A darkness who was ancient even in the early days of the world's existence, Mercurial is the embodiment of rage and vengeance in the souls of those long dead. Haunting her enemies with relentless fervor, she is able to throw a dagger-like projectile that allows her to chase her prey beyond physical boundaries, and the fear and the desolation struck in the hearts of those who have the misfortune of encountering her alone is a pain impossible to withstand. Spectre's thirst for destruction is insatiable, and the upcoming struggle seems to be just what she was waiting for.

Just as higher states of energy seek a lower level, the Spectre known as Mercurial is a being of intense and violent energy who finds herself irresistibly drawn to scenes of strife as they unfold in the physical world. While her normal spectral state transcends sensory limitations, each time she takes on a physical manifestation, she is stricken by a loss of self--though not of purpose. In the clash of combat, her identity shatters and reconfigures, and she begins to regain awareness. She grasps that she is Mercurial the Spectre--and that all of her Haunts are but shadows of the one true Spectre. Focus comes in the struggle for survival; her true mind reasserts itself; until in the final moments of victory or defeat, she transcends matter and is restored once more to her eternal form.

Spectre is an agility hero, meaning they gain damage from alacrity blades or butterfly. However, because of the infamous melee range, Spectre also falls into the pile of "Get Vanguard or DIE" lacking durability carries. Your E skill can help and possibly encourage enemies to stop causing themselves damage, Q can help in escaping (maybe even R if you're lucky). After you're a tank, you can spend the rest of your gold and bounty on damage and find lonely W targets.
Basically, build up durability first just to survive, agility isnt just armor but also 2x your damage rate, and your skills+passives should do the rest until you're a terrifying force of damage and bulk.

So you spawn as a melee carry and wonder which of your skills are most likely to get first blood or prevent it. First what does Mercurial have:

Q: Spectral Dagger- Throws a spirit dagger that draws a shadow on the ground. It can either be a straight throw or a targeted skill, just don't miss. The shadow slows enemies and you can walk over it even through trees. That's right, the terrain means nothing to Spectre every 16seconds so long as she still has 130/140/150/160 mana.


W: Desolate- Does extra pure damage to an enemy hero who is far from their friendly units. This is what makes Spectre so scary, when she doesnt care that you have armor and is doing 20/35/50/65 per slash just because you had to get lost.



E: Dispersion- Enemies of Spectre are given the impossible task of fighting a shadow. 10%/14%/18%/22% of damage done to you is negated and reflected to those around you. While this does help you survive and make enemies think twice before attacking you, it's still advised to get health and armor.





R: Haunt (and Reality, D)- Spectre spawns an illusion near every enemy hero. These illusions share Desolate but not Dispersion. Not a full blown initiation but a useful ganking tool or a good add on to a better initiator. If you see someone alone or a small fight you want to join, use your ult and use Reality to take control of an illusion. A 2vs2 can quickly become a 3vs2 in your favor.


You should get and plan to max either Q or E first. While E can keep you alive, Q's slow is pretty much the only thing you can do to help with ganks early on. W is good when you're fighting lonely enemies and chasing through the forest but nothing special in the organized buddy system of laneing phase. Make sure to watch your mana so you can still Q, it's not a great farming tool and you can barely get two throws with your limited mana early on. Know when you need to be defencive with more E and when it's time to get atleast one point in W. Nothing more to say about R exept 6,11 and 18.

Early game, you suck and need gold for better items FAST. Out of the gate, you should buy basic regen items (Tangos and Heal Salve, a Faerie Fire if you have extra) and either Quelling Blade, Stout Sheild, or maybe both and skip a heal item. Quelling Blade gives melee heros more damage to creeps which is great on anyone who needs farm, although Stout Sheild helps you block physical attacks and will be made into one of your core items. If you're new, I recommend you get both healing items and make a choice between Sheild or Blade. If you have any gold left, branches are very cheap and you can always throw a wand together. DO NOT BUY THE COURIER, you need all the gold you can get.

If you random, that's 825 gold out the gate. With that money you could get a Poor Man's Shield right away. I wouldn't count on it seeing as there's a ton of other heroes but if one day you do random Spectre you won't have to repick.

