"Can you imagine what I would do if I could do all I can?"

Invoker is the most versatile hero in the game. Regardless of what roles in the Learn Tab you see, he can be pretty much almost anything. Supporting, initiating, carrying, disabling, roaming, there is nothing he can't do. You don't believe that? Keep on reading!

While the popular belief is that Invoker must always mid, this is not true. I'm not saying he shouldn't go mid, but it's not the only option. Depending on the role your team needs you to fulfil you can sidelane, jungle, or sometimes solo in the hardlane as well. (note that sometimes these options are not all available as well). Although mid might be the best choice, sometimes you cannot have mid due to confusion in picks or bad communication with your team or the enemy team has a strong dual mid that shuts Invoker down.
So in other words, when you can mid succefully, go for it. If you can not, however, do not despair you can be effective in other lanes as well.

more info about how, when and where should you lane, below on each role.

I must warn you: some are extreme builds that succeed in specific games with special circumstances. Thus I will list them in 3 categories: Classic builds, Special builds and Extreme builds.
The "Classic" are the ones that you see most of the times in games from Invokers that know what they doing. Their probabality of a build of those being useful in a game is extremely high.
The "Special" are builds that you might have seen even more than once, but you didn't think about it much. Their probability of a build of those being useful in a game is average to high.
Finally, the "Extreme" builds are quite rare, considering the rarity of Invoker picks in public games, you have probably never seen them before. Their probability of a build of those being useful in a game is below average.
What these probability low, average and high mean? This means that if you take a random game game and you put Invoker in this game, it is more probable that the most suitable build for this game would be one of the classic ones. Less probable that the suitable build for this game would be one of the Special ones and even less probable that the suitable build for this game would be one of the Extreme ones. However, the effectiveness of the builds does not change.
So in the next chapter

To use this build in game, subscribe and favorite here: "The Controller" in-game build
A build that focuses on slowing and disabling, letting your teammates do the damage, while you controlling the enemies' movements.
Lane: Mid or Dual side-lane
Main orbs to level:





Main skills to utilize at early-mid game:





Item build:
While it's awesome if you get all of them, usually you get to choose between Euls / Force and Sheepstic / Orchid .




Pros & Cons
+

• Fantastic mobility
  
• Initiating and forcing fights with ease
  
• Hard to die, due to mobility and lots of disables on the run
  
• Very strong mid game presense
  
• Extremely durable at laning phase with no gold cost
  
• Enough disables for everyone, no enemy is left untouched

-

• Quite hard last hitting at laning phase, due to no exort dmg
  
• No sunstrike power at early/mid game
  
• Low single target damage output

To use this build in game, subscribe and favorite here: "The Threat" in-game build
This build is the famous Sunstrike build, where you show your global presence by Sunstriking to help in the early ganks while in laning phase. In mid game it has the also famous kill combo with Euls (Euls, Sunstrike, Meteor, Blast).
Lane: Mid lane
Main orbs to level:





Main spells to utilize early-mid game:





Item build:




Pros & Cons
+

• Very easy last hitting at laning phase
  
• Good harassing capability at laning phase
  
• Sunstrike power at its maximum and at the earliest time
  
• Vast global presense
  
• Extremely high damage output to single target
  
• Able to focus, disable and kill enemy carries at almost all stages of the game

-

• Squishy like Crystal Maiden
  
• Low mobility at early game
  
• Lacks strong disables of any form
  
• Weak vs very mobile heroes

To use this build in game, subscribe and favorite here: "The Heavy Hitter" in-game build
A build that excels in tearing down low armor enemies in early game, and almost all enemies in mid game, as for late game, you usually win before that happens. Focuses on usage of forge spirits and reducing the enemy's armor as much as possible.
Lane: Mid lane
Main orbs to level:





Main spells to utilize early-mid game:





Item build:
Item choice of boots is up to you here, choose one of the listed boot items.




