Item Build:

1.
Power Treads (1850)
+65 Run Speed
+35% Attack Speed
+10 Selected Attribute
Boots of Speed + Gloves of Haste + Boots of Elvenskin or Robe of the Magi or Belt of Giant Strength + Power Treads Recipe Scroll
2.
Orchid Malevolence (5700)
+20 Intelligence
30% increased aspd
+40 damage
+225% mana regen
Soul Burn (active)
3x Oblivion Staff + Orchid Malevolence
3.
Stygian Desolator (4420)
+60 Damage
Passive: Corruption
-6 Armor to Enemy Target
5 Second Duration
Orb effects do not stack
Mithril Hammer + Mithril Hammer + Stygian Desolator Recipe Scroll
4.
Heart of Tarrasque (5500)
+300 Hit Points
+11 HP/Sec Regeneration
35 Strength
Messerschmidts Reaver + Vitality Booster + Heart of Tarrasque Recipe Scroll
5.
Guinsoo`s Scythe of Vyse (5900)
+35 Intelligence
+10 Stength
+10 Agility
+200% mana regen
Hex (active)
Mystic Staff + Ultimate Orb + Void Stone + Guinsoo`s Scythe of Vyse Recipe Scroll
6.
Shiva`s Guard (4900)
+30 Intelligence
+15 Armor
Freezing Aura
Arctic Blast (active)
Plate Mail + Mystic Staff + Shiva`s Guard

Early Game:

Amp’s Guide To the Invoker

Welcome to my second strategy in this site. If you liked my other guide, Yurnero - King of Blades, then I am sure you will enjoy reading this. WAIT!!. Before you begin reading, read this first, this are merely SOME of the ways to play the Invoker that are appropriate. The item build posted on top is NOT the only item build and make sure you READ THE GUIDE PROPERLY before you make any comments.

Before we start, I would like to introduce you to the Invoker.

Hero Location

The Invoker is located in the Scourge’s Dusk Tavern as shown in this picture. Pick him by clicking on his icon.

Hero Pros and Cons

Every hero has his advantages and disadvantages in the game. Invoker happens to have so many styles of play that he has many many advantages and quite a few disadvantages too.

This is a concise list of the general Pros and Cons of the Invoker

PROS/ADVANTAGES

• Extremely versatile and can fit in almost any game.
• Good early, mid, and late game.
• Rather balanced and all- around.
• Has the potential to become a very powerful DPSer.
• Has the potential to become a very powerful Caster.
• Can push very well with certain combos.
• Very fun and rewarding to play.
• Has multiple spells that can be chained into a destructive combo.
• A great asset in team battles.

CONS/DISADVANTAGES

• Low hp makes him an easy target.
• Hard to master, takes time.
• Requires really really fast fingers.
• Hard to aim spells to maximum effect.
• Mostly AOE spells that are easy to dodge.

THE MAIN BUILDS

By far one of the most used and one of the best builds for him. Combines his abilities that DAMAGE and make him fast. The battle mage is the way to go if you are good at last hitting, farming and avoiding ganks without the use of skills.

Skill Build for BattleMage

1. Exort
2. Wex
3. Exort
4. Wex
5. Exort
6. Invoke
7. Wex
8. Exort
9. Quas
10. Quas
11. Invoke
12. Exort
13. Wex
14. Exort
15. Wex
16. Invoke
17. Wex
18. Exort
19. Wex
20. Invoke
21. Quas
22. Quas
23. Quas
24. Quas
25. Quas

Notice the weird thing about the Invoker? He has no stats at all, just skills that resemble stats but stack up. That is what is unique about him. What a normal hero would call ’spells’ would be in Invoker’s ultimate skill which is - Invoke.

All that is done and good, but Why? Why did I choose this build? Okay, a few main reasons. Exort is useful throughout the game. Exort early gives you the damage boost you need to last hit, deny AND harrass other heroes with a few well placed hits. View the spell description again for clarification and see that it gives 3 damage per level, per instance. So, what does that mean?

The mechanics of invoker’s spells work like this. He has 3 empty slots for the ‘energy balls’ to go. You can choose from either of the three of his spells to fill up the three empty energy slots. Or you can use the same skill like ‘Exort x 3′ to fill it up. So at level 1 that is 9 free additional damage.

Wex is there for both attack speed and movespeed. Although exort is better for last hitting, when fighting an opponent, wex sometimes comes in handy to land a few extra blows on the opponent. Also, Exort and Wex allows him to tap in to his skills that are his most fearsome branches of his ultimate such as

• Chaos Meteor
• EMP

• Sun Strike

The two levels of Quas early are there for the regeneration for higher lane control and lane staying capabilities. To cut it short, it makes you heal faster. Also, it gives you Deafening Blast which is one of his top disables not only does it deal damage but it can completely disable heroes from attacking.

