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5 Votes

Templar Assassin, my favorite mid waifu(7.06f)

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Build Guides Discussion (1) More Guides Report

Pubstomping in the midlane

DotA2 Hero: Templar Assassin

Purchase Order

Starting items

Early-game items

Bottle

Boots of Speed

Blight Stone

Ring of Aquila

Power Treads

Desolator

Core items

Desolator

Blink Dagger

Black King Bar

Late-game items

Bloodthorn

Daedalus

Butterfly

Assault Cuirass

Optional core items

Hurricane Pike

Solar Crest

Diffusal Blade 2

Boots of Travel

Situational items

Diffusal Blade

Divine Rapier

Linken's Sphere

Monkey King Bar

Satanic

Hero Skills

Talents

Hero Talents

+7 Refraction Instances

1s Meld Hit Bash

-3 Meld Armor Reduction

Meld Dispels

+120 Psi Blades Attack/Spill Range

Refraction Can Be Cast While Disabled

+110 Psionic Trap Damage

+25 Refraction Damage

Templar Assassin, my favorite mid waifu(7.06f)

1.	Introduction
2.	Skills
3.	Talents
4.	Items
5.	BFFs and enemies
6.	General tips and how to play

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Introduction

Hello, my name is Phsc and I'm a 5k which got a kinda high MMR by spamming mid with Templar Assassin, Ember Spirit, Invoker and Shadow Fiend and I have a guide for 3 of 4 of them, going to work on the Shadow Fiend one.

Templar Assassin is a midlaner, only a midlaner, people used to do her as a hard-carry but today, she's a midlaner, so go play her mid, did someone mark mid or cry for mid before you? :salty:, I mean, pick some other role.

You're the person that does damage in a team, a lot of damage, I'm talking about killing supports with one hit, but unlike most heroes that also do it( Phantom Assassin, Wraith King, etc...) to play Templar Assassin, you need skill, using her skills is pretty hard, and being able to kite someone without dying, also farming fast isn't that easy.
With Templar Assassin, you should aim for at least 10 cs/min(10 creeps killed per minute), it might look hard, and if you're being stomped it is, but remember, you can always get fed.
Always tell your supports to stack the ancients for you, because you can farm them pretty easy and fast.

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Skills

What does Templar Assassin do with her skills? damage.

Refraction is probably your best skill, gives some barrier that, after getting hit by any kind of damage that's higher than 5, and Orb of Venom doesn't work versus it because it is applied AFTER reductions, and Orb of Venom does magical damage, and as you got 25% magic resinstance in the start of the game, it isn't going to affect you, also gives damage which is pretty good in a general way.
Meld is your juke/escape/initiation/more damage skill, it makes you invisible, but only when you're still, but if you hit someone, it is going to do bonus damage and remove armor from the person, which is affected by one of the LVL 25 talents, useful for dispelling attacks and skills, baiting people into high-ground and just killing them, and also going invis and blinking some times is really fun.
Psi Blades is your farm and harass tool, with it you can hit a creep, hit the enemy midlaner and maybe even get another last hit, and also farm jungle camps really fast early on, the damage the "cleave" or "splash" does ignores armor, so yeah, hit killing an full-agility Morphling is pretty fun, with the items you're going, it's going to probably hit kill an entire team if you get a good angle in a fight and a lucky crit.
Psionic traps is your disable, with it, you're going to kill people, they also give vision, one tip I give to you who is reading this guide is to allow your allies to activate it, which might help them to get a kill when you're not looking.

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Talents

LEVEL 10-Do you need movespeed? probably you don't has you got a slow, maybe if you got hard-countered by a Leshrac which is pretty fast, maybe even Pugna, also **** people that pick them, most of the time go for the attack-speed.
LEVEL 15-Does anyone have evasion in your team? are you going Butterfly? then pick it, if not, the stats might be good, some times, if you're really getting stomped by physical damage it is better to pick the evasion tho.
LEVEL 20-The damage is way better, just... better, pick the damage.
LEVEL 25-Both are really great, the bonus Meld armor is better for when you're not taking damage/dealing enought damage, but most of the time I go with the Refraction charges, as they also give some damage and allows you to survive a little bit longer, both are really good.

