Some questions about the Chaos Knight core items

Some interesting discussion here. Here are a few thoughts from me:

1. Manta Style is great on CK for the reasons already mentioned - stats, benefits illusions, etc. However, one additional thing that isn't so obvious is that between Phantasm and the illusions from Manta Style, your Reality Rift will COMPLETELY surround a hero, which means, no walking away. This is useful in situations where you cannot follow up with your stun after rifting (you used the stun already, not enough mana, etc).

2. My usual build order on CK is: Optional Bracer if I'm facing harass in lane, Power Treads --> Armlet of Mordiggian --> Heart of Tarrasque --> Manta Style or Assault Cuirass depending on the game --> The other one (if I built manta first, get AC now, or vice versa). By this time, the game should be over. If it isn't, consider the following items:

Getting CC'd and burst down before you can phantasm and rift around? Get a Black King Bar.
Enemy carry being cocky without a BKB? Get a Heaven's Halberd.
Need evasion? Get a Butterfly.
Want your illusions to kick even more ***? Get another Heart of Tarrasque.

My ideal 6 slotted CK would be: Boots of Travel, Armlet of Mordiggian, Heart of Tarrasque, Assault Cuirass, Manta Style, Butterfly/ Heaven's Halberd.

3. One thing that really triggers me when watching pub teammates play CK is that, ALWAYS HAVE YOUR ARMLET TRIGGERED ON BEFORE CASTING PHANTASM. It annoys me how many people overlook this. Your illusions don't suffer the HP loss but get full bonuses from the armlet active, so it's almost criminal not activating armlet before using Phantasm.

4. If I had to pick roles for a CK, I'd either play him as a hard carry or a 4 position roaming ganker (much like a Tusk). If you are playing hard carry, consider going Hand of Midas if you can get it early. If you are playing support, stack up on some juicy Mangoes (screw Clarities), get that Soul Ring (for times when you are suffering from a severe-lack-of-mango-itis) , grab an Urn of Shadows (because which ganker doesn't like one?) and gank away. Luxury item would be a Heaven's Halberd so you can be really annoying in teamfights by casting it on their cores.

5. I don't like Octarine Core as a standard item on CK. The only reason it could be useful is for the reduced cooldown on Phantasm and I don't like sacrificing an item slot for that purpose. If it comes down to that, I'd rather have a Refresher Orb in my stash. As a passive item, Octarine Core offers absolutely nothing to a CK (it doesn't benefit his illusions in any way).

6. Items I don't like are: Echo Sabre (Does nothing for your illusions, you don't really benefit from the double attack significantly), Skull Basher (again, doesn't benefit illusions, raw damage on hero isn't needed for CK), Satanic (Heart is better, and if you are ever in a situation where you have to pop Satanic, odds are that you'll still die because your attack speed isn't the best). Keep in mind though, although I don't like Basher on CK, an Abyssal Blade could be situational in case you want to lock down a BKB'd carry and your team was stupid enough to ignore all the BKB piercing disables this game offers.

7. A tip when playing CK is that, although Reality Rift seems to move the enemy, it does not stop channeling, so don't use it against TP'ing players to stop them. Use your stun.

There was not one mention of bkb... I think that is more prominent than that of octarine, and unless I'm mistaken skadi only stacks with satanic on ranged heroes

Fully stacks on melee as well.

Black King Bar sounds like a cool item until you consider what Chaos Knight is all about.
Phantasm. You pop it, you rape people, you burst down their heroes and you proceed to destroy a few buildings, then you wait for your ult to come off cd.
Phantasm is your main source of damage and Black King Bar doesn't help you protect your illusions.
It can actually backfire a bit by giving away the real hero.
Sometimes it is a must that much is true but you really don't want to get it.
Hope I could help clarify this a bit.