The Spells that Are Used Mainly in This Build

Chaos Meteor

• Used for farming and stopping massive creep pushes.
• Meteor now has a longer cooldown and should be used sparingly. This is a recent update by icefrog to lessen the ‘very-frequently-used’ Deafening Blast+meteor combo.
• Also can be used together with Deafening blast and EMP.
• Also pushes very well.
• This skill is one of his main damaging skills as it has a huge aoe.
• The crater area is where the real damage is. Do not be fooled by the animation.
• Timing and correct aiming is VERY important as this skill moves extremely slow.
• Though, the huge aoe(Area of Effect) helps.

Range of Chaos Meteor

• The meteor is used best when other heroes are stuck in between you and and the creeps. Shown in the screenshot below:

• How else to keep him still besides creeps? To keep him from avoiding it?
• The answer, my friends, is Guinsoo’s scythe of vyse.
• Simply hex him and cast the spell.
• Extremely painful when used right before meteor.
• How bout without Guinsoo? How can we stop him from running?
• Fear not, the Invoker comes in built with many disables.
• Some disables that can be used are: Deafening Blast(most common), Ice wall and Cold Snap.
• Deafening blast is the easiest to use as you just need to knock them back against a tree line or creeps. Then use Chaos meteor.
• Ice wall requires proper positioning. Casting it along the path of the fleeing hero is your best bet for success.
• Cold snap on the other hand, requires you to Hit them. Only by hitting can you disable them multiple times, short periods but they add up.

• The meteor can also go up and through uneven terrain so you can sneak a cheap shot at the opponents when they are pushing.

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Deafening Blast

• Deafening blast works as a disable and quite a powerful and reliable nuke.
• Not only that, it is also an aoe spell and can hit a few heroes if executed properly.
• That 4 seconds of disable and the slight pushback period can turn the tables in team battles.
• On top of that, the cooldown is really reasonable.
• Deafening blast does not need a lot of skill to aim.
• Just make sure you try your best to disable as many as possible.
• It is also good to push them back against other units or trees so it works like a stun.
• It synergises well with your chaos meteor.
• Simply cast your meteor and then cast Deafening blast.
• If you are really good at doing it, you should be able to make the deafening blast pushback go WITH the meteor and deal a ton of damage.

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Ice Wall

• It lasts a whopping 10 seconds.
• The slow is instantaneus the moment the hero steps into the ice wall.
• The Ice wall has many uses that are offensive AND defensive.
• Offensive uses are to block the escape route of opponents. Shown here:

• Ice wall can also save towers:

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EMP

• EMP is a spell that can break hp and mana.
• Casted in a team battle, it can deprive your opponents of the mana they need.
• There are certain techniques of casting it.
• Casting it into the fog nearby the opponents is a good option.
• The spell is NOT A CHANNELING SPELL contrary to popular belief.
• This means that immediately after casting you may attack while waiting for the EMP to charge.
• While waiting for the EMP to charge, you and your team should try to keep the opponents still and dish out damage to them.
• EMP can in fact get you a doublekill if you manage to damage two heroes enough before EMP explodes.
• EMP deals Magical damage which is reduced by the target’s Spell Resistance.
• The damage, but not the mana drain, is blocked by Spell Immunity
• The damage is dealt before the mana is lost, so a Skeleton King killed this way can still revive.
• It now deals half of the mana burned(max200 dmg) and is now used more as a disable than a damager.
• A triple Wex skill.

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Sun Strike

• Makes you something like zeus. You can finish off low hp heroes without even being anywhere near.
• It can be shot ANYWHERE on the map. Explored and unexplored terrain.
• Estimating the enemy’s movement or next actions is crucial.
• You only get one shot at it.
• Sun strike has a duration but IS NOT a spell with a casting duration.
• You are free to cast it and continue with whatever you are doing.
• This way, you can participate in team battles without even being in the same lane.
• Remember, it has a 200 aoe which is reasonable.
• Watch the MS of the hero first. then estimate. It takes practice and skill.
• • Damage taken by unit in aoe = Damage of Sun Strike/Number of units in 200 aoe
  • Also, you may use the opponent’s creeps against themselves. Cast it in front of them when they are fumbling around their own creeps.
  • If timed correctly after the hero manages to get past his creeps and continue on to base it will hit him full on, alone.

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Early game Items

Here are the starting items for this particular hero build.

Ring of regen and tangoes are the most important as you need to survive in your lane.

Since there have been many concurring item builds for the different heroes, I decided to make a game.

Yes, a game, to satisfy everybody, PICK either 1 of each item. For the Bracer and Null talisman, you may take 2.

• I take no credit for this ingeneous idea of creating something like this. Though I made this myself.
• It is an idea from another guide and is particularly useful for heroes who never have the same skill build. For example: Invoker.

The recommended builds from the above game

Recommended. Completed. Dream builds.

