a proactive build for invoker

7/27/2019 A Proactive Build for Invoker

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A Proactive Build for Invoker

Read This First

This guide presents what I consider the most entertaining way to play invoker. It is /not/ the bestway to build him. I won't even claim it's a particularly good build. It is, however, easy to play

and a lotof fun. Some aspects of this build are quite strong and I believe that serious players

should try this build in order to test one extreme of Invoker's capabilities.

To be clear: This is a fun build.It can be instructive but should not be considered a

recommendation for serious games.

The concept of this build

This build has two foci: movespeed and disables.

The build focuses on movespeed by abusing Wex and getting Boots of Travel and Eul's Scepter

of Divinity (to reach 484ms). Afterwards, it uses Yasha to maintain max ms permanently.

The other focus of the build is disables. The build focuses on making Tornado a super long range

disable. Later, leveling Quas makes it a long-lasting disable. It also emphasizes the disabling

portions of Deafening Blast. Early Wex will improve the pacifism effect. The secondary reagent,Quas, will improve the knockback effect that precedes the pacifism. With these two spells, we'll

have the capacity to disable an AoE for nearly 9 seconds at level 16. Eul's, which helps our

movespeed focus, also gives us cyclone to disable single targets.

The combination of these two foci makes a hero that can be where he's needed at all times. He

can aid greatly in chasing or fleeing, disrupt battles, disable groups of enemies and isolate keytargets. He is also very hard to kill without strong burst or chain stuns. He can successfully run

from Lycan during his ultimate and can get away from multiple enemies by using his many

disables. His mobility and tornado allow him to push rapidly and still be at fights when he is

needed.

It is called a proactive build because it anticipates enemy actions and prevents them from everhappening. This is done by getting places quickly and interrupting enemy movements with

Tornado, Deafening Blast and/or Cyclone.

The Guide in Val's FormatKael the Invoker

----------------

Q/2xW/2xI/E/W../Q../I../E..


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Start: 2xTango, 3xGG, Circlet

Core: Boots, Eul's, Wand, 2xBracer> BoT> YashaPossible Extension: Hex, Manta, Skadi, Shiva's

If the above doesn't make sense, it just means you don't have experience with the way I writethings. Have no fear, I'll be far more explicit below - the above is just a shortcut for those whoare familiar with my format.

Hero Skills Important to this Guide

For a full description of the hero's skills and statistics, check out thehero page.

Wex

How it works:Wex grants 2% IAS and 1% ms for each level of Wex. This is granted once peractive Wex reagent (you can have 3 reagents active).

Discussion:In this build, Wex will almost always have 3 active reagents to maximize ms. Simply

press your Wex hotkey three times after invoking any spell to ensure that your ms is at its full

potential. The only suggested time to switch from Wex would be to heal via Quas. This,however, is only useful when you don't anticipate any need to run to or away from a gank, push,

teamfight etc.

TornadoHow it works:It deals 77.5+(Quas+Wex)*21.25 damage (for a max of 375). Increasing Wex

extends the tornado's range from 600 to 3100 units (each level increases the range by 410).Increasing Quas extends the duration of the cyclone from .6 to 2.2 seconds (each level increases

the duration by .25 seconds except the last, which improves duration by .35 seconds). 25 second

cd.

Discussion:This is invoker's bread and butter spell with this build. It's range is unbelievable and

can be used to snipe running enemies. It can farm creep waves extremely fast (often, it can kill

the range creeps outright). The disable time is helpful to gain position for you or your allies (both

by fleeing or catching up).

This spell can be used to cancel channeling spells, as primary initiation from afar, to save people,

to make sure enemies die and to push/farm. It has a fairly short cooldown making it your spell ofchoice for just about anything.
http://www.playdota.com/heroes/invokerhttp://www.playdota.com/heroes/invokerhttp://www.playdota.com/heroes/invokerhttp://www.playdota.com/heroes/invoker


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Deafening BlastHow it works:This spell does damage based on Exort, knocks back based on Quas and

silences/prevents attacks based on Wex. The knockback ranges from .25 seconds to 1.75 seconds

with each level of Quas adding .25 seconds. The pacifism effect goes from 1 second to 4 secondswith each level of Wex adding .5 seconds. The damage goes from 40-280 with each level of

Exort adding 40 damage. 40 second cd.

