Keeper of the Light, The support who doesn't complain about gold. (Complete) - Now with Hard Support SUPPORT

Introduction to...

Ezalor the Keeper of the Light is a heavy support hero with amazing farming capabilities. He requires some time to learn how to play because there are many options that can be made while playing in terms of items and using his ultimate Spirit Form. By effectively utilizing his ultimate and active support items Keeper of the Light can be a menacing contributor to any team fight.

Keeper Of the Light

Pros / Cons

Pros

- Never really alone with the power of recall

- Can provide mana to those in need

- Great at pushing and counter-pushing

- Biggest laser in the game

- Can farm waves of creeps easily


Cons

- Squishy and easy to gank early in the game

- Steals farm without realizing it

- Unreliable form of Crowd Control Mana Leak

- Needs items to perform at 100%

To Keep or not to Keep that is the question!

When to pick Keeper of the Light

- When your team needs someone to lane on the suicide lane

- Team is going for a pushing game

- You want to play a lame combo with another nuker who needs a lot of mana

When not to pick Keeper of the Light

- When your team has little to no stuns or slows. aka reliable crowd control

- When you will be forced to lane with someone who needs farm. Unless you're a jerk and want to steal his farm >;(


You can pretty much pick Keeper of the Light when ever you want since he isn't a bad hero. But if your team has no forms of reliable crowd controls like stuns and slows then don't pick him. You will all suffer in the end.

Illuminate

Illuminate

Video: Play Video What is this?
This is Keeper of the Light's nuke

What does it do?
Illuminate is a giant wave of death. After charging in a direction it deals 100 - 500 damage depending on how long you were charging. 1 second = 100 damage

Notes: If you move while charging it will be discharged earlier similar to clicking Illuminate End

When should I use it?

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When harassing:
This is generally it's use all game. You want to have as many illuminates hit the enemy hero to deal a significant amount of damage. If your illuminate does not hit creeps it is ok. You just want to hurt the enemy.

Note: Make sure you have enough mana to chakra before harassing early on

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When pushing/counter pushing:
Aim it at the direction you'r pushing and release when you are happy with the amount of damage.

Note: Don't be scared to release Illuminate early, sometimes a quick shot with only 200 damage is enough to clear the wave. Look at the wave and decide accordingly.

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When ganking:

Aim in the direction you think the enemy is headed or directly at the enemy if you have allies to keep them in place. Release with as much possible damage as you can.

Note: It is good to use you'r ultimate in Spirit Form to gank, this will allow you to have a lot more impact since you won't be sitting a mile away charging for the whole thing.

Note: Remember hitting the enemy is what is important, not charging completely. Release accordingly

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During a teamfight:

If your ultimate Spirit Form is up use it before hand and set up illuminate outside pointing into the fight. Usually release at full, but a premature shot may be released if the fight seems to be dispersing.

Note: The importance of hitting is still present

Note: It is good to use all your other spells before charging an Illuminate if your ultimate Spirit Form is down

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When running:

Use Spirit Form and start charging illuminate in the direction you are fleeing. Continue running and release an illuminate at the last possible moment to hurt pursuers.

Note: This trick can be used to turn a chase around.

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When chasing:

A quick burst of a 100 damage or 200 damage illuminate can be used to catch low health enemies. Other than that don't use it for this purpose.

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Mana Leak

Mana Leak

Video Play Video What is this?
This is Keeper of the Light's go to chasing and crowd control ability

What does it do?
This is Bloodseeker's Rupture but for mana. If you don't know what Rupture does, then it pretty much makes them lose health if they move while the debuff active. There is no initial mana lost unlike Rupture that deals initial damage. When the enemy runs out of mana with mana leak on they are stunned.

Note: The notion of mana leak is like pissing themselves

When should I use it?

Mana Leak can be used early on as a cheap harassing tool. Use it when their creeps just die to force them to either move and lose some mana or tank creeps.


Mana Leak as you might have already guessed it great for chasing heroes. Its range increases with each point put into it. Enemies that have no choice but to run may not be able to help when their allies come simply put they have no more mana.

Chakra Magic

Chakra Magic

Video Play Video What is this?
This is what Keeper of the Light is famous for. It helps your team and yourself sustain mana.

