A Second Look at Riki

Introduction

Riki is a mediocre carry that is easily countered by good vision, decision making, and communication. Fortunately, the likeliness of finding that in a pub game is slim. He can also act as a situational counter to Anti-Mage. He is also one of the few carries that has good synergy with Io.

Pros / Cons

Pros Stomps people bad at the game Good chase and solo kill potential with Diffusal Blade Silly damage while back stabbing Situational counter to Anti-Mage Pairs with Io

Cons Fragile early Countered by smart players Silences hurt Always focused People will call you a n00b just for picking Riki

Items

Get this as soon as you can in lane for the additional agility and 100% block chance. You can also start with one if your supports will pool regen or you are looking to soak xp in the offlane.

This is the best pair of boots for Riki hands down. In strength mode, you get 152 health. In agility mode, you get 1 armor and 18 damage with a maxed Backstab. Additionally, if you tread switch while casting, a Magic Stick is the only mana regeneration you will really need.

You can buy this from the side shop to get a little extra damage and a slow. It is a very cost effective item.

With tread switching, this is pretty much the only mana regen you need.

This gives you a massive slow to keep the target under your Smoke Screen longer. It also lets you purge tracks and dust to help you run away. It also works with illusions, so it works great with Manta Style as well.

The active removes status effects and silences. The illusions also benefit from your seeking agility over damage items as well as the mana drain from Diffusal Blade. They also gain your Permanent Invisibility, so you can use them as scouts as well.

Now that Diffusal Blade is no longer a Unique Attack Modifier, you can get both. If you are in the need of more HP, this is your item. It also provides an amazing orb effect.

You can get this late game for a life steal that works with Diffusal Blade. This can also be gotten on a support, and you can still enjoy the aura without giving up an item slot.

It gives you more health, mana, and damage. You can also expend charges for ganks before you finish your Diffusal Blade. The most cost effective item in the game.

If you are tired of being chain stunned to death in all team fights then this is for you. Only skip this if the other team has no real stuns.

The ultimate agility and Riki item. The evasion also now stacks with Smoke Screen.

You can get this as a 6th item, but I think that if you are that far along, an Abyssal Blade is better.

The active stuns through Black King Bar and the passive stun effect goes well with your naturally high attack speed. It also happens to give massive damage.

If you are facing an enemy carry with natural evasion or someone that gets a Butterfly, you may have to get this in order to be able to hit them.

Skills

Smoke Screen

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This spell is central to playing as Riki. It is what let's you kill and run away very safely. One point is put into it early for its massive utility. You will get Diffusal Blade to keep your targets under it longer.

It is also the only silence that is not negated by Manta Style. This is why he is considered a counter to Anti-Mage. Riki can roam the jungle killing Anti-Mage all day unless they dedicate at least one support who won't be able to keep up.

Also take note that the target can activate Black King Bar and just skip away. However, each of those BKB charges is precious, so don't feel bad about it. Also remember this if you see it in a team fight. Don't just walk in there to a magic immune target and expect them to be silenced and missing.

Permanent InvisibilityPermanent Invisibility

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This is the signature feature of Riki. The fact is that until the team gets a gem, invisibility is a good initiating ability. By the time that arrives, you have gotten quite a few kills and/or forced a lot of sentries.

Remember that any silence will pull you out of invisibility. Also, your Manta Style illusions get your invisibility so you can use them as scouts.

BackstabBackstab

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This is the damage dealer for Riki by far. This is also why you really want lots of agility items for Riki. Usually, people will panic when you suddenly smoke them and start attacking. This allows for good back stabbing.

Blink Strike

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You can blink defensively or offensively. We max this first because it greatly reduces the cool down. This is important for chasing and finishing kills. It also allows for more damage against people who turn and fight you.

This is also the ability that makes Riki and Io a good ganking pair. Riki will blink to the other side of the target and Smoke Screen. Io's tether will lock them under it for a while.

What do I max first?

Riki now has a fairly fluid skill build. I would definitely max either Permanent Invisibility or Backstab first. The questions I ask myself are, "Can they kill me easily?" and, "Am I not getting last hits due to harass?" If the answer to either of those is yes, I put another point into Permanent Invisibility. Otherwise, I put a point into Backstab.

Laning

Play very passively. You cannot do any damage early in the game. If you feel unsafe getting last hits just get levels. Getting to level 6 is just as important as last hits.

Also, if you are being heavily contested in lane, you can right click the enemy hero to draw creep agro and run back. This way, the enemy creeps are closer to you with their backs facing you. This does slightly push the lane, but if you need to do it, then you are probably being pushed back fairly heavily.

If you need more HP, I suggest getting a casual Ogre Club that you can build into a Black King Bar later. Another option if you feel that you aren't going to need a BKB this game is to get a casual Point Booster to build into an Eye of Skadi.

