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Tango
Healing Salve
Circlet
Slippers of Agility
Clarity
Drum of Endurance
Ring of Aquila
Phase Boots
Power Treads
Black King Bar
Blade Mail
Eye of Skadi
Heart of Tarrasque
Assault Cuirass
Butterfly
Desolator
Monkey King Bar
Manta Style
Armlet of Mordiggian
Diffusal Blade
Ethereal Blade
Heaven's Halberd
Mjollnir
Medallion of Courage
Boots of Travel
Aghanim's Scepter
Crystalys
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2 | 4 | 7 | 8 |  |
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1 | 3 | 5 | 9 |  |
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10 | 12 | 13 | 14 |  |
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6 | 11 | 16 |  |
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15 |
| 1. | Introduction |
| 2. | Pros and Cons |
| 3. | Role |
| 4. | Plasma Field |
| 5. | Static Link |
| 6. | Unstable Current |
| 7. | Eye of the Storm |
| 8. | Justifications |
| 9. | Items |
| 10. | Sample Builds |
| 11. | Useful Allies |
| 12. | Difficult Enemies |
Razor is often a misunderstood hero, is he a ganker? Carry? Anti-Carry? Mid? Tank? There's a lot of confusion about his best role and where he fits into a team. As always, there are many possible ways he can be used, but I'm going to talk about what I consider to be his best, and why...
+ Static Link allows him to steal damage from enemy heroes
+ Good AOE nuking abilities
+ Great Chaser once levelled
+ Fast attack animation
+ Useful in any phase of the game
- Weak base damage
- Below average stat growth
- No real stun or slowing abilities
- Finds it much more difficult once enemies become magic immune
- Needs farm to be effective
So where does Razor fit into a line up? He's somewhat farm dependent, but can struggle against many carry heroes in the late game due to his poor stat growth. His skill set frequently means he's played as mid, but isn't the strongest ganker due to his lack of disable skills. Many people have him down as a tank or "anti-carry" who sucks out the enemy's damage and makes it hard for them to be effective in team fights.
While all of these things are somewhat true, I put Razor down as a semi-carry - he's most effective in the early-midgame, and should be seeking kills and flash farming. With a reasonably good start his anti-carry and team fight nuking skills make him a great foil to a "proper" carry, or can allow him to be the main damage dealer for a push heavy team.
He can be used as a mid, and does benefit somewhat from the extra levels, but personally I think he does better in the sidelane with a ganking support. He has great lane control if you can make much use of Static Link, but I feel this is somewhat wasted in mid where they can usually break it fairly quickly, and you don't have a support to stun for you.
I definitely don't think he should spend the whole of the early part of the game farming - his skills make him extremely dangerous early on, and you should be teaming with your supports and other gankers to use them. Obviously grab some farm whenever you get the chance, but personally I think you should be taking gold from the enemy and being involved.
Plasma Field is a strong AOE nuke that damages everything in a large radius around Razor. The main thing to bear in mind with the field is that units that are furthest away take more damage - the difference is anywhere from 2x to 2.5x depending on the level of the spell. It deals half the damage on expansion and the other half on contraction.
The field is centered on your hero, and will move with you, so with a little practice you can get used to the radius and overlap enemy heroes just before it starts to contract - so they take the maximum damage.
Early on your mana pool will struggle to support too much use of this spell, and it will also push the lane hard. It's still useful for grabbing a few hits you might not otherwise be able to reach, harassment and finishing off kills.
As your mana pool increases you will be able to spam this a lot more frequently - it's great for flash farming, team fights, ganks, weddings, bar mitzvahs and any other occasion you can think of. One big advantage of is that it also gives you vision as it expands.
Static Link is a relatively cheap and simple looking spells, but it's also incredibly useful and dangerous. It takes damage from an enemy hero, and gives it to you - early/mid game this can reach the point where they can hardly hurt you at all, while you deal out a lot of punishment.
The buff lasts about 20-25 seconds, which isn't enough to keep your damage high, but is usually enough to successfully complete a gank or team fight. It can also be used as a defensive measure - enemies can't get rid of it by stunning you and must move away or risk the fight turning round.