• All these builds depend on the games and the situation.
• Anybody posting their own item builds there that are already here WILL get shot down.
• Why most of the builds have deso instead of MKB? Read on:

Quote CF[X]:

I will not take into account the ministun on MKB, or the fact that reduced armor also
benefits your creeps. I think of those two, the armor reduction for
allies is the better bonus. An advantage to Desolator.

Now, the calculations. Kael has 2 Bracers and Treads(Str) and is level 16.
The target has 15 armor(Slardar’s reduction rate), so I will multiply by 52.63. For Desolator,
the target will
have 9 armor, so I will multiply by 64.94.

The attack/s done by Kael is:

Deso - (1+.82IAS)/1.42(BAT) = 1.282
MKB - (1+.97)/1.42 = 1.39

General DPS of Kael would be

with Deso - (216)(1.282) = 269 DPS
factoring resistance - 269(64.94)/100 = 175 DPS
factoring price : 175/4420 = 0.04 DPS/Gold

with MKB - (231+30%(100))(1.39) = 361
factoring resistance - 361(52.63) = 190 DPS
factoring price : 190/6400 = 0.03 DPS/Gold

Desolator wins with a 25% benefit
Strategy for Battlemage

• Ah, so you randomed him eh. Or you picked him..
• Good choice.
• If you randomed him, grab a ring and then add tangoes and finally with the spare, get gaunlets.
• If you picked him, grab a ring of regen and as many tangoes that you can get your hands on.
• Click here for an amazing creep blocking guide by Caspian.
• Creep block a lane. Invoker doesn’t have any preferrences in lane.
• If you have a melee hero who needs to farm give him the sentinel bottom or top lane.
• Activate Exort three times that would give you +9 damage.
• Exort is particularly useful early game as you need to last hit effectively to get your disable and ms items asap.
• Try to get a lane with a disabler.

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Lane scenarios

1. One melee hero: Easy pickings for a ranged hero like you. Harrass him everytime he ventures a little too far to last hit/deny. Though, be EXTREMELY cautios as most likely after getting harrased a lot he will either call for a lane swap or a gank.
2. Two melee heroes: Still rather easy if you handle yourself with care and if you are wary of your surroundings. Beware of melee heroes with ranged nukes or stuns such as Leoric or Sven.
3. One Ranged hero: Both of you will be last hitting and denying as much as possible. Don’t venture forth to harrass him. Just concentrate on last hitting.
4. Two ranged heroes: Rather dangerous but still playable. Last hit and deny like a pro while staying out of the range of their spells or weapons.

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• The trick is to play cautiosly, deny and last hit properly.
• Train on AI or with yourself if you are unsure or unfamiliar with Invoker’s attack animation or damage.
• Eat trees or stay back a little while staying in range of the creeps if you are damaged.

First Blood

• Quite possible with invoker especially if you are teamed in the same lane with a disabler or somebody who can summon many units. Try it at level 6 at least.
• Type “E,W,E” on your keyboard to activate two exorts and one wex. Then press Invoke. Chaos meteor will appear. Memorise the hotkey for Chaos meteor. Then press “EEE” again to maximise damage by summoning exort orbs again.
• Harrass the opponent as much as you can without forcing him to return.
• Get your lane partner to stun or disable him.
• Summon your chaos meteor and hit.
• This combo will deal a ton of damage to heroes with low hp and will kill them rather easy.
• The trick is to make the meteor hit just in front of him. NOT ON THE OPPONENT.
• This will make it roll on him for longer while still letting him eat the damage from the impact.

Also a very useful build that aims to use all his spells to his advantage. This build works toward a better balanced game. The gameplay will be very similar early, mid and late game and the roles of the Balanced build Kael is to push, stop pushes and to gank. He works better in a team rather than going solo.

Skill Build for Balanced

1. Exort
2. Quas
3. Exort
4. Quas
5. Exort
6. Invoke
7. Wex
8. Wex
9. Exort
10. Wex
11. Invoke
12. Quas
13. Exort
14. Wex
15. Quas
16. Invoke
17. Exort
18. Quas
19. Exort
20. Wex
21. Quas
22. Invoke
23. Wex
24. Quas
25. Wex

Quas earlier on is because it is needed for the regeneration. It is safer than getting Wex early. The one point of wex right after level 6 is so you can use your Chaos meteor.

Exort is taken early because it is needed for last hitting. The excess levels of exort early may not be needed as Kael will mostly be casting while he mantains a reasonable damage.

Spells used mostly in this build

All the spells will be used. Or at least the ones that help push very well. I will list down the spells that are available to Invoker and YOU pick which ones you are inclined to use.