Pros & Cons
+

• Able to solo Roshan
  
• Extremely high damage output vs INT and STR heroes
  
• 1-2 spells + right clicking = profit
  
• Snowballs faster than other carries
  
• Easy last hitting at laning phase
  
• Sunstrike capabilities early on
  
• Good harassment ability at laning phase

-

• Not so strong vs AGI heroes later on
  
• Can't kill very mobile heroes easily
  
• A bit squishy early game
  
• Needs a lot of careful positioning

To use this build in game, subscribe and favorite here: "The Supporter" in-game build
The one and only pure support build for the master of spells. Relies purely on your team and you are providing assistance.
Lane: Dual side-lane or Jungle
Main orbs to level:





Main spells to utilize early-mid game:





Item build:
Again one of the 2 boot choices, depending what your lane needs most.





Pros & Cons
+

• Very easy harassment on lane
  
• Possibly the hardest "support" to kill
  
• Scales far better than the other supports
  
• Can jungle and gank the nearby lane

-

• Not feasible for trilane
  
• Sharing exp might feel very slow

To use this build in game, subscribe and favorite here: "The Game Master" in-game build
Probably the most unique build of all, (also my favorite), the most versatile and the most non counterable. The most hard to use as well. Focuses on using all spells of Invoker maximizing his unpredictability and usefulness in all situations. The drawback in this is that none spell (except Deafening Blast) will reach it's full potential soon.
Lane: Mid
Main orbs to level:





Main skills to utilize at early-mid game:










While this build uses all skills, Deafening Blast really shines on this build.
Item build:




Pros & Cons
+

• The most flrexible build of all, has something to say about everything.
  
• Easy last hitting early on
  
• Easy lane control
  
• Very strong Deafening Blast
  
• Scales the best at late game compared to the other builds
  
• Has nukes, disables, mobility, pretty much everything.

-

• Has everything, excels at nothing (except deafening blast)
  
• Requires quick thinking, quicker decision making, and even quicker fingers.

To use this build in game, subscribe and favorite here: "The Thunderbolt" in-game build
A carry build, that will melt enemies faster than they expect. Best used when your team composition contains some heavy crowd control (other than you) and lacks damage output.
Lane: Mid lane or sidelane (as carry)
Main orbs to level:





Main spells to utilize early-mid game:





Item build:





Pros & Cons
+

• Extremely high damage output on single target
  
• High damage output on multiple targets.
  
• Very easy gameplay
  
• Easy last hitting early game
  
• Good mobility
  
• Global presense early game.

-

• Squishy, squishy and squishy. Did I mention squishy?
  
• Might find difficulties farming the core items
  
• No disables

To use this build in game, subscribe and favorite here: "The Summoner" in-game build
A build that excels in pushing fast, really fast. Useful when combined with other strong pushing heroes like Lycanthrope. Similar to " The Heavy hitter" builds, but your role and items are completely different.
Lane: Mid lane
Main orbs to level:





Main spells to utilize early-mid game:





Item build:




Pros & Cons
+

• You vs Towers = 11-0
  
• Easy Roshan kills
  
• Tanky
  
• Enemies cant really focus you
  
• Very effective roamer in mid game.

-

• Micro skillz needed. Select all isnt that much effective.
  
• Letting your minions die, feeds gold to the enemies.
  
• It hates Earthshakers

To use this build in game, subscribe and favorite here: "The Armageddon" in-game build
The manual of apocalypse summarized in this build. The epitome of magical damage is achieved here. A build that focused on Dual casting Meteor, Blast, EMP and SHivas, all under the effects of Veil of Discord. Mayhem guaranteed.
Lane: MId lane
Main orbs to level:





Main spells to utilize early-mid game:





Item build:





