Enigma, A dark matter indeed

Enigma, inexorable as gravity

Enigma is one of my better heroes, I used to have a winning streak of 15 games with him, until my whole team abandoned. According to dotabuff enigma has an overal winrate of 51.94% and he is the 84th most picked hero (22/12/15). His highest winrate is at the +5k mmr with 53% winrate. This statistics show that Enigma is a good hero at the moment but unpopular. However everyone likes to do a 5 men Black Hole. What I see in my games when someone else plays enigma is that they SUCK **** in the early and midgame, that they do 1 good black hole in the lategame and so win the game. However if you follow this guide you will have a good early and midgame and you can end your game average in 30 minutes.

Enigma's hero lore

Nothing is known of Enigma’s background. There are only stories and legends, most of them apocryphal, passed down through the ages. In truth, Enigma is a mystery for whom the only true biography is description: he is a universal force, a consumer of worlds. He is a being of the void, at times corporeal, other times ethereal. A beast between the planes.

There are stories that say he was once a great alchemist who tried to unlock the secrets of the universe and was cursed for his arrogance. Other legends tell that he is an ancient being of strange gravity, the abyss personified—a twisted voice from out the original darkness, before the first light in the universe. And there are older legends that say he is the first collapsed star, a black hole grown complicated and sentient—his motivations unknowable, his power inexorable, a force of destruction unleashed upon existence itself.

Pros and cons of Enigma

Pros
-Enigma has a really strong ultimate
-Enigma is strong at any stages of the game
-Enigma can pressure towers early and easily
-Enigma comes online really early
-Enigma is the fastest jungler in the game


Cons
-Having a jungler can be risky, however Enigma can kill most of the heroes who come gank
him solo and with easy
-His ultimate can be canceled with stuns and silences
-Having summoned units can be painfull against aoe heroes who can farm them easily or
they can be painful against Earthshaker and Ember Spirit
-Immobile hero
-lacks disable when Black Hole is of cooldown, Malefice is a stun but it doesn't
keep someone on his place, mostly people can still escape you than.

Skill explanation

The skill build we go for is: 2-3-2-2-1-ult-2-1-1-1-ult-3-3-3-stats-ult-stats untill level 25
This build allows us to jungle out of control and to gank when we hit level 6 or level 7.

malefice
Strange gravities pull at the core of those who would oppose you, holding them in place.

Focuses Enigma's power on a target, causing it to take damage and become repeatedly stunned for multiple instances. An instance strikes every 2 seconds.

This spell is maxed second after demonic conversion This is an ok disable which ministuns 3 times and deals minor damage. However on level four this is actually a 3 second stun. Malefice has a short cast time and is good to cancel tp's.



Cast Time: 0.3+0.6
Cast Range: 600
Number of Instances: 3
Damage per Instance: 30/50/70/90
Stun Duration per Instance: 0.25/0.5/0.75/1
Malefice Duration: 4
Cooldown 15 Mana 110/130/150/160

Demonic conversiondemonic conversion
Enigma is capable of drawing aspects of himself from other dimensions - the result is a trio of dark eidolons that hunt the corporeal plane.

Transforms a creep into three fragments of Enigma himself. These eidolons are all under Enigma's control, and repeated successful attacks cause them to multiply. When this happens, the eidolons have their health restored.

We max this spell first because this allows us to jungle, splitpush and do damage in general. These Eidolons are your life, most Enigma's don't use them correctly and find them a bad spell but there is alot of potential in the eidolons. If you get kills with Enigma than that is because you did a Midnight Pulse Black Hole combo or you killed someone with you eidolons because he tried to kill you, or you stunned him.

Cast Time: 0.3+0.7
Cast Range: 700
Number of Eidolons: 3
Attacks to Multiply: 6
Duration: 35
Cooldown 35 Mana 170

Notes:

Demonic Conversion kills the target unit, granting the gold and experience bounty,
or resulting in a deny when cast on allied units.

Eidolons multiply when they release their 7th attack regardless of successfully
hitting their target.

Attacking buildings or allied units does not count, but attacking wards does.

When multiplying, the Eidolon's health is refreshed. Their duration is not
refreshed.

Eidolons can only multiply once.

Eidolons that have multiplied last about a second longer than those that have not.
This allows Enigma to convert his own Eidolons once they have multiplied.