What does it do?
It gives mana to a target unit.

When should I use it?

General use: You generally use chakra to allow yourself to keep spamming Illuminate. But it is important to remember you are part of a team and other heroes may have better use of the mana then yourself. Examples of this is Tiny who has a relatively small mana pool and benefits greatly from a single Chakra Magic at any rank.

Note: Don't impulsively Chakra Magic yourself after every Illuminate check for allies that may need it more than you.

Spirit Form

Spirit Form

Video Play Video What is this?
This is Ezalor's ultimate ability that transforms him into a ghost

What does it do?
It changes Ezalor into a ghost and allows for his illuminates to charge up in the area it is cast without you having to stay. It also grants Ezalor with two more abilities. Recall and Blinding Light.


When should I use it?

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When do I use Spirit Form?

Keeper of the Light's ultimate is powerful and on a relatively short cool down. Thanks to this and the array of tricks you gain from activating it, it's uses are endless. Some times to activate it are

-When you want to push but need to back because of upcoming enemies
-Getting ganked, use recall to bring an ally over and illuminate to punish pursuers
-During a team fight so you can be doing more things than just charging and [illuminate]]

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When to use Recall and what is it?

Video Play Video
Recall is a very important spell as it allows for heroes to be in many places at once. An important note is that recall is dispelled if the target is hit by an enemy hero. In other words if the person you are recalling is hurt by a hero he doesn't get summoned to you. You on the other hand can even die while recalling and they will still come.

Use recall to help an ally who is running away or juking around trees to safety or just bring an extra pair of hands to the fight or push at hand.

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When to use Blinding Light and what is it?

Video Play Video /dota-2/skill/spirit-form-312

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Skill build Justification

Illuminate
Chakra Magic
Chakra Magic
Illuminate or Mana Leak
Mana Leak or Illuminate
Spirit Form
Illuminate] or Chakra Magic
Chakra Magic or Illuminate
Mana Leak
Mana Leak
Spirit Form
Chakra Magic or Illuminate or Mana Leak
Mana Leak or Chakra Magic or Illuminate
Illuminate or Mana Leak or Chakra Magic
stats
Spirit Form
stats
Etc

Why Illuminate first?

Illuminate at rank 1 deals 200 damage fully charged compared to Chakra Magic which gives 75 mana early on which in my opinion isn't really worth it. Some people get Mana Leak first but remember that it is based off a % so it doesn't do much early on when you're only making them leak 3.5% of what? 200 - 300/350 mana It just isn't worth the level one investment, maybe level 2 if you really feel the need and lose out on the ability to keep a constant Illuminate harass or getting ready to help your ally.


Why are all the skills level 3 at one point?

All of Keeper of the Light's skills scale fairly well. To lack in any skill will prevent Keeper of the Light from performing everything he is required.

Holding out on Illuminate may be ok once it's level 2 since 300 damage is the average damage for a level 4 nuke, but once it's level 3 the nuke really shines as a giant level 1 Dagon if fully charged.

Holding out on Mana Leak will reduce your chasing abilities since the range is significantly lower at lower ranks.

Chakra Magic gives you a fair amount of mana from ranks 2 - 4, but 3 is the overall turning point to how reckless you can use your mana.

The Super Mana Leak Build

Illuminate
Chakra Magic
Chakra Magic
Illuminate or Mana Leak
Mana Leak or Illuminate
Spirit Form
Mana Leak
Mana Leak
Mana Leak
Chakra Magic or Illuminate
Spirit Form
Chakra Magic or Illuminate
Chakra Magic or Illuminate
Chakra Magic or Illuminate
stats
Spirit Form
stats
Etc

For a Mana Leak intensive build why is it maxed and even skilled later?

Well for any build you don't want to lose any of the hero's uses and utilize them when they are most useful. This is no different for Keeper of the Light.

Illuminate is still important so Keeper of the Light can still do some damage, as said in the above section at rank 2 you will deal average damage with a fully charged Illuminate.

Chakra Magic will always have it's uses :)

When do I use this build?