1. Chaos Meteor(view the Battlemage section for more information on Chaos Meteor)
2. EMP(view the Battlemage section for more information on EMP)
3. Ice Wall(view the Battlemage section for more information on Ice Wall)
4. Deafening Blast(view the Battlemage section for more information on Deafening Blast)
5. Sun Strike(view the Battlemage section for more information on Sun Strike)

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Cold Snap

• Cold snap stuns the enemy multiple times that sort of acts like a slow.
• It can be used to stop channeling spells(duh).
• Works well in ganks as many units are hitting the same target.
• Works well with Radiance as the immolation also can effect it.
• When to cast Cold snap?
• Cast it when your lane opponent tries to get a shot at you. This will make your creeps attack him.
• When they start attacking, cast Cold Snap.
• Multiple stuns will give you enough time to execute and position a combo or a chaos meteor strike.
• Not good to be taken early because you don’t have sufficient DPS to activate the stun often.

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Ghost Walk

• Makes your hero invisible .
• Slows opponents and Invoker himself
• The slow on himself can be reduced to nil by increasing Wex
• Used best in ganks and for escaping ganks.
• Offensive usage would be to use ghost walk to walk beside the hero and slow him while your team pummels him.
• Defensive would be to escape by using the invisibility.
• The only downside is that the slow and the debuff can be clearly seen, making this skill almost worthless as a sneak attack.
• The ammount of slow is rather irrelevant. But remember it always adds up to 40%, your slow+the opponent’s slow.

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Tornado

• Sweeps up opponents for a certain period, then drops them and deals damage.
• Tornado is a mass team disable and can help your team position themselves properly such as activate their images or buff themselves.
• Moves extremely fast and is almost unavoidable in the hands of a pro.
• Makes sure NOBODY escapes from you.
• Not much aiming is required as it has an aoe.
• Used to catch up and damage fleeing enemy heroes. No escape.
• Has a very high range and can be used on unpathable terrain.

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Forge Spirit

• Forges a spirit to help you battle.
• The spirits are rather insignificant early game but late…they are MONSTERS.
• Let me clue you in.
• With your Quas and exort maxed, Kael can summon 2 spirits.
• The spirits have 900 range, 900 hp and have a constant 83 damage.
• Whats more, they stay longer in the battlefield. A whopping 80 seconds!
• They can also burn armor and that makes these spirits one of the best summons in game.
• Each hit burns 1 armor from the target, for a maximum of -10 armor.
• These make him a great asset in team battles.
• The -armor can really hurt and they can also help kill towers from afar without getting hurt.

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Alacrity

• Something like Clinkz’s Strafe.
• It increases a lot of attack speed for no penalty whatsoever.
• Also increases damage by a lot.
• Is now a skill that is made from Two Wex and 1 Exort.
• Activate it during the first clash of team battles to dish out the damage before they start to run or before your team starts getting battered.
• Alacrity’s recent buff has just improved Invoker’s abilities as a heavy DPS caster and is best used with three exorts as it already gives a additional 90% attack speed bonus.
• More like Troll Warlord than before, invoker only needs to unleash a disable spell then activate alacrity and hit to his heart’s content.
• Can also be used to backdoor(not recommended) and to destroy towers extra fast and get the gold.
• Here are the IAS bonuses:

• Level of Wex	IAS bonus
  1	30%
  2	40%
  3	50%
  4	60%
  5	70%
  6	80%
  7	90%

  Damage bonus(based on exort)

• Alacrity Damage Bonus	Exort Level
  20	1
  30	2
  40	3
  50	4
  60	5
  70	6
  80	7

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Item Builds For Balanced Kael

For clarification regarding Item Game please view the other Item Game in the Battle Mage section.

Logical items derived from Game(dream builds)

These are only some of the item builds that can be made. Mix and match and experiement yourself. Remember, for Kael, there is no definite way to play him. Be creative.

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Strategy for a Balanced Kael

• A balanced Invoker should have a balance between his spells and his DPS.
• Both are the main factors that make this Invoker strong.
• This Invoker is great at pushing and very good at ganking.
• But early game, you may help with ganks but don’t stray too far as you are rather fragile without your powerful disables.
• Leave the early ganking to people like Nerubian Assasin.
• Stay in your lane and last hit + deny.
• Only difference this part from Battlemage is you harrass less.
• If you do harrass, harrass using spells or a quick shot every now and then.
• Be extra careful when you do it as you can’t orb walk and this will result in his creeps attacking you when you get in range.
• Eat trees when low on hp and don’t push yet.
• Stick to your tower and if you have overpushed past the river, hang back a bit and be wary.
• NEVER start pushing yet. Defend and only hit to last hit or deny.
• NEVER auto attack. It is the worst thing you can do.
• Use your hp replenishing items sparingly as you may let your hp regenerate with the help of the ring.