Pros & Cons
+

• Best AoE damage output of all builds
  
• Insane impact on teamfights
  
• Promotes team play abilities, enchances your team's AoE spells

-

• Black King Bar

To use this build in game, subscribe and favorite here: "The Jungler" in-game build
A pure jungler build for Invoker when your other option lanes do not seem very favorable. The jungling method differs depending on which side you are on. On the Radiant side you are farming Ancients, on the Dire side you are farming the medium camp while stacking the small or the big camp. I would make videos showing those, but Grimorum has done this already and posted them on youtube so I'll be directing you to his videos.
Important note: This build is heavily dependent on luck (when on radiant side) due to differences in creep spawns. So I'd recommend to have this build always as alternative when your laning is unfavorable and not as 1st choice.
Radiant side: Ancient farming at radiant side
Dire side: Cliff farming at dire jungle by Grimorum
These videos give you the main idea of how it is done. This might be possible for every ranged hero, but Invoker has more assets to it. He can sunstrike while doing it, he has Alacrity to speed up his farming, and he has meteor to kill a stacked camp.
Lane: Jungle
Main orbs to level:





Main skills to utilize at early-mid game:





While this build uses all skills, Deafening Blast really shines on this build.
Item build:




Pros & Cons
+

• Easy farming.
  
• Noone to stop you.
  
• Sunstrikes are impossible to dodge

-

• Decent but not the best experience gain
  
• He's good at it (jungling), but not the best.
  
• They can block your camps if they notice. (usually they do not)

To use this build in game, subscribe and favorite here: "The Assassin" in-game build
One of the heavy ganging builds of Invoker, usually the most roaming build of all. Focuses on ganging heroes without escape mechanisms and finishing them off quickly. Activating MoM and alacrity, initiating with Shadowblade, applying Coldsnap and Medallion while hitting. Not many can survive that.
Lane: Mid
Main orbs to level:





Main skills to utilize at early-mid game:





Item build:
Boot choice up to you.




Pros & Cons
+

• Easy last hitting at laning phase.
  
• Good harassment capabilities
  
• High burst damage after the 1st core item
  
• Can shutdown almost any hero you focus on at early-mid game
  
• Very cheap item build
  
• Very effective roaming

-

• Can be countered by excessive warding or early 5-man-dota
  
• Squishy
  
• Before you get BKB you're very weak against nukes like Laguna, Finger of Death etc

To use this build in game, subscribe and favorite here: "The Slow Punishment" in-game build
This build focuses on dealing damage over time while slowing down enemies as much as possible.
Lane: Mid lane or sidelane (as carry)
Main orbs to level:





Main spells to utilize early-mid game:





Item build:




Pros & Cons
+

• Can kite almost everything, even heroes with blink.
  
• One of the few (invoker) builds that doesn't fear BKB
  
• High survivability
  
• Devastating vs heavy melee threats
  
• Excellent vs Blade mail users.
  
• Good damage over time

-

• Very expensive
  
• Weak until 15-20min (meaning before you get Radiance)
  
• Not very effective against Ranged Carries with BKB

To use this build in game, subscribe and favorite here: "The Drainer" in-game build
Specialized to counter mana dependent teams (e.g. Medusa, Leshrac etc) this build excels in draining all their mana.
Lane: Mid lane
Main orbs to level:





Main spells to utilize early-mid game:





Item build:





Pros & Cons
+

• The most sneaky type of hurting the enemy team
  
• Renders the whole enemy team uncapable of casting within few seconds
  
• High mobility
  
• High ganking potential

-

• Low damage output when enemy is drained out of his/her mana
  
• Hard last hitting and lane control at early game
  
• Weak disables

To use this build in game, subscribe and favorite here: "The Stunner" in-game build
A very anti-carry orientated build, that focuses on disabling the enemy carry no matter what.
Lane: MId lane
Main orbs to level:





Main spells to utilize early-mid game:





Item build:





Pros & Cons
+

• Good damage output on single target
  
• You can disable even when in BKB
  
• High mobility
  
• High ganking capabailities
  
• Quite simple gameplay

+

• Hard last hitting at early game
  
• Might a bit expensive
  
• Hates Phantom Lancer.