This build is completely situational. I usually use this against heroes who have great mobility like Night Stalker, Bloodseeker and Dark Seer. Of course this is if you don't have any other crowd control or just want to add to it. The basic build can also help since Mana Leak is obtained around the same point when most of these heroes that you skill it for start ganking with their high speed. The exception of course is Dark Seer with his menacing rank 1 Surge. Which you may want to pick up Mana Leak earlier just so the heroes he Surges might not feel like moving :). This build gives you a long range Mana Leak that stuns low mana heroes and makes new players think about moving before doing so buying precious time for your team to chase them down.

The Dedicated Pusher or Late Ultimate Build

Illuminate
Chakra Magic
Chakra Magic
Illuminate or Mana Leak
Mana Leak or Illuminate
Illuminate
Chakra Magic
Illuminate
Spirit Form
Mana Leak
Spirit Form
Chakra Magic
Mana Leak
stats
Spirit Form
stats
Etc

Why the late Spirit Form ?

This build is for those days when you just need that extra kick from your Illuminate to decimate waves of creeps. Ultimate is not needed to shoot your Illuminate but it does open up many options for team fight. By using this build your mobility during team fights will be significantly reduced so skill wisely!

You will also be missing two core skills to any Keeper of the Light, Blinding Light and Recall. So let your team know before hand if you decide to go this build.

You should also note that this build works best with other pushers like Leshrac and Death Prophet or Pugna.

The Hard Support

Tried this one out recently, I really liked how offensive I could get with mana leak. Making enemies question when to move or stay put really lets you charge an illuminate (even for 100-200 damage) in their face while your team beats on them.

Remember you're a support so work as a team to make the best out of Mana leak and Illuminate. You will also have to juggle your Chakra magic to compensate for the extra mana going out to Leak the enemy. This is why I like Magic wand as it allows me to recover from a mistake if I use too much mana. (You're playing aggressive so the enemies should cast spells in defense)

Choosing a Lane

Why not the Safe lane?

As Keeper of the Light you never want to be on the short lane. The short lane is the lane where you'r team's jungle is part of the lane. For Dire it is top, and for Radiant it is bottom.

The reason for this is that as Keeper of the Light you are going to push your lane most of the time because of Illuminate. This is bad in the short lane because the team's carry usually goes there and by pushing the wave you deprive them of farm (Possibly steal them too). Unless you can aim your Illuminates perfectly to hit no creeps and still harass the enemy hero than go for it.

I have recently come to accept going on the safe lane, but you have to be extra cautious about your illuminate spam stealing your carries farm while still harassing.

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Why not the middle lane?

I would not recommend the middle lane either. Since Keeper of the Light's Illuminate pushes the wave you might end up providing the enemy mid with lots of free farm. It is also harder to position yourself to Illuminate without hitting creeps at mid.

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Why the Suicide lane?

The short lane or more commonly known as the suicide lane is Keeper of the Light's home. It allows you to be reckless with your Illuminate and harass the enemy team's carry into using a lot of regenerative items like Tangos and Healing Salves. You will also push the tower down with relative ease as every creep wave will be demolished in mere seconds. Being solo is ok but you will have to lane more carefully remembering that Keeper of the Light will drop fast if caught by any form of crowd control other than maybe silence. Laning with a pushing hero like Leshrac or Pugna will demolish towers in a matter of minutes.

Starting off, Let the harassing begin

Once Keeper of the Light enters the lane you are going to want to hide behind a nice wall of trees and blast your enemies with a 200 damage warning shot from Illuminate. If it hits both or just the one enemy hero they will be demoralized. Keep your mana pool in check and continously fire Illuminates as long as you have mana to Chakra Magic afterwards. If you have an ally who can harass equally well keep, keep them at 60-70% mana as best you can.

Remember you only need enough mana to cast Illuminate once if you have enough for one after losing mana from casting Chakra Magic on an ally than give it to them instead of yourself. The harassing becomes a lot stronger if your ally chips in with your Illuminate.

Some nice laning partners are

Tiny : He just rock's your enemies socks off with his Avalanche and Toss combo.

Pugna : His Nether Blast is a force to be reckoned with as it hurts both towers and
enemy heroes alike.