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Lane scenarios

1. One melee hero: Easy pickings for a ranged hero like you. Harrass him everytime he ventures a little too far to last hit/deny. Though, be EXTREMELY cautios as most likely after getting harrased a lot he will either call for a lane swap or a gank.
2. Two melee heroes: Still rather easy if you handle yourself with care and if you are wary of your surroundings. Beware of melee heroes with ranged nukes or stuns such as Leoric or Sven.
3. One Ranged hero: Both of you will be last hitting and denying as much as possible. Don’t venture forth to harrass him. Just concentrate on last hitting.
4. Two ranged heroes: Rather dangerous but still playable. Last hit and deny like a pro while staying out of the range of their spells or weapons.

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Goals for Early Game

• Early game, the goals for BOTH of the build are the same.
• The goals are to avoid getting killed and giving the other team a first blood.
• Get the first blood kill for yourself or your teammate.
• Don’t let them push your first tower.
• Get your items.
• Level properly.

Item Goals

Battle Mage

Since the item builds are not SET, you should at least have:

• Some starting items
• Ms item of choice(completed or if Travel was chosen, Boots of Speed are acceptable)
• Halfway or done with Disable items.
• You may skip the survival items to DPS items if you’re opponents are not immediate threats.

Example:

Something like this would be a VERY good achievement and you should not be dissapointed if you have anything different.Balanced Invoker

Since the item builds are not SET, you should at least have:

• Starting items
• Additional starting items
• MS items of choice(if Travels was chosen, Boots of Speed are acceptable)
• Radiance or halfway through.
• If you are not owning badly, you may lay off Radiance until later and begin with caster items of buff placer items.

Example:

END OF EARLY GAME. GOOD JOB.

Mid Game:

Mid Game Transition

• Okay, so, when are we going to set ‘mid game’ at? What level? When?
• Usually, it is when the hero gets his second level of ultimate.
• For Invoker, it is when you begin to get your worth in the team.
• And when is that? When you get double Invokes.
• Two invokes means that you can summon two spells without needing to reinvoke them.
• The transition from Early-mid game will be smooth if you played early game well.
• Well doesn’t mean that you have to totally OWN and dominate the lane, although it helps. ‘Well’ means that you didn’t feed and managed to assist a kill or two or perhaps score it yourself.
• These double invokes open up new possibilities. Namely, COMBOS.
• Combos are combinations of spells used together to devastating effect.
• They will be discussed later.

Battlemage Strategy

• So, you chose the battlemage build, now what do we do?
• The roles of the battlemage is to pay attention to his DPS and some of his caster abilities, yes?
• So that means he must continue to farm and harrass a little more and this makes his mid game a little delayed.
• This is the time when you will be needing to be very map aware while you farm. Farm smart, not hard.
• As this is the regular ganking period for many heroes, don’t push or stray too far from the safety of your tower.
• Be on your guard at all times and alert your team mates.
• Even so, there are still many skills and things that can be done during this period, unlike some other late gamer heroes where their mid game is practically the same as their early game.
• There are a few main combinations that can and are good to be used at this stage.
• Their main purposes are to earn an entire creep wave or make an enemy hero retreat.
• Or both at the same time.
• Quick finger reaction is crucial for Kael.
• Techniques like luring and baiting will be used against you, be extra cautios against these.
• These techniques often work on greed so always be wary and don’t stray too far without backup.

Ganking

• Even though I said as a battlemage we must continue farming for a little longer before going out to gank, it is still possible to do, as long as you have double invokes.
• Setting up or gearing up for a gank is easy:

Invoke your Chaos Meteor:

Keys: E W E + R(Invoke)

_________________________Wait for Invoke to Cooldown__________________________

Invoke Deafening Blast:

Keys: Q W E + R(Invoke)

• The two icons should appear. Place your fingers on the hotkeys for the icons, not forgetting to press the ALT key.
• Be careful, when casting a spell, release the ALT key when you press the hotkeys for the spell or the game might issue another command instead.
• So, lets get down to the ganking…have a partner or two single out a hero who is farming alone and has strayed a little too far for comfort from his tower.
• Approach him from the trees while your friends follow you or come from the lane.
• Estimate the creep wave, we do not want to bump into a wave of creeps while ganking, it would alert the victim of your presence and you might be the one getting killed.
• Approach slowly from the back.
• Cast Chaos meteor behind him from where you are standing.
• The moment you see the meteor fly down from the sky, cast Deafening Blast.
• If timed correctly, the meteor and the pushback from deafening blast will go along with each other.
• This will result in maximum damage as the meteor’s damage is based on how many seconds the target stays BELOW the meteor.
  
