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Tango
Clarity
Healing Salve
Observer Ward
Boots of Speed
Null Talisman
Bottle
Power Treads
Force Staff
Eul's Scepter of Divinity
Aghanim's Scepter
Black King Bar
Orchid Malevolence
Scythe of Vyse
Rod of Atos
Refresher Orb
Dagon 1
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1 | 4 | 7 | 9 |  |
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10 | 12 | 13 | 14 |  |
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2 | 3 | 5 | 8 |  |
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6 | 11 | 16 |  |
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15 | 17 | 18 |
Silencer
Status: Secret
Height: Just under 
Invoker
Magic the Gathering Colors: Esper (Black/Blue/White)
Likes: 
Death Prophet , being alone, taking people's thoughts, 4:33 by John Cage
Dislikes: Invoker , his own medicine, 
Sniper , Black King Bar , 
Beastmaster
I hate this guy. I do. I hate playing against him the most, I even hate when I play him. Where everyone else has 300 Int stolen by 30 minutes I have maybe 26. People always kill when I'm never there and it's incredibly annoying. Regardless, a little back story
Silencer was raised among a bunch of mages, but he didn't really like talking too much, mostly because he liked speaking in English when they wanted him to chant in some ancient canter, but mostly because whenever he asked questions his dad would beat him over the head with a Grimiore and tell him to shut up. Because of this abuse he stopped talking all together and has decided to make everyone else just as miserable and as quiet as he was forced to be as a boy.
Either way, regardless, he is a giant ****-block to many many people, especially those who cast spells or like mana, like 
Wraith King for instance, who really likes having at least some mana, and he is, though I hate to admit it, a really good teammate to have. Moving on, though, he can be played as a carry or a support, just like 
Vengeful Spirit , but unlike the lovely venge, Silencer does not have a spectacular rack or delicious thighs, nor does he like punk music or metal. Since he stacks late game, he's a very nice pickup for even the new players, because what he does is very ******ed.
Silencer steals Int whenever a hero dies by his hand or when he's within a 900 unit radius of them (could be shorter, but I'm not looking at the numbers, I'm watching a twitch stream of C9 v Nyx Assassins), which is why he can carry depending on the situation, and it's 2 int per hero dying, which is one stat level less of Int a hero can have, but regardless, he still builds mostly Int items, even though he does sometimes get 
Hand of Midas if he's mid and I once saw someone build 
Eye of Skadi for more stats
When to pick Silencer:
Your team requires a little bit to set up teamfight
The other team has mana dependant heroes with small mana pools
The other team has some form of magic resistance
The other team's carries are very late game
Your team needs a lot of harass or a ganker
When not to pick Silencer:
The other team has a lot of right click
The other team has a lot of survivability or ways to disengage
The other team's teamfight can be set up before engagement or won't be cancelled in time
The other team early rat ability with carries that can take advantage of an early lead
Silencer has two big advantages that are hugely underrated. One is the stealing int, a passive that doesn't need to be leveled, the second is that his Glaives of Wisdom deals PURE damage. That's right, 
Huskar will cri evrytiem because magic resistance is meaningless and you'll have to rely on being extremely tanky to deal with a Silencer who has an early Int lead. Mostly commonly I've seen people pick Silencer versus Invoker , because of the false sense of security "If we shut him up, he can't get any spells off," and unfortunately, it doesn't always work. I know this because I do that. However if you want to directly counter him, you need someone like 
Faceless Void or 
Morphling or in particular, who I like to use, Sniper and 
Legion Commander . Don't forget that 
Spectre deals pure damage as well, and 
Phantom Assassin is also considered since Mr. Hush can't silence passives.
(For those that see this former paragraph in red, I can only apologize for it, The formatting went mental on me)
Silencer is able to play in ranked due to his high harass, stat gain, ability to deal pure damage, and stack against heroes late game. Obviously having two silences is like 
Earthshaker having nothing but stuns, so he's quite situational. However since his Ult goes across the map, it could be very helpful. As a support, he's normally played as 3rd to 4th spot, since he doesn't require as much of a lead as 
Enigma whom I play as a 3rd position since his ult is so important (spots/positions, for new players, are labeled 1-5 and it's what your farm priority is. For instance, if you're a 1st spot as the hard carry you can steal jungle creeps from your teammates. if you're a 4th spot you have to allow it.) If you plan on carrying with Silencer your teammates better be on board, and your strat is going to be based around teamfighting. Reason? Silencer has several good qualities, but being able to solo carries with anything such as 
Gust on 
Drow Ranger or 
Strafe on 
Clinkz is not one of them. So if you build a team around Silencer acting as the hard carry 1st position against another team's hard carry, for instance Faceless Void , my money's on them, since Void is meant to carry.
A teamfight build for Silencer would probably include a 
Magnus , Enigma , 
Elder Titan , and someone like 
Centaur Warrunner or 
Axe . All of them have carry qualities, but none of them are built to be able to potentially solo an enemy team, so you would have to focus on making them fight you 5v5 and letting Silencer steal Int to get damage and mana.