Cannot be cast on ancient creeps, Roshan, couriers, wards, Lone Druid's Spirit
Bear, Visage's Familiars, Warlock's Golems, Primal Split spirits, Beastmaster's
Hawks and Boars, Necronomicon warriors and archers, Centaur Conquerors, Satyr
Tormenters, Wildwing Rippers, Dark Troll Summoners, and Hellbear Smashers.

Eidolon

Duration 35 seconds
Hit Points 180/200/220/240
Health Regen 0.25
Damage 16-24/24-32/
34-42/43-51
Armor 2/3/4/5
Movement Speed 260/280/300/320
Collision size 8
Sight Range 1200/800 (G)
Attack Range 450
Missile Speed 900
Attack Duration 0.4+0.77
Base Attack Time 1.5
Bounty 22-36
Experience 12

Eidolons has 50% magic resistance

Name progress:
-Lesser Eidolon
-Eidolon
-Greater Eidolon
-Dire Eidolon

midnight pulse
A section of the world slowly descends into the void.

Steeps an area in dark resonance, damaging enemy units based on their max HP.

This skill is maxed last but we take 1 value level at level 2 because it allows us to cut trees. Cutting down trees makes it possible to farm 2-3 camps at the same time and getting a better acces to the other camps. Also you can see incoming ganks earlier while you are jungling at the highround, someone who enters the jungle comes via the rune from the lowground. By cutting trees you see them earlier and you can alarm your team and kill the ganker, or run away. Mostly you can kill him if you have multiplied Eidolons and black hole.

Cast Time: 0.1+0
Cast Range: 700
Radius: 550
Max Health as Damage: 3%/3.75%/4.5%/5.25%
Duration: 11
Cooldown 35 Mana 95/110/125/140



black hole
The ground trembles as Enigma channels his ultimate vortex of destruction, a singularity with the power to end worlds.

Summons a vortex that sucks in nearby enemy units. Enemies affected by Black Hole cannot move, attack, or cast spells.

Black hole is the most powerfulst ultimates in dota however because of it strenghts it has a really high cooldown. Don't be afraid to use it on 1 hero, if it is neccesary to help you with a kill than you should use it. Especially to kill high value targets like carries and people with a big killingstreak. Don't wait for the ultimate 5 men blackhole because when that happens your whole team can be dead already.

Cast Time: 0.3+0
Cast Range: 275
Max Channel Time: 4
Effect Radius: 420
Damage per Second: 55/110/165 (Can be Improved by Aghanim's Scepter (* shows the improved values). + Midnight Pulse damage)
Cooldown 200/180/160 Mana 275/325/375

Notes:

Disables all caught enemies.

Pulls affected units towards the center at a speed of 40, resulting in a maximum
possible distance of 160.

Can pull affected units over impassable terrain and through trees without destroying
them.

Caught enemies cannot be pulled out by Force Staff or Geomagnetic Grip.
Other position changing spells like Meat Hook and Nether Swap can push or pull
units out of Black Hole.

The pull and disable are provided by an aura, which lingers for 0.5 seconds, or
until the channeling stops, whichever is shorter.

Deals damage in 1 second intervals, starting 1 second after cast, resulting in 4
instances.

Can deal up to 220/440/660 (Can be Improved by Aghanim's Scepter (* shows the
improved values). + 12%/15%/18%/21% of max health) damage (before reductions).

Does not affect wards or buildings.

The Aghanim's Scepter does not actually cause Midnight Pulse to be cast when using
Black Hole, it just adds its damage to Black Hole:

- The extra damage is equal to the current level of Midnight Pulse, so if not
learned, Black Hole deals no extra damage.
- The extra damage is dealt in separate instances, in the same intervals as
Black Hole's damage, resulting in 8 total instances together with Black
holes's regular damage
- The extra damage is dealt across the whole radius of Black Hole.
- The extra damage only lasts for the duration of Black Hole.
- The extra damage stacks with any previously cast Midnight Pulse.
- Unlike the Midnight Pulse skill, the upgrade's pulse damage hits ancient
creeps, couriers, Warlock's Golem and the Brewmaster's Primal Split spirits.
Also unlike Midnight Pulse, it does not destroy trees in the area upon cast.

Provides 800 range ground vision at the targeted point for 4 seconds upon cast.

Here is a game I won with Enigma with yasp.co we can see the damage inflictors. Here you see that Midnight Pulse does alot against tanky heroes (with a total of 18k hd!) but also that my eidolons did 8k damage. (eidolon damage and my rightclick damage are seen as one but you don't rightclick much as Enigma so this is mostly eidolon damage.