Discussion:This spell is amazing. Once you are fully leveled it does 280 damage and disables an

AoE for 5.75 seconds. The damage is ok, but the crazy portion is the duration of the disable. Our

primary reagent is Wex and our secondary reagent is Quas - as a result the disable will very

strong with this build.

This spell can be used to cancel channeling spells, as secondary initiation, to save people, to

make sure enemies die and, later, to push faster. This spell has a pretty big cooldown and low

damage for much of the game. It's mostly saved for team battles or used as a secondary disable tosave yourself/allies or ensure an enemy's death.

Other Useful SpellsThe following spells aren't needed to play using my build. You can go the whole game with just

Tornado and Deafening Blast. If you can handle invoking more spells, these are some of the ones

that work best with my build.

Ghost Walk provides an escape and a slow. Since we get Wex first, it won't slow us

much. Later on, we get Quas and the slow on enemies becomes quite significant (up to 40%).

EMP is a crazy powerful spell against particular opponents. Strength casters are often

rendered useless by a well-placed EMP (it can burn 400 mana). Since the mana burn and delayare only based on Wex, it'll be quite strong in this build.

Ice Wall provides the most ridiculous slow around. 80%. Gross. The issue is that it'sdifficult to place. Against melee opponents, putting one in the middle of a team fight can be quite

annoying to them.

The Skillbuild

Level 01- Quas

Level 02- WexLevel 03- Invoke (invoke Tornado)

Level 04- Wex


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Level 05- Wex

Level 06- Exort

Level 07- Invoke (invoke Deafening Blast)Max Wex

Max Quas

Max ExortGet Invoke as possible/desired

I generally keep invoke at level 2 for quite a long time since this build doesn't cycle through

spells much. If you'd like, feel free to get another level earlier than I do (especially if you likeusing ghostwalk as an escape). The other thing worth noting is that you could move the early

level of exort to level 1. In this case you'd go E, Q, W, I, W, W, I for the first 7 levels. This gives

you a bit of an edge in laning, but makes you wait an extra level for tornado.

The Itembuild

Starting Items:

Fairly boring and standard. Decent stats and plenty of regen. The GG branches build into wand

and the circlet can be used in a bracer.

Early Items:

This is fairly conservative. I can often get an earlier Eul's (or at least voidstone) by putting offsome of these items. If you don't feel threatened by your paper hp, feel free to put bracers off asfar as until you have Eul's and BoT. If you do feel threatened or aren't sure, get these items

before moving on to the core.

Core Items:

The unchanged items are still here to help with your paper HP. Eul's grants you an ms boost and

an additional disable. It can also handle your mana needs quite well. BoT gives you the mobility

you need to start being your team's knight in shining armor. With 484 ms and teleportation, youcan be where you need to be to gank, push, countergank, teamfight and just outright save allies

who were in the wrong place. Next we get Yasha to permanently move at max ms - great fun.

Possible Extension Items:


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This item might seem odd, but it's fairly effective (also cheap since you have Yasha).

The idea is to go to a lane, push it quickly with your spells, spawn images and move on. Theimages give you a way to deal minor damage to buildings (if you can push that far) or push a

little farther at very little risk to yourself. This kind of pushing puts a lot of pressure on theenemy.

One more disable (one of the best in the game) and infinite mana. Also some marginalsurvivability and dps (due to Wex and Yasha's IAS).

Shiva's is a great survival item against physical DPSers. It does wonders for your

terrible armor. It also provides generous mana and an additional AoE nuke to push with or a slowto chase/escape with.

If you want to DPS some - this item works. It gives survivability and your attack isnow a slow that's useful for chasing, escaping and reducing physical damage from some heroes.

GameplayYour job with this build is to set the pace of the game. Youdecide when fights will occur. Youmake pushes happen and break them. Youset up ganks and counter them. Control is the name of

the game and, with 9 seconds of AoE disable, max ms, teleportation, and a single target disable,you are its master.