Roaming

If the enemies are not terrible, they have put down sentries in the lane so that you aren't able to just stab them freely. Don't be afraid to roam the map adding ganks to lanes and helping secure early towers. Towers are not your friend.

A small warning on this: Do not idly roam around getting nothing done. You are a carry and you must constantly farm no matter what you are doing. Make sure you know exactly who you want to kill when you leave your lane.

The prime targets for you are jungling supports and mid heroes. Both of those tend to be very reliant on spells in order to be dangerous. Make sure there is someone to help you before you gank if you do not have your Diffusal Blade yet.

Team Fights

Everyone HATES Riki. You will be targeted the moment you are visible. For your sake, don't ever buy a Mask of Madness. You will die a pathetic death.

So what do we do about this? Buy a Black King Bar. Please just do it. You have ridiculous armor from your agility gain, as well as your agility items. Add the Smoke Screen to that and you get good evasion even before Butterfly. So with good defense against physical damage, if you are magic immune, you should just fly through team fights murdering people.

Silence, Track, and Dust! Oh MY!

These are the things that kill you. (and Amplify Damage)....

So how do we deal with this? Our first major item should be Diffusal Blade. You can use the Purge active on it to remove these statuses from you. This is why you do not upgrade your Diffusal Blade until you have used all of the charges. Those are precious.

Later on, you should also have Manta Style. Using its active, you can actually remove a lot of statuses including silence.

Io Support

Io changes the way you play the game. If you search for competitive games with Riki, you will find Io nearly always on the same team. It is the only support that even makes Riki viable at a competitive level.

Here is a video of Na'Vi and Alliance featuring Io & Riki vs Anti-Mage:

Here is a link to the Youtube video as embedding it kills the rest of this section.

Io fills the sustain that Riki needs to perform early and often ganks without spending half the game in the fountain and even allows global presence and additional disable. While Tether no longer stuns, its ability to hold a target in place works well with Smoke Screen. Blink Strike initiates for it as well.

The reason to max Backstab first in this build is you won't be doing much chasing in Relocate ganks, so you can max it first for more damage. You also don't need a Diffusal Blade as much but it is still good.

So the actual process is fairly complicated, so I will give you a step-by-step for both Riki and Io:

1. Io casts Spirits
2. Io Tethers the Riki and waits about 6 seconds before Relocateing to the gank.
3. Riki Blink Strikes to the other side of the target, causing the target to be stuck.
4. Riki casts Smoke Screen over the target to disable him.
5. Riki goes to town.
6. Io moves into range so that Spirits hits the target.
7. Io casts Tether again as soon as it is off cooldown.
8. Io and Riki dance on the corpse until they are transported back to farming.

Easy right? Now the problem is trying to get someone to play Io for you.

Offlane

Riki is mostly played as a 1 position carry. He doesn't provide as much utility as other offlane gankers like Bounty Hunter, Nyx Assassin, Mirana and others. However, you are surprisingly deadly even with very little farm in 1v1 situations. The idea here is to get as much farm as you can while staying very safe and roaming as soon as you hit 6.

You can get Drum of Endurance in order to help you live through the ganks and give you some more chase until you can finish your Diffusal Blade, but with his new regen I would still rush Diffusal Blade.

From there you can either get your Black King Bar or Vladmir's Offering. Since you are in the 2 or 3 position at this point, you should adjust the items you get accordingly.

Friends

Io

Every other support is going to have a hard time while following you while you invisibly roam without giving you away.

Batrider

His Sticky Napalm not only slows but reduces turn speed.

Foes

Anyone with silences or a tracking ability. A special shout out goes to Bloodseeker who has both with Blood Rite and Thirst. His ultimate Rupture is also one of the only non-purgable spells in the game. Doom is also the counter to everything.

How Do I Counter This Son of a B****!?

Before I name an item or hero, let's talk about what Riki does well against. He loves squishy heroes that farm by themselves.

So counter #1 is.... Don't be squishy and by yourself!

Riki gets a good portion of his damage from Backstab. He loves hitting people that run away.

So counter #2 is.... Don't run away and punch him in the nose!

So he might still win that encounter, but by facing him, you give more time for your team mate who is near to react and save you. Now Riki can still run away and do this again when you aren't so vigilant.

So counter #3 is.... Carry Dust of Appearance!

Invisibility is great for initiation, because you cannot cost effectively counter it until you get a gem. However, invisibility is terrible for escape. Dust that squishy cat and kill him.

Also, everyone needs to carry dust. That way, when he purges the first one, you can dust him again.

Riki loves to disable you under his Smoke Screen.

So counter #4 is.... Force Staff!

If your supports have Force Staffs, then they can save themselves and anyone near. Also, Riki does almost all physical damage.

So counter #5 is.... Ghost Scepter!

If an enemy carry doesn't do much magic damage, this is an extremely good item that can save you.

So counter #6 is.... Orchid Malevolence!

Silences make him visible and take away his blink and cloud. He is a sitting duck.