If it happens you're against someone who spams, magic stick/wand isnt a bad choice and you probably already got a few branches but all gold should be going to your boots and a Vanguard. Don't cheap out and go the full game with just poor man's sheild, you'll regret it. Seeing as Vanguard costs 2250 (-200 if you already got a sheild), you get 1 gold every 0.66 second (~3 gold per 2 second), ignoring the boots you also need (we'll get to those later) you should be able to get a free Vanguard after 25 minutes. But by then the pushers are already at your gate and more likely to die from morbid obesity than your team. Now let's go back into the real world where people work for a living.

You NEED to last hit and get farm. As stated above you will lose the game before getting your first real items if you don't get any more than what you get from tax write offs. So how fast can we get gold? Lets say you and a support can defend your bounty rune at the start of the game from the vandals that might try to steal it, that's a free 100 gold at the start of the game. In a safe lane where you dont die, last enough to not need more consumables and assuming you last hit 1 melee creep every wave (1 wave per 30seconds and 1 melee gives 36 average) that's another 1.2 gold per second. Even better if you can get a range creep they offer an average 45 gold (1.5/second though harder to grab without taking damage). With a generous bounty rune, natural gold and at least one melee creep each wave adding 1.5+1.2/second, now we can get Vanguard in less than 12minutes, all by just walking up to steal one melee creeps pocket change. We're getting better but always try to aim higher, we need maybe 2.5 melee creeps and possibly another rune to get that time down to about 8 minutes. And we still need to pay for boots, not die (losing a ton of time and effort), and just keeping up expirience wise.

Speaking of boots, a standard pair costs 400 gold, that's not too bad and other parts for the upgrades aren't too expensive especially after we went on about 850+1100+stout sheild. You'll likely get a pair of boots together before Vanguard is built and that's fine. But when you decide to buy them, what should you get?

Power Treads (1350g): The most prefered choice. Gives adaptable stats health/damage/mana and needed attack speed, if you can tread switch they can save you much more mana and health ;)

Phase Boots (1240g): If you can control your mana fine early on and want more damage and chaseing power, these will be useful.

Tranquil Boots (900g): If you're getting gold but also losing helth fast, it could be economic to buy these rather than more salves and stay close to lane. Everything you need can be bought from the side shop so no waiting on deliverys. Not what I would get but might work.

Boots of Travel (2400g): If the enemies in your lane are AFK and you're a master farmer, I would rather buy an early Diffusal Blade with all that gold instead of these, just too much and not needed early on. If you get all your core items and want to stop paying for scrolls then you can consider buying these.

Arcane Boots (1300g): No. You need mana but not that often. Let a support get these as they'll spam spells more often and can share.

Early game you want to lane with a babysitter type support who wont need farm. It's not recommended to solo mid as you need gold and safty more than you do levels and early roaming potential. A short list of supports who work:

-Lich for his low skill requirements and counter push spell. His ult is also a good after initiation spell so anything left over will either run to you or get blown to an icey hell (you'ld be suprised how many hells have frozen over).

-Omniknight for a great heal and a passive slow aura. His spell shield can also be useful against certain opponents but at times isn't needed at all, keep an eye on his items and skills to make sure he isn't trying to build a carry omniknight.

-Vengeful Spirit for more damage and a nasty stun. Also one of the few other ghosts who can join Spectre in lane.

If you lane with someone who needs farm, one of you is going to suffer later in the game by giving most of the farm to someone else. Dragon knight, Faceless Void, and plenty other gold hungry heros will try to beat you to last hits and possibly ruin both of your laneing phase. So long as they aren't greedy, most anyone can be a good support.
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Later in the game it's less about safty and more about initiating teamfights to make the enemy scatter. You work best when the enemy is alone so someone else should charge in to break them up while you Haunt afterwards and finish the people who survive. Good initiators include:

-Sand King who creates an earthquake sending enemies running. Comes with his own stun and a poison that causes the enemy to run away from each other as if they were about to expl-oh wait...

-Dark Seer with an army of illusions. While the enemy runs from their own shadows, your shadows chase them down. The speed boost is also a good support spell later in the game but I wouldn't trust a melee mage to let me get farm in lane.

-Tidehunter for his legendary ultimate which includes a stun, large damage and a wide area of effect. If he has a blink dagger he can get in position easily, if not he's a tank and will walk there anyways.


