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Wise Stump - The Golden Rubick of Tatarstan. Protagonist, experimenter and AUTHOR of Rubick'o'Pedia. That's me.
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John Smith - Technical performer, sly imp and joker. Loves Jojo jokes.

Compliments - First student and pub brawler.

Sandrrr - Second student, innovator and warden wizard.

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Rubick is a hero fit for true aristocrats! Only the most genuine aesthetes, such as good gentlemen, will be excited to play the second game on the Greatest of Greens.

If you are extraordinary, listen to jazz, smell like ginger, are not afraid of getting stuck in a hot desert of damn letters, love tea, have no allergies, or are just a good person, then Rubick will warm your soul like no one else! (There may be contraindications. Consult with your doctor.)


Well, Rubick is the most versatile hero. And in my opinion, he has all the roles. Undoubtedly, many will disagree, but I have proven this statement in practice.

I think it would be appropriate to remind you of some nuances of his abilities.

"Telekinesis" lifts an enemy into the air and throws them to the ground, stunning those who the spell target lands on. During the lifting of the primary target, "Telekinesis" is replaced with "Telekinesis Land", which allows us to fling the target a short distance in any direction. Using Telekinesis Land leaves a mark that is only visible to us and our allies.

I call this a double disable. Only the primary stun, secondary stun radius, and cast range scale with level.
Primary stun - 0.95 / 1.2 / 1.45 / 1.7
(With level 15 talent - 1.35 / 1.6 / 1.85 / 2.1)
Secondary stun - 0.9 / 1.1 / 1.3 / 1.5
Cast range - 550 / 575 / 600 / 625
Mana cost - 110
Cooldown - 23 / 20 / 17 / 14
(With level 20 talent - 18 / 15 / 12 / 9)

(With level 10 talent, the secondary stun area will deal 175 magic damage, BUT not to the primary target)

The total duration of the primary stun includes 0.3 seconds of lift and 0.3 seconds of falling. When using this ability, immediately consider where to fling the flying target.
Lift one Meepo and fling into the other Meepos! No Lich or Earthshaker needed :D
Secondary stun area - 300 / 325 / 350 / 375
In this landing area, there is a smaller area that destroys trees.
Max fling distance - 375
(With level 20 talent - 615)

During the falling (0.3 seconds), the target moves towards the Telekinesis Land marker. You can reposition the marker during this time to fling the target in a different direction.
This "shaking" synergizes very well with Rupture. And the level 20 cast range talent makes it even more impressive.

One Telekinesis cannot be cast on top of another. This is important if we steal Tempest Double from Arc Warden and want to Lift a target already lifted by the original Rubick.

Here's a quick picture to show you what you can use to remove the Telekinesis effect from yourself or an ally. In some cases, you need to have an Aghanim's Scepter, Aghanim's Shard, or a learned specific talent.



Lift starts leveling at either level 2 or 4, after Arcane Supremacy is maxed for cast range progression. However, if stun duration is more important, Lift can be leveled to 2 first before passives.

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Any ability that can displace or banish will prematurely land a Telekinesis target. The stun remains, but Telekinesis Land is blocked for Rubick.
So playing against Rubick, you can Force Staff allies to prevent the enemy from manipulating them. Or Rubick can self-Force to create the secondary stun early.
Abilities like Toss, X Mark The Spot, Boulder Smash, Nether Swap, Meat Hook, etc can replace Force Staff.

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The Telekinesis Land sub-ability has no cooldown and is not a real cast.
So the "landing marker" does not charge enemy Magic Stick/Wand on use. Also, Curse of Silence will not react to spamming the sub-ability.
And without a cooldown, Telekinesis Land does not trigger Time Dilation.

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If Telekinesis is cast on a spell immune enemy, they will not lift up. The ability will just create the secondary stun area. Lift does not change to Telekinesis Land since no one was lifted.

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Unfortunately, there are conditions where a target simply cannot be lifted at all. The 3 abilities mentioned above make Telekinesis not work properly.
If Lift is cast on a target already affected by these abilities, the only results will be mana loss and cooldown. The target will literally experience NOTHING.

Over time, Valve has made numerous map reconstructions that change the positions of spots that enemies can be Telekinesised onto. Above you can see differently colored marks on the map. Each mark represents a spot that a unit can be flung onto with Telekinesis. The colors are different because the spots are also differ from each other.

• Yellow - an ordinary cliff, where you can throw the enemy in without any unnecessary manipulations.
  
  
• Blue - a landscape cavity. Just as easy to use. The enemy will be deprived of part of his vision as he is at a lower ground level.
  
  
• Green - it's not really a cliff. It's an area that is covered with trees, that you can't get through without proper means. Try to aim and not break too many trees with Telekinesis.
  
  
• Red - a cliff or a pack of trees. The feature is that trees in these areas will push the enemy out, if they are not cut down beforehand with a Quelling Blade. Do not cut down more than one tree to accidentally create a path to freedom if the area is not a cliff, but just a forest.

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The Shard allows casting Lift on yourself or an ally with 35% increased Telekinesis Land range. The delay before the toss is reduced to 0.5.

Some rules and features:

• We can set a landing point for ourselves, even if technically stunned.
  
• Casting on an ally will interrupt their spell channeling.
  
• With this Lift we can fly over not just trees and cliffs, but also enemy abilities that block pathing (Kinetic Field, Fissure, Power Cogs).
  
• The enhanced Lift is less of a jump and more forced movement. So we can use it even while rooted.
  
• Can be cast on self or allies while spell immune.
  
• If you get hit by a burrow strike or other forced movement during Lift, you won't be able to press Telekinesis Land anymore. Be careful.
  
• If you lift yourself but get stunned by something else mid-air, you can still reposition yourself with Telekinesis Land. But you won't be able to move yourself if you cast Lift while under reflected Lift (Lotus Orb or Counterspell).

The main attacking spell of the Shadow Wizard Money Gang Enjoyer.

A targeted lightning bolt that bounces to nearby secondary targets. The bolt deals magic damage and reduces the attack damage of hit units. With each bounce, the bolt's damage is reduced (attack reduction does not change).

Damage to primary target - 100 / 175 / 250 / 325
Damage reduction per bounce - 6%
Hero attack reduction - 5 / 15 / 25 / 35% (17 / 27 / 37 / 47% with level 10 talent)
Debuff duration - 10
Cast range - 800
Bounce range - 440
Cooldown - 16 / 14 / 12 / 10 (12 / 10 / 8 / 6 with level 20 talent)
Mana cost - 110 / 125 / 140 / 155

The bolt debuff can be dispelled.
The bolt will not affect invisible units or those in the fog of war.
The bolt always bounces to the nearest target.

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These items amplify the magic damage from the bolt due to their special properties.
In addition to items, the bolt damage can be amplified by our third ability.

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• The bolt can bounce to spell immune enemies, but will deal less damage, and the debuff will only work after spell immunity ends.
  
• Linken's Sphere will only save the primary target from the bolt. Spell Block will not prevent damage if the target is secondary.
  
• Any magic resistance reduces our bolt's damage.

Remember it is beneficial to pop Linken's Sphere with the bolt in order to steal a needed spell. A trivial example - Enigma with BKB and Linken's already channeling Black Hole.

Passively increases our spell damage by 14 / 18 / 22 / 26% and cast range by 100 / 150 / 200 / 250
It kinda hints: "I'LL SLAP YOU WITH YOUR OWN SPELL WAY HARDER! AND I'LL DO IT AT HOME!"
Disabled by break (Silver Edge for Example)

Spell damage increase also amplifies spells with pure and physical damage (Slithereen Crush, Unstable Concoction). However Arcane Supremacy does not affect spells that scale with attack damage.
Arcane Supremacy stacks additively with other sources of spell damage and cast range. Meaning, fully.

Because of the innate "Might and Magus" ability, Arcane Supremacy will give us the same percent bonus to attack damage and three quarters percents of magic resistance.

Steals the last enemy hero spell.
Rubick's versatility. The ability to create beautiful absurdity in so many ways! Passively increases the duration of stolen spell effects.
Linken's Sphere blocks the steal.

Cast range - 1000
Stolen spell duration - 3 / 4 / 5 minutes
Stolen spell amplification - 10 / 20 / 30%
Cooldown - 16 / 10 / 4
Mana cost - 25

Aghanim's Scepter increases cast range by 400 and allows stealing two spells. If a two-button spell is stolen, it will occupy both slots and the old spell is lost.
Subsequent spells will cycle like Invoker's, except when stealing a spell already had.

Nearly all stolen spells have a 0.15 second cast point, which is obviously faster than the enemy's. However! Those same stolen spells have a 1.07 second backswing animation. This needs to be canceled with any action, preferably a move command.

The spell is stolen at whatever level the enemy currently has. Stealing the same spell again at a higher level will also increase the stolen spell's level.

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Our ult cannot target enemy illusions. The red text "Cannot Steal This Spell" will keep flashing after attempts to steal from an illusion. The ult simply won't cast, but we'll know it's a copy.
Yes, you can identify real heroes from anywhere on the map.

Say you're getting a massage at the fountain but see a big fight on river and your team wants to chase the multiplying Lancer.
Quickly click your ult on each Lancer -> identify the real Lancer -> inform your team.
In the end we helped from base without spending any mana.
10/10

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Increasing debuff durations for periodic damage spells works similarly to "status resistance". Yes, curses last longer, but periodic damage will be evenly distributed over the new duration. So total damage is not increased. (There are exceptions)

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Of course, not everything follows status resistance rules and some spells work strangely. But there are three types that do NOT interact with our Spell Steal amplification:

• Stationary sources of debuff (Smoke Screen, Static Storm, Nethertoxin)
  
• Auras (Assault Aura, Song of the Siren, Crippling Fear)
  
• Channeling disables (Dismember, Fiend's Grip, Shackles, Sinister Gaze)
  
• Beyond these, some other spells don't fit the types easily. So I will write a spell's interaction with our Spell Steal separately when covering enemy heroes.

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Like a regular Aghanim's, the Shard upgrades not only our spell, but many stolen ones too. Buying it requires extensive knowledge of enemy upgrades. Shards for other heroes are very different, but all fit into three types:

• Simple active spell upgrade. Either the spell gains an extra component, or one spell subsumes another. But there are exceptions I covered when going through heroes. Our shard does not require the enemy to have a shard.
  Some abilities may not work properly because they require another spell. This can be solved with Aghanim's Scepter to steal into the second slot. (Sometimes fixed by game patches)
  
  
• Shard creates a new ability on a separate hotkey. To steal these, the enemy must have the shard, not us. After all, we can't steal what isn't there, right? *sounds of doubt*
  Some of these may not work correctly or at all. I covered those in the hero sections.
  
  
• Turns a passive into an activatable. To use this, both enemy and we need the shard. If only the enemy has it, we can steal the spell but it will be passive only. The exception is attack modifiers - those cannot be stolen as actives without our own shard.

After covering abilities, it's worth mentioning his stat state.
As it happens, Gaben, while granting us mastery over almost any ability, first endowed us with the most mundane qualities before filling in gaps with a buff.

Let's go over them in order:

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This attribute increases our health pool and health regen.
Our base strength is 21. This is an average value, especially for an Int hero. There are beefier and squishier heroes than us. No reason to nitpick this stat at the start.
Strength gain is 2. A decent value.
Just one strength or health item and we become a decent fighting unit.

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This stat governs armor and attack speed. The hero wasn't originally conceived as someone capable of attacking quickly and hard. So high agility wasn't really expected then. But now we're doing great with this stat!
Base agility is 23. A good number.
Agility gain is 2.5. An excellent number for an oddball like us.

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Our main attribute, increasing mana pool and regen.
We weren't shortchanged here! Our base intelligence is 24. That's a lot. With base int, we also have 27% magic resistance.
Int gain is 3.7. And that's quite a lot, too.

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Base health regen is 0, like most heroes. Base armor is 1, slightly above average. With base strength and agility values, starting armor is 4.8 and health regen is 2.3. Very good.

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Base movement speed is 290, base attack time is 1.7. Average values.
The point is these values determine how much items improving move speed and attack speed will benefit us. The better our bases, the more an item will amplify us.

For example, Morph has 1.5 BAT (better than us). So every item directly increasing agility or attack speed will be much more effective on him than if we built the same items.
However, there are transform spells that change a hero's BAT, allowing us to temporarily gain more benefits from artifacts while "borrowed". These include: True Form, Berserker's Rage, Chemical Rage.

As for movement speed, we'll have to make do with what we have. We can increase move speed in fights with stolen spells, but those provide a bonus unrelated to base value.

At level 10, 15, 20, and 25 we can learn a "talent".
A talent is a choice between two possible bonuses. And the choices are different each level. Talents require a skill point.
Below you can see Rubick's talents and my (useless) commentary on them. From level 27-30 we can pick talents not chosen earlier. Aside from abilities and talents, other levels grant +2 to all stats. This "plus +2" option can be invested earlier but we won't do it, since every skill point matters.

• Level 10:
  "+0.25% Might & Magus damage and resistance" or "Telekinesis landing deals 175 damage"

Left talent is just better. Take it, but on lvl 11.
There's one nuance about the Lift damage. The damage is dealt by the Telekinesis Land sub-ability, not Lift itself. So the primary target takes NO damage. Making the talent completely useless. We skill the left one. And even that... At level 16 after the level 15 talent...

• Level 15:
  "+0.5 sec Telekinesis and Telekinesis Land stun duration" or "25% CDR on stolen spells"

Our choice is cooldown reduction. Will work great with a large arsenal of stolen spells and other CDR sources. The left talent is rarely considered .

• Level 20:
  "-5 sec Telekinesis cooldown" or "-5 sec Fade Bolt cooldown"

The choice of level 20 is very straightforward. Need more control or mobility = take the Lift cdr talent. Need more damage? Talent for the Bolt.

• Level 25:
  "+40% spell amplification on stolen spells" or "+240 Telekinesis Land range"

Damage amp on stolen spells combines with our Arcane Supremacy. 26% from the passive and 40% from talent. Any standard nuke like Shockwave will shred not only creeps but some heroes. And if you aim for powerful spells, enemies should start fearing you.

But if you have no erection reaction to that, here's the alternative - Telekinesis Land range.

If we have Aghanim's Shard, the Telekinesis Land range talent comes extremely useful. Every Lift becomes a mobility/escape/initiation spell. Cast on allies, you can pull them out of fights. Or use allies as Blink Dagger substitutes (very useful and funny with an initiator without Blink). With this Lift enhancement, abusing cliffs is much easier.

P.S.: The 40% spell amp talent will NOT apply to abilities reflected by activated Lotus Orb. Also this bonus damage does not work with attack-reliant spells like Sleight of Fist, Boundless Strike, Stifling Dagger, etc.

During the planning phase, we can choose one of two Facets to stay with for the rest of the game. "Facet" is a hero modification that affects one of our spells or works as another innate ability.

Here are our Facets:

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Reduces the manacosts of stolen spells. Implies spamming abilities that have low cooldowns. With spell lifesteal you can withstand an attrition fight. This Facet is not tied to any ability, so it cannot be disabled by Break effects.



More interesting Facet. Every time we cast a spell, Rubick gets 1 stack of buff, which gives a 25 AoE bonus. A very juicy Facet, to which it is recommended to buy:

• Gleipnir - For the sake of simple stacking bonuses.
  
• Octarine Core - For faster stacks from casts.

Arcane Accumulation depends on Arcane Supremacy passive ability and can be disabled by Break effects.

We can use Facets of enemy heroes if they are tied to abilities, so be sure to watch and research which Facet the enemy has taken.

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As for our innate ability, we have the passive skill "Might and Magus" which for every 1% spell amplification gives a 0.75% attack damage bonus and 0.75% magic resistance. The extra damage is green and depends on base damage (white number).
If you learn Arcane Supremacy at first level, Might and Magus will give us 4 damage, which is a nice bonus in the laning phase. It's still not a good idea to learn this passive at the first level. It is better to take it after Fade Bolt.

Rubick, positioning himself as a Core hero, has several starting builds, depending on who he will be laning against.

• Mid
  
  
  
• Mid 2
  
  
  
• Side Lane
  
  
  
• Side Lane 2
  
  
  
• Anywhere
  

Laning situations:

Don't miss opportunities to harass the enemy. Many mid heroes get cocky and approach our tower to last hit. I guess they forget who they're playing against. Watch for when their creeps die to tower, then lift the hero and pull towards you. Some quick attacks will teach them a lesson.
Also don't forget that Telekinesis increased the distance between the enemy and their tower. This is very important for securing kills.
While the enemy runs back to their tower, you can get a few extra hits in.
The final touch - Fade Bolt!

Farming will depend on which spell you skilled first:

• Telekinesis - You clearly needed to toss someone. Likely needed to secure the first "bounty" rune. Telekinesis could also save yourself or an ally. Or you couldn't resist tossing an enemy on a cliff. But "Lift" can't help you last hit creeps. Meaning Rubick has to wait until level 2.
  
  
• Fade Bolt - No need to toss yet, so Bolt at first lvl is fine. Bolt neatly secures creeps and harasses the enemy. Level 1 Bolt hardly reduces attack damage and is more needed for last hits and damaging enemy hero. But higher Bolt levels make it very hard for enemies to lane against us. You can Bolt the opponent while last hitting their creep. Sometimes there is no need to directly target the enemy mid hero. Just hit the creep with it when enemy hero is near to his creep wave. We only need vision from our creeps. If the enemy hides in fog, Bolt won't affect them even if they're literally hugging their ranged creep getting zapped.

An unusual situation. Only go there by mutual agreement with your team. And really this only can be done occasionally among friends when against a specific enemy pick that physical Rubick counters very well.

If you're skilled with Rubick in different styles, you can freely swap lanes with your carry if you or he don't like the expected opponent.

Offlane Rubick is acceptable if you and your partner intend to kill. Heroes like Snapfire or Pudge can work as partners, though there are many options.

Solo offlane is risky. Rubick Solo Hard is walking on thin ice. The hero isn't very tanky despite having defensive tools. For solo offlane Rubick, occasionally watch enemy pulls and stay in experience range of them.

The jungle isn't a farming spot early on. We go there to farm in parallel with laning, using special items. For now, Helm of the Dominator, Maelstrom, or Meteor Hammer might work.

If not taking a core position, roaming can provide a good start, especially as position 4! Telekinesis is a great tool for this. Roaming requires knowing enemy blind spots or having smokes. A few ganks provide the foundation for a good game or at least a rich inventory!

Rubick can be picked against anyone if you're confident. He depends more on ally picks than enemies (some ppl thinks otherwise). The key is just getting gameplay experience, and any difficulty becomes surmountable. It's just a matter of habit.

Now that we've covered abilities and laning, here are some tips.
These are rules or nuances that should be remembered and at least sometimes followed.

1) "Greetings, gentlemans!"
Greeting is an important part of dialog with the opponent. If you just spawned with an empty spell bar and met enemies, who clearly giving you some time, greet the spectators with Spell Steal! Any stolen spell is better than an empty slot.

2) "Not all that Black Holes is gold."
Picking Rubick only as a counter to something like Enigma is a waste of potential. Don't play Rubick just for turning fight once. Use ordinary spells too. If you use simple abilities well, you won't need Ravage or RP for the enemy Ancient to fall.

3) "Two revolvers in one hand."
To successfully combine two stolen spells, use the first spell while stealing the second. A prime example is Flame Guard & Sticky Napalm. Minimizing the downtime of these abilities increases total damage output.

4) "Point of view."
Sometimes standing behind your team isn't enough to get the desired spell. Try approaching the caster from the side!

5) "Jack of all trades." Even if we called the Grand Magus, it doesn't mean we must rely solely on spells. Good old kung fu can also be our path. All it takes is the right spell and desire. Don't fear experiments :D

6) "Change of shoes."
Even if your GPM, Desolator, and Focus Fire suggest a villainous image, sometimes it makes sense mid-fight to steal something that helps not you, but your teammate. Any saving throw in the form of a random ability reflects well on the game.

7) "Interception."
Telekinesis on an enemy stops their forced movement from other spells. Thus you can pull an enemy out of a hook. This scenario can help or hurt us. Just keep it in mind.

8) "Measure seven times, buy once!"
Sometimes you may fail to steal something you really wanted because the enemy's behavior differs greatly from your expectations. So don't rush to buy items according to a plan made during the draft. Perhaps take one transitional affordable artifact to test yourself in two or three fights. After that it will be clearer what to expect from the enemy next time, and what you really need to buy.

9) "Lift damage?"
Now some mid tips. Many mid heroes try to zone the opponent, pushing us under our tower. At least sometimes press Alt to see your tower's attack range. If the enemy comes too close with no creeps, throw them closer to yourself to punish their audacity. A couple tower hits can greatly change the lane.

10) "Mathematical fact"
At level 3, Bolt leaves just enough health on a ranged creep for ONE attack if it's the primary target or second target (one bounce). If you want to push the lane, first attack the ranged creep once and Bolt the enemy hero when they're closest to the creep. This way the hero takes most of the damage and the creep still dies. Level 4 Bolt simply kills a ranged creep if it's the first or even second target.

11) "Wet socks"
If the enemy mid stays near cliffs, toss them into the river. Now they have quite a walk back to their tower, likely taking our attacks on the way which could prove fatal. If they don't risk coming back through the rune, they 100% miss last hits on creeps. We should take advantage of this opportunity to deny everything if possible.

12) "Magical medley"
Almost any player will feel alarmed when EMP or Macropyre appears near them. Warn allies in advance that a particular scary cast belongs to you, not the enemy. Or vice versa.

13) "Countdown begins!"
If you steal and use an important ult right after the enemy uses it, your own cooldown will tell you if that spell is ready for the enemy again. This information can provide a certain advantage. Works until getting the cooldown reduction talent for stolen spells.

14) "According to schedule"
It's extremely important to know the sequence other heroes tend to use abilities. This will help you understand which spells are easier to steal and which require waiting. For example, Void Spirit often uses Astral Step then immediately Resonant Pulse when attacking. So his ult isn't easy to steal on the first jump. But the second jump isn't always accompanied by an ability, making the steal easier.

15) "Betrayal"
When using Telekinesis on yourself or allies, remember to IMMEDIATELY place the Telekinesis Land marker to remove the stun as quickly as possible. If you simply forget to place the marker or can't due to some outside factor, your ally will hang in the air the whole Lift duration for your enemies' amusement and reasonably consider you a traitor. And yes, don't Lift yourself if Arcane Curse was casted on you. The result will be sad.

16) "Stonks"
If the game is quiet, it will be useful to take a spell not for fighting, but for farming. For example, summoning abilities can farm creeps without our participation.

Rubick is a complex character for a reason. One of the essential complexities is the most underrated and even understated. Namely, peripheral vision. More specifically, a meager command of it.

Do you get the feeling that for most players, a minimap is like Luigi? "It has to be unlocked first."
People may not pay attention to what's happening on their screen. And after all, the minimap isn't the only thing to keep an eye on for Rubick's. It's important for Rubick to always see who is using their abilities where and when. It's important for him to notice enemy cast animations, which can be difficult if you don't pay enough attention to practicing your peripheral vision.

Many Rubick's players get lost when there's a whole light mess going on in battle, and end up stealing whatever comes to hand.

For some people, tunnel vision predominates instead of peripheral vision. This can happen due to excessive stress, oxygen deprivation, sudden changes in blood pressure, or even, God forbid, the use of illegal substances.

To restore or train up your peripheral vision, it is worth taking a couple minutes to look at the "Walter Schulte Table". Below is a table with numbers to be found in ascending or descending order.
Sit back. Position the screen at a distance of about 50 cm from your eyes and find the numbers without saying them out loud. Try to do it faster each time. After that, you can look for other variations of the Schulte Table on the internet for a change. If you feel your eyes getting tired, take a break.



And remember that stress and lack of oxygen affects your vision and your game. So, open a window in your room already and make yourself some tea.

This is a small block with gameplay videos from me.
I hope this section will continue to be updated with more videos. And I also hope these "highlights" will at least somewhat demonstrate how I personally see Rubick.

After watching, take a break. Because below this block is all the most important and interesting stuff.

So. Now that I've started blabbing about spell stealing, I should talk about which abilities we'll be dealing with.

Among mundane magics there are those whose mechanics need no studying.
Stole a healing spell? Healed an ally.
Stole a stun? Extended your Telekinesis disable.
And if we steal something like Shock Wave, we can deal lots of damage in one second by casting two simple nukes (Fade Bolt + %ability_name%).

Contrary to numerous amateur opinions, achieving minimum necessary potential is quite simple. Just use stolen spells frequently. However, to become a true virtuoso, you need to thoroughly study the heroes whose abilities we steal. Discover all kinds of tricks, stunts and ruses.
Understand the difference between using the same ability by two different casters, and maybe slightly change your perception.

Only by embracing the spirit of Rubick and delving into studying your enemies will you gain precious knowledge. And using that knowledge in practice will produce tangible results.
And believe me, those results won't take long to arrive!



Below I've described heroes, their abilities, and tactics against them (or just some warnings).
The heroes are in alphabetical order. Remember and take into account whenever you see an opponent whose ability you read about here.

Well then. Let's go!

A target spell that hurls a missile at an allied or enemy unit. The missile will heal allies and deal magic damage to enemies. In both cases, casting the spell will deal 40% of the value to us as pure damage. The mana cost and cooldown are quite low, allowing you to fling mists left and right. Only because of the health costs, it's worth considering regen, both hp and mana.

Mist Coil will apply an attack. Self damage is increased.

Cannot be cast on self.
Damage from coil cannot kill the caster.

Target buff and strong dispel that places a shield on self or allied unit. The shield can block a certain amount of damage. If the shield reaches its limit or simply runs out of duration, it will explode and deal magic damage to enemies around the target.

Shield radius - 675

Deals 75% of absorbed damage with explosion.

The shield does NOT deal damage to invisible units (or if they are in the fog of war).
The shield explodes when it disappears from the target. And it doesn't matter how it was removed. It will explode even if it was dispelled.
The shield absorbs damage after filtering through resistances.

Temporary mode that applies a strong dispel to the caster and converts incoming damage to healing. Can be used while stunned. Automatically triggers if caster's health drops below 400. Cannot be stolen if ult was automatically cast this way. But if he presses ult himself to purge disables, stealing is allowed.


Aghanim's Scepter gives 3 extra seconds and automatically casts Mist Coil on allied heroes whenever they lose 550 hp during Borrowed Time.

Borrowed Time considers damage before resistances are applied.
Borrowed Time does not convert health costs of other stolen spells to healing (Fire Spirits, Sun Ray, and Demon Zeal). Abilities that damage the caster will heal under Borrowed Time (Rot, Life Break, Double Edge, etc.)

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When you see Abaddon in a fight, it's best to just steal his shield and spam it on everything. If he touches us, he won't leave us alone. After being cursed, anyone who hits us will run around like crazy. And after that, with his buff he will be able to catch up to us and stab us again with his passive.
You can throw him off you, remove the slowdown with stolen shield, and run away.

If we have a clear advantage like a dispel item, we don't care about his Curse of Avernus and just trade hits with him using his own shields at melee range (if he is a support).
Watch your allies as much as possible. If you see someone getting stunned or seriously debuffed, try to dispel it as quickly as possible.
A living ally = a useful ally.

An important strategic decision would be Aghanim's Scepter if you see an enemy Abaddon about to buy it. In this case, he will press his Borrowed Time MANUALLY, allowing us to steal it and use it ourselves, thus leveling the playing field.
With a stolen Borrowed Time, it will be possible to initiate a fight without fearing for your life. This is especially effective when enemies don't realize you have Abaddon's ult and drops every possible spell on you.

In the early and mid game, try to silence Abaddon so he can't save his teammates while he doesn't have dispel items yet.
If Coil is often stolen, then you can buy Khanda to combine it with silence and prevent Abaddon to use his ultimate. If Abaddon playing with Malignant Mist facet, try some attack damage items and attack modifiers.

---

Some good counters to Abaddon are Shadow Demon and Terrorblade. Abaddon's passive works fully on illusions, so some Abbadons build Manta Style. If you make illusions of Abaddon, you gain his passive. Reflection illusions are uncontrollable but will hit Abaddon, while Disruption illusions can be microed onto other heroes.

AoE cloud ability that deals periodic physical damage. Enemies inside the cloud get an armor reduction debuff. The debuff lingers for 0.5 seconds after leaving the AoE.
The damage fully stacks with multiple sprays but the armor reduction does not.


Target stun that needs to be charged up. After casting there is a 5 second countdown. The longer we charge, the more damage and stun duration on the target. If we hold it for the full duration, the spell strikes us instead. To release the stun, press the sub-ability that replaces Unstable Concoction during the charge time.
While charging, Alchemist gains movement speed.

Unstable Concocsion's cooldown is reduced by 30% when Chemical Rage is enabled.

Berserk mode that gives bonus health regen, movespeed and reduces base attack time (BAT - lower is better for attack speed).
Activating Chemical Rage applies a basic dispel and allows dodging some projectiles.
Alchemist can give Aghanim's Scepters to allies. We cannot do this.
For each Scepter given, Alchemist gains permanent damage and mana regen.

Shard ability - Targetable buff on ally or self that applies a basic dispel and gives bonus health regen, movespeed and attack speed for 15 seconds. 35 sec cooldown.

Berserk Potion's cooldown is reduced by 50% when Chemical Rage is enabled.

---

We may sometimes see Alchemist in the mid lane against us. He will try to take over the lane and last hit creeps with his spray.
Yes, it's annoying. But you can still keep your distance even with that spray. Ranged attacks help kill creeps while occasionally stepping into the green goo. And Bolts give us the chance to finish off creeps we can no longer reach with regular attacks.

It's important to get the spray early and stack it. If Alchemist is also stacking (and he 100% is), check his jungle between creep waves to steal some gold or exp.

If you decide to play through Alchemist, you obviously want to steal Chemical Rage. Removing attack speed limits lets us hit any enemy really hard.
Having ranged attacks not only lets us heavily defend our base, but also siege the enemy's. It's recommended to get a Pike and items that increase attack speed. In Alchemist's ult form, any attack speed increase has a much bigger impact on us. Just one Mjollnir and we turn into a crazy turret.

What you need to worry about is Alchemist's huge number of items. Get a defensive item BEFORE he drops an Abyssal on you!
And with a defensive item we open up another playstyle. Just rush Solar Crest and take his spray. The defensive artifact will not only do its main job, but also perfectly complement the stolen spray.

If you don't need to solely play through Alchemist, just go with standard builds. But getting to your items will be easier this time if you first stack jungle creeps and farm everything with stolen Acid Spray. Just be careful. If Alchemist finds out about your stacks he will definitely want to take them.

Target curse that stuns the target if they don't move 740 range in 4 seconds.
Can be purged by getting Tossed by Tiny.
Telekinesis helps land stolen Cold Feet.

Cold Feet, like every AA's ability, will apply a Death Rime effect that slows the victim and deals periodic magical damage.

With the first Facet, the Death Rime effect will reduce strength.

With the second Facet, If we have Ice Blast in the second slot, the stolen Cold Feet will be applied on area.

Spell Steal increases stun duration but not debuff timer.

AoE snowstorm debuff. Creates a small area that reduces magic resistance. The debuff lingers for 0.5 seconds after leaving the AoE.
Cast range 1200, duration 14 sec, cooldown 7/6/5/4.
Stacking two snowstorms in one place does not amplify effects.



Ice Blast launches an icy projectile that can be targeted to any point on the map. While in flight, Ice Blast is replaced by Release Ice Blast which allows you to detonate the projectile. Upon impact, Ice Blast deals magic damage in an AoE and applies a debuff that prevents all healing on enemy heroes (except Sunder, Time Lapse, Supernova). If an affected hero's health drops below a percentage threshold of their max HP during the debuff, they will shatter and die.

The debuff is applied not only to heroes in the AoE, but also those whom the projectile flew over during its travel. The debuff does not affect creeps or illusions, but they take damage from the explosion. The farther the projectile travels, the larger the explosion AoE becomes, from a 275 minimum up to 1000 max radius. The AoE increases by 50 units per second of travel time. The debuff can't be applied on banished enemies.

Spell Steal Ice Blast will increase the debuff duration and number of damage ticks.

Ice Blast will apply a stun from Cold Feet on impact. The stun duration is 50% of the original Cold Feet stun duration. Our shard ability that adds Cold Feet as a sub-ability does not work yet if Cold Feet is not stealed for second slot.

---

Against him we already have Spell Steal. In our hands, his ult takes away the enemy's regen for 13-16 seconds. And the Telekinesis + Cold Feet combo is very hard to escape!

But we mustn't forget that we can become victims of his regular abilities. So it's worth getting an Eul's or Force Staff. For offense there are other artifacts:

• Urn of Shadows to deal periodic damage after casting Ice Blast.
  
• Witch Blade similarly to Urn.
  
• Rod of Atos to combo with Cold Feet.
  
• Ethereal Blade for strong slow for easy targeting and damage amp.
  
• Octarine Core for Ice Vortex spam.
  
  The next and most available option will be Ice Vortex. Reduces resistance to magic. The plan is simple. Throw Vortexes all over the place and use Bolt to hit enemies who are knee-deep in snow. It's important to have Arcane Accumulation to spam the Vortexes and get AoE bonus stacks.
  
  

  ---

  
  
  
  More about Ice Blast
  There are some abilities that manipulate health in a way that the current hp value can end up higher than when the debuff was applied: Sunder, Decay, Whirling Death, Time Lapse, Supernova.
  
  Any other means of increasing max hp through strength gain or items will not increase current hp. Buying strength items or toggling Power Treads is very risky. Also avoid DROPPING hp granting items, as the % hp will remain the same at first, but get lower when picking them back up.
  
  To buy time under the debuff, use abilities that block damage like Aphotic Shield or Fate's Edict. Getting magic resistance also helps.
  
  Any banishing ability gives temporary protection from damage: Disruption, Astral Imprisonment, Trick of the Trade, Phase Shift, Snowball, Primal Split, Eul's Cyclone.
  
  

  ---

  
  
  
  Even more
  Enemy dying to shatter can prevent some buff gains or kill-triggered effects. This requires the spell damage to bring them below the threshold. If they die to the damage directly, all effects trigger normally.
  
  
  • Slark will not steal Essence Shift agility permanently.
    
  • Lion will not gain a Finger of Death stack.
    
  • Broodmother won't spawn spiderlings from her ult.
    
  • Duel victor will not gain bonus damage.
    
  • Enemies won't shatter from Traxex's Frost Arrows.
    
  • Caustic Finale will not trigger the corpse explosion.

Blink is a basic blink ability to a target location. The description says it has global cast range, but this just allows you to aim it globally. If you target beyond the max blink distance, you will blink the max distance towards that point.

Having this spell lets you save over 2k gold on a Blink Dagger. It's also strong with Orchid of Malevolence to chase down poor farming enemies who can't fight back against with their Battlefury or some crap.
Beware, if the target has Manta Style, Orchid will have no effect.

Reduces cooldown by 1 second. Anti-Mage himself can burn 20% of your total mana with first attack after Blink and apply a debuff that will prevent you from regenerating mana for a while.

Counterspell creates a shell that blocks and reflects targeted spells. The shield activates for 1.2 seconds.

Spell Shield also passively grants magic resistance.
At max level, Counterspell has a 3 second cooldown, allowing Anti-Mage to spam it frequently to prevent his Blink from being stolen.

Counterspell will protect Anti-Mage if he is a secondary target of spells like Paralyzing Cask, Mystic Snake, and Phantom Lance (Aghanim's).
Also with Counterspell active, you can attack a unit under Nightmare without fear. If you attack an enemy/ally under Nightmare with Counterspell on, the Nightmare will be dispelled and reflected back to Bane.

Reflecting a spell will create an illusion who will start attacking the enemy. The shard also empowers reflected spells if possible.

Counterspell burns mana and deals damage to the person whose spell it reflects. The mana burned and damage dealt depend on the manacost of the reflected spell. Damage cannot exceed 400.

Each reflected spell will interact with our Spell Steal and Arcane Supremacy.

Targeted spell that converts the target's missing mana into magic nuke damage, multiplied by 0.8/0.95/1.1. Deals damage and ministuns enemies within 500 radius of the target.

If an enemy within 2500 radius of us has less than 60% mana, we get a damage bonus. The less mana, the more damage. The maximum amount of damage is obtained at 15% mana of the enemy. At the minimum threshold, the enemy will be visible in the fog of war and invisibility.
The damage bonus from multiple heroes stacks.

Shard ability. Allows you to use Counterspell on an allied hero or creep-hero.
Just like with regular Counterspell, reflecting a spell will create an illusion.

Counterspell burns mana and deals damage to the person whose spell it reflects. The mana burned and damage dealt depend on the manacost of the reflected spell. Damage cannot exceed 400.

You'll often face Antimage's team, not him directly. He afk farms then fights late with items.
Either crush his team early before he comes online, or prepare seriously for the late game.
Ganking him with early Orchid catches him off guard. Constantly hunt him to slow farming.

If you can't slow him down or properly fight enemy team (for some dumb reason), match his farm. It's better if both sides have items than just him.

Good items vs Antimage:


BKB is a very important item that is taken approximately 2-3 slot and it is needed to "meet" Antimage. Let's say this... After long tortures, Antimage will most likely want to kill us specifically. Every fight will begin with his entire team stepping over ours and going after us. Antimage himself also does not stand aside and blinks behind our back, presses Manta and tries to undermine our mana and hp in order to then click the ult. As soon as this starts happening, we simply press BKB and his passive stops dealing additional damage. Having spent Blink, he will stand in front of us defenseless. This is what we should take advantage of by killing him during our BKB.