Item explanation

We start of with an Animal Courier and 2 Clarity potions. We can do it with only 1 Clarity but if someone else steals or needs the courier than you are ****ed with only 1 clarity so that's why we buy 2.

The first item we work on is a Soul Ring. This item allows us to jungle because every time we need to spawn new eidolons we can use the Soul Ring.

After the Soul Ring we start building a Mekansm. We ALWAYS build the Mekansm before we build the Blink Dagger. Building a blink dagger first is mostly less effective because it will only help you with getting 1 or 2 kills. The Mekansm allows us to push, to safe allies and to turn early skirmishers in your favor. By the way, people say that the early blink is to blink Black Hole but really how many times can't you just walk into a lane and use blackhole during the early game. Blink Dagger is for when the teamfights start not to gank some stupid side lanes were you can just run into.

After the mek we get a Blink Dagger when played correctly you can get it between the 13 minute and the 16 minute but it is no shame to get it later.

I didn't mention boots until now but Boots of Speed aren't really neccesary. You can always pick them up when you are farming your mek but Boots are mostly not necessary.
Boots help you with your early ganks so mostly you should pick them up around the 4th minute but I can tell you I have alot of Enigma games where I buy boots around the 30 minute mark without any problem.

After you get a blink dagger there are several items that we can buy for the midgame.

1) Black King Bar, this item is sometimes crucial but it's not alway necesary. Get this item when the enemy team has plenty of long ranged disables like Ravage, Ancient Seal et cetera.

2) Guardian Greaves, This item is a good upgrade for your mek and can be helpfull if the enemy team has a bkb piercing silence like Global Silence, because greaves dispel the silence. Also the greaves minimalize mana issues and is a strong item to have in your team.

3) Force Staff, this item is sometimes better than blink if the enemy team has blink canceling spells. When playing against Venomancer, Spectre or Sniper force staff can allow you to initiate.

4) Aghanim's Scepter, If you are ahead and there is a lack of disable than you can just get an aghs. This item gives you the midnight pulse damage extra in your blackhole.

Other late game and situational items

- Octarine Core, this item is my favourite on Enigma all your cooldowns, especially Black Hole lowers drasticly from 200/180/160 to 150/135/120. Also the spell lifesteal is nice because you do big aoe damage with your spells.

- Refresher Orb, This item is good for well known reasons however DON'T rush it. You won't have enoug mana to use it properly. If i'm not mistaken you can cast the refresh already during your blackhole whitout interupting the channeling.

- Scythe of Vyse, gives good stats and a hex is really powerfull in the lategame.

- Shiva's Guard, another good utillity item that grants intellegence, armour attack speed slow and a great active.

Btw, I placed Radiance in the situational items but I never had a moment were i thaught that I need a Radiance I don't think you should buy it but if you have a situation were it is good than I think it is fine to buy on Enigma but I think almost any other item is better.

Actually every utillity item is good on Enigma. I'm not going to explain all the items because I think it is pretty clear when you buy a Pipe of Insight for example. But if there are questions than I will answer them with pleasure.

How to jungle

After we bought our items we will go to the midlane and we deny 1 creep to make eidolons.





This eidolons will be send to the midlane to harrash the enemy midlaner. Be carefull that you don't feed those eidolons!!!! If they expire no experience will be given!!



At the same time we go back to base and than go to the hard camp. If you are not confident enough just go to the medium camp.

We start with pulling out the creeps and than we convert 1 of them



The hardest camp to do with Enigma are the hilltrolls. They are ranged, do alot of damage and spawn skeletons. It is really important for that reason that none of you eidolons die before they split because otherewise your jungle is going to be alot harder.
Due to their ranged attack it often happen that your eidolon die because you can't just let them run to the back you will have to switch agro (deny click a full hp eidolon) OR/AND you tank a bit of the damage yourself.



After you finished the hard camp we go to the medium camp. after doing that second medium camp you are most likely level 2. Here comes the value point in Midnight Pulse to it's use. While jungling you can use it cut trees and gain easier acces to other camps.



If you play Enigma DON'T do the easy camp and the outer hard camp. Leave that for the support to pull. Also the easy camp doesn't give that much gold and the outer hard camp is way to far away.



= this isn't what you should farm. Before 6.86 you could farm 3 camps at once in the radiant (the hard camp, the easy cap and the medium camp, but now it isn't possible anymore)



Here I became level 6 in 5.30 minutes. My personal record, with jungling only is 4.20
And my record with other sources of experience was 3.40, what is super early. Thanks to a fail gank from the Lich and killing the enemy mid at the rune.

