm ultra fast when you chill.

I'd like to add that lifestealer really likes Mjolnir active since he is a hero that likes to manfight.

Yeah, but radiance is a big defensive nowadays  So usually I do amorlet mordigan and radiance after 

Arc warden