If his team is more dangerous than Antimage himself, then with this BKB you can run away and take another position.

As for Linken's Sphere... He has only two targeted abilities. Ult and purchased Abyssal. If he misses at least one button, then most likely risks missing you. If he quirky player, then he can buy a whole bunch of other items with target abilities (Harpoon, Diffusal Blade, Atos).

Linken's can either save our life or force Antimage to buy another item with target ability. Lol.

Gleipnir against Counterspell. Unlike Atos, Gleipnir is applied to an area and does not interact with the mechanics of Counterspell. It is better to buy it and use it after Orchid. With Orchid, we provoke him to press Manta, and with Gleipnir we cover three Antimages at once. By the damage from Gleipnir, you can determine the real Antimage for subsequent beating.

Sometimes you can take Sange & Yasha or Sange & Kaya, so that Sange as part of the item would reduce the duration of the stun from Abyssal Blade, which can often be in Antimage's inventory.

Aeon Disk can also help against Abyssal. If you feel that this Abyssal will fall on your shoulders, then Aeon Disk will give you the opportunity to increase the distance between AM and you by dispelling the stun prematurely.

In general, if the peak allows, it is recommended to neglect items for intelligence or mana reserve. Antimage deals much less damage if we have 0 mana. So in this weird case, you need to buy items that will preserve our combat effectiveness or survivability with zero mana.

---

What to do about his Counterspell? Simply don't cast and wait out the 1.2 seconds. We can't even steal Blink during this time as Counterspell will absorb the Spell Steal.
If we steal his reflection, watch his mana bar. If we have some mana left after his attacks, we can react and reflect his Mana Void. It won't damage AM but will protect us.

Now that we can steal it, here are spells that can be used against a Counterspelling Anti-Mage, and ones to avoid even if you're the most daring person in the universe:

• Spell Steal - Counterspelled but no reflection.
  
  
• Unstable Concoction - AM can reflect ally-targeted stuns. Approach and Counterspell to send it back.
  
  
• Toss - Only blocks/reflects if directly targeted on AM. Both units bounce sequentially.
  
  
• Nether Swap - Blocks and reflects. Only AM gets damage reduction after swapping.
  
  
• Sunder - Spell works normally.
  
  
• Blink Strike - Blocked but no reflection.
  
  
• Snowball - Reflects the projectile back. Prepare AoE disables under AM when he pops out.
  
  
• Chain Frost - Reflected but not blocked. Lich and Anti-Mage both takes Chain Frost.
  
  
• Omnislash - Same interaction as Chain Frost.
  
  
• Acorn Shot - Targeted acorn blocked but not reflected.

---

If Anti-mage has Mana Thirst Facet selected, steal his Mana Void and wait until any enemy hero has less than 15% of its total mana pool. At that point, we will get a vision on that enemy.

If we change stolen Mana Void while Mana Thirst is still working, vision will stay until we steal Mana Void again or until the enemy dies. Even restoring mana won't remove vision.

Targeted ability that slows an enemy and deals periodic magic damage over time. The damage does not apply if the target is within 225 radius of an allied unit. The slow still applies when near allies.
Damage from multiple Flux casts stacks.

Flux does more damage, lasts longer, and applies silence if the target is alone.

This spell places a small dome in a chosen area that gives allied creatures a bonus to attack speed and 100% dodge to attacks from those standing outside the dome.
Radius 300.

The dome attracts runes in a large radius. The speed at which runes are drawn to the dome gradually increases. The runes that have fallen into the dome are automatically used by the caster.

Does not evade abilities that perform attacks directly like Ember's Fist, MK's Boundless Strike, or PA's Stifling Dagger.

Does NOT evade wards. Wards include Viper's Nethertoxin, Grimstroke's Phantom, Gyrocopter's Rocket Barrage.
Below is a full list of what CAN be evaded with Magnetic Field:

Spark is a trap, that targets the nearest enemy and flies at him, dealing magic damage and slow. Low cooldown allows spamming an area with Sparks.
Deals more damage to creeps.

Sparks have a visual radius around their "ghost" that is not visible if Spark is in fog of war. Can hide them in trees without revealing their presence.

The ability fires another spark at another nearest target. The second spark deals 80% damage.
The search radius of the target is increased.

Creates an almost full version of self at a given point for a minute, who can use spells and items (can be casted on ourself to spawn Double near us). Ours clone have our own spellbar and cannot steal other spells, nor duplicate already owned ones.

The clone cannot Telekinesis a unit already gripped.

A copy appears under the effect of runes. The runes depend on the level of the ability and last 10 seconds.
Level 1 - Invisibility
Level 2 - Invisibility, Arcane
Level 3 - Invisibility, Arcane, Haste

• Does not copy consumables or Bottle.
  
  
• Does not copy 'everlasting' items like Gem or Rapier.
  
  
• Copies all neutral items. Quiver is copied but not used.
  
  
• Refresher Orb is always on cooldown.
  
  
• Can dominate a creep but shares one creep with main.
  
  
• Clone spawns at full hp and mp.
  
  
• Recast does not make a new clone, just updates health/mana and teleports existing one.
  
  
• Does not reset clone's cooldowns when resummoned.
  
  
• Clone copies permanent buffs like Moon Shard, Aghanim's Blessing/Shard. Duel damage resets on death.
  
  
• Clone can use Eul's Scepter of Divinity on original body. And vice versa.
  
  
• Counts as a hero, but some effects don't work fully like Track, Duel, Flesh Heap, Glaives, Reaper's Scythe, Heartstopper Aura.

Early on, Arc Warden will be annoying. When a new creep wave arrives, AW creates sparks behind us, forcing you to either approach your creeps and fight Ark, or retreat further back and lose gold/exp from creeps. Sometimes he will Flux you if he thinks he can get a kill. Flux forces you closer to creeps, making you an easy target for Ark. If no creeps or allies are nearby, Ark will take advantage of the slow and spark you at your feet.
If unsure about fighting him up close, it's better to withstand the sparks and heal up in the first couple of waves. Otherwise, we can dig in our creeps, zap AW with Bolt and get in manly fight.

Once Ark gets his ult, he'll try killing you. To stop him, immediately steal Tempest Double and stay near your clone. This avoids double Flux damage and lets you counter AW with double Bolts and Lifts. Arc will spark so they're closer to the main Rubick. If he's flailing about sparking, just rotate around your double to soak damage.

Remember, he can create a clone right next to us. To survive, we can throw his clone towards the original, and create our own clone next to us.
If we don't need to defend, but to attack ourselves, the Tempest Double will serve as a cast range bonus! We create our clone as far away to the enemy as possible and use it to bring the enemy closer to us, making it easier for us to continue the lift-control.

Two Rubicks are better than one after all.
For this spell it's recommended to get Travels, Aghs, and lots of active items!
Some of my favorite items against him:



However, later on AW gets serious. Your problem will be him killing your team from base. You'll have to expend resources killing his double. And the gold from killing his illusion isn't that meaningful.
You either need to crush these kind of guys before the lategame, or provoke the original to show himself in fights (which can be very difficult).

Ability tips:

• If you Fluxed an enemy but he's standing amid lane creeps, just attack him. Creeps will run at you and leave the ally alone with debuff. If ranged creeps remain, Bolt them away.
  
  
• Learn to protect yourself with stolen Magnetic Field as Radiant. Best to cast it behind terrain so only the edge touches you. This prevents enemies easily entering the field to attack you un-missably. Of course you'd need to stand still by elevations. In some niche cases this can help you survive.
  
  
• As mentioned, you can mine the ground with Sparks. But to ensure the enemy triggers the trap, use Lift. Place several sparks, provoke the enemy, Lift them into sparks. Spark is easy to steal thanks to low cd. And for such a frequent "tool of war" you can talent into increased Telekinesis Land range for easier Lifting. To amp spark damage, get Aghs.

Forces nearby enemies to attack us. Works through status immunity like other taunts. Grants big armor bonus during the effect so physical attacks don't hurt as much. Draws aggro even on invisible/fogged units.
315 radius.


Spell Steal extends the taunt duration on enemies but not our armor buff duration.

Aghanim's Shard applies a Battle Hunger debuff to taunted enemies. Functions fully even without stealing Battle Hunger.

Gives +6 armor. Affected enemies gain 45 attack speed for the duration of the spell.

If you go invisible after casting, enemies can only issue one command during the taunt (attack, move, cast, etc) then do nothing for the remaining duration, even if you become visible again.
If an enemy does nothing, they will resume attacking you after invisibility ends.

Berserker's Call overrides fear effects. Feared enemies will stand still but cannot attack you.

Allows toggle orbs like OD's during the taunt. Useful if you steal Warlus Punch against Axe.

Battle Hunger is a target debuff that slows an enemy and deals periodic physical damage. The slow only applies if the target is not facing the caster. The effect ends early if the target kills any unit. Battle Hunger damage consists of a fixed amount plus the caster's armor value.

The target can remove Battle Hunger by using Devour, Demonic Conversion, or Hand of Midas on a creep. Killing allied units also works. This does not work when killing illusions.

Multiple Battle Hunger on the same target are now stacked.

Culling Blade is a targeted pure damage nuke with a special effect: If it kills the target, it grants an AoE speed buff. If used on a hero, it instantly recharges.

Be careful when casting as the range is very low, solved by our passive cast range talent and purchasing Aether Lens.
Buff lasts 6 seconds in a 900 radius.

By default, the health bar has special tick marks every 250 hp. Level 1 Culling Blade's kill threshold is precisely 250 damage. If you see the target's health visually below 1 tick, you can definitely kill them.

You can kill through False Promise if their health is below your Culling Blade damage including amp.

---

Initiation is Axe's bread and butter. His impact depends on how he jumps into a group of heroes. So in games against him, hugging allies isn't the best idea. Wait for his entrance from the side and Lift him right after he shows up.
If he doesn't care about your team and only wants you, play off that. Hide in the fog of war or get an ability that will break his Blink Dagger from range. Smarter Axes will buy Shadow Blade to jump from blind spots everywhere without Sentry Wards.

Axe almost always has a Blade Mail to combo with Berserker's Call so we damage ourselves as much as possible. In call, we can only deal physical damage which will get reflected. Therefore, increasing armor helps survive the "dagger sweater".

The main playstyle against Axe is stealing Berserker's Rage. So Dagger is mandatory. But we aren't very durable either, so get a BKB to block some dangerous spells or Force Staff to immediately reposition after the call.

A strong late game combo is:



Aghanim's, Octarine Core and Arcane Blink allows you to catch enemies almost every 7 seconds. If your team can't kill an enemy hero after this much of lockdown, may God help you.

To kill Axe, remember, he has loads of armor. If your spells aren't enough and you don't want to play through call, build physical damage that ignores his high armor value. Items like Gleipnir and Witch Blade. You'll need to lean on those weird items with secondary source of damage, because the attack itself can be reduced by his passive with Aghanim's Scepter.

As for his ult, you can treat it as just a good pure damage nuke with low cast range. If you steal it, don't necessarily wait for the enemy's HP to get low enough. At high Spell Steal level it's better to just throw out the nuke and "change the card". BUT! If the game state allows, you can stack armor with the stolen ult. Which is always useful, of course.
If you really want to kill enemies reliably with the stick-chop, Alt-click to check the damage values. To increase it take Kaya and a neutral item with amp bonus. The level 25 talent also helps.

Culling Blade works very well with Phylactery. Phylactery damage comes before the ult, essentially raising the kill threshold. However, if Phylactery damage kills before the ult damage, we don't get the kill stack. What's more, Culling Blade goes on cooldown.

A very interesting strategy would be to buy a Aghanim's shard and Octarine Core. With this you can spam and stack Battle Hunger on a single target. If you do this at a safe distance and don't let the enemy last hit anything, you can make him want to retreat and look in the opposite direction from us, which will activate the horrific slowdown. And that would look like a painful beating by a spoon.

Enfeeble is a targeted curse that reduces attack damage, cast range, and deals periodic pure damage.
Cast Range - 800 / 900 / 1000 / 1100

Duration - 9


A targetted pure damage nuke. This ability heals us for the amount of damage dealt. So spell amp increases the heal from Brain Sap. Healing works on illusions. So if we Brain Sap a Spirit Lance illusion, we get 4x healing!

Even though Brain Sap has a particle animation from the enemy to our hero, healing happens instantly after casting.

Shard reduce cooldown by 3 and makes the ability area targeted with 550 radius (still need use it on some unit). Only 30% of damage to secondary targets will heal us.

Nightmare puts a unit to sleep. Attacking the target will transfer Nightmare to the attacker. Most spell damage dispels it.
Almost any damage from our allies' abilities will dispel the Nightmare. Fiend's Grip also cancels the effect of Nightmare.
The owner of the ability can attack an enemy while they are asleep without waking them up. However, it is not allowed to attack a target in enemy's Nightmare.

First Facet grants attack speed on a sleeping target.

Second Facet allows you to choose the direction in which the target of the spell will slowly sleepwalk.

You can wake up allies, enemies, or Bane himself. If you see an ally asleep somewhere on the map, immediately Nightmare yourself and cancel it. This will remove sleep from any hero (enemy or ally) regardless of location.
You can also self-dispel enemy Nightmares if it was used while your Lotus Orb was active.

"End Nightmare" does not interrupt our Fiend's Grip channel.

Nightmare cannot be dispelled to block damage from modified attacks like: Sleight of Fist, Burning Spears, Tidebringer, Stifling Dagger, Boundless Strike, Side Gunner.

While asleep, the target loses vision around their hero, but maintains allied unit vision.

Spell Steal extends sleep duration from cast and when spread via attacks.

Fiend's Grip is a channeled ability that stuns and damages an enemy, also mana draining 5% max mana per tick. Applies True Sight.
Disable from this ability works through status immunity.

Spell Steal does not increase duration.

Aghanim's reduces cooldown by 45 seconds, and spawns two illusions that start channeling Fiend's Grip on the same target.

---

Bane is a hero-disabler. Our goal is simply not to become a target of one of his abilities.
Because often only we can save our team from the effects of his malicious curses.
His ult is interrupted by a simple Telekinesis. Sleep is dispelled from an ally by us as well (first steal the sleep). And if your hands don't keep up with the instructions, just buy some Orchid or Eul's.

There are cases when Bane either reaches level 25 or positions himself as a core hero initially. Here he has a powerful option - the talent for extra Brain Sap damage. Meaning he will deal over 450 pure damage per bite, which has a very low cooldown. Our level 25 Brain Sap will be empowered by our talent and passive, totaling ~500 pure damage. (I'm sorry, I've played Bane like that. No actually, I'm not sorry. Hehe)

---

If Bane gets Aghanim's, our simple Lift won't solve the problem anymore because you need to interrupt reading from THREE Banes at once! For this you need to reach level 25 and take the talent for Telekinesis Land range. With it we can lift the farthest Bane (illusion) and throw him at the other two (throw at max range).

If you really don't want to do this, save up for Wind Waker. It's VERY expensive but Windwaker is a great option against Fiend's Grip, like a sure thing.

And one more thing. Lotus Orb only dispels Nightmare as a dispel. It doesn't remove "tickling". But it can be useful if applied before the ult. In that case we can use the ult on Bane without stealing it.
(Even if Bane ults an ally we Lotus Orb, we will be responsible for the ult cast since the purchased Lotus belongs to us. We'll move and the ult will end.)

What? Three spells at once? We were just praying for two slots recently. But here we are!
Anyway, there's a trick to this madness.

Here's how it goes: You need Aghanim's and steal two Bane spells in a specific order - Nightmare and then Fiend's Grip. To unlock the third slot, cast Nightmare (quickest is self-Nightmare into cancel) after stealing Fiend's Grip.

Ult should be in slot 1, Nightmare in slot 2. With Bane's ult, Nightmare acts weird - casting it adds a sub-ability called End Nightmare. This appears in a new slot after your stolen ult button. When you cancel Nightmare, End Nightmare turns back into a second Nightmare. Note, that you cannot hotkey the second Nightmare. Youhave to click it.

Once you've done this, steal any single-slot spell to push Fiend's Grip into slot 2. Your final slots should be:

• Any single-slot spell
  
• Fiend's Grip
  
• Nightmare

Importantly, the stolen spell must be single slot. A 2-slot spell like Wukong's Command would ruin this setup.

It should look like:

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Fiend's Grip with Aghanim's Scepter creates two illusions that cast the same ult for us. Remember, right? The illusions also copy our spell bar. And since these illusions cast Fiend's Grip, why wouldn't they cast another spell?

If the second spell in our spell bar doesn't have a cast animation, is a toggleable ability, or is chargeable, it's likely that the illusion from Fiend's Grip will be able to cast it before dying. Keep in mind that trying to cast another ability will kill the illusion. This is what the absence of cast animation is for.

Some such abilities work after death. Some even last forever. And some work in a very strange way. Below is a list of what you can dabble with.

Quill Spray, Blade Fury, Plasma Field, Shukuchi, Heavenly Jump, Unstable Concoction, Firefly, Skeleton Walk, Bedlam, Rocket Barrage, Vendetta, Rot, Eye of the Storm, Battery Assault, Shadow Realm, Ghost Walk, Bulwark, Shield Crash, Whirling Death, Whirling Axes, Earthshock, Bloodrage, Crippling Fear, Trample, Voodoo Restoration, Tame the Beast, Powershot, Illuminate, Multishot, Sinister Gaze, Fortune's End, Pulse Nova, Reactive Armor, Proximity Mine, Static Storm, Static Remnant.

The most fun bugs happen with Boulder Smash, Bulwark, and Pulse Nova:

• Boulder Smash from Illusion sends the enemy off the map. After a while, the enemy hero will still be able to press the tp scroll. And if he don't have it? Well. Sucks to be him. Hehe.
  
  
• Illusion Bulwark stays in place until you use this ability on the main hero (which you shouldn't do, of course). Even if the Bulwark is gone from your spell bar, the soldiers will live on and push anyone who tries to pass through them. Potentially, one such immortal wall will keep enemies from pushing the line.
  
  
• If you have Pulse Nova, you should use the ability on illusion and immediately try to take another action (move or attack) so that it dies early. By doing so, Pulse Nova will stay in the area where the illusion was and never end. If the illusion dies from the timer, the mana concept will somehow remain and Pulse Nova will run out sooner or later.

As for Vendetta, you need to have over 370 attack speed for the illusion to hit with extra pure damage.

Cast on target area. Deals small damage and reduces movement and turn rate speed. All units under the debuff take more damage from caster's both attacks and spells. It interacts especially strongly with periodic damage. Each subsequent application of Napalm on an enemy will refresh the timer and amplify the effect. The effect can stack up to ten times.

You don't need to turn to cast. You can throw even with your back turned. Deals 20% less damage to creeps.

To deal a bunch of magical damage, you first need to cast any ability with long periodic damage. Something like Scorched Earth, Magnetize, Poison Nova, Ion Shell, Flame Guard and various other things. Then steal Sticky Napalm and try to stack it as often as possible. Yes. Abilities are taken from different heroes, but the performer is the same. Each tick of periodic damage will be accompanied by additional magical damage. And the higher the frequency of the periodic damage ability, the more additional damage from Sticky Napalm.

Removes the maximum amount of stacks limit and allows you to deal 25% of its damage to structures.

Sticky Napalm can learned 5 times. On 5th level our attacks will apply 1 stack of Sticky Napalm. Max Stacks limit is removed.

Throwing a bottle at target point. This bottle explodes, pushing all enemies away from the explosion center and applying periodic magical damage over time with slow. If we first manage to stack oil on the enemy, and then steal the bottle and throw it, we can deal decent damage. The bottle breaks trees by the units it has thrown. Spell Steal will increase push duration but will not affect burn duration.

Flight mode that leaves a trail of fire dealing periodic magical damage.

Flight duration - 15
Trail width - 200
The fiery trail like ALL Rubick's damage interacts with stolen oils.

Firefly increases movement speed and spell damage over time. The caster takes periodic magical damage depending on the hero's maximum health.

Targeted stun with periodic magical damage. The caster binds the enemy and drags them along for the duration of the stun. Teleportation or Blink breaks the Lasso. This means an ally under Lasso can be saved by something like Nether Swap.
The bound enemy doesn't move further than 300 units from the caster.
For the duration of Lasso the caster cannot attack. However, in our case, the disarm time won't be increased by our Spell Steal, meaning at the end of Lasso we can still get a couple attacks in.

Aghanim's Scepter allows Lasso to additionally grab a second hero in a chain. Search radius for secondary target is 650. (Cast on one enemy and a second Lasso goes from that enemy to a secondary target).

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This hero has a lot of periodic damage that will tear our skin off if we let Bat close enough. We need to take the initiative. See Bat. Catch him before he spills his oil all over everyone.

If we are the target of his Lasso, then Linken's is prescribed to us by all doctors in the world. However, if you always manage to take HIS Lasso, then change the gameplay with Blink, Force Staff and movement speed items. Our Spell Steal will increase Lasso duration and allow us to drag the target very far. Here is an example of what our ult does to Lasso (old passive with the same property as example):


Firefly will be useful for the acceleration that will help not let Bat approach us so easily. We will most likely not have to get close enough to enemies to burn them with magical damage. The ability is stolen and changed quickly.

As for Napalm with specific Facet, some decent options open up here. Facet will allow stacking oil with attacks. Meaning, you can make a physical build that should include uptime, attack speed and periodic damage. Items that fit this description:

Throwing two axes at the target point. The axes fly in an arc and return. Each axe deals magical damage to hit enemies. Damage from one axe stacks with the other. The axes also apply a debuff on enemies. The caster of the axes and his controlled units will deal more damage to debuffed targets. The power of the debuff depends on the number of axes that hit the target. There is no limit to Wild Axes stacks. The more axes the target catches, the more damage we will deal to it later.

Along the whole path the axes destroy trees.

When receiving the debuff, the enemy model gets a particle effect at its feet. If an axe hits an invisible unit, the caster will see this effect on the ground where the invisible unit was. The effect won't move. It will only show where the unit received the debuff, not its current position.

The ability summons a Boar next to the caster, whose attacks slow movement speed and attack speed. Slow duration - 3 seconds. The Boar's debuff will NOT be amplified by our Spell Steal, because it's a separate unit from us.

Lifetime - 60
Boar movement speed - 320/330/340/350
Attack range - 550

Creation of a Hawk that starts circling around its creator and dives onto a random nearby enemy every 4 seconds, dealing magical damage and rooting them.
The interval can be shortened by increasing the attack speed of the Hawk.
The Hawk's lifespan is 25 seconds.

If we tame an enemy Hawk with a Helm of the Dominator, it will change its orbit and start circling around us.

Since the Hawk is a separate unit, our magical vampirism or damage bonuses will not interact with this ability.

Shard adds another Hawk and increases its lifetime.

A passive skill that increases attack speed within 1200 radius for us and units we control. It can be used Beastmaster chose "Beast Mode" Facet. Upon activation, the hero will receive an attack speed buff for 6 seconds, and his hits will have the effect of Wild Axes damage increase.
In order to steal this ability and use it to its full potential, Beastmaster must have a Beast Mode Facet and we must have Wild Axes in the second slot to successfully apply the debuffs.

A manly roar! Targeted stun that pushes and slows all nearby secondary targets. Magical damage is dealt to all caught in the AoE, be it the primary stunned target or secondary slowed targets.
Goes through status resistance.
For 2 seconds speeds up self and all controlled units.

Spell Steal will increase stun duration on both primary and secondary targets. For secondary targets the push distance remains the same but push duration increases.

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It's not dangerous to expose yourself to some heroes' attacks. But not in the case of Beastmaster. Never ever let him or his boars hit you. Make him throw axes at you from afar and don't let him get any closer. Usually clashes with him don't end well. Steal his Boar or Roar to seize initiative from him. Use axes as extra nuke and path clearing through dense forests.

Boar allows keeping distance with most enemies, and roar simply disables an opponent, allowing you to kill or escape. It all depends on how bad your relationship with this guy is.
If you don't take the boar into account, then Beast is actually quite a vulnerable target. Just too overconfident, sooqa :C
And therefore you can expect a blink initiation, roar in the face and subsequent boar summons which under the Primal Roar buff will clearly leave us dead.

To avoid such deaths, you should get a Linken's Sphere. And if Linken's doesn't quite suit you, then wait in the shadows until he dumps the ult on someone else.

If you like axes as a nuke, you need to purchase Octarine Core. The axe cooldown is already less than its duration, but with our CDR talent it will be even more convenient to use them.
I'll just say one thing. The axes have a blind spot in the middle. Sometimes you may miss with them. If the enemy is close enough to evade a direct hit, throw the spell slightly to the side so that it catches with the arc.

If you often steal the bird, you definitely need Aghanim's Shard. With Octarine and cdr talent you can stack up to 4 birds. It's very fun to watch, how enemy struggles to move.

A buff (?) that increases attack speed and spell amp, but burns 1.4% of total health over 8 seconds. This damage cannot kill you. In our hands this spell will also provide attack bonus.

Get used to quickly using Bloodrage on yourself after Spell Steal. Any stolen offensive spell that relies on spell amp will be amplified by Bloodseeker's buff.

For us, this spell also means a bonus to attack damage thanks to Might & Magus.

Instead of spell damage, the ability gives attack damage. The ability also apply silence on the target. Can be used on enemies.

Shard grants the spell's wielder the ability to deal 3% pure damage of the victim's total health from each of his attacks and heal himself for the same amount during the buff.

AoE nuke of pure damage with silence in the chosen area. Both damage and silence are applied with a delay after casting. A very nice pure damage ability that combos with our Telekinesis.
Silence also helps deal with pesky spells.

Delay before activation - 2.6
Area radius - 600

Targeted curse on an enemy. For the curse duration the enemy will take pure damage based on distance traveled. Damage pierces status immunity and is not dispellable. On cast deals 10% of enemy's current health.
Also combos with our Telekinesis. Even more so with the level 20 talent for extra Telekinesis Land range.

Each time we attack a target with Rupture debuff, we and the target get pushed 50 units in the direction we attacked from.

Rupture does NOT deal damage if the enemy travels over 1300 distance in 0.25 seconds. This mechanic is needed so the enemy does not die from teleporting to base.
Not counting teleport scrolls, damage can be avoided by any blink ability if you get maximum distance out of it. Even level 2 Arcane Supremacy is enough to amplify a purchased Blink Dagger or stolen Anti-Mage's Blink to the necessary distance.

Toggleable Aghanim's ability that deals periodic damage to self and enemies within 450 radius around. The damage is 7% of the total health pool of the targets. Damage is magical. Hit enemies are slowed by 30%. When activated the ability goes on a 3 second cooldown so it cannot be toggled off sooner. After turning off it can be pressed again immediately. So spamming the button just in case is not recommended.

Blood Mist passively gives the hero "overheal" mechanic. Healing and magic lifesteal will turn excess health into a shield (up to 50% of total health pool). The shield gradually decays (0.5% of total health per second).
Blood Mist first damages its own shield, and only then the actual health pool.

The caster cannot kill self with this ability.

The "overheal" mechanic is gained by Rubick simply by owning the spell. As long as Blood Mist is in our hands, we can stockpile excess healing into a shield.
Only our healing and magic lifesteal can contribute to the shield. An ally cannot amplify the shield with their heals.

This ability is useful to have with Dagon or Bloodstone.

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For all Bloodseekers in the world we are one of the main targets. Therefore all "bleedouts" will be addressed to us. Many Bloodseekers exhibit the following pattern:
Place ult, drop the "carpet", finish off target with auto-attacks, having applied "claws" (Bloodrage) beforehand.

We need to cram all our casts into him before the already placed carpet timer runs out. If Bloodrage was stolen, only use it on self if you have strong heal or perfect positioning. After casting, quickly-quickly cast everything you've got. It's likely you'll die if not helped, but maybe you can put up a decent fight.
Excess movement = death. To have any possibility of "walking", you need to take care of your health pool. If you get hp items, you can later complement them with BM, which you can use fairly well against enemy Rupture.

If an opportunity arises, steal Rupture, then go for it. It's best to throw it at the same Seeker to smother all his desire to move.

Recommended items against Seeker:

• Veil will allow nuking Seeker directly with stolen Bloodrage buff and Fade Bolt
  
• Lens is needed in the early game to start fights without unnecessary danger. There will also be an urgent need to catch him and toss him aside when he starts zipping around thanks to his passive. Lens will also make stealing his ult much more comfortable.
  
• Pike is simply a good way to increase distance with him, allow more attacks on him, and combines well with his ult.

But that's only the magical path. To brawl with Strygwyr in melee, you'll need to buy some different items and specifically aim for Bloodrage.

Bloodrage will provide an attack speed boost, which we'll combine with purchased Maelstrom, however the spell's full power is revealed only after purchasing Shard. Each attack will deal bonus percentage damage and heal us, which allows fighting Seeker in open battle.

Notable items:



Some more facts:

• Bloodrage percentage damage is separate damage. It cannot crit and does not interact with other sources of lifesteal except itself. However Bloodrage can buff magical crits of Revenant's Brooch.
  
• This damage interacts with spell damage amp or our level 25 talent.

A neat nuke on a single target with a strong but short slow. Medium cast range.
The shuriken bounces to other tracked units.
Bounce search radius - 1200

Shuriken can be blocked by Linken's, even if you are a secondary target. However, this won't stop the flying shuriken from searching for the next target.

With Aghanim's Shuriken applies Jinada's gold steal (BH passive) on the enemy and increases Shuriken cast range to 600.

Shuriken deals damage and slows enemies it flies through. With Scepter, it does NOT steal money from them.

Invisibility, attacking from which stuns the target. A pleasant but situationally useless bonus. If you stole it, then most likely AFTER he applied Track on you. Which means from invis you can only get the stun. But if you have this spell left after a fight, you can buy a gem and in the next clash see BH before he sees you!

Shard grants a new Friendly Shadow ability. It's the same invisibility, but it's must be used on allies. Allies have a Fade Time of 0.5 seconds. If you steal just this spell, then the regular Shadow Walk will be taken into the second slot as a bonus.

A targeted debuff that tracks the location of the enemy (even if it is invisible), shows the amount of gold of the victim and increases the incoming damage. Killing a tracked target will give us extra gold.

The caster moves faster if he is no more than 1200 away from the victim. If allies approach the target within the same radius, they will receive a small portion of the extra gold from the kill.

An incredibly convenient tool for getting rich. Not always easy to steal though. Make it your goal to steal Track and then things will start looking up not only for you but your whole team. Easy to use and works great against the original hero.

Using Track does not break Shadow Walk invisibility. Does not work like this with other sources of invisibility.

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As mentioned: Tracks. Steal Tracks and the game will stop being a drag. However you vitally need to catch the moment when he casts Track mid-fight. Because in all other cases after Track he will surely use invisibility or Shuriken. Remember that Track can be cast while invisible, which means we need to see BH before he sees us. But you can't obsess over gold ALL game. Tracks help earn gold to successfully copy playstyle against another of the five enemy heroes.

Earned gold -> Buy items -> Punch faces -> ??? -> Profit.

However. It's perfectly expectedly to think that Track will be useful to you for amplifying damage on a target. Track increases damage of any type, so it doesn't really matter if you kick the enemy with surprise Dagon or physical attacks.

A ground slam that deals magical damage to enemies around us and reduce their movement and attack speed.

Thunder Clap can be stolen by us in two cases:
1) We actually want this ability as a secondary nuke. Pretty decent AoE slow and magic damage, even though the spell is very close range.
2) We tried to take his ult but didn't react in time, giving the "overgrown badger" time to cast Thunder Clap.

Applies a 5 second slow in the target area. When a slowed enemy takes any magical or pure damage from our spells or allied abilities, the slow is complemented by ignition (periodic magical damage) which extends the duration by 3 seconds! If ignited immediately, the target will burn longer (8 seconds), but total damage doesn't change.

During the cast the caster gains the "drunk" buff needed to multiply the stance effects from Drunken Brawler.

Instead of the selected circle, the hero launches a barrel in the selected direction. The barrel deals physical damage to every enemy it touches, while also applying a brew effect.
The radius of physical damage is slightly smaller than the radius of Cinder Brew.

Spell Steal increases slow duration but does not affect burn duration after damage procs it.

Passive toggle ability that is stolen as an addition to Primal Split and takes up the second slot. With this ability the caster changes "stances" which provide passive bonuses. These bonuses multipied by 2.5 if the owner has the Cinder Brew buff (sadly, we cannot have brew and stance at the same time since stance comes with the ult).

The stances add and change the hero's particle effect so others can understand which bonus the owner currently has. For us the current particle effect bugs out and stays after changing spells, which over the course of the game allows stacking all effects and crafting a "homemade immortal effect".

• [Earth stance]
  Gives bonus armor and magic resistance. Both effects triple if the caster is "drunk".
  
  
• [Air stance]
  Gives bonus movement speed and evasion chance. Both effects triple if the caster is "drunk".
  
  
• [Fire stance]
  Gives 24% chance for critical strike. Crit chance triples if the caster is "drunk".
  
  
• [Void stance]
  Gives 20% status resistance. Attacks with this stance will slow enemies by 25%. Status resistance and slow strength triple if the caster is "drunk".
  

Self-banish and spawning of four controllable elemental spirits of Earth, Air, Fire and Void, each with its own quirks. After the ult duration ends the spirits disappear and the caster spawns in place of one of them.
During the ult all auras are attached to the Earth spirit. If it dies, then to Air spirit. If the second dies, then to Fire spirit. If Fire also "dies out", then to Void spirit. Same priority for hero spawn after ult ends. This also applies to which spirit exactly will be dispelling enemy Smokes of Deceit.
If all four spirits die before the ult ends, the caster will also die.
"Dismay" lasts 16/18/20 seconds.

For proper ult usage, simple-click your hero because after Primal Split cast our hero is immediately selected along with the "pandarens", which interferes with switching between the warriors. Simple hero select will leave ONLY the "pandarens" selected, making things easier.

• [Earth Spirit]
  Slow melee fighter. Abilities:
  Hurl Boulder - throws a boulder dealing minor magical damage and stunning.
  Spell Immunity - passive status immunity and 50% magic resistance.
  Demolish - passive that makes each attack on buildings deal bonus fixed damage.
  
  
• [Air Spirit]
  Ranged fighter. Abilities:
  Dispel Magic - casts a basic dispel in 600 radius area. Also deals 1000 magic damage to illusions and summons (non-hero creeps).
  Cyclone - banishment like Eul's Scepter of Divinity. Meaning this banishment can be dispelled.
  Wind Walk - invisibility and haste. Attacking from invisibility deals bonus damage.
  
  
• [Fire Spirit]
  Fast melee fighter. Abilities:
  Permanent Immolation - passively deals periodic magical damage in 250 radius around self.
  Phased - phasing. Meaning Fire Spirit can always walk through other units (this ability is not shown in the spell bar).
  
  
• [Void Spirit]
  Fast melee fighter. Abilities:
  Astral Pull - targeted vector ability. Spirit grabs an allied or enemy target and drags them in the direction for a set distance, dealing magic damage if an enemy. Does not interrupt channeling spells.

Shard increases ult duration by 8 seconds and allows prematurely ending it with a special ability that unlocks for each spirit. However, hero will appear from spirit chosen by similar elemental rules.

As a hero Brew is undoubtedly strong, but as an opponent specifically for us - not the most terrifying.
An attempt to kill us begins with "spilled beer". If he is trying to attack us, steal Thunder Clap and retaliate. As a result, he will also be slowed and you will have a couple seconds to think of your next move. If you were able to steal Drunken Haze early, spill alcohol at his feet and zap him with Bolt.

In big fights, just zap all the warrior spirits with Bolt. This will greatly reduce the overall damage from auto attacks. But if you can finish off these pandas with magic, that's even better. With each death of these pandas, Brew's ult options drop sharply. As do his chances of survival.

Brew's ult is very easy to steal. The difficulty lies in surviving it and carefully watching the "Panda warriors". Most often you need to focus on the green one, as it has the top priority. Remember the order and switch attention to warriors of other elements if they die in a chaotic order.

Earth -> Air -> Fire -> Void

The following items allow surviving Primal Split: Force Staff, Shadow Blade, Eul's Scepter of Divinity. Blink Dagger often does not save from such danger since the Fire Panda prevents us from using blink. After the ult ends, the Panda can immediately use any remaining abilities.
Catch the moment.

Keep in mind that with Primal Split we cannot deal Burst Damage. But over the entire duration there will still be quite enough damage. The main thing is to use all the capabilities of this ability.

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When stealing Cinder Brew it is recommended to have a Veil of Discord. And you need to Bolt right after "intoxicating" the enemy to ignite them.
It is recommended to ignite the enemy with spell damage not immediately but in the last seconds of the slow. The burn won't dispel the slow, it will extend it. Especially since the total burn damage does not depend on when ignition happens. The spell timer is refreshed after proc.

But a small note here:
If ignited immediately, the target will burn not 3 seconds but the full 5 seconds, but total damage doesn't change. Simply the damage interval changes.

Here we can use one "trick".
If we have Octarine Core, we can throw the second beer if we ignited with the first one near the end of the timer. Igniting for three seconds sets the minimum damage interval, and the second beer extends the burn. The second beer will last the full 5+ seconds, even if the target is already burning. And with a low burn frequency, total damage will increase when it shouldn't (an obvious quirk of the eternal beta).