Whatever you do, DO NOT mix Zeus and Spectre. There's nothing worse you can do for a DPS carry than add a burst nuke who does the same job. If someone has already picked Zeus, Spectre might not be the best idea. Anchient Apparition's ultimate and Bloodseeker's passive can also steal some of what you can kill. Nothing against Bloodseeker's noob stomping play style but we don't need 2 clean up carries who like health items. Always consider if a hero can get kills after a teamfight is won before deciding Spectre can fit on the same team and thrive.

Some tips for what to pick when talent options come up.

Level 10: Damage trumps armor everytime.

Level 15: Speed is good if you need it but if you're getting kills fine stats are still great.

Level 20: Attack speed in all cases unless you're still behind and need the health.

Level 25: I'd say health but I also don't get moments where more than one dagger isn't enough or I'm just being lead into a trap that I won't be able to escape in the next 6 seconds anyway.

After staying in lane for most of the time, only leaving by Haunts to help out in kills or counter gank, you should have a Vanguard and put together and some boots. Team fights are starting to form, towers have fallen and you're still not a carry just yet. Gold shouldn't be as hard to obtain but you still need items and it's best not to act invinsible just yet. You're best when alone with your enemy and can be easily taken out if everyone jumps on you.

Continue to not die and farm for your second major purcase, an offensive weapon. I recommend Diffusal Blade, this will stack with illusions and make your slashes burn the enemies mana storages. With the active, it's also a neat tool for slowing and purging nasty effects if needed. Now lets say you don't use the active effects of items, stats wise it gives agility meaning more damage, more pure damage slashes, and a little armor. The mana burn is also very useful, people can't stand Anti-Mage, think how awful he could be with 5 of him with bonus pure damage. If you really like the slow, feel free to buy the recipe again if you want a new set of charges and upgraded stats. Charges wont carry over to the upgraded blade so use most of them if you can.

If you get a ton of gold and do very well, Sacred Relic into Radience is also a good choice. More damage per hit and a damage aura that is shared with illusions, this item works well on Spectre who will continue to do damage until death and only does more damage if they try to get rid of you. Remember to save your gold before buying Alacrity Blades and see if you can get a relic easily. Diffusal is still safer if you just want something to make yourself better with more items but all less dense to buy.

Another alternative rests in Manta Style. An Ultimate Orb is nice but it costs 2150 along with a full Yasha for the final product, but it's very worth it. Creating two illusions to boost your attack speed and just poor pure damage on their open wounds. Also you can send illusions down a lane or into the jungle to farm while you work on another lane which can be helpful in getting fast gold, I mean after you already drop 5000 on this.

Throughout the game, remember to watch where the enemy is. You can escape and gank easily but if a moment for one happens you wont be alerted to it automatically. Team fights are big moments you should help out with using your global ult after the initiation. The sudden appearence of 5 Spectres can help your team without even being there and catch whatever needs to be cleaned up. Illusions wont attack any hero other than the one it was spawned for so if someone runs, one will follow for you to Reality to. If you see an enemy and an illusion seperating from the main group, that means you have a target.

After getting either mana burn, mirror halberd or divine burning presence, you're able to do a lot of damage in your ganks and cleaning team fights while still going off to farm on your own. At first you were annoying, now you're a major force of the team fight, everything from this point on is overkill.

~If you want to become the team tank and be impossible to kill, get Heart of Tarrasque. Not only will you get globs of health, but you will also regenerate it quickly the longer the enemy doesn't try to kill you (not like they wanted to try).

~Butterfly is good for the annoying miss chance which will stop Dispersion but make you slightly tanky while still giving a ton of agility hero damage.

~If someone is dodging your attacks, feel free to drop what you're making (assuming you already got Vanguard and a main damage item) and get Monkey King Bar out of spite. It has good damage but what makes this really good is your attacks will now never miss. Take that Phantom Assassin.

Assuming you didn't get shut down early, could pull off some nice ganks and atleast assisted in teamfights, the enemy will regret letting themselves survive for this long. Even Bane wont leave spawn unless he can take an Ursa teddy with him.

Of course there is no cookie cutter way to buy items, some you're going to want to counter someone annoying.