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Items

STARTING ITEMS
Wraith Band is needed for basically any midlaner, it just gives what you need in laning-phase and builds into Ring of Aquila
Faerie Fire is for some sick 9k plays where you activate it and kill the enemy midlaner when diving then you activate your Refraction and get back to safety
Iron Branch is good because it gives stats, and when you activate a Tango (Shared) on it, the duration is doubled, so yeah, 3 for 2.
Tango (Shared) is important because you know, you need other items, you only need two tangos because you're going for a...
EARLY-GAME ITEMS
Bottle as you're a midlaner which needs health and mana regen so you can spam your spells trade hits and get farm, most of the time I get it then I go for...
Boots of Speed because you know, you need to move fast because you're a midlaner, and with...
Blight Stone you can really do more harass by hitting creeps and doing damage with Psi Blades.
Ring of Aquila gives you mana regen and stats, so it's pretty good, some times if you're losing just skip it, maybe if someone in your team already has one too.
Power Treads is pretty good, it gives damage, if you tread switch it is really better than the other option, Phase Boots, which you should go only when you're versus multiple units, like Shadow Shaman's ultimate and Meepo, some times I just go for it just for the lulz.
CORE ITEMS
Desolator is your core item, the damage item, get it, you're probably the best Desolator hero in the game, later on you can change it if you pick the armor reduction talent because it just gives the same effect.
Blink Dagger is really, really good on this hero, as you can blink after getting Refraction damage, so yeah... pretty OP, also goes well with Meld, because Meld into blink or blink into Meld are both good.
Black King Bar is core on every hero that needs to keep hitting other heroes, you know, spell immunity is OP.
LATE-GAME ITEMS
Bloodthorn silences and crits, you need a way to kill people and you need damage, yay! if you're not going for it you can go for...
Daedalus which gives more damage but less utility, good if you went Black King Bar tho.
Butterfly gives agility and evasion, evasion is always nice, agility is the best way to get damage, yay!
[[Assault Cuirass] makes you tanky as ****, also gives attack-speed and armor reduction, for you team too! don't go for it if someone already has.
OPTIONAL AND SITUATIONAL ITEMS
Hurricane Pike is great, gives you mobility, and escape and initiation source, also some bonus range from Dragon Lance and stats, pretty good still some times not worth the slot as you already got your Blink Dagger.
Solar Crest gives armor and armor reduction, also evasion and a chance to not miss attacks, great versus heroes with meele damage and evasion, like... Brewmaster and Phantom Assassin and... Phantom Assassin? talking about it, you should consider getting an...
Monkey King Bar in this case, as it gives decent damage, removes the miss-chance and is a great place to get a drink! get it, it was a joke haha.
Diffusal Blade is the best agility cost-effective item, good for you know, everybody that needs agility, also gives the enemy purge slow which is pretty op too, go for it if they have Ghost Scepter or a Necrophos(also known as a broken as **** hero) or if you're stomping and you need damage.
Boots of Travel is great late-game, you know, teleporting around... more movement speed... great right?
Divine Rapier is great for one hour games, stomps, one hour stomps which they started to make a comeback and holy **** you just threw that game! yeah, Templar Assassin isn't the best ultra-late game carry, check my Anti Mage guide if you want to be the god of late game...
Linken's Sphere is great when you know, you're getting perma-stunned or affected by a broken ultimate like... Duel... you know.
Satanic is also great as it gives stats, if you really want stats just go for a Eye of Skadi but I never went for it and I don't know if it is good because you know... you got a ultimate which... yeah... Satanic is great some times not worth the slot but if you're dying after using Black King Bar get it!

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BFFs and enemies

FRIENDS
-Any hero that removes armor, Slardar, Weaver.
-Any hero that has disables, Shadow Shaman, Lion.
-Any hero that saves you and helps mid, Dazzle, Earth Spirit.
-Any hero that isn't a greedy as **** core... oh wait there's none in the current meta... Lycan?
-Any hero that GIVES A ****ING Black King Bar, not talking about Omniknight ok?
-Any hero that gives a good AoE initiation, Magnus, Magnus, Magnus, Earthshaker, and also Magnus.

ENEMIES
-****ING Venomancer
-Any hero with disables... that's half of the heroes in the game.
-Any hero with DoT... yeah, Venomancer...
-Any hero that silences you or removes your mana... **** Outworld Devourer and mid Silencer...
-Any hero that you can't kill, Axe, Tidehunter.
-A special mention to Venomancer, because **** that hero!
-Also Viper, the biggest cancer on earth.

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General tips and how to play

With Templar Assassin, you're going mid, only mid, if you picked it and a ******ed picked another mid hero into you, go mid, **** him, this is a 90% mid presence hero, nearly 100% in pro-dota.
In the lane, use angles where you can't get ganked and harass the enemy with Psi Blades while also getting last hits and denying, if you hit a creep you're going to deny, Psi Blades work, so use it as a farming tool and harass tool at the same time!
Using Refraction in lane is pretty good as you can just farm the wave fast, get some middle tower damage, deny more, and also go STACK THE ANCIENTS, that's what you need, stacking ancients, it's the most important thing, you can farm them really fast using your Psionic Trap's when they're comming back and hitting them with your Refraction and Psi Blades.
ALWAYS AIM FOR THE LOWEST ARMOR HERO when looking to do damage in a teamfight, if a Magnus or an Enigma just ulted, hit the low-armor enemy support with your giant armor reduction to just kill the entire team, even creeps are good enought, but they will die a lot faster.
To farm with her, you need practice, as you think you're going to hit the three creeps with one hit, you end up just hitting one, just practice a lot.
When going for a gank, just Blink Dagger in, with Refraction up BEFORE THE FIGHT SO YOU CAN USE IT AGAIN, into Meld hit really fast, into Psionic Trap, into harass, use casual Meld's to disjoint projectiles and do more damage, also it doesn't work on towers.
You can kill an entire wave with Refraction and Desolator with two hits, just hit once, come a little bit back and hit again, they dead, it's a really good feeling.
Also, if you're dying because you got hard-countered by an Ember Spirit, just go farm the jungle and stack, just stack, it is really important.
If you want more info on Templar Assassin, look at Waga's videos and some random pro-player streams or in-game DOTA matches where they picked it, it is truly a great hero to learn and it can solo-carry games some times.