P.S.: If we ignited the first beer for 5 seconds (immediately), the intervals would be long and extending with a second beer for the same duration would result in less total damage.

Targeted debuff that reduces enemy movement speed and armor.
Base slow - 15%.
Range - 650.
Cooldown - 1.75.
The problem is that he only uses this ability when attacking. When Bristle turns his back on everyone, he clearly doesn't need this ability.

Increases the maximum number of stacks by 2 and increases the value of armor reduced.

Quills. If you happened to take quills instead of "green spell", then hope you have enough health for more close combat. Damage increases with each cast on a target. In any case Bristleback himself will deal a lot of damage with this ability because he casts it more often due to his passive (if someone hits his back). Quills are great for jungling.

Ability can be set on auto-cast to automatically cast it whenever it's possible

Shard ability. Caster launches a glob at the targeted area that explodes and applies 2 stacks of Viscous Nasal Goo and 1 stack of Quill Spray on each hit enemy. Cast range - 750. Explosion radius - 700.




A passive ability that can be used when Brist'lebacks specific Facet is selected.
Passively gives a temporary buff to attack and movement speed every time we use the ability. When activated, the ability will multiply the power of the buffs by 1.5 times, BUT for the duration of the this buff, our view is reduced to a cone. (We also stop seeing what our allies see).

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You have probably heard at least once in your life that "Rubick has nothing to steal from this hedgehog". Right? I JUST DESCRIBED THREE ABILITIES! But seriously, the sure way to defeat the Hedgehog is lowering resists. And (Oh my God!) Viscous Nasal Goo is armor reduction! Yes! That's right! His own ability can be used against him! (This expressive text is addressed to those who think Rubick has nothing to counter Bristleback)

In addition, any other ability that lowers resists works great against him, whether it's item abilities (Veil of Discord, Assault Cuirass) or hero abilities (Corrosive Haze, Ancient Seal, Flesh Golem). And don't forget the main panacea against the spiky hero! Silver Edge! Completely nullifies his annoying passive (sometimes you'll need a Nullifier against a Wind Waker).

You can't go toe-to-toe with him 1v1. And trying to kill him first is not the best option. So deal with a couple of his friends first. And for Bristleback himself it is recommended to prepare his own Viscous Nasal Goo or some disable for comfortable chasing or chain-stunning. All of Bristle's damage is physical. So increasing armor is required. And Force Staff to increase distance between you.

In case you don't like Bristle's spells (which is quite expected), remember that he is playing with 4 other people. So purchasing Aghanim's, with which we steal other abilities in large quantities to soon rain them down on "spiky", would not be amiss. Anything can happen in Dota... And what if Bristleback have a ally hero that can borrow us the spell with Break function? ;D

If you meet mid Bristle, immediately take quills after level 6 and harass him. Use the fact that your damage is stronger. If you are stronger, you will likely get the kill. And if he is stronger, it is enough to toss him away. Just try to use quills when he runs up to a creep pack. In this case he faces you and takes normal damage, and his back does not generate more quills.

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When playing against Bristleback, it is very important to take Arcane Accumulation Facet. Spamming Quill Spray will greatly increase the radiuses of other stolen spells. But on top of that, you'll be able to damage Bristleback with Quill Spray while outside of his Spray radius, making it almost impossible for him to fight.

Just remember to keep your distance with any available options. Keep him in your radius, but stay out of his AoE.

Self buff for attack damage and lifesteal.
Excellent tool for dueling someone at close range. But not Broodmother herself!
Because her other ability won't let us hit her. Although with a certain item build stolen "hunger" makes Broodmother not too scary (if she's without spiders).

Damage bonus depends on percent of our base attack.

Shard increases duration by 2 seconds and gives +4% attack damage from our base attack for each second of the buff.

The ability starts working on controlled spiders within 800 radius of us. Works ONLY on spiders.

Creates a web area where we can move through any terrain with bonus movement speed and turn rate. Spiderlings from the Spawn Spiderlings ability also gain a web bonus.
When the ability disappears from our spell bar, all cast webs also disappear from the map.

Webs reduces health restoration to enemy units.

If we standing in our own web and in the enemy web at the same time, the one in which we were in earlier will take effect. This works for both us and Broodmother. If you want to deprive her of unobstructed movement, make her run into your web and then force her to cast her own web.
To do this she must already be outside her web.

Target slowing nuke of magical damage that applies a 20 second debuff. If the target dies during this time, they will spawn a number of spiders (4-6, depending on level). Cast range - 900
Debuffs from multiple Spawn Spiderlings stack. This means after death the number of spawned spiders is multiplied by the number of stacks.

Spiderlings have two passive abilities:
First (Poison Sting) - Spiderling attacks apply a slow.
Second (Spawn Spiderling) - applies a similar 2 second debuff to Spawn Spiderlings from attacks.

By stealing this, you can not only unleash tons of magical burst damage on the Spider Lady, but also demolish her Towers!
Yes. Our spiders don't get their own web area like Spin Web, but a web can be spun later when we gather enough spiders.

Moreover, Broodmother herself has no AoE spell, while we have Fade Bolt that in one cast wipes out the insect army (when weakened). Larger stronger spiders can be finished off with our own army.
Gather auras and onwards to demolition!

Aghanim's vector ability that places an invisible web trap line 900 units long. It takes 2 seconds after cast to arm. If an enemy hero crosses the line, they completely slow for 0.25 seconds, then get rooted for 3 seconds taking periodic magical damage. Enemy is visible through fog during root. After first trigger the trap disappears, but while the first root other enemies who step on the same trap can also get debuffed.

Up to 5 traps can exist on the map not crossing each other.
Cast range - 600. Ability has 2 charges. Cooldown for each charge - 20.
Can be placed on Spin Web terrain regardless of cast range.

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If you are position 5 support, good luck to you. Brood will first send you to the gallows with her spiders, and besides Telekinesis (on one of the spiders) you won't be able to do anything. However, having a core position allows confidently retaliating with leveled up Bolt against both spiders and Broodmother herself.

Most often Brood is met mid against you. But you'll need to pay attention to your own jungle. You won't be farming it so early yourself, but Brood will certainly take over it. If you don't have time to block the camp yourself every minute, block it with a sentry ward. Brood will most likely want to deward it to continue farming right under your nose.

Burst damage from two nukes will help set the tempo of the game, and spiders left after fights provide an excellent opportunity to shove the lane to hell and back.
Reminder: Broodmother herself cannot clear her own spiders as well as she might like. For that she needs to rely on allies.

If you want an early push - Discord for nuke synergy with the active amp. If you want a split-push festival, Travels. With spiders and ubiquitous boots you can also farm efficiently.
If a Wyvern (or other AoE nuke hero) was helping you mid and your advantage became monstrous, you can build Radiance. It will help clear spiderling armies, partially protect us from physical attacks with the miss aura, and allow us to hit the Spider Lady so hard she loses the desire to gnaw on our buildings.

(To catch Broodmother you need abilities that cut down or provide vision in trees, since Spin Web lets her move through terrain)

If Brood is actively pushing and biting your team's faces off, I recommend rushing a Force Staff or Atos. Overwhelming Blink allows catching up to her due to the monstrous slow that remains effective even at max web speed.
The AoE nuke itself can deal with the spider army fairly well. Atos is just good at catching the arthropod beast.
You can also add Shiva's to your blink.

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If Broodmother threatens to bite your legs off, keep your ult at the ready. As soon as she starts running at you, try to run out of the web. This will make her stop for a fraction of a second to lay another one. You need to capitalize on this. Steal the web and escape through terrain or trees. And the harder you are to track, the better.

It is almost always beneficial to steal the web, as unobstructed movement greatly helps win fights or at least not die.

Stomp is a simple AoE stun that damages and disables nearby enemies. It combos with Telekinesis by placing the Land marker under yourself, then Stomping the enemy when they land next to you. This chain stuns.
Stomp has a radius of 330 units.

Hoof Stomp goes on cooldown and sending a buff responsible for the animation swing. If the animation swing is canceled, the ability will immediately restored. This means that Centaur can now cancel swing of his stun after casting Stampede, preventing us from stealing his ultimate.

Since Hoof Stomp (Centaur's Stance) has a weird approach to casting with a self-buff, it will only spend mana when the buff expires, which does NOT count as spending mana for the spell itself.
Because of this, abilities like Nether Ward, Sanity's Eclipse and Arcane Curse do not respond to Hoof Stomp.

Double Edge is a targetted nuke that also damages a small area around the primary target. It deals damage to caster himself as well.

Many Rubick players have mixed feelings about this spell. For them it's not the best steal since it self-damages and has a very low cast range. However, with the right playstyle, Double Edge can be a great source of burst damage without too much self-harm.

The issue with stealing Double Edge is the damage is based on a fixed value plus a percentage of Centaur's strength. So while the damage is lower without his strength, Arcane Supremacy still makes it hurt. The self-damage is also amplified however, so magic resistance is recommended. Or get EXTREME amounts of strength to boost health and damage.

Items like Bloodstone or Dagon mitigate self-harm by healing based on damage dealt.

Casting Double Edge will grant 12% bonus strength for 12 seconds per hero hit, stacking up to 5 times. Recasts refresh duration and add stacks.
It also slows by 35% for 2 seconds.

Double Edge receives additional damage depending on 25% of the damage we took in the last 6 seconds. The maximum bonus damage is +100%. The bonus will reset after Double Edge is used.

Global team buff granting maximum movement speed and phasing. If an affected ally (or we) collides with an enemy hero, the enemy will be slowed and take magic damage based on the allied hero's strength.
The movement speed bonus cannot be slowed.
Cooldown 100 seconds.


The spellcaster receives a self-buff from Stampede and creates a cart that he pulls along with him. After using the ability, the button (only for Centaur) is replaced by an auxiliary spell called Hitch a Ride. The new button allows Centaur to pick up an allied hero into the cart. The carried ally cannot move but gains invulnerability and can attack and cast spells.

Lasts 8 seconds.
Gives +200 attack range to melee allies.

The buff from Stampede will not be active if the ultimate itself is not in the second slot.

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Centaur is a fat piece of chase. He just needs to reach you and smack you with his first two abilities. The best way to wage war against him is to steal Stampede. Stealing Stampede is quite easy because after his ultimate, Centaur Warrunner won't cast anything until he reaches someone, as his stun and nuke have a melee cast range.
He can reach someone with the help of Blink Dagger, which appears in his inventory almost every game. If you see Centaur getting ready to jump, catch him with Lift. Our casting speed is high, so there's a chance he'll levitate right after using Blink.

A timely lifted horse is already a +50% to a won fight, and if you managed to steal Stampede, the fight takes on a whole new dynamic.
GG WP

But that's not all. Thanks to the combination of Arcane Supremacy and his Double Edge, you can have a lot of fun! Get Lens and ALL THE HEARTS IN THE WORLD! It turns out to be a medium-range ultra-nuke.

Hoof Stomp. The ability is simple but effective. Get a Blink Dagger. Jump in and slap with a stun, which will be amplified by our ultimate.

I strongly do not recommend hitting Centaur without lifesteal. Each attack on him will be accompanied by a strong retaliation. And there is as much retaliation as Centaur has strength. That's it.

Chaos Bolt is a targeted stun and nuke with random values. Both damage and stun duration are randomized each cast within a set range. More damage equals less stun, and vice versa.

Chaos Bolt is the epitome of randomness. Either it deals modest magic damage, or puts a poor hero to sleep for 3.25 freaking seconds!
At max luck, can stun for up to 4.2 seconds.

Chaos Bolt splits into two bolts on impact. One will deal damage and the other will stun.

The shard spawns an illusion from Phantasm next to the Chaos Bolt target. Illusion attacks the target for 6 seconds. Illusion deals 15% less damage.

Reality Rift teleports Chaos Knight and the target enemy together at a point between them. It first pulls the enemy a fixed distance towards CK, then teleports him next to them.
It also reduces the target's armor. Increasing cast range only affects CK's teleport distance, not the enemy pull distance.
Any illusions next to CK will also teleport to the target.

Reality have equal chance to apply either Break, or Disarm, or Silence. The additional debuff lasts half the time of the spell.

Phantasm summons illusions after a 0.5 second delay that deal 100% white damage. Any green damage is ignored as usual for illusions. So stacking intelligence to amplify white damage makes this spell very potent.

The 0.5 second delay acts as invulnerability and dispel.
Chaos Knight himself may have an Facet that makes all of his illusions “strong”, making them impossible to instantly kill with a hex, dagon or some Mana Drain.

Aghanim's creates one extra illusion for CK, and makes an illusion of every allied hero globally without interrupting channeling spells. Applies a basic dispel to allies.

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Like against all typical Carries, we need to exert early pressure on Chaos Knight to gain a clear gold advantage. Until he gets his second level ultimate, he can be killed quite easily.
Chain-stunning him will solve the problem. And if he uses his ultimate, one Fade Bolt will reveal the real one. Though his illusions deal a trillion damage, they are still illusions. They take much more damage.
Both Chaos Knight and his illusions do not have significant magical resistance apart from their innate 25%, so AoE nukes also help deal with his Phantasm.

By the way, Phantasm is easy to steal. If we see that Chaos Knight has used his ultimate, we simply spam our Spell Steal on the cluster of riders. Since we cannot steal anything from an illusion, not only will we not waste our ultimate in vain, but we will also identify the real one.
If we intend to steal Phantasm, then we should stack stats. The more intelligence we have, the stronger the stolen ultimate will be. You can also buy Crystalys, so that the illusions crit with base damage.
In general, the most ideal option against Chaos Knight would be Bloodthorn. A large number of stats or special active ability will allow for the most effective management of the army of strong and muscular illusions.

If you are not into carry build, then get Aghanim's Scepter. It will create an army of stat-based copies from your allies. Well, someone must be stat-based among them, right?!

And now I would like to recall the most dangerous tool of Chaos Knight in battle: Reality Rift. After he uses his ultimate, most likely, the first ability he will use is Reality Rift. One joint blink and already 5 copies will strike your skull. I remind you that illusions also have Chaos Strike, which applies a painful crit.
Sometimes Chaos Knight will buy Dagger. In this case, after blinking, he will use the stun, and then only Reality Rift. Take into account the enemy's behavior, which is based on his items. This will help not to accidentally steal the Rift ahead of time.

Not falling victim to Reality Rift is our main task. The second task is to get rid of illusions (AoE damage to help). Because if Chaos Knight doesn't have illusions, he doesn't have his main source of damage either. Without Phantasm, it is not very comfortable for him to fight, so he will most likely want to retreat, which will be quite difficult to do if WE have his Reality Rift.
That's right. The third task is to steal Rift. Slowing down the movement speed from Rift also plays cool against the rider himself.
It is quite good to buy Aether Lens for Rift to catch agile opponents.

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Take a closer look to see if there are any heroes in the game that can create illusions out of enemies. His innate "Reins of Chaos" ability can play into our hands and create an additional illusion.
There are only three such abilities: Reflection, Disruption, and Dark Portrait.

Penitence is a targeted slow that also grants increased attack speed to all allied units attacking the debuffed target. The caster and his ranged units also gains a bonus attack range against the specified target.

Amusingly, the attack speed buff is granted to units that normally wouldn't benefit from it. For example, Death Ward gains the bonus attack speed when attacking a Penitenced target, allowing it to exceed its usual max attack speed.

However, it does not accelerate Juggernaut during Omnislash.

Takes control of neutral (and enemy) creeps. Dominated creeps get bonus damage and movement speed. Pressing it again on a dominated creep teleports it to you.

Dominated creeps stay under Chen's permanent control. Holy Persuasion increases creep's HP. Bonus health depends on hero's level.
Max creeps: 1/2/3/4

The shard lets you control ancient creeps (based on ult level) and levels neutral creeps' abilities by 1 (up to max level 4).

Amazing fact: When we lose this ability, all our controlled units (summoned only by this ability) die.
The peculiarity is that they die regardless of who owned them at that moment...
Confused?
Let's clarify.

For example: Chen tamed a huge golem that gives a health bonus. We decided that the golem would be more useful to us and we take it away with our stolen ability.
Later, Chen (seeking revenge) manages to lure our golem back and with another skill, takes it to the base, so that there won't be any more of this ♥♥♥♥.
And here (attention) we decide that if the golem doesn't belong to us, it won't belong to anyone! And with these words, we simply change the skill.
And somewhere at the enemy's base, one little golem dies.
The point is that by stealing creeps, we mark them as our property for the rest of their lives. And it doesn't matter who will control them next. When we lose the Holy Persuasion ability, all the marked creeps die.

Just a global heal for all allied heroes and controlled units with subsequent periodic healing. Healing duration is 10 seconds.
By controlled units, I mean creeps tamed with Helm of Dominator, not Holy Persuasion, because if we don't have Holy Persuasion in the spell bar, we don't have creeps from that ability either.

The ability becomes a channeled spell. After the initial heal, the caster grants all allies around him magic immunity with 60% magic resistance and triples periodic healing. Duration - 6. Radius - 800.
Magic immunity does not applying to caster itself.

Hand of God heals allied heroes even if they are banished. Meaning, it can work on an allied Puck in Phase Shift or on a hero hidden in enemy Astral Imprisonment.

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Just steal his own creeps. Take Dominator to steal even more creeps. If he stole his own creep that you stole with Holy Persuasion, just switch abilities and the creep will die. Take the creeps, break the towers, clap, stomp, throw rocks, summon skeletons, or whatever those creeps do.
But only do all of this if you really enjoy switching between all your controlled units.

In other cases, the best ability would be Penitence. This ability is kind of "supportive", but at the same time, it's "self-sufficient". Solar Crest works very well with this spell. Cast Penitence on an enemy, and Shine on an ally. The attack speed of the ally will be so high that you'll want it for yourself.

Moreover, this ability will be easier to steal since it's the most targetable. All his other abilities he can use outside of fights or in the bushes, without targeting us or our ally. If he still uses Hand of God while we're nearby, it's even better for us.
We have Aghs? It is time to give our team free BKBs.

A temporary buff that increases speed and attack range. The bonuses apply to skeletons from Skeleton Walk and Burning Army (full range bonus, but 60% of the attack speed bonus).
Duration - 3.5 seconds.
Range bonus - 200.
Using Strafe does not remove the invisibility from Skeleton Walk.

Attacks with Strafe applies a one second miss debuff. Stacks with the attacks of our skeletons.

A targeted spell. The hero throws an oil bomb at the enemy, causing it to attack us and our skeletons. Upon impact, the bomb deals magic damage to the target and leaves a puddle with a radius of 275. Enemies inside the puddle are slowed and take additional damage from our attacks and the attacks of the skeletons. After leaving the puddle, the enemy remains affected by the ability for an additional 2.5 seconds.

Since Tar Bomb forces the caster to attack the selected target, if this ability is used on an enemy with Lotus Orb active, who is also casting a channeling spell, the attack command given back to the enemy will cancel their casting.

The caster consumes an enemy creep or OUR own skeleton from Burning Army/Skeleton Walk to heal themselves and temporarily increase their maximum health by the same value. A new skeleton appears in the place of the consumed unit.

The ability at levels three and four has 2 charges. Charge cooldown is 40 seconds.
Buff duration - 45.
Minimum creep level required for consumption - 4 / 4 / 5 / 6.
The ability does not break the invisibility from Skeleton Walk.

Aghanim increases the number of hits required to destroy skeletons by 1.

The caster teleports in place of the absorbed target, leaving the skeleton in our previous place. Reduces cooldown by 10.

The buff from Death Pact cannot be dispelled.
Only one skeleton created by this ability can exist at a time.

Summoned skeletons only deal damage if Death Pact is in our spell bar.

Allows the hero to become invisible with increased movement speed. Exiting the invisibility creates a group of skeletons near the hero. The skeletons have the same attack range as us, but deal only one-fifth (20%) of our attack damage. The damage and attack range of the skeletons are dynamically adapted in real-time.

Skeletons die from 2 hero or Roshan attacks. They die from 8 attacks by creeps or towers.

And just in case, let me repeat: Summoned skeletons only deal damage if Death Pact is in our spell bar.

An ability from Shard. Dispellable. The caster fires a salvo of 6 arrows in the chosen direction. The arrows pass through all enemies in their path, dealing 65% of the hero's attack damage to them and applying attack modifiers, if any. Each arrow has a width of 200. The base range of the ability is 850.
Each arrow applies Tar Bomb to the enemies. In our case, Tar Bomb should be in the second slot.

This ability has True Strike and deals damage even if the caster is disarmed.
The range of the ability depends on the hero's attack range and is not increased by Lens or our Arcane Supremacy. It can only be boosted by attack range bonuses.

Burning Army
An Aghanim's Scepter ability. A vector-targeted spell that creates archer skeletons in the chosen line with a 0.5-second interval.

Line range - 1300.
Number of skeletons in the line - 5.

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Bone Fletcher is one of the invisible heroes. And to defeat him, you need to see him. But that's not all. But let's go in order.

Most often, you will see him when Clinkz decides to attack you. Sneaking up on you in invisibility, popping out with a bomb and a horde of skeletons.
In such a situation, you will first think about how to steal his Skeleton Walk and escape from this "spooky" attack. BUT WAIT!

On his way to you, he can freely use Strafe and Death Pact without breaking invisibility. Even more, he will most likely use one of them right after attacking you. So you need to prepare one of the defensive items. For us, it will be Force Staff, Vanguard, Pavise, Ghost Scepter, and similar ones. Clinkz's main damage, as well as the damage of his skeletons, is physical. So as long as you can protect yourself from arrows, everything will be fine.
Remember that later on, Clinkz may want to buy an item that will hold you in place, so he has enough time to shoot you down.

Now let's talk about options:

Try to catch Clinkz with Sentry Wards and Gem when he needs to retreat. In such scenarios, he will try to eat a unit for healing and hide in invisibility, forgetting about Strafe, which is only useful for offensive purposes. In this case, if we detect him, we can steal Skeleton Walk to use it later as we see fit.

This ability can make our game much easier. With this "option," we can go for Radiance, Gleipnir, Solar Crest, Scythe of Vyse, Eul's Divinity, and the like.
Overall, with such invisibility, the most important thing is to get a Gem of True Sight. It's just terrorizing the skeletons. Seriously. This will FORCE him to care about you being the only one he can see. Because you see him, but he doesn't see you. And it definitely annoys him, as Telekinesis can hit him at any moment and from any angle.

Burning Barrage from the shard is one of the main killing tools. If we take it after the 15th minute, it is used for lazy farming or in combination with Maelstrom. It is a situational ability, so it should not be relied on too heavily.

However, if your priority is his ability that creates skeletons (Burning Army, Skeleton Walk, Death Pact), then you should focus on fixing and increasing damage. Besides Lift, you should consider getting Rod of Atos for fixing.
The created skeletons will deal a portion of our damage, so increasing damage is crucial. Remember that they will not apply attack modifiers, regardless of what we buy.
Placing Burning Army near an enemy hero should be done in a way that the hero stands in the middle of the line, so that 3-4 skeletons can reach him. Also, for the same purpose, it is worth buying Dragon Lance, which will increase the attack range of each skeleton.

And here's the final surprise. Hehehe...

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The oil bomb can be used on buildings to deal magical damage and target skeletons. However, abilities that deal damage to buildings have certain penalties. Their damage to buildings must be reduced for balance reasons.

As it turns out, this does not apply to Tar Bomb in any way... So the slippery bomb deals full damage to buildings. And now let's add up everything we have with this ability:

Deals damage to buildings.
Casting range is 1250 with Arcane Supremacy at level 4.
Buildings do not have magic resistance.
And we have a bonus to spell damage.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen. Just throw the oil bomb every 3 seconds through three screens with the level 15 talent. As long as you have vision of the towers, everything will burn with blue flames.

Battery Assault lasts for 10.5 seconds with a 0.7 interval, micro-stunning and dealing magical damage to a random enemy unit within a 275 radius. If there is only one target near us, all the hits will land on that unit. The total number of Battery Assault hits is 15.

Deals more damage to creeps.

The caster creates a fence of eight cogs around himself. Anyone who approaches the cogs from the outside will be pushed back. Additionally, enemies pushed back will lose mana and health. Cogs can be destroyed with two hits. The performer himself does not break the Cog with his attack, but pushes it away from him at 1000 range.

After the pushback effect, the cog becomes inactive. It still blocks the path but cannot push anyone away. Cogs cannot push units without a mana pool, such as melee lane creeps.

Cog formation becomes wider. 330 radius (Not changed by AoE bonuses).

Status resistance rules with the cogs only work in one direction. The pushback duration can be reduced by increasing resistance to the effect, but it cannot be amplified by our Spell Steal.

Launches a rocket to any point on the map. Deals magical damage and brief area slow. Grants vision for 6 seconds.
The radius of the damage area and vision is 600.

The rocket is indicated on the map by a visible red mark to enemies. If you have wards placed and a red mark flies through them, it's likely the rocket. The trajectory can give an idea of its destination.

"Reverse hook". The caster throws a hook in the specified direction. The hook latches onto the first unit hit and pulls us towards it. If the target is an enemy unit, Hookshot stuns and deals magical damage. It also applies the same debuffs to all enemies in the path of the ability. The stun goes through status immunity.

If Hookshot is used and an ally is nearby the target, the cooldown is reduced by 75% and 75% of mana spent is restored. The damage radius is increased to 300. We with allies in AoE gain bonus armor.

While the caster is flying towards the target, he is silenced and disarmed. Items can still be used.

An Aghanim's Scepter ability that temporarily enhances all other Clockwerk's abilities. HOWEVER, upon expiration of the bonuses, the caster will be slowed by 100% for 3 seconds.
The penalty stun cannot be reduced by status resistance, but it can be dispelled by a strong dispel.

Battery Assault - affects all enemies in range, not just one random target.
Power Cogs - provide the caster with 250 bonus attack speed while inside.
Rocket Flare - the hero launches 2 additional flares on the sides of the initial one. The ability cooldown is reduced by 3.
Hookshot - increases the radius and duration of the stun.

It's a complete crap, if we don't have Aghanim's Scepter and another Clockwerk's ability in the second slot.

An ability from Shards. Enables flight mode for 6 seconds with a slow turn rate. During flight, the caster gains movement speed but is disarmed.
Clockwerk himself does NOT need to turn to cast Hookshot. Hookshot can be prematurely invoked even during flight.

Speed bonus - 20%. Cooldown - 16.

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The synergy of this enemy's abilities is simple. Once Clockwerk gets close to you, he activates Power Cogs and Battery Assault. You're dead unless you escape from the cogs. Against Clockwerk, ALWAYS have a Force Staff or an ally who can pull you out of there.
And until then, use Lift to throw Clockwerk out of his cogs. While he's thinking and breaking his cogs, you must break a cog from the other side to get away.
Furthermore, when you throw Clockwerk out of his cogs, you can steal them and place your own. This will definitely give you enough time to avoid an attack.

All of Clockwerk's spells imply pursuit. Therefore, it is recommended to choose items with this in mind, to not suffer greatly from the full range of "Dwarf in a Can" capabilities. Force Staff (already mentioned), BKB, Aghanim's Shard, Wind Waker.

By the way, about Aghanim's Shard. The shard allows the use of Lift on ourselves to throw ourselves out of the cogs. It's very useful in cases when he has the talent for rooting in cogs.

Clockwerk himself without Hookshot is quite killable. You just need to keep him in place and not let him cut himself off from you with the cogs. To do this, simply use Lift and throw him over his own fences. In case he buys a shard and decides to fly, items like Eul's Scepter or Rod of Atos will be very handy.

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Clockwerk is one of four heroes who do NOT need to turn their face towards the target to use an ability on them. However, he can only do so, when his Jetpack is active. In other words, during flight, Clockwerk can dagger out without spending time turning towards the specified direction. This mechanic allows us to use Telekinesis, Light Bolt, and our entire inventory without diverting from our path. The range of the cast is the only important factor. If we activate the Jetpack, we will also gain this property for the duration.

P.S.: The other three heroes with a similar mechanic are Mars, Pangolier and Phoenix.

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If Clockwerk is playing with Hookshot facet, you can buy Manta Style and Octarine Core to give you some low cooldown hookshots at close range. If you don't want Manta, then team up with an ally, at the expense of which you will get all the facet bonuses.

AoE nuke with movement and attack speed slow. Damage is magical.
AoE radius - 425.

The special thing about this spell is that the slow duration does not scale, but is already 5 seconds, which is extremely long. With the first cooldown reduction source the ability turns into endless slow.

Hitting yourself or an ally gives targets a barrier of physical damage. Our barrier is twice as big.

Ensnares the target dealing periodic magical damage. Damage per second for heroes is always 100. Deals more damage to creeps. Only the ensnare duration scales. Frostbite is one of the spells that disallows not only moving but also attacking. The other owner of such an ensnare is Treant Protector.

Spell Steal will increase total damage together with duration.

Passively gives mana regen to us and our allies. If Crystal Maiden's specific facet is selected, the ability can be used to gain a 10 second bonus to spell damage. Our character's manacosts are increased and each spell casted will replenish mana to allies within a 1200 radius.

The spell damage buff will not give us attack damage, though magic resistance will work fine.

Long cast time spell. For the entire cast random icy explosions occur around us (radius 835) dealing magical damage and slowing movement and attack speed.
Explosion radius - 320.
Max channel duration - 10 seconds.

Passively gives cast range and AoE bonuses.

Aghanim's increases explosion count by 20% and allows moving, attacking and using abilities during the ult. However, the ult can still be interrupted. During the ult caster movement speed is reduced by 75%. Freezing Field area follows the caster.
Also applies Frostbite on those, who stayed in the AoE for 2 seconds.

Freezing Field with Shard cannot be interrupted by Berserker's Call or Winter's Curse (if Freezing Field caster is a secondary target).

The caster slides to selected direction in 275 range and leaves an ice copy that lasts 5 seconds. If the copy runs out or is destroyed, the copy will explode and cast Frostbite on enemies within a 400 radius. The copy cannot be attacked, but it can be destroyed with AoE spells. The health of the copy is 150.

Casting allows you to dodge projectiles.
You can break it yourself with Crystal Nova or Freezing Field.
Our clone will only apply Frostbite if we have Frostbite or Freezing Field in the second slot.
Can be applied while rooted or leashed.

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Against CM we have EVERYTHING.
Lift to interrupt her ult. "Ice cage" that we can throw back. And Arcane Supremacy that amplifies every word towards her.
You don't need to think much to play against her.
Just get a Dagger and use a retaliatory Freezing Field.

Although you need to be careful. Frostbite won't interrupt her ult, so save some disable for that case. And don't forget to protect from magic damage. Even though we have an advantage in arsenal, she still deals a lot of damage. So you need to get either Force Staff or Black King Bar. For everything else, typical caster items are recommended. Aghanim's to empower Freezing Field and Kaya & Yasha to empower all her (and our) abilities.

If CM is playing a VERY poor support, you can still use her spells, but not rely on them for item builds.

VACUUM!
Pulls all enemy units in the target area into one spot. This tool can toss enemies onto cliffs or move them through walls.
Vacuum radius - 400 / 450 / 500 / 550
Pull duration - 0.3 / 0.4 / 0.5 / 0.6
Can be used on invulnerable units (not banished).

Stops Storm Spirit, Ember Spirit and Morphling mid-flight.

Applies a special buff on any unit. While the buff is active, the chosen allied target will deal periodic magical damage to all nearby enemy units in 275 radius.
Ion Shell duration - 25. Ion Shell follows status resistance rules. And therefore, if the target is an enemy, the shield will last 32 seconds on them thanks to our Spell Steal. I believe this is one of the rarest cases where status resistance heavily affects outgoing damage.

Ion Shell cannot be blocked or reflected by Linken's Sphere or Lotus Orb.
If we cast Ion Shell on a target that already has the enemy Dark Seer's buff, the timer will refresh and the damage source will switch to ours.

The timer will refresh but the buff/debuff status won't change. If Dark Seer casts Ion Shell on us and then we cast it on ourselves, the refreshed Ion Shell effect will still be considered a negative effect, even though it benefits us. Who can dispel Ion Shell depends on such nuances.

Buff on self or ally that gives max movement speed of 550 (like Haste rune) and phasing for 3-6 seconds. Like the rune effect, Surge cannot be slowed.

The surged unit leaves a trail that heavily slows enemy units and deals periodic magical damage. The ability becomes toggleable. Autocast turns off the Shard bonus.

Vector ability that creates a wall generating a copy of each enemy hero that passes through it. While inside the wall enemies are slowed. The slow lingers for 0.75 seconds after exiting.
The illusion from max level Wall hits with the original's full base damage.

Of course, illusions from the wall only use base damage, so Wall of Replica works well against heroes with excess white damage.

If you are a Weaver with low HP, you can farm your own illusions nicely with Shikuchi. 5 gold each.
Only one Meepo will generate a copy. His ult clones don't trigger the Wall.

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Dark Seer is a fat caster whom we can still catch up to.
The other problem is prolonged fights, since he feels as comfortable in them as we do.
We don't suffer too much from Ion Shell and can even retaliate with our own, but getting vacuumed in a big clash is a very bitter experience. So it's better to engage him openly after he uses Vacuum. Its cooldown at max level is 30 seconds.

Most often either Wall Of Replica or Surge will be the biggest help.
The Wall is just a powerful ult that will wreck everyone like Warlock Golems if you start controlling them yourself, and Surge is what will help us establish order in a long, long, long fight. We catch frisky chaps and escape dangers.
Seer can't do the same, because without Aghanim's Scepter he has no actual disable or burst damage.

Regarding Vacuum there is one funny detail. If you try to pull an enemy to yourself at max cast range (catching them at the edge of the AoE), after the pull they will end up in Telekinesis range.

A very nice trick is Aghanim's Shard that adds options to Surge. Low cooldown + infuriating ooze? Why not.

Notable items against him: Gleipnir, Eul's Scepter, Aghanim's Scepter, Aether Lens, Assault Cuirass, Shiva's Guard, BKB, Hurricane Pike.

Creates a flower "labyrinth" consisting of mine-bushes. They deal magical damage and root anyone who steps on them. After triggering one bush disappears.
Hence, one naughty garden intruder per bush.

And yes. One hapless opponent can definitely get hit by multiple bush "root" triggers if they just run through the Bramble Maze head on.

If the enemy doesn't want to pick gooseberries in our garden, we can roll them through two bushes with our Telekinesis. Periodic damage from several "nettle" stacks. So if they already stepped on one bush, feel free to Lift and dunk them into another.

If you skilled the +400 cast range talent for Telekinesis Land, you can dunk one target into three bushes at once. Bramble Maze itself consists of two square 4-bush formations.
You need to land the enemy on an inner bush, then launch them into one of the two opposite outer bushes.
In flight the target will also clip another inner bush.



This won't increase disable duration much, but will substantially increase total damage. So you can definitely use this trick in a game where CDR Bolt talent isn't too necessary.

Enters a state where we cannot be targeted by regular attacks or single-target spells. In this state we charge up magical energy for one attack. The state lasts 5 seconds. Maximum bonus magical damage for the hit is available after 3 seconds in Shadow Realm.
If we don't attack during this ability, all charged up power is lost.
Attacking early will end Shadow Realm prematurely.
Attacks from Shadow Realm have increased range.

Though unreachable by targeted spells, Shadow Realm still leaves us vulnerable to AoE abilities. Yes. This is no blessed immortality.
(Among exceptions I know are Bushwack, Overgrowth, Electric Vortex)

Shadow Realm evades damage from spells that apply an auto-attack (Omnislash, Boundless Strike).

Aghanim's allows staying in Shadow Realm after attacking. Hence, each attack with this ability will be magically charged. This Aghanim's efficiency directly depends on our attack speed.

Shadow Realm emits an aura in which enemies take more damage from us. The longer we stay in Shadow Realm, the stronger the aura works. The maximum bonus damage is 30%.

A delayed blast bomb. Placed on an enemy's head. After the timer expires the enemy and nearby allies get stunned.
A very interesting ability that forces the enemy team to temporarily "denounce" those near them. In some situations this ability can be combined with something very nasty.
For example Flux.

The timer can be dispelled.

Shard reduces cooldown by 1.5 and creates 4 Bramble Maze bushes around the target after Cursed Crown ENDS. Regardless of whether Cursed Crown triggered or not. Even dispelling the timer will trigger bushes.

The Crown counts the amount of damage taken by the victim during the timer. When triggered, Crown will deal a portion of the accumulated damage.
35% of Dark Willow's abilities (Fade Bolt and stolen spell damage are not counted) and 15% of attack damage.

Spell Steal increases stun duration but does not change timer duration.

A spirit from the Mireska's cage (which Rubick doesn't have btw) starts spinning around and pounding nearby targets like Witch Doctor's Death Ward. Jex (the spirit's name) doesn't attack buildings. His attack speed and damage are considerable. Jex's damage is magical.
Can be used even if you just cast Terrorize.


The caster, after the obligatory swing, fires a projectile that creates a large area of imposing fear.
Cast range - 1200
Like Savage Roar but with larger radius and longer duration. Can be used even if Bedlam was just activated. Second Terrorize (if we used Refresher Orb) will only become available after Jex returns to the caster from the first Terrorize. Meaning, this time depends on how far we cast the ult. Heh.

If you hit an invisible opponent, you will see their silhouette but this ability does not provide True Sight, so the invisible cannot be attacked.

---

Mireska is a hero with way too many abilities that do a lot.
Roots, stuns, instant damage, periodic damage, escape, range increase, fear... All this in one hero who hasn't even bought items yet.

