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Stout Shield
Tango
Healing Salve
Iron Branch
Phase Boots
Diffusal Blade
Yasha
Vladmir's Offering
Mask of Madness
Skull Basher
Sange and Yasha
Assault Cuirass
Butterfly
Daedalus
Abyssal Blade
Boots of Travel
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3 | 12 | 13 | 14 |  |
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2 | 4 | 5 | 7 |  |
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1 | 8 | 9 | 10 |  |
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6 | 11 | 16 |  |
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15 | 17 | 18 |
Hello, my Steam name is TheUnnamedGamer, i'm from Brazil and i'm just an average DOTA 2 player. Since I really love playing with Riki, and on most of my matches with him my K/D ratio is over 10, I felt like I should make this guide to help out new players or to help someone to understand better how to play with Riki. This is a guide made specifically for pub matches, as Riki is not your better option on ranked matches for some reason you might know and are listed on the Pros / Cons chapter. By the way, this is my first guide, so I hope you can enjoy it! :)
Before we start the guide, i'll list a few of the pros and cons of Riki.
PROS:
- A good ganker and chaser
- Loves to get easy kills on "lone wolves"
- Can quite easily escape death if not disabled or revealed
CONS:
- Very squishy
- Highly dependant on his skills (attacking from behind, invisibility)
- Can be easily countered by anything that can reveal him (gems, silences, etc)
Starting Items (early game)
For your starting items you should get a shield as you can't really take all the damage you WILL receive, along with a Healing Salve and Tangos, for some sustain in lane. The Iron Branch will become a Magic Wand to be able to survive a little more and the shield will become a Poor Man's Shield to give extra agility. Remember that these two items should be sold later in the game to give room for more core or situational items. Also, try to get boots as fast as you can for maximum mobility.
Core Items (early to mid game)
As you level up Backstab along with Blink Strike, when you finally get your invisibility, you will start to gank and kill enemies. That is why you need your Phase Boots, they are really useful to Riki (and for most heroes like Bloodseeker, Bounty Hunter, etc) because it is a nice chasing AND escaping item. It will also give you some nice 24 damage. In my opinion I prefer to take before Yasha than Diffusal Blade because Riki is already a good chaser with his Smoke Screen and with his Phase Boots, plus the extra speed and agility that Yasha gives you, later with the Greater Maim that Sange and Yasha applies on your target, slowing it even more for you (remember that you also get a little more strength, that will give you some nice HP and HP regen), even though the Diffusal Blade may grant you attacks that burn mana and a 4 seconds slow. However, Diffusal Blade should not be discarded as it is a very good item for assassins like Riki. Morbid Mask is useful because Riki will be able to drain HP in his fights, and later to evolve it into a Vladimir's Offering, a must have as it gives a plenty of bonuses along with the lifesteal for you and the allies near you. But if your team already has one Vladimir's Offering, you should (and you WILL if your team happen to have Vladimir's Offering AND Assault Cuirass) evolve your Morbid Mask into a Mask of Madness, it will be better for you when you are ganking specially because you will be able to attack and move much faster. However, remember that you are significantly more vulnerable while using Mask of Madness. Now, Skull Basher is a very interesting item to be considered for Riki not at all because it gives you strength and damage, but because of the passive that ministuns enemies. It will surely come in handy for Riki to deliver certain death without having trouble to do his job. Remember that you should get this item along with Mask of Madness as they are a very good combination, and that you should always look to finish an Abyssal Blade by the end of the match.
Situational / Luxury Items (late game)
After you've made your Early Game and Mid Game items, it's time to start to make your Butterfly. I shouldn't even have to explain why you should make a Butterfly: it gives you a lot of agility (making the Backstab and Blink Strike abilities EVEN more effective), evasion (also makes your Smoke Screen even more effective), more damage AND attack speed. Now, it's up to you what item to make after these, but I usually make Assault Cuirass and / or Daedalus. Assault Cuirass gives you and your allies in general armor bonuses, but I would rather make a Daedalus because the aura Assault Cuirass has is quite similar to Vladimir's Aura, and since they don't stack the critical hit Daedalus gives you would be more useful. Now, you should always consider making Boots of Travel if the game is too long, as you wont really be needing these 24 damage and the temporary 16% speed boost Phase Boots give you, because you will now have an teleport and extra 100 speed.
It really isn't hard to play with Riki, since he can go on pretty much every lane (but only go mid if you are not harrassed too much and if you are quite confident) and since he has abilities that are easy to understand how to use. When you are on the side lanes, try to go with a hero that can disable or stun your enemies, so that you can just pop smoke, blink and kill it. However, avoid to go on a lane with other carries, or where Riki's foes are, such as Bloodseeker, Slardar, Doom and other heroes that can silence and / or render you visible.
I hope that you liked this guide, so that you managed to increase your skill in DOTA 2 with this hero. You have to remember that even the easy heroes like Riki, Viper and some others also require skill to play. What really matters is the player, not the character at all. A good game for you, and bye bye! :D
December 16th, 2013 - Made minor changes in the items / skills chapter and added Mask of Madness + Diffusal Blade in the build, along with a few explanations of why and when use them.
January 24th, 2014 - Changed the early / mid game items to Core Options and changed the situational / luxury items to a single purchase order. Made changes in the final chapter. Also made a very minor change in the skill sequence.
February 4th, 2014 - Added the Very Situational purchase order and the explanation in the items / skills chapter. Also made a few minor changes in the whole guide.
February 14th, 2014 - Simplified the Very Situational purchase order along with it's part on the items + skills chapter. Also added Magic Wand as core and changed starting items.
July 4th, 2014 - Made a major change in the items + skills chapter, changed starting items, added Skull Basher by removing Magic Wand from the Core Options.
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