Undying : This bad boy zombie craves for mana rather than brains. His Decay will leave enemies struggling with a lower health pool and open them up for a bigger beating from Illuminate

Venomancer : This snake of a man has one of the best early game slows in the game, and his Plague Wards will push that tower down in no time.

windrunner : If a fully charged Powershot hits the enemy hero as first target along with a fully charged Illuminate that hero is going to be be crying because their health pool just took a DIVE. -wink- -wink- (Dive that him if it's safe) Not to mention a good Shackleshot is amazing ;)

Of course any hero with a nice nuke that can harass works well with Keeper of the Light.

Mid Game, Ganking, Counter pushing and Pushing

Ganking

When Keeper of the Light is ganking he is like a Pudge. Your goal is to set up an Illuminate with Spirit Form up in the direction you think they will retreat while still being able to hit them if they stand still before going up and using Mana Leak. This allows for two scenarios to happen.

Scenario A: They stand still and Illuminate comes in and destroys their health so your allies can finish them off.

or Scenario B: They try to run and Illuminate comes in and destroys their health so your allies can chase a much weaker hero.

Both scenarios you want Illuminate to hit the enemy for as much damage as you can. Remember there is no shame in releasing early.

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Counter Pushing

Keeper of the Light likes his towers, and as such you want to protect them. Keeper of the Light's Illuminate is one of the hardest things to push into as it decimates an enemy creep wave with a single shot and hurts them to boot if they stand in it for some odd reason. If Keeper of the Light has another hero who can counter push on his team like vanomancer and his Plague Wards. Then it is nearly impossible to push into them.

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Pushing

Keeper of the Light excels at pushing down towers. This is from his ability to mow down enemy creep waves with Illuminate so your creeps won't be distracted fighting and instead focus on meat bagging the tower. By clearing creeps Keeper of the Light opens up tower pushing to Leshrac's Diabolic Edict and Death Prophet's Exorcism if they happen to be on your team.

End game, let the Items speak for themselves

Keeper of the Light's shine is based off his items!

Let us be honest here. Keeper of the Light has no real crowd control. So to make up for this he makes a bunch of supportive items. Depending on your game you may make different items to combat different situations.

The first choice in items happens in the early to mid game when you make either Mekansm or Pipe of Insight or maybe even both. This goes on to endless other item combinations, but some items that truly shine are Necronomicon and Scythe of Vyse. Both have different uses, but both are helpful.

Team fight, where you should be.

Keeper of the Light should be in the back, he never wants to be in the middle of the fight. In the back Keeper of the Light can set up illuminates with Spirit Form up and continue on to Mana Leak mobile heroes and Blinding Light to blind those auto attackers or throw them into position for your allies. You will also be using your wide assortment of items to their strengths.

Possible methods of item usage

Using Mekansm during the fight to heal off damage for your allies, Pipe of Insight before a fight or Scythe of Vyse on a prime enemy target. Necronomicon can be summoned and sent to chase a squishy enemy hero in the back threatening them out of a fight or killing them completely or simply to reveal invisible heroes. Shiva's Guard to slow the enemies retreat and etc. Keeper of the Light's usefulness only limited by the number of items he can carry.

The Vanquisher of the Lights, and Those the Lights Vanquish!

Enemies

AND MUCH MORE!

Now what do all these ********s have? Stuns and slows that do significant damage or have significant duration.

Any form of Stun or slow will eat away at Keeper of the Light early on unless you have an ally to save you. In other words if you have a stun or slow on your lane as well who can take the attention off you.

Notable Mention:


This little bug is everything Keeper of the Light isn't. If there was a hard counter for Keeper of the Light it would be this guy. spiked carapce reflects and makes Illuminate useless. He also has a really annoying disable called Impale and the ability to Mana Burn you which will hurt significantly. Not to mention that once he gets Vendetta he can easily gank you like nothing.

Friends

windrunner AND MUCH MORE!

Keeper of the Light likes dangerous company, mainly in the nuking department. If the nuking happens to have a nice range, the better :). While juggling between using Chakra Magic on himself and his laning partner Keeper of the Light can push down a lane while pushing out enemy heroes far out of the lane and potentially killing them.