For survival against the Fairy it's best to purchase Force Staff, because you need to maneuver a lot from her massive range abilities. To take her down you need some AoE spell to catch her in Shadow Realm. This AoE can be ripped from either herself or her allies.
You should also get Eul's to avoid negative Cursed Crown effects and dodge the enhanced Shadow Realm strike. By the way, she likes buying Eul's herself to combo with "Crown" and cast like AA's Cold Feet.
For attacking with stolen Bedlam, Blink Dagger is very good. Blink in -> Press Bedlam -> Lift the enemy. And if you don't like reducing distance, Bramble Maze bushes can be tossed from afar. Aether Lens to the rescue.

In general, any stolen ability of hers helps pour in damage or lock down the target. And they can be complemented by a wide variety of items. Look at what items can work not only against her.

P.S.: If you steal Shadow Realm mid after level 6, you can evade her attacks with the same ability. Using this state lets you dodge incoming projectiles. As soon as she attacks and misses we are already charging up our Shadow Realm attack, which she cannot evade since she has it on cooldown.

For a special Shadow Realm playstyle you need Aghanim's Scepter and strike from kilometers away with scary magic slaps. After Aghanim's immediately build Pike (Dragon Lance) and Moon Shard. With the talent for stolen spell amp and Moon Shard one Shadow Realm will shred almost any hero to pieces.
If uptime is already enough, MKB is recommended to prevent potential evasion from enemy abilities, items, or position (if we attack from low ground).
With Aghanim's Shadow Realm, very late Refresher Orb is recommended to extend the first Shadow Realm with a second one. This is needed so that after the 4 second mark all the other 6-7 seconds of attacks (refreshed the cast with Refresher) are fully charged and deal maximum damage. Using the two Shadow Realms separately will give you only 4 seconds of max attacks in total.

The caster indicates a direction they will move a short distance with three hammer swings around self. Each swing deals additional physical damage, but on the third swing the hero slams the ground, stunning enemies in 250 radius.
The last third swing (ground slam) deals more damage.
Swing radius - 360.

On Rubick the staff swings will still count as ranged attacks. Each enemy caught by the swing arc will be shot by Rubick's regular attack projectile.

The spell movement can destroy trees but cannot traverse terrain elevations. If trying to climb (or descend) a hill, the hero will just bump into the edge and swing in place.
During the maneuver the hero cannot move or attack, but can use items and spells. However if the spell requires a target, it must be IN FRONT of us. Meaning, we need to make the maneuver right towards the target of other abilities (Lift, for example).
The ability can be used while stunned, the hero will swing their hammer but won't move.

Our own Blink and Force will not interrupt Starbreaker movement. However Eul's or Manta will definitely stop it.

Shard provides spell immunity during the cast and allows moving during the cast. However attack direction cannot be changed.

For each hit with the ability, we and our nearby allies are given a temporary bonus to attack speed.

The caster throws their hammer at the target point, dealing magic damage to all enemies hit. The hammer sticks in place for 2 seconds then returns, leaving a slowing fiery trail (deals periodic damage). While the hammer is still on the ground, the hero can use the sub-ability "Converge" to fly towards it and meet in the middle.

Fiery trail duration - 2.5

Hammer's trail gives a bonus to movement speed.

The Converge ability can traverse terrain. Stuns can stop the movement from this spell.
Converge cannot be used while stunned (but you can still throw the hammer).

Global cast ability. The hero channels for 1.7 seconds to create a special 350 radius area around any allied hero. The created area on creation and then every second deals magic damage to enemies and heals allies. The area lasts 2.5 seconds (6 ticks total). On expiration the hero flies to the marked area, landing with extra damage and stunning enemies. Once the cast begins it cannot be canceled by the caster.

Damage radius - 400
The area can be placed around self, not just allies. This is important in cases when our team is dead. Such jumps can be used to traverse terrain.

The ability can still be interrupted externally by silence, stuns, cyclones or banishments. Stuns won't have an effect (Treant ult still interrupts because it works on channeling spells).
Besides the jump, the landing can also be sabotaged.

Aghanim's Scepter reduces the cast time to 1 second and the air time to 0.5. Aura of Healing follows us after landing for another 3 seconds and has increased healing.

---

Dawnbreaker is a close-range brawler who jumps into fights with hammer or ult.
But she always has to account for certain nuances:
A huge number of control spells do not let her properly use abilities. (Roots hold her during Starbreaker, while stuns and silences interrupt Solar Guardian). She is also not allowed to use other spells without the hammer she throws with Celestial Hammer (this applies to us too, but doesn't concern us much).
If she doesn't make quick dives but tries to squeeze out the flight range to the last meter, she risks losing precious seconds of decent attacking.

For a caster her throw hammer is the best ability. Nuke + mobility = very cool. Remember to return the hammer prematurely when attacking to guarantee maximum damage and the enemy doesn't leave the return path. The hammer and ult are obviously empowered by all magic trinkets. Don't return the hammer if damage isn't the goal. This applies to almost any situation where you need to maintain distance (returning will disrupt positioning).

As for her first ability, it's better to buy Maelstrom-type orbs. If proc orbs don't suit you, crits will do as well. Why crits are good I already explained earlier. But I want to revisit orbs. Namely Gleipnir. This same Gleipnir we will use to timely stop her Starbreaker approach attempts.
By the way, if she does start winding up her first ability towards you, walk through her! She cannot turn until she finishes the maneuver (if no one interrupts her cast). Moreover, Starbreaker gives the caster phasing so we don't need Phase Boots to walk through her model. If she has Shard, Force Staff is recommended since interrupting her spell will no longer work.
Blink Dagger also goes well with Starbreaker. Just Blink in the direction of the cast after the second windup to arrive at blink spot with the stunning swing!

If you want to overcome her healing ability, buy Shiva's. The armor lowers crit damage, and the aura simply reduces heal percentage. If you are considering Silver Edge, let me clarify:
Silver doesn't prevent passive stack accumulation, but if Dawnbreaker already has 3 charges, the Break won't stop the crit. Fortunately passive heals from crits will be disabled while broken.

Slowing physical damage poison that is applied on the primary and several secondary targets. Poison duration refreshes if the caster attacks the debuffed target. Each attack on the victim amplifies the slow. Multiple Poison Touch effects stack.
The target receives 1 stack of Bad Juju if this ability is in our spell bar.

Every 4 attacks on a poisoned target deal additional physical damage. Poison Touch also will bounce to enemies within 450 radius of the primary target. The number of possible secondary targets depends on the number of primary targets.

Poison Touch is one of three abilities during which you can deny an ally. If the ally's health drops below 25% when he is debuffed, you can start hitting him. Killing an ally will not give the enemy experience or gold.

Targeted 5 second buff. The cross in most cases won't let the target die. If damage is fatal, the target is left with 1 hp. And such debauchery continues until the cross duration ends.
During the buff the target receives more healing for every 10% missing health.

Culling Blade kills through the Grave.

Heal that deals physical damage to enemies near the healing target. Besides the main heal target, several random additional targets (3-6) are chosen if available nearby.
Casting Shadow Wave in the first place heals self.
Damage from several healed allies stacks.

Aghanim's allows casting inverse Shadow Wave on enemies. Such Shadow Wave bounces off of enemies healing our allies near the hit units. All secondary targets are attacked once by us after the cast.

If the empowered Shadow Wave is reflected by a Lotus Orb on a melee hero, they can only attack the response wave targets within 400 radius of them.

Attacks from the empowered Shadow Wave can miss.

The hero's spirit leaves his body, leaving him stunned. The spirit is invulnerable, can cast spells and attack. Dazzle himself gets upgrades for his normal abilities, but we don't have any and our spirit can't steal spells.

Shard allows to cast this spell while being stunned.

---

This guy will strip all armor from your team, not let his team die, and leave you to rot in a ditch if you don't get your act together.
First try to silence him. If after that he prepped a dispel (or has an ally with a signature spell), then try to kill him first. Such is the fate of healers in games.

Against Dazzle you should take care of armor that he wants to deprive you of.
I know how much you want to buy Cuirass, but most likely someone will already purchase it (if not, go for it). So a more common option for us will be Pavise, Solar Crest, Blade Mail or something like that. Cuirass or Medallion will also be very useful to lower armor for Dazzle's attacking spell efficiency.
Lotus will be great both for armor and dispelling Poison Touch.

It is useful against him to buy Aghanim's Scepter to take Shadow Wave and apply the effects of items and spells that somehow do something to our attack. Most of the time it will be useful to get Mage Slayer or Maelstrom.

Since a typical healer can be at the other end of a fight, Lens can be purchased to reach them.

Against especially dangerous mid Dazzles it's best to get Pike and Lotus. Pike is important for repositioning under heavy slow, while Lotus has two very important qualities: dispel and armor.

Cone wave of magic damage. Total hit range is flight distance plus radius.
Base flight distance - 810.
Wave radius - 300 (Starting radius - 110).

Cast range is less than flight distance, but any cast range bonuses will amplify both parameters.

Hero launches a projectile that silences enemy units in the target area. Area radius 450.
Projectile speed - 1400.

Ability also slows enemies.


Creates a link between us and an enemy hero. The link damages the enemy and heals us. Siphon healing does not depend on damage dealt.

Siphon cannot be cast on a target already under its effect.


Shard provides one more charge and applies 1 second of fear on the enemy if they are under the effect for 3 seconds.

Summons a hive of ghosts that deal physical damage by touch. When Exorcism ends the ghosts return to the caster healing their wounds. The healing depends on the damage that was dealt by ghosts. The hero gets a bonus movement speed for the duration of the Exorcism.

Ghost target search radius - 700.

Heal amount depends on the number of attacks the ghosts made. A quarter of their attack value for each hit. Since ghost attack damage isn't fixed, heal values for each ghost will vary slightly. Ghost attack: 59-64

Though the ghosts deal physical damage, it still counts as a nuke. Therefore any spell amp or Discord will benefit.

Ghosts are trying to attack everything, but only can damage units with normal health. For example, they can destroy a Venomancer's wards, but they can't destroy an Undying's Tombstone. However, attempts to attack things they cannot destroy will be taken into account, when calculating subsequent healing after the end of the ultimate.

If a ghost picks a target, it will try attacking it until the target dies or goes over 1200 range from the caster. Ordering attacks will retarget all ghosts, but not immediately.

Resummoning ghosts during an ongoing Exorcism will return the first ghosts to the caster prematurely. You can buy Refresher and halfway through the first Exorcism cast the second one. As a result you will get early healing and continue fighting/pushing with a refreshed ult. There will be heal, only if the first Exorcism ghosts were actually dealing damage.

The ghosts deal damage even to units in fog of war (not invisibility).
The movement speed bonus remains until all ghosts return to the caster. You can try to outrun them to maintain the bonus longer.

When attack or other DP's spell connects with enemy unit, hero will spawn one ghost. The Aghs ghost attacks once and then immediately returns.
In our hands we can ONLY rely on physical attacks. So high attack speed is recommended.

---

Yet another fat caster.
Women are usually offended when called fat, but Krobelus... YOU'RE A FATTY.
In general Death Prophet is a very nice French woman who sometimes flaunts sexy legs.
Her goal is to catch you with Spirit Siphon, disarm with silence, and go on a rampage with her ult ghosts.

Good countermeasure tools are Linken's and Discord, if only for her two regular spells:
The low cd wave is a nice spam ability that simply complements our nuke arsenal. I'll remind that the hit range is much further than cast range, so with Lens you can chuck nukes across the screen.
As for Siphon, I'd say this ability often has higher priority since it helps stay close to enemies.

We can have up to 4 charges of this ability. And in open battle we will have to use all charges at once (depending on how many enemy heroes are nearby). For more reliable use, Lens again. Lens increases not only cast range but break range, which is very important!
Kaya & Sange or Eternal Shroud can be added to Siphon. Both items will help heal yourself dear and make us more inclined for close combat against Death Prophet who surely needs to zip at us full speed.

Eul's is another good choice. Passively boosts ult movement speed and helps dispel silence. Lifting yourself up when you've cast Siphons on all nearby foes trying to beat you up is also good.
Or with Shard immediately target an enemy right after Siphon cast so fear procs as soon as they land.

If you often take her ult, complement it with Cuirass or lockdown items (like Atos).
With Aghanim's you can fully commit to physical stats. Namely attack speed. The more hits we land, the more ghosts will come out of us and return with heals. But even with physical builds an item for spell amp can be carried since the more a ghost damages the more heal it brings.

Finally Aghanim's Exorcism can be reinforced with a Harpoon (Dragon Lance or Hurricane Pike) for better positioning.

Targeted debuff of 4 lightning strikes on the head with small AoE for those the target decides to hug. Each proc briefly slows the enemy, including attack speed.
Damage is magical.

Interval between lightning strikes - 2 seconds.

Shard allows casting Thunder Strike on the ground. In this case the ball lightning sits on the ground for 4 seconds waiting for an enemy without attacking. If an enemy enters ability range, the lightning attaches and starts hitting as usual. If no one enters radius for five seconds, it starts hitting the ground without reattaching.
Number of attacks increases by 1 and cast range increases to 1200.

If Thunder Strike is inside Kinetic Field, it deals damage to all enemies in the cage. If Thuner Strike was applied outside the cage but there is an enemy inside the cage, the ability is teleported and applied to the enemy that is closer to the center of the cage. Slow duration is increased up to 0.8.

Targeted spell that teleports an enemy to where they were 4 seconds ago. Deals magic damage based on the distance the enemy traveled.

Teleport isn't instant. On cast a projectile flies from the enemy to destination. Once it reaches the target, they teleport. The projectile either flies at 600 speed or covers the entire distance in 1.8 seconds (if distance is too big).

Glimpse can interrupt target movement from other spells. Be it Storm Spirit ult, Time Walk, Pounce, Meat Hook, etc. However it cannot teleport a target under banishment effects. Like Doppelganger, Disruption, Sleight of Fist, Astral Imprisonment, etc.
Eul's is not an exception. It cannot be used to evade Glimpse.

Impassable barrier that forms 1 second after casting. So there is a small window to escape before the "prison" fully materializes.
And yes. You can easily be sent back in.
Force Staff won't push you out of Kinetic Field.
Hurricane Pike can, but only when used on an enemy. It will flick you out of prison backwards.

This field stops Phantom's Embrace spirit and leaping Monkey King. Funny thing is the stuck MK cannot use items or abilities in the air. Meaning, he will be completely shut down by the fence.
If you play Disruptor against MK, I suggest looking at Kinetic Field talents.

An ability that replaces the normal Cage if Disruptor has chosen a specific Facet. Vector casting. Has two charges. Disruptor places a fence that has the same properties as Kinetic Field. The length of the fence is 1050.
With proper creativity, you can put up fences, trapping enemies against a landscape wall or even between two fences.


An ability from an innate ability that we can steal if Disruptor plays with Transferrence facet. Can be casted on yourself or an ally. Creates a charge that pushes enemies away from the target of the spell and deals magical damage depending on the caster's current health. When used manually, this ability have bigger cooldown.

Electromagnetic Repulsion can be triggered passively from damage taken and go on 5 seconds cooldown.

Caster creates a temporary silence area dealing periodic magical damage. Damage ramps up every quarter second instead of stable ticks.
Inside this area there is another flying vision radius at 450 (Outer ability radius - 550).
Lasts 6 seconds.

With Aghanim's Static Storm disables inventory.

---

First of all: If you teleport to a building near an enemy Disruptor, he likely wants to Glimpse you back home. Teleport into bushes or hard to see areas. And after you finish teleporting, wait 4 seconds. If you stole Glimpse early yourself, you can "return the favor".

Stealing Static Storm can be very difficult since Disruptor's cast animations are very quick. So most often when trying to steal the ult you will end up with level 1 Thunder Strike or Kinetic Field. But if you do manage, reinforce the spell with your own lockdown. Items like Rod of Atos or Diffusal Blade work well with it.

Thunder Strike is nice but won't be high level early since Disruptors often focus on Glimpse. So the cage will be more useful, allowing you to wail on enemies while they are "penned up". For the cage alone you can purchase at least one item that amplifies your attacks.

To stand against Disruptor, first consider BKB to escape Glimpses or break out of his "cage + ult" combo.
Different story with Aghanim's Disruptor. If you know he has it, be vigilant. If you don't pre-emptively activate BKB in a fight, you likely won't activate it at all. Besides Aghanim's the enemy can have Blink Dagger to leave you no chance of using items.

---

Aghanim's Static Storm has another great use. It silences Storm Spirit's or Ember Spirit's inventory when they are in their ults.

Often seen Storm zip down a lane in ult and teleport home just to safely clear all creeps? Well. See such a prankster and place Aghanim's Static Storm in his path. If he zips through it while channeling a teleport scroll, the tp will get canceled but Storm will fly further spending mana.
A Storm without mana shouldn't be feared.

Similar story with Ember but I doubt you will need to do it often.

Here I will list several spells whose movement can help cross Kinetic Field for us or allies. Some spells require Aghanim's Shard or Scepter.



These two spells create illusions like Manta Style and slightly alter our original position which can sometimes work in our favor.



These two spells are like Iron Branch. After making an obstacle we can force ourselves past the "fence".

Midas 2.0. Eating a creep gives bonus gold. However we won't get the creep's abilities like Doom himself. But can take the active neutral abilities from Doom if he is using them.
Extra gold is only gained after digesting the creep. Cooldown 60 seconds. Digestion also takes 60 seconds.

The spell gains a second charge, but cooldown of each charge is increased.

Doom himself only gets the neutral creep ability if Devour was on "auto-cast" when used. To do this you need to right click the ability.
I'll remind again this function is useless to us.

Self buff granting bonus movement speed. Also creates an aura around that deals periodic magical damage.
The speed bonus is part of the aura so lasts 0.5 seconds after the spell ends.

The ability heals the caster and controlled units for 60% of the damage value.

If the aura source is banished, Scorched Earth won't deal damage for that duration.
Cannot be dispelled from enemies.

A targeted curse that silences and cancels healing.
Doom deals pure damage piercing spell immunity.

The cursed enemy will spread the same debuff in 350 radius. The ability can be self-cast to radiate Doom ourselves.

Every 6.66 minutes of game, the duration of Doom will increase by 0.66 seconds.

Spell Steal increases debuff duration and number of pure damage ticks. Only when used on enemies.

---

This demon loves jumping on shoulders and chasing. He has everything necessary for it. Our objectives:

1) Don't let him press buttons if we end up in an advantageous spot.
2) Survive Doom if he decides to focus us.
3) Steal Devour to match Doom's farm. In a calmer game allows spending a couple minutes on more effective farming.
4) Steal Doom and silence the highest priority target, be it a saving hero, elusive core, or Doom himself.

So. Doom's behavior pattern is: Get close to the most dangerous enemy and Doom them. He can do this with Blink Dagger or Shadow Blade.
If he has Blink (which he buys most often), place wards. If Shadow Blade, it's recommended to buy Shadow Blade yourself and Gem to prevent the jump. As much as you want to steal Doom, it's better to not let him cast it at all.

Doom also often eats the big centaur to stomp after Blink followed by Scorched Earth. Stealing the "scorched earth" is definitely not redundant. Arcane Supremacy will dish out so much damage it will feel like you have Radiance. This ability also helps farm between fights.

If he has Aghanim's, he will simply ignore any Lotus Orbs or Linken's Spheres by self-casting ult and jumping in your face. In such cases you shouldn't show yourself. If we steal his ult, with the same Aghanim's it makes sense to dress up as a tanky hero to have the ability to silence enemies with your presence (though in most cases this shouldn't be done).
But note the ult itself won't be amplified by the ult. Only do this if you need to break Linken's or Lotus for example.

He can be countered by Aghanim's Scepter, Veil of Discord, Linken's Sphere, Lotus Orb, Octarine Core, Bloodthorn, Shadow Blade, Force Staff, and Manta Style.

Orchid is notable for silencing him after a Doom jump to prevent other spells and stealing ult. Works until he gets BKB of course.

Got Doomed? Prepare BKB and Force Staff to run out and not catch bonus nukes.

Cone wave of magic damage that applies a debuff lowering attack damage. Starting radius 150, ending radius 250.
Debuff strength does not scale with levels. Always 20% of ALL damage. Accounts for both white and green damage.

Breathe Fire applies poison and other effects depending on Dragon Form level. Our Breathe Fire doesn't do this since Dragon Form needs to be in the second slot which we cannot do. Because when stealing the ult, Fireball comes with it taking up the slot. (And yes, the fire wave doesn't care if we pre-cast Dragon Form)

Breathe Fire with its cast range actually reaches much further. At base cast range the wave travels 750 distance, then we add the final wave radius of 250. Total 1000 hit range.
After all that we can add the usual cast range bonuses.

Targeted long stun with a quirk.
In regular form Dragon Tail has a horrid 150 cast range, but in dragon form from Dragon Form the stun has 450 cast range.

With the fire facet, Dragon Tail will be applied on the area around the main target if we have used Dragon Form beforehand.

There is another difference between these stuns. The melee stun has no projectile, meaning it cannot be evaded. The dragon form stun has a projectile that can be attempted to dodge.

Transformation into a dragon. For DK himself this form changes attack type from melee to ranged and 275 AoE splash. Dragon attacks have effects based on chosen Facet (which don't work for us). For us attack type is already ranged and we don't get the range bonus. Technically, this ultimate only gives us a bonus to attack damage and movement speed. But if we get Aghanim's Shard, then Fireball will be available in the second slot, which is described below.

Aghanim's Increases the dragon's level (affects its movement speed bonus) and grants unubstructed movement.

Spell Steal increases slow duration from level 3 and 4 dragon but does not affect poison duration (at all levels).

Shard ability that can be stolen separately or comes with Dragon Form ult. Caster creates an area at target point dealing periodic magical damage. Enemies burn for 2 more seconds after leaving the area.
Radius - 275
Cast range - 1400
Duration - 8

When stealing ult we get Fireball in the second slot even without Aghanim's. Shard is required for this.

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Dragon Knight really loves focusing targets with stun. He won't deal much burst damage but will definitely piss us off with stuns. We have three playstyles against the Dragon.

Cooldowns on his first two abilities are low. And this brings us to the first and most common method. Spell amping. Veil or Kaya to start and Lens to increase Breathe Fire hit range.

Second method - focus on control. His Dragon Tail has a 9 second cooldown. Stun lasts over 3 seconds which in our hands becomes ~4.5.
With such an ability it's not a sin to build Lens and Octarine. While not in dragon form our stuns cannot be evaded. Taking into account that we increase cast range, randomly stunning enemies will look rather spooky.
A good start for this gameplay is Blink to initiate fights with the stolen "tail".

And third.
Increase resistances that will complement the debuff from Breathe Fire. If we play against heroes with high physical damage, we can buy Crimson Guard and fire back with stolen Breathe Fire and Fade Bolt to reduce the damage from attacks.

Aghanim's Scepter will be useful not only for upgrading his Dragon Form, but alternating spells to avoid limiting yourself to just one playstyle. If you really want to combine all three styles, start the game with Lens and Aghanim's, then purchase physical resistance items.

If there is a need to deal damage with your hands, consider his large armor amount. Witch Blade, Maelstrom, and Bloodthorn will work against this.

Attack modifier that slows enemy movement. We cannot directly steal this ability, however we can apply the modifier effect through stolen Multishot (described below).
Slow duration - 1.5 seconds

With Aghanim's Frost Arrows apply a special "Hypothermia" debuff on enemies that can stack up to 9 times. Each Hypothermia stack increases Frost Arrow bonus damage and reduces target healing. If an enemy dies under Hypothermia, icy projectiles scatter onto nearby enemies dealing magic damage and 40% slow. Hypothermia explosion damage depends on number of stacks the enemy died with.

Hypothermia explosion radius - 650
Explosion damage per stack - 60
Healing reduction per stack - 10%
Explosion slow duration - 2
Single stack duration - 7

Pushing spell that silences and apply detection.
The push does not interrupt teleports. Pushed units destroy trees. Increasing cast range amplifies the push distance. Pushed unit speed and travel distance depends on their position relative to max Gust range.


Toggle ability. For 1.75 seconds the hero launches 3 volleys of arrows in the target direction. Each volley contains 4 arrows. Volley range is attack range x 1.75 (Dragon Lance amplifies cast range).

Multishot applies the Frost Arrows effect on enemies which can be upgraded by Aghanim's.

Allows you to move while casting Multishot. Speed in this case is reduced by 25%.

Each arrow deals physical damage based on our white attack damage. HOWEVER they do not count as auto attacks and instead get amplified by spell amp. Meaning, our passive increases Multishot damage from our white attack.

Since only Multishot allows applying Frost Arrow effects, max number of stacks an enemy can get is 3. You can show off with Refresher of course but I'm not sure it's worth it. Simple cooldown manipulation doesn't help much.

Shard ability. The spell creates an icy slope beneath the hero. The slope has two sides: front side that cannot be descended normally, and back side with a convenient staircase.
Ranged allies standing on the glacier get 175 attack range and high ground benefits - flying vision and no miss chance.

The front of a slide obstructs vision (if no one is standing on the glacier).

Since this is a full-fledged hill, attacks can miss it from low ground.
The front side essentially acts as a wall, so this ability can be used to block off narrow passages.

Being able to go through the front of the slide actually gives us unobstructed movement that can be used to get through uneven terrain or trees.

---

Positioning against Drowsy is quite the sore subject.
You can't stay at HER range, for that is her strength.
But you shouldn't always approach closely either, because she has protection.

Well. I'll say right away. It would be convenient if we never had to cross her attack radius line. So first consider a playstyle where you have Lens and long range nukes to avoid getting shot in the butt.

In other difficult cases we will be trying to tackle the "Drow" problem in various ways.

Shadow Blades, Eul's, and Halberds.
You can sneak up on her with Shadow Blade or avoid attacks, use Eul's to either toss her up or toss yourself to dispel Gust. And Heaven's Halberd itself has good stats and handles ranged carries very well.

And now for another playstyle. Her Multishot is fairly straightforward to use and steal, which allows utilizing it as the main attacking mechanism. The main thing is remembering its power depends on our white damage and is amplified by spell amp.
Get Aghanim's for more effective farming and increasing AoE damage through magical explosions. Then get Pike to improve cast range, followed by stats and Kaya for simple damage increase. The primary damage is physical so it's recommended to have allies with armor reduction spells. Multishot arrows technically aren't auto attacks so Desolator won't work unless you attack the target manually first.

Multishot amplifiers:
1) Level 25 talent for 40% spell amp on stolen spells
2) Arcane Supremacy
3) Spell amp items (Kaya, Timeless Relic, etc)
4) Veil of Discord
5) Any stat items to increase white damage

A smash from a Stone Remnant that deals damage and slows.
The ability is strong if we have his remnant nearby. How to get it? Just wait. Sooner or later this rogue will throw it at us himself. If there is no remnant nearby, we will push the closest unit to us in the targeted direction, regardless of whether it is an enemy or not. The thrown unit deals damage but does not slow.

Deals increased damage to creeps.

The base search radius for a remnant or unit is 200. However, this value can be increased with cast range bonuses. With this ability we can pull an enemy from a distance up to 675 if we have Aether Lens.

Although the ability can be used on non-enemies, the auto-targeting makes the spell respect Linken's Sphere and Lotus Orb. In theory you can break a Linken's with Boulder Smash by using it on nothing.

The status resistance rules for Boulder Smash only work one way. The flight time of the target can be reduced by increasing resistance to effects, but cannot be amplified by our Spell Steal.

After a short delay the caster rolls in the targeted direction, dealing magical damage. If an enemy hero is in the path, Earth Spirit will collide and stun them. The damage of Rolling Boulder consists of 60 fixed damage and the hero's strength attribute. In motion we are invulnerable, but not during casting.
Rolling Boulder can also use Stone Remnants. If you pass over a remnant, you will travel much farther and the stun duration is doubled.
If during Rolling Boulder the enemy Earth Spirit tries to silence us with his remnant placed in front of us, we will not stop rolling and even speed up, since our Rolling Boulder simply consumes his remnant. Hehe.

With second Facet: Rolling Boulder does not destroy the rock it has driven over.

With third Facet: Rolling Boulder will interact with allied heroes as if they were Stone Remnant. We with allied hero gains a buff to movement speed if Rolling Boulder passes through them.

Rolling Boulder can cross Kinetic Field borders or enter an enemy Arena of Blood.

Pulls a Stone Remnant to Earth Spirit. The moving remnant will deal magical damage and silence any enemies it hits. With this ability we can interact with remnants and the enemy team in nasty ways.

With Geomagnetic Grip we can instantly neutralize an incoming Boulder Smash from Earth Spirit. The remnant flying at us as a silencing Boulder Smash will instantly turn into our silencing remnant, no longer able to stun.
Cat-like reactions are required for such tricks!

The Shard upgrade allows Geomagnetic Grip to be used on an ally to pull them to you.

Spell Steal will increase silence duration but not affect the pull duration if under Enchant Remnant.

This ultimate applies a debuff that deals periodic damage to all units in a small radius (350). So it is a very close-ranged spell. If a Stone Remnant comes within 600 range of an enemy affected by Magnetize, the remnant will refresh and spread the Magnetize effect in the same radius around itself.

If Boulder Smash or Geomagnetic Grip is used through a remnant on a hero under Magnetize, all other victims of the ult will also receive the slow or silence.

Gives an attack bonus if at least one stone is affected by Magnetize. The effect cannot be stacked, but can be refreshed.

Each subsequent remnant placed by Earth Spirit interacts with our ultimate.
So during the effect of our Magnetize, he has the choice:
1) He still uses his remnants to participate in the fight. Deals tons of damage to himself and likely spreads our ult to his allies. Gets reported by teammates.
2) For safety he refrains from using remnants for a while. Becomes not very useful in the fight.
Earth Spirits usually choose the first option, if only because they don't notice our Magnetize.

Turns an allied or enemy hero into a remnant for 2.4 seconds.
This remnant can also be used in combination with Earth Spirit's other abilities.
After the transformation the remnant deals damage to the primary target and other nearby enemy units.
Radius - 450.
Damage - 450.

Works on spell immune allies but not immune enemies.
In remnant form the target cannot take damage or be selected for attacks or spells (unless the spell is an Earth Spirit ability).
It's recommended to only steal it to save an ally from impending damage or disable an enemy, since combining Enchant Remnant with other spells will likely not work for us. Although maybe sometimes with Aghanim's we can.

A hero under spell immunity + Enchant Remnant can move freely, cast spells, and simultaneously be considered a remnant that takes no damage.

Enchant Remnant on Doom will temporarily disable Scorched Earth.
Enchant Remnant can be used on an allied Supernova (the Sun must explode while in remnant form. If the Enchant Remnant effect ends prematurely, Phoenix will simply fall out of the Sun without ability cooldowns or full health restoration).
Fully ruins all other allied summons. Can be used very cunningly to grief teammates.

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This animated boulder rolls into the chosen target, either throwing them toward his allies or dropping his ult on them, after which he simply chases them down.

One of the best ways to use his abilities is to Magnetize Earth Spirit or his nearby ally. If he initiates, try to steal the ult after the stun wears off (he may not want to immediately refresh the ult with a remnant). If he uses his ult on our ally, calmly take Magnetize, lift Earth Spirit, and bring him closer to us to return the prank.

We can let him roll into the fight, but he shouldn't be allowed to roll out. Stand a little away from your team. As soon as he approaches, Lift and unload all the magical burst you have. If you don't have burst, provoke him into using Magnetize so you can steal it. To do this, delay the Lift until after we've stolen his ult.

But what if he has BKB? Try to take Boulder Smash. With it we can knock back an ally near Earth Spirit. If we have remnants below us (and we definitely will), just shoot one toward the rest of the fight to help on the other side, since we can't do anything here yet. Anyway, BKB is a good item against these kinds of initiations.

For a chain stun you can steal his Rolling Boulder. Together with Lift the stun will be 4.5 seconds without using a remnant. But remember that without a boulder Rolling Boulder doesn't travel far, so use this combo at medium range, or skill the +Telekinesis Land Distance talent to bring the falling enemy closer to you during the "roll".

Creates a wall from self to the targeted point, which stuns and damages affected units upon creation. Fissure blocks pathing. Flying units or those with unobstructed movement can move through the Fissure.
Another source of damage for chain stunning or magical burst. In our hands it casts instantly, not with the long windup like Earthshaker's.

The Shard gives unobstructed movement when touching your own Fissure. If we move away from it, the effect lasts 1 more second.

Heroes hit by this spell will produce shockwaves. We need Echo Slam in second slot for that.

Increases attack damage and range by 100 for the next attack.
The Enchanted attack is not consumed on misses.
If you press Totem when your attack is already in flight it will NOT deal bonus damage, the buff just gets wasted.
First charge the attack, then whack them with the bonus damage. No other way.

Aghanim's Scepter allows this ability to be used to leap. During the leap you cannot attack, use items, or cast spells. Cast range is 950.
Aghanim's also gives the Enchanted attack a 40% splash. Yeah, it doesn't work for us.

CHAOS DUNK!
Yes. A super slam on the ground that turns the enemy's numerical advantage against themselves. Deals base magical damage to all enemy units in a 700 radius, and creates shockwaves between each unit.
The more enemies caught in this Mega-Clap, the more damage each will take.
And yes, Echo Slam also does not stun with us. Remember there's no Aftershock.

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The very presence of Earthshaker in the enemy draft allows us to choose a playstyle from the beginning of the game.
Either we always steal Fissure and become a magical burst maniac with the fastest hand in the west, or steal Enchant Totem and become the most terrifying version of Earthshaker that everyone will fear (physical damage gets things done...).
But remember, Earthshaker is a game changer, for love of god. In one moment you'll forget yourselves and he'll land such a beautiful Echo Slam that no one can do anything with suddenly have no buybacks. Playing against him is very easy if you remember his looming presence. But as soon as you relax, he'll whoop your ass up.

And yes. Don't you dare hug him. His Aftershock won't spare you. Get Euls and Aether Lens for painful and long-range Fissures, or a Desolator to crush with Enchant Totem.

Magical or Physical play will be relevant all game with Earthshaker. And most likely in most situations you won't have to change it halfway through.

The choice is yours.

There is also an interesting "third path". Buying Aghanim's and stealing Enchant Totem allows you to make huge circles around the fight. A very hardcore positioning tool that also provides a physical damage boost. Jump like a madman.

And remember, Aghanim's is another core item for Earthshaker besides Blink Dagger. Against one, Aether Lens becomes more desirable.

A stomp with a 1.7 second cast time.
Deals mixed damage (half physical, half magical) and puts all affected units to sleep. The damage is split if Elder Titan used Astral Spirit (Titan deals physical, spirit deals magical).
If a sleeping unit takes a certain amount of damage, it will wake up.

The Shard teleports the caster to the spirit's location after casting Echo Stomp. Works fully if we have both required spells.
Reduces cooldown by 2 seconds.

A controllable spirit that has a small "aura" which deals a little magic damage (50) and gathers damage, movement speed, and armor for us from every unit hit. If the spirit hits an enemy a second time, the damage will not repeat.

We gain more bonus per hero hit than per creep.
All bonuses last 10 seconds on us.
We can control the Spirit for 10 seconds as well.

Aghanim's Scepter gives us 2 seconds of spell immunity for each hero hit upon the spirit's return. The gained bonus dispels effects.
Quickly re-using Astral Spirit on enemies with Aghanim's not only refreshes the spell immunity, but also adds seconds to the effect of the first spirit. So if you use Astral Spirit twice (with Refresher) hitting 5 heroes, you can get 20 seconds of BKB. Awesome!

If the ability ends or gets replaced while the Astral Spirit is alive, it immediately disappears without transferring any bonuses to us. So before stealing another ability, make sure the spirit reaches you.

A giant fissure that channels for 2.7182 (why this number?) seconds before exploding!
Upon exploding it drags all units to the fissure, slowing and dealing damage based on the enemies' maximum health. The damage is mixed (half magical, half physical).

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Elder Titan is analogous to Earthshaker.
After all, two of his four abilities are designed around dealing lots of magic damage and chain stunning, while the other just begs you to get a Desolator and beat down people with one arm!
But there are some differences here.
Echo Stomp's cast time won't get faster in our hands. Channeling is interruptible, so we can never stomp instantly.
Astral Spirit in turn does not multiply our base damage for one attack like Earthshaker's Totem, but rather adds some damage for 9 seconds. That's clearly more than one hit. How much damage we get depends on how many enemies we hit with the spirit. To properly gather damage without feeding, you need to carefully control the spirit and not forget about yourself. I suggest buying Dragon Lance to reach every villain with your righteous hand.

And if you want a little virtue in your life, stealing Earth Splitter is very easy with Aghanim's. You can also combine Elder Titan's ult with our Lift or gathered Aetheros. For such an ability it's also good to take Veil of Discord, so enemies get it good!
Percentage damage + numerous resistance reductions + Arcane Supremacy = trillion damage.

In addition to lowering magic resistance I want to draw your attention to lowering armor as well. Earth Splitter is also half physical damage. Solar Crest, Assault Cuirass, and Desolator significantly amplify the spell's power. These items (except Deso) also help protect against the enemy's fissure.

Ensnares two random units that are close to the caster. Ember Spirit deals periodic magical damage. And yes, this ability doesn't care at all who it grabs - creep or hero. And if you want to use the chains on a hero who is standing among creeps - pray again to your Random Gods.

The number of targets is increased by 2.