Whichever lane you're in, taking damage from enemy heroes is very useful - it makes it much easier for you to harass and last hit effectively, while making it harder for the enemy to do the same. It works best against melee heroes as they have to move further away to break the link, giving you more time to steal damage.
Personally I like to level this first, and quite heavily - it's your best ability. The rate that you can steal damage is as important as you won't usually get the full duration. It also doesn't push the lane or empty your mana pool like Plasma Field. You may steal up to 56/112/168/224 damage - so eventually this does top out, but even late game 448 damage swapping owners is a big deal.
Generally you want to steal damage from their farmer/carry where possible, but any damage steal is useful. It also makes it very hard for enemies to juke you.
Later on, magic immunity will block you ability on enemy carries, so you may have to settle for grabbing damage from anywhere you can - however, if you can Static Link a hero before they use Black King Bar, then it will not be purged. Manta Style on the other hand will get rid of your link when used by an enemy hero.
Unstable Current is your only passive skill, but is somewhat disappointing when compared to the likes of Backtrack and is probably one of the reasons Razor is not so popular. It seems like a slightly ropey tanking ability, however, it does have many beneficial effects that are poorly explained in the tooltips, and may give you a new appreciation of this ability.
First of all, it gives you a small movement boost each time you skill it, giving Razor much of his chasing power, and the ability to keep most heroes in range of Static Link.
Next, any enemy hero who casts a spell at you is instantly hit with a jolt of electricity that inflicts a small amount of damage...and it also purges them, slows their movement speed to 100, and removes 100 from their attack speed for a small duration.
This ability to purge really makes this ability much more useful than it initially seems, as does the ability to slow movement and attacks.
Eye of the Storm is Razor's ultimate, and again can seem pretty average when compared to some of the others that are out there. Once activated, it regularly spits out small amounts of damage and armour reduction over a long duration. Unfortunately you can't really target it - it simply goes after the unit with the lowest health within it's radius.
However, we should also look at the advantages of this ultimate. First of all, the total damage potential is very high at ~1000/2000/3400/5350* (with Aghanim's Scepter), and can potentially drop enemy armour by up to 60. The damage inflicted is Physical, so the armour reduction (and any others) stack up along with your extra right click damage. It also means that magic immunity is no protection against it.
Usage wise, this is very simple - turn it on before any team fight, or if you think it's needed for a gank. It works best when used away from creep waves. Aghanim's Scepter is a slight upgrade, providing more rapid strikes, and increased total damage, but it's certainly not top of your shopping list.
Personally I find Static Link is both your best means of lane control, and your best chance for getting kills. Although Plasma Field is a good AOE nuke, it pushes the lane too much if you use it for harassment, and you'll soon run of mana to use it. Link on the other hand can be used frequently and allows you to be an aggressive harasser.
Every time you link, provided you get a few seconds worth, you'll have a good 25 seconds of the enemy heroes being reluctant to come to close, and you should easily be able to out hit them. This advantage only grows over time and makes it difficult for them - either they need to try and go on you, or risk being slowly squeezed out of the lane. With the right support you can be really dangerous.
I think this makes the long lane an ideal place for you - pressuring the enemy's main carry. However, you're not really a solo (you can cope safe lane, but you're more vulnerable and find if difficult to get kills without other players to set you up), and don't really fit a game with tri-lanes either.
As the lanes break up I think it's best to get Plasma Field maxed ASAP - that burst damage is great for ganking, and also helps with pushes and team fights. Some people prefer to finish maxing link, some prefer to only put 2 in link and max field by 7 - really it depends on how long you expect the laning phase to last.
A point in Unstable Current early on can be useful, but the movement boost is very small, and the other effects too brief to be useful, except the purge. Generally it's almost always best to max your first two skills first.
Starting Equipment:
A fairly standard set of consumables and the start of a Wraithband - your biggest problem early on is lack of base damage, and you want some stats to help you out here ASAP - you can't always have Static Link active to get you more damage.
Core:
Personally, I like to get a Ring of Aquila on Razor ASAP - this gives you a great damage and mana regeneration boost, which should allow you to farm and dominate the lane effectively against most heroes.
Next up you need to get some 
Boots of Speed, and then have a decision to make regarding your choice of footwear. Traditionally Phase Boots are the usual choice, boosting your damage output and your chasing ability - for most games, they're a solid choice. Power Treads are also an option, providing less chasing power and early damage, but more flexibility and late game power.