Stuns and slows are welcome in the nukes but not necessary, the main focus here is damage!

The laning possibilities are endless with Keeper of the Light

Notable mention:


This bad boy can help you push a lane down with his Nature's Call and on an extra note his Sprout can be used to keep enemies in place for your fully charged Illuminate


Phantom Lancer is one of the most annoying carries to fight against, with his Spirit Lance working on a 7 second cool down he can really dish out some damage. Laning with a Keeper of the Light is one of the notorious combos people have paired him with time and time again.

Targets

AND MUCH MORE!

What makes these guys so vulnerable to the light? They all share one thing in common, low mobility and low early game health pool. Keeper of the Light sports the biggest laser early on making any squishy hero on the enemy team his target. These are just a handful of a wide collection of easy targets. But remember to be careful since Keeper of the Light can easily become the hunted by standing in the wrong place at the wrong time channeling an Illuminate. So pay attention!

Justification of Starting Items

You want to be the support who purchases ground courier as it is the cheaper by 50 gold in comparison to wards ever since they brought it down to 150. This allows you to by the material for your Magic Wand which will allow you to Illuminate below the amount of mana needed to Chakra Magic as the early Magic Stick will provide that small boost needed to start the mana machine up again. A single Tango will go nicely along with every thing as you will still need to heal if a harassed.

Why not Observer Wards ?
Observer Wards are not picked up to block the pull camp simply put Keeper of the Light does not care. Since your goal is to harass and push the tower, if they pull they only get their tower killed faster opening room to gank them in their own jungle faster.

You do however will want to buy Observer Wards as soon as possible if another support hasn't for the team yet.

Justification of Core Items

Why Phase Boots? well it is simple, phase boots allow for you to play a much more aggressive Keeper of the Light. Tranquil Boots are situational and same for Power Treads if you just want that small extra into health.

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Mekansm is the first big item you should get other than boots. Unless another hero is getting one you want to get this first. It's healing is really helpful to the team and yourself. If another hero is purchasing a Mekansm than just purchase a Pipe of Insight instead if it is needed. Of course you should always check hero line up for the necessity of a Pipe of Insight before purchasing.

Justification of Luxury Items

Keeper of the Light has amazing farming potential thanks to his Illuminate

As such almost any items is possible for him and wards should be bought at all times.

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Magic Stick or Magic Wand is a staple for almost every hero and allows that small burst of health or mana to get away or cast a spell. This is no different for Keeper of the Light.

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Boots of Travel is the pricier alternative that allows Keeper of the Light some crazy map control. Not only can he leave an Illuminate charging before teleporting to another lane, but he can also recall someone with him to PUSH the point across :).

Town Portal Scroll is highly recommended to be held at all times. This gives a similar effect to having a Boots of Travel to allow you to push multiple lanes if you don't have them yet. And just generally good for getting away from a lane that is about to get ganked.


Note: I usually get Boots of Travel as a replacement to Phase Boots, but if you have the money to blow off getting an upgraded boots early than Boots of Travel is for you.

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Gem of True Sight is not only for a game with invisible heroes. Since you can farm well you have the option of getting one instead of millions of revelation wards.

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Necronomicon is essentially the most useful offensive item you can get as Keeper of the Light. It summons two demons that essentially add to your mana burning, combined with your mana leak this can disable low mana pool heroes. Not to mention they hurt and it provides some much needed health for you.

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Ghost Scepter is for those pesky teams that lack nukes and have tons of physical damage dealers. A side note to mention is that it also takes off Naga Siren's net. With the bonus of giving +7 to all stats this item can truly come in handy if you get focused by a fast auto attacker like lycanthrope or Drow Ranger. It can also be upgraded into an Ethereal Blade later if you feel the need to be safe and disable an enemy auto attacker like Drow Ranger or lycanthrope for your allies while boosting magic damage dealt to them.

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veil discord Veil of Discord get this if your team has a lot of magic damage, or just enough AoE burst damage to be significant. The effect is also very useful for yourself as a full enemy team under Veil of Discord's debuff will take a hefty chunk from a well placed Illuminate.