~Blade Mail- for only 2200 gold, this fine coat of razor sharp stainless steel could be yours. This fine item offers damage, a little bit of armor, inteligence and an active that will make auto attackers melt when they focus you.

~Hood of Defiance- A cloak decorated in regen rings that mages fear. A good replacement for Vanguard if no one is using auto attacks. Can later be turned into a Pipe of Insight but for now it's fine just giving 30% mage resist.

-Drum of Endurance- Usually given to other tanks with mobility problems but an easy speed boost couldn't hurt, besides you'll probably start a team fight with the ability to show up at any enemy so why not carry a wide area buff.

-Eye of Skadi- A slow on hit, a big mess of stats, ranged heros will be jealous it's not nerfed for you, only problem is it costs a fortune. If someone is running fast and you want to punish them specifically, this might just be worth it. Or get the smaller poison modifier and forget about the rest.

-Assault Cuirass- While armor and attack speed are nice, do you really need to buy the aura for everyone? Like the durm, sure why not, you'll be at every team fight anyway.

-Battle Fury- You want to hunt alone people but then again you can encourage people to seperate by causing AoE damage and it helps kill creeps faster during down time, I just think Diffusal Blade has more utility and a sweeter bonus against heroes.

-Gem of True Sight- Only if you need it and you aren't dieing a ton. It'd also be rude to drop this if someone else is building Shadow Blade. Your illusions share the true sight so even Riki can't hide. Shadow Dagger also lets you climb up to where people hide their wards, in case you're not the one carrying all the sentrys.
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Also, a short list of items you should never consider:

~Veil of Discord- You don't do a lot of burst magic damage. Let your friends who do magic damage get it.

~Ghost Scepter- Why the hell would you make yourself unable to attack? Their magic will do more damage but it gets reflected either way.

~Bloodstone- A little over kill on the mana there. Could use the health or come back sooner but the thing is this is meant for massive mana regen, not health.

~Shiva's Guard- Why not get this? Really not that great and costs a lot mostly because of a big intelegence item. I wont condemn it but you could buy a Radience instead.

~Refresher Orb- Oh good, an item that drains all your mana for an ult that only needs to be used once. Having 2 ultimates isn't as good as it sounds when the item costs 5000 gold and for the most part gives mana instead of health and damage.

~Aghanim's Scepter- Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooo. You are not upgrade-able.

Spectre relys on chasing the weak and lonely. Reality-ing to a durable tank isn't recommended even if they are alone becasue it will take you all day to kill them, by then 2 of their teammates will have tracked you down. Anti-mage, Mirana, Weaver and other good escapeists will be difficult to finish off while Storm Spirit will trap you and zip away, Reality after the start of a team fight and just do the damage you can or use it on an easy kill. At the very least don't waste it on heroes who turn invisible/blink away. You don't have a blink, just a slow and ocasionally a wall walk.

Counter tanks and those who summon their own units are also difficult to one vs one. Life stealer will get more life steal as you get more HP, Lycan can summon a pack of wolves when desired negating your offensive passive, also because we lack a stun Pugna and Death Prophet can stand still and channel their life drain spells easy.

The most obvious counter to Spectre is to kill them early. The less gold you get, the later your Vanguard will be. It can be difficult to stop a fed Spectre due to the pure damage and how durable yet damaging they can be so if you are fighting a Spectre, make sure to gank when you can and don't let them get gold. Also just about anyone can buy Scythe of Vyse or Eul Sceptor for disables, not to mention Shadow Blade for free escape.

1. You farmed well, ganked when you could, got some great items and carried your team.

2. You got your core atleast but someone else had a better lane phase than you did, you still won.

3. You farmed well but your team did so well that they won before you reached your skill cap, leaving you with a halfassed score of 2/4 or something. The enemy team got a quicker death than they deserved.

4. The enemy was smart and killed you early. You still showed up to team fights and helped get some kills but they knew you're worth a lot of trouble if farmed. Bottomline, you did what you could.

5. Your team included Zeus, Natures Prophet and Sniper and they stole all the kills. Nothing you can do but scold them, report, and better luck next time.

6. You did bad and you know it was your fault, remember not to be so agressive too early and wait until the enemy is already in combat, alone or fleeing before poping your illusions.

7. You did bad, it was your fault but you wont admit it. In this case, you don't deserve play a team game and should go play Solitaire.