The reason I got level 6 only at level 5.30 is because I ****ed up and left 1 eidolon by accident in the hard camp so it didn't spawned. Making mistakes in the jungle IS going to happen and they delay your jungle a bit but it isn't such big deal.
Also like you can see I have 37 lasthits.



The moment I hit level 6 or 7 I will gank a lane. Here you see that I push the mid tower and with only one spawn of eidolons I bring the tower to a quarter of it's hp.



Only a bit later, with the second creep wave the tower is down. So if the enemy mid is ganking punish that with taking his midtower. Mostly if someone comes to defend it you can even kill him with your eidolons and a black hole.

Here you see another good spot in the dire jungle to cut trees



This spot is decent and it gives you a good vision on the rune.

Some things you maybe want to know about the neutrals

You can only use you demonic conversion on neutrals with a lower level than 5. In general are that the small creeps.

In the alpha wolve camp you can use demonic conversion on the big wolve!

The centaur and ursa creep have an abillity that triggers when there are 3 or more units close to them. So if you fight one pull 1 eidolon away so it doesn't trigger. If it triggers remove the eidolon with low hp as quick as possible away from the neutrals until it mulptiplies.

The hilltrolls spawn skeletons whenever a unit dies. So be carefull and don't let an eidolon die ESPECIALLY before they multiplied. Otherwise all your eidolons will die and you will have to wait another 35 seconds to restart jungling.

When you kill the satyr camp it is mostly easier to kill the smal satyr banishers (the wite ones) because they are squishy but do decent damage on your eidolons because they have almost no armour and no damageblock.

The birds are pretty easy but the big bird can do big damage on an eidolon so microing them is important.

After the jungle

When you hit level 6 or 7 you should try to gank. If you see the enemy midlaner and it is a gankable mid than you can always try to kill him. But ganking mid is pretty hard because the enemy mid mostly see you coming, unless he stands in the river. For that ganking your safelane is mostly more succesful. When you gank your safelane you can mostly hide behind the trees, walk around run at the oflane heroes and black hole them. This usually ends in 2 kills. Than you use your eidolons to push the tower. Try to not steal last hits from the carry but just attack all the creeps so they get lower. Normally you will have a buckler so you can activate it and push the tower in one single wave. If they defend you can mostly fight them back. If you have your mek you can fight with your team in almost every scenario. Because a mekanisme actually gives everyone an extra 250hp (in theory).

You mostly focus on ganking when Black Hole is available and splitpushing. If you can't do either of them just go jungle until you have a Blink Dagger.

Midgame and lategame

During the midgame you spawn eidolons the whole time and sent them into the lane to keep the lane pushed. Beware that you don't feed them! Micro is recquired!

You can mostly still solo kill supports but mostly you need allies to kill people. Organize ganks with your team on their carry and don't forget to farm.

Don't just stay in the jungle. Mostly there are better heroes in your team that can use the jungle so you move the **** out. You don't fight for camps or lasthits. Enigma powerfarms during the earliest stages in the game and during that moment you take advantage and farm. After that you let otherpeople farm. But if there is nobody than you farm ofcourse.

During the lategame your Black Hole becomes THE BEST ultimate in the game. A good placed Black Hole can simply win you the game. I remember games were we where losing and we won because of good placed blackholes. The game below we were a bit behind but the biggest problem was that they had taken some of our rax really early. So we couldn't push. I told the Luna to buy a Divine Rapier. She only had the Demon Edge when they wanted to push bottom. When they were attacking our tower, spread out because they knew they were facing an Enigma, The Pudge hooked the Necrophos. This was the initation of a teamfight. Now the radiant came closer to us to kill the pudge because he hooked the Necrophos 1 quarter of a second they were close togheter and at that moment i blinked and used Black Hole. Everyone of their team died during my Black Hole, luna bought her rapier and we pushed bottom and finished the game.

Sadly I can't show the teamfight because it was a game on the old client and itsn't possible to watch replays from the old client on reborn :-(

How to black hole

You may think wtf that is easy but it isn't. A good blackhole comes from patience and skill.