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Orchid Malevolence is a nice item to stop those pesky heroes with escape mechanism. some examples of this are Anti-Mage and Storm Spirit. It also increases damage dealt to the target and can later be used to delay or remove a big enemy ultimate from the fight like Enigma's Black Hole. Not to mention the nice pool of mana, and regen so you can Chakra Magic allies more often instead of yourself.

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Scythe of Vyse the ultimate intelligence item. This item is what every intelligence wants. Keeper of the Light is no exception. It hexes a single target for 3.5 seconds allowing your team to jump them. Great for turning the tide of battle and disabling important enemy heroes in team fights.

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Rod of Atos I recently fell in love with this item. It provides a nice 20 intelligence and a health bonus. It has a bigger range than Mana Leak when maxed and slows 10% harder than a Venomous Gale

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Force Staff is truly one of the best sticks in Dota. It's relatively cheap to make and can be used to save yourself or allies. It can also be used to force enemies into you or make them lose mana via Mana Leak.

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Eul's Scepter of Divinity this item is a strange but amazing one. Not only does it add to your movement speed and mana pool. But it also has an active that sends a target enemy unit or yourself flying in the air invulnerable. This active has three uses, either one to take a single enemy target out of a fight like Drow Ranger so you can take care of their team without worrying about them yet. Or interrupt a channeling ability like Black Hole. It can also be used on yourself if you are in imminent danger to buy some time for cool downs like Blinding Light or buy time for allies to come to your rescue.

Note: That if a projectile is coming your way you can evade it by using this item on yourself.

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Shiva's Guard this item works wonders with almost any team. The damage goes through magic immunity, it slows and makes you a lot beefier. The active alone on this to give you more team fight presence is enough reason to get it as it serves to keep enemies in your Illuminate or just slow enemies down for your team. End game it's usually a choice between this or Scythe of Vyse. Really depends if your team needs you to hex or slow every one. It's usually Scythe of Vyse though.

Odd trinkets and such you can get

Blink Dagger

Positioning is key as Keeper of the Light, and if you feel up for it you can get a Blink Dagger though it isn't recommended since there are cheaper more useful alternatives for him.

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Drum of Endurance and Vladmir's Offering

Both items give off a supportive aura. drums of endurance actually benefits Keeper of the Light while Vladmir's Offering is purely if you want to boost your melee carries damage output and survivability with an extra bit of life steal.

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dagon dagon

If your team is lacking in damage and need to give that one vital squishy support the boot why not dagon? Of course known for being a kill stealing tool that is not its only use.

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Heart of Tarrasque and Bloodstone

Both items help make Keeper of the Light tankier, but don't serve a team purpose other than keep you alive. Not the most useful or recommended but they are possible if you so feel like it.

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Heaven's Halberd

Provides a rare quality to be found on an intelligence hero evasion and allows Keeper of the Light to disable a auto attacker from attacking. Purpose is the same as an Ethereal Blade but at a cheaper cost that gives more beneficial stats like strength for health.

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Shadow Amulet and Shadow Blade

I personally love Shadow Amulet as it allows me to sit in the enemy jungle acting as a ward. I don't personally recommend these items since Keeper of the Light could be doing something better than sitting still like a stalker. And there are better alternatives to Shadow Blade for escaping safely like Force Staff. Shadow Blade does not interrupt channeling as stated by comments below.

Note: You won't be channeling a lot later on in the game anyways :)

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Urn of Shadows

I don't get this on Keeper of the Light because he works better pushing than ganking. I'd leave this for an actual ganker to get like Night Stalker but it could be picked up if you plan to gank a whole lot.

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Medallion of Courage

Used to help during team fight or ganks. The armor reduction works wonders early on and for heroes who have low base armor.

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Diffusal Blade

What can I say? The purge on this baby helps catch up to enemies and removes debuffs that could be game changing for your allies like Track and amplify damage. It can also be used to purge away Warlock's Chaotic Offering. Not to mention the mana burn to help out for mana leak chases.

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Conclusion

Keeper of the Light is a great farmer and opens many doors for item choice because of that. He can keep games going for a long time with his amazing counter push and if used correctly can impact team fights greatly by whittling down enemies with his laser and making them piss their mana in fear.


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