• Let us estimate the damage taken by the victim, without factoring in magical resistance:

Let us say we went ganking at level 11:

So we have: 4 levels of Exort

3 levels of Wex

2 levels of Quas

2 levels of Invoke

VS

Ah, the Sheepstick vs the Orchid, lets take a look at them:

Price: 5650 VS 5700 Winner = Guinsoo

STATS:

Guinsoo

Gives:
+35 Intelligence
+10 Stength
+10 Agility
+200% mana regen
Hex (active)

Orchid

+20 Intelligence
30% increased aspd
+40 damage
+225% mana regen
Soul Burn (active)

Though I really like guinsoo, the new stats it gives are very little compared to orchid. Since Kael is an intel hero, Guinsoo gives +35 damage while Orchid gives +60 damage. Guinsoo gives 10% IAS whereas Orchid gives 30% IAS. Guinsoo has 10 strength which is rather irrelevant for him but CAN be a bonus since Kael has low hp. Guinsoo also gives a +200% mana regeneration boost whereas Orchid gives a +225% mana regeneration. So in terms of stats,

WINNER = Orchid

ACTIVE SPELL EFFECTIVENESS:

Hex: Turns people into sheep with 100ms , inability to attack and also inability to use spells.

VS

Soul Burn: Silences a unit and makes it take 20% extra damage, lasts 5 seconds.

In terms of disabling quality, guinsoo is better BUT Kael already has enough disable spells..Orchid on the other hand gives only 20% extra damage but the silence is useful especially since it lasts so long.

WINNER: Orchid

PARTS EFFECTIVENESS:

Guinsoo-

Requires:
Mystic Staff
Ultimate Orb
Void Stone
Guinsoo`s Scythe of Vyse Recipe Scroll

Orchid-

Requires:
3x Oblivion Staff
Orchid Malevolence

Orchid does look simpler but the thing is building up the 3 oblivion staffs really take time and space. Guinsoo on the other hand uses parts that are of immediate good use.

WINNER = Guinsoo

DRAW BY RATIO OF 2:2

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Okay, now, next items in line for discussion, survivability items..i’ll pick two and we’ll discuss

VS

Bloodstone vs linkens sphere, the regen+mana item against the spell blocker:

Price: Bloodstone = 5050

Linkens Sphere = 5175

Winner = Bloodstone

STATS

Bloodstone

Gives:
+450 HP
+400 mana
+110% mana regen
+5 HP regen/second
Redemption (passive)

Linkens Sphere

Blocks most targeted spells once every 20 seconds
+6 HP regen/second
+150% mana regen
+15 Agility
+15 Intelligence
+15 Strength

So, Invoker is an intel caster-DPSer in this build. Bloodstone gives +450 hp, something that he really really needs, he has a low str gain. It also gives 400 mana. Linkens on the other hand gives roughly 200 mana. Bloodstone has less mana regeneration than Linkens sphere BUT it can be increased by getting more kills. 5 hp regeneration that can be increased against 6 hp regeneration which is static. I think we know which is better.

Winner = Bloodstone

PASSIVE SPELL

Bloodstone = 2hp/mp regen ps +If the bearer dies, he restores 450 HP/400 Mana to nearby allies. (stack = 40 max)
-The hero gains EXP and vision of the area where he died until he revives.
-Hero will respawn 20% faster and lose 40% less gold.
-If the item has no charges, the on-death bonus will be cut in half.
-Charges are gained/lost by killing heroes/dying.

Linkens Sphere = Blocks most targeted spells once every 20 seconds

Simple as it may sound, Linkens Sphere’s effect which is to block spells every 20 seconds is unimaginably good. Especially VS a team of nukers. It is also good for 1v1 battles. But, unfortunately, Kael is an AOE team hero which will serve better with Bloodstone. If he dies, his team can continue to own or will get a boost and just enough hp/mp to flee.

Winner = Bloodstone

PARTS EFFECTIVENESS

Bloodstone -

Requires:
Soulbooster
Perseverance

Linkens Sphere -

Requires:
Perseverance
Ultimate Orb
Linken`s Sphere Recipe Scroll

I would say Bloodstone’s items are more effective and useful as it has soulbooster. Soulbooster increases what Kael needs, his hp and mana to use his combos effectively. Also, Bloodstone does not require any recipe scroll and ALL the ingredients can be taken without ever needing to return to base. Isn’t that great?

Winner = Bloodstone

OVERALL WINNER BY RATIO OF 4:0 - BLOODSTONE

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Now lets take a look at the buff placer of choice:

VS

The classic battle between desolator and Skadi. Lets take a look at their differences and their advantages on the Battle Mage Kael.

Price: desolator - 4420

eye of skadi - 6650
Winner = desolator

STATS

desolator

+60 Damage
Passive: Corruption
-6 Armor to Enemy Target
5 Second Duration

eye of skadi

+200 Hit Points, +150 Mana
+25 to All Attributes
Passive: Frost Attack
-20% Attack Speed
-30% Run Speed
2 Second Duration for ranged heroes, 3 seconds for melee heroes

Stats wise, eye of skadi is MUCH better than desolator. Look, desolator gives raw damage and negative armor while skadi gives 200hp, 150 mana, 25 to all attributes! And a frost attack. But…remember, this is the BattleMage build. What is the main focus of the BattleMage build may I ask? To be a caster+DPSer.. and what better DPS than 60 damage and armor reduction that makes your other DPS items’ damage more painful? There you have it, desolator is better for this build while EoS is better for a balanced Kael..