Usually after this I'll round the build out with a Drum of Endurance, it's very stats efficient and further boosts your chasing ability.
This combination should make you strong early-mid game and rounds out the hero nicely. You should be mixing and matching between farming, pushing and ganking, and this ensures you can do all of these effectively.
In total, just over 4000 gold buys you:
+ 12 Strength (228hp, 0.36 regen)
+ 15 Agility (included below in brackets)
+ 12 Intelligence (156mp, 1.13 regen)
+ 12 Damage (27 including the Agility Gain)
+ 72 movement speed (stacks further with [[Unstable Current)
+ 5 (20) attack speed
+ 2 (4.1) armour
Farming:
Occasionally you might look at an early 
Maelstrom build if you think you'll be able to get an advantage from farming hard early on. This is extremely situational, but can work if your team is looking to win the game in a very particular window. It does boost your damage output too, although you'll want to look at getting a Black King Bar asap to fill out your health pool and defensive abilities.
Common Luxury:
Although a variety of equipment can work well on Razor my two personal favourites are Desolator and Manta Style. Desolator stacks extremely efficiently with Static Link and Eye of the Storm, increasing your damage output substantially as they feed off each other.
Manta Style is nice for bulking out all of your stats, increasing your speed, firepower and also giving you some defensive measures. Black King Bar is also an extremely common choice - personally I don't like 
Vanguard on Razor as it doesn't scale particularly well or suit a ranged hero. The combination of Drum of Endurance and Black King Bar is a much more effective way of keeping you alive in my book.
Butterfly also deserves a mention as your preferred high cost item should things go that far - it makes you much more competitive with other carries.
Odds and Sods:
There's probably a few items in the list that you're wondering about:
Medallion of Courage - again, this is all about armour reduction, making it a great ganking tool to boost your damage. It also gives you some additional protection and mana regeneration when not active. Not inventory efficient though so often you'll want to skip straight to bigger items.
Armlet of Mordiggian - some people (like me) think this item works on just about every right click hero, even if it works best on Strength Heroes. Some people don't agree. You have to be careful not to over use this without the regen to make up the lost health, but it can really help in team fights and is very powerful in the early-mid game.
Blade Mail - Razor doesn't have massive health to make the most of this, but it can be useful if you find you're being focused a lot. It also provides an excellent set of stats - armour, intelligence and damage all help you, and it's great value for money.
Eye of Skadi - an expensive orb item, it can really help Razor fill that tank/anti-carry role better. Static Link and the movement/attack slow from the orb can really reduce the effectiveness of an enemy carry, while the stats and points boost your survivability.
Earthshaker is your best laning buddy, if he can get a good 
Fissure that blocks an enemy hero from breaking your Static Link they're in very big trouble. This can give you a very easy first blood at level 1 unless they have a way to escape. As the game progresses his ability to stun and trap will continue to assist you.
Bane is another hero who can throw out a long disable at very early levels. Static Link doesn't actually do any damage by itself, so you can lock on, and then he can 
Nightmare them to keep them in range for another 4 seconds. May not be enough to get first blood, but it's still extremely dangerous.
Shadow Demon can again lock heroes in place while you steal their damage, and then give you extra bonus damage from Soul Catcher. Very nice!
Ogre Magi and 
Crystal Maiden both provide you with an early game stun and slow which can easily net you kills, and have the ability to boost your movement/attack speed, or your mana regeneration.
Clockwerk is a good ganking partner, providing another long lock in, while Static Link reduces the amount of damage he has to tank.
Elder Titan can help with yet more armour reduction, and a long disable once it's levelled up.
As you can see, the one thing Razor really needs from his allies is slows and disables - he can provide the damage but needs allies who can set them up for him.
Ok so there's quite a lot of heroes there! The main thing you'll notice is that they all have some way of rapidly breaking Static Link, and are very difficult to chase down. This doesn't necessarily mean you can't beat them in a team fight, but you will find it difficult to gank them without a lot of the right help.
Viper and Outworld Devourer both deserve a special mention as they both have very strong lane control, and you certainly won't have it all in your favour against these guys.
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