Introduction to this playstyle Top
As an adagio main, I've seen him go through a lot of stages. From the old buff comp, to the lane bully, to the semi-tanky roam, to the worst hero in the game, to his current state as sort of a middle ground between first iteration as a buffing machine and a lane bully.
This guide will focus on how to play him in a more supportive/buffing role, while still being able to dish out respectable damage. Notice how I call it a support role, not roam, these builds will not focus on getting adagio tanky or making him able to engage, but instead will focus on making sure that his teammates are able to carry
This playstyle obviously works best when you have a full team with you but the bare minimum is that you have another player on the team playing a hard carry hero, preferably in lane (e.g. ringo, S.A.W. etc)
Your number one goal should be to make sure that your laner carries hard, so that means
-ganking frequently
-prioritising his life, even if it means you have to tank a kestrel ult for him
-allowing him to take last hits on lane minions when pushing the lane as a duo/trio
Why play adagio in this way
Adagio is actually a very weak jungler by most measures, most people see him as straight up bad. He's not taka who can melt his opponents in 2 abilities, he's not krul who can chase you down, literally across the fold and he's not like skye who can kite circles around you. What he does have going for him is his mid to late game teamfighting. Like his name 'adagio' implies, he should be played at a slow and deliberate pace, with every move meaning something, not just diving in headfirst, hoping to one-shot an enemy.
General gameplan Top
The basic flowchart of a good, realistic adagio game is
1. get gold early
2. gank the lane frequently
3. Pick very safe fights once you've hit level 6, making sure you don't die, running away from a fight should be your default at this point
4. build up to your your 3 item core of AC, Crucible and Shatterglass, in that order (unless the situation calls for something else
5. control objectives like the gold mine and kraken with your ult, don't be afraid to kamikaze for the kraken steal
6. once you hit level 12 and have 4 items, start picking fights whenever possible, staying to the edges of the fight, dealing sustained DPS, healing your tanks and buffing/protecting your carry
Abilities
A - Gift of fire
Max this thing ASAP, skill skip if you need to because this will be what allows you to keep both your energy and health topped up during your clears and while pushing lane. Try to always heal someone when they are nearby minions/monsters/enemy heroes so that the fire actually splashes onto them to give you some energy back. A very well known trick while you're minding the lane is to cast this ability onto a minion so it splashes onto an enemy getting greedy for CS and onto the lane minions. Only use this on yourself if you either desperately need a heal, are getting jumped or if you are trying to spread the fire and slow to set up an ult stun
B - Agent of wrath
You should use this sparingly and in only a couple of situations
Just before a teamfight starts
on yourself when clearing camps (ensure you're also attacking enemies on fire to get maximum effect)
when pushing down a tower or objective
It's a pretty straight forward ability but try not to waste it on someone who won't do much e.g. a CP taka with no abilities up or a S.A.W. with no spinup
C - Verse of judgement
You can tell the poor adagios from the great adagios when you see them use verse of judgement. Bad adagios pop it as a panic button, good adagios pop it as a get off me card, great adagios can either initiate with it or disengage with it equally effectively, there's an art to using the verse effectively and even I still stuff up some verses but it just comes with practice. As much as possible use it on enemies who have been hit by your arcane fire. I will constantly mention self heal-->verse during the guide and it is pretty much your bread and butter during teamfights, when done right, you should be able to splash fire on 2 if not all 3 enemies then stun or at least heavily damage whoever is dumb enough to stay and fight. A few caveats though. First of all, while channeling you are a sitting duck and a kestrel ult and some glimmershots will probably take you out before you get a chance to pull off the ult. Also any hard CC will stop your channel leaving you for dead. Keep in mind that reflex block negates all the CC and damage as well, try to time your heal-->verse combo so that you do it just after their reflex blocks are on cooldown.
Early Game Top
Starting items
Explained simply, take the crystal bit to get you on the way to an alternating current, and obviously a potion and flare. You can opt to start with a swift shooter if you're going to steal their back camps but usually as adagio, I recommend playing the game at a slow and steady pace, because come mid-late game, you will be a monster and if you happen to run into the enemy while invading early, you might end up dying for your troubles because adagio doesn't have huge early game damage (e.g. with phinn's anchor) or a reliable escape (e.g. ardan's vanguard or glaive's afterburn)
Pathing
Standard path
Starting with your backs and working your way back up is the safest option, however, that means if you want to gank early, it will take a little longer to get to the lane and if you want to buy straight away, you'll have to go back down, which might
Top down path
If you have a feeling your opponent won't try stealing your backs, feel free to go top down, then following up by either a gank or invade once you've bought. A Top-Down path is a 50/50 gamble, if you guess right and the enemy is all the way at their top health minion, you can go straight into a gank or steal their backs. If you guess wrong, as adagio, you pay a heavier price than most because as I mentioned before, he has no escape and no high early game damage
On the subject of invades
Generally as adagio I'd avoid invades as you can get killed pretty easily and he's probably the worst early game dueling jungler(close second of CP taka), but if you know the enemy jungler is trying to 2v1 push the lane or is preoccupied with something else, feel free to invade
Remember jungling in any moba depends on the situation, there are no real hard and fast rules, just general guidelines and trains of thought
Teamfighting Top
Teamfighting with adagio is a case of extremes but never in a forced way, you operate well both deep inside enemy lines (provided you have the health and shields to tank the initial assault) and around the edges as a buffing machine and poker. As I said earlier, adagio dictates the pace of a teamfight and given the right circumstances, you can make it as quick or as extended as you want, although as adagio I prefer to drag out teamfights because adagio has amazing sustain.
Engage options
As adagio, you only have 1 hard CC option and that is a verse onto an enemy on fire, which most of the time won't be the case, which is why he works well with heroes with built in CC (e.g. krul's ult, glaive's afterburn or phinn's quibble.
If however, the enemy engages onto your team without targeting you first, this is the textbook situation to use self heal-->ult, because unless you are against a WP saw who is spun up or a kestrel charging up an ult, you should get your spells off in time so that your teammates should still be alive. If you have your atlas or crucible off cooldown, pop them as necessary to keep yourself and your teammates alive during the channel
During the teamfight/cleaning up
If you have just finished a channel of the verse and people are stunned, quickly choose a target and stick to them, if the verse didn't kill them, they should be dead in a second any way, make sure to pick off your targets one by one if you're in that deep, because if all 3 are able to survive the stun, you're toast.
At the edges of a teamfight, stutterstep until your fingers fall off, if you don't already know what stutterstepping or attack-moving is, it's basically cancelling the cooldown of your basic attack animation with a move command, this is absolutely essential to getting maximum damage output from adagio as well as being able to reposition if needed. If the fight starts going bad, don't worry, you can heal your teammates and kite your way out, you have the longest range auto-attack in the game a decent slow and heal and hopefully you should have some boots waiting to go. When cleaning up enemies, make use of gift of fire, if ever there is a chance to set them on fire, perhaps via a minion, do it, that little extra damage goes a long way in cleaning up stragglers
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