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3 Votes

Death comes to all. Necro'lic, Visage.

September 23, 2013 by chris0945
Comments: 1    |    Views: 51089    |   


Build 1
Build 2

Support

DotA2 Hero: Visage




Hero Skills

Grave Chill

1 12 13 14

Soul Assumption

2 3 5 7

Gravekeeper's Cloak

4 8 9 10

Summon Familiars

6 11 16

Talents

15 17 18

About me

Im not going to try to delude you, Lying to you about my skill, I am a Nobody who has fell in love with the winged beast that is visage, my Current record is 445-388, 82 Games played with a 70% Win rate, 3.87 KDA ratio.
My DotaBuff profile; http://dotabuff.com/players/48446173
I mostly Solo Queue but occasionally Play with friends ranging from a 2-5 man team.

Basic Information

Basic Information
This is my opinion on how visage should be played within a public settings although a majority of what im saying can be related to more competitive games.
Visage is a Ganker/Support hero, Unlike other support ganking heroes he has the ability to take over the game with nothing more than levels within pub games.

I am Not going to tell you how each of his abilities work as there are other (video) guides out there that can help you understand easier.

Abilities

Grave Chill
This skill is amazing and scales so well due to it being a % based skill. Apart from the obvious use of using it on a hero to chase or to flee from them, It should also be casted on Carries when they start to obtain farm as it reduces there attack speed vastly and can potentially have a 60% Uptime.
- Usable On Roshan
- Both the debuff and the buff can be purged via diffusal or saytrs.
- Bonus speed calculated before Grave Chills Debuff not after

Soul assumption
a godly nuke, a potential 500 damage every 4 seconds. early game it has a high mana cost so you have to use it sparingly.
-1200 AoE Range On Souls.
-Does not include damage from Soul Assumption
- Soul assumption is Magic.

gravekeepers Cloak
Not to much to say about this skil apart from the fact that it synergies very well with visage Covering one of his early game weaknesses, Low base armor.
- Towers and creeps will not remove layers.
- Damage has to be more than 2 to reduce a layer

summon familiars.
This is Visages Signature ability, It is also what makes visage seem some-what intimidating to inexperienced players. The main goal is not to let them die, Not because of the Bounty but because they are 40% of the hero, The long cooldown can Ruin your day if you just summoned them and they die. so be vigilant and abuse there mobility.

- tanking projectiles such as arrow and hookshot

- immune to most magic abilities such as Song of the Siren, Black Hole.
- 96.25% Spell Resistance.
- Stone form makes them Immune to all damage, Regenerates health and resets Damage Charges to Max.
-The Familiars take damage from Certain Physical spells and Pure damage. a List is below!

Skill Build Justification

Soul assumption is skilled because its just an amazing skill, gives you a solid presence in team fights and as you increase the levels its mana cost is reduced which is amazing as your mana pool early on is limited.
I Level Gravekeepers Cloak over Grave Chill due to visages terrible base armor (0.54) this allows him to trade hits with supports early game and tank heavy nukes into the mid game with an 89% Spell Resistance. The other reason I do not like to level grave chill up early on is due to the increased mana cost, which reduces your damage potential in team fights and when roaming.

Items

Your Starting items should always be
2 GG Branches
1 Tango
1 Health Potion
1 Courier
1 Observer Ward
Interchanging wards/courier with Sentry wards/smoke depending on other supports in your team.

Depending on your lineup Your will either be a Hard support or a 4th Support.

If you are the hard support you will be relegated to buying wards/Detection all game long with little hope of getting anything substantial, Your Inventory will most likely limited to
Boots
Magic wand
Observer wards
teleport scroll
Dust
Smoke
Sentry ward

If you are the 4th Position you will have to potential to farm up to a mekansm unless your team has a more suitable carrier, then you will aim for a Medallion of courage.
You can Follow up the mekasm with a Medallion or a force staff depending on the situation.
Eventually going into Power treads. I personally dislike Arcane boots because you will delay your mekasm or Medallion and if you get them later on they will be redundant.

Microing Visage and your Familiars.

In 95% of dota you will play you will only ever control 2 Units a Courier and your Hero, Most likely utilizing your Hero Hotkey and a specified Courier hotkey For example f1 and f2. Visage on the other hand you have to Micro your Familiars so you need to introduce some more hotkeys.
There is 2 Ways you can do this, Either by Setting up control groups or using Assigning hotkeys to Select all Units and Select All Other Units(Show Below)

My Personal Preference is to use 1 For Visage, 2 For Familiars, 3 For All Units, F3 for Courier.

Drafting

Visage Is a Versatile hero, working well as a 4th/5th Support In almost every lineup. He can make you dominate in Aggressive or Defensive trilanes, Control Duo lanes and effectively gank Middle.
Visage does not posses a Stun and the only control he has is a slow till level 6.

He is usually Picked Within the first 3 Rounds, Although Commonly picked 1st this is due to his amazing presence in team fights and Solid Laning phase.

Although he has so many perks, He is Soft countered by Certain Heroes. Heroes with Physical Or Pure AoE Spells can kill off your familiars in seconds making it extremely frustrating for you.
This is not a conclusive list.
Templar Assasin - Psi Blades
Axe - Counter Helix
Alchemist - Unstable Concoction
Luna - Moon Glaive
Bristleback - Quill Spray
Omniknight - Purification
Tinker - Laser
Bane Elemental - Brain Sap
Slardar - Slithereen Crush(?)
Dazzle - Shadow Wave
Centaur - Return
Feel free to Message me so I can Add more to make better listing.