With Invoker being the king of versatility, you simply cannot ignore hybrid builds! Hybrid builds emphasize on versatility while sacrifcing strong utility. What that means? You will have more stuff to do, but those stuff will be weaker compared to a pure focused build. But again if you wanted focused builds, you wouldn't have picked Invoker, right?
This Hybrid build was made with "The Controller" and "The Threat" (and some aspects of "The Armageddon") in mind. However instead of disabling the opponents to control them, you boost your positioning to control the battlefield.

NOTE: This section is not finished yet. Builds here may be subject to change, I'm still experimenting, though close to finalizing the whatever build is posted here.


To use this build in game, subscribe and favorite here: "The Playmaker" in-game build
This build emphasizes on huge mobility to trap and escape from the most agile enemies. Combined with a damage deadling team with light crowd control makes Invoker playing in his own game. Tons of ways to initiate and escape. I have to admit it started as a fun/troll build, but it works extremely well with good team setups.
Lane: Mid or Safe lane solo
Main orbs to level:






Main skills to utilize at early-mid game:





Item build:
Too bad you have only 6 slots. Well, fill them with those:





Pros & Cons
+

• If you played The Controller build and liked the mobility there, this one is 2x times better.
  
• Initiating and forcing fights with ease.
  
• Hard to die, due to insane movement speed and escape mechanisms.
  
• Very strong mid/late game presense
  
• Lots, lots , lots of stuff to do in fights.

-

• Since this is a hybrid build, you wont see the insane mobility from start, be patient until mid game.
  
• Early game (laning) , you'll be extremely squishy.
  
• Last hitting might be an issue at the first 7 lvls.
  
• Enemies with Black King Bar will spoil much of your fun. You have nothing to do against them, but they wont kill you either.

There's lots of discussion about Hand of Midas on Invoker. Here I'll explain the pros and cons, when you should buy it, when you shouldn't, and why do you buy it.

In contrast with other heroes that get this item, Invoker needs the Hand of Midas for the experience boost mostly, rather than the gold. Transmuting a high level jungle creep, is more experience gain than 2 waves of lane creeps. This way, you'll keep ahead of your opponents easily on levels if your team is winning, and you're keep at the same levels without problems if your team is losing (sometimes you'll be ahead even if losing). Of course the extra gold is welcome, but that should never be the reason you're buying it.

Analysis of Hand of Midas' efficiency says that you should buy it until minute 6-7 otherwise do not buy it at all. This mathwork was calculated for income part of the Hand of Midas, in order to give you profit and compensate for the 1900 gold you spent. Experience though is not limited to such early stages. Even if you get it after your phase boots , or even after Euls, your Midas will help you get the experience you may be lacking. This however does not make a late Hand of Midas as useful as an early Hand of Midas. So keep in mind that while you can get a bit later, getting MUCH later is not so efficient.

Hand of Midas is a risky item for Invoker. It's practically a gamble. Going straight for Hand of Midas leaves your with a difficult task in laning phase. Enemies with spammable spells and bottle will give you a hard time and will probably win the laning phase against you. If you see that might be the case, you can either skip the Midas entirely to shut down your opponent, or delay it until you get your complete boots (phase or treads). Sometimes though , enemies will not pose a threat that you can't handle, and a straight Hand of Midas is desirable. Such cases are Pudge, Nyx, Death Prophet, Clockwerk etc.

When your slots are filled or your already 25, or when you don't have time to roam to jungle to get those creeps. Either case results in Hand of Midas being kind of useless and the extra gold (or slot) might help you in other ways.