Spell Steal increases total damage along with duration.

The caster selects an area in which he attacks each enemy unit once. Damage against heroes is increased by a fixed amount which can crit. During Sleight of Fist we are invulnerable. Duration depends on how many units we are hitting. Attack interval is 0.25 seconds.

If there are more than 2 or more targets in the area, the victim closest to us will receive a second hit with reduced damage.

Sleight of Fist cannot be cast while rooted.

Among all abilities that rely on auto-attacks, Sleight of Fist is the ONLY one that deals NO damage when disarmed. Other abilities force the attack, ignoring disarms.

Creates a fiery shield that deals periodic damage around Ember Spirit and blocks 70% of incoming magical damage. The shield has a set amount of damage it can block. If the shield absorbs all its potential damage, it disappears. And if it disappears, it will stop dealing periodic damage. That's how it is.
The shield blocks damage after it passes through our magic resistance.
Removed by any dispel.

Has charges.
Launches a fiery remnant that we can blink to using the sub-ability Activate Fire Remnant.
The remnant explodes on activation (when the caster arrives) dealing magical damage.
Fire Remnant damages all units in a line between the blink start and end points.

Aghanim's Scepter allows 5 charges of remnants. They are launched up to 3000 range and at double normal speed.

The Shard makes remnants deal 45 magical damage per second in a 450 radius around themselves. If the owner dies, a remnant spawns in their place.
If an enemy hero dies within 400 range of Ember Spirit, he gains 1 charge of Fire Remnant.

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Ember Spirit has a lot of magical damage, but at the same time can deal copious physical damage when rich enough.

Two of his four abilities cannot be cast while rooted, however his FIRST ability is an ensnare. Get the idea? If you lack the necessary items, you can lift Ember, bring him closer to you, and use the stolen Chains which he cannot Sleight of Fist or Remnant out of.

As for Sleight of Fist itself, if a mid Ember prioritizes it, we will be taking it often at any stage of the game. Maelstrom complements stolen Fist nicely. Orchid can also greatly snowball Fist, allowing you to transition into various builds.

Fists may require not only DPS items, which Rubick can certainly buy like Daedalus or Maelstrom, but also Aether Lens for safety. While you are channeling Fist, enemies can get closer to your cast point and wait for you. Not a mandatory item with Fists, but worth keeping in mind.

Flame Guard is not a commonly stolen spell. Mostly needed for damage block or jungle farming. Thanks to our passive, our shield will break the enemy's Flame Guard first. But only until Ember skills his 2 shield talents.
In mid it breaks from one Bolt, but sometimes that's unnecessary. If he pops shield and tries to harass you, just carefully back up and right click him.
Break the shield if you are about to die.

Remnants absolutely must be complemented by Aghanim's. With Aghanim's it's great for crossing the map. Remember remnant speed depends on your movespeed. Slows can make your remnant casts unsuccessful (you may not cover the needed distance).
In SOME cases you can even do Double Refresher with Aghanim's: With sufficient control you can use 10 charges, whose total damage will likely rip the enemy a new one (around 2.8k damage after standard magic resistance).
That's more charges than the Shard provides, which gives one charge per enemy hero death nearby.

In open combat against Ember Spirit remember that he can jump on you if he sees you as a threat. Force Staff helps reposition when chained, or even spend another Remnant charge (which is useful to steal for disengage). If no Force Staff, the Shard is a decent alternative. BKB will sometimes be a clear necessity, since (I remind you) most of his damage is magical. If he's buying Rapiers, obviously BKB won't help much. In that case you need hunting and control items (Dagger, Orchid, Hex, Lens, Abyssal).

Keep an eye on him and keep in mind which spells and items he relies on most. It happens that the more damage you have, the fewer options you have to avoid death. This phrase applies most to Ember Spirit.

Tips

• When playing with Fist, keep in mind Ember often chains through it. Meaning after that you cannot steal Fist. Wait for the moment when he only uses Fist and nothing else.
  
  
• Use any disables you have. He cannot Remnant or Fist while disabled.
  
  
• After hitting level 6 it is strongly advised to steal Remnant, so you can place a copy mid and tp to base. This quickly restores your health and mana for farming again ASAP.
  
  
• Just as Ember chains during Sleight of Fist, we can Lift and Bolt during stolen Fists. However this is easier when Fist hits more than one unit.
  If you are fisting just one target, I recommend using quickcasts to have time - after pressing Fist, immediately put your cursor on the target and hotkey the necessary spell.
  
  
• Fists change your position with each hit in the selected area. This can be used to increase cast range of other spells and items. Meaning with Fists you can temporarily approach a target that's even further away.
  
  
• The Activate Fire Remnant ability will blink you from one remnant to the next until they run out. And after each jump it re-checks if you placed a new one. This means you can blink to one remnant once, and place the rest mid-flight. Sometimes this can conserve mana.

This spell slows, dispels an enemy hero or converts a creep to your side.
The creep lives 30 to 120 seconds before dying, unless it dies earlier from someone else or from enchanting another creep. The creep gains bonus health and damage. An enchanted creep is fully healed.


Increases the maximum number of enchanted creeps by 1.

Increases the attack range on an Enchant target.

Summons Wisps that heal Enchantress and nearby allies (275 radius). Heal amount depends on the number of healing spirits. This means the more allies that come nearby, the less each one heals.
Heal interval per Wisp is 0.5 seconds.


Every time we lose 250 health, a weak wisp appears and heals us for 4 seconds. You can have a maximum of 4 wisps this way.

The spell ignores ancient creeps and allies at full health.
If caster dies, the Wisps remain at his death location to keep healing nearby allies.

Shard ability. The hero leaps BACK, dodging projectiles, and shoots Impetus shots at the two furthest enemy heroes within attack range + 100. Leap distance is 500.

Sproink can be used while rooted.
Our attacks don't use Impetus.

Ability from Aghanim's Scepter. The caster marks an enemy unit, causing all creeps (allied, enemy, neutral) within 1200 range of the target to attack it. Creeps gain bonus attack and movement speed. Little Friends entangles the victim for 2 seconds and an additional 0.5 for each creep that was in range at the time of the cast (maximum 5 seconds of duration).

Affects both lane and neutral creeps (on both sides). Does not work on towers. Duration is 6 seconds.

Little Friends applies True Sight to the target.

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A disgusting enemy. Because her passive Untouchable will prevent us from attacking normally until we get sufficient attack speed or status resistance.

So until then we will use massive magical burst damage. Luckily Arcane Supremacy helps with this. If there are no stolen nukes at the time of the fight, and you have no Dagon, take either Ethereal Blade or Heaven's Halberd. Also focus her with Lift.
But these items should be considered supplementary, since Ench will soon buy magic resistance.
By this time we should be transitioning into physical DPS or more control.

And yes, without Impetus she doesn't have much damage, so manfight her if 1v1. If approaching her is not a good idea for various reasons, use escape or evasion items (Glimmer Cape, Shadow Blade, Eul's Scepter, Ghost Scepter etc). BKB also works since Impetus does not pierce spell immunity.

In general, buying a Ghost Scepter against Ench is highly recommended, because later it can be upgraded into Ethereal Blade, which will help nuke Ench or simply disallow her attacks for some time. Apply Ethereal Form AFTER her Enchant. Because if you reverse the order, she will simply dispel Ghost Form off you.


As for Little Friends, here are some details:

• Little Friends cannot be dispelled.
  
• Creeps attacking Ench under Little Friends will ignore her passive ult Untouchable, if they were originally her allies (Book of the Dead, Helm of the Dominator, Enchant, or controlled units of allied heroes).
  
• If we immediately retaliate with stolen Little Friends, the creeps will first wait for the previous effect to end before switching targets, if the new target is still in radius.

Against this, take Ethereal Form, invisibility, or Crimson Guard.

A triple stun.
Applies a debuff that stuns and damages the enemy unit every 2 seconds.
There are a total of 3 Fate's Edicts. At the start of the cast. Then two seconds later the second and two more seconds - the finishing one. Total duration of this nightmare is 4 seconds.
For some heroes, Malefice is like a silence for spells with long cast times, because it is GUARANTEED to interrupt them. "And so that it doesn't interrupt, that spell shouldn't be cast in the first place." This is the logic a Witch Doctor will adhere to while wandering in our Malefice.

The Shard increases stun duration with each proc and creates an Eidolon for each proc, which cannot duplicate itself, but still refreshes its health after the sixth attack.

Spell Steal will increase the stun durations from Malefice, but not increase the spell's duration itself (the intervals remain the same).

Simply spawns three ranged creeps that split after 6 successful attacks. Mostly needed for farming and sieging. They deal decent damage to heroes, only if no one notices them. They have monstrous magic resistance, which makes them great siege pushers against enemies trying to defend with spell damage.
If you steal Eidolons, go to the jungle or a lane split if the situation allows pushing.

An AoE carpet with percentage and plane periodic damage. Damage depends on current health.
Radius is 600.

No one wants to step into it. Use this. Either keep the enemy inside the placed circle, or place the circle where you want to "take control" to disrupt the enemy's positioning.

The caster creates a black hole at the targeted point that pulls in all enemy units to the center, stunning and dealing pure damage. This stun cannot be dispelled. Enemies are pulled counterclockwise. Force Staff cannot push a unit out of Black Hole.
The spell requires channeling and can be interrupted. Maximum Black Hole duration is 4 seconds.

Ignores status immunity.
Since Black Hole is an interruptable spell, it's very easy to steal.

With Aghanim's Scepter, Black Hole adds extra damage equal to 4% of enemies' max health and an additional pull area that still allows them to move. Radius 1200. Pull speed 175.

The secondary pull in Black Hole from Enigma's Aghanim's has a strange peculiarity. The pull won't work for us if we stop, giving the movement command to a point below us. However, if we interrupt our movement with a special key (S by default), the tugging will continue.

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In general, a stolen Black Hole is a classic. So Blink Dagger will be a core item for us. You can literally do nothing in a fight, counter Black Hole at the end, and enjoy commends on your profile. But until that moment, remember Malefice. This ability will have people chasing you, so approach it carefully.

To feel good in a fight against Enigma, build various caster items, among which should usually be Aether Lens, to steal and cast Black Hole from an optimal range. Aghanim's to break Enigma's potential Linken's Sphere. And the same Aghanim's to amplify damage from that Black Hole.
And if you already feel like you're a better Enigma than the enemy, take that same Linken's Sphere or Black King Bar. Other decent options are Shadow Blade and Glimmer Cape.

Sometimes Enigma simply won't use Black Hole until we show up. After all, to prevent us from stealing Black Hole, one can just cast it on us specifically, right? Therefore the game will resemble a 4v4 brawl with campers on both teams. It's best to stay a bit further from your team, but with mobility items ready. In this case, Enigma has little benefit using his ult only on us, because the rest of the team can easily interrupt it or even kill Enigma.
It's even simpler to play not for stealing the ult, but interrupting it. We don't need to focus on this if there are many spells that cancel channels on our team.

Let's talk a bit about his other abilities:

Until Enigma buys BKB, Malefice will be a 4 second silence for him. Because no Enigma will cast Black Hole while under the stunning debuff. Enigma often uses Malefice for various reasons. Stealing it is not overly difficult.
It's harder to steal Midnight Pulse. Because it's usually cast BEFORE Black Hole. But if you take it, it can be combined with our Lift and purchased disable items. The longer the enemy stands in our "carpet", the more their face will shrivel.

And Demonic Conversion. Used from the very start of the game and cast whenever the opportunity arises. Helps pushing or farming. We mostly use it for farming.
There is no need to purposefully steal this ability, unless we have purchased specific items for it (Assault Cuirass, Vladimir's Offering, etc).

And yes. Enigmas like to build Linken's against us. Watch his items. Strike with Fade Bolt for If easy Linken's breaking. If Bolt is on cooldown, try to Lift the closest other enemy unit and throw them at Enigma.
DO NOT THROW YOURSELF! In most cases you will simply get pulled into the Black Hole.

Void's most awesome stealable ability. A blink that rewinds damage taken in the last 2 seconds. The damage rewound counts as healing. So Spirit Vessel can reduce it or Holy Locket amplify it (works with other heal modifiers too).

The heal only applies to damage taken. Meaning if we lost health from enemy Sunder or Heartstopper, Time Walk won't restore it (those abilities directly change health, not deal damage).

Aghanim's makes Time Walk apply an auto-attack with bash in a 400 radius around the landing spot.

The Shard increases Time Walk cast range by 150.

During the Time Walk jump you are invulnerable - cannot take damage or be disabled.
Use the jump to dodge projectile stuns like Venge's, so it reaches you during invulnerability. This way you avoid both the stun and damage.
Works the same with other spells you can anticipate - Cursed Crown timer, Tornado, Gust, Unstable Concoction, Heat-Seeking Missile etc.

Ability from the Shard, replaces Time Walk for 1.5 seconds after cast. Allows you to return to where you cast Time Walk from. Void himself has this as a separate ability slot.
Reverse Time Walk does not heal or apply Time Lock bashes.



Applies an AoE debuff around self (775 radius) that slows cooldown recovery of all spells. For EACH enemy spell on cooldown, Time Dilation will slow movement speed and deal periodic magical damage.
Time Dilation does not react to passive abilities or inventory items.

Every refreshed spell will reduce Time Dilation's effect.
And yes, Refresher Orb removes the slow but does not fully dispel the debuff.

Time Dilation stops accounting for our stolen spell's cooldown if we lose the spell (duration ends or new spell is stolen).

The caster chooses an area near himself and freezes time inside it. Almost all units are literally frozen inside. Don't work on FV himself.

Inside Chronosphere the caster and all controlled units have 1000 movespeed and phase movement. Chronosphere provides True Sight.

Cast range - 625
Radius - 900

Chronosphere stops not only enemies but allies too. Same for buildings and wards.
Chronosphere instantly kills Visage's birds (The Swarm) and Gyrocopter's Rocket (Homing Missile). It stops a Grimstroke ghost (Phantom Embrace) mid-flight, but if already latched the ghost is sent back early, triggering its damage.

Void can walk freely inside our Chronosphere without cooldown or Time Dilation penalties, but does NOT gain bonus movespeed or phase movement.
Void illusions created by any source can also act inside Chronosphere.

A spell that replaces Chronosphere if Faceless Void chose a specific Aspect. Time Zone creates a rhombus that changes the movement speed, turn rate, projectile speed, and cast speed of all creatures. Those enemies inside the Time Zone are Leashed but can still move. Enemy cooldowns and Time Dilation timer are frozen while cooldowns of allied units are accelerated.

If the hero is affected by two Time Zones from different teams, the cooldown acceleration will not work.

Void is a straightforward problem with no tricks.
Simply prevent him from hitting anything. Even if he chronos (even if allies add AoE spells inside), he must not be allowed to hit.
So Halberd should be at least your 3rd slot item if not first.
If you get chrono'd, have an Aeon Disk.

Also note his Time Walk. This is what we constantly want to steal, together with Blink Dagger to evade Void and chase him if he tries to escape. With Aghanim's, physical DPS builds open up with Mjolnirs and Daedaluses.



If you want to steal Chronosphere, remember countering Void with it is useless. Chrono enemies away from the fight, or the enemy team's second core (barely clip them at sphere edge - you often risk allies).
You'll frequently have to chrono just to escape. If chased by Void (ex. he chrono'd you but didn't finish the job and continues to jump), stolen Chronosphere can give you a movespeed boost to flee. Void can walk but lacks the bonus speed. Juking him in treelines with high movespeed chrono escapes can buy time.

If you steal Time Dilation, you can chase Void as he cannot re-Timewalk due to the cooldown.
In big fights Aghanim's helps with quick spell swaps.

If you want to play with Time Walk, try shutting Void down early with Orchid, then transition into physical DPS items that benefit from it.
But even then, don't forget Aeon Disk builds, cuz Chronosphere is still a thing.

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Want Void to freak out whenever he chronos?
Make Crimson Guard your first item. Brown boots, a few Nulls (or whatever junk) then BAM CRIMSON ON YOUR SHOULDERS!

See an ally in the bubble or Void about to jump someone, smash it instantly. His erection will wither, apathy will set in, and allergy signs to the color green may appear.

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Enemies or allies frozen by Chronosphere cannot be Lifted. You can cast Lift but it will do nothing - just waste mana and go on cooldown.
The side stun area will also not be created.
Only units that can act inside Sphere are valid Lift targets - Void himself, his controlled units, or us if it's our Chronosphere.

A slowing wave of magical damage. Point vector ability. Damage increases for each target hit. The wave is narrow but long. Grimstroke casts it with a long windup, which of course we don't have. "The fastest brush in the west" paints the deadly line instantly, which is very, very cool. Hit enemies remain visible for 3.5 seconds after getting hit.

Launches two mirrored waves instead of one. The enemy can only take damage from one wave, but both waves accumulate damage at the same time.

A specter attaches to an enemy unit, dealing periodic magical damage, then after some time deals heavy magical damage and returns to the caster. While attached the target is silenced.
The specter can be destroyed by a certain number of attacks.
If the specter successfully deals the final damage and returns, the ability instantly recharges.

• Cannot pass through Kinetic Field.
  
• If the attached target dies before the final damage, the specter simply returns early and puts the ability on cooldown prematurely.
  
• If the target becomes invisible/invulnerable after cast, the specter instantly dies.
  
• Cannot be purged by dispels other than invisibility/invulnerability. Heavenly Grace, Dark Pact, Press The Attack, False Promise will not work.
  
• Phantom's Embrace is only reflected by Lotus Orb or blocked by Linken's Sphere at initial cast. If already traveling towards the target, Lotus and Linken's do not help. This also applies to Antimage's Counterspell.

Spell Steal does not increase silence duration. Phantom Embrace interacts with status resistance rules only partially. Silence duration can be reduced by increasing status resistance, but cannot be amplified by things like Infeeble.

Charges a timer above self or ally. Gives movespeed and deals periodic magical damage around the carrier for 3 seconds. After 3 seconds it explodes, stunning and dealing instant magical damage in the same radius. Final damage and stun duration depend on how long enemies were under the periodic damage.

Ink Swell disappears without exploding if carrier dies. However, if Ink Swell is purged, it explodes prematurely dealing as much damage as it accumulated so far (if it touched enemy heroes at all).

The Shard makes the ability deal 40% more damage and heal the target for 40% of damage dealt (20% of heal from creeps). Casting on allies has a basic dispel.

The ability can be detonated prematurely with the Ink Explosion auxiliary button. Increases the duration of the buff by 1 second.

Curses an enemy hero, binding them to the nearest ally within 600 range. The curse duplicates most single-target spells to affect the bind partner as well. If Lina lagunas one cursed hero for example, the tethered ally also takes laguna damage.

Each curse carrier has a visible mark showing their location. Useful against invisibility. (But cannot initially target an already invisible hero).

Bound enemies are Leashed - cannot use mobility spells. But this only works if 2 enemies are bound, not just one.
Forces, Skewers, Pounces etc cannot break the bind. However if Grimstroke Forces one enemy and the "tethered" units face different directions, the bind breaks. Spells from outside can also break the bind - Blinding Light, Nether Swap, X Marks The Spot etc.

The secondary Soulbind target under Lotus Orb does not reflect single-target spells back. Soulbind itself is also not reflected when Lotus'd.

Spells not duplicated by Soulbind:

• Omnislash
  
• Charge of Darkness
  
• Nether Strike
  
• Focus Fire
  
• Spell Steal

Soulbind can bind you to a Warlock Golem or Druid Bear since they count as heroes. It will also reliably bind an illusion to the real hero if both are within Soulbind search radius.

Grimstroke's Aghanim's ability. To steal it Grimstroke must have Aghanim's, not us. Curses an enemy hero, creating an illusion that is faster and stronger than the original. Lasts 15 seconds and has 100% spell immunity.

Counts as a "strong illusion", meaning it cannot be easily cleared by a Lion for example.

Outgoing damage: 150%
Incoming damage: 350%
Movespeed bonus: 30%
Cooldown: 35

And yes, being a targeted spell it combos with Soulbind.

Grimstroke has 3 nukes, each dealing over 300 damage (the 3rd is 400+). We of course deal way more damage with any stolen spell simply by being Rubick. Hehe.

Let's go through them in order:

The "Brush" (Stroke of Fate) is a powerful long-range nuke that works even better for us without cast animation. Brush range is 1400. Our Arcane Supremacy also amplifies the bonus damage per enemy hit. The last target hit takes a LOT of damage.

"Ghost" is not a top priority target. It deals lots of damage, but is fairly easy to destroy. To make the specter repeat for us it needs to be combo'd with Lift. The second time requires another disable that we won't have. Works well with disarms - stolen or purchased Heaven's Halberd.

Ink Swell deals even more damage than the first two abilities. Stealing it is easy, but keep distance between you and the Ink Swell carrier afterwards - it will explode after all. To comfortably cast Ink Swell, mobility items are recommended, or simply cast it on an allied hero who likes being in close range.

As for the Aghanim's ability, watch out for it carefully. Dark Portrait has no special particle effects. Meaning it can appear unnoticed. Closely watch for any enemy copies suddenly showing up. If you manage to steal it, target an enemy core hero with high stats.

The funniest part is the ult!
The thing is, with his own ult Grimstroke ONLY has that one (without Aghs/Shard) targeted spell to duplicate with Soulbind. We have a MINIMUM of two. And we can likely steal more single-target spells during the ult effect.

The peculiarity of using Grimstroke's ult in our hands is that it not only duplicates Lift and Bolt, but multiplies their potential when two cursed enemies are close together:

• Telekinesis - Lifting in Soulbind means both enemies create a side-stun AoE when falling. If close together, both will land in each other's stun. Total stun duration becomes 4 seconds.
  Telekinesis Land only works on the primary Lift target for some reason. Meaning it should be thrown closer to the second enemy.
  
• Fade Bolt - Each bolt will bounce. With no other nearby units, both cursed enemies will likely take double damage, as if you bolted each twice. Cool right?

As for playstyle and itemization, go full magic nuker with some escape potential. Top steal priorities are the "Brush" and ult. There's a chance to fail with the Specter, so don't intentionally steal it. The third ability is great, but used situationally, not spammed like the Brush. So steal when truly needed.
With low Brush cooldown it can be taken constantly as your main ranged attacking and nuking tool. The Brush sets a nice magical shooter playstyle.

Veil of Discord
Kaya
Aether Lens
Aghanim's Scepter
Eul's Scepter
Heaven's Halberd
Ethereal Blade
Dagon
Force Staff
Orchid Malevolence
Scythe of Vyse

Fires a barrage of rockets at enemies within 400 radius of self for 3 seconds. Total rockets fired is 30. More targets means each takes less damage.
Caster can move freely during channel.
No rockets spawn while banished.
Does not damage invisible or fogged enemies.

Each rocket hit will give a bonus to movement speed. Each successive rocket will stack a buff and refreshes the duration. Duration is 4.5.

Launches a missile that stands still for 2.5 seconds before moving towards a targeted unit. Deals magical damage and stuns. Can be destroyed by a certain number of attacks.
Missile base speed is 500, gaining 1 speed every 0.07 seconds.

Force Staff can be used on Homing Missile to push it forward faster. Hurricane Pike works the same way. Useful if enemy Gyrocopter targets you with the missile - Pike gives time to attack the missile quickly, likely destroying it.

The Shard makes launched missiles barrage rocket salvos in 700 radius. Starts firing rockets 1 second after launch, prioritizing the spell's target.

Grants a 12 second buff. Buff grants night vision bonus and next several attacks hit everything within 1000 radius, excluding buildings, wards, summons. Flak charges disappear if not used during the buff. Recast just refreshes buff duration, does NOT grant extra charges.
Orb effects and attack modifications do not work with Flak Cannon.

Aghanim's provides the hidden Side Gunner ability, passively attacking a random unit within 700 range once every 1.3 seconds. Prioritizes furthest target. If ability is active, then Side Gunner attacks 1 more target.
Cannot be disabled by disarms. Use caution!
Does not attack summons.

A vector spell that sends three missiles along a specified line. Each deals magic damage in a 400 radius and slows enemies by 50% for 4 seconds.
The interval between missiles is 1 second.

Reduces the interval between missiles to 0.8. If an enemy hero is hit by a spell, he will be hit by another smaller missile. The radius of the additional missile is 200. Deals half of the spell damage.

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Gyrocopter generally causes little trouble until he starts chasing you down. His own spells work against him just as well or better.
In early game, return Rocket Barrage if able to attack him without overextending. Reflect Homing Missiles with Lotus Orb. His ult also deals more damage when stolen. Lots of magical burst at your disposal - use it wisely since the spells have varying cast ranges.

However, there is the physical damage side of Gyrocopter - Flak Cannon and Side Gunner.

With Flak Cannon we have two approaches:
1) Forget ourselves and start buying Rapiers (Okay fine, not Rapiers. At least crits).
2) Simply stack ancient neutral camps and farm, continuing to improve magic capabilities through other items.

Do not overly focus on stealing Flak Cannon every game.

Shoots an acorn at an enemy, dealing physical damage (fixed amount + 75% of attack damage), briefly slowing, and bouncing to nearby enemies like a Witch Doctor's Caskst. Cast range scales with attack range. But besides attack range, the cast range of Hookshot can be improved with bonuses to cast range. In other words, our Arcane Supremacy works great for this.

Can be ground targeted to plant a tree. Bounces to enemies within 525 radius if any are nearby after planting.
Planted tree gives vision and lasts 20 seconds. Destroying tree does not remove vision.

Acorn Shot applies attack, so orb effects are welcomed.

Can be autocast, always planting a tree.

Throws a net area (265 radius). Ensnares and stuns enemy heroes IF a tree is within the area (they get pulled to the tree). Deals periodic magical damage. Also provides vision reduction around targets except for allied units/wards.

Heroes break free early if the tree dies. Works against fogged but not invisible enemies.

Speeds up hero and lets us move through trees. Lasts up to 5 seconds and have 2 charges. Doubles all evasion sources.

The ability also grants attack range and cast range.



Channels an aimed nuke at a point for 5 seconds (linear reticle appears). After channeling, fires a 3000 range projectile that impacts the first enemy hero in its path. Deals magical damage, slows, and breaks passives for 5 seconds.

Very high damage, maxed after 3 seconds channel.

Increases projectile speed and movement slow.

Cooldown is reduced by 50%. Damage and debuff duration reduced by 25%. Turning speed increased by 33%.

Right Clicks Can turn aim direction during channel, but slowly. Sub-ability releases shot early. Cannot be interrupted by silences/stuns.

Knocks back caster 350 units after firing.

Caster use other targeted spells/items during channel but only aimed in firing direction.

Throws a boomerang at an enemy or point that travels in an arc before returning. Damages and debuffs enemies along the path, slowing and amplifying incoming spell damage by 20% for 7 seconds.
Cooldown 18 seconds.
Damage 200 magical.


Turns invisible and leaves an illusion that starts channeling Sharpshooter at the closest enemy hero within 3000 radius. If attacked or targeted, casts a weaker non-damaging Bushwhack at the attacker. If not interrupted, fires for 60% of full damage.

Channels straight ahead if no enemies visible.
Illusion lasts 6 seconds.
Fade time 1.6 seconds.
Cooldown 30 seconds.

Our illusion only channels if we have Sharpshooter. Otherwise just runs at a nearby enemy.

The illusion can be Force Staffed/Wind Wakered by allies but not items like Medallion/Urn. Net still fires back at you but does no damage.

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Hoodwink fights at very long range. If approached she uses trees to evade since she excels there.

Her two nukes offer different playstyles - Acorn Shot deals physical damage, suggesting physical DPS builds like early Maelstrom which aids farm. Bushwhack is magical and controls, pointing to magic nuking builds like Aether Lens or Atos. In mid or late game Maelstrom and Atos combine into Gleipnir for a hybrid build.

In fights stay clear of trees or be ready to retreat from Ensnare. I don't recommend comboing Ensnare with your Lift - it breaks early if the tree dies, which Lift does. For allied Ensnares, destroy the tree with Lift. Among the neutral items of first tier, it is recommended to take Ironwood Tree, so that you always have a tree to tie your enemy to. Pray that the god of random gives us this neutral item.

Scurry can chase Hoodwink but be cautious - you'll be in the trees where she can Ensnare anytime. When she Scurries to escape, Shard helps follow onto the trees.

Her ult channels loudly even through fog so listen for it and anticipate the shot direction - it's not too hard to dodge. Steal and combo with Telekinesis. Cast from medium range or with Aether Lens. Blink just before firing to instantly close distance.

At level 6 spam Acorn Shot for waveclear and try Bushwhack ganks. To Ensnare her, make Hoodwink walk near a tree - just push the wave so she stands by her tier 1 towers where trees are plentiful. Or alternate stealing Acorn Shot and waiting for Bushwhack. Or just buy an Iron Branch - Lift her up, plant the tree after she drops, and Ensnare.

AoE nuke around self (500 radius) that knocks enemies back 550 units, deals magical damage and apply silence.
Knockback duration 0.6 seconds. Does not just knockback 400 units, it repositions enemies to be 400 units away if they were closer.


Shard reduces cooldown by 2 seconds. Heals 50% of hero damage dealt and 10% of creep damage dealt. Adds slow.

Heal is independent of damage dealt - spell amp doesn't increase heal, and enemy magic resistance doesn't reduce it. Illusions count as heroes for heal.

Passively gives attack speed, health regeneration and magic resistance. These bonuses depend on how low our health is. If Huskar has a specific facet selected, the ability can be used. Upon activation, the hero will absorb 30% of his current health and apply basic dispel on himself. After 3 seconds, the hero will be healed by the value of health spent on cast and +5% of maximum health for each debuff removed by the ability.

Caster leaps at an enemy, dealing percentage max health magical damage based on their current health, and slows.
Deals the same percentage damage to self as well.

Have heals ready, you'll need them after casting. Magic resistance helps using this risky ult.

Aghanim's increases cast range by 250 and taunts the target for 2.5 seconds. Life Break itself does not silence like other taunts. So orb effects on autocast will still trigger (like Burning Spears).

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We're used to the key to defeating a hero being their own stolen spell. Previously this was often their ult, but for Huskar it's Inner Fire.

Inner Fire is what will prevent him from using fire spears and ultimate. It's important to hit him with Inner Fire before he does it himself. Have your retreat items ready in case he uses a dispel to continue the fight. If he has Aghanim's Scepter, it may not be possible to retaliate with Inner Fire. You will need to buy a Aghanim's Shard to be able to heal from the damage dealt by this ability.

Overall, watch what items Huskar is building.
Huskars often go Halberd, lots of strength like Armlet and Satanic, and Aghanim's for control. Getting on top of enemies with Life Break is crucial for him, so respect his leap. Linken's Sphere or Hurricane Pike are potential pickups against it. Heaven's Halberd is also great to try. After ~5 seconds of disarm from his Inner Fire, steal and re-disarm for 5 more seconds!
Aghanim's Life Break cannot be dispelled. If you get jumped, you get jumped. It is recommend to dodge those jumps or at least get items which can mitigate the situation. Like Aeon Disk or Sange & Yasha.

I don't recommend stealing Life Break just for its damage without a specific plan. It hurts you too and puts you in a bad spot. But if you really want to go Kamikaze Style, get an escape item, magic resistance, and amp up magic damage. With enough amps you can blow out knees or even 100-0 enemies (with the level 25 talent). Aghanim's helps get enemies in your clutches.

A big consistent source of his damage is Burning Spears, dealing undispellable magic damage over time. In early game magic resistance helps shut this down, but later there will be difficulties since the damage gets very high, and his ult becomes the bigger control problem.
Against Spear stacks, evasion items like Halberd or Butterfly work. Huskar dislikes MKB, so if he buys one he's missing another important item.
If evasion isn't your style, Mage Slayer is another option. Once he leaps on you, hit him to reduce subsequent spell damage. Why not pre-hit him? Because the leap dispels the debuff.

Targeted curse that triggers ministuns whenever the target takes hero damage. There is a required interval between stuns. Applies an initial stun on cast. Each stun heals the performer.
Fully consists of Quas essence. Higher Quas level means more damage and curse duration, lower stun intervals.

We lack persistent damage to proc Cold Snap often, so Urn or Manta Style work. Allied heroes can also trigger it with their damage.

Damage must exceed 10 to trigger a stun.

Spell Steal increases stun duration, but not curse duration itself.

After 1.7 seconds deals pure damage in a 175 radius area anywhere on the map. Damage is divided between ALL units hit.
Fully consists of Exort essence.
Pierces status immunity.



Aghanim's allows self-cast, creating two visible Sunstrikes near each enemy hero. Regular Sunstrike cooldown 23 seconds, Cataclysm (name of upgraded spell) 75 seconds.

Sunstrike combos well with Telekinesis. But consider the damage delay and your Lift level - a level 1/2 Lift may not work well since the suspension lasts only 1.2/1.5 seconds. Always Lift after Sunstriking.

Can be stolen early game by facing Invoker mid. He may use it to secure kills on other lanes. He always faces the targeted area so you can notice him cast it.

Charges up energy in an area, exploding after 2.9 secs, burning mana from all units.
Fully consists of Wex essence. EMP deals magic damage to all units based on the mana burned - 60% of mana lost. So those with low mana take little damage. Mana burn amount depends on Wex level.


The Shard increases mana burn damage to 90% and pulls enemies to the center at 150 movespeed before exploding.

Quarter of all mana burned is given to caster. Burned mana from creeps/illusions does not return.

Turns invisible with a slowing aura around self (400 radius) that affects enemies. While invisible, the ability increases health and mana regen. Regenerations are disabled if we took damage from enemy hero (and his controlled units) in the last 3s.
Quas Quas Wex. Invisibility changes your movespeed based on Wex level, and the slow based on Quas. If Wex is level 3 or below, Ghost Walk slows you. Level 4 does not change movespeed. Level 5+ speeds you up.

Ghost Walk deals Ice Wall damage. Radius is increased by 150.

Like any invisibility, does not interrupt channeling spells. The slow is an aura - lingers 2 seconds after leaving the aura. Can move through units.

Sends out a tornado wave that lifts enemy units into the air in a cyclone.
Quas Wex Wex. Lifted units are banished. When they land they take magical damage. Base damage comes from Tornado, additional damage from Wex level. Wex also controls the wave travel distance. Lift duration depends on Quas level.

Tornado leaves a trail of periodic magical damage.

There is a short interval between landing and damage. Heals and damage block like BKB can be used in this window.

Tornado functions as a basic dispel like Euls. Can remove annoying enemy buffs.

Creates an icy wall in front extending 200 units away. Enemies that walk over it are slowed and take minor periodic magical damage.
Quas Quas Exort. Damage depends on Exort, wall duration and slow on Quas.

Wall length 1120
Width 105.

The Ice Wall becomes a vector targeted ability. It does not appear immediately, but gradually increases from the center of the cast point. If the enemy stays in the wall for more than 2.5 seconds, the wall will root the enemy and deal magic damage.

Always perpendicular to caster's facing.
The slow is an aura - lingers 2 seconds after leaving wall.

Summons a ranged attack golem with the passive Melting Strike.
Melting Strike reduces enemy hero armor per attack, stacking up to 20 times. Debuff lasts 5 seconds. Does not affect non-heroes (works on illusions).
Quas Exort Exort.

Quas controls spirit's total health, attack range, and duration.
Exort controls mana pool (why?), damage, and armor.

If Quas and Exort are both level 4+, two spirits are summoned.

Can be stolen mid just like Sunstrike. Many Exort Invokers summon a spirit for stronger lane pressure and farming (harassing us). Steal it and Bolt the enemy spirit - can turn the tide in your favor. Your full health spirit beats down Invoker while theirs dies in 2 hits, giving you an edge. Follow up with Lifts and right clicks. Yours reduces his armor, amplifying your attacks.

Base attack time 1.35. Easy to accelerate with Bloodlust-type attack speed boosts.

Target buff improving attack damage and speed.
Wex Wex Exort. Attack damage from Exort, attack speed from Wex. Lasts 9 seconds.

Attack bonus = (12 * Exort Level) - 2
Attack speed bonus = (12 * Wex Level) - 2


Launches a fiery orb at the targeted point. Falls then rolls in the cast direction. Damages and applies a burn DoT on enemy contact.
Exort Exort Wex. Impact damage interval 0.5 sec. Burn lasts 3 sec. Fall time 1.3 sec. Impact damage and burn depend on Exort. Wex controls the distance traveled after landing.

Grants flying vision while rolling, 3 seconds of vision at rest. Burn stacks fully.

When comboing with Telekinesis, try to Lift and position enemies so Meteor rolls into them multiple times, stacking burn damage.

Releases a massive concussive wave in a direction, pushing enemies and disarming them.
Quas Wex Exort. Wave damage depends on Exort. Knockback range/duration on Quas. Disarm duration on Wex.

1000 cast range.
Starting width 175
Ending width 225.
Unlike Invoker with his talent, always casts in a single direction.

The disarm CANNOT be dispelled by anything except status immunity. Strong dispels won't work either. Knockback similarly only removable by mobility spells/items or position refreshes like Manta.

The classic Exort nuker build. They prioritize leveling Exort of course, but also Quas in lane, leaving at least 1 point in Wex early.

An Exort Invoker will Sunstrike before the first wave reaches our tier 1 tower to scout item builds. He may cast another one mid closer to our tier 3 when the next wave spawns to see if we are clearing waves or contesting the rune. If we are clearing waves, he's happy to nick us for pure damage and force some regen. I recommend an unusual position until the first wave spawns so default Sunstrikes cannot scout us out.

Quas levels help empower Forge Spirits he will harass us with. Fade Bolt them immediately if he summons them early. Cold Snap is also Quas-reliant and can indicate incoming harass when cast - watch his hands for potential Spirit summons and Sunstrikes. Either Telekinesis him away or evade the Sunstrike. You can preemptively Bolt the Spirit since it needs to be near him, chaining onto Invoker as well. Lowering their damage helps survive the attack.

At least 1 level of Wex gives him an emergency escape to Ghost Walk. Have Dust ready after you hit level 6. With only level 1 Wex he isn't hasted and can be caught.

In terms of last hitting, Invoker often outpaces us. Harass him constantly with Fade Bolt to deter last hitting and force him into a defensive position. But don't just cast bolt all the time. Do it when he's summoning his Forge Spirit. Bolt to Invoker, hit the spirits, and finish them off with your attacks. This will be a little difficult because he adds Cold Snap to Forge Spirit.
Always try to last hitting Forge Spirit after Fade Bolt. This will be your extra income.

Against QE Invoker, Sunstrike and Forge Spirit are strong early steals. Sunstrike secures assist gold globally, while Forge Spirit helps farm jungle camps when the lane is pushed out (or creeps are too far away).

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Wex takes priority to strengthen Tornado and EMP. Cold Snap is weaker than other spells.
The basic combo is Tornado into EMP. With high Wex, Tornado lift is short but deals decent damage. Cold Snap ensures EMP lands after the brief cyclone.

If mana is already low, make sure to dump everything on Invoker as soon as you land from Tornado. Having less mana reduces EMP damage, since it deals damage based on mana burned - no mana burned means no damage taken! Hehe.

After leveling Wex, Invoker will add Exort to complement his powerful Tornado with Meteor and Blast. In messy fights an Alacrity buff on himself or allies is likely to appear and accelerate attacks.
If not, strong early steals are Tornado and EMP. Do NOT combo them together, but use our Telekinesis to set them up instead.

If stealing Cold Snap often, Urn helps provide needed persistent damage to proc it frequently since we lack a spammable DoT.

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Blink Dagger and Hex are common on Initiator Invokers looking to start fights with quick picks. These fools blink in, hex, and dump spells assuming it secures kills. If you don't see it coming, having an Aeon Disk or other magic resistance gives a chance to survive. Team follow up is likely, so Disk is safer than Hood-type items. Otherwise, be proactive and jump him first with your BKB so he cannot disable you.

Eul's Scepter sets up easy Meteor and Sunstrike combos. Also difficult to avoid, so fight fire with fire - buy your own Euls! As soon as the enemy cyclone ends, instantly self-Euls to dodge the following spells. But don't do this repeatedly or he will bait your Euls and layer the spells after it ends. Watch his hands - if Meteor is delayed, don't instantly Euls in response.

Linken's Sphere is common on heroes with escape spells, especially mobile casters like Invoker. Aghanim's and extra disable items counter this easily. A natural complement is Atos, or Hex if you have the money. Diffusal Blade works too (that's a joke).

Boots of Travel allow globetrotting with Forged Spirits to split push. Catch the pesky rat with mobility items and disables/silences that interrupt TPs. Euls, Gleipnir, Telekinesis, or appropriate stolen spells (Tornado/Cold Snap for maximum irony) do the trick.

Link with our ally. Through Tether, the ally receives our health and mana regeneration. Additionally, with Tether, both of you gain movement speed, but initially the tethered ally provides the movement speed to us. IF the tethered ally is slowed, we will also be affected by the slow.
While Tether is active, both the ally and we gain a bonus to movement speed.
If, during the cast, the ally was more than 700 units away from us, we will automatically move towards them through trees and ramps. Tether breaks trees if it was used at a distance greater than 700 units. The trees break at the end of our movement towards the ally.
The maximum tether range is 1000 units. If we move farther than the specified distance after casting Tether, the tether will be broken.

Enemies that cross the link are slowed by Teaser.
With a stolen Tether you can walk over your teammates' heads like a vine for Tarzan. Hehe.

Teather deals periodic magical damage. Half of that damage heals the caster.

Gradually creates 5 wisps rotating around Io. Their distance is controlled by two sub-abilities - Spirits In and Spirits Out. They explode on enemy contact, damaging in a small AoE. Deal reduced non-exploding damage to creeps.

Aghanim's automatically creates wisps without mana cost. You only control their movement. Very convenient since the mana drain is gone, but the endless wisps mean endless damage. Each wisp hit also slightly slows enemies.
Io can detonate all wisps at once with Spirits off cooldown. We cannot do this at level 1. With Aghs we lack the Spirits ability entirely, only the In/Out controls remain.

We cannot steal Spirits through the sub-abilities once Io has Aghanim's. That means, if Wisp have Aghs, you can only steal this spell when he detonates his Spirits.

For 8 seconds, the hero gets health regeneration, which depends on the maximum HP. Can Tether afterwards to transfer the bonuses to an ally.
Cast Tether second - cannot transfer Overcharge if the tether breaks first. Fixed if we have Aghs.

Left Facet additionally grants attack speed and spell damage amplification.

Right Facet gives armor and magic resistance.

Rubick Delivery Service!
It takes 2-3 seconds to charge, after which it sends us to any point on the map for 12 seconds, and then brings us back to the casting location. If we managed to tether with a Tether ally after the cast, the ultimate will send the ally along with us. If we get hit by any stun, root, or silence while charging Relocate, it will be interrupted. However, we can still move during the charging time.

Banishing spells like Manta Style also cancel Relocate even if self-cast.

Fails if Io is cycloned during channel.

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Alright. We both understand that Io himself won't pose much of a problem for us. However, his ally is likely to be strong. Therefore, we need to catch Wisp to prevent him from empowering his ally with Tether and Overcharge.

Wisp will try to stay behind his ally. While Wisp is healing, his ally is also healed, so it's a good idea to apply a spell with periodic damage to Wisp, causing all the consumables he uses to be prematurely interrupted. Against Wisp, you can consider getting Urn of Shadows, which can be upgraded to Spirit Vessel. However, Spirit Vessel is best used on a hero who is being healed by Wisp.

If you think Wisp is a tough guy on the opposing team, you can also get items like Force Staff or pushing spells if the enemies have them. Whoosh! And Tether is broken.

About abilities:
Tether and Spirits are cast only once during a fight and quickly switch to another ability (unless you have Aghanim's Scepter).
One of the most profitable spells is Overcharge. Io himself will use this ability often, which allows you to build tactics around Overcharge. Depending on the Facet Wisp chooses, you can create a build to strengthen the defense buff or buy an adaptive carry build to use the coveted Kritzkrieg.

Our attention will be focused on the second version of Wisp. It's all about the spell amplification bonus, because for us it also means an attack bonus. It's a magical feeling to get such a buff and give out heavy hits.

Launches a freezing wave slowing attack and movement speed, followed by a burning wave 0.2 seconds later applying a damage over time.
Slow debuff lasts 5 seconds.
DoT debuff lasts 5 seconds.

Spell Steal only amplifies the slow duration, not the DoT duration.

Creates a path of ice in the targeted direction, stunning and damaging enemies if they step on it. No cast animation for us, but the wave itself still takes 0.5 seconds to form.

Length 1100
Width 150.

Ice Path exists for 5 seconds. During this time, you can use an sub-ability to break it to deal magic damage and a brief stun.

The description lists two durations - the ice path duration, and stun duration. The stun ends when the path melts. So enemies that enter late in the path's duration will be stunned briefly.

THE FLOOR IS LAVA! I'm serious, don't walk on lava. Hehe.
Shoots a line of boiling liquid at the targeted area. Lasts 10 seconds, burning enemies that walk on it for magical damage.
Burn lingers 2 seconds after leaving the fire.

Length 1400. Width 500.

Aghanim's increases duration by 5 seconds. Adds ice walls around the edges of Macropyre that slow movement speed by 60%.
Changes damage type to pure, piercing spell immunity fully.

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All of Jakiro's spells are simple and effective. Playing with spell amp builds is easy and efficient - items like Aether Lens, Kaya and Bloodstone come to mind. After some mana and utility pick up Aghanim's to layer in more amplified spells while enemies burn. In summary, MAGIC is the main path when playing through Jakiro.

With Macropyre additional lockdown helps keep enemies in the fire for extended periods.

For simpler approaches, his stun alone can suffice. Lacking cast animation and increased duration makes our Ice Path a "Low Key Ultimate".

"The Spin". Grants magic immunity, magic resistance, and deals magic damage around caster for its duration. At the end of the duration applies strong dispel to us.
Cannot attack during Blade Fury but spells can still be used. Allows comboing with other stolen spells.

Can be used in midair to block part of Tornado damage.

With shard, Bladefury gains 100 to radius and begins slowing enemies by 35%.

A mobile ward that heals all nearby allies for a percentage of their max health. The heal is an aura that lingers for 2 seconds after leaving its radius.
Destroying the ward gives 75 gold to the killer.
Control the ward after casting!



Requires enemy Aghanim's to steal. A short duration mini-Omnislash lasting 1 second.
Сooldown 25 seconds.
550 cast range.
125 mana cost.


Sequential strikes against the enemy in banished mode with additional attack speed (the model "swings at enemies, but nothing can be applied to her, just like attacking"). If there are other enemies nearby the target, the caster may inadvertently jump to them.
While inside the ultimate, the caster is invulnerable.

Attack speed during Omnislash scales with the caster's attack speed. The attack rate is 1.5x their normal attack speed. Attack modifiers work on Omnislash attacks.

Blade Fury prevents Omnislash and vice versa normally. This restriction does not apply when we steal the spells separately. Allows spinning during stolen Omnislash.

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Yurnero is a very versatile and multi-faceted warrior. Requires serious caution, although his spells have significant counterplay.

If we steal Blade Fury, we can almost not fear HIS spin. In Blade Fury, we cannot deal normal attacks. Well, not exactly... Our attacks still occur, but with zero damage. With such attacks, we can only apply orb effects. This ability is very important for survival. It will be more useful in pursuit when Aghanim's Shard is present.

Watch out for other spells too. Stealing his Healing Ward at least once can be impactful. Better to destroy it than use your own - denying teamwide heals while earning 75 gold.

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There are several ways to counterplay Juggernaut's ultimate:

• 1) Armor and damage block
  Any armor lowers Omnislash damage per hit. Crimson Guard is great for both self and team damage mitigation.
  
  
• 2) Banishing effects and ghost forms
  Ghost Scepter, Euls, and Ethereal Blade. Steal similar spells if lacking the items.
  
  
• 3) Damage split with summoned units
  Manta Style, Helm of the Dominator, and any stolen summons/illusions help divert damage. Dominating an Owl for the armor aura can suffice.
  
  
• 4) Evasion
  Omnislash performs regular attacks rapidly. Evasion from Halberd or Butterfly helps, BUT Omnislash forces attacks even when disarmed. Halberd only aids with the evasion.

Lastly, Omnislash duration varies between 3 and 4.5 seconds based on Juggernaut's talent choice. Ghost Scepter lasts 4 seconds. Food for thought.
If you want to play with the ult yourself, buy attack speed and a damage proc item like Mjollnir.

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The damage frequency depends on the attack speed. That means, if we get a attack speed buff, Bladefury will fry faster.

Now remember that we can take crazy abilities in the second hand.
Focus Fire? Overpower? Lil Shredder?
Pretty much. But! What if I remind you about Unleash?

Uh-huh. Exactly. Check it out in the demo mode.

(Do not waste Lil Shredder and Overpower charges while in Bladefury. If you lose charges, you will also lose your attack speed bonus)

Charges a wide wave nuke over 3 seconds that deals massive magical damage. Longer charge means more damage.

Width 400
Range 1800.

Illuminate has a second version that you don't have to stand still to charge. This wave also heals for damage value. To get this version, you need to have Aghanim's Scepter and steal Spirit Form in the second slot. Press Spirit Form and use the second version of Illuminate.

Blasts enemies from the cast point for 350 units, dealing magical damage and applying a 45% miss chance for 4 seconds.

Knocks back and destroys trees.

Does NOT interrupt channeling spells.

Mana recovery and cooldown reduction for all basic abilities if they are already on cooldown. If Chakra Magic is used on Fade Bolt with the talent, it will instantly reset the cooldown. And if used on Telekinesis with the same cdr talent, the cooldown of Lift will be 5 seconds.

The most important thing is the presence of free mana, which allows us to save consumables and time on mana regeneration from the fountain.

Temporary mode that unlocks 2 abilities for Kotl. For us it gives only movespeed and cast range.
Lasts 40 seconds.
For Kotl it empowers Illuminate to heal allies.

Spirit Form increases Illuminate's healing by 30%.

Ends immediately if you swap spells.

An ability that KOTL has after casting his ultimate if specific Facet is chosen. It is a targeted curse that slows the enemy and reduces their magic resistance by 35%.
The slowing effect increases the more the enemy tries to move, with additional percentage of slow for every 100 units traveled.
Duration: 6 seconds.

If the enemy is stationary when they receive the debuff, their movement speed remains unchanged.
The reduction in magic resistance still applies.

An ability that KOTL has after casting his ultimate if specific Facet is chosen. Recall teleports any ally hero on the map to itself a short time after casting it. The spell has a global cast range. If the ally takes damage from an enemy hero or his controlled units, the teleportation is interrupted.

The teleported ally receives a movement speed bonus for the duration of the Recall. If the teleportation is successful, the same buff will be applied again, but now also to us.

An Aghanim's Scepter ability. Creates a Lamp (called Ignis Fatuus), which turns all enemies within its range (725) toward itself and slightly pulls them in at a 1.75-second interval with magical damage. The duration of each pull is 1 second.
Enemies can still attack, use spells, and items, but they cannot turn during the pull, making it difficult for them to attack or cast certain abilities.

This Lamp can be destroyed by a fixed number of hero attacks. Neither creeps, towers, nor even the Ancient can destroy it.
Before the first activation of Ignis Fatuus, it sleeps for one second.

The sleep from the Ignis Fatuus cannot be dispelled and is not affected by status resistance. In other words, heroes like Slark cannot remove the pulling effect with their Pounce.

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I know this hero very well. I have played a lot as him too. This character excels at annoying opponents. The best nuisance of all.

During the laning stage, he can annoy enemies by launching waves from blind spots.
So it's better to know where he is casting from in advance, not just to dodge the wave but also to quickly move Keeper of the Light himself. Because as long as Keeper of the Light doesn't finish casting the wave, he won't move from his spot.
Solar Bind won't let us move freely, and in the future, Keeper of the Light will use this ability to catch us or our ally. And believe me, with the bonus from his ultimate, he will succeed. Therefore, it's better to buy a Force Staff in advance. Use it after moving a bit and stacking the slow.

Illuminate - the damage is uncontrollable. Keeper of the Light cannot simply take his wave and turn it in another direction. So, if you stand under Illuminate with Blade Mail activated, you will see a sour expression on the other end of the network cable, as it will be unpleasant for Keeper of the Light to release the wave into your spikes. Tanking the wave is not a pleasant experience, but if your build involves fighting at close or medium range, Blade Mail is acceptable. This item can also complement the anticipated magic resistance item.

If we steal Chakra Magic or Illuminate from Keeper of the Light, buy Boots of Travel.
Chakra Magic can increase the tempo of aggression, and Illuminate can farm entire waves of creeps.
Once again, it should be noted that stolen Chakra Magic will completely reset the improved Fade Bolt and leave only one second of cooldown for improved Lift (talent upgrades). Therefore, it is advisable to choose talents that reduce cooldowns (right talents at levels 20 and 25).

Aghanim's Scepter is needed for alternating abilities. Keeper of the Light has quite a few of them, and to match the number of options, we will need to steal from Keeper of the Light several times. For example, take Recall once to bring a long-range ally into the fight.

Solar Bind is the most important ability for Rubick's synergy (if the Solar Bind Facet is selected). It not only provides a longer-lasting slow but also reduces magic resistance. An almost immobilized target will be defenseless against our Fade Bolt and any item with magic damage. Dagon or Witch Blade would be suitable choices.
As position 4, it is better to use Discord for adding debuffs to the mix with this ability.

Keep an eye on whether Keeper of the Light has bought his Aghanim's Scepter or not. After all, if he does, he will have one extra ability in his spell-bar. Which means - one extra ability that we can also steal! Hehe.

Kez has two spell bars that depend on his weapon, which the hero can switch between. 4 abilities when selecting Katana and 4 abilities when selecting Sai.
If Kez uses an ability, his variation of the other weapon will also goes on cooldown.



First Katana ability. The hero makes a small leap forward and makes an attack in the area in front of him, followed by another attack in the same area. The interval between the two slashes in the area is 1.2 seconds. Each slash briefly slows enemies.

The ability can be used while entangled, but slashes will be made without a leap forward.

Second Katana ability.
The hero throws a slowing projectile, with which he jumps on the enemy to make a single attack.
Can be applied to a tree to pull to it.



Third Katana ability. A passive that inflicts periodic physical damage with each attack, which depends on the hero's attack. Each subsequent attack will refresh the duration of the ability and add to the total damage.

The active component allows you to pierce an enemy at close range to convert 50% of stacks into instant damage.

Application will heal by the amount of damage dealt by the active. Casting from behind will stun the target. Damage is increased to 100%.

In our hands this spell does NOTHING.

Katana Ultimate. The character charges a combo attack around himself for 1 second. The performer deals 4 attacks of pure damage, which depends on the maximum health of the enemy. Each such attack has a spell lifesteal. Even though the spell deals pure damage, it still cannot hit an enemy with ghost form.

While casting the spell, the hero has status immunity and 100% magic resistance.
After the last attack, a strong dispel is applied to the hero.

In our hands Raptor Dance animation is reduced to 0.15

First Sai ability. The hero activates a buff for 7 seconds, during which each attack will be followed by another attack from appearing copies of you. In this mode, the hero will have 1000 movement speed if he tries to attack an enemy within a radius of no more than 650 from himself. During Falcon Rush, our attack speed is reduced and slow resistance is increased.

May be dispelled.

Second Sai ability. The hero throws a projectile at the target dealing physical damage and silence to the primary target and enemies within 275 radius of it.

Kez himself can use this spell to apply the mark from his next Shodo Sai ability. We need to have Shodo Sai in the second slot for that.
Talon Toss has increased damage on tagged targets.

Third Sai ability. The performer's attack can, with a chance, apply a mark on an enemy. Attacking an enemy with the mark will crit and stun them. Shodo Sai has an active component. Specify a point towards which the hero will parry attacks of enemy heroes for 2 seconds. If the attack is successfully parried, the attacking enemy hero will receive a stun and a mark, which means increased crit and stun efficiency.

The mark can only be removed by a strong dispel.

Triggering a Shodo Sai Mark from invisibility deals more critical damage

Until our first attack reaches the enemy, all other fired projectiles will also be critical. It is recommended to buy Hurricane Pike.

Sai Ultimate. The hero creates a wave around him in a 1500 radius that reduces the view range of all enemies and gives them a Shodo Sai mark. Vision is gradually returned to the enemies over 4 seconds. Using this spell gives the hero invisibility and movement speed. Attacking or casting the spell removes the buff.

In our hands Raven's Veil will apply Shodo Sai even if this Shodo Sai ability is not in our spell bar.

The enemy quickly shortens the distance and deals a lot of physical damage. So armor and ghost form is a legitimate solution to the problem. Something to keep in mind is that Force Staff won't always solve the problem, as Falcon Rush and Grappling Claw will help Kez quickly get to you again.
When he runs at your soul, have Ghost Scepter or Glimmer Cape (Shadow Blade) ready.

Of the traditional spells to steal: Grappling Claw, Talon Toss, Raptor Dance, and Raven's Veil should come to mind. These are suitable for the support Rubick and in most cases will help to mess with the enemy, deal damage or catch up with the target.

If you want to be able to deal more damage while relying on the other spells, here are a couple options:

Falcon Rush is the main source of dps, and Revenant's Brooch and Hurricane Pike are worth buying. The attack range makes using the ability easier, and the extra attacks with the brooch do a huge pile of damage (remember that repeated attacks don't deal damage to ghost form). If you don't like brooch, get any orb effect item that opens well with big amount of attacks.
This spell is recommended to be combined with attack speed buffs.

Echo Slash is simply two area attacks. The best thing to work with this ability again would be the brooch. You can consider Maelstrom as a cheaper alternative. In both cases, the ability will be used more often for farming.

Shodo Sai is a bit trickier to use. Passive component does NOT work, so we need to parry an attack in order to set a mark on an enemy. If Kez is running at us, start parrying. Kez may then try to get around you, run away completely, or hit the parry counter and get stunned. When the enemy gets double mark, do NOT attack immediately.

The spellcaster creates a geyser after a short delay, lifting enemies into the air and dealing magical damage. Upon landing, the enemies will be slowed.
Delay: 1.6
Lift duration: 1.4


Spell Steal increases the duration of the slow after landing, but it does not affect the lift duration.

The area of effect damages and slows enemies for the duration of the Torrent, even if they were not lifted by it.

Creates a mark on the target, causing them to return to the marked location after a certain period of time. While X Mark The Spot is active, it is replaced by a secondary ability called Return, which teleports the target back prematurely. The teleportation can be avoided by spell immunity or banishing effects.

Upon return, Ghost Ship rum will be spilled around us and allies around the target, which lasts for 3 seconds. Raduis - 400.

If you are playing against Kunkka, expect him to constantly use X Mark The Spot on himself and annoy you with his Tidebringer while remaining unpunished. And until you get Euls, you can utilize this feature...
Steal X Mark The Spot and immediately use it on Kunkka while he is under the effect of his own mark. It is crucial not only to place it on the mark, but also to teleport him before he does. After our Return, he won't be able to return to his mark, although he will still have the ability to press the corresponding button.

When Kunkka is affected by two X Mark The Spot effects, the one who presses Return first will prevail. If Kunkka realizes what's happening and presses his Return before ours, he will be saved.

In the same way you can "dispel' his Mark off us, if he is about to attack us with a spell combo "Mark + Torrent + Ship". We quickly cast Mark on ourselves after him and immediately release it. We won't go back to his Mark.

P.S.: Use the mark on yourself in the mid-lane and teleport back to base. Abuse the Bottle and be completely independent from the courier.

The player launches a ship that stuns and deals magical damage in the area after 3.1 seconds of casting. So, it also has a delay like Torrent, but longer. And it is also compensated by Telekinesis.
The ship flies through us to the specified area. It applies a special buff on each ally hit. This buff accelerates allies for 10 seconds, blocks 35% of incoming damage, and then applies it as periodic damage. The damage is non-fatal.

Aghanim's Scepter creates another ship to the same point with 2.5 seconds delay. Both ships fire three volleys of cannons. The damage of cannons = 40% of the ship's damage.

An ability from the shard. The spellcaster launches a tidal wave in the specified direction. The wave always appears behind the caster (900 from us) and travels a distance of 1800, pulling all affected enemies. Pull duration: 1. During the pull, enemies are unable to attack.
Wave damage: 180
Wave radius: 750

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Kunkka is very skilled at catching and hitting multiple enemies.
You can escape the catch with the mark trick I've already described. But dealing with Tidebringer is more challenging. Tidebringer damage is physical, so it is advisable to increase survivability through armor and health. Laning against him on mid and suffering from constant Tidebringer damage? Buy Tranquil Boots. he doesn't attack you directly, which means he doesn't interrupting health regeneration from this item.
If you are dealing with an ultra-late game Kunkka with 3 Rapiers and 3 Daedaluses, you should avoid exposing yourself to Tidebringer at all.

You can catch Kunkka with the same mark trick.

Most of the time you will need a Mark to, before starting a new battle, to quickly remove a Mark from yourself or an ally and then change the spell. Prioritize either Torrent or Ghost Ship.
Ship will be especially important to equalize the chances of survival or to deal damage by casting it on lifted target.

An area-of-effect nuke around the hero with a radius of 600, similar to Echo Slam by Earthshaker, gaining strength based on the number of enemies. It has a base magical damage and additional damage for each unit caught in the Odds. After casting, the spellcaster gains an attack speed bonus. Overwhelming Odds can be used during Duel.

During Duel, Overwhelming Odds disregards any debuffs on you. In the code, it is specified that as long as the spell holder is under the effect of Duel, Overwhelming Odds will be unlocked in the spell bar. It doesn't matter if we are affected by Doom or Hex.

Shard increases radius by 100 if the ability was used in a Duel.

Odds will give us a physical damage barrier. The value of the barrier depends on the damage (40%) we inflicted on enemy heroes.

A targeted buff that can be applied to yourself or an allied unit. The ability applies a strong dispel, heals, and grants a bonus to movement speed. The healing is gradual, similar to simple HP regeneration.

Buff duration: 5
Cast range: 700

A targeted ability. It provokes the caster and an enemy hero mutually. The winner of the duel gains a permanent bonus damage. Duel is the most powerful provocation and has the highest priority among similar abilities. It's a super cool ability that allows you to deal damage and become a full-fledged carry in the game.
Nothing crushes the morale of opponents like Rubick outdamaging Legion with Lego. Hehe.

Shard increases damage from duels by 5. It works retroactively. That means, it will give damage for those duels that were won before gaining the shard.

Aghanim's Scepter increases the duration of Duel and grants us status-immunity.

The ability will give a small damage bonus to each unit that dealt damage to the losing target of the duel. Press The Attack will be applied to us and our allies after we win a duel if PTA is in our second slot

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Prepare everything necessary by her sixth level. And make sure in advance what item she is building first: Blink Dagger or Shadow Blade. All subsequent events in the game will depend on all the information and preparations.

And yes, the first Duels should be applied only in safe conditions. If the enemy is already almost dead or has no nearby assistance. When you have enough damage, it's worth buying attack speed to utilize the accumulated damage more often.

If you steal Press The Attack, before a fight or sieging buildings, remember the list of enemy spells. If there are long disables and other "shutdowns", be prepared to remove them from yourself or an ally.
P.S.: Stuns, silences, and disarms cannot be removed from yourself. So it's better not to be ahead of the game to avoid receiving these debuffs.

One of the most interesting items for Duel is Aeon Disk.
When triggered, Aeon Disk blocks both incoming and outgoing damage for 2.5 seconds. This fact makes Duel almost useless. But if we have allies helping us, all Duels become quite safe and easy.
It's a good idea to make it the second item after something like Shadow Blade or Blink Dagger. This item will also be very useful if the situation is not in your favor and you are being targeted with Duel first. In that case, Aeon Disk will buy you time.

If our goal is to save an ally in Duel, you can try Ethereal Blade. It is useful if there is no magical damage involved in Duel. It is situationally applied to an enemy or ally.

If you dislike playing with physical damage, play as usual - with magic damage. But make sure not to hit anyone with Legion Commander. After Discord and Kaeya, always make Halberd. The strength bonus and evasion will help withstand more attacks from Tresdin, and the active ability will prevent her from attacking.

Recommended items: Blink Dagger, Shadow Blade, Aeon Disk, Ethereal Blade, Octarine Core, Blade Mail, Linken's Sphere, Heaven's Halberd, Sange & Yasha.

The safest card against Legion will be Overwhelming Odds. I remind you that it can be used during Duel. And you should take advantage of this. Buy an item for magical vampirism to regain some health (the more enemies are nearby, the more you can restore). Outside of Duels, the ability is used like Echo Slam. Get Dagger and jump into the crowd to "explode" with damage.

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• If you Duel Legion who is already dueling with your ally and win, you and your ally will both receive the bonus damage.
  
  
• As mentioned earlier, Duel is the most powerful provocation among all possibilities, so it has the highest priority when there are multiple provocation effects on the enemy besides Duel. However, fear effects prevent the duel participants from attacking (the target will still not try to escape).
  
  
• Duel ends if the participants are more than 2000 units apart from each other.
  Or if one of the participants is affected by an amplified Dismember.
  
  
• Duel on a hero who gains a buff from Aghanim's Legion is pointless. Even if you manage to kill them, their model will still participate in the Duel. The Aghanim's Reincarnation ghost exists for 7 seconds. The Duel will simply end and won't deal any damage.
  
  
• If Legion is affected by two Duels (their own and yours), ending the first Duel will immediately cancel the second one, even if there is no winner.
  
  
• In Duel, a creep-hero can participate if it is bound to a hero through Soulbind. Grimstroke binds an enemy to a creep-hero (e.g. Warlock's Golem), and Legion Commander casts Duel on the hero (it is technically impossible to cast the ability on a creep-hero). In this case, Legion will first attack the creep-hero. If it is killed, Legion will receive bonus damage as if it were a regular hero.

An area stun with one condition. Leshrac has an incredibly long casting animation for it. However, the ability itself has a short activation delay. Our cast is almost instantaneous. The delay is 0.35 seconds, that's all you have to wait. No lengthy hand waving. It also destroys trees. It can be combined with our Telekinesis.

The shard creates two additional Split Earths at the same location with a 5-second interval. The radius of the subsequent two stuns will increase by 45 and 90. The location of the subsequent stuns is visible to everyone. Leshrac can use the shard for zoning, but we can alternate our control abilities. After the first stun, we use the purchased Atos, and after the second stun, we use Lift and pull the enemy back to the center if they tried to escape. In most cases, the enemy is in trouble.


Generates small explosions at the feet of random nearby enemy units. The number of explosions is limited, so the fewer enemies around you, the more explosions each of them will receive. The damage is pure.



With the left Facet, the ability lasts 10 seconds and works on buildings.

With the right Facet, the ability lasts 6 seconds, but does NOT work on buildings. Amount of explosions stays the same.

Activated Diabolic Edicts will continue to work during their designated time even after your death.

A targeted lightning cast that deals magical damage and briefly slows the target by 75%. After hitting the primary target, additional lightning strikes are released towards nearby targets. The lightning strikes appear 0.25 seconds after the initial cast.

The additional lightning strikes appear above enemies within a radius of 450 units from the primary target of the ability. Lightning strikes do not appear above invisible or hidden enemies.

Aghanim's Scepter ability. The spellcaster creates a debuff-removing aura around themself, affecting themselves and enemies within a 500 radius. Just like with the regular Ghost, enemies cannot attack. In addition, they take 30% increased magical damage and are slowed by 30%. Aura duration: 4 seconds. The caster is not slowed but accelerated by the same percentage.
Cooldown: 25 seconds.

Status immunity does not interrupt the ghost form granted by this ability.

A toggled ability. The pulses deal magical damage to enemies in a radius around Leshrac once per second. It has a mana cost upon activation and continuous mana consumption. It deals initial damage upon casting and then continues to deal damage per second. Radius: 500. The pulses affect invisible enemies and enemies in the fog of war.

After deactivating Pulse Nova, it has a one-second cooldown to prevent players from squeezing out more damage per second from the ability in a tricky way.

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At the beginning, Leshrac has a little health, but mainly holds his ground at close to medium range from the target so that his Diabolic Edict and Pulse Nova can reach the enemies. Each of his abilities is focused on dealing damage. One of the popular items for Leshrac is Bloodstone. The first option that comes to my mind as a counter to it is Mage Slayer. This dagger provides us with passive resistance and reduces the damage amplification of Leshrac, which greatly affects not only his damage but also his survivability since he relies on magical vampirism.


If you steal everything except Diabolic Edict, it's worth taking any item for mana regeneration because Leshrac's spells have short cooldowns and quickly drain mana pool. Aether Lens and Kaya fit this category quite well.


In the late game, it's better to ignore Pulse Nova and Diabolic Edict. Take Aether Lens and use the other two abilities at long range. Later on, it's worth getting more control or Octarine Core. The best ability will be Split Earth if you also buy the Aghanim's Shard, which transforms the regular stun into a zone control ability.


If you still really like Pulse Nova and Diabolic Edict, get BKB and Bloodstone.

A targeted nuke that deals magical damage with a small area of effect around the target. The ability has two sources of damage: Frost Blast, which deals damage in an area, and then direct damage to the target. This means that indirect targets will take less damage overall. Affected targets will be slowed for 4 seconds.
Movement speed slow: 25%
Attack speed slow: 30
Radius of the area around the target: 200

Applies a shield to an allied hero or tower, absorbing a percentage of incoming damage from auto-attacks and dealing magical damage in an area around the shielded unit every second. Each tick of damage also slows enemies for 0.5 seconds.

If any of Lich's spells kills an enemy, the shield's duration is increased. Creep - 1 second. Hero - 4 seconds.

Frost Shield protects against all types of auto-attack damage. However, keep in mind that the damage must come as a single entity with the auto-attack. I mean, Frost Shield won't help against the damage from an Orb of Destruction since it is separate from the auto-attack. However, it works well against MKB or Enchanted Quiver!

Frost Shield does not deal damage to invisible units or units in the fog of war.

Hero forces an enemy to slowly walk towards him for 1.9-2.5 seconds. The ability has a long casting time, so it can be interrupted. While the enemy is affected by Sinister Gaze, we steal a portion of their mana based on their current mana pool. During Sinister Gaze, other Lich abilities can be used without interrupting the casting of Sinister Gaze.
During the taunt, the target gains the ability to walk through any obstacles.

Spell Steal does not increase the duration of the ability.

Sinister Gaze applying Evil Eye debuff, which deals additional magic damage and enhances the slowing effects if we deal magic or pure damage to the target. Evil Eye lasts twice as long as Sinister Gaze.

Aghanim's Scepter makes this ability an area-target ability and allows you to use Lich's other abilities without disrupting the cast.

The speed at which the enemy approaches us during Sinister's Gaze depends on the distance between the caster and the target. At the highest level of the ability, the victim will always traverse half the distance between us for the entire duration.
Aether Lens is very useful here since it increases the cast range, thus increasing the distance the enemy will walk under Sinister's Gaze.

An ability from the shard. The spellcaster creates an icicle at the targeted location, which slows all enemies within a 550 radius by 25%. The icicle lasts for 15 seconds and can be destroyed with 5 hero attacks. If there are no other enemies nearby, the shard allows the Chain Frost ability to bounce back to the icicle. Frost Shield can be applied to the icicle, healing it for 1 attack per tick.

If the icicle is destroyed, it will trigger Frost Nova damage under it upon death. This will only work for us if we have stolen the corresponding ability in our second slot.

Ice Spire spends 1 hit point when Chain Frost bounces off it.

The same targeted nuke but stronger and with a bouncing effect. Meaning, upon hitting a target, Chain Frost jumps to the nearest enemy. The number of bounces is limited (10), unless we have Aghanim's Scepter. Each bounce increases the strength of Chain Frost.
For Chain Frost to bounce, there must be a target within a 550 radius. Otherwise, the fun will end early.
The damage is once again magical.

If the Chain Frost does not find additional targets, it will circle around the last victim for a while, then disappear. If an enemy appears in the radius during this time, the Chain Frost will continue to bounce.

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Lich is a straightforward opponent. All of his abilities are straightforward and require almost the same conditions.
The most important condition to fight against him is to avoid hugging your teammates.
If you are fighting him in a 1v1 scenario, he will lose in 99.9999999% of cases. Well, unless he buys the shard that turns you into Chain Frost targets. Oh, by the way, I definitely exaggerated about the chances. Hehe.

If Lich is your primary target for imitation, the first thing to do is to go for the standard mage build. Veil of Discord, K&Y, and Aether Lens.
The mana cost of Frost Nova is not small, and it quickly drains us if we randomly cast it. This item build provides intelligence and enhances the effectiveness of the ability.
If Lich is just an addition to chasing heroes on the enemy team, steal Frost Shield to prevent your allies from bending under basic physical attacks. In these situations, Frost Shield will likely be higher level. You can apply it not only for defense, of course.

With Aether Lens, you can "summon" Sinister Gaze targets from a distance. Of course, the taunt duration will be longer.

In challenging games, Chain Frost will be essential. So, wait for an opportunity from the side of the battle because after using his ultimate, Lich will DEFINITELY try to cast something else. It's not just about not giving us his ultimate. He has a low cooldown on Frost Blast. But luckily, his casting swings are not instant, so stealing will not be so difficult.
The main thing to worry about is the cast range of our ultimate for convenient stealing. Aether Lens or Aghanim's Scepter is necessary, or even better, both items at the same time.

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Sinister's gaze works like Sticky Napalm, dealing damage along with our almost every cast. And if we remember how we can combine Sticky Napalm with high damage rate spells, it's not that hard to come up with a couple combinations with Sinister's Gaze.
It's worth noting that Urn of Shadows, Spirit Vessel, and Radiance will not interact with Evil Eye.

Temporary self-buff that grants status immunity, magic resistance, and movement speed. The ability applies a basic dispel during its cast.
If you are not silenced or stunned, you can press this ability to not feel major problems for the next couple of seconds (unless the problem bypasses status immunity, hehe).
Be careful. If you use Rage to initiate an attack, you may not have enough resources to retreat.

An ability from the shard. A targeted slow. All sources of damage to the slowed target provide healing based on a percentage of the damage dealt. The slow is initially strong but weakens over time, unlike the healing and damage effects. Vampirism from attacking the target will be consistent throughout the duration of the slow. Open Wounds heals attackers both from physical attacks and spells.

The ability resets if the enemy under the effect of Open Wounds dies.

Open Wounds can also heal the hero if the target of this ability (a creep) is killed with Hand of Midas.
Of course, Midas should be used on tanky creeps.

Spell Steal will increase the debuff duration but the change in slow will not adapt to the increased duration and the slow distribution may appear inconsistent.