Winner = desolator

BUFF

desolator

Passive: Corruption
-6 Armor to Enemy Target
5 Second Duration

eye of skadi

Passive: Frost Attack
-20% Attack Speed
-30% Run Speed
2 Second Duration for ranged heroes, 3 seconds for melee heroes

Aha so its negative armor vs the frost attack. Negative armor looks simple, but simplicity is often the best weapon. View Caspian’s awesome walkthrough on armor reduction here:

http://www.dotastrategy.com/forum/ftopic12672.html

So if we use his formula it adds ~31% extra damage which is a helluva pain in the ass. Eye of Skadi on the other hand slows the opponent. Useful for chases but thats about it. The negative attack speed is usually too small to notice. Good to keep heroes in place while using your meteor and other spells.

Winner = desolator

PARTS EFFECTIVENESS

desolator

Mithril Hammers x2

Desolator Recipe Scroll

eye of skadi

Ultimate Orb
Ultimate Orb
Point Booster
Eye of Skadi Recipe Scroll

Ultimate orbs and the point booster are really a big help in terms of survivability and ability to cast spells but still, desolator’s ingredients which are mithril hammers provide great damage-per-gold benifits(meaning its really cheap for the amount of damage it gives) and certainly is the item for a DPS build.

Winner = desolator

OVERALL WINNER BY A RATIO OF 4:0 = DESOLATOR

More item discussions may be added if requested by a certain ammount of people, for now, this will do.

Combo Usage:

Okay so you know the Theoratical application of the combos, but now here is where it is truly explained. Here are only SOME of the situations that they can be applied on. It’s flexible and can be applied to similar situations. Be creative, it is rewarding.

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The Icey Imma-put-you-into-a-refridgerator-and-let-you-die

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The Frostbite

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• Your entire team is dead, they enemies are closing in on you, fast, cast the Pulse Stopper combo to damage them and drain their mana enough for them to turn back. If they continue chasing, activate deafening blast and unleash it on them.

• The entire enemy team is running away on similar low hp. Your team is chasing but can’t catch up, what to do? Cast the combo. Cast the EMP in front of them, preferrably.

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• You’re being chased by a low hp intel hero. He obviously thinks you will not be able to dish out a huge ammount of damage as he is on half hp chasing you. Use the combo. Insta Kill.

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Roles to be Played

• Okay so you’re now all set and ready for action, you have to have an inventory that looks vaguely, most likely less, like this or with similar items(refer to item game):

Example:

• And so..now we can get kicking.
• What should we do first? Combo or hit?
• Of course, since you ARE a Battlemage, you only use your combos to initiate, or to end your assault on the victim.
• Who to choose? What hero is the right size for us?
• Usually, people would ask you to go for the low hp agi heroes right?
• They are merely snacks compared to the damage Kael can lay.
• He can easily lay waste to other stronger heroes like tanks and such.
• If everybody goes for those low hp agi/intel chars, who is gonna do the biggies like leviathan?
• The answer is - YOU.
• Why? Why you, you ask?
• Well, the answer is simple, you pack massive firepower as well as massive attack power.
• If things go wrong, you can always switch to using your spells.

Skill Build Clarification

Levels 11-20

Invoke

Exort

Wex

Exort

Wex

Invoke

Wex

Exort

Wex

Invoke

As you can see we are still maxing out wex and Exort ASAP to increase your potential late game. The Invokes are there to provide a backup source of damage.
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Here, combos are more crucial for you and I will Impart some of my knowledge of the combos combined with items.

Balanced Build Strategy

• After early game, the Balanced Kael is ready to rip.
• These items(or other items similar to this, view the item game) should be useful:

• The difference in this build compared to the BattleMage is that you continually harrass the living daylights out of your lane opponent using spells.
• Keep them at bay with chain casting.
• The item requirements for him to own are not much.

Ganking

• Ganking, its very easy especially with good team mates with disables.
• Be prepared to chain your disables, requires fast fingers.
• Setting Up:

CHOOSE COMBO

Look at Battlemage Section for more information on combos to choose.

For the Invoker, hotkeys are the key to executing good combos.

Here are some that I thought would help:

Item + Skill Combos

• And so after covering some of the finer points of combos, we move on, to the next level!
• Item + Skill combos.
• Now it gets fun, interesting but tricky.
• Depending on the items chosen, here are a few combos that are more suited for this stage of the game:

Late Game:

Late Game Transition

And so we enter late game. Invoker’s playstyle changes here.