The question is to what degree.
If you just started Dota 2, I suggest you leave Invoker for a bit later, it's not gonna be very pleasant for you now.
If you are playing in low tier, Invoker is probably already hard for you, but getting used to one of the Classic or Special builds will win you many games.
If you are playing in mid tier, certainly all of those are more than viable, anything can happen in mid tier games.
If you are in high tier, you'll find that the classic builds work well always , special builds quite often and extreme builds not very often. But again, if you are in the high tier, you should see which build is needed in your game, thus making w/e build you use quite useful.
If you are higher than high tier, you probably know most of those builds and how/when to use them.

There are even more builds with Invoker, I chose the 16 most successful to present you. They are not theoretical builds, I've spent countless games experimenting with builds and I know they work. You just have to find the build your game needs. Choosing a build with a random criteria, wont work.

"Know thy self, know thy enemy. A thousand battles, a thousand victories."

First of all, you must realize that success or fail depends much on this choice here. How will you build your Invoker. To someone without much Invoker experience the Invoker plays seem all similar. However for someone who wants to take his Invoker on the next level and emphasizes on every detail, leaving nothing at random, for someone who wants to utilize every aspect of his hero to the maximum, and every item to not only have perfect synergy with his role but also at the less cost possible; for all those players this step is the most important.

As a start I'll categorize the build in Invokerism in terms of simpler roles based on their main function (they might have a secondary as well).

The Heavy Hitter
The Thunderbolt
The Assassin
The Slow Punishment
The Jungler

The Supporter

The Threat
The Controller
The Game Master
The Drainer
The Stunner

The Armageddon
The Playmaker*

The Summoner

*The Playmaker at mid game is also roamer/ganker.

Now that you now the basic function of each build, you can start choosing what you gonna play next game. WRONG. You can't possibly choose a build without knowing your team's picks or the enemy picks. Each hero composition requires a different Invoker setup.
Examples:
A) Your team prepares a trilane that includes SD, Jakiro and Alchemist. This is a nice opportunity for any Sunstrike build, since you can help the trilane secure their kills and give easy advantage. Now if your offlaner is a Weaver, you probably dont need to go for a carry build, so the options with sunstrike left are The Threat and The Playermaker. Now check the enemy team. You see an Antimage pick and some supports. This calls for The Threat, since you can solo kill an Antimage with an Eul's combo. So the choice is made.
B) Your team has two dual lanes where a carry exists on each. Let's say Chaos Knight and Void. These two carries work differently and cooperate well with different Invoker builds. So let's look at our supports. Lets say CK has a Wisp with him and void has a Dazzle. You notice that the disables on your team are not really reliable. Their lanes will need help to secure kills. This calls for a roamer/ganker build. As a first choice The Controller seems fine. However there is an alternative choice, The Threat which might not have many CC but can works quite well with Chronosphere. Holding these 2 choices we look at the opponent team. You see a Queen of Pain that will possibly face you at mid. This will be a quite hard match up if you choose The Threat, due to very low regen against her strong harassment. On the other hand The Controller can easily outplay QoP by harassing it out of her lane easily. So the choice is made.

By working similarly as the above examples you will have a quite efficient build (if not the best) for every game. This process requires some logical thinking and experience which both are acquired in time.

Tips & Tricks on Invoker's spells:

• Sunstrike gives exp even if you are on the other edge of the map. That is only if you make the kill.
  
• If you need F.Spirits but nothing else pretty much from quas spells, 4 levels are enough. After 6.80 patch the tornado-emp combo doesn't work with 4 level quas, you'll need 7.
  
• Try to wait 1 second after Meteor and cast Defeaning Blast, for max effectiveness.
  
• Coldsnap might be more effective when you level Quas, but even if Quas level 1, it's still useful.
  
• If your aim is to reduce armor rather than damage, prefer Quas rather than Exort for forge spirits when leveling.
  
• When using a build that includes Refresher Orb, don't forget that you can deal 950 pure damage to someone with dual Sunstrike.
  
• When using a build with Medallion of Courage and Forge Spirits, you can solo Roshan.
  
• Tornado's damage is the same no matter how you spend the points between Quas-Wex. For example 5-1, 3-3, 2-4 all combinations in Quas-Wex result in same Tornado damage. (Edit: after the latest patch, Tornado's damage, is scaling better if you level more Wex than Quas)
  
• You can cast Ghost Walk without breaking channeling spells.
  
• Meteor and Ice Wall are extremely effective even if you level only their dominant orb. While the other combined spells usually require leveling of both orbs.
  
• Forged Spirits with Quas level 6 out-range a tower. (not true anymore after 6.80)
  
• While blade mail doesn't not return your Forge Spirit's damage back to you, Nyx's assassin return skill does.
  
• Deafening Blast pushes enemy heroes. However if an enemy hero lands (after Eul's, Toss, Ravage etc) on a traveling projectile of Deafening Blast, then he will be pulled (towards you) instead.
  
• Alacrity's might need 2 Wex orbs and 1 Exort, but the effectiveness is shared in half, regarding what to level.
  
• Ghost Walk slows magic immune units.
  
• Forged Spirits are nice way to avoid Hooks/Arrows if you are fast enough to react. They spawn in front of you.

Tips & Tricks on Invoker's items:

• Eul's lift time is 2,5 seconds, meaning that placing Sunstrike or Emp right below it, they will land almost always on time.
  
• Force Staff is better than Blink dagger for Ice Wall positioning, because of the facing direction of your hero.
  
• Refresher Orb refreshes all your abilities, not just the 2 you have invoked.
  
• HP regen items are usually useless, Quas is doing better job.
  
• When you use Eul's on yourself, you can shift-queue QQWR, and Invoker will Invoke Ghostwalk. So all you have to do when you land is press D.

One thing I want to mention, is that you have probably seen some "real pro Invokers" on Dotacinema's top 10 or on WoDota, or somewhere else, casting 238497328947 spells in one fight. While this certainly quite skilled from an aspect of micro, it is misleading. There is this misconception that to be good Invoker you have to cast many spells. There are people that will call you "noob Invoker" because you are casting 3-4 spells far more frequently than the rest. Unless you have an aghanims and your 20+ level you must not try to cast all your spells, just because people say so. Especially in lower levels, casting your strong spells correctly and saving cooldowns and mana to recast them if far more important than casting everything. On a Quas Exort invoker, you shouldn't not cast EMP or Tornado or Alacrity in teamfights, there are other more important spells to cast. Of course if your orbs are all high enough and you have an aghanims (and the mana) you have spend your time casting all around to great benefit of your team, but this is usually late game stuff.

Another thing that is important to remember, is that Invoker is very susceptible to updates. One small detail of a spell re-worked or balanced and many stuff change. The popularity of builds drop and rise thanks to such changes. Don't stick to one build through your entire life, prepare to adapt and try out new Invoker styles.

Also, if someone has much trouble using a build, add me on steam and you can request a game with a certain build to spectate, (or I can provide you with a replay if there is one). This is easy to do with the classic and special builds, but harder with the extreme.