1) don't show yourself, this is mostly the hardest part because the moment they know you are close people will try to focus you or they will be more carefull for a Black Hole

2) Wait for the semi- initation, this may sound strange but in a good teamfight there is mostly a semi initiatior and a real initiator. Examples from semi- initiators are Vengeful Spirit, Spirit Breaker, Pudge and Clockwerk. This heroes disable 1 hero and mostly die during the progress. Like in my example in the previous chapter, the pudge made the initiation hook which created a reaction by the radiant to attack the pudge. Than I used Black Hole

3) Watch were your team is, some Enigma's do 5 men blackholes without his team near. This may sound silly but there are ALOT of them out their in the big dota world.

4) Don't panick and don't go in to fast. When you start panicking you aren't likely to do a good Black Hole always be relaxed. Also like already said be patient. Sometimes you will see people close togheter but everyone in your team is affected by chronoshpere. Sometimes it will be good to black hole than to safe your team but sometimes it is better to wait until your team is ready again. Or if your team is really dieing, just go away. Don't waste your black hole.

It is going to be really hard when you should Black Hole and when not. Sometimes it is good to Black Hole one person but sometimes it isn't even worth to Black Hole 3 people. In time you wil learn when you should fight and when not. These factors also count for Faceless Void, Magnus and other big teamfighters.

I often get flamed by people because I didn't used Black Hole and that they died because of me. But the player would stil have died if I would have black holed but I could be dead to and black hole would be off cooldown. Don't try to safe people, unless it is really possible to turn the fight.

In general

-don't wait for a 5 men blackhole
-but still wait for the best opportunity that will occur that teamfight according to you.
-Think what the consequences are from using Black Hole.

Interaction with other heroes

Enigma counters:

Mostly tanky heroes, because Midnight Pulse is a percentage also illusion heroes. Enigma isn't really a hero that counters other heroes hard.

- Chaos Knight (tanky and illusions can be cleared easily)
- Dragon Knight (tanky and pretty immobile)
- Io (you can counter Black Hole his Relocate)
- Slardar ( tanky hero and you can counter initiate him)

Weak initators are also countered by Enigma. He can simply counter-initiate most of those heroes.

- Pudge, if he hooks someone and his teams gathers around the Dismember, just Black Hole them
- Spirit Breaker, mostly if a bara charges, his team is following
- Lifestealer, since that idiot is most of the time in a certain hero you can just Black Hole 2 heroes in one

Enigma get countered by:

Heroes that can interupt black hole safely and people who kill enigma before he can actually do something.

- Rubick ( Spell Steal and telekenesis, always be sure Rubick is in your black hole or isn't in the area.
- Silencer ( Global Silence pierces bkb however you can use your bkb or greaves to dispel it. So always wait until the global is used)
- Vengeful Spirit ( Nether Swap is a bkb piercing disable)
- Bounty Hunter ( He can stalk you in the jungle, buy sentries and kill him if possible)
- Spectre (disables your blink and kills you)
- Nyx Assassin (kills you before you can do something)
- Venomancer( disables your blink and does a ****load of aoe damage)
- Io ( He counters you to because a good Io player can relocate someone out of the black hole]]

Enigma pairs well with:

in general big teamfight heroes mostly who need a disable so they can use their spells.

- Spectre (amazing late game teamfight)
- Venomancer (big aoe ult)
- Kunkka ( Black Hole is a good setup for ghost ship
- Riki (with Tricks of the Trade he can do good damage)
- Disruptor ( you give the needed lockdown for Static Storm)
- Jakiro (The same reason as Disruptor
- Phoenix ( just the same reason)
- Warlock (still the same reason)

a special mention to Crystal Maiden because she has an amzing ultimate and the aura helps you farming really good.

Personal opinion

Enigma is one of the most sattisfying heroes in the game. Doing a 5 men black hole is a big relief but also the fact that you can jungle so easily, that you can push and that you can stupid idiots with your eidolons is just amazing. Especially their reaction after you killed them.

Enigma is a hero with alot of potential. Even with low skill you can win with him but how better you become in Enigma how more options you get with Enigma. He is really versatile and a real pub owner.

I play in a team with friends and when we do a 5-stack ranked game in captains mode or sometimes all pick and if I play Enigma we win every game (until present). I mostly play support pos 4 for the team so that's why I played and learned Enigma.

He is not that much played in pubs but I think he is much fun to play if you play him correctly.


Also I think I have to much spare time during school vacation. :)

Now own with Enigma every game you pick him, Crystal Maiden wishes you luck.

Changelog

Created a changelog
added some heroes who Enigma can counter
fixed some of the lay-out
made some 6.87 changes