Early GameYou suck. Getting Wex makes invoker quite bad early on. It's just a fact of life. You'll have a

short, long distance disable that does a decent amount of damage. Your hp is terrible. Your last-

hitting is ok. Your movespeed is below average. Do your best not to die and (once you get yourfirst level of invoke) use tornado to punish enemies out of position. You need to farm as best you

can.

Once you reach level 7, you'll have 2 AoE disables (invoke deafening blast) and not much mana

- they'll aid you in emergency situations, but you certainly can't afford to spam. Your early gameends when you get either BoT or Eul's.

Mid GameYou are strong now and getting stronger. Tornado lets you farm quickly. Your increased ms lets

you get places. Participate in ganks with Tornado, Deafening Blast and Cyclone. This is where

you can start playing savior with your disables. Farm up what remains of your core.


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Continue ganking and counterganking and make the transition to breaking teamfights with

Deafening Blast. Use Tornado to force the enemy to fight out of position. Use Cyclone to isolate

a single enemy or to remove a dpser for a while. When no teamfight seems imminent, putpressure on the enemy and farm by pushing lanes with Tornado. Siege their base and break

teamfights with deafening blast.

Late GameThe fact that you're fragile really hurts now. You really want to end the game fast. If you go for

Shiva's or Manta, put pressure on all their lanes. You canmove between them quickly enough

due to your perma-haste and teleportation. If you go for Skadi or Guinsoo, put pressure on lanes,but then try to force a teamfight - use deafening blast to win.

Replays

Not Quite this Build-Replay Download-

Date:29/08/2009 00:39

Patch version:1.24

Map:DotA Allstars 6.62

Game mode:-rd

Game length:1:06:46

Sentinel:

TwoGirlsOnePuck, level 23 (Mid), APM: 94,

ChainOfCommand, level 24 (Mid), APM: 77,

specterding, level 24 (Top), APM: 62,Blackroz_64, level 22 (Top), APM: 48,

Phoenix.Val, level 25 (Bot), APM: 101,

Scourge:

beat.it, level 23 (Mid), APM: 79,

bin555, level 23 (Top), APM: 78,

MangJose26, level 20 (Bot), APM: 95,

Phoenix.Rose, level 19 (Bot), APM: 87,

javier.tejeda, level 19 (Top), APM: 104,

A replay from when I was evolving this strategy. It's a pub and it does a great job of showing the

power of tornado. High ms, eul's and deafening blast are also quite useful. I believe this gamewas one of the main inspirations for me to make an even more ms and disable-heavy build. I

sadly couldn't find the replay I wanted. Looks like I'll have to play as invoker until I get one that

shows how this build works appropriately.

Uhmmm... in my defense, I choose not to take several kills against the noobish lycan in my lane
http://www.playdota.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=5644&d=1255463056http://www.playdota.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=5644&d=1255463056http://www.playdota.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=5644&d=1255463056


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in order to not ruin the game for my friend (the enemy Obsidian).

SIG Stomp with the Proactive Invoker Build

-Replay Download-

Date:14/10/2009 16:27

Patch version:1.24

Map:DotA Allstars 6.64

Game mode:Normal mode

Game length:47:20

Sentinel:

desu-, level 16 (Top), APM: 102,

bwtw, level 13 (Bot), APM: 51,

2advanced, level 18 (Mid), APM: 166,

SiP.JasoN-, level 13 (Top), APM: 96,

kOlxd, level 13 (Bot), APM: 65,

Scourge:

Artthot, level 14 (Bot), APM: 81,

NEMESIS4Dota, level 21 (Mid), APM: 98,

M-Bison, level 13 (Top), APM: 86,

Phoenix.Val, level 17 (Bot), APM: 101,prophet_gab, level 23 (Top), APM: 113,

A stomp of a game, which makes it less interesting for illustration. Still useful because it

highlights the pressure invoker can put on lanes and shows some good abuses of Tornado's epic

range. I also get to max ms despite failing at building Eul's on my first try (silly recipe changes

got me all muddled up).
http://www.playdota.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=5676&d=1255554451http://www.playdota.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=5676&d=1255554451http://www.playdota.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=5676&d=1255554451

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