An ability that allows the hero to infest a creep or an allied hero. If infested in a creep, the hero immediately gains control over it.
The target of the ability receives a health and movement speed bonus (the creep will have less movement speed than the allied hero). The Consume ability allows the hero to exit the target, dealing magical damage to all nearby enemies within a 700 radius.
The damage is magical, even though it is dealt with the bloody remnants of the infested ally... hehe.

While infesting a creep or ally, the hero recovers health based on a percentage.

Infest's blood blast applies Open Wounds to all affected enemies. The duration of this Open Wounds is reduced by 50%.

Aghanim's Scepter allows the hero to use Infest on an enemy and stay inside them for 5 seconds. While infested, the hero attacks the enemy every second and receives double healing from this ability (the hero can make a total of 5 attacks). The cast range is increased to 500 and the cooldown is reduced to 20 seconds.

Infest blast deals additional periodic damage that depends on the remaining health of the creep or hero we were sitting in. Ability can be used on ancient creeps.

If you infest an enemy who goes invisible, neither of you will be able to see the Infest marker. You can only communicate the location of the enemy in which you are infested through communication. Click on your portrait to focus the camera on yourself and ping the ground to indicate the exact location of the enemy.

Spell Steal will increase the duration of staying inside an enemy, thus extending the duration of the disarm. At Level 3 Spell Steal, it will provide enough time for a sixth attack. With Timeless Relic, the hero can perform a total of 7 attacks.

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Lifestealer is an armored, hunchbacked guy with vampirism and status immunity.
The most important thing is to steal Rage or Infest.

Rage or Unfettered is needed to dispel his slow and be more safe in battle overall and his Infest is needed for multiple reasons (initiation, escape, AoE damage).
Rage, although it helps to dispel slowdown, does not solve the problem completely, because Lifestealer will definitely have some Phase Boots, with which he will catch up with us even without Open Wounds. Be careful, if Open Wounds is applied while we're already with Rage buff, the remaining slowing time can play into his hands. Unfettered does not have this problem.

We need items for movement speed. At least one besides boots.
After everything, we must wait for his Rage to end before catching him with our Telekinesis. And do not let him get close to his allies or any creeps since he can ignore the attack using Infest. The duration of Rage at the max level is 6 seconds or with the talent, 7.5 seconds. Within this short timeframe, you must kill him. If he can activate Rage again, any miracle can happen.

To avoid being killed, we need items for repositioning. Force Staff, Ghost Scepter, Shadow Blade. But if you feel super tanky and are not afraid of Lifestealer, forget about them.

Items against Lifestealer: Phase Boots, Sange & Yasha, Hurricane Pike, Manta Style, Solar Crest, Orchid of Malevolence, Eul's Scepter of Divinity, Butterfly, Diffusal Blade.

If you have Aghanim's Scepter, you can crawl up someone's arse to sit out the danger. Naix's biting you? Let him lose a little time. You can also heal your allies with improved cooldown.

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It is worth noting that when using the ultimate on a creep, the Consume button will be available in both spell bars. In the creep's spell bar and the hero's spell bar. Why is this information important? It is important so that the spellcaster can always exit the creep, even if the creep is affected by silence, cyclone, or stun.

Imagine a scenario where you infest a creep, and then that creep gets thrown into the air by a Primal Split air spirit. As a result, you spin around in the air for ten thousand years.
But all you need to do is select your hero instead of the creep and press Consume from the other spell bar.

Cone-shaped wave of magical damage. The total attack range is the wave travel distance plus its radius.
Base wave travel distance: 1075.
Wave radius: 200 (Starting radius: 275).

The casting range is shorter than the wave travel distance, but each bonus to casting range will strengthen both parameters.

An area-of-effect stun with a radius of 250, which has a 0.5-second delay and a separate casting animation (for Lina).
For Rubick, of course, only the delay within the ability will be in effect, as we have almost no casting time. This ability has a relatively low cooldown of 7 seconds and a duration of 2.2 seconds at the highest level. With our ultimate, the intervals between stuns will be approximately 4 seconds. It is recommended to take cooldown reduction items.

A targeted nuke.
As usual, it erases friggin' face to zero.
The damage is magical and painful. But not as painful as its mana cost.
It has a 0.25-second delay before dealing damage. So, for example, certain heroes like Puck can dodge the damage.
More precisely, Laguna Blade applies a debuff to the enemy for 0.25 seconds. At the end of the debuff, damage is dealt.

Laguna Blade gives a barrier that depends on the damage dealt. Barrier lasts 10 seconds.

Self-buff that provides flight, spell damage, and magic resistance. Bonus spell damage: 35%. Bonus magic resistance: 35%.

Duration: 7 seconds.
Cooldown: 25 seconds.

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Another opponent with a full set of magical nukes.
The most annoying aspect of Lina is her attack range and her passive ability. Apart from the instant damage from her nukes, she has carry potential, and her long-range pokes force us to use up consumables during the laning phase.

If Lina is too aggressive, you will have to endure until level 6 and play the lane very carefully, even if it means simply "sniffing" experience from creeps.
After a burst of nukes, a quick recovery is aided by Tranquil Boots, but remember that Lina can easily reach us with her long range.

After reaching level 6, take advantage of her Dragon Slave (stun if she maxes it) and purchase an item for mana regeneration to enhance your farming efficiency. Kaya or Aether Lens are suitable choices.

After reaching level 6, it becomes easier to participate in fights with her abilities, as they are easy to use. Ethereal Blade works superbly with Dragon Slave.

Expect her to move very quickly and likely purchase mobility or initiation items such as Blink Dagger or Shadow Blade. Lina's item builds are quite flexible. She can go for either magic or physical damage. Your options will depend on which path she chooses. Keep an eye on her item purchases.

In case of trouble, supplement your build with defensive items to be prepared for her attacks. Sometimes you may need to purchase an Aeon Disk.


A reliable initial item build would be Aether Lens and Eul's Scepter. If you know that Lina (or someone else) won't be able to reach you easily, take Aether Lens and poke her from a distance with your abilities. It may be a simple but effective method of waging war.

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Just to reiterate, Lina's stun has a cooldown of 7 seconds. In our hands, the duration will be ~3 seconds. Even without items, we can pose a serious threat. And if you have an Octarine Core, the enemy should be even more afraid of us.

This spell sends a line of spikes in the specified direction, which slightly tosses enemies, deals damage and stuns them. The enemy becomes a passable unit while being tossed. Damage is magical.
The ability is also targeted, so it can be blocked with Linken's Sphere.

Line width is 140

Turning an enemy into a frog. The curse imposes Silence, Disarm, and Mute.
It also changes the target's movement speed to 120. This can still be increased by movement speed bonuses.
Hex instantly kills illusions.



A long cast spell that gradually drains mana from an opponent and slows him. If the enemy has no mana left, the slowdown increases.
Cannot be cast on an enemy with no mana-pool. Prevents the enemy from going completely invisible. Can be cast on an ally to transfer your mana to them.
Breaking range - 1100.

Deals magical damage equal to 100% of the mana stolen.

Mana Drain selects 2 more targets, increases the break distance by 200, and grants the performer a status immunity with 60% magic resistance for the duration of the spell.

"A finger into an enemy rectal window" that deals a massive amount of magic damage to a single target. If the target dies within three seconds of receiving the finger, the caster will receive a stacking buff of 40 bonus damage for this spell while stolen. As soon as we change spell, the entire buff will be gone, no matter how much damage bonuses we've taken.

After casting Finger of Death, the hero changes his attack type to melee with 50% cleave for 20 seconds. The hero also takes 40 bonus damage and another 30 damage for each stack. Attack range is 250. Cleave radius - 650. If an enemy hero dies within three seconds of being hit, the caster receives a Finger of Death stack.

With Aghanim, Finger will have a small AoE around the primary target, increased damage and reduced cooldown.

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This fellow is a shutdown pro. Most often has Blink with him.
It is better to steal Earth Spike from him. It is very convenient to use it, as we don't have a long cast animation on it.
If the opportunity arises and your manapull allows, you can steal the Finger and hit someone back. Unless the Finger hits you in the head. In which case you should hope we have some magic resistance bought in.

Hex is good for initiation, as it sometimes works faster than Earth Spike. You can buy Blink Dagger with it.

Lion is a mage. When stealing his abilities, it's worth collecting items that are quite common for a sorcerer.
K&S, Aghanim's Scepter, Veil of Discord, Aether Lens.

However. If Lion sees you as a serious problem, you won't get rid of him easily. So it's worth getting Aeon Disk so you don't lose life during his two disabling skills. Alternatively, you can buy Linken's Sphere, if you're sure that you'll be able to react after it triggers and avoid the attack.
P.S.: Lyon has 4 targeting spells. And with the level 25 talent, Hex becomes an AoE ability, making Linken's Sphere irrelevant (Lion will break Linken's with Mana Drain before Finger, if he's knows something).

In general, if Lion playing with Fist of Death, you can buy items for melee attacks. It's funnier and sometimes even more effective. Harpoon is one of the most useful items with a neat active.

The name speaks for itself. Ability will create a powerful hero-creep.
Losing or changing this ability kills the Bear and knocks out all items, if there are any. Also, our Bear does not have the Savage Roar ability.

Bear has 3 abilities.
Return - interruptable teleport to the host. Casts like a normal scroll for 3 seconds. It has a 30 second cd. This teleport CANNOT be disrupted by entanglement. Stuns, hexes, and silences can. But not by rooting.
Demolish - Passive ability that gives the bear additional magic resistance and makes its attacks on buildings stronger.
Savage Roar. Again, our bear won't have it.
Entangling Claws - Passive chance that the bear attack will entangle the enemy. They work longer on creeps.

Aghanim bought for Bear, not Druid, removes the limit that prevents the bear from attacking if he is too far away from us. The performer's death does not kill the Bear.
In our case, the bear dies anyway, simply because we lose the spell upon death.

AoE fear on all enemy units around us. Radius is 350.
Fear makes enemies run towards their Fountain at bonus speed.
Unlike Dark Willow's Terrorise, Savage Roar will not scare lane creeps.
It does not mix well with other provocations.

Savage Roar will not count as the last spell cast if it was cast through a bear.

The shard buffs all allies within a 700 radius for additional running and attack speed, and applies basic Dispel to the caster. It applies to both himself and the bear (even if one of them can't).

An ability that passively gives us and the bear attack speed and armor percentage from each other's stats.

Total armor increases by 25% with the left Facet. Caster and bear attacks heal each other.

With the right Facet, only the bear's attacks heal the caster, not the other way around.

With Spirit Link, you can use it on an allied hero to temporarily share buffs with him (for the duration of the ability, the Bear will take offence and start running towards the base. You will not be able to control it).

Transforms into a stubby bear for 40 seconds. Heals caster and increases his armour and health-pool.
Changes the attack type from ranged to melee. Transformation time 1.933 (Weird, yeah).
This is a pretty good option. Battlefury, Echo Saber, Basher and Vanguard at full power.
Nice, nice.

With the left Facet, the spell is applied to the hero, not the bear.

With the right Facet, the spell is applied to a bear. It increases its armor, attack speed and reduces Entangling Claws cooldown. If we don't have a bear, the ability simply can't be casted.

However, these are only options for us. The Druid himself has more bonuses. In Bear mode, he gets the passive abilities Demolish and Entangling Claws.

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Dude. You're playing against two fat units at once without any nukes. At all.
All they can do is punch and yell. Although the second of them can root, but even rooting isn't magic damage. That's disgusting.
You can't always outplay them with nukes. So let's rely on control spells!

Bear MUST be stolen during the laning phase. Until the Druid uses roar for the first time. Our Bear will help with killing enemy heroes (particularly the mid Druid), forest farming, and T1 siege (maybe even T2 if the enemies are significantly weaker). Remember that Bear's roots don't work on OTHER Bears. Therefore, you should not try to choke an enemy one with your own bear.
If you're standing against him on mid, point your Bear at the Druid, and parry his Bear's attack with your Bolt so you don't take much damage.
If you manage to hit two at once with one Bolt, that's even better! Because if he doesn't have Roar and your Bear got proc for root attack, it's probably a frag.

The most common thing we'll be able to take from a Druid is Savage Roar. Fear at close range. It helps a lot to scare away the Bear that was set upon us.
Among the items, we should mention typical fixation artifacts like Atos, Hex or Abyssal Blade. However, don't forget about the main item of overpower against typical sources of physical damage - Solar Crest. Also, for defensive purposes, steal his ult. Although we won't get new passive skills, but additional health and armor will be very useful.

In battles you should beat not the hero, but his bear. And it is recommended to do this by wielding control tools at a medium distance. He is fast enough to constantly try to keep him at the maximum distance from himself. But you shouldn't get too close to him, because he bites painfully, and he's also likely to try to apply fear on you.

The Bear's summoning cooldown is 2 minutes. After killing the first one, the Druid will summon the second one. And if you kill the second one, you will have 2 minutes to fight almost 4 on 5 (Druid is not very strong without his bear).

Target stun with magic damage.
Its base cast range is 800.
Eclipse (Luna's ultimate ability) directly depends on its level. Hence, if Luna doesn't have Beam, her ult won't work.

Every time we cast a spell on an enemy hero, we will get a temporary attack bonus. Lucent Beam from Eclipse will give 50% less bonus.

Cooldown is 6 at the last level.
A weak particle effect will appear on her weapon when she swings her stan.

This spell creates 4 glaives that orbit around us at a distance of 250. When the glaive collides with an enemy, it deals a portion of our damage. Glaives do NOT apply attack modifiers. Each glaive has its own collision radius of 150.



Shard speeds up the rotation of glaives and increases their damage.

Upon cast, the ability reduces the incoming damage on the hero.

Creating an area around us in which several consecutive Lucent Beams are applied. They attack random enemy units, but each unit (even creeps) can receive a maximum of five beams in the face.

The beams from Eclipse do not stun, unlike the "original" Lucent Beam.
Since Eclipse uses Lucent Beam, if Beam is not upgraded at all, Eclipse's beams will not deal damage.
Eclipse will end prematurely if the caster dies.

Aganim increases not only the total number of beams from the ult, but also the "capacity" of beams for each individual unit. It also decreases the interval between Beams.
Enhanced Eclipse can be applied to an allied unit or to a specific area.

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A controversial opponent. She has amazing nukes, but the main threat comes from her passive skills, which give bonus attack damage and bounce attacks.
Against her, you need to stay out of the way of her glaives and throw Eclipse back at her.
One of the most important artifacts when fighting Luna is Aghanim's Scepter.

Luna's cast animation is too long. So we can relatively easily steal her ult and retreat (in case we don't have BKB). When her ult runs out (which will be very soon), we can turn around and use our own. And we don't even have to be in the centre of the fight to do this. We can hang it on some ally Bristleback and watch this bacchanal somewhere in a comfortable chair.

The problem arises when Luna remembers that she can cast Lunar Orbit to avoid giving us her ult. In such cases, relying on Eclipse is not worth it. Steal Lucent Beam and buy Khanda to turn a simple nuke into a major killing tool.

Besides Aghanim, Manta Style or Helm of Dominator is a great item against Luna. Generating additional units will allow us to chaotically distribute the beams from the enemy Eclipse between us and our controlled allies.
Although it's easier to buy Black King Bar to parry the enemy's ult. The reason is clear, I think.

Let's not forget about the classic magic items to strengthen the stolen Beam and Eclipse. Among them we would like to highlight Lens. With low cd, you can shoot magic at Luna from afar.

Summon 2 creeps. They Will have passive abilities as they level up.
Level 4 wolves have the ability Cripple - a chance that attacking an enemy will reduce their movement speed by 15% and attack speed by 60, as well as inflicting periodic damage.
Level 3-4 wolves also have Invisibility. An attack will interrupt the invisibility. Invisibility delay is 2 seconds.

With second Facet: Instead of regular wolves, summons their ghosts, which simply run behind the caster and give a buff to total health and base attack damage.

With third Facet: wolves can be upgraded 2 more times. Level 5 wolves gain the Hamstring ability, which entangles the enemy for 0.5 seconds. The next 4 attacks by controlled units on the same target deal more damage.
Sixth-level wolves gain another ability, Hightail, which grants them 100% dodge chance, hasted movement speed, and additional attack speed for 6 seconds.

Shard creates an uncontrollable wolf for one random wave of creeps. The wolf, like the waves of creeps, appears every 30 seconds. Their Cripple can affect a tower (does not work on simple summoned dogs).

The hero emits a howl that debuffs all enemies within 2000 radius of him for 8 seconds. The spell lowers attack damage and armor. Howl only lowers base damage. It has a global cast at night.

Lycan himself has howls not only from him, but also from his wolves.
We can do this if we summon stolen wolves before stealing Howl.

Shapeshift into a DOG that runs around the map with 550 speed, 1000 night vision, extra health and a 40% chance to hit. DOG cannot be slowed down. In the form of the DOG we have a melee type of attack. Transformation into DOG will have the same 1.1 seconds.
The duration is 25.

The bonuses apply to units under your control. Each kill with Shapeshift will extend the ultimate time by 5 seconds.

Aghanim ability. Turns an ally into a Wolf from Shapeshift. It also grants 40% Vampirism to yourself and an ally. The caster's attacks will heal not only himself, but also his ally (and vice versa).
Mutual Vampirism works if the caster and ally are near each other (1200 radius).

The Ally-Dog will have a blue coloured model.
It is not recommended to use on ranged allies, as they will have their attack type changed to melee.

The ally will NOT share the buff with their controlled units, as Lycan himself does. However, Wolf Bite can be used on hero creeps. Hence, you can bite not the Druid himself, but his bear.

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Doggy is too fast to be countered with movement speed items. It's much more profitable to steal his same ult and run at the same speed as him. The 550 speed can't be slowed down as well as accelerated. So you'll be on equal footing. Without his ult, Lycan is quite vulnerable. So the ult should be waited out. Either run from him (or behind him), use Halberds or an abundant list of disable abilities, if something like that is in your game.

If you run out of options and Lycan casts a Ult from afar and immediately applies Howl afterwards, the retaliatory Howl has the potential to break Lycan's entire game. First of all, Howl and Bolt together will cut a lot of physical damage. The only thing left for this ability is to buy an early Shiva to turn every Lycan attack into a viscous mess. Secondly, Howl turns off Lycan's entire zoo. Lycan runs at us, and all his creeps run away. How cool is that?

You can also make a Dominator to take away his creep in every fight, which will probably be a Centaur. Yes. He'll be able to tame it back, but he'll waste time and risk losing you. In the short time you own a creep, it's important to flush its skill down the drain so that Lycan can't use it later after re-taming it.

Lycan is a typical BKB wielder. Coupled with its frantic speed, this creature is quite difficult to stop. Ghost Scepter will temporarily (4 seconds) make Lycan daze and most likely switch to another target. Hurricane Pike, Eul's Scepter of Divinity, and Shadow Blade can be used as analogues to Ghost Scepter to save you from the Dog.

If you prefer to hit people manually and you manage to steal Shapeshift often, you can rely on the ult completely and supplement it with Desolator or Cuirass. Any Echo Sabre enjoyers?

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Shapeshift and Wolf Bite remove the health bonus for the duration of banishment or invulnerability. However, when this bonus is taken away, the direct number of current health is unchanged. When the invulnerability passes, the Wolf form again grants on health bonus. Eventually, each "invulnerability" will heal us for a certain number of hp, which depends on the level of the ability (400 at level 3).

You can buy Manta on Lycan to use it as a heal during ult.
Eul or Fallen Sky works the same way.

Rubick's spells that grant banishment or invulnerability also work, of course.

A wave of magical damage that slightly pushes (150) affected enemies in the direction from which the wave was coming. The affected enemy will be slowed.
Range - 1200
Radius - 200
Slow 75%

Adds a level 5. Level 5 Shockwave have more range of the wave by 200. In addition, the wave also travels back to the point of application, dealing an additional 50% damage.

While the enemy is slowed from this ability, he cannot receive damage again from another Shock Wave (not back swing).

A damage buff. Gives cleave to meleee units. And yes. We are not melee (most often), and therefore for us it is just a temporary damage increase. The additional damage in the form of green is based on base damage.
When applied to yourself, Empower will give 50% more bonus.

Ability is always enabled on caster. Every one of his subsequent attacks increases his self bonus.

A pushing dash in the specified direction. Drags all affected enemy heroes along with us.
At the end of the dash, all dragged enemy heroes will receive slow and magical damage which depends on the distance traveled by the enemy.
While the enemy is under the effect of Skewer movement, he is stunned. The duration of the Skewer stun will depend on the distance of the dash. The longer we drag the enemy, the longer he will be stunned. But the duration of the post-slow is still affected by our Spell Steal, as usual.

Ability will deal more damage for every time an enemy collides with a tree or cliff. Gives bonus 275 range.

If Rubick and Magnus run at each other, the one who applied Skewer later than the opponent will win. Meaning, one Skewer is convenient to interrupt the enemy's one.

Pulling all nearby enemy units to a point in front of you. After pulling, it deals a handful of magical damage and stuns through spell immunity. Attraction radius - 430. In our hands, it is cast INSTANTLY.

The point of attraction is located in front of the caster at a distance of 150.
Reverse Polarity has no limit on the number of enemies pulled, but this ability does not apply phasing to enemies. Meaning, if there are too many enemies, they will simply be ejected from the point after pulling.

Alternate version of the ultimate if Magnus has the right Facet selected. Pushes enemies within 700 radius away from you. Enemies will be +150 spell radius away from us after the push.
Damage and stun are the same. RRP cooldown is 20 seconds less than a normal ultimate.


Aghanim's ability. The caster tosses enemies in front of him (100) and throws them behind him. The thrown enemies will be stunned for 0.75 seconds.
Enemies receive 300 magical damage even before being thrown.
Flight time of targets - 0.6.

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Ooooh. How many times have I seen those moments when Rubick gives a reverse RP... And people think THIS is the pinnacle of playing Rubick? What a shame...
But yes. Reverse RP is a very powerful card that should not be ignored.
RP is easy to steal if you don't get caught in it yourself. So always keep your distance from your team.

Well, BEFORE that "second of glory" we can use ABSOLUTELY all the other abilities of Magnataur.

Empower for buffing an allied melee hero or yourself (For harassing the enemy midlaner. And this is most likely Magnus himself). Empower relies on white damage. Physical builds become tastier with such a buff. It is recommended to start with Pike, and finish according to your mood.
But most likely we will use it on some Faceless Void..

Skewer is fun to use right after the enemy one. Magnus rolls us into some bushes, and we roll him back. Skewer also combines great with Lift. We pull closer with Lift, and at the same time we stand under the mark from Telekinesis Land (or at the point between the mark and the enemy's starting position) and cast Skewer on the poor fellow falling down.
We carry plebs away, of course, to our allies. (But be careful. Magnus might use it for RP)

Shockwave. Brutal classic nuke. With shard significantly increases dps and impact zone. With a nuker style, we tend to rely on this ability. Add Lens or Ethereal to it. Or maybe even everything at once.

If Magnus has RRP instead of regular RP, you'll have to get a little more creative with the spell. Not every ally will want the ability to scatter enemies away from the center of the battle. Choose the right angle for this spell. Sometimes it's the right ability to use to knock back enemies that are gnawing into us or our ally.

The hero grabs the specified target and flips him (tosses the target backwards over himself). The fallen unit deals damage and slows down enemies in the area around it. Both allies and enemies can be thrown. A thrown enemy also takes damage and slows down.
If you push the Dispose target while moving, the damage will be dealt prematurely.

The target will be behind us at a distance of 250 after the cast.

This ability is vector based. First, you need to ally the target and then, holding the mouse, point to an area near the target. The hero quickly runs up to the target and uses it as a springboard to jump to the specified area. Upon landing in the selected area, enemies will take magic damage and stun. The radius of the area is 275.
The selected ally will receive an acceleration for 4 seconds.

If the jump target abruptly disappears or blinks, the hero simply sprints to where the target was, but does not jump away from it.

If the target-trampoline just moves quickly, we will run as hard as we can to it, changing the trajectory, and then we will jump slightly back. The landing area will be shifted, depending on the location of the spell target.

With the Pick Me Up facet, Rebound gains an alt-cast. The hero can grab an ally and jump with him.

With the Fleeting Fury facet, after jumping, the hero gets 3 hits of the Unleash combo, which does not create an impulse. Or extends an existing combo by 3 seconds.

Shard allows you to use Rebound on an opponent to jump away from them and gain your running speed after jumping. Increases damage by 20%.

Passively gives us lifesteal and a damage bonus. You can use it on an ally to give them the same bonus. At this time, an area around us is activated, which depends on our attack range. If a an ally attacks or gets hit, we respond with our own attack if the enemy is within our area radius. The ability does not attack all at once, but has a certain interval.

For the duration of the ability, caster and ally heal each other with lifesteal.

A 16-second BRUTALITY mode. For the allotted time, the hero receives a bonus to movement speed and a powerful attack speed buff for special combo strikes. After performing a series of blows, the hero gets a forced slowdown of attack speed for 1.5 seconds, and then the attack charges are replenished. Each combo has 4 / 5 / 6 attacks. The last attack in each combo creates a huge slowing wave of magic damage. Each wave has a radius of 800.

If more than one second passes between hits within a combo, the combo is interrupted and the same penalty is triggered.

Unleash attacks do not have to hit. The attack counts and expends a charge. The final attack, even on a miss, will create a pulse of magic damage.

Aghanim reduces the ability cooldown by 10 seconds and applies a simple Dispel to the hero. With Aganim, using every other Marci's abilities we will create a pulse like Unleash combinations, which will apply silence on enemies for 1 second.

The character is extremely agile and annoying. She has the ability to quickly change her position and her enemy. Resembles three of the four spirit brothers (Amber, Kaolin, Inai) in behaviour.
All three abilities allow for good line defence against a huge number of different heroes. She can attack at any time from a jump over a lane creep and start attacking. If you try to run away from her, she will stop you with a Dispose throw. She will wait for you to run away first and then throw it behind her back, because if she uses Dispose right after jumping, she risks throwing you in the wrong direction.

Exchanging blows after getting close is a bit of an exercise in itself. Bodybuard will make her hits stronger and your attacks a bit pointless due to its vampirism.
The logical solution to these attacks is to throw Marcy away from you with the Lift and retreat. BUT! You must do this before she lands. If she does land on you, it means stun. And stun means death. It's even scarier if it jumps not from a creep, but from an allied hero. In that case, giga-death.

Dispose looks best with Lens. Combined with our Arcane Supremacy, Stolen Dispose turns into a monstrous targeting hook. Literally a KIDNAPPING!
Of course, next we take Blink Dagger and play it as a Pudge, which is needed to hook the enemy. We're definitely not blitzing at close quarters. We make a jump so that Dispose moves the enemy to a respectable distance when we are relatively safe. The same Lens will be a great addition for Rebound.
It is recommended to complete the build with Halberd or Shard to prevent Marci from killing us or our ally in an encounter.

If you play with her ultimate, the build will definitely need Pike. Pike is the most important item against Marci in general. But it works even better with her ult. Start the build with Force Staff so you don't get soured by Marci's attacks in early fights. Pike is supplemented with Maelstrom of Witch Blade. After that, it's a matter of picking up situational items.

With Rebound it is very good to buy Shard and Lens. Jump on enemies at a great distance without having to find additional units to cast? Very much so.
However, neither Shard nor Lens will give you survivability. And since you're jumping into an enemy for a stun, you risk embarrassing yourself. This should be fixed with Force Staff or Blink Dagger.

Bodyguard fits us very well since we are a ranged hero. It's much easier for us to use this ability. The ability is even more effective if you cast it on an ally who makes the enemy hit them (Axe, Legion Commander). Dragon Lance and Maelstrom should be used for this spell.

• Black King Bar - In an encounter, the status immune will prevent her from Dispose or jump on us with Rebound, making it safe from control and easy to steal ult.
  
• Skull Basher - Stable stun every second other combo.
  
• Abyssal Blade - Forced if she's running hard after us with her BKB on. Apply Overwhelm and retreat.
  
• Crimson Guard - Marcy relies on the number of hits. A direct damage block will help withstand a series of hits, not only for us, but also for our allies.
  
• Linken's Sphere - She only has one ability that can take down Spell Block. And it's the creepiest one. Avoiding this = keeping your position.
  
• Veil of Discord - will increase the damage from pulse finishing attacks. With a constant attack, our pulses will be comparable to Epicentre.
  
• Heaven's Halberd - Disarming her makes her ult useless.
  
• Aghanim's Scepter - with the cdr talent, her ult will have a cd of 30.
  
• Octarine Core - In case Aghanim isn't enough.
  
• Monkey King Bar - A serious attack item that pairs well with Marci's Ult.

The caster throws a spear in the specified direction. The first enemy hero that gets caught will be pulled in by the spear. All other units in the way are simply pushed aside slightly. Everyone takes magic damage.

If the hero being dragged by the spear hits a hill, tree, building or wall from Arena of Blood, the spear will stop and the hero will be stunned. Fissure, Ice Shards, Sprout and Power Cogs can also be used as support (For some reason, the spear doesn't always stop against a tree that was planted with Iron Branch).
An enemy hero who is nailed to a support with a spear cannot be knocked back with God's Rebuke or Arena of Blood.

Spear of Mars treats hero creeps as creeps, so we can't nail Lone Druid's Bear to a tree.

True Sight is applied to units nailed with a spear.
Flying units can be nailed to all standard obstacles (hills, trees, etc.).

• Careful with application. The thing is that Mars throws the spear with his right hand with a special animation (a swinging arm that allows you to launch the spear almost sideways). We, on the other hand, have a different animation when casting the spear. Rubick will stretch out forward and pull both arms in front of him. At that moment the spear will fly from the right hand. This animation is the problem. Outstretched arms create a distance between our hitbox and the point of spear creation. So, if the enemy is standing close to us, he will be in the window between us and the creation point and will not get any damage from the spear.
  If you want to use the spear, keep the enemy at a medium distance and never use it when the enemy is standing close to you.
  
  This problem is solved with an expensive cosmetic item. The Magus Cypher arcana has a completely different animation on the spear cast, where the spear will come out of your left hand. Furthermore, Rubick with the arcana will not extend his arms forward.
  Except instead of one problem, a slightly different problem arises.
  The spear from the left hand skids to the right like Grim's "brush". Without arcana, the spear would skid to the left.

The shard allows the spear to nail 2 heroes. Spears also leave a trail of fire that deals 40 periodic damage and slows by 20%. The trail lasts for 10 seconds. It burns for another 2 seconds after leaving the trail.

The caster attacks a small area in front of him with crit and True Strike. Each unit hit by the area will be knocked back and slowed for a second and a half.
Heroes will be dealt more damage by a fixed amount (this bonus is used by the crit).

This spell is a "forced attack". In our case it will hit like Boundless Strike. Meaning, after cast, our auto-attack projectile will fly from us to every enemy hit. So this spell does not damage immediately.
Since this is a forced attack, then the attack modifiers will work.

THIS IS IMPORTANT: God's Rebuke cannot be boosted by range bonuses!

The caster places an arena in the specified area, which consists of walls and a formation of invulnerable warriors. If an enemy within the arena approaches the formation, the arena warrior will push him away and deal magic damage.
Arena walls block ranged units auto-attack projectiles. This means that the enemy cannot hit us if we are inside the arena and he is outside. And vice versa, if we are outside and he is inside.

Arena Duration - 5 / 6 / 7

With the left Facet, if the hero is inside the Arena when an enemy is killed in it, he replenishes 30% of his total health and mana. At the same time, he gets an attack speed buff for 20 seconds. Gives half restoration to allies.

With the right Facet, Arena prevents enemies outside from seeing their comrade inside. The problem is solved by wards and controlled units.

An arena warrior cannot cast an enemy more than once per second. However, this timer is applied personally for each hero. Hence, one arena warrior can quickly smash and push back a mob of gawkers without stopping.

Arena of Blood does NOT knock back enemies (but does damage) that are under the effect of entanglement or if they are nailed by a spear.

Mars is a contact fighter with melee spells (not counting the spear). Against him you need to keep your distance and have retreat paths to get out of the arena.
BUT! We are unusually strong against him and we complement his every ability perfectly with our own.

Let's go through the bonuses in order.
Spear is a linear nuke with a stun for the first hero that gets in the way (assuming he hits some kind of obstacle, of course). It's pretty strong, which matters more with our AMP percentages. The spear stun at the last level is 2.2 seconds, and they turn into 3, again thanks to our Arcane Supremacy.
What's more, we have Lift to help pick a comfortable angle for a guaranteed stun.

God's Rebuke - The ability is too contacty for us, but the spell steals so easily, allowing us to make a characteristic build and play around this ability.
You'll need Silver Edge for something like this (to close distance and dealing damage, and to remove his shield from the Bulwark passive). If the invisibility item is not to your liking, then do Blink Dagger.
After the positioning item, you need to go into damage. And you need to have at least one of them with an attack modifier. The BEST options would be Desolator or Maelstrom. Desolator will boost God's Rebuke's damage a lot, and Mael will interact well with the enemy's quantitative advantage (and the item will also help with farming).

BUT: Keep in mind that while God's Rebuke is a strong source of physical damage, it will work much weaker against Mars if you hit him in the face. As long as he has a shield, frontal attacks won't work as well. So Silver Edge will be a higher priority than Blink Dagger (if we talking about this spell only).

And finally, the Ult. Every wall throw deals a lot of magic damage. And it does it more than once. It all depends on how many times the enemy hits the wall. They are not going to bang their heads against the arena on their own (after casting once at most), which means they need help. The first thing that comes to mind is our Telekinesis.

If we have Aghanim, we can try to get Arena and Spear in both hands. These abilities can be used to pull off a nifty combo: throw the Spear at an enemy that is close to us, and then put the Arena on the turn, so that the enemy is already in flight and smashes into the freshly built wall. To make it easier, it is useful to buy Lens.

The damage from his ult is magical, which means that after stealing his ult, you can collect all the magical junk to synergise with the Arena.
Here's a small list of items:

• Aghanim's Scepter - an early Aghanim against him will speed up farming and help with Arena steal if you keep your distance.
  
• Veil of Discord - boosts magic damage from walls.
  
• Hurricane Pike - While a simple Force can help push an enemy into a wall, the success rate will depend on the side the enemy is facing. Pike will simply push the enemy away from us, which is a LOT easier.
  
• Rod of Atos - The entanglement will prevent the enemy from pushing away from the wall, which will trigger a couple more attacks. And that's additional damage. To make the item more effective, you need to place your ult on a rooted enemy. If you make a mistake with the timings, the enemy will get Atos when he is already knocked back, after which he will be at a distance from the wall.
  
• Aether Lens - Aether Lens will supplement our cast range from the passive, which will make it easier to cast Arena. Also, it will come in handy in combination with Refresher. Moreover, with Lens you have a better chance to spear someone.
  
• Refresher Orb - pick up the poor guy, put one arena on him with an edge, and then a second arena on the other side with another edge. As a result, the enemy should find himself in the area of intersection of the two arenas, in which he will be shaking from side to side.
  AND! If we have Athos, this area can be made a bit smaller to slightly increase dps.
  
• Blink Dagger - is a positioning and initiation item. Suddenly appear and set up. Dagger will also allow you to jump out of the enemy arena in time if you haven't taken damage yet.
  
• Black King Bar - By activating BKB, you can not be afraid of the enemy arena and be already in close range to steal it. By ignoring the enemy arena, you can focus on casting your arena more accurately. If there are too many enemies inside the enemy arena, simply walk away from it.

---

As you know, ranged auto-attack projectiles don't go through the Arena. But I'd like to mention the few weird interactions Arena has with the auto-attack spells we use. Some of our spells of this type "force" us to release an auto-attack projectile after cast, simply because we're a ranged hero.

• Bounless Strike - For example, if we hit an enemy behind the Arena with a Boundless Strike stick, the enemy will get stun but no damage.
  
• Anchor Smash - If there is an Arena wall between us and the enemy, the enemy will get a debuff but no damage.
  
• Static Link - The same thing will happen to the enemy under Static Link. We will pump damage, but if he is behind a wall, he will not take hits.
  
• Astral Step - There's also a similar feature to this ability, but it's a bit weirder here. If we cross the Arena to an enemy who is inside, the auto-attack will be blocked (magic damage will still be dealt). However, if we EXIT the Arena and hit an enemy inside, the physical attack will be dealt.

Target ability. "Snek" smoothly walks towards the main target and jumps to several other nearby targets. To each target, the snake deals magical damage. When the snake returns, it replenishes mana for each affected unit with manapool.
The damage is magical and escalating with each target. Hence, the last target will take the most damage, while the first target will be quite all right.

On return, the snake gives 1 bonus damage buff for every 6 units of mana replenished. The buff lasts for 5 seconds.

The caster marks out three areas lined up in a single line, into which barrages of arrows are fired. Each barrage deals physical damage and entangles enemies. This ability also prohibits turning, which can be useful when activating Stone Gaze.



For 5/6/7 seconds we start playing "peeping game". Every enemy unit that stares at us for more than two seconds will turn to stone (The model of the enemy unit must be facing in our direction). The petrified enemy takes 50% more physical damage.
The time of stone form is 2 / 2.2 / 2.4 seconds. The enemy can turn into stone several times during the time of the ult.
Our Lift can make the enemy look at us. We simply walk up to his face ourselves while he is in the air (Target in the air can't turn away, of course).

For the duration of the ult, we get a bonus to our movement speed.