• From ganking and supporting pushes in mid game,
• To Killing and hardcore pushing in late.
• Now the difference between the two Invoker builds really shows.
• Battlemage kills off the opponent team with the other DPSers while other team mates like pushers, push to win the game.
• Balanced who is more of a caster on the other hand, pushes hard and fast to finish the game, spamming spells every few creep waves and amassing his own creeps.
• Combos of combos or ‘Chain combos’ are used here by both builds as this is the speciality of invoker.
• The caster uses it most of the time.
• The Battlemage uses it occasionally when the rest of the team are already pummeling the opponents.
• Other skills that weren’t as useful early-mid gleam towards late game as levels increase.
• Opponents get harder to take down with simple combos.

• Your hard work early on starts to pay off as you approach the late game.
• Your superior DPS starts to work its wonders and you can start to stop farming and concentrate on opponents.
• Map awareness is still crucial at this stage as the DPSers will be out Hunting.
• Although rather capable of handling them in 1 to 1 situations, you wouldn’t want to be caught by a huge fat Ursa warrior with 3 hearts and a Bone with a Divine Rapier would you?
• We start to delve further into the mysteries and the benifits of using combinations when we learn the art of chaining combos and start using the spells that were less effective in the early - mid game when damage was low.

Mini Sun Strike guide

• Sun strike, is just like Zeus’ ultimate.
• Only difference is it deals the damage in a certain AOE chosen by the Invoker.
• This makes it tricky to cast and hit the opponent.
• Though this is the case, Icefrog was kind enough to allow it to be an AOE spell with a reasonable AOE which gives us a margin for error.
• Sun strike has a 200 AOE and takes a lot of practice to master.
• The main tip and point you must ALWAYS remember when using sun strike is:
• PREDICT THE NEXT MOVE OR PATH OF YOUR TARGET.
• It is as easy as that.
• Or is it? here is a screenshot I managed to get and edit:

Please do take note that there is a 2 second charge time before sun strike blasts the area.

• During this period YOU ARE NOT CHANNELING IT.
• Feel free to move around and attack or cast other spells.
• Another way to do this estimation if your instincts aren’t yielding good results is to use mathematics.

This method is used more for logical thinkers and is usually more accurate but slower.

1ms = 1 pixel moved per second.

So we can conclude from this that a 300ms hero moves 300ms per second.

So how do we estimate how many pixels?

This is 100 pixels:

and notice that 100 pixels is about 2cm in length.

Situation:

We have a 360ms hero running away in a straight line to his base, calculate how many cm in front of him do we need to plant sun strike assuming that the charge time is 2 seconds.

360ms x 2seconds = 720 pixels

Since the hero will be about 720 pixels ahead, how many cm approximately do we

plant our Sun Strike?

720/100 = 7.2

7.2 x 2cm as each 100 pixels is approximately 2cm.

~ 14.4cm in front of fleeing hero.

Personally, I still prefer to use instincts but if you continuously miss and you are planning to use Sun Strike repeatedly on a certain hero, you can calculate.

Wex or Exort?

• There is a slight debate on whether to get Wex or Exort later game.
• Although exort is very lethal early on, towards late there are possibilities that it loses its power.
• Let us make a mock up hero to test this fact.

Example of dream build:

• Your role turns from being a ruthless caster attacker into a ruthless pushercaster.
• So the only difference is that we push like mad now and end the game here or before we even reach late game.

EMP

• Here are some suggestions of where to put EMP.
• Why put this here?

EMP gets more powerful and capable of disabling during this stage, making it a formidable weapon in team battles.

EMP placing:

In trees or fog for opponents

Chain Combos

The Icey Imma-put-you-into-a-refridgerator-and-let-you-die

The Frostbite

Cast Cold Snap first and then activate alacrity on yourself or your ally. The effect will be almost like perma-bash and there will be almost no escape. For maximum effectiveness, get your exort maxed and activate it three times. Used best with uber damage items and when ganking in a team. Radiance’s sparkles also hurt and help stun the target.

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Meteor Mover + Orchid

The ‘I’m Flying!!!’ Combo

• By far one of the highest damage combos.
• If the Meteor Mover Combo+ Orchid doesn’t work.
• Finish off with the I’m Flying.
• Very mana costly.

Retreating

• By now, your wex will have a significant enough effect on your MS.
• Activate it three times and run straight for base.
• Take note that when activating wex or any other skill you will stop and you will have to click again to continue.
  

Strategy

• Finish off the game as soon as possible, if even possible it should not even have reached late game.
• Watch out for ganks and push with team mates, not solo unless the creeps are near your tower.
• Take down towers together and push hard from all angles.
• Try to be unpredictable in your pushes.
• Not much strategy here, just stick together and push. Remember that.
• Don’t forget to apply what you have learnt in the early and mid game section.

Items Expected

• Ms item of choice
• Push item of choice
• Survivability item of choice
• Buff placer of choice
• Caster item of choice

Example: