Faceless Void Competitive Guide

Well structured and very easy to follow. Never thought of considering Heaven's Halberd on FV, must try it out. Good work.

Heavens Halberd is a great idea on Void. However, you do not need the maxed out Time Walk first, as early game Void is squishy and cannot initiate as well as he can late game. This is why players max out Time Lock and Backtrack first with a single point in Time Walk early as an escape mechanism.


Also, why is Mask of Madness only a situational item? The benefit it gives with Voids Chronosphere is immense and therefore should be gotten most times in lane.


Besides from that, decent guide.

I just want to clarify that this is a guide for competitive games.

As mentioned in the justification, you get to avoid getting ganked. Backtrack will not stop a gank, it will reduce harassment and hopefully block some damage when you get ganked. One, two, even three levels of time walk is not typically going to get you out of stun range when they come through your jungle. I do mention an older build with maxed backtrack at 7 and some early time walk, but that fell out of favor in like 6.70 to maxed timewalk. Also, the initiation early is actually very solid for setting up kills in lane from ~7-15 minutes. Support stuns, you blink past them as they run (slowing them 40%), both of you right clicking with maybe a lucky bash, chrono to secure is typically a guaranteed kill against anyone without a hard escape mechanism every time chrono is off cooldown, even if they're not out of position.

Mask of madness, also mentioned in the justification, gives you +30% more incoming damage. It is a very solid pickup if they don't have ranged DPS and/or nukes or you're finding solo kills when they're out of position. That said, most teams make it a point to position themselves well so that chrono hopefully can't catch more than 2, in which case you MoM makes you much easier to burst down for a hero without much str gain to begin with.

Halberd is nice because void pretty much needs HP throughout the entire game, evasion stacks with backtrack, and the disarm makes your solo killing/utility power even scarier. Backtrack+evasion really let you leverage any of your extra HP. It's not a common pickup compared to Bfly (since void is such a momentum-based hero), but is probably at least as cost effective.

I wasn't too sure if the evasion stacked with Backtrack. Thanks for the confirmation.

How do you have mana to consider refresher?

Also, Void got played recently in the International and they got 3 levels of time walk early, not all 4.

Refresher comes as a 4-6th item, at which point you have the mana to support it.

I think that was the right decision -- Xboct got freefarm in lane against a solo dark seer, and his team managed to apply pressure all over the map so he was never in much danger of getting ganked. He also only came to teamfights defensively, which meant he had the positioning advantage after TPing in and didn't need the extra range.

I wouldn't call this a competitive guide. In nearly all competitive games that Void is actually picks, it's going to be a battlefury rush. Lifesteal really isn't needed that much unless you're going MoM but even that isn't always good to get, especially against a team that knows how to play against Void.

As for the skill build, you can't really mess Void's skill build up. It's perfectly feasible to max out any of his skills first.

Timewalk should usually be taken in somewhat defensive situations, but it can be used offensively too so it's great for both situations.

Backtrack if you are having a hard lane to deal with, it will really negate harass damage and allow you to jungle a little once you're a little farmed.

Time Lock for aggressive lanes, where procing a stun is deadly.

I think I can actually point to text from the guide for almost all of those points.

Re: Battlefury



http://dota-academy.com/hero/22/

If you watch the last 25 games it is ~60% battlefury rush. In the last few months when we've (aka, not the top 50 teams that get casted and put on dota-academy) played a void the remainder is typically Mjollnir and either RoH/vanguard or (if you play Asian) lifesteal first.

The morbid mask is something I stole form the Pinoy scene, and the rationale behind that is so that you have full HP while jungling at all times so you can TP in to a teamfight and contribute fully, and that once you backtrack some/enough of their burst you regain your HP while fighting/in chrono so you don't fall when their burst is off cooldown again but before you have another timewalk. They also build HoTD commonly so you can dominate a centaur and have a followup stun in your chrono with the stomp.

Skills










Though I will say I don't think there's any viable option that doesn't get two levels of timewalk by 4. If you read the justification I sound very similar to you (backtrack shaking off harass vs. negating harass, lucky bashes vs. procing a stun is deadly, even our commentary on MoM is the same).