During the two seconds that the target is looking at us (but not yet turned to stone), it slows down. Movement speed, attack speed, and even turn speed are slowed.
You can look at the Stone Gaze caster from a safe distance of 1200 dota meters.

Spell Steal will only increase the duration of the stone form. Slowdown will not be affected.

---

First things first: Medusa has a lot of effective health due to her Mana Shield (her actual health is extremely low, by the way). This ability assumes we have a mana burning tool. If Diffuse doesn't impress you, get a Dominator to tame the mana burning Satyr.

Medusa will poke us even if she doesn't want to. Split shot is a ruthless thing. Therefore, we should catch her as carefully as possible. Snake is a solid nuke (ger it? Solid Snake :D), but Dusa most probably just spam her Split Shot. In that case, use it to farm creeps and change spell later.

The three areas of Gorgon's Grasp ability overlap. This means that you can damage the same target twice with this ability. However, you should use a different control spell so you can aim with the intersecting areas. For example, Telekinesis.

As for the ult, let me remind you. It can be combined with Lift to force petrification. This works best with a small number of opponents. Or when Blink Dagger is present. And yes, playing with Stone Gaze is a physical damage game. Take an armor lowering item to combine with a 50% increase in stone form physical damage.

If you see her start to cast her ult, pick her up, steal the ult, and walk away in the opposite direction so you don't turn into a statue. Don't even waste time pushing her away. Just run away. Then turn on your Stone Gaze and watch the enemie's reaction.

AoE root with a small radius. What's more, the net has to fly as well. So it's not that hard to dodge.
It can be dropped by any Dispel.
Works on invisible units and casts True Sight on them for the duration of the entanglement.


Teleport to clones from Divided We Stand. Which we don't have. So most of the time we will use Poof on ourselves for farming.
When cast at the start and end points of the teleport, it deals magical damage to an area with a radius of 400. Teleport casts for 1.5 seconds.

Poof! Remind you, that Meepo is able to teleport not only on his clones from his ult, but also on illusions. Rubick has the same theme. For our hero, Manta is not an uncommon case.
Which means that in a game against Meepo, Manta will allow us to teleport for relatively long distances.
Poof also works on illusion from the rune.

Independent cast time is 1.5 seconds.
Deals magic damage in two places: at the point of cast and at the point of arrival.

Shard ability. The performer is buried in the ground for 3 seconds, making him invulnerable and impossible to target. While buried, the hero is gradually healed by 35% of his maximum health. Cannot be used while rooted.
Cd - 40

During application, we do not visually disappear underground. Our model simply freezes, which can sometimes confuse the enemy.

---

There are four/five of them. We are alone.
But we shouldn't be intimidated by the enemy's numerical advantage. We only need to focus on one Meepo to kill them all at once. The only nuance is that with his Shard and Aghanim, this may be harder to do. Keep a close eye out for buried Meepo or apply percentage damage on Megameepo.

Notes:

• Telekinesis can be used to throw one Meepo at the others. They tend to cluster together, so it's not too hard to stun them all at once.
  
  
• Manta Style works well with stolen Poof. I already wrote that above.
  
  
• Maelstrom helps deal a bit of damage to all the Meepo at once. And while people say that this makes no sense in most cases, it's far from true. Meepo likes to divert wounded clones. Such castling allows him to squeeze more damage out of the hero than usual.
  But how will he do the castling if ALL of Mipo's clones are wounded? BF works on the same principle. Seems like nonsense, but it actually works!
  
  
• Stolen Earthbind prevents Meepo from using Poof. How ironic!
  
  
• Meepo almost never buys BKBs, allowing us to rely entirely on magic of any nature and at any stage of the game.
  
  
• Meepo attacks first, using Blink Dagger, Scythe of Vyse, or Ethereal Blade.
  You can't escape from such attacks by using Dispel. Therefore, it is recommended to keep your distance in advance and maybe even have Aeon Disk (or just a lot of health) with you.
  
  
• Buy Crimson Guard. It's actually good.

A magic nuke that casts stars on enemy units with a delay around the hero within a 675 radius. After that, 1 enemy unit will receive another star that deals less damage by 20%.
Stars take 0.57 seconds to descend. Does not work on invisible enemies or enemies in the Fog of War.

The second star deals full damage and blinds the enemy.

Throwing Arrow in selected direction. Stuns and deals magic damage to whoever it hits.
The longer it flies, the longer the stun and damage will last. (There is a base damage and a bonus damage depending on the range of the arrow).
3067 is the arrow's range.
The maximum stun is 5 seconds at the last level (because of ult, our arrow can switch off the enemy for 6.5 seconds).
Kills creeps instantly (not ancient ones).

During the arrow's flight, the Starstorm ability triggers on enemies within 400 radius of it. On hit, it applies Starstorm to the victim again, dealing 75% damage.

Leaps in the direction the model is facing. It has 2 charges.
After jumping, the hero gains a buff to his movement speed and attack speed. Jump range is 650.
Buff duration is 5. Buffs from several jumps do not stack.
You can attack, use spells and items while jumping.

Shard adds another charge. For the duration of the buff, the hero have 150% crits.

Leap entangles enemies it lands on within 250 radius.

The caster globally applies invisibility and movement speed bonus to all our team and outgoing damage bonus to only himself. Attack, spells, and items temporarily remove the invisibility and speed bonus. But our damage bonus is not removed by this.
Works on invulnerable or banished allies.
Ability duration is 18.

---

An opponent with lots of stats that is not very comfortable to duel with on revolvers. She can definitely do poke us to the ground.
You just need to keep an eye on her Sacred Arrow and get a view of invisible units with Sentry Wards or Gem of True Sight.

It's easy to steal her ult (if she presses it in front of you, of course). Arrow is easy to steal. Leaps is easy to steal. Starfall is also easy to steal. Enemy, as we've come to realise, is very easy to use. Especially when you consider that when you steal Leap, we will also have 3 charges at once.

Starstorm is good for making frags in the early stages if you get close enough to the enemy for the second star to fall on the enemy repeatedly, but I don't recommend relying on this ability even further to avoid being set up for an attack. Next we switch to the other two spells, Sacred Arrow and Leap.

Sacred Arrow should be supplemented with Aghanim to scatter stars at a safe distance with the arrow. The magical arrow build needs to be anchored by Atos or Etherial Blade.
With Atos it's more convenient to hold the target for the arrow to hit, and with Etherial Blade, obviously, more damage. It's up to you whether you're lacking fixation or damage.

We can catch Mirana right during her Leap jump. But we don't have three Telekinesis charges to stop her every jump. So entanglement and silence abilities will be very useful against her.
If you use Leap a lot, you can go into physical builds to use attack acceleration and mobility. Don't forget that with the shard, Leaps gives us crits.

If you have a Mirana support playing against you, she will most likely do Eul or Atos just for arrow strikes. In this scenario, it's important to get a BKB or Force Staff.

This ability is just a method of delivering a physical attack. An analogue of Sleight of Fist or Stifling Dagger. It casts a "line" in front of you, which stuns and delivers a boosted autoattack to anyone caught in it. But. The damage is not dealt immediately after use.
First, our Boundless Strike will stun, and then only Rubick's pokes with a crit for anyone caught in the spell's area will be used.

Since this spell is a physical attack transmitter, attack modifiers will be applied on each target. It is recommended to buy Maelstrom or Desolator.
Also, Boundless Strike can be combined with Dragon Form 2 and 3 level splash.

This is one of those rare abilites that can be cancelled without a cd penalty.
You can stop the animation if you're not sure if you're going to hit.

THIS IS IMPORTANT: Boundless Strike cannot be boosted by cast range bonuses!

Adds an alternate use. After such a Boundless Strike cast, the player jumps to the other end of the stick and uses Primal Spring half-charged there. (We will not have Primal Spring)

Hero jumps on a tree. If the tree we are sitting on is broken, we will receive a 4 second penalty stun. By replacing the ability, Rubick automatically climbs down without getting the penalty stun. Sitting on the tree we can use items and spells, but if we try to attack, we will climb down.
Any increase in spell range will increase the range of the tree we want to jump to. This will noticeably increase our mobility. Take a closer look at Aether Lens if you're a fan of magic builds. Lens works for Primal Spring's auxiliary ability as well.
Tree Dance takes 3 seconds to recharge if we take damage.

The ability has five levels. At level five, Tree Dance has no cooldown.

When using Telekinesis from a tree, throw it carefully. If your victim falls next to the tree you are sitting on, the tree will shatter and you will fall down and take a stun penalty.

You can't get off the tree if Tree Dance is on cooldown.

An auxiliary ability that is available if we are sitting on a tree. Charges a jump from the tree to a specified area. As we land, we deal magic damage and apply slow.
The damage and the power of the slow increases as the jump is charged.
The damage is magical. The base range is the same as Tree Dance at 800.

If we get stunned while we are charging Primal Spring, we just jump off the tree without the stun penalty. It doesn't work that way with entanglement.

A passive ability that comes with Wukong's Command. After 4 successful attacks on one enemy hero, the caster gains a buff to an additional attack damage and Vampirism for the next 4 attacks. Stacks of 4 charging attacks are visible above the heads of enemy heroes you attack. These stacks last between 7 and 10 seconds, and the finished buff lasts 35 seconds if not used.

Technically, we get a buff every time we hit a hero with three stacks, and if we have no buff when doing so. Meaning, we can land 3 stacks on two heroes; hit the first hero to get the buff; spend the buff; hit the second hero and immediately get the second buff.

Spell Steal does not increase the duration of stacks on enemies

Or should I say Rubick's Command! Two circular formations consisting of 14 soldiers. There are 9 copies in the large (outer) circle and 5 copies in the small (inner) circle. Each copy hits an enemy hero once every 1.1 seconds if it reaches.
The point is that the macaque's ult on Rubick is stronger than the macaque's ult on macaque (kek). If Mr. Monke ulting on some poor guy, he will be hit by 2-3 soldiers at most, since they are melee units like their creator. But Rubick is a ranged hero. Which means his soldiers will also be ranged. The bottom line is: the target will be beaten by five stationary Rubicks at the same time. And that's without taking into account the true Rubick himself, who has to be in the circle of the Ult for it to work.

• Dragon Lance will increase the attack range of each of the soldiers. They are also affected by attack modifiers as well.
  
• Soldiers do not hit those outside the circle, even if they are within range of their attack range.
  
• Changing the spell will stop Wukong's Command, though visually the circle will still remain.
  
• We gain bonus armor while in the circle.
  
• Stealing Wukong's Command will also give us passive Jingu Mastery, which won't show up in the spell bar.
  
• Rubick needs to have 353 attack speed for soldiers to start hitting twice per activation at max attack range! The higher the attack speed after this value and attack range, the higher the chance of such a venture.

Aghanim creates copies of Wukong's Command around us every 4 seconds. The copies live for 12 seconds, but they don't only hit heroes. They can attack creeps and buildings. They do NOT hit Roshan and die with the performer. Ult soldiers do not appear or hit if we are in invisibility. If we change the ability, soldiers will no longer appear and aready spawned copies will stop attacking.
Aghanim also gives soldiers the ability to gain Jingu Mastery stacks, but their stacks will be gained by hitting any hero and the counter will already be above the warriors' heads.

While Arena is active, Wukong's Command ability is replaced by the Changing of the Guard auxiliary ability. It is used on point inside the arena to turn into an invulnerable soldier itself and, after a while, appear in the chosen place, replacing another soldier.

With Octarine Core and level 15 cdr talent, we will be able to cast Changing of the Guard 6 times per ult. And that is more invulnerability time.

Macaque is easy to play against. I mean VERY easy.
Seriously. We already know how to keep our distance against melee heroes. Yeah. Even if that melee hero has an attack range of 300.

All of his abilities will be very appetising to us.
Baboon Stick and Armada of fellow fighters are gamechanger abilities.

Against Sun Wukong, it is recommended to go for adaptive carry builds.
This damage will fuel the power of Boundless Strike and Wukong's Command. You should not bypass these abilities. Try it at least once and you won't regret it.
From the items I will immediately recommend Maelstrom, Shadow Blade or Desolator.
To them or BEFORE them Aghanim is allowed to spawn additional Rubicks, which THEN will hit with our attack range. While we have his ult, we can walk through the lines and forest to leave at least one or two warriors behind, who will farm for us for 12 seconds.

In big battles or stalking, don't forget about tree-destroying abilities. Even if Macaque have status immunity, he won't escape the penalty stun.

If you prefer Tree Dance, you can also be a mage with roaming and grabbing items:

• Veil of Discord to boost damage from Telekinesis -> Primal Spring -> Fade Bolt combo.
  
  
• Aether Lens for suuuuuupermobility (combined with Arcane Supremacy's cast range).
  
  
• Rod of Atos for catching an enemy monkey right on a tree.
  
  
• Quelling Blade together with Lens will allow you to mow trees right under chimp at quite an impressive distance for an axe. And you can do it sitting on another tree, while having a view of the flying unit.
  
  
• Force Staff for breaking trees with our massive and sexy (ahem!) body. You can also use Force Staff to throw monke out of the tree (but he doesn't get the stun).

---

When playing against MK, you'll need to pay attention to orbs and other attack modifiers that can be bought with your ult.
Among the simple shop items, almost all items will do, except Basher and Abyssal Blade. Simply because Bashers are forbidden by the mechanics of MK's Ult.

Jump-waveform in the specified direction. Each enemy on the path that is hit will take magic damage. These attacks cannot apply the effects of items or spells.
Casting range is the maximum distance that can be covered by the ability. The radius of the wave is 200.

During the wave, the performer is invulnerable. Hence, the hero in Waveform can dodge some attacks and spells. However, "invulnerable" does not mean "hidden" (banished). Meaning, not everything can be dodged. For example, Dark Sire's Vacuum will pull us out of a wave.

During the wave, you can attack or use abilities and items.

The wave deals an additional portion of our attack damage.

A magic damage nuke that draws power from our Agility stat.
Exactly. We don't have enough of it for the numbers. Stealing this ability should be neglected. Even with our passive, it won't do much damage. We can, of course, gain agi from pumping Attribute Shift, but before such a crazy idea, we should prepare items for health or strength.

The ability knockbacks and stuns for a duration that depends on our strength.

That's right. A stat shift that converts agility to strength and vice versa. Includes two buttons to gain strength and agility separately. Spends a little mana every second.

Shard allows you to apply the shift while stunned. Reduces manacost.

Rubick should, purely out of principle, swing all of his stats into Strength, thus increasing his health. What you need to know: When we pump to Strength, we lose our Agility and therefore our armor. Once your armor is down to zero, you should consider buying Shiva's Guard or Assault Cuirass. We collect the first one in case of lack of enemy control or if you don't intend to hit someone with simple attacks. The second, if we want to compensate for the loss of agility by increasing attack speed. We also get the armor decreasing aura, which can also be combined with stolen abilities.

HEART OF TARRASQUE! Yes. If you're not already wiping butter off your monitor, it's worth considering to build even more fat to your bulld!

We have quite a few advantages against the Funny Water Man, but he's still a dangerous opponent. So let's take it from the top.

Morph can dabble in stat shifting any time he wants. But we still need him to use it in front of us at least once. It's only to convert all of his agility into strength. Armour will be at zero, so buy more armor.

It kicks pretty easily during the laning phase. Our attack range is higher than his. That's why we're better at exchanging pleasantries. Unless, of course, Morph spends mana to get close to us with Waveform. In that case, we do Lift Out and walk away to keep our distance.

After the laning phase, when we have the ult, it's worth taking Waveform. When a Morph is trying to farm, he has little hp, even if he's not fully morphed to Agility. In my experience Morphs usually don't survive the Waveform -> Fade Bolt burst combo. After their rather unexpected but stupid death, they start to correct their mistakes and re-moprhing at base so they don't get blown to hell next time.
Wait for him on the same line. And steal Attribute Shift, because that's the one he used last on his base.
MULTI-STRATEGY! Whoo!

You need to shift stats in almost every game against Morph. With the right amount of hp and bought armor, we're extremely hard to kill. And if we have an extra heal in the form of items like Bloodstone or Tarrasque (or even all of them at once), then it becomes useless to focus us at all.
However, it might be more useful, if instead of raw health we will buy some practic times like Force Staff.



P.S.: The Waveform theme may not make much sense in most cases, as some Morphs take it only once and don't improve it for a long time.

In all other stages, it is recommended to already have Aghanim's Scepter to boost your arsenal. Morphs behave like arseholes and constantly spam stat shift with a clever look, pretending that they remember us and will not give us any other abilities.
Give him a middle finger and with Aghanim switch to other enemies, from whom you can borrow some control spells for "boiling piss". If his allies have "entanglement" or "silence", we're much luckier than Morph.
The catch is that we don't actually forget about Morph, we just make him wean from us. Add a bit of acting. Steal stat shift a few times at first, as if you're really bad at acting, and then stop stealing from him for a while.

If you're good at stealing spells from Morph (besides stat shift), then focus on Waveform and Adaptive Strike (Strength).

A little bit about possible Morph fetishes:

• It's important to have a high level of ult in case Morph does Linken's. Our ult's 4 second cd will constantly knock down Linken's Sphere charge.
  
• Gleipnir is very good against Manta (as always, in general).
  
• It's also very important to have a retreat item ready (Force, for example) in case we piss Morphling off and he spends Waveform to get to us.
  
• If Morph has Aganim, you can't take him with stats, because he will always have more of them. Moreover, if Morph turns into us, he takes away our spell AMP and a large chunk of our total health. This means that it will be better to rely on abilities that don't depend on this stat. But if you've got unholy amount of damage in your spell bar, then I suppose it's not such a problem.
  The problem with hp is glossed over by items with a direct bonus to health, not strength. The same Vanguard, Octarine or Bloodstone would be pretty good.

---

We can steal an allied hero's ability via Morph if he's turned into our mate. However, it's not that simple. If Morph turns back into himself while stealing a "different" ability, the ability that comes to us will be blocked (a grey icon in the spell bar that you can't even click on).

Also, if you try to steal the "other" ability right after he turns back into himself, our ult just won't click and the red text in the middle of the screen will inform us that this spell "can't be stolen". All because the ability we are trying to take at the moment is not in his spell bar. In general, the bug is similar to the previous case.

---

Stat shift cannot be used while stunned, asleep, or other guano (unless, of course, Morphling bought a shard after the 15th minute. And he will definitely do that). But if it was tapped before the negative effect, it will work (like Pudge's Rot).

Stat shift requires mana. Burn his mana out with anything and he'll probably dry up like a summer puddle. He'll still be able to shift, but not as fast. But the other point is that he won't be able to use Wave to escape.

Some Morph Pickers will either ban the Ancient Apparition and Doombringer or ask allies to pick them. If Apparition or Doombringer is Morph's ally, then YAY! We have Ice Blast or "DOOM", which will wipe this puddle off the face of the earth!
However, Morph has a Ult that he can use to wait out the debuff from Ice Blast.
And we smoothly transition to his other weakness!

Morph, of course, cannot stat shift unless he has access to Attribute Shift.
So, if he takes form of any other hero, he becomes much more vulnerable.
Give him a lot of stuns and silences so that he can't turn back.
P.S.: Items in the form of another hero do not change to the inventory of the target.

Vector targeted spell. The caster shoots an enemy or tree, dealing magical damage and briefly slowing by 100%. The projectile then ricochets in the targeted vector, changing properties slightly.

If after ricochet the projectile hits an enemy hero, it will deal the same damage but apply a fear (directed along the vector) instead of a slow. After ricochet, the projectile pierces through all other units besides heroes and hero creeps (Lone Druid's bear, for example), dealing damage without extra effects.

The spell destroys a tree if targeted first.
If the tree is destroyed prematurely during projectile flight, the ricochet won't happen. The ricochet also won't happen if the primary target gets banished before impact (or invulnerable, if that's easier to understand). Cyclone does not count as banish in this case (the shot will ricochet off cyclone).

Ricochet distance is 1.5x the cast range of Dead Shot.

If the bullet ricochets, it will pass through in a wave that increases in width. The damage is increased.

The caster creates a large area that slows enemy movement. Additionally, 4 ghosts are created that patrol the area's edge counter-clockwise. If an enemy touches a ghost, they take magical damage and get silenced. The same enemy can take damage and debuffs from ghosts multiple times.

Area radius: 340
Ghost formation - one ghost on each side of the area edge.

If an enemy hero dies in 200 radius from The Calling, it will turn into an additional spirit roaming the circle, AoE increases by 100 and the ability timer will be refreshed.

The added spirit from a hero's death will trigger all The Calling fields on the map, REGARDLESS of who the field belongs to!

Telekinesis allows getting more damage out of this spell. First it must be targeted so an enemy gets hit by a ghost on cast.
Then immediately lift the target and reposition closer to the next ghost formation clockwise from the original.
Since The Calling ghosts move counter-clockwise, launching the enemy into them increases chances of ghosts colliding with the enemy again.

The hero temporarily becomes ethereal, gaining phasing and bonus attack damage.
Each attack while active becomes magical damage.

Despite becoming ethereal, our magic resistance does not change.
Applies a basic dispel on self during the cast, allowing projectile dodging.

The form from Pierce The Veil has a separate model, like Terrorblade's Metamorphosis. Technically we transform into a similar spooky woman with guns, but keeping our own stats. Don't get lost during the cast.

During Pierce The Veil the hero gains 30% magical lifesteal. Also, if we kill an enemy hero with the ult (or they simply die within 925 range), we permanently gain 2% spell damage. The bonus stacks and does not disappear on death or replacing the spell! Bonus calculation works retroactively. Meaning, we can kill enemies with this ultimate without a shard, and then only buy it to get the bonus for previous frags.

Aghanim's ability. The caster shoots special bullet at any hero and rips the soul from the target's body. The body is stunned and takes 35% less damage. Meanwhile the soul, knocked 150 units away, can do nothing but cast spells. After 4 seconds the soul will be pulled back into the body, applying a strong dispel on reunion.
Can target allied or enemy heroes.

The soul cannot be interacted with whatsoever, and cannot attack, use items, or be targeted.

If the body dies, the soul will remain for the spell's duration. I.e. the soul still has time to cast spells before fully dying.
Soul return interrupts channeling.

Parting Shot souls can move through Chronosphere.

Souls do not gain special bonuses from kills (Finger of Death, Duel, Reaper's Scythe, etc).

Rubick's soul cannot steal spells, BUT can cast spells stolen beforehand.

Shard is beneficial against Aghanim's Muerta to lift your body as a soul and reposition it from danger.

The gunslinger straight out of "El Día de Muertos" is quite capable of quickly dispatching us if proper actions aren't taken in time. Even though most of her damage is magical, don't forget her passive lets her shoot us without relying on any spells. But for courtesy's sake, let's still go over her arsenal.

Dead Shot - an amusing nuke whose outcome depends directly on skill. If our goal is simply to deal damage, aim right at the enemy's knee. However, if it's important to interrupt channeling or make an enemy walk a certain way, the ricochet will need to be utilized.
Lifting enemies makes Dead Shot much easier for us to use. Muerta herself has to aim on the move. We just cheese it and shoot a stray bullet at a tree while our victim hangs in the air.
Don't forget to indicate the ricochet vector to steer your Lifted target where needed.

With Aghs, things get a lot smoother, because the skillshot turns into a wave, the width of which can be increased. Such waves can easily and safely wipe line creep waves.

The fear effect will forcibly land a Telekinesis victim.

For starters, The Calling can simply be used to control an area. It's like Midnight Pulse which is habitually placed just to make walking uncomfortable rather than for damage. If you remember the spell damages and silences, it can be tossed as a quick nuke that clips the base ghost formation, then forgotten. Maybe the enemy runs into a ghost again by luck.
But if you want to squeeze out more damage, use the Lift trick described above (picture included).

If you don't want to use Telekinesis for this or already spent the spell earlier, getting a Rod of Atos is recommended.

The ult situation is more like a Wild West duel. Muerta presses R. You steal and press R. None of the other players can attack either of you, but Muerta can still attack you. If you're a support without decent items, you'll be on the "other side of the Veil". However, with the right build you can take a step back from Muerta and shoot down her team.

The thing is, Pierce The Veil uses our spell amp stat. And ours is obviously higher. You can try measuring pure ult damage of course, but it's better to not tank unnecessary bullets.

Regarding her Gunslinger passive, one very important thing should be kept in mind.
The second shot goes towards the same target if nobody else is nearby. Meaning if even a single creep or illusion is near us, the second pistol shot will not be at us.

If you end up alone with Muerta, an item or spell that summons additional units or illusions will be very handy.
Manta Style or Nature's Call, for example.

Creates three illusions. The hero is invulnerable during the cast time. This spell also acts as a dispel with normal dispel behavior.

Invulnerability duration: 0.3 seconds
The hero's position changes when the illusions are created. The hero and illusions are randomly placed after cast.

A net that simply ensnares the target.
Allows attacking and casting but prevents most mobility spells.
Prevents the target from going invisible (invisibility abilities can be used but the target will remain visible until Ensnare ends).
Naga have an additional ability to pull ensnared enemies to her, which is unstealable.

When Naga casts this, her illusions play a fake animation to confuse enemies. Our illusions will also throw fake nets, working with copies from both Mirror Image and other sources.

Increases cast range by 60% and allow you to cast Ensnare on status-immune enemies. Applies Break.

Alternate version of Rip Tide if Naga chose a specific Facet. This ability is active.
When used, deals magic damage to enemies around you and reduces their movement speed cap to 230. Do NOT confuse this with regular slowdown. With this debuff even Weaver will not be able to move normally.

The spell applies from all of our illusions as well.

A long duration sleep aura that stops enemies making them invulnerable and heals our allies for percentage of their max HP. Sleeping effect works on buildings but not Roshan/Wards. Can be ended prematurely by using the sub-ability Song of the Siren End. Song of the Siren is not interrupted by silences/stuns, only caster death or the sub-ability ends it.
Very hard to steal. Success depends directly on the Naga player's intellect.
Normal Naga will immediately Mirror Image or Ensnare after using Song (with Aghs). To steal this ability, get a BKB, Aether Lens, or Aghanim's Scepter.

Song disables Slark's ult. The Essence Shift stacks simply disappear and he does not regen health during the song.

We can still issue orders to our hero while asleep. The hero will attempt to fulfill them after waking up. Interestingly, if we target Naga with Telekinesis before she casts Mirror Image, the real Naga will be lifted after waking up.

Shard increases healing by 4% and restores mana along with it (4% per second).

The healing is done via regen aura and is not increased by Healing Amp on the caster. BUT each ally (including us) can get more healing if they have a Sange item.

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What a awesome way to start playing through Radiance! Who makes the better Naga? Experience will tell. And if you don't like such weird adventures, we'll go through more traditional methods.

Naga's Ensnare is dispelled by her own Mirror Image. So you can steal illusions ahead of time to bait Ensnare and then dispel it off yourself.

As for Sleep, it's very important to Song back in response to take the initiation into your own hands. Naga's allies will take favorable positions during the first Song. Our Song allows our team to avoid the planned attack.
The main thing is not falling asleep ourselves. So either stand very far away or prepare a BKB.

If you just want to heal your team, buy the Shard and suggest all allies buy an item made from Sange to amplify incoming regen from the song aura.

For dealing with Naga's numbers advantage, core items are Gleipnir and Assault Cuirass. Both items fit physical damage builds.
First one allows catching a handful of illusions in place together with the real one. Cuirass cuts down enemy Rip Tide and overall incoming physical damage.
If you plan on playing with Mirror Image more often (I enjoy it), it doesn't hurt to get a stat item to buff illusions. They likely won't surpass Naga's illusions in power, but will deal enough damage to focus a hero down or push out a lane.

But those are options against carry Naga.
What should we do against a support Naga? Such ladies often go Meteor Hammer + Aghanim's Scepter. They Sleep and drop the rock. Either you manage to activate BKB or you die. So have this item ready. Or as mentioned before, stand far from allies so you can BKB walk into the Sleep and steal "the song" to stop the attack.

A circle of trees providing 500 radius vision and inflict magic damage to enemies inside the sprouts and those who touch them outside. Stolen Sprouts can reveal a Nature's Prophet hiding inside his own Sprouts.

The tree ring is also useful against Clockwerk's Power Cogs. Using the ring on Cogs will push Rubick (or Furion) out of the gears.

The summoned trees, like Iron Branch trees, do not stun a Monkey King sitting on them when they expire naturally.

Sprout enchants all trees within 900 radius, after which they begin healing allied units within 175 radius of each tree.

You can nimbly escape an enemy Sprout by planting a tree in the center. Click Ironwood Branch on yourself and you will get pushed out of the wooden hoop.

Using Tangos on a Sprout tree doubles the heal duration, as if you used Tangos on an Iron Branch tree.

A spell with a mandatory cast animation that teleports to any point on the map. After teleportation, the hero gains a barrier to any type of damage for 15 seconds.

During cast, trees will grow and twist at the targeted area to indicate where we want to teleport.
The cast animation can be canceled to confuse enemies slightly.
Double clicking the ability teleports to base fountain.

Transforms a targeted forest area into Treants. As the ability levels up, the area radius, max Treants summoned, and their attack damage increases.
Treants last 50 seconds.
They help tank tower shots when pushing, block escaping enemies, or simply farm the forest.

To spawn Treants, the area must have the required number of trees. The ability destroys all trees inside its radius. Treants spawn in the center.

Launches a "lightning" bolt that bounces around the map, dealing magical damage to every visible target. Damage increases by 10% per bounce. After the 16th bounce, the damage no longer increases.
Can be directly targeted via the minimap. Ideally Wrath of Nature should be launched from far away from the desired target so damage ramps up beforehand.

If you target a Soulbind hero as the start point, you will get two ults (Grimstroke must have two enemies bound).

Aghanim's applies a root on hit enemies, duration from 2 to 3.8 seconds increasing per bounce.

Applies a curse on all enemy heroes within 1200 range of self. Cursed heroes take periodic damage and slow based on the number of trees within 250 range of them. Cursed heroes are revealed.
Also counts Nature's Call's Sprout trees.

Duration: 7
Damage per tree: 15
Slow per tree/treant: 7%

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Until you have decent escape items from Sprouts (Force Staff), always carry either Tangos, Quelling Blade, or Iron Branch.
Chop down a tree with the axe (or eat it) and run away. Plant the branch targeting yourself to get pushed out of the wooden ring. Tree cutting spells also work of course. Besides stolen abilities, we can use our Telekinesis. Drag Furion closer then destroy the trees.

P.S.: The Iron Branch trick only works if Furion targeted our model directly when casting Sprouts, not the ground beneath us. We also can't have moved at all during his cast.
If we shift even a centimeter, the planted Branch won't push us out of the ring.

Overall Furion has very high physical damage. Later on he will pose a primarily physical threat. Therefore we should either initiate on him first (he likes to escape), or get armor items and/or a Blade Mail.

Typical Furion items: Shadow Blade, Orchid, Desolator, Assault Cuirass, Halberd, BKB, etc.
Immediately prepare an item to counter his advantage.
Eul's, Manta (or other dispel), Blade Mail, Force Staff, etc.

In all stages, closer to the end of fights you're winning (when you're about to push), try stealing some Treants. Pushing becomes noticeably easier with them.

And if you get Teleportation or Wrath of Nature, you can be a passive farmer who can output damage or join fights from anywhere.
These spells are also used for split pushing.

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• Use Sprouts more often. They grant flying vision, allowing you to safely scout Rosh pit and ramps from a distance. Don't be shy buying an Aether Lens for your Sprouts.
  
  
• If you hear an enemy Wrath of Nature start hitting someone, wait it out in the fog so the ability doesn't clip you. If Wrath of Nature damaged you without enemies nearby, then you are NOT in the fog. Yes, you are definitely visible...
  
  
• At level 20 Furion gets fearsome talent. The Sprout area will have a special effect. Sprouts leashes and prevents teleports/blinks. In that case we need Force Staff or the Shard to Lift ourselves out of the cage.
  Importantly, the area works against spell immune enemies too.
  
  
• Use Sprouts on Furion himself. More often than not, Furion, being an utter goofball, will not carry a Quelling Blade against his own spell. Hehehe.

An interesting nuke/heal that sends projectiles to all nearby allies and enemies around us in a small radius. The projectiles are slow and can be dodged with banishment abilities.




A temporary ghost form in which we take more magic damage, cannot hit, and cannot be attacked.
During this form, an aura of slowing appears around us and we regenerate our health and mana more efficiently.

Ghost Shroud will give the caster a bonus to movement speed that depends on the speed of slowed enemies.

Target magic damage nuke that become stronger the less health the enemy hero has. If an enemy dies at the hands of this spell, the caster gains a permanent bonus to health and mana regeneration. Scythe will hold the target in stun for 1.5 seconds before dealing damage. If the target dies before Scythe's damage is dealt, we still get the bonus. The bonus will not be lost after the ability disappears from the spell bar.

If the target DIES to Scythe damage with Blade Mail enabled, the damage will not be returned to us.

Shard ability. Targeted spell. The hero turns into a fast projectile and then flies into a chosen enemy or ally. Afterwards, the hero reappears and casts Death Pulse around the target. Casting range - 750. Cd - 19 seconds.

Cannot be used on yourself.

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Necrophos - hero of "Presence Effect". Everyone is disgusted by the fact that he's around. He hasn't done anything yet and he's already doing damage. And he also like buying Radiance!
But he (and everyone else, for that matter) can be dealt with.
Against such an opponent, I strongly recommend to pack in magic resistance items. Be as bad as he is!

Death Pulse does more damage in our hands. You can spam with Kaya and not have to worry too much about mana shortage. But you can't throw this ability around for too long. That's why you should play Bloodstone if Death Pulse is a priority for you.

If we stole Ghost Shroud, we should use it in between fights to boost consumables (Bottle, Clarity, Arcane Boots and the like).

And if you have Scythe, you can spray Veil of Discord and pray that he presses his Ghost Shroud at the moment of cast to get maximum damage!
Scythe can also knock out other heroes. It all depends on who exactly you want to send to the GULAG.

Again, I'll be rubbing into your minds about resistances, magic, and dispell.
Pipe of Insight, Linken's Sphere, Veil of Discord, Kaya, Aghanim's Scepter, Bloodstone, Octarine Core, Blade Mail, Radiance, Eul's Scepter of Divinity, Nullifier.

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Don't die from a scythe. Resists are there to help you. If you see that sandbag swinging at you, tap the BKB. You'll be safer.
Mage Slayer is even more interesting if you manage to hit him before he casts.

Target nuke with slow and mini-bash. Works at different strengths depending on the time of day.

Daytime slowdown is 1.25 seconds.
Night slowdown - 2.5 to 4 seconds.
Mini-bash only works at night.

The ability has five levels. At level five, it deals more damage and is applied to the area at night.

A miniature night area is created before the enemy stun is applied. If you apply Aghanim Void during the day so that we are in the selected area, the stun on enemies will be night.

Activates an aura of silence around himself within a radius of 275 that deals periodic magic damage. The aura lasts 5-8 seconds at night.
It only works for 3 seconds during the day.

Since this spell is an aura, the debuff on enemies will not be affected by our Arcane Supremacy.

With Aghanim's Scepter, Crippling Fear becomes togglable. It doesn't spend mana for the first 6 seconds, but you can't turn it off during that time either. After that, the ability spends 6% mana per second.

Balanar's passive ability that becomes active after absorbing a shard. Passively gives a bonus to movement speed and attack speed at night.
Actively allows you to eat a creep to restore your health and mana from 25% of its total amount.

Cannot be used on ancient creeps and hero creeps.
Cd - 35

Creates night for 30 seconds. The caster gains flight and attack damage bonus for the entire duration of the ult.

The peculiarity is that in our hands activated Dark Ascention will not give a flying unit visibility. Hence, flying into the forests, we will be blind as moles.
But there is a nice bug:

A long time ago, Aghanim gave the old Balanar's ult (Darkness) a huge view of the flying unit. Now Aghanim does not give him anything like that, because it has been redesigned. HOWEVER, for some reason the old Aghanim boost works for our stolen Dark Ascension. And it will give us an unobstructed view even if the spell isn't activated! Just buy the Aghanim and steal Balanar's Ult. Voila! Back to the good old days! Take Moon Shard or Vampire Fangs for even more night vision!

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This beast has a habit of chasing us under T2 and spitting in our souls. At night he gets loose and becomes unrealistically fast.
It is recommended to buy some Force Staff to get out of Crippling Fear's range or take Infused Raindrop to block some of Void's damage.
Void or Dark Ascention is recommended for stealing.
The first one will help deal a huge amount of damage along with Bolt, while the second option will give us flight and attack.

The game against Balanar is a game of darkness. And even wards don't always save the day. So try to anticipate which side he will attack from. And yes. He can fly.
This flying sack of aggressive potatoes is eating into our liver and won't let go. Casting something back may not work because of Crippling Fear and his night movement speed from his passive.
So, I suggest buying Atos, Eul, or Hex (daring today, are we?) to stop the chase. Immediately after coming out of his aura of silence, use Lift and hurl it far away.

I hightly reccomend also try Heaven's Halberd, so even if he use BKB, evasion chance might help us. Even in flight mode, he won't get a chance to savour all the attack bonuses from Dark Ascention. Ghost Scepter for similar uses.

Another good item to use against Night Stalker is Moon Shard. If you have Dark Ascention, Moon Shard will combine with the attack bonus. Moon Shard will also increase your night vision. This visibility from Moon Shard will still be pretty cool with our Aghanim (remember the bug).