Early Game

This varies vastly depending on your lineup, You can either be in a Defensive or Aggresive Trilane, or Duo Safe Lane. Anything else is unadvisable.

Defensive trilane (Bot radiant, Top Dire)
you need to bring Sentry Wards Into the lane to Counterward Your Pull spot at a Minimum.
What Happens next varies Depending on what you are Facing, A trilane, Duo or Solo.

Solo Lane.
When Facing a solo Lane one support should be on lane zoning out the hero, while the other Should be Stacking at the 00:53 Mark Providing you Counter warded. Then Pulling at the 1:17 Mark. The Medium camp Should be Pulled through allow you to get 3 camps.
Repeating this Process allowing your Farmer to Obtain as many last hits while be untouched, while either you or the 4th Support takes jungle farm.

You should keep note of the time, at the 3:00 mark The first catapult spawns so you can Pull a single camp at the 2:47 or 3:17 to allow a quick Tier 1 tower push. Although do be aware of the 4 minute rune as the Mid could Ruin your day.

Here is a video from Star Ladder 7, Navi Vs Fanatic showcasing a 3v1, Observe the map to watch the 4th support pulling and stacking while the (Hard Support) visage Zones the timbersaw.
(unknown embed type)

Duo Lane.
Within this lane you can not be too greedy with pulls as the Duo lane could have the potential to kill your farmer. This does depend on the lanes composition tho. If they have heroes which lack Killing potential then you can take as many pulls as possible, but if they have an aggressive lane the 4th should rejoin the lane and Ensure the farmer is untouched.

You can Utilize smoke with your support to rotate mid and attempt a kill to ease up the pressure on Mid.

An Aggressive lane ward is recommended allowing you to secure kills when they over extend!

Tri-lane.

When facing another trilane Pulling will be almost impossible, But due to the fact you are Visage You do have the potential to secure kills within your lane with soul assumption. The only reason pulling is so dangerous is because your farmer can be dived. This is when you can try abuse the fact by pretending to pull to bait the dive then turning it around, although good communication is required and not usually expected in Public games.

Defensive Duo Lane (Bot Radiant, Top Dire)

This is what will be played in a majority of public games, You and your farmer. Communication is required as you will rely on pulling to obtain your gold but you can't leave him vulnerable.

Solo.

Against a solo Offlaner will usually Imply a Jungler, Atleast in public games. Depending on who you are against, You will be given free rain to pull and stack. If your farmer has kill potential at level 3 you can possibly land a kill on squishy heroes (Usually Bounty hunter, weaver, etc although you will need dust/wards in these examples.) Communicate with your farmer so they know you are pulling. there is little more to say, Personally I prefer to get Jungle stacks than to zone out the offlaner, but this is always interchangeable depending on some circumstances such as you being unable to counterward the pull spot.

Duo lane.
Within this lane pulling will be rare if they posses killing power, Try not to trade to many hits early on due to your terrible base armor (0.5.) If you run out of regen early on it allows the to be so much more aggressive directly reducing your carrys farm. Play Defensive and if the opportunity presents itself go on the aggressive and secure kills.

Tri-lane
You will not be able to win this lane but you can come out even by keeping the creep wave near your tower. Dives against lanes with visage in are extremely dangerous, as soul assumption can deal immense amount of damage. I would suggest getting soul Assumption at level 1 In this case too.
As your carry is going to be getting zero farm a lane swap is recommended either Getting another support to the lane or Swapping your farmer to the long lane and the others coming to Short.

Mid Game

Mid game is where visage comes out of his shell, Familiars allow you to scout, Roam and Kill with relative ease.
Your main role is to create space for the farmer, Moving from lane to lane utilizing smoke and teleport scrolls to Inspire fear. In Public games this is alot easier as there is a lack of communication and wards.So moving around with a gank orientated hero and Picking off heroes.
In more structured games there will commonly be larger fights so you will have to make sure you Control your units and use your skills at the opportune times, EG Stone form to cancel a black hole.

Warding.

Warding is Key within the mid game, If you are ahead or behind your wards should reflect that. Using aggressive wards to secure more kills as you have the map control or More defensive wards if they have the advantage so your team can stay safe and most importantly your carry can feel some-what safer!

Here is a guide I refer to, It is utterly amazing and I suggest you all read it!
[url=http://www.team-dignitas.net/articles/blogs/dota/1092/dota-2-ultimate-guide-to-warding/
]Team Dignitas Warding guide[/url]

Late Game

Your main priorities is to stay alive, ward and most importantly be In every team fight.
Although visage does fall off the longer the game goes on he still is extremely useful, Grave Chill on the opposing teams hard carry is unrivalled by any spell.

Final Thoughts

Visage is a Hero that High a Rather High skill cap and that is due to the micro that is required, There are so many beautiful things you can do with this hero, from Canceling black Holes to Backdooring Raxxes. So many Possibilities and There are 2 things I can Suggest to do is Adhere to your role, Support, Keep On buying those wards even if someone is yelling abuse at you, Make sure you have Detect, Carry a TP Scroll And Practice your control, Your Micro can Only improve so keep practicing and dont be phased by what other people say.


I am Planning to make this guide more visual adding videos and pictures, Feel free to Comment and Point out mistakes, and I hope you can learn something from this guide!

Chris.

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