With the big patch that comes soon into the main client, I expect things for Invoker won't stay exactly the same. First of all the Invoker changes:
-"EMP restores Invoker for 50% of the mana it drains from heroes (excluding illusions)". While certainly this is a boost, it's a very tricky one. I've seen the Quas Wex builds losing power on the previous patches, due to nerf on Invoker's damage and EMP-tornado combo. This change wont bring back that glory. The effectiveness of those builds will remain the same, what will change is that Invoker will have some free mana on this build. This will solve some mana issues you may have before your Eul's, since you get no exort on those builds, but the offensive potential remains the same. Don't let it trick you that those builds are now stronger.
- "Invoke Max Spells rescaled from 1/2/2/2 to 2" . Now you can cast 3 spells on lvl 3. That sounds amazing. Is it? I have mixed feelings about this change. For sure it's a boost and it's welcomed, no Invoker fan can deny that. But how much does it really boost? Is it as amazing as it sounds? Here come my mixed feelings. At such early levels the spells you can cast will be extremely weak but their mana cost is exactly the same as when they are at full potential. Is it really worthy casting sunstrike, blast, meteor, emp, tornado, icewall at these lvls? Their mana cost ranges from 125-200. 3 of those spells plus invoke sums up to ~400 mana. If you are sure it will net you a kill, it is worthy of course, but if it doesnt, it leaves you pretty mana empty. So how I see this change? The possibility for levels 3-6 to cast 3 spells will be always present, but the probablity to do it will be very low. That means that you'll always have a combo rdy in case you need it, but you wont cast it much. The only scenario that I see really boosted from this case is, when you attempted a gank with 2 spells and it turned out bad, you had no way to escape. Now you have the chance to Ghost Walk as a 3rd invoke and escape from such situations.

After trying Invoker on the 6.79 patch for quite some time I see that the 2 spell Invoker is bigger boost than I imagined. The sole reason for this is the constant forge spirit you can have on the laning phase to assist you. Everything else was as I described above, but the laning phase is extremely easier now with a forge spirit always by your side. This favors ofc the Quas Exort builds thus making them much stronger in this patch.

Both of them are undeniable boosts, the question is: are those boosts enough to compensate for the previous nerfs and the boosts other heroes get? We will find the answer soon enough when the new patch gets live.
While this is quite minor, many heroes that could rush bottle now cannot since bottle costs 650. Consumables that cannot be shared also work in favor of Invoker. With those changes, many mid heroes are nerfed indirectly (even if it's only by little) while Invoker that needed minimal regen, stays the same, having extra gold (22 extra) to spend on his next purchase.


This patch surely has impact on Invoker.
First, there is a nerf in forge spirits. I never felt they are imbalanced, but I guess it's Icefrog's way make all Invoker builds equally viable. Forge spirits now have less armor, that only impacts early pushes where you had to tank towers with them. It doesn't affect ganking much, because noone hits the spirits when you have Invoker and his allies present. They also have decreased range now, which makes them a bit more hard to siege towers (they could outrange towers, now they cant). Noticeable nerf but nothing extremely serious.
Secondly and mainly the changes to EMP. This spell got an extra 150 mana burn boost which is quite good and potential reason to rush max Wex. Many heroes will have their pool totally drained by 550 mana burn. There is also a change in the EMP delay. Instead of changing over leveling, now it's constant at 2.6 seconds. This is quite faster at early levels, but quite slower at higher levels. Early use of EMP at low levels that was prohibited due to the ~3 seconds of delay now is possible. However the usual combo "tornado-EMP" that was used with 4 levels of quas is not possible anymore. Now you'll need full quas and full wex and still it would leave the enemy with some fractions of a second to react. So while you wont be using the combo too early, when it's used it will be more powerful than before (due to boosted EMP + the 7 quas of tornado). In combination with the previous EMP boost that gives you back 50% mana drained, this will surely start to bring back the glory days of Wex builds. (also due to the small F.Spirits nerf).
Thirdly, there is a boost on Ghost Walk. This is some serious boost for that spell, it can actually make you go faster which is quite useful. Since the factoring orb is Wex for this, it prompts to Wex build usage more often. While not game breaking boost, it will be loved by mobile Invokers.
Lastly, there is another cost reduction on alacrity. Surely that's a boost as well but ....meh....

Overall it's a +Wex -Exort update for Invoker. This doesn't not mean Exort builds wont work, or that they are bad. Just that the balance between Wex and Exort has been changed a bit.
Again, the game determines the build that works better, not the patch notes.