To counter a Silencer pick, two very big heroes which come to mind would be 
Terrorblade and Death Prophet. Most people are competent enough to hold a tower 3v5 with fortification, which allows room for TB and DP to free farm a lane and push a tower down to their heart's content. Also remember that the theory of Holy Trinity Doto, Push strat beats Teamfight strat which beats Hard Carry strat which beats Push strat.
Now, focusing on Silencer, there's no reason not to transition him into a carry if the game goes well, meaning he's present in over 80% of the fights that go on in order to steal int, but in the beginning, you should build as a support, buy wards when needed, dust as well, possibly sentries. Around the 30 minute mark , if you find yourself in a sort of stalemate, meaning there's not a lot of deaths, towers, or teamfights, best start ganking lanes with him around level 6 and making people's lives miserable to force something. This allows you to give your team space.
Silencer is one of the best harass heroes in the game, probably second only to 
Skywrath Mage in lane due to the fact that Silencer actually has cooldowns for his spell. Curse of the Silent is the first thing you grab unless you're planning on ganking a 
Viper at level 1, because cursing at people makes them so mad, they lose health and mana. Most heroes can't deal with this, except the ones listed above. Even Viper is normally fine, unless he gets hit with Last Word, which if someone doesn't cast a spell (which Viper's Q isn't. It's called an "orb," or as you might like to call it an Attack Modifier, and doesn't count), then they lose a chunk of health, are silenced, and disarmed, which means for any of you newer players that you can't attack. Viper hates not right clicking, he really does. So while you're in lane, your goal as Silencer is to harass the **** out of everyone. Normally you don't get Glaives of Wisdom due to the fast that your Q and E stack way better early game, especially at level six, where they both have high potential, BUT I will say that if the people you are fighting are really stupid and squishy, get two levels in it and you'll be able to get rid of them easily due to Silencer's high range and his really good attack speed (though the animation is lacking). However, I wouldn't recommend it, stick with waiting on your own orb.
If you've gone mid, I see some Silencers opt for a Hand of Midas, but you'll have to play a couple games with him to really get what he does down in order to get there. Get Boots of Speed and go into Bottle from there, but if you need an extra bit of damage, you can always opt for Null Talisman , which yes, isn't exactly an item that even deserves a picture portrait text, but will make the difference early game.
Silencer has the ability to gank very early, so take advantage of that whenever you can, but remember that if they're back up against the tower, you shouldn't even bother going to that lane. Also if they have stuns or disables, it's probably not a good idea unless you're a pro and you checked all their mana pools to make sure they can't do anything against you. Any bit of intelligent stacks help. Also don't forget that you'll have to force towers early to get that lead needed for Silencer. Force Staff is always a great pickup early on and should be there pretty soon assuming your farm is clean and no one has decided to gank you and you haven't died. Also you should finish your Power Treads , though I've seen some people buy 
Arcane Boots due to his lack of mana early.
Silencer likes to survive. He builds items similiar to 
Crystal Maiden with the exception that some Silencers like to build Dagon in order to burst a target down, which I don't recommend unless you're really far ahead and you can get away with it. Focus on mostly control items, because a lone Silencer is a dead one. Eul's Scepter of Divinity of course allows more mobility, as it's one of my favorite items. Force a teamfight whenever you have Global Silence ready. Even if you can't catch their whole team out, for instance, if there's a 5v3 situation, it's still good for you if you manage to secure those kills. Anyone out of place on the map should be targeted when possible. After Eul's, I tend to pick up a cripple staff, or Rod of Atos , some people might prefer Aghanim's Scepter since it gives him more tank and makes people lose mana and health while silenced, which is no small thing in a teamfight.
I'm actually feeling really lazy with this guide right about now.
Either way, since his orb is based on a percentage of your intelligence, you naturally build around his intelligence gain. He has a decent right-click and is very hard to get rid of if he ever gets his hands on stat items like Eye of Skadi, 
Linken's Sphere or others like that. As far as I know, his pure damage instance is just added to his regular damage instance, so heroes like Faceless Void , Phantom Assassin , and 
Brewmaster all have a chance to dodge getting chunked, though the drunk panda might not be the best idea since he absolutely requires getting his ult off in a teamfight. Also do not forget you can silence the silencer, and if you get enough lockdown, you can probably kill him. If you use Black King Bar during his Global Silence you can immediately use spells once again, so people like 
Razor can begin to do something against him. If you feel like your team needs more time to fight due to the team being very good at disengaging, you can opt to build a Refresher Orb , which is just more ****-blocking for the other team. Expensive, yes, but sometimes worth it, especially against people dependent on abilities to be great.
Ugh.
Bleargh.
I hate playing against him.
Even though I find him more repulsing to play against than 
Pudge just remember that he is not invincible nor overpowered in any manner, and as long as you are completing objectives by pushing down towers and not giving his team any space to move around, forcing rotations getting pick-offs, Silencer will be speechless. He is a good hero to play, especially when you're smurfing or just starting out in the TBD bracket, and I'd suggest him for rookie Dota players, since it's impossible to miss his ult.
I promise I'll try and get another guide out on some more fun heroes soon.
Sincerely,
UnrulySupportGuy
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