-Emp nerf. Delay increased to 2.9 instead of 2.6, making wex builds a bit weaker. You might wonder "0.3 second change, is it noticeable?" it is and it isn't at the same time. When you cast with along with a tornado of 2.6 uplift time it is, if you just cast it in a teamfight alone it isn't. Small nerf.
-Ghostwalk doesn't slow magic immune units anymore. Another small nerf. While it is awesome to bypass immunity even with the most harmless spell of yours, the significance is quite low. Another small nerf.
-Chaos meteor though now stacks properly, doing correct damage (I didn't test it yet, I trust the patch notes). That's gonna be a quite big boost in the Armageddon, the Game Master and the Playmaker builds. Considerable boost for late game Exort builds.


Here comes the Nerf-Hammer.
-Forge Spirits lose magic resistance. Important? Well, it is, although it might be seen right away. Early on, spirits have low HP/Armor already now with this nerf some capable spell spammers will kill them before they do much. In teamfight they quickly died from AoE spells as any summoned units, but now it's even faster.
-Coldsnap loses its early damage. From 60/30 to 7Q/7Q where Q is the Quas level. This significantly reduces the damage at early levels, while it boosts it for about the same amount at the last levels. Here is a graph that shows the differences of Level 1 and Level 7 coldsnap, before and after the patch .This results in much weaker laning phase (combined with weaker spritis makes it even worse). It might be a reason to level Quas more, although I can't be sure of that yet.
-Deafening Blast's disarm can now be removed with immunity. Another nerf, which was logical though, as a debuff it should be removed with immunity. It is a nerf affecting Wex builds, but it is only specialized vs enemies with BKB.

Generally some quite noticeable nerfs to Quas builds making early laning more challenging now.

I will publish the remaining 2 later on, after selecting which are the fittest. Yes, "selecting", because there are not only 16. Invoker builds are countless if you consider every possible hybrid build as well. Depending on which builds tend to be more popular in the near future, I will publish the corresponding hybrids or some new arrivals.

Invokerism is a guide that will stay updated, maintained and adjusted as the game goes by. New content will be added as soon as it gets discovered and the Invokerism series on youtube will accompany this guide as long as they run.

Suggestions, feedback and ideas on what more to include are welcomed.

and here is the first part of Invokerism:

the 2nd part:

11/03/2013
-Added 12 in-game builds, so people can see and use the appropriate skill set.
-Updated links to all builds.
13/03/2013
-Removed manta from The Drainer.
15/03/2013
-Added item description on The Threat, The Controller, The Heavy Hitter, The Game Master
20/03/2013
-Added more spell descriptions and item descriptions.
-Added "pros & cons" on all classic builds
22/03/2013
-Added "Pros & Cons" on all special builds
23/03/2013
-Added "Pros & Cons" on all extreme builds
06/06/2013
-Started the 4 remaining guides
-Added a new section: Hybrid Builds
-Added "The Playmaker"
-Changed some item choices in previous builds (minor stuff)
-Updated some missing info between Invokerism and the seperate builds.
-Invoker changes on 04/06/2013's update, are small boosts by tweaking numbers on wex spells. This however is not enough to outdate any content here in Invokerism. Items received small boosts as well, making certain builds a bit stronger.
28/08/2013
-Added a "How to choose build" section
-Few tweak on some items (e.g. Bloodstone removed, after some experimenting it was deemed not cost effective)
-A Fun build will be coming soon.
29/08/2013
-Added The Jungler build
-Updated the relevant sections.
09/09/2013
-Added the 2nd video "Invokerism 2"
18/09/2013
-Added the Hand of Midas section
22/10/2013
-Added a section where I analyze how each patch affects Invoker.
-Effects of 6.79 on Invoker described on the section mentioned above.
-Starting items remaining the same for all builds since none included bottle or mass consumables.
24/11/2013
-Added some information about Invoker on 6.79 after trying him for some time.
10/04/2014
-Added changes regarding 6.80 update.
26/04/2014
-Added changes regarding 6.81 update.
05/06/2014
-Added changes regarding 6.81b update.